To Kendra Luehr: Thanks for reviewing.

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Chapter 3: To Protect and Destroy

Taurus sat in the blue chair with a newspaper covering his face as he pretended to read it. His hands were sweaty and they smeared the ink. He wasn't exactly the best candidate for an ISSP undercover mission because of his nervous bladder. He found himself shaking and then stopped.

"No big deal," he had told himself. But it was. Rome had killed about seven cops and a few bounty hunters and was still alive and Taurus knew that a few of those cops were better shooters than he was. The logic of the ISSP was screwed as far as Taurus knew and he was sick of it.

Luckily, vacation time was coming.

He tensed up as the door opened and in walked... a woman. He sighed; it wasn't Rome, not yet. He was so nervous he thought that he was going to vomit and he found himself switching the safety on and off on his gun to calm himself down.

As the door opened again, he tensed up. He turned and saw... a man. Not Rome, either. Damn, he really needed a break.

The door opened again and this time... a taller man. But not Rome.

Then, by almost horrible luck, the door creaked again and he saw Rome. He was wearing a long brown trench coat, his red hair was wild and his blue eyes were dark. Finally, Taurus saw the tattoo of the rose on Rome's hand.

This was real.

--

"You sure about this?" Spike asked.

"Yeah, the Brimingway Hotel in Downtown Alba. Trust me," VT said.

Spike smiled. "What do you have against Rolenzo?"

"Nothing, I just," VT started. Her head sunk. "Will you help me find a certain bounty hunter? I owe him something and he hasn't come to collect yet," VT said.

"A bounty hunter?" Spike asked, a bit surprised. He thought that VT didn't associate with hunters anymore since her husband's death.

"Can you?" VT asked.

The grin grew wider. "Where again?"

--

As Rome walked up to the desk, he felt a bit of relief. At least he had made it this far without being shot at. He felt a bit enlightened, his luck was finally looking up.

"FREEZE!" someone yelled and Rome turned to see a gun pointed at his face.

Or not...

Rome started to raise his hands when he heard more guns being set. He turned to see the three people, the woman, the man, and the tall man, each had guns pointed at him. Or the man who had yelled 'FREEZE!'.

"Oh no you don't, he's mine!" Faye, the woman, shouted.

All the bounty hunters froze, looking at each other. "No wait, I'm hunting Rome," the man said. His gun was pointed at the cop.

"What the hell?" the tall man asked.

The cop was confused before he realized that they were all bounty hunters. "No, look. I'm ISSP, Rome is coming with me!" the cop, Taurus shouted.

Then it hit the tall man. The man that the other two hunters were hunting was Edmund Rome. The tall man had heard of Edmund Rome, or rather the 50 million reward attached to Rome. The tall man smiled, these amateur hunters didn't look so hard, and the cop was shaking in his boots. "I'll say that he's coming with me," the tall man said as he pointed his gun at the cop and shot.

Taurus heard the gunshot, then fell at the sharp pain in his leg. He shot him, that bastard had actually shot him! He yelled out and clutched his leg. "You shot me?" Taurus asked looking at the tall man.

The tall man wasn't paying attention as he saw Faye and the other man pointing their guns at him. The tall man studied Faye for a second. Her suit was... revealing. He smiled and then turned to the man.... he had seen him before.

Rome stood quietly, trying to sneak away. Getting caught or just in the crossfire was not his idea of a good time. When he moved, the felt all the guns move to him at once. He smiled and looked at the three determined bounty hunters. Then he thought he was caught, he really thought that he was done for.

"He's mine!" the man shouted and turned to fire at Faye and the tall man. The tall man fired his shot before the man could get his gun straight and the man fell back as the bullet entered his arm. Faye turned her head in surprise at the quickness at the shot and saw that Rome had also turned his head. Then Faye saw the tall man looking at the man he had shot. In a split second, she realized that this was her chance to get Rome.

Faye leveled the gun on Rome and told him to freeze when she heard a gunshot from the side.

"What now?" Faye asked turning to see the gun. It was the cop again. He held the gun pointed at the tall man, it was smoking from the shot. In the background, the man was cursing because of the shot that the tall man had gave him. After that, things got confusing for Faye.

The tall man moved to see that the shot had missed him by an inch and that his coat now had a hole in the shoulder area. He turned back to Taurus with annoyance in his eyes. "You're just a rookie right?" the tall man asked.

"A-and you! A-ar-re j-ust a c-cowboy with no manners!" Taurus shouted, now feeling pathetic as he realized that he sounded just like his mother. Eat your peas, Taurus

"One of the greatest cowboys ever and don't you forget it. In fact, since old T passed on, I'm the greatest. You can call me DT," the tall man said, bragging.

"F-freeze or I'll f-fire a-a-again!" Taurus seemed to ignore DT's speech as he tried to hold the gun again but found that his hands were shaking so violently, the gun wasn't level enough to shoot even a person of DT's size. DT just raised his gun and held it pointed at the cop.

"Sadly, I have hardly any tolerance for rookies," he said. The cop's face grew white he started shaking more violently. "But that little tolerance I do have is telling me to give you one last chance to give up your weapon," he said in a casual tone. Faye could have sworn that she saw a familiar colored liquid running out of the cop's pants but turned before she had to see that. Instead she kept her gun on Rome, who was trying to edge away from the situation.

"I said freeze!" Faye yelled at the wrong time. The reason it was the wrong time was because everyone was silent when she did it and it caused all the bounty hunters to look at her. Then she felt a gun next to her temple. She didn't have to turn to know that the tall man had pulled another gun.

"Enough!" the man who the tall man had shot pulled out his piece and pointed it at the tall man using his other arm. The tall man gave the man a sour look before returning to look at the cop, not even keeping an eye on Faye. His attention shifted from the cop to Rome. Rome turned very frightened all of a sudden. He turned around, looking for someone to hide behind.

"I'll go with her!" he shouted, and with that he ran to Faye. The man looked confused, the cop was getting over the tension, but the tall man, DT, turned in anger.

Faye was surprised to say the least. She had always wanted to catch Rome but not like this. Rome had just singled her out as the first target for DT, the man who got shot, and the shaking cop. 'I don't need this kind of attention,' she complained inside of her head. Then she looked as DT stepped forward.

"What's your name?" he asked Faye.

"Why is it any of your business?!" she demanded back. Then she stepped away from DT's gun, threw Rome forward into the desk, and shot at DT. Sadly, the bullets found their way back into his trench coat and not to his body. He turned to look at Faye with annoyance written on his face.

"Hey, this happens to be one of my favorite coats!" he yelled. Then he turned and shot the gun out of Taurus's hands. "Look, I didn't even come here for Rome in the first place."

"Than why are you hunting him?" the man screamed at DT.

DT smirked. "Because he's worth some hefty wuolongs," he said. "I figured I could pick up some cash before I interrogated you, again." He pointed at the man that he had shot and his eyes widened. "Don't think that I don't remember you. Your tip was a lie so I'm back to clear it up. What a coincidence that Rome was here."

Faye kept her gun pointed at DT. This whole thing was getting too confusing for her. It was that moment that everything got a little out of hand. Taurus picked up his gun and shot at DT. DT shot at the man, the man ran. Faye ducked and Rome sprinted towards the stairs.

Faye saw this and fired two shots. Both of which ended up on the walls around the stairwell as Rome managed to get up the stairs. Faye ran after him quickly and DT seemed to catch up as quick.

--

The man was left alone with the cop. The cop looked up at the man. "C-could you p-please call an am-bul- ance," the cop asked.

"Hell no," the man said as he held his arm in pain. He had to get out quick. He turned to the exit, which was actually open and decided that now was a good time to leave. He didn't care what Rally would say.

--

Faye had somehow managed to keep on Rome and still remain a floor above DT somehow. She didn't know how but she could only guess that some god liked her. Rome ran fast but Faye didn't have any trouble keeping up. She turned her gun and aimed at his legs, hoping just to get him where it wouldn't kill him. She fired three times. She had got him. She watched him go down and she could smell the money again. At least, she dreamed that.

What shattered her reality is that somehow, a bullet had it left of his legs, right of his legs, and in the middle. Hitting what was empty air but getting extremely close. "No way in hell," she swore to herself. She could imagine a little Jet saying 'I told you so' over and over. Then she cursed a little more before increasing her speed. She aimed the gun, steadily at Rome and waited for the right shot.

Out of nowhere, a small round object started to bounce next to her. Faye looked at it in confusion for a second before realizing what it was. "Double shit!" she yelled as she turned into one of the hotel rooms that the maid was cleaning. Just in time to see a lot of the hallway explode.

Through the smoke, she couldn't see much but did catch a very big figure running into the smoke. "That bastard!" Faye swore.

--

The man was almost there. Almost out of the door. Almost to freedom when... A gun was pushed against his forehead. "You'd better stop," a cool voice said. The man opened his eyes to see someone standing in front of him. He was about as tall as the man. He wore mostly blue, with a yellow shirt underneath and a black tie. He had something close to an afro of green hair and two different colored eyes.

"Who are you?"

"Just an ordinary cowboy."

"What?!"

"And you are the worst bounty hunter poser that I've ever seen, Pouch Rolenzo."

--

Rome looked back and saw the smoke clearing. He would have smiled except that he saw DT emerge from the smoke. Rome gritted his teeth. Of all the hunters, it had to be that guy. Rome could tell that he was good, better than the woman or the man. He knew that the same tactic he had used for the rest wouldn't exactly work.

His only hope was to try and outrun the hulk of a bounty hunter. Rome hoped that his slim physique would allow him to stay ahead while the man's bulk kept him at a distance.

Rome looked back again and saw the man closer seven feet behind him. 'Shit!' he cursed in his mind as he tried to increase his pace.

DT smiled and took out his gun. He took a steady aim, pointed and fired. Rome, a few feet ahead, felt a searing hot pain in his shoulder. He averted his eyes and raised his hands, making him lose his balance. The ground was there to meet his jaw and send waves of pain through it. As he fell, he heard the footsteps cease and realized that a certain someone had stopped right behind him.

He turned his head to see DT standing, blowing the smoke from his gun before twirling it by the trigger and putting it back into his belt. Then he smiled at Rome. "Must be my lucky day... You know, they say that you killed some cops..." DT started before his smile disappeared and he yawned. Rome just sat looking in terror. "But, I'm no cop and I'm certainly not an amateur. You should have just given up so I wouldn't have had to shoot you. But then again, you should consider it an honor to get shot by a legend!" DT put emphasis on the word 'legend.'

Rome had a look of surprise on his face. Actually it was a look that stood between shock and nausea. He was shocked that the man who had shot him was telling him it was an honor and felt sick as he was about to pass out.

"Now, get up and I won't go too hard on ya..." DT said holding out his hand for Rome to grab.

"FREEZE!!"

DT let his hand drop and turned to see a certain female bounty hunter.

"Hello, beautiful."

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A/N: Chapter 4 will be posted very soon. Please read and review. Any insight is greatly appreciated. Thank you, I hope you enjoyed it.