Introducing: Target

“Target?” Kenzie frowned. She didn’t seem to like my name.

“That’s actually pretty smart. You’re ability makes it the best for someone to attack you, rather than your teammates. Genius!” Bethany grinned maniacally, clearly inspired.

“Uh, well, that was just an idea; I may go with something el-“

“No! I have it!” Bethany gathered her papers and left the room. The camera still whipped around me.

I looked at Kenzie. “How much longer will this take? There’s a breeze.”

The camera confined me to the wall for another five minutes. It turned out that Bethany just forgot to stop the camera when she’d excitedly scattered away. Soon, I was being shoved into a room to try on the costume that Bethany had whipped up in record time.

“Fuck.” I muttered.

I entered Bethany’s living room, walking awkwardly. The skin-tight material was… uncomfortable, to say the least. I felt naked, but covered in duct-tape.

Bethany squeezed when she saw me in the costume. Kenzie nodded in approval. I was flabbergasted they didn’t boo loudly.

The costume was bright red. Like, bright-bright red. I’m pretty sure it would be visible in a pitch-black room.

“Michael!” You interrupt. “Surely that’s just the accent color!”

One: that’s cute, you haven’t interrupted in a while.

Two: nope! The accent color is an equally bright cyan making a weird diamond-shape with lines coming off the corners. The symbol was on my chest, and the gloves, the hood, the crotch, and the boots matched the color.

That was it. Bright red and bright cyan accents.

And they liked it.

“You do look like someone named Target.” Kenzie voiced her approval.

“I feel like it’s a bit… much, right?”

Bethany shook her head aggressively. “Hell no! It’s perfect! It’s meant to be eye-catching!”

“Are you sure?”

The duo nodded once again. I was outvoted. This was my fate. I wished dearly that I had a spine.

Bethany waved us out as we left. I was dressed back in my proper attire and had a grocery bag with my costume in it.

“Good luck, Michael! Target will be a household name soon enough!” She smiled.

“I’m pretty sure I don’t want that. Like, at all.”

Kenzie and I loaded back into the car. I was still incredibly annoyed about the costume choice, but it was over. No point in thinking about it. I began to drive back to the apartment, but Kenzie directed me to a place slightly out of town.

As lucky and beautiful as Lovus was, the cities surrounding it were much more… apocalyptic-looking. I swear there was a green tint to the entire landscape once you leave city limits.

She pointed me deeper into the greater-Lovus area. Eventually we arrived at a supermarket parking lot, except the building had caved in long ago and likely wasn’t being shopped at anymore. Again, very zombie-apocalypse vibe.

“Okay. So, close to here, there’s the place this asshole Cobra is based out of… for now, anyway; he moves a lot.” Kenzie explained.

“Wait, we’re going this now?!” I exclaimed.

She shook her head. “Not quite. We’re going to go buy some ****, then we’ll strike tonight.”

“That’s possibly worse.”

Kenzie and I walked down the road for a couple minutes. I was happy to know that no one would attempt to steal my car, since it looked like a worn-down, abandoned piece of shit already.

We got to the residential area, and I felt a sense that someone was watching me. I would look at the houses and could swear the blinds would be quickly closed when I looked their way. Weird.

Kenzie got to one house that had a guy sleeping on the porch. It was an elderly guy, with a bone-thin body. He looked like he was anywhere from 100-200 years old. As we approached, his eyes shot open and they were completely glazed over with cataracts.

“We’re here for that Snake Fang.” She explained. Kenzie put on a perfect American accent out of nowhere. I suppose to hide her identity? But her face was exposed?

The old guy groaned and leaned back in his chair, knocking on the window behind him before promptly falling back asleep.

Then, a guy wearing a snake mask opened the door. He had a normal build, and looked us up and down. I assumed he was the Cobra we were looking for.

“Fuck you want, pig?” The guy spit on the ground.

“Do you call me a ‘pig’ just as an insult, or as an accusation?” Kenzie asked, unfazed by the aggression.

“Well, you ain’t fat, so put two-and-two together.”

“My tits are.”

“What?”

“I’m not a cop. I think you know that, or we wouldn’t have made it to this house.”

He snorted and nodded. “Smart. So, you know who you’re messing with?”

Kenzie shrugged. “I don’t give a shit who you are, just what you sell. Buddy here,” she threw her thumb towards me, “heard your shit was banging. We wanted a taste.”

The snake-man turned his attention to me. “Where the fuck you heard of my shit?”

“I just… I… it’s…!” I stammered. I wish Kenzie had given me some kind of understanding of what’s happening.

“He’s cooked out of his mind right now, ignore him.” Kenzie sighed. “One of those assholes that ‘smokes for anxiety’ or whatever the hell. But, I mean, your shits the talk of the town, yeah? That’s why I had to find you; I prefer that shit that makes you feel good, you feel me?”

Cobra nodded. “I feel you. That’s exactly why I created Snake Venom… to feel goooood….”

Kenzie grinned. “My kind of man… so, what’s the price?”

Cobra put a finger to his chin. “Hmm…. Well…. I don’t do this often, but I’ll give you a first-time deal: 200 bucks for a baggie. Sound good? That’s a good fuckin’ deal, so I’d hope you say it is.”

Kenzie nodded, pulling the cash out of her pocket. “Hell yeah. This shit better bang, man.”

“It will! Then you and your retarded-ass friend will be back!” He tossed her the baggy full of lime-green tablets.

“We sure will be.” Kenzie muttered, back in the Russian accent as we walked away.

-

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