Target Practice (Shego)

[Shego]

“Yeah nice speech,” commented Shego sarcastically, “what did you learn it from a carnival or something?” She rolled her eyes, watching as the Goddess finally released her and got to her feet. The villainess was about to go on the defensive again, until she noticed the bow wasn’t technically aimed at her, rather it was aimed above her so that a flurry of arrows shot into the ocean.

“Great, just what we need,” replied Shego with another roll of her eyes, “more fish. Of course, her expression changed from one of disdain to mild interest when Aphrodite offered the bow to her instead. She took it cautiously, weighing the weapon in her hands. It had no ammo so far as she could tell. No, it seemed to be powered by some trick or another that she couldn’t access. Still, Shego had tricks of her own, and pointing the bow at a nearby tree loosed off a bolt of her own destructive energy.

“Not bad, Princess,” she complimented, noticing the scathing tone in Aphrodite’s voice and deliberately not handing it back yet, “seems to tap into the wielder’s own power for ammo, though I’m guessing there are all sorts of bonus features I can’t access unless I’m you.” She leant back against another tree, this time shooting an inquisitive look of her own over at the goddess.

“But enough with the agony aunt routine, I’m sensing you’re not happy with your own love life, never mind with helping others,” she sighed, putting on an expression of mock sympathy as she gazed at Aphrodite, “it’s sad really. The goddess of love, always preaching about love and receiving it, yet loves no-one herself.” Shego giggled, still weighing up the bow as she spoke. She was confident that science could figure out at least some of its secrets, for the goddess did not seem to be interested in taking it back.

[aphrodite]

Aphrodite’s gaze darkened, staring at the empty spot where a tree once stood. She knew Shego had powers of her own, but was it a fireball caused by her that went off or had the bow actually responded to the pyro’s touch? When she faced Shego, she wore a pleasant smirk. “Well I’m glad you like, but you’re right- you can’t.” There was no touch of malice in her tone, in fact should anyone wander by at the moment, it would sound like Aphrodite was engaging in a lovely conversation.

The smile dropped when Shego dared to question her own love life, Aphrodite’s perfect lips forming into a thin line.

“How little you know,” she began slowly, overemphasizing each word. She placed a hand against her chest. “I am composed of love, it is my very essence! I know every aspect of it, believe in every aspect of it, and you dare to accuse me of not loving anyone just because I happen to dislike my husband? Here’s a lesson for you: marriage and love can go hand in hand but marriage does not mean love. They are separate yet often joined together as was the case with me.” She paused, taking a breath. “I have loved, I do love, and I will continue to love because the world needs it.” In a flash she stretched towards the sun, reaching a long arm down to snatch back her bow, developing a sudden interest in the pretty object. She shrank back to her previous size as soon as she obtained it.

[Shego]

Shego almost shook with silent laughter as Aphrodite began to defend herself, rolling her eyes as the Goddess went on and on and on about love. She didn’t however bother resisting as the bow was plucked out of her grip once again, deciding that as a trinket it wasn’t worth the effort.

“Well looks like I struck a nerve,” observed Shego slyly, taking a deep breath before continuing, “But I wonder, do you love because you want to, or only because the world needs it?” She shifted position slightly, looking past the goddess rather then directly at her, though continuing talking all the same. “I guess the goddess of love doesn’t practice what she teaches, not only trapped in a loveless relationship,” she straightened up and turned away, pointing one hand over her shoulder at the ornate bow Aphrodite had wrested from her, “but still leading her husband on that he has a chance.” She smirked, the mock sympathetic expression she’d adopted quickly replaced with one of venom.

“You should be ashamed of yourself. I know the world is ashamed to have someone like you representing love,” Shego shifted position in an instant, moving from a relaxed position to one that was clearly ready for combat, “how about I do you a favour… and end your suffering!” She leapt forward with a snarl, both hands igniting as she slashed down at the Goddess.

[aphrodite]

Shego did not stir hatred with in her, though history books may state that the goddess’ of Greece could be easily consumed with hatred and jealousy. No, Shego created determination; a firm resolve to correct this woman’s skewed understanding. Aphrodite was convinced that the pyro was no only flapping off to annoy her, saying things to try and make her boil over. In an eerily calm fashion she stood there, allowing the lowly mortal to lambaste her, when she could easily not only accurately defend her actions, but silence her with one swift kiss. A kiss from Aphrodite was a powerful thing indeed, able to intoxicate one with love. Spartans would drop to their knees if she blew one of her famous kisses across a battlefield, a fact proven when she did this to Ares’ relentless warriors as a favour to Athena! And when the right heartstrings were pulled, people could do anything.

When Shego charged at her, Aphrodite decided not to blow a kiss at her, finding the solution far too easy, and partially because the immortal had been caught off guard. She watched the flames of green come straight toward her and before Shego ended up throwing her to the ground Aphrodite disappeared in a swirl of hearts. She materialized in front of the same tree the woman had just been leaning against.

“You know I could think of a number of things you could be doing with all that pent up energy besides attack me. Ever think of taking up arts and crafts?”

[Shego]

“Well painting isn’t my thing and the knitting caught fire,” replied Shego in an utterly bored voice, spinning around to face the Goddess, “and for the record, My Little Pony style teleports are cheating.” She straightened up, glaring at Aphrodite and quickly re-evaluating the situation. The goddess was stronger then her, a lot stronger, and even though Shego was certain she could use the immortal’s strength against her, it was doubtful Aphrodite would let her get close enough for it. Instead she sighed, shrugging her shoulders and resting her hands on her hips once again as she glared.

“You know what Princess?” began Shego with one last roll of her eyes, “you’re not even worth my time.” She turned away, waving once over her shoulders and laying down in the soft and warm sand once again. After pushing the sunglasses back into place to make sure the sun was blocked out, the villainess turned her attention back to doing nothing but enjoying the day. It seemed rather doubtful that the goddess would leave her alone just because she was ignoring her, however Shego had reached the conclusion that there was no use in trying to drive the woman away.

The woman’s strange power reminded Shego of the time she’d been granted mind control powers in exchange for helping Zeus. It wasn’t her proudest moment (in fact she’d been making sure she didn’t run into Persephone ever since), however the feeling of a supernatural power affecting someone’s behaviour was all but the same in both situations. This thought in turn made Shego shudder, after all she’d seen first hand how powerful it was.

[aphrodite]

“Well exactly how far did you plan on getting by attacking an immortal?” Aphrodite cocked her head to the side as Shego fired off a piercing stare in her direction. It was funny; minutes ago the woman had displayed sweetness and vulnerability. The more the goddess pushed her about love, the more guarded and sarcastic she became. Aphrodite was positive she would be able to melt that frozen exterior, especially after those fleeting moments of tenderness she spotted within the woman.

Sitting seemed to be the best option. The sand warmed her legs and tickled her toes; Shego finally looked relaxed as well. For a long time, Aphrodite said nothing, simply allowing her own thoughts to take over while she examined her nails. Her nails! She cast a shifty stare in Shego’s direction and broke the peaceful silence with,

“You don’t know much about girl time do you? I mean, it doesn’t have to be all about love.” Small creases formed at the sides of her mouth. “Helios doesn’t seem to be taking a real shine to you. I can help with that complexion you know. And your hair could use a bit of work. Let me fix it up a bit! And you can tell me where you got those incredible powers of yours.”

[Shego]

If Shego hadn’t been determinedly ignoring Aphrodite then she would have groaned as the alluring Goddess approached her once again. Fortunately the immortal didn’t seem to want to talk this time and instead simply sat nearby, so for some time Shego was able to relax once again in the silence. It wasn’t as peaceful as it had been, after all the pink-skinned woman was very hard to miss, however it was close enough, especially as, as distractions went, the goddess of beauty was probably one of the more appealing.

“I don’t do ‘girl time’,” replied Shego despite herself as Aphrodite finally broke the silence, and although she remained still you could practically hear the air quotes in her tone. She turned her head slightly to face the goddess and was amused to see that for the first time in their meeting Aphrodite actually seemed to be frowning. Shego couldn’t help but smile at this, inwardly chiding herself though for not realising sooner the best way to irritate the personification of beauty was to ignore her.

“Oh yes, there’s so much you can do with green skin,” stated Shego sarcastically, sitting up as her vanity got the better of her, “and my hair is far superior to your peroxide ponytail Barbie.”

[aphrodite]

The muses’ have sung it themselves- if there’s one thing a girl should never do, is state that she is more beautiful than Aphrodite. Countless punishments were cast upon those who dared to claim such falsehoods. One woman was sentenced to have an unyielding lust toward her father, who was in turn repulsed by his daughter’s yearnings and chased her out of his home with a knife. Others suffered the fate of having their beauty reversed, becoming hideous creatures, or being denied by anyone they found attractive, and even worse, never finding true love. Any one of these options would have suited Shego, or better still it would be to rip that sharp tongue from the insolent mortal’s mouth. Ultimately, Aphrodite backhanded Shego across the face with a force unexpected from the fragile looking goddess.

“Impudent wretch!” she snarled. The goddess grasped her bow which turned red hot at her touch and she drew the string back, intending on forever relieving Shego of her bitter attitude. But for whatever private reason she did not. Perhaps it was because Aphrodite has not encountered a challenge like Shego in quite a while, or perhaps it was because she still had high hopes for her. Maybe it was for another reason all together, but she did lower her weapon.

“It’s no wonder you can’t find love. You never give people the chance to get close to you. Not even for a friendly conversation. You’d better learn to open up, sweetheart, or it’s a very lonely existence for you.” Aphrodite leaned over the fallen villainess, pushing her hands into the sand, with the assumption that this would prevent her from lighting up. “A frigid woman is not very attractive at all,” she hissed scathingly into her ear. “And you had such potential.”

[Shego]

Shego cried out in unsuppressed fury as Aphrodite struck her, gritting her teeth firmly to avoid showing any pain as she was sent sprawling back into the sand. She ignited her hands in an instant, and was about to spring up into action when suddenly Aphrodite was on her again, slamming both hands into the sand with surprising force (and unfortunately extinguishing them at the same time). Shego thrashed beneath the immortal’s grip, however was antagonised to realise that she was trapped by the Goddess. She paused for a moment, an odd expression showing on her face, before throwing back her head and laughing maniacally.

“Well… well… well…” began Shego, almost deranged laughter punctuating each word, “looks like I finally found the on switch for your temper.” So, the blonde bombshell flared up if you insulted her precious looks? How predictably air-headed of her. Still, now that Shego had a way to get the fight she wanted out of her, she was hardly going to let it drop so quickly. After almost a minute of laughter, Shego’s calm demeanour finally returned.

“Kind of touchy aren’t you Barbie?” asked Shego slyly, lip curling up slightly as she spoke, “anyone would think you were jealous of my looks. Not that I’d blame you.” She paused for effect, a malicious glint clearly showing in her eyes. “After all, that blonde bob of yours is so deeply rooted in your brain that you somehow forgot about… this!” She bucked beneath Aphrodite, swinging her feet around hard into the Goddess’s back, feet that were burning with the same fire that she frequently bought forth from her hands.

“Now then,” hissed Shego threateningly as he feet firmly wrapped themselves around Aphrodite’s hair and began to harshly tug at it, “get off my chest!”

[aphrodite]

Aphrodite managed to keep herself firmly planted while Shego thrashed, but the distinct scent of burning hair made her gasp in horror. Angrily she slashed her perfectly manicured nails across the side of the woman’s face, before disappearing, flower petals dropping on to Shego the only trace of evidence that she had been there. Aphrodite emerged in the ocean where the lime flames were extinguished. A second disappearance had her hovering above the restless sea. The goddess ran her fingers through her locks, checking for a spot of damage, but she was fine. Of course she was fine! She was the epitome of perfection! Instead of looking like a drowned rat, water droplets clung to her form like glittering jewels, and her hair had already sprung back into shape. The ocean would never be so cruel to her like Shego was.

“What is it with you?” demanded Aphrodite, as she appeared back on the beach, bravely mere steps away from her attacker. “Why so angry? Why all that hate? I saw another side of you in there not all that long ago. Why are you afraid to let it come out?”

[Shego]

Shego snarled in frustration and anger as Aphrodite slashed her face and vanished. Hitting and running away again, how cowardly could you get? This immortal creep was more pathetic then even the villainess had first thought. She leapt to her feet, wildly looking around for the goddess. There, in the ocean! Hah, so the flames had alarmed her so much that she’d felt the need to extinguish them. There was something oddly satisfying about that for Shego.

“Will you stop talking already!?” snarled Shego, attempting to ignore the flawless and now glimmering form of the goddess before her as she glared, “your job is just to sit there and look pretty…” she smirked, “and you even fail at that!” She giggled again, extinguishing all of her limbs again and letting her hands rest on her hips as she regarded the goddess. There was something about her last comment that was bothering her, so much so that she felt compelled to respond to it.

“I am afraid of nothing!” she hissed venomously, “I just have better things to do with my time then discuss my problems with a vain vixen who wouldn’t know real good looks if they danced in front of her butt naked!”

[aphrodite]

Ah, so Aphrodite had struck a nerve as well. I am afraid of nothing. The words repeated themselves in her mind and though Shego may have thrown more insulting words at her, they rolled off of the goddess’ shoulders, for she had settled quite comfortably into her agony aunt role once again. I am afraid of nothing. Nothing? If she was afraid of nothing, then what on earth was she guarding behind that tough exterior? The flaming ice warrior’s next words were enough to convince Aphrodite that she too might be a bit vain herself.

“Everyone’s afraid of something, Shego,” Aphrodite began, shifting her weight on to one leg, her hip leaning out comfortably to the side. “Perhaps you think fear makes you weak? If you express vulnerability, you might no longer be seen as the powerful force you try to display to the world. Personally I think the bigger the shell you build around yourself, the more people will try to open it and find out what’s inside.” She took a tiny step forward.

“And I didn’t say you weren’t attractive. Outwardly that is. But inner beauty is important too. And for some reason you don’t like revealing that part of you. Are you afraid you’ll get hurt?” Another step towards her. “Those women hurt you. Keeping yourself bottled up won’t help though.”

[Shego]

“Fine,” hissed Shego, sounding just as threatening in agreement, as she had when insulting the goddess, “you want to talk? Then let’s talk.” She half turned away, keeping Aphrodite only in the corner of her eyes to make sure she couldn’t take her by surprise, whilst still not looking directly at her. She was visibly icy as she crossed her arms, in fact had she been in the ocean at that point she looked as if she could freeze the water around her.

“Let’s talk about how you’re so obsessed with the sound of your own voice that you will continue to talk regardless of whether or not anyone wants to hear it,” she sneered, unable to resist shooting a malicious grin back at the immortal that still stood in the ocean, “Narcissism is a serious problem you know…” Shego paused, reconsidering her words, “though I think you know the story.” She snapped around again to face Aphrodite fully, eyes blazing with a combination of anger and passion as she continued to berate the Goddess.

“Or we could talk about the way you lead your husband on,” she giggled, “have you ever let down your shields in front of him?” She slumped into the sound again, leaning back and once again staring up at the sky and attempting to relax.

“Face it Princess, we’re more alike then you think.” Wait… something in that last sentence didn’t sound right…

[aphrodite]

All right, if that’s how Shego was going to play it, then Aphrodite would bite. After all, she had her talking at least. A polished smile was held up by a corner of her mouth, her sapphire eyes gazing intently upon the other woman.

“Oh, you’re only upset because you don’t like the topic. If I were talking about the latest inventions in pyrotechnics, you may be more interested.” Her crooked grin stretched with a simultaneous eye roll when the reference to Narcissus was made. She had a feeling Shego would be grateful for Aphrodite’s company if she ever had to listen to Narcissus go on and on and on and on and on and on and on about himself. It was something that Aphrodite wouldn’t wish on anyone.

The slightest twitch of a flawlessly shaped eyebrow was the only indication that Aphrodite had picked up on Shego’s final words. They were perhaps the most interesting ones she had spoken this entire time and Aphrodite filed them away, ready to pull them out at the proper moment. For now she returned to the topic of Hephaestus. The immortal sat beside Shego, drawing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. As she spoke, she kept her focus on the ocean, retracing her past through vivid memories.

“You don’t know what really happened, you weren’t there. Whatever stories you’ve heard… well someone lost the truth as they got passed down through the ages. People twist words, take them out of context, develop them so they seem more interesting. But I’ll tell you one thing- I don’t need to put any shields up when I’m around him.” A brief smirk flew up on her face. “I can very blunt.” The smile quickly vanished and she continued her trek down memory lane. “Hephaestus and I had never planned to be together, in fact I was selected for someone else entirely. But when we ended up married I told him straight away that I would not make a good wife for him. I was surprised to learn that he already knew this. He told me he worked late. In that sense, I can see he was probably a better match than anyone else I could have had. He understood me and what I had to do. For that, I thanked him properly on our wedding night.” Aphrodite shook her head. “Sure, he works wonders with his hands… just not the way I’d want them to.”

The goddess leaned back, using her elbows to prop her up and finally turned to Shego. “All right, now you spill. Who do you lead on?” she teased.

[Shego]

“Believe it or not, I’m upset because I despise you, not the topic,” she smiled with mock sweetness, however it quickly dropped into a scowl again as Aphrodite launched into a long and convoluted explanation of her relationship with Hephaestus. Shego yawned visibly, leaning back in the sand again and letting the talk wash over her. Fortunately the goddess did eventually stop talking after a few minutes; however Shego did not bother to look at her as she responded.

“So as soon as your ‘happy husband’ got you, you decided to break his heart immediately,” began Shego idly, raising one hand to count off the faults as she explained them, “you’re so blunt you make sure to remind him of your lack of affections a regular basis,” she laughed humourlessly, “yet you still decided to lead him on that there was a chance on your wedding night.” This wasn’t a question, and if her voice hadn’t made this clear then her expression almost certainly would have. She finally sat up, however stared out to sea rather then looking at Aphrodite again. Inwardly she was just glad that the blushes had finally stopped, however due to the immortal’s proximity she felt it was safer to not look directly at her lest they start again.

“Excuse me if I don’t start singing your praises as the role model for romance,” stated Shego with a sneer, “but you seem to be even worse then me.” She laughed again, however this time it was clear she was taking some amusement from the situation. She fell into silence again fairly quickly, pushing up the sunglasses that had begun to slip down her nose on a bead of sweat. Shego frowned at this, quickly wiping it away in the same movement so that the Goddess couldn’t see her perspiration.

“I can only think of one person I lead on,” muttered Shego, finally turning to face Aphrodite for the first time since she’d started talking, as if she were finally going to talk honestly. She bit her lip for a moment, looked into the goddess’s eyes and finally whispered: “you. Into thinking I took any interest in this conversation.” She sneered, and was strongly tempted to spit squarely into Aphrodite’s face. Fortunately the villainess decided that this was childish, even for her, so instead turned her back to the immortal and continued to stare out at the sea.

“I’ll give you a minute to be out of my sight,” she hissed threateningly, “after that, if you’re still here, I kill you.” She turned back, smiling sweetly, although her voice was dripping with sarcasm.

“Have a nice day.”