It was a natural talent.
Heads turned, whispers were drawn, and captivation clearly visible like how men and women flock around the goddess of beauty, and worker bees to their hive queen.
With every clatter of her heels against the polished marble floor and calculated amounts of sex appeal, a few attempted to draw near to converse only to have turned them down with nothing but her actions. She was here for serious business, not for self-entertainment, and silently surveyed around for any signs of her targets.
Luxurious setting, expensive dishes, cream of the crop employees, and a faint smell of alcohol lingering.
It was a magnificent and fancy party suitable for the rich and rotten.
Such a place was perfect for any kind of illegal dealings that happen in the dark.
The sophisticated A-line wine-red dress with plunging v-neckline, diamond set of accessories, and black stilettos were façade to hide lethal weapons latched on her body. This particular mission is of national importance after all.
Leila Ravenna Silva.
The best and most lethal female assassin in the world.
Beautiful.
Dangerous.
Utterly intoxicating.
Growing up in a normal, happy family, one wouldn't expect the young and bright Leila to engage in this line of work where her life is always on the line.
However, if it were not for that incident, Leila would've graduated from medical school and performing surgical operations by now.
That's just how it is, things just won't end up the way anyone would want.
It was because of these occurrences that people had selfishly decided that life is full of shit as it is full of obstacles.
And thus, began the birth of newer gods to worship. The first anti-Christ factions.
But Leila thought otherwise.
She sees life as an opportunity to open her eyes to reality. The incident that killed her parents and caused her to be abducted and experimented on, made Leila realize that if she were oblivious to this to this side of the world, she would've grown up to be a naïve person who thinks difficulties in life only involve personal relationships, financial situations, school, career and love life, and just thinking about it absolutely disgust her.
For two years, Leila was made a fool and believed that everything they made her do or take in was for her own good. They made her believe that through this, every pain she felt is another person she would save from dying.
Who's 'they'?
Those motherfucking scientists working under black market.
There were others like Leila in that laboratory, but in the end, out of two thousand children, only the ten remained, and Leila was one of them.
Where they got that many, she had no idea. But Leila was almost convinced they made an appointment with the Storks.
Her younger self was grateful that she survived, and that God may have tried to make it up to her. But little did she know that blessing was actually another curse in disguise.
And so, the experimentations continued.
The more the surviving children stayed alive, the more they increased the dosage of whatever they inject them, and like that, they would expose them to another set of torture.
Electrocution.
Drowning.
Confined in an aquarium filled with zero-degree water.
No food and water for months.
Cut open with knives without any anesthetic.
Injured through whipping, cutting off body parts, beaten up by people.
Every method they could think of.
The first time Leila was injected with the serum, she began screaming. The feeling was like she was being stabbed with hundreds of needles; her bones felt like they were breaking, and her flesh poking from underneath her skin as if trying to break out to the surface.
The immense pain went on for a whole hour and went it finally stopped, the serum had completely numbed her nerves making Leila unable to feel pain anymore.
At that rate, it wouldn't be much of a surprise if the surviving children did end up insane. As for Leila, there might be a few loose screws, but she had held unto her rationality like a stubborn leech.
It was a sigh of relief when the CIA and the United Nations managed to get a whiff the children's existence and ambushed the facility, killing everyone who resisted and secured the ones who surrendered.
The only unfortunate thing that happened was that the serum along all of its data was destroyed in the process. The state of panic had caused the upper heads of the facility to wipe any signs of its existence. So, the agencies involved in the purging had no choice but to rely on the children's testimonies and a couple of body and blood checks.
Since the children's situation was abnormal and had a high possibility to pose a threat to society, the government was reluctant to release them.
But a certain highly influential person gave them the opportunity to render their uneasiness useless, and so, for that cause, ten children were moved around one intelligence agency to another and trained until they became the most elite of the elites, a very valuable asset to the world.
It turns out the thing they injected the children with mutated their cells immensely to the point that even if they have already proven themselves on the side of justice hundreds of times, they still refused to let them return back to their normal lives.
At that point, Leila could hardly remember what normal was.
Every day they would face harsh criticism from their fellow agents for being freaks.
They would kill people on a daily basis.
In other words, they were the real-life Suicide Squad of the century.
And the way they used them made Leila realize that they were no different than how they are treated before. The more they treat them like puppets, the more masks they put on, and they would have to face the harsh reality that they had absolutely no one they could trust.
But thanks for those times, Leila learned a lot of things and experiences that are truly treasures. The government also paid their services with money five times the amount of what salaries the Senators and House Representatives receive monthly.
Leilah had lived most of her childhood in a simple room and was nervous about spending too much despite the ridiculous amount of her wages. So, she just decided to buy a permanent contemporary luxury apartment as the only thing she would exert a lot of money apart from furniture and necessities.
Despite Leila's consistent show of hesitance, her sister firmly insisted that she wanted to live with her.
She already had a gist that her line of work was clearly dangerous and had a high possibility of herself be made a target. But even so, she told Leila that she refused to stand idly by while she worked her ass off for both their sakes.
Being an art student is worth a lot of money, but Leila wanted her to fulfill her sister's ambitions, whatever it is, even though she kept jumping from either fashion designer, animator, to drawing Japanese cartoons and other art-related professions.
Her wages had basically covered all their needs and still have a massive amount left, so Leila wouldn't mind spending thousands to invest in her sister's dream.
After everything that happened, it was the least she could do for her.
Leila maneuvered around the place, the hem of her dress swishing around with every step. She had already compiled all sorts of possible escape routes, the number of guards, suspicious faces on a list in her head as she moved around.
Like how Leila was taught, she didn't miss a single thing down to the dirt every person in the room left behind. She had to be cautious and aim for perfection, never underestimating anyone even beggars on the streets, and refused to allow any of her targets escape from her clutches nor defeat her in any manner.
She walked elegantly, slightly swaying her hips, to mask the cautiousness of her actions through playfulness in order to blend perfectly well. Leila could not afford to fail any of the missions she was tasked to. After all, in this profession, it's to kill or be killed.
Leila was hanging out, sitting, on the bar corner of the hotel's party hall, and swirling her drink when she saw them.
And the sight made the corners of her lips tugged upward, "Found you."
There was one thing she noticed; her targets looked just like in the profiles. But more shitty.
Their fancy suits, clean appearances, and expensive shoes and accessories failed to hide the excited gleam of madness in their eyes.
Mass production and auctioning of viral weaponry and WMD's. That was their business.
After making sure no one was watching, Leila secretly adjusted the two khopesh swords strapped on each of her thighs with one hand and fixed her curled dark brown hair with another while keeping tabs of her targets' movements in her peripheral view.
She had plenty of experience with all sorts of guns, but blades perfectly suited her preferences and fighting style.
One of the best things about their mutation is that all their senses are greatly heightened, therefore Leila didn't bother planting bugs to hear what she wanted to hear.
As she took a sip of wine, Leila directed her hearing towards the direction of her targets.
["Where is the buyer? Tell him I got his toys."]
["He's waiting for you at the VIP Casino room. The boss also assured that you won't need to worry about privacy, he rented the whole place."]
["Ho, he's got great taste."]
["Please follow me."]
Leila maintained a safe distance she watched them disappear behind the closing doors of the elevator. She, then, took one look at the guards stationed beside it and strutted out of the party hall.
Keeping up a quick pace that didn't draw suspicion, she climbed onto a separate elevator and pressed the highest floor button.
Using the key card, she had purchased prior to the party, Leila rented the room two floors above the casino room where the purchase would be held. She had been tailing the suspected buyer for the last two days to ensure she was on the right track.
The room was fancy and clearly designed for the comfort and luxury of the guests. If Leila was on vacation, she would've already crashed on the soft-looking mattress and knocked herself out with some popcorn and movies, but it wasn't the time for that.
She sat on the chair placed on the balcony, closed my eyes, and focused her hearing at the meeting happening two floors below.
["...in a row. You're turning out to be my best customer, ha-ha!"]
["Your toys have proven themselves to be useful, how can I not? I witnessed first-hand how much power it brought me, so here I am."]
["Still, to think you planted our latest viral weaponry in China and caused a massive pandemic. What a way to abuse your power, Prime Minister Huang Zhou."]
["It couldn't be helped, I aimed to be the most powerful person in my country of influence and money, of course, but the enormous population kept placing workloads on my desk. I had to do about those annoying people, plus, I happen to be curious about your work so I thought 'it wouldn't hurt to try' and blasted it off!"]
Heh...so that's what you did.
This guy didn't even wonder the troubles it would cause and unleash a deadly virus without batting an eye.
Leila happened to stumble on a shocking discovery that he had been abusing his wife and children when she infiltrated his house. There she found reports of suspected bribery amongst the official during the election, which resulted in him being a president.
There were more cases that involved him, but this---he's more rotten than she thought.
To think that this guy was laughing at the fact that his passing irritation caused the deaths of hundreds of people around the world made her sick.
["So, this product is more lethal than the last one. Where are you going to use it?"]
["Ahh, I'm planning on having it in the middle of New York City."]
["You really dream big, huh."]
["What can I say? It's what I'm good at."]
'UGH. Alright, it's decided. I'm going to beat the shit out of these guys.' That was going around Leila's mind.
Rounding her stiff shoulders, Leila looked towards the ethereal beauty of the moon and grinned.
Who needs wings to fly?
Without any hesitation, she jumped off from the balcony of her and shattered the glass window effortlessly with a kick.
"What the-?!"
Leila rolled to the ground and landed in a crouching position on the floor filled with glass shards.
There was a gimmick in the dress that she wore. Beneath the outer layer of the skirt, there were two thigh-high slits where she could easily draw her khopesh swords when it's showtime.
Then slowly, Leila stood up and unsheathe her swords.
Playing with the weapons in each hand, Leila channeled her inner Harley Quinn and flashed the stupefied people in the room with a mischievous grin.
"Run piggies, run!"
And the room erupted into chaotic music of blood and screams.