Disclaimer- Do not own Young Justice or any of it's characters.
ARTEMIS POV TIME!
Some pretty interesting stuff in this chapter, methinks. I'm kinda proud of this one, I rather like the conversations and hope you guys like it too!
I'm sure if you haven't already guessed what's up with Arty in previous chapters, you'll definitely know in this one, haha.
I really, really appreciate reviews, they keep me motivated to edit my chapters each week and get them up on time! Please enjoy and let me know what you think.
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Chapter Length: 5,585 words
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The faster Artemis Lian Crock got the maximum amount of distance possible between herself and Wally West's apartment complex, the better off everyone within that distance would be.
She flew down the steps, out of breath, taking them two, three, four at a time, ignoring the feel of her damp skin scratching against his baggy clothes. Four flights, five flights, her breasts bouncing freely beneath the massively oversized Stanford sweatshirt that, if she was being real here, he was probably never going to see again.
Finally, the blonde reached the last set of stairs. At that moment the pants that she had painstakingly rolled up at the ankles before starting her mad dash down the levels decided to unfurl, catching her feet and causing her to be flung bodily down the last five steps. Artemis yelped out in surprise, barely catching herself at an angle that stopped her from snapping one of her ankles like a twig.
She caught herself against the far wall, staggering painfully. Her vision swam.
"Son of a bitch," Artemis hissed, her free hand moving up to clutch desperately at her stinging wound. Pinpricks of tears clung to the corners of her eyes as she rested her weight on the wall.
She had been putting on one hell of a show for the freckled man, making it seem like she was feeling one hundred percent better. It wasn't in her nature to show signs of physical weakness, because where she came from that sort of thing would get you slaughtered real quick. Acting as if the wound had healed had also been a means of escaping the redhead without having to endure his fussing and fighting with her over it, and still it had barely worked.
Not that she couldn't have used force to get herself out, but she felt she had owed him a civil departure at the very least; knocking him out cold to escape hadn't been a plan she'd enjoyed contemplating, if only for the strain it would've put on her.
She had spent most of her night waking in writhing pain, tossing and turning all over his lumpy couch like that would dull the ache. She hadn't even meant to let herself rest in his home like that. It made her blood seethe for lowering her guard; what a big mistake to make, allowing her body to succumb to sleep in the house of a stranger she barely knew.
Wally could have done anything to her at any time of the night, but a more logical part of her had argued back that Wally had risked himself saving her, so why would he try to hurt her?
It didn't even matter. Her plan had been to escape while he was asleep, but her body had betrayed her in the end, and she could have reaped the penalty for it had he been someone less honest.
Or someone that knew too much.
Panting, Artemis shifted along the wall, resting her shoulder against it as she lifted the sweatshirt up high enough to observe her gauze. New blood was soaking into it. She cursed again at the deep crimson hue.
She had tried to be careful when she had commandeered his shower. The soap, however, had inevitably rolled down her abdomen and straight into the scooped out area of flesh. It had taken everything in her power not to scream out like a dying animal; and believe her, she knew what that was like. Instead she had settled for biting into her lip so hard it had bled, pounding her palm repeatedly against the shower tiles until it subsided.
Artemis would like to blame the soap and her shoddy re-patching job on the fresh bleeding and pain, but in reality she knew it was because of the silver. That godforsaken element that could bite into her skin like nothing else, punching through it more effectively than any bullet, and spreading fire like cobra venom through her body in a matter of seconds. The rash surrounding it had spread quite extensively over the course of the night, and even now she could see it advancing out from the edges of the grazed area, creeping up her skin.
It was a lucky thing that the bullet had not pierced directly into her body and lodged itself there. If it had, no amount of ambulances or ridiculously nice redheaded men would have been able to save her. Not even the removal of the bullet would have reversed the poison that would have penetrated directly into her vital organs and snuffed out her life in moments.
As it was, even just a grazing like the one she sustained would have taken her out if she had been left there for much longer.
A thought which brought her to a very important question: in what kind of fucked up world did lanky, freckled redheaded men run toward the sound of gunshots, rather than away from them? Especially in Gotham City, where crime was so bad that people had simply learned to ignore it, to pretend there was no tragedy until it was a loved one being shown carried in a coffin on the news.
Clearly, he was an idiot looking for a death sentence and there was little else to it.
Artemis, still hunched and breathing deeply to try and steady her pounding, pulsing injury, looked down at the large block letters glaring brightly at her from the hoodie. She snorted violently, tugging it back down over her stomach.
He went to Stanford for Fenrir's sake; wasn't he supposed to be smarter than that?
Wally should never have wasted his time on the likes of her. It wasn't that she had no gratitude for what he had done for her, the risk he had put himself in to make sure she got some sort of treatment despite her protests. She was; a lot more than she cared to admit.
The problem was that someone as nice and normal as Wallace Rudolph West should never get involved with someone like her. Him and his stupid, peppery freckles, sticking himself right in the line of danger for some naked woman he had found bleeding out in the dirty water. One look at his apartment, (and oh, she'd looked) had told her very quickly that "Wally West: Recipient of the Stanford Science Award" wouldn't last even one second stepping into the world she knew.
Which was why getting back to her… family before they really missed her would be doing them both one hell of a favor. She didn't want the admittedly attractive geek getting an unwarranted visit in the middle of the night, one that could end in his life being taken from him just for making contact with her long enough to save her life.
The sound of heavy footfalls on the steps pulled Artemis out of her wavering thoughts, filling her with the urgency she needed to get herself moving. Swallowing her pain down, she shouldered her way out the main door and onto the baking sidewalks of Gotham, where the sun was evaporating the last evidences of the storm and filling the air with muggy heat.
Artemis did her best to blend in with the throngs of Gothamites trying to get to their jobs, but the city was the world's worst for staring openly at things it deemed out of the norm. Apparently blonde women dressed in incredibly baggy clothes with no shoes on was considered way more stare worthy than a criminal running along the opposite sidewalk carrying a bag of money and a gun.
Which is exactly what happened at one point. It was enough to make Artemis mentally face palm, and wonder how in the world the slums could be considered any more criminally bloated than any other part of the city.
Or at least, she wondered that before she remembered her family lived there.
Oh yeah, she thought bitterly. That's why.
Artemis was every bit as guilty for the slums reputation as the rest, much as it hurt her heart to admit. But where she came from, that was how you survived; you did what you had to do, even if it meant hurting someone else, even if it meant defying every kind of authority that stepped into your life. She wasn't proud of it, and she'd do anything to get away.
But she was cursed, so that's where she'd stay.
The most she could do, the most she had been doing for the past six months, was to try and fight back for the people she had once helped intimidate with fear.
It was a start, at least.
By this point, Artemis had reached the invisible divide between Bibbo's Diner and the slums. She came to an abrupt halt when she noticed a ruckus across the street, one that involved police tape, blue uniforms, and a crowd of people that she knew was far more concerned with the gruesome details than the loss of life.
Her blood ran cold.
Her feet carried her over to the scene of the crime before she could stop them. Numbly, she pushed her way through the crowd until she could see the grisly scene. A body that had yet to be hidden from the public eye, covered in all manner of slashes, bruises, and bite marks from head to toe, clothes ripped open by them.
Like a mauling.
Artemis could smell the blood and death from where she was feet away, just as clearly as if she were standing inches from it. There were other familiar smells there, ones that made her nostrils flare; she knew those smells, knew exactly who they belonged to and thusly who had ended this man's life.
In an instant, she knew far more than the cops would ever hope to know.
Artemis's steel eyes flicked to the buildings surrounding the crime scene, her muscles tense. She half expected to see them perched on one of the roofs, catching her eye and grinning like they'd left her a present on her front porch. But there was nothing and no one, and even as she felt relief at their absence she had known that the scents were faint.
This was done hours ago.
"They're saying he committed suicide. Jumped right off the top of a building."
"That's a lie, he looks mangled!"
"Wild dogs lose in Gotham? That's the last thing we need; mongrels trained for blood."
"Come on, we all know what's really behind this. The law around here just wants to shut it all up."
"Tt! I know what you're getting at, sir, and there's no such thing!"
"The evidence is right across the yellow tape. Keep lying to yourself, bud, but I've lost a buddy in the slums before. He knew too much, and he ended up just like this poor sap."
Artemis wished she could close her ears off to the gossip surrounding her. She wanted to snap at them all to shut up, shut up before they got heard by the wrong people.
I've got to get away from here.
The blonde let her eyes rove over the scene one last time, snapping up to the three blue-uniformed cops milling around the body, talking in hushed whispers. One of them was a tall, broad shouldered man who had his head tilted so close to his redheaded companion that his dark ebony bangs brushed her forehead. Artemis watched them, wondering what they could be saying, what conclusions they could be drawing.
Probably not even close to what actually happened.
It was like the dark-haired cop could sense her thoughts, and next thing she knew her eyes were being met by icy blue ones. Blue ones that lingered in her direction, widening slightly.
Artemis held the gaze for a moment, then turned and left, dodging her way back out of the onlookers.
She walked quickly, but slowly enough that she wouldn't appear too suspicious. Every hammer of her heart sent painful pulsing into her wound; she could envision it as fuel that encouraged her rash to spread further with each thump.
She purposefully avoided peering into the alleyway where Wally had found her crashing drunkenly into the trash cans. It was a miracle that she was walking right on through to the slums, feet slapping against the concrete from the purpose in her steps. She had half been expecting that blue eyed cop came chasing after her, demanding her to stop for looking so very odd and nosy.
Or for marching into the slums like she owned the place.
Luckily, he didn't, and Artemis was far beyond the crowds before she sensed that she wasn't alone.
The scents assailed her nostrils, providing her with an early warning system. Knowing that they would chase her until they could get a hold of her somewhere privately, the blonde grit her teeth, sighing and altering her course toward a disused convenient store. She lifted one of the wooden boards up, crawling her way in before letting it slam back into place. She huffed in annoyance, putting on the best 'I'm-not-about-to-cry-from-fucking-excruciating-pain' look she could muster.
And not a moment too soon.
There was a loud crash from the old loft above. Pounding steps that sounded like a herd of wild buffalo had suddenly migrated it's way into the big city.
And then they were there, vaulting over the stairs guard rail and right into her view.
"So yer alive," Tommy sneered by way of greeting, crossing his thick arms over his chest.
Tommy Terror was built like an ape, with a tiny head and close shaven sun faded blond hair. His tight white shirt looked so small that one careless flex of his arms would cause it to split open right across his chest. She'd seen him crush the life out of people for making fun of his little red suspenders.
The guy and his sister, Tuppence Terror, both had some serious strength superiority issues, constantly challenging other members of the pack to brawls. In fact they spent most of their free nights getting the shit knocked out of themselves (and their opponents) in an old bar that had once been host to illegal fighting competitions.
"He's all aflutter about it," Tuppence supplied with a nasty smirk. She was the spitting image of her brother, every bit as beefy, but with a belly baring white top that stretched dangerously across her large bosom. Her calculating eyes roved over Artemis's attire. "Nice outfit. Mornin' after clothes?"
Artemis's face lightly flushed, but before she could reply scathingly, a pair of long, bony white fingers were digging into her shoulders.
"As if. Arty here is my girl. Isn't that right, babe?" Cameron crooned lecherously, his unwanted and incredibly cold breath hitting the side of her neck. The hairs on Artemis's neck prickled unpleasantly. She lashed out, pushing him away from her so hard he stumbled into the old glass behind him with a thud. The twins guffawed at his misfortune while the blonde whirled on him.
"Keep your hands off me," she snarled. She instantly regretted her overreaching move when a hot lick of fire traveled the length of her injury. It felt like her side had ripped open even more, making her eyes water and her teeth clench inside her mouth, but she kept herself as collected on the outside as possible. "If I have to tell you one more time, you're going to regret it. I'm not your girl, I'm never going to be, so get on with your life!"
He grinned at her like it was all very hilarious, which made Artemis's temper rise. The guy was a complete sleaze, a teenager easily almost ten years younger than her, which made his advances all the more infuriating. His bleached white hair stuck up like it was made out of ice. She swore to everyone who would listen that the little jackass actually used mass amounts of hairspray on it to get it to stay that way; he certainly smelled like it.
"Ya know, we was all just worried sick about you last night. Ain't that right, sister Tuppence?" Tommy said with a frown on his face, giving Cameron a reprieve.
"Absolutely, brother Tommy. I reckon yer pa has been gettin' mighty concerned, too," Tuppence said slowly, dark purple lips quirking into one of her pale cheeks. The smile alone was enough to to clue Artemis in; her eyes narrowed. "But don't worry, we been keepin' him real good and updated on yer frequent sneakin' out alone the past few months."
Artemis's body stiffened. She had known that sooner or later someone was bound to catch notice of her changing behavioral pattern; before now she had never been prone to sneaking off outside of known pack business. That had always been Jade's territory.
Artemis on the other hand had always been a good little soldier, even if she despised the objective, or tried to subtly change the outcome, to find a way out for those humans meant to be killed or harassed. She was still there when she was called upon, it was just in her nature.
It seemed her reputation had grown quite different than her sister's.
"Is that so?" she sneered out loud, her lower jaw jutting defiantly. "Well, I'm not sure why he's so concerned, considering I haven't done anything wrong. Or is there a new rule that prevents perfectly capable adults from having any kind of personal affairs outside the pack?"
Cameron laughed obnoxiously.
"Of course there isn't, you're just special," he leered. Artemis wondered if he really did have a jaw made of glass; she'd like to test that theory some day with her knuckles. "Come on, Artemis, don't act so surprised about it. You've always been on daddy's watch list. A major family embarrassment waiting to happen."
If not being a grade A douchebag was considered a Crock family embarrassment, then Artemis couldn't say she had a problem with being considered a blotch on the family name. Which was the only reason Cameron's crooked nose was still in tact right now.
"He just thought you could use a little watchin' is all. Imagine how bad it must look on him, his own kin with a bad reputation as is, deciding to start sneakin' off every single night all sudden like," Tommy said, the picture of apologetically concerned. She could see the underlying glints of amusement at her expense. "It ain't normal, especially not fer you."
Artemis was absolutely livid.
These three idiots were probably about as bottom-of-the-pack as you could possibly get. They spent their days doing the dirty work for everyone else's dirty work, and suddenly they were spying on her for her dear old dad? Her dad finding out about her actions had always been as likely as her getting the punishment of her life when he did.
But for him to stoop as low as having these three goons follow her around like she was a delinquent teenager breaking curfew? It was the worst kind of insult.
"You three can stay the hell out of my business," she whispered with malice, fingers curling into her palms.
"No can do, sugar tits," Cameron said, crossing his scrawny arms like he was important. "Not unless the big man tells us not to anymore."
"Ah, you ain't got to be so concerned, we're just keepin' tabs on yer comin' and goin', we ain't been buttin' into yer actual business. After all, that ain't what packmates do, is it guys?"
The three of them shared wide smiles of picturesque innocence. The perfect, model citizens of this peaceful little hell.
Yeah, Artemis thought, and the sky isn't blue. The three of them not having a rather dangerously full scoop of her goings on for the last six months was about as likely as her father descending out of nowhere right now with a bouquet of roses.
No, it'd be wolfsbane and a sliced hide from him.
They grinned at her maliciously. Of course they knew. How they had managed to keep upwind of her this entire time was beyond her comprehension; all three of them were a little on the dull side, with the exception of maybe Tuppence and to a lesser extent, Cameron. Combined, though, she supposed they could equal a very intimidating force.
Brawn, brain, and… whatever the hell Cameron provided. Sleaze?
Artemis couldn't imagine what the consequences would be if her father hadn't already descended on her with a vengeance for helping humans. He was sure to know because he'd obviously had the three reporting to him. Artemis was still breathing so there was something going on there.
A worry for later, though, because a more unsettling thought had entered her conscious.
The dead man she had seen at the entrance to the slums. It was their work, of course, she'd known that from their scents. But the body had been such a bloody mess it was impossible for her to tell whom had met their grisly end. She needed to know, and she needed to know right then, because if they had murdered the victim she'd been trying to shield from harm, then that made the pain she was suffering through all the more painful.
"You three are pretty bad liars. I saw the body on my way in," Artemis said, keeping her tone level despite her inner concerns. She gestured over her shoulder through the dusty window. "Way to be subtle."
"Pretty good work, huh? I was the one that bit his throat," Cameron said with absolute relish, reveling in the act by licking pointedly at his double canines. Artemis wrinkled her nose in distaste.
"See, now that was family lookin' out for one another!" Tuppence insisted, hands alighting on her wide hips. "We was waitin' around the slums for you to come back, jus' like we always do, and when you never did we got mighty flustered about it, eh, Tommy?"
"I sure did," he nodded, grinning wildly. "So's I suggested we track our good friend Artemis down and find out if somethin' got to her. And it's a damn good thing I did too, considerin' all that blood we found, right guys?"
Oh no… Artemis thought, her sense of dread rising in her throat like bile.
"It was pretty hard to pinpoint you in the rain, but blood has a tendency to be pretty… potent," Cameron said, pacing his way toward her with his arms held behind his back. The blonde couldn't keep her lip from pulling back at him, her eyes flashing silver in a warning. He laughed, altering his course over to an aisle that had apparently once held candy bars.
"But luckily, or unluckily, whichever you prefer, there was a lot of it," Tommy said, eyeing Artemis carefully. It was almost like his probing gaze triggered the pain in her wound to increase. It felt like fire and burning, and her hand itched to come up to it. She settled for crossing her arms over her chest in an attempt to keep them at bay.
"All washing away in the flood, too," the white haired teen called, picking up a dusty old box before tossing it aside without interest as he meandered through the store.
"At first we thought maybe you'd finally come to yer senses and got someone good," Tuppence laughed, tossing aside her bleach blonde ponytail. "Until of course we realized the blood was yers."
Artemis remained quiet, her eyes flicking levelly over each of them.
"Scorned someone's love?" Cameron asked, clutching at his own chest. He purposefully rocked his hip into a degrading shelf as he moved further into the the store, causing it to fall over with a resounding crash that made them all wince and glare his way.
"It was nothing," Artemis insisted, turning her head back to the twins. They exchanged unimpressed glances, but carried on with their tale. Artemis listened on tenterhooks, terrified, afraid that Wally would be brought into this.
Why oh why had that man gotten himself involved with her?
"We did some sniffin' around the area, and sister Tuppence caught on to a human smell on the other side of the street. We decided to split ourselves up, got Cam here to sniff 'round the alley while we did a little huntin," Tommy continued, thumbing at his skinny suspenders. He turned his boxcar jaw toward Cam, who was picking around an ancient cash register like he expected it to be full of money. "Found some interestin' things didn't you, Cam?"
"Very interesting."
"Ya see, Artemis, Cam noticed another smell in that there alley. It was a mighty powerful one, mixed in with all that muddy blood water of yores."
Artemis's nostrils flared. No. No no no no.
"I was there alone," Artemis said firmly, trying to calm her hammering heart. Her worst fears were about to come alive right in front of her, and she didn't know if there was a damn thing she could do to protect him if this escalated out of control. What if they knew where he lived? She may have barely known the man but she wished no harm on him, not after the misplaced kindness he had reached out to her with.
"M'no Arty, I'm afraid my nose doesn't lie to me. There was another person in that alley with you," Cameron said. He picked the register up and threw it onto the floor with all of his might, shattering it in another piercing echo. He disappeared from view when he crouched down behind the counter, no doubt picking it apart for any signs of left over tender. Fucking idiot.
"An' besides that, there was that umbrella, and that jacket, right Tuppence?"
Artemis could not help it; her eyes widened in horror. The twins noticed, their faces lighting up with glee.
"Yes, sound familiar?" Tuppence said, satisfied with Artemis's fear. "Oh, the umbrella weren't much use, it had too many smells coverin' it. But that jacket, it was the most tellin' of all."
"Had yer blood on it, and the other smell. A human smell. Some kind a' chemicals; stung the nostrils somethin' fierce," Tommy said, nodding his head sagely. "Now, ya see, we put two and two together quick like and figured you'd been shot by one of them gangster types that's been buttin' in on our territory of late. That bastard across the street what we chased down, he was one of em. Had a gun on him, tried to take sister Tuppence's head off with it," he growled, crossing his beefy arms. "See, that's when we knew fer sure you'd been shot."
That meant their prey had been the gangster. Good. Somehow she felt relief, even if she didn't condone the disgusting methods the three stooges had employed in taking the asshole down.
That relief was short-lived.
"There, there, brother Tommy, he won't be pointing guns at any more of our kin," Tuppence said soothingly, patting his bicep. Artemis's hackles raised at the implication that she could possibly be related to them by anything more than their shared curse, but she could not locate her voice to protest in vehemence.
"But what we couldn't figure out was why that chemical human smell was lingering all over that alley you'd bled in. What kind of human would be stopping to help an injured werewolf?," Cameron supplied, finally jumping back to his feet. He looked incredibly pissed that his efforts to find cash had been futile; he kicked out at the cash register pieces, scattering them all over the debris covered floor. He turned his gaze to Artemis. "That's what happened, isn't it? You were helped by a human. And judging by that outlandish odor of his, he wasn't even from the slums."
Artemis couldn't breathe, both from a combination of pain and the fear at how spot on they were.
"Ain't a human one right minded that lives outside the slums, that would venture here at night with no good reason," Tommy said, narrowing his eyes. "Much less to help a an injured body out."
"Only an outsider that knows too much would snoop around here, wouldn't you agree, Artemis?" Tuppence wheedled.
Well, no point in hiding; they'd obviously done their research and if they'd been following her for so long they knew what kind of sympathy she had for humans.
"He doesn't know shit," Artemis spat at them, fists clenching at her sides. What else could she do but try and throw them off of his trail? It wasn't like she wasn't telling them the truth; Wally West didn't know anything about werewolves. He had just been a good guy in the wrong place at the wrong time, with a heart that was too damn big for his own good, and a sense of justice that wouldn't allow him to leave a naked woman to her demise. To him, she had just been a human in need. "He doesn't know shit, do you understand? He was nearby, I guess at that nasty Bibbo's place and he… he must have heard the noise. He heard it and he found me there. That's all there was to it."
"I do wonder how ya got a hold of his clothes…" Tuppence mused, eyeing Artemis's get up again. She leaned forward, sniffing pointedly at the material. Goddamnit, there was no way around this kind of evidence; she should have just walked home naked for all the good it would have done. "You know we've all had our share of fun with humans, but I never took it from you."
"It wasn't like that at all. He saw a hurt person in the slums and took care of me, alright? He wouldn't fucking listen when I told him no, so I let him patch me up and left his ass as soon as the first opportunity came along. As far as he knew I was just a stupid prostitute that got on the wrong side of a client and paid for it. End of story."
"Well, it's all a very interesting tale, regardless," Tuppence said, elbowing her brother with a smirk on her face.
"That it is, dearest Tuppence, that it is! I'm guessin' yer dear old pa might be interested in the humans returnin' yer sympathies..."
Artemis threw her head back and laughed. A loud, derisive sound that came bursting out of her lungs, leaving an excruciating wave of fresh agony in her abdomen.
"Do you really think this is the kind of thing my dad has you watching my every move for?" the blonde asked through a voice thick with amusement. She placed her hand on her side with the pretense of bending forward to chuckle at them; in reality she was putting pressure against the wound in the hope of momentary relief. "Some clueless, stupid human that happened to find me in the wrong place at the wrong time and helped me? You three are even dumber than I thought if you think my dad will give two shits about this at all. Hell, the only thing he'll be disappointed about is that the guy didn't let me bleed out."
Artemis believed about half of that. Her dad really would be mad she hadn't died in the rain; it would have been one less thorn in his side.
Her semi-bluff had worked exactly the way she wanted it to: it gave them all pause. Uncertain, fearful looks were exchanged between them.
Hook, line, and sinker, assholes.
"Ah, well… we was just makin' sure you wasn't bein' too friendly with a human or nothin'," Tommy said, shrugging as nonchalantly as possible. He absently fiddled with one of the piercings in his ears, stepping from one foot to the other. "S'not like we was serious 'bout botherin' yer dad. We was just hopin' to freak you out, right sister Tuppence?"
"Mm," Tuppence added, forcing a grin onto her features. "We just wanted to let this serve as a warnin', really. Right boys?"
They both nodded, smirking menacingly at her. Boy, they sure knew how to pull a complete one-eighty. Artemis crossed her arms again.
"Wow, yeah, I am just quaking in my bo—" she started, then cut off, looking down at her bare feet. She smiled, wrinkling her nose and lifting one foot to wiggle her dirty toes at them all. "Well, you know."
Tuppence opened her mouth to probably give her a piece of her mind, but just then the sound of a car alarm blared from outside the building, causing all of them to whip attentively toward the noise. Loud voices filtered in from outside.
"Looks like that's our cue to leave," Tuppence told her boys, who turned up the steps without needing any second prompting. She fixed Artemis with a venomous glare. "We'll be watching you, Artemis."
The blonde gave a tutt and rolled her eyes.
Crisis fucking averted… I hope you're happy Mr. Science.
Letting out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, Artemis turned and crawled back out through the board she'd used earlier. It turned out that no one was around the car that was still crying loudly into the street.
The window had been busted out but now there wasn't anyone around at all, so Artemis ignored it and set her eyes on the looming hospital building that had been her original destination.
Time to pay a visit to dear old dad.