"You don't want to get to know your Arch Nemesis? Think of the taunts, I know I could come up with some good ones." Alia placed her own order, a trio of subs; tuna, teriyaki chicken, and pizza, all fully loaded.

"Some of this," she hisses, "Is me cleaning up after our fight. Mistakes I've made while working. And some... is from years ago."

She shakes her head. "I'm looking forward to ruining you," she grumbles. "Whatever. Fine. So, what's your fucking deal, then? If you want to be my nemesis, I should look into your... abilities."

"On the first date?" Alia snarks, she was getting more comfortable after the barbs they'd been throwing at each other. "Behave Anetta."

"Quid pro quo then; if we're going to do this." Alia takes Anetta's hand, flexing her muscles and gently pressing her unbroken claws into Anetta's palm.

Anetta glares, but she doesn't pull her hand away. As the claws dig into her palm, she forms a small spike of metal to press against Alia's in return. "You saw me in the armor yesterday. I form metal through my skin."

"Interesting." Alia mumbles as she stares at the spike between their palms, mind racing for a moment as her power shouts in her head before she shakes herself back into focus.

"I have supernatural hearing, I'm like a living lie detector." Alia tilts her head, listening to Anetta's vitals.

Anetta nods. If her heart rate picked up after touching Alia's hand, that's just anger coursing through her. Obviously. "So what's your actual power then?" she asks quietly. "You seem to have a lot going on."

"I have a lot more than that going on..." She smiles, proud of her power. Whispering back to Anetta, "I'm a wet Tinker. The scariest kind."

"Fucking Tinkers." The words are out of her mouth before she can stop them. She pulls her hand back, the spike scraping along Alia's palm. "Why do I always end up with them as my mortal enemies?" She huffs. "And wet? You do experiments on people?"

Alia winces slightly at the sudden pain, her wound closing up as the blood touches the air, drawing back and making a fist. "That's a question I can't answer..." She huffs back, pulling up her sleeve to expose the map of scars. "I'll let you figure out who I work on."

She nods slowly, considering. "So you being my nemesis just means that if I beat you once, you'll... implant something to overcome whatever weakness I exploited?"

"Maybe, I've got a lot of ideas floating around in here... Or you beat me bad enough that I don't get back up." Alia shrugged, looking back down at the table and wrapping her arms around herself.

"Unlikely. I've held back enough to not kill anyone so far, and I doubt you'll be the first unless you really piss me off." Anetta raises a finger to silence Alia as she sees the waitress approaching with their food.

"What's your favorite movie genre?" she asks, sounding like someone on a blind first date.

"I've been trying to expand my horizons, I don't watch a lot of movies that aren't documentaries. One of my work friends recommended I try some more horror stuff." She leans forward with an awkward smile, putting her hand back out for Anetta to take as the waitress sets their food down. She'd seen them holding hands before after all. "What about you?"

"I revel in horror," she says with a smirk. "Slasher films are great, but I also like suspenseful stuff as well. Maybe sometime we could catch a movie." Fuck, did she really just say that? Smooth, Anetta.

"Maybe we can, you could reach me all about horror." Alia snorted, "And listen to me complain about how badly the slashers are doing." Certainly Alia wouldn't be hiding from the screen in fear, no never.

Once the waitress was gone Alia was upon her first sandwich in moments, it didn't stand a chance. "You haven't know me that long, I have a tendancy to banter. I've been told it pisses people off."

"That's fine, you already piss me off." She bites into her sandwich and grumbles. "I haven't killed anyone yet, like I said, and you're tough enough that I probably won't go overboard."

"Then I'll have to double down, really get under your skin." Alia shrugs, starting on her second sandwich. "I'm not so fragile, you can certainly try and take me out. We'll make a night of it."

"What the fuck is this right now?" She glares at the older woman, setting her sub aside. "Are we fighting or flirting, here?"

"You tell me, only one of us has made the other bleed so far." Alia puts her own down, glaring at it instead of Anetta. "We're nemesis... Right?"

"One fight does not a nemesis make." Anetta huffs. "You want to make me bleed, you'll have to fight harder than you did yesterday. Come up with something to punch through the armor, or go for the joints or something." She leans forward, and the table tips a bit as her weight rests on it.

"Or we can not go out of our way. We... We did this thing that had to be done. You know my face, I know yours, your boss probably knows mine now. We can just ignore each other unless we happen to run into each other in costume."

"I can do a lot worse than make you bleed..." Alia pulls a wad of bills from her wallet and sets them down, easily more than the bill would be. "C'mon, I'll show you why I'm scary." She wraps up her food, stuffing it into the pocket on her hoodie before grabbing her drink and downing a fistful of pills.

"Unless she found a way to send people I wouldn't hear, she shouldn't have a clue." She moves out of the booth, "Where's the fun in that? Who says nemesis have to be enemies?"

She wraps her sandwich and grabs her drink before sliding out of the booth as well. She doesn't even think about it until she's standing. "Fuck it, I guess I'm in. You're more interesting than my previous nemesis." And far less of a dick than him, as well.

Alia grabs one of Anetta's hands and tugs her along, fully unable to actually move her if she didn't want to. Yet. But it doesn't take too long for the pair to arrive at Cherry Creek, where Alia excitedly jumps down the embankment to the trail. "C'mon it's only a few meters! Jump!" She waves to Anetta.

"I'm not scared of heights, Alia." She jumps down, landing heavily on the trail. "Where are we going?"

"I never said you were scared of heights I thought you might just be worried about damaging the concrete. But given what I know about you I think that was a dumb worry." Alia smirked, looking around to make sure they were alone. "If you had to compare your metal to anything, what would you say is the closest? Steel? Titanium?"

She snorts. "Concrete is tougher than that. I'm only 600 pounds, give or take." She looked around, not sure what Alia was trying to show her. "Archon said it's like titanium, but less brittle. It can punch through steel and stuff, at least."

Alia pulled out her phone and did a quick Google search, "Mhm, okay... So, one of the things that makes me scary." She flexes her jaw and spits a little glob onto the palm of her hand, harmless in it's current state. "So titanium melts at about 1,700 degrees celsius. And this..." She wipes the glob off onto a stick before spitting a second glob of something else onto it, and watching the whole thing start to burn in a second. "Is a synthetic that I produce. It burns at nearly 3,000 degrees celsius." Alia tosses the burning stick into the water and keeps walking as it burns itself out under the water.

"So, what do you say? Am I a bad enough bitch to be your nemesis?" Alia asked with all the false confidence she could muster.

"What is with Tinkers and needing to be so fucking over the top?" She snorts and elbows the smaller woman. "My last nemesis had this big-ass flaming sword that he made specifically to melt through my armor. Bastard. Just promise you won't fully set me on fire and you can be my nemesis."

"I'm not over the top! He's just showing off and being excessive. And I'd never use this on a person, a master construct or a building maybe." Alia huffed, insulted for a moment before processing the rest of Anetta's words and tackle-hugging the taller woman. "Yes! You mean it? We're nemesees! This is going to be awesome, I can't wait to tell Black Cat, he'll be so proud!"

Anetta groaned, trying to break the hug. Not trying very hard, mind, because that would probably hurt the cat girl's feelings. "Nemeses don't hug, Alia!"

"That's not true at all! Black Cat and Amalgam even kissed before!" She releases her hold on Anetta, "Nemeses can be friends!"

"By definition, they cannot! If they're kissing, that means they're not enemies. Also, Black Cat's Captain should seriously discipline them for kissing a villain." Anetta rolls her eyes. "C'mon, I have something I need to check up on."

"Black Cat is the villain." Alia giggles, "Amalgam is a good guy, he actually introduced me to anime."

Alia falls in to step with Anetta, "Where are we going?"

"You're friends with-- Jesus, what kind of hero are you?" She shakes her head as she makes her way back to the street and starts walking.

"There's a children's dance studio around here. I want to make sure everything is... legitimate."

"I'm friends with Amalgam, I just happened to catch him and Black Cat so they didn't have a choice but to introduce me." Alia shrugged, "It's not my fault, Black Cat didn't notice me and he kind of jumped on Amalgam."

She looks at the taller woman, "Why did you say it like that?"

She grunts. "They weren't nemeses," she insists as she rounds a corner.

"I did the pageant and dance scene for a long time as a kid. I saw stuff. Never was a target myself, lucky me, but... Things get bad, sometimes. I want to make sure it's not bad here. Also, maybe find a way to reinforce to the parents that they shouldn't force their kids into dance if the kids don't want to do it. A lot don't, but the parents want their precious darling to be fancy or some shit."

"Fine." She huffs, "I guess I'm coming along as your escort then..." It would seem that Black Cat and Amalgam were an anomaly.

"I'll make sure you don't get out of hand with the kids that do want to be there."

"Kids are off limits, unless they're Wards. Even then, I don't go out of my way to fight them unless they start it. And if they're younger than sixteen, I generally take it easy on them." She'd had enough troubles back home with that. Once Archon had caught on that she went soft on the younger Wards, they had been a lot of his response to her. Bastard. Dick and bastard.

She gestured towards the studio. "If anyone asks, we're scouting the place out for my niece."

"That's a shame, I had some of my best fights as a ward." And some of her most grievous injuries. "Shitty of him to use them like that, he's supposed to teach not exploit."

"You think they'll go for that, with how we look?" Alia raised an eyebrow, pulling her forgotten half sandwich back out.

"My sister is the black sheep of the family." She smirks a bit, unable to help herself. "She believes that her daughter should learn to dance and recite and play piano, instead of go to concerts and mosh. Our parents are crushed, but I support her bad parenting habits."

She shrugs and heads inside. A class is in session, girls (and a single boy) as young as four learning ballet on the floor, while parents watch from the sidelines. She loathes it.

"Wow, you really are a villain." She laughed, finishing off her sandwich and tossing the trash away with a swish. "She lied as easily as she breathed." Alia added.

"Ungrit your teeth before you crack one, I can almost feel you grinding them."

"I can spot four kids at a glance who you can tell don't want to be here." She huffs and crosses her arms. "And that's just the ones who aren't hiding it. Hate these places..." She paces a bit behind the row of chairs for the parents, watching the three instructors work with different groups.

"And what are we... Are you going to do about it? The parents won't care about some random girl's opinion." Alia follows her pacing for a few moments before stepping in front of Anetta, "Will you stop that?" She hisses, "If you keep this body language going we're leaving."

"Make the place undesirable. Make every place like this undesirable, so the parents might get it through their thick heads..." She stops when Alia steps in front of her. She could just barrel through, but that would just cause a fight. "What would you have me do instead, Alia?"

"Not act like a villain out of costume? Not traumatize the kids here, even if they don't want to be? Do you think heaping that on top of whatever issues they're going to or already have, issues you're well aware of, will do any better if they get a dose of the Black Knight tearing this place up?" She pushes into Annetta's personal space, "The parents won't give a shit about you doing something stupid, they'll just move on to another place and drag their kids along with them."

"Be the change you want to see, show them the wrong. Don't try and force it..." She offers, "Think of your favourite Hero, a real one, with a capital H. What would they do?"

"I don't know any heroes like that. They'd all do nothing and pretend the problem doesn't exist, when I know better." She growls and turns to stalk towards the door. "I'll figure something out."

"Rude, I'm right here." Alia rolls her eyes and jogs after Anetta. "Then what are we going to do? Huh? Talk to me, if you think that we're just going to ignore everything."

"No, fuck off." She rounds on Alia, jabbing a finger at her. "Heroes ignore shit like that all the time, and excuse it with 'well, nothing I could do.' You don't want to make waves, so you turn a blind eye to the exploitation of children. Most of those girls are going to grow up with body image and mental health issues. Even if it's only a few years, they're going to suffer that, and nobody wants to do anything about it."

"Yeah?! You think we're all bad guys, huh?" Alia pushes Anetta's hand out of the way and starts advancing. "First, I just want to make it clear to you that a real Hero, doesn't ignore problems. I don't ignore problems."

Her voice was sharp with each word, "And don't you ever throw exploitation in my face." She was shaking in anger, "I want you to think for a second, Anetta, what kind of person tears into their own body and changes things if they have a positive self image."

She wasn't backing away from the taller woman, either Anetta would need to give her some space or they'd be pretty much chest to chest. "Put up, or shut up, Anetta."

Anetta doesn't back up, and ends up glaring down at the older woman. "You think you're the first person to say that to me? You're fucking not, and I'm sick of you all asserting that you're different. Remember that I wanted to do something, and you told me it was a bad idea. So, why don't you do something about it, if you're so smart? Figure out a way to make it stop, or get the fuck out of my way so I can destroy at least one of these awful establishments!"

"And do you think you're the first person to not believe me? To see a catgirl theme and think I'm a joke?! That I wouldn't willingly step in harms way to protect somebody, anybody, you?" Alia couldn't hold a candle to Anetta towering over her.

"I would go to the edge with a smile on my face. And I told you what you were doing and going to do, was stupid because you would only make things worse for those kids. Because I could see you getting upset! Because burning everything to the ground doesn't help anyone!"

"I'm not smart, I'm determined. But that means I won't stop until we find a solution." Her voice was much softer, the fight was gone bashing her head against this problem wasn't the answer.

She pushed through the final space between her and Anetta and wrapped her around the taller woman's waist. "We aren't getting anything done for them if we keep yelling at each other."

It's so very tempting to grow spikes from her body, impale Alia, cross the line into being a hero killer. She almost does it, almost lets her anger take over.

She doesn't move. "I hate everything about those places and the parents who do that to their kids. How do we make that stop?"

"We start by removing ourselves from this environment, we go get something to drink, then we sit somewhere like the park. And once we're there, you tell me about it piece by piece. Then we see if it's something we need to tackle as a whole, or if we can do it a little bit at a time." Alia talks into Anetta's chest at first, before realizing that wasn't helpful and turning to lay her head sideways instead. "And thank you for not turning me into a pincushion, I'd hate having to explain how I came back from a date looking worse than a patrol."

Anetta starts to respond automatically, before her brain catches up with her ears. "I-- We're not-- This isn't a date!" She pushed away from Alia and turns, trying to hide her blushing face. "Fine. Park, let's go. Know of any nearby?"

"Mhm, Sunken Gardens park is close by." Alia nods and points, hiding the small smirk on her face by walking past Anetta. "Pretty sure she's going to ask about it like it was, how long we've been out here. This isn't really a regular mask off and go."

"I should have kicked your ass while I had the chance." She stalks after Alia, glaring at her back. It is a tempting target. She grumbles the whole way to the park, sorely tempted to take off running and not look back at the crazy hero who thinks that nemeses kiss when nobody is looking.

"You still could! Nemesis remember?" Alia laughs back, relaxing as they walk to the park stopping only to get a couple of drinks from a concession stand by the entrance and flop down under a tree.

"So, run me through it step by step. Where does it start so we can figure out how to step in."

Anetta doesn't sit, opting instead to lean against the rough bark of the tree. "What do you mean where does it start? It starts with shitty parents making shitty decisions for their kids, and institutions like that preying on people's idiocy."

Alia rolls her eyes at Anetta's words, pulling her phone out and writing it down anyway. "Okay, so two points of contact... Educating parents and vetting companies. Given your comments on the parents I expect that way is a lost cause, so... We've gotta work on this from the other side, what about visits from a local Hero to things like these little extracurriculars so the kids can speak freely?"

"They won't, except maybe the youngest. The older ones will be too scared to disappoint their parents or nervous they'll get in trouble somehow." She grunts and rubs her shoulder against the tree. "Vetting the company... Maybe? They should be doing background checks on their employees, but that's never a guarantee."

"Okay, fuck. Alright, then we skip that step, of course the easiest way doesn't work." Alia looks up at her with a frown, "Where else could we go? There isn't much else to work from."

"You know my preference for what we do. If you want to do this by the book, I don't know what avenues we've got." Anetta sighs and straightens off of the tree. "Fuck it. Forget the whole thing, alright?"

"I know, and I don't want to go that route because then we'll have to fight again." Alia rolls over until she's looking up at Anetta with a smirk, "And you wouldn't want to hurt little ol' me, right?"

She reaches up for Anetta to pull her up, "I'm not going to give up on this, you wanted a Hero, and you've got one."