KILLJOY

Prologue

He hadn't heard a single shot for ten minutes. Could have been a new record if he was keeping track. He hadn't seen any shady shit in a while, but that was sure to change judging by the part of the Strip he was heading to. He followed closely behind the man in front of him, with a logo of a dagger stitched to the back of his headband, as dark as the sky above him. As he trailed the man in front of him, he saw his head suddenly turn to face him. "So, if you'll be joinin' us over at Killjoy, mind tellin' me your name?"

He thought about whether he should tell him his name just yet, after all if he failed their test then he could be a prime target incase they thought he risked leaking information. But... he would get in, and building trust with a future coworker would be a good idea. "Liam Clark, yours?" The man simply looked on with interest at Liam, as if trying to read him, as a small grin formed on his face. "Mayeda, although you should just call me 'Sir' or somethin' like that till you're actually in."

Mayeda turned away from him after that, as they kept walking to god knows where. He checked his phone, having forgotten the date in all his busy work trying to organize this meetup without getting caught by anyone. March 5th, 2057, Saturday. Ma's birthday was coming up next week, and he still had no clue what to get her. If he made some good cash in his first week of being here, he'd get her something nice. As he was stuck in his head for a moment, he felt his phone buzz as he saw a notification— some random news report. He tapped on it, opening up an app on his phone as a video began playing on it.

"Group of presumed homeless found dead in an alley this morning, their bodies are yet to be recovered by the authorities. Officer Bradley is here to give us his report." The officer seemed to be in standard attire for the Strip's enforcers, with black uniforms, striped with deep purple, along with a beret. "Pleasure to be here on the news today, Cheryl. Incidents like this are all too common in Brooklyn's 'Starlight Strip' as its citizens call it. Crime rates are crazy, and we just don't have the funding to deal with everything efficiently and immediately. We should have a crew to clean up by tommoro—"

Liam turned his phone off as he put it back in his pocket, continuing to follow behind Mayeda. He wanted to try and make a bit of conversation with him. "Your name sounds Japanese. You an immigrant?" Mayeda kept his back turned to him as he kept walking, responding in an annoyed tone. "Yeah, got a problem with that?" Liam warmed up a bit as he worried he made a wrong impression, quickly backing off from the topic with a rushed tone. "No, was just curious." As they kept walking for what felt like forever, eventually Mayeda took a sharp right turn into a nearby alley, as Liam quickly turned to follow.

Mayeda was the one to break the long silence this time, as he turned to face Liam from the back of the alley. "So, you sure you wanna join Killjoy? It ain't as simple as flippin' burgers." Liam looked him in the eyes, taking in their bold green with nothing else to look at in the darkness of the alley. The only thing that caught his eye were the couple of homeless men slumped down next to the walls. They were probably sleeping, it was late. As he took his eyes off of Mayeda for a moment, he saw that he was gone the next. As he turned back to try and find him, he saw him standing behind him with a handkerchief in his hand, as he quickly pressed it to Liam's face. "Well then, hope you're ready when you wake up!" The world faded around him as he was feeling drowsier by the second, of course it wouldn't be that simple. He looked up at that grin of his with a look of disgust for one last time before he passed out.