Modern Age Online

Kaleb kept up a stream of laser fire as more cowboys appeared. After the first few minutes, he found it took three shots with the Cybar to know them of their horses. Milly and his repulsor only took one shot to do it, and the space marmot was a hell of a shot. Not to mention the repulsor had a longer range as well. Only the occasional horse got its rider close, and by that point, Kaleb managed to zero in his shot. He noticed the cartoon horses didn't seem to tire, though. Which was alarming.

Dozens of cowboys flooded the surrounding desert now as their train rushed across the landscape. Both the train tracks and the deluge of bad guys seemed without end. But he and Milly fell into a simple rhythm of shooting. Abby, meanwhile, had abandoned her perch above them and explored the rest of the train. She had reported back that the train was empty and then laid out on a chair, thinking. About what, Kaleb did not know. But he was willing to spot her the rest if she returned the favor later.

Venting his Cybar, Kaleb stuck his left arm out the back door and let Milly go to work. Turning his head slightly, he asked.

"Anything?"

"Hmm?"

"Have you thought of anything, Abs!? Seriously, I can't do this forever!"

"Why not? Both of the power supplies in your gun and arm create their own juice, right? So we just need to hold out until Jar and Vivienne get us out."

Kaleb rolled his eyes. "For one, these guys are just getting back up after I shoot them. So as long as they got a horse, they come back. Second, my arms are growing tired."

"That's just the game emulating stamina. You just have to ignore it and it will probably go away." Abby said lazily.

"Abby! You can't ignore game mechanics! Now, if you're done being an asshat, what's the plan?"

"Ugh! Fine! I was thinking we could dislodge the two carriage cars. We are already outpacing their weird, inexhaustible horses. So if we dump the excess weight, we should be able to pull away."

"Sounds good." Kaleb said, pointing his Cybar back out the door and firing at the cowboys again.

"It's just…" Abby started, sounding confused.

Kaleb twisted his head to look at the young woman while still maintaining fire. "Just?"

"Did you notice anything odd about the cowboys?"

"You mean other than the fact that they're cartoon cowboys dressed in brightly colored vests and hats?"

"Yes!" Abby said, setting up from her seat. "Like how they seem to shift when you're about to kill them? Like the cowboy thing is just an image displayed over a real person?"

"Saw that, did you?" Kaleb asked, firing a few shots at a cowboy that was getting too close.

"What the hell is it?"

"I don't know. Maybe whoever owns this pocket dimension has been abducting people."

"Why?"

Kaleb shrugged. "How would I know? Maybe it's some dude that wants to play make-believe forever."

"You realize that's kind of what we're doing, right?"

Kaleb thought about for a few seconds as his arm and his gun continued to keep the encroaching cowboys back. Milly swung his left arm up across his face and shot someone swooping in from the right, surprising him.

"Hey! You stick to the left side, I'll handle the right side," Kaleb admonished, tapping his Cybar against his metal arm.

"That's weird." Abby grimaced. "I don't think I'd like my arm being out of my control."

"She's currently helping, so she gets a pass."

"But back to the cowboys. How many have you seen… y'know, underneath?"

"Just one. It happened just as they were being shot. They flickered back into being an alien with tentacles for hair. But there were also mistakes in the overlaying image. Like whatever power was transforming them wasn't finished yet."

"Saw that. But did you recognize anyone?"

Kaleb fully turned now, Milly still pointing his left arm out the door. "What?"

"One of the dudes I threw off the train. I think I arrested him once."

Kaleb digested that as Abby watched him. If she was right, then that could mean that the other cowboys were criminals, too. Which could be where all the criminals from their district went. But then how had someone Abby arrested be a part of this? Unless the cops were in on it as well.

"What did you arrest him for?"

Abby nodded at his thought process. "Drunk and disorderly. He would've spent a night in the drunk tank and then been on his way."

"So the cops probably aren't involved."

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Don't sound too disappointed."

Kaleb rolled his eyes and turned back out the door. Shooting the closest cowboy, he set his mind to thinking about the problem again. It seemed like someone was abducting people and throwing them into this dimension. At least one of those people was a very petty criminal Abby had arrested before. He tried to think back to the alien he had shot out of the train, but nothing about the guy made Kaleb think criminal. If anything, the alien under the cowboy facade looked terrified. Then again, he was being shot out of a train.

"Trying to decide if they are all criminals?" Abby asked.

"It would put a nice bow on the things if this was the mastermind behind suppressing the gangs in our district. But I don't know. I'm not feeling it."

"A mage powerful enough to create a pocket world could steal someone's eyes and mouth." Abby pointed out, reminding him of the gang members that had tried to investigate things.

"Then why wouldn't they be on Farrah's list? She gave us the three most likely candidates."

"That she knew about. Your little bunny girlfriend isn't all-knowing. Besides, this could be something new and worse, it could be a Player."

"How is that worse?"

"Players are a lot trickier to deal with than NPCs."

"I don't see how. At least when we kill a Player Character they go straight to the nearest jail."

"With a huge decrease in the credits we get for their capture. We have to be careful with Villains if we want the full amount from the state."

"Bah!" Kaleb said, venting his pistol again.

An angry chittering made Kaleb focus on his arm. Milly was getting bored. She was amped and full of power and she wanted to release it. Which gave Kaleb an idea. Checking the surroundings outside, he saw the same mob of cowboys heading their way. Their horses were pressing in closer, even with his and Milly's continued fire. That had to do something quick.

"Time to go. There's too many of them now." Kaleb fired a few more shots out the back as he started for the front of the train.

Abby was on her feet and leading the way as the sound of thudding hooves overtook the roar of the train. They got to the coupling connecting the second and first carriage car and Kaleb finally got to aim his left arm by himself. With a thought, he blasted the coupling just as a few cowboys jumped into the last car. The train jerked hard and Kaleb had to catch himself against the door. He saw a few of the cowboys flicker back to their real non-cartoon forms as the decoupled carriage car drifted away.

"That's weird." Kaleb said, pointing out the flickering.

"What?!" Abby called, sounding far away.

Turning around, Kaleb found the short woman already at the next coupling. Snorting to himself, he ran to join her. He kept an eye out for more cowboys, but the first car decoupling had sped them up a bit. The horses were still pressing in, but they were kicking up a cloud of dust now. Kaleb noticed that a few of the riders were flickering as well. He pointed a metal finger at the changes as Abby looked on.

"I think the spell on them is weakening."

Abby looked to where he was pointing and watched as Kaleb shot the second coupling. The train jerked again, and they both grabbed each other. Once they were both safe, Abby let go and rushed around the coal car. Kaleb watched as they started to pull away from the horde of cowboys and then joined her. As he walked past the enormous pile of coal, he noticed it had the same plastic-y sheen as the rest of the train. He doubted it was even used as fuel.

When he got to the engine car, he saw Abby rapidly looking around, trying to find something. When she glanced at him, Kaleb raised an eyebrow.

"I'm looking to see if we can stop this thing if we need to."

Kaleb pointed to a large hand brake to the side of the next to the firebox. When he did, he realized the engine was cold. There was no flame in the train's firebox. Confused, he stuck his head outside and looked up at the smokestack on top of the train car. A cloud of white smoke was blasting into the sky as their two-car train puttered along.

"What the fuck is going on?"

"It's a cartoon train, Professor. Did you really expect it to work like a real one?"

"Yes? I mean, what the hell is propelling it otherwise?"

"Magic. Duh!"

Kaleb rubbed his head and decided to put it all aside. Instead, he looked around the coal car and tried to see how far away they were from their pursuers. To both his delight and horror, the number of cowboys chasing them had fallen by a hell of a lot, but what remained was catching up quick. Five cowboys practically glowed with power as they rode after them. Their cartoon sheen seemed to give off a trail of rainbow colors as the cowboys raced after the train. Abby's head poked out beneath Kaleb's and they stared at the oncoming cowboys.

"Well… shit! Now what?"

"Either we find a way to kill them or we try to get away."

"We don't know how to do either of those!"

Kaleb pulled his head back in and rubbed a hand down his robotic arm. "Actually, I had an idea. But I don't know how it will work with cartoon logic."

Abby's head whipped around toward him, and she pointed a finger up at him. "Before you do anything, how about you explain the plan?"

"Seriously? They could catch up by the time I explain."

"Then talk fast."

Sighing, Kaleb laid out his plan as he felt Milly humming with pleasure. "Remember when Milly juiced my car?"

"You mean when your alien pet shook your car into pieces? Would that even work here?"

"I think I can control it a bit better." Kaleb said with absolutely no evidence.

Abby stared at him dubiously.

Shrugging, Kaleb waved a hand at the approaching cowboys. "It's that or we throw everything we have at the cartoon cowboys and hope for the best. We still don't know how to kill them or even free them."

"I don't think we can kill a cartoon, Professor."

"So…?"

He watched as Abby bit her lip, still indecisive. She seemed to be weighing the pros and cons when a blast of rainbow colors hit the side of the coal car. The impact shook the train worse than the decoupling did. Kaleb steadied the smaller woman as they both looked out at the cowboys. The five cowboys were within shooting distance now, and all five of them were holding balls of rainbow-colored magic. As one, they tossed their balls of magic at the same time. In the air, the balls combined into a larger blast that slammed into their train again. The coal car rocked hard and even came off the tracks slightly.

Kaleb started firing at the cowboys as Milly brought his robotic arm up and joined in. The energy blast slammed into the cowboys, but nothing happened. The cartoon sheen around the cowboy's bodies absorbed the energy, and they kept on riding.

"Shit!" Kaleb said, holstering the Cybar and reaching into his coat for his Magic Gun. But Abby grabbed his wrist.

"Do it!"

Not waiting to see if she was sure, Kaleb moved over to the firebox and pressed his robotic hand against the cold metal. Milly chittered happily, and he felt her charging out of his arm and into the train. Blue sparks of electricity follow the marmot as it flashed into the firebox.

There was a moment of silence where nothing happened, but then the engine car came alive. Literally. The black-metal engine car turned blue and grew fur as Kaleb felt Milly's presence in his mind grow excited. He and Abby stared at the changes in concern before they were both blown backward. The loud sound of the train grew deafening as Kaleb and Abby laid against the front of the coal car. His vision blurred into a long tunnel of color as the Milly train shot off at astounding speed.

Abby, laying against his side, glared up at him. "If your pet kills us, I'm taking it out of your hide, Lizard."

Her shout barely made it over the sound of their train, but Kaleb got the message. A loud squeak echoed in the air as the blue train/marmot shot across the desert landscape. At the very least, Milly seemed happy with her new situation.