Honestly. The Audacity. The Gall. Fernando’s effort to manhandle her into taking a smaller cut than agreed upon with the use of his physically imposing henchmen was disrespectful. If there was one thing Selina despised, one thing that might unexpectedly undermine the carefully cultivated self assuredness and nonchalant manner she harnessed as well as her leather whip, it was any implication that she was easily intimidated. That, despite her line of work, she did not deserve fair remuneration for her degree of expertise and her deft management of potentially dangerous circumstances. While she expected very little from seedy alliances with even seedier sub level criminals, she was anything but.
The Cat was exceedingly prideful of the abilities she had worked so diligently to attain. Years of commitment were required to refine her unique set of capabilities. To master the artistry of stealth, to train herself in an style of combat uniquely her own, to perfect the finesse of penetrating even the most formidable semblances of defense and fleeing without a trace. She wasn’t some petty thief, she was renowned. A fierce adversary. A Napoleon of indiscretions. The feline fatale. Her hubris just might have been a worse vice than her sticky fingers; call it a character defect, but damned if her arrogance wasn’t deserved. She clawed her to the top of merciless crooked food chain in order to secure her acclaimed reputation, and she’d be damned if she allowed the likes of this man to have the upper hand.
Or some tiny Van Damme wannabe.
It was the tone for her, the underlying adversity and undeserved notes of authority. Selina huffed out a hollow chuckle, languidly rising from the position she held pinning one of Fernando’s thugs to the concrete. Although they were around the same height, the feline approached the brunette with the cocksure swagger of someone double in stature. Hands plunging leisurely into the deep pockets of her jacket and her cheeks flushed with a provocative simper. Now that she was well within range, possibly uncomfortable close, she finally recognized the woman. Red’s pet nurse. Mingling with the likes of amped up brawlers in the seedier side of town. How scandalous.
“Or what?” she challenged right back, inching her face closer until their breathes were practically mingling. “You going to make me?” her voice breathed out in a purr. “Mind your business” She wasn’t leaving here until she got her full payout, even if it meant Fernando would leave the altercation with a few broken bones. “I’d be careful Selina, bay-bee, this little firecracker has spark,” the man in question taunted with a bit more nonchalance than Selina cared for, appearing far too at ease concealing himself behind his hired goons and this unwelcome third party. “You’re double crossing the wrong cat, Nando,” she cautioned, without breaking eye contact with the woman. “But, if you’d rather go through the whole face stomping, bone crushing routine so be it,” Selina could see the meaty fist barrell towards her at Fernando’s command out of her peripherals, angling around the back of Rory’s head.
She made a point of ramming her shoulder into the brunettes at the last possible moment, knocking her out of the line of the assault and then evading the strike with an easy backwards bend. The steel toe of her combat boots swung forward, delivering an effective kick to his crotch. She flashed an arrogant grin at how quickly he slumped in pain. “Your reflexes are a little slow there, Bubbles,” she drawled at the brunette, tone dripping in mockery. “You haven’t learned how to dodge a punch yet? Guess all those flimsy muscles are just for show huh?” deciding she was finished with the interaction, she shifted her concentration back to Fernando, only to find her way barred by yet another burly henchman.
With a sigh, and her hands still comfortably tucked in her jacket pocket, she dodged a flurry of sloppy attacks. With each swing of his fists, she ducked or bent out of the way and inched a little closer to the fighting cages. So typical of the brainless lackey mentality, believing that strength alone was sufficient to win a confrontation. Selina was far from a frail creature, and what she lacked in assumed physical strength, she made up for with unparalleled agility, mobility, and the cat-like reflexes of which she derived her moniker. When her back came into contact with the metal bars, she withdrew her hands, elevating them to the bars above and effortlessly propelling herself into the air, kicking the brute within the cage using the momentum created by his own imbalanced weight.
She tilted her head at Rory through the gap created in the crowd and offered a sarcastic smile. “There, happy?”
rory eyes drifted from the cocksure saunter, taking her in at languid if only to emanate that she didn’t feel the level of threat the cat tried to convey. she finally dragged her eyes to meet her narrowed molten browns, lips twisted into a disapproving leer. she didn’t acknowledge fernando’s praise - she wasn’t sure if it was praise of a taunt to try and get selina to take a swing at her. rory wasn’t confident that the cat would give her so much the benefit for pamela’s sake, but she knew anything from the infamy that carried over all the way from gotham was that selina kyle was not easily taunted - far from an idiot. so the man’s words didn’t sway her in the lightest.
she thought for a moment her assessment of the situation had been miscalculated when selina’s posture shifted and she looked like she was charging at her, until she realized rory’s head had been perfect situated to catch the ricochet of the henchman’s punch that was intended for selina. she staggered to the side, her body already protesting - she’d been done with the fighting for the night but it seemed like the fighting was not done with her. she was still struck by how fast the situation unfolded that she didn’t catch much of selina’s taunt besides the juvenile nickname she attributed to her. sandpaper against the back of her throat, that was how she could describe her mounting irritation at the situation she found herself in. this was her place, and selina was ruining it.
rory’s lips fell slack when selina discarded her interest in rory’s presence and focused on fernando’s never ending tap of henchmen steadily trying to take down selina. she had to school her face against the clearly impressed glower at the maneuver selina implied to get into the cage, before she rolled her eyes at the saccharine smile shot her way. rory thought she’d disentangled herself from the situation -- or at least made it less problematic by steering the fight into the cage. none of her business, the situation screamed, but it grated her the wrong seeing the woman, no matter how proficient, trapped in a cage with a man twice her size.
it seemed fernando must have noticed that rory wasn’t about to let it go either, and with a subtle jerk of his head, rory felt a meaty grip on the top of her arm as one of the henchmen marched her into the cage, nearly tossing her into the opposite end had she not braced herself against the bars and whipped around with a sneer hot on her lips, “are you shitting me?” she snipped - indignant at being lugged into the same faction as selina, somehow, but there was no time to dwell on their alignments as two more body guards marched into the cage. six people in close quarters. they didn’t realize it yet, but they were at a severe disadvantage.
“okay,” she exhaled, stepping back to fall in line with selina as she wicked the sweat matted hairs out of her forehead, “let’s see if your bite’s just as infuriating as your hiss.” rory staved off any unsavory commentary; she was too spent to come up with witty comebacks, and she was not interested in revealing that she had powers at this particular moment. maybe she’d channel a little strength, a little, but that was it. rory’s set gaze in a menace as she turned her head, intimidating pops from the base of her skull. filling the anticipated eyes of the storm, before she gestured for one the henchmen to charge at her with a presumptuous come hither motion, immediately ducking underneath his charge as her fingers grasped fabric of his shirt. it ripped, and rory was quick to twisted the sweaty fabric into a make-shift garrote, wrapped tightly around knuckles as she looped it over his neck and turned her entire body to pull her arms over her head, cut off his circulation until he no longer resisted against her pull, and she finally stepped aside to throw his limp body to the ground while unfurling the garrote from around his neck.
meaty arms seized her arms against her torso as they encircled her tightly and lifted her off the ground. she saw the bars barreling closer faster than she would have like, and she lifted her legs to stave off the impact, felt it painfully in her old injured leg. rory swung her legs for momentum, “some help would be appreciated!” she finally relented as she called over for selina, knowing full well her wriggling would do very little break her free.
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