Bounty-ful

"I can do that easily..." Thea said with a sly smile, "I'm assuming you are speaking of the bookkeeper?"

Aurelia shook her head.

"The only thing we need from him is that he's attempting to kill our bookkeeper, which will become evident as soon as he tries. Feel free to shoot to kill."

***

"Yeah, the bookkeeper. Don't go anywhere near the assassin."

Kestrel hunkered down and tried to catch her breath. Sitting on that tub for a week had sure taken off whatever athletic edge she had.

Thea bounced a little in place and smiled at Kestrel, eyes dancing,
"You should run more often!" she said, "as a bounty hunter running may be quite necessary...besides, it is quite enjoyable."

"Good to know" Ephraim said, drawing his revolvers from within his coat. "On your mark."

Thea's appearance shifted a bit, becoming slightly taller and slightly older looking, with somewhat revealing but still appropriate clothing. She now appeared to be around 18.
"Do you think my appearance now would work better?" she asked Kestrel, her voice sounding softer and very feminine, "I look closer to his age, do I not?"

As Kestrel turned to voice her approval, everything seemed to happen at once. The bookkeeper came around the corner, noticed Kestrel and Thea looking at him and stopped dead. The assassin rounded the corner a couple of seconds later, almost running into him. Glancing between the bookkeeper and the girls, the assassin hesitated for a second before reaching into his coat and pulling out an object that glinted in the early morning light. Kestrel watched helplessly as he lunged towards the target.

Then Aurelia stepped in, blade raised. The assassin's eyes widened for only a second before he pulled out another weapon, aimed at Aurelia's torso. She gasped, curling over instinctively. The assassin shoved her into Ephraim's path, then tore off down the nearest alley.

As soon as the assassin went after his target, Thea shifted into her fox form and moved in closer. When the assassin ran down the alley, she was just ahead of him. knowing she couldn't fight him herself, she shifted into her regular form out of his sight and created a glamour of a large cloaked figure with a gun stepping into the assassin's path, hoping that he would hesitate long enough for the others to catch up.

Seeing the assassin tear off, Ephraim followed as quickly as he could, jumping past Aurelia as he did so. As he pursued the assassin, he holstered the gun in his left hand, hoping he would still get a clear shot with his right.

Kestrel ran towards Aurelia, who was still doubled over and had fallen to one knee. Aurelia looked up.

"It's not as bad as it looks. Go catch him, or we're all in trouble."

Kestrel hesitated for a moment, then turned.

"You'd better not be lying," she said as she ran after Ephraim.

**

The assassin stopped for a second upon seeing Thea, then turned to a door to his right. A powerful kick slammed it open and the assassin ran through, to the sound of screams from the occupants.

The glamour vanished, and a small fox chased in after the assassin. Thea did her best to remain out of sight of the assassin as she followed him.

Ephraim followed the assassin to the door, and went inside cautiously, hoping his drawn weapon would dissuade any potential indignant inhabitants from causing problems.

As Ephraim and Thea entered the building, a gasping woman pointed up the stairs.

"He went that way! Just get out of our building, all of you! We don't want anything to do with this."

Thea, picking up the assassin's scent, followed the scent cautiously.

The assassin's scent indeed led up the flight of stairs, smelling of little more than clean, clinical death. However, he wasn't within range of sight--not surprising in the cluttered stairwell. Kestrel barged into the room a few seconds after Ephraim and Thea.

"The stairs? Great."

She ran off, taking the stairs two at a time.

"Are you kidding me?!" Ephraim said, following Kestrel up, "Has she no sense of self-preservation?"

Kestrel paused at the top of the stairs. There were two doors, one to her left and one straight ahead, and an open window. She checked the doors. Both locked. As Ephraim caught up, she gestured silently to the window.

Ephraim nodded, sidling up beside the window and looking out it.

Thea watched from the shadows and prepared to use her magic if it became necessary. Hopefully that would not be the case, as she wasn't much use in this situation.

With her approximation of a war cry, Kestrel thrust her sword through the window, swinging it wildly as soon as it was through. When the sword met no resistance, she paused and peered out the window. The assassin was on the rooftop of the next building, scaling the sloped surface towards a building further on.

"He's getting away over the rooftops!" she yelled, looking for a ledge or something below the window.

Suddenly a flurry of wind and water surrounded the assassin, holding him in place. Thea slid down onto the floor and said in a strained voice, "quick, I won't be able to held him for long!"

Seeing an opportunity, Ephraim readied his revolver, took aim at the assassin, and fired a quick two rounds.

The assassin collapsed onto a lower roof outcropping. Kestrel looked at Ephraim and whistled.

"Damn, you've either got good guns or you're amazingly lucky." She stared at the assassin's fallen form. "Who wants to check him?"

"You may do the honours," Thea said softly, "I fear I need a moment's rest. I will return to the streets in a moment to ensure that Aurelia needs no assistance. "

After standing perfectly still for a few moments Thea turned and made her way back to where they had left Aurelia. She looked around the area for Aurelia and the bookeeper.

Ephraim hopped up onto the sill. "As a rule, I try not to leave anything to luck. Now, if you'll excuse me..." he said, before leaping out towards the form of the assassin, his revolver at the ready.

Kestrel hesitated briefly before following Ephraim out the window. Failing a leap over the alley between this building and the next was not the way she wanted her bounty hunting career to end. Technically, she supposed it hadn't even begun.