Where the Thrills Lie

[yutzen]

(another from the archive, another main crew story, introducing the oldest of our enforcers. Prompt by Make Up a Criminal on Cohost)

Bounty hunter who won't stop backseat bounty hunting

---

"Vel, it ain't my first time here, come on!"

Two shapes, one tall and one squat, walked the bottom of a rust-red ravine. Small cliffs with strata of red and black rose at their sides as they walked a labyrinthine arrangement, striding a cracked basin with only a tiny stream of soot-choked water running through the iron-heavy stones. The ceiling above was out of sight, the air choked by smog both volcanic and industrial, but the two figures hardly needed their eyes to see.

"The Red Plateau's treacherous land, Zi-Zi, it pays to keep some things in mind." The shorter, bulkier figure walked on almost stubby legs, with a traveling cloak laid upon a thick plate of strangely noiseless metal serving as his attire. By his face, this was a mole - something close enough at least - with whiskers long enough to droop and smooth brown fur upon a visage that barely even showed its beady eyes. He was smirking with needle-like teeth lining his snout, while a claw - long as a dagger, yet thicker and so much blunter - scratched a spot around his neck where it found a thick scale rather than skin. "Like your compass being useless here, for example" he spoke, pointing at a pendant hanging from his companion's neck.

"Zi-Zi", a tall, bat-like figure, rolled glimmering yellow eyes as she jangled said pendant in one long-fingered hand. "I know, force of habit, it's really hard to get used to that and I keep grabbing it to check, but it doesn't mean anything, okay?". Letting go of said pendant - which let one see the needle stuck firmly downwards at all times - Ziv-Ziri strode ahead, humming a song barely on the edge of hearing. Her ears twitched as she went, always oriented towards the walls, whether far or near, seemingly spotting a hole in the cliffside far earlier than her eyes ever could. "See? There's the turn! Just as the map said!", she almost yelled, immediately heading for the passage in question... Before letting out a breath, turning to the mole once more. "Granted, tracking 'East' by where the earth is grumbling constantly feels a little menacing. I have no idea how the entirety of Ferigoz is just fine with it."

"Vel", or rather Velardi, chuckled to himself. "Speaking as a Ferigozi in birth and in species, you get used to it. Just another little thing that might one day try to kill you, in a place with plenty of things that already are..." The little smirk never left his face as he shrugged, his armor raising with his shoulders. "Still, can't lose track, especially when you're tracking someone, Zi-Zi. You've got the maps right, you now need to see if you've pinned things right. You've got where this guy's struck before, you've got his kinda target, and I'm guessing you've got what he's been swiping." He counted on his claws as he went, right behind the bat.

"Yeah, yeah, I have plenty". The Vezarym spread her fingers as if there paper in the smoky air, outlining her own points. "Gotta be in a place thick with the stuff because all around this one's always been disappearing into the smoke after striking. Smash and grab every time, and you get it whether you're a big caravan or just a humble entrepeneur like me." Her knuckles cracked as she tensed and flexed her claws, withdrawing them back into her cloak. "Which is half the reason why I'm here. Tensions flaring, powders of all sorts gotta move from Ferigoz to the East, they gotta move quietly and I can't have some stick-up kid making a mess, thinking of jumping me and generally and drawing eyes." Finally, after a snort, she let a smile creep back on her face. "Or whiskers, 'cause my eyes and yours sure don't see squat here!"

The smirk on the Ferigozi's face lost some of its slyness. "Yes, you don't use your eyes in a place like this one. Good, you know it, saves me time." The bat glanced at him again, and before she could ask what he meant by that, his raspy baritone went on. "Now, the part you don't need to forget when you're hunting someone like this, they will leave tracks. Even if they erase their usual trails, they have to keep track of what they do, and they must leave markings that they think only they will recognize. Hidden goods, and sometimes-"

"Vel, I know what a stash is", Zi-Zi interrupted before he could proceed, rubbing her face with her claws. After a cough, she piped up again in a more neutral tone: "Still, those aside, and I'll keep track of those, there's gotta be other tracks around here. Robberies are messy, fleeing is also messy, you think they'll have dropped something off on the way that we can follow?" One hand went into the cloak's pockets, briefly fiddling with a folded piece of paper with a picture on it. "This one has been enough of a pain in the ass to get a bounty, so there's gotta be a lot of stuff being moved." By the time her smile was back, it had turned coy. "Heh. It's like getting paid twice for one job."

"You see the good of it already... Heh. It's a rewarding job, sometimes. Risky, of course, but that is why it's up to those like us, isn't it? The truly adept." Ziv glanced at Velardi as he continued with ever more theatrical motions of his claws, his whiskers twitching as he went: "It's challenging work in need of bold moves, of audacity as well as sagacity, sharp mind and skills, and just because it's in the fringes of it all doesn't mean it's not something to respect." His claws clenched, and he turned to his companion with a hopeful smile as they both emerged into a crossroads, a joint of what had once been tributaries in a canyon's stream. "Ah... You understand, do you not?"

He found himself being stared at by the Vez, who had stopped cold in place, her expression baffled... before something clicked, and she just grinned. "Hah! Even as an outlaw, you're Ferigozi through and through~ Don't get carried away, okay? You can boast for the both of us once we've found this guy. Now, tracks! We're gonna need to pick a direction here. Spot anything yet?"

The mole lowered his hood, trying to hide his expression - and perhaps himself as a whole - as he parsed through his previous outburst. Trying to cast the slight embarrassment from his mind, he peered towards the ground, sniffing-

And he took a deep, deep breath, with his head close to the cliffside.

Trailing one claw along the rock, digging in just enough to gouge it, he rubbed the ensuing dust between both fingers and sniffed it. "Damp", he whispered, knowing his big-eared partner would hear it. "You said this was an Ifchi, then this one's been here. Must've touched the rock in his hurry. Left some slime." Pushing himself off the rock, he walked in a direction that would've been upstream if these were rainy days - just close enough to let his whiskers touch the rock.

The Vez followed on very light steps, her claws kept off the rock and her profile low to the ground as her ears rose, aiming to hear anything at all... And the first thing she heard was Velardi's further whispers: "They have muffled steps, so keep an ear for voices. And of wheels, they have to be moving things somewhere in here. And when you do, tell me, because we'll need a plan." The only response he got were wild hand gestures in his general direction, bearing an air of annoyance, before she just kept going further into the smoke.

Though twenty minutes later, she would indeed hear something: The gentle ding of a canteen being placed against the rocky ground.

---

A crack in the cliffside. A gentle spill of glistening, clear water, picking up enough soot to go gray moments after touching the ground. A thick pocket of smog that would've stopped any sight cold at twenty feet. And nearby, all around an unhitched iron wagon packed high with crates of various stamps, five people rested silently. Three of them were Ferigozi wearing patchwork armor, just old enough to start growing their scales. The other two were fully-covered Ifchi, keeping only their gills and faces visible to keep the soot off themselves as much as they could. One such face, greenish and laden with rust-red freckles, would be one few would recognize in but a singular Wanted poster in a town ten miles from here...

If that poster wasn't in the pocket of the Vezarym that landed right behind him, unlatching from the cliffside above them - presumably, with the fog too thick to tell - and quickly hooking one arm around his neck. Before he could react, flaring his gills in preparation, he found the point of a long, silvery knife, thin as a finger and sharp as a needle, placed right against his neck. "Any of you even twitch wrong and I'll open him up!"

She held as much bravado as she could as the other four turned to her and pointed their respective weapons - one spear, one axe, and two crossbows - right at her, forcing her to lower her face until it was right behind the raider's shoulder. It wouldn't do to get shot in the face in a hostage situation like this one, but as soon as she saw a finger twitch, she tightened her grip on her knife and pushed just a little more, tearing through the cloak's fabric like it wasn't even there.

It was a standoff now. None of the six involved could make a move without risking death, of themselves or another they needed for their work. Deadlocked in place, they stared at each other for seconds that seemed perpetual...

Right until the six became seven, unbeknownst to all but the boss and Ziv-Ziri. Out of the smog, Velardi walked out, claws hooked on a lump of iron and squeezing it as if he expected it to bend and give way like a stress toy. It was amorphous and oblong - right up until it wasn't, thanks to a glimmer of red from his claws and motions that sculpted it into a rod, then flattened it into a blade, shaping metal like it were clay.

The four saw the bat look directly downwards, turned around at the sound of breeze, and the last thing two of the three Ferigozi saw was a slightly older mole swinging a rough proto-sword right across their necks. And the last thing they felt before collapsing to the ground was confirmation that just because it was rough and unfinished, didn't mean it wasn't sharp enough to go right through their neck guards.

The other two engaged Velardi as soon as they could, bringing spear and axe against him. Quickly he flattened this same lump of sword-like iron into something like a shield to stop both weapons from hacking into him, and getting them stuck in the amorphous shape. All the while, the boss struggled, finding the Vezarym that held him hostage lowered a wing right into his cloak, its (strangely mangled) finger rummaging through deeper and deeper. And before he could wonder if she was trying to molest him, she found something, and reached in with her knifeless hand...

As the mole kept trying to pry his axe out of Vel's shield-like glob, the ifchi decided he had no time for that, and left the spear in place to pick up something else. Quickly he spotted the crossbow of one fallen comrade, and lunged for it. Taking aim at his opponent, pointing right at his face at this close distance, he held as the bounty hunter struggled to cover himself.

And then: SHUNK. A bolt was loosed...

Right through the Ifchi's skull, and out the eye, dropping him to the ground. Behind this fallen foe, Velardi saw something that made him smile again: Zi-Zi holding a crossbow that belonged to their quarry, empty of the bolt that had just saved his life. She grinned back, and was left to watch as his companion took care of the one remaining grunt before she had time to look away: All he had to do was "flick" a piece of the lump forwards, shaping a vague spike aimed right towards his opponent's gut, and bash him with his "shield", letting said fragile, improvised shank stab itself into his gut and snap off in there, bringing the last one to the ground at last.

Ziv-Ziri's grin trembled in place, as she let out a breath she'd been long holding. A full three seconds passed before she did anything else. "I told ya I was a perfect distraction~!", she chimed in suddenly and manically with a tilted head, making their captive wince while she closed her eyes to avoid seeing him finish off his fallen foe - especially because she hardly wanted to see him dig part of his weapon out of his guts.

"Never told me you were good with a crossbow, though." Vel wiped off the blood as casually as could be, rejoining the parts with a quick motion. "A good snap-shot, that, though you should tell me that next time."

Ziv's face fell a little. "Yeah that one's on me. Funny, I keep asking for skillsets and forget to give you mine!" She giggled, almost nervously, keeping her eyes very much away from any of the fallen, fixed right on her companion - those parts of him that weren't bloodstained, certainly. There was just the slightest twitch to her wide-open yellow eyes.

"Now then", he began while he approached, "we have who we came from, yes? Take a look and confirm, check the accessories, the crossbow seems right, but do check the rest just in case. You'll need confirmation, for when you turn this one in. But first things first, before you do that, safety." Out of his cloak came a set of white ropes, their ends frayed but otherwise impeccable. "Shipping knots aren't going to cut it here, you need something that won't slip under duress, that he cannot cu-"

Another interruption, this time by a near-shriek from the bat. "VEL ARE YOU SERIOUSLY DOING THIS RIGHT NOW!?" was her deafening outburst, that had the captive struggling and trying to yell out - right before she pulled her chokehold tighter and yanked the hood over his face. Blinking rapidly, she looked down at the ground, trying to avoid any bodies with her sight. "Sorry, it's- it's a bad time for that, okay? I know I brought you along to help me with something that was more your style, but- I hate this part, okay...?" She sighed at last, looking back into his eyes, speaking with a lower tone: "I also brought you along so you could cover... that. I know it needs to happen, but... still."

Velardi stared, and could only offer a tired smile. "You were enjoying a bit of this until then, though. The tracking, the hunt, the actual thrills... Shame this bit's just for me, having someone who gets it is a joy, but I guess I can't have that in everything..." He approached with a shrug, taking the captive right off her hands and into his powerful claws. "But yeah, I can handle that bit. And this bit if ya need a moment."

"Yeah, just a moment is all, get the... blood outta my head. Sorry about the... snapping earlier." The Vez turned away, facing the wall with a deep breath... "It feels dumb, doesn't it? We're still in the business and everything, I knew I had to do this, and I know what I'm carrying over there and I still hate that part. How does that happen?" She stopped herself from turning her head to give the mole a side-glance...

The Ferigozi worked a gag and ropes with practiced ease, speaking nonchalantly as he went. "You weren't looking forwards to the chance we'd have to end someone, did you? I get that. As to the rest... guess it's just how minds work. Might make me worse, handling this, but I know who I am." He turned to her, catching her sideglance. "It was fun until that though, right? Guess it was for me. Got carried away and all, heh..."

Ziv-Ziri had a sad smile upon her face. "Yeah, I get the thrill. I had the thrill when I wasn't thinking about it. That's the business for you. I know it, and I've seen it plenty... In so many others I know." A thought crossed her mind, and her expression perked up ever so slightly. "Heh, I think Sherry'd like you. She's had to help me with... moments like these before."

"Would be happy to meet her then!", the mole spoke as he slung the captive over his shoulder. "By the way, it did say wanted alive, yes? I'm afraid I forgot."
"Y-yeah it does, wanted alive!", she blurted out reflexively. In truth, she had forgotten as well, but did not want to check. Otherwise things would be bloody and awkward, the worst combination she could think of.