A/N: Thank you guys for the reviews! This chapter is on the shorter side, but I needed some team bonding with other characters. More exciting stuff will be coming up after this chapter.

Chapter 8: Making Progress

Roy's implication had been ringing in Stevie's ears all week. It only pushed her to train herself harder. If it really was true, they'd have to be prepared to defend the cave and since the others had already been trained, she was the only one left to start training. Robin hadn't always been able to train her. He had school, missions, and other things to do. He had been able to get the basics down with her for three days before he just didn't have the time. She was a bit disappointed, but she was able to practice a little on her own.

She had also started to do some other things, like running laps around the gym to build up her stamina. There was only so much she could do without Robin, but she felt like she was starting to get the hang of blocking attacks. It was still a little early in the day, so all of the members of the team were either at school or with their mentors. Or they were supposed to be.

As she entered the gym, she spotted Artemis pounding on a punching bag. Stevie's green eyes wandered to the clock in the room to see that it was only 2:47. As far as she knew, Artemis and the others got out of school around 4 o' clock, or at least that's when they started to arrive at the cave. The blonde hadn't noticed her yet and not wanting to watch her, Stevie began to stretch and get ready to do a few laps.

When she was ready, she began to jog around the gym, glancing over at Artemis every couple of minutes. The blonde was still heavily focused on the punching bag, putting all of her strength into pounding on the thing. After realizing Artemis probably was too focused on her punching, Stevie focused ahead and picked up her pace. After a minute or so of jogging around the room, she noticed that the sounds of Artemis's fists on the punching bag had stopped and she looked over to see Artemis moving to run with her.

The blonde was right beside her within seconds and Stevie could see the sweat beading down her forehead. Something was wrong, but she didn't bother to ask and kept going. Besides, she knew by now that Artemis wasn't one to talk all that much about her problems. Artemis didn't even look at her and Stevie took that as a hint to do the same. They both continued to do laps around the room, not stopping for a few minutes until Stevie's lungs couldn't take any more strain.

She wasn't expecting Artemis to stop with her, but the blonde did and Stevie was quick to grab a water and gulp it down. The two remained quite for a moment until Artemis decided to break the silence.

"So when did you start working out?"

Stevie blinked, lowering the water bottle to look over at Artemis. "Well uh, I've been learning how to fight and I thought I might as well try some other exercises..."

"Where have you been learning?"

"Uhm..." Stevie glanced over to the blonde, not sure whether she should tell her that Robin was training her. Roy knew, but unless the others were secretly watching her, no one else did.

"Let me guess: Robin?" Artemis asked, rolling her eyes slightly.

Stevie nodded slowly. "How'd you guess?"

"Deduction. Miss Martian is too inexperienced, Superboy wouldn't put the time in, I obviously haven't, Kid Mouth can't even stay on his own feet without screwing up, Aqualad might, but he's too loyal to the team, even if he is a nice guy. That leaves Rob. He's experienced, nice enough I guess, and willing to bend the rules a little."

"Oh."

"So what do you know?"

"So far? I know how to block."

"That's it?"

"Yeah."

She chuckled a little, rolling her eyes. "That's all Robin taught you?"

"Yes. He said I need to master defense before I master offense."

The next thing Stevie knew, Artemis was thrusting her fist right at the young technopath's face. Stevie instinctively shoved the blonde's hand aside with her forearm.

"Not bad. Your reflexes aren't awful. That's a start."

Stevie's eyebrows furrowed. "Thanks...?"

"And how long have you been doing this?"

"A week. You're not going to tell Batman are you?" she asked, suddenly realizing that she probably shouldn't be telling Artemis these things. They hadn't given her any reason to not trust them yet, but she was just naturally untrusting because of her childhood.

Artemis laughed. "No. Whatever you do with Robin is not my business."

"Oh, I just thought-"

"That I'd rat you out to Batman? No. I understand why you don't really trust us, but..."

"Well, uh...thanks."

"Yeah, no problem..."

An awkward silence settled between the two and Stevie shifted awkwardly. She knew that outright kindness and compliments weren't exactly Artemis's style, so she let the unfinished sentence stay hanging. She knew what Artemis had meant anyway.

"I know I'm not Robin, but...if you want, I might be able to teach you a few things too..."

Stevie looked up in slight surprise. "You'd do that? Why?"

The blonde blew out a breath. "Let's just say that I can relate to you better than you think."

Before Stevie could ask what she meant, Artemis has turned around and crossed her arms. "So do you want to start up some offense?"

"Uh yeah, why not?"

"Okay well come here and wrap your hands in these. Wrap them tight, but not too tight."

The blonde held out two white wraps that she had taken from underneath the seat of one of the benches. The young teen took them from Artemis and looked down at them for a moment before doing what she had been told to do.

"We can start on the punching bag. Just...put all of your emotions into it."

Turning to the punching bag they had wandered over to, the technopath took a deep breath and swung. She found that once she started she couldn't stop, even if her shoulders were aching already. Every time she swung she thought of her past, the doctors, her parents, her "brothers"... It was a form of stress release that she hadn't thought of before. She wasn't a very violent person, but she could see herself doing this daily. Her fists began to hurt a little from the repetitive impact, but the pain pushed her deeper into her thoughts until she was completely lost in them.

She could practically see the memories - good and bad - right in front of her. The punching bag was morphing into all of the people she couldn't stand. Dr. Hewett, Professor Ojo, other doctors at the Shadows...they were all crumbling before her with every hit she dealt to them.

"Stevie!" the foggy voice of Artemis broke through her thoughts as she felt pressure on her shoulder, causing her to jolt. All of her false surroundings crumbled around her and she was back in reality again.

Her green eyes zipped around the room and landed on Artemis's hand on her shoulder. She had zoned out. "How long was I...?"

"Almost ten minutes."

"Oh I..." Her cheeks flushed and she quickly averted her eyes away from Artemis's. She had a tendency to get so lost in her own thoughts that she closed out the world. It was something that she did a lot when she was still with the Shadows. She also hadn't practiced her powers enough to do much without blocking everything out. She needed to stop that habit.

"Got carried away?" the blonde asked.

"Yeah."

Artemis nodded. "I get it. Do you want to continue?"

"Yes."

"Okay. I'm just going to give you some pointers. Keep your shoulders relaxed. It makes your stance better and keeps your muscles from tiring too quickly. Also, clench your fists a little tighter. You're more likely to hurt your knuckles if you don't."

Stevie nodded, eyes flickering to the punching bag again as Artemis gestured for her to continue. She put her fists up in a defensive stance, slowly relaxing her shoulders and balling her fists. Once again, she threw herself at the punching bag, though this time she could feel the difference. Her shoulders weren't as stiff as quickly as before and even though her knuckles were still hurting a little from the first time, it wasn't as biting.

When she began to tire, she stepped away from the punching bag, wiping some sweat from her forehead and glancing over at Artemis.

"Better. I-" the archer started, only to be interrupted.

"Artemis!"

Both girls swiveled around to see Miss Martian in the doorway. Like usual, her smile was wide and her eyes glimmered.

"Batman needs all of the team to gather in the entrance room!"

"Be there in a minute," Artemis said.

"Okay. I'll tell Batman."

Miss Martian fluttered away, leaving Stevie and Artemis alone again. Stevie began to unwrap her hands, knowing that her time training for now was up.

"Thanks for the...um, tips, I guess?"

"Yeah, it was no big deal," Artemis muttered, heading for the door and not looking back. She paused in the doorway, standing there for a moment as her shoulders tensed up before she turned around to face Stevie again. "Maybe we should do this again some time."

The technopath couldn't stop the small smile that yanked up the corner of her lips. She knew how Artemis was, so this was a little unusual. It made her feel...well, like she mattered or something along those lines. She couldn't really tell because she had never had friends before and...well it was a little weird. But a good kind of weird.

"Yeah...that sounds cool."

The blonde nodded once before continuing out of the room and out of sight. Maybe...maybe Stevie wasn't so bad at making friends if she let people in.


A/N: So Artemis and Stevie are now on somewhat good terms. No Robin in this chapter, unfortunately, but I needed to make connections with other characters. I still have M'gann and Connor left to go. And probably Wally. Even though he was more introduced than the others, I want to involve him just a little more. Also, I apologize if Artemis was ooc at all! I'm always worried about getting characters ooc! I hope that you enjoyed this chapter and thank you sooooo much for all of the reviews, follows, and favorites! :D