"And who are you Jokers supposed to be?" Army Ant grunted, clearly annoyed at this whole situation. Not that I could blame her.

"Why don't you find out?" Slugger grinned and swung her bat against one of the bodies' heads. The struck hero tumbled a few steps backward, seemingly not out of pain but because of bewilderment, before catching herself again. She smiled.

"Now that's an attitude I can get behind." With that, the discussion seemed to be over and the Ant she hit charged her. At the same time, two of her other bodies moved to take care of the other parts of the invasive trio.

One body jumped, stepped with one foot on the bar wall, and kicked herself off, using the momentum to reach and quickly dispose of the toy cannon. It shattered to pieces under her heel. The tiny soldiers threw their arms in the air as if in a panic and began running in circles aimlessly.

"Let's make sure..." Army Ant said, raised her foot, and stepped onto one of the toys.

At the same time, the last unoccupied Army Ant faced the glittery fop that had derailed her assault. "Forgive me for not holding back. I'm in a bit of a time crunch, potion and all. But hey..." she started and took off. "If you end up in the hospital, I'll foot your bill. It's what a hero would do!" she screamed aiming directly at his face and swinging with enough force to shatter his jaw.

When she made contact with Smooth Criminal's skin, instead of delivering a terrible impact and the sickening sound of crushing bone her fist slid right off his face, keeping its momentum, and smashing right through another part of the bar wall. "You are too generous, my lady. Truly, we dastardly scoundrels do not deserve your mercy. Do your worst, I insist." the blonde villain said with practiced humility and a self-satisfied grin, before capping his mockery off with a deep bow. Army Ant scowled.

Toy General's Power was pretty obvious, and Slugger's I had no idea of then, but Smooth Criminal's was the one I was most familiar with since it really wasn't something that could be easily ignored if you spent any time with the guy.

His skin made anything trying to impact him slip off and carry out its path after it passed him by, without any force lost. When he introduced himself to me he had Slugger pretend to be someone with a grudge who wanted to settle a score with him. In the middle of our conversation, she came up, told him he deserved what came next, and shot him point blank in the face with a gun. I nearly had a heart attack. Afterward, they both laughed and cemented themselves as people to avoid in my book. Not that they seemed to notice or care, no matter how often I showed my distaste. Which now, I was kind of glad about.

"Don't..." Army Ant started but was interrupted by the sound of another explosion. I turned my head towards it. One of the plastic soldiers Army Ant had stepped on had blown up right under her foot, throwing her violently backward. Her ankle was turned almost all the way around, and there was a hole in the ground where she stood before. The skin was not broken and she was probably not feeling any pain due to the Armor Solution, but when that wore off she was going to be in for a rude awakening.

"Poor Carlos Christian Chester Carabine. He made the ultimate sacrifice. But his bravery will be honored." Toy General said, slid the small detonator he held in his hand back into his pocket, and made a salute. His surviving soldier toys mimicked him. One even pulled out a tiny plastic flower and gently laid it in the center of the newly blown hole in the ground.

The Army Ant in front of me had taken her eyes off me to look at Toy General, and I had to use this small opening to my advantage.

If we were to engage in one-to-one combat, even with me striking the first blow from behind, I was confident that I would lose. As long as the Armor Solution was active, I had no chance.

Fleeing would be nonsense. I would get nothing out of that, and it was almost guaranteed to attract more heroes.

So my only option was stalling without engaging in combat. If only I had access to my mind reading, this would be a done deal. But I had to work with the tools I had at hand. Maybe I could use the cramped space of the alley to my advantage.

With one smooth motion, I reached down to grab the Incapacitator from my puppet's belt and simultaneously placed a swift kick against Army Ant's stomach, causing her to hit the back wall. Without missing a beat I sprayed the little gadget across her waist. The liquid instantly solidified and expanded, gluing her to the wall.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." she groaned and looked me in the eye. I wordlessly stared back.

This wouldn't hold her forever. Or even for very long. I had only affixed her at the waist. The walls of the bar weren't all that thick, especially for someone with Enhanced strength, so she could just weaken the area around her enough with her elbows and feet to break out. The only thing standing in the way was me.

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With the Incapacitator I could glue the rest of her limbs to the wall, which would make escape for this body impossible. But if I were to attempt this she would probably disengage her other drones to come to this one's rescue, in order not to be outnumbered. That would leave them more vulnerable though, so she probably wouldn't do that until it was absolutely necessary or she had one body to spare. Her trying to break out now would force me to do it, which would force her to react, so that probably wasn't an option either. If I had pegged her right then she would be the type to either wait until I was distracted or until she beat one of my companions and had backup. So all I had to now was have faith and sit it out.

"Aren't you going to help your little friends now that you beat me?" she asked, crossing her arms

"And miss the opportunity to see a hero squirm pathetically? Never." I couldn't risk to move my eyes off her. Luckily I had more than the two. I slowly moved the Oculus out of its hiding spot and positioned it in a way to observe the other battles better.

The Army Ant that was caught by the explosion had sat up during my little stunt, twisted her foot back around again, and had gotten back up.

Smooth Criminal was dodging blows from his opponent who had refocused on his clothed torso. "Hold still, you slippery worm,"

"If you insist." he replied and stopped in his tracks. Army Ant looked at him for a second before ramming her fist in his stomach. The hero grit her teeth when her blow once again failed to connect and slid right off him, this time hitting nothing but air. "All you had to do was ask nicely."

Every bit of inorganic material that touched his skin shared his slippery characteristics for the duration of contact. This made things difficult when he wanted to do basic things like eating with cutlery (Which was always fun to watch), but was amazing protection in a fight. His shoes were made of fine leather specifically to avoid sliding all over the place outside.

Slugger for her part was busy blocking incoming hits from her Army Ant with her bat. "Awww, can the little buggy not break through a simple piece of sports equipment? I guess she is not as strong as she thought she was." the villain taunted.

"Shut up!" was all her opponent could retort.

I had seen Slugger carry that thing around with her a lot, but I had no idea it was that sturdy. I wondered what it was made of.

Jess was still trapped in her stand-off. All she could do offensively was slam Army Ant against the wall, which had proven woefully ineffective with the Armor Solution active. If she ignored her and tried to help one of us out she would leave herself open to attack. But on the flip side, while her levitation was ineffective in combat against this opponent, it was perfect to hold her enemy back should she try to attack. So both of them could neither attack nor afford to ignore the other.

Both me and Witchling were relying on the other three to pull through.

"You're going to regret messing with me, toy man." the drone with the maimed foot spat and swiftly approached Toy General.

"Oh, am I? I guess we'll see. Time for a tactical retreat." he said and vanished back into the bar.

"Do you really think you can hide from me in there?" she asked with a huff.

"Well....no." he replied just as she reached the bar entrance. Suddenly something fell on her from above. She had just enough time to look up to see the veritable army of little plastic soldiers jump from the window of the room above the bar, covering her head to toe with little skittering enemy combatants.

"What the actual fuck...!?!" she exclaimed while trying frantically to pull the toys off of her.

Meanwhile, Slugger had been driven against the wall. Army Ant had refocused her aim carefully and aimed her blows at her enemy's wrist, successfully disarming her.

"Any last words before you wake up in the hospital?" she asked smugly.

"Sure. My villain name is Slugger."

Army Ant laughed. "Well, not the words I'd have chosen, but who cares? Pretty unoriginal name for a girl with a bat. You should really think of a better one in jail." When she finished her sentence she gave Slugger a hard fist directly in the stomach. The villain doubled over.

"I....I wonder..." she sputtered.

Then something strange happened.

Slugger started to drip.

Thick globs of a translucent, gooey liquid dripped from her face onto Army Ant's arm, still buried in her stomach.

"What the...." the hero muttered and I was just as perplexed. I was not aware she had that kind of Power. I had always assumed she was either Powerless or just a simple Enhancer.

The liquid did not slow down, now oozing out of all of Slugger's pores in a constant stream. "I always thought the name was clever myself. Real proud of it." she laughed as Army Ant withdrew her arm. She tried to remove the slime but all that did was spread it to her other hand. While she was distracted, Slugger jumped forwards, enveloping her opponent in a slimy hug. The ooze was now flowing all over Army Ant's body, slowly covering her whole body. Shortly after, her knees gave out and she fell to the ground, the entwined pair landing with a wet and disgusting splat.

"Careful, dear. Her mucus has a paralyzing effect." Smooth Criminal interjected.

"A singular ant has no chance against the massive size and bulk of a slug. This was just a bad match-up for you." she almost sang, but Army Ant could not reply.

"You concentrate on us!" the drone engaged with the wannabe aristocrat growled.

"As you wish. But to be perfectly honest, and I always am without fail or error, I must admit that I tire of this unsophisticated, boorish brawl. So please excuse me when I cut this little engagement short." With his usual flourish he bent down his knees, touched the ground, and with a move that was clearly inspired by or at least greatly resembled breakdancing he flipped his legs around and, in a sweeping kick, knocked Army Ant from the now slippery floor onto the ground.

Before she got back up again he quickly kicked off his shoes, revealing his garish gold-trimmed white socks, and grabbed Army Ant's ankle.

The third and, as far as I knew, final aspect of his Power was that his slippery properties were also bestowed on anything he grabbed with his whole hand, organic or not. But for this effect to work his palm and all five fingers had to touch the object in question. In this case, Army Ant's costume.

He carefully slid into the middle of the valley, giving him enough room for his plan, and began to turn in a circle. Every spin increased his momentum bit by bit, with Army Ant being dragged along on the floor almost weightlessly.

"W-What are you doing?!" The hero yelled.

"Well, even though I am loath to talk about myself, I find it pertinent to disclose that the mother of the cousin of the co-worker of the sister of my best friend is herself a bonafide Witch, and thus I have some experience and had plenty of opportunities to experiment with various potions and their effects." he explained while gaining more and more speed. "And if I remember correctly, which I'm certain that I am, then gaining enough momentum so that the resulting Impact would make the effects of Armor Solution negligible requires exactly....this many spins!" With that he let her go and, with a loud scream, she crashed through the ball into the darkness of the bar.

About a minute later Toy General strode leisurely out the door.

"She's out. And this one...." he pointed at the Army Ant crawling with plastic soldiers. The little toys hopped off of her, revealing her to be covered in Incapacitator glue, wriggling around in a futile attempt to escape. I could just make out tiny nozzles retreating into the small plastic mouths of some of the soldiers. ".....shouldn't be a problem anymore either." He addressed his toys and gave them a salute. The soldiers responded in kind.

All this time I had not broken eye contact with the Army Ant in front of me, who was gritting her teeth, beads of sweat running down the visible portion of her face. A grin spread on my face.

"So.....ready to negotiate your surrender?"