Dragons in Disguise

Chapter 4 - Girls are scary (Joy again)

When Grace came racing to the construction site, shouting about a duel, Joy was furious, at first, then she was excited. Sure, as the eldest, she probably shouldn't encourage this, but it was probably the best chance they were going to get to make Robert and CO. leave them alone. Faith had challenged Grace specifically, but if something happened and Grace needed help midfight, she could choose two people who could jump in if required.

These were the standard dueling rules for teenagers and young adults in Providence. No weapons, hand to hand only, fight until your opponent is either unconscious or they yield, each team has two backups and one adult per team to officiate. Spectators weren't encouraged, but they weren't discouraged either. No one was surprised when Faith chose Robert and James as her second, although the Dragon Nerds thought that Luke'd probably jump in too. Grace also surprised nobody when she picked Joy and Ann, although Andy protested. He thought he should fight, if only to keep Ann who was only eleven, out of harm's way. He couldn't stop Joy; she was older, and she'd just jump in anyways. This way, they got Joy in the fight without cheating.

When they told Mum and Dad, after Mum and Dad realized they couldn't do anything about it, there was a huge argument between Dad and Uncle Jerry to decide who was officiating. Dad won, he said that he should go because he had two kids in harm's way and Grace was the starting fighter. The fight was scheduled for two days' time and word had spread. Uncle Jerry was coming to watch, (and to hold the boys back id need be!) The conditions were thus: If Robert and Co. won, the Dragon Nerds had to do whatever they said for two whole months, this included during school which started in six weeks. On the flip side, if the three girls won, all four teenagers had to leave them alone, all the Dragon Nerds would be immune from bullying forever. Also, whenever they spoke to any of the Dragon Nerds, they had to call the 'Your Majesty.' Joy added this condition in order to dish out a little revenge humiliation.

The fight began, and the spectators leaned forward in anticipation. Sitting on the rails with Ann, Joy watched nervously, and for a good reason, Faith was the same age as Andy, and, like Joy herself, she never backed down from a fight. Grace started on the offensive, throwing punches everywhere and putting Faith on the back foot. "Maybe we can end this quickly," Ann muttered. "Not likely," Joy replied, "Faith's too good to be beaten that quickly. Also, she might call the boys and we'd be hard pressed to beat the twins if they fight together."

Just then, Faith seemed to wake up, catching one of Grace's punches, she hit out with one of her own, getting Grace in the side of the head. From then on, Grace was struggling to block blows coming from every direction. She got hit several more times until eventually, Faith did a jumping-spinning roundhouse kick that sent her flying to crash into the opposite rail. She sat up, clearly in pain and waved her hand above her head. This was the signal for her seconds to enter the fray. Ann and Joy exchanged a look, 'Here we go,' Joy thought ans they leapt off the railing and ran to where Grace was getting up. She waved them off and told them to deal with Faith. With a yell of fury, Joy and Ann jumped Faith, two against one is hardly fair, so it was less than two minutes before Faith was unconscious on the ground.

All of a sudden, all three boys jumped into the arena. Grace was off the ground now and together, they turned to face the boys. Robert reached them first and he swung a wild fist at Joy's head, who was a little slow to duck. The blow landed on her right eye and Joy realized that Robert was wearing metal-studded gloves. They cut Joy across her eye, not enough for her to lose it, but it would be a wicked scar. Her face exploded in pain and blood dripped into her eye. Grace grabbed Joy's shoulder and spun her around to face Luke while she took on Robert. Ann and James were going hit for hit and they seemed to be pretty evenly matched. Robert shoulder-barged Grace and aimed a punch at the back of Joy's head, which, if it had landed, with Robert's metal-studded gloves, would've actually killed Joy. Thankfully, Grace saw it and flung her arm in the way. The glove, along with Robert's fist, slid along the length of Grace's left arm, cutting her from elbow to wrist. Instantly Robert's face turned from anger to horror as he exclaimed, "Grace! I'm so sorry! I meant to hit your sister!" as if this would solve the problem. Grace's face clouded with rage as she yelled, "OH YOU DID, DID YOU?!"

She swept Robert's legs out from under him, and he landed heavily on his back. "Joy! I can't this one, he's too ugly! Wanna swap?" Joy shook the blood out of her eyes and said, "Nah! Ann can have mine and you can have Twin 2!" "Yep, that's fair! GO NOW!" Grace kicked Robert back on the ground and charged James just as Joy shoved Luke at Ann and spun around to land a sucker punch on Robert's battered face. Grace dispatched James at lightning speed, sending him crashing to join his sister, unconscious in the dirt before stepping back to watch her older sister and younger cousin kick butt.

Joy hit Robert's face a few more times before landing a crushing blow on his nose that clearly broke it. As Robert dropped to the ground, writhing in pain, Ann yelled for Joy to duck. Joy bent in half, knowing what Ann was going to try. Sure enough, Ann jumped onto Joy's back and Joy straightened up as fast as she could, launching Ann at Luke's face. Ann executed a beautiful flying sidekick that landed squarely on Luke's temple, knocking him out.

Joy stood on Robert's shoulder, pinning his face into the dirt. "Do you yield?" she asked sweetly. "Yes," muttered Robert. Joy pressed harder, "so everyone can hear you." "ALRIGHT I YIELD!" Robert's voice filled the air as the crowd was stunned into silence. Joy suddenly took her foot off of Robert and broke the silence, "Well that was boring. Who's next?"