Disclaimer: I do not own the copyrights to Gundam Wing, Endless Waltz, Sailor Moon, Trigun, Evangelion, Lupin the Third, Outlaw Star, Rurouni Kenshin, G-Gundam, any other Gundam Series, Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, any movies, books, or any songs that are used in this story. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.
Notice to Readers: To understand certain parts of this story, you'll have to read the other stories before this one. It is recommended by not required.
The DarkTower:
Anime's Unite
Chapter 5: The Western Group
Desert and Forest
Vash, Wolfood, Millie, Meryl, and Knives stood there in the desert. The sand was reaching their ankles. It wasn't like the deserts of their own world which were only rocky with a small bit of sand here and there. Yet, it was nothing like what they were seeing all around them, just dunes and dunes of sand in each direction that they looked. At least as far as their sight would allow.
"Reminds you of how things were, right Vash?" Knives asked
"Don't remind me, it was too hot back then." Vash answered but then he went on to say, "I think we should get going, there's no point in us just standing here."
"No argument from me." Wolfwood said as he threw his Cross-Punisher over his shoulder and made his trek up the sandy slope, his feet sinking deeply into the sand as he made the trip. Soon, Vash and the others followed behind him.
The five of them walked and walked to the north. Their only method of telling time was by looking up at the sun which slowly made its progression across the sky like a snail worming its way across a garden.
At least until Vash stopped dead in his tracks. He was starting to feel something beneath him, very similar to that felling of standing on top of a fragile roof as if at any moment the support beneath him would collapse.
Meryl came up behind him, "What's wrong Vash?" She asked.
"Do you feel that?" He asked
Meryl tried to assess what he meant, "Feel what?"
"Shhh." Vash commanded as the others stopped dead in their tracks as well and gathered around the peace-loving gunman.
At first the feeling that they all experienced was a simple rumbling, like thunder, yes they experienced thunder, lightning and rain in the days after the blocks had been installed. Then the rumbling turned violent as the ground shook. It shook so hard and so rough that several of them were starting to loose their balance on the soft sand. Could it have been an Earthquake? No, somehow it felt as if it was coming in one solid stream from a certain direction.
As Vash was starting to assess this situation, a memory struck him. It was back on Gunsmoke back before the arrival of the blocks that made their world such a habitable place. It was back when the Gung-Ho Guns were still around, still chasing after Vash the Stampede, each for their own unique reasons as well as by the orders of Vash's brother, Knives. It was when Vash encountered a Gung-Ho Gun named Zazie the Beast. A gunman who had the form of a child…such a sinister thing that Knives had did. The reason why this Gung-Ho gun was called Zazie the Beast was because he could control certain animals. More specifically, worms. Great worms that inhabited Gunsmoke, that tunneled their way through the earth…natures' burrowers. Yet, the feeling that those worms gave off when they were coming to the surface…was just like what Vash was feeling underneath the soft sand.
Just like a whale breeching through the surface of the water, so too did something enormous breech through the surface of the sand, sending up clouds of dust. All of the Peace Guns looked up in amazement as something singular reached up to the sky from the sand. At first it looked like a great pillar, until in the desert sun they saw its texture was rough and brown like the hide of some sort of animal.
At the top of the pillar that had burst from the sand, they saw it open, like a mouth. A mouth that had split in three different ways and as it opened a great roar came from within it. A roar unlike any of their ears had ever or would ever hear again. The very sound of it made them cover their ears involuntarily like closing both eyes when someone's fist was coming straight at them. Even that wasn't enough to completely block it all out; they could even feel it through their bodies as if they were one large sound receiver.
Vash the Stampede looked up and saw the great thing bend downward and he saw inside the mouth. It was like looking down a deep hole and in that mouth Vash saw only darkness and teeth, rows and rows of them. Knives had always said that when a human being senses a creature of greater strength, power, or intelligence above them they immediately revert to their primal state of pure instinct. Vash certainly felt that.
"RUN!" He screamed as loud as his lungs would allow, "EVERYBODY RUN!"
No one questioned why, they simply ran on pure instinct and ran. They ran as hard as they could as the great thing that burst from the sand sunk back down below. Everyone in the group had the same thought that it was going to come after them. The fear was confirmed when they felt the earthquake like sensation underneath their feet as the thing was coming closer and closer. As they ran, none of them looked back to the thing that was approaching from below. Just like children running away from a monster in their dreams.
"VASH!" Someone screamed from behind. Vash looked back and saw that Meryl had fallen. In his super-human speed he dashed backward to where she was.
To Meryl it looked like Vash had become a red blur as she was swept off of the desert sand and back with the group. Yet, the thing that was burrowing underneath the soft sand was still drawing closer. It was still much like that monster in their dreams, the one that seemed to be getting closer no matter how much that they ran from it.
"VASH!" Wolfwood shouted, "KEEP RUNNING!"
Vash watched as Wolfwood stopped and activated the missile launcher section of his Cross-Punisher. He had the sight out and his finger on the trigger and awaited for the thing to make it's breech through the sand. He had heard stories from when he visited the After Colony Universe of great hunters who used to travel across enormous bodies of water hunting the great creatures who lived beneath the waves. For a moment, Wolfwood felt like one of those hunters, ready to kill whatever this creature was that was lurking under the sand.
Vash couldn't stop himself running, but he knew what his best friend was going to do, "WOLFWOOD!" He called out
"NO DON'T!" Millie screamed as she stopped running and headed back to where Wolfwood was going to make his stand. In her effort to run back to where her love was standing in the sand she tripped and fell face first. It all happened in such an instant that she only saw a cloud of dust when she brought her face up from the sand.
What had happened was Wolfwood was waiting for that great thing to come through the sand.
"Come on, you son of a bitch." He muttered to himself as he felt the sand underneath him begin to move like quicksand. "That's it." He said with a grin on his face as the sand below him burst underneath his feet which sent him straight up into the air like a rock from a catapult. He looked down and saw the worms mouth that split into three sections to reveal its insides that were lined with teeth. He brought down his Cross-Punisher and set his sights for the inside as he heard and felt the roar of the creature going through him. His sights were set as he felt himself begin to fall downward into the creatures mouth.
"TIME TO DIE ASSHOLE!" He screamed as he pulled the trigger.
Millie, Meryl, Vash, and Knives all heard Wolfwood's last cry as the worm had swallowed him and it burrowed back down to the sand.
"NOOOOOO!" Millie screamed as she began to cry fiercely not caring if the worm would come for her. As she cried for her lost love, there was an explosion, one so loud and powerful that it erupted to the surface of the sand sending up bits and pieces that used to be part of that great creature that burrowed through the sand. Along with those body parts came the priest Wolfwood. He flew out from the sand and onto his back, just a few feet away from Millie.
She cried again, but this time with joy and worry as she dashed with her stun-gun banging against her side. She ran immediately getting back up when she tripped to her lovers side. She checked to see if she was breathing…to her surprise he wasn't just breathing, but he was laughing.
"WOW!" He screamed as he sat back upright, "I thought I bit the bullet back there."
Millie raised her hand and slapped Wolfwood across the face, "Don't you ever scare me like that, Nicholas!" She cried fiercely again as she threw her arms around him, "I thought that you died again and I couldn't bear to see you die again! Never again!" She brought her face up to his and kissed him as if it would be her last. Wolfwood on the other hand simply laid back and accepted what was happening. In the situation he was in he knew that something had to be done.
As Vash, Meryl, and Knives came up to them slowly knowing that the threat of that worm was over. They did breathe a slight sigh of relief but the possibility of more was still very clear in their minds.
"You gave us all quite the scare Wolfwood." Vash stated
Wolfwood broke Millie's kiss, "I know, but I had to do something."
"Vash." Meryl tapped Vash's shoulder as she looked across the desert to a nearby dune as a man came up its slopes and came closer to the Peace Guns. They assumed it was a man since they saw the stubbles of a beard on his exposed face from under the hood of his dirty sand coarse cloak. He then came within range of the Peace Guns who then were going for their guns if this man was a threat. They watched as he pulled back his hood and they saw that he was a very handsome man with long blondish hair. Yet, it was his eyes that caught their attention the most. In the bright sun they seemed to glow, they glowed blue. Both the iris' and the cornea's burned brightly with this hue like twin flashlights buried in this man's skull.
"Subakh Un Nar" he said to them with a smile on his face
The Peace Guns all looked at each other hoping that someone in the group would understand what exactly the man had said.
"I'm terribly sorry." The man apologized, "You see that's a Fremen greeting. It means 'are you well?'"
Wolfwood got back to his feet, "Considering what we've been though, I'd say we sure as hell have seen better days."
"As I've witnessed." The desert dweller had referred to the bits of the worm, "I have to say sir, that you are either very brave or a very stupid man to attempt what you did. You truly have faced your fear and allowed it to pass through you."
The desert dweller had walked over to one of the pieces of the exploded worm and came back to Wolfwood with the piece of the carcass in his hand. He showed it to Wolfwood who saw a great tooth sticking out of it.
"We shall make this into a crysknife for you." He said as if he was a proud father addressing his son.
"Excuse me." Meryl came forward to the desert dweller, "But could you tell us who you are and what this place is?"
"You mean you don't know what this place is?" The desert dweller asked
"Yes." Meryl answered in frustration
"Hmm." He looked at all of the Peace Guns, "Then it's true what my people have heard."
"What do you mean?" Meryl asked
"I think all of you should come with me. We'll talk and plan. It is not safe for you to be out here more of the worms will be coming if you stay out here."
"Could you at least tell us your name?" Vash asked
"My name is Paul Muad'Dib, now come I'm sure we'll reach home before sundown."
It had been only a few hours when Kenshin and his friends had left the Kamiya-Kasshin dojo. They had left their own familiar world and entered a place that was very different than anything that they had ever seen. They were in a forest, a very thick and dense forest. The trees were as high as buildings, their trunks as big around as the banks of a river, and their roots worming up, down, in and out of the ground like snakes. The leaves were so thick that only beams of sunlight were coming through. All around them they heard the sounds of insects and other creatures that they were unfamiliar with. The undergrowth was so thick to them that Kenshin had to draw that beam saber out in order to cut them down.
"This place is immense." Kaoru observed, "It just seems to go on forever."
"How can you say that, Little Missy?" Sano asked, "We've only been walking for an hour or so."
"Or you're one to talk; Kenshin's been doing most of the cutting."
"Please, let's not argue." Kenshin pleaded, "I'm sure that we'll find someone or something that'll give us directions."
Kenshin had hacked away the last branch and with that last branch coming out of the way, there was a beaten down path. He looked left and then right seeing how the grass was worn away by either tracks of some kind of carriage or by the foot of men. As he came out onto the trail he looked to the other side of the road where there was a road sign.
"Everyone." He called to the others, "I think I've found something."
Kaoru, Sano, and Yahiko came out of the thick woods and onto the clear path to where Kenshin stood looking at the wooden road sign. It looked as though it had been there for decades with the moss growing fat on it. Yet, there was something very unusual about it. The sign had several different languages on it, most of them Kenshin and the others couldn't read except for one. It was down on the very bottom near the ground where there were two arrows pointing outward from the central post. One pointing to the Kenshin Gumi's left and the other to the right; the one pointing leftward on the path read in Kanji, "Mt. Lonely" and the one pointing to the right read, "River Sting."
"Well, Kenshin." Sano said scratching his head, "Where do we go from here?"
"I think we head towards the River Sting, that I do." Kenshin answered
"What makes you so sure?" Kaoru asked
"I truly don't know."
Kenshin simply walked in the direction that the sign post had said would lead them to the River Sting and the others followed suit. Up ahead, the road was making a sharp turn where the road seemed to vanish into the growth of trees and hills. Yet, Kenshin still stuck to the beaten down path, because anything was better than hacking through the trees all day long.
CAW!
A bird cawed out in a way that Kenshin had never heard any bird call out before and his head turned in the direction where the sound was coming. It brought his attention away from the very thing that was blocking his path and it was that thing that called out to Kenshin.
"HAULT!"
Kenshin and the others froze dead in their tracks as they looked up to find a hideous abomination that their eyes had ever seen. It was a man, and another man, and another. Three heads of men, but they were all stuck onto one enormously wide body. They were dressed in armor that the Kenshin Gumi had never seen before. Chain mails covering their heads as if they were hoods of a coat, as well as gauntlets made of leather on both hands, and a great white tunic covering the body chain mail. Upon the white tunic were yellow and white stripes that ran from the three-headed-man's left side in a diagonal pattern down to their right side. Upon the giant's chest were three symbolic hands going in the same direction of the stripes. Each hand looked as if they were trying to stop whoever was in front of them. At the giant's sides were an enourmous shield with those same three stopping hands upon it, as well as a jousting stick, and a great double edged sword.
"WHO ART THOU?" The three headed knight demanded all three heads asking at the same time and their voices sounding so great that they seemed to echo through the forest.
"Um..." Kenshin tried to answer but he was stunned by what he was witnessing that he almost failed to grasp his old language, "We're just travelers, that we are. Just passing through these woods."
"WHAT DO YOU WANT?" All three heads of the knight asked once again
"Nothing." Kenshin answered trying to remain calm in the face of the completely bizarre, "Just passing through."
"I'M AFRAID NOT."
"Let me introduce myself then. My name is Kenshin Himura."
"YOU'RE KENSHIN HIMURA?" All three heads asked
"I am." Kenshin answered
"IN THAT CASE, I'LL HAVE TO KILL YOU." The right head said so casually as if he was giving the samurai directions.
"SHALL I?" The middle head asked
"I DON'T THINK SO." The left head objected
"WELL WHAT DO I THINK?" The middle head asked hoping that the others would agree with him
"I THINK KILL IT!" The right head answered
"OH LET'S BE NICE TO HIM." The left head said in sarcasm
"OH SHUT UP!" The right head demanded
Kenshin and the others were looking at each other frankly bewildered by all this. First coming to a forest thicker than any in Japan and then to confront a three headed warrior whose heads were arguing amongst themselves like bad siblings.
"OH, QUICK GET THE SWORD OUT I WANT TO CUT HIS HEAD OFF!" The right head demanded hoping to get some more bloodshed out of one day.
"OH CUT YOUR OWN HEAD OFF!" The left head moaned
"YES, DO US ALL A FAVOR." The middle head agreed
"WHY, CAUSE HE'S YAPPIN' ON ALL THE TIME?" The left head asked
"YOU'RE LUCKY YOU'RE NOT NEXT TO HIM." The middle head stated
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN?" The left head asked
The middle head leaned over to the left head and said, "YOU SNORE."
"OH I DON'T!" The right head refuted like an alcoholic in denial of his problem, "ANYWAY YOU GOT BAD BREATH!"
"IT'S ONLY BECAUSE YOU DON'T BRUSH MY TEETH!"
"OH STOP BITCHING AND LET'S GO AND HAVE TEA!" The left head suggested
As the three heads of the enormous warrior were arguing amongst themselves, the Kenshin Gumi saw it as a golden opportunity and quietly decided to slip away. They knew already that they didn't want to fight anyone in this place since they had no idea of what this place was or what the people were like. At least not until running into that three headed warrior. As they continued on the road their echoing voices still rang out from behind.
"ALL RIGHT, ALL RIGHT, ALL RIGHT!" The right head finalized, "WE'LL KILL THESE FOUR FIRST AND THEN HAVE TEA AND BUISCUITS!"
"YES." The middle head agreed
"NOT BUISCUITS!" The left head said in disgust
"ALRIGHT…NOT BUISCUITS, BUT LET'S KILL THEM ANYWAY!" The right head said in frustration hoping that he would be able to kill at least one person that day.
"RIGHT!" The left and middle head said together
It was not more than a moment as the Kenshin Gumi were a good distance away that the three headed warrior had made the connection.
"THEY BUGGERED OFF!"
"SO THEY HAVE, THEY SCAMPERED!"
Realizing that the warrior has gotten the idea that they had dashed away all of them got the underlying idea that they should speed up their pace. So, all four of them began to dash away.
"Why couldn't we fight them?" Sano asked
"I think that just seeing them is bizarre enough." Miss Kaoru said, "Fighting them would be mind-boggling."
The Kenshin Gumi left it at that as they continued to run through the dark forest. Onward to something that only Kenshin himself knew of what would lie ahead.
Paul Muad'Dib had lead the Peace Guns over several dunes across the barren lands that they had come to. For a while it felt as if this man who called himself Muad'Dib was simply leading them into the middle of nowhere. Though there was some method to his madness, taking certain turns in different directions and avoiding other places, but the reality still sunk in that there was nothing except sand in every single direction.
Of course the thought was thought of too soon when they reached the top of one sand dune and looked down. Below them they saw formations of rocks, solid rock all of them standing tall, proud, and gigantic. All of them were as large as those worms that they encountered earlier that day; some of them straight up like a rough Stonehenge, others lying down on their side like great cats lounging in the desert sun. All of them scattered as well as clustered together like toys on the floor of a child's room.
Paul pointed down into the valley to a specific rock formation. It was one where two slabs of stone seemed to come together to join in the form of a very rough A-shape. That in itself almost looked like a doorway to somewhere but at the same time it didn't, just another formation of rocks that nature seemed to have just misplaced.
"There" he said, "there's our home, our stronghold."
Looking at it, Vash had to ask a very prominent question, "Won't the worms get in there?"
"Certainly not" Paul said with great confidence, "our walls are solid rock, the worms won't be able to get through. Come."
Paul slid his way down the sandy hill into the valley of rocks. Following him were the members of the Peace Guns, first Vash, then Meryl, Wolfwood, Millie, and Knives. Needless to say that after their encounter with the worm had made them apprehensive as well as somewhat paranoid. That with each footstep that they took they had to be careful to make sure that there was no rumbling beneath their feet.
Paul had lead them through the rough A-shape rock archway and there in the shade of the stone monoliths he stood with the Peace Guns watching him. Without even any struggling on Paul's part he slipped through the sand beneath his feet like it was quick sand.
"Paul!" Vash shouted out, but before Vash could even make another step he started to sink into the sand beneath him. So too did Meryl, Millie, Wolfwood and Knives. They sunk into the sand and fell underneath its depths.
Yet, within moments they felt as if they were standing on some kind of platform. Each one of them were trying to brush the sand away from their faces as well as out of their hair as they soon were beginning to breath air again. They looked down and found themselves in what could only be described as some kind of docking back. The platforms that they stood upon were lowering like some kind of free standing elevator and it came to a final stop with Paul Muad'Dib waiting for him at the bottom.
"Welcome." He said as he lead them through the place called the Fremin Stronghold. It was an absolute catacomb of hallways, rooms, elevator shafts and things that many members of the Peace Guns had never seen before. Everyone there all dressed in the same clothes as Paul, at least the clothes that Paul had when he took off his cloak. It was a skin tight black suit that they called a "Still-suit", which would catch moisture coming off of the body. Each member of that place also had those same eyes, those eyes that glowed blue within blue.
Paul had shown each member of the Peace Guns to a room within the catacombs of the Fremin Stronghold.
"I'll come for all of you later on tonight. At that time I'll be addressing the entire Fremin army."
"What about?" Vash asked
"About the arrival of reinforcements."
"Wait a minute" Meryl demanded, "Reinforcements? Who are you fighting?"
"All will be explained later tonight."
Of course all of the Peace Guns stewed in frustration that nothing in this place made any sense whatsoever. First they come to a vast desert, face worms that are larger than a Sand Steamer, and now within the company of strange people with glowing eyes who say that they're reinforcements. It was two of the most frustrating things that a person has to deal with: Being rushed and waiting. And the Peace Guns certainly had done quite a lot of that in one day alone.
"Well" Vash shrugged, "At least we weren't eaten out there."
He did have a point because anything was certainly better than facing those worms.
In the time that they were waiting for Paul to come back some of them slept. Walking all that distance in the desert can make someone very sleepy. Then again not many of them had done much walking in the past few years, mostly because thanks to the Bernardelli Insurance Society and some generous contributions, the Peace Guns had the luxury of traveling on busses and Sand Steamers.
As they slept, some of them had nightmares about being chased by those worms again. It was the same kind of symptoms of victims of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the reliving of traumatic events.
Then the door to their room opened and Paul came through, "It's time." He said
In a dreamy daze, the Peace Guns followed him and along the way he had to say something to them.
"I'm sorry for making all of you wait." He apologized, "I had to rally the troops together for what they are about to hear."
Paul had lead them through the catacombs of hallways to a great hall. It was truly incredible, as much as the actual Fremin Stronghold itself. The hall itself was enormous like a concert hall, to the eyes of the Peace Guns it seemed large enough to house several Humpback Class Sand Steamers stacked side by side and on top of one another. It was filled with people, hundreds of people crammed into this one place.
Where Paul lead the Peace Guns was to a part of the great hall where it was both centered vertically and centered horizontally like a skyscrapers center stage. Before they had arrived at this center stage there was a man there who was speaking loudly as if to a crowd.
"I KNOW SOME OF YOU ARE VERY ANXIOUS THESE PAST FEW WEEKS." He said, "BUT I HAVE NEWS FOR YOU AND I KNOW THAT I SHOULDN'T BE THE ONE TO SAY THIS WONDERFUL NEWS TO YOU. THE ONE WHO WILL TELL THIS TO YOU IS OUR OWN LEADER…PAUL…MUAD'DIB!"
Paul and the Peace Guns took the center stage where all eyes of the Fremin were looking. Perhaps thousands of eyes were all on Paul as he took the stage with the Peace Guns behind them. As he did a great wave of applause came from the Fremin like a great ocean amplified several hundred times over. All of them cheering, screaming, and applauding for their leader.
"MY FREMIN BROTHERS AND SISTERS!" Paul called out to his army, "OUR TIME HAS COME!"
"HAI YAWM!" the crowd all said in unison like a crowd of church goers saying 'amen' all at once. Yet, they didn't say it at once, they were chanting it. "HAI YAWM! HAI YAWM! YAI YAWM!" At least some of them were making this proverbial 'amen' to Paul while some of them were chanting, "MUAD'DIB! MUAD'DIB! MUAD'DIB!"
Paul raised his hands to calm the cheering masses, "ALL OF YOU KNOW THE PLIGHT OF OUR LAND! HOW OUR LORD AND MASTER WHO RESIDED IN HIS TOWER RULED OUR LANDS WITH A JUST HAND! UNTIL OUR ENEMY HAD TAKEN HIM AND KEPT HIM HOSTAGE! AND NOW HIS FREEDOM IS AT HAND!"
"HAI YAWM!" The crowd cheered
"AS ALL OF YOU KNOW, THIS WAR CAN NOT BE WON WITH ONLY OUR DETERMINATION! THESE MEN AND WOMEN BEHIND ME ARE THE KEYS TO HIS AND OUR SALVATION! VERY SOON WE SHALL FACE THE ENEMY OURSELVES. I MYSELF, AS THE OATH I TOOK AS A NAIB, I SHALL NEVER BE TAKEN ALIVE BY OUR ENEMY! I SHALL TAKE THESE MEN AND WOMEN TO THE EDGE OF THE GUNSMOKE DESERT, TO THE FOREST OF EWIN TO THE NORTH! I ONLY NEED THE BEST WORM RIDERS TO COME WITH ME!"
"MUAD'DIB! MUAD'DIB!" The crowd chanted as several men and women called out to him, "Choose me, Muad'dib! Choose me!" All of them willing and ready to obey his commands
"I SHALL ONLY TAKE THE BEST RIDER WITH ME!" Paul said to the crowd, "I SHALL TAKE USUL WITH ME! TOMORROW I WILL TAKE THEM…BUT TONIGHT LET US SHAKE THIS EARTH AND SEND A MESSAGE TO OUR ENEMY! THESE ARE OUR LANDS! THIS IS MYDAR! WE ARE THE FREMIN AND WE ARE NOT AFRAID!"
The crowd cheered so loudly that Vash and Knives instinctively covered their ears. Within moments, Paul had lead the Peace Guns out into the corridor where they were met by a tall man with a full grown beard.
"This is Usul." Paul introduced, "He'll be our worm rider."
"Worm rider?" Wolfwood asked in surprise, "No…you don't mean…"
"Yes." Usul explained, "All of us will be riding a single worm to the northern borders of the desert. When do we leave Muad'Dib?"
"Right now." Paul instructed
"But you just said that we'd be leaving tomorrow." Vash whined
"I said that because I didn't want my men to worry for now and by the time I get back from taking you there, I'll simply say that you left without me with Usul."
With the explanation that Paul Muad'Dib gave it suddenly became clear to Meryl, "So you create these façades so that you're troops won't worry about you."
"Exactly" Paul smiled as he peeked around the corner into the great hall and saw how his soldiers were dancing and having so much fun down there. He smiled in knowing that they were happy for today but for all they know they could be dead tomorrow. He came back to the Peace Guns and said to them all, "Let's get going now."
Quickly and quietly the Peace Guns along with Paul and Usul headed back to the surface of the desert. Along the way, Paul handed something to Wolfwood, who then took it and saw it as a small curved knife. He pulled it out of its sheath and saw how the blade wasn't silver like most knives, it was brown and white like that tooth that was pulled out of that worm.
"This is your crysknife." Paul had told Wolfwood
The gunman priest took it with a smile and placed it into his belt knowing that on this trip they would need it desperately.
As the Peace Guns along with Paul and Usul headed to the surface they took with them they took several odd shaped sticks. As it was explained to them as they headed up to the surface that these sticks that when implanted into the ground would be able to attract the worms. Just the word "attract" made several members of the Peace Guns cringe. Still, Paul tried to reassure them that this would help them and with that Usul and Paul implanted the sticks into the ground and they al watched as the mechanisms inside each stick moved up and down like the pistons of an engine. They all sent shockwaves through the ground and within a matter of minutes the Peace Guns felt that same rumbling feeling underneath them.
Just like before the monstrous worm broke through the sandy surface like a great whale of the ocean. Instead of breeching upward like it did with the Peace Guns, this time it just flowed onto the surface just like an earthworm across dirt in a garden. Its three-way mouth closed up as it passed the Peace Guns like a great train at a station. As it passed, Paul and Usul fired what looked like cables at the worms sides, and the two of them tried to bring as many of the Peace Guns with them. Usul taking Millie and Meryl while Paul tried to take up Vash and Wolfwood, and Knives made his leap thanks to his super-human abilities to the worms' side. They climbed their way to the top. There Usul took the cables and steered the worm as if it were a car.
"HAIII-YOH!" He called out as the worm obeyed his commands
Along the way, Paul had told the Peace Guns about what had been plaguing their lands. It was a force that had taken everything from the people as well as their king. He told them that they needed their help. The Peace Guns had taken in what they were told and felt that they should help. Not just because of the request of this man who had saved them from the desert, but because all of them had deep feelings of need or duty to do this task. As well as the most selfish of reasons, which was that they needed to find a way to get home and perhaps by helping these people it would do some good, and so they accepted the task.
It only took them about an hour before the Peace Guns saw something different on the horizon. They saw mountains, great majestic mountains unlike any that they had ever seen on Gunsmoke while at the mountains feet were forests, thick lush and green forests. It was only another half an hour or so before the worm stopped completely before even coming to the edge of the forest.
"Why'd you stop here?" Vash asked seeing the amount of desert between the worm and the forest.
"The worms hate moisture, it's poisonous to them." Paul had explained. With Usul still holding the reigns on the worm, Paul took the Peace Guns down to the ground and parted ways with them.
"This is where we shall part company but I am sure that we will meet again." He said
"I'm sure of it myself." Vash said
"Before you go, take these." Paul handed the Peace Guns four separate bags, "You'll find food and water in them, the road is long ahead of you. May you all face your fears and let them pass through you."
"Same to you." Vash said as he and the other Peace Guns headed towards the forest and the two Fremin took the worm and headed back into the desert.
To be continued…