Baking up a New Adventure! (A Cookie Run: Kingdom Story)

Part 4: New Teammates and New Enemies

"Alright, fine," Rye relented, turning to follow us as we left. "Your loss."

"Sheesh," I muttered as we walked back through the gates to the Pilgrim's Village. "You know, in some ways, you're no better than Chili Pepper."

"PARDON?!" Rye demanded, pointing her pistols at me.

"Look, I don't know a lot about the legal system in this world," I started to say. "But in my world, tying people up and threatening their lives or their possessions, as well as attempted murder, are all a lot worse than stealing from someone, even if-"

BANG! Without warning, Rye fired at me, but I was quick enough to dodge the shot and run around behind her, slicing the end of her hair off with the point of an icicle.

"You shoulda gone for the crumble," Rye warned rounding on me and pointing her pistols at me once again.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not the type of person to do that," I responded calmly. "I'm the type of person who tries to reason with people first. And even when that fails, violence is my last resort. I think the worst I've ever done is banish someone to the void, which is basically a shadow realm-"

"That's your loss, then," Rye retorted as she fired on me once again. "Take that, ya softie!"

"You need to chill out!" I exclaimed as I leapt over the barrage of powerful shots, forming an ice spike in front of Rye.

It didn't freeze her, but it did end up blasting her back quite a bit.

"Ack! Are you okay?!" I gasped. "I'm sorry-"

"It's gonna take a lot more than that to keep me down," Rye taunted as she staggered to her feet.

"Guys! Stop!" Gingerbrave stepped between us, his arms outstretched. "We're supposed to be a team, remember?"

"Stand aside Gingersnap," Rye warned. "I'm not afraid to fire on you if you keep gettin' in my way."

"Excuse me?" I pressed. "You're the one shooting with the intent to crumble me here. The worst I did was cut off some of your hair and blast you back a few feet, which admittedly-"

"You're the one who equated me to that wretched little thief who made off with my harvest," Rye pointed out. "That was your first mistake."

"Guys, come on, let's be reasonable--" Gingerbrave tried again.

"Reasonable? I've been-Gah!" Rye started to say, but she fell forward onto one knee before she could finish.

She put one arm across her chest and was breathing heavily.

"Rye, you're hurt," Gingerbrave noted. "You should go back to the kingdom and have Custard or Angel heal you. You're in no condition to keep going like this."

"Don't you dare tell me what to do," Rye retorted, attempting to get to her feet but falling down again even harder than before.

"Rye, please," Gingerbrave begged her.

"What are you so worried about?" Rye pressed. "She already said she wouldn't crumble me. And if that's the case, I could keep doing this forever."

"No, you can't," Gingerbrave insisted. "Look at you, you can barely stand right now."

"I don't have to stand to fire these babies," Rye explained. "Now step aside."

"I won't let you do this," Gingerbrave told her.

"Your choice, then," Rye responded, her hand hovering over the trigger.

The trigger clicked into place, but nothing happened.