AN: Well, due to the overwhelming responses I've gotten, I decided to post chapter two and keep up with this story. Thank you so much guys! I didn't expect such positive feedback. You guys totally made such a crappy day so much better :) Please enjoy chapter two and don't forget to drop a review when you're done reading ;).

Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice or anything affiliated with it.


Three hours later and Artemis was officially bored. She had watched Wally for a while as he blurred around taking samples of some of the goop that had managed not to end up on either one of them. He'd run a few tests, made a few notes, and blurred around some more. He'd even taken blood samples and cheek swabs from the both of them to analyze and still he didn't say anything to her. After the novelty of watching him super-speed around the room had worn off Artemis had made her way over to her own work station to fiddle around with some of her own half-finished projects. Over the course of an hour she had cobbled together a working computer with a holographic touchscreen mostly from a USB drive and a few spare parts. By pressing a button she had installed into the USB drive a pale blue holographic screen would appear, complete with a keyboard. She was rather proud of it, especially when she had figured out how to keep its old function as a USB drive intact so she could download (or upload) anything from any computer that had a port. She had even put one together for Wally, fully expecting him to be done with his tests by the time she had finished. She looked up, hoping for results, and saw him speeding back to the refrigerator they kept stocked for the third time that hour.

"Again?" she asked incredulously. "Wally, if you keep eating like that we won't have anything left in there by the end of the night."

Wally turned to look at her, a sheepish smile on his face and an apple clutched firmly in his hand. "Sorry Artemis," he said as he closed the fridge door. "I'm just so hungry much more often lately. I'm thinking it has something to do with all of this."

Artemis nodded towards the banks of machines Wally had running tests. "So, anything worth mentioning yet?"

"Just about," he replied as he made his way back over. "I'm just waiting for the analyses to come through." No sooner had he finished speaking when a series of beeps alerted the pair to the completed tests. Wally rushed over and blurred between machines, reading and interpreting the data.

"What's the verdict?" Artemis asked as she came to stand by him, careful not to get in his way as he sped around.

"Well, we're not in any danger at least," Wally said, finally slowing down and dropping into a chair.

"I'm sensing a "but" in that," Artemis responded warily as she sat in the chair next to him.

Wally shook his head. "It's nothing bad," he began. "In your case, the compound did exactly what it was supposed to do, only to a greater degree than I had thought it would."

"And that would be…" Artemis prompted.

"It heightened your eyesight," Wally replied. "Remember I said that the compound should have increased the senses of whoever took it? Well, that's what it did for you, just a lot more than I thought it would have. The sparks and explosion probably altered the compound enough to increase its potency."

"You said that it was temporary," Artemis said, recalling their conversation from the previous night. "So this is going to wear off eventually?" She felt kind of disappointed with that, she had grown to like her heighted eyesight and the fact that she could now zoom in on things.

Wally shook his head again. "No, that's another thing the explosion probably altered. This change is permanent; it's basically altered our DNA to allow for these changes."

Artemis nodded. "But we're fine right? Other than having our DNA altered, there aren't any negative side effects?"

"Not for you, no," Wally answered. "You should be fine."

Artemis' eyes narrowed as she caught on to the subtext of what Wally had said. Of course, her line of sight zoomed in again and she absently noted to make time to learn to control that. "What about you?" she asked. "You were covered in the stuff and you just said I would be fine, but you left yourself out of that statement."

Wally shrugged. "It's nothing bad or anything, I'm not going to die. The compound just sped everything about me up; my thought process, my metabolism, my healing rate, everything. I'm only able to speak normally right now and sit still through conscious effort," he said with a rueful smile. "The only really negative side effect for me is that I'm going to have to eat a lot more and a lot more often than usual in order to stay functioning. That's why I've been so hungry lately."

"But if you don't eat as often?" Artemis asked, worried about her best friend.

"I just slow down," Wally replied. "I'll probably feel sick or weak, but as long as I eat something I'll recover."

"Why did the compound affect us differently?" Artemis continued, relieved that Wally would be fine.

"I honestly have no idea," Wally replied with a hint of annoyance in his voice; he never did like questions he couldn't answer. "All of the tests I've run show that it should have affected us the same way."

"Odd," Artemis said with a frown. "So what do we do now?"

"What do you want to do?" Wally asked with a shrug. "Given enough time, I could probably find a way to synthesize a compound to reverse all this, but I have to say, I kind of like this whole super-speed thing."

"I kind of like my enhanced eyesight too. Being able to zoom in is really helpful when I'm working on the small scale," Artemis said as she nodded and a teasing smile tugged at her lips. "Besides, now you're just like Flash."

Wally scowled. "I may have the same powers, but I'd really rather not be compared to him, thanks," he growled before a smirk spread across his own face. "Of course, you having telescopic zoom would come in handy when you use the bow too. You could be just like Green Arrow, or maybe just his sidekick Speedy."

"Oh ha ha," Artemis replied sarcastically. "Cause it's always been my dream to be just like them," she said with a roll of her eyes. "Besides, I'm a better shot than either of them could ever hope to be." She grinned at Wally. "Even you can shoot better than them, and that's saying something."

Wally grinned right back at her. "Well, we can't all be freaky archer ninjas," he said. "Some of us just have to settle with amazing martial arts skills instead."

"Yeah, and you have neither," Artemis said with a laugh.

"Wanna bet?" Wally challenged. "It's been a few days since we last sparred. Up for another round?"

"Always," Artemis said with a grin. "And this time when I win I think I'll have you take me out for ice cream."

"Dream on," Wally laughed. "You'll be the one buying me pizza. Just remember, I eat a lot more now."

Artemis just laughed as they walked over to a cleared area they had set up to practice and spar in. Neither one of them had learned anything new since Artemis' mother left her father, but that really didn't matter to either of them. Artemis had been trained to the master level of at least six different forms of martial arts and she had taught everything she knew to Wally.

Half an hour later saw the pair lying on the clod concrete breathing heavily. "I still say you cheated," Artemis said once she caught her breath.

"What, just cause I've got super-speed now?" Wally asked with a small chuckle. "I promise I didn't use my powers to my advantage…much," he said as he grinned her grin at her.

Artemis rolled her eyes and scoffed, but she couldn't even stay slightly annoyed with him when he smiled at her like that. When Wally usually smiled at someone there was always something guarded about his smile, even if other people couldn't see it. With Artemis though, his grins always reached his eyes and he never kept anything back when he smiled at her. It was a little aggravating sometimes that all he had to do was smile at her and she wouldn't be angry with him anymore. Though, I suppose it works the same way with him, she thought. She had noticed a long time ago that when she smiled at him, really smiled at him, she could get him to do just about anything she asked.

"Besides," Wally added when Artemis didn't reply. "You still beat me anyway."

"True," Artemis said as she jumped to her feet. "Come on, I'm feeling like ice cream all of a sudden."

Wally rolled his eyes, but chuckled and followed Artemis out of their substation. "Just go easy on my wallet," he said.

"We'll see," Artemis replied with a sly smirk. "Oh! Before I forget, here," she said as she pulled one of her altered USB drives out of her pocket and handed it over to Wally.

"A flash drive?" Wally asked as a teasing grin lit up his face. "No offense Arty, but I'm pretty sure someone already invented these. What happened? Did you run out of ideas?"

Artemis rolled her eyes. "Ha ha, wise guy. And don't call me Arty." She reached over and pressed the button and watched Wally's face as the holo-screen came to life.

"Dude!" Wally exclaimed, an amazed look all over his face. "Geez Artemis, I think you've outdone yourself this time."

Artemis smiled at the praise. "Thanks. It can still function as a USB drive too," she added.

Wally messed around with the touch screen for a moment before he laughed. "And you added Wi-Fi?" he asked.

Artemis shrugged. "I was bored and you were taking forever with your tests. It automatically hacks into any nearby Wi-Fi signals so you don't have to worry about that."

Wally laughed and shut down the screen before he slid his new toy courtesy of Artemis into his pocket. "You're amazing, you know that?" he asked as he slung an arm across her shoulders.

Artemis leaned against him a bit as she laughed. "Don't think you can flatter and flirt your way out of paying for some ice cream," she said as she ducked out beneath his arm and dashed over to her bike.

"Hey, you can't blame a guy for trying," Wally laughed back as he climbed onto his own bike. "Race you there?" he asked.

"You're on!" Artemis exclaimed before they both sped away.

It was after another classmate had gotten killed in a gang war that Wally had come up with the idea. Artemis and Wally had been watching the news that afternoon, not having anything better to do, when the story came on. Neither one of them were particularly close to the boy (of course they weren't really close to anyone but each other anyway), but they both still knew him. He had been a quiet kid, never said much, but he seemed nice enough. When the news coverage of his death switched immediately to yet another story on the Justice League after only a few minutes, Artemis was more than a little pissed.

"It's like all that matters is the stupid heroes!" she yelled at the TV. "Don't reporters have anything better to do then follow people around who claim to be protectors but can't even clean up the streets in their own cities?" Wally was uncharacteristically quiet and Artemis turned and looked at him. Usually he was just as pissed as she was about the whole thing, if not more so. "Wally?" she asked, a little bit calmer now that her attention was focused on her best friend. "What's wrong?"

"Huh?" Wally blinked and looked over to her. "Oh, nothing's wrong, just thinking."

"About what?" Artemis prompted when she saw that faraway look creep into his eyes again. If you didn't catch Wally before he spaced out again you'd have to wait until he'd put all the pieces together in his own mind before he'd say anything to you.

"Well, they're not doing anything about the gangs in this city, or any city really, right?" he asked with a contemptuous glance at the television screen that showed a picture of the entire Justice League.

"Right," Artemis agreed, wondering where he was going with this.

"Well, why don't we do something then," he said, looking at her earnestly. "We've been practicing with the powers that compound gave us and we've both always been really good at fighting. Why don't we do something to clean up these streets? We've got the powers and we've got the abilities and besides, someone's got to do it."

Artemis looked at him for a moment, thinking. "We could do it," she began. "We'd need a way to keep our identities a secret, but I think you're right." She grinned at him, that same feral grin she wore whenever they got into a fight. "Let's do it," she said.

"I thought you'd agree," Wally replied, his own feral grin on his face.

It was two months later and Wally and Artemis had kept up with their plan to clean up their city. They weren't doing too badly either, if the number of gangs they had managed to pull off the streets was any indication to go by. They had upgraded the systems on their substation and used it as a base of sorts to operate out of; keeping weapons and such stashed there. Every night, after their mothers had fallen asleep, they would suit up and slip quietly out of the house. Artemis and Wally had put together outfits made of durable material to change into before they went out to patrol the streets (AN/ basically what they wear in the show, just without the markings on their chests and Wally's suit is the black and gray of his stealth suit). Wally had gotten excited about codenames, though Artemis immediately shot down the idea for herself.

"Call yourself whatever you want," she had said. "But I'm sticking with Artemis."

"But what about keeping who we are a secret?" Wally had protested.

Artemis shrugged. "Artemis was the goddess of the hunt in Greek mythology, therefore very skilled with a bow. I'll be using a bow as my primary weapon so people will probably just link it to that."

Wally had looked at her skeptically. "You're giving these guys a lot of credit in the intelligence department," he had said. "But that's your choice I suppose. I'll go by Impulse while we're out there."

Artemis had shrugged, but readily agreed to call him by his codename anyway.

Two months after that conversation and Wally and Artemis were staking out a mob meeting at an abandoned loading bay near the docks.

"Anything?" Artemis asked as Impulse came speeding back up to their spot on the roof after making a quick dash around the building.

"Nope, nothing yet," Impulse replied with a shake of his head.

"What's taking so long?" Artemis huffed. "We've got a history test tomorrow and though I could probably take it in my sleep, I'd rather not try."

Impulse grinned at her. "Deep breaths, Artemis, and be patient. If I can manage to sit still so can you."

"Yeah, yeah," Artemis said with a roll of her eyes. "Wait!" she exclaimed as she scrambled to the edge of the building and peering down. "There!" she said, pointing. "Here they come."

Impulse moved beside her. "I'll take your word for it," he said. "I can't see a thing, but you're the one with the eyes anyway." He stood up and offered her a hand. "Shall we go dispose of some street scum?' he asked with his feral grin.

"Oh, yes, let's," Artemis said and accepted his hand as a matching grin spread across her face.

The first thing they noticed when they burst through the doors was that there was much more people than they had originally heard. The second thing they noticed was that a fight had already started. It was the third thing they noticed that really took them by surprise. There, in the center of all the fighting was Batman and Robin.

"The hell are they doing here?" Impulse asked, stunned.

"Don't know," Artemis growled back in response. "But I'll be damned if I let them have this one." Without another word, she threw herself into the fray; letting loose arrows filled with knockout gas and vicious punches and kicks.

Impulse shrugged and followed after his partner. She had a point anyway; this hit was theirs and Bats and Robin could shove it if they had a problem with it. Till then though, he'd just focus on taking down as many baddies as he could while watching Artemis' back.

With the two teams taking on the gathered mob, the fighting didn't last long. "We did good," Impulse said with a grin as he rested an elbow on Artemis' shoulder and surveyed the downed and unconscious men.

"You shouldn't even be here," came the gravelly voice of Batman from behind them. "Just who are you?"

Impulse stood up straight and stared the Bat down. Sure, he was a little intimidating, but after what he had grown up around it didn't faze him that much. "I'm Impulse," he stated calmly before he gestured to Artemis. "And that's Artemis."

"And we have every right to be here," Artemis added with a scowl. "We're just doing our job."

"You're job?" Batman asked. "And what would that be?"

Impulse felt certain the man had raised an eyebrow, though it was hard to tell with the mask and all. "Cleaning up the streets of Gotham, one slum at a time," he replied with a challenging edge to his voice.

"Something you and the rest of the Justice League seem utterly incapable of doing," Artemis added with a sneer.

"You're just kids," Robin spoke up. "What do you know about the League?"

Impulse scoffed. "In case you haven't looked in a mirror lately, you're just a kid too shorty. And we don't really know anything about the League, true, but we do know that crime and violence in the slums hasn't gone down any with any of you around so we figured we'd do something about it."

"That's not you're place to decided," Batman said, after throwing a look at Robin. "Now go home and never let me catch you out here again."

"Ha!" Artemis exclaimed. "Like you can tell us what to do," she snorted. "In case you didn't notice, we're not helpless little kids. We can take care of ourselves just fine, thanks. So why don't you just go do your thing and we'll keep doing ours."

"This isn't some game for children," Batman growled.

"You're right, it's not," Impulse agreed. "But someone's got to be looking after the people in the slums since you seem incapable of doing so." He grabbed Artemis' hand and pulled her to the exit. "We've got other places to be, so you can handle the cleanup, yeah?"

"By the way," Artemis threw over her shoulder. "After the stuff we've grown up around, you're little act doesn't intimidate us for one moment. We're not going anywhere as long as Gotham needs people that will actually do something about what's happening here instead of gallivanting off around the world. That said, you stay out of our way, we stay out of yours."

Later that night, Wally and Artemis crashed on their couches, dead tired, but grinning. "Dude, we stood up to Batman, the Batman!" he exclaimed. "Never thought I'd get to say that."

"Yeah," Artemis agreed with a laugh. "Though I'm pretty sure we managed to piss him off."

"Who cares?" Wally asked with a shrug. "What's he going to do to us? He doesn't know who we are."

"True," Artemis replied. "Still he could make our jobs harder for us."

"He can try," Wally responded darkly. "But I meant what I said."

"I did too," Artemis said. "I'm not going anywhere as long as Gotham needs us."

"Right," Wally responded. "And I've always got your back. Where you go, I go."

"Of course," Artemis said with a fond smile. "We're stuck with each other till the day we die and beyond."

Wally smiled her smile at her and nodded, before he promptly fell asleep. It wasn't long before Artemis was off in dreamland herself.

If they had thought running into Batman and Robin the night before was a shock, it was nothing to what waited for them when they got home from school the next day. They had pushed their way through the apartment door, still gripping about the history test they had had first period, only to see their mothers sitting at the kitchen table, waiting for them, large smiles on their faces.

"What's going on?" Wally asked warily as he approached the table, Artemis right behind him.

"Mom?" Artemis asked. "Why are you smiling at me like that? It's a little creepy."

"We're so proud of you!" Wally's mother suddenly exploded as she burst from her seat at the table and wrapped her son in a hug. "You're future is set!"

"What are you talking about?" Wally asked as he tried to break out of his mother's hug. He could use his recent trick of vibrating his molecules so fast he could pass through solid matter, but six times out of ten it failed and all he had to show for his attempts was a bloody nose. Besides, neither of their mothers knew about their, uh, extracurricular activities at night.

"We're talking about these!" Artemis' mother said as she held up two neat, white envelops, one addressed to Wall and the other addressed to Artemis. Both teens noticed that the envelopes had already been opened and neither of them failed to notice the Wayne Foundation logo in the upper left corner.

"A full scholarship to Gotham Academy?" Artemis asked as she read through her letter.

"But we never applied for a scholarship," Wally said. "Hell, we never even applied to Gotham Academy."

"Wally, language," his mother chided. "Besides, it's not something you apply for."

"Right, you're either accepted or you're not," Artemis' mother seconded, her smile still on her face. "We're so proud of both of you!"

"Of course, you'll have to live in the dorms, but you can come home every weekend," Wally's mother continued. "I can't believe it; you'll get such a great education! We won't have to worry about how to send you to college now!"

"Uh, yeah," Artemis said, glancing over at Wally. She knew both of them were thinking the exact same thing. Just what the hell was going on?


AN2: So there's chapter two. I hope you guys enjoyed it. I am aware that I took Wally's hero name from the DC universe, but I couldn't think of anything else and "Kid Flash" wasn't going to work, for obvious reasons. So, Batman and Robin showed up and Wally and Artemis got accepted to Gotham Academy the next day. Coincidence? Who knows...? Don't forget to leave a review please! I love to hear what you have to say :)