I don't own anything!

****YOUNG JUSTICE****

"Artemis?" Robin called in fake surprise.

"Robin," she gasped.

Deciding to join the party, I leaped down and landed on the phone box in a crouch. "Hey," I chirped.

"Sparrow," Artemis said. "I uh-"

"How random that you're here in Gotham City instead of Star City, you know, where your uncle Green Arrow lives," Robin stated.

"I, um, I came here for my cousin. She's in the national spelling bee, which was here, in Gotham…City," Artemis stumbled slightly.

That was such a lie. I would know, because every year Jayden got into the national spelling bee…and then he would hilariously mess up a word on purpose just to give us all a laugh.

"C-O-O-L," Robin smirked. "Did she W-I-N?"

"N-O," Artemis gritted out.

"D-R-A-G," he replied.

"Really you two?" I muttered. "This goes beyond your obsession with word play," I grumbled to Robin and he smirked up at me.

"Whatever. Let's just go to the Cave," the archer suggested.

"Ladies first," Robin bowed politely.

"Your town," Artemis reminded.

"And you know I'm not a lady," I scoffed, rolling my eyes.

Robin shrugged and stepped into the box, the computer recognizing him and teleporting him to the Cave.

Leaping down beside Artemis, I looked her in the eye. "I know," I told her simply.

Her eyes widened slightly, but she forced a hard mask to form, covering up her true emotion. "Know what?"

"That your mother was Tigress, your father is Sportsmaster, and your sister is Cheshire," I replied simply.

Her defensive look fell and she looked sad and vulnerable. "How long?"

"Since the first day we met. Listen, Artemis, that doesn't change my opinion of you. If anything, it makes me respect you more! I mean, it takes a lot more heart to go against the grain in your family," I told her reassuringly.

She looked down.

"Robin will find out soon enough, he has been trained by the World's Greatest Detective, and eventually you should tell the Team."

"What if they don't trust me anymore?" she whispered.

"They're your family," I told her sincerely. "Your superhero family, at least. The only reason they would get mad at you, is if they found out you were keeping something from them."

I ended the conversation and stepped into the box, knowing Artemis would follow afterwards. Even if I wasn't much for mushy conversation, I could tell that she needed something like that.

Hot plumes of smoke had filled the Cave, instantly putting me on red alert. Thank God Robin and I had gone on patrol and changed into our suits first.

There was a spot of red, a different red than what anyone on the Team wore, and I ran up to it. I couldn't tell what they were, but as soon as I got a clear shot, I threw some exploding Batarangs.

Robin landed beside me. "What is going on!" I cried.

"Don't know! But they are definitely not feeling the aster," he replied.

The Cave announced Artemis' arrival and the two figures instantly shot some fire at her.

"Get down!" Robin called and she rolled away.

We leaped over to join her and threw some more explosive Batarangs. Artemis shot some arrows as the figures got closer. They were humanoid, but appeared slightly odd in proportion.

"Who are we fighting!" Artemis yelled.

"Don't know!" I called back.

"We're sitting ducks here!" Robin told us.

"Head for the exit," I raced off, dodging and leaping, with the others behind me. "Or not," I mumbled as a huge wave of water crashed down around us.

The water bashed us against the wall and I fell to the floor. Getting back up, I raced after Artemis and Robin, heading towards the exercise room.

"Robin to Team. Aqualad, can you hear me?"

"KF, Superboy, you read me?" I stated into my com link.

An explosion from behind caused me to stumble, but I managed to stay on my feet and keep going. I looked back and noticed a fire tornado. Really, a tornado made of fire. That wasn't suspicious at all.

"Robin to Batcave, override RG-4," he tapped into the system.

"Cave calling Justice League, HOJ/WatchTower, 00, priority red," I called into my own com.

We had made our way to the shower room and were currently going around turning on all the faucets to protect ourselves from any burns.

"Coms are down," I informed.

"At least the water is helping," Robin stated before all the faucets got blasted off the wall and water began gushing into the room. "Or not," he added as an after-thought.

The water soon filled the room and we were practically drowning in it. Robin swam up and attached an explosive Batarang to the wall. Once it blew, the water gushed out and we got out, rushing on to find cover.

"We need to get lost," Robin said.

"The air vents," Artemis suggested.

"Good! Go you two," he called.

Leaping up onto the kitchen counter, I pulled the grating down and began climbing up and into the shaft system.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Artemis called to Robin.

"Downloading Cave blueprints," I supplied for her.

"They may come in handy," Robin smirked wryly. "Go, go," he ordered.

The two of them joined me in the vents and I led them through until we made it the ceiling's shafts.

"Take a left," Robin instructed from behind.

I did so and as soon as he had turned, a blast of fire went past. He shivered slightly. "Too close," he mumbled. "Take the first right. Should be a vent cover in front of you."

Bringing my foot up, I kicked the vent off and slid down until I had made it to the boiler room, or at least what I think was the boiler room. Artemis and Robin were close behind me.

Realizing where he was going, I didn't even have to look at the blueprints to call "This way!" and lead them.

A blast of fire came down and a silhouetted female figure was in the middle. Throwing up their arms, the entire room was doused in fire. Leaping off the catwalk, we hid between some of the machines. All of them were overheating and steam was breaking out of the pipes as we raced along. Blasts of fire found their way near us, the figure firing more and more.

"The other access tunnel is here somewhere!" Robin called.

"Here!" I lifted up the grate and let Artemis go first.

Before following, Robin planted an explosive and the two of us ducked down into the tunnel. We crawled a few feet before he spotted a usb port to hook his holographic computer up to.

"Blocking the Cave's heat and motion sensors to prevent the enemy tracking us," he informed.

"Once again, I ask who is the enemy!" Artemis snapped.

"Check the surveillance," I suggested to Robin and he complied.

The rest of the Team appeared on the screen and I leaned into Robin to get a better view.

"Dork wrench," KF called as he worked on Superboy's motorcycle. M'gann levitated it to him. "Thanks, green cheeks," he smirked.

Kaldur walked over. "I've been meaning to ask, have you had any trouble juggling schoolwork?" he asked them.

Superboy merely shrugged.

"Juggling is just one of my many talents," Wally bragged. "Socket wrench."

"Daily cheerleading practice has presented a challenge, but my loyalties will always be with the Team, this team, not the Bumblebees," M'gann assured.

"Artemis starts school today. Do you think she will have problems with her loyalties?" Kaldur asked, trying to go for casual, but failing horribly.

Artemis narrowed her eyes and I shot her a sympathetic look.

"Nah," Wally disagreed, standing up. "She'll manage."

Suddenly an explosion took out the camera.

"What happened?" Artemis demanded.

"Explosion wiped it out," I informed calmly.

"I'll find another angle," Robin replied, filing through all the cameras.

They only showed signs of waves and fire, while the Team got battered. All of the cameras were out and we still had no picture of our enemies.

"That's it," Robin stated glumly. "All four are dead."

I thought nothing of the statement, but Artemis' eyes widened and Robin caught his mistake.

"The cameras. All four of the cameras are dead," he assured her.

"I'm sure the others are okay," I confirmed.

"Just give me a sec to find the quickest route to the hanger," Robin searched.

"Yeah, they're okay. They all have super powers, they can handle anything," Artemis whispered to herself, bringing her knees up to her chest.

I wanted to tell her that superpowers don't make a hero, that having superpowers didn't automatically make you ready to handle anything. I didn't have any superpowers, nor did Robin, or Artemis, or Batman, or Green Lantern, and yet we were just as strong, and brave, and smart as the others. But I could tell she wasn't in the mood for that, so I let it slide.

Leaping out of the vent, we landed in the library and rushed down the steps. I jumped over the railing about half way down.

"There's a secret passage behind one of these bookcases," Robin stated as I headed right for it.

"Seriously? How cliché," Artemis mumbled.

"You should see the Batcave," Robin laughed slightly.

"It's pretty much the mother of all superhero clichés," I laughed along. Even in situations like these, Robin and I had been taught to keep a clear head, and also laugh whenever possible (it just made the day easier).

There was the sound of a door opening and metallic footsteps. We hid behind one of the bookcases with baited breath.

"Robin, Sparrow, Artemis," a voice said.

"It's Red Tornado!" Artemis called happily, stepping out into the walkway of the library.

I knew it wasn't RT. Robin and I leaped out, barreling Artemis over and sending the three of us under a table.

"Yes on the red, no on the Tornado," Robin stated as we scrambled to get up and run out of the library.

Another red humanoid robot stepped in our way and I threw a smoke pellet down, buying us enough time to leap up the bookcases and get to the secret tunnel.

I jumped down with Robin behind me and immediately pulled out the correct book. A section of the bookcase opened up and we ducked inside right before the bookcases cascaded on us. We raced through the tunnel.

"Did you know Red Tornado had…siblings?" Artemis called from behind.

"No," Robin replied.

"Maybe he didn't either," I reasoned.

We came to an intersection and Robin and I turned left, but Artemis grabbed our arms. "So now what? Red Tornado is one of the League's powerhouses! How can we go against two of him!" she demanded, the worry starting to get to her.

"Artemis, all the League's powerhouses have major power, but also a major weakness," I assured.

"They are pretty user unfriendly, though," Robin smirked and I laughed slightly.

"Don't joke!" Artemis snapped.

"Attention Robin, attention Artemis, attention Sparrow. You have exactly ten minutes to surrender yourselves, or the lives of your teammates will be extinguished," a robotic voice informed over the speakers.

We shared a worried glance. So not feeling the aster.

****YOUNG JUSTICE****

Hope you guys liked this chapter! This episode is definitely higher up on my favorites list!

Thank you Synk and dsi user for reviewing!

dsi user: THANK YOU! I see someone also feels the hate! I don't know how to explain it, but it just seems like in every depiction of Barbara Gordon, she's just…stuck up? or all loony over Dick/Robin? or just plain annoying and slightly spoiled? or maybe I'm just being the jealous type again…

Please review!

Later,

~AvenJackel