Even from a hundred feet away, Daniel could tell that the Pont Neuf was definitely the oldest bridge in Paris. Time dirtied the sandy-gray concrete with splotches of gray, as a scenic tourist-filled ferry passed underneath the wide arches over the Seine river.

Daniel and Carmen paced towards the bridge along the Georges Pompidou expressway, a road that passed underneath one side of the bridge. The low sun hung over the water as a haze of auburn and red, reflecting the calm waves onto the underside of the bridge arches.

Right onto where the clue was supposed to be, on the underside of an arch over the road. A woman blocked their view, donning a rugged long coat and a brown cowboy hat — an actual, picture-esque, wide-brimmed hat.

Daniel couldn’t believe his eyes. She even had the boots and spurs. Carmen winced at the sight, drawing in a sharp breath. “Do you think she’s just standing there, or…?”

“Hopefully she’s not looking for the same clue. Why don’t you just go ask?” Daniel grinned.

Carmen’s face flushed with embarrassment. “Me? Talk to her? A random stranger? No, no, that’s not me. I can’t—”

“I know! I’m just messing with ya, I got it.”

The Seine’s damp scent intensified as Daniel approached, with Carmen following cautiously.

“Hey, excuse me, ma’am? My friend and I need to get something from right there.”

A glance over her shoulder, and her eyes pierced through his soul. It wasn’t just from how her crystal, glossy lipstick and her thick eyeliner entranced his eyes — no, it was the contrast against the deep scar on her forehead and over her lip, against her crooked nose and the patch covering her left eye.

The woman grinned. “Ma’am? Please, boy. The name’s Bullet Fandango. You ain’t from around these parts either, are you?”

Daniel had a better look at what she was doing, now that she turned. His heart dropped. The clue was exactly where the painting said it was: a white, glassy emblem etched into the arch, gleaming in the sunset. Bullet Fandango jabbed her knife into the cracked concrete, scraping it out for herself.

Shoot.

Daniel wet his lips. “Uh…yeah. No, we aren’t either.”

“What’s the matter? Noticin’ somethin’ strange?” Bullet narrowed her eyes. “Y’all are sure quaking in your boots at the sight of me breaking this off the bridge. You know what this is, don’t you?”

“What? No, not at all,” Daniel chuckled, lying through his teeth. “We just need to get past you so we can—”

With the scream of steel against stone, her final jab sent the chunk of concrete into her palm, and Daniel jumped in surprise.

“And you both have matching outfits? Why, ain’t that the sweetest thing I’ve seen all day. But, you can’t fool me. Y’all have ‘Fighter’ written all over your little faces,” Bullet said. “You’re here for this clue, aintcha? Unfortunately, there’s a bounty on Eternite’s head where I come from, and I ain’t leaving this city without claiming it.”

“Oh yeah? Where are you from?”

“Missouri.”

Daniel met Carmen’s glare as she warily stepped back and began to summon Chip. The jig was up. He clenched his fists, pulling them from his pocket. “Well sorry, Bullet, but we aren’t leaving without it, either!”

Daniel lunged towards Bullet’s outstretched hand. Bullet tried to pivot aside, but he shouldered right into her. In a mess of yanks and grabs and flailing limbs, his fingers grasped onto the clue, and he immediately tried to pull away. Chip’s loud caw echoed underneath the bridge. Gasps rose between the idling tourists and passersby at the sudden movement. Carmen pointed, and he rushed in with a fist, but Bullet’s hand shot for one of the two holsters at her hip.

One of her hands fought against Daniel’s grip as they both held the clue. The other pointed the barrel of a gun right into Chip’s face.

And no one dared to move.

“You kids really wanna do this outside of a Fight?”

Daniel fought to keep his fingertips from slipping against the sweat. “We don’t have to,” he squeaked the words out.

“Hm? What was that?” Bullet grinned. “I couldn’t hear ya. Did you say, you’ll leave me alone and I won’t have to pull the trigger on this here self-defense tool?”

“No, we don’t gotta do this outside of a fight.” He nodded towards the clue in their hands. “Twenty bucks and this clue says I can beat you in one round.”

He’d seen it in the very first fight he’d watched in this universe, and Mr. Stone clarified it for him later on. Fighters could challenge one another to single-round fights instead of the typical three-round setup, but a single round challenge could easily be refused with no drawback.

But if Bullet was really a cowboy, she couldn’t say no to a bet. He could see the cogs turning in her brain, even if it took conscious attention to ignore her makeup. Slowly, a grin spread across her scarred lips.

“Just put the gun down. Please. Put the gun down, and we can settle this for real.”

“Let the clue go and I might consider it.”

“No might. Either you’re in, or you’re not.”

“Right, no ‘might’. But you gotta let the clue go, boy, or the deal’s off.”

Daniel locked eyes with Carmen — her chest rose and fell in shaky breaths as Chip floated, but she managed a nod.

Do it.

He let go. Bullet lowered her barrel, and retreated a step. “It takes guts to think the way you do, kid. And I’m a betting gal. Twenty American dollars, right?”

“In cash.” Daniel nodded. “Bullet Fandango, I challenge you to a—”

“I’m in, too.”

Daniel gasped in surprise. Beside her, Chip shifted to float behind her, flexing as he glared at Bullet. “We’ll fight as a team. One round, and twenty each makes the prize sixty dollars and Eternite’s next clue,” she said.

“Sounds mighty fine to me! I didn’t do all this makeup just to sit around looking pretty,” Bullet said.

And on the inside, Daniel couldn’t believe his luck. If there was anyway to make Carmen like him even more, doing something she loved and fighting alongside her was the answer.

“Then,” he said. “Electrica and I challenge you to a single round ranked Fight, Bullet Fandango!”

The concern of the bystanders brightened into excitement — clearly everyone knew those words, even in another country. The referee spawned between them as blue light traced the boundaries of the arena, counting the railing that led to the river. “Electrica and Chase VS. Bullet Fandango. Single round! Fighters, enter your starting positions!”

Two gleaming squares marked Daniel and Carmen’s starting positions as the menus displaying each other’s stats appeared. Ahead, Bullet stepped into her starting position, and tucked her pistol back into her holster.

“What’s wrong?” Daniel asked. “You don’t have to hold back on us just ‘cause we’re younger than you!”

“That’s why I put it away. That’s just a tool for self-defense. These are my real guns.” She rolled her sleeves back, revealing toned forearms and knuckles run ragged from a history of battle.

Daniel winced — he should’ve kept his mouth closed. He glanced at the menu between him and Carmen, showing Bullet’s stats.

[https://i.imgur.com/HYEXLps.png]

The plaque below her Fighter name displayed her class and rank. She was higher than the both of them, yet nowhere close to one million, or even five hundred million. But, she was an S Class, one class above both of them. The familiarity of her stats was alarming, too. Daniel could easily recognize that he had higher Damage and Close-Range stats and lower Long-Range and Combo-Potential, because it was just like someone else.

Carmen gasped. “Her stats are just like mine!”

Ahead, Bullet nodded. “You and I are like two peas in a pod, girl. I best keep my eye on you, though, Chase.”

A secondary menu appeared for both sides to choose their bets. Daniel bet twenty dollars, and at his side, Carmen did the same. Bullet bet twenty, too, and Daniel watched as, once she placed the clue into the menu, it disappeared from her hands, reappearing in the referee’s.

“Oh, yeah,” Carmen said. “If I win, I pick where we go for dinner.”

“Really? Then, if I win, I get to pick, too.” Daniel stepped over into his starting position as Carmen did the same. “One round. You got a plan?”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

He could never get tired of the look in her eyes, the apprehension as she sized up her opponent and her brain got to working. “If her stats are like mine, she’s a Rushdown, too, but going by the whip and the flashbangs and her pistols, I’m betting she relies on projectiles.”

“Round one!” the referee announced once they were all in position.

“Then I’ll get close,” Daniel said. “And figure her moves out. I’m better suited, with my stats and my Counter.”

“Right. Chip and I will support you from farther back.”

“Ready?”

Daniel kept his fists low as Carmen entered her fighting stance and raised her heels for extra agility. He’d never been into the idea of fighting two on one, especially not after experiencing the strength difference when someone’s outnumbered firsthand. Bullet had more health than the both of them, and likely even more boosted damage, too.

But he couldn’t ask for a better teammate than her.

“Fight!”

Bullet closed the distance in a single bound, but Daniel did the same — their fists collided with a ring, throwing a shockwave of wind. Bullet blocked his first following jab and ducked underneath his second, forcing him to bob and weave backwards past her retaliating high jab. She chased him down, advancing with every attack.

Dancing between light and medium jabs, he returned fire with small hits of his own against her guard, careful to not lose advantage as the two spun in a whirlwind of fists. Despite the stat difference, she used the same boxing style and still kept him on edge, making up for the gap with her size and aggression.

With the crackle of electricity, Carmen tossed her hat in the ring, firing an Electroshock. Bullet ducked underneath the blast of lightning, but Daniel recognized the tension in her pose. He countered her rising uppercut. Time drew to a crawl, but Bullet didn’t catch on yet — she went for a second jab afterwards in slow motion. For a breath, time itself rocketed back to normal speed, and Daniel countered again. Strength flooded through the glowing veins along his fists.

Bullet glanced at his hands, realizing his power, refusing to test her luck further. She rolled backwards and flicked a golden coin into the air, catching the light of the dying sun. She drew her revolver, firing. Like a streak of light, the bullet bounced from the coin and struck Chip in the forehead.

Fights changed the rules of guns. Instead of breaking skin, the System treated them more like lasers, but that didn’t diminish the hitstun that froze both Chip and Carmen on impact.

And Daniel was too far to punish. Bullet reached for the whip at her waist, and it cracked against the air three times — three times, the leather lashed against Carmen’s skin before knocking her back.

The single combo decimated a third of her health, knocking her to the edge of the arch’s shadow over the road.

“No!” Daniel shouted, jumping towards his opponent.

Bullet holsted her gun and her whip and easily dodged his lunging punch, tossing a flashbang at the ground. Light and sound exploded through his senses, giving Bullet the chance to land two back to back blows in his stomach and chin before uppercutting him into the air. There, her whip cracked against his back three times, juggling him in the air.

Daniel let out a shout of pain. But, he heard the faint metallic ring of a flicked coin, and she bounced another bullet, keeping him in the air even longer. His vision cleared, but hitstun still kept him from retaliating as Bullet jumped up to follow him and finish the combo with a punch to the ground.

The river-side railing bent under Daniel’s weight. He gasped for air, health reduced to a mere third after a single full combo. Though he had memorized the timing of her whip, Bullet landed in front of him, popping her knuckles.

One more hit would’ve finished him, and he was too exhausted to stand. But, Chip covered Daniel’s opening, rushing in with a right hook. Bullet dodged and reached for her whip. Drawing all the strength he could, Daniel leaped forward, putting himself between Chip and Bullet just as the whip outstretched.

As the leather cracked, time drew to a standstill. Adrenaline flooded through his veins like a breath of fresh air, thanks to the counter. He landed into a roll and bolted towards Bullet, planting his fist into her jaw. Three Counters’s worth of stored damage burst forth with a storm of blue light, knocking Bullet from her feet, eating a quarter of her health in a single hit.

Chip continued the combo, attacking relentlessly with a rush of quick, lighting-enhanced punches before an uppercut to launch her upwards.

Down. Forward.

Carmen acted out her inputs and thrust her palm upwards. “Electroshock!”

Enhanced by her voice, the EX-Electroshock blasted Bullet into the ceiling, buying Daniel enough time.

Those three counters had built up a full bar of Meter.

Down, Forward, Back, Down, Back, Forward, Back!

As Bullet dropped from the air, Daniel leaped to meet her. Power surged in his bicep and crackled around his fist before he punched her right in the stomach, capping the lid on their half-health combo.

Bullet tumbled along the concrete, hat rolling off of her head. She staggered to her feet, shoulder-length black hair framing her rough, tanned face. “Y’all are better together than I thought you’d be,” she panted, still smiling. “Guessing I was wrong to focus on you, boy!”

A golden coin leaped from her glove, flying towards Carmen. Daniel’s heart skipped a beat — she was aiming for Chip again!

No.

His eyes traced the path between the coin and Bullet’s revolver, but he noticed her barrel shift downwards. She wasn’t aiming for the coin. She was aiming for Carmen; the coin was a trick.

It was no different than the day Apex tried to kill Carmen and Raph. His body worked on its own, leaping in front of Carmen before the bullet cracked through the air. He Countered just in time, and landed into a roll.

Bullet scoffed. “Damn. You saw it coming.”

Rising beside Carmen, Daniel tossed his jacket aside, feeling the cool river breeze dance along his skin. “New plan?” he asked, whispering over to her. They’d taken half of Bullet’s health, sure, but Daniel only had a third left, while Carmen was barely over half.

“Are you thinking what I think you’re thinking?”

“That you’re better at offense, and I’m better at covering your openings until I build up enough damage to finish her off?” He nodded. “Sounds perfect to me.”

Carmen drew Chip back to their side of the rectangular arena, facing Bullet. As she picked her hat up from the ground, Daniel took wary steps forward alongside Carmen, with Chip slowly floating forward beside her.

They were only ten steps away. Bullet cracked a grin before flipping a coin at Chip. Carmen quickly de-summoned Chip, but Bullet bounced a shot high, anyway.

Carmen ducked and Daniel pivoted the projectile. But that brief chance was all Bullet needed — she lunged towards Carmen in slow motion, fist drawn back for a punishing heavy hook. But, Daniel couldn’t let that happen. He couldn’t let her be hurt. With his enhanced speed, he put himself between the two, preparing to counter again.

Immediately, the drawn fist became an open hand. Daniel abandoned his plan and grasped Bullet’s hands, blocking her grab, struggling against her strength. She’d realized his Counter’s weakness to grabs, and she must’ve thought he’d try countering the punch, too, even though it was a feint.

Anger flashed through Bullet’s face. Her plan was foiled, and Carmen punished with a heavy kick into her ribs. Daniel followed up with a Counter-enhanced medium and a heavy of his own. Carmen kept the pressure going and launched into a full combo, launching her into the air, letting Daniel continue with two more hits, and ending it all with a final Electroshock into the concrete.

Only a third of Bullet’s health remained. The round ticked closer and closer to the end. Bullet rolled to her feet and flipped a coin, and Daniel followed it with his eyes, but it was a misdirection.

“Flashbang!”

The sun itself burned into his open eyes, ringing through his ears. Over the ringing, he barely caught Carmen’s voice.

“Counter, Daniel!”

He’d never doubt her words. Blinded, he still flexed into his counterpose as the leather of Bullet’s whip cracked against his skin. With the timing still fresh in his mind, he countered all three back to back.

The flashbang’s effect cleared from his vision quickly, thanks to the enhancement of his Counter. Ahead, Carmen’s squinted eyes were still blind, but behind her, Chip glared at Daniel in slow motion.

Daniel chuckled — how did Carmen think of that so quickly? Even if her eyes were blinded, Chip wasn’t out at all, so of course he wouldn’t be blinded!

Carmen dropped to a knee. “I’ll recover in a sec, Daniel. You two are gonna have to cover for me!”

“Fine by me. We got this, right, Chip?”

Chip grinned, returning his fist bump.

Bullet holstered her whip. She brushed her hair aside, and blood trailed from the scrape on her forehead. “Y’all confident as hell. Sorry I gotta be the one to smash all that!”

Together, Daniel and Chip met her approach with violence. Chip attacked with blunt heavy attacks, but Daniel stayed close to the electric muscular bird — as long as he was there, Bullet couldn’t punish him without risking his counter.

And she knew that. Frustration rose in her scowl. She couldn’t punish Daniel, either, because Chip’s insane aggression kept her from getting close enough to try baiting his counter.

The most she could do is block and dodge and weave past their back-to-back attacks, but before long, Bullet rolled backwards to gain space. A third flashbang clattered against the ground, but that wouldn’t work anymore. Daniel closed his eyes and covered his face with his arm, and the flashbang went off harmlessly.

But Bullet didn’t target them. She swung her whip at the still-recovering Carmen. Squinting, Carmen leaped to dodge the first swing and rolled midair to dodge the second, but the third struck gold. Her healthbar dropped, and she flew backwards.

Towards the river.

Daniel’s breath caught in his throat. Carmen grabbed the railing, holding on for dear life. Bullet flipped a coin. Chip let out a caw from deep within.

Down. Forward.

He raised his hand as electricity crackled around his forearm. In one swift move, Bullet dropped, ducking underneath the Electroshock like limbo as she aimed at the coin in the air.

Daniel had no way of knowing if the bullet would strike Carmen or Chip. Both option would decimate the last of their healthbar, and he could only protect one.

But he didn’t have to choose.

He jumped into the air, putting himself between the bullet and the coin. As Bullet pulled the trigger, Daniel flexed his counterpose, and the shot merely tickled him. Cerulean light trailed his limbs as he fell towards his opponent. Charged with all of his might, all of his stored up damage, his single hit recoiled through Bullet’s entire body, bursting from his knuckles.

And she dropped like a sack of potatoes.

“K.O.!” The referee swiped her hand down. Daniel clumsily landed on his shoulder, but she brought him to his feet and teleported Carmen over from the railing, raising both of their arms into the air. “Team Blue wins!”

Thin stacks of cash appeared in front of both of them, returning their twenty as thirty dollars a piece. After that, the messy slab of stone with the clue etched in glass spawned in the air, too, and Daniel plucked his shimmering prize out of the air.

Meanwhile, the referee revived Bullet, and she placed her cowboy hat back on her head. “Y’all won the money fair and square, but…” she chuckled. “Y’all can keep the clue. It don’t matter to me!”

Daniel gasped. “What?”

“You think I need a damn piece of stone? I have better memory than a squirrel digging for nuts in the middle of winter!” She cackled. “A betting gal can’t never say no to a challenge, though. Y’all were an exercise in my betting skills, and a good warmup for when I claim that bounty on Eternite’s head.”

“Then I hope we don’t see you again,” Daniel said, burying the clue in his pocket as he put his jacket back on.

“Why, I think quite the opposite. Catch me again, and it ain’t gon be no team fight. I’ll take you two down one on one.”

She narrowed her eyes with the final words before turning away. As a gust of wind rolled along the road, her long coat flapped behind her, and Bullet Fandango strolled into the sunset.

Once she was gone, Daniel remembered his other prize, and smiled at Carmen. Carmen crossed her arms, averting her eyes.

“You know, that weird French place we saw earlier sounds really good right about now.”

“No.”

“What? No celebratory dinner?”

“No! Anywhere but there!”

“But, we agreed whoever got the last hit picks dinner, and I pick the place with the snails.”

Carmen huffed. “Fine. That was the bet, and I did agree. I just wanna see your reaction!”