Still looking for a beta
Disclaimer: young justice does not belong to me
Within the walls of Mount Justice frustrated yelling and consistent pounding could be heard coming from the training room
"I was right there!" Green Arrow yelled while punching the wall again and again "It's all my fault if I was only faster I could have…" a hand gently touched his shoulder and he slowly turned around
"You got there as fast as you could, no one is blaming you so don't blame yourself" Black Canary said as she tried to sooth the father of her unborn child "Artemis wasn't the only one taken last night. A friend of Robins, who happens to be the daughter of Commissioner Gordon, was also kidnapped while on the phone with him. He's really upset over all of this too"
"But he wasn't in a position to save her, I was only a few yards away" he walked away from her towards some old training dummies and threw them against the wall "and she trusted me to protect her! We finally had a heart to heart and I let the same people who killed her mother take her away, God only knows what they're doing to her!" he yells louder as he continues to destroy the training room "It's been over 24 hours since she was taken and we still have no leads"
"Ollie we'll find her I promise it's all going to be ok" Canary yelled trying to be heard over his tantrum
"How can you just say that, we don't know…" he was unable to finish the thought before Dinah had taken him down and pinned him below her. She had grown very tired of his pity me session
"I know because I have faith in Artemis and the league but no one's going to be saved if you don't get off your butt and help look for her" she said to him through silted eyes
Arrow was momentarily taken back by her harsh words before he realized she was right and they should be focusing all their efforts on finding Artemis "I don't think that was good for the baby" he responded moving his face closer to hers
She nudged him playfully as she began to get to her feet "well if you didn't act like such a big baby in the first place I wouldn't have had to knock some sense into you"
Mean while in the briefing room batman was having a hard time tracing the whereabouts of the league of shadows. It was only him and wonder woman in the room and he was all too aware of her eyes on him "batman I know how much this must be hurting you but your no help to anyone unless you get some rest"
"I'll get some rest once I'm able to determine where the shadows have taken all the children" he replied in his unemotional voice "I knew I should have upgraded her tracker to be able to resist dampeners" he mumbled under his breath
"What did you just say?"
"Nothing"
"No you said something about a tracker" Wonder Woman stated putting her hands on her hips "Don't tell me you actually went through with your plan to implant a tracker on Robin and now you've done the same with Artemis." he stopped typing but continued to face the holographic screen "So what, is every member of the team chipped?"
"No, it's up to the rest of the team's individual mentor to decide what's best for them but these are my kids and I'll do whatever it takes to protect them" with that he began typing again. Wonder Woman stared at him for a few moments before beginning to walking out the door, she knew the dark night may be cold and calculating at times but he was a man that cared deeply for his family even if they're not related by blood. "Gather everyone I believe I've found something" she heard him say after she'd left the room
She continued walking until she came upon the living room slash kitchen area for the cave where the team was waiting or more like being held there by their mentors until batman had something for them.
Me'gan was sitting close to Connor his hands around her shoulders, Kaldur sat in a chair deep in thought, Wally paced the room, and Zatanna stood next to Robin, who was extremely quiet, against the wall. Their mentors stood together conversing amongst themselves in hushed tones.
"You can't keep us here! Not when Artemis is missing!" Wally said frustratedly as he paced the room, staying still was never his specialty
"Acting blindly is just as bad as not acting at all" Red Tornado stated with his robotic voice
"Oh come on don't give us that…" Wally stopped when Robin came up behind him and grab his shoulder, he didn't even notice he moved.
He turned to look at the young bird instantly seeing the determination behind his mask "were going to save them"
"Batman says he's found something" Wonder Woman spoke from the doorway then quickly leaving the room to fetch Green Arrow and Black Canary
Robin swiftly left the room after the Amazon without another word soon followed by his team and their mentors. They came to rest in front of a holographic screen displaying a map of Gotham city, moments later Wonder Woman, Arrow, and Canary walked in and stood next to the team. Wally quickly moved from next to Robin to behind his uncle, he doesn't know why exactly but Green Arrow told his uncle that he was going to castrate him
"What have you found batman?"
The room was well lit filled from wall to wall with glowing pods that held children suspended in a yellow liquid. These children were all similarly dress in white clothes that resembled bathing suits. They appeared to be only sleeping, the only movement coming from the bubbles that were periodically released from the breathing masks attached to their faces. Towards the bottom of each pod was a screen that displayed the subjects name and vital signs.
A sliding door opened revealing a tall muscular blond man; he silently walked into the room approaching one of the pods that held a young blond girl. The man didn't need to look around to know he was the only conscious one in the room.
"This all would have been so much easier if your foolish mother didn't develop morals and plant stupid ideas about heroism in your head" he smirked as he noticed the young girl's hand flinch. His daughter might be contained but he knew she could hear him and that's exactly what he wanted
"You see Artemis you were born to be a weapon for the Shadows always destined to kill and fight. You once asked how your mother and I met and I told you on a mission for the Shadows" he paused for a moment "well that was only part of the truth. The real mission was to combine our genetic material and create the optimum specimens for this very project." he only wished she was awake to see the look on her face "The fact that Paula and I actually fell in love was completely unexpected, it took awhile for us both to realize this but once we did life became pure bliss"
Two figures jumped from roof top to roof top followed closely by police sirens and one noisy helicopter. They were both experienced assassins and could have easily lost their pursers, but where's the fun in that. While being chased they would play little games like who could jump the fastest, throw the farthest, knock out the most cops, steal the most police badges and see how long they could kiss and run. On this particular night the tie breaker was who could take out the helicopter the fastest; Paula had reached for her cross bow but was beaten to the draw by Laurence and his explosive javelins. He perfectly aimed his shot at the back propellers taking out the whole tail instantly, causing the helicopter to spin in circles as it crashed to the ground in a beautiful display of fire and metal.
"For years everything seemed to be going great, jobs were coming in left and right, you and your sister were progressing well with training but all that had to change when your mother decided that there was more to life than killing" sportsmaster said in a bitter tone "it was actually a relief when she was taken out of the picture with that accident, she had been bugging me for quite awhile about quitting this life and was starting to convince me. I had hoped a few years in jail would help her realize people like us never change but that was just false hope. The only reason I left you with her was so that you could see how pathetic and futile it was trying to live on the right side of the law. However, I never expected you to be taken in by the Justice League"
At the mention of the league Artemis' hand twitches again, this did not escape the notice of her father "Do you want to know why your mother died the way she did? I'm sure you realize she could have been taken out any number of ways most of which more painful than being shot. I'll give you two reasons pain and humiliation" Artemis' heart rate increased slightly "You see it was painfully obvious how week you've become since you joined that league of losers and I needed you to be shocked into the harsh cold reality of your life. So if you want to blame anyone for Paula's death it should be them" her heart rate continued to increase and he gave her a harsh smile
"But don't worry sweet heart when you wake up it will be like you never left the Shadows" his smile became more sincere "it will be good having you back in the family business I've even heard that we have one of your little friends from school with us. If she survives I bet you'll both have a great time killing together, we could also give you your own team to go on missions with"
The sliding door opens again and Doctor Hedrick walks into the room "It's not good to stress out the subjects more than need be" a fresh voice joins the one sided conversation
"I'm just having a bonding moment with my daughter, explaining Paula's death before she forgets" the Doctor walks by sportsmaster without a word and injects a tranquilizer into a feeding compartment for her pod
"That's all fine and well but if it risks destabilizing the subject at this critical stage it might be better to leave some things unspoken" he said as he finished and checked all of her vitals, in seconds Artemis visibly relaxed and stopped fidgeting "we're about to begin the most strenuous part of the experiments, even one bred for this project has a chance of dying" and with that Doctor Hedrick walked out the door
Sportsmaster turned to leave but stopped half way to the door "You're a Crock Artemis, you'll survive and when you wake up you'll be daddies little girl again" he continued to walk out the door leaving the room full of sleeping children behind
"What have you found batman?"
Batman turned and pressed several buttons "a name" he said as a profile of one Doctor Reese Hedrick lit up the screen "Reese Hedrick is our lead to finding all of the missing children, including Artemis"
"Why is some doctor going to lead us to the shadows?" Wally asked without thinking and received a batglare in return
"The shadows have been conducting human experiments, a project which is being led by Hedrick"
"Wait! So the shadows are experimenting on Artemis!" now it was Green Arrow that shouted out
"We don't know that for sure but it is a possibility"
A/N: For some reason this was a really hard chapter to write, maybe because the hell fire song from Hunchback of Notre dame was stuck in my head :) sorry for the delay but this week was really busy and I found out I'm going to be a Tia again :) I already have a niece so I hope it's a boy. Thanks so much to Gruffard, I love you Roza, Believe-daydream-Fly529, alamodie, Ashley, SuperGLEEK97, and Vendenlor for leaving awesome reviews :) and thanks to everyone else who reads this story