Woot! Woot! Yet another chapter up for your enjoyment!

Shout outs to the three aswome readers who reveiwed last chapter: Seraband, Angelus-v1, and Clouddreams! You guys have totally made me feel the 'aster'! I want to feel this more often!

ENJOY!

"I don't know what to do."

Roy arched an eyebrow at the clone. He'd come by to drop something off at the mountain, and it had surprised the heck out of him when Conner had asked him if he could have a word.

It had surprised him even more when he'd discovered Conner wanted his advice on what to give his teammates for Christmas.

"You know you don't have to Conner."

Conner nodded. "I know…I just.. I want to. If it weren't for the team I'd still be back at Cadmus. Just another weapon…"

Roy smiled, and put a hand on Conner's shoulder.

He understood. He'd felt that way about Oliver after the man adopted him and took him out of that horrid orphanage. Like the man had given him a whole new life, and anything was possible!

And though he'd never admit it, he still felt that way.

"Listen Conner, no matter what you do, they'll like it. Just remember. Whatever you do, it doesn't have to be big. More than anything, it's the thought that counts." He told him.

Conner nodded, giving him the tiniest of smiles. "Thanks."

Roy grinned. "You're welcome kid."

Conner sighed, and sank down on the bed.

Propping up a note pad on his knee, he pulled a pencil out of his pocket and scribbled the word 'gifts' across the top of the page. Down the side of it he wrote each of his friends names, leaving a couple lines in between them so he'd have room to cross out ideas if they didn't work.

The notepad list had been Roy's idea, and as he jotted down his various gift ideas the clone couldn't help but agree it was a good one.

It helped to get his thoughts down on paper, though he certainly did a lot of erasing there at the beginning!

Half an hour, and three pages, later Conner finally had a rough draft of what he wanted to do for his friends. He ran his eye over the page, absentmindedly putting the end of the pencil in his mouth.

A habit he'd picked up from Artemis.

He nodded. Yes, this would work. Now the trick was getting and hiding said items without his friends noticing.

Especially M'Gann!

Recognizing. Kid. Flash. B. Zero. Three.

Wally darted out of the Zeta tubes, pausing all of three seconds to see who was there. When no one was readily apparent, he dashed away through the rest of the mountain at super speed to look for them.

He found them in the gym.

Robin grinned. He was in the middle of a handstand on top of the pommel horse, but that didn't seem to faze him as he called to Wally. "What's up Wall's? You look excited!"

Wally came to a stop in front of the pommel horse, literally vibrating. "Dude, I'd be turning cartwheels right now if I knew how!"

Robin laughed, slowly lowering himself till he was in a more upright position, though still supported by just his hands, legs held out straight at either side of his hands parallel to the ground.

"I could teach you." He offered, purposefully ignoring the question of why his friend was so excited.

Wally put his hands on his hips, fully aware of what Robin was doing and glaring at him for it. "Not interested."

Robin shrugged. "Just thought I'd offer." He answered, whipping his body around the horse several times, changing handles as he did so.

Wally just shook his head. He'd known Robin in costume and out for years, and one of the earliest lessons he'd learned was that when Robin was working on the gymnastic equipment, you gave him at least a body length of space.

Usually more.

After that if he still hit you it was either intentional or something had gone exceptionally wrong!

"ROBIN!"

The rest of the team looked up with interest, curious to see what was going on with their speedster. He didn't usually whine that loudly, especially at Robin.

The acrobat laughed and finally dismounted the pommel horse. "Ok Wally! What's got you so worked up?"

Wally's grin returned full force. "Dude, it snowed in Happy Harbor this morning! And it's been snowing off and on all day!"

Robin laughed. Yep. That would do it! The first snow of the year always got Wally exceptionally excited! And for good reason! He and Robin had a standing tradition when it came to the first snow of the year.

Hence why Wally was in uniform.

"Great! Just let me get into my uniform. With the modifications Batman put into it to combat Mr. Freeze's ice gun, it's warmer than my winter coat!" he laughed, quickly coming up with an excuse for the team as to why he was suiting up.

He tilted his head forward and let his shades slide down his nose a little, just enough to let Wally see his eyes. Giving his friend a wink and a mischievous smile, he scrunched up his nose to get his sunglasses back in place and glanced over his shoulder at the rest of the team.

"You guys want to come along?"

M'Gann giggled excitedly and literally leapt into the air. "Yes please! I've never seen it snow before!" she grabbed Conner's hand, grinning from ear to ear. "Come on Conner, it'll be fun!"

The clone gave her a small smile and nodded. He'd seen frosty snow on the ground on a couple missions, and he'd seen snow fall on some of the Christmas movies they'd watched, but he'd never seen it snow with his own eyes.

Seeing the agreeing smiles on the faces of the others Robin grinned and darted away, calling over his shoulder. "Great! Meet you at the door!"

Conner looked around at the others.

They had all gathered at the door to the mountain, and ironically enough they were only missing Wally.

Everyone had bundled up, and it was actually kind of amusing to see his friends in their bulky winter coats and colorful hats, gloves, and scarves.

Zatanna was wearing a knitted purple hat with a fuzzy pom-pom on top, and Artemis had a neon blue and green scarf on, almost making his eyes smart it was so brightly colored!

M'Gann was the oddest, as she didn't seem to feel the cold at all and was dressed in her customary skirt and short sleeve shirt.

Then again, considering that he'd seen her completely frozen solid in the Belle Reve prison mission in Liouisiana, maybe that wasn't as odd as it looked at first.

He himself was wearing his customary t-shirt, pants, and boots with an army green jacket. And of course Robin was in uniform.

Wally came dashing up in a blur of gold and red, grinning from ear to ear. " All set! Sorry about the wait guys, I had to stop off in the kitchen for a quick snack! Now let's go already! The snow's waiting!"

The ramp slowly lowered, letting in a wealth of drifted snow. Wally raced out ahead of them, a cackling Robin hot on his heels. M'Gann giggled and grabbed Conner's hand, excitedly pulling him out into the snow.

Giving Zatanna and Artemis an amused smile, Kaldur led the girls out into the snow after the others.

Conner stared at the world outside Mount Justice in wonder. It was as if the landscape had been transformed overnight! Everything was coated in a thick layer of soft white!

It was one thing to see snow on a mission or on tv, but another thing entirely to see your own home transformed in such a way! He shivered. It was beautiful.

Cold, but beautiful.

He looked around at the rest of his friends, who were already spreading out to explore the snowy landscape. Wally and Robin were doing something over by the trees, he couldn't quite tell what.

But judging from the looks on their faces, he and the team would be finding out soon enough!

M'Gann was hovering in the air above him, apparently fascinated by several large icicles and the way they caught the light. He was about to comment back when a sudden movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention.

He whipped his head around, just in time to see Artemis apparently collapse into a snowdrift!

"Artemis!" Conner called, concern etched on his face as he slogged through the snow to check on her. M'Gann flew through the air above him, not entirely certain why he was worried, but able to tell through their mind link that his worry was sincere. "Are you alright?"

Artemis was lying spread eagled on her back in the snow, moving her arms and legs in tandem and grinning from ear to ear.

She gave Conner a confused look. "Why wouldn't I be? I'm just making a snow angel."

Conner shook his head. "I don't know, I just saw you drop…and what's an angel? The genomorphs didn't cover that one." He added, looking up at M'Gann.

She was often the one he went to for explanations when something perplexed him, her or Aqualad. Not being human themselves, they had an outsider's viewpoint on the culture and had less difficulty explaining it.

Not that his other friends couldn't explain it, but these two seemed to have an easier time of it.

"It's a lady with wings." M'Gann answered promptly.

Artemis had finished her snow angel, and the Martian was carefully helping her up so her imprint in the snow wouldn't be smudged. Once the blonde archer was out of the way, M'Gann pointed to it.

"See? Those are her wings, and that's her skirt."

Conner nodded, recognizing the basic shape from ornaments on the tree. "So, Hawk Girl is an angel? What would you call Hawk Man?"

Artemis bit her lip to keep from laughing. "No, not quite Conner! Hawk Girl is a Thanagarian. An angel is a being from earth, and it can be either a guy or a girl, though you usually see a girl. People can't agree on whether they're real or not, but the people who believe in them say that there's one for every single person on earth, and they look out for us. The religious types say that angels are God's messengers and warriors, fighting against the devil."

Conner nodded. Having seen several bright red devil costumes running around on Halloween, he knew what she was talking about there. A part of him wondered why so many people dressed as the 'evil' devils, rather than the 'good' angels.

An image of the orphan's Christmas tree came to his mind. "So that tree topper the Orphanage used, that's supposed to be what an angel would look like?"

Artemis nodded. "Now you're getting it!"

Robin grinned, packing the snow into a ball in his hands. This was going to be great!

He ran his eyes over his arsenal of snowballs resting on the ground in front of his knees, then he looked over at Wally. The speedster already had quite the impressive pile of his own settled on the ground in front of him.

The two friends smirked at each other, glancing over their shoulders at their team.

Artemis was making yet another snow angel, and Conner and M'Gann had moved off on their own. The two boys would've bet money on there being some kissing in the couple's near future. Zatanna had created a snowball of her own, and was showing Kaldur how to roll it to start the body of a snow man.

Even Wolf had come outdoors! The massive, pale grey canine was having a good long roll in the snow near the door, his gold eyes following Conner.

No one was the wiser!

Robin grinned at Wally, gathering up his armload of snowballs. "I'll get Zee, Kaldur, and Wolf. You get Artemis, M'Gann, and Conner. Ok?"

Wally nodded eagerly, gathering up his own arsenal. "Dude they are toast! How much time do you need to get into position? I'd hate to start the fun without you!"

Robin pointed, pulling up the holo screen of his wrist computer as he did. "You hide over there. I'll sneak through those bushes over there and get closer to Zee and Kaldur. I've hacked the coms, so the others can't hear us when we use them. That'll be our signal."

Wally leaned closer, peering over Robin's shoulder at the screen. It read, 'Memo: Fix the com links when you're done'. "You need to leave yourself a reminder?"

Robin made a face, shutting the wrist computer off. "I don't need to, but it's better safe than sorry! I really don't want to try to explain to Batman how our com links got slaved together so our friends wouldn't hear us planning a snowball attack!"

Wally chuckled. "I can see were that would be a problem! Go get 'em Rob, I'll be ready and waiting!" He said, slipping behind the tree Robin had pointed out.

Conner yelped, blinking in surprise as he realized a hearty amount of wet snow was sliding down out of his hairline across his temple!

He'd been talking with M'Gann, and had been leaning in to kiss her when the snow had made a sudden impact with the side of his head!

Off in the distance, he could hear the rest of his friends giving startled and, in Artemis's case, annoyed shouts. He turned his head to see Wally and Robin pelting the others with snowballs, laughing madly.

Wally hurled another snowball their way, this time aiming for M'Gann.

But it never reached her. M'Gann's eyes glowed their familiar silver green and the snow ball quickly slowed, coming to a stop about a foot away from her.

She looked past the snowball at Wally, a smile tugging at her lips.

Over by the trees, Zatanna was crouching down in the snow and scooping it up into her own snowball. She grinned evilly at Robin.

Standing, she tossed and caught the snowball in her right hand, settling the other on her hip. "Of course you know this means war…"

Robin cackled, throwing yet another one of his snowballs and nailing hers in midair as she tossed it up again. Laughing at the stunned expressions on her and Kaldur's faces, he turned and darted into the trees.

"Bring it on Zee!"

Zatanna grinned and quickly made herself a new snowball. "Well if he's not going to play fair hiding in those trees, then neither am I!"

She canted out a quick spell. In an instant, fifteen exact copies of her were standing in the snow around her, each one holding a snowball. She grinned, darting forward with her illusions.

This was going to be fun!

Robin watched the sixteen Zatannas race towards his tree. He'd climbed up into an oak for a better advantage, and was being careful to keep his eyes focused on the one real one in the group. He picked up one of his snowballs, raising his hand to take careful aim, and….

WHACK!

Robin tumbled back out of the tree to land in a deep snowdrift. He sat up, shaking his head in bemusement. Zatanna had stopped, and all sixteen Zatannas were laughing their heads off.

Behind her stood Kaldur, already shaping another snowball.

Robin had been so intent on getting Zatanna, and vice versa, that neither of them had seen Kaldur gather up his own snowball. The Atlantian had calmly walked up to Robin's tree, waiting for the perfect opportunity to nail Robin, and taking his chance when it presented itself.

Finished with his snowball, Kaldur straightened and pulled out one of his water bearers again. The water quickly shaped itself into a slingshot, and he dumped the snowball into it and set the homemade slingshot whirling.

"Oh no you don't!" Zatanna yelled, ducking at the last second when he sent it flying her way, her illusion spell fading away.

Back near the door to the mountain, Wally was in trouble!

When it came to snowball fights, being a telepath was a distinct advantage it seemed! Between M'Gann's barrage, and Conner and Artemis adding their own contributions, the speedster was having to work hard to get a snowball in edgewise!

A sudden, devious thought struck him and he tore through the snow straight at Conner and M'Gann. As he neared them, he did a long sliding turn at the last second, kicking up a huge wave of snow into their surprised faces!

The speedster came to a stop under a nearby tree, grinning from ear to ear as he watched the spluttering couple dig their way out of the snowdrift. "Gotcha!"

"Oh Wal-ly…!"

Wally whipped around just in time to see Artemis hurl a snowball at him. He grinned. It wasn't even going to come close to him! It was way to high!

"Man Artemis, I would've thought your aim would've been better, you being an archer and all! That wasn't even close!"

The blonde smiled smugly and crossed her arms. "Three..Two..One.."

Wally yelped as a huge rush of snow hit him from above! He was buried in seconds. He kicked and swung his arms, quickly clearing the snow away from his head. "Since when did you have the power to avalanche?" he spluttered at Artemis.

She chuckled and shook her head, grabbing his arm and helping haul him up out of the snowdrift. "Since you're a blockhead and stand right underneath tree branches loaded with snow!"

Wally glared up at the offending branches, still shaking from having suddenly lost their snowy covering. "Traitorous branch…" he muttered.

"Hey Wally! What do you think?"

Wally glanced over his shoulder, grinning at Robin as the young acrobat made his way over with Zatanna, Kaldur, and Wolf, turning a cartwheel as he did. Judging from the wet, snowy appearance of all four of them, Robin hadn't fared much better against his opponents than Wally had against his.

"I say it's a total yes!" Wally laughed. "So let's call the snowball fight a draw and go inside, I've got water heating in the kitchen for hot chocolate! It should be hot enough by now!"

"So, either of you want to explain exactly what that was outside?" Artemis asked, stirring the hot chocolate powder into her steaming mug.

The entire team was now gathered in the kitchen, each making the hot beverage of their choice, be it cocoa, cider or, in Kaldur's case hot tea.

"Sure!" Robin grinned, emptying a larger packet into his own steaming mug. He'd opted for the hot apple cider. "Wally and I have a standing tradition when it comes to the first snow, and we've decided you guys should be a part of it!"

Artemis groaned. "Ok, now I'm scared…"

Wally laughed and slung an arm around her shoulders. "You can relax Arty, we're not going to make you do something stupid!"

Artemis gave him a look. "How very reassuring…"

Zatanna leaned forward on the counter. "So what are we doing?" she asked curiously.

Robin cackled. "First snow every year, we get suited up and go on patrol…" he started.

Conner cocked his head. "What's so special about that?"

"…and we snowball the crooks!" Robin finished, grinning. The team starred at him for several long minutes, and then Artemis face palmed.

"Wally, you're a liar..."

Robin cackled. "I know you don't trust him as far as you can throw him Artemis, but trust me, it's a lot of fun! We usually vary between Gotham and Central City every other year, but if you guys are in we could hit up Star City this year. Who knows, maybe we can nail Roy while we're at it!"

Artemis sighed. "I distrust you almost as much as distrust him!" she muttered. "But what the hey, it'd be worth it to see the look on Ollie's face when he hears about the rash of snowball vigilantism in Star City!"

Zatanna nodded, taking a sip from her mug. "I'm in too! When do we leave?"

Wally grinned, seeing that the rest of the team was in. "As soon as we finish our hot chocolate and you guys get suited up!"

Lol, the snowball fight was inspired by the x-mens 'Mutant Ball'! Hope I did it justice (no pun intended)! To date, the next chapter is my family's favorite, though this one's a close second!

Pop into the 'Reveiw Board' and say aloha some time guys! It's a nice little place over their on the corner, with a cute little blue doorbell on the front!

Until next time...