a/n - I forgot to put Elias's fit in the last chapter so here it is now lolol
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Elias's POV
Socials was...interesting I suppose. Right off the bat, the teacher told us the next few weeks would be debating, which wasn't really my strong suit. The whole unit was going to be on the discussion of good and evil, which was something I was definitely familiar with.
Thankfully, the teacher gave us the first day to prepare our research and opinions on the topic. It was interesting to think about honestly, in the class there were two sides to the argument, people who believed there was always distinct good and evil and people who believed good and evil doesn't really exist.
Obviously, being a hero I had my own biases, but I still tried to understand both sides of the argument. During the class, I noticed this girl kept staring at me randomly. Every time I'd catch her staring she'd casually shift her eyes back to her notes like nothing happened. It went on until the end of the block and before I could even ask her about it she was gone.
I brushed it off and made my way to the gymnasium. The girl's change room was nothing special, it was certainly lower quality than the rest of the school, which was disappointing. After I changed into my gym strip I followed the group of girls out the change room into the gym, where we split off into our classes.
Much to my happiness, the first day was game day, which meant I was going to be a try hard and win. And to make things even better, we were playing dodgeball. If only Wally was in the same gym as me, I'd have smoked him at dodgeball.
The game was wild, it wasn't too hard at first cause the other try hards seemed to be focussed on taking each other out. The hardest part was resisting the temptation to use my super speed. Unfortunately, most of my team members got taken out quickly and soon it came down to me against a handful of people on the other team. The odds were against me, but being the stubborn ass I am, I was determined to win.
After majority of the balls were on my side, I hurled a barrage of shots back at the other team, quickly taking out all but one girl. It was the same girl from my socials class, but she wore a determined look as she dodged my attacks with shocking agility. I was starting to like her.
She attacked back, throwing several balls my way, which I narrowly avoided. I grabbed one ball and continued my dodging, and it was going smoothly until she threw a fast ball out of nowhere. In a split second I leaned backward as the ball passed over my face, and as I pulled myself up from the painful arch I recoiled my arm to throw the ball I was holding. Which surprising accuracy, I nailed her in the gut before she could react, and she doubled over from the force of it.
I immediately felt bad for throwing such a hard ball, but the excited cheers from my team pulled me back. I smiled in victory as I jogged over to her, shocked to see she was kneeling on the ground while clutching her stomach. I didn't even know I had that killer of a throw. I quickly offered her a hand, which she surprisingly accepted with a pained smile.
"Thanks, you've got a wicked throw, girl," she spoke with a strained voice and I scratched my neck sheepishly.
"Aha, sorry about that. Good game though, you've got crazy reaction speed," I compliment her as I offer her a fist bump, she accepts it with a grin and removed her arm from her waist.
"You're new here, right?" She asked and I quickly nodded.
"Yeah, I'm Elias. We have socials together," I tell her with a grin and she smiles back at me.
"I'm Piper. Sorry for staring at you during class, I thought you looked familiar," she admits apologetically and I brush it off.
"It's fine, I'm used to stares on account of my gorgeous face," I joke with mock snobbishness and she immediately laughs, I quickly join in with her. We head back to the change room together, both still talking and getting to know each other and I was already taking a liking to her.
After we changed out of our gym clothes, she turned to me. "Do you have IG? We should totally talk more, and I can help you catch up a bit in socials," She says as she pulls out her phone and I do the same with mine.
"For sure, here," I typed it into her phone and quickly followed her back. I suddenly remembered I was supposed to meet up with Wally after class and grabbed my stuff to leave. "Was nice to meet you, Piper. See you tomorrow in socials!" I bid her farewell and she waved to me with a grin.
"You too! See you!" She calls out as I leave the change room. Immediately I'm met with the sight of a pouting, and slightly disheveled looking Wally waiting for me outside the change rooms.
"What happened to you, babe?" I asked him as I placed a hand on his shoulder, he slouched with a groan.
"I hate gym." He tells me in irritation and I laugh at his words.
"Aw, you didn't win babe?" I ask him jokingly as I mess up his sweaty hair.
"Hell no, I was everyone's target!" He exclaims and I laugh at his complaints again. "Whatever least it's fitness tomorrow so I don't think anyone can target me. Let's go, I wanna relax at the Mountain," with a grin I follow him out towards the Zeta Tube.
I heard a notification, and pulled out my phone. I was expecting it to be Piper, but it was a message from Meghan. I opened the text and immediately gasped, "seriously!?" I shout in exasperation as we approached the metal storage container and Wally gave me a weird look at my sudden burst of anger. "They're at the beach!" I complain to him as I show him the text and he gasps in offence.
"You're shitting me," he says in disappointment, his day clearly not going his way. "You think if we go fast enough we can still meet up with them?" He asks me eagerly and I shake my head with a sigh.
"They've been there since we started school so I doubt we can make it in time. And we don't even have any beach gear!" I tell him and he ponders for a moment.
"Hmm how recently did you get that message?" He asks me and I shrug.
"I dunno, like a few minutes ago." I say lazily as I check the time on my phone, his eyes light up at my response.
"Then if we can get swim gear from my place, and book it to the Mountain, we can probably make it!" He yells enthusiastically but I raise my eyebrow in disbelief.
"Ok but I'm telling you right now we are probably not going to make it," I warn him but my words go straight in one ear, and right out the other as he bolts in the direction of his house and I reluctantly follow him.
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"The Wall man's here! Let's get this party start-." Wally's enthusiastic entrance was interrupted as he trips over himself when he sees that everybody was in their uniforms, shocked and embarrassed for him. Even worse, it looked like they were in the middle of a meeting with some of the League members. With a heavy cringe, I walk over to Wally's side.
"I told you we wouldn't make it." I whisper to him as I offer a hand to help him up, he takes it with a thoroughly embarrassed face.
"Hah, Wall man?" A voice asks mockingly and I look up to see a blond girl, I'd never seen her before but she seemed to be associated with Green Arrow, on account of her outfit. "Love the uniform. What exactly is your power?" She continues teasing as she signals to Wally's getup, which was currently swim trunks and a towel.
I bite my lip to keep in a snicker at her joke, out of respect for my already embarrassed boyfriend. "Who are you?" Wally asks her accusingly as he stands from the ground. She smirks at him and I could already tell they weren't getting along very well.
"Artemis, your new teammate." She replies calmly and I grin from excitement of having another girl on our team. We could always use more heroines, especially here.
"Kid Flash, never heard of ya." Wally replies snarkily and I jab him with my elbow for being so rude to our new teammate.
"She's my new prodigy." Green Arrow chimes in as he puts an arm around Artemis, I raise an eyebrow at his words. Even though I'm not a fan of him, it still seemed kind of rude to replace Speedy so soon.
Wally didn't seem to like Arrows news, "What happened to your old one?" he complains and we all look at Green Arrow in question. In perfect timing, the Zeta Tube lit up and you can guess who walked out. Just as pissy as I remember him being, Speedy entered the Mountain, but this time he sported a new uniform. It was a nice upgrade from his Robinhood looking getup.
"Well for starters, he doesn't go by Speedy anymore. Call me Red Arrow," he spoke dramatically and I had to stifle a laugh at his lack of originality in choosing a name.
"Roy you look-" Roy cut off Green Arrow.
"Replaceable." his guilt tripping words made Green Arrow put his hands up before defending himself. Roy didn't seem fond of his words and quickly began criticizing Artemis's capabilities, y'know like the egotistical edge lord he is.
"Can she even use that bow?" he asked in a belittling manner, but Artemis didn't hesitate to step up and meet his gaze with a fierce confidence I deeply admired.
"Yes, she can," I swear I got chills watching the interaction.
"Literally, who ARE you?" Wally asked rudely again and I sigh at his behaviour. I can't really blame him though, one of his best friends was replaced by a girl he didn't even know. He could afford to be a little more considerate though.
"I'm his niece."
"She's my niece." Green Arrow and Artemis spoke in unison. The statement prompted Aqualad to chime in for Roy's reassurance, Wally didn't really help by adding the fact that they'd choose him over Artemis. Plus, I deeply disagree. We've already got one person with an attitude problem, I don't think we could handle two.
"Whatever, Baywatch. I'm here to stay," her confident words made Wally frown in disapproval again.
"I'm not here to join your team, I'm here because of Dr. Serling Roquette," Roy's statement made Rob's eyes widen before he pulled up the information on this person. A holographic projection of a blond scientist appeared before as Rob explained her occupation and the fact that she had gone missing two weeks ago.
"She was abducted by the League of Shadows," Red Arrow corrects him, which causes the rest of our team to light in excitement that we'd have another high stakes mission.
"Whoa! You want us to save her from the Shadows?" Rob asked as he and Wally stepped forward.
Wally grinned and fist bumped Rob, "Hardcore."
Roy quickly shut them down by informing us he'd already saved her from them, but not before they forced her to construct a weapon called the Fog, which essentially was a bunch of nano-bugs built to destroy things and steal valuable information. Totally killer tech.
"Yeah, sounds like the Shadows," Artemis chimed in and Wally scoffed in disbelief.
"Like you know anything about the shadows," she sent him a knowing smirk at his words which prompted him to burst in frustration again, "who are you?!"
After their little dispute, Roy continued explaining the gravity of the situation, from the fact that Roquette was working on a virus to disable the weapon, and the fact she's off the grid and safe for the time being. Green Arrow was quick to questions his judgement on leaving the scientist alone when the Shadows could be after her as we speak, but Roy assured him she was safe.
"Then let's you and I keep it that way," Arrow's words elicited a petty response from Roy.
"You and I? You're sure don't want to take you new protegee," the red head mumbled with a challenging gaze, but before Green Arrow could respond, Batman grabbed his shoulder to stop him.
Arrow refocuses his attention to defend Artemis, "You brought this to the team. It's their mission, which means it's hers now too." Roy only scoffed at his statement before heading towards the Zeta Tube.
"Then my job's done," he mumbled stubbornly before inputting his location to the Tube, as usual it recognized him as Speedy, but he made the quick correction and changed his name to Red Arrow. I looked at the others as Roy disappeared, simultaneously admiring his confidence and being grossed out by his sense of superiority he felt towards us.
"So...new mission?" I ask to disrupt the awkward silence that Roy left.
"Yes, you will be sent to protect Dr. Roquette while she develops the virus. Put your uniforms on, you leave soon," Batman's gruff commands caused me to turn red in embarrassment, since Wally and I were the only ones not in gear.
"Right, sorry," I mumble and the League members leave to conversate away from us. I took the opportunity to approach Artemis and introduce myself. "Hey, welcome to the team. I'm Elias!" I hum with a grin as I offer her a handshake. She skeptically looks down at my hand for a moment before accepting my gesture and meeting my gaze.
"Thanks, I'm Artemis," she replies simply with a relaxed grin. She seems a little more brash and bold than me, based off what I've seen about her so far, but I think that's a nice addition to our team dynamic. I release her hand from my grip and flash her a smile.
"Sorry about Kid over here, him and the guys are all really attached to Speedy," I explain and she brushes it off with a grin. "Personally, I don't like the guy that much. His head's too far up his own ass to see any of us as his equals." My comment causes her to snicker, and I mentally praise myself for making her laugh.
"Yeah, he seemed like the proud lone dog type. I promise you my head is only a reasonable distance up my ass," her joking comment brings a grin to my face. "So what's your hero thing?" she asks as she gestures to my lack of uniform.
"Super speed, I go by Hyper," I reply proudly and her eyes widen slightly in surprise.
"Huh, I wouldn't have guessed. You don't seem to have the whole cocky, sarcastic speedster persona," she points out with crossed arms and I let out a laugh at her words.
"Oh, don't worry. That's cause you've just met me, I promise I fully fit the speedster stereotype. You'll see," I hum with a sly grin and she snickers at my words.
"Looking forward to seeing that," she replies jokingly.
"You can count on it," I wink for added assurance, "let's talk more later, I've gotta change into my uniform." I hum as I pat her shoulder lightly when I walk past her, she waves a quick goodbye before I'm gone. I made haste with changing out of my school clothes, thanking the universe I never got the chance to change into swim gear and embarrass myself like Wally did. Within minutes, I was changed into my gear and we headed out for the mission.
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"Everyone online?" Aqualad resonates through my brain as M'ghan hooks all of us up to the mind link, we opted for telepathy this time around, considering we'd be dealing with data stealing bugs. It's probably safe to not use coms and risk having communication compromised. A chorus of responses in agreement echoed back.
"Yessir. Totally missed having everyone's thoughts in my head, it was getting kind lonely in here," I reply jokingly as I point to my head, Meghan and Superboy were situated outside of the building while the rest of us stood on guard in the same room as Dr. Roquette. She'd been working on the virus in a school in Happy Harbour, and I think right off the bat she wasn't too fond of us.
"Ugh this is weird," Artemis comments as she looks at her hands in confusion, getting used to the experience of telepathic communication. I would've warned her to take an Advil or something before hand cause it can be a headache sometimes. Especially when you have to hear Wally's thoughts constantly.
"And distracting!" Roquette complains as she continues working furiously, "it's bad enough I have to work with a kiddy computer that has less RAM than a wristwatch, now I have to hear teens in my skull!" She complains as she holds her head in frustration. To be fair, I don't blame her, we can be a lot to handle sometimes. I peeked over her shoulder to watch her work, it was actually pretty interesting to see such a high calibre scientist in action. I'd probably fangirl on other circumstances.
"You'll get used to it, though I apologize. Some of us tend to be a little more chatty than others," I say as I signal to Wally and he throws his hands in the air, mouth full of the snacks he snagged before we left.
"As if you're not the one talking right now," he replies sarcastically and I stick my tongue out at him, not bothering to deny it cause I know I've got a big mouth. "Also do you always complain when someone tries to help you?" Wally asks Roquette accusingly before taking another bite of his food. He seemed have a bit more attitude than usual today, must be the whole Artemis situation.
"Pot, Kettle. Have you met?" Artemis ask them jokingly while signalling between the two of them, I stifle a laugh at her words.
"Hey, I am not taking attitude from the newbie who drove Red Arrow off the team!" He suddenly snaps at her as he stands up and points a finger accusingly. I shake my head at his aggressive antics.
"That is so not on me!" Artemis snaps back as she crosses her arms over her chest, watching the two of them bicker was like watching me fight with my brother. It was embarrassing and extremely childish given the gravity of our situation.
"Fate of the world at stake!" The scientist emphasizes angrily as she throws her hands in the air, I look at Wally and raise an eyebrow in question.
He meets my gaze and immediately moves to defend himself. "She started it!" He complains like a child and I roll my eyes before making my way over to him.
"I think you can save the bickering until later, you're acting like a child," I tell him as I pinch his ear, he whines slightly in response.
"Maybe it would be better if I went with Miss Martian and Superboy." Artemis suggests, clearly over the situation as she walks out the door.
"Good idea." Aqualad answers simply and she was gone. I can't help but groan and hold my head from the tension amongst the team, I swear we can't go a single mission without having attitude problems. Perhaps team building would be a good thing to invest in.
"Well that's great. Nice job welcoming the new girl Wally, gold star," I hum sarcastically as I glare at him slightly for driving her away.
"If she wants to be on a superhero team she'll have to have thick skin," his reply made my painfully roll my eyes.
"Thick skin against villains, not teammates asshole," I explain halfheartedly, but being stubborn as he is, he doesn't give in to my guilt tripping.
"Cut her some slack maybe. It was her arrow who saved Hyper from Amazo," Rob says to Wally as he gestures my way. My eyes immediately light up at the reveal and I mentally slap myself for not realizing it beforehand, I should've thanked her for saving my life.
"What no that was Speedy's- I mean Red Arrow's...arrow." Wally protests in a big word jumble and I roll my eyes with a scoff.
"Pfft oh yeah, Red Arrow saving me? Good one, I think he would personally shoot me if he had the chance," I say sarcastically with a sly grin, his gaze falls in embarrassment.
"Tsk, whatever. I'm still not giving her the satisfaction." He says stubbornly and I roll my eyes again, looking to Rob for help but he only shrugs in response. Kaldur seemed to be the only one fully focussed on the mission while the rest of us were busy dealing with this whole Wally-Artemis rivalry.
"I can still hear you!" Artemis calls out through the link, reminding Wally that we can still all hear each other's thoughts. He groans and holds his head in frustration.
"I would give her the satisfaction if I were you, if it weren't for her you'd have a dead girlfriend," I tell him and he immediately raises a hand to protest before dropping it, silently admitting defeat.
"I couldn't get the justice league..." Roquette complains as she continues typing and snicker at her reaction, she glares at me momentarily and I look away innocently. I couldn't maintain too tense, despite the growing tension in our team and the fact that we were dealing with the League of Shadows, I still managed to poke fun at the little things.
Is that a problem? Maybe.
Am I gonna work on it? Absolutely not.
"The virus isn't much use if we can't find the weapon," Roquette explains in deep concentration.
"Can you track it?" Kaldur questioned as he stood behind Roquette, she quickly explained that in order to track the weapon, she'd have to go online. Which was basically a beacon for the Shadows to find her, and kill her. Despite her fear, Kaldur didn't hesitate to reassure her, "we will protect you," he spoke with unshakeable confidence. He really was born to be a leader, I could only wish to have half the sense of responsibility as him.
Roquette's frustrated expression falters into a more sympathetic one at Kaldur's words, after a few more moments of typing starts typing she tells Aqualad that tracking began. In moments, we had a location and prepared to send some of us to retrieve it.
"Mmm that boy." Artemis's voice rang seductively through the mind link say through the mind link, I could only assume she was referencing Superboy. Which was icky to say the least.
"He can hear you, we can all hear you!" M'ghan replies in an increasingly irritated tone and I cringe to myself, as if tension between Wally and Artemis wasn't bad enough, now we'd have issues between her and Meghan.
"Oh I know." Artemis replies casually as I sigh deeply.
"Not to be that person, but you're supposed to be looking out for the Shadows, not Superboy," I suggest half jokingly.
"Who says I can't do both?" Artemis hums in reply, I was going to speak, but I figured it was best to leave it be for now. I'm sure Meghan would grill Artemis herself in due time.
Rob quickly left the room so that he and Superboy could get to the Bio Ship and pursue the weapon. After they left M'ghan started to lecture with Artemis about how she embarrassed Superboy, as I anticipated she would. I could only hope that Artemis wouldn't create too much beef with her.
Wally and I moved to outside the room, keeping close watch for the Shadow's inevitable arrival. We stood on either side of the door when he suddenly perked up and signalled for me to follow him. "I saw something go that way." He explains me as he pointed to a hallway, before I could stop him he sped off, "go the other way, see if you can cut them off."
With an eyeroll at the suggestion of splitting up, I reluctantly sped in the opposite direction. I ran as fast as I could, surveying the area in hopes of finding someone. Knowing my luck I'd probably get clotheslined by an assassin cause I'm careless.
"Kid, you find anything?" I ask through the mind link and I wait for a response. I'm met with an uncomfortable silence and my panic begins to rise. "Kid? Are you there?" I ask more urgently this time, yet again I receive no response. I don't waste a second before turning back around to find him, knowing something must've gone wrong.
"Miss Martian, Kid, Hyper, Artemis! We are under attack!" Aqualad shouts as I scramble to stop myself from skidding into the wall. I manage to meet up with Artemis and Meghan and I stop in front of them with an alarmed expression on my face.
"Have you seen, Kid?" I ask urgently, their confused expressions were all I needed.
"I thought he was with you?" Meghan asks and I quickly explain we split up when he thought he caught a glimpse of something, which he clearly did considering I have no idea where the hell he is and he's not responding. Meghan closed her eyes in focus before they suddenly shot open, a concerned look in her gaze. "He's in trouble, down that way," Meghan warns as she points down one of the halls.
"Go help Aqualad, I'll get Wally," I command before sprinting down the hall as fast as I could. The wind whipped past me as I skid to a stop at the sight of Wally's unconscious body in a swimming pool. I don't hesitate to dive in and haul him out of the water. I checked his vitals, his pulse was still there but I could hear his breathing and I quickly came to the conclusion he had water in his lungs. I began performing CPR and after I about 2 cycles of mouth to mouth and chest compressions, he managed to turn over and cough out the water. Seeing him breathing and alive let me breath a sigh of relief.
"Thank God, you're alive," I say in relief as I hug him, patting his back to help him regain his breath and cough out the rest of the water.
"Ugh barely." He groans as he hugs me back in pain.
"That's like the third time I've had to save your ass. Stop almost dying on missions," I warn half jokingly as I poke a finger into his chest and he chuckles. "Now come on, we gotta go help the others," I tell him as I stand up and offer him a hand.
"Shadows already got to them?" he asks and I nod. With him recovered enough to go, we head back towards the room the other's were in.
"Did you manage to see what the attacker looked like?" I ask him as we turn another corner.
"No cause they kinda knocked me out," He says sarcastically and I roll my eyes with a grin, glad to see he was back to his snarky self.
"There!" I command as I run to the door, explosions bursting from within it. I saw what looked to be a woman wearing a cat mask dodging Artemis's arrows. One of the arrows was on the path to hitting Dr. Roquette so I quickly bolted in and snatched it midair as Wally and I entered the room. With all of us gathered in the room, we prepared to attack.
Wally made a jump at the attacker and tried to grab her, but she placed a smoke bomb and vanished in an instant. Wally went right through the cloud of smoke and landed right in front of Artemis, inches from her face. When he realized what was happening he backed up in disgust and quickly ran over to my side.
"She getting away! You're letting her get away!" Roquette shouts at Aqualad angrily and Wally quickly turns to blame it on Artemis.
"This is all your fault! You were on perimeter! How did that Shadow get in!?" He shouts accusingly at her angrily as she glares at him. I grab him by the shoulder to prevent more his pointless accusations.
"That's not really fair, I was outside too." M'ghan admits to him and he hesitates to come up with a bullshit excuse.
"Outside...with her distracting you!" He says and I squeeze his shoulder in warning.
"Hey, dumbass. We were on look out too, before you got knocked out. You could blame me as much as her," I point out with a hand on my hip, he thinks for a moment before responding.
"Well...I can't be mad at you. You gave me mouth to mouth," He finishes his explanation through the mind link and immediately smack his shoulder in response.
"We can hear you!" Everyone reminds him through the mind link and he immediately curses outloud before walking off.
"Don't worry, I didn't do half as well on my first mission and I know you haven't been a sidekick for very long." M'ghan tells Artemis kindly as we approach her, she was clearly disheartened by Wally's accusations and needed some morale boosting.
"Yeah just ignore him. He can be a jerk like that sometimes, but eventually he'll warm up to you." I tell her as I put a hand on her shoulder and she smiles at me.
"Thanks." She says quietly and we both grin at her.
"Any time." I respond casually just as Rob comes back online with Superboy. They knew where the weapon was but we were just a "little" bit late to getting to it. They had already taken down S.T.A.R. Labs and guessing by the worry in his voice it was pretty bad...
We decided the next move would to be to relocate the weapon and move Dr. Roquette to another location. We wasted no time in escorting her to a new location, fully expecting the shadows to be after us in no time...
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a/n - another 5000 word chapter sheesh. finally got Artemis on the team and Elias made a friend at school yeAh
hope y'all enjoyed this long chapter, I apologize for any spelling errors
have a good day/night I love all of you hehe