I Need You Chapter 10
Artemis woke up to her alarm clock beeping, but when she went to roll over to turn it off she rolled into the body of Dick Grayson, her boyfriend. What the hell was he doing in her bed, she was pretty sure that she had gone to bed alone. Dick was wearing grey sweat pants and a black t-shirt, he was cute when he slept his mouth was slightly opened and he was drooling a little bit, perfect teasing material for her. If he managed to sleep through her alarm clock then he must have had a rough night, plus he had a bruise on his left cheek bone. She decided to let him sleep she kissed his cheek and got up to get ready. She had to be in Star City in a couple of hours, she was supposed to meet with Ollie so that they could catch up and train a little bit, she was really looking forward to it, she hadn't spent time with her fake uncle in a long time.
When she stepped out of the bathroom in her workout clothes and hair in a ponytail she found Dick just waking up, he was laying on the bed stretching while yawning. Artemis smiled and walked over to the bed Dick scooted over so that she could sit down, he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and she wrapped her arms around his waist giving him a sideways hug, he gave her a kiss on the top of her head.
"So I was pretty sure that I went to bed alone last night, but when I woke up my super cute but drooling boyfriend was in my bed".
Dick gave her a sheepish smile and said "Yeah I got home around three and I wanted to see you, it was kind of a rough night, some guy who was strung out on meth was holding his wife and two daughter's hostage because he thought the FBI was after them. So I snuck in here slightly hoping that my beautiful and understanding girlfriend who snores in her sleep would be awake, but you were asleep, and I kind of just passed out before I could leave".
Artemis smiled and kissed his cheek, but then she punched him in the arm "I do not snore in my sleep". Dick pouted at her as he rubbed the now sore spot on his arm. She rolled her eyes and gave him a quick kiss before standing up she needed to get her shoes on grab something for breakfast and then leave for Star City.
She was standing at her desk checking to make sure that she had everything she needed in her duffle bag when she felt strong familiar arms wrap around her waist. Dick nuzzled his face into her neck and gave her small kisses trailing to her ear and back down. Artemis closed her eyes and leaned her head back giving him more room. "Where are you going?" Dick asked between kisses.
"I'm going to Star City to have some uncle and niece time with Ollie; it's been a long time since we've spent time together". When Artemis said uncle and niece she used air quotes with her fingers.
Dick laughed and said "That's good you should spend some time with him, he's missed you these past couple of years. When you first left he was a lot more upset then he let on".
Artemis sighed she knew that Ollie had been upset "I know and I fell really bad about that and the fact that I never visited him, I was just so wrapped up in starting college and being with Wally that I completely ignored everyone". When Artemis brought up Wally Dick's arms tightened a little bit and his face took a darker look. The fact that his arms tightened at the mention of Wally didn't go unnoticed by Artemis, she turned around in his arms to see that his face wasn't as care free and happy as before. She grabbed his face in both her hands and said "Relax Dick, what happened with Wally is in the past, and what he told his uncle doesn't matter either ok. The only thing that matters is us and our relationship. I've got to get going walk me down to breakfast and to the zeta will you?" Dick nodded his head his face relaxing a bit, she smiled and gave him a quick kiss. She turned out his embrace grabbed her jacket cell phone and duffle bag; she grabbed his hand and pulled him to the hallway. Hand in hand they walked to the kitchen where she sat her bag down and grabbed a bagel and cream cheese, while Dick ate a bowl of cereal, even though he had matured a lot since she first meet him he still liked to act like a kid sometimes, and Artemis loved that about him. After they both ate Dick grabbed her hand and led her to the bat cave, once they were in front of the zeta he pulled her into his chest for a hug, once she pulled away she stood up on her tip toes and kissed him.
When she pulled away he groaned and said "Alright I'll let you go, I've got to go the cave any way Batman wants me to fix the security stuff. Do you know how long you'll be gone?"
"I don't know, we could meet up for dinner if you aren't still busy at the cave, just text me if you can or not, if you can't maybe I can have dinner with Ollie and Dinah".
"Ok sounds good, I'll see you later tonight". Dick gave her another kiss before she stepped into the zeta and punched in the code for Star City.
She and Ollie had just gotten done using his personal archery range at his house. It was nice to train with him again; she didn't realize that she missed it so much. They had just meet with Dinah in the kitchen to have lunch when all three of their distress calls went off. It was coming from the young justice team, but they were calling in help from the justice league too. All three of them changed into their costumes and used the zeta tube to get to the cave. All of the young justice team along with their mentors was there strangely Batman was missing. Nightwing was talking with Robin and Batgirl so she walked over there to see what was going on. It was extremely hard not to wrap her arms around him and kiss him, Jesus he looked good in his Nightwing costume.
"So what's with the distress call?" she asked.
Nightwing looked really pist off, even though he was wearing his mask she knew that his eyes were black instead of blue "It's the Injustice league all of them, they're planning something we don't know what yet but we think it's supposed to be a distraction for the light which is why Batman said it would be best to call in the justice league to". He hesitated for a second before he spoke again "Artemis there's something I need to tell, I didn't want to do it but Batman said I had to do it, I had to call in Wally, that's who were waiting for". Nightwing spoke with a hard voice.
Artemis was shocked she knew that having both Flash and Wally there would be best for the team, but she was not ready to face him let alone fight alongside with him again. Artemis put her hand on Nightwing's arm hoping to calm him down a little bit, she knew him being angry like this was dangerous for himself and the team "It's ok Nightwing, I understand why you had to do it, just calm down alright, I'll stay as far away from him as possible, but I need you to think with a clear head ok, everything will be fine". Nightwing nodded his head and took a deep breath releasing it through his nose.
That's when the zeta tube went off announcing Wally West, "Alright I'm here what's the huge distress signal for". Nightwing slightly stiffened again but Artemis just squeezed his arm, Artemis couldn't look at him, just hearing his voice made her want to shoot at him.
Nightwing stepped to the front of the room so that he could explain everything.
"Alright we received information that the entire injustice league is planning something, we don't know what their planning yet, but we think it has something to do with the light. We know that they are operating out of India. Our plan is for all us to go there using the bio ship, we will all be able to go with M'gann expanding it, each member of the young justice team is to be partnered with their mentor, each of us will go to specific areas and infiltrate their headquarters".
"Who made you the new Batman Nightwing" Wally said.
Nightwing turned towards him and in a very dangerous voice said "Batman did, he can't come he is busy dealing with personal aspects. If you have a problem with that then you just need to get over it".
Everyone agreed to the plan that Nightwing had set out and gathered together with their mentors, since Batman wasn't their Batgirl and Robin were with Nightwing. After everyone was ready to go they all piled into the bio ship, Superman and Conner were standing next to each other with their arms crossed over their chests they did not look happy. Nightwing stood close to Artemis and whispered in her ear, "Stay safe alright, I don't want anything happening to you".
Artemis looked him in the eye and said "The same goes for you Boy Wonder". A couple of minutes later they had arrived at their destinations everyone jumped out of the bio ship when it came to their locations, once it was Artemis and Green Arrows she turned to Nightwing and winked at him, he gave her a small smile back. She zipped down the cord until she landed on the rough ground with Green Arrow next to her; they quickly drew their bow and arrows and headed towards their spot. They didn't meet any guards or traps on the way, once they were in place Artemis used the mind link to say that she and Green Arrow were in place. Once everyone checked in Nightwing said to move in, when she nodded to Green Arrow he shot his grappling arrow up at a four story window when it attached to the wall he pressed a button and shot up to the window that he climbed through once he was in Artemis did the same thing. They made it through the first room and half of the hall way before they ran into any trouble. They quickly knocked the henchmen out, and continued on, they made it to the third floor before they ran into more henchmen, this took more time to do so Artemis received a cut on the cheek from a thrown knife but it wasn't too bad, she also received a cut on her rib cage from another henchmen's sword, it wasn't too deep but it stung like hell, she quickly wrapped it in bandage to stop the bleeding. They finally made it to the main room; it was a huge room the size of two football fields long and at least thirty feet high ceilings. There were plenty of beams and things like that for Nightwing and Robin to fly across. But the room really didn't have much cover, if the joker and his henchmen came out with guns things are going to get really ugly really fast. Green Arrow tells Artemis to go up on one of the cat walks and hide in the shadows and to make sure that she has a good view of the room and can get good shots off. Artemis goes up the cat walk and finds the perfect spot, she sits in a crouching position waiting, she doesn't have to wait long when all of a sudden the floor in the middle of the room comes apart and all of the injustice league come flying out along with the league of shadows, thankfully Artemis did not see her sister Cheshire there. Right when the league of shadows and the injustice league came out all of the doors and a couple of walls were busted open by the rest of the young justice team and their mentors, that's when the fight broke out, Artemis did her best to hit the enemy and not anyone on her team, she could she Robin and Batgirl flying around the beams throwing batarangs but she didn't see Nightwing anywhere. She could see the blur of Flash and Wally running around the room and punching people, everyone was fighting someone. She kept scanning the room looking for Nightwing while shooting arrows. Finally she spotted him, he was fighting on the floor with the Joker, they both were moving around so much that she couldn't safely get a shot at the Joker. After a couple of minutes Nightwing was able to defeat the Joker and had him tied in rope, the fighting was starting to slow down, she was just getting ready to go to the main floor and help round up the last of the remaining villains when she heard the familiar cold laugh from behind her, instantly her blood turned ice, she knew that laugh, that's the laugh that haunted her as a child, the laugh that drove away her only sister. She gripped her bow tighter and turned around to face Sportsmaster, also known as her father Lawrence Crock.