Chapter 3: Azure's First Flight

"Thanks again for tutoring me, Boris," Cyan asked. "I'll admit that I'd be struggling with this if you hadn't offered."

"No problem."

It had been nine months since the Polu Shark incident and Svetlana had kept her promise to train the robin Faunus. But Mikhail had forbidden the girl from joining Krasnaya on patrol unless she also kept her grades up in school. Hence, she sought out the smartest kid in school to tutor her in the classes she was struggling with.

"Hey, Maroon." A green-haired teenager called from the kitchen, carrying an empty carton. "FYI, you're all out of orange juice."

"My mom just bought some last time she was at the store, Ivy." Boris said with a groan.

"Hey, it happens sometimes," Cyan said with an encouraging grin before turning towards the girl in question, one Ivy Greene. She'd only met her a handful of times, but from what she could tell, she was an okay gal. Had a bit of a temper at times, but still seemed to be okay by most standards. "So, did I ever tell you that my Mom used to have her own garden?"

Ivy looked at Cyan with a curious expression. "No, I don't believe you did."

"Yeah, it wasn't very big - it couldn't be, what with how much we traveled - but she always believed in taking care of all creatures, big and small," Cyan declared with a melancholy grin.

"I wish I could have met her: after all, kind heart aside, it's not every day you see an acrobat with a green thumb," Ivy found herself admitting with a light smile. While she had only known Cyan through her friendship with Boris, she couldn't deny that there was something about her that she liked...and it wasn't just because she was a cute acrobat robin faunus, either.

"Yeah, something tells me she'd have been happy to see me making some new friends," Cyan remarked with a light chuckle.

"What the f-?! I just bought orange juice yesterday!" An exasperated voice came from the kitchen.

"Uh-oh. That's my cue to scram." Ivy picked up her backpack and made her way to the front door.

"Freeze!" Captain Jane Maroon shouted, prompting all three teenagers to hold up their arms in fear. "Boris Gordon Maroon, why are there two girls in my house?"

"Mom, I already told you I was tutoring Cyan weeks ago." Boris reasoned.

"Ugh, I gotta go." Ivy groaned and opened the door. "Too many parental units in the house."

"And what are you doing tonight, Ms. Greene?" Jane asked, suspicious.

Ivy shrugged as she exited the door. "Nothing too exciting, captain. Just trying to make the world a better place… for plants."

Jane sighed as the girl left. She looked back at her son. "I'm all for going green, Boris, but I don't want you hanging around that girl. She's a bad seed."

"Oof." Cyan cringed. "That was a bad joke even by dad standards."

"Mom, for the last time, Ivy is just a friend!" Boris groaned. "And the environment is important to me!"

"Last year, Jennifer was 'just a friend,' and beekeeping was important to you." Jane crossed her arms in defiance as she looked back at the robin Faunus. "In fact, I'm starting to wonder if you weren't just making up that whole ace story. Considering you only ever seem to hang out with girls."

"MOM!" Boris spluttered, indignantly. "She's like six!"

Cyan angrily punched Boris' shoulder. "I'm twelve and three quarters! And FYI, you'd be lucky to have me as a daughter in law!" She remarked before feeling the weight of the police captain's glare. "... ma'am."

Boris shook his head and stood his ground. "Mom, her foster parents are offering me twenty lien for every tutoring session. She'll be out of here in an hour. And besides, don't you have to work late, tonight? You need to go now or-"

"Don't try that game with me, young man! I…! I…" Jane tiredly pinched the bridge of her nose before looking at her watch. "Alright, fine." Her son walked her out of the house to her squad car. "I'll be home around three. So get. To bed. On time. And no hanky panky in my house."

"MOM!" Boris blushed, angrily. "Are you trying to kill me with embarrassment?!"

"Hey, you know the rules." Jane remarked as she buckled her seat belt. "This is a no dating household. You don't date, I don't date."

Boris let out a tired sigh as he leaned on her car door. "... well, maybe you should." He shrugged and walked back into the house.

Jane sat in her squad car, silently pondering her son's words. As she finally turned the key in her ignition, she spared a glance at the golden band on her finger. She hadn't taken it off, even though it had been nine years since the incident. She had never once considered dating again; all she could think about was keeping her son safe.

Meanwhile, back inside the Maroon household, Boris took out his history book and homework, with Cyan following suit.

"Your mom's kind of intense." Cyan couldn't help but remark.

Boris sighed, tiredly. "Yeah, sorry. She's just a little overprotective. Ever since my dad died, it's just been the two of us."

"Oh, I'm so sorry." Cyan frowned, sympathetically. "How'd he die?"

"It's a long story." Boris looked back down at his homework.

Cyan winced. "Long story as in long story? Or long story as in none of my business?"

"... either one works for me." He replied, dismissively.

The robin Faunus was about to pry further until she remembered something the boy had said to her when her own parents died. "The worse the deaths, the more painful the memories." And so, she decided to put it aside and focus on her homework.

"...for what it's worth, I'm here for you if you want to talk about it, just like how you were there for me a while back," Cyan felt the need to call out.

Boris merely allowed himself a small grin in reply. "I appreciate it. Really, I do."

"By the way, is there something between you and that Ivy girl?" Cyan couldn't help but ask. "Not trying to tease you or anything here, but the two of you do seem to be awfully close."

"Nah, she's more like a sister to me," Boris remarked, "and besides, I'm not really her type. Now you and that Holly girl, on the other hand…"

"Whoa, there: Holly has a boyfriend, remember?" Cyan felt the need to call out.

"I know, and so does Ivy, hence why she hasn't made a move on her," Boris declared, before gaining a teasing grin. "Though it's interesting how you didn't have any objections to her asking you out."

Cyan merely blushed in reply. "I...that's not...let's just get back to our tutoring session, okay?"

"Fine," Boris said with a smile. "But you know I'm not going to let this go, right?"

"I know," Cyan replied with a light groan.

One hour later, Boris had just finished reading the history book when he heard a light snore coming from the robin Faunus.

"Huh, would you look at that?" Boris smugly closed the history book as he gazed at the slumbering Faunus. "A girl has fallen asleep in my house while I was trying to help her. Well, as a man, I simply cannot allow this opportunity to go to waste. Hee hee hee hee!"

Thirty minutes later, Mikhail knocked on the front door of the Maroon household to pick up his foster daughter. While he waited, he felt something rub up against his leg. Looking down, he spotted a beautiful calico cat purring up at him. He smiled and knelt down to pet the creature. Soon enough, more cats began to crowd around him, looking for affection.

When the door opened, the cats scampered away from Mikhail and he found Boris leaning against the door frame. "Hey, Mr. Kashtonovvy. Sleepyhead is still in the kitchen. Should I wake her up?"

"What… did you do?" Mikhail growled as he gripped the boy's shoulder.

"W-what?" Boris' smugness suddenly vanished.

"Tell me what you did to her, right now!" Mikhail fumed, angrily pinning the boy against the wall.

"I drew whiskers on her face!" Boris yelped in fear.

"What?" Mikhail went from furious to confused.

"I drew cat whiskers on her face while she was sleeping because I thought it'd be funny!" Boris admitted, still afraid. Just then, Cyan groggily walked out of the kitchen, fully clothed and seemingly oblivious to the pen markings drawn on her face. "And it was!"

"Wha…? Mikhail? What time is it?" Cyan rubbed the tiredness from her eyes.

Mikhail, while starting to feel guilty about his behaviour, was still doubtful. "Is… is that all you did?"

Boris arched an eyebrow. "Well, yeah. I mean, she was asleep. What else would I have done?"

Mikhail released his grip on the boy and blushed in embarrassment. "Uh! W-well, I mean… you know what I… I mean, you could have… uh…" He reached into his wallet and handed a bill to the boy. "Here's your twenty lien. Thanks for tutoring her." With that, he grabbed Cyan by the wrist and hastily brought her to the car.

Boris watched as they sped away. "Weird family." He remarked to himself.

Once they had gotten clear of the house, Mikhail allowed himself a smirk even as Cyan wiped off of her face with some wet wipes. "For what it's worth, you did look kind of cute with cat whiskers."

"You're just saying that due to how much you seem to love cats in general," Cyan called out. "But anyways, joke's on Boris: I stole some of his cookies before I left his house."

Back in the Maroon household, Boris called his mother to inform her that Cyan had left, as well as inquire if she knew why the girl's foster father acted the way he did. "I think he thought you did something a bit more… perverted than drawing on her, son." She explained.

"Ugh, 'rents." Boris rolled his eyes at his mother's answer. "Well, whatever, I got my twenty lien and she's out of the house. So you can relax about anyone trying to take my virginity, mom. Bye." He called out before heading to the kitchen...only to pause as he noticed something. "Hey, what happened to my cookies!?"

Meanwhile, Mikhail and Cyan arrived back at the farmhouse where Svetlana was waiting for them.

"So, how did tutoring go tonight?" Svetlana called out as Cyan and Mikhail approached her.

"Pretty good, aside from how Boris drew whiskers on my face," Cyan said with a grumble.

"Oh come on, you looked adorable," Mikhail remarked.

"Are you only just saying that due to your love of cats?" Svetlana couldn't help but ask with a raised eyebrow.

"See?! I'm not the only one who noticed!" Cyan felt the need to declare.

Svetlana merely chuckled even as her husband rolled his eyes in reply. "Well, in any case, I'm glad you're all caught up, as it's time."

Cyan couldn't help but gasp upon hearing this. "You mean…?"

"Yep: tonight's the night that Azure makes her debut," Svetlana declared with a grin, which she quickly lost. "Though with that being said, I'd understand if you didn't feel up to it."

Cyan just scoffed at hearing this. "Oh, come on: after everything I've been through, name one reason why I'd want out."

"Zokine."

"...excuse me, what?" Cyan called out, wondering if she had heard that right.

"Your first mission is going to involve your parent's murderer. From what I could gather recently and for reasons that I've yet to determine, the members of Zokine's protection racket are planning a raid on the federal reserve tonight. Something that I've found to be rather suspicious…" Krasnaya mused, silently watching as her ward took this all in. "As I said, Azure, if you aren't absolutely certain that you're ready-"

"I am." Cyan insisted.

The Crimson Crusader nodded as she pulled her cowl over her face. "Alright, then. Let's get going."

"Yes!" Cyan pumped her fist, excitedly following her foster mother to the warthog.

"Aren't you forgetting something, child?" Mikhail smirked.

"What?"

The foster father revealed a box from behind his back and handed it to the girl. Cyan gasped in surprise when she opened it and saw the blue kevlar costume inside. "I know it's not quite the same as the one your parents gave you, but Dr. Oobleck and I tried to make it as close as we could."

Cyan tearfully hugged her foster father. "Thanks, Mikhail." She sobbed, happily.

Mikhail merely smiled as she returned the hug. "You're welcome: just try and come home safe, baby bird."

"Don't worry: I will."

Hours later, the red and blue vigilantes headed out for the night. As they drove through the dark streets of New Rushland, Azure used the rear-view mirror to adjust her mask. "When I get older, I want my own car." She remarked, earning a raised eyebrow from her mentor. "Cute boys and girls dig the car."

Krasnaya shook her head in bemusement. "This is why Ciel works alone." However, the Crimson Crusader stopped the car when she noticed a mugging in progress. She pulled over and shut off the engine. "Watch and learn…" She ordered her ward.

"Say your prayers, old man." The mugger chortled as he grabbed a rusty pipe off the ground, oblivious to the caped figure approaching from behind.

"W-what is that?" The elderly man stammered. "B-behind you!"

"You think I'm gonna fall for that old trick?" The mugger almost sounded offended until he noticed the horned shadow that cascaded over the wall in front of him. "WHAT THE HELL?!"

Krasnaya wasted no time in disarming the thug and slamming his face into the nearest brick wall. The Crimson Crusader stepped over the injured criminal and helped the victim up to his feet.

"Y-you're not supposed to be real." The old man gasped.

"I'm real when it's useful." Krasnaya remarked.

"Well, either way, you won't hear me complaining about the rescue," the old man said with a light chuckle before raising an eyebrow as he nodded towards the person standing next to the Crimson Crusader. "Who's the kid?"

Svetlana's partner merely smiled. "Call me Azure."

"Like the legendary Faunus?" the elder man couldn't help but ask. "That's not a title to give to oneself without having a certain amount of responsibility attached to it."

"I know, but I'm more than willing to try and live up to it," Azure declared with a nod.

"We'll see," the old man said in reply. "In any case, as a bit of thanks for the save, I'll let you in on a little something I'd overheard: seems that Tony Zokine's men have comandered an old warehouse with the purpose of hitting a bank further down the street. Not sure what they've got planned, but I get the feeling that it isn't anything good. Actually, that thug you took out was one of Zokine's men who'd been sent after me to make sure that I couldn't inform the cops about what I'd heard."

"We'll check it out." promised the Crimson Crusader.

"Good to hear. You know, you aren't as bad as some people say you...are," the old man started to declare with a grin, only to blink in surprise upon discovering that the duo had vanished when he'd turned away for a moment. "...so that's what it feels like."

"Something isn't adding up here…" Krasnaya couldn't help but call out even as they approached their destination.

Azure blinked in response. "What do you mean?"

"From what I can gather, Zokine's gang has been running protection racket that only acts directly if challenged, and yet recently there have been reports of them breaking into banks and disrupting trade supply runs: that doesn't line up with the kind of thing that Tony Zokine would normally pull," Krasnaya couldn't help but declare. "I just can't shake the feeling that there's something more to this whole thing that we're not seeing."

"Yeah, now that you mention it, that does seem kind of weird: Zokine might be a creep, but he's an orderly creep: there's no logical reason for why he'd be causing so much chaos," Azure allowed herself to admit. "But in any case, we'll get all the answers we need once he's off the streets."

Allowing herself to nod in agreement, Krasnaya and Azure stealthily made their way into the warehouse, avoiding the hidden tripwires and other alarm systems. At last, they found Tony Zokine and his men drilling through the wall that was adjacent to New Rushland's federal reserve. "There he is." Azure growled. "Let's get him!"

"Not so fast." Krasnaya converted her sickle into a firearm and aimed it at the two armed thugs. "First thing's first; disarm the enemy." With two pinpoint shots, the Crimson Crusader knocked out the gunmen and she and her sidekick dropped to the floor. The unmasked hostage stumbled into the arms of the leader, giggling nervously.

"Let her go, Zokine!" Krasnaya snapped. "The jig is up!"

The leader of the group stepped forward, laughing. "Zokine? Who's Zokine? How 'bout it, doll? Have you heard of Zokine?"

"W-who?" The hostage giggled harder as the leader pushed her into the arms of one of his men.

He snapped his fingers, ordering the masked hostage to be brought over to him. The dynamic duo were shocked as the leader pulled the sack off of the hostage's head, revealing it to be the lecherous racketeer they were after. "And you, sir? Does the name 'Zokine' ring a bell?" He chortled as he ripped the tape off his mouth.

"You piece of shit!" Tony fumed. "You are dead! You hear me?! Dead!"

The masked gang leader tightened his grip on the pistol and began angrily beating his captive. "Can't! You! Just! Play! Along?!"

Azure winced out of reflex. Even though he had killed her parents, it pained her to see anyone take such a savage beating. Krasnaya readied her hammer and sickle for a confrontation, but what drew her attention was the painful laughter coming from the other hostage. The leader threw Zokine aside, stepped forward, and removed his mask. Krasnaya's glare hardened at the familiar sight of Mercury Black's face.

"So that's why a protection racket has been targeting banks." She deduced. "You've been running Zokine's operation!"

"Well, technically, it's my operation now!" Black laughed. The other criminals slipped on clown masks, making the female hostage laugh even harder. The former mercenary took out a can of black makeup and smeared it around his eyes. Krasnaya tried to rush him, but he kicked one leg out, knocking Azure aside with a blast of lightning dust. While Krasnaya was distracted, Black kicked several more times, incapacitating the vigilante while the crooks threw their former boss into the back of the van along with the stolen loot.

"Y-you're insane!" The hostage continued laughing until her facial muscles contorted so horribly that her face was stuck in a perpetual smile.

Black grabbed her by the arm and threw her at his would-be captors. "Here! Have a laugh on me!" He chuckled, wickedly.

The dead weight of the woman's body forced Krasnaya to the ground next to Azure. As they drove off, Mercury revealed a detonator from his pocket and clicked the button, triggering dynamite laid out around the warehouse. The Crimson Crusader used the last of her strength to pull Azure and the hostage to safety just in time.

By the time the ringing in her ears stopped and her vision cleared, Krasnaya found herself face-to-face with one of the most grotesque smiles she'd ever seen.

"She's dead," Krasnaya growled out as she looked upon the former hostage, silently promising that Mercury would pay for this. Scanning the body, she couldn't help but frown. "The laughter was a side effect of a poison she'd been dosed with."

"She was forced to literally die laughing?" Azure called out with wide eyes. "That's seriously messed up."

"We couldn't have known that she was poisoned, and even if we did, I'm not sure if we could have done anything about it in that situation," Krasnaya declared with a sigh. "All we can do now is try to make sure that her assailant doesn't kill anyone else tonight."

"Right. By the way, who was that guy back there?" Azure couldn't help but ask. "It looked like you recognized him."

"That's because I did," Krasnaya remarked. "His name's Mercury Black: he used to work as a mercenary under the command of Salem and her forces before Loki had infected him with some sort of psychotropic toxin that mimicked his Trickster's Madness. I always knew that there was a chance that I might end up running into him again: I just hadn't expected it to be like this."

"So basically he's a bad guy who's become worse," Azure surmised.

"I suspect it might be a bit more complicated than that, but more or less, yeah," Krasnaya allowed herself to admit.

"Well, you beat Salem's goons once already: you can do it again," Azure declared.

"Good attitude, kid," Krasnaya said with a smile before suddenly pulling her ward behind a pillar and putting her arm in front of Azure so as to hold her back while they listened in on the conversation of some thugs that had entered the room. "Hold on…"

"I-I'm telling you, boss; they aren't dead."

"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" Mercury's irritated voice called back. "Are you seriously saying that after I shot her, blew her up, and dropped a building on her, THAT SHE JUST GOT UP AND WALKED AWAY?!"

"If they were dead, we'd be seeing their bodies, and there aren't any bodies!"

"Well, since I know that's impossible, I'm going to give you the chance to reconcile your version of reality so as to match with my vision of reality," Mercury growled out, "And just in case you can't process big words, I'll translate your latest orders into thug-speak for you: kill the Red Woman and her new tagalong, or I'LL KILL YOU!"

Krasnaya turned towards her ward. "Black knows we survived. We have to move quickly before he tries to kill again." She motioned for Azure to stay in the vent while she grappled over to a balcony before dropping down behind the armed thug. With a swift swipe of her leg, she tripped her foe up, knocked the gun out of his hands, and planted her foot against his face.

"Where's Black going?!" She snarled at her captive.

"H-he's crazy, man!" The thug shuddered under the weight of Krasnaya's boot on his head. "He just walked into Zokine's office one day and beat him half to death! Forced everybody to work for him! Killed the ones who wouldn't!"

"Where is he?!"

"I-I dunno! I swear! I mean, he said something about a tobacco warehouse!"

"That wouldn't happen to be Zokine's warehouse, would it?"

"Heh-heh…" The thug chuckled, nervously. "It's Black's warehouse now. And with how much security he's added to the place, there's no way that you're getting in there."

"I don't recall asking for your opinion." And that was all the warning the thug got before Krasnaya knocked him out. She turned to her partner and motioned towards the Warthog. "Shall we go?"

At that very moment, Trickster laughed as his men kicked and punched their former boss on the ground. To add insult to injury, the former mercenary threw eggs at Zokine's bloody face, still laughing at the top of his lungs.

Zokine wheezed, exhausted from all past beatings, as his traitorous henchmen tied him up and poured gasoline around him. Mercury snapped his fingers, ordering his goons out the door as he approached the man who's operation he'd stolen. "You think you're smart, huh?" Zokine spat, bitterly. "If those creeps betrayed me, it's only a matter of time until they turn on you. Ah, back in my day criminals believed in something. Honor. Respect! Look at you! What do you believe in, huh?! WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IN?!"

Mercury silenced the dethroned racketeer by stuffing a grenade in his mouth. "I believe that whatever doesn't kill you simply makes you… stranger." With that, he flashed the panicking mobster a final smile before tying a loose string from his jacket around the grenade's pin and making his way out the door.

He was just about to pull the string and release the pin when he heard a window shatter behind him. With his smile growing wider, he turned around to see Krasnaya and Azure ready for a fight.

"Say, I didn't mention it earlier, but there's something familiar about you, Krasny: have we met somewhere before tonight?" the former mercenary couldn't help but ask.

"Doesn't matter," Krasnaya remarked, hoping to keep her identity intact. "I know who you are, Mercury Black, and I know that Loki did something to you back before you escaped your holding cell back in Menagerie."

"Ah, you must be the girl that he was so obsessed with then," Mercury said with a light chuckle. "I'll admit that my memory from back then is a bit scrambled, but I certainly recall how much you seemed to upset him. It's actually something of an honor to be fighting you of all people in the here and now."

"You're sick, Mercury: whatever Loki did to you has twisted your mind, but I can help you if you just come quietly," Krasnaya declared.

"Appreciate it, but no dice: I happen to like what Loki did to me," the mercenary-turned-crime boss remarked with a manic grin. "And besides, Mercury Black isn't here right now: call me the Trickster."

The madman threw his arms up with a dramatic flare, pulling on the thread wrapped around the pin of the grenade in Zokine's mouth. The racketeer screamed in fear before being blown to kingdom come. The explosion went beyond the room and knocked both vigilantes and the former mercenary off the balcony. Azure was knocked unconscious from the blast, so Krasnaya dove after her first. She caught her sidekick and fired the grappling hook in her sickle to safely leave her on a building ledge before diving after Black. She caught him and sent them both through a window of an adjacent building.

"Now why, WHY would you do that?" Trickster couldn't help but ask as he and Krasnaya both got to their feet even as two guys in clown masks ran up behind the Crimson Crusader with guns at the ready. "News flash: I'm the one who's trying to kill you!"

Krasnaya got ready to defend herself if need be...only to freeze as the former mercenary shot one of his own goons in the head before promptly killing the other one. "Those were two very, very bad men," Trickster said with a sneer. "You honestly don't want to know about some of the things they've done: they deserve death...just...like...me."

With that, the Trickster turned his own gun so as to shoot himself, only for Krasnaya to swipe the gun out of his hands and knock him to the ground.

At that moment, numerous cops burst into the room, with one of them yelling out "Freeze!" as they all aimed their weapons at the duo.

"Don't move, freak!" one of the more corrupt police officers declared.

"I think he's talking to you," Trickster directed at Krasnaya with a mocking grin. Rather than answering, Krasnaya threw down a smoke pellet to obscure her image before knocking the Trickster out and escaping in the confusion to regroup with Azure. She collected the unconscious robin Faunus and rushed back to the Warthog for a hasty getaway.

"Let me guess: she got away," Jane couldn't help but direct towards one of the gathered officers as she arrived on the scene not long afterwards, having caught onto Kransnaya's involvement here before giving the unconscious Trickster a look of disgust. "Take him to Red Cell."

"Alright, tell us!" Cash ordered as she roughly escorted Trickster to the squad car sometime later. "Where'd she go?!"

"Who?" Trickster asked, playfully, having woken back up a short while ago.

"The Red Woman! Your partner!"

Trickster snorted. "My partner?!"

"Who else would jump off a building to save your sorry ass?" With that, Cash slammed the door shut before getting into the driver's seat.

Trickster, meanwhile, could only stare at the burning building with a coy grin. "Y'know something, officer? I was wondering the same thing, myself."

A few minutes later, Mikhail watched the news report of the police escorting Trickster away to Red Cell. He turned off the television just in time to hear the rumble of the Warthog in the distance. He climbed down the stairs to the cave and saw Svetlana and Cyan stepping out of the vehicle.

"What happened out there?" Mikhail couldn't help but ask, wanting to hear her family's side of the story.

"Well, the good news is that I don't think that Tony Zokine will be much of an issue anymore," Cyan declared as she removed her mask.

"The bad news is that I fear that New Rushland will be dealing with someone even worse in the meantime," Svetlana added with a frown as she removed her cowl. She then noticed Cyan moping in front of a picture of her parents. "Are you okay, Azure?"

"Yeah." She sighed. "It's just kind of funny. A small part of me thought seeing Zokine die would make me feel better about what he did to my parents… instead, I just feel empty… washed out… and maybe… maybe just… just a little bit more alone."

"You're not alone," Svetlana promised as she brought her ward in for a hug. "And while I don't know what exactly we'll have to deal with in the future, so long as you're a part of this family, you never will be."

"Thank you," Cyan remarked with a light smile. With that, the robin Faunus quietly made her way upstairs to go to sleep.

To Be Continued!

Epilogue:

After the police captain called her son to ensure that he was alright, she made her way down to the detention center. The Trickster sat in a puddle of blood in his cell, surrounded by five dead bodies. Jane was disturbed at how he managed to kill them all despite being relieved of his prosthetic legs. Regardless, the maniacal former mercenary grinned from ear to ear as he twiddled his thumbs from boredom. Jane shuddered as he stared at her with those cold, remorseless eyes.

"What'd you find, Cash?"

"Nothing." The detective crossed her arms, regretfully. "He's burned off his fingerprints and filed down his teeth so we can't find any reference. Clothing is custom. Nothing in his pockets but knives and lent. No name. No other alias. None of the boys recognize him, either. At this point, we're going to have to hope that those DNA tests we sprung for come back positive on his previous 'Mercury Black' identity so that we can at least have a reference point in the system."

"Oh, great." Jane rolled her eyes, exasperated. "Well, we'll hold him for tonight and send him off to Ironwood Asylum in the morning. Any word on Dr. Ember's recovery?"

"Well, that's the one bit of good news we've had today; Dr. Purple says she's showing brainwave activity." Cash smiled. "She's expected to wake up within the next two weeks. But until then, there's a new psychiatrist on the block who's eager to handle the more dangerous patients."

"Are my ears burning?" A high-pitched voice called from down the hall. A young woman in a doctor's outfit approached the two officers. Trickster scooted himself closer to the bars to get a good look at the girl.

"Speak of the devil." Cash remarked. "Captain Maroon, meet Dr. Esmerelda Cream."

"Call me 'Izzy.'" The doctor insisted as she shook hands with the captain. "Everyone does."

Maroon arched an eyebrow. "Aren't you a little young to be a criminal psychologist?"

"Oh, I'm fresh out of school!" Izzy beamed, proudly. "But I assure you, I am more than qualified to handle the criminally compromised malefactors."

Jane shared a concerned glance with the detective before shrugging. "Alright. Starting tomorrow, he's your problem. But be careful. This type of creep will eat you alive if you give him the chance."

"Oh, I'll be quite alright." Izzy promised.

Trickster watched and waited for the officers to leave before clapping his hands together to get the doctor's attention. "So, I'm gonna be your first, am I, toots?!" He chortled. "Well, you know what they say; 'you never forget your first time!' I'll try to make it… memorable for you." He finished with a wink.