Part 1.

"Hey Stanley," Bentley pushed his fist onto his partner's arm, "You're falling asleep again."

"Well sue me," Stanley stretched, yawning. "Nothing ever happens here."

"Yeah, but what if the Phantom shows up? We did receive that cargo earlier today."

"The Phantom doesn't exist man," Stanley groaned, kicking himself away on his wheeled chair, spinning around idly, "Just the sick tales of drunkard security guards and children."

"But what about the calling card the robbed places kept receiving?"

"Yeah? Well, we received none. Even if that guy existed, he didn't send the card."

"I suppose... But haven't you heard? Every major corporation in L.A.'s been hit lately. It's a wave of phantom thefts. Important documents, formulas, even the expensive art in office rooms were reported to be missing."

"Big deal, probably someone in those places got clever and made off with the stuff. Happens all the time, especially when you give employees a hard time," Stanley stretched again, lazily turning around, his eyes lightly fluttering over the multitude of wall monitors for surveillance. "Stupid ghost stories. I was having a good dream too."

"Hey, sorry for reminding you to do your job," Bentley laughed, "Seriously though. You know what I hear? It's not actually a ghost, but an animal."

Stanley muffled a loud chuckle, "Alright now, you're really into too much fiction. An animal with an overdeveloped brain makes a fool out of every security team and makes off with expensive documents and art."

"Well it's possible right?"

"Only it's not! What kind of animal would be interested in art if not to make a nest on top of it?!"

Bentley slumped on his chair, "Maybe you're right. It's impossible for a..." his sentence came to an abrupt end as one of the monitors showed movement but it was too fast for him to catch it. "Yo, Stanley, check camera B-5."

"What is it?" Stanley rolled over to the second row of monitors and zoomed in. "I don't see anything. Bentley what are you trying to pull here?"

"I swear I saw something move, and if it was headed down that corridor then you should keep sight at B-5 or C-3!"

"Ugh, just what did you see that's got you all... WAGH!" Stanley startled as all of a sudden the face of a strange creature with a long tongue and a mouth full of fangs appeared on it, apparently it had grabbed the camera and was shaking it. "F-fuck, monster! Bentley, you seeing this?!"

"Holy shit, I'm seeing it but I'm not believing it!"

"Sound the freaking alarm!"

Leaving the camera alone, the creature turned and slid against the wall to cover. A satisfied smirk grew in the figure's face as the alarm began to sound, "Finally. I thought I would've had to go sound it off myself," Kim thought to herself. The chameleon girl brandished her claws and proceeded to grab the walls to pull her up. Soon, she was scaling towards the ceiling of the narrow corridor and crawling along it. "You have an interesting security system people," she grinned, switching night vision in her googles on. Clad in only jet black spandex, Kim was no doubt going to stick out in the illuminated hallway. Fortunately, they went out almost as soon as the alarm began to ring everywhere.

"Now, in case of a robbery, lights go out. Armed guards with infrared vision are deployed, so even if I get rid of my cute outfit and try to blend in, I'll have trouble," Kim licked her lips, already relishing her situation, her tail wagging as she waited.

She began to hear footsteps eventually, a squad was making it over to her. "You gentlemen sure love to keep a lady waiting." With that, she quickly let go of the ceiling with her hands and then launched herself forwards, pumping her muscular legs as her clawed feet gripped the ceiling hard with every step. Running along the ceiling, Kim passed the strike team and then kicked herself off to the ground. After a backflip to land on her feet, she quickly swept a guard off his feet and delivered a swift jab to his side. "Hmm, it's not you," she quickly said, jumping to a wall and bouncing up to the ceiling as the rest of the team turned.

"What happened to Lemmings?! Get the man back on his feet!"

"Sir, he's unconscious."

"Well get him back to safety. Whatever we're dealing with is dangerous. You're cleared hot!"

"Roger!" the team responded. One of the goons proceeded to carry Lemmings away. Kim grinned at this, "Oh you guys are making it too easy."

After Lemmings' partner had disappeared from view, it wasn't long before he started screaming. Kim had landed in front of him and knocked him down, standing over him while threateningly hissing like a serpent about to attack. "C'mon, bring them all to you," she thought before she jumped back up.

The team splintered and a couple went Kim's way while the others remained as backup. The ones at the scene found a terrified team-mate while Lemmings had been dropped to the ground, and immediately looked up. This time, they found her. "There!"

"Shoot!"

Their weapons went off with mighty roars of blasting gunpowder, but Kim's enhanced reflexes allowed her to bounce from the ceiling to the wall and then to another wall. "Now that's what I call a warm welcome. Okay boys, it's lights out for you!" she pounced them, smashing their faces in with both her fists. Quickly after she had dropped them unconscious, Kim searched them, but only sighed in disappointment. Her disappointment soon turned to thrill as more gunshots went off, one barely grazing her cheek. "There's more candy from the bag I suppose," she smirked, cartwheeling away and backflipping onto the ceiling to avoid the spray of rubber bullets.

"Three left... And the element of surprise is gone," Kim giggled to herself, excited over a development that would've made anyone scared. With her acrobatics, inhuman agility and reflexes, Kim continued to skip and bounce from surface to surface, the thrill causing her to enjoy the dangerous situation even more.

Eventually, the bullets stopped and guns began to click. Kim grinned, obviously not going to miss the chance. She dropped down and jabbed one enemy to his stomach and finished him with a hook to the chin. Turning around, Kim smacked the second one with her tail and used her long, prehensile and elastic tongue to snag the third and force him down on his face. With all three men incapacitated, Kim began to rummage through their unconscious bodies.

And sure enough, she came up with what she had been looking for. "Platinum ID, great," Kim grinned, then skipped off. Making a dash deeper into the complex, the chameleon finally made it to her target, a vault. After opening it with the platinum card, Kim was greeted by a small enclosed chamber full of file cabinets and a single drawboard in the center. She skipped every cabinet and only cared about the main prize in the middle. "Hello, new house in Hawaii," she smiled, storing her reward, a list of ingredients for a formula, inside her backpack before she turned around, preparing to leave. "The second team should be arriving soon..." she looked at her cell phone's clock, "But Beth said she was going to be cooking stew. I'm not missing THAT out!"

Just as she had infiltrated, Kim would no trouble getting back out.

But even as she exited the complex she had set out to steal from, Kim was completely unaware that she was being closely observed. Thanks to her fast movement, what the cameras caught wouldn't amount to more than a lunatic thief wearing a silly costume, but the observer knew more than that. "We've got our Tango," the radio at the man's chest buzzed.

"Copy that. Did she bite?"

"Affirmative. She's carrying it with her. Review order to deploy counter-measure."

"Hold."

Captain Rogers turned around on his chair, the helicopter's blades were spinning loudly. "Richards, are you ready?"

"Oh yeah, let me at her," the scorpion girl stood up from her seat, her protective faceguard covering her mouth and nose.

"You're eager, but don't forget, we're not dealing with a common crook," Rogers reminded, giving Charlie a reassuring smile, "That's why we asked Interpol for you for this job. Don't let us down."

"Right. Damn Jim, if I'd known security firms often deployed to the field from their bases to make pursuits I would've signed up for this instead of being a cop!"

Rogers threw an earpiece at Charlie. "You'll receive your orders from me through here. I'll spot for you. If the Tango proves too much, press the button on that and we'll send reinforcements. Interpol wants us to keep as quiet as possible about this though, understand?"

"Yeah yeah, no making a show of myself, or the culprit," Charlie smiled, putting the earpiece on like an accessory on her hair since she didn't have human ears. Positioning it correctly though worked just fine. She nodded.

Rogers nodded back and grabbed held his headset's transceiver to his mouth, "Deploying Stinger counter-measure."

"Stinger? Could't they have come up with a cuter code name?" Charlie flat stared towards Rogers, who merely shrugged, then made a gesture for her to get off. Charlie knocked on the door gently, which sounded like a loud bang to the pilot. He proceeded to open it for Charlie, who jumped out and flipped in the air, making a perfect landing.

Once Charlie was on the ground, Rogers buzzed in. "Stinger, the Tango is heading into the Rose Hill park. It's a hundred yards north of your position, don't lose her!"

"I'm on it!" Charlie replied, kicking off into a super speed dash while being spotted by Rogers in her pursuit of their target.

Meanwhile, Kim was talking in her phone. "Hey Beth, yeah, no. I'll be there soon. Is there stew left? Woo! I got us some pretty nice treasure you can fence tomorrow. We can go for ice-cream later," she joked, smirking. "Don't worry, I'll be there in under an hour. Keep it warm for me okay? Thanks, baby. Nah, don't worry, I didn't take any unnecessary risks," she grinned, knowing it was a white lie, but it was better than to worry Beth more than usual.

Ever since professional thief Kimberly Sanders could remember, she had a love for danger and thrill. To Kim, there was nothing like having to sneak around in a place full of guards while keeping out of sight and taking her queries right from under their noses. The money she earned was used to keep herself afloat in the everyday world, but her reward was the experience stealing gave her. With her chameleon powers and abilities, she could fool even the tightest of securities and defend herself against any surprise.

But she hadn't always been half reptile. It had happened some months ago, during a heist at the behest of her current room-mate, Bethany Myers. Kim's job had been a simple one, to retrieve an old artifact with no clear monetary value, but with a lot of academic value to Beth. The operation was supposed to be a smooth transition, were it not for the museum's last minute changes in its security detail.

It had turned out that, due to a wave of phantom thefts the titular thief "Phantom" had perpetrated, the artifact was in danger of being stolen. Unaware of this thanks to the concealment of the information on the Phantom by the government, Kim found it to be a surprise when the artifact was stolen minutes after she had arrived. Eventually Kim found out the Phantom was not just one thief, but a multitude of cultists working as moles in every target building.

As she ran, Kim looked down at her body. She wasn't human anymore, but neither had she turned into a proper chameleon; she was a cross between the two, with her female vestiges still intact, and even improved. "To think that little scale was actually a well-concealed syringe... Something so little gave me such a big image change."

Accidentally injecting herself with the compound inside the artifact, Kim transformed into a very powerful creature, and had since used her powers to take on even higher-risk and higher-paying jobs. The recent weeks however, Kim realized she had been bringing a lot of attention to herself. "Thanks to Beth though, I can just sneak around and get home without much trouble," she smiled, fond of her friend.

Beth worked as a curator for the Exposition Park museum. She had been in a relationship with Kim during their college years, and Beth was one month away from completing her thesis for an archeology major. With Beth having commissioned Kim for the job, the college girl had never once suspected the job would end with her friend turning into a half-reptile.

Thanks to her new appearance, Kim had trouble moving around during the day if she wanted to be casual, but every night she could exercise as well as steal to her heart's content.

"Heh, I still can remember Beth's reaction when I came back," she grinned to herself, leaping onto a thick tree branch as she reminisced. "Teehee, in the end, she couldn't resist me." After perching herself, she looked out to the dark night sky, pushing her googles up. "Ah, big quiet L.A. I'm so lucky Beth lets me stay over; well, with how much of the expenses I'm covering for both of us, it was a great deal!" she giggled.

"I've got the Tango in my sight. She stopped running, for some reason," Charlie informed while hiding behind a thick tree. They were so deep inside the park at night that nobody would see them with ease. "Permission to take target down?"

"Denied," Rogers spoke, "She's very slippery. If she somehow becomes aware and outruns you, the job'll be three times harder."

"Alright then, what now?"

"Continue silent pursuit, have her lead you to wherever she's headed."

Charlie agreed and kept a lookout.

Eventually, Kim's cell phone began to vibrate in her pouch. "Good," she said, hanging up without picking the call. Beth and Kim used their own codes and signals when Kim had to return home. Since Beth lived in the second floor of an apartment building, she had to make sure nobody was either hanging clothes out or taking a smoke, or just gathering with someone to drink, anything that might give them a glimpse of a giant chameleon with big boobs infiltrating their buildings.

"Tango's moving," Charlie reported, "Continuing silent pursuit." Charlie followed the spandex-clad chameleon girl all the way to her destination, having to use her environment to avoid detection. "I'm fast, but she's so damn quick," Charlie grunted a bit, almost losing sight of the running reptile at a corner.

When Kim began to scale upwards on a building, Charlie peeked out from behind a car. "She's begun vertical ascent on a 48th Street building," she told Rogers, following her query closely.

The captain appeared pensive as he took a while to respond, "Stinger, hold until you see Tango entering that building. If she goes in, you're to intercept."

"Finally some action," Charlie smiled as she saw Kim stop at the second floor where the windows opened. "I'm going in."

"Kimberly, do you have any idea what hour it is? I was worried!" Beth yelled once Kim had made her way inside. Kim flinched a bit at the loud voice.

"C'mon Beth, don't get mad. I did say I was going to stake out that building when I heard they were protecting a valuable formula," the chameleon looked apologetic after freeing her brunette mane by taking her mask and googles off. "Turns out the intel was great, and look!" she smiled, producing her catch from her backpack.

"Hmph, I told you to be home by nine so we could have stew," Beth folded her arms, averting her blue eyes from the piece of paper. After paying it a glance though, she found something suspicious on it. "Kim, hand that over."

"See? Isn't it awesome? I bet we can fetch a mil or two with it. Slippery Joe pays as high as he charges for info like..."

Beth approached and took the piece of paper. The manuscript seemed legit, but a good pair of analytical eyes like Beth's revealed something else. "It's a forgery."

"What? You're kidding me!" outraged, Kim moved beside Beth trying to see what she was seeing. "How can you tell? Why would they protect a forgery? Why would they even bother to forge a formula sheet?"

Beth appeared thoughtful before she added: "Two possibilities. One, they were duped, which is highly unlikely given the amount of scrutiny companies like that go through with their documents. Two..." she looked over Kim with a frown, "Your contact fed you half the intel."

Kim's eyes moved to the floor, "I've known Slippery Joe for years, he wouldn't dupe me. I'm his best customer."

"Kim, you know the only words scum like him deal with is money, and there's always, ALWAYS a bigger bid- wait a second," Beth stopped midstence, regaining Kim's attention, who silently stared in curiosity. Beth had been palpating the sheet of paper, suspicious of how the surface felt rougher than usual. "This sheet of paper is a few millimeters thicker than your average," she pincered a corner of the sheet with her fingers, "Kim, you didn't just bring in a forgery. There's a microtransmitter embedded in this!"

"A microtransmitter for what?"

"For tracking YOU, what else?!"

"You mean Slippery Joe sold me out?! But to who?!" Kim gasped in surprise, and then flinched as the crystal window shattered. Kim reflexively jumped in front of a startled Beth, but no stray piece of glass hit her. Thankfully, the window had mostly showered glass next to its frame rather than the inner room. Unfortunately, there was now someone perched at the window, their tail swishing left and right in wait.

Kim turned around, keeping her arms back to feel Beth and make sure she was safe. "What do you want?" she instantly snarled, baring her fangs like a wolf protecting her cub.

"Why do they even call him Slippery Joe? I had him in hand-cuffs in under five minutes," Charlie narrowed her black eyes, glaring right at Kim. "Now what do we have here? Are you some sort of overfed iguana?"

Kim quickly retorted, "I asked first!"

"Oh, but I am the one asking the questions here, lady. I don't want to get violent, so you better start cooperating before I get to show you my bad side," Charlie threatened, dropping to the floor and advancing. Now that she was closing in to the dinning room where Beth and Kim were, the two roomates could see Charlie's figure.

Beth's eyes widened as she whispered in Kim's ear, "Kim, that can't be a costume, she's like you!"

"What do you mean like me? I've got bigger boobs."

"No dummy, she's half-scorpion! You're half-chameleon, don't you find that oddly coincidential?"

"Hey, gimme a break, I was being chewed out by you until now!" Kim growled, turning back to Charlie, who seemed to be scanning the whole room with her eyes.

"Interesting pieces. I'm no art expert, but can you blame me for suspecting a downtown two-ambient apartment hanging over eight paintings and displaying half a dozen vases that coincidentially have been filed as stolen by museums and art expos?" Charlie shrugged. This made Kim snarl louder, her soft green scales starting to turn a bright red.

"Look, I'm not having a good night here, don't provoke me into doing something we'll both end regretting."

Charlie blinked a few times as Kim's scale colour changed. She was silent for a few minutes before she suddenly burst out laughing, "Hahahaha! Oh man! That's great, are you a mood lizard? Some sort of emotional streetlight?" she teased, finding the sight hilarious. Kim was bulging a vein at the back of her head already.

"That's it smartmouth, you're going down!" Beth attempted to hold Kim back, but she was so mad that it was impossible to stop the chameleon. Charlie, still laughing, did not see Kim getting under her and hooking her in the stomach.

Fortunately for Charlie, with the proportional strength of an arachnid, managed to absorb most of the damage, which left her staggering backwards only without much hurt. "Oww, haha... oww, hey, learn to take a joke will you?" Charlie groaned, still amused. Holding by her center, she dusted off and leapt backwards before Kim had a chance to slug her in the face. "Okay okay, I get the hint!"

Kim growled, "Go away!"

Charlie shook her head, adopting a battle stance, "No can do, miss. You've become a notorious thief, and the police don't like being played for fools. Mm, guess I can't blame them, they said it was a strong girl, not a six foot five mood-color iguana."

"I'm a chameleon!"

"Sheesh, don't your panties up in a twist sister. In fact, let me loosen you up!" Charlie smirked, dashing towards Kim and stopping mere feet away from her, surprising Kim.

"Damn she's fast!" the chameleon thought as she failed to stop Charlie from smashing her tail against her. Kim was hit with such great force that she was sent flying against the wall, knocking a couple of vases over. "GAH! Those were ming vases you bitch! I stole those during my first power test run!" she cried.

Charlie winced a bit, personally not looking forwards to paying for the broken stolen artifacts. "Oh grow up," she lightly said. Kim got back up to her feet, angrier than ever, her scales burning a hellish red.

"Get over here and say that to my face!" Kim reared back and then fired her tongue out like a lasso, wrapping it around Charlie's arms and waist to pull her next to her. She unexpectedly threw a punch, hitting Charlie with a lot more strength thanks to the pull. Surprised at the strength of the reptile's tongue, Charlie took the blow and rolled onto the living room's couch.

"Well goddamnit, let me say it to your face then!" Charlie grunted, getting back up, her head a little woozy from the blow. Kim snapped her tongue back in after wiggling it teasingly at Charlie, grinning. "Oh, so you're the smartmouth now are you? Fine! Kid gloves are off now, lady!"

Charlie clenched her fists, the hidden pouches in her forearms sliding out two pairs of pincers that snapped together like scissors.

"Hey, that's cheating!" Kim denounced.

"Cheating's a big word for a thief," Charlie redoubled, charging towards Kim, but the chameleon jumped out of her way faster than Charlie could grab her. Looking up, the scorpion caught sight of Kim hanging to the ceiling by gripping it really hard with her claws, but it wasn't long before the cracks extended to the worn drywall and the ceiling collapsed on Kim.

"Gah!" both Kim and Charlie's eyes widened as the ceiling collapsed on them. Fortunately, the floor above only had boxes full of clothes and random paraphernalia the neighbor had planned to move out the following morning.

Beth squealed, "Kim!" she rushed over to the pile of debris and scattered clothes and boxes. "Kim, are you alright?" the redhead asked, trying to dig around, hurling old clothes and disconnected appliances all over until she could make out the chameleon's face. The thick pieces of drywall were all over, but Kim appeared to be alright if at least a bit stunned.

"Ugh... I told you we should've moved to a better place," Kim said, feeling slightly battered. "Where's the scorpion?"

"I don't know. Do you think she's alright?" Beth asked out of concern. Kim was about to respond when suddenly she yipped.

"Aiee!"

"Kim! What's wrong?"

"She's biting my butt!" squealing, Kim jumped out of the crumbled down ceiling by exerting all her physical strength. Charlie came up from the debris, a pair of mandibles coming from her cheek pouches sliding back inside.

"Who sits on someone's face when they're trying to come out of somewhere? Seriously!" Charlie was flustered, although the experience reminded her of many people that end up jumping from an insect biting them in self-defense.

Beth backed away, feeling another bout was about to begin. She needed to do something; the scorpion girl appeared to be significantly stronger than Kim, although Kim had speed on her side. "At this rate, the whole apartment's going to come down on us!" she bit her lip, preoccupied for Kim's well being.

Elsewhere, the same man who had reported to Captain Rogers called him again. "Command, Night Owl here."

"I copy you, Night Owl. Stinger's radio comm shows static, earpiece might've gone down during the struggle with the Tango. What's your status?"

"Headed to the target building. Send coordinates please."

"Downloading to your PDA," Rogers responded, "Don't engage alone, Night Owl. You're to wait for the reinforcements."

"Copy that Command, over and out." Night Owl switched his earpiece off and then looked at the coordinates displayed on his PDA. He began to forward them elsewhere, "I'll send in my own reinforcements."

The battle between the two curvaceous ladies only escalated. Muscles exerted, appendages whipped and flailed, and more insults were barked. There was no clear winner between the two; Charlie could take anything Kim delivered, and Kim was too fast for Charlie to really land any critical blows. "Stay still!" Charlie yelled to Kim, finally having backed her to a corner. With Charlie's sharp tipped tail threatening to impale her, Kim couldn't risk a bad maneuver, so she threw both her open palms forwards, stopping Charlie.

Kim held Charlie by her fists, whimpering slightly thanks to Charlie's boulder-shattering strength, but she struggled anyway. "Oh, you're mine now!" Charlie grinned under her mask, pushing herself forwards to attempt to subdue Kim.

Kim's legs were shaking, Charlie was too strong, her knees were starting to bend, she had to crouch lest her bones broke. "D-damn you...!" she groaned, falling to one knee, her fangs gritting together.

It was then that a loud screech stopped the pair of fighter girls. The loud sound of beating wings caused Charlie to flinch in surprise as she turned around wide eyed. Before they knew it, the winged creature had made its way inside.

Beth turned around in time for the creature to pounce her, making her scream, "Ahhhh! Help!" she screamed louder, struggling against the big monster as its clawed feet gripped her by the shoulders and then proceeded to take off outside. "Kimberly!"

"Damnit, no!" in an unprecedented rush of adrenaline, Kim exerted way more strength than she was capable off and hurled Charlie to the side, who was caught by surprise thanks to the distraction. "Leave her alone you giant flying rat!" she gave chase, but the man bat flew out with its target hanging from his clawed feet. "Beth! Bethany!" she grunted, jumping out of the window into the balcony.

"Holy crap, that girl's something!" Charlie exclaimed as she got back up, promptly following the three outside. She watched as the chameleon ran along the walls with her powerful feet. "But that creature... it can't be, can it...?"

Charlie, letting out a small sigh, reconsidered her priorities. Well, good, as if I had any better plans tonight!" she jumped out, bouncing from the building's wall to the one next to it. She began to wall crawl like an expert, tailing Kim who at the same time was tailing the fast flying kidnapper.

"Fuck, he's flying way faster than I can run!" Kim thought, starting to get tired as gravity worked against her. Kim exerted her leg muscles as much as she could, but eventually she couldn't wall-run anymore, she had to dig her claws on the wall to keep herself from falling. She panted, but then she growled as her stereoscopic vision revealed Charlie was in pursuit. "Hot damn give me a break! I'll get back at you after I rescue Beth! She's got nothing to do with this!" she gasped, trying to scale up the wall but then was intercepted by Charlie.

"I only have orders to bring you in specific in, but this is an entirely different matter!" Charlie said as she scooped Kim up in her arms and easily threw her around for a piggyback ride. Using her adherent feet to wall-run without any trouble, Charlie gave chase.

"Why are you helping me?" Kim asked, frowning as she felt the embarrassment of being carried, knowing it was her fault for not being able to keep up.

"We'll play twenty questions later! We got to stop that bat, hang on!" Charlie growled, running at top speed, starting to catch up to the flier. But the flier was aware he was being pursuited, he couldn't take off to the sky until he had freed himself from the two sandwiching buildings. It let out a sharp cry as it headbutted an air-conditioner attachment, forcing it to fall down at Charlie.

The scorpion gasped, leaping to the side to avoid the falling appliance just in time. "Goddamnit, since when are they smart?!"

"They? You mean you know who that is?!" Kim asked out of bewilderment. Beth's situation had her worried the most, but deep down the thrill seeker in Kim loved this situation.

"Passenger, fasten your seatbelt!" Charlie groaned as another air conditioner fell their way, but as before Charlie was able to side step and continue the pursuit.

"Damn, he's throwing everything at us! He's going to get away!" Kim complained, Charlie wasn't going to make it. Almost at the edge, the bat let out a victorious shriek, Charlie was mere yards from catching up, and Kim knew this. As a last ditch resort, Kim pushed herself up and used Charlie's shoulders as a step to jump up. "Beth!" she cried out, attempting to grab the redhead.

"Kimmy!" Beth tried grabbing her hand, but Kim's jump had not been enough. Their fingers must've grazed each other, but the chameleon was unable to get a good grip.

The bat flapped his wings even harder, taking up to such unreachable heights, not even Kim's tongue could reach in time.

"Beth!!"

"Kiiiiiiiiiim...!" Beth cried out into the night, her voice fading as the bat made off with his target.

The adrenaline stopped, Kim felt the weight of her tired body take a toll on her. She was falling, her right arm still outstretched.

"Damnit, stabilize yourself!" Charlie gasped as Kim began to fall back down. She jumped in time to tackle Kim to the neighboring building's wall. Having caught her, Charlie vaulted over onto a balcony and dropped both of them there. "That was reckless!"

"He... he's got her!" Kim panted, pushing Charlie away. "And it's your fault, your goddamn fault!"

"Whoa hold on, that guy isn't my friend, quite the opposite in fact!" Charlie explained. Kim would have none of it.

"Beth wasn't stealing, she was just giving me a place to stay! What did you hope to gain by doing this? If you wanted to get at me this badly you should've come at me headon, leave innocents like Beth out! You're scum!"

"Look, I know you're angry, but don't get into your holier than thou shoes now, you're a thief! I was going to arrest you, she at the most was going to get billed for being an accessory to crime!" Charlie snapped.

"What's your point?! Evil bat man just made off with my friend. If you're a cop, then why didn't you protect her?!"

"You hurled me across the rooms in your house, did you expect me to teleport in front of him?!"

Both girls glared at each other until a bright light flashed them both. The beat of helicopter blades startled them. Kim attempted to flee, but Charlie was fast enough to catch her by the wrists and keep her arms locked on her back. "What are you doing?! Let me go! I have to rescue Beth!"

Charlie shook her head, "Sorry, no can do," Charlie pushed the button on her earpice, "Commnand, I've got the Tango, but there's been a complication. A civilian got kidnapped by one of the Betas."

"Copy that, Stinger. Get to the roof and we'll extract you."

Charlie looked at Kim with a frown, "Look."

"You're not on my side, and nothing you say will make me think otherwise!"

"I can help you find Beth, there's only one kind of creature that would kidnap a human. It's the Betas."

"What do I care who they are? Why would they abduct Beth?!"

"I don't know!" Charlie snapped, "Look, I know you're angry, but getting pissy at me isn't going to help us find her. If you cooperate..."

"Us? Leave me out of your bureacracy, there's life at stake here!" Kim interrupted. Charlie, losing her patience, tightened her grip on the chameleon.

"It's partly my fault Beth got taken, I'm very responsible, and I'm trying to make it right. Either shut up and make it easier for yourself, or I paralyze you and turn you over."

With the stinger at the tip of Charlie's tail showing to Kim, she gulped and then finally said: "I'm listening."

To Be Continued...