Chapter 23: Family Matters
Svetlana was just about to lock up her office for the day when she spotted one of her research scientists waiting outside for her.
"Dr. Cobalt." She smiled. "You're here later than usual."
"Well, I just wanted to remind you that my maternity leave starts next week." The scientist explained, rubbing her plump belly. "And I wanted to thank you again for offering paid maternity leave."
"Oh, think nothing of it, Wanda." Svetlana waved it off as they made their way towards the elevator. "You are one of my best researchers, after all. Your contributions to our pharmaceutical studies are invaluable. It was the least I could do."
"Well, thank you, regardless, Mrs. Crimsonoff-Kashonovvy."
"So, do you know what it is, yet?" Svetlana couldn't help but ask.
"No, my husband and I want it to be a surprise." Wanda smiled. "If it's a boy, Martin wants to name him Rex. But if it's a girl, I want to name her Platinum, after my grandmother. That way, I can call her Tina for short."
"Well, I wish you, your husband, and your new child the best of luck, Dr. Cobalt." Svetlana nodded as they reached the lobby and began to go their separate ways. "And I'll see you in six months from now."
With that, Svetlana made her way to her own car to drive home. As she drove through downtown, she noticed an abundance of men and women wearing white sweaters. One of them was currently spraying a picture of a serpent on an alleyway wall. Making a mental note to investigate this activity later, she continued out of the city towards her farm. Mikhail and Cyan were visiting Celena and the girls for the weekend, which meant that she'd have the house to herself.
But once she arrived home, and reached for her keys in her pocket, she noticed that the lock on her front door had been seriously damaged. As if someone had kicked the door open. The Crimson Crusader clenched her fists in preparation for a fight and slowly opened the door. But instead of any robbers, all she found was an eight-year-old boy with three stab wounds and a bullet wound bleeding out on her living room floor.
Svetlana hurried to his side and used her Huntress Eyes to inspect the extent of his injuries. He was still breathing, but his heart rate was slowly beginning to falter. She took out her scroll and dialed the emergency hotline.
"This is Svetlana Crimsonoff-Kashtonovy requesting police assistance as well as an ambulance," the secret vigilante declared over the scroll to the operator. "I just found a young boy unconscious on my property and, well, I haven't seen wounds or scars this bad since the Menagerie Civil War, and I very much doubt that they were self-inflicted or accidental."
A few minutes later, an ambulance arrived to carry the boy to the nearest hospital while Commissioner Maroon, her son, and two detectives arrived to question the philanthropist on what happened.
"So, Mrs. Crimsonoff-Kashtonovvy, just explain to us exactly what happened." Detective Neon requested as he took out his notepad.
"Like I said, I came home from work, and the door was kicked in." Svetlana explained, patiently. "Then I saw that boy lying on the floor, so I called for an ambulance."
"Do you remember what time this happened?"
"Um… six-o-clock, I think," Svetlana rubbed her chin in thought. "Yes. Yes, that's right."
"And you've never seen that boy before?"
"No. Never." She shook her head. "I'm not sure why he came to my house. But if you do find out, I'd be happy to help in any way I can."
"Thank you, ma'am. That'll do for now." Detective Cash nodded. "We're on our way to the hospital now. We'll let you know what we find out."
"Thank you, officers."
Once the police left the property, Svetlana hastily made her way down to the cave beneath her home and changed into Krasnaya. She entered her warthog and drove off into the city.
Meanwhile, at the hospital, the doctors managed to stitch up the boy's injuries and stabilize his condition. Three officers were left to guard him until the commissioner arrived in case someone else tried to hurt him again. "Hey, I think he's waking up." One officer pointed out as he saw the boy's hand twitch.
Suddenly, the boy's eyes snapped open and he clutched one officer's wrist in an iron grip. The officer screamed in pain before receiving a punch to the ribcage. After that, the boy jumped to his feet on the table and tackled another officer to the ground, mercilessly punching him until his nose broke. The third policeman grabbed the boy from behind and pulled him off of his comrade. In response, the boy bit down on the man's hand, drawing blood and prompting the officer to release his grip.
At the same time, Commissioner Maroon and her son arrived at the hospital to check on the young patient. On the way, they encountered a bloodied and beaten policeman stumbling down the hall. "C-commissioner!" He called out.
"Officer Greene?" Jane caught the man before he hit the floor, trying to help him to his feet. "What's going on?"
"Th-that b-b-b-boy!" Officer Greene gripped the collar of the commissioner's coat to pull himself up. "Th-th-that's no kid! It's a wildcat in disguise! It's a tiny psychopath!"
Before she could question her officer's insane behavior, someone threw a heart monitor through the room's window. Everyone glanced through the shattered glass to see an eight-year-old boy violently attacking two other policemen with an IV pole, hissing like a wild animal. Having had enough, the other two officers ran out of the room and down the hall.
"Is it illegal to tase a kid?" Cash asked.
However, thanks to Krasnaya's training, Boris noticed a small scar over the boy's Adam's apple and deduced the source of the problem.
"Hey, mom, let me in there."
"You sure? He doesn't exactly look like he wants to talk to us."
"The kid woke up in a strange place after passing out from trauma caused by a number of cuts and bruises only to find himself surrounded by a bunch of folks carrying guns. Can you honestly blame him for being scared?" Boris couldn't help but ask. "Besides, I get the feeling we wouldn't get him to talk regardless…because he can't."
"What do you…?" …and that was as far as Jane got before she too noticed the scar on the boy's throat, causing her to nod in understanding. "Okay, I'll give you a chance, but be careful."
"That's the plan," her son remarked before cautiously entering the room. The patient wielded the IV pole like a spear, prepared to strike again, hissing once more for intimidation. As Boris approached the boy, he began to wave his hands around in an intricate manner. {"It's okay. We're not going to hurt you. We want to help."}
The silent boy arched an eyebrow at Boris' gesture and set the pole down. Reluctantly, the boy took a few steps closer to him, waving his own hands in a similar manner. {"You know sign language?"}
Boris smiled and continued to sign. {"I have a deaf aunt. I've been able to sign since I was five."}
The boy smiled and took another step forward. {"I can hear. I just can't talk."}
{"My name is Boris Maroon. My mom's the commissioner."} Boris explained as he sat down and took a candybar out from his backpack. {"Hungry?"}
The mute boy rubbed his grumbling stomach and sat down in front of Boris. He snatched the candy out of his hand and inspected the wrapper to make sure it hadn't been tampered with. {"I'm Cassian."} He signed before scarfing down the candybar.
"Okay, Cassian." Boris nodded, happily. "Do you have any family members we could contact?"
Suddenly, Cassian bolted upright with an expression of horror. {"My sister!"}He signed, frantically. {"A bunch of bad men broke into our apartment with guns! My sister told me to run and get help, but I got shot on the way out the window! That's why I passed out!"}
"Easy, easy," Boris called out while holding his hands up in a calming manner. "Like I said, my Mom is the Commissioner here: I'm sure she'd be more than willing to help keep an eye out for your sister, but in the meantime, what can you tell us about those men you mentioned?"
Cassian nodded and sat back down, breathing heavily. {"I don't know. I've never seen them before. They were all wearing masks. And then they started shooting. My sister told me to run, but…"}
Boris rolled up his sleeves and inched closer to the boy. "Okay, can I try something?" He asked, holding his hands out towards Cassian. The mute boy flinched and leaned backwards. "Don't worry, it won't hurt. I swear. I just wanna help."
After a few moments of hesitation, Cassian reluctantly took Boris' hands into his own. The teenager's aura began to glow as his semblance - Mnemonic Insight - allowed him to view the recent past through Cassian's eyes. Cassian's sister had just picked him up from school and was in the middle of preparing dinner when a group of men dressed in white broke the apartment door down. His sister picked up the pot of boiling water and splashed it in one of the intruder's faces, then she told Cassian to run. But instead, Cassian refused to abandon his sister, running up to another intruder and biting his leg. Unfortunately, this allowed the criminal to stab him in the shoulder, arm, hip, and then throw him aside. Cassian struggled to get back up, but his sister picked him up and shoved him out of the fire escape window. A bullet grazed his sister's shoulder, and struck Cassian in the arm, knocking him out of the fire escape and into a dumpster below.
The shock prompted Boris to let go of Cassian's hands. "O-okay, stay right here! I'll be back! I promise!"
Cassian watched as Boris left the room, then noticed that he had left his backpack behind. The mute boy curiously rummaged through the backpack to see if Boris had another candybar stashed inside, but instead found something much more interesting; a notebook full of sketches. Meanwhile, out in the hallway, Boris was reporting what he saw in Cassian's memories.
"Not to tell you how to do your job, mom, but I think you'll want to put out an APB on a woman in her early twenties, green eyes, gray hair, about six feet tall, and possibly bleeding to death."
Jane turned to Sam and Ayisha. "Well? You heard him! Go!" The two detectives nodded and headed off to put in the call, then she turned back to her son. "What else did you find out?"
"This has to be the work of some kind of gang." Boris mused out loud. "They were all wearing white. And they were well-armed. Uh, the apartment number was 2-B on Blacker Street."
"A gang wearing white on Blacker Street," Jane slowly called out before pinching her forehead. "There's a joke here somewhere, but I'd rather not deal with it right now."
"Good thing Holly's not around then," Boris declared with a slight smirk.
Elsewhere Holly couldn't help but sneeze before grumbling about how she felt like she had missed out on a good opportunity for a joke.
Back at the hospital, Boris had excused himself to the bathroom to secretly contact his mentor. "Magenta calling Krasnaya. Do you read?"
"Go ahead." The vigilante's voice replied over the communicator.
"Listen, I've got a kid here at the hospital who was attacked by some gang. His sister's missing, too."
Krasnaya cleared her throat. "Hm, yes. Interesting that you should mention that. I'm currently chasing a lead on this. Azure and Cat Burglar are indisposed at the moment, so you and I will have to divide and conquer this one. You stay with the boy and keep him safe. I'll find the gang."
"Yes, ma'am." He nodded before pocketing the communicator.
As Boris re-entered the room, he couldn't help but notice Cassian going over some of his sketches of Krasnaya, as well as how the young boy had created some of his own with some of the pens and paper that had been in his backpack.
Boris smiled and sat back down next to Cassian. "So, big Krasnaya fan, huh?"
Cassian nodded, happily.
Boris noticed one drawing he hadn't sketched; someone dressed in a gray costume similar to Magenta's. "Who's this supposed to be?" He asked, pointing to the drawing.
Cassian blushed and pointed to himself.
"Hey, it's cool," Boris said with a smile. "You aren't the first kid who dreamed of being a superhero and you probably won't be the last. Just stay true to yourself and I'm sure you'll become a hero in your own tranquil way."
Cassian just smiled in response. Ten minutes later, Detectives Cash and Neon returned to report to their commissioner.
"The safe house is set up, Commissioner." Neon nodded. "We're ready to escort Cassian."
"How's Boris doing?" Cash asked.
In response, Jane proudly pointed inside the room. Inside, Boris was showing Cassian how to use a scroll; specifically, how to send text messages. "Now, check this out; if you put a semicolon in front of a close-parentheses, you get a…"
Cassian's face lit up and winked at Boris to show that he understood. {"That's cool!"} He signed.
Jane placed a hand over her heart as she watched her son get along with the little boy.
Ayesha meanwhile couldn't help but give a whistle. "First Hope and now Cassian: that boy of yours sure is developing a skill for bonding with younger children."
"Yes, yes he is." Jane smiled before entering the room. Cassian suddenly jumped up and nervously hid behind Boris as the commissioner knelt down to try and talk to him.
"It's okay, it's okay." Boris promised, gently. "This is my mom."
Cassian meekly peeked out from behind his friend to make eye contact with the commissioner.
"Hi, sweetie. I know you're scared, but we're going to find your sister." Jane smiled.
Cassian smirked. {"Thank you,"}, he signed out, {"You're just as nice as your son described."}
"Good to know," Jane declared before gaining a teasing grin. "I have some stories about my son that I could share with you if you're interested."
"NO!" Boris instantly called out with a blush, already anticipating the embarrassing stories his mother had in mind.
Jane shook her head in amusement. "Listen, Cassian, until we find your sister and figure out why those men were trying to hurt you, we need to take you to a safe place. So we're going to have to leave this room, okay?"
Cassian looked up at Boris who nodded to assure him. Reluctantly, the mute child took Jane's hand and followed her out of the building with Boris close behind. Once they were outside, Cassian suddenly spotted a red dot on the back of Jane's head. Across the street, on top of a neighboring building, the deadly assassin Fatalblow was preparing to take out her target.
"Goodnight, commissioner." Fatalblow grinned as her finger began to squeeze the trigger.
However, back on the ground, Cassian had quickly traced the source of the red dot and spotted the sniper's glare. Acting on impulse and using all of his strength, he knocked Commissioner Maroon to the ground and stood in front of her. Back atop the building, Fatalblow gasped in shock at the sight of the boy in her sights. While his behavior confused the other officers, Cassian pointed towards the building and drew Cash's attention to the same glare.
"Sniper!" She called out and drew her own gun to open fire.
The other policemen joined her in the shootout, prompting the attempted assassin to flee from her perch. She cursed under her breath as she ran, but decided that this would only serve as a minor setback. She was just about to reach her vehicle when a hammer struck her ankle and tripped her up. She rolled with the fall and instinctively shot towards the attacker. But soon after, a grappling line fired a blade into her gun and pulled it out of her hands.
Krasnaya stepped out of the shadows with a furious glare. "You should never have come back to my city, Fatalblow."
"Trust me, kid, you don't want to do this." Fatalblow growled as she drew her katana.
"I've beaten you once." Krasnaya declared, wielding her own sickle and hammer.
"You got lucky once." Fatalblow corrected. "I'm the most dangerous woman on this planet. And all you are is in the way."
Krasnaya threw down a smoke grenade to give herself cover, then activated her Huntress Eyes to keep tabs on her opponent. But somehow, Fatalblow not only disappeared from her sights, but managed to get behind her and knock her down.
"Oh, please. Fighting blind was one of the first tricks I learned after I lost my eye." The assassin bragged.
In response, Krasnaya loaded a cartridge of fire dust into her sickle and took a more direct approach.
"Slow." Fatalblow remarked as she dodged a slash. "Sloppy." She dodged again. "Sad." She dodged once more and kicked the sickle out of Krasnaya's hand.
Krasnaya tried to hit her opponent with her hammer, but Fatalblow blocked the strike with her free hand and sliced her thigh with her katana in the other. Krasnaya grunted in pain before being kicked aside.
"Still think you can beat me?" Fatalblow mockingly asked her wounded opponent.
"Maybe, maybe not…but then again, I haven't been trying to beat you: only stall you," Krasnaya replied in a similarly mocking fashion.
"What do you…?" …and that was as far as Fatalblow got before her remaining eye widened in realization. Sure enough, when she turned to where her previous targets had been, she found that they were no longer there. She quickly turned to yell something not-entirely kid-friendly at her opponent…only to find that she too had vanished while her back was turned, causing a somewhat amused chuckle to escape her lips in spite of herself. "Well played, Krasnaya: well played."
Meanwhile, Commissioner Maroon had been escorted to a safehouse set up by the docks. Along with her was her son and his new friend. "This is bad." Boris muttered as he looked down at a wanted poster of the assassin that was currently after them. "This is worse than bad."
"Calm down, Boris." Jane replied, calmly, before turning to her detectives. "Now, why would Fatalblow target me?"
"Well, the obvious answer would be that someone hired her." Detective Neon remarked as he studied the criminal database on his laptop. "But none of the criminals you've ever arrested seem to be able to afford her price. The other option would be revenge, but we can't think of any reason she would have a grudge against you."
"Great…" Boris sighed as he noticed Cassian's solemn expression. "Hey, mom, I think Cassian's a little shook up. Maybe I should sneak him back to the hospital in case his sister showed up."
"Hang on a second, Boris." Jane suddenly got an idea. She picked up the wanted poster and showed it to Cassian. "Fatalblow has shot through kids to get to her targets before. They were always non-fatal injuries, but she still shot them. But she didn't shoot you. Why?"
Cassian closed his eyes and hung his head, as if he were ashamed of something. At last, he took a deep breath and looked back up at the group surrounding him. He pointed at Jane, then pointed at Boris, much to everyone's confusion. But then, he pointed at the wanted poster before pointing at himself. Everyone's eyes widened in shock as the realization sunk in.
"She's your mother." Boris gasped. "That's what this is about. Someone tried to kidnap her son, and framed mom as the culprit!"
"And something tells me Fatalblow isn't going to be in a listening mood." Jane sighed. "This whole situation just got a lot more complicated."
However, Cassian thought otherwise. He knew that there was one person in New Rushland who could help him settle this problem with his mother; the Crimson Crusader. While no one was watching, the mute boy snuck away and crawled through a window out of the safehouse. He found a gray bandana in a pile of discarded clothes and tied it around his mouth before setting out in search of his hero.
"We need to call in reinforcements." Neon suggested.
Cash snorted in contempt. "Like who? The Atlesian military? This is Fatalblow we're talking about, Sam."
"... mom?" Boris gulped.
"What?"
"Where's Cassian?"
"I thought he was with you!" Jane declared with a wide-eyed expression as she too took note of how the mute boy was nowhere to be seen.
"Hang on, let's not panic!" Neon called out. "Maybe he went back to the hospital."
"Alright, let's go." Jane remarked, heading towards the exit without a second thought.
In contrast, Boris blocked the doorway. "Whoa, whoa! In case you forgot, mom, there's an assassin running around gunning for you."
"That may be so, son." Jane patted Boris' shoulder. "But as a cop - and a mother - I can't just let that poor boy run around unsupervised."
Boris sighed in defeat; he knew that his mother was right. A few minutes later, the group had driven back to the hospital. Neon went ahead to scout the area while the others followed close behind, but his attention was drawn to a disturbance at the building's main entrance. A young woman in her early twenties with a poorly bandaged arm was trying to push her way into the hospital. Upon getting closer to the woman that was struggling with one of his fellow officers, Detective Neon couldn't help but notice how the woman looked very similar to the description of Cassian's sister that Boris had provided earlier.
"Let me through!" The woman shouted. "He's here! I know it! I need to see him!"
"Now, just hold on a minute, young lady!" Detective Neon tried to keep things from escalating. "Just who are you?"
"My name is Cynthia Quartz!" She explained, frantically. "A little boy was admitted to this hospital, right?! About this tall?! Black hair?! Green eyes?! Freckles across his face?! Scar on his neck?! Doesn't talk?! His name's Cassian Quartz! I'm his big sister and his legal guardian! I've been looking everywhere for him! I need to see him!"
"Good timing then," Detective Neon teasingly declared. "Last I heard, your brother was actually worried sick about you in spite of his own injuries."
"Sounds about right," Cynthia remarked with a light grin.
"With that being said, you're the only other person who would know what happened during the attack that your brother told us about, so we'll need to ask you a few questions, if that's not too much trouble," Detective Neon declared.
"Go ahead," Cynthia said with a shrug even as she followed after the Detective. "I've got nothing to hide."
"Alright, first of all, how'd you survive that attack?" Detective Neon couldn't help but ask sometime later.
"My mother taught me how to fight when I was five." Cynthia explained. "She left me with my dad while she went away to work, so I had to defend us against some of her enemies every once in a while."
"So, you're aware of your mother's profession?" Cash asked.
"If you're referring to how she kills people for money, then yes, I am well aware of my mother's 'profession.'" Cynthia sneered. "She's put our family in danger too many times to count."
"It sounds like your family had a bit of a falling out with one another," Jane couldn't help but remark. "If you don't mind my asking, what happened?"
Cynthia just sighed as old memories came flooding back. "It's like this…"
Vale. Years Ago…
Lavender Quartz had been honorably discharged from the Atlesian military after the experiment to enhance her aura proved a failure. But what her superiors didn't realize was that the experiment had a delayed reaction to her system; one year later, she became stronger, faster, and capable of healing from almost any injury. Unwilling to continue as her kingdom's labrat, Lavender used her training and new abilities to start a promising career as a mercenary for hire. She became so skilled at assassination that any one blow on her target would be fatal, hence her callsign.
But despite her ruthless nature, everyone has a weakness or two. Hers were her children; Cynthia and Cassian Quartz. Fatalblow trained both of her children self-defense to protect themselves from any of her countless enemies, but eventually, the inevitable happened. She returned home one night to find that her home had been ransacked while Cynthia had to make an emergency trip to the pharmacy for Cassian's cold medicine, and the boy had been kidnapped.
After calling in a few favors, Fatalblow quickly traced the kidnapper down and burst into his hideout. "First and last warning!" She growled. "Give me back my son, and I'll make your death painless!"
"Not so fast!" The kidnapper shouted, revealing he had a knife under his hostage's chin. "No sudden moves or he dies!"
"M-m-momma?" Cassian whimpered.
"Cassian, don't be scared, baby." Fatalblow spoke soothingly as she tried to take control of the situation. "Mommy's here. You're gonna be okay."
"Don't make promises you can't keep, bitch!" The kidnapper scowled, holding the knife closer to the boy's neck.
"Momma! Help!" Cassian cried.
"You bastard!" The assassin fumed at the kidnapper. "What kind of coward hides behind a child?!"
"The kind that wins in the end!" He snapped back. "You ruined my life, now I'm gonna ruin yours!"
That was the last straw. As quickly and fluidly as humanly possible, Fatalblow drew her side-arm and fired directly at the kidnapper's face. Unfortunately, the kidnapper had such a tight grip on his hostage that once the bullet struck him, the knife sliced open Cassian's throat. The assassin's eyes widened in horror once she realized what she had done and dove to catch her son before his body could even hit the ground. She took out a handkerchief from her pocket and used it to stop the bleeding.
After that, everything was a blur for the mercenary. Unconcerned about being in her armor, she immediately rushed Cassian to the nearest emergency room and demanded that he be taken care of at once. The boy was taken into surgery and hours passed before Cynthia finally arrived.
"Mom! Mom, what happened?! Where's Cassian?!"
"Cynthia! Honey, calm down!" Lavender gripped her daughter's shoulders in an attempt to steady her. "Cassian's being taken care of!"
Just then, a nurse with blood stains on her scrubs entered the waiting room. "Um, Mrs. Quartz?"
"Yes! Yes, that's me!" Lavender removed her helmet. "Is my baby going to be okay?"
"Ma'am, we managed to stop the bleeding, but you have to understand…" The nurse sadly glanced down at her feet. "The cut was too deep."
"Oh, my gods…" Cynthia whimpered. "Is he going to die?"
"No, he'll recover after a while, but… he suffered severe damage to his larynx and vocal chords. I'm afraid he'll never speak again."
Cynthia's heart sank at the sound of those words. Even though her tears continued running down her cheeks, sadness soon turned to rage as she grabbed her mother by the throat and slammed her against a wall.
"This is all your fault!" She screamed in fury.
New Rushland. Now…
"...and that's pretty much what happened," Cynthia declared. "Looking back, I realize in hindsight that Fatalblow wasn't entirely to blame for what happened, but regardless, my brother's throat wasn't the only thing to have been damaged beyond repair that night."
"Guess if nothing else we can now officially rule out Fatalblow being responsible for Cassian's injuries." Jane remarked.
"Believe me, my mother is many things, but she wouldn't purposely try and kill her own son if she could help it," Cynthia said with a nod, "and believe me, that's one of the few things we have in common; neither of us want to hurt Cassian more than we already have."
"Well that's good to know, I suppose."
"Hang on, Jane." Neon spoke up. "How do we know we can trust this girl? I mean she is the daughter of the deadliest woman on Remnant, after all."
"I know, Sam, but what other choice do we have?" Jane shrugged.
"I hate to disagree with you, commissioner, but Neon has a point." Cash cut in, holding up a picture of Cynthia's mugshot on her scroll. "I'm not even sure how she got custody of her brother. According to her juvie record, she's been convicted of petty theft and underground fighting."
Having overheard this, Cynthia indignantly crossed her arms. "I was young and my mother wasn't exactly present in my life. I made mistakes and I spent eight months in juvie atoning for them. Or did you conveniently not read that part?"
"What about your father?" Cash asked. "He can't take care of your brother?"
"He took off before Cassian was even born. But if I ever bump into him again I guess I could ask him." She remarked, sarcastically.
Seeing that the officers around her were still looking skeptical, Cynthia sighed, tiredly. "Look, I get why you don't trust me. But you should trust the courts. They put me through hell to earn custody of my brother. And I've busted my ass to keep custody of him. He's all I have. Please, just… just give me one more chance."
"Just one question before I decide what to do on that front: if neither you nor your mother were responsible for the wounds Cassian was found with, then who was?" Jane couldn't help but ask.
"I…I honestly don't know. I mean, I can't think of anyone who would hate my family enough to…" Cynthia desperately declared before freezing upon remembering something. "Wait, there was one person who might be responsible: a former client of my mother who she turned down after he started asking for more than she was comfortable with. With how petty the man was, I wouldn't be surprised if this was his attempt at revenge."
"That's about as good of a lead as any," Detective Cash remarked with a shrug. "You have a name?"
"I believe you might already know him: a real snake that masquerades as an Atlas elite," Cynthia growled out. "One Whitley Schnee, also known as the Serpent."
"Why am I not surprised?" Boris couldn't help but call out with a groan.
"Alright, I've answered your questions!" Cynthia snapped. "Now where's Cassian!? The poor little guy is probably worried sick!"
Detective Neon awkwardly tugged at his tie. "W-well, uh… he kinda… took off."
In response, Cynthia angrily gripped the detective's tie and pulled him close. "You lost my brother?!"
At that very moment, Cassian was using all of his training to search for Krasnaya. Unfortunately, he had the misfortune of running into another group of Serpent's gang. However, this time he had the benefit of seeing them coming.
"Well, well, well…" One of the larger members chuckled as he slipped his fingers through a pair of knuckle-dusters. "Looks like our prey saved us the trouble of hunting him down."
"Careful, boss!" A more cautious gang member warned. "He is the son of Fatalblow!"
"Oh, grow a pair! He's just a skinny, little, mute bastard!"
Offended by such a remark, Cassian flipped off the gang with both hands.
"Why, you little-!"
When the thug lunged towards him, Cassian gripped his wrist and somersaulted backwards to kick him over his head. Then, he jumped back to his feet to face the rest of the gang, taunting them with a "come at me" motion. Another thug drew a knife and rushed forwards, only for Cassian to counter his thrust, disarm him, and swipe his scroll when he wasn't looking. As he tried to remember Boris' number, Cassian kept the rest of the gang busy with a combination of kicks and blocks.
Meanwhile, Boris' scroll vibrated in his pocket and he instinctively checked it. It was a text message from an unknown number.
"Good news, everyone!" Boris called out with a smile while looking up from his scroll. "Cassian is okay! Turns out that he went to try and look for help to deal with his mother while our backs were turned. He's using someone else's scroll to let us know that he's currently in a safe location."
"How do you know it's really him and not someone forcing him to say all of this?" Cynthia couldn't help but ask.
"He made a point to use the wink emoji I taught him earlier in his message…and he also said to mention something about a 'marshmallow incident' if you showed up and started giving us a hard time," Boris remarked before gaining a frown on his face. "Wait, 'marshmallow incident'? What's that supposed to…?"
"Never mind: it's definitely him!" Cynthia rapidly yelled out with a blush even as a part of her felt relieved that her brother was okay.
"Well that's one less thing to worry about then," Jane said with a light grin.
"So what's our next move, Commissioner?"
"Well as far as I can tell, the only reason that Fatalblow is gunning for us is that she thinks we're the ones who hurt her son, and I doubt that us just telling her that she's mistaken would do us any good, so there's only one thing we can do," Jane declared. "We'll have to get Whitley Schnee to confess to his crimes for Fatalblow to hear: end this war before it truly starts."
Back on the streets, Cassian pocketed the scroll and gave the gang his full attention. While he was certainly doing a good job of holding them off, they still outnumbered him. Suddenly, a smoke grenade landed on the roof and everything went dark. Cassian held his arms up as he tried to look for the next attacker, but all he heard were grunts and screams from the men who had been trying to kill him. At last, the fog lifted to reveal a tall, shadowy figure.
Cassian was frozen in awe as he stood before the famous Red Woman. Unable to think of anything to sign, all he could do was wave the friendliest hello he could manage. At the same time, Krasnaya studied the unconscious men strewn about the rooftop, and the boy's bruised knuckles that indicated he had been the one to take them down.
"Did you do this?" She asked.
Cassian nodded.
"Why are they after you? What do they want?"
Cassian gulped in fear; he had no way of knowing whether or not Krasnaya would understand him, but he had no other option. {"It's… about… my mother."} He signed, slowly.
Fortunately, one of the many languages taught at the Atlas Academy happened to be sign language. "Your mother is Fatalblow?" Krasnaya asked to be sure she understood him correctly.
Cassian's eyes widened in shock and he nodded, rapidly. {"Someone attacked me and my sister in our apartment, and my mother thinks Commissioner Maroon is responsible. I need to find her and stop her before she does something terrible."}
"I understand your concern, but I can't let you put yourself in danger like that."
{"I can fight!"} Cassian insisted. {"My mother taught me everything she knows! I want to help!"}
"I know you do," Krasnaya declared with an understanding expression. "But I'd rather not force you to have to fight your own mother if I can help it."
{"What if those guys who attacked me and my sister show up?"} Cassian couldn't help but ask. {"Will you at least let me get a little payback?"}
"...I suppose I could see what I could do on that front," Krasnaya said with something of an amused expression on her face. Before they set out, the Crimson Crusader sent a message to Magenta to meet up with them for backup.
Despite the events that had led up to this, Cassian was currently having the time of his life. Practically every child in New Rushland dreamed of fighting side-by-side with the mysterious Red Woman of legend. A few minutes later, another group of Serpent's gang showed up to attack, and Cassian took the opportunity to show off his skills to his idol. Unfortunately, the fun didn't last.
"Get away from him!" A wrathful voice called out, followed by rapid gunfire. Krasnaya blocked the bullets with her hammer then used her sickle's grappling feature to pierce Fatalblow's armor and pull her out of her hiding place. While Cassian backed away out of fear, the vigilante kicked away the assassin's machine gun.
"It's over, Quartz." Krasnaya sneered, drawing her hammer. "I'd rather not do this in front of your son."
"You leave him out of this!" Fatalblow sneered, using her pistol to blast the hammer out of her opponent's hand. "I'll never let you or anyone else hurt him again! Never!"
From that point on, Cassian could only watch in horror as his mother and his hero clashed on the rooftops. Krasnaya's sickle and Fatalblow's katana caused sparks to fly through the air with each blow. The assassin discreetly loaded a cartridge of fire dust into the hilt of her sword, superheating the blade to melt the sickle with her next swing. With her weapons destroyed and discarded, Krasnaya evaded the next swing and kicked the sword out of Fatalblow's hand, turning the fight into hand-to-hand combat.
Krasnaya's advantage was her level-headedness and younger physique, but Fatalblow was more experienced and her enhanced healing factor gave her better stamina. Krasnaya managed to get a few good hits in, even knocking the assassin's helmet off, but Fatalblow quickly turned the tables in her favor. She kicked the Crimson Crusader's knee, and elbowed her left temple, sending her to the ground. With her enemy disoriented, Fatalblow walked away to pick up her gun and take aim. Not wanting to see anymore blood be shed, Cassian jumped in between the two fighters.
"Cassian, move!" Fatalblow shouted.
{"No, mom!"} Cassian signed, frantically. {"Don't do this, please!"}
As Krasnaya recovered, she saw another one of Serpent's men sneak up from the fire escape and toss a grenade at Cassian. She grabbed a shard of her broken sickle and tossed it at the goon's hand, then ran to push the boy out of the way. Then she threw herself onto the grenade. The kevlar vest - combined with her aura - helped her survive the explosion, but left her drained of energy. Once again, Fatalblow was prepared to take advantage of the circumstances and shoot the vigilante in the head while she was down. But before she could pull the trigger, Cassian tackled her over the edge of the roof, hugging her with all his might. The boy cried as he and his mother fell to the ground. But instead of being angry, Fatalblow could only smile with pride as she cupped her son's cheek.
"Nice tackle." She whispered.
But before they could crash to the ground, a purple blur swooped through the air and caught Cassian. Fatalblow's fall was cushioned by a car, but Cassian knew she'd be able to recover. In the meantime, he looked up to see who had rescued him at the last second.
"Hey, kid." Magenta smiled under his mask as he used the grappling hook built into his belt to safely lower them to the ground. "You Cassian?"
The mute boy nodded.
"I'm Magenta. Boris told me about your little situation. I'm happy to lend a hand."
Before Cassian could sign a response, the Serpent's gang arrived and opened fire on the vigilante. Krasnaya used her grappling hook to pull the boys to safety then retreated back to her warthog. Back on the ground, Fatalblow groaned as her bones snapped back into place thanks to her healing factor. Then, her radio cackled to life.
"Who is this?" Fatalblow demanded.
"Is that anyway to talk to your own daughter?"
"What the…? Cynthia?!" Fatalblow cried out at the familiar voice she heard over her radio. "I thought you said that you never wanted to speak to me again after…well, you know."
"Yeah, well, the sentiment hasn't entirely changed, but personal feelings shouldn't get in the way of doing what's right for my family," Cynthia declared. "You taught me that."
Fatalblow merely nodded. "Okay then: I understood the double meaning there. So, why shouldn't I be killing the Commissioner here?"
"It's a long story, but the short version? I overheard Commissioner Maroon talking with some of her co-workers about what she intends to do here," Cynthia remarked. "I suggest that you follow her without drawing too much attention to yourself: you might be surprised by what you find out."
Fatalblow just shrugged in response before slipping back into the shadows, determined to end this one way or another. Meanwhile, Magenta had taken a moment to inspect the scroll Cassian had stolen from one of the Serpent gang members.
"I might be able to use this scroll to track down Serpent." He offered. "But, hey, how'd you manage to unlock this and text the cops so quickly, kid?"
{"Well, there are over ten thousandpossible four-digit combinations for a ten-digit keypad…"} Cassian explained through signs. {"But only twenty-four of those combinations match the fingerprints on the scroll. Most commonly, scrolls lock you out if you can't guess the password in three tries, but then I remember that most people choose their birthdays for their passwords, so that narrowed it down. I managed to guess it on the second try."}
"... smart kid." Jane remarked, clearly impressed.
With that, Magenta proceeded to look through the contacts of the scroll until he found one labeled "Boss." According to the text messages, the gang was supposed to meet up with Serpent at a club called the Glacier Lounge. Jane called Cash and Neon, telling them where to meet them while Krasnaya and her sidekick agreed to follow from the shadows. A few minutes later, Jane kicked down the door to the Lounge, shot into the air to order everyone else out, and drew Whitley "Serpent" Schnee out into the open.
"So, you actually managed to find me," Whitely mockingly observed.
"It wasn't hard: those white shirts your goons wear have a bad habit of sticking out in dark places like this," Jane felt the need to declare.
"No matter: my men don't need to be stealthy to be able to kill you," the Serpent declared before snapping his fingers, with various henchmen showing up soon afterwards after they had heard their cue. But before anyone could open fire, the Crimson Crusader dropped through the skylight and threw down several flash grenades to incapacitate the gunmen.
"Figured you were close by," Jane couldn't help but call out with a teasing grin.
"What: you think I was going to let you have all the fun?" Krasnaya remarked with an equally teasing grin. Whitley tried to escape, but Krasnaya expertly threw her sickle at him, trapping his arm against the wall.
With that out of the way, the Crimson Crusader wielded her hammer and rushed towards the blinded gunmen. Cassian watched in excitement and awe as New Rushland's guardian swiftly incapacitated the enemy as if it were nothing. Then, she made her way towards the crime boss. But Whitley pressed a button on his cufflink, activating an electrified panel on the floor once Krasnaya stepped on it. The Crimson Crusader fell to her knees in pain just as her prey managed to free himself from the sickle.
"Did you honestly think you could get the drop on me?" Whitley mockingly called out. "If I was able to fool a so-called master tactician into believing that you were guilty of a crime that I myself had committed, what makes you think that I'm not smart enough to trick Fatalblow again into killing you all so that I could make my escape?"
"You know, that's actually a good question," Jane couldn't help but declare before giving a smug grin. "What do you think, Fatalblow?"
"I think that's the second time you've done something I wasn't happy with, Mr. Schnee," Fatalblow declared as he came out of the shadows with a gun at the ready.
Needless to say, Whitley had not been prepared for this occurrence. "Wait, you?! What are you…?"
"I'll admit, when Cynthia contacted me via an old radio channel we've used in the past saying that I should hold off on my shot when Commissioner Maroon showed up here, I was a bit skeptical. But I figured I'd humor her as it's bad for business to take out the wrong target. And I wanted to be certain I got the right one," the master assassin explained. "I'm glad I did too, as from what I've seen, the Commissioner's son and my boy were actually getting along with one another, and I'd like to think that as different as the Commissioner and I are, we can agree on two things: we both care about our children's happiness, and neither of us are too fond of this game you've been playing here, Schnee."
"You'd be correct in saying that," Jane declared before cocking her own gun. "So how about it, Fatalblow: feel like temporarily partnering up with a cop to take down this son of a bitch?"
"Now, now, let's be civil about this: I happen to know that Willow Schnee doesn't deserve to be insulted like that," Fatalblow said with a light chuckle before prepping her own weapons as she directed a snarl at Whitley. "But as to the rest of your proposition, I have no objections whatsoever. After all, the enemy of my enemy is my friend."
Needless to say, Whitely was more than a little frightened upon hearing this. Fumbling with his coat, he managed to pull out a remote and press the big red button. Suddenly, a small army of robots marched down the streets, firing lasers from their eyes as they moved against the police force, the vigilantes, and the assassin. Krasnaya grabbed Magenta, Fatalblow grabbed Cassian, and they both carried them to safety. The police laid down covering fire before joining them.
"This isn't over!" Whitely yelled out before ducking into his helicopter and took off, confident that his robot army would at least hold off the unlikely allies long enough for him to escape.
Krasnaya loaded water and wind dust into her hammer and combined it with her sickle to form her rifle. Fatalblow apparently had the same idea as she also combined water and wind dust into her rifle. The duo nodded at each other in understanding before firing their ice dust at the robots' eyes.
Refusing to stand by and do nothing, Cassian studied the robots for any visible weak-point. At last, he spotted it; beneath the necks were glass capsules of lightning dust that seemed to power the robots. Scanning the nearby ground, he thanked the gods that they happened to be in a construction yard as he picked up several washers and wielded them like shurikens.
Without hesitation, Cassian targeted one robot and expertly threw washers at its neck until the glass capsule fractured, triggering a total system's shutdown. Krasnaya quickly picked up on this and traded her ice dust for fire dust.
"Aim for the necks!" She shouted before doing just that.
Fatalblow and Commissioner Maroon likewise followed suit and targeted the robots' necks, quickly shutting them down. But one robot continued to function in spite of the cracked capsule. Cassian grabbed a pipe off the ground and sprinted towards it, much to Magenta's protest. But the mute child managed to slip behind the mechanical soldier, climb up its back, and use the pipe to wedge into the neck and pop the capsule out, shutting the robot down. Krasnaya, Magenta, and Jane were all visibly impressed, but Fatalblow just smiled beneath her mask.
"That's my baby." The assassin remarked, proudly.
"I think that's all of them," Jane couldn't help but remark after Cassian handed her the capsule from the last robot.
"Looks like it," Fatalblow said with a nod. "Still as much as I hate to admit it, we actually worked well together, isn't that right…Krasnaya?"
Having picked up on the assassin's sudden confusion towards the end of her statement, Jane turned, only to find that Krasnaya and Magenta were no longer there, with the only evidence they were present to begin with being a note that declared that they would make sure that Cassian made it back to the hospital safely.
"One of these days I'm going to nail her feet to the ground," Jane couldn't help but remark in regards to this newest development.
"Yeah, good luck with that," Fatalblow teasingly declared.
"Wait, you're still here? Aren't you going to go after Serpent?" Jane couldn't help but ask even as Whitley's jet disappeared over the horizon.
"Nah, I think he got the message, and if not, well, there won't be another chance for him," Fatalblow remarked before holding her hands out. "As a gesture of good faith, though, I'll come quietly for my son's sake."
"You might be an assassin, Lavender," Jane said with a smile even as she slipped some handcuffs onto the assassin's wrists. "But no matter what your daughter says, you are a good mother."
"Thanks," Lavender said with a melancholy grin. "That…that means more than you could possibly know."
A little while later, Jane's squad car arrived at the precinct with Lavender in tow. Cassian got up from his seat on the marble steps and excitedly ran to the car to speak to his mother, but Cynthia held him back; she didn't want him to get in the way of police work. Still, Lavender smiled and waved at her son to let him know she was alright. Cynthia led her brother inside to meet a special someone.
"Hello there, young man." Svetlana smiled as she knelt down to meet Cassian's eyes. As she spoke, she also signed with her hands. "I'm happy to see you're feeling much better than when we first met. I came over as soon as I heard you found your sister."
Cynthia nudged her brother. "What do we say?"
Cassian smiled and signed to Svetlana. {"Thank you for your help, Mrs. Crimsonoff-Kashtonovvy. I apologize for any inconvenience I might have caused."}
"Think nothing of it." Svetlana replied. "After all, the whole reason I founded New Rushland was to help those in need."
"There's still one thing I don't get about this whole thing," Boris couldn't help but admit. "Why did Cassian go to Svetlana of all people when he was running away from Whitley's men? Nothing against her, mind you: just noting that it seems like an odd first choice to look for help."
{"Because my sister always said that if anyone would help me out when she couldn't it would be the founder of New Rushland,"}, Cassian readily answered.
"Yeah, I mean, she's currently trying to help out that Emerald lady even though she has the potential to be just as bad as the man who destroyed her original home, so I figured she wouldn't turn away the children of a known assassin," Cynthia said with a light grin.
"I'm honored you think so highly of me," Svetlana replied with a grin of her own. "So what will you do now?"
"Huh, you know, I'm not entirely certain," Cynthia admitted with an unreadable expression. "I know I'll be needing to look for a new place as my old apartment has been compromised, but beyond that, I'm not sure. All I know is that I'll need to make some new plans to keep my brother safe while I try and work things out on my end of things."
"You know, if you want, I'd be happy to let Cassian tag along with me while I work at the library while you look for a better job." Boris offered. "And I won't charge you anything."
Cynthia looked down at her brother who seemed to like the idea. "I'll think about it." She nodded.
Cassian happily hopped in the air before asking his sister to let him thank Svetlana again. And once she agreed, he happily rushed off to see her, along with Cyan and Mikhail who had managed to swing by to see if they could help at the last moment.
"Are you ready to go?" Detective Cash asked.
"As ready as I'll ever be," Cynthia declared. "Just waiting for my brother to finish talking with Svetlana and her family."
Just as she finished saying that, Cassian ran up with a large grin on his face, all while clutching an autograph he had gotten from Cyan like it was the Holy Grail, what with how he was apparently a fan of the Flying Robyns.
"Ready to go home, little guy?" Cynthia asked, playfully ruffling her brother's hair.
{"Just a second."} Cassian ran back towards the squadcar and hugged Boris. {"Thanks for all your help… Magenta."} He winked at his new friend.
Boris chuckled. {"Stay in touch?"}
Cassian fist-bumped Boris. {"For sure."}
As the group left the building, they spotted a dozen cops lying unconscious but unharmed on the ground.
"What the…?" Jane couldn't help but call out upon noticing that the squad car was empty before noticing a note on the seat which she promptly picked up and read aloud. "'I said I'd come quietly: I never said I'd stick around afterwards.'"
"Yep, that sounds like my mother, alright," Cynthia called out with a groan.
Later that night, Cynthia had taken Cassian home and sent him off to bed while she stayed up to work on her application. However, someone arrived at the fire escape and tapped on his window.
Cassian got up from his bed and opened the window. {"Hi, mom."}
{"Hi, baby."} Fatalblow signed before embracing her youngest child. {"I'm going to have to lay low for a while. I'm not sure how long I'll be gone this time, so you be good for your sister, alright?"}
Cassian sniffled, but put on a brave face as he nodded. {"Okay, mom. You will come back, right?"}
{"Oh, of course. You know goodbyes aren't forever."} Lavender caressed the boy's cheek, gently. {"And if you ever feel lonely, just remember; you have a big sister who will do a great job of raising you, you have a new best friend to keep you company, and no matter what, your mother is out there thinking about you and she loves you very much. Okay?"}
Cassian nodded. {"I love you, too, mom. I'll miss you."}
Lavender gave her son one last hug before putting her helmet back on. "I'll miss you, too, baby."
With that, Cassian watched as his mother disappeared into the night.
To Be Continued