The start of something big (Mackenzie's perspective)

My stomach turned when I saw that woman dragged out of the park. Why wasn't she wearing anything? What was going to happen to her?

I turned to Craig for answers, but he didn't know much more than Lea and I did. He'd seen a crowd of people attack someone and then the LERs arrived to break it up. Then he'd come back and sat with us while the victim was carried out of the park, followed by the unfortunate blonde. Now that the robots were gone he wanted to leave before something else happened, but we had to stay in the park so I could spend some time on the grass.

We were just debating which way to go to avoid running into anyone who had been involved in the attack when I heard a rustle behind us. A second later a man with short blond hair peeked out of the bushes and glanced around nervously. Then he whispered, "Have the LERs all left?"

"Five of them came by here," I answered before I could stop myself. Whatever was going on here, I didn't want to be involved. Or get caught speaking in public for that matter!

But the words were already out, and the man emerged fully from the bush. "Good, that's all of them. The coast is clear, guys!"

Within moments we were surrounded as people came out of hiding all around us. Men and women, some with dark hair and some blond, emerged from the bushes and came toward us. A ginger with the physique of a lumberjack stood in front of us and asked if we'd seen what happened.

Lea shook her head quickly. "No! We didn't see anything but the LERs leaving the park. Please, whatever you did is none of our business. We won't tell anyone."

The man grunted. "Which of you is this woman's registered owner?"

"We both are, but why-"

He didn't let her finish, turning to address me instead. "Are these people treating you well?"

"What?" I asked fearfully. "Yes, they're my friends."

The man nodded thoughtfully. "Phoenix, you want to talk to her?"

Suddenly a woman was by his side. She was somewhere between my height and Lea's, and looked like a badass biker chick with her leather jacket and tight pants and the blonde buzz cut. The only thing that detracted from this appearance were her bare feet, which looked surprisingly dainty compared to the rest of her. "Alright, you're probably confused and scared, so here's what just happened. That guy managed to register as some poor woman's owner, and thought he'd have his fun by dressing her up in lingerie and making her crawl around on his leash. It's legal, but that doesn't mean we're going to tolerate it. The creep will think twice before he humiliates her again, assuming she isn't assigned a new owner while he's in the hospital. And we better not catch you two abusing your power over your charge or you'll get the same treatment," she finished with a threatening glare at Craig and Lea.

"They wouldn't!" I cut in. "I said they're my friends. They've been nothing but kind to me since before these laws went into effect."

"I'm just letting them know. What are your names, anyway?"

We told the intense girl our names, and then she said something which helped all of us calm down. "If you feel safe with them that's me satisfied. You can go find your own section of the park and we won't bother you. But these laws are only going to get worse. If you want to hear what we can do about it, come with us and we'll talk."