Chapter 23

Lie Yan stood tall in front of C as she stared at her and noticed her burning hands.

"And who's that?" Carlos asked.

"No way! It's that fire lady! We fought a while ago. She was working for Malone!" Said Mina.

"Why is she here?" Jean-Pierre.

"And can we trust her?" Emilia asked.

C and Lie Yan stared each other down as Lie Yan approached C. But C was surprised that she was able to withstand her heat.

"I will only warn you once, young lady. Stand down." Said Lie Yan.

C held her hand at Lie Yan and shot multiple heat blast as Lie Yan ignited her fist with intense heat and slapped the blast as they distorted. Lie Yan quickly made her way to C heated up her arms and legs as they glowed with intense heat. C took a boxing stance as she swung quick jabs at Lie Yan, but Lie Yan crouched down low and swiped her foot at C's feet. C landed hard on the ground, but she leaned on her upper back and pushed her feet at Lie Yan. But she side stepped as C's feet passed by her. C got back on her feet and start swinging powerful punches at Lie Yan. She immediately felt how strong her strikes were as her expression showed struggle. She could only parry them away as she couldn't completely block or counter from how strong the strikes were.

"I'm so glad I pretended to be knocked out when I fought her." Said Mina.

C swung her fist as Lie Yan leaned her head as it passed the side of her face. But Lie Yan grabbed her arm and quickly punched multiple parts of C's arms within a few seconds. C swung her other arm at Lie Yan, but she let go and dodged. C shook off the pain as she kept on going on the offensive, while her heat was getting hotter and increasing the radius of it. Lie Yan saw that she needed to ended it quicky and soon. C continue to swing as Lie Yan went on the defensive and started to dodging her strikes, until C got close and right hook Lie Yan on her side. Lie Yan was stunned for a second and stumbled back, until C threw a strong left punch. Lie Yan thrust her foot at her fist as that stopped the punch but pushed her back a few feet. C moved her wrist and fingers around a bit as she then pressed a button her suit as it let out more heat and her closes less constricted her movement.

"Wait, her suit was holding her back!?" Carlos asked.

Lie Yan stood ready, until C rushed in at a faster speed and uppercut Lie Yan in the stomach. Lie stumbled backwards but kept her composure as C kept loosened a bit as she was being cocky. Lie Yan then took her stance as she remembered something Mizuko said to her before she left.

"I noticed that you don't use your ability that much." Said Mizuko.

"I recently got it. I don't know much about using it. Only to ignite my flames and to intensify them." Said Lie Yan.

"Well, you can do more. I can't say what. But I'm sure you can figure that out on your own. I mean, I learned a lot from you and your fighting style." Said Mizuko.

Lie Yan took a deep breath as she moved her arms around, building up her flames. She then condensed her flames as her arms were covered glowing fire that a small aura of fire. C then quickly approached her and threw quick jabs. Lie Yan dodged them easily as C start throwing straight and hook punches at Lie Yan. She then parried one of her punch, while using the condense flames on her arms like thrusters to give more powerful to push away the powerful blows. C was surprised as she uppercut Lie Yan, but she placed both of her hands down and stopped C's fist. But C hurled her other fist down at Lie Yan as she pushed it to her side with right. Lie Yan then quickly Karate chopped C on the neck. It stunned her as Lie Yan stepped forward and her threw multiple fast jabs onto C's body. C swung at her, but Lie Yan blocked her arm and quickly punched specific parts of her arm, hitting the nerves on her arm. C couldn't move her arm well as Lie Yan spin kicked C in the face, making her stumble back and breaking her suits mask off. She stumbled as they all saw her face. Carlos got a good look at her and immediately remember his little sister as she noticed he saw her.

"Elena…?" Said Carlos.

But she turned back to Lie Yan and saw that was waiting for her to get back. C was about to keep going, until she saw D on a roof as he looked at her. He went off as C pressed a button her suit as it constricted her body as well as lowered the temperature back to normal. Lie Yan was on her guard, but C walked away from the fight.

"Be honest, my heat was getting to you wasn't it?" C asked.

Lie Yan didn't respond as her vision was getting blurry from becoming overheated.

"Until the next time…if that happens. I wish to face you properly." Said C.

"Elena! Is that you!?" Carlos shouted.

But she ignored Carlos as she kept on walking, while Lie Yan fell on her knees. She was breathing in and out heavily as Emilia flew to her as Jean-Pierre and Ghigau ran as well.

"Are you alright? Ouch!" Emilia asked as she almost burnt her fingers.

"I will be fine. You need to help her." Said Lie Yan as she looked at Kimberly.

Kimberly was still in pain as Ray was covering up her arms with his shirt that he tore up.

"She needs help, quick!" Ray shouted.

Allen ran over to help as Irons was wondering why they would attack out of nowhere and leave. He then got an idea as he ran over to Mr. Welch's office and broke the door down.

"Stacy!" Said Irons.

But he then found Stacy sitting down with the pencil in her mouth as she was sitting down near the window as the sun was hitting her.

"Um, you know the door has a knob to open it, right?" Stacy replied.

Irons was confused as he notice that she had a necklace like device that was around her neck and the main piece was attached to her upper chest.

It was moments later as Kimberly and the others were being treated. Mary, Florence and Allen had small burn marks on a part of their arms or legs. Kimberly's arms were badly burned, until Mr. Welch arrived and approached her.

"I need someone tell give me their life energy." Said Mr. Welch.

"I'll do it!" Said Ray.

"If you need more, I'll give some." Said Carlos.

"Excellent. Place your hands on my shoulders. Kimberly, I need to grab your arms. This will hurt, but I promise the pain will go away soon." Said Mr. Welch.

Kimberly kept quiet but nodded as Mr. Welch grabbed her arms as she moaned from the pain. Mr. Welch's hands started to glow as he was drawing life energy from Ray and Carlos as transferred them into Kimberly's arms. Her arms were being healed as everyone was surprised at Mr. Welch's ability.

"How are you doing that?" Carlos asked.

"I have the ability to manipulate life energy. I can draw it out of people, but I need to be in contact with them. I mostly use it to heal others. Downside is that I can only heal, not restore it how it once was. So she'll have scars on her." Said Mr. Welch.

Kimberly arms were healing, but she had burn scars on her arms.

"Are you okay?" Ray asked.

"Mm-hmm. Thank you for shielding me. That was very brave of you." Said Kimberly.

"Of course. You were brave too." Said Ray.

They both kissed as Carlos and Mr. Welch looked the other way, awkwardly. But they noticed Stacy and Irons approaching Lie Yan.

"Who are you and why are you here?" Stacy asked.

"Easy, Stacy. She helped us. This is Lie Yan. She gave Mizuko a job. And their close friends." Said Emilia.

"I was sent here by Mizuko. She wanted me to tell you all that she and James are alright. They're both at a safe zone. James is recovering, but he should be fine." Said Lie Yan.

"That's good to hear." Said Stacy.

"Hey, what is that?" Allen asked as he noticed the device on her.

"Oh, this? Well…" Said Stacy.

"What happened?" Beverly asked.

They all turned and saw Beverly leaning against a box as she was struggling to walk from her bullet wound. It was moments later as everyone was sitting down and talking. Everyone was caught up with everything as Beverly was sitting next to Kimberly as they were holding hands. Kimberly was leaning on Beverly's side, while Stacy was standing in front of everyone else.

"This attack was planned by Steiner." Said Stacy.

"Obviously, since he sent his super strong enhanced." Said Mina.

"But why? That doesn't make sense. Russo won. Why would he attack us while we're down?" Said Mary.

"To get rid us. But the way C fought. It felt like she wasn't trying to hurt us. Though, some of us did get injured. By the way, are you doing well?" Irons asked.

"Oh, yes. I'm fine. You don't need to worry about me. And thank you, Mr. Welch." Said Kimberly.

"Anytime, my dear." Said Mr. Welch.

"So why did they do this?" Allen asked.

"It was for them to distract you all for D to get to me." Said Stacy.

"Wait, D was with you?" Emilia asked.

"How did we not notice the guy who always wears black? He sticks out the most out of all of us. Besides Irons." Said Mina.

"That's what D is good at." Said Stacy.

"But why did he want to see you?" Ghigau asked.

"After a little pep talk with Irons. I wanted to fight again. I'm sorry that my plan fail. And I don't want to hear that it's fine. You all trusted your lives with me. And everyone almost died. So I thought a new and better plan. But nothing worked. Russo has a strong army of men who are enhanced. Capos who have ridiculously strong abilities. And others who allied with him who help him run this city. I thought I was at my wits end, until I heard the fight. That's when D grabbed me and trapped me in the office. He held this gun at me and shot me right here." Said Stacy, pointing at the neck's main piece.

She then pressed a button the device as they all heard static frequency as it cleared up.

"But it was not meant to kill you." Said Steiner.

"Is that…?" Beverly asked.

"Yes, it is I. Dr. Wilhelm Steiner." Said Steiner.

"What is going on!?" Mina asked, with a confusion as her eyes spun.

"What the hell do you want!?" Ghigau asked, furiously.

"Please, allow me to tell you the purpose of all of this." Said Steiner.

"Hey, what if that's a tracking device?" Emilia asked.

"Yeah! What is that?" Mina asked.

"It's in the name, dummy." Said Allen.

"Shall I call another time? To let them settle down?" Steiner asked Stacy.

"Guys, take it easy! Let him speak. You want to hear this" Said Stacy.

"Why? Why should we let that bastard talk after what he did to us!?" Ghigau asked.

"Because he's our only chance of getting rid of Russo, once and for all! Look, I don't like the thought of working with…him. But we have no other choice. So please, listen to him." Said Stacy as they all stayed quiet.

"I wish to form an alliance with Stacy and with all of you if that is possible. I promise that Russo will fall and die. Since I too wish for his death as well." Said Steiner with hate in his voice.