True Colors

One Hell of a Start

(Alex)

"Get the drive out to Hatter." Legacy said, putting the black plastic in my hand. She pulled her long blonde curls up into a ponytail and ginned. "Queen and I will take care of the rest of security system."

"We still need-" I started to protest.

"Just go, we've got this." Queen said with her standing next to Legacy, you could see the family resemblance between the sisters. "Go. I want the record time." Queen shooed me off, turning on her heel and heading deeper into the warehouse.

Legacy started to follow, but stopped and walked back to me. "I'll see you out there. You still owe me dinner." She kissed my cheek before rushing after Queen.

My cheeks flushed bright red. Eighteen years of being trained as a spy and one simple kiss from a cute girl could stagger me. I made my way outside to where Hatter was waiting in the tech van. His job had been to hack his way into the building for us. Now he'd been sitting, waiting for something to go wrong and managing our comms units.

"Still owe me dinner." He mocked, making kissy faces as I took a seat.

"I could kill you without leaving a trace." I warned and his face fell slightly. Good. I could still scare people even after blushing at a pretty blonde.

Hatter probably would've returned to teasing me anyways, if it wasn't for a sudden disturbance on the screen coming from Queen and Legacy's comms units.

"Queen? What are you-"

Legacy's comm unit fizzled out, a bright red light signaling it's death.

"Queen, what's going on?" Hatter asked.

Silence.

"Queen, Legacy, do you need back up?" Hatter continued.

Silence.

He glanced at me "Grab a new unit and go back in there. Something must've gone wrong. We-"

"ALEX!"

Legacy's voice crackled through Queen's unit. Not Riddler. Not my code name. But Alex. A name she only ever called me outside of our training and missions.

"Wait, what if it's a trap-"

I didn't listen to Hatter, I was already out and sprinting back towards the building.

Boom!

The building suddenly exploded, the blast lifting me up in the air and hurling me against a wall. My vision blurred as I tried to get back up. I was aware of blood dripping down the side of my face then everything went black.

-

"Alex. Alex. Alex. Al-"

"Say my name one more time, Bryton, and I will shove my fist so far-"

"Chillllll." Bryton rolled his eyes. "Just trying to snap you back to earth. You were spacing again."

"Does it matter? We're not doing anything."

"I'm taking offense to that. I was telling you what our next mission is. Well, possible mission." Bryton said "Riddler and Hatter back at it. If you think it's too soon, I can tell HQ. We did just get back from Japan and to-"

"When do we leave?" I asked, already packing my bag. We'd been home less than a day, but I wasn't one to turn down missions. Free time led to me agonizing over the past. I didn't have time to slow down.

"Now, if you want. But we should maybe pass on hits one. It's undercover work." Bryton warned.

I hesitated. Undercover work was only slightly better than free time. "Why are they handing it to us? We aren't undercover agents."

Bryton shrugged, his fingers twitching slightly, a usual tell when he lied. I raised an eyebrow and he sighed. "it's tracking a possible Blackthorn agent."

Blackthorn. The agency charged with the explosion that had killed Mackenzie. The ones who took legacy from me. Who ruined everything. I would kill to get my hands on one of their agents. Find out why they went after Legacy and Queen. Find out what really happened before the explosion.

"I'm in." I said, all hesitation gone. "Undercover work it is. Where are we heading?"

"New York City, to a coffee shop called Expressions." Bryton said "And I've got the most basic of covers for us. How do you feel about keeping our first names? And being brothers."

"I'm the good looking one." I shrugged "And why keep our first names? If this is a blackthorn agent then they'll get suspicious if there's a Bryton and an Alex snooping around."

Bryton rolled his eyes "No, it'd be suspicious if it was Hatter and Riddler. As far as HQ is concerned, there has never been a security breach of information. They are the only ones who know our names. And I've got my reasons for wanting to use our first names."

I paused, stopping my packing once again. "You think Queen is going to be around?"

He nodded slowly "My intel says Queen is in New York city. At least that was the last intel I've got on her. Maybe if she hears our names she'll come talk to us. Maybe we can at least get a fresh trail on her. Sure, we'll track down the Blackthorn agent, but I also want to find Queen."

My fist clenched and unclenched, almost out of my control. Of course Bryton still wanted to track down Queen. I had asked him a million times to just stop. Finding Queen wasn't going to bring back Legacy. Finding Queen was going to do nothing. She was discharged from the academy for amnesia, she couldn't answer our questions as to what went down. The academy had kept her from us for a reason. If there were answers to be given, we'd have gotten them then. We weren't going to get anything now that five years had passed.

"I know you don't want to find Queen." Bryton said quietly. "So I'm not going to ask you to help with that."

"Just don't involve me in your wild goose chase for a girl who can't remember anything." I said "I'll be focusing on taking out the Blackthorn agent."

"Fair enough. Let me go pack and I'll update you in the car." He finally left me alone to finish my packing.

I made sure he was actually gone before walking into my closet and removing the fifth floorboard on the left, scooping up the old picture kept not so securely in a plastic bag. It was our team, our final picture taken before the explosion. Queen and Legacy stood in the middle, their beautiful blonde hair gleaming in the sunlight. Hatter was beside Queen, making a goofy face while Queen stared seriously into the camera, no smile, no laughter in her blue eyes, nothing short of stone faced, like she knew everything was about to go to hell. The part of the picture that got me most though was Legacy. She was facing the camera, but her eyes were trailed on me, the ghost of a smile on her lips. To my credit, I was also looking down at her, though my smile was better held internally.

I had wondered a thousand times what Legacy would've looked like if she got the chance to grow up. She was only fourteen, almost fifteen, at the time of the explosion while the rest of us were 18. Puberty had only started to touch her. I had to assume she would look a lot like Queen, maybe puberty would've narrowed her face out a little, given her more prominent features. Or maybe Legacy would've stayed the same with the angel face and just gotten older. Either way, she would've been stunning, not that it ever mattered to her. Or me. My feelings for Mackenzie had snuck up on me senior year. Suddenly she wasn't just like a little sister, but so much more. I never even got to fully explore those feelings, maybe that's why losing her had been so hard.