"Aaaaaaaaahhhh!!"
Gina, who had been stomping around like a steel-plated powerhouse just moments ago, was now flailing around like her head was on fire—because, well... it was.
She slapped wildly at her flaming scalp, screeching in a way that could make even the most hardened mercenary wince. It was the kind of scream that haunted your dreams.
Even Francis, no stranger to the ugly cries of pain, was stunned. His eyes widened as he glanced over at Gina, utterly confused. She's hurt? She's never hurt. With her indestructible skin, it was hard to imagine what kind of damage could make someone like Gina scream like a banshee in a haunted house.
Then he saw it.
The flames didn't pierce her steel-hard skin—but her hair?
Gone.
Her beautiful, perfectly slicked-back hair—crispy. The top of her scalp had been torched into a mangled fuzz, and the once-pristine wave of her hairline had retreated nearly ten centimeters. What remained looked like a half-burned wig hastily glued to her head.
She looked like a half-transformed Ghost Rider who had stopped halfway through the process and now regretted everything.
Gina ran her hand over her bald forehead and froze in disbelief.
And that's when Robert laughed.
"Pffft— I mean... I-I'm sorry. That was rude. It's just that the look is... well, it's... bold," he coughed out between chuckles. "Maybe if you shift your stance a bit, I'll stop laughing—because right now I'm losing it."
Gina's head snapped toward him, eyes filled with fury. Her fists clenched, and her muscles tensed like a coiled spring. "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!!"
The ground beneath her cracked as she launched herself like a missile.
Robert's heart rate surged. Bullet time—engaged.
He sidestepped just as her fist tore through the space his head had occupied a second earlier. The punch slammed into a steel container behind him, crumpling it like paper and releasing a metallic scream.
Taking advantage of the pause in her motion, Robert flicked both revolvers into his hands and fired again.
BOOM! BOOM!
Two custom explosive rounds flared as they made contact with Gina's face. Her head ignited once more.
"WAAAAHHH!!" she shrieked, slapping wildly at the new inferno.
When the flames cleared, her hair was even worse—what was left looked like someone had tried to mow a lawn and given up halfway through. Her scalp now featured bald patches, blackened edges, and a strong smell of fried chicken skin.
Little physical harm. Immense emotional damage.
She stood in silence, touching her now embarrassingly uneven hair. Then she looked at Robert with murder in her eyes.
"When I catch you," she snarled, "I'm going to rip your hair out. Strand by strand."
Robert blinked. "Wow, so petty. Really? You're going full middle-school revenge plan?"
Gina didn't respond—she just exploded forward.
"Uh-oh," Robert muttered. "Bald rage mode."
Gina charged like a rabid rhino. Her fists blurred, smashing down like jackhammers. But Robert was already weaving between them, twisting his body in impossible angles, flowing like water through her storm of fury.
Every dodge was calculated. Every shot? Direct to the scalp.
BOOM. BOOM.
More fire. More screams.
If she wasn't screaming, she was crying. If she wasn't crying, she was swinging. She didn't care anymore. Flames? Bring it. Hair? Already gone.
Gina was a woman scorned. And now? She was the bald-headed embodiment of vengeance.
Robert couldn't help it. "Are you... are you sure you're not Ghost Rider's sister? Like, is the flaming skull thing hereditary?"
Gina let out an inhuman roar.
Realizing she was getting too close, Robert reached into his belt, fingers closing around a round object.
Gina sneered. "Grenades won't work on me. And unless you're into self-destruction, you're in the blast zone too."
"Sure," Robert said casually, pulling the pin. "But have you considered... this isn't a grenade?"
She charged. He dropped the object between them and closed his eyes.
"BOOM!!"
"AAAAAHHHHHH!!"
The explosion that followed wasn't a concussive blast—but a flash. A blinding, high-intensity flare of light and sound burst forth.
Gina screamed again, now on the ground, writhing and clutching her face. Tears poured from her burning eyes. Her ears rang like a fire alarm in a steel box.
It was a flashbang.
And she'd stared right into it.
Even with her enhanced body, her sensory organs weren't invincible. Light was light. Sound was sound. And right now, her optic nerves were doing cartwheels.
Robert, meanwhile, also squinted through watering eyes. "God, that was bright. I even warned myself..."
He wiped his eyes and stared at Gina, who was blindly crawling across the deck, hands waving, hairless and stunned.
"I didn't expect it, did you? Looked like a grenade, but surprise—boom boom disco party!"
"I'LL KILL YOU!!!" Gina roared, though she couldn't see anything or hear her own voice.
"Eh?" Robert cupped a hand to his ear. "What? Can't hear you. Gotta speak up."
"DIEEEEEEE!!"
"Still can't hear you. Try again?"
------------------
Visit our Patreon for more:
patreon.com/Samurai492