Advent Of A Gunslinger

“What?” the bulldog boss continued, “You didn’t honestly think I’d let you off so easily after you came in and terrorized my home and my fellow diamond dogs, did you?” She let out a wheezing chuckle. “No way! You’re gonna hafta abide by the rules of the trade if you wanna get whatcha want.”

Unfortunately, the gunslinger couldn’t think of anything. There was nothing on his person that could realistically sate these one-track minded dog-folk. Or was there? “Here’s an idea. How ‘bout I don’t kill yer bitch there for the bounty and we walk away from this?”

“Tempting, but that ain’t gonna fly,” Kolasi shook her head and decided to make an offer of her own. “How about this…” She looked up at her hyena companion. “Ejei. Go see if any of our prisoners have the ‘Remington’ name or recognize it at all. If so, bring them back here.”

Now bandaged up from her wounds, Ejei responded to the order with a silent nod as she walked off towards the room that contained the pony slaves.

In the meantime, Axel looked over at Stratus with a set of furious eyes. “I’ll deal with you later, partner. Don’t you ever do nothin’ plumb loco like this ever again, ya hear?”

“Y-yes sir!” the finch replied quickly, “I-I promise. I won’t do this ever again! I was completely in over my head.”

“Yer goddamn right you were,” Axel said with a sigh. “Blech. Guess that don’t matter now. I’m just…hopin’ they here. Any of ‘em.”

Kora meanwhile was glaring daggers in the direction of the bulldog lady who returned the glare with a bemused grin of sorts. She then turned to her companions and whispered, “She is most certainly…peculiar. Don’t you think?”

Since diamond dogs had an acute sense of hearing, their choice of words would come into play heavily when it came to how they approached such a topic.

Vido simply responded with a sigh. “Hmph. Ain’t like we got much choice, compadres. We don’t want to over-extend ourselves and fighting a losing battle.”

“Now that’s rich,” Axel thought to himself, choosing to keep his cards close to his chest in this scenario. “What happened to all that confidence from before, friend?”

“Oh don’t worry,” Kolasi spoke up from her desk, “If you’re willing to be civil with us, we’ll be civil with you. After all, our beef isn’t with you at all. It’s with those yellow-bellied softies that live in that comfy-cozy capital of theirs.”

“...I see,” Axel replied aloud. “I’m callin’ malarkey on that. She seems like the type’a gal who’d do anything’ta gain the upper hand over somebody. Dog, pony, or whoever.” Having spent some time around gambling tables growing up, the hippogriff gunslinger was more than capable of calling someone’s bluff. There was most certainly something suspicious afoot, but he couldn’t quite put his bullet on it.

Soon enough, Ejei returned with a pony on a leash. A pegasus mare with a faint, dull green color scheme. Although, her standout feature was her wings. They were the traditional rounded shape like normal pegasi wings. Instead, they were more sharpened and shaped akin to a…

“Hippogriff?!” Axel’s eyes shot open. Was this really her? No, he had to play it safely and cautiously before he jumped to conclusions. So first, he removed his facemask and exposed his face to her to see if she recognized him…

“She said that she’s familiar with the Remington name, so I brought her out,” Ejei explained while tugging on the leash to help bring her closer, “Is this who ya’ll are lookin’ for?”

The mare slowly opened her eyes…and as soon as she saw Axel’s face, her jaw opened up. Life slowly returned to her face as tears immediately started to well up within the corners of her eyes. “...Brother…?”

“Sis…?” Axel muttered quietly, “Is that…?”

Kolasi was quick to interrupt their little reunion, clearing her throat. “Ahem. If you’re interested in taking her, then as I said before, ya’ll are gonna have to give something in exchange for her.” She looked in Stratus’ direction whilst licking her lips, “Maybe leave that little cutlet behind in exchange?”

“Wha--?!” the finch squawked and tried to plead his way out of the situation, “M-Mr. Remington, please…”

Kora and Vido fell silent. This ultimately fell to Axel’s shoulders and what he decided to do. If this was his sister--which seemed very likely by this point--then they wanted him to be the one to make the decision as they didn’t feel it was their place.

At last, he spoke up. “Why don’t we settle this with a good ol’ fashioned--”

Snap.

CHK-CHK!

Kolasi snapped her fingers, and multiple diamond dog guards appeared from the shadows of the dark hallways. Three on each side--each holding rifles in their hands.

“What the--?!” Vido wasn’t quick enough to draw his rifle and even if he was, he was outnumbered

“How?!” Kora hissed, “I couldn’t even smell them!”

“That’s a diamond dog trick,” Kolasi replied, “Now then. Are you going to make a trade, or should I make one for you?”

“Shit…” Axel thought to himself as he quickly put his mask back on, “How we gonna deal with this now? Even if I did have bullets, that wouldn’t solve this here kerfuffle.” Their options were limited--and Axel’s sister was right there. But despite being so close, they were far--so far away from escape that everything seemed to be crashing down around them in that moment.

That’s when Ejei decided to throw her two bits into the situation. “Boss, honey. If I may…be so bold.”

“Oh?” Kolasi looked at her subordinate, “What did you have in mind?”

She tugged upon the minty-green pegasus’ leash once more and continued. “We ain’t gettin’ much use outta this one no how. I say we let ‘em go…for a small fee.”

“Hm--alright then, what do you intend to take from them?” the short bulldog woman gazed upon Axel and his crewmates, “I can think of a number of different things we can use them for…”

“Pssh. I’m just interested in one of ‘em in particular,” Ejei looked in Vido’s direction until they locked eyes. “The griffon boy. He’s got somethin’ I want.”

As soon as he was called, Vido tilted his head. “Por que no? Me?”