Artemis walked into the cave only to find she was the last person to arrive. Robin turned to her.
"Mission." He said.
Well, that got her out of the problem of training...and into a whole new one. She nodded and walked over to where the rest of the team waited to be briefed.
Batman was at the computers typing. After a few seconds, pictures of stores popped up.
"These are a group of stores that have recently been broken into. The only thing they have in common is that they all sell magic jewellery, used by magicians, wizards and witches. So far, nothing has been taken from any of them. Each time the security cameras have been disabled, making us unsure of who the culprit is. There is only one store containing magic jewellery that this person hasn't hit yet. Your mission is to protect the store tonight. So far the culprit has only attempted these break-ins during the night, so we are confident they won't attempt one during the day. Your job will be to keep these magical items safe. If the culprit shows up, you may attempt to capture but remember that the magical items are the first priority. These items are very powerful and in the wrong hands, could be used for evil. Good luck."
With that Batman left, leaving the team to prepare and leave for their mission.
"Grab your stuff. We shall meet at the Bio-ship in ten minutes." Kaldur said.
Everyone nodded and went their separate ways. Artemis headed to her room. She rarely ever used it, but it was nice to know she had somewhere to go if she ever needed it. Sitting down on her bed, she pulled up her pant leg. The wound was looking better but it still hurt and she was worried about it affecting her on the mission. She grabbed her emergency med-kit and re-bandaged it before grabbing her bow and quiver and heading for the door. She headed for the Bio-ship, running into Robin on the way.
"What happened?" Robin asked.
"What?"
"You're limping."
"Oh..." Artemis said, "I just cut my leg. No big deal. I'll be fine."
"Artemis... if your limping it can't be fine."
"Well, it is." She snapped.
"I just want to make sure your ok, Artemis. You're like family and I don't want you getting hurt. None of us do."
Artemis sighed, "I'm sorry Rob... I didn't mean to snap. But I'm fine, ok?"
Robin shrugged "If you're sure..."
With that they walked into the hangar and headed over to the bio-ship. Yet again, they were the last two there. Sitting down in their seats, they all prepared for take-off. Soon enough they were in the air, flying over Happy Harbour. They were headed for Gotham City, were the store was located. As they flew, Artemis went over the mission details in her head. Magic jewellery...break-ins but nothing stolen...night time...security cameras disabled... Although she hated to admit it, it reminded her of when she had been a villain. Of course, none were very good memories, considering she had never actually wanted to be a villain. She remembered one in particular. She and her father had been robbing a jewellery store. She had been only about eight or nine back then.
"Hurry Artemis!" Sportsmaster growled.
She nodded grabbing as much as she could and stuffing it into a bag. She wanted to make her dad proud of her. She could do this! She always hated the feeling it gave her to do these things, but if it made her dad love her, she would.
The security cameras had been disabled, but they had had to break a window to get in, so the alarm had been set off. The week before, she and her father had broken into another jewellery store, not far from here to test how long the cop's response time was. They hadn't taken anything, only sat on a rooftop across the street and waited. It had been about seven minutes.
Suddenly Artemis was feeling the pressure. She couldn't get caught! Mom had gotten caught and look what had happened! Their family had fallen apart! She rushed as fast as she could, grabbing the precious jewels and gems. Once she had grabbed as much as she could carry she ran out to the motorcycle and shoved it into the side bags, then went back inside to see if her father needed any help. The second she got in however, he grabbed her, shoving her against the wall.
"Artemis." He growled. "What the hell were you doing? Look at this!"
He held a long, gold strand of hair up to her face.
"This one little mistake could have cost us everything! You were sloppy! Useless!"
"I-I'm sorry..." She cried.
Sportsmaster growled again and looked like he was about to say something, but suddenly they could hear the sounds of sirens in the distance.
"Hurry! Get to the bike now! We will finish this later, in training tonight."
With that, he let her go. She sunk to the ground, gasping and trying to catch her breath. She had made a nearly fatal mistake. Now she would pay for it. She knew that training tonight would be worse than normal. Ever since Jade had left, life had gotten so much worse.
"Artemis! NOW!"
She jumped to her feet and ran out the door. She hopped onto the bike, holding on tight to her father.
"Artemis!"
"Huh?" She said stupidly, as she snapped out of her thoughts.
"I said, do you understand the plan?" Kaldur said, looking her straight in the face.
"Um... could you repeat it please?" She asked, turning red with embarrassment.
Kaldur sighed. "M'gann and Superboy will be guarding the front entrance, Wally and Robin will be guarding the actual items themselves inside the building, and you and I shall be guarding the back door. Is that clear?"
"Yes."
"Great!" M'gann said, "We should be landing in about five minutes."
Artemis nodded. She had a bad feeling about this mission, but hey maybe that just meant it would be boring.
...Yeah right, with her luck, nothing was never as easy as being just plain old boring.
A/N: Yay! Second chapter! Please review! It would mean a lot to me! Also, I will try to update this story about once a week. And I say about as in probably every 8 or so days.
