Advent Of A Gunslinger

Meanwhile…

After he explained the situation to everyone on board the ship, Axel would lead Kora, Vido, and Roseanne into Klugetown so that they could retrieve Tony before anything bad happened.

Or at least, that was the plan…

Unfortunately for them, by the time they got to the minotaur’s home…

“Pa? Pa!” Rose called out as they entered, but got no answer in reply.

“What in tarnation…” Axel swore under his breath, then shouted, “He was right here, dadgummit!”

Kora took a quick sniff to try and pick up any scent but to no avail. “...Our large bovine man would be extremely easy to find within his own home. He ain’t here, everyone. I’m certain of it.”

Rose slammed her fists on the kitchen counter. “Dammit’tahell! Where could ya be, pa...I ain’t gon’ lose you like I lost ma…”

“...We’ll find him,” Axel did his best to comfort the minotaur gal, “I’m sure of it. There’s no way he could’ve gone far. Nor do I think anyone’s got the cojones to try and fight him. He’s way too tough fer that.”

She didn’t respond to him at all. Instead, Roseanne simply walked away in silence, still trying to search for her father.

That’s when Vido called out to everyone from another room--the bedroom to be exact. “Mira! Come look at this!”

Everyone rushed over to the bedroom where Vido had called them from. Once they arrived, they could see…

Blood. And lots of it. Splattered in areas across the room including the bed and walls. This indicated that some sort of struggle occurred.

“Wh...what?! Who did this?!” Rose screamed in horror as she looked around the room, “I’mma kill ‘em! I swear!”

Kora took a moment to sniff the air. “The blood is extremely fresh. Whatever happened here, happened within the last half-hour. We have to be fast in order to catch up with them.”

Vido had flown out of the room, and back to the front of the house to search for anything that could present itself as a lead. Ever the observant one, he was usually first to spot anything out of the ordinary. “Hrm…”

“What’s up, partner?” Axel asked, approaching him, “See somethin’?”

“I do,” Vido replied as he picked something up off the floor. A dragon scale--yellow. “I think we know who did this. But the question is: How do we find him?”

The trail had run cold from this point. There were no other signs or evidence that could point them in a particular direction. With no other options, it seemed as if they were stuck completely.

Or were they?

All of a sudden, Axel spoke up. “I got an idea. Let’s get goin’.”

“Go? Go where?” Vido asked.

“Gather up the others and have ‘em follow me to the Saloon.” Axel spread his wings. “I got a hunch about where we can locate our missing oxman. Hurry and get yourselves over there.”

The gunslinger didn’t wait for a response. He immediately took off into the air, and flew towards the saloon where he knew Tony used to work. That was the best possible place to look considering the fact that it was probably the only other location that the minotaur likely travelled to. Not to mention…

“That dadgum yellow-eyed feline works there too. I bet he’s the one behind all this. Sumbitch gon’ pay if he’s involved…”

While he wasn’t one to jump to conclusions, the evidence was stacking against his enemy. If Mio was behind this in any capacity, then he’d have no choice but to follow through on a duel with the tom.

It wasn’t long before he would finally land at the saloon. It was just as lively as before with the patrons gambling, eating, and talking just like usual. But Axel couldn’t spot the tomcat anywhere.

“Dammit. Where is he? Maybe...”

His eyes shifted to one of the doors near the end of the dining room. He got to thinking, and realized that the tom and the dragon were probably holed up in an employee’s only area of the building--likely away from patrons.

He looked behind himself, and could see Vido, Kora, and Rose on their way to the saloon. To avoid rousing suspicion, he kept a cool head, and simply walked through the crowded building to the door he was trying to get to.

Luckily, nobody cared enough to point out the fact that he was going someplace he probably shouldn’t.

Just as well, his allies weren’t too far behind.

“Which way did he go, ya’ll?” Roseanne asked as they stepped inside the building.

Kora sniffed the air again, catching the gunslinger’s familiar scent towards one of the doors. “This way. I suspect he knows where he’s going. He’s moving rather swiftly.”

“Ay, vamos.” Vido said, flying ahead of them, “Let’s get a move on. Can’t let our guy fight this alone.”

With everyone following him like clockwork, Axel was confident he’d be able to hit multiple birds with a single stone: Find Tony, get answers from Mio, collect the bounty, and continue his quest--all in one go.

“Alrighty. Now where am I headed?”

He took the steps and found an office with the word ‘Manager’ across the window. This had to be the place he was after.

“Bingo.”

With careful precision, he flew over to that door, and grasped the doorknob in his claw. A slight jiggle let him know that it was unlocked, so he opened it up with his other claw ready to draw his pistol…

Only to find nothing. It was a bog-standard boss’s office with nothing special going on. Or so he thought. One look down at the office’s stony floor let him know exactly what had occurred.

“...Blood…”

Indeed, there were drops of blood that formed a trail through the room, and ended at a bookshelf. But there were no signs to indicate that the shelf was actually a passage.

“Dammit,” he muttered, “The hell could they have gone to?”

It wasn’t long before the others had managed to catch up to him. Kora was the first to enter the office with a relieved sigh. “There you are, Lord Remington. I was worried you may have run off too far ahead of us to keep track of--”

Rose would interrupt the she-cat’s words. “Didja find pa?!” she questioned desperately, “Is he around here?!”

“No dice,” Axel replied with an annoyed huff, “Trail’a blood ends right around here at this here shelf.”

Vido titled his head, and flew over to it. “Hang on a second. I know about these things.”

“What thangs?” Axel asked.

“Shelves often function as secret doors,” the griffon explained, “I know this from all of the reading I do. It’s fairly common in literature.” He pushed some of the books out of the way, and knocked on the wooden panel at the back of the shelf. When he tapped it, it resulted in a hollow, empty sound which indicated that something was behind it. “Yup. I’m certain of it--Rosa.”

The minotaur gal looked over at the shelf. “Huh? Yeah?”

“Think you can bust this down?”

Roseanne took one look at the shelf, and stretched her arms. “...Step back, ya’ll. I’mma need some space.”

At the same time, deeper into the building…

As it turns out, the facility where ponies were taken to be neutered was just below the mine shaft. The same one that Axel had been captured, taken to, and narrowly avoided losing his testes.

Down there, right at that very moment, a certain minotaur would start to regain consciousness.

“...Huh? What in the hell…?” As he opened his eyes, Tony started to process what was going on around him.

Chiefly of which was the fact that he couldn’t move.

With a rattle of metal, as soon as Tony tried to move his arms, he found that he was bound to a chair. “What--who--?!” he started to panic, and tried desperately to free himself. Sadly, it was all for naught as the restraints--which were curled bars engraved with red runes--were actively absorbing his physical minotaur strength. Thus, he was essentially pinned down to the seat. “Who did this?!” he shouted, unwilling to let his fear overtake him, “Git out here and deal with me to my face ya cowards!”

“Fair enough,” a voice said as it entered the room. Soon enough, the source of the voice would make itself known, a golden dragon wearing a suit. “Sorry I had to do this. But you were in the wrong place at the wrong time…”

“I knew it!” Tony roared, “The entire time, I knew there was something off about you. And where’s Mio? Is he here with you?!”

Rongu looked away with a regretful snarl. “He’s...not present at the moment. I’m rather confused about it myself. But no matter.” He looked at the minotaur once more. “I’m afraid that this is the way it has to end, sir. It’s nothing personal. Just business.”

“‘Just business…’” the minotaur repeated in a low voice as he trembled within the confines of the chair, “I thought dragons were supposed to be a proud, honorable people. But you? You’re nothing of the sort. You’re a disgrace…” His faith in the situation was at an all-time low. With no hope of being rescued, all Tony could think of was his daughter. “...I hope she don’t come lookin’ for me down here. The farther away she gets, the better.”

“Oh spare me the bullshit,” Rongu protested as he stepped up to the restrained bull man, “The rest of the dragons are fools. Simpletons. They’re the ones who need a reality check. No motivation, no desires beyond friendly companionship with other races like those pretty pastel ponies.” He scoffed, folding his arms. “I don’t have time for such insignificant dribble.”

“Then what do you want?” Tony asked while glaring at the dragon, “What’s the point of any of this?”

From a nearby table, the dragon would grab a set of files. “...Let me show you.”