The Necromancer's Stone; Frank's Hideaway

Thalia linked her portals home into a back street two block from her father's house; where, much to her dismay, she still lived.  Hal was right behind her, sword safely sheathed and clothes still stained by blood.  Her own clothes were noticeably worse for wear, with a massive hole in the dress from where she'd landed on the stalactite.  She found herself happy she'd picked red, since it concealed most of the blood that had dried onto it. Definitely could have been worse, but they'd have to change before they showed up on her doorstep.  She made a left at the end of the alley and headed towards the hideout of a local gang, one with a particularly nasty reputation, one that would think nothing of an armed man escorting a disheveled young woman into their backrooms.  It was really just a question of how Hal would feel about changing in the same room as her.

Hal stopped at the door of the hideout, a seedy looking bar with rather explicit neon signage.  Unlike the local taverns, which were smoky and full of drunken adventurers, the bar smelled sleezey and was almost certainly full of people who dressed better than they behaved.  At a guess, Thalia would have to say that Hal wouldn't be comfortable somewhere like this.
"Thalia, I'm not sure exactly why you feel the need to take me to..well one of these places, but if you insist then this probably shouldn't be it."
"Ah.  So you know about the gang that hangs out here?"
"Should have seen that one coming.  Thalia, do you know what these men would do to you if they saw a girl with your looks in that state of dress?"
A girl of her looks?  She wasn't sure how to take that; did he think she looked like a skank or something?  State of dress she could accept, but Thalia was pretty sure she still looked fine.  She'd have to find a mirror while she was in there.
"Yes, I can handle them."
"You couldn't get off a decent slowing spell while I swung a sword at you."
"We were falling thousands of feet at hundreds of feet per second; those are hard enough circumstances as it is."  She retorted.  "How many people do you know who could pull that off?  Could you pull that off?"
Hal fell silent.  She felt a little bad about it, but he was questioning her ability to use magic, not to mention to defend herself.  She pushed the door open and walked in.  He followed close enough to keep track of her, but far enough away that she could tell she'd struck a nerve.  Thalia ignored most of her surroundings; quickly identifying known criminals in the room and paying close attention to their activities.  She actually had made it to the door before anyone noticed her, but once they did things escalated.  The door locked in her hands and a large man at the other end of the room began to laugh.
"Now now Ginge, you didn't expect me to let you just walk in after our last encounter?"
Frank, no last name, was the illusive head of the gang.  By illusive she meant 'he managed to keep enough of his name secret from everyone that she couldn't track down his public records'.  He was an academy drop-out, killed a little too publicly for the faculty to ignore, and had been a thorn in the town's side since.  Anyone important on Krove was so far out of his league it wasn't funny, but he was strong enough and enough men followed him that students and commoners had to watch their step.  Great as she was, Thalia was still in that category.  Not that it had stopped them from tangling before, she'd shut down several of his operations when they'd begun interfering with her own interests.  The last time he'd shown up in time to bite her dust and hurl his oaths in her direction.  She'd hoped he had family out of town to spend the holidays with, apparently this wasn't her day.
"Alone too.  Did you just need to use the bathroom?  Figured we wouldn't remember?"  Several of his thugs began moving up around her, more than she could count on hands and feet.  Thalia shuffled nervously, trying to plan out a series of spells that would deal the most damage before she made a run for it.  "Well we did Ginge, we did remember.  And my boys, they've got special plans in mind for the girl who robbed them blind, shut down their entertainment, and left them without their dignity."
"Don't beat around the bush Frank, say it like it really is."
"Like it really is; fine.  You froze my drugs, killed my enforcers, terrified my girls so bad they all ran off-world, and then, and I don't even know what you stood to gain by doing this, you stole all of my clothes from the laundromat."
Thalia stifled a laugh.  She'd sold the clothes and donated the money to the local policemen's widows and orphans fund.  It really didn't gain her anything, but it annoyed the snot out of him and the sight of twenty gangsters fighting with each other over who would tell the boss that they'd lost his clothes had been worth it.
"You missed the part where I put dead fish in your hubcaps, jello in your toilet tank, and attached microphones to all of your light fixtures."
"That's what that smell is?!?"
Thalia glanced around the room to see if anyone had heard that last bit, no one had noticed.
"Boys, get he-urk!"  Frank was cut off mid sentence as a hand closed around his larynx.  The figure wore a dark cloak with the hood up, and a sword at his side.
"Lets make something clear.  I've just been through your files, and I don't like what I see.  The Police have been sent the full contents of your hard drive, all the contents of your hard drive.  You have about a day to get off world my friend."
The men had frozen when Frank had stopped talking, and all eyes were firmly locked on the hooded man.  Thalia had to admit, this was going much better than even her best plans.
"Now, I say we let your minions have a choice.  Fight the lady, or go buy their tickets."  Nearly three quarters of them ran out of the room, pushing and shoving as they did.  The rest were still confused, although the one most resolute thug charged her.  She pinned him to the ceiling in a floe of ice, making it clear to the remaining men what their choice should be.
As the last of the room's occupants fled, the hooded man dropped Frank back into his chair.  Thalia made her way around the stage to face him personally, although she wasn't sure which one she was there to face.
"You'll pay for this, b#^&h!"  He formed a bolt of energy in his hand and began to thrust it in her direction when his attack, and indeed his entire arm, were cut short by a sword drawn so quickly Thalia never even saw it leave the sheathe.  She froze the stump over, preventing blood loss and numbing the pain enough to keep him talking.
"Probably, but I think I'll get dressed first.  Hal, I'd like your opinion on some dresses."
"Seriously?  I expected you to kill him."
Thalia thought for a moment.  "Honestly, I was just going to ask you the same thing.  Come along, dresses."
"No."
"What?"
"I said no."
"I'm giving you a chance to come and watch me try on clothes.  After everything you've done for me today I think that seems fair."
He flicked his sword twice, then picked up the piece of fabric that had once been the better half of her dress and tied it around her waist.
"Next time you need to change, just tell me so we don't have to take down a major criminal organization in the process, please?"  Then Hal turned and began to head for the door.  Thalia paused a moment to check her new outfit in the mirror.  Satisfied, she jogged to catch up with him, leaving Frank still frozen to the chair.