Chapter 10: One For The Money And Two For The Clone

[Trackman281]

ONE FOR THE MONEY AND TWO FOR THE CLONE

The dropship came in for a landing and once it had, CI-1262 wasted no time in getting off and making her way down the ramp, Tina followed shortly afterwards. While they were at the end getting their brief end of mission description as per usual, Tina smiled and eyed CI-1262 up and down who was still wearing her disguise from earlier, she opened her mouth to say something but CI-1262 turned and stared daggers into Tina’s eyes. Tina closed her mouth and slowly turned away, she thought it was best not to poke the bear anymore. With that taken care of, Tina and CI-1262 went their separate ways.....Very rapidly I might add and their rest period had begun.

Tina’s rest period was going by as per normal, she ate, showered, brushed her teeth and enjoyed some peace and quiet by herself in her room. She was just about to put her head down for the night when she heard what seemed like a weeping noise coming from outside, most of the obsidian whispers were in their rooms asleep so the barracks were quite quiet on Tina’s side which only amplified the weeping sounds. Tina got out of bed and went to investigate. Once she got outside and followed the noise, she came across Soph who sitting by a wall by one of the locker rooms all by herself.

“CI-1140, is that you? What are you doing here at this hour and why aren’t you at your own barracks with the rest of the frost bites?” She inquired.

“Because it’s quiet over here, I can just be alone with my thoughts for a while.” Soph replied.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Tina followed up with after seeing Soph’s hands trembling.

“I got my first kill today.......I was following a target through Sweden, I got them cornered at last HOPING, they would just surrender, but no.....Instead they panicked, they grabbed a knife and just fired my gun, just like that. Bang......But I didn’t stop, when they hit the floor and I kept shooting, bang, bang, bang and even then when my magazine was empty, I kept on pulling the trigger, I could hear the clip pinging indicating I had no more bullets left, but I still just stood there pulling that trigger again and again.” Soph recalled.

“CI-1140 or if you prefer Soph? Look I’m sorry, I really am, it’s not easy being a clone is it. We do something bad and it haunts our every waking moment. We do something supposedly good and we wonder if we’ve actually done anything good at all don’t we.” Tina explained showing that in between the views of black and white, there are so many shades of grey.

“But I just wanted to be more like you, I’ve heard all the stories and I even watched as you found away to save the day and not take a life in the process, I just wanted to use you as my role model.” Soph replied, remembering her assignment with Tina when they went up against the mentally ill Seraphim.

“Wait here a minute.” Tina said before disappearing, moments later she came back an ear piece and passed it to Soph.

“This earpiece is linked to my channel and my channel only, so you can talk to me whenever you like, day or night, rain or shine, just talk to me okay and even if I can’t respond, I’ll just listen and when I can, I promise I’ll help you however I can.” She said with a smile.

“Do-do you mean that?” Soph said with renowned hope in her eyes.

“Of course I do, your my sister aren’t you and I’ll always be here to help you, even through your darkest days, okay.” Tina said offering her hand to Soph.

“Thanks, no really I mean that thank you.” Soph said while taking Tina’s hand and getting back to her feet.

“Now, why don’t you go back to your room, its freezing cold out here and you never know when their little camera’s are watching us, so please try and get some rest, you’ve had a very trying day and remember, anytime you need me, just call me on that earpiece and I’ll come to you okay.” Tina reinforced.

Soph closed her eyes and smiled before giving a very thankful nod in approval and made her exit. Tina rubbed her hand through her hair and took in a deep breath, she wanted to do more she really did, but all she could do right now is be there for Soph and be there she certainly would be. With that Tina returned back to her own room and went back to bed.

Once Tina awoke she already had a notification for her next assignment, the only problem was it was sent to her an hour ago, Tina had overslept. Tina brushed her teeth and got changed into her suit pretty much at the same time, she was supposed to meet up with CO-8826 at her office, on her way to the silver widows barracks, she scoffed down a steak and cheese bagel sandwich she grabbed from the canteen. Once Tina got to CO-8826’s office door, she didn’t even knock, she just burst in and found CI-8826 sitting at her desk.

“Eeerr, come in why don’t you.” CO-8826 said sarcastically.

“Commander, I am so sorry I’m late, I have absolutely no excuse.” Tina said rubbing her chest as she had indigestion from running and eating.

“Hhhmm, indigestion huh, here take a few swigs of this.” CO-8826 chucked Tina a bottle of apple cider vinegar.

Tina took a few large gulps of it, it tasted strong and sour but it actually worked and she felt her chest soothing. She put the bottle back down on the desk, wiped the sweat from her forehead and took her seat.

“I appreciate your honesty in saying there is no reason you should be late, but I can’t get into that now as we are already behind schedule as it is, so I’ll get right down to it, take a look at the images being projected onto the wall now.” CO-8826 ordered.

Both women turned and saw several pictures being projected onto the wall. CO-8826 pointed to a picture of a 19 year old girl who had a Multi-coloured pixie haircut, which was brown at the back and sides but a dark purple at the front, she had teal blue eyes, she had white skin, an average body, she had a very distinctive look, alongside her multi-coloured pixie cut, she had a ring piercing and black earrings which serve to establish her rebellious image, she’s wearing a white shirt that features a pink skull wearing shades and putting a finger to its lips, On top of that she wears a green coat with pink patterns on the sides and the back, with the sleeves slightly tucked up and she wears a wristband. She is also wearing dark red jean shorts over black ripped tight leggings and dark lavender pink boots.

“This is Felicity crown, she has a condition called Hyperthymesia, this means she possesses a superior autobiographical memory, meaning she can recall virtually anything and everything she’s seen or heard. Now our old rivals from Atlantis Co have been using Felicity to memorise all of their account holder details, all their investors private information and everything else that Atlantis Co would want to keep secret.” CO-8826 explained.

“Perfect, with Felicity’s condition, they wouldn’t need computers or anything which means, it would be virtually impossible to gain any usual information from their systems.” Tina said with interest.

“Exactly, however Felicity found out that it was Atlantis Co that staged her brother’s murder to make it look like a simple mugging that had gone too far, this was all a plot to persuade her to join Atlantis that way she could make a difference and not let her brother’s death be for nothing, obviously now she see’s through the lies and she’s jumped ship, she’s betrayed Atlantis and made off into the night. BUT instead of sending in their own people they’ve bought in a specialist, a cocky cow of a sniper and a mercenary who goes by the name of Ricochet.” CO-8826 explains as she zooms in on Ricochet’s profile picture.

Ricochet was a 27 year old woman with brown eyes, she had black hair cut into a choppy Bib hair style and while she had white skin, it had a slight darkish tone and she had Asian facial features, this is because her Father was English but her Mother was Vietnamese. Ricochet was wearing a white vest, with a yellow puffer coat with a grey fluffy hood, the coat only covered the top half of her body leaving her stomach fully exposed, she was wearing combat trousers with a grey and red camouflage pattern, the ends of her trousers legs were tucked into her black combat boots with silver buckles at the sides. She wore black leather fingerless gloves and she wore a black cotton balaclava with a navy blue leather patch which covered her mouth. Her weapon of choice was a modified AS50 sniper rifle as it has comparatively long range and the light weightiness of the rifle made it very portable which meant it was easy for Ricochet to carry around.

“Now Ricochet we imagine has been paid one hell of a sum of money to eliminate Felicity, but she’s been smart, while Ricochet has been keeping to the rooftops and the shadows, Felicity’s been sticking to crowded area’s and building full of CCTV camera’s, this is how we’ve been keeping track of her whereabouts, but like everyone she’s gotten tired, so she’s hidden in this Royal Ballet theater and she hasn’t come out since, we’ve still haven’t Ricochet anywhere but we know she’ll be in there too. CI-1138, get in there, extract the asset and get out, she’s just too valuable to lose, especially with all that juicy information she keeps in that head of hers.”CO-8826 said with a grin.

Tina didn’t like the commander referring to Felicity as an asset, she was a human that had been lied to and deceived to. But Tina didn’t let on and just calmly replied. “Yes Ma’am, have the dropship ready within ten minutes.”

“Glad to hear it, get going CI-1138, we’re behind enough already.” CO-8826 remarked as Tina left the office.

Tina took that one on the chin as she knew it was her fault she forgot to set an alarm so she had no one else to blame but herself for oversleeping. She grabbed an earpiece and grabbed a packet of zip ties before making her way to the hanger where a dropship was waiting, Tina was ready for the off. A few hours after takeoff, they had arrived above the royal ballet theater and Tina rappelled down onto the rooftop.

“I’ll radio in when I have the asset.” Tina said to the pilot, while still disgusted they refer to Felicity as just an asset. With that pilot left the area and would find a safe place to hide and await Tina’s call.

The rooftop was clear, which meant that if Ricochet was here then she was already inside, Tina opened up one of the rooftops skylight windows and jumped down onto floor below, luckily it wasn’t high so she landed quite easily on her hands and feet. Tina snuck around the theater weaving in and out of hiding places trying to avoid all of the guests that were here to see the Ballet itself.

“Aaahh, how hard it is to find a girl with purple hair and grungy look amongst all these wealthy fools with their fancy dresses.” Tina said to herself.

Tina grew tired of all this sneaking around, there was no sign of Ricochet or Felicity, she was beginning to wonder if the intel was wrong when she spotted a vent grate open and a purple haired figure climbed into it. As Tina was squinting though trying to work out if that was Felicity she had just saw, she sore a figure move in the corner of her eye, she turned just in time to see Ricochet’s boots disappear into the shadows.

“Well, at least I’m at the right place.” Tina said with relief.

As Tina was thinking of a way to move around more freely, she heard a door open up and without thinking Tina dived behind a pillar. A 32 year old woman came out onto the walkway, she had tanned skin, long dark hair, a fit body, she was wearing an evening dress which was black, it had long lace sleeves, was Maxi in length, had a V-neck neckline which revealed just a peek of the top of her breasts, the dresses fabric was polyester, it had a slit up the left side of her leg which was for that very reason, showing of some leg. She was wearing silver gladiator style high heel sandals. This woman was texting on her phone in one hand had a glass of Champagne in the other. The woman’s name was “Gabriella”.

Tina quickly realized that just behind her was an unused room, in other words, perfection. Tina quickly emerged from hiding and walked pass Gabriella, however while she was doing so she deliberately bumped into her causing Gabriella’s champagne to spill all over her arm.

“Oh god, look I’m sorry, I just wasn’t watching where I was going, oh no look I’ve got champagne all over your sleeve, quickly come with me, come with me, in this room and I’ll clean it up for you.” Tina lied.

Before Gabriella could respond Tina had already grabbed her by the wrist and yanked her into the room and closed the door, but once inside, instead of giving Gabriella a cloth, Tina instead gave her a swift left elbow to her stomach causing Gabriella to hunch over, then while was hunched over Tina finished her off with a quick chop on the back of her neck causing Gabriella to fall flat on her front unconscious and spilling the rest of the champagne on the floor. Tina hastily grabbed Gabriella and swiftly stripped off her dress revealing a set of matching patterns black bra and panties underneath, now that Gabriella has been reduced to her underwear, Tina quickly zip tied her hands behind her band and her ankles together, once that was done, Tina used a cloth and wiped the sleeve dry before shoving the now champagne soaked cloth into Gabriella’s mouth to act as a gag. With that Tina stripped out of her cat suit and tore into stripes before tucking them into her own bra, she’ll need this at some point, she then got changed into Gabriella’s dress and shoes and adjusted her own breasts after slipping on the dress.

“You know technically I didn’t lie to you out there, I did clean the champagne off of your sleeve as I promised, I just may have forgotten to tell you I was going to be knocking you out for your dress, so yeah no hard feeling eh?” Tina said to a very knocked out, bound and gagged Gabriella.

Tina then emerged from the room wearing Gabriella’s clothing, she could now more freely around the theatre. Tina made her way downstairs and into the main hall as this is where the vast majority of the guests were, she approached the vent which Felicity had climbed into but when she peered in naturally there was no sign of her, Tina knew it was a long shot that Felicity would of just stayed in that one spot but she gave it a go. With this, Tina checked a map of the theater which was situated in the center of the hall, just in case any of the guests couldn’t work out where to go. Tina followed the map with her finger and found that there would be a very concealed area close to the main stage, now if Tina’s hunch was right, there would be a ventilation duct close to it and that’s where Felicity would exit from. Wasting no more time, Tina hurried to the main stage.

A vent duct slowly opens and Felicity climbs out, she has a quick look around to make sure the coast in clear then she brushes herself off, she cracks a smile and a chuckle before she hears a voice behind her.

“Took you long enough Felicity Crown.” Felicity turned and saw Ricochet leaning back against the wall.

“I got to say, I genuinely thought you would have lasted longer, I mean look the night is still young and I’m already about to collect my prize. A pity.” Ricochet boats as she pulls a pistol from her back pocket and aims it right at Felicity’s head.

“A nice clean kill, just the way I like them.” Ricochet gloats, but just as she about to pull the trigger suddenly a mop swats Ricochet’s wrist sending her sidearm flying across the room, Ricochet looks up and see’s Tina standing there, mop in hand.

“Felicity Crown right? Well nice to meet you, I’ll be your bodyguard for this evening, so please just get behind me.” Tina introduced herself to Felicity.

“Hey you don’t have to tell me twice, you seem like an improvement over her!” Felicity shouted while ducking behind Tina for cover.

“Well, who do we have here and more importantly, what makes you think you can just walk in here and take my pay cheque from me?” Ricochet inquired.

“I’m here for the girl, but unlike you, I’m not in it for the money, I just don’t want an innocent person getting needlessly slaughtered for corporate greed.” Tina rebuffed.

“Sssooo.....Maybe vigilantism is your thing huh? Ha, a waste of talent if you ask me but not that it matters now, well little lady, can you keep up with the likes of me?” But as soon as Ricochet finished her sentence she attempted a round house kick on Tina, but she ducked and swiped Ricochet’s other foot causing her to fall to the ground. Ricochet got to her feet and Tina gave her a confident wink. Ricochet then kissed both her knuckles through her balaclava and attempted a left hook at Tina, Tina managed grab Ricochet’s hand with her own and attempted to hip toss Ricochet over her shoulder, but instead Ricochet, placed one of knees on Tina’s back as she was being flipped and slammed Tina onto the floor. Tina blew the hair out of her eyes just in time to see Ricochet giving a courtesy bow to her, this was Ricochet saying, it was one / one on the scoreboard. Both Ricochet and Tina then blocked and dodged a series of strikes and blows from each other before Tina managed to wrap her arms around Ricochet’s wrist and stretched her arms so she couldn’t move them, this in turn allowed Tina to head butt Ricochet right in her nose, causing her to stumble backwards onto a table behind her. This was actually a bad move on Tina’s part as she’ll soon find out.

As Ricochet fell back on the table she noticed it was covered in supplies, using her right hand she grabbed a stapler and chucked it at the side of the wall causing it to ricochet off of it a smacked Tina right in the side of her head, next she grabbed a spare microphone that was on the table and slammed it on the floor at an angle causing it to ricochet upwards smacking Tina right under her chin, then as Tina stumbled backwards, Ricochet grabbed an old prop and using an under arm throw, chucked the prop onto the ceiling causing it to also ricochet downwards right onto the back of Tina’s head, Tina grumbled in frustration but as she glanced up, Ricochet gave her a running boot kick right into Tina’s chest causing to hurl backwards onto the floor.

“Okay right well, obviously this is stupid observation, but I can see why you have the nickname ricochet.” Tina said while standing back up.

“Oh that’s nothing, you should see what I can do with a cocktail shaker and a few bullets, I used to be able to bounce bullets off the walls like a pro while still flipping a descent Singapore sling all at the same time. Aahh good times, god I miss Syria.” Ricochet gloated again.

As Tina readied her fists for round two, suddenly the stage door opened and a load of ballet dancers all poured into the room, Tina quickly shoved Felicity as hard as she could so she stumbled backwards behind a load of curtains before following after her. Without looking back Tina grabbed Felicity’s arm and quickly escorted her up the still empty seating aisles and quickly got her back out into the main hall before pulling her behind a pillar.

“Okay I think we’re safe here.” Tina added.

“So is that true what you said back there?” Felicity asked cautiously.

“Yes, I don’t work for Atlantis Co, I work for one of their rival companies and it seems Atlantis hasn’t exactly taken too kindly to you suddenly up and leaving them.” Tina said while checking around to make sure Ricochet hadn’t followed.

“Yeah I kinda gathered that when whoever that was back there tried to redecorate the walls with my brain matter.” Felicity said while rolling her eyes.

“Look is it true with what they say about you, have you really memorised every investor and client that Atlantis Co has in their pocket?” Tina wondered.

“Yep and I’ve even got the slew of lower rank politicians memorised too.” Felicity winked.

“Great, that means a lot of people are going to be after you, unless hhhmmmm........I actually might have a plan. If I get you out of here and take you somewhere safe, can you write down all of the information you have so I can take it back to my superiors, otherwise Atlantis Co, my company and numerous others will continue to hunt you and send assassin’s after you once word of the knowledge you possess truly gets out.” Tina carried on.

“Well yeah of course I can, but why would you want to do all that for me? What do you get out of it?” Felicity frowned.

“To put it as simply as I can.......I get nothing.....Not even a lousy thank you or a good job for doing this, but you need to understand, the company who I work for doesn’t care about your well being, they only care about the information you have and just like Atlantis Co, I can assure you they will exploit you just to suit their own benefits, so the way I see it, you give me the information you know, I pass it on to my bosses, they do whatever the hell they want with it and you get to live the rest of your life without having to look over your shoulder constantly.” Tina tried to make Felicity see reason.

“Well....Okay....But if you try anything funny I’ll......I’ll.......aahh crap I don’t know what I’ll do.” Felicity tried to sound tough, but this failed.

“Hhhmmm I know of a place that you’ll be safe BUT first we have the matter of that sniper that’s looking for an easy pension, right so obviously she’s just here for you which means if anything I’m just an optional hit, so she’ll be more focused on you, sssoooo.......Let’s draw her out.” Tina was planning this as she went along.

“How, you’re thinking of using me as bait are you, because I’m not going to be walking around shouting yoo-hoo over here.” Felicity replied in utter distain.

“No.....I have something a little more unnecessarily elaborate, here me out, we both get ourselves a change of clothes, then parade you around in your new get up so Ricochet will think I’m trying to disguise you to fool her, so she’ll let her guard down thinking that’s our plan, then wham, she’ll give up her location and I can take her down. What do you say?” Tina said with a slight hint of excitement in her voice.

“You’re right it definitely sounds unnecessarily elaborate, but I guess I’m game; just make sure I don’t get shot okay!” Felicity replied.

As Tina was thinking of a way to disguise her, suddenly an all female Orchestra appeared making their way to the main stage, Tina watched as they went passed, but she had just missed her shot at grabbing one for their clothes. Or so she thought, and Tina quickly realized that the one at the back was unpacking her harp and she was all alone in the dressing room while doing so, Tina quickly nudged Felicity on her arm and got her to follow her.

The harp player was a 35 year old woman, she had an all navy blue outfit on which consisted of a mid length, long sleeved top, a palazzo skirt and black zip up shoes accompanied with thick black tights. She had white skin, blue eyes and black hair however she had dyed her hair bright blonde, you could tell it was dyed as her roots were starting to show through, this woman who was named *Barbara*had been playing the harp for many years and always dreamed of performing in front of thousands of people as part of an orchestra, it’s just a shame that she’s about end being overpowered and impersonated, still there’s always next year.

Barbara was polishing down her harp so she didn’t notice Tina had snuck into the dressing room and Felicity was outside keeping watch, Tina snuck up behind Barbara and with her left hand quickly covered her mouth and with her right hand applied a slick and swift nerve pinch on Barbara’s shoulder, Tina heard Barbara let out a faint moaning noise before her legs fell limp so Tina released her grasp off of Barbara’s mouth and quickly grabbed her waist making sure she doesn’t hit the harp on her way down.

“Pppsstt, I got her, hurry up!” Tina loudly whispered to Felicity.

Felicity came in and closed the door behind her, she watched as Tina stripped Barbara of her dress and shoes revealing that she was wearing a navy blue bralette bra and black control brief knickers, with this, Tina quickly reached into her own bra and pulled out the bonds that were originally her cat suit from earlier and proceeded to both bound and gag Barbara with them. Next Tina had to hide Barbara’s half naked body, then a very wicked but desperate idea came into her head. Tina noticed that Barbara’s harp wasn’t an ordinary harp, but in fact it was a large spectrum harp and it’s case was be the right size to hide Barbara in, if Tina did this right. First and foremost though Tina quickly smacked a few holes into the case itself so Barbara wouldn’t suffocate, then Tina folded up Barbara herself into a ball and with a bit of a squeeze she managed to lock up Barbara inside her own spectrum harp case. She then chucked Barbara’s clothes at Felicity.

“Here get changed into these, this will be your disguise, you’ll go out with the rest of the orchestra, then of course with you being right at the front of the stage, not to mention with that purple hair of yours, Ricochet should fall for our little trap.” Tina explained.

“WOW, I can’t believe you just locked that woman inside her own harp case, not going to lie, that was kinda cool to see, which means I’m guessing this isn’t the first time you’ve had to *borrow* another woman’s clothes?” Felicity asked while getting changed.

“Eeerr....Yeah....Something like that.” Tina wasn’t really sure how to gauge that with a response that didn’t sound weird.

“Hey wait what about the clothes I’m wearing now, I do want to keep these you know.” Felicity followed up with.

“Oh right, eerrmm here, use this, we can grab your gear on the way back.” Tina responded, she emptied out someone’s backpack that was hung on the door then passed it to Felicity.

A few minutes later Felicity had packed her old clothes into the backpack and was now fully dressed in Barbara’s clothing and shoes. Tina quickly looked her up and down before smiling and giving her a thumbs up.

“Come on; let’s see if we can find some stage hands to help us drag this harp to the stage for you.” Tina said after she felt just how heavy the harp was.

“Hey wait, what about you?” Felicity asked after noticing Tina’s lack of a disguise.

“Don’t worry, I’ll improvise, I always do in these sorts of situations.” Tina said with a groan as she tried to drag the harp across the room.

As they got outside they were lucky enough to find some staff members to help Felicity carry the harp and join the rest of the orchestra, during which Tina slipped away and made her way round to backstage hoping to find a change of clothes of her own. Once she was backstage, she knew that Ricochet would use one of the balconies to take her shot and with Felicity’s hair being that colour, it wouldn’t take her long to line up her shot, it would take Tina far too long to go from balcony to balcony and she wouldn’t be able to get a good enough view from the rooftop or being in attendance itself, now the only way Tina would be able to get a descent view would be if she was on the stage itself, so she quickly theorized that if she would to replace one of the ballet dancers themselves, not only would she have a enough room to keep an eye out for Ricochet but she’d also be able to blend in easily constantly moving around with the other ballet dancers. Tina removed her shoes so she was in her bare feet as to not make too much noise, she tip toed behind one of the curtains and luckily enough behind this old curtain was a crate of spare props and ropes, Tina didn’t know what they were specifically used for, but she sure knew what they were ABOUT to be used for. It actually took a lot longer that what Tina would have liked and she could hear the orchestra getting set up and she could hear guests taking their seats, she was running out of time. Thankfully though, just as she was about to think of another way to get a disguise she heard a voice from inside one of the dance studious.

“Yeah I’ll be bag in a minute I just want to quickly check my Twitter feed before we go on stage.” Tina smiled, at last hear came her disguise.

With this a 21 year old woman with light brown skin, green eyes and long but very curly hair came out of one of the studious, she was dressed in a dusky pink leotard, jet black ballet shoes and she wore a jet black tutu, her name was *Jacqueline* a name she was probably about to regret having in a bit. As she was passed Tina’s hiding place she suddenly felt two arms wrap around her waist.

“Sorry hun, but your hashtag’s are going to have to wait.” Tina whispered and with that yanked Jacqueline behind the curtain.

“Hey let go of me! Whoe your hands are freezing cold and aaahhh!” Jacqueline tried to cry out but after Tina gave her a series of quick precised jabs and punches, Jacqueline was out like a light.

Several minutes later, Tina had stripped Jacqueline of her leotard, skirt and ballet shoes showing off that Jacqueline was wearing a Wild berry pink strapless bra and a pair of ballerina pink hipster panties. Tina then helped herself so several handfuls of string and a piece of fabric from the crate and tightly tied up Jacqueline before gagging her, she then lifted up Jacqueline’s unconscious body and hid her inside the crate, but before Tina got changed into Jacqueline’s leotard she noticed her name tag poking out.

“Huh, so your name’s Jacqueline eh? Well it seems for how I’ve left you in that crate, it seems you’ve become a real, dare I say......Jack in the box!.............Aaahhh my god that was so bad, even by my standards.” Tina said after immediately taking back her extremely bad joke.

Tina then got changed into Jacqueline’s outfit and rejoined the rest of the ballet dancers, getting ready to go out on stage. Tina made sure she was at the back of the line when the curtains opened, she didn’t know the routine at all but she was able to at least get a good idea of how to start it by the watching the one’s in front of her. As Tina literally faked the routine by following the others, she noticed Felicity sitting amongst the rest of the orchestra and she too was plucking the strings of her harp, pretending she knew what she was doing, thankfully there were two other women on harps so they were drowning out Felicity’s bad attempt to play it properly. Tina eyes darted from left right, trying to make some sort of visual contact all the while trying to stay in step with the others in front, yes Tina was mucking up the whole routine terribly but she didn’t care, nor did she care that members in the audience were starting to notice, all Tina cared about was finding Ricochet.

“Bang, bang two legends, one legacy. Bang, bang I’m surrounded by enemies. Bang, bang go ahead and cry. Bang, bang you’re all about to die.” Ricochet said to herself as she perched herself on a balcony.

“Bang, bang my kill count rise. Bang, bang my enemies die. Bang, bang better hit the ground. Bang, bang here’s the sniper’s sound.” Ricochet continued to hum to herself as she set up her rifle and took aim.

“Seasons came and changed the time. Battle bonded, blood and grime. They would always laugh and say. Watch out for that ricochet.” With that Ricochet spotted Felicity and she lined up her shot.

Back down below just as Tina followed step and bent over before stretching her arms down her legs, she caught just a slight glimpse of the stage light reflecting back from Ricochet’s sniper scope, she knew it was time as her arms were bent down she untied and loosened her ballet shoes.

“Just do it Tina, don’t even think about it, just do it. DO IT NOW!” Tina was psyching herself up, she only had one shot or well two shots, but she’d focus more if she thought she just had the one.

With that Tina pushed passed the other ballet dancers, clenched her toes tight so her shoes would slip off, then she performed two cartwheels down the stage before finishing off with a backwards somersault and flicked both her shoes as sharp and as accurate as she could at that split second where she needed to be. Good thing she used both of her shoes as the first one completely missed by a country mile but the second one managed to hit Ricochet’s sniper causing her to jaunt and miss her shot, making her bullet hit the back of the stage wall.

“Ooff......What the hell? Is this a shoe?” Ricochet looked and saw Tina in the middle of the stage.

“What the, you son of a........I’M GOING TO SHOVE MY RIFLE SO FAR UP YOUR..........Whoops” Ricochet ducked behind the balcony as she had just shouted her frustrations out loud and now hundreds of audience members have all just looked up.

With everyone momentarily distracted Tina seized this opportunity to discreetly sneak off of the stage and she raced through the hallways towards the balcony section, on her way she almost ran straight into one of the stagehands, a young female who looked like she was in her early twenties, she was wearing black skinny jeans, a black t shirt, a black cap and a black pair of trainers, this female had olive skin and medium length chestnut brown hair.

“Hey why the hurry, are you late for your big entrance or something?” The stagehand asked.

“Sorry dear, but I must borrow your shoes, I don’t really want to fight a professional killer in my bare feet.” Tina hurried her sentence.

“Haha, I’m sorry wha....” But as the stagehand was responding Tina gave her a quick uppercut sending straight to the floor knocked out.

“I’m sorry but I really don’t have time.” With that Tina quickly slipped off the stagehands shoes and tried them on her own feet, thankfully they fit just fine and with that Tina quickly resumed her pursuit.

Ricochet peered over when she thought it was safe to do so, luckily everyone had turned their attention back to the stage, it’s here she noticed that both Tina and somehow Felicity had left the stage.

“Gggaaahhhh, god I’m going to kill you!” Ricochet whispered angrily, she had missed her shot again. But as Ricochet grabbed her rifle and left the booth she saw Tina running down the hallways straight towards her.

But she noticed too late as Tina performed a baseball slide which caught Ricochet’s ankle causing her to topple over, Tina flicked Ricochet’s rifle up into her own hands with her foot and dismantled it by removing the scope, ejecting the magazine and ripping off the bipod assembly attachment.

“Go ahead and keep it, I’ve got plenty more where that came from, but I’ll tell you what, your starting to remind me of a bounty I was chasing in Kenya, she had eluded my scope for three days and four nights, I knew she was using a local forest to hide but I could never pin point her location, so after the fourth night I thought screw it, so I grabbed some gasoline and I just burned that damn forest to the ground, I found my bounties charred remains a couple of hours later. What I’m trying to say is.....Don’t gamble with your luck, because you never know when the cards are stacked......But if you want to fight, then let’s take this outside.” Ricochet said nearly spitting with how fuming she was.

Tina gave chase to Ricochet but on her way to a fire exit which would lead to a rooftop, Ricochet grabbed a bottle of water and chucked in the air, then as Tina looked up during this split second of distraction Ricochet hurled a circular bin lid to the side of the wall causing to bounce off and smack Tina right in her cheek.

“Right, how many more times am I going to fall for that I wonder?” Tina asked herself while rubbing her cheek better.

While Tina chases after Ricochet we briefly jump back to Felicity who has just managed to sneak away from the orchestra while they were distracted as well, she tried to run while wobbled and fell to her knees before of shoes, she picked herself up and tried to run again but this time tripped on the skirt she was wearing and again fell to her knees.

“Okay this is going to get really old, really fast.” Felicity said.

Suddenly a door opened and another female stagehand walked out, again she was wearing black skinny jeans, a black t-shirt, a black cap and of course black trainers. She had tanned skin, skinny body, aqua blue eyes and long flowing brunette hair, her name tag read “Luna”. Felicity just rolled her eyes and thought “well why not”. She picked up a thankfully empty jug and started mimicking Luna’s walk and got into step with hers, then when she was close enough she smashed the empty jug right over the back of Luna’s head.

“OOOOWWWW!” is all Luna said as she fell to floor clutching her head. Felicity quickly checked her over when she didn’t move, thankfully Luna was very much alive but she would have one very nasty headache when she’d wake up.

Felicity grabbed Luna by her ankles and dragged her back into the room she had just come out of. Thankfully it seemed to be a supply room of some kind, Felicity quickly unlaced and took of Luna’s shoes, before she unzipped and pulled of her skinny jeans, Felicity then pulled of Luna’s top and side swiped her cap, Felicity then grabbed a pair of scissors from a table and cut up the dress she was wearing into a series of bonds and a gag and quickly proceeded to tie and gag Luna who now revealed that under her clothing she was wearing an apricot orange full cup bra and a pair of bumblebee yellow panties. With Luna now bound and gagged in her undies, Felicity found the a big cardboard box and emptied all the contents inside onto the floor, she then flipped the box upside-down and placed it over Luna’s unconscious body, yes it wasn’t the best of hiding spots but Felicity had to make do with what she had. She then got changed into Luna’s clothes and tucked as much of her hair as she could under the cap, hoping to hide the fact her hair was purple just in case she bumped into Ricochet. She then left the supply room and closed the door behind her, she felt more comfortable being in this outfit instead of the restricting dress and with that she set off to find Tina.

We rejoin Tina who has managed to successfully chase Ricochet onto the rooftop. Ricochet didn’t realize just how close Tina was to her and she pulled out her sidearm she has recovered from their last encounter and spun around attempting to shoot Tina, however with Tina being fairly close she reached out with both hands and grabbed Ricochet’s wrist, Ricochet still pulled the trigger and Tina heard the bullet explode past her. With this Ricochet grabbed into Tina’s arm with her other hand and attempted the grapple her gun free. However Tina quickly let go of the gun before grabbing it just as quickly again, but this time she grabbed a snapped it back as hard as she could which caused it to jam on the slide stop, with that Tina flicked the magazine release and watched and the pistols magazine fell, however this come back to bite her for you see as soon as it fell, Ricochet used her boot and swiftly kicked the magazine which caused it to bounce of the side of the roof, snap back and smack Tina right in her ear. Seizing her moment, Tina stomped on Tina’s foot, then kneed her in the stomach before pulling her in and head butting her in the head. Tina now let go and fell backwards but managed to keep her balance. Realizing her gun was jammed Ricochet bounced the gun onto the floor and it flew straight for Tina’s jaw, but this time Tina had anticipated she would do this and she managed to successfully catch it moment before it hit her, she then spun it and hurled straight back at Ricochet, however Ricochet managed to catch it but this proved to be more of diversion as when she caught it Tina shoulder bashed straight into Ricochet which cause to tumble back onto the floor, Tina jumped into the air and used all of her weight to come crashing down onto Ricochet’s stomach, but Ricochet quickly put her arms up and over her face for protection, luckily she did as Tina landed blow after blow on Ricochet’s arms hoping she’d get to weak to keep them up so Tina could land a knockout blow, but Ricochet had other ideas. Using her feet, he was just in reach of where she bent her leg up and with the toe of her boot managed to clip Tina right on the top of her spine, Tina leant back showing a faint sign that it stun a little and with that, Ricochet managed to shift Tina’s body weight to the side and she was able to wrap her calf muscles around Tina’s neck and pull her off of her. By she didn’t let instead using both her half and her thigh she squeezed them around Tina’s throat and she grabbed the soul of her boot to apply more pressure. Tina could feel the oxygen slipping her away, she’d have to think quickly before she lost consciousness or worse. Tina then used both her hands and moved Ricochet’s legs closer to her face, this applied more pressure to Tina’s throat however it also bought her thigh closer to Tina’s mouth. With that Tina opened her mouth and used all of her teeth bit down as hard as she could on Ricochet’s thigh.

“AAAAHHHH!” Ricochet screamed out before letting go and rolling over.

“Biting really?! What are you twelve or something?!” Ricochet barked out.

“Desperate times call for desperate measures.” Tina said while coughing.

Ricochet readied her fists and Tina did the same, but just before they locked in combat once again suddenly Felicity jumped up straight onto Ricochet’s back and with her hands smothered Ricochet’s face including her eyes. Ricochet flayed around trying to get Felicity off of her and when she turned around to try and flip her over her shoulder Tina used this opportunity and built up a bit of speed before she slid across the floor on her knees before she punched the back of Ricochet’s leg as hard as she could as she slid pass. This in turn caused Ricochet to fall to one knee, Tina quickly got back to her feet and jumped up into the air, once she was in the air she slammed the back of her foot down straight onto the back of Ricochet’s head which also caused her forehead to come crashing down onto the concrete rooftop, as soon as her head hit the concrete, she was down for the count.

“Thank you for the assist, quickly pop back down and grab something to tie her up with, I’ll stay here in case she comes back round.” Tina shouted urgently.

“Right, I’ll be as quick as I can!” Felicity responded while hurrying back to the stairs.

Several minutes later, Ricochet roused round and woke up; she tried to move her legs and arms but couldn’t, she was too late, Tina had already securely tied her up.

“Well then, if fates decided that today’s the day then so be it, just finish me off quickly will ya?” Ricochet said accepting her fate.

“No.....I don’t kill like you, instead you’re going to jail for a long time Ricochet.” Tina said triumphantly.

“Haha seriously, big powerful woman like you doesn’t kill huh? That’s going to be your first mistake, for you see tonight I was planned for her and her alone, I never counted on seeing you. So not if but WHEN I get out, I’ll be gunning for you, you’ve cost me a hell of big prize tonight and I won’t forget this. I WON’T............You won’t get lucky twice, if that’s what you’re thinking, I always get my target. Trust me on that.” Ricochet said with venom in her voice.

“Yeah, yeah I’ve heard it all before, I’ve always wanted my own fan club, just not in this context though I must admit.” Tina said, with that she turned on her earpiece. “Mission accomplished, request extraction immediately.” Tina relayed over to the pilot.

“Copy that, be with you in five.” The pilot responded.

“I’ve notified the police, they’ll be here soon to take my new friend here into custody. So did you manage to grab your backpack with your gear in while you were down there?” Tina asked Felicity.

“Yeah I got it. Hey what about our deal?” Felicity inquired.

“I’m a woman of my word, as soon as the ship arrives I’ll give the pilot the heads up.” Tina reassured Felicity.

A few minutes later the dropship came into view and both Tina and Felicity hopped aboard.

“We’re not going straight home, we need to take a detour first, here are the co-ordinates.” Tina said to the pilot.

“CI-1138, please be advised that these co-ordinates are for Japan?” The pilot asked.

“I know. Just go; please don’t argue with me on this.” Tina responded.

The pilot re-calculated her flight course and set off for Japan, on the way Tina handed Felicity an Ipad and Felicity made good on her word, she wrote absolutely everything she knew before passing it back to Tina.

“Wait there is so much more here than what we originally thought, there’s accountants, investors, account names, other business partners profiles, there’s even a list of military contractors they use on here, there’s even several location of secret bunkers here we weren’t aware of, how did you get all of this?” Tina asked amazed at what she was looking at.

“Well they screwed me over didn’t they, I saw it only fit I screwed them over too just before I went rogue.” Felicity replied with a smile.

“WOW, you really are amazing you know that.” Tina said also with a smile of her own.

Felicity blushed and pulled the cap over her eyes in embarrassment. A few hours later the dropship hovered just outside where Tina instructed and she opened the dropship doors.

“Keep the engine running; I’m only going to be a couple of minutes.” Tina said to the pilot, to which the pilot responded by giving a thumbs up.

Felicity and Tina hopped off the dropship and made their way to a familiar compound when they got close to the main entrance the front doors opened and both Masako and Yuma emerged.

“You know when we said come back at any time, we didn’t expect you to return so quickly.” Masako said.

“Yeah sorry about that, but this is important, I urgently need your help, this is Felicity Crown, she’s been lied and deceived by one of our rival companies about the murder of her own brother, she doesn’t seem to have anyone else to turn and if I took her back to my people, they’d just use and exploit her the same way her own people did. Please I beg of you, will you take her in and take care of her, I’ll pay you if you so wish?” Tina explained.

Yuma and Masako both stared at each other with both concern and sympathy, then Yuma noticed Felicity trying to hide her face under her cap, then Yuma just shook her head and smiled.

“Okay, she can stay and we will look after her as if she was one of our own, but this does make us even Tina.” Yuma proclaimed.

“Well, what do you say, do you want to stay here? I mean they can actually offer you a real chance at a normal life, which is certainly more that what I can offer you that’s for sure.” Tina asked Felicity.

“Are you kidding me, they look so cool, staying with modern day Ninja’s, eerr hell yeah sign me up......Hey Tina.......Thanks you know.....For everything.” Felicity said while trying to avoid eye contact.

“Don’t worry about it, here this is for you.” Tina offered Felicity a new earpiece which she swiped from the dropship before they jumped off. “Now I’m sure you’ll never need it, but just in case you ever need anything, you can contact me, although with Yuma and Masako here, I doubt you will.” Tina followed on.

“Well you never know.” Felicity said while accepting Tina’s gift and placing the earpiece in her pocket. With that Felicity approached Yuma and Masako.

“Hi Felicity, I’m Yuma and this is my sister Masako, she’ll show you to your room and get you settled in.” Yuma introduced herself.

“Okay first thing tomorrow, you are starting Japanese lessons, because it will just work out a lot better for everyone if you know it.” Masako explained to Felicity as they went inside.
With her job done Tina did a really loud yawn and stretched her arms out.

“You look tired.” Yuma said to Tina.

“Who me? No, no, no I’m just.......Yeah alright I’m exhausted to be honest, but not psychically you know.” Tina replied.

Yuma smiled and placed her hand on Tina’s shoulder.

“Look I know you probably won’t listen to me but from one new friend to another. You don’t have to shoulder everyone else’s burdens and make them your own, I can’t see it in your eyes, I know you want to help anyone and everyone which is great, but just don’t take on too much and end up becoming lost in the process otherwise you’ll drive yourself crazy.” Yuma said with genuine concern over Tina.

“I know, I know, it’s just this is who I am and do you know what, if I end up falling in the process at least I know I’ve fallen doing everything I possibly could.” Tina said with optimism in her voice.

“I had a feeling you’d say something like that, please don’t worry about Felicity, she’ll fit in just fine here with us and the others, we will look after I promise, now go home and get some rest you need it.” Yuma further carried on.

“I will, thank you Yuma and please thank Masako for me too, I won’t forget this.” With this, Tina hugged Yuma as a sign of thanks and made her way back to her dropship. She was about ready for bed.

MEANWHILE ON THE SIDE OF THE WORLD!

Somewhere in a South American jungle Soph was on an assignment with a squad of clone troopers however she has lost contact with them. Soph snuck through the tree line and tried to radio her squad but all she was getting was static. Suddenly a thick layer of medallion yellow smoke started to bleed into the forest and through the bushes, this caused Soph to suddenly start coughing violently and she felt her beat start to increase rapidly as if someone had just done a jump scare prank on her, she coughed and spluttered and tried to find an exit, then she suddenly spotted one of her fellow sisters that were part of her squad standing facing a tree.

“HEY. Hey, are you okay where did all this smoke come from, there is a village round here for miles. Hey can you hear me?” Soph shouted.

But as she got closer the clone trooper turned around and horrific zombified clone trooper with her jaw hanging off started hobbling towards her, Soph couldn’t believe what she was seeing when suddenly several other zombified clone troopers appeared from the bushes all deformed and groaning while making their way towards Soph.

“Stay back........Stay back or I’ll shoot, I swear I’ll shoot!” Soph shouted but as no avail, these supposedly zombified clone trooper grew closer and closer to Soph.

Soph stepped backwards and suddenly tripped on a tree root and fell over, then loads of hands and arms all burst out of the ground and grabbed her legs and feet so she couldn’t move. Feeling this overwhelming sense of fear and panic, she could feel her heart beating as if it was about to burst through her chest, Soph panicked and turned on her earpiece.

“CI-1138.......CI-1138..........Tina, please....please help me!” Soph please but all she got was static.

Tina suddenly felt more hands come out of the ground and grab her arms, Soph closed her eyes and screamed, but when she opened up her eyes, the arms had gone, the zombies had gone and now a dark figure stand over her staring down at her menacingly, Soph tried to move but she was numb was fear, she was so scared she just couldn’t move. Suddenly the figure bent down and put one of her fingers against her mouth.

“You’re not dying, it just feels likes you are, right now my toxin is filling your lungs, drowning you in your deepest fears........SSSSHHHHHH.......It’s OKAY to be afraid” The figure said while a smile stretched across her face.

END OF CHAPTER TEN

[rufusluciusivan]

DUN DUN DUN! First cliffhanger! It was nice to see Soph back, Tina's mentor-student relationship with her was nice to see. Hopefully the next mission will show her rescue... (Though I think I now understand why it will feature some kind of secret masked organization.) Hopefully, Kuebiko will be put out of commission this time. While she's a formidable opponent, her way of always gloating and acting all high and mighty with people who can't find back just make me want to see Tina best her again...

Good scene with Barabara. Little details like Tina choosing to hide her in her own instrument harp case while also smacking holes to allow air to enter are nice. A good way to subtly illustrate her personality: both resourceful and kind. I also like the part with Jacqueline (how many poor girls have already lost their clothes because of phone breaks, we may never know...), though I agree with Tina. This pun hurts. Just the way I like them

I'm noticing a pattern of Tina beating her enemies at their own game; here foiling Ricochet's attempt by also shooting straight and from afar (or more like throwing a shoe...) Though all these villains should stop being such sore losers. They've lost, they've lost!

Felicity was a nice secondary character. It was nice to see her also getting in on the action with the stagehand and a nice call-back with returning characters from the previous story.

choppy bob hairstyle, I think? And you may have called Soph 'Tina' one time in the Epilogue.

I must admit, I'm currently writing a part happening in a opera house for my next installment, so I was a little scared when I remembered that this installment featured a similar kind of building, but I'm a little relieved to see that it won't be too similar. (Well, except for the part where a guest is mugged... ) Hopefully, it won't pale too much in comparison.

[Trackman281]

Well, both your good self and tirepanted3, always know how to leave things on a good cliff hanger, so i thought I'd get in on the action, just a little bit.

HAHAHA, I know I just couldn't resist when I realized that I named the ballet dancer Jacqueline and she was going to be put in a box, thankfully though no one was around to hear her.

It's the perils of the world, as even today, billions of people can't cope for 5 minutes with out there phone, so Tina uses this FULLY to her advantage.

I believe one of the reasons these villains always swear revenge is because they've been beaten, embarrassed, they've given all this talk of how good they are only to be taken down and humiliated, so a lot of it comes from their ego's being greatly bruised. Not all of her villains will seek revenge, so will just accept it, but she doesn't seem to have found them yet.

Felicity will come back, I need her too and I'm going to slowly start showing some more of the previous characters as it's all pivotal for what I have in mind.

Speaking of which, unfortunately, Kuebiko will not be part of the next chapter, in actual fact that will be the last time we see her until she sets her sights on Tina again, I'm aiming for chapter 14 to be the one where Kuebiko returns which means, what she does with Soph between now and then, will just have to remain a mystery.

Funny you should say that because I was genuinely worried about the same thing myself, but then I realized, there are only so many ways in which you can do a location differently, for example, even if there are scenes which sound similar to mine in your story, I really won't mind, because I know I've probably done scenes in my stories which sound similar to other scenes in other members stories, it's only natural, at some point, some stories are going to sound similar in places, it's bound to happen.

[tirepanted3]

Indeed, I love cliffhangers and this was an intriguing one. It shows that the story is growing more complex, and the stakes are heightening.

The bulk of the chapter was also a fun adventure. Seeing Yuma and Masako again was unexpected but welcome; I look forward to more returning characters in the future. Helps the world of your stories feel more immersive.

I really liked the scene with Barbara. Orchestral musicians don't often get the privilege of being clothes-stealing victims, so mugging her was a fresh and clever idea. And hiding her inside her own harp case - ah, delicious irony! Sort of like a chauffeur getting replaced and stowed in the trunk of her car.

The jack-in-the-box pun was pretty awful, and that's saying something from me. At least Tina acknowledged how bad it was.

Felicity was an enjoyable character, and it was fun to see her be influenced by Tina and take out Luna on her own. It'd be cool to see more of that - Tina can't be the only woman mugging others for their clothes. (Too bad Ricochet didn't employ that option herself at some point.)

A fun chapter with a suspenseful conclusion.

[Trackman281]

Many thanks for the kind feedback tirepanted3.

Indeed for you see when people become Tina's friend, not only to they inherit Tina's loyalty but unfortunately that means they also inherit Tina's enemies as soph is ultimately finding out.

Thank you, I don't want my characters to feel like one shot appearances, so I will have them return again and again in different capacities, I just need to think of them first haha.

HAHA, got to love a bad pun.

Originally I was going to make felicity a mute as in she'd taken a vow of silence to honour her brother, but I sweeped that idea under the rug and gave her a bit more personality. I think I made the right call and judging by the feedback you've all given her then I know I made the right call.

[esercito sconfitto]

oh no , not the deity Kuebiko , not again

[Trackman281]

Haha, not yet Esercito not quite yet, there's still a few more light hearted adventures to come first.