It was embarrassing, WildRose thought, that a villain this lame was proving to be this difficult to beat.
Of course, Sangria did have a little help this time. WildRose glared around her at the display of vacant smiles and unfocused stares, wondering which hero had been the one to make a mistake. If she had to guess, her money would be on Adventure Girl (currently holding WildRose's wrists over her head in a grip that was as casual as it was inescapable.) Sweet girl, great super-hero, but man, was she a sucker for crap like this. It came from being invulnerable--when tank shells bounced off your eyeballs, you tended to go into a fight thinking nothing could hurt you. She'd never developed the instinct to go for the throat the way WildRose had.
Or maybe it was Venus Ascendant (currently kneeling on the concrete and holding WildRose's ankles steady.) Sure, she was a little smarter than Adventure Girl...okay, a lot smarter. But she also had a bad habit of going easy on criminals. WildRose preferred understanding their inner turmoil when they were unconscious on the ground, but Venus was always trying to show them the error of their ways by demonstrating just how good it felt to...um, yield to authority. Which worked with a lot of her enemies, and made her the most fun team-up partner in the whole world, but it would have backfired if she tried it on Sangria, big time.
Once she'd gotten her hooks into one of those two, Sangria probably wouldn't have had much trouble snagging Lady Ronin or the Living Doll...any more than WildRose had stood a chance a few minutes ago. One second, it was a quiet rooftop patrol before heading over to Sharpe's, then suddenly two women who could move faster than the human eye could follow had snagged her out of mid-air with about as much effort as she spent picking up her kitten. Not for the first time, WildRose really really really wished she had super-powers.
"Admiring my collection?" Sangria asked, her full lips quirking into a smug grin as she caressed Lady Ronin's cheek for a moment before walking closer to WildRose. "I'm going to keep adding to it, of course, but I really couldn't wait any longer to stop by Samson City and pick you up. Oh, I am going to enjoy this, my old nemesis. You have no idea how many times I've dreamed about--"
"'Nemesis'?" The look on Sangria's face told WildRose that she was a little pissed at having her speech interrupted, but WildRose couldn't help herself. "Oh, come on. We've fought nine times, and the longest any of those fights have lasted was thirteen seconds. I might be a nemesis to you, but you're just that chick who doesn't know when to give up as far as I'm concerned."
Sangria leaned in a little closer, her lips now curled into a pout. WildRose was a little fixated on Sangria's lips at the moment, for the same reason that mice tended to stare at snakes. "That's just because I've never had the chance to show you how good my special kisses feel, WildRose. You have no idea how many times I've dreamed about this moment, all those long nights in prison. How many times I've--"
"It's not that you never had the chance, it's that I never gave you the chance," WildRose broke in with an indignant tone in her voice. "What did you really expect me to do? Just walk up to you and let you kiss me? You've got no hand-to-hand training, a super-power that relies on flesh-to-flesh contact, and a glass jaw. I'm just taking what the defense gives me, here."
"But this time," Sangria snarled, "there is no defense. This time, I have everything figured out. This time, there is nothing at all to stop me from pressing my lips against yours and tasting you like I've dreamed of, so many times. All those nights in jail, I've imagined your eyes fluttering as you finally give in to the relentless--"
"Prison," WildRose corrected.
"What?" Sangria glared at her with fury sparking in her dark eyes.
"'All those long nights in prison', not 'all those nights in jail'." WildRose shrugged as best she could. "I figure you sound like you've been rehearsing this for months, the least I can do is help you get it right."
"Oh, you're a talker," Sangria purred out, her glare becoming triumphant as she leaned in closer. WildRose leaned back as far as she could, but Adventure Girl's grip was stronger than iron. "I guess I'm just going to have to shut. You. Up." She puckered her lips, her 'special' lipstick glistening in the moonlight.
WildRose almost ended it right there. She wasn't just trash-talking when she said Sangria had a glass jaw; when WildRose snapped her head forward as hard as she could into Sangria's skull, she thought from the way Sangria's legs wobbled under her as she staggered backwards that she really might have taken the other woman out. But her aim must have been thrown off a little by the way Sangria tilted her head to kiss, because she looked up at WildRose after a moment with an expression of mingled pain and fury and a right eye that was already starting to swell into a shiner. WildRose felt obscurely proud of that. She might not get away from this, but she sure as hell was going to leave some reminders of how hard she fought.
"Adventure Girl!" she snapped out. "Hold her head. Make sure she can't do that again." WildRose tried to struggle as Adventure Girl shifted position to hold both her wrists with one slim hand, but nobody would have been able to tell just by looking. Adventure Girl's arm didn't even tremble. Her fingers didn't even strain. She just reached down with the other hand, grabbed WildRose at the base of the neck, and held her gently but firmly with a grip that could bend steel.
Sangria stepped gingerly back over to her now truly helpless foe. "I tried to be gentle," she said. "I wanted your first time to be something magical. But if this is how it has to be..." She leaned in again, and this time, WildRose couldn't stop Sangria's kiss.
She felt an electric tingle of sheer pleasure when their lips met, a current of bliss that felt all out of proportion to the delicate contact. It felt like her lips had suddenly grown a billion extra nerves, and every single one of them was alive with pleasure in a way she'd never felt before. She strained against Adventure Girl's grasp again, but this time it was because she wanted to lean further into that kiss, wanted to press her lips as hard as she possibly could against Sangria's achingly wonderful mouth. She couldn't stand the thought of even a tiny fraction of an inch of Sangria's lips not touching her own. Not when it felt this good...
Sangria finally broke the kiss and leaned back, watching WildRose pant and shudder for a moment. WildRose flushed angrily as she realized that for all the pride she took in her indomitable will, Sangria was the one to pull away. She tried to tell herself that Adventure Girl had been holding her in place, but deep down, she knew the truth. Even without the hand on her neck, WildRose would never have been able to pull away from those lips. She felt embarrassingly relieved that Adventure Girl had taken the link with Sharpe out of her ear and crushed it between her fingers.
And Sangria knew it. WildRose saw it on her face, as Sangria said, "Was that good, pet? Do you want more?" She brushed her fingers possessively along WildRose's cheek.
WildRose bit her lip as hard as she could, feeling a trickle of blood mingle with the sweet taste of Sangria's lipstick. It was the only way she could stop herself from saying 'yes'.
