Chapter Text
Derap stretched his arms, resting his elbow on the armrest built into the car door. Jumper was driving the both of them to perform a quick deal- some goods in exchange for money and other stuff he didn't care that much about.
Any semblance of local law enforcement didn't bother themselves with anything related to the mafias. This city was like a breeding ground for gangs to operate with minimal interference.
Whether the government wanted that happening wasn't something he thought about often.
Either way, they made it to the agreed meetup spot- an alleyway right next to a totally legal shop.
"You ready?" Jumper asked after parking the car on the street, pulling out her keys.
"Yeah. Should be easy enough." Derap grabbed the bag filled with goods and put his hand on the door handle, about to get out of the car.
"Don't pull any funny stuff, alright?" Jumper warned.
"Yes ma'am." He opened the door, stepping out. He hauled the bag over his shoulder- it was similar to a backpack. Jumper followed behind him, keeping a hand on her gun.
Derap spotted two people in the alley. It was an unpleasant sight, the only source of light being from the moon and the street lamps. Despite sounding confident, Derap always got nervous during interactions like these. Something could go wrong almost instantly.
"Here for the deal?" He called out to them.
"Yeah. I'm warning you now, if I see any quick moves I'll shoot." One of the people responded, moving from their position leaning on the wall and standing in the middle of the alley.
"Completely fair. Just know I'm willing to do the same." Derap answered, approaching them slowly. Jumper stayed close behind him. "We can do this quick. Toss the bag on the ground at the same time as I do, check inside, and leave. Sound alright?"
There was silence for a moment, the two people wordlessly communicating through words. "Works for me." They moved to one side of the alley, gesturing for Derap to do the same. He complied. Their partner stood between the two of them, which Jumper clearly took as a subtle threat. She stood in front of Derap, slightly to the side so he could still see the person he was doing the deal with.
Derap dropped the bag he had over his shoulder, nodding his head at the anonymous person. They set down their bag, then began walking towards the other bag, moving in a curved line. Derap did the same, both people circling around each other.
Derap crouched down and checked the contents of the bag. As he did, he heard Jumper shout something.
A sharp pain sprouted in his side. He cursed, hearing a commotion next to him. Did he just get stabbed? Looking over, Jumper had tackled the person who had been silent the whole time, presumably the one who stabbed him.
Jumper jammed the barrel of her gun into their abdomen, firing it. He heard more gunshots.
Fuck, they were under attack, he had to do something. He pulled out his own gun, assessing the situation. It was difficult to think straight while actively bleeding out, but he did it anyway. Jumper was now taking down the other person, fighting them at close range.
Someone was still on the ground, clearly too injured to do much other than fire their gun at Jumper.
She just got hit.
Derap aimed at their gun, shooting it twice and hopefully making it dysfunctional. He had one arm wrapped around his waist, putting pressure on his wound.
Looking over, both Jumper and the person had been disarmed, their guns laying on the cold concrete ground.
Derap staggered to his feet, using the wall as support. "Jumper, move!" He shouted, and she did. He took the opportunity to shoot at the person she was fighting, hopefully hitting them at least once. Once they fell backwards and had to catch themselves on the wall, Derap decided it was time to go.
Ignoring the pain in his side, he made his way to the car as quick as possible. Jumper had the bag, so at least it wasn't a total loss.
Maybe 5 feet away from the car, he heard two more gunshots. He stumbled as a sharp pain hit the back of his knee and another one in his calf, nearly tripping. He might've heard Jumper yell his name, but he couldn't hear well over the ringing in his ears.
To the car. He barely managed to get in the car, shutting the door quickly and nearly collapsing in the passenger seat. Jumper moved fast, putting the keys in and starting to drive.
The last thing he heard before passing out was Jumper yelling on the phone.
- - -
Wifies was sitting on an old couch in the warehouse next to Parrot, listening to him talk about literally anything.
The warehouse was an old abandoned place that their gang had decided to take and use as a group meeting spot. Of course, everybody had their own apartments and stuff, but it was nice to have a place to recuperate.
Parrots phone rang, and he picked it up. Immediately, there was audible yelling coming from the other side. Parrot's expression changed nearly instantly.
"What?! Are you coming back now? Is he alive?!" Parrot asked frantically, abruptly standing up. Wifies got up with him, worriedly placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Should I go get medical supplies?" Wifies asked.
"Yes- yes Wifies, thank you." Parrot responded, starting to pace in a circle. Wifies hated when he got like this.
He decided to distract himself by heading to the "supply abomination", a name given to a reserved area in the warehouse. There were a variety of tables, all different sizes and heights, that held different things. One table would have food, one would have ammo, etc. He went to the first table, which was the one with medical supplies.
He heard a question about someone being alive, obviously they were hurt bad. Wifies took a first aid kid and a scuffed surgery kid he'd thrown together one day.
Holding both boxes, he made his way back to Parrot, who was still on the phone. "I know, I know. We'll do what we can." He said, having recovered from the shock earlier.
The few minutes it took for a car to pull into the warehouse felt like forever. The large garage door that had opened closed behind the car. Parrot nearly sprinted over to the car, heading to the passenger seat and opening the door. Wifies took the same path, peering in to see the damage.
Boy was it a scene. The person in the passenger seat, Derapchu, was passed out and bleeding from two areas. One was a wound on the left side of his waist, and the other appeared to be somewhere on his right leg.
"Can we get him out of the car?" Wifies asked, checking his pulse. It was slow, but there. "He's alive."
Jumper nodded. "I- um- what do I do? How do I-?" She sounded panicked.
"Just grab a chair or something. I need to be able to look at this fully." Wifies instructed, watching Jumper turn around and scan the warehouse for something. Eventually, she spotted a small chair next to the couch and picked it up, bringing it over to the passenger side of the car.
"Jumper, what happened?" Parrot asked as he helped move Derap out of the car seat and into the chair.
"I- while he was getting the stuff, one of the people there stabbed him... I couldn't get him away in time- fuck- while we were trying to get back to the car he got shot again... Twice? I don't know, I heard two gunshots..." Jumper explained, her hands moving erratically while she talked.
Wifies sighed. He opened the first aid kit, considering his options. "Jumper, did you get hurt at all?" Wifies asked, unclipping a harness that was around Derap's chest and pulling his hoodie off. He lifted his shirt up, clicking his tongue.
"A bullet hit me on the shoulder. Another one just barely hit." She admitted. "Gosh, I didn't even remember until just now..."
"Come here, I can get it fixed." Parrot gestured toward himself. Jumper sat down in front of him, pointing out the places she got hit. Parrot crouched down, taking a pair of tweezers and starting to fix up her injuries.
Wifies focused back onto his own work, opening the surgery kit. He wiped his own hands with a sanitary wipe, taking a needle and doing the same to it. He threaded the needle easily, taking a deep breath before beginning to stitch up the stab wound.
It wasn't his best work, but it got the job done. He could redo them neater later on, for now he just needed to stop the bleeding. Jumper sat on the hood of the car, watching and fidgeting with her hands.
After tying off the stitches, Wifies cleaned up some of the blood and bandaged his waist. He moved places to Derap's leg, looking at both wounds.
Wifies wasn't a professional, but he was the most educated out of all of them. He went to medical school for a while before getting roped into mafia work. He had to slowly learn to accept his new life, but eventually he found people he felt comfortable around.
It was difficult to pull out the bullet since it was right next to a joint, but he managed anyway. He dropped the bullet on the ground.
There was another bullet hole right above his boot, this time a little easier to take out. The bullets weren't too large, so he could simply take a square of gauze and press it against both holes and tape it on.
Wifies moved back, sighing as he finished the job. "That was all, right?"
"Should be." Jumper responded, her voice quiet and shaky.
"I'll check for anything else." Wifies did a quick exam, mainly just looking around for any more open wounds.
Seeing nothing else, Wifies took a second to relax, looking at Derapchu. He was clearly a hybrid- not unusual. He couldn't tell exactly what he was though. Some sort of mouse? Maybe he'd have to ask later.
"When is he gonna wake up?" Jumper asked. Wifies reached over and checked his pulse. It was better than before.
"It shouldn't be too long. He most likely passed out from blood loss." Wifies commented. "This... Could be his last mission. Depending on where the bullet landed, he might not be able to use this leg properly anymore. If he's lucky, he can fully recover. If not, he'll be stuck with a permanent limp."
"Shit.." Parrot sighed.
To pass the time and distract from the unconscious person next to them, the three of them talked for a while. Jumper would glance back at Derap every minute or so.
Eventually, they saw movement. Derapchu had opened his eyes and was now looking around, still clearly dazed.
"Derap?" Jumper hopped off the hood of the car, hurrying next to him. "Holy shit, I didn't know if you'd make it."
Derap sat up and slowly lifted his hand to rest on his forehead. "...I think that guy stabbed me." He said after a second.
"Oh really?" Parrot asked sarcastically, seeming less tense now that he was awake.
"It was honestly more of a slash than a stab." Wifies corrected Derap. "But we have more important things right now. Can you move your leg?"
"Can I move my-?" Derapchu looked down at his bandaged leg. He made an attempt to move his knee. He didn't get very far before hissing and leaning forward to press his hand against the wound. "Fuck, that hurt bad."
"I'll take that as a no. Unfortunately, it's gonna take you some time before you can walk again. Fortunately, I do have some experience with physical therapy." Wifies said. Derap simply stared down at the floor, taking in the information. Wifies noticed that his ears were lowered.
"How long should it take?" Parrot asked.
"It's hard to say, but he'll be stuck at home for a while. If you're bothered by him being left alone, I'm willing to accompany him. It'll be easier for me to help with his leg, too." Wifies offered, sitting upright.
"That's up to him." Parrot turned to Derapchu expectantly, waiting for an answer.
"I don't mind." Derap agreed, trying to adjust the position he was sitting in. He immediately regretted it, pain flaring up in his side and leg. He managed a laugh. "How am I gonna get home like this?"
"It's not a good idea to use your leg too much, but we don't have another option." Wifies moved closer to the car, leaning on the hood. "It's late. Best we get it over with now."
Getting into Derap's apartment was a painful struggle, each step visibly hurting. Eventually, they got inside, and Derap basically collapsed on his bed, ignoring the pain of moving too much.
"Call us if you need something, alright?" Jumper said before she left, earning a nod and a quick "okay" from him.
Wifies stuck behind. "I'll be back in the morning to switch out your bandages and work on getting your leg moving properly. It'll be a difficult process, but it's better in the long run." He explained.
"Yeah, that works. Message me before you head over." Derap rested his head on the pillow.
"Will do. Stay safe." Wifies said, placing his hand on the doorknob, hesitating before opening the door and exiting the apartment.
Poor kid.
Wifies had always wanted to help people in his future, so thankfully he could do something about it.