Feel free to flame if you think I'm abusing them. I love reviews. And uh..
Also, French is SO not one of the languages I'm even interested in learning,
I could use some help with it. So feel free to do that too.
A disgruntled young woman, dressed only in a sports bra and panties, sat on
the edge of a hospital bed, bandages lacing her torso and shoulders, around
her right thigh. She raked her fingers back through her spiky mass of
blonde hair, glancing at the other two beds in the room. The occupants
of the beds were passed out, which she was grateful for, because her father,
Alan Gado, was standing before her with a stern look on his face. Getting a
public dressing down wasn't what she thought of as a good time.
"And you're not to leave the compound," Gado continued in what had obviously
been a very long lecture, which he was fond of doing. Shina usually just
spaced out while he droned on and on, but this time she listened to every
word, blushing slightly in humiliation as she was effectively grounded from
the action. After her performance in the last conflict, in which she'd had
the bad judgment to let a building fall on her, Gado had decided his
adopted daughter needed a little break from the fray. Even if he had to
force her to take it. Parents! Gado wasn't usually the overprotective
type but ShenLong's sudden reappearance and attack on his daughter seemed
to have shaken him into the role.
"I know!" she practically shouted, then lowered her voice, out of fear of
waking up the other wounded soldiers and out of respect for her father.
"I know. I'll stay here. I promise, Father." Shina raised her eyes to
his with an ironic little smile playing across her lips. At twenty, she
was held back from what she was allowed to do at fourteen. Damn ShenLong
for coming back! Couldn't he just stay dead like normal people!?
Gado, apparently satisfied, reached out to give her a swat on her uninjured
shoulder before turning and walking from the room, leather boots clomping
across the tiled floors. She waited for his footsteps to recede down the
corridor out of hearing range before she got up to her feet and moved on
silent, bare feet across the room to where fresh clothing was draped across
the back of a chair. When she finished dressing, she wore an old navy blue
t-shirt with "NOH CPR!" written across the front in silver lettering and a
pair of blue jeans that'd seen better days, jagged rips splitting the fabric
across both knees and on the backs of her thighs. Shina paused before she
put on her socks and boots, deciding instead to carry them under her arm
until she was out of the base's hospital, the better to sneak past the nurses
and doctors silently. With her clothing on, the bandages weren't that visible
anyway, and she could act healthy if she didn't move her left arm too much.
Dundun, duh duh dundun! She almost felt like she was having too much fun
with sneaking around the hospital, humming the Mission: Impossible theme
very quietly to herself. Dirty Harriet, that's who you are! she thought to
herself with a small smile as she pressed her back up against a wall and
peered around a corner. All clear, she crept around to the next wall
and tried to act innocent as she strolled out the EMS entrance with no one
in sight. A majority of the troops had gone out with her father on recon.
They were all still looking for ShenLong after he'd dropped a hut on her.
She was still embarrassed by that. Only while lying in a hospital bed
did she realize what had happened. ShenLong had changed into his other form,
that of a half-tiger, half-man, and the force of the explosion had sent
the hut down around their ears. In beast form, it wouldn't have hurt him,
but she'd been human and it knocked her out.
Shina forced herself to let all of that slip from her mind as she crouched
behind a barrel filled with water at the corner of the hospital building,
pulling on her boots and lacing them up at last. She straightened up with
an inward cringe for her thigh and shoulder injuries, tugging at the
hem of her shirt to make sure it covered all the bandages. The guards at
the gate apparently hadn't received any orders concerning keeping her in
the compound, which was uncharacteristically lax of Gado, but he had
other things on his mind, or he just trusted her word that much. Which
made her feel kind of bad for deceiving him, but she had things to take
care of.
With a wave to the soldiers as she passed, she drove out of the area with
the Hummer she'd commandeered to get around the jungle surrounding the
base, heading towards the bustling city of Rio de Janeiro. A little run
in the sun during Rio de Janeiro's Carnaval would do her some good.....
The city was so packed with tourists and drunken natives that she had to
park the car outside of the city and go in on foot, which didn't make her
injured leg feel any better. A piece of wood from the hut had sliced it
open and every move pulled at the cut painfully until it was just a
continuous throbbing ache. It took a lot of effort for her not to limp
as she pushed her way through the crowds that were congregating around
local bandas, bands that played only during Carnaval, congregating in
one area of a neighborhood then touring down the streets in a planned route.
Some of the music was actually pretty catchy and she found herself more
that once pausing to listen and watch the samba dancers in their fabulous
costumes.
By the time she'd gotten through the third crowd of dancers, her face was
daubed with face paint in the form of cat whiskers around her nose and
mouth in black, with spiraling geometric shapes in rainbow colors on her
throat and cheeks. Despite her reason for being there, and the inescapable
pain in her thigh and shoulder, she was in a rather good mood. A smile
had fixed on her face as she shuffled around on the streets, accepting a
drink now and then until she felt a comfortable buzz. It made her a
little less cautious than she ordinarily would have been. So much so that
when an arm shot out of what she'd thought was a closed and locked building
and grabbed her with a hand cupped over her mouth, all she had time for
was a startled gasp and she was pulled inside.
The door closed immediately and she recovered herself, pushing her elbow
back into her attacker's gut, knowing she connected by the stifled "oof!"
she heard behind her. It was enough to let her remove herself from his
grip and whirl to face him with hands raised and curled into fists before
her in a defensive stance.
It was ShenLong, who was rubbing one hand across his midsection, smiling
at her in a most unexpected and unwelcome manner. He looked like he was
happy to see her, which made her all the more on her guard, even though
the alcohol she'd consumed was slowing her reactions. "What are you
grinning about, fils du chienne?" she demanded, breathing a little harder
with the sudden rush of adrenaline.
To her annoyance, he laughed at her overt hostility and swept his arms
wide, as though he was going to hug her, making her jump back on her toes
another foot or so away from him. "Shina, Shina, Shina, you're so damn
feisty!" And he laughed again, with that crazed, cruel edge she'd always
heard from him. "You were looking for me, weren't you?" he asked as
though he knew the answer to the question already. "Well, here I am."
While he was speaking, she glanced around at the corners of her eyes. The
place looked like a normal living room, if a little shabby, it was even
pretty clean. Was this where ShenLong lived? Surely not. Somehow it seemed
..too domestic for someone like ShenLong. When she pictured him at "home,"
it was always something like a dank cave or a mansion built on ill-gotten
gains. There was no in-between. A smirk on her face, Shina looked back
to ShenLong. "What're you doing in Brazil? Why aren't you dead?" Although
they were both speaking calmly, for now, she didn't lower her fists,
remaining in her stance, ready to fight. Just in case.
"Would you believe me if I said I was looking for you?" An eyebrow raised
over red eyes as he looked at her, also smirking.
"No," was her prompt answer, with an incredulous laugh. "Those terrorists
were here before I even landed on this continent."
"Okay. You're right. I'm here for Carnaval." He smiled at her, tucking
his hands into a pair of black silk pants. For the first time she noticed
that he was shirtless, which made sense in the heat, but distracted her
for the moment it took to watch a bead of sweat make its way down the middle
of what was a rather nice-looking chest. Catching herself at it, as
surely he had, it made her more defensive than ever.
A strangled growl forced between her teeth and she stepped up before him
with anger-driven speed, throwing her fist out across his face in a harsh
backhand. He either hadn't seen it coming, or he was moving slow, because
the blow caught him straight on, snapping his head to the side with a
loud smack. When he turned his face back to look at her, she saw with
satisfaction that a red mark was already blooming across his chiseled
cheek bone.
"That was uncalled for, little girl." ShenLong's voice was no longer
patronizingly cheerful, lowered to a growl as his ruby eyes narrowed.
"Don't you know when someone is trying to be... friendly?" The last
word was emphasized by his right hand snapping out to grab her by her
injured shoulder, fingers digging into the wound through her shirt and
bandages painfully. She blanched white even under her deep jungle tan.
He pulled her close, bodies almost touching, to growl into her face,
eyes blazing with sudden anger. "I can show you how friendly I can be.
I could teach you to be nice." His voice had dropped in volume again,
and she could feel his breathe warm across the side of her face as he
leaned in close to her, teeth grazing the curve of her ear. That snapped
her out of her pained daze, and she brought her other arm up between
at the same time as she stepped back, her fist flying up to uppercut him.
His teeth had fastened around her ear and with the blow, it made him
bite down hard enough to cut her skin, but his hold on her shoulder
relaxed enough for her to escape and step further back.
"Merde, but you are one sick bastard!" She brought up her injured, but
not disabled leg, and kicked him twice in the stomach before spinning
on the ball of her foot on the floor to let her heel roundhouse him
across the face. ShenLong fell to the ground first on his knees, then
dropped to his side, knocked out for the moment. Panting, Shina bent
down cautiously with fingers stretched out to feel his pulse and make
sure she hadn't killed him. Having ascertained that he was alive, she
kicked him once in the stomach, winning a soft grunt from him as he
started to wake.
Later, she'd kick *herself* for it, but she left him there on the wooden
floor of the house. She was confused by what had happened, plus, carrying
a struggling ShenLong through crowded streets of humans wouldn't have
been the easiest of tasks. Even knocked out, it would have been trouble.
So Shina disappeared into the crowds once more without a backwards glance,
wondering if she should have stayed at the base after all.