CHILDHOOD

Clara Kalstein was born into the Fungal Waste's Kalstein Tribe. She was the lone daughter of the chieftan and his sickly partner. As she grew up, her rabbit ears and devil shaped tail confused the Stem Ram tribe. They spoke negatively of her abnormal features and suggested casting her out to the wild jungle. Her father defended the young child. From birth, her mere existence caused issues that she didn't understand. The tribe's other child avoided her.

She felt helpless. She felt broken. She felt powerless. She quickly took to acting out in tantrums and attacking the other kids when they ignored her.

BEGINNINGS

At the age of 14, she was finally allowed to help partake in the tribe's way of life: Stemrail heists. Clara took up using a blade with extreme ease. The young Kalstein finally had an outlet for her violence. Cargo-guarding Lawmen were sliced down with little remorse.

Slashing the mechanical Lawmen and her childhood of bullying sprouted a core of xenophobia inside of Clara. Anything that wasn't her own blood was ugly, disgusting, and could not be trusted.

As she moved past the young ages of teenage, Clara's streak of violence began turning against living engineers, passengers, and adults in her tribe. She had a rude mouth, a short temper, and a gutteral growl that made people not want to mess with the hothead. Her father got onto her about this behavior, threatening to bar her from Stemrail heisting. She would get herself in line temporarily and wait for it to blow over.

STAB

As the Kalstein Tribe's notoriety grew, in thanks to Clara's hostility towards Stem City-bound passengers, the stakes began getting higher. A Lawman Enforcer in training, Fencien Armeldia III, was frequently stationed on Stemrails that Clara hit. Again and again, Clara was disarmed by Fencien. Clara began to hate her with a passion. Always getting in her way, meddling in her stomping ground that she used to vent out stress.

Genuine, albeit misplaced, advice from the moronic enforcer was twisted into prideful taunts by Clara's xenophobic outlook.

One bad day ruined it all. The tribe's Under the Tower business associates promised that the tribe's next Stemrail hit would be their biggest ever and that they would be fed for months. As the Stemrail heisting team was planning, Clara's ears overheard her father quietly lamenting to somebody about Clara's growing inability to deal with the city's increased threats.

She mentally snapped. After everything, that malformed child was still being looked down upon, even after she had carved out a purpose for herself.

When Fencien stopped them, Clara disregarded her father's stern warnings. She would get rid of the problem. She would prove that she was still worth keeping around. Not holding back and fueled by anger, the angry Clara's blade found herself disarming Fencien's blade and piercing her chest. It was the first time Clara spilled blood that wasn't her own.

Clara's father forced the crew to retreat early once he saw what Clara had done. Back at their camp, he ripped and tore into her for hours. She couldn't grasp the problem. There was a problem, and she dealt with it. How was it her fault?! Maybe that stupid city woman who mocked her should've stayed out of her way earlier.

Her father banned her from ever going on a Stemrail heist again. She was to stay and take care of her mother. Her mother barely spoke, simply brushing Clara's knotted hair and cooking stew. It was boring. It was humiliating.

Clara first thought about running away, but quickly disregarded the idea. There was nowhere to run.

She needed to show everybody that nobody put her down and got away without proper justice being served. She needed revenge.

FLAMES

Clara waited. The heisting crew brought back bountiful goodies that were either sold to the Under the Tower freaks from the city or thrown out.

An explosive device. She didn't know how to exactly arm it, given her inability to read the instructions, but that didn't matter. She heard the tribe's business partners talk about how dangerous it was.

One routine hit-and-run heist went up in flames. Clara had prodded and poked enough buttons to make the device start ticking. She wasn't a moron; The bomb was placed under the front of the train, and she scampered off back home.

From where the tribe lay in the Fungal Wastes, she saw the fiery explosion. Metal pieces flew all across the heavy jungle.

Despite keeping her lips shut, it wasn't long until her father pieced things together and figured out what happened. He tore into her even harder, telling her that some of their own had been injured. She didn't care. They never cared for her, so why should she? All that matters to her is that her father crossed her and she crossed him.

Her consequences manifested quickly. Strangers from the city started to explore the wastes in an attempt to find the "Red Rabbit." The Kalstein Tribe had to migrate weekly as these hunters started trying to find her.

Clara wanted to fight them, but her tribe was quick to shut her down. Despite winning against her father's perceived slights against her, her blood only ended up boiling more as she was kept on an even tighter leash.

Her mother brushed her hair as the heisting team was off on their first mission in months. Clara complained that the Kalsteins should just leave her behind if she's causing this much trouble. It sounds like it'd work out better for everybody involved.

"They wanted to abandon me, too," Clara's sickly mother whispered, "Your father doesn't abandon his own blood, despite their issues."

Clara, for the first time in her life, connected with her usually quiet and submissive mother. She sat there and thought for a long, long time. They were both frowned upon by their community. They both had something wrong with them that they couldn't control. Why shouldn't they stick together?

Thinking back through her childhood, she only ever saw her already stressed out father tending to the sickly mother. Resolve changed, Clara found it in herself to tend to her mother better than her father ever could. It quickly made her the happiest she had ever been. They rarely spoke, simply enjoying the peace and quiet of nature as the tribe continued as normal.

CONSEQUENCES

Ever since Clara bombed the Stemrail, the hunters never stopped coming. The tribe's heisting crew dealt with heavier security. The tribe's numbers had widdled down as they began dying off—either from the hunters or the lethal force Lawmen Type-2s that now protected passengers and cargo.

It was a bright day—as bright as the pitch black sky of Stem Island could get. A creek of rushing water was nearby. There was a fire warming up the stew.

It was sudden. Clara's mother passed away. There was no warning.

The stinging feeling of loneliness, one she had forgotten, came back. It hurt.

She hated crying. She hated how weak it made her feel. She despised it. For once in her life, there was nobody to target revenge towards.

The Kalstein chief came back to find his daughter mourning. She wept hysterically. Despite all of her major mistakes, Clara's father found it in himself to forgive her. He could see she now lacked purpose and would likely act out if not given one. So, for the first time in two years, Clara was reinvited to the heisting crew.

The Kalsteins had to stick together.

Clara was empty. She woke up, waited for a job, slaughtered everything that got in her family's way, and then fell asleep. She didn't speak to anyone besides her worried father.

Under the Tower came to the tribe with the opportunity of a century: A Stemrail had stopped nearby for emergency maintenance, and it was filled to the brim with expensive contraband. They would be able to retire for two whole generations with the amount of food the Under the Tower business offered them for this hit. With the goods, they were suggested that they'd pay off Clara Kalstein's, city alias "Red Rabbit", bounty.

The tribe struck as fast as possible. Unbeknownst to them, there was no winning. They had taken Stem Tower's bait.

An explosion's flames filled the dark sky.

A Stem Slime unlike any they had seen before broke free and slaughtered each and every rabbit. Clara's panicking father told her to hide, practically shoving his daughter underneath the wreckage. She watched as he was impaled by the goopy beast. The slime and the rabbit exchanged a glance shortly before her father's killer fled the scene.

As the roaring gunshots focused on the psychotic Stem Slime, Clara fled into the forest. She ran, and ran, and ran...

She reached the Fungal Plains after hours. She was exhausted. For the first time in her life, Clara Kalstein saw the glowing metropolis of Stem City.

RENEWAL

Clara awoke in a stone home with two men. Her heart pounded; Anyone who wasn't her blood was untrustworthy. Thus, nobody was trustworthy.

She refused to speak to them, refused to eat their food. She heard the massive man say they should just get rid of her, the smaller and older man simply wanted to give her time.

Her stomach eventually gave out. For the first time in a week, she ate. It was delicious. The older man, Yank Yenderson, explained that they were criminals known as the Gunker Gang. His partner, Gunker Garrison, had found her on his trip back to their bunker. They knew who she was: The Red Rabbit.

They offered her a deal: She could stay with them and help them out in their own criminal enterprise, or they could turn her in to the city.

Clara was afraid of them, but the city scared her even more. The hunters that had harassed her family for years came from there; the Stemrails came from there, that Fencien woman came from there...

She did as they asked. She spoke only when required, and she slept only when she knew they were both asleep.

Gunker kept complaining about the hair over her eyes. It had gotten long. The reason was simple for her being so persistent about keeping them. It hid her tear-stained cheeks and her red eyes. If she ever cried again, nobody would know. She cried each and every night for where her mistakes had brought her.

She was adamant on keeping it, but Yank suggested an alternate. An old combat visor he developed in his past.

This gift meant the world to her. She had only ever taken, taken, taken. Never had she been given something.

Her perspective on them rapidly shifted. Though she was still cautious of them due to her mind's reinforced fear of outsiders, she realized that they picked her up and gave her shelter, food, water, and a new purpose.

The temperate and repressed Clara Kalstein had been put to rest. Anger surged through the third Gunker Gang member's spirit and revitalized her. She was the Red Rabbit.

REPEAT

Her skillset impressed them. With her wit and knowledge, Yank's raw smarts, and Gunker's destructive brute force, they were an unstoppable team. Stemrails, bodyguard jobs, hit-and-runs. If there was a dangerous crime to be done in the Outlands, the Gunker Gang were the crew to call upon.

The Red Rabbit hated mingling with the Outlands peasants. Despite her partnership with two humans, she still saw everybody who wasn't her own blood as disgusting and lower.

Her initially skittish personality was shelved, and a worse one took its place. Taunting hostages, giving mean looks to the folks they dealt with in Gillsway, a strong and competitive desire to be the one to come out on top. Finally feeling a sense of control for the first time in a long, long time, the woman Gunker and Yank took in now began to bully and bark at them. She degraded them without remorse.

After mindlessly making fun of Gunker's lack of parents, Gunker had enough of the brat. It was time to cut her out of their deals. In the middle of a mission, Gunker's shotgun aimed away from the Stemrail's Lawman and at Clara. He didn't care if Stem Tower's reward would be significantly less, taking her in cold would be rewarding enough for him.

Betrayal. The entire hardass persona she had adopted shattered instantly. Bullets scraped her skin. Yank argued with the furious Gunker to no avail. Clara bled as she managed to scrape away into the Fungal Plains. Gunker attempted to follow, but both his partner and the remaining Lawmen aboard got in his way.

By the time the brute could focus on her, Clara's pounding heart had taken her far, far away.

She collapsed yet again in the dirt of the Fungal Plains.

CONNECTED

Clara blinked in and out of consciousness as she bled out. Rickety house, a tiny cargo train, and a dream-like metropolis.

She fully awoke in a dark void. A field of rainbow colored flowers surrounded her, all wilted besides the blood red ones. There was a figure standing in the field, plucking a red flower.

Clara called out. The figure turned around.

It was her.

She woke up from the vivid dream. Clara's head pounded. She was completely bare. Her body was covered in dark red splotches and stained bandages. There were two figures over her. She tried to struggle away, but was too weak to even get up from the comforter that she had been laid upon.

For the next two weeks, Clara faded in and out of consciousness. Her body was on the cusp of death. An older woman, Yenjo, and a younger girl, Ree, tended to her. The rabbit hated it. After everything, her heart refused to trust. As soon as she could, she needed to leave.

Yenjo and Ree took turns feeding Clara the worst tasting food. It was embarrassing. It was humiliating. Ree went on and on about things that Clara didn't understand or care about. The quiet and quick Yenjo was certainly her preferred caretaker.

Every time that Clara would let sleep whisk her away, she met the mirrored rabbit again. She discovered that the rabbit was some sort of strange split subconscious duplicate. Day after day, the separated dream Clara pleaded with herself to treat her caretakers nicely.

One unremarkable day, Clara came to a disturbing epiphany. She was bedridden and being fed; Clara had ended up just like her sickly mother. Once the tears started, they couldn't stop. Yenjo sat there and comforted her, telling her that everything was going to be alright.

Ree's rambling soon began to be comforting. These two strangers, people who she didn't even ask the names of, were caring for her like she was part of their family.

Slowly getting over her ingrained xenophobia, Clara managed to ask questions and was graciously given answers. Ree was Yenjo's adopted daughter; she was in a closed-down workshop, and...

Clara was horrified to discover that she lay helpless in the heart of Stem City. The places where the rails came from, where the hunters came from, where Gunker and Yank vowed to never step foot in again.

WORK

She made a slow but healthy recovery. As soon as Yenjo deemed her able-bodied, Clara was put straight to work. She didn't understand the tasks and hid whenever somebody came into the mechanic's garage, but Ree stood by her side the whole time.

Slowly but surely, the paranoid Clara adapted to life in the shop. Yet again, she was given shelter, food, water, and a purpose. It was quaint, sure, but... It kept her stable. It kept her going.

Each night, the Clara in her head pushed her to explore the city she had found herself in. Getting confidence and courage back with every passing day, the small family eventually went out as a unit. Clara had to disguise herself, given the bounty still out for the Red Rabbit. Her stomach sank any time she spotted a poster with her likeness on it.

With Yenjo and Ree always offering her a place to hide in case somebody recognized her, Clara began heading out on her own for errands. It took a lot of convincing from her subconscious self, but it ended up being quite liberating. Having lived in the dense Fungal Wastes jungle her whole life, quickly slipping through the dark streets and dirty alleyways came naturally.

Clara came to realize as she grasped city life that Spinner Mechanics were at the bottom of society's totem pole. The nobles and their government, Stem Tower, ruled over the city with an iron fist. All these years, it was their Stemrail cargo that her family had been stealing and selling. Most people waltzing through the streets were tired, hungry, lonely, and untrustworthy.

The lost rabbit got it. She understood how they felt.

In her heart, a spark was lit. The nobles... They were the villains. They decided what was "normal" and what was "acceptable." They were the rest of the tribe that was set on her being pushed down. She didn't care for their authority or their rules. As always, she preferred her own beat.

She left behind her old Gunker Gang attire. After a particularly short shift at the garage, Ree cut and dyed Clara's hair back to its original red. With a quick swipe of a drunken and lost noble's bag, Clara got some fresh clothes.

Clara started to get careless as she wandered the streets. More and more tenacious bounty hunters showed up to Spinner Mechanics as word got around the criminal underworld. Yenjo, getting worried for her business' reputation and her own safety, sat Clara down to have a serious chat.

For a split second, the burning feeling of betrayal came back. She felt as though, yet again, she was being cast out. Unwanted and undesired. Yenjo quickly dispelled these feelings, and the two of them explored nearby buildings to find a good place for her to settle down in case things got heated. They settled on an abandoned maintenance closet atop a fairly nondescript apartment building.

It was there that Clara found home. A place where she could be alone with her thoughts; A place within sprinting distance from her new family.

MISSION

Clara came home after a long shift at Yenjo's.

She was horrified to find Blema Von Voldark calmly awaiting her. A monster who she had only heard whispered about: the current Stem Tower administrator. Everything in this city was her fault. In Clara's eyes, this woman was indirectly responsible for all the pain she had ever seen in the city.

Blema revealed that she had been watching Clara for a long, long time. She was presenting a deal: help her out with a mission of hers and, in exchange, get her criminal record and bounty wiped, along with gaining immunity to the whole cruel Stem City legal system as a whole. Or, alternatively, get jailed in the inescapable prison known as The Complex for her past crimes.

Despite her strong morals and fiery attitude wanting to decline, it was a braindead decision.

The mission, named Operation GUNKSPLAT, was simple: return back to Gunker Gang's bunker, subdue the tenacious criminals there, and rescue a Stem Tower operative that's being held for ransom.

She was escorted through the street by Blema and a small horde of Lawmen. People's necks craned as they saw the Red Rabbit, a symbol in Stem City's streets for the brutal life outside the city walls, appearing to be arrested.

Clara was brought to the Nexus, waved off by Blema, and sent out to the Outlands in an armored carrier. The entire experience was horrifying and surreal for her. Any moment, she felt like the walls could come crumbling down and the trap would be revealed.

That moment never came, though. She was dropped off a short distance away from the stone bunker, and armed with nothing but her childhood blade that Blema had saved from the Kalstein Stemrail disaster, Clara marched on.

Inside, she met Yank. He looked in a much worse state than the last time she had seen him. They had a small heart-to-heart, with Yank admitting that he needed to leave Gunker's growing anger issues, and Clara finally being able to appreciate everything the old man did for her back then. Yank said he would release their hostage as long as she let him go. Who wouldn't take that deal?

When Clara found Gunker in his planning room, all hell broke loose. Clara and Gunker trashed the place as his huge weight chased after her nimble body. Gunshots were exchanged, and having adapted to the city streets, Clara able to duck and weave much better than her old self.

In the end, though, Gunker's girth was too much. No matter how many times she slashed or shot, the brute would shrug it off. His gauntlet's claws pierced her stomach. She was tossed to the side like a ragdoll as she bled. The massive man gloated as Clara's ears rang and her vision faded. Before she blacked out, another figure picked up the fight where Clara had dropped it.

Clara woke up in the Nexus' emergency medical room. They had used off-world medicine to stitch her up and get her in a servicable state. Lawmen were quick to escort her out and up to Blema's office.

Though, as the groggy rabbit passed through the infirmary, she spotted somebody familiar. Her heart stopped.

Fencien sat sleeping outside Clara's medical room. Alive. Fencien was alive.

Clara had long since repressed her memories of stabbing the woman's chest. It was merely one of many sins like that.

At the heart of Stem Tower, the force that oppressed Stem City's populace, Blema wiped the Red Rabbit from any sort of record. Clara was freed of her sins.

At least, it would be true if Clara's hunch were true. She asked Blema if it was Fencien Armeldia III, Lawman Enforcer she had saved from the Gunker Gang.

It was true.

Blema kicked Clara back out to the streets with a playful reassurance that Blema would still be watching.

PEACE

Shortly after Operation GUNKSPLAT, Clara's return and destruction of the Gunker Gang drew attention from Stem City's crime syndicate. Under the Tower, the same business that her tribe used to operate in tandem with, offered her a well paying drug running job. Clara took it, using her agility to get them delivered fast. It got her paid.

In the criminal underworld, the Red Rabbit was hailed as a more mythical figure. Clara, wanting to simply be left alone, found the stares a tad annoying. Tez, one of Under the Tower's higher-ups, treated her normally and quickly became a close friend of hers. Her cold, outward exterior apparently didn't affect the personable man. Whenever she returned from a parcel delivery, he would buy her some booze and sit down to have a chat before Teis, her actual boss, got her to go on another run. It was nice to have a friend for once.

Clara was frequently visited by Blema. Whether it be on the street, in the Under the Tower club, or in her house, the dictator would track down the rabbit to have a chat. Blema blabbered on and on, eventually allowing Clara to piece together something. That crazed Stem Slime that killed her family was Imine, and Blema released Imine against the Kalstein tribe as a message to the Outlanders to not mess with the Stemrails.

Blema practically ordered the execution of her father.

After Clara flew into a fit of righteous fury and attempted to strangle Blema, she stopped showing up. Clara was utterly relieved.

By the age of 21, Clara had fully adjusted to city life. She had a home, family, friends, a stable job... That wasn't saying a lot, but it was true.

However, she had a job, but it didn't fulfill any purpose. She aired her worries with her dream self, trying to figure out how to settle the restlessness inside. What was her purpose?

Why was she here?

MOUSE

Clara rarely left Under the Tower's main base of operations, their club, through the front door. However, one of the rare days that she did...

She bumped into a familiar woman adorning armor. Her and Fencien only shared brief eye contact, their visors staring into each other's.

Guilt. Fencien may serve Stem Tower, sure, but she had saved Clara. The Fencien that she remembered wouldn't have saved a criminal like her. The explanation seemed simple: She wasn't the same as she had once been, just like Clara.

Clara ran. She ran, and ran, and ran.

For the next three months, Clara seemed to stumble into Fencien time and time again. Each and every time, Clara ran. Fencien called after her and chased her with determination. It couldn't just be coincidence. Paranoia that Clara thought she left behind began returning. She was being hunted.

One day after working at Yenjo's, Clara found a note on her door. Her stomach sank. It was a request for a duel. The author didn't name themselves, but Clara knew who it was. There was a time and a place. The reward for winning would be being left alone. The consequences for losing would have to be not running away.

The rabbit's fear had returned. Now, it was time for her fiery pride. She was sick of running, sick of being afraid. Not anymore.

Clara and Fencien met in an empty lot behind a Walrus-Burger. Both armed with their swords and nothing else, they sought to disarm one another. It was quick, quiet, and painfully nostalgic.

FENCIEN

Unfortunately, Clara had adapted too much to city life. She far preferred running to swinging nowadays. Thus, she was sloppy. She was disarmed. She lost.

Clara was hurt, yes, but she wasn't angry. She was just glad that it was over.

The two of them stood in silence. It was painfully awkward.

Without warning, Fencien began spilling out words. It was far more overwhelming than the battle had been. Question after question was thrown her way. It overwhelmed the socially stunted woman. So, Clara did what she was best at: running.

That didn't stop Fencien, though. Every week, Fencien showed up to Clara's house uninvited and tried to drag her out. Clara only had so much energy to keep the wall up before it broke.

It was via Fencien's insistent trips that Clara saw what the nobility lived like. The fiery seed set inside her long ago flourished again. The western sector of Stem City lived so lavishly compared to the poor citizens below.

Fencien's good character shined greatly in their outings. The aspects of Fencien that Clara found annoying ended up being her greatest strengths: her tendency to yap and righteous nature. Whenever Clara found herself unable to operate properly within these richer environments, Fencien stepped in as a conduit. Whenever Clara was given nasty glares, Fencien was right there to protect her by glaring right back.

Though Clara still kept herself guarded around Fencien, it was comforting to know that she had a friend up high.

BALTIMORE

One unremarkable day, Clara found herself talking with Tez after work. A mysterious stranger walked up to her. Interested in Tez's drunken story, Clara was quick to blow the man off. However, what he asked of her caught her attention. A "Baltimore" wanted to see her down in the sewers underneath Buck Street. Though she declined at first, her curiosity got the best of her.

After waving goodbye to Tez, she ventured down into the wet sewers. It didn't take her long, but she found the mechanical abomination called "Baltimore" attached to the ceiling. The screaming robot begged her to come with her. Though the only robots she had met before were Lawmen, and they didn't leave the fondest impression, she didn't want to leave this guy hanging after he had explicitly asked for her.

Taking him home, Baltimore became her single companion at home. He was loud and annoying, but he knew something relating to her. She prodded him again and again about why he asked for her. She hasn't gotten an answer yet.

Even despite his unique personality, Clara began to find some comfort in having somebody around the house... Even if he refuses to use an inside voice.