So hungry.... always hungry. Why wouldn't it let her eat?

Mihaela knew why.. it was one of the ways The Red controlled her. Keep her insane, keep her starving, take over when it suited it.

The smell was intoxicating. Fresh blood, and so much of it. Mihaela had kept The Red from this city for two months, mostly out of spite, but every week she had grown weaker with hunger. Every week The Red had driven her closer to the city and out of the timeless wood.

Mihaela followed the smell of fresh blood. She looked up as two meta's engaged in combat. The girl crouched and waited. The ravenous hunger gnawing at her. The Red in her bloodstream coming alive with anticipation. It would make sure she was fed, it wanted the energy as well. "Which poppet, which poppet will I devour? Sooo hungry!"

A lithe catlike humanoid leaped silently to the pavement a dozen meters from the Huntress and Nova, looking for an opportunity to distract the villain. Invisible to normal senses and electronic detection, he was protected by light but tough black and gray tiger-striped armor. A dark gray headband lent contrast to his ginger tabby fur. The darksteel ninja sword in his hand reflected no light, better to avoid detection.

Kartanian considered for the briefest of moments. ~The lady or the weapon?~ he asked himself.

Seeing the Iron Huntress prepare her strike, the part of his mind that was shared by an alien entity, AlphaTango, responded, ~The weapon. You can't be sure we'll even scratch the lady. Liberty Girl and Nova didn't do much to her.~

~Got it,~ The tabaxi rogue replied in agreement. As quick as thought, he sprang forward and struck with his sword as he rolled past the Iron Huntress, seeking to knock the javelin away from her grasp, or at least to hack off its needle-sharp tip. He hoped that giving up the invisibility and element of surprise wasn't going to be a mistake. He drawled cheerfully, "Not so fast with that cosmic heart-ripping thingie, Lady!"

Liberty Girl lay where Iron Huntress had dropped her, bloody and bruised. She shook her head and looked up as Lady Nova engaged the Huntress. "Damn, she hits hard."

At that moment, she heard the cracking of concrete and shrieking of straining rebar. She looked over and saw that when the Iron Huntress had thrown the pod away, it had smashed through one of the main supports of an apartment building. TCPD and EMT's were by the door, ushering people out, but she could see residents still moving in the glass stairwell. "No!"

Liberty Girl vaulted off the street and with a CRUNCH!, landed where the corner support had been. She picked up a metal plate that had been part of the support structure and held it over her head, then anchored herself and took the weight of the crumbling building's corner. Amazingly, she began to push UP, fighting gravity itself to preserve the building for just a few minutes longer.

One of the officers by the door looked over at Liberty Girl and could see the strain in her eyes as the herculean effort quickly sapped even her indomitable endurance. He said a silent "Thank you" to her then got back to the job at hand. "ALRIGHT, C'MON PEOPLE, LET'S MOVE! THE LADY CAN ONLY HOLD THE BUILDING FOR SO LONG! MOVE! MOVE!"

[b]Meanwhile, back at the fight...[/b]

Just as Iron Huntress raised the javelin, Whipcrack swung overhead and shot a strand at the flying javelin, catching the end of it and unexpectedly yanking it in the direction he was traveling. He then flicked the strand and sent it flipping out to embed in the empty intersection. "Didn't your mother teach you not to play with sharp objects?"

He quickly reversed his swing and charged his fist with concussive energy. Flying back towards the antique shop, he railed her in the face with all his might, the energy charge exploding with the force of a tank shell, driving her deeper into the rubble. He landed nimbly, then vaulted out of the building, his enhanced strength and dexterity making it look effortless as he backflipped gracefully and landed twenty feet away, next to Lady Nova. He nodded at her words and charged his fists.

The Red smiled.... so Mihaela smiled. Mihaela was so hungry, she didn't have the energy to even try and fight The Reds commands.
Standing Mihaela skipped over to the crumbling building the heroine was holding up. She waved at the patriotic cape. Bending down to the small pool of blood in the crater Liberty Girl had created she dipped a finger and swirled it. She smacked her hand into the small pool. Lifting it she looked at the glistening crimson. "So ... mmmm" Mihaela licked her fingers. Her smile now a gleaming red. "How many meal sacks inside the building still I wonder... how to save them all before it falls!" Mock fear in Mihaelas voice. "I wonder... will the hero save those inside... or those outside.. is one worth more than two? Is the person you see die cause more pain than the one you only hear crushed under the weight of that building?"

The Red was talking through Mihaela now. It was cruel, calculating, and psychotic. "Enny ......meeny.......... miny....... mo!" The body of the female vampire flung itself on top of a fleeing civilian in full view of Liberty Girl. Like lightning Mihaela had struck the neck of the civilian woman and was draining her. In under a second Mihaela released the body of the woman and watched it crumple to the pavement. She smiled wickedly at Liberty. "Enny.... meeny...."

Liberty Girl looked at The Red with absolute hatred. The weight of the building was slowly becoming too much for her. She'd already begun to buckle, her legs bending and her arms moving down inexorably until her upper back and shoulders were holding more of the load than her arms. She shifted herself as much she could and pushed through the agony, straightening her legs back up. The building rumbled and creaked like a living thing, bearing down on her. But, her movements had allowed her to free her left arm. She yanked a piece of rubble off the remains of the column she was standing on.

"MO!" she yelled as she hurled the one-hundred pound chunk of concrete directly at The Red's upper torso. At the same time, the officers at the entrance to the building had moved forward and formed a cordon as the EMT's directed the civilians away from The Red. The officers knelt and opened fire on The Red, two with their service pistols and one with an assault rifle.

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Sam was on his feet in a second, mad as hell. The Huntress had underestimated just how powerful his armor was and how strong his will, which subconsciously fed his armor, was. She hadn't hurt him nearly as much as she'd thought. "Use me against her?"

He charged at her. As he moved, his armor began to bulk up, expanding until it was as thick as a deep-sea diver's suit and he stood over seven feet tall.

His fists began to charge up, glowing with energy. But the energy went farther than usual; his arms and shoulders beginning to glow. When he hit her, it was with the power of an artillery barrage.

Whipcrack buried a massive fist into her midsection. The concussive energy exploded and started to propel her away, but he reached out lightning fast and grabbed her shoulder. His other hand backhanded her with a thunderous crack of energy, followed by three dizzyingly fast knee strikes to her midsection. Before she had time to recover, he wrapped his thick fingers around her thigh and hefted her into the air, dropping her onto his glowing knee. The concussive explosion propelled her back up and Whipcrack smashed her face-first into the concrete.

He shot a strand out that wrapped around her ankles and then he began to spin, building up speed until he let her go and she was sent flying back in Lady Nova's direction, where she augured into the asphalt, pushing a small bow wave of broken street in front of her. He leaped and landed at the end of the furrow she'd dug up. "Use me against her? Big mistake."

Sam shot out an elastic strand and latched onto the ground at the feet of The Huntress. It stretched and then shot him back towards her. As he flew through the air, time seemed to slow as The Huntress hefted the flaming javelin and loosed it.

"NOOOO!" he yelled as the javelin cut through the Detective's armor like butter and pinned him to the wall. Not paying attention, he crashed into the ground and skidded across the asphalt. He did a kick-up to regain his feet and then swung over to land next to Lady Nova just as she yelled "Dad!"

Sam's armor dissipated and he wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight.

'hey Red... screw you' Mihaela froze her legs just long enough. The lump of building smashing into her full force. The girl who couldnt weigh more than 60 lbs sopping wet was sent flying with the boulder. Mihaela was unconscious, The Red now had full reign.....

The body responded like a rag doll at first. It twisted around the rock gripping it. With a titanic push it sent the rock right into some of the TCPD that had opened fire... hopelessly crushing one. The rag doll body landed on its feet. "Opps"

The head of Mihaela would look at an impossible angle towards Nova and her father. "I can save your meat sack.... for a price............ Crush that girls legs." Mihaelas hand twisted upwards pointing at Liberty Girl. A cruel laughter emitting from her body. "Otherwise... I'll make sure no healer gets close enough to save anything but his reanimated corpse."

A copperish mist had formed around the undead child. The longer she spoke the more it took shape. The mist worked around the girl, A wolfs anatomy being seen and unseen. Its grin impossibly large whenever the face emerged from the blood cloud.

Sam looked around quickly, trying to see if anyone had seen her scream about Detective Holt being her dad. It didn't look like any of the civilians had been close enough to capture the moment with smartphones. The coast seemed clear, so he lifted Sarah up into his arms. She fought weakly, wanting to stay with her dad, but Sam just gripped her tighter and whispered soothing words to her. he got her to wrap her arms around his neck, freeing his right arm so he could swing.

He leaped up to the roof of a cop car, then a bus stop enclosure, then a second floor balcony railing and as he jumped off the railing, he shot out an energy strand and began swinging down the street. By the time he got home, Sarah seemed catatonic. So he settled her onto the bed and walked slowly into the bathroom. He washed his face and looked into the mirror. He resisted the extreme urge to smash the mirror with his fist, instead stripping off his costume and stepping into the shower. He turned it up as hot as it would go and stood under the stream, sobs finally wracking his body.

"Well, that pretty much sucked," Kartanian muttered. The Huntress had fled already. "And we still have that blood spirit thing to deal with."

He shook his head and tried to remember some tricks for dealing with incorporeal possessors, but nothing came quickly to mind. He flicked the ninja-to out of his hand and it vanished. He began stalking the undead child and its spirit driver, sliding just enough into shadow to be able to confuse astral or spirit senses. A flick of the wrist, and Vera's Fang slid into his hand. A meter and a half of soul-killing black death engraved with dull throbbing runes of power should do against a spirit, he knew. It would kill the host, too, but at least it wouldn't destroy the little girl's soul, so maybe there was something that could be done.

He worked his way quickly into position.

Sam sat himself and Sarah down on the couch while the officers sat in the two recliners facing it.

"Good evening, Ms. Holt. I'm Officer Jim Starkey and this is Officer Bill Simms. We're here about your father, Detective Leonard Holt. There's really no easy way to tell you this, ma'am. He was killed this evening, during a metahuman battle at the intersection of Tate Street and 34th Avenue." the officer said, his tone sympathetic.

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The car had not traveled very far at all before it suddenly shook as a force latched on to the rear end and lifted it completely off the ground. The driver slammed on the brakes and then jumped out of the car when the rear end was brought level again. He looked back to see the powerful frame of Liberty Girl rising to her full height. "Get clear, sir. That girl is not what she seems."

Liberty Girl walked around to the passenger side door and yanked it open. "You and me, we're not through."

Sam reached out and grabbed Sarah's wrist before she took off. "Whoa there, cowgirl. I know you prefer direct action, but we really need to do some intelligence work right about now. Iron Huntress dropped a lot of names during that little rant of hers. I want you to try something first."

Sam tugged her back over to the couch and sat her down. He searched around for a few minutes and found some aromatic candles and matches. Looking through them, he found an unscented one. Taking the candle and matches, he shut off the lights and closed the balcony door and drapes, using the soft glow she was producing to navigate back to the furniture.

Sam pushed the coffee table closer to her and cleared it off, then set the candle in the center and lit it. He then backed up so that the shadows cloaked him and only his voice could be heard. He spoke in a monotone voice. "I want you to relax and look at the flame. The flame is all that concerns you. Concentrate on it. Make it your sole focus."

Once she had done that, he let several minutes slip by. "Now, see the flame for what it really is. The flame is you. The flame is also the Cosmic Heart. Bathe in its warmth and light. Feel it surround you and lift you up. Plum its depths and know what the Cosmic Heart knows."

Once again, he let several minutes slip by. Hoping that the low-level hypnosis trick he was using was working, he walked forward slowly and sat down in one of the recliners. Sam had a theory that if the Cosmic Heart was as powerful as The Iron Huntress made it sound, that it might just be semi-sentient and able to communicate with its wielder. Furthermore, he was hoping that it would have some sort of knowledge base that Sarah could tap into.

"I want you to tell me what you know about the Starkeepers and the Cosmic Heart."

Mihaela screamed... it was pittiful and full of fright. She dove next to the driver in the car and and hugged him. "Don't let it hurt me! I thought supers were supposed to be good!" Mihaelas voice was laced with child like confusion over the 'sudden' attack on the car.
The driver rested a protective arm over the girl. Not only was his job on the line but this girl was terrified!
"Mame, I am not sure what you are getting at, but this child has been put in my care by Mr. Rothstein of Rothstein Children's Research Group..... I plan on getting my charge to it's destination. Since I have broken no laws you are unlawfully detaining my vehicle and causing it damage... which will be billed to you later. While I cannot stop you from physically trying to take this child, I will do all that is in my very normal strength to stop you. If you succeed and I am still alive I will be forced to call TCPD and report you for assault and kidnapping.. If you have some reason to accost this child please see Mr. Rothstein later this evening. He will be finishing up at his office in about.... five hours."

The driver locked the doors. He knew that wouldn't actually stop some super strength cape from demolishing the car, but it would strengthen his police report if he had to file.

Mihaela cried bitter tears into the shoulder of the man. "Oh thank you, thank you, I am so scared! Please can we leave?!"

The man clenched his jaw and prepared to accelerate.

"So bored." "I don'..." "Too late"

A hand erupted from the mans chest. His eyes widened as he looked down to see his own heart.

"Beep beep!" The red squeezed the heart twice gushing out blood and hopelessly crushing it. "You know that is the ... what... third person you've killed now?"

Mihaelas face wasn't the calm beauty it had been a moment ago. The cruel twist was back. "Seriously though... wasn't going to eat this meat sack, that is all on you."

The Red kissed the drivers forehead. The slight pressure of her lips causing his head to slump to the side and his now dead eyes to stare vacantly at Liberty Girl.

"aaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnd BOOM!" Mihaela pushed off. She rocketed back into the car straight through the gas tank. The car exploded.

In the back and forth between the little girl and Liberty Girl, Kartanian could not get any sort of clear shot.

Then, inexplicably, the car exploded and he had to drop and protect himself. He rolled back and started the process again, determined to find a way to stop the spirit.

Sam gave Sarah an incredulous look as she asked that. He got up and stepped around the coffee table to sit on the couch next to her.

"Are you kidding me? Why you? Sarah, you are one of the bravest, most caring, and most unselfish individuals I know. And I'm not just saying that because you're my girlfriend." He smiled at her as he took her hand again.

"Like the Cosmic Heart said, your sense of selflessness is unrivaled. Even before you joined with it, you'd chosen to dedicate your life to the pursuit of justice. You're brilliant in the court room, so I know you could have used your law degree to become a high-paid defense attorney. But instead, you chose to use it to serve the public as a prosecutor."

He gave her hand a squeeze. "If you ask me, the Cosmic Heart would have been hard-pressed to find a better person to bond with."

The Red grinned. "Oh no mommy don't touch me there, that's a bad touch!"
A red mist began oozing out of the girls body. It licked against Liberty Girls body moving up it. Even the most stalwart of living beings would feel twinges of fear. Those unseasoned to being outmatched would feel complete dread. Supers most attuned to their own body would feel their life force being sucked from them from anywhere the mist touched. A light headed-ness feeling like standing in a room full of chlorine and no ventilation would be building. This aura of fear, confusion, and pain was not something to get caught in. Despite her looks it seemed Mihaela was built for close range... and The Red doubly so.

While the mist coiled around the two thickly it seemed to begin consolidating around Mihaela. Tendrils oozing out to absorb more life force from her captor.
"Don... yu.....run! If it.... enough of your blood I will be unstoppable... RUN!"
The voice was not The Red, Mihaela had pushed through but only for a second.

Liberty Girl fought against the building primordial fear and confusion, but her mind was screaming at her to get away. As that continued and then was followed by a building weakness, she grit her teeth. Just as she was about to collapse to her knees, two things happened at once.

The demon's voice changed and screamed that warning, quickly followed by the shadowy figure stabbing The Red in the back with some kind of dark blade.

With no other choice, she turned towards where she thought Steward's Bay was and threw The Red in that direction as hard as she could. The Red arced high into the sky and was soon swallowed by the night. After doing that, she collapsed to her knees and looked at her hands. The skin on both of them had turned black, wrinkled, and papery. The effect extended up her arms, but the blackness was less severe farther up her arms, with the papery skin going a bit beyond where her normal skin tone resumed. But the wrinkles covered her entire body, as if she'd started to shrivel up.

As she looked herself over, the damage The Red had done began to repair itself. But she was going to be out of action for a little while. She looked up, in the direction of the shadowy figure, to see if they were still there.

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Sam held onto Sarah, comforting her. After a few minutes, he gently tipped her head up till they could lock eyes and he smiled down at her..

"Hey there. I know you're hurting. I do. But we have to get after the Iron Huntress. Does the Cosmic Heart know if her species has any weaknesses?"

"Hello, Liberty Girl," the feline spy said smoothly. He glanced at where the Red and Mihaela had gone. "You're looking well, present injuries excepted. I think we'd best be on our guard against that thing, so I will vanish until we're sure the threat has passed."

He bowed with a flourish and disappeared again with a flick of his long ginger-striped tail.

"This... 'Iron Huntress'... She might be useful."

Nick rewound the news footage, watching the red woman's speech again and again.

"The 'Cosmic Heart'.. my, you desire it greatly don't you, Miss Iron? Perhaps an arrangement can be made..."

He smirks, a single fang barely poking out from the rest of the teeth.

"And perhaps she can help me find [b]IT[/b]."

Liberty Girl smiled as Kartanian dropped off the Superades. She chugged the first one down and could feel it's effects within minutes. The second she sipped slowly.

"I don't know what exactly the 'metahuman metabolic sustainers' in this stuff are, but they certainly do the trick when I've strained myself too much." she commented as she got back to her feet.

She looked the catling over, then approached and stuck out her hand, smiling. "Thanks for the assist, Mr. Kartanian. It's much obliged. Can't say I approve of some of the nouns you used to describe yourself, but I'm not the type to attack a new ally. Curiosity Kills... an ironic name for an espionage group."

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He wrapped his arms around her. "Well, my idea is going off the hope that the Iron Huntress is watching our TV broadcasts to gain information about Earth, thereby helping her to track you down. If she isn't, this may not work. But anyways, what I want to do is... well... kill you."

At the somewhat shocked expression on her face, he explained further. "It's the only way I could think of to lead the Huntress into a trap. Make her think you've been killed while being a hero. But like I said, we'll need help. Other heroes, the TCPD, possibly the TCFD, and news stations. Now, I'm assuming she's tracking the Cosmic Heart itself and whatever energetic emanations it gives off. Any idea if those emanations would change if the host ceases living?"

Sam nodded as Sarah described how the Cosmic Heart would react to its wielder's death.

"Do you think you'd be able to imitate that reaction?"

"As for how to fool the Huntress, I was thinking we'd find an older building, one that isn't in the best of condition, possibly even condemned. Then we set it on fire and collapse it. Make it seem like you were caught in the collapse and killed. We get the news stations to respond to this and broadcast that you were killed. If you can fake the wielder death signal, I'm betting it'll draw the Huntress like a moth to a bug zapper. Now, once she'd drawn into the trap, I'm assuming she'll fight. But how do we keep her from teleporting away if we start beating her?"

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Liberty Girl accepted the card. "Can I actually have another of those? I have a friend who would probably fit right in with your group. Have you heard of a mercenary that goes by the name Nightstrike?"

"Well, there was that shadowy hero that helped us in the first fight. Maybe they could help scan her? Like I said, let's head back to the scene of the first battle."

With that, he gave her a quick kiss and then swung out through the open doors and down the street, rapidly heading back towards the intersection where the they'd first fought Iron Huntress.

There were a number of police officers and other emergency personnel still there, performing various duties. Whipcrack had stepped away to help move wreckage to clear the road, so he didn't see Lady Nova's turmoil. However, one of the officers noticed Lady Nova staring at the hole, frozen, and he approached slowly.

He spoke slowly, gently. "He was a good man, Detective Holt. Always knew the right thing to do. He was always ready to lend a hand out help out in anyway. He'll be missed by all of us at the precinct... did you know him, ma'am?"

Whipcrack was facing away from Lady Nova, but when he heard a grunt that was followed by the sound of one of her energy discharges, he whirled around. His armor was up in a second and his fists were already charging. But there was no sign of an enemy. He was trotting towards Lady Nova when she tossed another large chunk of rubble into the air and blasted it apart.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" he hollered, sprinting over to her and laying a hand on her shoulder just as she reached for another piece.

"You're showering the whole area with bits and chunks of superheated concrete shrapnel, Nova." he said, gesturing around at where the police and construction workers had all dove for cover. "It's okay folks. Come on out. My partner was just a little overzealous in her efforts."

He turned back to Lady Nova. "Here's what we'll do. You're stronger than me, so you bring the larger pieces of rubble over to the trucks here. I'll see about smashing them up."

Once she was off, he turned back to several large pieces. "Hrrrrm, how to do this..."

Whipcrack brought his hand forward and started shooting out energy strands, wrapping one of the pieces up like a cocoon. Once he'd done that, he concentrated and began contracting the strands, squeezing the rubble. There was some resistance, then he felt the rubble give way and shatter with a muffled CRUNCH. He retracted the strands to reveal a neat pile of rubble, which one of the Bobcat drivers was easily able to scoop up. With that figured out, he began crushing anything that Lady Nova brought over to him.

Whipcrack grabbed her arm and gently turned her around while pulling her in closer to whisper softly in her ear.

"It wasn't stupid and you are not 'better at simple tasks'. You were just distracted and not thinking straight. You are still the smart, sexy, and confident woman that I fell in love with. Yes, life's dealt you a bad hand today and I'm sorry for what the Huntress did to your father. I only got to meet him a few times, but he and I really hit it off. I'll miss him too. But you're going to bounce back from this, I know you are. Take time to sort through your feelings, but don't obsess over them. I'll be with you every step of the way, okay?"

Whipcrack pulled away from her to gave her a small grin and a supportive hug.

At the edge of the debris field an extremely large metal golem would be seen meticulously sorting rubble into piles. The TCPD leaved it alone, and it ignored well... everyone.
'Shame Watch wasn't here earlier, it mighta helped and prevented so much.. loss."
"Eh that POS.... I saw it two months ago completely ignore a mugging suspect."
"It's not bad, just have to know its quirks... like in a gun fight stand behind it."
The more senior officer talking nicely of Arch chuckled darkly. It wasn't easy being a normal cop in Titan City, often times survival counted on knowing what kind of help you could get from what sources.
"Eh, I guess. At least that thing has zero reports against it that stuck. Mostly just civi's who are used to having their day saved complaining when it didn't do what they wanted."

The two cops changed topics as they went back to mostly ignoring the giant construct.

Liberty Girl rested for a little while longer, until she felt like the damage The Red had done was repaired. Standing up from the bench she'd found, she stretched and did a few short jumps back down the street to the site of the battle. Once there, she saw Whipcrack and Lady Nova working in one area, and Stickers working in another.

She jumped over to where Stickers was, landing on his huge shoulder and giving him a quick, friendly slap on top of his head. "Keep up the good work, Stickers."

After that, she leaped off and landed over near Whipcrack and Lady Nova. She was about to ask the foreman where she could help out when Whipcrack looked up and then waved her down. She trotted over to him with a questioning look on her face. "Hey there, can I help you?"

Whipcrack nodded and then turned back to the piece he was in the process of crushing. Once finished, he turned to her fully. "Hey there, I'm Whipcrack. My partner over there is Lady Nova." he said, gesturing over her shoulder to the approaching heroine. "We were hoping to get your help with something. Also, do you know who that other hero that was here was? The shadowy one with the sword?"

Liberty Girl nodded. "Yeah, he said his name was Kartanian. He might still be around, I don't know. What's going on?"

At that moment, Lady Nova touched down and Whipcrack nodded to her. "I'll let her explain who it is we're fighting and why."

Whipcrack told Liberty Girl about his plan to make the Huntress think that Lady Nova had been killed in a building collapse and Liberty Girl nodded. "It sounds like it could work. And personally, I'd like a second crack at her."

Her glance slid sideways to where Arch was almost daintily picking through rubble piles. "I think I know who can help us find a building..."

She nodded to the two of them and leaped over to where Arch was, landing near him. She walked up to the gigantic construct and tried to get his attention. First, she talked to him. "Hey Stickers, wake up. I need some help." If that didn't work, she'd reach out and knock on his head as he bent down towards the rubble.

Liberty Girl waited until Arch had gotten as close to eye-to-eye as possible.

"Hey there Stickers. Geez, you haven't changed one bit from the first time I saw you when I was a kid." she said, eyeing the giant construct up and down.

"Anyways, my friends and I need your help with something. We're trying to find a building in the city. But it's got to be a certain type of building. One that's old and falling apart. Y'know, too badly damaged to repair easily or quickly? Probably has a Condemned sign on it? We need it to stop the woman who caused all this damage." she gestured around at the collapsed building, wrecked cars, and torn-up street.

"You think you could help us out, big guy?"

The three heroes arrived in the order they had departed. They found themselves standing in front of a condemned 7-story factory. Through a hole in the wall, they could see that the main floor was strewn with piles of rotting fabric and rusting industrial machinery. The building appeared to have been clothing factory when it was still in use.

"This could definitely work." Whipcrack said as he poked his head inside the large hole. "But we'll need to search it first. Make sure no one has taken up residence."

He turned to the two ladies. "Nova, you're the fastest. Take care of searching for any homeless. Liberty Girl, see if you can determine where the main supports are. Destroying them will be the quickest way to ensure an internal collapse. I have to make a call."

Whipcrack stepped away from them and reached through his armor, pulling a smartphone out of a pouch on his belt. He pushed a few buttons and brought the phone to his ear. The recipient picked up on the first ring. "Hi Dani... Yes, I know I'm an ass. Look, we don't have time for this. You owe me a solid and I'm calling it in."

While Lady Nova searched for people, Liberty Girl stepped in through the hole and began searching the expansive first floor. She soon located the main set of support columns, which ran the length of the floor. Five feet by five feet and made of brick, one would be easy for her to knock down. But the plan required a quick collapse, so it sounded like she'd need to knock them all down at once.

She searched through the machinery, pulling out chains where she could find them. She soon had close to three hundred feet of chain, but it was in sections. Liberty Girl poked her head out of the wall just after Lady Nova had flown back outside. "Hey Nova! Would you be able to use your powers to fuse these chains together?"

"As long as it'll hold when I start pulling on it, then definitely. Thanks!" Alexa said with a nod. She then gathered up the chain and began wrapping it around the columns. She had just enough chain to wrap each column twice and bring the the two ends of the chain back together at one side of the factory.

While the women took care of their tasks, Whipcrack cleared several rusted hulks of cars and various other pieces of trash from the front yard of the factory, attempting to set up a prime viewing angle for the news teams while not making it obvious it had been done so. But that was mostly just a distraction as he waited. Thirty minutes after he'd made his call, three black SUV's pulled up and twelve people exited them. One of the men, the apparent leader, approached Whipcrack. With no preamble whatsoever, he spoke. "Zulu Foxtrot Nine Five Mike."

Whipcrack responded. "Charlie Seven Yankee Hotel Zero."

The leader of the men immediately cracked a smile and his team visibly relaxed. He stuck out his hand and Whipcrack shook it. "Jim Traceur, sir. It's a pleasure to meet you. I understand we're going to be helping you with a situation?"

"That's correct, Mr. Traceur. We're going to attempt to lure an alien, The Iron Huntress, into an ambush at this factory. We're going to do this through a combination of manipulating the local news outlets and having the person she wants performing a specific action. I understand that all of your people have enhanced durability, reflexes, and healing?" Whipcrack grinned when Traceur nodded in the affirmative.

"Good. Bring them inside and we'll explain the plan." Whipcrack turned and walked towards the hole in the wall as Traceur issued a series of terse orders to his team. They began hauling gear out of the SUV's, which then drove away once they were finished. The team quickly moved their gear into the building, then gather around Traceur. Whipcrack called out to Lady Nova and Liberty Girl, summoning them to the planning session.

"Lady Nova, Liberty Girl, this is Jim Traceur and his squad. They work for a friend and I called them in to assist."

Both of the heroines greeted the team and everyone turned back to look at Whipcrack. It was then that it suddenly occurred to him that he'd somehow become the one in charge of the whole she-bang. He rubbed his hands, then dove into the planning.

"The basic plan is to lure the Iron Huntress into an ambush. We're going to accomplish this in two ways. First, we're going to set this building on fire. That will draw the media because of its proximity to the CCN Railyards and because my friend will give them a little "push". Once they're on site, we'll let them see the three of us entering the building, where we'll start rescuing vagrants. That's where the first half of your team comes in, Mr. Traceur. You should have been provided with outfits to wear over your armor. Mr. Traceur and his team are all enhanced, so there's little chance of them being hurt by the fire. My hope is that Iron Huntress is monitoring our media channels to keep track of Lady Nova." Everyone was nodding, so Whipcrack continued.

"As we're rescuing the "vagrants", the other half of Mr. Traceur's team will be camouflaged and set up to attack the Iron Huntress when she arrives. After several minutes of the media covering the rescues, Liberty Girl will trigger a building collapse. the collapse will "kill" Lady Nova. That's the second part of the lure. Once she's under the rubble, Lady Nova will begin performing an action that is almost guaranteed to bring the Iron Huntress down on us. The Huntress has a way of monitoring Lady Nova's energy emissions, so when they change, she'll think that Lady Nova is dead and she can retrieve what she's here for. That retrieval cannot be allowed to happen. Once she arrives, we'll spring the trap. Any questions?" Whipcrack looked around at those assembled.

Once everyone was set up and Traceur's incendiary charges were set, his men divided into two squads. One deployed to positions inside the building and the other to camouflaged covers just across the street in the rail yard. Whipcrack, Lady Nova, and Liberty Girl spread themselves out about a block from the rail yard. Once everyone was in place and all checks had been made, Whipcrack had Traceur detonate the first of the incendiary devices. One of the middle floors of the building burst into flame and the conflagration spread quickly.

Within ten minutes, the first of the news choppers and drones started to arrive. Observing the flying vehicles and making sure none were facing them, Whipcrack sent Lady Nova in first with him quickly behind her since the public and media knew they were partners, but he delayed Liberty Girl's arrival by a few minutes. Just before they arrived, Traceur detonated the remaining incendiary charges in sequence.

While Lady Nova flew into one of the upper floors, Whipcrack swung into a window on the second. When Liberty Girl arrived, she landed near the front entrance and charged inside, smashing down one of the large main doors. One by one, they supported, dragged, or carried Traceur's men from the building. They deposited them all together, near an innocuous-looking rusted shipping container. Once all six were out, both Lady Nova and Liberty Girl went back in. Only a few minutes after they entered the building, which was almost completely engulfed in flames by now, it began to creak and rumble ominously.

Whipcrack looked up just as the upper floors began to crumble and then the whole building collapsed inwards. "Nova!" he yelled, jumping to his feet and running towards the large burning heap of rubble. Just as he reached it, a small explosion of rubble blasted upwards and Liberty Girl climbed out.

"I lost track of Nova, where is she?" she asked, but then she saw the look on his face as he ran past her and leaped up onto the pile. He began tearing at the rubble and she joined him, tossing aside huge chunks of it. The two heroes worked valiantly to find their friend as the coughing vagrants and media watched helplessly.