And that was how you and your friends got into the drug business. After a few years you quickly became the cities top distributer. To this day Gamzee still heads your drug front. Man, he really hasn't changed much since those days you think, except for that time he was sober. Brrr, that sends chills down your spine, you don't like to think about that day. But, you still can't help but think that you still don't know why you're in your current situation, though the fact that you became a big name in the drug world most definitely had a big part in it. You figure you might as well continue your trip down memory lane as you abandon your glass and just start nursing the entire bottle of scotch.

*FLASHBACK*

You are 17, and tomorrow is your 18th birthday. Though, you also have a big drug deal going on tomorrow so you decide to celebrate one day early. You are sitting in the back of an expensive car from your collection. The drug business had been doing really well, so you had been able to acquire some personal luxury items. Also in the car were several of your, as you called them, friends. Nepeta on your right with Equius very close by. Gamzee in a stoned daze on your left. Though, you had over the past few years made some more "friends".

Tavros was sitting next to the door, seeing as he was paralyzed from the waist down due to nerve damage from a bullet wound. He had started out by working for you, but got into a gunfight his first day on the streets. It was pretty weird; in fact some witnesses claim that he was shot by his partner that day, Vriska, who happened to sitting next to him at the moment. They were dating, but you had a feeling that Vriska just felt bad for what happened that day, that is if she could feel guilt. You had no idea if that bitch was capable of it.

She had a track record as long as any one of your brothers lectures. You had first met her scamming some idiots of all their cash with a little card table on a corner of a street. In fact she was doing quite well for herself and had no need to join you or come back to the warehouse but her explanation was, "Coming with you sounds more exciting than sitting around here scamming these poor fools all day, even if I do make a killing." And just like that you had a new member of your crew. And you couldn't deny, she was useful, damn useful at that. She was great in a gunfight, if she felt like it. She could hustle anybody out of their last penny, if she didn't like them. And, no matter how big the guy was she could fucking stare him down like a disobedient puppy.

You six were going to a bar to celebrate. Everybody was eighteen, except you, but no bar was going to say no to the head of the largest drug distributing group in the city. The car rolls to a stop and the driver gets out and opens your door. Everyone proceeds to get out of the car one at a time with Equius getting out first and Tavros getting out last, Vriska had to help Tavros out of the car and into a waiting wheel chair. You head into the semi-busy bar you were parked outside of. It looked kind of seedy, but then again you were in charge of a drug operation so you really didn't have much room to say anything.

When you get inside you look around and see that it's a pretty dim lit bar, but there was plenty going on so it didn't seem like a bad place. You all headed to a booth near the door. A waitress soon came over to find out what you wanted. You didn't she her until she spoke, "WH4T C4N 1 G3T YOU CUT13?" You look up and see a giant grin right beneath a beautiful pair of sparkling blue eyes. You had heard of getting lost in someone's eyes, but you didn't really know what it meant until that moment.

After you a while you realize you were staring into her eyes for longer than 10 seconds you look away and quickly say, " One scotch," just loud enough for her to here you.

She cackles loudly, "4LR1GHT D4RL1NG 1LL G3T TH4T R1GHT OUT TO YOU 4ND WH4T W1LL TH3 R3ST OF YOU B3 H4V1NG?" She then got the order from the rest of your friends, but you were too busy thinking to yourself, "WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH ME? WHAT JUST HAPPENED?" After you hear her leave, you look up to see the faces of your friends.

Vriska and Tavros were wearing the same expression, a big grin while raising their eyebrows repeatedly. "Karkat, you looked distracted for a moment there. Was something 8othering you?" Vriska asks with that giant grin still stretched wide across her face.

"NO, AND SHUT THE FUCK UP!" you shout at Vriska.

"Ah, looks like I hit a sore spot. Does Karkat like the waitress? Hmmmmmmmm is that it?" she replies coyly, not even phased for a second by your outburst.

"no, karkitty can't like the waitress! he just forgot what he was going to get, right karkitty?" Nepeta says loudly before you even get a chance to reply to Vriska, which left you at a loss for words momentarily.

"Right, uh, yeah. What Nepeta said." You say half-heartedly still wondering why Nepeta was so quick to defend him.

Vriska's eyes lit up like fireworks, "Oh, lucky me, I think I stum8led upon a little treasure trove. Say Nepeta, do you have feelings for Karkat?"

Nepeta went bright red in an instant. "NO! i mean, karkitty has b33n a great furriend since i met him, but i don't like him like him, " she lowers her head as she finishes her sentence.

Before anymore can be said the waitress returns with our drinks. As you get yours, you quickly take a large drink from it to both calm your nerves and have an excuse to not say anything. "4ND H3R3S 4 N4PK1N FOR TH3 CUT13 JUST 1N C4S3 YOU N33D 1T, "the waitress winks as she says it. After she leaves you look at the napkin and see "867-5309 C4LL M3!" written on it. You quickly shove it into your pocket, blushing hard. Vriska snickers, but doesn't comment.

The rest of the night continues pretty normally until the door to the door to the bar is suddenly thrown off its hinges. A giant man, dressed in a black suit appears in the door way making sure the entrance is clear before he steps aside to reveal a smaller man standing behind him. Now, this man isn't small, not in the least, but he seems leaner than the brute that knocked the door off its hinges, it seemed more like he'd take you down with a few savage jabs to the kidney than with pure brute force like his associate. As he walks in two more follow him in, another one his size and a very small man. The other man his size seems less savage and almost seemed to give off an aura of "I don't really give a fuck, but if I have to kill you then let's make it quick." And then, there was that little man. He almost seemed to dance his way in, without dancing. He had a cheesy smile on his face, the kind of smile that makes you want to kill this motherfucker. The savage on steps forward, he seems to be their leader, and shouts out, "Alright, were here to take care of business. Please move out of the way so that we can kill those motherfuckers at the pool table." The speed at which the space between the door and the pool table was almost comical, almost. You quickly looked towards the pool table and see a bunch of guys in green suits standing around the pool table; one of them is even standing still mid-shot, leaning over the table cue in hand, looking at the group near the door. You quickly count 14 of the guys in green, and think that the guys in black must have some serious guts for taking them on in a fair fight.

Then the savage guy pulls a pistol out of his jacket and the shit hits the fan. Suddenly everybody is hiding behind whatever is closest to them, all the guys in black suits are pulling out guns, and the green guys flip the pool table and hide behind it while pulling out guns of their own. Your mind is racing full speed, but before you think of anything the bullets start flying. Nowhere is safe, windows, lights, glass bottles all breaking with missed shots. Two guys in green are already on the ground, but there were still a lot to go. All of a sudden, a stray bullet comes flying past you, but as it misses you it hits Nepeta in the shoulder. She screams out in pain, but before you can even start to cover the wound Equius has flipped the table in the booth, so that it provides a small wall between the group and the action. As you all duck down behind this wall, you take off your tie and quickly wrap it around Nepeta's arm very tightly to both slow bleeding and cover the wound. You quickly look up at Equius and see an unimaginable rage burning in his eyes, that rage wasn't directed at you but it still scared you. When Equius sees that Nepeta is safe he rips the leg off the table that had originally held it up and leaped over the table into the fray. You didn't look out, but you could tell that Equius was doing fine.

After you double checked Nepeta's wound dressing, you looked at Tavros and Vriska to make sure they were doing all right. They too were ducked behind the table, but you could tell from the way that Tavros was sitting he had been pushed down by Vriska. It looked like they were arguing, and Tavros was holding Vriska back. When you look closer you notice that Vriska is holding a pistol and appears to be attempting to join the gunfight, but can't with Tavros holding her back.

Finally, she smacks him. He is shocked, the look of despair dawns on his face. His grip loosens enough in that moment for Vriska to get free and hop over the table. You can see her holding back tears as she jumps the table. Tavros reaches out for her while she jumps even though he knows he can't reach her.

You look around and see that the last of your friends is calm even in this situation. Gamzee is just sitting on the ground with an arm around Nepeta trying to distract her from the pain in her shoulder. But, he still has that dazed, high-as-fuck smile on his face.

Since everybody behind the table appears to be fine for the moment, you decide to take a look over the top of your table. At first you can't tell what is going on at all, because there is smoke in the air and so much going on at once. Then the first thing you notice is Equius and the brute who broke down the door brawling all out, breaking everything in their path. Equius was stronger, but that guy had quite a bit of size on Equius so it was a pretty even fight. The way they were fighting they ended up getting thrown around the room by each other's blows, but wherever they went people got out of their way. Green and Black suits alike, because there was no stopping them. From the looks of a green suit on the ground it looked like he tried too, and there was a hole where his face should have been.

The next thing that caught your eye was the savage man. He was everywhere all at one. He was leaping and rolling from bar to table to jump and swing on hanging lamps to get behind cover continuously, while shooting the whole time. From the looks of it he was doing pretty well with if too, because you saw more than a few green suits being hit from out of nowhere.

Then you saw the incredibly smooth guy standing by the bar, cigarette in one hand, pistol in the other. He didn't really seem to be paying much attention, but he would occasionally fire off a shot at random and a hole would appear in one of the green suits heads.

You end up trying to look for that little man in the black suit. You have trouble finding him, he seems to have left the bar. Then, you see a little hand pop up on the bar counter and start to search for something by feel. The hand finds a half empty drink, grabs it, and disappears. That little motherfucker, you think to yourself.

All of a sudden you hear a scream of pain, and you look to see that the savage man's been injured. He had be in cover behind a table, when he was looking over it, a bullet shattered a bottle on the table. You now see the savage looking man crouched behind the table again, coving his left eye. After a moment or two, he got a strange look on his face. He moved his hand and you see a large piece of glass in his eye. It's so disgusting you have to fight back the urge to vomit. The savage looking man starts doing his cover to cover thing again, but this time he's heading directly towards the bar. He quickly jumps behind the counter. You wonder why he had the sudden desire to stay behind the bar, probably to beat that little shit for not fighting.

In the momentary pause from the savage looking man, you look around and count 7 green suits left. "Damn, they might not win this," you think to yourself, "they didn't really have much of a chance in the first place, but I was kind of rooting for them."

Then, you hear a scream that will haunt you for the rest of your life. You see the savage looking man stand up from behind the bar holding someone, with a gun to their head. You can't really see them that clearly at first, then the realization hits you with the force of a freight train. It's the waitress, the one whose number is in your pocket. The savage looking man then shouts out, "ALL RIGHT YOU SHITS, I'M GETTING TIRED OF THIS! NOW UNLESS YOU WANT TO SEE WHAT COLOUR THIS GIRLS BRAINS ARE I SUGGEST YOU PUT YOUR GUNS DOWN THIS FUCKING SECOND!"

"YOU GODDAMN MOTHERFUCKER!" you shout at the top of your lungs before the green suits even have a chance to think about what the savage looking man said. You're halfway to the bar with your pistol drawn before you even realize that you had gotten up from behind the table. Your leaping through the air with more rage than you had even thought possible; you had even dropped your gun. You were going to beat this guy to death with your bare hands. Time seems to be slowing down, you're in the air, your hands make contact; this guy is going down. BANG.

You had instinctively closed your eyes when you heard the gunshot. The top of your head hurt, you were laying on something, and with your hands you could feel something warm and sticky. You slowly open your eyes but your sight's blurry. You see that you're on top of both the waitress and the savage looking man. Then, you see what happened. There's a bloody line across her face. Her eyes are a bloody mess, and the bridge of her nose is gone. You quickly get up and pick her up into your arms and shout out, "SOMEBODY CALL A MOTHERFUCKING AMBULANCE! SHE GOT TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL! SHE'S GOING TO LIVE, she's has to…" you say that last part to yourself with tears in your eyes. You look around to see that there's no fighting going on, everybody's stopped and is staring at you, and even Equius is frozen mid-swing. "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU LOOKING AT!? SOMEBODY GET AN AMBULANCE!" That second round of yelling seemed to break through the shock. A customer rushed to the phone at the end of the bar and started dialing. You lay the waitress on the bar, take off your jacket and shirt, and cover the bleeding areas with your shirt; while also taking care not to cover her mouth so she could still breathe.

Time seemed to be standing still as you stood there holding your shirt to her wounds. In fact the only way you could tell time was still moving was that her blood was quickly soaking through your shirt. Then she coughed up some blood and started to speak, "h3y, wh4t's going on?" she coughed a little bit more," Why c4n't 1 s33 4nything? 4nd 1 c4n't f33l my f4c3…" She reaches up to touches her face, but you grab her hand and hold it so that she doesn't touch her face.

"Hey there, you had a little accident, you're going to be just fine," you say as gently as possible, trying to keep the tears out of both your eyes and voice. "The ambulance is on the way, it'll be here any moment now."

"W41t, your vo1c3, 1 r3cogn1z3 1t. Your that cuti3 from the both 4r3n't you?" She has to take a br34k to cough and wheeze for a moment before she starts to speak again, but you cut her off.

"Shhhh, we'll have plenty of time to talk later, right now you should just save your strength." You say to reassure her.

She opens her mouth as if to argue, but at that moment you hear the ambulance pull up outside. The paramedics rush in immediately, not being slowed down at all thanks to the lack of a door in the way, carrying a stretcher. They look around and decide that the most immediate injury is the waitress. They quickly pull her onto the stretcher when they notice the savage looking man with the glass in his eye.

When you see them notice him you say," Leave him for the cops." They look at you and nod, and then carry the waitress out. You look around the joint and shout out, "OKAY, IF YOU'RE INJURED YOU SHOULD STAY HERE FOR THE PARAMEDICS, BUT YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT THE COPS WILL BE HERE SHORTLY AND IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE HERE FOR THAT YOU'RE GOING TO WANT TO LEAVE NOW." You look around and see a lot of worried looks on the patron's faces; you knew that this place was seedy for a reason.

You quickly go back to the table where Nepeta, Tavros, and Gamzee are. "Nepeta, are you okay for travel?" She nods quickly. "Okay, come on guys, let's go. We don't want to be here when the cops arrive." They all start to get up, except for Tavros, who you quickly help get into his wheel chair, which was lying, discarded on the other side of the table barrio Equius had constructed.

Equius and Vriska start making their way towards you. And you just realized that Vriska had been in the rafters the whole time, like a fucking spider. There was a reason you really didn't like her. Once everybody was gathered you lead them out of the bar, into the night…

*END FLASHBACK*