12 Chapter 11

-[Evan]-

Letting out a tired sigh as he sat up at his work table, he looked at the velocity belt that he was working on before he took a nap.

While he was happy with the functions of the belt, it still wasn't without flaws. Though the belt created a small field around him to protect him from the frictional and physical burden of going at high speed, it wasn't absolute.

It protected him from about 80% of the burden while he felt the remaining 20%. Unlike Flash and Kid Flash whose bodies were enhanced to endure it, he didn't have that physiology.

That lack of a metahuman physique limited the speed he could go at without the burden being too heavy on his body. The speed he could safely run at was still fast but it wasn't as fast as the flash.

If he pushed himself, he could be as fast for roughly eight minutes before he had to stop. The bright side was that he was still faster than kid flash from his estimates and calculations.

He had two solutions, the first being to strengthen his body even further and the other being to tweak the belt to protect him from the remaining 20%.

Neither option would be easy to accomplish within a short amount of time but that didn't stop him from pursuing both.

With what he had learnt from Roquette's nanobots, he was getting closer to implementing his own nanite builds. It also brought him a step closer to one of his more delicate projects; clean energy.

One would think that the amount of ongoing projects he currently had were discouraging but it was actually the opposite.

He liked the challenge.

Ignoring the multiple job requests that popped up on his computers, he put on the belt and chose a random appearance from his watch.

With his identity concealed, he ran at high speed to his destination.

Another reason he had his beetle drones tail Artemis on her patrols was to figure out the location of the zeta tubes the league and the team used.

So far, he'd only found the single one that she used to leave Gotham.

Arriving quickly at an alleyway, he didn't deactivate the belt or implant, searching around for surveillance devices.

As expected, he felt a tiny camera nearby, quickly ducking out of its view. Remotely accessing it, he set it on a loop before walking out of his hiding place.

'Only one camera? Cocky much?' He wondered as he walked to the seemingly abandoned phone booth.

He could feel the complex machinery that was hidden by the seemingly normal appearance. In that same way, he could also mentally access its system to make use of it but that wasn't what he was here for.

A smirk formed on his lips as while connected to it, he realized something interesting. 'Their zeta tubes are all connected to each other as well as to the systems in Mount justice and the watchtower.'

The smirk grew once more. 'What's this? The batcave?' He thought, taking out a small circular device and placing it on the scanner, the device sticking there.

He tapped his watch as a holographic interference popped up, a progress bar appearing.

'And I'm in. Hello sweet data.' He thought as soon as it filled up, granting him access.

Taking back the circular device, he sped away but not before taking the camera off loop.

Before long, he was back in the apartment, taking the disguise off as a call came in.

"Felicity? What's up." He greeted as he changed out of his casual clothes to more presentable but still casual clothes.

"You know Sportsmaster, right?" She asked.

"Blond hair, a hockey mask and a bad attitude? It's hard not to know." He answered, tucking the velocity belt under his clothes to hide its visibility.

"Well he just put up a request for me to hack into Star Labs. It's on our list of targets to eventually hit so I thought maybe we'd kill two birds with one stone." She informed, putting him in thought.

He had pushed back his attempt on Star Labs to give them time to study the Amazo parts. That would make it much easier for him to get the data rather than steal the actual Amazo parts.

"I think I got the same request a few hours ago. Stall him for as long as possible. We'll take care of it when I get back." Evan said.

There was a short pause. "Get back from where?" Felicity asked.

"I have a date tonight so I'm going to be busy for the next few hours." He revealed, looking himself over in the mirror.

"You know Lucas told me a bit about this Artemis chick. Did you know that she's Sportsmaster's daughter and Cheshire's sister?" Felicity questioned in confusion.

"Yep."

"And you're still going on this date with her?"

"Yep."

A sigh could be heard from the other side of the call. "Boys. You never think with your head." She said tiredly.

"It's just a date. Besides, she's nothing like her dad." He said as he left his apartment unit.

Having known her personally, he could testify that she was nothing like her parents or sister. "Fine. I'll be on standby in case anything happens." Felicity said.

"No no no. I don't want you monitoring my date. I don't need to have you and Lucas play commentary on my love life." He refuted with slight exasperation.

"Well Lucas is out busting heads so it's just me. Hold on, I'll patch him through." Felicity said as a beep was heard a few seconds later.

"What's up? I'm kinda busy right now." Lucas said, the sounds of gunshots echoing behind him.

"Evan is going on a date with Artemis." Felicity revealed before Evan could say anything.

"Really? Need some advice? Use protection!" Lucas said, another round of gunshots ringing out that sounded like Lucas'.

An exasperated sigh left Evan's mouth. "Oh shut up. We have a job to do later tonight so try not to come back wounded." Evan said.

"Tell that to these guys." Lucas said, right before Evan ended the call as he reached Artemis' apartment unit.

Knocking on the door, it didn't take time for the door to be opened from the other side. He didn't expect Artemis' mother to be the one to answer rather than the girl herself.

Once again, he saw the slight widening of her eyes as she laid her eyes on him before she expertly hid it.

"Good evening Mrs Crock." He greeted her respectfully.

"You must be the one who had her so excited earlier. Come in." The woman revealed easily, inviting him in. "Artemis is getting ready in her room. She'll be out in a minute."

-[Artemis]-

Standing in her room, her eyes narrowed as she stared at the blond haired man who had climbed through the window and into her room.

"What do you want?" She asked her father in irritation.

The man only let out an amused smile. "Jade said she saw you. Playing hero now, aren't you?" He said, causing her eyes to narrow.

"What are you doing? You don't belong there. You're one of us." Sportsmaster added.

"That's none of your business. I'm not joining you or Jade." Artemis refuted strongly.

That drew a laugh from him. "How long do you think you'll be able to play the hero? Do you really think your team will accept you after they find out who your family is?" He asked.

Artemis gritted her teeth as she glared at him, staying silent.

"What about your little boy toy you've been hanging around with?" Sportsmaster added.

"Leave him out of this!" She warned immediately.

"Oh? How do you think he'll react when he finds out that your parents killed his own?" Sportsmaster asked, causing Artemis' eyes to widen in shock.