Sandsteamer Surprises
The
desolate beauty of the desert sped by as the Sandsteamer glided over the
sand, the distant mountains seemingly stained with blood in the ruddy glow
as the twin suns slowly sank below the horizon, allowing the fried planet
several hours to throw off the heat of the day, making way for the intense
cold of the night.
The strong wind that was generated by
the steamer's passage ruffled Meryl's short dark hair and sent her cape
swinging to the side behind her. She gazed out at the passing scenery,
not really paying much attention to it. For once her thoughts weren't
really centered on anything, and she allowed herself a small moment to
just relax and not think about the mountain of worries that felt like they
were slowly crushing her with every mile that passed beneath the wheels
of the steamer. This was their second day of passage, and early tomorrow
afternoon they would be pulling into Septembre City and Meryl would begin
the final leg of her journey with her three companions.
"I'm glad they came along," she thought to herself. Of course she
had expected Milly to come, there was no way the tall brunette would have
let Meryl go off on her own, but it still surprised her that Vash and Wolfwood
had joined the party. She had expected Vash to be elated over the
fact that he wouldn't be under surveillance for a while, and the only thing
she could figure was that Wolfwood must have either bribed him or guilt-tripped
him into coming along. She had her suspicions on why Wolfwood had
come along, but she didn't want to voice any, simply because she could
barely handle her own mountain of problems, much less have any more room
to worry about Milly and Wolfwood.
She stretched her arms above her head, taking a last deep breath in the
twilight air before turning her steps back towards the rooms that they
were staying in. She had just reached the door and was getting ready
to walk in when someone yelled, "NO WAY! ONE MORE GAME!" causing
her to pause and then grin to herself. She opened the cabin door
and walked into one of the two first class cabins that she and her traveling
companions were sharing. The steamer's captain was seated at a table
across from Milly, and a chess board was spread out between them.
Vash and Wolfwood were seated in a pair of easy chairs, trying to see who
could out-drink whom in a contest of alcoholic constitutions. Meryl
silently placed a bet with herself that Vash could out-drink Wolfwood,
but would wind up stupidly throwing it all up before the night was over
with. Milly looked up at her from the resetting of the chess board,
and smiled.
"Hello, Sempai! You've gotten back in time for the hundredth game!"
she said cheerfully while the captain growled under his breath.
Meryl raised a curious eyebrow. "Really..? What's the current score?"
"Ninety-nine to zero," Wolfwood answered casually while throwing a wink
at Meryl as Vash grabbed a third glass and poured a drink for her.
Meryl had a hard time believing that she had allowed Wolfwood to talk her
into letting Milly play the captain in a game of chess for their passage
fare, but she had remembered Milly telling her about how she had saved
Wolfwood's hide at a game of chess when they had joined up with a caravan
at one point in their travels, and decided to sit back and see what happened.
If she had known that Wolfwood had bet first class passage and that they
would have had to pay if Milly had lost, she would have taken Cross Punisher
and used it as a tombstone for a certain smart-ass priest. A tense
twelve moves later and the four were ensconced in a pair of first class
cabins that were right next to each other, and a steamer captain who just
couldn't accept the fact that such an innocent-looking woman had trounced
him in a single game. So he made it best out of three, then five,
then nine, and on it went until they were now at their current game number.
The captain would only leave to take care of duties in regards to the steamer,
or when Meryl forcibly kicked him out so they could go to bed, but he always
came back with a demand for another game. Milly always agreed, and
cheerfully beat him every time.
Meryl shook her head and walked over to take the drink that Vash was offering
her, before settling down on the edge of her bed to watch the game.
Like all the others, it was short-lived as Milly beat the Captain in only
twenty moves. Meryl had a feeling that one reason Milly always won
was because the Captain was too hasty in his decisions, not thinking them
out before moving his man. Whatever the reason, Meryl was thankful
that Milly was winning because it insured that they could keep their first
class cabins on the Steamer. However, it was getting late and Meryl
knew that if she didn't kick the captain out of their cabin, he would continue
to challenge Milly all night long.
"All right," she said as the captain began to beg for yet ANOTHER game.
"It's time for you to go, captain. We have to pack for the Steamer's
arrival."
"THE ARRIVAL?! ^%^%^%$%#$#@!!!! I COMPLETELY FORGOT!
I HAVE TO CLEAR THE STEAMER FOR PASSAGE INTO THE CITY!" The distraught
captain didn't waste any more words as he leapt to his feet and narrowly
avoided running over Meryl as he dashed out the door. The four companions
blinked in astonishment as large drops of sweat rolled down the backs of
their heads, then turned their attention to each other.
"Well? Didn't I tell you that letting big girl here play chess for
our rooms was a good idea?" Wolfwood gloated, not for the first time.
"Yes yes, you did. Now get out so we can get some sleep," Meryl said,
sounding more cranky than she wanted to. Vash and Wolfwood merely
grinned at her and exited the room, Wolfwood calling out that should the
girls need them they would be next door. Meryl rolled her eyes and
rummaged around in her luggage, looking for the over sized T-shirt that
she slept in, while Milly pulled on her pajama top and bottoms.
"Sempai?" Milly asked as they prepared to brush their teeth. Having
a private bathroom wasn't a luxury either were used to, but they were well-prepared
to take full advantage of their good fortune.
"Yes Milly?" Meryl asked.
"This has been a much nicer Steamer ride than the first two, don't you
think?"
"Yes, it has, Milly," Meryl said with a smile. "For one thing, we're
not chasing down rumors of Vash-san, or trying to find out where he is."
"And the Steamer isn't filled with bandits," Milly chirped.
The words had barely left her mouth when the door to their cabin was kicked
in and a gruff-sounding voice shouted, "HANDS UP!" The two women
froze, then slowly turned, with their hands held in front of them to look
down the barrel of what looked to be a cross between a sawed-off shotgun
and an Uzi. The owner, a half-masked man that stood just over the threshold
of their room, adopted a nonchalant pose as he sized the two women up.
"Milly," Meryl half growled, half whispered, "The next time we're on a
Sand Steamer, do not mention the word 'bandit', got that?"
"Hai," Milly replied sheepishly, quietly gauging the distance between she
and her stungun.
"Now isn't this nice?" the man said, leering at Meryl's exposed legs.
"You two be nice and give me all your cash and maybe I won't hurt you any."
Meryl twitched a bit, feeling her temper start to rise at
the man's unspoken suggestion. It began to rise even more as
the man began to approach the two of them, and proceeded to set fire to
the simmering powder keg of emotion that she had kept in check for the
past three days. Her eyes began to narrow as all the fear, anger,
frustration, sorrow, and regret that she had kept hidden from the others
began to swell and strain against her wall of self-control. The man
continued to walk towards them, and with each step the emotions Meryl was
holding in check threatened to break free.
Milly was watching Meryl out of the corner of her eye, and was
beginning to wonder if it was a good thing that Meryl was starting
to vibrate slightly. Apparantly the bandit didn't pick up on the
warning signs because he coninued to move towards the girls and raised
a hand to Meryl.
The moment
his finger tips touched Meryl's cheek, the tight rein she'd had on her
emotions snapped.
"DON'T YOU TOUCH ME, YOU JERK!" she screeched, bringing her knee up in
a crushing blow to the most vulnerable and painful spot on a man's body.
As he reflexively hunched over, Meryl grabbed the sawed off monstrosity
of a gun by the barrel, and used it in a way that guns weren't meant to
be used. She hauled back and swung the butt of the gun against the
side of the man's face, causing his head, and then body, to jerk around
in an awkward half-circle before crumpling to the ground.
Milly stared, her blue eyes wide with shock. Meryl stood there holding
her new-found club, her breaths coming deep and even as she fought to regain
control of her emotions. The attempt, though, was abandoned as the
bandit, his bandana now hanging pathetically around his neck, began to
scoot backwards away from her. He then got to his feet, turned, and
bolted out of the door. Meryl's jaw locked as anger once again began
to rule and she hefted her weapon over her head.
"HOW DARE YOU BARGE INTO A LADIES' ROOM AND MAKE PASSES AT THEM WHILE WHO
KNOWS WHAT KIND OF HIDEOUS THOUGHTS ARE RUNNING THROUGH YOUR HEAD!
COME BACK HERE!!" she screamed as she ran after the fleeing bandit.
"SEMPAI!" Milly yelled, ran over to her suitcase to grab her Stungun, and
ran out of the room in Meryl's wake.
Vash and Wolfwood had just gotten settled into their respective beds when
the sound of the girls door being kicked in reached them. Their feet
hit the floor to the sound of Meryl's enraged screech, and they reached
their door just in time to hear a screaming man run by. They flung
their door open in time to see Meryl, bare legs a blur of motion, streak
past yelling at the top of her lungs with a gun held club-like over her
head. She was followed a few seconds later by pajama-clad Milly toting
her BASG (Big Ass Stun Gun), yelling for Meryl to at least slow down and
wait for her.
Two pairs of male eyes blinked for a second, turned to regard each other
in stunned silence, and then ran after the women. Or rather, they
would have if they both hadn't tried to barge through the door at the same
time, effectively getting stuck in the doorway. What followed was
a flurry of punches, shoving, kicking, and more swearing than a room full
of drunk sailors before Vash managed to gain leverage, shoving Wolfwood
back into the room before following after Milly. Wolfwood tossed
a few more curse words at Vash's head as he followed after, pausing just
long enough to grab Cross Punisher and Vash's gun from the nearby table.
Wolfwood quickly caught up with Vash and tossed him his gun. He easily
kept pace with the tall blond, but no matter how hard they tried they could
not catch up with Milly or Meryl. The only way they knew which way
to go was to follow the dying echos of Meryl's tirade and Milly's pleading
with her to slow down.
Despite all the running down corridors and up stairs, Meryl never slowed
down in her pursuit of the bandit, and the bandit never slowed down in
his flight from the screaming banshee on his heels. Adrenaline was
pumping through his system and kept him from feeling any of the pain that
should have immobilized him after a knee to the groin and a gun butt to
the face. But the simple fact that he could hear a pair of bare feet
closing in on him spurred him to greater speed as he sought that refuge
that all scared s___less bandits seek.
"BOOOOSSSSSS!!!!!" he shrieked as he reached the bridge of the Steamer.
A large, burly, and overly bandit-looking man turned as one of his minions
came screaming, literally, into the cockpit. He then proceeded to
do a double take as a petite, dark-haired, attractive and half-dressed
woman came flying into the cockpit right behind his minion, a gun held
over her head in a way that suggested the first object she came into contact
with would receive a large dent in it. Unfortunately for his underling,
it was his head that got in the way of the downward arc of Meryl's club
as he stopped to get his boss's attention. The man slowly folded
to the ground with a soft grunt, and the boss found himself facing a very
pissed-off young woman.
"Is there anything I can help you with?" he asked, figuring that playing
the gentleman might throw the woman off balance enough for him to remove
the gun from her hands.
Meryl's eyes narrowed a bit. "You're the leader?" she hissed.
The burly man nodded, and then blinked in surprise as Meryl proceeded to
chew him out. "How DARE you attack this steamer, put innocent passengers'
lives at stake, and put ME at risk of NOT GETTING HOME WHERE I'M NEEDED!"
As she yelled the last few words at the top
of her voice, she lunged at the man, club raised high, and felt a jolt
run through her arms and down her legs as the man reached up and caught
the butt of the gun in his hand. He gave a jerk, and ripped the barrel
of the gun from her hands. Meryl gasped and stumbled forward a bit,
but before the man could grab her, he was thrown backwards by a powerful
force that sent the air rushing out of his lungs. Meryl turned to
find Milly, BASG in hand, standing behind her in the doorway.
"Are you all right, sempai?" Milly asked, not taking her eyes off of the
bandit leader as he got to his feet.
"I, uh, yes. Thank you, Milly," Meryl said, recovering both from
her shock and her emotional outburst. She suddenly felt very tired,
but she did feel a little less likely to have an emotional breakdown now
that some of the tension bottled inside her had been dispersed.
Sagging a little in the shoulders, Meryl wondered what to do now that the
bandit leader had been subdued (he sure wasn't going to go against a tall
brunette holding a HUGE gun on him). A commotion behind Milly caught
her attention, and she looked out into the hallway to see a very out of
breath Vash, followed by an equally out of breath Wolfwood, making their
way towards them dragging four very out of it bandits behind them by the
collars of their shirts.
"What on earth . . . ?" Meryl asked, her eyes widening in surprise.
Vash and Wolfwood reached the cockpit, dumped the unconscious bandits beside
the one that Meryl had conked earlier, and then Vash stumbled back to sit
on the floor with his back to the wall while Wolfwood uncovered Cross Punisher
and added his own BAG (Big Ass Gun) to Milly's stungun. If the leader
had even been entertaining a remote possibility of going against Milly,
those thoughts were flushed out to the sewer as he stared down the barrel
of Cross Punisher.
"This idiot," Wolfwood said, pointing to Vash who made a face back at him,
"Can't be taken anywhere without running into some form of trouble."
"And you're telling us something new?" Meryl asked, confused.
"We ran into the rest of the bandits on the way here. They had
heard their comrad's screams and were coming to see what was up.
We just helped them arrive at their destination in a much more peaceful
frame of mind," Vash said.
The priest
snorted derisively. "Helped them nothing! And are you going to get
that wound treated, Tongari?" Wolfwood demanded crossly.
"Wound?" Meryl asked, and her eyes went to a spreading red spot on the
right sleeve of Vash's shirt. She didn't pause to think, going to
his side and asking him to remove his shirt so she could get a better look.
"Meryl,
it's all right, it's nothing serious," Vash protested.
"Don't argue with me," Meryl said, then turned to the crew of the steamer,
who had all stood and stared as the previous drama had been acted out.
"Don't just stand there, get me some medicine and bandages!" Meryl snapped,
sending two of the men into a frenzy of movement as they scurried to comply.
"How did this happen?" Meryl asked as she knelt down next to Vash's side
as he struggled between trying to pull his shirt off and not moving his
arm too much.
"We weren't expecting them when we came around a corner," Wolfwood said.
"He managed to knock three of them out, but the fourth one got a shot off
before I could get to him. Incidentally, you're very fast when you're
angry."
"Not to mention scary. ITAIII!" Vash yelped as Meryl helped him remove
the rest of his shirt with a hard yank.
"Did that hurt?" she asked sweetly, before turning her attention to the
source of the blood on his sleeve. The bullet had caught him high
on hisarm, but instead of creasing over the surface like she had expected,
it had actually entered the flesh and torn a pathway through before exiting
out on the other side. The result was that Vash had two very bloody
holes in his arm. "Trust you to not have a simple wound, oh no, Vash
the Stampede-san gets nothing but the BEST. Where the HELL are those
crew members with the medical supplies?"
"D-did she just say Vash the Stampede?" the bandit leader squeaked.
"Hai!" Milly said cheerfully, a smile on her face.
One of Wolfwood's eyebrows shot up to his hair line as the large, burly
man folded in silently upon himself and fainted.
"Whatta wimp," he muttered as he picked up the cloth that he swathed Cross
Punisher in and began to rewrap it. Meryl looked at the cloth and
opened her mouth, but before she could get a word out Wolfwood said, "No.
Do you have any idea how much this cloth costs, small girl? Especially
since I have to get it oversized to fit Cross Punisher."
"Some friend you are," Meryl muttered, but before she could say
anything else, the crew members returned carrying a bottle of whiskey,
some scissors and some rope.
"Sorry, this is the best we could do," one of the said.
"Hey, thanks! I could use a drink!" Vash said, and snagged the bottle
out of the other guys hands, uncorked it, and began to chug.
Meryl took the scissors from the other man, and while the crew, with the
help of Milly and Wolfwood, bound the bandits, she pulled the bottle from
Vash's hand when he paused for some air.
"Oh, want some?" Vash asked with a grin. What he got in response
was the sound of tearing cloth, and his eyes bugged out as Meryl, having
cut into the cloth of her shirt a bit, ripped a rather large chunk of her
shirt off and doused it with whiskey. She then eyed the bottle for
a moment, then turned her eyes up to meet Vash's, giving him a serious
look.
"Vash-san, this is going to really hurt," she said, and before he could
ask her what was going to hurt, she poured a good fourth of what was left
in the bottle over his shoulder.
Vash yelled at the top of his lungs as tears of pain sprung to his eyes,
the liquid fire flowing into the raw open flesh the bullet had left behind.
The fact that Meryl followed the whiskey with strong pressure from the
whiskey soaked cloth didn't make matters any better, and his vision began
to waver a bit from the pain.
After what seemed like yet another hundred and thirty years of his life
passed by, Meryl gently eased up on the pressure and checked the bleeding
underneath.
"Good," she said to herself, "it's slowing down."
She didn't want to remove the cloth that she was holding against his wound
for fear of causing the injury to start bleeding again, though the thought
of Vash having to keep the bloody cloth against his wound didn't sit well
with her. "It'll just be for tonight," she told herself, and looked
up to see Vash's pain filled eyes watching her.
"That hurt worse than getting shot," he said, his voice sounding strained.
"I'm sorry," she said softly, but turned back to business before her own
tears of empathy could start. "Do you think you could hold this cloth
here for a second? I need to make a wrap that'll hold it in place
until we get to Semptembre. Once there we'll take you to the doctors."
"I don't need to go to the doctor," Vash said as he gingerly placed his
hand where she indicated, and held the stiffening fabric to his arm.
Meryl once again turned to her nightshirt, and ripped off another long
swatch of the soft cotton. She replaced her hand where his was, and
proceeded to wrap the long stip around the whiskied cloth, making certain
that the pressure was enough to hold the bandage in place, but not cut
off circulation. Once she was finished, she carefully knotted the
ends together and sat back on the ground, being careful to keep her knees
closed and beneath her as she eyed her handiwork.
"How does that feel?" she asked.
"Hurts like hell but I don't think it's going to go anywhere when I move,"
Vash answered, gingerly moving his arm a bit to test the tightness of the
bandage.
"Good," Meryl replied, then took a swig from the whiskey bottle to get
her nerves to stop doing the samba, then passed it back to Vash.
"Thanks, I need this," Vash replied, and went back to chugging on the bottle.
"How're things here? All done?" Wolfwood asked, coming to stand by
Meryl.
"He should be fine until we can get him to the doctor," Meryl replied,
carefully getting to her feet and turning to see the bandits trussed up
and ready for delivery to the officials.
"How can we thank you for your help?" the captain asked. Meryl noted
that he had a bloody nose and figured he must have been in no shape to
lend a hand.
"Just don't mention that Vash the Stampede was on your ship to anyone,
please. The last thing I need is for bounty hunters and the law to
show up on my doorstep, especially if my father is ill," Meryl replied.
"Consider it done. We won't tell anyone, and I doubt these idiots
will remember it when they wake up from Dreamland. And I must tell
you, Miss Thompson, you are the best chess player I've ever met," the captain
said as he turned his attention back to his duty.
Wolfwood leaned down and helped Vash get to his feet without jarring his
arm too much. Milly bent down and picked up Vash's discarded shirt
and looked at it.
"This is going to need washing," she said as the four turned to leave the
cockpit, Meryl trying to pull down what was left of the hem of her shirt.
The two men were careful to keep their eyes averted from her slight form,
though at times it was difficult. The long shirt that used to hang
past Meryl's knees now only hung about mid-thigh, and even if she didn't
know it, she did have a nice pair of shapely legs.
They reached the cabins without further mishap or running into any crew
members of other passengers, and Wolfwood opened the door and motioned
for Vash to preceed him into the cabin.
"Vash-san," Meryl said softly, catching his attention.
"Hai?"
"If either you or Wolfwood has any aspirin or something to ease the pain,
I suggest you take some. It'll also help with any fever that you
might come down with," she said. "That'll at least get you through
the night until we can get you to a doctor."
"I'm not going to the doctor," Vash replied stubbornly. "You did
as good a job as any of the doctors I've ever gone to."
Meryl could feel herself start to blush at the small compliment, when Vash
completely ruined it.
"Of course, your treatment hurt a LOT worse than anything any of the official
quacks have done."
Meryl's teeth clenched, but she managed a narrow smile for the two men
before saying, "Good night," and walking into the cabin she and Milly shared,
slamming the door behind her with a bang.
"She's had a rough night," Milly said, stating the obvious as usual, before
following her partner into the cabin, shutting the door behind her much
more softly than Meryl had.
"Has anyone ever told you that you have a unique way with women?" Wolfwood
asked amusedly as he and Vash set down their guns and once again prepared
for bed. "It's no wonder the small girl stays angry with you all
the time. Not only do you constantly get into the worst-case scenarios,
but you never know when to stop talking."
"Do shut up," Vash grumbled as he downed four aspirin with a swig of the
whisky, and laid back down on his bed. He carefully pulled the covers
up over his body, being careful to not move his arm too much. He
lay still on his back, staring at the ceiling and wishing that the pain
in his arm would go away so he could sleep. It was while he was staring
at the ceiling that he came to the realization that, despite having his
shirt off and baring his horribly scarred body, no one had said anything,
nor were there any of the usual intakes of breath at the sight. He
didn't know that while he had been trying to pull his shirt over his head,
Meryl had shot everyone a look in the cockpit that clearly said, "Say anything
about his scars and you won't wake up in the morning."
To be continued.....
Notes: Just to let you know, I'm a slow working. *sigh*