August 8, 2010 - Happy Harbor, RI
Happy Harbor Main Street
22:27:14
Apollo took a deep breath, controlling the inhalation as he allowed the air to fill his lungs, and drew back the bow. The cams made no sound as they turned, the limbs were silent as they flexed, the only sound a slight noise as the string grew taut. His shooting hand reached his cheek, an arrow nocked between each of his fingers. Three sat on riser, and as he brought it to full extension, the cams locked and he could easily hold the draw as he aimed his shot. He did it all by eye; no scopes or optics for him.
He didn’t need them.
The weapon was a massive upgrade from the hunting compound bow he had bought at a sporting goods store a few weeks ago when he began his ‘new hobby’. He had done well, stopping muggings, assaults, and a jewelry store robbery with nothing but that bow, some target and blunt arrows, and his skills. The weight, smoothness of the action, durability of the parts; all of it was butter smooth and reliable. Plus, getting access to the Emerald Archer’s bewildering arsenal of arrows gave him innumerable tools.
Batwoman and Green Arrow tracking him down so quickly had been a surprise… as well as them showing up at the apartment. Dad being so… enthusiastic about the idea of Green Arrow taking Apollo under his wing was even more surprising. The whole point of keeping his vigilantism secret was because he was sure Dad would hate the idea of him putting on a mask. Apollo was forced to admit he had misjudged his old man.
Dad wanted nothing more than for him to not become a villain, so he shouldn’t have been shocked that he was happy he became the opposite. Especially with someone experienced to mentor and protect him. It was all happening so fast, but Apollo had decided to hit the ground running and roll with the punches.
It was the only way to survive in this family.
When his target appeared, he pushed aside his introspection. The reversal, grapple and knock out blow had been textbook. Just the right amount of force at the proper place at the base of the skull to knock the target out, without giving them lasting brain damage. Apollo did not have to give it to the Assassin; she hadn’t killed him when she could have. But the League of Assassins rarely did so; they had an agenda set by their master, but mostly they were guns for hire. They had been ordered to kill Dr. Roquette, not her hero bodyguards.
Killing him was superfluous to her mission, so she hadn’t.
At least, that’s how it seemed when he thought about it logically. The Assassin in her high cut green Ao Dai was quietly leaving the internet cafe where the himbo had been guarding Dr. Roquette. She was leaving calmly, not fleeing into the night. Dr. Roquette was still on the mindlink, babbling that Superboy was down but the Assassin had spared her, so Apollo wasn’t concerned anymore. Robin and Aqualass were reporting their success with the Fog over his comms, but he ignored that as well.
Apollo exhaled, and loosed.
The shot was a peach; three arrows flew from the string simultaneously, arcing from his rooftop perch and speeding towards Cat Mask. She was already starting to react as they hissed through the air, sai filling her hands already and moving to intercept. He saw her freeze momentarily as she realized what he already knew; the arrows were too far apart for her to arrow cut them all.
Too many missiles, not enough time or hands to parry them all. Quantity had a quality all its own, as his mother had often tried to impress on him.
Apollo was already moving the instant the arrows left the string; standing there admiring your own handiwork was how you got dead in this business. He trusted himself, his skills and his weapon; the arrows would arrive and do their job. Now he had to do his part. He sprinted across the rooftop and snagged a handle on a zip line runner he had prepared, and was swiftly gliding down to intercept his target. Nothing else to do while riding the line, he watched his arrows arrive.
Cat Mask was good, as he knew already. She cut two of the arrows out of the air with a sai in each hand, but the last one struck true. It was a simple target arrow; carbon fiber shaft with titanium spike head. Just like the target arrows he had bought with his first bow, but with their quality dialed up to 11. Apollo wasn’t sure how Green Arrow afforded all his arrows, but he appreciated their quality. The final arrow slammed home right between her eyes and sent her sprawling to the ground, sai clattering across the alleyway she had stopped in when she heard the arrows coming.
She had bragged about her mask, and he could tell from his closeup with it that it was made of high impact ceramics. She’d be fine, to a certain definition of fine. Arrows didn’t weigh much but they carried a great deal of momentum, and that momentum had just been transferred to the unyielding mask, and to her skull, and to her squishy brain inside. It didn’t ventilate her skull but it did send her brain rattling around her skull for a little bit.
The concussion was probably going to be quite minor. It was important to show your opponents the same courtesy they showed you.
Dropping from the zip line, he approached her prone form with another arrow nocked, this one a broadhead. Heroes weren’t supposed to maim or kill villains, but Cat Mask had pushed the rules of engagement to the limit. He wasn’t going to take any more chances with her, stopping well out of reach of her. A person was dangerous with 21 feet, according to certain combat personnel. Even if you had a gun (or a bow) and they had a knife, that distance was short enough they could cross it and threaten you before you could shoot them down. Just to be on the safe side, he stayed at 22 feet, and drew back the bow.
She was facedown, her wild shock of hair hiding her face. The cat mask was lying on the alleyway beside her, face up with his arrow embedded in it. She groaned, and rolled over and began to climb to her feet unsteadily. Then she saw him and froze like a deer in the headlights. Her amber eyes met his and he gasped, much to his own chagrin.
His sister smiled at him, in the same superior, self satisfied way she loved to. When she knew something he didn’t, when she beat him in one of their mother’s sadistic ‘training sessions’.
When she had walked out of his life for the last time.
She was an Assassin.
She was just like their mother.
His big sister, the one who’d promised him she would protect him from their mother’s rages, and who had coldly told him that it was every woman for herself in their family as she abandoned him in an empty apartment.
His emotions roiled; anger, betrayal, disappointment, disgust, fear.
She knew it was him; the mask and cloak hid nothing, not to someone who had grown up knowing their parents and their ‘friends’ in and out of costume. Why hadn’t he recognized her before? It had been years, and she was older, more filled out, but it was still Jade. He bared his teeth as he saw her grin grow wider, his anger rising to the top of the boil.
“Don’t. Move.” He commanded, but her smile never left her, even as she meekly put her hands up.
“Wow. I am completely at your mercy.” She offered in a mocking tone.
His anger told him to loose right now and damn the consequences, but he controlled it. Giving vent to his anger had rarely worked out for him.
She straightened and turned to face him full on, unconcerned with the arrow pointing at her heart.
“Well, you got me, ‘hero’. I suppose now you bring me to justice.” She said as she put her wrists together and held them out daintily, as if offering him to cuff her. Apollo’s mind began to process the implications even as he saw her smile grow wider and wider, and sweat began to bead on his forehead.
“Let your new friends interrogate me. I wonder if your position is secure enough to survive them learning everything I know…” Jade said, with special emphasis on ‘everything.’
The same stew of emotions boiled over and spilled onto the stove now as his anxieties spilled over while he stared his sister down. He hated the fact that it was true, that she already knew so much about his situation. Apollo knew his reception had not been well received; the team had been hoping to get Trojan back on side. Aqualass, Robin and Kid Quick had worked with him before. He had hoped Superboy would welcome him as another guy on the team, but something about Apollo’s entreaty had fallen flat. Ms. Martian had been open, and accepted his plan as Beta Squad’s leader, but she just seemed nice to everyone.
Kid already suspected him. He had been too free with his knowledge of the League; it certainly looked suspicious if someone didn’t know him. And they didn’t; he had insisted that none of the team know who he was or where he came from. Growing up in Gotham City with supervillain parents was a not uncommon story. But that meant everyone who knew wanted nothing to do with you; villains made life hell for the average Gothamite. So the only kids who were willing to even know you were in the same boat. He was tired of his family, especially his mother, controlling his life even when she wasn’t around.
And now, this; his first mission with the team, and here was Jade, playing for the other team.
She’d do it, too. He knew she would. She had learned their mother’s lessons well, how to use every weapon in the arsenal.
There really was no choice, here. He had thought he was so lucky to get the Guild’s approval, to be introduced to the team, and actually have a peer group who understood the kind of life he had. But good things weren’t allowed to happen to him. It wasn’t in the cards.
It was all about legacy.
And his was bad.
He lowered the bow, slowly letting the tension off the string.
Jade smiled wider still, amusement lighting up her eyes.
“Didn’t think so.” She said, and crouched to recover her sai, sheathing them as she backed down the alley, her eyes never leaving his. Her grin never fading. She leisurely drew a smoke bomb from her pouch, and dropped it casually. It created a billowing cloud that covered her escape, and she left him with one last mocking taunt before she disappeared into the smoke.
“So like the Cheshire cat, I’ll just disappear…”
Apollo stood there for a long moment, in silence, ignoring his comms and the mindlink while he ruthlessly schooled his emotions and thoughts. Tamping down his anger and fear, presenting an ice cold exterior to the world. Like he always had.
He turned away from the alley, marching toward the internet cafe to keep the himbo from dying of cardiac collapse.
*******
August 9, 2010 - Happy Harbor, RI
Mt. Justice
00:07:14
Everything hurts.
Light flooded his eyes and he tried to flail clumsily, but his arms refused to answer even that command. Noise flooded his ears and slowly resolved into familiar and disturbing beeps. His heart raced and he slowly began to feel his extremities, then his face.
There was something on his face, something he hated.
His uncooperative hands finally answered his call and pawed at his face, feeling plastic and silicone and he grabbed a fistful of it and began yanking on it. He felt bands snap and a strange sensation down his sinuses and throat; an obstruction that he could breath through that still felt unpleasant but didn’t actually hurt. He dragged a wet tube out of his throat and threw it away in disgust. Sitting up, the blinding light resolved into a familiar room.
The Cave’s medical center.
Machines were beeping angrily now and he had to resist the urge to swat at them.
He could hurt someone if he smacked a ventilator across the room.
Already he heard the others hurrying down the hall, almost at the door. He took a deep breath, and found it painful. He coughed, and wondered idly if leaving the ventilator in would have been better.
No, never.
He shuddered at a wave of awful memories that threatened to drown him. He was never going to ‘live’ like that again. They had to have Do Not Resuscitate orders on this Earth. Hugging himself, he tried taking shallow calming breaths, but it was difficult both to breath and to calm down. He barely managed to rally himself before the door swooshed open and the team entered.
And Apollo.
Who was on the team now.
“Connor, are you alright?” Walli was instantly at his bed side, still in costume. She looked worried, and glancing around, he saw they all were. Rikki was stoic but the tension in her shoulders eased when she saw him sitting up. Kaldura was smiling slightly, an ecstatic expression from her. M’gann looked relieved but still anxious.
Except Apollo.
He looked annoyed.
“I’m fine.” He said in a hoarse whisper, before breaking into a long coughing bout. Rikki put a hand on his shoulder, while M’gann fretted and Kaldura loomed with concern.
He waved them off, gathering himself.
Keep it light, don’t push it. Don’t break down in front of them. He ordered himself.
“What… happened?” He laboriously got out.
“Robin and I were able to delay the Fog until Dr. Roquette finished uploading her virus. Then, Robin applied the virus to Wayne Tech’s computers just as the Fog was trying to infiltrate them. It proved the perfect vector as the Fog tried to consume all the data on the Wayne Tech servers, the virus had no trouble disabling it.” Kaldura reported.
“The doc?” Connor asked, finding his breath finally.
“She is fine. You… absorbed all the poison smoke in the room.” Kaldura said, slightly frowning.
“Which I can’t believe you actually did. There was enough venom in that smoke to kill a hundred people.” Apollo chimed in.
The girls all turned to glare at him, but he just crossed his arms.
“What? It wasn’t a good move. Yes, he stopped the doc from getting poisoned. But he disabled himself doing it, still leaving the Assassin in play.”
Connor thought about Dr. Roquette’s terrified face as the poison smoke encircled her, and the casual way the Assassin had threatened to kill her anyway. She had only really been saved due to the Assassin having orders against killing her in this eventuality. Before anyone, especially Walli, could start another argument, he spoke.
“He’s right.” Now the girls turned to him with consternation, and he shrugged.
“He is. I… made a move that dealt with one danger but ignored another. The only reason it worked out is because Apollo’s plan worked out. He was right. Is right.” Connor admitted, and he saw that wave break over the others. Rikki and Kaldura were thoughtful, M’gann contemplative, and Walli struggled with wanting to say something, to find some fault. Apollo looked surprised by the praise.
Connor offered his hand to the archer, who took it slowly, and they shook.
“Thank you, man. Really. It played out like you thought it would. Did we get the Assassins?” He asked, and he heard the skip of a heartbeat before Apollo answered.
“The Assassin in green got away. I almost had her, but she gave me the slip.” Apollo admitted.
“I got the spider guy! And Miss M got Captain Hook.” Walli reported excitedly.
“Nice. Good job, all of you.” Connor said, and offered a weak high five to Walli. He looked to Apollo and continued. “Two out of three ain’t bad.” He glanced at Kaldura, eyes questioning, and she gave him a nod.
“Welcome to the team.” Connor said cheerfully, or as cheerfully as he could muster when his lungs felt full of ground glass. After another shake, he released Apollo’s hand and the archer finally smiled.
“Yes, we succeeded tonight thanks in no small part to you.” Kaldura added, shaking Apollo’s hand in turn.
“I’ve always wanted a brother! On Earth, I mean. I have seven on Mars, but trust me, it’s not the same!” M’gann declared, clapping excitedly to herself. Apollo looked a little uncomfortable at the presumption, he noted.
“I wouldn’t know.” Apollo answered simply. “But… thanks.”
There was a natural break for Walli to add her own welcome, but there was only silence. Connor glanced at Walli’s sullen expression and surreptitiously poked her in the small ribs, urging her on when she glanced at him indignantly.
“Ow! I mean… welcome.” She added lamely, reaching out to shake Apollo’s hand as well, who accepted after a moment’s hesitation.
A question nagged at Connor, and he gave voice to it now that some semblance of camaraderie had been restored.
“So who were the Assassins? I didn’t recognize any of them. The spider guy looked like a knock off from another comic I read back home.”
“Black Spider, he’s one of ours. Tried to become a hero, but ended up a killer. Too messed up in the head. The cyborg was Hook, don’t know a lot about him other than, well, the big hook.” Rikki rattled off without consulting any notes or database, and Connor was impressed. Bats’ Rogues Gallery was so deep he couldn’t begin to name all the minor players.
“And the one in the green?”
“Cheshire.” Apollo offered, and they all turned to him. He pulled a now familiar mask out from beneath his cloak, a broken arrowshaft embedded in the forehead.
“Oh, souvenir!” Walli declared and snatched it up with the excitement of a squirrel finding the last nut before winter.
Wheels turned in Connor’s mind as he stared at the mask and then back to Apollo.
Ah. Cheshire. And Green Arrow’s sidekick. Gotcha. I think I’ve solved this mystery…