Author Note
I did write a Halloween Special for DC Gothic 0 Red-X, but I didn't think it was any good.
DC Gothic - Red-X 2
Caged Heat
Shadow Squad HQ – Jump City
While until now it had been fun to be able to walk onto Titan Tower when I ever wanted, the novelty was now wearing off. Robin kept checking up as I tried to work and Raven kept trying to feed me. Which was bad because the poor girl could barely make a sandwich.
Since I didn't want to upset someone who could all demonic on me I hadn't dared to complain about dry bread or the fact that I could not stand the taste of peanut butter. The stuff was vile in my opinion, and the less said about her attempts to make pot roast the better.
Besides she was making an effort to get along with me even though she still must resent me for not going along with her plan. That or she had a new plan that involved feeding me. If that was the case then it wasn't working.
"Do you have ANY idea how long we've been waiting for you, X?" Gizmo demanded to know as soon I walked into the common room "I tried calling you lots of times, but you didn't answer".
I inspected my communicator and I discovered that its battery had run dry. I'd been fixing up the nursery all day, and so I had lost track of time. It didn't help that Jinx and Blackfire kept using the devices to try to tempt me to come back home to spend time with them.
"What's the matter?" I questioned of them.
Both Mammoth and my little buddy looked very upset for some reason.
"Jinx and Blackfire are missing, that's what's up you Spunk-Licking. Shit-Sniffing. Dick-Head!" Gizmo shouted at me.
Even for the tiny terror that had been very rude.
"And how long have they both been missing?" I asked while keeping my voice calm.
They had been here this morning. I knew that because we'd had breakfast together while discussing some work we had planned in the future. The Shadow Squad was in high demand these days, and not just by criminal groups we had legal work too.
"A couple days ago we got a call about a job out of town" Giz told me "At first we didn't think much of it, cause it was routine job. We just had to transport a package to an address in Freedom City. Blackfire can fly so so she took the box and said she'd back in a hour. That was this morning".
Given that it was now nine pm I was starting to see the problem.
"About lunch time Jinx got worried and tried to call you" I was then informed by the small crook "Then she took the bus. It takes about two hours to get to Freedom City from Jump City, and at three she sent us a text saying that she was heading to the address we were given, to go look for Fire".
Given that the text had been six hours ago I could now understand why Giz was so concerned.
"I'm starting to get worried" Gizmo confessed "Mammoth here was worried already, but I figured she was just running late, cause you know girls are always late".
It was true that the ladies could be made late by some distraction or other, but I had a feeling that something was wrong.
"What's the address the package was suppose to be delivered too" I inquired "And what was in it?".
Gizmo had some of the information I needed, but he didn't know what had been in the box. But I didn't think it mattered as I figured this had all been a trick meant to lure one or all of us somewhere.
"So what you gonna do?" wondered Mammoth.
I already had a plan.
"Well the first thing I'm going to do is check these guys out" I told Mammoth "They might know what happened to Fire and Jinxy"
In fact I suspected they would know exactly what had happened to the alien princess and the meta-human magic user. It wouldn't surprise me if my girls where tied up waiting for me at the address.
"Maybe we should all go" Mammoth suggested.
Taking a group of super powered crooks with me would be unwise. We'd draw to much attention, and right now Red-X needed to be all sneaky. I would recon the situation and if I needed backup then I would call.
"No I will go alone" I told the two guys "but stay by the phone in case I need you".
I was about to head to my room in order to grab my suit when a though crossed my mind.
"Oh, Gizmo" I said "I could do with something for road trips. Like a nice car. Something in black, but it should blend in".
My little buddy smiled. He already had blueprints forming in his mind. I could tell by the gleam in his eyes.
(Line Break)
Roof Tops - Freedom City
Without making a sound I landed on the roof of the building that was across the street from the place Blackfire was suppose to have visited. The lack of lights in this area, combined with the clouds that covered the moon prevented me from being seen, which was good thing for me, but it was also a shame as the upgraded Red-X suit was a fearsome sight to behold.
However my appearance when wearing the suit was far less important than the gadgets it contained. A combination of night vision mode and telescopic lens allowed me see everything that was going on. This was super handy for a thief as I meant I could scope out the security of a location from a safe distance.
So far I had spotted two men on top of the building that was my destination, they were walking around the roof and they were only holding simple handguns. Their presence suggested that someone was expecting trouble, but judging by their relaxed stance the men up here weren't worried about anything.
I then looked downwards to see another guard at the door. I couldn't tell if he had a weapon, however I knew he couldn't be too heavily armed as he had no where to hide more than a handgun on his person. Unlike the men on the roof this gentlemen was in a nice suit, which suggested this lot were not a simple group of gang bangers.
Since I needed to get inside I deactivated my mask's vision functions and then I pressed the button on the buckle of my belt. A heartbeat later I reappeared on top of the building I wished to enter.
I then looked at the two guards and rolled my eyes, they were more causally dressed then the bloke down below and clearly they weren't taking their job seriously as they were having a fag break.
"Amateurs" I softly scoffed.
Seconds later I was walking over the two now unconscious guards and I was inside the building. I had a room number so it was just a matter of making my way down to the right floor without anyone raising the alarm. This was important as if Jinx and Blackfire were being held hostage and the bad guys knew I was coming after them then they might kill both or one of my girls.
On the way down I saw another guard while using my thermal vision. I made myself invisible before grabbing him and putting pressure around his neck. This little move was called the Sleeper Hold, and I used it effectively. I was able to dump the still breathing man inside an empty room, and then I got moving again.
After making way down to the next floor I leaned back into a wall and looked down the hall to see no one between myself and the stairs that led to the next floor. I silently walked down the hall only to stop as a door opened. I was invisible still so waited until he walked past me and then I used them same move on him as I had on the other armed thug.
"This is going to take all night" I muttered to myself.
Once I had dealt with that bloke I looked around with my different kinds of vision and then I sighed as I could now see five guards heading my way. They were in no rush, and they were talking to each other which meant that they weren't looking for me they up to something else.
Then I smiled as I realised that this was the perfect chance for me to try out a spell I had been working on.
"Fhtagn uaah" (Sleep, Spell)
The five men didn't just fall asleep they resisted the magic, but not for long as one by one they dropped to the ground. They were fine, I checked, in fact a couple of them were snoring.
"Well that saves time" I said in a whisper.
Finally I arrived at the room the package was suppose to have been delivered to, but when I popped my head into the door I found that someone had already beaten me here.
"Huntress!" I said in surprise.
It was her. She had the knee high boots, the mask, the cape, she even had a crossbow pointed at me.
"Why are you here?" the dark haired babe demanded to know.
Smartly I didn't move a muscle as while my suit was bullet proof I didn't know if it was also protect me from crossbow, in theory it should but might not be a normal arrow she had pointed at me.
"I'm looking for Blackfire and Jinx" I informed the Huntress "They both came here, and now they're missing".
To my surprise the vigilantly crime fighter lowered her weapon.
"That fits the pattern" she said "A number of girls with special abilities have gone missing in the last few weeks. At first I thought it might be CADMUS, but grabbing kids isn't their style, and they wouldn't limited themselves to one gender. This is something else".
At this point in the time line, the government group led by Amanda Waller were looking for way to put the United States on a equal footing with the Justice League. Kidnapping young people with super powers and then turning them into agents was one way to do that, but the Huntress was right they wouldn't just go after girls.
"This scumbag knows something" the Huntress told me while pointing at a middle aged man she had beaten up "But he's not talking, yet".
Given how bad he looked the scum had to be more scared of his bosses than of the Huntress. So I figured there was nothing I could to him to make him talk. At least nothing physical.
"I've heard your not such a bad guy, X" the crime fighter was now saying "And if your friends are missing then we should work together".
At first that seemed like an odd thing for her to suggest, but then I figured since she had been kicked out of the League then she might not see me in the same way they did. Plus if she really did know about me then she might also be thinking that I would come in handy.
"I'll get the information we need" I promised the hot babe.
She didn't ask me to explain how, and I didn't offering anything. Instead I just got on with the task at hand.
"Wgah'n- lloig uaaad"(control, mind, spell)
The spell worked and the crook seemed to enter a trance of sort.
"Where are my friends?" I demanded to know.
Nothing happened so I figured that maybe I needed to rephrase my question as the man under my control might not understand which friends I had just asked him about.
"My friends Jinx, and Blackfire" I inquired "Tell me where they are"
This time he answered right away. He gave us both a place and a time. Then after I made some more inquiries he told me exactly why my girls had been taken.
I was not pleased by what I heard so when the Huntress kicked the guy in the head I approved of the brutality.
(Line Break)
Warehouse District – Freedom City
The Huntress had her own bike, but she had decided to ride with me. I figured that she either wanted to keep an eye on me or she had decided that since one bike would make less noise than two. Whatever the reason she seemed oddly cheerful now, and she had even put her arms around my waist as I drove.
"Don't get the wrong idea" the crime fighter said to me as I parked my sweet hog behind a warehouse "I'm seeing someone".
If memory served she was dating the Question, but I didn't remark on the subject as it was no business of mine. Instead I pointed up and then I teleported on the roof of warehouse fifty-one. The Huntress quickly caught up and we made our way over to the skylight.
I unlocked our means of entry and then slowly opened it. When I did a wave of noise hit my eardrums and I heard what was going on below. The crowd was talking to each other, but the guy on the stage had a microphone so his voice was by far the clearest.
His speech confirmed what the crook back at the hotel had already told us. Young women with special abilities and exotic natures were being sold as sex slaves to men with more money than morals. This included the girls of Shadow Squad.
"Follow me" I said to the Huntress
Like ninjas we both dropped down onto catwalk. I had no idea why all these abandoned factories and warehouses had catwalks as the only purpose they seemed to serve was to give people like me a place to strike from the shadows, but I was thankful for them.
I didn't attack right away as I first needed to get a better lay of the land, so to speak, before I took action. I could see a few large men who had to be guards as they were standing stock still while everyone else was a lot more animated.
The girls, and not just my girls, were locked in a cage. They were all shackled, and many were blindfolded. I then saw Blackfire and anger swelled in my chest. She wasn't just blindfolded and chained up she was strapped to a metal frame.
On a intellectual level I understood why. The alien princess was a power house when compared to normal human beings, which made me wonder why anyone would buy her because it would like keeping a savage and hungry lioness as a pet
The part of me that cared for Fire, despite all she'd done, wanted to kill every sick son of a bitch who had dared to touch her. However I was able to calm myself down, as I knew that just rushing into a fight could get her or Jinxy killed.
"If you can cause a big enough distraction then I can free the girls" the Huntress said to me "Throw some smoke bombs around and take out the guards. The crowd will panic and that will be my signal".
Since I was a thief it was in my nature not to draw attention to myself, so just jumping onto the stage wasn't an option. Thankfully for me it was nearly as dark down there as it was up here so a few smoke bombs would be enough to shield me from fight.
"See you soon" I said to the Huntress as I threw the bombs.
As the small explosive devices went off I leapt into action, literally. The crowd begin to panic as the guards started pointing their weapons around while looking for something to shoot.
The thugs were near the walls so I made way around the crowd, that was surging as a mob towards the exit, and took down the crooks while their attention was on the stage. They made it easier for me because the moron's were wearing sunglasses at night while indoors.
By the time the smoke was gone the buyers had all legged it and the the Huntress had freed the girls. I ran over to Jinx and undid her restraints, then to my surprise she hugged me. She'd never done that in public before as it detracted from her bad girl image.
"Hold on" I said to the pink haired girl.
My next act was to free Blackfire. That was when I made a mistake I hadn't thought she would start blasting everything as soon as her blindfold came off.
"Stop its me" I ordered.
She did, but only so she could demand to be set free. Which was something I was happy to do.
"What dead man did this?" Blackfire then asked me.
The guy with the microphone must have been stampeded during the rush for the exit as he was only now able to stand up. That was the last act of his life as Blackfire blasted with so much power he was reduced to a small pile of ash.
"You know je could have told us who was behind this" I said to the alien princess.
I wasn't exactly horrified, as the now dead person had tried to sell my girlfriends into slavery, but I would have much preferred to interrogate him in a painful way.
"There were others back at the hotel" the Tamarain said "I'll find out everything from them".
Before I could even try to stop her Blackfire had made a whole in the roof as she flew away. Then I heard shouting so I knew it was time to get out of here.
"Where's the Huntress?" I asked as I carried Jinx up to the skylight.
There was no answer from my girlfriend, and I had no clue so I let it go and headed back to where I had parked my bike. I knew that Jinx and I had to get out of this city.
We could only hoped that Blackfire didn't get herself killed, but I thought it far more likely that she would murder others this night.
Which meant we really had to get out of town, as the League might be called in and unlike them I had no real desire to stop the alien princess from getting her revenge.