Interlude: White Sun’s Zenith (Patreon)

Things weren’t going so well.

“Dip! Dip!”

With a curse, Artemis loosed another volley of arrows.

“Cheese it!” Wally shouted, blurring into the jungle. Her arrows hit, bouncing off thick hide.

But not before they erupted into a thick cloud of pesticide smoke. The mutated tigers 

Artemis bent her legs “Need a lift, here!” She jumped the moment Robins arm coiled around her stomach. They were dashing across the thick limbs almost before the grappling hook finished reeling.

“This isn’t going well!” she shouted.

Robin smirked, but Artemis could see the edge to it. “That’s what they always say!”

A break in the trees forced them back to the ground, Artemis silently cursing the nest of sticks and mud in her hair as she rolled through the landing. “We need to regroup.”

“Tell that to—”Robin’s eyes widened.

Artemis threw herself sideways. Robin’s boomerangs (no they weren’t “birdarangs” thank you!) whistled through the air. She could only blink as one flew dead into the gullet of a leaping gorilla. It’s massive blows missed her by a few inches, helped along by its sudden coughing fit.

Artemis came up, bow in hand, sticks in hair, just in time to watch the damn thing collapse, puking up green bits of vines and flowers. She stared as more than four hundred pounds of muscle were brought low by a child’s toy.

“Fucking bat family,” she muttered. Robin just smirked as they darted back into the woods.

“Still no word from Martian,” he said, as the sounds of pursuit faded behind them. “After the ship went down…”

“Yeah.” Artemis worried her lip. “We just lost Kid, too.”

“He’ll find us again. I’m more worried about Superboy.”

Artemis nodded. “Shoulda made that infiltration training mandatory!”

“Tell me about it.”

The pair started to circle. Staying within a certain distance of the site they’d been sent to infiltrate. “What I wanna know is how this ‘Injustice League’ managed to spot the bioship…’

“They have Wotan, didn’t you see?” Artemis asked. She scrambled up a tree as Robin opened up his glove computer. “We didn’t have anyone who could check for detection.”

Robin huffed. “Yeah, would’ve been nice if at least one of them had stuck around.”

“Don’t put your foot in your mouth next time, and we wouldn’t be eating dirt right now.”

“…Nothing on my computer,” Robin said. “Jamming probably.”

“I can’t see anything,” Artemis replied. “Well, except for a bunch more crazy animals than I have arrows for.” She shook her head. “Why did it have to be lions and tigers and bears. I thought Poison Ivy was the exclusive type of villain.”

Robin nodded as she slid back to the ground. “Plants would be so much easier.”

“Aha, are you so…sure about that one, ducklings?” 

They spun, but the Joker, white face and rictus grin and all, was mid lunge. Cruel knives flashed out. Artemis slipped sideways, but his target was always…

The chime of steel against steel rang through the air. Robin slid backwards, bracing both his hands against his boomerang.

The knife was less than an inch from his throat.

“Where’s daddy dearest?” The Joker cackled. “Busy?”

“I don’t need his help to deal with you,” Robin hissed.

Artemis knocked and fired, just as Robin flipped back and kicked the Joker’s torso.

Her arrow hissed past the mans back, because he hadn’t dodged. Hadn’t even moved.

“I do love playing with the kiddies,” he said. The switchblade flicked over his fingers, and Artemis blinked.

“Roots?”

Robin and Artemis drew back as the Joker cackled again, flexing his fingers. “What, don’t like my new…makeover?”

The roots were small tendrils, creeping up his fingers, just like the kind growing on and in the mutated animals Artemis had seen.

But the ones on Joker’s hands were half withered already, peeling off in slow flakes. “They don’t play nice with my venomous personality, but what’s life without a sense of style!”

Artemis saw Robin’s eyes narrow. “You let them grow on you.”

Joker grinned wide.

Artemis barely caught it. A shift in weight, almost masked by the man’s baggy suite as he—

“Look out!”

The Joker jerked to a stop as an arrow tore through the space right in front of him. Robin ducked back in a flurry of projectiles. The Joker parried most with ease, but a few tore his clothes, revealing the stark white skin beneath.

Artemis hissed in dismay when she watched the sharpened boomerangs bounce off the man without leaving a scratch.

“He’s got the same durability upgrade as the rest of them!”

“Just our luck,” Robin shot back. 

As the Joker laughed the both of them began to edge towards the tree line. “Now, now,” he said. “It’s far to early for bed time.”

“What are you—”

“Uh, Artemis…”

The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. Slowly, she glanced over her shoulder. 

Glowing eyes stared back at her from the jungle.

“Oh.”

At her breath, dozens more eyes snapped open around the clearing, encircling them and the Joker both.

“When the cats away,” started the Joker. The beasts shuffled in the night.

“The mice will play.”

“Smokescreen!” Artemis shouted. Robin tossed out a brace of pellets, and she rolled through the smoke, firing a brace of arrows straight into the air.

All she could here was the roars of a near miss, some lion or tiger carving through the space she’d just been. She dashed from her impromptu cover as an elephant slammed down a massive foot through the smoke screen. Around the clearing, the rest of the animals prowled, waiting for a moment of weakness. 

Then her arrows hit home.

In a circle around them, white mist gushed from her trick shafts, forming a ring. The infested beasts startled backwards. A pair of tigers leapt through the mist.

Only to fall to the ground on the other side, puking out bits of green.

Slowly the ring thickened, in a panic, the elephant charged out of the circle. Then there was a crash.

And it was just Robin and Artemis against the Joker.

“Good call,” Robin said, slipping next to her.

“Yeah, well, you’re not the only one with a utility belt.”

He nodded. “Now that we’ve trapped him, let’s see if we can’t beat my old record.”

“Record?”

Robin smirked. “For putting this guy behind bars!”

The Joker laughed. “You’re a silly bird, aren’t you…” He said, chuckles bubbling up through his words. “You’re the ones trapped in here with me!”

At once Artemis threw herself to the side, even as the Joker lunged forward—too fast—into her space. 

She shot mid roll, with the ease and skill of countless hours. From the other side, she saw Robin hem the Joker in with flash pellets.

He didn’t dodge. Instead, arrows bounced off too hard skin. He came in, knives flashing. Reverse grip.

Artemis dropped her bow.

Hand to wrist, metal scraping against bone. Joker was big man; though, and big men were used to shoving little girls to the ground.

She went with the flow, sinking into a roll. The Joker’s rictus grin loomed so close she could smell his acrid yellow breath.

And she kicked.

Two full feed in the man’s chest, just as her weight started to shift from her heels to her back. She let go of his wrists with a sneer. He was fucking heavy. But she’d beat up bigger brick walls.

She jackknifed up, kicking her bow into an open palm. Behind her, the Joker landed past the wall of smoke with a dull thump.

“Slick,” Robin said. He fanned out another set of boomerangs.

“Yeah, but last I checked we’re still stuck,” she muttered. “The smoke in those arrows won’t last forever.”

“Right now would be a real good time for…”Robin trailed off as a figure staggered back through the pesticide haze. This time, the laughter was mixed with wracking coughs, green liquid dribbling down the Joker’s chin. The vines on his hands and neck flaked off in withered chunks, dust and blood leaving a trail in his steps.

“Good shot,” he said. “Pity you’re such a…poor archer.”

Her bow snapped up. “I’ll show you a poor archer!”

With a whirling hiss, a bola whipped through the air. But the Joker wove around it without breaking his stilted stride. The follow up boomerangs still bounced off, leaving cuts on the suit but never the skin.

“What?” the Joker asked. “Gonna take the shot? Bird boy’s little toys aren’t—” His arm snapped up and out, catching another bola and shaking it free in the space of a breath. “They're old hat!”

Her grip didn’t waiver, arrow already knocked. She didn’t draw, that was an amateur mistake born from Hollywood props with a draw weight of two pounds.

Instead she watched, taking in his choppy, stuttering walk even as the Joker slipped past another barrage of Robins weapons.

“Come on, little girl,” he said. “Hit me!”

The string kissed her cheek. 

“Like Father.” His grin grew rabid. “Like daughter.”

Her eyes dilated, bow jerking. 

The arrow hissed into the darkness, broadhead drawing a narrow line across his cheek.

The knives flashed out again.

“Dynamic Entry!”

Artemis blinked as Kid Flash flew, feet first, into the Joker’s face. The villain ragdolled across the clearing, limbs whipping against the ground, until he rolled to a stop right next to the ring of smoke.

For his part, Kid flash slid to a stop, bumping Robin’s fist with his own. “Nailed it!”

Artemis cocked an eyebrow. “Dynamic…entry?”

Kid blushed. “I saw it in a TV show.”

She held up her hands. “Hey, whatever floats your boat.”

Robing nodded. “Right, now let’s get out of here before the rest of this ‘Injustice League’ shows up.”

“Too late, girl.”

At once, the three heroes flinched, looking up to see a hulking man floating in the air above them. He stared down imperiously, arms crossed over the golden lightning bolt emblazoned on his chest.

“Black Adam,” Robin hissed.

The man smirked. “Good. You know who I am.” Slowly, he sank down through the air, golden sash fluttering in the breeze as the mutated beasts continued to roar and gnash their teeth at the edge of Artemis’s circle. “I’ll give you one chance to surrender, before I rip you limb from limb.”

Artemis shared a glance with the boys. She’d heard plenty about Black Adam, first from her…father, and later from her time on the team.

Ripping people limb from limb was an understatement. But at the same time…

“Formation six!” Robin shouted. 

Yeah, they weren’t going to take this lying down. So she couldn’t either. 

Artemis dashed to the side, next pair of arrows practically leaping into her hands. She sent them high and wide, releasing a cloud of flack and thermal wire right in Black Adam’s path. 

They needed Superboy to take tanks like him down. Or else…Artemis shook her head, already turning to run as Robins smoke grenades combined with Kid’s tornado run. That, added to her screen, created an impenetrable cloud. Thick enough that even Ivy’s little monsters drew back for a second.

She wasn’t a member of the bat family, but you didn’t grow up in Gotham without knowing how to fade into the shadows. There was a reason her sister was so damn good at her job…

The last piece? She let loose three arrows, each one giving off a blinding flash, even as Robin dropped a stun grenade on their actual escape route. She ducked into the undergrowth, nearly bent double and sprinting.

Just another hundred-yard dash. Artemis threw a glance over her shoulder, catching a glimpse of Black Adam angrily rubbing at his eyes. 

And, more importantly, facing the wrong way.

With a sigh of relief, she slid to a stop in a narrow ravine. Out of sight, she ran a finger over her arrows, checking what she had left.

It was…less than she’d hoped.

A moment later, Robin and Kid Flash slipped in next to her.

“Looks like it worked,” Robin breathed.

Artemis nodded. “Let’s get moving. We need to find Superboy or Aqualad if we’re gonna tackle their heavy hitters.”

A frown flickered across Kid Flash’s face. “Or we could make a break for the facility.”

Artemis cocked and eyebrow.

“Look, hear me out on this one,” he said. “The Injustice League is all out hunting us down. They can’t have too many people back watching the main building. We’ve already taken out the Joker, and slipped past Black Adam, so…”

To her left, Robin nodded. “If we’re lucky, maybe the others have tied up one or two of the baddies as well. Enough to give us even odds.”

Artemis growled. “I do not want to face Poison Ivy in the middle of the jungle with just the three of us,” she said.

“Maybe,” Robin said. “We won’t have to. All we need to do is get close enough to flood the place with the pesticide mix. It’s non-toxic to humans, but for Ivy and whatever control plant she’s got going on...”

Artemis crossed her arms, eyes slipping shut. Even if no one would come out and say it, they were up shit creek without a paddle. “Alright,” she said. “Let’s move.”

Kid gave a soft chuckle, pulling a couple of small vials off of his belt. “You guys move,” he said. “Take the rest of mine too.”

“Kid…”

KF just flashed Robin a smile. “I’m garbage at the sneaky stuff man, best case I’ll just blow our cover early. This way, at least I can try and draw the other villains farther from base.”

Robin tensed, looking away.

“We don’t have time to play debate club,” Artemis said. She met Kid’s eye. “Stay safe, we’ll get it done.”

He gave her a thumbs up. “Good luck.”

“Luck is for chumps.”

With a breath of wind, he was gone.

Robin let out a short huff. Then the two turned in unison and slipped deeper into the jungle.

Now that they’d thrown the villains and animals both off of their scent, it was almost easy to dodge the patrols. Robin led the way, backtracking as much as possible to disguise their smell. 

In the distance, they heard sounds of fighting: trees cracking, explosions, flashes of light and sound. In front of them, Artemis finally caught sight of the facility.

It was blocky, concrete prefab almost. If not for the giant glowing tree punching through the top, she wouldn’t have looked twice at it. Well, that, and the clearing full of mutated tigers. She bit back a swear, pulling back.

“What do you think,” she hissed.

“Play it by ear?” Robin said with a shrug. “I’ll swing around and try from the south side. If one of us gets caught, then that’s cover for the other one.”

After a moment, Artemis nodded. “I’ll give you a minute to get into position.”

“Becha I can make it in half.”

She huffed. “Get lost, weirdo.” Thirty seconds later, she slithered forward, stepping into the clearing.

The illusion shattered the moment her foot left the tree line.

Artemis froze. In the middle of the clearing stood Wotan, impossible pale, with his crimson eyes and matching armor. Aqualad was bound up at his feet, right next to a battered and unconscious Superboy. His pallid lips stretched into a confidant smirk.

“Ah, the archer,” he said. “I admit, I was hoping for one of the mages.”

With a curse, Artemis fired an arrow. It shattered against a crimson barrier, chains of light lashing out at her. She ducked the first, leapt the second, but the third one snagged her by the ankle. Artemis hit the ground hard, struggling as Wotan started to reel her in.

“Now let’s see if we can’t get the rest of your friends to…” He drew a blade made of crackling light so bright it seared her eyes. “Show themselves.”

He raised the sword, even as the chain pulled Artemis across the ground. Her hands scrabbled fruitless at the damp earth as Wotan said, “Give me a nice scream, if you would.” The blade came down, and her eyes snapped shut, waiting for the pain.

A chime filled the clearing instead.

Artemis opened her eyes to white.

In front of Artemis stood a young woman, clad in elegant white armor. Her right arm was extended, holding a sword. Around her, motes of orange light fractured and faded into the air. She’d cut the chain.

At least Wotan looked as surprised as Artemis felt.

“Well,” the woman said. “There really are some nasty people around here.” She laughed. “It’s almost like the whole world is one big Jagd.” She sounded like she was smirking.

“Oh?” Wotan asked. “And whom might you be.”

The woman cocked her hip. “That would be, not the person you need to worry about.”

Wotan blinked. Then, in the night sky above, a star bloomed into existence, bathing the whole clearing in light as if it had gone from midnight to noon.

“Hello Wotan,” a familiar voice called. “Looking for me?”

With a hiss, Wotan spun. A dozen shields of mystical energy sprang up in front of him. Just in time for a blast of red-gold light to shatter them all, sending the wizard flying backwards in a trail of smoke. Artemis blinked once as the ball of light descended, and a figure in the middle slowly became clear.

It was Destiny. But she looked…good. With that same confidence Artemis remembered from the before their disastrous mission to the tower of fate. More than that, she could feel the weight of Destiny’s presence now, as if the force of her power was physically pushing against the world.

It was enough to make her sag in relief. 

“Artemis.” Destiny held out her hand, pulling Artemis smoothly back to her feet. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here sooner.”

“Didn’t think you were gonna make it at all,” Artemis said.

Destiny’s lips twitched into a small smirk as she helped Kaldur and Superboy back to their feet. “I guess it’s true what the say.”

“Oh?” 

As if drawn by her sudden appearance, the rest of the Injustice League came out of the woodwork. Strolling from the base, crashing down from the sky. Artemis swallowed at the sight of the enemies surrounding them, but Destiny seemed well at ease.

“A Hero always arrives at the last second.”

Artemis blinked. “What? Who says that? No one says that.”

Destiny tugged down her hood, smile staying still “Don’t worry, Artemis.” 

“Oh?” Wotan almost growled as he pushed himself to his feet. “I’d be worried if I were you, little girls. Before you stand arrayed the most fearsome gathering of villains to walk this worlds cursed soil!”

The white haired girl raised a hand. “So,” she said. “I’m only counting four. Where are the rest of you.”

“We took out the joker,” Artemis said.

“Looks like someone managed the big ape guy too,” Destiny said.

“That would be our contribution,” Aqualad managed. Superboy cracked only cracked his knuckles.

“That just leaves Wotan, Black Adam, the Atomic Skull and…” she turned to the sharply dressed man who stood near the door to the base. “Who are you again?”

The man gave a haughty sniff. Like, people actually did that in real life. “I am Count Vertigo,” the man said. He waved his out to the side. “And you—”

Destiny flicked her fingers. Gold bindings snapped into place around him and he toppled like deadfall. “I don’t actually care. Sorry.”

The clearing exploded into motion. The mind controlled tigers charged, the first wave got in close before Artemis’s quickshot arrows could release their gas. “Incoming.”

The woman in white took the lead. She danced through their first charge, batting away errant claws with a flick of her sword. 

Superboy and Aqualad met the rest head on, tossing them back into the smoke just in time for Black Adam and the Atomic Skull to come charging through.

Artemis felt more than saw the wave of force blast out from Destiny. The Atomic Skull went flying, before more golden bands snapped into place around him. But Black Adam powered through, fist first. Artemis spun, eyes wide.

Destiny caught his fist.

A wave of pressure washed over the clearing, clearing the ring of smoke for a moment. But it was so strong she saw it push Ivy’s pets back as well.

But for all of that Destiny didn’t so much as move back an inch. Something that seemed to shock black Adam as much as Artemis, as he pit his might against Destiny’s and came up…short.

Then her eyes glowed a brilliant red gold, and blast of force ploughed the villain deep into the ground. A golden hand came down, pinning him.

“Imbeciles!” Wotan yelled. “Still, they bought more than enough time to seal your doom!” 

Artemis spun back, eyes widening as she saw a giant sphere of heat and light swirling above the insane mage’s hands. “Surrender! Or I’ll reduce you all to ash.”

“Will you now?” Destiny asked. 

“Azarath Metrion Zinthos.”

Arms of darkness sprouted from Wotan’s shadow, binding him up in a heartbeat. Artemis flinched back as the sphere rippled, destabilizing…

But Destiny’s hands came up once again, and it settled. “I’ve got it.” She sank, aura dimming slightly. “Fuck. That’s some serious power he was throwing around…I think I can get rid of it.”

“It matters not,” Wotan managed from the ground. “Even if you could counter my sorcery, every single monster in the forest will be draw here and tear you to shreds before you even have the chance.”

And it was at that moment that the facility behind them, the one where Poison Ivy was mind controlling all of those monsters from, erupted into a cloud of white smoke.

The heroes turned as one, in time to see Poison Ivy darting from the smoke, coughing and staggering as if she were drunk. “Wotan!” She yelled. “It’s dying! They....” She drifted to a stop when she saw the rest of her little League bound, gagged, and otherwise incapacitated, the mutated animals staggered about just as drunkenly as she was. 

And with that, Poison Ivy, the member of the Injustice League still standing, sank to her knees and put her hands up into the air.

“How…” was all she managed.

Robin slipped out of the smoke behind her, breathing mask over his face and twirling an empty canister of pesticide in his had. He patted the green woman on the shoulder almost gently.

“You just gotta stay mazed, Pam.”

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A/N: Look at me already forgetting to post last night. Here's the new chapter, a bit behind schedule.