A tough battle

The sound of a fierce struggle could be heard from outside the room. Gunshots rang out and panicked shouts and screams accompanied a few floor shaking explosions.

Before long a large muscle headed goon in a tattered suit covered in frost came rushing into the room.

"B-b-boss the Queen sh-shes here" The goon shivered as he reported the news to Vincent. Vincent was about to relay some orders but before he could his goon was frozen solid.

Even with his underling becoming a ice statue just a few feet away from him Vincent didn't show a worried expression.

A women whose body seemed to be entirely made of ice walked through the door. She stood at around five feet eight inches tall.

Her tight and athletic body gave off a different attraction compared to Rosanna but was still very alluring.

Her light blue hair was tied into a bun and her face was devoid of any features instead looking like a flawless mirror made of ice. Her entire body gave off a faint blue light.

She turned her head and after seeing Detective Chang in his current state her body faintly trembled. Vincent clapped his hands clap clap clap.

"Very impressive Queen, but you really should have just counted your blessings and stayed hiding. I left you alone because taking care of you would have been a hassle, not because I didn't have the means.

Rosey! Show our guest here what happens when you don't behave" Rosanna replied "Sure thing Pops"

Rosanna's body underwent a rapid transformation. Her height grew to a towering six feet six inches tall and all of her muscles swelled in size.

Short orange fur grew all over her body as her legs changed to the shape of a cat's. At the end she was a large muscular bipedal beast with black razor sharp claws and orange fur.

Her glowing yellow eyes focused onto Queen "Lets have some fun Snowflake"

Rosanna's image seemingly disappeared before reappearing right next to Queen. Her large claw shot towards Queen's face but before it could get close it was intercepted by a small wall of ice that condensed out of midair.

The claw left deep scars in the ice but it lost all of its momentum in the process. A spear made of ice materialized and plunged towards Rosanna's heart but shattered after colliding with her arm as she blocked the attack.

Although the ice attacks couldn't pierce through her defense they would imbed a cold chill in wherever they connected so Rosanna shifted to a more active defense.

Weaving and dodging, shifting from side to side or just moving to different spots in the room Rosanna was able to dodge all of Queen's attacks but left unable to retaliate herself.

Detective Chang watched on as Queen and Rosanna exchanged countless blows within the span of a few breaths.

'This doesn't make sense. Queen was nowhere near this powerful before. Even if she made another breakthrough this is too big of a leap.

Could she have?…' His thoughts were interrupted when a massive shock wave knocked over the chair he was chained to.

Rosanna charged at Queen and slammed both of her claws with all of her strength. Queen raised both of her hand conjuring a thick wall of ice.

The collision resulted in a large impact that sent a shock wave flying through the room. Realizing the stalemate between them Queen raised one of her hands towards Rosanna.

Using a large portion of her remaining energy Queen entrapped Rosanna in a large globe of thick ice that had a strong glow of blue light.

Trapped in the ice Rosanna attempts to break out but all of her attacks only result in small marks and scratches.

Before Queen could walk over to Detective Chang, Vincent appeared from the cover of the knocked over table.

He raised a pistol in his hand and aimed at the defenseless detective Bang! Bang! "Nooo!" Queen screamed with a mechanical sounding voice as she then shot a spike of ice into the heart of Vincent.

After being impaled with the cold spike Vincent dropped his pistol and collapsed to the floor.

Queen ran over to Detective Chang. She cut his chains with a blade of ice and re-positioned his body to inspect his wounds.

There was a gunshot in the bottom and center of his abdomen. Queen used her powers to cover the wounds in a layer of ice in order to stop the bleeding.

"Queen we need to get out of here" The detective's weak voice brought Queen's attention back to their situation. She nodded as she lifted him into her arms and carried him away.

Seeing her father killed in front of her and seeing the one responsible for it walking away Rosanna went berserk.

"Queen you fucking bitch! I swear to God I'll rip you apart! You and your alliance are dead! Dead you hear me!!??"

She clawed and smashed at the ice globe imprisoning her but was still unable to escape.

Queen carried him out of the room and out of the house. As they made their way out Detective Chang saw the aftermath of Queen's battles.

Multiple members of the Altino crime family were frozen into ice sculptures and parts of the house were covered in a layer of frost. With the detective in her arms Queen stood outside in the yard of the Altino house.

Queen let out a high pitched whistle and shortly after a large crow the size of a bear landed in front of them.

"DarkBird, back to the base. Don't let anyone follow us." After hearing her mechanical voice the crow nodded and flew into the sky with Queen and the detective on it's back.

Inside of a dimly light location. It appeared to be a large cavern carved out of dirt. Queen stood outside of a door.

A barefoot man dressed in a simple shirt and jeans walked out of the room. He approached Queen "I tried my best Queen but his vitality is draining too quickly.

I don't think even Gold Owl would be able to do anything for him. All I could do was give him a life plant but that's just buying him some more time."

Queen seemed to stare into the distance before she waved the man off "I understand. Thank you Spring"

The man nodded and left. Queen opened the door and walked into the room. There she saw the detective's sickly pale face.

He laid on a bed dressed in a medical gown with a portion cut out from the abdominal area where a small plant whose leaves gave off a faint green glow seemed to be growing out of his stomach.

"I….You…. Detective…" Queen's trembling mechanical voice stammered. Seeing Queen struggling to talk his pale face that had healed from the swelling broke into a wide smile.

"Haha come on babe, how much longer do you want to use that fake voice? And how about you put away the disguise? I would really like to spend my last moments gazing into your beautiful green eyes"

Queen's body began trembling uncontrollably "You…..You knew?" Alex nodded "I connected the dots about a year after we started dating.

Hehe you're the only reason I started working for the Altinos. I wouldn't have risked it for anyone else." Queen's body suddenly exuded a blinding blue light dissolving her disguise.

Cream white skin wrapped around a soft round face. Her delicate button nose had a splash of freckles across it.

But most captivating about her were her deep green eyes that felt like the center of a forest, full of life and vitality.

But beneath these mesmerizing eyes were now a stream of tears racing down her beautiful face "Baby" She stuttered and sobbed as she buried her face into his chest.

Her previous blue hair became undone from a bun as lush vibrant blonde hair fell past her shoulders.

Queen, on of the most powerful N-Types in the country and the leader of the largest organized group of N-Types in the world with members spanning across the globe was now crying her heart out in the embrace of a simple detective from a small station in the city.

Not as a fighter, a ruler, a civil movements leader but as Sarah Chang, a wife, a lover, a women in heartache.

Alex rubbed her head as he embraced her on his deathbed trying his best to sooth and comfort her. "Did you find my laptop and the hard-drive?" Alex asked.

Sarah raised her head from his embrace, her red eyes puffy from crying. She fought to hold in her tears and to control her trembling voice

"Sniffle, I did. But why did you leave your tracker with them? If you kept it with you I would have been able to find y-you so much sooner."

Alex looked up sighed "Sigh, It's because I didn't want to take the risk. I'm already dying and seeing as how your crying right now I assume you know that to.

It was more important to make sure you found those than to prolong what little time I have left." He caressed her face as he wiped away her tears.

"Now I need you to listen to me Babe. All the info you need is on my laptop and the hard-drive but no matter what, you need to unify all the N-Types.

I'm not just talking about the Equalists or the Reformists. You need to unify all of them. It's your guys' only chance"

Alex began to tell the story of what had transpired recently and the events leading up to it. Everything started when he obtained some information from a peculiar N-Type named 'The Dealer'

After he had saved The Dealer's life and completed a task for him The Dealer rewarded him with some information as well as three favors.

The information was vague and only said that Kim should go to a unused meat processing factory at 1 am at a specific date.

After arriving at the factory and foiling what appeared to be a simple case of human trafficking alarm bells started going off like crazy in Kim's mind when he discovered that all the victims were N-Types.

After Alex left the victims in the care of the Professor he began running the identities of the assailants through every database accessible to him.

But each of them were ghosts, no records of them ever existed. But what was most horrifying was that despite all of his firewalls, IP bouncers, and other safety precautions Alex was being traced by an unknown entity.

Even with using a burner computer with no information about him Alex knew that he was in real danger this time around.

After making all the preparations he could in a short amount of time Alex went off the grid as he started hunting for information.

After numerous disguises and break ins to different high security facilities/locations and brushing past death in high stake escapes he was able to gather the information to narrow down the identity of the danger looming over him and N-Types all over the country, maybe even the world.

Within his laptop and the external hard-drive are complete backgrounds on what appeared to be all the N-Types in the country.

From the start of what was dubbed 'The Storm' to when they first awakened and what their abilities are.

All the information on N-Types living and dead could be found as well as a vague plan that outlines the possibility of implanting artificial loyalty and wiping out the freewill of N-Types in order to possibly use them as a military resource.

As he finished informing Sarah of what had transpired over the past few days he spat up a mouthful of blood.

The green glow of the plant growing out of his stomach dimmed as it slightly trembled, leaves falling off one by one.

"No no no! Baby listen to me you're gonna be okay. You just have to hold on. Gold Owl is on his way back from a mission. Please just hold on!"

Tears raced down her face again as she broke down into a sob. She gently embraced his head as she snuggled her face against his.

She continued to affectionately hold him seemingly unaware of the blood smearing on the side of her face.

With a smile still on his face Alex affectionately gazed into Sarah's green eyes "Babe, I don't have a lot of time left.

So I need you to listen to me. Can you do that for me?" Sarah nodded as tears streamed down her face, her mouth closed as she whimpered.

Alex continued "I'm guessing that your huge power boost didn't happen naturally right?" Sarah nodded.

"Two days ago The Dealer came to our base. He hypnotized me without me even knowing. After I woke up my powers were at a totally different level."

'So Sarah's power boost was his doing after all. The Dealer is a lot of things but he's always made fair deals.'

He was dragged out of his thoughts when another fit of coughing caused his chest to be dyed red.

He used both hands to hold Sarah's "I know you and I know how you get. That's why I'm going to tell you now not to blame yourself. I might be dying but you made my life worth living in the first place."

Tears started streaming from the corners of his face but his smile remained "I know I've told you this a hundred times before but I want to you to know that I really mean it.

Ever since my parents died my world was always a dull gray. I kept dragging my feet through the days thinking that things would get better, but they never did.

It got to the point where opening my eyes in the morning was a battle with myself because it seemed so pointless.

Truth be told the only reason I didn't jump in front of a bus was probably because I didn't want to hurt my older brother."

As he was talking Kim's eyes began losing focus but they still locked onto Sarah's blurry outline "By the time I graduated everything had become a pointless struggle, at least until I met you.

I always wondered why a beautiful business women who seemed to have the world on the tip of her fingers would approach a cop in training like me. But I knew one thing.

That it was a real shame that a girl as pretty as this always seemed to have on a fake smile, like she was hiding her real self behind a mask.

Before I knew it my curiosity turned into a goal of me wanting to make her genuinely smile, to let her free herself from having to hide.

After that the goal turned into spark of emotion. And that tiny spark is what brought back my humanity."

By now Alex's ever so steady voice began to tremble as he broke down into sobs "So thank you Sarah.

Thank you for being my best friend, and my closest companion. Thank you for spoiling me as a husband, and for bringing color back into my life."

The strength in his hands began waning even further causing Sarah to cry even more hysterically. But opposite to Sarah, Alex appeared rather comfortable.

Even as his end approached his mind was at ease knowing that he had done all he could to protect his loved ones.

With his final ounce of strength he opened his mouth "At the University look for professor Wikmen and tell him I sent you and tell him about the dangers that lay ahead.

Also, you can trust The Dealer. If there is ever something that you can't take care of just leave a bent quarter outside a door and he'll show up.

But be careful, these favors should be treated as a last ditch effort and only be used in the most dire of circumstances."

Sarah nodded her head vigorously as she burned Kim's words and his voice into her mind, afraid of losing both forever.

Alex became quiet as his breathing began to slow. Sarah hugging him gently in her arms. Just as the last leaf fell and as the plant lost the last bit of it's glow the faintest whisper could be heard "I…love you…"

Everything was dark but surprisingly warm. 'That's funny. I always thought Hell would be more uncomfortable?'

But then the sound of a digital alarm clock brought some peace to his mind. 'I guess Gold Owl was able to heal me.

And I was so dramatic last night. Sarah is never gonna let me live that down hehe' A smile spread across his face as he thought of how ridiculous that moment would be looking back at it in the future.

As the alarm clock kept beeping Alex stayed in bed content to remain in the warmth of the blanket. Soon the digital clock switched from an alarm to radio as a female radio hosts began introducing a song before it began playing.

"Good morning LA. I hope you all have enough energy to get on through with the first day of the week.

But don't worry if you don't because up next is a real banger. Presenting Lil Bazooka zontal's newest hit single: OX Tour"

A melodic jumble of words began mingling with a high production beat 'Is today a retro day? I haven't heard this song since high school.'

Alex was suddenly alerted as he laid in bed 'Wait, Did she just say 'Newest hit single'?'