[Dark Elite_H2]

Here's some of the goodness that's comin' up. Stay tuned fer the rest of this chapter.

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

Eugene, back near the Mongo gate, was very excited to see Stranger return with his laptop. He thanked Stranger nearly one hundred times, then got to work on the gate. Stranger then let down Umi at the head of the Bounty store, and entered on in. The clerk adverted its gaze at a buzzing fly overhead, and leaned over the counter to Stranger. He gave the clerk the poster, and the clerk looked happily up to Stranger.
“Well, that squares us up!” the clerk said, giving the poster back to Stranger, then put its feathery arm under the counter. “There’s thins other thang you might want’a take a peep at, yep,” it threw another poster to Stranger, but not a regular bounty Umi saw. It was more of a horse-looking beast, with curling horns spiraling out of its head and long sharp fangs reaching up and down from its gums. Stranger looked at the bounty information on a Steef head. He looked back up to the clerk.
“What’s it pay?” he asked, his arms keeping at his side. Umi looked up at the counter, slipping the poster closer to her. “Well, tell yeh what! Let’s give ‘im a buzz, ‘n find out,” it pulled up this time a two-piece phone, and began to type in a number with pin-like keys, and held up the earpiece to its head. All three of them heard a low voice answer the clerk’s call and greet him. “Hey, uh. Hello, uh Mr. Sekto?” the voice replied in a affirmative tone. “Yeah, this is Buzzarton Bounty store. I got a bounty hunter here, and wants to have a word with yeh,” the voice agreed, and the clerk looked up to Stranger, his teeth baring in a slight threatening way. “Alright! H-here yeh go,” the clerk slid the earpiece and phone to Stranger. He looked at it hesitatingly, but gripped on the earpiece, and slowly put it to his ear.
“Sekto,” the person spoke his name, in a real deep tone. Deeper than Stranger’s and made Stranger pull the earpiece away from his ear a little. “What’s your business?” it asked.
“I hear yeh...payin’ out fer a, Steef head,” Stranger spoke. “You’re telling me you have a Steef head?” Sekto asked with a little hope, but no emotion. Stranger didn’t reply for a moment. “Maybe I know’s where the, find one...” he pulled out his operation bill up to him. “...fer twenty grand,” “Better be fresh for twenty grand,” Sekto said agreeing with Stranger’s proposition. “...So when I bag one...where do I, find you?” Stranger then glared in to the phone’s speaker place. “Easy. I own the Mongo River. You’ll find my office, at Sekto Springs Dam,” he replied. “...I’m always, here,” Stranger kept quiet for a moment, thinking of what to say to Sekto’s comment. “Well that’s...good to know...” Stranger’s voice died away from the speaker, rubbing his fingers together on the earpiece, and hung the earpiece up on the hook. His lip was up in a confused state, picking up the poster Umi was looking at, and gazed over the bounty once more. Then, he gave a fearful growl, his lip quivering down and his lower jaw baring slightly. Umi looked up to Stranger with a confused brow up high.
“Somethin’ wrong, Stranger?” Umi asked, patting his arm. He didn’t answer to her, but continue to look at the poster. She looked at the corner of his eye, seeing something that he was hiding...But what. “Are you...hiding something from me?” Umi asked, with a suspicious eye on him. Stranger diverted his look down to Umi, not saying a word to her. “It’s strange...the Doc’s office, me not treating yer foot...and now this. There’s something wrong, isn’t there?” Umi asked more. Stranger wished she could stop asking, and he also felt horrible to lie to her, but his secret couldn’t be told.
“No. I’m not,” Stranger said calmly, showing no hint of him lying. Umi kept her eye on him for moments. “Are you sure? You’re not lying to me?” Umi asked once more. “No, I’m not lying to you,” Stranger said a little more firmly. Umi stared at him once more, then relaxed her face. “Ok then,” Umi smiled.
‘I can’t believe I just did that...,’ Stranger thought regretfully, but gave a sly smile.
Rubbing his chin deviously and curiously, under his large suit, glowed his very golden eyes, looking up at a mounted head that looked exactly of a Steef. In fact, the whole top of his office was mounted with Steef heads, their jaws wide open, baring sharp teeth and their blood-red eyes open in fury.
Sekto looked back to his phone he had just got off from the Clakker in Buzzarton, and tapped in another number, awaiting the call to be answered. It was answered by a gruff hello, and then a brief silence.
“It’s Sekto,” he replied through the triple speakers on his phone.
“Sekto! Big boss o’ the river. What we do fer yeh?” the Outlaw greeted. “A bounty hunter in Buzzarton, says he can bag me, a Steef head,” he raised a fist up to his face, then lowered. “There ain’t no Steef ‘round here,” the Outlaw replied truthfully. “If there is, he is twenty grand richer,” Sekto spoke. “unless, you can get it, for yourself,” he said persuadingly, then hung up on the Outlaw.
D. Caste Raider, the Outlaw that had answered to Sekto’s call, hung the earpiece up as well, looking down at the dusty floor of his hideout.
“Bounty hunter, in Buzzarton?...” his voice trailed off, thinking hardly. Then, rubbed his chin, and looked over to an open door full of minions of his own. “Lock an’ load, boys! We got some huntin’ to do!” he yelled through the door, then back up front, chuckling to himself and having a grin of pure evil. “Yeah...” he darted his eyes around, then got up, slinging his spiked hammer around his shoulder, and calling his men to follow up.
“Where we goin’ huntin’, boss?” a minion asked. “We ain’t goin’ huntin’ yet. We got one stop to make, ‘fore we go huntin’ fer real,” D. Caste replied, following down the hill from his hideout. ‘Oh yeah...That bounty hunter gonna get it now...’ he chuckled once more.
The clerk ruffled his feathers, then looked back to Stranger and Umi.
“Well, I ain’t got no more bounties. But the Mongo river gate’s open now, so you can head on through, down to the Mongo river,” the clerk announced.
“Mongo valley, huh?...Maybe we’ll get lucky ‘n, find a Steef as we go,” Stranger said, and turned to the door. The clerk waved good-bye, thanking that he didn’t have to be bothered by that bag of fur once more. They ran (well...Stranger once again, carried Umi) to the gate Eugene was at, he having his laptop rested on the dirt. He looked at Stranger approaching, and gave a big smile.
“Welcome back! I’ve managed to fix the gate for you, so head on in! But be careful. Them chasms are easy ambush points,” Eugene said happily. “So...that’s it?” Stranger asked. “I’m afraid that’s all to it, Stranger. It was nice meetin’ you guys, ‘specially you, human. Never seen one in all my life and time of research,” Eugene nodded to Umi. She felt a little heartbroken that such a Clakker with respect they had to leave behind. “Well, as you go, an adventure will come to you two. Don’t let it go just by standin’ here,” Eugene said. Stranger nodded to the Clakker’s phrase, and ran on through the gate. Umi shouted good-bye, as the gate slammed shut, locking down so they would never be able to return. Stranger could sense Umi’s bit of sadness, and patted her leg.
“I bet we’ll see ‘im again,” Stranger said reassuringly. Umi smiled down from his shoulders, then looked back forward. The tunnel didn’t seem like it was made by hand. Rock icicle formations hung down over their heads. Mushrooms with luminescent light lit the tunnel walls up with a bluish-white color. The tunnel led out to practically a cave, which was lit up with a faint color of fire, and the smell of smoke, and the clamor of metal pots and pans. Stranger stopped near a broken down tree trunk laying overtop a tall rock sticking out of the ground. Umi jumped off his shoulders, and followed him to a tall rock, peering over to see what the noise was.
Three outlaws, two Shooters and a Semi-auto, jumbled around with pots over a roaring fire. They laughed and yelled at one another, putting food items in to the pots. Even an open fire with a plucked Clakker was over a spit. Stranger grinned happily, thinking he’d be getting a bonus when he captured these outlaws. But not alive.
He loaded up one Boom-bat on his bow, which gibbered loudly in a goofy tone. He aimed at the main pot, a pressure cooker of some sort, and waited. Then, he shot the Boom-bat over to the cooker, and saw the outlaws jumped in surprise. The Boom-bat’s greenish-red eyes looked at all the outlaws before going ka-boom. The pressure cooker was under a lot of pressure, obviously, and exploded in to shards of sharp metal, sticking in to the already-dead minions. Stranger and Umi kept behind the rock they were at, waiting for the silence to come. When they walked out from behind the rock, the outlaws looked in pretty bad shape. Their limbs bleeding terribly, big chunks of metallic shards stuck out of their skin, even a forelimb was cut off from one of the Shooters.
“Damn, that was a big boom,” Stranger smiled, looking down to Umi. She rolled her eyes, not even looking at him. He chuckled, ruffling up her hair, and walked up to the fallen outlaws, bountying them one by one. He turned back to Umi, but she was ready to follow. She jumped back up to Stranger’s back, clinging her arms around his neck.
“You know...when will my legs be healed enough to run again?” Umi said. Stranger let out a laugh. “Whenever I say’s so,” Stranger replied, but she wasn’t waiting for a reply. The cave led down to a small cutoff in to a smaller cave, with a waterfall crashing down in to a small pool of water. Mist from the waterfall scattered in to the air, sprinkling over their hot faces. It felt good for one thing, but what made Umi change her mind was when they had to cross over a man-made, or in this case, thing-made cross-over rope, to another ledge leading up nearly above the waterfall. She was clinging, for her life, around Stranger’s belly, as he crossed over. The drop was steep, and she didn’t want to afford to take a dip, not this time. But Stranger, with his grin of mischievousness staring down at Umi, attempted to just scare her a little, until she scolded him. He though her scolding him was kinda cute.
“Don’t you dare drop me, Stranger. Or God help you, if I survive...” Umi threatened. “Who is this...God person?” Stranger chuckled while asking. Umi was now hanging at his leg, partially hugging his boot. “Drop me, and I’ll show you,” Umi growled loudly. Stranger let out a laugh, shaking his leg a little, which made Umi slide more down his leg to his tip of his boot, she losing her grip. “Stranger...Stranger! God damn it, if you drop me...” Umi let out a slight whine, looking down at the deep drop to the pool of water. Her fingertips were scratching down his boot, then she just...slipped. She began to scream, but Stranger caught her arm before she could get out of reach. She panted heavily, her hair stooping over her face, and her cheeks a flushed red with all the rest of her face. She snapped her head up to Stranger, him having an iron grip on her wrist, and him smiling at his corners. “You’re damn lucky you didn’t drop me...” Umi spoke evilly. Stranger laughed again, pulling Umi back up on to his shoulders. He swung his legs, and pushed himself off the rope and on the ledge before them. Umi brushed away the hair sticking to her sweaty face, and wiped off the sweat dripping off her temples. They continued up to another tunnel winding around with torches stuck on the walls. Someone had already been here. They heard birds, chirping loudly on perched tree branches, but also yelling and shouting of outlaws. They quickened their pace to the end of the leading tunnel. And the lip of the tunnel opened up to what would be their next part of their journey...