• First bounty

    John Crowley entered the bounty office on the red planet a few thousand miles away from earth. There was a small dust storm outside, so his long coat fluttered a bit in the wind. He was a large man, a martian born, and raised, he wore a hat, brim down, always hiding the upper part of his face, his long, grey trenchcoat came down to his feet, when it had belonged to his father it had been a deep jet black it had faded over the years of its use on the old cattle drive. It, like most cloths of the pioneers had a built-in temperature delta. He walked up to one of the helodreman behind the desk. “hey bill any new bountys for me?” he asked in a quiet, but inherently threatening voice, low, and gravely he had been known to intimidate some half-assed kids playing at being out-laws intosurrender by just speaking to them.
    “yeah I do this guyssssss got a 5 grand bounty on him.” The lizard-man said, handing him a wanted poster.
    “damn 5 grand that’s pretty high for one guy, whod he kill, some society b***h?” he asked, betraying his hatred for the upper crust of society “what ever he did musta pissed off someone with pull with the sherrif”.
    “he robbed a bank, and killed the daughter of the governor, and her three body guardssssss, he wasssss the only whossssss facsssssse they ssssssssaw, thatsssss whay they want him alive,” the bounty office proprieter replied.
    “typical, well if I didn’t need the money id tell the guvner to go ******** himself.” He said, spitting into the floor, and kicking the large amount of red soil over it “I’ll be seein ya later bill”. He took the poseter and walked out of the office, a felidan walking in past him. The poster revealed that he was last seen in a helodreman town 30 miles east. He walked back to his small house, and got his weapons together: his fathers old .357 magnum, a Benelli semi auto 10-guage, and an M4. He loaded his spark ammo (high density, adhesive shells that let out a shock that scrables the central nervous system of the target, rendering them unconcies.) and set out to his motor cycle. He built his bike from the ground up, it was large enough to carry him, and 2 others on the seat, and was regularly used to drag his bountys back to the office. It had large, off road wheels, as well as 2 large saddle bags in which he carried extra ammo, a first-aid kit, and general survival gear, axes, extra rations etc. he always had his combat knife on him, for when he needed to use it, wich was rarely. He started up his bike, and it let out a roar, most engines ran on hydrogyn, but the engines themselves, when they got as big as the one he put on his bike were quite loud, other smaller, or more expensive ones were practically silent. He hit the gas and was off, almost instantly travling at 60, a comfortable cruise for him.

    10 minuts later he was on the ground, sprawled out after a crash. As his mind regained control he noticed a felidan on what was apparently an expensive bike circle around him. He got up and brushed himself off, and reached for his shot-gun. He was curious as to why another bounty hunter was attacking him, he knew she was a fellow hunter because she was the same one who entered the office after he had. “Why the ******** are you attacking me?” He asked aiming the fire arm at her. She didn’t reply, just turned the bike towards him. He squeezed off a couple shots, but she jumped off the bike and flipped behind him. He had to dive to the side to avoid getting a 1 ton slab of steel to the face. he was on his feet again quickly, and spun to force the large gun towards his assailent. She grabbed the barrel, and forced it away from her while swinging at his face with her razor-sharp claws. He knew that these were fearsome weapons, and had seen them disembowel a man through leather jacket. He let the shot gun go, knowing that if she decided to use that over her claws he would have a marked advantage. She couldn’t have been big enough to use the 10-guage without getting knocked on her tail. She just cast it aside, and lunged at him. He drew his knife and tried to stab it towards her throat as she tried to force her claw into his jugguler, they caught each others hands, and were in a power struggle. She was surprisingly strong for a cat-person, though he knew he could easily over-power her. ”I’ll ask you again, why are you attacking me?” he asked.
    “bill gave me the bounty to take you in, 9 grand.” She replied in an angry voice.
    “I aint done s**t, im a bounty hunter too, wich means bill is putting out hits he knows he cant pay, or atleast not legally.” He replied “I never trusted that ********, he has sleeze written allover him”.he flipped so he was on top, and sprang to his feet, drawing his magnum, and shooting her in the chest, knocking her out. Hhe quickly tied her up, and waited for her to regain conciseness. He couldn’t kill her it was in the bounty hunters mantra, and carried with it a death sentence no hunter shall kill another hunter.

    A couple hours later she regained conciseness. “tell me,” he began “are you a hunter or not?”
    “yes I am.” She replied her eyes mere slits inside of white orbs.
    He pulled out his badge, revealing that he is a bounty hunter, and accessed the record hologram on it. This showed all bountys the hunter has taken, and any crimes they will have done to deserve a bounty. It showed up blank on his warrents section. “bill played you.” He said.
    Her eyes became normal, resembaling a humans, and her hair lowerd into its normal position, and she lowerd her eyes ”im sorry” she began, then she began struggling in her bonds, and became angry again”im gonna kill that ******** son of a b***h!!!!” she yelled.
    He grabbed his knife, and cut her loose. “well have fun with that.” he said.
    She got up “wait,” she began look I feel bad about attackin you, do you mind if I come along, and help you out”? he looked at her mulling it over. She was a few inches shorter than he, had blue eyes, and long white hair pulled into a pony tail, and tied with a blue bow. She wore a tight blue shirt, and pants. After seeing how well she had fought he decided to let her accompany him.
    “allright,but the first wind of betrayal and your dead” he said “my name’s john by the way”.
    “I’m Mary”. The cat-girl said.
    They rode into the small town, and found a hotel to spend the rest of the night. They walked up to the helodreman working the counter “we’d like 2 rooms for the night.” John said.
    “that’ll be 100 buckssss ssssir.” The green scaly man behind the counter said.
    “that’s ******** extortion!” john said.
    “we could always just get one…” mary said, snuggling in lose to john. John pulled away.
    “that’s what were going to have to do.” He said, paying the green man 50 dollars.
    They walked up to the room, and john quickly fell asleep. When he awoke mary was still asleep, he looked at her, and only just began to realize how beautiful she really was. He went downstairs to get some food and think about why he decided to trust her. It wasn’t because she was a hunter, he’d been cheated out of his bounty on more than one occasion by another hunter. Trusting people wasn’t like him. He couldn’t figure it out. He continued to ponder it over his steak.


    Part 2.

    He was finished with his steak a few minutes later, but stayed at the table thinking. Mary came down and entered the dining are, clothed in a white shirt, and long blue jeans. She sat down at his table.

    “So what did you order for me?” she asked.
    “Nothing” john replied, getting up from the table.
    “Where are you going?” asked Mary.
    “Cleaning my guns, when you’re done come and get me we’ve got some trackin to do.” He replied walking towards the room. He still didn’t trust her, especially now that he wasn’t willing to kill her, he had heard of certain chemical perfumes that were supposed to have effects on people, such as lowering their aggressiveness, or lowering their inhibitions…
    His thoughts were interrupted when his door was kicked open, he instinctively flipped the table he was behind over, granting him concealment. As the intruder opened up with a machine gun he snatched his revolver off the ground where it landed, and dove into the bathroom. He loaded his revolver with some of the lethal rounds he had brought, and peaked out while the intruder was reloading. He wore a black ski mask, and black baggy clothes. He was clearly incompetent, and was taking awhile to reload. John spun out from behind his cover, and squeezed off a shot, blowing off his assailants trigger finger, and quickley blew out his knee-cap. He walked over, and unmasked his attacker. It was nothing but red dust underneath. As he pulled the mask off it lost its solidity, and melted into a formless pile. Just then Mary came sprinting up the stairs. “What happened are you ok?” she asked.
    “Yeah” he said
    “What the hell is that?” she asked
    “I have no idea.” He said, assembling his guns, and walking out the door “come on we gotta finish this bounty.” They walked out of the hotel, and down the street, and asked the first helodreman they met if they had seen the person they were tailing; he pointed them to the east. They set off, and it wasn’t long till an old defense tower came into view. It was exceedingly large, and had an auto cannon on the top, probably a .50cal.
    “that’s gotta be where he is.” John said.
    “why are you so sure?” Mary asked.
    “They said he set off on foot, there’s nowhere else within walking distance.” John replied.
    “What the hell is that anyway?” Mary asked.
    “An old defense tower, a small one, not much of a reason to build a big one around here. Hell this place is probably never seen a corvida battle group, in fact there’s been rumors that the entire species has been wiped out, though I suppose most people who wander into their territory gets wiped out still… oh well were not here to figure that s**t out…” they entered the tower, trying for stealth, but the floor creaked with every step. They reached a corner, and john peaked around. He saw two men sitting at a table, the one that was facing him was their bounty, and the other had his back to them. He spun around with his shot gun, and put a stun round into the back of the mystery man. The bounty had a .9mm glock in his hand and began firing. John dove behind the kitchen counter to evade the gunfire. Mary was hit in the chest and went down. John looked up and saw their bounty run out the door. He looked at Mary, she was bleeding helpless. He could just leave her and go after the man, hell he’d done it before, survival of the fittest that was the hunters creed. In the end he couldn’t bring himself to let her die, he dragged her back to his bike, and bandaged her up to stop the bleeding, and hoisted her onto the bike. He knew she would be stable for a couple hours, so he went back for the man he had shot, to see if e knew where his buddy was headed. He tied him up to the back of the cycle, and set off for the helodreman town. When he arrived he went to the doctor’s office, and walked up to the lizard that was apparently running the place. “Hello, and welcome to Slink’s office, what can slink do for you? “The lizard asked, seeing the wounded felidan being dragged into the office.
    “She was shot I need you to patch her up.” He replied
    “Lay her on the table in the back please.” He said, beginning to examine her. About an hour later he came out, a little blood on his smock “she’ll be fine, you got her here in pretty good condition I didn’t have to do much, just remove the bullet, and apply a bit of keltro oil to speed the healing.” He said
    “I’m glad how much do I owe you?” john asked.
    “I just need enough to reimburse for the oil, and a bit of food so...60 bucks.” The lizard said.
    “Hmm your not like most other helodremans are you, I noticed you don’t carry you s’s either.” He said
    “No I do regret how the others are but I try to be good, charitable, hell it’s why I became a doctor, I see things more important than money.” He said “I just wish I could get outta this god-awful town.”
    “Hmm well how much would it take to get you on retainer if I were to ask you to come with me on my bounties?” john asked, knowing a good, honest doctor was hard to come by.
    “Well if you feed me and don’t mind me helping people wherever we go that’ll be enough for me.” The lizard replied.
    “done.” John said offering his hand to be shaken. The lizard accepted it as the captured out-law awoke. “Well well look who’s awake so are you gonna tell me where your little buddy went or am I gonna have to get…persuasive.” John asked in his intimidating, low tone.
    “I’ll tell ya it won’t do ya no good anyway, he’s headin into the demondontin territory.” He said.
    “The what? Quit babbling and start making sense.” John said, feigning anger.
    “ahh one of the ignorant ones… heh the demondontins are the ones who exterminated the corvidans, its their fault that the corvidans attacked our society in the first place, and that they stopped, buying you a few years at most, he him backing the winning side the demondonts are superior even to the eutherians as soon as you all fall they will destroy the savage tribes of the north…” with this the outlaws voice trailed off as he expired.
    “What the ********” john exclaimed why’d he just die? Slink walked over, and checked the body
    “He poisoned himself”. He said
    “Wow that’s impressive you didn’t even have to draw blood or anything how do you know?
    “There’s a syringe in his hands.” He said.
    “Oh…, well I suppose id better get comfortable and wait for Mary to wake up…” john said, sitting into a chair next to the door.


    Part 3?

    When mary awoke the first words out of her mouth were “where am i?”
    “your in my former office” slink said, packing up his supplies.
    “I brought you here you were shot” john said.
    Mary got up “wheres my bike?” she asked looking out the window, and not seeing it.
    “Jackson took it.” He said, referring to the man on the wanted poster “he went into corvida territory, I’m sorry I decided to save you instead.”
    “oh uh no problem, but you owe me, how about you pay me back by taking me on your bounties?” She asked.
    At this john raised one eyebrow”…okay” he turned to the doctor “hurry up we gotta go”.
    “why?” both cat and lizard asked at the same time.
    “you don’t here it? Smell it? Theres something different than this town coming. Something violent, and I think its coming for us…well me.” John said ominously “hurry and pack up your stuff doc.”.
    “how do you know that?” Mary asked.
    “trust me I’ve got a sixth sense about these sort of things.” John replied. They all piled onto his bike, and left town quickly. A few miles away from the town bill was selling bountys in john stopped the bike, and began taking off his clothes “slink throw me some of your pants, a shirt, and a coat.”
    “why john that’s a little…odd…” he replied.
    “look im gonna have to disguise myself if we want to get the drop on bill.” John explained, “so throw me some cloths.”
    “sorry if they don’t fit too well.” Slink said.
    “no problem, I was going for the whole poor wanderer look anyways.” John said, tearing up the coat a bit, and throwing dirt on himself.
    “HEY awww man you ruined it.” Slinksaid.
    “don’t worry ill pay you back ill meet you guys in bills office.” The bounty hunter said. Mary jumped off the bike, and embraced john, kissing her lightly on the lips.
    “be careful.” She said, as she quickly turned, and started the bike up and dove off with slink. John counted himself lucky that she had rode off befoe looking at him carefully. She hadn’t noticed the slight reddening of his face. he began walking to dust crown (I finally named the town yay.) and he couldn’t figure out why he cared so much about her… before he knew it he was in town. He walked towards the bounty office, and sat down pretending to be a beggar. The small crowds of pedestrians ignored him. He didn’t expect them to give him anything…things were hard enough in town no one had enogh for charity. He checked to make sure his revolver was loaded discreetly. He saw his allys approach. “spare some change?” he asked, looking up and winking. They walked past him, and enterd the bounty office. He heard voices from inside.
    “where’ssssss Crowley?” bills voice asked from within the office.
    “he ran off into corvida territory, I didn’t persue him.” Mary said.
    “really? Hmm that’sssss too bad… “ bills voice again. Followed by a pause.
    “hey now no need to pull out a gun can’t we talk about-“ slink was interrupted by a gunshot, a .9 mm by the sounds of it. John was already up, and drawing his revolver. He barged through the saloon-style door, and fired his weapon. The stun rounds hit their marks, and bill was knocked out. Turning around his attention to slink he kneeled by him, he had a small hole in his chest. Lizard men were usually more resilliant so he didn’t panic.he grabbed a couple of pens off the desk, and used them like tweezers, removing the bullet, then bandager him up. Finally he turned his attention to bill. He tied him up, and sat him in a sitting position on the floor, and waited for him to awaken.