~~~

Nikolas' head ached as he stirred awake from his short nap, flinching through the pain. He surveyed his surroundings groggily. The henchmen were still sitting around a card table, playing a heated game of poker while they waited for orders. Their minds were more lax now, but he couldn't hear anything other than thoughts about poker. He was still pretty hazed and, like himself, his powers weren't 100% yet. The rest of the garage was empty, still no visible sign of the red-dress girl, though he felt her closed-off mind nearby.

He mentally called out to her. 'Do we have a plan?'

'Um, more or less,' returned the soft voice. She sounded a bit more unconcerned than he was and that made Nikolas extra nervous. She continued, 'We have a relatively good chance of winning, I think. They haven't used any powers that I've seen, which I believe means that they either have none or their powers are only useful in a fight. If it's the latter, try to keep your distance. My camouflage only works if I'm moving slowly, so once I get the first hit in, that'll be the end of our surprise element. I can probably fight a couple at a time so if you can, make sure that the others leave me be until I can get to them. And… try not to get killed.'

'I can do that,' Nikolas replied to her, his deep mental voice shaken from the thought of his own death. 'But I can only keep away three at a time. Normally. I'm still a little woozy, so I'm not sure how long I can keep it up.'

~~~

'Got it.' Meena slowly crept towards the card table as she warned the Chronos man, 'I'm starting now, be prepared.' The masked men chuckled quietly at each other and were luckily completely relaxed in their chairs as Meena snuck up behind them invisibly. Meena took a deep breath and smirked as she reached out and yanked two of the chairs back hard, the unsuspecting men that sat in them falling backwards with a yelp. The camouflage faded away as Meena lifted a leg and kicked another right in the jaw, causing his upper body to jerk away and fall limp on another man.

Nikolas was looking in awe at Meena (who was now wearing cargo pants and a tank top) until the other three men at the table stood up in reaction to a girl appearing out of thin air and attacking them. Meena began sparring with two of the men as the other helped the chair-fallen men up. They looked pretty angry.

'You will not fight the girl!' Meena heard Nikolas order in their minds, but she was focused on her own battle. She felt her heart pounding with anxiety and excitement. She activated her favorite powers to use when fighting big groups of enemies, which was to see 5 seconds into the future. Meena was able to dodge and attack with insane precision now, given that she could see their every move beforehand. One of the men was holding two of his fingers out as he fought her, trying desperately to land a hit specifically with the fingers touching her. The three men that Nikolas had mentally spoken to froze in confusion, their fists shaking as they tried to fight the conflicting command. As Meena blocked a punch from the other man, the finger guy jabbed Meena's side. Her muscles tensed in incredible pain that spread out from where he touched and she heard the buzzing sound that she noticed earlier that night when the Chronos man was being taken. Meena chuckled dryly to herself. It was a freaking taser power.

Rewind five seconds, and Meena was smiling now. She kicked the taser guy in the chest. The other man fighting Meena lifted a chair above his head, fully prepared to knock the woman out, when she grinned smugly at him. She stuck out two of her fingers and felt an electric current flow through them just as she jabbed him in the stomach. There was a buzzing sound and the man's body tensed and shook, causing him to fall to the ground with the chair crashing on top of him. Meena looked at her fingers, pretty impressed at the new power. She smirked at the taser guy, who was completely shocked that she had just used his power. He continued to fight her frantically now, with his own fingers out as his weapon.

Giving up on attempting to get to the girl, the other three men turned towards Nikolas with menacing grins before walking swiftly to him. Nikolas raised his eyebrows and began trying to scoot away towards Meena like an inchworm. "Uh… help!" he called out to her.

Meena landed a taser hit on the masked man's collarbone, then quickly turned to see the elegant Chronos man on his belly, pushing himself towards her with his knees. For a moment, her face was a very obvious mixture of confusion and pity as she watched him with a gaping mouth. She shook her head, then walked past him while trying to avoid looking at the poor man again. As she neared the henchmen, none of them tried to fight her. 'I guess he managed to keep all three of his orders on these guys,' she thought to herself as she crouched and spun her leg out, sweeping all three masked men off their feet and onto their backs. Meena then walked around and crouched next to the men's scrunched up, groaning faces. She held her fingers up as a mock gun barrel and blew on them with a maniacal grin before tasing all three men in the neck.

~~~

Nikolas felt his body trying to give out as he sighed in relief. That woman actually beat six grown men with just herself and a taser power? Well, taking them completely by surprise played a factor too. But still! The woman untied him swiftly and he stood up unsteadily. He stumbled over to the three men she had just tased and took off their masks, checking to see if he knew any of them. He didn't recognize any of the faces, not that he expected to. He just wanted to be sure. When he stood up again, a wave of dizziness washed over him. He swayed as the room began to spin. Seeing him struggle, the woman looped her arm around his back and pulled his arm around her shoulder, supporting a barely conscious Nikolas as they made their way out the back door of the garage and into the quiet night.

When Nikolas awoke again, he flinched at the bright light that was pouring in from large windows on the wall across from him. He sat up in the large bed and looked around at what was obviously a hotel room, and a nice one at that, even for his standards. He still had a small headache, but that didn't stop him from getting up and making himself a cup of coffee from the machine in the mini-kitchen of the suite. He heard a door shut behind him and turned with his cup to see the woman coming out the bathroom wearing matching red satin shorts and a tank top while drying her dark, wet hair with a towel. He froze in place, his coffee cup lingering just in front of his lips.

The woman looked at him confused and glanced behind herself to see if anyone else was there. "Is something wrong?" she asked in her soft, yet sultry voice with an eyebrow raised.

Nikolas sipped his coffee quickly, choking and coughing a bit while shaking his head. "Nope, no, everything's fine. You just surprised me."

The confusion on her face faded slowly as she tossed the wet towel aside and passed by him to make her own cup of coffee. "You should shower too, Chronos man. You look like a HOT mess."

Nikolas whipped around, gasping at her. "Did you just call me 'Chronos man'?!" he exclaimed.

Meena laughed while the coffee streamed into her cup from the machine, amused at his offended tone. "Well, I don't remember your name so that's what I've been calling you. That, and Idiot." She shrugged her toned shoulders.

He stuck his nose in the air and scoffed at her ignorance. "My name is Nikolas. And yours?"

Ignoring the question, Meena replied, "Alright Niko, can you go take a shower now? You kind of stink." She stirred sugar into her coffee.

"Nikolas," he corrected.

Meena turned around, sipping from her mug. "Mmhmm, alright Niko."

Niko opened his mouth to correct her again, then decided to just close it, sighed, and left for the bathroom while Meena smiled triumphantly.