[centre][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/200418/a93b99dadf276ff548c24747fe74ab0e.png[/img] [hr] [i]What a fucking beautiful cacophony[/i], Rachel thought to herself sarcastically. Takari Square was a hub of activity on a night like this and the sounds of life mixed together to form some audial tapestry that assailed her from all sides. The buzz of countless conversations mixed with the advertisement slogans that played over and over on the colossal screens that loomed high above as she pushed her way through the moving throng of people, together mixing with the hundreds of other sounds that permeated the air. An already drunk and pretty shabbily dressed pair of businessmen stumbled past, one of them staggering a bit much managed to barge into her shoulder as he turned and made some exaggerated gesture to his buddy. [COLOR=2E8B57][i]“Hey fuckin watch it dick”[/i][/color] she shot at him as they sauntered onwards with hardly a look back as they laughed and continued on their way. [COLOR=2E8B57][i]“Pricks”[/i][/color] she mumbled bitterly to herself, shaking her head as she hefted her rucksack and carried on. She’d be considerably happier once she’d dropped off her little bag of goodies and could be on her way – after all it was Friday and there were big plans on the cards. Normally she wouldn’t drop something like this off, at least not without sticking around to test the quality of the goods anyway, but Freddie’s sister was modelling some new line of pheroscent or some shit and was throwing some party for the vapid models and executives. Not the kind of affair she was too interested in attending to say the least, but Freddie had asked nicely. She took no notice of the cloaked figure as he moved past, one more asshole in a crowd full of assholes as far as she was concerned. [hr] [img]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/gZySsf1rDCNkvTKwIf8hH9sJg_dqRa1xmaOLvBgHJSJRZEdQuNebS9Q46rjw0PujGsrwaDOOhHnVJbahso83AayiGrZDJPQw6PYZiB9BFctcbmH9Y1uS7_nR_7YOpVN5SR237Hmlkw=w2400[/img] [hr] [i]Urgh. What a fucking hangover. Wait. What?[/i] Rachel felt like she was floating, but instead of weightlessness it was like she was floating on a light buzzing of some unknown sensation. [i]What the fuck is happening?[/i] Slowly she realised the unknown sensation wasn’t so unknown after all. It was pain. She was floating in a cloud of pain and it was slowly getting worse and worse, as if it was condensing, as she slowly started coming to her senses. She realised she wasn’t even floating. [i]Bullshit.[/i] She was laying on the hard and uncomfortable ground and there was an intense ringing in her ears. Slowly the visions started to return to her, though between everything she couldn’t really process whatever the fuck they could mean, or even why she was seeing weird murder trees, Hawaiian shirted dudes and a bunch of semi-nude slavers at a time like this. Slowly she tried to open her eyes. Her left eye stung a little and she instinctively rubbed at it. Sticky blood from a small cut on her forehead obscured her vision slightly and she realised she was covered in dust and small bits of rubble. She sat up and took in her surroundings still in a daze. What was left of Takari square looked almost like a warzone or some shit as bodies and chunks of buildings lay about the place and numerous fires were raging. She fought off a wave of nausea at the sight. Weird, movies and VR shit didn’t do justice to the real thing. She wasn’t sure how long exactly passed as she sat there taking in the sights, but eventually she managed to stumble to her feet. She leaned against what was left of a nearby wall and fought down a wave of rising bile. [i]Get a grip, damn[/i] she hissed at herself. The sounds of gunfire and more chaos soon permeated the air and she wondered what on Mars was going the fuck on. Through the dust and smoke she saw a guy pick himself up out of the dust as a group of security drones made their way towards him. She too had started to stumble towards them when suddenly and without warning they’d started to beat the absolute living shit out of him. [COLOR=2E8B57]“[i]What the fuck?[/i]”[/color] she blurted, stopping as the already injured man went down and they began to arrest him. Then she realised these weren’t the usual kind of budget Cartelli security forces. These fuckers were the high level, skull crushing, dissident erasing kinda pricks that you shouldn't see around here. Sadistic highly trained and highly equipped, they really didn’t fuck around. Moments later they’d seen her and two of them broke away and moved right for her with their rifles raised. Her heart skipped a beat and she practically fell as she stumbled backwards, and at the protest of her aching body, she scrambled back as rapidly as she could. In her disoriented state she stood little chance as they closed the gap between them startlingly quickly. One of them tackled into her and pinned her to the ground with his knee. He was far from gentle and the wind was driven from her and more pain unpleasantly lanced though her as she was pretty sure she felt a rib or two crack. She struggled to breathe as he held her in place and she lashed out at him with her free arm. It was a pretty pointless exercise as her fist met the hard surface of his protective suit. Nevertheless, it earned her a swift punch to the side of the face and her vision swam for a few moments before he lifted her to her feet, fixed cuffs around her wrists and began to push her forwards. Anger, pain and the will to survive shot through her as she twisted to get away and she felt an odd rush as [i]something[/i] surged through her. She hardly touched them, but there was a sickening crunch as both of their heads twisted unnaturally to the side and she suddenly felt like she’d just benched a good 300lbs and then some. The two figures simultaneously crumpled to the ground. She followed moments later as her legs gave way beneath her. She felt pretty damn exhausted and struggled to sit up again, this time made much more difficult thanks to her new restraints. She managed to struggle and drag herself a short way to lean back against the same wall as she took a few moments to pass her arms under her legs so that they weren’t at least stuck behind her anymore. She felt warm blood trickle down her lips and rubbed at her nose to discover it was bleeding. [i]Great[/i], between the cut on her forehead, bleeding nose and rapidly developing black eye this was a [i]real[/i] shitty day so far. Plus her outfit was [i]totally[/i] ruined. She again felt numb as the realities of everything that had just happened failed to settle on her. She slipped her hands into her pocket and spend a good few minutes fumbling with a pack of smokes before she managed to pull one out and then light it. Taking a deep drag she leaned her head back and closed her eyes for a just a [i]few[/i] moments. [i]'The fuck just happened?’[/i] [img]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/HcZOKXUmt6bbCJeF_NzyVZE_Ah0zGd8YM8PqIXJoK2qCiMnimDGrFMuoA0NIkkp1G8CN4cOXTjV4oDimBGNW0Fvb7P9VV9mKFjHzJdqpbS2yhVn_QeK6z5PGiszrycL49M1aFOqxCA=w800[/img] [img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/200420/cfec1c98af949b7bdec87fdf4e0ea0a0.png[/img] [/centre]