Lady Bird scanned over the plans she acquired for the Alchemist’s base. They hadn’t been cheap, but they were worth it. They could easily sneak in through a certain passage that probably served as his escape tunnel. So not only would she get her revenge, it would have a ring of irony to it too. It wouldn’t catapult her to the A-list, but it certainly would help her reputation. She couldn’t stand anyone on the A-list anyways. The door slammed as Blabber ran into the room. He usually served as the messenger since he could speak clearly under stress.

“Boss! Beretta, she just tore a door off the gate and is heading this way. She’s not even dropping any one liners! She’s just tossing people aside!”

Lady Bird put the papers in the drawer and pulled her mask down over her face. She stood up. “Tell them to part the Red Sea. This is personal for her."

If it had been a professional visit, Beretta would've dropped a few lines. She was just surprised she hadn't dropped by earlier. Lady Bird stepped out of her office and went up the hall. She barely made it out of the hall when one of her minions came flying at her. Stepping to the side, she avoided him.

"Beretta. How nice of you to stop by." She greeted, sashaying to where her arch-nemesis could see her. "To what do I owe the…"

But Beretta wasn't in her usual get up. Her mask was nowhere in sight and she wore jeans and a shirt, instead of her usual stretch material and light armor on top of it.

"Cut the crap, Lady Bird." Beretta snapped, releasing the minion she held by the collar. He wisely scrambled out of the way. “Put up your dukes and face me. I’m not wearing any armor to make it fair.”

It was not a good sign that Beretta was being this aggressive. Lady Bird had the displeasure of seeing her like this before, but even now, she could tell that it wasn’t as bad as the last time. This would still probably end up being an ice pack for twenty minutes a day for a week type of situation. She didn’t have time not to be in tip-top shape when she geared up to take on the Alchemist.

“You know that just because we’re arch-nemesis, that doesn’t mean you can just come waltzing in here whenever there’s a minor inconvenience in your life and blame me for it.” Lady Bird stood across from Beretta and dropped into a stance. This one was good for defense, which she would need a lot of. “I thought you were above that.”

“You’re a fine one to talk about being above things.”

And with that, Beretta struck with a yell. Lady Bird was almost thrown off guard by the suddenness of the attack and barely managed to deflect the kick that came her way. It hurt to block, even the proper way.

The Minions gathered around to watch, but none of them interfered. They knew that getting in between the two on a good day wound up being a one way ticket to the infirmary. With Beretta as emotionally charged as she appeared, the unfortunate minion would probably wind up being hospitalized. As they fought, Lady Bird did see some money being passed around. If she weren’t so busy defending, she would’ve asked what the odds were.

Beretta managed to get a couple of good hits in, a punch to Lady Bird’s side and another to her solar plexus, before the supervillain decided that she couldn’t just stay on defense. Under any other circumstances, she would be happy to fight Beretta in a no-holds-barred fight, but this one was just poor timing. She kicked out, catching her arch-nemesis in the gut and sending her back a couple of feet. Normally, she wore armor in that area so it didn’t affect her much, but without it, Lady Bird could tell she was in great pain.

“Got all that frustration and anger out of your system yet?” She questioned as she allowed her to get up before attacking her with a cross jab toward the face. Beretta blocked that and threw one of her own, which Lady Bird grabbed and used her momentum to go behind her and twist the arm around her back. “Look, I understand why you’re so upset. I’d be too in your shoes. But do you really think this solves anything?”

Beretta gritted her teeth and dropped her weight. Now it was Lady Bird’s turn for her momentum to be used against her as the other woman rolled her over her shoulder in a judo throw. Lady Bird landed on her back, knocking the wind out of her.

“No, but it certainly makes me feel better.” Beretta stated as Lady Bird escaped from the hold she had on her. “I could overlook it if it just affected me, but you involved someone I love in this mess, all to mess with my head.”

“It was supposed to be a bluff and you know it.” Lady Bird got to her feet and tried to plan her next move. “Despite what you think, my plans don’t revolve screwing you over.” This fight needed to be over quickly so she could go back to scheming.

“You should’ve thought of that before you sent it in.”

Lady Bird had no time to deny the claim before Beretta picked up some of the floor and threw it at her. Fine, if she was going to cheat and use her powers, Lady Bird wouldn’t hold back either. She removed the heels of both of her shoes and threw them at Beretta after avoiding the piece of concrete floor. Beretta held out her hand and the heels stopped. She flung them into the crowd of minions and made them scatter to avoid them.

Sometimes, it was hard to remember that Beretta had telekinesis and not super strength, seeing that she did usually at least make physical contact with things that she threw with her mind. Several villains had made that mistake and it had cost them. Blabber stated it was a psychological thing, seeing that Beretta obtained those powers during her stint as a sidekick instead of being born with them or getting them at a young age. For her to resort to using them in a hand to hand fight meant it had to end before one or both of them got seriously injured.

Lady Bird resorted to tackling Beretta rugby style. She wasn't built for that type of fighting, but it was such an unusual maneuver for her it caught Beretta by surprise. She scrambled to get her nemesis off her, but Lady Bird remained firm. She made her way behind her and looped her arm around Beretta's neck. She had nowhere enough leverage to choke her out, but at least Beretta couldn't get her from this position and she wouldn't risk hitting herself trying to use her powers to move something.

"Give it up, Beretta." She stated through clenched teeth as she had to constantly adjust to keep hold of her. "You aren't in the right mindset to win at the moment. What are you neglecting to have this little temper tantrum? Surely someone else is committing some sort of crime."

"That's what other heroes are for. I made room on my schedule just for you." She attempted to throw her off again. "Let's stop grappling and get back to a proper fight!"

"Not until you calm down some! Just think what would happen if Terri came in and saw how out of control you are!" Yes, it was a dirty move, but maybe it would make her hesitate just enough to make a difference.

"Don't you dare mention her! And why do you think I came at a time where I knew she would be away?”

It was true. Today was Terri’s last day at her current school for a while and then she was going to go out with her friends. Maybe Beretta planned this out a bit more than Lady Bird gave her credit for. She sighed.

“If I let you beat me down, will you leave without causing any more damage?” Lady Bird would gladly take a black eye if it meant ending this fight sooner rather than later. It also wouldn’t damage her reputation since this was personal business on Beretta’s part. The outcome of this fight wouldn’t be counted as a loss or win no matter the outcome.

“As tempting as that is, I promised that I wouldn’t take the easy way out of this. Since I can’t go and do this with a tie wearing bureaucrat, I have to take my frustration out on a target that can fight back.” Beretta dropped her weight for a second before pushing off the ground with her feet and putting all her weight into falling back. They both toppled over. “And I won’t get in legal trouble for doing this, unless you want to press charges.”

Court cases were more hassle than it was worth. And these days, most of the court cases against heroes on assault and battery got thrown out because of lack of evidence. Lady Bird blamed all the frivolous lawsuits villains sued for over the last decade, hoping to turn the legal system in their favor. It worked the first few times until the judges got wise to it and started cutting down on what cases they would hear on such matters.

She rolled out from under Beretta and they exchanged some more blows, neither really gaining ground over the other. They had always been evenly matched, even after Beretta got her powers. But Lady Bird would admit that she was running low on energy. She could feel sweat making her costume stick to her. It was especially annoying in the area under the mask. She would need a shower after this and a long time to cool down. Beretta didn’t appear to be in much better condition with her face flushed and her breaths coming out in short pants.

“Do you want to…” Lady Bird paused to catch her breath. “Stop and take five? Or maybe have something to drink. And before you say that you can do this all day or something equally as cheesy, please remember that this is me you’re talking to. I won’t judge if we call a timeout.”

Beretta shook her head and re-did her stance. “No, I’m good if you are. I didn’t come here for a friendly sparring session after all…”

Lady Bird considered surrendering and letting her walk away with the win when help came in the form of Number One with a cell phone. He was the only one brave enough to step in between the two. He’d done it before and managed to come out unscathed, probably because he was good at dodging.

“I have Terri on the phone and she says that she wants to speak with both of you.” He switched it over to speaker. “Go ahead, Terri.”

“You can’t afford phones that have video chat?” Beretta questioned as he held the phone. “What have you been spending all your budget on?”

“That’s none of your business. Besides, you don’t have to have a business plan for your cell use. By the way, the kid’s on your plan, right?” She couldn’t afford to add an extra line if that wasn’t the case.

“Uh, can you hear me?” Terri’s voice crackled over the not very good speaker. There was also a bunch of background noise that nearly covered up her voice. Lady Bird thought she heard some bowling pins get knocked down. “The signal’s not too great here…”

Beretta and Lady Bird came closer to the phone. Her arch-nemesis was the first one to speak up.

“We read you, Terri! At least as well as we can on this brick…” She cast a glare at Lady Bird, but she wasn’t going to apologize for her frugalness. “How’d you know I was here? Did Number One tell you?”

“No, one of the neighbors said they heard noises coming from your place and got concerned. I guess they haven’t realized that I’m not staying there right now.” There was another crash of pins and lots of cheering. “Sorry, they’re hosting a birthday party here and using about half of the lanes.” She was practically yelling now, or what passed as yelling for her. “I couldn’t reach your phone, so I figured you were either on a case or fighting Lady Bird. Since Number One picked up and not Lady Bird, I knew something was up.”

Lady Bird had to give the kid credit, she was pretty sharp. She had been that way before living with Beretta, but it seemed to increase after she moved in. Having a private investigator be your guardian had some benefits, it seemed.

“Are you having fun?” Beretta asked, almost as if she forgot she was steamed at Lady Bird. She’d have to thank the kid for the distraction later. “Who’s winning?”

“That’s not important right now, Melissa. I just called to tell you to go back home. Fighting with Lady Bird won’t do any good, you told me that before I left.”

Beretta sighed. “I know, but I couldn’t just stand by and let her get away with it! Even if it was a bluff gone wrong…”

“And I think you’ve made your point. Right, Lady Bird?”

Lady Bird nodded and shot a smug look at Beretta. “Of course, Kid.” It was amusing seeing the hero get lectured by a teenager. “If you hadn’t called, I would’ve had her beat.”

“You should’ve known better than to fight her, Lady Bird.” Apparently, she wasn’t exempt from this lecture either. Lady Bird wasn’t sure how to take it. “You’re a villain. I’m sure you have at least a dozen plans to circumvent a fight with your arch-nemesis. You should’ve done that instead of confronting her directly.”

“But…” Before Lady Bird could defend herself, someone else intruded on the conversation.

“Hey Terri, you’re up!”

“One moment, Sai!” She called away before turning back to the phone. “Well, I’ve got to go. I better not find either you in the hospital when I get back!”

After Terri hung up, silence hung in the air. Beretta wiped the sweat off her brow. “I think I should go. I think you got the message, for now. I might or might not be back.” She started walking toward the exit.

“And I’ll be ready for you.” Lady Bird made sure to watch her walk off. At least she hadn’t made a hole in the wall. “All right, show’s over. Back to work.”

The minions shuffled back and Number One put the phone back in his pocket.

“I shall get back to work too. Our attack on the Alchemist seems to be on schedule, even with this interruption.”

“Good.”

At least that confrontation was out of the way. Now, she could focus on business once again.