Hi readers! I'm so sorry it took so long to update. I had to hack back into my computer (I'm grounded again, what's new) Hope you like the story so far, and if you don't I promise its gonna get better. And I'm sorry about my promise of new characters and action in this chapter, there just wasn't enough room. There will be a slight bit of action but the kick-ass moments will have to be postponed until future chapters, I promise Artemis will release her wrath sooner of later. And if you have any ideas, please share them with me. I need all the help I can get. But I digress…
Also I'm too awesome to own DC comics, the only character I own is Abby. Now on with the show…. I mean story.
Spitting Image Chapter 4.
Zatanna stared at the sobbing archer in horror.
"Artemis, what happened? Where's Abby?"
Artemis just started wailing even louder when the magician mentioned her daughter's name.
Artemis felt helpless, she felt weak, like someone stabbed a knife in her already scarred heart. She wanted to sit there and cry until she couldn't, but there wasn't time for that. She had to go find her. The archer would do anything to get Abby safely home. Artemis quickly gathered herself and looked at her friend; her only ally.
"Abby's gone." She choked.
"Artemis, are you sure?" the magician began, but was silenced by the blonde's icy look. The archer continued her tale of the previous events.
…
"Why do you think the shadows have her?"
"Zee, when I got back from looking for Abby, J-Jade was here." The archer explained.
Zatanna was filled with dread as she heard this information. Abby was practically her niece (Technically she is). She knew the little speedster could take care of herself (she is Artemis's kid after all), but the shadows, they were too much, too dangerous.
"Oh Arty, I'm so sorry." Zatanna whispered as she tightly embraced the grief stricken blonde. Tears flowed from her own eyes as well.
Eventually Artemis's knees were strong enough to let her stand. She erased all emotion from her expression. There was a glint of determination in her eyes. She put all of her emotions aside, she couldn't fall apart, especially now.
….
"We have to go find her."
"Do you think we should call the league?"
"No, not yet. This is my problem, not theirs. I'm not just going to call the league so they can fight my fights." Artemis dreaded the fact that if the league helped, Wally would find out. Her life was already in pieces, if he found out now she would shatter even more. "I still think we need help though." The archer admitted.
"Arty, who?"
"I think /sigh/, I think we need to ask…Batman for help." Artemis hated to admit that she needed help, especially from the Dark Knight. But she knew that he of all people could find Abby.
"Oh-Okay, I'll try to contact him without the league knowing." Zatanna was shocked that Artemis wanted to get help from Batman. But she knew the archer had her reasons. She turned to see Artemis walk out of the room. "Where are you going?"
Without looking back the archer retorted, "I'm going to get ready to find her."
Artemis walked into her room and opened the hidden compartment in her closet. The hidden storage revealed a stockpile of many different weapons. The archer spread her mini armory across her bed. She quickly examined each weapon, making sure that each one worked properly. Artemis was glad that she kept enough trick arrows to last her awhile; she couldn't just go find GA and ask for more. The blonde let out a small snarl when she remembered her ex-partner/mentor/fake uncle. She took most of the weapons and started arming herself with knives, a crossbow, arrows, throwing stars, poison darts, a tazer, smoke bombs, more knives, and of course; her bow and quiver packed with arrows. When Artemis walked out of her room she was armed to the teeth (literally).
….
"Find him yet?" The archer spoke as she glided into the room. Zatanna jumped and quickly turned around to glare at Artemis. She really hated when her friends did the ninja thing (especially when Dick did it).
"Sorry I'm trying to contact him without calling in the whole league. His comm. is off, so he is probably doing undercover work."
Artemis stood there thinking," If batman is on patrol, it'll be easy enough to get hid attention with a small explosion or car chase. Only minor property damage…"
"No." I know what you're thinking and it's not going to work.
"What was I thinking then." The archer retaliated.
"You were thinking about committing some sort of crime to get the Bat's attention. Arty, trust me it's not going to work. We need his help, and getting arrested will make him go after us."
The blonde archer stood there with her arms crossed, "Damn." She knew if Batman was offline(or so to speak) there was little to no chance of contacting him.
"Zee. Have you tried asking Dick?"
The magician turned around and glared at her friend. She did not want to deal with the boy wonder right now. Zatanna let out a sigh
"No, not yet. I guess I should though. I'll call him after I try Batman again."
Finally the dark knight answered his comm. relief washed over the women's faces.
"Batman, what is it?" Came the gruff voice out of the tiny speaker
"Zatanna to Batman, requesting assistance."
"This better be important for you to radio me instead of the league." He replied in the same deep monotone voice.
"It's life of death, hurry!" the magician shouted. She felt slightly scared about yelling at the dark knight.
"Okay, rendezvous at your location. Batman out."
Artemis sat nervously on the couch; she was wringing her hands with anxiety. The two sat there waiting for the dark night to arrive.
Abby woke up in the lumpy motel bed at about 9:30 the next morning. She got up and stretched. The redhead had a slight uneasy feeling, something didn't seem right. She just put it to the side, dismissing it as homesickness. After a huge breakfast the speedster gathered her things and set out towards her "vacation" destination; Mt. Rushmore.
After the teen arrived to the monument she saw the never-ending line, she hated lines. Abby couldn't sit still for more than five minutes without going bonkers, she was not going to wait in line for over an hour. Instead she zipped past the entrance, leaving some crumpled bills on the casher desk to cover the fee.
"Wow." Was all she could say when she first saw Mt. Rushmore. It was stunning. Abby decided to take the nature trail and explore the area. With a deep inhale of the sweet mountain air, the redhead set off to explore the terrain.
….
After the teen finished her refreshing hike she headed back to the viewing deck to enjoy a snack. She sat there on the bench munching on a granola bar. The afternoon sun warmed her cheeks as her mind wandered. She looked at all of the happy families spending time together. "I wonder if she is even looking for me?" she thought. The teen was starting to miss her mom. She was suddenly brought back into reality as a tourist tapped her lightly.
"Excuse me Miss. Can you take a picture of me and my family, please?"
"Sure." Replied the redhead as she received a small camera from the man's hands.
She took aim at the happy family; the husband and the wife were in each other's arms with their kids on their shoulders. With the monument in the background the picture was perfect.
"Say cheese!"
After she gave the camera back to the thankful tourist family, the slightly saddened teen returned to the bench in the sun. "So that's what a family is like." She couldn't shake the enveloping sadness. Abby couldn't stop thinking about her mother. She felt like a piece of her heart was missing. A tear slid out from under her dark sunglasses as she watched a man hug his daughter. It was something Abby had always longed for; a warm embrace from her father. It was something she never had.
The teen quickly wiped her eyes and changed her attitude, forgetting her sorrow. "C'mon Abby, this is supposed to be your vacation. Don't ruin it by crying" she told herself.
She stood up and headed over to another bench in the shade, the redhead didn't want to get sunburned too. Abby froze when she saw a swift movement in the shadows. It was too quick for any normal human to notice, but it was unmistakable to her speedster eyes. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled and the uneasy feeling from before returned. Abby slowly sat down on the adjacent bench. She felt like she was being watched, unseen eyes bore into the nervous girl. Eventually Abby couldn't sit still on the bench anymore and she headed over to the bathrooms on the trail. The speedster was stopped in her tracks when three figures flew out of the trees and landed on the ground. Her stomach was doing high-speed flip-flops as one of the figures stepped out of the glare. Abby frantically looked around; hoping that there was someone else around to help her. The teen was out of luck, she was on her own. All she could think was "I wanna go home."
"Ooh, look what we've got here." Cooed the figure in front of her. She had a colorful cat mask and wild black hair.
"Wh-what d-do you w-want." Stuttered the scared speedster; her face was so pale her freckles stood out more than usual.
The Cat lady ignored the question; instead she took out a knife and started playing with it. Abby had to use all the self-control she could muster to keep herself from vibrating.
"You look too young to be on you own kid, I'm sure your mommy's very worried." The assassin mocked in a fake concerned tone.
Abby started to get angry, she didn't know why but there was something about that lady that irked her.
"I'm old enough." The teen spat coldly. Cheshire pranced towards the girl.
"You remind me of your mother."
Abby froze with the mentioning of her mother, "How does she know my mom?" A small cackle came out from under the assassin's mask. The teen had more questions to ask her mother. She let the green knife in her sleeve slid down into her hand.
Cheshire studied the dazed redhead for a moment before taking advantage of the situation and signaling to her henchmen.
"Lets bag and tag boys."
With hearing the command, Abby swung around to see two large men lunging at her. The speedster made a split second decision and slid the knife back into her pocket. Like her mother she preferred to fight with her fists. With surprising power (and speed) the teen quickly took down the men using the training she received from her mother and karate lessons. (She was a black belt after all) Abby pivoted on her heels and spun around to face the cat lady.
"Well you're better than I thought. I guess Blondie managed to teach you some moves after all."
Abby clenched her hands into fists and was ready to pounce; she was scared, angry and confused.
Cheshire smirked under her mask; it was almost like looking at a ginger version of her sister as she studied her niece. The assassin deliberated for a moment and tossed her knives on the ground.
"I like a challenge." She snarled
Abby positioned herself in a defensive position and prepared for the lady to come at her. She dodged the assassin's first few swipes before she started hitting back. The teen let out a small cry as Cheshire's fist collided with her jaw. In a blur of red, Abby spun around and knocked the mask off of her assailant. She gasped as she looked into the lady's furious steel gray eyes. The teen was taken aback, those eyes looked almost identical to her mother's.
"You're gonna regret that kid." The angry woman hissed. But before she had a chance to grab the girl she was gone.
Tears stung Abby's eyes as she ran. She was so confused, completely lost. All she heard was Vietnamese swears echo in the wind. The speedster didn't care where she was going; she just had to get away. Sobs threatened to erupt from her chest when the realization hit her; she completely and utterly alone.
Jade started cussing at the girl as she got away. She knew her sister was already probably after her, but if she didn't capture the girl she was going to have another problem on her hands. Daddy problems.
Well I hope you liked chapter four, I know it's a cliffy but you're just gonna have to live with it. I'd like to give a big thanks/shout out to DSx4ever for mentioning my story in her story. Updates might get slower b/c I am grounded again and I had to hack into my computer to be able to post this (that's how committed I am) Future apologies to any incontinence this will cause any of you. I might be more motivated to complete chapter five (new characters!) if I get more reviews (10-15 tops but many more are welcome) Reviews help me make the story better and I love to hear opinions (hint hint, wink wink). Well I guess I have to finish this before the warden, um I mean my mom gets home. Remember Wally and Artemis Forever!