2:00 pm - Outskirts of Suicide Slums
She was going to die.
Her back smacked against the wall, knocking the breath out of her. Artemis looked up in time to see the hulking mass of her opponent come running at her, fist raised.
Quickly bending her knees she slid down the wall as his fist hit the it and sent brick-dust and shrapnel shooting from the old building. Diving head first through his legs she somersaulted and hit the asphalt running.
"Woo-wee! Quick lil' jackrabbit, ain't she Tuppy?" Tommy Terror laughed shaking his unharmed hand.
"Sure is Tommy. This'll be like hunting rabbits when we were kids!"
Crouching behind a trashcan Artemis cursed under her breath as her fifth call for assistance once again went unanswered.
"Ok, ok, breathe baby girl." She muttered hooking the communicator back onto her belt. " Think. You're going up against the Terror Twins alone. Ok, that's cool. Pros. No civilians to get hurt in this part of the Slums. Cons-"
"Come on Sug~ We know you're out there!" Tuppence Terrors voice rang out clearly in the empty streets of Suicide Slums.
Artemis raised her bow. "No backup."
Springing from behind the trashcan she let the arrow fly. It exploded on contact with Tommy's face, knocking him back onto his butt. It was time to go on the offensive. Artemis jumped forward , bow raised above her head and ready to be used as a bludgeoning weapon against the Terror. Someone grabbed her arm.
Tuppence pulled her back and away from her brother, though Artemis' body continued to go forward. There was a sickening pop as her arm came out of its socket.
Artemis opened her mouth to scream, but the only noise that came out was a breathless gasp as she was tossed to the ground like a ragdoll.
"Aw geez Tommy, think I dun' went and broke her!" Tuppence said, her voice dripping with sadistic glee.
Artemis struggled to get up, clutching her arm to keep it from moving, her mouth wordlessly opening and closing like a fish.
"Don't worry lil' sister." Tommy mockingly reassured her as he got back to his feet. "We aim to break her."
Relying on adrenaline alone Artemis ran. Not looking back and still clutching her arm she just ran. She was no longer a hero. There was no one here to protect. She was now just a girl trying to stay alive. Staying alive had always been her number one objective.
She kicked open one of the boarded up old apartment building doors and quickly closed it behind her.
The inside of the apartment was dark, the only light coming in were the rays of late afternoon sun that rained down from the cracks in the boarded windows. There was no furniture, but whether it had been stolen or repossessed when the building became foreclosed, she didn't know. The apartment was a split level, with stairs to her right going up to the upper floors and a door next to that no doubt had stairs that lead to the basement.
Then she heard it. So quiet she had almost mistaken it for the creaking of the building. But in the still silence there was no mistaking that it was there. Carefully, Artemis tiptoed to the door next to the stair and pressed her ear to it.
Voices.
Quiet, muffled, and unintelligible, but unmistakably voices. Two men, by the sound of it. Artemis bit her lip. Did she dare risk going down there? Maybe whoever was down there could help her. But then again, what kind of people hid in the basements of foreclosed buildings in the outskirts of Suicide Slums? How trustworthy could they be?
"Come on out Artemis!" She could hear Tuppence's voice slowly getting closer.
"Ollie-Ollie Oxen Free!" Tommy called out.
Well... that settled that.
Carefully opening the door so as not to have it squeak, Artemis slid into the darkened staircase. Just as carefully closing the door behind her she slowly began her decent, pausing on each step. The voices had gotten louder, though no less unintelligible. They seemed to be in a rather heated argument with each other. And as Artemis neared the bottom... they stopped.
Artemis froze, her grip on her arm tightening slightly, afraid that they had heard her. The seconds ticked by, but Artemis didn't hear any other change come from the basement, nor did she hear any footsteps coming closer to the stairs. Slowly, he continued her way to the basement.
Between the lights blaring overhead and the spotlights that had been plugged into the walls, the room was well lit. All along the walls anatomical diagrams that looked as though they had been torn straight from the walls of a doctor's office and cheap convenience store posters had been hastily tapped on them.
There were two full grown men down there, both with their backs turned to her. One was sitting near the far wall taking canned food out of cardboard boxes and arranging them in front of himself. The other was bent over a bed in the middle of the room smoothing out clean white linen sheets onto it.
Artemis swallowed hard before loudly clearing her throat. Both men turned quickly to look at her, the one who had been sitting quickly jumped to his feet accidentally dropping one of the cans he had been holding. He was at least six foot and built like a tank with closely cropped hair and muscles bulging from underneath his blue shirt. The other by the bed was a much slighter bespectacled man with graying black hair.
He looked at her, a slightly amused smile on his lips. "Hallo."
"Hi." Artemis said flatly.
"Ve are very sorry," He said unapologetically, his words slurred by a German accent. "But who are you?"
"I was just about to ask the same thing." Artemis said, her posture straightening ever so slightly. "What are you two doing down here anyway? Turning this place into a clinic?"
"Ah, very smart Mädchen."
Artemis blinked. "Wait, that's actually what you're doing? Why?"
"Not little girls business." The other man said, his deep voice complete with a Russian accent. " You go now."
" I don't think so." She replied. "For all I know you two are gangsters or something. I can't just leave you guys on the street."
"Mädchen, I vill have you know zhat I have never been part of a gang, and I do not intend to start anytime soon." The German man informed her quite matter-a-factly.
"Then what's with all this?" In an attempt to gesture around the room she let go of her arm earning her a sharp jolt of pain. She hissed, grabbing her arm again.
At her sounds of pain the German man's face lit up.
"You are hurt." It wasn't a question.
" And if I am? I can still take you two down, easy." She spat.
The man chuckled and held up a hand as if to calm her. "No, no," He said. " You misunderstand. I am a doctor, I vant to help you."
Artemis looked at him suspiciously. "How could you help? My arm came out of its socket."
"Ha! Childs play." And with that the man bent back over the bed and pulled from the other side something that reminded Artemis of the proton packs from the old Ghost Buster movies she used to watch.
"Take avay your hand." He ordered pointing the gun part at her. And for whatever reason, she did.
Pulling the lever of the device blue light shot forth from it and hit her shoulder. Her skin prickled and it felt as though she had gotten one of the worst charley horse's of her life as her arm popped back into place.
Cautiously she stretched her arm. It was healed. Artemis looked at the man in wonder.
"How...?"
"Medicine." He said simply.
"That's vague."
"Vell, so are you." He replied putting the device back behind the bed. "Vearing a mask und all. Are you a Spy?"
"Uh, no. I'm not."
The German looked at her with a hint of suspicion when a loud bang sounded outside.
"Artemis!" Though her voice was muffled, there was no doubt that Tuppence was screaming. "You skanky rat! Get 'char ass out here and fight Goddammit! I didn't break out of Belle Reve with this idiot just to play hide and seek! I got other stuff t' do ya know!"
An unnerving silence followed this as the two men looked to Artemis.
"I zhink your friends are looking for you ." The German 'doctor' remarked.
"I got that much!" Artemis huffed. "Look, I'm trying to fight them, but it's like a squirrel trying to fight two rhinoceroses. Two really, really stupid Texan rhinoceroses."
"Point taken." The man rested his chin on his fist, deep in thought. " Vell, how about zhis. If you tell no one, and I mean no one, about our being here, mein fruend here vill give you a hand vith zhese rapscallions."
"Really?" Artemis looked at the Russian. He was much bigger than both Tuppence and Tommy so maybe, just maybe, it was possible.
But still something in her gut told her that this deal was wrong. Everything about this situation was just... off. She sighed. "'Kay. Deal."
She and the German shook on it.
The Russian nodded solemnly. "I vill get gun."
"No!" Artemis jumped. "No guns! We're not killing them!"
"No?" The German asked in surprise. "Zhen vhat?"
"We're just going to..." Artemis searched for the correct words. "We're just going to knock them out. Then I'll take them to the police."
"Den vhy does little girl get weapon?" The Russian asked gesturing to Artemis' bow.
" This isn't a weapon for killing people."
"Right ,vell..." The German patted the Russians shoulder. "Good luck."
"I have bad feeling about 'dis." The Russian muttered following Artemis up the stairs.
Kicking the door off the remainder of its rusting hinges Artemis successfully got the attention of the two bruting siblings across the street.
"About time." Tuppence said with a smirk.
Artemis readied her bow. "Go for the boy." She told the Russian.
The man nodded. Artemis was off with the man, who was surprisingly quick for his size, right behind her. Tuppence crouched into a stance and reached out to catch her charging opponent, but Artemis dropped to the ground, sliding right under the villain.
As Tuppence turned to chase her, Tommy was getting ready to deal with his own opponent. The man in front of him, large and imposing, had gotten into a boxing stance which Tommy mirrored.
"Ain't ya a lil' old to be fightin' teenagers, pops?" The boy asked mockingly.
"Isn't little boy too old to be wearing sisters clothes?" The man asked back.
In a rage, Tommy lunged forward in an attempt to punch out his opponent. He missed. Taking advantage of the opening he had so carelessly left, the man punched him square in the jaw. Tommy heard a sickening crack reverberate through his skull as his jaw was dislocated. Another fist struck the opposite side of his face, breaking the jaw entirely.
Dazed and in pain, Tommy fell to the ground coughing and spluttering, his mouth hanging awkwardly open as flecks of saliva came out from it.
Further down the street Tuppence grabbed Artemis by the hair and yanked her back onto the ground. Rolling to the left Artemis was able to avoid her ribs being crushed by a stomp from Tuppences right foot. Not wanting to give Tuppence another chance to attack Artemis shot a smoke arrow into her face. Coughing and gagging on black smoke Tuppence stumbled back, her back slamming against a very hard chest. A pair of arms came at her, one putting her in a headlock and the other curled around her body, keeping her arms at her side.
Artemis sat up as the Russian slowly choked the Terror into unconsciousness before dropping her body onto the asphalt.
"Geez, can I, like, get you in my pocket and take you to all my fights?" Artemis asked with a laugh. "You're really effective."
Walking over to her the man picked her up under her arms and set her on her feet.
"But costume does not have pockets." He said, confused.
"It was a joke. I was joking." She lightly punched his arm. "Ha-ha."
"... Ha-ha?"
She rolled her eyes.
They both stood there awkwardly for a moment, the awkward laughter still ringing in the air. Tommy groaned.
"Right, well," Artemis said, a bit of hesitation in her voice. " I guess I should take them to the police before they wake up."
"Do not vorry. Children vill not be waking up soon."
"I guess..."
"I vill help you take them back after lunch. Little girl would like to stay?"
"... Sure."
4: 30 pm - Mt. Justice
The door to the kitchen slid open and Superboy, Kid Flash, and Miss Martian who were just mulling about looked over to see Artemis walk in.
"There you are babe," Kid Flash said leaning up from the counter. "You missed all the fun!"
"Yeah, well I was having my own fun." Artemis said slumping down next to him. "No one was answering my messages so I had to take on the Terror Twins alone."
M'gann gave a start. "What?"
"Why were you fighting alone?" Kid Flash asked furiously.
"It's not like I wanted to! I wasn't planning on running into them." Artemis said glaring at her boyfriend. " I was just on patrol in the Slums because, oh yeah, that's right, with the justice League off world fighting in the whatever nebula, we've been given the oh so glorious task of having to protect their cities. So excuse me for actually doing my job while you're all in here baking cookies!"
She sat there, silently fuming at them.
"Are you alright?" Superboy asked.
"No, I'm mad. I could have gotten my arm broken!" You did. "I could have died!" But they helped you. "Why didn't you guys answer any of my messages?"
Kid Flash shook his head slowly. "Artemis, none of us got a message."
"Actually, we haven't gotten any kind of communication from the outside since we got back." Superboy commented.
"That's so weird." Taking out her communicator Artemis looked at it before hitting it on the table a few times. "Maybe I should get Robin to look at this thing. Where is he anyway?"
"Interrogation room." Kid Flash told her. "Him and Kaldur are interrogating someone they think is tied to these gangs in Metropolis."
"Gangs?" Artemis repeated. "Are those under our jurisdiction?"
"Captain Atom thinks so."
"So do I." M'gann said. "I saw one of the members. Trust me when I say that they are definitely under our jurisdiction."
4: 35 pm - Mt. Justice - Interrogation Room
"Ok. Repeat that one more time. But slower and much, much shorter." Aqualad could feel a headache starting as he gave the order. Having to listen to scout talk, for three hours, so quickly that neither he nor the hero sitting next to him could decipher the man's words, was starting to take its toll.
Across the cold metal table, Scout sighed. Sucking in a lungful of air he began his story again.
"A'ight, so it's like this. I'm jus' your everyday average guy in Boston, right? Born and raised there with my Ma and brothers, got a real promisin' future as, like, a car salesman or somethin', yeah? But ya see problem is my refined tastes are a bit over the salary that a college dropout could earn. So what's a brother t' do, right? Well then I get word from a friend that there's this... gang startin' in, uh, Netrakolis-"
"Metropolis." Robin corrected.
"Whatever. So's I hear this and I hear that the gang pays its foot soldiers top dollar t' do the more 'down and dirty' work, ya feel me? So I'm jus' like, yeah great, where do I sign up? I get the job, they ship me over here and everythin' seems pretty swell. 'Cept nobody mentioned I gotta fight the psycho brigade e'ryday and get my ass thrown around by missiles, shot at, and set on fucking fire! I mean shit man, yeah the money's cool and all that but fire? Really? They had to give some stoned ass schizo freak a flame thrower? Why? I mean who does that? No offense mumbles." He quickly added looking at the masked man sitting next to him. The Pyro simply cocked his head and hummed.
"And how does this case work into you squabble with, Blue, did you call them?"
"Oh, well the case is, um..." Scout thought for a moment. "It's got some very important stuff in it."
"What 'stuff'?"
"Important stuff."
Aqualad sighed. "What 'important stuff'?"
"Maybe I should go check on them." M'gann said checking the clock. "They've been down there for a couple hours."
"I'll do it." Superboy said getting up.
"I can do it."
"It's fine." The door slid shut behind him.
"Do you believe him to be telling the truth?" Outside the interrogation room Aqualad and Robin stared in through the one way glass at their two unofficial prisoners.
"I... I'm not sure. "Robin replied. "Some of the things he says sound genuine, but then some of the other things he says sound forced... made up."
"As of now he is our only viable source of information, but I have the feeling that to blindly trust him would be unwise."
"Agreed."
"And what of the case? Should we try to open it?"
"Wouldn't try. On our way back I ran a test on it. The things made out of a titanium alloy with trace amounts of lead. Which means Superboy can't break it and we can't use the x-ray machine to look inside it."
"Why would a Metropolis gang have an unbreakable case?" Aqualad wondered aloud.
"Unbreakable and Unhackable."
" I thought you said nothing was unhackable."
"Well. this comes pretty dang close. I've been trying to hack the digital code pad on this thing since Scout handed it over, but no dice."
"I am fairly certain that the only reason he gave it to us so easily was because he knew we would be unable to open it."
They both looked back to the man behind the glass. He didn't look worried at all. In fact, he looked pretty smug sitting there in that hard metal chair, arms crossed and a very punchable smile on his face. It suddenly dawned on them that somehow he knew they still had absolutely nothing.
"There has to be something." Robin growled. "We have to have something."
Clicking on his hologlove, an image of the case appeared.
"Has to be something." He repeated squinting at the image.
But it was just a case. As unopenable as it was, it was just that. Sleek red metal with a punch code pad on top, branded in dark black with the words 'Top Secret' and underneath it an hourglass in... a... circle...
Robin felt his stomach drop.
Turning on his heel, Robin nearly sprinted for the door.
"Robin?" Aqualad called.
"I need to go check something. "Robin called over his shoulder. "Stay here and do not leave them alone!"
Running through the halls the image of that damnable hourglass stuck in his head. The familiarity of the symbol had stayed hauntingly in the back of his mind, though it was only now that it had connected. He hoped he was wrong. Though having stared for hours at the very logo while trying to hack the Cadmus mainframe, his suspension of disbelief could only go so high. And yet if he was right, then what? It would mean that Scout and his gang were working for-
There was a man in the hallway.
He stood poised by a broom closet door, hands behind his back as if waiting for someone.
"Who-" Robin couldn't even form a complete sentence.
"I believe zat I am lost." The man said as Robin approached him. " Zhough it is a very easy to get lost in a place with so many doors." As he spoke he reached out to the broom closet.
"Hey!" Robin sprung forward to grab the man's blue sleeved wrist, but with a simple move the man grabbed Robins wrist instead. Wrenching it around behind the boy there was a sickening pop as Robin's arm came out of its socket.
Pyro was all gestures and excited mumbles as he attempted to explain his day to Scout. The other man simply nodded, really only half listening. Sitting very straight across from them Aqualad watched the two closely. Their actions, to him, seemed bizarre at best. They were definitely strange, even for land dwelling gang members from Suicide Slums.
The doors to the interrogation room slammed open. Robin trudged in clutching his shoulder, a pained expression on his pale face. Superboy followed in after him, his own expression betraying his usually calm demeanor.
"We have a problem."
Author's Note: Well that was exciting. Just a little note here at the end saying that apparently in the original comics, Project Cadmus' symbol icon thing was an hourglass in a circle. So that's what's up with that.