Running After You

Warning: High T, so that means language :O

~Epilogue~

"We've got to work faster if we want to get back in one piece."

"Why don't you build yourself a bridge, and jump off it? I'm working as fast as I can, asshole."

The man in the black ski mask glared at the other man in the blue mask. The two men were inside Star City's First Bank, it was nearly 3:00 in the morning, and both thieves hated working with each other. But their boss told them to crack the safe and they only had ten minutes to do it. So what if Black Mask was getting impatient? Blue Mask was working as fast as he could.

Of course, the operation wasn't as simple as breaking into the bank late at night, cracking the safe, then waltzing out. There was quite a bit of tampering and plotting, but none of that was done by Black and Blue, whose only job was to get the safe open in the short time given. A job they were failing at... miserably.

"Just how fucking hard is it to listen to a few clicks?" Black Mask asked.

"Shows what you know, dumbass. This isn't like the safes you see in movies. This has to be opened by pressing buttons."

"So press some buttons."

"Fuck you! You know what, I can't work with you. Go stand by the door and keep watch."

"I don't need to, Red and Gray are already keeping watch."

"I don't care! Go, damn it!"

Black Mask muttered profanities under his breath and walked to the door of the office. Star City's bank was designed a little differently. The safe door was inside the CEO's room, rather than out in the open where the bank teller's were. Black Mask leaned against the wall, crossing his arms. He thought about all the things he would buy with his cut of the money.

Blue Mask continued to work away, now able to focus on his task at hand. He held his breath and punched in the nine digit number code.

Beeeeoooooop.

Pop!

"Hey, I did it," Blue Mask said, his voice sounding happy. "I'll be damned, I did it!"

"So what, you want a medal or something?" was his partner's reply.

"It'd be more than what you'd get, you didn't do shit. Radio Red, tell him Blue came through."

Black Mask scoffed, picking up his radio. "Yeah, Red, Blue got the safe open... barely. So you want us to start collecting or you want us to wait? We can start? Great. Alright, ten-four." He put his radio back in his pocket. "Yo, time to start getting the money out. Green and Gray will be here in a few minutes."

Blue Mask grinned opening the safe door fully and stepping in. "Holy shit. It's like a wonderland in here."

"Well duh, dipshit! It's a safe inside a bank! Hell yeah it's gonna be a wonderland," Black retorted, stepping inside the safe room himself. He picked up a wrapped money bag, starting to put them inside a larger trash bag he had in his pocket.

"You know, when this is over, just you and me are gonna fight," Blue told him. "Me, you, and a dark alleyway. I'll kick the shit out of you. You better enjoy yourself now, because I'll be sure to hit you so hard, you won't remember what to use your money for."

"Oh, haha. You think I'm scared of you, huh?"

"You will be by the time I'm done with you."

"You wanna go? You wanna go? Let's fucking go!"

The two men clashed, both of them shoving at each other, throwing wild punches and sloppy kicks. The fight had just begun when Green Mask and Gray Mask stepped into the safe room. "Break it up!" Green Mask yelled, while him and Gray came between the two. "What the fuck you wanna do? Jeopardize this mission? You can fucking fight and kill each other after!"

Black and Blue halted. "He's right," Black muttered. "Just never pair me with this asshole again."

"You know, we could hear you two over the radio," Gray informed. "And honestly, wow, your language is just horrible. You two should learn some manners. Or at least learn how to cuss right."

Blue narrowed his eyes at Gray Mask. "The fuck you mean? Cuss right? There ain't no fucking right way to do it."

"Oh trust me, there is, and you don't know it."

Green Mask laughed. "Better listen to Gray."

"Fuck both of you," Blue snarled.

Gray and Green exchanged a look. "They should learn manners now, they need it," Gray said.

"Way ahead of you," Green replied. Then he stepped over and shut the safe door, trapping the four masked men inside.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" Black Mask yelled. "Now we're trapped you bastard!"

"Exactly."

The green and gray masks came off. Standing before Blue and Black was a blonde woman and a red headed young man. Both of them had a smirk on their faces, the man grinning cheekily.

A few moments of complete silence.

"Red hired kids to do this job?" Black then asked in confusion.

The blonde young woman rolled her eyes. "Really? They don't recognize us, do they?"

Her mask-less partner chuckled. "Nope. What irony. We take off our masks, yet they need us to wear one in order to recognize us."

"The fuck you talking about!" Blue exclaimed.

She put on a brilliantly colored green mask, covering the top half of her face, with domino slot holes for eyes. He put on a red face mask, one that completely covered his face, with yellow lightning strikes on the side. Black and Blue's eyes widened with realization and terror. "It's Artemis and Flash!"

"So yeah, like I said, you don't cuss right," the Artemis remarked. "And you guys are seriously the worst... hey... wait a minute. I've seen you guys before! Back two years ago! You guys were trying to rob Gotham City Bank! But you were a different color... Grey? Is that you?"

Black tried to back away, but unfortunately for him the safe room was relatively small. "I ain't answering nothing! But yeah, I was on that job. Fucking Kid Flash took my blonde gal hostage and threw me against a wall!"

"Incredible," Flash grinned. He looked at Artemis, "You know, this guy is the reason we met each other again, sweetie."

She laughed. "Irony at its best."

"Who you calling a sweetie?" Blue demanded.

Flash and Artemis exchanged another look. Did the guy really think Flash called him sweetie? Wow, this was getting worse by the second. Both of their looks said the same thing; let's get this over with.

So with a quick bout of beating up the baddies (no arrows or super speed needed, just precise kicks, punches, and dodges), the two heroes had them on the floor, unconscious. The two heroes then took off the black sweat pants and sweat shirt they wore over their costume. Artemis's costume matched the green on her mask, and was a spin off of Green Arrow's outfit, more personalized and feminine, of course. Wally's outfit looked like Barry Allen's outfit... because it was the same one.

She tightened the bow quiver strap to her back and checked her arrow supply. "You closed the door all the way, didn't you?"

Wally laughed. "Yeah. It's okay, I can run through the door and unlock it."

"Or, you could pick me up and run through the wall, then we could go take care of the other guys and leave these clowns unconscious on the floor." The now twenty-four year old young man smiled. He took a large step closer to her. Artemis gave him a 'what are you doing?' look. He took another step, then used his super speed to rush and pick her up in his arms. She squeaked when he did so. "That freaks me out!" Artemis screeched.

"I know," Wally laughed. He kissed her cheek. "Okay, let's do this. Just know that there's a chance you'll get a nosebleed."

"Wait, what?!"

Zoooooooom!

Wally ran through the safe door successfully. Artemis had her eyes shut tight and when she opened them, they were already on the other side. "I'm never gonna get used to that," she muttered under her breath. She felt her nose, no blood. His nose however, was starting to ooze crimson colored blood.

"I always get bloody noses, don't worry," Flash assured.

"I do worry," she replied, wiping his nose off with her palm. "Even over the small things." He gave her a warm smile, unfortunately the mask preventing his freckles from showing. She laughed at the goofiness he still had, even when his face was cut off.

They both were well aware that this was a mission, and there were still seven or eight guys with guns and colored masks that needed taken care of. Artemis hopped out of her husband's arms and got her bow and arrow ready. She fired off seven exact rounds of arrows, while Flash dashed off, leaving behind a haze of red and yellow.

~X~X~X~

Palo Alto, Saturday night

"You're a newly wed, now. That means you have to get used to the role of the wife. Granted, most wives don't have alter egos and jobs, but that doesn't mean you can slack on your job now. The first year of marriage is the hardest because you two are still getting used to living with each other. But don't worry, you guys are going to have fun."

"Uh yeah, Dinah?"

"Yes?"

"You and Ollie aren't even married yet. So how would you know this?"

"JUST BECAUSE WE'RE NOT MARRIED DOESN'T MEAN-"

"Okay! Calm down! I've got it, I've got it!"

"No, you know what, why hasn't your stupid uncle proposed already? The whole Krolotean disorder has been settled, Earth is safe again, crime rate is average. I SHOULD BE WEARING A RING, DAMN IT!"

Artemis had to hold the phone a few feet from her ears. Dinah didn't lose her cool, even as Black Canary she kept it professional. But if there was one subject, one subject, that got the blonde woman in a tiffy, it was the subject of marriage. More specifically, the subject of Oliver not marrying her. Wally looked up from his physics book and gave Artemis a look. "Not about you," his wife mouthed to him. The speedster took a breath of relief and went back to reading.

"I'm gonna maim Oliver when he comes home!" Dinah kept yelling, "the only one crying like a canary will be him when I-"

Artemis knew she had to distract Dinah's train of violent thoughts. "Wally and I are having problems with the toaster," she lied.

He chuckled at his wife's lame lie. She hit his head. He stopped laughing.

"Toaster? You mean the one Dick and Zatanna got you for your wedding shower?" Black Canary asked. She went from yelling like a crazy woman to once again being a concerned motherly figure. Wally mentally hoped Artemis wouldn't get that crazy ten years from now.

"Yeah, the toaster, uh, it doesn't..." the archer trailed off, trying to think of an excuse.

"Toast," Wally then blurted.

Artemis gave her hubby a look. "Toast," she repeated. "Our toaster doesn't... toast."

He started chuckling to himself, and she hit him in the back of the head again, this time a lot harder. "Ouch," he muttered.

"Your toaster doesn't toast?" Dinah asked incredulously.

"Yeah, like, we've put bread in and it doesn't come out... uh... toasty," Artemis answered. Now she felt retarded. Thanks for helping me out, she thought grudgingly to Wally.

"Well most toasters have knobs so you can adjust the setting of how burnt you want it. Is your toaster on the lowest setting?"

She pretended to check her toaster, which by the way, wasn't broken at all. "Oh, now I see, little numbers," Artemis said. "It's on the number one."

"Ah see, there's your problem. One barely toasts. Set it to about five, but if you go any higher than eight then you'll completely burn the bread."

"Okay then, thanks. I appreciate you helping me out, Dinah."

"Well kid, you're still young and you jumped into this marriage business. But you and Wally are soulmates, so it's no big deal if you got married young. Not like me. By the time Oliver proposes and we set a date for the wedding, I'll be well into my-"

"THE BLENDER!" Artemis then exclaimed. "Tell me how to work the blender!"

Wally couldn't help it. He started laughing, full on bawling at his wife and how desperate she was to keep Dinah from freaking out. He got up from his seat at the kitchen table and took the phone right out of Artemis's hands. "Yeah, Dinah? Hey, yeah, it's Wally. You know, I just got back from work and I was going to take Arty to a late night movie. Uh-huh. Oh don't worry. Uh-huh. You too. Goodnight."

Beep.

He set the phone down on the counter. "See now, wasn't that a lot simpler than getting instructions on how to use a blender?" he asked, his voice becoming velvety smooth.

"I can't believe she had to explain to me how to toast toast," Artemis laughed. "We've been married two months now. I've used the toaster at least fifty million times."

He wasn't listening to her, he was too busy nibbling her neck. Wally's hands went on her hips and she put her arms on his shoulders. "So do you really want to see a movie?" he asked, nibbling her earlobe.

"Mhm... I guess Connor and Megan could come with us. They hooked up at the wedding and have been dating ever since. Or we could ask Dick and Zee to go."

"Dick is Nightwing now, and Zatanna has joined the Justice League. They're going to be too busy."

"We could just go see a movie ourselves."

The red headed young man smiled, kissing Artemis's full pink lips. "Except, now I don't want to see a movie," he said. "I kinda want to do something else."

His implication was obvious. "Yeah?" Artemis asked. "Like what?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

"Tell me anyway."

"I wanna go in the bedroom and... have some toast."

Her laughter filled the air, and Artemis wrapped her legs around his waist so her husband could hold her. "You're so dumb," she giggled.

Wally grinned. "Yup."

Author's Note:

And that was the conclusion to Running After You! HOORAY! So here are some things that was mentioned but I'll repeat:

~The Krolotean aliens were defeated along with the Shadows

~Conner and Megan are dating

~Robin is now Nightwing and is still with Zee

~Wally and Artemis are married and now Artemis is in the hero business

AND THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED IN THE WAR OF 1812.

Wait, wut? XD Just being random. Anyway, I cannot express how grateful and honored I am to everyone who has read/reviewed/favorited this story. It truly means a lot. I'm glad to have this full length story finished, and thank you for all the support :)

Young Justice premiers tomorrow! Whoooooo!

Much love, randomness, fruit (nutritious, mrow), rainbows, explosions, and awesomeness,

~Luna