One week before the Alcatraz
Shaali sat in the backseat of a police car in silence, watching the rain fall and pearl up into little beads on the windows. The seats were surprisingly soft and cushiony considering they were made do accommodate criminals...even so, she couldn't say that she was exactly comfortable in her position due to how hot her handcuffs were. While Shaali was initially placed in standard metal cuffs, it didn't take long for the guards to figure out that she could easily take the cuffs apart once she determined what materials they were wade of, so they swapped her over to plasma handcuffs instead. She could only assume they weren't made entirely out of plasma since she had witnessed how one shot of a police officer's plasma rifle could melt someone's face off and her skin wasn't exactly melting off her wrists; instead the restraints seemed to be composed of a tacky gel-like substance that was a little stretchy, but strong enough that she couldn't break free, it was also uncomfortably hot, and she feared that she would find her wrists burned once they released her...whenever that was.
The fact that Shaali hadn't seen her family in days was starting to wear on her, since they were normally always together. Still, what she did had to be done and she couldn't do anything about it now, even if it meant being removed from her home she would not regret her actions. She let out a deep sigh in contempt and earned a gruff "shut up" from the the driver that was escorting her to wherever people go when they're arrested...jail or whatever the earthlings called it. Shaali really had no idea what "jail" was because she had never met anyone considered to be a criminal before, but she had just publicly executed a man, so she assumed it couldn't be a good place. The hover car she was in then began to slow to a stop infront of a tall building, snapping Shaali out of her thoughts.
"Alright, get out." the police officer said as he bent over to unbuckle his seat belt.
"But I can't use my hands to open the door...am I supposed to use my feet?" she inquired.
The middle aged man then let out an irritated groan as he opened his door, scooted out, and then opened her door to allow her to step outside. "Now don't pretend like you didn't know what I meant you little shit." He spat as pulled her out of the car and kept a hold on her so she wouldn't tun away.
Truthfully, Shaali didn't know what he meant since he
had instructed her to get out on her own, but she felt that retorting against the man would only be a waste of effort.
"What is this building you're leading me into?" she asked,
"why are we here?""This is a courthouse, today we're holding a trial to see where a savage like you is going to end up."
As Shaali was led inside, she was bombarded by a sea of new sights to behold. There were all sorts of flashing lights that came from little boxed that people were holding as they asked her various questions and all sorts of machines and races that she had never seen before. Once she was shoved past the crowd of people who wanted to know her life story for some reason, Shaali noticed that there were in fact other tulaks here, though they did look quite different than those from back home. For starters, the majority of them had lighter skin and darker hair than her; they also wore synthetic clothing and skin-tight bodysuits just like the humans on her earth. The thing that stood out to her the most, however, is how they looked at her as she was some sort of wild beast rather than another member of their species. Eventually, Shaali was face to face with a large wooden door, and she had a feeling that her fate had already been decided, even before she entered the door.
On the Alcatraz
So, this whole prison thing wasn't as bad as she thought it would be, but she still didn't like it. She had imagined all sorts of situations she would be put in as punishment, but living in a box was not one of them. It was an odd space, the floor was made out of all sorts of minerals she didn't recognize, and the door looked like it was glass, but it was virtually unbreakable and rippled when she touched it. She was also given a bed, regular meals, was allowed to keep everything on her person, and there was even a medical staff that did regular check ups. Shaali supposed that this whole place was just some sort of lodge for criminals, seeing as there were other people, also in boxes, that were all around her. She noticed that the majority of the other prisoners were humans, which did not help her impression of that race. The only other "alien" (as they call it) that was in Shaali's line of vision was a woman that appeared to made out of some sort of ooze; she was the one who looked the most dangerous, since she kept looking with hungry eyes at the good doctor who would occasionally come by, and the men that would enter and leave her cabin would occasionally have dark bite marks on their neck...she wondered if the woman was some sort of man-eater or something.
Things were seeming a little too peaceful on the ship until a horrid buzzing sound and flashing red lights rang throughout the hall and staff members started to panic. Honestly, Shaali wasn't sure what to expect until her cell was violently shot away from the rest of the ship and towards the planet they were above. She expected to burn up in the atmosphere due to how fast she was going, but her little box seemed to be holding up pretty well. Eventually, she was going so fast that her feet lifted off the ground, and she began to panic before an airbag like device inflated enough to keep her from breaking every bone in her body once she hit the ground below...which was getting a little close for comfort.
On instinct, Shaali willed her mana into the ground and forced up a pillar of soft topsoil, sand, and mud to catch her and soften the blow so she wouldn't break her neck upon impact. There was a loud smack as her cell hit the soft pillar, but it did it's job of slowing the pod down before making contact with the ground. The airbags deflated allowing Shaali to move around again, and she released her hold on the pillar, having no reason to keep it up anymore. She was feeling tired and sore, but still had enough strength to kick the door off it's hinges in order to get a look around. There was mud everywhere because of her, but besides that, she appeared to be in some sort of jungle environment...stranded.
"Oh..." Shaali muttered,
"so this is the punishment."
