Lyra the Punisher
"Phone, wallet and those earphones lady!"
It was easy for the larger man to shove the jogger into the utility pole, but just as easy for Lyra to see him and get a clear shot as he drew his head back for a moment. "I'm not going to ask twice damn it!"
BANG!
The mugger jerked back- and blinked in shock with his would be victim as the shot hit somewhere the broad vicinity of his right. The two stared in surprise at the young woman in a hoodie who held what seemed like a comically oversized revolver in her small hands.
"A-alright bitch!" The mugger declared with a shaken voice, suddenly pointing his knife at the throat of the woman. "You try that again and-"
BANG!
The man jerked again, but the movement only served to leave a scratch on the woman's throat as the bullet went wide.
"SERIOUSLY I WILL KILL THIS-"
BANG!
BANG!
The last two bullets flew out with similar success as their predecessors, the gun's completely untrained wielder having no chance of hitting any target that wasn't more difficult to hit than not.
"Are-" The mugger blinked. "Are you fuckin' serious-"
"OH FOR GODS SAKE!" The would-be victim suddenly pepper sprayed the man in his eyes, prompting him to jump back properly, howling at the sheer pain. "DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW TO AIM THAT THING?"
Lyra winced, "I-um-"
"I COULD HAVE DIED-" the woman stomped over and glared at the girl. "IF YOU- wait how old are you?"
"… Twenty," Lyra mumbled.
The woman gave her a flat look as she examined the exposed face under the hoodie;"… no you're not."
"No I am not," Lyra admitted.
"Well Miss Punisher," the woman pointed at the gun. "If you can't aim a gun properly you have just as much chance of killing a hostage yourself as stopping the bad guy and secondly; you're going to need more than a fucking hoodie to stop someone from recognising you."
"He had a knife at your throat-" Lyra protested.
"And I had my pepper spray," The 'victim' glared at her saviour. "I had that in hand, and even if I didn't the sudden movement of the knife hand from the guy being shot in the face could have killed me as easily as a misfire and…"
Lyra could do little as her would be rescuee schooled her on her failure. Feeling like a schoolgirl again all she could do was wilt and take her verbal lashing with some semblance of dignity.
"… how did you even get that kind of weapon at your age- if your parents got it for you they should've taught you to use it properly-"
"AHH, I'M GONNA GET YOU CUNTS!" The momentarily forgotten mugger glared through teary eyes, and barrelled at them.
Glancing at the woman, Lyra raised her gun and tried to prove herself capable once more- only for the gun to click.
"You didn't count your shots did you?" The woman sighed, and Lyra reddened in embarrassment.
"I thought I had one more…"
Rolling her eyes, the woman suddenly shoved Lyra to the side and stuck her foot out as the man reached them. Still half blinded he easily tripped and found himself tumbling onto the road- with a crunch as a truck passed them by.
"…"
"…"
"… Could I maybe just get his knife-"
"Just go before the cops get here."
Well her first outing as a vigilante hadn't gone well; but Lyra Loud was a determined young woman!
She might have had no way of getting ammunition on her own legally as a minor and illegal methods would surely draw attention; but she'd managed in her own way. As she raised the gun she'd stolen from those inner city thugs she aimed at the can and fired!
Missing entirely yet again.
It was at this point Lyra realised that for all her fury, the hundreds of hours of training to actually be good at shooting a gun wasn't just going to skipped in a montage like in one of Lemy's movies. Sure; she'd managed to get to the city on her own after the previous engagement ended with a splat, and her rejection at the Gun shop was quickly followed by her utterly amazing feat of beating and killing two grown men at least twice her size in two-on-one hand to hand combat-
Well actually one had had a gun too, so it was even more impressive- and that before talking into account that she'd never actually used a knife offensively before either!
But the point was that whatever God given (maybe Devil delivered would better suit her at this point) luck had blessed her, it clearly did not extend to magically providing her the skills of a master marksman.
But Lyra was not foolish; or some whiny brat. She still retained some tenants of her old faith, she could not change her brother's fate.
BANG!
But she knew she could grant his murderers theirs.
BANG!
And she could do it with her own strength, through practice and hard work. By coming here in the boonies, between Royal Woods and Detriot where even the local inbreds (except for her) couldn't be bothered to check out gunshots and practicing until she could FINALLY FUCKING HIT SOMETHING ON PURPOSE.
BANG!
The gun went off again, and the complete firearms novice was displeased to note that the can of grape soda remained defiantly untouched.
A bird however flopped from a distant branch, sans a head.
Once upon a time Lyra Loud would have felt remorse and pity for the creature, now she just wondered how evolution had produced a bird dumb enough to stay near gunshots. Shaking her head, she breathed in through the bandana that symbolised her lost love- and gagged a bit because it was already smelly with stale unwashed pubescent boy stink before bits of thug blood stained it.
Come to think of it, what did the rest of her- yep. Her entire upper body was covered in little bloody specs, just as one would expect if they had carved off a man's face with a broken glass bottle earlier that day.
Oh… that's why people were giving me weird looks on the way here….
Well there was nothing to do about it now; she raised the gun with focus once more. Sure- she was utterly unskilled and all her kills were largely luck and circumstance. But she was determined and resourceful; and as she pulled the trigger again she was sure she would find her way to her revenge, even if she had to fire a thousand bullets and climb over a mountain of bodies-
The gun clicked, signifying that Lyra Loud was out of bullets again.
"Dang it."
