Chapter 4: Some Interesting Characters

Outside of the massive walls of Queens stood a woman with a tattered blue cloak. She crouched and pulled out a sniper scope and looked at the massive gate in the distance.

There was a giant 4 on it, indicating that entering through there would put you in District 4 out of 5. Looking around, there were a decent amount of guards that were heavily armored and had some impressive weaponry. The only explanation for all that protection is that behind that gate is The Golden Road, where all the 'rich' people live.

She put her scope back on her sniper and sighed. Now…how am I gonna do this?

A massive ear splitting blast could be heard from above. The woman looked up and saw a jet come out of a slipstream and slowly lower itself near her. She quickly pulled out her weapon and aimed it at the cockpit but she gasped when she saw the pilot.

"Ivin?" She said shocked.

The jet slowly lowered and touched the ground. As the ramp lowered, Ivin and Nick walked down it and towards the woman.

Ivin smiled and opened his arms. "Anna!"

Nick groaned. "Anna."

Anna lowered her weapon but not by much. "What do you guys want?"

Ivin looked at her and at the massive gate in the distance. "We're getting the band back together."

"In case you're still lost," Nick chimed in. "Ivin got bored and lonely and decided to get the team together so we could go on an adventure."

Anna laughed. "Right well I'm busy so no. I'm hunting White Rose."

Nick looked at Ivin who sighed. "White Rose is a woman who uses Ruby's scythe and has been cutting people down along with another person right?"

Anna nodded and turned towards Queens. "Exactly. I've been tracking them for a few weeks now but I haven't been able to get close to them because of the aura of the guy she's with. It's intense…"

"Well now we are here." Nick said proudly. "We can help out. We wanted to go on a journey anyway right?"

Ivin nodded. "Yeah. I guess this'll do for our adventure." Ivin set the jet to auto pilot and sent it back to his tower. Afterwards the three slowly walked towards the massive gate of District 4.

The Slums

Ratchet and Ruby walked out of the sewers and followed some signs that pointed towards the Sun District.

"So she was interesting huh?" Ruby asked as she skipped around.

Ratchet sighed. "Yeah. Certainly someone we don't want to cross."

Ruby noticed he looked tired and guessed it was probably extremely irritating for him to be out here for all these years and he still hasn't found Freedom yet. She went to say something but decided to just let him get some quiet time.

As they walked through the dirty streets, they saw people running into their small homes or huddled up in corners while they looked at Ruby. She smiled at the children but they looked away and kept their distance.

Ruby never liked what she had to do out here at first but she grew used to it. That's just the way things worked out here and nothing would change that. The duo reached a huge set of doors that looked to serve as the borders between districts. There were only four guards but they had some serious fire power and heavily armored.

Ratchet walked up to them and cleared his throat to catch their attention. "We need to get through to the Sun District."

"Did The Widow allow this?" One of them asked.

Ratchet nodded and the guards let them through. One of them walked over to a control pad and entered in a code that made the doors open. As they waited for the doors to open fully, Ruby noticed the wall was huge and had laser barriers at the very top, along with some artillery.

"How do they have all this weaponry?" She whispered.

Ratchet just shrugged. It almost looked like it was Atlas property but there's no way Ironwood would ever deal with people out here. No matter how much power The Widow seems to have, Ironwood would never do it.

The doors were now opened enough to let the pair through. They walked into the Sun District.

District 4 gate

Ivin, Anna and Nick walked up to the guards by the gate. They all looked at Ivin with shocked expressions.

"Kekovich? Look it here boys, we got a rich fellow here." The others laughed lightly at the joke.

Ivin sighed. "I take it you're the commander for these guys?"

The man nodded. "Just call me Pat."

"How anti climatic." Anna said under her breath.

"So yeah, we want to get into Queens." Nick said casually.

"Well of course you do boy. But what you don't get is that this is District 4, the gate that protects The Golden Road. Rich folk don't like letting people in, less of course you got some money."

Ivin chuckled. "You know who I am right? Whatever the price is, I can pay it."

Pat smirked. "Yeah? Admission is a million."

"Done." Ivin pulled out his scroll and went into his bank accounts. The Golden Road had a few banks and he located one, went into the database, looked for Pat and delivered the money.

"Now if you'll excuse us." Anna said as she moved passed the stunned Pat with her two companions.

The gates opened and the trio walked through into The Golden Road. What they didn't expect to see was everyone in a panic and frantically trying to save themselves from something.

Sun District

The first thing Ratchet and Ruby saw was a monitor displaying the five gates that protect Queens from outside forces. Gate 5 was red and in critical condition. Apparently there was a breakthrough and it got people worried. Not to the point of panicking but they were still being paranoid.

Speaking of people, the Sun District was much better than the Slums in terms of appearance, atmosphere and how everyone looked. There were many shops, mostly bars, hotels and armor/weapon shops. Everything looked well considering it was out here.

"It's like we aren't in The Badlands anymore." Ruby said as she looked at all the pretty lamps that acted as street lights.

"Yeah." Ratchet guessed it was called the Sun District for two reasons, it was always bright here and during daytime, which is now, sunlight covered this area the most.

As they made their way to one of the various bars, people seemed to notice Ruby but didn't care about her presence.

"How come they are ignoring me?"

"If I had to guess, it's probably because if you were here to kill, you would've been killing already. That or they have a lot of faith in the guards." Ratchet stated.

The two walked into a bar called 'Sunshine and Sunshine' which was probably supposed to be a clever joke because it was located in the Sun District and there was lots of sunlight. The atmosphere inside the bar was as expected, loud and cramped. Although unlike many others that Ratchet had been into, it being loud and cramped felt good rather than bad.

He made his way towards the bartender and Ruby held his hand tight so she didn't get dragged away by the crowd. When they made it, they quickly sat down and took a breather that didn't last for long as a woman came over to greet them.

"Tired already? Y'all just got here!" She said loudly so she could be heard over the singing of the crowd.

"Yeah well we're new here so..." Ruby looked up and the first thing, or things, she noticed was how big her chest was. The last time she saw someone with boobs that big was her sister.

Ratchet seemed to notice as well but instead of being shocked about her breast, he was shocked over who it was.

Her bright smile, long red hair, blue eyes and cowboy hat couldn't make her look like anyone else but one of his few allies out here.

"Jesse?!" He yelled out.

Jesse looked at Ratchet with a weird expression. "Uh, yeah. Who are…" Then it hit her as she saw his scarf and cloak. "Ratchet!" She squeed in excitement and wrapped her arms around the back of his neck and pulled him in. His face was buried into her chest and he quickly pulled away before she killed him.

"Don't be so loud!" He looked around quickly but it didn't seem like anyone noticed his name was called. "You trying to attract attention?!"

Jesse blushed and tipped her hat. "My bad. So? What brings you to Queens? I thought you didn't want to ever come here."

Ratchet was about to reply before he barely dodged some beer being spilt over his shoulder. "Can we please talk somewhere else? Like quiet and private."

Jesse nodded and motioned for Ratchet and Ruby to follow. She led them upstairs and into her personal bedroom which was rather plain and didn't seem to fit given her personality.

"There. Now we can talk up a storm." Jesse jumped onto her bed and sat with one leg crossing over the other. "So can I ask why you're here with White Rose?"

Ratchet looked at Ruby for conformation that it was ok to answer that question and she nodded. "Well…she needs help. I'm helping. Simple as that."

"Oh?" Jesse said with a sly smile. "Something tells me you two might be a lot closer than people think."

Ruby shook her head. "Nah. He's more of a big brother to me."

Ratchet nodded. "She's more of a big ball of constant problems." He joked.

Ruby punched him in the arm which made him laugh. Jesse smiled at the two, mostly Ratchet. "Well I'm glad you're making friends at least."

Ruby looked at Jesse with a raised eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Well," she started.

"It's a long story. It can wait." Ratchet cut her off. "Anyway Jesse, you know anything about what's going on around here?"

Jesse clicked her tongue. "You talking bout the gate 5 incident?" Ratchet nodded and Jesse continued. "Apparently someone or something broke into the gate. Them monitors say critical condition but that's a lie. Damn thing is gone."

"Gone?" Ruby repeated.

"That's what I said." Jesse sighed. "The entire gate is gone and that's not just bad, it's terrible. A crisis even. The District 4 gate protects The Golden Road. That's where all of the Districts in Queens cycle the money. If that goes too, so does what little stability Queens has. I'm surprised The Widow doesn't do something."

"Speaking of her," Ratchet said. "What's her story?"

Jesse shrugged. "She just kinda showed up a long time ago. Some say she was born here, others say she showed up after her family was murdered in one of the kingdoms. All I know for sure is that she's been here for about 23 years."

Ruby whistled. "Long time."

Ratchet slowly stood up and stretched. "Well it's been nice seeing you again Jesse."

Jesse stood up and pouted. "Leaving me already? You still never got me that drink you promised."

"Next time, promise."

"Yeah ok." Jesse hugged him and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. Ruby walked towards the door but Jesse pulled her into a hug as well.

"Gah! No! You'll kill me with those things!" Ruby's muffled voice could be heard.

Jesse laughed and let her go. "They aren't that big little missy."

As the duo said their goodbyes and headed out, Ratchet thought back to the times he was out here the years before Ruby showed up. He didn't know what he was doing out here at first but he had some help and he thinks he turned out ok.

Ruby saw Ratchet smiling. "Why doesn't she come with us?"

"Nah. She seems happy here. I don't think she'd want to get into the trouble we usually stir up." Ratchet responded.

"Who do y'all think I am?" The duo turned around and saw Jesse standing there with a smug look on her face.

"Jesse, no." Ratchet said.

"You know my daddy gave me this hat." She tipped up her cowboy hat and put on her poncho. "He gave me this poncho as well. And his favorite gun." She holstered her revolver. "Now I might not be the greatest cowgirl out there but I damn sure ain't into the bar life. All they care about is my chest. All I care about is my friends. So, I'm coming along."

Ruby clapped at her small speech and Ratchet sighed. "You haven't changed all these years."

Jesse smiled and wrapped Ratchet into a headlock. "Nope! Now let's go guys! Adventure is out there!"

The Golden Road

In the hour or two they've been here, Ivin, Nick and Anna haven't been given a straight answer on what's going on. The most they've gotten is that people are screaming, running and barricading their homes.

"This is so annoying!" Anna yelled in frustration.

"Tell me about it." Nick said slowly. "This place looks great for being in The Badlands but with all these people acting crazy, it's just sad."

"I don't believe that's what she meant." Ivin said. "But this is crazy. What's going on?"

As if to answer his question, a massive black fog cam over the border between District 5 and 4 and it was moving at an alarming rate. A figure covered in black was in the fog and it placed a black glyph on the border doors. The glyph sucked the walls and the doors into oblivion and the figure kept moving within the fog.

"S-so close…must…f-find…" The figure coughed and gagged as it spoke to itself. The fog touched everyone and everything, people caught within turned inside out and exploded. Nothing could save them as the fog progressed through The Golden Road.

The trio looked at the massive fog and started to move back.

"Guys. We need to move." Anna said slowly.

"Nick…what the hell is that?" Ivin asked.

Nick scanned the fog and inside it but no valid answers from any source from any kingdom was coming up. "I have no idea…but I can see a figure within the fog and it's moving with it."

The figure was a couple blocks away from them and the fog split to the left and right as the figure walked towards them. It slowly lifted its gaze to the three hunters and smiled.

"F-found…you!" It screamed.

The scream was loud and made the three hunters recoil in pain. The figure started running at them at an incredible speed.

"Alright get ready you two!" Ivin yelled as he pulled out his blade. Unlike years ago, he's made modifications to his weapon. It's no longer just a sword, now it's a flaming chainsaw sword.

The figure came at Ivin first and slashed at the air in front of him. At first Ivin was confused but seconds later the air in front of him pulsed and sent him flying. Nick reacted quickly and flew over to catch him while Anna pulled out her scythe. She ran towards the figure and it laughed wickedly as they clashed.

Blade met razor like claws as the two fought each other. Anna swung her scythe around but made sure not to stay too close so she didn't give her enemy an opening. But what she didn't know is that it had an opening already.

The fog surrounded the group completely and there was no escape but directly up. From the outside it looked like a massive black tornado and the rest of the fog was just a blanket over the entire district. Nick and Ivin quickly made their way towards Anna but were blocked off as a massive ball of fog slammed itself in front of them and started to get bigger.

The fog slowly turned into oozing black liquid as the beast formed. When it formed completely, it was the size of a bear.

"An Ursa?!" Nick yelled out confused. It roared and shot out black ooze from its left paw which made the two boys separate.

"Looks like it got an upgrade." Ivin said slowly as he watched the beast.

It was just like an Ursa but with a couple differences. One being that this one can shoot black ooze out of its paws. Ivin got up and readied his blade. He breathed in slowly and rushed the black creature. It saw him and turned its attention on Ivin, roaring in the process.

Nick took this chance to fly up and shoot it's back from the air. Pulse rounds were unloaded onto its back which seemed to stun and irritate the creature. It kept its gaze on Ivin but black tendrils shot out of its back and reached for Nick. He flew away or blasted the ones coming at him but they were keeping him from attacking with his partner.

Ivin saw the tendrils and decided to attack them first. When he was close enough, the beast tried grabbing him but he slid underneath it and quickly jumped up on its back, cutting the tendrils off in the process. The beast howled in pain as the tendrils came off but it wasn't done yet. It grabbed Ivin and slammed him onto the ground. Nick flew down and slammed his metallic fist into the back of its head, bringing it to its knees but not getting Ivin free.

Anna heard the boys struggling but she couldn't help due to her opponent. The figure ducked under a swing of her scythe and rushed her head on. Anna cursed as she quickly switched her weapon to sniper mode and tried shooting the figure but it tackled her to the ground and knocked her weapon away.

"I'll…s-skin…y-you…alive!" It laughed and raised its claws ready to open Anna up like she was a fresh turkey.

Anna gritted her teeth and head butted the cloaked figure hard. It cried out in pain and she pushed it off of her. She rolled towards her sniper and shot a few rounds at it. The bullets hit but they didn't seem to do that much damage.

While the figure started to get up, she rushed towards her friends who were wrestling with a black Ursa. The beast had lost its paw that held Ivin but it regenerated. Ivin was currently slamming his blade into its chest and revved the blade, cutting into it further. Nick changed his plasma cannon into a plasma sword and sliced off the arms before it tried to grab Ivin. Anna switched back to her scythe and cut off the tendrils that grew back.

The beast fell to ground as Ivin cut through its chest and up through its head, setting it on fire in the process. He moved back, out of breath and saw the figure getting up and yelling.

"Nick!" Anna yelled through the screeching. "Get us out of here!"

Nick grabbed Ivin and Anna got on his back. "Alright hold on! I don't know if this'll work!"

Nick flew with his friends up towards the opening of the swirling fog but as they got closer to the top, the sides got smaller and the fog was closing in on them. Nick flew as fast as possible and they almost didn't make it out of the opening. Anna saw some fog got caught on Nick's leg and she quickly kicked it off before it spread.

The figure stared at the three hunters that got away and screamed in frustration.

"You…will all…be m-mine!"

A/N: Alright sorry this took so long. Been a bit busy with some stuff but I've got a couple chapters done which should entertain you all for some time.

- CLOUD MARIO