These are the type of concrete barriers that litter the street

 

________________________________________

 

Consequence

After shooting the gunman, Bro lowered his rifle and stared down the street at Angel. She stared back. 

“What the hell?” Sis blurted, “Did you just save Angel’s life?”

“I think so.” 

“She looks pissed about it.”

“She is.” He hobbled over to his twin, “Sis, forget the money, we gotta go!” 

“Jesus, Bro!” 

“I know.”

With Sis as a crutch, the siblings limped up the block toward the fountain. Behind it, a black SUV sat parked. The twins could hotwire the vehicle in no time. But when Bro looked back, he spotted Angel racing toward them with a gun in each hand, “Ah crap.” He pulled his sidearm, “Sis, get to the truck! I’ll try-”

The first bullet whizzed by Bro’s cheek. A second missed his shoulder by an inch. 

“She’s serious, get down!” Sis shouted and shoved him behind a barrier in the street. With a pistol in her left hand, she ran toward Angel, firing.

“Sis, no!” Ignoring the harrowing pain in his leg, Bro raised the shotgun over the barrier. He spotted Angel crouched behind a concrete pillar. With two guns in hand, she rained bullets at Sis. The bounty huntress fired back from a thin barrier but kept ducking from the onslaught of rounds. 

Angel held the advantage. She was fast, accurate, and not wounded. Still, they had to keep her down in order to escape. On one leg, Bro stepped out from cover and fired three bursts from the shotgun at Angel. The blasts forced the Rifle Girl to duck. “Sis, go! go!” 

Sis attempted to run to Bro’s right as he fired two more shells from the shotgun. But as soon as she appeared in the open, Angel popped up and unleashed a fury at each twin. Sis dove back to cover. Bro tried to return fire but his shotgun emptied. Crap! 

Pulling his Glock 19, the bounty hunter leaned over the side of the barrier and damn-near emptied a clip at Angel. But Sis was only able to run to a lateral position before Angel reloaded and rained bullets again. 

 

Epoch 

“Fuck me!” Sis growled out loud as Angel’s twin-Sig-Sauers kept her pinned under a barrier. Twenty feet away, her brother hunkered behind cover in the street. But she couldn’t reach him. Worse, he should’ve fled when Angel showed up. 

Dang it, Bro! I told you to run and get to the truck. Stop worrying about me! Was the lie she told herself. But she knew her brother was too stubborn to leave without her. 

While Sis ducked behind a flimsy cover, Angel’s bullets flayed the edges as the Rifle Girl grew closer. Sis smirked, Angel was advancing on her position. She must have figured that I ran out of bullets since I stopped firing. 

The truth was Sis’s wounded hand made it near impossible to reload the pistol. “Come on,” she muttered, placing her knee on the gun in an attempt to slide the chamber back with her left hand. But as she kept trying, Angel’s shots grew closer, “Dammit!”

 

Cracks

“This is bad,” Bro muttered. Even if he could run, Angel moved too fast to flank. Plus she hit everything she aimed at with her twin-guns. And worse, she kept advancing toward Sis. 

I’m sorry, Angel. I have to stop you.

As Bro ducked, the Rifle Girl fired both pistols at Sis’s position. She seemed to have it out for her. But Bro spotted a tell. Whenever Angel fired four shots, she would move, or duck to a random position. The erratic motion made her hard to track. 

But right now she isn’t moving to the sides or backward. She keeps advancing to Sis’s location. Which meant…Huh!

When Angel fired four rounds, she ducked and then raced forward, just as Bro predicted. And when the Rifle Girl exposed herself for that fleeting moment, Bro raised up from the barrier and fired. 

Pop!

 

Time

In order to make the shot, Bro had to leap up and sideways above the barrier. But the strangest thing happened in that microsecond. The bullet he fired flew at Angel, except, it seemed…

...she saw it coming. 

Angel stopped short as Bro’s bullet zipped past her torso. In the same motion, she turned and fired three shots at the exposed bounty hunter. 

Oh shit.

When Angel’s first shot reached Bro, it destroyed the Glock 19 in his hand. And in that blip of time, the truth smacked him. Angel didn’t see the bullet coming. No, what she did was far more sinister. 

You lured me out. Holy hell in a handbag, you lured me out. You ran that four-shot pattern knowing full well that I would see it, guess it, and time you. And in order to stop you, you forced me to expose myself. 

As the thought concluded, Bro glanced at Angel's sunlit brown eyes, and cruel smile, just as the last two bullets struck center mass in his armor. 

"Gaah!"

The rounds flew so close together that one smashed on top of the other on his vest. The impact of the double strike hit Bro with the force of a sledgehammer. As he fell backward his lungs contracted. Now unable to take a breath, he accepted the truth that Angel was...

...a truly terrifying woman. 

 

Axiom 

As Sis tried and failed to reload her pistol she peeked out at the fast-moving Angel. Ah, this bitch is so close I can kick her te- 

Angel fired three shots up the block. All three rounds hit Bro, knocking him backward behind a barrier.  

“Eh?” Sis yelped, not believing the sight. “Bro!” she called out to him, but he didn’t answer. 

A hole formed in her stomach as she lifted up trying to get a better look, “Bro!!” she yelled, but this time panic gripped her, “Bro!!” 

No!

When the fear set in, tears welled in Sis's eyes and the huntress lost all reason. At the top of her lungs, she screamed out to her brother.

“Eric!?” 

Silence. 

“Eric! Goddammit, Eric!” Sis howled to the heavens, "ERIC, ANSWER ME!!!" But when he didn’t respond, she snapped. “I’ll kill you! You fucking bitch, I’ll kill you!” 

Sis broke cover and charged ten feet at Angel’s position. Angel raised up from the barrier and fired point-blank. But Sis sidestepped the shot and launched herself over the barrier, tackling Angel to the ground. “Raaaah! I’ll kill you!” she swore and struck at Angel’s head with her empty Glock. Rage so consumed the bounty huntress that she no longer cared about her bleeding had. She wanted Angel dead. 

Pedigree

“Ah?” Angel gasped when the sister dodged the shot and knocked her to the ground. The move forced her to drop both guns and block the strikes aimed at her face. But only for a moment, as Angel rocked up and threw a forward punch. The sister leaned back, avoiding the blow, and Angel pushed her off and hit the sister with a one-two combo to the face before recovering to her feet. 

“Tch!” The sister raised up on one foot and whip-kicked the right side of Angel’s head. 

“Gah!” The strike was so fast Angel barely blocked it, before the sister threw a second kick from the left. This time Angel wasn’t quick enough. The blow landed and knocked her sideways, dazing her. And for the first time in a long time, fear entered Angel’s heart. 

The Cowboy’s sister, with tears in her eyes and a bloodied and useless hand, proved a viperous fighter. The two Sig-Sauer pistols lay at Angel’s feet. She could retrieve one and end this battle, but she ignored them. Instead, she smirked and put her hands up in defense as the black-haired sister attacked again. 

...