Pawblo's Story (Final Space AU)

Chapter 2: Doing The Hustle

I woke up in the morning like usual. Breaking my alarm, taking a shower only to have the shower head fall on top of me again, get dressed, brush my teeth, and do the usual hustle.

"Hustle" meaning my usual routine of stealing.

I steal from the usual places. The deli a few steps away from here, an old factory that the Lord Commander uses to make freaking laser guns; all the usual places.

My routine then consists of eating. I eat whatever I have back at my shelter in the mini fridge, but it's been a few weeks since I've run out of packaged sandwiches. And that primarily means that I have to sell most of the things I stole for some cash, hence using the cash to buy some food.

So I grabbed all my recently collected treasures and headed to the marketplace. At least now I'm earning money like an honorable citizen.

And if you're wondering.

Yes. This is around the part where things get really interesting.

I was in line, standing and waiting to trade in these old weapons for some credits. My corner of the eye spots this really pissed off dude walking down. From his clothing, he looked like a bounty hunter to me. He even had a scar and everything.

All thoughts of me thinking he was cool vanished when he cut through the middle of our line and pushed everyone aside.

I was one of the few that witnessed this, as I was close to reaching the stand. But my big fat mouth had to yell.

"Hey, man! How about you take your pills and apologize to these people?!"

The bounty hunter stopped dead in his tracks and turned around. His eyes full of anger directed towards me.

Towards ME.

He started walking towards me. The dude yelled back "So, you really think you're gonna stand up to these people? Against me?"

As the scared defender here, I started just crawling back, terrified that he was going to end my life right here in front of everyone.

I then pulled out this glass bottle I had that was filled with pepper spray mixed with sparkling water at his face. The result was.....muy caliente.

The bounty hunter was blind for a few seconds, screaming in pain. He fell to the ground, so I jumped over him, running down the alley.

I felt alive after doing that, believe it or not. From that moment, I knew I wanted to be troublemaker.

Well, that is until I was stopped dead in my tracks by the bounty hunter. He threw an electrical rope at me and I fell to the ground, tied up from my waist to my legs. Resisting was no use, as every time I wiggled around, sparks would burn against my body, and the pain was unsettling.

I stayed still until I heard footsteps. I look up to see the bounty hunter, now facing me directly with a laser gun pointed right at my face.

"From this day forward, you'll remember to never mess with Terk."

I stared him down. "I'm not afraid of you, Terk. Just watch, karma will get you back for this."

Terk just scoffed and replied, "What do you know about karma? You're just a pathetic piece of street meat, just like the rest of 'em back there."

He then presses the gun against my chin. "You're nothing."

I close my eyes, waiting for the inevitable.

And then I hear Terk getting punched in the face.

Karma just arrived, Terk.