o, here's exactly what happened to me.
I started posting my fanfiction, and was starting to get into it. Then I had slipping grades and got grounded from anything fanfiction for two weeks. After that I got really busy, and I haven't been able to get back into posting since. I tried to get into it again a few years ago and as you can see that didn't happen. I understand how horrible it is when an author stops writing a fic, and then doesn't do anything after saying they're back. So, I dug up everything I could find that I wrote on this, there's just under 5,000 words left. I feel really bad about this one, because I had this completed on my Google Drive and never posted it for some reason. So, here is everything else I didn't post.
Artemis woke up at seven in the morning. She had been out all night helping Dick patrol Gotham, and she had loved every minute of it. She slowly sat up and realized she was still in her Tigress suit. She walked over to her bag, and pulled out a change of clothes. She realized that Wally was still sound asleep. She walked over and shook him awake. "We need to get back to Oliver before he comes looking for us. They may have gotten the plane fixed early." Wally groaned and got up. She saw Dick waking up too. "We've gotta go, will you tell the others? We don't want Oliver tracking us down." Dick nodded, and rolled over, probably hoping to get more sleep. Artemis walked into an abandoned room and changed for meeting Oliver.
~xXx~xXx~xXx~
Oliver was waiting for Felicity to return when he saw a news report of strange new vigilantes in town. There was two archers, one in an outfit the same color as Roy's, but a different style, and one in a tiger themed outfit. Then there was the local and already known vigilante Nightwing, a blonde in black leather, not unlike Sara, and a guy in an outfit that was the reverse of Barry's. He was about to turn up the volume when he heard Felicity in the hallway. He turned it off and stood up, ready to confront her.
As she opened her and Wally's hotel room door, she saw Oliver waiting. "Felicity, may we talk?" he asked, his annoyance evident on his face. He looked at Wally. "Privately." he clarified. Wally looked at Artemis, and she gave him a nod that Oliver barely caught, letting him know that she would be fine. Wally was fine with letting her run into a gunfight with only a bow and arrows, but was upset with the idea of leaving her in a room with Oliver alone. Artemis almost laughed at that thought, it was so like him to be over protective in the safest of situations. As soon as the door closed, Oliver's face grew angry. "Care to explain why you met up with Laurel and Roy last night? And went to an abandoned building? Which, by the way, is not a friend's house?" Artemis got mad.
"Only if you explain why you apparently had Diggle follow me!" she exclaimed.
"Because you have been lying straight to my face for a while now about that boyfriend of yours!"
"I thought 'that boyfriend of mine' was dead for eight years Oliver!" she yelled and Oliver fell silent. Shoot. She shouldn't have said that. She sighed. Time to twist the truth. "I thought that he ran to help save some people, and an accident happened. I thought he was dead until a friend texted me a picture of him. That's why my phone was shattered, I dropped it. I drove to California to get him right away, he hadn't come to me because I had moved directly after the accident and he couldn't find me. You know the rest of the story." Artemis ended, falling back onto the cover story. Oliver stayed silent.
"You're not telling me the whole story Felicity. Why are you being so vague?" he finally said.
"Because my private life outside of Arrow and being CEO of Queen Consolidated, and whatever I decide to share with you, is mine." She and Oliver had a staring contest of sorts, seeing who would relent first. That way, it was deadly silent when the window shattered.
Artemis tackled Oliver to keep him from being hit by the shattering glass and the bullets that followed. He was surprised, she could tell, but he didn't think much of it. Artemis's hand fell to the dagger she carried with that was so well concealed, Oliver couldn't even spot it. And when she reached for it, it looked like she was putting her hand into a pocket, not reaching for a concealed weapon. Wally opened the door, hearing the noise, and shut it again when the bullets started to spray.
"Get me my stuff!" she yelled so Wally could hear. She could see Oliver's confused look, and would've laughed if they weren't getting shot at. She heard thuds on the roof and her and Oliver both glanced up at the same time. Oliver didn't have any ranged weapons on him, so he was defenseless against the shooters. Artemis gulped and reached for her hidden dagger, along with a second one. She stood with her back against the wall the window was on, and waited for the shooting to stop for a second so the guys could reload. Then, during the pause, she whirled in front of the window and threw the daggers, which looked like they appeared out of nowhere to Oliver, both of which hit their marks perfectly. As the shooting started again, Wally opened the door and darted in with out getting hit. He was carrying Artemis's duffel on his shoulder. She opened it and pulled out her batons, which she set aside. Those were for close range, and she couldn't throw them because they were blunt weapons and wouldn't do much damage. The sword she also set aside. Finally, she pulled out her crossbow with preloaded bolts. Artemis switched from normal bolts to explosive ones, and lined up against the same wall. When the shooting once more paused, she turned and fired the three bolts she had left, last night had taken a toll on her weaponry and she needed to get more. All three hit their marks, but they had five shooters up there, not three. They were spaced so far apart that one explosive bolt wouldn't take two out, so the two left were safe. Artemis spun to Wally.
"Can you grab my old bow?" He nodded and ran out of the room. Then a guy swung into the room, and turned to Oliver. Oliver snapped out of his shock and started to assault him in hand to hand combat. Two more swung in and started approaching Artemis. She grabbed her batons and set to work. Within seconds, they were both unconscious on the floor. Wally jogged back in with her old bow, not willing to reveal his speed. He tossed it and the quiver to her which she caught with ease. She pulled the string back and fired, barely taking time to aim as she didn't need it. The last shooters fell down with ease. They heard a sonic loud scream coming from the roof, and Artemis and Wally both automatically covered their ears. When it stopped for a second, Artemis got out the earplugs and tossed a pair to Wally. They both put them in, and didn't even flinch when the screams started again. Wally smiled at Artemis.
"They have the best timing, don't they?" he shouted, and she nodded with a grin in response. She looked at Oliver, who had been knocked unconscious by the second scream.
"We can leave him here, right?"
"Yeah, I have a feeling that he'll be fine. Head to the roof now, right?" Wally said, knowing the answer to his question.
"Of course! We wouldn't want to miss out on the fun!"
They opened the door to see Black Canary, Red Arrow, and Nightwing fighting the men on the roof. Now that she wasn't in the middle of the battle, Artemis realized that these men were completely unfamiliar to her. Their uniforms had no defining marks, and everything was covered, giving her no clue to their identities. She ducked as one threw a dagger at her neck, and then grabbed it from where it had buried itself in the door behind them. She threw it right back at him, and he was not as fast as her. Her and Wally automatically rejoined the battle, and within five minutes only the heros were left standing. Black Canary pulled her mask off, as it could get uncomfortable when she was sweating. Artemis put her batons aside, and walked over to Dinah, who was out of breath due to her use of the Canary Cry.
"You need more endurance BC. You haven't used your Canary Cry in so long that it's tiring for you." Dinah gave her a fake scowl and a playful shove.
"You could use some polishing your self, Tigress." Artemis rolled her eyes at her code name. She opened her mouth for a friendly retort, but was cut off by Wally.
"Shouldn't we deal with Oliver now?"
Red Arrow lowered his hood and took off his mask too. "How much did he see?"
Artemis sighed. "Me throw two daggers, shoot three explosive bolts, shoot two arrows, and take out two of the attackers with my batons. Plus, he saw me take the sword out of my bag while I was searching for my crossbow."
"So, nothing easily explained." Roy clarified. Artemis sighed again. She needed to work on not doing that so often.
"Yep, but he didn't see Wally use his speed, that's something we can keep him in the dark about. And he didn't know who all was on the roof, he was knocked out by your scream Dinah. Oh, and he knows that me and Wally met up with you two and entered the clocktower. So, we can either tell him the truth and have him never trust us again, or we can tell him as little as possible, and have the rest of it come out later, resulting in him also never trusting us again. So, no, this will not be easily explained Roy."
"I say we tell him the whole truth." Dinah said unexpectedly. "He deserves to know about this. And, if he does know, I can spar and destroy him like I've always wanted too. He's not that great of a fighter when you compare him to the Justice League or anybody that was on the Young Justice team." Artemis thought about it. It would make sense. With what he had seen, there was no way to make up a good excuse that wouldn't leave him suspicious. Only the truth would cover everything, and leave no holes.
"Are you guys in contact with Oracle?"
Nightwing nodded in confirmation. "She's been listening the entire time, and is fine with you revealing her to Oliver."
Artemis grinned. "So, how about we kidnap Diggle, who is out doing something for Oliver right now, and then take both of them to the clocktower? You know, have a little fun while doing this?" Nightwing listened to Oracle for a moment.
"She says it's fine, let's do it!"
~xXx~xXx~xXx~
Artemis was trailing Diggle in her Tigress outfit. He was stopping to fill the car he was using with gas, the perfect time to take him. He payed for the gas, and was about to get back into the car when Artemis dropped onto him from the roof, and hit him on the head with a swift blow from her baton.
~xXx~xXx~xXx~
Dinah was talking with Artemis when she noticed that Oliver was awake. He hadn't moved or opened his eyes, but she heard his breathing pattern changed. Time to start telling him that everything he knew about some of his close friends was a lie. This wasn't going to go well. Everybody was in their full suits, Dinah was even using her wig.
"He's awake." She called to the others, even though it was unnecessary. They had noticed when she did. Oliver stopped the pretence of being asleep and opened his eyes carefully and suspiciously. He immediately noticed that he had no restraints, and that he couldn't determine anybody's identity. Dinah could see his eyes scanning the room and noting the one unguarded exit, and the skylight that was still broken from Artemis and Dinah's arrival the night before. She looked up there too. "Yeah, that really needs to be fixed." she commented out loud using her voice modifier. She wanted to mess with Oliver some before revealing their identities. I mean, couldn't they have a bit of fun? "Your hotel room was destroyed, at least the one that you were lounging in, so we took you here to avoid your unconscious body being found. All of your attackers are even dead or in police custody, so you'll be seeing some of them again. The prison here has a bad record when it comes to escapees. We decided we wanted to talk to you and Diggle, so he's here too." she nodded to Diggle, who was still knocked out, on the other side of the room, even though she knew that Oliver had already seen him. "If you want answers, we'll give you them. If you don't, you're free to go as soon as Diggle wakes up." She could tell Oliver was confused, and he probably wanted answers too. They heard Diggle groan from the other side of the room. Nobody glanced over, but Dinah gave a slight nod, and Tigress walked over to him. She carefully helped him over to Oliver. He was fully awake now, just groggy. Oliver looked like he was about to attack. Tigress looked the most vulnerable due to her helping Diggle. Behind her back, Dinah pointed from Oliver to Tigress, alerting everybody of the threat incase they hadn't already seen it. Sure enough, Oliver lunged at Tigress, who proceeded to dodge him then get him into a chokehold he couldn't get out of. She released him, and gave him a slight push towards where he had been before. Nightwing did the same with Diggle, who had attacked when he saw Oliver doing it. Dinah bit her lip to keep from laughing. Everybody thought that the Arrow was this dangerous guy, but he was nothing compared to the Justice League or their younger branch. As he sat back down, Dinah calmly resumed speaking.
"We mean you no harm Oliver, or Arrow, or whatever you want to be called. You can walk out now, or you can get answers. There is no need to attack us." She saw Oliver blink in surprise as she revealed her knowledge of his nighttime activities. She smiled. "We've known about you and your agenda to save the city from day one Oliver. We're professionals, not much gets by us. We also know that you have questions, so please, ask away." He opened his mouth, carefully thinking his question through. Dinah knew that he was going to ask who they were, to see if they actually were going to tell him anything.
"Who are you." he said, demanding.
She took a deep breath and reached up for her own mask. The others followed her lead. She could see Oliver's surprise as they removed their masks. "We are what is left of the younger branch in the Justice League." she said proudly, without her voice modifier."
"Richard Grayson, the first Robin, and now Nightwing. No powers, just Batman's training." Dick said, going first.
Roy was next. "Roy Harper, I was Speedy, but about six years ago I changed my name to Red Arrow."
Then came Oracle. Right on time she wheeled into the room. She gave a friendly wave. "Hi, I'm Barbara, Oracle when I'm helping Dick through coms. I'm also Commissioner Gordon's daughter." She wheeled onto the computer and started powering it up.
Wally stepped up. "My real name is Wally West, I am a speedster." As if to prove his point, he ran to the other wall and back. "I don't have a codename anymore because I'm retired. Just over eight years ago I was vaporized, and I was resurrected somehow about…" he trailed off and looked at Dinah.
"A month." she supplied.
"Thanks BC, about a month ago."
Dinah stepped up next. "As you know my name is Dinah Laurel Lance, but with my old friends that know about my abilities I'm called Dinah. I am retired, but when I was active I was a member of the Justice League, the Black Canary. I'm a metahuman, I have been for my whole life. I have a sonic scream, and I'm sorry that it knocked you out earlier Oliver."
Finally it was Artemis's turn. Dinah knew that she was nervous about this, losing Oliver's trust was the last thing she wanted. "My name is Artemis Crock. I am the daughter of the Sportsmaster and the Huntress, and the sister of Cheshire. I am the only one in my family that isn't a criminal. I started my vigilante career under my own name, Artemis, because people would assume it was a code name due to the fact that I used a bow as my weapon. Later I went undercover as Tigress, and even after I quit being undercover, I kept the Tigress persona because of Wally's death."
Everybody was quiet for a while. Then Artemis stood up she walked to the edge of the room and climbed up the wall, using barely visible cracks. Then she walked on the rafters, and sat down in about the middle of the room. Dinah knew that she was coping that way. Being high up put her away from the problem, gave her room. Suddenly Barbara's computer system beeped. Everybody's heads popped up. Artemis swung upside down on the beam, so she could see the computer screen.
"Shooting… outside Wayne Industries." Everybody sighed and went back to how they were, knowing what that meant. Oliver was confused though, it showed on his face. Dinah decided to explain.
"Batman works at Wayne Industries, he's probably already taken care of the problem." Oracle perked up again, then relaxed with a sigh.
"Out of town, and outside the Daily Planet."
"How about we just patrol again?" Artemis said, flipping down and landing perfectly. "Then we wouldn't be bored at least." Dick opened his mouth to protest. She held up a hand. "Yes I know we're retired. Yes, I know that the public seeing us out again will make them think we're back and once more put a target on our backs. So? I already have one because of my work over the past few years, so this won't do anything else to me." Dick was silent for a moment. Then he sighed, defeated.
"Fine, you can go. And don't you dare ask Dinah." He said, spinning to Dinah, who had in fact been about to ask. "You don't have an excuse."
"Other than the fact that I could fling you across the room very fast and painfully without touching you, and leave you still fit enough to go on patrol while in lots of pain?" she said, knowing that she would win this argument. Dick shot her a glare.
"Fine! Everyone can go! Just don't get mad at me when the public deems you active again and the villains come after you!"
~xXx~xXx~xXx~
Dinah sometimes wondered why she was friends with such crazy people. This was one of those moments. Dick left to check on Oracle, so they needed the extra firepower that Dinah's scream provided for their activities. They had been stopping a robbery, and her scream had come out so hard that she had stumbled backwards. So, Wally had come up with the wonderful idea of seeing how hard it could push off something. Which basically meant that she was going to be pushed off a building and was going to see if she could fly. And if she didn't she would go splat. Yes, Wally said he would catch her, but she doubted that it would help, it would probably break his arms. So now here she was, ready to jump out of the window into the alleyway below.
"Ready?" Artemis called.
"Never!" She responded. She took a deep breath, and jumped. She started screaming and closed her eyes, waiting for the splat. Which didn't come. She opened her eyes and saw that she was above Gotham. She almost stopped screaming, but then realized that she had to keep on going. She only took fast breaths, so she wouldn't fall, and slowly started screaming quieter until she could land on the ground. Wally was the first to reach her.
"That was so cool!" He yelled as he skidded to a stop. "How far do you think you can go?"
"I don't know, I can take small breaths. I think I could go higher if I really tried. The main problem is getting my cry to reach the ground and push up hard enough that I don't fall to my death." Dinah said, actually considering using this crazy idea more often.
"Have you ever screamed as hard as you can?"
"No, of course not, I don't want to cause destruction. I just want to quickly subdue criminals."
"Try that then! See how high you can get!"
By now Artemis and Red Arrow had caught up with them. They had heard Wally's last statement. "How about we just try to get to the top of the clocktower, and give Dick a heart attack.
"You want to scare them by having me fly to the top of the tower and crash through the skylight. How will they know that Wally didn't run me up?"
"Wally will already be in the room, we all will. That will make it even more surprising." Roy said, liking the idea.
Dinah sighed. She knew she had no choice.
-_- Just a line break -_-
Dick sat in the tower, worried. Oliver and Diggle had gone back to the hotel and were packing for their plane. He doubted he would ever see them again. What worried him was Artemis, Roy, Dinah, and Wally. They should have been back by now. He looked up to see everybody but Dinah enter. "What took you guys so long?" he asked, trying to not let the worry creep into his voice.
"We had some fun while we were out. Is that not allowed?" Wally said, faking looking offended.
"Where's Dinah then?" Dick asked. "Did she stay behind to wrap a few things up?" He heard a scream, growing louder. He looked at the group. "What did you do?"
"We did nothing, just taught Dinah a few new tricks." Artemis replied cheekily. Suddenly the tarp covering the skylight burst open and Dinah fell threw, landing in a crouch. She rolled to her feet and grinned like a crazy person.
"That was awesome!" she said, excited. Dick just started at her with an expression that translated into 'Really?'.
"You decided to attempt flight." he stated.
"Wally came up with the original idea, and I thought I was going to die when I jumped off out of the building the first time, but it works and is really fun." she said, obviously happy with the new discovery. "I move really fast too."
Dick turned to Artemis. "You're the responsible one! Why did you agree to this?"
"It wasn't my choice, and it was amazing. You should have seen her! She looked awesome! The only trouble is that it takes a lot of her energy to do it." Artemis frowned. The problem had obviously been bugging her.
"Come on Dick. This could actually be useful! How about you help us with the energy problem." Roy said, trying to get DIck's help. "Or the steering problem. The human body is not very aerodynamic." Dinah piped up, more calmed down now. Dick sighed, seeing that his friends were serious about using this.
"How about a suit that helps you glide more Dinah." he said reluctantly. "It would be easier for you to stay in the air, and would also make it so you need less energy to move forwards. You can't really change the aerodynamic part of it unless you want to wear a weird looking hat on your head, but we could make your costume lighter and warmer to help you when you're flying."
Dinah looked happy to have his help. "What would we make it out of?" she asked.
"I've been working on an insulating material that's also light for winter this year." Dick said, remembering his side project. "It's also bullet proof."
-_- Just a Line Break -_-
"How did we not know about any of this?" Oliver asked Diggle. They were packing their things. The plane was leaving tomorrow. "Laurel was part of the Justice League while we were dating. Roy is a lot better fighter than he's been letting on. Felicity didn't even tell us her real name, and could beat me up half asleep. And yet we knew none of this. We didn't see anything that might be off." He closed his bag with a slam. Then he sighed. "I understand why Felicity would hide her past from us. Her family is messed up, not something you advertize. Her fighting skills would have raised questions, and it would have been hard to admit all of this too us once she knew she could trust us, because she was our friend then. We were her friends by then. But why wouldn't Roy use all of his fighting abilities? He could have done a lot more if he had used all of his training! And I was dating Laurel for crying out loud. She should have told me, she could trust me!"
"Yeah, it's not like you slept with her sister or anything." Diggle commented dryly from the back of the room where he was packing his stuff.
Oliver opened his mouth to argue, then shut it, knowing that he couldn't disagree with that. "What should we do? Do you think that we should offer Felicity a chance to stay on the team, along with Roy?"
Diggle looked up, surprised. "I thought that you would never talk to her again Oliver. She has been lying to you for nearly three years, and you still want to work with her?"
"I understand why she did it. I do a bit for Roy too. Him revealing his past could have accidentally revealed Felicity's. As much as I hate it, I understand why. I agree that it was a good reason, and I am willing to still work with them as part of our team if the want to." Oliver said reluctantly, yet knowing that he believed in his decision. "I'll ask Felicity if she shows up at the airport."
"Are you going back to Starling?" Oracle asked Artemis. She blinked. She hadn't really thought about it.
"Only if Oliver wants me." she responded. She glanced at the clock. The private plane left at noon. She had half an hour to be there. "I'll visit Oliver at his hotel room. Ask him if he wants me to come back."
"Won't that be a bit awkward?" Oracle asked. "I'll have to do it at some point. I'll bring Dinah and Roy with me." Artemis responded, knowing that Oliver would want to ask them too, if he had any interest in the idea. Oracle shrugged. Artemis and her were good friends, but her personal life was her own.
"Hello!" Artemis said cheerfully as she swung into Oliver's window, still missing from the earlier attack. Oliver looked up surprised. Roy and Dinah followed Artemis in through the window. Diggle walked in, and suddenly there was an awkward silence. Artemis cleared her throat. "Look, I know that we lied to you guys, and that it is unforgivable, but we would like to come back to Starling with you guys if you'll allow it. Wally too, he isn't here because he felt this is a private matter." Oliver and Diggle exchanged a glance.
"Funny you should mention that. We were just talking about it." Diggle said.
Oliver spoke up. "If you want to come back, we are fine with it. We understand why you lied, I probably would have done the same in your situation." Artemis smiled, relieved. This was easier than she thought it was going to be. "And," Oliver added, not done, "we were wondering if you would join us in the field." Artemis was surprised by this request. Even though, it made sense.
"I'd be fine with it." she said, happy to be back in the action, officially. Dinah and Roy were happy to be a part of the team too. Dinah had one condition though.
"My sister doesn't find out and my father doesn't find out, about any of this." She said. She chuckled, seeing Oliver and Diggle's stunned faces. "Yes, I am aware that my sister is alive. And working with you. So, I won't come to the base. But, I'll still help." Oliver sighed. He did not see this ending well.
I'm so happy I actually finished this one, unlike the other stories on my profile. Thank you to anyone who actually is still interested in this story and ended up reading this! I am so, so sorry it took this long for me to get around to this.
Happy Reading,
LeiaKasta