Running the West (Discontinued)

Jack wakes in the morning from the door being knocked on, the bed around him messy from terror. He had passed out from a lack of energy, the rest of his night was peaceful.

He gets up and rubs his eyes, opening the door. "Morning." He says, his eyes flick down for a moment to eye what she was showing off before catching himself. "Have Lance and Billy shown up yet?" He asks while leaning against the door frame.

He can't believe he had slipped like that, Ellie was extremely attractive but they also work together, something he personally thinks shouldn't happen, if she were to get hurt, or if he were to get hurt on the job while being romantically involved, there would be dire consequences. He tells himself to not let it happen again.

She yawned and stretched, finally realizing she had been revealing major titage to the poor man, before tucking her chest into the safety of her robe. "I haven't even checked... I'm going to dress up, maybe Lance can make us some coffee..." She turned and returned to the personnel room, getting herself dressed.

Of course Billy and Lance were already there, Lance stood by the door, eyeing the Dusters that were still locked up, while Billy spoke to the doctor from the night before.

Ellie soon joined them, wearing overalls and a tank top to cover herself.

"Gentlemen..." She scratched the back of her head as she walked towards the map, and looked at Lance.

"Lance..." She said in a playful tone.

Lance again seemed uncomfortable and tipped his hat, "Ma'am..."

Jack walks out of his room after getting dressed, nodding to the three standing around the map. "Alright, busy day today." He says while looking at them. "Billy, you're going to be riding to the other towns to put in telegraph systems, Black doesn't know you so you should be fine as long as you don't identify as a Sheriff or Deputy." He says while placing three telegraphs on the table. "You take them and ride fast, explain to the Sheriffs that we need to stay ahead of Black." He says.

"Meanwhile, Ellie and Lance, y'all are gonna be on bandit watch, cover the perimeter of the town and inform me of anything crime related happening, you can split up or stay together, I don't mind." He says. "And of course, that leaves me.. To do this very exciting paperwork, as you can tell I saved the most action packed job for myself." He says while placing a stack of reports on his desk.

"You all know your assignments, get moving, tell me if anything happens, God forbid I have to leave the paperwork for a little while."

Lance shook his head. "I have to disagree with you. Our three towns are too far apart. Sending Cade, alone, is a death trap for him. It'll take him a good five to seven hours to ride to Cold Stone alone. And that's hoping one of Black's men doesn't make him. If he gets made, kid's good as dead..."

Billy shook his head, "No, I can do this. It would take me seven hours to get from here to Cold Stone on my mare, with no stops... from Cold Stone to Maribelle, it'd probably be another eight hours... and then about four more to come back here..."

"Cade, " Lance interrupted, "You talkin' about ridin' for close to 19 hours. It's a goddamn foolish request and you and I ain't even no deputies."

Ellie sighed, "You guys aren't appointed. Jack and the Gov'nor have to make it official."

Billy frowned, "I can definitely ride... this is our chance to catch Black and end this..."

Ellie rubbed the bridge of her nose. "I'll go to Maribelle. Lance you can patrol on your own, and Billy can head to Cold Stone... Maribelle is the more dangerous route. I'll handle it."

Again Lance denied. "No. Black's men actually know you. You're the Blue Ribbon, remember?"

She smiled, "Well, I did earn that name... hair being blue and all..."

Lance frowned. "Just no..."

"I'll go to Cold Stone then, if Billy feels like braving Maribelle..."

Lance stayed quiet. "Ask your boss."

"Ellie, if they know you you're not going any where." He says. "Lance, if you're up for it you can take it but I'm not forcing you.. I'm not forcing any of you, Billy, if you want to make the ride then do it, nothing is stopping you." He says.

"But I'm also not staying here alone, all of this stuff doesn't have to be done today lady and gentlemen, we can take our time with this." He says while sitting down on the leather chair at his desk. "Decide what you're doing and go, we need to get something done today, I don't care what as long as it's productive and approved by me." He says to the trio in front of him.

Ellie crossed her arms. "We may actually need more men. If we could fortify Whitewater, then we could leave, in groups of two or a squad of four and visit the other towns. I know I'd feel safer with three strapping companions opposed to going out alone."

Billy chuckled, "We'd probably be counting on you to save our assess." He thought to himself for a moment. "I suppose we could try going in a group... I'd feel safer with any of you with me..."

Suddenly, there was a crash! Ellie ran to get her gun, hat and badge, in that order.

Outside were some twelve very pissed off dusters.

The governor stood outside with his hands up. "Your quarrel is with the sheriff and his band! Don't drag us innocents into this!"

"Awe shut yer stink in' yap Bradley... We want this sheriff to let my four boys go right freakin now, or we start shootin' and people start dying!"

Ellie watched from a sliver in the window. "Twelve. Most of them with six shooters. Could be one or two with a rifle out of sight..."

Billy swallowed, "Sh-shit..."

Lance finally dug up half a smile. "Sheriff, time to push these rats out of your town... Or die trying... Consider this our try outs for the lawmen."

Billy twitched, "Lance... We are outnumbered..."

Lance shrugged, "Never been a problem for me..."

"We're with you, boss." Ellie said, checking that her gun was loaded. "We can talk, or we can blaze them, or wait for them to provoke us. They've already threatened the innocents..."

The three waited for Jack's call. Lance and Ellie seemed sure enough, Billy seemed a little shaken at the odds.

Jack raises his eyebrows at the report. "Only twelve? They should've sent more.." He says before beckoning them to follow. He walks into the armory, handing Lance a shotgun and Billy and Ellie get lever action rifles. Jack sticks with a lever action for himself, starting to load it.

"Alright, let's show these sons of bitches what Whitewater has to offer.. Besides our Governor." He says with a chuckle before walking to his desk, flipping it over and pushing it so that it is in front of the door. "Take cover behind that." He says before preparing to open the doors.

He opens them once the three were in cover, stepping into the middle of the doorway and pointing his rifle at them. "Now y'all can leave and stop threatening my people or we're gonna have a problem." He says. A shot is fired from outside, a spray of blood lands on to the desk behind Jack as one of the Dusters puts a bullet through Jack's left shoulder.

However, that doesn't stop Jack from cracking off two shots as he falls, both nailing a Duster each in the chest. He scoots back into cover as bullets start flying into the office, the innocent scatter away from the street. Jack pulls his revolver from his side, firing all six shots, all of them hitting a Duster, but only two of the six shots are kill shots.

"Kill'em!" The wounded sheriff yells to his deputies, holding his shoulder with his opposite hand.

Ellie and Billy's eyes widened as Jack was hit, Billy immediately going over to try to tend him, nearly getting his head blown off for not taking cover properly. The four dusters in the cells were rallying, making noise and screaming curses at the four lawmen.

Lance stayed in cover, "There's a rifle man on the roof of the pharmacy. Good luck... I'm gonna kill me some Dusters..." He peeked out and the first thing he saw move, he blasted with the shotgun. The duster's body flailed forward as he fell to his untimely death. Flipping the shells out and starting a quick reload, while sprinting, Lance rushed into a young Duster and cracked his face with the shotgun, using his body as a meat shield against another shooter. Cocking his shotgun he fired at his enemy, the man's left arm flipping away after he turned twice and fell to quickly bleed out. Lance tossed the shotgun down as it was out of ammo and drew his revolver, taking a shot at the rifleman, but missing.

Ellie eyed the rifleman and with a fast look, she lined up her shot on her rifle and fired. The first shot clipped the gunman's shoulder. And he tumbled off the roof, landing on his neck. Probably dead.

Billy held on to Jack's unhurt shoulder trying to get him back into the game, but he realized that it would be tough for Lance and Ellie to win this fight without some help. He spotted a duster firing shot after shot after shot at the table where they were covered and tried to gun him down. The first shot missed, the second shot missed. Then Billy had to get back into cover.

Three dusters dared to enter the office trying to hop over the table. Ellie dispatched two of them quickly enough, fanning the hammer on her revolver and displaying great aim with two head shots.

The third tackled down Billy, attempting to stab the blonde man with a large knife. Billy managed to move his head in time, and rolled the duster off him, while both on the floor, Billy pulled his revolver and fired, shooting the duster through the left eye.

Lance retreated to the office, firing his revolver several times.

"Two of em' have already started running. There's only two punks left..."

He sighed and touched his chest, seeing blood. He searched for a wound a bit more frantically, but didn't find one. He then sighed in relief...

Two shots fire from Jack's revolver. "No punks left.." He says with a sigh before dropping his revolver, his hand drifting down his face. "If you could get me the doctor, Billy that'd be glorious." He says, his hand that had been holding the wound is completely covered in blood.

"Nice job everybody, we really showed them what we're made out of." He says with a chuckle, shaking his head. "Lance, while Billy is getting the doctor, get somebody to clean up those bodies, and make sure somebody changes the Governor's diaper because I'm sure he's shit himself dry." He orders.

He drags himself to his feet, allowing him to momentarily take his hand off of his wound to do so. He leans against the wall and looks at Ellie. "Sorry, I ran out of things to do, so.. Do whatever I suppose." He says to the blue haired beauty.

Jack walks back over to his desk, casually flipping it back over and walking around, retrieving assorted papers and other things that had fallen. "Whitewater is an interesting place, I can see why nobody else wanted this town under their command." He says with the shake of his head.

He turns his head to the captured Dusters, who had calmed down by now. "Hey! Assholes! We just fucked up your entire welcoming party." He says while throwing up his middle finger at them. "Don't fuck with the Whitewater Sheriff and his deputies." He laughs while sitting down on his chair, still holding his bleeding shoulder.

The dusters were in shock, and when he threw up his middle finger, they were concerned that he was drawing and nearly cowered.

Lance chuckled. "Shit himself is right." He kicked a limp hand away from his boot. "We were out-manned. I mean... these were the Dusters... no one special." He crossed his arms and waited for Billy, who still looked shaken up at having killed a man.

"Let's go Cade." Called Lance, really walking it off like nothing had happened. He was probably the best option so far for sheriff if Jack hadn't come. Him or Ellie.

Billy followed after him, putting his gun away, and happy to see everyone still in one piece.

Ellie helped with some of the papers, looking around at the damage the Dusters had caused. "These men should be hung. But they didn't come to town to light things up. They were simply being dickheads at a saloon."

Jack chuckles at Ellie's response. "Unfortunately I'm too nice of a guy to kill them." He says with a shrug. "But they'll be staying in a Federal Prison once the wagon comes here to pick'em up." He explains to her.

He rolls his shoulder as if trying to get a tensed muscle relaxed, groaning in pain as his shoulder sparks up again. "I forgot what it felt like to get shot if I'm honest." He says with a laugh. "It doesn't feel good at all, lemme tell you." He admits.

"Luckily though, there's definetely an exit wound so I should be fine.. How're you holding up, Ellie?" He asks while standing, walking over to her. "Honestly, if I didn't have you here I dunno if we would've won, sure Lance and I would've taken the majority down, Billy killed one I think but we'd be dead before the last few were gone, so thanks for being around." He says with a smile before returning to his seat.

Ellie shrugged, "I know the pain well enough boss. You can't see it, but." She held her hair as a tail and lifted it up, "I was shot in the back. I however managed to move. But it grazed the top of my spine." She showed a scar she had developed. "I couldn't walk for a month. Poor Kenslay had to wipe my ass and feed me. Now that I think of it he would bathe me so he probably got his jollies off that. He blamed himself for my injury." She let her hair fall back down. "You should still get it cleaned so that it doesn't get infected."

She walked towards the quarters to change into her usual cowgirl wear. She had a very, hypnotic walk when she wanted to use it.

People outside were starting to peek around. Some seemed happy, others very upset.

"They went and smoked that little army of dusters...."

"Yeah... But now it's a war..."

"Lance Preston was slinging like an animal... Why isn't he the sheriff?"

"The outsider isn't bad... But does he really have what it takes?"

The town was starting to chat. Not bad, but someone's not good either.

Jack chuckles as she speaks, watching her walk away before rubbing his hand against his forehead. The doctor shows up, walking up to the sheriff and forcing him to stop what he is doing before taking a look at the wound. He grabs some equipment from his bag before getting to work, slipping a pair of tweezers into the wound, fishing around for the bullet. Jack grunts in pain, his hand clenching down on to his chair as the doctor does his work, pulling out the bullet and placing it on the desk. He then grabs a packing bandage, stuffing it into the wound and securing it with field dressing, not bothering with any pain killers as a dose too big would stop Jack's heart from beating. The doctor finishes his work and packs up his things, saying goodbye to the sheriff before Jack is back to doing his paper work, not paying much attention to the people outside.

Once he is done the papers he sighs and leans back in his chair, grabbing his revolver off of his desk and giving it a spin before putting it back in his holster and standing up, walking outside to the people and giving them a nod. "We're a little short handed on staff, if any of you are interested you can write a letter or just come to me directly, we have a lot more work that needs to be done." He says to them before walking through the crowd.

He patrols the streets for a little while, keeping the town in check just in case any more Dusters try to show up, just making sure that everybody is okay. He thinks about what the people were saying, though he had ignored them it was hard to shut them out.. Why wasn't Lance the sheriff? And why didn't people think Jack was up to it? He decides to work harder, maybe they would be able to see that he is up to the task.

Whitewater was starting to look like a real town little by little. This battle with the dusters will spread to the other towns, hopefully inspiring some crime fighters or even getting to Erron Black's ears.

Several people, particularly men came out to help with the clean up of the bodies. People has come out, along with Governor Bradley to help the sheriff clean up his base of operations.

The governor approached Ellie, who had changed into her usual battle wear and encroached her. Ellie making a strange face as he told her how heroic she was and how beautiful a wife she'd make. She looked disgusted considering he sold them out right away to the Dusters.

He'd need a word with the governor sooner or later. He'd need coin to start offering more jobs.

Several men and some young boys walked by, waving a Ellie as she dodged the nasty governor. They told her about becoming lawmen, wanting to fight alongside her and the other deputies.

"We need all the man power we can get... But I don't want to put the people of Whitewater at risk."

"We will be at risk anyway" said one of the men. "Consider training us and letting us help. I just want my kids safe and my wife to be proud of me"

She smirked, "I'll talk with the boss about it."

Jack walks back to his office, surprised that everything is so.. Clean. He looks around and spots Ellie with a few others. He walks over to them and eyes the men. "I'm going to assume y'all are looking for work, right?" He asks them, they eagerly nod in response.

"You're hired, we need all the help we can get." He says. "Ellie, if you want to tell Lance to train them when he gets back, that'd be swell." He says to the blue haired beauty. "I'm gonna keep a lookout with Billy for more Dusters, you can hang back and train with Lance or come with us if you want." He says before heading inside, grabbing a piece of blank paper and scribbling down some numbers as he tries to calculate the amount of coin they would need to pay the new arrivals.

When he's done he stands and walks out, approaching the governor and giving him the paper. "I expect the amount of money written on that." He says. "Otherwise I'll let those Dusters have their way with you next time." He says before walking off, allowing the cowardly man to make his decision and possibly deliver the pay.

The men looked at him and smiled, "We'd be happy to!" Ellie gave Jack a look as if he's tossing these poor guys to the wolves, but truth was, they needed every possible man that could help, in line with the lawmen.

Bradley jumped in fear when Jack came towards him, looking at the paper, frowning. "Impossible! We don't have that kind of money to spend here? Hey, where do you think you're going sheriff!" He yelled, probably not getting an answer back.

He didn't want to pay because it would mean less money for him.

Jack's middle finger in the air is the only answer the governor would get.

The men around Ellie disperse and Jack approaches her. "Bradley won't be giving us any more money, I'm going to be paying out of pocket." He says to her. "So here's your first." He says while holding out a small bag of coins. "Ellie, you can train those men right? I need someone I can trust on this." He says.

"Because if more Dusters come, I'm tempted to throw Bradley at them and sit back while they hang him from the saloon." He says to her. "If there's anything you can do to get more money for our office, that would also be fantastic."

Ellie caught the bag and looked at it. "Thank you for this, but as long as I can sleep, eat, and have a roof over my head, I don't need much in terms of gold. Things will get better after the Outer Brotherhood are taken care of. Dusters aren't going to roll around here anymore." She looked at the four men behind bars. "Maybe we could use them for target practice."

One of the men ran to the bars, he looked afraid, "Blue Ribbon! I never liked you, but you guys handled my friends like they were standing still. I have some skill... And... and I'm willing to work with the lawmen."

The other three looked at him in shock and disgust. "You fucking traitor!" Yelled the biggest man there, immediately kicking the speaker into the bars. He started to beat him with his fists.

Ellie sighed, "Boss, they'll kill him if he stays there now. He's smarter than he looks. Saying that almost gets him a free pass, but if he's serious about joining us, he'd have to give us some information on the Dusters' organization.

The speaker got kicked in the stomach, then the other two started hitting him too.

"Want to get him out of there?" She drew her gun just in case. They could also kill him, which would mean one less annoying person to deal with.

Jack shakes his head. "I'm not trusting that little shit." He says while walking over to his desk, grabbing his gun and aiming it at one of the attackers, pulling the trigger.

"No cell violence." He says while watching the man he had shot in the chest fall to the floor, blood pooling around him.

"I'm gonna go establish some contact in the next town over, you wanna come with me, Ellie?" He asks the blue haired beauty with the raise of his eyebrows, talking as if nothing had ever happened.

The man fell dead to the ground, and instantly, the beatings stopped and they were caught in terror again.

Ellie's eyes widened after he took the shot, shooting an imprisoned man wasn't something she was used to, now that cell would have to be cleaned up, or he'd start to rot.

She nodded, "Sure.." She watched the men another minute, the man on the floor grasping the bars. "Don't leave me here... they'll kill me, they'll kill me tonight!" He seemed to be begging for his life, after all, they had just started a little trouble at a saloon, they hadn't killed anyone.

Ellie's eyes narrowed and she turned away, following her boss.

"Saddle up, Ellie." He says to her while jumping on to his own horse, leaning forward and untying it from the stable post it had been tied to. Once they're both ready he starts to ride out of town, catching Lance on the way out and explaining what they were doing, leaving him in charge for now, after all, the people seemed to like him better in charge.

Jack rides with Ellie out of town for what seems like a few hours, not really encountering any trouble along the way. As they ride he looks over at his companion. "Rumors say this town is completely controlled by Erron Black, I dunno if they'll even have a sheriff." He admits. "I hope they are false.. We need to start working together on this or we'll never best this bastard." He says as they approach the town.

The town seems abandoned, nobody really out on the streets, usually not a good sign. Jack allows his horse to trot up to the sheriff's office, the sun is leaning towards the horizon at this point, making the sky an array of soft colors. He ties his horse off and walks inside of the office. "Anybody here?" He calls out, not loud enough to wake any neighbors.

Ellie got onto her mare and rode off, worried about the men in the cell. "Don't you care if they kill him? For a sheriff, you're a little rough around the edges when it comes to humanitarianism." She said, catching up to him and hearing him wanting to go into Erron Black's town of Maribelle. Her mare slowed down, but for some reason, she followed Jack anyway. "We are going to be outgunned and outnumbered. By a lot. I should have probably had sex with you or Lance before going out and doing this, boss. I don't know if we'll come back."

Lance had tried to stop them. If they were going to Cold Stone, where things weren't as hot, fine. But Jack was intent on going into Maribelle, Erron Black's town, alone with just Ellie. Lance knew he couldn't convince them, but he'd at least try to save Ellie from springing into a trap.

"You... you just don't ride into Maribelle with the blue ribbon and not draw any attention..." He tried to reason, he really did, but apparently Jack had his mind set.

"We'll be okay Lance." Ellie said with an unsure smile. "Seems like a risk worth taking. And you! You and I have to talk mister! You told me that you had zero training. And you fought like a wild animal, I was impressed!"

Lance tipped his hat down. "At least it was a good surprise. You take care of yourself Ellie. Don't let this wild man here be the reason for your death. He doesn't know our world." He whipped the reigns and took off on his horse, Ellie catching up with Jack as their long ride to Maribelle began.

The town was definitely quiet, too quiet. That was never a good thing. Ellie was nervous, goosebumps forming on her arms. When the entered the sheriffs office, there was really very little commotion, until they entered the back room. There, six men, dressed as lawmen, along with a gorgeous blond gunslinger, pointed their weapons at them.

She trained her weapon at Jack's head. "State your business... sir." On the floor, there were two bodies, they didn't look like common bandits, and the guns they dropped looked expensive and rare. "Something tells me you don't belong here in Maribelle..."

Ellie managed to draw her weapon quickly enough, but she didn't know who to target, she had two men aiming at her, the other four, plus the woman aiming at Jack.

Jack had felt a little bad about ignoring Lance and Ellie, though the whole deal about Ellie talking about having sex with him or Lance had turned his head. But now they were a little cornered, maybe Lance and Ellie had been right, he starts to regret ever coming here.

His eyes focus on the blonde gunslinger, attempting to keep himself focused on the fact that she was pointing a gun at his head. "I'm Sheriff Quinton from White Water." He explains carefully. "If you could put your guns down maybe we can talk about a solution to a problem we all have in common." He says.

"We'll start.. Ellie, gun down." He tells her, brushing her upper arm with his hand. He turns his attention back to the gunmen, his eyes flicking down to the bodies on the floor.

Ellie watched them nervously, her hand shaking as she slowly holstered her weapon.

The blond raised her hand and waved once. "Put your weapons down boys. No one has to get shot today." The men lowered their weapons, a couple of them seeming relieved that they didn't have to battle the blue haired demon.

"You've got balls coming into Maribelle with that blue haired girl you have there... She's a little infamous around these parts... Aren't you, Elliana?"

Ellie's eyes narrowed. "And who might you be? A big-titted, blond, bimbo?"

The woman smiled. "I am the acting sheriff of Maribelle, Justine Nash." She put her gun away too. "These outstanding gentlemen are what's left of Maribelle's Lawmen Unit... and those fallen men there are two members of the Outer Brotherhood. I assume that is the problem you're speaking about?"

Jack listens to the two fight, his eyes scanning the room for anything that he could use to his advantage. Though he questions himself on why there would be two bodies in the office.

He nods. "Two bodies, very nice, we rounded up.. Thirteen, today?" He asks Ellie with a chuckle. "Me and three others including her." He explains. "So I suppose then we all have a common problem." He says while crossing his arms.

He leans his head towards Ellie, whispering quietly. "Could you maybe try not to insult the lady who could kill us and clean us up like dust off of floor boards?" He hisses before leaning back. "So, I'm assuming y'all are okay with negotiations? Unless you have a problem with getting rid of Mr Black who seems to enjoy destroying towns, raping women, and killing innocents." He says.

"This guy is beatable believe it or not, me and my deputies fended off twelve of his boys, lemme tell you, a town run by inspiration and hope is better than a town run by threats and fear." He explains. "Now Sheriff, do you think we could have a meeting in private about this? Let the deputies discuss and all that." He says to the blonde before him.