2 Chapter 2: A Peek Into The Past
Benny groaned and sat up on his bed. The pile of mattresses underneath sounding in protest as several of them could no longer take his weight and completely burst. Mattress stuffing spilling out onto the floor around him.
He stared down blankly at the spilt stuffing around him. His mind still not completely awake. It was when the person outside resumed banging the door that he snapped out of it and got up from where he sat. He'll worry about the bed and the mess later. He has other things to worry about right now.
"Yeah yeah.. I'm up!" He hollered at the door. "Give me five minutes to get ready!"
He sleepily put on a pair of boots, and stumbled over to the adjoining bathroom. He turned on the faucet at the sink and just leaned down and doused his entire head in the cold running water.
That did the trick. He was totally awake now. He straightened up and stared at his dripping reflection at the mirror.
He wasn't what most people would call handsome. Being raised by the Animals did that to you. Too many doses of the Animal's "Juice" over the years along with repeated hits to the face from all the fights they got into had ruined any chance of him becoming anything resembling "handsome".
Still though, he at least looked way better than the average Animal gangoon. He had a passable face free from any scars. Neatly trimmed beard and moustache, a somewhat fair complexion, and the distinctive narrow eyes that told of his more Asian heritage. Probably the only part of him he got from his mom. The rest of his body was more obviously from his dad.
Another thing about his eyes. There was a rather noticeable scar going over his left eye. A little mishap from back in his teens when he got his hands on one of those swords the Tyger Claws liked to use. A katana he believed they were called. He had gotten a bit too excited with waving it around that he somehow ended up poking it into one of his eyes.
It hurt like hell.
Sure he probably could've gotten the scar removed. His Mox friends were rather insistent on it. But he adamantly refused. First of all, he believed that the scar made him look badass. The others in the Animals all thought the same. Secondly, he wanted to keep it as a reminder to not be stupid with deadly weapons ever again.
It was also how he got his first ever cyberware. Kiroshi Optics. And since he was already replacing one eye, he might as well swap out the other one too while he was at it. Sides, those eyes always came in pairs. No sense in having the other one go to waste.
He could just barely be considered the "pretty boy" of the Animals. Well, as close to that definition as a hulking 9ft brutish behemoth of a man could get.
He had the Mox to thank for that. For all the plasticware they had covering their bodies, they still had a rather extensive skincare routine. One that had become sort of ingrained into him.
His early childhood was spent amongst them after all. And they always reminded him to take care of his appearance whenever he popped by for a visit. It seemed they were rather adamant that he didn't end up looking like one of his fellow Animals.
His mom was a Mox from what he knew, though he didn't really have any memories of her. She died giving birth to him.
It wasn't really all that surprising. He had Animal genes in him. He had somehow inherited some of the Juice altered genetics from his dad as impossible as such a thing should be. The concoction of chemicals and steroids that the Animals regularly ingested should've rendered them all sterile. And yet, against all odds, he was still born. And the result was a mind boggling giant of a baby that was close to 50 pounds at birth.
Still though, the Mox took him in and treated him as one of their own. That lasted up till he was around 8 years old when word of him reached the ears of Sasquatch.
The hammer wielding leader of one of the Animal's biggest factions showed up at Lizzie's Bar one day with a large entourage of her gangoons and declared him as one of them. Tensions ran high that day, but eventually the Mox gave in and compromised.
Not much they could do about it. They weren't prepared for a fight with the Animals. Not without losing many lives. So Benny was taken by Sasquatch and made an official Animal.
But Susie Q, leader of the Moxes, made sure that he knew that Lizzie's Bar would always be his home and he was always welcome there. And that he would always be an honorary Mox as weird as that may sound to anyone who'd see him now.
After running his hand through his soaked hair, and wiping his face off at a decently clean towel, he stepped out of the bathroom and walked over to a desk by the side of the room and grabbed a bulletproof vest and a rather large gun that had been prepared by him the night before.
The vest was a pretty standard one. A similar kind to the one the NCPD one used except it had the logo of the Animals haphazardly painted on the back. The gun though was a Techtronika RT-46 Burya. His preferred weapon of choice. The big revolver just barely fitting into his hand without looking too comically small unlike other weapons he's tried in the past. He strapped the vest onto himself and holstered the gun before pulling the door to his apartment open.
"Alright. I'm ready." He said to the short Latino man standing outside. Well, short compared to him. Then again, everybody was short when compared to him.
