Sell you a Bridge chapter 55

Shadowcrest July 20th 2010 11:00 PM EDT

I  slipped my mask back on as I left Zatanna's place. I retraced my steps  to leave when she said her dad would be home soon, and she followed me  out to close up the loophole she made for me in the wards. I probably  should have used shadow form to leave but I didn't have any points right  now so I was kind of out of luck. Since I didn't have a car or anything  I ended up walking for a while until I got to somewhere a bit more  populated and catching a cab.

The  upside of this little song and dance was that since tracking me through  a dark forest is functionally impossible if you aren't a Kryptonian or  something I knew I hadn't been followed to Zee's. That particular  victory however, was short lived, because as I got out of the cab a few  miles away from the clock tower (having a cabbie drop you off at your  secret base is the fastest way for it to stop being a secret) I vaguely  sensed myself being followed.

The  strange thing was that this was just a feeling. When I'd been followed  by my Uncle I could see him moving, literally watching him dart from  shadow to shadow. Whoever was following me now was on a whole different  level. This wasn't a Talon, the training was too good. The only reason I  even knew I was being followed was that my reflexes, senses, ninja  skills and thief training had all blended together in that instant to  act as a sort of sixth sense. I'd only ever felt anything like this...in  Wayne Manor.

I  stopped. The woman in red who had caught me in the halls at the manor.  She was the only person I'd come up against with this kind of stealth  ability. I didn't know where she came from but if the person following  me was her or someone related to her I absolutely could not lead them  back to the clock tower. I debated trying a heat run, but I wouldn't be  able to be sure I shook the tail if I spooked her and she started being  more careful. Since stealth was out, that left the opposite.

I  stood in the middle of the street for a few seconds, eyeing the empty  pools of darkness around me. "I know you're there!" I felt like that kid  who mentally shouts at people to stop reading his mind at random  intervals in case he's being spied on by a telepath but I knew someone  was there, even if I couldn't say how. I waited, but the only sound was  crickets and faint noises of animals scurrying through the dark. "I  don't know your name, but I met you at Wayne Manor. I'd like to talk, if  you feel inclined to humor me."

Despite  having serious combat chops now I remembered the extreme sense of  danger I got from that woman. I wasn't entirely sure I could take her. I  didn't know why I got that sense but I would avoid fighting if  possible. There was an infinitesimal sigh of air behind me, one anyone  but me would have missed, but I spun on my heel to see the woman in red  standing behind me, with another smaller woman in a green robe and a cat  mask next to her. She smiled when she saw me facing her "Well met,  little thief boy."

I  nodded back "Good to see you again, ma'am." I figured discretion was  the better part of valor here, she still felt dangerous as hell and I  was betting that girl in the cat mask wasn't wearing that costume  because the Red Lady was into pet play. I wasn't sure what the hell was  up with people in this city and dressing like animals, bats, birds,  cats, it was a little ridiculous. "Were you just in the neighborhood, or  did you seek me out for something specific. Actually, how did you find  me?"

She  chuckled, that same low honeyed voice I remembered from our last meeting  "You've been spotted in this area a few times by our agents. You  usually vanish somewhere around here so we decided to stake out the  street in hopes of bumping into you. Be flattered little thief, it isn't  often we reach out to amateurs. My mistress seeks a meeting. You will  accompany me to speak to her, be grateful for this opportunity, it may  change your life." My aura sight told me she genuinely thought she was  doing me a favor, but after the mess with Annabel I had learned it  didn't always work right on crazy.

I  cleared my throat politely "Apologies ma'am but I'm already spoken for  in the mentor department. I'm training under Gentleman Ghost. Speaking  of, he's actually waiting for me at our usual meeting spot so I really  have to-" I wasn't able to finish my sentence because a throwing knife  came whirling at my fucking face from where the two women were standing.  I stepped neatly out of the way and glared at the lady in red. "That  was rude. I'm being polite her because I was raised to always treat a  lady with respect, but if you do that again I'm going to respectfully  put my foot up your ass."

Instead  of getting angry or offended like I expected she actually burst out  laughing responding with a teasing smile. "Well look who has a spine  after all. You just keep getting more interesting. My lady has asked to  speak with you, and she will speak with you." The smile dropped. "Even  if I have to tie you to a chair and burn every word out of you with a  hot poker. But perhaps you are correct about my rudeness. My name is  Sandra Wu-San, whom some call Lady Shiva. I am a subject of the League  of Shadows, and you have been summoned by the Daughter of the Demon."

I  didn't know what most of that meant, but I recognized the League she  mentioned. Artemis's dad was a subcontractor for the Shadows. They were  seriously bad guys, and she had repeatedly warned me to stay far far  away from them. Oops. Regardless I was going nowhere with either of  these women and if they thought they could make me they were in for a  rude awakening. I put my hands up in surrender, stepped forward, and  purposefully caught one foot behind the other tripping and falling on my  face.

Or at  least I would have landed on my face, had I not tucked into a roll  before I hit the ground. I came up out of my roll right in front of the  two women and lashed out with my Doom Fist at Lady Shiva's shoulder. My  speed and complete lack of telegraphing seemed to take her by surprise,  but only briefly, and she managed to weave out of the way before I could  hit her. I frowned, I was a master of the Doom Fist. I should have been  able to put her down. Then she lashed out at me in turn and I learned a  hard lesson.

There  are different levels of master in martial arts. Lady Shiva was pretty  much the highest level of fighter I'd ever even seen. She made Staunton  look like the out of shape kid in karate class who can't raise his leg  high enough to pull off a crescent kick. Her muscles coiled and flowed  beneath her skin like she was a fucking tiger, and only my reflexes  saved me from getting my throat ripped out when I froze up in surprise.  Luckily I did have godlike reflexes and after I adjusted I was able to  hold her off.

Despite  being able to hold my own for a while however, I was losing. Lady Shiva  smiled as we fought, deflecting my fingers and turning her body so I  couldn't get a solid hit. She spoke casually, as if instructing me "You  are a monstrously talented boy, I've met few others of any age who were  your equal in reaction time, and your skills are first rate. However  you've built your body incorrectly. Your muscles are slow and bulky,  they have strength but no explosive power. Your musculature is at odds  with your explosive combat style and the discord creates openings."

She  punctuated that statement by darting inside my range and flicking an  attack at my face, which I instinctively reacted to, opening me up for a  blow to the ribs. She chuckled "Relying on your reflexes is fine  against amateurs, but martial arts have long since evolved to counter  human reflexes. Your combat style is all offense, and you use evasion to  compensate, but that isn't good enough against someone with real  mastery." She picked me apart as we fought, and I was able to barely  counter her, but I still couldn't land a solid strike.

I  stabbed my fingers at her and took advantage of my reflexes to change  directions mid strike, managing to get a clean hit on her and literally  slamming my fingers through her skin. It felt good to finally get a hit  in, especially after she spent so long badmouthing my fighting style.  Her smile dropped again as her left arm became limp, and she darted  back, drawing a knife with her right and completely changing the dynamic  of the fight. Barehanded I could almost keep up, but armed she was  worlds above me. I was fucked. Not to mention her little kitty friend  circled around behind me to block off my means of escape.

She  hissed as I backed off, face twisted in slight annoyance. "What a novel  combat style. I expected you to use pressure points, but focusing your  weight and explosive power into the tips of your fingers like that gives  your strikes the penetrating power of a blade. I'd very much like to  see more, but sadly our time to play has come to an end. I have an  assignment to complete. Cheshire, together." She darted in with her  knife as Miss Kitty came in from behind with a fucking kunai. I turned  my body sideways to try to catch them both coming in.

I  abandoned all thoughts of attack, and completely relaxed my body to its  limpest state as they came at me. I could only rely entirely on my  reflexes to survive this. My passive reflexes were markedly faster than  my conscious reaction times, and I managed to get into rhythm dodging  their attacks. Cheshire as Lady Shiva had called her was good, but  weirdly predictable, like I had fought her before. There was something  almost familiar about the way she baited me out before trying to exploit  the gap with her shuriken.

I  didn't really have time to figure out why that was though because it  was taking every single bit of concentration to dodge their attacks and I  was starting to get tired. I made a mental note to get some kind of  yoga master dvd with my power because my body really was built wrong for  a fight at this level. I needed flexibility, and some explosive power  would be nice too. I was going to lose this. Lady Shiva alone would have  been more than I could handle, but down an arm I could have taken her,  but the two of them together was out of my depth.

It  didn't matter though, because I had held on long enough. I was close to  the clock tower and I knew the wards would be monitoring the  surrounding area for Talon activity. These women weren't Talons but they  were attacking me, which meant Jim would have been notified. I couldn't  hold back the vicious grin under my mask as I felt the temperature drop  and the shadows lengthen. A crisp British voice carrying the icy chill  of the grave echoed around us from the dark "What, exactly, do you think  you are doing to my disciple."