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The continuation. . .
'What do you mean?' Clark asked, slightly confused. 'You mean there's more?'
Don sighed. 'Even she doesn't know the details,' he pointed at Vanessa. 'And Shadow isn't really talkative. Things got from bad to worse when—'
At this moment, Carter walked in with a grimace. 'There's been a murder.'
Vanessa shot to her feet. 'Carter, don't tell me. . .'
'She's on the loose.' he said quietly, his voice almost cracking.
'So soon?' Vanessa asked skeptically. 'Are you sure it's her?'
As her answer, Carter held up the photos no one noticed were in his hands. 'See for yourself.'
Vanessa took them from him as the heroes watched on. 'These are—'
In the pictures were two corpses in an alley, one decapitated, the other, covered in claw marks with it's eyes gouged out. But that wasn't what made Vanessa pale, no, it was the words written in blood on the alley wall.
I'm back.
The photos fell out of her hands as she was made numb by shock. 'She's killing.'
'This can't be happening? I think I'm going to—'
Carter stared at Vanessa and shook her lightly. 'We have no time for you to panic.'
'Oh. . . Okay.' She took in a deep breath, flashing him a small smile as she turned to the heroes. 'I think we should postpone—'
'Shadow has started killing hasn't she?' Batman cut her off.
'We have our orders.' Carter answered.
'And they are?' Barry asked with a raised brow.
'To eliminate Shadow at all costs.' Vanessa whispered.
'And who gave those orders?' Dinah asked sharply.
'Leader. . .' Vanessa let out a breath.
'I got my own elimination orders from Shadow herself.' Carter cupped his face in his hands. "But we can't kill her. . . We don't have will or the skill."
'So what, you set this whole meeting up so we did your dirty work for you?' Oliver asked with a sneer.
'No,' J'onn shook his head. 'They want us to convince her to stop.'
'We can't not carry out our orders, and Shadow would be more willing to walk into a sword than listen to us. If we even try to talk sense into her, she'll just find another way to die.' Don got up. 'So I'm going to go find her, see ya.'
'We do have a shade capable of handling her. . . But she's Six.' Vanessa shook her head.
'And what's wrong with Six?' A new voice joined the mix as Everett walked into the room. 'She's capable of facing Shadow and not dying.'
'Dr Temper.' Bruce greeted with narrowed eyes.
'Batman, how nice to see you again.' Everett smiled. 'But I go by "Eight" nowadays.'
'Who is this Six?' Canary asked, redirecting the topic.
'Shadow simply adores Six, she'd do anything for the kid and that isn't strange because they practically grew up in parallel lives.' Carter said as he walked to Everett. 'They both lost their parents, the both blame themselves and they both feel alone, only problem is, Six is eight years younger than Shadow but she's just as dangerous as Shadow was when she was that age.'
Throwing down a smoke bomb, he and Everett vanished from the room.
'You people make children shades?!' Flash stared at Vanessa in shock.
'Donatello has taken Aquaman with him, I hope you don't mind.' She chose to say.
Batman glared at her. 'Answer the question, or else things won't as peaceful as they are now.'
She only shook her head. 'How is Robin?'
'You want him to end all this don't you? You need him to go against Shadow.' Bruce gritted his teeth.
'Yes.' Vanessa sighed. 'Before Shadow kills more people.'
'I won't allow it.' He growled.
'Actually, that's not your call bats.' Robin waved, sitting in a relaxed position on an horizontal beam that ran across the ends of the roof. 'It's mine.'
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Shadow stared blankly at the idiot whose hand was slipping up her top, considering how to kill him.
'Hey!' The idiot cried out. 'Don't go on looking like that! We both know with that fancy collar here on your neck, you can't do a thing.'
She narrowed her eyes at him. That was true.
'So you might as well enjoy it.' His voice got lower as he leaned forward. She felt like throwing up, forcing herself to take a step back, only to find that she couldn't move.
'Trevor, get the hell away from her, you perv.' Another voice broke the stalemate, naming her the winner by default.
'Ugh,' Trevor groaned, his hand coming to a stop. 'You going to pretend like you weren't thinking the same thing?'
'I'm not pretending anything.' Another man appeared on the rooftop with a case in his hand. He was the owner of the voice from before. 'I just wouldn't have a go at his toy.'
'Well, shit.' Trevor took his hand out of her shirt, hos actions nervous. 'I would have taken her right here and now, if you hadn't shown up, Mark.'
'And you would have gotten your blood drained.' Mark pointed out. 'We don't touch the girl, we watch her.'
Trevor rolled his eyes. 'Why are we watching her on this roof? When it's cold and drizzling?'
'Because, Trevor,' Mark started, taking out the sniper rifle from the case in his hand and setting it up on the roof. 'She has someone to kill, and we make sure she does it with no fishiness.'
Trevor scoffed. 'Hit a target from a thousand metres away? Ain't that fishy enough?'
'Did you not see how she killed those two guys from before?'
'Yeah, yeah.' Trevor grumbled, taking a step away from Shadow in fear.
'And if let's say hypothetical, the collar fails, you are the first she's gonna kill.' Mark cracked his neck, loading one bullet into the rifle. 'You're up girly.'
Shadow let out a sigh, crouching down on the wet roof to the level of the scope. She could see the rich playboy sitting across from his own target on the diner table with perfect clarity, and Shadow couldn't help but admit that she missed working with The Foundation's state of the art equipment.
Normally, a bullet shot from here, even with the best gun would fall short of it's bloody mark and glory. But Shadow was the marksman and it was raining.
Holding her breath, she closed one eye—the one looking through the scope, placing her hand on the trigger. Suddenly, the sky fell, immediately it started raining cat and dogs for no just reason making Mark and Trevor curse and duck for cover.
"Will ya hurry up!' Trevor yelled against the sound of the pounding rain.
Shadow's eye snapped open just as thunder roared and lightning struck, illuminating the sky for a brief second. She pulled the trigger, an ethereal blue glow morphing around the bullet as it shot off at blinding speed into the distant darkness then vanished. The rain started to let down as Shadow stood up, still dry.
'It's done.' Her voice echoed out in the complete silence as her gaze fell on the shivering Trevor.
'What j-just happened?' He looked up to the sky. 'Is the target dead?'
Trevor grabbed his binoculars. 'Damn, it's too far away. I can't see a thing!'
'Holy son of—' Mark gaped as he stared through the scope at the scene a thousand metre away.
'What?!' Trevor rushed to his side, shoving him to see through the scope himself. 'Shit.'
'Who's the next target?' Shadow glanced at them as she walked away.
'Ti- Timothy Smith.' Mark stuttered, still gaping.
Shadow paused, shaking her head. 'Him?'
Mark and Trevor remained silent.
'Let's go.' Shadow muttered in thought, disappearing from the roof.
'Just what did we get into. . .' Mark mumbled to himself, packing up the rifle.
'Mark!' Trevor exclaimed. 'Did you see what that was?! A perfect headshot, from this distance?!'
Mark nodded. 'And there was someone sitting next to him too.'
'Why do you think the boss wants them kids eliminated?'
'We don't ask questions Trevor, it would do you good to remember that.' Mark shook his head. 'Don't mess with the girl.'
'What is she?!' Trevor asked, feeling terrified.
'I don't know.' Mark shook his head. 'I wish I did, but I don't.'
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