Work Text:
>Blaring music jolts you awake as the heavy bass of some "song" drops.
>Quickly you get up and rush to your open window and slam it shut, cursing yourself for leaving it open again.
>You had hoped that the loud rain from the electrical storm would keep up and let you get a decent nights sleep.
>It had sounded so peaceful...
>The ceiling above you rumbles as the Bass drops again.
>Ugh your new neighbors...Ever since they moved in they've been playing that weird cheeki breeki music with the heavy bass.
>It was bad enough you live in a shitty part of the city, but you also had no where else to move.
>No one wants to deal with an implant less bounty hunter, too much of a risk.
>Luckily (or unluckily in this case) you found this one "apartment" that was run by an AI, so it didn't care if you didn't have an implant, but similarly, it didn't care about your complaints of loud music.
>You grumble to yourself as you shuffle to your "kitchen" and hit a few buttons on your food synth for something resembling food.
>It shudders a few times until you hit it on the side; then it chokes out something looking like ham, cheese, and eggs.
>You take the meal and are about to begin looking through bounties when your Holophone rings and displays a small Hologram of Gabriel.
>"Whats up?" you ask before you shovel in a mouthful of food.
>"Geez dude you just wake up? you look like you lost a fight with a street sweeper" Gabriel says with an amused smile, looking you over.
>Gabriel's face always reminded you of a piece of steel made to look like a man, all sharp angles and grey eyes; today his dark brown hair is slicked back and down past his ears.
>"Bite me, those fucking cheeki breekis have made sleeping hard" you say between mouthfuls of food.
>Gabriel's smile goes away and is replaced by one of annoyance.
>"You tried talking to them about it?" he asks as he slides his metal left arm into place.
>You nod as you finish scarfing down your food.
>"Yea man, they yelled at me in Russian or something then turned it up louder" you respond as you begin getting ready for the day.
>"I haven't found us a mark yet" you call out to him as you pull your shirt and gun belt on.
>This is how it usually goes, you find a good bounty; then Gabriel and you track them down, with Gabriel providing transportation.
>Hard to drive around the city without the right implants to make a car go, let alone start up.
>"All good, I got a good one lined up" is Gabriel's almost giddy response.
>Which immediately tells you somethings up.
>"Whoa whoa NO! What's going on" you demand, grabbing your holophone and looking Gabriel's hologram and his surroundings over.
>"Nothing! Why you gotta be so paranoid Null?" he asks, giving an over exaggerated shrug.
>He's in his speeder, nothing out of the ordinary in it.
>"It's my Job to be paranoid, and I have been since you tried to sicc Fox's cousin on me" you quip, loading your handgun and sliding into your holster.
>"You focus TOO much on your job and She was in HEAT dude!" Gabriel responds as though that should be a good excuse.
>"She tried to Knife me!" you shoot back.
>"SHE. WAS. IN. HEAT." he responds louder and slower.
>You sigh and pinch the bridge of your nose, trying to push back what you knew would be a headache later.
>"Whatever, whats the mark? anything special?" you sigh in exasperation.
>"Nothing special, I'll be there in 5" he responds before his hologram winks out, leaving you alone in your one room apartment.
>Well, nothing special means you don't have to grab any extra firepower, but you did notice he didn't answer who the mark was.
>You do a final pat down to make sure you have all the gear that you would usually carry.
>Your handcannon Rose, a powerful shock knife, extra non lethal shots, electromag cuffs and your Holophone.
>The final touch is your Leather Jacket.
>Satisfied that you have everything, you head outside and frown as you hear your neighbors music blast louder.
>Yea guys, everyone wants to hear your shitty music...
>You step out of the building and under an awning to try stay dry as you wait for Gabriel.
>The street is a mass of plants and garbage with water constantly flowing through the gutters.
>The rain in the city never stops, so people gave up trying to stop the plants from growing.
>Humans and anthros bustle by, some with umbrellas, some with augments to keep the rain off them and some just getting wet.
>Speeders zoom by ignoring pedestrians for the most part, they hover after all so they don't kick water up like the vehicles of old.
>You admire a few of the people walking by, looking at their augments.
>How do they choose?
>That guy has eyes that can see through walls to do wiring.
>That ladies hair can connect into multiple computers to download whatever info she needs...
>That lion ha-
>"YO NULL, QUIT DAYDREAMING" comes a loud familiar voice.
>You're pulled from your thoughts by Gabriel's yelling and him waving you over to his speeder.
>You shrug at him as you walk to his speeder, popping your jacket collar to protect your neck from the Bone chilling rain.
>His speeders passenger door opens and you climb in, finding a few things on your seat.
>"What's this?" you ask as you hold up whats obviously a thermos and food container.
>"Leftover Korean barbecue and Black tea, the tea leaves were fresh from Fox's Garden" he replies as he speeds off into the rain.
>"Nice"
>Fox always makes the best food and her little garden has all sorts of great stuff.
>As you open the thermos a warm mist steams up, smelling of tea and Honey.
>A Sip warms your insides as your jacket drips cold water into the speeder.
>You take a hearty swig, savoring the ambrosia before snapping back to reality.
>"Where are we going? You didn't answer me before" you ask before drinking more of the hot tea.
>"We're heading to Gary's House of cards, gonna catch this guy" He responds, hitting a few buttons on his phone.
>"That shitty casino under the megaway?" you ask as your phone beeps and a hologram of a horse that looks overly sparkly appears.
>"Yea, That's the one" Gabriel answers nonchalantly
>You frown.
>"We're going after a unicorn wannabe?" you ask incredulously, looking at Gabriel in disbelief "The bounty isn't even that big"
>"Someone big will owe us a favor" Gabriel responds with a simple shrug.
>Oh...
>In your line of work, someone owing you a favor was something worth its weight in gold.
>You silently nod and down the last of your tea, then stare out the window organizing your thoughts.
>Gary's house of cards is a shitty casino but that doesn't mean this wannabe unicorn wont have friends or something with him.
>Best bet is to slip in the back door and...
>You blink hard for a moment and shake your head.
>For a moment the rain had...
>You shake your head again and delve back into your thoughts.
>Go in the back and try to find the implant scanner, see where the mark went and...
>Again you blink hard.
>The rain on the window..looked like you were below the surface of a lake; ripples forming perfect circles above you.
>You literally slap yourself lightly and groan, trying to focus your head.
>What the fuck.
>The ripples take different colors of neon, mixing where they collide and erupting in explosions of color.
>"You Ok Null?" Gabriel asks, amusement in his voice.
>"Y-yea just things are a little odd" you respond then look at him
>Gabriel's arms have switched and he has a third eye in the center of his forehead; he smiles a MUCH too wide smile with chesher cat like teeth.
>"Ooooooh it's kicked in already" he says with that far to wide smile
>You blink hard and focus, making some of the colors disappear.
>"WHAT has kicked in?!" you shout, causing Gabriel to laugh.
>"I mighta dosed you, but just a drop" he says with a big laugh.
>You blink for a moment then look at the thermos.
>"You fucking put LSD in my TEA?!" you yell, letting your anger focus things.
>OK this works, stay mad and you can get through this.
>"Yea man you're always focused on work, relax, enjoy the trip" Gabriel insists, checking his Holophones GPS.
>"We have a JOB to do today!" you retort as the Speeder glove box smiles and winks at you.
>"Relax its a joke of a mark, just chill Null" he says with a smile.
>You groan and close your eyes.
>Focus.
>Breathe.
>Don't let it affect you.
>You open your eyes and feel like you've entered cartoon land from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"
>Fuck, you swear you see Jessica rabbit waving to you from the street.
>"We're here, stay... Well just follow me" Gabriel muses, pulling behind Gary's house of cards.
>You blink hard and try to will the colors and shapes invading your vision out of existence.
>This of course doesn't work.
>You groan and pull your handcannon out of its holster and follow your partner.
>Gabriel smiles and gets out of the speeder, and you follow suit; blinding hard to try to keep the colors out of your vision.
>The back door doesn't stand a chance against Gabriel's mechanical arm.
>Only one very strong punch from it sends the door flying into some unfortunate guard.
>The staircase is pretty standard for casinos, a implant scanner to identify whoever enters it.
>You have enough wits about you to pull the cables out of the scanner before colors flood back into your vision.
>It can't scan you, but it can log Gabriel, and bounty hunting is all about not being there.
>"Heyyyyy good job Null" Gabriel cheerfully says as colorful smoke begins rocketing out of his ears.
>As if the rockets weren't weird enough the total silence makes them even worse.
>Angrily, you silently yell into your hands as Gabriel's head erupts into fireworks.
>More and more colors spill into your vision and you clench your teeth against them.
>You physically push them aside with your hand only to face up the stairs and begin jogging up them.
>Clear your head, move, push it aside.
>After 5 minutes of jogging you don't seem any closer to the next floor.
>You begin running up the stairs in a hurry, only to see Gabriel SOMEHOW keeping up with you.
>While not moving his legs...
>His face forms out of the smoke where his head had been and he begins laughing.
>"WHAT!?" you grunt angrily, trying not to focus on one thing for too long.
>Keep shifting your eyes, don't let the hallucinations get you.
>"If you wanna go up the stairs, you might wanna trying actually going up them, not walking in place on the bottom step dude"
>What.
>You look down and see you are in,fact running in place.
>With a groan of frustration you begin actually going up the stairs, using the handrails to pull yourself up and prevent walking in place.
>"You were just gonna let me keep going huh?" you quip to Gabriel who smiles more.
>"Nah I would have stopped you eventually"
>Sou sigh and shake your head, partially from annoyance but mainly to try to shoo away the hallucination of tongues coming out of the walls.
>"Take point, I cant like this" you say as you slow down to let him take the lead.
>"Aight, got your gun on non lethal right? not gonna shoot me in the back or anything" he says as he walks past you, eyeing your handcannon.
>You melodramatically spin the cylinder to from lethal to non-lethal.
>"Happy?"
>He only answers with a smile that grows and grows and has too many teeth.
>You blink hard and his normal face returns.
>The two of you continue up the stairs for a while until Gabriel stops at a door, checks his phone for a moment.
>The door has the words "Dance hall: Rave" on them in bright holographic letters that shimmer and change color.
>Faint music can be heard from beyond it, as the letters being to warp into snakes which slither down the wall to begin to wrap around Gabriel's legs.
>The fact he doesn't notice or care which tells you that you're the only one seeing it.
>"He in there?" you ask as the snakes writhe and coil up his body.
>He nods, stashes his phone in his jacket and pulls out his own oversized revolver, made to fit his larger mechanical arm and hand.
>Using his normal hand, Gabriel pushes the door open.
>You immediately wish he hadn't as waves of flashing lights and loud electronic music blast out of the opening.
>The hallucinations you had been somewhat been pushing back Flash to life with a vengeance.
>You grit your teeth and try to push them away as Gabriel just smiles at you.
>"Ready?" he muses, still smiling.
>"Bite me and lead the way" you hiss in response, trying to focus.
>He simply nods and pushes into the room.
>You close your eyes and pinch the bridge of your nose for a moment, knowing that this WILL be a headache later.
>But now is not the time to worry about that.
>Quickly, you follow Gabriel and look around.
>The people and anthros dancing to the "music" aren't distinguishable at all instead being a mass of neon outlines.
>"Flares" of neon light shoot out from the group and create neon fires where they land.
>Focus, keep your gun up and eyes open, drugs be damned.
>The mark is in here, and probably dangerous.
>You look around and hope to find him but fail to make out anything.
>"There he is" You barely hear Gabriel over the din of the music.
>You step beside him and try to focus on the general direction he's looking.
>Of course there he is behind the bar, looking like a goddammed disco ball from hell.
>A horse with a horn implant, and looks like most of his skin has been replaced by some reflective something.
>Too much shimmering and color in your opinion but you cant really judge right now.
>"Hurry up and get him, last thing we need is someone to notice us" you quietly yell to Gabriel, loud enough for him to hear you over the music but not loud enough for anyone else to hear.
>"You got this dude" Gabriel answers, pushing you forwards with his flesh hand.
>You look at him and gives him a "what the fuck" look, only for him to smile and twirl his hand cannon on a metal finger.
>Goddamit, you just want this over so you can get home and come down from this trip.
>"Fine" you think to yourself, stashing Rose and drawing your Shock knife "I'll do it myself"
>You shake out the colors creeping into your mind and block out the dancers who have turned into a giant undulating blob of color and flashing lights.
>The lights from the mark are so bright you find yourself blinking rapidly as you approach.
>The Bar itself seems to grow like a mountain the closer you get to it and you can feel your confidence waiver.
>What the fuck are you doing?
>You feel your feet come to a halt as the bar now cliff looms over you.
>You're in a casino, tripping on something, completely unaugmented and hunting down a unicorn for "a favor".
>This is stupid.
>You start to turn away when a voice cuts through your thoughts.
>That gives you enough of something else to focus on.
>"Ohhh it's that freak I've read about, what do you want freak?"
>The Cliff falls away revealing the wanna be unicorn who stands taller than you by over 2 feet.
>A condescending sneer is on that stupid long face of his.
>You frown and stride to the bar, hating his smirk; the one everyone gives you when they don't give you pity.
>As you step to the bar colors and shapes flow around the horse, everything around you and him blurs.
>but HE doesn't, from his stupid horn to his dumb hand hoof thing on the bar.
>"What do you want freak? Order something or get out".
>Freak...that's you.
>But him? He's dead.
>You slam your Un-powered shock knife though his hand, into the bar.
>An un-powered shock knife works similar to how your would think; just like a normal knife.
>Before he can scream Gabriel manages to get his metal hand around the horses face, stifling him
>You twist the knife sharply then activate shock, which makes the horse convulse and slump forward onto the bar.
>Sharply you pull you knife out and look around.
>The seething masses of dancers having stopped for a moment.
>Colors once more flood your vision and you feel yourself stumble a bit.
>"Let's get out of here" you groan, grabbing your electromag cuffs and snapping them onto the horses wrist.
>"Yea let's go, but you just cuffed yourself to the kegarator" Gabriel laughs as he starts dragging the mark towards the door.
>You look down and see that you did indeed cuff yourself.
>Fuck these drugs...
>Quickly (well as quickly as you can manage) you uncuff yourself and follow to help drag the mark downstairs.
>It doesn't take long with the two of you dragging him non to gently down to the speeder, where you dump him into the trunk as per usual.
>Once the mark is tied up and in Gabriel's trunk you relax and allow the color to take you.
>Every moment since you realized something was up, you had been somewhat holding it at bay.
>Like a drunk man who can REALLY focus on the sober things.
>As Gabriel's speeder zooms through the city, you just try to enjoy the colors which invade your mind and vision.
>It's actually a little pretty now that you don't have to worry.
>Neon lights blurring and chasing along side the speeder, fighting for your attention.
>You don't even notice as Gabriel stops in front of your apartment.
>"YO NULL!, you're home! Don't go wandering off" he informs you.
>You can barely recall what you said to him, all you remember is the flash of colors as his speeder zoomed away.
>But home!
>You allow the drugs to take you as you stumble up the stairs and enter your apartment.
>God, this place looks like an emperors respite when on drugs.
>Maybe you could just lay down and enjoy this....
>A heavy bass drops and rattles you from your thoughts.
>THOSE CHEEKI BREEKIS.
>You're only half aware as you storm out of your apartment and pound on your neighbors door.
>The same fuck as always answers with his usual cigarette half hanging out of his mouth and a bottle of vodka in his hand.
>"??? ?? ??????, ?????? ?????" he...somethings, it sounds like he's talking backwards.
>"Turn down the music" you demand, pointing at the speakers behind him.
>The Russian follows your finger for a moment then laughs in your face.
>"??? ????? ???? ????!" he just about screams in your face before he attempts to slam the door like every time before.
>Except your steel toed boot stops the door.
>Your muscle memory draws Rose from its holster as you kick the door open.
>With practiced movements, you swiftly bash your hand cannons barrel into his nose, then fire 4 shots into his speaker system.
>You look down at the Russian, who is holding his face bloodied nose and point Rose at him.
>He flinches and shrinks down as you mimic pulling the trigger.
>Without another word, you holster Rose and shut the apartments door, then go to your own apartment.
>As you step into it the hallucinations flood back into your vision, once again making your apartment look like it was made for a king.
>It's actually nice to kick off your gear and relax in the relative quiet of your apartment.
>You flick on your holophone and pull up videos of cats playing with stuff and sink into your chair.
>Maybe you should relax like this more.
>But only if its just a Drop.