14733/Budapest Bath Time

Budapest Bath Time
Date of Scene:	21 April 2023
Location:	Gellert Spa and Hotel - Budapest
Synopsis:	Elektra and Barbara end up fighting some killers in a spa that was rented for their relaxation! No rest for the wicked!
Cast of Characters:	Barbara Gordon, Elektra Natchios

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Barbara Gordon has posed:
The Gellert Baths spa in Budapest is an iconic wellness facility located within the stunning Art Nouveau Gellert Hotel. Founded in 1918, the spa is steeped in history and is renowned for its thermal baths and magnificent architecture.

And today, it's been entirely, and completely, rented out by Barbara Gordon.

As Babs and Elektra were treated to all the amenities that the spa had to offer today, they now find themselves inside the famous pool chamber, featuring colorful mosaics, intricate tilework, and elegant marble columns. The spa's centerpiece is the thermal pool, filled with naturally hot mineral water that is believed to have therapeutic properties. The pool is surrounded by a stunning arched gallery, complete with skylights that allow natural light to filter in.

The water breaks, and the redhead Barbara Gordon peaks out from beneath the warm flowing waves of the pool's water-in-motion. Dressed in a black and gold bikini swimsuit, Babs' hands rise up to stroke through her wet hair, and push it back over her head as she surfaces, and begins to ascend one of the pool's set of steps, water sheeting off of her mostly exposed body, a body honed by exercise that she's only rarely shown off to anyone. Babs is a bet of a recluse, and rarely does she spend time around anyone except her closest friends and family, which is partly why she splurged today on renting the famous spa out for just she and Elektra...

They have a big fight coming up, and they both know it. A little spoiling before what could be very bad, is just a necessity... and as Babs had said when she'd told Elektra that it was all theirs for the day...

"Why make money, if you're not going to spend it."

Elektra Natchios has posed:
Live fast, live hard. No regrets. All good words to define some of the outlook that Elektra had about the world and life itself. For that was the only way to survive when you didn't know if you'd live to see the morning. Day after day. Easier said than done where it came to regrets but their life was anything but easy.

Maybe that's why when Barbara had suggested going to the spa Elektra had laughed, "So that's what you have been doing all morning on that computer of yours." she teases. And now she was imagining how Barbara had scouted out the whole place, including security, before even pondering on renting it up.

Yet thinking had given place to doing when they finally went there. And truth be told Elektra was impressed with the space. Spacious, with the art nouveau look she enjoyed, "Truer words have never been said." this about the comment on spending money.

She is sitting by the edge of the pool, only her feet under water and her lean, trained body showing, only a dark red bikini covering some parts. A life of killing can be visible on the tanned body. Mostly with nicks, or a scar here or there that has faded with time. All the times she got close to dying. Eyes are covered by a pair of shades and she is running one hand through her hair, stretching almost like a cat before her focus finally rests on Barbara's toned body.

Shades are put aside, revealing those dark eyes as she continues to look at the other woman, "Have you been to a spa before?"

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Surprisingly, for all her Gotham City exploits Babs' form is mostly devoid of battle wounds... save for the one in the middle of her back, currently slightly obscured by the dangling strings of her swimsuit.

Barbara is up out of the pool and walking along its edge as her eyes go over to Elektra seated on the edge. The question has her show a light smile.

"Some of my rehab after the paralyzation was in a spa back in Gotham." She explains as she gathers up the drinks that were brought in a few moments ago by one of the spa attendees.

"Though I don't know if that counts or not?" She questions, appearing beside Elektra, lowering herself down to sit beside the other woman, offering her the drink she'd ordered before taking a sip from her own. Her red hair plastered down behind her head, her skin still glistening with the warm pool's waters, Babs lowers the drink glass and looks over to the other just beside her now. "Nothing like this though. I didn't start making the kind of money that gets you in a place like this until... just a year ago or so." She draws in a breath then, her body rising from it as she contentedly releases it again...

"I might not ever look back either." She announces, following that with a light laugh.

Elektra Natchios has posed:
Slightly obscured wound but one that Elektra had seen more openly already. But then again she also knew the story, or part of it at least. Eyes trail after Babs as she walks alongside the edge.

"We will have it count." She announces grandly as if she was a ruler passing an edict though there's a touch of a teasing grin to that exotic expression of hers. The drink is welcomed and she takes a good drink from it. This wasn't a day for sips. Not for Elektra at least, "Only a year? I will say you have done well for yourself. Even if I do need to drag you out more to have some fun.." though Elektra doesn't mention on how it was Barbara that dragged her out today instead!

Those last words bring a prompt response out of Elektra, "Never look back. That's how we should live." fingertips reach to brush some red hair from the Barbara's face before she finally gets up to her feet.

And then dives into the pool with an elegant splash.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Another little laugh comes from Barbara then. She nods her head two small times. "Between the green energy game, and the costs of owning the Clocktower... you'd be surprised how much revenue gets eaten up." She smirks at this, the 'woes' of what she has to invest her money in to keep her weird life afloat.

She's watching Elektra taking that big drink too, and she follows it with one of her own, before the other is kindly sweeping some of her wet red hair back from her glistening pale skin.

"I really haven't done a lot in life, I don't think anyway. I'd say this is my biggest trip abraod in fact too."

She's setting her drink down on the pool's edge, and leaning back on her hands, with her feet in the water gently kicking the warm waves as they roll across her skin. She watches Elektra stand up, she watches her prepare, and then make her graceful dive... a smile playing across her pink lips.

She eyes the other woman sweep through the water beneath its surface, before she inevitably comes back up, and her eyes sweep slowly around the famous pool room. "This place is amazing. If I'd known we were going to do this, I might have brought others from the Birds along for it... Next time, maybe." She says, still smiling as she leans back on her hands and keeps kicking her feet in the water, raising her right foot up out of its warm embrace to wiggle toes in Elektra's direction.

Elektra Natchios has posed:
The bath waters feel warm, cozy. Therapeutic. It's indeed the capital of spas for this wasn't the first spa Elektra had been on and this one had the kind of quality she had rarely seen about. She eventually comes back up to the surface, midnight black hair clinging to her head and back as she runs her hands back through it, water trailing down her tanned body and she letting out an appreciative 'mmmm', "There's a whole big world to visit, Barbara. That this is your biggest trip so far is borderline criminal. But nothing that can't be solved."

Elegant hands pool together and she brings water up to her neck, letting it slowly drip down her body, "I can suggest you some places to visit in Japan." she offers, re-opening her eyes to look at Barbara again, her own expression somewhat more relaxed. At least in comparison to the nervousness that was evident last few days. The trip to Budapest. The deal with Lucien. It had all taken a toll. And now they were closer than ever to finding Selene.

The suggestion she should bring the Birds next time brings a bittersweet smile out of Barbara, "Next time." she agrees. Even if her smile fades just a smidge. Perhaps she isn't too sure on the survival rate of the coming mission. "You know you can step down any time you want, right? You have no obligation towards me." she makes her way back to the pool side though she is still in the pool, some of her smile returning at Barbara wiggling those toes her way.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
The foot is dipped back underneath the surface of the water and Babs sits forward once more, her hands going to the sides of the pool on either sides of her exposed thighs. She stares at the other woman, showing a faint smile to her, and a gentle shake of her head... "I'm not gonna leave you to them." She tells her. "I get the sense that most of the people who've had around you, would be far more willing to leave your side when things got hard. But I'm not one of those people. I've been with you on this since I stumbled in to it, but what you've shown me is a serious situation that has serious implications, if it's not seen through. I don't know your friend... Selene, but if you believe in her, then I believe in her too. If they're harming her, or willing to harm others in the same way... then these are people that need to be stopped all together. Besides... they brought this to /my/ city, and I'm not gonna just hang around and watch them get away with it without reprecusions."

Barbara reaches for her drink again, raising it up toward her lips. "Besides..." She says softly before indulging in a sip. "We're so close, I can feel it... we're on to them, they're running out of room to stop us."

Elektra may hear all of this, may be taking in Babs' words of devotion, but over Barbara's shouldr, down an adjacement hallway, a pair of men in black creep through the shadows, and one of them is raising up a rifle aimed in their direction... apparently Babs has a thing for people trying to shoot her from behind...

Elektra Natchios has posed:
"I have always worked solo." Elektra admits, coming to rest next to the woman, against the edge, elbows back behind her and head turned so she can be looking at the woman next to her, intense gaze resting on her. "It was ingrained in me since a young age that I could not trust anyone. Not even the ones that were supposed to teach me." there's a brief frown that crosses her expression at memories of the past but she dispels them quickly.

"But then there was Matthew." Who is Matthew?! "Eventually Selene.." a beat, ".. and now you. We work well together, Barbara. In fact we do a lot more than just working well together."

Proven time and time again against the lycans and vampires!

She turns to Barbara now, taking another drink from her glass, draining it, before setting it aside. She moves to be right in front of Barbara, hands on the ledge on each side of the woman, gaze warmer. Leaning closer. "So let me...." and Elektra never finishes that sentence, noting the glint in the rifle. Body tenses up all of a sudden as her honed instincts come to life.

"Down!" She hisses, she sweeping one arm as she tries to get Barbara out of harms way.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
It had been a nice moment, Barbara enjoyed Elektra's company quite a lot even if she knew very little about the woman's past beyond what her initial 'looking in to her' had revealed. For Babs, at least in the now, it was more about what Elektra had done while they were working together. Were there ghosts in her dark corners? Maybe, it wouldn't surprise Babs' one bit, but she didn't care about that for all the reasons she'd just said moments ago.

She was just smiling at the woman in the water standing in front of her knees, leaning forward some to greet her upon the other getting closer with her intentions becoming more clear. A smile spreads across Babs' expression, but that tingling sensation you sometimes get mere moments before things go badly comes, along with the expression change that falls across Elektra's dusky features right before she shouts...

Babs doesn't look back, she hears the shout after seeing her friend's face look past her over her shoulder... danger behind her... danger like she never wanted to experience again.

Barbara drops in to the water, and pulls Elektra down with her! The two go beneath the surface of the water just as bullets pepper the pool's surface where the women had been! Most of the bullets hit water, cascading bursts of the clear fluid in all directions, but some hit the ground where Babs' backside had been planted seconds previously!

Beneath the water, Barbara holds on to Elektra, up close, her back pressed to the pool's wall. She stares eye to eye with the other woman, her green pupils difused by the blue of the pool's water, her red hair flowing gracefully around her head now, with bubbles rolling out from between her lips and out of her nostrils....

Back above the water, the two men argue in a local language, one of them reloading his rifle. They're arguing with one saying 'Lets go!' The other saying 'We came here to kill them, not scare them!'

Elektra Natchios has posed:
The two women fall underwater, the hissing sounds of bullets peppering the area they had been moments ago still heard before they are fully underneath. Bullets continue to spray all around the water above them and all the while Elektra's gaze remains on Barbara's green ones.

And damn it all if some assassins will stop her from doing what she meant to do.

She leans forward, devil may care glint to her eye as her lips meet Barbara's, kissing her in a moment of passion. The rush of adrenaline at the assault on their lives seems to amp Elektra's own feelings, she staying close, savoring the other woman's lips.

The bullets eventually stop. And Elektra knows these aren't full professionals. They wouldn't had wasted the full clip if they were so. She leans back from the kiss with a grin as if she had just gotten away with murder. And points left. She will take the one on the left.

The next moment she is rushing out of the water, fast as lightning..

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Babs had her back pressed up against the beautiful pool's wall, her eyes on Elektra's when the kiss comes. She shares in it, isn't remotely against it. Is it given because they're doomed here? Is it given because Elektra thinks this might be their last seconds on this planet, and that they might as well go out with a bang?

Or is it a good luck kiss, a gesture of 'Here we go' mixed in with the first option?

Who's to say, they're under water, and it isn't like they can share thoughts on it right now!

When Elektra mimes a response after the kiss is shared, Babs just nods her head, and sweeps herself around with her legs propelling her beneath the water...

Up on the pool's surface level, the two men stalk toward the edge of the water, one of them checking their gun while they both end up raising them to pepper the women within the pool...

Only there's one thing the men are missing....

Barbara's phone is sitting on a lounge chair just a few feet away, with a little series of windows processing the information that the phone took in. Gunfire. Gunfire means Barbara is in trouble, and her Oracle A.I. system is actively monitoring this possibility. It engages a response...

Just as the men are about to reach the edge of the water, with their guns aimed down toward it... the skylight high above their heads smashes inward!

Glass rains down from above, twinkling in the afternoon sunlight, causing the men to both shoot their eyes up! They draw their guns upward as four black drones smash their way in to the pool building through its historic skylight! The drones begin rapidly descending as the two gunmen open fire on the while staggering backward on their feet!

Elektra Natchios has posed:
What had it been for indeed? Good luck? One last defiant shout against death? Not that Elektra expected that their story would end here, she had come too far to fail now.

The jump out of the water may have been a touch too impulsive, still propelled by the feeling of the kiss and the rush of aggression that follows. She knows it when she sees the two men having just finished reloading the weapons. But then they are pointing up...

Big mistake.

Elektra goes for the leg, sweeping the man on the left and making him fall to the ground. She follows it up with an arcing kick that hits the man in the sternum, pushing the air out of his lungs. A final punch to the jaw and the man falls unconscious.

Quick and effective, body still dripping water, barely clad in that bikini.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
It had been a rather timely arrival of Babs' drones that she'd put together with various parts from local, to what she brought with her. But still, it was a God send for the two women who were on the verge of becoming pin cushions for bullets! With Elektra bursting from the water first, her acrobatic leg sweep just drops that first man down hard! His gun goes out wide to the side, as Elektra is ontop of him like a beast from the wilds! A beast in a skimpy swimsuit, but still the man is staring wide eyed at the dusky hued woman as she works him over with a practiced ease!

The other man is grabbed by a hand that shoots up out of the water, latching on to his pants buckle whilst his eyes--- and gun --were both directed skyward! He looks down to the water, he screams a terrified yelp, but he's soon pulled in to the pool with a huge splash!

Beneath the water, the man finds himself being wrapped on to, around from behind, by bare arms, bare legs, and a wave of flowing red locks of hair!

Babs latches on to him, she starts choking him with all her strength in her arms, as the man starts firing his gun underwater!

Bullets fire up out of the water now, aimed up toward the skylight, which drops more glass down from above, all the while the four black drones buzz loudly in the pool room's open air, swirling in a pre programmed flight path to cause confusion... which they arguably did with 'flying' colors.

Elektra Natchios has posed:
With the weapon tossed aside and Elektra having top position it's easy pickings for the assassin to dispose of the man. Her eyes are wide with murderous intent as she punches him down. Sitting on his chest and delivering punch after punch on his face. Soon enough the man's lights turn off after a good look of the bikini clad Elektra delivering some haymakers at his face.

Yet she stops herself before she goes too far. She doesn't kill. Barbara's influence?

She slides to the side, away from the man. And just as she is closing in the pool there's shots coming from it! She jumps back from the edge to not take a stray bullet but doesn't intercede. She knows Barbara has this in the bag.

"Good job boys." she whispers up to the drones. No, she doesn't expect them to understand her!

Barbara Gordon has posed:
One of the four drones took a bullet to one of its fans, which it is trying to compensate for, but it's slowly descending out of the air toward the water.

Beneath the water, the slightly overweight man is gasping for air as bubbles pour out of his open mouth.. Barbara, behind him, had taken a fresh breath of oxygen when she'd lunged up out of the water to pull him in with her. She is deftly keeping her breath with her head just behind, and to the right of the man's own. She watches him, feels him, her muscles clenched so tightly as they both sink to the bottom of the pool. He releases his grip on the assault rifle, and it drifts down to clatter upon the floor of the swimming pool, until he and the redhead touch down upon it as well, first down on to Babs' butt, followed by him laying down atop her....

Elektra might get a little concerned that it's taking 'too long' but before she can get overly worried, Babs' head breaks the surface of the water, and she pulls the man up with her. she gasps for air, as he seems in a deep slumber.

The pair swim to the edge of the pool at Babs' direction, and she looks up to Elektra. "Here..." She states softly, the two moving to pull the water-logged killer out of the pool.

Babs is up and out of the water with ease then, her body shedding water now as she takes a moment to breathe, and relax. Her eyes look around at the two men, then up to Elektra. "Are you all right?" She asks.

The injured drone splashes down in the water then, all of its other three fan blades turning off. Man down...

Elektra Natchios has posed:
Elektra reaches out to help Barbara with the man. If she was worried? Nothing shows in her expression. She has quite the poker face when she wants to after all.

"Urgh..., you always get the heavy ones." a turn of her nose at the effort she has to do to get the man out to safety. She rolls him towards the other and then sits back on the floor, exhaling softly.

"Good thing these weren't the sharpest tools in the shed. This could had gone very badly.." hand goes up to brush on her hair, getting out of her face and she finally gets up to her feet, "I am fine." she extends one hand towards the redhead. "And you?"

"Seems we will have to cut our spa time short.."

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Babs takes the offered hand, her body still dripping quite profusely with the pool's waters. "Yeah, I didn't sign up for this part of the package deal." She dryly jests as she steps toward the man that Elektra had taken down. She spares a moment to bend down and pick up his rifle, before standing up again. She looks it over, pops the ammo out of it, then tosses it over on to the lounger where her phone was.

"Lets see if they have anything interesting on them?" She asks then, as she crouches down beside the smaller of the two, and starts to root around in his pockets. Finding a wallet, she draws it out, curiously flipping through it as her bare knees touch down on the wet floor beneath her...

She's just idly searching for anything in the wallet before she pulls out a single card, and offers it to Elektra.

It's a business card for the laboratory that they're 'going to hit' in a day and a half.

"Convenient." Babs says with a look to Elektra's face. She looks over to the hallway that the men came from, and rises back up to her feet. "See if you can find their phones, if they have any. We'll take them with us." Babs states as she pads on bare feet toward her own stuff on that lounge chair. "There might be more of them, maybe on their way in even. We should probably cut loose and get back to the hotel... maybe even change where we're sleeping tonight." She tells the other, her phone picked up to thumb over its screen.

The three remaining drones head back up through the broken skylight, buzzing loudly as they go back out in to the afternoon sky one by one... leaving the fourth in its watery grave. Babs stands up then, walking toward where Elektra is, she puts a hand on her arm and smiles softly. "It was fun while it lasted." She tells her softly then.