Chapter Six: The Power of Love
A/N: so me here, a lot of things happen to Evelyn in this one, meeting Artemis's replacement, dealing with the heartache of known she's a cold blooded killer now, anyway a thanks to all those people who take time out of their lives to review this, the things you write give me ideas to add to the story. Anyway Hope you enjoy:}
14:45 PDT the conduit Jump City August 6th 2010
"well that's not very good now is it." Evelyn said grimly holding up the worn and torn friction suit; since finding out that Artemis is a bad guy Evelyn had felt a wave of depression and heartache she hadn't felt since back when she still identified herself as Wally West, perhaps even more than since she cried for four solid hours after finding out about what happened to her old spitfire. She had decided the best thing to do was work through it and the long process of learning more about her new ability to create speed energy constructs was a good distraction as any; she realised Bats knew about the place as it was fully equipped to safely house an attempts to recreate the ability. 'Maybe I said ask for it to hooked up to Zeta network.' She thought.
"Looks like I get to spend the rest of the day designing a new friction suit." She said to herself as she placed the damaged one back on the workbench. She had worked long hours the past two days and found out that she needed to be running at a certain speed as well as mental forming a construct shape and direction that it would move in, she also found that the constructs had the same mass as her and same speed she was travelling at when she made them so they acted as kinetic projectiles of a sort… the only problem was her current Friction suit couldn't handle the strain of the kinetic energy splitting off from her body. In layman's terms her clothes began to disintegrate as she did it; so now she was running a computer program go through all the possible materials to make the suit out of that could handle the new stress levels she would be subjecting it too.
'at least I can do something the flash can't.' She thought smugly as she remembered the look on Barry's face when she showed him the footage from the Amazo fight. 'still not much use if I become naked in the process.'
"Boy does that technique work up an appetite or what." She said digging into another high energy bar, the things were tasteless but necessary; she decided to use the time to upgrade her suits tech, greater hardening for reduced damage to the electronic systems for one thing, as she went about looking through the lest of upgrades to make, she thought back to the actual appearance of the suit.
'Maybe I should get rid of the padding now, it has been getting rather constrictive lately and I guess it's ok if it's skin-tight so I don't have the problem of restricted flexibility and movability anymore.' She thought weighing her dislike of guys ogling her with a more streamlined and better performance of the new suit design; before making the changes to hologram, the new suit while radical different in many properties was almost identical in appearance to the last one, only with the changes in suit dimension though Evelyn's more feminine features were more prominent.
'I might be more self-conscious about myself when I wear it but at least my chest shouldn't sore anymore after I've been wearing it for prolonged periods of time.' She thought looking at the new suit design, the computer had finished its search and a material list appeared for the new suit make up.
"I should have just enough to make one suit from my stocks here." She said running over to the bases inventory and carrying the materials over to the bulky machine which would make the suit.
"It's going to be a long three hours." she grumbled as she began the long process of ensuring the suits stealth features were integrated right as the microelectronics needed to be able to be compressed into the ring on her finger. After the process was done she tried it on, and by god she couldn't express how much more comfortable it was to wear than the old one, she also began a few stretching exercises and found she hand almost zero resistance and limitation of the ways she could move; she looked at her appearance in the mirror, she did look really good, even if she would be pretty much eye candy in this thing she reasoned she would simply stop caring after a while.
"Time for the test, she headed down into the lower level wear the remnants of a large collider stretched off into the distance, this old star labs facility had been closed down in favour of the better location it had now in the city, with the money she got from online gambling she racked up a nice savings of 3.6 million dollars… well more like 1.2 now since the expenses of getting the base set up and the equipment in it was staggering to her funds. She began running around it eventually reaching the speed necessary for the constructs to be formed and lunched two off to hit the reinforced targets she had set up, they smashed into them denting the metal frame badly. She returned to the operations booth and checked on the suits condition.
"At least this suit won't fall apart now; so in two days I've gained a better understanding of speed force powers and made a better friction suit, grief can be a powerful motivator." She said ordering in the new supplies she'd need to replace her old Mark 3 friction suits for the this new mark 4 one, she need at least two spares at home, two for the cave, and three for here in addition to the one she was wearing now. "Well best get home for Dinner or mom will kill me."
11:12 CDT Central City Mall Central City August 7th 2010
'So many choices to choose from and I've got absolutely no idea which one to pick.' Evelyn thought as she browsed through the woman's swim wear section for a swim suit in her size.
'I can't believe I've waited fifteen years to actually buy a bikini… what the hell is wrong with me! Just pick one already.' She thought irritated as she had been looking for past hour and she still had no clue what would look good on her and what she would have problem wearing in front of other people.
"Having trouble picking one to wear?" a voice sounded from behind Evelyn she turned to see a young woman with black hair with red high lights in it, she was wearing a store uniform with a name tag reading Janette on it.
"Yeah I'm clueless on what to wear." Evelyn admitted lowering her head in shame; Jeanette just waved her hand at the words.
"You be surprised at how many girls struggle to find swim suits that suit them, so I'm assuming by the way you dress you're and your posture that you don't like to show off to much skin?" she asked causing Evelyn to blink with surprise.
"You got all that by looking at how I stand?" She responded amazed; the girl shrugged.
"I study profiling and psychology so I learn how to read people, so you want something that's a bit more modest?" she asked looking back at her: holding a red two piece which was rather modest and yet would still look good on a girl. "Try this."
"Ok." Evelyn said taking it and going into the changing rooms, once she put it on and tied it she found that it did look good, not too revealing and yet still showed off plenty of skin that she was comfortable with. 'Not bad.' Evelyn thought as she watched her reflection before changing out of it and heading back to the girl. "I'll take it."
"Great I'll just process it if you'd follow me." She said leading Evelyn over to the register and scanning the item; at that point Evelyn noticed something on the girls arm; it was two gender symbols for female interlocking with the names Jeanette and Emily tattooed under them, Jeanette noticed where she was looking. "it a gender symbol denoting female homosexuality."
"So you're gay." Evelyn asked, she know there were numerous subcultures and symbols associated with the LGBT community but she didn't know them in any detail. 'Which is kind of stupid considering you see yourself as gay?' She thought as she watched the girl nodded.
"We met at a local Café that's a social place for lesbians in central city." She responded bagging the purchase and handing it over to her. "27 dollars please."
"What's it called the café I mean?" Evelyn inquired with curiosity as she handed over the money and taking the bag; the girl looked at her smiling. "The violet garden a few streets down from jitters, have a nice day now."
'I'll check it out another time.' She thought heading out of the shop and homewards, she stopped when her phone started ringing.
"Yello" she said into it curious to who was calling her.
"Hey Eve its dick, since my schools still out on account of Power-girl demolishing half the place I asked around the team and we've decided to go to the beach tomorrow you in?" Dick asked over the phone. 'I forget he phoned me the day before; oh how Wally cursed him for choosing the 8th and not the 7th.'
"Sure I've got nothing on at the H.I.V.E… wait what about Kara can she make it, I thought she started back tomorrow as well?" She asked walking over to take a seat by the mall fountain, before hearing Dicks reply.
"I know I called her before you, she asked me how she could get the school closed for the day, make sure to tell her how fun it was." He said evilly no doubt smiling on the other end.
"You evil you do know that right dick." Evelyn told him smiling as she ended the call as a shop nearby exploded, she was thrown through into a pile of mannquins in a store window. 'What the hell, its her!' Evelyn thought seeing the dancing form of jinx leaving the expensive clothes shop with numerious dresses in her bag. Evelyn ran with everyone else till she was clearly before switching into the new suit, she raced over to jinx and landed a powerful blow to her left cheek; se went flying into the fountain and dropped the dresses as she did.
"Do you just spend your life wanting to interrupt mine." Jinx growled pushing her soaking wet hair out of her face glaring at Kid with extreme hatred.
"You're the one blowing up my city's mall pinkie." Kid countered before running forward to land a left hook in to gut sending her flying, she fired off a long stream of hexbolts as landed perfectly on a trash can. Kid dodged them before speeding forward and lunching a speed construct at her while she peeled off to the left, while Jinx fired bolt after bolt at her construct Kid came at her from the left tackling her to ground before shocking her into unconsciousness. 'Finally got her!' she thought as she cuffed the girl and handed the dresses back to the owner, before carrying her off to the police station and heading home with her purchase.
9:48 EDT Mount Justice August 8th 2010
Recognised Kid Flash B03
The computerized voice said as Evelyn walked into the cave from the Zeta platform, she saw everyone in their swimming outfits: Megan wearing a cute yellow two piece bathing outfit, Conner, Dick, Adrian, and Kaldur in their shorts, while standing over to the side chatting away was Amelia in a nice purple bikini with another girl in blue one with blonde hair and blue eyes. It took Evelyn a moment to realise the girl was the new speedy.
"Eves here lets go now." Dick called as the others grabbed the gear. 'Way to let me get changed first?' she thought as she took off her civvies to reveal the red bikini and stored her clothing in her duffel bag.
"Looking good Eve love the outfit and congrats on bagging your hex girl." Amelia said carrying the heavy bags with the ease of super strength. Evelyn smiled at her still in a good mood from yesterday content with the fact she had apprehended Jinx.
"It nice to meet you Kid Flash I'm Mia Dearden the new speedy." Mia said holding out her hand, Evelyn took it smiling, she didn't have any negative feelings towards the girl but she did see robin tense up a bit.
"Names Evelyn West, but call me Eve if you want, so Mia are you green arrows niece or something?" Evelyn asked the blonde as they all made their way to beach.
"No him and Roy helped me out a few years back, I helped them in return and… certain events in life spurned me to take up the bow to help people." She responded as the eight of them reached the beach.
"This is great we should come to beach every day!" Megan yelled running into the water with a mini surfboard in hand.
"First a moment's silence for our absent comrade." Robin said placing a hand to his heart but grinning evilly all the same.
"Poor Kara she would have loved this." Evelyn said glad that she got to go to this time as she grabbed a spare surfboard and raced after Megan in the sea.
9:00 CDT West Range High School Metropolis August 9th 2010
"Welcome back class to your second year of sophomore here, I hope after your holidays you're all ready to resume your education without distraction." The teacher said obvious to certain glasses wearing brown haired girl at the back looking in the direction of Happy Harbour longingly. 'Stupid Robin choosing the day I go back to school to have a beach trip, stupid Eve for having flexible hours at the H.I.V.E, stupid Conner, Megan and Amelia for not going to school… stupid Kaldur for that too.' She thought gloomily as she missed the chance to see Adrian in shorts and to tease everyone.
"Anyway I'd like to welcome a new student to the class please come in Miss Siobhan Smythe." Mr Clawford said as a girl wearing a celtic t-shirt and black jeans walked into the class looking rather nervous, she had blue eyes and white hair. "Perhaps Miss Kent would like to help show you around the school, unless she has more important things to do like staring at a wall, the class laughed at her blushing.
"Hi I'm sorry about putting you in the spotlight." The girl said with a small smile trying to be friendly, considering she had been in her place not too long ago, Kara Smiled and nodded at her.
"It's ok Mr Crawford is an asshole, I'm Kara Kent… you from Scotland aren't you?" she asked curiously, the girl shook her head.
"Ireland, I moved here with my mother." She said as they began to take down notes in the class.
"So you really are trying to form a band?" Kara asked when Siobhan asked her if she played an instrument, she knew a few kryptonain ones, but she could sort of play an acoustic guitar, the girl nodded.
"Music is my life so to speak, I guess you can say I've got a special affinity for it, maybe we could hang at my house see how you do with some of other instruments?" the girl asked hopefully; she clearly didn't know anyone else apart from Kara and she liked the Irish girl. 'And I was so looking forward to the beach.' She thought as she followed the girl up the apartment stairs before reaching her one.
"I'll warn you now; we may not have fully unpacked everything yet." She said before opening the door and walking into the apartment. It was rather bare as things were still being unpacked as they walked in to the hall.
"Siobhan that you honey, how was school dear, the Yankees didn't tease for your name did they?" a thick Irish accent sound from the room at the end of the hall, as Siobhan blushed looking at Kara who giggled.
"No mom, I've brought someone home with me is it alright if have a go at playing some of my instruments?" she asked walking down the hall with Kara in pursuit, a woman came out to look and smiled when she saw her daughter with someone her own age.
"Glad to see your already making friend Siobhan, Sorry you heard about that…" she paused wanting to be told Kara's name; she walked to her holding her hand out.
"Kara Kent and I was the new girl not long ago so I know how hard it is to make that first friend." She said as she watched the two girls headed off to Siobhan's room to play some of the instruments.
11:34 EDT Mount Justice August 9th 2010
"Woe this fun." Evelyn shouting grinning as she suffered along the wave Kaldur had made; this feeling of elation abruptly ended when she lost her footing and tumbled into the water with a splash.
"And I thought speedsters were supposed to be good with their footing." Robin shouted as the others burst into laughter, Evelyn stumbled back onto the beach pulling a sodding lock of ruddy red hair out of her face as she headed over to were the other had set up a volley ball next.
"Got room for one more?" She asked shaking her head to get rid of the loose water, they looked at her judgingly.
"No powers got it red?" Amelia said holding the ball in her hand as she nodded and joined Megan Adrian and Conner on side of net facing off against her, Robin Kaldur and Mia. What proceeded was a rather fun game of volley ball in which Evelyn over extended herself and ended up tumbling into the net bringing the match to a rather sudden end.
"Sorry about the net guys I guess I got carried away with the game." She said taking a bite out of her sausage as they dished out the food, it turns out Adrian was a skilled chief of sorts as he likes cooking. Eventually they called it a day and headed back to the cave where they were greeted by a rather odd sight.
"Hey Robin you never told us you had a sister." Amelia said looking at the figure of a rather tall girl wear a skin-tight black armoured Kevlar suit with a red bat symbol on the chest, she had a long black cape with a red inside and the typical bat style mask leaving her lower jaw visible which was rather pale white, she had blood red lips and deep red hair which was clearly a dye job considering the only person with that shade of hair naturally was Abigail Xander. She was about 5,8 in height and so was on par with Evelyn's height, she had a red utility belt and armoured bracers on her wrists.
"This is your new teammate Batwoman." Batman said seriously seeming to convey a message to Robin with a look as he growled and reminded silent as the girl walked forward confidently before holding her hand out Evelyn.
"It nice to meet you again Kid Flash." She said her voice much deeper than it should be with a synthetic undertone which suggested she had a voice distorter on her throat.
"I was unaware that we've meet before." Evelyn said as the others looked at her with questioning gazes, as she accepting her hand before gesturing to Mia and Adrian. "They're Wildcat II and Speedy II they're not members of the team but they were here just for a day at the beach and Super girl is occupied in Metropolis and so should be arriving soon."
"I'm guessing it was you who saved our hides back in Gotham when boy blunder over there got some face time with a MONQI." Amelia said ignoring the scowl she got from robin as she shook Batwoman's hand. "Amelia Starr or Power-girl for when we're in field."
"I'm Megan Martian Manhunter's niece, are you batman's niece too because there's enough of us to start a club if you are." Megan prattled on causing the caped girl to grin at her.
"Sorry to burst your bubble but I'm not related to the batman, besides I'm independent of the bat clan only started up about a week ago." The girl explained to them folding her arms; this caused Evelyn to raise an eyebrow at Dick who looked livid that there was someone else who used the batman's image that he didn't know about.
"Well welcome to team Batwoman, it will be a privilege to work with another who follows the batman's teachings I am Kaulder'ahm or Aqualad." Kaldur said diplomatically greeting the newbie along with Conner.
"Conner kent, superboy." He said simply shaking her hand firmly.
"Well while we wait on Super-girl maybe we can get changed before those of us without tolerance to cold get a cold." Evelyn said before waltzing off to the changing area with the others in tow.
"So you guys had a fun time at the beach then?" Batwoman said casually following them into the large space; a locker next to Evelyn's one. It read B09 Batwoman on it with two guest ones holding Adrian and Mia's gear. Evelyn dried herself off before putting on the Mark 4 friction suit.
"Woe Evelyn liking the new look." Power-girl said pulling her boot on as Batwoman's eyes seemed to widen slightly looking at her.
"The old modal couldn't handle the strain of the energy constructs splitting off, so I needed to make a new one, this one shouldn't impede any of my movements now." She told them placing her hands on hips and smiling, she figured if she got through the attention of new suit then she wouldn't be so self-conscious about it.
It is more efficient than the last one." Batwoman said as they heard the Zeta platform warm up.
Recognised B04 Super-girl
They watched as an already suited up Kara glided gloomily towards them, she stopped when she saw Batwoman standing there.
"Hi" the Bat said folding her arms at her; Super-girl turned to look at batman then back at her.
"Ok I'm missing something here when did bats have another kid." She said looking at her teammates in confusion. They told her about joining the team and also introduced her to Mia.
"Looks like the team's becoming more female dominated ever month." Robin said to Superboy who just shrugged having no problem with the gender balance of the team.
"So if your called speedy and Roy's also called speedy won't that cause confusion?" Super-girl said looking at archers.
"You didn't tell them he changed his codename?" Wildcat said looking at green arrow eyes narrowed.
Recognised B08 Red Arrow
"At least he updated the zeta network when I reminded him too." Roy walked in a slightly altered uniform consisting of a more combat armoured form of green arrows costume complete with red hood; he stopped when he saw Mia who waved at him nervously. "What the hell Ollie you promised me you'd give her enough money to start again, to have a normal life are you trying to get her killed!"
'I wasn't expecting that reaction.' Evelyn thought watching Roy loss his shit at Green Arrow, apparently he had protective feelings for Mia.
"It was my Choice Roy." Mia said glaring at the clone, which grabbed her shoulders and spoke more softly this time.
"Mia I wanted you to go to school and make some friends get a boyfriend have a normal life." He said looking at her; she looked grim now as she responded.
"I think that option is closed to me now Roy, the life had one let thing left to give me… I tested positive." She told him watching his eyes go wide before he pulled her into tight hug.
"We'll get you on a treatment course; the best money can buy Mia." He said looking at Ollie fear in his voice now, Ollie spoke up now.
"She's already on it, a condition of her being my protégée along with attending school and regular health check-ups." He said before getting back to the issue at hand. "Was there a reason you came here Red Arrow."
"Dr Roquette the name sound familiar to you." He said causing Robins eyes to widen as he activated his com pad.
"Nano-robotic genius and electronics expert at the royal university in star city disappeared two weeks ago." He said clearly a fan of her work on technology.
"Abducted two weeks ago" Red arrow told them uploading her picture to the monitor "by the league of shadows."
"You want us to rescue her from the league of shadows sweet!" Robin excited high fiving Power-girl who grinned at the chance to take on some ninjas.
"Already done that but that's not the reason I'm here." He said before changing the screen to show a display of the fog. "This was what they made her work on; its called the fog a weapon comprised of millions of microscopic machines, nano-inflirtators, which are capable of disintegrating anything in their path; steel concrete, flesh bone. But that's not their main purpose, it's theft, they eat raw data and store it from any network or sever they come into contact with, providing the shadows with access to weapons, strategic defence, cutting edge science and tech."
"With which they can use for power broking, manipulation typical shadow operations" Batwoman said grimly.
"Hey who the hell is she?" Roy said only noticing her for the first time glancing at Robin and then Batman.
"Batwoman I'm the new team member." She said looking him dead in the eye.
"So where is the good doctor?" Kid said fearing gripping her as she imagined the light getting their hands on the projects and technology used at the H.I.V.E… and also at the prospect of facing Artemis, she didn't if she could actually hurt the assassin or if her love for her will get in the way
"I stashed her away at the local high school while she works on the virus to render the fog inert, came here to get the team since the shadows will out hunting for her and I could use the backup… Well Kid your team ready to take on the shadows." Red asked her folding his arms.
"Itching for the chance right guys?" She responded smiling as the team grinned; Red arrow nodded before looking back to Green Arrow who simply narrowed his eyes in reaction.
"We'll talk more about this when the mission is over and done." He told him before looking back to the team.
"Batwoman you need ride there?" Kid asked her as those of the team who couldn't fly or run fast headed to the Bioship. The girl just grinned before walking over to a patch of shadows before pressing something on her wrist. A loud roaring sound could be heard as a large batshaped glider complete with numerous attachments hovered over to them Batwoman standing comfortable on top of it.
"I'm good." She said her arms folded.
"Alright then Red you got issue with me taking operational command?" she asked the older hero.
"Its your team besides based on your track record I have no reason to doubt you competence as a leader." He told her wheeling the red bike up.
"Lets move it people." She said lowering her goggles and disappearing in a flash of yellow light.
21:51 EDT Happy Harbour high school August 8th 2010
"Miss Martian link us and reconfigure the bioship for manual operation; Robin Superboy you're offense I want you in the sky and ready to move out once the doctor's online. " Kid Flash instructed the team as Robin and Superboy headed off towards the Bioship.
'Link established, now we're save from shadow radio interception.' Miss Martian said from post outside with Power-girl and Super-girl covering the avenues of approach with Red Arrow on the roof providing support for the flyers.
'This is werid.' A very familiar voice sound in their heads; Kid whipped around to face Batwoman with a look of shock on her face as pulled her out into the hallway.
"Kathy is that's you!" she whispered in surprise as girl smiled and nodded at her.
"Never crossed my mind that the mind-link wouldn't be affect by my distorter Lets leave the twenty questions till after mission at hand." She said heading off to patrol the west side while Kid did the eastern side. She was greatly surprised considering Katharine Kane went abroad after the whole Reaver business two years back, Kid noticed a shadow out of the corner of her eye.
'I've got movement on Eastern side super-girl regroup with Aqualad to guard the charge, Batwoman converge on my position.' She issued the commands heading after the fleeing shadow towards the pool, she slide across the beads like before only this time she turned her fall into a slide and righted herself at the end turning to face Cheshire.
"Hhmmm you are a clever one aren't you, fast so i hear too." She added as Kid heard the long forgotten sound of an arrow leaving a bowstring, with reflexes beyond what wally could ever hope to achieve she turned and grabbed both the barbed arrows launched at her heart by Tigress who smiled at her in triumph; it was only then that kid realised her mistake when stinging pain of a dart hit her neck and she felt her head began to buzz as she couldn't form a coherent thought while her body went rigid and failed to respond to her nervous system. She collapsed onto the ground unable to speak telepathically or verbally.
"Finish her off sis while I handle to the good doctor." Cheshire said running through the door and off towards the computer lab, Kid looked pleadingly into the eyes of woman she once loved, where once warm, passion and concern radiated from them, now only cold merciless hatred could be seen. She grabbed Kid by the hair and dragged her head over to the pool so her head hung over the side, looking up at her as she smiled not a warm smile, but an evil sadistic one as she placed her foot on Kid's chin.
"You going to die now and then we're going to kill all your friends for getting in our way." She said smiling at the look of fear in Kid's eyes, as she pushed her head under the water's surface.
It was an awful experience drowning when you can barely move the muscles in your mouth, it went on until she started to black out as her vision faded. Suddenly a shape collided with Artemis and she felt a pressure on her leg as she was yanked out of the water and saw Batwoman duelling it out with Tigress bow vs bostaff as they appeared to evenly matched. Just what had the red haired Gothamite been doing for the past two years if she could go toe to toe with a trained member of the league of shadows?
Eventually Tigress launched an arrow at Kid's unmoving figure which Batwoman intercepted blocking with her bracers as the Archer fled; as soon as she was gone Batwoman ran over to her and examined the dart before reaching into her utility belt and taking out a syringe and injecting the contents into Kids neck; she felt the buzzing in her head die down gradually as she felt her limbs began to respond to her nerve impulses.
"Good thing they used something I had the antidote too." Batwoman said helping her to her feet as she puked up the water from her lungs and supporting her as they made their way to lab were the team was gathered.
"KF are you ok?" Miss Martian said with fear in her voice as she rushed over to help her down into a chair as she felt her limbs begin to return to normal, she would be sluggish though and that wasn't something she could afford right now.
"She should be fine but it may take a few hours for the poison to clearly her system and the antidote to circulate her blood stream." Batwoman said as Red Arrow discussed their options with Aqualad.
"They'll be back and in greater numbers, we need somewhere we can draw them out into the open where we can fight them better." Aqualad informed them as they heard from Robin about the destruction of star labs.
"The docks, they'll have to come to us and the water should provide you with an edge to get the doctor away with Aqualad." Kid said slowly running on the spot to get the serum through her system faster.
"Rescan for the Fog we're moving the doctor now." Red Arrow said with authority as the second in command as they escorted the doctor to a warehouse by the peer. They formed up with Aqualad and Miss Martian inside, Batwoman and Red Arrow on the roof and the supers with Kid on the ground.
'Their here.' Super girl said as the figures ofTigress, Ronin, Claw, Black Spider and Grim Reaper burst from foliage executing whatever strategy they believed would defeat the teen heroes; Tigress immediately starting trading shafts with Red Arrow, while Kid moved into deal with Black spider.
Each of them roughly equal in their agility given her superhuman reflexes and his enhanced athletics, she tried to get close to latch a shock pad on him while dodging his webbing, their fight was interrupted by the strangest sight either of them had seen. Power-girl came rolling into view locked in a wrestling match to pries Grim Reaper off of her, the pale skinned assassin seemed to have sunk her teeth into the girls neck and it was now blooding rather badly while the Kryptonian head-butted the assassin repeatedly trying to get her off of her.
'Why did I get the freaky bitch that bites, I get how I can break her scythe but how is it that she can bite through my indestructible skin!' she thought through the link as she continued punching the girl as best she could from her angle, she just bite down harder. 'That's it bitch's going into orbit.' She thought gaining altitude rapidly disappearing into the night sky.
Super-girl watched Claw and Miss Martian duke it out with one another, when she heard footsteps to her left and saw Ronin coming towards her.
"Looks like I get samurai Jack all to myself." She said cracking her knuckles as the assassin placed a hand on his sword's handle; Super-girl rushed him preparing to end it quickly when the unexpected happened. His armour exploded in a expanding smoke cloud which halted her in her tracks surprised she lashed out when she heard a sword leave it's sheath to her left only to feel a blade bit into her right side, then along her back and finally through her right thigh. She cried out feeling weak and falling to the ground before stumbling out of the smoke and tripping onto the ground, she turned to see the samurai following her, his sword glowing bright red with solar emitters running along the back of the blade.
"A pity I had hoped for a better fight from you." He said gripping the sword with both hands and running towards her, she stood up ready to go out fighting… when a massive black shape of Batwoman's glider smashed into him knocking him to the ground and rendering him unconscious. She blinked before looking up to see Batwoman land beside her.
"You ok Super-girl?" She asked with concern as the blonde Kryptonian nodded while the bat bandaged her cuts and turned to see Ronin still down for count as she tied him and placed the sword on her glider.
"Right I'll go help Aqualad since I'm just a liability right now." She said heading over to where Aqualad was guarding the Doctor while Batwoman headed back over to take down Claw with Miss Martian who came out to cover her while she aided Super-girl.
"Is that the best you can do web head?" Kid taunted the assassin who shot a long stream of webbing which hit her. "Bad move."
"What?" he said confused before Kid spun on the spot and pulled the spider-villain towards her before jumping and double kicking him in the head knocking him out, she hit the floor hard.
"Ouch." She said before vibrating through the webbing and cuffing the assassin, she looked around to see claw being dragged over to where they were, Tigress had disappeared and Ronin was still down for the count too. "Wait anyone see where's Cheshire went I don't remember seeing her in the attack?"
"The Doctor!" they all yelled sprinting towards the warehouse, they came into see Aqualad downed on the floor and Doctor cowering in the corner with Super-girl holding tight to Cheshire who was pinned beneath the kryptonain and who was stabbing the girl repeated in chest, her blades only seemed to leave deep scratches though as Kid raced over and shock the assassin and cuffed her.
"Well that was a job well done I-" Kid began turning to face the gathered heroes as the Doctor resumed work watching the virus getting uploaded; there was a horrible crashing sound as a body came smashing through the roof and on to the table by Cheshire: it was Reaper and she was a broken twisted mess. What happened next was the stuff of nightmares, she seemed to mend her numerous broken bones and ruptured organs, they cracked and snapped as they set themselves into place before her eyes shot open revealing red orbs with slits for irises as she saw the virus was upload she growled an inhuman noise before dropping a smoke pellet and grabbing Cheshire, there was the sound a window smashing, Kid was rooted in place trying to understand what she had just saw.
"Please tell me I wasn't the only who saw her bones mend themselves in seconds?" Super-girl said exhausted and thoroughly creped out by the unnatural sight. 'What the hell was she… is she even human?' Kid thought as they went out and retrieved the three male assassins and turned to face Red Arrow who told them that tigress covered the assassin's escape.
"Did we win?" Power-girl asked landing through the hole left by Reaper; she was a mess of both dry and fresh blood, bite and claw marks, which already seemed to be healing and ripped clothing. "By the way what the hell was that thing with the scythe because it clearly wasn't human?"
"I have no bloody idea, as to us winning I think your right I'm guessing the league may need the doctor in the future and so decided to let her live if she got the virus upload." Kid told them as Called the league for pick-up of the Villains, Red Arrow decided to Escort the Doctor to a safe house while the team headed back to the Cave for the debriefing.
1:23 EDT Mount Justice August 9th 2010
"So we know they have the data from mami university and Stars lab, though we were able to halt them before acquiring the Wayne tech data." Robin finished his debriefing; kid had remained silent throughout the whole affair as she tried to work out a flaw she had seen in the Shadows pattern.
'Why didn't they go to the H.I.V.E, we've got projects there far beyond anyone's imagination… unless they were looking for something very specific?' She thought as she heard Batman inform them that the league will handle to capture of Tigress, Cheshire and Grim Reaper.
"Everything alright kid?" Batwoman asked walking over to her looking concerned.
"Nothing just thinking, now I believe you owe me an explanation Kathy how a Gotham does socialite become a masked vigilante?" Kid asked gaining the others attention, Robin looked surprised when Batwoman took off the mask and revealed their fifteen year old friend.
"the short version I needed to know my life had a purpose worth all the sacrifices people made for me." She began before explaining it all. "Back when I lived with my actual mom and twin sister we used to move around a lot which was normal considering my parents were both in the army… then when we lived in Brussels something bad happened when I nine. I, my sister and my mom were captured by terrorists and hold for a week before my father mounted a rescue effort… I was rescued fine, but my sister was rendered comatose and my mother died from the wounds she sustained."
"It took me a year to recovery from the ordeal and during that time my father was promoted from a colonel to a general, he met my stepmom at a military function and they got married not long after, I couldn't complain she was nice to me and treated me like a daughter, she bought me nice clothes and was there for me when I needed her. Then we get to where we met up at Richard's party… nine police officers died when marauder stormed the police headquarters; three had children's, one had just gotten married, one was two months pregnant, how do you sleep knowing a baby died so you can go on flunking school and attending rich parties."
"So then I remembered you Eve and how a young boy like robin to could take on the same kind of men who take away my mom and my sister and realised I would only get the closure I needed by proving that my life had a purpose worth all the pain I and others had endured; so I decided to follow the batman's example and become a hero, dad wasn't too happy but I somehow convinced him to give me a shot, so I had to go abroad and under take the same training he went through as a navy seal as well as learn martial arts, computer technology, criminology preform a number of harsh training exercises… it was really hard and I nearly quit multiply times. Eventually I reached the point where I could beat him in hand to hand combat and once I achieved my final goal did I consider myself ready to don the mask."
"And what goal was that?" Kara asked with great interest, Kathy just smiled at her.
"When I had successfully worked out the batman's secret identity I would deem myself ready to go out into the streets of course." She replied gaining shocked looks from the others.
"And here I thought I was the only one to do that." Evelyn said as walked to Kathy and placed a hand on her shoulder. "In any case Kathy the work you did today made the sacrifices worth it and each new deed you do proves that they didn't give their lives in vain because you are here to take their place in the fight for justice."
"Well don't know about you guys but I'm hitting the hay, maybe Kathy will help me with my own detective work when we all get some sleep, besides got to put the souvenir away." Amelia said holding up the Cheshire mask as the others headed home.
1:55 CDT Zeta platform Central City August 9th 2010
Evelyn didn't head home through, she left the Zeta platform before heading out towards a secluded spot in the forest about 50 miles out from Central City, She sat down laying her back against a tree, remembering the look in Artemis's eye as she almost killed her… it wasn't a clean quick attempt to kill her like an assassin would to a person between them and their target, no it was an attempt to make her suffer to make her afraid when she died.
'Well she nearly did it right then.' Evelyn though as she reached into her bag and pulled out a bottle of bourbon and poured herself a glass, she had liberated from a criminal and had left it in a bag in the hollowed out tree a long while back. She downed the glass in one go before coughing roughly at the burning sensation spreading down the length of her throat, she throw the glass away before starting to drink it from bottle.
"Good God why would anyone want to drink this stuff?" She spoke out land cringing at the foul taste, Wally had steered clear of alcohol, he couldn't get drunk no matter how much he drink and so had no drive to drink seeing as the stuff tasted vile in his mouth.
"Guess something's never change." She thought before taking another long swig; she was amazed that she was able to hold up her front back at the cave for that long before falling to pieces when she arrived at this spot, she was right now at the lowest point she had ever been.
"Why because I the woman I loved just tried to kill me in a long drawn out manner and is clearly a sadistic psychopath in this universe, why does it hurt so much… why does the pain keep getting worse each time, first we can't be together, next we had to fight one another, and now she tried to kill me slowly as she made me look at her when she tried to end my life." She spoke softly before dropping the bottle with a clunk and placing her head in her hands before sobbing uncontrollable. She couldn't handle any more pain, what was the point of love when it just gets twisted and warped on you, when you end with having watch the person you would give your life for try to end yours in a cruel and sadistic fashion, when you live in fear of your friends and family finding out the truth behind your life and outcast you for it, she thought she had put her old lie behind her but what she felt tonight had thrown that theory clean out the windows because she clearly still had some feelings left for Artemis.
"I don't know if I can go through that again, I can't have my heart torn out like that, I don't think I can ever let love in again." She spoke with her mask in her hands picked up the bottle and finished what was left of it before throwing it away hearing the bottle smash. She knelt back down again thinking about Artemis as the pain came back tenfold; she suddenly heard a strange sound before there was a bright purple light and a crack like thunder. Evelyn spun around wide eyed to see a female being glowing purple wearing pretty much nothing but a bra and sexy underwear.
"What the hell, who are you what do you want?" Evelyn asked placing her mask back on and getting into a fighting stance.
"You have nothing to fear, I have been called here to aid you not harm you child." The being said smiling as she walked forward, it was at that point that Evelyn saw the strange symbol on her breast. 'That looks like green lantern's symbol… what are there lantern crops for every colour of the spectrum?' she thought as tensed up looking at the violet lantern.
"What do you mean you've come to aid me?" Evelyn questioned her, as the lantern smiled back.
"I am Tela Sharva of the Star Sapphire corps, the lantern corps of love." She said walking calmly towards Evelyn who looked confused at her. "And I am here to save the love in your heart from dying out."
"You're telling me there is an all-powerful force of people who act as love gurus." Evelyn looked at her for a moment before bursting into harsh laughter, "Well I'm sorry but I'm not sure you can help me much, considering the person I love with all my heart just tried to kill me, I have a been in such emotional pain this last few days and I doubt I can ever fully recover if I had a few years of counselling which i can't ever get."
"You are indeed in much pain and grief, but to give up on love, that is not the answer." She responded looking at Evelyn seriously. "It is not what those who care about you would want you to do."
"The people who care about me can never know the truth about me or they will very quickly stop caring about me." Evelyn snarled back at the alien walking up to her and poking her hard in the chest. "How do you think you would react when you found out your fifteen year old female friend is actually a parallel version of her, who happens to be guy and was twenty-one when he stole her body at birth, not only that but one who knows about your deepest secrets and who knows about every mission and life or death struggle they are going to face and never told them about it."
"They'll stop caring about me pretty fast… they stop seeing and treating me like they do now and most likely they would drive me out." She was in tears by this point as she looked at the aliens face. "And I wouldn't blame them… I should be dead… I should have died a hero instead I get through into another universe were I stole someone's life before it began… and lied to the people I cared about every time there's a mission. I used to see this as a gift, a second chance at life BUT IT'S NOT! I can clearly see what it is now, It's only a punishment for me to see the things I cared so much about in my old life become twisted and warped into something dark and grusome, to make friends and yet to never truly be able to trust them… to never tell them the truth so yes maybe I don't want to love anymore because I can tell you right now it's only going to cause me more pain and grief if I get close to people but can never let them fully in."
Evelyn collapsed onto the ground crying uncontrollable now as the full weight of her situation came crushing down on her: she had stolen an unborn person's life, how can you even begin to live with such a heinous act like that. She heard the alien walk over to her before placing a hand on her chin and lifting her mask off.
"And you think this is what she would want you to do after you gave up everything for people you cared about." She said causing Evelyn to snort derisively.
"She just tried to kill me only a few hours ago, so I don't think she really cares that much about me." Evelyn spat before feeling a hand on her chin again and left her head up to look at a crystal, she felt her eyes widening as she began to see images of Artemis.
"Not her, what would She say about how your feeling and doing with this life." The alien went on as her voice began to fade.
"Wally West, you are the geekest, most piggish eater and, foolish person I've ever met and there isn't anyone I would rather spend the rest of my life with: no one cares more about the people closest to them then you do, you say you've retired but we both know you'll put that suit on in a heartbeat to come to their aid."The memory of that night so long ago flooded her mind as she remembered ever encouraging word and ever reassuring smile, not just from Artemis bit from Dick wally's dick telling him that he had a true hero's heart. Evelyn looked again and saw the Star Sapphire staring at her.
"Would your friends hate you for something you had no control over? Would they hate you for living your life to keep they safe, you have dealt with a new changes in every critical point and they would understand that you haven't told them to stop the changes from growing to point where your blind to the events to come, and are you a bad person for taking a person's life without any knowledge that you were going to do it, they have only known you and it is you that they have befriended, and it you who have decided to use this second chance at life to keep your friends safe and to save life's." She said looking into Evelyn's deepest fears and secrets that she revealed when under the crystal's effects.
She looked at the alien before realising she was right, how was it her fault that any of this happened; she stood up and hugged the star sapphire crying again into her shoulder as she closed her arms around her.
"Once again fear is conquered with the power of Love's bright light… I sense love is strong in you for while you have lost your connect to your true love, you still retain the bonds of love in friendship and family as they drive you through the trails ahead: perhaps it' time for love to reward such devotion." She said causing Evelyn to stop back and look at her confused; she was still like that when the Star sapphire raised her ring and encased Evelyn in a purple crystal before a bright purple light expanded and they both disappeared.
2:23 Infinity Island ECT August 9th 2010
"Well we screwed up big time." Artemis said grumpily getting out of her gear and looking over to her sister jade and her… teammate GR, she shivered at the look the ghoul gave her as she stopped stripping to get showered before she walked over and slammed the Archer into the wall her face inches from the blonde's.
"If you had dispatched the speedster immediately instead of trying to drown her then we would have had a better chance of success and we may have succeed on the mission." She growled causing the girl to recoil from her in disgust as the foul odour of decay leaving the creatures mouth black tongue visible.
"Firstly have you ever heard of breath mints you corpse eating bitch, secondly I don't need to explain myself to the likes of you freak." She snarled back defiant, the monster barred her teeth at the blonde clearly wishing to kill her, while jade reached into locker grabbing a long thin silver blade with Arabic writing etched on to it, when a commanding voice filled the room.
"But you do need to explain them to me Artemis." The voice of Lady Shiva the leagues greatest assassin drifted through the air as she walked into the room observing the look of fear on the three girls faces as she locked the door behind her.
A/N: so that's another chapter down, we meet our Artemis replacement,Katharine Kane A.K.A Batwoman, i liked her concept and found a really good villain for her later on, to other points addressed in the chapter, we see this Artemis is colder, crueler and more sadistic perhaps because it was heroes who sent her to jail where she was murdered. Evelyn gets an emotionally broken down from attempted murder by the love of wally's life, we see her heart get fixed by a star sapphire before she decides to kidnap Evelyn to what end...
Remember to send a review or even PM if you want to as long as it isn't flaming, only constructive criticism is welcome... and any form of praise.
new A/N: I'm interested to know if you like the way things are going in the story and i'm open to suggestions you might have on how characters might interaction with each other and potential things you'd like to see. i had a suggestion about a training exercise between the JLI (I believe it's the Justice League International in Young Justice as they are sanctioned to operate in UN countries.) and the YJL (Young Justice League or Young Justice for short), i'll have a think on it and see if i can incorporate it into the story.
Sincerely Greywolf41 Esquire!