Wildheart ducked out of the way of another shimmering projectile, the tape only missing her wing by an inch. Given what else this supervillain was doing, she'd be lucky if it only restrained her physically. She leapt up into the air, the burst of air from her flapping wings sending papers flying. The supervillain, a tall, faceless woman in a perfectly tailored suit, admonished her. "There was no need for that, superhero. Reorganizing those papers will cost almost 3 minutes in wasted productivity." Wildheart perched on top of a cubicle, the occupant completely oblivious to her presence as they tirelessly typed away. "There's no need for any of this! Just let these people go!" The supervillain curtly shook her head. "Incorrect. This company has lost precisely 20,253.01 over the past year alone due to their myriad of inefficiencies that they refused to address despite my counsel. We require every second of production to be maximized to come even close to compensating for the deficit." Wildheart yelled out from her perch on the cubicle, keeping an eye on the villain's hands to avoid another attack. "Why can't you just use robots instead of brainwashing your coworkers to do the work then?!" Even without a face, the supervillain clearly put on an expression of withering condescension. "They are no longer my 'coworkers'. They lost their rights to equal status when they insisted on such inefficiencies as sleep and nourishment. I am their Manager now, not merely an underpaid consultant. And robotics are inferior to my biometric enhancing, by a significant margin. Robots are expensive and need maintenance, and their cognition is woefully lacking comparatively. But under my control, my employees can easily focus on up to 23 tasks at once. Paltry compared to my 724.5 mental threads, but already quite superior to mere robots. And especially superior to singleminded humans such as yourself, only able to focus on one direction at a time." She flicked her hand, sending a broken monitor careening into Wildheart's side, catching them off guard. "Your presence alone introduces many significant obstacles to pure efficiency, though I do calculate your unique abilities will compensate for that 8.1fold." With outstretched arms, she telekinetically grabbed the stunned superhero before she could recover. Wildheart tried to brace herself as best she could, but she didn't have any way to deal with being grabbed telekinetically, and she was quickly pulled within reach of the supervillain. "Do not struggle. It wastes energy you could utilize under my Management."

The Manager reached her hand forward, and Wildheart tried her best to pull back from the shiny green substance covering it. Of all people to figure out how to reverse-engineer a broken Astradrone, it had to be an efficiency-crazed capitalist... She knew that the second that stuff touched her, it'd start spreading over her body and into her mind, making her another mindless worker. And she didn't have too many options to defend herself right now. She could manifest something, but she couldn't move her limbs to make use of anything! She tried to think as fast as she could, anything that could defend her skin from attacks, anything that resisted slime or mucus, or- Wait, that was it! 

Focusing as hard as she could, she manifested a patch of Celan Frog mucus right where the hand was about to touch her. As it impacted, she could feel the cool, inhuman substance covering her arm... But also her own mucus seeping into her assailant. The supervillain seemed annoyed. "I instructed you not to struggggllee.. Yyyooouuu aaarrreee......... Wwwhhhaaattt dddiiiddd yyy---" As the Manager's mind slowed to a third of its usual speed, they lost their focus on restraining Wildheart, and she dropped to the floor. She was free, but she couldn't lose focus now. The mucus would wear off soon, and once that goop reached her head... Well, she certainly wouldn't have trouble focusing ever again, that's for sure...

Wildheart rapidly tried to think of what to do, trying to ignore her arm growing stiffer and lighter. She really didn't have many ranged options, and touching the Manager's goop covered body was probably a terrible idea... Though if she could inject enough Selynian Fox venom, it might be enough to disable the psychic field granting control over the drones! ...Even if that did work, however, she'd need to inject a LOT to knock them out cold, and she'd be at risk of being attacked again even with how slow the mucus made them... She'd need to distract them somehow. And then, a particularly interesting idea occurred to her... She giggled mischievously. This would be fun!

Manifesting Induction Eel electricity on her ungooped arm, she began running past the cubicles, short circuiting as many computers, phones, and other devices as she could. She used her wings to knock papers and flyers everywhere, manifested a tail to throw supplies across the room and pull chairs away from desks, and kicked the broken monitor from earlier into the goop-filled 'water' cooler, splattering it all over the wall. The goop on her arm roiled and contracted painfully, trying to stop her from causing so much inefficiency, but she powered through. 

The Manager watched in sluggish horror at this brazen display of sabotage. "NNNOOO,,, SSSTTTOOOPPP!!! YYYOOOUUU AAARRREEE CCCOOOSSSTTTIIINNNGGG UUUSSS---" The Manager stiffly held out her arms, using her telekinesis to try and fix everything. Even slowed down, she was frighteningly quick at rebooting the machines, stacking the papers, and setting her drones back to work, but there was so much chaos to focus on. Far more than even a being with 724.5 mental threads could focus on all at once... 

Taking her chance, Wildheart plunged all five of her ungooped claws into the least goopy part of the Manager's body, and began injecting as much venom as she could. She could feel the goop crawling up her own body, gradually guiding all her focus towards thoughts of obedience, profit, and spreadsheets, but she focused as hard as she could. The Manager's arms began to lower, and the telekinetic activity around her grew almost imperceptible. She tried to say something, but by the time she began making the first sound, she was too sleepy to do more than murmur, "Wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwrrrrrhmmmmmm..." as her arms fell to her sides and her head fell limply forwards. A strange silence washed over the room as her telepathic control waned, and all her drones fell limp as well. Wildheart sighed in relief. Or, she tried to, but the goop covering her mouth made that a bit difficult. 

After a few moments of panic and several unsuccessful manifestations, the vibrations from the horn of the Wishhide Rhinoceros began to melt the goop off of Wildheart's body, and she finally could sigh in relief. "Alright... Now to, uh... Now to start de-dronifying these people... Aaalll by myself." She grimaced. "...I really need to get some people to help with this step..." She very much wanted to prove that she could handle things without calling in the League every time... But she really didn't have the resources they did for reversing supervillain damage... Or, well, her own damage in this case...

Gently pressing her horn against one of the drones, she sent soft, soothing vibrations throughout their body, causing the goop to gradually slough off. The woman underneath slowly stirred awake as the goop left her. "...What's going on...? Who are you...?" Wildheart smiled down at her. "I'm Wildheart, a Superhero! I saved you from the person enslaving you!" The woman stared up, her eyes still unfocused. "Oh... What's being a Superhero like...? Does it pay well...?" Wildheart blinked. "Uh. Well, uh... I mean... Uh... I guess not exactly? It really depends, sometimes I get rewards, but uh... It's mostly the action of helping people that matters!" The woman blinked sleepily. "Oh... Do you get a lot of rewards...? How consistent is it...?" Wildheart helped the woman up. "Uh... It depends, like I said. Sometimes the city gives me some money, sometimes the people I help give me favors... It's definitely not the most consistent income... Certainly not getting paid in regards to how difficult the fights are... Uh, but again, the helping people is its own reward!" The woman sluggishly reached into her pocket. "Here... You need a Raise..." She handed Wildheart something. 

As much as Wildheart loved helping people... She was frustrated at how little she earned sometimes as a Professional superhero. It was hard work! But that didn't really translate to a steady income. Which was especially frustrating after supervillain battles like this where she nearly got brainwashed! Or... Sometimes not even "nearly" brainwashed... Maybe she should ask Dana for royalties from her brainwashed performance in her movie... So she was very happy to receive a reward for her efforts. She stared greedily at the paper, her thoughts focused on what she could do with the money... Maybe she should take on another job to earn more... She really needed more money... Her thoughts were lost in the beautiful, shimmering designs of the- Wait. 

"This is just a shimmering piece of paper that says 'Raise' on it." The woman nodded. "Yes... the Manager gave it to us when we were good workers... Helped us be better workers..." Yep, on further inspection, it was coated in a thin layer of goop. Wildheart sighed. "Oh, you're still under her spell, right." The woman walked over to her computer and began typing. "Need to get back to work... Important things to do..." Wildheart manifested a Taskmistress Angler lure and began dangling it before the woman’s eyes. "Huh... Pretty... No, stop... Needa focus on work... Needa earn money..." A pair of cozy wings wrapped around her as Wildheart began to whisper softly into her ear. "No, you've worked enough for now... You need to take a break..." The woman weakly shook her head. "No... Still on the clock... needa work... needa be a good employee..." Wildheart gently stroked the woman’s cheek with a hand covered in soft Golden Bear fur, smiling as she saw the warm relaxation fill her. "You've worked more than enough. How long has it been since you went home?" The woman’s eyes fluttered, her fingers hardly typing words anymore. "...Can't remember... Been focused on working..." Wildheart gave her a nice Fluffy Hug, enjoying her relaxed breathing. "Then you definitely need to rest... Shhhh... Don't think about work right now... Just think about taking a well deserved break..." The woman murmured sleepily, still trying to look at her monitor. "...needa think about work..." Wildheart shook her head, the lure dangling back and forth. "No you don't... Tell you what, I'll help you think of something else... Did you know that the Taskmistress Anglerfish actually hypnotizes other fish into bringing it food?" The woman’s eyes fluttered closed, and she grunted softly. "...?" Wildheart continued. "Yes, it's quite amazing... When it encounters smaller prey, sometimes it will hypnotize them with its lure into finding larger, more palatable fish and bringing them to her! And in a few cases, it's even been seen to hypnotize for protection and..."

[The static slowly returns as Wildheart continues happily telling the woman animal facts to lull her out of enslavement...]