Surprise! (Lady Shiva)

[Gemini]

The lavishly decorated penthouse in central Gotham was one of Gemini’s favourite residences. It wasn’t really a home; she moved around far too much and not needing to sleep meant that she never developed much affection for the places she owned. The walls were covered in precious works of art that she had stolen from various museums and collections over the past few years; mother had always said she had a good eye for collecting, and Gemini enjoyed being surrounded by beautiful, expensive objects.

But tonight none of that mattered, pulling her gaze away from a Rembrandt painting which her mother had stolen from Boston, Gemini idly flicked through TV channels as she waited for her’ guest’ to arrive. She had heard many things about the assassin called Lady Shiva and couldn’t wait to see if the woman’s skills were as good as they were rumoured to be. Of course Shiva had no idea what she was truly up against; the assassin thought that she was contracted to kill millionaire heiress ‘Laura Trant’ in whose name this address was registered. In fact ‘Laura’ had never existed; she was just one of Gemini’s many cover identities and this was all a test to see if Lady Shiva met Gemini’s requirements.

Leaning back on the couch, Gemini eyed her reflection in a nearby mirror critically, her overall shape and build were the same as in her normal form, but ‘Laura’ had brown hair and her face had a number of differences; a thicker nose and more prominent cheekbones and green eyes instead of Gemini’s usual blue. Her appearance was different enough that Shiva shouldn’t suspect anything if she’d done research, Gemini didn’t want to make things too easy after all. She wondered how Shiva wherever she was, planned to kill her, a knife to the throat maybe or something much more inventive? Gemini almost tingled with anticipation, appearing to be completely engrossed watching ‘Dancing with the Stars’, but in fact fully alert, her senses fixed on the windows and door of the penthouse.

[shiva]

Shiva had spent the last few days familiarizing herself with her target. The first step had been observing her actions, watching her interact with people and her activities while she was alone. This Laura person seemed fond of some dancing show that Shiva had no time for, nor any particular interest. She had brown hair, green eyes, and was a millionaire heiress. Shiva doubted this woman worked a day in her life for her money, and she doubted very much that she had very many useful skills. Still, a contract killing was still a contract killing, and Shiva was being paid good money to make this woman go away.

She didn't need to know the details, such as why this woman was a target. All she needed was basic information, a location, and a preferred method of disposal. Some people wanted a very public disposal of the body, while others wanted to make it look like an accident. Even others wanted there to be no body at all, but Shiva's employer seemed content with her choice. Shiva was considering her options still, even now as she watched the penthouse from across the street, on the ledge of a roof. She had spent some time in the penthouse while Laura was away, familiarizing herself with the layout, and locations of safe rooms and weapons. She had taken a firing pin out of a Glock 9mm she had found in a nightstand, but left everything else in tact. She didn't want this to be too easy, and she liked the challenge of making it look like an accident even if this Laura fought back.

Not normally her style, Shiva pulled a grappling hook from her belt and lined up her shot. She wasn't a vigilante who needed to swing from rooftop to rooftop, but from time to time, such a tool was useful. It allowed her, like now, to get across larger distances without having to go down and then back up from the interior of the building. Besides, Shiva had already planned her entrance. She had disconnected the bedroom windows from the security system, so now as she opened the window with barely a whisper of movement, no alarms sounded. Slithering through the small space, Shiva made sure to slide the window shut behind her. After this was over, she would have to make sure to reconnect the window to the security system.

As she entered, she kept to the shadows. Reaching into a pocket, she pressed a button on her phone. A small charge, barely loud enough to be heard, went off in the fuse box, and power immediately cut for the penthouse. A building like this had a back-up generator, but Shiva had made sure nothing kicked in. She wanted this woman afraid, and she wanted her to know she was dealing with the best. Shiva had a variety of tools with her to help, and she still had yet to decide on a method of killing. A garrote? Poison? OR something more inventive? Such things would come to her as she assessed the situation more. Moving forward into the now very dark penthouse, Shiva made her way to the last known location of Laura Trant, her footsteps light and virtually silent. With any luck, Laura assumed power was out, and nothing else was wrong. A small smile whispered across her lips as Shiva prepared for the final moments.

[Gemini]

As the lights went out Gemini gasped in pretend surprise, supressing a smirk at the same time, before getting to her feet and starting to fumble her way towards the kitchen where she had a spare torch. If she wasn’t much mistaken then Lady Shiva was probably here in the apartment with her already and the attack could come at any moment. The only instruction she had given Shiva as part of the contract, was to make sure that ‘Laura’ died slowly; it was usually Gemini’s own preferred method and one which would meant Shiva would hopefully not simply shoot her through the head from a distance. Up close and personal was how Gemini wanted this to be and it looked like she was getting her wish.

Sharpening her senses so that she could see and hear better, Gemini continued to fumble her way towards the kitchen, cursing loudly as she made sure to fall over a small coffee table so that Shiva knew exactly where she was. “Damn stupid fuse box” she muttered angrily, putting a hand out in front of her to feel for the living room wall. Picking herself up again, ‘Laura’ continued to edge forward in the darkness, seemingly completely oblivious to the presence of somebody else in the room.

[shiva]

Her only order was to make this slow, and that was something Shiva could do easily enough. She had decided, quite recently in fact, that she wasn't going to try to mask the hit. That opened up quite a few more options for Shiva. Physical attacks would have to be kept under control, since a lot of Shiva's attacks were one-hit kills. As Laura muttered under her breath about the fuse box, Shiva smiled. This woman was as dense as they came. Surely she knew more about her own home than this.

Shiva moved quickly and without so much as a sound. The first attack was brutal, grabbing the woman by the arm and spinning her around. Using the momentum, Shiva tripped the woman up and tossed her through a pair of French doors, the glass and wood shattering upon impact in a loud crash. This attack was meant to stun and surprise her target, keep her off balance and a little discombobulated. Not giving the woman much time to recover, Shiva moved forward and grabbed her by the hair, yanking her to her feet. Kicking out, she sent Laura flying back against the far wall. At this moment, she stopped, and pulled out a small but very sharp blade.

"I am sure you have questions, Laura Trant. They will do you no good, so if you do anything...please. Scream." Shiva stepped forward and swiped the blade at Laura's cheek. The move was a little slower, because she was interested to see if the woman would fight for her life, or cower in fear like so many before. If Laura decided to fight back, it would make the contract so much more interesting. Shiva hated it when her prey made it too easy for her. And, if she did scream, maybe security would come. The bigger the challenge, the bigger the thrill for Shiva. For her, the bladed hand seemed to be moving in slow motion, and now it was just a waiting game to see exactly what Miss Laura Trant had up her sleeves.

[Gemini]

The attack came so suddenly that Gemini was taken off guard, even though she was semi-expecting it. She barely had time to let out a cry of surprise as she was whirled around, tripped and went flying through a set of French doors and slamming into the floor on the other side. Moaning in pretend pain, ‘Laura’s’ expression briefly turned furious as her hair was grabbed, Gemini briefly considering breaking her cover earlier than planned, but she managed to keep it down; it was what she had planned after all.

Yelping again in pain as a kick hammered into her and slammed her into the wall behind, Gemini stared at Lady Shiva, letting her face freeze with feigned fear as she stared at her attacker and the knife in her hand. Shrinking backwards against the wall, scream was exactly what ‘Laura’ did, obviously terrified and bewildered by what was happening to her, although its real purpose was to bring security running to give Shiva more of a test. Laura made only a clumsy attempt to avoid the knife, letting it bite into her cheek, liquid rubber that was carefully coloured to look like real blood leaking out of the wound.

“Pl…please what do you want, if you promise to go away I…I’ll pay you whatever you want.” She shrank backwards against the wall, trying to keep as far away from Shiva as she could and dabbing at the ‘blood’ coming from her cheek with shaking fingers. Gemini deliberately let her knees give way, sinking to the floor at Shiva’s feet, not actually crying, but otherwise looking completely broken and traumatised. Gemini was prepared to do many things but something as weak as crying was not one of them. Her act had almost run its course, but judging from the shouting at the door the security were about to barge in, exactly as Gemini had planned.

Moments later the penthouse door crashed open and four burly guards armed with tasers burst in and glanced around, their jaws dropping as they surveyed the scene. "Whoever the hell you are stand down now!" the leader demanded, levelling his weapon at the woman who stood over the crumpled, bleeding Ms Trant.

[shiva]

It always came down to money with these people. Did they really think that money was enough to make her break her contract? The ego was astounding. Shiva felt the blade slice across the woman's cheek, and blood seeped down. Damn. She wasn't trained in self-defense, it seemed. However, it did illicit a very loud shriek, which would get any security stationed on the floor inside almost immediately. Sure enough, barely a few seconds had passed since Laura's scream and the room filled with four muscular men armed with tasers. Tasers? This was just too disappointing.

"Is it too much to ask that these men actually have real guns?" Shiva asked, raising her hands above her head. The knife was still in her hand, but hidden from view closest guard. As the man stepped forward, Shiva stepped to the side and slashed down and across. Even before the body hit the floor, she moved forward towards the second guard. Dropping the knife, she grabbed the man by the arm and twisted. His upper body fell forward as she trapped his arm in a lock that was quite painful. Pointing the taser at the third guard, she pulled the trigger. 50,000 volts of electricity shot through the guard, dropping him to the floor, his muscles seizing. Shiva drove her elbow into back of second guards neck, dropping him as well. Now it was down to one.

The final guard was, for a change, actually trained in combat. Based on his movements as he swiped at her, probably Navy SEAL or Marine Force Recon. Special Ops training was good, and brutal, designed to dispatch an opponent quickly and lethally. Shiva respected such a style, but it was not going to be enough to take her down. She allowed the first blow to hit, sending her stumbling back and creating some distance between herself and her opponent. Even with her skill, he had a hundred pounds of muscle on her, easily. That was enough to turn the tide of any fight, but even boulders like him had weak spots.

As the man stepped forward to attack again, falling for a deceptive opening Shiva had allowed, she lashed out with her enforced shoes. The loud cry of pain let her know she had crippled his leg for life. But still, the man came for her. Shiva allowed a smile to cross her lips as he limped forward. She respected this, the drive to keep fighting. Not many still had this, and the fact that he was doing this for some hose-bag millionaire was equally impressive. As he punched at her, Shiva grabbed his wrist and twisted. Now she was just being brutal, and the man knew it. But still, he didn't stop. His right wrist and left leg out of commission, and he was still coming at her. Shiva cocked her head to the side and watched as he struggled forward. "Commendable. Stop and you live."

He didn't stop, and Shiva did what she had to do. That left one guard alive, though it didn't look like he was going to be getting up any time soon. Nodding, she turned her attention back to her target. "To answer your earlier statement, Ms. Trant, even you do not possess the amount of money required to break this contract. The reason being that so such number exists. Now, my orders are to take this slow. Bear down, it will be a long night."

[Gemini]

One of the reasons the security men were fighting so hard was that they knew who their employer really was and what would happen to them if they didn’t perform as ordered. The moment Lady Shiva’s back was turned, the terrified expression on Laura’s face vanished, Gemini watching with clinical interest as the assassin took apart her minions. Only one of them was skilled enough to be a match for Shiva one on one, but the others at least tried to use the benefit of numbers to take her down, but failed dismally as Gemini had expected they would. At least now she could drop the weak terrified act and be her true self; it was time to start testing Shiva’s skills on a much higher level.

As the assassin turned back to her, Gemini smirked in amusement, her body language rapidly shedding any remaining signs of fear as she stood confronting Shiva, completely confident in her ability to defeat this assassin. “It won’t be as long as you think; you might have taken out my guards, but I can assure you that you’ve never fought anything like me before.” The slash on 'Laura's' cheek sealed up as she spoke, the ‘blood’ sinking back into her skin to leave no trace that she had ever been injured. At the same time her hair was darkening into its usual jet black, the rest of her features shifting back into Gemini’s normal features. Last of all the cloth of her t-shirt and jeans started to shift, changing into the leather and metal mesh armour of her usual costume.

“Now, let’s see how good you really are assassin. I’m betting you'll last five minutes tops.” Her smirk widening and becoming more menacing, Gemini lifted a fist and threw a punch at Lady Shiva, her arm stretching across the room with the speed of a bullet, rocketing straight towards the assassin.

[shiva]

Shiva knew the second she had killed the last guard that something was wrong. Their body language was off, showing no fear of her, but rather of something else entirely. As her prey dropped the facade, showing her true colors, Shiva growled. This was not what she had expected, and not at all what she had planned, but that didn't mean she was out of the fight. Reading body language, and being fast enough to avoid a hit are usually too very different things. However, Shiva had speed, too. Not super-human speed, but she was damn fast. Still, even that speed only kept her from taking the full force of the elongated arm punching her in the shoulder, rather than the face. Spinning around, she dropped to a crouched position, her eyes on her prey, for that was what this woman still was.

"Shape-shifter. I should have guessed earlier when I saw the blood, but your guards distracted me. It won't happen again. You tricked me, and I do not like being played. Though, if you believe that because you have powers that you can defeat me, you are mistaken. Now, no talking. Just die." Shiva dropped a smoke pellet, another tool she rarely used, but as an assassin, was infinitely more useful than most would assume. She needed to prepare for this and that meant a few seconds without having to dodge punches from a shape-shifting woman.

Obviously, a shifter would be hard to hurt since their bodies could conform to most blows and weapons would be equally in effective. Well, some weapons. Fire, ice, things that didn't hack and slash would still work even on a shifter, but Shiva had not prepped with those kinds of weapons. Still, this was an apartment, and all of those could be found in or around her. For now, though, this would have to be put on the back burner. She was pretty sure that she would have company in a second or two, even as she relocate to a smaller, more confined hallway. Here, she would have more of an advantage over the shifter, though a physical fight wouldn't get her very far.

However, Shiva had one weapon in her arsenal that would keep her alive. Even as a shifter, Shiva could read her body language. It was more difficult, but everyone had a tell, and Shiva could spot them almost without fail. Even without this skill, she was one of the most skilled hand-to-hand combatants alive, so she was prepared. Taking a breath and centering herself, she prepared for the shape-shifter. Finally, this was looking like it was going to be more fun than she had thought.

[Gemini]

It was disappointing that the assassin had managed to dodge her first strike, but it was also a clear display of Lady Shiva’s skill, which was precisely what Gemini wanted. “That was the idea” she laughed as Lady Shiva grumbled about being tricked “If I revealed my identity to every assassin who came calling I wouldn’t be much of a shapeshifter would I?” Her amusement was interrupted by the sudden explosion of smoke and Gemini cursed as she lost sight of Lady Shiva. Although she immediately looped her arms round the room to try and grab the assassin, the other woman managed to escape her grip.

Gemini knew that she couldn’t wait for the air to clear; that would give Shiva far too much time to take the initiative, she needed to press the attack now while the assassin was still off balance. “Oh I don’t think I am mistaken” she called gloatingly after Shiva “and running away won’t help you.” Gemini didn’t think that Lady Shiva was actually running away, but it was a useful taunt to make an opponent angry. “Actually I’m sure my powers are more than sufficient to defeat you, you cannot win!” Lady Shiva was just like any other human made of fragile blood and bone, a configuration far inferior to her malleable body. Moving into a confined space would not give Shiva the advantage she hoped for, she would make sure of that, and already Gemini was quite looking forward to beating the arrogance out of the other assassin.

Moving slowly through the doorway, Gemini caught a glimpse of what could be a human shape through a patch of thinner smoke and immediately lifted her arms to point at the target. This time instead of an elongated punch her arms divided into six rubbery tentacles which stretched and coiled across the room, hoping to ensnare Lady Shiva in their strong grip.