I totally forgot that the Bat-family were morning people, so when I stumbled from the guest bedroom, bleary-eyed and yawning, my hair a complete blonde tornado, I was very surprised to see Jason and Nightwing, looking awake and perky, obviously arguing. They looked at me when came to the kitchen, both of them with an irritating smirk on their face.
Great, now I had two guys smirking at me.
I gave them a customary glare, and then poured myself a glass of orange juice.
"When are we leaving?" I said my voice raspier than usual because I had just woken up.
"Now," Jason replied, taking the glass away from me while I protested. He threw me a piece of toast and nodded at Nightwing, who slung an arm around m good-naturedly.
"Stop scowling, it was your idea to trust him," Nightwing whispered in my ear. He then pulled on his mask and threw mine at me. He surprised me by pulling me to him, and then kissed my briefly, just a peck on the lips. I looked at Jason almost immediately, feeling unexplainably guilty. Jason scowled at us, and looked away pointedly.
"Lead the way, Todd." Nightwing said in mock-politeness, bowing low.
Jason sneered, and stalked out of the room. I glared at Nightwing and hurried up to catch up with Jason.
"So, who's this friend of yours?" I asked, trying to get a conversation started.
"Just someone I know. She's an alien, of sorts. More of a magical kind; not like Martian Manhunter. Anyway, her specialty is dimension travelling, and she could probably get us there much faster than Zatanna," he replied curtly.
I gave up on conversation and we lapsed into silence as we ran through Bludhaven. It was unnerving, to see a town so violent at night so peaceful in the day. Of course, we mostly stuck to the shadows, not wanting to alert to anyone that there were three vigilantes parading in their town. It was somehow nice to have them by my side, though I could Jason still had a scowl on his face and Nightwing was looking between me and Jason, trying to figure things out.
Honestly, it was like I was starring in my own soap opera.
I mean, I had always been close to Dick, even while he was Robin. I had been with Wally for a while, and then Jason came barrelling in, making me feel giddy whenever he had talked to me. After the break-up with Wally, I had a bit of a thing for Jason, and we were pretty close. I mean, really close. But after he died, and I had the huge fight with Batman, it was Dick who was always there for me. I had just begun to accept the fact that I liked Dick, I liked him a lot.
I still liked Dick, but with Jason in the picture, my love life was getting a tad… complicated.
Jason stopped suddenly and I crashed into him, nearly falling over. He rolled his eyes as he steadied me. "Really, Artemis, I don't know how you survived as an assassin."
"Huntress now," I corrected peevishly.
Jason's eyebrows rose, and I blushed, thinking about how he was the one who had suggested I take up my mother's name in the first place. That was a good time.
Jason knocked on the door of an ugly, wooden house that looked like it was rotting away. The door swung open, and a girl with a soft, gravelly voice said, "Come in."
The house smelt like incense, but the housekeeping was terrible. The place was rotting away; mould growing on the wooden beams. Jason and Nightwing ploughed ahead, but I wrinkled my nose in disgust. How hard is it to pay for housekeeping or something? I wondered. I felt a low laugh vibrating through my ear.
"Look away from the mould, 'Mis. I promise you can clean it later," Nightwing said in a low voice.
I hit him on the shoulder and walked on ahead, trying to ignore the insects crawling all over the place. Talk about a creepy mansion.
Jason led us to the main sitting room, where a girl in a blue robe was sitting cross-legged, eyes closed and hovering a few inches off the ground.
"Hey Raven," Jason said amiably.
The girl didn't open her eyes, she just frowned, "What do you want, Red Hood?" she asked through gritted teeth.
"My friends have a little dimension problem. We're wondering if you could send us in through a dimension and then take us out again," Jason said.
The girl, Raven, opened her eyes. She glared at Jason, looked at me, and then stared a little too appreciatively at Nightwing. My eyes narrowed at her and I couldn't help but lace my fingers through his.
"You're looking for the Justice League, aren't you? I felt a magical presence when that huge burst of light came from space. I've tracked them down, but it will be difficult rescuing them," Raven said gravely.
"Look, can you get us there or not?" I snapped, flicking my hair back as I eyed her purple locks.
"Of course." she said coolly, glaring at me.
Without further ado, she closed her eyes and muttered something, not like Zatanna, who just said things backwards. A huge, dark hole appeared from nowhere and Nightwing, Jason and I were sucked in.
We landed in a tangled of arms, legs and hair (okay, mostly my hair.) We hit compact ground, but I didn't feel it because I was tangled somewhere between Jason and Nightwing. I felt my foot connect with someone's knee as an elbow hit my rib cage. We managed to roll around for a bit, trying to get free.
Jason managed to roll of us, spitting out a mouthful of my hair in the process. Suddenly, I was on top of Nightwing, our faces inches apart.
"Really guys, now is not the time," Jason drawled from behind us and we sprang apart, blushing (okay, I was blushing. Nightwing just looked kind of pissed.)
"Geez, Artemis. You just had to piss off Raven. Now, I'm stuck in a different dimension with you two. Nightmares really do come true," Jason said bitterly.
"Knock it off Jason. Going to her was your idea," I retorted.
"Look, both of you. We're stuck in a different dimension. Let's pretend to get along, rescue the Justice League and get out of here!" Nightwing snapped at both of us, his voice changing to the more mature one that I had associated him with when he was being team leader.
I glared at Nightwing and muttered under my breath. It was a bit rich for him to tell me to stop fighting with Jason, when he was trying to kill him just yesterday.
I looked around at my surroundings. Everything was bare, just desert all around me. It reminded me of the time we got amnesia in Biyalia. Nightwing pulled out a gadget from his utility belt, and started pointing it around in different directions. He suddenly stopped and smiled, and then began to walk away.
"Wait! Nightwing! Where are you going?" I yelled, running after him.
Nightwing pulled out the gizmo, showing it to me proudly.
"This handy little gadget is the sister gadget to Batman's. We've both got one, and if we're within 100 k's of each other this little gadget will tell us where the other one is," he said happily.
Jason snorted behind him, pulling his red helmet over his face.
"Obviously he didn't have that thing while I was being murdered by the Joker. Or maybe he did, and he didn't really care," Jason said angrily.
"You know that's not true Jason. Bruce spent a lot of time looking for you," Nightwing said gently.
"And very little time replacing me," Jason said, rolling his eyes. He grabbed my hand and started walking forwards, and I unconsciously grabbed Nightwing's hand, "Come on. Let's go find the stupid League."
He started dragging us along, and we walked through the desert hand in hand, like little kindergarten children.
Okay, this was the best I could do with this chapter; I'm starting to lose confidence in this story! Oh well, I promise to finish it, even if it turns out lame! PLEASE REVIEW!