Advent Of A Gunslinger

It was a perfect plan that was made up on the fly by the absolute rag-tag group. Vido would be busy finding and rescuing injured individuals and getting them off the open streets so they wouldn’t be shot. Chang would use his scoped rifle to threaten the enemy from a distance and keep them from trying to escape.

At this point, it was up to both Kora and Axel.

The she-cat traveled across the rooftops at breakneck speeds like a skillful jaguar. Soon enough, she was close enough to the water tower to where she could make a hard left, and leap to the next building across the street. From there, she was able to start climbing the ladder…

Axel had flown in as fast as he could with both guns drawn. The closer he got, the more he realized that the water tower contained no water at all. Instead, there was a small window cut through it and the water had been completely drained. Complete drainage happened every so often for the sake of cleaning, so nobody noticed until it was too late.

When the gunslinger came into view, the doctor ceased his fire, and would join Vido in the efforts to find the hurt children. “Hang on, Lord Magpie. Let me assist you!”

That’s when Axel landed upon the tower, peering into the makeshift window with his gun drawn. “Stick ‘em up.”

And at the same time, Kora had arrived, and opened a hatch on the top of the tower. As soon as she looked into it, she yelped, “HHH! Get back!” and quickly jumped away from the tower.

Axel didn’t wait around, and immediately flew back several meters. That’s when--

POOF!

The entire water tower went up in smoke from a tear gas bomb that was detonated, and the lid was blown off. A monkey dressed in nothing but a leather jacket had jumped out, and started scampering towards the edge of the capital.

The stench was so powerful that Axel still had to rub his eyes even though he was far away from it. “Lord almighty--that just ain’t right…”

Kora was unaffected though. She had managed to get away just in time, and was actively chasing the murderer down. While the monkey man was fast, Kora was ultimately faster and jumped up and over his head. She landed right in front of him in order to block off his escape.

“Nowhere left to go,” she said while crawling back and forth on all fours as if stalking her prey, “Give up.”

“Ngh…” he stood firm but sweated, knowing full well that a cat this nimble wouldn’t be very easy to escape from.

A few individuals who had gone into hiding were aware of this fact also.

“...Is that the Miss Katrina we’ve been hearing about?” one monkey whispered to another while peeking out of the door of a building.

“No doubt about it,” said another monkey, “She’s like a martial arts queen!”

“Really? I’ve sent my oldest boy to her class,” said another, “I bet she’ll take him down easily!”

They all kept their voices down so they wouldn’t be found, but continued to keep watch…

With no other option, the monkey sniper beckoned her with both hands. “Lái ba--come on.”

To keep things fair--and because she was concerned that it would backfire--Kora decided against making use of the tome for the time being.

Instead, she pounced in his direction, to which the sniper narrowly avoided with a backflip. Then, seemingly from nowhere, he had a set of nunchucks tightly gripped within both hands. This didn’t deter the she-cat though, as she was more than prepared to dance with fast-paced, close-quarter weaponry. The both of them moved so fast that it was almost unintelligible to the eye. Between the way he swung the nunchaku, how fast Kora dodged, how fast she swung her knees and elbows, and how fast the monkey blocked.

It seemed as if they were evenly matched.

By the time Axel had recovered, and flown over to the direction of the skirmish, the two would be feverishly locked in a battle that was so flashy that it was like something out of a film. Getting a shot off would be nearly impossible, given how much overlap there was among their forms.

Soon enough, Kora would deliver a knee attack to the monkey’s abdomen that was so powerful that it knocked the nunchucks out of his hands, and put him on the ground.

“Ook!” he squealed with a thud as he hit the pavement.

Kora stood over him with one of her palms aimed down at his chest. “Yield now or face death.”

But in a sly maneuver, the monkey would slither his tail up the side of Kora’s body, and squeeze! “...I don’t think so.”

“RRR--!” Kora mewled and tried to bite the tail, but the monkey’s prehensile skills were too strong. The tail was made up of so many dense muscles that was comparable to a dozen snakes rolled into one object.

From his hip, he drew what looked to be a sapphire-plated revolver. “No mercy…”

BANG!

Right before the monkey could take his shot, Axel fired a warning shot in the air to grab his attention. “You ain’t got no honor, boy? Shootin’ an unarmed opponent be hella cowardly.”

“And who are you to--” As soon as he got a good look at the hippogriff, he tossed Kora aside. “...You. You are the one we’re looking for: Ā kè sài ěr Léi míng dùn.”

The she-cat hit the side of a nearby building with a crash!, and started coughing from having the wind knocked out of her.

One of the monkey citizens from before would open the door, and bring her inside. “...Are you okay, Miss Katrina?” This was the same mother who had sent her child to study under her.

“Ow…” she rubbed her head, and realized she was a bit bruised, but there wasn’t anything life-threatening. “...I mostly am. Than--wait a minute…” her eyes shot open as she looked around the room of a dozen or so monkey folk, “How do you know my name?”

Outside…

Upon hearing his name said back to him in Kongese, Axel let out a small chuckle. “We-hell now. My name exists in other languages, hm?” He reverted back to his tense tone, and glared at the monkey. “And what’s your name, hombre?” he said with his claw twitching towards his revolver.

“Hao Deng…” he replied as he put his revolver back in its sheath. “I’ve seen many cowboy. You don’t look very intimidating in person.”

Axel started a slow walk to his left. “I ain’t, hm? Well you know what they say about rumors…”

Hao would also start to walk to his left, setting up the classic Western standoff situation that many cowboys participated in. After about a full minute, he would respond. “...And what might that be? Jiěshì.”

Silence.

Various monkey citizens would start to watch closely from within the buildings they had taken shelter in. A few of them also recognized Axel from the various rumors they had heard, and posters they had seen. They were silently rooting for him to defeat the one that had turned against the honor of their land…

Naturally, Kora was also, but made sure to stay hidden within the building so she didn’t get hit with a stray bullet. “Come on, Lord Remington. You can do this.”

Soon enough, the pair of gunmen would start to move to their respective rights, circling the area and waiting, watching for a move. A tumbleweed made of tea leaves slowly blew past them in the wind.

“They bite ya square in the ass…” Axel muttered.

Once they found their positions, both of them stopped on a dime while staring each other down. Axel’s gaze was focused and fixated carefully upon his target. Given that he knew his opponent needed him alive, he knew that he had the advantage.

Likewise, Hao knew he was at a disadvantage and was even a bit nervous. Of course, he didn’t expressly show this on his face because displaying any form of weakness was seen as dishonorable behavior. So he grit his teeth, and kept his hand over his revolver…

Silence filled the air for another two minutes, causing everyone in the general vicinity to shake and shiver with anxiety. The tension was palpable on this day. So much so, that neither a bird nor mouse could be heard.

And then…

Both gunslingers reached for their weapons--!

BANG!