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Chapter 12:
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Artemis saw movement outside the ballroom window. Shadows. She swiftly exited the room. When she walked outside, something caught her eye. She followed the shadow to the back of the building. It was quiet and dark. She looked to the velvety, night sky. The Cheshire moon. It seemed to taunt her. It's grin almost widening as she detected a sound behind her. She slowly reached for her bow, unhooking her dress in the process to make it conveniently shorter. She carefully slipped off her heels, sensing a person behind her. She quickly spun around with her bow drawn to face her attacker.
"Jade?" Artemis cocked an eyebrow and let her guard down, lowering her bow. Boy, her father would be so proud of her. The woman dressed as Cheshire swiftly dove forward, cutting Artemis' right thigh with her sais. Artemis, a little caught off guard, yelled in pain. The cut was not too deep, but it was a warning that the assassin meant business. Artemis looked up, disgust apparent on her face.
"You're not Jade." She spat. "My sister would have jellyfish toxin on the end of her weapons."
"It's cute how you know your sister so well." A voice behind the mask said sarcastically.
Artemis stood in fighting stance. "Who. Are. You. And where's Jade." She asked, her voice full of venom.
"Oh, the dear sister of the famous archer? My fellow Shadow?" The woman taunted placing a hand to her chest in mocked pride.
Artemis growled and lept for the phony Cheshire. The lithe woman dodged the archer's efforts and planted a round-house kick to Artemis' wound. The blonde bit her lip to keep from screaming out in pain.
"Jade isn't a Shadow. Not anymore." Artemis snarled.
"What makes you so sure?" The villain mocked. "Why should she tell you?"
Artemis's eyes widened. Jade wouldn't have left her in the dark about that. She just wouldn't.
Cheshire didn't waste anytime in kneeing Artemis in the gut. Artemis reached for her bow that had been tossed to the side during her beating. The hero roll to the side and grabbed her bow. She notched an arrow and aimed it at Cheshire. But the assassin wasn't there. Artemis quickly looked around, scanning the trees.
"Who are you?" Artemis questioned in a strong voice.
"A Shadow." The voice answered, stating the obvious. Artemis spun around, but still no one was there. She had to keep her talking.
"What are you doing here? I assume it's not just to engage in combat with me." Artemis continued.
"Oh, come on! You haven't figured it out?" The voice scoffed. "I'm here to take care of Luthor's ex."
"That's what I figured." Artemis muttered under her breath. The archer immediately dodged a flying sais. The weapon embedded itself in a near by tree.
"Not bad. I can tell you were trained by the League." The woman complimented.
Artemis' eyes narrowed. "Black Canary is a good teacher."
"I was talking about the League of Shadows. You'd be a good assassin."
Artemis' eyes widened in anger. "No. Not anymore." She stated firmly.
"Too bad." Artemis could almost hear the shrug in the woman's taunting voice.
Suddenly, the Shadow was behind her, throwing unrelenting punches to her body. Artemis blocked some of them, but this girl was good, she was not easily beaten. Artemis was kicked in the face and instantaneously thrown through the ballroom window. She moaned and heard Dick's yell. Then, everything went black.
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Before Dick could blink, Batman appeared out of now where, startling Cheshire. The assassin's eyes widened from behind her mask. She put a hand to her ear and whispered harshly into her com piece, "You didn't tell me Bats was going to be here!"
Dick smirked. Damn, it must be fun to have all the villains running away in terror of you.
The Dark Knight turned to Dick and gave a slight head nod only his former protégé would notice. Dick ran out of the room to make a quick change into his Nightwing uniform. A few moments later, in costume, Nightwing ran to the back entrance of the building to enter again in another window to give the effect that he wasn't already at the dinner. He slipped through the window and dropped silently to the floor. Sneaking through the hall, he found Contessa, unharmed, in a room with a group of body guards surrounding her. She was safe, for now.
Dick returned to the ballroom to find Cheshire and Batman dueling it out in hand-to-hand combat. He scanned the room for Artemis. He found her, still unconscious, in the same place as last time. He ran to her, but was cut of short by a kick in the chest from Cheshire.
"Uh! Uh! Uuuhh! No touching my prize." She provoked. Dick sneered and ran to her. She got into fighting stance. He took an uppercut to her neck. She blocked it effectively and kneed him in the gut. He took the blow well and round house kicked her. She fell to the floor, but flipped backwards and sprung off her hands. The two battled, but were equally matched. Dick place a successful blow to the right side of her face and she fell to the floor. Her mask flew off. She didn't look up, but scrambled to place the disguise on her face once again. She succeeded, but gave Nightwing just enough time to push a few buttons on his arm-computer. The lights went out and Nightwing's domino mask automatically switched to night vision. Cheshire looked around in confusion and got to her feet. Dick looked to Artemis, noticing a rather large wound on her leg. He needed to get her out of here.
As if Batman read his mind, the Dark Knight emerged from the shadows and hit Cheshire in the back of the head, striking a nerve to unconsciousness. The woman fell, face first, to the ground. Dick fiddled with his computer again and the lights came on once more.
The young hero rushed to Artemis' side, picked her up bridle-style, and ran to the Bat-cave. Batman was silent for a while, then walked over to the fallen assassin and rolled her onto her back. He carefully placed a gloved hand on her mask and removed it, revealing her identity.
"Scandal Savage."
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Don't know who Scandal Savage is? Take a wild guess. Scandal, Vandal, Scandal Savage, Vandal Savage. But you'll find out more about her in the next chapter.
But do you remember a few episodes back in Young Justice when Vandal says he understood Black Manta's pain of almost loosing Kaulder? Yeah, pretty sure he was talking about his own kid. Well, obviously, since he says he's experienced it with his own child. So I looked up "Vandal Savage's kid" and here we are!
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