The revenge of Countess Leeches.(Story)
By
LeighB_EU,
Posted on: 2008-07-09 23:52 in Multi-Media Fan Creations
I found this again while looking at the July posts for any potential nominations. It was just as enjoyable reading it the second time as it is a good introduction to the character. Her attitude is great and I like the interplay between her arrogance and the realisation that she isnt as far up the food chain as she has been.
Testing...
The end is just a new beginning, Goodbye all my coh friends and even the enemies, its been a blast I will miss you all. Thank you Paragon team, you gave me a home from home I will always appriciate it.
Sorry about the above post sometimes my messages dont send, anyway it seems I cant send anything right now so Part two coming soon?!
The end is just a new beginning, Goodbye all my coh friends and even the enemies, its been a blast I will miss you all. Thank you Paragon team, you gave me a home from home I will always appriciate it.
Bah sorry again.
The end is just a new beginning, Goodbye all my coh friends and even the enemies, its been a blast I will miss you all. Thank you Paragon team, you gave me a home from home I will always appriciate it.
The rest here as i cant get the posts to work http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4481182/...untess_Leeches
The end is just a new beginning, Goodbye all my coh friends and even the enemies, its been a blast I will miss you all. Thank you Paragon team, you gave me a home from home I will always appriciate it.
I thought Id try putting comments in the thread, rather than my normal PMs. I hope you dont mind.
Another good part of the story. I like the main character and I do want to know more. Id actually like to know a bit more about her past and what she got up to before she was in prison. Im not sure if youre going to be putting this in to a future bit, but if not some flashbacks might be a good idea. It will certainly flesh The Countess out a bit more.
From a narrative point of view Id like to see more description in there. For example the part where she approaches the warehouse just didnt have enough depth. A bit more detail on where she is at the start and how she gets there would be great. Scenery can really help to give the reader an impression of the world so dont hesitate to throw a few things in there (like how dilapidated the warehouse is). The bit at the start with the rain in it is a good example of how it can work well.
One point about plot: The armour her soldiers have is mentioned. Where did she get the resources from to have armour built? Was it from before when she was more powerful?
With regard to grammar, one specific thing I will mention is the use of prepositions. I bring this up only because using more than one preposition is now quite common in spoken English and so its more difficult to keep it out of the written word. You will often hear people say, off of or meet up with. Both of these work fine with only one preposition (as in meet with which is fine). In your text you use
got her gun from off her back
you could easily drop either the from or the of. Dont worry too much about this sort of thing. There are very few people out there that are very good with grammar. I, for one, spend ages trying to spot my own mistakes, these little things are just tips to keep in your mind when youre writing.
Ok heres part three, I have tried to be a bit mroe careful and add a bit more detail this time around, again its a very patchwork process so I'm sorry for any glaring mistakes.
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4481182/...untess_Leeches
The end is just a new beginning, Goodbye all my coh friends and even the enemies, its been a blast I will miss you all. Thank you Paragon team, you gave me a home from home I will always appriciate it.
And here is part four, I know two parts in three days what is going on? This time the story moves on a little more and the Countess makes a new 'friend'. I hope this dont seem too rushed, I wanted to get it done for my hols, so sorry in advance for any glaring mistakes, I do try my best to proof read it but sometimes the sneaky buggers still get through.
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4481182/...untess_Leeches
The end is just a new beginning, Goodbye all my coh friends and even the enemies, its been a blast I will miss you all. Thank you Paragon team, you gave me a home from home I will always appriciate it.
The Rise of Countess Leeches
Part Three Catalyst
I do like the fact that the story seems to develop as a character new to the game would find things. I also liked the comments on the dilapidated armour and the fact that although The Countess is clearly a brutal woman she cares about her troops and wants to look after them.
A few story questions and comments:
When CL first walks in to the operations room there is no mention of the men, just the computers. I honestly thought it was empty. A line or two of description would solve this.
I liked the contrast of the sun lightening her mood (when shes a vampire) and the dilapidation of the building. As with her desire to improve the lives of her soldiers, this shows she does care about things, just not the things other do.
lucky thing this warehouse had a freezer, but not really surprising considering it had been a meat packaging place. Im not sure the word lucky is needed. I might be being picky, but its not really lucky when its a meat packing warehouse. 
Maybe just changing it to
preserved in the freezers the warehouse had.
The bit where she goes out to talk to the Huntsman was good. I think you should add something about that fact that, although he asked to speak to her in private, she makes him stand outside at the door. She could even say something to her own soldier like Why dont you take a break for a few minutes while I deal with this. to highlight the disregard she is showing to the Huntsman.
The hint that other things are happening by having the watcher in the shadows is good (if Ive understood that correctly). I would be tempted to separate this bit out in its own paragraph though. It would make it clear that it wasnt CL that saw the eyes and something is watching her. Maybe add in a bit more description to pad out the new paragraph.
Overall this bit was better written than some of the earlier parts, so keep on going. By all means ask if youre not sure of anything Ive said.
Well thansk again for pointing out how to make things flow easier, as for the freezer part, I agree, I thought that just after I submitted it, why would having a freezer where there is meat be lucky? and so on. As for the huntsman thing well that was kind of intentional, you know because shes sort of weak in Arachnoses eyes she didnt want to push things all that far, just making sure they know shes not happy with them hounding her. And as for the dark eyes thing, that was supposed to be a seperate paragraph I think the website for some reason made a mess of that, *throws rock at the internet* But again thanks for giving my pointers, they are helping me get the hang of it all.
The end is just a new beginning, Goodbye all my coh friends and even the enemies, its been a blast I will miss you all. Thank you Paragon team, you gave me a home from home I will always appriciate it.
Ok here is part five, just a short part to get the thing going again. Nothing too dratic happens this time, though we find out things are not as easy as they seem.))
Part Five
Snakes and ladders.
She had just finished moving her main base to the council one and a new control room had been set up utilising council computers, the council symbols had been removed from the walls and the doors and soon she would have her own symbols placed around the base. She was already planning on expanding it later and improving its wall structures to make it stronger, at the moment the rule of the day was cleaning house, the power generators had been repaired and the bodies had been buried, the control room door had been replaced so now she was inspecting the control room and making sure the computers were all in working order, two of her soldiers were permanently on station here at all times, she was about to move on and inspect the rest of the base when the communications operator said to her, Mistress, there is a message for you.
Yes? What does it say.
I cannot read it mistress, its on your personal coded frequency.
But how
She trailed off not bothering to continue her sentence, who could still know her code, anyone who knew that was dead, she knew she had killed one of them herself, ah of course, telepathy, a powerful type, this could mean only one person, yes her father had decided to finally show interest in her again, this would be a eventful meeting.
Krosse approached her as she made her way to the bases main door, Forgive my intrusion mistress, I just thought you would like to know in person that the experiment with them nanobots on the dead bodies seemed to be working, at least partially, the man I have monitoring them says they are moving and standing up, we have them on lockdown, so far they have not made any more moves.
No they wont, they will be awaiting my orders hopefully, I hate using such methods but we really do need the men, I have a plan to free some of my men from the Zig, at the moment though we dont have the resources.
I understand mistress, I shall keep them under close monitoring until you are ready to give them orders.
I trust the drug dealings are all in hand?
Yes mistress everything is ready we send the first shipment out tomorrow.
Excellent, we will need the money for some components I require for another of my plans, I shall be seeing you later captain, I am sure I can trust you with the running of things in my absence.
This was a sign of great trust on Contessas part usually she would have kept in control via the communications equipment but she felt she could trust Krosse, this was to be his big chance. Krosse knew it too and he bowed, Of course mistress, I wont let you down.
I dont doubt it for a second captain. Contessa said with a smile, Now you may go.
So they made their separate ways and Contessa walked out of the main entrance, not knowing what to expect of this meeting or weather it was a good sign or a bad sign, her father could be enraged at her for the events that had unfolded or he could be pleased that she was making a slow comeback. She sighed, he was the only connection to her people she had however so she had to tread and speak carefully around him, not that he felt any love for her, it was more a interest in his offsprings career, probably this was more for his own ends than her so he could brag about it to the other nobles and layabouts of the ruling families.
It was her father she could feel him in her mind guiding her to the coast and she found him standing under a long dead tree, he had sensed her ages ago of course and said to her mind with his mind, Ah our daughter finally we see you again.
He was not mad as such, his manner of speaking was more a sort of eccentric royalty thing than any real sense of multiple personalities, she often wondered if he realised how silly it sometimes looked but would never dare to ask. He was a tall man in a expensive suit and sunglasses, he looked rather average standing there, the only hint that he was more than he seemed was the fog surrounding him. She bowed respectfully and said in a practiced official voice, Greetings father, it has been a long time.
Her father nodded and he went right into business he had never been one for niceties and he said in his strange almost Russian accented voice, We are most displeased with your loses of before, the loss of that island was not something that can easily be forgiven, it can be forgiven however it will take some time. You as you are well aware are special to us, to the future, if this was not the case we would order your destruction, however this would make us loose face in the grand chamber so we give you another chance yes?, dont disappoint us this time, you are not indispensable, another could be made our daughter. Do not forget that.
Contessa bowed only semi respectfully and said in a controlled angry voice, Yes, I lost the island, it was a gamble, however still the gamble may pay off, there are many discussions still going on about weather it was a legal act, however, I admit I made a mistake, I however learn from my mistakes, that time over confidence was my weakness, I see that now that destroying those submarines was a bad idea, and as I still live the error was hardly that bad we have the advantage of time over humans, is that not so?
Some of us do our daughter, some of us meet our maker sooner than some human life times, you have failed before yes, your anger at failure makes you impulsive, show respect to us, there is much of your mother in you.
Contessa hissed and bowed her head, I did not mean any disrespect, I simply mean I shall avenge myself and my mother, it is fitting I am like her after all the stinking humans murdered her.
She had been told the story many times by her father about how the humans had chased her mother through a forest in America and had hunting dogs tear her apart before decapitating her and then they threw Contessa who was then a baby into a river to drown. Yes she owed humans a lot for that, though she did sometimes wonder how a member of a high caste family would get trapped on her own like that but she imagined accidents happened even amongst the supposed high and mighty nobles, she hated most of them almost as much as she hated most humans, they were supposed to be the guides of the vampire race, instead they spent their time lounging in decadence and playing petty power games. She was one of the ones who wanted to push her people forwards, they of course resented this because it often exposed how useless they were. That was why no help ever came when her island was attacked, they were trying to humble her with her failure, her father knew this too which was probably why he was being rather gentle about it.
He went on in his usual only seemingly half interested voice, You will require a cover name, you realise this, something to slow your enemies in finding you, we trust you are already working on such a thing?
Contessa had to admit she had not really thus far thought about it, however it was probably a wise idea, after all heroes had hero and real names, so could she, she was a hero of her people, weather they liked it or not!
Yes father.
She lied as she followed him as he paced along the water front and he looked around at the state of Mercy Island, yes this would teach his upstart little daughter not to be so cocky, this would be a lesson in discipline. She had dared to challenge the old ways, if she was anyone less than who she was she would probably already be dead, she was treading on thin ice, he was covering his self by attempting to help her, she might be special but his family and his personal reputation came before her and anything else for that matter.
We will be leaving you now our daughter, you will do us proud or you will die, this is your final chance, we trust you understand that yes?
Contessa bowed and said in a quiet respectful voice, I understand, this time there will be no mistakes, I know their ways better now, I am already working on ways to rid the world of the fools who opposed my rule of the island, they will fall to me, all of them.
She had quite a few plans in her mind and that was where they were staying for now, she was telling no one, certainly not her father, he would probably only steal some of her ideas and claim they were his to gain favour in the council. Her father nodded, Kill them, regain our trust in you, that is all our daughter.
With that he seemed to vanish into thin air leaving a cloud of fog behind himself to cover his exit. Contessa sighed, somethings were not going so well evidentially, she would have to show them fools up and make herself powerful again they would be made to respect her, and she would finally be a undisputed leader of the vampire nation and later is resurgence to total global dominance, no not just a leader, not just one of many, the leader, the queen of all the world. She smiled at this she liked the sound of that, yes it sounded so right, so destined so much like she knew things should be. She laughed to herself and made her way to the captured meat packing plant, she had to see how her, what would she call them, Nanozombies, yes that worked, she had to see how they had came along, her father would soon see what she was still capable of as would the heroes, she would have to find a way to get to them and she would, it was only a matter of time.
The shadows moved again the eyes watching her this time from an archway of a once grand but now partially collapsed brick building that had once been some kind of dance hall or the like fifty years ago and the whispery voice said in a mocking but obviously insane tone, Daddy look, ah yes we must talk to daddy, like a good little girl, yes I shall be waiting, watching, soon, soon.
A shadow separated from the rest of the darkness and seemed to drift up onto the roof of another building the eyes still the only thing visible watching as Contessa walked away then vanishing again in to the shadows when Contessa was out of range of the building.
Contessa who was totally unaware that she was being watched had decided to head to the drug lab, she was going to calm her mind a little by seeing how her latest experiment had came along. She walked into the large walk in freezer and looked at her newly created soldiers one at a time, the nanobots had indeed done well the bodies were in perfect working order, there was no signs of the combat damage from before, this was very pleasing, she cleared her throat and said in a commanding voice to the foremost nanobot controlled body, You are the command unit of these battle units, do you understand, you will coordinate and guide them when I send you out on missions.
The Nanozombie nodded and said in a metallic tinged flat sounding human voice, Yes mistress understood.
She nodded to her two soldiers, Give them some of the captured assault rifles, and some of the council chest armour, I have a mission for them.
The two soldiers nodded and started handing out the equipment, she was pleased with this experiment but not overly happy about it, it worked but she did not feel comfortable with it, there was something about using bodies like this that she found distasteful, she would make others of course but in a very limited number, maybe six more at most to make a proper attack squad to break some of her troops from the Zig and to carry out missions where she didnt want to be seen to be the one carrying out the attacks. All in all they would probably prove quite useful, she had to admit it was morals more than anything that was preventing her from using them to their fullest, she knew it was a weakness but this was the same reason she destroyed supernaturally possessed bodies with such relish, there was something about body stealing and using she did not approve of. She nodded towards the Nanozombies after they had been given weapons, You will now commence training with the weapons in the town outside, kill any who attack you then return to base after one hour, make sure you are not followed, then standby, I shall return with your mission later once I have finalised it.
The Nanozombies all said in unison, we obey mistress.
Then they turned as one and marched out of the room heading outside into Mercy Island, Contessa smiled slightly, there was going to be quite some trouble tonight, some Arachnos soldiers were out there arresting civilians for some reason or another. Her creations would be more than a match for those thugs, if not, well it would be unfortunate but not all that bad, if they could not handle a few gang members and a few lowly Arachnos soldier then they were not a worthy experiment to continue using anyway. She would let fate decide if they were good enough to serve her, with that she made her way out of the drug lab and headed slowly for her base, she was in no real rush, everything was at this moment in progress, she would have to step thing sup a notch and she would.
The Nanozombies marched as one into the town centre outside the drug lab, they slowly got into attack formation and approached a group of Arachnos soldier who were interrogating a group of Skulls and civilians. The soldiers watched the Nanozombies approach and lifted there guns, You are messing with Arachnos business, its time you learnt a lesson.
The Nanozombie leader said, Battle units engage hostile elements. Then both sides opened fire and the Nanozombies were hit repeatedly and chunks of flesh was ripped from their bodies as Arachnos bullets hit them, however the damage did not even slow them down and they continued to fire gunning down several Arachnos soldiers before the rest scattered for cover. The Skulls who were being held for questioning opened fire at the Nanozombies as well but were easily gunned down, the Nanozombies fired after the Arachnos soldiers closing in on where they were hiding slowly and systematically shooting those they made break from hiding. A few nearby Skulls and Hellions had heard the fighting and had came to investigate only to find their selves targeted by the Nanozombies as well and they too dove for cover as some of them were shot, this had been intended as a test and the Nanozombies were certainly going to get that, the lead unit knew the mistress would be watching and its collective mind made sure it would not disappoint her and ordered two of the others to deal with the gangs while it and its last two soldiers would deal with the Arachnos soldiers, they were the priority targets as they had proved to be more skilled than the gang members from before. The fighting went on for a few minutes but it was clear that the Nanozombies had won, the last two Arachnos interrogators decided to run and they fled, no doubt they were going to tell their commanders that they had beaten their attackers and were going to get back up. The Nanozombies finished their combat test and slowly scanned the area for any more enemies, when they were satisfied they would not be followed they turned as one once more and made their way back to the drugs lab to repair the host bodies and await orders.
Later that night in her base Contessa was in her personal room, which was a small box with a old bed up one corner of it and a red flag with a fanged skull on it hanging on the metal wall behind her bed, the other walls remained empty, it was lit by one rather dim light that was in the centre of the metal ceiling. It was not exactly suiting to her but it served for now until something better came along, something better would come along as well eventually she had already drew up plans to expand the base and to buy property on the isles when she was ready to climb the ladders of Arachnos. She had fixed the desk from the control room and was sitting behind it on a rather battered looking seat, again reminding her of how far she was still in the ditch of failure, she however was busy on something else, she had been scouring the island for useful components and had found a few in a scrap heap and she had so far made a power supply for a device she had been waiting to test for some time. She hated having to test it so close to her men, they would understand though and the pain would not be for long if there was any, she had it all under her full and constant control, she always did, one had to know what one was doing with these sorts of things. Only hacks or absolute morons never test a device first, she was neither of these, she fitted the power supply to the back of a small metallic disk device and heard the pulsing sound and felt it pulling at her mind before turning it off. She rubbed at her head and smiled, oh yes it worked alright, she would have to make it more powerful and find a way to protect herself and her troops from it but she now knew the principles of the device were sound and it worked exactly as it should do. She stroked the device and smiled speaking to it almost like it was a pet, You are going to get me payback, yes you are the first part of my revenge.
She had also been working on other things, paramount in her mind at the moment was a hero name as it were, she was having rather a lot of trouble thinking of one however. Maybe she was going about it wrong, she didnt need a really impressive cover name if anything that would invite heroes and villains to attempt to take her down because she had a name with impact. No that would attract too much attention and she was not ready for that right now, her position on the isles was still merely a foothold at best, she smiled, she had found the perfect name and she didnt mind the fact that it showed a bit of humour, if anything that would make people under estimate her. She would be known now amongst the islanders and heroes alike as Countess Leeches.
The end is just a new beginning, Goodbye all my coh friends and even the enemies, its been a blast I will miss you all. Thank you Paragon team, you gave me a home from home I will always appriciate it.
Um. I was re-reading posts for the September nomination and realised Id completely missed two. Sorry for the delayed feedback.
Another good bit of the story which moves the plot along nicely. This part gives some good background to what happened to Contessa previously and there is still the lurker in the dark. Im now wondering if this could be another member of the family or someone she didnt kill properly the first time.
I also liked the addition of the Nanozombies as this seems to tie the Contessas powers in to the game really well.
A few editing bits:
Ah our daughter finally we see you again. Should be: Ah, our daughter. Finally we see you again.
He was not mad as such, his manner of speaking was more a sort of eccentric royalty thing than any real sense of multiple personalities,
A readers perception is difficult to predict, not only because it changes depending on their culture, but you should try to avoid ambiguity as much as possible. In this sentence, on my first read I thought the He was not mad as such
referred to him being angry at her, because the sentence sounds a bit terse. It was only on the second read that I realised you meant mad as in crazy and hence it was part of the rest of the sentence. I would suggest changing the order of the sentence to something such as: His manner of speaking had that eccentric royal twist to it, rather than any real sense of the madness of multiple personalities
This just sets the readers perception at the start of the sentence and avoids any confusion (but, maybe its me ).
We are most displeased with your loses of before,. tThe loss of that island was not something that can easily be forgiven, it can be forgiven, however, it will take some time. You, as you are well aware, are special to us, to the future, if this was not the case we would order your destruction, however this would make us loose face in the grand chamber so we give you another chance yes? dDont disappoint us this time, you are not indispensable, another could be made our daughter. Do not forget that. Ive quoted the above and highlighted places where I would change the punctuation.
A couple of points about punctuation which might help you (and its the bit of writing that Im also worst at ): Read something out loud and where you take a breath put a comma (unless you hyperventilate). If there is an and you can miss out the comma as most people breath at an and; Where there is a longer pause, put a full stop and start a new sentence; Also use commas to separate parts of a sentence, to make it clear to the reader which bit belongs to which; Keep the grammar and spell checking on in your word processor. While the grammar checker in MS Word is worse than a badly dubbed anime (so dont believe everything it tells you) it will pick up incorrect punctuation and even the typos sometimes.
With regards to conversation in general, try not to make it too real. That is to say, if you use your phone to record some friends talking and then type it out it will be horrendously difficult to read and horribly disjointed. What you have to do is write so its easy to read. There are exceptions to this, but even from the best authors it doesnt make for easy reading.
When youre posting stories I would also recommend using a line between paragraphs, trying to read it as it is at the moment isnt easy on the eye or the brain.
Hope this all helps and by all means shout up if you are not sure of anything Ive said.
Part one.
The return :Present times.
She hated this, trapped in an Arachnos flyer as weapons fire from Paragon hit its hull, not that a direct hit would kill her but she didnt like the idea of having lots of shrapnel and the like imbedded in her body, it was bad enough she had to wear this damn face mask till the skin on that side of her face regrew, that wound was taking some healing. It was probably due to the depth of damage it had caused, it didnt matter though she survived, she had taken one of those heroes with her, they had not been so lucky, however, that fool, that one who called himself Justice For All, that pretentious little insect, he would be made to beg for mercy for his disruption of her plans, she had everything she had wanted and some one dared to spoil her dream. He would be made to suffer over and over before she finally let him have the luxury of death, that could wait though, there was time for such pleasures later. Things were again back to square one, almost. She had planned just in case of something like this the moment the UN had started making a stink about her island, yes she had been thoughtful she had learned the hard way never do anything without a backup plan or two. She smiled to herself, a new beginning this time she would not fail, no she had merely been slowed down not stopped. Of course not stopped, she laughed to herself, she could not be stopped no matter how hard people tried to kill her she was still here and they were all dead. A while later she felt the flyer coming in for a landing and sighed, she had got dressed in a compartment in the back of the flyer, no one had dared to take a sneaky peek or protest, they seemed to sense her power, true their were others of power on the flyer but none with a reputation such as hers. She shoved her way to the front of the line waiting to get out of the door as it opened, she heard one of the Arachnos soldiers say something about the doors being kept shut to stop prisoners jumping out and trying to escape Arachnos trials. She smiled at this, some feared the spiders, she did not she had made a little arrangement with them, she knew how to treat the spiders and they in turn knew of her. She walked through the door of the flyer and into the landing area of fort Darwin, she smiled, what a interesting name, how like Recluse.
As she walked across the landing pad she saw a woman, this would be the Kalinda woman she was told she would meet by the soldier who had escorted her onto the flyer on the way here. She smiled, time to have a little play with this one. She nodded politely, Greetings Kalinda, how are you my dear?
Kalinda sighed and said in an annoyed voice, I am here to tell you that you are one of the destined ones, not to be some kind of second mother to you.
Contessa smiled darkly, Oh, do forgive me, so a destined one, is that my dear recluses next plan, my my that is awfully pretentious.
She smirked seeing the two Arachnos soldiers behind her lifting there weapons Contessa went on, Never the less I shall prove myself to him and to you, by the by tell your monkeys to stand down or I may have to arrange an attitude adjustment for them.
This was a game to Contessa, she had been in similar situations before and always came out on top, this time would be no different, the truly strong such as her could never be stopped merely slowed down. Her plans had simply been set back, this was to be her next rise to power this time there would be no mistakes. Kalinda nodded to the soldiers who both reluctantly lowered their weapons, Contessa turned her attention back to Kalinda, So my dear, what is to be my first task?
Kalinda was getting annoyed with this one, the typical egotistical [censored] she usually got off new comer villains, this one was not as important as she though, just like all of them really. Kalinda snorted in contempt, Same as any new so called villain, Snake control, they have taken over some sewers nearby, evict them, then return to me, if you survive. She went on in a darker mocking tone, Oh and by the way my dear, dont expect any great privileges I know what you once had and you failed, so dont expect to be treated with kid gloves.
She sometimes loved putting the ego bursting boot in. Contessa smiled showing her rows of sharp teeth and said with low menace creeping into her voice, I would expect nothing, I shall prove myself and you shall be humbled by my power. With that she snatched the PDA Kalinda was holding from her hand and looked at the location of the snake base, Right, I shall see to it.
Then she made her way out of Fort Darwin with Kalinda and the two soldiers watching her leave. Kalinda turned to the soldiers, have a huntsman send a squad to soften her up when she comes out of the snake base, lets see how strong she really is.
Contessa found the ripped open manhole, this would be the entrance to the snake pit then, no guards that was stupid though they probably assumed no one knew they were here yet. She smiled, the assumed wrong, she pulled a pulse carbine off her back, ah she had missed the hunt. She jumped though the manhole hovering down to the floor with her weapon held ready, she shot the two guards in the back as they talked there snake like forms twitching and convulsing as they collapsed. They were indeed curious creatures, Contessa looked around listening and smelling as well as looking for others, she regretted sniffing the air almost instantly, sometimes having such a good sense of smell was a bad thing especially in a sewer. She moved on down the sewer tunnel keeping to the path at the side of the lake of slurry and waste, no wonder these snake creatures were looked on as little more than vermin who would willingly take over a place such as this? She checked her weapon again and smiled this was not going to take long at all.
She had taken down several snakes on her way here, it had been mostly disgusting sewer tunnels , up until now that was. The end of her journey lead off down a tunnel smashed into the side of the sewer wall, so they were not that keen on sewers after all, she could sense them in the tunnel not many, three at most. This was going to be quite an easy one, Kalinda had underestimated her, this was not even getting her adrenaline going, she rounded the corner into the tunnel slowly, it looked like a ordinary cave tunnel she stuck to the shadows using he shroud to keep her hidden. She didnt usually bother being so sly but she was not willing to waste too much time in dealing with these small fry, so stealth was faster. The tunnel only went on for a little and ended in a round shaped chamber with three Snakes in it, two were of the standard type she had been fighting but the third, well he was special. He bore the frilled head and red scales of a cobra, she smiled in the shadows, this might prove a little bit of a challenge after all. She dropped out of the shadows floating across the room in a second shooting the two guards before they had time to realise what was happening then she put the gun on her back as the Cobra spun to face her and he said in a hissy voice, You are an Arachnos pet, I will kill you.
Contessa smiled and stretched landing of the floor and facing the Snake, I am no pet fool. She said arrogantly and then went on, One of us will indeed die, that one is you though.
With that she moved at lightning speed towards the snake and pulled a sword out of her belt cutting the Cobras head clean off in one swipe. She then licked the blood off her sword with her strange tentacle like tongue and turned on her heels and left, heading for the manhole cover, when she got there she took her time to have one last look around, there were things she hadnt noticed before like a pile of human bones up a corner, she shrugged at this it was to be expected the snakes were primitive, also though there was some writing in some ancient language on the wall. Before she had time to look at this anymore though she could hear the approaching boot steps above and decided it was time to make her exit or have someone throw a grenade down here, she climbed out of the man hole, she knew what the approaching boots meant, some Arachnos had been sent to soften her up, she smiled, let them come she would be ready. Time to show them what happened to any who tried to challenge her, the snakes had just been a warm up, now the real game began.
She stood to her full height seeing the circle of seven Arachnos soldiers with their weapons pointed at her, she smirked, this was going to be fun. She spun around inhumanly fast kicking the rifles out of each soldiers hand and sending each of them sprawling backwards The first to stand back up pulled a mace out of his belt and charged at her shouting in rage, she lifted a foot up kicking the soldier in the chest plate and sending him flying backwards into a wall and he fell forwards hitting the floor hard and his emergency medical teleported activated and his body faded away. She saw a huntsman come around a corner and fire a grenade at her, she jumped into the air after scooping up an Arachnos rifle from the floor and she fired hitting the web grenade in the air and sending it back towards the huntsman where it exploded sticking him to the spot. She landed behind the Arachnos soldiers who had now stood up and two of them turned and ran at her lifting their maces she hit the mace out of one of their hands, he staggered back surprised by how fast he had been disarmed. Contessa looked at him and smiled mockingly then punched him around the face sending him spinning and smashing into the pavement and he teleported away. She ducked dodging the blow from the other attackers mace as she ducked down she picked up the dropped mace and hit the other attacker in the chin with bone smashing force sending him flying backwards where he was teleported out. She was enjoying this battle it was quite exhilarating, she grabbed two more attackers around the necks lifting them off the floor and smashing their heads together and flinging their unconscious forms in separate directions as they were teleported out. The huntsman couldnt believe how fast this woman moved she had beaten his squad in the space of ten seconds he wasnt playing anymore, he lifted his assault rifle and opened fire Contessa felt the bullets hit her but her flesh healed almost immediately, she ran at the Huntsman dodging his next barrage of bullets much to his surprise, when she reached him she kicked him in the lower chest with such force it shattered his armour before she continued her attack by punching him in the face shattering the front of his helmet and sending him sprawling on his back after smashing through some dustbins, he groaned semi conscious and then mediported away. That one had annoyed her now where was the other, ah there he was. The remaining soldier had decided that discretion was the best option and had started running. Contessa smiled the first smart move of any of the soldiers today, she pulled a throwing knife out of her belt and flung it into the soldiers back so hard it cracked his armour the hit sent him flying over a wall and into the dirty sea water below and she herd him mediport away. She picked her gun up off the floor and put it into her backpack, she then wiped her hands together like she was cleaning dirt off them she could have killed all the soldiers if she had wanted to, however she didnt want to annoy Arachnos too much, inviting trouble at this stage would not be a wise idea. It annoyed her that she was again in someone elses service but what could be done at the moment? She took a long look at the moon reflecting on the sea water over the nearby wall, thinking of the past for a while and how it always seemed to end up like this, she lit a cigarette thoughtfully and lit it and put it in a black cigarette holder and started smoking it before she started on her way back towards fort Darwin.
Kalinda watched Contessa approaching, so the mouthy one had proved herself, interesting maybe it was not all bluster after all. Contessa stopped in front of Kalinda and bowed mockingly, Mission accomplished and tell your men they need to improve.
Kalinda nodded and said in a business like voice, You have done well, you have past the first tests, others will be coming, that was merely day one, now go, make yourself a hovel somewhere until I have something else for you.
Contessa pondered this and nodded dismissively and walked away, some of her people were no doubt already here, yes the night was young now it was time to etch a little base on mercy. She had seen a building that suited, now she would remove its current occupants and make it her own. She flew up and away from Fort Darwin, leaving Kalinda behind, no doubt the woman was smiling under her mask thinking this amusing that she was making villains sleep in the dirt. Contessa landed on the roof of a building and got a communicator she had snatched off one of the Arachnos soldiers out of her pocket and changed its frequency, Bloodline to cell five, report.
After a few seconds she got a response, Cell five reporting mistress, how can we serve?
Report to me in mercy island by the old meat packing factory, it is time to establish a base.
Understood mistress we are on our way now.
Contessa smiled pleased with herself, everything so far was going well, she would be careful though, she was out of her depth at the moment so would keep low to the floor let others take the heat for now, her time would come to emerge from the shadows once more.
((Sorry this part is so long, next one will be shorter))
The end is just a new beginning, Goodbye all my coh friends and even the enemies, its been a blast I will miss you all. Thank you Paragon team, you gave me a home from home I will always appriciate it.