ic Cleaning the Streets (IC)

[Thunder King]

GM

 

Monday, October 28

12:30 PM

 

Six patients. Addicts, junkies, casual users. Whatever they tried to say, they'd all done whatever it had been. Drugs were bad enough, tainted drugs were even worst. He had four patients who had a bad reaction. The symptoms were consistent; Intense vertigo, hallucinations, vomiting and tremors. They shook uncontrollably, could not walk, seemed barely lucid, and could keep nothing down.

 

When questioned, all four of them pointed out to something they'd gotten their hands on. Some new, cheap source. Probably tainted, but he did not know by what. He knew better than to assume he could keep the streets completely clean.

 

Tainted drugs, though, drugs that could potentially kill on one dose? That he could probably take care of. But not as Tyrone Mendoza, not as a doctor. No, he would need to do something a little more drastic.

 

With that in mind, he suited up.

 

------Meanwhile------
 

Jackie. He was about sixteen maybe seventeen, a friendly kid who was probably destined to end up dead in an alleyway. It wasn't fair, though. He was smart, good looking, and had a ready smile. When asked where he came from, he always redirected the conversation. He couldn't keep himself clean. Now he was sixteen or seventeen and laying in a bed in the back of some free clinic. Shaking and vomiting, barely able to tell who anyone was. The rumor was someone had put tainted drugs on the street.

[Sticklefront]

“Don’t worry.†He had told them. “You were right to bring this to me. I’ll put this right.â€

The couple had come to him late at night. Nobody on the block ever talked about it, but they knew why there were no gangs on their street. Why none of their kids fell into hard drugs, or robbed, or beat their women. Someone stopped anything like that before it could ever start; they called him Havoc.

 

Their son was called Jackie Conway. He wasn’t a bad kid, but he’d got a taste for pot in high school, and it seemed that he’d made a bad connection; a few days ago, he’d gotten something stronger. Now he was laid up in a free clinic down in the Fens, shivering and talking gibberish, unable to eat or talk. His case had been reported to the police, and they were investigating, but had come up blank. His parents had come to Havoc. They didn’t know what else to do.

 

Havoc looked up; he was outside of the clinic. He needed to speak to Jackie; the young fool was the only link he had to where this new filth was coming from. Would they let him in? Who knows? Besides, no way was Brutus Haigh walking in that door; they’d be speaking to Havoc; maybe that would ease any suspicions about why this man, no relation to the patient, had a need to question him. That is, if the boy was lucid enough to be of any help.

 

He gritted his teeth, and opened the door. He approached the reception, stomping over linoleum with heavy, purposeful steps.

“I need to speak to Jackie Conway.â€

[Thunder King]

GM

 

 The person behind the desk looked him over. She was a younger woman in her mid 20s and dressed like a nurse. Made sense, someone had to watch the front desk and a free clinic probably didn't have the funds to hire someone to be a receptionist.

 

She smiled slightly nervously. "Sure." She said. His minor reputation in the area served him well, because she got up and opened the door.

 

"He's...not lucid." She said, opening the back door. It was a fairly humble place, with mostly bare white walls and a linoleum floor. Clean, definitely, but humble. Jackie and a couple of other patients were laying in beds behind several curtains.

 

Jackie blinked. "Uh..." he said, shaking. "Um, I dunno what it was...but it was real bad." He said. He was pale and shaky. "If I get outta this alive, I'm done with the junk, pot, all of it. I don' wanna die." he said. "It was...some guy. Skinny like a rake, looked like wore some kinda suit. Not my usual dealer. He said the stuff was great, that it was real cheap." He coughed and shook some more. "Now I know why."

[Sticklefront]

Havoc nodded appreciatively to the young girl, grateful that she had sense enough to see what was happening here.

He listened to Jackie. Havoc was a child of his time; wishy-washy druggies like Jackie annoyed him, for sure- but he didn’t hate them. He felt… well, that they needed to be put straight, but more that the bottom-feeders selling the drugs needed to be brought in. He needed everything from this boy that he could get.

 

He leaned in closer to Jackie.

“Listen to me, son.†he said in a low voice. “I ain’t gonna give you a hard time, but I need to know; where did you meet this guy? The man in the suit? Give me somethin’, son. Stay with me. Talk to me.â€

Edited October 28, 2013 by Sticklefront

[Thunder King]

GM

 

The young man coughed and nodded. "There's an alley about six blocks from here. Guys go there to score junk sometimes." He shook and closed his eyes. "All you have to do is head to the left as soon as you go out of the clinic. Walk six blocks, and it's there on the right. I gotta say though, be careful. He looked dangerous as all hell. He was lean and muscular like, and had a knife in his pocket. Moved like a snake."

[Sticklefront]

Havoc couldn't help but smirk at Jackie's words. Dangerous. Had a knife. Ha! He leaned down, and awkwardly ruffled the young man's hair.

 

"Thanks, kid. Rest up. Me an' you are gonna have a long talk when you're out of here." he said, a little sternly. "But tonight you've done good."

 

He nodded his thanks to the... secretary? Nurse?... that had let him in, and headed into the night. He was itching to bring this to a close; he would be god-damned if this was going to go on any longer than it had to. In the long years since the Terminus war, keeping his neighborhood free of drugs, prostitution, theft and all the other crimes spawned by human desire had been the only thing he'd achieved that was worth a raw dime. All his ability, all the uniqueness of his modified body, nothing had really meant anything after Havoc had shuttered himself away from the world. He'd seen the Omegadrones burning through the sky over Johnson Apartments; the surreal and the mundane, mixed together. After that, nothing seemed to matter. He had reduced his world to a a few hundred metres of tarmac and concrete, and just... waited the years away. If that was all he'd done, one neighborhood in the worst part of town, then... well, no way was he going to let it slide. Whoever Mr. Dangerous Knife Man was... he was going to have a rough night.

 

Six blocks was no distance at all, and in hardly any time, he was nearing the alleyway's location.

[Thunder King]

He did not find the man with the knife when he arrived, but he did find a large, green looking man. He had no mouth, and instead seemed to be wearing an insect carapace that clung chitinous plates to his shoulders, legs, knees and arms. Looking almost like a humanoid insect. He was extremely tall, nearing seven feet and possessing a powerful physique.

 

However, his eyes weren't staying in one place. They seemed to move around his head, this way and that. It was a disconcerting sight, to say the least.

 

"I know you're there." He said, finally turning his head. "I've heard a bit about you. Havoc, been patrolling these streets for a while. I'm newer to the area."

 

"I'm investigating a batch of bad drugs that hit the streets. Some kids got their hands on it and they're looking bad."

 

The alley was completely normal. A few bits of clutter, and a dumpster clinging to the side of the building.