Tales From the Cave-Wally and the Magic Lamp

Meet Wisp

King Kamobye hurried into the room to see his daughter's form resting on her ostrich feather bed covered in emerald green silk.  "Artemis!  You're home!", he cried out in relief and happiness as he strode towards her.  "I'm so glad!  When I received the news that you had run away, I was worried sick that something had happened to you!  But now you're home, safe and sound, and..."

He trailed off as Artemis lifted her head up to look at him.  Her beautiful gray-blue eyes were reddened and bloodshot, and her pale cheeks were stained with tear tracks.  Kamobye had never seen his daughter like this before, and now that he had, it broke his heart.  "Artemis?  What's the matter?", he asked in a soft, somewhat saddened voice.  "Is something wrong?"

Artemis wiped her face on the back of her hand.  "Its Vertigo.", she sniffled.  "He's...He's...He's..."  She burst into dry sobs.  Kamobye rushed to her side.  "What is it, baby?  What happened?"  Artemis clung onto her father's apparel.  "Vertigo has done something terrible, Papa!", she choked out.  Kamobye sat next to her and wrapped his arms around her.  He wasn't sure just what to do.  He had never seen her in such a state.  She was usually tough as nails.

"There there, now.", he whispered, smoothing down her pretty blond hair.  "We'll set it right."  He reached into his cloak and pulled out a handkerchief.  "No more tears.", he said as he dabbed her eyes dry.  He held her closer to him.  "Now, tell me everything."  Artemis sniffed as she lay her head on her father's shoulders.  "Well..."
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Wally groggily opened his eyes to see sand, just sand. He sat up and looked around. The rest of the Team was waking up to find themselves in a giant golden bubble. Kaldur saw Raquel floating in the center of it all, providing herself and her friends with protection. "You have saved our lives.", he said, smiling at her. "I can never thank you enough." Raquel blushed a little bit. "No problem, boss fish."

She lowered them to the ground and disintegrated her energy ball. Conner looked up to see that the entrance had sealed itself. There was no way out. "We're trapped!", he yelled. "I can't believe this!" He shot a deadly glare right at Roy. "This is all your fault, Arrow! You just had to have that dumb piece of junk!" "I'd hardly call a three-hundred carat ruby a piece of junk!", he retorted.

Wally sneered at his former friend. "He's right, you jackass! Its your fault we're trapped in here, just like it was your fault that Artemis left in the first place!" Everyone murmured in agreement. Roy grew angry. "Oh, here we go again!", he shouted. "'Boo hoo! Artemis ran away from us, and its all because of Red Arrow! Let's blame him for everything that goes wrong from now on and make his life miserable!' Are you guys forgetting that the ol' geezer tried to literally stab KF in the back?!"

Kaldur shook his head. "Red Arrow is right. That man was only only using us to get what he wanted." Wally hung his head in both anger and disappointment. "That two-faced weasel's probably halfway back to Timoria with that lamp.", he grumbled. Robin's mouth formed into his signature knowing smirk. "Or is he?"

All eyes fell on him as he reached into his supersuit and pulled out the ancient artifact that they had come for. "You got the lamp? How?" Robin cackled smugly. "I slipped it off the geezer when I was fighting him." "Rob, you're amazing!", Wally exclaimed as he took it into his own hands.

Conner squinted his eyes as he stared at the lamp. "I don't get it. What did that crock want with a rusty old piece of junk?" "I was wondering the same thing.", Wally said, examining the lamp. "Why did he want this thing so badly?" He looked closer. "I think there's some writing on here." "What does it say?" Wally shook his head. "I don't know know. I can't make it out. Lemme just..." He began rubbing his thumb over the cool metal, trying to wipe away the smudges.

All of the sudden, the lamp turned red. The temperature in it rose to a thousand degrees as steam whizzed out of it's spout, whistling like a tea kettle. Wally dropped it and reeled back as the lamp shook and rattled, with fireworks of every color exploding from out of it's opening. Smoke of sky blue hue floated from out of the lamp, forming a giant cloud over their heads. A great scream echoed throughout the Cave of Wonders as the smoke evaporated away.