Greg rode with Buddy, watching Jericho carefully. Blood was still flowing from his gut shot, and he wanted so bad to finish killing him now, but he couldn't. He was back in town, and he was a deputy. His hipocrosy would only go so far though, he would eventually have to turn in the badge, if not b/c he was forced, but b/c being an outcast/outlaw was so much more fun.
It wasn't Buddy, Leo and Greg who Bart and his banditos encountered, but the regular Army men who wandered into town from the camp (those that Buddy Greg and Leo had passed on the road)...
and they weren't coming to storm the 'fake Army tent' they were heading INTO the saloon, not out of it! Bart and his men stomped into the saloon following the Army men, then after a few moments to make certain they were just reveling in the civilian comforts, the bandit soldiers and Bart exited...
THAT's when Buddy, Greg Leo and Jericho happened up the street!!
"You there! Soldiers!" Jericho took control, knowing that the men he'd released into town had no idea he was no longer in charge. He waved his good arm, the arm not favoring his gut shot wound, and waved the men over to the group. "Follow us! We've got scoundrels to tend to!!"
Jericho unwittingly loaded the group with BLUE BANDANNA BANDITS!!!
and Black Bart and the other plain-clothed bandits milled around outside the saloon, to follow Buddy and the rest of the law-dogs...
... follow them TO THEIR DOOM!!!
Originally posted by DIBWILLPAY!
Catori hugged her knees and began to cry. The ackhand from the whiteman had only heightened her migrane. Everything was blurry as she looked at the sergeant through tear-filled eyes. "Please, no" she begged." she didn't know what to expect from this greaseball, ut she hoped it was nothing like she experienced earlier.Catori reached to hold her diamond but grabbed air. It was gone! Her eyes flashed. They must have taken it! efore the soldier/sergeant could react, she had jumped him and had a knife to his throat. She quickly looked for some rope and bound his wrists.
The only thing Catori had over the slimeball was her agility.
Originally posted by DIBWILLPAY!
She quickly looked for some rope (to bind) his wrists.The only thing Catori had over the slimeball was her agility.
In those few precious moments while she was looking for rope to bind him, Catori was startled by a blast of gun-fire from outside, which was all the time the sergeant soldier-bandit needed to wrestle the knife away from her and slash at her chest, gouging her deeply, then backhanding her to the ground again.
=BANG!= the shotgun blasted into the air as Buddy and the Army approached. Although he was without a weapon of his own, Commander Jericho spoke up loud and clear, demanding.
"You there! You are not soldiers in MY Army! You are all under arrest!!"
"Arrest us for what?" the soldier-bandits boldly barked back, all taking aim with their various weapons. "We haven't done anything... yet..."
"How about attempted kidnapping and plotting to rob the cash money train from Abilene?!" Buddy interdicted, flashing his badge and brandishing the shotgun against his hip, while revealing the Scorpion-drawn map as evidence of the crime.
"I don't know about 'attempting' a kidnapping, or some such..." a voice spoke up from behind the tent flap, and the sergeant appeared, with Catori in his grasp, the knife at her throat, blood tricking thru her blouse from her chest wound. "Looks like we accomplished that one just fine... and as for plotting the robbery, we've got that one all tended to, too, law-dog..." he skinned a pistol from one of his troops and held it to Catori's back, the knife still against her throat as he backed away.
The other Scorpions all gathered round and made for the wagons and horses, commandeering the money train and holding the lawmen at bay.
Before another moment passed, the law-dog soldiers also turned their weapons on Buddy, Greg and Leo, pinning the good guys in a dangerous and fatal crossfire!!
While the rest of the hideen Scorpions from the saloon posse joined in, Black Bart hid out in the shadows, and made way around to the money train down dark alleys; no need for him to reveal himself and get caught or killed, when he could escape with the cash and live to fight another day...
~ uhmm, I was planning on allowing at least some of the bandits, and their leader Black Bart, to get away with the money train, so Leo and everyone else can do the heroics jumping on the moving train etc etc... just so you know, unless you want to change it up, and possibly die a horrible bloody death.... ~
~Of course, as this is Unhosted, I have NO DOUBT 3 or 4 or 5 of us could easily wipe the floor with these 8 or 10 or 12 or 20 bandits surrounding us, especially having been party to some of the other vastly unbalanced acts of heroism and carnage so far, but, if we do that, there's no grand great train robbery-rescue scene!! so...~
"Too many..." Buddy shakes his head, "Too risky..." he sees the peril Catori is in, and lowers the aim of his shotgun.
"Take the money..." Buddy growled.
"No Buddy! You don't--" Catori's cries were cut short by the knife drawing a prick of blood from her neck.
"But if you harm one hair on her head, I swear---" Buddy's words only incensed the Sergeant, and the Scorpion smiled and giggled, raising the knife from Catori's neck and swiping willfully and wispily at her flowing black hair, slicing a swath of hair from her shoulders!!
"You were saying? BAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" the scurvy dog snarled, backing into the shadows.
"Son of a b!tch!" Buddy kicked up the shotgun as the dozens of bandits also took aim, cokced, locked and loaded, and the carnage ensued...
The sun broke over the horizon in the east just then, blinding most of the Scorpions around the tent, giving the good guys a few seconds to lay into the bandits behind them, take cover and fight back, while the bandits fled or recovered...
Buddy dove into the tent, blasting the long thin tent pole collapsing the tent around him, and crawling rolling and diving out under the back side, down the alley and around the corner, back toward the place where the money train wagons were parked.
The wagons were in motion already though, the Sergeant shoving Catori into the back of one, before climbing in himself...
~OK, Black Bart, Sergeant Scorpion, Catori along with a few other Scorpion bandits will have taken the wagons, so y'all can post to heart's content getting the rest of the bandits, or dying trying...
before the great money train chase commences!!~
Catori groaned as she was shoved into the wagon. She scooted as far back/front as she could to get away from the sergeant. She held her hand to her bleeding chest and applied pressure. she looked up at the hateful sergeant with misty eyes. Her migrane made maters worse. Her head and heart were pounding. Now what? She was completely defenseless and too weak to try and escape.
Jericho stumbled and hobbled behind Buddy, still chain-linked to the 'Sheriff'.
"Sumb!tch, Reno!" the fallen commander chided, "You can't go off on some foolish revenge mission, and leave your friends behind to be dishonored and die! They are vastly outnumbered back there!! It will be a slaughter!"
Buddy watched the money train clatter down the street noisily, spotting the sergeant towering over Catori in the 3rd wagon. He then looked to Jericho long and hard, and moved to unshackle his nemesis, his prisoner!!
"I'm releasing you to go rally those troops in the saloon who still might follow you, under the condition that you stop that money train and save the hostage-prisoners! If you fail me in ANY WAY, know that I WILL NEVER STOP HUNTING YOU!"
Jericho and Buddy both had to smile slightly, yet gape in awe, at just how twisted and ironic their relationship had become... then, Jericho moved back down the alley toward the saloon, while Buddy retreated to the collapsed tent, to help his few remaining friends... or die trying!!
Poor Lily tossed and turned on the lumpy mattress in Ben Sisco's store. Sighing she lit the oil lamp and pulled back the curtain. In amazement she saw movement beyond the store with a few wagons.
Being the kind of person who loves to know everything she layed her hands on the sill and leaned forward. When her head was lower than the sill she stayed put and watched the drama unfold below.
"Lily, what are you doing?" asked Ben as he entered the room laden with a tray for her breakfast. Setting it down he pulled her out of the window before she almost fell.
"Nothin," said Lily. A crimson spread across her cheeks.
"Stop lying!" he cried and soon pushed past her to gaze down across the street. "Now that's something you don't see everyday!"
"What?" asked Lily.
"Look for yourself," he sighed as he pushed over for her to see. Looking Lily gasped and almost fell out of the window in terror.
Catori glared at the Sergeant. She was terrified, but she didn't let him know. She then looked at her feet. In her mind she was going oveer possible scenarios for escape. None seemed to come out with her living. Then her tarin of the shifted. What would the sergeant want with her? She was nothing ut a hostage to be bartered with to him.
Catori looked down at her hand and arm. They were covered in blood. . .her blood. She blinked back the tears. "You have your money. What more do you want?" she said. They could just dump her out anytime now.
Catori sighed and looked down at the feet of the sergeant. SHe missed Buddy. How could she have been so close to him and yet be so far away. It was her fault that these slimeballs had the money. . .Cavendish's (I can't spell, so don't kill me.) money. Were the bad guys actually going to win?
Leo grabbed the sawn-off from the saddle and shot some of the scorpians on his right. He then rode back the way he had come and down an alley, he circled the building and took the rest of the scorpians in that area out. He saw the money train moving and a shape moving towards him under the collapsed tent. He looked up and rode after the carrages (why can't it be a real train? 🙁), reloading the sawn-off as he went.
~feel free to post inclusions or additional heroic posts to be inserted before this, if anyone still IS posting heroics to this thread... I am here now, and not wanting to wait, sorry!! 😄~
Buddy charged back into the fray, guns blazing, while bullets pelted the last wagon left behind by the fleeing bandits. Matt was on the high ground but was taking fire from the other bandit snipers, Greg was stuck between the vice-like pinchers of Scorpions, on the ground, with only his (now-dead) horse to protect him, Leo was doing his best to circle around and keep in the fight, and Buddy dove behind and beneath the last wagon to help out.
... but, this was a losing battle, as the number of good guys still posting here dwindled down to next to none...
Fortunately, just when things seemed at their darkest, a call to arms was sounded, a bugle trumpeting the arrival of Jericho's division!!
...well, Jericho's squad was a more accurate description, as the commander rallied 7 soldiers from the saloon to join the cause of justice. Jericho and his foot-soldiers made quick work of the east end Scorpions, while Buddy, Leo, Greg and Matt dealt with the west end and roof-top robbers.
Then the soldiers moved quickly to mount up the last wagon to horses, and ride out after the escaping money train.
"It's a Federal case now, under the purview of the US Army to protect, defend and recover the cash!" Jericho explained as he helped Buddy up from under the wagon.
"But, you're not IN the Army any more!" Buddy reminded, as quietly as he could so as to not alert the rest of Jericho's loyal followers, after all they had done to help out so far... "And this is a matter of friendship, and loyalty, as much as justice... They got my girl!!"
"Are you coming or staying, Reno's Renegades??" Jericho asked, and Buddy looked to the left-overs of his rag-tag troupe...
"We should be careful. You know with the blue bandit about and all. They're a tricky bunch," whispered Lily as they came into view of Buddy and co. Thinking quickly she ducked behind the building to see what was going on. Pulling Ben before he could be seen she turned her attention back to there. "We've got to be careful!"
The bullets flew, most of the bandits dropped, and the Army and Reno's Renegades loaded up a wagon and rode after the escaping money train.
Li'l Benny Sisco stepped out and looked at all the carnage, blood and death on the street, stepping up and looking close at one of the dead Scorpion bandits.
"He's dead..." Benny sighed, nudging the man with his foot. "They're dead too..." he walked along, kicking all the bandits in his wake, and pointing his finger like a pistol at their dead-heads. "Pow! Pow! Pow!" then he blew a puff of breath over his finger tip and smiled back at Lily.
"It's safe now ma'am.. you can come out now... WHOA! what's this?!?"
he pulled a piece of paper from the fist of one of the fallen.
"Ohmygosh ohmygoshLily! Thisisimportant!!!" he babbled, dancing a jig and looking around frantically for any adult male role-model guns-slinger lawman... but, alas, they were all gone off after the runaway robbers.
What's a young trouble-making boy to do?? 😉 🙄 😱