Chapter 18 - New Year

Cassandra was rather surprised when she woke up not to darkness and pain, but to warmth and unbelievable comfort. Everything smelled so good and her skin was tingling pleasantly as if she was wrapped in the fluffiest clouds... And she didn't hurt anymore. Honestly, this was definitely the best she had ever felt in her entire life and that instantly put her on edge.

Snapping her eyes open, she tried to assess her strange situation but found herself confronted with another startling realization: She had somehow been transported to a forest! Colourful flowers like she had only ever seen in books surrounded her on all sides and huge trees towered above her. Last time she had her eyes open, she recalled it had been the middle of winter, but wherever she ended up seemed to be in the midst of summer! It was all so lively and enchanting that she could barely fathom it.

During the first few years of her life, Cassandra had never been allowed to leave her room and even after she escaped, she had always kept to cities in order to blend into the crowd and smudge her trail. To be exposed to nature of this intensity left her in awe. And so she just sat there, utterly bewitched by the verdant thicket gently swaying around her. Untangling her hands from the blankets that someone had apparently left for her, Cassandra reverently ran her fingers through the unbelievably lush and soft grass on the ground which almost felt playful as it tickled her skin.

This was amazing...

Unfortunately her stomach chose this time to remind her that she hadn't eaten anything in a long while. Groaning, she forced herself to her feet and in doing so finally noticed that this wasn't a forest. Above her, the warm air was being contained by a glass ceiling and peaking through the bushes she could see concrete walls. What a weird house... Did the owner not fear somebody breaking in from above? Were there hidden security measures that she couldn't perceive?

Suddenly the nice plants didn't feel so inviting anymore...

Cassandra needed to get out of this strange building!

Searching for an exit she began sneaking towards the wall when she heard hurried steps approaching. Thinking quickly, Cassandra dove behind a tree and lowered her heartbeat like she had been taught.

A female voice said something incomprehensible and the steps were coming closer. She crouched lower and began to circle around the tree, careful to keep the trunk always between her and the intruder to stay hidden. Unfortunately the woman kept following her in a circle as if she already knew where she was...

Seeing as she had obviously been discovered, Cassandra switched tactics and went to scare the person off. She waited for a second and then jumped onto her pursuer only to be caught mid air by some fleshy vine that she could have sworn had not been there earlier.

Panicked, she flailed around and inadvertently got a glance at the woman's face, causing her to freeze. That was the nice lady that helped her out of the landfill! And she had just attacked her! Oh, no!

Thankfully the woman only seemed amused by her attempt, saying something with a smile on her pretty face. Cassandra realized right then how powerful this person really was. The woman was not afraid of her in the slightest, entirely confident that she could subdue her here in her home. When the vine slipped off her body Cassandra's eyes widened even further and her jaw nearly dropped to the floor. These plants all around her... They were connected to the nice Lady!

Their motions were subtly synchronized as if each breath she took was absorbed by their leaves and given right back. No blade of grass was squished beneath her feet and no flower was pointed away from her. They were all one! No wonder something about the woman had felt off at first sight!

A good-natured chuckle brought her back from her wonderment and Cassandra suddenly felt much smaller in front of the nice plant-woman. She was basically standing in the maw of an apex predator, which – no matter how friendly it was – could swallow her whole.

That particular worry somewhat receded when she saw the plant-woman hold out a cup of something extremely delicious smelling to her. In a weird way it made her feel safe that this person could have done anything to her by now, but instead chose to act kindly. Cassandra instinctively felt that she could trust this unbelievable plant-woman... Thus she accepted the cup and drank.

The hot liquid burned her tongue, but she forced herself to empty it in one go. It was the most time efficient way and she didn't want to waste her host's time. Weirdly, the lady was perturbed by this, asking her something with a worried tone and body language. Why would she care if she hurt herself a little?

Cassandra only shrugged her shoulders due to a lack of understanding.

With an exasperated sigh the plant-woman handed her a few slices of some kind or aromatic bread and went off to look for something. Cassandra did not try to escape a second time, now knowing that the surrounding greenery kept watch over her, and instead went on to devour the tasty meal that she had been gifted. It was far denser than any bread she had ever eaten and so by the time she was finished she felt remarkably satiated.

By the time she was done licking the last crumbs of her fingers, the nice lady had returned with a blanket, holding it out for her to take. Why did she want Cassandra to take the blanket? It was warm enough here.

Some of her confusion must have shown on her face, because the plant-woman said something that she was clearly embarrassed about and averted her eyes.

Oh...

Yeah, humans didn't like it when she walked around naked. Maybe it was because of the scars littering her body. When she had spied on other people getting naked together they seemed to enjoy that, but their skin was also unmarked. She was not like them. Never would be after what she had been through. Cassandra knew that to be true.

Taking the blanket, she hid her ugliness as best as she could to no longer inconvenience her host.

Again the plant-woman made meaningless noises and Cassandra could still see the discomfort in her posture. She was already growing tired of this misunderstanding so she did her best to explain her unique disability.

First, she pointed to her throat and shook her head, indicating that she could not verbally answer any of the nice lady's questions. Then she pointed to and fro in-between her ear and the woman's mouth, shaking her head again to signal that she could also not understand any of her words.

Recognition blossomed in her host's expression, quickly followed by another wave of embarrassment and pity.

Tapping herself on the chest the woman slowly produced some elongated sounds. At Cassandra's confused look she repeated the procedure.

"Paaaa-Meeee-Laaaa..."

Was that her name?

Experimentally, Cassandra tried to copy the noises.

"Ppprraaaa... Meeeehh... Faaaa..."

"No, no... Paaaa-Meeee-Laaaa!"

"Paaaaaaa... M-meee... Laaaa?" she poorly imitated the word, but Paaa-Mee-Laa seemed happy with the result.

Nodding her head, she spoke the name one last time and then pointed at Cassandra, obviously wanting to hear her own name. Yeah, she could speak that word! Her name was the first and only sound she had been taught to recognize.

"Casssandraa!" she proudly declared, tapping her chest.

"Cassandra?"

Nodding enthusiastically, they both shared a light smile at their newfound mutual understanding.

Then Paaa-Mee-Laa motioned for her to wait and procured some clothes from another room to put on. Together they explored the rest of the building where she showed Cassandra the kitchen and more importantly – the bathroom.

After her experience of waking up this morning she would not have thought it possible to feel even better, but the warm water coming out of the wall made her actually groan in delight. This was so much better than washing with rainwater from a plastic bag! Paaa-Mee-Laa was the best!

In the following hours she and the nice plant-woman established hand signs for everything from 'food' to 'the sun'. Ordinarily that could have been a rather boring affair, but somehow they both managed to have fun by making silly faces and gestures all the while. Her host was a quiet person, content to watch her with friendly eyes, but not at all lazy or apathetic.

Especially when she showed her how to take care of some of the flowers in the afternoon, Cassandra could basically feel her overflowing love for life itself pouring from her every motion. To be so excited by what others might consider a mundane task was very endearing. This emotion was so pure and overwhelming that Cassandra could not help but instantly get addicted to it.

As they watered the soil and pruned dead leaves, her eyes instinctively wandered to Paaa-Mee-Laa to bask in the adoration that she felt for her plants and that was certainly being returned by them. That beautiful inner light made Cassandra's heart beat faster and her chest ache. But not in a bad way! It was just... overwhelming?

Their shared moment of joy was interrupted by the distant sound of a telephone ringing. Paaa-Mee-Laa stiffened up and threw her an apologetic grimace before running off to answer it. Whoever was calling was clearly about to cause her trouble, so Cassandra stealthily snuck after her.

She wouldn't let anybody ruin the nice lady's happiness! Not after she got to experience it for the first time!

-W-

New Year's Eve would be perfect for her second assault on Bratva territory. The loud noises and flickering lights would be distracting to her fine senses, but they would hamper her victims as well. Gunshots in particular would basically become undetectable amidst the constant explosions of rockets above the city. Alcohol would flow and guards would be distracted by the pretty lightshow outside. All in all, the perfect time for her to strike.

Still, Tanya was hesitant to proceed with the first step. Pamela obviously operated beyond the borders of legality, but it would nonetheless be a difficult thing to ask her to participate in an explicit crime such as armed robbery. Especially on such short notice! She didn't want to overplay her hand and lose what little favour she gathered with the biologist.

Then again, a late Christmas gift in the form of a few thousand dollars was bound to smooth over any misgivings the redhead might have had about the inopportune timing, right? This was Gotham city after all...

Clicking her tongue in resignation, Tanya dialled her tentative partner's number on her new phone and held it to her ear. She did not have to wait long for the call to connect.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Pamela! It's me, Tanya. I hope you had a wonderful holiday. How are you doing?" she chirped with faux enthusiasm.

"Ehm... well. Good, I mean. And you?"

"I have been excellent. Managed to earn a small sum – alleviated my debt some, you know how it is."

"Oh? That's awesome! I'm so glad... If you still need any help..."

It was clearly expressed as a purely rhetorical nicety and yet Tanya latched onto it like a parched mosquito.

"That's precisely why I was calling you! I need a trustworthy woman to secure my back on a job and I couldn't think of anyone better than you! I would feel so much safer with you accompanying me."

"Ehm, what exactly are you doing?" Pamela asked warily.

"I didn't have many options. After everybody saw me dealing with the Joker there aren't many who would hire me for my accountant skills."

"Don't tell me you've become an assassin-"

"Nothing so crass! I can assure you what I do is perfectly moral. I basically do what Batman does with the exception that I keep the money instead of leaving it to the cops."

"Uh... Tanya, that sounds dangerous..."

"Indeed. Thus I require a suitable partner to keep a lookout for me and secure my exit. It would be a comfortable position in the rear while I get my hands dirty and separate the worst scum of humanity from their ill-gotten gains. What do you say?"

She made this whole affair sound a lot more heroic than it actually was, but that was basically half the power of good PR.

"Alright, I guess... When did you plan your next... heist?"

"Do you have anything scheduled for tonight?" Tanya asked lightly, masking her nervousness.

There was a long pause on the line before Pamela spoke again.

"Uhm... well... I kind of... picked up a... stray? And I was kinda, eh... taking care of her."

Tanya hadn't believed the botanist to be an animal person, but there was always more to people than you could discern at first glance.

"Oh, if you need more time, I perfectly understand..."

Being too pushy here would just sour her work motivation. On the other hand, a little incentive to play Tanya's game couldn't hurt.

"But maybe I can help you out a bit financially here. You have another mouth to feed now, after all. How does... mmh, I don't know... ten thousand dollars up front sound? With another ten thousand waiting for you afterwards?"

"T-Tanya you really don't need to pay-"

"Nonsense! I am no social parasite! If you do honest work then you deserve honest pay. It's the least I could do for you having my back. It's the least I could do for my mother's best friend."

She really hated bringing her dead mother into this, but in a way, it was that woman's way of paying her back for messing up her life.

"So what do you say?"

A few silent seconds ticked by, but Tanya had learned to expect that by now. Pamela was a very careful woman who liked to think about her decisions thoroughly. She was often a bit too timid, but her mindful nature balanced out that flaw nicely.

"Alright then. Let's hope this turns out better than last time!" the botanist resolutely replied, her voice filled with unexpected determination.

Oh? Maybe she had underestimated her after all!

"That's the spirit! Meet me at ten pm on the large fountain in Coastal Park. Until then!"

Smirking in satisfaction, Tanya ended the conversation and went back to her biology textbook. There was no time to waste!

-W-

Meanwhile, Cassandra was grinning happily for her own reasons. A simple thumbs-up and an encouraging nod were all it took to cheer Paaa-Mee-Laa up again. Seeing her posture relax made blowing her cover definitely worth it!

-W-

Oswald Cobblepot pursed his lips in thought as he thought of ways to turn this situation to his advantage. He had already paid the cops under his employ a fair sum to dig up everything they could on the Bratva and take this investigation seriously for once. The Russians didn't have any moles of their own in the NCPD other than some useless dregs at the bottom of the hierarchy who were so corrupt that they worked for basically every criminal organization in the city at once. It was a common (and well-founded) joke that those officers saw more customers than Albero Street hookers and that they were equally as useless. Needless to say, Oswald's own agenda of damaging the Bratva's assets was significantly more effective than their attempts at keeping attention off of them.

Now, while he was always happy to see any of his business rivals stumble in such a way, the Penguin would not normally take such quick action against a group that didn't pose an immediate threat to his operations. The difference this time however was that White Lady was involved.

She had burned around ten million dollars worth of crack cocaine and stolen another two in cash from the Russians and Oswald knew that she had tasted blood. Over the years he had met all kinds of people, but they all had one thing in common: When they found something they wanted, they would always come back for more. Drug addicts, his underlings, even Batman... Nothing was more addicting than success.

White Lady wanted cash – lots and lots of it. The Bratva had that lying around in spades, their distrust of American banks made sure of it. They were also weak enough to appear as easy pickings to the hungry up and coming supervillain. Now that she had experienced her first decisive win, the masked woman was going to return to the source for more of that sweet, sweet blood money.

And when she was finished with those idiots? Well, she would still crave for more. And he could give it to her... Yes, this was his opportunity to get closer to White Lady and wipe the Russians off the board in one fell swoop. There was just one problem: He didn't know where she would strike next. Theoretically she could attack any of the dozens of safe houses that he was aware of and Oswald really didn't want to fruitlessly chase after the woman in some wild goose chase.

So, the only way to make sure that he caught up to her would be to send men to every location simultaneously, awaiting her arrival. If the Bratva caught wind of this move however, it would mean an all-out war. That would be annoying, but could also be leveraged for profit under the right conditions. As long as he didn't publicly lose the conflict, it would cement his fearsome reputation as a man willing to take wide-spread action, unafraid of anyone. Crooks and street rats respected that kind of mentality. Might made right, after all.

Chuckling, Oswald wrote a missive to his lieutenants to install scouts around the Russian territory and check up on their stores of ammunition. The best part was that he wasn't even going to lose money on this. Mr. Freeze's death basically paid for everything, no additional budget required!

He had a feeling that something big was going to go down tomorrow on New Year's Eve and whatever it was he would do his best to profit off of it. When he finally recruited White Lady then his revenge on Batman would be near. With a superpowered mercenary freak of his own, not even the other costumed bogeymen of this city would be able to stand against him any longer!

It was going to be glorious!

-W-

On a cursory glance, the job seemed almost too simple. People were either at home or gathering at central spots in the city for celebration of the upcoming year, making the remaining mafia guards on the street painfully easy to spot even without considering their matching tattoos.

They were armed and clearly alert, but whoever designed the patrol routes around the Bratva compound was clearly not a professional because the thugs frequently lost sight of each other. That might have been a forgivable oversight if the floodlights had worked, but one precise stone toss was enough to plunge the entire west side of the villa into darkness. Of course that made the criminal lowlifes suspicious, but what could they do? Call an electrician one hour before midnight?

To be fair, she was kind of impressed when the men pulled out flashlights in order to combat the low visibility. She had not expected them to be so well equipped. Then again, this was supposedly the domicile of a high ranking functionary within the Russian mob... Talia's notes were sparse on detail in this regard, but apparently Vasily Kosov was an important guy for the wider organization.

Ordinarily, Tanya would not have risked angering such a powerful figure, but she needed to strike quickly before the Bratva caught onto her scheme and relocated their wealth to multiple smaller, annoying to reach locations. So it was a good thing that from her comfortable position on top of the nearest roof she remained vigilant and caught a detail that would have slipped her attention otherwise.

An unmistakable yawning sound echoed out of the darkness before getting muffled by something soft – most likely a hand. The open window that she had planned to slip through was not unguarded! This last minute realization forced her to re-evaluate her earlier assessment of the situation. If this window was specifically made to be a trap then could the other failings of the security also be deliberate?

Deciding to better be safe than sorry she turned to Pamela for help. The nearly entirely green woman seemed in a good mood and she was very focused at the moment, getting to work immediately. Tanya attributed that to the fat stack of cash sitting in her pocket which would have raised her work morale too.

To her mild surprise, it turned out that Pamela was able to influence the climbing ivy from all the way across the street, making it grow and grow until it could snake through the window and choke out the two men hiding around the corner. After carefully checking her route of entry, the plant-controller gave her a confident thumbs-up and they both jumped off the building. Due to the destroyed floodlight, they slipped through the iron fence undetected.

They did not have to wait long for the next guard to pass by and he was far too taken by the first fireworks going off in the sky to notice her approach him silently from behind. Tanya simply chopped him on the neck with the edge of her palm, temporarily disrupting the flow of blood to his brain and sending him sprawling. Pamela caught the flashlight rolling out of his limp hand and she shot her a grateful look from underneath the mask.

Jumping up to the second story window and swinging herself over the edge, Tanya threw her partner one last glance, as the botanist would remain outside to both pacify and watch over the perimeter.

Slowly, she made her way into the compound, keeping an eye out for valuables as much as the guards. Fine landscape paintings and alabaster sculptures were tastefully arranged in the hallways, but those were not feasible to transport without a getaway vehicle. Tanya made a mental note for next time to acquire a cheap, disposable van in order to properly secure these resources.

She passed a small library, multiple grand meeting areas, a soundproofed and tiled room with uncomfortable implications and even an indoor swimming pool. Whatever locks denied her entry, she shattered with careful application of the freezing agent that she had been able to reproduce from Mr. Freeze's notes. Its exact functionality was still beyond her, but she was working on polishing up her chemistry skills in order to try and improve it.

After the deliberately left open window, Tanya had expected the insides of the house to be stuffed full of traps, but so far there only had been a handful of armed mobsters and a single motion detector to test her mettle. The guards in here were making an honest attempt to do their job, yet the colourful explosions in the night sky outside frequently stole their attention and left them vulnerable to getting taken out from behind.

Only the motion detector gave her pause for any significant amount of time. Positioned as it was over the central staircase, there was no sneaking around it. She recognized the model from her time at Wayne Enterprises and knew vaguely how it worked, but was unsure of how to deal with it. Would it trip the alarm if she destroyed the device and if so, where would the signal be sent?

In the end she brought herself to do the safest, but also the slowest option: Walking right through its range.

A motion detector worked by taking a very blurry picture at certain intervals and comparing it to the previous one for changes. This meant there were two obvious ways to trick the machine: Either you went by so ludicrously fast as to not even appear on a split-second picture or you crawled so slowly that the gradual change of your position was too small for the simplistic algorithm to notice.

Both of these options were obviously impossible for normal humans, however Tanya had long since learned that her body was anything but ordinary. Where a regular woman might have unconsciously trembled in exertion or been unable to balance on one foot for minutes at a time, she could control her every move as easily as breathing. As if stuck in slow-motion or an invisible time dilation field, she inched herself closer and closer up the stairs one centimetre at a time, always keeping an eye on the steady red blinking light of the sensor.

Finally slipping outside its range again she caught the distant scent of nicotine. Following the smell of burnt tobacco led her to a suspiciously open bedroom door. It was richly decorated like any other door in the villa with golden filigree and delicate veneers, but this one in particular was especially notable for the large painting of a wolf on its inside. She knew not what that particular iconography represented, but she could guess that this was probably the room of Vasily Kosov himself judging from its central location in the building.

Though after straining her hearing she could sense at least two different heartbeats from within...

Well, she had come far enough to spring what was hopefully the last part of this trap. Pistol drawn and knife held at the ready, Tanya prepared her every muscle to respond in case of an ambush and glimpsed inside.

Dramatically illuminated by the moonlight streaming in through the baroque window, a gaunt man sat waiting for her on top of the large double bed in the middle of the room, leisurely blowing out smoke from his mouth. In stark contrast to his lavish bathrobe, a brand of cheap Russian cigarettes was tucked into his breast pocket which nearly distracted her from the smell of gunpowder underneath. He was clearly armed, but where he hid his weapon was not immediately apparent.

The two fingers clasping his cigarette were twitching faintly and yellowed from nicotine abuse, sure fire signs of a chain smoker. Furthermore, his leathery face was sunken in which implied an illness or possible side effects of other drugs. Yet his gaze was sharp and snapped to her near instantly. His breathing quickened, suggesting either fear or excitement, but his face remained impassive and his right arm only shifted slightly. Ah, there was his gun... Underneath the pillow!

Tanya's eyes flickered over to the closet on the left side of the room, smelling more gunpowder. Definitely an armed ambush. Or maybe just a bodyguard in case negotiations broke down?

"Ahh, White Lady, I've been expecting you..." Kosov declared in an almost bored tone, creating a swirl of smoke as he gestured lazily with his cigarette.

"Oh? How so?" she answered, stepping fully into the bedroom, but not lowering her weapons.

Shaking his head in disappointment, he took another drag and explained: "I 'eard about the girl Gregor captured. Told 'im to let 'er go... Scars and fighting like that mean only trouble. And I was right. Now you come to me for answers for what my executive 'as messed up. 'Twas only logical."

The girl? Scars? Did he mean that mute child she freed from the cellar? Had she been someone important?

Playing along to disguise her information deficit she replied in an unimpressed tone: "That is sound reasoning."

Emboldened by her apparent confession, Kosov nodded.

"Da... So let's make this quick, hmm? Don't know nothing about 'er, I swear. Was just a routine operation that picked 'er up. Just a bunch of homeless girls going missing. Nothing special. Poor dumb luck that she went to one of our soup kitchens and got drugged. Tell that to your master so we can get this unpleasantness behind us..."

If she had been hired by the League of Assassins to rescue the mute girl then this would have indeed been a sound proposal. Unfortunately for him, she was not.

"Let me get this straight... Kidnapping young girls with fake charity institutions is something that you regularly do?"

Slavery was simply abhorrent. To take every choice away from a human being, exploiting them while also suppressing their free will? This could not stand.

Kosov must have seen something in her eyes, because instead of answering her question he went straight for his hidden gun. Obviously her aim was faster. Her pistol barked twice in rapid succession, punching through his skull and painting the wall with his brain. It was kind of interesting how the whole thing reminded her of an abstract painting...

Simultaneously the closet doors were torn open and a giant of man burst through. Clad head to toe in a skin-tight black suit his impressive muscles were on clear display. What drew her attention however was not his asymmetrical black and orange mask or the belt of fist-sized shells wrapped around his torso, but the gigantic machine gun that he was somehow able to wield one handed and was now in the process of pointing in her direction.

Hastily, Tanya threw herself backwards as the villain began unloading in her direction. Bullets ripped through the wall, ignoring the brickwork entirely thanks to their monstrous calibre. His shots were not undirected either! Rolling along the floor she had one of the scariest experiences of her life when the bullet trail closely followed her movements, exploding the parquet where she had just been fractions of a second prior.

Flipping to her feet she sprinted down the hallway, bobbing and weaving to the best of her ability as he narrowly missed her by pure chance. She flung herself down the stairs, triggering the noisy motion detector that she had spent painstaking effort avoiding just a few minutes prior... Rebounding off the stairs, she turned her head only to see her pursuer leaping after her, a large and menacing sword held in his off hand.

"Your boss is already dead! There's no need to fight!" she screamed, desperate for the giant with exceedingly ridiculous firepower to stop his rampage.

"I've gotten paid in advance for that exact eventuality." he coldly replied, squeezing the trigger of his machine gun in her direction.

That volley of blazing-hot lead came entirely too close to comfort, one round passing directly next to her ear!

Sliding over the slippery marble stairs, Tanya nearly lost her footing, but pivoted at the last second by grabbing the railing, which moments later turned into dust from the giant's fire. She was about to jump off into the main entrance hall in order to break through the large windows there, when she saw what was happening...

That rattling noise in the background had been the steel shutters rapidly sealing themselves tightly over any opening, preventing her escape! That damned motion sensor was doing something other than wailing after all!

Acting quickly, she threw her arm up and unloaded her pistol into the fixture of the central chandelier whose dim light was the only thing illuminating the foyer now. Focused as she was on moving in erratic and unpredictable ways, many of her shots missed their mark, but one was lucky enough to hit its mark, sending the colossal construct of crystal and light bulbs plummeting down.

Her assailant cursed under his breath as he was forced to dodge the falling chandelier which burst into a shower of sharp splinters upon contact with the floor and Tanya made sure to use his distraction to slip behind a man-sized decorative vase which was probably worth more than her entire apartment.

Near total darkness now filled the hall and if the giant didn't have night vision goggles built into that orange and black mask of his then he would have a hard time seeing her. Apparently he had not, because soon enough the white glare of a flashlight was sweeping over the silent room. She could hear his massive heart beating, but otherwise he made astonishingly little noise.

Professional, equipped with military grade weaponry and supernaturally strong?

She hadn't heard anything suggesting that the Russian mob possessed a superpowered individual in their ranks, so this had to be a mercenary which corroborated his earlier statement of being 'paid in advance'. Could she possibly pay him off to leave her alone? No, doing that would damage his reputation, and with that his long-term profitability... He would have to be an idiot to accept.

Coming up with another idea, Tanya slowly reached into her pocket, grabbing ahold of the half-empty blue vial within.

The flashlight's beam passed over her location again and she threw it in a high arc towards him. Despite the darkness, the giant managed to see the projectile coming and swiped at it with his gun, but that only made the result worse when his heavy weapon shattered the glass and made its cryonic contents spill all over him.

Grunting from the pain of suddenly being partially encased in growing layers of ice, he nonetheless angled his still mobile left hand in her direction, intent on fending her off while he freed himself off the frost covering his right side. Tanya though, had no intention of letting him regain full operational functionality and so speedily slammed a new magazine into her pistol before taking aim. If his hand had not been frozen to the grip he would have surely dropped his gun when two bullets burrowed into the flesh of his arm.

Deflecting her next shot with his sword, he seemed to realize that his gun would do him no good anymore – due to both his injury and the ice encrusting its finer mechanisms – and simply charged at her with immense speed. Tanya kicked the vase that she had hidden behind to shower him with its remains, continuing to fire at the approaching giant who was annoyingly shielding his head with his oversized gun.

Pointing her pistol lower she missed again when he tilted his torso in just the right way for the armour to make her bullets glide off. They left bloody gashes in his costume, but those were merely shallow flesh wounds.

And then he was already upon her, bringing down his sword in an attempt to cleave her in two. She dodged to the side, but his blade was changing course to catch her mid swing and so she had to bring her knife up to divert the blow. The sheer brutal strength of his slash made her arm buckle as her overtaxed muscles strained under the assault. How freaking strong was this guy!?

The black and orange giant swung his useless machine gun at her like a metal club and she had to drop to the floor to avoid it. He tried to capitalize on her position by stabbing at her with his sword, but she was already firing her pistol upwards, scoring a hit on his pectorals and his left shoulder. He stumbled backwards, flinging his gun at her which she was not fast enough to evade. A dozen kilograms of hardened steel slammed into Tanya's stomach, violently compressing her insides.

Only supreme control over her gastric band prevented her from coughing up her dinner. Just as they both readied themselves for round two a strange noise made them turn towards the entrance of the hall. A pained groaning sound emanated from the sealed windows until they suddenly caved in, crumpled under the force of a titanic green vine burrowing through the metal.

Her opponent had just enough time to bring up his sword in a defensive position before the car-sized plant struck him square in the chest, catapulting him into a wall hard enough to leave a crater.

What was this monster!?

Tanya was about to flee from the inhuman creature when a very familiar face burst into the room.

"Pamela!?" she couldn't help but ask, dumbfounded by what could only be the work of her partner.

"Tanya, are you alright?" the red-head exclaimed, running over to her to fuss about her ruffled appearance.

She truly was a terrifying woman full of endless potential. Mind-control pollen, chlorokinesis from a distance and with such overwhelming power to boot? Remarkable. Simply remarkable.

"Pamela, you are amazing." Tanya earnestly told her partner.

That seemed to shock her for some reason and she looked down, the flowers on her cheeks blooming in a pretty pink all of a sudden.

"Uhm... Thanks. You're also quite... uh, incredible, Tanya."

Accepting the unnecessary compliment with a friendly pat on the shoulder, she looked back to where the giant had been embedded into the building only to find nothing. Instantly she was on high alert as she scanned their surroundings for the villain, but the room was empty. He was going to be a pain in her ass later, she could just feel it.

Shaking her head in frustration, she regaled Pamela with an abridged retelling of her encounter with the giant to properly prepare her in case they ran into him again. Together they looted what they could carry, finding not one, not two, but three hidden safes full of luxury wristwatches, debt certificates and jewellery. Its theoretical worth was vastly greater than the money she had stolen from the last mafia den; however, she would be lucky if she could sell it all for even half its value on the black market.

When all was done and their backpacks near bursting, Tanya decided not to call the police for a change, in the vain hope that this time nobody would connect her to the murder of Vasily Kosov. The giant knew what she had done of course, but as a mercenary he would most likely not part with that information for free.

Otherwise, Tanya was pleased by the lack of civilian witnesses, except maybe that one homeless bum she could see peeking from behind the frozen windshield of his van. No matter, it wasn't like he was anyone important.

To end the night, Pamela and her ventured back to the roof from where they had planned this mission to watch the fireworks rising for a new year. Only a few people were still letting their rockets loose into the sky, but that made the colourful bursts of light and thunder no less beautiful. Tanya wished that they would be able to watch them again next year...

-W-

Cassandra watched the silent woman and Paaa-Mee-Laa stare at the sky and smiled. They both could use some more friends in her opinion, so she was very happy that they were doing stuff together, even if it was just staring at pretty lights.

What she was not happy about though, was the man following them. His anxiousness reeked of ulterior motives, as if he was being coerced by bad people to do something that he really didn't want to do. He was only armed with a small knife, but his hands were shaking enough that she doubted he would be able to harm even a civilian.

No matter, whatever sorrows plagued his mind, she would not let them infect her Paaa-Mee-Laa.

Knocking him out with a punch, she stuffed him back into his van before heading back towards her new home. It wouldn't do to be caught snooping around by the nice plant-lady again or else she would take greater care in the future to prevent her from following. And Cassandra couldn't have that.