Chapter 34: Broken Home

Artemis and I climb back into the air vent we came out of. We crawl our way through until we come across a crack in the vent. We both look through the crack. In the hangar, we see the Red water-bearer carrying Robin up a stream of water. And keeping him in it. Robin…

Artemis backs up against the vent's wall. She shuts her eyes tight and places her hands on top her head. I look back to her, worrying about my friend.

"Artemis?"

"No. No, no, no." She wraps her arms around her legs and curls into a ball. "No, no, no." Tears start coming down her face.

"Hey, hey…" I reach for her hands, still clinging to herself. "We're gonna make it out of this. We will save our friends. But we—"

"We surrender. We die with the others", Artemis prattles on. "But if we find a way out, out of the cave, out of the mountain…" She continues as she begins crawling through the vents. "…we can get help. Call in the League."

"By the time we get the League, the others will be long dead. We're not leaving them."

Before either of us can say anything else, we both slide down the vents. At the end of our 'ride', we end up falling into the Trophy Room. We both just lay down for the moment. Taking in our situation even more.

"Three minutes."

I sit myself up, stretching my back a bit. "If we're going to save the Team, we need to find a way to active Robin's EMP emitter. It's already hooked up to the generator. He said we needed a piece of metal to act as a conductor. If we can do that…" Looking at Artemis, she looks more defeated than anything else. "Artemis?"

"Who are we kidding? Best we can do is hide. Hope the League finds us before the Reds." I can't believe I'm hearing this.

I adjust her position to face me. "Now you listen to me. We are not abandoning our friends. If we leave now, even if we could, by the time the League gets here it'll be too late. Those Red androids will have killed them. And I for one don't plan on letting anyone die. Especially on our home turf." I take a deep breath in order to keep myself calm in all this madness. "I used to think like that a long time ago. Someone falls behind, you leave them behind. But then I met Dinah. She showed me that I didn't have to be that person. And then I met you guys. Not just a perfect fit for a team. The closest thing I have to friends… To family…" My eyes start to water. "I don't want to lose anyone here… I don't know what I'd do if anything happened to any of you. Is that clear?"

After my turn to prattle, Artemis, who's teary-eyed too, nods in response. She turns her head to the shelves of our small collection of trophies. Specifically, she looks to Cheshire's mask. Artemis stands and walks to the mask. I rise too, standing to her left.

Protecting Dr. Roquette from the Shadows was our first mission for both of us. It gave us a chance to prove ourselves. But that mission, with Cheshire… I felt there was something between the two. I never pressed her about it, certainly now isn't the best time. Even though I should, you know with the whole mole investigating. Their connection would give reason to look into her further. But Artemis doesn't read as a spy or a traitor. She reads more like a scared teen who wants to prove to everyone, and herself, that she can do this. Something else we both have in common.

"You're right", she says, still facing the mask. "We both found this new family. And here, we're all for one and—"

"One minute."

"If we're gonna do something, it has to be now." We both turn to the trophy next to Cheshire's mask: Artemis' arrow.

"And I know how we can do it", she answers. Artemis takes her arrow and places it into her quiver.

The elevator door opens. Before us, we see both Reds standing over a drenched Robin laying on the ground. M'gann and Aqualad are still imprisoned in their cage of flames. Kyle, Kid Flash and Superboy are still on the ground level, with the water more than likely rising above their heads. It's on us to save them.

Artemis and I walk towards the Reds. Artemis holds her bow in both her hands. I pull out my bo staff and grasp it with both hands in a defensive position.

"We surrender. Stop the clock", Artemis tells the Reds.

Artemis and I meet the Reds halfway. Both bring out their hands to take our weapons. That's what they think.

Artemis backflips and lands on the male's face. I strike my staff into the female's chest. Artemis jumps over onto the female's face and backflips off her face. I spin around and strike the male on the side of his face, crashing him into the female as she misdirects her fire.

Artemis, facing forward from her backflip, takes her arrow, pulls back on the bowstring and releases. The arrow flies straight for the EMP emitter. It lands right beneath the circuitry. Within seconds, the electromagnetic pulse releases throughout the hangar. The pulse reaches to both Reds, effectively shutting them off.

The fire cage dies away, releasing an exhausted M'gann and Aqualad. The water surrounding Kyle, Kid Flash and Superboy descends into puddles.

"Kaldur, how's M'gann?" Superboy asks.

"She breathes. I believe she will recover", an exhausted Aqualad answers. "What of Robin?"

Artemis and I kneel to Robin, still lying unconscious. Artemis slowly approaches Robin. Soon enough, he coughs up water from his lungs. "He's breathing too", Artemis answers.

"Way to get trot." He's back to normal.

It doesn't take long for the others to get down to ground level. Robin looks to be okay almost drowning. M'gann and Aqualad still look a tad weak, M'gann more so, but okay nonetheless. That just leaves the three of us. Still stuck together like glue. Super-strength glue.

Thankfully, Artemis went and got an energy drill in the hangar. Robin says that it should have enough power to cut us free from this metal welding. Unfortunately, the EMP wave shut everything off in the cave, the drill included. Thankfully I kept trying to cut ourselves free with my own electric saw construct. I'll just have to keep it up until the drill works again. That or I actually cut us out. If my ring's battery wasn't so low, this saw construct would have more power to cut through the metal. As soon as I get out of this thing, I'm charging it all the way up.

"You know you don't need to keep doing that", Canary says. "As soon as the drill reboots, we'll have you guys out in minutes."

"Well until then, I'm keeping this up. So, your capture by the Reds was on purpose?" I ask the Boy Wonder.

"Figured my only shot was to surrender, pretend to drown before I actually did. Blacked out, though", Robin says.

"M'gann." Conner takes her girlfriend's hand.

"I'll be fine", she weakly answers. She's strong. She'll be fine.

"Will you quit playing with that thing and cut us free already?" Kid Flash asks Artemis, who's holding the drill steady.

"It's not working, genius. EMP shuts down all machines, remember?"

"All machines present at the time." Red Tornado levitates into the hangar towards us. "What has occurred?"

"Had a little visit from your family", Robin answers. His response redirects Tornado's attention to the two Red inactive androids laying on the ground.

"Your extremely nasty family", Artemis adds.

"I was not aware I had relations", Tornado responds.

"Where have you been?" Superboy asks.

Tornado walks over to his 'siblings'. "Monitor duty on the Watchtower. When it became clear cave communications were down I attempted to investigate but your zeta tubes were also nonfunctional. I transported to Providence and proceeded here."

The Sphere begins to move. It frees itself from the wall. "Hey, boy", Superboy says.

The drill in Artemis' hands activates, shooting a beam of energy at our feet.

"The pulse has worn off", Robin and KF say in unison.

Everyone looks to the Reds, with Tornado kneeling at them. Tornado reaches his hand to one of them. A spark generates between them. And all hell breaks loose.

Red Tornado turns toward us. His eyes glowing red now. Oh crap. Creating a tornado to levitate himself, Tornado creates two wind tunnels with his arms. The air is blowing past us and to him. I can feel my… my breathe shortening… He's sucking the air out of the room! Tornado!

One by one, we begin to pass out and fall to the ground. Except for me, Conner and Wally. Still stuck in our trap, they pass out standing firm. I follow shortly, too confused to think. To react. Tornado… Why…

"Sara. Sara, can you hear me?"

Waking up from probably the worst way a person can go to sleep, I open my eyes slowly. The first person I see is Dinah, who has this worried look on her face. As if I almost died. Which I kind of almost did a lot today.

Dinah helps me to my feet. She hugs me right after. "I'm so glad you're okay."

Looking around, I see there's a lot more than just my friends and her. Superman is helping Artemis up, with Green Arrow next to her. Batman conversing with Robin. Flash, Hal Jordan and Captain Atom working on getting Kyle, Kid Flash and Superboy free. Martian Manhunter checking on M'gann. Aquaman conversing with Aqualad. Goes to show they were all worried about us.

"What happened here?", Superman asks Artemis and me.

"What happened? The Reds happened. Tornado and his…"

"…siblings. Torpedo and Inferno", I finish, giving Tornado's siblings respective names.

"Wait, where are they?" Artemis asks.

"Gone. All three of them. Gone." Robin answers.

Three Red androids on the loose. One of them a member of the Justice League, gone rogue. We are in such a disaster. Not feeling the aster at all.