Introduction:
"There goes the waterworks…" a young and irritated voice huffed and sputtered the water out of his mouth as the rain continued to fall even harder. Given to the way he squared his jaws tightly nearly gnashing his teeth, it was going to be a cold, long night as his sandy and drenched red hair nearly covers his eyes.
Switzerland was a temperate country and the weather can always pleasant in the south, but they never told them about the rain that are common in the capital city Zurich.
The domino mask that covered his eyes narrowed into thin slits, wishing that he could have waited fifteen minutes to let the weather change. He dropped his quiver next to him, making sure that it doesn't get filled with water and damaging, or worse shortens the shock arrowheads that can fry him until next week.
One thing that made Speedy the perfect candidate for a reconnaissance mission is his natural ability to become patient. It just came out of the blue when most of the Titans East were out on patrol while he was in charge of monitoring the city from the tower. A call arrived when scanning the city requesting that he help the government on a mission of utmost secrecy and discretion. Ironically, he once did express his desire to be involved with the military to the team, but paid little interest on it and he never did hold a grudge. As a young man, his father, a forest ranger, taught him how law and order was as important as fighting for what you believe in. In its own way it can be proportional and his dream of being Green Arrow's adoptive father and sidekick fueled his passion to fight injustice. Now was the time to honor his father by accepting the mission requested by the government.
His eyes widened slightly as he saw something move- an inkling of a shadow with near superhuman speed that caught his hawk eyes. Grabbing his quiver and slinging it over his shoulder, he pulled out one of his rope arrows and fired towards the ground below and made his move. His descent landed him in the middle of the warehouse area of the city, right in the middle of the clearing surrounded by overshadowing edifices that brings about a brooding darkness all over. Though several light posts give him a good enough view of his surroundings, he remained still as he scans the area. It may seem like a tactical error at his point, being so open and prone to any possible attack, but it can also serve him well, knowing that his adversary may soon spot him like a predator and a prey that would likely be a trap. Pulling out three flare arrows, he fires a shot up in the air and three bright yellow flashes illuminate his surroundings. The glow reflecting against the warehouse walls showed nothing, except at one corner where the flare's light cannot penetrate, and a fixed smile attached to a white face hovering ominously at his direction. Firing two stun arrows at the face, it leaps out of the way long before the arrows reaches it with lightning speed. Stunned by the sudden movement, he prepares to grab more arrows, his body stiffened when something sharp was slowly piercing his spine, and the near non-existent aroma of rosemary caught his nostrils. He slowly cranes his neck to see his captor's face, but all he could make out is the slick sheen of long, black hair that casts its shadow for him to see. He studied the shadow for a bit: slightly smaller, slender yet curvy around the edges and long, fine legs, he knows that his adversary is a woman.
And he was mentally kicking himself for thinking rather perverse thoughts when his life was now hanging in the balance.
"You have no business here." His captor spoke in a soft voice that may seem contradictory for a woman who was reported to have killed several guards for the past few days, almost like she was at peace with herself with a Far Eastern accent that makes it all the more exotic.
"Funny," Speedy grunted and sniffed, denying him the pleasure of sneezing due to the cold rain, "if it involves you having to kill several guards for your own pleasure then I make it my business."
The knife at his spine was slowly digging itself deeper as he grunted, holding his bow to near crushing level as his mind raced furiously for a way to get out of this mess.
"Those guards that you speak of is the main reason why I am out here tonight."
"Like what?" Speedy spat out.
"Like I said, it is none of your business."
His eyes caught movement of the shadow of an arm raised towards the back of his neck as he steels himself from whatever it is she was holding, probably something sharp and laced with poison. Instead it was the girl's hands and at the end were her nails, which he guessed are laced with poison. Through the reports, they described that the killer was using a very powerful poison made from the juices of a plant that grows in isolated parts in Africa, and it looks like he was at the receiving end of it.
"Don't worry, you won't feel the pain of death once I'm through with you."
Risking injury to his back than instant death, Speedy tightens his grip to his bow and thrusts the end at her abdomen as if to vault away from the knife, narrowly missing the poisoned tip of her nails to his neck. Skidding across from her, Speedy pulls out a smoke arrow when his eyes widened to see a dart hurtling towards his neck. He immediately jabs the smoke arrow to the ground, covering him with grayish smoke just as the dart pierces through the cloud. His assailant follows up on the initial attack as she charges towards the cloud in a thrust kick, but caught nothing. Her senses flare up as she jumps away before two stun arrows nearly hit her feet, shortening the rain-drenched ground with fifty thousand volts of electricity.
It was a battle of speed and dexterity between the two fighters, though the female assassin was a few notches above him added to her training in martial arts, Speedy has been trained in being a ranger and sniping and his skills with a bow is nearly equal to his mentor.
A quick roundhouse kick nearly grazed Speedy's face, but failed to dodge the follow-up right jab nearly below the belt and skidded some ten feet away from her. He would have called foul on such an under-handed tactic, but with no witnesses or a referee this was going to be a fight to the death. The female assassin leaps high in the air and descends with her right foot aimed at him in bone-crushing speed. Rolling on his back to safety inches before she landed, he delivers a sweep with his right leg and taking the assassin's feet off the ground with a hard thud on her rear. Speedy then tackles her, only to meet the bottom of her feet right across the chest in a handspring. Cursing himself for falling on such a counter-attack, he watches as the assassin draws a handful of metal shuriken, possibly poison-laced and aimed it at him. Out of desperation he blocks the deadly projectiles with his quiver as nearly all of them pierced through it while some managed to be deflected away near where he lay. But a high-pitched sound caught his ear and a long-trail of beeps was slowly rising in volume as he broke out in cold sweat. It was do-or-die time as he threw the quiver up in the air only to explode a few feet from them. The blast was powerful enough to even alert the city's security detail and in a few seconds the sirens were cutting through the silence of the night.
Speedy groaned and his body was covered in various cuts due to the shrapnel as he held his aching head. How long he was out was the last thing in his mind when he saw that it was now drizzling. Under a column of light, the female assassin lay nearly motionless in a fetal position as he approached her with bow at ready to use as a weapon. She yelps out in pain when he saw her pull something out and drops it to the ground with a metallic clang and a long trail of coppery red slowly being washed away from the rain. With the same hand she reaches desperately for something inside one of her long sleeves, but her body was slowly feeling the effects of the poison and her body slowly shook in spasms of death. She has to pay for her crimes, at least one part of Speedy's conscience was telling him, but another part of him would never allow it as he ran and knelt towards her. The ivory mask that glimmered ever-so-slightly under the dampness of the rain was staring at him, or probably could sense him when she felt a strong hand reaching into her jade robe and into the sleeve she desperately wanted to go to. It was a small object; a vial that contained the anti-toxin that would save her life was now in Speedy's hand as he reached for her mask. The moment he pulled it off, his eyes widened to find the Oriental beauty that seemingly matches her voice when she caught her back before the fight. Her eyes had an almost cat-like appearance with soft orbs with the color of honey aimlessly tried to focus on her captor, but it was all a blur due to the poison's effects.
"Leave… me… to… die…" she gasps and snaps her head back when another spasm of pain grips her weakened body.
Speedy narrowed his eyes on the beautiful assassin, wondering if Asian fighters really do prefer death for their defeat. He had enough of watching samurai films, no thanks to Beast Boy, to even debate on it as he held her head up and snaps the end of the glass vial with his thumb to create an opening. Knowing that she was too weak to even swallow anything that she even sputters the rainwater out of her mouth, he takes the anti-toxin into his instead and pressed his lips on the girl's. Her lips feel cool to the touch but he didn't care as a tiny sliver of the amber liquid trickled away on the corner of the mouth. Her flailing arms slowly became limp from being force-fed with the anti-toxin and in a few seconds she was nearly unconscious. Carrying her bridal-style he sets off to leave the city, probably somewhere they could never find them. His eyes dart from the path and to her face, which was slowly regaining her color and grinned, knowing that the anti-toxin is already working.
"Got a name?" Speedy asked to make sure she was still conscious enough to know herself, or at least that was his wishful thinking.
She hums a bit as if she was awakened from a pleasant slumber as she slowly moved her lips as she slowly spoke.
"Ch-Ches… Cheshire." She gasped.
"Name's Speedy." He continued. "Got a name besides that cat in Alice in Wonderland?"
Cheshire didn't respond after that in a few minutes as they left the outskirts of the city and into a lodge he was staying. Once he reaches the door she finally spoke.
"Jade. My name is Jade." And finally she slips into unconsciousness.
"Beautiful name." He said to himself before entering.