A beast from the east.

“Are you serious? You really let her sweet talk you into going to The Crushed Weasel?” April asked in bemusement as they sat beside each other at their local tavern. Texas had regaled her with the tale of her time spent in Isabelle’s company, from meeting her in the edge of town, to getting getting flattened by a block of ice, to being **** into walking into Annabelle’s establishment. “Boss, I knew you were a sucker for a pretty face, but I didn’t think you’d were THAT bad!”

Texas could only roll her eyes in response. There wasn’t much she could say in her own defense. As convincing as Isabelle’s act was, there were a handful of moments where cracks would form in her demure facade only for the enamored weasel to look past it. She shuttered to think what fate would’ve befell her were it not for some good timing on her deputy’s part. Texas twirled the glass in her hand as she tried to curb the lewd thoughts that were beginning to resurface in her mind.

“Yeah, ah know. Ain’t exactly mah proudest moment…” she said with a sheepish smile. She didn’t mind the hazing. She felt she deserved it after everything that had happened. April, being the true friend she was, decided to keep her quips to a minimum as she nursed the drink in front of her.

“Well… everything worked out in the end and that’s all that matters. Though I gotta say, I don’t think I can take much more of their company. Has the warden gotten back to you on when we can have them hauled off?”

“Yeah,” Texas sighed. “Apparently there’s been a hiccup in the paperwork ‘cuz of some law that got passed recently. Folks what hail from another county ain’t in our jurisdiction anymore, so we gotta get in contact with the law department of wherever they came from. Funnily enough, the law just so happened to have been passed around the time Jolly Joe mosied on into town...”

“Sounds about right” April huffed before taking a sip of her drink. “Not really sure what the end game is, though. The longer they stay in our custody, the better our chances are to get them to fess up on who hired em”

Texas raised a brow at her deputy before downing the rest of her drink, ice and all. “I wish it were that simple. The varmint made sure to cover their tracks, hirin goons to dish out the contracts and never attaching their name to em.” Texas didn’t use any names, but she was more than confident that the mayor was behind all of this. However, she couldn’t afford to throw out any accusations without evidence. Vivian had eyes and ears everywhere, so the last thing she needed was to let it slip that she was onto her.

“Still doesn’t explain why they’d want us to hold onto them” April said as she gestured for the barkeep to bring her another drink.

“Who knows? For now, we just gotta be on high alert fer the next outlaw that comes knockin on our door”

“We? I’m not the one who got wooed by a lunatic with a pretty face” April teased as she nudged her boss’s shoulder. Texas’s face flushed with embarrassment as she smirked in response. She wouldn’t hear the end of this for some time, she was certain of that.

MEANWHILE…

As the pair sat discussing their next course of action, a new threat was working its way towards their humble little town. A roving gang of outlaws tore through the desert sands, turning over any caravan or wagon unfortunate enough to catch their eye. Their insignia had become well known to weary travelers: a red snake coiled around a cracked skull. This was the symbol of “The Red Vipers,” a gang of rough and tough snakes bound by a mutual hatred of authority and a mutual love of money. While they weren’t going to intimidating anyone with their respective sizes, the largest of them standing at six feet, their scrappy nature and quick aim made even the largest of thugs tended to skirt them.

Currently, the gang were stationed in a small tavern twenty miles from Gold Springs. The were quick to make a mess of things upon their arrival, scaring off the rest of the patrons and running the owner ragged. They laughed and swore and cussed up a storm as they celebrated their most recent haul from overturning a supply wagon heading north. They now had thousands of dollars worth of silver in their possession, though none of that money would go to paying off the enormous tab they were running up.

The leader of the gang slammed his fist on the table, his face flushed from the copious amounts of **** he had consumed. He was a frightening looking fellow, with piercing yellow eyes and a large scar going along his snout. His build could be best described as stocky, as he was somewhat short but was barrel chested and brimming with muscle. “Rex” was his name, as shown by the that skillfully drawn tattoo on his chest.

“Hey! How many times do I gotta hit this here counter a’fore I get me some service!?” the outlaw snarled.

“R-right away, sir!” an old voice called. The tavern owner, an elderly ox woman, shuffled up to the counter, her hands shaking from both the fear she felt and her weariness. She had managed to stay in the good graces of these hooligans for an hour, but having to juggle different orders and requests was beginning to take it’s toll on her. She didn’t so much get a ‘thank you’ from her boorish guest as she placed his drink down. The snake continued to leer at her as he tossed the beverage back, his nostrils flaring as the **** singed his tongue.

“Alright, off wit’cha” he grunted. The barkeep quickly obeyed, shuffling off to tend to another unruly patron. Rex leaded onto the counter, a smirk forming on his hardened face. They had accrued a great bit of wealth throughout their journey, but all of it was secondary to their intended goal. His gang had been running roughshod over the west for months, yet he had yet to garner much of a reputation. In a sea of notorious outlaws, he was just another guppy.

That would all change once they reached Gold Springs. There they would encounter the legendary Texas Stanton and once they did away with her, his name would be enshrined in history books as the baddest of the bad. He would stand shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Roxxie Roo and Copperbutt as the most feared criminal in all the known west. Maybe they’d even hook up with him. That thought **** a drunken giggle from him, breaking his stony expression for a moment.

“Hey buddy! Clear on outta here! This is party’s invite only!”

Rex was torn from his fantasies at the outburst coming from one his men. He noticed a lull in the revelry and turned to see what had happened. His brow raised as an unfamiliar figure decked in a dusty yellow cloak had walked into the bar, paying no mind to the chaos around them as they approached the counter. The gang member who had spoken up approached the cloaked stranger and cut them of as he stood in their path. He wasn’t much taller than Rex himself, but he somehow dwarfed this stranger in size all the same.

“Didn’t you hear me, pipsqueak? I said you ain’t welcome here!” he snapped as he grabbed onto their collar and easily hoisted them off the ground.

The stranger offered no resistence as they hung limp in his grasp. From where Rex sat, he could peek through their cloak and could make out the silhouette of their body. Whoever this person was, it was clear that they hadn’t eaten in some time as they were incredibly thin. What really caught his attention though, was the womanly curvature of their hips.

“Ned. Let em go” he ordered. The brutish snake blinked and slowly turned to face his leader.

“But… boss, I thought you didn’t want-”

“You got trouble with your hearin', boy? I said put em down!” the boss reptile growled.

Ned quickly obeyed, gently setting the scrawny stranger back down onto the ground. The rest of the gang watched curiously as the stranger continued towards the counter, seemingly unaffected by the snake’s rough handling. Rex’s eyes followed the stranger as they stepped up to counter and climbed atop the stool.

“Hey, barkeep” he called to the old woman who appeared just as confused as the others. “Gimme a drink for the little lady here. She looks like she’s come quite a ways!”

It wasn’t often that the notoriously ill-tempered leader of the Red Vipers showed mercy to others, but he was feeling much more compassionate after their recent string of successes. The barkeep hesitated before a sharp glare from the gang leader got her feet moving. She placed a glass of bourbon in front of the cloaked figure before slowly backing away.

“Drink up, friend!” Rex laughed as he gave the stranger’s shoulder a rough pat. “In just a few days, the name Rex Reuben and The Red Vipers will be known far and wide! You’ll get to be able to brag to your friends back home about how you got to share a drink with a living legend!” Immediately, his men roared with adulation, their spirits rekindled by the words of their trusted leader.

“Water…” the stranger croaked, their distinctly feminine voice making clear that they were a woman.

“Beg pardon?” Rex asked as he leaned in.

“I can’t drink this… I need water…” she said they pushed the glass away.

Rex’s face soured, his mood beginning to shift. Did this nobody really just turn down his generosity? Beyond the drink, he was giving her a once and a lifetime opportunity to be a small footnote in his legacy as a criminal. His grip on her shoulder tightened as he leaned in close.

“Listen friend. Normally I’d had you hogtied and dumped down a ditch for disrespectin’ me, but I’m feeling mighty kind today. You’re talking to the man that’s about to become famous for gunnin’ down Texas, so you’d be smart to keep in my good graces… ya get me?”

“Texas…?” the stranger repeated as she turned to face Rex. The snake blinked as stared into their eyes. He had been known to put the fear of god into men just by staring at them with his piercing yellow eyes, but this stranger seemed to glare right through him and into his soul, her jade irises seeming to glow in the darkness casted by her hood. “…Sheriff Texas?”

Rex flinched as the stranger suddenly jumped from their seat, her hood being tossed back from the sudden motion. Beneath the tattered cloth laid the soft face of a red panda. Between her button nose, pouting lips, sunken in cheeks, and cute ears, there wasn’t much about her that exude any sense of danger. It was the sharpness and intensity of her gaze that made Rex feel uneasy. By that point, every had turned their attention towards this bizarre individual.

“You are not worthy of fighting that woman” the panda hissed. “She is beyond your like. Go home before you embarrass yourselves!”

Rex stared blankly at the panda, unsure of how to process what he was being told. His gut reaction was to take out his pistol and put two between her eyes, but the fact that it was coming from this scrawny little runt of a woman was incredibly amusing. In the end, he decided to humor her as he leaned back against the counter.

“Not worthy, huh? That’s a new one. What, are you like a fan of hers or somethin?” he said with a chuckle.

“That woman is far more than you can handle. Know your place, weakling!” the panda growled. Her harsh words irked Rex, his smile curling into a snarl and fist clenching until his knuckles turned white.

“Weak? You callin ME weak? You know who you’re talkin’ to, little lady?” he asked through gritted teeth. After all the work he had put in establishing a reputation for himself, he wasn't about to let such a comment pass.

“Yet another arrogant child who thinks that stealing from the feeble makes them a man. I have dealt with your like many times over, and I am not impressed” she responded as her eyes slowly scanned the tavern. His cronies had begun to surround her, their faces contorted with rage as their shared their boss’s outrage. The moment he gave them the word, they would leap at her deliver a painful lesson in respect. She glanced over at the barkeep who had scampered off to the nearest corner as soon as trouble began to brew. “Old Lady! Leave the room!” she ordered. The ox woman nodded and shuffled off into the backroom, making sure to lock the door behind her.

“You’re a mouthy lil’ cuss, I’ll give you that” Rex said as he stood up and cracked his knuckles. “Tell you what, I’ll do ya a favor. After me and the boys get through with ya, we’ll drag your sorry carcass over to Gold Springs so you can get a front row seat of me wastin’ Texas, since you seem to like her so damn much”

The panda chuckled and shook her head. With a huff, she removed her cloak and tossed it to the side, exposing her lithe, fragile looking body dressed in a loose fitting dark red Tai-Chi uniform. “It is like my master once told me: for the weak to survive, they must tread lightly in the shadow of the strong. In challenging me, you have exited the safety of that shadow, and now stand in the domain of the mighty. I welcome you!”

Rex couldn't make heads or tails of the panda's yammering. He began to wonder if she was just some shiftless traveler who had gone looney from heat exposure. Not that it would make any difference. She had insulted him in front of his men and that warranted a heavy penalty regardless of her mental state. Just as he was about to give the go-ahead to his men, a strange dreadful feeling washed over him. The strange woman looked up at him with a bright smile, her whole face lighting up with a strange sadistic glee that made his stomach turn. Despite the clear and obvious advantage he and his men had over her, his innate survival instincts were screaming at him to flee from the dangers this tiny creature presented to them. As if sensing his growing unease, the panda's smile widened even further.

“You chose this path, little ones" she laughed. "You should’ve stuck to robbing wagons...”

The barkeep struggled sat atop a barrel of ale, her body still shaking with worry. She was accustomed to dealing with rowdy customers, but this was too much for her to bare. Rex and his gang had made the last few hours of her life a living hell, but she was certain that eventually they would move on to terrorize another establishment. Then this strange woman wanders in and riles them up by picking a fight. Her stomach turned as she could only imagine what Rex and his gang had in store for her...

CRASH!!!

The old woman jumped, her heart racing as a horrible noise erupted from the bar. The floor beneath her trembled, indicating that something heavy had been slammed down on the ground. A shrill scream rang out, though it didn’t quite match the tenor she had heard from the panda.

“GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY!” a panicked voice cried out. The barkeep recognized it as belonging to Rex. “D-don’t just- don’t just stand there, get her!”

The barkeep couldn’t help take note of the fear in his voice. Was this really the same hardened criminal that had been on a tear through the desert? She slowly stepped up to door and listened in closely, her curiosity superseding her fear.

She would never forget the sounds she heard that day. All the thuds, squelches, and crunches. Even worse than those sounds was the heart wrenching sound of grown men screaming, crying, whimpering, and pleading for mercy. This went on for an uncomfortably long time before it finally petered out into a piercing silence. The barkeep slowly opened the door and gasped in horror at what she saw.

Her bar had been totaled, with tables shattered to pieces, the stools reduced to splinters, and the counter split as though it had been chopped in half by a giant axe. Even more troubling was the state of the Red Vipers. They each had been flattened and mushed into paste, their bodies littering the destroyed tavern.

“Oh… oh dear…” the old ox muttered as she stepped into the room. Did that little panda really cause this much damage? It just didn’t seem possible! The mystery was only compounded as she walked further into the room and saw the enormous butt shaped crater that had been left in middle of the floor. At the bottom of the hole was Rex as his face was frozen in a look of pure terror. His flattening was much more severe than the others, as the edges of his body where smeared into the exposed foundation. Despite the trouble he can caused, the old ox couldn’t help pity the poor snake. No amount of scraping would ever be able to free him from where he laid. He would remain stuck there for the rest of his unnatural life.

With a heavy sigh, she walked back over to the counter to look for a phone. Her insurance would take care of the damages, but she also would still have to call a doctor to see about getting help for the mangled gang members scattered throughout her establishment. She noticed a small envelop sitting at the end of the counter, addressed to “Old Lady.” She opened it up to find a thick stack of bills accompanied by a note:

“Old Lady,

Sorry for the mess. If this doesn’t cover it, contact the number on the back of this letter. Thank you for the water

- Fang Yu, The Great Red Beast”

As the barkeep was left to sort this mess, Fang was several yards away from the tavern, riding on horseback with its saddlebags loaded with jugs of water. To add insult to injury, she had taken Rex’s steed as her own. It wasn’t her intention to slight him in such a way, as she simply picked what she felt was the healthiest specimen out of the lineup. She would probably forget all about Rex and his would be gang of hoodlums long before she’d even made it to her destination. He might’ve been able to instill fear hapless traders and coach drivers, but to her he was just means to kill time after a long journey.

An actual challenge awaited her in the humble mining town of Gold Springs. The job's pay was nothing impressive, at least not to her usual standards, but she was intrigued by the reputation that her chosen target carried. Said target was woman of great renown, famous for her ability to topple giants as she dutifully watched over the place she called home. It certainly sounded like someone capable of delivering a satisfactory bout. Fang would meet this woman, this great slayer of giants, this inscrutable pillar of justice, and bring an end to her life. Such was the way of her profession and such was the nature of her contract.

“Do not disappoint me, sheriff…” she said under her breath as she road into the night.