h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

*After passing through the tall-grass prairie the trail passes into the broken badlands. In this place nothing grows and the earth is barren and pitted. Venturing off the trail is difficult and dangerous*

*The traveller can see signs of recent Indian occupation and sacred sites can be occasionally glipmsed in the hilly area off to the left of the trail on the edge of a long escarpment. To the right is unwelcoming flat scrub, sand and tumbleweed*

*A lone Indian brave on the back of an Appaloosa stallion can be seen silhouetted on the skyline. He wears his war bonnet and carries a coup stick with many scalps on it demonstrating his martial prowess and bravery*

*a troop of Apes cautiously moves into the Badlands taking great care not to tresspass on any sacred ground or break any taboo's*

*They leave an offering of a pile of Banana's to the Great Spirit*

*looks down impassively but with implied approval at the Apes as they pass into the badlands*

[A humanoid Reploid enters the scene, propelled by his dash thrusters. Closer inspection would reveal that he is the very first Reploid ever built (or possibly second, depending on where Zero gets put). Oh, whatever, he's the first one widely known about. Mega Man X looks around cautiously, prepared at any moment to either a) blast something to bits or b) flee for his life.]

*Jello Wolf gazes upon and ponders the spirits and wonders whether they are of the great plains, the woods, the rivers or the skies*

*sees from a distance the posse moving in his direction. Nods in a sage like manner and smiles to himself as if thi swas pre-ordained*

[I have nothing new to report.]

*Jello Wolf gazes calmly into the distance. A gentle zephyr rustles his feathered war bonnet and his mount moves a little restlessly until calmed by a single stroke of the Apachello Chief's firm hand*

[X briefly begins to turn towards Jello Wolf's directio, but pauses before he is directly facing him. He then turns back to whatever direction he was facing before and continues walking.]

*Impassively watches the Reploid walking. The silence is broken only by the swish of the horse's tail and the cry of a hawk in the distance. The war paint on the chief's face glistens in the sunlight.*

[X sees a small ridge ahead of him]

[X] [under breath] Now THAT is the /perfect/ place for an ambush. [readies his X-Buster]

*flies over the Eastern part of the Badlands in a tight search pattern* spots X on a nice looking ridge* lands*

Hello X. This is a good ridge for an ambush. The others will be along in a while. We're hoping to distract a few injuns with some cleverly placed smoke signals.

*looks back towards the road* smoke is rising* the message reads "Look behind you".

[X] ... Somehow I don't think that's going to be too effective.

* Jello Wolf notices the smoke and looks puzzled. The posse clearly being unfamiliar with the Apachello language and obviously being wary of moderation (despite the Apachello language having considerable protection under the law) have spelt out "duck behind ewe" instead of the intended message *

*nevertheless Jello Wolf being a skilled and experienced war band leader leaves nothing to chance - motioning with his feather fringed spear he signals for a single warrior to be despatched to check out the source of the signal*

*an Indian horseman appears from hiding, acknowledges Jello Wolf and speeds off to the source of the smoke*

*grumbling* I don't like this land. If we go off the trail, the rocks will cut up the horses' feet something fierce. And I 'specially don't like that arroyo (small canyon) we're riding into.

*Clyde snorts a flat raspberry noise*

And Clyde says there are humans nearby.

*Starts loading his rifle* I think the quicker we get through here the better.

*While bouncing around on Bonnie's back, reaches into her tote bag and retrieves her nano-gun.*

Hmmm, it's still set on boiling water. I think I'll leave it that way for now.

*Releases T, who seems to be readying flaming arrows, for a few minutes in order to retrieve gun from carpet bag strapped to back.*

There's gotta be another trail somewheres here. An antelope trail at least. *ratchets his winchester and rests the stock on his thigh, then begins examining the terrain*

*another smoke signal rises into the air: CAVALRY COMING*