Heart Strings

Four Sisters

"You're not getting to Goldie!" Lovely Grace exclaimed as she pulled a heat sensing multi-directional stun gun from her backpack. She aimed it toward the men without hesitation, the heat sensing dots finding five of them, then pulled the trigger.

"Stop her!" Pinwheel shouted as five of his comrades fell to the ground. Lovely Grace knew that she was going to have to fight her way out of this bar and find the easiest way to get back to her homestead and warn Goldie about Crescendo.

"Beso, go!" She shouted, pointing toward the open door for the Australian-Shepherd-lab mix to make an escape on his own. "Go, now!" She demanded as Pinwheel himself began looming toward her, about a dozen other men following behind him.

Lovely Grace's body remembered her days alongside Heart Grandeur better than her mind could. She aimed her stun gun at Pinwheel's face and he kicked it out of her hand, his lip raised with anger. "I'm not giving her to you!" Lovely shouted as she blocked and dodged Pinwheel's powerful blows. She stumbled backward when she realized Beso hadn't left as he was told, collapsing to the floor. "Go!" She shouted, still fighting off men around her. She fought as hard as she could—and for Lovely Grace Grandeur, her hardest was more than enough. She fought swiftly through the crowd of men, mostly deflecting them rather than taking them down.

"You're just like your mother, Lovely Grace," Pinwheel's voice boomed through the room as he walked on the outskirts of the fray, making the decision to keep his hands clean. "Fight, fight, fight your way out of everything, huh?"

Lovely Grace tried her best to spot Pinwheel through the crowd while reaching for her backpack with one hand and fighting with the other. At the same time, she tried to be sure to look out for her disobedient dog. After fighting her way out of a few grapples, Lovely Grace was able to see that she'd made progress in moving toward the exit, but Pinwheel was bound to make sure she couldn't leave—so she was going to need to employ the use of something she hadn't dared to use since she built it long ago for none other than her older sister, Polite.

From her backpack she pulled a small silver ring and gripped it in her hand, but not for long, as it was knocked to the floor after she was tackled to the ground. She struggled and grunted underneath the man as he cursed and pulled her hair. "Agh!" She squealed as he yanked her head backward. "Tell us where she is!" He demanded, slamming Lovely Grace's face into the floor.

He picked her head up and let the blood from her nose leak out onto the hardwood. He sucked his teeth as her eyes re-straightened and decided to slam her head a second time. She spit blood from her mouth as she stayed awake, her hand still searching for her ring. The man picked her head up even higher the third time, ready to render her unconscious with his final blow as Beso barked in the background.

Upset, Beso sprang into action, biting the back of the attacker's head. "Shit!" The man shouted. "Fucking dog!" He cried. Beso leapt forward, biting the man's face and giving Lovely Grace an opportunity to wriggle toward the ring. She grabbed it and stood to her feet, snapping it in half and throwing one half to the other side of the room. "Come, Beso!" She shouted, crouching to cover Beso's face. "Light detonation!" She commanded into the other half of the ring as it created a replacement half for itself in the form of a glowing blue band. She covered her own face as well as the ring half on the other side of the room exploded into a blindingly bright light, stunning the men around her except for Pinwheel who'd guarded his own face just in time.

Lovely Grace slid the restored ring onto her index finger and stood back to her feet. Pinwheel ran to stop her as she pointed her finger toward the men, the ring making a beeping noise. Still, though, he wasn't fast enough.

The ring loudly shot a cylindrical forcefield down the middle of the bar, strong enough to force the men out of the way and knock them unconscious. Unfortunately, it broke after that first usage. It exploded, actually, but Lovely Grace couldn't be bothered to worry about the injury. She got a window to run away, so she did.