The Price of Information (Open)

Participants: Jade Nguyen / Open
Open/Closed: Open
Location(s): Brazil, South America
Time of Day: Twilight
Weather: Humid
Summary: Jade wishes to infiltrate a heavily-armed compound, and seeks help from another villain to do so - a villain with a little more staying power than she possesses should things go wrong.

She sat at the dock's edge, one foot hanging languidly over the side, booted toes only just skimming the quickly darkening ocean's surface. The sun's light was fast fading, and in her lap she held a long, wickedly bladed sai, the steel glinting even absent the afternoon's rays. Removing a thin vial from the inside of her emerald robes, she shook the colourless liquid within, then popped the stopper over the lid. With great care, she poured the contents over her weapon, drenching the metal, before dabbing at it with a dark cloth.

The venom she coated her blade with was deadly, though not because it took life. Jade Nguyen was a master at mixing toxins, and the one she'd specifically tailored was a paralysis. Many major muscle groups would seize and shut down when her chosen poison was introduced to the human blood stream, though the heart and brain would continue to function – just. The body, however, would struggle to move at all, the venom freezing arms and legs in place, contorting them awkwardly. The nervous system would be left intact though – meaning pain could still be felt, and the target could do nothing to defend themselves against said pain. She had come to find it invaluable in interrogation – even brutes believing themselves mentally tough crumbled when suddenly lacking the ability to protect themselves, even though they could see, and indeed feel, various sharp objects being forced into their person.

And it was brutes she had to contend with – the targets of the mission she'd undertaken.

Only half a mile away from her location, built atop a rocky outcrop, hidden by thick jungle, was a fortified mercenary compound home to a large number of defected military agents and government officials from around the world. Believing themselves cheated by their own commanding officers and higher-ups, they gathered in a country where law enforcement was already stretched, and formed something of a revolutionary army, dangerous not only because of their skill, but the secrets each member brought to the table – the innermost workings of the world's strongest political regimes.

Jade had little care for their origins or goals – but their secrets were of great interest to the assassin. Such things were invaluable: she could sell them on, or use them drum up business – and with such a wealth in one place, she couldn't ignore the call of the private army any longer. Having discerned the location of their base through rather unscrupulous means, she had quickly decided that there would be too many armed agents to risk insertion alone. She was highly skilled, not stupid. Sheer numbers and blind luck often bested honed talent – dozens she could perhaps overcome should an alarm sound, but hundreds? It was a risk not worth taking, and she would only have one opportunity.

Thus, masquerading as a criminal enforcer, she had reached out to another villain, though one with a more super-powered background than her own. She didn't work well with others, but sometimes, she had to put her distaste aside - she needed someone who could take gunshots if things went wrong and she required a human shield.

Ja Zaki - The Red Lion - knew a thing or two about quelling so called revolutionary regimes. Rebellion against power was something that all of those who possessed power could except, and it was truly how one decided to handle such rebels that determined who was meant to hold power and who was not. In his time as ruler of Buredunia Matthew Bland had come to squash and quiet many attempts at rebellion, those implicit were either no longer of this world or if they were wiser were brought to prostrate themselves before their President and inducted into servitude. Every ruler of strength and principle could expect an insurrection or coup at some point, the power they held by right challenged by the envious and treacherous. Bland was familiar with such a basic circumstance but it seemed this faction wanted to carve out a new world order for themselves. It was a collective of spurned politicians, disenfranchised generals, and individuals loyal to both to a fault. Surely they thought they were the regime to end all regimes, a rightful autocracy born to challenge democracies and (far stronger) totalitarianism. Matthew thought it was laughable.

The job interested Red Lion for that reason alone, however the compound his employer wished invaded also resided some place on the other side of a vast jungle. Who better to lead an incursion through thick jungle than Ja Zaki himself? It all played rather well into his strengths, he knew rebels and their functionality well from his many years of silencing them, he had not met a jungle yet that he could not conquer, and there was even the bonus of his suit playing the role of the employer's insistence for "super powers". It would seem the job listing was one drafted with The Red Lion specifically in mind - so he liked to think, at least.

Transcripts for a meeting place were encrypted and coded to ensure maximum privacy and to guarantee this mission wasn't over before it even began. Still, Matthew did his part to decrypt and made his way to the rendezvous point a bit behind schedule, insurance that he was not walking blindly into a trap.

Matthew made sure his approach was direct and thus could not be mistaken for an ambush, the last thing he needed was getting cut by a poisonous sai. The man in red appeared out of the darkening twilight, two lions five paces behind him.

"There's nasty creatures in that water, I wouldn't go about teasing them like that." Red Lion nodded his forehead at her hanging leg and foot that broke the surface tension of the water.
"Piranha." He elaborated with what could only be received as delight in his heavily accented voice.

Jade Nguyen

If Jade was at all surprised by the figure that appeared from the jungle at her back - a tall, broad male clad in crimson - she didn’t show it. At first, she seemed not to even acknowledge his arrival, continuing to work on her blade, shining its sleek surface with venom distilled from various poisons and narcotics. It was only as he continued his approach that she looked back toward him, an almost nonchalant glance, her dark hair cascading over her shoulder. Green eyes watched him, apparently uninterested, though they She noted the lions at his back and the purpose with which he carried himself.

She tilted her head as he came to a halt, pausing at the pier’s beginning, not stepping out onto the shanty jetty she commanded. He offered no introduction, but rather a warning. "There's nasty creatures in that water, I wouldn't go about teasing them like that." A pause, then, before he added, "Piranha."

Looking languidly down at the water, she tapped her booted foot against the darkening inlet’s surface, before looking back to the man dressed as a large cat. “I’d be much more worried about the creatures on land.” Jade’s eyes flashed dangerously, perhaps a trick of the fading light, and she allowed a smirk to tug at the corners of her lips. “They’re far more deadly, and like being teased even less.”

After letting her words sink in, as sharp as any knife, Cheshire slowly rose to her feet, uncoiling from the near-lounging position she’d formerly maintained. Rising up to her full height, she slid her sai back into its sheath, and carefully folded and tucked the cloth she’d worked it with back into a pouch at her belt. Then, with a roll of her shoulders, she swayed toward the other – the individual who was to act as her partner.

Pausing a few feet from him, she eyed him, head to toe, and obviously. “Ja-Kai, I presume.” It wasn’t a question – she doubted anyone would have intercepted the encrypted messages passed between them, and if they had, they would have been foolish to approach her so brashly. Jade Nguyen had no qualms killing people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Matthew Bland

Oh good, she wasn't startled. So that meant they could thankfully avoid the customary "fight each other before teaming up" trope that seemed prevalent in their line of work. While Matthew stood there he examined the woman who had hired him out, she looked deceptively alluring. The woman seemed entirely unguarded and quite possibly uninterested that her solitude had been stolen, she concerned herself solely with her meticulous work with her blade. She was armed, that was obvious, but there was a deeper danger to her that would not be immediately discerned by most - not at first glance at least. The woman at the water's edge was like the African boomslang; it could allure with its vibrant colors and its beauty could disarm, possibly even giving the impression that it was approachable. So did Cheshire give off this impression, but she exuded a residual pressure of danger and death. 

Matthew decided then and there that she was a wild one, loyal ties did not exist in her world, she was a killer and most likely a damn good one. He smirked beneath his mask knowing that he was still better.

As the woman at the dock's edge spoke Matthew turned his head slightly, glancing down at the lion that nuzzled against his left leg. The big cat was given scratches on its head before the Red Lion's attention returned to the only other human at the river. Her words were true in more ways than one.

"Cats especially."

Once Cheshire had fully stood Matthew could see deliberation in her movements, she was not as carefree and detached as she wanted to appear. No doubt she was aware of everything in the environment around her, where the dangers were, and where the safe exits were located. That could come from experience or even paranoia, it still remained to be seen if this killing machine before him possessed a brain. Mindless killing and relying on instinct was one thing, but truly strategizing one's skillset to its most efficient execution was a different matter entirely. 

"Kituo," Red Lion commanded his pets as he stepped away from them, leaving them in place while he approached Cheshire. "Ja Zaki." He didn't mind the misnaming, it was something that happened at times and Matthew had no problems correcting anyone. "Reporting for duty, as dey say."

Jade Nguyen

Jade watched carefully as the Red Lion spoke a word she didn’t recognise – ‘Kituo’ – and stepped forward to meet her, closing the distance she’d kept between them. The large cats that had flanked him remained where they were, and thus she assumed the utterance was some sort of command, akin to hunters telling their hounds to ‘stay.’ She made a mental note of it: all information, no matter how small, could be useful when confronted with the right circumstance.

He halted much closer to her than she’d expected; a bold show of his confidence.
‘Ja Zaki.’
The emphasis on the second word was to correct Jade’s former mispronunciation – a rare error in recalling her hired muscle’s exact title. If she was frustrated or embarrassed by her mild blunder, she didn’t show it. Quite the opposite, in fact; she looked totally nonplussed.
“I stand corrected, Ja Zaki,” she purred, shrugging her shoulders a little.
‘Reporting for duty, as dey say.’

With him stood nearer than before, she looked over him a second time, as obviously as the first, casting an analytical eye over his costume -taking in a the accents, the way it clung to his form, the various modifications that made his suit as much a weapon as it was armour. It was impressively crafted, most certainly, and from a material she didn’t instantly recognise. She just hoped that the man wearing it lived up to similar standards.
“You’ll do,” she supposed aloud, stepping into him a little, reaching up and resting her hand against his chest. There, she paused, looking beyond him at the lions-in-waiting, as if challenging them to react to her touching their master.

When they didn’t, simply remaining stationary, she smirked. “Are they coming with us?” Well trained as the huge cats were, she doubted they were masters of stealth and infiltration technique – the last thing she needed was the unexpected sight of two lions in a compound raising an early and avoidable alarm.

Matthew Bland

As far as Matthew could tell, Jade never took her eyes off of him - it caused a smirk to tug at his lips. She was regarding him much like he her, only she may have been watching even more closely. To Ja Zaki this only reassured him his thoughts of her, she was not one to take lightly or be trifled with. She looked small and being a woman would naturally make men think they could over power her, and maybe some could, but none would find it an easy task. But what was more was her ability to analyze, it was apparent to him that that was exactly what she was doing. For a moment he pondered attacking just to fully test his theory, but Matthew got the sense that Cheshire would take a test even less kindly as she would take a true assault. Either way her reaction would be to strike to kill. How fun.

Closer to her now and Red Lion could see that none of her movements were by happenstance, they were all carefully crafted and executed. Briefly he wondered what type of life would cause a woman to live and operate in such a way. So he asked her,

"What makes you so calm and calculated?"

He didn't bother with anything she had said to him. It wasn't important. She had corrected his name but even if she hadn't Ja Zaki would do it himself if she ever got the name wrong again. And her saying he would do was little more surprising than his own cats following his command; it needed not be addressed at all, of course he would do - he was the Red Lion! So her words went ignored, his own being the ones that left hanging in the wind last and heaviest. The masked African looked down at the hand on his chest. Just as she had responded to him and accepted his correcting with a lazed address, so did she touch him with much of the same purposeful disinterest. The hand on his chest meant nothing, at least was carried out with movements that held no meaning. But the fact that she laid her bare flesh onto his costume was very much with purpose, there was a glint in Cheshire's eyes as she looked past the man and onto his pets.

Red Lion did not bother to follow her gaze at his loyal pets. They watched her just as she watched them. The lions did not normally react without direction, they knew their master could handle himself; they were more inclined to pounce at the threats Ja Zaki did not see or anticipate.

"They are more for personal protection," and of course lions were great for increasing the intimidation factor. "But, they can come if you would like." Lions made a statement, they did not do stealth. However, these could disappear and lie in wait until Bland gave the word.

Jade Nguyen

Jade continued to watch the lions as Ja Zaki gave his response, and she tapped a sharpened nail against whatever tough polymer coated the fabrics of his suit. Feeling it beneath her fingers, she noted its flexibility, but also its resilience. It would turn away bullets – at least ones fired from small arms. A knife though? With a stiletto tip? Perhaps not. Little could, unless one was blessed with Kryptonian skin. “Maybe they should stay in the jungle – keep the wild creatures in the wilderness.” She glanced up at the Lion’s crimson facemask. “The compound we’re assailing is no place for pets.”

Stepping past her new acquaintance, she let her hand trail across his chest, ensuring her nails scraped along the surface of his attire. Then, she made her way toward the lions, fearlessly passing them and offering both the most fleeting of touches – a grace of both palms to their great heads. Glancing back, she raised a brow, a mischievous half-smile tugging the corner of her lips. “Are you ready? Try not to fall behind.” Without warning, Nguyen darted toward the jungle’s tree-line. She didn't check to see if Bland had followed.

The site they targeted was a half-mile from their current position, and there was still a steep incline to ascend. The outcrop’s position, high above the bay, elevated above the expanse of woodland and ocean, offered brilliant and unobstructed views of the surrounding area. It was no doubt why the insurgents had chosen it for their military base. The cover of dark was favourable when attempting to break in to such a place. As such, the pair had little time to waste: twilight was turning to darkness, and Jade wished to use what little sunlight remained to traverse the jungle. She didn’t wish to waste precious hours of night avoiding tangled creepers and roots.

Matthew Bland

While she analyzed him closely Ja Zaki could tell she was doing the same to his suit. She was testing it, gauging its integrity. Though she only use a hand and nail she was likely getting a degree of the suit's tensile strength that she could later compute in relation to different forms of weaponry, she was looking for something to exploit. The Red Lion suit was far from perfect, its weakness lied in pinpoint pressure at a very small surface area; knifes would be able to pass through and wound him. However, Ja Zaki had much more faith in himself than to ever think something like that would happen, where his suit faltered his own natural abilities would gather and carry the slack. These were not guarded secrets of the suit that he wished others to overlook, he welcomed any and all who thought they had found weaknesses to exploit to just try making use of them. It would not bode well for that party.

As confirmed prior, both killers were taking stock in the other. Movement said a lot about an individual, especially one who's limbs were their bread and butter. Cheshire was a poisons expert but she needed to be lithe and agile enough to administer such poisons in any given scenario. The feel of her hand on his chest didn't tell her the limits of her strength but it did inform him of her musculature. The pressure of her palm and fingertips transferred a lot but more than that just watching her Matthew had been able to see acrobatic skill hidden in her walk. For the time being he did not wish to add anything to a list of facts to be exploited. She was paying him and they were working together. Besides, he was the Red Lion: he could kill anyone.

Though his question had seemingly fallen on deaf ears it did not stir Ja Zaki or make him irritated like normal, instead he was intrigued. She was trying to string him along, give him the most simplest of basic intel to make sure she remained the one in a position of upper hand. It was smart, but that was to be expected of the cerebral types. Much like the Deathstroke, this woman relied heavily on wit - a common occurrence in those who lack strength and power. Red Lion could set up plot lines and schemes as well, but it was hardly a necessity for one such as him, a man who killed hundreds of men before lunch time.

"Always ready," he spoke in his thick accent. His eyes narrowed as he bent at the knees and curved his back marginally. Red Lion wasn't fully crouched but he looked like an animal ready to pounce. Fall behind, the insistence was laughable - and the African truly did laugh at the notion as Jade Nguyen darted for the trees. He followed her lead but with the stored kinetic energy in his suit he leapt over Jade's head and landed impossibly gentle in the canopy of branches and leaves.

As Cheshire raced ahead on foot so would Ja Zaki run atop the trees, his position keeping him more hidden and giving a greater survey of the area. He was to be her backup and an extra set of eyes for the guards that so immensely outnumbered and overpowered her. A woman strapped with knives and poisons, no matter how skilled she was, was not quite a match for hundreds of soldiers with guns. Her costume allowed her to blend into the surrounding of the jungle better but the watchdogs would undoubtedly see her first. They would assume her alone and grow cocky in their ability to dispatch her. It was when this act of letting their collective guard down took place that the Red Lion would strike. And O how merciless his strike would be.

Jade Nguyen

Ja Zaki was fast, far faster than Jade had anticipated. Though she had taken off at a sprint, leading him toward the jungle, he had easily caught up with her, springing over her head to land in the tallest of treetops. There, he leapt between branches, his crimson mask fleetingly appearing atop the thick canopy. He made such colossal bounds seem easy. A single brow raised, but Cheshire showed no other outward sign of surprise – it was simply information she didn’t have on her hired muscle before, not a problem she couldn’t deal with should the need arise. Their brief meeting had taught her a great deal about the mysterious hunter: his suit was strong, he bound lions to his will, and he could jump vast distances, moving at a pace far beyond that achievable by an unenhanced human.

Jade was almost starting to admire the Red Lion, though the native of Buredunia was still to be subjected to further trial and tribulation. It was only on their task’s success that Matthew Bland would prove his worth.

The journey through the jungle and steep ascent toward the rocky outcrop would have been testing for most. However, both Cheshire and the Red Lion possessed levels of skill and stamina uncommon among mortals, and though Jade’s chest heaved when she finally slowed, dropping into a crouch behind a tree trunk located near the complex’s perimeter fence, she had encountered no real hardship on her climb, nor her dash through the jungle’s thick undergrowth; fleet of foot and naturally acrobatic, she had barely stumbled, adjusting her balance with ease.

Taking a moment to catch her breath, she made the most of her stillness, peeking around the Ramon tree she sheltered behind, surveying the area beyond: the ten meters or so of cut-back greenery, leading to the site’s chain-link barrier. Just behind the fencing, upon a raised tower, a woman stood with a rifle and binoculars, and every few minutes, she would raise them to her face, giving the area a precautionary scan.

To reach the complex, she would have to disable the lone watchwoman. That, perhaps, would be something the Red Lion could aid in.

Matthew Bland

The Red Lion navigated trees as well as he navigated land, as well as he navigated mountain ranges, as well as he navigated anything because the Red Lion could navigate anything. He was familiar with a wide range of terrains, for the Red Lion believed the only way to not be at disadvantage was to create an advantage out of all scenarios. Up in the realm of tree branches and thick leaves Ja Zaki was right at home. Buredunia had a number of forests and his kingdom was often tested by guerrilla soldiers attempting to invade through cover of tree line. Perhaps smart anywhere else and against any other leader, not Ja Zaki.

He ran, leaped, darted, vaulted, and brachiated to keep in pace with the path Jade carved through the thick of tree trunks. Most of his travel had to come from anticipation as he couldn't run at such break neck speed and maintain visual of Cheshire beneath him simultaneously. He had to keep his senses open, maintaining spatial awareness of where Jade was in relation to himself (and if she suddenly turned this way or that, or stopped altogether) so that he wouldn't be off thanks to the slowed reaction that was thinking things out first. Red Lion moved on pure instinct, while he could maneuver through the canopy of winding tree limbs as if he had studied the layout well before hand it all truly came down to what his body told his brain to do, and not the other way around.

Though quieter than should have been humanly possible in the first place, Red Lion heard the notes of Jade's run coming to an end. When she stopped he hopped a few more branches and stopped as well. They had reached the end of the jungle, where green crashed into the browns and grays of dirt and rock. The complex (or fortress, Matthew thought) was nestled behind a perimeter fence and flanked by the arms of a mountain. Matthew looked the structure over and scoffed to himself, it was not as impressive a fortress as he had in Buredunia, and when he managed to reclaim his power he would make his fortress even more impressive! But now was not the time for future plans, Ja Zaki needed himself in the present. He held the branch he perched on and lowered himself deeper into the wide shadows of the jungle, the red of his suit becoming muddier colored in the low light.

His eyes trailed along the tall fence that acted as the complex's border and first line of defense. It looked easy enough to scale, however he was sure it was electrified. Most important to note was the sentry, of which he only saw one, a very fatal error on their part. The masked merc turned his attention to Jade below, she too watched the woman and her rifle, and immediately he knew they were thinking the same.

Scaling the enemy's fence would be simple enough, however entirely unnecessary for a man in the trees that already dwarfed it. Red Lion launched his self from the branches, his timing coinciding with the woman in the tower raising her binoculars to her eyes in the opposite direction. She was wide open. Ja Zaki's body was weightless as he sailed across the non-resistant air. He drew back his right arm. The guard in the tower turned and began to raise her binoculars again - they dropped to the tower floor. The woman slumped, Red Lion's soles met with the ground, and his claws bit into her skull all at the same time. His reaction was tight as he spun around the woman's back and onto her other side, gripping her rifle in his free claws so that it didn't tumble to the ground and make unwanted noise. He then let the woman slide out of the rifle's strap that went around her shoulder. Ja Zaki cleaned his claws on the tower wall absentmindedly as he made a gesture to Jade still on the other side of the perimeter.

Red Lion then lifted the rifle to his cowl, peering through the scope ready to lay down cover for Jade Nguyen when and should she need it.