" And I am not kidding when I say he was this long" said Victoria Pike, holding up her hands ten inches apart.
" Eewww" said her best friend Misato Ai, " not while I am eating."
" I am telling the truth, he was huge" said Victoria.
" It is because you live in that building of yours" said Misato, " of course you are going to have rats."
" I have no problem with rats, but all this guy needed was a saddle and I could have rode him here" said Victoria, " and that isn't with that tail, he must have been two feet long with that nasty tail."
" Maybe you should start considering a new place to live" said Misato, " it isn't like you are still a poor runaway anymore. It is time you look for a new place."
" But I have so many memories of that place" said Victoria, " I became the woman I am today in that apartment."
" Yah and how many locks do you have on your door?" asked Misato.
" Twelve" said Victoria, playing with her empty wine glass, " okay, maybe you are right, maybe I need a new place."
" Exactly" said Misato, " Monday we are going hunting."
Victoria and Misato were eating a Tony Packo, a Hungarian restaurant in Newport City because neither was very interested in cooking that night. It was a pleasant, quiet, dignified restaurant that was of coursed horrified by the appearance of Victoria, who was wearing jeans, a tight red polo shirt with a big wide eyed kitty on the front which of course showed off the entirety of her tattooed left arm, and big boots. Misato on the other hand was dressed in a smart business black pin strip business suit with a black shirt and red tie. Her silver rimmed hexagonal glasses sat perched on her petite nose, her silky black hair up with two black chopsticks. " I have to ask" said Victoria, " we've been pals almost ten years now, do you really own anything other than black?"
Misato stuck her tongue out at Victoria, " The tie is red" she said, " so there."
" I mean come on, you're never going to settle down, get married, and have a brood of children looking this way" she said.
" Why would I want to get married and have kids, my hands are full taking care of you" her friend replied with a big smirk.
" Ha" Victoria said, " you say I am nothing but trouble."
" Nothing but" said Misato.
A man approached the table, " Bout time" said Victoria, " we are more than ready to order."
The man didn't take out his order pad, instead he produced a very large nickel plated pistol that glittered in the candle light of the table. Victoria looked up and smiled, " Vlad, old boy, how are you?"
Standing at their table was Vladimir '25' Kostalev, an up and comer in the Newport Syndicate. His nickname came from the fact that he had been shot 25 times and managed to survive them all. Victoria was responsible for thee of those 25, something Vladimir never forgot. He had a black eye patch and the most sour face on as he glared down at them.
" Who is your friend?" asked Misato.
" This is Vladimir" said Victoria, " I bumped into him and his friends last week."
" Hello" said Misato.
" Pleased to meet you again, Victoria Pike" he snarled, " I am here to claim what is mine."
He produced a long jagged blade from his jacket and slammed it into the table. " You took one of mine, I will take one of yours" he said.
" Hey, hey" said Victoria, " the eye I took from you was fake, these sapphire babies are all natural. I really, really am attached to them."
Vladimir snarled, " I don't think he really cares" said Misato, leaning across the table.
What Vladimir didn't see was Misato passing Victoria's Colt Americana revolver to her under the table. Misato had caught Victoria carrying it into the restaurant under her coat and insisted on taking it to hide in her purse. Misato had chastised Victoria for being overly paranoia that she needed to carry this cannon to dinner, but again Victoria knew best.
Victoria gently put the gun in her lap as she actively played with the steak knife on the table to make Vladimir look at her. " You think that little knife can stop me?" he asked.
" I stopped you once with a fish bowl" said Victoria with a big smile, " poor fishy."
Vladimir smiled back, the kind of smile reserved only for cats when they had the mouse under their paw. " I decided not to take any chances this time" he said.
Victoria and Misato realized the restaurant was empty, not exactly a big surprise but slowly from the shadows of the two levels of the restaurant armed men began to appear. Victoria knew she was in trouble.

Victoria quickly scanned the room, she could at least see twelve, probably meant there were twice as many in the entire restaurant. These guys were also heavily armed, assault rifles, shotgun, and two heavy machine guns, these boys had come to play. " You aren't getting away this time" he said, " you are mine."
Victoria flashed a big bright smile, " Guess so."

Victoria jammed her heavy boot heel into Vladimir's foot, his designer Italian shoes offered no protection to Victoria's boots smashing his toes. He cursed in pain giving Victoria her window. She leapt over the back of her chair and gracefully rolled around the marble column. She had barely rolled around the column when the restaurant was lit up by the yellow orange flashing of gun fire. Bullets danced across the table where Victoria had been sitting only seconds before ripping the table to pieces. The bullets traced Victoria's movements and began to pick away at the column.
Victoria flicked her safety off and looked to see if Misato was all right but she was nowhere to be seen. Victoria breathed a sign of relief, she wasn't worried about herself but Misato was irreplaceable and besides if she did get so much as a hangnail from this Victoria would never hear the end of it.
Victoria listened as the bullet clicked away at the column, chipping the marble off each at a time. She waited until the fire began to slack off as the men began to run out of ammunition. She rolled out and ran for the next column. She fired three times, hitting three men on the second floor of the restaurant before slipping behind the next column.

Vladimir got to his feet, he could feel two of his toes were broken. The throbbing of the broken toes only made his rage toward Victoria that much greater. He grabbed his big blade and pointed at his men, " Get that Bitch!" he howled.
The men on the first floor started towards the column Victoria was hiding behind. They moved fast, their weapons raised high. Suddenly there was a pink flash and a loud gunshot. The man in the middle dropped to his knees, a round hole splitting his unibrow in the middle, blood slowly running down both sides of his nose.
The others came to a complete stop and looked at their fallen man. " She is just a girl!" shouted Vladimir, " get her!"
The men took one more look at the body and started again for the column. As they neared suddenly a pink flash struck from their right.

Victoria grabbed the first thug's assault rifle and smashed the top of the gun into his nose. She flipped over the first goon and locked her feet around the next thug's head. She spun her legs listening to the loud crackle of his neck as his body crashed into a nearby table. She caught the man's shotgun as he flew by. She fired two quick shots as the bullets began to click around her. She hit one goon square in the chest, throwing him backwards.
Victoria leapt into the nearest column and pushed off to close the gap between her and the next group. She drove her shoulder into the face of the first goon just as a heavy machine gun opened up. She flipped over the goon as the heavy bullets began to rip into his back. Victoria kicked the legs out from under another and grabbed his tie. She rolled over using the man as a shield. She fired blindly and smiled as the bullets stopped thumping into her shield. Victoria leapt to her feet and looked at the last two men, they threw their weapons down and ran for their lives.
It was then Victoria saw why, the grenade hit the marble floor with a light ping. Victoria jumped for all she was worth and heard the explosion and in a split second felt the concussion speed up her jump. Thankfully it was only a concussion grenade or she would have more than a few pieces of metal in her ass at this moment. Victoria tucked herself up and gracefully rolled to a stop just as several more goons rushed her.
Victoria kicked, punched, delivered knees, elbows, two head butts, gouged to one eye and scratched once, totally accidentally.
Vladimir was watching, laughing to himself, six guys she had no chance. Then suddenly the pile all dropped at once leaving Victoria the last one standing. He snarled and grabbed his cell phone, he wasn't interested in taking her alive, he just wanted her dead.

Victoria was panting, thoroughly soaked in sweat, and her knuckles, knees, and left butt cheek were all throbbing. Took a deep breath and looked for the next attack. She heard a moment of silence, she could feel an attack coming in the air.
The silence was shattered by metallic clumping footsteps. Victoria looked as the wall leading to the kitchen suddenly exploded and a man in combat armour appeared.
Now this was totally unfair, Victoria was just one little girl up against a guy safely encased in seven and a half feet of anti-personnel armour. She watched as the first arm rose up holding the really, really big three barreled machine gun. Victoria waited, she waited to see three barrels start to spin up before diving for it.
The bullets zipped only inches above her head smashing into the decorative fountain behind her. The heavy rounds reduced the four naked women holding water vases in a matter of seconds. Slowly the bullets began to follow Victoria's path smashing the marble floor leaving a wake of foot wide craters in the floor. Victoria flipped over a body and grabbed his heavy machine gun. This was the kind of gun that damn armour was built to defend against but it was the strongest thing in the restaurant, she had to try.
Victoria pulled the trigger and began to hit the combat armour. She was pushed across the smooth marble floor on her denim covered butt. The bullets clicked away on the armour, it was doing some damage but it wasn't slowing that thing up. The machine gun ran dry as she flopped down the three little steps that led to the bar. Victoria threw the empty rifle one way and rolled the other.
Thankfully the man in the combat armour was not well trained enough to handle the combat armour well. Combat armour had a tendency to try to anticipate movements and if you weren't use to it you could end up attacking false targets. He fired away at the empty machine gun allowing Victoria race for the bar. Victoria turned and squeezed off two rounds.
The bullets hit the combat armour, one ricocheting off harmlessly but the other hit into the head. The combat armour started to spray bullets all across the restaurant. Victoria flipped backwards and disappeared behind the bar to reload. She had scored a good hit on the combat armour and managed to disrupt his targeting sensors, which explained the sudden erratic spraying of bullets. Victoria lifted her shirt up and grabbed the six red tipped bullets from waist band of her jeans. Six explosive rounds, she had six explosive rounds to take that hulking fucker down. Victoria knew this wasn't going to work without getting creative. Then she remembered, yah I am creative.
Victoria kicked hard against the bar and a bottle of vodka fell from the rack. She deftly caught it and grabbed the bar rag from the brass rail behind the bar. She unscrewed the bottle and crammed the rag that had been soaked in countless liquor spills into the top. She grabbed a book of matches and lit the bottle up. She threw hard, it wasn't going to hit him but it was going to get his attention.

The combat armour, its backup targeting sensors now online hit the bottle in midair which created a great fireball in the middle of the restaurant, starting several of the tables as well as the ceiling on fire. The combat armour fired off several quick bursts towards the bar as it began to move across the restaurant.
The armour had traveled halfway across the restaurant before Victoria moved. She aimed through one of the more sizable holes in the bar itself and fired. Instead of aiming at the combat armour, which would be a waste of a fifty Red Bill bullet, she aimed for the massive gold and crystal chandelier. It blew the chandelier from the fixture along with most of ceiling around the fixture. The chandelier came down with a great tinkling crash directly on the combat armour.
This did accomplish in stopping the combat armour but the remaining seven guys on the second floor started shooting at the bar. Victoria scrambled for the far end as every bottle behind the bar seemed to explode at once. She waited for them to reload before popping up and firing.
Three bullets hit two thugs and they exploded. But then there was a secondary explosion which reduced to the seven men to a red mist and taking most of the area with them. Victoria looked in shock at the destruction, wow I wasn't ready for that. Victoria kissed her gun to congratulate her pistol who she had named Lucy. She always thought Lucy was lucky, and again she came through proving that she was still Victoria's good luck charm.

Victoria decided it was time to flee, she hadn't wanted this fight all she wanted was dinner, if she wanted a fight she would have walked into a syndicate hangout with the local members' wanted poster taped to her.
She raced through the ruined restaurant and was heading for the backdoor when she heard a great metallic creaking noise. She turned and looked at combat armour, it was moving again.
SHIT, she cursed to herself, how did a clod like Vladimir get his hands on such quality combat armour, this bastard must be Chinese made. Victoria squeezed a round off in frustration, hoping for a lucky shot. The bullet hit in the left shoulder joint and exploded. The left arm dropped to the side, she had disabled it but she still had to content with the right arm and its machine gun. Victoria ran for all she was worth straight for the kitchen. She wasn't going to look back, she had to think of something. Victoria slipped around the corner, through the servers' station into the big stainless steel kitchen. Victoria raced for the back end of the kitchen and slid under the counter. She grabbed a plate of food and sat munching away planning her next move.
Two rounds, that wasn't much, wasn't enough. Victoria looked around as she ate, there had to be someway to give her a leg up. Leg, leg that was it, she thought. She tossed the plate away letting it smash on the floor. She grabbed a knife from the counter above her and hurled it hard towards the fuse box by the rear door.
It hit perfectly, like Victoria would never miss such a short distance. The knife went in clean, the lights and the burners all went out at once. The only illumination in the kitchen was the blue arc of electricity that crackled around the knife. Victoria got up and went to work.

The man inside the combat armour was laughing to himself, the stupid girl had turned the lights off, wasn't she smart enough to know he could see better in the dark. He turned on his night vision filter and scowled. All the burners were still warm, the entire kitchen was a sea of red. He slowly started to move into the kitchen, his gun at the ready to blow this bitch into a million gooey bits.

Victoria heard the thing lumbering by, she gripped the huge meat clever, this had to work right the first time. Victoria heard the cheap fuse crackle and the pot of cooking oil ignited across the kitchen.
It lit the combat armour up perfectly, the dark grey lighter armour of the back of the knee almost glowed in the light. Victoria swung the clever with all her strength straight at it.
The shiny metal sliced straight through all three hydraulic lines rich red hydraulic fluid sprayed out like the combat armour's life blood. This, of course, had set off every warning sensor on the combat armour and the right arm swung towards her. Victoria jammed the barrel of her revolver straight out one of the giant machine gun barrels and squeezed the trigger.
Victoria barely let the gun go off before she yanked it out and flipped up on the counter. She pushed herself off, flying for the side entrance of the kitchen.

The first explosion wasn't much, a little pop in the right arm, it wasn't until the explosion touched off the rest of the ammo in the combat armour that the real show began. The ammunition container on the back fired off all it remaining ammo at once. Bullets went every which way, through the floor, through the ceiling, through the walls, through the stainless kitchen counters, and most importantly through the combat armour.

Victoria hit the ground with a thump, her butt was lit up with pain, she was supposed to land on her feet, not her perfectly round butt. The combat armour was now just a smoking heap, Victoria let off a long sigh, at least she'd taken it out. She started laughing, she'd done it, 25 to 1, those were some amazing odds. She heard another voice start laughing from behind her making her slowly turn. Standing between her and the exit was Vladimir, sizzled but still standing. " You aren't getting away that easily" he said, holding Victoria Colt Americana, " we aren't done."
Victoria really didn't like looking down the barrel of Lucy, especially in somebody else's hands. Victoria started to laugh more, " Go ahead, there are no bullets left" she giggled.
" Oh please don't try that on me" said Vladimir, " I am not that stupid."
" Pull the trigger" laughed Victoria, " you are going to find I fired all six before I finished your tin can friend."
Vladimir looked at Victoria, he knew she was bluffing, but what if she wasn't. She could easily take him out in hand to hand combat, he could throw the gun at her, the thing was heavy enough to do some damage that way.
Victoria saw the moment of hesitation in his eyes and grabbed for the knife that was laying inches away from her. Vladimir saw her move and tried to pull the trigger but found the safety was on. He looked down and Victoria sprung at him. She kicked him squarely in the crotch and delivered a vicious head butt to him. The pistol was flipped into the air and deftly caught by Victoria. She easily flicked the safety off.
She squeezed the trigger and heard the hammer strike an empty chamber. Oh shit, she thought, I was really out of ammo. Vladimir grabbed his knife and as Victoria grabbed her last bullet, the special last round bullet she kept tucked snug away for emergencies like this. The cylinder snapped shut as Vladimir pressed the blade against Victoria's neck. " Two choices" said Victoria, " one, we both walk away, two we attack."
Vladimir looked at his blade and then at the massive barrel aimed straight at his last real eye. " Another time, another place" he said, " I will make you pay."
" I'll be waiting" said Victoria.
Victoria felt the cool blade disappear from her neck and Vladimir slipped out the back. Victoria raced through the ruined restaurant for the front doors. She stopped short and vaulted into the coat check to grab her leather jacket. She slipped her revolver back into the holster in the jacket and quickly raced out the same back door as Vladimir, the last thing she wanted was to be stuck with the bill for the damages.

Victoria casually walked out of the alley and pretended to be one of the curious passersby. " Looks like a real mess" said a woman standing next to her.
" Yep" said Victoria, " guess we won't be eating there anymore."
" Nope" Misato said, " can't take you any place nice."
Victoria nodded, " No matter" said Misato, " let's go eat someplace greasy, I'm still hungry."
" Me too" said Victoria.
The pair walked down the street leaving the ruined restaurant behind. The next day every news-net had lurid tales of a gang war taking place inside the restaurant, the kind of story the press just ate up with a knife and fork. None of the reports said anything about Victoria, she was very pleased to remain a ghost of Newport City.