Chapter 7

The evening breeze caressed Iris's hair as she looked down at the sight in front of her. She saw several hooligans dancing around a flaming trash can like some sort of drugs and alcohol filled Native American ritual. But Iris wasnt focused on that. Instead, she was counting the number of the Labradors gang members currently at the hideout.

Counting the ones outside as well as the ones inside the dilapidated, she counted 43 Labradors. Basically, the entire gang was here. After confirming their numbers, Iris began to formulate a plan in her head when suddenly, she felt her phone vibrate. She didn't need to look at the caller ID to know who it was. She put the phone on her ear and asked with irritation. "What?"

She heard Sean chuckle before he replied. "Charming as always. Just thought I would give you one last gift. Look inside your pocket." The moment he finished his sentence, Iris felt some thing in her jacket's pocket which was empty prior to this. He dug her hands inside to find a vial filled with a bluish li.

" What's this? " Iris nonchalantly asked with was met with a lengthy pause. Then she heard Sean stammer. "Are you not curious how I am doing that?".

"Should I be?"

"Well yes!"

"Well if you must know. I was monitoring my surrounding via the plants after I found out who you were. When you had your buddy deliver the second phone, I saw the same residue your friend emiited during teleportation that night. So in short your friend is simply teleporting the items near me or in this case on to my person. Some kind of scare tactic is it? So to sum it up, no I am not curious at all. Oh and I also know that you are spying on me with a drone." Iris said as she looked up straight into the lens of the drone which was over 200 meters away. The line then went silent for a while.

" So what is this? " she asked again.

Sean cleared his throat as he answered." That is a specialised pheromone we developed just for you. It is designed to manipulate and control the minds of people. It's similar to how some plants release pheromones which makes the insects hostile towards those who harm it. Its just a little insurance. To make sure that our mutual friend gives you the truth."

Iris glanced at the vial of liquid with skeptical look. She then asked." Why are you giving this to me? " She asked. She heard Sean chuckle before he replied." No reason. Think of it as scientific curiosity." he said.

" Anything else I should know about this?"

Well, theoretically, this pheromone is designed to be used on men, so it may not have as much effect on women compared to men. Oh and people can still resist it's effect if say they have higher metabolism or mental stability. Now drink up. We dont have all night. " He said with a little impatience in his voice.

Iris slowly opened the vial and drank it as she was confident that her body can easily purify it if any harmful substances were there. A few moments later, her body had processed this pheromone and she could now create and expel it at will.

After making sure that there weren't any side effects, Iris began to formulate a plan of attack. She planned on blocking the Labrador's escape routes before attacking them head on. She could have taken them down with stealth but she wanted to see them suffer as she takes them down one by one.

But just as she was about to begin she detected a familiar figure approach her. She didn't bother turning around as she asked. "How did you know I was here?" Just as she finished her sentence, Sina walked out of the shadows with her arms crossed. "You do remember that I can also use Ki right? With my mastery, finding someone in a city is just a piece of cake to me."

Iris groaned as realization hit her. However it was quickly replaced by a glare as she asked. "Are you here to stop me?" Sina shook her head as she looked into her eyes. "No." she replied.

"..."

"..."

"Then why are you here?"

"I want to see what you choose."

"What do you mean?"

"You will know soon enough."

Knowing that Sina was not going to elaborate, Iris got ready for her assault. After confirming the positions of her targets, she placed her hand on her face. Several tendrils came out of her skin began to weave together to form a mask. (Basically like those opera masks) She had learned her lesson after Sean informed her that he knew her identity. She was not going to make the same mistake again.

Iris jumped off the roof while creating a bed of foliage on the ground to break her fall. When she landed on the it, the foliage began to recede except for a large, thick branch which slowly began to crawl up, the wall at an incline making a clear path over the walls of the base. Iris walked on the said branch while commanding the surrounding plants to expand around the base via their roots. When she reached the wall, she dropped onto the ground at a secluded area of the base. Here, Iris made a small cut on her finger and poured a few drops of blood onto the ground. A few moments later a large black vine covered in thorns came out of the ground and rose up 15 meters in to the air before impaling it self back into the ground. It then began to devour the plants Iris had scattered around the base and began to grow in size. Within minutes, the black vine had covered the area of the base from under the ground. Iris had to catch her breath as the whole ordeal had left her drained. She however felt a little pride as she had covered an area of 200metric squares in a span of minutes.

After regaining some energy, she slowly advanced into the center of the base while simultaneously priming her trap. She made two more smaller tendrils that were discreetly following her. When she reached the middle of the base, she let out a shrill whistle which earned her the attention of the three guards who were the only ones who were completely sober as well as 10 of the other member who had yet to black out from the drugs and or alcohol abuse. When they saw who had whistled, they began to surrounding all the while making cat calls, ogling at her amongst other things.

The from amongst the crowd, she saw the man from the video. It was the leader of the Labrador's aka the son of the chief of police, Arthur Vance. He was walking over to Iris with a bottle of cheap whiskey in hand. He leered at Iris as he said. "Halloween not until a few months you know? What are you doing walking around with a mask?"

Then, one of his henchman called out. "Maybe she's here to party with us. She probably wants to have a good time." This incited several raunchy bursts of laughter as well as more cat calls and wolf whistles directed at Iris. Iris was unfazed as she said. "Arthur Mathias Vance?" This drained the color from Arthur's face as he had been leading the Labradors under an alias. However, before he could say anything, Iris cut him off. "Time to pay the devil his due" she said as she snapped her fingers. (Thanos style)

What followed next was chaos. Several tendril shot out of the ground puncturing through gang members at the same time, killing half of them of them. The survivors upon seeing the carnage ran towards the exit. But before they could exit, a wall of thorns erupted from the ground impaling two more of them and trapping the rest inside. The remaining gangsters as well as Arthur then ran into the building and Iris let them. She stood in place as the base was filled with cries and yells from the panicked gangsters.

Arthur had managed to mobilise most of the remaining member of the Labradors. At least the ones who were not passed out due to their merriments. After gathering the men, they had gotten in to their armouries and armed themselves to the teeth. Pistols, submachine guns, assault rifle, shotguns and even rocket launchers.

Of course this did not bother Iris much. Despite outnumbering their intruder, the goons were not in peak condition, some of them were not holding the weapons correctly while others were having difficulty to even move. A squad had reached the windows facing Iris on the second floor. The squad then opened fire on Iris but Iris did nothing. The barrage of bullets hit the ground around Iris harmlessly, missing her by several meters. She involuntarily snickered over the crew's incompetence. She raised her arm and almost immediately a vine shot out of the ground near her and impaled one of the gangsters. And before the rest could react, the vine then charged at another one of them and impaled him in the stomach. The rest began to panic and dispersed but the vine began to took them out before they could get far.

While this was happening, several goons armed with rocket launchers had gone up to the roof and got ready to fire. Iris looked up to see them fire a volley of rockets at her. She simply waved her arm and several layers of vines sprouted out of the ground and tanked the volley. When the smoke cleared the surviving Labradors looked on with despair when they saw Iris unharmed. They tried to reload and fire another volley only to be interrupted when the building began to shake. Iris had commanded the plants to destroy the buildings support beams as well as its foundation causing it come crashing down like a house of cards killing all the Labrador's. All except one.

Iris walked to the wrecked remains of the building. She stopped next to a pile of debris and had her plants lift them up. There was a trap door beneath the rubble. With a swift kick, the door gave out revealing a flight of stairs leading down into the ground. Iris walked down the stairs all the while checking on the person hiding at the bottom. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she was met by a high tech door. She wordlessly raised her hands and a pair of vines came out of nowhere and tore the door revealing a panic room currently occupied by a certain gang leader with soiled pants.

Iris flicked her wrist and a vine whip came out of her wrist. However, unlike the previous ones she made, this whip had several thorns. Iris then brought the whip down on Arthur. A crack sounded through the panic room followed by Arthur's pained cry. 7 subsequent cracks followed as Iris began to mercilessly whip Arthur. By the time she was done, Arthur was covered in cuts and was bleeding profusely and sobbing on the ground.

Iris then asked menacingly "Who hired you to attack the venue? I know that you could not have afforded all those equipment. Who was it?"

Arthur began to convulse before blurting out. "I can't say. They will kill me." Iris knew that she could get him to talk given enough time but there was no telling when the police were going to arrive so she did the most logical thing. She flicked her wrist once more and the vine whip receded inside her and was replaced by a flower. She then grabbed Arthur by his throat and forced him to open his mouth. Arthur saw the flower secrete a blue liquid and he could only watch as the liquid dripped into his mouth.

Suddenly his face became blank. Knowing that the pheromone had worked, Iris asked once more. "Who hired you to bomb the venue?" Arthur looked at Iris and replied. "I do not know. My father introduced them to me. I only saw them a few times. Enough to know that they were not to be messed with."

"Thank you." Iris said. But at the next moment, a vine impaled itself into Arthur's chest, ending his life. She then turned to leave but not before placing the phone with the incriminating evidence on Arthur

.........

Sean looked at Iris's handiwork. He was ecstatic like a child who had found his favorite toy. He pressed several buttons on his computer. The drone's feed was then replaced by a dark room. A figure can be seen sitting on a throne obscured by the darkness.

"Mi Lord." Sean respectfully greeted.

The person on the throne slowly raised his head as he acknowledged Sean. "Is it her?" Sean asked respectfully. The dark figure replied. "Yes. I am certain. She is the one. All we have to do now is take her powers and the entire world will be at my mercy."

"Then we have no time to lose. Say the word and I shall capture her at once." Sean said enthusiastically.

"No." Figure replied, shocking Sean. "She is far too weak to be of use to me at the moment. The girl has not yet met Her. And until she does you will do nothing. Keep the other " interested parties" away from her. She must not fall into their hands. " He continued.

Sean looked at his Lord and ansewered." Yes mi Lord."