Red had never been in a gunfight before. He'd been in plenty of scrapes, and the possibility of death wasn't exactly new to him either, but never before had these two things been so intimately tied moment to moment. A good punch or kick was one thing, but they couldn't outright blow his brains out the same way a bullet probably would.

He tried looking from behind cover again, and again he barely pulled back just in time to not get shot. The gunman was ducking and weaving between bullets himself at the center of the room, matching the whole wave of coming goons shot for shot, his own aim true enough to pile body after body up at the room's exit.

"So fucking cool," Red said, muttering it to himself even as he heard the screams and wails of all the goons getting mowed down around him. This dude was seriously outgunning a whole gang by himself. Straight up Rambo shit.

Well, no point admiring it forever. Red flexed his hand, readying himself to jump over the overturned table he hid behind. Worst case he'd get popped in the head right away, but as long as that didn't happen he could grit through a gunshot or two before he got within striking distance. A good punch to the face should take the guy down no problem.

Before he could try, a hand snaked out for his wrist. "Don't be stupid," Scarlet said, shouting over the gunfire. She crouched beside him, glancing around at the surrounding shootout with an uncharacteristic hardness on her face. "Our job is to protect Roman, not get ourselves killed for no reason."

Roman sat in between them, his broad-shouldered form hunched awkwardly. There was some degree of fear in his eyes, but mostly he looked annoyed at how things had turned out. "This wasn't part of the plan."

"Believe me, I'm well aware," Scarlet muttered. "Sooner or later he'll have to reload. Let's make a break for it then."

"We're not leaving the others here."

"Not sure we can afford to be nice right now."

"It's not about being nice," Roman said. A body crashed just inches from his feet, and he pulled them further in with a grimace as blood pooled into the carpet. "A shooter crashes the meeting I set up and kills Ferdinand while I run away? How do you think that'll look?"

Scarlet scowled at that, but couldn't deny he had a point. "Fine. So, what's the move?"

Roman held his hand out. "Let's start with you letting me borrow your gun."

Rolling her eyes, the woman reached back and pulled it out from her waistline. Red watched her hand it over, blinking at the practiced ease with which Roman went on to check it over.

"I'll shoot at him while you two move out," Roman said, making sure there was already a bullet in the chamber. "At least show everyone that I'm fighting back before saving my own skin. If I'm still alive after a few shots I'll follow you."

"I thought guns weren't allowed in the meeting," Red said.

"They weren't."

Scarlet gave Red a grim smile. "It's called breaking the rules, kid. Welcome to the criminal underworld."

Red grinned back, then thought of something that immediately got him frowning. "Wait, what about Kitty? She's gotta know what we're doing too."

"Don't worry about it. Kitty can take care of herself."

Across the room, Kitty was doing more than just that. The girl held Luther down, half covering his frail body with hers, cold calculation having long conquered whatever part of her had been shocked by the gunman's sudden entrance.

She watched all the men who fell to the ground by the room's only exit, either shot dead or clutching at some new hole opened in their flesh, blood gushing out of either option. She watched the other Syndicate Captains, both of them in varying states of shock and confusion, each having only regained enough wherewithal to find some piece of furniture to hide behind while their underlings practically sacrificed themselves on the altar of simple distraction. She watched the table behind which she knew Scarlet, Red, and Roman were hiding, knowing that sooner or later one of them would try something.

Finally, she watched Owl, who stood calmly behind the gunman, knife out and eyes staring listlessly in her direction. The assassin's stance was loose, almost careless, but Kitty knew that for the trap it was. One wrong move and that knife would be sailing right for the throat of whoever made the mistake of coming after her. They had the room locked down tight, and no amount of incoming mafia goons would help when their only means of entry served as a grinding bottleneck.

Kitty clicked her tongue. She could think of one way to get the gunman's attention, but it wouldn't be pretty. Then again, Owl knew she was there. Her cover was blown regardless. So, with one long sigh, she took off her ring and, in the eyes of everyone else there, materialized from thin air.

Luther gasped underneath her, his panicked struggling stopping cold once he saw her arm suddenly appear right before his face. Gulping, he looked up and found himself face to face with what to him was a random teenage girl. "Who—"

"I'm with Roman," she said, getting to her feet. "Remember that, old man. Roman is the one who saved you today."

And Roman had better appreciate her saying this, because Kitty was smart enough to know how this all looked from the outside. The last thing she needed after going through all this trouble was for Roman's gang to go on not trusting him.

Then the gunman turned in her direction, and Kitty had to act fast. She shoved a foot under Luther's gut and, with one heave, flung the man some ten feet and threw herself in the other direction before a rail of bullets banged in a line where they'd been. Luther landed somewhat roughly beside Yovanni, who cowered behind a fallen and broken bookshelf, surely bruised but at least alive.

Roman took that chance to pop out of cover and shoot at the gunman. Even a killing machine like him couldn't just stand there and get hit, so the gunman dived out of the way and shot back, but it was already too late; that single second of respite had given the coming goons enough time to make headway into the room, throwing furniture down for cover and slowly developing a tight battle line.

"Good job, cap'n!" one of the goons said. He followed the gunman with the barrel of his gun, squeezing the trigger hard, eventually driving the other man behind cover of his own. "Now get the hell outta here! Let us take care of the rest!"

"That's all I need to hear," Scarlet said. Without another second to lose she grabbed Roman and pulled him up with her.

Meanwhile, Kitty made a beeline for Owl, her own knife coming out just in time to parry the other girl's lightning-quick thrust. "I'm finally here, Owl!" she shouted. "I'm here to get you out!"

Owl twisted and threw out a spinning heel kick that caught Kitty right on the cheek. The Ranger stumbled, but recovered just in time to block the following slice at her arm. At least she thought she did, until Owl let go of her knife and caught it in her other hand, slashing quick and sparking blood.

Kitty grit her teeth and held her arm—the cut wasn't deep, but it had surprised her. "I know you're probably confused..."

Owl slashed at the air, flicking Kitty's blood off its edge. "You're a traitor."

The word came as a simple statement of truth, the sheer lack of feeling slamming down like a slab of stone. The assassin took one predatory step forward and Kitty stepped back in turn, the layer of cool professional assurance she'd built around herself crumbling away.

"Still spouting that nonsense about getting out," Owl said. "I bet you spent this whole time getting more and more delusional. I'll say it again, same as before: this," she held her knife up before her sallow face, "is what I am. And it's what you are too. Deep down, you know there's no way out from that. People like us don't deserve anything else."

Kitty couldn't fight her. It was a fact that settled despairingly in her bleeding gut. If they fought now, Owl would win. Not because she was better—though that was likely true in and of itself—but because to hold her own Kitty would have to go for blood just as Owl was, and she couldn't. She didn't want—couldn't want—to be the very thing Owl called her.

But Owl clearly had no such qualms. The assassin took another step forward, empty eyes glinting with a deadly void. "There's no way out, Mouse," she repeated. "It's about time you stopped running. I'll make you stop running."

Then an entire table flew in from nowhere and slammed into Owl like a flat piston, plucking her off the floor and crushing her into the wall like a human sandwich. Kitty, knees locked with stress, looked over with wide eyes at Red waving to her from across the room.

"Yo, Darkness!" he said, thumbing over at Scarlet and Roman already dashing out the door. "C'mon, we're blowin' this popsicle stand!"

Kitty blinked at him. Red gestured again, almost pleading, half ducking under the exchange of gunfire passing inches over his head.

She went with him. The two ran out the door, leaping over the small pile of bodies that had built up at the exit. They ran through the hallway, passing a trail of goons making their way to the fight, guns unholstered and tight in their hands. They ran until they reached Scarlet and Roman, Red grinning the whole time, and it gave Kitty enough time to recenter herself, the mask of professional confidence coming back on.

Scarlet looked back at them, not slowing down as the four flew through the hall. "About time, you two."

"Things really went to shit back there, huh?" Red said, not looking at all perturbed by it. "I was ready for the shadow chick, but who the hell is Mr. Shooting Gallery?"

"That's Hound," Kitty said, running cooly beside him. "He's a... contingency."

"What Kitty means," Scarlet said, "is that Owl might be a professional assassin, but Hound's a professional assassin hunter. That guy was created specifically to go after people like us."

Badass. Red looked back, seeing the light of gunfire spill over and over from a room that grew further and further away. "So, what's the plan now?"

"For now, the plan is just to survive," Roman said. His breath came out harsh as he ran, body noticeably more sluggish than the rest. Every day it became more obvious to him that this Spirit stuff had its perks. "I'll let you know what's next after that."

"Okay, easy peasy. I mean, the bad guys're already eating our dust."

As if in response, a shadow leaped from the wall. It was long and thin and went for Scarlet like a dark needle, stabbing so fast that Kitty just barely managed to block it with the flat of her knife. The sound of clashing blades rung dull over the muted gunfire behind them, the shadow point sounding almost hollow before it retracted just as quickly as it had extended.

Red stared at Kitty, who now glanced around as they ran, then looked at Scarlet and Roman, who looked just as watchful of their surroundings. "Okay, never mind, still in trouble."

"Is the car ready?" Roman asked.

"Already shot Donny a message," Scarlet said. "Let's hope he meets us outside." She glanced back at Red. "Kid, we'll handle Owl. You just stick to Roman like glue, got it?" At his nod, Scarlet shot a look beside her. "Kitty..."

"Not yet," Kitty said, face tight.

"Don't wait too long."

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"I know."

Red frowned. "Don't wait too long for what?"

Scarlet gave him a tight smile. "For Kitty’s secret move."

Another shadow needle, this time from the ceiling. Scarlet twisted just in time to avoid it, nearly falling over, but Roman caught her by the arm before she could.

"You're being targeted," the man said, a hint of surprise in his voice. "Why?"

Scarlet gave him a tired smirk. "Looks like I've been found out," she said, then laughed at his scowl. "Why do you think Hound is here? It was bound to happen, considering who we're dealing with."

"I shouldn't have brought you here..."

"And what, have me miss all the fun?"

"Heads up," Kitty said, because by now they'd almost reached the exit.

The same pair of guards as before now held the door open for them, waving them forward with one hand and holding their guns with the other. "We'll watch your back!" one of them said, and Red smiled at that, because really all these guys had been pretty loyal if nothing else and that was as good a mark in his books as he could think of.

Then a shadow shifted behind them, bending in a black flash, and both their heads came off with a crimson spray. Bodies toppled limply and heads plopped on the floor, both their expressions still determined, still ready for a fight even as they rolled lifelessly on the stained carpet.

Red watched it happen with wide eyes, the sheer speed of their deaths shocking him to mental quiet. The shadow grew, coiling like a snake, turning somehow solid as he, Scarlet, and Roman stopped, the way forward blocked.

Kitty was the only one ready to meet the coming dark. She stepped in front of the rest, one hand held out behind her as a wall between her and them, the other ready before her, thumb bent against her middle finger. A surge of pressure bloomed from her, sudden and raw, and in her mind she pictured a dial set to turn.

"Cover your ears!" Scarlet said, doing just that for her own. Roman was quick to follow her confounding advice, but Red hesitated, not seeing the reason in it.

Then the shadow came, a flying monster of sharp edges, and Kitty snapped.

Red gasped as thunder cracked, windows shattered, and every lightbulb in the vicinity exploded, raining glass and casting the whole hall into an instant of pitch black as a wave of pure, clapping noise destroyed every unprotected ear in the vicinity. Immediately after, the whole world fell silent before slowly something rang in Red's head, a sort of high-pitched whistle.

The whole experience was enough to completely disorient his senses. What the hell had that been? Kitty's Trick?

Dazed, Red squinted down and saw the assassin kneeling and bent over on the floor, hands clamped over her ears, trails of blood seeping between her fingers. He went to grab her, but someone shoved him aside, making him crash hard against one of the desks by the wall.

He turned to see Scarlet with a pained expression, her whole body suddenly morphing back into the redheaded figure he'd seen earlier that day. She held her stomach, and he stepped forward to help, but someone grabbed his wrist and pulled him back just as a flutter of air whizzed right in front of his nose.

Glancing over, he saw Hound running over to them, guns blazing in sparks of momentary light, painted red all over. His own ears trailed blood, but it was impossible to tell if he even felt the pain, coming after them with unstoppable focus.

Red turned to Kitty, who tugged at him again, lips moving but saying nothing. Red let himself get pulled away, still hearing that whistle as sawdust and splinters popped up all around him, holes silently coming into being on the walls. Roman led the way, holding Scarlet to his side for some reason, struggling down the steps and onto the sidewalk.

Donny was waiting for them, parked right in the middle of the road, stalwartly ignoring the line of cars honking their horns behind him. At least Red guessed they honked, because from the looks of their faces the drivers seemed half furious and half terrified. Probably they'd been driving past when they heard gunshots, and now the only thing on their minds was the asshole in front stopping them from getting as far away from there as possible.

They piled in the car and peeled out, and it was only when Red sat down next to Scarlet that he noticed the fountain of blood gushing out from her belly.

"Oh shit." That's what he said, even if he couldn't hear his own words. "You okay?"

Stupid question, but Scarlet was nice enough not to say so. "I've... been better," she said, gasping for breath, hissing, giving one long yelp as the car bounced hard against a speed bump.

"That looks pretty bad." Red couldn't get himself quite straight. His hearing was slowly coming back, but everything still sounded like it was underwater.

That plus the sheer amount of blood coming out of Scarlet just seemed... strange. It was absolutely soaking the seat under her, and it didn't seem like it would stop anytime soon. Her gasping came faster and faster, and her skin had gotten uncomfortably pale, and Roman pressed hard against her wound with his suit jacket, unbothered by how dirty he got, something straining in his tight eyes, and—

Actually, wait. Was Scarlet dying right now?

"Hold on," Red said, feeling his seat rattle underneath him. When she'd shoved him... No. No way. "We should... uh, go to the hospital?"

"No hospitals," Scarlet and Kitty both said, the former through gritted teeth and the latter in a voice hard as a glacier.

"This looks pretty bad, though..."

"It'll look even worse if we go somewhere public and get her killed there instead," Kitty said. She sat up front with a Donny whose hands almost gripped through the wheel. "A hospital is the first place Hound will look."

"Okay, then—"

One of the car's side mirrors exploded. Donny yelped and swerved, righting them just before they crashed into one of the cars parked on the side of the road. Everyone turned back and saw, to their horror, Hound riding a motorcycle just behind them, one hand on the handlebars and the other pointing a goddamn shotgun in their direction.

This guy just did not let up. "What the fuck is up with this terminator motherfucker!" Red shouted. He glanced over at Donny. "Hey man, step on it! He's gaining on us!"

"I'm going as fast as I can on this fucking road!" Donny shouted back, panic coating his voice.

He hid it the worst, but they were all on edge now. They whizzed by on the single-lane track, houses mere blurs of light, and soon enough they were out of the neighborhood, weaving between other cars, doing 90 on a three-lane highway, their engine filling the air with pure vibration. Hound kept taking shots at them, completely uncaring for any of the surrounding civilian vehicles, all of which tilted to and fro in a frenzy the moment the people inside realized what was going on.

Wouldn't be long now before the cops went after them. Scarlet mumbled something, and Roman shushed her with a gentleness that seemed entirely out of character before glancing up at Kitty. Slowly, he reached into his belt and pulled out his gun, handing it over.

"You've used one of these before, right?" Kitty looked down at the weapon, then nodded and took it in her hand. Roman nodded back. "I'll take care of Scarlet. You kill that son of a bitch."

Wordlessly, Kitty rolled down the window and, after a short pause, leaned out to start shooting. Red watched her, noting the calm way she aimed and pulled the trigger, face unflinching despite the way her hand bucked with each bullet. Bang, bang, bang, and barely a shift in expression, like playing at an arcade.

Hound revved his bike, the sound breaking the vague quiet of the night almost as much as the pop of their shooting. When he drove up on Donny's side, trying to get out of Kitty's range, the girl simply pulled herself through the car window and sat sidesaddle on it, looking over the roof of the car and shooting from there.

The gunman aimed with his shotgun, about to blow the girl's head off, but just then one of her bullets hit the front wheel of his motorcycle. Red pumped his fist, about to whoop.

Then Hound rose, planting his feet on the seat, and hit the brakes. His bike flipped, and just as it reached the apex of its arc the man jumped, passing through the air like a flying squirrel and landing roughly atop their car, arms wide and hands grasping at its sides.

Kitty aimed for him point-blank, but caught off guard as she was her shot came too late. Hound reached up and grabbed the gun, holding it in a vice grip against her hand, then pulled it off and tossed it out onto the streaking road.

Teeth grit, Kitty pulled out her knife and slashed over at him, nearly falling off the car window now. Donny gaped over at her, and would've kept gaping to his tomb if Roman hadn't been the only one there still paying attention to the road.

"Donny, watch it!"

"Ah!"

The man jerked the wheel aside, sending the whole car careening two lanes over and barely avoiding the truck they'd been heading right for. The motion almost made Hound slip off the car, but once he'd regained his balance he struggled up to a kneel, reaching over and pulling Kitty completely out the window.

"No!" Red said, reaching over and just missing her feet. He looked up, unable to see what was going on atop the car, mind racing as fast as they were. Then he got a kickass idea and glanced at Roman. "Okay. Dude, I hope you don't care too much about your ride."

Above them, Hound pulled Kitty up by her shirt, holding her out over the car's edge. She struggled, trying to stab at him with her knife, but he trapped her wrist in his armpit, so she started fruitlessly kicking at the air, trying to at the very least take him off with her.

Then something creaked, and a hand shot up from the car's roof. It waved around like a rising zombie, buffeted by the wind, before eventually finding Hound's ankle. The man scowled down at it, and his scowl grew deeper when it turned out the grip there was even tighter than his.

The hand threatened to pull his leg right through the roof, so Hound let Kitty go and swiped her knife, stabbing it down at the fingers that tightened around his foot. The hand pulled back as if burned, letting him free, but it had been enough of a distraction for Kitty to find her footing.

Distracted as he briefly was, Kitty managed to get a good kick in on his face, and they were going so fast that Hound didn't need more of a push to fall right off. The man careened onto the road, curling into a ball in the air, bouncing roughly when he landed on the passing concrete, rolling, rolling, rolling, coming to a stop. The moment he did, he popped right back onto his feet and drew a gun out from somewhere on his waist, pointed it at them, squeezed out a few shots, hitting their tail light but, thankfully, nothing else before he disappeared in the distance.

Kitty made sure to watch out for him anyway, crouched flat against the roof of the car, hair billowing out in front of her face. He wouldn't stop, she knew. Hound was a machine born and raised to kill. Now that he knew she was alive, he'd come after her again. And he'd come soon.

They went on for another dozen miles before taking the next exit just to be safe. Donny stopped the car by the side of some nowhere road, so far from anything that there weren't even any streetlights around, and it was only then that Kitty could safely climb down onto solid ground. As reassuring as that was, the sight that met her in the backseat was anything but.

"Kitty," Scarlet said, smile wan.

The woman looked vampiric under the light of the car's interior light. Skin white as milk, lips stained with blood she'd coughed up. Roman's jacket had been tied tight around her abdomen, but it had been completely soaked through and more blood seeped out yet.

The others had climbed out, Red and Roman to give her room and Donny because he couldn't sit still. Kitty looked at Red, who avoided her gaze, then at Donny, who looked like he'd swallowed a frog, then at Roman, who seemed almost as pale as Scarlet. She could easily tell by all their faces what was going on here.

So, Kitty steeled herself for it. "Where?" she asked, keeping her voice level.

Scarlet coughed, and a red blotch came out. "Somewhere fatal, feels like," she said, breath wheezing. "Hurts... a whole lot."

Bowing her head, Kitty tried to think. The Outpost was off-limits; Owl and Hound would likely know she was a Ranger, and they'd know where she operated from. She knew a few other safe places, but none that could deal with this kind of injury. No hospitals... So where...

A chuckle broke out of Scarlet then. "I love that look on your face. Like you're solving a puzzle. I've always thought it was cute."

"There's gotta be somewhere..."

"Donny..." When the man turned to her, Scarlet graced him with as sly a smile as she could manage. "We signed you up for a rough time. Sorry about that."

"It's... it's fine," Donny said. He removed his sunglasses and wiped at his eyes. "I'm pretty tough. I can handle it. No problem."

Scarlet looked at Red now. "Kid, I... Ugh!" She shot forward, groaning, arms hugging her stomach and breath speeding past her lungs. Slowly, her breathing evened out, but the words that followed all came slowly and with effort. "Watch out for her, okay? Please? This girl, you know... She's rough around the edges."

The boy just stared at her disbelieving, eyes vaguely glazed over as if in a dream. "You're really gonna..."

"It happens." Scarlet looked at Roman now. "This was always gonna happen... one way or the other. There was always gonna be a risk."

Roman knelt and looked stoically at her, face unmoving, but when she held a trembling hand out to him he took it and held it tightly. Her fingers, frail now, found the gold ring in his.

"I never really congratulated you," she said. "Soon enough you'll be a married man, Rome."

"It doesn't matter," he muttered.

She held his gaze, lip quirked in a tight smile of pain and something else. "I guess not." She closed her eyes, breathing in through her nose, smelling the air. Then she looked at Kitty. "I need you to promise me something..."

"With your Spirit," Kitty said, rubbing her forehead. "We just need water—"

"Look at me."

Kitty did. Scarlet had sunk into the car seat, almost melding with it, head slack against the headrest. Her smile was soft, knowing, almost pitying.

"Promise me you'll keep at it," Scarlet said. Her grip tightened on Roman's hand, and her next breath came shakily. "Promise you'll see this through to the end."

Shaking her head, Kitty let out a breath of her own. It was... something lumpy was making its way up her chest. "It's a wash," she said. "Owl got away, and now Hound's involved. This job is a complete mess."

"Rome needs your help," Scarlet said simply. She held Kitty's gaze, and something in her eyes started cracking, a sort of fading light. "When I had nothing, he gave me everything. I still owe... You need..."

It was too low to hear. Kitty leaned in, tasting bile. "Scarlet?"

"We... owe it to that girl, too. That poor girl... deserved better..."

"Scarlet?"

Roman bowed his head. The hand in his tightened one more time, a last surge of strength, and then those thin fingers went slack, and the darkness around them remained as it was, totalizing and large in the night, their dull car light the only one for miles, soft and alone in a quiet world.