"It seemed the world was divided into good and bad people. The good ones slept better… while the bad ones seemed to enjoy the waking hours much more." -Woody Allen

………………………………………………………………………………...

Red X slowly reached behind him and withdrew a small vile and handed it to Arrowette, who was busy trying to pull her feet out of the goop.

"Here.", Red X said.

"What's this?" She took the vile.

"It's a universal solvent. I keep it incase I need to dissolve one of my sticky X's."

"Will it work on this crud?", she referred to the goop around her trapped feet.

"Hope so."

Arrowette opened the vile and began pouring it on the goop.

Red X stared down Fang, the half-spider half-human creature with no clear explanation as to why he had a giant spider for a head.

"You're going down, X.", Fang said.

The thief held up a hand and made a becoming-motion. "Bring it on, Charlotte."

-X-

Jump City.

It was cold on the docks of Jump City. Brother Blood stood on the ledge of a walk way late at night, waiting impatiently. How dare anyone make the Headmaster wait?

He gritted his teeth. "If that buffoon doesn't show up in five minuets…"

"Relax old man. I'm here alright."

Brother Blood turned around. "Old man? You call me out here, make me waste my precious time, and then you call me an old man?!"

Out of a shadow stepped a slim young figure, but he was covered from head to toe in a space suit. Not a typical space suit, like those huge and bulky white ones, but those new thinner and slicker suits. The suit was colored purple however, and Brother Blood's reflection shinned in the helmet's mirror-like visor.

"In case you haven't heard, I have a very large project I'm about to launch that I could be overseeing."

"Then I'll make this quick for ya.", said the young, and slightly arrogant sounding, man. "I want to hire one of your goons. I have a red stain I want removed, if you catch my drift."

Blood smiled. "Well, I'm glad you've been impressed by my students, but they're all quite busy at the moment with a…" His smile turned more into an evil smirk. "…School project."

"So is that a no?", the space man demanded.

"I'm afraid so. Besides, if your 'red stain' lives anywhere in the city, he'll be gone soon enough anyway."

"What do you mean?" The space man probably raised an eyebrow in confusion beneath his helmet.

"Nevermind that, my boy. But if you don't want to get waterlogged, you might want to skip town tomorrow. It's opening night for the student's project." Blood chuckled. "It'll be a blast."

The space man said nothing, but the gaze of his reflecting visor pierced the soul.

Blood looked back at a boat that hung out in the bay. "Sorry to cut this short, but I really must be going now." He motioned for the boat to come, and its captain obediently started its engines and drove forward.

The space man was not happy at all. He couldn't afford to let this old man destroy the city; that would ruin everything. He wanted to defeat Blood now but knew he couldn't. Besides, he wouldn't want to soil his hands on such rubbish as Blood. He was better then that.

As much as the space man dreaded the thought, he'd have to tip off some pathetic "hero" about this. No, not the Titans; he hated them almost as much as he hated Red X. Maybe he'd tell some other loser like Aqualad. Yes… That would work.

The boat pulled up and Blood jumped on with more agility then a man his age should have. "But perhaps we could do business again later. What was it you said your name was?"

"None of your business.", the spaceman said with spite.

-X-

Later.

Fang returned home (Killer Moth's temporary home in Star City) through a set of sliding class doors with a slight pant in his breath. A few bits of red goo clung to his spider legs and an arrow or two was stuck in the back of his leather jacket.

"Fangy-Poo!!!", Kitten exclaimed and jumped from her seat on the couch and hugged her boyfriend.

"Hey, baby."

"Well?! Did you squash that arrow girl like a bug?"

"Um… She had some… Help…", he slowly confessed in fear of her.

Kitten blinked a few times before fully understanding, then her face turned red with rage. "What?! You didn't get her?! Ugh- You are… AGH! Who?! Who could'a been enough to make you run?!"

"Me.", Red X said.

Fang and Kitten both looked over and saw Red X and Arrowette in the corner of the room. Killer Moth was caught in one of Arrowette's net-arrows like a bug in a butterfly net.

Both Fang and Kittens eyes widened with surprised.

"Ya wanted us… Ya got us.", Arrowette said with a mischievous smirk.

"Let's talk.", X said menacingly.

-X-

20 minuets, 4 headaches, and a lot of rope later…

"You'll never make me talk! Do you hear me?! Try as hard as you want!", Kitten screamed at the top of her lungs as she sat tied up to a dinning room chair. "Just watch out! DADDY!!!"

Red X shot an x at Kittens mouth, and it clung over her like a giant pieces of duct tape.

"Thank you!", Killer Moth said, who himself was also tied up to a chair next to Fang. Fang was also tied up to a chair, and his spider legs were tied to an idle ceiling fan above.

"Yeah really… I was getting a headache again.", Arrowette said. "How can you put up with her?", she asked Fang.

"We've… We've been to couple's counseling."

"Get a refund.", Red X said. "Now, let's start over again." He loomed over Fang. "Who hired you? That space-man?"

"Yeah! How'd you know?"

"Forget that. Where is he?", X said.

"We already told you, we don't know. He contacted us electronically.", Killer Moth said.

"Oh, go chew on a curtain. I didn't ask you.", Red X said.

"Tell us what we want to know, already!", Arrowette said.

"I don't know where he is!", Fang repeated.

"Mmm! MmmMmm!", Kitten said from behind the x on her face.

"Ya know, X, something's been bugging me. So far the Space Man's been hiring pretty decent villains. Why's he hiring Fang now? I mean, he's no Slade."

"I'll have you know, my employer thinks I'm more then good enough to take care of you!", he said to Arrowette.

"Yeah! That's a load.", Red X said smugly. "I was there when the H.I.V.E. kids turned him down. If hey thought you were good enough then why-" His eyes suddenly widened.

"X?", Arrowette asked, picking up on the thief's strange vibe.

"It's a trap!", Red X said as he spun to face her, his cape whipping to life.

"What?", the surprised and confused look on her face was near-priceless, but Red X would worry about that later.

"Fang's bait! Space Man tried to hire H.I.V.E. because he didn't expect Fang to beat you, he expects someone else to come and beat us." He spun again to face Killer Moth. "Moth, who else knows you're here in Star City?!"

"Um, not many. Um, Control Freak, Dr. Light, Mad Mod…"

"Mad Mod? Wasn't he just in Jump City yesterday? Turning the whole place British?"

"Yeah, I left to come here just before he struck.", Red X said.

"He got lucky. Real lucky. Told me earlier this morning that he barely escaped and managed to hide out in Metropolis to get some more capital.", Moth said.

"Metropolis? That's pretty far away for an old guy to run. Why all the way to Metropolis from Jump City?", Arrowette asked.

"Besides, running to that town is like jumping into a frying pan.", Red X commented.

"Not if you have those hipno-wheel-things.", Fang said.

Everyone went silent and their eyes widened. Well, except for Kitten who was just as clueless as Fang.

"What? What I'd say?", Fang asked.

"Out! Everyone out, now!", Arrowette ordered.

"Why? What's wrong?", Fang asked.

Sudden, as if to answer his question, the house began to rumble. And then, in the blink of an eye an entire wall was gone, crumbling into dust. A flash of red, another blink later, the rest of the house was being tossed away like it was tissue paper. Dust and rubble filled the air.

When the dust began to clear a voice with a thick British accent could be heard. "Splendid, ducky! Quite splendid in deed!" Mad Mod's silhouette could be made out in the dust. But he wasn't what everyone was staring at.

Above Mad Mod, high in the air where the second story balcony of the house had been, SuperBoy hovered in the air, clad in his red and blue tights and a leather jacket. His eyes were a swirl of black and white. He was under Mod's control.

"'Ello, everyone. 'Ow do you like my newest pupil?", Mad Mod asked with a cackle.

"Red… Please tell me you have a plan.", Arrowette said to X.

The house barely even stood, it now hung open like a wound and was covered in rubble and debris.

"Panicing's at the top of my list.", X said.

"Not the plan I wanna hear!", Arrowette said.

"Then keep him busy." Red X then disappeared.

"What?! Busy?!" Arrowette looked at SuperBoy, who was literally the most dangerous thing she'd ever seen. "How am I supposed to keep him busy?"

The super powered boy floated there in the air and stared at Arrowette with a friendly grin. If he wasn't hypnotized, he'd probably be hitting on her right now.

A man after Red X's own heart… Except totally not.

"What are you waiting for?! Blow 'er to smithereens!", Mad Mod commanded.

Obediently, Superboy's eyes glowed a brilliant red. Arrowette instinctively dived for cover as Killer Moth's dining room floor was vaporized with a giant red beam of energy coming from Superboy's eyes.

Arrowette picked herself off of the dusty ruble on the ground and looked up shocked. Mad Mod laugh his old butt off, and SuperBoy just hovered there.

He's holding back. Red X hid in what was left of Killer Moth's kitchen, carefully tweaking a specific device. If SuperBoy really wanted to, we'd all be vaporized by now. SuperBoy still has some control left, and he's holding back. That'll make this easier for me. Not that it'll be that easy to begin with.

"That was marvelous, ducky! Now this time, really blow 'er away!", Mad Mod called out.

SuperBoy looked Arrowette strait in the eyes, then his own eyes glowed red again.

Arrowette gasped, not sure what to do or even if she could dodge in time. Then, as if swinging to her rescue again, Red X appeared on top of the ruble next to her. He held up a small device in his hands, and pressed the button on it.

Suddenly SuperBoy grasped his ears in pain, throwing his head back and wincing his teeth. And a swarm of tiny moths, the results of Killer Moth's tampering with nature, swarmed from seemingly nowhere and acted as if driven mad by some unknown force.

Red X looked at the whole SuperBoy blew into the floor earlier; it led into Moth's lab, where many of the insane moths were coming from.

"What? What's going on?! Someone tell me!", Mad Mod yelled frustrated. "Never mind it, just vaporize them!"

SuperBoy kept his poor ears covered in an attempt to save them from the pain. He looked back down at Red X and Arrowette and his eyes glowed a brilliant red again.

"Move!" Red X grabbed Arrowette around the waist and dived into the hole with her. SuperBoy fired his laser eye beams just as they'd dived in, the beam burning the tips of X's cape but missing the rest of them.

When the dust and smoke from that blast had cleared, Kitten was missing her eyebrows. If only Red X could've seen that…

"Where'd they go?!", Mod demanded.

SuperBoy let go of his ears and the moths began to calm down and flutter off, as if the sores of their pain had suddenly departed.

"Find them! Vaporize them!", Mod commanded.

-X-

Red X and Arrowette ran down a service tunnel of Star City's sewer system. Moth had built an emergency exit off of his lab leading into Star City's sewer systems below. Soon X and Arrowette entered a larger chamber with multiple sealable entrances to various cannels and tunnels.

"Where are we?", Arrowette asked.

"Looks like some kinda valve point, to control water flow."

"Know it all…", she muttered under her breath. "What was that thing you pressed? That thing that made blue-boy and the moth's go crazy?"

Red X held up the small device. "High frequency emitter. I carried it with me to Star because I knew Killer Moth might be in town. Figured it'd come in handy."

"So why'd it make SuperBoy go crazy too?"

"Wanna know SuperBoy's dirty little secret? He doesn't have true super-strength or anything. It's hard to explain, but his powers are powered by conscious thought. Just like Raven, he has to concentrate at least a little to use his powers.", Red X explained.

"So his super-hearing picked up the high-pitched sound and it hurt his ears? Which kills his concentration so he can't use his powers?"

"Well, it weakens him. It doesn't completely knock out his powers." Red X examined the device. "But it won't take long for him to track us down, and this things not meant to be left on so long."

"Great!", she said sarcastically. "Then what?"

Red X looked at her, a plan already formulated in his brilliant head. "Find Mod. Destroy his cane." He handed her the high frequency emitter. "Take this for protection."

She took the device. "What about you?"

"I'll try to keep the junior boy-scout busy. Mad Mod wont' be too far away from him to give orders so you're job will be easy."

"Wait- You don't seriously think you can hold of SuperBoy do you?!"

Red X pulled out a smaller device from the back of his utility belt. "This one's meant for dogs and animals. I built it for Beast Boy, to keep him from changing into animals. It'll give SuperBoy, and any dog near by, a splitting headache too."

Arrowette shook her head. "X, you can't possibly think you can-"

"Go. I'll try to lead him out into the open where Mod will be easier to spot. On the streets above. I'll meet ya up there."

"X…"

"Go."

Arrowette was silent for a moment, but then reached up and gave Red X a quick kiss on the cheek.

It left X's eyes big and blinking.

"See ya up top." Arrowette ran off to find a ladder up to the surface of the streets above. "And be careful!", she yelled back as she rounded a corner and disappeared down another tunnel.

Red X was still blinking a few times, but shook his head to clear the thought from his head till later. If he was around later that is. He cleared his head, took a deep breath, and looked over what was about to become a battle field.

"Okay… Bring it on."

As if on cue, SuperBoy crashed through the solid brick and masonry across the valve center.

Red X decided he might as well start this. He reached into his belt and threw a few round spheres at SuperBoy, smoke bombs and explosive bombs. SuperBoy didn't bother to dodge, and they all hit him and exploded against the Boy of Steel. Red X continued throwing a volley of explosive shuriken at SuperBoy, which all impacted and exploded on target.

A cloud of thick smoke and gas surrounded SuperBoy. Twin laser beams from his eyes shot forth from the gas and destroyed the area Red X had stood at a second before.

SuperBoy clapped his hands together which cleared away all the smoke and revealed that Red X's body was not among the rubble where his eye beams had hit.

Suddenly, Red X appeared to SuperBoy's left and activated his high-pitch caller device. SuperBoy winced again, but in the blink of an eye had sprinted forward and grabbed Red X's shirt.

Much closer to the ear-splitting sound that only SuperBoy could hear, he winced in pain harder and threw Red X away behind him. X hit the ground with an, "Oof!", and rolled away like an unwanted rag doll.

Recovering quickly, Red X saw a tunnel above him with a ladder that led to a manhole up above. He quickly fired a beam of energy up with his left hand to blow the manhole lid off, then took out his grapnel gun and fired up with his right hand. The grapnel anchored and Red X flew upwards into the tunnel above.

SuperBoy flew towards the tunnel and looked up into it. But as soon as he got there a small but thick disk with a beeping red x fell in front of his face. SuperBoy stared at it in what seemed like slow motion as it flipped end over end with the red x on one side flashing.

Red X flew up the tunnel quickly, pulled by the grapnel, as the disk exploded in the sewer below. Flame peeked into the tunnel below him.

Red X soon got to the open manhole and climbed out of the sewers and onto the street. Retracting his grapnel and putting it away, Red X began to run down the sidewalk. People scattered at the sight of him, but he paid no attention to the fools and bigots.

Gotta run, gotta think, gotta run and think. Where's Mod? He should be around here somewhere. Arrowette should be around her somewhere too. If she was smart she'd be perched on top of one of these buildings ready to sniper Mod's cane. I should be in her sights. It won't take SuperBoy long to catch up, and where is Mad Mod already?!

"Hold it right there, ducky!"

Well that finally answers my question. Red X spun around on his heel and saw Mad Mod carelessly park in his Austin Mini.

"Ya know what I don't get about you, X?", he said as he poked his head out the sun roof.

"My dashing good looks?", X answered.

"No! It's how sometimes you can be a model student, pulling brilliant heist one moment, then be such a naughty little critter the next moment. What with helping the Titans and all."

"Oh, shove it ya old fart!", Red X pulled out some shuriken and held it overhead.

"Such a potty mouth. Well my star-student should take care of that.", Mod said.

Suddenly SuperBoy crashed through the road behind X, and rose high into the air. Every car with a driver still in it immediately backed up and clear away, the rest of them just abandoned their cars and ran on foot.

Red X slowly stepped more into the empty road, favoring open space.

"Teach him a lesson, ducky!"

SuperBoy picked up a car near by, bending its very frame with his grip, and held it over his head like a baseball bat. Its undercarriage faced Red X, it's fuel tank visible.

Red X put away his shuriken, and fired a blast from his hand at the fuel tank.

KABOOM!!!

Red X was blown back from the explosion and rolled on the ground. When the smoke cleared X saw SuperBoy hovering where he had before. Still under Mod's control, he took off his jacket, ruined from the blast.

"Oh boy…" Red X quickly reached for the button on his belt to make him disappear, but before he blinked SuperBoy was instantly holding him by the neck.

He effortlessly lifted X by the jaw on one arm in the air. He pulled X's face a little closer and stared closer at him. Red X activated the surface taser of his suit, sending a surge of electricity into SuperBoy, but it had no affect on the Boy of Steel.

"That's it! Tear him to pieces!", Mad Mob called out.

"I… Ack- I got a better idea!", Red X said. Then he slapped both sides of SuperBoy's head, leaving flashing X's on either side of his face.

Boom!

The x-mines exploded and surprised SuperBoy enough for Red X to slip from his grip. Red X instantly disappeared and reappeared further away and towards SuperBoy's right.

X withdrew two special shuriken and threw one at the fire hydrant across the street. The shuriken exploded on one of the hydrant's valves, spraying water all over SuperBoy. X threw the second shuriken, which had a beeping blue light, into the water's path.

The second shuriken exploded and ice formed in the water and traveled all the way to SuperBoy, in casing him a thick layer of ice. The ice even traveled down the stream of water and froze the hydrant.

Red X disappeared.

And of course Mad Mod had plenty to say about this, but no one was listening to him.

With the slightest twitch, SuperBoy broke free of his icy prison. He listened carefully for X's heartbeat. He couldn't make it out, but what he could hear was that agonizing blare from that high-frequency emitter on X's belt.

Red X sat in front a car catching his breath and planning his next move. Suddenly the car lifted up and flipped over his head, crashing on top of the next car in front of him.

Red X slowly turned around, and did a little friendly wave at SuperBoy. SuperBoy grabbed X and threw him around and at the brick wall of the bank they were in front of.

"Umph!" Before Red X could slide down the wall and slump over, SuperBoy had already grabbed X's jaw and pressed him against the wall. SuperBoy reached at X's belt and grabbed the high-frequency emitter. He snapped it apart in his grasp like a toothpick.

"Any other tricks, boy?!", Mad Mod called out.

"Ack- Just one…", Red X answered despite SuperBoy's grip on his jaw.

Suddenly an arrow hit the brick wall near them, the first and strong high-frequency emitter attached to the shaft of the arrow.

SuperBoy let go and grasped his head in pain.

"What…?", Mad Mod asked with a stupid look.

"Hey!"

Mod turned around in time to see Arrowette's heel slam into his aged face. Then Arrowette continued to give the old man a beating with a fury of kicks and a punch of two.

Mod fell off his Austin Mini and turned around to run, but instead ran into Red X's fist. Mod was sent to the ground with a bloody mouth again when the thief punched his lights out. Mad Mod opened his eyes and reached for his cane, but it was instantly pierced by an arrow; destroying the cane's control on SuperBoy.

Mad Mod quickly got up and sprinted away, but a blur appeared in front of him and he ran face first into SuperBoy's chest.

"Ya know…", SuperBoy finally spoke. "It's not very nice to hypnotize people."

Mod went pale and politely requested to go to prison now.

"Oh no you don't!", Arrowette rushed towards the old man and picked him up by his sweeter vest. Red X leaned against the Austin Mini, holding his side, while Arrowette questioned Mad Mod. "Guy in a space suit hired you, didn't he?! Tell me now!"

Red X raised an eyebrow, and determined that she'd watched a lot of action movies since he last saw her.

"I- I- I- Yes! I went to Metropolis to pick up SuperBoy here, and he contacted me. Told me that he'd pay me a pretty pound to squash you, said to expect Red X to be along. I figured, why not? After all, Star City is just on the way back to Jump City. I thought I'd get a little money in my back pocket before I used SuperBoy to squash the Titans.", Mad Mod explained.

"How'd he contact you all the way in Metropolis?", Red X asked.

"He had the Atomic Skull give me the message. I don't know how he knew I'd be in town. He's a rather bright young lad, that space man…", Mod said.

"Bright young lad?", Arrowette asked.

"Why, yes. He may have been in a nice purple space suit, but there's no mistaking a frame that small. He's just a lad, no older then him.", Mod pointed at Red X. "I saw him on the video disk that Atomic Skull gave to me. That's all I know, lassie, 'onest."

Arrowette let him go and shoved him to the ground.

"When I get back to Metropolis, I'll track down Skull, see if he has anything to say.", SuperBoy offered.

"Thanks. I'll need all the help I can get."

SuperBoy looked up at Red X. "Well, ya put up a pretty mean fight for a regular guy."

"Guess that should mean something, coming from you.", Red X said.

"But I'm gonna have to take you to jail now.", SuperBoy smirked.

"Sorry, Junior Boy Scout, I don't do jail." Red X threw some flash bombs on the ground and they exploded into a bright shining glare, which blinded everyone.

When the flash subsided, Red X was gone.

-X-

Hours later.

"Ugh… What a day." Arrowette, in her civilian guise, opened the door to her apartment and entered.

"I'm tired of playing stupid.", Red X said as he stared out the open window.

"Agh! Geez! You scared the daylight outta me!", Arrowette said.

"Remind me to get ya a fruitcake for it.", Red X said unsympathetically.

"Nice to see you too, honey. How was work?", Arrowette said sarcastically.

Red X returned to the subject at hand in his mind. "I'm tired of playing stupid, of just waiting around while this guy plots his next move."

"Space Man? Well then what do you think we should do?"

"We learned something new about him today. He's young, and he likes the color purple." Red X turned around to face her. "And he's rich."

"What makes you figure that?"

"Hiring out villains isn't cheap, even if they all do fail. The guy's rich and has a lot of connections in Jump."

"Then we should head there."

"Same thoughts here. I'm going back to Jump to dig deeper. You coming?"

"Oh? Is the great Red X asking a commoner like me to tag along?"

"Don't read to much into it. You're already involved, might as well see it through with me."

Arrowette set down her backpack containing her costume, and leaned against the wall with a smirk. "Admit it. You're not half as bad as you'd have people believe. I bet you used to sleep with a night light as a kid."

"Are you mad at me? Did I hurt you in some way?", Red X said with mock-hurt and a raised eyebrow. "You coming are not?"

"I don't know, X… I got a case I'm working on I gotta see though. Nothing I can't handle, but…"

"Fine. I'll wire you some money and you fly to Jump when you're through."

"Serious? You can do that?"

"I steal paintings for a weekend hobby. I think I can scratch together some money."

"Wow, thanks. I mean, wait a min- It's stolen money! Sorta."

"Oh, cry me a river, Johnny Law.", X said with a smirk. "See ya in Jump."

"See ya in Jump."

Red X turned around, grabbed dup the edges of his cape, and dived out Arrowette's window.

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