[Summer – Shadow Valley Desert]
The Department of Misconduct position was to enforce law. A concept that was more idealistic than felt, always having narrowly missed Jennings. With the amount of dishonesty and treason within the ranks, the entity was more of a front than Sloan residents would like to ponder.
Dust settled well before they arrived and collected testimony from the Marbrook citizens caught in the chaos of Jennins’ actions. Remaining one town ahead for now, he and Poni exchanged pleasantries in the meanwhile, the Sun beamed down on them like the grandest spotlight.
“Well, that took a turn for the worse faster than expected. Hmm… We are going to have to go the long and round the desert route, sorry bud.” He snickered, proceeding, “Even if it takes many Suns, we gotta chat with Isaac before it's too late,” stated Jennings.
The horizon’s scintillation was beautifully still, with clouds petrified, staining themselves onto the landscape. Sureal was a minuscule city on the outskirts of the vast Shadow Valley Desert, within the developing state of Sloan.
On horseback it could take up to two weeks to traverse the harsh conditions of the infamous local desert. This was not uncommon territory for Jennings, as he had traveled through many states and valleys on his road to get to the expertise isolation where he stands today.
Even if he knew it could be classified as naive, it still brought him the slightest amount of joy to remain a shadow on his return to where he was raised.
Several hours had passed since the getaway from the Lone Star Bar in Marbrook City. Jennings knew that authorities from the D.o.M. must have already regrouped from his rapid departure earlier on horseback, one that ensured a brief head start.
“Look… left side,” Poni said in his hushed horse voice that interrupted Jennings' thought process.
J.J. looked out into the distance to see a group of women harassing another, already grounded. He looked away, trying to ignore his inner conscience, which he kept telling himself had died long ago.
“We can't waste time on women who don't concern us, Poni. My pops at least taught me that.” argued Jennings. He cringed.
Poni stopped moving, halting to a complete stop.
“Hey what the -,” questioned Jennings to his horse. “I told you.” said Jennings.
Now arguing with himself as his intelligent horse stares back as if to say “We're doing this?”
“Fine!”
Jennings had given in to the peer pressure of his silent, talking horse who he's raised since childhood.
Poni was a gift from a higher-ranked individual within the Shark’s hierarchy in Sureal while Jennings was just 13 years old. He was the youngest to ever receive a horse within his group and grew fond of Poni from the start, learning how to ride him within the span of a few weeks, once more, fast for his age. JJ was praised as a natural with animals, not people.
It would be years before an old Agisi named Fredrick Carter, who specialized in animal Agi, gave Poni a voice. It was a new form of Agi utilization at the time, allowing humans to communicate with other animals given they had the ability to utilize the power. It would have been very difficult for him to guess at the time that he had received a new best friend as his gift. He grew a soft spot for the horse and has vowed to treat him as a part of his family.
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With all previous concerns departed from his mind, Jennings directed Poni toward the group of bandits after an audible sigh.
“...Get back, uh, crooks!” yelled Jennings as he approached the group of frenzied females, displaying half-hearted vigor. They stumbled back in a delayed surprise, ranging in ages from 30-50, they all wore baggy, tattered dresses and dwarfed the fallen girl in age.
“Ey Mattea, who tha’ fuck is this joker?” muttered one of the women in the group. Jennings looked down to see who they had been troubling, unconcerned with the hooligan's comment. He notices a young woman with medium-length black hair and covered in an adorned navy blue dress, white white accents left crumbling. She had been visibly beaten and showed pain in her expression as she lifted her weakened head to see the face of the man who had invited himself into this commotion.
“I said...who are you, hero? You her man or-?...” laughed the unnamed bandit to her group. “Yeah, yeah, I know your creed. Don’t have the balls, but loud enough to help the little damsel in distress.”
“I want you all to leave. Never bother her again and it won't be the last decision you make in this life.” He shouted back.
He shaped his ice-endowed fingertip into a gun, jousting it out towards the bandits. He steps forward in one heavy step, an intimidating deadpan expression on his face. The largest lady of the group steps forward looking at his colleagues, seemingly to show her dominance to maintain the situation.
“Fine! I see your balls cowboy.”
Jennings followed the seams of his belt, looming his fingers and considering alternatives. Mettea begins toward him, ignoring the original target.
“Look!,” continues Mattea. “You jump on your lil' ol' horse there and scurry back to Marbrook, an’ we'll forget we saw your face here today. Our husbands and children wouldn’t take kindly to us all being targeted like this by a menace like yourself.”
By this point, she arrived at Jennings' presence, locked in a battle of stares she darted her protruded index finger forward and jammed it into his stiff chest.
“No.” Jennings stressed as he shot two ice shards from his blue-glowing fingertips. The shards fly straight through two cackling jaws on each side of Jennings, killing them instantly, mid-laugh.
“Wha-!? Get em'!” shouted Mattea to her remaining ladies. All five rush J.J.with daggers and one holding an ax. Jennings bobbed and weaved every attack from them with ease and dexterity. He proceeded to throw one onto the ground. Jennings created a small but jagged ice shard to finish off with a jabbed-stab to the side of her exposed throat.
Jennings knocked another woman out and followed up with a second harasser being struck in the face. The overwhelmed bandit fell to the ground, her dagger landing first inside her chest before rolling over, dead.
The last two attackers charge Jennings from his front attempting to catch him off guard. Jennings slides to the right of the bandit holding the ax, and attempts to disarm her. With a controlled strike to the elbow, Jennings easily took control of the skirmish. He quickly picked up the ax from the ground and swung it across both bandits faces in one, a harsh slicing motion. The two heads struck by the ax as the slashed bodies faltered to the floor.
“The hell-!?” Mettea cried before he chuckled a bit. “You're- not- real…!”
Mattea began to roll back the sleeves on his long-sleeved shirt, giving Jennings a better glimpse of the muscular frame that he would be facing shortly. As expected of Jennings, he didn’t let Mattea have a second to get comfortable. Jennings sent an ice shard hurling towards her face, but the grimy bandit was prepared to block it with an earth Agi spell. She raised her arm in front of her face, a protective casing of hardened stone cut off Jennings’ attack.
Calmly absorbing his surroundings, Jennings was quite surprised that this random bandit had been able to learn the skills of earth Agi. It is considered one of the tougher Agi specialties to master.
“What? You thought I was like those idiots?” said Mattea in a cocky manner.
Catching Jennings off balance this time, Mattea is able to tackle him to the ground and wrap her monstrous hands around Jennings’ neck. Unable to overpower his opponent and at a distinct disadvantage in strength, Jennings struggled to escape from her clutches.
“Was it worth this privileged bitch? Huh!?” yelled Mattea, as she continued to drain the life slowly from Jennings’ body by not allowing him a single breath. She sits atop, pushing her weight downward, crushing Jennings. Becoming desperate, he tried spitting in the woman's sweaty, sinister face, but that didn't lessen his grip one bit and just made her angrier.
“Grrrraahhhhh...!” screamed Mattea before stopping abruptly and loosening his grip. The forgotten woman in torn clothes had taken advantage of her switching her attention to Jennings and kicked her square in the pubis. She dropped to the scalding desert ground in agony, cupping her groin.
After, Jennings coughed and vomited spit at his side. A few full heaves, while Mattea writhed in agony. He finally regained his composure, stood up and drew his gun, aiming it at the muscular woman.
“Hey! Look … I don' want to-, do-'' uttered Mattea before Jennings ended his sentence abruptly with a bullet to the face, killing her instantaneously. Followed by the outlaw staring down at the biggest corpse he had contributed to in a while and said to himself, “Her envy got her killed.”