Chapter Text
D.C. - Digital City.
It is a wretched place disguised under pretty colors and bright neon signs. The facade of wealth and prosperity hiding it's true face.
Drugs, sex, crime, gambling, debauchery. All easy to find if you just look the wrong way.
Factions ruled the place. Because otherwise what fun would it be?
Candy Land. The faction that governed over the gambling business in the city, any casino, legal or otherwise that resided within the city belonged to them.
The Mildenhall Family. They were more dangerous, ruled over the drug business. In a way it was more profitable than the casinos, but at the cost of real lives.
These two groups were simple ones, they kept to themselves, knew not to step where they did not belong. Until a third faction showed up.
The Circus...
The Circus was a new very small family. Consisting of just 5 members and their leader. A complete joke, or at least thats what the Candy Land and Mildenhall factions thought.
The Circus became a relentless force. Barging in and causing ruckus wherever they chose to adventure to that day.
They wanted something, they got it. While also doing odd jobs for whoever would pay the most.
The family was not close knitted either. They were all forced to be a part of it.
Forced by the power of their leader. For you see, in this world, people can be... Influenced to become part of factions, against their will of course.
The leaders possess a special kind of power, one that allows them to hold a person's soul hostage, if you will.
The leader will take the person's name and keep it locked, a name is a powerful thing in this place. It holds the very essence of who you are. That's why nobody reveals their real name, ever. They always go by code names, or the new names their leader gave them once they were captured.
And in the Circus, Caine is the leader.
A feared ringmaster who despite his terrifying power, has a soft spot for his members.
Kinger is a chess piece character and the eldest of the group at 48, one of the first ones to be a part of Caine's family. His job is anything tech related, he is also very knowledgeable about guns.
Ragatha is the second oldest, a 30 year old ragdoll character. She decided to become a part of the family after running away from her abusive mother. Ragatha is in charge of preparing for heists.
Gangle was next at 26 years old, the tragedy masked character keeps to herself, she is in charge of drawing the blueprints so the others can break in easily to places.
Zooble is 22 years old, a character made of random abstract body parts, and the group's sniper. They could shoot an acorn out of a squirrel's mouth from 5 miles away.
And lastly there was Jax, 22 years old just like Zooble, the purple jackrabbit was their killer. The most cold blooded guy anyone has ever met. Never smiled, never made friends, never failed a mission. He was there for a single reason, to make money.
His specialty were knives and close combat.
The group gathered in Caine's office for an important announcement.
Ragatha, Kinger and Gangle were sitted on a leather couch that faced the desk. Zooble was standing behind said couch. While Jax was the farthest away, leaning against the wall in a dark corner of the room, arms crossed, smoking a cigarette. His expression that of stoic emptiness.
Caine twiddled his thumbs as he spun on his office chair.
"I got news!" He finally jumped on the chair dramatically.
Everyone stared.
"So apparently... There's a little alley cat who's been causing trouble for the two other factions." The giant dentures ring leader began.
"Alley... Cat?" Ragatha tilted her head.
"A stray if you will." He shrugged.
Stray was a term used for people who did not belong to a faction, but we're involved in the... lifestyle.
"It's been a while since we had a stray." Zooble said while Gangle nodded.
"Precisely my adorable amalgamation!" Caine pointed at Zooble whose eye twitched in response.
"Not only is it a rare occurrence. But from what my sources told me... Everyone wants them." Caine sounded serious.
That made everyone but Jax perk up.
Usually the way to deal with strays was to simply eliminate them. They were too much of a bother to keep. But if the other factions also wanted this new person, that means they must be special.
"So... you want them too?" Ragatha asked.
"That I do! I figured our little family needed a new addition hmm?" Caine smiled brightly.
"What do we know about them?" Gangle asked nervously.
"Almost nothing! They go by the code name Jester." Caine looked at some papers on his desk.
"Jester... Doesn't sound too intimidating." Kinger smiled and rubbed his chin.
"Don't be fooled my dear Kinky Kinger! Apparently they are so sneaky, nobody even knows their gender. They go in a place, do whatever they came in to do, and leave without anyone noticing."
"Sounds like they have zero presence." Zooble said.
"What's their specialty?" Jax finally spoke as he blew some smoke from his cigarette.
"Close combat." Caine said.
Jax looked unimpressed.
"With dual guns." The leader finished.
That made Jax slightly curious.
"That's all I know. They use two guns, one red one blue." Caine tossed the papers into the air, making a mess of the office.
"Okay... So how do we find them?" Gangle asked.
"Don't know! But I want to make this into a little game since I'm bored." Caine sipped some tea he made appear out of thin air.
"So whoever brings me the kitten will earn two days off a week for the rest of the year."
Everyone was immediately on alert.
The members were basically slaves, they didn't get time off. So for Caine to offer something this big was insane.
Jax didn't seem to care. He wasn't going to waste time looking for some random new person when he could be out on missions making money.
Caine took notice so he added. "Oooor you can trade that for a bonus reward deposited into your accounts."
That made him tilt his head slightly.
"Alright now get going my moist muffins!" With a snap of his fingers Caine teleported them out of his office and to the living room of their shared space.
"We don't even know where to look." Ragatha sighed.
"Well, Caine said the other factions want them... So the jester should be at a casino or at a brothel or getting high." Zooble shrugged.
"Should we split?" Gangle asked.
"Well only one of us can get the reward, it's not like we can work together." Ragatha crossed her arms.
Jax was already walking away.
"H-Hey! Where are you going?!" The ragdoll shouted.
But Jax didn't even look back.
He wanted that bonus, he wanted that money. So he was going to bring that person to Caine, whether he had to use force or not.
The jackrabbit didn't have any noble reason as to why he needed money. The man was simple, he was trapped in this fucked up place, so he might as well make the most of it.
The money was simply to feed his lifestyle. Drugs, drinking, sex, gambling. He did it all, it helped him sleep at night. Even killing was a relaxer for him, as long as it was for the mission, he wouldn't kill an innocent on purpose, but there have been casualties. He still didn't care.
So if Caine wanted the stray, Jax will bring them to him. Another sucker for the pack, as long as Jax got paid it didn't matter if another person lost their name.
Jax made it to the gambling district. Casinos and flashing lights everywhere, it was an eyesore but for Jax it was home. As much as a brothel or the drug district was.
He walked around, his expression cold as ice. Even if he lived a life of excess, he couldn't say he enjoyed it... He didn't enjoy anything. He simply did it to avoid thinking about anything else.
There was no chance he would find this person today, there were zero leads. What information does he even have?
Code name: Jester
Sneaky
Close combat
Dual guns, one red one blue.
That's it. That was all.
Jax entered one of the smallest and dingiest casinos in a dark alleyway. He went straight to the bar and ordered a whiskey sour.
As he sipped it he noticed two candy people taking each other.
"I'm telling you man, I saw something on the roof." The candy shaped girl said.
"Well maybe we should check it out! Maybe it's a ghost." Her companion laughed.
"No dude! What if it's that stray the Candy Queen has been looking for?" She said.
Jax's ears twitched. He pretended not to listen.
"No way, we heard they were last seen in Mildenhall district, how did they managed to come here so fast?" The guy slurred his words.
"Maybe they can fly?" She shrugged.
"That's crazy man." He laughed.
Jax simply got up after finishing his drink and headed out.
He glanced up to the top of the buildings.
Is that how they've been getting away? They use the roofs, very simple and amateur. Jax didn't even know what their deal was. Were they stealing? Spying? Playing hero? No way of knowing without meeting the person.
Heading to the fire escape of one of the buildings, the jackrabbit easily climbed all the way to the top.
The night breeze blew past him, his rabbit ears swayed slowly. He looked down to the street level, hoards of people laughing, fighting, partying, having fun.
Jax moved his head around until his neck cracked. He pulled out a cigarette from his jacket pocket and lit it, huffing deeply, holding the smoke in for a moment before blowing it out into the breeze.
His eyes focused ahead, glancing at the buildings across from where he stood.
He froze, but his expression didn't change. Still lidded, still stoic.
There, in the building to the right of the street, a figure sat.
They were sitting down by the edge, feet kicking idly. The figure had a black hooded cape on, most of their face obscured by shadows.
They swayed side to side as if they were in the middle of singing a song. Jax couldn't hear, even with his rabbit ears there was too much noise around to make out what the figure was singing.
But... It was just a figure, no way of knowing if this was the stray Caine was talking about. Just some roof weirdo with a gothic sense of fashion.
He blew another puff of smoke.
Suddenly the figure noticed him. They flinched slightly for a moment. Almost comically.
Once again Jax's expression did not change. His cold tired stare remained on the figure.
The figure tilted their head ever so lightly, their mouth curled up into what Jax could only describe as a curious smile.
His eyes barely moved when the figure raised something from their cape towards him.
A set of guns.
A red desert eagel.
A blue glock.
Their arms crossed, one over the other as the barrels pointed directly at him. The figure's mouth began to move in a single word.
One that Jax could make out easily.
'Bang'
The breeze blew a little too hard this time, causing their cape to lift slightly into the air.
And Jax saw the persons body shape.
The stray Caine was after... was a girl.
Jax stayed where he was, the girl that had sat at the building's edge across from him long gone by now.
He was on his second cigarette, pondering, strategizing.
So he found the stray a few hours after Caine told them about it. Lucky for him. But what now?
He at least found out their gender. The stray was a girl, and a tiny one at that. When she stood up to walk away she looked to be barely 5 feet tall. Maybe even shorter than that.
She didn't give him a second glance as she walked away and out of view. And Jax didn't make an attempt at chasing after her.
If she was as sneaky as Caine said, she would've been gone long before he made it down to the street level.
So he just stayed where he was.
With another crack of his neck he stomped on the remainder of his cigarette and walked down the fire escape on the side of the building.
When he made it down his phone began to ring.
Without looking at it he placed it to his ear.
"Hey, did you find anything?" Zooble spoke on the other line.
"The Jester's a girl." He simply said.
"W-Wait, you found them?!" Zooble shouted. He could hear Ragatha yelling in the distance.
"Maybe, I can't be sure but she had the guns Caine said." Jax began walking through the district.
"Well... did you get her?" Zooble asked.
"Not yet." Jax was already done with the conversation.
"Okay then tell us where you are, we can help and-"
He hung up.
Jax wasn't going to let them take away his prize. Screw the days off, but he wanted that bonus. So he was doing this alone. He was already nice enough to tell them about the stray's gender. But that was it.
This was his mission.
The stray was his.
"Oh man, that was close." The girl said as she took a bite of a big fish shaped pastry she had gotten from a food stand on the street level.
She was sitting on a different building's edge as she stared at the people below.
She chewed comically. "That guy was creepy! He didn't even flinch when I pointed my guns at him. Maybe he is suicidal... Or high... Or both!"
The girl tilted her head and then let out a manic laugh.
"Oh boy, I am tired. I need to sleep for the next 20 hours." She pulled off her hoodie to reveal a red and blue jester hat, the gold bells jingled in the wind as she took a other bite of her pastry.
Her red and blue pinwheel eyes stared up at the night sky.
"...Now I'm bored." She said narrowing her eyes at the moon.
The rest of the night was a bust, there was no second sight of the Jester. Jax almost regretted not rushing over to the building she was at when he had the chance. But then again he wouldn't have had time to party a little if he did.
Jax tilted his head up after sniffing a line of coke. He wiped his nose and let the next person at the club get their turn.
He leaned back on the leather couch as a group of girls gathered around the men.
He didn't know anyone there. He was just buying shit for everyone. As the strangers partied around him and he waited for the high to kick in, he thought of the Jester again.
'Bang'
That had been very childish, she could've just shoot him if she wanted. He could've easily avoided the shots but that wasn't important.
What is her deal? Why is she just... Lurking around the factions? What does she want?
Whatever it is, Jax didn't particularly care, but more information would mean a higher chance of finding her and getting his bonus from Caine.
As the coke high hit, Jax noticed a random girl, not too attractive, but it will do, he simply grabbed her and took her to one of the empty rooms in the VIP section to get some stress relief.
He will worry about the Jester tomorrow.
Morning came and Jax sat up. He pinched the bridge of his nose. After a moment to compose himself he noticed he was on his couch back at his apartment. He was shirtless and alone.
After he fucked that random girl he simply left the club and went back to HQ.
He doesn't remember much, never does. Nothing he ever does makes an impact in his life enough to be remembered.
But then the Jester came up.
'Bang'
He will find her today for sure. Besides being the Circus's best killer he was also the best at tracking thanks to his heightened senses.
The sooner he brought her to Caine to sooner he can go back to his normal schedule of missions and partying.
A knock at his door made him tilt his head.
He headed over and opened it slowly.
Zooble and Ragatha stood there with annoyed looks.
"What?" Jax said coldly.
"You hung up on me yesterday! Did you find her?" Zooble asked.
"No." Jax said.
"Well... Just tell us where you were, Zooble and I were going to search tonight and-"
"Not happening." Jax looked at them with a slight glare.
"You can't just withhold information like that, we're supposed to be a family." Zooble glared back at him.
"We're not a family, we're strangers who were forced to live together. We're barely aquaitances." The jackrabbit said with a hint of amusement.
Before Ragatha could annoy him again he narrowed his eyes at the both of them. "The Jester is mine, the money is mine, so back off."
With that he closed the door on them.
After that the purple rabbit went ahead to take a shower, he figured the jester would be near the casinos again, so he was going to scout the area again tonight.
After a light breakfast of a snort of coke and some coffee he headed to the gym to train a little. If the girl was good at close combat he wanted to warm up before the night arrived.
Nightfall arrived and Jax was not very pleased.
It had been 4 hours with no sighting of the Jester, Jax was getting annoyed even if he didn't show it. He had gone to several roofs around the gambling district and nothing.
He was almost half way done with a pack of cigarettes, he was in need for a bump but he couldn't risk losing his inhibitions when looking for her. Especially if they were going to fight. He figured she wouldn't come with him willingly.
The jackrabbit stood on one of the tallest buildings, looking down to the people. He let out a puff of smoke into the air.
The fur on the back of his neck suddenly stood up.
"You shouldn't smoke so much, it'll make your teeth yellow."
His eyes narrowed into slits as he pulled his knife out of his jacket chest pocket, quickly swiping sideways to the person who had stood next to him without him even noticing.
"Woah!" The figure simply leaned back, the knife barely missing her chest.
He admitted to himself he panicked for a second. But the sudden presence startled him. Caine wasn't joking. This girl was sneaky.
"Not a fan of yellow teeth jokes? Come on it fits so well!" The girl laughed.
Jax managed to compose himself, he stood up from his guarding position while still holding his knife.
"Jester." He said.
The girl who still had her hooded cape on tilted her head like a curious cat.
"Yeaaaaah?" She smiled.
Jax didn't react to her weird behavior.
"You're coming with me." In a millisecond he lounged at her, slicing around while she comically avoided each strike like a rubber hose character.
"At least buy a girl a drink first!" She continued to laugh.
Jax didn't react.
He managed to land several cuts on her cape but nothing else. He wasn't trying to kill her, but he figured a few cuts would be fine, Caine shouldn't mind as long as she was alive.
"Hey watch the goods!" The Jester shouted as Jax knife cut some strands of her hair.
"Then stop moving." He said coldly.
"But where's the fun in that?!" She laughed again, a bit more manic.
Fun? This was fun for her?
"I'm getting hungry, so let's take a break yeah?" The Jester said cheerfully.
With a quickness that startled even Jax, the Jester did a few backflips around him, kicking his knife off his hand in a swift motion.
While he was distracted trying to get another knife from his waist band, the jester got low to the floor, swiping at his feet, causing him to fall backwards hard.
He opened his eyes and attempted to get up but a pair of metal barrels were greeting him.
The jester was straddling him. Her guns pointing straight at his face.
"That was awesome! Where did you learn how to fight like that? Did you watch a YouTube video?" She smiled down at him, she was slightly out of breath.
"What?" He said dumbfounded.
The girl used one hand to take her hood off. "I wanna learn that, the way you dance with knives!"
Jax finally saw her face.
Her short black hair was messy from their fight, her red cheeks contrasted with her stark white skin, her eyes...
Jax's expression did not change. But he stared.
Striking pinwheels irises stared back at him, red and blue just like her weapons.
He broke the trance quickly.
"Get off me." He said.
The girl tilted her head at him. The bells on her jester hat jingled lightly. The barrels of her guns pressed on his forehead.
"Why? Am I heavy?"
She weighed nothing, but that was not the point.
"I'm taking you to the Circus." He said.
Her eyes sparkled. "The circus?! There's a circus here?!"
Jax looked at her like she as she biggest idiot in the entire world.
The jester put her guns inside her jester hat like some type of cartoon character, but she didn't get up. With no threat in the way Jax could've easily pushed her off him, but he was still confused at this girls behavior. There was definitely something wrong with her.
She placed both hands on his chest and grinned a sharp toothed smile at him.
"Is the circus where you learned how to use knives?" She asked excitedly.
Maybe Jax could use this to his advantage.
"Yes." He answered.
"Then I wanna go!" She jumped off him quickly.
Jax got up quickly, he reached for his backup knife to defend himself... But found nothing.
He looked back, his pocket was empty.
"Is this good?"
He turned his head to see the Jester had grabbed not only his backup knife but also the one she had kicked off him a while ago.
She was twirling around, a really bad attempt at copying his movements.
"Give those back." He said without a hit of emotion.
The jester shrugged and tossed the knifes at him. He easily catched them.
"When are we going? I wanna see the circus!" She tugged at his jacket.
What was wrong with this girl? This is who Caine and the other factions wanted?
"We're going there now." He said as he grabbed her arm firmly and dragged her down to the fire escape. He didn't want to run any risk at her running away.
"I'm hungry, can we eat something first?" She said.
Jax didn't respond, he just wanted this over with. He will take her to Caine, the ring leader will take her name, give her a new one, make her part of the circus and give him his bonus.
He completed this mission in record time. If only he could feel any type of pride in accomplishing something.
Regardless, he was almost done. This girl was skilled, that was for sure. He won't admit it to anyone but he lost, he could've been brain matter on the floor by now if the jester wasn't so... stupid.
He didn't mean it as an insult, the girl was seriously fucked up in the brain.
"Bunny, hey Mr. Bunny! You're hurting my arm!" He heard her complain but continued dragging her along.
"I said..." Click. "You're hurting my arm." The cold barrel of a gun pressed between his shoulder blades.
Jax stopped moving, he slowly released his grip on her arm and put his hands up in defense.
They stood there for a while in a dark alleyway with no one around. They were so close to the Circus HQ. Just a couple more blocks. He couldn't risk her getting away so he said something he thought would help.
"I think there's cotton candy at the circus."
The barrel pressed harder.
"You're not a very good liar." The jester said in a weirdly normal voice, not the high pitched tone she had before.
Jax felt a cold sweat run down his back, he started to reach for his knife, but the gun retracted, she began to bounce next to him.
"So, are we almost there?!" She grinned and looked around.
Caine is going to be so disappointed. He thought.
As good as this girl was at sneaking around, combat and gun handling, she was going to be practically useless for missions with her weird ass personality.
"Just around the corner." He said as he continued to walk. The jester following him closely.
Jax never looked at her as they walked, as stupid this girl was, he was still purposely taking her to a place where she was about to be stripped of her name, of her soul. Bounded for eternity to be at the beck and call of a madman for his childish entertainment.
But at least he will get his bonus.