Donny, the Granbull

“Yo, Rune! Pour me another one, will ya?”

“You’ve already drunk three, Donny.”

“You want the money or not?”

Shaking her head, the Banette grabbed a bottle from behind and reluctantly filled my glass with its contents. “But this is the last one, you got me? Can’t have you pass out in the middle of the bar. Again.”

I could tell she was being serious, but all I could do in response was let a hearty chuckle out.

It was always a good time to be in here with all my peeps. Well, I was technically by myself, I didn’t bring any companions or anything, but everyone else knew me by now. Perks of being a regular.

“Donny! Come here to play with us, will ya?” A Primeape shouted across the bar, looking at me with a grin.

‘What are they playing? Oh, cards.’

“Why? So you can cheat like always and keep my cash, Steven?” I answered playfully. His expression quickly shifted to a nervous laugh, like he’d been caught. The other two mons around the table turned to him skeptically, and I kinda tuned out whatever happened after that.

It was a nice, chill day.

…Until she appeared.

A Gothitelle I knew too well entered the bar. She was obviously out of her element, but she didn’t care.

‘Please, don’t come to me. Please, don’t talk to me.’

But of course, I couldn’t get my wish. She sat on the stool next to mine and stared at me, waiting for me to acknowledge her.

Too late to act like I didn’t know her.

“Edana.” I greeted her.

“Star.”

I flinched at that, unconsciously tightening the grip on my glass. “D-Don’t… Don’t call me that, Edana. You know my name.”

“You know why I’m calling you that.”

“And you know I’m going to say no. I’ve left that life a long time ago, and I’m not coming back to it, I don’t care what you say.”

She raised an eyebrow to me, as if challenging me. “I convinced Sun about this, you know?”

“You convinced Sun- I mean… Brian?”

“Mhm. The pay is good, even when split.”

“Whatever, I don’t care. I already told you I’m not gonna do it.”

“Donny, Donny, Donny…” She turned to the side, facing me. “How long has it been? Five years? Six?”

“Six years and four months.” I hated that I knew the answer by heart.

“Yeah, that.” She took a sip of her drink, I didn’t even see her order anythi-

‘Wait. That piece of shit took my glass. Ugh… Why can’t things just be fine for once?’

“I know you’ve asked yourself if you’re still fit for the job. Well, why not test it?”

“Edana, for the last fucking time. I’m not going back. We broke the team for a reason.”

“I’m not saying we should reform the team, just one last job, for old times’ sake.”

I sighed. If I knew anything about Edana was that she was not going to stop until she got what she wanted. And apparently, today she wanted me. “How much?”

“Is that a yes?”

“No. It’s a question.”

“Four fifty million total. One fifty for each.”

‘Shit. That… that is a lot.’

“Who?” I lowered my voice to not gather attention. If I was really going to do this, I needed to be careful.

“Nuh uh uh! I can’t risk you ratting us out, can I now?”

“You know better than anyone that’s not how I roll.”

“Eh, it’s been six years, you could’ve changed.” She finished her- my drink. “All I need is a yes, Donny.”

I squinted my eyes at her, I didn’t know what she was playing at but I didn’t like it one bit.

At that, she grinned. “Or should I say… Star?”

Of course, things were going too well for ol’ Donny here. A new place, a calm life, all that didn’t matter now.

“If something goes wrong, I’m personally killing you… Moon.”

She smiled at the nickname. “Glad to hear. The hideout, at sunset. You still know where it is, right?” I nodded. “Good. See you then.”

She patted my head (yet another of her infuriating teases that tries to belittle me), and left the bar. Meanwhile, all I could do was stare at the now empty glass. Why now? What was Edana trying to accomplish with this? And how the hell did Brian accept? He’s always been even more antipathetic to this than me.

With a sigh, I paid Rune and left home. Arceus knows I needed a damn break.

---

There I was, in the hideout. Basically, a random cave that we found one day and decided to use as our base. I wasn’t happy to be back, the memories this place gave me were all good, but they quickly got replaced by the memories of what used to happen when we left it.

“You too, huh?” Brian was there, having arrived before me. The way he asked that wasn’t really disappointment, but rather, some form of pity.

“Hello, Sun.” I leaned against a wall, trying to clear my head for what I was going to do soon.

“You don’t have to use the codenames, Donny. We’re not out there yet.” The Heatmor commented. “It’s weird to be here again, isn’t it?”

“You can say that again.” Edana still hadn’t arrived, so this was the perfect moment to ask. “How did she convince you to do this?”

“The same way I got convinced to join this team years ago. I don’t have money, I have to get it somehow, and I can’t wait for any job interviews.” As I imagined, he already regrets agreeing to this.

“Hm.” I look away. I’m not really sure if I want to ask this, but I guess I will. “Louis doing okay?”

“Don’t. Don’t bring him up.” The sudden seriousness makes me flinch, but I kinda expected it. “He doesn’t know that I’m doing this, if that’s what you mean.”

“You’re never going to let it go, huh?”

“Dude.” He gave me a look with a simple yet powerful sentence behind it. ‘Shut up’.

“I… Sorry.”

It was normal that he wouldn’t want to talk about his husband, especially not with me. Someone paid to make Louis a target years ago, and I took the job without remembering he was my partner’s boyfriend. I… messed him up. Badly. If it wasn’t for Brian appearing at the last minute, I probably would’ve followed through with the job entirely.

That incident was what broke the group, honestly. Being a hitman for hire is easy until the target is someone you know. Not to mention it was the first job where I just felt… bad. Louis wasn’t someone special, he wasn’t a thug, a drug dealer, someone rich, he was just the average mon trying to live their life. And because of me, that Diggersby was now crippled for life.

The awkward silence stretched for a bit longer before Edana finally appeared. “Alright! We have no time to lose, so here’s the summary.” She fiddled with her bow for a second while she looked back, making sure that nobody was nearby. “A Garchomp, called Anne, if I remember correctly. She’s on her way to the inn next to the river, that’s where we’ll corner her. She doesn’t suspect a thing.”

“All the way through?” Brian asked, there was a bit of fear in his voice, but he didn’t back out.

Edana nodded. “Okay, wait.” I had to intervene, there was something I didn’t like about this. “Why all the money? Who is this Anne? Is she important?” The last thing I wanted was a repeat of Louis. My mentality changed a lot since then. If we’re going to kill someone, they better be deserving of death.

“I imagine so, the one who contacted me was none other than the runner of the bank.”

At that, Brian chimed in. “Wait, what? That Mismagius guy? Do you think Anne is a thief or something?”

“Don’t know, don’t care. A job is a job and with this pay, I’m willing to risk it.” Edana being as careless as always. “Now, c’mon, let’s get going, she can’t take that much longer to get to the inn.” And she bolted off.

Brian and I looked at each other for just a moment, but it was enough to figure out that we were thinking the same thing.

‘I hate this. How did I used to do this so easily?’

Whatever the case, he ran off after Edana. I could only follow.

It took us a while to get near the inn. We had to sneak around to make sure not many mons saw us. At least it was close to nighttime, the lack of light would help us.

We stayed hidden in the alleyway next to the building, it was a good place to watch our surroundings.

“Do we know where she’s coming from?” I asked. If we knew what side of the street we should be watching, we could plan around it.

“Didn’t tell me. But whatever the case, I think Sun is gonna be the scarecrow.”

“Oh, what? Why me?”

“Because I have a plan. The river is nearby, we could use that.” She then explained the plan to us, quick and easy, something to be done in just a moment, and then get out before anyone could notice us.

It took some more minutes, but eventually, we saw a Garchomp coming from… the street closest to the river, good. Brian got ahead, and the plan was on.

As I said, it was simple. Brian scared Anne towards the river, which then led to Edana using her telekinesis stuff to throw her into the water, immobilizing her while submerged.

But drowning her would take too long, and that’s where I come in, to do the finishing blow. I looked down, Anne was panicking under the water. Ages ago, I wouldn’t have hesitated to attack. But now… Things felt wrong. The fear in her eyes told me that she didn’t deserve it, but if I didn’t get her out of her misery, Edana would surely just take the risk and drown her.

“Star, I swear to god, c’mon!” Edana whisper-shouted. A look back told me Brain was shaking, waiting for the moment this was done so he could run away and never think about this ever again.

So with a gulp, I dug in. Ice fang, right on her neck. The taste of blood was noticeable, even with the water cleaning my mouth after my bite. Speaking of the water, it was getting tinted red, a much darker red than I anticipated. As the last movement of the Garchomp faded, all I could do was stare.

Was it really worth it?

A psychic grip suddenly grabbed me, and pulled me out of the water. Edana was already out of the way, and she was dragging me with her.

“Star, what the hell were you doing?! Do you want to get caught or what?!” She said as she let go of me, back at the alley next to the inn.

I didn’t have the mental energy to respond. She sighed. “I’ll pass by your place tomorrow with the money.” She turned to leave, but before that, I grabbed her arm.

“Don’t ask me to do this ever again.” And before she could retort, I left.

It was going to be difficult to sleep tonight.