AN: OMG! I JUST GOT MY FIRST KISS THIS VALENTINE'S DAY! IT'S THE BEST DAY EVER! OH MY CHESIRE! Anywho, sorry it took so long to update. I was grounded for two days and this chapter has a lot of action. If you don't quite understand what I'm trying to say, just change Robin's outfit in 'Homefront' and switch some of the dialogue around and you're golden.
Disclaimer: Me no own. *SOB*
Artemis hurried down the dark alley, bow in hand. She had had a stressful day at that snob magnet of a school, and right now, she didn't want to be Artemis 'the charity case', she wanted to be the Artemis 'the hero'. She paused at the abandoned telephone booth, hand reaching for the door, but stopped when she heard an all too familiar voice saying, "Artemis?"
Spinning around, she saw a small, black-clad figure and instantly recognized him. "Whisper! I- uh..."
"How random that you're in Gotham City, instead of Star City, where your uncle Green Arrow lives?," Whisper interrupted.
Artemis panicked and stuttered, "I-uhh...came to see my cou-," she stopped mid-sentence, suddenly realizing something. "Hey, wait a minute! You know about my family! You said so when we met you!" His mischievous smirk egged her on. "And what are you even doing here?"
Rolling his eyes, Whisper replied calmly, "I had to pick up some money I left behind at my old apartment."
Artemis scoffed, "Fine, let's just go to the Cave."
The younger bowed mockingly and said, "Ladies first."
"Your younger. You go."
Whisper shrugged, then walked into the booth. He disappeared with a flash of yellow light as a female voice announced, "Recognized: Whisper B-0-7." Artemis followed, totally unaware as to what awaited her on the other side.
Whisper had expected to have a nice, peaceful afternoon at the Cave. He did not, however, expect to be attacked by a ball of fire. He dodged to the side, throwing his newly dubbed 'whisps' as he went. When the Zeta Tube announced Artemis' arrival, he shouted, "Get down," and backflipped in front of her. Tossing two more whisps, he heard metallic thunks before another fireball erupted from the smoke.
The pair dodged, both pulling out their weapons and aiming at where they thought their enemy to be. After they were forced to dodge yet another fireball, two figures appeared in the smoke and he heard the archer yell, "Who are we fighting?"
Slightly out of breath, he backed up beside her, and replied urgently, "Don't know, but we're sitting ducks by these tubes. Head for the exit!" With that he dashed off, hearing her footsteps right behind him. They safely avoided two streams of fire, but both stopped in their tracks when a large wave crashed right in front of them. "...Or not."
The pair started running back the way they came, but the water crashed into their backs, pulling them under. After a few underwater somersaults, Whisper and Artemis crashed into a wall, catching their breath as the water receded. Not wasting any time, they rose to their feet and started running.
Whisper heard fireballs hitting the puddles on the ground and the sound of an arrow flying told him Artemis had found her bow. He headed down the hallway, turning into the training room with the blonde at his heels. Pressing the comm. unit that Batman had insisted he had, he said urgently, "Whisper to Team! Come in! Aqualad!" The silence from behind him told Whisper that his companion was attempting to reach M'gann.
The sound of ripping metal gave him barely any warning before he and Artemis were tossed roughly to the ground by a funnel of fire. Without hesitation, they both rose again and ran into the locker rooms. While they dodged the funnel, Whisper pressed his comm. unit once again and said, rather exasperated, "Whisper to Batcave. Override W4." Their entrance to the tiled showers didn't deter his focus, even when he began to turn each knob to the shower heads. "Cave calling Justice League. H-O-J slash Watchtower. B-0-7 Priority Red." He was greeted by static. Great. The codes Batman had nailed into his head didn't work. Just perfect.
Speaking to Artemis now, he backed to the center of the shower room and stated, "The comm. is down. Locked. At least the water's helping." Just as he finished talking, the pipes began groaning. Water busted out of each shower head, quickly filling the small room. "...Or not."
The funnel hadn't followed them in, but it waited at the doorway, blocking their only obvious exit. Taking a deep breath and submerging when the water reached the ceiling, Whisper decided it was time to make a less obvious exit. He pulled an exploding wisp from the sleek belt around his waist and swam over to the wall. Whisper stuck the disc to the wall, hurriedly backing up when it emitted a high beeping sound.
One boom later, Artemis and Whisper were on their knees, coughing out the little water they had swallowed. After a few seconds, they rose soundlessly and began to make their way down the hallway.
The words of his old mentor echoed in Whisper's head. 'When you are up against a stronger opponent, you do NOT engage. Stay hidden, find their weakness, and dictate the terms.' Arriving at the kitchen entrance, he told Artemis, "We need to get lost."
Whisper watched as her eyes scanned the room and couldn't help but feel impressed when she exclaimed, "The air vents!"
"Good! Go!" As the archer dashed towards the stove, Whisper turned to the computer tablet on the wall and wirelessly hooked his glove up to it. He heard the clank of metal as Artemis pulled the grate free, before she asked, "What are you-"
"Downloading Cave blueprints," he replied hurriedly and turned to look at her from the corner of his eye. "Could come in-." A metallic clanking cut him off. He turned off his holo-computer and whispered, "Go, go!" Whisper quickly followed Artemis up the shaft, pulling up his newly downloaded map when he reached level ground.
"Go left." Artemis obeyed, with the teen close behind. Right as he turned the corner, a blast of fire went down the shaft he was just in. Letting out a breath of relief, he muttered, "Too close."
Whisper turned around and told his companion, "Take the first right." He had memorized the quickest route to the boiler room, which, hopefully, wouldn't be occupied by whatever they were fighting. Pulling up the hologram, he called, "There should be a vent cover right in front of you." The archer pulled it off and disappeared down a chute.
The pair landed on the grated walkway; Artemis with a clang and Whisper with nothing but silence. He pulled up the blueprints yet again and giving Artemis a quick, "This way," dashed off down the closest stairway. Once they were on the lower walkway, an explosion caught their attention. Right where they had just been a few moments ago, was a large fire, with a crouched figure in the middle. It rose, and after looking around, put its hands up over its head, the flames spreading as the shape did so.
Artemis and Whisper took off further down the walkway and jumped the railing onto ground level. The stood with their back pressed to the closest machinery until a loud beeping caught their attention. The pair looked over to see the machine monitors next to them rising to a dangerous red.
Whisper, a little exasperatedly, said, "That's not good," and rounded the corner to get away from it, Artemis following. The ran past the equipment, luckily avoiding the scalding hot steam coming from the pipes. However, as they passed under the figure still perched on the walkway, she let out consecutive streams of fire at them.
They ducked behind a hexagon-shaped machine, barely avoiding another ball of fire, and Whisper pulled up his holo-computer. "I know that other access tunnel is here somewhere."
His attention was captured by Artemis sassily saying, "You mean this one?" Whisper followed without a word, but did leave an exploding whisp as a present for their adversary.
Artemis and Whisper dropped into the tunnels once again, Whisper immediately noticing a USB opening on the side. Telling Artemis to, "Hold on," he took his knife (He always carried one, no matter what) and pried it open. The teen took one of the concealed plugs off of his glove and plugged it in. Pulling up the hologram, he got to work, typing rapidly.
"Locking out Cave's motion and heat sensors to keep the enemy from tracking us." He was secretly glad that he actually remembered to include Artemis in his virtual whereabouts.
"And I ask again, who is the enemy?"
Flashing a smirk in her direction, Whisper replied, "Let's find out. Downloading Cave security footage." Four rectangular images popped up and he said, "There," as the top right one grew to cover the entire screen.
What's Happening on the Screen
Kid Flash was working on Superboy's bike while the clone, Miss Martian, and Sphere watched. Aqualad could be seen coming into view as the makeshift-mecanic said, "Torque wrench." Upon receiving it via telekinesis, he flashed a flirty smile and said, "Thank you, Green Cheeks."
Aquald arrived at the gathering, and questioned, "I have been meaning to ask. Any problems juggling school work with your responsibilities here?"
"Nope."
"Juggling's just one of my many talents. Socket wrench."
"Daily cheerleader practice has presented a challenge. Oh- But my first loyalty is always to the Team. This team- not the Bumblebees.
Aqualad then said, "Artemis starts school today, and Whisper has gone to retrieve something from Gotham. Do you think they will have trouble maintaining their loyalties?"
Artemis' eyes narrowed and Whisper tried not to feel angry. After all, he was used to being treated like he couldn't be trusted.
Screen
Wally rose to his feet and said, "Nah, they'll manage alright. I mean, how much more hostile and annoying can Artemis g-." The speedster were interrupted when an explosion knocked the group off their feet and turned the camera to fuzzy static.
"What happened," Artemis asked, all anger forgotten.
Whisper hurriedly replied, "Explosion took out the camera. I'll find another angle." He started typing once again, and the pair watched as, on screen, water attacked their teammates and took out the first two cameras, while fire took out the last.
"That's it. All four are dead."
Catching Artemis' terrified look, he quickly corrected his statement. "The cameras, I-I meant the cameras. I-I'm sure the others are okay. Just, give me a sec to find the fastest route to the hangar."
The teen heard Artemis try to reassure herself by saying, "Yeah, they're fine. They've all got superpowers They can handle anything."
Whisper didn't bother to remind her that even Superman has a weakness.
Whisper removed a piece of paneling from the top of the bookshelf in the library. The pair jumped down and started descending the staircase, Whisper telling his comrade, "There's a secret passage behind one of these bookcases."
"Seriously? Cliche much?"
Smirking as he walked past rows of books, he replied, "You should see the Batcave." It was true, last time his was at Bruce's place, he had downloaded the blueprints, with permission of course (Not).
A slight sound brought the pair into battle stances, each drawing their respective weapons. They turned and ran, ducking behind a ransom bookshelf. Whisper heard metallic clanking and robotic voice called, "Artemis. Whisper."
The teen knew something wasn't up. If Red Tornado was here, then why wasn't there any sounds of fighting before now? It didn't fit. Unfortunately, Artemis didn't have the same thoughts.
Excitedly, she exclaimed, "It's Red Tornado," and dashed out from behind the bookcase, her eyes widening when she saw the impostor.
Whisper took his opening and pulled Artemis into a roll underneath a table, saying as he did so, "Yes on the 'red'. No on the 'tornado'."
The adolescents ran, only to be cut off by yet another crimson robot, this one female. Artemis and Whisper dodged the flames sent at them and quickly climbed the bookshelf. The hopped from case to case, Artemis yelling, "Who- what are they?"
The sprinklers turned on and Whisper felt water soak his hair-again. He jumped down into a row and began looking at the books' spines. Behind him, he heard the tell-tale sign of Artemis holding off their attackers, and wooden thumps alerted Whisper to the cases toppling over. The archer landed beside him and he finally discovered the book he was looking for. Jiggling the spine, a passageway appeared, and Artemis jumped into it, narrowly avoiding the falling shelf.
The pair descended into yet another tunnel, though this one was considerably bigger, and Whisper heard Artemis question, "Did you know Tornado had...siblings?"
Whisper replied with a simple, "No." Red Tornado was the one hero that the Talons had never trained him how to beat, and that was not good for their situation. Reaching a crossroad, Whisper turned left, only to feel a strong grip on his wrist. He turned around, slightly annoyed, to look at Artemis.
"So now what? Red Tornado is one of the powerhouses of the League. How are we supposed to take down two of him?"
Feeling the need to lighten mood, the youngest joked, "They do seem pretty user-unfriendly."
Apparently, the archer would have none of it. "Don't joke. They-."
She was cut off by the overhead speaker announcing in a monotone voice, "Attention Whisper. Attention Artemis. You have exactly ten minutes to surrender, or the lives of your teammates will be extinguished."
Whisper and Artemis exchanged a glance. Things just got a lot harder.
Artemis and Whisper dashed along the corridor, the latter explaining what the plan was (Why did he have to come up with the plan anyway?). "We can access the hangar from here."
The sound of rushing water caught the pair's attention and they turned around to see a torrent of water rushing towards them. "...Or not."
"Will you please stop saying that?" The pair broke into a run, which proved useless when they were smacked in the back by pressured water.
Whisper immediately retrieved his rebreather from his utility belt and started swimming towards Artemis. Grabbing her wrists to get her attention, he let her have a turn to breathe while he looked around, searching for an attacker. Whisper was alerted to danger when Artemis was jerked from his grasp and she let out a yelp. Grabbing one of her arrows, he swam forward and stuck it in the robot's eye, before turning around and launching his grappling gun (Batman had modified it so it was sticky instead of a hook now). It attached to the far wall, pulling the pair with it. A few explosions alerted Whisper to the fact that the whisps he had left behind had gone off.
Whisper and Artemis surfaced, inhaling desperately. "Look out," was yelled, causing the two to notice the fireball heading towards them. Ducking beneath the water, they swam over to where Kid Flash and Superboy were being held by melted steel.
"You guys okay," Whisper asked.
"Forget us! Help M'gann!"
They looked up to see a cage of fire encasing the Team's resident Atlantean and Martian. "Aqualad," Artemis called, "is she-."
"She is unconscious. I fear she- we- cannot survive much longer."
The sudden arrival of the fire-robot-lady prevented them from responding. Artemis and Whisper dived to avoid the stream of fire. They came up for air and began to climb the half submerged staircase. However, they were blocked at both ends by their adversaries.
Readying their weapons, Artemis turned back to Whisper. "I'm almost out of arrows."
A plan formulating in his head, Whisper said, "Distract her, now!" Turning back to the water-robot, he threw two wisps as Artemis shot an arrow. They glanced off, and Whisper inwardly smirked when one landed right by Kid Flash's ear. His victory was short lived, though, and the two non-metas jumped into the water to avoid the attacks launched at them.
Whisper headed straight for the grate that led to the vents, Artemis right behind him. They both resurfaced, gasping for breath, and silently thanked their rigorous underwater training. The pair climbed into the first horizontal vent they came to and sat, still regaining their breath.
A robotic voice announcing, "Six minutes," calmed their breathing.
"What do we do now?"
Whisper narrowed his eyes and turned to the archer. "We save them. That's how it works." That's how he wanted to work. This wasn't like the Talons, and while it was easier only watching out for himself, he didn't have anyone that cared about him their.
That didn't sit well with Artemis. "Maybe that's how it's supposed to work, but those robots already took out our four super-powered friends!"
"You seem distraught." Why not try to lighten the mood?
"Distraught? M'gann is dying, we have no powers, and I'm down to my last arrow! OF COURSE I'M DISTRAUGHT!"
Losing her cool wasn't the answer to their problems, and without thinking, Whisper replied, "Well get traught, or get dead."
Whisper already had used whelmed and aster around the Team, so Artemis brushed it off. Instead, she questioned, "How can you be so calm?" He was two years younger than her and he refused to panic.
Whisper started to crawl away, replying over his shoulder. "Practice. I've been going through worse since I was nine."
Following, Artemis asked, "What good is that now? What chance do we have against unrelenting machines?"
Her statement unintentionally gave Whisper an epiphany. "Oh, duh!" Pausing in his crawling, he began to think aloud. "They're machines!" He turned to look at Artemis. "And one electro-magnetic pulse will shut down any machine within range." Whisper mentally applauded the fact that they actually had a plan now.
"Great," Artemis said, tone scathing. "But you better have an EMP emitter in your utility belt, because I know I don't have one in my quiver."
"I'm fresh out. But I'm bettin' we can make one." Pressing a finger to his comm. unit, he asked, "What do you say, KF? Doable?"
He heard Kid Flash's impressed voice say, "Totally doable," into the wisp he had planted.
But the speedster was interrupted by an announcement of, "Five minutes."
"You know, if you had more time."
Whisper decided he would fair well against these odds; the Team's lives were on the line.
Whisper pushed the paneling in the Med Lab onto the floor. Crawling out, he heard Kid Flash's whispered instructions.
"Med lab, X-rar machine." He and Artemis hurried over, and the former crouched down by the side of the piece of equipment. "You'll find a small vacuum tube called a vircator that converts high energy pulses." Whisper plugged his glove into the machine and pulled up his holo-computer. "Reprogram units microwave conversion from x-rays into EMPs..." Completing the speedster's instructions, he unhooked and powered down his glove before gripping the vircator. "...with the cascading energy vector directed outward." Whisper turned the cylinder ninety degrees and carefully removed it.
He suddenly realized just what the ginger was telling him to do. "A ripple effect. Like dropping a stone in a pond."
"A stone with ten-to-the-twelfth power wattage, yeah."
Whisper, having already pulled up the Cave blueprints, eyed the gridded image of the mountain's main generator. "So I'll need to hook it up to the Cave's main generator."
He powered down his glove, knowing exactly where he was going. "Which is where," Artemis questioned.
Whisper didn't answer immediately, instead just mulled over the fact that things just got a lot harder.
Whisper jumped lithely down from the vents to the hallway that led to the hangar, Artemis following. Activating his earpiece, he whispered, "Okay, make with the distraction." The teen vaguely heard Kid Flash mention tomatoes and onions, but was too occupied with the task at hand to really focus. With a simple, "Cover me," Whisper had a line attached to the Cave wall and was swinging his way towards the generator.
Placing the vircator in its desired location, he quickly hooked up his glove and said, "Rerouting power now." Whisper looked out at the robots, waiting for them to collapse, but when nothing happened, he turned back to the equipment. "It's not working." The youth soon found the issue and began murmuring into his earpiece. "Circuits incomplete. I need something conductible." As he spoke, he began to search through his utility belt for something that could work. "A piece of metal or-."
He was cut short by Artemis hollering, "Whisper, look out!"
Whisper only had enough time to rise before he was swamped by water. He slammed into the generator and let out a strangled cry as the breath was expelled from his lungs. He tried to find the way up, the way out, but it seemed everything was just water. Whisper vaguely remembered what he had been trained to do in these situations, and became perfectly still. He felt a feeling of weightlessness, and he desperately hoped that the robot would get him out of the water soon. Unfortunately, his prayers were not answered. Water soon worked its way down his throat, and all he knew was darkness.
The first thing Whisper registered when he regained consciousness was coldness-he was freezing and wet. Opening his eyes to slits, he realized his location immediately. The robots had their backs to him, and he knew that even if he needed to cough to get the water out of his lungs, he couldn't. One of the first things he had learned from the Talons was that when captured, outmatched, and waiting for back-up, pretend you are beaten. Silently moving his hand off his chest so he could at least breathe a tiny bit easier, he let himself fall back into half-conciousness.
The teen remained half awake throughout a series of noises and bright colors. He only became completely aware of his surroundings when he felt hands lightly brush his chest and forehead. They were warm hands, not cold and metallic. Realizing that the Reds were beaten, he finally allowed himself to choke the liquid from his respiratory system.
Whisper heard Artemis, sounding extremely relieved, announce, "He's-he's breathing, too."
Taking a few deep breaths, Whisper turned to the blond archer, and giving her a small smile, said, "Wait to get traught."
Whisper couldn't help but feel warm-hearted when Artemis let out a breath of happiness. It felt good to have someone actually care about his well-being.
Whisper observed the circle of heroes as he finished explaining what happened while they were trapped. "...Figured my only chance was to 'surrender'. Pretend to drown before I actually did. Blacked out though."
The adolescent watched as Superboy and Miss Martian had a sweet romantic moment. He absentmindedly wondered whether they had kissed or not, before turning to look at the archer and speedster.
Whisper's attention was drawn away from Artemis and Wally's arguing when Red Tornado's voice came from the Cave's entrance. "All machines present at the time." Landing by the Team, the robot asked, "What has occurred?"
Whisper turned to face the villains of the afternoon. He replied, albeit, a bit unhappily, "Had a little visit from your family."
The youth silently agreed with Artemis' sassy comment of, "Your extremely nasty family."
"I was not aware I had relations." Wow, sarcasm was no fun with a robot around.
"Where have you been," asked Superboy.
"Monitor duty on the Watchtower. When it became clear the Cave communications were down, I attempted to investigate. But your Zeta Tubes were also non-functional." Kneeling next to his siblings, Red Tornado continued. "I transported to Providence and proceeded here."
He was interrupted by a whirring noise and Sphere, who had been trapped in the wall, finally broke free and was greeted by Superboy's, "Hey boy."
The laser in Artemis' grasp unexpectedly went off, and simultaneously, Whisper and Kid Flash turned to each other. "The pulse has warn off!"
The Team turned to the invaders, only to be greeted by Red Tornado rising and creating two tornados. Whisper stumbled a few steps, gasping as the oxygen was forcibly grabbed from the room. Black spots began to dance along his vision and he collapsed to his knees next to Aqualad. Finally, darkness overtook him, and Whisper collapsed, seriously sick of passing out by now.
The gentle shaking of his shoulder was what aroused Whisper. Blinking his eyes open, he saw Bruce's cowled face looking down at him in concern. Whisper saw the unasked question clearly, and nodding his head to let the Bat know he was alright, he rose to his feet. Batman also stood and the pair locked eyes, having a silent conversation.
A slightly furrowed eyebrow. "Are you sure you're alright?"
A small smirk. "Yep. I'm whelmed."
The tiniest of scowls. "Why do you insist on using those words?"
The smirk widened. "'Cause I'm just that asterous."
The microscopic movement around the cowl's lenses let Whisper know Bruce was rolling his eyes. Figured.
The teen heard Superman arouse Artemis, and was expecting for her to say, "What happened?The Reds happened! Tornado and his- wait where are they?"
Turning around to face the distressed archer, Whisper answered, adding a sense of foreboding to the room.
"Gone. All three of them. Gone."
AN: I used to love this episode because it had so much Robin in it, but now, I'm cursing its Robin-ness. This took forever to write. UHHHHH! Anywho, whatevs, cause I'm finally done!
WARNING: SPOILERS FOR 'COMPLICATIONS' EPISODE!
Oh yeah, Nightwing! You do that detective and flipping stuff! Snap that Birdarang in fourths even! EEEEPPPPP! *SIGH* Why can't the description for 'The Hunt' say "A single awesome acrobat is put to the test when he sends himself behind enemy lines: to rescue the team!" I mean come on! I love that they actually have Nightwing BATGLARING for heaven's sake, but still! Now we just need some but kicking action! (I seriously hope that action occurs next episode with an unnamed character *COUGH* Blue Beetle *COUGH*)
Anyways, happy Valentine's Day (Mine was certainly happy, 'cause, you know, first kiss and all)! Later, and I'll try to update soon.
-GSDLover