Far From Home (Open to One)

[Leon Adalbert]

Alerar's beauty was an aquired taste, not to be easily grasped by the Coronian peasantry, accustomed as they were to green fields and forests. Sun-bleached grasses grew tall across the steppes, and bare patches of hard red earth dotted the landscape. Strange, asymmetrical rock formations jutted from the rolling plain in the distance, the earth's striation ranging from mud brown to burnt orange, and every shade between. Bursts of violet and crimson seemed to explode across the land, the wildflowers of the steppes out in full bloom, and a herd of wild horses trampled a path through the blossoms.

Dark lines stretched parallel in a slow curve toward a distant speck of darkness on the horizon, the dark, heavy cloud hanging overhead marking it as the Alerian capital, Ettermire. Clouds gathered over the roaring engine running those tracks, as well, swelling as if to burst. Flashes of light danced through the sky, threatening a spring storm.

Sweeping across the Alerian steppes, the iron horse chugged, snorted, and choked as it sped along the rails, Leon atop the smoothed-iron roof of one of its cars. He reclined against the cool metal, taking in the view, such as the monks could replicate it. Rushing wind carried the scent of the distant flowers to his nose, and it only smelled barely unlike the musky sweetness of the real Alerian blossoms in spring. It wasn't home, but it would do in a pinch.

[Zack Blaze]

The mechanical monster that was a locomotive was a strange thing to behold to most people. The beast of iron was more than capable of attacks that could flatten men, yet was relegated to the metal tracks laid before it. It roared with the ferocity of a hundred soldiers and was controlled by only one. Trains were creatures of contradictions, at least from the eyes of professional street fighter Zack Blaze.

The brawler had never gotten the pleasure to ride on one of the steam powered sentinels despite his upbringing by an upper-middle class family. Even his position in Misery Business Incorporated saw the warrior in more advanced technologies than it did the simple life of a singular track. The opportunity to ride on one these gargantuan gear grinders was a chance Zack knew he could not pass up, especially when the steel carriage was the scene set for a citadel battle. The monks were never given the chance to fully explain the rest of the battles details before the youth chose his destination and readied himself for whatever the ride entailed.

He did not expect to see the hills of Alerar roll by him dotted with flowers of all color and size. The heat from the gray clouds at his back concealed the upper half of his body and even caused him to cough. The steady thump of the wheels as they ran across their wooden and metal guides drowned out any sound the brawler could even hope to make. The wind quickly knocked Blaze to all fours and sent his equilibrium off for a few moments. He looked down the cars to see another upon the back of the railways mechanical slave, a blonde young man with a build similar to that of the street fighter himself. Zack stood with what dignity remained and pulled his shirt over his mouth to keep from further smoke inhalation. With a smile, 'Architect of Eiskalt' approached the young man, tears nearly filled in his eyes due to the exhaust of the train.

"Hey there!" Zack hoped his voice carried over the steady chug of their battleground, "Names Zack Blaze, fighter by trade, criminal by a jury of my peers! You are....?!"

[Leon Adalbert]

A voice on the wind, barely audible over the metallic grunts of the locomotive, woke the merchant prince from his daydreaming on the passenger car's roof. Rolling onto his stomach, Leon carefully rose to his feet in the whipping wind. His longcoat whipped out behind him and slapped against his side as he trudged through the windwall to the gap between his car and the next. Peering ahead to the leading end of the train, he spied the source of the interruption: a blond man shouting from near the engine, too far off to be heard with any clarity over the chugging train and howling wind, but shouting nonetheless.

Leon braced himself in a crouch before pushing off to leap the gap to the next car. His heart leapt as well, full into this throat, as he cleared the empty space between the cars. Mistimed, misjudged, or otherwise mistaken, his time in the Citadel would be cut very short if he fell to the tracks below. An image flashed into his mind of himself, falling between the short platforms below, slapping bodily against the connecting joist, and disappearing under the spinning metal wheels of the train. It was a rush of adrenaline and small victory, however, to touch down on solid iron again, jogging a few steps as he steadied his momentum from the jump.

As he walked against the stiff breeze toward his opponent, Leon pulled from the inner pocket of his coat an ornate flintlock and a small paper cartridge. Tearing it in his teeth, he poured black powder carefully into the muzzle of the pistol, guarding against the gusts with the palm of his hand as he did. Stuffing the paper down the barrel after the powder, he pressed the lead ball into the wad and slid the ramrod down the barrel. Replacing the rod against the plating, he stopped again at the edge of this car. He didn't dare to glance down at the new gap before him, lest he lose his nerve, and instead leveled his Lily at the blonde contender. Now only a few cars away, he thumbed back the trigger, sweat slicking his palm against the wooden handle, lined his sight with the center of the man's chest, and...

Ka-TOOM The iron flower blossomed with flame and smoke as she kicked in his hand, and the lead ball exploded toward the man.

[Zack Blaze]

The stranger remained silent as he performed a death-defying leap from one car to the next. The street fighter nodded in appreciation of the technique; it took a fair amount of balance and fortitude to attempt such a move. His foe tinkered with something, though the distance between the two of them hindered Zack's vision as to what. He tilted his head as black powdered was applied into the man's object, curiosity taking precedence over self preservation. "Is this guy a dealer or something? I don't know what know what he could be peddling that's bla--is that a Thaynes damned gun?"

The silent opponent took aim at the fighter and unleashed the thunderous fury from his flintlock. Sparks flew behind the gun and a puff of smoke trailed behind the object, though the sound of the shot was drowned by the loud chugs of their multiple cart caravan. Zack rubbed the bridge of his nose as the pellet screamed towards him. Just before the bullet made an impact, he disappeared from the train quicker than one could blink. In the same instant, the brawler appeared behind his foe and a sigh escaped from his lips.

"Here I am trying to be courteous and you go and do something like that," Zack said as he shrugged his shoulders, a grin upon his features that showcased his canines more than his other teeth, "Won't make that mistake again."

He vanished once more, his new location a car away from his opponent, the same aloof posture as he rubbed the back of his neck. He began to break out into a run towards his opponent and jumped into the air, foot extended, as both the train and his own momentum carried the brawler straight towards the gunman. Zack's Dynamic Entry was known to send normal men through buildings when hit regularly. With the added aid of the locomotive, the kick would possibly be powerful enough to take the brawler's similarly stacked opponent straight onto the tracks below.

It was not on Zack Blaze's top three horrible ways to die, but completely mangled by a train ranked somewhere in the top ten at least.

[Leon Adalbert]

Leon whirled, pistol raised to strike the man as he appeared behind him, only to whip empty air. Following his own momentum back around, he barely managed to see the incoming boot before it slammed into his chest, like an oncoming train. The pistolier, thrown from his feet, hurtled backward, the train speeding by beneath him. He bounced once, twice, three times before sliding to the edge of a carriage, scrambling to gain a grip on the planed metal roof as his legs kicked out in empty air, searching for a purchase. He found one in a loose rivet, snagging his pistol's handle to halt his slow fall.

He glanced down, hoping for a landing to drop onto, and found none -- not even a trailing carriage to push off towards. Only empty tracks raced by below, with a promise of broken limbs and, mercifully likely, death. Heaving at the rivet, Leon tried to pull himself up to no avail. The bolt loosened with every tug, threatening to fall out completely. His hands slipping on the handle of his gilded Lily, his heart beating nearly out of his throat, he looked down once more, searching for an escape.

There, just barely out of reach of his boot, was the door into the cabin, simple wood painted red like the wall around it, and a window reflecting the waning sunlight in the middle. To his desperate mind, it was as if the heavens themselves shone through that glass. He shimmied down from the rivet, right up to grip the edge of the iron roof in his sweat-glistened hands, and threw his gun through the glass. As soon as he heard the shattering window, he swung back, and prayed as he kicked out at the door. He missed the window by the narrowest margin, and took the whole door with him as he slammed into the lushly carpeted cabin floor.

Lying on his back, pistol stuck under his ass, and the tail of his longcoat barely pillowing his skull, he had a perfect view of the ornately decorated ceiling. The vibration of the train on the track bounced his head against the floor over and over as he breathed slowly and calmed his pounding chest. The scrollwork above him held his attention for a moment, until he heard a guttural, gravely voice from the almost-closed compartment by his head. Craning around, and pushing up on his elbows, he peered into the room. An orc, well dressed in a tailored shirt, long black wool coat and wide-brimmed hat, and honest-to-god spurs, shimmied in the mirror across the compartment. His heavily tusked mouth moved along with his heavily tusked Black Speech muttering.

"Ash ko Porandaum-ishi, trenotbur galin hugi Porandaum-ishi. Nar thos, hodh par, asgaja sma. Butharogan prap, shaf? Burguul-ishi, shal-ishi, ang gijak-ishi!"

The green-skinned beast caught sight of Leon, watching his supposedly private prancing from the floor, and quickly slammed the sliding door the last inch shut. "What was..." mouthed the merchant prince as he rose aching from the carpet, gathering his firearm. He stepped into a nearby empty compartment, shuttering the door behind him, and sat on the plush red bench seat to arm his Lily. Black powder loaded in the pistol, he held it ready in his left hand, and drew his rapier in his right, pulled back and ready for the thrust.

Credit for Wild Wild West lyrics to the inimitable comedic powerhouse, Will Smith.

[Zack Blaze]

His opponent tumbled down the car from the Dynamic Entry attack and quickly disappeared from the street fighter's sight. Zack landed on the ground and began to follow his prey when he heard the sound of shattered glass just barely over the loud chugs of their mechanical steed. The awkward sound gave the street fighter pause as he tried to listen from anything else that seemed out of the ordinary. The brawler turned to look behind him and quickly saw that the train was fast approaching a mountain and its tracks leading straight through an arch shaped tunnel.

Blaze hit the ground into a prone position, careful to make sure he was not taken out of this fight before it ever really got started. As the darkness of the tunnel overtook the elongated steel horse, the mastermind of Eiskalt smiled to himself. Light quickly overtook the steampunk wonder and the brawler stared into the red eyes of an ebony skinned ogre as the suns rays illuminated the strange battleground. The creature and his master both stood in unison, the former with a guttural growl as he did so.

"The next time you summon me, Blaze," the deep voiced monster said with venom upon each syllable, "make sure it's not on something that could kill me if I stan up right."

"You're alive, aren't you Makai?" Zack jabbed back as the wind blew through their hair, "Anyways, there's this guy down below, I'm fairly certain he's in the car below us, but I need to catch him off guard. Think you can help me with that?"

"Can't you just use that teleport stone of yours?" Makai asked with a grumble in his tone.

"Can't you just shut up and do what I say for once?" Zack jeered back with just as much poison.

The beast sighed nodded as the two approached the end of the car where Zack's foe almost had the courtesy to just drop off. The boy and his beast quickly eased their way onto the platform below and stood before the door to the car. "After you," Zack gestured with both arms towards the door. The dark monster growled as he grabbed the knob of the door and walked through, only to be thrown into the side of the car by some form of magic. Makai roared as he slammed against the train's interior, windows shattered from the impact and the bolts that held down pieces of furniture threatened to come loose.

Zack jumped through the entrance after Makai's less than graceful introduction, electricity popped from his knuckles as he tried to throw a sucker punch around the corner as he turned. With any luck, he would return Makai's damage and then some to the clever gunman.