"All warfare is based on deception. There is no place where espionage is not used. Offer the enemy bait to lure him." -Sun-Tzu

………………………………………………………………………………...

Cissie hummed gently to herself as she took a nice hot shower in her relatively nice hotel room, courtesy of a certain thief. She rinsed her blonde hair out in the hot water.

"Ahem.", a voice said.

Her eyes immediately opened wide and she pulled back the shower certain just enough to poker her head out.

Of course, it wasn't an actual threat. It was just Red X leaning against the bathroom counter top.

"Hey, bubbles. Get dressed, it's time to go to work."

"RED X! You scared me!"

"Sorry, I tend to do that to people, sometimes."

Her face, which had just been pale with worry, was now getting cherry red. Red X didn't know if her face was red with rage or embarrassment. "GET OUT!", she yelled.

Red X raised his hands in mock-surrender. "Okay, okay." He turned around to walk out, but glanced back over his shoulder in the hopes of catching a good view.

But as soon as he looked behind him, a bottle of shampoo, thrown by a very agitated Arrowette, impaled him in the face! "Oof!"

"Get out!"

-X-

It was cold, and it was damp.

Two of Chang's former henchmen stood guard in a tunnel deep beneath the city. They were just about ready to fall asleep when footsteps perked their attention. They raised their weapons but immediately lowered them when they recognized their visitor.

The space man.

But this time, the space man walked with a flowing purple cape wrapped around him. The ends of his cape weren't tattered like Red X's, but that was an improvement the space man was considering. The cape clung to his shoulders and collar like a loyal guard, but the rest of it flowed about him weightlessly in the air like a royal entourage. He'd cast aside the whole space suit, and this time wore a purple suit. He also wore a smaller masked-size helmet with a large skull-shaped visor.

He walked between the two men without taking his gaze away from the direction he was heading down the tunnel. He stopped just between them and asked, "How goes the construction?", without even looking at the guards he asked.

"Uh… All goes according to plan, sir.", one guard said, quoting what might as well have been called "The henchman's oath".

"Good. Are the rest of the men ready to intercept Red X?"

"Yes, sir.", the other guard said. "The rest are waiting at the location."

"I have a special job for you two.", the space man said.

The two guards looked a little surprised and curious.

The space man walked forward again, and after a few paces said, "Follow me."

Obediently, the two guards followed behind him, becoming as much of an entourage to him as his flowing cape was.

-X-

With a roar of the engine that sounded like an angry hornet, Red X downshift his bike and accelerated as he drove further up the hill. Clinging tighter to his back was Arrowette, who was about ready to say her prayers for fear of Red X's driving.

The road ahead was illuminated with the light from the bike's single skull-shaped headlight. The skull-light projected a light across the road in the shape of a skull, a fore boarding warning to all who dare oppose it.

Red X approached a steep curve on the little used road that was surrounded by trees and woodland. He took the curve sharply and quickly, and Arrowette winced and wrapped her arms tighter around his abdomen.

"Hey, can ya squeeze any tighter? I can still breath.", Red X asked her sarcastically.

"You drive like a maniac!", she screamed over the engine. Her blonde hair would be flowing in the wind, but X had been courteous enough to bring along a helmet for her, which she currently wore.

"I know! Fun, huh?"

"Where did you learn to drive like this?"

"Around.", X simply answered.

"Slow down or we're gonna crash!"

"O ye of little faith.", Red X said.

"Can you even see where you're going?", she asked, perking her head up a bit more.

"I can see everything." To him, the world was bathed in the shades of black and white and green presented to him by his mask's night vision optics.

"What happens if we do crash?"

"A force field bubble-thing would engage and we'd have a relatively soft and bouncy landing, while my bike was utterly totaled." He paused, then shrugged. "But, hey, you know what they say about any landing you can walk away from."

It would later be that very same force field that would prevent Red X from going splat on the pavement when his bike would be nearly totaled in a race with Ding Dong Daddy and Robin. But that was a story yet to come.

Arrowette cocked her helmet-clad head to the side a tad. "A force field? To protect us when we crash?"

"That's right."

"Where in the world did you get your hands on one of those? The Pentagon!"

"Gizmo.", he simply answered. "He used something similar not to long ago on the Titans when they invaded The Hive's first headquarters."

Arrowette rested against his back and sulked. "It's not fair… You have all the toys. And I'm the crime fighter!"

Red X chuckled. "Maybe if you're a good girl, Santa-X will get you something for Christmas." He throttled his bike and continued to speed away.

-X-

Kyle Bensly lived in a small cabin on the woodland outskirts of Jump City. Red X pressed a button or two on his bike's console, and suddenly the bike's loud roar quieted to a whisper. The headlight deactivated as well.

Arrowette was impressed with the bike's stealth mode. The only noise to be heard was the wind passing by, and even that died soon as Red X slowed down.

X parked the bike behind a large tree and he and Arrowette got off. She set her helmet on the seat.

Red X pressed a button on his belt and suddenly fractal armor plates on the bike extended. The plates slickly covered the bike's consol, wheels, and undercarriage. The handlebars even retracted into the bike's body and were covered by extending fractal plates. And to top it all off, the bike went "Beep beep" at the end.

Arrowette was quite amused and impressed by that, and turned to X with a wry smile. "That's your car alarm?"

"You think that's funny? Wait till you hear its novelty horn." He walked off towards the cabin and she followed with a chuckled.

Silently they approached it. Red X was a little impressed by her moderate stealth skills, but Red X moved like a wraith. With Red X leading the way, they soon penetrated the perimeter of the cabin and leaned against a wall.

"Now what?", she whispered?

"Grapnel gun's too loud.", he whispered back. Red X reached into his belt, past his cape, which draped around him. Then he removed a small grappling hook and cable. After a few swings to build momentum, X threw the grappling hook to the roof and it anchored.

Arrowette and Red X stole their way onto the cabins roof silently, where X put away the hook and cable then looked around.

"Come on, there's a sky light over here.", she said quietly.

"No, wait.", he said. Then he looked around at nothing in particular, as if sensing the air around him.

"What's wrong?"

"Not sure yet."

"Don't tell me your thief-sense is tingling."

Red X looked at her and gave her a mixture of a smirk and a glare. "Don't the hairs on the back of your neck ever stand when you're on a stake out? Right when something's about goes wrong?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Never underestimate a gut feeling." He draped the cape around himself tightly and looked around once more for anything. "Maybe it's nothing.", he said. "False alarm."

"Maybe your gut feeling was just gas.", she suggested.

Red X raised a wide eyebrow. "Did you just make a joke?"

"Hey, I've made jokes with you before."

"Not many." He walked past her, his cape disguising his footsteps and making it seemed as if he merely floated on air. "Up till now I've been the humor for both of us."

"Can we just get inside and beat up Kyle Bensly already?"

Red X knelt down beside the skylight, and inspected it for any sign of an alarm system. "Nothing. We're clean, I think." X removed a lock pick from his glove and quickly defeated the padlock on the skylight. He put away the lock pick and lifted the skylight's window plate just barely a centimeter. Red X listened for any alarm to sound, but none did. He listened for stirring within the house, but none came. He quickly scanned though the police radio receiver in his mask to see if any police would pick up a silent alarm, but all he heard was Detective Falco asking another officer if Maggie Sawyer over with Metropolis P.D. had sent some files yet.

Red X looked over his shoulder and gave Arrowette a thumb's up. Then he opened the skylight completely and dropped in. Arrowette slid herself over the edge, and Red X helped her down.

Inside there was no light, no sound, only darkness.

"Spooky.", Arrowette whispered to herself.

Suddenly lights were turned on, bathing the room in light. To Red X and Arrowette, it seemed as bright as the surface of the sun because their eyes were used to the dark. X pulled up his cape and shielded both of them from the glare as their eyes adjusted. As soon as the light no longer seemed so monstrous, X let go of his cape.

Both the thief and the heroine's eyes went wide when they saw at least ten of Chang's former henchmen standing in front of them. The henchmen all raised their weapons and pointed them at X and Arrowette.

"Oh this is bad…", Arrowette said.

The two stepped closer to each other, almost back to back.

Red X paused for a moment. "Arrowette… If we don't make it out of here in one piece… I just want you to know…"

Arrowette looked to X, anxious to hear what kind of confession the master thief was about to make. "Yes…?" He had her attention, and secretly, her hopes too.

"This is all your fault and I blame you."

"WHAT!"

Then Red X spotted something out of the corner of his eye. Above him. A silhouette of man standing past the skylight they'd just opened. Whoever he was, he even had a cape wrapped around him that gently blow in the night breeze.

"You have got to be kidding me, X!", Arrowette still ranted, blissfully unaware of the figure above them.

"As cliché as this is about to sound…", the figure said, and then Arrowette noticed him too. "At least we meet, Red X."

Red X's eyes narrowed in suspicious and mistrusting thought.

"I gotta admit, you're not easy to track down."

"Space man…", Red X slowly spat out.

"Congratulations. Barbara, tell him what he's won.", he said mocking a game-show host, then he suddenly turned around and disappeared out of sight.

"Oh no you don't!", Red X immediately whipped out his grapnel and fired. The grapnel few through the skylight and anchored somewhere outside it. Red X retracted the line and flew upwards though the skylight.

"X! What about me!", Arrowette yelled back, but it was too late, Red X was gone. She looked back down at all of Chang's old henchmen, holding their weapons ready.

Arrowette cursed silently, then pulled out a net arrow, drew it into her bow, and fired.

-X-

"Get back here you Star Wars reject!", Red X yelled as he ran down the hill in the woods. He'd hate to admit it, but he had lost sight of the Space Man past the trees and vegetation. Despite thermal and night vision, he hadn't caught any sign of the man who'd been hunting Red X for months.

Red X exited the thinning vegetation to find himself in a grassy field outside the wooded area. Red X desperately glanced around for the Space Man. Had he disappeared? Was this a trap he'd set up?

Then it donned on Red X that he left Arrowette with all those henchman. Red X barked out the worst curse he knew and turned around to run towards her again.

"Stop, my friend!"

Red X immediately stopped and spun on his heels around. A large man stood up from hiding in the tall grass, and it only took him one glanced at his silhouette. "Katarou?"

"Hello, X-san."

"What are you doing here!"

"Do not worry, my old friend. You're companion shouldn't be seriously hurt. He's not after her. He's after you… As am I."

Red X eye's widened. "You…? You're working with him!"

"Please realize, X-san, that this isn't personal. This is just business. You should understand that. Although, that's never of much consolation, is it?"

Red X was just plain to stunned for words. Everything he wanted to say kept tripping over itself in his mind, never reaching his mouth.

"I understand you are surprised, X-san. So I will clear some things up for you. I am merely here to fight you. Whether I win or lose is of no concern to my employer, who you call 'Space Man'".

Red X was quiet for a moment as his thoughts gathered. A gentle breeze blew past them, sending waves through the tall grass. "So… You're just here to stall me then, aren't you?"

"Perceptive as always. I'm pleased to know your skills haven't dulled."

"Arrowette!" Red X turned around, but a small folly of shuriken hit a tree Red X was about to run past. Red X stopped in his tracks and looked back.

"My skills have not dulled either. And pay no mind to your friend. She shouldn't come to any real harm."

"So if Space Boy's got all these henchmen, why does he need you?"

"Because you've defeated Chang's men before. I'm here to… Soften you up."

Red X silently glared back at Katarou over his shoulders.

They were both silent for a long time.

"Alright then…", X said at last. "I guess we're finally gonna have that spar we've always promised each other.", he turned around to fully face his larger opponent.

"Arigato, X-san", Katarou said and took a fighting stance.

"Wait.", X said. "Let's make this interesting…"

"You have a wager in mind?"

"If you win, you can hand me over to Space Man. But if I win… You tell me who he is and everything you know about him."

Katarou smirked. "Very well then…"

Red X took his his own modified version of Bruce Lee's Bai-Jong stance. "No weapons?"

"Only melee ones. No explosives."

"That goes double for you." Red X charged forward, his cape following him like a faithful ward.

What is he doing? X-san would know better then to charge a larger opponent! But out of reflex, and not passing up a good opportunity, Katarou sent a fling kick out aimed for the thief's head.

Red X crossed his arms to block and grab the kick with an x-block (the irony of the name of that move always made him laugh). Then with Katarou's leg up, Red X kicked his standing out from under him and Katarou fell.

When Katarou looked up from his fall, he saw Red X jump up and above him with his leg pulled high above his head. Katarou rolled away quickly just as Red X's heel slammed into the ground in a furious ax-kick. Katarou rolled back onto his feet.

"I underestimated you!", Katarou said with a smile and punched.

Red X brought his hands back up to guard and slapped away the punch. Katarou swung his leg into a round kick, but X jumped back as the kick came an inch from touching his stomach.

Knowing that an opponent is usually off balance after an attack, and wanting to close the distance, Red X rushed back again and caught the unexpecting Katarou with a furious jab to the jaw. Then X punch him again with a left cross and then again with a right jab. Then X began a furious attack of hand attacks at close range. Palm jab. Crossing punch. Chop to the jaw. Ridge hand.

But X got too focused in his attack and never noticed when Katarou kneed him in the stomach till it was too late. "Oof!", was all that came out of X's mouth when the air was knocked from his lungs. Then Katarou picked him up by the shoulder of his cape and punched him again hard in the stomach. X tried to yell but no air would come.

No air. But X still had his wit and his reflexes.

Red X extended his arm and sent a savage elbow into Katarou's face. The large Asian man's head reeled back from the blow. His elbow extended, Red X further swung that same arm back and then back fisted Katarou head. Before Katarou could recover from the blow, X raised his leg and sidekicked Katarou's stomach, which both hurt him and pushed X away from Katarou. Katarou's grip on X's cape was easily lost after those blows.

Red X landed on the ground and held his stomach, coughing for air.

Katarou stood dizzily, desperate to shake off the repeated blows to his head. Katarou wasn't worried, despite the taste of blood in his mouth. He was a tough man.

Katarou charged at Red X again before X could completely catch his breath. Red X jumped back to dodge, but it wasn't fast enough and Katarou caught him in his grasp. Then Katarou spun around and threw the much smaller and lighter thief.

Red X hit the ground and rolled through the grass. He looked up to see Katarou reach into the thick grass and pull a wire.

BOOM!

The ground around X was littered with small explosions and smoke.

"I thought-", he said weakly, then inhaled more. "I thought you said no explosives!" Red X rushed out of the smoke parallel to Katarou and sent a swarm of shuriken at the large Asian man.

"I lied!" Katarou fell backwards and made his large frame as small at target as possible as the shuriken flew around him and nipped at his clothes. As soon as Katarou stood back up, his face was impaled with X's heel from a flying sidekick.

Katarou flew back but grabbed X's legs, taking X down with him. Katarou fell down into the grass and Red X fell on him. Then Katarou rolled over onto of X and pinned him down.

I hate grappling!, X thought. Katarou quickly manipulated the smaller thief in to a chokehold, but to his surprise, Red X small size and flexibility allowed him to quickly escape his grasp. Katarou grabbed him again and pushed him deeper into the shadowy graves beneath the tall grass.

"I am victorious!", Katarou said.

"Guess again, big guy!" Suddenly a search of electricity rocket into Katarou's body, and Katarou screamed and jumped off Red X.

Red X stood up from the grassy depths, his hand sparking with bolts of electricity.

"I thought you said no weapons!", Katarou said as he silently sulked on the ground.

"Well, one good deed deserves another.", Red X said as he deactivated the charge.

Katarou shrugged it off and jumped high into the air. Red X dashed to the side to dodge the incoming attack and succeeded. He spun on his heel and brought his hands back up into a guarding modified Bai-Jong stance. Katarou attacked with a spinning heel kick, and X stepped back to dodge.

What happened next seemed to happen in slow motion. Their bodies not fast enough to change the course of fate and the outcome of this fight.

Katarou jumped into the air again and chambered his leg for another sidekick.

Red X jumped back.

Katarou landed and kicked where X had once been.

Red X darted forward, stepping on Katarou's kicking leg with his own left leg.

Katarou winced in the pain at the stress on his knee.

Red X stepped forward, using Katarou as a stepping-stone. He chambered his right leg behind him.

Katarou's eyes widened.

Red X jumped off Katarou's leg with a step from his own left foot, and brought his right knee forward from behind him.

CRACK!

Red X, slightly in mid air, kneed Katarou in the face! Katarou's head reeled back harder then before, blood spilling from his nose and mouth. As Katarou fell back and away, Red X raises his right knee away and kicked Katarou again with his right leg!

The world stopped. Time stopped. The slow motion they'd been subject to had completely stopped, if just for one glorious moment to Red X. Katarou was flying backwards head first, Red X above him with his right leg completely extended into Katarou's chin.

Then time resumed it's normal pace, and Katarou hit the ground hard. Red X, not planning his landing, fell to the ground too on his back.

Nothing.

Silence.

The wind blew over the grass.

Red X rose from the grassy depths and stood upright, his caped draped around him as if welcoming him home from a victory.

Red X slowly walked towards the area of bent grass where Katarou laid. He stood above the giant martial artist on the ground.

Katarou fought to keep conscious, and spit blood from his mouth into the grass. "I… Concede."

"Not pulling another dirty trick on me, are ya?", Red X said, concealing his own pains and fatigues.

Katarou shook his head.

Red X reached down to help up his opponent.

Katarou reached up and accepted the help, and sat up with X's help. "The man… Who has hunted you…", Katarou referred to Space Man, keeping his end of the bargain.

"Space Man?"

"Yes… X-San…", Katarou put a hand to his sore head. "I don't know who he is. He approached me with this job. Said to wait here for you and fight you anyway I want. But I couldn't end your life. He said that would be his job."

"Great… That all you know? Where is he?"

"I don't know anything more. But I suspect he's returned to the cabin in the woods."

"Oh perfect!", X said sarcastically and turned to run, but stopped.

Katarou silently hung his head low.

"Ya know… Big guy… I once heard a story about a martial arts master somewhere in the mountains of Asia."

Katarou perked his head up.

"He's called the True Master. If you can find him and train under him…" Red X smirked. "Then ya gotta promise to give me a lesson or two of what he taught ya."

Katarou smiled. "Yes... I will. Thank you, my friend, X-Sama."

X almost smiled under his mask. "No prob… Big guy. Maybe next time we see each other, I'll take you up on that green tea." Then Red X dashed off into the woods again.

Katarou, reassured that his friendship with Red X had not been broken, laid back down in the grass and rested.

-X-

Red X ran as fast as he could though the forest. He cared nothing for stealth, breaking every twig on his way. Soon he came upon the cabin and picked his pace back up.

Red X reached the front door and kicked it in, reducing the door to splinters. "Arrowette!", he yelled.

But no one was home. Inside was a mess. Blast marks, red goo, ice from freeze rays, and countless different arrows decorated what was left of the inside of the cabin.

"Looking for her?", a voice said from behind.

Red X spun around quickly, and his eyes widened again.

The Space Man, complete in his purple suit, cape, and helmet, stood upon a near by hill. One of Chang's henchmen stood beside him. And worst of all…

Arrowette was on her knees in front of him. She was held hostage by her own bow, which was around her head; it's wire digging into her neck. Her hands were up trying to pull the taunt wire away, put the Space Man's grip was on the bow itself. He kept the bow pulled and the wire taunt, preventing Arrowette from speaking. She tried to say something, but only coughed and tried not to choke.

Red X was struck silent and shocked. Not a single thought flew through his head.

Arrowette coughed and managed to get out "I'm… sorry…".

"Oh, and my name is not 'space man'", the man in the purple suit said. "You may address me as Haze."

Red X clenched his fists and narrowed his eyes into deep glare.

-X-

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Author's Note: Sorry it took me so long to update.

I'd like to take a moment to thank all the reviewers who've noted my "great grasp on what makes X tick" as Super Chocolate Bar says. I put a lot of work into understanding Red X, and it's nice that it's noticed. Thanks.