Disclaimer: I own nothing.


Tales of the New Team: Explosives Indoors...Not a Good Idea

"Oy, I hate Mondays!" Kid Flash complained as he entered the main area of Mount Justice.

"Oh shut up," Artemis said irritably from the couch, "we all hate Mondays."

"Whoa what crawled up your quiver and bit you in the arrow last night, Arty?" Robin chuckled, trailing after Kid Flash.

"I won't comment on that, Robin." Artemis replied.

Aqualad appeared behind Robin, looking more serious than ever.

"Has anyone seen Meghan?" he asked.

"Nope. Can't say I have." Kid replied, looking up.

Superboy entered from a side door.

"Meghan? I think she's out by the coast." he said.

"Hmm. Why would she be there?" Aqualad questioned.

"I'm clueless." Robin said.

"In more ways than one." Artemis muttered.

Kid snickered.

"Oh you want to go, Artemis?" Robin demanded.

"Only if you're willing to be destroyed." Artemis replied, with equal ferocity.

Aqualad stepped between them.

"Would the both of you shut up? The League is coming and I would rather not be thought of as squabbling children by them." he hissed.

Robin pulled back, his brow furrowed in irritation, "Sorry Aqualad."

Artemis sat back, tightening her bowstring, "Me too."

"I'm going out to look for Meghan. Please try not to murder each other while I'm doing that." the leader said heatedly, departing from Mount Justice.

Robin and Artemis stared at each other angrily for a minute before Robin turned away, leaving the main hall to go deeper into the Mountain.

"This is going to be a looooooooong day." Kid sighed, looking at Superboy, who nodded.


Outside the cave, Aqualad was circling the mountain, making his way over to the coast.

"Meghan? Meghan!" he called.

"Oh Aqualad, over here!" he heard her shout.

Aqualad rushed over to the beach, where Meghan was standing, looking out at the sea.

"Meghan, what are you doing? The League is coming later for an update!" he said hurriedly.

"Oh, sorry, Aqualad. I was just curious about what the ocean was like." Meghan replied.

"Well come on, we'd better get back to the Cave. With any luck Robin, Artemis, and the Cave are all in one piece." Aqualad replied, heading back to Mount Justice.

Tilting her head to one side, Meghan followed.


"YOU DID WHAT?" Aqualad shouted, five minutes later.

"We were testing out Robin's new explosives!" Kid Flash replied from under the remains of a hardwood desk.

"INSIDE? WHY?" Aqualad demanded.

"We were...curious about what would happen?" Robin's muffled voice said, from under a collection of couch cushions, fuzz, and cloth to their right.

The cave was a mess. Torn furniture, smashed glassware, sparks jumping from electricity cables. The cave was in ruins. And the League would be there soon!

Aqualad looked up at Artemis and Superboy, who were standing some ten feet away.

"Hey don't look at us, Aqualad. It was those two idiots who trashed the place." the archer said defensively.

"THE LEAGUE WILL BE HERE IN THIRTY MINUTES! HOW ARE WE GOING TO FIX THIS PLACE UP IN TIME?" Aqualad yelled.

"Err...I don't know." Superboy said, somewhat shocked. He had never seen Aqualad this upset before.

"Aqualad, calm down. We can hurry and get this place presentable in time." Meghan said quietly.

For some reason, Aqualad did calm down, enough to stop shouting, at least.

"Right. Superboy, could you please dig Kid and Robin out from their...piles? Artemis, Meghan, and I will start clearing away some of this rubble." he said.

"Right." five voices said in unison, two of them muffled by debris.

The six of them set to work, Superboy easily throwing the piles of rubble covering his teammates into two piles: stuff that can be salvaged and stuff that have to be thrown away.

Meghan separated the organic items from the inorganic items in the pile quickly, Aqualad taking the trash and throwing it in a dumpster, to later be rushed out back by Kid Flash.

Robin and Kid were soon dug out of their piles, and they wasted no time in starting to pull their weight.

Kid pushed the dumpster until it started rolling and he shoved it out around back. Robin, using less dangerous, safe-to-use-indoors explosives, demolished the debris that could not be saved, reducing them to ashes. Artemis, who had been patiently waiting for her chance to help, attached a large plastic bag to an arrow and shot it with lethal precision, scooping up the fallen ashes and sticking them to the rock wall.

"Ten minutes!" Aqualad warned.

Superboy, with Aqualad's help, rearranged the furniture into a somewhat normal-looking arrangement.

Robin patched up the wires and Kid appeared, with a can of brown spray paint. No one asked where he got it from. He painted over the wires, making it appear absolutely normal, and threw the can out the door.

"Five minutes!"

The team looked around. The cave, at least, was clean. Although everyone noticed it was a bit more spacious than was normal.

"Well...we don't have to clean up next week!" Robin said.

No one commented on the...joke.

A robotic voice sounded and the normal voice of the alert system said, "Recognized: Superman. 001. Recognized: Aquaman. 015. Recognized: Martian Manhunter. 005. Recognized: The Flash. 003. Recognized: Batman. 002."

Then Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, and the Flash appeared, looking as serious as ever. (All except for Flash, who rarely looked serious.)

Silence followed as the League members took notice of the sudden emptiness of their old HQ, the weary and strained look of the younger heroes, and the hovering scent of wet spray paint.

"I would guess that something here exploded. Most likely Robin's new C4 explosives." Batman said finally.

Robin smiled sheepishly, only to have the smile wiped off his face by a vicious elbow from Kid.

"Right. I left the cave to go look for Meghan, then Robin and Kid Flash decided to not use their brains and tested out Robin's explosives. With disastrous results." Aqualad explained.

Flash looked over at Kid Flash.

"Explosives indoors? Even I'm not that harebrained!" he said.

"When we allowed you to use the cave as your headquarters, we did not allow you to throw caution to the wind and do dangerous and brainless stunts. That includes testing out new explosive weaponry indoors." Superman said quietly.

Superboy's fists clenched.

Aqualad noticed this and he walked over to his teammate, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Relax, Superboy." he said.

Superboy calmed down slightly and unclenched his hands, but the fierce, defensive light still shone from his clear blue eyes.

Aquaman spoke up.

"Robin, Kid Flash, I believe it is clear that you two are very...dangerous together. You make a good team, though outside battle, you are just incapable of living together without blowing something up."

Aqualad could sense where this was going, and he didn't like it.

"Aquaman, with all due respect, this was merely a one-time thing. Robin and Kid are very close friends, and I doubt something of this nature will happen again." he said.

Aquaman looked him in the eye.

"Oh? Are you quiet certain, Aqualad?" he asked coolly, his eyes fierce and penetrating.

Aqualad had been pierced by that gaze before. He had backed down before. But that Aqualad was gone. He would not be intimidated by that look anymore.

He took a deep breath and looked his partner in the eye.

"Yes I am very certain. There is no reason to split up the team." he said.

"What? That was what he was getting at?" Kid asked, shocked.

"The team can't split up!" Meghan exclaimed.

Robin, Superboy, and Artemis were shocked.

"The team can't be broken up just yet!" Robin protested, "We literally just became a team!"

Instinctively, they pressed together, as if defending their rights as a unified group.

"The League is a team. You can't be separated. As long as that remains unchanged, our team remains together." Aqualad said fiercely.

"Agreed." the others said.

The older heroes looked at the younger ones, before turning and departing in silence.

Flash stopped and looked back, out of ear-shot of the others.

"Good work you guys. I think you impressed them!" he said.

Then he was gone.

The young team watched the door close before standing back and looking at each other.

"That was too close." Artemis said finally.

"No kidding." Robin nodded.

"Okay guys. No more explosives indoors." Aqualad said, clutching his forehead.

"No more explosives." Kid Flash agreed.

"Well, what about our headquarters?" Meghan piped up, looking around.

"Er...I think there's a furniture store somewhere in town." Robin supplied.

"Great. We get to go furniture shopping. How wonderful." Superboy said sarcastically.