The Blue Sparrow

Chapter 12

    When I came to I immediately heard the ruckus inside the building and rushed inside. I saw Wally fighting Black Spider and Miss M. fighting Hook as soon as I walked in. Cheshire lunged at me from the side, but I swiftly dodged her attack. She threw a couple shuriken’s at me and I dodged the first one, but the second one ripped my jacket sleeve. Artemis came in and started attacking her and there battle went outside. Eventually Miss M. and Wally took out their enemies and tied them up. When we got outside I asked, “Artemis, where’s the assassin?”

    “She, uh—she got away.” She replied quietly.

    “Oh from you?” Wally asked tauntingly. “Oh, big surprise. Notice we got ours.” His eyes brightened as he saw Cheshire’s mask on the ground. “Cool. Souvenir.”

    “Her mask?” I asked. “Did you see her face?”

    “It was dark.” Artemis defended as she turned towards the bay.

    It’s fine.” I assured as I approached her. “Robin and Superboy neutralized the Fog, and Dr. Roquette is safe, thanks in no small part to you.” I placed my hand on her shoulder. “Welcome to the Team.”

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.

    It’s been a couple weeks since then and Artemis fits in nicely. I like her; she’s like the sister I never had and I could care less about how bad her sister and father are. After that night she opened up to me and told me about how her sister left when she was young to join her father and the Shadows. She’s fighting the good fight and that’s what matters. The only downside is that her and Wally are constantly at each other’s throats, which drives everyone insane.

    Today we’re going through a simulation. Martian Manhunter stood in the middle as he put us into it and when I opened my eyes, I was looking at a news report.

    “This is Iris West-Allen reporting live. The extraterrestrials have brought their relentless global attack to Central City.” Aunt Iris said. She’s basically my aunt because of how close her and Dinah are. The ground started to shake, causing me to be set off balance, but someone steadied me, it was Roy. I nodded in thanks and he returned the gesture before we turned our attention back to the TV. “I’m sorry, we’re experiencing technical difficulties from our Central City feed. We take you now to a devastated Taipei, where another League contingent is having a bit more luck.”

    The screen turned to show Dinah, Ollie, Hawkman, and Hawkgirl fighting the aliens. It looked like they had the upper hand, until they got zapped with the aliens’ ray.

    “No!” I shouted as Dinah disintegrated. I felt my legs give out on me, but Roy caught me before I hit the ground; I buried my face into his shoulder.

    “Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve lost Black Canary, Green Arrow, and the Hawks. Other heroes reported dead or missing include Batman, Icon, Adam, and Aquaman.” 

    Suddenly Red Tornado called the cave.

    “Red Tornado to cave. I fear I am all that remains of the League.” He said.

    I stood up and faced my Team. “We’re Earth’s heroes now.”

    “So, what are we waiting for, a theme song?” Wally asked sarcastically.

    “A strategy.” I said. “Earth’s weapons are ineffective, and it has been made tragically clear a direct attack will not work.”

    Dick quickly pulled up a global map. “Checking satellite imagery.” He mumbled. “Here’s where the aliens are now.” 

    There was a bunch of red dots on the screen, but one was off by itself. Roy pointed at it. “This one get lost?”

    “That’s Superman’s fortress of solitude.” Dick answered.

    “Superman has a fortress of solitude?” Connor asked. Ever since he joined the Team, all he’s wanted was Superman’s approval and guidance. M’Gann noticed the look on Connor’s face. 

“Connor.” She said as she placed a hand on his shoulder.

“No, it’s okay.” He shrugged it off. “I guess there’s a lot about Superman I’ll never know. Uh, you know, now.”

“We’ll target this lone ship.” I said.

“Yeah, break it down, build more, hit those ugly aliens with their own mojo.” Wally said, which earned him a punch in the arm from Artemis. “Ow!”

“Martian and Kryptonian in the house.” She said.

Wally laughed nervously. “Not that all aliens are automatically ugly.”

We all made our way towards the Bioship and set a course for the Arctic.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

    We landed in the snow silently with the Bioship camouflaged.

    “Identifying weapons structural stress points and links to the ship.” Dick said. “Here, here, and here.”

    We exited the Bioship, in our snow gear, and crept towards the alien ship. Suddenly the alien ship started shooting at us and it got Wolf, disintegrating him.

    “Wolf!” Connor called out.

    “I’m sorry. There’s nothing we can do for him now.” I said, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s go.”

    “Rerouting systems to integrate weapon into ship’s biomatrix.” Dick said as we all made a run towards the Bioship. “We’ll need to de-camouflage for a few minutes.”

    “May not have a few minutes.” Roy said.

    “Miss M., open fire.” I commanded.

    “Can’t.” She replied. “Weapon systems are offline to incorporate the new cannon, and that’s not fully integrated either.”

    Artemis shot a foam arrow at the cannon, causing it the stop firing for a minute, and I took advantage of that time by getting my team out of here. “Get inside, now!”

    Everyone ran to the Bioship, but the sound of the cannon coming back online caused me to turn around. It pointed at Roy and Artemis.

    “Roy! Artemis! Behind you!” I shouted, causing them to look towards the alien ship. They both turned to shoot it, but before they could get a shot off the cannon disintegrated them. “Roy!!! Artemis!!!”

    “Get inside.” Kaldur said, grabbing my arm. “All of you.”

    We all got into the Bioship and took off before anyone else could die. As we left I paced, trying to hold back my tears. Roy was gone; Artemis was gone. I failed them. A few stray tears ran down my cheeks and I quickly wiped them away before anyone could notice. Suddenly Wally screamed in frustration.

    “They’re dead. Every last alien if it’s the last thing I do.” He gritted through his teeth.

    “There will be time to mourn later.” I said after I composed myself. Wally looked at me shocked.

    “You can’t seriously say that you don’t want revenge Lorelei.” He said.

    I glared. “I want to rip them to shreds just as much as you do, but I’m setting my feelings aside so I can be your leader. We still have a job to do; defend Earth and ensure Artemis and Roy’s sacrifice was not in vain.”

    “Back to the cave?” Dick asked, trying to focus on the task at hand.

    “The Hall of Justice.” I replied. “The human race needs to know that there’s still heroes defending them. There’s still hope.” 

    With that we set a course for D.C.