Washington D.C

July 5 3:00 EDT

Gem was now back where she had started the previous morning. She was sitting in one of the lounge chairs in the Hall of Justice, where she was being interrogated by Batman.

"You broke onto private property again, Gem" he began, as Gem rolled her eyes and placed her heels on the desk.

"The window was open, your little heroes went inside, and I followed suite" she said calmly, as she looked at her nails in front of her. Batman sighed, pushed her feet off the desk, and slammed her hand down on the table. Gem looked up at him, pouting, before she placed her hands on her lap and her feet firmly on the carpet.

Batman continued, "So, you already knew about the clone?" he asked, in an irritated tone. Gem flashed back to three months ago when she told Batman she only knew about Cadmus' energy consumption. She rolled her eyes and sighed, "His name is Superboy, and yes, I knew" she said, as Batman retaliated.

"Why didn't you tell me about Superboy?" he asked, as Gem sighed, "I wanted to investigate it through, it would have been useless to tell you then, because the project had just begun. What if there had been a failure, and the clone did not develop?" she said, with sarcasm and common sense laced in her voice. Batman scolded, then continued with his questions.

"And as for why you returned to Cadmus, it was because you wanted to see the progress of the clone, correct?". "Yes, I came to see the progress, to see if the embryo made it through development, which it did". There was then a moment of silence, before Batman spoke again.

"Despite your many mistakes and decieving, your skills have impressed the League...And we would like you to join a team we're making". Gem's eyebrow went up, as she crossed her arms along her chest. She could not honestly tell if Batman was trying to trick her or he was being serious about recruiting her.

"A team, you say..." she thought aloud, before standing up from her seat as she walked towards Batman. "But you heard me before, I don't take orders" she said, as she was now standing over his shoulder. Batman stood up, and looked down at the young hero, with a glare on his face.

"But you did take orders from a genomorph". Gem stood dumbfounded, as Batman walked towards the exit.

"Come back here on the eigthth, I will take you to the Cave". And with that, Batman left the library, leaving Gem alone. She put her hand to her forehead, trying to absorb all of the events from that night. She then made a small smile, as she also walked to the exit.

"A Team could be fun..." she said, as the mechanical doors closed behind her, and she walked out of the Hall.

Mount Justice

July 8 8:04 EDT

After thinking about Batman's offer, Gem did return to the Hall of Justice three days later. She was dressed in civilian wear, wearing a black top with glitter on the upper half, along with a pair of black skinny jeans and black ankle boots. Gem felt like she always needed to have some sort of glitter or sparkle with her daily wear. When she entered the hall, she was also surprised to see the other young heroes there, also dressed in civilian wear. Gem walked towards the group, with a small smile, before standing beside Superboy. Batman looked to her and nodded, before he began to activate the teleporter.

When the arrived at the Cave, there were already other League members there, working on the inner workings of the cave. They all entered the main room, while Batman cleared his throat and began to speak.

"This cave was the original secret sanctum of the Justice League...We're calling it into service again, since you five are determined to stay together and fight the good fight...but you will do it on the League's terms". The team nodded in unicen, as Batman continued, gesturing to his right.

"Red Tornado volunteered to live here and be your supervisor, Black Canary is in charge of training, and I, will deploy you on missions". Gem noticed that Robin raised his eyebrow at this statement, showing his oblivious signs of doubt. He then spoke up to Batman, "Real missions?". The entire team turned their eyes to Batman, awaiting his response.

"Yes, but covert" he said, as the team nodded again. The Flash then stepped into the conversation, "The League will still handle the big stuff, hence these targets on our chests" he said, pointing to his symbol on his uniform. Then attention then turned to Aquaman, who spoke next.

"But Cadmus has proved that the bad guys are getting smarter, and Batman needs a team that can operate on the sly" he said, as he turned to Batman.

"The six of you, will be that team" he said, as the team nodded, turning to each other with smiles on their faces. "Cool! Wait...six?" Robin wondered, as he glanced around the room, and then looked at Batman. Gem counted the number of teens in the room, before raising her eyebrow and looking at Batman, "Yeah Bats, I'm only counting five teens here, where's this supposed number six?" she asked aloud, with sarcasm in her voice. Batman folded his arms, and then motioned behind the group.

"Right behind you, Gem". The team then turned around, where out from the shadows, appeared two green martians. "This is the Martian Manhunter's niece, Miss Martian" he ushered, as Miss Martian took a step forward to the team, as she began to wave.

"Hi everyone.." she said with a shy, but friendly smile. Gem looked over to Kidflash, who was making heavy eye contact with Robin, before he muttered, "I'm liking this gig more already!". Gem then elbowed him in the ribs, disgusted with his comment. "OW!" Kidflash shrieked, before rubbing his ribcage and giving a glare towards Gem. She pointed her finger directly at him, "She's our teammate, not some piece of meat, KF". Gem then turned around and faced Miss Martian, hoping she had not seen that little stunt.

Kidflash then also turned to face Miss Martian, with open arms, as he said, "Anyway, welcome aboard! I'm Kidflash, that's Robin, Aqualad, it's totally cool if you forget their names though". Gem then glared at Kidflash again, as she put her hands on her hips.

"Uh hello? Earth to KF?" she said, as she arched her eyebrow, with her eyes moving from her to Superboy. Wally hit his forehead, remembering the other two in the room. "Oh yeah, and those two are Superboy and Gem" he said, ushering towards them. Gem began to walk over to the others, as the flashed Kidflash a smile and said "Thank you". Miss Martian clasped her hands together, with a much bigger smile on her face as the teens walked over to her.

"I am so honored to be included here" she said, as Gem placed her hand on her shoulder. "It's great tp have another girl on the team, Welcome, Miss M!" she proclaimed, as the two girls smiled at each other.

Superboy meanwhile, remained still in his spot, looking downward. Robin noticed this, and called out to him, "Hey Superboy! Come meet Miss M!". Superboy then looked to Robin and smiled, as he walked over to Miss Martian. In seconds, her shirt became black with a red X across.

"I like your t-shirt..." Miss Martian said, as a small blush formed on her green cheeks. Superboy looked at her shirt and then his own, and smiled, before Robin elbowed him in the shoulder and Kidflash ran up behind him, all three flashing smiles. Gem stood in awe, gazing at Miss Martian's trick, "That is so cool, I wish I could do that!" she said. Aqualad then looked across the room at the team, all full of smiles and determination, as Robin looked up to him. He nodded, and then said, "Today...is the day".

After the mentors finished preparing the cave and left for the Watchtower, the new team was left alone in the main room of the cave. Gem floated towards Miss Martian, still fasinated with her trick from earlier. "So, how old are you?" she asked, as Miss Martian looked downward, and then up with a smile.

"Oh I'm sixteen..." she said, seemingly leaving off something with her tone of voice. Gem studied this for a moment, before shrugging it off. There was another moment of silence, before Miss Martian asked the entire group, "So...what did you guys do on the 4th of July?".

The team exchanged glances with each other before smiling, as the told Miss Martian their story. But as the boys finished, Miss Martian turned to Gem, curious, "But how did you get involved, exactly?".

Gem shrugged her shoulders, and told her part of the story to the group for the first time. When she came to the part that she had known about Superboy since her encounter with Batman, the team's eyes widened. Superboy looked towards her with a confused glance, to which she just gave him a shy smile.

She then looked down at the floor, and let out a small laugh. "What is it?" Kidflash asked, as he looked at the floor for anything. Gem placed her hand on his shoulder, grinning, "It's not the floor, silly," she said, as she looked around at everyone in the group, waiting for her to speak. She smiled again, "I guess it was just destiny that brought our stories together..." she said, as the team returned her smile with smiles of their own, followed by an eruption of laughter.

Gem turned to Superboy, who was smiling, as he gave her a silent nod. Gem nodded back, and the group then made plans to come back to the cave a few days later, to hopefully be deployed on their first mission, or at least, a chance to talk again.

As Gem entered the teleporter back home, she looked back at the team, and smiled.