Chapter 12 On the hunt


  Alex woke up slowly to find the room lit up by the sunlight and two furry paws gripping her cheek.  And a snoring muzzle ruining the silence.  She smirked before tugging the hybrid off her face, hauling herself off the bed and getting dressed out of her nightgown and into her casual clothes as the two live ammo’s slept on the bed.  Leaving the two to rest, she walked out of her apartment-like room into the outdoor village with The Mongo River running through it, splashing, charging and waving across the once dry riverbed.  Some of the other grubbs were fishing with their rods while a crazed and excited Zynx was either stealing fish, trying to catch them in his mouth or getting scolded for causing such a nuisance.  Firestorm was screaming and yelling out unbelievable horror to the other Grubbs that looked scared, annoyed, or were just trying to get him off the rock he stood on.  Nightjay was humming a tune and fishing, sitting near the lapping water’s edge.  

  She pushed open the wooden door to Wolvie’s room, freezing at the sight before her as Zick and Jaws snuck past, scampering silently out of the door. Stranger snored with his mouth wide open before the sunlight streaming in woke him, closing his mouth, stretching and opening his sleepy green eyes.  He froze when he saw Alex, looking briefly over at the sleeping purple wolvark clinging on to his shoulder like a lead weight.  There was an awkward silence that the two felt would never end.  
“…Ummm…I can explain…”
He struggled to sit up, shoving Wolvie off the bed in frustration as he thudded on the wood floor like a rock and whined.  
“Forget it, les just go…”
He hauled the whining wolvark off the floor by his shirt collar, and dropped him on his feet before casually walking out.  

  The two walked on while Wolvie, terminator and Chomp caught up, hopping or dragging on while Zick and Jaws were seen chasing some terrified Grubbs.  They ran back whining in the opposite direction, when the Grubbs leapt into the river, getting them splashed with water that the sleggies hated so much.  “Are they gonna be alright with the Grubbs looking after them?” Wolvie spoke up.  “Yeah, sure…” Stranger muttered, not seeing them stand in front of him, and stumbling over and tripping as Zick ducked past.  Alex and Wolvie tried to hold back a snicker as he got up and glared at the two, who beamed up at him with their eyeless face.  “Frayda, git them away fer me…” He muttered, as said Grubb herded them Herdy Gerdy-style, running into Wolvie’s room and leaping out of the window.  They were heard barking in the room while Wolvie looked at his large gun in his hands.  Alex looked at it, wincing slightly at the memory of other wolvarks with guns…  Painful losses, nearly getting killed herself, that tragic human massacre…  

  “Say Wolvie, why’dya git a gun?  No offense, but you don’t seem like a guy tih shoot people…” He looked briefly at the sky, then back at the rusted weapon.  “It was my brother’s…” He said casually.  “We’d get worried about that gang goin’ about, so he got one, just in case…” “Ya ‘ad a brother?  ‘Thought you were an only child.” At the mention of his brother, he froze right there, dropping his gun, while his small beady eyes started traumatized into space.  

~
  A teenage Wolvie ran around the forest, laughing as a stern voice called his name in vain.  He tripped over a tree root, falling flat on his face, and got up, wiping and brushing dirt off his face.  The greener wolvark, in his late twenties, finally caught up, grabbing him by the shoulders.  “Darn it Wolvie, will ya cut that out?!  You’ll get lost like the last time; I keep tellin’ ya not ta run off!” Wolvie just laughed, attempting another escape, but getting grabbed around the torso.  “Oh no you don’t you cheeky rascal!” The older wolvark laughed, tickling him in the ribs while he laughed hysterically and struggled.  “Mackie, cut it out!” He managed to say in between uncontrollable laughs, falling on the ground and running behind a tree to escape him.  The two laughed as Mackie eventually caught him, holding him in a headlock with one arm and rubbing his head hard with his fist with the other.  “Ya ain’t my dad, ya can’t tell me what ta do!” He giggled, play fighting back sissy fight style.  Mackie hit gently back at him, smiling and pulling him in for a hug.  “I’m your big brother, I’ll tell ya wha’ever I like!” The two giggled, quietening down, just them in the silence of the forest, before freezing as a hoarse, dark laugh broke the silence.  

  “Well well, look who’s here…”
Wolvie’s eyes went wide as he saw some other familiar figures emerge from the trees, all laughing evilly and wielding large guns.  He recognized them instantly, and knew they recognized him because of his purple colour.  They’d gotten roughly ten years older, in their thirties, still with that gang leader, the one with the scarred eye.  Wolvie didn’t care how he got it, only knew that he’d obtained it after he’d ran away to escape, and that it had become his trademark.  He stood frozen to the spot, whining slightly and holding onto Mackie’s hand tightly as the two brothers remained frozen.  The scar faced one, the one he feared the most, took steps forward as the two backed slowly against a thick tree.  

  Holding tightly to his hand, Wolvie looked on in horror as the sicko started to load his gun slowly, sneering at the two innocent victims.  Crying uncontrollably, he saw his older brother mouth something to him.  
“Run…”
Another, choking sob and laugh from the bullies, before he sobbed “I can’t leave you here…” He shed a tear as Mackie shook and watched in terror as the gang leader raised his weapon, letting him stare into the black hole of the barrel.  “I’ll distract them…You run…” He whispered, not taking his eyes off that gun.  Wolvie’s lip wobbled.  “But…I can’t leave you…” He whined softly.  Mackie’s eyes widened as the large gun clicked, loaded and ready to fire.  “RUN WOLVIE!”

  With a big shove, he finally ran.  He kept on running as he heard the loud echoing gunshot.  He kept on running after he heard Mackie scream.  He kept on running after he heard the other gang members shots ring out.  He kept on running back to his house after he heard his screams become more frequent, more desperate and pain-ridden, before Mackie stopped, leaving silence where he lay ridden with holes and bleeding all over the forest floor.  

  He ran back in his house, slamming the door shut, and bolting into the living room.  Sitting down on the sofa, where they’d watched TV together so many times, he watched as a soft purple sleggie wandered sleepily to his lap, still young.  Looking over at the side of the room, he saw the old hat beside him.  His brother’s hat.  The brother he’d left to die alone.  He took it in his arms, leaning, and cried against it and his pet on his lap, who was young, innocent and blissfully unaware of the tragedy.  
~

  The two friends leapt in fear as Wolvie burst into a screaming fit.  There was no pattern or attempt to breathe, just loud, uncontrollable screams of terror and crazed, tortured little eyes on his purple face that showed insanity.  Shaking his shoulders hard, Stranger tried to reason with him, but with no such luck.  Terminator and Chomp winced, while the two tried all they could to calm him down.  Confused and delusional, he thrashed against them as they tried to restrain him in case he did himself damage, having lost all sense of reality.  


  A clakker grumbled, raking around a filing cabinet while the outlaws in their jail cells moaned, groaned and yelled at him and one another.  The youngest, in a cell by himself, was of the hunchbacked cutter sort, either a young adult or in his teens, a more orange colour with a brown patch around his right eye and wearing a raggy brown sleeveless coat with some green mixed in, toeless socks, an old green and brown hat and a green shirt.  His brown eyes looked around the only part of the room he could see through the metal bars, in his cell he felt lucky not to be sharing with the other outlaws, mostly his dozens of brothers.  They hated him for being a nice guy who wouldn’t engage in criminal activity, most of all, his mother, Jo momma.  She hated him and he hated her.  Since he was ‘useless’ as she liked to say, he usually just did the chores like he was told to, not wanting to get belittled by her or beaten by his vile brothers.  

  He ended up bountied for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and being around his ‘family’.  He’d hidden up on that ramp in the sunken ship area, where the river had been blocked at the time.  Ignoring his mother’s orders to get rid of those bounty hunters and not wanting to get involved, he eventually did when he sat too close to the edge, turned around and saw that human and steef in disguise.  Getting a fright, he stumbled backwards and fell – from the very top to the bottom.  He blacked out when he hit the ground, then woke up in jail with a stabbing pain in his back.  His back had been bad since.  He couldn’t lean forward nowadays without doing himself damage.  

  He looked over as he heard the door open, unable to see who had opened it as some light spilled through onto the old wooden floor.  A figure walked through, past the outlaw’s cage, letting him see it.  It was a mysterious person, wearing a black hooded robe and gloves, with their feet and face hidden from view.  He walked slowly towards the clakker, who raised an eyebrow at him.  “Umm, can I help ya sir?” He asked, the usual clakker ignorance spring to his mind.  ‘Freak!’ He thought, before the black figure slowed down, as he stood just at the other side of his desk.  Slowly reaching over, his hand suddenly lunged forward as he grasped the front of the clakker’s shirt and hauled him off his feet.  “WAAAH!”


  Wolvie woke up, half-asleep, to feel his aching throat, hear the sound of running water nearby and see a figure kneeling beside him.  His eyes flickered as he groaned, trying to sit up.  Alex was sitting and watching him, while Stranger sat at the water’s edge, letting his hooves hang in the splashing water of the Mongo River.  Alex smiled as she looked at him, then at Stranger who saw Wolvie awake.  
“Well git up, we’re gonna go ta New Yolk City.”
“Hmm, great, clakkerville…” Wolvie muttered.  “Say, what happened when I blacked out?” Alex looked briefly at the sky.  
“Ya kept on screaming until yih couldn’t breathe after I asked if ya ‘ad a brotha.” He adverted his gaze to the dusty earth ground.  
“Ah yeah, that…” The memories pained him.  He wanted to block them out again.  He knew what he wanted to do and how to do it, but first he’d have to sneak away from Alex and Stranger.  
“Say…Could I just-” He was answered when Stranger lifted him up from under his shoulders.  “Whatever it is, no.  Ya commin’ with us.” He grumbled and walked after the two bounties slash bounty hunters along the riverside as Terminator buzzed after them.  


  Stranger walked, looking around him in the town for any clakkerz.  Terminator and Chomp sat on Alex’s shoulders, avoiding eye contact with each other, as a breeze blew by gently.  Wolvie looked up at the wooden buildings that stood tall, paranoid and wanting to run.  He couldn’t though, they wouldn’t let him.  Stranger stopped for a moment, thinking her heard something.  His ears pricked up as the others also listened, hearing yells and crashes.  He walked closer to the source, as the sounds grew louder upon closer contact and a clakker was heard screaming.  He looked at the jail, before seeing a group of hunchbacked outlaws burst out, breaking the wooden saloon doors.  

  Cursing, he grabbed Alex by her shirt collar and Wolvie by his arm roughly before galloping straight into a dead end alleyway whilst forcing them to run.  Chomp made a successful dive into Alex’s bag, as Terminator held onto her t-shirt and shoulder with his tiny paws for dear life.  Stranger braked, forcing the others to do so as his hoofed feet scattered dust up off the earthy ground.  Fear settled in as more outlaws laughing, shouting and charging could be heard, coming closer.  

  Looking around desperately, his hopes soared when he saw a long thick rope, dangling high up from a roof against the western sky.  He leapt at it, scurrying up as fast as possible while Alex followed in hot pursuit, gripping and yanking with her easily hurt hands by the rough material, and trying to hold on and push with her feet.  Wolvie followed, dangerously slow as he lingered around the bottom of the long piece of thick material, clinging with his feet and groping hopelessly with his black nailed purple hands.  The two bounty hunters hissed urgently at him to hurry up, as the sound of running and yelling outlaws grew nearer and nearer to them.  

  Eventually, the outlaws rounded the corner and into the alleyway.  They were a huge mob, with familiar outlaw bosses and minions gathered and looking up at the rope with a sneer.  
“Well I wonder who it could be…”
Laughing harshly, the outlaws looked up at the person that held onto the rope for dear life.  Some smirked.  
“What’cha up to?”
Nervously, their planned victim smiled.  
“Nothin’.”
They laughed.  
“Sure you’re not…”
An outlaw sneered, whilst loading a gun he had found confiscated in the prison.  He aimed it at said victim, sharing laughs among others.  His target’s face was pure horror as he remained still and helpless on that rope, staring at the barrel pointed at him.  

  A bang rang out, moving through a solid then into the building that was the end of the alleyway.  

  Alex’s hand was over her mouth in shock upon hearing the dreaded sound.  She scrambled from her crouching position to help her companion, but a pair of male arms held her back.  Knowing he was right that she mustn’t run out and show herself to the outlaws, she instead cried against him.  Terminator ears drooped as he poked his head out of Alex’s bag, and Chomp’s face fell as they also assumed the worst.  

  Cautiously and melancholy, he approached the building’s edge, and peered over.  The victim lay still down below on his belly, with a broken rope dangling above him.  The one watching him was near weeping, before nearly falling over in shock.  The supposedly injured one started to move, twitching his limbs.  He continued to stare in amazement as the one he watched got up slowly, moaning in pain.  

  “B******s shot at the rope…” Wolvie muttered, brushing off dirt.  Still in shock, Stranger looked back at the distressed Alex.  
“He’s alright Al, you c’n come look…”
The girl ran so joyfully over in blind happiness, that she knocked Stranger off of the roof’s edge.  Her heart was in her mouth before Stranger landed with a loud thump, throwing up dust off the ground.  She feared the worst again, before seeing Stranger get up with his arms, spitting out sandy dirt.  Wolvie kneeled beside him in a panic, after hearing him fall from the top of the building.  

  “OH MY ODD!  ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!  ARE YOU CONSCIOUS?!  STAY AWAKE, STAY AW!-” He was cut off in surprise when Stranger got back to his four feet with ease, before tightly clasping a large hand around his mouth.  
“Firstly, am okay.  I c’n fall off a small cliff and live.  Secondly, shut up, before a clakker hears ya and we all get bountied.  Kuh’peesh?” He nodded, wide eyed in fear before Terminator flew to the ground.  His wings buzzed while he struggled to hold tight to Chomp with his toeless paws, before dropping the male fuzzle to the ground.  

  “Alex!  Put the guy on a diet, I thought my paws were gonna tear off!” He shrieked up high to her.  He was answered by a deep snarl.  He slowly looked over to Chomp who had his teeth bared, before quietly shuffling away.  
“Riiiight…Say guys, HOW ARE WE GONNA GET ALEX DOWN, SHE CAN’T JUMP 20 FEET AND LIVE UNLIKE SOME OF US AND THE ROPE BROKE!” Stranger grabbed him for yelling, with a finger around his mouth.  
“Will ya shut up before we get caught?!  Do ya want tuh be stuffed and put on someone’s wall?!”
“No.” Terminator answered bluntly.  “I take it you don’t either.”
Alex groaned and thumped the roof’s edge with her bare hand.  

  “Ummm, you guys?!” She interrupted angrily.  “Ah need down, and the ropes broken too high up for me to climb it and drop to the ground without breakin’ ma ankle!” The four looked at each other, then up at the human girl.  She folded her arms and glared down at them with her light blue eyes, from where she at the roof’s edge.  
“Well ah ain’t gonna jump!  Think o’ somethin’ already!”
Stranger scratched his beard and thought.  He then faced the girl with his arms out, looking up.  
“Simple.  You jump, and me or Wolvie will catch ya.” He gave a glare to the wolvark that told him to obey.  Tutting, he posed ready to catch the human when she jumped.  

  Instantly, her face showed fear.  She suddenly began gripping the building’s edge, and shuffling away from where she sat.  
“J-jump?!  Are ya nuts Strange?!  Ah could fall and die if ya miss me!” Terminator rolled his eyes.  
“Ya know Stranger, you’re tellin’ Alex to jump off a friggin’ building!  Can ya not get any better ideas genius?!”
“Nope.”
“…If I knew how ta answer that!...Screw it, I don’t…Screw you.”
“Anytime.” He replied bluntly, arms out and waiting for Alex.  
“…Right, that sounded sooo bad…” Terminator muttered.  Buzzing his wings, he took flight and whizzed up to Alex.  

  Wolvie rolled his eyes as Stranger tried to coax her jumping, and waited.  As Alex continued to make excuses and edge away from the roof’s edge, he grew bored.  He looked down the alleyway, his small eyes widening as he saw a person standing at the end of the alleyway.  

  The one that stood there, was a little below Stranger’s height, and wore a black hooded cloak down to his hidden feet.  He held a scythe in his black gloved hands, a long wooden staff with a curved metal blade.  His hood darkened out his face, completing the strange person’s mysteriously dangerous look.  He stood as still as a statue, before beginning to walk slowly towards the group, like a scene in a horror film.  

  Terminator buzzed behind Alex, trying not to laugh whilst taking a deep breath.  
“DON’TJUMPALEXORYOU’LLDIE!” He shrieked right in her ear.  She only flinched, squealed, and backed away further from the feared edge of the building.  “Aw common’,jump already!”
“I’d like ta see someone else try and jump off a buildin’!” She snapped.  
“I might jump with you.” Terminator offered.  
“Ya ‘ave wings, you’ll live n’ fly!” Alex retorted.  She kneeled down, feeling dizzy from standing up near the edge, and held on to the roof’s surface.  
“I ain’t gonna jump, that’s it, you’ll have tuh think of somethin’ else.” Terminator clung to the edge, looking down at the other three as he thought.  A sly smirk crossed his face as ‘somethin’’ came to mind.  
“Oh Aleeex….”
“What?!  Can’t you see am trying not ta die?!”
His smirk grew crueller, before he shrieked “Thinkfast!”, and made a high pitched sound.  Alex gagged and held her mouth, refusing to breathe before jumping off the edge.  The stunk chippunk bolamite stingbee hybrid sneered as a cloud of green chemicals settled in the air behind him.  
“Oh yeah, I stink!  Go me!  Whoo!”

  “Uhhh, St-Stranger?” Wolvie stuttered, eyeing the approaching creep.  He got no answer, just a hinted warning of what was to come.  
“-Two!  THREE!” Stranger shouted.  
The next thing Wolvie knew, something had knocked him hard to the ground.  He lay gritting his teeth on the dirt with Alex sitting beneath his chest.  
“Huh…That wasn’t so bad, it didn’t actually hurt…” She said, getting off Wolvie.  “Slag!  Are you alright?!” She shrieked, seeing the hurt wolvark.  
“He should’a been payin’ attention…” Stranger muttered, earning him a whap from the human female.  
“An’ you should show more compassion fer other people!  Yer always hard on the guy!”
“’Cause he’s a wolvark an’ I don’t like him!”
“So?!  I don’t like you either right now!”
They were interrupted by a painful wheezing.  

  “Guys! – gasp! – I! – gasp – think I broke a rib!”
The two former bounty hunters stared down at Wolvie, who was lying on the ground, as Terminator flew down, missing the ground completely and smacking against a window.  They snickered after he pulled himself off the glass and fell to the dusty earth.  
“Yeah, well, next time you ram inta something, I’ll laugh!  Just you wait!  HOLY S*** A STALKER!  BEHIND YOU!”

  Stranger turned around and came face to face with the mystery person.  In that split second, he could make out two eyes through the dark hood in what little light there was, but nothing more, not the colour of the iris or anything else, just them glinting in the light.  After that split second, he yelled and leapt back, nearly kicking the hooded man who held his scythe to his face, not wanting his identity to be revealed.  

  “Yeah, I was meaning ta tell ya about that guy before Alex fell on me…” Wolvie offered apologetically.  Stranger growled and stared at the unknown person.  
“Alright, wha’dya want?!  Don’t sneak up on people like that!”
Alex froze and took a step back with fear when she recognised the person.  
“Stranger!-”
Not paying attention, he glared into the face of the unknown.  The person did not stir, even when he spoke in a male voice.  

  “Come with me.  I need to bring you somewhere.” He hissed at Stranger in a whisper, not wanting the others to hear.  Stranger’s full focus was on the mysterious man, leaving Terminator and Alex’s cries unheard.  
“Why would ah go with some crazy man like you?  I don’t even know ya.”
A snarl escaped the man’s throat.  
“Because, it’s important that you do…” Stranger narrowed his eyes suspiciously at him.  
“And why exactly?” Stranger demanded.  
The man breathed in anger, like he was hyperventilating.  The two stared threatingly into one another’s eyes.  One wanted answers, the other’s wants were unknown.  
“Because you screwed everything up when you left!” He snarled.  
At those words, a suspicious fear entered his thoughts.  Did he know too much?  Too much that he wanted to forget, and never be remembered.  
“You ruined my life when you ran away!” He spat.  “She forgot about him and focused her attention on me!  It’s…  All…  Your…  FAULT!”

  Lost in those words, Stranger was brought back to reality when he was tackled to the side.  A metal blade swished past him, slicing a wound through his shirt and across his chest, before he crashed to the ground.  He looked up, with no time to move to see the cloaked man raise his scythe up, ready to bring down to injure him.  He thought he would die, before Alex stabbed her small knife in the man’s side.  The man froze, an unseen torturing pain in his eyes as an agonized moan left his voice box.  Before Alex yanked out her knife again.  She would of stuck the blade in him again to kill him like she had been taught, but he already began leaving, running whilst holding his bleeding side that already started soaking his robe.  

  Instead of chasing him, she swore and knelt to see Stranger, panicking and rummaging through her bag for bandages.  Stranger lay on the ground, wincing and looking over at Wolvie.  The purple wolvark lay behind him, getting up to kneel beside him.  
“Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh, areyoualright!?” He panicked again.  He was answered when Stranger sat up suddenly and looked at him.  His eyes seemed to pierce him like lasers on his neutral expression.  
“First of all, I guess I c’n say thanks fer helping me with that crazy guy.  Secondly, I’ve been shot, set on fire and punched by guys with robotic arms, I think I’ll live.” Wolvie gave him a confused look, before looking at Alex as he got no answer.  She continued to furiously bandage around his chest before noticing the look on Wolvie’s face.  
“It’s true.” She answered quickly as she was busy.  “Fer some reason, he can just do things like fall off small cliffs an’ live which ah wid die if ah tried copyin’.” When she was done, her eyes widened as she remembered some of them.  
“Oh my Odd, TERM!  CHOMP!”
Stranger was about to gag her with his hand to remind her to be quiet, but the two live ammos showed up, buzzing and bouncing back through the alleyway.  Alex ran over to them like a scene in a movie before Terminator flew in a circle around her.  

  “We gave dat sucker what he was asking for!” Terminator cheered.  Alex picked up Chomp and swung him around like a child in her hands, before Terminator whizzed past her.  
“Neeeeyuuuuumm!” He made a noise like a race car as he flew.  
Stranger shoved off Wolvie as he tried to help him get up.  “Ah c’n do that maself.” The miffed Wolvark sighed and wandered towards the end of the alleyway.  
“Sooo, what exactly did you do to him?” Alex asked, petting Chomp and putting him in her bag.  His big eyes stared happily up at her through the opening of the bag.  Terminator smiled evilly.  
“Well I dropped Chomp on him, annoyed him, sprayed him and bit him, so I think he’ll be buggering off for a while.” He ended his talk with a laugh, before turning to view the alleyway.  

  His tennis ball eyes looked on in fear as Wolvie ran back to Stranger.  There were clakkerz.  Not just clakkerz in an ordinary mood, walking around, talking idly and complaining or gossiping about whoever was different from them, but mad clakkerz.  Their eyes showed a dark fury present usually in something evil and scorned, and they were holding pitchforks.  They began stalking closer to the small group, their intentions obvious – kill them.  

  He began flying back towards his friend’s and yanked on Alex’s shirt sleeve.  
“Alex, there’s crazy people, and they got these huge pointy forks!” He shrieked, before shoving himself into her bag.  Alex shook her head at him, before realising he was serious.  A huge flock of adult clakkerz were coming closer to them, clearly without the idea of a warm Southern Mudos hospitality.  

  “Stranger!” She screamed.  The steef was already standing together with them, gripping her shoulder tightly.  
“I noticed…” He answered, hiding the concern in his voice.  Last time he checked, they weren’t ridiculously violent and angry at them.  They stood still and terrified together as the angry townsfolk got slowly closer.  Eventually, Stranger spoke up.  
“Wha’ the *u** are you doing?!” He snapped at the horde.  They took steps back as the hickens came further down the alleyway.  
“A-a-a-re we gonna die?” Wolvie squeaked.  They could see he was crying already in fear.  Stranger glared into the face of a scowling clakker.  The male clakker holding a pitchfork finally spoke up, giving them an answer.  
“That must have been the guy that let them outlaws loose, ‘e’s got hooves, like he said!”

  Others spoke up in agreement as the group backed further towards the wall.  Out of any ideas to escape, they listened carefully.  
“What should we do about th’ other two?” A female clakker spoke up.  Alex’s nails dug into Stranger’s arm for comfort.  His ears were perked up as he listened for what their decided fate would be.  
“Wolvarks always cause trouble….” The chubby male clakker answered.  “And the other is a human…She c’n be a bounty or something…”

  There was more yells and out cries before they came walking closer.  The group froze.  They looked around for an escape.  The rope was too high up and broken.  The buildings had nothing to grip to climb, apart from window frames that were too far away from each other to progress to the roofs.  The only way out of the street was blocked by clakkerz with weapons to kill.  

  They held their arms tightly, wide eyed and shivering as the bird people lunged forward.  Wolvie was already in hysterical tears as they feared for their lives.  
“N-now what?” Wolvie bawled.  Stranger looked on as he saw a pitchfork hurtle in his direction, and leapt out of the way.  He crashed to the dusty ground as a clakker glared and screamed profanity with the rest, before springing back up to his feet.  
“They’re clakkerz,” he answered “they’re wimps, not fighters.  Just watch for the guns and run!”

  Already everyone else except Wolvie sprang into action.  Alex bundled the two fur balls into her bag, fought to quickly close it and slung it over her shoulder again.  She leapt on Stranger’s back and held on for dear life before he charged off.  That left one out of five screwed.  He screamed like a girl that had seen a bolamite on her shoulder and ran after Stranger.  

  A furry stitched head popped out of Alex’s bag as she held on to her best friend.  He ducked back in as he heard a gunshot bang out amongst the yells.  He dared poke his head out with Chomp and whimpered as he saw the chaos everywhere.  Mad or terrified clakkerz running around like they head their heads cut off, and the security guns blaring away to deal with the intruders.  He breathed deeply in panic, before retreating back into the bag.  
“I’m so gonna die here…” He squeaked.  

Two of the clakkerz fell to the ground as Stranger leapt at them and knocked them over.  He swiftly turned on his large hands and began to charge as fast as he could towards the exit.  Once out of it, he rampaged through the street, leaping and dashing past whatever clakkerz got in the way and screamed.  A roar rang out of him as a bullet slashed over his back, but Stranger kept on running like an animal.  He leapt at a clakker that he tried to leap over, but sent her hurtling into a wooden fence instead.  Alex gripped tighter against his baggy shirt as dust scattered behind him like the clakkerz that got in his way.  He kept on charging towards the exit while knocking them over to clear the way.  


They sat outside of New Yolk City by a lake, licking their wounds.  They had gone further up stream so the clakkerz didn’t notice them and carried on trying to kill them.  They were resting and bandaged in more than one place, with slashes and stabs from metal bullets that still bled.  Wolvie whined like a kicked sleggie as Alex just bandaged his leg tighter, then left it, with nothing more to do to it.  Stranger picked up the nearest and largest rock next to him, and threw it across the water in frustration.  It skipped twice, but being heavy, it sank soon after, making a pulling current above it.  

“Well this is just great!” Stranger ranted.  Wolvie whined in the background and Terminator and Chomp bickered.  
“Th’ lousy wimpy hillbilly Clakkerz hate me and think I freed them outlaws.  Since I’m obviously a steef, that means there gonna be a huge bounty on ma head!”
Alex tried to calm the jealousy-fuelled dispute, before hissing at Wolvie.  
“Look, I gave you bandages and sympathy, that’s all ah c’n do!”
“Can’t I get a mediiiiic?!” He wailed like a crying child.  
“No you can’t, yer a wolvark!” She snapped back.  
“–And since aaaall them outlaws are free,” He continued, not taking note of the fact no one was listening, “they can wreck havoc, have me an’ Al as their personal wanted dead, and they’ll probably shoot th’ Zaluzayra on sight–” He threw another rock.  
“Because she looks funny!” He seethed and turned to the rest.  They were whining, bickering or telling a wolvark to stop whining instead of showing any signs of paying attention to him.  He emitted an annoyed sigh and stared down at the water from under a tree.  

Alex was going to tell him she hadn’t paid any attention to what he had said, but her mouth just gaped open in silence.  The Zaluzayra was there, right behind him.  She carefully climbed along a thick tree branch that reached out to him, and hung upside down on it, holding on with her arms and legs.  She sniffed in curiosity with her three noses at the back of his head.  They giggled and snickered as he took no notice, then pricked up his ears as he heard her sniffing his head.  He turned around quickly in his sitting position and came face to face with her noses and eyes as wide as dinner plates.  She cackled as she flipped back onto the branch as he missed when he grabbed at her.  

Alex shook her head as she ran up higher into the tree, then leapt back down and ran around him in a whirlwind circle.  She was in a good mood and thought it was all a game – completely oblivious to his frustration as he snatched at her and missed.  Alex smiled and rolled her eyes before walking off with Terminator and Chomp, leaving no one else to notice Wolvie sneak off and run away to somewhere he knew.  She pounced, rolled, ran, leapt and dodged around the furious steef, who then tripped over his own scrawny legs as he tried to get the electric blue-skinned creature.  

Muttering, he started to get up but stopped when he heard a deep snarl beneath him that let him know how screwed he was.  He looked down with shocked wide eyes and saw he had managed to pull a Kantaro-style accidental pinning move on the Zaluzayra.  She snarled more deeply, her nostrils flaring, her navy blue eyes blazing and her mouth breathing in deeply before she furiously flicked her whip like tail upwards.  He screamed, yelled and roared out like he had been shot by an outlaw.  


  Alex nearly jumped as She heard the loud steef roar bellow out like a whale song, seeing the Mudosian birds fly past in fright, black against the bright sun in the sky.  She ran over with the two balls of fur, to see Stranger lying on his chest and clutching at his crotch for comfort with his hands.  The Zaluzayra had panicked at the sound, and was yapping her head off loudly like a Papillion near fireworks.  She pulled herself out from under him and ran off and out of the area at great speed on her bending hands and feet.  She tried to work out what was wrong with him, before seeing where he was obviously in pain.  

  She glared at Chomp who stopped rolling around and laughing hysterically, and tried to block the giggles that were forcing out of them instead.  She too tried not to laugh as she stepped closer, unnerved by his roaring like a crazed lion.  
“Wha’ happened?” She said with concern and struggled not to laugh.  
“SHE *U**IN’ WHIPPED ME!” He couldn’t help but raise his voice high and feel resentment.  They jumped and the two unhurt boys scattered into a bush in surprise-fear.  She took a step back as he quietened to a long snarl, and tried to remain sane enough to think.  

  “Pain…–” He roared out again, and scared Terminator into releasing a cloud of green gas.  Alex shook her head upon seeing it spread quickly and fade out.  
“Killers!...  Doc!” Chomp was heard throwing up and hopping furiously away from Terminator.  Alex held her nose and listened.  “Moolah’s in ma–” He growled and gritted his fanged teeth.  “Pocket!  Go!” Alex and Terminator gave him a puzzled look.  
“…Soooo, you want us to kill Doc in pain and steal his moolah?” Terminator spoke up.  
“NO!” He accidentally howled, making him flinch.  The others flinched too as they thought Terminator would let off again by accident.  
“He wants us to go to Doc’s and get him painkillers with the moolah in ‘is pocket…” Alex answered.  She went at his side pockets quickly, and took out a small brown bag.  Terminator watched, while Chomp continued puking, as she opened it and took out the notes inside.  She flicked through them like a professional card dealer and looked at them suspiciously.  

  “…Uhhh, what’s the deal Alex?” Terminator said, watching for what would happen.  “It’s just paper.”
“Four fifty…” She said to herself.  Her face went paler as she examined the moolah notes again.  Her eyes were frantic as she turned to Stranger like a worried parent.  
“Stranger, we definitely ‘ad more than this!” She panicked.  She was answered by his usual agonized sounds.  
“We can deal…” He hissed and bit at the air.  “With that later…” She looked at her pain-wracked friend and nodded solemnly in agreement.  She rammed the bag back in his pocket and went at hers to get it open quickly.  
“C’mon guys, we’re going to the Doc’s asap.” She ordered.  

  A familiar electric blue coloured creature caught her soft blue eyes.  
“I guess I’ll leave whippy the whipper here to watch over him.” She said coldly, making her grudge clear.  When Chomp was done puking, he bundled into her open bag and tried to stay as far away from Terminator as possible.  She listened with a still head and erect ears as they left, trying to drown out the sounds of Stranger’s yells.  She heard them speak of how one hated Doc’s guts and the others agreed, and flopped her ears in dismay at having been told off.  She watched the steef she accidentally hurt, with nothing better to do and hissed in her language negativity about Alex.  


  Completely racked with guilt and nervousness, knowing fine well what he was doing was wrong, he walked through the old abandoned wooden clakker shed.  Cutters and Nailers laughed at him upon recognising his trademark purple skin and unconfidence that showed as he kept his head down.  The broken windows let little light in the outlaw owned building as he approached the boss outlaw.

  He was tall, well over nine foot tall and taller than The Looten Duke, from the top of his humped back to the bottom of his bare toed feet.  His thick neck wasn’t placed at the top of his body, but seemed to join from below his bulky shoulders to his stomach and pointed forwards.  His face was like that of a dangerous animal, with a larger fanged lower jaw, black eyes with red irises and scratched long horns that reached out to the sides, with a pointed curled tip at the end.  An old floppy grey hat sat between the two greyish brown horns and on the middle of his monster-like head.  He wore spiked gloves, the one on his left hand being spikier and more dangerous looking. He wore a greyish purple shirt and green coat on his upper body, and brown trousers and a belt with a grey buckle that said MERISH to cover his lower body.  

  His uneven muzzle curled into a smile when he recognised the unconfident wolvark.  
“Ah, Wolvie!” He laughed in his deep growly voice.  “How ya doin’?”
The wolvark sighed sadly and raked in his right pocket, not even taking his gaze off the wooden floor to look at the outlaw or what he was doing.  
“Just cut to th’ chase…” He mumbled solemnly.  He held out the moolah notes in the outlaw boss’s direction.  He knew if Stranger caught him doing this, using money he stole from him to buy something illegal that benefited outlaws, he would get kicked out of the Grub village physically for sure.  But he wanted to forget the bad things, craved the substance, didn’t want to feel the after effects…  And so he carried on his illegal ways, wasting his own and other people’s money.  

  The huge outlaw looked at the notes with concerning interest as his gang of brutes watched, then laughed again at the easy profit.  
“Awww, where’dya git this much, Wolvie?” He chuckled.  Wolvie sighed and grew impatient.  He didn’t want to be reminded of what he was doing, he wanted to leave.  
“Look, I had to nick it off someone…” He answered quickly.  “Just give me the stuff already…” With more dark laughs, the huge outlaw thudded over to a dusty wooden desk.  He yanked open two drawers, calculated how much the cash was worth, and shoved it into an already packed drawer full of moolah paper.  He took the strange vibrant chemical in a vial, one of dozens of them, and thumped over to give it the waiting customer.  
“There ya go, the nice new shiny upgraded one, just fer you.” He said to him in his cheerful voice.  Wolvie stared blankly at the glass corked container, then slipped it into his pocket.  

  “Better be good…” He muttered, knowing in the back of his head he was just getting himself hooked on something else.  He turned to leave as the brown outlaws jeered and howled to themselves and him.  
“Don’t use it all up at once!” The largest one cracked up, knowing he would just be back for more.  Wolvie lowered his head lower and ran out faster than a chasing sleg.  


  Stranger still continued to scream and howl and cry out in pain.  If he wasn’t agonized, he’d be bored stiff.  The Zaluzayra was getting fed up of this, watching him be miserable and howl.  So he would of jumped but couldn’t when she sprang down from her branch.  She scuttled over to him with great speed, and peered into his face with her huge googly eyes.  He stared back at her, as she didn’t flinch when he cried out to the sky.  He didn’t liked being stared at, especially by someone with tennis ball-sized eyes that just seemed to grow bigger.  
“What?!” He managed to choke out, before he kept on moaning like a women in labour.  Knowing this was directed at her, she pronked into the air like a springbok and dashed off into a bush.  He gritted his teeth and muttered to himself in irritance, before she sped right back out again and came hurtling back to her staring spot.  

  He could of whacked her as she sniffed in deep breaths at his face with three knobby noses, then froze.  She reached up onto her legs like a meerkat and remained still as a statue with her ears pricked up, as her eyes scanned the horizon and she listened carefully.  He too listened in curiosity, gritting his teeth and cursing under his breath for pain relief.  Eventually, he heard the soft eerie distant sound.  

  “Whooooooohhhwwhhooohhh…”
A howling noise.  He listened in interest, but noticed the Zaluzayra being her unaware naïve self again.  She closed her large navy eyes, leaned forward, tossed back her head and yowled back to whatever the creature was.  
“YAAaaaaAAWHAaaaaaOOooooooWH!” She tried to howl back to the unseen creature.  It was the worst howling attempt he had ever heard, even a human trying sounded better.  It sounded more like a kicked cat than anything else.  He winced as she was about to try again, but she froze right before he could say ‘shut up!’.  Her eyes looked behind her on her flexible bent neck as she heard it coming.  

  He too listened in peril as the large soft feet came scampering closer.  Too many to be a sleg.  Too soft to be an outlaw.  It sprang out or over the nearby bush, causing the Zaluzayra to pounce and duck behind Stranger with a squeal.  He cursed his luck and her for bringing the unknown monstrosity, and peered up at it.  

  The creature towered above him lying down at a metre high, and three metres long.  Long light grey hair covered its tarantula-like body, from its face to its spider legged paws.  Two eyes as piercing as Stranger’s and bright yellow examined him and the Zaluzayra.  In fear, they could not run from the giant spider.  It leant down its pedipalped head and sniffed at them with a hidden nose among its fur.  The Zaluzayra cried out and ran.  Unable to move, Stranger just stared at the pedipalps on its face.  Each pedipalp ended in a sharp, dark silver talon-like claw, and the creature had a jaw underneath them.  

  He stared up at the spider’s face in terror as it leant its head closer to his and sniffed him.  He saw its toothless red gummed mouth open, before it turned and bounded back to whence it came.  He breathed in relief, then remembered what Scot the clakker-rippoff had said.  Wolf-spiders.   Whatever a wolf was, he was sure that was one – he hadn’t seen such a huge spider before.  It must have been a rare species like the clakker-caillie had said.  Forgetting whatever else he had said about the creatures, he thanked his luck it hadn’t eaten him, and continued to grit his teeth together and snarl and hiss while the Zaluzayra scurried back to poke and prod him again.  


  She ran and panted along a wooden wall back in New Yolk City, before ducking back behind it as two clakkerz blabbered and walked past.  Normally she’d ignore their dull gossipy conversations, but their talk of the recent outlaw escape and the word ‘hooves’ snatched her mind.  She stopped and listened for any approaching clakkerz silently and still.  
“Am tellin’ ya, Jimbo said the guy had hooves!” One male clakker with a brimmed hat on argued.  “He heard them on the floor an’ saw them!” Terminator and chomp wriggled their heads out of her bag and listened for information.  Alex ducked as a female clakker walked past, blabbering to herself about a black market.  
“You sure?” The one in the cap said suspiciously, narrowing his eyes on his feathered face.  
“Why would he lie?  He nearly got killed when them b*s*a*d outlaws broke out!” They turned around as they heard a sneeze.  They thought nothing of it, and carried on talking in the town.  

  Chomp rolled his eyes and growled angrily as Alex held a finger to Terminator’s tiny nose.  
“Careful…” She whispered as he glared in Chomp’s direction, before the two huffed and looked away from each other.  
“Now who do we know that has hooves and would be smart enough to free the stinky outlaws?”
“…Uhh, the freak?” The one in the cap suggested.  
“What?”
The other clakker sighed.  
“Have ya not heard?  The freak!  That ugly green thing that they’ve been talkin’ about!”
Alex then listened, with her full attention.  It sounded like it could be the mysterious monster she had seen earlier, that had either tried to help her or harm her when the person she knew all too well attacked her.  The two hairballs also listened, poking their heads out of her bag.  

  “There’s a bounty on its head because it keeps on showing up ‘round here, and showing its horrible face.” The cap-wearing clakker explained to him.  “They’ve even got a picture of it in the Bounty Store!  It’s the ugliest damn thing I’ve ever seen, worse than an outlaw!” He raised his voice.  “Its got more than two eyes, I’ve never seen anything like it!” The other clakker thought for a moment as he tried to process the information.  

  “..Anyway, as I was sayin’, I think that Stranger guy might of did it?  ‘Member him?  Some creepy weirdo in a black cloak said he was a steef all along!”
Having heard enough, Alex cursed at the bad luck and ran right into someone two feet and eight inches taller than her.  She saw red and felt silk against her bare arms, before leaping back and nearly screaming as she recognised the familiar black furred face smirking down at her.  

  “Zandoba!” She hissed, trying not to raise her voice to an angered scream.  His grin that she saw as a disguise only grew.  
“Howdy Alex.”
As much as hated to admit it, as well as instinctively hating his guts, she feared him.  He knew too much.  He knew Stranger’s nickname.  He knew her name.  What else could he possibly know?  She glared her blue eyes fearlessly into his cocky red ones.  
“P*s*.  Off.” She spat.  He remained unmoved by her threat.  Terminator pushed his head out of the bag.  His eye glared up at Zandoba, who just looked down at him.  “My my, aren’t you a strange creature.” He commented.  Terminator shook with rage.  

  “Me, strange?!” He shrieked.  “I ain’t the one running around in a dressing gown, pretty boy!” Alex laughed.  Zandoba tried to hide irritance at the rodent.  It was obvious he wanted to snap at him, as his eyes and arms twitched.  But he kept his cool as usual.  With a dark sneer, he leant down closer to Alex.  She didn’t flinch as she could feel his wider furry nose nudge hers, see his unnatural red eyes peer into her blue ones, and smell his minty breath on her face.  He must of brushed his teeth or something.  He definitely wasn’t a normal steef.  

  “Oh well, see you later human.  And your pet.” He was answered by Chomp and Terminator snarling and growling threatingly.  Alex only glared harder.  He was so close, she couldn’t make out his face right and got double vision.  
“Any last words, jerk?” She spat in his face.  Literally, by accident.  She cringed as he wiped saliva off his face, brushing his hand against her bare face.  His smirk grew as he thought of a personnel remark.  
“Oh, and your boyfriend says hi.”

  It worked better than he expected.  Her eyes widened, and she hyperventilated on the spot as she knew he knew too much.  About her this time.  There was only one person she was sure of her was referring to, and that was him.  The evil boy.  The psychotic traitor.  She remembered the awful pain, both physical and mental.  When the shock was over and she realized she was shaking like a leaf in the wind, a new emotion came.  Rage.  He had deliberately picked at a raw wound, and she wouldn’t let him get away with it.  

  The next thing he knew her hands were wrapped around his neck, and he was also having flashbacks.  His face looked like hers had, petrified.  She huffed in his face in anger, her eyes blazed like they belonged to a steef and her grip tightened around his throat.  A whine escaped from his voice box.  She couldn’t help but think he was too afraid.  
‘Probably just a cocky lil’ c*n*…’ She thought, unable to think or feel anything besides anger.  His eyes welled up with tears, and there was a tortured insanity in his red eyes.  His lips wobbled, before the sound pierced her ears.  

  Zandoba screamed right in her face.  It was so loud and high pitched, she thought it would break the nearby windows on the wooden clakker buildings, alert animals from far away and deafen her.  She loosened her choking embrace on his neck in shock-surprise, and before she could snatch at him again, he was off.  He bawled and screeched and whined and shouted as he charged down the town on four legs, not caring who heard or saw him.  Clakkers steered away, ran back into their homes and the maniac alarms went off.  Guns went off in his direction, but only made a racket and threw up dust as they missed him.  The last word she heard from his tortured face was “I don’t wanna, no!” And even then, he was far away and out of town.  

  She just stood there and blinked, wondering what the heck he meant and what in the blazes she did that could have been so awful to him.  A tinge of guilt was shooed away instantly by hate.  She was snapped out of her trance by laughing in her bag.  She looked down to see Terminator with his chipmunk voice and Chomp in hysterics.  Terminator giggled loudly, before falling out of the brown bag and bouncing on the ground.  

  “That was awesome!” He shrieked.  “How’dya make ‘im cry like that?!  Do it again sometime!” There was a silence as she didn’t reply.  She stared at the ground as she thought in concern.  “I don’t actually know…” She admitted.  “I just…Grabbed his neck, then he freaked out…” She glared more seriously.  “He knows something he shouldn’t…Lets just git th’ painkillers, and worry about his sorry hide later…” She stuffed Terminator back in her old bag, and poked her head out of the alleyway to look around for clakkerz.  Terminator eyed her suspiciously.  
“Waaaaitadaaarnsec…Since when did you have a boyfriend anyway?!” He nearly screamed.  She didn’t even shush him in the street, where he could have been heard.  She just froze and kept her face turned away from him.  
“I don’t have a boyfriend…” She said, before scuttling quickly along an alleyway wall.  A clakker or two noticed her as one of the intruders from earlier, but they just gossiped and whispered among themselves as she hurried to the building.  

AM NAY DONE YET, GIMMEH TIME!111