-American West, 1867-
The American West. Not long ago people came out this way by the wagon load to colonize this barren wasteland. Sure, you have a few settlements here and there, but a majority of the people that were here left as soon as they came, moving to places like Oregon or California. Best that way.
After the war, people have been traveling all over the country to find a place to call home, and it's in a small town out this way where our story begins.
Far out west, in the middle of the sandy Mojave, was a small town by the name of Atmosia. It was a modest town with just the basic necessities: A town hall, a sheriff's office, a general store, a few small places to live, and a saloon.
The nearest train station was a ways off in a town called Green River, and that was a few miles away. They were due to have tracks built trough their town, but the railroad company was taking its sweet time with that project. Until then however, the place was only accessible by foot, horse, or stage coach.
Due to the town's solitude, it made itself the target for the roughest, toughest, blood-thirstiest gang this side of the Mississippi: The Cyclone Gang.
Led by the ever-feared and always mysterious Miss Cyclonis, they took over the town in less than a couple of days thanks to their wide array of bandits, thieves, and cut-throats. From the half-Apache siblings, Ravess and Snipe, to the Cajun cannibals, The Raptors. However, the second most feared member of the gang, behind Miss Cyclonis herself, was none other than a gunslinger going by the name Mr. Ace, though some have taken to calling him "Black Hand" Ace, because when his hand goes for his gun, he's like the Grim Reaper casting his black hand over you.
With the Sheriff and his deputies in their pocket, the town has been forced to do nothing but serve the Cyclone Gang. Of course under Miss Cyclonis' instruction, the town was kept peaceful enough to still be livable and have trade. However, the Cyclones took almost any money that the local businesses made and kept it for themselves. If it weren't for the power that Cyclonis held over her minions, the town would've been wiped from the face of the map.
All that changed one day, when a mysterious stranger came into town.
A horse gave out a small whinny as its lead was pulled back to make it stop. Its rider dismounted, taking the lead and tying it to a horse post, petting the horse's snout before making his way over to Atmosia's saloon. The sound of his spurs could be heard over the sound of the piano music playing inside. He stopped at the door, listening to the tune being played for a moment before pushing open the double doors. The saloon went silent for a moment, turning their attention toward the door for fear that it was one of the Cyclone gang. However, they were surprised to find that rather than someone like Mr. Ace or the siblings, they found a new face gracing the old saloon.
The man standing at the door was a young man, no more than twenty-three or twenty-four years old, standing at a tall six foot even, and had messy red hair that was covered by a brown desperado hat. His clothes consisted of a brown poncho, black pants, and brown leather boots with spurs on the heels.
After seeing that this stranger wasn't one of the Cyclones, the patrons went back to whatever they were doing, which was either drinking, gambling, or flirting with company of the female variety. And there were quite a few good looking girls working there. There was a girl with short black hair, fair skin, and a pretty face, a girl with short purple hair, and, a rarity in these parts, a Blizzarian girl with a nice coat of blue fur and a head full of light blue hair.
Blizzarians were a rarity out west, especially in places like Atmosia where the sun was hot, the sands shifted, and the best source of water was a cactus. Blizzarians mostly hailed from the northern territories such as Canada and the like. To see them this far south was rare indeed.
The stranger put this thought aside for the time being as he made it to the bar counter. He leaned his back against it and watched as the bar patrons did their own things and listened as the piano player played.
"What'll y'all be havin', sugar?" Came a female voice from behind the stranger. Turning his head so he could look at the source of the voice, the stranger found another Blizzarian woman, though rather than walking around in her undergarments, this one was wearing a fine black dress that was trimmed with lace. This Blizzarian looked similar to the other Blizzarian that he spotted not moments ago, though this one had her long purple hair tied into a small ponytail behind her head.
"Shot of whiskey," The stranger said simply.
"Comin' right up," She said with a smile, taking the bottle of aged alcohol out from under the counter, pouring it into a shot glass, and passing it to the red-headed stranger.
"Thanks," Was all he said as he took the glass and downed the burning liquid.
"Y'all are new 'round here. What's your name stranger?" The Blizzarian asked.
The stranger was silent for a moment before simply saying, "Aerrow. Just Aerrow."
The Blizzarian smiled at this, "Well Mr. 'Just Aerrow', what can Madame Suzy do for you?" She asked.
"Just looking for a good drink and some good company before I go on my way," He said.
"Well if your lookin' for those, you've come to the right place. Have a look around and have your pick," Madame Suzy said with a small smirk.
Aerrow looked about the saloon for a "friend" for the evening, and found the girls that he had spotted earlier.
"Over there you got Dove. Sweet little thing, but can be real feisty at times," Madame Suzy said, pointing to the girl with short black hair.
"Over here we have Lynn. She always aims to please," She spoke again, pointing to the girl with short purple hair.
"And finally, we got Emily. She's real popular among my clients," She finished, pointing to the Blizzarian girl that Aerrow spotted earlier.
Aerrow looked between the three girls that Suzy had pointed out. They were all pretty, sure, but none of them really caught his eye. That was until he spotted a new girl that entered the bar room, coming from the second floor. When Aerrow spotted her, time seemed to stop.
The sunlight that came in through the windows seemed to shimmer off her perfect chocolate skin, and her short, dark-blue hair seemed as beautiful as the night sky.
"And what about her there?" Aerrow asked, getting Madame Suzy to look in the direction he was looking.
"Ah, I see young Piper has caught your eye," She said with a smirk, "She's a nice little thing, though not many go for her."
"And why's that?" He asked, fearing the worst answer.
"If you're thinking it's because of her skin color, you're dead wrong. It's because she's Ace's girl."
"Well I don't know who this 'Ace' is, nor do I care," Aerrow answered simply, getting up from the bar and making his way over to the girl now named Piper.
"What's a nice looking girl like you doing in a place like this?" asked Aerrow.
Piper looked at the strange cowboy and decided to do him a favor.
"No one has seen you yet, you should go flirt with some other girl stranger," said Piper.
"Is asking a lady something against this town's law?" asked Aerrow.
"Not really, that would only apply to me. Now go and help yourself to another girl," replied Piper.
Aerrow figured that he'd have to step up his game seeing that this girl was either really not interested in him or believed that he'd be worth saving. Aerrow had rarely met someone that would stick their neck out for someone they didn't know. However he was never one for letting others risk themselves for him.
"Let me at least introduce myself before you send me on my merry way," said Aerrow as politely as someone could do in the West.
"Sure. Go ahead," said Piper pretending not to be intrigued.
"The name's Aerrow, at your service." said Aerrow slightly bowing.
"Piper, and I believe you were about to go on your way," said Piper.
Suddenly the doors slung open. The entire cantina looked up in a death like silence. Two figures stepped into the cantina, one was a huge bulky man and the other was a woman with a sinister smile and a riding crop in one hand.
"Looks like fun just got here," said Aerrow.
The two new arrivals in the saloon walked forward and were quickly followed by five young men in matching clothes with the Cyclone Gang's insignia on the left breast of their vests. The insignia was that of a red raven with its talons opened, ready to pick up its prey. The men seemed to be silent around the hulking mass of muscle and the elegant young woman before she turned her head toward them and gave a sly smile to them.
The bartender pulled out a bag of money and gave it to the large man. Once that had occurred, both the massive man and the elegant woman decided to take their leave of the place.
"Have fun, guys. We got our cut." said the big man as he and the woman walked out the door.
As soon as the duo left. the five guys that had come with them began causing some chaos.
One of the men went up to one of the poker tables and took all the money that the players had been pooling together for their game.
"We thank you for your donation, gentlemen," said the goon.
Three of the men went up to some of the girls and began chasing them or dragging them to spend some time with them without as much as buying them a drink.
And to top it off, the fifth man went behind the bar counter and took a bottle of their best whiskey: Saharan Fire Water.
"Now this is the good stuff," said the thug.
"What are y'all looking at?" asked another man, making everyone go back to their own activities.
After taking the bottle, the thugs caused some minor chaos before leaving the saloon with no one daring to stop them.
After seeing the ruckus that the five men caused, Aerrow glared out the window at the men as they went over to a small corral where they shared the bottle of whiskey between them. A small spark lit into a small fire inside him as he glared holes into their heads. He walked past Suzie as he headed toward the door and turned toward the Blizzarian woman.
"Do you have an undertaker in this town?" He asked seriously, completely stone-faced.
"Yeah... Why?" She asked a bit uneasily.
"Tell him to get five coffins ready," He answered simply before continuing out the door, most of the saloon going to the windows to get a view of what he was gonna do.
Aerrow walked up to where the five men, now six, were and stared them down. One of the men, who was incredibly drunk, saw Aerrow just standing there.
"Hey you! I don't like the way you're looking at me. But I'm a gentleman, so I'll give ya till the count of three to apologize," said the goon, only getting Aerrow to narrow his eyes.
"One," said the thug.
Everyone back at the saloon looked with fear at what might happen. Aerrow began to loosen his fingers.
"Two," continued the thug, getting the attention of the other five.
A single tumbleweed rolled down the street with the wind taking away all noise.
"Three!" said the goon, but it was the last thing he said.
As all the goons tried to pull out their pistols, Aerrow had already brought his out. In a split second, it was all over. Six shots were fired and all six men laid dead on the ground. Aerrow reloaded his pistol and then placed it back in his belt.
Everything was silent as he turned around and walked back to the saloon. As he walked, he lit a cigarette and took a puff as he passed by an open window where Suzie-Lu was standing with a gaping jaw.
"I was mistaken earlier," Aerrow said simply as he took out his cigarette, breathed out the tobacco smoke, and turned to Suzie, "Make that six coffins."