A/N: Written for the Follow the Leader Challenge made by Cloaks and Daggers at the Young Justice Challenge Forums. Come visit if you haven't already!
It had been a disaster from the start.
At the beginning of the day, Kaldur had business in Atlantis to take care of with Aquaman. Normally, it wouldn't be an issue, but they had unfortunately been "blessed" with a mission that day.
"There's rumors of a huge drug transport taking place in an ice cream parlor in-"
"Ice cream parlor? Who does that?" Wally exclaimed incredulously, throwing his hands in the air. "You don't ruin that sort of food, ever dude!"
Batman took an extra long pause, glaring at the teen just long enough to make sure he was done with his rant. "As I was saying, the meeting place is supposedly at an ice cream parlor. It's just a rumor at the present, which is why the team will investigate to prove it to be true or not."
"But um, our leader, he's-" M'gann started, before getting cut off.
"That's for you to figure out. Your mission starts immediately." The huge figure on the screen flickered away, leaving them in silence. The group glanced around at one another.
"So uh..." Artemis started, "I could try being leader for a day."
Wally scoffed, drawing a growl from the blonde. "Yeah, right. You'll just screw everything up. I should totally be-"
"No way." Robin quickly interjected. "You're nowhere near mature enough! Everyone knows that I'm second in line to be leader, so it should obviously be me!"
"And have you disappear at any given time? Yeah, no."
The bickering between the three continued, until Superboy coughed, gaining the spotlight.
"I think M'gann should be the leader. She's the... calmest and she doesn't... argue." He offered, though he seemed unsure of what he was doing. M'gann's eyes widened.
"Oh no, wait, I couldn't-"
"I think that's fine." Artemis shrugged, "It's just for a day anyway."
"That's perfect." Wally zoomed over, suddenly leaning on her with a grin. "I think you'll make the best leader ever."
Robin rolled his eyes, but didn't complain.
M'gann didn't have such a good feeling about it.
That feeling had proper reason, too. She scrambled to collect her thoughts as the group hid behind carts and bins of "ice cream" as the gangsters shot at them. The rumors were true, despite M'gann's constant wishing for them to be false.
What to do, what to do, what to do...
"We're still linked up, you know." Artemis offered, throwing a silent glance to the martian next to her. A blush crept onto her features.
"O-oh...right."
"Listen babe, I know it's your first time, but we kinda need a plan here." Kid Flash's voice was suddenly in her head.
"Oh..um..." She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. Okay, she could totally do this.
Then, suddenly, Hel-lo Megan!
Ignoring the groan coming from beside her, she suddenly relayed her messages to her team.
"Kid Flash! Grab something and distract them. Be careful alright? It should only take a few minutes. Head out on my mark."
"Roger that, beautiful."
"Robin? How long will it take for you to cut off the power in here?"
"Er... well it is separate from the main store, so I don't think it'll take too long. Actually, I could just head to the breakers and take them out."
"Whichever works best, and fast. When Kid Flash is distracting them, you go do that."
"Got it."
"Superboy, Artemis, follow my lead, alright?"
"Okay."
Artemis nodded beside her and she let a confident smirk slide across her face. This wouldn't be too hard after all.
"Okay...GO!"
In an instant, the infamous giggle of one teammate and the blur of another redirected the trail of bullets. Perfect.
M'gann sprinted out of hiding, Artemis right behind her.
"Artemis, now!"
Artemis shot a trick arrow at the group of dealers, catching them off guard as the smoke from the tiny explosion confused them all. They fired shots blindly, and then suddenly dropped into harmonized panic as the lights went out.
"Superboy, Kid Flash!"
"I'm on it!" Superboy shouted aloud. Shortly, she heard the crashing thud, and knew from the shaking around her that he sent the criminals into a crater.
"I'll... ugh... in a sec..."
The pained tone of Kid Flash nearly stopped her heart, but Artemis was the one to respond first.
"Wally! Are you okay? You don't sound too good."
"Yeah... well, no just... I'll be fine, stick to the plan."
M'gann bit her lip, trying to be professional. It wasn't going exactly as she thought it would.
"Robin, Superboy. How's the net?" She asked, trying to get her worry for Kid Flash out of the way.
"It's in place." Robin answered. "Ready when you are."
Taking a deep breath, she hovered in the air, trying to focus. According to her calculations, the crooks should be right in front of, except in the floor, and the net should be hovering just above that.
"Alright. Drop it, now!"
She felt a slight whish of air as the net dropped. Using her telekinetic powers, she pinned it to the ground around the crater.
"Robin, get the lights! Artemis, contact Green Arrow! He's still nearby, right?"
"Yeah, he should be a few blocks away I think."
M'gann felt grateful that the master archer had offered to be on standby as backup, just because he had nothing better to do. It would help them to apprehend the bad guys, at least.
The lights flickered on and blinded her momentarily, but she kept her hold on the net even as the captives struggled. She had to focus, otherwise the hold would break and...
"Oh my god, Kid Flash!"
She couldn't help but turn her gaze to the shout, and she nearly fell to the ground in shock.
The teen leaned against one of the freezer containers, eyes closed and teeth gritted as he panted. Blood seeped through his fingers as his hand pressed against a patch of red on his side. It didn't take her long to realize that it was more than likely a gunshot.
Her blatant distraction caused her to temporarily drop the force field. One guy growled, noticing the girl now that the lights were on, and raised his gun. The shot was fired before she could snap back to attention.
"Miss Martia- aaah!"
The loud scream shocked her, and her fearful look switched from Kid Flash to Artemis. The girl fell to the floor, unmoving, her own blood forming a puddle around her.
"W-wha-"
"Miss M! Stay FOCUSED and keep the barrier up!" Robin yelled from his position by Wally's side as he sent Conner to check on Artemis.
M'gann closed her eyes, wishing that she could rewind time and re-do everything as she poured all of her energy into keeping a barrier around that net to prevent further accidents.
Green Arrow came by minutes later, unsurprisingly with Black Canary. The sight of his new protege lying unconscious in Superboy's lap was enough to cause him to be a bit rougher than normal when he tied the crooks up. Black Canary released M'gann from the strain of the prolonged use of her powers as she assured the girl that she could back them up with her own powers. Robin helped the older man and it didn't take long for the cops to arrive and take the criminals to jail.
The ambulance took a bit longer to arrive, much to M'gann's dismay, but eventually it did pull into the streets and they rushed the two injured teens into the vehicles. Wally was still conscious somehow, his wound already healing, but the EMT noted that the bullet was still lodged in his flank, and they had to hurry and get it out. Artemis was still breathing, and while one of the professionals assured the team that she would be alright, M'gann still insisted on following the ambulances to the hospital. In the end, they allowed them to; Green Arrow and Canary followed on one bike and Robin on his, leaving Superboy and M'gann to ride on the top of the trucks.
M'gann stared into the distance, berating herself mentally for foolishly not keeping her attention sharp. Batman would surely let her have it when they returned to the base. Heaving a long, tired sigh, she felt a barely-there hand on her shoulder. Looking up, she was met by a trying-to-be-reassuring-but-not-too-sure-how look from Superboy.
"Everything's... going to be okay."
She smiled sadly. "I sure hope so..." Inwardly, she kept attacking her own abilities.
I should've never tried to be leader...