YJ - A Shot in the Dark (part 10)

The train had stopped. Artemis didn't have to stay near the tracks to know that. The snow had stopped falling, relieving that wonderful deafness it brought earlier. Instead it had left the snowy fields to stand as another surface for sound to echo off of. Even if it did sound further away, she could still hear that screech of the train's breaks against the rails as her absence was uncovered and it grated at her bones just as badly as though she were still onboard.

She'd made pretty good distance, building up her body temp again as she trudged onward, despite the increasing pain in her leg and shoulder. The jump had made the vast number of her wounds reopen, though. And there was little she could do to staunch the bleeding unless she stopped, which was definitely a last resort right now. If she could find an empty house, maybe. But they were mid country right now, and these kinds of folks didn't do the whole "snow-bird" routine that was popular among the rich back in Gotham.

But it was the start of the Christmas season, maybe someone went off to visit relatives. Then she could maybe play Goldilocks for a night.

It was probably wishful thinking. Actually the more she thought on it, the more obvious it was that she was turning the idea into a grand delusion, but it helped pass the time and kept her moving without just the thought of Slade on her trail.

When the daydreaming made her slip and nearly fall into a snowbank, Artemis turned her mind to calculations. She was somewhere near an hour west of the city, right? Hopefully, anyway. So how fast did cargo trains travel? Up to 90 miles per hour, less if they had roads to cross. She found it sad that she could answer the question, but it was just another benefit of having Sportsmaster as her father.

She paused a moment as the thought settled in, then gave a near delirious laugh. If it hadn't been for Lawrence Crock, she'd probably have died a good ten times over before eighth grade. Granted, most of those situations wouldn't have occurred if it hadn't been for him either.

"Go figure," she mumbled, her breath coming out in little white puffs against the cold air. "Dad actually gets some brownie points."

Another span of time passed and it felt like her legs wanted to give out before she reached the town's welcome sign. At which point she dropped to her knees anyway. "Smallville?" she choked out. "I'm in Smallville?!"

The train had gotten all the way to Kansas before she'd woken up? This was bad. This was really bad! Those lights weren't from Central, and she was now even further out in the middle of nowhere than she'd guessed.

"Wait a minute," she whispered, her breathing feeling a little shallow. "Smallville... The Kents... Conner."

I can get to Superboy.

She could have cried with relief as the realization hit her, which she took as a clear sign that she had to get out of the cold-as in now, and forced herself back to her feet. Her limbs screamed in pain, but the promise of help was too close for her to stop. And with a renewed vigor she made her way towards the center of town.

.- .- .

"How the hell did she get out of range?" Wally demanded, pacing the train yard so fast he was sending off sparks.

Green Arrow was watching, possibly deciding whether to shoot the speedster or join him. A few steps away, Nightwing was tying furiously at his projected computer.

"I don't know," the younger hero muttered. "It must have taken more time than we thought."

"Clearly," Arrow growled.

Wally stopped to glare at the green-clad hero. "Well we had to wait for certain people to show up."

"I didn't ask you to wait," GA pointed out. "I'd have let you charge into hell if it meant you were getting her out!"

"And I would've!" Flash snapped back.

"Okay! Both of you," Nightwing interrupted, silencing them with his own bat-glare. "Fighting each other about things we can't change isn't going to help the things we can. So just cool it till we find Deathstroke, then take your anger out on him."

That last part was inevitable, but at this point Dick would point out anything to get them to shut up so he could concentrate. As it was, he's had to talk Babs through modifying her own tracking computer to pick up the signal just so they could get a broader picture of where Artemis might have gone. His screen could only get up to a twenty mile radius. Which, usually, he didn't exceed since that could easily cover Blüdhaven.

A moment passed, with another intense glare between his companions, but soon enough Dick was given his peace as Flash returned to pacing and Green Arrow tried to busy himself with sharpening his arrows. Though the latter was failing miserably and the former's footsteps were starting to smoke.

"Alright, in lieu of the kid wearing a hole into the platform," Green Arrow interjected, turning to face Nightwing rather than the red blur. "Have you found anything, yet?"

The younger hero glanced up at the archer, then at his friend's tread, and sighed. "This place needs to update it's security system. Badly," he reported. "But other than that, Batgirl's managed to block off recordings from closing through twenty minutes ago. I'm just..."

"What?" Green Arrow demanded, stepping closer to see the screen too.

Nightwing didn't answer. He didn't have to. Both of them could clearly see just enough of long dark hair and a two-toned mask cross the bottom corner of the screen even as the train started to move, heading west.

"She's alive. He wouldn't be taking her with him if she was dead," Nightwing commented quietly.

Green Arrow nodded in agreement, though he looked grim. "Which means he has more planned."

"Judging by this, they took track five," Nightwing said, looking up from his holographic screen to compare with what he could see of the tracks. "So all the settings should've stayed the same since they went through."

"So we can follow them."

Flash appeared at their side with a gust that cleared snow away. His arms were crossed, a determined expression was on his face though he clenched his jaw. Nightwing fought down a grimace as he was fairly sure the speedster was grinding his teeth. If it weren't for his accelerated healing, he was fairly sure Wally would've broken down his teeth years ago.

"Right," Nightwing agreed. "But you can't carry both-."

"I've got a ride," Green Arrow affirmed, pulling keys from his belt even as he turned to stride away. "Go. I'll catch up at the first crossroad."

The scarlet speedster gave a curt nod. Then in a movement so fast the human eye could barely register it, he pulled Nightwing onto his back and took off down the tracks.

.- .- .

Her breathing was definitely labored when she finally made it to the mail box. It had taken some effort to find their address, but she'd been lucky enough that the old town still had a public payphone complete with phonebook. Then she'd had to break into a car, which was unfortunately stuck in a snow bank, to get a GPS that lead her five miles outside of town. So an hour later, seeing the quarter-mile driveway before her, she was about ready to just crawl up to the porch and sleep in one of the quaint wicker chairs.

Still, she already knew that wasn't an option. Even if she woke up before those in the house, she'd be putting them in way too much danger by staying.

On that note, her thoughts interrupted when she was halfway down the driveway, maybe this was a bad idea. Really, she didn't even know if Conner was even here. And if Deathstroke had made too far of progress on her trail, the Kents...

But she couldn't just keep going like this. Not with her leg being the problem it was. Or being so cold. Seriously, slowing down too much made her worry she'd freeze into a statue before even making it to the front steps.

She looked up to see how far she had to go. But instead of seeing the yellow farmhouse, her eyes fell to the red barn just a few added yards beyond it. There was a possibility that it'd be warm, or at least have something to keep her warm. It was far enough away from the farmhouse that maybe the owners wouldn't notice she'd been there until later. But Superboy'd be able to hear her. Hell, he probable could hear her now.

If he was home, that is.

"Perfect," she breathed and plodded forward.

The fact that she was so close to a sanctuary made her leg throb even more, and now her shoulder joined in. Something about the thought of safety just made her body want to give up their fight in relief. Which made everything she did up until she closed herself within the large structure absolute agony. Then she let herself drop onto a bale of hay.

Funny, she thought as she stared at the underside of the loft that circled the barn, I'm out of breath too. Which was, admittedly, weird. But it proved one thing as she fought to stabilize her breathing, if she lived through this next time she'd go directly to the Watchtower instead of running on her own...

She must have closed her eyes, there was no other way to explain it, but it felt like she only blinked to find herself nose to nose with something large, white, and fluffy.

"Wolf?" she rasped, reaching to pet him. Her hand might as well have been tied down with lead for how heavy it felt, but the hybrid wolf helped her give attention by sticking his head under her hand to be pet. Artemis couldn't help chuckling as she gave him what she could of a scratch behind the ears.

The fact that Wolf was here, that was definitely a good sign. Superboy rarely went anywhere for longer than a day without Wolf. So if he wasn't home yet, he would be soon. It was just a question of time. Which, she had to remind herself as her body demanded more sleep, she didn't exactly have much of.

With that thought in mind, she pushed herself to sit up again, wondering briefly how she'd landed on the dusty floorboards. Wolf circled her, licking what exposed skin he could find, before he draped himself around her. Perfectly content with keeping her there until his kryptonian pet came home.

Artemis smiled at the protective creature, momentarily mourning her own dog as she petted him again. She could only hope that he wasn't too attached to the Wests, because if she could find a way she really wanted him back. Though, if it was a trade off of Bruno for Wally, she'd gladly let the Wests keep him and lock Wally away in her apartment for the next year or something.

She shook her mind free, turning her focus to her wounds as Wolf's attention was drawn to her leg. Wincing, she tugged off her coat. Her arm wasn't too bad, and it probably looked worse than it was, but she really couldn't afford any infections right now.

Wolf made a noise of interest and Artemis looked up to find him watching her intently. She cast him a lopsided smile. "Wanna help me, boy?" she asked. "Do you know if there's anything I could...I dunno stitch this up? Or at least clean it..."

It was probably desperate to think that the enlarged canine could actually understand her. But he looked at her critically for a moment before stalking off across the barn. She watched him for a moment, wondering if he'd just decided to find something else to do since she was now not focused on him, then turned her attention back to taking stock of injury.

Figuring out what hurt because it needed medical attention verses what just hurt because she'd walked a good seven to ten miles after jumping from a train in the snow was something along the lines of difficult. Eventually she settled for helping the visible injuries, the fact that she still didn't have full range of motion with her arm was just going to have to wait.

A soft rustling sound drew her attention back to the barn door and Artemis tensed, already feeling for another throwing dagger. But seconds later she relaxed at the sight of Wolf, returning proudly as he trotted to her side. In his mouth he carried, to her bewilderment and surprise, a sweater that bulged in odd ways until he set it down. The sweater unfolded itself and Artemis had to laugh. Inside Wolf had toted a sewing kit, a tissue box, an apple, and a bottle of high quality whiskey.

"Well, thank you, Wolf," she said, rubbing the top of his head. "And thank Mr Kent for his spirits for me."

He gave some form of low and non-descriptive growl before flopping down around her like he'd been before, which Artemis took for a promise that the wolf would convey her thanks. Smiling to herself, she uncapped the bottle. This was going to hurt. Badly. But it was better than nothing.

Bracing herself, Artemis poured the spirit onto her arm which drew a cry of pain that she did her best to bite back. She made quick work of threading one of Mrs Kent's needles and, using that initial wave of pain as a buffer, stitched the gash as well as she could.

Her leg was worse. It hurt more from the depth of the cut, the pain was almost blinding, but even with shaky hands Artemis sewed the wound tightly. Deciding against reusing whatever it was Deathstroke had wrapped around it before, she tore off the bottom of the cami she wore beneath her shirt in the hopes that the material would work as a better tourniquet. Though it really didn't help with the whole being cold as ice thing.

Wolf seemed to catch on to that thought and nudged the sweater closer now that its contents had been removed. She gave him another smile and worked at pulling it over her head, which took a little longer than it should have, but soon she sighed at the welcome warmth it added. "Alright," she breathed, scratching around Wolf's ears again as she picked up the apple. "I have to get going. Is there a Zeta here?"

Wolf responded with a soft "woof" and a shake of his head.

"Figures," she snorted, pushing onto her feet. "Get stranded at the home of the two leaguers who don't use a zeta to get here. Right. So where's the nearest one? Or is Sphere here?"

The overgrown wolf regarded her a moment, then sniffed the air before walking out of the barn. Smiling, Artemis took a bite of the apple he'd brought her as she pulled on her coat again. Then, with a reaffirming sigh, she stepped back out into the night.

.- .- .

"Flash? Flash!" Nightwing shouted over the wind, but nothing seemed to be getting through to the scarlet speedster. In desperation, he flicked him hard in the cheek. "Wally! Stop!"

The red-clad superhero slowed enough for the wind to at least be less painful, something Dick was overly grateful for, and turned his head ever so slightly to prove he was listening.

"I'm getting signals," Dick reported. "Head south by about twenty-four degrees."

Flash's head turned just a fraction more towards him so the hero could nod. Then Dick was pretty sure he'd left his heart and lungs on the train tracks as they suddenly lurched to the left and sped down a fairly steep hill. Let it never be said that Wally couldn't rival any amusement park ride-the world over!

Once he got himself to breathe again, Dick's attention was back on his wrist. There was the possibility that it had only been a sensor placed for one of the other heroes of the Justice League that had alerted him, but he had rather been sure. And it definitely paid off. Yes, there were glowing blue lights just within twenty miles from them, but smaller beside them was the bright green of Artemis's vest.

As the miles grew shorter beneath them, Dick enlarged the screen. Which showed that one of the blue lights was with the green and they were making their way north. "She's coming this way," Dick informed Flash. "From... the Kents' farm?... I think Wolf's with her."

"Good dog," Flash commented, picking up his pace a little now that he recognized the lay of the land a little better.

Dick cast his friend a small smile of relief. While it was true, he took way too many things to heart-failures in particular-and this one was eating at him especially hard, Dick was almost as optimistic as his thirteen year old self. His best friend was starting to sound like himself, a little, again. He was going to get his sister back and he was going to throw her and Wally the biggest wedding Bruce Wayne and Oliver Queen could afford. Hell, he'd even let M'gann plan it all!

He let out a yelp of surprise, nearly being thrown over the speedster's shoulders as they came to an abrupt halt that dusted the pair with snow. How long had he been zoning out?

"Yo! Birdbrain," Wally snapped, though there was a teasing tone to his voice. "Stop day-dreaming!"

Long enough, apparently.

"It's not my fault!" Dick declared. "Babs and Kara keep using my tv to watch those crappy wedding shows!"

"What?" Even with the cowl on, Dick could see the Flash raising an eyebrow at him.

"Nothing," he said quickly.

"Right," Flash drawled, clearly in better spirits than he had been before the mad dash across Kansas. "I'm guessing you didn't hear that noise then. So how far, Dickie-bird?"

"Don't call me that," Dick grumbled, looking at his holo-projection. Instantly his heartbeat tripped and his stomach went cold. The green dot's gone.

"What?" Wally demanded, all amusement out of his tone.

Frantically typing in hopes of having some good news to accompany the bad, Nightwing pulled up the coordinates of where Artemis's last signal was sent from. She'd still been a good five miles from them, just past what little the small town could boast of a forest, but it could be anyone's guess where she'd gone from there. Although... there was a compound not far away.

"Her transmitter's down," he said finally. "Eight clicks south-west."

The hero's grip tensed as he growled out, "Down how?"

"I don't know," Dick sighed.

"What about Wolf?" Flash demanded.

Dick's eyes flickered across the screen. "He's still there," he reported. "Same area."

A calming breath was all the warning Dick got before all oxygen was slammed out of his lungs again, to be left hanging in the snow behind them in the form of an unfinished curse as the younger hero held on for dear life.

.- .- .

She hadn't gone too far when something pricked at her senses. All those years of training were cutting through the fog of pain in her head, alerting her to the very faint sounds around her. To the sounds of someone being nearby. But it wasn't as though Wolf could tell her how far they had to go. Or send her on ahead of him.

A sigh escaped her in a little cloud of steam, but her eyes went wide as they fell on the northern horizon.

It looked like a storm cloud-but far too white to actually be one as it billowed upward against the crystal clear night. She may not have been the best in natural sciences, due to usually ignoring a teacher once they got a fact wrong, but she knew enough that the atmospheric conditions were definitely not letting any new clouds intercept the view of the heavily star-lit sky.

Which meant something was creating that cloud. Something fast.

Only one force she knew could throw a snow cloud that high.

"Wally!"

The stupidity of the shout hit her mere seconds after the name had left her lips. She was on the run, in the snow, from a world class assassin. Was she stupid?

Her father definitely would say so.

Wolf let out a growl before he threw himself into her, knocking Artemis to the ground and narrowly missing the darts that imbedded themselves in the tree trunk they'd been standing near. Deathstroke had caught up.

Artemis pushed back to her feet, staying in a crouch as she quickly made her way past another tree. Wolf charged along with her, acting as a shield of white as he let out threatening howls in an attempt to stave off the attacks. But Artemis knew it was useless, Deathstroke wasn't scared of wolves.

Your cover's blown, Black Canary's voice informed her. You're low on weapons, maybe backed into a corner, and you've got maybe an hour before you drop. What do you do?

She remembered this lesson very well as she dodged yet another weapon meant for her head. At the time, the answer had been irritating. Because, seriously, information like that coming from Canary was more or less hard to acknowledge. She had a sonic scream, for crying out loud! But that was the elder hero's advice was.

Make as much noise as possible.

"Wally!" Artemis screamed. "Flash! Nightwing! Superman!"

Wolf seemed to catch the idea and howled into the night.

Disgruntled muttering came from somewhere not far behind, along with the sound of quickened footsteps, and Artemis pulled free a dagger to throw. The blade missed, but she got at least a little satisfaction from hearing the footsteps staggering a little to avoid it.

With all that was left in her, Artemis ran. Keeping close to trees and not caring about stealth anymore. Maybe delirium was setting in, but she nearly started laughing. This must be what Kid Idiot felt like half the time.

A shout of pain escaped her as something impaled her arm. She kept running. She took a glance, trying to figure out what exactly it had been and whether or not she could dislodge it, but she soon realized it didn't matter.

Having been drugged within the past twenty four hours made the feeling seeping through her veins only too familiar. Still, she wasn't ready to give up. If that was Wally ahead of her, she'd face her own father in hand to hand combat again to just get one more look at the speedster.

With all that was left in her, Artemis lashed out blindly. Sometimes her hand connected, but increasingly often the blow was blocked and she'd receive one instead. It soon felt like her body was falling asleep on her and, as she was flipped to the ground one final time, she could only focus on the large grey blur over the low knoll ahead of her. But there was no way to get over the lump of snow before the world went dark.

A/N: Wow. Sorry about the time it took for this. Granted, I hadn't planned on it being this long either... Anyway! I really hope that this flows well, I've been going in about twelve different directions lately, and that's not including the six other stories I've been working on simultaneously. *sigh* Thanks to everyone who's been leaving comments and encouragement! I love you all! And don't worry, more danger and action is to come!