A Simple Bounty and Retrieval Job (Woof and Grey)

EL PASO TEXAS - 2 DAYS AGO

It was perhaps the most absurd contract Diana had ever received, and only the offered contract allowed her to give it the benefit of a doubt. Apparently, a sweet old elderly couple who lived in Texas on a big old fashioned ranch called for hirelings of Diana's caliber. She stepped onto their porch to have some lemonade and banana bread, and the next thing she knew, she and two others present were given a suitcase full of diamonds as *down payment*.

The job? Track down a conman who had stolen an apparently valuable antique pocket watch made of solid gold with jewels marking the time. Needless to say, Diana felt there was more to this job... but hey, a suitcase full of diamonds.

YELLOWSTONE CALDERA, WYOMING - PRESENT DAY

Diana made her way to the Yellowstone Caldera, taking in the breathtaking landscape after fjording the Yellowstone River and Hayden valleys. It was a very long walk indeed, and she had comfortable walking shoes and jeans, as well as a cowboy hat to block out the hot Wyoming sun. She had always heard of Yellowstone national park, and it seemed she had finally come to see the really, really vast open spaces , the flora and fauna, and the majesty of mother nature in general.

Whatever.

Somewhere along the way they'd rent a 4x4 and head to a remote, service town hidden in the Park where Park rangers and visitors used to go, before it was relocated to another more generally accessible location. It was definitely some kind of ghost town out of a western. All clues pointed to their mark apparently hiding out here, and there were some signs the place wasn't so uninhabited. Some tire tracks, a generator, some wires, a satellite dish on the roof of the Silverwood Saloon... whoever the mark was, they were pretty sloppy at making themselves scarce.

Diana hopped off of the van, tightening her small bag's straps to herself. She could sense there was only one guy - the mark apparently didn't even have bodyguards. "This... this is way too easy." She remarked, knowing there was no such thing as an easy bounty. She began by scoping out the town, analyzing the best routes and other possible hiding places- maybe the mountains, or one of these buildings. She slowly approached the saloon, drawing her sword.

SOME HOT COUNTRY - TWO DAYS AGO

Faith was a little happy to be doing something he was use to rather then sitting down doing nothing or more traveling and doing nothing. Coming into this land, he had met an elderly couple that offered him a deal of white shiny rocks known as diamonds to find a thief. One that had stolen a watch of gold and he had to work with some other fellow who was a little tall and a girl small and young. While he wanted to question her reason for being here he kept tight lipped, knowing full well younger who did what they did and he still missed that girl.

CURRENT DAY - SOME OTHER PLACE

Faith had made his way to a place he didn't care to learn the name of, only knowing that he disliked the cars a little more then before. Sure he walked everywhere and it got tiring sometimes but moving on cars was just too fast for him, plus he had to sit in the square back thing for his size. Another downside of the metal boxes they called cars but he had a lovely view of the place that went by in a semi blur. It was a small drive along other things that he didn't take part in, his main reason would be the muscle so he stayed quiet for that reason, only making a few quips here and their about the heat or being hungry.

Soon enough they had made it to a town that was more deserted then a cave on sunny days but their were things here and their that told him and his allies that someone was here. Faith would climb out the back of the car along with his sword, hearing creaks as he went along till the car was free from his weight and made his way to the girl who had drawn her sword, a magnificent katana of jet black color that reminded him of a blade his old friend Westly would use. His sword himself was resting it's blunt side on his shoulder, its dark color almost rivaling the girls Katana in color besides the purple crystal that rested in the middle of his. "Don't say that, things always get harder when one says that." He would say to the girl in a deep voice as he looked around for any traps or ambushes, his free hand scratching at his back as if the suns heat was a itch.

EL PASO, TEXAS - 2 DAYS PRIOR

Guerrero hated Texas.  It was full of people who had to rip off Mexican cultur, then had the audacity to throw bitch-fits over the "dirty Mexicans."  He was born in the US you dickless motherf- ahem...

Anyway, someone was offering cash...

Scratch that, they were offering diamonds.  Suspicious.  Still, diamonds were valliable.  And if the clients double crossed him?  Thry were old, and not long for this world anyway.


TODAY - WHEREVER THE HELL THEY ARE, WYOMING

The Warrior stepped from the pick-up, pulling his Vector from the dashboard and slotting his axe off his hip.  Dressed in his green camo fatigues and a black leather jacket, he was a sight with several weapons strapped to him.

He fell in step behind the other two, taking the time to scan the various windows and rooftops for a threat that might be creeping up on them.

He kept both hands on his SMG, ensuring the safeties were off. Yeah, he was ready...

Still, Guerrero elected to chime in. "If shit's gonna go wrong, it'll go wrong. Doesn't matter whether you think you've 'jixed it' or not."

Diana used her sword to open the swing doors of the saloon and beheld the main floor was filled with... stuff. Documents, antiques, artifacts, chests of gold, paintings. There were more eccentric things as well, like medival weapons and armor, even a strange looking bike with no wheels. Regardless, it all felt like Junk.

Over yonder at the bar, helping himself to shots of whiskey and fiddling with the pocket watch, was a rather slim, well dressed cowboy wannabe, complete with the vest, the boots with the spurs, and a hat. A jukebox over in the corner was playing some country music- Sweet Home Alabama.

"Well. This really is easy. Hand over the watch Wyatt Earp, and you get to keep your hands." Diana walked up to the cowboy and pointed her sword at him. So far, no booby traps, no back up, nothing. Just a man, his hat, his whiskey and a stolen pocket watch.

"Believe me. You already tried, little lady. Gentlemen." He said, speaking with quite the charming southern drawl. He tipped his hat at the men and continued to ignore Diana's threat.

"Ooookay. Hope you got a first aid kit. You'll be bleeding all over the place." Diana raised her sword to cut the man...

CHRONO-PHASE ACTIVATE

Diana raised her sword to cut the man, but he moved with such precise timing with Diana's attack. they exchanged moves and counter moves, but the girl known as the deadliest swordsman was schooled by this unnamed hombre.

Diana found herself flat on her belly, her face and pride bruised, her sword clattering on the floor beside her. She looked at the ceiling dumbfounded. How...?

The gentleman thief hadn't even broken a sweat. He waited for the other two mercenaries with an almost bored look. He raised his hand and taunted them to come at him, bro. Right then the two other mercenaries would experience some very strange Dejavu, like this had happened before... indeed, for the smooth talker it already had, many times.

Faithtorias was a little perplexed by the man they traveled with and thought that out of all this he would most likely dislike this man the worst but that was until they walked on scene, Faith having a little trouble due to his size but getting in anyway. The man had smug written all over his face, his voice and his hat and he spoke a few words to the threatening woman and Faith along with the other man. And that's when the magic happened, The woman attacked but this man blocked and counter every blow till she was on the ground and the funny thing was she was a master swordsman.

Faith could tell by the way she held her sword to how she used it in battle. And soon enough the thief was facing them and Faith was already moving into action for a charge but stopped. He had a feeling, like he had already moved into this action. Done it before and so he decided to change it to just swing his sword right then and their. He was no where close but the swords purple crystal lit up and a wave of energy came out of it straight towards the thief, testing to see what would happen.

The cowboy thief sidestepped, Faith's blast passing by harmlessly as it slammed into the bottles behind the bar. This was followed by an explosive cascade of alcohol. Wasteful.

Guerrero was moving by now. He sighted and squeezed, his SMG firing twice at the cowboy's spine. Without having to look, the cowboy turned, weaving aside as the rounds zipped past. Guerrero continued to advance, firing again and again, every time missing his mark as he kept weaving about.

A bottle connected with Guerrero's Vector, the force enough to rip it from his hand. The bottle turned, shattering as the cowboy bludgeoned the warrior in the head. The alcohol burned his eyes and Guerrero pack pedalled, trying to wipe his eyes clear.

Okay, now he was getting pissed. Guerrero reached for his axe.

((well... that's a bit pre-emptive, but I guess that would be how it goes.))

The cowboy did indeed see it coming, despite Faith's attempt to change his action. He weaved like a dancer through their moves, reacting with no fail, flooring them with bare hands and some objects in the Saloon.

"Listen partner. I ain't got the time to waste on y'all, beatin' yer asses for the umpteenth time. I need to explain something important. See, I'm from-"

Things went from weird to weirder when a massive earthquake began to shake up the whole Saloon. It was a massive quake that quickly sent all the junk flying to the ground. Priceless ming vases fell to the ground, smashed, while bottles of booze fell in a cascade. Outside, several beams of light - cyclonic energy blasts- descended from space, striking deep into the Yellowstone Caldera...

The blasts caused the earth to shudder. The Super Volcano began to awaken; Everyone's worse fears began to come true. A Yellowstone eruption was an end of the world scenario, and these four souls were at ground zero. Diana recovered just in time to watch the Caldera going critical. She was no geologist, but she wasn't about to test her regeneration against the end of the world.

The Cowboy, for one, looked surprised this time. He grabs his pocketwatch, fumbling with it "...Good luck with the uh, 100 year ice age! Ciao, senorita." He said, and with that was off, exit stage left.

He ran down the collapsing hallway, but rather than the window he had opened a portal... to where, nobody knows, but Diana resolved it was the only way out from the friggin End of the World. "Oh no you don't!" Diana sprints after the cowboy after he'd gotten a bit of a headstart, being slowed only by obstacles.

Diana slips past the portal. It begins to shudder and shrink...

Faith was perplexed and annoyed, fairly annoyed. It wasn't the first time he had dealt with time travel, but that was in his world when shutters of time broke though and took you to other places where you would appear as ghost to those that witnessed you and a few mind control like time travels but this... This was simply a man who traveled back continuously, finding every attack and reaction and reacting accordingly to what they would do. That made him angry, it made people who had no skill simply appear to be better but they simply cheated and Faith knew this man was doing such because of the way he spoke. He was way to cocky, not like Sha... Faiths thoughts were interrupted by a certain shake along the ground that rather angrily and proceeded to cause smashing among the vases and other breakables that listed the saloon.

Faith had little knowledge as to what was happening and as he proceeded to stand himself up with his sword, he noticed one of two things. One, the girl with the katana was chasing after the egotistic time travel man that was running for a portal. Two, he was starting to feel sick. Mustering the strength to not stumble with the shaking, Faith would begin running after both the girl and the man towards the portal. Watching as the girl slipped past the portal, Faith did his best to double his speed as he saw it was shuddering and shrinking. Making a dive sword first as he slipped past the portal.

Guerrero had attempted to lunge at the cowboy. He missed as the land shuddered. "What the fu-," he began to curse. He didn't finished as he threw his knee down to keep himself steady.

Th cowboy seemed to confirm what Guerrero figured must be happening. Then the Cowboy took off, followed by the warrior's companions.

"¡Carajo!" he exclaimed. Choking up on the axe so that the head rested on his knuckles, Guerrero sprinted after the others. A timber fell into the hallway. The poor thing exploded as the mercenary rushed through it. With a dive, Guerrero slipped through the portal just before it snapped shut...

The trio are sent hurtling through the portal, like a sinuous tunnel of pure energy; all around them were visions of the past. 90's, 80's, 70's... the Vietnam War, then World War 2... Past world war 1... until the tunnel ended and a bright light soon enveloped them.

SPANISH CALIFORNIA, 1836

The portal deposits the trio in an open desert area, face first. Diana tumbles midair and lands on her feet, rolling with the fall to minimize her impact.

"Is the world still ending?" she asked, looking around. Apparently the earthquake was not happening, and no massive plumes of volcanic ash were filling the northern american sky.

Around them were cacti, tumble weed, rocks, and lots of dry dirt. Diana retrieves her smartphone but there was no Service, and no internet. "Shoot." She puts it back in her pocket.

They wouldn't be alone though. Coming into view down the dirt road were a Mexican family of five, the parents and their three children- two girls and an infant. They were walking at a brisk pace Northward, and when they saw the strangely dressed time travelling trio. They give them stares and lots of space.

"Hey, excuse me. Where are we?" Diana tries to talk to them, but they seemed quick to startle. The father simply went "No hablo ingles" and were on their way.

But the sound of hoof beats caused them to freeze in place. a patrol of ten White riders dressed as the Mexican Army encircled the family as well as the time travelers. They were all armed with revolvers and muskets of the period.

"(Spanish) In the name of General Antonio Lopez Santa Anna, you are all under arrest for illegally leaving Mexico! Put down your arms!" the patrol leader, the one with the saber, declared. The Mexican family tried to plead for mercy.

"Uh... Mexico...? Does anyone speak English?" Diana asked, but from the fact that they were drawing their revolvers meant they wanted compliance from them. Diana's hands slowly went to her sword. She asked her companions, "Hey, can any of you talk to them? These guys look like cops or something... even though they're threatening this family..."

Faith was confused at first as they went though the tunnel of time, energy was around them and visions could be seen, times looking older and older and older till finally a bright light consumed all and Faith found himself falling face first into sand. Seeing as his sword was in front of him, Faith threw it into the earth before holding both hands out to catch himself, landing on the palms of both his hands, Faith would quickly collapse into a commando roll before finally bringing himself up on his own two feet. Brushing off dirt on his pants and scratching at a few pebbles that stuck themselves to his shoulder, Faith would pick his sword out of the ground before resting it's blunt side on his shoulder and looking to his allies. The girl spoke of worlds ending and Faith simply grunted, if quakes in this world meant worlds ending then he was in trouble.

Soon enough, a small family came by, speaking a rather strange language, again. He had heard quite a few languages and they all seemed quite strange but at least majority he met spoke English thank giant. As the family passed, Faith was about to sit down till the sound of hoof beats caused the family to freeze and place and already Faith tensed. They were circled and were pointing metal sticks at his group and the family and Faith would have been ok with this if it wasn't for the sound of well pleading that the family gave. With a huff, Faith would stab his sword back into the ground and pull out his little bell before bowing his head and focusing. Allowing his magic to pour into the bell, Faith would rise his head to the army that surrounded them and with well... A roar, bringing his arm with the bell up as what appeared to be a lighting bolt of orange color rested in his hand. This was a warning he hoped the riders received or someone was going to die.

OoC: IMPORTANT!:

As Guerrero hit the ground, he found himself kissin dust, grateful to be out of the confines of the hell that was...whatever that was.  Then he stood, pretending nothing had happened.

Things happened quickly as the Warrior surveyed their surroundings.  First the migrant family, then the Mexican Cavalry.  And not cavalry as he was used to but old school, horse mounted cavalry.

The swordswoman asked her question.  A valid one all things considered.  "Well, they say they're soldiers under General Santa Anna..."  His brow furrowed as he tried to recall his American history.  "Except, Santa Anna lived during the eighteen-hundreds.  Come to think of it, no ones used horses or muskets since then, either."

At that moment, the largest of the trio did something, summoning lightning into his hand.  It crackled as it burned the air.  The giant's display spooked the horses, the riders and the family.  "Dios mio," the father hissed as his wife fell to her knees, making the Sign of the Cross over and over.  North-south-east-west, north-south-east-west...

Guerrero's hand drifted close to his "Colt"...It was strange to think that the weapon he was ready to use...the man who would invent it hadn't even been born yet.

The second Faith brought the lightning, all hope of negotiation was gone.

"Demons! Demons! ...Kill them! kill them!" The Mexican soldiers opened fire with their... bolt action rifles and revolvers, weapons not so appropriate to the period. Diana didn't care though, as she sprinted to the closest man, demonstrating her inhuman skill by deflecting bullets. It wasn't hard, the spooked horses made their aim really awful.

The soldier tried to turn and gain distance, but Diana closed quickly and then slicing the horse- and man- in what seemed like a single a single blow. Blood sprayed everywhere, but Diana was now exposed, and she was hard pressed to reach cover, the volume of fire coming her way forcing her to stand ground and deflect.

The other Mexican soldiers quickly dismount, their horses too frightened. The others took cover behind rocks, splitting up into two groups- their tactics were not of the period either, more easily resembling modern small unit tactics. Putting at least 30 meters between themselves and the enemy. Now their shots against Diana, Faith and Guerrero were much more accurate. Diana was getting pounded, forced to take cover in a compromised position.

The squad leader's saber lit up with energy, and he charged Faith, going for the killing blow, used to having his energy saber cut through steel. His weapon was not of this time, but his body and skill still was.

Well... It wasn't what the half giant expected. He kinda thought they would run for it, a lot of people weren't too fond of his lighting but these guys... They kinda just made him itch and by that he meant whatever they were hitting him with. The bullets bounced off his skin like rubber balls. And it was getting annoying but the girl was entertainment, her small sword packed a punched it seemed and she was fast enough in reflex to stop the small balls of metal from hitting her but even she had trouble. He didn't keep eyes on the other fellow but he did have his eyes on someone else.

A man was charging at Faith with a sword that was lit with energy much like when Faith coated his blade in lighting. Now he didn't know where he was, why he was here or what was happening but seeing someone with a energy like sword made Faith not take chances and with the lighting bolt still in his hands he would bring it back before throwing it at the charging man. Hoping to put a stop to his charge before he got any closer. If he somehow deflected it then Faith would charge with his own weapon in a sought of joust, knowing that his blade was longer and heavier then the sabre his foe used.

Guerrero moved quickly when the chaos erupted.  Using the reverse side of the head he hooked a man's boot, dragging him ou of his saddle.  With a sudden violent stomp, he caved in the hapless man's rib cage.

Much like the other giant, the warrior was resistant to the bullets fired by the antique weapons.  They stung as they struck but never seemed to pierce skin.  Still, he'd prefer the shooting stop.

With a turn, he hacked into a rider that had failed to dismount quickly enough.  The beard to the axe tore a gash in the man's guts, spilling bowels onto his saddle.  Continuing to turn, he lobbed the axe.  It hit with enough force to split another man's sturnum and send him sprawling.

Guerrero's pistol left his holster and in an instant, it was leveled at his next target.  It kicked up as a bullet left the chamber, striking a rider in the eye.  *Bang* *Bang* *Bang*  Two more fell; one hit twice in the chest, another struck in the knee with enough force to drop him into the dirt.  He rolled in time for the heel of Guerrero's boot to crush his larynx.

Light drew his attention and the warrior turned to see the commander rushing the other giant with a...magic sword? He did NOT remember that from his history lessons. Guerrero aimed low and fired, hoping to hit the man in the legs. Something told him they needed answers...