((So, is Greg still with Luis, or still with Nat, or off on his own now, instead? First he had followed Luis to the horses, then Nat rode with Greg to the horses too, and now Luis and Nat are split up, so where does that leave Greg? or is he still super-Greg and fast enough to keep up with both of them?? 😱 💃 😆 ))
((you set 'em up, and I knock 'em down...
or sometimes the other way around...
hey, that rhymes too! plotting this stuff is fun and usually not too difficult, except trying to plot around the super-heroics like when you come back after a full day or 2 of posts and decide to break out of a big city jailhouse as simply and easily as we broke out of the small town... hence, the Super Greg thing... go back and re-read all you had to survive to escape and tell me you don't agree it's a bit above and beyond the usual Western fare. Luis diving out the side window brought it back to 'reality' of Western stuff, but what I had to write to explain how you recovered your weapons and walk out the front door and survive, was extreme... that's all...
I got Buddy near shot, near hanged, near burned down, near blowed up, near drown, and stricken with fever, maybe twice now, all only ever faced with 3 or 5 men at once...
and you got Greg dodging 1000 Gatling gun round a minute, 39 ranchers, and now 50 deputies and 200 army men... see? Super Greg?))
Deputy Steven Sanders was steaming. Who did that smug Army commander think he was, dismissing him like that and talking about things more important than 'personal family vendettas'? What's more important than family? Smug son of a b!tch!
"That cuts it!" Sanders decided. "I didn't want to have to do this... I thought I could manage this on my own, with the local boys... Sorry, Pop.." he thought of his father, Sheriff Sanders back in the small town on the outskirts. He went to his sleeping quarters and rustled through his small chest of personal belongings, recovering 4 small steel ink-blot stamp devices, then sat to compose 4 letters of invitation.
the 4 letters were addressed to the following groups, and stamped with the approriate insignia stamper, which included an image of the animal named as well as the SCORPION insignia of the Blue Bandana Banditos!!:
BINGHAM BUFFALO SECURITY (the security force mentioned on the WR Diamond Mine signpost, same Buffalo insignia as branded on the mine sign)
WACO WOLVERINE WATCH FORCE (Wolverine stamp insignia, possibly also worn by Wolfe Raines?)
AUSTIN ARMADILLO ARMS (armadillo stamp insignia)
and LAREDO LIONS DEN (LION stamp insignia, remarkably similar to the LION'S HEAD BELT BUCKLE worn by LEO, and possibly also worn by Wolfe Raines??)
Sanders then sealed the letters and spent the night greasing the palms and fattening the wallets of the local pony express riders, to get the letters delivered as fast as possible.
"By week's end..." Sanders snorted, "The bounty hunters will be the least of the Army's worries... all my fellows gathered here will match numbers with the Army regiment itself! Then we will see what chaos can be rought upon this city! Then we will see who truly rules the streets and the nights... then we will have our revenge! on this city, on the Army, and on you.. Buddy Reno and your pathetic band of renegades! BAH HAHA HAHA HAHA!"
Leo watched the army men take away the two captives. He couldn't interfere with the army...could he? He was a gunslinger after all...that much he knew. He followed them, far enough behind not to be noticed. He let the building burn behind him. If there was anyone left inside they would have been long since dead. He needed to go into the town anyway, to ask if anyone had seen the bandit from the barn.
Leo walked through the town, moving from back-alley to back-alley. The streets seemed deserted apart from a few army men. They kept going on about some "tribes" Leo guessed was an appropriate name for them. There was something on here, this army presence here was too high for Leo's likings. He moved around the back streets to the sheriffs building and peeked through the window.
Deputy Sanders needed to release some anxiety and tension, and so he bought and brought a few ladies of the evening back to his quarters at the Marshall's office.
"Oh yeah, Lily... just like that... mmm..." he moaned in ecstasy as the ladies gave him what he paid for. "Now, let Victoria have her turn..."
"Hey, buddy! My names Alicia.. and she's Dolores, not Lily or Victoria!"
"Dammit witches!" Sanders snapped. "Don't call me BUDDY! and I have paid good money for your services, I will call you what I want to call you, and you will do your duty and like every minute of it!"
he calmed himself and lay back again, "Now, please continue, Victoria..."
The prostitutes looked at each other, worried, but then remembered the large wad of cash they had been given, and continued their service of the customer, as ordered...
...while Leo got an eyeful from the window across the room... the gunslinger outside also noticed the paperwork on the desk near the window, stamped with the various insignias, including the LIONS HEAD similar to his belt buckle!! hmmm....
Leo noticed the emblem on the table, he needed to get in there, get the papers and get out without being seen. It wasn't going to be a problem with the sheriff busy. He hopped off the barrell he was knelt on and landed on the sand. His face was still covered in the stuff. A godsend, he realised, no-one would be able to recognise him when he cleaned it off.
Deputy Sanders was about finished with the prostitutes when there was a noise outside his quarters...
he stopped his servicing of the wenches and pulled his breeches on, stomping to the door while the ladies pulled covers up over their naked bodies. The noise was a gentle knockin on the door, and Sanders moved to answer it.
"You summoned a Messenger, Sir?" a little boy in brown hide-skin jacket and cap poked his head in, noticing the naked ladies in the bed, and beaming with embarassed excitement.
"That's right, kid, I did!" Sanders recovered the stamped envelopes and handed them to the boy, smacking the kid upside the cheek with the handful of papers. "Get these delievered by tomorrow, or there will be Hell to pay!"
The boy nodded and backed from the room, looking past Sanders at the naked ladies the whole while, until the door slammed in his face...
...he was flipping through the letters as he walked to his horse, admiring the penmanship and insignias stamped on the envelopes, and he didn't notice the sand-covered sneak (Leo) step from the shadows near the hitching post out front...
Leo assumed that the kid had the letter that he needed. His mind thought fast, a requirement for a gunslinger. He started to move about from side to side, singing random words from random songs. He moved slowly to the kid and perpisly, although making it seem like an accedent he bumped into the kid, causing him to drop his letters.
"Hey!" The kid yelled at him, bending down to pick up the letters, "I'll be in so much trouble if I don't get these delivered."
Leo bend over saying loudly and slowly "I'm SOOOOOOOOOOO Sorry, kiddo" He said it as if he were drunk.
Slowly he bent over and picked up several letters, sliding the one he was interested in down his jeans. He then handed them to the kid, stood up and walked slowly, waveringly away towards the inn. He moved down a back alley when he was sure he was out of anyone's sight and took the letter out of his trousers, admiring the ensigna on the front. He then tore it open and opened the letter.
~You want to say what's in it or should I? I've got a good thing to put in it.~
~It's a letter from Steve Sanders to all the area Blue Bandana Bandit factions, rallying them all to Abilene to beat the bounty hunters at finding Buddy Reno and his renegades... Sanders thought the local Blues brothers could manage it at first, but then, someone got the Army involved, so now Sanders needs more help, from outside forces...
if you have more than that, something more to keep Leo and Wolfe's story going, feel free to add on... I've already suggested hints that Leo and possibly Wolfe are some part of the local area security forces, so that's a start...~
Leo couldn't believe what he was reading. The sheriff here seemed to be in league with bandits. Leo shook his head in disgust. He turned the letter over and saw a picture of a wolf facing left with a picture of a lion facing right, back to back. Above them was drawn a lot of slashes, obviously a quick drawing of rain. Below it said three words that would provide a larger insight into Leo's past:
The Raine Brothers
((just some clarification here... Steve Sanders is the son of Sheriff Sanders, from the first small town we all started in (never named the town, but it's NOT Abilene) Sheriff Sanders is still running the law in that small town, he didn't leave to chase Reno's Renegades, but Steve did leave. The Marshall in Abilene is another guy, not really focused on..yet.
Steve is a Deputy in his father's police force in the small town; at least part time deputy, but has other irons in the fire too, being part of the Blue Bandana Brother mercenaries; he's not the sheriff, and doesn't have no command of any law forces here in Abilene... not yet... but he wants more power, to prove himself to his father, so he's making moves to get his posse together... but, for the most part, what you're saying can still be true...)
Buddy and Catori were led to an isolated area of the medical facilities within the Army garrison complex. They were stripped (bare, no clothes, no boots, not secret compartments or folded flaps of flesh to hide concealed weapons) washed, sanitized, sterilized, and issued military-brown underwear top and bottoms for the duration of their stay in the facility.
"Your clothing and affects will be cataloged and contained, returned to you once you hav ebeen medically cleared of fever..." the Army nurse promised.
"What about the dog?" was Buddy's first concern.
"I'm sorry, Mister..." the nurse began, with a frown, before being distracted by another question of her own. "What did you say your name was? for our records?"
"Polk..." Buddy thought quick, recalling the name he'd heard thrown around the JP Ranch before it was torched. "James Polk..." he hoped it would be awhile before it could all be sorted out the Polk was really already dead from fever, not sitting there in the Army infirmary, fighting for his life in wholly different ways.
"OK, Mr Polk..." the nurse smiled. "We'll get started on the tests, and get you and your companion fized up and out of here in no time..." she smiled again and left Buddy to prepare the tests. Buddy examined himself in a mirror on the wall across the room... he looked like Hell!
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Elsewhere in the garrison, Commander Geoffrey Jericho shrugged off his Army uniform top coat and shirt, then tugged his faded red undershirt over his head with a groan. He also caught his reflection in the mirror across the room.
"I look like Hell!" he muttered. He moved to the wash pan near the mirror, and splashed water on his face and neck and all down his chest. He was struck then by his reflection, and the image of a rather large circular scar on his upper left pectoral (chest) muscle. The purple-black scar still seemed singed and scorched as from gunpowder, it was an obvious, but old, bullet wound and it held a lot of history and pain for the Commander.
"Reno..." Jericho muttered, swiping the wave of water over his bare skin.
"When I find you..." he lashed out suddenly, smashing his fist into the mirror, shattering his reflection.
Greg stopped on a small hill outside of town, far enough away that they couldn't see him, but close enough so that the town was accesable to him. He could watch the town from here. Any big iccedents, he would be able to see, and he was well hidden in the taller grass.
((just a note, i'll try and tone Greg down a bit. I tend to get carried away, and make my characters all really cool. I'll make it more realistic from now on. Though, i will miss super greg 💃 ))