Bliss Town, Compass State

Confederacy of Territories

Rain drizzles down on the formerly beautiful village of Bliss Town. Rain patterns against bricks of faded colors and monuments withering from neglect and chaos. Water travels through the crooks of broken cobblestone, like blood through veins. Trash coasts through small rivers in the uneven concrete alleys and through the cracks and potholes that desecrate formerly dark roads. Streetlights of yellow and white hues illuminate the falling rain and the crude murals of soldiers in gas masks and cities covered in green clouds.

Overlooking all this is a clock styled half-moon, and a multitude of connected cracks in the sky, stretching as far as the eye can see, appearing as frozen lightning in the sky. The dark clouds and light near the cracks are distorted, and some cracks fade away while others stretch. The cracks are always shifting, always shrinking or growing.

And yet, despite the oddity of the cracked sky, it does not faze the four rabbit thugs armed with rifles. Their focus is at the entrance to the alley.

Rain makes a multitude of tiny thumps against their van, and the lights from their vehicle's headlights shine against them, stretching their shadows across the grungy cement.

The leader of the group, a pale brown rabbit with slick dark hair and dark eyes takes a deep breath and looks at his wristwatch, his face scrunched and shoulders tight. This is Rolland Longstaff, and he would rather be playing Uno than getting soggy.

"Two more minutes and we're gone," says Rolland.

And as if the universe heard him, a rumbling and sputtering engine catches their ears, and a new vehicle turns into the alley. It is small and rundown with patches of rust, and its dim lights shine on Rolland's group.

The vehicle sputters towards them, its exhaust making gunshot-like sounds. Its brakes screech and the vehicle stops when it is only a few feet away from Rolland's group.

The rundown car opens, and a pair of scrawny, dirty, frazzled rabbits come out. They are Kerry Thatcher and Jude Caden; complete stereotypes of junkies that grind Rolland’s gears yet make his wallet happy.

“Wassup, you got the stuff cuz I got the money and I need the Reel. Like bad, man. Real bad,” says Kerry.

Jude nods spastically. “Yeah. Same here. Same here. I got money, too. I need Reel Sight really bad.”

Rolland looks at his partner, an all-black rabbit whose brown eyes bring the only different shade to him. “Get it out.”

The black rabbit, Dacre Ridge, goes into the van, and the two other thugs' pace around, clutching their weapons tight and shivering in the cold wet torment as they scan the area for trouble. The first one is Cyrus Clarkson; he has mostly white fur with dark hair, but his ears, cheeks and the area around his eyes are covered in black fur. The other one is Shae Ray, who also has mostly white fur; but his muzzle and ears are covered in brown fur, and his hair used to be brown, but he dyed it a delightful shade of gold.

But with Dacre distracted rummaging through the van, Rolland scrutinizing Kerry and Jude, Kerry and Jude being unfocused messes, and Cyrus and Shae looking everywhere but up, they fail to notice a rabbit shaped silhouette on the roof. The shadow slides out of sight when Shae turns to their direction, almost looking up.

Finally, after some long seconds of rummaging, Dacre approaches Rolland with a locked metal tin.

“About time,” says Rolland to Dacre. Then to Kerry and Jude. “Show us the money.”

“Right... Money. Money,” mutters Kerry.

Kerry and Jude pull out ziplock bags full of wadded bills and old coins, and Rolland sneers.

“You serious?” he says.

“It's all we have,” says Jude defensively.

Rolland looks at Dacre. “Count them.”

Dacre roughly grabs the bags, plops them on the hood of the rundown car and counts. As he counts, Rolland keeps his eyes on Kerry and Jude. Cyrus and Shae continue pacing around.

“One's got twenty-seven bucks and fifteen cents. The other has twenty-three bucks and five cents,” says Dacre.

Rolland nods with puckered lips. “Impressive. Combined, that's worth one pill.”

Kerry steps forward aggressively, leading to Rolland snapping his rifle up, which in turn brings the others to aim their weapons at the two junkies. Kerry and Jude step back with their hands raised and their bodies shivering.

“Come on, man. Those pills aren't worth that much,” says Kerry.

“Mama Bear is adjusting the prices to account for inflation,” says Rolland.

“They're not worth forty dollars each!”

“You're right. They're worth fifty each. Now you get one pill, or you drive off. What's it going to be?”

Kerry looks at Jude. They nod, gather their money in the ziplock bags, and slowly drive away in reverse. Rolland scrunches his brow and flips the safety off his rifle, and the others ready themselves.

The vehicle keeps reversing until it is at the edge of the alley. Then the engine revs with sputters and pops, and the tires squeal as the rundown vehicle zooms towards them, kicking up water.

Rolland's group scatters and the rundown vehicle hits the van. Glass shatters, the van bobs as both sets of headlight's shatters, and the thugs shoot at the rundown vehicle, piercing its hood and shattering its windshield. Kerry and Jude have ducked, avoiding the bullets, but their seats are decimated and the rearview window pops loose while smoke rises from the engine. And while Rolland’s group is distracted, a blur leaps from the roof and kicks Shae into the van.

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Shae crumbles to the ground, creating a small splash, and the remaining thugs snap around as the mysterious figure rolls to his feet and draws a wooden sword that glows in the night. White dots and swirling shades of purple and brown cover it, like a galaxy trapped in wood. A faint aura surrounds him as he uses his wooden sword to whack the guns and thugs.

Muzzle flashes light up pockets of the dark alley, and the cracks of gunfire echo in the sleeping town. But the Mysterious Figure is too fast and skilled for them. He always seems to be one second faster.

The whacks from his sword knock their aim off and he uses great speed to deflect and counter punches, kicks or clubbing attempts.

As the fight carries on, Jude takes the tin that fell to the ground and jumps back in the rundown vehicle.

“Go! Go! Go!” orders Jude.

The rundown vehicle speeds backwards, fishtails in the road, and drives off, tires squealing and exhaust and smoke rolling in the rainy air.

Meanwhile, the Mysterious Figure beats down Dacre and finishes off Cyrus. And when he turns to Rolland, he has his rifle aimed at him.

Rolland pulls the trigger, but the Mysterious Figure pushes the rifle up with one hand and rams the wooden sword into his gut. Rolland collapses on his knees, wheezing for air.

Then a rocket strikes the van.

The van explodes, sending the Mysterious Figure and Rolland flying into the brick wall, where they crumble into a muddy puddle. They cough and sputter, and they get on their knees, but before Rolland can recover, the Mysterious Figure grabs him and slams his head into the brick wall.

Rolland goes limp, and the Mysterious Figure stands up. The light from the fire illuminates him, revealing him to be a male white rabbit in his mid-twenties, thick brown tuft of fur on his head, and bright blue eyes weighed down with black bags. His ratty clothing is colored in lots of blue. This is Jayson Hopper, the Hobo Warrior Bunny.

Jayson looks across the street and sees a silhouette of a rabbit figure on the rooftop holding a bulky, homemade bazooka.

Jayson's eyes narrow and the figure runs away. He sheaths his sword in a junker-sheath on his hip and gives chase.

Jayson runs across the street while sirens accompanied by police lights approach in the distance; the fiery smoke rising from the alley serves as a beacon for them.

Jayson jumps on top of a parked car and uses it to give him a boost for his next jump, bringing him to grab a windowsill, and he quickly climbs up to the roof.

Once Jayson gets on the roof, he sees the menace with the bazooka leaping to another roof. He growls irritably and continues the chase, skillfully jumping from rooftop to rooftop.

Despite the head start of the lunatic, Jayson is able to quickly catch up. He runs faster, jumps faster and longer than his target, and when he is close enough, he takes a flying leap and tackles them. His body hits a mass of muscle and metal, and the pair roll across the rooftop a few times before Jayson is kicked away. Jayson manages to roll to his feet, but when he does, he finds the barrel of the bazooka pointed at his face. Behind the homemade bazooka, is the bane of his existence; the menace of all menaces; the turd in the punch bowl: Bazooka Bunny.

Her real name is Lexia Hartwick, and she is the same age as Jayson, but unlike Jayson, she is a genetic anomaly. She is half hare, half harlequin rabbit, making her taller and more muscular than Jayson (and frankly just about everyone else in Bliss Town). She has a white left side, a brown right side, brown striped ears, brown shoulders, and brown right hand, thick fur around her neck, and long, rough white hair. She is wearing a homemade armored corset, gauntlets, metal boots, hip guards, and a dark gray skirt.

“Your weapon isn't loaded, Lexia,” says Jayson.

Lexia snaps her bazooka down on Jayson’s head like a club, but he swiftly blocks it with his cosmic wood sword, bringing the rain and Lexia to briefly slow down around him as an aura flicker in and out of existence.

“There's more than one way to use a bazooka, Jayson.” says Lexia after the aura vanishes.

Jayson shoves the bazooka away, and Lexia swiftly draws a pistol, but Jayson grabs it and forces it down. The pistol goes off and strikes past his foot. He swiftly follows with an elbow to Lexia's jaw and twists the pistol out of her hand. She stumbles with heavy steps, clutching her hand and cursing up a stop, and Jayson throws the pistol away, fuming.

“What's wrong with you!? Are you trying to kill me!?” says Jayson.

Lexia snaps up with a maniacal grin, her bazooka now loaded and aimed at Jayson.

“YES! NOW DIE, FIEND!” yells Lexia.

Lexia fires her bazooka and Jayson dodges the strike, but she was aiming at Jayson's feet, so the rocket explodes on the roof near them, leading to their corner of the building to collapse. The pair tumble together with burning debris raining down and dust rolling into the alley. As they fall, Jayson uses Lexia as a shield and rams her into the neighboring brick wall with a winged DNA strand painted on it. Bricks break upon impact, and they crash into the dirty alley. When they stumble up, Lexia tackles Jayson into a dumpster and draws a knife.

Lexia delivers swift, vicious swipes, but Jayson evades and deflects most of them with his sword, getting very little cuts, despite Lexia and the rain slowing down around him inside the aura bubble.

Jayson manages to disarm Lexia after a few swipes, but she disarms immediately after and kicks his weapon away. Then the pair exchange swift, sharp blows in hand-to-hand combat. Punches, kicks, ramming, tackling, rolling over each other, biting, clawing, grappling, cursing and screaming at each other as they roll around in filthy alley water. The two rivals are so engrossed in their duel to the death that they do not notice a figure swooping down and approaching them with heavy steps.

Only when they are choking each other do they realize that someone is watching them. They pause. Slowly look up, and they are yanked to their knees just to have their heads slammed together by a middle aged, male bald eagle, ragged with age and broken dreams. He is dressed like a rugged traveler and is absolutely tired of their crap. This is Derrick Marlow.

After slamming their heads together, Derrick throws them back down, leaving them to rub their heads and groan in pain as they are consumed with disorientation. As they lay in the filthy water, Derrick grabs Lexia's bazooka and glares at the pair.

“Get up and meet me at my nest,” orders Derrick.

Then he flies away, and Lexia and Jayson watch him go, still tenderly rubbing their heads. Their rubbing gradually stops, and they glare at each other with the clock-styled moon and the cracks in the night sky providing some light for them.

They gradually get up and momentarily lean against each other, but they use the connection to bounce away from each other and find support from the dumpster or brick wall. Several seconds of recuperation pass, and they pull away from their spots, with Lexia putting her hands on her hips to glare at Jayson while he picks up his cosmic wood sword.

“How come he didn't take your stupid wooden sword?” asks Lexia.

Jayson wipes off his weapon with his sleeve, despite him being soaked and the rain still drizzling.

“Maybe because my wooden sword doesn't blow up stuff,” says Jayson. He sheathes his weapon and gestures for Lexia to lead. “By the way, ladies first.”

Lexia scoffs and walks forward, passing Jayson with heavy steps. “I was going to go first, anyway.”

“Good. I don't trust you being behind me,” says Jayson.

“Ha! As if that's supposed to hurt my feelings,” blurts Lexia obnoxiously, and she inspects her hand smugly as she continues forward, putting a little sway in her steps as rainwater rolls off her. “Me being in front is actually a good thing for you because you are too weak to do anything to me! Even with low blow sneak attacks.”

When Lexia doesn’t hear a retort, she turns around and sees Jayson is gone, causing her to frown.

“Wow... What a prick.”