Chapter 9: Burning Passion

One morning in New Rushland, Rouge Tech had announced that they would be developing a new and improved method of harnessing clean solar energy. Frank Rouge - the company's founder - was set to meet Dr. Bartholomew Oobleck to discuss a possible partnership to test the application. Dr. Oobleck drove to the laboratory to inspect the prototype in person. He had just locked his car and made his way towards the building when the second floor suddenly exploded.

Once the ringing in his ears faded, Oobleck managed to look up and see someone wearing a jetpack fly out of the raging inferno. This was the arsonist known only as Bonfire; a madwoman who had destroyed several buildings all over New Rushland in the past month. Instinctively, Oobleck grabbed his thermos and converted it into his own flamethrower in an attempt to shoot the arsonist down. Unfortunately, with her jetpack, Bonfire proved to be a difficult target.

Bonfire meanwhile seemed to be amused by Dr. Oobleck's efforts. "You call that firepower?" she teasingly called before pulling out a few grenades. "THIS is firepower!"

His eyes widening at these words, Oobleck just barely had enough time to find cover before those grenades exploded on the ground around him…only to realize too late that Bonfire had used said grenades as a diversion to get away. "Oh dear me, this isn't good," he couldn't help but say as he took in all of the carnage.

A few hours later, at the police station, Captain Jane Maroon and her officers were desperately chasing down any lead they could find on Bonfire. Each of her attacks spread out to five blocks, with seemingly no pattern or connection. Jane could only groan as she went over her paperwork, hoping for a distraction.

As if on cue, a familiar face knocked on the door before opening it up. "Hey Mom."

Jane just smiled as her son entered her office. "Nice to see you, Borris: how was your visit with Ivy?"

"About as well as you could expect," Boris declared with a shrug. "Good news is that she is interested in getting out of her cell…but the bad news is that she's still mad about what you had done to her."

"Can't say that I blame her," Jane said with a sigh. "After all, few things burn brighter than rage at being wronged by the legal system."

Boris was about to make a sarcastic remark when he turned on the TV and his face fell. "Whoa… speaking of burning."

Jane looked up from her paperwork and cupped a hand over her mouth in shock. She had gotten the report of Bonfire's latest attack, but she hadn't expected the media to catch wind of it so soon. Taking a deep breath to steel her nerves, the police captain took her son's hand into her own. "Boris, if you ever see something like this when I'm not around, you run. Understand?"

"Yeah, mom." Boris nodded. "I know. But, uh, does this mean that you know what's going on there?"

"Not entirely," Jane admitted. "But I plan to find out."

"Well, if it'll help, I could take over planning your campaign for commissioner while you're trying to take down this psycho." Boris offered.

"Shh!" Jane got up and shut the door to her office. "I told you not to talk about that in the precinct!"

"But why?" Boris shrugged. "I think it's great. You can do some real good if you get the job."

"That's why I don't want anyone to know." Jane replied, evenly. "It's a fierce competition just to enter the campaign, and I don't want to put you in danger the same way… the same way I did your father."

Boris felt a pang in his heart. "Mom, that wasn't your fault. And everyone in this precinct respects you enough to support you running for commissioner."

Jane sighed. "Let me focus on catching Bonfire, then I'll worry about becoming commissioner."

"Alright. I'm gonna hold you to that." Boris winked and made his way out of the office, bumping into another officer on the way.

"Hey, watch it! Oh, it's you." Lieutenant Rojos frowned.

"Oh, goody." Boris rolled his eyes. "Nice to see you off probation, Lieutenant Rojos."

"Yeah, and what brings you here, kid?" Rojos smirked. "Trying to make a new criminal friend?"

"Sure, lieutenant. He's the faunus your blue-boys shot in the back for jaywalking." Boris remarked.

"Watch it, kid!" Rojos growled. "I've still got my boys watching you to keep you out of the evidence locker!"

"Oh, yeah? Well, at least I know it's safe for a while."

"Maroon, don't push me!" Rojos sneered before storming off to her desk.

"Wouldn't dream of it, lieutenant. Have a nice day."

Meanwhile, at Crimson Enterprises, Dr. Oobleck had called for an immediate meeting with Svetlana to discuss the recent Bonfire situation.

"How bad was it?" Svetlana couldn't help but ask.

"Good news is that there were no casualties. Bad news is that - on top of the prototype being destroyed - several employees were put into intensive care." Oobleck felt the need to point out.

"I'll see about sending some money and/or supplies over to help on that front." Svetlana sighed as she took out her scroll and pulled up a map of New Rushland. Next, she pulled up a list of all the places Bonfire had burned before and matched it with the map to try and calculate her next target. But the targets were scattered so far across the map, it was impossible to find any pattern."

"For all of our sakes, Mrs. Crimsonoff, I sincerely hope either you or the police can stop this madwoman."

"It's just that the attacks are so random." Svetlana quietly fumed. "They're all over the place. What's the connection?"

"Perhaps there is no connection." Oobleck spoke up.

Svetlana arched an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Oobleck adjusted his glasses as he took another sip of coffee. "In my halcyon days as a huntsman, Professor Port and I had been tasked with taking down a Grimm-trafficking operation in Anima." He explained, gravely. "Someone had the foolish idea of capturing live Grimm for some sort of circus. We sought to capture him by bribing one of his poachers. But after we caught the mastermind of the operation, the poacher we had bribed released all of the Grimm into a highly populated area and scattered the money over the streets."

"What're you saying?"

"I'm saying, some people don't need a reason to do the things they do." Oobleck elaborated as he finished his thermos' contents. "Some people can't be bought, or reasoned with. Some people - quite literally - just want to watch the world burn."

As Dr. Oobleck left to refill his coffee, Svetlana leaned back in her chair to ponder his words. Such a mindset reminded her of Loki; the man who destroyed her home. She was brought out of her thoughts when her receptionist called on the intercom.

"Mrs. Crimsonoff? Your two o' clock is here."

Svetlana groaned as she closed her laptop and pressed the button on her intercom. "Thanks, Vicky. Send him in."

In walked Bart Forest, the acting CEO of Rush Corp. "Thank you for taking the time to speak to me, Miss Crimsonoff."

"I told you, I'm not interested in investing in your company…not after what happened a while back," Svetlana declared. "I only allowed you to come here today so I could settle this face-to-face."

"Miss Crimsonoff, be reasonable: what happened with Mrs. Glacier was an isolated incident with my predecessor and should by no means impact our deal."

"I'd be turning this down even without factoring Doctor Glacier into this equation," Svetlana said with a deadpan glare. "I've run the numbers and what you're proposing would be far too dangerous for industrial use, much less for something to be sold to the public."

"I'll admit that there are some risks involved, but the monetary benefits that this could gain if we could work out the kinks would be…"

Svetlana merely rolled her eyes in response. "If I only cared about making money, I wouldn't have agreed to help Rouge Tech rebuild their building following their attack…nor would I have allowed them to try their presentation again next week."

"I…I beg your pardon?"

"Didn't you hear?" Svetlana asked with a raised eyebrow "They had a secondary prototype that was incomplete at the time of their recent attack at a separate location. It'll take some time, but I'm willing to wait for them to finish fixing it up to see if it's worth investing in…and as such, I'm technically still discussing business with them, so I'll kindly ask you to leave. It doesn't look good for me to pretend to be interested in a secondary potential investor when I haven't closed discussions with the first one."

"I…I understand: thank you for your time."

Svetlana merely watched as Rush Corp's CEO left the building, though not before she thought she caught a scowl on the man's face as he exited the door. One hour later, Svetlana returned home and prepared for dinner before heading down to her lab to investigate the explosion. As she hung up her coat and walked through the living room, she gave Cyan a pat on the shoulder as she worked on her homework. But she suddenly stopped and walked back to peer over her ward's shoulder; instead of doing her homework, Cyan was sketching a picture of Magenta and herself as Azure kissing inside a giant heart. Without saying a word, she made a note to discuss Cyan's feelings and proceeded into the kitchen.

"I take it that the meeting with Forest didn't go too well," Mikhail called out, taking note of the stressed look on his wife's face.

"It was actually a bit better than I anticipated," Svetlana declared as she rolled her shoulders. "But yeah: it wasn't easy to deal with."

Mikhail merely nodded and moved to massage his wife's shoulders. Cyan spared a glance at how lovingly her foster parents acted around each other, then looked back at her drawing and let out a wistful sigh. Thinking they could give her some advice, she got up and made her way to the kitchen. "Hey, Mikhail? Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, Cyan. You can ask me anything."

"Do you think Magenta is hot?"

Mikhail's smile faded as confusion took over. "Uh… I can't answer that, due to the fact that I'm twenty-three."

"Oh, right, sorry," Cyan said with an embarrassed grin. "I'll just…leave you be for the moment."

"I do believe that our girl has a crush," Svetlana called out.

Mikhail just gave his wife a deadpan glare. "You don't say."

"No need for sarcasm, dear."

Suddenly, Svetlana's scroll vibrated on the countertop. She picked it up and gasped at the notification. In one swift motion, she rushed into the living room and turned on the TV. Bonfire was attacking another district. Cyan clenched her fists in anticipation while Mikhail cupped a hand over his mouth at the sight of such violent mass destruction. According to the news report, fifty people had been injured, and seven more had been killed.

"C'mon, Svets!" Cyan cracked her knuckles. "This Bonfire bimbo needs a butt-kicking from Krasnaya and Azure!"

Mikhail grabbed his ward by the shoulders and held her back. "Not so fast. This mission is too dangerous for a child."

"Wait what? But you and Svetlana went on missions like this all the time at my age!"

Mikhail simply scoffed. "Who told you that malarkey?"

"Uh, we did, honey. You know: all those stories that we shared with her about our time dealing with Project Guardsman and/or before then?" Svetlana felt the need to sheepishly point out.

Mikhail had the decency to blush as he realized the truth in his wife's words. "Oh yeah."

Cyan just smiled. "So does that mean…?"

"No."

"What?!" Cyan yelled out.

"Just because we did something like this doesn't mean that we want you to do the same." Mikhail declared

"But…"

"You are not going after someone as dangerous as Bonfire!" Mikhail said, sternly.

"Why not?!" Cyan snapped back.

Without warning, Mikhail angrily bent down to where he was eye-level with his teenage ward and hissed. "Because I said so!"

Although Cyan was simply scared of her foster father's outburst, Svetlana noticed the subtle tremble in her husband's voice and the small tears welling in his eyes; Mikhail was afraid for Cyan's safety. "Cyan… take the night off." She ordered.

"But-!"

"Do as I say!" She ordered and headed down to the cave.

Cyan merely growled out as she took all of this in. "Why can't I help out here?!"

"It's too dangerous!" Mikhail growled out. "I'm not about to let you go and get yourself killed by…"

"YOU DON'T GET TO SAY THAT AFTER YOU SNAPPED YOUR OWN NECK THE OTHER DAY!"

Mikhail just winced in response even as he watched as Cyan slammed her hands in front of her mouth, showcasing that she genuinely regretted saying that. "Cyan, I…"

"Don't bother: I'll just head up to my room: not like I can really argue with someone who can come back from the dead," his foster daughter declared without any emotion in her voice.

"...that won't be necessary," Mikhail remarked with a small smile as he grabbed Cyan's hand before she could get too far. "Azure can't really help out if she's locked up in her room."

"...but I thought that…"

"Don't get me wrong: I'm not about to let you go up against Bonfire directly, but there should be plenty of other ways that you can provide assistance. Besides, you had a point in that I'd be a hypocrite to deny you your choice to want to help, especially when I have proven to be just as reckless as you are on occasion."

"You…you really mean that?"

"I do."

Cyan just pulled her foster father in for a hug. "Thanks…Dad."

Mikhail merely smiled even as he returned the hug with tears of joy in his eyes…only to lose said smile as he spotted Svetlana standing at the top of the stairs with a proud grin in Cyan's direction, realizing that his wife had never actually gone down to the cave. "You knew this would happen, didn't you?"

"Hey, if Cyan didn't bring up your Nine Lives semblance or whatever it is you call it, I was going to later tonight," Svetlana said with a shrug. "After all, you said it yourself that it was a bit hypocritical to berate a person for putting themselves in danger when you've literally thrown one or two of those lives away."

"It was just the one time, but yeah: you both had a point there." Mikhail said with a groan.

A couple hours later, Krasnaya had gone to Bonfire's last target to search for clues while Cat Burglar and Azure were lucky enough to find the arsonist's apartment. Cat Burglar used the claws on his gloves to cut a hole in the window, then reached inside to unlock it. He breathed out a soft sigh of relief once he saw that there was no one inside.

"You sure this is the place?" Azure asked as she followed her foster father in.

"Seeing how witnesses have claimed to have seen Bonfire flying around the area, it at least gives us a place to start." Cat Burglar explained before accidentally kicking an empty tank of butane across the floor towards several discarded cans of gasoline and oil. "Yes, I believe we have the right place." He said, flatly.

"Well, either way, it doesn't look like she's here at the moment."

"Just as well: if a fight broke out now, we'd likely lose all of the evidence we were hoping to gather."

"Good point."

The duo went about investigating the apartment. Cat Burglar made his way into her bedroom and found prototypes and blueprints for the pyromaniac's suit and weapons, but nothing that would suggest what her next target was. Meanwhile, Azure had found Bonfire's laptop and struggled to enter the password to log on. Cat Burglar grabbed a glass from the sink, breathed on it to reveal a fingerprint, and held it over the laptop's fingerprint scanner to unlock it.

"Hey! That's a neat trick!" Azure praised as the screen lit up. "How'd you know that'd work?"

"Celena." Cat Burglar responded before setting the glass down and continuing his search through the apartment. Coming across what looked like a workbench, he scanned the area to find Bonfire had been here recently, judging by the residue still being fresh, meaning that they were running out of time to catch this criminal. "Find anything good?" Cat Burglar called out to his foster daughter as she looked over the computer even as he continued to use his goggles to scan the room.

Azure hummed as she looked at a computer screen. "I think so. I'm seeing some order forms that reference some shell companies that Bonfire seems to have created, some notes on some of the pyrotechnics that were being used or planned to be used in her jobs, a bunch of threatening emails that were sent to her targets, some bank notes from Rush Corp, an unpaid bill for his apartment…"

"Wait a minute, back up, what was that last one?" Cat Burglar asked as he made his way towards the laptop.

"Oh, you mean the unpaid bill? Yeah, turns out that his landlord…"

"No, the one before that: who did you say those bank notes were from?"

"Uh, I said Rush Corp." Azure scooted to the side to give him a better view. "I mean, I'm not as good at this as Boris, but I can still read. It looks like Bonfire got a lot of money transfers from Rush Corp."

Mikhail took off his goggles and read through the emails. "Rouge Tech… Cherry Co… Ginger Labs… these were all tech companies Bonfire attacked!" He exclaimed. "It was staring us in the face the whole time!"

"What do you mean?" Azure asked.

"Bonfire may be crazy, but she's just a weapon for Rush Corp's new CEO!" Mikhail explained. "All of the companies she attacked were Rush Corp's top competitors. She wasn't committing random arson, she was committing industrial sabotage!"

"And Rush Corp was behind it!" Azure smiled, finally getting it. She closed the laptop and carried it under her arm. "We gotta get this to the police!"

Cat Burglar readjusted his goggles and gave her a proud pat on the back. "See? We can both fight crime and be safe at the same time."

Meanwhile, Krasnaya - unaware of her allies' discovery - arrived at Bonfire's last target to investigate. Her "Huntress Eyes" found multiple traces of the explosives and fuel that the arsonist had used, and she decided to follow it to the source. Just then, she received a message from Oobleck stating that he had sent a dropbox containing experimental fire-retardant dust. On schedule, the ship flew overhead and fired the dropbox directly in front of her. She loaded the dust into her hammer and sickle and prepared to destroy the canister so that it couldn't be traced back to Crimson Enterprises. However, before she could detonate it, a ball of fire came out of nowhere and blew up the canister.

"Now this is a first for me," Bonfire declared with a manic grin. "Never thought I'd get the chance to torch the same place twice in one night!"

"Well I hope you enjoy it while it lasts," Krasnaya growled out, "because I fully intend to ensure that it's the last place you burn tonight."

"Bold words, Krasnaya," Bonfire called out with a mad laugh. "But you have no idea who you're messing with."

"Funny: I was just about to tell you the exact same thing." Krasnaya smirked while discreetly combining her hammer and sickle into its rifle configuration.

Bonfire pulled the trigger on her flamethrower and Krasnaya fired one round of her water dust directly into the barrel. Bonfire growled at her water-logged weapon and threw a grenade down instead. Krasnaya ducked out of the way just in time, but Bonfire blasted away on her jetpack.

The Crimson Crusader glanced down at her rifle and smirked. "Thank you, Dr. Oobleck." She remarked to herself.

One hour later, she returned to her cave to reconnoiter with her family. Needless to say, she was most upset to hear that Rush Corps' new CEO was just as rotten as the previous. "Well, looks like Sasha's going to get a new cell mate."

"So what do we do now?" Cyan asked.

"About the only thing we can do until we've narrowed down Bonfire's location is let the authorities know about what we found," Svetlana admitted.

Sometime later, at the New Rushland police station, Jane found herself holding back a frustrated sigh in regards to what she had just heard over her scroll. "Okay, thanks for the information." Jane declared before shutting off her scroll with a grimace.

"Bad news?" Borris couldn't help but ask.

"Depends on your perspective," Jane said with a shrug. "I just got a tip from someone who preferred to stay anonymous that Rush Corp might be connected to the seemingly random Bonfire attacks as of late."

"Wait, so Rush Corp is up to something illegal again?!"

Knowing that her son was referring to the business they dealt with a while back concerning Dr. Dust, Jane let out a bitter chuckle. "Looks that way. On one hand, this means that we can potentially put this business with Bonfire behind us. On the other hand, I'm not looking forward to the headache this investigation will cause both for me personally and Rushland as a whole, so like I said, whether or not this counts as bad news depends on your perspective."

"Well, I'll go ahead and put out a warrant to investigate Rush Corp," Rojos declared. "This might just be a distraction from the business with Bonfire, but if there is a connection, it wouldn't hurt to tie up that loose end."

"I never thought I'd say this, but I agree with Lieutenant Rojos: this could be the break you've been waiting for, Mom," Borris remarked with an encouraging smile

"I hope you're right."

Suddenly, Detective Cash burst into the office. "Captain Maroon! You've gotta see this!" She held up her scroll to show the group a live video of Bonfire.

"This message goes out to the woman named Krasnaya!" Bonfire announced. "I don't take kindly to people trying to ruin my fun! So I set up three bombs across the Red River Bridge! If she doesn't show herself on the bridge in one hour, I will turn it into rubble! And if I see so much as one cop trying to get in our way, I'll blow it up anyway! Clock's ticking Crimson Crusader! Don't be late!"

Meanwhile, back at the cave, the Krasnaya family was watching the same live-stream. "You know that this is obviously a trap, right?" Mikhail felt the need to call out.

"Of course it is," Svetlana remarked. "But I can't just leave all those men and women to die, so I'll be going regardless."

"That's nice and all, but something doesn't add up here." Cyan declared.

"What's that?" Mikhail inquired with a raised eyebrow.

"Why the bridge?" Cyan couldn't help but ask. "I mean, our investigation so far has shown that Rush Corp was trying to have Bonfire take out their competition, but none of their competitors that have been targeted so far have had anything to do with that bridge. There's no connection."

"Yes there is," Svetlana called out with a sense of dread in her voice. "Crimson Enterprises helped build that bridge, and Crimson Enterprises just so happens to be the only company with more influence than Rush Corp at this point in time…and it probably doesn't help that they've refused to invest in Rush Corp a number of times now."

"So, what: they're targeting the bridge out of spite?" Cyan asked with a touch of disgust in her voice.

"More than likely this is meant to be a message to the world that Crimson Enterprises isn't untouchable, and if Rush Corp manages to get a contract to help rebuild the bridge out of this, so much the better," Svetlana proclaimed with an equal amount of disgust in her voice.

"Well, then it's a good thing that Svetlana has Krasnaya in her corner," Cyan teasingly declared.

"That it is," Svetlana said with a teasing grin of her own.

Back at the station, Rojos growled. "Once again, I'm proven right about Krasnaya attracting freaks."

"Stand down, Alex: it's entirely possible that Bonfire's just using Krasnaya's name to get attention," Detective Cash pointed out.

"Well if that is the case, I'm sure she'll be thrilled to know that it worked." Jane declared with a laugh that didn't hold any humor to it.

At that very moment, the vigilante trio had arrived at the bridge. Bonfire flew high in the air, cackling with glee as she blasted vehicles with her flamethrower. Cat Burglar ran ahead to check on the injured while Azure looked on in anticipation. "Are you waiting for something?" Krasnaya asked.

"Uh, just… just wondering if Magenta will show up." The side-kick shrugged.

"Do you actually like Magenta, or are you simply attracted to his skill set? After all, as I recall, you weren't too fond of him when he first showed up."

Cyan merely blushed in response. "Okay, yeah, I'll admit that I was a bit of a brat when he first showed up, but I'm willing to admit that I was wrong back then. As for whether or not I actually like him, I'll admit that part of it might just be a superficial attraction, but I don't know: there's something about him that makes me think that we'd get along well together if it weren't for our masks."

Svetlana, having long since deduced that Magenta and Boris were one and the same, merely gave a hidden smile due to knowing how close her ward and the boy were to one another. "Well, I know for certain that you'd still remain friends with one another if that were to happen, at least from how well you get along with one another."

Speaking of Boris, he was currently looking around the police department as everyone ran around trying to deal with Bonfire's latest threat. As he opened the door to his mother's office, he was surprised to see her putting away some images into a box. "Mom, what's going on?" Boris couldn't help but ask.

Jane just sighed before coming over and placing a hand on her son's shoulder. "I'm going to try and make sure that Bonfire is dealt with…and if I don't come back, I want you to know that I've always loved you."

Boris just froze as his mother briefly pulled him in for a hug before turning and exiting the room, no doubt hoping to gather up some men to help her deal with the pyromaniac. Replaying those words in his mind however, it was obvious to Boris that his mother didn't fully expect to come back alive. His face morphed into one of determination as he exited the building, his mind already focused on his backpack and a particular outfit that was currently in a hidden compartment. "Don't worry, Mom," Boris declared as he prepared to suit up. "You aren't going into this alone."

A few minutes later, the ameatur vigilante had dressed himself in his uniform and headed for the bridge. As expected, he ran into Krasnaya, Cat Burglar, and Azure. "Fancy seeing you here." He remarked, coyly.

Azure merely gave an amused roll of her eyes here despite fighting down a blush on her face. "Nice to see you too, Magenta."

Krasnaya merely shook her head in amusement even as Magenta fought down his own blush. "Now that we've been reacquainted, we've got a job to do." She announced. "I need to find the bombs under the bridge and neutralize them before I take on Bonfire."

"I'm coming with you!" Azure insisted.

Krasnaya held up her hand in defiance. "No, Azure, it's-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" Azure huffed. "'Too dangerous! Too dangerous!' It's always too dangerous!"

Krasnaya crossed her arms, annoyed by her side-kick's tone. "I was going to say 'it's more important for you to stay with Cat Burglar and Magenta and keep civilians off the bridge.'"

Azure felt a lump in her throat the size of her foot. "Oh… right. I'll just, uh, go."

Krasnaya shook her head as she watched the Girl Wonder leap off to do as she was told. In the meantime, the Crimson Crusader spread her cape out and glided towards the first bomb. Once she landed, she cautiously pried the security panel off of the detonator and converted her hammer into the remote hacking device. With this, she was able to safely disarm the bomb and render it unable to be remotely activated by Bonfire. She quickly made her way to the second pillar and repeated the process. With the second bomb deactivated, she hastily glided to the third and last bomb, but was instead met with an iron security door locked shut. Realizing that her device couldn't hack into the bridge's security system, she headed towards the main security office of the toll bridge to get the security access code.

Jane Maroon had finally gotten the bomb squad organized and police blockades set up to prevent any one else from getting on the bridge. At the first opportunity, Detective Cash would escort the bomb squad past the security doors to disarm whatever explosive Bonfire had whipped up. She would not fail her new home.

"Call off your men!" Krasnaya shouted from the shadows. "I'm the one she wants!"

"Show yourself!" Jane ordered, drawing her gun as she scanned the room. "If Bonfire is doing this because of you, then that's all the more reason to bring you in!"

Just then, a call came over the captain's radio. "Maroon, the bomb squad's found one of the bombs! Do we have your signal?"

"Yes! Take it down!"

"No!" Krasnaya shouted. "I've already disarmed the first two bombs! It's nothing anyone's been trained to handle before! They'll get themselves killed! Give me the security codes to the door and let me-!"

A shot rang out. "You already had your chance with Rainhardt, Sustrai, and Black!" Jane snapped. "I took a vow to protect this city, and I'm gonna do it the right way!"

Realizing there was no time to waste trying to reason with the police captain, Krasnaya snuck back through the vents to get back on the bridge and confront Bonfire. Once she was outside, a wall of flames surrounded the Crimson Crusader and she growled at the sight of the flying pyromaniac.

"How do you wanna die, Krasnaya?!" Bonfire cackled. "The quick, incinerating flash of an explosion?! Or… a nice… slow… BURN?!" She punctuated her sentence with a blast from her flamethrower.

"Rush Corp's CEO is being investigated even as we speak," Krasnaya growled out over the roar of the flames. "Which means that your check has been canceled. You can give up now or I can force you to surrender: your choice."

"You really think that I care about getting paid?" Bonfire mocked with a manic grin as she held the detonator up so as to keep Krasnaya in place. "Sure, it was a nice little bonus - especially as pyrotechnics aren't cheap - but really, my motivations aren't that complicated. After all, and to quote one of my favorite songs, I've always liked to play with fire!"

Having heard enough, Krasnaya quickly capitalized on Bonfire's lack of focus to shoot the detonator out of the madwoman's hands before getting ready for a fight. Bonfire yelped in pain and awkwardly reached out to try and catch it, but Krasnaya quickly catapulted herself into the air with her grappling hook and grabbed onto her enemy's jetpack. With the extra weight, Bonfire soon lost control of her flight pattern and spiraled down towards the bridge. Krasnaya rolled with the landing and quickly drew her hammer and sickle while Bonfire got back on her feet.

"Nobody… touches me." Bonfire sneered.

"In the sky." Krasnaya corrected, tauntingly. She motioned for Bonfire to come at her, and the arsonist pulled four grenades from her belt.

Sacrificing her own armor, Bonfire threw one of the grenades down at the ground to give herself some distance. Once Krasnaya retreated from the smaller explosion, Bonfire reactivated her jetpack and once more took to the skies. From then one, the two combatants went back and forth, throwing grenades and shooting water dust at each other.

Meanwhile, Captain Maroon and Detective Cash led the bomb squad past the final security door. Once they came upon the bomb, the specialist immediately set to work; meticulously studying the hardware of the bomb, the computerized triggering mechanism, and the tanks of fire dust that would feed into it when Bonfire activated the detonator. Feeling slightly pessimistic, Maroon texted that she loved her son one last time before she gave the order to take it down.

Back on the bridge, Cat Burglar and the teen heroes dutifully escorted injured civilians off the bridge and prevented anyone else from getting on. They had just saved a family of four from their burning car when Azure noticed Magenta looking at his scroll. "Everything okay?" She asked.

"Uh, yeah. I'm good." Magenta declared as he discreetly put his scroll back away, all while promising to make sure that his Mom would come home safely.

Back at the top of the bridge, Krasnaya found herself running out of fire-retardant dust capsules. Bonfire blasted another abandoned vehicle, causing an explosion that knocked the Crimson Crusader to the ground. Krasnaya's eyes widened as the detonator came back into view…only for her terror to grow as Bonfire quickly swooped in, grabbed it, and flew back into the air.

"Aw, can't fly?!" Bonfire taunted, happily, as she moved her thumb over the detonator's button. "Too bad!"

"Don't!" Krasnaya desperately reached out, but it was no use.

Bonfire pressed down on the trigger…

… and nothing happened. The Crimson Crusader curiously looked around the bridge and a small smile crept over her lips as she saw the bomb squad van parked in front of the last security door. Meanwhile, Bonfire furiously threw her detonator away and reached for her flamethrower again.

However, with her trump card off the table, Bonfire had nothing left to threaten Krasnaya with. The Crimson Crusader took out her sickle and channeled hard light dust through it to slice off the nozzle of the flamethrower. Bonfire desperately tried to fly away, but felt something stab into her leg and hold her back. Krasnaya had fired the grappling hook on her sickle and had firmly planted her feet against a slab of concrete to keep herself anchored. Bonfire seethed with fury and increased the output of her thrusters in an attempt to break free. But doing so burned too much fuel, and with one strong tug, Krasnaya forced her towards the bridge. Bonfire's jetpack spiraled out of control, causing her to collide into multiple obstructions before finally landing on the bridge. The Crimson Crusader rushed towards her enemy and smashed the thrusters with her hammer before picking up the pyromaniac by the harness of her pack.

"You need a new hobby," Krasnaya growled before punching Bonfire's lights out.

A few minutes later, once the bomb squad was satisfyied with the state of the explosives, the police stormed onto the bridge with their guns ready. But they all looked on in surprise once they saw the arsonist unconsciously dangling from a grappling cable.

"... she did it." Jane gasped.

"You mean the Red Woman?" Detective Cash huffed. "Don't give her too much credit, captain. Something tells me that if you hadn't given the bomb squad the breach order, this whole bridge would be at the bottom of the river."

Jane glared at the Bonfire. "Get her out of my sight." She ordered.

While the other officers dealt with Bonfire, the police captain wandered off to a secluded section of the bridge to be alone. She leaned on the railing, looking out at the city she had sworn to protect. It was true that because of her the bomb squad were able to prevent a tradgedy, but at the same time it was the Red Woman who stopped Bonfire from committing any more destruction in the near future. Combined with the previous challenges the Red Woman had triumphed over in the past few months, Jane was starting to wonder if her son truly was wrong about the vigilante. She was brought out of her thoughts when she heard something metallic land behind her. She turned around and saw the now-useless detonator for the bombs.

"You didn't listen." A voice called out. Jane looked up to see the Crimson Crusader perched on a lamppost.

"I'm not big on taking suggestions from wanted women." Jane remarked as she made her way towards the detonator. For some reason, she didn't feel the need to reach for her gun.

"I'm not big on taking orders from cops." Krasnaya replied, evenly. "I should have gotten to that last bomb."

"Yeah… and I should've given you access to that security door." Jane admitted as she knelt down to pick up the detonator. "But, between the two of us, I think we handled that pretty well-"

Jane looked back up, only to see that Krasnaya had once again vanished without a trace. She looked down at the detonator in her hand, then back at the lamppost. With a smile and a nod, she silently assured herself that Krasnaya wasn't the menace she had once believed her to be.

To Be Continued