Chapter 46

  Artemis stepped out into the infirmary lobby and found Wally and a group of 4 soldiers,

  “Is she gonna be okay?” 1 of the soldiers asked,

  “I can’t make any promises but she’s stable for now” She answered before turning to Wally while pulling her phone out, “I need you to go get something for me” She said as she tapped her phones screen,

  “What?” He asked, she turned the screen to him, he looked at the picture of a set of blueprints for a sniper rifle with the name Legion-A13 written in the corner, 1 of the soldiers was looking over his shoulder and his eyes grew wide,

  “That’s a classified government project, how the hell do you know about it?” He asked, outraged, Artemis ignored him,

  “It’s in a military research facility 1 state over” She said, she switched the screen to a map and scrolled until she found a small empty forested area, “Here, they keep it off the maps but it’s there, I need the gun and 1 bullet, don’t lose the bullet, there are only 12 in existence" She instructed,

  “You can’t just walk in and take it” The soldier interrupted, Artemis pinched the bridge of her nose and groaned, she turned her attention to him,

  “Don’t worry, we’ll test it for you” She said, her voice laced in sarcasm,

  “It’s already been tested twice” Artemis smirked,

  “3 times actually, once by the developers at Star Labs, then by the military, and then by me, I’m why you don’t have 13 bullets, and now I’ll be the reason you don’t have 12” The soldier looked confused by the new information.

  “So, what does this thing do that’s so important” They both turned back to Wally, who now had a massive black case at his feet,

  “That took longer than usual, getting slow?” Artemis remarked,

  “You want to try doing it faster? Cause this things taller, wider, and a heck of a lot heavier than you are” He retorted, Artemis smiled,

  “Almost 7 and a half feet” She said, admiring the matte black case,

  “So why do we need this specifically?” Wally asked, crossing his arms,

  “It’s an anti space-craft sniper rifle, the government commissioned Star Labs to build it so they didn't have to rely on the Justice League to fix all their problems, it’s a prototype, the reason it’s so big and heavy is because it’s able to fire a 5 inch bullet straight up into a descending aircraft, preferably before it gets close, it’s supposed to lock onto whatever powers the ship but they haven’t figured that part out since every alien spacecraft seems to run on something different depending on where they come from” Artemis explained,

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “But the rest of it works?” Wally asked, the soldier was the 1 who answered,

  “It works, it could tear clean through a tank and keep going for miles” He said before turning his attention back to Artemis,”What makes you think you can just fire blindly at this thing and hit something important without the targeting system?” He asked, Wally could see her anger rising,

  “I’ve test fired the weapon, and I know the general layout of the ship, I’ll hit the engine room because I have 2 clear points of reference that will guide me to it, which is something you don’t have” The soldier hesitated still contemplating his options before reluctantly nodding with a sigh,

  “Alright, but if it goes missing then we’re coming for your ass, understand?” He said, Artemis nodded with a little too much attitude.

  “K F, what’s the tallest building in Metropolis?” She asked, her eyes still fixed on the soldier, Wally disappeared for an imperceptible second before appearing back where he had been,

  “Lex Tower, cause apparently having a building shaped like the first letter of his name wasn’t enough, you ask me someone's compensating for something” He joked, and found that he was the only 1 laughing,

  “Don’t be disrespectful” 1 of the other soldiers snapped,

  “Didn’t realize you guys were fans” Wally responded,

  “I wasn’t, but I won’t stand for disrespecting the dead” The man spat, Wally threw his hands up in apology,

  “I swear I didn’t know, I’m not that tasteless” The soldier nodded, his expression softening,

  “He died trying to save her” He said using his chin to indicate towards where Artemis had just come from.

  “We need to get going” Artemis interrupted, “Get the gun up to the roof of Lex Tower and come back for me”

  “You better be glad that this case has wheels.”

  When the missile struck the Tamaranean ship Kommand’r seized the opportunity, blue fire spewed from her palms, the Citadel soldiers were already off balance and tripped over themselves as they tried to avoid the flames, she shot forward and kicked off the neck of 1, she jammed her elbow into the back of another's head, Kori watched for a second before running to Barbara, she quickly wrapped her arms around her torso and dragged her from the ship's command center.

  Kori’s body fought her as she made her way down a series of dimly lit passageways, she made as many random turns as possible before pulling a heavy metal door open and dragging Barbara into the engine room, the banging and screeching of the maze of engines filled the space and rattled Kori’s bones, she propped Barbara against a wall and she groaned in pain as she roused from her barely conscious state,

  “Are you okay?” Kori asked, kneeling down to be on her level, Barbara’s hand shot to her left ear and she clenched her teeth in pain, she seemed to be regaining use of her limbs slowly, but her eyes were still glassy and her head was shifting from side to side involuntarily,

  “Kori” She gasped quietly, she tried to push herself up using her arms but they gave out beneath her,

  “Don’t move, we’ll be safe here” Kori assured her, Barbara’s eyes closed as she leaned back against the rattling wall behind her, it was only a few seconds later that the door burst open.