Jack let Artemis off and waved as she went inside her own house. He'd meet up with her again in a while to introduce her to Raf and Miko.

"So what do you think?" Arcee asked her partner as they stopped at a red light on their way to the base.

"What do I think about what?"

"Artemis. Are you going to keep hanging out with her?" Jack paused before answering. After the first awkward bit at the begining, the blonde had become far more friendly and actually pretty fun to hang out with.

"Yeah. She seems pretty cool. And I'd be a jerk if I just left her to fend for herself at school." The light changed and they were speeding toward the outskirts of town once again.

"Then you'd better figure out some excuses. Why you're missing everyday for hours on end. Otherwise it'll be Sierra all over again." Jack frowned sadly at the thought of her. She had barely spoken to him since she thought Arcee was a real person. Now it was awkward and cold between them.

"Good point. I'll get on that." The drove in silence untill they got to the silo. As they entered the main area, Miko's guitar revirberated across the rocks. "They'll like Artemis, I'm just not so sure Artemis will like them." Jack muttered as Arcee transformed and he walked over to where Raf was typing away at his computor.

"Hey Jack. What took you guys so long?" Raf asked looking up from the screen. The reflection on his glasses told Jack he was searching for Bumblebee sightings again.

"My mom made me meet the new neighbours." Raf cringed and looked at him sypathetically. Miko stopped playing long enough to put her own two sense in.

"Ugh I hate meeting new neighbours. All I do is stand around while my parents chat away about usless stuff! Then I get stuck babysitting their bratty kids."

"Actually, it wasn't too bad. Artemis is pretty cool." Both Raf and Miko snapped their attention over to Jack.

"YOU MET AN ACTUAL GREEK GODESS?!" Miko yelled drawing the Autobot's attention over to the humans.

"Uh no. There's a girl our age named Artemis that just moved in. I was planning on meeting her again later. You guys could come if you want." Raf shrugged and nodded.

"Sure. You wanna meet the new girl Bee?" Bumblebee whirred a yes.

"Cool! What's she like? Wait we aren't going to tell her about the 'bots are we?" Rachet looked over from his computor sharply.

"I think not! We have enough trouble keeping you three out of danger without adding another newbie to the roster." The medic complained.

"Wasn't planning on it. If you guys want to come I said I'd meet her at the KO Burger in about an hour." The kids nodded and went back to what they were doing.

Artemis was in archer heaven. She had slipped past her mother and Mrs. Darby, who were having some tea in the kitchen and bolted to her room. After locking the door, she set about unlocking the closet door. It creaked open and revealed... absolutly nothing. An ordinary closet.

"Well, Narnia was in very back..." Artemis mused trusting Oliver to have something hidden. It was a walk-in closet so she stepped inside and closed the door behind her. At first she couldn't see anything and was just standing around in the dark. The blonde groped the walls for anything resembling a light switch. She found one and flicked it. A single bulb feebly lite the room. There still wasn't anything obvious about the closet, so the archer glared at the empty space. "Ok, five bucks says that either Robin or Batman had something to do with this, meaning it'll something cliche. And even if they didn't, let's face it: All heroes love cliches. There isn't a book shelf in here, so what is typical for hidden closets?" She looked at her key for some help. Then an idea struck her and she went back out side. She put the key back into the lock again, only this time she put it in backwards. She was a bit surprised when it actually worked. Turning it three times before it finally clicked, Artemis took a deep breath before opening the door again.

This time, it wasn't an empty closet that greeted her, but a glowing elevator. Grinning ear to ear, she pulled out the key and entered, pressing the button. With an erie silence, she decended to the basement. Once the door slid open she nearly squeeled in excitment. Waiting for her was a smaller version of Ollie's training room at home. An archery range sat paralle to a boxing ring. A line of punching bags laid to the side of the ring which had a hook to suspend them from in the center. A small set of gymnastic equipment stood waiting in the back next to a bank of computors. There was a folded envelope adressed to her sitting on the consol.

Dear Arty,

Hope you like your new training room. Even though your mother doesn't want you to stay too close to the team while the threat is still out there, these computors are linked to the ones in the Cave, so if you ever get lonley out there, give us a shout! You also have acess to the Bat computor's files, for some late night reading! The team, Roy and I are planning on comming down to visit in three weeks, so hold out untill then. Till then, stay safe and try not to get into any more fights then necessary. Oh and Robin says that he programmed the gymnastics equpiment to move and that he added some lasers for an 'interactive training simulation.' Be careful when you first try it ok?

Stay sharp!
Oliver Queen

Artemis laughed out loud before launching herself into a quick work out session before she had to go meet Jack.

Being one of the only fast food places in Jasper, the KO Burger was usually busy. Artemis found herself crowded in with fifteen people while she waited to order something. She hated crowds and was reminded of why when a muscular red head was horseing around with his friends and nearly knocked both of them off their feet.

"Watch it will you!" He grumbled, his back to her. The annoyed archer opened her mouth to spit out something nasty, but was cut off by a thin Japanese girl with twin pigtail ontop of her head.

"You watch it! You're the one who bumped into her jerk!" She retorted back. The ginger sneered at her, completly forgetting about Artemis.

"Shove off Nakadai. Go home will you?" And without waiting for a response, he and his friends left. Then the girl turned toward Artemis.

"Don't worry about Vince. He's kinda an ass." Artemis nodded.

"I got that." Expecting the conversation to be over, the blonde turned away and nearly ran into Jack. "Oh hey."

"Hey. Miko, this is Artemis. Artemis this is Miko." Jack said indicating the Japanese girl. Miko waved and gave a huge smile.

"Hiya!" Artemis returned the smile, although hers was a lot smaller.

"Hi. Thanks for back there I guess." Miko's grin got even bigger.

"No problem!" She said happily.

"And this is Raf." A small boy with square glasses and wild brown hair gave her a timid smile.

"Hey." She nodded back and the quartet decided to sit outside. The tables were close to the parking lot and Artemis' eye was imediatly caught by the brightly coloured muscle car on the other side of Jack's bike.

"Whoah. Nice wheels." She whistled tempted to go closer and check it out in greater detail. Man did she miss her own bike. Stupid Harm. From behind her, Miko, Raf and Jack exhcanged smirks.

"Yeah. The coolest people own them." Jack said emphasising coolest. Miko and Raf snickered quietly. Artemis quickly caught on but decided to play along.

"Oh wow. Are they inside? Because I would love to meet them."

"Eating inside is too mainstream for these guys!" Miko put in, badly supressing a smile.

"But no one's out here but us." Artemis said innocently. They all laughed and Artemis approached the machines. "But seriously, these are amazing! How'd you get them?" The others paled and racked their brains for an excuse. Arcee fought the urge to groan as paniked expression crept onto their faces.

"Jack got them! They were really old and crappy untill he tricked them out!" Raf said suddenly. After trying to lie to Optimus, lying to Artemis was far easier. She accepted this and looked mildly impressed.

"A friend of mine likes doing that. Though latley he's been distracted by his girlfriend..." She sighed thinking about how Conner and M'gann would go to 'work on his bike' when they wanted to make out. They talked about their vehicles for a bit before they turned to life in Jasper, what Gotham was like ect. Finally it started to get dark out, and they said their goodbyes. Jack offered to give Artemis a lift home but she declined. After the others were out of sight, the heroine slipped into a bathroom and changed into her work cloths. For a while she actually patroled, but after an hour of nothingness, she gave up and went for a run across the roofs. She was back home at ten thirty.

"So, made any new friends?" Paula asked as Artemis trudged into the kitchen. Grabbing some milk from the fridge she shrugged.

"Maybe. They seem nice enough."

"You see? You have to admit everyone is much friendlier here!" Artemis rolled her eyes and went back to her room. Someone had made her bed and put away her cloths for her. The room seemed less bland then before but it definatly needed some colour. Unrolling her posters, she tacked them up on the walls facing her bed. The absence of Jade's bed was obvious when her Alice in Wonderland poster went up. After her bag was completley empty and there was nothing left to do, Artemis retreated to her training room. She sat in the computor chair and checked the time. It was past midnight on the other side of the country so everyone was either asleep or on patrol. Sighing, she decided to read up on the villians that operated on the west coast.

A day later, it was Artemis' first day of school. While she loved not having to wear a stuffy uniform, she sorely missed Bette, who was one of her best friends at Gotham Academy. Jack had promised her that he would show her around, but it was a small campus and the tour lasted all of five minutes.

"At least you can't get lost!" Jack told her as she fiddled with the lock on her locker.

"You can if you try hard enough." She responded, getting a smile out of him. After getting her combo memorized and dumping her bag into the bottom of her locker they departed for homeroom. Jack headed for a seat near the back while Artemis spoke to the teacher. Vince and his friends came in soon after the bell rang.

"Detention boys." The teacher sighed as they sat down. There were a few complaints but they settled down fairly quickly. "Now class we have a new student. Artemis, why don't you sit inbetween Mr. Darby and Mr. Raider. Artemis recognized the orange haired boy from the KO Burger and supressed a sigh. She sat down at an angle so that she was facing Jack instead of the front.

"Hey babe. I'm Vince. If you want I'd be happy to show you around after school in my converatble." He whispered, not recognizing her from the other day. Jack scowled at him.

"Don't you have detention after school?" Artemis asked raising an eyebrow. Vince shrugged.

"For you I'd get out of anything... or into anything." Artemis rolled her eyes and turned her attention to her schedual.

"Thanks but I've already had the grand tour." She said dismissivly. Vince opened his mouth to argue but was cut off by a vibrating comming from Artemis' skinny jeans.

From: Baywatch
Message: Hey babe! Miss u so much!

Artemis smiled and typed in her reply.

To: Baywatch
Message: I know me 2! I wish u were here alot right now!

From: Baywatch
Message: Bsides obvious reasons, y?

To: Baywatch
Message: Cause theres a wannabe cassanova trying to make a move... kinda reminds me of you

From: Baywatch
Message: Thanks. I can b over there kicking his ass in two min if u want.

To: Baywatch
Message: Thanks babe but I can handle myself. Say hi to the others 4 me.

From: Baywatch
Message: will do! Stay safe

While she was getting infinatly tired of people warning her to be safe, she felt better after texting Wally. The rest of the day went by without anything interesting happening. She sat with Jack, Raf and Miko at lunch, told Vince to screw himself a few times (Not that it did much) and was bored in class. After school, she discovered that her new friends were no where to be found. Feeling a bit hurt she made her way home by herself, unaware Vince and his buddies had ditched detention.

"She's so cool and funny Bulk! In science she told Vince where to stick his offer and I swear he almost ran away he was so scared!" Miko gushed to her gaurdian. He was sitting in the medical bay while Rachet did some tests. The medic shook his head.

"Sounds like she knows how to handle herself." Somkescreen commented. Jack nodded.

"She's from Gotham City. She has to be." All the bots looked at him strangley.

"And why is that?" Optimus asked.

"Because Gotham is the most dangerous city in States! It has the highest crime rate of any city in the world!" Raf exclaimed, forgetting that the Autobots didn't read newpapers. He typed away at his computor and pulled up several articles on the big screen. Smokescreen walked up and read aloud.

"'Joker Venom Kills Rescue Wokers in Murderous Rampage.' 'Gotham Academy Held Hostage by Black Mask.' 'Riddler Confunds GCPD Once Again.' 'Batman and Robin Resuce City from Poison Ivy.' No wonder she moved..." Smokescreen muttered skimming the stories.

"Artemis said that she was almost mugged hundreds of times!" Miko said with far too big a grin on her face. "But she beat them off with her bare hands!"

"I think what she said was closer to: I've almost been mugged a few times. But I've always gotten away in time." Jack corrected. Miko rolled her eyes and Arcess joined Smokescreen by the screen.

"Kinda makes you wonder how her mom ended up in her wheelchair." Jack looked at the articles and wonder what exactly Artemis had been thorugh.

Finally the articles became too much and Smokescreen snapped.

"I'm going for a drive." He said transforming into his alternate mode.

"Don't go too far and don't cause trouble!" Arcee warned. Smokesscreen honked his horn and barrled out of the base.

Artemis was laughing. She shouldn't have been, considering her situation, but to her it was incredibly funny. Vince and about six of his friends had cornered her in an alleyway on her way home.

"Nobody makes a fool out of me!" Vince growled advancing on her. Artemis didn't even bother getting into a proper fighting stance.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night." She said caually, leaning up against a wall. If they were in Gotham and kids from school had her cornered, she would have been a bit more worried, but these guys were small town punks. That freshman Grayson could have taken these guys. Most of them were imitating fighting stances from movies. In fact Artemis was tempted to start humming music from Kung Fu Panda.

"You're going to pay. Right boys?" His gangs grinned and cheered their agreements.

"Sure I am. But I got to go, so I'll be seeing you fellas." She made to push past them, but Vince grabbed her arm and threw her to the ground. "Have it your way then." She used her legs to sweep his out from underneath him sending him sprawling next to her. She popped up and ducked under a fist. Delivering a hit of her own, the boy went down next to his leader. The others decided that trying to hit her was a bad idea and let her past. She nodded toward them and rounded the corner. She almost bumped into the sportscar with a 38 painted on the side, but flipped over it at the last second. After she had gone, Smokescreen watched the boys sprint for the lives in the opposite direction. He grinned to himself. He liked this girl already.

A well passed and besides some death glares from Vince and his cronies, the rest of Artemis' passed without incident. She had settled into a simply but boring routine. Jack would drive her to school, she'd eat lunch with him and his friends, she'd find her own way whomever then utilize her 'Goddess Cave' as she'd come to affectionately call her training room. She had decided that Raf was her favourite of the new friends she had made. Jack was nice enough but she couldn't shake the feeling he was hiding something from her. Miko was... Let's just say that there were times when Artemis wouldn't mind sealing her in a cave. She was nice enough but her impulsiveness and perky attitude was driving hype Gotham girl mad. Miko had asked if she knew Batman at least twenty times already. (She did know him of course but admitting that was begging for fangirl screaming.) Raf on the other hand was laid back and chill-something that Artemis desperately needed in her hectic life. He also reminded her of Robin. The hacking skills were uncanny. But it puzzle her as to where her friends went off to after school everyday. On Wednesday she asked about it.

"So what are you doing after school today?" She asked Jack on their way to school.

"Oh um helping my mom at the hospital."

"They let you do that?"

"Yup. So did you watch the news last night? They said that Flash Kid and Robin were spotted in Star City."

"Maybe their visiting Red Arrow or something. And it's Kid Flash."

Asking Miko and Raf gathered similar results. She didn't push them though. Who was she to judge those who had secrets?

She was bored. Again. And the team was on a mission. Jack, Miko and Raf were nowhere to be found and her mother was over at the Darby's. Oliver and the others were supposed to be here in a weeks time, but that didn't help her save her Friday night. Artemis didn't feel like looking through the Bat computer again, so she suited up. Knowing there wasn't going to be any action in town, she made her way to the city limits. It was times like these that she wished she had a car. Even a moped would have been nice at this point. But since she didn't have any type of wheels, she was forced to simply hike along the road and into the rocks. She climbed until she could see all of the valley and town below her. Being an archer, her eyesight was like a hawk's. She had hawk eyes. Scanning the dessert she saw little of interest.

"At least in Gotham we have things to look at." She muttered to herself. Just she was about to go back down, a glinting light caught her eye. It appeared that a train of five cars was protecting a trailer. On the side she could read the insignia for the United States Miliary. The cars however did not lok like something the military would employ. Narrowing her eyes she activated her comm. link.

"That you Rob?" There was a grunt of pain from the other end.

"'Mis? Not saying that it isn't-ugh- great hearing from you, but I'm kinda in the middle -umph- of something."

"I'll make it quick. Has anything been stolen from the military lately?"

"A huge power converter... But why- Artemis your not supposed to be getting involved in something this big! What part of lay low-"

"That's great, thanks Rob! Better let you get back to whatever it is your doing! Bye bye now!" She said in mockingly sweet accent. Robin tried calling her name, but she ignored him and disconnected. She strung an arrow, aimed for tires of the first car and let the arrow fly. It was a real arrow and with stunning accuracy, the tip impaled itself into the wheel of the first car. It spun out wildly and it's rear end smashed into the scar behind it. The trailer slowed down to a stop and the three cars behind it surrounded it. The occupants got out of their cars, futuristic weapons in hand.

The next arrow was an exploding one that punctured a the farest cars fuel tank. The light show was impressive and the goons scattered, some guns going off in a panic. Artemis snickered and started taking out baddies.

The base was calm. The only real movement wears Miko and Bulkhead doing his physio. Raf and Bee were playing a racing game while Jack and Arcee tired to explain to Smokescreen where human babies came from.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY COME FROM INSIDE THE FEMALE HUMANS?!" Arcee was doing her best not to fall over. June had explained it to the other Autobots months ago. She was never so happy to be a robot.

"It's not that bad-" Jack began.

"Ha! Let's talk after you push a baby out of your uterus!" Miko called from her place by Bulkhead. "Then you can say 'it's not that bad!" Smokescreen looked like he was going to faint.

"That's not right." He mumbled. Arcee couldn't help but laugh. Just then, the entire silo shook. Optimus and Rachet hurried in and the doc pulled up the security cameras.

"It looks like M.E.C.H. Is transporting something a few miles out from us. Something must have malfunctioned in one of their cars."

"Arcee, you Bumblebee and Smokscreen investigate." Optimus requested. The aforementioned bots nodded and transformed as Rachet opened the main door. It didn't take them long to find the cars. Three of them were on fire and the other two had human shaped dents in them. Smokescreen transformed at once, making the other hiss at him.

"Are you crazy? What if their were other humans around?" Arcee demanded.

"But you guys said that M.E.C.H already knew about us!" Before either could respond, the sounds of gunfire cut through the air. It was cut off by a sudden twanging sound some grunting, and the sound of fists hitting flesh.

"I have no clue who you guys are," a slightly out of breath voice said, "but you're defiantly better then sitting around my place alone. So while it's not the perfect Friday night date, you'll do." swiveld to see a blonde girl dressed in a forest green two piece outfit trading blows with masked mercenaries. Her back was to the enormous mechas, but the goons could. Unfortunately, they were not nearly as stupid as some of the hired help circulating in Gotham. The leader of the transport party called out just loud enough toor the heroine to hear.

"Back up is here. Let's go." The men not fighting with Artemis shot at the Autobots, aiming for their optics and face plates. A few stray bullets managed to hit Smokescreen and his face darkened. With narrowed eyes, he growled and leaned over to swipe at the shooters. He came dangerously close to Artemis though and nearly clipped her.

"Ah! HOLY SHIT!" She cursed taking a step back. Her current sparring partner took advantage of her shock and fled after his comrades. They all piled into the trailer and sped off.

Artemis had grown tired of just shooting at the thieves and had jumped down to their level. She used a sleeper hold on one of the masked men and slammed another into the side of his car. The others reacted much faster then anyone she was used to and opened fire in her. Some of the bullets set off another explosion sending them all rolling. Artemis was up first and she kicked the closest man in the face. Another had his gun trained on her but a quick twang of her bow sent the gun off somewhere in the dark. The rest engaged her in hand to hand, which only served to make her grin. The fight had been going well. Until the giant ass, pissed off robots showed up. Her adrenaline made her freak out a bit and in the seconds that her prey used to escape, she had an arrow notched and aimed at the robots. The giant ass and pissed off robots. The blue feminine one stride to speak but Artemis' assassin instincts had already kicked in.

"Wait we're on your-" Her last explosive arrow went off at her feet making her stumble. Smokescreen, who was already mad, slammed his fist down, and Artemis rolled backwards out of the way. Bee jumped in front of Smokescreen before he could attack again.

"No! She's not the enemy! Besides we try to never kill humans!" he whirred.

"She attacked us!" Smoke protested. Arcee had tried reasoning with her again, but was cut off again. As she was about to try a third time, the merc that had been subjugated to Artemis' sleeper hold earlier woke up. The heroes failed to notice him as they fought each other. Silently, he pulled a knife and threw it. It twisted in the air and Artemis caught sight of it in her preifial vision. She only managed to just turn in time to avoid the kill shot. Instead the blade lodged itself in her side. The Autobots felt their eyes grow wide and crimson red blood seeped from the wound.

"Well I'm dead." Artemis muttered, her fingers slipping on the emergency S.O.S button on her bow. Arcee was beside her in seconds. The archer tried to roll away but the femme gently put a hand over her.

"Like I tried to tell you earlier. We're not here to fight you Artemis. Now lay still." The girl's eyes narrowed. Normally when she made that face it was because Wally had found a new way to piss her off.

"How did you-cough- know who-" Arcee sighed and took a step backwards to transform. Artemis' eyes widened before she fell unconscious.

"Wait that's." Smokescreen put the pieces together and his own optics widened.

"Why is she dressed like that?" Bumblebee wondered. Smokescreen gave him an incredulous look.

"Does it matter right now?! We have to help her!" Arcee nodded and touched her comm. link.

"Rachet. We need a bridge. Have the medical bay ready for a human."

Sorry for the cliffhanger. I'll try not to have too many of those if I don't think I'll be able to update soonish. And it was so long too! But I really wanted to put in some action for you guys because your reviews were so amazing! I thank you all for that! :D. Anyways some of you had excellent questions and they will be answered in the next chapter. If there are any spelling or grammar issues please bear with me, this was written this an iPad. Anyways feel free to review or PM me any questions complaints praise or ideas. thanks for reading!