|
|
Post by Shenks on Aug 5, 2018 18:46:27 GMT -5
Taro Shenks flew for hours, first over a lush jungle, then plains, and finally a large desert. The sun was starting to set over the horizon, and there it was. This must be the city where that ape who lured and stole Shenks' treasure ran off to. It seemed like quite the trade hub, with a number of ships hovering about, in and out of the city.
'Good timing...' Shenks thought to himself; he was getting tired from flying for most of the day, right after the debacle in the pyramid. He really wanted to rest, but he had to ask around and see if he could find that monkey before he sold all the treasure and left this place.
Finally Taro's waraji sandals touched down on the bustling city street. Night had fallen, and the large city was lit up. Shenks was in the market. There were shops and kiosks strewn about, and people inquiring about items to all of the vendors. There was a lot of technology and mechanical parts being sold, as well as any variety of item one could think of.
'First thing I need to do is start asking around.' he thought to himself. He looked around and saw a pawn shop, a mechanical store, and jewel store, a weapon vendor, and a shish kebab kiosk.
With two shish kebabs in each hand, Shenks turned to leave the vendor before snapping back around and asking the vendor:
"Oh yeah! Have you seen a monkey-anthro with some treasure of something? About this tall?" He held his hand up about chest height.
"Sorry buddy, nobody that really stood out." Replied the shish kebab dealer.
Shenks continued down the road, stopping people and going into shops while eating his chicken-on-a-stick asking about Enji.
[words: 295]
|
|
|
|
Post by Shenks on Aug 5, 2018 21:12:29 GMT -5
Shenks was down to the last piece of chicken on his last shish kebab stick, and he still hadn't found any leads. As he walked up to the door of yet another pawn shop, it opened before he could touch the handle, and he came face to face... well chest to face, with the very ape he was looking for. The anthro's face went pale and his goofy smile washed into a cold look of terror as he put away the zeni he was counting on his way out. Shenks was just shocked at this luck, he hadn't really reacted yet.
'Maybe he didn't figure out what I did. Maybe this meeting is just a coincidence.' Enji thought to himself. He forced a smile so wide it forced his eyes shut and said, "Hi there buddy! How did the treasure hunt go?" one of his eyes opened to see the response.
Shenks' blank expression shifted to rage as he called out with a roar, "YYOU!" and he pounced on his mark. Enji slipped out of the way and Shenks rolled into an item in the shop. "HEY! NOT INSIDE!!" Said the shop keep. Enji dove out the door and Shenks followed, chasing the ape down the street. "Get over here you little thief!" Shenks called out. Pedestrians cleared the way for the chase and looked on as the chase was set.
[words: 231]
|
|
|
|
Post by Shenks on Aug 5, 2018 21:49:46 GMT -5
Enji turned a corner into an alley way while Shenks was hot on his trail. The monkey jumped up a fire escape and swung onto the roof. Shenks bounced off the walls to get up and the chase continued by way of the rooftops. Enji looked back nervously toward his pursuer. He had not been able to create any distance between them. Shenks followed a few meters behind as they leaped from one rooftop to another until reaching what seemed to be the end of a block.
As they got closer they both stopped, shocked, looking on to the overgrown mess of roots and plant life that had demolished what used to be a part of West City. Their squabble seemed small for a moment. Enji was the first one to come back to his senses and he jumped off the roots into the ruins. It would be easier to hide from Shenks in there. Shenks reacted to the movement of the ape-anthro and followed him down.
The entire area was blocked off from the public and deserted. An eerie atmosphere was palpable. Shenks didn't want to run around in there, but he had to follow his target. Enji squeezed in between a root and broken window to get into a building. "Crap." Shenks said to himself. 'I can't fit through that. Where else can I get in?' he asked himself as he looked around.
[words: 235]
|
|
|
|
Post by Shenks on Aug 5, 2018 22:19:51 GMT -5
Shenks kicked a half-broken door into pieces, clearing a way into the the building that was uplifted by what seemed like massive roots. 'This must be from the attack I heard about on the news a while back.' he thought to himself as he combed through the rooms. As he turned a corner he saw Enji turn the next corner down a long hallway. 'Aha!' he thought to himself. 'I thought I lost him!' Shenks sprinted down the hall and turned the corner to see the door to the staircase swing shut. Shenks followed through the door and started up the stairwell. He climbed and crawled through the staircase gnarled with roots, making it very difficult to traverse. That ape was surely getting through this faster than Shenks.
Finally Shenks made it to the top of the staircase. The door to the roof was destroyed and the vines continued to climb above the building. Shenks scanned the roof for Enji at no avail. 'he must have jumped again.' He said to himself. He ran over to the edge and looked down.
Enji had a plan. He had parked his small ship in this district for a quick getaway, and it was waiting for him when he jumped off the roof. Enji's ship hovered up to the rooftop where Shenks was looking over, and the ape laughed at him. "I win this time, jerk!" But his smile changed quickly when Shenks jumped from the roof onto the wing, interrupting Enji's victory-boast.
[words: 250]
|
|
|
|
Post by Shenks on Aug 6, 2018 11:07:50 GMT -5
The ship rocked back and forth in attempt to take off and counter-balance from Shenks' abrupt boarding. He clung on in all four with his tail wrapped around metal handle on the ship. Enji glanced nervously at Shenks as he turned the ship to face the sky. Shenks kept his eyes locked on the ape. He anticipated the sudden boost of speed and braced himself. Taro's toes reached over the edge of his sandals, and they, along with his fingers made dents in the wing and hull of the ship as he held on against the abrupt acceleration.
While still at speed, he crawled, slowly, one limb at a time, leaving a trail of dents before reaching the hatch that opens the small ship. Enji nervously pressed the 'lock' button and an audibly futile click was made as the hatch locked. Shenks stuck his fingers in the seal while gripping the ship with his toes and in two attempts he yanked the cover of the ship clean off and it flew off behind them. Enji screamed as Shenks jumped into the cockpit behind him and wrapped his arms around his neck until he fell unconscious. Shenks then let go of the choke and lifted the ape by the nape and switched seats with him to take control of the ship. He started steering the ship, his face-skin helplessly waving in the wind without a windshield.
[words: 235]
|
|
|
|
Post by Shenks on Aug 6, 2018 17:58:12 GMT -5
The ape's ship was parked on top of a massive boulder in the desert under the light of the quarter-moon in the clear night sky. A fire blazed on as Shenks sat on a rock roasting a large lizard on a stick. Enji was passed out behind him. Or so it seemed.
The monkey-anthro's eyes opened and scanned his environment. He wasn't tied up, or injured, or anything, but he didn't move a muscle as to avoiding bringing light to his recent return to consciousness.
Shenks gnawed at his lizard-on-a-stick, pulling pieces of meat from the bone and chewing blissfully. Enji carefully studied his captor, slowly moving one part of his body at a time in attempt to inch his way toward his ship for a stealthy getaway.
The ape managed to silently slip into his cockpit unnoticed, never taking his eyes off Shenks. He reached over the dash to feel for the ignition but something felt odd. Enji looked down closely at the ignition switch and on close examination he noticed that it had been ripped right out of the dashboard. At that moment a small pointy stick flicked across his head. It was the stick Shenks had been using to cook his foot. Enji jumped and lookes quickly toward the fire.
"Looking for this?" Shenks asked nonchalantly raising his left hand over his head, which had been holding the entire ignition component of the engine having been torn out.
[words: 241]
|
|
|
|
Post by Shenks on Aug 8, 2018 0:19:39 GMT -5
Enji was already at work by the time Shenks started his sentence, tinkering and creating a quick solution to the lack of ignition. By the time Shenks finished what he had said and raised his hand with the ignition that had been torn out, the ship had suddenly started running.
"Holy shit! I didn't think he was that crafty!"
Shenks jumped up and turned around in disbelief as the ship took off. He took off in flight after the monkey-anthro in the ship, but it wasn't long before he lost them, the ship was faster than he could fly, and he lost track of it in the desert canyons at night.
Shenks returned to the rock where he had previously landed the ship, there was a bag by the stone that he was sitting on. His camp fire had been blown out by the ship's take off, but his bag was still there. Enji may have gotten away, but Shenks was able to retrieve some of his treasure from the ship, and all the Zeni that the ape had. Enji had nothing but the ship, and Shenks got what was rightfully his. He didn't know what he was going to do with the little scam-artist-thief anyway. Maybe it was for the best that he escaped, Shenks thought. He wasn't interested in pursuing the monkey man anymore, and he didn't think he would ever have any problems with him again anyway.
"Maybe I shouldn't have flown that ship so far into the desert though..." Shenks said out loud, lamenting at the journey he would have to make to get back on track with his original objective. This whole debacle had veered him quite far off course.
He decided to get his fire going again and just sleep out on the rocks under the moonlight even though he knew he's only get a few hours of sleep anyway. He woke up before sunrise as the fire died out, grabbed his bag and took off. He returned to West City just as the city started to bustle, and visited a number of shops to sell the various items of treasure he had left for Zeni. Before long, Shenks' bag was empty and ready to be discarded and he had a hefty bit of Zeni on him.
Later that day he was asking around for passage on a ship heading to Central City, but it was more rare to find than he had expected. Through his inquiring, he discovered that Central City had been destroyed some time ago. He thought there must have still been people there and he continued to ask around. Everything available was either unjustifiably expensive, or involved smuggling him in some way. he continued to ask around until finally someone mentioned something.
"Yeah, there's a guy on the edge of the ruins. He has a small ship and he is desperate for Zeni. He'll probably take you there at a discount!" The man divulged before getting back to his business.
Shenks made his way down the street until it died down. He turned the corner to find the pilot he was hearing about, and it happened to be Enji. Furious, Enji charged at Shenks as soon as he saw him, swinging wildly at the man as he easily evaded the attacks, kicking the ape in the ass as he stumbled away. Enji attempted again to attack furiously, but Shenks, with his calm demeanor, had no problem evading and then knocking the little guy off balance with a flick of his tail. The next time Enji got up, he did not charge at Shenks, just furiously clenched his fists and grit his teeth.
"What do you want! You took everything I had!" Enji yelled. Shenks couldn't believe his ears.
"YOU were the one who tricked ME and snatched the treasure while I almost died! Everything I took is mine." Shenks said.
"Well why the hell did you come find me here then?" the ape asked.
"Someone told me someone was here trying to make money off of ship rides. I'm sure that's some kind of scam, but you're going to take me to Central City." Shenks suggested quite imposingly.
"I'm not taking you anywhere!" Enji snapped back.
"I'll pay you." Shenks rebutted.
"Why do I feel like I don't have a choice in this matter?" Enji hopped into the open cockpit of his less-than-perfect condition ship. He patted the back seat with his hands while looking at Shenks. "Well, what are you waiting for? let's go!" Shenks walked over and settled himself into the small ship wondering how long he would have to stay crammed into this tight fit.
[Words: 778]
|
|
