4

Artemis Crock had... A very rough childhood.

A demanding father.

High expectations.

Her mother and sister had been impossibly distant.

But she still loved them! She did!

At least, she thought she did. And then things had changed. Her mother had been hurt. Jade disappeared. Father was... Gone.

Everything was different. Everything was better!

Half of her family was gone and Artemis had never been happier.

She'd stayed up late on many, many nights thinking about that.

If it made her a bad person.

A bad daughter.

She... Did not enjoy those nights.

Turning to vigilantism hadn't actually been a huge stretch of the imagination. Her father had trained her in hand to hand, marksmanship, archery and even knifework. Taught her the best methods to track someone, to ambush them and interrogate. Soft and subtle, or vicious and bloody.

Turning those skills to more... Productive? Uses had been a little difficult, but she'd appreciated the distraction.

It kept her from dealing with the whole family issue. Or... Or worrying about her mom.

She thought herself something of a prowler of the rooftops, doing with her bow and arrow the kinds of things that Batman or Robin wouldn't. She'd avoided murder, but she was perfectly comfortable with maiming people.

Under the right conditions.

She saw the same man her father had used to, to test her with. She saw him in would-be rapists, in wife beaters, in too many men.

He hadn't been able to harm her body. But he'd scarred her memories.

But that was not why she had gone out today. She'd heard something, something impossible while she'd been on patrol. The Batman had been on a rooftop, stiff and struggling to move and he'd met with someone. He'd made the caped crusader an offer she hadn't believed.

Healing.

She hadn't believed it, not at first. But she wasn't blind, she'd seen how Batman had moved like a wounded, angry bear getting on the roof, and left with the flowing grace of a panther in its prime.

It had taken her almost a week to find him again. Walking around freely during the day in the near-abandoned apartments close the docks. Like he didn't have a care in the world. Like he didn't match the description she'd heard of a new metahuman the mob was steering clear of.

Like he didn't have a power that people would pay a fortune for.

Or kill for.

She didn't know how he'd noticed her. She wasn't wearing anything reflective, and her shadow was cast far behind him. When he'd turned around to check, she'd thought she might not have been the only one following him.

And then he looked up.

They never look up!

She caught a glimpse of impossible, glowing yellow before she'd ducked under the ledge of the roof she'd been on. She kept low as she ran to the fire escape on the back side of the building.

Her father had told her, time and again. 'The worst thing for a trained professional is a lucky idiot.'

Well, that and 'If you see Deathstroke on the other end of the scope, cancel the contract'.

He was at the end of the road when she saw him, just turning to the right. She sprinted after him, ducking into the alley parallel to him. A glimpse between abandoned dumpsters and she saw he was pacing himself, moving at a glacial jog compared to her.

She pushed harder. She didn't know what she was going to do, but she knew she had to do it.

Closing in on the mouth of the next alley, she tried to calm her ragged breathing.

There!

A flash of blue and...

She wasn't really sure after that. The world was big. And hot. And confusing. Because she was sure it wasn't supposed to be this big, but her brain just couldn't say -why-?

And then it just became even scarier when a big thing -grabbed- her and she couldn't escape!

She tried to scream, but the only noise she could make was a panicked, high-pitch chirping. That only got worse when something changed, the world changed, and she felt like she'd lost a fight with... With...?

She couldn't remember!

Her distress was mounting even as the big thing put her on the ground. She couldn't move, petrified with fear! She chirped once, then twice, and then things got weird again.

She was laying on a dusty hardwood floor. Light was peaking in between the white slats of plastic blinds.

And she was naked.

That took a moment to register, but when it did she pushed herself to her feet in a single, lightning quick motion. She turned around, eyes wild, hands moving to cover things when she saw him.

Making direct eye contact.

Glaring at her, gleaming yellow eyes boring into her own. Arms crossed and leaning against the wall.

"What." He finally said after several intense, uncomfortable moments. "Do you want."

If Artemis had been thinking clearly, she might not have twisted and kicked him across the face.

She would've gone for the gut instead.

It's hard to get people to talk with a broken jaw, after all.

AN/ A bit stressed lately, turned that into writing. Three chapters in as many days over on Caer, I figured you guys deserved something too.