Out of the Frying Pan

Razz Part 3

Adora would like to say that everything went according to plan. That they looked the place over, decided how they'd attack, and then she calmly said the right words and transformed.

But what happened was she looked over the ridge and saw them dragging Horsey off into one of the buildings and this time she at least panicked in the right direction, holding up the sword and shouting the words in a rush before running in.

She cuts Horsey free.

They did this just because Horsey was there. Just like the trees, just like the village. He's not part of any rebellion. He was there and they hurt him.

She swings a sword through the first tank. It's effortless carving in half what should be impenetrable steel. She shouts at the soldiers around her to stop, to leave, that this is wrong. They charge her and she blocks a baton with her sword.

"Focus, Adora!" shouts Catra.

One of the soldiers turns from She-Ra toward the sound and shouts, "Catra! I should have known you little-" but Catra goes low to avoid the blow and then lashes out. The women shrieks and falls back, clutching her bloody leg.

She has no idea who it was. The helmets distort voices as well as blocking faces and it'd be quicker to list people who don't want to crack a baton over Catra's skull.

It doesn't matter, right? They're all the enemy. She told them to stop. She told them to leave. She told them and they chose to attack instead.

There's more of them than the last time, but she has someone this time as well.

On the last normal day, she'd gotten mad at Catra at the end of their training mission.

"Did you really show up late and let us do the hard parts? That is low, even for you."

"Aw. You know nothing's too low for me."

But it works. It always worked, whatever anyone said, and now that their lives are on the line it's a relief to know Catra can and will cheat her way out of a fight. When people come at her they're clawed by Catra from behind, and when they try to go after Catra instead, shouting and cursing, she leaps and ducks and dodges rather than meeting their blows properly.

The Horde troops back up, try to regroup. She strikes her sword into the ground, sending a shockwave that knocks them off their feet, and Catra uses the breathing room to crawl into one of the bisected tanks. The front half twists and then it starts firing into the building, shots coming one after another exactly like they'd always been warned not to, because it'd overheat the barrel and cause the entire thing to explode. She almost shouts at Catra for disregarding safety instructions out of reflex.

"Let's move, Adora!" Catra says, landing next to her.

"But -" There's still the rest of the Horde forces here. She's wrecked a lot of their stuff, the building Catra blew a hole in is collapsing, and there's an explosion still to come, but there will still be things left untouched.

"They'll call reinforcements if we stay."

"But-"

"Don't you remember what they taught us?" Catra demands, yanking a hank of She-Ra's hair for emphasis.

To never leave a battle until the objective was complete or new orders come from a commanding officer.

"To stop the rebels from retreating, because they were always slipping away! If hitting and running was a bad idea, Shadow Weaver wouldn't have sounded so mad every time she brought it up. Now move!"

The tank barrel is now visibly bending from the heat. "Right!"

They get all the way over the ridge before it goes off, the sound much louder than she expected. It's almost as loud as Catra's howls of laughter afterward.