You're cruisin' for a bruisin' (Joseph)

Joe was out, as usual, celebrating his successful acquisition of a job at Faust Pharmaceuticals. Granted it was only a job as a security guard but hey any reason to celebrate was good enough for Joe. So Joe sat down at the bar wearing a black t-shirt letting his Semper Fi tattoo on his right forearm show proudly, he wore a pair of dark blue pants and black boots as well. Sitting down at the bar Joe had the bartender fill up his glass again and Joe sat watching the people roaming the bar through the mirror that covered the wall behind the bar. Joe wasn’t one for flirting with woman all that much anymore, they tended not to like being woken up in the middle of the night because of his nightmares, so Joe just enjoyed to sounds of the bar. At least until some knockout walked through the front door and drew the attention of every guy in the bar who had been looking for a little company that night, not to mention a few who already had some company. The pack quickly descended on the woman and began to try and chat her up one of the men came next to Joe and order a few drinks from the bartender while his friends tried to solicit the attractive woman.

Of course things weren’t going to stay innocent enough and as what appeared to be the girls friend came up in an attempt to rescue her from the dogs that had circled her things began to take a turn for the worse. Joe did his best to not pay attention but as one of the men grabbed onto the new woman Joe felt his jaw tighten as the situation unfolded. As the man pushed to woman against the wall Joe pressed his eyes closed and exhaled sharply out of his nose reminding himself to not get involved, convincing the cops it was self defense had been hard enough when he fought that monster thing beating up five humans in a bar would certainly end with Joe behind bars this time, cops are only so forgiving. As Joe heard the bouncer and bartender begin to try and reason with the five men Joe began to thank whoever was listening upstairs a night in jail was really looking unattractive.

Shots rang out, screams echoed throughout the bar and Joe finished off what remained of his drink before turning around in his chair to look at the five men, the two who had guns were still facing away from him as Joe stood up from his chair and was quickly met by one of the closer of the five. “Hey guy, just sit…” the man reached to push Joe back down into his chair only to have his hand yanked forward pulling him off balance and a hand driven hard into the left side of his face. As the man crumpled to the ground Joes hand stretched out and grabbed the barrel of the man with the gun tweaking his hand he brought it out of battery making it impossible to fire and with a twist he felt the man’s finger snap as it got caught inside the trigger guard. Pulling the gun towards himself Joe whipped his elbow around and smashed it into the now open screaming mouth of the foolish young man. Moving quickly now Joe ejected the magazine and racked the slide back of the gun emptying it of ammunition and dropped it to the ground. The last two without guns moved on Joe now with Jeff aiming his gun towards him now, a punch flew towards Joe and moving slightly to his right the punch flew past his face. Reaching out Joe grabbed onto the man’s arm and bringing a fist up connected with his elbow pushing it upwards with a resounding snap. Turning to press his hips into the man Joe yanked on the now broken arm and flipped him over Joe’s shoulder flinging him onto a bar stool causing it to crush under the weight. Joe felt a fist connect with the right side of his face causing a slight bit of blood to appear on his lip. Standing up to look at the man who had just punched Joe’s face spoke of annoyance and with a quick chop to the side of the man’s neck he crumpled to the floor unconscious.

Joe turned to look at the one called Jeff, gun still trained on Joe’s chest panic and anger written on Jeff’s face. Joe advanced on Jeff rage making its way on to his face, Joe hated nothing more than when a man hit a woman and Jeff was now going to feel the consequences of his actions. A shot rang out and Joe felt the thump of the round hit him in the chest. Joe continued to advance on Jeff and he felt another two rounds go off and embed themselves in the crystal armor he had raised up on his chest. Joe wanted to laugh at the fear that was now covering Jeff’s face as he snatched the gun from his hand. Tossing it to the ground Joe gripped Jeff by the shirt and began to unload on his face until he went limp in his hands. Letting him drop to the ground Joe knew it was only a matter of time now before the cops came bursting in through the front door and turning back around to the bar he snatched his black hooded leather jacket off the chair and threw it on flipping the hood up onto his head. Reaching out he grabbed the half drunken bottle of whiskey he had been ordering from and left some money on the bar and turned walking out of the bar into the cold winter streets eyeing the two woman who had been the center of this problem before walking out.

As Joe walked out of the bar and down the street he felt the pain radiating in his chest, defiantly deep bruising and probably some fractured ribs, fantastic Joe thought to himself as he walked down the quiet street the sounds of his boots against pavement echoing down the alleyways that lines the street slightly. Lifting the bottle up to his lips he drank deeply ignoring the pain that radiated though his chest as he lifted his arm up. He hadn’t meant to kill the man but as he had gripped the man all the anger from the last few weeks manifested on his face and Joe hadn’t even realized the man was dead until it was too late.

That’s when Joe heard the sound of light footsteps approaching quickly behind him, it was too soon for it to be the police so Joe assumed it had to be either one of the men he had just been embarrassed in front of the entire bar or perhaps a friend coming to take retribution against him. Either way Joe raised a hand up in front of his chest and quickly covered it with crystals forming a sharp tip at the end of each finger. Whipping around he raised his clawed hand up and faced his would be attacker his teeth bared in pure rage, the sound of his bestial growl accompanied by the sound of the whiskey sloshing around in the bottle he clutched in his left hand. He stopped as he heard the sound of a woman’s voice “Hold on. Wait just a second. How did you DO that?” her hand outstretched towards him.

He let the rage slowly drain from his face as he looked at the woman and let it shift to annoyance, what the hell did she want now as if killing a man for her and her friends lack of situational awareness wasn’t enough now she wanted to know how he did it as if it wasn’t obvious enough to begin with. “Go away lady I’m not in the mood tonight.” Joe said as he let his clawed hand lower to his side and the crystal b reabsorbed into his arm. Joe began to turn to walk away from the woman when the sound of sirens began to fill the quiet street. Joe really didn’t want to spend the next twenty-five years in another cell, one was enough for his lifetime so quickly Joe spun and stanched up the girl slipping into the mouth of the nearest alleyway he lowered his hooded head down to hers and wrapped a hand around the side of her neck giving the appearance of two young lovers in each other’s embrace.

“Wrap your arms around my neck.” Joe growled through clenched teeth as his eyes burned into the woman’s. Joe’s breathing was obviously shortened as he tried to fight through the pain in his chest the bullets still embedded in the crystal body armor covering his chest beneath his shirt. Joe’s eyes looked from the corner of his eye towards the street waiting to see if the lights slowed or stopped in front of their little alleyway his breathing sharp and rapid. A dark memory began to surface in his mind as he breathed close to the woman who he now was pressed against. Joe had smelt death before, the smell of bodies sitting out in the sun for too long, the smell of bodies rotting on the side of the road and inside of buildings, the smell of bodies burning. Joe’s eyes began to slowly shift back towards to woman as the police sped past their location. His eyes scanned her face and he pushed off the wall and away from her the look of confusion and disgust mixed on his face. Lifting the bottle up to his lips he drank deeply of the brown liquid, he was going to need as much as he could get tonight.

“I’m sorry. Look, you’re hurt. I know somewhere where I can look at it. But if you have a place… I’m dead. I have been for a long time. It’s my mutation…I guess.” Joe listened as the woman spoke Joe tried to understand what she was saying, between the freaks this town had thrown at Joe in the last month this seemed right up to par with what he had seen so far. He really didn’t care about her being a mutant he had heard strange and seen some strange mutations before but hers frightened him on a much deeper level. The smell of a dead body haunts a man. Letting the bottle drop from his lips the sound of the sloshing liquid was the only thing heard in the dark alley. While Joe couldn’t see any tears coming from the woman’s face Joe had made enough women cry to know what it looked like even without the tears running down their face. Joe cursed himself silently, he hated seeing women cry, why did he have to be a mutant if he had just been a human he could have died with his men back in Afghanistan and all of this madness wouldn’t be any of his concern.

“It’s fine you weren’t the one with the gun.” Joe said his voice gruff and slurred as the alcohol worked into his system. Joe’s breath was shallow and pain flashed onto his face momentarily as he reabsorbed the crystal armor. Holding his hand at the bottom of his shirt three crushed bullet’s landed in his open palm. Joe placed his empty hand against his chest lightly and exhaled breath sharply as pain shot through him. That wasn’t good he would be out of the ring for at least a few months like this and with the way things had been going in this town maybe longer if he had to fight giant monsters or get shot again.

“I’m fine my apartments around the corner. I don’t need any help.” Joe’s voice was slurred now and his eyes had a heavy glaze on them as he was quickly approaching that magical point of intoxication where he could black out and wake up the next morning and not remember any of the nightmares he was bound to have. Joe turned and began to make his way towards his apartment through the alleyways. As he went to take his first step he swayed and pressed his free hand against the wall to help steady himself from falling over causing him to wince in pain as it radiated throughout his body. Trying to dull the pain he raised his bottle to his lips and drank from it again before starting to walk again leaving his hand on the wall he let it slide against the wall as a brace.