Post by Cupcake on Feb 4, 2017 7:16:48 GMT
Late Summer 1879
They were gathered at the edge of town, though Rori wondered idly how much time they’d have before the local sheriff was called. She shaded her eyes from the sun by adjusting the brim of her hat, the light winking off the silver as her horse shifted, subtly uneasy at being stopped in one place, and being so close to the curious beast the man who styled himself as The Archbishop rode. The horse’s coat was golden in color, not the same as a palomino but closer to a gold coin. She’d heard him tell Gordon it was an Akhal-teke from Russia in that grating, damaged voice of his and there was a moment where she almost drew her gun and shot him dead. He hadn’t been there the night that the Nunnery had been destroyed, when true evil had walked those halls seeking an artifact of some sort. She had told Masaru that there had been ten of them, and now she was the only one left and it was true, though not perhaps in the way most people would have understood it. They had cried, begged for their lives, trading the secrets of the church for a chance to live. Rori on the other hand, had made a desperate and singular deal and she wondered even as her fingers touched that silver coin and she was so close to her revenge she could taste it, cloying and thick on her tongue if it had all been worth the price.
His shadow fell over her and her horse shied a moment, well trained as it was and her hand gripped the coin as she looked up at The Archbishop with malevolence in her amazing green eyes. She felt rather than saw Masaru line himself up for a clear throw of his knives and relaxed by small degrees. Then came that voice again and all the tension was back.
“What business does the Devil’s Concubine have with this poor town? You are the last person I’d think would sell herself out in the service of another poor soul’s plight. You defile everything you touch.” A slight sneer rode his lips as he crossed his arms over his thick chest. “Or is this because you heard He is behind all this? That Robber Baron, the man that you sold your purity to, that you debased yourself before when you forswore your vows? I should…”
“You forget yourself, Archbishop. It wasn’t I, who cavorted with his Russian mistress while our humble home burned, torn apart over greed and blasphemy. I did what I had to do, to set myself here. My look is toward the future, saving these innocent folk from his evil shadow. I seek to give them justice.” She paused, her full lips twisting wryly. “I don’t require or need your approval. I just need your gun to protect these innocent folk. Or have you decided to break another vow yourself?”
She half expected him to, if she was honest. But he’d narrowed his eyes and looked to Mia, then moved to set himself where the plan called for him - in the bar, in town, waiting. Legacy moved next, for a man of his size he was impossibly nimble and silent, putting himself out of sight so quickly. Rori, Masaru, and Gordon then made their way to the town’s main street, leading their horses as they walked and looked around, seemingly at leisure though they knew they were quite a spectacle. She saw what she expected in short order - a group of armed ‘deputies’ and the town’s weak Sheriff who had been bought by the very man she sought, who was responsible for all of this.
The group spread out to prevent them from passing and Rori obliged them, her gaze on the Sheriff who was sweating nervously. The man to his right stepped up and introduced himself as Lucian, he was dressed as quite the dandy even though Rori could tell he knew how to use his guns. The Sheriff piped up in a weak voice that Rori and her group were welcome here, but needed to leave their guns. She raised a brow, flipping up her serape and exposing the holster there, she casually unsnapped the strap and drew the gun, holding it in front of her butt first.
“You want our guns? Well I don’t mind that, we’re all law-abiding citizens here, just like you Sheriff. We certainly don’t want to cause any trouble,” she waggled the gun towards him. Then her tone changed, went dark. “Go on, horse.” Without touching it her horse trotted out of the way, Gordon and Masaru moving to tie theirs up at the saloon before returning to flank her. “I’m sure you’ve got no problem coming right over here and taking my gun. Considering how well armed you all are, right?”
Wulf then came up through the alley to stand near the group, wild looking with his hand on the handle of his throwing axe. Lucian stepped up to Wulf, standing in his way; when he spied the small gold cross he was wearing over his dingy shirt he mocked him, telling him God wouldn’t be helping him today. Instead of being offended however, Wulf spoke up in a slightly higher pitch. He pointed at Lucius while he still laughed as Wulf steadily stared at him. “Don’t worry, I’ll say a prayer for you.” A pause, and Lucian began to squirm at the intensity of the gaze laid on him. “Well. Maybe a little prayer,” as he brought his thumb up to meet the forefinger and indicated the size.
Masaru Inoue snickered under his breath, but Aurora’s gaze never left the Sheriff’s face. “You sure you don’t want to come and get my gun? It’s right here.”
He shook his head as Lucian frowned, the Sheriff was shaking like a leaf and making them all look bad. He stepped forward and tried to take Rori’s gun but something made him stop and look her in the face before he did. She was smiling and it made his blood run cold, so cold he shivered.
“I know who you cowards work for. I just need one of you to pass on a message for me and…”
Lucian had had enough and made a signal, smiling nastily as he told Rori that the conversation was ‘over’. Gordon rolled his eyes. “Why did you go and touch your gun? This was a nice conversation and you had to go and ruin everything.”
The man smirked at Gordon, pointing at him as if to indicate something…
...but nothing happened. He frowned and looked up at one of the rooftops, Gordon turned and saw a figure standing there with a rifle in his hands, and then just as suddenly the man toppled off the roof, bouncing off the saloon sign and hit the street with a distinct crunching sound. In his spot stood the seven foot tall Legacy. All hell broke loose then as the flunkies sought to draw their guns, and two of them fell where they stood, victims of the precision shooting of Darien Hacaga who was on the roof opposite of Legacy.
Rori flipped her gun around and shot the man next to the Sheriff who dove out of the line of fire. Other men came running and Masaru drew his knives and with a surgeon’s precision began to slice his way through the line, heading towards the saloon. Suddenly the large glass window shattered as two men came flying out, dead of broken necks before they’d even hit the glass, The Archbishop making his own presence felt. Gordon Fury stood his ground, planting his feet and none of the bullets seemed to be able to find him no matter how many guns were pointed his way. He all told shot eight, smirkingly calling his number up to Darien who slid down the rain gutter to the street and grumbled that he’d only gotten seven. Masaru came up wiping his knives on his shirt before looking around at the bodies lying haphazardly in the street and he looked satisfied as he remembered the story Mia had told them.
Lucian was nowhere to be seen though Rori saw movement under the large wooden sidewalk that ran along the front of a row of shops. She holstered her gun as Wulf joined them again, having chased down a few of the hired guns and dispatching them. Rori crouched down as Gordon kept his guns ready, and laughed indelicately as she saw who was hiding. “Well it seems we found the Sheriff. You come on out of there, I’ve got a job for you.”
“Why I do declare, it’s Johnny Rebel as I live and breathe. I’d heard reports that you were either dead, abducted by aliens and getting probed, or you had wandered in off the street at some random government facility and been taken in as a mascot. Yet here you are, in the Iron King Tournament swinging your fists and kicking tail like you were never away in the first place. Look at you. Now look at me, and look me right in my eyes and swear to the very Devil that this time you’re going to give me an actual fight instead of refusing to fight me because you felt you were being used by a man who most likely was devoured by his own scheming. You said then that it was because I was family, and I took you at your word. You passed up an opportunity then that a lot of people would kill for.”
Rori had her back to the camera, though it was clear she had her Phoenix Rebirth title belt secured around her waist, pinching in the flowing nature of her gauzy babydoll dress and inching that hem up higher on her shapely thighs.
“I didn’t ask you to do that back then, and I’m damn sure not asking you to do that now. Because of Legacy I know you better than you know you, Rebel. I know things about you that you forgot, I know how hard you always fought to be the best, to keep that spotlight firmly on you or when you teamed with him, on Simply Erased. You are frankly one of the few “old guard” left, who remember how it used to be in this business. You were there back then, and you hung around and watched as everything changed in the space between heartbeats. You never backed down, and you never gave in, at least when it mattered to you.
You knew how to be mercenary too, when the money was tight or you’d drank too much of your savings away. I remember that as clearly as I remember you standing up at Legacy’s side at our wedding. You’ve been like family, Johnny.”
She sighs and turns around to face the camera, light glinting off the gold face of her belt as the hem of her dress swirls with the motion. Her expression is calm, but her amazing green eyes are sharp as she focuses on the camera.
“You know what’s about to happen, right? Pankration Rules, you’d think that would give you an advantage over me, because you’re a brawler Johnny Rebel, you’re a fighter to your core. You’d think that would give you a leg up and in a lot of cases you’d be right. Had you drawn anyone else, you’d likely be able to waltz up to your bookie and double down a bet on yourself to win at some really decent odds and I know how you are about money.
But you didn’t draw anyone else Johnny. You drew me.
You’ve seen me at my best, and my most brutal. Moments I’m proud of, like winning my Phoenix Wrestling World title. You’ve also seen me at my worst, when I lost my temper after that first Pentagram and ended a man’s career by bashing his head into the concrete over and over and over.”
A delicate shrug showed that Rori wasn’t bothered one bit by her past actions, and she put her hands on her hips, fingers splaying on her belt.
“The point is, I have something I want to keep Johnny. Something I need to do, on top of that. Legacy tried to do it, defending his belt through his course in Iron King and he didn’t. Now it’s my chance, and I have this fire in me that doesn’t consume, it drives me. I know it sounds so cliche, that I burn but I don’t fall to ash but here we are and I need to go through you to reach the next step in my path, to move to the next match, one closer to being the Iron Queen and still keeping my Rebirth title.
I know you understand why I have to do this, Johnny. I know I don’t have to tell you to Believe, either. Just know, that no matter what, when it’s over I’m sorry it had to be you. I can’t and won’t hesitate, Johnny. You know that about me, and that I’d never disrespect you that way.
Even if it’s cold comfort afterward.”
Late Summer 1879
Masaru and Wulf ended up having to drag the Sheriff out, The Archbishop having joined them then and he pointed and said they’d brought the devil with them. Rori shook her head. “No, that’d be the man you work for, Sheriff. I’m going to let you live, as long as you don’t do anything stupid, understand? You need to deliver a message to your boss. You tell him first that Aurora Jansen sent you, say to him the price hasn’t been paid. You tell him, that if he wants this town, wants the gold up the mountain in that mine, wants the lives and souls of these innocent folks? He’s going to have to come here and take them from me. Can you remember that?”
Terrified, the man stumbled as he repeated her words and Rori sighed and removed her hat, taking a folded note from behind one of the silver conchas that decorated it and she handed that over to the Sheriff. He looked at it without unfolding it and she nodded. “You give him that, too. You tell Bobby Barabbas that everything comes due, eventually. You tell him, Rori is waiting.”
They gave him a horse and watched him ride out, the sun starting to dip low over the town. Masaru spoke up, bringing Rori out of her daze. “Think he’ll come?”
“Of course he will. There’s a reason people say no one cheats Barabbas.”
Word Count: 2468