There he stood. In the alleyway. Alone except for one man standing a ways off. The man was facing away, lighting a cigarette. The night was far from quiet. The 4th of July, a frankly useless holiday. But the constant cracking of fireworks was good cover. He was supposed to wait until a specific string of louder fireworks that were gonna be set off by some other guys. His .45 was ready, the one thing that had always stuck by his side. Nothing else had really stayed around.

They were s'posed to be lighting them right about now. Maybe something had gone wrong, or, more likely, they were too dumb to figure out the matches. A sound caught his attention, but it wasn't any firework. He whipped around to see a figure pointing a gun to the sky. A warning shot? That made no sense, there was hardly anyone to see. And they weren't making a move, just standing there with their metal smoking. It almost seemed like... a distraction. Damn. This was an ambush.

It clicked in his head just as another gun clicked behind him. The man with the cigarette. This wasn't the guy he was taking out, how'd they have the time to switch 'em? He took the hat off and tossed it away. Damn! Rev Brandy in the flesh. So they finally came after him. About time.

"Good ol' Blackjack. Been a while."

"Rev. I don't got time for this, I've taken you solo before."

"See, there's where you're wrong, Jack. I ain't rollin' solo no more. And even you can't take five at once."

"You watch me."

"Nah, we gotta bring you in alive. Try not to get shot."

"You've got something else comin', Rev. I ain't goin' nowhere."

The man with the warning shot came at him, but he was slow. Jack dodged his swing and looked around for any others.

2 behind Brandy, 3 on the other side. Light work.

He fired a few rounds at Warning Shot, and one hit him in the leg. He dropped his gun, and Jack snatched it. Dual wielding was cake. The two behind Rev seemed to be staying back, but the others were rushing at him. Jack hit one in the arm and the other in the gut, but they kept advancing, albeit a lot slower. Jack managed to dodge their shots, and took cover behind a trash can. It sure wasn't much. Jack was still mostly exposed, and they were coming quick. Only Rev was staying on the sidelines now, and despite his boasting, Jack was having a bit of a struggle with multiple guys. As they got closer, he kicked the trash can into one of them, and he went down. The others were stunned for a second, and he used the opportunity to shoot one in the shoulder and bash another in the head with the trash can lid. The last guy was a terrible aim, and Jack managed to sweep his leg and give him a good kick in the head. It seemed like he had won, and he momentarily relaxed.

DAMN IT!

His arm was on fire. Forgot about Rev. The blood was coming through his jacket already, that wasn't a good sign. He turned and started running towards Rev, but another guy he hadn't even seen clotheslined him. He whipped to the ground, and both his guns were wrenched from his hands. Two beefy guys hauled him up and managed to hold him as Rev walked up to them. Jack was struggling like hell, but these guys were good.

"Alright Blackjack, playtime's over. You did good, I'll give you that much. Givin' me a whole lot of trouble though." Quick as lightning, Rev slugged him right in the stomach.

Shit, that hurt! Since when did he get brass knuckles? Hardly fair.

"Do you have any idea how long it took me to build back up my reputation after our last run-in? Made me look like an amateur. Maybe I should return the favor." He punctuated his sentence with another hit.

"Gee, Jack, I didn't take you for a wimp. Ain't you gonna fight back?" Face this time. His nose was broken, he could feel it. Wasn't the first time, but still not pleasant. And his sleeve was still wet, probably getting more soaked sitting here.

"We oughta do this more often, I'm enjoying myself." He was gonna break a rib at this rate.

"But alas, we gotta bring you in soon. So glad we could ah, catch up. See you around."

Jack didn't have time to register the bat flying at his head until everything went black.