Velia pulled into a parking space relatively close to the Laundromat, wincing slightly at the brakes squeaked ever so slightly. She really needed to see about changing those sooner rather than later. The young woman shrugged off the thought for a later date and shifted the car into park, jerking the emergency brake back out of habit. This done she stepped out of the somewhat beat up four door sedan and opened the door to the back seat and lifted the basket of clothes within. She nudged the door closed with her knee and started down towards the Laundromat, adjusting her hold on her basket to allow her to press the electronic lock for her car. Velia Valspar did not get her car stolen by some street punk.

The New Orleans morning was muggy and grey and humid. She had avoided most traffic by getting out very early, though she doubted she would be getting lucky on the way back to the apartment. A yawn escaped her lips as her eyelids drooped threateningly, her body still very much desiring to sleep. The quick cup of coffee this morning hadn't even put a dent in her grogginess; then again that was what she got for trying a new brand. A friend had recommended it, though she had to wonder about that friend's taste now.

She paused before crossing the street, making certain there weren't any oncoming cars. In this city she was likely to get run over more that she was to have someone stop for her. A brisk walk had her across the street and at the glass door leading into the Laundromat. She nudged it open with her shoulder, pushing in and adjusting her grip on her basket of clothes. If the stupid washer at the apartment wasn't busted she wouldn't need to be coming down here. Of course the manager was a cheap bastard so it wasn't getting fixed anytime soon.

When Velia stepped inside she noted that there were about two other people there. The stupid fluorescent lighting right above the door still hadn't been fixed and the only employee there looked half ready to fall asleep in a puddle of his own drool. It was run down and pretty shady but it was close by and really that was all she cared about. She was about to head over to her usual washer when a closer look at one of the patrons almost caused her to lose her grip on her basket.

Long dark hair was pulled into a frazzled looking ponytail, a few strands hanging around an angular face. The woman possessed smooth dusky skin, her Arabic descent rather clear for anyone to see. Her form was possessed of lean muscle and gently sloping curves that drew the eye. Chocolate brown eyes were half lidded and full lips parted in a yawn as she stood at one of the washing machine's depositing quarter after quarter into its slot. Her clothes were rather sloppy looking, a white t-shirt, sweat pants and a pair of black flip-flips.

The woman cursed low as one of her quarters slipped from her fingers and clattered to the ground. It rolled between two of the machines, rather an unlucky series of events however considering that Velia knew the woman in question she allowed a smirk to settle across her lips. The woman grumbled as she got to her knees, grasping futilely under the machine for her lost quarter. The smirk left her lips as wariness took over, Velia watching as the woman grew steadily more frustrated.

She stood after a good minute, her dark eyes flashing as she placed a hand on the machine next to hers. The flesh of her hand started glowing visibly orange as heat pulsed through it. A threatening hiss sounded out as all moisture on the top of the machine immediately evaporated. It was at that point Velia opted to clear her throat, earning a sharp glare from the woman. A snarl was curling her lips that dropped into a shocked 'o' as she looked at Velia. The blonde haired woman shuffled in place as their gazes met. She swallowed hard as she could practically feel electricity passing between them.

Inevitably she was the first to break the tension filled silence. "Uh, wasn't expecting to find you here, Alatha." She said, her southern accent quite prominent and thick.

The woman seemed to recover and removed her hand from the washing machine, the glow still present as Alatha regarded Velia. "Piss off, Bug. I'm not looking for a fight this morning, but I'll be more than happy to turn this place to ashes if you want one."

The rather plain faced and petite blonde glared up at the taller woman, irritated by the use of the hostile nickname. "I'm not leaving, free country. But I'm not looking for one so cool down, Fire Princess."

A snort left Alatha's nose as she sat down on the bench, her quarter problem forgotten as she eyed Velia warily. This was not how she had been expecting the morning to go. A nice boring morning was apparently too much to ask. Instead she had to run into the Queen of Arson herself and find her cranky and half awake. Velia put it out of her mind, noting that neither of the Laundromat's other occupants had taken notice of the near fight. Good. Less commotion to be started.

Velia opened the washer Alatha had just been about to vaporize and started loading up her clothes. She had dressed in clothes she had stained with paint a while back, a black t-shirt and loose baggy jeans. She wore flats rather than sandals. Her other clothes she actually cared about were loaded up and detergent was added to the washer. After witnessing the mistake of Alatha she was careful in handling her quarters. Once she was finished she pressed the longest cycle and sat down on the same bench as Alatha.

Outwardly she kept her expression stony and blank but there was a justified worry in her. Alatha was unpredictable at best and when she was pissed, like she obviously was, things could get... nasty. Yet she was witnessing her in a rather different environment than normal. Indeed, normally she was dodging her flames in a bank or on a rooftop. Here, minus the scowl that could likely actually burn a hole in something, she actually looked somewhat normal. She swallowed hard and figured she'd try to at least make conversation. This awkward silence was pretty stifling and she had a good half hour to wait around.

"So... you come here often?" Velia chanced.

Alatha turned an annoyed eye on her as she rifled through her pockets for another quarter no doubt. "Why? Planning on telling the cops to scope it out if I say yes?" She said.

Well, that wasn't hostile at all. "Just curious."

The woman rolled her eyes and continued to check her pockets. In hindsight that had probably not been the best question to ask. They were enemies after all. Velia sighed and crossed her legs, allowing one of her flats to dangle from her toes. Looks like she was going to be dealing with hostile silence then. After a while Alatha gave up looking for more change, sulking rather sullenly as she looked at her own load of clothes just lying inside of the machine.

After a few minutes of just listening to the whirring noise of her own washer at work, Velia was surprised when the sullen villainess spoke. "Listen Bu- Velia. Could you- I mean..." She said, clearly uncomfortable with whatever she was trying to say.

"Spit it out, Alatha."

"You can make yourself tiny. Can you, maybe, slip under the machine and push the quarter out?" She asked, averting her gaze uncomfortably.

Red flags rose immediately in Velia's mind. Her shrinking powers could indeed allow her to slip right under and push the quarter out. However in such a state she was rather vulnerable. Vulnerable enough to where, if she wanted, Alatha could probably casually smear her across the floor. Velia shivered as she imagined the last thing she might see being the underside of Alatha's black flip-flip, the sky above dominated by the dark sole as it might utterly annihilate her. Her power was useful for sneaking but not so much when her enemy knew she was coming.

Alatha must have guessed her thoughts. "Listen. I'm willing to call a truce as long as we are in here. As much as I'd like to squish you like a bug I just want to do my fucking laundry and go home before traffic gets bad. Besides, if I killed you I'd still be out a quarter."

"Oh, I feel so relieved." Velia replied sarcastically.

The dark haired woman sighed. "You're a hero right? So shouldn't you be all about helping people in need of it?" She said, a slight smirk crossing her lips for the first time this morning.

The heroine locked her jaw and pondered telling her to go jump off a bridge. There was nothing compelling her to help the villainess, indeed there were plenty of reasons not to. She had tried to kill her multiple times, caused hundreds of thousands in property damage, and hurt innocent people to get what she wanted. However, if only for the sake of her being tired and it looked like Alatha was just as tired she stood and started to gather her willpower. The imagined image of her doom under Alatha sole was still firm in her mind, causing her to hesitate. She masked this hesitation by looking around to make certain no one else was looking.

Slowly, very slowly she started to reduce in stature. Inch by inch she grew smaller, her eyes locked upon Alatha to ensure the woman didn't try anything. Technically she could do this much faster but opted to take her time, just to allow herself to watch the villainess. As she shrunk her clothes shrunk with her, caught in her personal aura. The process was as easy as breathing by this point in her twenty years of life, just as easy as conjuring flames as to twenty one year old Alatha.

When she crossed the one foot mark the tiny woman slowly backed towards the washing machine, her eyes never leaving the villainess. Alatha's own eyes were fixed upon Velia's shrinking form. She wondered if she was considering it. Fear pulsed through her as she saw the now much larger woman shift slightly on the bench. Still she continued to shrink until she was about two inches in height. She could go much smaller however this would do for crawling under the washing machine.

In the distance she saw the blurry form of Alatha, her titanic form looking more like a part of the landscape than anything else. The Laundromat had transformed from just a moderately sized room with some washing machines to a massive a sprawling world of towering benches and monolithic machinery. The ground was a desert of black and white ceramic, the filth and grime upon them much more noticeable at this size. The sound of her washing machine working was a thunderous rumbling overhead.

Her power had a way of granting perspective, that much was certain. Velia shrugged off the thoughts and turned away from Alatha's sitting form and sighed as she got on her stomach and crawled under the machine. She still could not believe she was doing this for a woman like that. Part of her was tempted to crawl right back out and grow back however she pushed it down. Instead she delved fully under the machine, immersing herself in a dirty and dusty world most would never experience.

Dust was heavy down here and Velia coughed as she inhaled it. Her clothes were dirty and she could feel unspeakable filth under her nails as she crawled. She was not overly concerned regarding Spiders or Insects, she was still fairly large after all and she could always make herself even smaller to escape. All of this effort for a woman that had tried to kill her a few times. She must be out of her mind really. She should have called the police as soon as she had noticed her and let them sort it out.

The darkness made it difficult to see but her powers also gave her impeccable sight in low light, as such she was able to spot the quarter easily enough. She crawled towards it and moved around behind it, taking another dust filled breath. It was a good thing people didn't normally live like she could, she doubted many could get used to it. It sucked being so tiny and it gave her perspective on the smaller denizens of the world. A thirteen year old Velia would have laughed at the thought of having sympathy for ants but now, after her Awakening, she knew all too well how horrid tiny living could be.

The young woman pushed at the heavy hunk of metal, pushing it towards the crack of light that was the world beyond. At least she was getting her exercise in for the day. Slowly she pushed the prize Alatha so desired towards the light, remembering again who all this was for. She doubted the woman would even give her a thank you, and yet here she was toiling away to get her quarter back to her. Truly she was the angel of generosity, she mused as she inched closer to the end of the struggle, the thundering of the machine next to this one filling her ears.

She pushed the quarter out from under the machine and wriggled out from under it, breathing heavily as she turned over onto her back. Immediately she tensed up as she saw Alatha move quickly, a sigh of relief leaving the titanic woman's lips. Staring up at her like this Velia felt her current size all the more, swallowing hard as she stared up at the form that cast a shadow over her. She half expected a sneer to curl back the woman's lips as her sandaled foot came down, mocking words leaving her at how foolish she had been to trust her.

Instead a part of massive fingers reached down and grasped the quarter, raising it to the heavens far above. Velia's eyes fell upon Alatha's sandal clad feet resting nearby, her gaze lingering upon the massive digits with painted black nails. A flash of arousal shot through her as she took in every inch of her toes, drinking in the sight with more than a tad of voyeurism. As far as she was concerned the little peep was the least owed to her after crawling through that. In the more deviant corners of her mind she wondered what it might be like to be trapped under those brown digits, drinking in air with each of Alatha's steps. It was definitely not a good thing that she had this power with these fetishes of hers.

Shaking off these thoughts she started growing much more quickly this time, moving towards the bench as Alatha worked at the spin cycle on her own machine. Velia sat down upon the bench, covered in dust and grime from her ordeal. She looked rather like she had been stuck in a dust storm or had emerged from a particularly horrid and old attic. Alatha turned to her and lifted a brow at the sight.

"You could probably use a shower." She quipped.

Velia glared halfheartedly at the pyrokinetic. "Three most likely before I feel clean again."

Alatha cleared her throat, sitting down again. "Yeah, well, thanks. I know we don't get along and you didn't have to do shit for me after all we've been through, so thanks."

The gratitude surprised Velia and she simply offered her a nod. The silence returned over the pair as they stared at their clothes as they washed. The heroine was not sure what to make of what had just happened. The normal meetings she had with villains of any type generally ended with a fight, this was the first time she had seen a different aspect to any of them. Alatha especially came off as something of an apathetic thief. It was a little difficult to wrestle with the idea that someone she branded as a villain could be courteous.

"I do come here often. My apartment has a few washers but someone always gets to them before me. So I just come here now." She muttered, answering Velia's question from earlier.

The answer actually earned a smirk from Velia. "Surprised you didn't just burn the place down." She said, before realizing Alatha might well take offense to that.

The pyrokinetic merely rolled her eyes. "Then I'd be out an apartment that doesn't ask too many questions. Though this one Asian chick is really obnoxious about the washer thing, like she takes pride in beating me down there after I beat her once. I've burnt her clothes once or twice when she wasn't looking." She said.

"Ha, at least you've got washers. The one in my building broke like a week ago and the owner is too cheap to shell out cash to fix it." Velia laughed.

The villainess joined her for a chuckle at their own misfortune before the laughter died off and silence returned. There was unease in Velia's gut as Alatha was being humanized rather quickly in her eyes. The pyrokinetic had always come off as this force of uncaring destruction but she fucked up and had problems just like any other person. After they left this place they'd be enemies again, she had now doubt and part of her was saddened. She wondered if Alatha felt the same. Maybe she didn't care.

"So... I'll probably be coming back here every now and then. If we meet up..." Velia started.

Alatha placed her hands behind her head, giving the heroine a lazy half glance. "Same truce applies. I won't mess with you if you don't mess with me."

Velia nodded. She could live with that. Neutral ground as it was. Of course it went without saying it was no holds barred when they were fighting as normal.