Author's Note: Thank you Guest for reviewing. Yes, I like reading – a lot – but no, sadly I haven't got my hands on the Dragons in our Midst series yet. I have wanted to read them for a while, though.
Oh man, this story is too long, I guess I'll have to get to the point sometime soon.
OK, here it is peoples: the next chappy! Hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I still don't own Young Justice.
Chapter 25: SHOOT
Shouts, squeaking of sports shoes on wooden floor and the thudding of a basketball being dribbled echoed down the hall from the Gotham Academy gym. It was interrupted by a shrill blast of a whistle, "Travelling!" The gym teacher shouted, "Red ball!"
There were protestant shouts and groans, and cheering from Red Team. A tall boy with blonde hair and glasses threw in the ball and a short kid with a mop of black hair and bright blue eyes who was wearing a red identification bib over his sport shirt caught the ball and dribbled down the court. A tall boy wearing a blue bib stood in Dick's way, and put his arms out to block him. Dick spun around his defender and dashed towards the key. Another boy was in his way; tall and buff with crew-cut brown hair and a mean face, Brody Simpson lunged at Dick like he would in rugby, Dick jumped off his opponent's shoulders to gain height and slam-dunked the ball. "Yeah!" he cheered himself on, "Ninja!"
Cheers rose up from the Red Team and the teacher wrote down the score. "OK! Blue's throw in!"
Brody glared at Dick as the kid received good-natured slaps on the back from happy teammates.
Someone tapped Brody on the shoulder and he whirled around to face Fred, "What?!"
"That's the kid!" Fred exclaimed.
"The kid?"
"The little twerp who tripped you! I dunno his name, but I recognise him! It was definitely him!"
"Who? Grayson?" Brody frowned at Dick's back.
"Yeah!"
Brody's face darkened, "I have a reckoning to settle with him, an' now another. Today's the day! He's gonna pay!"
"Ha!"
Brody glared at his friend, "What?!"
"Heh, heh, heh! You made a rhyme!"
Brody glared but jogged down the court towards the goal.
oooo0000OOOO {-} OOOO0000oooo
"Touchdown, Red!" Brody cheered, pumping his fists into the air and jumping up in triumph.
"Uh, dude?" Fred tapped his shoulder, and the rest of the Physical Education students stared, "Dude; it's called a basket, and you're on Blue Team."
Brody glared. Dick gave him a funny look and laughed as he walked past. Brody kicked the younger teen behind the legs and knocked him to the ground. "There! Touchdown Red!"
Fred laughed, "Oh, I get it! Cos he fell over! And he's red! So he touched-down, on the ground! Oh that's funny! . . ."
Brody slapped him upside the head, "Shut up, you idiot!"
Dick got to his feet, his face burning with embarrassment, but he decided to ignore Brody. He looked over at the teacher, but Mr Johnson was talking to another student and hadn't seen the incident.
oooo0000OOOO {-} OOOO0000oooo
Dick had the ball again, he dribbled it down the court quickly; and Brody leapt out of nowhere to tackle him. Dick jumped over the bully and kept running. He was almost at the key, when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He glanced over, caught the ball and froze.
His teammates immediately began shouting for the ball, Dick ignored them; there, sitting on the stands was a certain teddy-bear. He blinked, it was gone. He shook his head and dismissed it, he continued to dribble the ball.
PEEEEEEEEP! Mr Johnson blew the whistle; "Double Dribble, Richard! Blue ball!"
"Huh?" Dick looked over in confusion, then realised what he'd done. "Oh, right."
He tossed the ball to the teacher, who handed it to a smirking Brody. Red team all groaned and complained, glaring at Dick angrily. Dick ignored them, but frowned at himself; Stupid teddy! I'll turn the ball over again! Blue sure aren't gonna score because of a stupid mistake! Dick decided, and dashed up the court towards the Blue key.
Sure enough, Dick intercepted a pass and dashed up the court, bouncing the ball up and down rapidly and eating up the distance. Brody was racing behind him, and drawing closer to the kid; who had just reached the halfway line. Brody was close enough to grab Dick, and started to overtake him.
Dick was two yards away from the three-point line when Brody stepped in front of him, his arms spread wide, ready to snatch the ball or tackle his opponent. Seriously! Dick exclaimed mentally, This isn't a full-contact sport! Brody lunged at him, so he ditched the ball at the ring.
SWOOSH! The ball swished through the net, just as Brody lunged at Dick. The bigger boy's arms wrapped around Dick's waist and Dick was airborne for half a second before crashing to the ground noisily with Brody on top of him.
Dick gasped as the air was knocked out of his chest, and the teacher blew the whistle. PEEEEEEP! "Three points Red, and foul on Brody! Get off the court!"
"Wha?!" Brody stood up and his mouth fell open in protest, "But-"
"This isn't rugby, you idiot!" a random Red Team boy shouted angrily, "Basketball is a non-contact sport!"
"Off the court, Brody!" Mr Johnson ordered, "You're out for the rest of the lesson!" he knelt down beside the groaning Dick as Brody stormed off the court, swearing. "See me at lunch, Simpson!" Mr Johnson shouted, before looking down at Dick; "You all right?"
Is that sarcasm, the standard injury question or are you demented or something? Dick thought as he struggled to breathe; but he didn't say anything, just shook his head weakly.
"Can you breathe?"
Dick shook his head again, his face was going red and his shallow gasps didn't seem to bring any air into his aching lungs.
"Here," Mr Johnson sat Dick up and lifted the kid's arms up above his head. Air flowed into Dick's lungs and he panted hard; breathing deeply. Slowly the pounding in his head and the aching all over his body dulled slightly and two of the boys from Red Team helped him up.
Mr Johnson nodded at them, "James, Matthew, take Richard to the nurse."
The two boys nodded back and helped Dick out of the gym and down the hall; each of them supporting one of Dick's arms. As they headed down the hall the girls came back from their own PE class outside. "Hey, Jim!" one of the girls called, James nodded.
"Dick!" Barbra exclaimed, seeing her friend, "Dick, are you all right?!"
"Yeah . . ." Dick croaked, nodding weakly, "I just got taken out by someone who doesn't know how to play basketball."
"Who?"
Dick didn't reply.
"Who?!" Barbra pressed, her eyes flashing angrily.
"It was Brody." James said, "He thought he was playing rugby, the idiot."
Barbra growled and stormed towards the gym.
"He's been taken care of!" James shouted after her, but she ignored him.
"Brody better watch out!" Matthew whispered as they entered the nurse's office, "Barbra looked like she was ready to murder someone!"
James laughed, but broke off when he realised Matthew was dead serious. Then he started laughing again, "I'd love to see that! Brody getting taken out by a girl!"
Matt laughed as well, as the nurse led Dick into the sick bay and dismissed the two other boys. "OK, Richard, sit still." She shone a torch into one eye than the other. She took out a stethoscope and checked his heartbeat.
Dick's breathing had returned to normal, but his head still pounded. Finally the nurse finished her check-up and told him to sit still. "I'm going to call Mr Wayne, OK? Just so he knows what happened, you don't need to go home unless you're feeling really bad."
Dick nodded, "I'm OK." He assured her.
The nurse nodded and went to the phone. She returned a few minutes later. "Mr Wayne said you should be fine, to spend the rest of the day at school; if you're up to it." She informed him.
Dick slowly slid off the bed. "I'll be fine." He said quietly, "I'll go get showered and head to lunch. It's almost the end of the day; I think I'll cope."
"You sure?" the nurse sounded genuinely concerned; and she was, she was a nurse.
Dick nodded, "It's the last day of school for the week! I'll rest up on the weekend."
"Make sure you do!"
"Yes Miss." Dick headed out of the office and started down the hall.
oooo0000OOOO {-} OOOO0000oooo
Robin entered the cave and was greeted by lots of shouting and cheering on Wally's behalf. He groaned inwardly when he found the team playing a two-on-two game of basketball on the training floor; Aqualad and Miss Martian against Superboy and Artemis. Wally was sitting on a beanbag, eating popcorn and cheering through his stuffed cheeks. Seeing Robin, he jumped up and threw his arms into the air with a cheer; sending popcorn flying every which way and skittering across the floor. "YESRSH!" he shouted through the popcorn in his mouth; "Robinsh here! Now I cam play too!" He dashed over to stand beside Miss Martian and swallowed his mouthful, "I'm on M'gann and Aqualad's team, you're with Arty and Supey!"
Robin groaned and rolled his eyes; "I'd rather not . . ." the ball slammed into his chest and almost knocked him over.
"You're shooting towards the goal with the net!"
Robin coughed and looked at the miss-matched goals, "Where'd you get these from, anyway?"
Wally grinned, "We were bored! So me an' Supey an' Kaldur went to the dump and looked around. We found these, and dragged them back here! Supey carried the bigger one, and me an' Kaldur carried the other one! Now play!" he made a lunge for the ball.
Robin dodged and dribbled the ball quickly towards the goal, Wally racing along beside him, trying to snatch it away, Robin switched hands and dribbled the ball on the other side of his body. Wally zipped around to his right side and he switched back to his left hand. Robin faked, went to shoot but passed the ball to Artemis instead. She slam-dunked it. She and Robin high-fived.
Wally frowned and grabbed the ball, before beginning to dribble it towards his goal. Robin dashed ahead and was just about to bat the ball away when Artemis discretely tripped the speedster, grabbed the ball and dribbled it back towards her goal. Superboy was standing at the centre of the court, unsure what to do. Aqualad and Miss Martian rushed over to help Wally. "No!" he shouted, "Don't worry about me! Get the ball-" There was a whoop from Robin and a cheer from Artemis as she scored again. Wally growled and stood up.
He took the ball down from the baseline, and Artemis ran along beside him; he looked for someone to throw to, but Aqualad was standing beside Superboy, looking lost and unsure what to do; meanwhile Megen was trying to get past Robin but failing. Wally looked back in time to see Artemis step in front of him and slap the ball towards Robin.
The little ninja turned, caught the ball and dribbled it up the court; slam-dunking it with a whoop before Wally could recover. The speedster sighed and retrieved the ball.
oooo0000OOOO {-} OOOO0000oooo
Recognised: Batman 0-2. Batman walked into the cave and found Artemis, Wally and Robin playing basketball together. Miss Martian was running along behind the three; attempting to join the game but unsure of the rules, Superboy and Aqualad were standing on the sidelines, talking together quietly.
It was evident that Artemis and Robin were on a team together; and thoroughly creaming Wally without pity. They would score; Wally or Miss Martian would take the ball down from the baseline and lose it to either Robin or Artemis who would quickly dribble it back down the court and score.
Batman watched for a minute before clearing his throat. "Game over." He announced.
The teens stopped playing and Robin gave Artemis a high-five. Wally glared. "Cheeters." He muttered. Robin poked his tongue at his friend.
Batman watched with mild amusement, "What was the score?"
Wally rolled his eyes, Artemis and Miss Martian turned to Kaldur and Superboy. Kaldur shrugged and looked at the clone, who shrugged as well, "I stopped scoring, Robin and Artemis won."
Wally snorted, "As if!"
Artemis snorted back, "We creamed you Baywatch!"
"Aha, but no-one scored it!" Wally pointed out, "You can't prove it!"
"I can!" Robin grinned, "I was scoring!"
Wally rolled his eyes again, but they widened as Robin rattled off the scores.
"I scored four three-pointers, and twelve two pointers, Artemis scored sixteen two pointers and one three pointer. You only scored twice since I arrived; but you used your superspeed, so it doesn't count. That's 71 points for us against zero points for you. 71-nil. We won, fair and square!"
The teens stared at Robin open-mouthed. Batman smiled to himself. "Frankly; I'd hardly call it fair, just square. Anyway; I have a mission for you."
oooo0000OOOO {-} OOOO0000oooo
"Drop zone B." Miss Martian announced, and Artemis and Aqualad leapt into the night air over Blüdhaven. Superboy and Kid Flash had already been deployed several miles south. Miss Martian steered the Bioship hard to the southwest until she reached her and Robin's destination. She and the little ninja leapt out of the Bioship and landed silently on top of a building. They looked at each other and nodded, before Robin headed southwest and Miss Martian headed northwest.
Robin reached his post and felt Miss Martian set up the telepathic link; "I've reached my post!" Her voice announced in the heads of the whole team; "How about the rest of you?"
Everyone was in position. They had the place surrounded.
"Head in." Aqualad ordered, "Be stealthy, and close in on him; we have confirmation he's still in the building."
The teens slowly closed in their circle around the warehouse where the villain was located.
"I can see the warehouse." Superboy informed them "I can't see Jackal though."
Robin crept forward and dashed through an alley, he crouched behind a bin and peeked around a corner; "I can see the building too." he announced mentally, "But I can't see inside, either."
"Copy that!" Wally's voice said, "Ditto for me, I can see the building, but not- no wait, there's a window here!" There was a pause and his voice came back, "I – I can see inside, but it's just an abandoned store-room. There's no-one here. I'm switching to infrared now; you should too, Supey."
"I can see him." Superboy announced, "He's far inside the building, in a centre room; he seems to be fixing a computer . . ."
"Sabotaging it, most likely." Robin cut in.
"Superboy, Miss Martian and I will head into the building and try to take him out." Aqualad ordered, "Artemis, Robin and Kid Flash; you three keep the outside perimeter covered in case he tries to escape."
The three teens all crept towards the building, found an opening and slipped inside. Robin, Kid Flash and Artemis stayed hidden.
oooo0000OOOO {-} OOOO0000oooo
Aqualad and Superboy found the room where Jackal – an insane cat-burglar and murderer – was fiddling with a computer. "Ready? NOW!" They both leapt forward onto the man, but he fought them off.
"I've been expecting you!" he teased, and drew two pistols. He fired at both the heroes, but the bullets did little good. Aqualad deflected them with his water-bearer swords and they just glanced off Superboy's skin. Still, Jackalslipped past them and dashed out of the building. Miss Martian grabbed him with her telekinesis, but he turned and shot at her; she dodged but the bullet hit a can of gas, which exploded. Miss Martian screamed and collapsed in the sudden wave of heat but Superboy and Aqualad appeared behind her.
Superboy grabbed the Martian and super-jumped away from the flames while Aqualad put out the fire.
Jackal ran down an alley; heading south.
"I'll cut him off!" Kid Flash exclaimed and zipped towards where Jackal was heading.
"Artemis, you head that way too!" Aqualad ordered, "Robin-"
"I'm on it!" Robin headed south as well.
oooo0000OOOO {-} OOOO0000oooo
Kid Flash sped into an alley and glanced around. He crept forward and heard footsteps. He looked ahead, five yards away stood Jackal with his gun pointed straight at Kid Flash. Kid Flash froze and stared down the barrel of the pistol, its metal glinting oily black in the sparse moonlight. The teen hero could only stare, his body overwhelmed with a sense of dread. Jackal's finger slowly, painstakingly, pulled the trigger.
The gunshot echoed through the alley and Kid Flash doubled over, reflexively covering his head; but he felt nothing. He stood up straight and looked down at his body. He was in one piece; Jackal had missed. I'm alive! He missed- The thought was interrupted by a choking sound behind him.
Kid Flash whirled around, and saw Robin.
A dark stain was slowly spreading across his team-mates chest and blood bubbled up in his mouth. Robin swayed and toppled forward.
"Robin! NO!" Kid Flash zipped over and caught his friend's limp body. The front of his tunic was soaked with blood, blood slowly dribbled out of the corner of the younger teens mouth "ROBIN!" Robin did not respond, blood was still spreading across his chest. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Jackal stepped back and melted into the shadows, leaving a sobbing and shocked Kid Flash kneeling in the alley; holding the limp Robin in his arms.
CLIFF HANGER!
Sorry.
Just so you know; I created Jackal on the spot. I needed someone who could be bad enough to be big news,; yet he had to carry a gun; I couldn't think of anyone, so I thought: Why not just a robber/murderer/thug? So that's who and what he is. More later . . . possibly.
Goldenstripe2510 is going to hate me.
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