Chapter: 3

Artemis has been seeing Wally for a few months now. He's been letting his geeky side show a lot lately, which for some weird reason, is kinda attractive for him. Her mind now wondering about other aspects of Wally. She would catch herself looking at his eyes more, how he keeps his hair kinda wild like he's constantly running against the wind. Who is she kidding, it makes him look hot. She's also caught him looking at her as well. He seems to always have some reason to touch her on the hand or shoulder to get her attention. Like he wants that physical connection and it's only with her. He still is very reserved with other people he meets when they go out.

Artemis is still lost in thought and only a few blocks away from her apartment when she runs into her father, Lawrence, as well as Cameron and his father, Mahkent. She stops dead in her tracks when her father calls out to her.

"Hey baby girl."

"Hey, dad….Bye, dad." Artemis tries to walk past but Cameron steps in front of her.

"You know you shouldn't treat your dad like that, Blondie."

"Shut it Cam; and didn't I tell you to stay away from me?"

"Now, now, Artemis. Don't be angry. I'm just here because I need you to do a little job for me." Lawrence cuts in.

Artemis turns back to him. "No dad. Like every time you ask, No. I'm going home." As she turns back to walk away, Lawrence speaks up.

"Who's your new boyfriend?" This stops her and she turns back to him. "The red head. You know Artemis, I never pictured you with a clean cut kinda guy. I take it that he doesn't know too much about the family, huh."

"Your gonna try to pressure me into working for you by using him. Wow dad, that's low even for you. What's next, you gonna threaten me with mom?" Artemis shakes her head and turns back around to walk out.

"Okay baby girl, how about this. I walk away and never bother you again." His words are enough to stop her again. "You and your mom." She turns to face him again. "This one job, and I'm out of Gotham for good."

She thinks it over for a moment before she gives her answer. "It depends on what you want me to do."

"Its simple. You and Cam play lookout while me and Mahkent break into Star Labs and get something that we need. That's all."

"That's all. No tricks, no games, right?"

"Right. What's it gonna be, baby girl?"

"Alright, I'm in. But the moment your done, your out of our lives for good."

"For good, Artemis."

...

Later that night, Artemis acts as a lookout on the east side of the building while Cameron does the same for the west side. Lawrence and Mahkent along with a small team go in and to steal some data and a case.

When thing go bad, Artemis moves in with a crossbow at the ready. During the fight between the security guards Artemis takes aim with a gas bolt, but before she could fire, both Cam and his father step forward and use their powers to freeze the halls as well as the guards. Artemis is shocked by their display of power and turns to her father.

"It pays to have powerful friends, huh baby girl."

Then she turns to Cam and starts to back away.

"Hey, Arty, lets go." Cam moves closer to her.

Artemis keeps her distance from Cam and his father. "Don't touch me, Cam. I can't believe you never told me this."

"Look, I'll explain later but right now, we gotta go." The sound of police sirens can now be heard in the distance.

"Then go and don't come near me again. Not ever." Artemis then turns and runs the opposite way from the group.

When she gets clear of the crime scene, she stops to catch her breath while removing her mask. She's trying to figure out what she can do to fix the mess she got herself into. She can't tell her mom, that would tear her apart if she knew she went out to do a job with her father.

Then she remembered, Wally. Wally was doing work for Nightwing, maybe he can contact him and he can stop her father and Mahkent. With that being the best plan she has, she heads back to Wally's place.

…

When she gets there she knocks furiously on the door then tries the knob which the door opens. She calls out for Wally as she makes her way to the back on the house. She sees Wally closing the door to the study and when he tries to speak up, she cuts him off.

"Wally, I need you to call your masked friend. I'm in trouble with my father and I could really use his help."

"Well I don't think Nightwing deals with family problems or domestic…." He is cut off by her once again.

"Shut it Wally. It's not like that. Look there are things you don't know about me. Things I wanted to keep from you but my dad just stole something from Star Labs and he's working with meta humans. This is a part of something big, I can feel it."

Wally takes a deep breath. "You have no idea how big Artemis." Wally walks back to the study and opens the door to reveal Batman and Nightwing.

"They know about the heist. Your father and Mahkent are planing to build a bomb and sell it to the highest bidder. What they stole tonight was the last piece they needed."

"A bomb? Then why are you two here and not out there stopping them?" Artemis respond.

"Because they want me to join them." Wally answers.

Artemis now angered turns to the dynamic duo and starts to defend Wally. "He can't go out there and fight meta humans. What's wrong with you two. You think a cape and a mask is all you need to be a hero. You send him out there and he'll be killed."

At her statement Nightwing cracks a laugh then catches himself.

"What's so funny bird boy."

"Wally is a meta human, didn't you know?"

"What?" She turns to Wally. "You're one as well. Is everyone just going to lie to me tonight. First Cameron, now you. Is there anyone in the world who can be fucking trusted!"

As Artemis starts to storm off wally grabs her hand and stops her.

"Artemis I can explain, so please, stay."

She pulls her arm away from his grip. "Why should I Wally. You're just going to lie to me again."

Batman cuts in. "We don't have time for this."

"Shut it Bats!" Wally snaps which also takes Artemis by surprise. "You of all people know how much I have lost. What makes you think I'm just going to stay quiet and lose Artemis. If you want my help then she needs to know."

Artemis is at a loss of words until Batman breaks the silence. "Fine we rendezvous in thirty minutes. Ill contact you in twenty with the location." Bats the walks past the two and out the door.

Nightwing follows with a smile. "Your new girlfriend is feisty. Maybe you should bring her along. I hear she's pretty good with a bow."

Now that the two of them are alone wally motions to her to come with him heading back to the study. He pulls a picture off the mantle of the fireplace and opens the back pulling out another picture then hands it to her.

"Twenty points if you can guess which one is me."

She takes the picture seeing a group photo of young heroes. scanning from left to right she sees Rocket, Aqualad, Superboy, Miss M, Zatanna, Robin, Aquagirl, then Kid Flash. She focused in on KF's red hair and geeky smile then looks right back to Wally who is just looking at her.

"Wasn't hard was it?"

"Kid Flash? Your Kid Flash? I knew there was something familiar about you. I use to watch YouTube vids of you back in the day, then some young little brat showed up claiming to be Kid Flash..." Artemis stops in her tracks. "Oh dear god. You wasn't lying to me about being a Reach survivor."

Wally nods. "Our last fight with the Reach didn't go so well. One of those egg shaped bombs they planted got me while we where disarming it. Instead of a big kaboom it imploded and I got caught. It took the league and a team of scientists a year to figure out that I wasn't dead, just trapped. When I was finally rescued everything was different."

"You could have started over, fresh start kinda thing."

"The world thought I was dead and no one ever thought twice on why the Flash took on a new sidekick. So I disappeared."

"What about being a different hero. Not Kid Flash but another speedster?"

"I did think about it. Even got a new suit and everything. But when I saw the look in my mothers eyes, I couldn't hurt her again."

"So now that Gotham is in danger, you're willing to do it again?"

"Not for that reason but yeah I guess so."

"Then what's the reason?"

"As I told Bats, I don't want to lose what I have regained and if it takes putting on the suit again to save someone I care about, then that's what I'll do."

"Who could be that important here? The Flash family is in Central City, right?"

Wally walks close to her. "During my three years at Stanford, I dated a girl named Lynda who I never told about my other life. Yet here I stand, in front of a girl that I've only known for three months telling her all my secrets."

Artemis lets his words sink in before quickly wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him fully on the lips. Wally quick to return her kiss then both step back ending it.

"Sorry. I'm not usually like that."

"It's okay beautiful. If I would have known telling you the truth would have given me that kind of result, I would have told you months ago."

"Well since I picked up the hit from Rob, whats your story?"

"Well, you know about my father and Mahkent." Wally nods. "Well my mother and sister were also in that line of work. Mom got hurt and spent some time in prison and my sister took off. Last thing I heard she was shacked up with some guy doing god knows what."

"What about you, Artemis?"

"Well daddy dearest wanted his little girl to follow in his footsteps so he started training me at ten. But when mom got out, we both took off, but dad always knew where to find us."

"Did you know about your ex-boyfriend or his father being meta's?"

"No, that I just learned tonight."

"Well, your dad is a lot more dangerous then you think. He goes by the name Sportsmaster and he's actually working for a group called the Shadows."

"The Shadows? Sounds like he would fit right in."

"Icicle and Icicle Jr, your ex and his father, are more of the mob mentality so chances are they are doing this as a side job."

Artemis nods. "And now that I know all this, what happens to me?"

"Well, I don't know. You can stay here and wait..."

Artemis cuts him off. "Oh hell no. I'm not staying here, if anything, I'm going, and don't give me that crap about getting in the way. That bastard of a father trained me to fight so that's what I'm going to do, got it."

"Okay, Okay, Chill. A simple no could have serviced." Wally shakes his head. "Rob said you were good with a bow, you got one?"

"Yeah its at home but if we only have 20 minute window to meet up with Batman, we won't make it."

Wally starts to giggle menacingly.

"What?" She questions.

…