Advent Of A Gunslinger

“You think I’d actually leave before confirming something as important as this?” the dragon scoffed, “What do you take me for?”

In a flash, Axel drew both of his guns, aiming them at Rongu, to which the dragon would continue to look unfazed. At the same time, Roseanne would aim her shotgun as well.

“I wouldn’t recommend that,” he said, casually folding his arms, “While you were busy keeping the old fart company, I’ve been releasing gasses into the room. Fire one bullet, and you all go down in flames.”

His trigger claw hesitated. The concerning part was the fact that there was no gas smell in the air whatsoever.

“Impossible,” Mio retorted with one of his hands in his pockets, “Our noses are impeccable. If there was gas in this room, I would be able to tell right away.”

“That’s because it’s odorless, fool. Don’t believe me?” Rongu would then breathe a bit of fire into the air…

FWOOSH!

Which resulted in a massive wall of flames that separated him from everyone else.

“HHHH!” Mio hissed and leapt backwards.

Axel put his gun away, and scowled beneath his mask.

“Goddamn yella coward!” Rose yelled, “Face us like ya got a pair ya weak excuse fer a dragon!” Sadly, that was all she could do. Those flames were burning too hot for anyone to reasonably touch them.

“Oh and by the way,” Rongu looked at Mio, “Since you didn’t do your job properly, I have all the information I need to report you to our higher-ups. If I were you, I wouldn’t show my face around here again. Not unless you want it bitten off…”

“...Bastard. You’re…” Mio grumbled to himself, unable to formulate a response. Any extra words would be a waste of breath at this point.

And Rongu knew this. “Save your pointless rabble for the mercenaries that will be after you. I bid you all adieu.”

Tony would weakly whisper to the three of them. “...Ya’ll...get...behind...me…”

FWOOOOSH!

The dragon gave a more powerful breath of fire, causing it to mix with the gas and form a massive fireball that headed straight for them.

Without hesitation, the hippogriff, minotaur gal, and tomcat all dove behind the chair that Tony had been restrained to. The flames rushed past the chair on both sides, but they were all spared from most of the scorching impact.

Tony, however…

Once the fire had dissipated, Rongu was nowhere to be seen. Moreover, Tony’s body had been burned to a charred crisp, unmoving. There was naught a breath nor palpitation from his chest at this point. The restraints had also been burned off, which caused his body to slump forward and hit the ground with a resounding THUD.

“Daddy…” Rose could barely look at her father’s corpse. Tears fell from her face, and hit the ground, forming a small puddle. “...No. I gotta be strong.” She balled her fist, and sucked up her emotions. She grabbed up his body, and carried him on her shoulders. “...Let’s go, ya’ll.” And with that, she started to travel right back the way they had came.

Kora would follow her out in order to keep watch over her as they left.

Vido, however, had been inspecting the dead bodies of the nurses that Mio had subdued prior. The griffon could be seen with a file between his claws.

Curious as to what he had been after, Axel would approach him. “...Whatcha up to there, partner?”

“...Some documentation that indicates who they’ve performed procedures on. If my suspicions are correct…” he fell silent, and shook his head. “Ay, never mind that right now. Let’s get back to the ship. Guess we failed to collect our bounty.”

“...Suppose that be true, yeah,” Axel admitted shamefully. This threw a wrench in his plans to make progress on getting Vido a new ship. What were they going to do now?

But before he could think about that very much, Vido would mention something else rather important. “Hey...what about the azul-gato?” he asked, referring to the blue-suited Mio.

The tom was inspecting the area nearby. He hadn’t left yet, but he didn’t speak to the others either.

Axel had to weigh his options. Would it be worth dealing with the tom? Could he even be trusted? Though, he was clearly against the dragon and the rest of the gang, so…

“I wonder…”

Axel gave the griffon a nudge. “You go on back with everyone else, partner. I’ll catch up.”

“Alright, my vaquero friend,” he replied as he gathered up the files. “I’ll be waiting for ya.”

As the griffon left, the hippogriff would fly over to, and land next to the tom. “...What’s yer motive?”

“As I said before…” Mio responded as he stood upright, “I seek to tear this place down and rebuild it. It is ultimately part of abyssinia, but the royal family doesn’t want to be bothered by it at all.”

“Royal fam?” Axel asked.

“The king and queen of abyssinia,” Mio went on, “Oh right. You don’t know them yet. They’re the rulers of this entire share of land between Klugetown all the way up to its capital: Panthera.”

“That could be useful. But it ain’t worth my time…” Axel concluded that it wasn’t worth looking into since he had his own goals. “They can do whatever the hell they want with this damn landscape. You know what I’m after...yella-eye.”

“Yellow?” Mio stroked his chin, then came to a realization. “Weird. The royal family also has yellow eyes.”

Just as he was about to leave, Axel stopped on a dime with an eagle-like squeal. “Eek! Ahem...what-now?”

“The current rulers of Abyssinia--the king and queen. They have yellow eyes and black fur,” Mio adjusted his glasses. “Does that not match the description of the ones you’re after?”

“It...does, actually…” Axel had to think hard about it. The king and queen of this region had those features? Was it possible that not all of them were evil and mean? Or were the king and queen just as dirty as the other yellow-eyed-blackfurs? “Dammit...just who are they? And just who is Mio here?”

“Something wrong?” Mio asked, interrupting the gunslinger’s thoughts.

Axel shook his head. “...Nah. Nothin’. I’m just doin’ some thinkin’. So they really don’t give a damn about this region, eh?”

“Not at all,” Mio replied with an annoyed huff, “Feh. Can’t blame them, though. They’re so focused on undoing the damage that their son caused to Panthera that Klugetown is the least of their priorities. The best I can do is whatever I can figure out for myself--no one else is going to do it for me.”

While he couldn’t entirely juge Mio’s character just yet, Axel was willing to respect such an attitude. “...Fair enough,” he commented with a more relaxed stare behind his eyes, “You do whatcha can and I see why. Though now, you’re kinda in a bad spot.”

Mio’s tail flicked. “...Tell me about it. But there’s not much else I can do otherwise. I’m just going to stick to what makes sense for me personally.”

“And that is?”

“...You’ll know when it happens,” Mio turned and started to leave in the direction opposite of the others through a door. “I have a feeling that we’ll meet again at some point.”

“One last thing,” Axel called out, “...what’s the word ‘Felidae’ mean to ya?”

Mio stopped. His fur stood up on end. “...That is a name that I haven’t heard in a long time. A name that I wish I didn’t know.”

The gunslinger was already annoyed as it was, and wasn’t in the mood for cryptic nonsense. “Gah...just answer the question. What’s it mean to you?”

“To me, it’s something that shouldn’t exist. A stain on the very land that we live on. The very reason I want to change Klugetown--I used to work for them.”

“Wait a sec, used’ta?”

“As of today, not anymore,” Mio hissed under his breath, “I refused to take part in anything related to murder and only acted as an informant. But now? I can’t reasonably go on living like this. But at the very least, I can expose the truth to those that aren’t aware…”

Axel wasn’t sure how to respond. If Mio was telling the truth, could that mean he had a sense of ethics unlike the others? If so, then he no longer served any use to the gunslinger. After all, extra unnecessary bloodshed wasn’t exactly on his priority list.

“...Do whatcha want,” Axel turned to leave once more, seemingly without a care, “But if I catch wind that you ain’t on the real, then you’ll have me’ta answer to.”

“...Good. I’d expect nothing less from you,” Mio replied as he left the room.

There was a lot on Axel’s mind at this point. The death of Tony, who Mio truly was, and the new information he had regarding the Abyssinian Rulers. But there was still one, more immediate problem that he had to deal with.

“...Where can I find another bounty now?”