[Summer – Shadow Valley Desert]

The Department of Misconduct, the closest thing to be considered the law, narrowly missed Jennings, but had no real chance of catching them. With the amount of dishonesty and treason within the ranks, the entity was more of a front than Sloan residents liked to ponder.

Dust settled well before they arrived and collected testimony from the Marbrook citizens caught in the chaos of Jennings’ actions. Remaining one town ahead for now, he and Poni exchanged pleasantries in the meanwhile, the Sun beamed down on them like the grandest spotlight.

“Well, that took a turn for the worse faster than expected. Hmm… Guess we are going to have to go the long and round the desert route, sorry bud.” He snickered, proceeding, “Even if it takes many Suns, we must chat with Isaac before it's too late, important to be alive to do so, I reckon’,” stated Jennings.

The horizon’s scintillation was beautifully still, with clouds petrified, staining themselves onto the landscape. Sureal was a minuscule city on the outskirts of the vast Shadow Valley Desert, within the developing state of Sloan. On horseback it could take up to two weeks to traverse the harsh conditions of the infamous local desert. This was not uncommon territory for Jennings, as he had traveled through many states and valleys on his road to get to the expertise level where he stands today. Even if he knew it could be classified as naive, it still brought him the slightest amount of joy to remain close enough to where he was raised.

Several hours had passed since the getaway from the Lone Star Bar in Marbrook City. Jennings knew that authorities from the D.o.M. must have already regrouped from his rapid departure earlier on horseback, one that ensured a brief head start.

“Look… left side,” Poni said in his hushed horse voice that interrupted Jennings' thought process.

J.J. looked out into the distance to see a group of bandits harassing someone. He looked away, trying to ignore his inner conscience, which he kept telling himself had died long ago.

“We can't waste time on shit that doesn't concern us Poni. I may have dealt with shit my whole life, doesn't mean I go lookin’!” argued Jennings. Poni stopped moving, halting to a complete stop. “Hey what the -,” questioned Jennings to his horse. “I told you.” said Jennings, now arguing with himself as his intelligent horse stares back as if to say “We're doing this?”

“Fine!” Jennings had given in to the peer pressure of his silent, talking horse who he's raised since childhood.

Poni was a gift from a higher-ranked individual within the Shark’s hierarchy in Sureal while Jennings was just 13 years old. He was the youngest to ever receive a horse within his group and grew fond of Poni from the start, learning how to ride him within the span of a few weeks, once more, fast for his age. JJ was praised as a natural with animals, not so much with people.

It would be years before an old Agisi named Fredrick Carter, who specialized in animal Agi, gave Poni a voice. It was a new form of Agi utilization at the time, allowing humans to communicate with other animals given they had the ability to utilize the power. It would have been very difficult for him to guess at the time that he had received a new best friend as his gift. He grew a soft spot for the horse and has vowed to treat him as a part of his family.

With all previous concerns departed from his mind, Jennings directed Poni toward the group of bandits after an audible sigh.

“...Get back, you crooks!” yelled Jennings as he approached the group of bandits displaying half-hearted vigor. They stumbled back in a delayed surprise.

“Ey Griswald, who tha’ fuck is this joker?” muttered one of the men in the group. Jennings looked down to see who they had been troubling, unconcerned with the hooligan's comment. He notices a young woman with medium-length black hair and covered in, now torn, robes. She had been visibly beaten and showed pain in her expression as she lifted her weakened head to see the face of the man who had invited himself into this commotion.

“I said...who are you, hero? You her gentleman or you just want some money for silence?” laughed the unnamed bandit to his group. “Yeah, yeah, I know your creed. Not actually made of the innards for bravery, but loud enough to get a piece of the pie.”

“I want you all to leave. Never bother her again and it won't be the last decision you make in this life.” He shouted back. Jennings shaped his ice-endowed fingertip into a gun, jousting it out towards the bandits. He steps forward in one heavy step, an intimidating deadpan expression on his face.

“Woah, woah, woah. We found that bravery I see here,” the largest bandit of the group steps forward looking at his colleagues, seemingly to show his dominance to maintain the situation.

“I give my respect to a man with the balls to threaten seven men, with weapons I do say, to their face. Shit...most men don't have the respect of ‘Big Bad’ Griswald. You should be proud. Tell ya' what here, hot shit. You jump on your lil' ol' horse there and scurry back to Marbrook, an’ we'll forget we saw your face here today. Who knows after we're done witcha', you can probably buy her from the Kado Market and get all your money's worth. Oh and of course I forgot the best damnedest part! You get to live. How about the sound of that, cowboy?!” finished Griswald.

“No.” Jennings stressed as he shot two ice shards from his blue-glowing fingertips. The shards fly straight through two cackling jaws on each side of Jennings, killing them instantly, mid-laugh.

“Wha-!? Get em'!” shouted Griswald to his remaining men. All five rush JJ with daggers and one holding an axe. Jennings bobbed and weaved every attack from them with ease and dexterity. He proceeded to throw one onto the ground. Jennings created a small but jagged ice shard to finish him off with a jabbed-stab to the throat.

Jennings knocked another guy out and followed up with a second bandit being struck in the face. The overwhelmed bandit fell to the ground, his dagger landing first inside his chest before rolling over, dead.

The last two attackers charge Jennings from his front attempting to catch him off guard. Jennings slides to the right of the bandit holding the ax, and attempts to disarm him. With a controlled strike to the elbow, Jennings easily took control of the battle. He quickly picked up the ax from the ground and swung it across both bandits faces in one, harsh slicing motion. The two heads stuck in the ax, the bodies faltered to the floor.

“The hell-!?” Griswald cried before he chuckled a bit. “You're pretty damn good at this it seems… Good, I been wantin' a challenge!”

Griswald began to roll back the sleeves on his long-sleeved shirt, giving Jennings a better glimpse of the muscular frame that he would be facing shortly. As expected of Jennings, he didn’t let Griswald have a second to get comfortable. Jennings sent an ice shard hurling towards Griswald's face, but the grimy bandit was prepared to block it with an earth Agi spell. He raised his arm in front of his face, a protective casing of hardened stone cut off Jennings’ attack.

Calmly absorbing his surroundings, Jennings was quite surprised that this random bandit had been able to learn the skills of earth Agi. It is considered one of the tougher Agi specialties to master.

“What? You thought I was like those idiots?” said Griswald in a cocky manner.

Catching Jennings off balance this time, Griswald is able to tackle him to the ground and wrap his monstrous hands around Jennings’ neck. Unable to overpower his opponent and at a distinct disadvantage, Jennings struggled to escape from his clutches.

“Was it worth this bitch? Huh!?” yelled Griswald, as he continued to drain the life slowly from Jennings’ body by not allowing him a single breath. Becoming desperate, Jennings tried spitting in the bandit's sweaty face, but that didn't lessen his grip one bit and just made him angrier.

“Grrrraahhhhh...!” screamed Griswald before stopping abruptly and loosening his grip. The woman in torn clothes had taken advantage of Griswald switching his attention to Jennings and kicked him square in the testicles. Griswald dropped to the scalding desert ground in agony, cupping his groin. After Jennings regained his composure, he stood up and drew his gun, aiming it at Griswald.

“Hey! Look … I don' want to-, do-'' uttered Griswald before Jennings ended his sentence abruptly with a bullet to the face, killing him instantaneously. Followed by the outlaw staring down at the biggest corpse he had contributed to in a while and said to himself, “Fuck his offer.”