Robin gasped softly to himself as his eyes widened at the oncoming arrow released by his teammate. Quick reflexes took control and he ducked and rolled to the right, hitting his back against the wall.
Artemis readied another arrow, but her movements were slowed compared to when she was actually herself. Robin threw down a couple smoke bombs in front of her, effectively causing her aim to falter and the arrow to miss its' target. The Boy Wonder used this opportunity to unarm his teammate, flipping out of the smoke, over Artemis' head, and landing behind her. With a quick swoop of his leg, her knees bent from the hit and she was on the ground. Her bow slid away a slight distance.
To say Robin hated this situation was an understatement. He was so not whelmed to have to restrain his friend. But he was even more furious at the fact that someone else was making her do this.
Robin approached Artemis while pulling out some wire from his utility belt. However, before he was able to kneel down, Artemis' sluggish actions took a quick turn as she quickly sped around and kicked Robin in the side of the face.
Unconsciously, Robin cried out and tripped backwards before catching his steps and back flipping into his stance.
Stupid mistake, I left my guard down. He criticized himself. Artemis got up and ran straight for her bow, leaving Robin with only one choice.
"Oh, come on Artemis, don't make me have to do this." He said to himself before reaching into his belt and pulling out his taser. He turned the setting down; she wasn't Superboy, and just like then, she wasn't in control of her actions.
As soon as she picked up her bow and cocked another arrow, he fired. The aim was flawless and the wires attached sent shocks out from the handheld device and into Artemis' chest.
She screamed, loudly, and Robin hated it. Artemis dropped her bow, her body going limp, and fell forwards onto the floor. Robin ran over to her side and flipped her onto her back. He took out the twangs and threw the device to the side. He picked up her bow and then curled his arms under her armpits and began to drag her unconscious form away.
"Why leave so soon?" a voice spoke from down the hall where Artemis came from. "I was enjoying the fight." The pale man, the apparent vampire, calmly walked up to Robin and Artemis.
Robin quickly, and gently, laid her back down and moved in front of her to block the man's view. Two birdarangs were clutched in his hands.
"What did you do to her?" he questioned with venom.
"Oh, so you're clever too. I like that." Was all the man replied. Robin narrowed his eyes, his mask showing it clearly.
"Why were you looking into our files? What do you want with us?" he continued to probe the guy for info.
"No, no, no. No questions now, but I'll gladly answer them when we get back." He stated rather nonchalantly.
"Sorry to disappoint, but maybe I'll appoint you once I kick your butt."
The man chuckled, "Cute."
Without warning, Robin threw down a flash bomb from seemingly out of nowhere. The light caused his opponent to shield his face and step back a bit. Once the second long exposure was cleared, Robin threw himself forward and kicked the older male in the gut, effectively knocking him backwards.
As soon as he landed and took another stance, the man had already gotten up and charged him. Robin didn't anticipate his possible speed so he wasn't fast enough to block the punch to his face, then the kick to his stomach. He did manage to block another punch to his head, but, unfortunately, not the lower swipe to his legs. Robin fell to the ground hard and was soon pinned down via a foot by the pale man.
Ugh, I'm seriously failing today…
"Come on, Boy Wonder. I know you have more of a fight in ya than this." The guy stated as he smiled down at his trapped bird.
"Ugh, your right. I'm only going... easy on ya." Robin choked a bit, the weight on his chest steadily getting heavier. This guy had some serious coordination.
Suddenly, a growl echoed across the hall as an unknown force plowed into the man and launched him forwards. With the weight finally off of him, Robin got up and turned around to see with wide eyes if his guess was correct. It was.
Superboy slammed the man into the wall at the end of the hall, pounding his fist into his face a couple times before it got grabbed and his body pushed backwards. The clone slid to a stop in front of Robin; both knees bent, one hand on the ground, and the other bawled into a fist.
"Where's Miss Martian!" He hollered, his anger only fueling his strength.
"Out of commission." The man replied with a deep frown, dusting himself off. "I don't like Martians, almost as much as I don't like you."
Superboy yelled and charged him again, but this time, the man was ready. He used his momentum to throw Superboy past him and into the wall he himself just got pounded into not too long.
Without hesitation, Superboy launched himself at the guy once more, the two sharing punches, kicks, jabs, and throws.
While Superboy was charged up with rage, and while the bad guy was fairly busy trying to defend himself, Robin took the opportunity to get Artemis out of there. He picked her back up, same way as before, and began to drag her off. Destination: somewhere other than here.
Down the hall, a couple lefts, one right and he reached an automatic door he had a good feeling about. Upon opening it and entering, he found himself in the loading bay, Cadmus' personal garage where supplies would get shipped in and out through a tunnel leading up to the surface.
He placed Artemis over behind some crates, sitting her bow down near her, but still a bit of a distance just in case. With his back against the concrete wall, he slid down onto his butt and activated his holographic computer on his left glove, while simultaneously turning on his com link.
"Aqualad, are you there?"
"Yes, unfortunately, we're very busy right now." The voice came through on the other end.
Aqualad was fighting alongside Zatanna, their enemies looking like The League of Shadow agents. Fully cloaked in black, face covered and all. There was only thirty of them, ten now since the battle started a while back. But five more arrived at the scene, ready to aid their comrades.
"More men have entered the building, and I don't know how many are still outside." He stated as he punched a guy in the face, one hand up at his ear.
"Have you found Superboy?" his voice rang through the com link.
"Yes, and no, more like he found me." Robin replied. "And Artemis." He added.
"You found Artemis?"
"Sort of. She wasn't acting like herself." Robin notified. "I… I had to take her down. She's unconscious."
Aqualad's eyes grew, "The vampire?" Silence came from the other end. Aqualad knew the question was a rhetorical one. And he could practically visualize the younger nodding his head.
"Right, we'll meet up where you and Superboy are."
"We're still down on sublevel three, in the loading bay. Has Kid Flash contacted you yet?"
"No, he hasn't." Aqualad kicked a villain away. A chant was heard somewhere near him, and the group of villains surrounding Aqualad got thrown together and tied up by a magical force. Zatanna hovered over to them and narrowed her eyes before turning her attention to the others.
"Right I'll contact him," Robin's voice could be heard through the com link. "I think I might know where to find Miss Martian.
Kid Flash slid to a slower speed and turned, dashing down the hallway as soon as he rounded the corner. He had searched high and low on the first and second floor for both Miss Martian and Artemis, but with no luck. Now he was on his way to the next flight of stairs to check the third floor.
As his luck would have it, as soon as he slowed to make another turn, a group of black cloaked wannabies stepped out in his way and Kid took a couple of them down to the ground alongside himself.
He grunted as he hit the floor, hearing the men he ran into doing the same. Not all were crashed into, however, because as Kid Flash regained his composure and looked up, those men were pointing guns straight at his head.
"Do you want me to freeze, or put my hands up?" he kid with them, showing a nervous smile. They glanced at each other, then at Kid Flash before charging up their weapons.
"I'll take that as neither." He said speedily, running off into a blur of black as bullets tried to follow. A right, then a left; so far the coast was clear again.
"The one thing I just had to run into today was the bad guys!" he complained. If Artemis was there to see it, she would have easily taken the liberty to do so herself. I pained him to think about what could have happened to her—and Miss Martian! Her too, in fact, he worried more about Miss Martian, less of Artemis! Yea.
Quit lying to yourself…
Wally brushed the thought away in order to get back on track and focus on his goal. Just then, his com link beeped. He tapped the earpiece and answered the call.
"Yeah?"
"KF, quickly I need you to listen to me. I'm guessing you're the one running around on level two?" Robin's voice spoke through the com.
"Yeah, I was just about to go up to level three." Kid Flash replied.
"Don't, skip up to level four."
"What? Why?"
"Just do it. I think that's where they're holding Miss M."
"How did you—"
"I hacked the motion sensors."
"Right, I shouldn't really be surprised about that." Wally dead panned.
"There's a small storage room up on the fourth level, four people are up there, none of which are making any major movement. That just might be where Miss Martian is and her captors." Robin explained.
"Right, I'm on my way." KF started up the stairs, skipping the third level door entirely.
"When you find her, take her back to Bio ship. Afterwards, I need you down here on sublevel three in the loading bay and take Artemis back as well. She's unconscious and—"
Wally skid to a halt. "WHAT? Dude! How did you find her? What happened?" The fear in his voice was evident, and it was no hard task for Robin to pick up on it.
"Don't worry, she's fine. Get Miss M and Artemis to safety." Robin commanded awhile attempting to comfort his best friend.
Kid sighed, "Okay, lead me through."
"After you go through the doors, make a left." Kid Flash burst through the door, looking both directions before dashing off to the left.
"Pass two forks before making a right. Immediately afterwards, turn left again." KF did just that.
"At the end of the hall, second to last door on the right, that's where she's at."
"Okay, got it. Four people?"
"If you include Miss M, yea." Kid stood in front of the windowless door. There was no telling what was behind it, Robin wasn't even entirely sure, but he trusted his best friend and took the chance.
The doors burst open and KF rolled in. The three men guarding were taken by surprise and Wally easily knocked out the nearest one with a swift kick to the head. The other two quickly dove for their weapons, but Kid Flash was faster. He grabbed their guns before they even had a chance, and threw them out the doorway. With a couple quick jabs, the second guy was out. Now onto the third—
Kid had to duck before his head got lobbed off from his assailant's foot. He used his momentum to trip the man by running his whole body into his legs. Not something he planned, but it still worked effectively. He ran up to him as soon as he stood up and landed a crushing blow to his face. The guy grunted and fell down; not a movement made to get back up.
In the corner lay M'gann, her upper half leaning against the wall with one of her hands laying on her stomach. KF rushed over to her and knelt down, shaking her a bit and calling her name to see if she'd wake up. She didn't.
He picked her up bridal style and walked out of the room.
"Don't worry, beautiful," He said, "the Wall-Man is here." And with that, he ran down the corridor, down the stairs, and out the back door towards the Bio ship.
Robin dropped his hand from his ear as soon as the com link went silent. He watched on his hologram computer, seeing how the three dots started moving, an additional fifth moving faster. One stopped—Wally took one out. Soon another, two down. The third held out longer, though, but Robin watched as it two ceased to move. The one red dot, more than likely Wally, quickly collided with the other still one off in the corner of the room and then both were gone. Down the hall, down the stairs and out the door.
He exhaled, knowing soon that his friend would be back to get Artemis. There was not telling how long Superboy was going to be able to fight this… vampire. For one, no one knew anything about him, including his abilities. Robin was specifically taught to fight cautiously when dealing with knew foes. Especially those who were bigger and stronger than you. Unfortunately for him, that was the case almost all the time.
Robin ran through a list of advantages he had over this vampire. For one, he noticed how his flash bomb affected the guy, but not enough to do anything more than distract him. So he was affected by light.
Second, he obviously loved drinking blood. Robin wondered if he would get weak after a while if he didn't feed.
Thirdly, his strength. He seems to do fine when going up against Superboy. Doesn't appear to be affected when slammed into a wall creating a body-sized crater. He was big and seemed to know some form of martial arts.
Robin was shaken from his thoughts as the wall he was leaning on began to rattle. Another quake shook the large room, and the young acrobat stood up.
Suddenly, the bay doors next to Robin burst open, Superboy flying through and crashing alongside the two doors. Robin shielded his face from the flying concrete before gazing over at the gaping hole.
"They put way too much Kryptonian in you boy!" shouted the pale man as he stepped through the hole and into the loading bay. In his hands were what looked like modified fisticuffs—with claws. He cracked his neck on both sides and stretched out his shoulders before turning towards Robin. A huge smile was plastered on his face.
"Now," he began, "where were we?"