Grunt Livin’

It's night time. Loud sirens pass by and gradually fade away as I hide in an alleyway.

"Shit.

Who I am and what motivates me doesn't matter. Just know my dipshit of a boss, Damien, was caught and his crime org was disbanded. We were en route to one of his buildings in the slums. It's where he dealt with all his business. We'd gotten a report that someone was willing to pay a fuck ton of cash for some "Devil's Tongue". It's a drug, a real strong and addicting one. Shit "makes you stronger" so a lot of them desperate powered people wanted it. Wasn't uncommon to see some athletes or corrupt politicians on their knees begging us for some either. Was real satisfying seeing people so powerful beggin' us "lowlives" for drugs and we had a lot of fuckers in our pockets 'cuz of it.

Clearly wasn't enough though. That "deal" turned out to be a setup. One of his lackeys ratted him out 'cuz his junkey of a brother overdosed on our shit. Dumb fucker. We were met with a powerful up and coming team of heroes along with the regional defense force armored to the teeth. A slaughter ensued.

A couple of the big wigs put up a good fight but we were fighting against superspeed, portal shenanigans and a martial arts dude with flying swords. We weren't infamous for our fighting prowess. They killed a lot of us, including the rat but what's most important is I'm alive. Alive but on the run. Don't they have more evil people to capture? Like that one guy who blew up an orphanage or the new one that's been raiding all the krystal banks. Krystal literally fuels everything and yet you're searching for some random criminal?

"The government seriously needs to get their priorities in check...." I say to myself and kick a rock out of frustration.

"Hey Jeff! I heard something down here! You missed an alley dumbass!" yells a policewoman.

"Ah, fuck. I felt like I was being thorough this time too." a policeman responds.

Great. My dumbass just had to kick that rock huh?

I lift my hands up as I see them approach the alleyway. "Aye! I surrender!" Sure, I could take on these two and make a run for it, but the chances of me escaping with dozens of officers and heroes walking around ain't high. I've always been really lucky but I'm not willing to take that risk.

The brunette quickly apprehended me while the blonde one trained his gun on me. "Hah! My instincts are never wrong!"

"Careful Haley. There might be others down here." he responds as he talks into his transceiver, calling in backup I'm assuming.

I sigh. Suppose I'm gonna have to figure out a way to break out of prison again. I doubt my cell buddy will just so happen to be an expert at escaping prisons this time. Or that a riot will conveniently happen right as some officers catch us. Though I dunno, luck is a mysterious force. Might as well keep having faith in it. Mayb-

"Ey Jeff. This mask got a nice design to it don't it?" Haley asks.

"It definitely does. But don't touch it, you might not like what you see beneath there. There's plenty of reasons people may want to hide their face but when it comes to criminals, they just look real fucked up. Not nice to look at." Jeff responds.

"Ey, you've been doing this cop stuff for a while now. Let me experience some of the bullshit too." She says, smiling. The blondie shakes his head but doesn't stop her as she reaches down towards my mask.

Hell fucking no. I ain't lettin' them take my mask off. I back away a bit but that spurs the brunette on. Sadistic bitch. I didn't wanna have to deal with this physically but they forced my han-

BOOOM!!!!!

I turn around and see a huge hole where a wall used to be. People wearing all black rushed out with bags in their hands. They'd blend in with the night if it weren't for the purple glowing logo on their clothing. The letter "I" was plastered on each of their chests in different sizes and positions. One thing was consistent though, the lines at the top and bottom were curved into a crescent shape. It made the "I" look similar to an eye.

A krystal fell onto the ground. It was glowing, must be the pure shit. A dark purple, translucent tendril enveloped it as a pale woman with black hair walked out of the hole in the wall. Her hand was open, outstretched as she was controlling the tendril. She balled her hand into a fist slowly as she walked. Light flowed out of the kystal, through the tendril and into her. Eventually the kystal became dull. Looks exactly like the mass produced shit the government hands out to civilians as currency. The tendril fades away and the kystal falls to the ground.

"Mmm~. Love the pure ones." the woman states.

She glances over to my direction. A cold sweat breaks over my body as I stare into her eyes. They're hollow, pitch black. It's as if I'm staring into an abyss....sinking....

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

Gunshots tore me out of my stupor. I quickly lay prone and reobserve my surroundings. Dozens of police officers were shooting at the people in black. The scary eyed woman raised her hand, summoning a wall of dark purple energy to block the bullets.

"Stop shooting dumbasses that clearly isn't working! Your wasting shots!" Jeff yells from behind a police car.

"The hell you want us to do then? We've got to do something till the powered ones get here dumbass!" Haley retorts.

'Spose they got away as soon as the wall got busted. Smart cops. Scary eyes let down the wall and I crawl away into the hole they left in the building. It takes a little effort, but I break out the cuffs those cops put on me. Yeah, I'm powered too. But bullets still hurt like a bitch and I ain't really strong. Regardless, I gotta find a way out of this situation. Suddenly I hear roars, battlecries and stomps. Gunshots resume but they're getting less and less frequent by the second.

I see one of those people in black exiting a room. 'Spose they got left behind. They're hauling the biggest bag of kystal I've seen among those guys and is struggling to lift it up. I ain't one to miss out on a golden oppurtunity. I sprint towards them and elbow them in the chin.

"GAH!!" they exclaim but I don't let up. I grab them by their wrist, pull them towards me and trip them. I finish them off with a kick to their face.

"These fuckers are sturdy." I complain. Was hoping they'd go down with the first hit but alas. I strip off their clothing and put it on myself. Luckily, their suits seem to adjust automatically to the wearers body.

"This shit must've been expensive." I say while checking myself out. The dark colors contrast well with my dark skin and my mask doesn't seem out of place. Perfect. I lift the bag up onto my shoulder and walk out the building.

"Well fuck." I whisper to myself. Police bodies are strewn all over the place. There's blood splattered on the walls, headless bodies and fire everywhere.

....It's not too late for me to back out of this right?

"Good work! Very good work!" Scary eyes exclaims giddily. "This is beautiful! So much chaos. So much destruction! Ahh~~ I wish we could stay longer and cause more mayhem...." Her eyes angle sadly and her body slumps. "Whatever, we'll have time to eventually."

She creates a bubble of purple energy and digs into it, pulling out a remote with a big red button. She presses it and the air in front of her cracked. Gradually the crack expanded until it broke open. She stepped inside and the people in black, her grunts I'm assuming, follow her in.

Fuck it. I need a new job anyway, might as well take my chance when I can get it. I follow alongside them.