The moment was razor-thin.
Artemis stood over Cheshire, bowstring taut, an arrow aimed at her sister's throat. Dust swirled in the air, mixing with the faint hum of Zane's battle echoing across the warehouse. Artemis's chest heaved, her arms steady despite exhaustion.
"It's over," she hissed, eyes narrowed. "Give up, Jade."
Cheshire tilted her head slightly, her jade-green eyes glimmering with defiance even as Artemis's arrow pressed close. "You've gotten sharper," she admitted softly. "But you're not ruthless enough."
Artemis's hand trembled, just faintly, when—
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The world erupted.
The warehouse shuddered as structural bombs ripped through its foundations. Concrete cracked open in jagged lines, steel beams snapped with ear-splitting groans, and fire plumed through ruptured fuel tanks. Dust exploded upward in choking clouds, swallowing everything in sight.
Artemis stumbled as the ground heaved beneath her feet. Instinct jerked her bowstring loose, the arrow skittering away harmlessly.
And Cheshire seized the moment.
With cobra-swiftness, her leg snapped upward, kicking Artemis's bow clean out of her hands. The weapon clattered across the debris-strewn floor. Before Artemis could recover, Cheshire slammed a palm into her shoulder, along with a small syringe she had prepared. Sending her reeling backward as chunks of ceiling crashed down around them.
Artemis hit the ground hard, coughing from the dust. "Damn it—"
Cheshire grabbed her wrist, hauling her to her feet with unexpected force. Artemis tried to pull away, but she was unexpectedly very weak all of a sudden.
Cheshire quickly carried her on her shoulders as she ran.
Artemis's eyes blazed with confusion and fury. "Dammit, what was that? And where—?"
"To the only way out," Cheshire snapped, jerking her forward just as a steel beam slammed down where Artemis had been standing seconds before. "And I drugged you. Enough sedatives to take down a grown man in seconds. Guess I still win huh, sister?"
Artemis's heart pounded. "Dammit, you guys planted Bombs all over the warehouse!? Thats crazy!!!…"
"Wasn't really my plan, but I did plan an escale route just in case." Cheshire's tone was cold, practical. Her grip never loosened.
But Artemis's gaze snapped toward the center of the warehouse.
"Zane!"
Through the swirling dust, she could just barely see him—two figures were intertwined in the dust and smoke.
As the ceiling began to cave in. Her breath caught, dread spiking her chest.
She tried to pull free, to run toward him. "I'm not leaving him!"
Cheshire yanked her back, her voice a sharp whip. "Idiot! If you go to him, you die."
The words sliced through her. Artemis fought harder, but Cheshire's strength and the collapsing environment made resistance impossible. The assassin slammed Artemis against the wall, pinning her long enough for another blast to tear through the roof above. Shards of concrete hammered the ground.
Gritting her teeth, Cheshire forced Artemis forward, practically dragging her toward a fissure in the eastern wall where the structure had weakened. "Dont resist, Artemis! You can hate me later—if we live."
Artemis's mind screamed in protest, her heart thundering in her chest. Zane…
…
At the center of the chaos, Zane staggered forward, lungs burning from smoke, vision blurred by poison. His Echo Form now gone, his human body trembling from fatigue. Every breath felt like it could be his last.
And in front of him, Sportsmaster stood tall amidst the destruction.
"You feel that?" Sportsmaster roared over the collapsing steel. "That's the sound of inevitability, kid! No one's walking out of here!"
Zane's danger sense shrieked inside his skull, a painful spike of awareness. He didn't have to see to know the building was seconds away from coming down entirely.
"You really… planned to die here?" Zane rasped, shoulders heaving.
Sportsmaster smirked, teeth flashing white in the haze of fire and dust. "Not planned. Accepted. That's the difference between us. You think survival is everything—but I know victory means nothing if you're afraid to die for it."
Debris rained down, a steel beam smashing into the ground between them with an explosive crash.
Zane's lips curled into a strained grin, sweat and ash streaking his face. "Funny… I'm not afraid to die either."
He lunged.
Sportsmaster swung his hammer, but Zane dodged by leaning back, sliding uder the attack. Before closing in and tackling Sportsmaster to a nearby wall.
The two locked eyes, faces inches apart.
"You're too young to understand," Sportsmaster growled, straining against Zane's grip. "This world eats people like you alive. Hopeful. Naïve."
"Maybe," Zane gasped, forcing his legs to anchor against the quaking floor. "But at least I'm not… alone in this grave."
Sportsmaster snarled, but his expression twisted with something else—an instant of shock.
"You—?!"
"Yeah," Zane hissed. "You talk about how your willing to die, but you probably have an escape plan. Not gonna let that happen bud, this is our suicide pact!!"
"You piece of-!!!"
The building gave its final roar.
The ceiling caved in, fire blossomed from ruptured gas lines, and a tidal wave of steel and concrete swallowed them both.
…
Artemis screamed.
"ZANE!"
Cheshire yanked her through the gap just as the warehouse imploded behind them, a rolling wave of dust and fire exploding outward. The force slammed them both into the dirt outside, the ground trembling as the building collapsed into a burning ruin.
Artemis coughed violently, clawing at the ground to push herself up, fighting against the sedative. Her eyes were wide, chest heaving as she stared at the inferno where Zane had been.
"He's—"
Cheshire cut her off, her own voice sounded complex. "He's gone. You saw it. Don't waste his death by running back into hell."
Artemis's jaw trembled. Tears threatened, but she forced them back, fists clenching until her nails bit into her palms. Her entire body shook—not from fear, but from rage and grief.
Zane…
…
And then—silence.
Zane's world went dark. His body screamed with pain, every nerve crushed under stone and steel, poison burning through his veins. He couldn't breathe. Couldn't move.
He let go.
…
Light.
His eyes shot open.
The weight was gone. The fire. The rubble. The suffocating smoke.
Instead, he lay flat on his back—on the worn mattress in his base. The cracked ceiling greeted him like an old friend, the familiar smell of dust and fabric grounding him in a reality he hadn't expected to see again.
Zane's chest rose and fell in ragged burst, still felling the phantom pain.
He was alive. Again.
But the memory of the collapse, of Artemis's scream, of Sportsmaster's manic grin—it all lingered.
But more importantly.....
"I'm back to the whole Serling thing! For fucks sake man!"
.....
Patreaon
/Williamstewart