Hey! Here's the next chapter, hope you all like it!
"What would they want with the children?" Wally scowled, thumbing through the list of missing children from the last six months.
"I think a better question is how they managed to kidnap so many kids," Artemis mused, bending over a map of the city that they had begun drawing all over, attempting to find a possible location where the skinwalkers were staging their 'Headquarters'.
Wally frowned and made his way over to their mini fridge, making an indignant squawk when he found it empty, "Arty! We're out of food!"
"What a tragedy," She hummed, circling the location of the found victims.
"Artemis Crock. We need food," The redhead's tone turned grave as he stood dramatically in the middle of the room with his arms crossed.
Artemis rose an eyebrow and turned to glance at her companion, "Hop to it then," She encouraged with a shrug.
"You're carelessness about this situation concerns me," Wally informed her before snatching up the car keys. Artemis laughed.
"Try not to eat all of the crap you buy before you get back here, alright?" She yelled out before he made it out the door. The redhead gave an offended wave of the hand before he was gone.
Artemis finished up dotting her map before turning to the laptop. It never took her long to get the link up.
"Artemis, how are you?" Kaldur asked as soon as his video feed popped up on the screen, his calm nature soothing, as always.
"A little stressed," She admitted, enjoying that she could talk so honestly with her best friend. Largely because he would catch her lies and wheedle the truth out of her anyway. She gave up trying to fib to him long ago.
"Is Wally involved?" Kaldur smirked, the sunlight from his side of the coast spilling into the room behind him.
"Why are you even asking?" She laughed, "Of course he is," Artemis frowned after a moment, "But how come you know that?"
"Because Wally brings the best out of you," He explained with a smile.
"I don't feel very best," Artemis huffed, pillowing her chin on her fist.
"You are at your best because he makes you care. About anything and everything. You are much less of a soldier now, and more of an individual,"
The blonde scowled, "You're getting sappy, Kal,"
"Only because you are, my friend," He grinned.
"I need you to look up the history on someone," Artemis shifted the conversation.
"An ex-girlfriend of Wally's, perhaps?"
"Kal!" The blonde shrieked indignantly, her face flushing.
Kaldur laughed lightly, "I will take that as a no,"
"Her name is Megan Morse," Artemis continued dodging the conversation, "She's a shapeshifter who claims to have left the monster life behind when she was young. I need to know if her story matches her history,"
"I can do that," He assured her, "Where is your companion?" He questioned back.
"Why do you keep asking about Wally, Kal?" Artemis teased, "Need me to give him your number?"
"Firstly, he already is in possession of my number. Secondly, you are quite aware that I am already in a relationship," Kaldur stated.
Artemis nodded absently with a smile, "I know, I know,"
"I assure you I would not try to steal Wally away from you,"
"Megan Morse, Kaldur!" Artemis yelped.
She closed the connection while Kaldur was still chuckling; turning immediately back to the map of Metropolis that was beginning to look rather more like a child's scribbling handwork.
"There have been six murders," Artemis mused, re outlining the circles she'd drawn for the locations, "If the murderer was a skinwalker, then he's probably based out of their headquarters. So the murders are all going to be near there..."
She folded an unneeded piece of paper into a ruler and started drawing lines between all of the murder sites, looking for a common crossing point. One section of the map began becoming rather dark with all of the crossing lines, and Artemis decided to pull up the satellite map on her laptop to check for possible locations.
Artemis had jotted down a list of all possible hideout and was running a search on all of the animal control calls in the last two months when Wally returned.
"I come bearing gifts!" He exclaimed joyfully, barging into the hotel room with his arms full of plastic bags.
"It's not a gift if I helped pay for it," Artemis snorted, getting up to assess what the redhead had gotten. Wally dumped the bags onto his bed and smiled when the collection spilled across the comforter.
"There was a sale on chocolate covered pretzels," He pointed out, picking up one particular bag and dumping the contents out.
"Oh my God! Wally that's a ton!" Artemis cursed, pawing through the pile.
"It was three dollars for five bags!" Wally defended, ripping open one of the many bags and beginning to chow down.
"How many did you get?" She breathed, poking through the collection to see if there were enough food essentials and not just snacks and candy. The blonde wasn't too surprised to find that they were lacking. She always had to make a separate trip for fruits, vegetables, and meal items.
"I got like twenty bags," Wally stated through a mouthful of chocolate and pretzels, "How's the hunt going?"
"Oh," Artemis remembered, tossing her yogurt in the mini fridge on her way back over to the laptop. While the essentials were never priority when Wally went to the store, he did always remember to pick up one of herfavorite treats as well. Probably as insurance when he pulled crap like the mountain of pretzels on the bed.
"I looks like you made some headway on the map," Wally mused as the blonde looked through her search results, his fingers tracing absently over the sharpie lines as he waited for the update.
"Yeah, I got a sector that we can scout out later. Wow, these are strange calls," Artemis frowned, pulling her chair over as a sign for the redhead to join her at the screen. Wally got the message and sat down in the chair next to hers, "Check this out. In only the past two months there have been over thirty emergency calls about monkeys, exotic birds, big cats, and other wild animals. But none have been caught,"
"Jeez," Wally whistled lowly, narrowing his eyes as he read off the report list, "Sounds like the circus is in town. Should we call Dick?" He grinned.
Artemis laughed before her face froze, "How did you know that Dick was in the circus?" She shot at him.
"I call him sometimes when I'm bored, you're usually asleep," Wally shrugged, leaning back into the chair, "We get along really great, and it's nice to chat with more people that know about hunting,"
The blonde frowned a bit as she took in this information, "I'm not asleep that much,"
"No," Wally agreed with a laugh, "But I go on runs in the morning and sometimes when I get back it's still too early for your day to start,"
Artemis nodded, recalling that yes, she had known that the redhead went on daily runs to control the strangely vast amounts of energy that he naturally hoarded from his godly genetics.
"So, we doing a stakeout tonight?" He asked, picking up the list of hideout possibilities that Artemis had collected.
"The area we need to check out is too big for a stakeout," Artemis sighed dejectedly, "We'll need to scout around on foot. It's a pretty sketchy area so dress down, but not in stealthy clothes,"
Wally got up to rummage through his clothes, "Let me guess, we're gonna be a lost tourist couple if anyone asks?"
"Right on, Speedy," Artemis smirked, throwing out the nickname she knew made him scowl.
Wally didn't disappoint.
Preparing for their nightly scout had taken longer than anticipated.
Wally would say it was Artemis's fault.
Artemis would say it was Wally's.
The redhead had insisted that if the two were going to parade about as a normal couple then Artemis had to wear something that made her look less abrasive to throw off any suspicion. The blonde had vehemently disagreed and the two ended up bickering for over half an hour as Wally searched for something in her wardrobe that didn't tip anyone off toward her violent tendencies.
The search was largely useless and before it was over Wally had ended up attempting to try on a few articles to prove his arguing points while Artemis thwacked him with a pair of trousers she had swiped from his duffel to retaliate.
In the end, they both agreed that Artemis's abrasiveness was not a product of her clothing choice. Rather, the issue was the blonde herself.
"Don't snarl at people when we pass them," Wally hissed into her ear, pulling the blonde closer to the alleyways wall, "We're supposed to be a couple of innocent, lost people," He reminded her.
No one had stopped them yet to converse and widen their story, but the two had stuck with the plan as best they could by stopping and whispering at corners, keeping a map out, and holding hands as they walked.
"I'm not snarling," Artemis protested, "I'm analyzing. Any of the people we pass could be suspects,"
"Well this area hasn't been looking very promising so far," Wally gripped, pointedly ignoring the stare of an off-hour prostitute, "None of the buildings have had any sort of suspicious actions. No guards, no people going in or out, no proof of residents,"
"This is the most logical area for them to be based out of," Artemis frowned, carefully eyeing an old warehouse as they passed slowly on their route.
Suddenly, tires screeched somewhere nearby, causing the duo to freeze.
"STOP! HELP! LET ME GO! HELP!" A boy's voice rang out. Car doors clunked.
The two began running immediately toward the sound, having no need to stop and converse on a plan.
"HELP! SOMEBO-MMFFF" The frightened voice became muffled, but it was still close enough to hear. Wally reached the commotion much faster than Artemis, stopping behind a dumpster to get a good look while waiting for his partner.
The boy was being manhandled out of an unmarked white utility van. He looked about ten years old; fair skinned, and had dark auburn hair. There were at least six men surrounding the van, some having exited it as they pulled the kid out of the back and roughly carried him (now with a rag stuffed in his mouth) towards a rundown building. A crow flew around them in the sky a few times before landing in the shadow of the vehicle, transforming into a man.
Artemis had skidded to a stop behind the redhead a few moments before, her gun already in hand, "Shit," She cursed, gritting her teeth at the situation.
"Yeah," Wally breathed, his finger already on the trigger of his handgun, "I'll get the three around the van?" He suggested.
"Wally don't be an idiot," Artemis hissed, "If there's this many outside the building, can you imagine how many will be inside? We don't even have enough ammo on us to handle them,"
"But the kid!" He whispered back harshly, his eyes still locked on the remaining men still loitering about the van, picking through and sorting whatever junk they'd stolen and thrown in the back.
"I know," Her voice was pained, "But if we try taking them out right now we'll be killed, and he'll be none better off,"
"So we're supposed to just leave him?" Wally snapped back, turning away from the scene to face the blonde.
"I'm not happy about this either," She huffed, "But we need to go in there with a plan and a stockpile of weapons. We can be ready by tomorrow night if we hustle. The other kids haven't been found yet. So it's likely that they're all still alive, the skinwalkers have no reason to kill them," Artemis reasoned, relaxing when the redhead lost his tense edge.
"You're right," He mumbled, running a hand through his hair in frustration. He'd turned slightly back towards the van and suddenly his bright green eyes caught sight of two of the men heading towards their alley.
"What is it?" Artemis hissed, noticing when Wally jumped back from the edge of the dumpster, out of view.
"We've gotta be occupied, quick," He whispered, grabbing the blonde by the waist before pushing her against the wall, "Sorry,"
Artemis got the message pretty fast when he crushed his lips against hers and pressed his entire body into her own. She curled her arms around his neck and kissed him back vigorously, grabbing a handful of his wild red hair and hitching a leg up against his hip for good measure. Wally let out a loud groan and Artemis felt her heart leap into her throat when she couldn't tell if it had been real or fake. She chose not to think about it and instead battled the feeling of his warm fingers digging into the sides of her hips.
"Hey!" A gruff voice shouted, "Get outta here! This the loading dock!"
The two jumped apart and glanced at the two men that were sneering at them across the alley. Artemis sent them a nasty glare while Wally pulled the blonde tightly into his side and sped-walked away.
The moment they were around the closest corner Wally stepped away from Artemis, turning his brightly blushing face the other direction, "I, uh, I'm really sorry about, uh, that," He mumbled.
Artemis took a deep breath, avoid his gaze, "Well, I mean, I understand. It wasn't exactly your fault,"
"Not, that it was bad, or anything," He rambled.
"No! No, it was...It didn't kill me," Artemis pursed her lips.
"So..." The redhead started awkwardly, drawing his hand up to scratch at the back of his neck.
"Yeah," She nodded, "Let's get back,"
Wally nodded in agreement and they began walking back towards the car that was parked a block away. A stiff arm's length distance having formed between them.
Ohhh! First kiss! I bet it wasn't what you all were expecting, huh? Who do you think the boy is? Anyone important?
Please review and let me know what you think!
I hope to finish the next hunt in time to post it on schedule, but just like this last one I'm getting kind of busy and I don't have a lot of time to work on it. It's finals this weeks so I'm stockpiling on the studying time!
Love, Veg