Dick took the day off work. Today was important, not because of any sort of positive occasion, but more today was a day to confront his past. His past, of course, was something he had been struggling with since he was younger. His childhood was marred by the constant fighting, mental stress due because of the void that his mother left when she died and his attempt to fill it, and finally the constant trips to the hospital with his father having to pay the bill with the family's money for the magical healthcare when needed. Magical billing that he caused because of his pigheadedness.
*************************
Dick made his way into the city and due to the nature of most cities he knew that while most places were safe there were several that were not. He slowly made his way through the city admiring the buildings as he went. He was stressed yes, but not at all blind to his surroundings. As such he walked a familiar path to a place he had promised himself that he would avoid for a while, the criminal underground. This was the place that he had received his godhood, this was the place where he would look to become stronger, this was the place he had bought his first of many drugs.
These pharmaceuticals were relatively well known in the area due to the vast and quick acting effects. Generally speaking they were injected into the body, but pills and suppositories did exist as well albeit at a slightly slower effective rate and lower potency. These drugs were named in a odd fashion though as many of them seemed to have nonsensical names. The ones he had used though were dubbed Dretix, Electick, apathi. While all of them had some sort of upside for example Dretix would give extra strength, Electick would give extra reaction speed, and finally Apathi which would dull all emotion and sense of touch, the downsides would be more severe in that Dretix would eat into the muscles of the user causing them to atrophy, Electick would burn the nervous system, and finally Apathi being one of the most addictive on the market.
Dick gulped, he remembered the last time he took all of them in conjunction. He did feel more powerful, more quick, almost unstoppable even, until he was beaten into the ground by his family in the dojo. They scorned him, his wants to become stronger, what he had considered his life's purpose as he trained to become stronger. He was then dragged to the hospital. The drugs themselves doing a number to his body along with the massive damage that was done by his family. The negative effect of the drugs were cleared through magical means, but the rest took him about 6 months to heal. In short it was not good as the pain he felt when Apathi wore off was indescribable. It felt like his whole body was being cut a thousand times to wet the floor with not only his blood but some sort of physical manifestation of his pain. It sucked and he had screamed until he lost his voice, he squirmed until he was held down, he scratched until he had cracked nails. His hands were bloody after the scratching because he gripped them with his broken nails breaking the skin.
That was the effect of these drugs.
That's why he decided to go to the place he had once got them and tell them to "Fuck off"
*************************
He finally made it to his destination. A small alley in between two buildings that had doors lining the sides of who-knows-what businesses. He knew internally that the second door on the left led to the place which he had burned into his memory, the place where he had gotten his first item for free. It always made him jumpy though, how normal that place seemed. So normal in fact one couldn't have realized that it was a place with high organized crime presence.
Dick looked at himself dressed in something that Dragomir had made him a while back. Dragomir had made him a custom set of a dress shirt, vest and pants. The dress shirt itself was a red silk that has some dim floral and vine patterning while the vest itself was black and had thin vertical silver lines. The vest itself had a chest pocket that had a white silk handkerchief neatly folded in the chest pocket, while Dick's initials embroidered outside with silver thread. The pockets had buttons that are made of Dick's own pennies, which hadn't been harmed while being weaved with brown leather string onto a flat, wooden round button, that had silver inlay. The buttons themselves match the cuff links that read "DM". And finally to finish off the ensemble his pants were also black and seemed like regular dress pants, except for the fact Dick's initials were embroidered on one of the side pockets with silver thread.
He was slightly concerned that he could possibly ruin the suit, but he felt that he needed to have something that reminded him of Dragomir as close to him as possible. The suit itself was quite comfortable as well and as a result, it ended up to be a nice fit anyway.
He took his first steps into the alley, each step being heavier than the last. Each step making him question himself. Each step grating on his resolve. He slowly made it to the door and breathed out quite heavily. He told himself that what he was about to do was the only way to separate himself from his past of trying to become strong by using quick and dirty methods, all of which were either too fleeting and damaging to be considered sustainable, or just too expensive to try.
He finally made it to the door and knocked and despite the fact that the door was made from wood it give a metallic clang when hit. The knock itself was quite specialized to signify a normal appointment with a certain person.
clang-clangclang-clang-clangclangclang
"Oi, if it isn't the blonde hardrider. One that rides the edge and chases the high. Looks like you finally made it."
The door opened to show a short portly man. The man himself was actually quite well dressed himself in a silk grey suit with red dress shirt underneath and if it wasn't for the inherently greasy feeling that he gave off he would have seemed to be a relatively nice person. Maybe it was just the fact that his hair seemed greasy in itself, or the fact that gold chains could be seen around his neck, or maybe finally the tattoo that traveled up his neck that showed some sort of affiliation that made him feel that way. Either way Dick sighed.
"Look Johnny, lets get this over with. I told you to fuck off several times and yet you managed to get me here. I doubt you have something to interest me, but since I am here to just tell you to fuck off and stop calling me, might as well look it.
Jimmy chuckled with a smile on his face and replied:
"Oh I know you'll love it. In fact I don't think you can turn me down, follow me"
*************************
Johnny motioned for Dick to follow and went into the hallway and into an office, Dick followed close after. The office itself was actually quite clean and would be more reminiscent of a regular consulting firm office than anything too odd, and if Dick didn't know what exactly went on within these walls he definitely wouldn't have guessed anything was wrong.
Johnny took a seat behind a desk in the corner and motioned for Dick to make himself comfortable, Dick indeed did sit down gingerly and looked at the small man a bit annoyed. What could Johnny possibly show him that would pique his interest. Dick slowly motioned for Johnny to start.
"Well its somethin' called Red mist and it is remarkable, let me show you the product and a video of it bein used. We taped it jus' for you."
Johnny reached below his desk and drew out a folder, a vial of red liquid, and a tablet that had seemed to be prepared for this meeting as it had a video already loaded. Johnny handed dick both the tablet and the vial to Dick while he laid the folder out open in front of himself. Johnny looked at the folder, smiled, and chuckled.
"You gonna play the video?"
Dick shrugged and then pressed play. He watched the video as it depicted a regular seeming man go up against a .... Ki user. He watched as the regular man injected himself with something and almost immediately a red mist seemed to engulf his body. The Ki user prepared what Dick realized a standard defense, but almost immediately after the Ki user was knocked back... by a punch from the man in the red mist. How could this be possible, from what Dick understood, that shouldn't have been possible. After a minute or so the Ki-user was on the floor knocked out and bleeding from his mouth while the man in the red mist heaved in and out yelling due to the thrill of victory.
"Yeah we paid a normal person and a Ki user to fight, we gave the normie the drug to even the odds and this is what happened. I mean the normie was already on the island of course but still"
Dick's heart rose and then fell. Dick was extremely conflicted. All the confidence that he had to tell Johnny to fuck off was gone. This drug seemed to be his answer. This drug was "living" proof that allowed people to overcome the problem he had with himself. Dick had a hard time to admit it, but he was already enamored.
*************************
Johnny looked at the man in front of him and grinned.
Dick was obviously already caught in the trap set for him. They had seemed to have gotten him hook line and sinker.
He grinned and got up, he would let Dick stew on it.
"Oi, I am gonna hit the John, I'll give you the details on keeping it after so mull it over will ya."
*************************
Dick had barily acknowledged the man as he left. Dick wanted the item in his hands extremely bad. He wanted to go back to the dojo one last time to prove that he was strong, he wanted to prove to himself that he could do what he needed to, he wanted to make his mother proud of him by filling the void she left in the family. It was but one injection away.
Dick looked at it greedily, but then realized that Johnny had left the folder in front of him open. Maybe, Dick thought, I can find the recipe and make it myself. He looked around, didn't see Johnny, so he bent over the desk and read the contents of the folder.
The contents shocked him.
*************************
The folder showed a picture of the bloody body of the man covered in the red mist. He had lost all of his muscle and fat, more accurately his body almost seemed to completely burn through it. It seemed to have taken huge bites of the The man was a medical mess, his body streaked with blood from what seemed to be every pore of his body. His eyes seemed to be completely red while he seemed to be crying concentrated tears of blood. The man seemed to be curled up and screaming in pain as he seemed to come off the drug's high.
The folder itself listed the man's name, age, height, weight, and build. It listed his blood type as well, but noted that it had no effect on the drug that was intaken. Most of the rest of the paper seemed to be medical records and other personal information of the man including the fact that he survived and was almost ravenous for a second go at the seemingly addictive drug. Apparently the drug would not leave the person like the man in the picture unless the person had taken it more than once and as a result people would keep coming back for more. The last thing is what concerned him the most. There was a space at the bottom that stated that this drug needed more testing due to the fact that it was still new and described a way to find people to test it. It was to be offered through its positive effects or the influence of money at first as apparently there were many that wanted to check out the ability. There was also a list of those who would be susceptible
His name was on the top of the list and underlined as certain.
Dick quickly got out his phone and took a couple pictures of the papers and then shoved it back in his pocket. And despite what Dragomir would have though possible of him, he resumed staring at the drug. This was a lie of course, but since he did still have some interest in it it would be far more convincing than usual.
*************************
Johnny strolled back into the room, quite cocky. He thought that there was no way that Dick would turn it down, but just in case he would seal the case by allowing Dick to try it once, feel the seemingly free power he would get, and then come back for more.
"Ay here is the deal, you don' have to pay anything for the first vial! Take it as a gesture of my good faith. In fact I wont even call you anymore if you don't call me."
Johnny smirked.
*************************
Dick was surprised. Johnny hadn't noticed anything when he walked in. Apparently Johnny felt that it was a sure thing that Dick would have tried it and come back for more due to the addictive tendencies of the drug and Dick couldn't argue with that as if he hadn't looked in the file he would have technically fallen into the trap that had been set for him. He would have definitely fallen to this trap regardless though if Dragomir hadn't helped him with a prayer earlier as well so he made a mental note to thank Dragomir after.
Dick put on a greedy smile on his face, but internally it took all he had to keep up the act.
"Okay, I'll take it Johnny... I have business to attend to"
Dick figured that Johnny would assume that Dick would go challenge his family, and Johnny did seem to buy it. Dick got himself up and just slowly left the office, then the building, and finally the alley. He was out and he needed to talk to Dragomir.... badly. He had the drug in one hand while he had his phone in the other, and as he headed home he sent a message for Dragomir notifying them that he needed to talk about something serious.
[FIN]
Dick made his way into the city and due to the nature of most cities he knew that while most places were safe there were several that were not. He slowly made his way through the city admiring the buildings as he went. He was stressed yes, but not at all blind to his surroundings. As such he walked a familiar path to a place he had promised himself that he would avoid for a while, the criminal underground. This was the place that he had received his godhood, this was the place where he would look to become stronger, this was the place he had bought his first of many drugs.
These pharmaceuticals were relatively well known in the area due to the vast and quick acting effects. Generally speaking they were injected into the body, but pills and suppositories did exist as well albeit at a slightly slower effective rate and lower potency. These drugs were named in a odd fashion though as many of them seemed to have nonsensical names. The ones he had used though were dubbed Dretix, Electick, apathi. While all of them had some sort of upside for example Dretix would give extra strength, Electick would give extra reaction speed, and finally Apathi which would dull all emotion and sense of touch, the downsides would be more severe in that Dretix would eat into the muscles of the user causing them to atrophy, Electick would burn the nervous system, and finally Apathi being one of the most addictive on the market.
Dick gulped, he remembered the last time he took all of them in conjunction. He did feel more powerful, more quick, almost unstoppable even, until he was beaten into the ground by his family in the dojo. They scorned him, his wants to become stronger, what he had considered his life's purpose as he trained to become stronger. He was then dragged to the hospital. The drugs themselves doing a number to his body along with the massive damage that was done by his family. The negative effect of the drugs were cleared through magical means, but the rest took him about 6 months to heal. In short it was not good as the pain he felt when Apathi wore off was indescribable. It felt like his whole body was being cut a thousand times to wet the floor with not only his blood but some sort of physical manifestation of his pain. It sucked and he had screamed until he lost his voice, he squirmed until he was held down, he scratched until he had cracked nails. His hands were bloody after the scratching because he gripped them with his broken nails breaking the skin.
That was the effect of these drugs.
That's why he decided to go to the place he had once got them and tell them to "Fuck off"
*************************
He finally made it to his destination. A small alley in between two buildings that had doors lining the sides of who-knows-what businesses. He knew internally that the second door on the left led to the place which he had burned into his memory, the place where he had gotten his first item for free. It always made him jumpy though, how normal that place seemed. So normal in fact one couldn't have realized that it was a place with high organized crime presence.
Dick looked at himself dressed in something that Dragomir had made him a while back. Dragomir had made him a custom set of a dress shirt, vest and pants. The dress shirt itself was a red silk that has some dim floral and vine patterning while the vest itself was black and had thin vertical silver lines. The vest itself had a chest pocket that had a white silk handkerchief neatly folded in the chest pocket, while Dick's initials embroidered outside with silver thread. The pockets had buttons that are made of Dick's own pennies, which hadn't been harmed while being weaved with brown leather string onto a flat, wooden round button, that had silver inlay. The buttons themselves match the cuff links that read "DM". And finally to finish off the ensemble his pants were also black and seemed like regular dress pants, except for the fact Dick's initials were embroidered on one of the side pockets with silver thread.
He was slightly concerned that he could possibly ruin the suit, but he felt that he needed to have something that reminded him of Dragomir as close to him as possible. The suit itself was quite comfortable as well and as a result, it ended up to be a nice fit anyway.
He took his first steps into the alley, each step being heavier than the last. Each step making him question himself. Each step grating on his resolve. He slowly made it to the door and breathed out quite heavily. He told himself that what he was about to do was the only way to separate himself from his past of trying to become strong by using quick and dirty methods, all of which were either too fleeting and damaging to be considered sustainable, or just too expensive to try.
He finally made it to the door and knocked and despite the fact that the door was made from wood it give a metallic clang when hit. The knock itself was quite specialized to signify a normal appointment with a certain person.
clang-clangclang-clang-clangclangclang
"Oi, if it isn't the blonde hardrider. One that rides the edge and chases the high. Looks like you finally made it."
The door opened to show a short portly man. The man himself was actually quite well dressed himself in a silk grey suit with red dress shirt underneath and if it wasn't for the inherently greasy feeling that he gave off he would have seemed to be a relatively nice person. Maybe it was just the fact that his hair seemed greasy in itself, or the fact that gold chains could be seen around his neck, or maybe finally the tattoo that traveled up his neck that showed some sort of affiliation that made him feel that way. Either way Dick sighed.
"Look Johnny, lets get this over with. I told you to fuck off several times and yet you managed to get me here. I doubt you have something to interest me, but since I am here to just tell you to fuck off and stop calling me, might as well look it.
Jimmy chuckled with a smile on his face and replied:
"Oh I know you'll love it. In fact I don't think you can turn me down, follow me"
*************************
Johnny motioned for Dick to follow and went into the hallway and into an office, Dick followed close after. The office itself was actually quite clean and would be more reminiscent of a regular consulting firm office than anything too odd, and if Dick didn't know what exactly went on within these walls he definitely wouldn't have guessed anything was wrong.
Johnny took a seat behind a desk in the corner and motioned for Dick to make himself comfortable, Dick indeed did sit down gingerly and looked at the small man a bit annoyed. What could Johnny possibly show him that would pique his interest. Dick slowly motioned for Johnny to start.
"Well its somethin' called Red mist and it is remarkable, let me show you the product and a video of it bein used. We taped it jus' for you."
Johnny reached below his desk and drew out a folder, a vial of red liquid, and a tablet that had seemed to be prepared for this meeting as it had a video already loaded. Johnny handed dick both the tablet and the vial to Dick while he laid the folder out open in front of himself. Johnny looked at the folder, smiled, and chuckled.
"You gonna play the video?"
Dick shrugged and then pressed play. He watched the video as it depicted a regular seeming man go up against a .... Ki user. He watched as the regular man injected himself with something and almost immediately a red mist seemed to engulf his body. The Ki user prepared what Dick realized a standard defense, but almost immediately after the Ki user was knocked back... by a punch from the man in the red mist. How could this be possible, from what Dick understood, that shouldn't have been possible. After a minute or so the Ki-user was on the floor knocked out and bleeding from his mouth while the man in the red mist heaved in and out yelling due to the thrill of victory.
"Yeah we paid a normal person and a Ki user to fight, we gave the normie the drug to even the odds and this is what happened. I mean the normie was already on the island of course but still"
Dick's heart rose and then fell. Dick was extremely conflicted. All the confidence that he had to tell Johnny to fuck off was gone. This drug seemed to be his answer. This drug was "living" proof that allowed people to overcome the problem he had with himself. Dick had a hard time to admit it, but he was already enamored.
*************************
Johnny looked at the man in front of him and grinned.
Dick was obviously already caught in the trap set for him. They had seemed to have gotten him hook line and sinker.
He grinned and got up, he would let Dick stew on it.
"Oi, I am gonna hit the John, I'll give you the details on keeping it after so mull it over will ya."
*************************
Dick had barily acknowledged the man as he left. Dick wanted the item in his hands extremely bad. He wanted to go back to the dojo one last time to prove that he was strong, he wanted to prove to himself that he could do what he needed to, he wanted to make his mother proud of him by filling the void she left in the family. It was but one injection away.
Dick looked at it greedily, but then realized that Johnny had left the folder in front of him open. Maybe, Dick thought, I can find the recipe and make it myself. He looked around, didn't see Johnny, so he bent over the desk and read the contents of the folder.
The contents shocked him.
*************************
The folder showed a picture of the bloody body of the man covered in the red mist. He had lost all of his muscle and fat, more accurately his body almost seemed to completely burn through it. It seemed to have taken huge bites of the The man was a medical mess, his body streaked with blood from what seemed to be every pore of his body. His eyes seemed to be completely red while he seemed to be crying concentrated tears of blood. The man seemed to be curled up and screaming in pain as he seemed to come off the drug's high.
The folder itself listed the man's name, age, height, weight, and build. It listed his blood type as well, but noted that it had no effect on the drug that was intaken. Most of the rest of the paper seemed to be medical records and other personal information of the man including the fact that he survived and was almost ravenous for a second go at the seemingly addictive drug. Apparently the drug would not leave the person like the man in the picture unless the person had taken it more than once and as a result people would keep coming back for more. The last thing is what concerned him the most. There was a space at the bottom that stated that this drug needed more testing due to the fact that it was still new and described a way to find people to test it. It was to be offered through its positive effects or the influence of money at first as apparently there were many that wanted to check out the ability. There was also a list of those who would be susceptible
His name was on the top of the list and underlined as certain.
Dick quickly got out his phone and took a couple pictures of the papers and then shoved it back in his pocket. And despite what Dragomir would have though possible of him, he resumed staring at the drug. This was a lie of course, but since he did still have some interest in it it would be far more convincing than usual.
*************************
Johnny strolled back into the room, quite cocky. He thought that there was no way that Dick would turn it down, but just in case he would seal the case by allowing Dick to try it once, feel the seemingly free power he would get, and then come back for more.
"Ay here is the deal, you don' have to pay anything for the first vial! Take it as a gesture of my good faith. In fact I wont even call you anymore if you don't call me."
Johnny smirked.
*************************
Dick was surprised. Johnny hadn't noticed anything when he walked in. Apparently Johnny felt that it was a sure thing that Dick would have tried it and come back for more due to the addictive tendencies of the drug and Dick couldn't argue with that as if he hadn't looked in the file he would have technically fallen into the trap that had been set for him. He would have definitely fallen to this trap regardless though if Dragomir hadn't helped him with a prayer earlier as well so he made a mental note to thank Dragomir after.
Dick put on a greedy smile on his face, but internally it took all he had to keep up the act.
"Okay, I'll take it Johnny... I have business to attend to"
Dick figured that Johnny would assume that Dick would go challenge his family, and Johnny did seem to buy it. Dick got himself up and just slowly left the office, then the building, and finally the alley. He was out and he needed to talk to Dragomir.... badly. He had the drug in one hand while he had his phone in the other, and as he headed home he sent a message for Dragomir notifying them that he needed to talk about something serious.
[FIN]
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