Disclaimer: Both characters owned by DC Comics.
Madame .44 is an old Western character owned by DC. Scarlett was a character from the 90s, a teenage vampire slayer with a 14 issue series. Published in-between the Buffy movie and the Buffy series.
Madame .44 & Scarlett
Brave and the Bold
As The Sun Sets…
An unspecified period of 19th Century, Southwestern United States of America.
"Home, home on the Range. Where the deer and the antelope play."
Have you ever gotten sick of that song? God knows a lot of people have. And God knows it is misleading as HELL. Of course, every time you hear that song you think about lone wanderers of the prairie, hitched up on saddled horses, a weed stickin' out of their mouths and a gun in each holster, thinking about old vendettas and forgotten loves as the evening sun sets into the horizon and the sky glows purple and black with millions of white stars twinkling like diamonds.
Well this isn't that kind of story. So get it out of your heads now. And when I saw now, I really mean N. O. W. Okay yes we do have cowboys but not those kinds of cowboys. Hey, don't you sass me, I just work here.
So, getting back on tr-I said NOW! Getting back on track, we're in a wooded, mountain-esque region of the Southwest. Away from deserts and cow skulls. We have wildflowers and babbling brooks and streams, trees and rocks. And a single rider out on her horse.
She's wearing a white suit, with a white bandana around her mouth and nose, and a white hat. Her hair is scarlet.
CLIP. CLOP. CLIP. CLOP. Those are the sounds of hooves on earth and dirt.
She notices that sunset time is starting to dwindle down, getting very close to night. The moon is already out, so she better be getting home soon. She had just one delivery left on her agenda and she's taken care of it. The gentle sounds of nature around here serve to calm her mind and puts her in a gentle frame. It isn't everyday when she gets a chance to just soak in and enjoy her surroundings. And, sadly, this isn't one of them.
RUSTLE-RUSTLE.
"Shh!"
She knows that she's being followed. For at least five minutes now. It's uncomfortable and rude, knowing that she's been likened to a piece of meat as a group of… whatever have been stalking her. But not completely unexpected, for someone in her line of work.
Her eyes shift back and forth, left and right to her surroundings. They're hiding in the foliage and the bushes. She can't guess how many. Three or five, four, maybe. They keep moving so fast it's hard to be sure.
"Yaaaaaaa!" A voice from above screams.
Of course, the one jumping out of the trees clarifies that.
Caption Box: Jeanne Walker's father had been conned out of the hard-earned gold that he mined by his conniving partner. As her father died a broken man, Jeanne took an oath that she would spent her life making sure hard-working people would never have to succumb to the greed and laziness of evil men and women. Keeping up the guise of a photographer by day, Jeanne infiltrates criminal gangs and steals their spoils, delivering it to the poor and abused. Some call her the Robin Hood of the West. To others, she's MADAME .44.
She whips out one of her colt revolvers from their holster and fires directly at her assailant.
BLAM!
She fires directly at his head. Her horse brays and acts up before she can calm it down.
"Gak!" His death cry escapes from his throat as his body hits against a tree trunk. His eyes roll up into the back of his head as blood, cartilage, and brain matter stain his ugly face. Too easy.
"Come on, boys!" Madame .44 calls out to his companions. "Don't string this out any longer than you have to!"
There's shifting in the bushes.
"Graaaa!" All three scream out. So there were indeed four.
"Jeez!" she says, nearly overwhelmed at how fast they are. They move about like a pack of rabid dogs.
BLAM! BLAM!
Two more bullets fired as Madame .44 tries to lead them out of the woods so she can have more room. The forest is actually cluttering up her shooting.
"Come on, girl!" The good Madame beckons to her faithful horse. It lets out the usual nose that a horse makes when it gets scared. She tries shooting at them, but they move so fast, it's almost as if they're running alongside the horse. Madame .44 turns her head, and sees one of them right beside him. He's incredibly filthy and bedraggled. His clothes are dirty and torn.
He has greasy black hair, eyes glowing red like illuminated blood stains, and his teeth are white, perfect, and sharp as hell. His fingernails are extended like claws.
"What in hell ar-"
"DIE!"
One of them lunges at her and manages to throw her off the horse. The two tumble across the ground, dirtying up Madame .44's outfit. Her sides feel sore but of course she ignores it.
She has more important things to worry about. Like the fact that her not-so-faithful horse has just left without her. Like the fact that she's staring up at a man with fangs and a bullet hole in his forehead.
"What in hell are you?" Madame .44 asks.
"Hungry." He says.
She rolls her eyes. How original.
She can feel his breath on her face. Ugh. It smells like maggots and raw beef.
"Come on, come on, don't be a hog!" The others start circling around her. Madame .44 can get a good look at them from her position. They all seem to be men in their late twenties, or early thirties.
"Rrrr back off!" The one on top of her barks at his companions/fellow hunters. As Madame .44's eyes begin to take in the situation. Vampires. She's dealing with vampires. Blood sucking fiends with an allergy to sun and garlic. They don't have reflections, and they turn into bats and wolves and mist and transform gorgeous young ladies into obedient sex slaves. And they've chosen HER for tonight's main course.
"I said, BACK!" Her trapper screams again as the others haven't quite gotten the message. "She's mi-"
She sends her knee right into his jewel sack, and thankfully he's still human enough to feel.
"Ooooh!" He groans in pain.
"I don't belong to nobody." Madame .44 clarifies. She has both guns aimed and ready. She realizes, of course, that she probably won't be able to kill them with her bullets. But she can at least keep them off her long enough until she can get her hands on something big and sharp.
"Oh but you will." The second one of the group, one with scraggly blonde hair and a chipped front tooth says.
"For God's sake, boy, either come up with something original or keep that mouth of your's shut."
BLAM! BLAM!
She's managed to shoot one in the knee , but her second one missed.
Behind her, the third one, with short brown hair, is about to lunge at her, when, SOMETHING, hoists him up by his shoulders into the night. Madame .44 turns her head for a split second when she hears his startled cry.
"What was-"
SLASH!
The fourth and last one, a bald one with a beer gut hanging out, manages to cut her shoulder, tearing away at cloth and exposing bore skin.
"Aah!" Madame .44 cries as bright red blood starts to stain her white clothes. She winces, until she fires another bullet.
BLAM!
"Aaah!" The bald one screams. "My eye! You bitch!" He screams. "Look what you did to my eye!"
Madame .44 is horrified as she is looking through a hole in his head where his eye should be, and she can see through the other side. He's gritting his teeth, his two sharp fangs elongated, and his nails extended into sharp claws, dripping with blood.
"Graaaaaaah!" He yells as he lunges, until someone jumps him, pinning him to the ground with their legs as a sword is brought down and severs his head from his neck.
Before Madame .44 can blink, the blonde one tries to jump the new player, until they charge directly at him and sends their sword straight through the blonde one's chest, killing him.
There is just one left. The one with the bullet hole in his head. He tries to run away, before Madame .44 shoots him in the arm. He trips, stumbles, clutching his arm. It gives the new player long enough to get rid of him.
"Eeeeeee!" He screams like a little girl. There's a sword sticking out of his chest. Someone from behind pulls it out and then beheads the vampire in a swift motion. His head goes rolling around on the ground before it stops at the base of a tree.
Madame .44's supposed savior turns their head to face her. She can see that this unexpected arrival is a woman. She calmly walks towards Madame .44, who has her guns ready in case this girl is up to something funny.
"Sorry… 'bout that…" Her savior says before passing out on the ground.
Jeanne stands over a young, red-haired girl in a strange get-up. What appears to be a red shirt missing the sleeves and black pants. The girl has a sword clutched in her hands, and she has bat wings coming out of her arms.
Caption Box: Bly Pharis once led a normal life, she had two loving parents, a boyfriend on the football team, and she was head cheerleader. That all changed when she returned from a party and discovered her parents blood-splattered bodies. Quickly, Bly's life spiraled into a void of vampirism, immortals, and Lovecraftian demons when she learned it was her destiny to rid of Earth of blood-sucking monsters as the "Scarlet Redeemer". Thanks to a considerate jackass named Sunset Sam, Bly is now not quite human, and not quite vampire. She prefers the name SCARLETT.