"Never explain – your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway." –Elbert Hubbard
………………………………………………………………………………...
One month later.
"Finished yet?"
"Keep your snot-munchin skirt on, X. I'm almost done."
Red X leaned against the workbench, hunched over watching Gizmo work in his chair at the device on the bench. Gizmo's workshop never changed that much, aside from getting more and more cluttered with parts and tools. It wasn't a particularly important device Gizmo was making for the young super-thief, just a few parts to help X splice into a museum's security grid. But hey, to Gizmo, a paycheck from X was a good as any crud-sniffing paycheck.
"Hey, Gizmo, have you- Oh, X. I didn't realize you where here.", Jinx said.
Red X and Gizmo turned around and saw Jinx standing in the doorway. She was wearing a dark purple dress with a short skirt.
"What in the world are you doing in that?", Gizmo asked.
"Hey, I thought I'd try it out. What do you think?", she looked at X.
"It, um, looks good on ya. Matches your hair.", Red X began, not sure how dodge this one.
"It looks like a piece of snot, okay? Now leave us alone, we've got work to do!", Gizmo yelled before he and X turned back around to finish their work.
Jinx grumbled, and with a wave of her hand, the device exploded.
But this caused both Gizmo and Red X to stare with a lost daze at the sparking hunk of rubbish. They both slowly turned to Jinx.
"He was building that for me…", Red X said.
Jinx, who honestly thought it was just one of Gizmo's science projects, blushed deeply.
X sighed. "Don't worry about it Gizmo, no extra charge. I'll come back when it's finished later."
"You got it, X." He turned round to give a repeating death glare at Jinx.
That's when Mammoth appeared behind Jinx. "Hey, guys. We just got a call from some anonymous space man."
Red X perked up immediately and paid attention. "Space man?"
"Yeah, he wants to know if we'd be willing to carry out a hit."
"Who's the barf-spitting client this time?", Gizmo asked.
"Didn't say his name. Just wore a space suit."
"We're not hitmen. Besides, we don't work for anonymous clients.", Jinx said.
"Who was the hit for?", Red X asked.
They all looked at X, and Mammoth said, "Some hero girl from Star City. Shot arrows. Looked kinda like a cheerleader."
"Arrowette…", Red X said.
"Yeah, but how'd you know?", Mammoth asked.
"Um, lucky guess." He turned back to Gizmo. "I'm in no rush to get that finished, so take your time. I gotta jet.", he said with his typical smirk. Then Red X ran out of the room passing by Jinx and Mammoth.
As he ran past, his cape brushed up against Jinx and she almost reached out to touch it with her hands but X was already gone.
"Wonder where he went off to in such a hurry?", Mammoth said.
-X-
Red X sped down the highway on his motorcycle. The heavy bike was a prototype to an even better version he had on the drawling board. It was similar to Robin's, but a bit more streamline, black, and had his x-logo painted on it.
He clutched the handle tightly as he burned rubber down the road.
So… Flash Gordon's back is he? Why would Space Man put a hit on Arrowette? Does he think he with her out of the way he'll be able to get to me?
Red X made a sharp turn down the street and continued to break the speed limit.
Unless… It's a trap. Red X cursed under his breath and continued to speed off.
-X-
The next night, Star City.
Cissie, or Arrowette, was hard a work writing in her journal at her desk in her bedroom. Balancing the work of a hero and a person was harder then TV shows made it look like. But she had her priorities strait. Playing hero came first and foremost. She was able to use her archery skills to pay her rent, both as an instructor and winning contests or bets. There wasn't much room for school or friends left, but that didn't really matter anymore.
"Working hard?", Red X said.
Cissie spun around in her chair quickly, scared by X's sudden appearance. "Geez! You almost gave me a heart attack!"
Red X, who had been perched in her now open window, stepped down and stood up in her room. "Sorry about that. Old habit."
Cissie sighed. "So what's up, X? Why in the world you stop by to see me?"
"You've got problems. We need to talk."
Later…
Red X leaned with his arms crossed against a wall in Arrowette's hallway. She was in the bathroom.
"So… The guy in a space suit put out a hit for me, huh?", she asked from behind the locked door.
"Yeah."
"Oh well." She opened the door and was completely dressed in her costume.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"Time for patrol." She walked back into her bedroom and over to the open window X had crawled through.
"They don't send ordinary street punks after superheroes ya know. He sent Plunder after me; he'll send someone after you. Someone good.", Red X argued as he followed her.
Arrowette withdrew a grappling-hook arrow from over her shoulder. "I wouldn't ask a thief to understand." She loaded the arrow into her bow and aimed through the window for the building across the street.
Red X's x-shaped grapnel flew past her anchored to that same building.
Arrowette turned around and saw X holding his grapnel gun and waiting. "You're coming?", she asked.
"Like I'd miss out on a good fight?"
Arrowette was glad. "Thanks, X."
Arrowette fired her arrow, and they both swung off.
-X-
"So what are we doing here again?", Red X asked.
Him and Arrowette were perched on the edge of a rooftop; carefully watching a restaurant that was a little-known gang, hang out.
"Waiting…", Arrowette said without taking her attention away from the restaurant. "Naturally, I'm sure I can count on you to back me up."
"As long as it's not another thief, I don't got a problem taking down anyone who gets in my way.", Red X explained.
"And what if it is a thief?"
"Depends on whether they're good or not. Punks who jack car stereos give 'thief' a bad name if ya ask me."
"'Thief' is a bad name.", she informed him.
Red X said nothing.
"Ya know what I like about you, X? You're a sparking conversationalist.", Arrowette said drolly.
Before the thief could make a sly comeback, a scream was heard coming from a near by alley. The thief and the heroine ran to the other edge of the rooftop, looked over, and saw two men with knives mugging a lady stupid enough to walk down a dark alley at night.
"I'll take care of this. I'm board.", Red X said and dived down.
"I said give me your money now!", one of the men yelled.
"Heads up!", Red X yelled.
The lady and the two men looked up and saw Red X, cape spread to slow decent, plunge towards them. The two men both backed out of the way, scared as if some demon had descended from hell to eat their souls, or something like that. Red X landed in front of and facing the lady, his cape spread on the ground around him.
The thief turned vigilante bolted at man on his left, grabbed the wrist holding the knife, and elbowed the man in the jaw before he even knew what happened. A clean knockout. The man fell to the ground.
Red X turned around saw the second man run away, so he withdrew two special new x's from his belt and tried them. Been meaning to try these out. He hurled them like twin Frisbees, and they flew towards the man, past the man, and each attached to a side of the alley. When the man ran between them again, an electrical field was activated and stunned the man until he fell unconscious to the ground.
Red X smiled smugly. "Ya know that had to hurt."
Before Red X could make another action, the lady had wrapped her arms around his caped shoulders and thanked him from the bottom of her heart. X blinked a few times. Being appreciated was something new.
"Uh, don't worry about it.", he said, trying to pry her off. He was worried for a moment that he'd have to find a crowbar, but she soon let go and looked at him.
"Take care." Red X stepped back into the shadows, pressed the button on his belt, and disappeared.
Back on the rooftop, Arrowette had watched the whole thing. Red X reappeared next to her, and she greeted him with warm smile.
"What?", Red X questioned the smile.
"Ya know, you make a better hero then a thief."
-X-
Two muggings, a bank robbery, and a car jacking later…
"Busy night.", Red X commented.
"Not really. About average for a big city like this."
Red X and Arrowette stalked from on top of another rooftop. Red X looked a little surprised by Arrowette's last comment.
"Could've fooled me.", X said.
"That's because you're always causing the crimes, not cleaning up after them."
"So does that make you society's glorified janitor?", Red X purposed.
"Hey!", she responded.
Something caught the corner of X's eye, and he held up his hand to silence her.
He looked around the rooftop, examining each shadow and every corner.
"What is it?", Arrowette asked, taking a cautious arrow out and pulling it into her bow.
"Not sure yet." Red X flicked a shuriken in his hand and held it up at eye level, ready.
Then X caught a movement out of the corner of his eye again – something coming at him fast – and in instinctively jumped out of the way.
A grey splat of goo hit the ground harmlessly, but a second splat caught Arrowette's feet.
"I can't move!", she yelled as she tried to move free, but the goo held her boots tight the rooftop.
"And I know why…", he said as he looked at his opponent.
Arrowette looked up with Red X. On top of a radio tower on the next rooftop over, supported by his eight jointed legs, Fang watched his prey.
"You wouldn't happen to have a can of Raid on ya, would ya?", Red X asked Arrowette.
