Advent Of A Gunslinger

“Brother…?” Celaeno muttered as she glanced at the osprey, “Monocrow...I didn’t know you had a sister…”

“Me neither,” Axel thought to himself, “Didja leave out some parts of yer story there, bud?”

“It’s a long story,” Monocrow answered while staring at the eagle woman, “I’ll go into more details later. But right now, all you need to know is that her name is--”

The eagle woman cut him off. “Typh. That’s my name, don’t wear it out. But ‘Monocrow’? Seriously? That’s what you’re calling yourself now?” She sighed and shook her head. “Of course. What else should I have expected from you, Zephyros?”

Upon hearing that moniker, Monocrow tensed up, and hung his head, refusing to make eye contact...

“...Zephyros?” Vido tilted his head, and held up his claws. “Hang on, hang on. Slow the roll for a second. Just who are you and what do you want?”

“Indeed,” Chang added as he readied his firearm, “Names are of no importance to us. What we would like to know is why you decided to bother us.”

“Ah, that’s right--excuse me for singling my brother out.” Typh pointed at Axel and called him out. “You. The hippogriff gunslinger. Come with me.”

Put off by her offer, Axel took a step back and said, “Listen, you’re a fine lady. But I ain’t exactly goin’ nowhere else. My schedule’s mighty busy.”

Celaeno stepped in front of him and shouted, “How dare you?! You’ve got a lot of nerve trying to pluck someone off of my ship. What do you want with him anyway?!”

The eagle woman let out a sort of groaning squawk. “Rgh! Guess I have to just spell it out for you: I want what he knows about the Remington family weaponry.” She casually glanced at the tips of her claws with a smirk on her face, “I can pay you with loads of different things, Mr. Remington. Way more than what that prissy little parrot could offer.”

“Uch--excuse me?!” Celaeno screeched.

“Not my circus, not my monkeys,” Axel replied coldly with a tip of his hat, “Find somebody else’ta be yer bottom boy. Offer declined.”

Chang could be seen with a blank expression on his face.

“You heard the man,” Rusty called out to the pirate rival, “Git on outta here, miss. Plenty of other guns for hire around the guilds, I’m sure.”

Typh grit her teeth, visibly unsatisfied with this answer. “...Play it safe. Don’t expose your true colors yet.” She swallowed her anger, and managed to formulate an amicable response. “Oh? Alright then.” She turned around, and walked away from them towards the lower deck of her ship. “Good day to you all.”

And with that, Typh’s airship flew off and into the distance, unable to be seen once it was shrouded by clouds.

As soon as that happened, Celaeno started to give orders to her crew. “Rusty, you keep watch over the starboard side. Chang, you cover the stern. And Monocrow…”

The osprey sighed. “I’m willing to fight at any time. Don’t worry about me. I’ll cover the port side.”

“...Alright. I’ll head back up to the bow.” She glanced at Axel, Vido, and Kora, “And you three...stand by in case we need your help. If you don’t mind, that is.”

“Not at all,” Axel replied casually, “If she wants’ta pick herself a fight, she picked the wrong day.”

“Absolutely,” Kora added, “You’ve done us quite a service, captain. It’s only fair to return the favor.”

“Si--right with these guys. You focus on getting us where we need to go, Celaena--we’ll be fine.”

The bird woman gave a relieved sigh, and walked up to the steps of the bow of the ship. “Thank you. Keep your eyes open everyone…”

Everyone broke off into their respective positions and stood guard right where Celaeno told them to. Meanwhile, Axel’s trio gathered smack-dab in the middle of the deck.

“...I got myself a hunch,” said the gunslinger, “But we can’t let out boy fall victim’ta nobody’s manipulation.”

“What about you?” Kora muttered while sitting cross-legged upon a barrel, “Are you not worried that she’ll return?”

The gunslinger was already one step ahead with his guns at the ready. “Oh no, I’m damn near expectin’ it. And we’ll be ready and waitin’...” he said while flicking his right pistol and spinning around on his finger. “The only prollem is: We ain’t got no clue what her crew is like.”

“Well, we’re not gonna find out by standing around and theorizing,” Vido replied as he took out the rifle he had obtained from the monkey king, “Let’s make sure we’re ready, amigos.”

“You’re right…” Kora glanced around the ship with her mind already hard at work on what she could do in the event of an attack. However, her mind couldn’t help but wander as she thought about Monocrow’s relation to the other pirate. “...How could one’s sibling be so cruel and uncaring to the other? I just don’t understand...what could have happened between them to get to where they are now? And is his name really Zephyros? If so...why has he been hiding under an alias this whole time?”

The mere idea that a pair of siblings could be so cold to each other shook Kora to her core. Given that she had always had a good relationship with her sister, her confusions were warranted. She desperately wanted to reach out to the osprey, but didn’t know where to start.

Couple that with the fact that they were all on edge with being on lookout for any signs of the eagle’s ship...it would be hard for Kora to focus on that right now. “What caused all of this…?”

Meanwhile, about a kilometer away…

Within the confines of Typh’s ship, she ordered her crew to turn the ship around. “Alright. We’ve lost them. Prepare the bow’s cannons.”

“Ma’am, are you sure this is a good idea? There’s no guarantee that we can win--”

Typh leaned down into the face of her crew member and roared, “I don’t care! We need to get back over there and make sure we capture Remington for ourselves! He’s walking around with loads of valuable information that anyone can take advantage of. We need to act now before he gets away. Do you understand? After all, isn’t having more power what you deer-folk want?”

The doe would back away with a nervous shudder and a downward tilt of her head. “I--uh...y-yes ma’am…er, Captain Typha.” she replied, “I’ll make sure everyone knows.” She then turned, and quickly pranced out of the captain’s quarters and left for the upper deck.

Typha sighed as she brought one of her claws to her forehead. “Ugh...you hire a crew full of deer and expect them to follow you at every turn…” She then looked down at a set of blueprints she had lying on a desk. “But let’s see you dodge what I have in store, Celaeno…”

Back on Celaeno’s ship…

Everything was calm and quiet.

Almost too quiet.

An eerie silence was present over the ship as everyone steeled themselves in tense preparation for an attack from any angle. Celaeno was keeping both of her eyes focused on the open skies as she mentally prepared herself for anything the eagle could potentially throw their way.

“...Just a bit further, and we’ll be home. Then I’ll be filing a complaint with the Ornithian Guild. Stirring up conflict with fellow pirates is completely against our code.”

Creeeeeaaaak….

“...Hm?”

Out of the blue, the wheel for controlling the ship would lock up seemingly for no discernable reason. “What the…?” Celaeno tried her best to turn the wheel but it wouldn’t budge. “Eeergh...that’s odd…” She then tried pressing the autopilot button only for nothing to happen. “Wait...what’s going on?”

In the air just above her…

EEEEEEEE!

A loud, piercing noise racked everyone’s eardrums as the entire ship came to a halt. Whatever it was, it was the direct cause of its malfunction.

“What the--?!”

From the starboard side, she heard Rusty shout. “We’re under attack, mates! Git your arms ready’ta fight!”