They sprinted towards the office building, following the frightened crowd like they were caught in a riptide. At some point, Camilla procured a baseball cap from the chaos and shoved it on Elsie's head without missing a beat. She also managed to ditch the brightly colored button-down blouse she was wearing, revealing the fitted black shirt she had on underneath.

As they got closer to the building, it was clear that the lobby was already packed with people. The space seemed way too small to accommodate everyone that was still outside, but that's not what worried Elsie.

"Why are we going to where everyone is?" she asked Camilla. "What if they end up getting hurt in the crossfire?"

"These guys waited until you were relatively alone at the Games to attack," Camilla replied, keeping her voice low. "They don't want to hurt anybody else. Not if they can help it. Right now, it's best to blend in with the crowd."

The crowd kept moving even after they squeezed into the building's tiny lobby. Apparently, people were taking shelter in the basement, which seemed like the perfect place to get cornered by assassins. Camilla seemed to agree, and she steered them off in the direction of an emergency exit in the back.

They were almost at the door when a burly, masked figure suddenly appeared in front of them, stopping them in their tracks. Before Elsie could even register who they could be, they threw a punch straight at Camilla.

Camilla had been quick enough to form a defensive wall of pressurized air, but it wasn't strong enough to withstand the entirety of the attack. She was thrown back from what had to be super strength, flying right past Elsie and into the crowd of shocked and fearful spectators. At the same time, her attacker howled in pain; the skin on their fist had been ripped to shreds by Camilla's high pressure air, leaving their hand a bloody mess that they clutched to their chest.

Elsie took the chance to rush over to Camilla who was wheezing as she feebly rolled into her side, curled up and clutching her stomach where the punch landed.

"Ow," she managed to grunt, only to cough at the exertion. Her previous cheer was now completely gone, replaced by a dark glare that she shot at the attacker.

Upon closer inspection, their attacker was dressed completely in black military garb. It reminded Elsie of the mercenary costumes from one of her other movies, except their attacker's clothes probably weren't just for show.

Their attacker seemed to brace themselves and lunged for another attack. They moved much faster than a normal person ever could, meaning they had to have super speed abilities in addition to super strength. And Camilla was still on the ground, gasping to fill her lungs with air.

"We have to get out of here!" Elsie urged her, frantically trying to pull her out of harm's way

But Camilla didn't budge. Instead, just when their attacker was only mere feet away, Camilla pushed Elsie aside.

Before Elsie could yell at her for being an idiot, Camilla suddenly flew into the air with speed that rivaled her opponent's. She hovered right above the confused attacker for only a second before landing on their back and clamping a palm over their open mouth and wrapping an arm around their neck. Their attacker made a choking sound as most of the air in their lungs was sucked out before collapsing to the ground with a thud.

Some of the spectators gasped; Elsie probably did too. Most of them had probably never seen such a brutal brawl in person before, and no one had expected it to end as quickly as it did.

No one, except perhaps Camilla. She took one second to make sure that the attacker stayed down before going to Elsie and taking her wrist to guide her to the exit. The crowd that had stopped to watch parted for them in a mixture of awe and fear, and it was only then that Elsie realized how quiet the lobby had gotten.

The silence was broken by a few startled yelps, followed by what could only be described as a choir of battle cries. Camilla spun around, dragging Elsie behind her with one hand and ready to attack with the other.

First, two more attackers charged at them, thankfully both a lot smaller than their predecessor. They moved quickly but not unnaturally so, and they struck Camilla with a series of coordinated and practiced punches and kicks. Camilla spent only a few seconds trying to block their attacks and protect Elsie at the same time. After that, she struck them each with a concentrated burst of air at their stomachs, sending them flying in different directions.

But as soon as Camilla's counterattack hit, a barrage of spikes were already flying at them, made of either dirt, metal, or glistening ice. Five more attackers had shown up, after waiting for their allies to give them an opening in Camilla's defense. Two of them had their hands extended, flying the spikes at Camilla and Elsie. The other three were behind them making more weapons, this time out of the floor tiles and the concrete beneath them.

Camilla narrowed her eyes and held out her hands to stop the incoming attack. The spikes slowed to a halt a few feet from them, floating shakily in the air.

"I'll hold her, just keep them coming!" one of the two attackers controlling the barrage yelled. The other nodded, and sent another volley of spikes.

Camilla let out a strained grunt with the third wave, then spared a glance at Elsie.

"Get them out of here," she muttered through gritted teeth.

Elsie nodded, knowing exactly what she needed.

"Everyone out!" she yelled to the dumbfounded bystanders. "Out! Get out of here!" Elsie pointed to a couple of security guards that were just as shocked as everyone else. "You two, get everyone out of the lobby! Now!"

Elsie's orders snapped the onlookers into action, and most had poured out of the lobby in less than a minute. In the chaos, someone tripped over a fire extinguisher that had been stationed along the wall nearby. Elsie rushed over to help them to their feet, then grabbed the extinguisher. Just in case.

Eventually, the dust settled, and it was just Camilla, Elsie, and a bunch of metas out to kill her.

"Finally," Camilla muttered.

She suddenly shoved her outstretched hands forward, as if she was pushing against the wall of spikes that had formed. While the weapons didn't budge an inch, the meta that had been pushing them from the other side must have felt Camilla's force and was thrown off-balance by the impact.

As soon as her opponent's focus faltered, Camilla spun the spikes around and directed the dense volley back to where it came from. The two at the front shouted at the others, but their defenses were too little, too late, and they were pinned down by their own attack.

Elsie winced at the scene. She wasn't exactly sympathetic towards the people that were trying to kill her, but seeing an icicle sticking out from one of their thighs wasn't exactly a pleasant sight.

But their enemies were persistent. While the last group of five was alive but groaning in agony, their immediate predecessors were back on their feet. The agile duo launched another combo attack, this time more wary of Camilla's counters. While Camilla was focused on fending off their attacks, Elsie spotted movement from the burly figure on the ground.

"Holy shit, that gorilla's up again!" Elsie exclaimed.

"Terrific," Camilla grunted, just as the gorilla began barreling towards her.

From there, the fight seemed to drag on. Camilla began to struggle in keeping her three opponents at bay from both herself and Elsie. Even though only the gorilla seemed to have obvious meta-abilities with their super strength and speed, the other two were skilled enough to cause damage on their own. After all, the duo's strongest attacks could be implemented instantaneously, but Camilla's took a fraction of a second more, and that was a fraction too long.

Camilla's attacks used solids, liquids, and gases, but the attackers had gotten adept at dodging her solid and air attacks, or there wasn't enough force behind them to do much damage. And the closest source of liquid was in the air, and that would take too long to form into something lethal. There were probably water pipes running throughout the building, but that would also take too much time and energy for her to retrieve.

Suddenly, Elsie remembered she was carrying a fire extinguisher. And she knew how to use it. Although she wasn't sure what the exact chemicals inside it were, they would be either a solid, liquid, or gas; in other words, Camilla could protect herself from them and her opponents couldn't. And that was enough.

Elsie quickly readied herself and aimed the nozzle at the fight in front of her, then realized she wasn't sure how to warn Camilla without alerting the others as well. After a couple seconds of brainstorming, Elsie decidedly threw discretion out the window.

"Camilla!" she exclaimed, ready to fire.

"Wait!" Camilla yelled back.

'Wait'? But I'm trying to help you! Elsie wanted to say in response, but she was too shocked to do so. She hadn't thought she was going to get yelled at like an impatient child.

But as it turned out, Camilla hadn't yelled at Elsie to stop bothering her; she wanted to get Elsie a better shot. Because a moment later, Camilla got about a couple feet of distance between herself and the attackers, and she held them back with a gust of wind.

"Now!" Camilla shouted.

Fortunately, Elsie ended up acting on her instincts instead of trying to understand what just happened, and she pulled the trigger on the extinguisher. A flurry of white flew towards Camilla's back before suddenly changing its trajectory and zooming around and past her.

The gorilla managed to avoid the spray of chemicals just in time, but the other two didn't have the same super speed, and both of their faces received a coat of white powder. A second later, they were keeled over, coughing and gasping for air, and the gorilla pulled them both back with one arm wrapped around each of them.

The three of them kept their distance from Camilla to catch their breath, but Camilla wasn't going to give them the chance. With a piercing whirlwind, she threw them all out of the building, sending them sprawling on the grassy lawn outside.

"God, they were persistent," Camilla grumbled as she glared at the three still figures through the lobby windows. "Thanks for the assist, by the way."

"Glad I could help," Elsie said, setting down the depleted fire extinguisher, then pointing at the emergency exit behind them. "Should we...?"

"Oh, right. Escape."

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