Third person view
Artemis, dressed in her hero attire, walked into an alley that held an out of order phone booth. She got to the door but she stopped herself and leaned her back against the wall of a building, sighing as she did so.
As if having a dream about when her sister left her when she was little and starting at that fancy Academy school wasn't bad enough, she still had the conversation that she and her mother had last night burned into her mind.
Flashback
Artemis sat on her couch in shock. The bowl that she had been eating out of was now on the coffee table to avoid her dropping it in the state she was in.
"So... I-I'm sorry, but you were the one who killed DJ's parents? And then you just left him there!?" She asked as her mother quickly shook her head before placing it on her hand.
"Of course I didn't... well, yeah I kinda did but- Oh god..." she said before a few tears began escaping her eyes. After a few seconds, she took a deep breath.
"After he had lost consciousness, I stayed a lot longer than any assassin should on a target... just wondering what I was going to do with the boy. After a while I thought about maybe taking him to a police station and when, and if, he was put up for adoption to take him in and care for him as retribution for what I did... and then they came" she said before staring off into space.
"Men in black SUVs and vans came and took the boy away from the crash before I could even react. When I asked the one who looked like he was in charge what they were doing with him and why I hadn't been informed that there was a child on board... He just gave me an envelope full of cash and told me that it wasn't my concern" she said before Artemis noticed that her mother was becoming mad.
"I threw the cash at his feet and demanded that he tell me. He just looked at me, picked up the cash and once again handed it to me. But this time he said 'You should be getting home soon. Jade will be picking Artemis up from middle school any minute now' "she said before looking at her daughter.
"I knew what he meant when he said that. They had people near you both and at a word or a lack of a word if they had some kind of check-in time, they would take you both and use you as leverage. Or worse" she said.
"After that I took the money and gave it to a homeless man I found on the way home. I swore to myself I'd never harm a child after you two girls came into my life. But before I left them, I called your father to make sure you two were home and safe... I would've taken them then and there but they had men pointing machine guns at me while they drove away" she said shaking her head.
"After that I spent the next few months with you two girls, just being a mother before I went out on that next job" she said rubbing her now useless legs.
"Mom... I-I... Y-You shouldn't have told me this. I won't be able to face DJ after this. Mom, he saved my life at least three times now" she said standing up and pacing back and forth. Paula sighed and grasped her daughter's hand, effectively stopping her.
"I know, I know. It's a lot to ask of you Artty but I had to let you know the truth if you were to be working along side him... and I know it's even more to ask but... don't tell him" she said. She was about to continue when her daughter's communicator went off signaling her return to the Bio-Ship.
"I got to go" Artemis said grabbing her bag, slightly disappointed that she had spent the whole four and a half hours of free time she had talking with her mother and not sleeping.
She threw the bag over her shoulder and quickly went to the door and back to the Zeta-Tube that would take her nearest to the Bio-Ship.
"We'll talk about this more once I get home" Artemis said closing the door with a slight slam.
Unknown to her, Paula sighed before wheeling to an old chest. She opened it to reveal all her old stuff. Her suit, weapons fake IDs. She dug to the bottom of the chest and pulled up a small retengular box.
She wheeled back over to the couch and opened it. Inside was various pieces of paper. Intel on various people, their jobs in the company and building blueprints.
She finally got to a building blueprints and laid it out on the coffee table. It had red marker written all over it. Where they entered, where they figured the objective was being held and where they figured the highest amount of guards would be.
She trailed her finger along the hallway until she reached a four way intersection, a hundred meters from the target. And where she got hit by the bullet that completely changed her life.
At the top of the blueprints had more writing on it but this was in light blue not dark blue like the rest of the paper.
'Gothem Cadmus research laboratory'
She sighed before tears began escaping her eyes once more.
"I'm sorry DJ, I'm so sorry" she said before full on crying.
End of flashback.
"Artemis?" A voice said startling Artemis. She looked up and was glad to see it was only Robin crouching on a building ledge. She sighed in relief until she realized where he was seeing her. Robin landed in front of her with gaze before standing up.
"Robin! I uh…" she tries to come up with a good excuse. It was bad enough that DJ knew who she was and where she lived but would Robin really keep her secret?
"How random that you're in Gotham City, instead of Star City where your Uncle, Green Arrow, lives?" Robin said in a taunting voice almost as if he knew something.
"I'm-uh, here to see my cousin. She was in the state spelling bee. Here... In Gotham... City" she stumbles over the faulty lie while mentally hitting herself.
"C-O-O-L. Did she W-I-N?" Robin asks, spelling out some words. Artemis turned back to her usual confidence and looks annoyed at the boy.
"N-O" she said in her usual tone of voice
"D-R-A-G" Robin responds, unaffected.
"Yeah" she huffs. "Let's just go to the Cave" she added wanting to get around other people as soon as possible. Robin bends his knees and turns theatrical.
"Ladies first" he said as Artemis put her hands on her hips.
"Your town. You go first" Artemis said sharply.
The Boy Wonder shrugs and opens the doors with a creak.
'Recognize: Robin; B-01' The Zeta said as the bright flash of the Zeta blinds Artemis for a moment before she too steps in.
'Recognize: Artemis B-07' it said as she found herself in the cave. However an explosion off to her left causes her to flinch as she looked over the base.
It was covered in a a thick black smoke and both Robin and the team wasn't in sight.
"Get down!" Robin's voice said from somewhere in the smoke as Artemis barely managed to vault away from the fireball that came through the smoke that covering the rest of the Cave.
Robin jumps out of the smoke, landing in front of Artemis and pulling two disks from his utility belt. He throws them into the smoke and successfully hits something as two metallic clanks come from the smoke. However another fireball came towards them
They both managed to dodge it but it hit the Zeta-Tube, disabling it as shown by the amount of sparks that came from it.
Artemis grunts as she jumps back while firing an arrow, already pulling another from her quiver and another one. Robin slides back, armed with disks that he throws into the smoke screen.
Both the arrow and the disks clank against something, but another fireball is launched towards them. Both teens barely manage to dodge it as it hits the wall between the two Zeta Tubes and bursts out.
Artemis then seen two large figures through the thickness of the smoke, one being bigger in statue then the other.
"Who are we fighting?" Artemis asked firing an arrow at them, only to hear the same metallic clang.
"Don't know but we're sitting ducks by these tubes!" Robin said throwing another disk.
"Head for the exit!" he added taking off for the ramp with Artemis not far behind him. Another fireblast almost hit them but they got into the tunnel that led to the exit. However they were soon confronted by a large wave of water that came from the opposite way.
"Or not" Robin said as both teens turned to run but were swept off their feet by the wave before it slammed them to a wall. They were stunned from the hit but the water soon disappeared allowing them to get on the ground again.
Even in their stunned state, they immediately got back up and began running away from the unknown invaders again. Artemis picked up her bow and fired another arrow at the unknown invaders but had to dodge another oncoming fireball, which only missed her by inches.
Two more fireballs then came at them but once these ones hit the ground, they formed a fire Tornado.
The two quickly ran into a workout room as the door behind them automatically shut.
"Come in, team!" Robin said into his earpiece, only to receive no response.
"Aqualad?! Razor? Kid? Anybody!?" he said receiving nothing. Hearing this, Artemis tried to reach Miss Martian on the mental link.
'M'gann, can you here me?... are you there?' she thought but like the coms, no responses.
"Robin to Batcave. Override R-G-4" he said as the two ran into the showers and began turning on the water.
"Cave calling Justice League: H-O-J-slash-Watchtower; B-0-1. Priority: Ray" Robin tried as he finished turning on the last of the showers.
"Coms are down" he said as Artemis prepared to fire another arrow.
"At least the water's helping" he added. Suddenly the room seemed to moan as the pipes beneath the wall shook violently. Suddenly the knobs, shower heads and a few tiles fell off allowing the room to fill up with water.
"Or not" Robin said once again as they went underwater. Robin took out a disk and placed it against the wall.
On the other side of the wall, it exploded outwards and the two flowed out. Once again they got back up and began running again.
They got to the kitchen/common room and took a break from running.
"We need to get lost" Robin tells Artemis as she looked around.
"The air vent!" she realizes they have a lower one above the stove they could easily climb into.
"Good. Go!" Robin commands, Artemis runs straight towards it while he turns to a control panel.
Artemis jumps the island in the kitchen, shouldering her bow before climbing on top of the stove to pull the vent cover off. She then looked back, due to the beeping, and seen what Robin was doing.
"What are you-?" she starts confused before Robin cut her off.
"Downloading Cave blueprints" he tells her. "Could come in…" he starts but was interrupted when metallic footsteps are loud enough to easily hear from the hallway.
"Go! Go!" he whispers as he heads towards the vent as well.
Artemis climbs up and Robin is quick to jump in after her.
Once they're no longer climbing straight up, Robin pulls up the blueprints.
"Go left" he tells her. She does as he followed and immediately after turning the corner, a fire stream just misses the heels of Robin's boots.
"Uh. Too close" he mutters as he felt heat on the souls of his shoes. He then keeps following Artemis.
"Take the first right" he pulls up the blueprints again.
"And there should be a vent cover right in front of you" he said.
Though it's a vent cover, it's not one that leads to a room, rather one that leads to a vertical tube that Artemis doesn't hesitate to drop into with Robin following her.
They landed on a catwalk in the boiler room. Robin quickly pulled the map out again from his wrist.
"This way" he said as they headed down a staircase to a lower catwalk. However the second they got off the stairs and onto the lower catwalk, the vent they just came out of exploded making the two stop and turn.
Now kneeling where they just landed was a skinny figure surrounded by orange fire. It rose to it's feet and looked left to right, the corner of the it's red eyes just visible as it wasn't facing them.
It then rose it's hands as the fire around it commanded to the figure, rising high and heating the whole room up.
They quickly ran over the edge, jumping off and hiding between two large pieces of machinery.
Some beeping from the one to Robin's left draws his attention to one of the machines. The normally green bar on the machine is taken over by red. The beeping increases in tempo as then abruptly stops as the screen cracks.
"That's not good" Robin says before running again. Robin takes off in a pathway down the middle of the room. Artemis giving the now-sparking machine a hesitant look before following. Pipes burst overhead and gas starts to hiss out.
The figure, now looking in their direction raised it's hand and fired a blast of fire that melted through the railing of the catwalk.
Robin and Artemis take quick refuge behind another piece of machinery. Robin checking the map again.
"I know that other access tunnel is here somewhere" he muttered to himself.
"You mean this one?" Artemis asks as lifting a grate and dropping into it.
Robin grabs another disk, arming it and mounting it to the machine beside him then dropping into the tunnel as well.
Just as the figure comes close to the corner of the machine, the disk explodes.
They dropped down the tunnel and found themselves into another vent. Artemis began crawling but Robin stopped.
"Wait" he said popping open a control panel and plugging in his Holo-Glove.
"Blocking out cave's heat and motion sensors so the enemy can't track us" Robin said.
"And I ask again: Who is the enemy?" Artemis asked as Robin smiled.
"Let's find out" he said before typing more on his Holo-Glove.
"Downloading Cave security footage. There" he said as four frames show up, and he zooms in on the first one.
On the frame it shows Wally working on his bike with Superboy and M'gann standing near him. The thing that Superboy had brought back from Bialya, which he had named Sphere, rested beside Wally.
Meanwhile Razor was punching a punching bag in a tanktop and shorts until Aqualad placed a hand on his shoulder and motioned for him to follow him to the group.
"Torque wrench" Kid asked as M'gann used her telekinesis to float over the tool.
"Thank you, green cheeks" he said as Aqualad and Razor finally made it to the main group.
"I have been meaning to ask, any problem juggling school-work with your responsibilities here?" he asks curiously.
"No" Both DJ and Conner quickly replied.
"Juggling is just one of my many talents. Socket wrench" Wally says pridefully with a slight chuckle.
M'gann gives it to Wally with her telekinesis once again as she talks to Kaldur.
"Daily cheerleading practice has presented a challenge" she admits but is quick to turn towards Kaldur once Wally has the wrench to assure him.
"Oh, but my first loyalty is always to the Team. This Team, not the Bumblebees" she said quickly correcting herself.
"Artemis starts school today. Do you think she will have trouble maintaining her loyalties?" Kaldur asks as Artemis sends a glare at the screen.
"Nah, she'll manage alright" Wally says as he stands up. "I mean how much more hostile and annoying can she-" the camera and sound cut out as an explosion was seen in the last few seconds of the video.
"What happened?" Artemis demanded worryingly as Robin began typing again.
"Explosion took out the camera. I'll find another angle" he said with some edge to his voice.
This new angle shows the water inside the Cave forming into three large streams before one crashed onto the dryland and taking out that camera.
The next shows the four others getting to their feet and charging only to be overtaken by the water as the camera cuts out.
The fourth shows Kaldur, M'gann and DJ heading up the staircase, the water thrashing wildly behind them. But then fire takes out the camera in front of them.
"That's it. All four are dead" Robin mumbles. Artemis looks at him with a shocked look.
"The cameras, I- I meant the cameras!" he assures, though his voice shakes. "I'm sure the others are okay" he added before he quickly back to his usual confidence.
"Just give me a sec to find the fastest route to the hangar" he said taping on his glove.
Artemis falls against the wall of the tunnel.
"Yeah, they're fine" she mumbles. "They've all got SuperPowers and DJ has healing powers. They can handle anything" she said to herself.
The two of them open a panel over the upper level of the Cave's library. The two drop down and head down the stairs.
"There's a secret passage behind one of these bookcases" Robin informs Artemis as he hops the railing and heads down the right side of the library.
"Seriously? Cliché much?" Artemis asks with a bit of annoyance.
"You should see the BatCave" Robin says with a slight bit of a sarcastic chuckle and tone.
The door to the library opens and the two are quick to arm themselves with their weapons but when they turn around they see nothing. They move forward with caution until they take up a position in a row of books.
Metal clangs through the room as Artemis looks over the books to see through the shelves.
"Artemis, Robin" a robotic voice said. Artemis immediately became filled with joy as she seen a shape moving towards them.
"It's Red Tornado" she said quickly rushing out from behind the bookcase. However once she was out in full view of the robot, she realized to her horror that it wasn't red Tornado. It looked like him but it had yellow on the top of his head and yellow stripes going down it's body.
As the robot reached out to grab her, Robin pushed her out of the way and the two rolled under a table.
"Yes on the 'red.' No on the 'Tornado' " he said as the table was soon destroyed by the robot. They ran towards a door but their escape was blocked by another robot. This one had more of a feminine body to it however. The robot raised it's hands and fire formed in the palms, firing at the two who jump out of the way and onto a nearby bookshelf.
"Who- what are they!?" she asked they jumped away from the two. The fire that was aimed at them now set the floor and one of the bookcases on fire, which set off the sprinklers.
Robin jumped down in between a pair of bookcases while Artemis stayed on top of one. She fired an explosive arrow at the pair but the male robot created a water shield and blocked it.
The female then punched one of the bookcases and they fell like dominos towards the two heroes.
Artemis jumped down next to Robin who finally finds the book he was looking for: the mysteries of El Dorado.
He pulls it and it opens up the secret passage just as the last bookshelf fell. They both jumped into it ran down the stairs as the door sealed back up again.
The two robots look in where the kids should've been, only to see emptiness and the last of the shelf rising.
Robin and Artemis make record time down the hall.
"Did you know Tornado had… siblings?!" she demands unsure of what to call them.
"No" Robin admits lowly. They come to T and Robin uses a few moments to check before getting ready to head off the left, only for Artemis to grab him by the wrist, stopping him.
"So now what?" she questions. "Red Tornado is one of the powerhouses of the League. How are we supposed to take down two of him?"
"They do seem pretty user unfriendly" Robin comments, trying to stop Artemis from panicking more than she already is.
"Don't joke. They-" she snaps at him but is cut off when the Cave's system came to life.
"Attention, Robin. Attention, Artemis" the male robot announces over the Cave's system.
"You have exactly 10 minutes to surrender or the lives of your teammates will be extinguished" he said as the two share a worried look.
In the hanger
Up above near where they were ambushed, Aqualad, Razor and M'gann were all inside a cage made up of fire. M'gann was unconscious with her head on Aqualad's lap while Razor was laying behind him also unconscious.
The fire robot floating up to them and landed on the platform. Aqualad narrowed his eyes but that was all he could do. The robot held up a needle with a yellowish liquid inside it and held her other hand towards the cage.
"Razor's arm please" she instructed. They had been doing this every few minutes since they were captured. Aqualad didn't move from his position so the android held it's hand to the cage and it instantly became hotter.
"Okay" Aqualad said. He knew he couldn't take any more of this and M'gann was even worse. He grabbed Razor's forearm and held it between the bars.
"Can I at least know what it is you are giving him?" Aqualad questioned as she put the needle into his arm and pushed the plunger
"Do not worry, it is just a sedative. It would have no effects on a normal human and if your friends surrender and let us get what we want, you will not perish... today" she said before throwing his arm roughly back inside and walking away.
'A normal human' he thought looking at M'gann.
Lower in the hanger, Sphere is in a crater in the wall beneath the cage. Down on ground level, Superboy and Kid Flash are in some kind of grey goop that neither can break out of.
Suddenly, the male robot rises out of the water that came in from the ocean. He raised his hand and water soon flowed high up than usual meeting the feet of Superboy and Kid Flash.
"9 minutes and 45 seconds" he informs.
Both boys look worriedly at the still rising water level around them.
"8 minutes" the male robot said as Artemis and Robin ran down a hall.
"We can access the hanger from here" Robin said but at the end of his sentence they both heard something behind them.
Artemis turned and gasped at what she seen. The hallway behind them was flooded with water and was heading right towards them.
"Or not" Robin said.
"Will you stop saying that!" Artemis said angrily as both teens turned and started running.
However once again they were sweeped off their feet by the water, Artemis loosing most of her arrows.
Robin took out a rebreather from his belt and took a deep breath of air from it before swimming to Artemis. He took another breath before giving it to her as she gladly took it.
Suddenly from the way the water came, swam the male robot like a speeding torpedo. He grabbed Artemis's foot and pulled her back, the force knocking the rebreather out of her mouth.
Robin quickly grabbed one of the arrows and swam towards the two. Artemis punched the robot once before her hand was caught, her punch having done nothing.
Robin quickly swam by her and jabbed the arrow into the robot's right eye, causing him to let go of Artemis's leg to pull the arrow out.
Robin then grabbed Artemis and shot his grappling gun at the wall of the way that led to the hanger. The two then zoomed away from the male robot. And a line of explosive disks left by Robin which the blasts forced him back.
Both heroes surfaced in the water that also held Superboy and Kid Flash. They both took in deep breath of fresh air before Kid Flash yelled out.
"Look out" he said as the two dived back into the water just as two fireballs hit the water where they just were. The female robot looked hovered above where they disappeared however the two appeared next to Superboy and Kid Flash.
"Are you guys okay?" Robin asked.
"Forget us. Help M'gann!" Superboy said gesturing with his head upwards towards the fire cage.
"Aqualad, is she-" Artemis said worryingly but couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence.
"She is drifting in and out of unconsciousness and they keep giving Razor a sedative every few minutes... I do not think I- none of us will last much longer" Aqualad said now sweating buckets.
Suddenly the female robot seen them and fired another fireball at them. The seen it just in time and dived under as Kid Flash and Superboy just turned away as the fire hit the water.
Artemis and Robin swam under the water as more fireballs hit the surface. They swam towards the stairs just beside Sphere.
The surfaced and got halfway up the stairs when the male robot came up out of the water, his one eye creating sparks. Artemis pulled one of her last two arrows while Robin pulled some disks just as the female robot landed at the top of the stairs.
"I'm almost outta arrows" Artemis said as she faced the female robot while Robin faced the male.
"Distract her, now!" Robin commanded running to the male. Artemis fired her arrow at the robot and it exploded, the explosion extinguishing her fire for a second.
Robin threw two disks at the robot but they just bounced off him like nothing, the second one landing inches from Kid's face.
"Whoa!" he said as both boys stared at it in shock.
The male robot raised his hands as two streams of water shot up the stairs just as a burst of fire shot down the stairs. Artemis and Robin immediately jumped off into the water as the two elements hit creating steam.
The pair swam down to a grate before pulling it off and swimming into the vents again. They then swam up a tunnel as the water came to an end and they were able to take another breath.
They pulled themselves up onto the dry floor of the vent but they didn't get to enjoy it for long as the P.A system came back to life.
"Six minutes" the male robot said as the two looked at each other.
back in the hanger
Aqualad held M'gann's head close to his chest as her eyes were now barely open.
"Please M'gann. I need you to pull this off" he said as he heard the sound of metal hitting the ground approaching him. He smiled as he noticed that the robot was approaching him from behind, meaning that both Razor and M'gann were mostly out of view from the machine.
"Razor's arm please" the female robot said. Aqualad was still for a few seconds, not doing anything and the robot just raised her hand to the cage, about to raise the heat when Aqualad turned and presented Razor's forearm.
He held it through the cage to the robot as she grabbed his wrist. She was about to stick the needle in his arm when she stopped and inspected the arm. She then raised her head and looked at Aqualad.
He still had his body shielding M'gann and Razor, who were so close together they were almost on top of each other and were tucked so close to Aqualad that she could barley seen them and he had Razor's arm going over his lap and between his arm and his body. Nothing he hadn't done before
She stared at Aqualad for a few seconds his gaze telling her all that she needed to know about how he felt about them. She wasn't sure why but it felt off...
Suddenly the claws ripped through Razor's skin and into view as his hand clenched into a fist. The female robot quickly pushed the needle and pushed the liquid into the bloodstream.
The arm immediately went limp as the claws slowly retracted. The female robot got up and went back to her companion.
Aqualad smiled to himself as he pulled the arm back to it's owner, the skin returning to it's natural green and the shape becoming more feminine.
He then looked at Razor and his smile and his hope grew even more when he saw his friend's one finger twitch.
"What do we do now?" Artemis asks worriedly.
"We save them" Robin says lowly but even with his mask on, the anger and edge is clear that he's not as calm as his voice implies.
"That's how it works" he adds.
"Maybe that's how it's supposed to work, but those robots already took out our five SuperPowered friends" Artemis snaps, her emotions coming out fully.
"You seem distraught" the Boy Wonder comments, trying to keep calm for the both of them.
"Distraught?! M'gann and Aqualad is dying. We have no powers and I'm down to my last arrow. Of course I'm distraught!" she yells at the younger teen.
"Well get traught or get dead!" Robin snaps, loosing his cool for a second before regaining it and crawling down the vent system.
"How can you be so calm?" Artemis asks as she has no choice but to follow him as he leads the way down the vent.
"Practice. I've been doing this since I was nine" Robin manages a light smile, even if it is to himself.
"What good is that now? What chance do we have against unrelenting machines?" She asked as Robin stopped.
"Oh. Duh! They're machines. And one electromagnetic pulse will shut down any machine within range" he said turning to her.
"Great" Artemis said with a smile. However she then returned to her normal look.
"Except you better have an EMP emitter in your utility belt, because I know I don't have one in my quiver" she said back to her normal self.
"I'm fresh out" Robin smiles despite his words.
"But I'm betting we can make one" he brings a hand to his ear.
"Whaddya say, KF. Doable?" He asked.
Back in the hanger
"Totally Doable" Kid Flash said to into the disk beside his head.
"Five minutes" the male robot announces over the Cave's system which caused Kid to pale.
"You know, if you had more time" he said as suddenly their heads hurt.
'I believe I can create some more time' Aqualad thought through the mental link. He and Razor had been practicing ever since he used it to contact Razor to help save Atlantis and now it had gotten to the point where it was just the normal pain like when M'gann does it.
Before anyone could ask him to elaborate on what he meant, a feral roar echoed throughout the cave.
Both robots turned to the cage to see Razor now on the outside of the cage. His skin was healing from the third degree burns he received coming through the fire and he was huffing like he had finished running a marathon. However everyone in the hanger knew it was from anger not exhaustion.
He unsheathed his claws and cracked his neck to the side before he charged at the robots with a roar. The male robot fired a stream of water at him that kept him at bay while the female raised her hand at the cage and it instantly grew hotter.
Razor seen this out of the corner of his eye, so he used his adrenaline and charged through the stream of water that was being directed at his chest before seizing the male's arm.
He then directed the stream at the cage, quickly destroying it and giving some relief to Aqualad and Miss Martian.
Razor then sliced down with one of his claws and cut through the robot's arm where the elbow would be on a human. He then threw the one eyed, and now one armed enemy, at his partner.
Aqualad was barley conscious when he felt his collar grabbed. Weakly looking up, he seen it was Razor who also had M'gann in his other hand.
The second in command then used his super strength to jump onto a wall, use his foot claw to hook into it, then jump up onto a higher level where he laid down his team members.
Aqualad gave him a smile as he smiled back before turning and jumping back down. Aqualad tried to get to his feet to assist his friend but fell back onto his stomach. Even with the water that had been splashed on him he was still super weak from the heat.
Razor landed back on the lower platform and faced his enemies again. The female robot got beside the male on the right side, the side he had his one remaining arm, and held up her hand as the male did the same.
They then simultaneously fired their blasts, sending a boiling water stream at Razor. Razor ran around hoping that they would run out of fuel or energy before they caught him. But they didn't.
The blast that hit Razor was a worse pain then anything he had felt before. As he screamed his eyes soon became red again. But this time it felt different. Soon the pain began to leave his body as did his mind...
He roared out and ran against the blasts driving all six claws into the bots, sending all three of them off the upper level and down onto the one Kid Flash and Superboy were on.
"Kid, we got the EMP ready. What's happening?" Robin asked over the disk as he hadn't heard from his stunned teammates in a while and it sounded like someone had turned a Wolverine loose.
Kid watched as DJ took another fire blast and shrugged it off like it was nothing before he charged again.
"I think he's lost in some kind of... Berserker rage. It's like he doesn't feel any pain right now" Kid said watching helplessly.
"Good" Robin said as he shot a zip line towards the generator. He got to it and connected the EMP to it.
"Rerouting power now" he tells them lowly, typing on his Holo-Glove. However he soon seen something.
"The circuit's incomplete" he said seeing some open space between the EMP and the generator.
"I need something conductible. A piece of metal or-" he said searching his pockets and belt.
"Robin, look out!" Artemis yelled firing her last arrow at a stream of water that was heading towards Robin. The explosion destroyed the stream but left her unarmed. The female robot then turned to her and shot a fireblast at her, as Razor was busy dealing with the male.
"Find something metal" Robin yelled as he took cover from the fireballs as well. Artemis thought for a few seconds before running down the hall towards the trophy room.
She got to it and seen all the trophies that Kid Flash had collected. Her sister's mask, Dr Fate's helmet, Mr Twister's eye.
"There" she said smiling to herself as she came across what she was looking for.
She grabbed the arrow she had fired at the Amazo when she first met Razor. It was one of the pointed ones with an normal arrow head on it.
She quickly ran back towards the hanger.
Back in the hanger
Robin jumped from wall to wall using his grappling gun to get away from the fireballs. However Razor soon tackled the female robot pinning her arms using his feet before he grabbed her head.
He then began to pull up, trying to tear the head off her. The male robot quickly put him in a chokehold and tried to pull him off.
Artemis arrived to see the scene before her.
"Artemis now!" Robin yelled out from across the large hanger. Artemis pulled her bowstring back and focused on the target.
Razor finally had enough and reach back and grabbed the robot by his head. He then threw him forwards before throwing the female bot at him.
Both beings slammed against a wall before they seen Razor running at them.
"What. The. Hell are you?!" the male robot said as Razor launched at them and impaled each of them with four claws, including his foot claws, the claws going through the robots and into the wall behind them.
Artemis fired her arrow and it hit it's target perfectly. The electromagnetic pulse created a wave that ran through the cave.
Immediately both robot's eyes, or eye, powered down. Artemis hopped down and landed next to Robin who was helping Aqualad walk while he carried M'gann.
"Nicely done, DJ" he said as the others nodded. However DJ didn't respond with words but instead retracted his claws causing the robots to fall off the wall before throwing them to the side.
He then unsheathed his claws again before jumping on them and began shredding the chest of the male robot now that they couldn't defend themselves.
"Stop!" Robin said running up to him not wanting valuable evidence to get destroyed.
"DJ, that's enough now!" he said jumping on DJ's back and immediately hit several nerves to paralyze his friend. However DJ didn't fall but instead just threw him back towards the group of heroes.
He then began walking towards them with his red eyes, glaring like a predator.
"Razor, Razor. Razor snap out of it" Aqualad said giving M'gann to Artemis while placing himself between his team and the berserker raged teen. Razor got to them and was now within punching range as he pulled his fist back, claws out, and shot it forwards.
"DJ!" Aqualad shouted once more as the claws stopped just short of his eyes. The claws were then pulled away revealing a smirking DJ.
"Gotcha" he said as everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"Great Poseidon DJ" Kaldur said but he couldn't loose the smile from his face
"I think that took about three years off of my life" he said as DJ sheathed his claws.
"Ah, don't worry about it. I think this joke is actually on me" DJ said before falling back onto his butt.
"Guess that took a little more outta me then I thought" he said before getting up with the help of Robin.
"What was that anyway?" He asked as Robin hit the pump that began to drain the water out the hanger.
"Well, my guess, we've seen your battle rage. So I'm guessing that this was your 'berserker rage' " Kaldur said as the water slowly returned to normal.
"Well, let's hope it doesn't kick in again. Last thing I remember was getting hit with their combo blast and then I'm walking towards you guys" DJ said shaking his head still a little dizzy.
"Uh, hello?" Kid said from down below as everyone turned to see Superboy struggling to get out while Kid just looked up.
"A little help here" he said.
DJ stood behind Kid Flash lightly drawing an outline of where he body was in the goop with the middle of his three claws and his enhanced vision. The one on Superboy was already done.
"This requires great precision and absolute silence. Whatever this stuff is, it seems to deflect my claws enough to jolt them off course if I go slow. So I have to go fast to insure I'll get you get out in one piece. One wrong move and I could seriously injure you. Or kill you" DJ said as he finished the outline.
"Uh, you've got good aim right?" Wally asked worried. He knew Superboy would be okay being half Kryptonian. DJ put a hand on his friend's shoulder.
"Don't worry... I've never seriously injured someone" he said causing the cave to go quiet as they thought over his words.
"Wait, does that mean that you've-" Kid immediately shut up when he heard the slicing sound Razor's claws made. Immediately Kid welded his eyes shut while his friend carved him out.
After about thirty seconds, the sound stopped and he immediately felt his body become free.
"See? Good things happen when you keep your mouth shut" Artemis said as Wally opened his eyes. He seen that he was free and there wasn't even a tear on his suit.
DJ smiled and patted his his friends shoulder before he went over to Superboy. Suddenly the wind picked up and the team looked up to see Red Tornado entering through a skyline in the roof.
"What has occurred here?" he asked landing on the ground.
"Oh just a little visit from your family" Robin said as Artemis crossed her arms.
"Your extremely nasty family" she clarified.
"I was not aware that I had relations" he said walking forwards.
"Where have you been anyway?" Superboy said suspicious of where their den mother had been while his brother and sister were kicking their asses.
"Monitor duty at the Watchtower. When it became clear that Cave communications were down, I attempted to investigate, but your Zeta Tubes were also nonfunctional. I transported to Providence and proceeded here" he said kneeling beside the two bots.
Sphere starts to whir, catching everyone's attention. It then managed to get himself free and lands beside the still stuck Superboy.
"Hey boy" Conner greets and gets beeps in return. However DJ raised his head.
"Wait" he said shifting everyone's focus to him.
"If he's a machine, then how is he-" he stopped before looking at the robots with the realization.
"The pulse has worn off!" Robin and Kid Flash said coming to the same realization as DJ. Tornado bent down to touch the robot. However once his fingers got close together a spark happened, causing Tornado's eyes to turn red.
Immediately he hovered above the team and raised his hands creating a vortex that began sucking the oxygen away from the team.
One by one they gripped their throats, the exception of Superboy who was still stuck, and dropped to the floor.
"Hey!" Superboy shouted struggling to break free but still couldn't.
"Razor, do something!" he said seeing how he and Artemis were two of the last ones standing. Since he was half Kryptonian he didn't need to breathe air so would stay fully conscious but he was still stuck in the goop.
Razor looked at Red Tornado and took a few steps towards him. His face was already blue and his vision was starting to blur.
"Can't... breathe..." Artemis said falling to the ground unconscious. Now Tornado aimed all his powers at Razor. Razor kept stepping forwards to get to the robot but with the lack of oxygen and the wind pushing against him, it couldn't be done.
Finally Razor fell less than ten feet from Tornado, slipping into unconsciousness as Superboy repeatedly yelled out both at him and the robot.
"Razor! Razor!" A voice said as DJ came back to reality. He jumped up with a yell and unsheathed his claws, making the person beside him jump back for their safety.
"Don't bother" Robin said. Razor looked around him and seen that Canary had been the one calling his name trying to wake him. He also seen Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Flash and Green Arrow.
"They're gone" Robin said as the rest of the team became conscious one by one.
"All three are gone" Robin said angrily. Tornado had betrayed them.
Hey guys, sorry about the wait whenever fall hits I got fishing trips, fishing derbies and hunting. So I don't really have a lot of time for writing until winter hits really.
So it's gonna be slow updating, but at least I'm updating. Also please don't P.M me just to ask when the next chapter is coming out. I do not like that.