"Vinny, I'm going to need you to check up on some stocks. How are we doing on the Phetamine?"
Whilst time was usually of the essence when it came to the Rescue, it had been quite a relaxed, slow-moving morning at the clan's hospital; and whilst many of it's members were taking advantage of free time by catching up with their own pursuits, Mark had taken it upon himself to do something useful for once by hanging back with Vinny and doing some rather important stock-checking.
Realising he'd been welcomed by the sound of silence, the doctor had to double-take to make sure he was actually seeing things clearly; each of piece of equipment and stock was perfectly in place, with the bottles of pills ready on the table for checking and sorting. But Vinny was nowhere to be found.
"Vinny?" Mark called, beginning to worry slightly. His fellow Rescue never left his post, and it wasn't like him to start a game of Hide and Seek; in his constant, drug-induced states he could barely move about without being noticed, let alone hide.
Beginning to pace across the room, Mark found himself accidentally kicking away what seemed like a can after only a couple of steps. Intrigued by it's presence, he managed to stop it rolling away too far with a little stomp from his foot; on closer inspection the slightly crushed logo, alongside the liquid that seemed to trickle from the metal, began to make a lot more sense to the doctor.
"Red Dragon? But what's this doing he-oh SHIT!"
Noticing a figure hunched over on the floor and looking as if they were almost about to hurl, he soon realised it was Vinny, who was surrounded by even more empty cans bearing the Red Dragon artwork. Mark had always that the drink's mascot had a evil streak to it, and seeing what the liquid was doing to his friend meant that thought was now fact.
"Just how much have you had, Vinny?" He questioned, kicking the empty cans away quite furiously as he approached; however, the sudden shift in concern didn't phase his fellow clan member one bit.
"About...about five cans, I think."
"Five cans," Mark repeated, sounding a little annoyed. "Five cans, he says."
"Isn't this stuff supposed to be instant though?" Vinny asked, looking at Mark before looking at his own two hands, which were slowly beginning to shake. "Then how come-"
"Why do you think, Vinny?" Mark responded, sounding a little irritated at the other male's questioning but still doing his best to keep calm and collected. "You're always so doped up that you've probably got effects from a week ago still playing havoc with your body. Drugs aren't a quick, two-second affair, especially not some of the stronger stuff I've seen you take. It probably cancelled out the energy rush."
Bending down to his friend's level, Mark began to gently rub his back, as if he could make the pain go away right there, right then; suddenly rewarded with the sound of retching, he still carried on rubbing said back in an effort to ease the process.
"It's ok, Vinny, just get it out of your system." He said, whilst keeping his gaze averted from the puddle of puke. One look at that and anyone would have started puking themselves, but the doctor was too occupied in his own thoughts to be catching sight of puke puddles. How long had he known Vinny for? A few years, at least. Through their friendship, he'd seen him intake enough drugs to kill off even the most hardy of junkies. And yet he was still alive and kicking; ok, maybe not as much kicking as doped up and sleepy but still very much alive all the same.
"Sorry, Mark," Vinny said, clumsily falling onto his friend and using his shoulder as a headrest. "I just needed something to wake me up."
"I know, I know, you don't need to apologise."
"No, but seriously," The other male continued, slowly beginning to lift himself up onto his feet despite his weak state. "I think I've been going more delusional than usual."
"I really don't think you should be trying to get up."
"I'm fine, I'm fine. Well, I think I'm fine. Just this morning, I saw this freaking kangaroo hopping around the place-"
Stopping in mid-explanation, the medicine keeper suddenly had a rather freaked out look on his face, as if he'd just spotted a man-eating tiger in the middle of the room; instead, it was simply the clan's cuddly, somewhat aloof marsupial that he seemed to be pointing to.
"There it is again! Shouldn't that thing be in a zoo? Should we go get Tanner?"
Mark couldn't help letting a little laughter escape at the expense of his friend's somewhat stupid mistake.
"Yes, there is a freaking kangaroo hopping around the place, but he works for us, remember? You can't have forgotten about Lobo, surely," he explained, shooting a rather apologetic look in the creature's direction.
"Then he'd better get along with William, I'm telling you, that dog can be a handful." said Vinny, not noticing his fellow clan member's slightly awkward expression.
"I'd only be worried about that if we were actually Sentinel too," Mark responded, wondering just what his friend had been taking before his Red Dragon binge. Beginning to pick up the empty cans, he placed them on the table in a rather messy heap; soon replacing them in his grasp with the closest pill bottle, effortlessly twisting off the cap and peering at the numerous pills inside.
"Actually, that's something I need to bring up. You think it's possible you could slow down on these for a bit? Kerry says they're really eating into our costs."
"You really shouldn't put a price on health, Mark." retorted Vinny, beginning to count the pills of the bottle he'd just poured out onto the table, and causing the doctor to stare at him in quite the surprised and dumbfounded expression; for someone who spent the entire day "doped up", he sometimes came out with the most surprising things.
"That's...that's true, Vinny," Mark stammered slightly, unsure what to say next. "But I do think you should listen to Kerry. She is our leader, after all."
As soon as the doctor had spoken, there was a sudden rush of pills spilling all over the floor. Quite taken back by the sudden madness, Mark wasn't sure exactly what to do, only stooping down to pick up a stray pill from the top of his bloodied shoe. When he looked back up, he noticed his fellow clan member shaking rather severely; not sure whether this was the Red Dragon finally kicking in or not, he was soon concerned by Vinny's next, frantic words.
"I can't do that again, man!"
"Do what, exactly?"
"Follow leader's orders! Last time that happened, I just couldn't keep it together!"
Still shaking as he spoke, Vinny was eyeing the closest bottle of pills that hadn't been scattered through his vicinity, but wasn't quick enough to outgrab Mark, who still looked rather concerned and shocked about the situation.
"You know that's not true. You couldn't keep it together because Ash wouldn't stop taking the piss out of you. Look, if you really feel this bad, I suggest you have one of your talks with Frida. She didn't look too busy when I saw her last."
"All that bitch does is judge me," Vinny retorted, strangely sounding rather bitter and wasted at the same time; sitting himself down on the floor in quite a childish manner, he couldn't help but wear a rather hurt look on his face.
"They all judge me. Even you, I bet you're judging me right now!"
"Now I definitely know that's the drugs talking," said Mark, as if he was telling his fellow Rescue off in a firm yet fair manner. "You know that's not true about Frida, or most of the Rescue clan for that matter. And certainly not me. If I was judgemental, would I have stayed friends with you for so long?"
Not wanting to be forgotten, Lobo suddenly took it upon himself to hop over to the two males and lay his head on his paws onto Vinny's lap. It was hard to accurately describe the pleading noises of a Kangaroo, but they didn't sound too far off from that of a large dog, but more high pitched.
"What do you want from me, eh?" Vinny asked, sounding slightly intimidated. Lightly tapping the end of the creature's nose with his hand, he was soon rewarded with the retaliation of a rather slobbery lick. Repulsed, Vinny couldn't help shuddering, yet he still felt himself able to gently stroke Lobo's snout; something that both man and kangaroo seemed to be enjoying, if the smiles on their faces were anything to go by.
"Awwww...you're actually not that bad. Less of an animal than some clan members I could mention-"
Sensing a rather familiar churning in his stomach and feeling overcome him, Vinny found himself gently pushing Lobo to the side; soon victim to vomit once again, he was hunched over as he almost drooped into the new puddle of "waste".
Suddenly interrupted by the sound of footsteps as they noticed the doors swing open, they were surprised to see Suzie approaching them; the two males rarely received news that wasn't through a communicator when they were on duty. She seemed to have a confused look on her face, immediately making her words known as she knew their first question would be the obvious "What are you doing here?"
"I know you're busy, guys, so I'll make this quick. I was just checking through the accounts with Beverly when I noticed-oh my gosh! Is he alright?"
Quickly approaching Vinny's side, she found herself accidentally knocking away a stray can of Red Dragon. Realising exactly what had gone on, she turned to Mark, who looked just as worried as she did.
"I don't know what he did it, but he managed to get his hands on Red Dragon. And before you say anything about bad "run downs", this is all run down. The drugs in his system cancelled out the energy rush and now he's just puking his guts out. "
"Oh dear gosh," Suzie gasped, bending down to Vinny's level and acting rather gently with him. "That's it, get it all out. Oh what do you get yourself into?"
"Just this and that, Sarah."
"Suzie." she said, correcting him gently yet she couldn't help sounding annoyed. Hers was the only name he always got wrong, but it was always the same wrong name, so if he ever mentioned a Sarah, Suzie always knew he was taking to or about her.
Gently lifting Vinny onto his feet, she was trying her best to balance him as he tottered in his wooziness; not struggling for long as Mark immediately took to the other side, accidentally kicking more cans that had rolled around from before. Kicking one away just for the hell of it, the doctor regretted doing so when the metal object catapulted into one of the large, white stock shelves, sending every single bottle of pills smashing to the floor. Soon, none of the Rescue could move without stepping into a sea of medication.
Noticing the somewhat experienced, goofy smile that Vinny was giving him, Mark couldn't help staring back in quite an embarrassed, awkward manner.
"I know what you're going to say. But no, we're not doing the whole Drugs Angel thing again."
"Drugs Angel?" Suzie questioned, sounding rather confused. "Isn't that a club in downtown Clint City?"
"Oh it's really great, Sarah," Vinny began, rather slow and thoughtful in his response, as if he was really trying to remember the instructions to a rather complicated something. "You see, this isn't the first time all the drugs have dropped to the floor. Last time, Mark was really drunk when it happened..."
"Why am I not surprised?" The female muttered, shooting a rather annoyed glare in the doctor's direction.
"Anyway, all the pills were on the floor and he just started making a Snow Angel, like this!"
And as Vinny went to demonstrate, he tripped in his wooziness and landed face first in the sea of medication. Watching him struggle to get up, Mark and Suzie were beginning to wonder how anything at all was possible when it came to working with Vinny...