And here we are! A little late, but still good. I tried to include some interesting characters in this one. Tell me how I did!

~Rainosa

13: Explaining

Cheshire P.O.V.

Silence engulfed me, like a thick coat of stealth softening the sound of each move I made, and as swiftly as I dared, I slipped through the rafters of the dingy warehouse, taking care to always stay within hearing range of my target. The men below me chattered something in Spanish, and I smiled. They suspected nothing. I moved over a few more rafters to get the perfect angle on their leader as I reached for a weapon, and just as I began to aim, the space was filled with an electronically-distorted rendition of a Spice Girls song.

The Spanish criminals twisted and turned, searching for the noise, and guiltily I reached for my phone. Did I seriously forget to turn it off? Finally, after a few moments of scrambling, I was able to silence the device and re-assess the situation.

Yep. Everyone was staring. Damn. I nimbly leapt out of the rafters and landed nearby, immediately drawing myself into a fighting position.

"Well I'm not here just to snoop, you cowards," I boasted in my best Spanish.

That elicited the response I wanted. The men jumped at me, swinging heavy fists and clumsy kicks. Typical. I ducked under the first blows to deliver a few solid strikes of my own to their knees and stomachs. The first wave bowed out almost instantly, and as the next few stepped up I attacked first, snapping out a spinning back kick that connected harshly with the outermost thug and toppling the idiots beside him. While they struggled to recover, I systematically kicked in the heads of each member of the first wave who hadn't yet fallen into unconsciousness, before finally pulling out a few throwing stars and wiping out the second wave with some well-placed tosses. In the back, I could see my target trying to escape, and I finished off my final opponent just in time to hit the floor running for him. He didn't stand a chance. He reached the door just as I grabbed him by his stuffy collar and shoved him face first into the wall.

"Someone wants you gone real bad, Hernandez," I whispered threateningly, "Dead or alive. Depends how much time I got on my hands."

"P-Please, I will pay you!" he pleaded, quivering in fright.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I shifted my grip so I could reach for it. As the Spaniard blubbered and begged, I opened my text messages and saw a single word from my sister, typed out in all caps.

"NOAH."

"Well, looks like it's your lucky day, Hernandez. I don't have time to drag around a dead body. C'mon, let's go," I instructed, pulling the man off the wall. I brought him to the van in the back before quietly knocking him unconscious and and texting her back.

"I can be there in four hours."

LINE BREAK

Rex P.O.V.

"Well, looks like she'll be here in the morning," Artemis noted, shutting her phone off and setting it aside on the table. On her right, Noah was conked out on the couch, snoring peacefully as the room settled down for the night. Down the hall, Artemis's mom was clearing dishes from her dinner, and I glanced at my watch to see that we had managed to put regular stuff off until midnight. Chuckling, I rose from my armchair, stretching and yawning.

"I should probably get going then. Would want to worry Providence," I reasoned.

"Don't be ridiculous, you can stay here for the night," Artemis offered, "I can contact Providence if you want, tell them where you are. Besides, you shouldn't be going anywhere this late anyways."

I waved her off, "Really, it's fine, I can just zeta over."

"Oh, are you leaving Rex?" Ms. Crock called from the kitchen, "That's a shame. I thought you would have really hit it off with my eldest daughter."

"Mom," Artemis groaned, "She's only coming to see Noah; no need to make things any crazier than they will be."

With a sigh, I slipped back into the chair, "Fine, if we're going to argue about it, I'll just stay here. I need some sleep, anyways."

Ms. Crock 'hmph'ed satisfactorily from the kitchen, and Artemis laughed half-heartedly. Eventually, they both drifted off to bed, and I wearily dozed off myself a few moments later. All was quiet until about four in the morning the next day when a frantic buzzing screeched through the apartment like some kind of psycho jungle monkey.

The noise slowly drove me to consciousness, and I blinked my eyes open. It was still dark outside, but there was enough light that I could make out Noah still snoring on the couch. Lazily, I pulled myself to a stand and headed to the buzzer.

I pressed the button, "Hello?"

"Artemis?" came a nasal voice.

"Yeah, this is her apartment. Who is this?" I droned on.

"I'm her sister."

I nodded tiredly, "Oh right. She said you would be coming around now. Come on up."

Buzzing her in, I shuffled down the hall to Artemis's room to wake her up.

"Yo, Lady Robin Hood," I called, knocking on her open door, "Time to get moving."

An indeterminate groan emanated from the bed.

"Come on. Your sister's here, Lazybones," I encouraged. That got a reaction. A messy blonde head poked out from under the sheets and scowled at me, before the rest of her slipped out of the sheets, still dressed in yesterday's clothes. Several solid knocks at the front door summoned me back, and I caught a quick "No, don't answer it!" from Artemis just as I turned the doorknob to reveal a tall, lanky brunette dressed in some kind of strange robe and wrappings.

"Where's Artemis?" she inquired, her tone much less distorted when not ringing through a speaker, "She texted me that there was an emergency."

"Actually, I'm pretty sure she just texted 'Noah'," I quipped back.

"Same thing, José," she growled, pushing past me and into the hallway, "Where is she?"

I shrugged, "Still in bed, but she should be up any second now."

"I'm in here!" Artemis called from her room, and the tall girl immediately headed in that direction.

"What's the emergency? What happened?" she hissed.

Artemis, brushing her hair, calmly, set down the brush, "It's not really an emergency, just something you need to know."

Her sister deflated, "Are you kidding me? I had to cut short a well-paying job in Spain to get here, just because you've got some gossip to share? Y'know what, from now on, code word NOAH is revoked, okay? I'm done joining in on your touchy feely-"

"Artemis?" Noah called from the hallway. The girl froze where she stood, and when Noah walked in, she twisted slowly around, like some kind of wooden doll. Blearily, he was throughly trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes, and didn't see the gathering right away.

"Do you guys know what time it is? There should have been at least three more hours of sleep before any of us even..." he trailed off as he noticed the fourth party, "Oh, who's this?"

I thought the girl would faint. She was bug-eyed, staring at him like she'd seen a ghost (which, to be fair, she probably thought she had). I swear, I could have knocked her over with a breath, but instead Artemis walked over and took her by the arm.

"Noah," she calmly addressed, "This is my older sister Jade. Jade, this is Noah."

The girl, Jade, stuttered, "Y-you mean...it's really him?"

"Yep," Noah nodded and smiled, before jamming his hand out for a handshake, "Nice to meet you, sis."

Jade knocked his outstretched hand aside and enveloped him in a vicious hug. Almost right away, tears were being shed, and childhood memories were whispered out loud as Jade rocked back and forth with Noah in her arms. After a moment, Artemis came to join them, and I suddenly realized I was intruding on a very private family reunion. Just as I stepped out of the room, I felt a hand grab me by the jacket and pull me back into the fray.

"Please stay," Noah whispered in my ear, wrapping an arm around me and tugging me to join the group. With minor reluctance, I caved, and added my own hug to the rest. And for a while, we just stood there, wrapped in a big ball of family. For the first time, I realized what I had been missing all these years, and I was so happy that I might finally get it.

"Where have you been, Noah?" Jade sighed, the first to pull away, "We looked everywhere for you! You can't imagine how much I missed you!"

Artemis tugged out of the fold, too, and chipped in, "I found him hanging around Providence with his friend Rex here. Turns out he just showed up in the nearest city five years ago with no memory. I guess we finally caught a break, huh?"

"No kidding," Jade swung an arm around Noah's neck and gave him a thorough noogie.

He laughed and shook her off, "So Jade, I know Artemis is a superhero...what do you do?"

"I'm a master assassin," she casually explained, not noticing Noah tense up a bit, "I mostly work with the League of Shadows, but once in a while I do a little...freelance, work."

...

"Oh," he tried to swallow.

"Hey Noah, can I talk to you alone? Thanks," I gripped my friend's shoulders and yanked him out of the room. Immediately he started to freak out.

"Dude, Artemis told me she was kinda crazy, but not that crazy! An assassin?!"

I shook him, "Calm down, ese. You know plenty of people who are assassins. You didn't think Six was always a green-loving Providence agent, did you?"

He blinked as surprise and confusion came upon him, "Um, kinda?"

Shaking him again, I shoved him up against the wall, "Seriously? The guy carries around pocket katanas!"

"I thought they were standard issue!"

"Have you ever even heard of another agent using katanas?"

"Well I'm not exactly the first person they tell about that stuff!"

"Y'know what, it doesn't matter. The point is, who cares if she's an assassin? All the assassins you know are still cool people. Besides, it's not like she's planning your murder in there. She's super happy that you're back! So quit worrying and give your sister a chance!" I encouraged, concluding with a solid whack to his shoulder.

Rubbing at the point of contact absentmindedly, Noah gave me a square look before pointedly making his way back into the room. Artemis and Jade looked up from their mild conversation, looking for explanation.

"It's cool, Rex just wanted to know when we could go back to sleep," he joked, moving to go sit on his twin's bed.

"Oh, right, I guess it's pretty early," Jade commented, looking out the window to note the rising sun, "Do you guys want to clock out for a while longer?"

"Nah, I have a feeling I couldn't go to sleep after this," Artemis declined.

Noah agreed, "Me either."

I couldn't believe my ears.

"Well screw that," I huffed, "Daddy needs his sleep. If you guys are gonna stay up talking, though, I guess I better head home."

Noah nodded, "Okay. Tell my parents where I am, will ya?"

"Yeah, whatever," I waved back as I walked out of the room, gathering the few belongings I had brought with me.

"See you at our next mission, Rex!" Artemis farewelled.

After several goodbyes, I finally made it out the door and down to the zeta tube. What a night. But at least I knew my friend was going to be happy. However, I had one last thing I needed to check up on before I actually made it home.

LINE BREAK

I popped out the zeta tube into a different time zone and a different city, one puttering by at a much more reasonable hour. It was with this in mind that I got my bearings together and marched down to the residential areas of the place, searching for a specific house. After about half an hour, I found what I was looking for.

I rang the doorbell and in a few minutes, the door swung open.

"Hello?" a groggy mom answered, still rubbing sleep out of her eyes.

"Mrs. Nixon?" I wondered.

"Oh good morning Rex, come on in. Is everything alright?" she queried.

I nodded, "Yeah, no worries. Oh, Noah wanted me to tell you that he stayed the night at his sister's house."

She smiled, "Thank goodness. I never know where to find that boy sometimes."

As she took a seat on the couch, I sat across from her on the chair, "Well, that's sort of what I came here to talk to you about."

"Hmm?"

I took a breath, a little reluctant to even ask, "Where did you find Noah?"

Her eyes widened, suddenly awake, "Excuse me?"

"When he was little, and you adopted him, where did you find him?" I restated.

She laughed, "Oh, darling, it doesn't work like that. Not every lost child is found by the parents on their doorstep one day. We just got him from the adoption agency. We know how hard it is for older children to find a home, and after we heard his amnesia story, we couldn't say no."

She paused, and gave me a suspicious look, "Does Noah know you're doing this?"

Begrudgingly, I told the truth, "No, and I'd like to keep it that way. He might take offense, and I really don't need that. If he gets angry, it'll just get in the way of what I'm trying to do."

"And what's that?" she asked.

"Finding the thing that cured him."

And there you have it! I'm trying to get back into the suspenseful part of it, so if you have any suggestions, feel free. Please review!

~Rainosa