Jackrabbit Joe and his brother Cottontail Kid stepped backward across time. Gritty sand covered their bodies as temporal winds blew back their dusters and pressed their bandannas against their whiskers. The tails of their coats trailed behind them, revealing twin revolvers resting on either hip. The pistols weren't fancy, but they were cheap and are rugged enough to survive traveling through the Possible Wilds.
They stepped out into the uncivilized past into the bodies of their younger possible selves.
"I don't get it, Joe." Cottontail Kid complained. "Why'd we have to come way out here."
"I told you, Kid. Felix is taking out the bank today. That's our inheritance; we've got to defend it. If we let Felix take it here, it's as good as announcing that we ain't got the grit to hang to what's ours."
"But we ain't never gonna see that inheritance anyway, Joe. Claire said so."
"Don't go listening to Claire just cuz she's got a big head. Dumb cows all got big heads, but ain't one of 'em have the sense the creator gave an echo. Trust your big bro. We may not get the inheritance, but that don't change that the inheritance is ours. We can't go letting a wanna-be rogue like that cat Felix come take what's ours, even if the banks eat it through plumped-up charges anyway. Banks may be crooks, but they're too big for the likes of us. Felix thought that gave him the right to rob us and that you and me would be too yellow to stop him. What's that make us look like?"
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Cottontail Kid mumbled something noncommital in reply.
"Speak up now, Kid; what do we look like if we let a nobody like Felix get one over on us?"
"Pigeon feed."
"God damn right, we'd look like Pigeon feed, plump and ripe, ready to be made into fucking pigeon shit. Next thing you know, you're gone, and then I'm all outta brothers. Is that what you want? To disappear into the unlikely past, leave your old brother all alone to face this cruel world?"
"Don't be like that, Joey. You know I ain't trying to lose you another brother. I just wonder why all the way out here is all. Felix coulda found a better spot. He's got connections, I heard."
"Heard from who? That Claire again? You can't trust every grass chewer that gives you a roll in the hay."
"Aw, Come on, Joe. Claire's not like that. Sure, she'll spare me some time now and again, but I don't mean nothing to her."
"Nothin' but an easy mark."
"I just like her. She might not be smart as you, but she's smarter than the street rats you pal around with." his booted foot stomping the ground in agitation.
Joe scowled at his brother’s display."Hey now, those rats are going places. You watch your mouth anyway. They're damn clever; you never know when they're watching."
"Sorry Joey, but that's what I'm saying. They might have street smarts, but Claire, she's bonified. Educated. And she says we'd be better off if we just paid Felix."
"I ain't paying that fuckin' cat not to rob me. They pull that racket in the city, but I'm not that dumb. Felix wants an old-fashioned gunfight at High Paradox; I'll give him that and more."