This is about the mission that never got told, the one that the team has an unspoken agreement never to speak of again. What really happened when sportmaster escaped prison?.
The day begins like any other, Artemis Wakes to the sound of her alarm clock. She lies in her bed looking up at her ceiling before deciding to turn and switch the alarm off. Looking at the glowing face of the clock it reads 5 am. She groaned `can't believe I'm getting up early on a Saturday because canary wants us to do some extra training', she pushed herself up leaning on one arm as she ran her other hand through her thick blonde hair.
She started to get herself dressed putting on her civilian clothes, packing a bag which carried her equipment and costume. Before she left her apartment she peeked her head into her mother's room to make sure that the former villain was still asleep. As soon as Artemis was satisfied her mother was sound asleep she headed for the door. She never saw any reason to bother waking her mother, ever since her mother came out of prison she didn't leave the house that often.
07:05 am
The 17-year-old walked through the dark morning streets of Gotham, lost in her thoughts of the previous mission that led to the capture of Sportsmaster. She watched him being led away by the justice league, knowing he would most likely be taking back to bel rev. She had mixed feelings towards that particular prison considering it had never stopped her father from breaking out of before. She had never forgotten the look of betrayal and hate in his eyes along with the look of disbelief his own daughter was the reason he had been brought to justice.
She turned the corner heading down the alley where the entrance to the zeta tubes hides. Sometimes she would meet up with Robin but she had a feeling today wasn't going to be one of those days. As she drew closer to her destination she felt someone's eyes on her. "Robin if that's you just get out here, it's too early to pull this ninja crap." She turned expecting to see the youngest member of the group but froze as a man with blonde hair walked towards her.
"Sorry baby girl, but unlike bird boy, I'm not that subtle." Artemis walked backward, as Sportsmaster walked towards her in civilian clothes.
"Dad ?" her voice came out shaky, making him grin. Taking a deep breath regaining her composure, she didn't want to show him any signs of weakness, she refused to give him that satisfaction.
"What's wrong? didn't you miss me? ", he came closer to her knocking the trash can over as he reached her. " Are you really that surprised that I'm here, you should know they can't hold me in there forever." she glared at him, folding her arms.
"No, not surprised, just thought it was someone to be worried about,", she smirked as he glared at her, "I'll give you some advice dad, leave now because we both know they'll be looking for you. And this time I'll be more than happy to escort you back." she took a defensive stance.
"You really think you can take me by yourself", he let out a crude laugh "Newsflash, girly not going to happen", he launched at her. As he did this she attempted to grab for her crossbow hidden away in her bag. But before she was able to take it out he grabbed her arm as she reached inside. She tried to pull her arm free from his vice-like grip. "Not quick enough baby girl. Maybe all this crime-fighting has made you too soft," he growled at her given her arm a tighter squeeze causing her to wince.
"No just decided to take it easy on you", she pulled back her free hand turning it into a fist before throwing it forward, hitting Sportmaster square on the nose. He stumbled back letting go of her arm. When he looked back up towards her blood running down his face. He didn't have enough time to defend himself as she charged towards him following up her previous attack on him with a knee to the stomach.
He grunted as he fell to his knees trying to recover the air he had lost from the sudden attack. " getting slow in your old age are we, dad? ", she smirked as she stood over him. Lawrence glared at his daughter clutching his stomach. "So unless you're looking to get arrested again, I would leave. I will be reporting your escape to the team and the league, after all, we all know how you like to get your ass handed to you by a bunch of kids."
She turned her back on him as she began to walk away from the villain. But was forcefully pulled back by her ponytail. Dropping her bag spilling all the contents of the bag onto the floor. Reaching for the back of her hair 'damn it, I was too careless', she cursed herself for being overly confident in her threat. She grabbed the base of her ponytail trying to scratch him but he wasn't letting go.
"I'm not done talking to you," he growled into her ear before throwing her to the ground making her fall face first into a puddle, soaking her clothes. she turned on her back looking up at the man who was now towering over her. He reached down towards her before she had a chance to swipe away his hand he grabbed a hold of her now soaking t-shirt, pulling her to her feet. She stared with a look of defiance. Gritting her teeth as he slammed her up against the wall hitting her head so hard black spots appeared in her vision. " I think we need to have a long talk, about the way you have been acting towards your father." He snapped as he tightened his grip on the blonde.
"Yeah, I'm sure it doesn't help that I've put you into prison at least every second month." She gasped out "what a terrible daughter must I b..." she was interrupted by a punch to the gut. She grabbed her stomach as he kept a hold of her. "Also the constant abuse might not help with my attitude, but it was always the best way to teach your kids a lesson to fear you". This was rewarded by another punch. Her face screwed up as she noticed that he had slipped on a pair of knuckle dusters. She tried to move away but was trapped in his grip.
"Well, maybe I need to try a lot harder when teaching that lesson." She flinched at his words. She couldn't believe that her so-called father had the guts to do this, right in front of the entrance of the cave. She squeezed her eye shut, wishing for someone to come out of the entrance. She was knocked out of her thoughts by another one of Sportmasters lessons. Again he aimed a fist at her stomach. She couldn't stop the grunt that escaped her lips, she could have sworn that she heard a crack coming from her rib cage.
This time he let her fall to her hands and knees, she was breathing heavily trying to catch her breath. She looked towards the ground as Sportmaster delivered a bone cracking kick to her ribs. She let out a cry as she rolled onto her back clutching her stomach. If she wasn't sure about the cracked ribs, she was now.
' Come on, I can't believe I'm letting this scum bag push me around like this'. She clenched her teeth together as she struggled to push herself off the ground. The blonde haired man let out a bitter laugh."If you wanted to get back up Artemis, you should have just said". He grabbed her by the forearm forcefully pulling her up. She tried to swing at him but due to the pain, she was feeling she was too slow to make contact.
Sportmaster grabbed her arm pulling it behind her as far back as it would go. The archer let out a small cry as she grabbed her shoulder. "What do I owe the pleasure of... this little visit dad?", she growled through her teeth, as he pulled back her arm even further. She was convinced that he was trying to pull it out of her socket.
"I thought because you were my daughter. I had an obligation to give you a warning, to keep out of my way rather than just kill you." His voice became darker as he spoke "let this be your warning because next time I won't go easy on you. My daughter or not", and with his final words she blacked out as he struck the side of her head.
ROBIN 07:28 am
Dick Grayson the now 16-year-old strolled down the street heading towards the zeta tubes. His plan was to arrive an hour early like he always does. But he was patrolling Gotham last night and felt like he needed an extra half an hour in his bed. He looked at his watch as he entered the alley it was 07;30, he had plenty of time to get there. Training session didn't start until 8 am. He was snapped out of his thoughts when he felt his foot kick a large object on the ground. He looked down to see a sports bag along with its contents sprawled across the ground. His eyebrows raised in concern when he recognized the items.
He crouched down to the bag as he picked up what looked like Artemis's green top. He looked around to evaluate the situation. As his eyes reached the entrance of the zeta tube, this is where he saw the blonde archer sprawled out at the entrance of the phone booth in a puddle lying face down. "Artemis!", he yelled as he ran towards her, turning the young girl on her back.
The first thing he saw was the ugly bruise on the side of her face that was accompanied by a bleeding cut, staining her white top. He quickly noticed that her chest was rising up and down showing she was still breathing. He let out a heavy breath of relief before deciding to take her back to the mountain. Even though he couldn't see any other injuries he couldn't be sure there weren't any internal ones. The blonde looked pretty beaten up. Carefully he picked her up as he walked into the phone booth.
07;36 Mount Justice
The only members already in the cave were the ones that lived there permanently. Zatanna along with Megan stayed by the zeta tubes waiting for the arrival of the rest of their team. While Superboy and Kaldur hung around the kitchen. The boys approached the girls as they laughed.
"What are you two laughing at this time in the morning? most people would be dead" Conner spoke up as he yawned standing next to miss martian.
"Oh, we were just discussing how Artemis and wally are avoiding the conversation of what happened on new year's eve.", Zatanna put her hands on her hips.
"Maybe they are still in denial. After all the two of them are too stubborn to make the first move unless the other one does it", Megan laughed as Kaldur look less enthusiastic than normal. He wasn't the type of person who enjoyed discussing other peoples social lives behind their backs.
"Recognize Artemis B07, recognize Robin B01". The team stopped talking as they turned towards the zeta tubes. Expecting to see two figures form side by side, but were shocked when they saw Robin carrying the archer in his arms. Before Robin could even say anything the team was around him.
"What happened?", Kaldur was the first to speak. While Zatanna and Megan took the blonde out of the brown haired boy's arms. They didn't stick around to hear the story knowing they would hear about it when they got back from the med bay.
"I'll go get black canary", Conner rushed towards the training room to find his combat teacher, who was setting up for their training session.
"I don't know, I found her like that in the alley. " Robin played around with his wristwatch "I'm going to see if I can see anybody on the cameras." The boy wonder raised an eyebrow.
"Did you find anything ?", Aqualad waited as his friend continued to press buttons.
"That's weird, the camera went down at 06:45, and there's no footage of anybody near the area before it went down."
"So the only thing we can go on is what Artemis can tell us."
"pretty much", Kaldur folded his arm in defeat, with a thoughtful look on his face.
08;10
Wally West ran towards the entrance of his zeta tube 'man, I can't believe I'm late, the fastest kid alive and I still can't make anything on time,' He rolled his eyes already preparing for Artemis joking at his expense. He enters the zeta tube to the mountain "kid flash b04", the female voice spoke as he entered the room to see all his teammates minus one. 'good, for a change she's the one who is late", he smiled to himself.
"Hey, never fear the Wallman is here." he stood proud chest puffed out as he pointed to himself. Everyone just stared at him awkwardly "whats going on? I know I'm late but only by 10 minutes, plus Artemis isn't even here yet", He sensed the tension in the air. While Megan and Zatanna looked at each other avoiding the redhead stare. He was feeling himself go red in the face with frustration. "guys?", he finally shouted.
"Wally"', Megan spoke up, her voice was soft "Artemis was attacked this morning"
"What?", his eyes went wide, that wasn't what he was expecting "what happened? is she okay? who did it? Did you catch them? ", his voice raised with every question he fired out.
"Hey calm down KF, Artemis is fine black canary is checking up on her right now." Robin spoke with a smile " we don't know what exactly happened but when Artemis wakes up we'll be able to ask her", kid nodded. He stood for a second before he decided to go to the med bay.
"Where is he going?", superboy pointed as Kid Flash left the room.
"Take a guess, " Zatanna laughed while Megan giggled "guess Artemis will have a little surprise when she wakes up."
