The Ludicrous Escapade Pt.3

Meat Spray

Next to all of your horses, Gyro and Johnny waved you over. Everything already seemed to be packed and ready for the trip ahead.

"So? Who wanted to talk with you? And what did you talk about?" The Italian started spitting out his questions.

You walked over to the pair. "Believe it or not, it was actually the President who wanted to talk to me. Let's just say he confused me for a different (Y/N)." One who apparently had an affair with the President and contibuted to the death of the other Speedwagon. She had mentioned feeling guilty about something in the note she left, so you assumed there was at least some truth to it.

"Wow, you actually got to speak with the President?" Johnny hadn't expected that at all. He let out an awkward laugh. "I was worried it might've been your ex-boyfriend."

"Ex-boyfriend?" It took you a second to figure what he was talking about. "Oh, yeah, no. It wasn't... Bruno..."

"So that's his name..." Johnny made a mental note of it. "But what's that you got in your hand?" He pointed to a bag your were holding. "Did the President give that to you?"

"Sort of? His subordinate said we'd be compensated for the time lost, remember? So I asked for some good food."

"Good food?" Gyro sounded offended. "Are you saying my cooking doesn't count as good food? What did they even give you, anyway?" He took the bag from your hand and opened it to see a few carefully wrapped sandwiches. "Actually... these do look pretty good. Let's have these for lunch."

Johnny spun onto his horse, "Should we get going, then?"

"Yeah." You and Gyro mounted your respective steeds. "Let's start the fourth stage."

...

The next eleven days on the road were relatively uneventful. The sandwiches had been good, though. They seemed to encourage Gyro to step up his cooking a little more. Something you certainly wouldn't complain about.

"Hey, look!" Gyro pointed to a cow carcass hanging from a tree. Once he got close enough, he whipped out his knife.

"Wait." You had noticed 'HP' engraved into the animal's side. "This already belongs to someone. Probably Hot Pants, if I had to guess."

"Yeah... you shouldn't touch that, Gyro." Johnny was similarly cautious.

"Oh please, the coyotes already ate most of it." The Zeppeli began carving through the flesh. "I'm just going to take about six hundred grams before it's all gone!"

"This is a bad idea..." You started moving ahead while he finished up getting the meat he wanted.

"Lighten up, (Y/N)! Think about how good it'll taste once I cook it!" Gyro seemed happy with himself.

But you hadn't gone very far when you happened across Hot Pants herself, who was heading in your direction.

"Look, guys." Johnny was looking through his spyglass. "It's him. He's coming this way."

"What the hell does he want?" Grumbled Gyro. "Is anybody with him?"

"Do you think they know Gyro took some of their meat?" You wouldn't be surprised if that were the case.

"Oh, maybe." Johnny started to recall what he knew of Hot Pants. "But he always travels alone. I think he's ranked third right now. There's not a lot of information on him. Except he has a good horse and that he's not some hillbilly. At least, judging by the way he's carrying himself."

"What should we do? Talk to him?" Even though he was asking, Gyro didn't really want to.

"No... let's just ignore him." Decided Johnny.