Note: Partner is NOT implying anything romantic!
Disclaimer: I own nothing!
In Jump City, there were four kinds of people. There were the rich people, who never wanted and complained about the weather and economy. There were the poor people, who always needed and never complained. There was the middle class, never needing but still wanting. Then there were the thieves, the criminals, the ones who sought to never need again.
Rachel Roth was one of those criminals.
Not by choice, of course, but by heritage and—when she had denied that—force. Her profits paid for online college courses, for food, for the shabby apartment she shared with her partner in crime. Her father was proud of her now, and his pride kept her safe from his wrath. Rachel was a one in a million kind of girl; she was literate, sarcastic, and very smart. She was selfless, too: she had often put her life on the line to save her partner or her teammates from an impossible situation. Rachel had never wanted to break the law, but now she couldn't imagine doing anything different.
Her partner had different ideas.
Jennifer Hexx was a nice enough person, but she could be cruel and borderline sadistic. Her wit was handy in escaping the authorities, and her grace and flexibility was unmatched. An orphan, Jenny's only company for the first twelve years of her life was a black cat named Clover. Jenny had been stealing since she was five years old and pickpocketing for money to buy candy bars and cat food, and had never been caught once. She wasn't quite as selfless as Rachel, but would sacrifice herself to let her team escape safely.
In action, they were Raven and Jinx, co-leaders of their team. They didn't know the true identities of their teammates, but the two girls were fast friends. They were practically sisters, and always either agreed perfectly or clashed spectacularly. Their fights had never screwed a job, though. Never.
Their operations were (barely) funded by Rachel's father, Lucifer, also known as Trigon. He was widely known as the Lord of Crime, and controlled many teams, assassins, dealers, thieves, and other criminals across the globe. He resided in Jump City, living like a king, but he had thrown Rachel out at age twelve, when he killed her mother, Columbia. That had been when Rachel had committed her first crime; stealing a priceless artifact from a museum. She had run into Jenny, also twelve and angry after watching Clover die from cancer, who was after the same thing, and the two had teamed up. Throughout the years, they had assembled a team that could do anything. They didn't specialize: they monopolized. The cops couldn't catch them, so they called themselves Shadows. They could work anyone, do anything, because there were different kinds of criminal, and Rachel and Jenny had recruited them all.
Cheshire was an assassin: she specialized in poisons, combat, and weapons. Her ruthlessness was practically unmatched. She would kill her own mother and feel no regret at all if she was being paid for the job. She was also fairly good at the seduction game.
Angel was the girl who went up. She got her teammates around, quite easily. Along with her connections with airplanes and helicopters, she was great with ziplines, bungee jumps, parachutes, rappelling, and climbing.
Gizmo was only a teenager, but never to be underestimated. He was a hacker to the core, and no security system could keep him out. Gizmo also made electronic gadgets, utilized by all Shadows.
Mammoth was a hulk of a man, the designated fighter of the team. He could take out armed foes with his bare hands, and it took more than one bullet to bring him down.
SeeMore ran surveillance, visual and audio. He could always be relied on to give a heads-up if a witness was in sight, or cops were in the vicinity. He was also an excellent forger.
Red X ran drugs. He knew the dealers, he knew the hotspots, he knew the undercover cops, and he knew the drugs. Prices were skyrocketing as the team eliminated the competition, and Red X's suppliers were loyal. They knew what would happen otherwise.
Rancid was muscular, but not as bulky as Mammoth. He was a great fighter, but also the designated escape. He provided secure locations for getaway vehicles, and often led the cops on wild chases to distract them.
Kyd Wykkyd was just that: wicked. He was the thief, the sneak. He had a habit of seeming to just appear out if thin air. He was creepy, and that was an understatement.
Together with Jinx—thief, fighter, grifter—and Raven—mastermind, con artist, thief, combatant—they became Shadows, a team that was uncatchable, unstoppable. They erased all evidence with fire. They were untracrable. They were legends.
"Jenny, wake the hell up! You're sleeping like a damn dog!"
Very lazy legends.
Rachel was screaming and pounding on the bedroom door, struggling to awaken her slumbering friend. They took turns with the cot, every week switching so one was on the couch and one on the slightly more comfortable cot. As the leaders of their team, Rachel and Jenny got larger pieces of the profit than the others. When they combined their shares, they had enough to buy two nice cars, food and clothes, and their cheap apartment. They were going to buy something bigger at some point; there was an account stashed in a pair of fuzzy black slipper-boots. The tops seams were slashed, and money was constantly being stuffed in while the women sealed the seams with buttons and snaps and hid the box in the closet. The best way to hide something, as Jenny and Rachel knew; in plain sight, where no one would stick their nose. At any given time, money was stashed all about the apartment; in tissue boxes, decks of cards, lightbulbs, flashlights, remotes, cell phones, mattresses, couches, toilets...everywhere. Jenny and Rachel kept everything straight.
"Shit! Rachel, where's the twenty I had taped to the back of the nightstand?"
Usually.
Clearly, Jenny was awake. Rachel rolled her eyes, a smile tugging on the corners of her mouth and threatening to show itself.
"We moved it yesterday; check the matchbox in the drawer," there was a moment of silence.
"Thanks!"
"Whatever," Rachel replied, heating up some water. Jenny would cook; Jenny always cooked. Rachel made tea for herself and coffee for her formerly mentioned friend, and the occasional non-cook snack or microwaveable dish; that was the extent of Rachel's cooking knowledge. Anything else somehow ended up burnt, frozen, contaminated, or otherwise inedible.
"What should I make?" Jenny asked as she walked into the kitchen, rubbing her green eyes and yawning. Rachel bit her tongue to hold back a sharp retort.
"I don't care," she ended up saying simply. Jenny stretched up to fish around in the cabinets, and Rachel put out everything that she needed for tea and coffee; the box of herbal tea bags, instant vanilla-caramel coffee, some assorted herbs, milk, and the first bottle of wine she happened to see. Leaving them on the counter, she hurried to "set the table," basically putting two plates by the stove and the silverware on the coffee table. By the time she finished, it was time to stir the ingredients together in two mugs; hot water, a tea bag, and herbs for Rachel, instant coffee, milk, water, and a splash of wine for Jenny. Rachel carried the mugs to the coffee table and turned on the TV, turning on some classic Tom and Jerry after she sat down. No sooner was this done than Jenny walked out, balancing a plate on each hand.
"Order up," she joked, setting both plates on the table. Rachel stared in mock awe at the slice of French toast with powdered sugar, cheap fake maple syrup imitation, and assorted fruits on the side.
"I feel so pampered," she teased, taking a bite of cantaloupe.
"You should," Jenny retorted. Rachel snorted and popped another bite of fruit in her mouth. "Oh come on! Why does Jerry always win? He's a freaking mouse! Go Tom go!" Jenny yelled.
"Sh! Do you want another fine?" Rachel scolded. "And I think there was one time Tom actually caught Jerry."
"Did he eat him?"
"He let him go, out of pity, maybe kinship I guess."
"Lame," Jenny groaned, throwing a piece of banana at the TV.
"You're cleaning that up later," Rachel assured her. Jenny stuck out her tongue in a very mature manner. Rachel called her on this, and got a pillow in the face for her honesty. It was the only pillow on the couch, so it was faded and too soft to do any damage, but it was still offending.
And amusing.
After breakfast and the anticipated anti-cleanup, Rachel and Jenny were settling down to business matters. They were planning a new job, and had been working the waters for at least a month. Tonight was the night everything was supposedly going to fall together in the perfect pattern, stars aligned for success and escape. To begin this event, Jenny took out a small cell phone and pressed one of the buttons. A series of loud "dings" rang out, and Rachel pulled an identical device from her pocket to press a button and end the noise. Jenny and Rachel then proved that their devices were not cell phones by popping off small side panels, pulling out earbuds, and closing the panels again.
"Anyone open yet?" Jenny asked into her earbud. Rachel stayed silent.
"Yeah, I'm here," SeeMore's unmistakable voice carried over the earbud. A high-pitched ring proved that the mute Kyd was on as well.
"We ready?" came Cheshire's voice.
"Not yet. We're waiting on Angel, Raven, Gizmo, Mammoth, Red X, and Rancid," Jenny answered.
"Not anymore," Red X said simply.
"Hey! I was napping!" Mammoth yelled, making Jenny clutch her ear in pain. Rachel smirked and walked into the bedroom to put her earbud in.
"Hey. Which lazy asses are we waiting in this time?" she asked flatly.
"Just Angel and Giz now," Jenny assured her over the earpiece.
"Angel here, did someone say my name?"
"Now where's the kid?" Red X asked. A text appeared on the screen of Rachel's device.
Who, me?
"No not you, Kyd. Gizmo!" Red X growled, his teeth clearly gritted in exasperation.
"Who's calling me a kid?" Gizmo's young voice accused.
"Nobody. Let's just get moving before somebody makes a beer run. Jinx, what are the coordinates?" Rachel asked.
"Oh, you all know the place. It's the old warehouse down by the Chinese restaurant. We need a distraction for the cops...Angel, Kyd, X, Giz; you know what to do."
"Good times," SeeMore chuckled, still remembering the warehouse.
"Be there in no more than fifteen minutes," Jenny said. There were grumbles of agreement, and Rachel turned off her earbud before walking back into the living room as quietly as possible. Jenny put a finger to her own ear to say that her earpiece was still in, and Rachel nodded. After a few moments, Jenny turned her earbud off and put it in her pocket.
"I move first," Rachel suggested. Jenny nodded.
"I'll give you a two minute lead, and circle on the east side."
"I'll cut straight."
"Then we're clear?"
"Crystal."
"Move out," Jenny said with a wry smile. Rachel gave a mock salute and darted out of the apartment. She was high on adrenaline, the way she was before every job, so she was unusually happy and hyper. As she ran down the stairs and out of the lobby to her black car, some car keys thudded to the ground beside her. Rachel grinned and picked them up, fully aware of the fact that she had forgotten them in the apartment. She unlocked her car and slid into the driver's seat before starting up the car and pulled onto the road. Cutting straight through would take her right past the police station, but it was a risk she had to take; if her team knew she and Jenny lived in the same apartment, they could track their leaders down.
Besides, the cops were always the last to know.
Detective Richard Grayson was technically not on duty, but as he left the station, he couldn't help but notice slight...indiscretions. The young man in a black coat, sunglasses, and hat, who was obviously slipping a sleek black snakeskin wallet into his already bulging pocket, practically begging to be caught. The black-haired seductress who was running a transparent game on a clearly wealthy man. The gun, cleverly concealed in the pocket of a young man. The young woman whose hand was turning something in her pocket as she warily eyed everyone around her. The teenager who had been by that ATM a little too long. The black car that was going too fast, just a little too heedless of the police station. And Dick remembered them all; the faces, the crimes he suspected them of, the license plate of that car. He decided to take care of the one person he could charge; the coat guy. Dick walked over to the criminal and stepped in front of him before pulling out his badge.
"JCPD, mind emptying your pockets?" he requested. The criminal froze and stared at him, wide-eyed, like he had never been caught before. But there was something else…something almost victorious. "That wasn't really a question," Dick repeated. He didn't even notice the woman behind him until a hand struck the side of his head, and an unexpected sharp kick to the back of his knees sent him to the ground.
"Kyd, run!" the attacker hissed. The pickpocketer ran down the sidewalk, and Dick rolled to his feet to face to young woman facing him. He hadn't seen her before. It was like she had simply dropped out of the sky.
"You're under arrest!" he growled. She smirked.
"Find me," she challenged.
"What?" was all Dick could say before a dart impaled itself in the back of his neck. As poison coursed through his veins, he struggled to stay standing. The blurry shapes of the gun-man and the young woman who had been carrying something in her pocket appeared above him. When had he fallen? The world was fading through shades of red, orange, and yellow.
"Nighty-night," the young woman who had first attacked him said cruelly. He thought she smirked, but her face was twisting like a rippling reflection in a river...the world was turning green. He couldn't tell what was up and what was down. As the three people started to walk away, Dick tried to follow them and fell heavily to the ground. Hadn't he already fallen? The world was blue. He tried to crawl, but his hands met empty air. He writhed on his back, and his ears started ringing and fizzling. Violet now, as pain exploded in his head, throat, chest, and stomach. Dick's limbs were going numb...white. All he saw was white. Should he go to the light? Gray, it was all coming back...they were getting away...someone was feeling for a pulse, dialing on a phone...he tried to tell them, but he couldn't speak.
Then the world turned black, and Dick knew no more.
As she walked away from the writhing cop, Angel grinned sadistically. She loved her job. Flanked by Cheshire and Red X, she felt invincible. She refrained from putting a hand to her ear, taking out her communicator instead.
"Hey Kyd, you make a clean escape?" she asked.
Of course, his text read.
"Gizmo, you get the money and cameras?"
"The barf-brains didn't see a thing."
"Cheshire, you sure about that dart?" Cheshire nodded.
"The toxins will keep him out for hours, and wipe his memory. The dart's clean, too,"
"Angel to Jinx: distraction in place. We're all set."
"You ready?" Jenny asked Rancid, Mammoth, and SeeMore. Less than a minute ago, Angel had told them that they were good to go. Jenny knew that Rachel would be in position, and that Gizmo would have the city out cold. She just had to put her pieces in play. The three men nodded. "Okay boys; let's do this," SeeMore began scrambling up a nearby fire escape, and Rancid hopped into the driver's seat of the idling black van. "Mammoth, we're on," Jenny tapped his bicep and started walking, heading into the warehouse. It was almost pitch black, so Jenny kept a light hold on Mammoth's arm, as she could see in the dark and he couldn't. They strode confidently through the darkness until they came to a spot where a bare bulb was shining in the rafters, allowing a wide patch of light to hang down. As soon as they stepped into the light, five well-muscled men with guns approached from the other side.
"You have the money?" the man in front asked. Jenny smirked.
"Do you see a briefcase? New deal; you hand over the merchandise for free," she said coldly. The man snarled and sneered at her in response.
"There are two of you and five of us. I hardly think that—" quick as a flash, Jenny had one of the men in a headlock, a gun set to blow out his brains. The speaker gulped. "Now hang on a second…" Mammoth ripped away another man's gun and lifted him into the air, ready to snap him in half.
"Make that three of you," Jenny fired and Mammoth snapped. "Wanna go for one?" Mammoth moved for another man, and Jenny aimed her gun at the final goon, her eyes on the speaker. He was silent. "Okay then," Jenny calmly shot the man in the chest, and Mammoth crumpled the skull of the other.
"Okay okay, I give! Here!" the speaker reached into his jacket and hurled a packet at them. Jenny unwrapped it and smiled greedily.
"Excellent," the man began to walk away, and she raised her gun. "Now hold on a second. I never said you were getting out alive," in an instant, he was dead, and Mammoth and Jenny were running.
"Cops just got a call from a pedestrian: shots fired at your coordinates. Might take them a bit since we left them that little investigation to run at their front door," SeeMore announced. "Wait!" Jenny and Mammoth halted. "Pedestrian's outside still."
"Did he see the van?" Jenny asked.
"Nah, Rancid hauled ass into an alley. Okay you're clear."
"SeeMore, start getting the hell outta there! Rancid, have the doors open!" Jenny was in calm command as she sprinted through the darkness. In what seemed like no time at all, she and Mammoth were back in the van and making a clean escape. "Raven, clean up's all on you."
"I was hoping you'd say that," Jenny heard Rachel's smirk. "I'll set up: five minutes, tops, in and out."
"Angel, you keeping an eye on that cop?" Jenny asked.
"Yeah. He's just waking up now…"
Dick came around to see five faces staring worriedly down at him. After a moment, he realized he was in a hospital.
"What…?" he tried to sit up but failed. "What happened?"
"Someone attacked you outside the station," Victor Stone, Dick's partner, said.
"Who?"
"Security was knocked out: nobody knows," he replied.
"How are you feeling, friend?" Kori Anders, a foreign woman Dick had saved from a hostage situation and later befriended, asked kindly.
"I'll bet he feels like shit," smirked another woman, Detective Karen Beecher from Steele City. She had been a Jump City cop before moving, and was in town on vacation to visit her friends.
"Got that right," Dick mumbled.
"Hey, cheer up: you're not dead!" Gar Logan, Vic's friend and roommate, spoke up. Roy Harper, Dick's friend from high school, smirked.
"Like I was about to say," Karen said, "you were injected with a nasty concoction that wiped your memory and knocked you out. It's not in any known database and the dart's clean. Whoever did this, they're good," Vic's phone rang and he walked out of the room. "Maybe some of Trigon's underlings?"
"Why would Trigon want to attack me?" Dick asked confusedly.
"No clue," Karen shrugged.
"Slade," Dick growled. "He must be behind this."
"You locked him up two years ago, Dick. How could he be?"
"He's still a powerful crime lord," Dick replied. "Who else would have reason to attack me?"
"Maybe someone who wanted a delay," Vic reentered. "Just got a call: there were shots fired in an old warehouse. Ten minutes later, the whole thing went up in smoke. Blew up two good cops, Davidson and White."
"Incinerating any evidence," Dick said slowly, "just like the other cases we've seen," too many explosions and arsons had been occurring around crime scenes. "This isn't coincidence. Someone's covering their tracks."
"Well they're doing it pretty well: explosion took everything out. There's nothing left but ash," Vic replied. Dick's expression hardened further.
"We will catch them," he growled. "We will."
"Success!" Angel cheered as Shadows regrouped in the park. Jenny unwrapped the package again and stared down in awe. Red X whistled softly.
"That," he said, "is one very fancy necklace."
"Twenty-four karat gold chain, perfectly flawless white and blue diamonds and," Jenny drew in a hissing breath, "one perfect red diamond," she grinned. "This is worth millions if we sell to the right person. And I know just the sucker…"
"Okay Giz, is the chatroom ready?" Jenny asked.
"Yup. You've just gotta act like you're all trying to by this piece of crud," Gizmo replied. "This lady'll never know what hit her!"
"Send the invite," Jenny ordered. Gizmo sent the message from his untraceable and phony email account, which he had created on a library computer after turning off surveillance.
"Go!" Rachel ordered.
Dr. Jennings: $400,000
Professer Rinder: $500,000
Dr. Jennings: $700,000
Dr. Shambe: $750,000
Professor Rinder: $900,000
Kori opened her email to find one new message.
Professor Anders,
You have been invited to join a private chatroom for the sale of Victoria's Diamonds. Please click the link below to accept our offer.
—Professor Raymond Darkwood
Kori gasped. Victoria's Diamonds were incredibly valuable! She immediately clicked the link.
Dr. Shambe: $5,650,000
Dr. Jennings: $5,700,000
Kori scrolled up suspiciously, but upon finding that the amounts had been steadily increasing for hours, she jumped in.
"Man my fingers are numb!" SeeMore complained. "And Dr. Shambe is a sucky name!"
"Keep typing!" Jinx snarled.
Professor Anders: $6,000,000
"Yes!" Angel cheered, continuing to bid as Professor Rinder. Ten minutes of excruciatingly slow bidding later, Jenny realized they were about to lose their mark.
"Everyone, back off," she ordered.
Dr. Shambe: Out
Professer Rinder: $7,500,000
Professsor Anders: $7,550,000
Dr. Jennings: $7,600,000
Professor Rinder: Out
Professor Anders: $8,000,000
Dr. Jennings: Out
"We did it! We did it!" Angel squealed excitedly. "This is our biggest score yet!" everyone rolled their eyes at her exaggeration.
"Why did we sell Victoria's Diamonds, though?" Red X asked.
"Oh these aren't the real diamonds," Jenny replied flippantly. "Just a very expensive imitation of them. The real diamonds would have a V engraved in the back. We only showed a picture of the front," she smirked. "You know, I almost feel bad. But I don't. Gizmo, hit send."
Professor Anders,
Congratulations on your winning bid! Please transfer your money to this account, recently created at Jump City Bank for your convenience: 77343128. Once the money transfer is confirmed, I will meet you outside the bank with the diamonds.
—Professor Raymond Darkwood
Kori squealed excitedly and hurried to the bank.
Rachel watched, anticipation tingling deep within her as Gizmo hacked into the bank, turning off the security and transferring the money from the fake account to the team's numerous accounts. The money would be divided between the team and sent into each of their private accounts, each held under an alias, plus the entire team's account, under another alias.
Untraceable.
That was Rachel's favorite word and, as she smirked, she knew it was the word the police would be saying when they found out.
"Untraceable!" Dick, completely recovered, shouted before swearing viciously. "Kori, why did you go so high?"
"Had they been the real diamonds, my bid would have been mediocre," she corrected. Dick swore again.
"Vic, you have any luck with that money?"
"Sorry, man. Money's gone, account's gone…it's like it was never there. But the hacker leaves a signature: a gear in the bottom right corner of the screen. These are the same guys who attacked you."
"Why would they want us to know that?" Dick asked incredulously.
"Bragging rights? Look man, I've been over everything. The email traces to the library and the security was out that day…same signature. The buyers all bounce off of different servers at random, but I tracked them back to the park. I investigated and found a fire nearby…my guess is, these guys burned the electronics tying them to the crime."
"Why do they burn so much?" Dick wondered aloud.
"Pyros? It corrupts the evidence, in any case," Vic offered. Dick growled.
"I'll find them…I'll find them all."
"Good work, everyone!" Jenny said, smirking. "We're all a whole lot richer after that one. Sleep safe and good fortune: Raven or I'll contact you with our next job," everyone nodded and slowly dispersed. Rachel and Jenny entered their cars and split up, each circling a different way to get to their apartment. When they arrived, Jenny fixed lasagna for dinner and they ate to laughter before heading off to bed.
"Don't worry, Kori," Dick said harshly as he drove her to her house. "I'll find whoever's responsible and make them pay."