Disclaimer: I don't own DC or LOK

Chapter 4 – Self Destruct

Gotham City; July 8th, 2010.

Korra thought long and hard about their plans for the night, Artemis and herself were intending to stop a human trafficking ring in the dead of night; even though the Avatar had spat that she should do it alone, Korra couldn't help but feel guilty sending the archer to take on those thugs alone. Looking out and down at the city lights, she remembered her glider-staff and how she wished she still had it with her, the views from this new world would be phenomenal with it. Technological advances that even Asami and her Father would be baffled by; screens with flashing lights unlike any mover she had ever seen. She had been watching movies with Artemis that she wasn't even aware was centuries beyond what they were capable of producing.

Korra was lucky that she didn't go into shock immediately, having spent time with Artemis being taught what a TV was exactly and how cellphones work, she wasn't stupid so as she stared out at the moving neon sign, she didn't feel as dumbfounded as she would have been, had she taken it all in at once. She stood up to breath in the fresh air that drafted over the high-rise building she perched atop, "She's high out of her mind and she's going to get herself killed, I have to stop this…" talking to herself, or possibly one of her many past selves, she didn't hesitate to dive off the skyscraper, she positioned her feet outwards towards the ground, falling thousands of feet before beginning to bend the air around her.

Korra intricately wove her arms around her body mid-air as though she was doing an interpretative dance, however the currents of the falling winds bent into a sphere around her body. It slowed her descent as she finally reached the lower leveled buildings, she landed with a cratering stomp atop an apartment building. Pressurized bursts of wind lashing out around her as she looked up, now closer to the ground but, still high enough to see the outline of Downtown Gotham, "She said the buy was at the docks, let's just hope I make it in time to help," Korra recounted to herself as she realized that the area was much further away than she originally anticipated, without her glider, it would take some time.

…

Downtown Gotham City Docks; July 8th, 2010.

Artemis lurked around the corner of a shipping container four or five hundred feet away from a massive yacht that was boarding its passengers. The blonde narrowed her eyes noticing the shackles and chains binding the women together as the men 'escorted' them in at gun point. Artemis was disgusted, if she had to do this alone then so be it, reaching into the duffle she brought with her she took a few things out. Her compound bow which extended out mechanically, her quiver to which she strapped around her back, and a small baggie with a single blue pill sitting within it. Artemis didn't hesitate to unwrap and down the blue orb with nothing but her saliva to gulp it down.

She pulled up a green cloth that covered her mouth and nose, making her way through a maze of barrels and shipping containers of different colors. She used her own agility to jump step off the side of a container, grappling the edge expertly and flipping on to the top. Even though she had just started, she was already sweating which wasn't unusual but, had her concerned for only a moment or two. Time was wasting and each girl that entered the boat was another lost, readying an arrow on her bow, she couldn't find a precise target so, she switched ammunition and fired a flashbang arrow that hit the yachts entrance.

As everyone was blinded by the unexpected attack, two men with guns were still reeling giving her the opportunity to fire two independent arrows through each of their thighs, forcing them to their knees. The suited men dropped their weapons in astonishment as a female dressed in a hoodie and a make-shift cloth mask sauntered passed them, kicking their guns too far for them to reach in their conditions. Artemis swayed as she walked, her vision blurred but, she shook it off, taking deep breaths through her mask, "What are you all waiting for?" she fired an arrow into the shackles that connected them all, freeing most of them, "Get as far from here as you can!" they quickly got off the boarding dock and found comfort in some of their relatives that were kidnapped together with them, running back into the city, "Call the police and tell the-"

"Tell them what? A masked female vigilante saved the day by fearlessly drugging away the pain?" That voice was too familiar to ever leave her memory, she hadn't heard it in years but, it was most definitely something she'd never forget. "You and I both know those little pills don't solve more problems than they create…" the moonlight gleamed off the shine of her porcelain white mask, its crimson red cat-like grin intimidating the archer on sight.

"J-Jade?" Artemis turned slowly to fully see what her sister had become in her time absent. Garbed in nanoweave kevlar armor colored black and green, her face hidden behind the mask that resembled the cat on the poster still hanging in her room. Cheshire was an entirely different person than she was five years ago, her personality had shifted through the years of training and being the time she's spent as Ra's Al Ghul's personal assassin, it was only her voice Artemis still recognized.

"What are you doing here?" Artemis shouted at her in a whisper, pulling down her mask and gawking at her provocative skintight suit in embarrassment, "What are you wearing? Where have you been?" she asked with a concerned tone, having vanished one day into thin air, Paula was devastated.

Cheshire toyed with the junkie who was starting to hallucinate a bit, some colorful visuals made her far more intimidating, "I like the way I look in this, it works for my figure, as for the where and the what, I'm afraid I can't really say," Jade was clearly being coy, in truth, she was stalling for time and had Artemis not been so zoned out by the opioids, she would have noticed. "I came back to see you though, I heard you started playing vigilante duo with some other chick…" even prying for information about her opponent while she was at it. Jade dealt with the archer's opioid habit before and could tell when she was having a bad trip, so to speak.

However, Artemis only heard a very disturbed and confused sister that she hadn't seen in nearly five years, blinking rapidly to try and refocus her attention, "Y-Yea, I mean… I'm trying to good… what are you doing here?" finally getting suspicious, the blonde took a step back even though they were already twenty feet apart.

Cheshire heard a stomping in the distance along with feeling of the breeze picking up around them, "A little of this and that, you know how it goes, I'm here to watch you play your little games with your new girlfriend," Jade turned toward the building that processed the boats imports and exports, which was very much closed, the sound was coming from the blocks behind…

Artemis felt taunted as the heat in her chest rose to her cheeks, warming them in the chilled breeze, "Korra isn't my girlfriend, we're just friends…" Artemis denied any involvement with her, they had shared a few intimate moments but, they'd never even gotten as far as a kiss on the lips yet, it wasn't that serious, yet. "What business is that of yours, you've been MIA for years Jade, you can't just waltz back into my life like nothing happened," as she almost fell over, swaying as she still gripped her bow.

The mask kept any expression from being shown as Jade narrowed her eyes behind the slits in it, "I thought that's what I just did, you can't tell me to leave, you aren't even eighteen…" knowing she was out of it just gave her the advantage.

"Four months, Jade! And it doesn't matter how old I am, you know that's not what I meant," Artemis pleaded loosening her grip on her compound bow as she held a gloved hand out. "Come home, Mom misses you, I miss you," at that Cheshire lashed out in anger, closing the gap between them in just a second or two, slashing at her with razor sharp platinum claws. Moving so fast it was akin to teleportation from the eyes of someone too high to comprehend what they're seeing.

Artemis ducked and weaved just in time on raw instincts, even with her slowed reaction time, she managed to block with her bow which was quickly sliced in half forcing the archer to roll backwards landing on her back and hands to avoid the final slash. Cheshire stood above her, she was holding back a lot just because she saw how pathetic her sister looked, with a claw raised and ready to strike downward, "If you missed me so much, why did you invite your friend to live with you? Sleeping in my bed?"

Artemis chuckled, still a little dizzy and her entire body feeling more euphoric than it should, not completely sure her sister would kill her either, "She actually spends more time sleeping in my bed this past day or two… if that helps with you being angry…" she rolled out of the way as Jade practically snarled when she slashed through the concrete, leaving four distinct marks on the ground. Artemis pulled out a trick arrow from her quiver and slammed it into the ground in front of her, expelling a smoke like fog for cover as she tried to back away from the scene.

Suddenly, Cheshire was behind her, grabbing the quiver and tearing it off her back in one swing before tossing it into the massive lake where the yacht was still docked. Not hesitating to immediately sidekick her younger sister in the chest, sending her ten feet onto her back within the smoke she unleashed herself. "Don't worry, sis, I'm not really going to terminate you but, I will be taking your amnesiac friend with me," hearing the stomping get more distinct, Artemis noticed the smoke grenades fog being sucked through the building and the street, dispersing.

Artemis looked away disappointedly, her vision was so disoriented as she sat up, she hadn't noticed the phenomenon of smoke leaving the air around her. Remembering their argument was only an hour or two prior, she figured Korra would never show up, even if she would, she couldn't manage through the city without a guide. Cheshire looked to the dock entrance as the currents only got stronger, "It's too bad for you then, she's not with me, agh-" Artemis was interrupted by Jade placing her heel firmly against her sister's torso, forcing her down to her back again. "Maybe she'll come running if she hears you scream!" Artemis teared up as she heard the last of her sister fade into the darkness, this new persona was something entirely different, closing her eyes and waiting for her to strike.

Suddenly, a pressurized burst of air exploded like a sonic boom, propelling something over the adjacent logging building, rather someone who landed on the docks with an immense force. Korra had been using her air bending to leap across city blocks and over buildings to arrive conveniently right when she was needed most. Wearing nothing but her navy-blue denim jeans, and a thin long sleeved grey blouse, she couldn't believe she'd been walking around this city for nearly two weeks without wearing her bra for the most part. She was wearing a pear of white Nike sneakers but, the pressure of her landing on the sidewalks and asphalt streets, tore them apart leaving her barefoot.

Korra narrowed her eyes at them both but, Jade spoke first which wasn't naturally the waterbender's style, "Just who I was looking fo-" Korra did a spinning roundhouse kick in the air that blasted the assassin off her feet with an invisible concussive force of air, tumbling across the concrete until she hit the side of a shipping container.

Artemis opened her eyes, she was either about to pass out or vomit, maybe both but when she saw Korra who beamed in the moonlight, everything about her expression had changed. Her expression and the way she carried herself, Artemis knew she was high but, wasn't expecting to watch the elemental dance before her, vision focused on the stream of water she manipulated from the bay area a few dozen feet away. Korra's dance naturally flowed with her hips and arms guiding the liquid over Artemis's chest. A simple change in stance and the water began to hum with a white glow, feeling the pain in her chest alleviating almost instantly. Though this was a good thing for her, Artemis immediately turned on her side and began vomiting up the contents of her dinner and two oxycodone pills, along with a bit of her stomach acids.

Letting the water go, Cheshire watched the entire experience in awe, the liquids just dropped the moments she dropped her hands, no… the instant she untensed certain muscles in her arms. Jade pulled herself up, swiping the air and revealing two sharpened steel sai from hidden sleeves. She almost dislocated her shoulder with that blast of air, she never even made contact with her but, the attack landed anyways.

"Are you going to try and kill us tonight?" Korra asked bluntly, turning from looking down at Artemis to focusing directly on the assassin, "I just want to take my friend here and go, if you want to try and stop me, now would be your best bet."

Cheshire scoffed and pressed a certain motion sensor over her wrist, alarming three men from within the yacht, each taller and bigger than her toting AK-47's strapped around their torsos. "I'm afraid I have to at least return with one of you or its my ass so, either hand over the girl or turn yourself over," Cheshire was a little more confident once they had gotten off the boat's bridge and onto the concrete loading area.

Korra chuckled, having seen, and been shot by one already, she had no fear for three simple machine guns; "I was giving you a way out, not the other way around!" she could feel all of the metal in the ground below them, and with a quick breath of air, she exhaled feeling out all of the metal on the persons in front of her. "I promise you, if you pull those triggers, you'll only wake up in a hospital."

Cheshire goaded them by shouting at the three hired goons, "It's just two little girls, shoot the metahuman!" as she ducked into the shadows behind her, the men open fired on Korra and Artemis lying nigh-unconscious at the Avatar's feet.

Korra swiped her foot out in front of her quickly before jutting out her palms in a martial stance, as they flew through the air at nearly the speed of sound, the bullets stopped mid-air in front of her tanned palms. Two or three hundred rounds and nearly a full minute later, and they were all empty left with only a fierce look of determination on Korra's face. Her piercing blue eyes were cold as ice, with a twitch of her eye, her stance fell and dropped the bullet as she stood upright.

"What kind of girl is this?"

She laughed whole heartedly, "Didn't anyone tell you, bozos? I'm the Avatar," she took a step forward intimidating them to take a full step back, fearing her a bit more now that their weapons had no effect, "You can't hurt me with lead projectiles, that's just lazy," taking another step forwards prompted all three of them to back step once again. This time they had all stepped out of the way of the massive ship that was docked next to them, close to the end of the marina, she winked at them before doing a quick cartwheel kick horizontal to them. Simultaneously summoning a small pulse of water to blast all three of them off their feet and onto their backs, fifteen feet away using more pressure than in any fire hydrant or hose. Korra could hear their groans as they landed amongst the debris of old wooden boat wreckage, she scanned the area looking for her final opponent, the masked one.

"I wouldn't have walked so far away," Cheshire announced having pulled Artemis up off the ground, she was now struggling to get out of a half-nelson that was too tight for the disoriented archer to break, "From someone I claim to care so much about." The claws were platinum, that much Korra could feel spite there being different metals across her body she could work with, she couldn't risk a wrong move. Her index finger cut a small thin wound in her throat, trickling out a single drop of blood, "What's it gonna be, 'Avatar' you or her?"

From another hidden sleeve, she pulled a pair of hand cuffs which illuminated with a bluish neon light, "Put these on," Cheshire demanded to Korra before tossing them a good distance into the air, aimed at her, she caught them and looked down the flimsy chains.

"Why are they glowing?"

Cheshire rolled her eyes as she watched Korra comply, slipping the cuffs on over her wrists and tightening them, they hummed to life emitting a vibrating sound, "They're meta-dampening cuffs, they're gonna make sure that you get to Ra's Al Ghul safe and sound, he and a select few do like their women… powered," she joked at the life this process would put her through if she were anyone else in this situation. Any other girl who was caught off guard or taken by force for these fiends and their sexual nature

"I'm all locked up, let her go," Korra announced, walking towards them with her hands out as a sign of good faith, Cheshire tossed Artemis aside into the dirt as her first instinct was to jump to her side, Korra stayed focused on the opponent in front of her. Once in arm's length, Jade grabbed the toned woman by the wrist and pulled her back towards the yacht she arrived on. "So, who has you under their control?"

"What?"

Korra chuckled a bit, "I mean you are one skilled fighter, right? We didn't get the chance to really get into it but, I can tell… you aren't doing any of this of your own free will, are you?" catching Jade off guard, the spiraling crimson swirl appeared in her vision, quickly round house kicking Korra in the neck but, instead getting caught between her cuffed wrists. "What did they do to you? Where did they take you? You were one of the women just like the ones that were getting shipped out, but you had skill and someone noticed," Cheshire struggled on one leg as Korra restrained herself from flipping through the air and shattering the woman's entire femur in one swoop.

Jade was pulled to the surface by memories of drugs, needles, and screens… lots of flashing screens… "I… don't… remember…" she answered as she struggled against two mental forces at once, while Ra's Al Ghul had his own way of forcing women to his bidding, there was clearly a second party that this Ghul guy was protecting. "You either remember something useful, or you lose your leg," tightening her grip Jade screamed out in pain as the red in her eyes faded.

No longer under Ra's Al Ghul's control, she had other orders to fulfill, deep programming that had been done years ago when she first attempted to leave Gotham. Using her flexibility and dexterity, she used her one good leg to quickly push off the railing between the water and the concrete, forcing Korra to release her to land properly. "You really believe you can win a fight against me; I'll kick your ass with these chains on, lets go!" Cheshire stared blankly out at the Avatar who jumped in place, still in a fighting stance.

"How could you be so strong with those cuffs on?" Cheshire simply asked but, it was as though someone was asking through her, if they could see her expression behind the mask, they would know that almost drooling on herself.

Korra scoffed and lowered her head, quickly pulling her arms apart with a bit of strength, "Oh I forgot to mention," looking up at Cheshire with glowing eyes with surging white energy sending a high pitched whine into the air, "I have no clue what a metahuman is," she did a simple twirl and formed a surge of wind at her feet, shaping into a tornado extending out from her lower body. The bay too experienced an unknown phenomenon when the wake of the waves began growing in size, even pushing against the yacht to the point of tipping. "For the last time I will tell you, I am the Avatar, master of all four elements, bridge between the physical and the spiritual worlds!" now as she spoke it was as if dozens of voices spoke with her, sending waves against the docks that rocked the yacht out of place, toppling onto the dock between Cheshire and the floating Avatar, twenty feet up looking down on her. With a single thrust of her fist, a simple jab, sent a massive plume of flames into the ship, causing it to almost immediately explode. Jade's natural instincts allowed her to back flip out of the way of the wreckage, the clouds formed around them as the glow in her eyes only seemed to fascinate the hypnotized assassin.

Artemis choked on her own spit, wiping her neck as she got to her hands and knees, spitting out some dirt that had landed on her lips, "Woah, I think I took way too many," not realizing yet that she was relatively sober for the first time in days thanks to the treatment Korra gave her. Artemis assumed she must be hallucinating, never having pictured that sweet innocent girl she met on a mission could be a god-like figure. She could see the feint glow of golden energy surrounding her like an aura with symbols lighting up across torso, beneath her blouse.

Using a burst of air pressure, she let the tornado dissipate as she was propelled forwards faster than sound, landing on the ground behind Cheshire with an earthbender's powerful stomp that shook her off her feet, now looking up at Korra once again.

Korra narrowed her glowing eyes, focusing on the expression behind the laughing mask, reaching out to grab it off her face, Jade quickly cut her arm and used her own momentum against her, leaping onto her back and pushing off to force Korra forwards and allowing her an escape route.

Korra turned with a fierce expression, waiting to face her enemy again but, she was gone; vanished into the night just like the Cheshire cat. The lights in her eyes faded, letting the boat burn as she walked across the docks turned battlefield toward Artemis, "We attracted a lot of attention here, do you think anyone noticed?" Korra asked as sirens were heard in the distance, confirming what she had feared, Artemis held her still reeling head.

"Wait, you have your memories back? And you still came to save me?" Korra grabbed the blonde's arm and slung it over her shoulder, assisting the archer as she tried to get back on her feet, "Why?"

Korra thought back to the day she was thrusted into this new world, fighting Kuvira and bright white light, the bullet to the head that sent her brains scrambling for days upon days, through out all of that… Artemis had been there taking care of her, feeding her, clothing her, and even sharing some less than just-friendly moments. "You helped me, you helped me a lot, if it weren't for you, I might have become a slave to these people, whoever they are…" she said the last part with a bit of concern having not gotten any answers out of the assassin sent after them.

A second explosion from the boat prompted them to quicken their pace away from the scene, "Maybe we should save the feelings for when you're all settled in bed," Korra noted, realizing that Artemis couldn't walk fast enough in her condition, she instructed her instead, "Hold on tight to me, okay?" Her bright blue eyes pierced the darkness in her own brown doughy eyes, as the blonde nodded in awe as she was scooped off her feet gently, her head landing and resting on Korra's chest. Artemis wrapped her arms around her tan neckline as they both made eye contact and their cheeks started heating up, "I'll hold on as tight as you want," nestling her head against Korra's chest, her large bosom was, in fact, a good pillow it turns out.

A figure in suited black armor allowed the wind to billow over his cape, his cowl scanned the area and found two fire departments dispatching trucks to douse the flames, he turned and watched Korra as she seemingly jumped fifty feet into the air, landing swiftly on the building adjacent. The Batman narrowed his eyes, while he knew Oliver was keeping an eye on the blonde, he had an odd feeling about this new powered woman in his city.

…

Artemis woke up in her own room suddenly, not remembering having passed out the moment Korra made the jump to escape the scene at the docks; she heard the toilet flushing as she glanced around at the time, it looked like it was nearly four in the morning. "K-Korra?" she announced as from the bathroom came out the one and only Avatar wearing her outfit from earlier only, she kept a southern water-tribe armband on her right arm, and she'd changed into the pants she arrived in, blue and far less constricting than denim.

"You okay?" Korra asked, taking a few steps forwards, she held an empty bottle in her hand, "Because I used your phone for the first time and I looked up what it was, it took me… twenty minutes to figure it out but, I did it!" she was adorably proud of herself for learning a simple skill like searching Google, "You could have really hurt yourself with these, why didn't you tell me?" tossing the empty bottle in the bin, she sat next to the archer and placed a hand on her upper thigh. "I care about you, Artemis, you asked why I would still come back if my memories came back, what makes you think that would change anything?"

Artemis teared up a bit, putting her hand down on Korra's feeling her pinky caressing her skin felt so soothing she just wanted to fall apart, "I've had an addiction problem, I had it handled for the last two years but, when my father came around, he offered them to me knowing I'd self-destruct," she chuckled to herself through tears, "He probably bet money on how long it would take."

"Well, I trust that you can handle this but, no more lies; if your dad comes to see you, tell me about it?" Korra took her hand and Artemis' and intertwined their fingers as she knelt down in front of the bed, "If you might have noticed, I can totally protect you now, from him and from that crazy bitch in the mask… do you know who she was?"

Artemis gripped Korra's hand a bit tighter and gave out a long exhale, "It's a long story I guess, would you mind if I told it in the morning?" she sniffled as Korra grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her up off the bed onto her feet.

"C'mon, I drew you a bath before you go to sleep, trust me it's going to help more than you could possibly know," Korra guided her to the bathroom where she found the small tub filled with steaming hot water, just the right temperature. "Well, get in?"

"I'm still fully clothed, do you have to be in here or…" Artemis didn't have time to really finish her sentence as she turned around to find Korra already topless, having no bra to speak of, the archer was astonished by their size and beauty spite having seen them briefly before.

"I thought this might make that a little more comfortable but, yes I do need to be in the room," Korra smiled and even though she could tell the mood was tense, it wasn't a sexual tension, it was something more lucid than that, a romantic tension that neither knew what to do with. Artemis found herself removing her top, followed by her bra and pants, covering her most private areas, her faced turned beat read, "Relax, this is a healing technique from my world, you'll feel fully rejuvenated afterward," Artemis stepped into the water slowly crouching down, with an arm still covering her perky breasts and her free hand over her crotch.

"And I had to be naked for it?" Artemis asked while her face only changed shades of red closer to crimson the longer she felt Korra's eyes on her.

Korra chuckled, "Nope, I just thought it would be funny payback for lying to me, now relax," before the archer contended her statement, the toned waterbender swung her hands over the air atop the tub, feeling the currents in the small body of water moving beneath her. The entire tub began to glow as all of her physical wounds and ailments quickly came to an end, the hum of her healing ability gleamed off the medicine cabinet mirror.

"Oh," Artemis said slowly as her arms fell to her sides, exposing herself slightly, all of the tense muscles in her back, all of the muscle damage from rooftop jumping, all of the nauseua from the drugs she'd taken… it all just fell away. "Okay…" Artemis muttered as she felt Korra use a single finger to snap the tie that held her hair together in a ponytail, allowing it to fall freely down her shoulders, dipping into the water. "You're smooth," she smiled as Korra stroked the side of her cheek, feeling a certain heat rising in her own cheeks, she chuckled.

"Yea, I was thinking, I know I could probably sleep in the free bed but, I'm not sure I'm brave enough to yet…" Korra had never been so seductively coy with anyone in her life, so it was a first time for everything. Being cavalier in her asking, Artemis turned her head over her shoulder to look the Avatar in the ocean blue eyes.

"Not brave enough, my ass… but, I think I could use the company more than you tonight," reaching her hand out of the water and placing it over Korra's that still cupped her cheek, closing her eyes and caressing her face with the Avatar's palm.

"Agreed," Korra chuckled a bit as she took her hand back and continued the healing process as the hum began to illuminate brightly again, Artemis almost fell asleep upright in the tub. "We never got to go on that date, a real one, I mean…" Korra interrupted before gulping audibly, "If that's something you're still interested in?"

"Of course, Korra, I'd be happy to go out with you…" Artemis hummed as she sat upright in the tub and grabbed Korra by the back of her neck, quickly softly brushing her lips against the living deities before pulling back a few inches and biting her lip, "Oops…" sitting up completely naked, it seemed the healing treatment was a success as the archer was back to her confident self, a smile across her face as she watched the stunned Avatar still kneeling over the tub.

Artemis grabbed a towel and wrapped herself in it, "I'm gonna get into bed then, kay?" she said as Korra fell back on her butt, totally thrown off by the kiss, her first kiss with any woman on any earth, she felt her heart swell before responding.

"Y-Yea, yes I mean, I'll be just a minute," Korra grabbed her blouse and covered her chest, she had gotten too cocky, Artemis flipped the script on her at the last moment but, there was always their date, where she had the opportunity to flip them again.

…

A/N

Korra kissed a girl and she definitely liked it 😉

More to come, follow and review!