Elizabeth smiled warmly, extending a hand to Nico. He took it after a moment’s hesitation. Her hand was soft and smooth, and her grasp was gentle. As they shook hands, her eyes were locked onto his. He held her gaze, but it made him feel strangely naked.

“I’m Nico,” he said, unnecessarily.

“Yes, it’s very nice to meet you. Actually, so long as we’re introducing ourselves, we can take care of something real quick,” Elizabeth said, releasing his hand. Her voice was almost apologetic as she asked, “What’s your last name? There’s some sort of error in the company records, and we don’t seem to have it on file.”

Nico blinked. “Pinstripe.”

Piper glanced at him with a startled smirk. “Really? Nico Pinstripe? That’s just too weird!”

Elizabeth flashed a winning smile at Piper, as though noticing her for the first time. “Yes, hi, Piper! So nice to meet you. Rudy said you were a great number two. So sorry, but could you excuse Nico and I?” She waved a hand airily. “Just need to talk with him about some Supervisor stuff.”

Piper nodded, still smiling bemusedly. “Sure. Just call me when you need me… Mr. Pinstripe.”

She started to walk out, waiting for Tux to join her, but the tabby cat stayed put, watching Elizabeth closely. After a moment, Piper made her exit.

“Thank you, Miss Bravo,” said Elizabeth.

Piper closed the door behind her. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but something was bothering her. She had hoped to ask Tux about how the cat had sensed Elizabeth’s approach. Normally she might have just written that off as cat stuff, but there had been an urgency in Tux’s voice that seemed foreboding.

Mr. Pinstripe.

She glanced back over her shoulder. Was Nico in danger somehow? Was that why Tux had stayed in the room? Piper pursed her lips. Then she noticed that a few of the employees were watching her.

“Just a visit from the boss, guys. Let’s get back to work,” she said.

The employees exchanged glances, but returned to their work. Piper Bravo walked to her own desk, Elizabeth’s words echoing in her head. Thank you, Miss Bravo.

Miss Bravo. The name threatened to bring up memories. Bad memories. She tried to shove them down. She turned on her computer. Her eyes glazed over as she absent-mindedly clicked around the desktop, making little squares with the cursor.

Bravo.

She hated her brain sometimes. It kept trying to remember things, but she wasn’t going to allow that. Not now. Not now that she had friends. Not now that she had a purpose besides - no, no, stop. Not now that she had Nico. And he had a dream she could chase, he had a purpose she could support. He had that fire. That familiar fire. That fire she recognized, because she used to have it herself.

Stop. Just stop.

But the anxiety was mounting, and her brain was a powerful foe. At least this time she understood the source of the anxiety. What was worse, far worse, was when it came from seemingly nowhere.

I just have to know what’s happening, that’s all. I’ll just eavesdrop a little. See what I find out. And maybe Nico needs my help. There’s something about her… about Elizabeth…

She looked over at the closed office door.

What the hell is going on in there?

***

Nico watched Piper leave and felt a little surprised by the sinking feeling in his gut. He glanced at Tux. The cat’s eyes were fixed on Elizabeth, who was quickly typing out a message on her phone to update the company files with Nico’s surname.

Then Tux looked at Nico, and he understood. There was a reason Tux had warned them about the approaching Regional Manager.

Elizabeth was strong.

Strong enough that her presence alone had set Tux on edge.

Strong enough that she had fought her way to the Regional Manager position.

Strong enough to beat him?

No. Not now that I have the shirt. He remembered his fight against Rudy yesterday. The way power had coursed through his body like an energy shot. The blast of wind that had come from the impact of his fist against Rudy’s. No. Elizabeth might be strong, but now that he had the pinstripe button-down, she wouldn’t be able to stop him.

His eyes quickly scanned Elizabeth’s clothing. It was a simple ensemble, all baby blue with grey complements. He looked at her dress, at her light chain necklace, at her small black stud earrings, and wondered what powers they might conceal. By virtue of her position, she had defeated at least two of her former bosses in combat. Was this dress the key to her victories? Or maybe the simple silver clip that was holding her golden hair in place?

“Alright!” she said brightly. “That’s all done. Thank you for your help, Mr. Pinstripe.”

“Oh, sure, yeah!” Nico said.

“Well with that, I think we can take care of the rest of our tasks pretty quickly,” said Elizabeth. “My car’s waiting, so I hope you don’t mind if we do this quick.”

“Right.”

“First off, I’d like to get to know you a little bit, since we’ll be working together for a while. Like I said, I’m Elizabeth. I’ve been with the company for a while now. I actually started in a similar entry position to the one you had before.”

She paused, seeming to expect a response, so Nico nodded.

She continued, “So… yeah! In my spare time I like to play video games, and sometimes I paint. I’m pretty boring, honestly.” She laughed lightly, but it sounded unnatural. Like this was a story she had told many times before. Like it was rehearsed.

“I bet you’re not that boring,” said Nico.

Elizabeth winked. “Well, that’s me. What about you? Tell me something about yourself, Mr. Pinstripe.”

Nico’s mind raced. Mr. Pinstripe. The name had come seemingly from nowhere. He had only said it because it was the first word that had popped into his head. Because he had been thinking of the button-down. Because his real surname was something he wanted to get as far away from as possible.

Tell me something about yourself. What was he supposed to say? His mind was a total blank. Now that he thought of it, he hadn’t focused on anything but becoming the Business King for some time now. But didn’t he used to have hobbies? They’d always been too poor for things like video games, but hadn’t he done some drawing as a kid?

She was waiting patiently for his answer. He felt like he’d been silent for a long time, even if it really had only been a few seconds.

Damn! why is this so hard?

“I… I spend a lot of time training,” he said. Which was true.

She nodded, but she was looking at her phone. “Great! Anything else?”

Damn! Damn damn damn!

“I like to cook,” he said. Which was also true. But he hardly felt that it qualified.

“Excellent,” Elizabeth said. “Well I’m glad to know you a little better, Nico.”

Nico felt strangely exhausted and a little confused, but he shook it off. At least that was over with now.

“So as your new boss, I just need to run through some of the basics of the Supervisor job with you,” said Elizabeth. She glanced at her phone again. “I see here you’ve only been with the company a short time before you took down Rudy. I’m honestly impressed - he was a pretty tough guy.”

She looked Nico up and down. The look only lasted a moment, but he had the feeling that he was being studied. Like she was trying to decide exactly how Nico, a brand-new entry-level employee, had managed to bring down a seasoned brawler like Rudy. Her eyes lingered briefly on the single pinstripe on his left sleeve.

“...But since you haven’t been here very long, you probably didn’t get the chance to observe the Supervisor position in action. You’ll be doing this job from now on, so I’ll -”

“Actually,” Nico interrupted, “I won’t be doing this job for long.”

His adrenaline had started pumping. The fire was burning in his chest. This felt reckless, but this also felt right. He had felt so thrown by her asking him about himself. In truth, he realized, he really didn’t know who he was anymore. For a long time now, he had focused everything he was on his goal. On his dream. On what he was determined to become.

The CEO. The Business King.

He smiled. He felt like himself again. Of course he knew who he was. Who he would become.

The man who could make dreams come true.

Elizabeth looked surprised for a moment, then smiled again. “Why is that? Do you plan to leave the company soon? Or, maybe…”

Her entire demeanor changed. The friendly corporate persona vanished. Her smile became a confident grin, and her eyes flamed with determination. Tux meowed. It seemed like Elizabeth was growing, like her presence was filling the room, like the aura of power that radiated from her was now completely unfiltered.

And suddenly, Nico realized something about the woman who stood before him. He had been looking at her business attire, trying to figure out what article of clothing or accessory had given her the power she needed to get to the Regional Manager position. But that had been all wrong. He shouldn’t have been looking at her clothes. He should have been looking at her eyes.

The way those eyes were looking at him now, filled with such iron will, made it click in his mind. Elizabeth wasn’t just an opponent, an obstacle on his way to reaching his goal.

Elizabeth was a rival.

Nico stood up. The two faced one another, separated by the desk. They were about the same height, but it seemed to Tux that Elizabeth towered over Nico. The tabby cat fought against the survival instincts that had started screaming at her to run away, to hide. She had decided that Nico was her friend, and a decision like that was a weighty one for a cat. She was dead set on seeing this through.

Elizabeth crossed her arms. “...Or, maybe, you think you can take my job.”

“Yeah,” said Nico. “I think I can.”

Elizabeth cocked an eyebrow. “I see. Really.”

“That’s right. I’m going to defeat you, Elizabeth. And then I’m going to beat your boss, and their boss, and everybody else.”

“Ambitious,” Elizabeth commented.

For a moment, Nico thought she was mocking him, but then she saw something new in her eyes. Something that was there for the first time since she had entered the room.

Respect.

“So, what’s your goal, then?” she asked. “You want to climb the ladder as fast as you can? Become a member of the Board of Directors? Don’t get me wrong, I relate. But you’ve only won one fight, Nico.”

“Nah. None of that,” said Nico. His eyes flashed. “I’m going to be the CEO. The Business King.”

Elizabeth cocked an eyebrow again. “Huh. I think we have a problem, then, Nico. Because you’re not the one who’s going to become the Business King. I am.”

Their eyes clashed.

Two forces of will. Two business people. And, though their current ranks didn’t reflect it, two equals.

Two rivals.

***

There was a CRASH as Nico smashed through the office wall. He careened into a desk, cartwheeling head over heels, and Piper thought he would smash into the wall, just like he had yesterday morning when Rudy had punched him. But as his shoes skidded across a desktop, there was a squeal of friction. He slid to a stop, one leg in front of the other, his back heel sticking out over the edge of the desk.

Plaster rustled to the ground. A cloud of dust swirled around the hole in the office wall, too thick to see through.

One employee leapt to his feet. “Come ON!” He shouted, whipping off his glasses in frustration. “Two days in a row? REALLY?!”

Nico looked at the employee and shrugged. “Sorry about this.”

“Oh, sure, you’re sorry. What about me, huh? I have to write these reports for the THIRD TIME because you keep smashing through my documents! What kind of-”

“My apologies, Mr. Thompson, this time was my fault,” said a voice. Thompson looked into the dust, where the voice had come from.

The cloud was dissipating. Elizabeth stood in the office, her leg still raised in the kick that had sent Nico flying. Her baby blue high heel was covered in a fine layer of plaster dust. She slowly lowered her foot to the floor and stepped forward.

“Miss Regal!” Thompson almost yelped in surprise. “I, uh… I forgot you were here, ma’am. Sorry for shouting.”

“Not at all, Mr. Thompson, and please don’t worry about completing those reports again.” Elizabeth’s eyes lit on Nico, whose fists were still raised. “Mr. Pinstripe, please be sure to cancel that assignment for Mr. Thompson… After I’ve beaten you.”

Nico smirked. “We’ll see.”

Elizabeth tilted her head to one side, cracking her neck. “Yeah, I guess we will.”

Piper’s eyes widened. Was Nico crazy? He was already taking on the Regional Manager? They hadn’t trained at all! The button-down still only had one stripe.

What happened in there?

She felt a light burden rest atop her head, perched on her hat. “Tux?”

The cat’s voice was quiet. “I fear that Nico is in over his head with this one, Piper. That woman’s power is formidable.”

Piper shook her head. Tux meowed in protest. “Oh, sorry,” said Piper. “I just… I can’t believe he’s doing this.”

The tabby cat’s tail waved from side to side. Her head turned to look at Elizabeth, then at Nico, then back again. “There is more to this fight than it appears, Piper.”

“What do you mean?”

“Wait. Look.”

Elizabeth was moving. The sight of her walking was bizarre. She appeared to only be taking small steps, but they were propelling her forward much farther than they should have. In the blink of an eye, she was already next to Nico.

He was taken completely off-guard. How did she-

WHAM!

Nico’s head was spinning. He felt completely disoriented. His brain was confused - shouldn’t he be hurting from her kick? But then his knees hit the floor and he understood. She hadn’t kicked him; she had kicked the desk out from under him.

Elizabeth turned, pivoting on her back leg, using the momentum of her kick. Then she stomped, bringing her back leg forward, raising the baby blue high heel over Nico’s head like a guillotine.

“Watch out!” Piper cried.

But Nico was already moving. He rolled to the side, just barely dodging the high heel. The shockwave of Elizabeth’s stomp made the ceiling lights rattle. One went out entirely.

Elizabeth smiled, looking at the high heel admiringly. “Wow, these are even better than I thought!”

Nico stood. He looked at Elizabeth. “So it’s the shoes, huh?”

Her head was still lowered toward her foot, but her eyes flicked up to him. Combined with her smile, the look she was giving Nico right now made Tux’s tail bristle.

“Yeah,” said Elizabeth, “It’s the shoes. That’s all.”

Nico pushed up his shirt sleeves. Elizabeth smoothed the front of her dress.

He cracked his knuckles. She cracked her neck.

He charged. She stepped back.

Nico’s onslaught was too quick for Elizabeth to dodge, but amazingly, she wasn’t taking a single blow. With every punch Nico threw, she threw one of her own, blocking every one. With each clash, the force of their fists sent shockwaves of air whipping through the office. Ceiling tiles were jostled. Document piles were disturbed. The water cooler’s contents sloshed in miniature tsunamis.

“You can’t beat me, Nico! Just give up! Because...” Elizabeth growled. She was sweating with effort, but she showed no signs of slowing down - in fact, she appeared to be gaining energy.

“No way!” Nico roared. “I’m going to beat you! And…”

As one, they drew their arms back, winding up for a massive punch. Elizabeth’s ponytail whooshed through the air as her body turned, putting everything she had into the blow.

“I’M GOING TO BE THE CEO!” They both cried as their fists met.

The impact was, by far, the biggest yet. The window in the office wall shattered from the force. A desk careened into the water cooler, splitting it open with a CRACK. Water spurted from the hole like blood. The other employees, who had all taken cover, collectively gasped. They had seen fights before. Heck, they had seen one yesterday. But they had never seen a fight like this.

Thompson was watching Nico in amazement. He was actually holding his own against the Regional Manager. How? She was supposed to be unstoppable, unassailable. Yet here was Nico, matching her literally blow for blow. Thompson pulled out his phone and started filming.

Their battle resumed with increased ferocity. Neither seemed to be gaining an edge over the other. Elizabeth aimed a kick at Nico’s chest, which he just managed to block by whipping his arm into the path of the high heel. Nico tried to sweep Elizabeth’s legs out from under her by dropping low, but Elizabeth took a step to the side and moved with such speed that she was suddenly behind him.

They were almost a blur, their fight raging through the office, sending debris flying every which way. There would be hell to pay when the custodians saw the mess.

Piper cheered. “Come on, Nico! You can do this! Take her job!” She looked up at Tux, who was still sitting atop her hat. “Wow, maybe he can actually do this!” She said to the tabby cat.

Tux looked back and forth, following the battle with her large round eyes. Nico was putting everything he had into this. He was clearly searching for every opening he could find, putting the power of the pinstripe button-down to work. Elizabeth appeared to be getting slowly worn down. It seemed that if Nico could just outlast her, he might win.

But Tux sensed a different truth in the air. Nico was doing well, but Elizabeth’s power was… growing. Even as she appeared to be weakening, the cat sensed her aura growing ever stronger. It was as if this entire battle was a prelude. Like the Regional Manager was merely toying with her new subordinate. No… not toying with him. Studying him. And learning quickly. Very quickly.

“No,” said Tux. “He can’t.”

Nico’s thoughts were a blur. Every decision was made with lightning speed. He was trusting his instincts to see him through, and they were serving him well, but he still had a strange feeling that he was losing this fight. Of the two of them, he seemed to be faring better, but there was a light in Elizabeth’s eyes, an easy confidence in her movements, that said otherwise.

There was nothing else to do. If he was going to beat Elizabeth, he would have to do it in one final attack. He would have to use the power of the button-down to overwhelm her defenses. His eyes narrowed in concentration.

Elizabeth side-stepped, seeming to flash from one spot to another. Nico focused on her movements. She’s winding up, getting ready to kick me again. So I’ll just…

Nico threw an arm up to block her kick, while raising the opposite arm to deliver the final blow when her attack brought her close enough. He put everything he had into the movement, slamming his foot into the floor, turning to meet the kick that would be flying at his head at any moment -

She wasn’t there.

Piper gasped. Tux hissed. The employees gaped.

Elizabeth was suddenly behind Nico. She stepped forward, sliding her foot against his leg, unbalancing him. It was too late for him to stop his attack, and the force of his punch sent him toppling to the floor. His back slammed against the floor so hard that he bounced up a few inches.

Right into the bottom of Elizabeth’s heel.

“Hah!” Elizabeth yelled. She brought her foot down, with Nico pinned beneath it, with all her might. Nico was smashed against the floor so hard that ceiling tiles were shaken out of place on the ground level a floor below. Nico groaned in pain. Elizabeth brushed a stray hair from her face. She stood there, one foot resting on Nico’s chest, like a conquering hero.

DA-DOOM!

The fight was over.

[PROMOTION FAILED. - Regional Manager Rank Not Acquired!]

***

“Nico! Are you okay?” Piper asked, offering him a hand. He took it.

“Yeah… I’m alri-AGH!” Nico smacked the back of his head against the floor as she let go of him unexpectedly. “Again?! Really?”

Piper’s arms were folded. She looked like she wanted to hit him. “What the hell were you thinking, dummy? Taking on the Regional Manager TODAY?! You haven’t done any training at all! What kind of idiot are you? Do you really want to be the Business King or not, huh? Because this? This isn’t how you get there!”

Tux was licking her forepaw, but meowed in agreement with a disdainful look.

“Yeah… Yeah. I get it,” Nico sighed. He looked over at Elizabeth, who was brushing dust from her clothes.

“You gonna fire me?”

The Regional Manager looked up at him. “Why would I fire you? We’ve just gotten to know each other.”

Nico climbed to his feet. Once again, he was thankful for the button-down’s powerful fashion statement. If it wasn’t for the pinstripe shirt, he would probably be dead after taking a blow like that. Thanks to the shirt, he just felt a little banged up instead.

“So what now?”

“Now, we do our jobs,” Elizabeth said simply. Her voice had returned to its former cheery corporate politeness. “I expect you to do a great job as a Supervisor. Thank you, everyone. Back to work.”

She turned to go.

“Wait.”

“Nico, I won.”

“I know… I know that.”

“Then what can I help you with?”

Nico’s mind was going a mile a minute. He was analyzing every memory of the battle, trying to memorize what had happened, trying to find his mistakes. He just couldn’t figure it out.

“How did you beat me?” He asked.

Elizabeth’s expression became hard. “Is your masculinity smarting, Mr. Pinstripe?”

“No… no, it’s not that,” Nico said, turning red. “I just mean… It was like you knew what I was going to do before I did it. How? Is it those high heels?”

He didn’t know what he expected Elizabeth to do, but he certainly didn’t expect her to laugh.

“No, Nico. It’s not the heels.”

Then she left.

***

“Greetings, Miss Regal. You have been longer than anticipated,” said Jeeves. “Is all well? Should I report any issues to corporate?”

“No thanks, Jeeves. Everything is fine,” said Elizabeth. She finished fixing her hair in the reflection of the car’s tinted window, then climbed inside.

“Back to the office then, Miss Regal?” asked the android.

Elizabeth was staring out the window. Should she have told Nico? Told him that these high heels were the first powerful fashion statements she had ever owned? Told him the real reason it seemed like she could see the future?

“Miss Regal?”

“Oh, sorry. Uh, yeah. Back to the office.”

“Very good, Miss. I would also like to remind you of your meeting with the Regional Director this evening.”

Damn. The fight with Nico had driven Big Chuck from her mind entirely. For a little while, there had been nothing but determination. Only one thought had dominated her mind since that moment when she and Nico had spoken in the office. It was the look in Nico’s eye when he had told her his dream.

I’m going to be the CEO. The Business King.

She remembered that Piper had said something to Nico after the fight. Something about him not having trained?

Do you really want to be the Business King or not, huh?

She wondered if Nico was feeling the same thing she was right now. A sense of purpose. Of an impending future. Of destiny? Maybe. She didn’t know that she believed in destiny. She had used her wits and her force of will to get where she was right now. That was all.

But if destiny was real - and it wasn’t - then she had felt it today. Something about her fight against Nico had felt… right. Like it was meant to be.

She had beaten him for now. But she knew that he wasn’t going to give up. He would challenge her again. And they were... something... to each other now. Something powerful. Something that felt important. Something that almost made her believe in destiny, just a little bit.

“Let’s go,” she said to the android. The car lifted off and began to fly back across the city toward her office.

She looked back at the office building she had just left until it was almost out of sight.

“See you around… Rival.”