Frontier Princesses
By FieldReport
I:
High above the arid waste, she watched the train winding its way through the canyon. By her side, a sleek grey wolf yawned absently.
She scoffed, "The 4:10 to Fuuka is right on time. Let's see if we can't change that."
She lit a stick of dynamite and set it at the edge of the mesa she was standing on. If she timed the blast just right, it would give her the desired result. And she was very good about her timing. She turned and walked away from the dynamite and its lit fuse, then turned to her wolf companion, sweeping a cobalt lock of hair over her shoulder with one hand as she went, not looking behind her.
"Feel like helping me, Duran?" she asked the wolf. He stretched, yawning again, and rose to his feet, following after her. Duran was free to come and go as he pleased, but she was happy to find that it pleased him more often than not to be right at her side.
There was a loud, echoing report, and then a sharp lurch as the train came to a swift halt.
"Sorry folks," the conductor came from the front of the train, "Engineer tells me there's a rockslide. We've got to wait for the rocks to stop fallin' 'fore we can be on our way again."
Mai Tokiha sighed, "Even with all the advances mankind has made, we're still captive to the whims of nature."
She turned to her younger brother, Takumi, "Don't think I've forgotten the schedule, though. You still need to take your elixir, young man."
Takumi smirked, "Snake oil, is more like it. Besides, we've still got at least another hour before…Oh no!"
Mai's eyes narrowed, "What?"
"My medicine. We finished up the one bottle, remember?" Takumi sighed, "And the other one is…"
"Is in the luggage in the baggage compartment," Mai clapped her palm to her forehead, groaning, "Let me find the porter. Maybe he can help us."
She was looking up and down the car for a man with a uniform when there was a crash of glass, and someone slid in, legs first, from the top of the train car through a broken window. The figure wore a loose-fitting flannel shirt, a pair of corduroy pants, two gunbelts crisscrossed over the hips, sturdy leather boots, a red bandana covering the lower half of the face, and a black Stetson hat. There were a pair of Colt Peacemaker's in gloved hands. The only part of the intruder's body that was visible were the eyes, a pair of sparkling emeralds that Mai noticed right away, and which struck her as distinctly feminine. The muffled voice that came from under the bandana was deeply husky, but still distinctly feminine as well.
"No one move," the gun wielding woman said sharply.
One man, either too frightened to have heard her words, or simply assuming her intentions, rapidly drew a billfold from his pocket and threw it on the ground in front of her.
She gave a snort, "This isn't a robbery, greenhorn. I'd've just ripped off the payroll in the post car if that were the case."
"Don't shoot us, please," one woman sobbed.
"Don't be in front of my guns and that won't be a problem," the intruder said, "Honestly, how did I get stuck with a car full of such lily-livered ninnyhammers, to start with? Between the lot of you, there isn't enough worth taking or anyone worth killin' to warrant the reward poster."
"What do you want?" Mai demanded.
"Finally, an intelligent question," the masked woman seemed to be smirking under her mask, "I have it on good authority that there's a representative of District One on this train. Tell me who they are, and I'll be out of your hair."
One man came up behind her, raising a cudgel. There was a blur of motion, and s silver-grey figure came through the window with a sharp growl. The masked woman didn't even flinch, simply saying, "Good boy, Duran. Anyone else want to play hero?"
It was at that moment that the conductor returned from the back of the train. He halted in his tracks.
"You. The representative from District One. Which one is it?"
He stood firm, even as a revolver was leveled at him, "I'll not tell you. The safety of the passengers on this train is my responsibility, and I shall not sell any of them out, even to save my own life."
The masked woman shrugged, "Fair enough."
She began to squeeze the trigger, shifting suddenly and a bullet whizzed over Mai's head along with the deafening report of the revolver. Wood splinters fell into Mai's hair.
"You won't do it to save your own life," the masked woman said, "So how about a passenger's?"
The conductor blanched, clearly conflicted.
"Guess she's dying on your watch, then," the revolver was aimed again.
"WAIT!" The conductor raised a hand, "I'll tell you. The cabin in the next car, there's a young lady, about fourteen summers, whose passage was paid by District One."
"Show me," the masked woman demanded. She grabbed Mai by the shoulder, turning her to face the direction they were walking and then pushing her with the business end of a Peacemaker, "Thank you for volunteering your services as 'hostage', ma'am."
"Thanks so much for giving me a choice in the matter," Mai shot acidly.
There was amusement in those emerald eyes, "Oh, I like you. You got spunk. Duran, come!"
The wolf released the man he'd been biting, who was now cowed in terror, and ran to his mistress's side. Mai, the intruder, the conductor, and Duran went into the next car.
"It's this one," the conductor said.
The woman reached into the front of her shirt and produced a length of rope. She handed it to Mai, "Bind the conductor."
"I won't."
Cold emerald eyes bore into Mai's own lavender gaze, "I can't have him interfering. So either you bind him, or I shoot him. Three…Two…O…"
"I will," Mai relented. She went over to the conductor, "I'm so sorry."
"It's fine, Miss," The conductor said, "I didn't want your blood on my conscience either."
Mai considered pretending to tie the man, but feared the armed woman would catch on and execute him for her ruse. And so, she did what she was told. She was therefore furious when the woman flipped open the wheels of her revolvers and began to load them, taking out one spent cartridge.
"You…The guns were empty!?"
"'Cept for the shot over your head, yeah," the gunwoman seemed smug, "Didn't want to shoot anyone by accident. Like I said, none of you are worth the wanted posters. Someone from District One on the other hand…"
Before she could finish speaking, there was a crash as a long, obsidian black blade pierced the cabin door from the opposite side, and the gunwoman had just enough time to jump back before she was impaled on the tip.
"District One people are a whole other story," the gunwoman snapped her revolvers shut and fired one of them completely empty into the room through the door. She emptied the spent shells and reloaded again, then kicked the door open, the blade still penetrating it. There was no one seemingly inside. She stormed in, pistols at the ready…only to dive to the side just in time to avoid someone jumping down from the ceiling of the cabin. Mai saw a lithe, lean form with twin black braids, before the door slammed shut and the sword was pulled back in.
Mai quickly undid the ropes on the conductor, "Quick, let the engineer know about this!"
"Miss, there's no one else on the train in the cars back there," the conductor said, "If we decouple the car..."
The wolf growled hotly at the conductor, who backed away from the linkage, and back into the other car where everyone had come from a moment before. Unfortunately, he was between Mai and the exit, and she was scared to try and go around the beast.
From in the cabin was the sounds of heated fighing, metal on metal, obscene curses, gunshots, and glass breaking.
Mai pushed the door open and looked at the wolf, "Your mistress is in there."
The wolf seemed to regard her for a moment.
"SHOO!" she shouted at the beast. There was another gunshot, and Duran charged into the cabin. Mai shut the door, and then she and the conductor jumped into the occupied car.
"Tell the engineer to get the train moving," the conductor shouted, "I'll decouple the car."
Mai had a sudden epiphany, "Wait! The baggage car is the second to last! Everything everyone on this train owns is in there! Our clothes. Our money. My brother's medicine!"
A bullet pieced a wall in the corridor leading to the back of the train.
"Miss, you'd be taking your life in your hands, you try and get down that way!" The conductor said.
"The roof!" Mai slipped out between the two cars and started climbing up the ladder on the side, "I can run across the roof and get Takumi's medicine. He needs it. I can't be sure they'll have it any in Fuuka."
"You got two minutes," The conductor said.
Mai raced along the top of the train towards the back. If she could get into the baggage car…
She spotted two figures emerging on top of the cars just ahead of her. The girl with twin braids and a huge sword was staring angrily at the masked woman, only now Mai saw that she had long flowing cobalt hair, which must have been tucked up in her shirt or her hat earlier, and was now flowing freely in the scuffle.
The girl with the sword moved at inhuman speeds, parrying bullets with her blade. Mai felt one of them whiz a fraction of an inch from her face.
"Those people are just using you!" The masked woman shouted.
The girl with the sword either wasn't hearing her, or she was ignoring her. She charged, sword outstretched. The gunslinging woman sidestepped, and pointed one of her Colts directly at the girl's head.
"STOP IT!" Mai thundered. And the earth seemed to shake, and the sky rumbled, and Mai could have sworn she heard the cry of a powerful bird of prey. The woman was distracted by Mai's shout just long enough that the girl with the sword was able to reposition herself to attack again. She barely missed her opponent, who ducked just in time, though her red bandana was snagged by the edge of the blade, ripping it away from her face.
Mai had several thoughts go through her head simultaneously: She's beautiful! Such haunting, delicate features! Her skin is so pale! Who is she? What does she want?
Before she could give voice to any thought, though, there was a thunderclap, and a blinding flash as lighting struck the car between the girls, shattering it. Mai found herself being flung backwards, and she lost sight of the others, her eyes momentarily blinded by the brilliant flash, her ears numb and ringing from the point blank thunderbolt. She couldn't get her bearings. Everything went dark…
"Thank goodness you're alright, sis," Takumi embraced Mai as she awoke.
"Wh-Where am I?" Mai tried to sit up.
"Stay still, miss," a woman's voice said, "I'm Doctor Sagisawa. You took a nasty blow after the lightning hit the train, and I won't be able to tell until I get you a proper lookover, but you may have a concussion."
"We're just now pulling into Fuuka Station, sis," Takumi informed her, "We made it."
"When you didn't come back, I went to look for you," the conductor said, "I found you lying on the roof of the train. The other two…were long gone. The car that was hit by lighting is a mess, but we managed to haul the whole kit and kaboodle back to town, so everything you need is in the baggage car. Next stop, Fuuka Station. Everyone get ready to disembark."