Ἑστία

Cheshire was still being held in the Mountain for now. The League didn't really have appropriate holding facilities yet, and we'd already taken her down once – and there was still a week until the prisoner transfer van arrived. As such, there had to be a watch on her at all times. These past few days it had been M'gann and Wally – he'd been provisionally allowed to keep watch, since there wasn't any danger.

Given the track record of DC villains for escaping from imprisonment, I didn't buy it. It was my turn tomorrow, and I wouldn't be slacking in my duties. Speaking of slacking in duties... Artemis had been acting oddly lately. She seemed to be spending less and less time with the team, more just practising her... bowmanship? With her bow anyway.

I had suspicions that it was something to do with an event in the show, but for the life of me I couldn't remember what. Let's see, what do I know about Artemis? Archer, lives in Gotham, part of the team, and- wait, her dad was in the League of Shadows or something, right? Wait, wasn't heSportsmaster? In fact, wasn't her sister also in the League of Shadows?

Holy shit, her sister was Cheshire! No wonder she was acting weird. She was probably worried about Cheshire revealing their connection. I frowned to myself. Actually, that was a pretty good point. In this period, I'm pretty sure most of the team wouldn't be happy if they heard that their teammate was related to a notorious villain – and hid it from them. Even if Batman himself told them that he knew, would they trust her again?

Man. Heavy stuff.

I checked my watch – it was nearly my shift for keeping watch on Cheshire. I headed towards the surveillance room, where Robin was sitting back, in casual clothes, eyes on the few screens that showed Cheshire's cell.

"Hey." I said, holding a hand up.

Robin turned his head minutely, to keep the surveillance screens in view, and see me in the corner of his eye. "Hey. My shift over?"

"Yup. Here to relieve you of your duties." I mock-saluted, and he smirked. He stood up and handed me the keys to the room. We all knew the door code, but the keys were for added security.

I took a seat in the spinny chair and gave it an experimental spin. "See you in twelve hours, Alex."

"See ya." I replied, settling in, and sitting down to watch the screens. Robin flapped a hand over his shoulder in parting, already messing around with something on his phone.

I fidgeted a little, trying to get comfy in the seat, then crossed my arms, and set my eyes on the screens.

Wow, this was gonna be a long night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was lucky that I didn't actually need to sleep, or I probably would have been snoozing away from how boring the whole thing was. As it was, I drifted into an almost half-sleep, where I wasn't exactly awake, but I was able to react to movement on any of the screens. I was multi-tasking.

Then I heard a code being tapped in outside, and froze. Everyone else was supposed to be asleep. Then I heard the sound of the lock being picked. So they knew the code, but didn't have the key? Of course, I had the key. So-?

I pretended to sleep as the tumblers locked into place and the door swung open on silent hinges. I heard very faint footsteps – Robin? Miss Martian would float if she was trying to be sneaky, and Artemis was the only other one with the stealth skills.

Wait, was she...? I cracked an eye open, and saw Artemis – in civvies, wearing darker clothes than the ones I usually saw her in. She plugged a small USB Drive into the computer, and the surveillance screens blinked, before returning to the normal screen. Then she glanced quickly at me – I barely had an eye cracked, so she didn't see my alertness – took the USB stick out and left..

I counted to fifteen, then sat up in my chair. This was... This was pretty big.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I followed Artemis along at least semi-silently. I was hovering above the ground as I moved so that she wouldn't hear footsteps, but I couldn't actually see her so I didn't know if she knew I was following her or not. Mainly I was just banking on the fact that she was going to release her sister.

As we approached the holding cell, I floated just far enough round the corner that I could see Artemis tap in the security code. We had been given it in case there was an emergency that required we get the prisoners out, or we needed a relatively secure place to stay.

The door slid open with an almost inaudible hiss, and Artemis walked into the holding cell. I lowered closer to the ground and flew silently to the side of the door, listening intently.

"Dear sister, you actually did it!" Cheshire chuckled. "I almost that you had bailed on me." Her voice was nauseatingly sweet, and she was practically purring.

"If I had done that you'd have told the others." Artemis said irritably and impatiently. "Now lets just get out of here so that I can put this whole thing behind me."

I could practically hear Cheshire cocking an eyebrow. "So eager to get rid of me? You wound me, sis." Artemis seethed silently. "What will you tell your cute little friends?"

"What does it matter to-" Artemis began, but I cut her off.

"No one's going anywhere." I said, and flew in, pressing the pad as I entered to shut the door behind me. Artemis and Cheshire froze.

Jesus, that was fucking cliché.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Uh, Al- Comet? I was just, um," Artemis began, but I held up a hand to stop her, my eyes staying unwaveringly on her sister.

"I know exactly what you were doing." I paused, almost cruelly. "And I don't blame you for it."

"You- you don't?" Artemis said, and Cheshire blinked in surprise, having already fallen into a combat stance. Not that it would do her much good.

"No, I don't." I floated closer. "Because you know what? Your sister is a manipulative, unrepentant, stone-cold bitch." And I have no idea what Red Arrow saw in you- will see in you- whatever, I continued in my head. "So I blame her."

Cheshire smirked. "Well, if I had known that your friend-"

I darted forward, seizing her by the throat and lifting her up effortlessly. Well, the lifting her up part was effortless. The making sure she didn't choke to death part wasn't so much. "I'm sorry, Cheshire, but you don't get to talk. You're part of an organisation that wants to commit mass murder becauseboo hoo, environmental problems. You don't get a fucking say." I tightened my grip ever so slightly.

Cheshire let out a gasping choke, and I eased up again. Artemis looked torn on whether she should intervene or not.

"You are going to stop mindfucking with your own goddamn siblings, or you and I or gonna have problems." I dropped her to the floor, and she dropped to her knees, gasping for breath. "There are no cameras in this room right now, and I'm not one of those goody-fucking-two-shoes heroes who won't kill someone who rightly fucking deserves it." I straightened up. "You are nothing. And as long as you stick with the League of little bitches, you will always be less than nothing." I turned and walked away, pressing my thumb against the fingerprint reader to open the door. Artemis followed silently.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We remained silent for several more moments. I wasn't sure whether Artemis was in shock from what I had just done or was trying to figure out what I was going to do about her.

"So, um, about that-" Artemis began. Looked like it was the latter.

"I'm not gonna tell the others." I said, interrupting her once more. "You made a dumb mistake, but that's what teenagers do. I won't hold it against you. And honestly? I don't care that your dad is Sportsmaster." She sucked in a breath, and I winced internally. Should not have revealed that I knew that. I forged ahead regardless. "And if you told the others,I don't think they would either. You're a part of the team, no matter what."

There was pause, and I wondered if maybe I had overdone it a little. I turned, looking back at Artemis, and she was looking down to the floor and rubbing her arms apprehensively. "I'll... I'll think about it." She glanced up, flashing me a weak smile. "Thanks, Alex."

I returned her smile warmly, then stretched out my arms. "Well, back to watching the surveillance cameras, I guess."

"Um, actually, the virus can't be ended now. It has to run its course, and its due to end when your shift ends." She winces. "Sorry?"

I shrugged and waved a hand nonchalantly. "Ah, don't be." I pondered for a moment. "Guess I'll just have to waste away my..." I checked my watch. "Next four hours doing something else. Go get some rest."

She nodded, and we parted ways.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I decided to take the rest of the night off with a fly over of Happy Harbour. I hadn't managed to get much recreational flight in since I had gotten my powers – it had kinda just been one thing after another, what with the team and the missions and all. But now that I did have time off that I wasn't going to spend at home...

I could pretty safely just fly.

It was exhilarating, in a way. Even knowing that I couldn't be harmed, and that I was above water anyway, when I turned off my flight and dropped towards the ground like an arrow, before letting my powers retake control and skimming across the surface of the water – well, it was no wonder flight was one of the most popular powers in my world.

For a time I just flew, taking the chance to breathe in the warm air, see the sights, and witness the world in all its beauty. I didn't take chances with flying too far – I didn't want to get lost – but I did fly around the Harbour and the neighbouring wildlife, cities, and people.

I took respite on a rooftop overlooking the water and smiled, content to just watch.

A shrill scream echoed out from an alleyway a little ways away, and I dropped off the building, taking to the air. A hero's work was never done, it seemed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day, Aqualad took over surveillance of Cheshire, and Wonder Woman was brought in to teach me and Superboy how to fight with super strength. As it turned out, I had a pretty apt name.

"With fliers, a lot of the time we use strafing tactics." She told me, even as we clashed in mid-air and I just about managed to smack her fist aside, preventing it from striking my midsection. "When you can manoeuvre your superstrength with your whole body, you become a weapon."

I elevated ten feet to dodge one of Diana's purposefully telegraphed moves. I knew she was holding back, given that no-one really knew how durable I was. So for now she gave me easy opportunities to dodge, easy victories to build up my confidence – before she upped the ante and crushed me again.

"But that's generally only useful against a single, slow-moving target, or many fragile ones." She continued, this time reversing her punch into a grapple to send me crashing to the ground. I just managed to twist and get my hands under me, turning my near-failure into a handspring. "Against a mobile opponent, where you need to get into close quarters, grappling is your most useful tactic."

I nodded, floating warily in front of her. She directed me to land, and we dropped to the ground, synchronised.

I approached her, wary of surprises, but she stuck her hand out, congratulating me on a good fight. I smiled and took it, shaking it once before she took hold of my forearm with her other hand and swung me overhead, sending me crashing into the ground.

"Comet: Fail." I heard the monotone voice of the simulation intone, and Miss Martian and Artemis erupted into giggles.

"Also, never assume your opponent is down unless you know they are." Wonder Woman smiled down at me, then helped me to my feet.

"Also also, leverage." I cracked a smile in response, and this time we shook hands for real.

Superboy had already had a lesson on grappling, and she'd given some pointers on how to fight larger opponents when you weren't as mobile as I was. Her task finished, Diana walked over to the zeta tube, before pausing as it lit up.

Red Tornado emerged, the zeta tube's voice announcing him dryly. He and Diana greeted each other, before she left.

I glanced around. Wally wasn't here, but I was fairly sure there was another canonical mission coming up soon. I cleared my throat to ask Red Tornado about it.

"Um, Red Tornado, do you, uh, maybe have a mission for us?" I asked, trying to sound casual. He paused.

"Mission assignments are the Batman's job." He replied.

"Yeah, but, um, he and Robin are..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Batman silently reviewed the footage of the event in the holding cell. His own recording devices had been unaffected by Artemis' crude virus, but there wasn't listening software. Still, he was an experienced enough lip reader that he could follow what was going on with ease.

And he didn't like it.

"I don't know whether to be worried for that boy or about him." Diana sighed, her arms crossed as she sat beside him.

"He's had a... troubled past." Batman responded. "His mother was killed right in front of him, so he's taking it out on anyone that he can blame. Probably doesn't even realise." He paused. Then, almost to himself, continued, "I can sympathise."

Diana looked at him softly, placing an arm on his shoulder. Then she stood and walked away.

Batman clicked the mouse to the right of the computer, restarting the video. He watched it once more, before shutting down the League computers and taking a zeta tube back to Gotham.

He trusted the team as a whole to deal with their own issues. But he didn't know if he trusted some of the members of that team.