own. Don't expect Uriko or Kenji to make many appearances in this and
I'll use what names for them I want to! =P Other than that, flame away.
armored van, left hand raised to fan herself in the oppressive heat of
the Brazilian jungle. All around her were mercenaries doing the same
if they weren't busy getting some much needed sleep. No matter what they
were doing, they all kept one hand on the assault rifle they each had
across their lap. The young woman was dressed much the same as the
others, although she was the only female, wearing a pair of fatigue pants
with a dark brown tank top covering her muscular upper body. Over the tank
top was stifling Kevlar, but she was used to that. Guns and knives, all
blacked so as not to flash in the light, were sheathed all over her body,
even in the tops of heavy-duty boots laced tightly. Shina couldn't sleep.
She'd been in warfare since the tender age of fourteen, courtesy of her
father, legendary fighter Alan Gado, but still she couldn't shake the
adrenaline rush of battle like the others could. The coming fight was all
she could concentrate on.
The van lurched to a halt and Shina turned slightly in her seat to peek
through the tiny window of bulletproof glass in the side of the vehicle.
The jungle was unbroken in every direction, the van apparently stopped in
the middle of nowhere. But this was what she had been expecting and she
gestured silently for every soldier to shake their neighbor awake, if they
weren't already. Two mercenaries with faces covered in green and brown camo
paint rose silently to their feet and opened the doors of the van, slipping
out into the dense foliage around them to disappear without a trace. The
young woman gestured again, waving the rest of the soldiers out into the
jungle. They all had their instructions hours ago, there was no need to
speak and possibly alert camp guards.
Once out of the van, she stepped quietly to the driver's side, jerking
her thumb over her shoulder. The armored driver nodded and moved the van
away, leaving the troops standing in the crushed vegetation. Turning
back to the others, Shina chopped her arm down the middle of the group
and waved to either side, indicating for them to split and circle in
opposite directions of each other. She herself took point on the half
moving west in single file, switching on her radio and putting on the ear
piece with a microphone to the side of her mouth with one hand, others
doing the same.
The jungle was amazingly thick in some places, requiring a pause and
the application of a machete. Twice in ten minutes, they met with armed
scouts, but they were swiftly silenced, guns taken with the bodies left
under cover of vegetation, to guard against discovery. When they reached
their destination, an area of cleared jungle, slightly elevated from the
surrounding forest to make it harder for snipers, the soldiers fanned out
with a motion from Shina.
"Spotted Marvel to Lion King and Red Hawk," she murmured into the microphone.
"Five on smoke break, six on the perimeter. All armed." Crystalline blue
eyes roamed the scene before her, picking out potential threats from the
makeshift huts dotting the clearing. Over the crackle of the radio two
voices spoke, rogering the information. One of them, a deep bass growl
of a voice, continued with, "Add the smoke, Marvel, then go in. No snipes."
Then the line was empty. She turned and mimed an overhand throw to the
rest of the soldiers with her, then reached to her side and unhooked a small
cylindrical device from her belt. Pressing the button on the top, she
gestured one, two, three, then tossed the grenade into the midst of the
group of smokers, where it exploded with a cloud of choking gray. The
others around her launched their own grenades, until spreading puffs of smoke
dotted the closest half of the camp. Soldiers ran out of the huts at the
sounds of yells from the slowly choking men.
Shina and crew lowered gas masks over their faces before they stepped into
the clearing, all lowered towards the ground as far as they could while still
remaining on two feet, the smoke being less thick near the dirt. The choking
sounds of the opposing troops started to cut off as Shina's fellows swarmed
over them, the sounds of gun shots bursting around them as those not covered
by smoke got nervous and started shooting into the thick fog.
The fighting marvel released her rifle, letting it hang from her body on its
strap, instead sweeping out her machete and crawling forward on her belly.
Legs appeared in her field of vision and she reacted instantly, depriving
the soldier above her of one leg, bringing him down to her level with a slice
of her blade across his throat, cutting off his screams. Blood now coated her
hands and spattered across her gas mask, but she paid it no mind, continuing to
crawl forward until she was even with one of the wooden huts, standing up
silently with her back against it, pressed as flat as possible. All around her
were the sounds, sights, and smells of death as her squad efficiently took
out all opposition, but her own attention was not on them, but rather the
sounds she heard coming from the hut behind her. Her ear pressed against the
wood as blue eyes narrowed to keep a watch out for potential attackers. She
mentally classified what she heard, two voices, both male.
"Which faction?" questioned a growling voice Shina could have sworn she'd
heard before.
"Gado's. I even saw his little attack bitch," the second voice, unknown,
answered. "What do you want us to do? They've already won, half the men
are dead or wounded and close to it."
"Little Marvel's here?" the first voice laughed. "Load the helicopters with
what we have and get out. We'll meet at Carnevale. You know where." She
felt a thrill of familiar anger burst through her. Little Marvel?!
Sweeping back her right fist, she stepped back from the hut to get more
space, smashing her fist forward against the wood and beyond. The wood split
around her wrist, shattering in a large hole as she used her other hand to
widen it. Immense strength brought to bear on the wall, until, in an
instant, she was through and rolling across the ground in a dive. Even
while moving, she took in the positions of the two men in the shabby little
room, expressions of anger on their faces. Staying low to the ground in case
of gunfire, she pulled up in a crouch and grabbed up a knife from the sheath
in her boot, taking milliseconds to aim and toss the blade at one of the men,
confident in her skill.
But it was caught before it reached her target. Shina gasped, then released
a growl of rage when she finally identified the man with the familiar voice,
the one that had caught her knife. It had been a long time since she'd seen
him, almost a year. She'd thought he was dead, in fact. But he looked
perfectly fine now, with a short haircut and new clothing, not a mark on him
that hadn't been there before. ShenLong, her friend Long's evil clone. The
shock of seeing him slowed her for a few valuable seconds which the unidentified
man took advantage of, dashing out of the hut and into the killing field outside.
ShenLong laughed at Shina's surprise, flipping her knife in his hand slowly.
For a while, it seemed like there was only the two of them, thoughts of the
battle outside swept from her mind. "Look what the leopard dragged in. I'd
heard you were with dearest daddy." His mad red eyes focused on her, still
crouched on the dirt floor. He too was dressed for combat, sans armor, in a
pair of loose dark brown pants and a black tank top, heavy boots on his feet.
He seemed to be unarmed, except for his possession of her knife.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded angrily, rising to her feet with her
hands loosely held before her, as if expecting his attack at any moment. "What
do you have to do with this?" The mission had seemed routine before, just
little terrorist group making trouble for the locals, but this added whole new
dimensions. Anything ShenLong was involved with was bound to be trouble. He
had been an evil bastard the last time she met him and no matter what she heard
about him in between, she believed he was one still. A tiger can't change his
stripes.
"I don't know what you're talking about." He mimed a pose of indignant
innocence, but his laughter ruined it. It was a dark, cruel sound that made her
shiver, her mind's eye overwhelmed by memories of the past. Being held down
by a massive clawed paw while another set of claws swept repeatedly across her
body.
A nice, warm rage swept away the terrible memories, and now she was
speaking through gritted teeth bared in a snarl. "Dad, this is Shina, ShenLong is
here," she said into the microphone before she reached a hand up to pull it
off, dropping it to the ground. A startled "What?!" came from the radio
earpiece, the same voice that had responded as Lion King. Then she turned
her attention back to ShenLong, just in time to see the knife flying at her,
turning aside to catch it in her shoulder instead of where it had been aimed,
her chest. Grunting with pain, she gripped the hilt of the blade and pulled
it from her arm, blood flowing down her tanned skin.
"Sneaky bastard," she growled as she rushed towards ShenLong, who stood there
still laughing, right arm swinging out to catch him across the face with a
right hook. The last thing she saw was a burst of light, and she was thrown
backwards away from him by what felt like a giant hand swatting her. The
hut collapsed around her, pinning her, a heavy beam smashing across the top
of her head.
"I.. can still.. fight!"