• Published 17th Feb 2013
  • 3,575 Views, 161 Comments

The Smokeless Flame - BIGBLACKINTOSH



A mid-night trip to the fridge ends up with me going to Equestria. Great. (Chess-game of gods universe story)

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Meeting the doctor

Nothing. Thats all I saw. Nothing, blank, nada, zip. Every term for nothing you can think of. This was actually pretty regular since my first night in Equestria. Well, not counting the briefings from Burijas. Every night after that was this same void where I just...Didn't think. I didn't dream either, I just...Waited. But after a certain amount of time, I noticed something different. It was a figure in the void. It was tall and didn't have any features. It just stood there, not looking at me. My void or dream self of whatever you want to call it, turned to investigate the figure, but was cut off by a familiar annoying voice.

“Dil-la. Yo-hoo, Idilah?” Wakey wakey, eggs and ‘mera bakey!”Ghost shouted in my ear.

My reaction was swift and simple....

I grabbed him by the throat, earning a “Gurk!” from him before I threw him directly up, lodging his head in the ceiling. “So I guess you don't like chimera bacon?” he asked flatly.

I sat up and looked around, seeing that I was in the med bay. A welcome sight because my head started throbbing. “Urgh. Where are the painkillers?” I asked Ghost, who was struggling to get himself out of the ceiling. He flailed his hooves, trying to push himself out. After a few more seconds he gave up and sighed. “I’ll tell you when you get me out here,” he said, defeated. I threw my legs over the bed and slowly got to my soft feet, attempting to stand up straight.

Wait a minute...Soft feet?

I looked down to see two caramel colored human feet. I raised my arms to my face to see cream colored palms and black polished nails. I was missing my duster which escalated even further. I started breathing frantically, touching, almost smacking my face. “What the hell!” I shouted, frantically looking around the room for a mirror, reflective surface, anything to confirm what I didn't want to be.

Ghost groaned. “Before you have a breakdown, could you get me the hell out of here?! And quick because I think I see-ROLLY POLLIE! ROLLY POLLIE!” he shouted as if he saw a spider.

I shook my head out of my hysteria and pulled Ghost out the ceiling. I pulled for only a few seconds before the section of ceiling that Ghost was in cracked even more and collapsed. Well, at least I still have my strength. Ghost landed with a grunt. The dust-brown pony shook the debri out of his short green mane and stared at me angry curiosity. “Okay...Lets pretend that didn't happen,” he said, annoyed.

His eyes bored into me and I veiled my face in my hair, embarrassed. Ghost realizing his gaze, turned away. This was a regular thing back on earth when I didn't have time to cover my scars in makeup.Ghost, or Mitchell knew that I got extremely angry when people stared too long.

He coughed awkwardly. “Um, you're probably wondering why you look like that,” he said nervously.

I nodded silently. “Do you know?”

He shook his head. “After you forced that thing into submission, you and Night got covered in some magic casing. After a few hours, you came out of it looking like that. To be honest though, you don't look all that different. You still have all those glyphs or whatever you call them, all over your body. Or at least as much as I could see,” he said pointing at my forearm.


I stared down at it to see that he was right. My body was still covered in Signs and runes, except they had adopted a blood-red version of red. I also noticed that my skin looked segmented, as if it was loosely put together. Another thing I noticed was that I wasn't wearing my duster.

Ghost saw my “Also,” he continued. “Nights not looking so good. He hasn't come out of his goo yet-”

“Wait what?!” I asked, worried.

Ghost solemnly pointed his hoof at a bed two beds away from mine. In it was the Nightheart ir at least what I thought was Nightheart. He was encased in a black organic goo that was covered in runes similar to mine but were purple. Nightheart’s head twisted in his sleep in a way I recognized...As if he was having a nightmare.

On earth nightmares were a regular thing for me. They weren't usually about what happened with dad- oh no, those would be close to wet dreams. My nightmares would be about Asad dying in the horrifying ways you normally see in movies. Ever since being being offered to come here though, I haven't had a single nightmare, not a one. Steven got me by surprise with that shift in that role reversal but that in general was easy to maneuver out of.

But now Nightheart was in his own world and if I remeber right, under some magic I had no idea how to counter. Nightheart twitched again, causing another pang of guilt. Though, the guilt itself was misplaced. I looked to Ghost and once again held him at the throat.

He squirmed and tapped at my clenched hand. “What did I do?” he gargled.

A single tear ran down my face. “This is your fault!” I shouted. “This is because of you touching shit!”

Ghost tried taking a breath. “Dila...We were heading into that thing anyway! We...Would have...had to fight it...No matter how we got in!” he tried shouting.



“If you ever put any of us in danger again, you can be damn sure you’ll get more than that,” I said, no even looking at him.

Ghost coughed up bit of backed up saliva and spat it on the floor. “Whatever, I don't need this. I’ll be in my room. Booms in here too if you want to not stare at your boyfriend forever,” he said walking out of the room.

I took my eyes off of Nightheart for a second and looked around. Boom was in another bed close to a cabinet, her brother at her side. Boom looked as if she was in tough shape. Bandages were mummified around her right wing, her red fur was dark-pink compared to her usual hot-red. She was tucked under a blanket, with Tick stood right next to her, holding her hoof. The whole scene reminded me of when Asad had sprained his ankle when he was on the soccer team in high school. I almost never left his side, mostly just to berate him for messing up, but the love was there.

Tick patted her head and turned to see me, no doubt startled at what my form. I honestly wasn't planning on telling anyone that I was originally human. Mostly because it would stir up more questions than I cared to answer. Then there were the matter of my scars...

Tick coughed and got me out of my deep train of thought. “Hey cap. Um, you alright?” he asked nervously.

I rolled my neck, careful not to let my veil slip. “Yeah...Just fine. How's your sister?”

He shook his head solemnly. “Not good. Or at least I think not good. I’m no doctor and no one else on this vessel is either. We need to get to that doctor soon. Arige says she should be able to fix just about any ailment but I still think its rubbish. I don't care who, but I need a pro to look at my sister,” he explained staring at the ground, fighting back tears.

I placed a hand on his shoulder, not meeting his eyes. “I’m sorry I sent you guys out there. Its my fault-” he shoved my hand away.

“No it is not!” he shouted. “Don't start the “everypony is responsibility” card. Its that damn chimera’s fault. And guess what? Crow just made bacon out of it. I don't blame you and I won't let somepony beat themselves up for no reason. We’ll...We’ll deal with when we get somewhere with a doctor,” he said, putting his hoof on my shoulder, surprising me. “I don't know what species you are or why I trust you this much, but let me worry about my sister. I’m gonna hang out here for a bit.”

He took his hoof off of me and went back to Boom’s side, leaving me completely stunned.
---
Arige and Kitty were on the crew deck, eating. Along with everyone else. Everyone was chowing down on what I suspected was the chimera that Tick mentioned. Aside from Arige and Kitty, Herpy and Vito were discussing something, the zebra crewmates (didn't bother to learn their names because I really don't care about them) were sitting together, just eating some exotic looking plants. Crow and Terk were busy at the cooking station, frying more meat. I didn't know where Mastodon was but then again he always did his own thing.

I took a deep breath and veiled my face, carefully concealing my scars. Wait, what about my eye? I thought to myself. My extremely strange eye was another thing heretically past to me by my long dead mother. I never bothered asking dad about it, never cared too much until some people started being non-verbally afraid of me when I so much as looked at them. Well, some people. Others just got bold and came right up to me as if they got a nerve or instinct to talk to me,. This normally resulted in some people become non-enemies or one of us getting hurt.

I gritted my teeth and switched my hair veil to the left side of my face. As much as I hate my human form in general, I don't want to scare the people that trust me. Considering my position, would it be the same thing? Its already been proven that just being around me has an effect on people. I need to test this stuff out one day. For now, I’ll just keep this thing hidden and if anyone asks about my scars, I’ll give them the Coleman treatment. I thought as I walked around the wall that separated the crew deck to the rest of the crew deck. This place is way too much like the Normandy.

The moment I came from behind the wall, all eyes went on me. Some were stunned, others looked afraid, most though just gave me a concerned nod. I nodded back to each one with look of surprise myself. Wow...No gasps, no wild questions...This is new. I went up to the cooking station and patted Crow accidentally on his wing. The midnight griffon cringed and quickly turned around, earning a chuckle from Terk.

Crow angrily turned to Terk, looking as if he was about to slap the mexican griffon. “Shut up Pavo! You know how sensitive wings are!”

Terk or Pavo, instantly stopped laughing. “Yo don't say my slave name man!”

Crow’s angry look quickly turned to guilt. “Okay I’m sorry, but you know how sensitive these things are! Anyway,” he said turning to me, concern replacing the guilt on his face with concern. “Glad your up, can I talk to you in the bunk room for a second?”

I nodded and the both of us started walking over to the left side of the deck. The bunk room where most of the crew slept looked more lived in. Allot of the beds were a mix of made and unmade, though I did miss some personal belongings that were here last time I walked through.

Crow stood on his hind legs and leaned against a bunk, crossing his arms. “You okay?” he asked, worried.

My face went slack with disappointment. “Nathan, I’m human again, what the fuck do you think?” I asked, quickly regretting it. I sighed. “Dammit...I’m sorry. I’ve been acting like a bitch since I got up. Mitchel got the blunt end of the fit.”

Crow stood calmly shook his head. “I don't get it. When we first saw you in Ashville, you still looked human, you just had some new skin. Well, and super magical powers.”

I groaned. “Thats the point, I had armor! Not this fleshy, soft...bag. When I took Burijas’s offer to come here, I didn't think he would change me that much. Thats why I was....Contempt, Calm, not the usual nervous wreck I was,” I explained,looking down at my glyph ingrained hands.

Crow just shook his head. “Is that why you drank so much?” He asked. I nodded, not meeting his eyes. He sighed. “Have you tried shape shifting yet?”

That struck a nerve.

My eyes opened wide and instead of answering his question, I started focusing all my will into my left hand. I thought about how I looked in the mirror only a day ago. Dark chitinous plates with lava-like flesh underneath. I focused that image onto just my hand and watched as my palm turned blood red, black plates seemingly growing from the center of my palm shortly after. I didn't know how long I was staring at my hand, but eventually I had a piece of my djinn form back.

Though, it was just my hand that went through the transformation, I felt as if I was coming down from a caffeinated sugar high, hard. I would had fell to the ground if Crow didn't catch me. “Whoa girl are you okay? You zoned out for a minute there.” he said, helping me up.

I smirked and brought my hand up to his beak. “I’ll be okay once I know how much power I have. Anyway, wheres Arige?”
***
Sheytan had been busy.

When we had first found the ship, the core deck was nothing but a room with a magic floating ball in it. Now, there was two rooms: one to the left of the core chamber and one to the right. The right room’s door had a slight japanese feel to it, while the one to the left looked more like a curtain than anything. I had distinct feeling who owned which one.

Because I didn't want to deal with the cluster-fuck, Pinkie-esc experiance of Kitty after coming back from a nap, I immediately started for the japanese door. As I pushed what I thought was Arige’s door, I was met with the subtle smell of jasmine. The smell was coming from an incense stick on top of a thin stone spire in the middle a pool of white sand the size of a small swimming pool. There was nothing else in the room other than a window on the far side of the room and the black tile that surrounded the pool. I scratch my head, confused at the storage room. I was about to ask aloud “where is he,” but was startled to see two blue reptilian eyes poke through the surface of the sand. Two scale covered claws surfaced shortly after, pulling up a broad, muscular body that reminded me of my brother’s physique. Within a minute, a large, green, anthropomorphic alligator standing over me.

A small smile grew on his scaly muzzle, his eyes showing a softness that surprised me the first time I saw it. “Hello there Ms.Idilah, I trust your nap was pleasant?” he asked coyly. I don't know why, but Arige’s voice reminded me of Bane from the Christopher Nolan films.

A nervous smile of my own. “Considering I possibly almost died yeah,” I almost laughed.

Arige chuckled as well. “So what brings you to my territory?” he asked, examining me closely. As inquisitive as I thought he was, Arige didn't seem that curious about my human body.

I rubbed my chin in thought, looking around the strange room. “How about you explain how the hell this room came to be. Last time I was down here, there definitely was not a sand swimming pool,”

Arige looked puzzled at my question, as if he was thinking of a explanation himself. “Well...To be simple, it just appeared. While you were in the face of danger, I was examining the core. I made a idle complaint that there wasn't many places for me to warm up and an hour later, this place appeared,” he explained.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed. “Gonna have to talk to She about this. Anyway, thats not what I came here for,” I said changing the subject.

“So why are you here?”

“Tell me everything about Mt. Frostmonth,” I asked simply. “This has to be the third stop we’ve made and every stop I’ve been to since I got here has been a death trap.”

Arige sighed happily and sat down on the white sand, the white grain almost solidifying under his weight. He patted the sand next to him invitingly. “Then I suggest you come and sit my friend. We have much to discuss. Mt Frostmonth has been in establishment for many years-,”

I groaned and pinched the bridge of my nose. “I just want the cliff-notes Arige,” I demanded, interrupting him. “Docking information, whether or not we can just land on top of her lab. If not, will we have to fight angry villagers? Or, even better information would be if her lab is surrounded and/or filled with more you’s?” I asked, annoyed.

Arige made sour face, almost disappointed even. “You take all the fun out of mystery you know that right?” he asked.

I shrugged. “I would apologize, but everypony's getting hit by the bitch train today. Now about the important parts of the mountain...”
***
After a thankfully short explanation from Arige, I had a pretty idea of what to do when we got there. And with that in mind, I flew up an elevator line back to the crew deck. First priority was evaluating my powers. Wait a minute...She! Sheytan! Goddammit, Sheytan answer me! I thought very loudly, standing in front of the elevator lines. After ten agonizing minutes of waiting and awkwardly letting people by, I gave up and headed for the training room, confused. Where the hell is She? Why the hell am I even asking that, she’s bound to the ship. Must be ignoring me, I thought as I headed for my room.

I opened my room door to see my huge family sized bed. I yearned to jump into the ospian black linens but closed the door and looked down at my hands. Time to see what I can do, I thought as I focus all my thought into making a small flame in my palms. What happened was gouts of blood red flames erupted from my hands, straight at my face. I threw back my head in surprise, closing my hands. “What the shit?!” I shouted, staring at my hands.

I calmly shook my hands noticed some dirt, or what I thought was dirt, drop from my fingers. Curiously, I smelled my palms and reeled back at the stench. “Oh...Lawd, that stinks a stench. But I can't shake the feeling I’ve seen this stuff before,” I thought outloud. I snapped my fingers in realization. “Aha! Napalm! Wait...My hands just made friggin napalm!” I yelled, staring at my palms. I smiled and clenched my fists. “Time to test something out.”

I clapped my hands together, cupping a pocket of air. I muttered a few magically imbued words into my cupped hands and the Sign for fire appeared on the back them. Well thats new, I thought as a very potent flame erupted from the small pocket I made. I focused on the flame, imagining it as a ball. Eventually, after about twenty minutes of intense focus, grains of I was sure was napalm started dropping from my ball of flame.

Pressure was beginning to build in the small chamber I made with my hands. I focused the shape of the fire even harder and doubled my force on my hands. Finally, I couldn't the pressure and threw the half made ball of fire into the window behind my bed, making a small hole that didn't so much shatter, but melted through like butter. Though some would view the damage as a show of failure but I was beaming at the damage. I looked down at my left hand and clenched it. “Well, that was awesome,” I said proudly.

Just as I was about to attempt another one, a knock and an intrusive slam of the door sounded behind me. I turned around to see a tall, scrawny, wolf-like diamond dog. He quickly sized me up and let out a impressed whistle. “Whoa. Even without fangs, you kind of look like a diamond dog. Oh yeah, we’re approaching Mt. Frostmonth. Vito said to let you know we’re gathering in the mess hall.”

Time to face the music, I thought, taking a deep breath. “Tell everyone I’m on way,” I ordered.

Mastodon smiled and mock saluted. “Yes ma'am lady Beta!” he said sarcastically before running off.

I face-palmed and tried to figure out what he just said. Before going out, I moved to the door on the right side of my bed, opening to see my black duster. Wondering who put it there, I slipped it on and marched out of the door.
---
“Okay, so you all must be non-verbally asking what exactly am I,” I said, standing in front of the massive dinner table. Everyone or everyone that could make it, was staring at me with a contempt stare. “To put it simply, I am human. Thats all you need to know about what I am. What you need to know is that if you ever ask what is wrong with my face...You’ll get hurt,” I said with a scary amount of assertiveness.

Everyone grimace and I continued. “Onto the plan. From what Arige has told me, the doctor’s compound does not have any type of air-ship port. But, there are clearings for us to land. Plus with Arige and Kitty leading the way, we should find a pathway used by one of the professor’s assistants,” I explained.

Crow leaned forward on the table in curiosity. “What kind of obstacles can we expect?” he asked nervously. I felt his unwillingness, considering the last time we went into an area we didn't know much about, we almost became food.

I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Unfortunately, from what Arige told me, the entire way is littered with sentries. And before you ask, Arige said they’re rotated around so he can't be sure what would be blocking our way. Although, considering you and Kitty something the professor made, can't you guys take point and escort us up?” I asked the Abominations.

Both of them shook their heads and Arige answered. “Well, I can't be sure. The others and I have been a part of Vito’s outfit for almost two years. It might be a...Stretch that any of the sentinels would remember our scent,” he explained.

I groaned with annoyance. “Alright, so you all know the risks. Who’s coming with for this one. Arige’s claw went up immediately, so did Kitty’s. Who’s claw that surprised me was Mastodon’s.

Mastodon caught my surprise or as much of a look I could give behind a veil of hair. “What? As much as I’ve loved sleeping for the past few days, I need some target practice,” he said confidently, flexing his crossbow arm.

I looked over at Vito who was nervously tapping at the table. “Not going with him?” I asked, confused. Though I never seen them off the ship, whenever I saw one, the other wouldn't be far behind. Vito stopped tapping the table and looked somewhere behind me nervously, heeding my warning. “Well...-,”

“Come on ya igit!” interrupted Mastodon. “What are you afraid of?”

Fear grew on Vito’s face. “You do NOT know Professor Flan. I’ll come with but only to see your face when you meet her,” he said snidely, making me nervous.

Herpy raised his hand and I nodded to him. “Why not take the Falcon to the facility? Bypass all the sentinels?” he suggested, earning a stare from everyone at the table. “What? Its finished. I have no problem showing off finished work,” he said proudly.I face-palmed and realized I had forgotten about Herpy’s boat that saved my life.

“Alrighty then,” I said. “Someone tell me how far we are from mt. Frostmonth,” I ordered.

“We’re right over the town,” Tick answered. “Did some scouting to clear my head. By now, we should be right over the town called-,”

“Doesn't matter. We already know where we’re going. We wasted enough time on scavenging and still have no idea if this doc even has any information on Jill or what's shes after. So screw the town. We keep Sheytan in the air and take the Falcon to the professor’s facility. We have a max of a few hours there at the most, then we move to Trotland to investigate where she would go,” I declared, everyone nodding back in approval. “Everyone who’s coming grab your gear and lets move. Herpy, your driving.”

Herpy snorted. “Would anyone else?”
***
I sat on the boat seat, leaning forward. Vito was next to me talking about Professor Flan, but I wasn't listening. I was too busy staring at Arige’s worried expression. He did say that there were sentries but he would mention if any of them could fly. Right?

Kitty was bouncing on the seat next to with barely contained excitement, much to Herpy’s annoyance. “Dammit, I told you to sit down girl! Do you have any idea how much time it took to make chimera leather? A damn long time!” he yelled at the excited abomination as he maneuvered the air-boat, drifting down to what looked like a hidden facility.

“I’m sorry!” Kitty apologized loudly. “I’m just so excited! I haven't seen the professor in a long time. I wonder what kinds of brothers and sisters shes made,” Kitty pondered aloud, tapping her dragon claw against her chin.

The building look almost like a school, with red brick walls, two floors and two wings coming from a long central building, making a T in a well sized clearing. The center of building had a flat top that looked like it was made for a small airship. Though it couldn't possibly hold the weight of Sheytan, the fact that the landing pad existed made me a touch annoyed.
“Land on the roof,” I ordered Herpy. “Lets meet the doctor.”

We slowly descended to the landing pad gracefully, got out and was greeted by black clothed figure that was definitely not there before. It was obviously a filly, standing on four snow white hooves that each had a suspicious black line of stitching just above the hoof and three across her muzzle, forming a V shape. She was wearing a black tattered cloak that attempted to hide her stitches and a black fedora that completely hid her muzzle. She raised her head to reveal her glowing red eyes. “Leave now! You are not welcome here,” she warned darkly.

I was about to reply with an angry comment but Arige cut me off. “I am a child of Professor Flan and demand to see her at once,” he said with authority.

The pony shook her head. “No you are not. You must have left this place a long time ago. Otherwise, I don't recognize you.”

Arige rolled his eyes. “Thats probably because your new,” he said, sounding annoyed. “I was born and constructed here by Professor Flan. I was only leased to this griffon,” he said pointing to Vito, who was next to him. Vito nervously waved to the cloaked filly. “He has released me from my contract and I would like to see the professor.

The filly scoffed mockingly. “If you were from here, you’d know that Flan isn't the professor. I don't know who you are but you aren't-,” the filly was interrupted by the door behind her suddenly slamming open, taking her with it in the process.

What stood in the doorway was possibly the most gorgeous zombie unicorn I’ve ever seen.

The zombie had pale blue coat and blonde hair. Not just her mane, her tail too. Large metal bolts jutted from each side of her head. She also had stitches too; one right above her right eye and one that went across her face, forming a creepy smile. She actually did smile and made me cridge. She gasped. “My babies!” She yelled at the abominations in next to me.

Kitty gasped louder and flew straight at the zombie mare and embraced her in a back-breaking hug. Arige calmly walked up from the hug fest and joined in. Vito, Mastodon and I just stared at the spectacle, completely confused.

The mare gently pushed them away, like a mother shooing away clinging children. “Now, what about our guests,” she mused. She first greeted Vito and Mastodon with businesslike smile. “Ah, Vito. Mastodon. How have you been?” she asked them both.

Vito nervously rubbed the back of his head. “Not sooo great. We had...Some issues,” he started.

Mastodon sigh loudly. “He means our entire operation has gone to shite,” Mastodon finished. “Look, we need your help.”

Flan considered him for a minute but switched her attention to me. “That can wait my wolfish friend,” she said staring quizzically at me. I was already behind my hair veil but the look that Flan was giving me was like a cat that had found a new toy to play with. She approached me with paced excitement and lifted a hoof to greet me. “We have definitely not met before. I am Doctor Flankentstein, but I prefer Flan,” she greeted gently.

I took her hoof and shook it firmly. “I’m Idilah Blood and before you ask, I’m human,” I replied.

Flan gasped in surprise. “Oh my, thats what you are. You must let me examine you! I could make an entire report to the professor! I could, I could-,” I stopped her with a raised hand.

“I’m sorry but any other time, I’d let you. But right now, I need to ask you something,” I began but was interrupted by the filly from earlier slammed the door back, urgency on her muzzle. “Flan, we don't have time for this! There another wave coming!” she yelled at the doctor.

Flan blushed and looked back to me, embarrassed. “I’m sorry, but we’ve recently ran into some problems with some dogs,” she said to me.

Vito’s expression became serious. “Flan, do these dogs wear anything? Vest perhaps?”

Flan tapped her chin. “I don't know. Velcro,” she said, looking at the filly. “Did you see any of them wearing clothing?”

The filly, Velcro, turned to the roof ledge. “Here comes another wave, why don't you see for yourself?” she asked Vito sarcastically.

Vito, Mastodon and I came up beside Velcro, peering over the side. In the distance, we could see several yellow flashes moving between trees. There were about 20 of them, each one carrying either a gem spear or a crossbow. They all looked they were covered in blood of various sources.

Arige appeared next to me, looking at the approaching dogs worriedly. “Well, that explains what happened to the sentries,” he said darkly.

Velcro nodded. “They started attacking last night. Suspiciously right after that mad-mare Jill left.”

My ears perked at that. “Wait, Jill was here?” I asked urgently.

Velcro nodded again. “Yes and Flan will tell you about it later. Alligator thing, you go with Flan and protector at all costs. The new guys and I are going to have a party with the fleabags,” she ordered, smiling at Arige. Mastodon groaned. “No offense.”

I turned to Vito, who was slipping some bladed knuckles onto his claws. He looked worried, almost hesitant. I clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Are you going to be able to do this?” I asked.

Vito snorted. “Yeah, yeah I am. But after all this is over, you have to let me retrieve those vests. Commissioning those things took forever and I hate wasting money,” retorted, looking at me with resolve.

I took my hand off his shoulder and got out my revolver, that of which was in my duster for reasons unknown. “Alright then,” I said cocking the hammer. “Lets give ‘em hell. And nothing else,” I declared, taking aim.