PoV: Artemis
As I leap across the rooftops with Robin, I think back on the past week and a half.
Life since becoming an official associate of Batman's has been… indescribable.
The sheer amount of planning, resources, and information the Justice League Member has makes me feel like I was operating with a 90% handicap this entire time, just bumbling around in gang areas trying my best to find leads.
Before, it'd take me a month of effort and chasing leads to track down a series of supply houses, but now? I just need to radio in, and I'll get the answer back in under a minute.
And the best part of it is that I don't have to deal with any more of
her bullshit. No fucking moral ambiguity, no hidden demigods, no betrayals: just plain good and evil.
None of… none of what happened the night after the Executioner.
I swallow.
I took down Stallion, that was a good thing, unambiguously. It let the GCPD take far more aggressive action against Penguin's assets. But the way I did it…
The rage, the hatred, the sheer
brutality of it. The way I wasn't even fighting him at the end, I was fighting
her, just superimposed on his body. The stabbing, the bloodiness, the
joy I took in absolutely
eviscerating him.
It would have made Dad proud.
I sigh. I can't be like that again. Can't
ever be like that again. I need to focus, to stop letting her have such a hold on me, to look
forward, always. That's what got me through the toughest times before Er-
Argyra was there, and it's what'll get me through this.
I just need to keep looking forward, and never,
ever look back. Because looking back is how you stumble, how you fall, how you become someone you're not. When you let the chains of the past bind you, they drag you down, to
her level.
She thinks she's so great, huh? That she's some radiant being, too fucking good to slum it with us mortals? Beyond good and evil, beyond
me?
That's fine! That's
completely fine. I'm fine with it! I'll just have to show her, show her what the fuck she gave up on, the type of shit this
puny mortal can do. And when I lock her up in Blackgate and throw away the key, maybe then she'll understand I'm fucking
worth something, I'm not some-
I growl angrily.
Forward, Artemis. You can't keep focusing on
her. Heroing is the future.
Batman is the future.
I can't stop my lips from twitching upwards. Because man, what a future it is.
I
used to think I was experienced. A skilled investigator, an excellent fighter, and an all-around good-quality hero.
But one day of training with Batman proved to me how wrong I was.
Apparently I've been wrong about a lot of things.
That man is so skilled, so incredibly, impossibly competent at literally everything, it makes me doubt he's actually human. He broke down every single aspect of my fighting style, movement by movement, and has been helping me rebuild it into something
better, from the ground up. He's had me go through simulation after stimulation of various types of hero work, ruthlessly critiquing my actions at every turn, and showing me the tricks and strategies he's learned from long years of service.
It's absolutely exhausting, but the
good type of exhausting, the type that leaves me stumbling home to crash in my bed at the end of the day, unable to even
think about anything else.
Or anyone else.
In comparison, training with Green Arrow is… decent?
I get the feeling that he really would prefer not to be doing this, but feels duty-bound to do the best job he can.
My money's on it having something to do with Speedy- sorry
Red Arrow. Publicly, nothing's wrong, of course, and it was an amicable split, but I can't imagine that people change their name and move halfway across the country because their relationship with their former mentor is particularly
good.
Batman has been providing me with access to the same type of trick arrows the older hero uses — infinitely better than my two kludged-together models — and, to his credit, Green Arrow has really been helping me figure out how to use them. He's even helped me perfect some general aspects of fighting with a bow, although honestly, I wasn't exactly shabby there to begin with.
I mean c'mon, I was trained by Malcom fucking Merlyn, a man I once saw shoot the wings off a fly from 200 feet away. I'm not anywhere near his level — yet — but I'm not exactly an amateur.
"So…" I say to my partner in this mission, "you seem to
really have it out for this guy, huh?"
"I've been chasing down this asshole for a
month" Robin says, voice practically a growl. "He's been… he's been
teasing me, leaving clues for his next crimes, practically mocking me to my
face."
"Batman hasn't gotten involved?"
He shakes his head. "No, this is
my case to solve. I can't hide behind him forever, and he knows that."
"Besides" he says with a frown, "he doesn't think Red X is a 'priority'. Says that there are much bigger threats I
should be focusing on."
"But that doesn't matter" Robin says, smiling "because I've
finally figured out how to catch this annoying bastard. Tonight, I'm ahead of him. I've tracked his patterns, used his clues to construct a psychological profile, analyzed his past crimes, and so I
know he's going to be here."
I grit my teeth. "Speaking of, you haven't actually told me where 'here' is…"
Again.
"Right, sorry. It's a STAR Labs's temporary artifact storage facility. A new experimental phasing device has just been shipped in, and is going to be stored overnight before being shipped off to their main labs in the morning."
"And he wants that because…"
"Because he's a
scavenger" Robin says. "He's stolen dozens of pieces of advanced tech so far, and done who knows what with them. We think he might be integrating them into his gear, because after he stole some of Dr. Light's drones, he was suddenly able to shoot these lasers from his wrists.
"But tonight is different. Compared to actual, working phase-shifting everything else he's stolen is chump change. Who knows
what he could do to advance his plans."
Quietly, with the utmost stealth, we make out way onto the roof of a building near the warehouse. Sure enough, there's a dark figure kneeling by the door, fiddling with the security system.
I look at the villain, and for a second I feel like I've been punched in the stomach.
That…
That hair…
Abruptly, I fully take them in, and I feel the ground reassert itself under me.
Oh. The silver on the figure's head is scuff marks on their helmet, not…
I swallow, almost fumbling the arrow I'm drawing. I mean, why would-
No. Chryssa, this is a
mission, working with
Batman's protégé. You
cannot let yourself be distracted.
I take in a deep breath, and let it out in staggered increments.
Always forward, never look back.
I string my bow, and if my fingers are a little shaky, neither of us comment on it.
"Okay" Robin says. "Here's the plan: I'll get up close and fight Red X as a distraction, while you sneak inside remove the phasing tech to a safe location. By the time he even realizes what's going on, it'll be too late!"
"I don't know, isn't there a lot of security inside? I don't have the equipment with me to break through it, and-"
I turn around, and he's already gone.
I have to stifle a scream of frustration.
He's always been bad whenever we patrolled together, but ever since Batman decided to take me on — something I
still have to pinch myself to make sure is real sometimes — he's been absolutely insufferable. We barely coordinate, barely even
talk; he barely even seems to acknowledge that I'm
here most of the time when we're making plans. And when he does, it's just to chastise me: like he's Lex Luthor, and I'm the incompetent, ditzy secretary who can't even make photocopies right.
Ok, maybe not
that bad, but it isn't far off either.
"Red X!" Robin yells, dropping down behind the crouching villain in a way that makes me cringe. "I tracked you down, unraveled your clues. This ends now."
"Oh?" the villain says, voice modulated through his mask, "did you? Or did you merely do what I
wanted you to do?"
Robin tenses.
Red X raises his arms. "While you're wasting time fighting me, one of my associates is breaking into the servers of another medical insurance company, uploading a virus."
He laughs. "Within the hour, two billion dollars worth of medical debt will
disappear."
Wait
what?
This is his evil plan?
I turn to look at Robin incredulously from where I'm hiding in the shadows.
"It's not that simple, Red." Robin says. "The last time you did this, the company ended up shutting its doors, leaving three hundred people out of work. The economic ripples cost two
thousand more their jobs, when hospitals had to make cutbacks because of increased insurance rates."
Red X scoffs. "
I'm not the one who decided to build an entire industry's economy in the most evil and stupid manner available."
Robin gestures at me angrily.
Shit, right, sneaking inside.
The fifteen-year-old hero growls. "You may not have built it, but it's still your responsibility to deal with it. Because if you don't, you just end up hurting people. Or are all those parents who can't put food on the table just acceptable losses? The people that die because hospitals have to reduce capacity?"
I slink away from where I've been standing, coming up to the back entrance of the warehouse.
"What of the hundreds of thousands who can now afford to put food on the table, afford to provide for their children, and live their lives? Who can afford to see the doctor again? Where was this fire and righteousness when
they were suffering? Those are
your acceptable casualties."
He shakes his head. "This is a
war, Robin, to tear down the factory of infinite misery that is the current capitalist system. Even righteous wars are never clean."
Robin scoffs. "Oh yes, you're
such a noble warrior. What's your ultimate plan, here, besides just causing chaos? Just keep bankrupting insurance companies until what, the medical system collapses? I'm sure everyone will be
very grateful, then."
"You fail to see the vision. By heightening the contr-"
They fade into mumbles as I make my way around the back of the warehouse. Alright, let's see what we've got here…
Gods-
God fucking damnit, of
course. I fucking knew it, of
course the Fates wouldn't be kind to me.
I grimace. No, those three bitches apparently favor someone
else in my life, who's been-
I shake my head.
Focus.
Always forward, never back.
I breathe in. Right. Apparently STAR's shoveled out the big bucks for this one, and gone with WayneTech Security. They're pretty much the gold, no
platinum standard, and this looks like one of the more expensive packages.
Guess this is what it looks like when Metropolis money starts spending in Gotham.
Oh hey, judging by the sounds from out front, the two of them have finally stopped swinging their dicks around, and are actually fighting.
Seriously though,
fuck tonight. This shit would take my
dad at least ten minutes to get through, and that's
with specialized tools.
I spend the next five minutes carefully searching around the rest of the building, looking to see if I'm lucky enough to have someone leave a door open, or a vent loose, or
something…
Apparently, the Fates really do hate "mortals" like me, because there's fucking nothing. Of all the warehouses in Gotham with an actually competent staff, it had to be this one.
I guess I could always try to blow through the concrete walls with my explosive arrows, but that would defeat the point of
covertly exfiltrating the asset, now wouldn't it?
I mentally curse, and begin to make my way back around to a high vantage point with a view of the fight.
Fucking hell, I can't get through this! I
tried to tell him, I don't have any lock-picking tools with me advanced enough to get through this, and even if I did, it could take half an hour!
Well, at least I can probably help out Robin in fighting the villain, that's got to count for something.
Hmm, is "villain" really accurate? "Vigilante"? "Anti-hero"?
Honestly, I don't know. I'm starting to get the feeling that if it weren't for whatever weird personal rivalry Robin has going on with this guy, I wouldn't be here tonight. Batman doesn't seem all that concerned with him, saving the profits of medical insurance companies apparently isn't very high on his priority list.
I take my position on my perch to find that the two capes are fighting hand-to-hand. Their sparing is
very intense. Very personal.
Red X has Robin in a headlock, taking advantage of his superior height to hold the hero off the ground, pinned to his own body. "Don't you get it, Bird Boy? You've fallen right into the setup I spent so long preparing for you: I've got you
right where I want you. The virus should almost be done uploading by now."
He slowly moves a hand down the hero's side, grabbing a boomerang from his utility belt and stuffing it on his own.
"Fight as long and hard as you want, Robin, all you're doing is helping me work off my frustration. Every minute you spend here is another family's future being saved."
Robin smiles, eyes wide, face flushed with exertion, his breathing heavy, "Oh you think that, don't you? That you've managed to get me laid out flat under you. You think you've pinned me…"
He performs a classic Judo grip-break, and reverses the hold, so that
he's the one pinning the villain's arms. "…but I've pinned
you! The entire time we've been fighting, my assistant Chryssa has been grabbing the phase generator from inside the warehouse! She's blocks away by now!"
I'm sorry his
what?
Red X curses, breaking out of Robin's hold. He raises his arms, red lasers on his wrists beginning to glow, and whirls around to the warehouse…
The very clearly locked,
undisturbed warehouse, with an activated security system.
He turns back to Robin, and I can practically see his smirk underneath his mask.
"Oh?" he drawls. "Looks like not
everyone you work with shares your level of intelligence, darling."
Robin frowns.
"Don't you know?" the villain says. "That's a
WayneTech security system. The most secure in the business, there's no way to bypass it without shutting down the ancillary nodes."
He points. "That LED right there? That means your little
assistant never even made it inside, the security was just too tough for her.
Ironic."
Robin almost screams in frustration, back-flipping away and dropping one of his smoke bombs.
It's at that moment of distraction, with the two separated for the first time the entire fight, that I launch one of my new net arrows at the villain, trying to trip him up.
Unfortunately, something in his helmet must let him see through the smoke, because he jumps away, cutting it out of the air with a beam of red energy from his wrist-cannons.
Robin whirls around to face me. "What are you
doing!" he yells. "Why did you abandon the phase generator?!"
I glare at him. "I
tried to tell you I wouldn't be able to get past the security!"
The hero just growls, turning back to his opponent. "
Fine. But stay out of this fight, X is
mine."
My hand is probably going to bruise tomorrow from how hard I'm clenching my bow. So what, am I just supposed to sit here?
"Oh?" Red X says, rushing Robin "I'm
yours, am I?"
The villain chuckles throatily. "Look at me, four months and I already have a nemesis of my own. I'll have to tell a friend, she was
so insistent that it that was an unlucky number."
"Well" he says under his breath, sounding frustrated, "if she'd actually fucking talk to me."
"I'm not your
nemesis, X." Robin says, grin wide, ignoring his muttered comment. "You're a speed bump in my path, and one of these days, I'm going to grind you down to nothing like the-"
I frown. "Wait, if it's been four months since you've been active, and Robin's been chasing you a month, wouldn't that make it
three months since you got a nemesis? And that's a
lucky number, so-"
"Stay out of this!" they both yell.
I have to suppress a scream of frustration. This is going to be a
long night.
The next day at school, I have to physically stop myself from digging my fingers into the table.
That… that
dick! I can't
believe he just said "here's the plan" and then ran off! Like what, are my thoughts not good enough to even hear from,
your highness? I guess my year and a half of on-the-job experience means nothing!
In the end, the battle went poorly. Red X managed to get away, mostly because Robin refused to actually coordinate with me, and we ended up going home angry after just another hour of patrolling. At least neither of us ended up going home with the phase generator, it got shipped off to Metropolis a few hours ago.
And what does that asshole do? He blames
me!
I should have "found a way inside", apparently. Not "given up so easily and ruined the mission."
What, found a way inside a
WayneTech premium system? With only a set of ordinary lockpicks?
Suddenly, I hear a voice from the hall that sends my heart racing. "I'm telling you Lonnie, I'm great! I'm thriving, living, growing, all that great stuff!"
Her voice sounds smug, lilting, like she's verbally dancing around her conversational partner.
"Look Yra, with all due respect, that's bullshit. You've been avoiding me for a week now. You can't even
talk about her. What. Happened."
"
Nothing happened! Really, I don't see why you're being so strange about this."
"Are you seriously trying to tell me that-"
"Lonnie, I'm telling you,
everything's fine. Oh, look! I'm here. Good talk buddy, see you next period."
Just like every time I've seen her since…
then, it feels like my eyes are glued to the doorway before she walks in.
After a few seconds longer than it should take, I see her saunter through, smoothing down her hair.
She walks over to my desk, and I feel each step of her pound in my head like a war-drum.
"Heyyyy Artemis."
I ignore how my heart jumps at the sound.
"Argyra." I say, voice hard, glaring at my
former best friend.
She smirks, lazily. "And how are
you doing this fine morning?"
"Well" I say, turning back to my work.
"Well
I'm doing fine" she says, leaning over my desk, "
better than fine actually. Everything feels so… light and
free, now that I'm no longer weighed down by
unfortunate baggage."
"I suppose it
is easy to float when you're full of hot air" I say, flatly.
I have to hold back a smirk at how her eyes narrow.
It only lasts a moment though, and the next instant, she's back to her lazy smirk. "Clever. There's that sharp, cutting judgement that everyone loves so much."
"One of these days" I say, glaring. "One of these days someone's going to puncture that gigantic fucking ego of yours, and bring you down to earth. I just hope you don't hurt too many people before it happens."
"Self-righteous and delusional as ever, I see."
"Oh? So was it just my imagination that Mary Kong missed the last cheerleading competition, the one where that all the talent scouts were, because she was too busy crying her eyes out in her dorm over how you used her up and threw her aside?"
I see something flicker in her eyes that might just be regret, but it only lasts for a moment. "Mary knew what she was getting into" she says, eyes hard. "I
told her what she was getting into. It's not my fault if she caught feelings along the way."
"No, but it's your fault for stringing her along. Of keeping her wanting something you knew you wouldn't be able to give her."
She growls, leaning forward.
"Oh
fuck you" she says. "
You of all people don't get to say that."
I turn away from her. "If you're not going to go and try to fix the hurt you're causing, if you don't even
care about the hurt you're causing, then we have nothing to say to one another."
She snorts, standing back up. "Well then. See you never, I suppose."
Fortunately for me, she decides to end the conversation there, strolling over to her desk and plopping down into the seat.
Unfortunately for me, after a minute or so, she leans over to her deskmate and runs a finger down his shoulder.
"Hey there hot stuff, how you doing this lovely morning?"
The black-haired boy turns, and gives her a flirtatious smile. "Better now that you're here, beautiful."
Er-
Argyra shoots me a wink over her shoulder, and then tilts her head back and laughs, in a way I
know is fake.
I have to stop myself from growling. Of
course she starts flirting with
him.
Chet Quaid is a notorious sleazebag, a fuckboy who'll sleep with any girl with a pulse, and probably a few without it. He must have hit on E- Argyra a dozen times by now, he likes how "exotic" her hair his, but this is the first time she's given him the time of day. She's
explicitly told me she doesn't find him attractive in the slightest!
Well, fine, then.
I purposefully turn my head away from where she's staring at me.
I just hope she enjoys all the venereal diseases that asshole is no doubt carrying with him, if that's the caliber of person she's reduced herself to.
…Fuck, she probably has some magic way of stopping those, doesn't she?
"You're such a charmer!" she says, bumping a shoulder into his. "And I
do appreciate someone who can recognize my…
assets."
She flicks her eyes over to me at that last part, smirking. I feel my nails scratch lines into the wood of my desk.
"So" she says, leaning over the boy's desk, and giving that
shithead a look straight at her… you-know-whats, "have you finished that assignment for Mr. Dashington on Soviet History?"
"Nah, not yet. Don't really see the point, not like I'll ever use it."
I can see confusion and disdain momentarily flash on her face, before her eyes flick over to me, and the sultry smirk returns. "Well, you should. A big, strong man like you would get snapped up into the army, so it would behoove you to know more about America's number one rival."
I wouldn't be surprised if they can hear my teeth grinding across the classroom.
She lays a hand on her chest, purposefully placed to emphasize her bust. "I chose the influence of Romani figures on state-building after WWII, writing about the obvious example.
Very interesting to see how a
strong man can
grab the political order and just
force it under him. And that metal mask of his, mh!"
My pencil snaps in my grip.
The sleazy piece of shit just smiles. "Oh, I'm
very familiar with that sort of thing. Trust me, I have a
lot of experience."
I have never wanted to wring a man's neck more in my entire life than I do now.
As the silver-haired girl tilts her head back in another fake laugh, I have to stop myself from growling. How the
fuck is this my life?
AN: I hope you enjoy Red X, I set him up a
while back, and I'm glad to finally have it pay off. It shouldn't be too hard to guess who he is.
Question: I'm thinking of writing something (maybe main story, maybe an alternate timeline, maybe a one-shot, who knows) where Artemis goes to Gotham U, and Eri manages to finangle a spot as a TA for one of her intro classes (she got the college to basically let her do an undergrad and masters at the same time by walking in to the math department and handing them a Nobel-worthy finished paper debunking some long-standing hypothesis in predictive statistics). Anyone have any fun plot ideas for that type of setting? Superhero-related or just college related.
And if you feel like you need a shower after watching Eri and Chet flirt, good! That means I did my job well.
Discussion is the thing that keeps the fire of motivation burning inside me, of if you read the chapter and liked it, please make sure to comment. I read every single one, and each of them brightens my day.
If you want inside scoops, I talk about story stuff and get writing feedback on
my channel in the Gaylor Convention Center
