Chapter Three
It was 12:05, and there had been no sign of the thief Night.
Robin patiently watched the Museum before them as Red Arrow impatiently tapped his foot against the rooftop.
"Guys, are we sure this 'Night' dude is going to go for this?" Wally's voice popped into everyone's heads at once. Red Arrow grimaced a little. He wasn't used to the telepathic communication the team used during missions, and it made him a little uncomfortable that anything he thought would be broadcasted to the rest of the team.
"Positive. Anything priceless or insanely expensive and you've got bait. It's just a matter of- Ah ha! There!"Robin pointed a gloved finger towards the ally in across the Arrow looked up just in time to spot a figure in black on the ground break into a basement window, and then slip inside with the finesse of the criminal Night.
"Move in quickly, every second we lose is a second he could slip away." Red Arrow broadcasted as he and Robin made their way down from the roof, and into the ally way Night was just spotted breaking into the Museum in.
Red Arrow entered first, his bow drawn as he covered Robin so that he could enter.
The room was packed full of artifacts new and old, and it made the two seasoned crime fighters weary. Rooms like this just screamed DANGER around every dark, cluttered corner. Every ten feet a single bulb lamp lit the room, but most of them were out.
"Keep moving. If we stand here for too long, we'll lose him." Red Arrow announced to the team as he checked a corner, and then kept moving quietly down the aisles. Robin followed nearby, always within his line of vision.
The two continued down the aisles, checking their corners and moving quickly, Robin with a handful of stunners between his fingers, and Red Arrow with his bow drawn and ready to strike.
A figure leapt above them, and as if their name had been called, the two looked up immediately.
"Something's not right." Robin thought, causing Red Arrow to tighten his grip on his bow. Robin was right. Something wasn't right. Night wasn't the kind of thief to play with his food; he got in, got out, and never spoke a word. This suspect was trailing them, and making obvious moves.
"That's not Night-"Red Arrow was cut off by a metal disk flying past his face. Robin and Red Arrow quickly fired at the being down the aisle that had thrown the device, and ran. The two chased after the suspect as the small bomb finally ignited, causing the ground to shake, and the aisles of the basement to give in. One after another, the tall towers filled with priceless artifacts began to tumble, causing Robin and Red Arrow to sprint to safety.
Robin kicked down the door that led them out of the basement, and Red Arrow dove through it after him, just in time to evade the falling statue of a Chinese warrior.
Before the two had a chance to recover, Robin spotted the black figure running up the stairs.
"Contact! Ground floor heading up!" He announced as he leapt onto his feet, and began sprinting after the suspect with Red Arrow close behind.
"It's not Night. Night doesn't mess around like that. He gets in, and gets out. I'm lucky if I even see him before the theft." Red Arrow aimed at the running suspect, and fired as he thought, and to his upmost pleasure, the foam arrow hit its target, and caused the suspect to cry out as it became engulfed by the foam.
"Suspect apprehended- proceed to the rendezvous point." Robin reported as they approached the struggling suspect. It was a man dressed in all black. He obviously was not Night, and he stopped struggling as soon as he spotted Red Arrow and Robin.
Red Arrow pointed an arrow at the man, and his eyes narrowed at the hero.
"Talk." Red Arrow demanded.
The man in black just smirked under his mask, and then swallowed hard- before the two had any time to realize that he had just swallowed poison, his eyes rolled back into his skull, he twitched, and then he stopped moving altogether.
Red Arrow and Robin's eyes grew large, but they knew there was nothing they could do now.
Just for good measure, Robin reached into the foam, and checked his pulse. He was definitely gone.
"Whatever is going on, I don't like it." Red Arrow grumbled as he walked away, heading to the rendezvous point. Robin eyed the man for a moment longer, and then followed Red Arrow.
The two began running again, and when they opened the door to the floor the team was supposed to rendezvous on, a scene they did not expect unfolded in front of them.
The team was taking on over twenty of versions of the man they had just seen, and by the looks of it, they weren't going down as easily- and there were more crawling in through the windows. Robin and Red Arrow barely had any time to be shocked before five of them ran their way. A yellow blur knocked them all away like bowling pins, and Kid Flash appeared before them, a scowl on his face.
"Could you guys get here any slower?" Kid griped before becoming a yellow blur once more, leaving Robin and Red Arrow to fend for themselves.
"Well isn't this just perfect." Red Arrow snarled as he aimed at a group of black clad enemies, and fired a net at them. A few of them dodged it, but a handful of them became entangled in each other as the net closed around them.
"We still need to get to the diamond! Night may not be with these guys, but my guess is that he'll still try and collect his prize." Robin announced as he leapt onto one of the enemies shoulders, planted a small disk on his back, and then jumped onto another. Just as he leapt away, the disk on the man's back electrocuted him, and he fell to the floor in a heap.
What the worst part was, was that the Boy Wonder was right.
-0-
An explosion was something Eternal certainly did not want to hear tonight- or any night for the matter. Explosions meant loud noises, loud noises mean attracting attention, and attracting attention meant a greater chance of being caught.
And getting caught was not something any thief wanted.
Her small black figure quickly maneuvered through the air ducts quietly, and the finally came upon her exit. She could see the Hope Diamond from where she hid, but she could also see the scuffle going on just two floors above it. She spotted Red Arrow right away, shooting off his arrows in triples, the Boy Wonder himself was taking down criminals left and right, Kid Flash was merely a blur taking down black clad figures two or three at a time, and three other heroes she did not recognize were fighting as well.
The last one she saw was Artemis.
"Well, well, well." Eternal whispered to herself with a smirk on her face underneath her black mask. The two girls went far back, seeing that they had lived next door to each other for nearly ten years. While Artemis had been raised to be an assassin for the Shadows, Mercy had been her gateway to normalcy.
So much for normal now…
Eternal determined that since her biggest threats were in the middle of a fight, and distracted, she would quickly snatch the diamond, and make her way out as quickly as possible. Before she had any second thoughts, she kicked the air vent's cover off, and dropped to the ground below, rolling to soften her fall. But when she looked up, she came face to face with a man, head to toe in black.
Eternal's eyes narrowed, and without a second's hesitation, she pulled out her curved close combat knife, and slashed his chest, causing him to yell loudly, clutching his chest. She didn't aim to kill him herself- but the Cobra venom on her blade would do that for her.
She turned on her heel, and sprinted towards the Hope Diamond, not even concerned about infrared lasers right now. More of those men dressed in black suits were crawling through the windows like ants, and some were even converging on her now.
As the Museum alarms began to blare, the League above Eternal dared to look down and away from their opponents for a second- just too spot Eternal hit a man in the shoulder with a poisonous dart which caused him to drop in pain a second later. She kicked away another, then use another as a weapon by breaking his nose, stunning him, and throwing him into another one of his 'friends'.
"He's here!" She heard Red Arrow yell. She could sense him aiming for her- he was just so bad at hiding the obvious, and she rolled just in time to evade his sharp arrow.
"We need to get moving! They're just going to keep bringing in reinforcements!" Eternal heard Artemis yell as Eternal dived towards the Hope Diamond in its glass container. The glass shattered, and Eternal snatched the necklace, just in time to miss one of Red Arrow's stunning arrows- it hit one of the fifteen men converging on her instead.
"RELINQUISH THE DIAMOND!" Eternal was stunned for a moment, mainly due to the fact that all the men in black had said the same thing at the exact same time, making the sound deafening. But that moment was not long lived, and she began to sprint. One five hundred pound man, maybe two or three, she could take- but fifteen synced men in black? She wasn't going to try it now.
But then, as she was running, she noticed the necklace in her hand glint strangely, and eyed it as she ran. Upon closer inspection, she noticed a large scratch across the very front of the diamond.
Diamonds don't scratch.
She scowled, and threw the glass necklace on the floor, the room falling nearly silent as the 'diamond' shattered on the marble floor, causing the synced men to turn, look at her, and then all narrow their eyes at once.
"I don't think that was a good idea…" Kid Flash whispered, causing his teammates to look at him. As if the whisper had awoken the figures in black, they moved suddenly, all of them chasing after Night at once, who was already scaling making her way towards the glass ceiling.
"Night may be highly skilled, but I am not sure he can take on twenty men on his own." Kaldur said as their opponents chased after Night, to their shock, they could scale the wall much faster, and Night was forced to leap off of the wall, and catch herself on a hanging light, quickly pulling herself up and catching her balance, and then run across the line of them over forty feet above the ground.
"I don't like the idea of helping a thief…" Robin threw several bombs towards the figures in red now trying to chase after Night. Robin managed to knock out a handful of them, but Night was forced to keep running.
"He's coming this way," Red Arrow announced, "If we don't catch him now we might never catch him."
"Yeah but how do you expect to capture him and hold off these guys?" Kid Flash retorted as he kicked away another bunch of black clad men. Night was less than ten feet away and approaching fast. Red Arrow grumbled, but Kid Flash was right. There would be no way they could capture Night and keep themselves safe at the same time.
Night was jumping over the railing now, but instead of stopping, and standing with them, she jumped onto Superboy's shoulders, using him as a platform to leap into the next room through the window above the door.
"Oh great, so he leads them to us but won't help us?" Artemis snapped as she shot several arrows at once. The irritation could be seen from under her mask. But less than a second later, the door room Night had just broken into flew open and narrowly missed Miss Martian.
"Follow me!" The voice that came from Night stunned them all. It was feminine.
"You're a girl?" Red Arrow yelled as he backed towards the room. The girl's face obviously wasn't visible to them, but underneath it she scowled. She didn't even look like man in her costume. She was tiny!
"Move faster or get skinned alive!" She shouted as she snatched his collar, and yanked him into the room. The rest of the team was already in the room. Red Arrow was caught by surprise, and pulled himself away from her hand before running into the room. Just as several men in black came running full speed towards the room, Night slammed it shut, and shoved a chair underneath the doorknob. She pulled a small cylinder shaped object out of her belt, and then threw it out the window above the door.
"That'll slow them down for a moment, but we have to keep moving." She announced as she ran away from the door, straight towards the window that lead to the overhang of the building's entrance. She broke through the glass with ease, and the rest of them followed without question. She began to lead them towards the roof, scaling the wall without a grapple. As Robin, Red Arrow, and Artemis shot off grappling hooks and Kid Flash, ran up the wall, a handful of the men broke the door open, and one shouted and pointed at the three, and they began sprinting towards them.
As their grapples pulled them up the side of the building, Robin grabbed Night by her waist, causing her to stiffen as the grappling line pulled them towards the top of the building.
"Sorry but we need to move a little faster." Robin apologized as the men began to funnel through the window, and make their way up the wall like spiders.
Night looked down at them, and scowled under her mask.
"Great." She snarled as she pulled a throwing spike out from under her sleeve. One hit one of the men in the cheek, and he fell with a loud cry.
"Stop that!" Red Arrow yelled at her as he, Robin, and Artemis pulled themselves onto the roof. Night sent him a glare from under her mask.
"I'm not killing them now am I? The venom on the blades is only enough to incapacitate someone, it's not fatal!" Well that was a lie, but it kept Red Arrow off of her back. She threw three knives down at once as she spoke, each hitting an individual target exactly where she wanted it to hit. Red Arrow scowled as he shot out a foam arrow, trapping several of the men- just for ten more to flood out of the window.
"Any bright ideas?" Superboy yelled as he kicked one of the men away. They were crawling up all four sides of the building. Aqualad and Miss Martian were fighting the hoards of men away the best they could, and Kid Flash was doing his best to thin out the men before they got to the rest of his team.
"Let me think!" Night snarled, aware that the remark was directed towards her.
"Think faster!" Kid Flash remarked. The irony almost made Night chuckle. Almost. She pulled out her sparring knives, and waited for the men to get closer.
Once they were close enough, Night, or Eternal, began slashing, kicking, and punching with such skill even Robin was impressed for a moment.
"Where do they keep coming from?" Miss Martian shouted.
"I don't know but we need to get out of here!" Aqualad yelled as he pushed three of them over the side of the building.
"We need a way to bottle neck them!" Night announced, causing the troop to look at her as they fought. As Red Arrow turned to look at her, another man crawled up the side of the building, and raced towards him. As Night ran up to her opponent, kicked him in the face, and then flipped off of him, she saw the man, and threw a knife mid air, hitting the man in the leg , and causing him to fall in pain before he reached Red Arrow.
Red Arrow looked at the man in surprise, and then continued to fight as he waited for an idea to come to him.
"Or just keep fighting?" Night yelled out, irritated by the lack of response. Then it hit her. "I got it! Group together in the center! Now!" She ordered. Superboy and Kid Flash glared at her.
"Why should we listen to you? You're the reason we're in this mess in the first place!" Superboy yelled angrily as he punched a man into a starry oblivion. As Night slashed at man's chest, the spun around, kicked his feet out from underneath him, and then pushed off of her hands and kicked another in the face with both feet before landing on her feet once more.
"Because I know what I'm doing and I'm absolutely positive no one here wants to DIE!" She snarled as she head-butted a man, then turned on her heel and slashed him his chest.
"She's got a point!" Robin shouted as he continued to fight towards the center of the building. The rest of the team followed.
"You!" Night pointed at Kid Flash, and he glanced at her.
"Kid Flash!" He snapped. Night narrowed her gray eyes at him from underneath her mask. "Don't care!" She snarled before running towards the center, taking out several more men as she did.
"Make a perimeter! Circle around us and give us some room!" She shouted as she finally reached the middle. Kid Flash begrudgingly listened, and he began to circle around the League, and Night.
The men got closer, and Kid Flash kept the perimeter as Night and the team stood back to back with each other.
"Keep in mind; you're going to jail after this." Red Arrow growled as he stood alongside Night. She smirked under her mask. She laughed a little, causing Red Arrow's eyes to narrow slightly.
"Oh, I'm so sure." Night almost giggled. Red had to keep himself from taking her down right then and there.
"Alright, we've got about thirty of them. More, but we've taken down a over half of them. We can do this." Artemis didn't even sound that sure of herself. Night on the other hand, was still calm, and she was absolutely positive that she would be fine, along with the heroes who were supposed to be trying to catch her.
"Come on now," Night teased from under her mask as the first wave came sprinting towards them. "You're Justice League shouldn't you have a little more faith in yourselves?" The troop's eyes widened at her somewhat encouraging words, but didn't have time to react.
Night and Red Arrow dove towards the first wave, fighting together side by side. Even though Red Arrow couldn't hate anyone more than the thief who had managed to evade him for nearly a month now, he couldn't help but be impressed by her skills.
"Behind you!" Night shouted at Red, but before Red Arrow could react, she threw a sharp black spike towards the man trying to attack Red Arrow from behind. Her spike hit the man so close to his aorta he staggered back, and then fell to the ground.
"Pressure point. Throw a knife into a gathering of nerves and they're down in no time." Night remarked with a smug tone to her voice as she backed up towards Red Arrow. The two were back to back, fighting together.
"Thanks. But don't think that means you get a get out of jail free card." Red Arrow remarked, making Night laugh as she fought behind him.
"You haven't been able to catch me before, Red. So what makes you think you can catch me now?" Her voice was smooth like silk, and her calm demeanor made Red even more irritated.
Within a matter of minutes, there was only one man left standing, and he nearly pissed himself at the sight of six members of the League and a highly skilled thief staring him down. He whimpered loudly, and Night chuckled slightly.
Before any of the Young Justice League could react, Night sprinted towards him, slashed his chest, kicked him in the head, and then used him as a platform to spring off of the edge of the museum.
"See you later Red!" She shouted as she disappeared into the darkness.
Red Arrow as about to chase after her, but Robin grabbed his shoulder.
"She'll be around Red. We'll get her." He said softly. Red Arrow growled, and pulled his shoulder away sharply before running over the edge of the building, and disappearing as well.
Three reviews and three Chapters! I'm loving writing this story and I hope you guys like it too.