Being a heroine didn't pay the bills. Sure, powers were nice but they couldn't pay rent on an apartment really. Not if one wanted to remain on the right side of the law and not have to look over their shoulder every day for cops. As such it wasn't unheard of for the day jobs of certain well known heroes to be less than glamorous. Such was the case for Velia as she was currently wiping down the bar at the Cork and Table Bar in the middle of the day.

It was a somewhat popular establishment with a devoted clientele. Some showed up to shoot pool, other to play cards in the back room, and then some where just looking to drink with some pals. Regardless Velia wasn't for lack of work as the bartender. Cleaning the bar, cleaning tables, taking orders, and trying to keep harassment down for the waitresses were full time jobs given how busy the place could get. Today was no different really as she finished cleaning the bar and noted someone sit down at the bar.

"Hey, Lia, whiskey no ice." The man ordered.

The drink was poured and on the table quick as a flash. From him she prepared a couple of beers for a waitress to take to a table out on the floor, the foam slightly spilling over her fingers. Really it was pretty amazing to her at times that she even had time to handle the odd crime or two. She never wore a mask so pretty much everyone knew who she was really. The mask cliché had never really seemed relevant to her since her folks didn't live in New Orleans anymore. Some still stuck to it, both hero and villain alike but she didn't have much to hide. Not as if she needed to worry about being billed for property damage with her powers.

"...Units on the scene have been unable to get into the building. Fires are raging all around the block and as of yet emergency response have been ineffectual in calming the blaze."

Velia's attention turned to the TV just in time to see a mugshot of her Laundromat-partner appear beside the news anchor. Her eyes narrowed slightly at the sight. The queen of fire just had to pick one of her work days to try and rob some joint. Fantastic. Normally she'd be inclined to let another Super handle the situation but she knew for a fact that Iceman and Dozer were out of the city for a vacation. So at the moment she was the only one that was on duty. Judging from the images things were not going to go well if Alatha was left to her own devices.

She sighed and turned her eyes to a waitress who nodded and took over while she headed into the back. The young bartender pushed open the door and walked inside the owner's office. A middle aged balding man was staring at his phone, which was also picking up the news feed. He looked up and smirked at Velia.

"Well, looks like duty calls again. I'll cover for you this shift." He said.

"Yeah, sorry Frank." She offered.

He lifted a hand, waving away the apology. "Hey, I knew what I was getting into when I hired a Super. Besides pretty sure I get more business with the Super bartender on staff."

Velia smiled as he pressed a button on his desk, causing the wall panel near his desk to slide aside. The locker behind it possessed a combination keypad lock. The man stepped out from behind his desk and patted her shoulder encouragingly as he stepped out of the office to give her time to handle things alone. She supposed she was fortunate to have a boss who understood the balancing act between her two lives. It was also a bonus he was a mad genius and made most of her gadgets for fun in his spare time.

The young woman locked the door and punched in the combination on the wall locker, kicking off her sneakers. She opened the door of the locker as she started undoing the buttons on her cream colored blouse. Inside was her uniform, a leather body suit with combat boots. A belt in the corner possessed a number of devices useful in her line of work. Her powers were useful for sneaking but other than slightly enhanced durability she needed other ways to combat stronger Supers like Alatha.

She suited up quickly, her eyes lingering upon the pistol and the hand held Taser. Normally she'd bring the pistol for someone like Alatha, however her hand moved to the Taser instead for some reason. Maybe the past three weeks of cordiality had softened her a bit to the pyrokinetic. They met rather irregularly honestly and normally when they did talk it was mostly small talk. Safe topics that avoided talking overmuch on anything that might reveal too much personal information. Even still she did not think she could easily pull the trigger of a lethal weapon on Alatha.

With the Taser holstered Velia looked at herself in the mirror. She tied her hair up in a ponytail and swallowed hard. She pushed down any positive feelings she might have towards the pyrokinetic. They weren't in the Laundromat so there was no need for the neutral treatment. Likely she shouldn't expect any mercy from Alatha. Not when she was in the midst of her flames. She tended get rather... chaotic when using her powers as she appeared to be now.

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Sneaking out of the bar had been rather easy. There wasn't much in the way of traffic heading towards the scene of the crime. The pillar of smoke rising in the distance was likely visible for miles around. A few news helicopters were flying high in the sky, keeping abreast of the events below. Velia drove towards the scene, parking her car a block away before continuing on foot for the rest of the way. She easily slipped past the police barricade, shrinking in size to weave her way past a forest of boots.

She slipped behind a swat van and grew in size once again, slowing her breathing as she heard an explosion nearby. She peeked out from behind her cover and spotted Alatha, dressed in a red and orange coat with a hood over her head. It was unbuttoned and revealed her sloppily worn blazer and slacks. Iron heeled boots clacked harshly upon asphalt as she walked forward, the bullets fired upon her melting in the intense heat surrounding her before ever touching her skin. Liquid metal slid down her heat resistant clothing and her skin without leaving a single blemish. Heat and fire were hers to command.

The woman was walking inside of a nearby building, a museum from the looks of it. She was yelling something about the vault inside. Likely she would turn down the aura of intense heat around her body once inside. Alatha was as violent as they came but she wasn't one to kill hostages unless they got in her way. As such this was Velia's chance to strike out at the pyrokinetic. She ran through the smoking and scorching ruins Alatha left in her wake, producing her Taser.

She took aim at Alatha's back, not really thinking about anything but stopping the violent criminal. She wasn't Alatha at that moment; instead she was the fire throwing villainess. She pulled the trigger of the police grade Taser, launching two metal needles out towards the woman's back. The metal sunk home right into her skin and she activated a current of paralyzing electricity

A strangled cry left Alatha's lips as she fell to her knees almost immediately, her muscles tensing up to a paralyzing degree. Normal people would likely have been completely knocked on their belly but instead the woman slowly managed to stand. An audible snarl escaped her lips as the wires were gripped and the Taser was pulled from Velia's gloved fingers. The needles were all but torn from her flesh.

Velia swallowed hard as a pair of very enraged eyes. Lips were pulled back in an animalistic snarl. "Well, the Bug makes her appearance. Looking to get squished?" She said, flames bursting to life around her hands.

The size changer leapt to the side as a pair of firebolts were tossed her way, shrinking herself to avoid one passing a little too close to her head for comfort. She spun through the open air as the fire missed her tiny form by a wide margin. Velia landed on the asphalt on her feet, her reduced size making longer falls rather easily handled. She grew once again, running towards the blurry form of Alatha. As she ran she reached to her belt, producing a small cylinder. She grew in size rapidly and twisted on the head of the item, tossing it at Alatha's feet and leaping past the woman.

An explosion of cold blasted at her back and a violent hiss sounded through the air. As she turned she smirked as she noted Alatha's form now encased in ice, an expression of surprise upon her face. Velia sighed as she walked up to the frozen woman, knowing full well the freezing would not kill her. Her internal body temperature was much too high for a bit of ice to put her down for good. The heroine flicked at the ice in front of Alatha's face, snickering slightly as she tried to think of something snappy to say.

"This Bug bites, bitch."

Well... that had sounded better in her head. She blew one of her bangs from her face and was about to walk out to signal for police to enter. That was until she heard and ominous cracking noise from behind. Velia turned and watched Alatha's flesh glow bright orange, the ice encasing her dribbling melted water in great rivulets. A moment later the woman encased within shattered the thinning ice, emerging from her temporary prison in a shower of ice crystals and fire. Steam rose all around her as the water started to evaporate.

Velia produced a metal baton from her belt and swallowed, watching as Alatha cracked her neck to the side and offered a savage grin to her. Her fingers curled into glowing fists of heat and flame as she advanced upon the size changer. Her uniform and the baton were of the same material Alatha's own clothes were made off so they could stand the heat. She on the other hand was sweltering from being this close to the enraged pyrokinetic.

The woman swung a fist at her and Velia battered the blow aside with her baton, only to find her opponent's foot taking advantage of the momentum and kick her in the stomach. Pain blossomed within her gut but soon enough pain was replaced by the faintest bits of pleasure as adrenaline coursed through every inch of her body. The next punch and kick combination she blocked easily and went low, sweeping at Alatha's feet to knock her off balance.

Alatha jumped back inside of the museum proper and laughed. "Come on, little Bug, I know you can do better than that." She taunted, holding both of her arms out wide in an inviting gesture.

The heroine's answer was a swung baton, which Alatha raised her arm to block. However Velia gathered her willpower and willed herself to shrink rapidly, landing a harsh strike against Alatha's ribs by making the weapon and herself smaller. She grew and stepped in, swinging and uppercut at Alatha's exposed face. The low connected, smacking into the pyrokinetic's right eye in a satisfying manner. Her size changing powers could make fights like this rather simple. Well, if it were a normal human being at least.

As Alatha was anything but normal she stumbled back and let out a cry of pain, lashing out with a kick that scored at Velia's leg. Pain flared again with the sweet tinge of arousal following soon after. Despite herself she found herself getting enjoyment out of actually fighting Alatha and judging from the almost demented grin on the woman's face she enjoyed it on some level. Whether it was in receiving pain or dishing it out, Velia had no idea.

She swung her baton again only to find it gripped by Alatha and herself suddenly very close to the pyrokinetic. The heat coming off of her at this range was almost unbearable as sweat started to perspire upon Velia's skin almost immediately. The taller woman hooked her leg around behind the size changer a pushed hard. With a rather undignified squeak the blonde fell onto her back and stared up at the woman in naked fear as fire started to lick at the corners of her mouth. In that moment she did not see Alatha the Villain or the Woman. She saw the Dragon.

The woman kicked her in the side, drawing a loud cry of pain from Velia's lips. Pain and pleasure mixed together in an odd concoction within her gut as Alatha laid into her prone form. Quickly she willed herself to shrink as small as she could manage, stopping at roughly the size of an ant. The next kick hit open air where she had once been, whooshing overhead and kicking up hot air around the tiny woman. Velia struggled to her feet and prepared to run again, noticing a descending shadow from above far too late.

She froze as the descending fingers of the titanic form of her enemy roughly gripped her before closing around her, trapping her in a prison of flesh. This immediately presented her with a problem. Growing when trapped inside of a closed space was very unwise. If she did so now she would likely break every bone in her body trying to escape. Though, looking around at the walls of flesh holding her she had to wonder if that was going to happen anyway.

Her eyes were wide as her predicament truly sat in. She was trapped, trapped inside Alatha's fist with her flesh on all sides. She could not shrink any smaller than this to escape nor could she grow, all she could do was stare at the creases and ridges of her flesh. Any moment now a squeeze was going to splatter her all over the sweaty and calloused skin of the woman's hand. A little red dot would be all that was left of her, something Alatha could just wipe away on her coat and forget about.

Velia waited and waited for the squeezing however it never came. Instead she noticed that the temperature was growing steadily in her prison and she could not allow a bit of her skin to touch Alatha's skin without it burning. Sweat was dripping down her face as every breath felt like it would set her lungs on fire. It was like being trapped inside an oven. Her clothes could endure the heat but her body most certainly could not take this forever. There was no pleasure with this pain, only the thought that she needed to get out of here.

She pounded upon the unyielding flesh around her, screaming and crying as the heat continued to rise. Alatha was going to cook her alive. "Let me out! Please, I'll do anything just please let me out! Oh God stop! It hurts! Stop!!" She screamed, knowing that Alatha could not hear her.

What a fool she had been to think Alatha of all people had a shred of humanity in her. No doubt she was laughing at her pathetic struggles and was amused by how she had opted to kill her. Compared to this Velia would rather have been crushed. Anything was better that being cooked alive in this oven of flesh. She started coughing and sputtering, her throat raw from screaming as she pathetically and weakly delivered a final pound to her prison, tears mixing with the sweat that drenched her form.

Suddenly the prison vanished and the delirious woman found herself falling through the air as Alatha let her go. Velia willed herself to grow at the last minute, landing on the ground with a thud. She took in long and cool breath of air, gasping like a drowning man might when surfacing. Above she could see the villainess glaring down at her, her jaw locked as she walked out of Velia's darkening vision. The final thought she had as consciousness left her was to wonder why she had been freed.