<strike>// This character does not yet exist in-game, but that will soon change.</strike> It lives! If you see Happy.Rainbow in-game, it's Damerae!
A small cloud of smoke formed over the young man's face as he exhaled. For a moment, it obscured his face's features - his dark brown skin, his full lips that always seemed to be smiling, and his glassy, blood-shot, brown eyes. Lying on his back, he reached up to his head with his right hand and adjusted his rasta hat into a more comfortable position, causing it to immediately slide down from his hair again.
He grinned stupidly and sucked on his synthetic marijuana joint again. Holding his breath for a few seconds, his clouded mind tried to come up with a thought that didn't include pictures of mojo-powder or naked women running towards him. When his brain accepted that it would not be successful, it shut down its more important parts again and allowed its body to exhale once more.
"You've really gotta stop that, Dam," a child-like voice said from behind the couch the man was lying on. "If you smoke any more of that, I might get high from passive-smoking, dude."
"Heh."
"I'm serious. Put the joint out or I'll smush it over your face."
"Heh..." Through half-open eyes, the man saw the face of a young boy appear over him. "Hey... hey... uh... peace?"
The boy grabbed the joint from him, through it onto the carpet, and stomped on it several times. The man's head lolled over to look at the small brown speck on the floor.
"Alright, that's it. I'm going back to my sis,"said the little boy as we walked over to the one-room-apartment's only chair, grabbed his leather jacket and left through the old, moldy door.
Still clouded, Damerae mumbled,"Hey... peace..."
Then he fell unconscious.
* * *
Voices. Lots of them.
Shouting.
Mumbling.
Screaming.
Lots of voices. One seemed to be closer than the rest. Right above him, actually. Damerae tried to open his eyes, but they wouldn't do it. He tried to say something, but his lips wouldn't move. He tried to make out what the voices were saying, but his ears were giving him the middle finger.
Suddenly, blinding light erupted into his brain, and the paralysis was gone.
"Woah... chill, dudes... chill...," he mumbled. As his now open eyes readjusted to the light, he could make out the face of a middle-aged man looming above him. In his hand he held a small light with which he shone directly into the confused young man's eyes.
"Don't worry, sir, you'll be alright!"
"Hey... what...?"
"You've had an accident! An ambulance is on its way here."
This didn't really make sense to Damerae. But then again, what ever did? He tried to sit up straight, but man put a hand on his chest and firmly pushed him back down.
"You mustn't move, sir."
Dam shrugged. He reached into his shirt's chest pocket and pulled out a rolled joint of synthetic marijuana. He held it out to the man above him and said, "Hey... can you light this for... me?"
The man, who was obviously a doctor, dressed in a bright red jacket with reflective tape in it, looked at him in disbelief.
"Jesus..."
The other voices were still there. A bit quieter now, but still annoying.
"Hey... dude... uhh..."
"Yes, sir?"
"Hey... what happened...?"
The moment he said it, two more men in emergency jackets approached him, liften him onto a hoverbed and directed it towards an ambulance. Then all was black again.
Damerae looked around slowly, his eyes vision still blurred. He was in a white room, on a white bed, with white machinery surrounding him. A small screen quietly beeped to itself in a corner of the room, showing his pulse and blood pressure.
He was in a hospital.
"Uhh... pushed out...?
"Yes,"said the doctor who had sat down on a stool next to the bed.
Dam looked at him through half-open eyes. His clouded mind tried to come with something important to ask, but it failed and gave up. Instead, his head rolled around on his neck slowly.
"You see, we believe you were pushed out by two... teenagers,"continued the doc.
"Hey... teenagers?"
"Yes. Did you know them?"
Dam thought for a moment. When he couldn't come up with anything, he tried again.
"Uhh... dunno... can't remember, dude..."
"You don't remember anything?"
"Heh... well... guess I was kinda... high."
The doc raised his eyebrows.
"Ah."
"Yeah..."
"Well, I guess you'd better lie down and rest now. You're lucky you didn't break any bones, and the cut in your arm should be healed by tomorrow."
The doctor got up and left the room without another word.
"Yeah..."mumbled Damerae and slumped down onto the bed. He reached into his shirt's pocket again, in search of a joint. His fingers found one, closed around it, pulled it out, and directed it into the general direction of his mouth. Then he looked around for a lighter.
None to be found.
"Hey... uncool..."
Suddenly, a motoric wirr came from the far corner of the room. Dam looked up and saw a small medical droid approach him something that looked like a hand gun.
"Woah... peace, dude, peace!"
"Good day,"said the droid in a synthetic, but friendly voice."I have been instructed to inject a Rumbledrug-shot into your bloodstream. Please do not move during the procedure."
"Huh...?"
The droid now stood next to the bed. It reached down with one of its two mechanized arms and rolled up the sleeve of the patient's buttoned shirt.
"Hey..."
The other arm, holding onto a syringe gun, then shot upwards in a quick motion. The droid pressed the muzzle against Dam's elbow and pulled the trigger.
"Ow..."
The robot then retracted the tool and headed back into its corner.
"Thank you for your cooperation. If you are in need of anything, feel free to say so and I will assist to the best of my abilities."
"So... you're telling me that I was thrown out of a hovercar... by my best friend?"
"Well, I doubt he's still your friend now, but... yes. That's basically what happened."
Damerae slumped onto the bed.
A few minutes ago, the medication he had received by the droid had taken its effect and "washed out" the marijuana from his system. Dam hadn't been this "dry" for... a long time.
"Uhm... what exactly happened?"
"Well, according to witnesses, you had just gotten into the cab, when those two teenagers opened the passenger door, pulled you out, and through you off the platform."
The doctor's cool, relaxed voice annoyed Dam. Why would Steven want to hurt him? Or maybe even kill him? He couldn't remember anything that may have caused it. His mind was a wreck after being manipulated by drugs for years.
"Uhh, do you know what happened to the two guys?"
"Sorry, sir, but the police couldn't catch them. I fear they're too busy dealing with 'real' investigations."
They both sighed. All of Sirius knew that the Liberty Police, Inc. was a corrupt pile of donut-munchers.
The doctor sighed another time when he sat down in his office's chair. Before him lay a huge stack of paperwork which he yet had to get started on, but he just couldn't find the power to do so. That marijuana addict had totally exhausted him.
The door to the room slid open silently and the doctor's secretary peeked in.
"Doctor, the patient in room two-oh-three is sleeping."
"Well, it's about time," the doctor muttered.
"Uhm... doctor?"
"Yes?"
"Well... do you think he did it?"
The doctor sighed.
"Yes. I do."
As silently as it had opened, the door closed again as the secretary left without another word.
* * *
Weird shapes flashed past him in the dark. Some were making sounds, seemingly words, but he couldn't tell what they were saying. One form loomed above the others, pointing blurry fingers at him.
With a sudden flash of lights, the figures and his surrounding sharpened. Hundreds of people were running over a large plaza, apparently in panic. Several men in dark uniforms and suits were moving steadily towards him. He tried to get up, but his limbs wouldn't react to his thoughts.
He glanced over his shoulder and saw a horrid picture. A man in a black suit with a white shirt lay crumbled on the floor, a hole the size of a baseball in his chest. Several medics in neon-orange jackets crouched by him.
He didn't understand what was going on, but the quickening pace of the uniformed men told him that he'd better be on his way. With an epic effort, he willed his legs to obey him and slowly got up. He turned away from the group and started to run. But he didn't seem to get anywhere. The ground before him stretched out past the horizon, and no matter how fast he moved, the men behind him seemed to be getting closer...
