Author's Note: I started writing a story called Confrontations a looooooong time ago. I had a story arc in mind but I never really got around to introducing it let alone finishing it. Recently, I decided to try to finish the story but I just couldn't figure out how to do that with what I'd written so long ago. So I'm just going to re-write the whole thing and insert the main plot in a more logical (to me) place. Thank you for your understanding and (incredible) patience. If wants me to delete the old one in favor of this one, I will, but I'd kind of prefer to leave it there. We'll see!
Disclaimer: Shina, Busuzima, Shen Long, Alan Gado and the Blood Roar universe are all property of Konami.
Shina sat slumped in the armored truck rolling its way through the jungle. The heat was stifling and the Kevlar vest layered over her camouflage didn't help. But she was used to that, as were her comrades, the men and women, Zoanthropes and humans, who made up her personal squad of soldiers. Some of them were sleeping, some staring off into space. A few were even playing a very bumpy but silent game of poker. This mission was business as usual. She herself was a little restless but she always was before battle. Scared? No. Eager? Very much so.
War was not something that Shina, the Fighting Marvel, feared. She'd been on the warrior's path since she was fourteen, when her adoptive father Alan Gado had taken her under his wing. He'd taken the raw material of her savagery and talent for fighting and molded her into one of his top soldiers. Her company of mercenaries was highly sought-after, especially for hostage recovery, which was what they were in the jungles of Brazil to do.
Three Zoanthropes had been kidnapped from their homes. No demands for money had been made; they'd just disappeared. One of them, Ben Guzman, had been imbedded with a tracking device as part of his work in the Colombian rainforest, monitoring insurgents. Shina's team had been able to track him to a small group of previously unknown buildings in the middle of Brazil's dense jungle. The place swarmed with soldiers in satellite imaging. It also showed the two other captive Zoanthropes, whose disappearances hadn't been linked to Guzman's until then.
Shina's job was simple: Get Guzman and the other two out of there by any means necessary. The team was not there in any investigative capacity. They were not charged with finding out any of the whys or hows of the kidnappings. Just extraction, which they were being well paid to do.
The truck rolled to a halt and every single soldier was instantly alert, hands empty of cards or water bottles and filled with assault rifles, machetes and other tools of their trade. Shina turned to peek out of the roll of camouflaged canvas that covered the sides of the vehicle. Unbroken jungle was all that could be seen but she knew that this was their cue.
She turned to her troops and nodded to a pair of heavily muscled men with painted faces in the back of the truck. They rose silently to their feet, opened the rear doors of the truck and disappeared into the jungle. Another gesture from the young woman had the rest of the soldiers on their feet and disembarking. They'd all had their instructions hours ago. There was no need to speak and possibly alert anyone out there listening. They were a good five miles from the kidnappers' base but still, speaking was to be kept to a minimum. Just in case.
They jogged in single file through the rainforest, pausing only long enough to hack through particularly thick patches until they reached the ring of guards set up around the camp's perimeter. The team made short work of the guards without firing off a shot. The two men who'd left the truck first rejoined the group as a pair of huge monkey Zoanthropes complete with prehensile tails. They'd had to make their transformations separate from the group so as not to endanger their comrades, as the change between forms could trigger explosive waves of kinetic force.
A motion from Shina separated the team into smaller units, each with a job to do. The monkey men took to the trees, disappearing into the canopy. Then she and the four men and women who stayed with her settled in at the southern edge of the camp to wait. Shina quietly listened in to regular reports coming in through her ear bud until all were in place. Then she spoke, pressing a hand to her throat to trigger her own microphone.
"Simon says... Go!" She whispered. She was answered by two concussive blasts at the northeast and northwest corners of the camp. Smoke billowed outward in choking clouds while the site swarmed with shouting soldiers. Not very disciplined, she noted of her enemy critically. They knew from the satellite where the prisoners were being held and that was where Shina and her unit went, dodging from building to building under the cover of the chaos.
Not that they managed to make it there without confrontations. Shina, despite her camouflage, was still a tall, muscular blonde woman in the middle of the South American rainforest. A grenade exploded to her right and she was flung to the ground. Two of the soldiers who'd been walking behind her opened fire in the direction the grenade had come from. Shina slung her rifle on its strap over her shoulder and pulled out her machete as she trench crawled beneath a Jeep. She did love close quarter melee combat.
Enemy feet passed her cover, attempting to quietly come up behind her team members. She took her shot, sweeping out with her machete to deprive one enemy soldier of his leg. He went down hard, screaming for only an instant before she took his throat as well. She rolled out from under the Jeep, using her momentum in rising to bring her machete up between the next man's legs, continuing on up through his torso to effectively cut him in half with her more-than-human strength. The third and last man's shocked look of horror didn't even have a chance to change before it flew through the air, detached from his body with ease. Blood spattered the young woman liberally but she took no notice.
She glanced behind her to assess her team's position. One was reloading, crouched behind a stack of barrels while another stood next to him, returning fire. The other two jogged up beside her. Shina nodded to the pair and they continued on to the prisoners.
Outside of the wooden hut, Shina and the other two pressed themselves against the walls. Bergen and Chase faced outward, keeping a look out for more trouble while Shina put an ear to the wall to listen to the interior. Nothing. But, of course, that didn't mean there wasn't anyone in there. Shina stepped back, sheathing her machete as she assessed the wall. There was a door on the other side of the hut but why use their door when she could make her own? One kick broke through the flimsy wood, leaving a sizable hole.
She took a quick glance inside before ducking down and to the side while Bergen and Chase stood at the ready, outside of the line of sight of anyone who might be on the inside looking out through the new window but poised to fire through it. Her brief look had shown her no guards and just the three prisoners blindfolded, cuffed and on their knees in a row. Bergen, a relatively petite Zoanthrope brunette who'd been with Shina for years didn't take her eyes off the hut but Chase, a younger human recently recruited from a European country's army, glanced at Shina and whispered, "What did you see?"
Shina gave him a frown and mimed for him to put his eyes forward and be quiet. The discipline he'd learned in the military was obviously slipping and they'd have to talk about that later. For now though, he didn't need to be giving away their position and numbers to anyone who might be hiding inside the hut. They waited a while longer and then Shina returned to the hole, bringing her strength to bear in widening it, tearing the planks apart. The three captives didn't so much as twitch, which worried her.
Bergen and Chase waited outside while Shina stepped into the hut. As unguarded as it had appeared. Didn't any of the enemy care to guard their investment? Apparently not. She circled the trio on the ground, studying them without touching them. Even with the blindfolds, she could tell that these three were the ones she'd been sent for and they were awake enough to remain upright on their knees but they reacted not at all to her presence or the noise of the fight outside.
She moved behind one, Guzman, and pulled his blindfold upward off his face. The man didn't even move. Didn't look around. Nothing. She circled around in front of him again. His eyes were open but they didn't focus on her when she stood before him or when she waved her hand in his face. Drugged? Most likely. It took a lot to render a Zoanthrope docile like this but she definitely had experience with a company that could manufacture a drug like that. And Busuzima was still out there. Shina put a hand under Guzman's arm and yanked, pulling the man to his feet. He stood pretty easily and remained there. Mannequin-like. Creepy. Without taking off their blindfolds, Shina hauled the other two up and it was just as easy. Just as creepy.
Keeping an eye on them, Shina moved back to the hole in the wall and waved her arm to get the attention of the other two. Bergen and Chase stepped backwards through the hole, eyes and assault rifles pointed always outward. Once through, they moved to either side of the hole, out of line of sight, and turned to Shina.
"They're drugged. Docile. We're going to have to lead them out to the pick-up point," Shina said, keeping her voice low.
She indicated for Bergen to pull the blindfolds off of the other two captives while Shina grabbed Guzman's arm. They didn't bother to cut any of the captives' arms free. Chase took the arm of one and Bergen the other and they pulled them towards the gap in the wall and through one at a time. The captives seemed quite willing to go wherever they were lead. Well, at least Shina didn't have to deal with anyone freaking out about running through a fire fight although they were hampered by having to keep ahold of the captives with one hand to lead them. Shina, Bergen and Chase slung their rifles and pulled out their handguns. Easier to use one-handed.
Outside of the hut was still chaotic but the fight was winding down. Shina's team, by dint of superior ability, was making short work of the enemy. Smoke hung heavy and thick in the air, clogging her nostrils and almost making her sneeze, but Shina's sense of direction lead them easily towards their planned exit. Their path was remarkably clear on the way out, as they'd planned for. Still, there was no reason to be incautious and the small group dodged from building to truck to wall, taking cover frequently.
They crouched behind a pile of old truck tires next to another hut, preparing to move on when Shina heard something inside of the building that made her pause. Her blue eyes narrowed. She waved for her people to wait and she rolled away from them, disappearing into the smoke. When she came back, she had with her one of the team who'd been separated earlier. Even with the smoke, she'd been able to find him. Not much escaped her heightened hearing even though the smoke blinded her and kept her from sniffing anything out.
Another gesture had him taking ahold of Guzman in Shina's place and she waved them on without her, perfectly confident in her people's abilities. When they were gone, she turned her attention back to the hut. She backed up several feet, emptied her hands and completely discarded her rifle on the ground. Then she ran full out at the wall of the hut, a leopard's roar echoing through the air, even over the sounds of gunfire.
A concussive blast battered the hut, rocking the whole thing, just before she plowed right through the wall. But gone was the blonde woman. In her place stood a huge leopard woman, Shina's beast form. Her ears were laid back against her skull and her lips peeled back from impressively sized fangs when she landed on the dirt floor on the inside of the hut in a crouch, tail lashing behind her. Her clothes were specially made to expand to fit her new, vastly increased size but her boots never lasted through the change, which was good since her feet were now nothing close to the shape they used to be.
He didn't seem surprised to see her, his red eyes roaming over her in a leer that was usually reserved for her human form. It was Shen Long, the evil clone of Shina's friend Long. Long was a gentle man, although skilled in the arts of assassination. Shen Long had no gentleness in him and Shina was fairly sure he was mad as a hatter. She'd thought he was dead after their last encounter but she couldn't find room in herself to be too surprised. The man was slippery as a snake.
Shen Long stood across the hut's small space from her, speaking without pause on a satellite phone. "... are gone. All of them. But the previous shipment is already on its way." The other person on the line made some response and Shen Long laughed, tossing his slick black hair out of his eyes. "Well, then you're just going to have to deal with it."
With that, he tossed the phone over his shoulder without bothering to turn it off and gave Shina his full attention. Without his head muffling it, the other person's voice came through more clearly and she heard the word "Rio" before the phone was silent. Her claws dug into the ground as she prepared to launch herself at him. Shen Long's involvement in this mission virtually guaranteed trouble and she aimed to take him out of the game early, before he could do too much damage with whatever he was up to.
"Well well. Little Marvel," he drawled. "It's so [i]good[/i] to see you. How nice of you to drop in! I'm sorry the place is such a mess. We're in the middle of moving. You know how it is. Hectic. Can't find our tea set for the life of me!"
Shina wasn't as good at talking while in her beast form as some others but she managed a very deep, growly question. "Why... here?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Shen Long rolled his eyes, smiling as he laughed at her. "Really, kitten, it makes no difference. The site is compromised. We won't be back."
He took a single step towards the door to the hut and Shina was on him. A brief flash of memory hit her, a vision of the last time they fought. Being held down in human form with one gigantic tiger paw while the other slashed her repeatedly across the abdomen, all but disemboweling her. It had taken a long time to recover from that fight. Maybe she'd get to do something similar to him.
Just before she reached him, her claws outstretched to grip and tear, she was pitched backwards. Shen Long burst into his tiger man form but he was too close to a wall and the hut had taken enough damage to collapse, heavy wooden beams raining down on them. One landed across Shina's chest, pinning her down briefly. She would have been able to throw the beam aside pretty easily but a second one came down, this time on her head.
Everything went dark.