The room was almost completely dark, save for the soft glow coming from an old computer screen that sat in the corner of the room. Adjacent to the computer was an old red bean bag chair that had multiple holes in the seams and smelt of mold. There was also a small lamp that sat in the opposite corner, but the bulb had burst, so it couldn't serve it's only purpose.
It wasn't much, but Jade called it home.
Technically it wasn't her home. It was actually a basement room under The Shadow's HQ. There were many rooms in that basement, and they were used for housing trainees or underaged Shadow spies. Jade had lived in this room ever since she had run away from her own home. But while she did have enough right to call it her home, she barely used the small melancholic room.
Before the Recall Act was initiated, Jade's 'jobs' sent her to different cities almost everyday so the Shadows would have to put her up in a hotel for a while. Whenever she was back in Gotham, she would only be there for the daylight hours, then sent somewhere else for a mission.
But when The Light called for her after The Recall act, things changed - not for the better.
She had quickly degraded from highly trained assassin and spy to an errand girl. The only things Ra's had her doing anymore was fetching things for The Light. A computer program here, a diamond there, nothing that really challenge her.
And on top of it all, they had the balls to call her into Gotham, and command her to wait in her room for further instructions.
Jade stood centered in the cold dark room, eyes focusing on the door in front of her. In her hand was one of her trusty sais. After a moment or two, she launched the sai at the wooden door, and watch was sublet enjoyment as the tip of the blade sunk into the wood of the door with a satisfying 'thud'. She stepped lightly to the other side of the room and pulled the sai out of the door. She hated waiting around for instructions. Especially since they probably only needed her for another simple job.
The last five years were hard on Jade. But what made it worse for her was knowing that her sister was caught up in the whole mess.
Of course, the two Crock sisters sat on either end of the spectrum. But that didn't mean that either of them wanted the other dead. Call it sisterly love but Jade felt as though she had an unspoken obligation to keep her younger sister safe. But how could the older Crock protect the younger when her bosses probably wanted Artemis dead? Jade felt as though her and her father's presence within the Shadows were the only things keeping Artemis alive (though it was more of a pride thing for their father)… at least for the time being. For all Jade could tell, the Crock family could have no effect on The Light or The Shadows, and the councils were just keeping Artemis alive because she some how played a part in their complicated plan.
Jade figured it was the latter; when those cadets tried to poison the heroes, The Light was furious with Queen Bee. Turns out the cadets weren't acting on instruction, but on impulse. They thought it would be a good idea to kill the heroes. But The Light needed them alive, so they were relieved that nothing happened.
That's what they had told her anyway.
Jade tossed the sai at the door again. When it met it's target, she retrieved it, and took another stance in the middle of the room.
It also didn't help that Roy had gotten himself caught up in the whole mess.
Sure, he was a hero - he couldn't avoid the Act, nor would he be able to escape The Light. So why did it bother Jade?
"It's not like I have feelings for him." she would often tell herself. "He may be a tasty piece of work, but I only flirted with him to throw him off his game! As if I would ever do anything with that goody-two-shoes…"
But even she couldn't convince herself.
This time with a small grunt and a bit more force, Jade flung the sai. But just as she released the blade, the door began to open.
As if by complete chance, the sai landed on the slim stretch of wood of the inner part of the door. The man entering the room didn't even seem fazed by it, but instead cocked and eyebrow and looked to Jade.
"Didn't your parents ever tell you not to play with knives?" asked the stranger, removing the sai from the door for her.
Jade chuckled a little at the remark. "Your really developing a good sense of humor now that we're on the same team."
Kaldur didn't acknowledge the comment, but simply approached Jade - fiddling with the sai between his fingers. As he handed it off to her, he looked her cold in the eyes and asked "Are you ready?"
Jade flashed him a soft devious smile, now realizing why she had been called back to Gotham. "I'm always ready, fish boy."
"… so after it was confirmed that the tablets were poisonous, my commanding officer basically put me under house arrest, and said I wasn't allowed to leave my tent until the culprits were 'taken care of'," explained Raquel - throwing air quotations over the phrase 'taken care of'. "I mean, what kind of bullshit is that?" she asked taking a swing of water.
Artemis and Roy nodded in agreement as the three of them sat comfortably in Raquel's cabin. It was the mid-hours of the evening, and the three had spent most of their time together catching up. It didn't take long for them to realize that all three of them had been targeted by the Bialyan soldiers with the rat poison trick.
"I just can't believe they would try the same thing at the same time to each of our platoons," added Roy. "I mean, it's pretty obvious that Queen Bee is trying to kill off as many American soldiers as possible - and without a doubt, she wants us dead as well. But would they really risk the sudden unexplained death of three different platoons? The American Government surely would have noticed something was off."
"I don't think it was Queen Bee who gave the order," said Artemis. Roy and Raquel shot her confused looks as she continued to explain "Yes, the Light wants us dead - but like you said Roy, it was really sloppy. They'd kill us off one-by-one. Really try to make it look like an accident. If our platoons died with or shortly after or before us, that would look too suspicious."
Roy opened his mouth to speak, but than shut it again. He forgot that she had Shadow training under her belt, she probably knew a few tricks that the bad guys would try to pull.
There was a bit of a silence after. A sudden eerie feeling had hit all of them at once. It was probably an accident that all three of them had found each other. But how long would their bliss last? If the Light wanted to act and take them all out, now would be the best opportunity.
Raquel shook her. "So Artemis, you can speak Bialyan now?" she asked changed topics. Artemis smiled softly and nodded. "I picked up both Bialyan and Quaracian while I've been here. It's good to know both at the border."
Roy smiled. "So whenever you two are speaking Bialyan around me I can assume you're using it to talk about me, huh?"
Raquel blinked. "That's actually a good idea. We should totally do that!"
Artemis laughed and Roy grunted.
A split second later, an officer burst into their tent. In his hands were a small stack of papers and cold cup of coffee. He paused for a moment at the entrance and made eyes at the two young women in the room. The girls felt sick and Roy started to feel protective.
"You're probably wondering why we've set-up this little reunion for you," There had been a small table set up in the middle of the cabin which the officer placed his papers upon. "As you may have already known, we've been experiencing some meta-human activity." He gestured to the stack of papers for the three ex-heroes to examine. Reluctantly, they all stood and formed a small circle around the table.
The stack of papers was actually a pile of pictures. On each picture was a different animal - a monkey, a parrot, a rhino, etc. What was weird about the series of pictures was that a few of the animals were not native to either Bialya or Quarac. What was weirder was that all of the animals were green.
"The animals you are looking at all come from the same source-" the officer reached to the bottom of the pile and pulled out a picture of a small green boy with a long tail. "This boy has the ability to change into any animal he so desires at any time. Now, as you know, displaying one's meta-human abilities is illegal. So, we're leaving it up to you three - with your prior knowledge on meta-activity - to capture this boy and bring him to the base."
"But we're not on American soil, why are you enforcing this here?" said Roy through gritted teeth. Saying that he was pissed off was an understatement - he was furious. All three of the ex-heroes felt that this was wrong. Obviously, the boy was scared by his (probably new) abilities, and he was in desperate need of some guidance. The last thing he needed were three highly trained ex-heroes trying to capture him.
The officer smiled "Queen Bee has agreed to allow us to use force should any external threats harm either Americans or Bialyians,"
"But he's only a kid!" said Artemis, outraged. "He can't be causing that much trouble!"
"He's destroyed three of our bases further along the border, as well as seriously injured five American cadets. He's dangerous."
Raquel's lip quivered - afraid to ask the question that was on everyone's mind. "What will happen to him once we bring him here?"
The officer's smiled faded some, but didn't completely disappear. "He is a meta-human, so he will be placed under care of the Bialyian law enforcement."
To that, Artemis slapped him hard in the face. Roy and Raquel were stunned into stillness - they were angry to, but they knew that Artemis was not doing herself any favors.
"Are you crazy?!" she yelled as the officer collected himself. She then marched to the other side of the table and pushed the officer down to the ground. "If you hand him over to Queen Bee she will kill him!" all three of them knew it - Queen Bee wanted this boy for some reason or another. Why else would she allow for American law to be enforced? "If you really think I'm going to sacrifice this scared little boy-"
As Artemis ranted, the officer stood from the ground, pulled out a small gun, and pointed it at the three of them. Artemis shut her mouth and they all raised their hands slightly above their hands.
"You will do exactly as you're told and bring the boy to us. Any resistance and all of you will be sent back to prison for the remainder of your lives. As for the boy, we will be forced to use drastic measure and take him out!" They all glared at him while stiffly nodding their heads.
"And you - "said the officer pointing his gun right at Artemis "You better consider yourself lucky that I don't report your actions to the Head of State. You're ass would be on the chair faster than you could beg for my forgiveness!" Then, he slowly stalked towards her till his lips were right next to her ear "And I want you alive. I want you to live with the guilt of bringing that poor innocent boy into our custody." Artemis cringed at the feel of his breath on her neck, and she could feel him pressing the tip of his gun right into the front of her crotch "I hope they kill him" he whispered to her "Just so I can watch your pretty little face fall to pieces."
He pushed her away, but she was caught by Roy - whose glare tried to burn itself into the officers soul. Should Roy act out, it would only make things worse.
The officer turned on his heels and began to walk out of the cabin. "Any attempts to flee will be considered an offense against the state. Either that boy is brought in or all of you will suffer the consequences."
And with that, he was gone.
Artemis shook Roy off of her, flipped the table over with one hand, and stormed out of the cabin to her own. Both Roy and Raquel knew that Artemis hated feeling helpless, and that officer probably drew her last straw.
Without so much as a goodnight, Roy stepped out of the cabin and went to go rest in his. Raquel turned out her light, and slipped into her bed. Most nights, she would only sleep with a thin blanket, but tonight, she needed the full weight of the military sheets.
Even though she was in the middle of the desert, she couldn't get warm.
What? Plot Twists?
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