It's A Longshot
Artemis honestly wondered how she got into these situations. Of course joining the team meant that her life would be filled with the impossible and unbelievable, but sometimes it was just ridiculous. She looked across the motel room at Roy who was, or she assumed he was being that she couldn't directly see his eyes, staring holes into her side. She turned from his stoic gaze and recounted the mission that went far beyond wrong.
"B07 Artemis" rang through the cave as Artemis walked through the Zeta Beam tube.
"A little late Artemis?" Wally asks playfully. Artemis just rolls her eyes and approaches the holo-screen next to the rest of the team. "Now that we are all here, I'll begin the mission briefing." Batman says with a tinge of annoyance. Artemis shuffled to the other foot uncomfortably.
It's not that the Batman scared her, he terrified EVERYONE.
"There have been some disturbances in some genetic testing labs surrounding the Washington D.C. area." Batman begins. "These include research being hacked and stolen or copied, machinery going missing and a destruction of one of the facilities. I want the team to scope the remaining two labs and gather information on who the thieves are and why they are after the genetic information." He finishes. "How is there no information on who is robbing the labs?" Robin asks. Batman pulled up the security footage from each of the labs and all the feeds are abruptly cut. "We are dealing with a very talented hacker. All the feeds are cut before and during the robberies and then are cut back on after the thieves are far out of range." He explains.
The briefing continued on for a little longer and eventually everyone was decked out in stealth mode and headed for D.C. Artemis had always wanted to visit the nations capitol, there was a lot of cool stuff to see and do. "ETA to the first drop zone is 2 minutes." M'gann states. Artemis, Wally, Robin and Kaldur prepared for the drop. "Psychic link established." M'gann confirms and Artemis feels the familiar tingle of the team's minds connecting to one conscious. It was definitely asterous. "I heard that." Robin thinks snidely. "Ok, so those weird words you make up are catchy." She says aloud. He just smirks.
Artemis's team descends to the top of the first laboratory as the bioship silently departs for the next one. Artemis quickly hid on a corner of the building while Robin jumped to the second roof and silently disappeared. Kaldur and Wally took positions patrolling each side of the facility.
"Anyone else starting to get VERY bored?" Wally mentally asks. "Come on KF, we've only been out here for like 2 hours. I've had a stake out last 3 DAYS." Robin thinks with a sneer.
"You're also on the crazy Bat regime." Artemis jokes. She could hear Robin's snicker from her position on the roof.
"Hey, boy wonder, giving away our position is on the 'no-no' list." She sarcastically thinks. "There's no one out here 'Mis just…wait, disregard that." Artemis already had an arrow strung and was heading for the edge of the roof. "Hold your positions and DO NOT reveal yourselves until I give the order. Team two we have confirmed visual on assailants." Kaldur relays. Artemis peeks over the wall to see four bodies and one was glowing red. "Klarion's here." There was a simultaneous groan from each member. "So is the Joker, Vandal Savage…and I think Professor Ivo? Someone else is down there but I can't get a good look" Robin reports.
"I only see four? Where is the fifth?" Wally asks.
"Lookie what we have here Teekle, a little spy." Artemis whipped around to see Klarion standing with a hand on his hip and one on his familiar. Oh crap. Artemis let her strung arrow fly as she let the thought of "COMPROMISED" read to her teammates. The witch boy stopped the arrow and let bullets of red magic barrel towards her.
She somersaults out of range and quickly strings another arrow as Klarion sends all sorts of spells at her. The ground around Klarion explodes as Robin appears and tries to roundhouse kick the sorcerer. He smirks and lets the roof collapse with Artemis and Robin on it.
Robin shoots out a grappling and grabbed Artemis's arm before they hit the ground. She heard her shoulder crack but confirmed it wasn't dislocated. She looks down to see Ivo already hacking the computer system she let's go of Robin's hand and lands on the enormous computer Ivo was at. He was startled by the archer's sudden appearance and she only smirked more as she kicked him in his startled face.
"ARTEMIS." She reeled around in time to see Wally crash into the Joker who had a switch blade in his hand. That would have been painful. "I GOT THIS! Find Savage!" She didn't have to look far he was standing off the side with a creepy grin on face.
"What's so funny, Savage?" She says while stringing one of her barbed arrows. She knew, on a normal person, it could kill. However, Savage was immortal so she assured herself he would be fine. He catches her eyes with his own. "I'm just waiting for the surprise." Artemis was sure the face she made wasn't attractive but he found it amusing. Out of the corner of her eye she caught movement so she turned her head.
She wished she hadn't.
Red Arrow was standing at least 10, maybe 15, feet away from her and he was stringing a barbed arrow. Artemis was not Roy Harper, well clone Roy's, number one fan but she would help where help was needed. She was about question his being when she realized what he was aiming at. She dropped her arrow and loaded a punching glove, a gag gift from Green Arrow for Christmas, and let it fly. It hit Kaldur and caused him to fall as Roy's soared harmlessly over him.
"Something is wrong with Red Arrow!" Artemis yells mentally. Wally, who was currently locked in a grudge match with Klarion look over to see his friend, "What is he doing here?" Artemis loaded more arrows and shot them at Klarion. "Something's wrong he just tried to KILL Kaldur."
"I have the information!" Ojo yells to his team. "Then we are done here, Klarion?" The witch boy knocked away Wally with a blast of magic and raised his hands. The villains began to fade out, including Roy.
Now, Artemis isn't one to make rational decisions. Especially under pressure, Zatanna liked to call it her one weakness besides being human. So, she wasn't thinking rationally when she ran and grabbed Red Arrow's arm. She also isn't a whiz kid in magic like Zatanna, so being transported with Roy was not something she considered.
It wasn't until she was standing, surrounded by villains in the middle of some abandoned warehouse, that she realized exactly what she had done and how much trouble she was in.
"It seems we have a little stow away. I hate stow away's." Klarion states with a pout. The adult villains then realized the young heroine in their midst, Red Arrow also noticed the girl attached to his arm.
"Well, well. You have gotten yourself into a little mess, haven't you?" The Joker asks tossing the switchblade in his hand in a circle. She let go of Roy's arm and prepared to grab and arrow, however she realized that all of them were gone. "Looking for your toys?" Klarion asks as he made them float over his head. He quickly destroyed them to let her know she was screwed.
"We could send her back to her little club and the bat with a pretty make-over." The Joker says grinning as he held up his blade. She took a step back into a very large body that Artemis could only assume was Vandal Savage. Shockingly she felt safer pressed up against the enormous villain than even looking at the insanity that was the Joker.
"We could still use her, I highly doubt we could pull it off with her all mangled." Professor Ivo states. "Yeah, Bats would probably be pretty pissed." She says. "Would he?" Savage mockingly asks. She shivered and stepped towards Roy. Wait, Roy. What the hell was he even doing here with the BAD GUYS…AGAIN?
As this realization hit her she snapped her head up to look the boy in the eyes…mask, whatever. "I see you finally noticed your little archer friend." Ivo states. "What did you do?" She demands. He smiles. "I'm so glad you asked. We were very sad about the loss of our little mole." Artemis clenched her fist. "So we decided to try our hand at a genetic method of mind control rather than sorcery and science." The attack on the league was still fresh in her mind. "Our clone was a perfect test subject because we were familiar with his DNA and…"
"He's not yours."
Ivo was silent for a second. "Excuse me?" Through bared Artemis hissed, "I'm sorry maybe I should say it a little slower, He. Is. Not. Yours." Vandal smirked. "You are fearless aren't you?" Artemis scowled at the group and crossed her arms. "I might not be fearless, but YOU don't scare me." The Joker grins, "Really now?" She uncrosses her arms. "Ok, maybe you do, but Ivo most definitely does not." Klarion lets out a giggle. Ivo scowls. "We are wasting time here, the league is probably already tracking her." Klarion floats over. "I've protected us with shielding magic it will take them at least a week before even Nabu can magically find us."
"I'm so screwed." Artemis thinks.
Now she was here. In this sketch motel with Roy brainwashed Harper because the Shadows were afraid if they were somehow compromised, they would rather the league and or team find her in a motel rather than a top secret hideout. Who knew super villains rented rooms in motels in the first place? She was just glad they had decided not to kill her.
Her costume was torn and she felt naked without her arrows and bow. It was worse that Roy just kept staring at her. "Can you stop looking at me like that, Arrow?" He just smirked. "Do I make you nervous?" she just glares at him. "How can you just go along with all this? You don't look like you're even trying to fight it? Ollie, Dinah and I don't see you for weeks and you've just been here letting them brainwash you?" Artemis finally questions. "What are you talking about? I don't even know you. What's your name anyway?"
Artemis felt like the wind had gotten knocked out of her. As much as they fight and acted like they hated each other, she did care about him. For him to say he doesn't remember her, or anyone, puts a pit in her stomach. Had they wiped his mind like Psymon did the team in Bialya? "It's Artemis."
"Stay here. I have to use the bathroom, but you won't be able to get out anyway, those doors are dead bolted from the inside and I have the only key." When he turns around she notices a little disk on the back of neck. She smiles and thinks how stupid it was to leave a device that controls someone's mind in plain sight. At least she hoped that's what t was.
She gets up from the chair she had been confined to since she and Roy had been confined to the room and ran full speed at the archer. When she was about 2 feet from him he turned, grabbed her arm and twisted her onto the bed. She was thoroughly shocked he was able to react so fast, she had gotten the best of him in training a time or two.
"If you try and take that off again, I will break your wrist." He let her go and looked down at her. He walked away and searched through a bag and threw something at her. She caught it and realized it was a t-shirt. "I highly doubt you want to sleep in that ripped up spandex so there's that if you want it." And he went into the bathroom. She looked it over and realized it would be way big on her if she did put it on…and he was right. She didn't want to sleep in her costume. She looked at the locked door and decided to go try her luck anyway.
He was right, again. There was no way this door was going to open without a key. She could try to kick it down but she doubted that the super villains in the rooms around her would let that go lightly.
She sighed and sat on the bed. She looked around and it clicked that there was ONE bed. She and Roy would have sleep in the same bed…together. Well, as long as Roy had on clothes she could deal.
Roy Harper then decided to walk out of the bathroom where it was very apparent he had just showered because for one he was still wet, and two, he was only wearing boxers. The blush crept on her face as she noticed just how nicely developed his abs were. It worsened when he saw she was staring at him. "See something you like?" Artemis growled and pushed past the, completely unnecessarily, toned boy and locked the bathroom door behind her.
Her skin was pruning by the time Artemis finally got out of the shower. She put on her clothes minus the uniform and decided that Roy's shirt would have to do. It was at least three sizes to big. She sighed and walked out of the bathroom to find Roy just standing. Doing something stupid, but still nearly naked. She scowled and looked away as he walked up and climbed into the twin size bed.
His emerald eyes surveyed her as he noticed why she was reluctant to sleep in the bed and watched as she debated sleeping on the floor. He rolls his and says, "Just put your big girl underwear on and deal with it." He turned the switch on the lamp and it went dark. She couldn't see anything. She sighed and felt comfort that she didn't have to look at Roy while she crawled into bed. She kept her back to him and tried her best to fall asleep, she heard his breathing and it made it all the worse. Wait, he was asleep. She turned over and slowly began to reach for the device on his. "I said I would break your wrist, do you really want to see if I'm bluffing?" Artemis decided that no, she did not.
The next morning Roy woke up first and decided to get the annoying girl sleeping next to him some food before she tried to escape. He was sure she would try, she seemed to head strong not to. When he came back she was standing up and stretching. The hormonal teenager in him noticed how his oversized t-shirt rose a bit over her thigh as she stretched her arms above her head. He snickered. "Nice Batman underwear. Let me guess you have a whole league set?" She turned around mortified. She took a stance ready to yell so he threw a muffin at her. He really wasn't in the mood for screaming. At least not that kind…did he really just think that?
"I hope you like chocolate, if not, well then starve." He says opening his own. "Thanks." She mutters bitterly. This routine continued for two days. They would wake up and sit around waiting for something to happen and he would make subtle innuendos at her. All day. She had to admit though; it didn't bother her as much as it should. She liked, loved, Wally but, there was something intriguing about Red Arrow. She, however, would NEVER willingly cheat on Wally.
Roy had neglected to put on his mask the past two days, and a shirt for that matter. But at least he had on pants…most of the time. It was nearing 9:00 p.m. and she decided she should took take a shower before Roy took all the hot water again. I guess being evil also included being an ass and making you take freezing cold showers. She got up and walked towards the shower and he smirked and asked, "You want me to join you?" She just rolled her eyes and slammed the door. Without his memories, Roy really was an overly hormonal teenaged boy, which gave Artemis a very good, or very stupid, idea.
Roy finished his nightly routine of the last two nights by coming out of the bathroom drying his hair off with a towel. However, instead of finding Artemis trying to awkwardly not look at him, she was sitting on the edge of the bed with her legs crossed. He passed it off until she asks, "Were you joking?" He looks at her with a quirk to his brow. "What?" She rolls her eyes. "All those jokes and little innuendoes, were you kidding?" Roy was slightly taken aback. "Uhm, sure." She sighs. "Darn. If they're going to kill me or brainwash me, I would rather have a little fun before they do." Roy gives a side glance and she looks at him under her lashes. "Well then, why the hell not?"
Roy was just a horny teenager under all his angst. She would make sure to address that after all this, if her plan even worked. He walked up to her and kissed her gently. She really hoped Wally would forgive her but if she had to, she was going to enjoy this.
He sat down and kissed her more passionately. She placed her hands on in shoulders and he slowly worked his tongue into her mouth. It donned on her that his tongue may or not have been in his sisters mouth and that was thought that, almost, made her stop. All of a sudden he gently pushed her on her back and kissed down her neck and she let out a slight moan. She gasped when his hand ran up her thigh and towards her butt. No, no hell no. She was not losing her virginity to ROY FREAKING HARPER as a HOSTAGE. She pushed him up a little and positioned herself to straddle him while his hands moved across her back and she imagined the "arrowcest" jokes that Robin would make when he found out.
She began to kiss down his neck and he was thoroughly occupied with her on top of him. She began to kiss his neck and spotted the small disk. Before he could let it register she grabbed the disk with her teeth and ripped it off. His hand flew to the now stinging spot as he yelled "Jesus Christ!" She pit the thing out quickly before it could morph to her tongue or something crazy. She looked at Roy who was slowly coming too.
"Artemis? Where am I? Wha…" His eyes went wide with horror and he threw her off him and stood up. She realized just how band it looked. She was in his clothes, in a sketch motel, and she wasn't wearing pants. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?" She put her finger to her lips as a teacher would to a small child to signal silence. He did, reluctantly. She explained the situation and against all odds, he believed her. "This had better not be some elaborate joke." He stated pulling on his uniform with his back to her. "I promise, it's not." She said as she pulled on her mask.
Somehow, someway, they escaped. Maybe Ivo was just so vain he believed nothing could undue his little mind control, he obviously did not consider teenage hormones, or they just underestimated Artemis. She imagined it was a mix of both. However, as terrifying and awkward as the experience was it was nothing compared to Artemis trying to explain it to Batman.
"And so your master plan was to make-out with Red Arrow?" he asks, and for once he sounded astounded. "When you say it like that it sounds ridiculous but…yes. And hey, it worked!" She defends. "Indeed. I think that's all I need to hear in one day." He says exasperated. She was just glad she didn't have to explain her almost sex fest with Roy to Bat's anymore. She sighed and left the room only to see Roy waiting outside. They hadn't talked much about it, and she honestly was afraid too.
"Truce?" was all he asked. She was caught off guard and as she was about to respond he kisses her cheek and walks away. She was shocked more than anything but smiled. Maybe that mission wasn't all bad? "You harlot." Artemis looks over to see a smirking Robin, who had the most devious smirk that rivaled even Cheshire's.
"How much did you…"
"WALLY!"
"NO YOU BASTARD. ROBIN I'LL KILL YOU."