Shadow Of The Nightshade

Nick Of Time (2).

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Pulling out three needles from her right sleeve, Shadow knocked the arrows astray.

Artemis nocked four more, but Shadow already had three needles in each hand.

The archer let go of bowstring.

Four needles deflected all of her arrows, one flying past the hero, clipping some strands of her hair.
Another followed close behind, pinning the blonde strands to the wall, the first needle falling to the ground having lost it's velocity.

'Seems like you lost some hair princess.' Shadow said smugly.

Artemis shot an arrow in spite and Shadow moved to the side, sending her last three needles at the sidekick.

Artemis smiled, noticing the reduction in the amount of needles Shadow threw at her. 'Looks like you have no more needles left.'

In a heartbeat Shadow charged at her. Doing a one-handed handstand, she threw a left kick the hero's way.

Artemis blocked the attack with her bow; taking a dagger from her left shoe Shadow swiped at Artemis.

The archer jumped back in time, the knife completely missing her, while Shadow flipped in the opposite direction.

'You missed.' Artemis quipped.

Shadow put a finger to her chin, looking in the direction of the archer. 'Oh, did I?'

Robin looked at the broken string of Artemis's bow. Just what are you playing at, Shadow.

Everyone else followed Robin's gaze.

Cursing under her breath, Artemis dropped her bow with a clang, taking a stance.

'No, no.' Shadow said with the shake of her head, 'this is all wrong. Who is Artemis without a bow?'

Kneeling down, she removed several different components from her boot, piecing them together to make the frame of a bow. As Shadow stood up, she pulled out a string, fixing it to the ends of the weapon. Satisfied, she tossed it to Artemis.

'Hope you like.' Shadow said, throwing shuriken the archer's way.

Artemis hit them off with her new bow.

Arrows were nocked and let go, all heading for Shadow. The assassin stood in place, unveiling two weapons—two tesen to be precise—and sent them on a collision course with the arrows.

'That's it, I'm all out of weapons.' She told them, admiring her handy work. The weapons were scattered concentric circles, all surrounding Artemis.

The snap of Artemis' string. . .Robin heard it before he saw it. He saw that Shadow made no move to dodge the surprise arrow, remaining still as it pierced through her shirt and into her shoulder.

'Looks like you're not as invincible as you think.' Atermis said, smirking.

She let it hit her, why? Batman wondered, following Robin's thought process.

'Despite what you think of me, I am only human.' She told the archer as she wrapped her finger round the bloodied arrow and pulled it out.

Throwing the arrow to Artemis' feet, Shadow turned to Robin, stuffing her hands into her pockets. 'Can I go to my cell now?'

Not waiting for his confirmation, she started walking down the hallway she knew led to the cells.

The sound of soles padding the steel floor followed the sound of her quick footsteps.

'Wait up!'

She kept walking.

'You know, you could have found a more peaceful way to do things!'

She ignored him.

'Why did you let that last arrow it you?'

She spun to face him, finally annoyed. 'There can never be true peace until one understands the pain, suffering and anger of others. I understand that she hates me for what I've done and she needed to let out her anger. . . so I let her.'

That's why?

Robin thought incredulously, saying nothing even as they reached their destination.

'On the upside, she didn't hit a vital spot. So she mustn't hate me that much.' Shadow let out a shallow laugh.

You have no idea how long Artemis can hold a grudge, do you?

He stared into the barren cell room, waiting for the force field to go up.

'You know, this reminds me of my old room.' She told him as he waited.

Void, Bleak, Bare. Is that the world you lived in, Shadow?

She stepped through the force field.

'How did you know it wouldn't zap you?' He asked without thinking.

Sitting on the metallic bed, she pressed her finger against the only thing keeping her there.

'I don't think you should—'

Electricity flooded her body until she retracted her hand, placing it back on her lap. 'You can come in but can't come out.' She explained simply.

'How—'

'Four months ago the cave had a virus where the system was shutdown for twenty four hours, enough time to download the schematics of the mountain, no?'

Don't tell me you—

'You hacked the cave.'

She sighed. 'And the Batcave and Watchtower, yes.'

'What?!'

When, how?

'Don't get your spandex in a twist Robin, I might have hacked the system, but I didn't go through anything but the blueprints. I don't know the locations or take any other data from any of the hideouts.'

'Why—'

Robin, report to the meeting room, now. His common buzzed.

'What's the fun in knowing everything?' She asked back.

You surprise me more and more, Shadow.

Bruce, I hope you know what your doing, because if you don't, things will turn out a lot worse than they already are. Robin thought.

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