The package should be arriving soon.

With Sincerity,
Spongebob

Cipher blinked, reading the message on her phone again. It was a dinky little phone but it did it's job well enough. But... Did Henry really have to call the poor boy a 'package'? ...And Spongebob? Sighing, she got up from her bed and walked over to the little kitchenette to stir her soup again.

Henry Smith was an interesting individual to say the least. He, out of all of the members, was the most relaxed. He enjoyed jokes and pranks and other forms of entertainment. She couldn't really wrap her head around that sort of thinking in this line of work. Though, Henry did scare her quite a bit. He smiled far too much and when he got serious people would run like mad to get anywhere that wasn't near him.

Cipher smiled as the warm scent of beef and vegetable soup wafted from the pot. She leaned over and turned the dial, turning off the stove before reaching for a bowl. Soon, she was seated at her dining table, blowing the steam off of her soup. There was quite a bit of soup because a, she didn't know how much Michel would want to eat and b, left overs were always nice. It just meant she wouldn't have to cook again for a few days. If he had a problem with that, he'd just have to deal with it. If he was going to live in her space, he'd have to live with the food she gave him.

She sat, eating the soup in silence, leaning on her hand lazily, her black hair falling limply onto her face. Irritated, she blew up, hoping to get the stray strand to fly back up but it only served to make more hair fall onto her face. With a groan, she sat up fully and ran her fingers through her hair, pulling the hairs back into their place.

She jumped when she felt the buzz of her phone once again and looked down to see another message.

The package has been delivered. Don't be too mean to him. ~

With LOVE,
Your Secret Admirer

...

Letting out another irritated sigh, Cipher went back to eating her soup, content to simply wait for the boy to knock at her door. It was Viper's building and she had the top suite, the biggest of them and she'd earned it too. She certainly had the scars to prove it. Room 21D... Cipher smile once again. Room 21D was home, the closest thing she'd had to one, anyway.

Michel tugged at his collar, he'd rather wear a t-shirt like always but... somehow that didn't seem like an option. He had to admit it was a nice suit, black jacket and tie, with shoes to match, probably worth some cash if he knew such things. Over his shoulder slung a purple duffle bag quite frankly contrasted poorly against the black of his clothes. Looking back to that morning, with the suit and bag appearing in his hotel room over night with no explanation beyond a small note, Dress Smart, had to be the work of his brother, straight to the point like that.

The rookie stepped onto the glass elevator, the Venom building was quite nice honestly didn't expect a group of hired killers to have such a nice set up, looked so normal as well, if he didn't know any better he'd assume to be any other high rise. The receptionist scrawled the room number on a scrap of paper, 21D, top room if he understood right, which wasn't a bad thing by any means. No one has told him much about his roommate and partner/mentor other then her alias of Cipher, and uh well the fact its a she. Michel was used to this type of thing anyway, came a lot with family matters, this for sure being one, he still couldn't grasp why father wanted him to work with Venom in the first place.

*DING*

Top floor, and down the hall was it, 21D, his home for the foreseeable future. Michel stood in front of the door as if unsure for a moment, until he gave himself a mental shake and landed a few heavy pounds, just to make sure she wouldn't miss him.

"Uh yeah, I was told to come here, anyone home?"

Pretty weak introduction really... but what would he say anyway? Hell could also be possible he got the wrong room, wouldn't that be a great way to start day zero.

"Uh yeah, I was told to come here, anyone home?"

A smile appeared on Cipher's face as she lowered the spoon back into her bowl and turned to the door. She didn't like having to deal with this brat but at the same time, new blood was always amusing. She just wished it didn't have to be her. She knew the other 'agents' were mocking her behind her back. She'd just love for them to do so in her face, they'd leave without tongues.

Getting up, Cipher walked over to the door, her smile faded. A rough hand at the doorknob, she turned it and pulled it back, revealing a well dressed young man with slightly disheveled hair. Then again, that was the style now-a-days. Cipher, herself, was dressed in all black, black pants combined with a tight black t-shirt. Shoes were something she scoffed at, preferring to walk around barefoot.

She glared at the boy for a moment before turning back to her soup. She sat down, and looked up at the boy. "Get some soup." She commanded, gesturing with her head towards the kitchen where a pot of hot soup sat, a bowl and spoon nearby. Without another word, Cipher continued to eat her food.

Cipher was a some kind of character for sure, at least from his initial look, plus clearly she had the whole hardened assassin look going, even little dangerous although that probably was the point. She had a good dark theme with nothing but black... and no shoes, uh a strange choice to put it lightly, Michel briefly, really just a mere flash, entertained the image of Cipher as a female John McClane, maybe without all those shards of glass and blood.

Another thing he could say about the veteran is she didn't seem to be a people's person, seeing as she didn't even bother with a proper introduction before plopping down in a nearby table set, good news is she did offer him some soup, which nice, he guessed.

"Alright, thanks then some food is great."

Michel ventured further into the suite, the ugly purple bag was tossed into a corner it felt good to relive his shoulder of the considerably heavy weight. Before he forgot Michel made sure to close the door behind him, privacy is preferable of course. The area was about as nice as the entire building, furnished well and if he were to guess it had to have a pretty hefty price tag attached. The pot sat on the stove as expected, along side the empty bowl and spoon. Vegetable and beef wasn't a bad combination, maybe uninspired but good none the less.

With piping hot beef stew in hand Michel took his place across from the woman, again she didn't seem keen on talking, so with that in mind Michel decided just eating was a good idea, no telling what kind of person she really is just yet.

He's so... soft. I need to toughen him up somehow. I doubt he'll deal with killing someone very well...

The two ate in silence, Cipher's way of testing his patience. When she was done with her food, she got up and walked over to the sink, washing the bowl immediately. She had a cold expression on her face, blank and uncaring. She placed the now clean bowl on the drying rack and then walked into the living area, taking a seat on the couch.

A few moments later, the TV screen blipped on to the news and Cipher sat for a moment, simply watching and thinking. She had to find ways to toughen him up, get him into the mindset he needed to be in. This wasn't a nice job and he seemed like an idealist. That would be beaten out of him soon enough. He hadn't even gone through initiation yet. That would be interesting. Part of her wanted to protect him but the other part of her knew that he needed to experience it himself or he might die out there in a real fight. Things weren't always so cut and dry in their world.

"How is it?" She asked with a monotone voice, not looking at the boy. "Don't forget to clean up after yourself. I'm not your mother." She continued, sighing as she stared at the TV screen.

Such a ray of sunshine, Cipher was likely not known for cheery demeanor, cold as ice and, if he were to guess, stung like it too. Michel had to admit the soup wasn't half bad, needless to say he had far better stew before, but in the world of culinary arts the assassin didn't rank all that poorly. Soon the bowl was cleaned of its brothy goodness, he followed suit in washing it off in the sink, by the way nice facet, the more time he spend here the more it was becoming clear that Venom had some real bank roll going, now the question is how much of it was paid in blood... na he shouldn't worry about that, its business right?

"Real good food, compliments to the chef! And uh, don't worry about the bowl, clean as clean can get." Maybe trying to purposely improve the atmosphere would do some good, for the both of them.

For a good minute Michel stood around not too unsure of what to do, not like he bothered to plan anything for the day, nor did Cipher seemed to have anything for him to do, just busy watching the news. Finally he decided that a jump start on unpacking was in order. He crouched over the hideous bag, who decided this was a good color anyway? With a single zip he got right into retrieving his items, for now he just stacked them besides himself. A money bundle, undoubtedly from his brother, papers, mostly to get him residency nothing too exciting, and his choice of clothing, thankfully. Turned out he didn't pack all that much, however at the bottom of the bag he found a small surprise, a handgun.

Michel was confused momentarily, before remembering again that his bother was the one who arranged all this, the weapon was even loaded... was it even safe to do that? He took the gun tightly by the grip, trying his best not to touch the trigger last thing he needs to do was shoot to himself in the foot, or something stupid like that. In his hand, Michel lightly bounced it, trying to get a feel for its weight, still heavy as he expected maybe heavier, this was nothing like the firing range, not at all. Careful moments of consideration passed, in the end Michel engaged the safety, although he didn't unload it, felt like something an assassin would do, to keep a weapon at all times. The gun fit snugly in his inner suit pocket, good, well he thought, kept out of sight but at least still within reach.

He stood up from his crouch, once he knew where he'll be sleeping he could put all of his belonging away properly. He sat back down at the table, honestly he was tying to keep some distance from the black clad woman, allies or not she gave off bad vibes. Michel sat in silence as he took in the news media.

"9mm?" Cipher asked, turning her head around to look at Michel. She'd heard the sounds of the gun being messed with behind her and from the sounds of it, it wasn't too bad of a gun. "What brand is it?" She asked, fully turned at this point, the news no longer her point of interest.

"A good gun can go a long way." She told him, finally cracking a small smile. She didn't know whether the kid had packed the gun himself or if someone had packed it for him but she was glad for it regardless.

"By the way, your room is down that corridor to the left. There's a bathroom on the other side of the hall for you. And if you need me and I'm not out here, my room is at the end of that hallway. Just... whistle something as you come down. I like to know when people are coming." She explained over the sounds of the TV. "And thanks for the compliments but it was just stew. I don't do ass kissing." She told him, chuckling to herself.

"I'd suggest you get unpacked as soon as you can because we'll be leaving for your first assignment here in a few. You'll need to pack a few things for it but I'll get most of it handled for you anyway. And..." She broke off, glancing at the purple bag "I'll get you a new bag. That purple is starting to make my head hurt a little bit."

With that, Cipher got up off the couch and walked into a separate room, the prep room, or at least what she'd made into a prep room. It was directly opposite the front entrance and was joined with the living room. Walking over, she opened the sliding closet door and pulled out two black bags, one for herself and one for Michel. She set the bags on a nearby set up table and walked back to the closet to get the rest of the supplies. In this closet were a plethora of medical supplies, enough to supply a small army. She packed two bags with the required amount of medical supplies. She wouldn't need any, but Michel could probably use all he could get. Then, she turned to see if he had finished unpacking by the time she'd completed this task.

Not seeing him in the living room anymore, she sauntered over to the hallway and called out, "How's it going, princess?"

"What... ok? Yeah sure, uh... its just a Glock, not too sure what series but, yeah its good enough, heh at least in my hands."

Ok... well the sudden mood change from Cipher took him by surprise, really really took him by surprise, what's that old saying, don't judge a book by its cover? Listening to her carefully Michel mapped the rough layout of the home in his mind, it made sense not that he expected to get lost anyway. Whatever the case is Michel wasted no time, idle hands were something he didn't want to take part in. Cipher made her way into another room to do something, probably to prepare for whatever job she was talking about. While she was doing that he gathered up his meager personal articles.

His room was expected was bare, a bed, closet, oh and a fancy lamp, neat. It didn't take too long to hand his shirts, to fold his pants, to put his cash somewhere safe, and ended up throwing the papers on a side table, there will be time to sort it out later. Once he finished, and yeah that took no time at all, Michel milled around his room passing time he'd guess. Cipher called out to him from the hallway, and well he tried his best to ignore the "princess" comment, such is life of a rookie assassin in training.

"Settled in, mostly, I'll be with you in a sec, yeah?"

True to his word Michel met with her in the hallway, quickly he noticed the new bags, black again but much, so much better then that horrible purple thinking of which he vowed to burn the abomination one day...

"Right, well... now what?

"Now comes the fun part." She told him with a smirk. Motioning for him to follow her, Cipher walked back to the prep room and opened up the second and third closets which all contained weapons of varying degrees. "This is mostly just so you know where it is in the event of an emergency. Don't touch any of it unless you either have permission or in the event of an emergency." She explained.

Smiling, she reached down at the bottom of the closet and pulled out a bottle of nail polish. "This is something of my own design. Ever seen the movie Holes? Remember that one chick that had the poison nail polish?" She asked, watching for a reaction, "I decided to try my hand at making my own. I haven't tried it out just yet but I'm excited to see it in action." She chuckled before putting the small black bottle back into the closet.

"Anyway, we'll need some of these." She told him, reaching over, making light contact with the boy's chest with her shoulder and picked up three black rods. Straightening back up, she pulled one of them out of the bundle with one hand and clicked a button on the side. The black rod grew about 5 feet into a rather menacing looking staff. "Don't ask why, just know we need them." She told him, her expression cold once again as she stuffed them into the boy's bag. They were each about 10 or 15 pounds. Carrying the bag would be training enough for him. Taking the bag, she held it out for him to take. Her muscles were strained just slightly show the amount of effort it took for her to hold the bag with one hand. Still, she seemed to make it look effortless.

"Time to go, princess." She told him, grinning once again.

At this point Michel was conflicted what to think about her, na he wouldn't say she's bipolar, no nothing like that, but she did seem to have a habit of seesawing moods, kinda freaky. Also... Cipher here was starting to scare him, who goes out to make posion nail polish from some movie? Well seemed that she had some sort of training regiment in mind, that's cool. He took the bag, and man that thing was heavy, with a grunt he shouldered the hefty load, of course he didn't dare to complain, matter of pride and... that just made out to be a horrible idea, mostly that honestly.

"Lead the way, boss."

Nodding, Cipher walked past Michel, headed for the door. She stopped at the door and began to slowly bang her head against the door. A small grunt escaped her lips. "I forgot my goddamn shoes!" She shouted, throwing up her arms in frustration. Sighing, she walked over to the couch and pulled her boots out from under the coffee table and pulled the socks out of them.

"Just a moment, Princess. Even us professionals forget things from time to time." She explained, as she pulled on the black socks and pulled the long black boots onto her feet. Tying them up, she stood and tapped her toes to get everything settled. With a smile, she walked back to the door.

"Second time's the char-" Cipher stopped and her face dropped for a moment. Making another quick 180 and stomped over to the dining room table to grab her phone. Shoving the piece of crap into her pocket, she walked to the door once again, walking past Michel. "Not. A. Word." She barked, heading out the door. The door would lock automatically behind them so she wasn't too worried about the kid leaving it unlocked. The man downstairs had seen her leave and was already prepared to hit the button to put her suite on lockdown while she was gone.

She sort of felt sorry for him. Who wants to be the guy that sits around all day watching people enter and exit and hit buttons when they leave? Still, he got paid enough for it. Walking over to the door that read, "Stairs", Cipher opened them up and motioned for Michel to go before her.

"Never take the elevator. Always take the stairs. It's a small help, but it'll help build your stamina and leg muscles if only by a small amount. If I catch wind of you taking the elevator... Well... You can use your imagination." She explained, her expression cold once again.

More and more to learn about Cipher the assassin it looked like, not scattered brained plenty of people forget things all the time, including himself... yeah oh he's in the same boat for sure. No he would pin that more on disorganization, maybe combined with just a little forgetfulness. When the pair left 12D Michel took a moment to straighten his tie and tugged at his wrist cuffs, presentation was a family thing, always had to keep neat in public, even the times it gets tiresome.

To the stairs it seemed and his mentor insisted on him only using them, which was not too much of a problem, after all he had to be in relatively good shape to have even considered coming out in the first place, heh assuming there was a choice. Michel simply nodded his understanding and took to the stairwell, while walking down alongside Cipher he had to admit the seemingly effortless activity perhaps wasn't as easy as he thought, good news is he didn't end up in a weezing pile of failure when they reached the bottom, its the small things in life. They rounded the corner and found their way into the main lobby, seeing as he had no idea where to go, Michel of course turned to his partner expectantly waiting for her direction.

Cipher silently followed behind Michel, taking mental notes on his overall demeanor. He was indeed still a kid deep down but she saw potential in him. Though, she'd have to get to know him a bit better to make any solid claims about his future in the business. Obviously, his father had high hopes, or was stupid. Either way.

When Michel stopped, Cipher kept going, stopping just beside him to look him in the eye. "Never let anyone walk behind him you. I, if I were an enemy, could have easily taken you out in that stairwell. Lucky for you, I'm on your side." She told him sternly, smiling at the end. "Next time someone tells you to go before them, kindly insist that they go before you. Just don't make a scene of it." She explained further before walking out into the lobby.

Walking past the counter, she reached out her hands to grab the keys that were tossed her way by the foreman. Without another beat, she was out the door and walking down to the garage, an underground area where all the vehicles were kept. Cipher carefully fiddled with the keys, looking for the car number.

"Look for car number 7. It seems to be what we've gotten stuck with for today." She called out to Michel, her eyes now scanning the area for the aforementioned car. "The number refers to the first number of the license plate. Shouldn't be terribly hard to find." As she said this however, Cipher stopped actively looking, simply pretending. She wanted the boy to find the car. She'd already located it in the corner of the garage, but she wanted to see how long it would take him.

Cipher was starting to come across lot more friendly than what Michel first assumed, still a bit off, but better. When they entered the garage he was taken back at the quantity and quality of the cars, some high end vehicles and of course another example of Venom's sheer wealth. As Cipher said they were assigned number 7, a lucky number so that was a good omen. He had to admit labeling a car on just its license plate was pretty clever, something so ordinary no one would think of a thing. He waited a moment before realizing his partner in crime wasn't making a move, it dawned upon him what she was doing, he for sure wasn't dense enough not to notice.

"Yeah I got you, making the new guy do the work. This will only take a sec, nothing big."

From their position he could clearly see all the plates, probably was on purpose just to make finding a car easier, after all an assassin lost in a parking garage wasn't the most desirable thing to happen. 15 of them in all, already he could forget about any that didn't start with a number, looking over them quickly he actually found two cars that could be it, the one way off in the back, and the other on the corner with a straight shot to the exit. Michel didn't have to rationalize this conundrum for any time, efficiency was obviously pretty important in this group, less time spent pulling out the better, right?

He turned around already pointing out his choice, "Its that one right? Lisense plate matches after all."

"Hurray! We have a winner! Give this princess a gold medal." Cipher shouted, grinning. Chuckling, she walked over towards the car, passing Michel. As she did, she passed him the keys. "Show me your skills. Get us to 4th and Gray in under 15 minutes." She commanded, already at the car and hoping in. They didn't lock any of the doors to these cars as most of them were replaceable and didn't contain any valuable information in them.

Plus, Henry had a thing for buying new cars, an addiction one would say. Regardless, Cipher was interested to see the boys driving skills. She didn't much care that he'd caught on to her testing him. The only problem was it changed what he did. People often change the way they do things when they know someone is watching.

"And it's not so much that I was making you do the work, so much as I already knew. I just wanted you to get the feel of how things work on your own. After all, you'll have to do stuff like this without me by your side eventually. And... I think people learn better by doing." She explained through the open window. With that said, she waited for him to hop in and start the car. "And... I hope you know where 4th and Gray is, cause I'm not tellin'." She finished under her breath, a small smirk on her lips.

Yeah, testing him sounded about right, and not unexpected besides part of him thought Cipher was having some fun with this, so funny he forgot to laugh even. Right, so was this a driving test... or something different, New York traffic is infamous around the world for sure, there's a reason lots of people don't bother owning a car, too much to keep it without the justified use. Another problem is while Michel has been to the city plenty of times its not like he knew the streets inside and out, well guess it was time to wing it, following 4th was his best bet they will have to run into the right place eventually.

"Ok, I'll be your driver then, just sit back and relax yeah? I can get us there soon enough boss."

In the car, engine on, and time to fly. Michel by no means was a professional wheelman, but he's been driving for long enough to be a decent one, easily more then capable of parallel parking. Now out of the garage into the street before the Venom highrise, Michel kept a firm grip on the wheel, focused on the road and not much else. First was to get on 4th, the easy part, beyond that who could tell?

Getting through traffic, well everywhere wasn't so much about driving fast, or choosing weird routes, its all about reading the road to figure out how every other car out there will react, there's a pattern to it all. This is just what Michel kept in mind as they cruised along, that day there was not any true grid lock, thank God right? Careful to merge only when necessary, avoiding tricky intersections with lights, and many other small tricks to save time were used by Michel.

"So... we haven't got a proper introduction yet and uh while we're just driving along here why don't we do a chat a little bit?"

He eventually dared to cease purely concentrating on traffic, enough to hopefully stoke up some kind of conversation, a quite car ride can get too empty after all.

Cipher chuckled a bit shaking her head at the boss comment. When he asked for a proper introduction, Cipher took this as her chance to get him to stop calling her boss.

"Well, first, you can stop calling me boss. They call me Cipher, you're welcome to do the same." She started. By now, she'd gotten comfortable in the car and had her feet propped up on the dash and the window rolled down just enough to give her a fresh breeze. "I know your name is Michel, but is there anything reasonable you'd prefer I call you? Other than princess?" She asked, chuckling slightly. "If it bothers you too much, I'll stop. I'm not one for bullying." She explained.

"What do you want us to talk about anyway? I'm not one for heart-warming conversations as you can probably tell." She asked.

"Sure, I can go with Cipher, but boss rolls of the tongue you know?"

She looked like she was getting comfy, and not at all concerned about scratching the dashboard of the pretty costly car, although if Venom wanted they could probably replace the whole thing no problem, "I don't have a nickname, either stick to Michel or Parish, I wouldn't complain. Oh uh, don't worry a little bullying I have thick enough skin, heh I'd even say princess isn't the worse I've gotten."

Right hand turn onto 4th street, and where he really needed to start paying attention. With luck he won't do anything stupid and miss their stop, Grey is what she said right?

"Anyway I don't expect anything sappy, just doesn't happen that way, yeah? Na just figured some casual conversation wouldn't hurt. Uh, by the way, where did 'Cipher' come from, I don't buy that its written on your birth certificate."

Cipher listened to him with mild amusement, watching him with cold hazel eyes. Chuckling at the princess bit, she replied, "Good, good. Princess, it is." She watched as streets passed by. He probably wasn't going to make it to their destination at this pace, he needed to be going much faster. At best, they'd get there at the 20 minute mark. Then again, it was probably best that they didn't speed. He was doing his best.

She turned when he asked about her name. "Aren't you the bright one?" She commented, a smirk on her face. It faded as she continued, "You're right. Venom gave me the name. Henry says it's because I've gone through so many missions without anyone having ever known I was there." She began, looking out the window once again. "Cipher is a term that means 'zero.' Probably as close to 'nothing' as one can get. Pretty cliche for our particular business, but all the same. I was just happy to not be called by my birth name. I seem much more menacing when you have to call me Cipher, yeah?" She asked him, chuckling.

"I'm sure you'll get your own one day. Though, I'd try to come up with something other than princess, it might end up sticking and god knows how embarrassing that would be." She teased, winking at him. Once done answering his question, however, she looked back out at the world passing by them again. She wasn't one for asking questions of folks. She knew that where one question was asked, another could be asked of her and people thought the information was due them. Cipher couldn't care less what she owed them, or about their personal life.

Huh his own nickname, wouldn't that be the day, course anything but princess would be great not that he'd say as much the less he talked about the name the less likely it could stick, hopefully.

"Well, you can't deny that princess can make for great misdirection, a misleading name for a future assassin, man no one would expect a thing." Michel tried his hand at joking more. Michel waited for a little bit, giving a chance for Cipher to ask anything, however she didn't seem to be too eager to continue talking, maybe content enough to stare out the car window. Perhaps five minutes later, he'd already came to realize that they've gone overtime, good news is Cipher didn't raise any objections, ah probably expected running late anyway, or could it be that she was silently judging him...

Moving along the street, Michel of course was still intent on finding the right street sign as he assumed, that is until on the left something caught his eye. A quick glance showed that it maybe was a bank, Gray's Financing and Banking, had to be a small local bank well small being objective, it actually was quite large just not some of the monstrosities that are present in major cites like New York. Whatever the case was, that might have just been it again clever use of words on Venom's part, not being a street name but the actual location. Michel decided that if he was wrong he'll only be chastised then, preferably, pointed in the right direction.

The small, stylish car smoothly drifted into a parking space on the other side from the bank. "I got a feeling this is it, 4th and Gray right?"