Taylor intercepts fire extinguisher

As Lisa rounded the corner, with me just behind her, I saw it. Not the whole thing, at first. My brain hadn’t fully registered everything. It was just the movement I saw first, and then immediately afterwards, I recognized the bright red of a fire extinguisher, heading towards Lisa’s face from the side.

She didn’t even see it coming.

My body acted before I had any time to think about what I was doing. There was no consideration about who was on the other end, no weighing of the consequences, no judging about whether or not it was something I should do. All I knew was that someone was swinging a fire extinguisher at my friend’s face; everything else was for later.

My arm came up on its own, slapping the extinguisher off course and to the side — my knuckles erupted with pain, but I paid it no mind. My other hand reached out and grabbed the wrist of the person holding it — slim, feminine, in the back of my head, I recognized the other person as a girl — then I was twisting, forcing her to drop it as she let out a pained squeal. The fire extinguisher fell and hit the ground with a thunderous clang; it just barely missed my left foot.