Queen and I went to a standstill, facing each other in opposite directions and waiting for the other one to make their move- Which I didn't get because what was stopping her from enveloping me with vines? I didn't get it but regardless, I played her game as I did another roll for my power and desperately hoped that for once, I got something related to electricity or heat. Plasma preferably. 'Not that I even know if I have something like that.'

"What's she doing now?" Fred's voice crackled over the comms and I felt glad that the guy is actually safe. I didn't answer, obviously, which Oliver kindly explained to the guy. "Right. Information." I can hear the eye roll through his voice, "It's not like vines are still attacking us right? Come on, she clearly knows it's better if we get it over with."

I stared at Queen, hoping for confirmation but she stood there, resolute and more than willing to keep her cards to her chest. "Hey, at least the plants are starting to slow down," Anissa's words sounded like an omen to me as I faced the source of those plants, who I now know is clearly preparing something. "I'm just about halfway done, and when I am, I'm coming to help Inga."

Hope filled my chest as a migraine did the same to my head- I silently repeated that I get that lightning boost over and over again just as Oliver spoke, "I'm cleared on my front. I'm coming over, Anissa." His words did nothing to make me feel better and the silence that followed only allowed me to hear my racing heartbeat.

"Got it." Anissa replied.

Then, like something heavy had been lifted off of my chest; stress gave way to calmness as I felt electricity dance somewhere in my chest. I held back a grin and successfully pushed down a sigh of relief. Now that I had something that can actually damage the plants, I felt pretty confident that I can take the cape in front of me in a one on one without risking my life. Winning is out of the question, Queen is way too experienced and I'm too green. 'I can definitely annoy her though,' I thought with a grin.

"Oh? Did something happen? Little clown?" She said, leaning her head forward, "Why grin?"

"I'm done, too." Inga's voice echoed inside my comms just as I shrugged. Queen feigned being upset and stomped her foot on the rooftop, "Alright, then. I'm coming." The Tusk's following words clued me in to the fact that Oliver and Anissa went dark, that is something that I already expected they'd do the moment that Oliver won against the plants coming after him.

Queen tapped her ears, "Are you... perhaps listening to your friends?" She said, "I can feel my plants dying you know? That Bitch of a Dusk especially did a number to them,"

"They're not my friends," I replied after a bit of thinking, "More like... coworkers I guess?"

"Hoh?" Queen raised a hand whose index finger perked up, she pressed it to her masked cheek and pushed, moving the mask just enough for me to spot the half of a grin, "That is interesting to hear about," she said, "I know about them, actually- your friends, I mean." She explained, "And I must say, they aren't half as bad as all the other mercenaries out there if they've lasted as long as 1 year, that is."

Was she deliberately being confusing? I frowned, "I'd say they're good, yeah." I replied without batting an eye, "They definitely have comradery and closeness, that's for sure."

"Hmmm..." She hummed a soft tune while slowly tapping her other cheek and fixing the crook of her mask, "It's not like everyone doesn't? I'm sure that every team out there has a few members with... close relationships with one another no? I mean, even my own team has a few." She finished with a shrug.

"What are you implying?" I asked and a brilliant idea popped into my head a moment later and I decided to practice controlling the electricity in my body as we talked- something that I should've done from the start.

Placing a waving hand in front of her mouth, Queen faked a laugh, "No idea!" She said in a jubilant tone, "But-" She took a step forward and I replied by doing the opposite, "-Oh? Don't be scared! I was just gonna kiss you on the cheek and stuff!" I held back a shiver. "Oh come on! I'm not that bad!" I guess my shiver physically showed itself, then.

Queen quickly recovered from her faux hurt and stood straight, "In fact, I'm confident that I'm actually attractive," she pulled on her suit, causing it to wrap tighter around her frame and emphasizing it further, "Wouldn't you say so? Little clown?"

I saw a few shadows pop up on the rooftop to the far left of my peripheral vision, I counted all four of them and saw one raise their hand, I couldn't see much, and that sort of signal hadn't been discussed so I had to guess and I thought that Oliver- from the shadow's size alone made it obvious that it was him, - either wanted me to wait or to tell me that they're safe.

I chose to think that it was both and turned out to be completely wrong because I saw Anissa drop something on the ground that grew larger by the second until its silhouette became the shadow of a turret mounted to a rooftop. 'That explains where she got her minigun earlier'

My eyes darted, moving back and forth between Queen and my team. Mercenary or not, as someone with a power that needs showmanship, using banter to catch her off her guard so that Anissa has a clear shot is a bad idea- other capes who also do banter wouldn't tolerate me if I do that. And I know that I practically did the same with the half-giant earlier so I can shove my gun inside his mouth but he was basically the one who broke it first by trying to punch me.

So, with a sigh, I regretfully tilted my head to the side to let her know what was up, "Guess this has gone for long enough," Electricity crawled across my body as I said that, "And, it seems, you have been caught off guard-"

Bang

"-by yours truly!" I dashed forward just as a wall of black vines emerged behind Queen, she then followed it up by causing some of the plants to break through the roof we were standing on in an attempt to grab my feet. I jumped away from the mass of plant tendrils and closed the distance between her and me, I threw out a lightning covered punch-

She met it with a fist wrapped around in vines, "Hoh? Caught me off guard?" She pulled back her arm and giggled, I did the same and jumped back, "You think you can do that? Greenie?" She taunted.

"Eh," I shrugged and swept both my arms in front of me, sending two whips of lightning towards Queen as another gunshot rang out from my team's roof.

She blocked both by growing a ball of vines around her and hiding at the center of it.

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"Use your gun?" Oliver went online again to say that.

"It's a trump card," I said.

"-What trump card?!" I jumped away from Queen's figure emerging out from underneath like some hot mole.

"Nothing." I shook my head, both to remove the mental image I just got as well as to generally disagree with her. Mostly the former.

She tilted her head downwards, "Are you talking about your gun?" She asked and I shook my head vehemently. "You are. Aren't you?" She said accusingly, "Do you think you can lie to me?" another wall blocked a bullet.

"Shit." Anissa said and yeah, I agree. Queen would've lived whether or not I warned her, if what she did just now is to go by. "You're on your own?" She asked for permission to leave and I nodded.

Not... that they can see it, "Yeah. You can go." I said.

"Well, see you at the bar then." All of them said something along those lines, and those that added a bit more I didn't catch because they were talking on top of each other.

"Are they leaving already?" Queen moved her head to the side, "How quaint. Yet expected. Don't you think?" I shrugged, "Hmpf. Little Rats running away after taking a block of cheese from the honest to god farmer."

"I'm still here." I said, holding out my hand, "I'm sure I'm better than any of them, anyways."

She emoted by fanning her masked face, "I only like you as a friend, though."

I clicked my tongue and ran forward, arm outstretched and fingers spread into a lightning laden claw, "I don't handle rejection well." I said when she ate my attack for the second time. I stared at the vines wrapping around her hand, holding back a wince as I paused time for a second, just enough that I noticed the scorch marks present on the plant's surface. When time resumed, I poured more electricity into my hands.

I grinned when my actions elicited a scream from Queen.

A thick cord of vines forced me to pull back and Queen took the moment of respite to shoot out a bit of banter- "Guess you can bite back after all," - before using the plants she was standing on to propel herself towards me.

From then on, we both fought without bothering to talk-

I pulled out my knife and met her in kind, cutting away at her vines with electric slashes that sent pulses of voltage down her body. She grit her through the pain and jabbed at me with hands wrapped in vines, from below, she's starting to sport an armor of the thing, and worse, I can see new limbs of vines growing under her actual arms, they can't do anything as they are now, simply content with whipping away using hit and run tactics to preserve their mass but I know that they'd be the same as her current arms if this fight goes on for long enough.

My reserve of electricity diminished with each passing second and I can just feel it get smaller and smaller the more I used it to do necessary damage. Since I didn't know if I lose this type of boost or not once the lightning runs out, I decided that things needed to be done, and after forcing a bit more electricity in my next slash, a wide arc of lightning came out of my knife and into Queen's plant ridden body.

I used more lightning to jump away from her and down into the streets, "Running away? Are we?" I ignored her and just flipped her the bird. "Eugh." She said in disgust, "Be better."

I can hear the vines getting closer with each word while the street light I'm running to feels so far. I poured electricity into my legs, hoping that'll somehow make me fast or something- I jumped to the right and dodged a rope of vines wrapping around each other, the thing destroyed everything beneath it and even sent cracks running along the street. Again, with another jump, I dodged.

That kept going until I was close enough to the streetlight to remove the cover for its electrical grid and shove my arm inside of it, I pulled on the wires, ignoring the uncomfortable feeling I got from electricity running across my arm before being absorbed into my body.

Starting from the one I am under, the streetlights died one by one, casting darkness across the street and preventing anyone from seeing properly. The Queen would probably be fine by feeling through her plants and with a bit of boost to my eyes, I can see fine in the dark so I don't really see the actual benefits I'd get from doing something like this.

When I felt my tank get full, I let go of the grid and faced the place where I last saw Queen. Boosting my eyes, I saw that she wasn't behind me and there wasn't a single trace of her anywhere. Not even her plants remained to let anyone know of her presence. I started turning my head, doing my best to spot the Queen through the darkness. Again, she wasn't anywhere.

I boosted my muscles a bit for more super strength and started moving, I considered climbing up but buildings should probably be off limits. And just as I thought of that, the sound of one crumbling echoed across the street, passing by abandoned buildings and going out as far as it possibly could, when it was far enough, it sounded like a war cry.

I continued moving, not stopping for a single second.

After a while, I felt my headache come back and it was either a choice between my muscles or my enhanced vision. Regretfully, I decided to remove a small amount of Theikos from my eyes to preserve my own strength. Everything went darker, but that doesn't mean I could see things, and what's more, I'm still strong enough to be confident I can take on Queen if she ever comes out and fights me.

'Wherever she is.' I thought as I looked around the darkness, the sounds were stronger now, and for some goddamn reason, that sob-like sound from the crumbling building earlier is still ongoing, crying through the barely perceivable darkness.

I entered a building and looked out a broken window, 'still nothing.'

Taking a step forward, I frowned, then stopped- Looking down, I saw a series of black lines sprawled across the ground, spreading among it like hair. It trailed across the floor, walls, and scaled up to the ceiling, pulsing, writhing, and moving as if it were alive. Slowly, I shook my head and kicked the one that was trying to crawl inside the mouth of my shoes before moving on to the other side of the building, I crossed the living room, then to the kitchen and eventually got out to an alleyway that's...

Practically filled with the thing, bending down, I picked it up and stared at it, it was too thin to be the vines that Queen uses and too slimy to even consider hers in the first place. I threw away the piece with disgust and walked out of the alleyway, I turned left, "FUCK" - and swiftly dodged a gigantic arm made with vines.

"A bit unbecoming of you to swear, don't you think? My dear clown?" I stared at Queen's current form, which lost all of its feminine appeal in favor of growing out a large torso on top of a bulky stomach with four- no six arms on it, four to the side and an extra pair at the back. With two elephant-like legs, it stood with its gargantuan form, the vines that made up its body constantly moved, never ceasing, as if doing so would mean the death of the 16-foot-tall giant.

"I can say whatever the fuck I want." I replied and got a humpf for my efforts.

"Well, up for round three, dearie?"

"You sound way too fucking old when you say something like that," I blanched.

In response, she didn't say anything and threw out an earthshaking punch that threatened to make the buildings around to us fall down in a concrete heap. I jumped away from it, but barely. And once again, I thought that maybe ignoring the high ground in favor of running around the street like some common thug is a bad idea.

I threw an electrically charged knife straight at the heart of the giant and proceeded to run as far as I could, throwing out my enhanced vision entirely in favor of getting more strength and when I thought I was far enough, I discarded a lot of my strength to get better night vision- the switch gave me a headache but it wasn't enough to stop me from climbing up to a roof and staring down at Queen's giant form.

I ran a hand through my hair and sighed, "You know what? Fuck this." I said, causing the giant to leak out a deep laugh. It stopped when I pulled out my gun and started charging it with lightning, "It was fun and all but seriously, when you pull something like this off?" I raised my gun and pointed it at her, "You remind me of a very bad time in my life."

She probably expected me to pull the trigger or whatever but nah, I threw the gun at her as if it was a grenade before running away. An explosion boomed behind me and I had a sense to not look back this time around and that ended with my eyes being fine instead of blind.

I discarded my current power and rolled again, waiting until I get something that'll actually allow me to jump from roof to roof without the extra boost to my muscles.

When Super Strength came to my rescue, I stopped boosting my strength altogether and threw Theikos into my eyes. I didn't look back as I left, and Queen seemed to have been satisfied to let me leave- that, or she got incapacitated by my overcharge gun, which I don't believe. - and I made my way back to lower Gloria without much fuss.