Ch: 196 [Harley’s self defense]
"Watch your six, Kitty!" Harley shouted as she dodged to the left. The nanites in her suit reacted to her every thought, boosting her reflexes and agility to extraordinary levels. She lifted her energy guns and shot twice in quick succession. The energy beams raced through the air, hitting the darts in mid-flight and disintegrating them before they could reach her.
Selina with years of combat experience, was already two steps ahead. Her whip cracked through the air with a sharp, electric snap, catching several darts and sending them hurtling back towards their origin. The whip's conductive properties amplified the electric charge, causing the darts to explode on impact, creating small bursts of light and sound that disoriented the assassins.
"Nice!" Harley cheered, flipping over an incoming dart and returning fire with a wide grin. The energy blast from her gun struck an assassin who had been lurking in the shadows, sending him sprawling to the ground.
"Too easy," Selina replied with a smirk, sidestepping another volley of darts. Her eyes were on the red spots on the HUD, calculating the assassins' positions. With a flick of her wrist, her whip lashed out like a striking snake, coiling around an unsuspecting attacker's neck and electrocuting him. Then, she pulled him up in the sky before slamming him onto the ground like a ragdoll.
"I love it when you do that!" Harley shouted as she dodged another barrage of darts. Her body moved fluidly, almost like water, avoiding each attack with ease. Her energy guns fired rapidly, taking out assassins one by one.
Meanwhile, Bruce and Kara stood back and watched the show. Kara smiled amusedly while Bruce observed the battle with interest.
An assassin lunged at Harley from behind, his blade dripping with a deadly toxin. But Harley was ready. She spun around, her energy guns still in hand, and fired a shot point-blank. The blast hit the assassin square in the face, splattering his brains everywhere. Harley cackled maniacally as she wiped some blood off her cheek. "Woohoo! That's how you do it!" As soon as her eyes met Bruces, Harley's laughter disappeared, "Oops! Sorry, didn't see ya there!" She giggled, blowing on the smoking barrel of her gun.
Selina, meanwhile, had her hands full with six assassins who had tried to surround her.
"Oh, my, six of you ganging up on a young lady... What would happen to me?" Selina teased the assassins with a seductive smirk. She cracked her whip as a massive arc of electricity swept over the area, knocking the assassins out instantly.
"Way to go, Kitty! Crush 'em!" Harley yelled.
Three more rushed at Selina...
"Careful, boys. You don't want to get too close," Selina teased, her voice a sultry purr as she swiped her whip, knocking two assassins off balance. She twisted in mid-air, delivering a powerful kick to the third, sending him crashing into a tree with a sickening thud. The remaining two tried to sneak up on her, but Selina was too fast, her whip whirling around her like a tornado, blocking their attacks effortlessly.
"Behind you, Kitty!" Harley shouted as another assassin tried to catch Selina off guard.
Without turning around, Selina whipped her arm backward, sending the tip of her electrified whip flying straight into the assassin's chest. "Such cute kittens, but still amateurs," She taunted. The electricity surged through his body, causing him to convulse before collapsing to the ground, unconscious. "Thanks for the heads up, Harl," she said, not missing a beat.
"No prob, Kitty. Teamwork makes the dream work!" Harley replied, backflipping over another assassin while simultaneously firing her pistols at two others. The blasts struck their targets, sending them tumbling through the air like ragdolls. "Hahahaha! They just keep coming like cockroaches... And Harl hates cockroaches... Time for some serious extermination."
The two women continued to clear the area with ease, their synergy impeccable.
Harley was a whirlwind of energy, darting from one target to the next with wild abandon. Her shots were precise, and her unpredictable movements made her nearly impossible to hit. She even managed to snatch a dart out of the air with her bare hand, just for the fun of it, before tossing it back at an assassin, striking his crotch.
"ARGGGG!!" The assassin screamed in pain, grabbing his crotch as he fell to the ground.
"Ouch! That must've hurt," Harley chuckled, watching the man fall to the ground clutching his wounded privates. After a little squirming his body melted, forming a puddle of bubbling acidic mass. "Eeh! Gross!" She jumped back in disgust and turned toward Bruce. "I didn't kill him. He freakin' melted himself!"
"Behind you," Bruce pointed at her.
Harley spun around just in time to see a shadowy figure approaching her from behind. "Too slow!" She morphed the nanites into a big hammer and swung it directly into the assassin's head. His skull shattered upon impact, splattering brain matter all over the place. Harley grimaced as she looked down at her bloodied suit. "This is going to be such a pain to clean up..." She again turned toward Bruce. "I didn't mean to splatter his brains everywhere... It was self-defense."
"Sure." Bruce nodded with a small smile.
Selina, on the other hand, was all about finesse. She moved with the elegance and efficiency of a seasoned predator. Her whip cracked through the air, electrifying anything it touched, while her claws left deep gashes in those foolish enough to get too close. She was having fun out there after a long time. After taking care of her side, she turned toward the clown. However, unlike Harley, Selina used her head and released her tracking nanites on the ground. The nanites latched onto the assassins without them knowing.
"Stop killing them like bugs," Selina scolded Harley.
"Bugs? I prefer calling them cockroaches! Cockroaches, Kitty! Not bugs!" Harley corrected Selina.
Selina rolled her eyes. "Fine. Stop killing them like cockroaches."
"Sorry! But Harl hates cockroaches!" Harley pouted, crossing her arms over her chest. "Anyway, these assassins are totally weak! No challenge at all!"
"True," Selina agreed.
Within minutes, the jungle was littered with the bodies of defeated assassins, all either dead, unconscious, or incapacitated. The few who remained standing realized they were outmatched and quickly retreated into the shadows, vanishing as swiftly as they had appeared.
"Aw, c'mon! Don't leave now, the party's just getting started!" Harley called after them, feigning disappointment as she slammed her hammer on the ground. She looked over at Selina and grinned. "Well, that was fun! Wanna chase them?"
"No need," Selina replied with a smirk, flicking her whip to remove the last of the blood before coiling it back onto her waist. "They will take us to their base soon enough."
"Ok. You are the boss lady," Harley agreed, bouncing on her heels. "But man, I gotta say, these new suits are awesome! I feel like I could take on the whole League by myself!"
They went back to Bruce and Kara.
"Should we follow?" Selina asked Bruce.
"Let's go," Bruce nodded.
He was confident that they could handle whatever came their way. Kara looked around the jungle with mild interest. She couldn't help but notice how quiet and peaceful it seemed, despite the recent battle.
The group continued to move through the dense jungle, following the signal from the tracking nanites until finally reaching the entrance to a large cave hidden within the thick vegetation. The giant trees around them provided excellent cover, making it difficult to spot anyone approaching.
"Hold up," Bruce raised his hand, signaling for everyone to stop. He scanned the area with his enhanced vision, searching for any signs of danger. "Dang! That's one giant ass freak!"
Suddenly, the ground erupted in front of them, sending a shower of dirt and debris into the air. A massive, serpentine creature burst forth from the ground, its body covered in thick, mutated red scales that shimmered with an unnatural green hue around the edges of the scales. The snake's eyes glowed with a sickly yellow light, and its fangs dripped with a viscous, black venom that hissed as it hit the ground.
"Well, would ya look at that!" Harley exclaimed, her eyes wide with a mix of excitement and fear. "It's a freakin' snake on steroids!"
"HISSSSS!!!" The creature let out a deafening hiss, its body coiling as it prepared to strike. It was easily the size of a small building, its muscles rippling beneath its scales as it moved with frightening speed and agility for something so large.