AN: I am so very sorry for being away for so long. I have no excuses to offer, just my deepest apologies. To answer your question Remmy (may I call you that?) my book is in the fantasy/ young adult genre. It takes the concept of light/order being good and darkness/chaos being evil and flips it around. I don't want to give too much away and I have a feeling that answer was more cryptic than helpful… As always, a huge thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited and alerted; you guys never fail to make me smile! Anyways, on to chapter eight! Please enjoy and don't forget to leave a review

Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice or anything affiliated with it.

An odd sort of peace and understanding settled between the two teams after the week-long vacation in the Florida Keys. Neither group tried to hide when they were leaving for their respective missions each night any longer. In fact, Dick had taken to fine tuning and cleaning his equipment and weapons in the living room each night, no longer feeling the need to hide the fact that he was Robin. After a couple of days of this, Wally just shrugged and accepted it; at least all six teens were growing closer as friends. It had ended up taking about a week and a half for the awkwardness between the two groups to settle to the background, but after it had Wally and Artemis found themselves opening up to the other group more and more. Granted, they would always be closer to each other than anyone else, but there was no reason they couldn't open up to the others either. This newfound camaraderie also brought a few more eyes and ears to watching out for each other; both Dick and Wally had taken to waiting up each night they went out on missions just to make sure they got back safely. Wally soon discovered, as he piggybacked Artemis to class each morning, that the blonde haired archer had taken to doing the same thing with her alien roommate.

One particular Friday night, about three weeks after the Florida Keys trip, Wally found himself crashed on the living room couch waiting for Dick to get back. He and Artemis had only gotten back from their nightly excursion about half an hour earlier and he was exhausted but he made sure to wait up for Dick. Just as he was closing his eyes he heard the click of Dick's bedroom door. "Hey dude, about time!" he called. "You're pushing three in the morning man. You're lucky it's the weekend."

"Yeah," came a rather weak reply. "Sorry man, rough night."

Wally was about to crack a joke when Dick popped out from the shadows of the hallway and a concerned frown replaced the smirk on his face. "Dude! You look like hell!" he commented as he looked over the younger boy. He was cut up, bruised and bleeding from multiple wounds scattered across his arms, legs and torso. He pulled himself up from the couch and stepped over to the younger boy. "What the hell happened?"

"We got ambushed," Dick replied with a rueful shake of his head. "They spotted us before we even got close and got us." He shook his head again and sighed to himself. "Maybe I missed something," he added with a scoff. "Batman is definitely going to get on my case for this one."

Wally regarded the younger boy incredulously. "Dude, you're busted up and you're worried about what Bats is going to say?" he asked with a shake of his head and pointed to the couch. "Sit down man, before you fall down. Let's see if we can get you cleaned up a bit at least," he commanded as he made his way to the bathroom to grab the first aid kit. "How are the others doing?" he called over his shoulder.

"Well, Conner and Kaldur are a little worse off than I am," Dick began. "M'Gann's not too bad, but she's got her fair share of scrapes and bruises."

Wally walked back out to the living room with the first aid kit and rolled his eyes. "All right, get Conner and Kaldur over here, I'm calling Artemis." Without another word to the younger boy he tossed the white box onto the couch beside him and pulled out his cell phone. A few seconds later he was talking to his best friend. "Hey Artemis. Yeah, Dick's back. Yeah, he's in pretty bad shape too. Drag her over here and we'll get them cleaned up. Okay, yeah. Do you want me to run you over? You sure? Okay, see you soon then." He flipped the small plastic device closed and turned back to the dark headed boy on the couch. "All right, Artemis and M'Gann will be here soon and then the four of you can explain what exactly happened."

Dick was silent for a moment. "I don't know if that's such a great idea," he said at last. "This is a mission assigned to Young Justice; it's our problem."

Wally regarded him silently before he made a dismissive gesture. "Whatever," he replied. "Let's just get you guys put back together, yeah?" He went to answer the door and ushered Conner and Kaldur in.

Both of the powerhouses looked much worse for the wear than Dick did. Conner had an open gash on his scalp that was still trickling blood down into his eyes and Kaldur seemed to be favoring his left arm. A second knock at the door had Wally standing aside to allow Artemis and M'Gann entry. The alien girl had her arm slung across Artemis' shoulders as the blonde archer helped her limp into the room. She didn't seem to be in a terribly bad condition, at least compared to the guys already in the room, though she seemed run down and her eyelids kept drooping as Artemis hauled her in.

Wally frowned as her surveyed the other teens in the room while his best friend helped the only other girl to the couch. "You guys got seriously messed up," he said at last as he stepped close to Artemis. Despite the friendly camaraderie that had built up between the two groups, both Gotham Central teens only felt truly comfortable when with each other. "So, we'll get you fixed up and then you'll tell us the whole story in return."

Before any of the four teens could respond, Wally and Artemis immediately went about cleaning and bandaging the wounds. The pair worked quickly and efficiently and before too long, all of the other teens were wrapped up and in slightly better shape.

"All right," Artemis said as she snapped the lid to the first aid kit close. "Time to spill the details."

All four teens of Young Justice exchanged tense and tentative glances before Dick sighed. "All right," he finally conceded. "I don't know how much you really want to know, or even how much I can tell you because this is an official League investigation that goes well beyond our mission tonight. All I really can say is that we were trying to break into a night club to get a look at some records and possibly find a product the League has been looking for."

Wally and Artemis exchanged a brief look. "You guys didn't go in dressed like that, did you?" she asked, indicating their uniforms.

"Well, of course," M'Gann answered, her tone confused. "It was an official League mission."

Artemis let out an exasperated sigh and shook her head dramatically. She glanced skyward for a moment and shot Wally a significant look. "Well there's your problem then," she said as if it were obvious. "Going in with your uniforms on practically announces who you are and what you're there for. If you want to get this done, then you've got to go in undercover."

"Undercover?" Kaldur asked uncertainly. "It makes sense, of course, but in order to be effective under cover we would have to know how to blend in as well. We have not had much experience in this area."

"Well, it's a good thing you know us then, isn't it?" Wally replied with a smirk. "You richies have had it easy, but we can teach you how to relate to the people you're going to go undercover as."

"I don't know," Dick said with a shake of his head. "We've got to accomplish this mission tomorrow, especially now that we've botched this first attempt. Can you teach us everything in under twenty-four hours?"

"We can teach you most of it," Wally said with a shrug before he glanced over at Artemis.

"And since you guys obviously can't handle yourselves, Wally and I will go with you," Artemis added with a smirk.

"Whoa, hold up," Conner interjected. "This is a League mission, you two aren't League. You haven't been trained for this."

"Thank you for that observation Captain Obvious," Artemis retorted with a roll of her eyes. "But we both know Wally and I have been trained, and trained quite well. Besides, out of the six of us, Wally and I are the only ones that haven't come back from a mission torn up and bloody."

"I don't know Artemis," M'Gann said quietly. "We do not wish to drag you into this; especially after you've made it clear you want nothing to do with the Justice League."

"True," Wally conceded with a shrug. "But we'll just keep our involvement a secret, just like last time. We're not about to let you guys go in there blind and disoriented while you're all still hurt. Now, rest up," he added as he walked over to a small hall closet on his side of the suite and started pulling out pillows and blankets. "I don't care where you sleep, but if you want to stay here then take these," he said as he tossed his pile into the room. "It'll probably be easier if you all stay here, considering how late it is and all the work we have to do tomorrow to get you four ready. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to bed."

"Hold up," Artemis said as she stood from her spot on one of the chairs. "I'm too tired to drag myself back to my room; I'm bunking with you tonight."

Wally said nothing, but gave her a small smile and ushered her along with him.

"But wait, that really is not allowed," M'Gann said hastily. "Technically, all of us being here right now is against the rules."

"Like the rules really mean anything," Artemis snorted. "If we're going by the rules than none of us should be sneaking out at night to do what we do, but we're doing it anyway and we all know we're not going to stop."

"Besides," Wally said with a dismissive shrug. "Artemis and I have been sharing a room for years; since we were kids really. It's nothing new for us. Now, if you'll excuse us, it's late and we're going to bed." With those last words Wally slung an arm across Artemis' shoulders and led her off to his room so both of them could get some well-deserved rest.

Artemis woke the next morning when the sunlight finally cast its glow across her eyes. She groaned softly to herself and slowly opened one of her eyes. For a moment she was confused and disoriented. This wasn't her room at Gotham Academy and it most definitely wasn't her room back in Gotham Central. Suddenly she felt something move beneath her head and she went rigid. She stayed still for a moment as she realized that the movement was slow, even and rhythmic. Cracking her other eye open and turning her head slightly she saw that at some point in the night she had cuddled up to Wally and rested her head on his chest. The boy was still asleep, which accounted for the steady up and down movement beneath her head. The arm trapped beneath her had wrapped itself around her shoulders and held her closer. She smiled slightly and contemplated going back to sleep herself but those thoughts were soon dispelled when Wally's eyes cracked open as well.

"Morning," he mumbled tiredly. "Sleep well?"

"Of course," Artemis replied as she rolled away from Wally and stretched. A large yawn cut off what she was about to say next and she heard Wally chuckle beside her.

"You sure about that?" he asked teasingly.

Artemis huffed in reply and pulled herself out of bed. "Come on," she told him. "We've got some tragically inept teenagers we need to teach to interact with others of their species."

Wally laughed and climbed out of bed after her. "Don't you mean we need to teach some rich and privileged kids how to slum it with the poor and not nearly as fortunate?"

"Same thing," Artemis answered with a smirk. "Though my way puts us in a better light."

"True," Wally said with a life as he stood and stretched. "All right, time to go wake the invalids and teach them to forget everything they've learned so far on how to act in polite company cause where we're going, you won't find polite company for miles."

After bandages were changed and more serious wounds were looked at the six teens unanimously decided that lessons on being a normal teenager could wait until after they had eaten breakfast. Once Wally and Artemis began to give advice and pointers, it was quickly discovered that Dick already knew how to act as a normal teenager. This revelation led Wally to shoot him a questioning look and ask him if he'd ever slummed it before. His only answer had been a secretive smirk and a shrug of the shoulders. The other three teens took a little more work. Wally and Artemis eventually decided that Conner was capable of pulling of the "dark and broody" type of teenager and told him all he really had to do was keep a scowl on his face and say as little as possible to other people. Kaldur took a little more work but the two teens from Gotham Central were eventually able to get him to loosen up, slouch a little and drop the more formal way of speaking. M'Gann took the most work and it took quite a lot of convincing to get her to drop her usual sunny and polite disposition. Finally, around five o'clock that night, Wally and Artemis stepped back and declared the other four teens ready.

"All right," Wally began. "You're probably ready to pull this off now but Artemis and I will be there just in case."

"I still do not know if you should come," Kaldur said with a worried frown. "We do not want you to get in trouble with the League."

"Someone needs to remind you how to talk and act," Artemis retorted with a shrug. "Besides, you're all still injured so two fresh and fit people on the team will be a benefit."

"So what time are we heading out?" Wally asked.

"Well, the club doesn't open until ten," Dick replied. "We should aim to be there around eleven. We probably should go in smaller teams as well instead of one big group. Seeing as there's six of us, how about three teams of two?"

Kaldur nodded. "That might be better as it will draw less attention."

"Hold up, what are we even looking for?" Wally interrupted. "Artemis and I can't go in blind; it'll make us relatively useless in the grand scheme of things."

"You'll go in with me and Artemis will go in with M'Gann," Dick replied. "Besides, if the girls go in together they may stand a better chance of flirting the information we need out of people than any of us guys would."

"But," Artemis began as she and Wally exchanged glances. She was quiet for a moment before looking over at M'Gann. The other girl's face was hopeful and openly smiling at her. She let out a soft sigh and smiled back. "Yeah, okay. That makes sense I suppose." She didn't like being separated from Wally, but she knew that they'd still be in the same building at least. "All right then, time to suit up, and no, not in your uniforms," she added with a smirk. "Your goal is to blend in. Wally, you help the guys find something suitable, I'll help M'Gann." She gently grabbed the other girl by the arm and began to tug her towards the door. "See ya at eleven."

Wally had taken his task of getting the other guys ready quite seriously, especially when he found out that all Kaldur owned for everyday wear were a couple track suits and his school uniform. Luckily for him, neither Conner nor Dick posed much of a problem getting ready. Dick had pulled together a pair of skinny jeans, a dark green hoodie and a dark jacket over that. He completed his look with a pair of Converse for his feet and some dark sunglasses. When Wally had pointed out that it was night, therefore making the sunglasses a liability, Dick had shrugged his shoulders and replied that he'd be fine. Conner had thrown on a pair of loose cargo jeans, a black tee-shirt and a brown leather jacket. He had tucked the ends of his jeans into a pair of black combat boots. Kaldur had presented the biggest problem, as it was difficult to find a look he could pull off in a teen night club and still hide hid gills. Eventually, they decided to go with a pair of loose jeans, a black tee-shirt borrowed from Conner, a black jacket that was left open, and a dark scarf to hide his gills.

After declaring the rest of the guys to be ready, Wally had zipped into his own room and pulled on a dark green tee-shirt that was layered with a black button-up shirt (left unbuttoned) on top. He dug out a pair of dark jeans and pulled them on before he snagged his Vans from under his bed. He debated for a minute on whether or not to attach the chain sitting on his desk to his belt loops and eventually decided why not. By the time he was ready to go it was half past ten and the boys decided to wander over to the girls' dorm to wait.

Artemis shot another glance at the clock and sighed to herself. Wally had sent her a text ten minutes ago letting her know that the boys were ready to go and were waiting outside for them. She turned her attention back to her wardrobe and tried to come up with something to wear. She had planned on having more time to pull her own look together but it had taken forever to get the Martian girl ready to go; partly due to the fact that it took the other girl a while to grasp the concept that bright, happy colors would only make her stand out and draw in too much attention at the club. At least I didn't have to wait for her to change outfits, Artemis thought as she reflected on the other girl's ability to change her appearance and clothing at will. Finally, the two girls had decided on a black miniskirt and a red spaghetti-strap top with knee high boots and black leggings to complete the look. With another glance at the clock Artemis groaned and pulled out a pair of black, tight skinny jeans, a hunter green tube top and a black half-jacket that came down to the middle of her ribs. She dug her own pair of Vans from her closet and quickly laced them up before rushing out the door to meet the guys with the other girl in tow.

"Not bad, not bad," Wally complimented Artemis when she came into view, a lazy grin on his face. "Took you a while though."

"Shut it West," Artemis retorted, a playful smirk on her lips. "Perfection takes time."

"Ah, then you might want to take a few more minutes," Wally retorted back easily.

Artemis shot him a mock offended look and lightly slapped his arm. "If I was any other kind of girl I would be in tears right now," she mock scolded him.

"If you were any other kind of girl," Wally began with a smile as he slung an arm across her shoulder. "You wouldn't be the best friend I know and care about."

Artemis smiled up at him and nudged him gently with her shoulder before turning to face the other four teens. She found them huddled together discussing strategy. "I'm not all that comfortable that they're not filling us in," she remarked to her best friend.

"Neither am I," Wally agreed. "From what I could get out of the guys it seems like whatever this is has to do with some sort of drug and all those missing kids reports lately."

"Hmm," Artemis responded lowly. "I suppose we'll just have to keep our eyes open then," she added with a sigh. "It'd be easier of they weren't splitting us up; you and I work much more efficiently as a team."

"I know," Wally replied. "But look at it this way; at least we'll still be in the same building and we both know that I can get to you very fast when I need to."

Artemis looked back at her redheaded best friend, ready to reply, when the other four teens finally joined them.

"All right," Dick started. "The club we're going to happens to be in New York City. The plan is to take M'Gann's bioship down there, though we'll land it about four blocks from the club so we can split into three groups. Each group will approach the club from a different angle so it doesn't look like we're all together. Now, a note of caution," he added as he looked right at Wally and Artemis. "Any electronic communications, including and especially communicators, can be tracked in this club so we won't be using them."

"Then how are we all going to stay in contact?" Wally asked. "Even if we're splitting up into teams it makes sense to stay connected to everyone else."

"That's where I come in," M'Gann said softly. "I am able to create a psychic network between all of us that will allow all six of us to communicate telepathically with each other."

"You mean all of our minds will be connected?" Artemis asked skeptically. "So much for privacy and peace of mind," she sighed. She took a quick glance at Wally who looked thoughtful for a moment before shrugging and nodding his head slightly. "All right, hook us up then," she said at last.

"The connection will be there, but it will only broadcast your thoughts to the rest of us if you wish it to," M'Gann explained as she reached out to the two teens. "I apologize in advance," she added with a regretful look on her face. "This may hurt for a moment."

Hurt was an understatement, Wally thought as a sharp pain lanced into his mind that had him clutching at his head. He found he could do nothing but squeeze his eyes shut and wait for the pain to disperse. He thought he heard a faint thud come from next to him but at the moment he was too busy trying to keep his skull from splitting in two or bursting into flame; whichever happened first. When the pain finally subsided he slowly and carefully cracked his eyes open to find Artemis picking herself up off the ground.

"May hurt my left arm," she scoffed as she stood. "Hurt is skinning your knee or stubbing your toe. That was being beaten over the head with a sledgehammer, run over by a truck and having your brain freeze while simultaneously being lit on fire," she groused.

"I am truly sorry," M'Gann replied. "In order for you to be hooked into this psychic connection certain parts of your brain needed to be altered slightly so as to make you compatible."

"Hold on a minute," Wally exclaimed. "You altered our brains?"

"Only slightly," M'Gann said timidly. "It will not cause any side effects and you will not realize any difference in brain functioning."

"Still, that's something you tell us before you mess with how our brains are wired," Artemis growled.

"Perhaps," Dick interjected. "But we don't have time to debate this right now. Suffice it to say that what's done is done and you're now permanently capable of accessing the mental link between all six of us if M'Gann sets up an open channel first. Now let's get going and get this mission done, huh?"

Wally and Artemis exchanged disgruntled looks but followed along regardless. Now wasn't the time to be picking any fights, but you could bet that this conversation wasn't over.

Conner and I are in, Kaldur said over the psychic link about forty minutes later. The two had been the last group to enter the club, with Wally and Dick going in ahead of them and Artemis and M'Gann going in first.

Great, you know what to look for, Dick replied. Keep your eyes open and report back anything suspicious.

Right, both boys replied before the psychic link went dead.

It was odd, Wally decided. Talking to the others over a mental link and having them reply was a new experience that left him feeling both exposed and awkward. Any of the other five could burst into his mind at any moment to start talking to him and hear his thoughts in return. He let out a sigh and ignored yet another scantily clad girl that was trying to make eye contact him before turning to the younger boy next to him. "You going to fill me in at all?" he asked out loud.

"Told you already," Dick replied as his eyes scanned the crowd behind his dark sunglasses. "Keep your eyes open for anything that looks like a drug deal or that looks like drugs are being exchanged."

"But you won't tell me what kind of drug," Wally guessed.

"I don't even know myself," Dick replied. "The League just heard of something new popping up in teen night clubs around the same time that teenagers began to disappear. That's why we're here; to look for this drug and see if we can find out what's going on with the missing teenagers."

Wally shot him an incredulous glance. "So they sent you guys in blind as well? Seriously? Doesn't that seem a bit dangerous? The less you know, the less prepared you are and the bigger target you make for yourself."

"They told us what they could," Dick answered with a shrug. "Even they don't know much about what's going on."

"Uh-huh, sure," Wally said to himself, wholly unconvinced. "All right," he said to Dick. "I'll just keep my eyes open then."

Wally had only been scanning the crowd a few minutes when his eyes fell on her. Artemis had dragged M'Gann out to the dance floor to mingle with other teens to try and get information out of them. Wally watched with narrowed eyes as one guy approached his blonde best friend, intent on leading her away from the dance floor. He watched Artemis shake her head and scowl before turning back to M'Gann. The boy apparently couldn't take a hint though, as he grabbed onto her hips and leaned into her to speak lowly in her ear. Wally felt his anger spark and kindle as he stepped towards them, his focus solely on Artemis and the boy she was struggling to get away from. Rationally, he knew Artemis could take care of herself but he'd be damned if he let another guy touch her in any way.

"Wait," Dick said as he reached out and pulled Wally back to the counter they were leaning against. "You can't give us away."

"Dude!" Wally protested, trying to shake the younger boy off. "You can't expect me to let that guy get away with bugging my best friend!"

"You're best friend?" Dick echoed. "Are you sure that's all it is? Are you sure there's nothing more to it than that?"

Wally's protests and attempts to break away instantly stilled at Dick's words. "What do you mean?" he asked, hoping his voice sounded more convincing than he thought it had.

Dick rolled his eyes and dropped his hand from Wally's arm, assured for now that the other boy wouldn't bolt away. "Most people don't look downright murderous when their best friends are with someone else, even when those best friends are of the opposite gender." He paused for a moment to let that sink in. "Especially when they know that best friend could beat that guy six ways from Sunday and leave nothing but a bloody, quaking mess behind. So I'll ask again; are you two really just best friends? Because neither of you act like it."

Wally was quiet for a moment, contemplating. If he thought about it, really thought about it, he would have to concede that Dick was on to something. He knew, deep down in places of himself he would rather ignore thank you very much, that Artemis meant more to him than one would think a best friend could, or ever would. As it stood though, he was comfortable with the relationship the two of them had now and he didn't want to do anything to ruin it. Besides, whatever these feelings were (even he did not know as he was much too reluctant to even acknowledge they existed most days), he was far from ready to examine them at length and figure it all out. "I don't know what you're talking about man," he finally said aloud, hoping Dick would buy his "playing dumb" act.

"Whatever," Dick said with a sigh. "For someone so smart, you sure can be clueless sometimes."

Wally said nothing, but felt quietly relieved that the younger boy didn't push the subject any further. He watched his blonde best friend for a moment longer, smirking to himself when she actually turned and flat out punched the guy accosting her. Content in the knowledge that she was okay, Wally went back to his scan of the room, trying to pick out anything suspicious.

It took another hour before any of the six teens noticed it. Artemis had been watching as a couple of teens, a boy and a girl, had disappeared through a door set into the back wall. She had rolled her eyes at first, thinking it was a place the patrons regularly used to "hook-up". However, curiosity got the better of her when neither teen reemerged half an hour later and two more teens, this time two boys that both looked around to make sure they weren't being watched or followed, slipped through the door. Guys, she sent through the mental link, wincing slightly at the odd feeling of being connected to five other people. I think I may have something. She quickly relayed what she had seen.

Infrareds don't show anyone in there anymore, Conner replied after Artemis had finished relaying her information.

And I'm not picking up any mental activity in the area immediately behind the door, M'Gann added.

Time to check it out?, Wally asked. How do we work this then?

M'Gann, perhaps you should sneak in first and relay what you find, Kaldur said. Just remember to stay invisible and do not take any unnecessary risks.

Right, M'Gann replied before all mental communication ceased and the Martian girl suddenly vanished from sight.

Ten minutes later all five teens received an update. There is a passageway through the door that leads down into the earth, M'Gann's voice suddenly reverberated through the other five teens' minds. Shall I go check it out?

No, Dick's voice answered. Wait for the rest of us to meet up with you. If this leads us where we want to go we won't want to be split up. Artemis, go join M'Gann, but both of you stay hidden. Wally and I will slip in after about ten minutes. Conner and Kaldur, you two follow us through after another ten minutes.

No more than twenty minutes later all six teens were slipping quietly through the shadows of a passageway that lead them further downward.

"I think I hear water up ahead," Conner whispered quietly after they had been walking a while. "And I think I hear people talking."

The whole group paused as the other five teens strained their auditory abilities trying to pick out the same noises. However, their efforts proved futile as they were too far to pick up anything that Conner's advanced senses could.

"All right," Dick said after a moment. "Since Conner hears people up ahead then it's critically important that we proceed quickly, but quietly. We don't want to get caught now."

Five heads nodded in affirmation and the group of six started forward once more. A few more minutes of walking brought them to the edge of a brightly lit area. All members of the group could now hear the lapping of water against stone and the sound of voices coming from up ahead. Dick motioned for everyone to wait and, with a quick glance at the alien female of the group; M'Gann disappeared once more and quietly made her way forward alone.

M'Gann returned a few moments later and shimmered back into visibility, a distraught look on her face. There are three men down there, she began over the mental link. Two of them are on the shore while the third is piloting a boat. Whatever that cavern is it opens onto the Gotham River.

What about the four teenagers that Artemis saw slip down hear?, Kaldur asked. Did you see any sign of them?

Well, that's the thing, M'Gann replied. All four teenagers are there, but the two men on shore must have done something to them. They don't…look completely there anymore. They seem, almost zombie-like. The two men were herding them onto the boat and none of them protested.

What happened?, Dick questioned. Did you see anything?

The Martian girl shook her head in the negative. I did not see the two men do anything to the teenagers, no, but one of them was holding a jar of purple liquid.

We need to get that jar, Wally broke in. That's probably the drug the League was talking about.

Right, Kaldur acknowledged. M'Gann, were any of these men armed?

Not that I could see, the redheaded girl replied.

All right, Kaldur said thoughtfully. I am loath to put civilians in harm's way, but perhaps if we go with a direct assault we can finish this quickly without any unnecessary harm being done.

You mean just dash right in and attack?, Artemis asked to clarify. Isn't that a little…inelegant?

Inelegant it may be, Kaldur replied. But it is probably the most effective solution as we do not have very many places to hide once out in the open and this will likely take the men by surprise.

Artemis shot a look towards Wally and shifted subtly closer. If they were going in blind they were going in together. Wally gave her a reassuring smile before turning his attention back to the well-lit cavern ahead.

This is it, Dick said over the link before he got up and dashed in.

The other five teens were not far behind the shortest member of the group as they all made a run for the light. Artemis made an immediate beeline for a man in a white overcoat when her eyes fell upon a corked beaker clutched in his hands. As M'Gann had said, it was full of a purplish liquid. The man went down easily enough with a swift kick that sent his legs out from beneath him. The beaker went flying into the air and Artemis felt a rush of air to her left. She looked up to see Wally looking down at the beaker, a small frown on her face.

"Problem?" she asked.

"Maybe," Wally replied in a distracted tone that meant he was thinking something through.

Suddenly a shot rang through the air and all six teens immediately turned their attention to the boat and the only man left standing. "Brats," he hissed as he lowered the shot gun from pointing into the sky. "You must be those League brats that've been causing problems. Well, let's just get you out of the way now, shall we?" He lowered the weapon in their general direction and all six teens tensed. He laughed harshly when he saw the teens prepare for the shot. "You think I'm gonna shot ya?" he sneered. "Nah, too messy. I'll let these guys take care of ya," he said with a gesture to the four teens on the boat. "Get 'em," he commanded.

All four teens suddenly snapped out of their trance and turned their attention to the confused teens on shore. For a moment no one moved, no one even said a word, and then suddenly all hell broke loose. Two of the three boys growled furiously and leapt from the boat to the shore, growing at least twice their size in the process. When the landed the ground trembled and the six teens already on shore had to fight to stay standing. The third boy blurred out of focus only to completely disappear after a moment. The girl remained on the boat but as she lifted her arms a sudden wind tore through the cavern and ripped at the six teens from Gotham Academy.

"The hell is going on?" Wally yelled over the wind. "Are they supers?"

"I don't know," Artemis replied, already fighting against the wind to Wally's side. "Either way, I'd say we're in for a rough fight."

Artemis' observation turned out to be a massive understatement. Surprisingly, the two powerhouses on their team were quickly overpowered by the two beefed up boys. Both Conner and Kaldur were sent flying into the stone walls of the cavern within minutes. They both scrambled to their feet as quickly as possible, but Conner had a pronounced limp and Kaldur was favoring his left arm. M'Gann was knocked out early on by something no one could see. Conner had used his infrared vision to discover that the third boy of the group of four teens was wandering around invisible. After the invisible boy had taken care of M'Gann he turned his attention to Wally and Artemis. The two best friends remained back-to-back, protecting each other as best they could. If being overpowered and fighting an enemy they couldn't see wasn't bad enough, the constant wind whipping through the cavern kept blowing dust into their eyes and small rocks pounded against them. Eventually the five teens grouped together around M'Gann, trying their hardest to watch each other's backs.

"Oh, that's just too precious," the man on the boat taunted. "You think grouping together is going to help you." His loud laughter reverberated across the rough stone walls until a harsh, high pitched ringing cut it off. The man frowned and fished in his pocket until he pulled out a small cellphone. Flipping it open, the man listened intently for a few moments before he mumbled a short "Understood." He slipped the electronic device back into his pocket and turned a taunting grin to the five teenagers still conscious. "Well, looks like you brats get a reprieve for now. Got orders to follow. Back to the boat," he barked at the three boys on shore. "Don't forget those pathetic eggheads." The two large boys shrunk back down to a normal size as they picked up the two scientists and the third boy blinked back into visibility. The zombie-like looks returned to their faces as the marched single-file up the gangplank. Once all three boys were on board the man started up the engine and sped out into the night waters.

The five teenagers still standing collapsed to the ground once they were sure no one else was coming after them. All six were beaten, bruised and battered and they had to wait for M'Gann to regain consciousness before they could leave.

"At least they left this behind," Wally said as he held up the beaker. "I need to get someplace to analyze this," he added as he paused to look around at the rest of the group. "And we all need some serious medical attention."

"Well," Dick began hesitantly. "There is Mount Justice. It's a small island a short way from Happy Harbor; not too far from here."

"Are we allowed in your little clubhouse?" Artemis asked with a raised eyebrow. "You sure you won't get in trouble?"

"As long as we're not caught we should be fine," Dick answered with a shrug. "Besides, you guys really helped us on this one, it's the least we could do."

Wally and Artemis exchanged hesitant glances but decided to take the offer regardless. They had to wait another ten minutes for M'Gann to return to the land of the awake and in pain, but once she was up they didn't have to wait long for her to call the bioship to them and be on their way.

The flight to Mount Justice was smooth and short, a blessing in disguise for the injured teens. It took some work and some trust from Wally and Artemis, but the four official members of Young Justice finally managed to sneak them into the Mount. The first order of business had been cleaning up and bandaging the more serious of their injuries. It turned out that a rock had clipped Dick in the side and the resulting gash required stitches. M'Gann had a nasty bump on the back of her head from when she had been knocked unconscious. Conner had a fracture in his leg, causing his limp, and Kaldur's left arm had been broken. Artemis was littered with slowly bleeding gashes across her arms and legs and she had somehow twisted her ankle quite badly. Wally ended up being the least injured of the six as his accelerated healing had already kicked in to begin knitting up the cuts spread over his body. It took some work, but after a good forty-five minutes all six of them were more or less fixed up.

"So, what do you say to taking a look at this stuff?" Wally asked as he drew the beaker from his pocket. "Shall we find out what it is?"

"We've come this far, haven't we?" Dick replied with a grin. "Why not?"

"Maybe because you were asked only to retrieve the drug and return it to the League," a dark voice replied from behind them. "And I don't remember instructing you to seek outside help for this mission either."

All six teens whipped around to find Batman emerging from the shadows of the hallway to their right. All four members of Young Justice looked appropriately repentant as they hung their heads and refused to make eye contact with Batman. Wally and Artemis, however, adopted more aggressive postures and attempted to stare the Bat down.

"You know, maybe if you'd given them a bit more information on what was going on, or hell, even better training on blending in that kind of situation than maybe they wouldn't have needed us," Wally retorted. "As it stands, they came back last night pretty beat up and we weren't going to let them walk back into that alone."

"So, they know your identities as well?" Batman questioned the Young Justice team. "What happened to keeping a low profile?"

"Hey!" Artemis interjected. "Don't blame them for that, it was all a complete accident. Besides, Wally's right. You sent them in blind and got them hurt. We helped them out and got the job done."

Batman was silent for a moment. "True," he conceded at last. "However that doesn't change the fact that you are neither part of the League nor part of this team. Their choices and your actions could have serious consequences for this ongoing investigation. The fact that you managed to pull this mission off does not outweigh the fact that they have put this mission in jeopardy by involving civilians, no matter how well trained or super powered those civilians are," he added pointedly.

"So you do know who we are," Wally replied with narrowed eyes.

"Of course I know," Batman said. "Which is why their choice to involve you in this mission is serious. Regardless of your feelings towards the League, neither one of you will let something go once you are made aware of it. Simply by knowing about this ongoing mission makes you a risk and a liability to its successful completion. If you could be trusted not to look into this further it wouldn't be as large a problem. However, it's highly likely that you will launch your own investigation once we let you go."

Artemis was quite for a moment, knowing full well that she couldn't lie convincingly enough at the moment to get Batman to believe they would do no such thing. In fact, she and Wally had been planning to look into everything on their own after they left tonight. "Fine," she admitted at last. "You caught us on that, but is there really anything you can do about it?"

Batman was silent as he regarded each teenager in turn. "This team will be disbanded and the two of you detained until further notice," he said at last. "It is clear that none of you are ready for this yet and we cannot let the two of you roam free while this mission is still open."

Loud shouts of outrage accompanied Batman's statement from the four members of Young Justice. "That's not fair!" Dick yelled. "Batman, you can't do that! We completed the mission and Wally and Artemis were an asset to its completion!"

Artemis and Wally were strangely quiet for a moment, just looking at each other. "This is where you wanted to put us when you tried to get us to join the League all those months ago, isn't it?" Wally finally asked.

"If we join now, and that's a big if, will you leave the four of them alone and leave the team intact?" Artemis added.

"If you were a part of the team than there would be no reason for this incident to be problematic," Batman answered. "The team would still be functioning properly and there would be no reason to worry about any possible action the two of you might take."

Everyone fell quiet and watched as Artemis and Wally once again communicated with each other wordlessly. "Fine," Wally said, his eyes still locked with Artemis'. "We'll join the team, but I want it understood we're doing it for them," he added with a jerk of his thumb to the four teens behind him as he turned back to face Batman. "We've agreed to your invitation," he sneered. "So leave them alone."

"One other thing," Artemis added. "We'll follow orders when we're on League missions with the rest of the team, but you need to understand right now that us joining this team doesn't mean we're giving up on patrolling Gotham's slums at night. Any night we can, we'll be out there doing what we've always done. That is not negotiable," she finished as she crossed her arms across her chest.

"Very well," Batman allowed after a moment's pause. "I suppose the League can live with that as long as you follow orders to the letter in your League missions."

"Whatever," Wally said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "If we're done here, it's going on two in the morning and I'm ready to crash." He walked nonchalantly around Batman and headed for the exit, Artemis close behind while the other four members of their new team followed hesitantly.

"Not so fast," Batman said. "Debriefing is promptly at ten tomorrow morning. I expect all six of you back here on time."

"Yeah, yeah," Artemis called over her shoulder. "Boring stuff tomorrow at ten, we'll be here."

After the senior members of the team showed the two new recruits how the transporters worked and got their biometric signatures keyed in, all six teens disappeared in a flash of bright white light, bound once again for Gotham.

AN2: Phew, chapter eight is done! It's over 8,000 words and seventeen pages in word. Consider the length an apology gift for being away for so long. So, Wally and Artemis are finally members of the team (though I think they were more or less forced into it rather than willingly joining…) and the plot of this story is now (somewhat) introduced! Well, I hope you all enjoyed chapter eight and please don't forget to leave a review; I love to know what you all think about the story.