"Cool. Go change, I'll put a pizza in the oven. Can we watch something light tonight? It's... been a rough day." Anetta kisses Alia on the head and disengages from the hug to let her go. "And maybe cuddles? I really could use them."

The shower isn't going, but the drip of water coming from the bathroom signals that one just recently finished. As Alia calls out, Anetta steps out of the bedroom wearing a black tank top and sweats. Her hair is up in a towel to keep it from dripping all over the place. Her eyes are red and puffy; she's been crying.

She walks over and wraps Alia up in a tight hug. "Hey, boo."

"Then I need to make a phone call."

After several more hours of going around, this time with a lawyer shooting dirty looks at the heroes and butting in a lot to say "don't answer that", Maiden is cut loose. Technically, they could arrest her, give her the full treatment, try her for all of her crimes she hasn't been tried for up until now.

It's not worth it. Not for them, not to nail Maiden, not when there's a huge chance of her breaking out before the trial date anyways. When they actually go for her, they'll get her for something real, something that will get a solid conviction.

So Iron Maiden walks today. She's given her helmet and personal affects, and she marches off into the slowly rising sun, back to her apartment that her girlfriend has the key to.

Alia is given leave to rest up, write her report later. She doesn't need it, but protocol allows for it when a cape has just pulled an all-nighter guarding a villain who committed involuntary manslaughter.

She has to bite down on a grin. Alia reading her mind is something she's slowly getting used to. "Yeah, I hope so. I'll cooperate with this whole thing. Do you think I need a lawyer?"

She nods once, then sighs and slowly lowers her head back to the table. "It's a bit less funny after today, actually. Killing someone actually sort of sucks." She wants to go home and change into her PJ's and watch a documentary -- definitely not a horror movie tonight -- and pretend today never happened. Having a cute girl to cuddle up to wouldn't be a bad addition to that plan, but there's no way to ask Alia over without Zippo hearing about it.

The sword may have been deflected, but Maiden's momentum carried on. By the time the swing came down, all that hit Maiden was Striker's arms. She slams into him, turning her shoulder just before impact to really drive home all of her weight and strength.

Maiden grins as she sees the sword form. She rushes in to meet him, her blade leading the charge to try and jab him as they approach. "I haven't had a good sword fight since getting here! Let's see what you have, then!"

Maiden grunts as Neptune Striker slams into her. She doesn't know any fancy tricks for escaping a grapple. Instead, as she's brought to the ground, she starts pounding at his head and shoulders while shifting her armor to create as many spikes and hooks as she can.

"You really don't fucking learn, do you?" Maiden steps back and stabs with the sword to try and discourage him from repeating this tactic. "You're not ranged? Then you don't stand a chance against me!"

Maiden smirks up at Alia. "I'm looking forward to it. I'll let you be my nemesis. We'll dance the dance of death together over and over again."

Maiden doesn't give him the chance to get that close. As soon as he tries to get past her sword's point, she swings it at him with as much power as she can to try and knock him to the ground or at least off balance.

She scoffs. "If you don't want to fight, we don't have to, dumbass. I did what I set out to do, those kids did what they set out to do. We can all just go home and call it a day." She keeps the sword pointed at the hero, keeping it between herself and the hero in case he tries to get too close.

Iron Maiden snorts. "I don't need it. I've never cared what anyone's thought of me, why should I start now?" She leans back in her chair and crosses her arms. "I'm not a killer, but that's my own moral compunction, nothing that society has impressed on me. I do what I want, when I want, and nobody stops me. Understand?"

"I think the child soldiers will be alright with a few swear words." Maiden swung her sword around, pointing it up at the hero. "Just who the hell are you, anyways? Do you really think you're strong enough to fight me?"

Maiden smiles up at Cylynx and mouths 'play along.' Then, she snatches the mask and shoves it on her face.

Suddenly, the smile is replaced with a snarl. "I don't need your fucking pity, Alia. And I certainly don't need your approval."

Maiden recoils from the flames with a slight yelp, and brings her sword up defensively. She doesn't interfere with Cavalier, instead just watching the pair start to fly off.

"That's right, children! Run, and remember that I am not to be fucked with!"

Maiden is taken into custody for questioning by a PRT trooper. There's a bit of skepticism around Cylynx staying with her for the entire process, but Zipdash finally puts her stamp of approval on it, and they get to work. Maiden's face-hugging cowl was wet by the time Cylynx got to her, and it gets worse as the interrogation goes on. She doesn't speak except to answer direct questions.

It becomes quickly apparent that Maiden didn't mean to kill anyone. If she had set out do so, she would have killed more than just one person, and done it before one of her hostages startled her. They quickly determine that, in her five years as a cape, she's always held back even when it would be easier not to. Heroes, rival villains, gang members, she could have killed plenty of them during her tenure as a villain, especially when she was running territory in Green Bay, but she always chose not to.

That said, her list of violent offenses is long. Countless assaults, with no less than five people permanently maimed and/or crippled, and one woman who will need life support for the rest of her life. They're matters of public record, and the trooper makes sure to bring them up in reference to this matter.

Finally, after what seems like hours of questions about her goals for the night (a bit of light robbery and mayhem) and whether she intended to murder anyone (again, no, dammit), the trooper says he needs to confer with his superiors, and then leaves the two of them alone in the room.

Maiden wants to remove her cowl, but the camera's watching. Instead, she rests her head on the table and lets out a shuddering sigh. "I'm sorry, Cylynx..."

"I would love to believe in heroes the way you do, Al-- Cylynx. But I can't. They've burned me so many times..."

She pulls her helmet off, revealing the cowl she wears to keep her hair from falling out the bottom of said helmet.

"I'll... I'll come in, but you can't leave me alone while I'm there. I need you to always be with me. I don't trust heroes, but I trust you."

Normally, hugging Iron Maiden would result in being stabbed and cut by the barbs on her armor, but it's completely smooth right now.

She shakes her head. "If I go in for 'questioning,' they'll nail me for all my other crimes on top of this. I've done some bad shit, Cy, put people in the hospital, maimed them for life... if I get taken in, they will make me vanish."

"He had a hand up. I don't know what he was planning to do." Maiden makes a soft sound, a gag or a muffled sob. She sits up straighter.

"Cylynx... What do I do?"

"I was doing my thing, intimidating people." She shifts, looking up at Cylynx. "I turned around, and he surprised me standing right behind me. It was a reflex." She gestures to a discarded spike of metal lying bloody on the ground. "It went through him like paper... He was dead before anyone could do anything."

Maiden sits against the wall opposite of the man with her head cradled in her hands. She shifts a bit as Cylynx enters, but doesn't look up at her.

"Accident," she mumbles, the sound distorted by her helmet. "Snuck up on me."

Even with the maximum setting on the gloves, Maiden is far too heavy to be lifted into the air. With a scoff, she lunges in to swing her big-ass sword at him again. "You're pathetic!" she crows. "You can't hurt me, and you're not smart enough to flee!"

"I can hardly even feel that, fools!" She spreads her arms, letting the electricity hit her. "It's a full metal suit of armor, your paltry electricity just flows right through to the ground!" From the palm of the hand that isn't holding her sword, a sharp spike of metal forms, and she sends it flying at Cavalier.

The sword dips, but not as dramatically now that she's ready for it. Even as the electricity and the laser hit her, the sword rams into Doc's leg. It does not, however, cut him. The sword seems to be blunted. She's not going for blood, but there will probably be a nasty bruise where it hit him. She grunts and swings the sword up and around to try and block the laser.

"Is this all you've got, children? I am Iron Maiden! If you can't bring more force to bear, you should retreat and let your superiors deal with me!"

It takes her a moment to sort him out, and then she is flying after him. "Stop!" she calls as she draws closer. "You can't outrun me!"

The sword bites easily into the brick wall of the alley, and then is just as easily ripped out. Maiden is a fairly strong brute, and the force of the magnetism is noticeable but easily overcome. She grins behind her mask. "You do look fucking ridiculous. And since I can't hit you..." She points her sword tip at Pulsar and lunges forward.

As the monster breaks down, Zipdash switches to her Barrier core. She tosses an alkaline grenade to counteract the acid puddle, then flies out the door to see if she can clock the villain.

"Sure." Anetta smiles slightly. "I don't mind that. Let's order food?"

The man definitely has a few cracked or broken ribs from that kick, and his face looks like a brute punched him with a metal gauntlet.

Maiden laughs as she steps back into a defensive stance with her sword pointed in Cavalier's direction, not seeming to mind either the frost or the kick. "Why wear the costume if you're not going to enjoy yourself? Be grandiose! Be scary, vicious, threatening! Be silly, but for fuck's sake don't put on a mask and be boring! You could stand to learn something from that cat- themed cape on your team!"

She growls as the thing lunges at her. She can see it's deteriorating, but... Well, she'll have to make sure it's dead, and then hit it with the acid's neutralizing agent to keep it from spreading or having anyone touch it. That would not look good. She sighs and begins checking in, letting the local police know about the cape running around somewhere around here. They probably won't catch him, but at least they'll be on the lookout.

And now she knows he exists and can hopefully be ready the next time she sees him. In the meantime, she makes sure to let the creature grapple with her as much as it wants, her acid eroding away at it with every second of contact with her.

Maiden smirks and suddenly darts towards the pair. The ice balls impact, causing frost and ice to spiderweb across her metallic exterior. As she gets close, she swings the sword in a heavy overhand chop aimed at Cavalier. "Have at you, then! Tonight we dance the dance of death!"

The armored villainess turns her head to regard the two heroes, and she makes a noise like a growl. "Don't mind me. I was just teaching these miscreants to respect their betters." She raises her foot off the chest of the man beneath her, and turns it into a fierce kick that sends him rolling across the ground towards his friends. He screams and clutches at his ribs, and the other gangbangers scurry toward shim to try and help.

Maiden spins the sword around to point at the heroes. "Would you care to dance? I'm a terrible evil villain, you know, it's your duty to take me into custody. I could use the exercise."

The screaming turns out to be a group of gang mooks surrounding a heavily armored figure. Black metal armor with twisted spikes and barbs, a helmet that has a large trio of spikes at the front to resemble a crown, and a big-ass sword all speak "villain". Iron Maiden is standing with one foot planted on the chest of a gangbanger, and she's pointing the sword at another. A couple of guns are drawn and pointed at her, but everyone present knows that they will likely not do much to the cape.

She's in the middle of a sentence as the heroes arrive. "... one good reason I shouldn't kill all of you right now. If you make a good argument, I will merely put you in the hospital as repayment for the disrespect you have shown to me this day."

Zipdash grunts as she takes the hit and slides back. Luckily for her, the Hermes is a tough piece of tech, and the fist barely even puts a dent in her armor. She really wants to go after the cape, but she has to kill the giant monster first. With that thought, she switches to her acid core. Red flames are replaced with a cloud of green mist, and she shoots a cone of acid at the creature, hoping to melt it down quickly with the highly corrosive substance.

"Good, that works for me." She smiles a bit and leans her elbows on the table. "I'm going to give you fair warning: I've never dated anyone before. I might be a bit bad at romance."

Zipdash sighs. Fucking villains. She could go after the cape, but the abomination here might go after the civilians. Can't have that. She raises her hands, and a jet of twin flames shoots out at the minion, lighting it up with scarlet fire. If she hurries and breaks this thing down, she might still have time to catch the Master. It's doubtful he can go anywhere near her top speed.

Memphis smiles and nods. "Yes, I try to get to know all of my team members when they first join. Sorry this took a bit to get scheduled. How are you feeling about being a Ward? Any concerns you want to discuss?"

"That's unfortunate for you." She starts walking towards the back, going slow in case he's waiting to ambush her. "Now that I've killed your minions, how about you surrender? You can get off with just an attempted robbery charge instead of a full resisting arrest and assault on a law enforcer charge."

"Your boss is your best friend. That's the saddest goddamn thing I've ever heard." Anetta shakes her head and sends a text to Alia. "You and me, mall date, Friday? I need to get some new shirts, my power can sometimes fuck them up."

Zipdash lets the one grab onto her, not seeming overly concerned as the others close in. The hard light armor is more than sturdy enough to stand up to basic human-level strength, and letting them crowd in allows her an opportunity to dispatch them all quickly.

Once they're all close enough, she swaps cores. The hard light disappears, replaced with scarlet flames that sear away at the minion who's bear-hugged her.

She scoffs. "Your boss needs to know your relationship status?" She pulls her phone out. "Don't worry about waking me up. If my brain deems it unimportant, I just go right back to sleep."

The Captain of the Denver Protectorate has a surprising amount of things to manage, and most of it involves large amounts of paperwork. Dossiers on all the known capes in the city, updating existing files, connecting capes to various cases for the police, managing patrols so that everyone gets a chance to stretch their legs, making sure that the patrols are varied enough that nobody gets into a rut... And then there are things like power testing for new team members, transfer requests both incoming and outgoing that can't just get a rubber stamp approval, incident reports.

Luckily the PRT handles some things. Supply requisitions, public appearances and events, that sort of thing. Still, it's enough for Zipdash to feel a bit overwhelmed. And that's why it's always nice to set paperwork aside and meet with a member of her team. She tries to get to everyone at least once every couple of months, but things fall by the wayside as crises pop up.

Cylynx will understand. Retcon doesn't need the meetings. Cavalier and Neptune Striker are both grown adults who know that shit happens. But her Wards?

Zipdash has never cancelled a meeting with her Wards. Maybe rescheduled, pushed it back an hour or two, but she's never made it seem like they are less important to her than her work. And so, today, she has a meeting with Nereid. As her alarm rings to let her know, she saves the work she was doing on her computer, shoves a stack of documents into her desk drawer, and waits for the knock. When it comes, she presses the button on her desk that opens the door and gives her warmest smile.

"Hanna, it's good to see you. Please, sit down. Would you like something to drink?"

"Mm..." Zipdash nods a bit as she finds herself not quite focusing on the cape. "Okay, then. If you won't surrender..." She activates the core she currently has equipped, and amber light forms a hulking suit of armor around her armor. "I'm going to break your toys." She turns and rushes the faceless minion closest to her. She makes sure that she's nowhere near that corner, nowhere close to the civilians. She's not going to give the villain or the press any fuel to roast her with.

Being the resident speedster means that, even though she's the Protectorate Captain, Zipdash tends to respond to time-sensitive calls. This definitely counts. Someone could get hurt, or the villain could get away, before anyone else shows. She arrives with her armor in its normal state, no cores active. Just gold and gunmetal grey armor, flying in at high speeds, landing, and continuing the trajectory into the building at nearly a hundred miles an hour.

"I'm sure this will fall on deaf ears, but surrender now and this doesn't have to get ugly."

"Let's not label it. We can go on these little dates and stuff, and then the next day we can try and knock each other's teeth out. Pretty toxic relationship, actually." She shrugs slightly and moves to rest her hand on the table, still holding Alia's. "That work for you?"

Anetta considers, then nods and takes the hand. "Maybe we will. Or maybe I'll get to drag you down to my level and turn you evil."

"Nah." Anetta shakes her head. "Villains dating heroes is kind of a thing in villain circles. But heroes dating villains, society frowns on that. It's hilarious."

She smirks and shrugs. "Going on dates with a hero is prestigious, the opportunity to slowly corrupt them over time. A hero dating a villain? That's bad, that makes the hero and her whole organization come under question. So you're the one getting the short end of the stick.

"Didn't say it was bad. I said sure, alright. I don't get it, but you do you." She shrugs.

"We can go to a concert sometime. Not sure who might be playing in Denver anytime soon, but we can give it a shot."

She waves a hand dismissively. "Just wanna be able to talk to you without craning my neck." She shrugs and leans on the table. "So you watch Japanese cartoons. Sure, alright."

A soft, derisive snort escapes her. "No, concerts I go to are usually way fucking better than that. Real mosh pits, real bands, real metal."

"Why'd you sit on the same side as me?" Anetta snorts and nudges her. "Psychopath."

She shakes her head. "What the fuck is anime? I go to concerts, read history books, watch horror movies. Nothing too interesting."

Anetta grunts, gives a firm squeeze, and shrugs. "I could probably do it if I wanted to. Really put my mind to it. You're lucky I don't want to." She lets go and steps back as the host waves them over. She follows him quietly through the restaurant to an area with only a few people, and smiles as he puts them in a corner booth.

"So, what does Alia do in her free time?"

"Touch issues, yeah..." She sighs and shrugs. "Just... Hugging. You. Is weird. Considering the nature of our relationship." She chuckles. "I may put you in the hospital next week, after this."

"It's not a den of villainy, it's just a place where I like to come to, and they're willing to put you in a quiet booth if you ask nicely." She squeezes. "You're really warm, too. I haven't had a lot of physical contact in a while." She opens her eyes and looks down at Alia.

"This is weird."

Anetta smirks. "Let's just say they know how to accommodate people here." She shrugs. "This lets us talk business without people eavesdropping, if that's what we want to do." She gingerly wraps an arm around Alia and lets out a soft sigh as she closes her eyes.

"Human contact is nice," she murmurs.

She snorts and heads into the restaurant. "Sure, if you say so." She heads up to the host's stand. "Two, please." She hums and pulls out some cash. "Booth, maybe somewhere a bit quieter." She slides the host a bill, and his eyebrows go up slightly as he not-so-discretely pockets it.

"Of course. It'll be about a ten minute wait for you ladies."

She grunts her acknowledgement and moves to lean against a wall right next to the waiting bench.

Anetta rolls her eyes. "Nobody should suffer what those bands were doing to metal music. That's all, no special interest in you specifically. That's the problem with heroes, they all think they're the most important thing in the universe." She smirks and bumps Alia. "That was a joke, by the way."

Anetta snickers. "Good luck with that, then." She pauses, glancing down at Alia and blushing a bit. "It's not like that, and you know it. I'm-- I figured you needed to get out, and I definitely did. That's all. We're going to a steak place I like."

"No worries, I robbed an armored van after its last pickup of the day a couple days ago, I'm set for cash for the next little while." It's hard to tell if she's joking or not. The deadpan delivery says no, but the slight smile says maybe she's just fucking with the hero.

Anetta grunts, but doesn't try to shake Alia off. "Can't you just make yourself taller? Fuck, that's what I'd do." She nudges Alia with her elbow, smirking. "You hungry? I didn't have time to eat much before the show, so I'll treat."

Anetta scoffs and grabs Alia's wrist. "Of course you somehow got a discount." She shakes her head and heads out of the bathroom, making her way for the door and shoving aside anyone who gets in their way.

Once outside, she takes a deep breath of the night air and sighs. "Christ. Was hoping for better."

"It's fine." She glances down. It'll probably bruise a bit. That's fine. "I thought I'd check out the metal scene here, but... fuck, can't believe I paid fifteen bucks for the cover fee. You wanna get out of here?"

She wants to snarl, but Alia's face is so open and devoid of lies that she can't help but believe. She crosses her arms and takes a few deep, slow breaths to calm herself down. "If it isn't your scene, and you're not following me, then what are you doing here?" She glares down at the older woman. "It's fucking uncanny, you just happening to be here on the night that I decide to stop in and see what the local metal scene is like. Atrocious, by the by."

"Are you following me?" Anetta has to shout to be heard over the music at all. Nobody's at risk of overhearing them. "Because this really doesn't seem like your fucking scene, Alia!" She's a bit incensed that her new so-called nemesis might be staling her. What, like she needs check-ins to make sure she's behaving? Fuck, this is the whole reason you're not supposed to unmask another cape, to avoid situations just like this.

"I swear to fuck, Alia, this is fucked up!"

Anetta crosses her arms as she tries to enjoy the music, but it's... very hard. The record shop is not very big, and the bands being showcased aren't the best. They're mostly small local bands, mostly teens trying to make it big.

And some of them don't know the difference between grunge and metal. Sure, she likes Nirvana as much as anyone, but the texture is completely different, and the messaging is off. She wants to bitch, but there's nobody here to bitch at.

As "Black Blood Dementia" steps up and introduces themselves, she looks around, scanning the crowd. She's hardly interested in this trite cliché of metal. They're the fourth band with the word Dementia, the fifth with Blood, and every band tonight has had the word Black in their name tonight.

She pauses as she sees a familiar face. Her lip curls back, and she starts shoving her way through the half-asleep moshers to approach the shorter blonde. As the band starts up their song "Black Lamb's Blood," she reaches out and grabs her arm. "What the fuck are you doing here, Alia?"

"Mm, probably. I need cash, so, y'know." She shrugged and waved before heading off towards the nearest bus stop.

"As in I go back to my house, and you go back to whatever test tube spawned you." Anetta rolled her eyes and started walking. "Honestly, Alia. You know my face, but you don't get to know where I live. That's privileged information."

Anetta grumbles as she grabs Alia's wrist and lifts her fully off the ground. "You're annoying, has anyone ever told you that?" She shakes her head. "Fine. Let's just call it for the day? Date's over, let's go home and think about how we want to continue our relationship."

"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?"

"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."

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."

"Right. Come on, then, if you're coming." Zipdash gestures to a van pulling up nearby. "No pressure to come along, ma'am, but I wouldn't mind learning about a new cape in my jurisdiction."

"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.

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?"

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?"

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!"

"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."

"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."

"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?"

"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.

"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.

"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."

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."

"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."

"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."

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!"

"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."

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."

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

"My armor is fine, thanks." Zipdash looks to the young woman and shrugs. "You don't have to come with us,, but I wouldn't say no to meeting a new cape. Once we're off the scene, some PRT field agents will retrieve the officer and his gun, so don't feel like you have to stay for that."

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.

"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."

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

"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."

"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.

"If you're willing to come with me, that's fine. The problem is you continuing to mix your chemicals here. Pack them up and let's go. Ma'am, if you want to come along, I can explain to you about the power classifications, but I'd really rather not get into it right here on the street." Zipdash doesn't deactivate the lightning core. If SA decides to be a pain in the ass, it would be great to be able to quickly zap her and have done with it.

"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.