"So what is it this time? Or do you need a reason to be angry, shorty?"
Despite having a gun with her, Sophia ran at Colt and lunged at him. "I'LL FUCKING RIP YOUR THROAT OUT!" she screamed manically. She reached for his neck, attempting to lock him into a choke hold.
As the girl attempted to strangle him, Colt went into combat mode. He concentrated, freezing the girl's arm in place, and pushed her away towards the bar. She smashed into a section with a loud crash.
Sophia was unfazed by the impact. She quickly picked herself up and took cover behind the counter. "YOU FUCKING KILLED PETE!" she screamed, firing three shots at the bounty hunter
The bullets missed their intended targets, as if steered away by some magnetic force. One hit the back wall, another rattled around in a nearby spitoon, and the third went right through the hat of the drunk sitting in the corner.
"I did the laundry yesterday, hun..." the drunkard muttered, half asleep. He opened his eyes, noticing his hat was missing. "I said I alred-" his eyes grew wide when he noticed the two individuals. "I'M GOIN', I'M GOIN'!" he called, hurriedly getting off his chair. Tripping on one of its legs, he fell on the ground and lay there unconcious.
Taking opportunity of the bounty hunter's distraction, Sophia jumped to the side and fired a few more shots aimed at Colt's head. "I'll bash that fucking nose of yours so far through your face you'll-" she hissed.
"Sophia, watch out!" she heard Alice cry from outside. The child was anxiously watching through the window.
Now it was the hunter's turn to take advantage of his opponent's distraction. Sophia's bullets continued to fly off course, and now Colt was able to take aim at his attacker, both guns drawn and ready.Pulling the triggers, he fired rapidly them at the outlaw.
Sophia cast the air shield just in time for the bullets to be stopped, followed up with an air blast. She ran to where her dagger had embedded itself into the wall, and pulled it out.
"You're fucking dead!" she screamed, throwing the dagger in his direction again. Using the chair and table in front of her as a staircase, she leaped off the table and attempted to take him down. Unfortunately for her, she was much too small to take down the tall bounty hunter. Colt caught her right as she slammed herself into him.
"You fucking dare to touch me?! Do you- even- realize- what you- fucking- did to me?!" she began yelling and kicking like a child, tears welling up in her eyes.
Realizing his master was in trouble, Nico came to her rescue. He bit down hard on the hunter's hand, causing Sophia to fall to the floor. Colt, still rubbing his hand, was beginning to grow impatient. Charging his guns with what moisture he could draw out of the air around him, he prepared for a hail shot.
Picking herself just in time to see the hail shot fire into the air, Sophia rolled to side to avoid the downpour of icy shards that fell where hs epreviosuly was. Luckily the cloud was not big enough to reach anywhere else, and quickly disspated. She stood back up and pointed a gun at his head. "You're running out of steam, eh? Can't cast any more spells, so my bullet's going to get you right in the fuckin' brain."
"Sophia, eh? Pretty name for an outlaw like you," Colt replied, his guns already pointed at his opponent's skull.
"An... Outlaw?" Sophia could hear Alice whisper to herself from the window.
The standoff continued. "Why don't you just lay the gun down like a good girl, and I won't kill you this time. You're a Culebra, right? Got a bounty for me, sweetheart?"
She ignored the comment. "If there's one thing I'm putting down, it's you."
Colt smiled at her. "I'm sure you'd love to. In fact, it seems that every Culebra thug in town has it out for me. But you're not going to win this fight."
"Thugs....?" Alice continued to echo the bounty hunter's words.
Sophia gritted her teeth. The girl had found out the truth. She'd probably start to scream her head off and call the authorities.
Alice clutched the windowsill. She had traveled with an outlaw. She had talked to an outlaw. She had
helped an outlaw. she had actually
cared for an outlaw.
Her grip tightened, and the wood began to crack. She had slept with a group of outlaws. She had talked to them. She had felt...
safe with them.
Visible cracks began to spread across the entire windowsill, and Alice began trembling. Had Sophia killed the man at the opera house? She hadn't seen him come out. Had Alice helped her? Was Alice an outlaw as well? Was she like the ones that had killed her father? Had she helped her in killing her sister too?
Yes. a voice echoed through her mind.
Sophia turned her head, just in time to see a grey figure tear off a section of the wall where the window was. The creature let out a defeaning roar, knocking over all the chairs and tables around it.
"What the...?" Both Colt and Sophia's eyes were fixed on the creature, which was moving towards both of them.
"...Alice?" Sophia murmured, squinting at the creature's face. It certainly did not like the eleven year old girl that was standing where it was a few seconds ago. It seemed to made purely of glowing light matter. It still had the height and silhouette of the young girl. However with its oversized arms and hands, it looked more like the steam monster Sophia had fought the previous day than a person.
The following events happened so quickly, Sophia could not discern what had happened exactly. In the blink of an eye, the creature grabbed Sophia by the leg and threw her across the room. Letting out another roar, It lunged at Colt, pinning him to the ground.
"Hey you! Uh.. Sophia!" Colt yelled frantically, trying to hold the monster off of him. "She's YOUR sister, do something!"
There was no response, however, and Colt came to realize that he would get no help. He couldn't reach his pistols, which had slid across the floor when he had been knocked down.
I can't believe this. Colt thought to himself.
All I wanted was a drink. Yet here he was, hunted by some deranged Culebra assassin, and her monstrous little sister.
Reaching down as deep as he could, he used whatever magic reserves he had left in him to repulse the girl - if she could be called that - off of him. She flew through the air, and went through the front window of the tavern. He quickly scrambled to his feet, picking up his guns.
Sophia was out cold in a corner. The hunter glanced in her direction making sure she wasn't up to anything. Outside, Alice was still slumped over. A small piece of glass was stuck in her cheek, a small trickle of blood running down.
Jeb was sitting up in the balcony of the bar talking to one of the doc's girls and drinking heavily when he heard the sound of glass breaking and a lot of yelling. He got up and shuffled over to the railing to see what was going on. He leaned over the railing when he saw Sophia in the corner. "You bitch, I'll get you for stealing my horse!" He shouted at Sophia. In his drunken mindset what he was about to do seemed like a great idea. He started climbing up on the railing and once he was stradling the rail, he leaned over and fell down from the second level of the bar. He would have landed straight on his face had he not been saved by a small burst of air beneath him.
He stood up and stumbled towards the man in front of him, grabbing a glass of beer from the nearest table along the way. He took a big drink as his eyes lazily focused on the one who seemed to be making the ruckus. "Shit, uh, whattya think yer doin' with my girls? You just, you you you just uh, back off man before this gets messy." Jeb pulled Mr. Truth from it's holster and fired off four rounds into the wall next to where Colt was standing.
Bewildered, Colt stared at the drunk man, who was pointing his guns at him from across the room.
Who the hell is it now?!
"Look buddy, I don't have a problem with you or your girls. That one," he motioned to Sophia's unconcious form, "came here tryin to put a bullet in
me.
Jeb cut him off, "I don't wanna hear none of ya sassss, you tryin' to mess with my girls and that's jus', jus' no." He fired off another round to the ground in front of Colt. "You best just be gettin on out of here and uh, uh, what was I gonna say. Uh, just get on outta here and there won't be no trouble ya hear?" He took a big swig from the mug he had taken from the table.
Colt gritted his teeth. Normally he just would have left and spared himself the trouble, but today had been a rough day. He wasn't about to let some gun-waving drunk run him out of town.
"Listen here, mister. I've had just about enough of people telling me where I don't belong. Now, you're gonna point those guns somewhere other than at me,or so help me God I will put a hole in the back or your skull."
"Now, now now you listen her son. You can try all you like, but that's not gonna happen." He took another big gulp from the mug in his hand. "Either you're uh, going to pick your fancy britches up and waltz right on outta here, or poor Mr. bartender is gonna be cleanin' you up off the ceilin' and the walls for the, for the next uh week. *hic*" At this point he was swaying rather violently and his words were really starting to slur together, now only barely making sense.
Meanwhile, the two men had not noticed that the figure outside had began to get back up. The monster Alice had turned into snarled, and leaped back into the room. It studied the two men momentarily before letting out another enraged roar and leaping at Jeb, whose back had been turned to it.
Jeb felt something akin to a wild boar ram him in the back before he fell to the ground. He managed to not spill his beer and roll over to see a monster that slightly resembled a girl. His vision was even foggier than before and now his chest was soaked with spilt beer. "Now the hell's this?" He said as he broke the beer glass against the side of the monster's head trying to get it off of him.
The monstrosity that was Alice rolled off of him at the impact of the glass and backed into the corner where Sophia was laying. She looked at jeb, and as she was snarling and getting ready to strike once more at him she had a moment of clarity. She looked him straight into the eyes, and as she did she paused.
This man... I thought he was dead... I- He- she thougt. The creature let out a roar again, holding its head and writhing on the ground, as if fighting against an invisible force. Slowly, Alice began turning back to her normal - and sane - form. She suddenly stopped, and opened her eyes.
"What in the..." she murmured, slowly trying to get up. Her muscles ached horribly, and her head throbbed like crazy. She feebly raised her hand and touched her face. She seemed to have something in her cheek.
Jeb tensed his muscles, ready to rush the beast and wrestle it into submission when he noticed that it had curled up into the fetal position and was screaming. He cocked his head and stared, slackjawed as the creatures started taking on a more human figure. When all was said and done he realized that it was Scarlet's sister.
"Oh shit, I was about to kill you." He said as he walked towards her. "Don't scare me like that, you're crispy's sister right? Yeah she told me to bring this-" Jeb had started to reach into his pocket when he saw a bullet fly past his face. Alice crawled backwards, shocked.
Colt wasn't sure if the other man was going to act on his drunken threats, but he prepared for the worst. All of a sudden, something small had leapt into the room, slamming right into his would-be opponent. The younger hunter didn't know what was going on, but continued to watch on as the two faced each other, the little monster poised to strike.
After what unfolded next though, Colt was even more confused.
That creature was really the girl's sister? What in the...
As he continued to observe the encounter, he noticed the man walking towards the girl who had attacked him, mumbling something about killing her.
Colt didn't need to do anything, in fact, the smart thing to do would be to leave while the angry drunk was distracted. However, he felt sorry for the girl, who was clearly mixed up in something that was way over her head. For him, this is what he did- go around shooting people for a living. It was an occupational hazard. But someone like this girl desrved to live longer, deserved a chance to die somewhere other than in a sleazy cantina.
In the second that he had processed all of this, he reacted. Pulling out his guns, he shot a warning shot past the drunk man's face. As the man spun around, enraged, he fired off another round into his wrist in an attempt to disarm the man.
Jeb looked down at the floor after following the bullet into the wall and staring at it for a few seconds. He rolled his head around and then twisted his body to look back at the person who had fired at him. As he turned his body he was met with another bullet which penetrated and left the wrist of the hand which was holding the gun. At the sight of his own blood Jeb's faced turned bright red and the foggyness in his vision cleared. He was pissed.
"You have the gall. No, no no no." He was staring at the ground and wagged his finger in the air. "No, no more talking. You're finished, kid. I tried to give you a chance, but now it's too late." The walls and floor of the building began cracking and shaking, his face became strained and the veins in his neck and face started pulsating rapidly. Bullets and other small pieces of metal such as nails and screws started coming out of the wood which held the building together.
After a few moments a wall of spent bullets and shrapnel was formed in front of Jeb. He looked up and faced the man in front of him as blood started dripping from his nose and running from his eyes. "I tried to give you a chance." He was visibly shaking and he chuckled slightly. "I gave you a chance and you just screwed it, now I'm going to screw you." He held up his finger. "Bye." The wall started flying at the man; piece by little piece, tearing through his clothes and the furniture of the room. Though Jeb's mind was clear, his body was still intoxicated so his aim swayed against his will.
Staring down a massive wall of floating bullets, Colt expressed the only thought on his mind: "What. The. Fuck."
The intoxicated figure, now bleeding from what seemed to be the effort of conjuring such a feat, continued his rant. After he had finished though, the bullets began to fly at the young hunter, who had no idea how to react.
Luckily for him, instinct took over. Making sure what was left of his repulsion spell was active, he leapt as far as he could to te side, taking a few more shots at his opponent while he did so. Diving behind a nearby upturned table, he reloaded his pistols, readying himself to try to escape alive.
Jeb watched as the little man ducked and weaved past his fire. "Run run run, that's all you can do. Fight me like a man you little shit. Shoot me in my wrist when I'm trying to console a child, I'll rip your fuckin' head off." The man fired off a few more rounds at Jeb, which he took and redirected back at their owner. "You better try better than that, kid, a couple o' little scraps like them ain't gonna save ye'."
This guy was starting to get on Colt's nerves. Instead of just finishing him, he continued to gloat, even mentioning something about trying to "console the child"
"Well, if that's how you console children, I 'd hate to see how you..."
One of the bullets he sent back at Colt ripped through the table he was hiding behind and grazed his face, taking a chunk of his ear with it. "Hit me with all ya' got kid. If you're gonna go down you better be flashy about it else I'll just bring you back to life when I'm done and do this all over again. Again and again until you beg for mercy, and when you beg I will give you none. I will bash your head through the floor until the sense gets into you to remember not to fuck with me."
Colt was interrupted as he felt a searing sensation rip across the side of his face. Warm blood began to collect along the thin line the drunk had cut with his bullet.
As the man continued his speech of degrading insults, the combination of pain and anger overcame the hunter. He leapt up, eyes wild, and unleashed a powerful shock of frigid energy across the room at his assailant.
Jeb saw the small man jump up and started to fire off something. He couldn't tell what it was, but he wasn't in the mood to take anymore shit. These past couple of days had been pretty crappy, so instead of taking whatever the kid was trying to dish out he filled his body with the swiftness of the wind and directed what remained of the wall at the kid before taking off towards the kid.
All the while, Alice had been in the corner of the room with Sophia, cowering and trying to avoid whatever the man she had seen at the opera house was throwing at the one Sophia had tried to kill.
Gazing across the room, Colt let out a breath of relief. The spot his oppnent had stood in seconds ago was covered in a layer of ice. Out of nowhere, he felt something strike him in the face,and he fell to the ground.
Jeb punched the kid in the face, catching him unaware and knocking him off his feet. He spat next to where the boy was laying before grabbing him by his neck with the hand that didn't have the bullet wound in it. He went to slam the kid into the ground in what would have been the Coup de grâce when something cold came across his face which chilled the blood and plastered his eyes shut.
As the older man lifter him into the air, preparing to slam him to the ground, Colt had a final thought, upon which he acted, just before what would have been a knockout blow. Summoning what little bits of magic he left, he froze the man's face.
He felt the kid get free from his grip and heard his footsteps running across the wood floor to the exit. With what strength he still had he managed to move his face just enough to get a few final lines out before the kid was out of there. "You sonuvabitch, you better hope I never see you again, because if I do I'll make sure you don't have legs to get away on or arms to pull yourself across the floor with."
Taking this opportunity to remove himself from his assailant's grasp, the hunter moved toward the door. Before he left, he took one last look around the inside of the tavern.
The drunk, still enraged, was spewing more death threats at him. Despite the knowledge that doing so would not help him in any way, Colt could not help but respond.
"Yeah, whatever. Shut up, Frost Face."
As he turned around to leave, he saw Alice cowering in the corner, terrified. He nodded at her, mumbling as he left-
"Good luck, kid."