WANTED

"An army?" Jensen sighed and began rubbing his temples with one hand. "So, lem'me get this straight...this here girl is royalty?" His gaze lifted toward Tamara, attempting to read her expression, yet drew nothing. "Listen, we ain't interested in the bounty," he admitted. The second the words emerged, Tamara shot him a puzzled look.

"We ain't?" she inquired, skeptical. She didn't have the slightest clue about what her captain was rambling about. Personally, she thought he was insane for passing up the bounty, but nevertheless knew there must be a good reason.

"No, we ain't. If what you say is true 'bout an army bein' on our tails, I suggest we get the hell of this place, hm?" Jensen lowered his gun and reached back to rub his aching shoulder. "I'm feeling a mite generous today, so I say we all get off this shithole and find a place safe enough so you both can explain things in a bit more detail, ai'right?"

Tamara didn't lower her gun. She was too skeptical about this man and quite frankly, she hated being left in the dark when Jensen had one of his "moments" She eyed her captain again before cautiously lowering her gun. "If you say so, Captain." She maneuvered around Auron and forced him away from Odette. She was quite powerful for a woman. "Since we're taking you both aboard, you get to keep your distance from the girl 'til we reach the ship, sound fair?"

The Blue Opal was stationed up near the docks. If they weren't careful, there would be a hell of a lot of guards chasing after them if this girl was as wanted as that man said. So, Jensen being Jensen, he approached Odette and looked her over. "If you expect to walk around without bring attention to yourself, girlie, I suggest you dress yourself up all manly. Go trade clothes with Tamara."

The instant the words sprung from her captains mouth, Tamara glared at him. "Captain?"

You heard me. This girl ain't blending right. You...well, you go both ways. Ain't gonna seem suspicious if you go on and trade clothes 'til we find this girl here some of her own." Jensen went over and grabbed Auron by the collar, leading him from the room. "Let's let the ladies get some privacy, ai'right?"

Tamara glanced over at Odette, sighing heavily. "He's right, you know. Looking like that you'l be dragging a lot of curious eyes onto you. C'mon, lets trade." Without thinking, she began unbuttoning her tan shirt, turning away from Odette upon instinct. Once the short was off, she handed it to the girl.

Auron remained his composure even when the princess started to cry for help; it was an inconvenience for the hired man to have her already make some friends on Pasino, but that was hardly going to stop him from doing his job. As the door was kicked down, his hold on the princess tightened on reflex, pulling her closer for her protection; although, the young girl saw it differently and began to struggle more. Her tiny hands gripped at his forearm, using her sharp nails to dig into his flesh to inflict pain in hopes his grip would loosen.

Auron's ice blue eyes focused on the male in front of him, the very same man from the bar; however, the other female wasn't someone he had remembered from the bar or even beforehand. Auron made the assumption these two were out for the pay just as he was, though the hired man couldn't trust them enough or at all to lay a life of royality in their hands. Auron had glanced over his shoulder to see his passage blocked to the window by the unknown woman. If he was alone on this, he would have taken the bold plunge to distract the two with a gun shot before making the leap; however, he couldn't risk the princess injured in anyway.

"I can tell, the two of you know nothing about this girl here," he stated, his eyes returning to the man in front, obviously the one that the princess called as "captain". "This one brings a whole heap of trouble and by Lord as my witness, I do not lie."

Odette had lowered her eyes at this point, knowing very well the man with his hold on her was indeed telling the truth. However, her trust with people was already on a balance beam. Her eyes lifted up to the captain before her eyes turned towards the man that had his arm around her torso. She was at a stand still with a man (like so many) that claimed to be under the name of her father, though she failed to see the knight of arms on anywhere of his clothes and he did not look anything more than a bounty hunter himself and two people who did in fact look merely bounty hunters themselves...but the man was nice enough to let her go, but she didn't know if they wanted her head as well.

"Save yourselves the trouble and let this one go, or you'll have an entire army chasin' after you."

[OOC: Yeees! I got it up XD <3]

(Private for Question)
Jensen grunted, wincing in pain for a moment before pulling back his fist and slamming it into the jaw of a wide-mouth drunkard. "I told you I ain't got work for you!" he hollered, wiping sloppily at a trickle of blood near his mouth, his eyes never leaving the man--now collapsed on the filthy ground. Why the hell had he agreed to come back to this godforsaken place? he argued with himself. Oh, right. Because Tamara got herself into some trouble, that's why! Rolling his eyes he turned back toward the bartender, tipping his hat before seating himself.

"What will it be, sir?" The bartender placed a glass before Jensen, eyeing him rather cautiously. The man was short and bulky, his clothes tattered, but it made him blend in a hell of a lot better than Jensen! A look around and anyone could guess this neck of the desert was filled with hick folk and mercenaries, all grabbing at an opportunity for a job should a traveler step afoot in this tavern. Money was a rare thing to come by when you lived nearly no where where not even tourists filtered through.

Jensen laughed, shaking his head. "Whiskey," he said. It had been three years since he'd stepped foot inside Tom's Tavern here in little old Pasino. Back then though just about everyone was looking to get a piece of the fortune he'd acquired…illegally, of course. When the authorities came knockin', Jensen went running. When he reached the outskirts of town he met Tamara, a girl who's gun skills wound up saving him that day. Gal was a true artist with a pistol when she shot down each rugged officer in the leg, knocking them down like bowling pins. The unfortunate part about her being of assistance, was she demanded half of his stolen goods, and man that gal didn't take no for an answer. In fact, you even utter the word and before you know it a shiny pistols waving in front of your face.

Him and Tamara wound up pairing up, the both well established mercenaries looking to do any job, even if labeled impossible and deadly. Those were Tamara's favorite kind, after all. But a few months back the duo had been separated when their ship, Blue Opal, had been attacked by space pirates. They pillaged everything, and as a way to keep Jensen from following and exacting some sort of retribution, they took Tamara and skidaddled. Not long after they dumped here on Pasino where she was now stranded. But as luck would have it she was no where in sight when he arrived…and now every desperate mercenary was paying him a visit, begging to become apart of his crew. Anything to get out of this dump and earn a descent sum of cash.

As Jensen left the tavern, a flyer located on the right hand side of the door was posted….WANTED. A smirk flew across his lips as he leaned over to study it. A pretty woman, not bad. How hard could it be? 'sides that award was looking pretty sweet. But, as Jensen turned to eye the bar mates…he frowned. Maybe one of these scumbags'll be willing to help a foreigner out, he thought. First one who comes up to me before I leave has the job! he decided with a smile, heading back toward the bar and ordering himself up another whiskey.




Cliché was the last thing Odette wanted to say at being the young age of 19, although what she knew was cliché and the truth. The entire world and no doubt the universe was against her. Odette wished she could say figuratively, even spiritually; however, she knew on every planet, every colony, every ship, would be looking for her one way or another.

Odette Vivaldi was the daughter of King Mark Luis Vivaldi the 3rd, a man worshiped and despised by their home world, Alidmir. King Vivaldi had started a secret civil war that only graced his mind once after a few years into power, after his mother, Queen Marie Annette Vivaldi had passed when she was 98. The people, who worshiped him, did whatever they could to protect their lord and keep him in power; then there were the people who loathed the King for making peaceful treaties when they wanted military conquest, and they wanted to bring the King to his knees before cutting off his head.

Odette was in the middle of all this, having overheard a conversation between her father's adviser and the military general talk of mutiny. She was the only one who knew of their disloyalty, and sadly she could not escape before they had found her peering through the cracked door. Their mind set was for murder when they had her in their grasp, and to blame it on another to cause more of an uproar within the kingdom.

However, Odette did not live without learning how to defend herself from people like these men; she broke from their grasp and darted off. Sadly, with the military general and adviser being the ones trying to capture her, they quickly turned nearly the whole kingdom against her to prevent her escape. She could not tell her father the real news in this fit of fury and nor would he believe her; the king was surely told that Odette is rebelling or caused a vile deed that is making her guilty soul run.

She could only hide within the confines of the universe until things had settled down with her father and mother before returning. However, it wasn't even a day of being absent, that mercenaries, bounty hunters, hired men, and police officials were chasing her ship to capture her; however, she knew these men had one out of two sides: her father's and the adviser's. Odette didn't want to risk on trusting anyone, even the police officials, she was sure if she surrender, her life would end immediately.




Odette had traveled far from her home and crossed the distance of her record of longest travels; however, this wasn't in any way of a good experience for her. The old storage ship she drove was breaking down from the several shots in warning and full on attack. She was low on fuel and had no map of the galaxy or even knowledge how to obtain fuel, and it wasn't long until the ship started to beep its warning signal of dying in the middle of space.

Odette guided the ship towards a planet that seemed to have some sorts of inhabitance on the ships flying in and out of the orbit. Sadly, flying wasn't part of her ship's schedule; once she arrive into the orbit, the ship had shut down. No longer flying, but falling towards the planet's surface. Odette had buckled herself in and curled up on the chair, hiding her face within her knees, praying she would live to see another sunset. However, in amidst of her praying, everything went black.

The young girl woke up flattened upon the controls, groaning in pain from the driver's stick that had rammed against her stomach when she fell forward. Odette pulled herself up, looking through the windshield to find a desolate desert surrounding her; her forehead dropped back down and collided against the controls once more in aggravation.

With no resources, food, water, or guidance, Odette really had no choice but to exit her ship and start her aimless walk through the desert to hopefully come across a town. Hours she wandered, her feet stinging to the constant fiction of the sand that found their way into her sandals. What had been her robe, turned into a cloak to cover her body from the sun to avoid being burned.

Against her previous judgment, Odette had actually stumbled her way into a town; it wasn't ideal or what she would have preferred, though from where she stood, she could see a tavern, and that was all Odette needed. She hurried towards the tavern, stumbling over herself as her weak body carried her in; she sighed softly in relief to feel the sun removed from her and she glided herself to the bar.

The poor girl dropped herself against the counter, her small body slipped on to the bar stool positioned behind her. "Please, good sir, I would care for some water," she pulled off her hood from her head, giving the bartender a smile. "Lots of it."

The bartender stood still for a brief moment before he had taken a step back, though obviously only to gain distance from her. Odette furrowed her brows in question before her shoulders shrugged forward in dismay; she really should have known better.

Her chin tilted over her shoulder, her eyes glancing around in fear to see nearly all, if not most, of the occupants staring at her in a greedy and some with a lustful manner. Odette whimpered faintly, turning to face them all; hopefully her words could change their tune. "I....I am--I....Me...I--"

'Drats.'

Odette wished there was some other way out of this, though everything pointed to one thing: run. The young girl pushed off of the counter and sprinted towards the door, and just as she reacted so did most of the bar. Not even half-way to the door, a large male blocked her way, grinning sinisterly at her; her heart stopped all together in fright and she stepped back to gain distance. Cornered, like a mouse to hundreds of cats.

Odette lost her footing and she toppled over, praying to live for another sunset, and her father's--or someone's protection against the herd of vile men.

[OOC: I hope this is okay XD Odette is really my main character so I could have my hired man come in my next post, not trusting Jensen on his side (since my hired man is for the King) and does not want Jensen to possibly kill her.]




Jensen hadn't seen Odette enter the tavern, more focused on the WANTED poster...which he then removed and tucked inside his vest pocket. The usual clamoring of the bar became silenced, and curiously his eyes shifted around, following everyone's gaze toward the bar where.... He slowly inhaled, freezing completely. It's the girl on the flyer, he thought, almost astounded. Well, this certainly was the first time a bounty had fallen into his lap. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't the only one who recognized her.

As she made her way in a weakened sprint toward the door to make her escape, he positioned himself in front of the exit, keeping her from her desired freedom. His smile softened, his eyes turning onto the hoards of men in pursuit. "Alright yeh vile pigs!" he shouted, causing every man, including the bartender to stop what they were doing. "Ya'll just turn right around, you hear?"

"Why the fuck would we listen to you?" a man shouted, his pudgy face wrinkling in distaste. Upon hearing the comment, Jensen pulled his Beretta 92f from its holster and casually aimed it into the crowd, immediately gaining space from them all.

"This here lady needs to be escorted... She ain't who you think she is, got it?" Nodding like obedient dogs, the men slowly withdrew, however their eyes never left Odette for a single second. Jensen squatted, looking Odette straight in the eye. "Right now I imagine you'd want to run to your hearts content. You are after all a wanted fugitive," he said, keeping his pistol aimed away from her. "Now I haven't really decided whether your actually worth turning in or if you'd just cause me trouble, so take advantage of my indecision and get yourself some rest. Here." He reached into his vest and pulled out an old antique styled key with the number 12 on it. "Just left of this tavern is an inn. The keeper ain't there, so you can go it right as rain without being seen. I'll uh...hold these bastards off, I guess." Jensen eyed the men again. "Go on, get to it!" He moved aside, just enough for her to squeeze through and make an escape.

(Your post was really good, actually. I liked it a lot (: )




Odette had closed her eyes at the boom of the man's voice, worried that he would be the kind of man such as the adviser and join forces with unspeakable men and attack an innocent girl; sadly, she knew that the adviser made her less innocent than she really was. She opened an eye when she heard the man order the rest to step back; however, she cringed at the sight of the gun and scooted back.

When she heard things had settled down, Odette opened both her ice blue eyes to find herself face-to-face with the man. She flinched back, her lower lips quivering in fear as they locked eyes. At the words spoken of her being a criminal, her mouth parted to retort though she couldn't put her word in when he spoke up again. Her eyes drifted down to the key and fear engulfed her once more; her father was the first one to teach her the scoundrel acts of man, and she didn't want her flower to be taken away by a man she did not trust or even loved.

However, she had no other choice in this matter; it was escape and finally have some rest or be captured by a less ideal man. She reached forward and took the key hesitantly before standing up to her feet; she nodded her head at the man in her gratitude but she hurriedly slipped around his form to race out of the tavern. Odette pulled up her hood to be safe before she had exited the tavern all together.

As the man had said, the Inn was just left of the tavern and she didn't waste any time finding the room; she rushed up the stairs and ran to the door, using the key the man gave her and slipped in. Odette closed and locked the door behind her, softly panting, suddenly realizing how frightened she was. The young girl carried her tired body to the bed and dropped down upon it; her heavy eyelids drooped and closed on her, sending the young maiden to sleep.




Auron Szasz was one of the men whose eyes had fallen upon Odette from the very moment she walked through the door; however, at first it was only for the matter she had a good looking body, though his eyes remained upon her for different reasons when she had removed her hood. Many would call this luck, he just called it stupidity on Princess Odette's part, but he couldn't blame the girl, she was only nineteen years of age and a princess.

He would have made his move quickly to take her, when she placed the spotlight on herself for stammering and racing to the door like a rat. He watched her closely, allowing time to pass to see his next move; when a rough looking male got in her way, he once more waited. Auron had remained still in his seat in the corner of the tavern from the very beginning, not at all making any sort of notion he's after her aside from the curious by-stander look.

Auron peered to see the room key that was handed to Odette, reading the number quickly before shifting his gaze back up to Odette. It wasn't long before the princess had made her escape and he didn't want to stick around to watch one big head take on an entire tavern. He placed down his money to pay for the drinks he ordered before standing up; he tilted down his black and dusty hat to cover his eyes before he casually moved towards the door. He glanced towards the man standing his ground, wondering if he would be foolish enough to ask where each man would be headed if they exited.

It was a most likely outcome that he would, considering a winning lottery ticket just wandered out of the tavern. However, after that short glance, Auron exited the tavern and turned right, heading in the opposite direction of the Inn...at least for the time being.

[ooc: here's Auron's picture [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] hooray for brad pitt, lol XD, and I'm sorry if this doesn't have a good pick up in the end for you to go off of. If you would like me to add more, I can :D]



As promised, Jensen made no attempt to follow Odette as she scampered from the tavern. But despite his generosity he knew very well that even if she found a temporary safe haven to gather herself, it was only a matter of time before she was spotted and the hunt was on again. For him, the bounty wasn't worth it unless he knew the reasons behind it, to hear a 'criminals' side of the story. After all, Jensen had a bounty on top his head as well…one very, very close to Odette's reward. Only thing different was Jensen was a full-born outlaw, a man who sought trouble and came at heads with the law on more than one planet. He also knew how to avoid bringing attention on himself, unlike a simple nineteen year old girl, who rumor had it, was a princess. At this rate, people would care less about his bounty and go straight for her just because of the amount of attention she allowed onto herself, despite how unwilling.

His gaze did not miss the mysterious man exiting the tavern, taking a quick mental note of his appearance before peeking out, confirming the man's direction. When he went to the right, he sighed in relief. He HAD to find Tamara! This whole thing was starting to unfold, and he knew the outcome wasn't gonna be pretty…and chances are, he'd be right smack dab in the middle. Jensen's steely expression made any other men think twice about following as he exited the tavern himself, casually headed toward the inn. Once inside, he revealed a small bracelet hugging tightly to his wrist, and upon closer inspection, one could see tiny buttons. He pressed one and a hologram of Tamara appeared before him.

"Tamara, state your location," he said sternly. Static crackled over the com before a woman's icy voice replied…

"Well, it's a about goddamn time, Jen!" she said hotly. "I'm near Oxin Tavern. You on Pasino yet?"

"Arrived just in time to locate a rather bountiful bounty," he replied with a low chuckle. "Go to the inn. I'm inside."

"Expecting a prolonged stay?"

"No. Consider it more-or-less instinct." Tamara muttered an unsavory phrase, clearly cursing her inability to understand Jensen's occasional confusing statements.

About thirty minutes after contacting Tamara, the woman threw open the doors of the inn, her eyes narrowed in anger. A thin sheen of sweat rested on her forehead, her hands instinctively hovering over the three guns holstered around her thighs. "Jen, you wanna tell me what's going on? Thought you said this was a simple pick up, no bounty involved." She went to stand before him, her toned arms crossing over her chest.

"Something's come up and it ain't sitting well," Jensen stated, pulling the flyer from his vest pocket and handing it to his co-captain. "Looks like Princess Odette's in Pasino. Ran into her at the tavern. Girl like that brings a lot of attention to herself." Tamara looked astounded by the flyer and looked up at Jensen in disbelief. "Your not actually going to try and collect the bounty, are you? If you ask me, the girl ain't worthy of being labeled a criminal."

"I agree, which is why we're going to help her escape Pasino." Jensen didn't allow Tamara to reply, but rather marched himself up the stairs to his former room and gave a soft knock. Too bad, she's probably zonked out already, he thought with amusement. But if they had any hope of escaping Pasino without a hoard of men allowing in pursuit, they had to act now. "Hey girlie, it's be from the tavern…ya'know…guy with a gun," he said awkwardly.

Tamara rolled her eyes. "That's reaaaally gonna make a wanted girl open up the door. Real smooth, Jen…I can see why you're such a stud," she murmured sarcastically, pushing him aside and knocking herself. "Listen, my name is Tamara Rogers. I'm co-captain of a ship called the Blue Opal. Jensen, the captain or as he so bluntly put it: "gun man" are giving you a once in a lifetime opportunity… We're offering you safe passage off Pasino."

For all they knew, Odette was halfway out the window by now. Either way, Tamara had to admit her own curiosity had been piqued. Just how did a princess become a wanted fugitive all across the universe? It was a story she wanted to know rather badly.



Odette was too deep in her slumber to hear the gentle knock that was applied to the door; however, when the words of "guy with the gun" entered into her ears, her brain shot herself awake. She pushed herself up from the bed in a catstretch position, looking over her shoulder at the door; her mind was fuzzy but her heart was pounding--something was telling her to run. A female voice came along behind the male's and that didn't help her calm down; she didn't remember any women in the tavern, though she didn't get a good glance at every single person, but surely, a female would have protected her from the horde of men.

Odette waddled to the window next to the bed on her knees and opened the window with haste. However, when the woman had stated they would offer her safe passafe off of this placed they called Pasino, Odette looked back to the door. She didn't know their true motivation, if they wanted her dead or alive or even for the bounty--of course they want the bounty, she thought--but if she was cunning enough to slip past a whole army, she could slip past a couple of dumb bounty hunters.

Odette turned to close the window when there was a male, standing on what seemed like a ladder and leaning towards her. Odette yelped softly and scooted back on the bed until she fell over on her back, releasing a faint groan. She heard the bed springs squeak and her eyes opened to see the man stepping towards her; Odette gasped and crawled towards the door, trying to search for her voice to call for help.

The man's arm wrapped around under her waist and pulled her up against his chest, keeping her still. Odette released a louder yelp though when the man began to talk, she had quieted. "My name is Auron," he whispered against her ear. "I'm not here to hurt you, I've come to return you to your father."

Odette froze, looking at the man before looking to the door; she didn't know who to trust, though she had a few run ins with men that "sided" with her father who wanted something more from her than money. "HELP!!" Odette shouted, making the man tug her back towards the bed. Her heart leapt into her throat and she struggled even more to get out of his arm, "PLEASE, CAPTAIN!!"

[OOC; Sorry for the wait and the melodrama XDDD]




Jensen's head jerked toward the door, Odette's frantic voice filling the hallway. Both the hunters drew back instinctively, their thick clad feet busting in the door, guns suddenly drawn. Jensen had his beretta pointed at the mysterious man, eyes holding a deadly glint as Tamara raced over to the window and glanced around for ay signs of others before closing the blinds.

"Who're you?" Jensen demanded, bobbing his gun. "Ain't got permission to be'ere, son...might wanna take a step back out that window there."

Tamara stationed herself behind him, her desert eagle exposed, but aimed toward the floor, avoiding too close counter with Odette's head. "Boy, just back away nice and slow before a ram a piece of mighty hard metal in the back of your head," she warned, her gloved hand on his shoulder. "Nice and easy... Tell me what's so important that you gotta break in through a girls window."

Jensen inched forward, eyes never leaving the man, but extending his free hand toward Odette. "Get behind me," he said softly. "Ain't no one gonna hurt you. Like I said, save passage off Pasino here."

(Nah, it's alright (: I liked your post a lot, actually. )