"Gunpowder & Lead"
Artemis was tired of being used. She was tired of everything that the man that dared to call himself a father had put her through. She was standing on the curb of the street not too far from where she was raised. She had run away from the man that held her heart because her own inner demons made it hard for her to trust. She knew though that he wasn't the type just to let her go. No, the stubborn man was going to come after her, and that was just one of the reasons that she loved him.
Lawrence "Crusher" Crock would be coming back to the abandoned gym where he trained; more like tortured his two daughters, soon. She had little time until he came and she was going to show him that his "baby girl" wasn't made of something that he could bend to his will anymore, no she was made of something lethal.
County road 233, under my feet
Nothin' on this white rock but little ole me
I've got two miles 'til, he makes bail
And if I'm right we're headed straight for hell
She had planned this for a long time; she knew that he wouldn't stay locked up. The League had put him in a maximum security prison, but still he broke out. Artemis knew all his tricks though, how he ticked. She didn't need to look far to know where he was going to go next. He was as predictable as the sun if one knew him well enough. She knew that her lover would probably never forgive her for what she was about to do, but she knew that it was either the bastard who tried to turn her into an emotionless killing machine or the man she loved, living. She was going to make the decision that would end with her speedster living even if she couldn't be part of his life anymore.
I'm goin' home, gonna load my shotgun
Wait by the door and light a cigarette
If he wants a fight well now he's got one
And he ain't seen me crazy yet
He slapped my face and he shook me like a rag doll
Don't that sound like a real man
I'm going to show him what a little girls are made of
Gunpowder and lead
She remembered every since time that man had beaten her when she was too small to do anything about it. She had been born in fire and raised from the ashes of despair. She was now something that could only be broken by one person, and that person she knew would more than likely hate her…for what she was planning to do. Artemis looked at the crossbow in her hands, the bolt already loaded into it. All she had to do was pull the trigger when she saw him coming.
It's half past ten, another six pack in
And I can feel the rumble like a cold black wind
He pulls in the drive, the gravel flies
He don't know what's waiting here this time
She was standing now on the roof of the rundown apartment complex across the street from where she knew he would be, it was ten thirty and she was breathing slowly, six breaths in then six out. It was a technique she had learned from Dinah. She hears the sound of his footsteps on the concrete below, his gait something that was imprinted on her memory.
I'm goin' home, gonna load my shotgun
Wait by the door and light a cigarette
If he wants a fight well now he's got one
And he ain't seen me crazy yet
He slapped my face and he shook me like a rag doll
Don't that sound like a real man
I'm going to show him what a little girls are made of
Gunpowder and lead
He always called her baby girl and her older sister was little girl. He didn't realize it, but when he hurt them, raised them the way that he did, he created his own worst enemies. The Crock sisters weren't ones to sit down and take something; after all they were his daughters. Artemis raised the crossbow in her hand and waited until he was in range.
His fist is big but my gun's bigger
He'll find out when I pull the trigger
I'm goin' home, gonna load my shotgun
Wait by the door and light a cigarette
If he wants a fight well now he's got one
And he ain't seen me crazy yet
He slapped my face and he shook me like a rag doll
Don't that sound like a real man
I'm going to show him what a little girls are made of
Gunpowder and, gunpowder and lead
Right when she was about to shoot she felt a hand on her arm. Normally if someone touched her when she had a weapon in her hand she wouldn't hesitate to shoot, but the person that touched her wasn't just anyone. No, this person was the one that she would protect at any and all costs. "Arty," he whispered in her ear, his chest flush with her back. "You don't need to do this." She didn't even look at him, she couldn't. She knew that she would see the disappointment in his eyes if she did.
"I have to Wally…" she paused, her voice not making it past the sudden lump in her throat.
He turned her around so that she was now facing him. He looked into her storm grey eyes, and saw the turmoil within her heart mirrored in their depths. "You don't have to Artemis. You just think that this is the only way to stop him. It isn't, Arty if you do this it will change you in a way that will make you unrecognizable in your own eyes. I don't want that to happen to you. I won't let that happen to you, I love you too much to let that happen." He pulled her into his arms her head falling perfectly into the spot where his neck and shoulder met.
"He told me that he would go after you right as soon as he got out as they were taking him away. I won't let him hurt you. Wally, he's taken everything else…I- I won't let him take you from me," she whispered, her hand still clenching the handle of the crossbow.
"He won't because right now Batman is down there taking making sure that he never come near us again. He's going to be in a League prison now, with no way out not even in death. Artemis, if you actually followed through with what you were planning then he would have won, he would have taken your very identity from you," Wally stated his arms forming a protective circle around the blonde.
"Okay," Artemis replied, her voice muffled from her face being buried in his chest. "I won't do it, but you have to promise me something." She looked up at him her eyes searching his. He nodded to tell her that he was listening; he didn't want to interrupt her. "If I had done it, would you still love me…would you leave me?"
Wally looked at her in shock. He had told her once that nothing would make him stop loving her, and here she was, doubting him. He knew that she was insecure and she didn't like to show it. He placed a kiss on her forehead before he answered her, gazing deeply into her eyes. "I will always love you, Spitfire, and I would never leave you unless you wanted me to. You're my whole world Artemis." He then put his hand under her chin to tilt her face up and locked their lips together in a passionate kiss.
When they broke apart, Artemis dropped her crossbow and wrapped her arms around Wally's neck. The spark in her eyes was back as she looked into his and whispered, "Take me home Baywatch." Wally didn't need to be told twice he lifted her into his arms and then they were gone in a blur of red, yellow, and green.
Gunpowder and lead
Hey!
Artemis was secure in the knowledge that Wally would never leave her, at least not willingly. Laying in his arms on their bed that night she smiled. Everything was going to be alright as long as she remembered that even though she was made of gunpowder and lead, to make it work she needed to have a bullet…that bullet didn't have to be lethal, it just had to have an effect and Wally definitely had an effect on her, he was her shot in the dark, and they never missed.
FIN