In this chapter instead of writing the thought Artemis had in the comics I change it to a conversation between Artemis and Alice. It is still based on the comics of Young Justice and it's not mine. What Batman, Green Arrow, Artemis and Paula are saying is also from the comics of the series.
Everything in Vietnamese is from google translate sorry if there are mistakes :(
Wonderland
GOTHAM CITY, AUGUST 3, 21:47 EDT
"I can't believe you dragged me to play dressed-up all these nights! We can be in so much trouble because of that!" Alice called and threw a card bomb on one of the monkeys.
"Think that the boy in the black T-shirt is our white rabbit, and that we tumbled down his rabbit hole. Think we got to wonderland." Artemis told her as she shot an arrow on a monkey.
"You think this our wonderland? You think the fake Superguy can be our white rabbit?" Alice asked mockingly, "With all those monkeys I would think we arrived to Oz and not Wonderland."
Artemis didn't respond to her sister's mocking. "I don't get what going on here," Artremis decided to say instead of continue arguing with her sister.
"A murderous robot is trying to kill the sidekicks, meaning, we supposed to be in the side of the robot!" Alice reminded her sister and kicked in one of the monkeys.
"But our father's creepy friend just sits there and enjoy the show, that is wrong!" Artemis called and hit the robotic monkey with her bow.
After some fight against the monkeys, the girls saw kid flash in trouble. Artemis quickly shot an arrow to save him. "You forgot we supposed to be in the robot side?!" Alice called at her after the robot freed Kid Flash.
Artemis and Alice ruined all the monkeys that attack them and then went to look at the sidekicks' battle. They saw them winning the robot. "They did it. Kids in my age, took down a killer robot with the powers of the justice league!" Artemis called in amazement.
"Exactly, now you see we doesn't have a chance to be heroes?" Alice asked her, using the situation to prove her point.
"His name is Superboy, our white rabbit's called Superboy. Well, that explains the red 'S' and the muscles." Artemis smiled.
"He is not our white rabbit!" Alice told her again.
"Superboy, Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, and I think that girl must be a Martain, they're a team." Artemis ignored from her sister, "And I want on! I so want on!"
"Are you mad, you lost your mind?!" Alice yelled at her, "We are villain girls, we grew up to be assassins! What makes you think we could ever be heroes?!"
"Why not? We took down all this monkeys, we kept them off this team's back, and my arrow is the one who saved Kid Flash! Besides, Speedy is not there! They don't have an archer! They need me!" Artemis was still enthusiastic.
"You kidding me! If we'll try to join, they'll want to know who we are! Our whole family history! This will fail before it'll start!" Alice called, putting her arms on her waists.
"You are right," Artemis sat on her bed hardly, "If they'll know that, there is no way they'd trust us, they will never let us be one of them."
"Yes, we can play dress-up all you want, but no one ever buy us as one of the good guys." Alice stated.
"You are right, there are no wonderlands for someone like us." Artemis said, looking on the 'Alice in Wonderland' poster.
"Which is ironic because my name is Alice." The younger sister reminded and they both laughed.
GOTHAM CITY, AUGUST 07, 22:37 EDT
Paula heard a knock on the door. "Hold on." She called. It was a bit late for visiting but she knew it's Gotham and this is happened sometimes. She just wasn't sure who is behind this door, it could be criminals and muggers or villains from the shadows. She didn't want to be violent and attack who knocks but its Gotham and a visit in this hour must be bad news. She wasn't even sure how to fight on a wheelchair she didn't do that before but she has to try if someone try to break into her house. She took a knife from the kitchen and hid it under the pillow of her wheelchair and wheeled herself to open the door. She couldn't believe to her eyes when she saw who stood there. "Batman? Green Arrow? What are you doing here?!" She asked them her voice trembled a little. A mugger or a criminal would be a better option.
"We need to talk to you." Batman stated.
Paula wheeled aside so they could get inside. "I didn't do anything. I just got out of prison. I want to restore my life be there for my daughters. Besides, I'm not capable of doing anything anymore." She told them and pointed on her legs. Green Arrow sat on the couch and Batman decided to stand nearby.
"We know Mrs. Crock, we not here because of you." Green Arrow told her.
"He is not here. I told him to leave because I want my house would be clean from this life." Paula mentioned.
"We are not here for your husband as well." Batman said.
"We need to speak with you about your daughter, about Artemis." Green Arrow finally mentioned the real reason for the visiting.
"No, what happened? What did she do? Is she in trouble? What can I do to help?" Paula asked them many questions, she was worried for her daughter and barely had time with her and she already in trouble.
"Calm down, we'll explain properly. In the past few days Artemis got out to the streets to fight with muggers and thieves." Batman told Paula.
"Please, you have to help her. I don't want her in the life of crime, I want her out of it, Artemis deserves a better life, please." Paula begged them.
"That is why we here, we came to offer her a place on our covert team of young heroes." Green Arrow clarified.
"Thanks, thanks you so much." Paula smiled.
GOTHAM CITY, AUGUST 07, 22:40 EDT
"Why are we still doing this?! What are you trying to prove?! We couldn't even find a crime tonight, in Gotham!" Alice declare; her sister nonsense annoyed her. Alice went with her because their mom kicked out their dad and she already missed the streets.
"I don't know, you are right we are horrible heroes. We should come back home." Artemis sighed and went to their house direction.
"It is the right decision." Alice assured her as they got inside the room through their window.
"Artemis! Could you come out here, please?" Their mother asked from the living room.
"Um, sure, mom. Just a sec..." Artemis called and put on her shower robe.
"She is starting to ignore me now?" Alice rolled her eyes and quickly wore her blue sleep gown who resembled Alice in Wonderland's dress.
"You are not nice, so don't act like you don't deserve it." Artemis stated and opened the door to the living room.
"What's going on?" Alice muttered quietly after she saw who is in there and took a step back.
"Batman... Green Arrow..." Artemis stuttered in shock. They stood up near the door to their room.
"You have another daughter?" Batman asked Paula quietly who nodded in response.
Alice smiled, at least she succeeded to fool Batman. She all the time make sure she doesn't record anywhere she even took the records from her school, so no one, especially the heroes, won't know she is exists; and that worked! Batman doesn't know about her. He thought Artemis is the only one here. Well, until now...
"Mom! What did you do?!" Artemis yelled at her mother.
"We're here to see you, Artemis. But first, who are you?" Batman asked Alice.
"Why would I tell you?" Alice spat, forgetting with who she is talking.
"Wait, you didn't know she is exists? I know we didn't list her birth but she is going to school she is recorded now. Artemis, she is going to school, right?" Paula looked at her daughters worriedly.
"Yes, yes, she did..." Artemis assured her.
"Went, not coming back," Alice clarified. "And there was not a chance in the world I let heroes know I exist. I erased every lead on me and everything online all the time to make sure they won't know about me."
"You are a hacker? And you tricked Batman?" Green Arrow asked, astounded.
"Yes, and that was the point." Alice smirked.
"Your father made you to do that?" Batman wondered; Alice shook her head but couldn't answer because her mother got inside the conversation.
"Wait, what do you mean you are not coming back to school? You are a child of course you need to study." Paula reminded her.
"Dad was alright with me not going to school. And we really going to do this discussion now, Paula?" Alice crossed her arms.
Batman and Green Arrow shared a look, this conversation didn't go to the direction they wanted too.
"tại sao bạn không nói với tôi?" Paula asked Artemis in Vietnamese.
"bởi vì tôi có một tháng để chăm sóc nó." Artemis answered back in the same language.
"bởi vì đó không phải việc của bạn" Alice stated, "Besides, you're wasting your time because I think Batman know Vietnamese."
"You taught her Vietnamese?" Paula asked.
"I thought it was a good idea to teach her our native language." Artemis shrugged.
"Anyway, why are you here?" Alice asked the heroes.
"We here to talk to you, Artemis." Batman looked at Artemis.
"Yes, we know what you've been up to." Green Arrow added.
"I told you it's a bad idea." Alice mentioned.
"And you came to stop us?! Well, you can just forget..." Artemis started to get mad.
"Wait, both of you? You went out to the streets with your sister?" Batman asked Alice, from the little he saw from her it could be sense.
"Yes, of course, I got bored in the house, I love to be in the streets at night." Alice smiled.
"But you are like... how old are you?" Green Arrow asked.
"I'm eight years old, but that doesn't matter, I'm very talented and I'm better then Artemis in everything." Alice smiled proudly. Artemis nodded in approval. Everyone in the room understood she is not meaning studying but she is talking about how well she was trained.
"You are so young, wait he trained you as well?!" Green Arrow called, by his voice tone you could realize he is a bit mad.
"Of course, I live in Gotham I need to know how to protect myself and fight." Alice shrugged.
"How far this is went?" Batman asked.
"All of it, everything." Alice answered calmly.
"How about we stop this discussion?" Artemis tried to stop the conversation before it getting out of hand.
Paula's eyes got widen. "No, he didn't teach you how to..."
"He did, of course he did." Artemis stated and rolled her eyes.
"He taught an eight years old girl how to kill?!" Green Arrow yelled, the codes in the conversation was over, the girls try very hard not to use the word 'kill', but he just stopped it.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Alice, it's all my fault. If I would have been here it wouldn't happened, not like that." Paula apologized, tears fall from her eyes, she wheeled herself to her younger daughter.
"What's the problem? This is Gotham, I need to know things like that, for self-defense and generally. I'm not sorry for how I grew up." Alice told them, walking backwards to get away from her mother; all of the adults was a bit surprised.
"I don't think you learned that for self-defense, at least your father didn't teach you that for this cause." Batman stated.
"Fine, that is true. But I'm too young and all of that happened before I was eight, so you can't arrest me or charge me on any of these, besides, what I'm saying right now is not an actual confession and you could never prove any of my cases!" Alice crossed her arms and leaned on the wall.
"Calm down, we are not here to arrest you." Batman assured them.
"So, you aren't here to stop us from being heroes, or to get our apology? Or scolding us?" Artemis wondered.
"You are still think we are capable to do some good? We don't have a chance to run away from this world, it is a joke." Alice told her sister.
"Why not? It's seems you already did it. You helped our young hero team, we found your arrow, Artemis. You have the skills for it." Green Arrow said.
"And we here to offer you both a place on the team." Batman told them; Green Arrow glanced at Batman, technically they were here to offer this to Artemis not Alice as well.
"Wait, what?" Artemis was shocked.
"No, this is insane! We can't do this, Artemis, dad will literally kill us!" Alice called.
"He is not here anymore; you don't need to worry." Paula assured her daughter.
"Yes, we'll not let him hurt you." Green Arrow promised.
"Because you are that good in stopping villains?" Alice sneered.
"Alice!" Artemis called, "I'm sorry about her."
"I'm trying as hard as I can, but I'm sure you could help me in that." Batman told her.
"You didn't know about my existence until now! How can you even say that?" Alice called.
"Look, Alice, you can choose who you are, you don't have to follow your parents' footsteps, you can choose your path by your own. I get it, you grew up to think you'll be a villain in your future but your destiny is not sealed yet, give us a chance, give you a chance, at least try to do something differently, give yourself an opportunity to try and be a hero." Batman told her, no one expect him to do an inspiring speech, not even Green Arrow.
"I don't think you can say no to that." Artemis told Alice in sign language.
"I think Batman also knows sign language," Alice stated, "You do realize I grew up hating you, hating heroes. How can I be one myself? I'm too deep is this world, you can't actually give us a way out. I nurtured to be a villain. It is too late to change it." Alice reminded him and crossed her arms.
"Alice, please, you don't have to be like us, you have your all future ahead of you. You are only a child, give yourself a better future, I don't want you in this life, you could be much better than that. I don't want you to be a shadows agent or an assassin you have a chance to change your life. Both of you have a way out now, and you should take it." Paula begged her daughters; she knew let them be heroes is a better option then the alternative.
"You don't even know me! You didn't raise me; you weren't here until now! You can't just come here and think you have a right to decide on me!" Alice yelled at her.
"Can we not do this now?" Artemis whispered them.
"Alice, you have a great potential, I only met you and found out about you few moments ago and you already impressed me. At least consider it for a moment, don't rule this out." Batman told her, he already made the decision, he wanted her in as well, regardless her age.
"I don't want to do this without you." Artemis mentioned, trying to hide her joy. She won't waste this opportunity, to get out of the world and do good, to be a hero, to go to the other side, she has a way out and that all she wanted for herself and for her sister. Alice is deeper in this world from her, even though she is much younger, and as the older sister she won't leave her in the shadows. "Besides, I know you had some doubts about all of this lately."
"Why did you think that?!" Alice called, that was true, but no one was supposed to know that especially the heroes.
"I know you and I saw you having second thoughts in the last three months, so, giving yourself a chance, to us a chance to try the other side, to see the whole picture." Artemis urged her.
Alice nodded in consent, "I think it's the worst idea you ever had but alright, I'm willing to try."
"You'd both make a great addition to the team, but that is alright with you Mrs. Crock?" Green Arrow looked at Paula, they still needed their guardian's approval.
"You have my permission; I want them out of this world." Paula said, smiling.
"But I have one condition: You don't tell the team who I am... who our family is." Artemis decided and Alice nodded. Paula had tears in her eyes.
"Your private life is your business." Batman stated.
Green Arrow put his hand on Artemis' shoulder, "It's not like you're the first hero with a secret identity. We'll introduce you as my new protege and my niece. We are both blond."
"Then, We're in! We are so in!" Artemis called.
"Wait, it's won't work. No one believe you let your eight years old 'niece' be a hero, and we won't going to hide the fact we are sisters. Besides, I'm not an archer, I might be good with darts and blowgun, but not with arrows." Alice told them, she actually looked for excuses for this all thing to fail.
"I'll be the one who train and work with you. I started to work with Robin when he was nine, I have an experience with young children." Batman mentioned.
"But why they would believe I'm working with if I supposed to be his niece?" Alice pushed them for answers, she would try to find many problems as she could.
"You don't need to worry; everything will be alright. We'll tell them you two are a package deal and you do this together because neither of you wanted to do this alone." Batman reassured here.
"Well, I think that is everything. When do we start?" Artemis asked enthusiastic.
"We'll come pick you up from the roof tomorrow at six in the evening." Batman told them.
"We'll see you tomorrow it was very nice to meet you two." Green Arrow smiled to them and the men went outside.
"I can't believe it was real and I can't believe you cooperate with that!" Alice shook her head.
"This is our rabbit hole, Alice, this is our wonderland, we've got the best opportunity of our life, we can get out and choose for ourselves and make our own destiny please at least give it a chance with me." Artemis leaned to her sister.
"I already said yes, but we are going to regret it very soon." Alice told them and went back to their room.
GOTHAM CITY, AUGUST 07, 23:28 EDT
"Are you sure it's a good idea? Alice wasn't part of the plan." Green Arrow asked Batman on the roof.
"I know, because we didn't know about her. But if she is talented enough to make sure I won't know she is exists, I want her on my side. If someone won't step in now, she would be in the shadows in two years from now." Batman told him.
"But she seemed very unstable, I don't think we can trust her." Green Arrow told him.
"I don't think we can trust neither of them, they are still Sportmaster's daughters. Artemis wants it more, but Alice is there because of her sister. We need to open an eye on them. But I want to give them an exit from being a villain, that what we do here and I think they both deserves it." Batman explained.
"They do deserve it, I still can't believe he taught someone that young to kill, but Alice objected too much." Green Arrow mentioned.
"I know, that why I'll work with her and you'll work only with Artemis. Alice only knows her father as a parent, I can only imagine how harsh childhood she had. I'm giving her a change, but she still needs tough treatment. If she is not going to school that means she wasn't supposed to go to school next year that means she doesn't have boundaries. I think her father let her do what she wants as long as she does what he says." Batman reminded him.
"That is sad, I'm really pity her, she is only a child, she supposed to do things normal kids do." Green Arrow said.
"Well, this is not possible when your father is a supervillain. At least from now on her life would be better. I'll help her." Batman told him.
"And how are you going to explain this to Robin? He would be alright with you having another protege?" Green Arrow wondered.
"He'll manage." Batman stated.
"What about the league? I don't think they'll love to hear we recruit eight years old." Green Arrow muttered.
"The other option is letting her continue in the path to become a villain, an assassin. If I can save this child from herself, I'll do that. I know it was an impulsive moment but I'm responsible enough to do that and I think it's the right decision, Oliver, and I'm sure the others will understand this as well." Batman said.
"I hope you right, but I'm glad we giving them a chance not to be judged by their parents but by themselves, they could actually have a future now." Green Arrow smiled, looking at the apartment they just left.
Author note: I know Alice is only eight years old and she is very young, but think of her like Cassandra Cain (who is also in this fanfic) was when she was eight years old in the level of skills, she is well trained to be a villain until this age, and she is very good in that. So, her age doesn't really matters here, because she only knew how to be a villain. I'll explain some of Alice skills in the next chapters
I tried very hard to figure out exactly the age of criminal responsibility, I couldn't understand it very well, I read sometimes it is seven but most of the time they treat to kids like they incapable of doing crimes, so just go on with it. Besides, I don't think Alice supposed to know the rules in this subject very well.
Translation:
tại sao bạn không nói với tôi-why didn't you tell me.
bởi vì tôi có một tháng để chăm sóc nó-because I have a month to take care of it.
bởi vì đó không phải việc của bạn-because it's none of your business