Starburst: Social Cleansing
Streetwise:
"It's so cold tonight, isn't it?" Asked a Croconaw to a Pikachu, the sound of bitterness in his voice.
"Aye, the kind that snaps your damn fingers off..." The yellow mouse nodded and agreed, clasping and rubbing his paws together, every breath they exhaled could be seen like fumes in the cold night air.
Both of them stood to either side of a dented metal trash can, liberally marked with scratches, dust and dirt. Inside, to where their paws were placed above, the warmth of flames were lit, crackling as they burned away on a concoction of paper and other garbage.
"You two not used to it yet?" Jibed a Lucario nearby, sitting down on a well filled, tied trash bag. Her coarse voice was cynical as she blew smoke from her maw with the cigarette clutched between her index and middle fingers, smoke wisping up from its tip.
"Obviously, but doesn't mean we can't bitch about shit weather all the same..." The Croconaw snapped, gazing intensely back at the Lucario. She was not intimidated in the least.
"Pussies..." She mused, cold as ice. She matched his intense stare with her own, smirking however. She leaned back against the concrete exterior of a long decommissioned, condemned factory. Graffiti strewn its walls, coloured bubble writing and all, some gang symbols here and there.
"Hey now no need for clapbacks..." The Pikachu retorted defensively, but the Lucario could care less. Instead, she shrugged and took another puff of her cigarette, told by the reddish glow at its tip. Along with the disused and downright ugly factory, the trio located themselves within a small plaza before it.
A fountain sat at its centre, but water had long ceased to flow. Its base was dry and caked with discarded litter. Crushed boxes, cans, smashed glass bottles and an assortment of packaging lay among each other, a river of decay. Its former sculpted features that caught the eye were now unrecognisable. Whatever they were before, they were now crooked, broken. The fountain had even collapsed in on itself at some point, while more graffiti decked its shattered former glory. The Lucario looked at it from time to time, its state of disrepair reminding her of her own life.
"Don't you ever feel like your surroundings reflect your life?" She asked, suddenly philosophical. The Croconaw looked at her in that moment, frowning. What an odd question to be posed, he thought, while he noted the scars on her face, particularly one through her right eye and another that must have split her lip wide open at some point back in the day.
"How do you mean?" He queried at last, puzzled it seemed. The Lucario stared right back at him, taking the time to puff on her cigarette again before she replied.
"Look around us. Decay, condemnation, misery. Why do you think we find ourselves in this shithole, starving and freezing?" She did so sharply. To emphasise, she pointed to her left as she blew out smoke again.
Her finger gestured towards a two storey building made of brick, the top floor consisting of living space and the ground floor a bakery. McMahon & Son proudly displayed the sign above its entrance in bold white writing. Of course, such a bakery had gone out of business years ago. A forelorn shutter, rusting fast, hid away the interior like a barricade while sat in front of it was a sad blackboard stand, where once it would have proclaimed doughnuts were only a dollar each! Oh how she loved those doughnuts; those perfectly round sugar glazed doughnuts.
Up above, the living space windows were hastily boarded up. They were bust a while back by opportunist vandals, but they had not been back since. They had also taken multiple roof tiles for reasons only known to themselves.
"I thought you told us not to bitch about the cold..." The Croconaw reminded drily, now eyeing the Lucario's attire consisting of a fading camouflage jacket and torn cargo trousers at the knees.
"Do I look like I give a fuck?" She asked crassly, in return surveying the dark waterproof coat and tattered jeans that he wore. He simply rolled his eyes and returned to clasping his paws together over the crackling flames. She took in the last of her cigarette and blew out the smoke, before casually flicking it away. As it landed a few feet away, spraying red glowing tobacco upon impact, the three of them fell quiet for a few minutes.
Wingull chirped above incessantly as they flapped their wings, swishing and cutting through the air like expert showboat pilots. If only they could do loops and barrel rolls too while they were at it. Murkrow also sat on the rooftops, their squawks more dry and hoarse. The Pikachu looked up at them all, as if the Murkrow were surveillance cameras and they were being watched. It would not surprise him. Nothing did anymore.
"So...how did you both end up here?" He spoke up at last, catching the attention of the Lucario in particular. She eyed him up for a moment, clearing her throat and scanned his dark dishevelled hair, bloodshot brown eyes, dirty white shirt and baggy, ill fitting jeans. She could see the bags under his eyes in the glare of the flames. He clearly slept poorly and she guessed he had probably seen some stuff.
He could see she barely fared better. Her hair was a dirty blonde but looked like it had not been washed in weeks at least, if not months. Its matted strands spread over the chest of her jacket down to its stomach, perhaps showing it had not been cut in quite a while either, but he made sure not to eye her too long. Her stare was fierce after all, one of disapproval. She did not enjoy eye contact for long.
"I'm not going to dwell on my past. A history of domestic and sexual abuse from a boyfriend with money to burn kind of does that to you..." She replied finally, reluctantly at that. She did not reveal much, but what she did was telling.
"Wow I...I'm sorry!" The Croconaw roused sympathetically, putting aside his earlier little discretion with her. He genuinely was as well and he could tell she took it that way when he glanced in her direction. She had tears in her eyes all of a sudden, as she looked down at the ground. She appeared battle-hardened to him before, but that all seemed just a visage now.
"What a vile fucking piece of shit!" The Pikachu erupted in anger, almost punching over the trash can in doing so but then remembered if he did it would have extinguished the warming flames within. All the same, any and all of his sympathy failed to win him her gaze.
"He was a cunt..." She huffed frankly and decided that now the other two had made her emotions spill out into the open, it was time to drink.
"...But thanks a fucking a lot for making me feel like one too. Let's fucking toast to that!" She continued as if she was about to blow her top, but then she scooped up a pack of four cans of cheap beer. Taking one, she placed the others back down and flipped open its tab with a single movement of her paw. The fizzling sound that resounded was welcoming to her and she took a large first swig. The bubbles popping on her tongue was something she always enjoyed.
Swallowing it, she looked towards the other two with her can raised in sarcastic salute. Her glance too was more of a glare. The male pair made mental notes of that, now knowing that bringing up her past was a particular sore point that they would be wise not to cross again.
"Well now you've brought it out of me, what about you two? Why are you...?" The Lucario nonetheless began to speak up again after a few more moments. Sipping her beer a second time beforehand, she cut herself off abruptly when her eyes were drawn elsewhere. The Croconaw and Pikachu frowned as she failed to finish her question, but watched her gaze divert and soon after followed suit.
Nearby to the bakery's long shuttered entrance staggered a sickly looking Weavile. Clothed in only dirty rags, his eyes were wide, moist and his sclera particularly, unnaturally yellow. Every step he took was clumsy, the plodding of his feet upon the ground inconsistent. In his clumsiness, he wandered straight into the blackboard stand, knocking it down and nearly sending him flying as a result. Instead, he careered into the rusting shutter, the contact crowned with an almighty twang as his shoulder and side struck the metal exterior.
"Why you in my fuckin' way? Why da fuck you in my fuckin' way? Fuckin' answer me, you fuckin' motherfucker!" His slurred speech resonated thoroughly, conversing as if the shutter was a living being.
"Get outta my fuckin' way! Get outta my fuckin' way!" He repeated again and again, amusing the Croconaw and Pikachu enough that they were forced to suppress their laughter, for failure would probably draw the Weavile's ire. The Lucario appeared unmoved however, breaking it only to take a third swig of her beer.
The Weavile began shunting the shutter with a shoulder charge. Then again, and again, with increasing violence each time.
"I will fuckin' smash you!" He warbled, but his promise was unfounded. The shutter held firm, barely affected and probably rewarded him with a shiny new bruise in the morning. Eventually the Weavile saw sense and gave up, so instead, crudely began urinating against it, trickling down and pooling on the floor at his feet, steam rising up in the cold.
"Ya see? Ya see this is what ya fuckin' get when ya don't fuckin' move!"
The Lucario shook her head. She had barely ever heard so much cursing in her life and it had begun to grate. She bit her tongue though and remained silent, other than for gradual consumption of her alcoholic beverage. She could also see the widening grins on the faces of the Croconaw and Pikachu and far be it for her to end their amusement.
While she did not get involved though, somebody else most definitely did. Just as the Weavile finished pissing on his feet at that point, his paw suddenly raised to clasp his neck. Blood spurted onto the shutter as he began to wheeze, dripping down it while he choked and gargled.
"Oh...oh fuck..." He barely managed to let out as more blood spilled from his mouth and squirted between his fingers. He staggered again, wide eyed and in a panic as the shutter and floor became saturated in crimson wherever he stepped, before he finally noticed the presence of the Lucario, Croconaw and Pikachu.
"Help...me..." He gasped barely, holding out his paw to them before finally, he stepped forward and fell on his front, motionless. The two males had most certainly lost any sign of their prior amusement and instead replaced their grins with expressions of purest shock.
The Lucario had in the meantime stood up, a paw clasped over her mouth and lost all grip of her beer. It fell to the floor at her side, spraying its alcoholic contents on impact, part of which splashed her trousers, and the rest spilled into a puddle on the floor. It appeared that, despite her previous annoyance about all the cursing, her eyes had moistened too.
"Oh my god..." She muttered as tears began rolling down her cheeks in hastened breaths. Looking towards the Croconaw and Pikachu, she noted them standing back, paws shaking, eyes wide and filled with fear. It was understandable, she thought. She however stood forward towards the Weavile. Crouching over him, she motioned a paw forth under his chin, pressing two fingers upon his neck to check for a pulse. As presumed, there was none. Still though, she let out an audible gasp in shock, withdrawing her paw leaving her fingers slick with blood. The Croconaw and Pikachu could see that too, the former shaking his head, wishing not to believe the inevitable.
"Is...is he dead?" He piped up in hope more than anything else, his question adequately answered by the Lucario whom looked him in the eyes and nodded reluctantly. He looked down, eyes moistened now as well. The three of them had never met this Weavile, but nor did they want to see his life extinguished, spilled away from him like the blood around his body.
The Lucario then heard something whiz by her head once, twice, thrice. Her ears raised, her body straightened up and her eyes widened, looking around in all directions. The perpetrators of those noises thumped into the wall of the old bakery, chipping off small chunks and leaving holes that threw out particles of dust.
Further objects hurtled by her head and by now did the same to the Croconaw and Pikachu, more chunks being torn out of the same wall and also, what was left of the fountain. The Croconaw crouched and held his head in his paws, eyes clenched shut with hefty gasps and hasty breaths. The Lucario could sense his fear. but she began to realise what these objects were as a pair tore through the Pikachu's back and out of his chest, blood spurting from each hole and soaked into his clothing, making him cry out in agony at the resulting pain. Naturally, his paw clasped one and quickly became caked in crimson, looking down to see drops splashing the floor before him, his eyes wide and tears threatening to escape.
"I...I don't want to die!" He exclaimed and eyed the Lucario's direction.
"You won't! Don't say that!" She retorted, gesturing him to her with a flick of the wrist. He motioned towards her with plodding, hasty steps, stumbling slightly. He was close now. He smiled her way. Soon though her face was splashed with blood, her moist eyes widening yet further. His smile dissipated before them, squirting further crimson from a hole that ripped open his forehead. She could see the fleshy rim of the hole, tissue sticking out while brain matter and skull fragments scattered around her. Tears escaped her eyes again.
He hit the floor in a heap then before her, lifeless, a pool of blood collecting at her feet. With it dripping down her face and chin too, she slowly stood herself back up and took a step further back. She felt like screaming hysterically and bauling her eyes out, but she felt her eye twitch instead. Something clicked.
"Hey! Hey! Take cover!" She commanded of the Croconaw suddenly, moving quickly herself and standing up the old bakery blackboard sign that the Weavile had earlier knocked over, crouched and huddled behind it. Placing her paw against its edge, she peaked around it to see the Croconaw had not moved at all. Instead, he had stood up with his arms outstretched.
"What the fuck are you doing? Take fucking cover!" She yelled again, more demanding this time. Her eyes stared at him with intent, fiercely almost, as he disobeyed her again.
"You kill my best friend, huh? Hiding behind your guns, huh? You're fucking cowards! Fucking take me, you cunts! Fucking take me!"
His forceful speech caused the Lucario to shake her head despairingly, his voice bouncing off of the nearby walls and environment. Tears streamed down his face as he spoke, his voice having become raspy.
"Come on do it! Fucking do it!"
"No please..." The Lucario's voice was quiet in comparison, still shaking her head. Finally, she heard more bullets taking chunks out of the walls around her. More importantly though, some ripped through the Croconaw's clothing, skin and flesh. She could see holes burst open all over his back, blood spurting from every single one, his body rocking and shaking in spasms with each impact. More spilled from his mouth, his breathing erratic and his eyes still wide with rage.
"Is...is that all you got?" He gurgled, spitting up more blood in doing so. His new found ferocity had not diminished.
"No, no, no, no, no..." The Lucario repeated, shaking her head more. She was not seeing this, she told herself. Two final shots resonated though. first piercing his lower jaw so violently it was torn clean off, landing with a bloody splash a few feet away. The second plugged his left eye and blew away the top of his head from the eyes up, leaving a gruesome bowl shaped cavity in its place. Blood squirted like a fountain from it, flesh, bits of skull and brain littering the floor around him. He fell to his knees, then keeled to the side, the flame of life inside him extinguished.
The Lucario turned away and sat down against the blackboard stand. Still in cover she thought, knees up, arms rested on them, she buried her face into them and sobbed. What could they have possibly done to meet such violent ends?
"What...the fuck...is wrong with people?" She muttered harshly to herself, tears escaping from between her fingers, voice shaking. She dared not look back around the sign. Three bodies lay there, corpses, that she communicated with only a few short minutes before.
She sobbed for a few minutes more, almost rolling herself into a ball. She was not given that chance however, for she heard bullets cut through the air by her head and the thunk-thunk-thunk into the nearby walls once again. She saw them chip away the surface; plaster and dust thrown out as pockets of smoke.
Through her tears, she sat up straight, alert. Pressing her palm to the floor, she moved away from the stand. Looking back quickly, she noted the stand buckle, shred and collapse into multiple chunks. Just as fast, her attention returned to what was ahead of her, bullets constantly flying and following her path. Hitting the floor and the walls yet more around her, momentarily she dove down behind the binbags on which she sat earlier; no longer a pedestal but now like a flimsy sandbag defence. Yet more bullets tore through them just above her as she pressed firm on her front, hair spread messily on the floor to soften the blow of her face to the hard surface, paws pressed over the back of her head, bracing.
Soon enough, the bags split open spilling cans, glass bottles and kebab cartons around her, a half eaten apple rolling away from her just a few metres too. She still braced though, teeth gritted, eyes focused and ears attentive.
The bullets then stopped suddenly, for now. She could finally dare to process thoughts and take her head from her arms, to look up again even. Moving her paw to slap away a nearby can across the ground, she glanced to her left to note the collection of bin bags. Large holes spread their innards wide, alcoholic liquids spilling out on the floor beside her, filling her nostrils with their stale stench.
Creasing her face up in disgust, she now had to make a choice. Would she move on and risk being fired at again? Would she stay where she was and hope the unseen assailants disappeared? It was a choice she had never hoped to make in her lifetime. Her choice had to be immediate too.
Silence. She had heard absolutely nothing for the past three minutes. It was not to last however, for just as suddenly, she overheard something cut through the air, something large, something probably very, very dangerous. Then there was the bang that crackled overhead, bringing about relentless ringing in her ears, irritating, high pitch and painful. Covering them with her paws, she rolled onto her back, her eyes widening as a black cloud of smoke erupted violently outwards from the factory chimney's mid-point, its upper half teetering and beginning to lean to one side.
"Oh fuck..." She gasped under her breath. Particles of concrete fell like snowflakes but felt more like stones, buffeting her as she shielded her face with her arms.
"Shit!" She exclaimed as each one stung her, throbbing her chest and stomach with short, sharp bouts of pain.
"What the fuck have I done?" She asked herself, tears in her eyes once again. She was about to force a sob, but an almighty groan from above pierced the vicinity.
Staring up intently, eyes wide still, the section of chimney dislodged from itself and began its fall...right at her! Letting out a panicked scream, she scrambled to get to her feet, cursing repeatedly under her breath. The fallen segment descended in a flash though, but felt a lot slower in her mind as if slow motion had befallen her, her life flashing before her for what it was worth, as it was quicker than she had anticipated. It came to rest with ferocious speed, breaking further apart upon impact and she would surely have been mercilessly crushed beneath all the weight; a puddle of blood, shattered bones and mulched flesh...