"There used to be a real me, but I had it surgically removed." -Peter Sellers
………………………………………………………………………………...
Plunder stood at the doorway with rifle in hand and the most lucrative of intents in mind. Arrowette stood shocked and surprised on the balcony, one leg still resting on the railing. Al Melee was on the ground with his two lackeys, wondering if his office would turn into a war zone. And Red X was frozen in a giant piece of ice, as helpless as any painting he ever stole.
"Plunder! What are you doing?!", Al demanded.
"Nothing person, Mr. Melee. Just business as usual." Plunder's gaze shifted over to the only other obstacle standing between him and a paycheck, Arrowette. "You're better-off running away, little girl.", he said.
Arrowette reached behind her to withdraw an arrow, but Plunder instantly raised his rifle.
"Hold it! That'd be a really stupid mistake."
Arrowette froze in her motion, and she stared at Plunder with a deep scow.
The x on Red X's palm began to glow red.
"Sorry, girly. But I can't have you super-hero types getting in my way. Excuse the cliché, but I'm gonna have to put you on ice!" Plunder pointed his rifle at her head and his finger coiled around the trigger like it was a snake.
Red energy enveloped Red X's from, breaking and cracking the ice into pieces. Two beams of red energy shot from his hands and the ice exploded away all around the room. Chunks of ice flew through the air like missiles.
Red X, free from his frigid tomb, fell to his knees on the ground and thankfully breathed in the fresh warm air.
Arrowette immediately shot an arrow, which destroyed Plunder's, freeze ray.
"X! You're alright!", she screamed.
Red X instantly bolted from the ground, fired his grapnel gun at the trees out side, tackled Arrowette, and swung off with her over his shoulder. Holding on to the grapnel gun with both their weights after being frozen was one of the greater struggles of Red X's day. He swung with her down to the courtyard and driveway outside of Al Melee's home, which was complete with a large fountain and trimmed hedges.
The two landed on the concrete and Red X retracted his grapnel and line then put it away.
Arrowette pushed away from the thief's grasps and landed on her feet. "What was that for?!"
"For saving your butt!"
"I can handle myself thank you! I was the one saving your butt!"
"Oh, yeah right! By the way, how's Adonis?!"
Two nets shot from Plunder's net launcher, and both Red X and Arrowette where impaled by one. They where both sent to the ground where the net's anchored.
"Oh great! Now look what you've done!", Red X said, only half meaning it, the other half was joking.
"Me?!", Arrowette defended.
"Will you both just quit it?!", Plunder said. He haphazardly dropped the net launcher and with drew a cylinder from his over coat. "Last time I made the mistake of underestimating you, X. A few toys from my employer should make sure that doesn't happen again." The cylinder extended into a bo staff, and each end of the staff glowed with energy. He raised the staff and charged forward.
"We're in big trouble here!", Arrowette said.
"Speak for yourself!", Red X activated his x-themed rotary blades and sliced through the net instantly. Then he swung his legs up and out of the hole he made and flipped backwards out of the net just before Plunder swung his staff downwards. His cape escaped the staff by a thread's width.
After hitting nothing but ground and net, Plunder swung the staff up again and attacked Red X. X blocked with his blades, similar to the way he fought Robin back in the tech company's vault. Only this time, Red X didn't expect any moon men to come busting in.
Plunder continued with his attack on Red X, but he wasn't nearly as good a fighter with that stick as Robin. He swung the staff, and Red X blocked it with his left rotary blade, and retracted his right rotary blade. Then he palm-punched the staff with his right hand and fired an energy blast from his palm, which broke the staff in two and sent Plunder back to the ground.
"Come on, man. Better idiots then you have tried, and failed, to catch me.", Red X said as he retracted his other rotary blade too.
"I disagree." Plunder reached into his over coat with both hands and withdrew a blaster pistol in each hand, aimed, and fired.
Red X saw it coming and jumped away in time to avoid the blasts and reply with a volley of micro-serrated shuriken.
Plunder barely rolled on the ground in time, most of them shredding his coat to tatters. He continued his blasting.
Red X ran for cover, rolling, jumping, and running in a zig-zag pattern to avoid being shot. He landed and withdrew shuriken in both hands, then launched the left hand's volley and then the right's.
Plunder quickly got up from the ground just as the shuriken landed on the ground and exploded.
Knowing he wasn't down and out for long, Red X ran and took cover behind a parked limo on Melee's drive way. X took a moment to catch his breath and withdraw another shuriken.
"Look out, X!", Arrowette screamed.
Something caught the corner of Red X's eye. A single grenade landed on the car's hood and bounced off and landed again next to him. Red X's eyes widened considerably and he bolted off.
BOOM!
Time seemed to slow down as Arrowette watched the limo exploded and it's pieces sent flying. The red x-shaped shuriken that Red X had just been holding landed near her, dented, burned, and mangled.
Al Melee came running down to see what had happened and stood speechless at his front doorstep.
Plunder stood there, quite proudly and arrogantly, the bright flames enhanced his silhouette. He turned around to Arrowette and said, "Looks like I blew him up. Whoops."
Arrowette's attention snapped back to reality with a terrible glare. She immediately with drew a sharp bladed arrow and cut the net. Stepping out the cut net, she was already loading three trick arrows into her bow. Her eyes danced with an exotic sort of flame, as if hell had no fury to compare to her.
Plunder was less then impressed. "Come on, girl. You think those arrows can hurt me? This suits lined with Kevlar, it's bulletproof."
"Let's hope it's not fireproof!" Arrowette released those three arrows, which flew towards Plunder like raging demons. They explode just before they reached him, sending him flying back. She took out more trick arrows, and continued the onslaught, one arrow after another.
Net arrow.
Freeze arrow.
Explosive arrow.
Sharp arrow.
Gas arrow.
Sharp arrow.
Explosive arrow.
Arrowette breathed heavily, burning as much of her rage as she could. How good each pull of the bow felt, how exhilarated she was with each explosion. Red X may have been a thief and criminal, but he didn't deserve to die! But she couldn't keep this up much longer; she was running out of arrows.
A large cloud of smoke and flames occupied the spot that Plunder once stood. Then he stepped out from it slowly with shoulders squared.
Arrowette's jaw dropped.
His suit was burned and damaged, his over coat was absolutely gone and only burning tatters remained on the ground as it fell off him. His stare was a cold as ever.
Everyone was silent for a moment.
"Ouch.", he said. His last grenade was clenched tightly in his gloved hand. He pulled the hand back and cocked it for a throw.
Arrowette grimaced and pulled out a sharp arrow and pulled it into her bow.
Plunder flicked the pin out of the grenade with his thumb and threw it… to the side and at Al Melee.
Al stood frozen, probably not even getting a complete grasp on what was happening.
The grenade flew towards him, spelling certain destruction.
Arrowette had less then a second.
She whipped her body to the side, raised the bow, aimed, and released.
The arrow flew out of her bow.
Please work…
The arrow flew.
The grenade fell.
Please work…
The arrow hit the grenade, knocking it away from Al where it exploded. Lucky, Plunder hadn't been using grenades with shrapnel. A cloud of smoke and flame erupted, and when it cleared, Al Melee was still in one piece. He was on his back on the ground further away, with no eyebrows. But he was alive!
"It worked!", Arrowette yelled in triumph. "I did it!"
Plunder pressed the barrel of a .45 caliber pistol against the side of her head. "Yes, you sure did.", he said.
She gasped shortly and her eyes widened. Plunder was pointing a gun at her head. This was the end of her short superhero career. Suddenly, the world seemed so much bigger. So big, and she was so small. Would anyone miss her? Would the people at the Elias School for Girls miss her at all? Did anyone miss Red X for that matter?
In the end… Does anyone miss anyone?
Suddenly, a red shuriken and an x-shaped grapnel darted through the air. The shuriken knocked the gun out of Plunder's hand before he knew what hit him. Then the grapnel flew over and wrapped once around him. The line on the grapnel was pulled taunt and Plunder was dragged back instantly.
Arrowette turned in shock and surprised.
Red X stood atop the statue in the middle of Al Melee's fountain. His cape was more torn and tattered then ever before, and it blew wildly in the wind as if it matched its master's fury. Pieces of his suit where torn, revealing the Kevlar and circuitry below. He braced his arms and legs as his grapnel gun dragged Plunder ever closer on the ground.
"Red X!", Arrowette screamed.
"I'm back, baby!", he shouted to no one in particular.
Just before Plunder reached the fountain, he managed to untie the grapnel but he still tumbled on the ground.
Red X jumped off the statue as the line came closer to retract. For a spit second, he was mid-air with his line and grapnel dancing around him, and the skull and x on the bottom of his shoes where clearly visible as he began to descend into a drop kick.
Plunder rolled to the side as X's foot slammed into the ground with bone crushing force. The grapnel finished retracting into its gun when Plunder got up and managed to kick X when he was recovering from the fall.
Red X fell to the ground, dropped his grapnel gun, and fired a giant x around Plunder that blew the bounty hunter off his feet. Plunder got back up to his feet quickly, just in time for a net from one of Arrowette's trick arrows to wrap around him further.
He snapped his attention to her.
She just smiled and said, "Had one more arrow left."
Plunder was about to make some remark, when X tapped on his shoulder. Plunder turned his face and stared into the glowing red palm of Red X.
"Nighty night." Red X fired a beam of energy that sent the bounty hunter flying.
Plunder landed on the ground unconscious, tied, beaten, and defeated.
Red X lowered his hand, and breathed a sigh of relief. Then he walked over to Al Melee, passing Arrowette without a word. He loomed over Al after he maid his way over to him.
"Look… Captain Sunshine over there is taking a nap, so I'm gonna ask you and I'll only ask one more time. Who. Hired. Plunder?!"
Al Melee, shocked from what he would consider two or three near-death incidents in one night, felt a bit more talkative then he did earlier. "I- I don't know who it was! It was just some guy in a space suit!"
Red X's eyes widened a bit. Arrowette walked up next to him with a matching expression on her face.
"A guy in a space suit?", she said.
"Yeah! Had a bunch of… I don't know… Hazmat guys with him!"
"Hazmat? He had a Hazmat team with him? As in radioactive?", Red X asked.
"Yeah! But there was nothing radioactive. Least I don't think so. They're where his henchmen or something!"
"Did he have a name?"
"No! He wanted me to recommend him to Plunder. He was actually supposed to bring you here to my place to hand ya over to the guy. But he skipped town when ya caught Plunder back at the museum!"
Red X and Arrowette where quiet. They both turned around without another word to Al, as if they where long-time partners who knew exactly what each other where thinking.
"Guy in a space suit… Ya think it's the same guy… The same guy who hired Adonis?", she asked.
"No clue."
-X-
Much later…
Arrowette opened her heavy eyes in a daze, and wondered what had just happened. She stared into space for a moment as her blurry vision cleared. It was a little dark, no one had bothered to turn on the lights and the only illumination came from the moon through the windows. She lay on a couch and Red X sat on the coffee table across from the couch with his back towards her, with a first aid kit next to him.
Her eyes widened and she gasped.
He looked back. "Morning, sleeping beauty. Agh!" Red X pulled something out of his side, from a damaged portion of his suit. "Shrapnel bites…"
She sat up quickly, fighting off panic. "What- Who- What's going on?!"
"Don't remember?" Red X looked back to his side as he tried to remove as much of whatever happened to be embedded in his suit.
"What happened?!", she demanded.
"Well, what's the last thing you remember?"
Arrowette thought for a moment. "Well, Plunder came, we beat 'em... Then we learned about the guy in the space suit again… And… That's it."
"Well, I'll give you a quick summary. Police units came and started shooting knock-out gas at us."
"So where am I?"
"My place."
"Why?!"
"The gas was starting to affect you, so it's not like you could've gotten away on you own. And I wasn't gonna leave ya on some rooftop or alley way. I'm not that low."
"You could've just left me there with the police."
Red X pain no heed to that. He closed up the first aid kit and walked off to his kitchen.
Sensing no danger from the thief, Arrowette stood up and began to have a look around.
Against the wall rested a big screen TV and stereo system, the best that stolen money could buy. Arrowette browsed over Red X's library of classic movies, and his seemingly infinite collection of kung fu movies. Even movies she never knew Bruce Lee played in. On the coffee table where X had been sitting, she noticed a vase. She didn't know if it was a Ming Vase or not, but it was surely expensive, and it was filled with Jolly Ranchers and other candy.
A poster of Bruce Lee rested on the wall in Red X's private little dojo. On the far wall of that dojo, multiple Ninja weapons where proudly hung. She began to venture out of the living room and into the kitchen area where Red X washed his hands and put away bandages.
A flat-screen monitor was hung against the wall next to the kitchen. Arrowette didn't know that it was hooked up to hidden cameras outside the building, activated by motion sensors. An entire cabinet rested against another wall near the front door and the empty coat rack. The cabinet was filled with stolen items and personal trophies. One manikin head inside the cabinet was lucky enough to be wearing a priceless and stunning diamond necklace. Another odd item in the cabinet, Arrowette could only describe as a bat-shaped boomerang.
A few books that Red X had been reading rested on top of each other on the kitchen counter. Confessions Of A Master Jewel Thief, by Bill Mason, was at the top of the small stack.
Arrowette looked up at Red X as he stood in his kitchen watching her. She knew that thievery had made him one the richest young men in the world.
But one thing Arrowette also noticed was that there was no warm or loving thing in the apartment. There was no pictures hanging on the walls or standing on a table. There where no postcards, gifts, or love in this home. The only thing there was to Red X's little world, was Red X.
"Well, welcome to thieving and conniving central. Wadda ya think?"
"It's real…", Arrowette search for the words.
"What? Decrepit? Immoral? Evil?", Red X suggested with a little spite.
"Lonely.", Arrowette said.
Red X didn't say anything. He'd expected another lecture but he didn't expect her say that.
"Is this it? I mean, ya got a lot of cool stuff but… Don't you have any friends?"
"Nope. Just dust bunnies and my pet rock." He walked out of the kitchen and back into the living room. "Well, if you're feeling all rested up, I guess you should be getting on your way."
"What?"
"Can't expect me to keep a pet super hero, can ya? Might ruin my bad guy image."
"Pet?!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah.", X waved it off nonchalantly.
Arrowette searched for a way to keep things up. "In case you haven't noticed, you're a thief, and I'm supposed to be tracking you down! You're under arrest, or something!"
"You mean after I saved your life for the third time?"
"Second! No, I mean- Agh!"
Red X crossed his arms and waited for her to finish reaching the end of her wit.
"Hey, you still haven't told me where this place is?", she said just before she could pull her hair out.
"I told you. My place."
"And where is that?"
Red X chuckled. "Come on, ya think I'd really tell you that?"
"And how'd you expect me to leave? I'd figure out where this is as soon as I jump out the window. What where you planning on doing, knocking me out and leaving me somewhere else?"
"Actually… Yes."
Arrowette raised and eyebrow and had a bizarre look on her face that seemed to read "What the…?". But she actually said aloud, "And why should I trust you?"
"Because I've saved your life the-"
"Oh will you give up with that?! Give me one new reason I should trust you!"
Red X paused and narrowed his eyes. "Cissie King-Jones.", he said slowly.
Arrowette's eyes opened so wide Red X thought they might fall out of their sockets. She stopped breathing and her heart stood still. Red X… knew her real name.
Few people really get the depth of what it means when a foe knows a superhero's "secret identity". He knew her name… He could get her address. He could stalk her, and she'd never be safe ever again. He could do something cliché yet unthinkable like attack what few people she had left who counted as family. He could sell out her identity to any villain or gang who'd just love to know. He, or someone he might sell that information too, could interrogate her for every bit of privileged superhero-related information she knew. Her life might as well be counted as over.
Cissie King-Jones, we barely knew you.
"Who… How do you know that?"
"Remember that tracer I stuck on your ankle that night we went toe-to-toe with Adonis? Well you must've not realized it was there till a while later. I kept track you after I left, just to make sure you weren't following me. After you dropped off Adonis to the police, you stopped at a place and stayed there for the rest of the night. That place was an apartment rented to one Cissie King-Jones, I checked. And you look just like Cissie King-Jones."
Arrowette's face went completely pale.
"But I wasn't sure, till just now I mean. You okay? You look like you're about to pass out."
Arrowette was silent for a moment. "Do you… Do you have a bathroom?", she asked, with hardly any breath at all.
Red X pointed across the room to the bathroom door. "Right over there. I'd be insulted if ya didn't."
"Thanks.", she said faintly. Then she walked over to the restroom.
Red X began passing the time by picking lint off his cape's shoulder. Then he was surprised when he heard Arrowette vomiting up everything in her stomach.
Ten minuets later.
Arrowette sat one X's couch again, clutching a glass of water he'd given her. Red X sat in a chair next to the table and couch. He was quiet, waiting for Arrowette to finishing piecing things together. Maybe he shouldn't have told her he knew who she was.
"You feeling alright now?", he asked, breaking the silence.
Arrowette was quiet, staring forward into space.
Red X waited.
Coming to life again, Arrowette took a deep breath in and set the water on the table. "I give up. What do you want, X?"
Red X raised a confused eyebrow. "Huh?"
"What is it? What are you gonna blackmail me for?"
Red X understood. "Nothing."
Arrowette looked up a bit confused.
"Look, your average villain might jump for joy at this, but I'm not average. I think it's a cheap, cliché, low blow to blackmail someone for their other identity. So, nothing. You don't got to sweet it."
Arrowette blinked a few times. "Wh… What?" The girl was raised with the stereotypical good guy and bad guy rules. She never really learned about the grey side of things. And Red X was big giant gray blob when it comes to the question of right or wrong.
"What's there to get?", Red X asked, spinning a little sarcasms into his voice. "I'm not gonna black mail you, play doomsday with the city, or attack your", he mock gasped, "loved ones."
"But… But why not? You pretty much got me by the throat here."
"I told you. It's a low blow. You want to arrest me, catch me on the streets. If I got a problem with you, I'll take it strait to your face. That's how it works, sweetheart."
Arrowette didn't quite seem to fully comprehend that logic.
"You really don't know how things work on the streets, do you?"
Arrowette did something Red X didn't quite expect. She smiled and gave a quick chuckle. Then she looked down with that faint smile and stared into her reflection in her glass of water. "Yeah, I sorta lived a sheltered life. As I'm sure you already know... My mom, Bonnie King, was…"
"The original Miss Arrowette.", Red X noted.
Arrowette shrugged it off. "Yeah, the wanna be sidekick to Green Arrow. Didn't work out to well for her. Well, she got carpal tunnel syndrome. I know, the irony. So she started training me, her daughter, to be a better archer and superhero then her. Eventually the state got involved and decided she wasn't mother material. Wonder what was their first clue? Anyway, I found myself at the Elias School for Girls. Eventually, I decided I'd be a better hero then my mom ever was."
"So… You're not stepping out of her shadow, you're downright outshining her.", Red X said.
Arrowette had another faint smile and chuckle. "I guess you could say that." She looked back up at Red X, feeling that he was more of a new friend rather then an enemy, and she didn't know why. "What about you, masked man? Where do you come from?"
"Think I'd tell you? Just because I know who you are doesn't mean I want you to know me."
"Come on. Just don't mention any names. What harm could it do?"
"It would help develop a profile of me and narrow down a list of suspects.", Red X pointed out promptly.
Arrowette rolled her eyes. "I wish I was that smart."
"Robin is."
Silence.
Arrowette was solemn again. "He said… Robin said you where a mistake."
Red X perked his head up a little. "A mistake?"
"You know why Robin made that suit, right? To get closer to Slade? Well, it apparently was a bad idea. So, he thinks the whole thing was a mistake, his mistake, including you. Maybe that's why he wants to catch you so bad."
Red X looked down at the suit he was wearing, touching his gloved fingers to the damaged fabric over his chest. "Well, one man's trash is another person's treasure." He looked back to Arrowette.
"Does everything have to be a line or a phrase with you?"
"Maybe."
Arrowette smiled and sighed. "So, what ya gonna do about Plunder and the guy in a space suit?"
"Well, Plunder's been carted away by the police by now. And they'll pay extra care to keep him this time. It'd be pretty embarrassing if they lost another city's criminal twice."
"Yeah, it would be."
"As for Mr. Space Man… I don't think he'll resurface for a while. If he's skipped town over this like Al Melee said, then I won't be hearing from him for a while."
"And what if he just shows up some night."
"You mean like you or the Titans do?"
"Good point." An awkward silence fell again. Then Arrowette spoke again. "So… You're really not gonna tell anyone who I am or do anything?"
"Cross my heart and hope to die."
Arrowette paused. "Thanks… It… means a lot."
"Eh, don't worry about it. Just do a better job at hiding it next time."
"Will do! So, um, what now?"
"Getting kinda late. You'd better get going now."
"And how do you expect me to go without know where here is? You gonna knock me out?", she joked.
"Actually…" Red X quickly pulled out an aerosol can and sprayed. Then Arrowette felt real sleeping, and passed out on the couch.
-X-
Arrowette woke up the next morning in her hotel room's bed when the light shined through the window. Her bow and arrows rested against the far wall, and a note rested on the nightstand next to her. It was undoubtedly from Red X. She lazily reached over to grab the note, and then laughed when she read it.
"Better luck next time…"
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Author's Note: Sorry it took me so long to update. It might take me a while sometimes to update, but don't worry, I always will. Thanks for the reviews.
