Dead Woman Walking A loud boom suddenly crushed Fortune City's tranquil night. The sound of what seemed like a explosion engulfed the city's center. The sound came from the city's bank. Some robbers had figure that the best time to rob the bank would be at nightfall, little did they knew that at night, the city had its strongest security An armored truck soon came out of the bank with the stolen goods. The cops gave chase, but as is the standard with these situations, they were no match for the robbers. It was then however, that a figure clad in black came out of the shadows in a powerful motorcycle. It was none other than Nocturne. Nocturne gave chase to the would be robbers, her bike proving to be too fast for them. When the robbers looked back, they knew they were in for a fight. "I'm on their tail, this should be over in five minutes;" Nocturne spoke through her communicator with Nightshade, her trusted sidekick, " Yeah, I don't wanna miss the season finale either, it's been built up quite nicely. Get my popcorn ready, I'll be done with these goons in a bit." The would be robbers opened the back doors of the armored, hoping to have a vantage point from where to shoot our heroine. Two guns with assault rifles quickly began to fire at Nocturne, to no avail as she swiftly dodged every single bullet. "Child's play." Nocturne muttered, unimpressed with their antics. Feeling that shooting the tires of the truck could potentially cause an accident, Nocturne took a different approach. She moved as close as she could to the armored truck, placing the bike in auto pilot, she took out her grapnel and shot at the exposed inner truck. Nocturne launched herself into the truck, taking out the two thugs that were trying to shoot her. There were three more thugs, so Nocturne quickly threw one of her smoke pellets, clouding the entire truck in smoke. With everyone's vision clouded, Nocturne quickly knocked out the remaining three thugs before they even had a chance to see it coming. Fearing that something bad was going on in the back of the truck, the two thugs driving, stopped the truck in a secluded alley. The two thugs came out armed, ready to kill anything in sight, however they didn't know that they were already being hunted. The thugs took a look at the back of the truck, but before they had a chance to panic, Nocturne descended from the top of the truck and struck them with a flying kick, quickly rendering them unconscious. Nocturne tied all the thugs and secured the stolen cargo, making the police work a lot easier. With the cops on the way, Nocturne took to the rooftops to get a quick breath before going back home. "Told ya it would only take me five minutes, I'll be back there in a...." Before Nocturne could finish her sentence she was cut off by an incoming bullet. The shot wasn't fired with the intention of actually hitting her, but rather as a warning. Nocturne quickly traced the source of the bullet and found who had made the shot. Before her stood a woman with a revolver pointed at her. The woman had short brown spikey hair, was clad in what seemed like a short military, battle suit covered with ammo pouches and a variety of weapons and gadgets. The woman looked like she was ready to fight World War 3. "Tracking you down was easier than I expected. All I had to do was follow the morons and they led me to my target." The woman spoke. "Who are you and what do you want?" Nocturne was confused, she had no idea why this woman was after her. "Names are for friends, we don't need them. But since you'll soon be six feet under, I'll give you the pleasure of knowing that you were conquered by the one and only, Aksana." Aksana replied. "Ohh so you are here to kill me, huh? How cute." Nocturne crossed her arms, "So tell me, Aksana, why exactly are you out to kill me?" "Nothing personal. You have enemies in high places that are willing to pay a hefty sum just to see you dead." Aksana chuckled, "I retract what I said, this is actually a bit personal. Your death will make for a great bullet point in my resume." "Ohh sweetie, you are not the first nor the last that tries to kill me." Nocturne took her fighting stance, "Now, let me show you why each and everyone of them failed." Aksana began the fight by trying to shoot Nocturne, however this time around Nocturne was not surprised by the shots, avoiding each shot by quickly moving over the rooftops. Aksana quickly had her revolvers ran out of bullets and in the situation, there was no time for reloads, which forced Aksana to approach a hand to hand scenario. With Aksana disarmed, Nocturne ceased her dodge strategy and focused on an offensive strategy. The heroine and the bounty hunter clashed against each other, rarely leaving a window of opportunity for the other. All of Nocturne's kicks connected with Aksana's kicks, all of Aksana's punches were countered by Nocturne's punches. Exchanging blows both of them were trying to recognize a pattern in the other woman's tactics and exploit an opening. As they fought Nocturne quickly realized her opponent was definitely military trained and was using a blend of Russian Sambo, Chinese Xanda and some Escrima stuff while trying to eliminate the heroine. Nocturne dodged a kick aimed at her head. Before Aksana could react Nocturne elbowed her in the face and then tossed her to the floor in a perfect hipthrow. Aksana flew through the air but spun around and landed on her knees. In a quick motion she yanked Nocturne's cape causing her to lose balance. Then she pulled Nocturne's head down and trapped it under her armpit in a front headlock. Coughing and gasping Nocturne tried to pry at Aksana's wrist as her forearm was pressing in her windpipe and made her unable to breath. This Aksana had a vicious squeeze and Nocturne already began to feel lightheaded by lack of oxygen. In a quick movement she grabbed Aksana's leg and fell backwards, slamming Aksana to the floor and causing her to lose her hold around her neck. Both of them bounced back up and attacked each other again in a flurry of strikes. However both managed to avoid most of the other's attacks. It would seem that they were in a stalemate, however, Aksana had plans to change that. Seeing that it would be hard to defeat Nocturne in hand to hand combat, Aksana decided to tip the scales. She took out a combat knife and began to strike at Nocturne. Nocturne didn't see it coming fast enough and while she did manage to dodge lethal blows, some of the hits manage to land, slightly tearing her costume apart and causing small bruises. Nocturne quickly had to shift her strategy once more. Nocturne quickly used her grapnel to shoot herself towards a vantage point, in order to take time to come up with a strategy. In the meantime, she distracted Aksana by throwing smoke pellets. However this gave Aksana the opportunity to reload her revolvers. Nocturne ran out of smoke pellets, which meant that she could no longer rely on a dodge strategy. Nocturne instead charged towards Aksana in a zig zag pattern, so as to dodge her bullets. The strategy worked and Aksana missed her shots, giving Nocturne the opportunity to tackle her against a wall. She punched her in the ribs a few times, which seemed to have an impact on Aksana. Aksana retaliated by kicking Nocturne in the stomach, making her lose her grip on the bounty hunter. Jumping back to her feet Aksana threw some swift punches towards Nocturne. As Nocturne avoided the punches the assassin grabbed Nocturne around the waist and tried to trip her towards the floor. However Nocturne was able to stop the throw and slammed her knee hard into the toned stomach of the assassin, forcing her to let go. Spinning around Nocturne performed a gracefull spinning kick, which was just barely dodged by Aksana. Nocturne was able to block a elbow strike from Aksana. However as she tried to counter Aksana suddenly dropped low and rolled towards her. Wrapping her legs around Nocturne's she caught her completely by surprise and made her fall to the floor. Both women were now on the floor but Aksana had her legs entwined around Nocturne's right leg keeping it immobile. Aksana grinned as she saw the surprised look on Nocturne's face. "See if you are still so capable when I destroy one of those legs of yours." With her arms Aksana began to twist the booted feet of Nocturne trying to tear the ligaments in her knee. Realizing her leg was about to get wrecked Nocturne was able to use some of her own Sambo knowledge and rolled the other way to get the strain of the leglock. With her left leg she pushed and kicked hard against the thigh and buttocks of Aksana and was then able to slip her leg out of her hold. Ducking a punch the heroine tried to hipthrow the bounty hunter however Aksana had learned from the first time and as Nocturne tried to throw her over her hip Aksana grabbed her around her waist and fell backwards, suplexing Nocturne on the ground. Nocturne was able to break her fall and used the momentum to roll to her knees. Aksana tried to keep her down but Nocturne slipped free and used the moment to punch Aksana hard across the face and nearly knocked her down with a kick to the chest. The two of them continued trading punches and kicks at each other, the battle raging on for quite a bit. They were again at a stalemate and when Aksana tried to use her knife. She opened with a swipe at Nocturne's face and then attempted to stab her in the belly. However Nocturne blocked the thrust, twisted her arm and knocked the knife out of her hand. With a swift combination of punches Nocturne was able to daze Aksana. Trying to knock her out Nocturne performed a kick. However with great agility Aksana was able to dodge it and swiftly stepped behind the heroine. After elbowing the heroine in the back Aksana then wrapped her arm around Nocturne's neck as she began to apply a standing chokehold. "You are a great warrior and as worthy of an opponent as they said you were. However the second I took the contract your faith was sealed. I Aksana will be the one that ended the Mistress of the Night." With both hands Nocturne pulled at the arm of Aksana to get some pressure of the chokehold. "Do you always like to hear yourself talk that much?" Nocturne replied and then stomped down backwards on her shin while at the same time pulling her arm away from her neck and slipping out of her grip. As they continued fighting, Nocturne lost sight of where she stood and Aksana seized her moment. With a swift combination of strikes Aksana began to drive her backwards. Nocturne took a hard palm strike to the face and Aksana seized her shoulders, slammed a knee in her gut and pushed her back towards the edge of the rooftop. The heroine winded by the knee Aksana spun around and kicked Nocturne full in the chest, making her fall through the fire escape ladder. Falling down several stores Nocturne did her best to cushion the fall and while she managed to avoid any mortal wounds, the fall took a toll on her. Nocturne rested against a wall, her vision becoming blurry. However, she could see Aksana leaping down and landing like a cat on the other side, a smug smile on her face. Nocturne tried to stand up, but couldn't due to exhaustion. Aksana began to walk towards Nocturne, with gun in hand. "Always be aware of your surroundings... First thing I learned at the special ops. However you will not live long enough to use that advice" She said with a laugh as she kicked Nocturne in the side to roll her towards her back. Looking down with a victorious smile she pointed her gun at Nocturne's head, "Good...by..." Nocturne's vision got even more blurry, but before Aksana could shoot her, she saw a shadowy figure stand behind Aksana. The figure did something that rendered Aksana unconscious, but before she could see who it was or what it did, Nocturne felt unconscious. A couple of hours later, Nocturne woke up in an apartment. She took a quick glance at the room and realized she knew this place. A woman clad in latex stood by the door. "Well well well, look who's back among the living?" The woman spoke. "Viper?!? What happened??" Nocturne tried to stood up, but her head hurt, "How did you find me?" "My, aren't we full of questions today?" Viper got in bed and began to stroke Nocturne's hair, "Well I was strolling through the neighborhood, going after the loot you left in the truck when I saw that my kitten was in danger. I wasn't going to let that woman take away my favorite kitten!" "You, you saved me?!" Nocturne was shocked. "I might be a thief, but I am not heartless. Besides, you are my kitten and quite a good one at that." Viper placed a kiss on Nocturne's lips. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but thank you Viper! I owe you my life!" Nocturne returned the kiss, "I'll repay you in some way, I promise." "Ooooh be careful with what you say,sweetie, you might regret it," Viper chuckled, " But for starters you could repay me by being more careful." "I almost had her, it was just a miscalculation, won't happen again." Nocturne retorted. "If I hadn't been there, it would had surely not happen again." Viper chuckled. "Duly noted, as I said, won't happen ever again." Nocturne retorted. "Good." Viper began to rub Nocturne's fishnet covered legs, "The second thing you can do for me, is to let me heal those wounds. I have some secret methods that will make you feel wondrously better." "Ohh doctor! I'm in need of a special treatment!" Nocturne giggled. "In order for me to give you proper treatment we need to take the costume off. I simply cannot work my special treatment with it on the way!" Viper chuckled as she took Nocturne's boots and fishnets off. She then proceeded to unzip the costume and pull it off, leaving Nocturne in only her lingerie, "Now this is much better!" "Ohh doctor, I think your treatment is already working! I am feeling amazingly well!" Nocturne replied giggling once more. Viper finally discarded Bethany's lingerie and Bethany returned the favor, discarding Jolene of her Viper costume. After a long night of fighting, Bethany was rewarded with a night of passion from one of her best lovers. The next morning, Jolene woke up to the smell of breakfast. To her surprise, Bethany was coming back to the room with a tray of food and no attire. She placed the tray next to Jolene's end table and then got back to her side of the bed. "Well this is a pleasant surprise!" Jolene took the tray of food, but not before kissing Bethany. "I told you, I would find ways of repaying you!" Bethany replied. "I could get used to this!" Jolene laughed, "As your doctor, I must insist, you can't leave the patient room today. For check up purposes, of course!" Bethany laughed, "All right doc, I think the city can do without me for a day!" The two women shared the meal and prepared for a day of relaxation. After a near death experience, Bethany was sure thankful to have a peaceful moment.