A New City

A New City is the series premiere of Bandit Territory. In this episode, after spending three years in New City, John the Marksman is forced to relocate to Fort Pooda due to an impending calamity only known to him.
==Plot==
Inside an empty cathedral in a foreign country, John the Marksman and his partner, Joe, approach a man who calls himself the Pope. They both get on their knees and beg for forgiveness to the man, then proceeding to explain how and why they failed their assignment. The Pope responds by snickering at them which irritates Joe, prompting him to stand up and question the Pope's authority. John knows what to expect. Nonchalantly, the Pope smiles and backhands Joe for getting out of line and reassures him of his power. In an imperturbable manner, he expresses his willingness to kill Joe but refrains from doing so due to his high regard for John. Consequently, the Pope decides to instead put the two on a quest for redemption, assigning them a new mission that will determine their fate in Symmetry. Their new target is Collector, a powerful Immortal and potential threat to Symmetry. John recognizes the man immediately but questions himself as to whether or not he'd be able to pull through with killing him. Located in New City within North America, the Pope entrusts the task to Joe and John, with special faith in the latter as the Pope considers John his protégé and a valid successor, teaching him everything he knows about secrecy and assassination. John decides that he's going to create a false situation in order to lure Collector into a trap and kill him.
Three years later, John was unable to complete his mission. He did the exact opposite of what he was ordered and strengthened his bond with Collector, as well as befriend the locals. The last time he saw Joe, he was handing him a briefcase of money and telling him to escape the tyranny of Symmetry. John got lost in his escapades with his newfound friends that he honestly thought he could live a normal life, but the only way out of Symmetry is death. There are no shortcuts or alternate routes for this type of lifestyle; John realized this when he received a letter in the mail one day with a photograph of Joe being tortured. Symmetry doesn't tolerate traitors. Inclined to follow the address on the letter and save his former partner, John packs his bags and leaves abruptly, confusing everyone especially Collector.
The address the letter was sent from was Fort Pooda, a city John is unfamiliar with. As soon as he arrives, two men at the airport force John to follow them to a limousine with tinted windows. Instead of fighting back, he chooses to follow them as they most likely work for Symmetry and are therefore his only option at finding Joe. John enters the limo and is greeted by a possibly intoxicated Pope. He is glad to see John again after three years but John is anxious. The Pope has anger issues but never expresses his anger outwardly, instead masking it with a peaceful guise meaning he is unpredictable. He seems generally interested in John's life post-Symmetry, but John is hesitant to speak. Attempting to make him more comfortable, the Pope offers him a cigar, which John takes and they gradually begin to converse about a plethora of topics, such as how they met and the Pope's goal: human extinction, explaining that it is God's will.
Eventually, the limousine reaches its destination and John is reminded of his objective. The Pope and his men lead John inside the basement of the Pope's funeral home where Joe is being tortured with a blow torch. John is horrified but the old man maintains an apathetic look. He slides John a pistol and requests that he put Joe out of his misery, adding on that doing so is an act of forgiveness and that John will be redeemed for his attempted defection. John grabs the pistol and looks at a sobbing Joe. He pulls the trigger.
John shoots Joe's tormentor and, in retaliation, is gunned down by the Pope's men. His clothes become drenched in blood and he falls onto his knees, spitting out blood, taking several winded gasps of breath, and finally staring at the Pope before collapsing. Joe's screams become faint as John slips into unconsciousness, dreaming of being drowned in an alchemical froth of poisons and acids, a misinterpretation of his origins. John awakes from his nightmare when he can no longer breath, finding himself healed of his wounds but detained alongside Joe. The two have been relocated to a cave surrounded by ticking bombs where the Pope, via hologram, explains the situation at hand. Fort Pooda is to the Pope what Sodom and Gomorrah was to God — an abomination. Since the Pope believes it is God's will to exterminate all of life, the old man plans on furthering that plan by completely obliterating Fort Pooda, what he believes is the most sinful city in the world. The explosion that will destroy the city would take John and Joe with it, killing two birds with one stone. The Pope makes a final remark on how disappointed he is of John before disconnecting.
John attempts to reconcile with Joe and expresses his remorse for not showing up faster to save him. Joe begins to speak and taunts John in a jokingly manner, stating the situation was inevitable and that, "not even a slowpoke like yourself could have prevented this outcome." Joe is just how John remembered him when they were partners, signifying their bond is still close. Reinvigorated, John breaks out of their cells effortlessly and the two traverse several maze-like tunnels littered with enemies. The enemies, Symmetry goons, are risking their lives for the sake of Symmetry, as they know the explosion would kill them too. Eventually, the two reach the source of the bomb and attempt to defuse it but are too late. The bomb detonates.
The explosion knocks the two back but before it can trigger the rest of the explosives, John, combining his energy based abilities with power mimicry, absorbs the kinetic energy out of the explosion, saving a friend and a city filled with people. John begins to rejoice but stops as he believes Joe has passed out. Upon closer examination, John divulges that Joe's not breathing. The explosion killed him. Joe was like a son to John. Marksman begins to sob over his partner's corpse.
==Soundtrack==
Pope's ThemePlayed as John finds Joe being tortured
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Art is an ExplosionPlayed when the Pope reveals his plan, as well as when John and Joe attempt to stop him
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Like a SonPlayed during Joe's death
==Quotes==
==Trivia==
*The person John and Joe failed to assassinate was Slade, one of the main antagonists in Infrared.
*John's views regarding religion reflect his creator's personal beliefs.
==Reviews==
Category:Bandit Territory episode
Category:Episodes