A/N: Here's chapter three! I tried to get it in before the week ended, but that clearly didn't happen. But I was close!
Thank you all for your lovely reviews! I appreciate them so much.
Oh, and sorry about leaving chapter two on a cliffhanger. I just had to ;D And I have no idea how Sportsmaster and Artemis would act, so I'm just going to write how I think they would act based on the personalities they showed on YJ. Sorry if I screw it up :/
The Underrated
Chapter Three
MOUNT JUSTICE
September 9, 9:42 EDT
"Feeling better, Red Arrow?" Megan asked the male archer as he lay on the medical bed. When the boys finished undressing him and putting him into a hospital gown, the whole team helped with treating his wounds and figuring out how to use the technology in the medical wing of Mount Justice.
"No," Roy mumbled.
"Well, do you not feel like the world and life itself sucks?" Robin asked with a tiny smirk.
"I guess you could say that."
"Well that's good! And according to the monitor, you'll be able to get your hearing back in a few hours if we continue to treat it right. It must have been one loud explosion if it caused you to become temporarily deaf." Megan said, giving Red Arrow a sympathetic look.
"You have no idea." Roy said, rubbing his damaged ears.
"Roy, do you think you are capable of telling us what happened?" Kaldur asked the question everyone wanted to know.
Red Arrow grumbled something incoherent and rubbed his tired eyes. "Yeah, I'll tell you what happened," he finally said.
After explaining what occurred in Central City, the team torn between feeling glad that they had a new lead to find Wally but frustrated since not only do they not know where they can even start to look for their speedster, but they still don't know where Artemis is either.
"If Cheshire took Wally, then someone else must have taken Artemis." Robin stated.
"Someone took her?" Roy asked, sounding a bit startled.
"Yeah. I mean, that's what the evidence show. She and Wally did not show up for tonight's mission, and when I tried to locate them, they were said to be nonexistent on my wrist comm.," Robin explained.
"This has the Shadows written all over it; I'm sure of it." Roy said.
"I'm sure the Shadows have something to do with it, but I don't think they're the only ones behind it…" Robin said warily. "This just doesn't seem like their kind of stuff, ya know? I mean, kidnapping two members of our team for no apparent reason? That's kind of a waste of time. And it's not like they took Wally and Artemis as hostages. They know very well that doing something like that will tick off the Justice League. All this really looks like is some prank to confuse us."
"Speaking of the Justice League, Batman has made no contact?" Kaldur said, as if he finally remembered the strange absence of the team's mentors.
Robin stared down at his wrist comm. and saw that it was close to 10:00. "No call… weird…"
"Check again." Superboy insisted. He himself was growing more and more worried by the second.
"Yeah, nothing," Robin said quietly after checking once more.
"Why don't you try calling him?" Kaldur suggested.
"I doubt he would pick up. He said that he was really busy doing who-knows-what."
"But this is an emergency. He'll understand."
Robin sighed and began to dial. "Okay, but if I get in trouble, you all are going down with me."
The teenagers waited nervously as they listened onto the connection being made in order to reach Batman. To their horror, the hologram on Robin's wrist comm. lit up in bright red and showed a message that said, 'Your connection is nonexistent.'
"I am so not whelmed, you guys." Robin said in a shaky voice.
"Maybe something important is going on, but we're just missing the big picture. Stuff like this just can't be happening coincidentally, right?" Megan said, flying around the room in between the boys.
"Megan has a point. This seems to be too properly organized for it to be a series of accidents." Kaldur agreed.
"So let's analyze." Robin said. "Wally was kidnapped by Cheshire for a valuable reason. We also believe Artemis has been taken for a certain reason as well. And the Justice League is totally MIA. What does this conclude?"
The room was silent.
"Sounds like a big mind game to me." Superboy spoke up.
"A mind game," Robin repeated to himself.
"No offense, but why would anyone want to target you?" Roy asked.
"Yes, why would anybody want to target us?" Kaldur questioned.
"I don't know," was all the team could think of saying.
The teenagers felt their chests tightening, their stomachs flipping, and their hearts beating faster and faster. All of this was just too much to take in, and they had no idea how to respond to it. Should they go and attempt to search for Wally and Artemis? Should they go look for the Justice League members? Or should they stay here, safe and sound, away from all the trouble?
But there was one thing they knew for sure: whether they wanted to admit it or not, they were very afraid.
"I suggest we all should get some sleep. We need it." Kaldur ordered the team. "You should probably rest too," he said to Roy.
"Yeah, like I have anywhere to go." Roy huffed. As the team began to exit the room, though, the archer quickly added, "Thanks for helping me back there."
The team nodded their heads and gave Roy tiny smiles before heading toward the living room of the cave. Once they were out of earshot from Roy, Kaldur ordered Megan to open her telepathic connection, told Superboy to keep his ears wide open, and made sure that Robin and his wrist comm. never separated.
"Just in case," Kaldur remarked.
The teenagers understood their orders then they all filed into their separate rooms. For Kaldur and Robin, it was strange to spend the night here at Mount Justice. They've done it before, but it was still an unwelcoming feeling nonetheless. Robin preferred his thousand dollar mattress and Kaldur yearned for the ocean. But they didn't have a choice, just how Megan and Superboy didn't have a choice either.
They all dealt with it without complaint throughout the night and waited for the call they hoped for.
LOCATION UNKNOWN
September 10, 1:05 PDT
"Dad? What… what's going on?" Artemis sat up straight, pulling the warm covers up to her shoulders as she narrowed her eyes. "Why am I here? Did you bring me here? I thought you said I could actually stay…"
"Now, now, don't hurt yourself with all these questions. You have to know by now that I usually don't answer them." Sportsmaster scoffed, amused.
Artemis pushed herself off the bed and walked toward the other side of the room, as far away as she could get from him. She folded her arms in an irritated matter and simply glared. Artemis knew she shouldn't be as annoyed as she is right now. After all, it's not like her father kidnapped her in the middle of the night and put her through one of his dangerously strange "tests." But she definitely was not going to give him the satisfaction of her indifference.
"That's no way to treat your dad, Artemis," Sportsmaster said, feigning hurt.
"This is no way to treat your daughter, Dad," Artemis spat back wittily. Then her whole body visibly tensed when she realized something. "Mom will be so worried," she whispered to herself.
Sportsmaster seemed to have dropped his careless act once Artemis pointed that out. "I left her a note before I took you," he said in a curt voice.
Artemis frowned. Though she would never tell her father, she appreciated the fact that he even bothered to inform her mother about her sudden disappearance. Artemis of all people knew how frantic her mom got whenever she vanished in the middle of the night then show up days later unannounced.
Sportsmaster raised his eyebrows expectantly as he waited for what he knew would come next.
He then grabbed his daughter around the stomach as she tried to escape. He felt her kicking and elbowing and punching against him as she threatened and insulted him continuously.
"You're so unbelievable! You said I could actually stay with them! You promised! Now let me go!" Artemis demanded like a five-year-old.
"Calm down," Sportsmaster said as he struggled to keep his child contained in the room. "Don't make me hit you."
"So what? I'll just hit you back."
"With what? If you haven't realized, the only weapons you can properly use are back home in Gotham. If you think you can go one-on-one against me then think again." Sportsmaster said cynically.
Artemis froze as her father's words sank in. Her eyes immediately began to dart around the room, hoping that Sportsmaster was lying about her being powerless. Unfortunately, he was right: her bow and arrows were nowhere to be found.
"You're such a jerk, Dad!" Artemis hit him in the shoulder as hard as she could, causing him to curse and loosen his hold on her.
Artemis took this moment to slip out of Sportsmaster's grip and run toward the bolted door. Before she could even touch the handle, she felt something pierce through her waist and a strong jolt of electricity passed through her for a short moment. Artemis screamed in pain. She then felt her body weakening, which led her to drop limply onto the floor.
She saw her father hovering above her. He pulled some sort of tiny gun out of her waist and cleaned the blood off of it; then he bandaged the small scar on his daughter's waist. He carried her back onto the bed and laid her there comfortably.
"Why did you do that? Why would you deliberately shoot me?" Artemis hissed as she glowered at her father.
"You made me do it," was all Sportsmaster said.
Artemis quietly mumbled something that sounded like an "I hate you," before turning her back against Sportsmaster, not wanting to see his face.
"C'mon, don't be like that. If you didn't start running off then I wouldn't have done that." Sportsmaster said in an annoyed voice. "It's not like I gave you a jolt that could have killed you."
"Wow Dad, thanks. That makes me feel so much better." Artemis said with as much sarcasm she could muster.
"Hey, be thankful. That other kid has it a hundred times worse than you."
"What kid?" Artemis asked, turning her head slightly so she could get a good look of her dad.
Instead of answering her, Sportsmaster leaned against the wall as he gave his daughter a superior look. He looked determined to get her where she needed to be: in a hopless situation. "So what if I told you that if you tried to escape, the kid will practically be tortured to death." He said, giving Artemis the same instructions as 'the kid' received just last night.
"What kid? Who are you talking about? You have someone else locked up in here?" Artemis asked, facing forward toward her father.
"What did I say about asking too many questions? Jeez, you still don't listen to me." Sportsmaster laughed humorously.
"Just answer me, Dad!" Artemis demanded.
"Calm yourself." Sportsmaster warned. He looked more like an authoritative father than a mercenary for a split second.
Artemis instinctively kept silent but the worry, fear, and anger were still boiling within her.
"I want to go home." Artemis finally said after a long pause.
"To tell you the truth, I don't really want you here either." Sportsmaster admitted.
His daughter's eyes lit up, and she found enough strength to sit up straight against the headboard of the bed. "Really?" She said in a relieved voice. Sportsmaster almost felt guilty as Artemis gave him a glad look, but he pushed his emotions aside and forced himself to think about his job before anything else.
"Yeah, I guess. But you know I have to keep you here."
"Why, though? You've already assigned me my mission, which I'm still in the middle of, and I'm doing really well at it! Don't you need me back home instead of here?"
"Well my boss has a change of plans. If you're home then everything will be ruined." Sportsmaster said, somewhat irritably.
Artemis shakily stood up and looked at her father with a serious expression. "So tell me this: why am I here?"
Sportsmaster sighed and decided to answer. "You're here so they won't be able to figure anything out," he revealed.
Artemis's gave him a confused look. "What do you mean?"
"Sorry Artemis, that's all I'm gonna say," her father smirked.
"Ugh," Artemis scoffed. She folded her arms once again and returned back to glaring at Sportsmaster. "You do realize that you basically gave me no information whatsoever, right? After that pathetic excuse, you know I'll try to escape the moment you leave."
"Like I said before: try anything and the kid gets it." Sportsmaster challenged. "But go ahead. Try something. It's not like I care what happens to him… but you might care."
"Please, you're just playing games with me again. I know you don't have anyone here. If you did then you would have told me who it was by now." Artemis rolled her eyes.
"Funny how you say that."
Sportsmaster directed Artemis's attention to the large computer. He typed out a sequence onto the keyboard before showing a tape that was recordered earlier into the night. He then turned back to his daughter to see just what he wanted to see: horror, pain, repulsion, and sadness all mixed up into one.
Artemis watched as a haughty-looking lady tortured Wally cruelly, as if she had no conscience. It made her want to throw up and cry at the same time.
For a moment, Artemis completely forgot how annoying, conceited, and disgustingly flirtatious Wally West was. She forgot how, although they were not technically 'enemies,' they were not friends either. She forgot every little irritating thing about him.
"Oh, Wally…" she whispered.
When the speedster began to cry behind his blindfold, Artemis lost it.
"You let him go right now!" She yelled at Sportsmaster. "He doesn't deserve this! He didn't do anything! Let him go now!"
Sportsmaster raised his eyebrows, smirking a little. "We all had a feeling you'd react this way if we brought this certain kid instead of one of the others; I'm just glad I called it. I knew he was a perfect choice."
"What. Are you. Talking about." Artemis murmured darkly.
"You have a relationship with him, right?" Sportsmaster said in a teasing voice.
"Of course I have a relationship with him! He's on my team! I have no choice but to have a relationship with him!" Artemis yelled, attempting to avert her father's speculations.
"No, not that kind of relationship." Sportsmaster said. "He's kind of like your boyfriend, isn't he?"
"No. He's not." Artemis said tersely. She fisted her hands as she felt her stomach twisting and turning from the amused and knowing expression her father gave her.
"And for a second I thought daughters were supposed to bring their boyfriends home to meet the father." Sportsmaster laughed. "Imagine what would happen if you actually did do that, huh? The kid would have been dead by now. Then again, he's fast, so I might have had some trouble killing him."
Artemis gave Sportsmaster a disgusted look as he joked about the situation lightly. "He's not my boyfriend, so you have no reason to keep him here. Just let him go," she begged in a quieter tone.
"Fine, fine. I'll believe you when you say he's not your boyfriend." Sportsmaster said. "But don't try to tell me that you feel something for him."
"Ew." Artemis said, wrinkling her nose (that was usually the first thing she said whenever people, like Megan, talked about her and Wally).
"I certainly know that girls don't throw a scene like you just did for a just a teammate."
Artemis didn't know how to respond to that, nor did she even want to. She simply looked down as guilt flowed into her. It was her fault why Wally was here, and it was her fault why Wally had to go through all of that brutal pain. Deep down inside her, she knew she would save him if she could…
"So we have a compromise. You stay here like a good little girl would, and the kid will live."
Artemis continued to look anywhere but up at her father, but in a confident voice she asked once more, "Why am I here? Why is Wally here with me? And I want the real answer, Dad. Not your stupid metaphors or jokes."
"How about I answer one of those questions truthfully. That enough for you?"
"Better than nothing," Artemis muttered reluctantly.
"That boy is here with you so you won't be tempted to do something that would anger us. He's like your reality check."
Artemis's eyes widened as her father's words processed into her mind. "That is so cruel!" She scolded Sportsmaster.
"What can I say? The world is a cruel, cruel place."
Artemis finally looked straight into her father's eyes and gave him a cold, harsh stare.
Sportsmaster looked triumphant on the other hand and began to head towards the bolted door. "Sleep, Artemis. You might just need it."
When Sportsmaster closed the door behind him, Artemis suddenly heard a slight buzzing noise. She turned her head toward the direction of the noise and saw that it was coming toward the computer. To her surprise (and utmost joy) she realized that her father accidentally forgot to turn the computer off before he left.
Artemis immediately ran up to the computer and searched for some sort of camera. Luckily, this was a modern-style computer so there was indeed a camera at the top of the monitor. Artemis then placed her fingers on the keyboard and typed up a numerical sequence all members of the team were required to memorize. She then waited anxiously for the response.
When the computer made a ting, signaling that its connection was completed, Artemis saw a fuzzy image on the screen that was slowly growing clearer and clearer by the second.
It was a black-haired boy with eyes that were always masked.
"…Robin? Is that you?" She asked timidly.
"Artemis?" Robin said in shock and relief.
Before Artemis could even say anything else, the computer went black.
"No!" Artemis cried. She tried to turn the computer on again, but she was greeted with a simple message.
Nice try, kid.
But now you managed to get on ALL of our nerves this time, not just your father's.
Can't wait to see what's in store for Wally next time…
"No," Artemis whispered.
A/N: Anyone excited for new episodes?
I was going to have Artemis contact the whole team at first, but then I read that one of the new YJ episodes will be based on Robin and Artemis having to save the team, so I had to add an Artemis/Robin scene in there. I don't know why, but I've always loved them. Not ship-love. Just their cute human, snarky friendship. Plus, if you haven't noticed, I have this thing for Wally/Artemis x]