"What's the problem?" the young hero asked, throwing a few pieces of bat-shaped metal at him. "You look disconcerted."
"I don't know," Klarion shrugged. He effortlessly deflected the thin shards with a simple flick of his hand before they reached him. "You can always ask him," a plasma dragon shot out from his palm.
Nightwing quickly leapt sideways. Even though with the quick reaction, the energy blast still missed him by just inches, scorching his raven-black hair.
Guess who else isn't concerted? the archer, on the other side of Nightwing, thought. The two had been firing arrows and batarangs at Klarion for like, fifteen minutes, to no avail. Klarion was hard to take down even for superpowered Meta, let alone ordinary humans!
M'gann, we need backup, the archer sent a mental message to Miss Martian, but the Martian replied, Negative. All Team members are busy.
Everyone else was fighting members of the Light. But still! Klarion the frikkin Witch Boy here! The most powerful one, remember?
Artemis—Miss Martian's reply was cut short, and the telepathic link was down.
M'gann! The call echoed emptily inside her head. She's in trouble. But there was no time to worry about that now.
"Ugh!" Artemis said aloud as her arrows exploded on the bubble floating next to the boy. His companion, Teekl, was curled up safely inside. It was grooming itself with rhythmic licks, its eyes closed.
Where's Zatanna when you need her? Artemis was getting pissed at the thought of wasting her arrows like that, while Zatanna was fighting comfortably with the League.
And Aquagirl and Tempest, she added. Basically all "baby-magic" Teammates were gone. Perfect.
"This is pointless!" Artemis shouted to her Teammate throwing batarangs on the other side. "We have been doing the same thing over and over!"
He just gave her a slight nod before returning his attention on Klarion.
Klarion grinned, "Did your mum ever tell you not to take things that aren't yours?"
"Did your mum ever tell you to behave?" Nightwing retorted after dodging his beams. He aimed about a dozen more batarangs at him.
"No, and do you honestly think your toys can harm me?" the boy teased. He lazily flung one of the batarangs on the ground. After that a shower of beams fired from his hands. Nightiwing sprang away from the first one, the second one, but not the third one. He was too occupied that he did not dodge the fireball in time; he was hit and fell on the ground.
The Artemis crouching behind Klarion nearly gasped. She heard a different voice inside her head, Either get traught, or get dead.
Thinking that he was winning, Klarion walked up to his attacker in triumph. Teekl purred in the bubble. For a moment Nightwing was lying still, but then his chest jerked up and down vigorously as he coughed out blood.
"Ugh, just die already!" Klarion said disgustedly. Teekl's neck fur rose up with a hiss.
"Sorry to disappoint," Nightwing coughed out his response.
"Need a little help?" A fireball formed in Klarion's palm.
"PASS. You need help?" Nightwing still managed to mock defiantly at the confused villain, despite his condition. Klarion realised he had forgotten about something. He turned around, but was too late.
Artemis jumped up from where she was hiding. She leapt up with all her might and released her bowstring.
Nightwing got him distracted long enough for Artemis to take action. It occurred too fast it happened in a blur. Klarion's eyes followed a startled yowl to find the now-pierced bubble. The semi-transparent sphere was wearing off, like water dissolving soap. An arrow caught the weirdly-striped creature inside. It fell. Without the bubble to support it, it dropped onto the floor. Blood gurgled in its throat as it tried to make a sound.
"Teekl!" the Witch Boy ran up to the poor animal, now on the floor. "You!" he roared at the young heroes. "You dare hurt this helpless, innocent cat!" He raised his arms, ready to make the next blow.
"Don't even think about it," Artemis warned slowly. She loaded her bow and stepped closer to them.
The Witch Boy turned back to Teekl. He stared at his familiar in panic. Teekl spat out another mouthful of blood.
"Fine," he cooed in a smooth voice. It was more like to his cat than to the Team. He then resumed to Nightwing and Artemis in a whiny voice, "We're gone. This time. But don't get too happy; you're sooo gonna pay for this!"
Klarion stood up with Teekl in his arms. He snapped his fingers and then the next moment, he and his cat were gone.
Nightwing was still lying on the ground, giving a few weak coughs. Artemis went up to his side and knelt down to talk to him.
"Sorry. I didn't act early enough." Artemis started.
Nightwing smiled in encouragement, "The plan still worked.
"Way to get traught."
"Hey, thank Zee instead. She did the spell on my arrow," Artemis knelt down to talk to him.
"And thank you for shooting them."
Artemis returned a faint smile. And thank you for distracting him. Artemis kept the thought to herself. There was no way she could win this.
"Shh," Artemis pressed him back down gently, seeing as blood trickled down the corner of his mouth. "Stop talking. You need rest."
"I've had worse. Remember when the Joker—" he continued stubbornly, but stopped in astonishment when Artemis pecked him softly on the forehead.
Her lips moved away from him once they touched him; the kiss was almost nonexistent, but it really was there. Nightwing did not react to it. He did not return the affection—nothing. He simply could not.
Who knew her soft, luscious lips could actually be that electrifying? Nightwing was rooted to the spot, unable to move or speak.
Technically this Artemis and the other Artemis from the parallel dimension were the same person, but even a small peck from her was far from the other's passion. Maybe it was because being in the same dimension with this Artemis felt more… real. They had had been through so much together, after all. However, those 0.5 seconds were in no way realistic at all.It felt like years, even decades for Nightwing. He was so dizzy and could not stand up.
Okay, stay whelmed, Nightwing told himself. Luckily he could always use his injury as an excuse to remain laid down.
Aqualad speaking. Beta and Delta squads, report. The link was back.
We—Delta squad—were just done here. Nightwing is hurt, but nothing serious, Artemis reported. Nightwing had the sense to shut up for once.
Great, cus we could use a little bit of help here. This time it was Miss Martian who called.
Part II of Changes, here it is! Not that bad but still bad.
Thank you for continuing to follow Changes. Loyal readers, you know who you are. ;) I really appreciate that.
For those who don't know, this is a semi-continuation of Changes (part I). I'll tell you the summarised version of the major plot points:
-Robin became Nightwing in the first chapter
-Zatanna, Rocket and Batgirl were his exes
-In a mission, the Gamma squad (Zatanna, Rocket and Nightwing) visited a parallel dimension
-Zatanna left for the Justice League towards the end of Part I