Resting his head on his desk, Wally groaned. He was in school while the team was enjoying a day at the beach. The clock ticked by all too slowly for his liking.
"I miss him," he sulked.
He was snapped out of his thoughts when the bell finally rang.
"Finally!"
He rushed out as quick as humanly possible and made his way to the zetatube.
-SKIP-
"Recognized: Kid Flash B-03"
"The Wall-Man is here!"
Immediately, he found himself tripping and landing on the floor. This cause everyone to turn towards him.
"Great. Vibe ruined," he inwardly sighed. Everyone was in uniform he realized after he stood up. "Why was Red Tornado, Batman, and Green Arrow here? Along with some girl?"
"Wall-Man, huh? I love the uniform. What exactly are your powers?" the girl asked, kind of snarky.
She was already on his bad side.
"Uh... Who's this?" He asked.
"I'm Artemis, your new teammate," she stated smugly.
"Kid Flash; never heard of you," he replied flatly.
"Um," Green Arrow cut in, "She's my new protégé."
"Wha-what happened to your old one!?" KF panicked.
"Recognized: Speedy B-06"
Wow, speak of the devil...
"Well for starters, he doesn't go by Speedy anymore. Call me Red Arrow."
"Roy? You look-" Green Arrow began before he was cut off, "Replaceable."
"It's not like that! You told me you were going solo," Green Arrow tried.
"So why waste time finding a sub. Does she even know how to use that bow?" Red Arrow exclaimed in annoyance.
"Yes. She can," Artemis cut in.
"Who are you?!" Wally asked.
"I'm his niece" and "She's my niece" were said simultaneously.
"Another niece?" Robin thought with a smirk on his face. How interesting.
"She is not your replacement. We have always wanted you on the team and we have no quota on archers," Aqualad stated with a small smile.
"If we did, you know who we'd pick," Wally said.
"Whatever Baywatch; I'm here to stay," Artemis smirked.
Ignoring her, Aqualad turned to Red Arrow, "You came to us for a reason."
"Yeah. A reason named Dr. Serling Roquette," Red Arrow answered as Robin's eyes widened.
Pulling up his gloves' holoscreen with a grin, he started typing on the screen before holoscreens quickly surrounded everyone; all containing information on Dr. Roquette.
"Abducted two weeks ago by," Roy agreed, looking at Robin.
"Great, even Roy has silent conversations with Robin," the team inwardly thought.
Ignoring the looks, Red Arrow continued, "By the League of Shadows." He started to explain what was called "the Fog" and "infiltrators."
"Perfect for extortion, manipulation, power broking... Yeah, sounds like the Shadows," Artemis muttered bitterly.
"Like you know anything about the shadows," Wally began before noticing her smug grin. Once again he asked, "Who are you!?"
-SKIP-
"Miss Martian, link us up. We do not want the Shadows intercepting our coms," Aqualad requested as everyone stood in the school Roquette was hiding in.
"Everyone online?" Miss Martian asked.
"This is weird," Artemis responded.
"And distracting." the doctor stated plainly, before beginning on a rant.
"Lady, do you always complain this much when somebody's trying to help you?" KF muttered, taking another bite of his food. Today was just too long of a day.
"Fate of the world, at stake!" the Doctor exclaimed telepathically as the archer and speedster began to bicker.
"She started it!" KF huffed, albeit childishly.
At that, Artemis chose to go assist Miss Martian and Superboy in patrolling the perimeter.
KF bit into his chocolate bar angrily, earning him a look from Robin.
"What! NO! That was Speedy's, I mean Red Arrow's.. arrow. Right?" KF replied telepathically.
Robin shook his head and gave a small shrug.
"Hmph. Well, still not giving her the satisfaction."
"You know, I can still hear you!" Artemis exclaimed in exasperation.
KF groaned. Robin must've sympathized for him because he got a peck on the lips. He pulled him in for a hug and plopped his head to rest against the other's shoulder. Aqualad gave them a warning look. "Right, they were still on a job," KF huffed inwardly.
-SKIP-
"Mmmm.. That boy," Artemis started, staring after Superboy as he walked.
That caused him to turn and look at her, hearing his name.
"He can still hear you! We can all hear you," Miss Martian frowned.
"Oh, I know," Artemis replied casually.
Cutting in, Aqualad requested for Miss Martian to reconfigure the Bioship so that Robin and Superboy could pursue the fog. Robin pulled away from the embrace, gently rubbing the other's shoulder before heading towards the ship. KF sighed, when will the day end?
"You embarrassed Superboy," Miss Martian stated.
"Didn't hear him say that," Artemis smirked.
"Must you challenge everyone?" Miss Martian huffed in frustration.
"Where I come from, that's how you survive." That cause Miss Martian's eyes to narrow.
-SKIP-
Noticing a shadow on the floor, Kid Flash went after it. As he approached the pool, he noticed marbles on the ground and jumped carefully over them. He turned and saw a female wearing a mask. Knowing she was after Roquette, he immediately engaged, eventually knocking her out. KF left her beside the pool and started his way back, lightheaded.
"I'm all out," he noticed, remembering his earlier snack.
He had to stop by a vending machine and restock. He supposed that was one of the downsides to becoming a meta. He tried to get food as quick as possible, but sadly the machine didn't care he was in a rush. As soon as he could, he ran to the room, immediately finding the remainder of the team all in fighting stances.
"-Maybe a little too interesting," the assassin from earlier said as she noticed Kid Flash.
He jumped at her right as she threw a flash pellet onto the ground. This lead him to awkwardly embrace Artemis, causing him to quickly let go with an "ew."
As he turned, he realized the attacker was nowhere in sight.
"Gone!" He exclaimed in frustration.
Unable to stop himself, he pinned the blame on Artemis, causing Miss Martian to jump up to her defense. KF sighed. Right, that was shitty of him.
"Don't tell Robin about the hug," he muttered, hoping she realized this was his way of apologizing to her.
Though, it would also be nice if they did keep this from Robin, knowing the other would tease him about it.
A few minutes pass before he received a message from the Boy Wonder. It seems he and Superboy found the fog.
-SKIP-
"Stop it."
"What!?"
"I can hear you glaring," Aqualad stated.
Since when did Aqualad have an attitude? KF huffed.
Before anyone could argue, Aqualad was knocked out and the others were immediately attacked. The assassin from earlier, Cheshire, raised her arm to stab Roquette. Before she could though, "Roquette" morphed into Miss Martian.
"We've been duped!" Cheshire realized. So where was the doctor?
-SKIP-
Approaching the fog with Superboy, Robin began typing into an app.
"Next target's a Wayne Tech facility. Wayne Tech operates a 24 hour work force... We'll never evacuate the building in time!" the app spoke.
Superboy jumped off the Bioship and attacked the guy who was handling the fog before being shot by the man's laser. The fog was released while Superboy was still recovering.
"No!" Robin exclaimed as he jumped off the ship and used his grappling hook to enter Wayne Tech.
The security guard noticed him and soon, a barred door came down, cutting him off from pursuing the fog.
"Wayne Tech Override: Archie 4," he quickly typed onto his glove before running into the cafeteria and plugging the glove into the computer.
Please be linked into the mainframe, please be linked into the mainframe.
He typed as fast as possible, grinning as he uploaded a virus onto the computer.
The infiltrators have been outfiltrated! He thought smugly.
-SKIP-
Artemis shot exploding arrows at Cheshire, who was leaving the building Roquette was hiding in, knocking the mask off the assassin's face. When she tried to get up, Artemis pointed another arrow at her and warned, "Don't move a muscle."
Cheshire got up and turned towards her. Wait, is that-
"How secure would your position be, if you took me in?" Cheshire taunted.
Artemis slowly lowered he bow. The others can't know. She watched as the assassin escaped.
Aqualad and Roquette exited the café and she spoke up, "The assassin got away."
"Woah, got away from you? Big surprise," KF pointed at the 2 assassins that him and M'Gann caught.
Turning his head, he noticed the mask on the ground, "Cool! Souvenir." He was going to show Robin later.
When asked about seeing the assassin's face, Artemis lied, claiming it was too dark to see anything. Having neutralized the fog and stopping the assassins, the doctor was safe.
Aqualad officially welcomed her to the team. as M'Gann said mentioned wanting an Earth sister. Getting elbowed by the Martian, KF grumbled out a welcome before the two shook hands in somewhat of a truce.
-SKIP-
Whipping out her bow as soon as she exited the zetatube, she yelled, "Step into the light!"
"Nice move," Red Arrow stated, stepping towards her, " Almost made me believe you are Green Arrow's niece, but we both know you're not. I'm sure G.A. and Bats had a reason for lying so your cover's safe, for now. I just wanted to warn you, don't try anything funny. You hurt them and I swear, I won't hesitate to go after you."
He left the threat hanging in the air.
-SKIP-
"Are you feeling any better?" Wally asked, patting the other's back as he calmed down from his coughing fit.
The other nodded.
"You gotta be more careful, babe," the speedster commented. His eyebrows were knitted with worry.
He tried to joke, "I thought I was supposed to be the reckless one."
Shaking his head, Dick fell backwards onto the bed, making sure to pull the other with him. He kept the other in his embrace as he closed his eyes, too tired to bother with a reply.