Chapter Text
It was a common habit of Hyperlaser’s to find himself revisiting the same bar in crossroads after completing a task of his.
Most of the time he’d be by himself, stumbling in at whatever ungodly hour almost soaked from the melted snow on his uniform and usual exhaustion.
Most often in spite of himself Hyperlaser would be downing a glass of some sort of alcohol even with a headache and sore limbs already dreading yet ignoring the mad hangover he’d have much later.
Less often he would have his drinking partner await him. This visit in particular, was not one where he’d have a buddy waiting for him by the dimly lit barstools.
When Hyperlaser entered the bar, he made a quick scan to determine the crowd. Even in the early hours of the morning, inphernals with nothing to look forward to the next day occupied the bar enough for it not to be considered empty.
He quickly decided it was cleared enough for him to walk in and out of without any trouble. Sometimes the intoxicated caused quite a hassle. Hyperlaser was not in the mood to try and deal with any of that.
Over where the long island counter stretched to half of the bar’s size, the mercenary found himself a seat on the cushioned stool.
It was an unspoken rule in most of the crossroads’ bars where if you didn’t know someone and there are multiple open seats, that you didn’t sit right next to them. This community effort was because of inphernal nature and instincts, but worked well with introverts or those on their own who didn’t care to socialize.
Hyperlaser sat at the very edge of the long row. A little over half a dozen of other stools lined and evenly spaced to his right.
Behind him were mostly booths, with the two wooden tables further down and a single pool table tucked in the back corner of the small building.
He could not hear the clicking of the balls hitting one another. Without even a sparing a glance he knew that even the back of the bar was unoccupied. Even less people to worry about.
His thought process was thankfully interrupted by the only bartender attending asking what he’d like. Despite the vacancy the service still managed to take forever.
“Usual.”
Hyperlaser recognized them as one who served at these hours and could they recognized him too.
Without another word they scurried off to prepare his requested drink.
If Hyperlaser wasn’t wearing a helmet his cheek would be resting on his fist.
His eyes were left shut when he heard the noise of a glass sliding over to him. He only briefly nodded before returning still in his relaxed state.
He’d trained himself to take a nap for only a few seconds just to recharge. It wasn’t even close to a full nights rest or even half of that, but enough to keep the mercenary pushing for little while longer. Hyperlaser typically didn’t use it while out, having his attention 110% occupied but instead took any other opportunity and gained another extra hour of daylight.
Before he realized he’d “woken” Hyperlaser downed whatever he had in his shot glass, immediately tipping his helmet back down.
Hyperlaser once again resumed his dazed state, staring off in the direction of the shelved drinks behind the counter.
Exhaustion was really weighing down on him. He’d been returning home less and less, barely getting a real wink of sleep. (Not that it was much anyway.)
It really never struck him as such. Being occupied all day and all night long with whatever assignment Blackrock decided to throw at him started to fuck up his sense of time significantly.
An abrupt punch in the shoulder derailed his train of thought.
Hyperlaser didn’t turn his head much, but when blinking afterwards his eyes tugged like bags of sand. Great.
An inphernal in dressed in grungy clothing that seemed to barely be standing upright cackled at Hyperlaser’s reaction. With a smirk they leaned on the counter in the space between him and the next stool.
“Wha’s a freak like you doin’ out here?”
Their voice was shrill and their attempt to be at eye level with the mercenary failed as their eyes were instead directed at Hyperlaser’s nose.
They began tapping his helmet too, giggling in amusement. “Whaddya got under there?”
Hyperlaser only seized their wrist and threw at them, remaining silent as they groaned in frustration. Instead of accepting rejection, they inched closer, forward protruding horns almost meeting the tinted screen of Hyperlaser’s helmet.
“Awww.. C’mon, let me seee,” they begged.
Only then did Hyperlaser stand up and retreated to the door of the bar.
No way in hell was he dealing with some childish, grown, drunk inphernal who couldn’t behave themself. He was too tired in more ways than one to put up with anything and his bed (or even couch) was sounding way too good to be true right this moment.
The door behind him slammed shut, Hyperlaser already descending down the wide pair of steps leading up to the bar’s entrance.
One of the railings from the steps were gone. Allegedly, only from rumors Hyperlaser had caught by eavesdropping, torn off when a bar fight began right outside. Something about one drunk inphernal shoving the other drunk inphernal, and everything else spiraling from there.
In all honestly, Hyperlaser had just listened in to know what happened. Only realizing it was missing one night when someone else pointed it out.
A wave of sleepiness lapped over him like that at the beach.
He yawned underneath his helmet and set off for home through the darkened alleyway.
What would’ve been the smart option would be to pull out a source of light and check for anyone or anything inside of the alleyway. Unfortunately for Hyperlaser’s dulling mind, that idea hadn’t crossed it.
If the long strip of darkness wasn’t already claustrophobic enough, everything around Hyperlaser’s peripheral vision felt like it was warping around. The two buildings felt like they were actively moving and teamed up to crush him.
He stumbled and crashed into the side of the brick wall with his shoulder, stifling a groan. A pause for now was fine with him, a breather even.
Make it through Crossroads, forget it all in the morning. Make it through Crossroads, forget it all in the morning…
Repeating the same phrase wasn’t doing much of a good job and motivating him or his feet to move from the wall, and was becoming more of a challenge the longer he waited.
It was really dawning on him how long he’s been awake. A miracle he didn’t pass out in that bar.
“Heyyy! You weirdo fr’m the baar!”
That same high and unpleasant voice echoed loudly throughout the alleyway and grated at Hyperlaser’s ears. A new sound deafening system would do great right about now.
If that announcement wasn’t horrid enough, the drenched rat looking inphernal stood right beside him as he turned.
Hidden in the shadowed and unlit view that was unfortunately Hyperlaser’s, were an additional two, taller inphernals just behind the annoying one. Backup even.
They too were clearly drunk, but not at the same level of this one.
A hand uncomfortably gripped his shoulder, “‘M not lettin’ ya leave until I getta see wha’s under that mask o’ yers.”
Their voice was imbalanced in the same way they were, a smug grin underneath.
Once again their hand was ripped off of Hyperlaser and this time he heaved his own body to try and get away.
Hyperlaser was caught off guard when the inphernal’s fist flew toward his face, their knuckles only brushing the side of his helmet with his delayed attempt at dodging.
He stepped back. “Don’t start shit that you can’t end,” He warned in a low, croaky voice.
They snickered.
Ironically they seemed to be getting annoyed with not getting what they wanted, a crackle coming from their knuckles.
Hyperlaser was not worried about them in the slightest. Even in his state, he was confident enough in his abilities to hold off an inphernal like this. He was much more concerned about the two unmoving bodyguard behind them.
Another fist flew and this time Hyperlaser was able to duck. He retaliated with a swift strike to their cheek to which they stumbled back after impact.
It was much of a wake up call for the mercenary and he decided he wanted this over as soon as possible.
The other inphernal charged once again. Another weak attack to Hyperlaser’s shoulder missed and they sent themselves hurtling behind him.
Before they gathered their balance Hyperlaser grabbed them by the shirt collar, a clock straight to their nose, then shoving them back down.
They slammed into the cement holding their face, wailing.
“Ow! Y’ bast’rd tha’ hurt!”
Their cry was met with the two inphernals behind them stepping forward and trying to seize Hyperlaser.
Brushing whatever off and picking themself back up with support from the brick wall, they regained what little composure they had before.
“S’ you’re good at this kinda thin’ aren chya?”
Their slurred words echoed in Hyperlaser’s ears as he struggled to release himself from the arms wrapped tightly around his neck.
Even though he was trapped by one inphernal, they were much bigger and stronger, leaving Hyperlaser to unsuccessfully claw and kick to no avail. The other bodyguard stood beside his captor seemingly as backup if he managed to free himself.
Despite their previous humiliation, the shrill voice returned to his side, “Welll, lookey here!”
Their eyes seemed to water from his punch to the nose, but their flee from before dismissed it. They approached Hyperlaser closely again, tapping on his helmet.
“Hehee, looks like-a I’ll get ta’ see wha’s under there after all!”
“Fuck. Off.” Hyperlaser growled.
They wagged their finger in front of his face.
“Ohh, feisty one. Arenchya!” They giggled again.
Hyperlaser was completely expected their hands to reach for his helmet in his helpless state, to which he was completely surprised when he received a hard kick to his stomach.
He heaved forward in pain, only coughing in response.
The insane inphernal began to clap. Greatly amused by his suffering.
Only then was his helmet grabbed, stubbornly ripped off and tossed aside. A loud crash from the ground beside him signaling its land.
As if Hyperlaser’s situation wasn’t already as horrible as it was, it managed to reach a climax.
“Ough! Ya really are a freak!” They announced, genuine disgust dripping in their words.
He was met with blurry fists to his face, including his temples, a reciprocated punch to the cheek, and to the nose.
Everything was starting to fade, his eyes were watering like crazy, clearly unaware of his already pre-blind vision. And the additional pummeling to his abdominal area, face, and even stubby horns were starting to numb into one. A few grazes from their rough fingertips stroked the tops of his horns, where it was most ragged and uneven, and drunk let out a scoff.
He could feel at least five different sensations coming from his face alone. Maybe, one was tears overflowing from the hits to his nose and another the blood pooling down that followed. He could not tell what else was happening.
Words were coming from somewhere, not him, but everything became so hazy he couldn’t comprehend a thing.
Hyperlaser’s back ached as he was suddenly slammed into the brick wall, falling over and hitting the ground with another muddled groaned. Another kick to his stomach and back was what he was left with before the abundance of footsteps fading out declared the groups departure.
Hyperlaser lay passed out with his bare, helmetless face against the cold and hard concrete. No sound came out of the now beaten mercenary, not a limb of his moved out of place or even