Yes, yes I know its been a loooong time since I last updated, but I had a major case of writers block :X But this chapter is little longer than usual, so that makes up for it a little, right? Anyways, I hope you enjoy the story! Thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and alerts! They really motivate me to keep going! So pleeeeasee give me more :D
BTW, sorry for any spelling or grammar mistakes! :)
"I swear, I never want to see another vent for as long as I live!" yelled an irritated Artemis as she and Robin crawled through the narrow metal shaft. They eventually found the opening several minutes ago after a lot of running, and were still huffing from slight fatigue.
"Well, you better get used to it. Cause we'll be travelling through them a lot more often due to our 'job'. We're not called a covert team for nothing." Robin replied, his voice echoing around them. "Besides, it's not bad having to be soooo close every once in awhile". He smiled mischievously.
Artemis huffed as she followed behind him, "God, I seriously hope Wally isn't starting to rub off on you."
The boy wonder let out a small laugh before returning to focus on navigating them to.. where exactly? For once, Robin didn't know, and it frustrated him. There hadn't been any sort of wired devices around, not so much as a light switch, which meant he had nothing he could hook up to. Nothing he could use to find out where they were, so no maps, no blueprints. Robin was travelling solely on instinct, which proved to be right most of the time, as it did now, cause not long after they found a grate leading to a dark room below.
They peered down and discovered a somewhat large storage area; its walls lined with probably over hundreds of barrels and a few other 'clown' themed items, such as 7 foot tall playing cards, human sized puppets, and tons of weapons like the smiley-faced maces from before along with guns, ropes, knives, hammers and plenty of other deadly devices the Joker uses for his sinister plans.
"Found it." Robin whispered to Artemis nodding towards the large metal barrels.
"Yeah, but where is this place?" She asked as they removed the cover and descended to the floor below.
"I'm guessing one of Joker's previous warehouse or something. I heard the academy was built over an underground storage centre a few years back, but it eventually got shut down once police realized it was a gathering place for Gotham's baddies. When we're done, I better let bats know that this place is still running. But first, we better get those tubes cut."
"Humph, Too easy." Smiled Artemis as she notched back an arrow and shot it at one of the exposed tubes. It made a clean cut; the lower half of the cylinder slumped down over the barrel, its top half hung limp from the ceiling. Almost immediately the room began to shake.
"Or not." Robin answered, his eyes darting around the room. It looks like the Joker just received the last of the ransom money and had just activated the switch, releasing his poisonous gas upon the unsuspecting school community. Robin and Artemis's eye's widened as they watched the gas being sucked up from the canisters into the shaft up above, most likely making its way to the gym.
As fast as they could, both heroes began cutting the tubes with amazing precision and accuracy. In seconds, parts of tubes were scattered around the floor, birdarangs and arrows stuck out from different parts of the wall. But now they had another problem. The gas was still being expelled out of the barrels and instead of going through the tubes; it now began to fill the room. Robin immediately got out his gas mask as well as the spare Batman made him bring along, silently thanking him for being so paranoid. He handed it to Artemis just in the nick of time, as the yellow colored substance surrounded the area.
"Let's get outta here!" yelled Artemis, as both protégés jumped back out of the vent opening. Robin left a few of his time bombs on the barrels before he left, which exploded when the duo were somewhere deeper inside the system. Hopefully the gas had now dissipated from the bomb's impact. Robin's arms started to hurt as they reached a space in the vents tall enough from them both to stand in. He readjusted his bandages as Artemis called the team.
"M'gann, are you there? Can you hear me?" Artemis voiced into her communicator.
"Yes, Artemis I read you." The young martian answered. "Are you guys alright?"
"Robin's a little hurt, but otherwise we're doing fine. Tell the league that we managed to disable Joker's bombs as well as his toxic gas, so it's probably safe to rescue the hostages now. You better hurry, we don't know what happened to the Joker."
"Okay! I'll let them know right away!" M'gann answered back before the line went silent.
"Phew, what a day.." Artemis sighed as she sat down next to Robin, who was just about finished rewrapping his injury.
"Guess we should start heading back up to meet the rest. They may need some help with the hostages."
Artemis nodded and got to her feet when a sudden realization hit her, her face turning instantly into one of worry. Robin noticed her distress and stood up in alarm.
"What's wrong?" he asked in confusion.
The archer replied, her voice shaking a bit. "Oh crap.. I… I forgot about Dick!"
…..
As soon as M'gann got the call, she alerted the team and league members that were present, everyone rushing trough the school doors as soon as the words left her lips. Kid Flash and his uncle zoomed ahead to the gym; its doors covered with some kind of gooey substance the Joker must have left behind. Kid Flash waited for the rest to arrive, while Flash vibrated through the walls to the other side.
He was greeted by hundreds of surprised students and staff, some of whom looked liked they had cried for hours. Their faces turned into ones of relief and happiness as he smiled at them.
"Don't worry everyone, we've got everything under control. Please stay calm and wait a moment, we'll get you all outta here soon." Flash addressed the gym's occupants calmly. The students sighed and cried from joy, the adults did pretty much the same.
Batman threw a bat bomb at the 'green sticky stuff' as dubbed by Wally, the goo hardened till it was solid, breaking into several bits and slid of the doors. The minute the doors opened, the crowd stampeded out of the room nearly squishing their rescuers on the other side. In a matter of seconds, the gym was cleared, not a single soul left apart from the heroes and heroes in training.
Megan mentally scanned the nearby area for her missing teammates and found them just a few feet under them. She telepathically informed them to stay where they were and politely asked Superboy to punch a hole at an area on the floor. He nodded and did as he was asked, punching hard on the floor, creating a small crater which travelled deep through floorboards and earth.
After looking a little ways down, the team found Robin and Artemis smiling, looking up at them. Megan jumped in relief and waved happily before levitating them up to common ground, immediately hugging the two as soon as their feet touched the floor. After recovering from the sudden show of emotion, Robin gazed at his mentor who seemed proud at his young protégé, for being able to handle the situation and a mission well done.
"Did you manage to find Joker?" the young hero ask, his gaze still on his partner.
"Not yet, unfortunately. But they weren't any reports of him leaving from any of the entrances, so I seems that he's still somewhere in the vicinity." The dark knight replied with his usual, steely voice.
"Well, what about the hostages then?"
"They're alright" Flash answered cheerfully. "Every single one safe and sound."
"But what about Dick? He wasn't with the other captives." Asked a still concerned Artemis. "The Joker took him and another two kids to somewhere else in the school." She was still worried for Dick, and felt kinda bad that she forgotten about him till now.
"Oh, right, I didn't get a chance to say this before, but I found 3 kids earlier in some classroom. I freed them and had them escape through the vents. They should have come out near the back entrance of the school."
Artemis began to sigh in relief, but was cut off by Kaldur's reply.
"But Robin, we've been keeping guard around the entire school since morning, and no one has reported the appearance of any children."
Poor Artemis, if only you knew that Dick is actually standing beside you! :D What happened to the other two though? Oh noezz! You'll have to just wait and see in the next chapter!