Ghét lẫn nhau (Mutual Hate)
For MapleDragon
SPITFIRE! :D
She kinda figures when Batman tacks them with the mission, it's some sort of karma for something she said involving the bat. She should've known there was security cameras in the ladies' locker room shower. Though, that's kinda pervy, now that it comes full circle in her mind.
Then again, maybe it's just supposed to be teaching teammate skills, since she gets along perfectly fine with everybody except Wally. She swears it's his fault, he swears it's always hers.
She's flawed.
To be honest, after awhile the childhood memories of watching Kid Flash on her TV even started to seem more bleak as she learned who was really behind the mask. Seriously, he starts complaining he's hungry and on the instinct that maybe he'll like her just a little tiny bit pops into her head and she's already half way done making cookies by the time he finishes the sentence.
He'd still rather eat Megan's burnt oatmeal raisin cookies, rather than her delicious marshmallow and chocolate ones.
And when they're alone together? Yeah, he can't wait to get out of the room fast enough.
If he were to spend an hour alone with her or jump into a pit of poisonous snakes, he'd be calculating how long he could survive with venom coursing through his veins.
She's not kidding.
"They're just kids," she says, half in awe, half in anger. Children were escaping even the Batman's clutches? She passes the binoculars to Wally, who observes them with quiet disinterest.
"Committing adult crimes," he adds. God, she could kick his head in right now. Does he even know why they're stealing? Or killing? Jade and her had both already mugged their first officer by the time they were seven- who knows who could be pulling the strings behind the two lithe figures huddled around a makeshift flame.
"Trời lạnh, Jason," the girl said, her long pale hair shielding her face from identification.
Wally looked at her expectantly, after all, she was the only one who could translate Vlatavan. She cleared her throat, and scooted closer to the speedster, so she barely had to be audible. Didn't want to scare the kids away, after all.
"It's cold, Jason," she repeated to Wally. The girl scooted closer to her companion.
"I know," the boy says, looping the scarf tighter around his dark hair and mouth.
"Bạn ngủ, tôi sẽ xem đầu tiên," the girl whispers, readjusting herself in a more comfortable sitting position. Her face is half illuminated by the weak flame, and she can't be more than ten or eleven.
"Okay, but you keep warm," he says, and the girl nods, while Jason curls up to keep warm and gentle snores fill the cold night air.
"Wait, did she just tell him to take a dirt nap?" Wally asked in confusion, while the Vlatavan girl tightened her scarf and gloves.
"What? No, she said she'd take first watch, basically."
Wally looked shocked while the girl gathered some supplies. She threw several branches into the flame, and circled large rocks around the growing fire. When she was done with that, she began singing a short Vlatavan rhyme.
"What is she saying now?" Wally breathed.
Artemis rolled her eyes, not wanting to sing a kids tune. It didn't even translate that well, "pretty much the equivalent of "Ring around the Rosy," just more people die."
"Oh." His voice was soft. "So can we just grab her? I mean the other guy is sleeping-"
"Wally, there's a reason they've been escaping the Justice League-"
"Dumb luck?" Wally whispered. Promptly, Artemis shoved her foot against the muscle between his foot and calf, causing him to tumble and swear; loudly.
"Ai đó? Tôi sẽ làm tổn thương bạn!" The girl shouted, and in her gloved hand appeared a short silver piece of metal, which was flicked open, revealing a sharp, clean blade. "Tôi không sợ!"
"What did she just say?" Wally asked stupidly, and Artemis quickly put a hand over his mouth to quiet him.
"In short? She'll cut us if she knows we're not a squirrel."
A minute passed, and the girl put the blade down onto a flat rock, apparently believing Wally's swearing was just a raccoon or something, and she sifted aside some of a bush to look for something.
Wally took the opportunity to dart across the forty meters and grab the small knife, and returned next to Artemis before the girl had retrieved a pack from the brush.
Artemis was ready to go and deliver the knife to Batman- they had the girls prints- but Wally was too busy flicking the knife open and close as if it were a toy.
"Give that here," she said, snatching the blade away from him, "your acting like a child."
Megan has them back in the cave in fifteen minutes. Wally spent the time flirting obviously to the martian and Artemis kept going between feeling scary hot and freezing cold.
"We're here!"
Artemis stumbled across the boards into the layout of the hangar. Her breath hitched as a roll of vertigo hit her, almost tossing up her lunch.
"Hey guys, good job! Where's the prints?" Robin asked, walking up to Wally, holding out his hands expectantly. For some odd reason though, Robin wasn't talking in his own voice, but rather Kaldur's.
She almost started screaming, but instead figured that it was just simply too late at night. She just needed to debrief, shower, and go home, "let's go baywatch!"
Wally's head snapped up and a coy smile spread across his face, "didn't know you thought of me that way, Arty."
What was he talking about? She called him "baywatch" not "cutie pie". She ground her teeth together, while Robin continued his weird Kaldur-Talk.
She watched as Robin passed the blade to Zatanna, who was to be inspecting before handing it over to the big leaguers.
"Sterces ruoy laever," Zatanna said, holding it out on both her palms. The knife slowly levitated, and in a fine layer of a purple dust was revealed, and several small fingerprints.
"stnirpregnif," she calls out, and the small prints fly off the knife in precise replication. Artemis watched in wonder: it was magic.
"Artemis, are you okay?" Megan asked, floating next to the archer. Her green skin seemed surreal suddenly, fake and swampy.
Robin looked up from where him and Zatanna were running tests to match the fingerprints, "the knife had a LSD-like drug on it. Walls did you touch it?"
"Gloves, mon," Wally said, and for reasons unbeknownst to Artemis, in a Jamaican accent.
"Arty?" Robin called, his Kaldur-voice still intact.
She held up her hand- or at least tried to- it felt like deep sludge in the air, hard to move through. She looked at her hand, it looked too big, and foreign. Wasn't she wearing gloves?
"Oh my god-"
She wakes up to bright white lights and crisp sheets. When she finally cracks her eyes open, she's not surprised to find herself inside of the infirmary.
She lifted her arm, however it didn't move. Like, at all.
Groaning in frustration, she tilted her head so that she could find a glass of water and make a plan of action- even if it meant she somehow had to get it using only her tongue.
The cup was precariously on the edge of her nightstand and she tried to lift her hand again, and was able to grab onto the railing on her bed, just short of a few inches from the water.
Again, she lifted her arm and uselessly tried to grope for the glass. Her fingers scrapped the edging and she was able to form a loose grip on it.
She lifted it up and slowly brought it down to level and fumbled with the straw to get it to her mouth. When she did so, she gulped loudly, only to find it dry.
Oh, joy.
Her toes twitched and she tried to move out of the bed. All she accomplished was swinging her head towards a sleeping figure.
"Hey, Wall-Man, do me a favor and get me water," she said, waving her wrist, which only wiggled her fingers.
No response.
Using the rest of her strength, she threw the cup at him, waking him.