Advent Of A Gunslinger

All the sudden, Fleche had a devious grin on her face as she sniffed the air. “Ever heard of a molotov cocktail, lads?”

“I have,” Mio replied, “They’re utilized specifically for causing fires and to flush enemies out of hiding. What makes you bring them up?”

“I can smell a bit of alcohol above us,” Fleche replied as she tapped the ‘ceiling’ of the underground passage. “Yup. That’s definitely some aged Blue Bison.”

Axel’s eyes shot open upon hearing that name. “Blue Bison--I think I remember now--pa used’ta have that in his wine cellar, didn’t he? I’ve heard that stuff is harder than Duskshine.”

Fleche flew down and nudged Axel with one of her hooves. “And that’s why pa never allowed ye downstairs. You were far too young to know about that stuff just yet.”

Roseanne had her gun aimed at the ceiling. “So…we just need’ta ignite it, don’t we? Sounds hella simple to me.”

“No no no!” Mio quickly sprang up, and pushed her gun to the side, “Let’s…not do that. We need to make a more calculated ignition. One that they won’t recognize until it’s too late. Then, we hightail it back the way we came until a hole is blown open in the floor.”

“And that’ll be our entry point,” Axel added, “In that case, I’ve already got myself an idea. Learned it from the days I spent on cold, lonely nights in the middle of this here desert.” He flew up, and grabbed some pieces of wood from the supports that were a part of the underground foundation of the building.

Fleche tilted her head while staring at her brother with a concerned frown. “...Desert? Axel--just what have ye been doin’ all these years?”

“Survivin’,” the hippogriff responded as he started to rub the wood together in his claws. “Barely--but I managed just enough’ta get by.”

His elder sister fell silent as she looked away--unable to face him after learning more about how long he spent on his own. From her perspective, the role of the older sister--no, the oldest sister had been undermined by her inability to keep her brothers safe for all these years. Now, she was only down to one.

But she wouldn’t let that stop her now.

“...How I wish I could’ve been there for ye. So I’m gonna make up for that lost time by never lettin’ ye out of my sight again.”

Mio had calculated the best place to light the fire by tapping the wooden beams in order to listen for a hollow sound, then a muffled one to indicate the placement of large objects like beer kegs. “Right here. If you can light a flame in this spot, we’ll create an explosion just big enough to blow a hole in the floor.”

Chk.

Just then, Axel had lit one of the sticks ablaze thanks to the friction he had applied. “Alrighty, then. Stand back, ya’ll.”

Everyone cleared the path as instructed, and Axel jammed the lit piece of wood into the support beam. Soon enough, it caught fire and was consumed by a fume of red with black smoke flying upwards and out.

Immediately after, Axel also flew back a few paces, and sure enough…

BLAM!

A perfect hole would appear as the ceiling was blown open. A fire could be seen ravaging the floor within the building and actively eating away at the wood.

“Alright. We better move quickly,” Mio remarked once the dust settled, “We won’t have much time before their goons realize we’re here.” He was first to move, climbing up and into the room over and around the fire.

“I’ve got yer back, brother,” Fleche flew ahead, looking to take charge of Axel’s safety, “I won’t let ye down like I did last time. Never again.”

Axel didn’t refute her claim. He simply flew after her and entered the room.

Roseanne grabbed a piece of wood in order to lift herself up and walked into the room--as expected, it was a wine cellar filled with loads of aged brews that were now all up in flames. “I’ll cover the rear, ya’ll. Keep goin’.”

With their plan in motion, the group ran up the stairs to the upper level of the building. As it turns out, they were all in an abandoned building with no sign of any life.

“Good so far. Continue as planned,” Mio whispered as they approached the entrance of the building they were in. And right outside…they could hear gunfire, followed by thuds of bodies dropping to the ground.

BANG! CHK-CHK! BANG!

“Yeehaw!” A familiar yellow Abyssinian was outside, shooting a lever-action rifle alongside her white-furred companion. “We went ahead and cleared a path for you, Mio. Zula supposedly fled towards the end of the city!” she shouted in between firing another shot and sending a deer down to its knees.

“North!” Leona shouted, “Get going before they realize you’re here!”

“Appreciate you both,” Mio replied with a nod as he took out his revolver. “This way, everyone. Let’s go.”

Everyone took after the tom, firing bullets at various deerfolk that stood in their way along the way. The rapid-fire of Mio’s trigger paw was compounded by Roseanne’s loud shotgun that tore through bodies with its powerful buckshot. Fleche countered any attempts at ambushes with visceral punches and kicks, shedding the blood of her enemies as they tried to appear from around corners and from within barrels.

This paved the way for Axel who dove forward and fired the blundergat at its rapid pace in order to destroy all forms of cover the dderfolk and other Klugetowners were using and shred their bodies to pieces from the neck down.

Just then, Fleche noticed a glint of green fire from the corner of her eye! “To ye right, brother!”

“...!” Axel dove out of the way of a green fireball that incinerated the ground he was previously standing on. Its source?

A familiar, hellish canine face.

“...You can’t kill me.”