AN: Hey guys, I'm so sorry it's been so long! I had my college graduation and then my mom was in the hospital; it's been a very busy month. I hope you'll forgive me for being away for so long. Now that all of the craziness is over I can hopefully spend more time on my stories. Thank you all for the reviews and favorites. Please enjoy chapter five and don't forget to drop a review when you're done! :D
Disclaimer: In no way, shape, or form do I own Young Justice or any of its characters.
After about two week of looking over their shoulders, Wally and Artemis decided that perhaps Batman's threats had been empty. They hadn't seen him, Robin, or anyone else from the League while out on their nightly patrols and had quickly grown complacent. Things had been running rather smoothly for them as a matter of fact. Though they had longer to travel in and out of Gotham Central every night, they managed to maintain their double life and keep up their grades in the process. All in all, they had dropped their guard and were therefore wholly unprepared for what came next.
"So, you're both going on the school trip next week, right?" Dick asked as he and Wally sat in their living room on a Thursday night. Both boys had long since finished their homework and had decided to relax and watch TV.
"Dunno," Wally answered with a shrug. "Probably not. Artemis and I don't really do school trips." He didn't ask who else Dick had meant; it seemed everyone in this school already recognized them as attached at the hip as well.
"Why not? It's school wide and everyone else is going. Who wouldn't want to spend a week at the beach?" Dick asked incredulously.
"You forget Arty and I are here on scholarship," Wally said with a rueful smile. "We can't afford to go." Plus, he added silently. There's no way in hell we'd leave the streets unguarded that long.
"But the trip is part of tuition," Dick announced. "Everyone pays for it when they pay for their school year so your scholarship covered it. All you two would need to bring is spending money if you want any souvenirs."
"Oh, uh, really? Maybe we will then. Our moms kinda like us coming home every weekend though," Wally added in hopes of getting the younger boy to drop it.
"Ask them when you go home tomorrow," Dick insisted. "The rest of us are going and we all thought it would be fun to hang out together."
"We'll see," Wally replied as he turned back to the television, effectively ending their conversation.
"Ugh," Artemis groaned over their comm-link in their helmets as they rode their bikes home the following afternoon. "She just wouldn't drop it no matter how many times I said I'd think about it."
"The school trip next week?" Wally guessed. "Dick was pretty much the same with me last night. I tried to throw him off but he wouldn't leave me alone until I said we'd talk to our mothers about it." He rolled his eyes, though Artemis couldn't see him.
"Like that'll happen," she scoffed. "Why these people feel the need to take off during Spring Break is beyond me. Besides, it's not like our mothers will say yes anyway. I say we avoid mentioning it and just leave it alone."
"Works for me," Wally agreed.
Of course that plan went about as well as setting loose a herd of angry buffalo in a glassworks shop and expecting nothing to be broken. It turned out that their mothers already knew of the trip because of course the school had to send home permission slips to be filled out, signed, and returned on the day of the trip. The best part had to have been their mothers waiting at home for them after school on Friday, ready to take them shopping for the necessary supplies.
"Oh, you two will have so much fun!" Wally's mother gushed as she and Artemis' mother dragged the pair around the local superstore. "Of course, you'll both need new swimsuits and we better get you each a first aid kit, just in case."
"How is it our mothers are more excited about these things than we are?" Artemis asked as she shuffled her feet along next to her best friend. "I feel like we swapped roles with them or something."
Wally shrugged and released a long sigh. "I can't believe they're making us go," he added. "How did we even get tricked into agreeing to this anyway?"
"We weren't tricked," Artemis reminded him. "We were guilt tripped and threatened because, and I quote, 'We just want you two to have the chance to make good, honest friends in your new school,'" she finished in a passable imitation of her mother's voice.
"Ah, right," Wally nodded. "And then my mother pulled out the tears, how could I forget."
Both teens sighed and lamented the fact that their mothers knew just what buttons to push and tricks to use to get them to agree to anything as they were pulled by their overeager mothers around the store.
By Monday morning the two teens were almost ready to get away from their gushing mothers and go on the trip with the rest of Gotham Academy. They might have been more excited about leaving for the week if they weren't awakened at five in the morning in order to get back to school grounds and catch the bus in time.
"This is ridiculous," Artemis grumbled for the umpteenth time that morning. "No one wants to be up this early." She paused for a moment, lost in thought. "Except maybe my psychotic roommate," she added.
"Well, we are going to the Florida Keys for this trip," Wally said. "It's about a ten hour drive from where we are."
Artemis gave Wally a disgruntled look. "Please tell me you're not turning into one of them," she begged. "I don't think I could handle it if my best friend turned into a morning person."
"Hell no!" Wally exclaimed. "But I figure we can just claim a couple seats in the back and sleep the whole trip. Easy solution to having to get up at the crack of dawn," he said with a sleepy grin.
Artemis smiled back and nodded. "I like the way you think. I'm letting you know now though, you're going to be my pillow."
Wally rolled his eyes, but the grin did not leave his face as he slung an arm across Artemis' shoulders. "Aren't I always?" he asked. "I know now to just pack a pillow for myself for long car rides since you inevitably fall asleep on my shoulder or something."
"Oh good," Artemis replied as her grin stretched and became a bit more mischievous. "It looks like I finally have you trained right."
Too tired to actually think up a witty reply, Wally settled for the age-old classic of sticking his tongue out at his best friend. Of course that only left him open for Artemis to giggle and tease him further about regressing back to second grade.
The pair made it to Gotham Academy grounds and found they were among the first students there. They helped their mothers haul their luggage from the trunk of the car and set it on the curb before being subjected to bone crushing hugs and well wishes and safe journeys for their trip. After they managed to pull themselves from their mothers' grips they waved good-bye and joined their luggage on the curb. As luck would have it, though Artemis might have called it something else this early in the morning, Dick, Megan, Conner, and Kaldur came walking up to the pair only a couple minutes later.
"Oh aren't you two just so excited!" Megan exclaimed as Artemis shot the girl a dark look before letting her head fall on Wally's shoulder, muttering dark curses all the while. "We get to spend the whole week together on the beach! I'm sure we'll have such an amazing time!"
"Uh-huh, I'm sure we will," Wally mumbled sleepily as he ran a hand up and down Artemis' back.
"Is she all right?" Megan asked; suddenly concerned as her peppy morning face disappeared. "Artemis? Are you feeling well?"
Artemis mumbled something too low for anyone to hear and snuggled closer into Wally. Wally chuckled in response and hugged her closer to his side. "She's fine," he answered. "She's just not a morning person. It's probably best to just let her sleep on the trip out."
"Oh poor thing," Megan said. "Does she need a pillow or blanket? I do have extras."
"Nah," Wally replied, a light smile on his face as he looked down at the girl resting on his shoulder. "That's what I'm here for. Besides, I'm probably going to join her as soon as we get on the bus."
The four other teens nodded and remained silent while they waited for the buses to arrive. Slowly but surely, the other students participating in the trip trickled onto campus. Finally, at about six thirty in the morning five coach buses pulled up in front of the school. Dick shook Wally and Artemis awake long enough to throw their bags into the storage areas beneath the bus, climb up the narrow steps and claim two seats in the back before going right back to sleep. Dick, Kaldur, Conner and Megan watched as Wally took a window seat and made himself comfortable before letting Artemis take the seat next to him and once again use him as a pillow.
"Isn't that so sweet!" Megan gushed quietly while the other four teens claimed seats around their sleeping friends. "Those two are so close; it's absolutely adorable!"
The three males of the group still awake regarded the other girl for a moment before looking back over at the sleeping pair. The three of them shrugged in unison and turned their attention away, pulling out their mp3 players as they did so.
A ten hour bus ride later deposited the students of Gotham Academy in front of a rather large hotel in the Florida Keys. Wally had woken up halfway through the ride though Artemis continued to sleep all but the last hour. He kept himself entertained by pulling out his ipod and playing Cube Runner for a while before talking with Dick and Kaldur.
"All right!" one of the fieldtrip aides called as the students clamored off the buses. "Form orderly, single file lines to the aide that was assigned to your bus. There you will receive your copy of the itinerary and your room key! Once you have those items please proceed to the luggage area and pick up your bags! After that, the rest of the day is yours to do as you please!" Many cheers and shouts accompanied the end of the aide's speech as students scrambled to form a line in front of each aide.
"I say we hit our rooms, suit up and head to the beach," Dick said.
"I am up for that," Kaldur replied. "After ten hours on a bus I could do with a chance to stretch my legs."
"So it's agreed that we'll all meet in the lobby as soon as we are finished," Megan cheered. "Today will be such an amazing day!"
"Gag me with a spoon," Artemis mumbled under her breath next to Wally. "How the hell does one person get all that energy anyway? I swear I've never seen her sad or upset before and it's starting to freak me out!"
Wally laid a comforting hand on Artemis' shoulder and squeezed gently. "Don't worry about it. We'll go down to the beach with them, but claim a nice spot in the sand to just chill for a while."
As it turned out, just about every other student from Gotham Academy, and all the other students and families in the Florida Keys for vacation, had the same idea as the group of six teens. The beach was crowded and noisy as children ran back and forth across the sand screaming and yelling about whatever it was children of that age yelled about. Regardless, Dick, Kaldur, Conner and Megan seemed excited to be there and wasted absolutely no time in running for the water. Wally and Artemis generously offered to take their belongings and find an empty place on the beach to set up. After a good twenty minutes of searching, stepping over disgruntled sunbathers and dodging young children and the parents chasing after them, the pair finally managed to find a large enough spot in the sand to lay out six towels and open up one extra-large beach umbrella.
Artemis had been quiet for the last half an hour or so and Wally was almost convinced she had gone back to sleep when she sat bolt upright and stared out over the water. "Artemis? You okay?" he asked. "Did you get bit by a bug or something?"
"No," the blonde girl said with a shake of her head though she kept her eyes trained on a distant patch of land further out into the ocean. "No bug." After a few tense moments with Wally watching her carefully, she finally pulled her line of sight back to him and jerked her head towards the distant island. "Something's happening over there," she said at last. "I saw a couple speed boats head over to that island with a number of men holding onto rather large guns and guarding a couple big crates."
"Any chance they're military or the Coast Guard?" Wally asked as he too looked out to sea briefly. It was a reflex really, since he knew he wouldn't see anything.
"Not unless the military is suddenly going with an all-black, definitely 'bad guy' theme lately," she responded. "I'm guessing smugglers and with the amount of fire power I saw guarding those crates, it's got to be something dangerous."
Wally nodded thoughtfully for a moment. "All right, but what do we do about it? All of our supplies are back in Gotham. We can fight hand-to-hand, but if they're as armed as you say I'd rather not push our luck."
Artemis nodded in agreement. "I've got my crossbow and about twenty bolts," she informed her partner. "But in the grand scheme of things, that's not much."
Wally looked at the girl beside him for a moment. "You brought your crossbow on vacation with you?" he asked. "Were you expecting something to happen?"
"Not necessarily," Artemis defended herself. "But it never hurts to be prepared. Besides, I saw you pack your goggles and the sneakers you modified to withstand your speed; I'd say we were both coming here prepared."
"Guilty as charged, I suppose," Wally said with a sheepish smile. "I guess after even this long on the job I've learned to be ready."
"So you up for sneaking out tonight and finding out what's going on over there?" Artemis asked.
"Of course!" Wally replied as if his answer was obvious. "Do you really even need to ask?"
Artemis smiled briefly before her expression collapsed and turned pensive. "We'll need a boat to get over there then, but the noise and size will make us obvious to any sentries they have patrolling."
"We don't need a boat," Wally said. "I can easily run us across the water to that island."
"Won't that tire you out though?" Artemis asked. "I don't want you operating below your best on this, especially since we're kind of out of our usual element on this one."
"I'll eat a really big dinner then," Wally said before rolling his eyes when he saw the skeptical look on Artemis' face. "And I'll snack a lot for the rest of the day," he added as he reached into the bag of snacks he and Artemis had brought with them, pulling out a package of Hostess Ho-Hos and an apple. "Seriously, I'll be fine!" he protested.
"All right, fine," Artemis said with a sigh. "I just don't want you hurt again," she added with a guilty look at Wally's shoulder.
"I'll be careful," Wally promised as his face softened. "Besides, you'll be there to watch my back just like I'll watch yours; like always."
"Like always," Artemis echoed before getting down to business. "Neither of us have any masks on us so we'll just have to hope no one has heard of us outside Gotham yet. I doubt it, but it's not a possibility we can rule out completely."
"Then we treat this like a recon mission," Wally reasoned. "We'll stick to the shadows as much as possible and find out what they're doing over there. If we can hold off busting them tonight then we can just go back tomorrow night and fight them after we've had the chance to improvise some masks."
"All right," Artemis said, nodding. "That should work." She was quiet for a moment as she looked around them. "Do you want to meet tonight around eleven by those rocks over there?"
Wally followed her outstretched finger to a pile of large boulders forming a wall a little further down the beach. He nodded quickly. "Tonight at eleven then," he said, though all their talk on plans had to be put on hold as the other four teens finally joined them on the beach.
"There you two are!" Dick called as he jogged up to his towel. "We couldn't see you for a minute there and started to wonder if you'd just left us."
"Sorry man," Wally replied. "This was the only open patch of sand we could find that was big enough for all of us."
"No worries dude," Dick said with a shrug of his shoulders. "I don't think I've ever seen the beach this packed before when we've come on this trip though," he commented offhand.
"I know!" Megan agreed as she and Conner joined the other three. "I don't think it was even half this size a crowd last year."
"I think I heard someone mention some kind of festival," Conner said as he dug around in his bag. "I didn't hear any specifics though."
"Hey, where's Kaldur?" Artemis asked. "Weren't all four of you out in the ocean together?"
"He's probably still out there," Dick said with a jerk of his thumb over his shoulder. "The guy loves to be in the water. We kept telling him to try out for the swim team at school but he never has. You guys should have come out with us; the water's great," he added with a grin.
The rest of the afternoon passed peacefully and Kaldur eventually rejoined the group. The six teens spent most of the rest of the day just relaxing in the sun and talking. When the sun began to dip into the distant horizon and a chilly wind began to blow, they packed up their supplies and headed back to the hotel.
"Hey, do you all want to grab dinner together?" Dick asked as they marched back to the hotel. "There's a great pizza place just about a block away."
A few quick showers, a change of clothes and a short walk later the six teens were sitting in a plush booth eating large pieces of pizza and drinking Coke. Dinner turned out to be enjoyable, though the group was bone tired by the time they dragged themselves back to the hotel at ten o'clock that night. With only an hour to get ready before she and Wally left, Artemis had quickly dismissed herself off to bed once she was back at the hotel. She dug around her bag and pulled out the darkest clothing she could find before quietly slipping out of her room and down to the spot on the beach.
When she finally reached the pile of rocks she found Wally already there and waiting for her. She nodded her approval when she saw he was in a dark t-shirt and jeans, his goggles perched on his head and his modified sneakers on his feet. "Let's get this show on the road, yeah?" she asked as she walked towards him. "Just don't jostle me too much this time, all right?"
Wally looked up and grinned when he saw her standing there. He quickly dropped into a crouch, his back to her. "Whatever you say princess," he replied teasingly. "Hop on and I'll see what I can do."
The run across the water was surprisingly much smoother than her last trip into Gotham Central with Wally had been. In no time at all they had zoomed across the water and were coming up on the island.
"Did you hear that?" Wally asked once they came to a stop.
"Hear what?" Artemis returned distractedly as she looked around.
Wally was silent for a moment as he cocked his head to the side and listened intently. "I thought I heard a boat," he said at last. "But I guess not; I don't hear anything now," he added with a slight shrug of his shoulders.
Artemis nodded and turned back to him. "Doesn't matter anyway," she said. "We're here on recon only today anyway." She pulled out her crossbow and got a bolt ready before she motioned for Wally to follow her into a nearby cave.
The pair got in easily enough and completely unnoticed as they slipped around the cave, moving further and further back. They finally ended up in a well-lit, bustling back area. Huge vats of bubbling chemicals were surrounded by men with guns and a few scientists in white coats. A few of them were talking but the pair were too far away to hear anything important.
"We need to get closer," Wally whispered as he moved from a kneeling position behind a rock to a low crouch. "I don't know about you, but I can't hear them."
Artemis nodded and moved to follow him before she felt a hand on her shoulder. Without a second thought she grabbed the hand, ducked and threw whoever was attached to it over her shoulder. She dropped low, her fist inches from the face of the person she had attacked before she fell back, wide eyed and astonished.
Wally spun around when he heard the loud thud of a body hitting the hard ground. The first thing he saw was Artemis crouching over another person before she fell back looking nervous. He was just about to leap forward onto the body when he got a good look at the person's face. "You!" he breathed. "Conner? What the hell are you doing here?"
Light footsteps could be heard coming towards them and all three heads snapped up to watch as three other figures came around the corner. Two of them were walking, one significantly shorter than the other, and the other figure, distinctly female, almost seemed to be floating.
"Superboy?" a light female voice asked. "What happened? Are you all right?"
"Fine," came Conner's rough reply as he pulled himself up. "Though I think this mission just got more complicated. Not to mention our lives."
"What? What are you talking about man?" asked a younger male voice as all three finally came into the light. "Oh, that's what you meant. Well this is…whelming."
"Kaldur?" Artemis asked. "Is that you? Megan? Why the hell are you green?" Her attention shifted back and forth for a moment before falling on the last member of the group. "And you're Dick, aren't you?" she asked finally.
"Just what the hell is going on here?" Wally demanded as he moved next to Artemis and glared at the other four teens. "Who are you all, really?" He shot the youngest boy of the group. "Well, aside from Dick apparently being Robin," he ground out.
Robin sighed once. "We're going to have a long night," he said at last. "Though if it makes you feel any better, none of us were expecting to see you out here either." He looked at the pair shrewdly. Though Wally and Artemis couldn't have known it, he sent a mental message to the rest of the team warning them from saying anything to the pair about keeping tabs on them for the last few months and to definitely keep their mouths shut about knowing about the pair's alter egos. "Just what are you doing out here and who are you yourselves? Normal civilians shouldn't know about this place or anything about what's going on."
Wally and Artemis exchanged a look. "We asked you first," she said petulantly. "I think we deserve the truth from you, all of you," she added with a glare at each of the other four teens.
"We promise to answer all of your questions," Kaldur said as placating as possible. "But here is not the best place for this conversation and the four of us have a mission to finish. If you would assist us we can finish up here and get back to the hotel to talk. Though I must ask that you be willing to answer our questions as well."
"Seems fair enough I suppose," Wally said after a glance at Artemis. "Just remember we get our questions answered first."
"Of course," Megan said. "Now shall we finish up here?"
With a quick nod the group of four quickly filled the pair in on the specifics of their mission and formulated a new plan of attack. After that was finished, all that was left was to take down the bad guys; something Wally and Artemis had come to be rather good at doing.
AN2: Once again I am so very sorry that I was away for a little while. I felt bad leaving you guys and the story, but things got rather crazy on my end for a bit. I had my college graduation and then my mom was in the hospital and ended up needing emergency surgery. I hope you all can forgive me. Now that the craziness is calming down, I should have more time to devote to this. And not to worry, I have plans for this story; oh boy do I have plans (insert maniacal laughter). As always, thank you all for your reviews and don't forget to leave a new one before clicking away from this story ;)