Far away from the planet of Pluto, on the third planet from the sun, stood a bounty hunter full of resolve to journey to another planet. This, of course, was as strange to him as breathing was to the Homo species. Well, not that he had any choice other than to believe this, yet it had taken him a lot of time to accommodate this fact into his mind. He sighed. He shouldn't have bullied the king with sarcasm to believe in it, quite an unnecessary step, though throwing forks and knives and crushing precious metals certainly sped up the process. He lived on a planet called Seed, which was ruled by a king named Nabashi Soren. He had many great names: Sky Shaker, Angel of Skies, Godly Thunder, but Jake thought calling him a bloody bastard was much better.
Jake shook off the thoughts with resentment; he had better things to work on for now. He resumed his pace, feeling the soft, rain-wet gravel melodiously crunching under his shoes. He was being doused by a soft drizzle, which was accompanied by thunderclaps. 'Hell, am I supposed to fly through this?' He walked on the gravelly plain toward a ravine in the ground. It wasn't too deep to pose a problem, but to fly, he needed to be on a spacecraft, and the ravine didn't exactly look as if it launched one. The ravine's insides were polished and smooth with an ivory-white coat; sadly, the paint looked as if it was hastily applied to welcome the new flyer.
Beneath the paint were marks of rust infused with mud and scraps. At the near bottom was a road that curved up like one from a stunt show.
'Oh noo..'
He looked at the vehicle responsible for taking him to Mars. It wasn't a fancy aircraft, as Jake had desired, but it was a bus. A bus on top of it all.
'You stupid old man.'
Cursing Soren now wouldn't help now; he had come far away to do that. The bus itself was rusty and so old it appeared to be withering before his eyes. Working on it were two people; one was repairing the bottom side of the bus while the other was busy with the bonnet. "Yo, Zolo," the man working on the bonnet screamed, "I don't think we can fly to Mars yet with the engines and thruster in the condition. We'll be hopefully dumb to even cross the clouds."
"Yeah, you are right, Aono, rockets going to space is as crazy an idea as one of a world beyond is. This guy wanting to fly informed us just three days ago; well, it doesn't matter now; we can die peacefully now, cuz I sorta broke up with Tessa." Zolo said, his voice muffled by the periodic roars of the engine.
Jake cleared his throat to indicate his presence, frightening Aono, as there was a clinking sound of a spanner falling into the engine. Zolo slid out and got up to his feet, giving Jake what he thought was a jaunty, winning smile. "Jake, Buddy," he said, "ready for launch?" The slight hesitancy made Jake reconsider.
'Maybe running off won't be that bad; I can make it look as if this fool killed us both and robbed us. I guess I am capable of enough bloodshed for this.'
"Your luggage, please?" Zolo asked, pointing to the rucksack on Jake's shoulders.
Jake fumbled with the straps and took off. "I amma check for security too, ya know?" Zolo added as he took the rucksack in his hands. It was a simple make made for use in the military, and that's exactly the type of item it contained.
Few ration packets, Zolo didn't care. Clothes and armor, 'must be a seller.' A bounty booklet? 'Can't be too safe, ehh...'. Few heads of wanted people? Zolo raised his eyebrows. Jake gave a casual shrug. Zolo was still fazed after this, but the blow came with the appearance of War Hammer.
"What do you need a hammer for?" Zolo asked outrageously
"You know me, right, Jake, the bounty hunter...?" The quizzical look was far too much for Jake to tolerate. "The Cxyan Slayer, Final Boss? No... You know, the 7th best bounty hunter in the world?"
"You know, Bud, if I don't know you, you are a failure," Zolo said with a snigger and proceeded to dump the bag into the bus's trunk. "You gotta work your way up the totem pole."
Jake sighed. Only the top few were known and feared, but Jake had other reasons to be famous. He was the only bounty hunter to have his own merchandise, including posters, action figures, a range of perfumes, t-shirts, accessories, and much more. He was more of a tycoon than a bounty hunter, and rich to top it off too, though richness was more in the form of respect in this kingdom, where poverty was in the luck of very few people, so few that they could be counted on fingers. Maybe none by the time Jake crossed Earth's orbit, it was one of the few things that Jake admired about Soren, but he was often compared by his old teacher to a dictator in disguise.
Well, it didn't matter now; he was already leaving the kingdom.
Jake was shaken up from his daze when he heard a loud crash. Zolo had managed to take one of the doors of the trunk just by the handle. "Ya mind wearing the bag?" Zolo added in an innocent voice.
Jake cursed.
"Mind sitting into the beauty as well?" Zolo asked.
Jake swung the rucksack over his shoulders and made to sit inside the bus. Zolo gave him a good-natured smile and patted the bus, causing one of the headlights to fall. Aono took his head out of the bonnet to give Zolo a look of fury and went back to work again. Jake opened the door and stepped onto the bus. It was much more classy than inside, and to say even better, it had a mini kitchen, a bunkbed, a personalised washroom, and a small control panel. Not luxurious but great in comparison to what Jake had thought... well, this was 100 times better.
Jake was just getting comfortable on the recliners when Aono and Zolo came in. "Ya know, bud, this is the cockpit, passengers sit behind that door."
Jake rolled his eyes and got up to go into the next compartment. However, worse it may be, but nothing was going to stop him now from being an elite.
The passenger compartment was just as bad as Jake had thought it would be, with seats broken at such a point that they resembled a badly built statue which was made out of cushioning material instead of marble. Jake picked a seat that he could at least sit on comfortably, if not for the springs and pieces of wood sticking out of the seat. Jake took off his Jacket and wiped his face on it, which had become wet by the rain. Jake plucked out the splinters and then put his jacket on for comfort.
He sat for a while, and soon enough, Zolo's voice came on a speaker, where it was hardly decipherable. All he could understand was that he had to wear a seatbelt. Well, that hardly was a point to consider as the bus didn't even have good seats, as if it had seatbelts for them. The cockpit's door opened, and Aono's voice came from it.
"Remember, forget about cabin pressure, and it would not even touch you, and here is your packet of peanuts, Happy Journey."
A bag of peanuts flew from the cockpit towards Jake. He tore it open and started gorging on them.
'What a genius, how am I supposed to remember to forget cabin pressure?'
He didn't have much time to think, as the engine started, he had a lot of time before he reached Mars, perfect time to ponder over his life's desicions.