002 VIDEO LIST TWO

[deadliestviper]

[This time when the video turns on, Beatrix is well-groomed and polished; she's dressed in a very feminine suit with a nametag reading BETH S. on the lapel, is wearing makeup, and her hair is pulled back in a ponytail. Her smile is bright, easy, and full. In both name and deed, she's here on Official Business.]

Ahoy! – That's the right terminology, right? I've never been on one of these things before. [She winces, a little self-deprecatingly.] Uh, anyway, hello there, I thought I'd better introduce myself since I'm going to be working with a few of you. My name's Beth Solberg, I'm a social worker, and I'm just here to check in on the staff and residents, ask a few questions, basically make sure everything on the Barge here is up to snuff.

So yes, I'll be speaking with a few of you. Let me assure you, you don't have to answer any questions you don't want to. I'm not here to interrogate, I just want to get the gist of the situation. And it is an unusual situation here, so any comments, complains, you've got about the place, this is the time to talk.

I'm setting up shop in the – what's this place called? That's it, library, no special term? Okay – I'm in the library for the next day, just stop on in. [She pauses, lifting a pen to her lips as she consults a clipboard.] Oh, and I've got a couple people I need to check in with – newer ones specifically. If none of you mind doing this in reverse alphabetical order, may I speak to a... Ms. Reese?

[OOC: So since I forgot to say earlier, this flood B.B. got marginalized. Beatrix still got pregnant, still had the baby, just never hid her pregnancy from Bill or ran away to Texas. As such she's still very much an active member of the Assassination Squad, with the events of the movie never happening. The social work thing? Just a ruse to get in the same room with her current target Natasha.]

Comments

[spam]

[persuadeyou]

You know what they say about tigers fighting, [Natasha says, and it's almost abrupt, that she'd break the silence while they circle. She doesn't get the chance to finish, though, because as those claws come at her, she throws an arm out and steps to the side: protecting her face by pushing both arms away, and stepping in to throw her knee at B's kidney.

She likes tiger style, and B's good at it - but sometimes you need to mix it up to get what you want. In any case, she knows the blond is fast, and wants to see just how fast.]

[spam]

[deadliestviper]

I'm counting on it. [There are two things B is utterly sure of in this moment: this will be to the death, and it will not be her death. Even as her blow is deflected and the rest of the move cut short by the knee connecting with her side she's sizing Nicole up for weaknesses, looking for any window of opportunity to send her fist through her ribs or a claw through her throat.

Grunting at the blow to her kidney, she loops a hand under the crook of Nicole's knee and clamps it down tight, one foot whipping forward to kick out at her other ankle. If she can just get her on the ground it's over – all she'll need then is a grip around the redhead's throat.]

[spam]

[persuadeyou]

[Natasha would find that funny; because that's exactly what she's thinking. When her leg is caught, a smile twitches the corner of her mouth. As that kick comes toward her, Natasha's fingers relax, coming out of those claws so she can grab B's shoulder. She uses it for leverage when she jumps to avoid that kick, bringing her other leg up high.

It's not kung fu she's using anymore, it's lucha libre; that other leg isn't trying to damage, it's trying to catch around the side of B's neck as she throws her body weight to the side in an attempt to throw the blond down.]

[spam]

[deadliestviper]

[The sudden weight on her shoulder forces B to the floor and she braces an arm and tucks her head down, trying to roll out of the leg-hold and out from under Natasha. Fucking cunt. Fine. She wanted a dirty fight, she got it.

Her fingers arch against the floor, scrabbling for hold, when they light on a plastic cylinder and instinctively clasp around it.

It'd do.

Without even looking B fists her hand around the pen and stabs it down into Natasha's thigh, driving it further in as she uses it to push herself back and away. She's on her ass and leans back, holding herself up by her elbows. Forearms flat on the floor and she pushes herself up, lunging at the other woman.]

[spam]

[persuadeyou]

[Natasha hissed in air through grit teeth as the pen entered her leg, cursed outright in some very fast Russian when B leaned into it. She doesn't waste time dealing with the injury, knows if she waits too long she'll be pinned and that will be it, and of all the terrible ways Natasha can imagine dying, having her throat ripped out is not one of the top ten ways she wants to go.

So she rolls away from that lunge, swallowing a snarl as the pen - still stuck in her leg - taps against the ground.

Somehow, she gets to her feet, still dancing away from B's advance, and she yanks the pen out to use as her own weapon.

Should have gone for the throat, she thinks, but doesn't waste breath on giving her advice. Instead, she moves in to meet the other woman, free hand reaching for blond hair as she raises the pen.]

[spam]

[deadliestviper]

[Natasha moves so fast that B's lunge propels her into empty space and she has to whip around in a pivot to get on her guard. The pen should've slown her down but she's still going strong, pulling it out and holding it up despite her blood slicked on it. B's impressed even as she's yanked forward by her hair. No wonder this woman made an enemy of her friends.

Still, she wasn't slow herself and she grabs Natasha's wrist with one hand, the other curled into a fist to slam into her sternum. The hit's not as hard as it normally would have been, her strength concentrated on keeping Natasha from returning the favor with the pen.]

[spam]

[persuadeyou]

[Still hard enough to make her grunt, to make her struggle to force her body to draw in another breath. She bares her teeth and puts her weight behind her pen arm, angling for B's throat. She shifts her legs in the process, bringing one knee up to pound against B's side, her leg, anywhere she could hit before slamming her heal down toward her instep. Anything to distract her.]

[spam]

[deadliestviper]

Bitch! [She growls as Natasha knees her thigh and yells when that heel slams down on her foot. She can't evade without losing a fistful of hair or wrenching her neck – all she can do is twist Natasha's wrist with one hand, trying to jerk her hand down and drive the point into the hollow of the other woman's throat. Her other hand's still fisted, hammering rabbit-punches wildly against Natasha's chest, frantically trying to shake her off.]

[spam]

[persuadeyou]

[Between the punches and the angle, she's losing altitude with the pen, she can feel her hand slipping, and it's for that reason that she snarls and drops the pen.

She was pulling her head back to try headbutting B again when the flood very abruptly ended. It didn't kill her adrenaline, though, and she didn't just go slack when she came back to herself (but those memories, God, she wanted to scream, almost wanted to let B kill her, how could people deal with this on a regular basis, it was a nightmare). Instead, she went very still, eyes moving to the blond's, searching her face for the same realization.]

Let go. [She's sliding her for away from B's, to show that she wasn't going to attack anymore - but she doesn't put any weight on that foot, either, just in case this fight isn't over.]

[spam]

[deadliestviper]

[She dropped the fucking pen. Bitch, she thinks again, Just couldn't take the heat. B's fist stops in midair as if it had been grabbed and she quickly loosened her hand, reaching up to wrap it around Natasha's throat when something... shifts.

Her eyes are watery when the realization hits, but not from the pain. The memories flicker back through her head as false as they'd always been but this time she doesn't believe them. Still Bill's woman, still a Viper, still a mother but Jesus Christ she couldn't think about that, not now.

Her hand is shaking when she straightens and withdraws it though she still maintains the stiff-lipped poker face. She'll deal with it later. For now she just watches the woman she knows as Nicole step away, sure they've both come to the same conclusion.]

Nothing personal.

[It's as close to an apology as she'll get, and as near an explanation as she needs to give.]

[spam]

[persuadeyou]

[No, nothing personal. Natasha might have laughed, if she was a little less in control of herself right now - but she couldn't afford that. She felt surreal, like maybe all this was just another nightmare; she'd had plenty, when she first joined SHIELD, when they first ripped her mind apart, stripped her of everything she was, everything the Red Room had made.

Natasha swallowed, and nodded. Nothing personal. She drops a hand to her thigh, probing to see just how bad the wound is; not very, and not bleeding too badly. She can limp out of here and get to her room (though it's the last place she wants to be, even the thought of it makes her skin crawl. She lets on none of this).]

Right. [She couldn't bother herself to say more than that, just headed for the door - though she never quite let B out of her sight.]