Bluejay: The Protégé of Black Canary

Tornado

I could only watch in horror as a two hundred foot tall wave of water rose up and knocked him off the platform, his body no longer in sight. The android woman hurled fire at Artemis's retreating form, but all I was focused on was Robin.

Wally joined me, desperately yelling his friend's name. I breathed the dry air quickly, my heart thundering in my chest. I searched the water for any signs of life, the pit of despair growing larger in my stomach every second he was under the water.

"Let him up! Let him up!" I screamed at the robots, pounding a fist into the ground.

"Robin! Come on buddy, where are you!?" Wally yelled, panicked. He struggled in his metal cage.

The robots fixed their cold gaze on me, and I didn't back down this time, staring straight back at them with seething anger behind my eyes. After another painful moment, the male Android raised his arm.

I watched helplessly as Robin's limp form was raised in a column of water. His cape was missing. It was like I forgot how to breathe. Here was the boy who had been so kind, so forgiving towards me. I couldn't tell if he was breathing or not. Something inside me cracked when the robots approached his body.

"Don't touch him!" My hoarse voice roared angrily.

The androids slowly turned their heads towards me as if they were surprised by my outburst. Their glowing red eyes seemed to burn through me. Protectively, I stood up, keeping Kaldur and M'gann's bodies behind myself.

"Your life is meaningless. Be grateful your time will soon be up." The female android told me.

I felt something tug at my wrist. It was Kaldur, barley awake and trying to keep my mouth from getting me killed. I clamped my jaw shut to keep any words from escaping my mouth. One wrong word could instantly end any of our lives.

"One minute." The robot said on the intercom, but I was hardly listening.

I pleaded for Robin to stir or groan- anything to let me know he was alive. My breathing was shallow and labored as I cradled M'gann's head in my arms. I hated feeling helpless. Connor and Wally were about to drown, and M'gann and Kaldur and I were going to be cooked alive. I was supposed to be safe here at the Cave, but I wasn't. And now I was about to die without ever seeing my dad again. At least he's safe.

My heart dropped down to the pit of my stomach when I heard the chime of the elevator. I turned to see Artemis, bow in hand. She looked utterly crestfallen. Seeing her made me want to leap to my feet with horror.

"I surrender. Stop the clock." She said, her voice cracking.

"Artemis!" I croaked. She was going to die with us!

She went to hand the robot her bow, while I was internally screaming no! I was going to watch her die and there was nothing I could do about it. I felt a sob building up into my chest when she suddenly leapt onto his outstretched hand, driving her knee into the robot's face. She leapt, flipping off the female robot as gracefully as an Olympic gymnast.

The shot should have been impossible. Impossible for nearly anyone that wasn't her. I watched her pull her last arrow from her quiver and shoot it. It cut through the air until it finally embedded itself under a device in the wall. There were a million things that could have gone wrong, but it worked.

I watched in disbelief as an electric shudder ran through the robots, and they crumbled to the ground. The cage of fire around us vanished, and I could feel the suffocating heat disappearing. I gasped in the fresh air and frantically touched my friend's foreheads. Kaldur's skin looked burnt and his eyes looked hazy, but he was alive.