Chloe walked up to the entrance, compressing her size and bent in through the hole into the lobby. Unlike Building 770, it had pristine white and grey marble floors with a chandelier in its center. Chloe couldn't sense anyone with her vibration vision and with her normal sight back, she couldn't spot anyone, either. She looked to the side of the hole Wats' body made and then to the other side, not seeing any more damage.
Something landed right on Chloe's back and reached with both arms around her neck. They tightened at the sides and her large neck compressed. Before Chloe could move, her upper body went numb, and for a moment, she could not move her hands and arms. The numbness spread and burning sensations washed over her skin. In a desperate move, she pushed off the floor with her foot and threw her body. It didn't matter in what direction. She just hoped it would get him off her. Her body broke through a column, then a wall. Rubble rained down all over her and she sent her body the instruction to roll through to get fresh air and sun. She wasn't sure if she got outside until the numbness and the burning sensation subsided and her head cleared. She opened her eyes to the sight of her forearm skin steaming, within seconds she hissed and burning sensations crawled up from under her flesh. She pulled herself up and dusted rubble off her dress. Both Chloe and Wats had gone through the east wall leaving a large hole, which extended up to the fifth floor, leaving that part of the area collapsed.
Chloe couldn't spot where Wats had gone and placed her hand behind her neck and patted around her body just in case he hid on her. After looking around, Chloe took a hold of her inner energies and compressed it. Her size dwindled farther until she was about seven feet tall. She needed more stealth, but still needed a bit of size, strength, and durability. She didn't want to chance another sneak attack while at normal size. She stood up and stumbled, then glanced down under her left shoe to find its heel broken. So she slipped out of her shoes, leaving her bare-footed. She pressed her feet into the ground and used each step to get an enhanced picture of the area. Focusing on Building 845, she didn't spot any foot shaped feedback at ground level.
How could Wats escape that? He should be fairly dense, but if he were on the ground, he should be easy to find. Chloe reached the hole and steeled herself. She really didn't want to go back in without some sort of strategy. She might have a chance to catch him off guard if she bulldozed through the building again, but she might bring the whole thing down. He could also have retreated, but ambushing an opponent didn't match that strategy. He must be hiding, resting and waiting for the right movement to hit her in a more vulnerable spot.
The Building 845 lobby was now littered with large chunks of rubble from the ceiling. Still quiet, though with one of the walls out of the way, a ray of sunlight reflected off the floor and off the walls of the lobby, leaving it in a glow. Chloe shifted and turned around with each vibrating step. Still nothing. Her heartbeat quickened. What if he set up another trap for her and she was walking right into it? What if she was already in the trap? What if—
Something crumbled and landed behind her. Chloe rose back up to double the height and swung around with her fist but stopped short of smashing a piece of rubble which had fallen. She breathed a sigh of relief just as her head grazed the ceiling. She shifted a few steps and kneeled down to the side to the hole, then looked up to see the upper floors exposed.
She sat on the floor, a hand went to her brow horns and she glanced up again, noticing the borders across the ceiling. Wats must have been able to climb on that to get the drop on her. That was the problem with vibration vision. She could only sense things that made contact on surfaces she vibrated. Anything above the surface she couldn't see.
Ugh. Less thinking, more acting, Chloe!
She was wasting time. If she could just get a full scan of the building, she could move on. She glanced at the ceiling again. Surfaces between floors weren't as dense as the ground, were they?
She laid down and allowed her energy to expand her body once more, raising her legs until her feet pressed against the ceiling. She clamped down on it once more but found she had to bend her knees slightly so she didn't break the ceiling. She closed her eyes and sent vibrations into the ceiling. Almost instantly, she could get a good image of desks, chairs and the broken parts of the second floor. She needed to see more. She pushed for more vibration and it was almost like turning the brightness knob on a television. She saw an outline of the third floor, followed by another layer of furniture.
Just a little more.
The vibration increased to a dull buzz and spotted the fourth floor. However, the second floor was getting so bright, it began to obscure the higher levels with sandy white spots. Chloe carefully shifted herself forward and spread her feet wider to get a clearer view. There, near a corner of the building, were outlines of bodies descending down a set of stairs from the third floor and to the second floor towards an exit on the ground floor, bodies, as in more than one.
Chloe stopped her vibrations and compressed herself back down just as panicked screams rang out. She rushed through the entrance, knocking more bricks away to see vines slithering around the bodies of two of the company's doctors as well as Wats himself. Wats had ripped the vines off, but more would split and wrap around him.
“What are you doing?" shouted Wats.
The recruit, the one who Chloe remembered as the one who was on Wats' side, stood in front of them. The left side of his face was a blackened dark green with flakes of his hair breaking off, while the rest of his body had several burned spots. He waved his arms like a conductor and directed the vines that emerged from the ground. He held out his palms and clasped them slightly. In response, the vines clasped their captors tighter.
“I was looking for you, Wats, but I saw you were busy with that brutish woman over there,” said the recruit, who gestured at Chloe. “So, I took it easy while you two fought until the action died down. Then, what do I see next? You, rescuing people.”
“This is not how it looks, Rose. They were not part of this. It was only between Ms. Money and I.”
“Everyone's a part of this. You made the call to keep all the workers in the building trapped. So what's another couple more hostages?”
Rose gestured with a calling finger and the group of vines brought Wats closer to him.
“As for you Lieutenant, we had a deal,” said Rose. “I wasn't expecting you to try to skip out on it.”
“The deal was contingent on the ransom being paid,” said Wats.
“Oh, that's not what's on the contract, I'm afraid.” Rose wagged a finger which lengthened into a small, thick vine and it slapped Wats in the face side to side. “Believe me, I did read the part about a minimum service charge.” Rose grinned. “I'd like to get paid now, please.”
Wats pushed out and grabbed a couple of his vines and tensed, sparks and electricity radiated, then shot through his vine prison and down towards Rose. But in the last few feet, the electricity went in another direction through a vine in the ground, bypassing Rose. After a few seconds, the electricity faded out and Wats' hands lowered and he breathed heavily.
Rose frowned, and the vines coiled and tightened around Wats. “Glad you got all of that out of your system. I made sure to ground myself just in case you tried something like that.”
Wats grunted and tried to pull off the vines again. Some of them broke, but they grew back and covered his mouth.
“He wasn't trying to double-cross you,” said Chloe. “He was only trying to get innocents out of the way.”
“Chloe Ceres, or, Ms. Money, right? You can never be too careful around people who think twice about what they're doing,” said Rose. By now, the muffled screams from all three of his captives intensified. “But I don't have that problem, I'm a professional you see.” Their bodies went limp.
Chloe charged. Rose lifted a hand, and something snagged her shin for a brief moment, just enough to trip on. Chloe fell forward and slammed into the ground. Her face slid across the asphalt for a brief second before she stoppe
d. Before she got back up, something crawled across her back and wrapped around her front, followed by a wave of green vines and brown roots wrapping themselves around her. Chloe pushed out, using her giant strength to break some of them, but just like before, they split and increased in numbers and swarmed. Chloe's grunt echoed through the area. Her hands were on her neck still trying to snap vines that slithered up. It was no good; they multiplied too fast and encased her body up to her mouth.
Rose wiped his brow. “Phew, I wish you weren't so big. It would have made things much easier.”
Chloe looked up and spotted people approaching. Speeding in the front was the grey-skinned recruit from onboarding, Recruit Trens. Behind him was the golden scaled, golden-orange-blue-haired woman. Flying above her was Adam, and last but not least, bringing up the rear, jogging but being stubborn as always with her hand on her right arm was Melinda. Her shirt and pants were well soiled, but her determined gaze locked on to Chloe.
“Hang on, Lil' Greenie, we're coming!” she shouted.
"Well, look at you all," said Rose, and raised a hand.
A vine burst from the ground, whipped across, stopping everyone in their tracks.
Trens took a step forward.
"Uh-uh, one move from any of you and I'll break their necks," warned Rose.
Vines and roots slithered and snapped tighter around Chloe. She groaned and wheezed.
Trens moved back.
"Good call, Recruit Trens,” said Rose. “You're a good guy. You might just get far in your security career with that big brain of yours."
Rose then turned towards Melinda. "And here is the lovely Ms. Dealbreaker again." Rose clapped his hands. "Good show you put on earlier, using that grease fire to burn me and my beautiful body."
"My pleasure, Loverboy,” said Melinda. “Those improvements are on the house."
"I can't remember when I ever got hurt this badly while doing work and letting such people live to tell about it. But you're in luck. I have a proposition for you, Ms. Dealbreaker. For the lives of these four, I will walk away with a sizable payout: Four million credits. That is something your budget can handle, yes?"
"Not a chance after what you've done." Melinda paused and made eye contact with Chloe. “We got everyone out of the area, and security reinforcements are right behind us. You have no leverage."
Chloe relaxed. That was exactly what she needed to hear.
"I have these four lives in my clutches, Dealbreaker," snapped Rose. "You're not willing to risk their lives just to ruin me, are you?"
“C'mon Loverboy, I've already won two bouts, one of which fried your butt.” Melinda smirked. “Besides, I think you're about to have a much bigger problem.” She winked at Chloe.
This time, Chloe would not miss her cue. With Rose fully distracted, she held her energy and pushed down as hard as she could. The vines that covered Chloe went loose as her body shrank to her normal five-foot-ish height. The dramatic reduction of size left her navigating a collapsed tunnel of tangled vines for a moment until she crawled out at the side. With Rose's back towards her, she walked to him and stood, hands on hips.
Rose turned and looked down. He laughed at Chloe's small and chubby appearance.
"You mean her? Really, Ms. Dealbreaker? Look, all of her energy is gone, and she's such a small one.” Rose folded his arms and smirked. “Ms. Money, you're not a problem at all. Just run along for now and I'll get you later, after I'm done with your friends."
"I won't run, not from you," said Chloe.
She clenched her fists, and with a loud grunt, Chloe let her energy go wild. Raw power exploded in her body and she rocketed up and soared past her previous two story height. Two stories became three stories, four stories, five, and still she grew. Rose stood back as a monster shadow loomed over him. With one last grunt, she clamped down on her energy and her rise slowed and stopped once her head was in line with Building 845's roof, which was over a dozen stories high.
From her vantage point, Rose looked like a tiny piece of vegetable. He dropped his captives to the ground and shivered.
"No, wait, this isn't possible. Silvans can't grow this big! What the hell are you?" said Rose.
“I'm a monster.” Chloe raised her foot and slammed it down on Rose with a boom, leveling people, vehicles and the street. The shockwave sent cracks through the roads and up through buildings 845, 790 and 770 as shards of shattered glass fell from the buildings and echoes of car alarms blared in the distance.
Once Chloe moved back, Melinda scampered up into the giant-sized foot crater and looked around.
"He's gone," she said.
Chloe kneeled down and looked. "How?"
Melinda sniffed, and it led her to a hole. "Son of a… he dug away."
Chloe pressed her foot and activated her vibration vision. At her current size, using vibration shook people on the ground near her feet, but it gave Chloe incredible range from her vantage point. She glanced side to side and spotted something slithering in the ground like a snake heading south.
“He went that way.” Chloe pointed in the direction and found herself facing Downtown Brahma. She only took a few steps before being blocked by Building 845. “Ugh, I can't go after him like this.”
“Grrowl... we'll have to let him go,” said Melinda. “But we're still ahead, don't ya think?”
She pointed towards the captured squad of Wats' team, who were kept together by some of the other GVU Security officers.
While they freed the doctors, Chloe reached down and picked up Wats. She walked over to the rest of his squad, who were all restrained and carefully set him down.
"Job well done, Market Maidens," said Gramm, who was flanked by Keana and Rhan. “Did we get them all?”
“The mercenary got away,” said Chloe.
“And he ain't your average type either,” added Melinda. “But don't worry about him, Ms. Money delivered the cash crunch on him.”
A giggled escaped Chloe's mouth. That pun was good, and becoming a monster giant to protect people was even better.
"Only one thing left to do at this point,” said Melinda. “Ms. Money, care to do the honors?"
Chloe kneeled down and turned her attention to Wats' and his squad. "By authority of the Heroes of Verity, Lieutenant Wats, you and your squad are all under arrest."
Chapter 11
Emergency vehicles lined the street leading up to Building 770 area as Brahma City authorities interviewed GVU Staff and Security personnel. With the building wrapped with red tape, Chloe found herself watching from an adjacent street where first aid and food trucks parked, tending to the injured and starved. All in all, there were no deaths with only a couple people suffering serious injuries. A pair of paramedics moved a bandaged but conscious Wats toward the police ambulance. As he passed by Chloe, they made eye contact.
“Wait, Ms. Money,” said Wats.
Chloe jogged over, catching up with the paramedics.
“Yes?” said Chloe.
Wats shifted and sat up on the stretcher, while his hands were fully contained.
“You were right about one thing,” he said. “I was only looking out for my people. When I found those doctors alone in that building, they thought I was just any other security officer rescuing them. The look of relief on their faces and their concern for my injuries, without any prejudice, hit home.”
“Upper management might not appreciate your work. But we sure do, even though we might not show it all the time,” said Chloe.
Wats nodded. His gaze was without rage or sorrow, just drained with bags under his eyes.
“The work of keeping the peace will never end, Ms. Money. Don't let it drag you down, too.”
Wats laid back and rested. The paramedics all stared up at Chloe.
“Are you done Ma-aa-am?” said a paramedic.
“Yes, sorry. Take him away.” Chloe hoped wherever they were going to take him, he’d finally get all the rest he needed.
The first day of work would always be th
e worst, and it might have gone even more disastrously if she didn't decide to become Ms. Money again. She peered up and spotted Melinda, with a tablet in her left hand, speaking at it.
"The inspectors are still inside Building 770, but they already said they're gonna condemn it,” she said. “Not sure about the other buildings though, but they took a lot of damage."
The sight of Chloe's heroic partner served as a reminder of the things she'd saved as a result, and a small smile slowly crept over her face.
"Ya should have seen how old the stuff was in there,” Melinda glanced up and turned towards Chloe. “Oh, hey, Lil' Greenie or are ya still Big Ms. Money?"
Chloe reached Melinda and stood at her eye-level.
"I'll be Lil' Greenie again soon, it just takes a while after I let my power expand that much with my energy sensitivity," said Chloe, adjusting her dress. She then eyed the screen.
"I heard you led the rescue efforts, and fought bravely," Hilda said from the tablet.
Chloe twiddled her fingers, and heat rushed through her face again. Why were Nyxazons suddenly her biggest fans?
"She did great work out there, boss; helped rescue me and a whole slew of people. My hero," said Melinda.
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