Six Teens Walk into a Bank (a young justice fanfiction)

From Bad to Worse

"What are you doing?" Wally shot up his chair, joining her.

"Shut up, Wing-man, you got a better plan?" She hissed. 

"I'm not your wingman!" 

Artemis glanced around at her team. "you, Uh- Jackson!" She gestured at Kaldur. "Get the tellers out, don't let them hit the silent alarm!"

Kaldur was frozen for a second, but followed her lead. "You're holding up a bank?" Robin asked, leaping up o join the others. 

"we're holding up a bank." She corrected. "Be a team player. Matt! Disarm the guard! You get to keep the cuffs!" 

Conner stepped hurried to do so.

'I heard gunshots! What's happening?' M'gann demanded over the mind link. She came swinging around the corner, having returned to her human form. "Oh."

"Hey." Artemis said quickly, she turned back to Wally. "Red, Get their phones, iPads, pagers, life alerts, whatever. Grab their wallets too. I wanna know who we have here. Cristine, help him."

"Me? Oh-Okay..." M'gann trailed after Wally. "What do we do?" She whispered.

"I don't know, search their pockets." He replied, and the two got to work. 

"No one move and you will all go home today." Artemis shouted. 

The skeezy security guard had his hands up. "Listen sweetheart, you're too young to be making these mistakes..."

"And you're way to old to talk to me like that, sport." Artemis shook to gun at him. "Down."

"You seem like a smart girl, pretty too, you don't have to do this." He told her, hands up, sinking down to his knees.

"Hostage psychology 101: Compliment your threat, ry to bond with them, and maybe they won't hurt you." She said. "I know every trick, so don't even try. EVERYONE DOWN!" She repeated.

"Don't shoot." One of the tellers pleaded.

"We won't kill unless we need too." Artemis assured.

Across the lobby, M'gann froze. "Art-" She stumbled, thinking of a name for Artemis. "Amy, Over here!"

"What?"

M'gann looked distressed, she held up the jacket of one of the men on the floor and gingerly tugged a semiautomatic out of his waistband. She immediately tossed it, skidding across the floor.

"Massachusetts is an open carry state." Robin reported.

"SEARCH THEM." Artemis ordered. She thrust the discarded gun as Conner. "Matt, this one's yours. Safety's off. UH, Pixie, I want cameras and security off!" She shouted at Robin. 

"Hard drive of cctv footage for review, delete the source material." He guessed.

"Exactly." The blonde agreed. "Jackson, help Red and Chris search them. Everything goes on the counter." She locked the banks bulletproof glass door, and began barricading it.

"Arty!" Wally exclaimed, hurrying over.

"Amy." She corrected. "What is it, Red?"

"We can't just hold up a bank. We're teenagers! I was literally watching Garfield yesterday!"

"Red, you're either ON the team, or you're OFF!" She scolded. "We're too deep to go back. We have to finish this mission."

"But guns? Holding up a bank? I haven't even passed workplace math yet! We're teenagers!" He annunciated. 

"You sound like the league." She spat. "Now go get those wallets!"

'What do we do? are they just going to let a bunch of teens hold them up?' M'gann asked over the mindlink.

'Well right now, I don't think they have much of  a choice.'  Conner replied, gingerly holding up his gun.

'But what if they call our bluff?' M'gann asked. 'We aren't going to shoot them, right?'

'Kaldur?' Artemis asked.

There was a pause as their team leader weighed the options. 'right now we're ensuring that that virus doesn't get released. If it's released in the bank, everyone in it will die. If it spreads to outside the bank, millions could die.'

'so? What do we do?'

' We do what we need to do for the mission, with as few casualties as possible.'

'translation: aim for the legs.' Artemis said. 

She watched over the others as they searched the hostages, squeezing the gunhandle in her sweaty palm. She felt like her dad would be proud of her for this, and that made her sick.

She reached up and tapped her comm. "Pixie, how's in going?"

"Good news, bad news and terrible news." Robin spoke desperately.

"What is it?" She ordered. "The good news!"

"I've got the camera footage for the past thirty-six hours on a USB, and deleted the source. I'm looking over it now to try and find our thief."

"And? What's the bad news?"

Robin sighed their camera haven't been updated in thirty-odd years. No colour, no lasers, on the floor, I can barely recognize us!"

"Dare I ask what the terrible news is?" Artemis asked, a lump in her throat.

"Silent alarm went off." He said.

Artemis dropped her fingers from her comm, face screwed up. "Dammit!"

"What is it?" Kaldur, the closest to her at the moment, asked. 

"Silent alarm went off. In a town this side the whole police force will be here in fifteen minutes tops. Not to mention that the Massachusetts branch of the bureau if a thirty minute drive, tops."

"What do we do?" Wally ordered, joining them to put a few more phones on the counter.

"I don't know, I'm not the team leader?" Artemis exclaimed.

"You're leading this mission." Kaldur said. "You arguably have the most experience in this department. I am here to help, but you have already asserted yourself as leader to the hostages."

"Looks like you're the boss." Wally muttered. "Lucky."

"First time anyone called growing up in a crime family 'lucky'." She grumbled. "Everyone, close the blinds and reinforce the doors. Matt, you can take more bullets than me, watch the hostages while I check on Pixie."

She double-checked the safety, and tucked the gun into the waistband, of her jeans. The blonde strode to the office. 

"Hey." Robin nodded.

"Got the desktop open?"

 Dick bit his lip "I have three more potential passcodes in mind..." He tapped the ancient keyboard and hit enter. A smile grew across his face. "Yes!"

"What was it?" Artemis asked. Robin spun around a framed photo of a Samoyed dog with a tag that read 'Taco'. "Taco?" She asked.

"Taco 2017." He corrected. "The year on the photos water mark." Artemis began searching through the desk. "Need anything?" 

"Inkpad, I want to fingerprint our guests in there. -Hey" She pulled out a fan of cash, she shuffled through it, smiling. "There was a time when that would have been enough..."

"We're here for the sample, not the cash." Robin reminded.

"I know." She sighed. "Y'know, this would be a great time for those pals of yours in homeland security..."

"No pals in homeland." He said. "Just enemies and people who don't care. Besides. We need to get this to the League, not the government."

"Got it." Artemis grabbed two ink pads, black and red, a pen, and a few sheets of paper. "Time to make some records.