[LoboDiabloLoneWolf]

Just a side note for the chapter, there was about a three day gap between chapter 3 and 4 but nothing really happened apart from Bailey and Stranger bickering so I didn’t feel the need to write them. This is just so you know that they’ve been a duo for a while longer then you’ve read.

…Okay, did that make any sense at all?

Incognito

“Stranger, what is going on!?” Bailey hissed as Stranger led the way out of the Clakker town.

“Not now, wait.” Bailey was so surprised by Stranger’s tone and short answer that she shut-up immediately. Something was very, very wrong.

They reached the outskirts of the town without any incidents and Bailey followed mutely as Stranger left the settlement altogether and led her back to the trail where they had come down, Stranger remembered that they had passed an old mine shaft on the way down and made his way to that.

Once inside and out of sight of the Clakker town he turned on Bailey and pulled out her bounty poster brandishing it.

“What tha’ hell is this about!?” he snapped. Bailey took the poster and gazed at it.

“Oh…” she murmured.

“Oh!? Oh!? Whadda ya mean ‘oh!?’ Yer on a flamin’ Wanted poster! Someone’s paying good money ter have yer killed!” Bailey looked up at him, looking embarrassed.

“Er…well…remember when I said I’d had a couple of adventures with the Mudokon Abe? Well…we kinda…freed the slave workers in Rupture Farms and SoulStorm Brewery and sorta…shut down the plants…permanently…”

Stranger sat down on a boulder inside the cave, massaging his temples. He had not signed up for this when he’d taken Bailey under his protection. She was a Magog Cartel revolutionary/terrorist for crying out loud! No wonder they wanted her disposed of…

“Don’t freak out Stranger, it could be worse…” Bailey offered weakly. Stranger sighed. “You…you’re not going to turn me in are you?” asked Bailey after a moment.

Stranger looked up, Bailey was looking at him with large, uncertain eyes and twisted the hem of her jersey around her fingers. She looked young and pitiful.

“No.” Stranger said after a moment, “I won’t turn you in. Yer think I would?”

“No…not really…but…” she faded off.

“But?” Stranger prompted, fixing Bailey with his iridescent bordering on neon green eyes.

“Don’t you kinda need the cash?”

“I ain’t about to turn in tha’ only friend I have fer Moolah, whose only got a bounty on ‘em fer freein’ slaves…even if you are an annoying snit.”

“I thought you hated me…” Stranger leant back on the mineshaft wall, Bailey sat down, cross-legged across from him.

“I neva hated yer.” Stranger said, “Strongly disliked mebbe but that was only fer the first coupla days… an’ then I tolerated yer, an’ then I enjoyed yer company and yer cracks became amusin’ instead o’ irritatin’ but I dunno when I started to actually like yer. But I did, tha’s why it hit hard when yer left an’ it was then tha’ I pretty much realised I really did like yer.” Bailey beamed.

“Aww, well I like you too.” Stranger blinked his luminous eyes at the young human. And then he smiled and went several shades darker under his fur. “Are you blushing Stranger?” Stranger coughed,

“Er…no…”

“You downright liar!” spluttered Bailey, “You so are too blushing!”

“No I’m not…” Bailey began laughing,

“The great bounty hunter Stranger, blushing just because some human kid said she liked him. D’you have any idea how amusin’ that is?” Stranger had a completely straight-faced expression which just made Bailey laugh harder. She calmed down after a minute and became marginally more serious. “You tellin’ me no one’s ever said they liked you before?” Stranger’s blank stare answered the question. For a second Bailey just watched him. “What, no one? Not ever?” she asked softly,

“No one. Not ever.” There was an awkward silence, Bailey broke it after a moment,

“So what are we going to do about…yer know…” she nodded her head at the Wanted poster, Stranger rested his chin on one fist and eyed Bailey thoughtfully.

“Yer need ter go incognito, lucky fer us Clakkerz and Outlaws are pretty stupid so we could git away wiv it.”

“What kinda disguise?” Bailey asked curiously,

“First yer’ll need to cover yer hair, tha’s pretty unique and most of yer face and yer hands too.” Bailey nodded,

“Okay, what else?” Stranger stood up.

“Stay here, I’ll go an’ get something fer yer to wear, hide those clothes yer got.” Bailey furrowed her forehead, confused but nodded. Stranger went.

“Poor old Stranger…hasn’t he ever had a friend?” Bailey thought sadly. Her musing was interrupted when she looked at the bounty poster. She sighed.

Even on the other side of Oddworld the Magog Cartel were still after her.

While she waited for Stranger, Bailey went through her newly acquired equipment and checked it all and put it in meticulous order, cleaning and loading all her guns and clipping them along with their ammunition onto the Compressor (expect for the Slig rifle which she put back in it’s back holster and the handguns which clipped behind her back under the arrow quiver), putting her Moolah stash into the money belt and replacing the inner canvas of the arrow quiver. She clipped the ring of metal onto one of her pant belt loops. It looked a large key ring with a load of toys on it…

She checked her wooden weaponry next, her bow was unstrung and the bowstring in her belt pouch, her arrows her clean and dry and safe in their quiver, the spear wasn’t showing any signs of wear yet. The slingshot was in good working order and the whip with the three rocks on the end was coiled up on her belt. Both daggers, the one on her belt and the other up her sleeve were sharp and firmly strapped in their scabbards and in easy reach. The hatchet she hung on her belt. All in all Bailey was ready for the war the Clakker had joked about.

Stranger returned after little under an hour. He was carrying a bundle…

“What’s all that?” asked Bailey when she saw it.

“Yer disguise, c’mon, up yer get, put ‘em on.” Bailey complied, taking the hat off her head beforehand. The biggest part of the bundle was a brown poncho that went down to Bailey’s knees when she put it on. She gave it a tug at the back though so that the front part came a little higher. Then there were gloves that covered her hands. “Now yer can cover yer face an’ hair with yer hat and scarf.”

“Wait, wait, I gotta idea.” Bailey suddenly said, wiggling out of the poncho and gloves, she put then aside and untied the bandana. She flicked out the dagger on her belt and handed it hilt first to Stranger, “You’ll have to cut me hair, it’s too long.” Stranger looked uncertain, “Oh c’mon, just do it.” Bailey insisted jiggling the dagger. Stranger took it dubiously and Bailey turned round and sat on the floor. “Off yer go.”

Stranger understood now why Bailey’s hair looked so uneven and badly cut, she’d had to do it herself with her blade. Sucking his teeth in concentration Stranger began to cut the human’s hair from just below her shoulders to just above.

“Done.” He said after a few minutes and brushed off the cut hairs.

“Wasn’t so hard was it.” Bailey said and mussed her hair, itching her head. She tied her hair in a small ponytail and tied the green bandana back around her head. “Do I have to wear this all the time then?” she asked as she wiggled back into the poncho and hat. “I’m gonna overheat otherwise.” She added, putting on the gloves and covering her mouth and nose with the dark scarf. Only her eyes were visible now.

“Not all the time.” Stranger answered. He studied Bailey critically. Finally he grinned, “There, that’s it, yer own mama wouldn’t recognise yer.” Bailey stiffened and dragged off the scarf and hat, looking at the floor to one side, as she took off the disguise and all her equipment and putting them in a corner.

“No.” she said finally, her tone dead-panned, “I bet she wouldn’t…” Stranger sat on the same boulder as before.

“Right.” He said firmly, “Sit. Now.” And patted the rock next to him. Bailey did as she was told. “Now, yer are gonna tell me what yer’ve bin bottlin’ up since I met yer.” Bailey muttered something almost inaudible. “No. Right now.” Stranger cut her off.

“I haven’t been bottlin’ anything!”

“Yer a liar, even a Clakker couldn’t ignore all tha’ dark hints and comments yer’ve given out, so c’mon, out with it.”

“Don’t wanna.” Bailey muttered stubbornly.

“I want ter help yer, an’ talkin’ about yer problems always helps.” He inwardly cringed, he was such a hypocrite… Bailey didn’t answer for a moment or two, just stared at the floor a few feet in front of her. Then, finally;

“Fine. You want to hear what’s been botherin’ me? Alright then.” Bailey took a deep breath, “I used to live with me Ma, me Da died when I was about three and it hit Ma pretty bad. She threw everything she had into her work and she was quickly promoted. Trouble was that her new job needed her to leave the country, and she couldn’t take me so she left me at home while she went all over the world and I had to learn to look after meself. I was eight years old… It sucked, and I mean really sucked. Sure we had a big house with a huge garden and a pool but I’d have happily lived in a shack if it meant I could have Ma around…” Bailey faded off and leaned back on the cavern wall, drawing her knees up. She looked up at the ceiling as she continued. “Then, I found a flock of these mutated pigeons in the garden.” Bailey smiled grimly, “Fed those ‘pigeons’ all the time.” She murmured. “Until I found out that they weren’t actually pigeons, they were the portal birds that Mudokons used. They kinda chant and the birds open a portal from one place to another. Anyway, for some reason the flock in my garden had been left on Earth and hadn’t gone back. So I got the shock of my life when one day they all flew in a circle while I was feedin’ ‘em and this swirling vortex thing appeared and I got sucked into it. And here I am on Oddworld.”

“But that ain’t all is it.” Stranger said as Bailey went silent. Bailey didn’t answer. “Bailey, keep going.” Bailey let out a breath and continued to stare at that ceiling until she spoke again, but it was disjointed, rambling.

“Don’t, don’t want to…it, it hurts.” She blinked and her eyes reflected the late afternoon sunshine pouring into the mineshaft, more then before. “Why won’t it stop hurting? Make it stop, someone, make it stop…” Bailey shivered, took a shaky breath and closed her eyes, leaning her head back against the wall.

Stranger didn’t say anything, he didn’t have too. Something still hurt inside Bailey and it needed to heal if she was going to get over it. After a moment Stranger picked up the shaking human and settled Bailey on his lap, letting her lean her head on his chest, resting his chin on her hair, curling the uneven strands around one finger and running the claws on his other hand through the rest of Bailey’s hair. Just silently telling her that she was not alone, that someone cared, that someone was listening.

“What did yer mean when you said you’d never be the Vykker’s plaything again?” Stranger felt Bailey shiver more violently and a hand gripped his shirt. At first he thought Bailey wasn’t going to answer but after a moment she spoke in a small voice,

“When I first arrived…I didn’t know where I was, just lost in this jungle with noises, in the night…screams, howls…and then I ran into a company of Sligs…they thought I was docile enough to become one of the slave workers in one of the Magog Cartel plants, one of the smaller meat-processing factories…they made us work – me and the Mudokon worker-slaves – to make snacks for Glukkon bureaucrats… I was only there for a while before I was taken away from the production floor and to one of the labs, to be…examined… The Vykkers there were working on drugs among other things, using unstable substances.” Bailey paused and swallowed and her grip tightened on Stranger’s shirt. “After a few tests they realised that for some reason I had a higher tolerance to these substances…my body must just work differently to Oddworld inhabitants…so they used me to test out their theories. But not just the drugs…other things as well… They thought that if what they were using didn’t work on me, well then it wasn’t worth having…” Bailey went quiet.

“What happened next, how did yer escape?” Stranger asked in a low, soft tone, Bailey felt the deep rumble of his voice vibrating on her cheek. The steady thud, thud, thud of Stranger’s heartbeat calmed and soothed Bailey’s strung nerves and she began to feel exhausted, emotionally drained. Her eyes closed and she stifled a yawn to answer;

“An albino Slig…he wasn’t like the others…he was sick of the Magog Cartel – and anyone else – sucking Oddworld dry. He knew that it would do no one any good to enslave the natives and let the world die…and he was sick of the mistreatment, so one night, while he was on patrol, he got me out and we escaped, we were going to find other natives, try to get them to fight back, to save their culture. But we got caught…and Slick was taken while I got away…”

“What happen to yer both?”

“I got captured again, and taken to Rupture Farms, the biggest meat-processing plant on that side of Oddworld. I met up with Abe and we escaped, saving as many as we could and finally we managed to destroy the Farms. Afterward Abe was visited by three ghosts and we went off to free more Mudokons from SoulStorm Brewery, I found Slick and he came with us and we destroyed the Brewery too.” Bailey felt herself drifting closer towards sleep, Stranger sensed it too and asked one last question,

“How did yer come to this part of Oddworld?”

“I was with a hunting party… one of the young Mudokons of the tribe was missing…we found him but we were attacked by bounty hunters who were after me…now I know why…” She muttered, “The Mudokons opened a portal for me to go through and they escaped. They must have thought I would come out near the village, but I didn’t…came here instead…” Bailey was starting to slur her words in her lethargy,

“Did yer…eva wish yer’d never come here…to Oddworld?” Stranger asked uncertainly. Only Bailey’s easy breathing answered him.

Stranger let out a breath and moved the sleeping human more comfortably in his arms. Leaning back on the mineshaft wall Stranger watched as it became darker. They had been in this cavern all day. Tomorrow they would set out again but for now he decided to let Bailey sleep.

The human in his arms shifted and muttered something a little later but she didn’t wake and her grip on Stranger’s shirt didn’t loosen. Stranger made a deep, reassuring sound in his chest, like a panther purring, and Bailey calmed again.

Stranger yawned. Maybe he should take a sleep as well. Stranger pulled his hat over his eyes and soon was snoring like a rusty chainsaw.