Leonine scattered more fireballs around so there was more light to watch the battle.

“Fifty on Metality,” I heard Dagger whisper. Brat.

“I double that,” Leonine said in a quiet voice back, “in favor of Miss Bell.” Good kid.

Everyone moved back several yards while Metality and I stayed near the waterfront.

There was no warning. We were villains after all, and playing dirty is playing fair.

Shining silver needles flew from Metaility’s sleeves towards my face.

I snatched them out of the air, and held onto them.

“Not very nice, aiming to scar a lady’s face,” I said. Metality rolled his eyes, and then I leapt towards him. An iron wall appeared in front of me, and I smashed through it.

“You couldn’t do that last time,” Metality said.

“Thank you,” I aimed my fist at his face. He side stepped my blow, and moved back several feet to make space between us. My lips turned upward a drop, and I chased him.

Metality aimed a now gauntleted arm for me, and I didn’t dodge his blow so I could counter attack. He made another barrier in time to catch most of my punch. Though I managed to land a hit on him, it was far from solid. This time, he didn’t make space between us, and aimed another blow at me.

We stayed close enough to exchange several more blows, and each time Metality cut down the integrity of my hits with barriers.

Then the battle shifted.

While we had been hitting each other, Metality laid a trap for me.

The silver needles he threw at me earlier, which I’d held onto, not wanting to give him more ammunition, melted in my grasp.

Surrounding scraps of metal converged on me. Metality targeted my joints. With the slippery semi solid texture, I couldn’t get the metal off me.

My movements were awkward, but I pulled away from Metality and dove into the lake. His powers were not just visual, but tactile too, and so the metal clung to me still, wriggling for more purchase, and weighed me down.

I sunk deeper into the water and reached for something to use as a projectile. With Metality’s barriers I needed something to distract him with so I could land a solid hit and end the fight.

At the bottom of the lake there were many choices. I tore off jagged chunks from a large boulder.

Even with the metal on my joints, the resistance from the water, and holding my weapons, I made my way upward. But something was wrong. I had vastly miscalculated--my abilities grew since our last clash, but Metality’s had too.

The entire surface of the lake was coated in metal. He’d trapped me in a watery prison encased in silver.

Bubbles escaped from my mouth as I laughed at the sheer enormity of it.

Metality was amazing. The silver coating sank lower and lower. Metality planned to squash me like a bug.

There was only one way to get out of this now, and I wasn’t willing to use it. I relaxed my body and didn’t move, even as the metal attempted to crush me.

The metal caged me in, and then hurtled upwards. I emerged from the lake with a loud splash and hung suspended above firelit water.

“I concede,” I called out.

The cage around me reformed into a silver staircase, and I walked down to the shoreline.

“Good match,” he said.

“Yes,” I nodded, “your range and strength is much greater than it used to be. That was amazing.” I would have Shelley arrange to update the database we had on our personnel. Keep your enemies close, but don’t forget your allies either. Next time, I wouldn’t lose.

“Pay up,” Dagger grinned, and held out his hand to Leonine.

“Aw man,” Leonine’s ears dropped down, and pulled his wallet out of his pocket.

“Thanks for betting on me,” I told Leonine.

“That was an amazing battle,” he lowered his voice, and his tone was full of admiration, even after my loss, “and I know you conceded but I still think you could have won.”

An amused grin appeared on my face and I turned before he could catch it. What an astute kid.

Ms. Blue piped up, “What about Miss Malaise and Merlina? I would love to see you battle.”

Merlina smiled, but shook her head.

Miss Malaise sniffed, “No, thank you.”

With that being said, it seemed our evening of fun was over. We cleaned up and got ready to return to the tele-station. Outside the exit, we all said our goodnights and goodbyes.

I waved to everyone and headed back to the HQ.