Worst Case Scenario

Chapter 39: Unusual Explanations

The hallways were pretty bare, just grey concrete, with the occasional door, most of which lead to small rooms that were also made of (guess what) concrete.

The interior decorators had obviously done this one on their day off.

Wally would have been bored out of his skull if he wasn't paranoidly trying to avoid people who were trying to kill him.

Of course, he wasn't sure that they were necessarily trying to kill him, but since they'd handcuffed Artemis to a chair, frozen him and the one or two guys he'd seen patrolling were wielding big guns, it was probably a good guess.

Artemis peeked around a corner before jerking her head back and frantically motioning for him to duck into one of the empty rooms.

Two men walked by, but it didn't look like they'd seen anything.

Artemis carefully stuck her head out to see that it was all clear, and started to move back into the hallway.

Before she could turn around, a figure appeared out of nowhere and a fist smashed into her jaw. Wally leaped at the hostile but received a knee to the stomach and a shove, knocking him backwards.

Artemis stumbled a bit and tried to take a combat stance. The red-tinted figure slammed into her into the wall. When her vision focused again, there was an arm pressing on her throat and a sai blade hovering much too close to her jugular vein.

Wally sprang to his feet, ready to fight off whoever was attacking his girlfr-, er, teammate. Then he noticed the close-cropped red hair quite similar to his own, and he stopped. The newcomer turned his head, and Wally met two eyes covered by a black domino mask.

"Roy?" the speedster gasped.

"Stay back, or I kill her" said the elder archer in his (extremely effective) this-is-totally-not-a-joke voice. The sai blade stayed at Artemis's throat, and she'd stopped struggling out of fear of slashing her own neck.

"Please! Stop! You don't underst-" she started to say before a shift of Roy's arm cut off her air.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" shouted Wally, much too loudly for being in a base full of enemies. But one of his best friends was holding another of his friends who he'd just kissed a few moments ago hostage, and if that isn't the time for shouting, then what is?

"You didn't know" said Roy, more a statement than a question. His eyes softened a bit, as if some of the anger was evaporating. But the sai didn't waver.

"Didn't know what?" demanded Wally, almost as irritated as that time Conner broke the TV remote. Twice. On purpose. "What I know is that you just attacked us out of the blue!"

"She's a traitor!" responded Roy. "The mole! She set us up!"

Wally opened his mouth to say something so amazingly clever that Roy would have to shut up.

And he stayed there. With his mouth open.

He had nothing to say.

He always had something to say!

"Her father's Sportsmaster" continued Roy. "Her sister's Cheshire. She's been feeding them intel from the beginning. That's how they took down the Bioship. That's how we lost Miss Martian. She poisoned you with Joker Toxin herself!"

Wally didn't want to believe it. He couldn't believe it.

"Art-" he started to say. But then he saw the look in her eyes as she guiltily stared at the floor. It was the same look he'd had whenever Mom had caught him stealing cookies out of the tin. (Which, despite his super-speed was more often than you'd think.)