Brutal

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Grace had buzzing electricity running all throughout her body. She could feel tingling in her nose and fingertips, the backs of her calves and her toes. Roman Candle was on the sidewalk across from her, with countless balls of fire shooting out from her hands. Setting abandoned cars, shops, and newsstands ablaze.

A cop car came wailing down the street, the lights flashing against the glass of the buildings around them.

Roman Candle aimed one hand at the car, kept her gaze on Grace, and sent a half dozen fireballs right into the windshield. The car exploded in a cloud of orange.

"You're hurting people!" Grace yelled out.

"Only because they're trying to stop me." Roman Candle replied.

"They're trying to stop you because you're hurting people!" Grace countered.

Roman Candle aimed her hands right at her, tilted her head to the side.

As an army of balls of fire burst out from her gauntlets, straight towards her, time seemed to come to an almost stand-still. Like everything was moving through half-set resin. Twelve fireballs were halted in time and space, the closest ones just a few yards away.

Grace bent forward and ran underneath the balls of fire, ran around Roman Candle, ran to the other side of the street where there was a section of grey ropes underneath a shop window. She grabbed a handful of the rope. With incredible speed, she tied the end of the rope around a tall black lamp post. Ran her hand along it to check it was secure.

She took the other end and zipped over to her adversary. Pushed against her, shoving her towards the post.

Slammed her back up against it.

She ran in a tight circle around her, binding her ankles together, and then her legs, and then her body to the post.

She forced her arms to fall by her sides and then wrapped her arms so tightly there was no way she was ever going to be able to move them. She'd have to light herself on fire.

Grace went all the way up to her neck and tied it off.

Time resumed as normal, her heart was pounding, her lungs were heaving for air. She bent forward and put her hands on her knees. Caffeine gave her great power, but sometimes right after using it, she had to take a minute to catch her breath. She took a deep inhale and exhaled slowly.

The balls of fire that had been released sped towards the hair salon across the street and sent it up in flames. Smoke billowed out from the shop windows. A few explosions went off as the fire reached potent chemicals within the salon.

"What the--" Roman Candle said as she thrashed her head back and forth. "What is this?!"

"Me defeating you, enjoy jail," Grace said.

She straightened up, laughed as her enemy struggled against the ropes, and glanced around at the battlefield.

Total Chaos lifted up a massive chunk of concrete and hurled it into the air, flying towards Herald, who flew to the side and dodged it with time to spare. The chunk crashed into the burning hair salon. Black smoke billowed up out of it. Then she looked to her left, saw Deadcode hovering a few feet above the ground, with orange-red lasers blasting down at Evanesce.

Evanesce opened up a portal in front of her, like a shield, and it absorbed the lasers like they were nothing. She leaped into the portal, following the lasers, and then it closed up.

Deadcode stayed there like he was waiting for her to appear across the street. The portal reopened right behind him, A fury of orange-red light shot him in the back, and he was sent face-first into the ground.

Evanesce jumped out a heartbeat later and landed on top of him. Gripped his helmet with both hands and ripped it off his head. Yelled something at him.

Deadcode's boots lit up, and thrust him forward, out from under her.

Living Weapon grabbed him by the shoulders as he flew up, and shoved him back down.

They have a handle on him it looks like.

Rhinestone Cowgirl was in a fist fight with an unnamed henchman, ducking and punching and dodging. She was doing well, landing just as many hits as she was receiving. She ducked down, strung one arm under his leg and stood up. The henchman was lifted up with her, hanging over her back. Then she purposely fell backward, crushing him under her. She planted her hands on the sides of his legs and grinned. His armoured pants turned into black glitter, leaving him with just a pair of grey boxers and bare legs.

She then swiped his pistol from his belt, aimed it at the back of his head, and fired it. He fell limp, a pool of crimson and pink leached out from his head.

Rhinestone Cowgirl stood up, twirled the pistol around her finger and laughed.

"That was amazing!" She exclaimed.

"Brutal!" Grace yelled back.

"But amazing!" She yelled as she aimed the pistol at another henchman.

I guess her and I have different styles. I prefer to catch, she prefers to kill.

The leader was chasing one of the last henchmen down the street, growling at him.

We're doing really well so far.

Lord Daemon was just hovering up in the sky, watching the chaos down below. There was a cloud dragon a few yards from him, looking out for helicopters.

She looked back over at the standoff between Evanesce, Living Weapon, and Deadcode. Nothing much had happened. But then she saw something, a glint of grey metal behind Living Weapon. Caliber emerged from the shadows and was sneaking up behind Living Weapon, gave Deadcode a nod.

"Living Weapon! Look out!" Grace yelled.

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