Chapter Text
It started, benignly enough, with a recon mission.
Kit and Kaboodle, along with Gobbles, reached the planet seemingly without being noticed by the Syntax. Heck, at first they thought Syntax hadn’t even found the place yet.
Despite the similar start to this story and the adventure where the group met Flapper (who was going through some mandatory Basic Training at the current headquarters of Farcade at the moment) the two worlds could not be more different. Rather than a mostly ocean world of cool blues and clear skies, this place was a seemingly endless desert with orange skies. The horizon was dotted with small towns and towers billowing smoke into the sky…and a quick look up would reveal the title “Wild Wastes” to the Farcade Agents.
“Well…at least I already have the western outfit.” Kit squinted in the sunlight as she switched into her black cowboy hat and poncho ensemble. “But theres not a town anywhere for miles. Could take a bit to find the hero-”
Before Kit could finish that thought a massive steam train screamed past, running all cylinders and not even slowing down as it passed them, coating the three in sand and dust as it did. Kaboodle coughed. “God damn…We were walking here assh-”
“GET OFF THE TRACK YOU STUPID VARMINTS!” A voice with a heavy western accent ringed out as Kit realized the three of them were standing on a smaller track running alongside the bigger one… and she has just enough time to grab Gobbles and Kaboodle before what appeared to be a handcart with a makeshift engine rocketed by, chasing the train with two boys, one wearing a poncho and a black hat with a red band, the other overalls, round glasses and a straw hat with a green band, riding on it. The words “Level 1: The Long Black Train” appeared in the air as the dustcloud the two left behind them cleared up.
Kaboodle blinked as he watched the two vehicles speed off. “I think we found the hero”
—
On the back of the motorized push car, the kid on the back looked over his shoulder at the posse of strange folk they had nearly hit, holding onto his straw hat so that it didn’t blow away. “Gee, Butch…shouldn’t we stop and see if their ok?”
The older boy, maybe around 17, at the front turned to look incredulously at the younger one. “No, Sunny, we aren’t gonna stop to see if their OK. For one thing did you even give this thing brakes?”
“W-well…no but you were rushing me.”
“This might be our only shot to catch Finchly and get info on the posse who shot pa! I’m not losing it because some drifters were too dumb to not stand on a train track” Butch drew his revolver, a heavy six shooter. “Now can this thing catch up with the Long Black Train or not?”
“W-well it’s got an engine about a 15th the size of theirs and about 100th as powerful so…I can get you close to the caboose but no way in heck I can get to the front.”
“Just get to where I can jump onto the back-car and I’ll meet you at the next town” Butch looked at the engine behind him that was already starting to glow with heat. “Doesn’t look like this thing can keep going this fast much longer.”
“Sure thing Butch.” The two brothers close the distance, and Butch makes a perilous jump onto the massive caboose of the Long Black Train…right as the engine on the push car sparks and blows out. “Oh son of yellow-bellied, one-eyed Prairie Dog you gotta be kiddin me!”
Sunny and the pushcar rapidly lost speed, the Long Black Train and Butch disappearing over the horizon as he came to a complete stop. “Danggum I always miss the fun stu-” Before Sunny can finish that sentence, a strange spherical…thing blasted past him, flying through the air and nearly blowing his hat off as it sped towards the train. “What in the Sam Hill was that?”
The 12 year old watches for a second to see if another of the strange orbs would appear. “...Was that one of the Eww-Eff-Ohs that the Professor is always talkin bout? Why was it chasin the train?...eh, it’s nothin Butch won’t be able to handle” Sunny pulls a wrench out from his overall’s front pocket. “I better just get this thing running and meet up with Butch in El Paso…”
—
“Should we have stopped for the kid in the cart?” Gobbles looks out the back window of Kit’s ship at the smoking pushcart, watching the younger boy hop off of it and begin whacking it with a pipe wrench. “I mean, he’s clearly involved in whatever’s going on…”
“Kid’s got “Sidekick” written all over him” Kaboodle continues flying the ship after the…surprisingly quick train. “The guy who maintains the gear, gives some vague hints…probably gets kidnapped late in the story to build stakes, you see it all the time. The bigger one was the actual hero, he's the one doing all the Daring Do and shit.”
“Well, yeah but we still shouldn’t leave a kid in a desert right?” Gobbles turns to look at Kit
“If we stop now we might lose the Hero before we can stop him from beating the game” Kit looks…determined. “Besides he’s clearly working on fixing the cart right? I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
—
Sunny wacks the engine with the wrench. Several times. “Dang gum piece of dang garbage. This is what I get for usin parts we found in a junkyar-”
“If I may, it looks like it just overheated” A woman’s voice rang out and Sunny whips around, pointing a sawed off double barrel gun is pulled out from seemingly thin air. Only for the young boy to immediately blush as he sees the blonde showgirl in the purple and yellow dress that had somehow snuck up on him.
“Oh uh…Gawrsh sorry miss I thought you were…it don’t matter who I thought you were. What are you doin all the way out here?”
The woman frowns slightly. “Oh it’s just terrible, my stage coach crashed and stranded me out here so far away from my home in Amarillo! I don’t suppose your headed to El Paso? I was supposed to do a show there~”
“Well your in luck, mam, that’s exactly where I’m headed. Hop on, I’ll have this thing runnin in no time. Sunny’s the name by the way”
“Oh? Not the Sunny who’s brother Butch is gunning for the Red Hat gang?”
“The very same! Though uh, we’re both actually…taking the Red Hats out”
“Really? I only have heard of Butch gunning any of the leaders down.” The showgirl climbs onto the cart. “I actually was hoping to run into him, I heard some rumors about where the Red Hats are hiding that could help him along~”
“...Mam, I think it is very good that the two of us ran into one another. This is great! If you do have that kind of info I can start clearing the board while Butch questions Finchly!...what did you say your name was again?”
“Oh, you can just call me Miss Info Sugah~”