Artemis smiled as the hulking beast turned towards her.
"Bbbrraaiinns!"
She just scowled at it and raised her bow.
A nice shot to the head ended it's life…well for the next few minutes at least. Zombies were the worst, you couldn't kill them, only slow them down.
Luckily, that was all Artemis needed to do…for now at least.
This whole escapade had started as a simple trip to the grocery store. Her mom had asked her to go get milk, but of course a few of these nasty buggers would show up, they always did.
The epidemic had happened about two years ago. Out of nowhere these monsters showed up. Large versions of deadly insects, killer snakes, even spiders with fangs the size of your fist.
In the first two months the monsters had already taken out half of the world's population. If you were still alive you were either really smart, powerful, rich, or lucky. After those two months people adjusted. You didn't go out at night, you knew how to use some kind of weapon and you always carried one on you, you went out in groups but you always put yourself first, if you didn't you'd die.
At about the sixth month of the so called invasion a league of sorts banded. They called themselves the 'Justice League'. It was tacky if you asked Artemis, but no-one ever did. They were all too obsessed with the new heroes.
There were three of them, they had named themselves Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. They paraded around in costumes, killing as many of the monsters as they could. And for awhile they succeeded. Monster attacks were less frequent, less people died, hell some people were even willing to come out of their homes.
But of course, about three months after the league formed the monsters seemed to multiply, and new, much scarier, ones surfaced. Zombies, Werewolves, and Vampires, the monsters from kids nightmares seemed to become the reality.
After that, all rules were forgotten. Nothing mattered except for staying alive. The country descended into anarchy. All major politicians were murdered. The world was turned into a living hell.
To respond the Justice League grew. It added five new members: Hawkgirl, Green Lantern, The Flash, the Martian Manhunter, and Aquaman. There were even reports of a Green Arrow and a Black Canary.
The population became almost non-existent. Reports said that the population of the earth was only at about 500 million people, and it was steadily dropping. The old classes had disappeared and in its place appeared three new ones.
Killers, Workers, and the Resisters.
The Killers used this whole epidemic for their personal gain. Whatever you could imagine them doing, they did worse. Millions of people suffered at their hands, and millions of people still do.
They were the only ones who benefited from this tragedy. They used the pain and death of others to take over territories, enslave people, and amass large collections of weapons. They were the one percent at it's worst. There were about 75 million small killers; the henchmen, local murderers, or gang members. But the really scary killers controlled the world, there were about 10,000 of them, and every single one of them wanted to watch the world burn.
The workers were largely considered the weak. They were the ones who got protected, or were the slaves to the killers. The had survived purely based on circumstance, intelligence, or dumb luck. But they weren't strong enough to fend off a majority of the monsters, or if they were, they only looked to for number one. So, they either surrendered themselves as slaves, had someone that fended for them, kept to themselves, or hoped that the justice league would save their asses. They made up the largest portion of the population, them making up about 400 million people. And sadly this group included most kids.
The final group was the protectors. They were your 'heroes' and your 'martyrs'. They either had extraordinary powers, skill, or intelligence. They ranged from local heroes who killed the occasional gang member, to Superman who had taken out some of the most notorious killers in the world. If you were a protector then you were either some kind of dumb, or some kind of powerful. They were the smallest group, in this day and age almost no-one was willing to risk their lives to help others. There were only about 5,000 of them, and only about 50 of them had actually made a difference.
Artemis contemplated the atrocities of their hell of world as she walked home to her mom's apartment. She strolled down the streets of Gotham, ducking through alley ways she knew monsters couldn't fit through.
As she turned onto her street she saw one of the many Gotham gangs circling a group of teenagers. They looked to be about her age, but didn't seem to have any weapons. They were going to kill the teenagers. She looked down at the bow in her hands. It was simply there to protect herself, no one else.
She wasn't a protector, she didn't do the whole 'helping others' thing. She only looked out for herself, and her mom. Everyone else could go to hell for all she cared. But didn't that make her a killer? Ugh.
Something on those kids faces made her want to help them. Plus there were only four of the gang members. Dumb oafs walking around with weapons, she could take them with her eyes closed.
Artemis charged the gang, taking out the first two members with arrows to the back. She took the third member down with a well placed hit to the head, and the fourth member, well, he did the smart thing and ran away.
Looking at the kids, Artemis could see that they were younger than she thought. They looked to be about fourteen. Two boys and a girl.
The girl looked up at Artemis her eyes watered with fearful tears.
" Tha-thank you." She sputtered out between muffled sobs, running her hands through her wavy blond hair. Tears tracks ran down her pale skin. She fiddled with her star shaped earrings as she tried to calm herself down. And even though she seemed shaken, a black tank top revealed large muscles and an athletic frame. She probably could've held her own in any fight.
Her mere existence reeked of a protector.
" That was incredible, thank you for …" One of the guys said in awe. He had tan skin, with large brown eyes, wearing a simple black shirt with a gray hoodie. It was obvious he was terrified. He was shaking, and you could see the markings of tear tracks down his face.
Also he kept muttering to himself, almost as if he was talking to someone. And he kept itching his back.
" It was so crash." The third guy agreed. He, on the other hand, seemed perfectly fine. In fact, it was almost as if he was enjoying this whole thing. His green eyes were sparkling underneath she odd goggle-like contraption. Psycho.
His friend elbowed him in the ribs.
" Oh right! And thank you for saving us." He hurriedly added.
"How long have you been a protector—" The blond girl started.
" I'm not a protector." Artemis sharply interrupted. She ran a hand through her hair and looked at the kids sadly, trying to ignore the spark of pride that had ignited when she was called a protector, " I have to go, but don't get in any more trouble."
She turned on her heel and headed back to her apartment. Leaving three kids in the street. A girl struck with wonder, a boy anxious to beetle off, and another boy who was still acting purely on impulse.
" Wow, I've only heard stories about her. I can't believe I actually got to meet her!" The red head bubbled.
" Bart, we get it. You are from the future. Now, would you please enlighten us lowly present people about who the heck that was." His friend asked exhaustedly, still scratching at his back.
" Jaime, don't you get it?" Bart asked excitedly bouncing on his heels.
" No he doesn't, and neither do I." The blond girl responded. She had crossed her arms, and all traces of tears had been extinguished from her eyes.
" Not you too, Cassie." He rolled his eyes at his friends, " She's the one that saves us all."
" Still don't know who she is." Cassie prompted.
" Oh right!", he turned towards his friends, an almost mad smile dancing on his face, "That my friends is Artemis Wes— Crock. Artemis Crock."
He covered his slip up with a cheeky smile, "Spoilers."
He directed his friends gazes towards the blond archer.
Said blond archer—far out of earshot—turned back to the kids, frowning. Something was…off about them. But not in a bad way, not in a bad way at all. Sometimes Protectors didn't even know that they were protectors, they thought they were victims, until they realized that they could be so much more.
She shook the thoughts from her head and she entered her mom's apartment.
Their residence wasn't exactly the nicest place in Gotham. The paint was chipping, most of the furniture was old, and there was a serious roach problem. But at least it had running water and electricity, unlike a lot of the Gotham residences.
" Mom, I'm home." Artemis yelled while walking through the door. Once she had entered the apartment she turned and locked each of their 5 padlocks…you could never be too careful.
" Artemis," her mom scolded, " There's no need to yell." Paula crock frowned as she rolled into the kitchen.
Paula Nguyen was Artemis's mom. She was of Vietnamese descent, and hence had beautiful dark eyes, and raven dark hair. She had been beautiful once, she still is but when her legs were taken from her so was part of her soul.
Paula Nguyen, while incredibly strong, was confined to the bounds of a wheelchair. All Artemis knew about it was that she was in an accident, but her mom had never told her how it had happened.
Artemis smiled at her mom as she put the milk in their fridge.
" So how was your day? Did you ha—" Artemis stopped her sentence at the sight of her mother's tight smile.
" Mom, what is it?"
Paula wheels out of the kitchen, and beckoned Artemis to follow.
In the living room two men sat waiting on the couch.
At the sight of them Artemis stopped cold.
She had never seen these men in person, but she knew exactly who they were. Anyone on this planet knew who they were…Batman and the Green Arrow.
One of the men was dressed in all black, complete with a mask and a cape. The only thing resembling color was the bat shaped emblem in the middle of his chest. He was sitting on the couch, twirling a bat shaped weapon in his finger tips. He seemed to be lost in thought.
On the other hand, the second man seemingly had too much color. His entire outfit was bright green, of course with a mask, but luckily this one didn't have a cape. But he did have a bow, and a quiver full of arrows. Arrows that Artemis was dying to shoot.
"Why are you guys here?" Artemis asked bluntly.
" Artemis—" Her mom warned. But the man in green laughed it off.
" It's all right, we should get right to the chase anyways."
He nudged Batman, who scowled back, but then turned to Artemis.
" As you most likely know the organization called the Justice League works to protect people from—"
" Monster attacks and gangs, yada yada. But what do you want with me?" Artemis asked slightly annoyed.
Her mother glared at her, but Artemis brushed it off.
Batman looked at her, almost as if he was sizing her up.
" We want to recruit you. Not for the Justice League, but for a team."
" What kind of team?"
" A reconnaissance based team, but I cannot tell you more unless you chose to accept your place."
Artemis glanced at her mom, who looked almost hopeful.
" What makes you think I'm right for this team anyways?" Artemis asked skeptically.
Green Arrow looked at Batman a smirk on his face.
" Because you saved their lives." Green Arrow stated bluntly, looking at the head of one of his arrows.
Artemis would like to say she had no idea what they were talking about, but that would be a lie.
Last week, while Artemis was walking the streets she happened to hear screams coming from an old factory building. She remembers it vividly…
Artemis had been walking home for her pathetic excuse of a school when she had heard noises. She instinctively pulled out her bow, and jerked towards the direction of the noise.
It had been coming from an old warehouse. Artemis carefully climbed onto the roof to get a better look through one of the old windows.
She looked inside and saw five teenagers fighting a robot. But they weren't just teenagers, they were protectors.
One girl with bright green skin was flying and telekinetically throwing stuff at it, one guy was able to lift something hat looked to weigh a ton, one guy was controlling water, one boy was doing flips and throwing bombs at the robot, and one guy was running so fast she could barely catch up with him.
She looked though the building in awe, watching them fight the robot. They seemed to be ( kind of ) holding their own, but then the really fast guy got held up by the throat.
She looked frantically at the other members of the team, but it was painfully obvious they couldn't help him.
Artemis had bit her lip for a fraction of a second. She shouldn't help them, she knew that. The most important person was her mom, and using an arrow on these protectors would just put her in danger.
But then the robot clenched down on the speedsters' throat and she let an arrow fly.
It would've hit him right in the chest, but he somehow let it go through him. Luckily, the fact that he had to dodge the arrow, forced him to drop the speedster.
He looked up confusedly, but she ducked out of the way. She wasn't like these people. She wasn't a protector.
Still, she watched until the end. She watched as they finally took down the robot, and she allowed a smile to creep onto her face as they achieved victory.
But how did the man clad in black in front of her know that.
" How did you—?" Artemis asked, but Green Arrow waved her off.
" He's Batman."
Artemis nodded. She'd heard stories, everyone had.
" Yeah, so I guess I helped a bit. But that doesn't put me on par with what they can do."
Green Arrow laughed and held out the prettiest bows Artemis had ever seen. It was a beautiful compound bow, but it looked like it had all sorts of settings and arrows that Artemis was dying to try.
" That's not true, but even if it was the team is in need of an archer. So what do you say? You take this bow, and you leave the life you know behind. But you'll be helping a lot of people."
Artemis looked up at him, distress evident on her features. She wasn't a protector, she only cared about her and her mom, and those kids she helped last week, and that lady who she saved, and those kids from a few minutes ago. Okay, so maybe she was kind of a protector. But this is entirely different than taking down a couple of street gangs. This is joining an actual team. But she'd be helping a lot of people, and maybe it could make up for her jackass of a father.
If she took the bow than she would be leaving her mother all alone, she would have to check on her everyday. But she would also be helping thousands.
She'd be a protector.
She looked up at Green Arrow skepticism evident on her features, but it melted into a smile as she stuck her hand out.
She took the bow.