AN: As always, I must give a huge thank you to all of you who alerted, favorited and commented on this story (both old and new reviewers). You guys are amazing and I'm glad to know you're all enjoying this story and the characters as I portray them for its purposes. For those of you who were curious and/or wished well, my mom is doing just fine now. She's out of the hospital and back into her normal routine. Just a quick note for all of you that have expressed a concern/interest in seeing continuing tension between Young Justice/The Justice League and Wally and Artemis, don't worry, I have much planned on that front; the best has yet to come ;) Also, thank you to those reviewers who let me know about spelling/grammar errors and flow/continuity problems in certain spots; now that I am aware, I'll be on the lookout! :) Now, I do believe that this Author's Note has gone on long enough. Please enjoy chapter six and don't forget to leave a review

Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own Young Justice or any of its characters.

The mission turned out to go much smoother and much quicker than the Young Justice team had originally planned. Though Wally and Artemis couldn't fight out in the open, due to neither of them having masks at the moment, they provided much needed back up and proved to be a match for Robin when it came to stealth and recon. The mission itself was rather simple in nature; get in, find out what the bad guys were up to and shut it down. Getting in had proved to be quite easy and hacking into the system even easier, especially with Artemis and Robin tag teaming the system.

"Looks like they're stockpiling and planning on selling some sort of chemical compound," Artemis said, not looking up from her computer screen. She had found an empty room with a computer above the warehouse floor and immediately walked in, stuck her modified USB/computer into and available port and went to work hacking the system. The rest of the team had followed her in and Robin had set up his own hacking line. The facility itself was cut into a natural cave that had been excavated. The main area was really just an open warehouse floor with offices built on platforms a good twenty feet above the cave floor. A few tunnels ran further back into the cave to various rooms the group had decided not to bother exploring, especially when Artemis had picked the lock to an empty office hidden in the back corner of the main room. The computer had been linked to the network server for the facility and as such would allow them to get all the information they needed.

"Right," Robin replied, scrolling through lines of text and code on his own wrist computer. "It's probably the Venom Formula. We'll fill you in later," he added quickly when he saw the looks Wally and Artemis slanted at him.

"Anyway," Wally said dismissively as he looked back over Artemis' shoulder at her computer screen. "Are there any vials of this formula here? If we could get a sample I'm sure I could analyze it, figure out its properties and what they intend to use it for."

"The League is already aware of their motives and they have samples to test on," Kaldur said quietly.

Wally turned around and regarded Aqualad quietly for a moment. "Yeah, well we're not part of the League, are we?" he asked, almost sneeringly, as he gestured between Artemis and himself. "By the looks of all of this they plan to sell this stuff to street gangs, our turf," he added with a sweep of his arms between the partners again. "We need to know what we're up against and we need to have a way to counteract it."

"So far no one in the League has found a way to counteract the effects of the formula," Robin chipped in, letting Wally's comments go for the moment.

Wally rolled his eyes and let his chin drop back onto Artemis' shoulder as he scanned the text with her once more. "Again, we're not part of the League. We're working with you on this purely because we want some answers, but this whole thing goes no further than that."

"Besides," Artemis said with a challenging smile as she brought up a floor map of the facility for Wally and her to study. "Do you really think you could stop us from grabbing our own sample to analyze? From what I can tell, you guys work well together, but your team is still fairly new; you're still learning to trust each other and that slows you down and affects your overall work. Wally and I don't have that problem and we don't need to waste time communicating verbal, or telepathic instructions," she added with a look at Megan who actually looked a little abashed for a moment. "We can simply act and know that the other person knows what to do. Like this for example," she said as she stood from her chair. Before any of the four official team members on Young Justice could react Wally had already swung Artemis up into his arms and zipped out of the room in a blur of red and blonde and a sudden breeze.

"Batman isn't going to like this," Superboy commented as he looked out the now open door.

"Or that we have been revealed much earlier than we had planned," Megan agreed. "And that they seem to know a bit about our abilities and weaknesses already," she added.

"Bats doesn't need to know yet," Robin said with a shrug.

"Robin, he is the Batman," Aqualad said as though it were glaringly obvious. "I doubt there is much that he does not know or is unable to find out."

"Maybe," Robin conceded. "But you forget that I work with him so I know a lot of his tricks."

"A lot, yes," Superboy said. "But you don't know all of them."

"True, but he can't find out what no one tells him," Robin pointed out. "If we all agree to keep it secret then he won't necessarily find out…probably."

Both Aqualad and Superboy opened their mouths to comment but Megan beat them to it. "That's all well and good," she said. "But what about Wally and Artemis?"

"What about us?" Artemis asked as she and Wally came zipping back into the room. "You know, I don't know how I feel about you talking about us when we're not around," she said as she slid out of Wally's arms.

"Don't worry," Megan quickly tried to reassure the other girl. "It was nothing bad and we were really only discussing how we would report back about our mission."

"That may be the truth," Wally said with a shrug. "But let's just assume that Artemis and I have some underlying problems with people like you and your group."

"Not to mention some basic trust issues," Artemis agreed, folding her arms across her chest and standing close to her partner and best friend. "Especially when meeting people who make it a habit of lying and concealing the truth on a daily basis."

"Chill, chill," Robin said as he raised his hands in a peaceful gesture. "We were just trying to figure out what to tell our higher ups, like Megan said. We really don't want them to know about you guys and I'm pretty sure you'd rather fly under the radar on this one as well." He paused for a moment and frowned. "Didn't you guys go to retrieve a vial of the Venom Formula?" he asked. He had looked over Wally and Artemis subtly but he couldn't find any tell-tale signs of either of them having anything more than what they had when they came in.

"Maybe," Wally replied dismissively as he shrugged. "I don't see how that really concerns you," he added. "Though if it's all the same to you, we'd rather that it didn't get spread around the League that we worked with you on this one. We don't want any of them getting the idea that we'd be willing to do this again."

"Right, of course," Aqualad replied. "We will be sure not to spread your involvement."

Artemis was about to say something in return when Superboy made a low warning sound as he looked out the door. "Time to get to work," he said shortly. "We're about to have some company."

"Well, then let's get to it," Robin said. "All we've got left is to shut all of this down anyway."

Vicious grins spread across the faces of Wally and Artemis as they got ready to fight. Wally cracked his knuckles and loosened his muscles as best he could while Artemis made sure her crossbow was ready and her bolts were within easy reach. "You ready for this?" Wally asked; a dark glee lighting up his eyes and making them look an almost acidic green.

"Always," Artemis answered; her calm gray eyes now stormy and filled with almost sadistic excitement. "Not our usual turf or our usual bunch of pathetic losers, but I think these guys will fall just as nicely."

"My thoughts exactly," Wally chuckled darkly.

"One thing," Robin cut in. "It might be best if you two stayed out of sight as best you can. I'm not saying that you can't fight," he added quickly when he saw the objections begin to form in the pairs' eyes. "I'm just saying to fight carefully. These guys don't know who you are and that's probably best for the both of you since your just solo, small time fighters. You don't have much to back you up if they find out your identities."

Both Wally and Artemis rolled their eyes but could see the logic in Robin's statement. "Yeah, yeah, we'll be careful," they replied offhandedly.

The six teens immediately shot out of the room, taking the guards by surprise and started up an all-out melee. Artemis had been able to stay hidden among the shadows of the ceiling support beams and pick off guards and soldiers. After every few shots she would get up and run through the shadows of the ceiling to another spot before going back to her task of shooting down anyone in her sights. Wally, being without any sort of projectile weapon favored moving at super speed, literally running circles around anyone that came at him. He relied on his martial arts skills and mowed down his fair share of baddies. Superboy and Aqualad, being the powerhouses they are, ran right into the melee, throwing punches and using his water bearers (in the case of Aqualad). Megan, not being the strongest fighter physically, used her psychic abilities to float and wage mental war on her opponents. Robin had disappeared at the beginning of the fight, though the questions surrounding his whereabouts were soon answered as he came running out from one of the side tunnels.

"Charges are set," he called. "Time to get out of here!"

The teens quickly fought off the last few people in their way before making a mad dash for the exit. Artemis ran lightly along the support beams until she found herself coming up on a rock wall. She would have to get down, she realized, but she couldn't turn around and go back the way she had come up; it would take too much time, and she couldn't see any viable way to the main floor from her current position. She looked down to see Wally standing below her, his arms outstretched to her. She smiled slightly and stepped off the beam without a second thought. She knew Wally would catch her and, though her stomach decided to take a vacation up near her heart, she was not the least bit nervous. She fell right into Wally's open arms and felt him take off for the exit.

"Nice catch," she called teasingly to him over the wind whistling past their ears while he ran.

"Of course! This is me we're talking about," Wally replied with a grin. "Was there ever any doubt I'd catch you?"

"None at all," Artemis replied with a genuine smile. "I wouldn't have jumped if there were any doubts."

Wally didn't answer, but he looked down briefly for a moment and really smiled at her in reply.

With Wally running it made sense that he and Artemis were the first to make it to the beach outside the cave. He gently placed the girl in his arms onto the sand before he doubled over and breathed deeply for a few moments.

"Wally?" Artemis asked with a concerned frown. She had never seen him out of breath before and it worried her. "Are you okay?"

Wally nodded once and took another deep breath of air. "Yeah, just out of juice," he replied as he straightened up. "I used up a lot of energy getting us here and then all the fighting in there took a lot out of me as well," he added as he jerked a thumb back the way they had come.

Artemis nodded in understanding. "Do you have enough energy to get us back?" she asked.

"Maybe, I don't know," Wally replied honestly. "If I was wearing my suit, I'd say yes cause I've got some energy bars stashed in those cupboards on my wrists. But in my civvies? Without anything to recharge a bit?" he said as he shook his head. "I can't really tell for sure. We can give it a shot if you want though," he added.

Artemis looked out over the water and back at Wally. "I don't want to push you," she started apologetically. "But I don't know what else we can do."

"Why not ride back to shore with us?" Megan chirped as the other four teens came running out of the cave to stop next to Wally and Artemis. "We definitely have room for the two of you in our boat."

Wally and Artemis exchanged a quick glance. On the one hand, they weren't thrilled with the idea of having to be around the junior heroes any longer than strictly necessary. On the other hand, Wally knew he'd need some serious sleep and a large breakfast to recharge the energy he had lost over the course of the night. Another run back across the open ocean, no matter how brief it was, would only add to the problem. Although, the pair reasoned, the four teens owed them answers and riding back with them may provide a good way to make sure than none of them try and wiggle out of the agreement; you could never be too sure with these heroes, they both knew. They may be the self-proclaimed "good guys", but that didn't mean they weren't opposed to lying and bargaining favors they had no intention of keeping later just to complete a mission.

"All right," Artemis replied after a long pause. "We'll ride back to shore with you. Where's your boat?"

"Over this way," Robin said as he led the way. "We found a protected cove and thought it the best place to hide the speedboat."

Wally and Artemis hung back a bit from the group of four, Artemis making sure to stick close to Wally's side in case he ended up needing her help. Though he stumbled a bit at one point, Wally managed to walk himself to the boat and climb in.

"I realize we'll all be pretty tired tonight," he began after the six of them had settled in the boat but before the engine had been started up. "But don't forget that you still owe Artemis and me answers to our questions."

Aqualad nodded in reply while Robin made his way to the steering wheel and turned the ignition key. "Yes," he said over the roar of the engine. "And I promise we will answer them. Just as I am sure you will answer ours."

Artemis and Wally looked at each other for a moment. They had forgotten, in the midst of all that was going on, that they had promised to answer the other four teens' questions. No turning back now, Artemis told him with her eyes.

Guess we'll just have to see where this goes and hope it ends up in our favor, Wally responded through a simple shrug.

The ride back turned out to be a quite affair, aside from the noise accompanying driving a boat, of course. Wally had decided to reverse the usual order of things and used Artemis' shoulder as a pillow as he dozed. Artemis remained awake, one of them had to, she thought, though she did allow herself to space out and stare out across the dark water. Though the boat churned the water around them to a foamy white, further out she could see the stars reflected in the calm, dark waters. In the distance, she could see the lights of the town they were staying in glow brightly against the dark skies all around.

Before long, Robin guided the boat into an obscure dock far from any densely inhabited area. "This is where we split ways," he said as the six teens scrambled out of the boat. "You and Wally can pass as two teenagers out for a night walk or something, but the four of us are a bit more obvious," he added as the four members of Young Justice started on their own way back to the hotel.

"Will we see you at breakfast?" Megan asked cheerily.

"As long as this hotel has enough in it to get me recharged, yeah," Wally responded.

"Though we're not going to be there as early as you usually seem to get up," Artemis warned. "The two of us need our sleep."

"Of course, of course," Megan nodded enthusiastically. "Just do not forget we have our snorkeling trip at eleven tomorrow. Though this is our vacation, the teachers do tend to not appreciate it when students neglect to show up."

Wally groaned quietly under his breath; he had planned to sleep till noon and he was pretty sure Artemis was thinking along the same lines. Now that the night's excitement was over the adrenaline that had been keeping them alert and awake was gone, leaving them with the feeling of crashing, and crashing hard. "Yeah, right," he replied in a resigned tone. "We'll be there."

"Anyway, we should probably get back to the hotel," Artemis said before any more questions could be asked. "It's almost one thirty in the morning and I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm starting to crash."

Murmurs of agreement accompanied Artemis' statement and the four teens parted ways. She and Wally stuck to the sidewalks in plain sight; they had no reason to hide, though the other four teens disappeared into the shadows.

"Still got that vial?" Artemis asked once she was sure no one was listening in on her and Wally.

Wally patted his pant leg. "Yep, still in that hidden pocket," he replied.

"Good," Artemis responded with a quick nod of her head. "I was worried Robin would try something."

"I did see him looking us both over trying to find it, and he asked those questions," Wally agreed. "But I made sure it was hidden."

"I still can't believe we've been rooming with these people," Artemis growled. "I wonder how long they've been spying on us. And I want to know how much they know," she added as an afterthought.

"They might not have been spying on us," Wally replied, though his tone suggested he didn't believe that possibility. "They seemed just as surprised as we were when we ran into each other; though that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if most of what they tell us tomorrow turns out to be lies or half-truths," he added bitterly.

"I know," Artemis nodded. "That's why I say we tell them our own lies and half-truths," she said with a mischievous smile.

Wally's answering smile was just as devilish as the one gracing his best friend's face. "I like the way you think," he told her. "Have I ever told you how awesome it is to have you as my best friend?"

Artemis grinned at him, a teasing light in her eyes. "You could stand to mention it more," she replied. "I mean, I already know I'm amazing, but it's nice to be reminded by someone else every once in a while."

Wally shook his head as he chuckled lightly and slung an arm over Artemis' shoulders. "Whatever you say," he replied mockingly. "Whatever you say."

Wally and Artemis made it back to the hotel easily and without incident. They managed to sneak back into their rooms without any of the trip advisors being aware they had even left in the first place. Wally collapsed onto the soft hotel bed and immediately went right to sleep.

Artemis groaned slightly when the alarm she had set on her phone went off at nine in the morning. She sighed, rolled over and grabbed the buzzing, beeping device. She clicked a few buttons and the buzzing suddenly stopped. She pulled herself out of bed and dragged herself into the bathroom. She went about her usual morning routine of showering, changing, pulling her hair back into its usual ponytail and applying her makeup. She walked back into her room and checked her phone to see that it was almost ten. "Time to go get Wally up," she said with a sigh, knowing very well that the redhead was most likely still asleep.

Artemis slipped out of her room and walked through the halls to Wally's room. She had to climb up a flight of stairs as the boys' rooms were a floor up and dodge any teachers along the way. She made it up to the next floor and quickly located Wally's room. She knocked a couple of times on his door and rolled her eyes when he didn't answer. Artemis looked to her right and left before quickly breaking into Wally's room. She was able to make short work of the electronic card reader and slipped into the room before anyone was the wiser.

Artemis carefully shut the heavy hotel room door behind her and turned around to see Wally spread out on his stomach across his bed. His sheets had tangled up around his legs and one arm was clutching one of his pillows close while the other pillow had been pushed up against the headboard. She smiled softly at the sight for a moment before she walked over and unceremoniously dumped Wally from the bed.

"Come on, move already!" she called as Wally tumbled to the floor. "It's almost ten!"

Wally, not yet being fully awake, reacted on instinct and managed to avoid hitting the floor with his face as he moved at superspeed. However, the sheets tangled around his legs insured that he fell out of his bed, twisted quickly from the fall and land on the unforgiving carpet on his back. He shot up almost instantly, his head darting from side to side and his eyes wide and staring. "Artemis?" he asked at last as he focused on her. "What the hell?"

Artemis burst out laughing at the sight of Wally scrambling around before finally fixing a glare on her. "You should see you face!" she exclaimed, pointing at him. "Oh, I wish I had a camera on me," she added after she had finally managed to calm down a bit.

Wally finally managed to get the jumble of blankets off of his legs and stood, a scowl on his face and a deep red color painting his cheeks. "Very funny, Artemis," he groused. "You're absolutely hilarious."

"I know," Artemis replied, a huge grin on her face. "I'm the Goddess of Comedy."

Wally rolled his eyes but didn't reply as he made his way to his suitcase to dig out fresh cloths for the day. Standing up, he marched past Artemis and to his bathroom, leaving the blonde girl alone for a few minutes. When he came back out about fifteen minutes later, fresh and clean from a relaxing shower, he saw that Artemis had remade his bed for him before perching herself on it. She had her USB computer up and she seemed to be scrolling through something before she looked up and smiled at him; Wally was relieved to see it was a much more genuine smile this time.

"So, we've got the snorkeling trip in about forty-five minutes," she reminded him as she shut down her computer and stood. "You've probably still got a few minutes to grab some breakfast though."

Wally nodded and dug his sneakers out from where he had left them the night before. "Good," he replied appreciatively. "I'm going to need a good breakfast."

Artemis looked at him, instantly concerned as the previous night's conversation came back to her. "Are you still running low on energy?" she asked. "Will you be okay today?"

Wally finished tying the laces to his shoes and looked up with a smile. "I'll be fine," he answered. "Sleeping well last night actually helped a lot; a big breakfast will just be the icing on the cake, so to speak."

"All right then," Artemis said as she grabbed his right arm and hauled him to his feet. "Let's get going then!"

Breakfast was rather quiet by the time the pair got there, as most of the students had woken up much earlier than them and therefore had already eaten. Neither of them saw Conner, Kaldur, Dick or Megan, but that didn't mean they wouldn't be running them down later today if the opportunity presented itself. They rushed through breakfast and made a mad dash out to a cove about a mile away, spotting the large crowd of milling Gotham Academy students easily. At one point Artemis had seen the other four teens briefly, and had mentioned it to Wally, but it was neither the time nor the place to confront them. Later, the pair seemed to promise the other through their eyes. We'll get to them later.

The snorkeling activity itself turned out to be much more fun than either Wally or Artemis had originally thought it would be and the pair were surprised to see how fast the time had gone by. They felt like they had just gotten in the water when they heard their advisors calling all of the students back to the cove shore as their time was up. The three hours of snorkeling had passed and now the rest of the day was for the students to spend as they pleased. Wally and Artemis exchanged significant looks as they handed back their rented gear and ran to catch up with the group of four friends.

"So," Wally began as he fell in step with Dick, Artemis right beside him. "I think it's about time the six of us talked."

"Agreed," Dick said after a short pause. "But not here, too many people could overhear us."

"My room then," Artemis said. "We'll all get changed and meet back in my room. You four aren't getting out of this."

"Believe me," Kaldur responded placatingly. "We have no intention to."

Half an hour later all six teens were sitting in Artemis' room. Wally had been the first to get there, of course, and had let himself in after knocking to make sure Artemis wasn't still getting dressed. Dick hadn't been too far behind Wally, followed by Kaldur and finally Conner and Megan showed up together.

"Explain," Wally demanded from his perch on Artemis' bed. "Who are you all, really, and what was going on last night?"

The four teens exchanged glances and Dick let out a sigh. "We're a covert operations team for the Justice League," he answered. "We call ourselves Young Justice and we take our mission orders from Batman. Three of us were sidekicks at some point or another," he said before he was cut off.

"Technically speaking, we still remain sidekicks," Kaldur cut in. "We have our mentors that still train us and we still assist on missions with them, but now we also run our own missions."

"Right, right," Dick said as he waved a hand dismissively. "Anyway, as you can probably tell from last night, we're not the people we seem to be. I'm Robin, obviously. Kaldur is an Atlantian and his hero alias is Aqualad. Megan is really M'Gann M'orss, she's a Martian, and she goes by Miss Martian or Miss M. Finally, Conner is Superboy."

"Superboy?" Wally asked just as Artemis burst out with "Only three of you have mentors?"

Dick laughed briefly. "You're lucky I can answer both questions with one story," he said. "Long story short, we, meaning Kaldur, Spee…, I mean Red Arrow, and myself found him in a pod in the underground chambers of Cadmus. The three of us had gone there to try and prove to the League that we weren't just kids anymore and ended up discovering this whole plot with modified Venom Formulas, genetic experiments and cloning. Superboy happens to be Superman's clone. Come to think of it, it was right after that incident that we got the League to agree to creating Young Justice and recognizing us as capable heroes as well."

"Who's Red Arrow?" Artemis asked. "Why isn't this person here?"

"He's not here cause he didn't join the team," Dick replied with a shrug. "He decided to cut ties with the League and go solo," he added, pointedly ignoring Wally's and Artemis' whispers of "Smart man!" under their breaths. "He was Speedy, Green Arrow's partner, until her decided to go solo and change his name."

"To 'Red Arrow'?" Wally asked incredulously. "Yeah, real original there," he finished with a roll of his eyes. "Back to the questions; what were you four doing out at that island last night?"

"We told you," Conner cut in. "We were on a mission assigned to us by Batman."

"Uh-huh," Artemis mumbled. "And how long have you been a team?"

"Not quite a year yet," M'Gann answered. "It will be a full year in July."

Both Wally and Artemis nodded before turning their gazes on Dick. "Yes?" he asked calmly, though he had a pretty good idea he knew what was coming.

"Did you know about us?" Artemis demanded. "About Wally and me? About our powers and what we do?"

"You were there with Bats that night, in the warehouse by the docks," Wally added, as though to remind the younger boy.

"I didn't know until last night, no," Dick replied with a shake of his head. Both Wally and Artemis looked skeptical, but he was glad to see that neither of them pressed him further.

"All right, your turn then," Artemis said from her place on her bad as she swept her arm towards the room to indicate the other four teens. "I'm sure Wally and I will have more questions, but for now we'll let you ask yours."

The question and answer session between the two groups went on for another two and a half hours as both groups quizzed each other on what they did, how they got their powers, what kind of gadgets they had and how they worked, whether or not they knew about the other group beforehand and how the system worked (in the case of Young Justice). By the end of the two and a half hours no one from either group could think of any more questions for now and it was mutually agreed that both parties would do their best to answer any future questions from either group, should the occasion ever arise. Both groups also walked away that neither group was being entirely truthful to the other group, but the six teens realized that there was little they could do about it at this point. For now, it was best to just wait and see what happened, and of course keep their guards up.

AN2: Well, there you are, chapter six. I hope you all enjoyed it and thank you once again for all of the reviews, alerts and favorites. As always, please don't forget to leave a review before you go! I love hearing (well, reading) what you guys have to say! :D

Till next time,

Asche Angel 46