The Arrow and the Spider

[Phoenix]

Carefully peering around the door to the apartment she shared with her fiance, Kat determined that all looked safe and strolled in, pushing it shut behind her.
"Hey..."
She was greeted by the sound of Jane's voice in another room, followed by a wooden clattering. "Ow!"
Rushing towards the sound, Kat found her sat on the floor, a small wooden table upended next to her. "What is it?"
Jane examined her right hand. "I'm OK! Just nearly put a needle through my hand."
Shaking her head subtly, Kat sat down next to her. "What you doing?"
Righting the table and spreading a vaguely suit-like piece of black-and-white fabric across it, Jane carefully rearranged her sewing kit. "Sewing. Or trying to. Never been much good."
Giving the thing a slightly closer inspection, Kat noticed the quality of the seams-it appeared, as usual, that Jane was downplaying her abilities somewhat. "'s'not bad. What is it?"

Jane carefully ran a finger over a seam between a black pad and the white suit as she spoke. "Pulled the basic guts out of the Nova suit and salvaged what I could... decided making a new one would be better. Sides, red and black is overdone."
Kat smirked slightly. "Mm..."
Realising her mistake too late, Jane winced, turning to look at her. "Yeah, I stepped in it there, didn't I?", she grinned.
Leaning forward and kissing Jane on the cheek, Kat spoke quietly. "Right in it."
This only widened the grin. "You know you love it."
"Yup!"
"Anyway, the old one got a bit too hot. Shoulders and fingertips in particular were near burning."
"Ah."

Pulling a thread tight, Jane leant down and bit the excess length off it
"Kat grinned to herself at this. "What sharp teeth you have!"
Looking up for a moment, Jane poked her tongue out at the redhead. "Damn right.Didn't think you'd appreciate me bringing high-voltage electronics and a blowtorch in here..."-a smirk flicked across her face-"so I got someone else to do the new control gloves."
Kat tilted her head slightly to one side. "Whatcha mean, we don't have em already?"
"Oh yeah. So we do. Rephrase. Thought you wouldn't want me using them."
Jane's tongue flicked out again, but this time Kat was quicker, darting forward and catching it between her lips, and turning it into a long kiss.
"Mm... what'd I do to deserve that?"
"Hey, you were askin' for it."
Jane grinned again. "Oh yeah..."

Jane turned her attention to the project again. "Black and white I may be but I am not dying my hair black again. Took me hours to get that crap out."
Absent-mindedly stroking Jane's hair as she spoke, Kat took a few moments to respond. "Soot works for me, just have to be a bit careful. Not that that isn't a bitch to get out. Just maybe less of one."
"Mm... course, I could always make it white again..." Jane glanced down at the phoenix mark on the back of her right hand.
"Mm... did you ever find out what that's about?"
Jane pondered this. "Not really... figured it's some kind of magic. I can just about control it now, but I dunno where it came from or anythin' like that. Maybe 's'one of those magicy destiny type things like you get in the comics." Lowering the hand and looking away, she smirked again.
Kat's hand drifted down to her belt and tapped the hilt of the dagger strapped there. "Mm..."

After a quick few stretches, Jane returned to her work. "Do we have anyone 'sides Akk who does magic?"
"Couple of people."
Distracted by this, Jane managed to prick another finger. "Ow! We'll be able to see light through my hands at this rate." Bringing the damaged digit up to her mouth, she sucked gingerly on the tip of it.
Smiling, Kat shuffled closer and slipped an arm around. "Take a break?"
Jane pondered this for a second, then set the needle down and looked back at her, returning the smile. "I might be tempted..."
"Excellent..."

Shuffling the pair of them a little way away from the table, Kat leaned forward and kissed Jane again, her hands deftly working the buttons of her love's blouse open. "Here's your temptation..."
"Ah... yeah, that'll work..."
Gently pulling the fabric aside, Kat discovered that Jane, unusually, was wearing nothing underneath it. "Ooh... expecting something to happen, were we?" She grinned hugely as Jane blushed almost purple, then tossed the shirt away, lowering her to the ground and shrugging off her own shirt. Wrapping her arms around again, she leaned closer, gently planting another kiss on her fiance's soft lips...

An unexpected male voice broke the spell. "Oh... excuse me, ladies..." Jane winced and hurriedly covered herself as Doctor Devastation, a temporary house guest since the destruction of the EA base, leant on the doorframe and peered down at them.
Groaning quietly, Kat addressed him directly. "D, what are you doing?!"
The man pulled a face. "Lighting a cigarette. Feel free to continue!"
Jane smirked and rolled her eyes despite the situation. "Are we allowed to blast him?"
Kat smirked very slightly. "I wish..." She turned and raised her voice. "D, get OUT!"
The Doctor winced and rapidly made himself scarce, calling back as he left. "Have a good time, Grim!" The door clicked open and slammed shut.

Returning her attention to Kat, Jane managed to get the blushing under control. "You have the strangest friends, you know that?"
Kat grinned wickedly and rolled the two of them over to put Jane on top. "Yup."
Leaning down, Jane pressed her nose lightly against Kat's and stared into her eyes. "Now... where were we?"

[Ves]

As she hid in the shadows of a doorway Cyder slipped a small compact mirror from one of the many pockets of her trench coat. Opening it as quietly as she could, she angled it carefully so she could see round the corner without being noticed. There in clear view was the one she was looking for, and he hadn’t the faintest idea where she was.

Grinning to herself, the young mercenary began to make swift, silent hand signals to her two most trusted gang members and within moments Botchet and Scarpa had slid out of sight to flank their target. Still their prey was oblivious to their locations, which as far as Cyder was concerned could only be a good thing. All previous attempts to apprehend him had failed miserably and it was getting late, this was the last job of the evening, after which it’d be time to kick back with a beer on the sofa, watching whatever junk was on the TV. But first, the capture.

A series of sharp beeps over her teem comm link told her the guys were in place, so with a final glance to make sure they still had the element of surprise, she sent the signal to spring the trap.

Swiftly leaping into action the two men leapt from their hiding places, hoping to take hold of the target with a minimum of trouble, but they were too slow. The victim of their ambush darted nimbly aside, leaving the two men to collide in midair and land in an ungainly heap upon the floor, both cursing quietly as heads were rubbed after the painful impact.

The lone figure now stood watching them, giggling uncontrollably as the ganger’s repeatedly fell over themselves as they tried to stand. Cyder, seeing the perfect moment to step in, rushed forward to take full advantage of the targets current relaxed state.
“Come ‘ere ya liddle villain, it’s bath time for you matey” she declared as she scooped the infant up into her arms, and as she passed the two men applied a few not too gentle kicks “And if I hear you using language like that in front of the bosses nipper again, I’ll tell him exactly what you said and see how he deals with you. Shame on you, the pair of ya’s. Now make yourselves useful and go run a bath for the sprog. And not too hot, or too deep, he’s only small remember”

As the guys wandered off, still complaining about sore heads and now ribs, little Tommy struggled fiercely to escape once more.
“Calm down ya little terror, be a good un and I’ll make you a deal. Have a bath like a good boy, and once you’re all clean, we’ll watch Scooby Doo for a bit, how’s about that eh?”

***

Night Shifter landed lightly by the hidden door to their new base. Checking around to make sure he’d not been followed, he punched in the access codes and stepped inside.

Instantly he was on guard, claws bursting from the back of his hands as he looked around at the state of the place. There was equipment and other household items scattered all over the hallway, a few spots of blood marked the floor here and there, though nothing serious. It looked as though something had been through the place and just trashed whatever they came across.
Silently he made his way to the only source of light he could see, the TV in the living area, ready to strike the instant he needed to.

He relaxed as he peered into the room to find Cyder laid out on the sofa with Tommy lay beside her fast asleep, his tiny hands wrapped around one of hers as he sucked on her thumb happily.
Chuckling quietly Shifter pulled off his mask and nudged Cyder gently “Here’s me thinking I was running a team of hard-ass merc’s, and here’s you all cosy on the sofa watching cartoons. Tough day was it?”
Checking the Tommy was asleep, the young woman flicked her boss the middle finger “This kid of yours is one serious handful Ves, you been feeding him caffeine laced food or what?”
Laughing softly, Veskit just shrugged “Awww did the big tough gang leader get bullied by an infant?”
“Hell no, we had a great time all day, right up to the point where someone mentioned the ‘B’ word, at which point the bolted. Had to bribe him with cartoons and cookies before he’d settle down for the night, though I’ve been stuck like this ever since ‘cause he won’t let go of me thumb”
This caused further laughter as Ves carefully lifted the child, pulling Cyder’s hand free as he did “Thanks again, and I think you’ve all earned a few days off, so why don’t you and the guy’s take it easy for a few days. I’ll let Grim and Nova know we’ve found a new base. Pretty soon we’ll be back to full strength, and this time, I’m gonna be sticking around.”