Summary: Episode 6 of season 1 from Dick's POV. Introduces Artemis.
Disclaimer: I don't own DC
"So, when are the others gonna come in?"
"Soon. Miss Martian, Superboy, and Aqualad are on their way back from the beach and Kid Flash is expected to get back from school soon." Damn. Rip Wally. Hope he can survive sophomore year. I am SO lucky Gotham Academy starts a week late. I would NOT be feeling the aster if I had to go today. While the prospect of joining his teammates at the beach was exciting, Dick passed. It was very hot outside, and he knew others would get suspicious if they saw him at the beach wearing a full sleeved shirt. Can't have them see my scars. I'm not exactly ready for that yet. Bruce understood. Dick was always very self-conscious about his scars, and was extremely careful with who saw his battle-damaged body. Luke once saw after gym class, and Dick had to meticulously lie to him about how he got most of them. It helped that he was the son of a billionaire and was often held for ransom, even though he only got about a fifth of his scars as Dick Grayson. The rest were all thanks to his...less than safe evening activities.
The Zeta tubes recognized his three teammates, all dressed in their uniforms. "Robin! The beach was amazing! I wish you would have come with us!"
"I wish I could have, too, Miss M, but I had some work to do." Yeah, work. Good excuse. At least Bruce ain't ratting me out.
"Batman, do we have our next mission?"
"Indeed. But before that, Team, meet your new teammate."
-Recognized. Artemis, B-07- Artemis, huh? The team brought their attention to the Zeta tubes, and out stepped a blonde girl wearing a green uniform with a quiver and bow on her back. She looked to be about the same age as Wally Huh, so THIS was the girl that saved Walls. Can't wait for him to start hitting on her. And Roy ain't exactly gonna be too psyched about being replaced.
"Team, this is Artemis."
"Hey." The team walked over to meet her. Before they could talk much, the Zeta tube announced Wally's arrival.
"The Wall-man is here! Now let's get this party start-ugh!" Wally, who was dressed in full beach attire, tripped over all his beach stuff.
"Wow. Wall-man, huh? What exactly are your powers?" Ha! I like this girl already!
"Uh, who is this?"
"Artemis, your new teammate."
"Kid Flash, never heard of you." Ouch. Artemis frowned, but before she could respond, Green Arrow interrupted them.
"She's my new protege."
"W-what happened to your old one?" Wally clearly did not seem too thrilled with Roy's 'replacement'. Almost on cue, the Zeta tubes announced Speedy's arrival.
"Well, for starters, he doesn't go by Speedy anymore." Damn. Nice suit. Waaaaay cooler than your old one.
"Roy, you look-"
"Replaceable."
"It wasn't like that. You told me you quit."
"They why waste time trying to find a sub? Can she even use that bow?"
"Yes. She can."
"Who are you?!" Well Roy, at least you still got Wally's vote!
"She's my niece."
"Another niece?" Yeah, right. Dick noticed Ollie avoided eye contact when saying that, and he looked to Bruce, who subtly shook his head, signaling Dick not to go any further with the topic. Note to self: get a DNA sample off this girl.
"But she is not your replacement. We have always wanted you on this team, and we have no quota on archers."
"And if we did, you know who we'd pick."
"Whatever, Baywatch. I'm here to stay." Roy scowled. Dick had to admit, he felt torn. On the one hand, Roy was his brother. It sucked that he was replaced. He knew that if Bruce replaced him, he would be pissed. On the other hand, Artemis seemed cool. And besides, Ollie was right. Roy DID quit. But he could always join back now! Right, Roy? That's why you're here, right?
"You came to us for a reason."
"Yeah, a reason named Dr. Serling Roquette." Dick's eyes widened.
"Famous nanorobotics engineer and claytronics expert at Royal University! Went missing two weeks ago!" Helps to do the homework!
"Abducted two weeks ago. By the League of Assassins." Oh, damn. What does Ra's Al Ghul want with nanorobotics?
"You want us to rescue her from the League?"
"I already rescued her. But I couldn't get to her equipment in time. Her nanobots can hack into and wirelessly transfer data to a remote server, before deploying countermeasures to destroy the original server. She says she can shut it off, but the League is on to her. I stashed her away at a local high school. She's safe at the moment."
"The let's you and I keep it that way."
"You and I? Don't you mean your new protege?" Oh c'mon, man!
Ollie sighed. "You brought this to the Team. It's their mission, which makes it hers too."
"Then my work here is done."
-Recognized. Speedy- "That's Red Arrow, B-06. Update." Damn. As dramatic and moody as ever.
"Alright. I guess you kids have your mission. Good luck, Arty." Artemis followed the others to the Bioship, and they made their way to the high school. Dick noticed she didn't seem all that weirded out by the Martian tech, unlike himself when he first saw it.
"So, you don't seem to be shocked by any of this."
"I already did the reading. Bioship is remotely mind-linked to Miss Martian over here. Has camouflage and shapeshifting abilities." Nice to know SOMEONE else who bothers to do the reading. As they approached the school, M'gann camo'd the ship. She and Superboy started to patrol the perimeter, while the others watched over the doctor.
-Miss Martian, link us up. We do not want the League intercepting our comms-
As the link went up, Artemis flinched. -Ugh, this is WEIRD!-
-And distracting. Tracking a virus is hard enough, but now I have to hear teen think in my skull?- Wow. You're welcome.
-Lady, do you always complain this much when people try to help you?-
-Pot, kettle. Have you met?-
-Hey, I don't need attitude from the newbie who drove Red Arrow off the team!- Okay, that was a bit extreme Walls.
-That is SO not on me!-
-Fate of the world at stake- She DOES have a point.
-Alright, I'll just help secure the perimeter-
-Good idea-
-You might wanna cut her some slack. It was her arrow that saved you against Amazo.- Dick had noticed the arrowheads Artemis carried were consistent with the one he had found in their fight against the bot.
-No, that was Roy's arrow. Right?-
-Not so much-
-Huh. Well, I'm still not gonna give her the satisfaction-
-You know I can still hear you!- Dick laughed as Wally moaned and got back to monitoring the cameras he had hacked into. Man, gotta feel for Roy. I mean, Arty's cool and all, but I don't know how pissed I would be if Bruce ever replaced me. Well, he would never do that, so I got nothin' to worry about. Now, for that DNA sample. Dick picked up a stray hair of Artemis' that he noticed on the floor. He deposited it in a safety container, making sure nobody saw him. He eventually got a ping on the mind-link, snapping him out of his thoughts.
-Miss Martian, Dr. Roquette has located the nanobots. Reconfigure the bioship so Superboy and Robin may pursue- Nice. World's Finest, Jr. Edition! Dick and Superboy ran into the shi, Dick taking over piloting. Okay, this is WAY different from the Batwing. Almost as if the ship could hear him, it morphed its controls to mimic the Batwing. Dick smirked as he got his hands on the controls.
Robin and SB made their way to the nearby STAR Labs facility, only to find that it was destroyed. Oh, that's not good. He radioed back to the others. "Guys, we're too late. The STAR facility is down."
"Robin, we have tracked the virus to its next target. It is going after Wayne Tech." Dick's eyes nearly fell out of their sockets as he rocketed the ship over to Gotham as fast as he could. Crap, if Ra's gets his hands on Wayne Tech's servers, he could get into the Batcave! Gotta get over there, NOW! Superboy looked back, noticing how tense Dick was.
"What's wrong?"
"The virus is going after Wayne Tech. In theory, if it hacks into its servers, it could make its way to the Bat-" Nice going! Nearly outed yourself!
"The what?"
"D-doesn't matter. What matters is that Wayne Tech operates a 24-hour-workforce. We'll never evacuate the building in time. Aqualad, send coordinates to the virus' remote operator!" As Kaldur sent over the info, Dick steered the ship to where the operator's GPS traced him. Once Superboy saw the operator, he leapt out of the ship. Dick was about to leap after him, but he turned back to the building. No, no, no! He grappled into the building, speeding after the nanobots. A guard saw the bots and Robin running after him and panicked. "H-hey! You can't come in here. Unauthorized entry, full lockdown." You idiot, I'm trying to help you!
"Waynetech override, R-G-4!" Dick's code overrode the lockdown. He spotted where the bots entered the server, and found his way to a console. It took him no time to hack into it, it WAS Waynetech after all, and he frantically got to work on hacking into the bots. Alright, if they enter the server, then they expose themselves to me! It's a two-way-street! Now I just gotta- Dick managed to hack into the bots, shutting them down and ending the threat. "YES! The infiltrators have been outfiltrated!"
Dick and Superboy, who had bested the operator, got back to the others, only to find that the assassins had gotten away. Luckily, with the nanobugs destroyed, the League had no reason to continue attacking Dr. Roquette. As the team rode back to base, Wally and Dick sat in the cargo bay of the bioship, talking about Artemis.
"Man, that girl gets on my nerves! Why couldn't we get Roy instead?!"
"Dude, she's not THAT bad. As much as I want Roy on the team, he dipped. Arty's fine. And besides, you sure you really hate her so much?" Dick smirked.
"What, yeah! Of course I do. C'mon bro, how do you not?"
"I mean, she's fine to me. She'll grow on you too. I give it six months till you two are dating." Wally made a disgusted face at that. "Dude! Not cool! And besides, I already got a girlfriend."
"Oh yeah, I forgot about Linda with how much you hit on Megs."
"You know I do that as a joke."
"Well, it's not exactly funny."
"Whatever, man. I'm gonna head to the front."
"Yeah, see ya in a bit." Before Dick followed, he loaded the DNA strand into a sequencer. His eyes widened as he saw the result. Artemis is Sportsmaster's daughter? And Cheshire's sister? Dick had faced Cheshire before, Ra's had once sent her to Gotham on a mission and the Dynamic Duo had to stop her. Okay, this...changes everything. Then again, she's not exactly LIKE her family. She seems to want to do good. And ya can't fool Bats. Dick thought it over before deciding to talk with Bruce about it.
As the bioship dropped into the cave, the team gave their usual debrief before Dick headed home with Bats.
"So, she's not really Green Arrow's niece, is she?"
"No, she's not. And you can't tell anyone who she is."
"Yeah, don't suppose any of them would like the fact that she's Sportsmaster's daughter and Cheshire's sister." Bruce threw him a surprised look. "I snagged a strand of hair and sequenced it."
"Huh, I guess I did teach you well. Listen, she's not like her family. She wants to do good. She's been dealt a bad hand, but trust me, she's clean. Oliver and I have already looked into her. She is not a mole."
"Alright then. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone." Yeah, definitely not. Walls already hates her and Supey has some anger issues. Megs and Kal might be fine with her, though.
"Good. I don't want anyone to know, for the time being. Once she settles in, she will tell the others at her own leisure." Dick nodded. He had gotten used to lying to the others about his identity. This was just one more mystery for them to try and solve.
Alright, this might've been the most boring chapter yet for me to write. I couldn't add much apart from the actual episode summary. That's the downside of going through the season episode-by-episode, but it's the most efficient way to reach Zatanna. I have sprinkled a good amount of fluff chapters in my upcoming story plans so as not to bore you all and myself with episode summaries, and another good thing is that Dick slowly starts to get less and less screen time over the course of the season, so I will be able to write my own stories, which is exciting. Also, I hinted towards the fact that Wally dates Linda in this chapter. Not a big deal, but we will get back to that in a coming chapter, since I do still prefer Spitfire to it, so don't rage. Sorry if this chapter sucks, I really couldn't stand writing this one. Anyways, next chapter takes place during episode 7, but since Dick's not part of the ep, I'm gonna be able to write my own story, more or less. Comment your thoughts and suggestions. Your suggestions could be my next chapter. Next chapter up soon.