chapter nine.
( a lifeguard initiation thing. )

The warm sun sits high above Happy Harbour. The team stands at the most excluded part of the town beach– with two members of their team so obviously not-human, and the beach being part of the Cave's backyard, it was easier than travelling to the extremely busy side.

"Hello, Megan!" M'gann, with her arms stretched out at her sides while she basks in the warm sun, grins brightly. "We should hit the beach every day!"

"First, a moment of silence for our absent comrade." Dick adjusts his sunglasses.

M'gann's smile falters, "Poor Wally."

When Yue called him the night prior to the team's beach-day, Wally had been beyond annoyed that while he had to attend the first day of school, both Yue and Dick – on the count of their school's gymnasium being completely destroyed by Amazo – were given an extra two-weeks added to their summer vacation.

"He said he'll run straight here the second school's out," Yue informs the team, gently nudging M'gann's arm with her elbow as a smile spreads across her lips. "That means the rest of us can enjoy today guilt-free."

"Then, what are we waiting for?" M'gann's laugh is contagious as she and the others race into the water. Kaldur is the first to dive into the ocean, a bright grin of his own tugging at his lips as he resurfaces in time to catch the beach-ball thrown his way by Dick.

Yue remains on the warm sand, laying against her towel with her eyes closed. Moments like this, the calm and the fun, were the best parts of having a team of her own; moments where the burdens on their shoulders could disappear.

Minutes pass as laughter echoes through the beach, it's only when she feels someone's presence beside her that Yue peeks an eye open again. M'gann sits on the towel beside her, her legs pulled up to her chest as she stares out into the ocean.

Curious, Yue pushes herself up to lean against her elbows, her dark gaze following M'gann's over to Superboy's shirtless figure. "So," she smirks, glancing back at her friend. "It's serious, huh?"

"Huh?" M'gann's amber eyes widen and she quickly turns to face Yue. "What are you... What are you talking about?"

"You know what." She sits up, crosses her legs and nods toward Superboy as a grin tugs at her lips.

M'gann's cheeks glow pink and she awkwardly fiddles with her fingers in silence, until she turns to glance at the girl sitting beside her. "Yue, do you... Do you like anyone?" She asks softly.

Much like the Martian, Yue finds herself averting her gaze, her lips curling into a frown. She did like someone, but the boy who had her heart in his hands would never feel the same; it was a fact she had known for years now. While Yue would forever be head over heels for her best friend, he would fall, and fall, and fall again for every girl but her.

It never hurt as much as it did now, matched with the cruelness of comparing herself to someone she considered a friend.

M'gann was the sun, she was bright and beautiful. She had been nothing but kind and caring toward her, and yet she couldn't stop the bitter jealousy bubbling under her skin. If Wally saw M'gann as everything good in the world, then what was she?

"It's complicated," she answers quietly. "He... He doesn't like me that way."

"Oh." M'gann's smile falters as she turns back to her.

"It's fine, though!" It had to be fine, Yue told herself.

"If it means anything, I don't think he likes me, either." A sigh leaves M'gann's lips as she avoids saying the boy's name. It was both a curse and a blessing to have a boy with super-hearing on their team.

"He would be stupid not to," she tells her. Ignoring the ache in her chest when thinking of her own feelings, she's quick to reassure her friend. "You're amazing, M'gann, and really kind- the kindest person I've met. If he doesn't see that, then he doesn't deserve you." All of that had to be why Wally liked her, too.

The smile returns to M'gann's blushing face. "Thank you... I'm sure your crush likes you back, as well. He would be stupid not to."

"Yeah..." A pained smile crosses Yue's face as she nods her head and looks away. "Thanks, Megs."

The sun begins to set by the time the team returns to the Cave for their meeting with the League. The five young-heroes stand in front of their mentors, and the newest recruit to their rather small team, when the automated voice of the zeta-tube echoes through the main-hall.

"Kid Flash: B-Zero-Four."

With her back turned to the teleporter, all Yue can do is hope Wally doesn't do anything to embarrass himself so quickly in front of their new teammate. He had a habit of doing such; the first time they met, he had practically fallen face-first into the dirt right in front of her.

"The Wal-Man is here!" Wally cheers excitedly. With a bunch of beach equipment in his hands, he rushes forward. "Now let's get this party start-" Almost instantly, the boy trips over his own foot and falls to the ground. The sound of a beach-ball bouncing is the only noise that echoes through the cave as each member of the League and team turn to face him.

While everyone's dressed in their respective crime-fighting attire, Wally stands up wearing only his swimsuit with a towel thrown over his shoulders.

"Wal-Man, huh?" The new recruit, Artemis, smirks as she looks over at the red-haired boy. "I love the uniform. What, exactly, are your powers?"

Wally's eyes widen and he moves to Yue's side, his arms crossing over his chest. "Who's this?" He asks, his emerald eyes flickering from Artemis to his teammates.

"Artemis." The blonde-girl introduces herself. "Your new teammate."

"Kid Flash." He replies. "Never heard of you."

The two teens glare at each other. Green Arrow clears his throat and steps forward, "Um, she's my new protege." He informs the team.

"What?" Wally frowns as he looks over to the Leaguer. "What happened to your old one?"

The automated voice echoes once more. "Speedy, B-Zero-Seven." The aforementioned archer strolls into the Cave for the first time since the team was formed, a snarl on his face as he glances back at the teleporter.

"Well, for starters, he doesn't go by Speedy anymore." He states firmly. "Call me Red Arrow."

Yue stares back at the boy with wide eyes as he steps further into the cave. He had been so adamant about not joining the team, going so far as to call them the "Junior Justice League", naturally it was a huge surprise to see him willingly walk into their base of operations.

"Roy." Green Arrow, with an almost-shaky voice, greets his former protege. "You look-"

"Replaceable?" Roy cuts off his former mentor with a narrowed glare.

"It's not like that." Green Arrow shakes his head. "You told me you were going solo."

"So, why waste time finding a sub?" The boy stops in front of Artemis, then crosses his arms as he glares down at her. "Can she even use that bow?"

Artemis holds her head high and meets Roy's pointed gaze with one of her own. "Yes. She can."

"Who are you?" Wally calls out from where he stands beside the team, his brows furrowing as he watches both Artemis and Green Arrow turn toward him.

"I'm his niece." "She's my niece." They speak in unison. Yue raises a brow as she stares them down; she has nothing against Artemis but even she has to admit, it sounds rehearsed.

"Another niece?" Dick questions, his masked-eyes flickering from M'gann to Artemis.

Kaldur reaches out to place his hand on Roy's shoulder. "But she is not your replacement," he reassures his friend. "We have always wanted you on the team, and we have no quota on archers."

"And if we did, you know who we'd pick." Wally chimes in with a grin, which slips off his face as Yue's elbow makes contact with his forearm. "Ow! What was that for?" He turns to face the girl, who stares back at him with an unimpressed expression.

"What was that for? Seriously, Wal?" She shakes her head. "You shouldn't be rude to the newbie."

"But-"

"Whatever, Baywatch.' Artemis cuts Wally off. She stands next to Green Arrow, her hands on her hips as she glares at the speedster. "I'm here to stay."

"You came to us for a reason?" Kaldur wonders as he turns back to Roy, who sighs in response and nods.

"A reason named Dr. Serling Roquette." Roy informs.

Dick's eyes widened at the name. "Nano-robotics genius and claytronics expert at Royal University in Star City–" Tapping the buttons on his gauntlet, then swiping his hand forward, he brings the doctor's information up on the holoscreen. "-Vanished two weeks ago."

"Abducted two weeks ago," Roy corrects him. "By the League of Shadows."

"Whoa," Dick gasps, in what Yue can only assume is excitement, "You want us to rescue her from the League?"

After their failure to protect Selena Gonzalez from the League of Shadows over a month ago, Yue didn't know how to feel about the possibility of facing them again so soon. The idea of redeeming herself was intriguing, but the cons outweigh the pros.

"Hard-core." Wally comments as he and Dick fist-bump.

"I already rescued her," Roy explains. A sigh of relief falls from Yue's lips, only for her shoulders to stiffen as he continues. "Only one problem. The Shadows had already coerced her into creating a weapon. Doc calls it The Fog, comprised of millions of microscopic robots; nanotech infiltrators. Capable of disintegrating anything in their path- concrete, steel... flesh and bone."

"Did you just say flesh and bone?" Yue asks cautiously, looking between Roy and the images of Dr. Roquette's invention.

Roy nods. "But its true purpose isn't mere destruction. It's theft," he states. "The infiltrators hear and store raw data from any computer system and deliver the stolen intel to the Shadows... Providing them access to weapons, strategic defence, cutting edge science and tech."

"Perfect for extortion, manipulation, and power-broking." Artemis rolls her eyes, "Yeah. Sounds like the Shadows."

"Like you know anything about the Shadows," Wally scoffs, When Artemis glances back at him with a smirk, his eyes widen and he calls out for the nth time, "Who are you?!"

"Roquette's working on a virus to render the fog inert." Roy tells the team.

"But if the Shadows know she can do that..."

"They'll target her again," Yue realises, finishing Dick's sentence as they meet each other's gazes.

"Right now, she's off the grid." The Star-City archer assures them. "I stashed her at the local high school's computer lab."

Green Arrow faces his former protege. "You left her alone?"

"She's safe enough for now." Roy glares at him.

"Then let's, you and I, keep her that way." Green Arrow suggests.

"You and I?" Roy raises a brow, then accuses, "Don't you wanna take your new protege?"

With a frown on his face, Green Arrow moves to take a step forward, only to stop and lower his head as Batman's hand falls onto his shoulder. "You brought this to the team," Green Arrow says a moment later. "It's their mission, which means it's hers now, too."

Roy scoffs. "Then my job's done." The archer stalks toward the zeta-tube. It announces his former name loudly as he steps inside the glowing tube. "That's Red Arrow, B-Zero-Seven, update." With a flash, the boy was gone as quickly as he arrived.

The Happy Harbour High school sits in the centre of the town. To the unsuspecting, it looked like the average school; however, tonight, it served a different purpose– to hide the renowned scientist, Dr. Roquette, as she works to disable her greatest creation.

Miss Martian sits in hiding on the school's rooftop, Superboy leans against the belltower overlooking the football field and Flamebird, hiding in the shadows like she had been trained, follows the school's fence-line around the building. The familiar pressure of the mind-link weighs down on her mind, various thoughts filling her head all at once as she bites her tongue.

"Everyone online?" Miss Martian wonders.

"This is weird." Artemis's thought comes through with a groan. Whether she intended it to be an alone thought or one shared with the others, nobody knows.

"And distracting." Roquette chimes in with her own complaints. "Coding a distributive algorithm virus on a kiddie computer with less ram than a wristwatch is hard enough. Now I have to hear teen-think in my skull?"

It had been less than half-an-hour since the team arrived at Happy Harbour High to protect the scientist, a debt they owed to Red Arrow, and yet Flamebird was already growing tired of the scientist's constant complaints. It was all she seemed to be able to do.

"Lady, do you always complain when someone tries to help you?" Kid Flash questions, then bites into his chocolate bar.

"Pot, kettle, have you met?" Artemis asks.

"Hey. Hey, I do not need attitude from the newbie who drove Red Arrow off the team." Kid Flash comments.

"That is so not on me!" Artemis retorts. Flamebird can barely control the sigh that falls from her lips as the bickering of her teammates echoes loudly in her mind, even when they weren't addressing each other directly, their annoyance washes onto her like it was her own.

"Fate of the world, at stake!" Roquette reminds them.

Kid Flash scoffs, "She started it."

"How 'bout I just help Flamebird, Miss Martian and Superboy patrol the perimeter?" Artemis doesn't wait for another reply as she heads for the door of the computer lab.

Dropping down into the bushes near the backdoor of the school, Flamebird steps out just in time to see Artemis join her and Miss Martian in the courtyard. "An entire roster of League heroes, and they send kids." She can hear Roquette murmur in her mind.

"Seriously?" Flamebird frowns, her hands on her hips as she addresses the scientist who remains upstairs in the computer lab with the rest of the team. "How ungrateful can you get when people are trying to save your life?"

"The virus will not be of much use if we cannot find the weapon." Aqualad cuts in. "Can you track it?"

Roquette jumps in to defend her creation, "My utility fog is not a weapon. It's science, brilliant science-"

"If the shoes fits, wear it, Roquette." Flamebird chimes in. The first thing she was taught by Batman was that heroes don't kill; they don't stoop to the level of the criminals they fought. "You knew what you were doing when you gave your "brilliant science" the ability to dissolve skin and bone. Now, can you track it or not?"

"Of course I can track it." Roquette answers after a beat. "But I'd have to go online, might as well rent a billboard with this address and "assassinate me" written in neon."

"We will protect you." Aqualad reassures the woman, and Flamebird swears she can sense the exact moment Roquette decides to trust in the boy.

"Tracking the fog now." She says. The ghost of an image travels through the mind-link and into the heads of those connected to it; a map, showing the location of a plane in Philadelphia. The fog was onboard.

The map falls out of focus as another thought, not of her own, travels through her mind. "Mm, that boy." Artemis watches as Superboy lands in the courtyard with them, her eyes focused on his back until he turns around with a raised brow.

Flamebird's eyes flicker from Artemis to Miss Martian, who stares down at the blonde-haired archer with a scandalised expression. "He can hear you," she reminds her. "We can all hear you!"

"Oh, I know." Artemis hums unabashed.

"Miss Martian." Aqualad addresses the girl. "Dr. Roquette has located the fog. Reconfigure the bioship so that Robin and Superboy can pursue."

Flamebird, as she steps up to Artemis's side, watches as the bioship reappears and lowers from the sky above the school. Mere seconds later, Robin races out of the building and Superboy follows him to the bioship.

Miss Martian walks back towards the gate, her arms crossing over her chest as she faces away from the archer. "You embarrassed Superboy," she scolds.

Artemis shrugs, then speaks with a slight smirk, "Didn't hear him say that."

"Must you challenge everyone?" Miss Martian's hands fall to her sides as she looks toward her. Artemis, with her bow ready in her hands, narrows her eyes in the Martian's direction.

"Where I come from, that's how you survive." She snaps.

Artemis's words, paired with a sharp pain burning through her lungs, bring a frown to Flamebird's face. "Do you guys feel that?" She asks, resting her hand over her chest as she turns back toward the school. Something feels off. A nagging voice in the back of her mind tells her so.

"Flamebird, Miss Martian!" Aqualad's voice rings through her mind before the girls have a chance to respond to her question. "We are under attack in the computer lab!"

Without uttering a word, Artemis leads the girls back into the building. Her and Miss Martian, the latter of which floats through the air, dash for the stairs while Flamebird comes to a stop at the foot of the staircase.

The pressure she felt before was only growing stronger.

Her dark eyes fall onto the half-open double doors of the swimming pool, and her heart drops to her stomach. She knows what the feeling is now.

The doors swing open as she runs inside, her widened eyes find Kid Flash– face down and floating in the chlorine-filled pool. Her heart hammers, her hands shake and without a second thought, she dives into the cold water.

Flamebird hooks her arms under his, then kicks her feet as she paddles back to the edge of the pool. Her cape, soaking wet from the pool water, threatens to weigh her down but she doesn't allow it to distract her as she pulls Kid Flash onto the concrete. "Come on..." The words come out as a whimper. Her cold, shaky hand rises to his neck, where she presses two fingers to his pulse-point.

Tears prick at her eyes when she can't find his pulse.

She sucks in a deep breath, then places both of her hands on the centre of his chest – right over the red lightning bolt insignia – and begins pressing down in a cpr motion. "Come on! You-" Her voice cracks as the tears begin to fall from her eyes. "You can't do this to me, Wal. You can't."

After a beat, Kid Flash's eyes shoot open, he coughs and splutters as he rolls onto his side and spits out the water that had got caught in his lungs. Flamebird's chest heaves in relief, and just as Kid Flash attempts to push himself up, she throws herself at him.

"Don't do that again." She sobs against his shoulder. She had plenty of fears but losing Wally West had, at some point in the three years of knowing (and loving) him, found its place at the top of her list– right next to losing Bruce, Alfred and Dick.

Kid Flash, with a breathless smile on his face, wraps his arms around the shorter girl. His hand presses against her back, keeping her close to his chest, until she slowly begins to peel away from him– as she does so, one of her hands shoots out to punch his arm. "You're an idiot, you know that?" She murmurs.

"Yeah, well, you're not any better." The teasing tone of his voice is enough to have her eyes drying. With Flamebird no longer leaning against him, Kid Flash sits up against his elbows, his smile faltering as he remembers why they were here in the first place. "The Shadows–"

Her eyes widen in realisation and she gasps, "The team!" Despite her heart still hammering with fear in her chest, she leaps to her feet and makes a run for the door, only to stop when she hears the sounds of footsteps behind her. "Wally, what are you-" She glances behind her and meets his gaze.

"I'm going with you." He says determinedly.

"You almost drowned," she points out. Her mind races with hundreds of what-ifs: what if being back on his feet so soon killed him? What if The Shadows really do murder him this time? The thoughts are enough to have her shaking her head. "You're staying here."

"What?! If you're going, I'm going." Kid Flash locks eyes with her – a mixture of fear, the fear of someone who just narrowly escaped death, and determination to see the mission through swirled in those emerald eyes of his, but there was something else there, too. A soft look, one that Flamebird couldn't put a name to.

A sigh falls from her lips. "Fine." She gives in. "Let's go."

Making their way upstairs, they burst through the doors of the computer lab. Ahead of them, Miss Martian lowers herself protectively in front of Roquette while Aqualad and Artemis stand on either side of the masked-assassin.

"-Maybe a little too interesting." The assassin speaks tauntingly as she glances back in Flamebird and Kid Flash's direction. She raises her hand into the air, a small bead rolling between her fingers before it drops onto the ground.

A sudden light fills the room, followed by a thick smoke that Kid Flash leaps through. He emerges the other-side, empty handed and stumbling into Artemis.

"She's getting away!" Roquette cries out as the smoke clears. "You're letting her get away!"

Kid Flash faces Artemis, his eyes narrowing at the archer, "This is all your fault." He accuses sharply. "You were on the perimeter. How'd that Shadow get in?"

Flamebird huffs out a sigh, while Miss Martian takes a step forward. "That's not really fair." The Martian girl points out softly. "Flamebird and I were outside, too."

"Outside being distracted by her!" Kid Flash defends– then, with a smile on his face, he glances back at Miss Martian and thinks, "Besides, I can't be mad at you."

The emphasis on the last word brings a frown to Flamebird's face as she stands behind the group. "We all heard that." Artemis and Aqualad tell him through the open mind-link.

"Dang it!" Kid Flash steps away from the two girls, giving Miss Martian the room to walk forward and gently place her hand on Artemis's shoulder.

Flamebird's eyes flicker from her teammates, over to Kid Flash as he moves to her side. His eyes were still on Miss Martian, a lovesick grin still painted across his lips– she was invisible next to the girl that had his heart.

Just as M'gann would never notice his feelings, he would never notice hers.

"Everyone, focus." Aqualad tells them. "The Shadows will be back."

"Robin to Aqualad. We're over Philadelphia, we've located the Shadows' next target, S.T.A.R. Labs– we're too late," the boy says in disbelief. "It's destroyed. Totally destroyed. The fog decimated it." Yue finds her glancing over to Roquette, her dark gaze narrowing into a harsh glare. "This is bad, S.T.A.R. Labs is cutting edge science and now their secrets are in the hands of the enemy," Robin continues. "What's our next move?"

"Rescan for the fog. Find it." Aqualad orders. "We're moving the doctor."

Flamebird leans against the decorated wall of the internet cafe, her eyes focused on the only other person in the building with her– Roquette. The team, after breaking their way into the small cafe, fled to a restaurant on the pier nearby in an attempt to split up and lure the Shadows out of hiding.

Even with her team half-way down the road, she could feel Wally and Artemis's dislike of each other pouring through like it was an emotion of her own.

"Stop it." Aqualad stalks through the dark street outside, ready to set his plan into motion. "Both of you."

"What?" The Archer and the Speedster ask in unison.

"I can hear you both glaring." He tells them.

Flamebird pushes herself off the back-wall of the cafe and makes her way toward the front window, her eyes sweeping over the street. With the exception of a few parked cars, it seemed to be empty outside.

"Do your teammates always bicker like... like school children?" Roquette questions, furiously tapping away at the buttons of the computer in front of her.

She thought back to Dick and Wally's argument about the leader, then to the week beforehand when Superboy left them to fend for themselves against robotic monkeys. "You don't know the half of it," she sighs.

The door of the cafe slowly opens as Aqualad enters the building, then it shuts behind him with a quiet click of the lock. "The Shadows are here." He announces to Flamebird. The girl, while Roquette's eyes widen in fear, backs away from the window. "Don't stop working. You must finish the virus."

"But you just said-"

"They're not here, here." Flamebird cuts Roquette off. "They're down the street fighting our friends, which means you need to hurry up with that virus. We won't have long 'till they realise Aqualad and I are missing."

Roquette sucks in a deep breath, then nods her head. "I'm on it."

"The others–" Flamebird glances over at Aqualad, her brows furrowing with concern as she thought about their friends facing the Shadows alone. "Are they-?"

"They'll be fine." Aqualad answers calmly. "We have fought the Hook and Black Spider before. I like our chances."

"Are we remembering the same fight?" She frowns. The last time she, Aqualad, Robin and Kid Flash went up against the League of Shadows, they lost Selena Gonzalez. Yue, despite how much Roquette had annoyed her throughout the night, didn't want the doctor to face the same tragic fate.

"I've almost got it!" Roquette exclaims.

A loud thump hits the rooftop of the internet cafe. "We have company," Aqualad announces, his gaze flicking from the ceiling to Roquette.

"Uploading now." Roquette states, then glances at the two heroes standing at her side. "And by the way, you said you'd protect me."

The sound of a bead rolling across the floor makes Aqualad reach for both of his water-bearers, he readies both weapons as a smoke emits from the bead. No one emerges from the smoke, instead three darts shoot from the other side of the cafe and into Aqualad's chest as the boy turns around.

"Let's test the limit of your jellyfish immunity, shall we?" The Assassin – the same cat-mask wearing woman from the school – rises to her feet. She looks from Aqualad to Flamebird, as the Gotham hero moves to stand protectively in front of Roquette.

Aqualad shakes his head, then rushes forward and swings both of his swords at the assassin. Swiftly, she ducks out of the way, only to kick the boy off his feet. Aqualad, already affected by three poisoned darts to the chest, falls to the floor. "There. Limit tested." The assassin glances over at Roquette as she takes her sai out of their holsters. "Now, doctor, time for my appointment."

Flamebird braces her staff in front of her. "The doctor's booked out at the moment," she comments. She dashes forward to swing her weapon at the woman, only for the assassin to vault over her and wrap her arm around her throat in a headlock.

The Assassin's grip tightens, even as Flamebird struggles against her. Black dots begin to fill her vision as her eyes fall onto the window in front of them. Her hands drop from the attacker's forearm. "Roquette!" She coughs out. "Get down!" Her hand slams against the screen attached to her glove and activates a bright flash from her mask.

The attacker stumbles back, temporarily blinded by the white light reflected from the window, but not before she kicks Flamebird forward. The teen hero falls through the glass and onto the concrete outside, her head hitting the pavement.

Flamebird wasn't sure how long she had been out, only that when she reopened her eyes, Wally's hovering over her in concern. "You're okay," he says, though she can't tell if it's a fact or a reassurance, as he slowly helps her up into a sitting position.

With one of his arms wrapped around her back, she couldn't feel the pain of the cuts and bruises littered across her body, only the embarrassment that came with their close proximity. His hand, as gentle as ever, brushes against her arm and draws her attention to the scrapes across her skin. The glass from the shattered window must've cut straight through the sleeves of her suit.

"Jeez, and you called me an idiot." Kid Flash jokes softly, his eyes flicking back up to meet her amused gaze. He stares back at her with the same softened expression she had caught him looking at Miss Martian with, and it causes her heart to stutter in her chest.

"You are." She says with a weak smile. "I'm not the one that almost drowned in a high school swimming pool."

He scoffs, "Like falling through the window of an internet cafe is any better."

"Artemis." Aqualad's voice brings the two out of their moment. The team's leader, with one arm wrapped around the doctor as she helps him walk out of the cafe, addresses the blonde archer, "Where's the assassin?"

"She, uh– She got away." Artemis sighs.

"Oh, from you?" Kid Flash rises to his feet, his hands dropping to his hips as he glares at the archer. "Big surprise there. Notice-" He points over to where Miss Martian stands, telepathically holding both the Hook and Black Spider above her head. "We got ours."

Flamebird rolls her eyes. She had only just regained consciousness and they were already bickering again. She presses her hands against the pavement to push herself up, only for her brows to furrow as her hand brushes against the assassin's discarded mask "Hey, KF." She plucks the red and white mask off the floor and tosses it towards the speedster.

"Cool!" He catches the mask and holds it in front of his face like it was his own. "Souvenir."

"Her mask?" Aqualad flinches as he pulls the darts from his chest and tosses them onto the ground. "Did you see her?" He glances at Artemis. "Her face?"

"It was dark." Artemis answers defensively. She stands with her back facing the team, her arms crossed over her chest and a pointed look in her eyes as she stares out toward the empty pier.

"It is fine." Aqualad assures her. "Robin and Superboy have neutralised the fog, and Dr. Roquette is safe, thanks in no small part to you."

Slowly, Artemis glances over her shoulder, then fully turns to face her teammate. A small smile graces her lips for the first time that night.

Miss Martian strolls toward the archer, resting her hand against her tanned-shoulder. "I've always wanted a sister," The Martian begins, then backtracks, "Here on Earth, I mean! I have twelve back on Mars, and now two here– but trust me, it's not the same."

"I wouldn't know." Artemis replies quickly with a shake of her head. "But, uh- thanks."

With Kid Flash's arm wrapped securely around her waist, Flamebird and him join the team. His silence brings a frown to all of their faces, until she gently nudges him with her elbow and he clears his throat. "Ow." He rolls his eyes, then speaks unenthusiastically, "Yeah, welcome."

author's note.

Happy New Year everybody!! This is actually one of my favourite episodes, along with the next one, because Artemis was finally introduced and she's so precious honestly.