Baby Sisters

(Part 2)

New York City

April 29, 18:01 EST

Sam quickly shut down the computer and hopped out of his seat. "Artemis! What're you doing here?"

"I thought I'd stop by to visit my big brother." Artemis said. "Why? Is this a bad time or-?"

"No, no!" Sam said. "It's just Holly's sister is in town and I didn't expect you to show up now."

"Double sisters, huh?" Artemis asked, walking towards the computer. "Older or younger?"

"Younger!" Sam exclaimed, shutting the computer off before Artemis could open it.

"You could've just said 'don't touch it'." Artemis said.

Sam raised an eyebrow.

"True, true."

"Holly! Where is my duffel?"

Holly sighed. "I'm never gonna get ready if you keep losing stuff!"

"Sorry! I'll crawl around and find it myself!"

Holly sighed and stood up, still fidgeting with the strap on her dress before walking out into the living room. "Your duffel?" she asked.

"Yeah." Rachel replied, standing up and adjusting her tank-top straps and dusting off her jeans.

Holly walked to the front closet and opened it. The duffel bag was sitting in the closet.

"You are just as much a mental klutz now as you were back then." Holly said with a grin.

"Yeah, yeah. You weren't so great yourself." Rachel replied, elbowing Holly in the stomach.

"Watch the ribs!" Holly exclaimed before walking back to her bedroom. "Twenty minutes before the opera starts!"

"Uh, I don't think so." Rachel said. Holly walked out of the room and looked at the television Rachel was staring at.

"—the villain Horseman is downtown wielding a new sword that apparently shoots flames at objects. The NYPD have been unable to get close to the villain because of the immense heat, but Chief Draxx assures us help is on the way."

Holly sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Lemme call Sam and tell him to cancel."

"Yes, Holly. What is it?" Sam asked. He paused for a minute before sighing and giving an affirmative.

"What is it?" Artemis asked.

"Get your tights on, we've got a situation downtown."

"Who is it this time?" Artemis asked, ducking into another room to change.

"For once someone in a costume: Horseman."

"The farmer with a short temper who ridiculed and almost killed those punk kids on his property?"

"That's him." Sam said, pulling off his shirt and pants before sliding the different pieces of his uniform on. After about five minutes, the two were driving out of the base on motorcycles, heading for downtown.

Red Revenge and Artemis screeched to a stop outside of Times Square. Horseman had gotten a suit upgrade. It looked similar to a man wrapped in cords except taller, with no head, and wielding a flaming sword.

"Up and at 'em." Revenge said, tossing Artemis his grappling hook. He disembarked from his motorcycle and walked towards Horseman.

"Revenge!" Draxx yelled. "Bout time someone in a costume showed up!"

"Tell me about it." Revenge muttered, breaking into a run, leaping over the horse-riding figure and planting daggers in the suit. They exploded to no effect.

The headless figure laughed and started towards Revenge.

"Freeze." Revenge said.

Horseman stopped in confusion and Artemis fired an ice arrow. The sword flew out of the villain's hand and froze over. Revenge stepped on it and it split. Horseman merely looked at Revenge for a moment before stepping off his horse and taking off his helmet. "I want a lawyer."

Revenge sighed and disappeared into an alleyway only to come screeching out on his motorbike.

"That was simple." Artemis said, jumping on her bike as well and closing the distance between her and her brother quickly.

"Compared to Trapper and Diabhal—"

"Diabhal?"

"Don't ask."

"Impressive." Rachel said. "That guy was terrified of Red Revenge."

"That's the way most of them are." Holly said in a satisfied tone.

Rachel continued to stare at the television screen with a hazy look of inspiration on her face.

New York City

April 30, 00:34 EST

"Thanks for the latte." Artemis said, taking a sip of her drink.

"No problem." Sam replied, taking a seat with his own steaming drink.

"So what's up?" Artemis asked.

"Assassins, Lex Luthor, what else?" Sam asked, taking a sip from his drink. He spit it out, slamming the cup on the table. "Owowowowowow!"

Artemis laughed.

"Itsh not funny. I burned my tomgue."

Artemis laughed again. "Hot Chocowate ith hot." She said, imitating the billionaire.

Sam glared at her for a moment, then started laughing with her.

The two shared a sibling moment for a minute, laughing and joking with each other before slowly getting back to business.

"So what was on that computer you shut down so quickly?" Artemis asked, sipping from her drink again as a bitter wind blew past her.

Sam blew the steam from his drink and slowly took a long drink before replying carefully. "Stuff."

"What kind of stuff?" Artemis asked.

Sam sighed. "If you must know, I think someone close to me is working for the Light."

Artemis set down her cup slowly and looked at Sam, folding her arms on the table. "Who?" she asked. "Not Holly?"

"Not Holly." Sam confirmed. He took a while before continuing. "Her sister though."

Artemis raised an eyebrow.

"Uh, yeah. I didn't know she existed until two days before she arrived. Holly never mentioned her." Sam was silent for a few seconds, thinking. "Come to think of it, Holly never mentioned anything about her family except they were in Germany."

"Holly's German?"

"Nah, she was born in California, moved to Germany when she was 18 months old."

'

"Ah."

Sam was silent for a moment. "I don't know. Can I get your—"

Artemis held up her hands in a gesture that said 'stop'. "Sam, you know I don't do the hero business. Not anymore."

"I was just asking for your opinion." Sam said.

"Oh." Artemis said, smiling nervously. "I don't know, I've never met the girl."

Sam grinned. "Well I was meaning to ask you out to dinner anyway. Come tonight and meet her."

Artemis grinned and took another sip of her latte, nodding. "Usual connection?" she asked.

"Yes," Sam said regretfully and almost bitterly if Artemis dared. He noticed her glance and sighed. "I just want to introduce you as my sister. All the time. I don't wanna introduce you as someone I work with, or an acquaintance, or someone from college. I want you to be my sister in any and every environment."

Artemis smiled sweetly. "Sam, you know what that would do to your reputation. I want to be your sister in all ways too, but I'm willing to be your college room-mate if it will benefit you."

"I'm not." Sam said, looking away.

"Sam…"

The billionaire sighed. "Fine. But we need to think of a story to where you can be my sister."

"Sam…"

"What?"

"Don't worry about it, I'll be fine."

Sam smiled and the two went back to their brother/sister moment.

Two Days Later…

Red Revenge landed on the roof of the apartment building softly. Moving to a non-invincible suit did provide advantages, like every move not being heard across the city.

He looked out at the warehouse where the last murder had taken place. If he hadn't personally checked on Reaper this morning, he could have sworn it was the cloaked villain.

"Revenge to Emerald, another Luthor Corp employee dead. Having any luck with the search?"

"I'm not, but Rose is working on it."

"When did she get there?"

"Two minutes after you left. Hold on,"

Sam waited as the two females talked on the other end of the line. Had he not noticed a bright red and yellow blur at the last second, he would've missed the departure of the assassin.

"Target spotted, moving."

"Revenge! Wait!"

The Black Hero ignored the two female's warnings and launched himself (with the assistance of booster jets) across the street to the roof of the building he had been watching.

"Draxx, these coordinates." Revenge said, placing a disc on the roof before leaping into the alleyway behind the building. He heard some soft grunts as he walked stealthily down the alleyway. He turned around a dumpster to see a girl in a tank-top, still wearing her assassin pants, and her mask on the ground. Most importantly, she had red hair.

"Freeze!" Revenge yelled, reaching for his utility belt, but the female had kicked him in the face by then and was gone.

"Damn it!" Revenge exclaimed. "Emerald, what's the status of the investigation?"

"Suddenly, as soon as you called, all the documents were erased." Holly said.

"Where's Rachel?"

"She's downtown, getting some clothes or something." Holly said. "Why?"

"Find her! Now!"

"That's okay, I've got to give her her purse back anyway."

Revenge growled and walked away, not noticing the mask on the ground. Police cars screeched up and Draxx jumped out of the car.

"Assassin struck again." Revenge said, walking up to the police chief as troopers rushed into the building.

"And you still can't pinpoint who or where she is? Or even a pattern?"

"No," Revenge replied bitterly. "But you have my word, Captain. I'm working as hard as I can."

"Good." Draxx said. He turned around and picked up his gum from the seat of his car. When he turned back around, Revenge was gone.

"Now I know how Commissioner Gordon feels." Draxx said.

New York City

May 3, 22:09 EST

"Are we in position, Draxx?" Revenge whispered.

"Yes. All positions secure."

"Excellent."

"Are you sure Grant won't mind us doing this?" Draxx asked. "I mean this is his company."

"What Grant doesn't know, won't hurt him."

"That's usually not true."

Red Revenge laughed.

It took almost two hours for the assassin to appear. She slipped stealthily among the shadows.

"Target spotted." Revenge said, picking up his gun and aiming it squarely at the feminine figure.

"On your signal." Draxx radioed over.

Revenge aimed the sights, lined up the crosshairs, and pulled the trigger. The assassin began to scale the building.

"Now." Revenge said, leaping from the roof of his company at the same minute.

Police aimed at the glowing figure on their electronic sights and fired. The assassin, totally unprepared for the assault, dropped a story onto her back and rolled away into the shadows. Police continued to fire as Revenge dropped straight down on top of her.

The assassin was taken completely by surprise. She collapsed on the ground with Revenge right on top of her. She yelled in pain and grabbed her shoulder. It occurred to Revenge now that the force of him falling that far and landing on her could've broken her shoulders.

"Stay down and let me look at the shoulder." Revenge said. He moved one foot off of her stomach and reached for her hurt shoulder. The assassin fired a shot into the Black Hero's stomach at point-blank range and he flew off of her with an "oof!".

Durea stood up wearily and ran inside the doors of Grant Industries.

"Draxx! Stand down!"

The bullets stopped and Revenge ran inside.

"Paramedics and some back up." Revenge ordered.

"For you?" Draxx asked in a sarcastic tone.

"For the assassin!" Revenge yelled, flying up the stairs to the top level of the building. He opened a door softly to the abandoned and dark desks of the workers. He heard a very soft, almost undetectable whimpering from under one of the desks. He cautiously approached, hand on a tazer now. He leaned under one of the desks and got a punch in the nose.

"Ow!" he yelled, stumbling backwards. Durea tried to run, but Revenge caught her shirt sleeve and slammed her on the ground.

"Enough!" he yelled, jabbing the tazer into her. Her body shook and she grunted in pain, fighting less than before.

"Don't make me do this again." Revenge said.

"Try it, Grant." The assassin wheezed out.

Revenge's eyes widened and Durea grinned weakly as if she could sense it.

"That's right rich-boy. I know who you are."

Revenge frowned. "I know who you are too, Rachel."

The red-head frowned and slowly took her mask off.

"How did you know?" Revenge asked, hauling her to her feet and handcuffing her.

"Make-up, lipstick, my purse. I all left it around in awkward places you and Holly could discuss in private what you didn't want me to know."

Revenge nodded. "Very professional." He remarked.

"I knew my sister was hiding something. After all, she worked for the Shadows as well."

"I know that. We met with her gun to my chest."

"Romantic."

"Anything else you wanna spill?"

"Where's the archer? Not going to bring her along?"

"I know she's my sister."

"No, she's not. We implanted Sportsmaster's DNA into the vial Dinah poisoned you with. You would think you were Artemis's brother.

"And what was the Light's purpose for that?" Revenge asked.

"To mess with your head." Rachel said with a wicked grin.

Revenge was silent for a second. "Captain, cleanup on Floor 77, cleanup on Floor 77. Thank you."

Revenge walked into the base, dropping Rachel on the couch. Holly turned around and rushed to her sister's side. "Rachel!"

"Traitor!" Rachel spat, trying to push Holly away. "Sie Verratan Das Liecht!"

Holly stumbled back in surprise.

Rachel was still wheezing and weak. She pulled out a bottle from her boot shakily and opened it.

"No!" Revenge yelled, springing towards her.

But the pill was in her mouth. In a moment the read-head was dead, her eyes rolled back in her head.

Holly was stunned for a second before completely breaking down. Sam grabbed her and held her tightly as the body of the assassin slowly slid off of the couch and face-down onto the floor.

New York City,

May 7, 18:09 EST

Sam looked at the vial in his hand. He carefully screwed the needle into it. Was this what he really wanted though? Did he really need this? One injection and it was over. Such a simple movement really.

Sam pressed down on the needle and the fluid rushed into his system. Sam sighed relief.

Holly stood on the roof. Warm weather was finally moving in. This had been the coldest winter she had ever seen and Holly knew it was foretelling something to come. As much as she wished it was her sister, she knew that Rachel had merely been a distraction to what was really coming, what was really just over the horizon.

She hadn't been able to do hero work since the death. At least, that's what she was calling it. She couldn't bring herself to admit her sister was so loyal to a cause that she had taken her own life for it, and Holly had bailed at the first chance she got.

Sam, bless his heart, was trying to make her feel better, but he really couldn't help. After a decade, she had seen her sister for a week before discovering she was an assassin and watching her take her own life.

Sam had voiced his wonder over how Rachel knew what he was going to do at each moment. Holly had replied Rachel could see right through his mask, just like Holly herself had always been able to do.

The sun was setting on New York, and Holly knew, deep in her gut, the bright orange ball of fire was setting on more than just the city.