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Shanghai Series |
Right when he was going to push his way through the swinging doors, a large, pearl-white Wanted sign pinned upon the doors suddenly caught his attention. He ripped the poster off the door and grabbed Chon right when he was about to pass him.
"Take a look at this, Chon!" Roy said. Chon peered at the poster.
WANTED DEAD!
Name Unknown but is identified as "Hell's Woman". Very tall, about 6 feet 1 1/2 inches tall. Very well built and muscular, broad shoulders and a very large bustline. Long flaxen-blonde hair, very dark brown eyes. Speaks with a deep and with an Australian accent. Rides a big chestnut Arabian horse.
Wanted for: Massive murder, bank and highway robbery, horse thief, assassination of someone unknown, guilty of destroyed buildings by dynamite such as, train depot, bank, church with congregation still inside. Has been arrested 41 times, has escaped each time with murder of guards. Shooting as sharp as a pin, also uses an old 18th Century Cavalry saber as the deadliest weapon of hers.
Whoever brings the body of "Hell's Woman" will be granted $20,000.00 on the spot. She's very difficult to catch and to kill. She is very, very, very feared in every town that she passes through. Please be aware that everyone's life is at stake if she is provoked. Age: Around 24.
"Sheesh!" Roy gasped. "She sure sounds lethal, doesn't she?"
"Very," Chon agreed. "Let's go inside."
As they were stepping in, Roy states;
"I wonder if she's loose...if you know what I mean."
Once they were inside, Roy approached the bartender. He laid the pictureless poster upon the table.
"Why isn't there a picture of this gal on this Wanted poster?" he asked.
"I have no idea, I've heard that she's always masked," the bartender shrugged.
"What else do you know about her? Why is she this feared?" Roy pressed.
The tender leaned upon the counter across from Roy.
"Let me tell you...let me tell you why everyone's terrified of her," he said. Roy leaned closer, his full attention on the bartender.
"There was a rumor that her great-great grandfather was a man by the name of Banastre Tarleton," he continued. "And he was a devil in his time. Towards the end of the Revolutionary War, he was on the British side, and he boasted of murdering the most men and hurting the most women. He wreaked havoc wherever he went. And maybe that's where she got her viciousness from."
"Thanks! I've just been wondering..." Roy was saying when he noticed the friendly smile of the bartender face into a terrified look and he was looking over Roy's shoulder at something else. Roy turned around, and there, in a big brown full length oil cloth coat and a leather hat was a woman glaring down at him. Light flaxen hair spilled out from underneath her hat and was tied back in a messy braid. Her blackish-brown eyes seemed to pierce him through. The entire room was silent.
"Howdy ma'am," Roy finally smiled as he doffed his hat. The bartender left the scene and continued with his work.
The woman just glared at him for a while, then looked over her shoulder at everyone else, and they looked away and brought the chatter back up. Even Chon looked away. The woman looked back at the grinning Roy.
Then suddenly, she made a swift move that knocked him off his stool right onto the floor. The bartender passed again, only to be viciously grabbed and yanked halfway over the counter. The woman put her face in his.
"Don't talk about me again, mate," she growled. "Or ye will be my next butchered casualty!" Then she shoved the terrified bartender away. Then she spotted the wanted poster and snatched it up and looked at it. She then turned, kicked over Roy, who was getting up on his hands and knees, as she walked by towards a pot-bellied stove. She opened the little door, revealing orange flames as she wadded up the paper and tossed it into the fire and shut the door. Then the woman turned to the men in the room.
"Twenty thousand dollars!" she laughed. "So much for a woman! I would be surprised if this Chinabloke here knew how to count!" she added, pointing to Chon. At that insult, Chon jumped to his feet.
"Chon, no!" Roy shouted. But, fortunately, nothing happened. Chon stalked up to the woman.
"If you insult Roy or me or anyone else in this room, I will kick your shins in!" as he spoke, Chon readied himself for one of his great karate kicks.
"Go right ahead!" the woman smiled. And right when Chon was about to lift his leg, the woman gave a mighty kick right between poor Chon's legs.
"ARRROUGHHH!" he howled and he crumpled to the ground. She smiled triumphantly.
"Anyone else?" she asked. At first there was silence, then the entire room exploded - all the men in the Saloon, even Roy, jumped onto the woman, creating a great pile of people.
Somehow, she managed to push herself from underneath from the pile. She stood up and made a dash for the front door, but the Posse came thundering through, firing pistols as her. She then turned and ran over the top of the pile to the opposite side of the room. As the Posse was running across the pile of men after her, they started to move around, causing the men who are running atop them to lose footing and fall.
Roy leapt upon the woman and floored her, raised his fist to punch her in a face, but she pulled her foot up under Roy's stomach and she pushed him off her. The woman leapt to her feet and drew out her famous saber. One man ran up to her, and she kicked him in the head. Another man tried to approach her and she slashed him across the front with the saber. Then she leapt upon the counter, out running the bullets fired at her, leapt high into the air and grabbed hold of a wooden chandelier. She swung through the air, kicking over men as they tied to grab her. Finally she let go and landed upon the ground, slashing whoever got in front of her.
Suddenly, Chon came out of nowhere and landed upon her back, he pulled her over on top of him, trying to choke her with his arm around her neck. Roy pushed himself though the crowd to watch the scene.
"Nobody's gonna survive that, Chon!" he hollered over the noise. "Nobody!"
But he was wrong. The woman actually stood up with Chon still on her back, holding on to her neck, she grabbed up a rifle and held it by the nozzle...and with that, she swung the buttend over her head and his Chon right on the crown. He blacked out and fell off her back with a 'slump'. The entire room was quiet. Roy came forward.
"You're a heck of a good fighter, ma'am," he said.
"Don't call me 'ma'am'," the woman retorted.
"I'm sorry, but you're still a woman," Roy grinned back. She sighed and pulled off her coat, revealing a soiled white cotton shirt that was open enough in the front to proudly display two very large breasts. Roy grinned lustfully when he saw them.
"Stop looking at me like that, you hoon!" she sneered in her deep Aussie accent. Then she noticed all the rest of the men around staring at her chest in the same way.
"And that goes for a rest of ye," she shouted. "Get back to your seats! The fight's over!" They all quickly obeyed. All except Roy. He just stood there, smiling at the scowling Australian beauty.
"What?!" she barked at him.
"Uh...do you...uh...do you wanna come upstairs with me?" he asked. She threw her head back and laughed.
"I ain't going upstairs with nobody!" she said after her laugh. "Now off with ye before I kick your ass clean through!" Roy just kept smiling as he doffed his hat, stepped around the woman, and helped Chon to his feet.
"Come on," Chon groaned. "Let's get out of here before this superwoman beats me up some more!"
The entire room laughed. Roy and Chon made thier past the women, then Roy stopped and again doffed his hat at her.
"Nice time I've ever had with any woman ever," he said. "By the way, my name's Roy O'Bannon, what's yours?"
"Libby Clarkeston," Libby bluntly answered. "Now get outta here!" Roy smiled at her again before followning Chon outside. Libby smiled to herself. She seemed to rather like Roy.
Once they were outside, Roy turned to Chon.
"So how'd you like her?" he asked.
"Awful!" Chon scowled. "I've never lost a fight!"
"Well you did to a woman just now!" Roy laughed. Chon at first seemed angry, then he started to laugh along too as they untied thier horses, mounted them and rode off.
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