Amid Vermin and Crates

The lid hit her making her fall to the ground, "This is difficult..." she muttered. She stood up quickly almost slipping on the wet ground. She was growing more and more weak since her hip was bleeding ferociously. "Why did I have to fuckin' stab myself? I would rather die by a bullet not a God damn blade." she said limping as she began running again. She turned into an alley and started to head towards Typhon's house. I can't lead him there... Then Typhon would have to fight. She looked to her side as she ran but then stopped to back up. A ladder? Not a very steady one, hopefully she wouldn't slip and fall. She started to climb up as fast as she could but then slipped almost falling off. She let out a soft squeak as she looked down. What a nasty fall! She regained herself then started to climb to the top. Once she was there she took her gun and aimed down at the alley, if the Brazen Bull tried to climb up the ladder he would have on heck of a fall.

The Brazen Bull came sliding into the alley way shortly after she was halfway up the ladder. By the time he reached it, she was at the top. He could see her aiming the gun, but he started up the ladder, anyway;--it wasn't like he'd never been shot before. Besides that, metal covered all the regions of his body where a gun shot would be fatal, and he doubted she'd be able to aim a sniper rifle well enough at that distance with that much time to hit the more harmless areas. He climbed the ladder with a single-minded determination to bring her down.

As coincedence would have it, Gorski--on his way back to the Fortress--happened down the very same alley way at roughly that moment. He stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes widening. He observed Crimson Witch at the top of the ladder, and the Brazen Bull climbing up after her, and mumbled to himself, "How the fuckin' hell...?" In his pockets was naught, save a single jackknife. Quietly as possible, he slunk back, away from the villainess and the hero, hoping not to be noticed. "This is entirely her own problem," he muttered.

The Crimson Witch frowned then slowly smiled. When he was climbing up the ladder she put down her gun then grabbed the top off the ladder. She gave one strong push hoping that the ladder and the Brazen Bull would crash to the ground.

As the ladder began to fall, Brazen Bull flung himself off of it, toward the building. With a loud 'crash', he broke through a boarded up window on the building and landed inside, rolling a few times before recovering to his feet. Gritting his teeth, he ran through the abandoned appartment he'd come into, out into the building's hallway. He located the stairs to the roof quickly, and ran up them, kicking in the door that released up top, and knowing that the amount of time this took was putting him quite a bit behind.

The Crimson Witch spun around flipping her messy wet hair to the side. She had never looked so disordered. Blood, a ripped costume, and hair that looked like dark brown sea weed. "That's it." said Crimson grabbing her sniper rifle. "I'm willin' to take risks here." She aimed then squeezed the trigger.

As the Brazen Bull came busting through the door, onto the roof, the bullet struck him in the breastplate--the thickest piece of armor on the whole of his costume, barring the helm. It was a lucky shot for the Witch, as a differently shapped piece of armor might have caused the bullet to ricochet harmlessly away. As it was, the force of the blow made him stagger as the bullet, serverely slowed, entered his body and lodged in his sternum. The bullet stopped in the bone, just above his quickly-beating heart.

With a yell--anger and pain mixed together in a brassy battle cry--the Bull continued his charge, drawing his head down and presenting her, as he ran, with both his dagger-like horns, and the absolute thickest point of his armor. He didn't care if she shot again, and this time it killed him; he planned to take her out by forcing her off the building, if need be.

The Crimson Witch was too exhausted to plaster on a smug smile as the bullet successfully went through The Brazen Bull's armor. She sighed as he came at her but was not thinking straight enough to move out of the way. She was at least smart enough to turn to the side so the horns didn't impale her but he did push her off. She grabbed the balcony bars about two floors down before she would become a pancake in the alley. With much effort she pulled herself up then just laid there on her stomach. The opposite side of her stab wound was aching from The Brazen Bull's helmet which had pushed her off. She tried to get up but kept failing by falling back into the same position. Soon the Witch became unconscious.

The Brazen Bull let himself carefully down to the balcony below. Blood was oozing out of his chest through the hole in the front, staining his armor. He grabbed a hold of the villainess roughly and, finding her unconcious, tied her hands behind her and slung her over one of his shoulders. Carefully, he found his way to the ground and started off toward the police station, gritting his teeth against the pain of his gunshot wound.

The Crimson Witch remained unconscious as The Brazen Bull tied her hands behind her back and slung her over one of his shoulders. When they were about half way to the police station she regained conscious. She struggled a bit trying to get free but failed. "Sure you won this round, but you didn't walk away without a wound huh?" said the Witch. Her voice was a bit faded since she was still waking up. "I won't stop till I shoot every Crusader." she said with a chuckle.

"Well, then," said the Brazen Bull mirthlessly as he walked along through Aurora's dark, wet streets. "Perhaps I should just tie you by your heals somewhere, slit your throat and let you bleed out like a stuck pig."

It didn't sound like a joke.

The Witch laughed, "You want to fight again? That wound of yours looks pretty serious." She grinned, "You remind me of my boss, that's something he would say to me."

"Did I mention fighting?" said Brazen Bull humourlessly. 'Humourless', of course, was a good way to describe him on all occassions. "Mine is a flesh wound; you're the one that's bleeding out."

The lights of the police station came into view. A couple of police officers came out of the station to meet him as he neared. "Sniper," he told them gruffly, dropping the Crimson Witch unceremoniously into a puddle. "She was injured during apprehension. My advice is not to treat her wounds."

"Oh, I would put up a fight before you would draw blood from my throat." she said with a matter-of-factly tone. As he dropped her into a puddle she grunted. "Oh hey, I think I know you." she said with a purring tone to one of the police officers. He furrowed his brows then roughly grabbed her tied hands to make her stand up. She looked at her wound, "It is lookin' a bit nasty ain't it?" she said with a chuckle. Suddenly a woman with blonde hair snapped a photo of the scene. The woman was quite attractive which made The Crimson Witch frown, "Whore." she muttered as the reporter took another picture. The woman then approached The Brazen Bull, "Excuse me, sir. Can you tell me if this is the woman who shot Glint?" The word was obviously out, if a couple of witnesses call the press or the police the word spreads like wild fire.

"That's a question for the police, don't you think?" the Brazen Bull replied hoarsely. Narrowing his eyes, he turned and started down the street, the rain pounding against his armour and turning red as it washed down his chest. "Ask her. She can't seem to shut up, anyway."

The woman nodded, "Alright." She turned to The Crimson Witch, "Ma'am, did you shoot--" Before she could finish the Witch interrupted, "It's The Crimson Witch not ma'am, blondey. And yeah, I did." The officers then started to take Crimson into the police station. "This isn't the last you hear from me, blondey. Oh, and nice shoes." said the Witch before she was taken inside. The reporter frowned with concern, "I'm sure this will make the headlines." muttered the reporter.