Thread: Eternal Sands - Closed

The fighting had been brief, the take-down swift and brutal. It was a decent sized bandit gang, but small fry compared to the one they refused to submit to. "So," Crusher said as he lit a cigarette and drew smoke, exhaling thickly into the face of one of the captives. "Who's the boss?"

The dwarf captive spat defiantly into Crusher's face, who promptly responded with a single blast of his shotgun. He moved on to the next captive and repeated, "Who's the boss?"

"Please, don't kill me," the human bandit whimpered. Another shotgun blast.

"That wasn't the right answer... now you, tell me, who's the boss?"

The next captive was an orc and somewhat more receptive. "You are, man, you're the boss. We get it now, all right?"

Crusher mulled it over for a moment... then decided that still wasn't the right answer. He pumped yet another shell into yet another poor, dumb and overall worthless individual.

For a moment, Crusher eyed the rest of the captives with dismay then said, "C'mon, you spit in our faces like that dumb sonuvabitch over there did and don't even know who you've pissed off?" He turned and complained, "I dunno what to do with these guys, boss. They're just too bloody stupid!"

Ciel stood there with her arms folded. Her lips were pressed into a thin line as she watched some of her 'friends' being blasted away. She rolled her eyes and sighed a little,whispering. "Its so exhausting just standing here..If this half wit keeps blasting people away I'll have nobody left to command.." She lifted up her head and decided to speak up. "I'm the boss, and who're you calling stupid?"

She raised her eyebrows, waiting for the actions of this foolish man before her. He was a good couple inches taller than her, but no matter, this would be no challenge at all if it ended in violence. There would be one person standing, and she indented it to be herself.

Crusher boomed with mocking laughter, which was soon joined by the rest of his comrades. "I like this girl!" he told them as he approached the one who spoke. "Hell, I think I'm in love." The half-orc's eyes were squinted with a leering smile as he looked the girl up and down. She was no more than a young waif of a kid, but there was a certain dark look to her that made her look even more of a lovely little thing up close. "A bit skinny for my taste though," Crusher confessed as he took another drag of his cigarette.

"Leave her!" his employer shouted whilst approaching. The gang leader was a hulking werewolf whose face and bare chest were covered with tattoos. "She's mine. You heard what she said... she's the boss."

His men responded with laughter and watched as he pushed Crusher aside, looking down on the girl with a glare. "No wonder these pansies were so easy to beat, do you KNOW who I am?" The gang leader drew his pistol and pointed it at the girl's face. "I'm the god damn boss around here, ME. You got more balls than the rest of your gang here, I'll give you that, but no one, and I mean NO ONE, crosses me and gets away with it."

His finger began to close on the trigger of his gun. At this point, no one was laughing any more and Crusher was muttering, "What a damn waste."

Ciel grinned up at the tall man as he held the gun to her face. "You've got nerve Sir, for pointing such a dangerous weapon at a lady." Her eyes narrowed, revealing nothing of what she new would happen if he pulled the trigger.

Her long black hair flowed about her in what little wind there was. Her eyes beamed with a challenging look about them. She awaited the loud boom that would be coming from the pistol. "What a waste indeed." She said, mocking the other man's words. A waste for the man before her, he looked like a tough man, for now that is. Her hands twitched with excitement as she waited for the final blow.

The werewolf fired his pistol and a dull thwuck of impact could be heard after the gunshot... but the girl was still standing. Crusher's mouth fell open as he saw the squashed bullet falling onto the sand, stopped by some invisible barrier.

"What the hell?" the gang leader snarled as he flipped his pistol sideways to check it. At that moment, his head was suddenly lifted from his shoulders and he fell down, dead and leaking blood.

That bullet should have been your first damned clue, Crusher thought as he backed away and said, "Looks like we got a witch over here fellas." He spat out his cigarette and held his shotgun at the ready, but he wasn't the first one to shoot. One overly jumpy human screamed in terror at the sudden death of his leader and fired his laser rifle at the girl. The bright red bolt of light clearly deflected away in midair, redirected into the ground where it made an inconsequential splash of sand. Then all hell broke loose and every gun was firing at the girl. The rest of her own gang were slowly rising up to their feet, no longer at the mercy of their captors. Their leader had entered the fray.

Her grin widened. These fools had no idea what they had come up against. "A witch? I am no such thing, Mister. Witches are much less frightening." She glanced on either side of her, nodding to her 'comrades'.

As the bullets rushed passed her, she could see they were starting to aim at her men. She could feel her long invisible hands wrap around all of them, so they would my be harmed. A small gift, mostly for her own benefit. She could see in their eyes, they felt unstoppable now, felt Immortal.

They dashed at the other group of men, as bullet after bullet came crashing to the ground. She folded her arms and smiled as she saw her men had managed to take away all of their guns. "Now then.." The bullets that were once on the ground, were all rising into the air, about forehead height. "Allow me to return these to you, gentlemen." For a brief moment, Ciel's eyes flashed a bright color of blood lust red. The bullets shot forward, and into the heads of the opposing men, Leaving only the one man standing. The one who had called her a witch.

"This was such a waste of life, don't you agree?" On both sides of her, all of the men spoke quietly. As if it were a daily saying of hers. "Yes, my lady. Such a waste." It was clear they were furious over the fact that they lost some of their men. But they would soon get over it quick.

She wiped a blotch of blood off her cheek and licked her finger, staring seductively over at the other man. "You have a purpose yet, I can feel it. So for now, I will allow you to live." She folded her arms and started up at the man, waiting for what his next move would be.

Crusher bared his teeth in a snarl as his orc blood flared up and imbued his senses with adrenaline. It was of little use however, now that one of the enemy bandits had managed to tear his shotgun out of his hands and redirect it squarely at his chest. Even in the grips of combat rage, Crusher could see that he was far outnumbered, out-gunned and outmatched. He momentarily contemplated drawing his two pistols, which hung on either side of his hips, but after everything he had just seen in less than a minute, he decided against it.

"Shit, lady, you don't mess around," Crusher said as he raised his hands in surrender. "Who are you?"

"C'mon," said the man who had his shotgun. An impudent grin appeared on his face as he continued, "You spit in our faces like these dumb sons of bitches over here, and don't even know who you've pissed off?"

Crusher's orc blood was up again. "You're a cheeky little twat, aren't you? Well c'mon then, shoot if you're going to shoot. Better get it over with before I do you first, maggot!"

The bandit pumped the shotgun with a resounding ch-chik and said, "He's got a good point, boss. Why are we keeping this guy alive?"

Several others made noises of assent as they began wondering the same thing.

"Who am I? Well, when I came to this earth I was given the name of Ciel. Ciel Lockheart." Her grin faded into a small smile as she walked up to the only man left standing. "Who might you be?"

She held up her hand, which was in a fist. A motion to silence the other fellow bandits. "I will tell you later, alright?" She looked back and smiled cutely at them and then turned her attention back to the other male in front of her. A few of the men mumbled things under their breath and she tilted her head and continued staring at the man.

"When a gift is given to you, you don't ask why it was sent. Cherish it. Perhaps you'll finally do something useful with it." She tilted her head the other way and looked up at him. "Or, maybe you'll prove useful to me. But I'm not going to force you into anything." She winked up at the man and started to walk away, along with the others.

"Name's Crusher," the half-orc mumbled at the girl's back, who was now evidently his new boss. She didn't seem like the paying type too, but Crusher supposed that having been spared his life was payment enough for now. There were many astonishing and unpredictably sudden things that could happen in the wild desert, and Crusher had never so much as guessed that he would ever be trounced so soundly by a mere waif of a girl, never mind whatever whack-job powers she had.

"So can I have my gun back?" Crusher said to the one who had so insolently mocked him.

"Nope," the bandit replied. "Law of the desert, man. It's mine now."

Crusher snarled and leaned in close as he snarled, "Then you'd better sleep with one eye open tonight." He walked past and kept his hands firmly on the grips of the two pistols by his sides. It was already clear that he would find no friends here. That was fine. Crusher knew that he had so many enemies that a whole gang of them was just another fleck of shit in the pile. "So what now... boss?" he said as he caught up to Ciel.

"Now..." She hesitated, seeming to make what she was about to say more suspenseful. "We walk." She cringed at her own words. She actually hated walking. In fact she was probably one of the laziest people alive. "And don't look so tense, none of these men here will hurt you. I hope in time you'll believe me." She smiled up at Crusher and continued walking.

It was still fairly hot outside, but she was not sweating at all. One of the many perks of being a demon. "So Crusher, what are you anyway?" She probably already knew what he was, but she was far to lazy to even look over at him. And she wanted to keep a conversation going so the walk didn't seem too long.

He stood at the back, watching the fighting going near-by and looking for ways to infiltrate the opponents barracks and raid it for money but the fighting made it a bit hard to spot. He continues to examine the battle field, knowing that he's meant to be in it but decided to stay back for a while. His eyes perked up, hearing a nearby footsteps approaching him. He turns around with a playful grin on his face "What seems to be the problem? I'm just... umm... I just found this interesting coin!" He pulls out a small coin from his pocket. "I was going to jump into this mosh of a battle but there doesn't seem to be room for me so I'll still be standing about doing nothing, see? What do you think I was doing? Being a coward? Naw, it's called the element of surprise, when they think they've won, I'll go behind them when they're not noticing and BAM! surprise back stab by moi! and then I can go into their stronghold or wherever they're situated and grab some loot for me-e-e-I mean for us of course! We need some supplies, my sword is going a bit blunt and I'm sure the others are too. They wont need it anyways, they'll be dead."

"Law of the desert," Crusher muttered under his breath when he saw the excitable thief, and then he said to Ciel, "Well it seems you already know my name, I won't ask how." He removed his hat and used it as a fan as he stepped out into the street, emerging from the door of the parking lot that was now a charnel house full of dead bodies. Ever since it was first abandoned a hundred or so years ago, this town had not known any kind of law except for the bandit's law. Carrion birds and bugs were a familiar sight here amongst the bullet ridden streets, sweltering under the wild desert heat.

"Look, here's the thing, Miss Lockheart," Crusher went on as he walked ahead of the rest of the gang, feeling their hostile eyes on his back. "I'm a mercenary, simple as that. As long as you pay me and give me things to shoot, I'm a happy chappy, so I got no problems changing from one employer to another as the circumstances dictate. All I wanna know is what you're about, because from what I've seen, you really don't need any of us around. So what's the deal?"

Ciel laughed a little and tilted her head. "Don't worry you'll have plenty to shoot at where we're going. And the wages are very promising." She took a sly glance around and then continued walking before answering his last question.

The corners of her lips curled up into a grin. Something about it made it seem that there were many different secrets and meanings in that smile of hers. "That's for me to know, and you to find out. Lets just say, a girl gets lonely out here. Sometimes its nice to have someone to talk to. Is it not?" She flipped her black hair and kicked at the dirt a little as she continued walking.

"Well, that might be so when the other fella ain't shooting at you," Crusher replied philosophically as he wore his hat again, feeling the sun's glare on his head. "But even then, I wouldn't have it any other way. One thing I like about the desert, it's all about survival of the fittest. Makes being alive that much more worth it."

Crusher looked back at the building they had left, seeing his shotgun in the hands of the man who had taken it now and was now strutting about the place like a haughty struthid. That cheeky bastard. No one seemed to care about the three bandits Crusher had killed, and he wondered if anyone would care if he retrieved his shotgun through violent means. He was by no means unarmed as he still had his two pistols by his sides, but he did like that shotgun.

Another time, Crusher thought as he decided to wait for a few days to get the feel of this new gang. This weak and pathetic gang of lug heads who were still alive because of the one person they were following. It could be argued that all gangs were like this, but Crusher had never known any before that had a leader who could sever heads and block bullets with her mind or some other. Such individuals were usually serving the Empire or the rebels as battle mages specializing in telekinesis, but there was a look to this Lockheart that suggested she had no such background.

"Well missy, if you don't mind me asking," Crusher began. "How long have you been out here in the desert? I've been running these sands for a while, y'see, same as the gang I was with before, erm, today, but I've never even heard of you before and a witch of your calibre should have one hell of a reputation around these parts. You new or something?"

Ciel laughed briefly and glanced over at Crusher, tilting her head and noticing for a brief moment that he was eyeing up the shotgun that had been taken from him. "I've been out here for only a week. I don't like fighting much..Which is probably why I'm not well known. I sort of like it that way." Her eyebrows raised in anticipation of the absurd look Crusher would get on his face after she told him that.

"And like I've said before, I am not a witch. Witches are far more kinder when they kill." For a brief moment, yer eyes flashed red, remembering the time when she herself slayed a great witch and then drained her blood. She murmured to herself briefly. "It was rather delicious actually.." She smiled over at crusher and decided that she would be able to talk to him daily, and not get so annoyed of his presence.

"Oi, so I see you want yer pretty gun back from that man over there?" Ciel held out her hand behind her and the other male automatically handed her the shotgun. She then held it in front of her and looked down at it as she walked. "Its quite shiny. You take good care of your things Crusher." She gently handed it over to him and continued walking.

Crusher took the shotgun with genuine gratefulness and snapped a very military salute, a gesture he thought he'd never make after leaving the military. "Yes, ma'am," he said as his leader walked away. Just like that, the gun was his again, and no one had to get their throats slit. Still, Crusher knew better than to let his guard down, especially when most of the people here were thieving vermin.

A quick scan with his eye implants before the battle had identified them all as ex-Empire citizens and convicted criminals of the lowest kind. Gangsters, pickpockets, burglars and muggers, the whole lot. There might have been a few former soldiers as well, but Crusher highly doubted that. Empire renegades generally weren't that common in the desert, especially when the Empire was always the winning side. Sometimes the rebels got lucky, sure, but in the end they were the ones with less numbers, less equipment and less to offer. Why anyone ever wanted to join them was beyond Crusher, who was ever the pragmatic thinker and didn't trouble himself with such lofty notions as freedom. Then again, he never had much regard for the Empire's rules either.

"Law of the desert," he muttered as he walked through the streets and found an empty house to hunker down in. Now that he had time to think, he wondered what his new boss meant when she said she wasn't a witch. As far as Crusher was concerned, a witch was someone who could use magic, end of story. Perhaps she simply didn't like to be called one, or perhaps she was actually something else entirely. In any case, her magic was strong and that was definitely an asset to survival in the desert. Crusher decided that he might actually like living amongst this den of thieves, although the exact reason why he had been spared in the battle continued to puzzle him. He lied down on his back and closed his eyes to rest as he tried to figure out what was so special about himself.

Ciel folded her arms across her chest and sank down onto the couch that had been in the -what seemed to be - living room. She sighed and looked up at the Ceiling, tilting her head and wondering why she was even out here in the first place. She knew that she was not a child of man, she was born in the shadow lands. Carved out of the depths of the darkness and all that is evil. She glared a little, she hated to refer to herself as evil. She knew what she did was not nice, but there's nothing fun about a game if you don't cheat once in a while..She shook her head, not wanting to get into how she even ended up in the desert.

A few hours went by and all that the crew has seemed to be doing was sitting around, waiting for nothing. Suddenly, Ciel decided to speak up."I'm hungry."

Crusher woke up with a snort when he heard the quick stomping steps of men moving in haste. The short nap had done absolutely no good for him, so he was somewhat grouchy to say the least when he stepped out of the house and asked, "What's with all the ruckus?"

"Th' bosss iss hungry," answered a serpent-man with a wide brimmed sombrero on his scaly head and a rifle in his claws.

"So?"

"Ssoooo, we goin' t'get ssome food f'her. Th' bosss get'ss hungry after a fight."

Don't we all? Crusher wanted to say, but he had already taken the hint when the serpent-man started speaking slowly in a patronizing manner. Evidently, Ciel was either too lazy or too tired to get food for herself, and judging by the gun in the bandit's claws, a simple bite to eat wasn't going to do. That suited Crusher just fine. Whether there was any hunting or raiding to be done, at least there would be something to shoot at.

"Alright, just give me a sec," Crusher said as he went back in the house to retrieve his shotgun.

"Wal take yer time, new guy. Sshe's a'ready chowin' down on ssome sstruthid meat, but it ain' gon' be enough."

Considering the size of a struthid, that was quite an appetite. As Crusher picked up his shotgun and reloaded it, he tried to recall whether he had ever heard anything about a magic user's appetite. Eventually, he had to admit that he had no such knowledge of the matter.