Chapter 12

-[Evan]-

Paula Crock left him in the living room while he waited for Artemis to get ready. He didn't need to wait long as Artemis walked in, dressed just as casual as he was.

"Hey Evan." She greeted.

"There you are. Are you ready to go?" He asked, getting up from the couch.

A complicated look formed on Artemis' face. "About that…uhm… something came up actually. It's urgent." She said, not meeting his gaze.

"Oh? What came up?" Evan asked in confusion.

"It's kind of a personal issue. Sorry." She apologized, still not meeting his eyes. "Maybe another time."

Evan paused, taking a deep breath before looking away.

"Yeah…another time." He echoed. "I'll show myself out."

With that, he left the apartment unit. As he walked through the apartment building, he immediately made his way back to his own unit.

Upon entering, he rummaged through his wardrobe, pulling out a gun and tucking it into his pants.

Setting the watch to make him invisible, he activated the velocity belt and sped away and out of the city.

-[Artemis]-

If anyone asked her how she felt a few hours ago, she would have been ecstatic. Evan had asked her out and she was even more excited than she expected.

If only her dad didn't come and ruin her day.

After finding out that her parents were the reason why Evan was an orphan, how could she be happy? How could she look him in the eyes and smile while knowing all of that?

Watching the joy he had expressed when he saw her turn to sadness was heart wrenching. She couldn't bear to look him in the eye knowing that she caused that.

She would have given anything to see him laze around and joke as usual at that moment but there was nothing she could do.

Evan was a civilian. She was already endangering his life by being friends with him. Now that she knew that her dad had taken notice of him, she had to stop this before he got pulled any deeper and endangered his life further.

The scene of his smile crumbling replayed itself repeatedly as she slumped onto her bed, holding back tears.

'I'm sorry Evan.'

-[Evan]-

It didn't take him much time to get to star city, speeding through the streets before stopping in an empty alley.

Moments later, he had already dialed a number. "Hey Felicity." He greeted.

"That was fast. How's the date going?" Felicity asked from the other side of the line.

"It's not happening." He said curtly.

"What do you mean it's no-" she was cut off as Evan spoke again.

"Forget about that right now. I'm going to pick up Lucas. Send me his coordinates." He said impatiently, running his hand through his hair.

There was a pause on the line before she responded. "Alright. Sending coordinates now." Felicity responded.

His phone beeped, signifying the received alert. "Thanks." He said, ending the call as he looked through the coordinates she sent.

He sped off once again to the given location. Upon reaching there, he found himself at a warehouse where he saw a gun fight taking place.

He could see about five men hiding behind barrels while Lucas himself attempted to shoot at them while hiding behind a pillar.

Just as one of the men got to his feet to continue shooting, Evan rushed forward, snatching the gun from his fingers and smashing the butt of it into his head, immediately knocking him out.

Tossing the gun to the side, he pulled out his own gun, taking aim for the other two who were still reacting in slow motion, firing green blasts at them that shocked them unconscious.

"Huh?" He heard Lucas mutter from the other side before rushing to grab him and dragging him to the car outside that he recognized as Lucas'.

By the time he dropped Lucas in the driver seat, he moved to the passenger seat by the side before deactivating the belt and turning off the invisibility.

"Evan?! What the hell was that?!" Lucas wondered in shock, looking between Evan and the warehouse.

As he calmed down, a look of confusion formed on his face. "Aren't you supposed to be on a hot date?" He asked.

Evan simply turned away. "Just drive."

-[Later]-

The drive back to the base was silent with Evan not in a particularly chatty mood. They were currently at the base under Smoak Technology.

Evan typed away at the computer with a level of intensity that unlike the calm person he usually was.

Lucas walked to stand behind Evan, letting out a sigh. "Hey buddy." He said, tapping his shoulder lightly.

"I'm here if you need to talk. You know that, right?" He added.

"Right." Evan replied, not pausing his actions or looking away from the screen.

Felicity who sat beside the amber eyed boy swallowed awkwardly, adjusting her glasses as she cleared her throat. "So…we're infiltrating Star Labs to grab some data. What's the plan?" She asked.

"Wait a minute. If it's only data we're after, why don't you guys just hack into it like you do with other stuff?" Lucas asked.

"Unlike the other stuff we usually hack, the only way to gain access to their database is from the inside. We can't do it remotely." Evan answered dully.

A part of him told him to postpone this mission until he was in a better state of mind but a larger part of him needed something to take his mind off things. Something to let him vent for the moment.

"Why can't you just speed in and speed out?" Lucas asked again.

"That's because I'm not a true speedster. I can't vibrate my molecules at the speed of sound to phase in so I'd have to gain access the normal way." He explained. "Plus, my speed is our ace in the hole if this mission goes south. We can't have them knowing all our tricks."

Lucas nodded in slight understanding. "Sounds reasonable enough. So how're we doing this?"

Felicity pulled up a map on her screen. "There are Star Lab facilities in Gotham, Boston, Central City, Star City, Taos and some other cities. From what we know, their database is linked so if we hack one, we hack them all." She explained.

She then pulled out a tiny circular device that was a bit smaller than her thumb. "I put this together. All you need to do is get to the server room and plant this in there, then we'll be able to remotely access it from here."

She tossed it to him, Lucas catching it to inspect it.

"That sounds easy enough." Lucas muttered, pocketing the device.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Evan said, drawing their attention to him. "I managed to get the layout for the building and where the server room is."

Lucas' and Felicity's attention was drawn to the screen which caused them to immediately whistle in surprise.

"That…is a lot of security checks." Lucas commented.

"That's why we'll have to be very careful not to tip off any alarm. I'd rather we not take any chances with any hero types." Evan cautioned.

"And if the Green Arrow shows up?" Lucas asked.

"Better him than Batman." Evan responded, getting a nod of agreement from Lucas. "Now, let's get to work."