Sorry for taking so long to update. I also saw the season 2 premier and I am not pleased, They got rid of Artemis and Wally, my two favorite characters. I think what they did crossed the line with completely dismantling the team, but splitting up supermartian, robtanna, and Spitfire was too much. IS NOTHING SACRED! Ok I'm done with my ranting. I don't care about season two. I'm still gonna write season 1 stories, I have a whole binder full of stories and plot bunnies. Now let the reading begin.
Also I don't own any of the DC universe or young justice, and if I did I wouldn't ruin it like they did with season two. SPITFIRE FOREVER!
Spitting Image Chapter 6
Rewind
"Team, our mission is to find a missing teenager that disappeared a little over 24 hours ago. We have reasons to believe that she is either being pursued or captured be the League of Shadows." There were a few gasps through out the crowd. Artemis finally revealed her now puffy; tear streaked face out from under the shelter of her arms. Batman enlarged the picture of the missing teen and continued his speech.
"Our target is Abigail Crock, she was reported missing yesterday in Gotham." The room was dead silent. Connor, Rocket, Kaldur, and Nightwing's jaws hit the floor when they saw the picture of Abby. Most of the heroes in the room seemed shocked at this revealing news. There were a few gasps and grunts *Cough* Nightwing *Cough*. All eyes turned to the blonde archer.
The room was silent. Artemis was purple with shame. She was already feeling herself fall apart, the stares from all over the room made her unweave even more. The archer couldn't move, the scars on her heart were tearing open. She could feel herself trembling; She stared blankly waiting for Batman to continue.
Batman displayed more pictures on the screen, most of them were of Abby, but there was one of Artemis and a few pictures of shadows operatives. He continued his briefing but the archer couldn't listen, all she heard was white noise and her daughter's last words.
She couldn't take it anymore, the archer was on the verge of having an emotional meltdown and she was about to explode. Artemis stood up abruptly and grabbed her bow and quiver; tears were once again streaming out of the archer's eyes as she practically sprinted out of the room. She was headed towards the only place in the mountain she could release all of her pent up emotions; the training room.
…..
All eyes followed Artemis as she ran out of the room; Zatanna got up to get her but was stopped by Batman.
"Leave her." He said and continued his briefing the room was full of silent mutters and possibly a telepathic conversation or two.
"The plan is to split up into teams and search the country for the girl and the Shadows." The Dark Knight continued, ignoring the other conversations. The only other person in the room that was immune to the Bat glare spoke up.
"So you called all of us here so we can search for a runaway girl that might of kidnapped by the shadows. She's only 15 how far could she of gone on her own?" Nightwing spoke up against his former mentor. Zatanna glared at him irately and he contemplated the facts and put two and two together. Dick raised a eyebrow," Oh. So you mean the girl has…" But he stopped stating the obvious when a small snarl came from Zatanna's throat. The only thing that stopped her from inflicting a nasty curse on her ex was Batman. The magician didn't want to cause any more conflict in the situation so she settled with giving Dick the I-will-end-you glare. Nightwing flinched under the threatening stare, but he continued, "Don't you think Wally has the right to know about her."
Batman remained in his serious demeanor," It is none of my business to, and it is none of yours either. All of you must understand that you are not to tell The Flash, or any other heroes about this mission. Am I clear?" the other heroes nodded silently.
"Team dismissed. We will regroup when transportation has been organized." The Dark Knight ordered and the crowd in the room dispersed. Nightwing and Aqualad went to go talk to some of the titans and Connor was discussing something with Green Lantern. Rocket had left to go find the ladies room and Zatanna and M'gann went to go find Artemis.
…..
The martian was still in a slight state of shock as she walked through the maze of hallways with Zatanna. She had no idea of what to say.
"So that's why she left." She whispered her eyes were full of concern. "Why didn't she tell us, we would've helped her."
Zatanna looked at her friend," She left because she was scared." Her expression explained the rest of the untold story to M'gann.
Miss Martian's expression regained some cheerfulness," So how'd you find out about Artemis and her daughter?" she wondered
"Actually I ran into her in Gotham about nine years ago. I realized the truth the moment I saw Abby, she just looks so much like him." The magician confessed. She turned her attention to the gold band on M'gann's left hand. There was a slight hint of mischief in Zatanna's eyes as she examined the ring. " So when did you and Supes tie the knot?" Miss Martian blushed slightly and displayed the shining ring on her finger.
"Well we got married about ten years ago and now we live in Delta City."
"Are there any mini martians or kryptonins in the picture?" She asked curiously wondering if that was even possible for the couple to have children.
"We adopted two children from Mars."
"You have kids!" Zatanna said excitedly.
"Yup, S'mantha is 14 and J'onn Jr. is almost 11. They're great kids you should really meet them some day." The martian chirped.
"So where are your kids, since you and Connor are here?"
"Oh, they're staying at the Kent's right now, Martha really enjoys their company."
The two were going to continue catching up but they were interrupted by a small explosion and some dismembered practice drones flew out of the entrance to the training room. That was a bad sign. The two women rushed into the large gymnasium.
"Artemis! Stop it your going to hurt yourself." Zatanna yelled. The archer ignored her and continued dismembering any thing in her path, she snarled muttering inaudible curses at the world. She was about to go in for the kill when she found herself levitated. At that point Artemis was way past sadness and anger, she was now livid.
"Artemis, you're gonna hurt yourself. You need to calm down." Zatanna said trying to soothe her friend.
The furious blonde hissed, "Calm down! Calm down! If you haven't noticed my only daughter is missing, the shadows are after her. And you want me to calm down!" She started to cry again at the mention of Abby. The archer was falling apart.
M'gann set Artemis down on the ground and she rushed over to her with Zatanna to give her support. Artemis sobbed into their shoulders claiming that it was all her fault. The two heroes sat there with their friend until she was able to stand. She pulled herself together and masked the sadness in her face with a blank expression.
Artemis Gave M'gann a quick hug, "I'm sorry." She reconciled the martian turned to the archer and looked at her reassuringly.
"Arty, we're going to find her, don't worry."
The blonde muttered thanks and the three women headed towards the main entrance.
…..
When the trio entered the main hall, Artemis was greeted by a few stares, some solemn nods and a group hug. After the archer escaped the embrace of her former teammates she joined their awkward conversation. There wasn't mush being said, but Artemis had a slight suspicion that the married couple was having a telepathic discussion.
"So, sixteen years…" Nightwing muttered. Artemis looked at the ground and remained silent. Zatanna glared at him, obviousouly mad and smacked him in the jaw.
"Hey! What'd you do that for?" he hollered as he rubbed his now sore face.
"Of all the things you could've said to her that was all you could think of!" she seethed. Artemis smirked slightly as the two started bickering and the rest of her former teammates tried to separate them, just like when she and Wally had argued.
The commotion was interrupted by Batman's voice over the intercom.
"Everyone gather your gear and meet me in the hanger now."
…
Once all of the superheroes had gathered in the cave hanger Batman began to read off team assignments.
"Martian Manhunter, Steel, Bumblebee and Raven. Northwest."
"Beastboy, Green Lantern, Stargirl and Aqualad. Southwest"
"Batgirl, Static, Starfire and Hawkgirl. Southeast."
"Blue Beetle, Supergirl, Cyborg, and Rocket. Northeast."
The Dark Knight pointed at locations on a large map displayed in the hanger. The teams quickly rushed to javelins and took off, leaving Superboy, Miss Martian, Nightwing, Zatanna, and Artemis unassigned. Batman pulled up a blurry image on the screen, the archer recognized it almost immediately; it was Abby. She turned to Batman.
"Where is she?"
"This is the most current footage we have of Abigail Crock at Mt. Rushmore, South Dakota. There is evidence supporting that she is still in the Mid-West. We will split into two groups of three and search the area."
…..
M'gann gave Connor a kiss before the two parted to join their different "teams". Miss Martian, Artemis and Zatanna were going to search south of Mt. Rushmore while Batman, Connor and Nightwing searched north. The weary archer held her bow and quiver tightly and sat down in the bioship. She was excited that there was still hope but she still couldn't bring herself to believe that everything was going to be ok. Artemis sighed as she looked out the window at the morning horizon.
XXXXXXXXXX
(you might want to go back to ch 4 )
Abby couldn't see where she was going; she didn't even care where she ended as long as it was away from the Cat Lady. Her legs felt like they were on fire, each step brought more pain. The speedster's stomach was growling like and angry beast, but even that didn't stop her; nothing would until she was far enough away.
The teen finally slowed down when she reached the Central City limits, the last thing she wanted to do was attract attention to herself, even if The Flash was a hero Abby didn't trust anyone right now. The redheaded teen strolled through the clean streets of Central; she was taken aback when she saw her reflection in a window. Her orange hair was tangled and dirty, her clothes were torn and she was covered in dirt. Luckily there was a small athletics clothes store around the corner. About an hour later Abby reemerged from the store with new pants, a shirt, jacket, hat, shoes, and a backpack full of snacks. The teen spent the rest of her afternoon looking over her shoulder and eating at Sal's diner. When the sun started to set she left the diner and headed to a safe looking park, she drifted off into sleep on a park bench.
…
Abby woke up with an unsettling feeling, the sky was dark and the only light came from the golden glow of the streetlamps. The teen felt the hairs on the back of her neck prickle. Something was very wrong. She was quickly on her feet and searching the shadows. A bush started to rustle and the scared speedster was out of there. At that point Abby didn't care about drawing attention to herself, the only thing that concerned her was her speedy escape. With a burst of speed the redhead found herself in an alley. To her surprise the Cat Lady fell out of the sky and cornered her against the wall. Fear and determination plastered the teen's face.
"Who are you? "Abby asked truing not to show fear. Cheshire sneered at the girl.
"Well, that doesn't really matter when you are about to be killed, does it?"
The speedster felt a small lump in her throat and remembered what her mom taught her.
This time Cheshire was heavily armed and more prepared to face the twerp, she was not about to let her sister's kid show her up again. The assassin was the first to strike, but to her surprise the teen blocked most of her shots with incredible speed and reflexes (well duh).
The two were almost evenly matched. Abby pulled out her mother's green switchblade and used it to block the assassin's sai. The teen was getting tired but she was not one to give up, surrendering went against her very nature she would rather fight to the death.
…..
The Flash (Wally West) was doing his nightly patrols through Central City after he had finished up work at the crime lab. It had been a very quiet night for crime, there was nothing short of a jaywalker. The scarlet speedster was considering turning in early and getting one of those rare 8 hours of slumber. That was until he came upon an alley t where he thought a mugging was taking place. When he got closer he realized this was no assault. Cheshire was fighting some other girl; before the hero could help the girl two henchmen stopped him.
…
Out of the corner of her eye, Abby could see a faint red blur and some more men, but she couldn't get a good look at any of them. She returned her undivided attention to the assassin in front of her. Sweat was forming on her forehead and she was breathing heavily. She still kept pace with the Cat Lady's strikes.
"Why. Are. You. After. Me?" the teen said through gritted teeth and she took a punch.
The assassin smiled under her mask.
"Maybe you should ask your mommy the next time you see her, oh wait. You won't see her again because you'll be dead." Jade mocked.
Abby's expression hardened, that hit a nerve. The assassin took the split second the girl stopped moving and went in for the kill shot. The blade seemed to come at Abby in slow motion and she was able to dodge it and instead of going through her heart the sai went through the plaster. With lightning speed (really) the speedster yanked the weapon out of the wall and plunged it into the lady's shoulder. Cheshire let out a piercing scream as her own weapon sliced through her flesh. Abby went back into a defensive position ready for the next strike, but instead of lashing back the wounded (pride and all) assassin fled into the shadows. The teen leaned against the plaster wall and gasped for air.
…..
Wally had just finished knocking out the villains when he turned to help the girl, to his surprise she seemed pretty well off on her own. He was slightly impressed by the teen's reflexes and speed, but when he saw her stab the assassin with inhuman speed he was shocked. She was going at speeds that only Uncle Barry, Jay Garrick and himself could go at.
Wally quickly approached the girl, when he got close he realized that she was only 14-15, her slender body looked fragile covered in cuts and bruises. She was leaning against the wall trembling in fatigue, her labored gasps for air sounded slightly painful. The Flash approached her trying to help.
"Hey kid, are you ok?"
The girl's green eyes glared at the red clad hero portraying fear and pain.
…..
Abby was glad that the Cat Lady was gone, she hurt all over. She was about to pull herself up and continue with her escape but was stopped by concerned scarlet hero in front of her. She was, bruised, bloody, in pain and scared. The teen wanted to be alone, she wanted to get away. When he asked her if she was ok she freaked, she was almost sure that he was going to take her to the cops.
"Get away from me!" she snarled, wielding her mother's knife as a warning. When the Flash tried to carry her out of the alley the teen decided to strike. Before the Scarlet hero had realized what was going on, Abby landed a good blow to his jaw and a slash on his arm. With all the speed she could manage the redhead attacked with full force. She knocked the hero down and plunged the knife in his knee so he couldn't run. She didn't even hear him yell after her as she sped away. Away into the arms of a blonde hockey masked villain. Before the girl could scream a needle was in her neck and she was out cold in the arms of Sportsmaster
i hope you like it, I will post again if I get more than 10 reviews, ok now im going to bed. Thanks for reading my story.