Part 31: Better than Drawing Straws
"So what?" Maya glanced around the room at the heroes who all stared at her expectantly.
Artemis added to her question. "You trashed Oliver's room. Now you need to tell us why?"
"I don't remember trashing Ollie's room." Maya looked at Oliver helplessly. "I was delirious, remember?"
"Then what happened before you passed out." Clark asked, "I mean the first time. Not when Artemis shot you."
"You shot me!" Maya turned to Artemis then looked down at her form for the injury.
Oliver sighed, "Don't worry she shot me too."
Artemis rolled her eyes. "I didn't shoot either of you." Clark raised an eyebrow at her. "I didn't. Just for the record." She sunk lower in her chair and crossed her arms.
"Anyway," Dinah looked back at Maya. "What happened?"
Maya blew her breath upward so that her hair flew away from her face. "It's going to sound crazy."
"We're already at crazy." Bart commented from the back of the couch. "You might as well just tell us."
Everyone stared at Maya. "I think I had a vision." Dinah glanced skeptically at Artemis, who shrugged. Maya searched out Dinah, the only other female from Gotham. "You remember Bruce Wayne?"
Shaking her head, Dinah shrugged. "I remember you talking about him… a lot." She did offer up the knowledge she did have.
"He the other playboy?" Artemis asked off-handedly earning her a glare from Maya. "Fine," Artemis consented, "The rich machinist from Gotham."
"Yeah, he lives in Gotham," Dinah answered as Maya was too busy mentally strangling the Amazon, who ignored her.
Oliver was the first man brave enough to enter the fray of the conversation. "I know Bruce," he reminded Maya. "What about him?"
With Oliver reminding them, the conversation turned back to its intent. "He died."
That caught everyone's attention. "What happened?" AC asked concerned for a man he had never met.
"I'm not sure." Maya shook her head. "There was a truck with a gang or something. And then I saw the funeral, but it wasn't quite right. It was painful to look at."
Bart and AC nodded though they had no idea what she was talking about. "So you saw him die. Now the question is what the seeing was?" Victor asked.
"What do you mean?" Maya objected.
Dinah put a hand on Maya's shoulder. "It means was it an illusion, dehydration or really a vision?"
"That's really not the most important issue?" Oliver suggested.
"Really?" Bart asked, "Then what is?"
"Can we take the chance that it is true? Can we risk Bruce's life?" Oliver explained his thinking.
Dinah shook her head. "No, we can't. Whether or not Maya had a vision of dehydration, there is no excuse for putting someone's life in danger."
"So what do we do? Call up Bruce and tell him to stay away from black trucks?" Bart asked only slightly in jest.
Artemis glanced at the boy. "I doubt that would work."
Bart rolled his eyes.
"Someone will have to go tell him," Oliver decided.
"Well, clearly, you and Maya can't it'll be difficult to explain since you already know him," Dinah advised.
Oliver nodded, "You shouldn't either. It wouldn't be difficult to get information on you."
"It's not hard to get information on any citizen." Dinah ignored Oliver's argument until her words sunk in. At the same time Dinah and Oliver both turned to Artemis.
"Not everyone is so easy to figure out." Oliver smiled in the face of Artemis's warning look. "What do you think, Arty?"
Artemis glanced at him from the corner of her eye. Sliding between them, Dinah told Oliver, "Only I can call her Arty."
"Why?" Oliver was surprised at the Amazon's anger.
Dinah bit her lip. "Because she can't kill me, so I can poke her all I like."
"Why do I think that might be like poking a lion in the eye?" Bart asked.
Smiling Dinah shrugged, "It would be for you."
Maya sat in the chair next to AC and looked over at Artemis. "Will you warn him?"
Not convinced that Maya really saw a vision, Artemis frowned. "You want me to travel to Gotham and convince a man, whom I dislike that his life is in danger of a possible gang in a black truck. That doesn't sound like a recipe for disaster to anyone else?"
"It does," Victor agreed. "But the other options leave the messenger to scrutiny or question. You're from a society, where visions may be reasonably acceptable."
"Please don't make us sound like a bunch of naked women screaming at the moon." Artemis ran a hand through her hair. "What do I have to do?"
Maya jumped up to hug her friend as Bart asked Oliver, "Does she really get naked at night?"
"This is still a recipe for disaster," Dinah said to Victor, earning a nod in return. "But Artemis will make it entertaining. Whether or not it's intentional is debatable, but…" She shrugged, "That's Arty."
"There is a possibility that she might not lose her temper," Victor corrected her.
Dinah tried to keep from laughing. "You got numbers on those odds."
"No." Victor frowned; Dinah nodded only a bit haughtily.
Victor looked like a cross between a priest and a chauffeur when he dropped Artemis off at the airport. They rode together in a silent car until Artemis asked, "Who decided that this was a good idea?"
"Oliver…and Dinah," Victor responded not recognizing the irritation in Artemis's tone. "Though I don't know which you were listening to."
"I do not obey like a pet."
"Then why are we heading to the airport?" Or perhaps he did understand her tone. His face formed an expression that was his equivalent of a smile and he glanced at Artemis from the corner of his eye.
Artemis set her jaw and glared out the window. There was no objection she could use that did not sound like a child throwing a fit. Instead Artemis ignored him for the rest of the trip, because she did not want to admit that she was worried Maya may have a mental break if she thought Bruce was still in danger.
The airport was busy; Victor took Artemis to security. He was just going to drop her off, but her face looked serious. "Do you ever get the feeling that something bad is going to happen?" Artemis asked abruptly.
"No," Victor responded. The look she sent him indicated that she wasn't seriously expecting him to say yes, but want him to play along. "What do you think is going to happen?"
"I don't know." She looked at the line then glanced back at him. "Look after Oliver."
Victor frowned. "Oliver? You have a bad feeling for Oliver?"
"Yeah," she shook her head. "Something is going to go terribly wrong." Victor left Artemis in the line. He should have been worried for her, but she left him worrying for them.
-x-
Sorry this is so late. I promise I'm not giving up on this, just lazy/busy lately
