Inter-city Lab Delivery
The car was an old taxi, repainted badly to be solid yellow, and the title was typed out on a paper card stuck to the inside of the back window. It was crude, but served its purpose well enough and in the city, no one even gave it a second thought except to sometimes mistake it for a taxi. That actually could get rather annoying, but often enough the offenders would end up with a bullet through their heads so it was good target practice. No one thought twice about that either.
Jenks took a long drag from the end of his cigarette before lazily flicking it out the window, sending a casual glance at the rearview mirror to see if he could spot where it landed. A hair left of the stripe. Again. He'd have to adjust his target.
As he rolled lazily up to the flickering red light, Jenks stuck his head out of the window just a bit and angled his face towards the sky, sniffing as he saw grey clouds, not heavy with rain, but not fluffy and white either. They cast a shadow over the whole city, but that wasn't out of the ordinary. It was only really sunny two days out of the week, on a good week, and the rest of the time the sky was overcast and blank, lending to the general atmosphere of the city. Jenks was used to it, though, and found he didn't really miss the sun most of the time anyway. It was too hot. And bright. With clouds you could really save money on sunglasses. But he wore those all the time anyway, so that didn't really factor in.
The light turned green again and Jenks switched his foot back to the gas and sped through the intersection, only slowly down after nearly rear ending the bus in front of him. Collateral damage wasn't really good for the publicity, which they tried to keep nonexistent. Taking his eyes off the road, he glanced down to the piece of paper in his hand with the untidy scrawl dragging across its length. It was an address to the new location for pickup, as the other one had been disposed of after it served its time. Too much business to one place attracted too much attention. Besides, now that the feeding tube had been installed, they needed somewhere to get stuff for that as well. They could only starve the little brat for so long.
Jenks tossed the paper back onto the passenger seat and redirected his attention to the traffic, swerving to avoid a kid who'd wandered a bit too far from his dumpster. His death probably wouldn't be noticed, but Jenks was always surprised at the amount of caring mothers in the city, so it was better not to take the chance.
Yawning, Jenks settled back into the ratty seat of the car, reaching over and digging around in the trash that littered the floor for a pack of cigarettes. He located one fairly quickly and tugged a cigarette loose, flicking open the lighter lying in the ashtray and lighting the end of it before sticking it in his mouth. He settled back and let his mind wander, knowing the road he was looking for wouldn't come for another fifteen minutes.
There really wasn't much to think about in his life, other than the current experiment and the gossip surrounding it. He'd lost any chance of a social life when he'd joined the gig over twelve years ago as a high school drop-out hoping to earn some quick cash. Little did he know it was a lifelong commitment. But it wasn't all that bad either; he got food and drink, company, however quiet it could be at times, and he had unlimited access to anything out on the wide world of the internet to keep him company in his lonely life. Sure he'd been forever thrust into silence and secrecy because of what he knew, but there were far worse things out there. He knew: he'd come from worse.
But the current experiment. That's what filled his life now. Everything he did and everything he was surrounded the experiment and because of that, he knew everything he could know about it. He wasn't really supposed to know at least half of what he did know, but Sixty-two had a loose tongue and Donovan knew there wasn't much harm in him, or any of the rest of the crew, knowing anyway as they couldn't talk about it even if they wanted to. There was no way they'd squeal to the police or anybody else. Even if they did somehow get past the speech barrier they'd be blown halfway to hell before they got halfway to anywhere else.
So he knew most everything and because it was his life, he dwelled on it. The current experiment was one of the biggest there'd been since the original Cadmus had gotten shut down all those years ago. That was before Jenks's time, but he'd heard enough. Of course, it was one of the only 'interrupted' experiments Donovan had performed, what with the escape of the subject back in July, but all things considered, it seemed to be going fairly well, if not slower than expected.
From what Jenks had heard, the DNA hadn't fused yet and they were still somewhere in the process of prepping the body and preparing the DNA for the fusion, which was one of the last steps before the actual fusion, which in itself would potentially take a few weeks as well. Jenks didn't understand how something like mushing two different DNAs together could take a month, if not more, but the familiar response of "that's why you're the errand boy and not the scientist" rang through his head.
As for the actual condition of the subject: he heard a lot about that as well. That was one of the more popular topics around the drinking table at night (just because their ability to talk was terminated didn't mean the crew couldn't communicate with each other) as it was more enjoyable to mull over the torture of others instead of complicated science, especially when said torture was always so much worse than your own. It really put a nice spin on things in one's own life.
Sixty-two actually wasn't one to often bring news about the subject, as that wasn't usually his responsibility and he was always getting in trouble for it, and Merida wouldn't give any of the crew the time of day, so K2-5 was the primary source of gossip on that topic. Him and his on-and-off partner Brick (it was Donovan's nickname of course) had brought in fresh news just the last night about the subject and Jenks found his pick-up job to confirm what had been said.
They'd repeated the old new about the feeding tube - Cirk had overheard Sixty-two talking about it to Merida two days ago – about how Donovan had been forced to realize that his subject was slowly wasting away from lack of nourishment, a sign that the experiment was taking longer than he'd previously anticipated. They'd also said he was still unconscious or delirious the entire time and, according to Merida, he hadn't made any signs of recognizing surroundings or people the few times he'd been awake. He'd been under for almost a month now and apparently it was getting boring as his suffering wasn't nearly as acute as it would be if he were cognizant.
They'd also said his body continued to not heal itself, but that was a good sign, Donovan said, as it meant it was waiting for the new healing gene to take effect. Once it did, any injuries would be only distant memories and hence he'd left alone any current damage done to the body. Jenks appreciated that. Sure the kid would be righter than rain once he was jacked up, but for now he had to deal with having a less than complete body. It was one of the things that made Jenks wish the brat were conscious.
There hadn't been much more news besides the extended time the experiment was taking. A lot of the crew was wondering if it was going to be a success or not, but Brick and K2-5 claimed that Donovan was confident of it. It really wouldn't matter either way to the crew. If it was a success, all the supervillains who'd attempted to track down the subject would get their reward, Donovan would have created another monster to add to his résumé, and he'd move onto something new, the crew with him. If it was a failure, Donovan would whine about it, take his anger out on some poor, unfortunate, soon-to-be mutant and then move on and try again. Maybe this time he'd swallow his pride and pick a subject off the street and save all the hassle. Either way, nothing changed. There was no promise of world domination or immortality or lifelong riches. Only science and those too foolish to get out while they had the chance.
oOo
"We're never going to get a mission, are we?"
"Wally, you asked that yesterday." Artemis sighed, not looking up from the bow and rag in her hands. "I really don't understand why you'd even want to go on a mission," she muttered quietly.
"I was hoping it would distract me." Wally murmured back, just as quietly, but there was venom in his voice.
Artemis sighed again, this time looking up to where the speedster had stopped in his pacing; his eyes icy as they stared back at her.
"I'm sorry."
The ice melted and the freckled face deflated again, the eyes once again shadows in the pale landscape, red hair limp and lifeless as the rest of the body.
"Me too."
They were the only ones at the cave that day. M'gann and Conner were out together somewhere, Kaldur was in Atlantis for the week, and Zatanna was spending time with Raquel. It was like this more often than not, Artemis noticed, but she found she preferred it this way. She exploded too much at her team when they were around and things were hard enough without… without losing anymore friends. Because, as much as she told herself the only reason she still stuck around the cave was because it was the easiest place to search for leads on Robin, she knew that the real reason was the people who also stuck around the cave. Friends. She'd never really had any of those before.
"Did you hear Bats got a dog?"
Speaking of friends: Wallace West. Artemis never thought she would be able to bring herself to even tolerate the kid, even after Robin had told her time and again how 'awesome' he really was, but since the incident, something had changed between the two of them. Artemis wasn't the kind of person to believe it had anything to do with her suddenly realizing her faults after such a traumatic event and becoming a better person and wanting to make up to old enemies, blah, blah, blah. No, if anything she'd become a worse person after the event. The only thing that had changed was that suddenly, they understood each other.
None of the others on the Team understood what Artemis and Wally were going through. Sure they all loved Robin and were devastated by what had happened, but they'd never been close to him – not like Artemis and Wally were. The Team didn't know the things they knew about the boy and that somehow united them. They were the only ones who felt Robin's loss like a potentially-fatal wound to the heart. Robin had somehow managed to bring them together, and the kid wasn't even around to see it.
'He'd be laughing his little head off," Artemis thought grimly, then said out loud: "Yeah, more like a bear. I saw the thing sniffing around last night and I almost shot it."
"I guess Bats is hoping it'll be able to sniff down Robin or something." Wally stopped pacing.
"I hope it does, if only for his sake." Artemis shuttered at the memories of the few times she'd seen Batman over the last month. They were… disturbing to say the least. It was almost like watching….
"He's really starting to scare me. He was talking to my uncle the other day and…," Wally walked over and leaned against the back of the couch Artemis was sitting on. "It was like watching a wild animal, almost."
Artemis nodded, letting her hands and bow drop into her lap.
"What if…," Wally paused, as though unsure whether to continue. "I just can't help thinking, what if Batman destroys himself trying to find him. I mean, there's been minimal to no contact between him and the League, unless Superman threatens an update, and even Alfred's been silent. Flash says it looks like he barely sleeps and Gotham is… well, as terrified as the rest of us. Not to mention just about every secret organization and lab in the whole country. Just… what if Rob comes home to this? What if, by the time Bats finds him, Batman's so far off the deep end there's no pulling him back? And then there's Bruce Wayne…. What are we gonna do Arty?"
Artemis was so busy wallowing in feelings of hopelessness she almost missed the nickname at the end. 'Arty'? Where did that come from?
"I just feel so useless!" Wally was still talking, having resumed his pacing at a fervent speed, his hands flying around wildly and his face contorted into concern and anger and confusion.
"What can we do, Wally?" Artemis stood up now, her face flushed in anger that she had no idea where it came from. "What more can we do? What more can anyone do? We've searched, the League has searched, the freaking Batman has searched, and what have we found? Nothing. So I ask you, what more can we do?"
"So you just wanna give up?" Wally rounded on the archer, his fists clenched. "Lie down and accept defeat?!"
"I'm just being realistic!"
"If it were you who was captured, Rob wouldn't rest till he found you!"
"And I haven't! But we can only go over the scene so many times! We can only scour Gotham for so long before there's nowhere else to look!"
"Well then we look somewhere else!"
"Great, I'll pack my bags and we'll take a road trip around the world, searching every nook and cranny for an evil scientist bent on farcical genetic experimentation with a fetish for thirteen-year-old heroes!"
"I-" Wally looked like he was about to yell and angry retort before he closed his mouth, his fists dropping and his tightly clenched jaw falling slack. "I'm sorry. I know you've looked – been looking – this whole time. I just… wish I could do more. I wish I could find him…."
"I'm sorry too." And then Artemis cracked a smile, collapsing back on the couch with a sigh. "Who'd of ever thought we'd spend a day apologizing to each other after blatantly screaming about our feelings."
Wally smiled too, stopping his pacing again and walking around the front of the couch. "Now are you gonna tell me I'm 'not so bad' and I'll reply that 'you're not either' and we'll fall into throws of romantic passion?"
"I hope not."
There was silence for a minute, in which Artemis awkwardly laughed and Wally awkwardly laughed as well before suddenly there was nothing else to say and they both tried to look anywhere but at each other before Wally finally sat down in an armchair next to the couch spoke up.
"Have you talked to Roy recently?"
"No," Artemis was glad for the semi-change of subject. Nothing strayed far from the elephant in the room on any day, and everything seemed to be related to said elephant in one way or another, so really it was only a slight variation of the subject, but these days, it was all they had because man, that elephant had a big family. "I actually haven't seen him around Gotham much either."
"Hmm," Wally hummed, reaching over to the coffee table where a half-empty bag of chips lay abandoned from some previous event. "I tried to call him the other day, but he didn't pick up. Flash said the League hasn't seen much of him either."
"Great, just what we need," Artemis muttered, watching as Wally reached into the bag and pulled out a handful of fried fat. "Another angsty, broody, destructive, reclusive, loner man who won't pick up the phone."
"Wow, impressive adjectives." Wally spoke around a mouthful of chips, but for once, Artemis didn't turn up her nose. She'd learned more about the speedster's strange metabolism over the past weeks and, while she still didn't approve of most of his eating habits, she accepted some as inevitable.
"But seriously," he continued once he'd swallowed. "The last time he wouldn't answer my calls was after he'd ditched the hat."
"Well, if it's any consolation to you, he only just started talking to me period." It was true. After the days they'd spent together after the incident, the older archer stopped by irregularly for the first couple weeks to exchange information and even go out hunting together. Or whatever it was they were doing. After the trail had been cold for a few weeks, though, he'd stopped coming and only occasionally messaged her about a small clue or whatever. But still, it was more than they'd ever been before.
Wally hadn't said anything to Artemis's comment and continued to eat for a minute for speaking again.
"What about the others? I mean, we've had like two missions and they've both been Tornado-issued, so in other words, total flops, and they haven't really been around the cave much… or maybe I haven't been around the cave much…."
"The aliens are still together, if that's what you're wondering," Artemis smirked, laying her bow down on the coffee table.
Wally shrugged in defeat, like it was inevitable.
"Zatanna's… ," Artemis continued. "Well, I actually don't really know how Zatanna's doing." She felt bad, not having talked to the girl in a long time, but she seemed to have found some friends around Happy Harbor. Artemis had actually found herself a little jealous when she'd first learned of this, but pushed it away. So what if she'd had the chance to be the girl's first friend. She deserved others who would actually be around to hang out with her and help her through her loss.
"But I talked to Barbara the other day," Artemis continued. "She's doing okay, besides, you know, pretending to be Robin every now and then as well as having lost her best friend in the middle of a fight. She's kinda beating herself up I guess."
"Oh." Wally swallowed before continuing. "I still can't believe Batman asked her to do that. You know, pretend to be Rob. I know that he can't let Gotham think something's happened to him, but still. She's new to this whole thing, and even if she's not really doing any actual crime-fighting, she's still swinging around the city with the Bat. I don't think I could do it."
Artemis just nodded. Thankfully Batman seemed to have scared the criminal world of Gotham into momentary silence and Barbara was only around to keep up Robin's image so to speak, but Wally was right: it was probably a terrifying job to have. And it was Gotham they were talking about; the baddies wouldn't stay quiet for much longer….
"I heard Kaldur's back in Atlantis for the week, or month or something." Wally said, bringing her out of her thoughts as he crumpled up the now-empty chip bag.
"Yeah, off escaping all this." Artemis somewhat regretted the words once they were out.
"He wants to find Rob just as much as the rest of us," Wally assured. "They've been friends for a while, but he doesn't know him like we do so it's hard for him to help."
"Roy doesn't know his real identity." Artemis wasn't sure if she was subconsciously looking for another fight or not, but her mouth sure seemed to want one.
"Yeah, but him and Roy are pretty close anyways." Wally, thankfully, didn't rise to the unintentional bait. He held the crumpled up ball of a chip bag one hand and sighted down to the garbage can in the corner before tossing the ball. It bounced off the rim and hit the floor. Wally's eyebrows knit together and he looked more disappointed about the miss than Artemis thought he should.
"Dick always said I aimed to short."
"He played basketball?" Artemis asked in somewhat disbelief.
"Not for school, but yeah, he was pretty good. Cheated with his acrobatics of course, but still decently good."
"Huh, never would've guessed by looking at the shrimp."
Wally smiled a bit, his brow relaxing.
"But really Wally?" Artemis continued, a smile growing on her own lips. "'Decently good'? Always knew Central schools were slacking."
"Always knew you'd grow into your snotty 'Gotham Academy' landscape," Wally shot back, his smile growing bigger.
"My landscape?" Artemis snorted. "I'm not a photograph."
"Photograph? Nah, you're more like a hieroglyph. With your vocabulary, you obviously predate the 'photograph'."
"Ha ha, very funny."
"I know. I'm a riot."
"Laugh it up, Ginger."
"That the best you got, Blondie?"
"In your dreams, Baywatch."
"Old and overused, kinda like yourself."
"You think you're awfully clever don't you Wallace."
"Goddess."
"Finally, the respect I deserve."
"Sure, if you wanna be an eternal virgin. But knowing you, you'll be single even if you offered money."
"Wally, I'm gonna get you!"
"Catch me if you can!"
oOo
It was growing steadily darker, the sky turning overcast as it often did in Gotham at night, the scene was just as foreboding, petrifying, and traumatizing as it always threatened to be, but Artemis couldn't help the small smile that kept running back to her lips, despite the atmospheres best efforts to chase it away. The memory of the night before was still too fresh, too strong, too alive to not show in some way or another. His laugh was almost as clear in her head as it had been on Roy's couch. The fire in his eyes, as hope seeped back, unexplainably, into their lives, lit up her brain as bright as it had her heart as they gathered around the small coffee table laden with the source of their hope. The sound of his voice as he spoke to her, the feeling of his skin against hers as their shoulders brushed; it was still alive in the air even twenty-four hours later. And Artemis loved it.
At first she'd tried to rationalize it, all night long as she was unable to fall asleep after leaving Roy's apartment at two in the morning. It was just the adrenaline from having a goal, a purpose, a possibility, that they could be instrumental in finding Robin and bringing him home. The rush she felt when they touched, when he laughed, when she looked at him and he looked at her; it was because of her excitement at hearing Roy's plan. But eventually, when dawn came and she couldn't keep his stupid, freckled face out of her head, there was no rationalizing anymore. What she felt, she felt for dumb, idiotic, flirty Wally West. The stupid, hyperactive speedster with raging hormones and the cutest voice Artemis had ever heard. What was happening to her?
A cold drop of water landing square on the top of her head brought Artemis back to reality. It looked like it was going to rain soon and Artemis was at least two miles from her house. Besides, she needed some sleep tonight if she was going to have any energy for her meeting with Roy and Wally tomorrow. Hopefully one of them had found something, because she hadn't been able to focus all day.
It wasn't that Roy's plan wasn't worth it, because it was. In some inconceivable way, it actually seemed plausible. When he'd first pitched at them, Artemis had laughed. Of course they'd all talked about wanting to help find Robin, but she'd thought they'd all agreed that if Batman couldn't even find a lead, there was no way any of them would be able to do anything more than wander aimlessly through the world, which they were already pretty much doing. But then he'd glared at her and told her to shut and that the key to the idea was in the phrase 'if Batman couldn't find him'. Of course Artemis had looked at him like he was stupid and Wally had just sat there confused, but Roy had been patient, a new trait he seemed to have developed, and explained.
He'd said that if Batman couldn't find him, then maybe they could. If Batman couldn't find him through intimidation, tracking clues across the country, and digging out every laboratory that had ever been shut down, then maybe they could find him through methods that Batman wouldn't ever use. They could look in ways that Batman never could. Undercover, as friends to all the low-down criminals instead of as justice, investigating through the criminal underworld, finding leads and clues as curious low-lifes instead of as a bat from hell bent on terrifying justice. They could do what the Bats couldn't.
And Artemis liked it. She really liked it. Wally did too. Maybe it was just their anger and frustration at Batman for keeping them all so much in the dark that they wanted to get back at him, rebel against and show him up, but they'd agreed that it just might work. Sure it was crazy, sure it was a long shot, but it was the only shot they had. So Roy had continued with his idea that they look beyond Gotham, but not too far beyond. Batman had scoured the city as well as all the other 'major' cities of superheroes and supervillains and super-populations, as well as a few random places throughout the country that had somehow looked promising, but he'd ignored some places closer to home: Lesser known cities, with no history, no legacy, and nothing beyond your average, horrid, but perfectly human, crime.
And that's where they'd start, he'd said. So they went their separate ways, after a few hours of enjoying each other's company because, somewhere along this messy, horrible nightmare they'd all become best friends, as potentially sickening as it was. Roy had issued them the mission of digging up anything they could on science and labs in nearby cities and, while it was hardly anything to go on, they'd left with their hopes a little higher and their adrenaline pumping. Roy was good at pep talks.
But Artemis had spent the whole day doing horridly girly things while lying in bed and brushing her hair and hadn't found anything yet. Well, she'd gone to school as well, but she'd been so exhausted and yet so awake and hormonal that she didn't remember a thing from it. Now she was out in Gotham, as the last rays of sun faded into inky blackness, at the spot where everything had gone wrong. She visited often and, though she wasn't entirely sure why, it felt like she was paying her respects. Not that she thought Dick was dead or anything, but she just felt like she had to do it.
Crunch
Artemis spun around, whipping her bow out as she went, an arrow already nocked.
"Who's there?" She demanded, her voice low and menacing. "Show yourself."
A dark shape slowly materialized from the shadows of the alley to her left. As it made its way into the fading light of evening, Artemis saw that it was a man, his hands raised in surrender. The closer he got, the clearer the archer could make out his police uniform, his dark hair, his thin, but surprisingly young face, and the gun strapped to his hip, still in holster, completely unthreatening as his face promised no ill intent. Artemis slowly lowered her bow, but kept it loaded, pointed at the ground between them.
"What are you doing here?" She growled. There was no reason, of course, why he couldn't be here, but this was her place, and this stranger was strolling around like it wasn't the core of her every thought and feeling.
"It's alright; I'm on your side," The man assured her, keeping his hands raised, but looking like he wanted permission to put them down.
Artemis narrowed her eyes. Did she really look like a hero, pointing an arrow at a cop? Things had sure changed….
"That still doesn't answer my question." She replied, but with far less malice in her voice. Things had changed indeed.
"I'm just doing my job." The cop replied, apparently taking her tone as the permission he was looking for as he lowered his hands and walked up closer to her, coming completely out of the shadows.
Artemis raised an eyebrow. He wasn't half bad looking.
"And your job is?"
"I'm on patrol right now." He spoke amiably, with a slight air of nonchalance, but something about his face didn't seem quite right….
"You're patrolling way out in this alley? On foot?" Artemis asked, her tone skeptical as well as suspicious.
"Crime knows no boundaries," the cop shrugged, a slightly amused tone in his voice.
"Uh huh." Artemis gave him her best 'I'm-not-impressed' face, while subconsciously unloading her bow and replacing the arrow in her quiver.
The cop shrugged again and Artemis had to hand it to him: he had a good poker face. But something about his story just didn't seem to add up. Why would a cop, apparently on 'patrol', which Artemis knew for cops meant driving around in a squad car eating donuts and playing pinball on the computer attached to the dash board, be doing out in a deserted, or nearly so, alley as night was growing strong. Especially a cop so young. He wasn't a detective, she could tell by his uniform (she'd spent more than enough time running from and fooling cops to know which was which), so he couldn't be out here on investigation, unless he was out against his commanding officer's wishes. They didn't just send rookies out into the back alleys of Gotham at nighttime.
"Listen, Cop-y, I'm not stupid." Artemis put her hands on her hips and adopted an air of authority. "It's my job to save people, and to keep people safe so they don't need saving, and no rookie has any business in a back alley like this at night. You get jumped, you're dead. I'm not an idiot, so don't play me like a fool with your 'patrol' shtick. I'll take you back to your car and we can forget this ever happened, capeesh?" Oh how Artemis loved playing the rough and tough vigilante.
The cop sighed, though looked neither like a rookie caught red-handed nor like a rookie full of himself and annoyed at interference in his great plan to get promoted.
"If you really must know," he said, looking straight at her. "I'm investigating."
"That's what I thought," Artemis sighed, rolling her eyes. Wait, when had she started caring about Gotham cops?
"Really?" The cop looked mildly surprised. "Then maybe I ought to tell you."
"Tell me what? What you're 'investigating'?"
"Well, I assume you know. About Robin."
Suddenly Artemis was on guard, her hand reaching back for the arrow recently discarded. "What about him?"
"About his… absence." The cop spoke as though he wasn't entirely sure how much Artemis knew and the archer realized he was a lot smarter than she originally thought.
"Why would you say that?" Artemis asked casually, hoping that if he really did know something, he'd realize was she was asking. "I saw him just last night."
"He was kidnapped, from this very spot." The cop spoke with complete confidence. "You know this. That's why you're here."
And then Artemis found she was exhausted and couldn't keep up the game. She let her defenses drop, her hands falling to her sides, her bow hanging loosely in her grasp. He knew the truth, that much was obvious, so what was the use trying to pretend otherwise?
"Fine, you're right. About everything."
"You've been looking for him too, haven't you." His voice was soft and it wasn't a question.
"Wouldn't make a difference either way." The words slipped out before she could stop them. Waitta sound depressed and mopey in front of the cop!
"Batman hasn't had any luck either, has he?" Now the cop sounded professional, and Artemis was grateful for that.
"Nobody has. He's disappeared without a trace. But I shouldn't be telling you all this. You're not even supposed to know."
"I was on duty that night at the station." The cop momentarily got a faraway look in his eyes. "A disturbance was called in and Commissioner Gordon asked me to accompany him. I don't think he realized Batman was involved; it didn't sound like anything spectacular. So we were driving and Gordon got a call and then he told us to pull over two blocks away from the site. He got out, told us to wait there and we weren't to follow him under any circumstances unless he called for backup. I guess he got a heads up from Batman or something that he wasn't supposed to be there.
"So I waited for fifteen minutes and then got out and followed him. I got to the scene after Robin was gone, but I saw Gordon talking to Batman and I heard Batman say something like 'don't tell anyone' and I saw a bunch of the sidekicks there and then I saw Superman land and Flash run in and everyone looked like they'd had their hearts torn out or something."
Pretty much, Artemis thought.
"So I looked into it. I realized Bruce Wayne and his ward had suddenly disappeared out of country and I'd had a suspicion about his connection to Batman for a few months. Then Robin was gone for a week and Batman was acting crazy – crazier than usual – and the criminals were scared and when 'Robin' returned, I could tell something was up. I watched 'Robin' for a couple nights and realized it wasn't the same person. Not even the same gender."
Artemis couldn't help but smirk a little.
"So that's when I realized Robin was gone and the scene I'd witnessed that night was his capture. Gordon doesn't know I know and I haven't told anyone else."
"Good."
Artemis was impressed with his skills, she couldn't deny it. He'd made the connection between Bruce Wayne and Batman and he'd probably never met either. Still, here he was, trusting the information to some chick in spandex with a bow.
"But why are you telling me all this?" Artemis challenged. "Just 'cause I know what happened to Robin doesn't mean I know Batman's secrets. What if I'm the enemy?" The last bit might've been a little over-the-top, but whatever.
"You're Artemis." The cop said it like it was obvious. "I know Robin trusts you, and by extent, Batman too. They're the reason you're not running around with the League of Shadows."
Okay, this guy was starting to freak her out. Either he was a serious stalker or….
"Robin fan-boy much?" Artemis smirked. For some reason the idea that he knew about her and her past didn't bother her as much as she expected. For some reason she trusted this clever, attractive young cop.
The cop just smiled at her remark.
"Okay, so Rookie." Artemis continued. "If you're investigating, what have you found?"
"Actually, I recently got a tip from someone in Blüdhaven about some rather unusual orders have been consistently placed at a lab supply store on the corner of Kennedy and Twelfth."
Artemis felt her heartbeat kick into high gear and she almost started shaking. She couldn't bring herself to speak but only listened as the cop continued.
"In the past month I've spent time undercover, when I'm not on the job, around Gotham as well as the neighboring cities to try to gather any information I can about unusual happenings relating to young boys and underground science labs. I tell them I'm looking for my brother who got kidnapped." The cop smiled a bit. "I'm actually not sure why or how the tip about the lab supply store got to me, but the list of supplies ordered kind of makes sense. It's from a private name and not a company, and the store has no qualms about dealing with the underworld…."
Artemis found that her hands had started literally shaking somewhere in his explanation and her voice shook right along with them as she asked: "How did you know he was kidnapped by a scientist?"
"I um," he looked rather sheepish here. "I found some files about it."
Artemis's eyes widened but she didn't say anything. He hacked into Batman's files? Or maybe they were Robin's. Either way….
"So you-so you think this might relate to Robin somehow?" She asked tentatively, holding her breath.
"I know it's a long shot, but the list of supplies…." He paused before continuing. "I got the information from an anonymous source, so it wasn't even one of my regular informers. The list of supplies included the typical test tubes and chemicals, but also feeding tubes, IV's, and feeding formulas - only enough ordered each time to keep a small, thirteen year old boy alive until the next order came in…. There were also chemicals used in powerful anesthetics and sensory and neurological suppressants…. It's not necessarily good news, but it's the only lead I've gotten so far…."
Artemis took a deep breath, trying to calm her racing heart and mind. The cop was right, it wasn't good news at all, but it was a lead. A long shot, a long, long shot, but still a shot. It was all they had.
"Good work, Rookie." Artemis took another deep breath, knowing Roy would kill her. "Welcome to the team."
"The name's John Blake, and thanks."