AN: Missions chapter.
Wanted to make a short announcement before this chapter. School is starting to pick up and college is very unforgiving when it comes to being behind on school work. I am starting to write longer chapter for you all, but I can't do that and keep up with the school work I currently have.
So expect chapters to take a bit longer to be posted. Same goes for my other fic as well.
"Hello"=Normal speech (French)
"приветствие (Hello)"=Normal, non french, speech
'Hello'=Thoughts
Be sure to read the little language tidbits each chapter just so you know what language is currently being spoken.
Raina will be the name Catherine uses for the time being.
StormNightSS: Thank you for your reviews!
Disclaimer: I don't own the MCU or Marvel Comics or Armani (brief mention)
Warnings: Violence, cursing, etc.
Enjoy!
April 18, 2014, Cannes, France
I sat in in the lavish cafe, my eyes closed, yet still aware of my surroundings. I heard the seagulls cawing above me, the incessant chatter of my fellow patrons. I could feel the warm breeze glide across my bare arms. I could smell the salty sea smell that floated on the air.
It was around midday, and April, in southern France. The weather was a beautiful 19 degrees celsius, 67 degrees fahrenheit if your an American. Her school was currently on Easter Break from the 18th of April to the 28th of April. Her duties as a teacher were taking a much needed break. She could tell by the droves of teenagers that were passing by her spot in the cafe that they were enjoying their much needed break as much as she was.
I wore a short sleeved, dark green, blouse, which was tucked into a tight fighting pair of blue jeans. Simple, yet comfortable and breathable, allowing her to enjoy the sunlight and pleasant weather even more so. I was glad for the brief respite from teaching and exam planning. I hadn't gotten out and about nearly as much as she wanted to and the break finally allowed me that freedom.
The break also gave her time to work her other job, as Deathstalker. She had taken a job under the moniker several months ago. It was an on and off job for her mostly because of her position as a teacher but also her client was scrambling for information. Luckily for them there was a breakthrough, which prompted a meeting. A meeting which would take place in a few minutes, at the cafe she was sitting at currently.
I took another calm sip of her hot chocolate. Many would question her asking why she would pay so much just to sit at the Armani Cafe just to drink hot chocolate. I never really liked coffee, it gave a jolt of caffeine but it didn't last, and she just didn't like the taste. And hot chocolate tasted great, no matter what time of the year it was. And nobody doesn't like hot chocolate, or at least no one she knows doesn't like it. Those who do comment on her weird tendency to spend copious amounts of money to sit at an Armani cafe and drink simple hot chocolate are exposed to her Deathstalker glare. I can drink whatever the hell I want, whenever the hell I want, wherever the hell I want. She's the goddamn Deathstalker, one of the best assassins on the planet, who are they to tell me she cant drink some fucking hot chocolate.
If those motherfu-. The loud scraping of the chair across from her interrupted her hot chocolate rant, probably a good thing lest her mind wander to another unimportant rant about some other warm beverage.
Across from her sat the 21 year old high school dropout Cindy Moon, or more publicly known as Silk. Silk was a super enhanced human with fast reflexes and agility, as well as enhanced strength, speed, and stamina. Her ability to achieve perfect balance in any position at any time, combined with her ability to crawl on wall, and her durability in battle made Silk one of the most sought after mercenaries in the business. What made her more appealing was her ability to shoot silk strands from her fingertips as well as her ability to create super sharp claws out of the silk she can spin from the tips of her fingers. Rich men around the globe clambered for her services, easily making hundreds of thousands of dollars before she turned 21.
She wasn't sure what her relationship with Cindy Moon was.
On one hand, she and Cindy were business partners. Cordial at best whenever they met up for business. On missions Cindy acted playfully and cheerful, but she knew that is only a shtick Cindy created for herself while on missions. Sometimes Cindy's dislike for their shared client spilled its way into conversation, making it all too personal for Raina. Business was business, it should strictly stay that way when they are conducting information sharing or a mission.
On the other hand, I didn't mind the connection we had. When we met outside of our occasional business talks we would usually strike up a comfortable conversation, shit-talking our client or complementing the weather, all the while drinking hot chocolate and looking out of the sea.
Now was another 'on the other hand' times. A time to discuss the upcoming mission.
Cindy wore a white long sleeve shirt with small red stripes, tight black jeans, and a small necklace with a small red letter S hanging on the end over her chest. Her jet black hair spilling down her back, brown eyes full of childish excitement. Cindy was moderate 5'7, three inches taller than herself.
"Hey there Raina." Cindy greeted exuberantly.
"Hi Cindy" she replied, a small smile playing across her face. 'Glad to see Cindy didn't lose her excited nature'.
"Been a few months hasn't it?" Cindy asked her. I just shrugged, she hadn't really noticed. She was busy teaching her kids to notice the amount of time that passed between their meetings. A waiter approached their table. "I'll have whatever she's having." Cindy told the waiter. The man nodded and retreated back to the kitchens.
"I see your French has gotten much better." I complimented.
"You think?" Cindy asked happily. I nodded, she seemed happy at my acceptance. She continued. "After living in France for a year, I had to fully learn French at some point, and I knew you wouldn't switch to English just for me."
"You are correct." I smiled at her. "Are we finally going on a mission?" I asked. Cindy was the person who usually notified me if there was an upcoming mission. "The last few months have been nothing but silence from Sims."
"Yes actually." Cindy said. "I agree. We haven't done anything for months. I'm not like you where you have an actual job outside of being a mercenary. Sims might give me something to do once in a while, but it's so boring."
I caught a little whining in Cindy's tone. Deciding to distract Cindy from her woes, I asked her a question. "What kind of solo missions does he send you on?"
Cindy brightened up. "Oh, well he told me to find other people like me." Cindy leaned in, whispering lowly. "Ya know, the spider, web slinging, type people."
I just nodded. So more people with powers similar to the ones Cindy possesed. There can't be many people around the world with similar powers. "Must have been a hard search." she commented. "You find any? People like you, I mean."
Cindy nodded excitedly. "Yeah, yeah. So first there was one lady who wasn't too receptive, ya know? She has a kid and everything, Jessica Drew I think her name was. Anyway, when we talked she wanted nothing to do with our missions, cause she had a kid and everything. Kid is, like, three by the way. And the kid obviously can't take care of itself, so she denied our request." Cindy finished off, a little dejectedly, before brightening up slightly. "Buuut, she said she would join, if and only if, it was a dire emergency. So, that's something at least." Cindy said with a small shrug and frown.
The waiter arrived at their table once again, setting down Cindy's drink, before walking off again. After the man was out of earshot did they began talking again. "You made it sound like there was more than one person that you found." she stated to Cindy.
"Oh yeah, ok, so this second lady I actually talked too a while ago, like two years ago. At the time I wasn't working for Sims, we just sorta, found each other, ya know? Cool, anyway, at the time she was freelancing for the government, SHIELD and all the likes, but her ex-husband died, and she had a daughter. So she couldn't do much merc work anymore cause she had to take care of the kiddo. Now, two years later, we talked again. Now that her daughter is 17, she can start working around again. Her name is Julia by the way, and her daughter is Rachel." Cindy said excitedly. "So she and her daughter are going to come to France in the summer so they can start helping us out and all. So we finally have two more people." Cindy said, giving a small jump for joy while she was still seated.
She shook her head at Cindy's exuberant jump. The kid really had too much energy for her own good. "Well that's good. I won't have to deal with you on my own." She said jokingly.
Cindy scoffed in fake hurt, holding her hand to her chest. "How dare you?" Cindy couldn't keep the smile off of her face, giggling a little bit all the while. "How 'bout you, how have you spent your months teaching?" Cindy asked her.
"Well like you said I've been teaching for the entire school year. They just added the Russian language to their curriculum this year, so it was an elective, which wasn't too popular so I only have 17 kids in my class, ages ranging from 15 to 18." She explained to the younger girl. "And since I never officially teached an actual class before, I was behind on lesson plans and all that teacher stuff during the beginning of the school year. But I found my school legs soon enough. Now I am planning exams for my older kids because they will be off to college next year, unable to continue their Russian tutelage. As for the younger kids, I will continue teaching them for the rest of their school careers."
I chuckled at the glassy look in Cindy's eyes. I became rather passionate about my teaching over the course of the year. I loved to teach. Ever since my days teaching those girls in the Red Room program, at the dead of night, did I find love in teaching. To her teaching felt like an escape. A way to give back to the world. After all of the blood she shed and the pain she caused, she can finally give something to the young people who inherit the world the had scarred.
Cindy broke out of her daze when she noticed I had finished speaking. "Sounds like a lot." she commented. "You really seem to like teaching. I can't imagine doing it. One of the reasons I dropped out of school was partly because I hated my teachers. Maybe they were just shit at their jobs, but still."
"No, no. I understand. I know some teachers just do their jobs just because it's their job. But others just love the act of teaching. Giving knowledge to others, trying to make them better people. Making an effort to make your teachings interesting. All of those things make me want to teach." I explained.
Cindy shrugged "I wouldn't know, but it sounds like you would be a good teacher. Maybe if you were one of my teachers I wouldnt have ran away from home and dropped out of school, ya know."
"Ha" I scoffed. "Yeah right. You ran away from home because your mother was trying to fix something you didn't want fixed and you realized life could be a whole lot better if you dropped out of school. More money, more independance, action, whatever you wanted to do you could do it." Her home life was decent, but not great. A brother who was scared of her because of her powers. A father who honestly didn't know what to do. And an overbearing mother who wanted to fix her daughter for being different.
"Weelllll, that's true." It looked like Cindy tried to rationalize some kind of argument against her statement but couldn't come up with anything. "I've sent a few postcards, just so they know where I'm at. I mean, I still love them and I know they still love me, even my mother. Maybe one day I'll go back, but for right now I am happy."
"That's good." I nodded. It made me think about my sister and our non-existent parents. Our mother was a factory worker during the second world war. After the germans invaded Russia, they enacted extensive war crimes upon the people of Russia, especially the women. The man who sired Natalia was a Wehrmacht soldier who most certainly raped our mother. I remember Nat telling me how our mother was a heavy drinker after she was born. A few years later I came along, my father, according to Natalia, was a factory worker that left our mother during her pregnancy. Shortly after I was born our mother drank herself to death, leaving Natalia to care for me.
I closed my eyes and broke the depressing thoughts. I had no need for parents, Nat was still there for me.
"My sister is actually coming to visit me soon, maybe you can meet her." I suggested. I wasn't really sure why I was suggesting this, but it seemed like the right thing to do.
Cindy looked excited at the prospect of meeting my sister. "Really, I get to meet the infamous Black Widow!" Her excited shout drew a few questioning glances.
I just ignored them. "Quiet." her excitement quickly died down, she looked significantly cowed.
"Sorry" she muttered dejectedly.
"Besides" I continued. "Isn't meeting me, the Deathstalker, enough."
"Yeah yeah, but we know each other. We're friends and stuff. But I've never met her before, so you can't blame me for getting excited." Cindy told me with a smile.
'Huh. I guess we are friends. That's nice, I guess.'
"You said Sims finally has found something. So what do you have for me?" my voice becoming slightly more serious.
Cindy picked up on my tone. "Right, well Sims finally got a name. Morloon. Or Morlun, something like that." she waved her own mispronunciation away. "He's got a mansion on an island, half a mile south of here."
"Sainte-Marguerite you mean?" I questioned.
"Pretty sure, yeah. Sims wants us to infiltrate and procure some information. Any information really. Sims honestly has no idea where this guy is and only just figured out his name and one of his residences across France." Cindy told her.
"You have floor plans, guard shifts, everything?" I asked her.
"Yeah, here." Cindy reached into the small bag she brought to the table. She pulled out several manila files as well as a roll of blueprint. I stood up and quickly dragged another table to connect to ours, making it easier to lay out everything.
"If anyone asks, we're contractors." I told Cindy. She just nodded in agreement, more focused on laying out everything.
Cindy finally laid everything we needed down. The mansion was a large four story, 900 square meter property. Large for being on a small island at least. With 20 rooms and 11 bedrooms, you could house several families with a building like this. The guard presence was supposed to be minimal as this Morlun character had just left the premises taking most of his guard with him. Sims wanted us to break into the man's personal study and find any information that may be useful to him.
It was going to be an interesting mission considering they only had a week to prepare for the infiltration. Sims didn't want us to use guns, too loud, noticeable. It was a small island, as well as a tourist attraction with a small hotel. So any noise could attract unwanted attention by the French authorities and could bring both operation into light. That would force both Sims and Morlun further into the shadows. It could take years before they came to blows again, leaving Cindy and I to go job hunting.
As Cindy would say, 'that would suck', so let's not do that.
April 25, 2014, Île Sainte-Marguerite, France
We spent almost every waking hour since our meeting planning the mission. We watched patrols around the mansion, inspected our points of entry. The study was on the third floor, which also held a long balcony, an easy route for guards to patrol. So getting in and out on the fourth floor was out of the question.
Cindy's best bet would be the second floor. The first and third floors were full of guards, and to get the fourth floor you had to go through the third floor. The basement had a seperate entrance on the south end of the mansion, we even got into it a few times, allowing us to record everything about the guards and their patrol routes. So the second floor on the south wing was the best we could do. There were 50 guards in total. At least 10 were patrolling the woods in pairs at all time. There were 15 guards on the third floor as that is where the office was. There were 4 guards on the second and fourth floors. Then 3 guards in the basement and finally 14 guards on the first floor. Making the second floor the best choice.
The study had no windows and was located on the east wing of the mansion. A single guard had the master-key. I just need to get it, it was in the basement. Three guards will be no problem. So while Cindy took care of the second floor guards, I'll get rid of the men in the basement and get the key.
From the pictures I've seen online my suit is very similar to Natasha's during the Battle for New York. My suit was a tight catsuit, like Natasha's, except it was a dark green color. My suit was also bulkier than my sister's. I had several thick pieces of kevlar armour covering her neck, chest, and thighs which were colored a slightly lighter green than my suit. I also wore a dark yellow face-mask that covered the lower part of my face the nose, mouth, and ears. My hair was tied up in a messy, yet compact bun. Hidden in the bun was a mantis karambit knife for self-defense.
On my belt I carried 10 throwing knives that were all dipped in a deadly poison, if the knife didn't kill them the poison most certainly would.
She also had two small needles and their respective poison vials.
The green needle was dipped in a toxin that would render the victim unconscious. If she were able to poke this needle in a main artery of blood vessel the victim would lose the ability to speak, all other body functionalities would cease to work in around 30 seconds. By a minute the victim will be fully unconscious and won't regain any body functionality for at least 3 hours.
The yellow needle was dipped in a much deadlier toxin than that of the green needle. If used, the yellow needle's toxin would immediately attack the heart and lungs and muscles. The muscles would seize up and would lose all functionality in 10 seconds. The heart and lungs would cease to work in under two minutes, killing the victim.
Cindy wore a two-piece skin-tight bodysuit that also doubled as body armor. Her black tights ended above her waist with two small grey lines going down the center of each leg, eventually splitting off to have another line down the back of her leg. The top half of her body was covered with a white skin-tight body armour, the undersides of her arms being black and grey and her neck line a bright yellow. She also wore black fingerless gloves, allowing her to spin her silk. As well as a black face mask that only covered her eyes. Her long black hair tied into a ponytail, her hair reaching the small of her back.
The island was half a mile off shore. A 10 minute boat ride for them. It was an hour off midnight by the time they arrived. We avoided all the forest patrols. Getting to the south wing was easy enough.
"Second floor here I come." muttered Cindy.
"Good luck" I told her.
We split. I saw her climb the side of the wall as quick as can be. Pop open the second floor window, and slipped in.
I turned to the unlocked basement/cellar doors that lead into the ground. The steps led into a small concrete basement. Two guards sat around a cheap white table, playing solitaire or something. Beyond those two there was a small room where the last guard sat and watched the monitors.
The two nearly-silent sounds of knives sinking into flesh was heard. Two thuds, the men play cards were dead, two knives in their heads.
'I hate throwing with my left hand'
I thought as I slowly opened the monitor room door. The screens flicked to the second floor where Cindy was beating up a few guards, the monitor man was about to call for backup but I slipped behind him and cut open his throat. His head thudded onto the blood stained keyboard.
I searched his pockets and found the key. Easy.
A minute later I was back outside scaling the walls of the mansion. I may not be able to climb nearly as well as Cindy but I made good time to the safe window.
I slipped into the window and headed to the stairway. Cindy was waiting for me at the steps. I could see the guards she incapacitated. Some here hanging by their feet off of the ceiling. Others had their entire head enveloped by her silk strings.
"I see you did well." I commented.
She shrugged. "They weren't too hard to beat."
We creeped up to the third floor. It looked like Cindy had already dealt with a few guards here as well, judging by the wriggling silk cocoons on the stairway.
"Jeez, you really wrapped these guys up." I said.
She chuckled sheepishly "Yeah I, uh, was looking at a painting." I raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "They took me by surprise. Ok, well almost. My silk sense caught them before I did, and I sort of panicked a bit."
I sighed disappointedly, rubbing my head. Seriously, caught off guard. We are the infiltrators, we are supposed to be the ones catching other off guard.
We starting creeping down the halls, it was a winding maze of rich mahogany wood walls and paintings of old people. Boring, hiding from the guards was easy. With a mazelike floor plan hiding in shadowy corners and unoccupied rooms was a piece of cake.
"You know what this place looks like?" Cindy queried to her, her voice a whisper.
"No" I replied evenly.
"Bruce Wayne's manor."
I looked at Cindy questioningly. "And who is Bruce Wayne?" I asked, continuing to slowly creep down the dark hallway. I realized Cindy stopped in her creeping. I turned to see her looking at me incredulously. "What?"
"You never read the Batman comics?!" the younger girl exclaimed in a whisper, quickly catching up to me.
"No" I intoned. I didn't really get the excitement over comic books. Some of her students read comic books, but she never found them interesting.
"Any other comics, maybe the Captain America ones?" the girl asked.
"Nope" I said matter factly, popping the p.
"Wow, your childhood must have sucked." she said.
"Yep"
"Seriously, no comics?"
"I was raised to be an assassin at a very young age, taught to kill, observe, destroy in any way. Reading comic books was the last thing our handlers wanted for us." I told her sternly.
"Sorry." she said quietly. "I didn't mean to bring up any bad memories."
"It's fine"
We finally reached the study, a pair of guards just passing by. It should be 5 minutes before the next patrol comes around.
We unlocked the door and slipped into the study. It was nearly barebones. Fuck.
"Really" I said aloud.
"I hate closed doors." Cindy muttered. "We worked our asses off for this, an empty study with nothing in it." She threw her hands in the air.
"Just look around, maybe we'll find something." I told her.
And we looked. And looked. And looked.
No secret entrance, no hidden cabinet, nothing. But what little we found was interesting. Some old book on black magic, ancient blood rituals, a family line called the Inheritors.
"We need to get all this to Sims." I said.
Cindy looked up from her reading. "I'll take some pictures and then we can scram."
It took a few minutes for Cindy to take thorough pictures. Once she was done, we waited, listening for the boots of the guards to pass by for a second time. Once they did, the pair slipped outside and closed the door softly.
The journey out of the mansion, through the forest, and back to the boat was slow, not getting caught was the top priority. They were finally on the boat and on their way back.
"Hey" called Cindy over the noise of the boat engine. "Wanna get lunch tomorrow?"
I did, I really did. But I had other things to do. "I do, seriously. But I have a staff meeting tomorrow, and my sister is coming, I was going to fly out and meet her in Paris."
"Oh" Cindy said glumly.
"But" I amended. "I'll be free next weekend and we can go out sometime, get a bite to eat."
Cindy brightened again. "Ok, thanks Cat." She smiled.
"No problem Cindy"
We fell into silence, letting the noise of the engine and the lapping waves lull us into a comfortable silence.
AN: As you may have noticed Cindy Moon, Ezekiel Sims, Jessica Drew, Julia and Rachel Cornwall, and Morlun are all characters in the Marvel Comics. I do want to integrate some Marvel Comics characters/storylines into the fic but overall the main story will be following the MCU.
