Change of Plans--A Heart no Kuni no Alice FanFiction

Chapter 10: Showdown and Knockdown

Peter's finger tightened around the trigger of his gun. "If I were in a good mood," he sneered at me, his red eyes flashing dangerously, "I would give you a few seconds head start to let you try and get out of range."

"Only problem with that," I countered coolly, trying to ignore the distracting twitch of his long white rabbit ears, "is that I can tell you're not feeling particularly generous right now, and you have too much confidence in your ability to put a bullet through the back of my skull, especially without a sight on the barrel."

The lack of sight on the barrel was what made me nervous-it meant that he either had the skill to shoot his target without a visual to guide him, or he was the shoot first, ask questions later type. As frightening as that was though, it wouldn't surprise me in the least. "I can only assume," I said, trying to relax myself and stall for time, "that you're trying to kill me because you saw me with another Outsider-Alice."

I saw his right eye narrow just the slightest bit and I moved out of the way just as he shot at me. Good call, Ron, I thought shakily, maybe the giveaways in 'normal' opponents can be used on this guy as well. I didn't have time to collect my thoughts though, as Peter's gun rang out again. I ducked behind a stack of old wooden crates, trying to make myself as small as possible while still being able to see him. My hiding spot was a terrible one and I knew it-he could easily shoot through the wood to get to me. Guess I won't be using my knives as much as I'd like, I thought with some anxiety.

Throwing all thoughts of a good show to the wind, I bent over to stick my knives into my boots just as two shots ripped through the crate above my head. I barely managed to hold back a yell of shock as I pulled my gun out of its holster. Praying my thanks to whatever holy deity was looking out for me and asking for a little bit of luck and help as I slipped six bullets into the chamber. I peered through one of the bullet holes that had been made above me and saw that Peter was striding toward me, the confident smirk on his face telling me he thought he'd done me in.

Takes more than that to get rid of me, I thought, cocking the gun as his foot made contact with the ground to disguise the noise a little. I pointed my gun through a small gap in the crates, my aim unwavering and my fingers steady. I wasn't going to kill him-not yet-but I did want to slow him down. I aimed for and shot his left side, sending him stumbling back a little bit. He reached up to touch the wound I'd inflicted and I took my chance. I stood and shot twice more at him, missing once on purpose and sending the other to his shoulder.

Peter let off a fine string of swear words as the pain settled in. I booked it back out of the mouth of the alleyway, fighting through the throng of people that had started rapidly leaving the scene as soon as they heard gunfire This was even worse-there were civilians around that could get hurt if a stray bullet had gotten out of that alley. I had to get Peter away from these people before someone besides him or I got killed or seriously injured.

The center square, when I reached it, was almost deserted. Word had spread quickly of a firefight, and no one wanted to get in the way. There was a fountain in front of me and some trees and benches around the outer edges. The woods were on my left-a perfect place to go, both for cover and to keep other people safe. Suddenly, I heard a shot ring out and my side suddenly felt like a red hot iron had been pressed against it. I whirled in time to see Peter running up behind me with his gun in my direction. I fell to the ground and rolled out of the way, scrambling to my feet and getting behind the water fountain.

"What do you want with Alice?" I yelled out to him, circling the fountain as I saw his blurred form move. "She told me you got jealous of people getting close to her, and I think it's ridiculous!" I fell to my knees and crawled around the edge of the fountain, wincing at the pain in my side and the shots that rang out above me. "She's my best friend, and I'm not going to leave her by herself willingly!" I told him as I got to my feet.