[Dark Elite_H2]

SURGERY, LIES, AND OUTLAWS--The hunt for 20,000$ (cont.)

Down the steep road, Stranger loped along with Umi clinging to his back. The air became dusty with dirt. Umi sneezed and coughed as the dust brushed upon her face. He kept running down the dirt road, until a windmill at their left appeared through the dusty atmosphere and a wooden fence running along in front of a house. They have arrived in Buzzarton. In the middle of town, there was a wooden post with arrows pointing in different directions. Straight in front of the post was the Bounty store, and behind it was the General store. They headed straight for the Bounty store, like always, and opened the swinging doors. The clerk waved his feathery arm to shut the door and hurry on in. Stranger walked to the counter, and gave the clerk Boilz Booty's poster.
"Oh! You caught that dirty varmin Boilz huh? Well, I do have some more bounties fer yeh, so take yer pick while I get Booty's poster," it snatched the poster from Stranger, and put up two more posters to Stranger's arm. One read a hostage bounty of the town's engineer, Eugene Ius. The Clakker looked of a nerd with black bottle-cap glasses, a red bow-tie, a buttoned white shirt, and high-tailed black pants. The other read of Jo Mamma, a devilish, ugly, old-looking bounty that held a frying pan in her hand. Stranger decided to take the bounty he had first: Eugene Ius.
"Oh, this is more of a rescue mission. We need our engineer back so he could start up that gate to the Mongo Valley. He's a nerdy-lookin' fellah, goes by the name of Eugene Ius. He's been held up at that old Grubb temple by the Dandy-digger gang," the clerk explained. Stranger took the poster, stuffed it in to his poncho, then exited the Bounty store. He wished that the clerk would've given him more info on where the Grubb temple was.
"Pardon. You know where this...Eugene kid is?" he walked up to a male Clakker with a baseball cap on.
"Well, he's up in that ole Grubb temple by the Dandy-digger gang. Go ask the professor in the General store. He'll help yeh," the Clakker replied. Umi smiled slightly. The Clakkers here were more friendly here than the Oppal farm. Stranger nodded ot the Clakker, and followed to the General store. The Clakker behind the counter greeted them a howdy. Stranger looked around, then gave Umi some moolah.
"Here, Umi. Do me a favor, an' get me some more ammo," Stranger handed her a wad of cash. Umi took the moolah, and nodded without arguing. She ran up to the counter, while Stranger followed behind slowly. He saw a Clakker with a black graduation hat left of the corner of the counter. He smiled then walked to the Clakker.
"Pardon. You's the...professor?" Stranger asked, knowing what the answer would be.
"Why yes! I'm professor Dimble. What can I do you fer?" it replied with any other Clakkers voice. "I'm lookin' fer Eugene Ius. You knows where I can find him?" Stranger asked once more. "Yes! He's been held up at that Grubb temple. I'll help yeh with that gate," Dimble turned to a microphone that led somewhere. "Hey, Bobby! Yeah, it's me! Hey, can you open that gate?" Dimble yelled in to it. No reply came, but he thought that Bobby got the message. Dimble turned back to Stranger. "Oh, bring him back safely, would yeh? We need's him to fix up town a lil'," Dimble bidded good-bye. Stranger tipped his hat respectfully, then turned back to Umi, who held two bags of live moving ammo.
"Here you go, Stranger. Enough for three bounty missions," Umi said happily, handing him the bags. He dumped the critters in to his ammo sack. Umi also handed him change, but he didn't mind. "Oh! The gate's above the General store! G'luck you two!" Dimble said over to them. Stranger nodded for the info, and walked on out. There was a slope that led behind many other houses, next to the Sewer treatment center, and up to the gate to the Grubb temple. He followed the signs up to the gate, and ran on down through the gate's entrance. At the end of the tunnel, a wooden gate blocked a way down to a bunch of outlaws gibbering about 'The loot'. Stranger took his bought ammo, and clipped on a Boom-bat and Stingbees. He bashed through the wooden barrier with ease, and launched a Boom-bat at the first outlaw in front of him. There were two screams of pain, as two Shooter minions were thrown away from the drop-off. A deeply voiced outlaw roared at Stranger and Umi. When she saw this monstroucity, she gasped and backed away behind Stranger. This minion was nearly 8-feet tall, wearing black spikey armor around it's head, arms, hands, and mid-section area. An outlaw Nailer. It came stomping, with one fist in the air and the other baring out in front of it. Stranger immediately shot a steady stream of Stingbees at the Nailer's face. It went with the impact of the bug's sharp stingers, grunting and cooing. Then, a Boom-bat clung on it's arm, and blew it clear off. The Nailer shouted out in anger and pain, facing to Stranger. Umi stepped out, and clenched the handle of her Plasma Rifle. Hot bolts splashed on it's armor, and melted the armor on it's skin. The Nailer growled louder, and slammed to the ground. It frantically tore off it's melting armor. Umi didn't let it go, and ran up to it with her rifle lowered to her legs. She leaped up above the Nailers head with her rifle above her head, then brought it down on it's head with an enormous crack. The Nailer's eyes blacked out, then fell limp on the ground. Umi dropped behind it, and kept her Plasma Rifle at her knees. Stranger regained his balance, and walked up to the Nailer. He bountied the outlaw up quickly, then locked it up. He ran up a steep hill that led to a thin wooden pole with a tight rope leading over a cement platform and to a cement dam, blocking ot the other side. Umi held on to his shoulders, as he side climbing over to the cement dam. He jumped on the dam, and looked over to see where the Grubb temple was. It looked miles and miles away with a construction site leading up to the plateau the temple was on. Below the site was a small camp built around in a circle. He jumped down from the dam, and ran near the campsite. A minion Shooter walked near a wooden fence that was the entry way to the camp. There was also a slope that led above the Shooter's head, a perfect spot for an ambush. Umi left Stranger behind, for she asked to do this. He allowed it, and she climbed up the slope. She crawled low on her knees, watching the Shooter's movements. It turned around to walk near Stranger, and she followed as well. It spotted Stranger, and before it could yell to the others over the fence, Umi once again dropped off the high drop-off, and landed on it's shoulders, which brought it down for the count. She figured her weight was too much for the outlaw's puny strength. Stranger chuckled as he made his way to the minions, and bountied it. Umi jumped the fence, but Stranger took his way, which was to rip down the fence. Outlaw Shooters surrounded a large bonfire in the middle of the camp. They didn't notice anything unusual, but continued about the talk of 'The loot'.
"Must be around here, somewhere," Umi whispered. Stranger agreed, for he heard an outlaw say, "It's safely inside that warehouse. No one will get's it," Stranger unlocked his bow, and loaded it up with Fuzzles and Stingbees. He letted the Fuzzles go first, to keep some Shooters out of his way, then jumped out with a stream of Stingbees zooming to one Shooter's face, and another. Mortars stood above some of the houses the minions poorly made. The three Mortars spotted their intruders, and launched randomly in to the air. Umi dodged away from the mortars path, and began to climb up to the roofs to take care of the Mortars. Stranger, on the other hand, kep busy with the Shooters that flooded out of the waehouse where the moolah was supposedly to be. He could also tell because they were fighting harder than ever to defend something. Umi had climbed up ot the first Mortar, which she fought nearly to the death, and kicked off the Mortar from the roof. She crawled carefully to the other Mortar on the roof, and jumped it, smashing it's head like a mindless monkey. Stranger had thrown out a pile of knocked out minions, and found his bountiful pay. There were nearly 10 chests of moolah, which nearly added up to four-hundred moolah, which really satisfied Stranger. Umi, above Stranger, was fighting the last Mortar, which she deliberately thrown it in to the bonfire, and let it burn in to the fiery depths of hell. She laughed sinisterly, her fingers writhing devilishly. Stranger looked at her with utmost confusion but dumbstruck. He found it a little amusing she was doing this, but just down-right weird. Umi caught back to her regularity, wondering what the hell she was doing, and jumped off the roof. Stranger still stared at her weirdly. She gave a shy smile, looking down from his gaze. He stiffled out a laugh, gently rubbing her head, and led away from the camp. They arrived to the construction site, which led high up to the Grubb temple. Umi gasped at how high the temple plateau is. She nearly felt faint, but she held strong. Stranger gave her a face of confidence, then led their way up to the site. Minions, like always, patrolled up on the planks of the site. Stranger wanted to do the silent way to the minions on the ground. He lured them away from their posts, and captured both of them. The cement hill that started it's way up to the temple came down with one more minion, wondering where the other two went. Stranger didn't use a Chippunk, but the minion came closer to a cement block where Stranger and Umi hid. It sniffed out around the block, then turned to where Stranger and Umi was. Then, all it saw was a giant hand in it's face, then a black-out.
Stranger and Umi traveled up the first set of planks leading up to the temple. On their path was a few roadblocks, if you catch my drift. Minions held them back, but easily taken care of. They were on the second floor. Umi had accidentally knocked off a Shooter to it's painful death to the canyon floor. She did mean it, but not in that way. Third floor, and Stranger had to put up with a Sniper minion on an eye of the temple. He couldn't get a clear shot to it for two reasons: The fourth floor planks blocked his vision and minion Shooters kept on bugging him. Fourth floor and one more to go. Metal boxes held down and trapped minions for Stranger's wrath back to them. The last floor, fifth was the toughest. Two Nailers held down the last floor, and the Sniper had a clearer shot on it's targets. Stranger wanted to aim for the Sniper, but the Nailers kept bashing his head away from the Sniper. Umi, who wanted to prove she was better than what Stranger expected, climbed up on a Nailer's shoulder and wrangled it away from Stranger. The other Nailer attempted to help his friend, but Stranger held it back with Fuzzles inside it's armor. Umi led the Nailer further away from the Nailer, but it had the most cruelest idea it had. It kept it's path for the edge of the cliff, dropping off nearly 100-feet in the air (exaduratingly saying to Umi's sight). Umi gazed over it's shoulder, seeing what it was going to do.
"Stranger!" Umi screamed, pulling the Nailer's helmet's spikes back. Stranger spun to the Nailer, it putting a foot out to drop down the canyon. The Nailer held on Umi's pant leg so she couldn't jump off. Stranger's eyes widened in fear, and ran to the Nailer's suicide attempt. He snatched Umi's arm, and the Nailer dropped off the canyon edge. But he couldn't pull up Umi. The Nailer still held her pant leg. She grunted, kicking the Nailer's face with her shoe hardly. The Nailer's grip was loosening. Umi gave one last kick in the face, and the Nailer slipped off her leg, with a scream so horrible, Umi had to shudder and have a little symapthy towards the falling Nailer. Stranger thrusted her up to his arms, she gasping for air from the total fright. She grasped Stranger's poncho, showing signs she wouldn't let go until they got in to the temple. Stranger could understand that especially for such a young thing he held. They crossed the bridge leading inside the temple. The inside was lit with already-burning torches, telling him that someone was already inside. He heard a Clakker's whining voice inside, echo down through the twisting halls.
"Oh, that Clakker ain't talkin'. Keep searching for the loot," a minion shouted. Eugene walked up to the bars of his imprisonment.
"Hey! This isn't right! You can't keep me locked up in here! That's just uncivilized!" Eugene protested, shaking the bars of the jail cell. "Aww, stick a sock on it!" the minion ignored the Clakkers plea. Stranger letted go of Umi, who slowly released his arm, still stunned by fright. He didn't mind if Umi still held on to him, but while he was concentrating on the outlaws, he just wanted her to let go. Mostly Shooters, one Mortar above the main statue above, and a Nailer near them. He lured the Nailer away from the group first, for it was nearly the biggest threat. Umi wanted to take on the Mortar, but Stranger refused. He didn't want that stunt to happen again with the Nailer, even though the drop was ten feet. She grunted in frustration, but held with Stranger. Now all was left was a Mortar and a Shooter.
"Stay here. It's safer here," Stranger motioned his hand. "What? Why can't I go?" Umi crossed her arms across her chest. He didn't reply, but left her behind, and behind some large brick steps. She didn't want to stay and do nothing, so she disobeyed Stranger, and aimed for the Mortar above. She crept up the slant slopes to the behind of the Mortar. She held down her Needler this time, but planned on not shooting. Instead, she held it up needle-side, and stuck the rows of sharp crystalline needles in to it's soft side of it's skull. The Mortar made a brief hacking grunt, then fell silent and limp. There were nearly a hundred holes spewing blood out of it's head. She dragged down the Mortar to their original hiding spot, and left it there. She then snuck off to Stranger, seeing him snatching up a Shooter and knocking it out. Umi walked next to him, and touched his arm. He gasped loudly, turning down to Umi in surprise.
"Got the Mortar," Umi announced in a whisper. Stranger patted his chest, breathing out slowly. "What? I told you not to," Stranger whispered in a low pur. Umi nodded, not looking at him. Stranger sighed, then looking back to the Shooters up near Eugene. The Clakker saw the stranger, and kept his beak silent. Stranger snuck up the ramp to the cage. Two Shooters kept watch of both sides of the cage, but saw Stranger coming up the ramp.
"Joel! We's got company!" the Shooter shouted to the other near the main statue. The Shooter Joel ran around to see the Stranger and Umi coming up the ramp to them. The Shooter who's name wasn't mentioned had already a bullet in it's gun, and shot it. Now, you would think Stranger and Umi had dodged it, but since they were on a small area, the bullet struck in to Stranger's uppper arm. He grunted in pain, kneeling to the ground and holding his arm. Umi looked down to Stranger, then back up to the Shooter with eyes of rage. She held up her Needler, and whatever Stranger said about NOT using it she forgot, and fired a flurry of pink needle shards, that homned in on the Shooter. The Shooter howled out in pain, as the needles stuck in to it's pale-yellow skin, and exploded in to a pink dust and red liquid. Joel came shouting out in anger, shooting like the devil at Umi. One of the bullets struck her right upper leg, but that didn't hold her back to fire her whole clip on needles to Joel. The minion also exploded in to a pink dust and a nasty red liquid. The Shooters were not even a morsel of themselves no more. Stranger walked up to her, still holding his arm. He stuck one of his large fingernails in to the bullet hole, and scraped out the bullet on to the ground. He perched his hand on her back, patting and rubbing it comfortingly. She put her Needler on the ground, staring at the bullet hole in her leg. Her muscles were more tense with the pain setting in slowly.
"Go get Eugene. I'll be fine here," Umi said, not looking up. Stranger gave her one last pat, then stood up and walked up to the lock of the cage door. He pushed up the handle, and the lock cooperated. The cage door swung open, and Eugene walked out.
"Wow! You saved me from them outlaws!" Eugene said happily. "Yeah. But uh, how do we get outta here?" Stranger turned to the Clakker. "Oh, funny you should ask. You see under that guardian statue is the catacombs of this temple. You can see the paintings on the walls too. Huh! Interesting, really, the morons thought that they had an ancient steef guradian. But one day, their Steef guardian disappeared, and this octi guy moved on in and stole their water. Although, their Steef guardian probably got shot, and that damn built near them took their water. Hmp, bunch of superstitious, silly lil' shits," Eugene told him, then turned to a dynamite box. Umi gazed up at the guardian statue, also looking back to Stranger then up. "Yeah, it's time fer some, radical excavation," Eugene said, then pressed down on the dynamite box. The dyamite around the base of the statue exploded on contact, and the statue came crumbling down. When the statue came down, it's whole entire body crumbled. Umi frowned.
"Aww, he killed you," Umi said sadly. Stranger looked at her confusidely, then jumped to where the base of the statue was, and looked down. Spider webs blocked the view of a very deep chasm down to another part of the temple.
"Eh, maybe yer right. Maybe this is the way out," Stranger said to himself mostly. "Yeah, yeah! You may wanna be careful there-" Eugene, as clumsy as he can get, tripped over a chunk of brick from the statue, and bumped in to Stranger, knocking him down the chasm. He made a audible grunt, them slammed down on the floor below. "Oh, whoops. Well, I'ma continue my wokr up here. I'll see yeh in town later on," Eugene yelled down the chasm. Stranger below finished dusting off his poncho and straightning his hat, when he nodded to Eugene's yell. Then he heard Umi's yell down.
"Stranger! Are you ok!?" Umi shouted. He cupped his hands over his mouth. "Yeah, I'm good," he yelled up. "What should I do!?" Umi asked. "Well, you could stay with me, and help me out here with my research, human," Eugene moved in behind her. She grunted uneasily at Eugene. She then leaned over to the edge. "I'M COMMIN' DOWN!" Umi screamed, and dropped down through the spider webs. Stranger held out his arms, seeing Umi coming down roughly through the webs. She landed hardly in to his arms, but he didn't let go when she expected.
"Ok, Stranger. You can let me down now," Umi said, smiling. Butball he did was grin playfully down to her. He began to run with her so low to the ground. She clung to Stranger's arm, hoping he wouldn't let go. "Stranger!" Umi scolded. But he didn't listen. He ran faster down the straight hallway, still holding her down near the floor, hoping it'd give her a good scare. But he stopped when he came to a dead end to a circular roofed end. Umi punched his arm, and he released when she punched hard enough.
"Damn you. Why'd you do that?" Stranger chuckled, rubbing his arm. Umi shrugged, but as she was going to say smoething, the bricks underneath them gave away as a trap. They screamed down through the large dark slide down to dirt. They were spat out to land and sunlight. Stranger landed on his stomach, compressing all the oxygen fromhis lungs out. Umi, on the otherhand, rolled along until something stopped her on her back straight-up. And that certain thing was a cactus with all it's spines sticking out. Umi's nerves in her back exploded in pain, as the pain rushed through her spine, them arms, and then to her brain. Stranger gasped for air, pushing himself off the ground. He could see that Umi was in intense pain right now, and ran over to her before she could scream. Well, she did scream helluva loud. She wailed, as she unstuck herself from the cactus spines, and dropping to the ground. Stranger held her down, as he plucked off some of the spines, and calming her down. She held still for as long as she could, then wailed off in Stranger's arms.
"That had to be the most painful thing in the damn world," Umi cried, tears flowing down her cheeks. Stranger shushed her soothingly, then looked up in caution. Straight ahead of them was some type of village, with weird amphibious creatures staring at them with wide red eyes. Stranger stood up with Umi still in his arms. He approached the creatures with caution, but every step he took the creatures screamed and wailed their arms around, running in to objects and each other. Stranger didn't understand the creatures, but they sure than hell were scared of him. He didn't care all that much of them, and walked on through the village without a care. The creatures then ran in to their own homes, peeking out occasionally to see if they had gone. He walked throught village to the end, and with all the creatures emerging out of their homes, staring at the strangers who'd invaded them. They watched him disappear through the dust with wide fearful eyes and holding their hands.