AN: Hey guys, I'm so, so sorry that this chapter took this long to get out. I admit I got sidetracked with my own original work (which is done by the way. I mean completely, 100%, edited and cleaned up done! :D) and I've been busy applying for scholarships and such for graduate school. Anyways, a huge thank you for all the reviews, favorites and alerts :) I'm really glad you're all still enjoying this story. Now please accept twenty pages in Word as an apology and don't forget to leave me a review please!
Important-ish Note: So you may (or may not have) noticed that I changed the summary for the story. I had a reviewer point out that Wally and Artemis' reactions and thoughts on the League are anything but apathetic, which was what I was portraying in the summary. I've been meaning to change that, but kept forgetting, so thank you for the heads up on that :) That same reviewer also pointed out that some of the facts were a little too unbelievable, namely Artemis and Wally having their "lab" and everything that goes with it using what little disposable income they've got. As such, I've tweaked chapter one a tiny, tiny little bit (the flow of the story is still the same so there's no reason to go back and re-read that if you don't want to). Basically, Wally and Artemis would bribe guards to get into places (like Gotham Chemicals Laboratory or Gotham Technological Institute) and then go "shopping" for what they needed (yes, that means they'd steal, but I actually think that's a bit more believable for them and their situation than trying to keep them completely on the right side of the law. In "video game terms" I think of them more as "Chaotic Neutral", maybe "Chaotic Good", if the mood strikes them right, lol). If you'd rather have it the original way, please feel free to ignore this completely :)
Disclaimer: I do not, never have, and never will own Young Justice (though if I did this indefinite hiatus would not be happening...)
Wally and Artemis didn't hang around after she was discharged from the medical bay. Instead they'd waited long enough to let the rest of the team know that, yes, Artemis was alive and yes, she would be just fine before catching the first zeta tube back to Gotham. If anyone thought their suddenly reclusive behavior was odd, they chalked it up to the stress of the last mission and the fact that the pair hadn't been home in over a month. For their part, Wally and Artemis did nothing to discourage this assumption and simply let the rest of the team and their mentors think what they wanted.
They ended up having to wait a day to get to their lab because their mothers had just about gone ballistic when they showed up, a little battered and bruised. Wally, of course, didn't have anything much worse than a quickly fading purple mark on his cheek as most of his other injuries had already healed themselves. Artemis, however, was not as lucky. Though she had healed quite nicely while she was out, she still had a normal paced metabolism and that left her looking a bit worse for the wear and a clean white bandage still covering where the thorn had entered her skin. Neither of them had given any particular thought to this before returning home and had to think on their feet when their mothers demanded to know what had happened. Despite how fast his brain could work, it was Artemis who actually came up with the plausible excuse.
"We had an accident in gym," Artemis had lied smoothly. "It was a dodge ball game gone horribly, horribly wrong."
Their mothers had frowned, concerned that no one had thought to inform them that their children had gotten hurt, but brushed it aside in favor of making sure they were all right for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, that made it all the more difficult for Wally and Artemis to slip away, though by the next day they had worn their mothers down with arguments that the school wouldn't have let them travel home if they hadn't thought them recovered enough to do so.
"Besides," Wally had said. "I managed to escape the worst of it so I'm perfectly capable of looking out for the both of us."
Their mothers had been concerned, but finally relented, especially when they figured that the two best friends would most likely head out of the apartment as soon as they left for work.
"So what are we looking at here?" Artemis asked from her perch on the work bench next to the machine Wally was using.
"I'm not sure yet," Wally replied. "There's something about this that makes it seem almost familiar, but I can't place why." He sat back in his chair with a tired sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. "I've been at this for two hours already, you'd think I'd have something to show for it," he grumbled as he let his eyes wander over the ceiling above him.
"Well, you did figure out it's composed of two different acting agents, right?" Artemis said. "That's something."
Suddenly Wally sat bolt upright, his attention on a small patch of gunk stuck to the stones above and just to his left. Without a word, he was out of his chair and dashing around the lab in a blur.
"What are you looking for?" Artemis called to him from her place on the table.
"This," Wally replied as he came zipping right back carrying a beaker full of some mostly dried bluish goop.
"Is that the stuff that exploded on us?" Artemis questioned.
"And gave us our powers? Yeah, this is the stuff," Wally answered. "And at the moment, I'm glad we've been too busy to really scrub this place clean." Without another word, he sat back down and, in a flurry of activity that Artemis could just barely track, he was off and running test after test.
"So?" she asked once Wally slowed down to grab a bag of chips and a soda.
"Well, I've pretty much identified one of the components," Wally answered. "It's a compound a lot like what gave us our abilities; it draws out the latent talents within whoever takes it."
"So is this the cause of all those super powered teenagers we've been fighting lately?" Artemis pressed.
"Most likely, yes," Wally replied. "But this stuff is dangerous."
"How so?"
"Well, when we got our powers from my goop, it did more than just draw out latent abilities," Wally explained. "Somehow, it altered our DNA, our chemical make-up, everything basically, so our bodies and systems could support our abilities. This stuff," he continued with a gesture to the beaker they'd raided. "It just draws out the abilities without altering the system to actually be able to support it."
"What does that mean then?" Artemis asked, not liking where this was going.
"It means that these kids are literally burning themselves out," Wally answered. "These abilities they get are eating away at them, taking more and more energy each time they use them until there won't be anything left to take. My guess is that's why some of them die right after being injected; their systems can't handle the abilities it's trying to draw out so it shuts down instead."
"Why would anyone go along with that?" Artemis wondered. "Why would anyone put themselves through that?"
"I don't think they actually know about the negatives," Wally said. "When we were in South America the scientists, and I use that term very, very loosely, didn't seem to know about it and even if they did, you can bet that they wouldn't tell any of the teenagers they've been abducting. Besides, think about it for a minute Arty, the kids they've been taking have been coming from places like here," he added with a sweep of his arms to indicate the city outside their little haven. "Would you give up power, or even a chance at power, even if you knew the risks?"
"Okay, you've got a point," Artemis sighed tiredly. "But what about the blank, zombie-like impersonations they're pulling? If I suddenly got the powers those kids are getting you can bet I wouldn't listen to a single word anyone else tried to tell me; I'd go and do whatever the hell I wanted."
"My guess is that it has something to so with the second compound formula that I could spot," Wally replied.
"Ivy?" Artemis ventured. "She had you boys completely docile and at her beck and call. It was kind of disturbing how blank you were," she added with a shudder.
"Sorry," Wally replied with a small smile as he reached out a hand and tangled his fingers with hers.
"Not your fault," Artemis answered softly, squeezing Wally's fingers in return.
"It probably wasn't Ivy though," Wally said, pulling them back on topic. "Remember, whoever started this had only just decided to maybe bring her in. Besides, whatever she uses is so far only effective on males and the "zombie state" of the victim doesn't change in a fight. The teenagers we've faced have lashed out at us, gotten angry when we've fought them, so I doubt that second compound has anything to do with Ivy."
"Who else is there?" Artemis asked.
"I don't know," Wally admitted. "But the rest of the team might."
"So we're going to tell them what you've found out?" Artemis reiterated.
"They need to know. These powers the other kids are getting are eating away at them every time they use them," Wally replied. "The more we fight them and make them use their abilities, the faster we're killing them."
"Do you think the League knows?" Artemis questioned softly.
"Maybe, who knows?" Wally answered. "But whether they do or not doesn't change the fact that I'm telling the rest of the team. We joined up with them so we could continue to help people that actually need it. Helping other teenagers slowly kill themselves when they probably don't even know what that formula is doing to them is not what I signed up for."
"It's not what either of us signed on for," Artemis assured him. "And I'm sure the rest of the team feels the same way."
By the time Monday rolled around Wally had gotten no closer to isolating the second half of the compound and, truth be told, it was making him a little irritable.
"All right man, you look like you're five seconds from decking somebody because they looked at you funny," Dick told the redhead at lunch. "Being angsty and ready to punch someone is usually Conner's gig, so what happened?"
"We found out about something," Wally replied in a low growl, too preoccupied in his own thoughts to catch the nervous look that briefly passed through the original members of the team.
"We'll tell you later," Artemis answered as Wally took a particularly vicious stab at his notebook, the pen held tightly in his hands.
"It's like this formula shouldn't exist," the red head hissed to himself as he scratched out yet another line on the already mostly scribbled out page, except for a line of formula at the very top of the page, circled multiple times. "Nothing I can think of would combine correctly to form this!"
"Dude, why do you have a modified version of the Blockbuster Formula written in your notebook?" Dick asked slowly after leaning over to see what Wally had been grumbling about. "That information is supposed to be locked up tight; no one should know about it; aside from the League, Kaldur, Conner, Roy and myself."
"The what?" Wally demanded, his head shooting up to stare at the youngest member of the team. "You know what this is?" he pressed, gesturing to the top of the page and completely ignoring Dick's question.
"Well, yeah," Dick replied. "At least I know what the base is; I did experience its effects first hand."
"Where?" Wally pressed. "And what is it?" he added in a hiss.
"I can't tell you here," Dick answered with a furtive look around the bust lunch room. "Let's all meet up after classes; it sounds like we've got a lot to talk about."
The second the bell rung to end classes for the day, the six teens converged in the courtyard before silently making their way to Dick and Wally's dorm. It was only after the doors and windows were shut tight and the rooms were thoroughly searched for any listening ears that they sat in the living room.
"So, you said you found something?" Kaldur prompted after a moment of silence as he looked between Wally and Artemis.
"Found out something," Wally clarified as he scowled at the carpet in front of him. "After our run in with Ivy I'd gotten fed up with not being told anything so I took matters into my own hands. Over the weekend I took the opportunity to analyze a sample of the compound I, uh, liberated a while back."
"Okay, and?" Dick pressed when Wally paused for a moment. "What did you find?"
"It's similar in some ways to the original formulae that gave Artemis and me our powers, but not entirely. My compound altered our DNA, our very internal make-up, to accommodate the changes and make it possible for us to use our abilities with little to no negative repercussions," Wally explained. "This thing they're distributing? It doesn't do that. As best as I can tell, which is pretty damn well, this formula taps into a person's potential and allows them to use the abilities we've seen, but their basic make-up is still only that of a regular human."
"Meaning?" Dick asked.
"Meaning these powers of theirs are eating away at them!" Wally yelled suddenly. "They have these abilities, but their bodies can't sustain them for long before wearing out! Every time we fight these kids, every time they use their abilities, they're killing themselves a little more. We're watching a slow form of suicide and we're only speeding up the process every time we fight them."
"So the question remains, do our mentors know and they just aren't telling us?" Artemis hissed.
"I do not think they do," Kaldur replied. "I cannot think they would send us out to fight these teenagers if they knew it was killing them."
"Maybe, maybe not," Wally snorted disdainfully. "As far as I'm concerned the jury's still out until I see evidence otherwise. Anyway, you said you knew this formula," he added, changing the subject as he pulled out the beaten up page he had been scribbling on at lunch. "What is it, what does it do and where have you seen it before?"
"I've sort of seen it," Dick interjected. "Like I said at lunch, the base looks a lot like the Blockbuster Formula, but it's been modified."
"And the Blockbuster Formula is?" Wally pressed.
"Something Cadmus was working on," Conner spoke up. "Before their underground research labs were destroyed anyway."
"You say Cadmus like we should know what it is," Artemis grumbled.
"It's where we found Conner," Dick said with a vague motion towards the older teen. "He wasn't the only project they had going though. They were working on the Blockbuster Formula which was supposedly going to enhance the users strength and speed, but the side effects left you looking like some muscle-bound monster; completely with skin peeling off and gashes all over the body from where it grew too much too fast. It also left you fairly mindless; pretty much in a directionless rage."
Wally was quiet for a moment as he looked over his notes. "If that really is the base, then it explains why those kids go from flat to pissed when they're told to attack, but it doesn't explain why they're nothing but calm zombies in the first place."
"It's probably whatever they mixed with it," Dick pointed out. "They had to have added something else to block the monsterizing effects as well."
"If you know the formula, is it possible to make a cure?" M'Gann asked. "Can we reverse the effects before it's too late."
"Yes and no," Wally answered with a tired sigh. "Even though the formula is the same, the way it reacts within each person is highly individual. I'd need a sample from each person affected in order to pull together a cure that will work correctly within their systems. I can, however, synthesize a block that should hold the effects at bay long enough for me to pull together a cure. Unfortunately, it'll shut down all but the necessary functions in order to keep these teens from burning out too quickly."
"Even that's only a reactionary step," Artemis said. "We need to figure out how to get this stuff off the streets for good."
"And how would we do that?" Conner asked. "We don't know who's making this stuff or where it's being shipped out to."
"We may not, but the League has to know something," Dick said thoughtfully, a mischievous smirk spreading across his face. "They send us out on all our missions, don't they?"
"You're not seriously suggesting we just walk right up to Batman and tell him everything we found out and then demand to know what's going on, are you?" Wally asked incredulously. "Cause that's worked so well for us in the past."
"Psh, of course not!" Dick scoffed. "That would be a disaster, heavy on the dis. Besides, he won't tell us anything anyway. Now, the computers on the other hand, they'll have all the information we'll need," he added with an amused cackle.
"Hack into the system?" Artemis questioned with a raised eyebrow before a smirk of her own settled on her lips. "I like the way you think, Bird Boy, but is it possible? They've got to have everything at least triple encrypted."
"It'll be a piece of cake," Dick grinned. "It's the same system as the Batcave and I've hacked that plenty of times."
"I don't know whether to be impressed or disturbed," Wally said before he smiled a wicked grin. "Though I think I'm leaning more towards impressed."
"Are you sure this is wise?" Kaldur interrupted, trying to be the voice of reason. "Perhaps we should just wait for our next assigned mission."
"Look, there's one of two scenarios at play here," Artemis retorted. "Either a, the mentors know exactly what's happening and yet they're keeping us in the dark, meaning we can't trust them to be acting in the best interest of the civilians. Or b, they have absolutely no clue what this compound is doing and therefore have no idea that every mission we go out on with these teenagers involved is only putting them at further risk. Either way, we know what's happening and we need to act before this whole thing gets worse than it already is. So, you in or out?" she asked, looking at each person in turn.
"Do you even need to ask me?" Wally replied.
"No, and I wasn't asking you," Artemis answered. "I already know you're answer."
"I'm going, duh," Dick said. "You're good, Artemis, but you'll need me to get into the League computers."
"I'm going," Conner piped up.
"If Conner's going, then so am I," M'Gann added.
"I will go with you, my friends," Kaldur said at last. "You are right that something needs to be done."
"Good!" Artemis crowed. "So, now we just need to figure out when."
"Well, we've got a mandatory overnight stay at the base tomorrow," Dick replied. "I can hack the computers then and at least get us pointed in the right direction."
"Tomorrow's my night in Central City," Wally reminded them. "You'll have to get it taken care of without me."
"No offense man, but it's not that big of a deal," Dick returned with a smirk. "I'm pretty sure Artemis and I can handle hacking in easily enough."
"Just be careful with it," Wally replied. "We don't want them knowing what we're up to before we have a chance to get started."
When classes let out on Tuesday the six teenagers made their way to the bus stop and waited as patiently as possible to get to the transporter that would whisk them off the their mountain base. Wally had enough time to finish up a few assignments and eat dinner with the team before the Flash showed up to pull him to Central.
"I thought I wasn't supposed to go until ten, like always," Wally said as he trailed after his mentor to the locker rooms so he could change.
"Normally, yes, but today's your lucky day," the red suited hero joked.
"Really? And how do you figure that?" Wally asked.
"Well, with all the extra time we'll have today, I thought we could work on running through solid objects," the Flash answered with an unrepentant grin on his face. "By the end of the night we might just have you doing it like a pro. No more nose bleeds or getting stuck halfway through for you!"
"That hardly happens anymore," Wally grumbled as he pulled his cowl over his face and adjusted his goggles. "Only when I'm running low on energy and I try to force it anyway."
"Well, let's see if we can't fix that," the Flash replied before turning on his heel and taking off in a red blur.
After almost two hours of running around Central City, with the occasional lesson thrown in, Impulse skidded to a stop, crossed his arms over his chest and glared at his mentor in red. He had been asking a lot of questions, mostly about his personal life, and after asking about his family, in particular his father, alarm bells began to go off in his head.
"All right, enough games," he demanded. "Just what's going on here?"
"What do you mean?" the Flash asked as he backtracked a few steps.
"Usually I meet you here, these things start at ten, go till one or two, and then I go back home," Impulse said. "You never come get me, you never tell me to be almost six hours early, and we never chat back and forth like you have some sort of interest in my life. So, I ask again, what's going on?"
"And what makes you think something is wrong?" the Flash returned, jovial smile still on his face.
"Do I really need to go through that list again?" Impulse replied.
"All right, all right," the Flash chuckled. "You're still not very trusting, are you? I figured after a few months of this you'd feel less hostile if I started asking about your life. I swear I'm not trying to find out who you are," he added as he raised his hands, palms out. "It's your business if you ever want to tell me. I'm simply trying to get to know my sidekick a little better."
"I'm not a sidekick," Impulse growled.
"You're right, you're right," the Flash placated. "That was poor wording choice on my part. I just thought I'd get to know you a little better since we'll be working together for the foreseeable future."
Impulse eyed his mentor warily for a few more minutes before he let out a slightly exasperated sigh. "Fine," he replied. "But I reserve the right to refuse to answer anything I don't want to, and I get to ask questions of my own if I choose."
"You never do anything for free, do you?" the Flash asked thoughtfully. "You and Artemis always seem to make some sort of deal."
"Yeah, well, when you grow up where we did that's generally how you survive," Impulse answered sullenly. "You don't live very long if you're not watching your back and making sure you come out on top of any deal you make."
For a brief moment it almost looked as though the Flash's smile fell from his face to be replaced by a frown and pained, worried eyes, but it was gone so fast, the smile back in place, that Impulse wasn't even sure he'd seen it in the first place.
The Flash let him go back to the Mount at midnight, claiming it had been a fairly slow night and all the extra lessons he had been running Impulse through were probably making him more tired than he let on. Not one to complain, or one to stick around longer than necessary, Impulse had rocketed off the second he was told he was free to go. He made his way to the closest zeta transport spot and was out and off towards his room before the mechanical voice had even finished announcing his arrival.
Wally let himself collapse onto his bed without bothering to change, thinking instead to take a few minutes to relax.
"So, any injuries I should know about?" Artemis asked as she walked into his room not even a minute later.
"No, it was quiet tonight," Wally mumbled around the pillow his face was currently pressed against.
"And yet you're lying there limp," the blonde pointed out as she plopped onto the bed and nudged her boyfriend over to get some space.
Wally finally rolled over onto his side to face Artemis, immediately wrapping his arms around her and dragging her close. "Just tired," he told her as he buried his face into her hair. "He had my running around and practicing a lot today."
"So is that why you were called away early?" Artemis question while she made herself comfortable snuggled against his chest. "And you're probably going to want to change before you go to sleep; your suit isn't very comfortable to sleep against," she added with a teasing smile.
"Probably," Wally sighed, even as he untangled himself from his girlfriend and stood up. He dug around under his pillow for the spare set of pjs he kept at the Mount before he quickly stripped from his suit and changed. He slid back under the covers, pulling Artemis close again the second he was comfortable.
"We've got a lead," Artemis informed him after a moment of lying quietly, just listening to him breath. "Dick and I hacked the system easily and we think we know where the next shipment is going to enter the States."
"When?" Wally asked tiredly, already half asleep.
"Thursday night," she replied before she reached up and placed a chaste kiss against his jaw. "Now go to sleep, if you haven't already," she teased lightly.
"Mm," Wally mumbled. "Night Beautiful."
"Good night Wally," Artemis sighed contentedly as she snuggled closer within his arms.
The next couple of days was a flurry of activity for each member of the team. Dick had managed to get a layout of docks the shipment would be arriving at, as well as a time table of the guard rotations. He printed out copies for each of them and almost all their free time was spent either running scenarios, coming up with a plan or familiarizing themselves with every aspect of the docks. By Thursday night, the six teens were practically chomping at the bit to get going.
Everyone in position?, Robin asked over the mental link.
Check, Impulse answered.
I'm set, Artemis replied.
I am approaching the boat now, Aqualad said.
I'm in position, Miss Martian responded.
Set, Superboy monotoned over the link.
Sweet, Robin smirked. These clowns won't know what hit them.
Just remember, our main objective is to take the shipment, Aqualad reminded the team. Taking down the suppliers is only secondary at this point.
Yeah, yeah, Artemis said. That doesn't mean we can't make 'em sweat a little though, she added with a laugh.
Besides, Impulse said, malicious amusement coloring his voice. If we take them out then we'll have less people to worry about functioning in this group. It's a win-win for our side.
Let's just stick to the plan, Robin interjected. The whole point is to get in and get out without causing a lot of noise. The least amount of damage we do, the less likely Bats and them will know what we've done.
The team fell silent as the deep fog horn of the approaching ship boomed across the dark waters of the Atlantic. Each teenager waited, completely still, for the signal to move, though a tense readiness fizzled across the link connecting their minds.
It is set, Aqualad said not even five minutes later, setting the other five teens in motion.
That brief signal was all Impulse and Superboy needed to start making their way across the gently rolling waves and on board the ship. They were to sneak on board and meet up with Aqualad in the hull to search for, and begin removing, the drug before the ship completely docked.
As Impulse drew close he made sure to stick to the shadows cast over the water from the massive ship almost towering above them. Though Aqualad had deactivated the motion sensors with a rather clever bug, the brain child of Artemis and Robin, Impulse was still reluctant to take any chances with getting spotted. He and Superboy quickly and quietly made their way up the side of the ship, ducking and dodging the human guards as they made their way deeper into the ship. It took some work, and a lot of zipping back and forth for Impulse, but they finally managed to catch up to Aqualad and get a lock on the three large crates holding the drug.
We have found them, Aqualad informed the rest of the team over the link. Miss Martian, are you in place?
Yes, the bioship is in position right outside the hull on the starboard side, Miss Martian answered.
With a quick nod between the two of them, Superboy moved forward to tear a hole into the side of the ship while Aqualad forced the water back between them and the opening in the side of the bioship.
You may want to hurry, Aqualad warned his two teammates. I am not sure I can maintain this for long.
Already on it, Impulse replied as he dashed by, already having moved most of one crate into the bioship.
It shouldn't take too long, Superboy added as he simply picked up a second crate and calmly walked it across through the oblong water bubble connecting them to the bioship.
With Superboy and Impulse working together the three crates were cleared out and stored in the bioship in a matter of minutes and the three teens quickly followed them on board after Superboy closed up the hole he had created.
We're out, Impulse told Robin and Artemis over the link. Remember, the two of you need to work quickly once the ship docks; you won't have a lot of time once they find the crates are missing.
We got this, Robin replied cockily. With the two of us tag teaming their system it'll be a piece of cake.
The connection went silent again as Miss Martian maneuvered the bioship out of the water and into position for the rendezvous with Artemis and Robin. She kept the ship cloaked, but turned so all four occupants on the bridge would have a clear view of the docks.
This was the part of the plan Impulse hadn't been a fan of, no matter how necessary it was. The first part had been easy enough; sneak on the ship and steal the crates before the ship even docked, easily getting four of the six members out of harm's way before the bad guys were any wiser. Unfortunately the second part required waiting on his part; something he was never all that good at when he was worried about Artemis. She and Robin needed to sneak onto the ship themselves to hack the computer system and hopefully get not only the shipping ledgers, but maybe more information on who was running the whole operation. However, neither of them could get on board until the ship docked, leaving them with a very narrow window to locate the main terminal, hack the system and download any important files they found. Impulse had offered to run them both on board after he completed his phase of the mission, but Robin had reasoned that would leave one person alone on the ship, vulnerable until the other showed up, no matter how quickly Impulse could run back and forth. Reluctantly, Impulse had agreed and settled for waiting on the ship, his eyes trained on the docks before him, ready to move at the slightest hint that something had gone wrong. As it turned out, he didn't have to wait that long.
Robin had just crowed a triumphant, and somewhat cocky, Got it! over the link before the lights blazed up all over the ship and a quick Well, shit, came from Artemis.
"Let me down there," Impulse demanded when the sounds of gunshots rang out.
"We cannot go rushing in," Aqualad replied. "We need to be able to get away quickly once they make it back."
"They've got at least thirty guys with guns on them," Impulse growled back. "I don't care who you are, those aren't good odds when you're trying to get away. Besides, I'm the logical choice to go in. If worse comes to worse, I can run out of there."
"All right, let him down," Aqualad agreed after a moment's deliberation.
Impulse didn't even wait for the gap in the bottom of the ship to fully form before he dropped down to the roof below where they had been hovering and rocketing off towards the ship. He was running mostly on autopilot, looking for a flash of familiar blonde hair. He skidded to a halt when he came across Robin instead, already making his way through the dock warehouses to the bioship. The younger boy had a bloody gash across his right shoulder and he was cradling his left wrist to his chest limply.
"Where's Artemis?" Impulse demanded.
"Covering my escape. She insisted," he added hastily when he heard his friend's low growl. "Out of the two of us, she was the least banged up and she figured you were on your way the second the guns went off."
"That sounds like her," Impulse grudgingly admitted. "All right, the ship is back that way; the roof of the second warehouse on your left after it splits off. Tell Miss M to get going, Artemis and I will meet you back at the Mount."
"You sure?" Robin asked. "We can wait for you. I don't think the ship's been discovered yet."
"Dude, even if you take off now, Artemis and I will most likely beat you back," Impulse answered with a smirk. "Just get moving, we'll be fine."
"All right man, just don't do anything stupid," Robin returned.
"But that just takes all the fun out of it," Impulse replied, the smirk on his face growing feral as his attention turned to the fight up ahead. "See ya," he added before zipping off.
"Those two scare me sometimes," Robin mumbled to himself. "It's almost like they're barely balancing on a very thin edge and there's no telling what or when something will send them tumbling off. Though seeing them, they might just enjoy the fall," he added with a repressed shudder at the memory of the gleeful, sadistic glint that lit Artemis' eyes the moment the fighting began and the dark, twisted smirk that stole over Impulse's lips before he ran off to join her.
It didn't take long for Impulse to find his partner after he joined the fray; it was really all a matter of fighting his way to the middle of the throng to get to her side. He was not at all pleased to see multiple cuts decorating her arms and sides, some still bleeding sluggishly, as well as some fairly angry looking bruises beginning to blossom against her skin. Without any conscious thought on his part, he threw himself into the mess, beating back as many people as he could.
"What took you so long?" Artemis huffed once she and Impulse were back to back.
"Sorry, stopped to have a chat with a little bird," Impulse replied. "The poor thing has a broken wing you know."
"I know, that's partly why I sent him off," Artemis answered.
"Only partly?" Impulse asked conversationally as he slammed his fist into the gut of a thug that had tried to rush him.
"Well, I did need someone to go back and get your ass back here," Artemis teased even as she landed a solid roundhouse kick that sent her opponent flying. "That, and he was the most banged up out of the two of us. His wrist snapped when one of these jokers decided to catch it between a metal wall and a heavy metal door."
"Well that sounds less than pleasant," Impulse returned, hissing slightly when a bullet managed to graze his leg. He shot a particularly nasty look at the man before sweeping his legs out beneath him and quickly kicking him off the side of the ship and into the water.
"It wasn't," Artemis agreed, blocking a swing of a metal pipe at her shoulders and stumbling back a bit under the force. "Though the bird did a beautiful job of returning the favor; broke both of the guys legs when he shoved the door right back and smashed it into him," she added as she ducked another swing and spun to elbow her attacker sharply in his gut.
"Well, maybe we are rubbing off on them after all," Impulse laughed, skipping back a few steps, out of reach of some rather cruel looking knives.
"Or at least on him," Artemis joked back.
"As much as I'd love otherwise, we can't stay and play with these guys for too long," Impulse reminded her regretfully, grabbing the wrist of a man trying to shove a knife into him and twisting the arm back until he heard the satisfying sound of the muscles tearing and the bones snapping.
"I know," Artemis sighed. "And I've been having so much fun too. So what's the plan to get out of here?" She really shouldn't have bothered asking, she realized, when Impulse spun around, scooped her up into his arms and took off all in one fluid move. Already used to abrupt take offs, she wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face against his chest on instinct more than on conscious thought.
Despite the speeds at which Impulse had been running, he and Artemis made it back to base just in time to see the bioship touch down in the hanger.
"What was that about beating us back?" Robin asked as he walked down the ramp. At some point in the flight a clean bandage had been wrapped around the cut on his shoulder and his wrist looked like it had been splinted. "I think we got here first."
"Barely, if you can even call it that," Impulse returned easily as he let Artemis down from his arms. "You know despite a couple of us being slightly more worse for the wear, I'd say we did pretty damn good tonight," he added as Superboy and Aqualad came walking off the ship, each carrying one of the crates; the last floating out in front of Miss Martian.
"And just what did you do?" a deep voice asked from the shadows of the hanger door.
All six teens abruptly turned their heads towards Batman as the Dark Knight walked in. "Imagine my surprise," he continued. "When I came to brief you six on a mission you have this weekend only to find you already gone. I thought it was understood that you get your missions from me and only me."
"We had to do something," Artemis replied. "Do you know what that drug does to the people it's used on?" she demanded, gesturing towards the three large crates. "It's killing them! It saps their energy, drains them dry, until there's nothing left to keep them going; nothing left to keep them alive!"
"And how would you know that?" Batman questioned, his tone demanding an answer.
"Because I was able to break it down and study a sample I'd managed to snag a while back," Impulse said, completely unrepentant. "It's a combination of Cobra venom, a compound similar to what gave Artemis and me our powers and the Blockbuster Formula. There might be something else in there, something that's making it react within each victim on a more individual level, but I haven't had the time to study that yet."
Batman was silent, eyeing each teenager in turn. "Go to the med bay, change, get cleaned up and get to bed," he grumbled out at last. "I expect all of you back here after classes let out tomorrow; don't think you're getting off easy on this one." Without another word he turned and disappeared back into the shadows.
"So, are we not in trouble then?" Artemis wondered out loud.
"No, we are," Robin replied. "It's just safe to say we got a reprieve while he informs the rest of our mentors."
"So really we're just in deeper shit then," Wally said.
"Pretty much, yeah," Robin confirmed.
None of the six teens were looking forward to the final bell at the end of the school day on Friday. In fact, for once in his super powered existence, Wally found himself wish time would actually slow down. As a matter of fact, he would have been more than okay if the excruciatingly boring lecture in his history class dragged on until he and the rest of his class were forced to fall asleep just to save themselves from death by boredom. Unfortunately, as tends to happen when you're dreading something, time flew right on by at speeds even Wally was having trouble coming to terms with. When the bell finally rang, and most of the school pilled out of stuffy classrooms chatting happily about their weekend plans, the Young Justice team instead met in the courtyard, each of their faces set in varying degrees of apprehension and dread.
"Well, let's get this over with," Conner grumbled as he started making his way to the zeta transport, the rest of the team following along behind him at a sedated pace. "The sooner we get chewed out for this, the sooner we can get to that mission Batman has for us."
"If he'll still give it to us," Dick added forlornly.
"Well, our team exists for a reason, right?" M'Gann asked, trying to keep upbeat. "We're there for more covert missions since we're not as recognizable."
"While that is true," Kaldur began. "I would not put it past our mentors to ban us from missions for the foreseeable future. We did disobey direct orders."
"We didn't have much of a choice, did we?" Artemis huffed. "We had to stop that shipment from coming in and besides, we got some good leads from the data we managed to swipe from the ship's mainframe."
"Let's just hope that's enough to appease them," Wally said. "If not, well, we can always do a little more digging on our own."
"You seriously want to run more ops without permission after we're already in deep from this one?" Dick asked incredulously.
"Not necessarily," Wally shrugged back. "I'm just thinking the down time we're most likely going to get from this will give me time to study that compound a little more and cobble together a suppressant."
Their conversation died off immediately the second they were beamed into the Mount.
"You are expected in conference room C," Red Tornado informed them as he came walking by. "I suggest it might be prudent to hurry."
The six teens exchanged wary glances before wandering down the corridor to their left, trying to make their journey drag longer than it would normally take. Before too long, they were assembled in front of the heavy wood door, watching Connor push it open.
"Now or never," the teenaged Kryptonian mumbled.
As expected, every last one of the mentors was present at the meeting, as well as a few key members of the Justice League; most notably Superman, whom Artemis and Wally were interested to see pretend as though Connor didn't exist while Conner likewise ignored the Man of Steel's presence.
"I assume you know why your here," Batman began after the teenagers each took a seat around the long, dark metal table.
"Because we disobey direct orders," Wally answered with a roll of his eyes. "But it had to be done! You guys obviously weren't doing anything. Did you even know what that compound did before I told you?"
"We had a suspicion," Batman answered after a moment.
"You had a suspicion, and yet you didn't do anything about it?" Artemis demanded. "You didn't even bother to tell us that every time we were fighting those kids there was a distinct possibility we were killing them? Or at least helping that drug speed up the process?"
"The effects had yet to be confirmed," Batman replied.
"But you still knew it was a possibility," Dick accused. "You can't keep treating us like kids Batman, not after the things we've seen and done, and most especially if you're keeping something like this a secret. We deserve to know what could happen!"
"So let me see if I get this correctly," Wally hissed venomously. "You were willing to risk the lives of thousands of teenagers just because you weren't sure? What kind of sick, twisted bastard are you?"
"Wally, take a deep breath for a minute," the Flash jumped in. "We couldn't just go around shutting places down and intercepting shipments if we have any hope of following the trail back to the people calling the shots. And we are working on a cure," he added helpfully.
"How do you know my name?" Wally demanded suddenly, his furious gaze locked onto his mentor. "I never told you. Hell, you've never seen me when I haven't been suited up. Who are you?"
"Now, Wally, that's not what's important right now," the Flash said, attempting to calm the boy down.
"Who. Are. You," Wally spat, his eyes never leaving his mentor.
The Flash looked up at Batman once, sighed once, shrugged helplessly and carefully slid the cowl off his face. "This is who I am, Wally," Barry Allen answered the furious teenager.
"You!" Wally yelled, jumping to his feet and pointing an accusing finger at the man across from him. "What the hell? How long have you known who I am?"
"For a while," Barry answered hesitantly.
"How long is a while?" Wally demanded, his eyes narrowed dangerously, venom dripping off his every word.
"Since Batman first found you two running around in Gotham Central," Barry finally answered. "Long before you joined the team."
"What about you?" Artemis suddenly demanded, turning to look at her teammates. "Have you known the whole time who we were? Before that stupid job on that island?" She only growled furiously when their silence and downcast eyes answered for them. "It makes sense," she spat. "Why Wally and I would suddenly be offered scholarships we never applied for, why we were stuck rooming with you. It was all a set up from the beginning to get us to join your little club. You couldn't take the fact that Wally and I said no so you set us up and guilt tripped us into joining you."
"No!" M'Gann cried desperately. "It wasn't like that!"
"Yeah, sure it wasn't," Artemis hissed as she got to her feet and made her way to the door, Wally right behind her.
"Where are you going?" Dick asked as the rest of the team leapt up after them.
"Away," Wally hissed back. "And that's all you fucking need to know!"
Wally and Artemis stormed angrily through the halls until they got back to the zeta transport tubes.
"Recognized, B06 Impulse B07 Artemis," the mechanical voice monotoned as the two of them stepped into the light.
"Computer," Wally barked suddenly. "Delete B06 Impulse and B07 Artemis from the system."
"What are you doing?" M'Gann demanded, her horrified eyes wide.
"Purging ourselves of you," Artemis snarled back. "If this is how the supposed 'good guys' operate then we want nothing to do with you."
"And now when we get back in," Wally added a malicious smile on his face. "You won't even know we're here."
Before anyone could say anything else, the bright white light whisked the pair away.
"What, what just happened?" M'Gann asked hesitantly. "What did Wally mean?"
"My best guess?" Dick said. "They've just declared war."
AN2: PLEASE DON'T HATE ME! THERE IS A REASON FOR THIS MADNESS, I SWEAR! Though, to be fair, I wouldn't be all that surprised if some of you (or maybe all of you) did get mad at me for this little twist... But there is a reason! And I really, really don't want you guys to hate me for this, you guys are awesome and always make me smile with your reviews. So, if I haven't totally pissed you off with this, please leave a review and tell me what you think (And remember there is a reason! I can't tell you cause that would just ruin it for you and I don't want to do that, but I promise there is a reason!). Part of me wonders if this is even necessary actually; you're either going to love it or hate it and nothing I say will change that. *Sighs* All right then, please leave a review and let me know what you think. I'm seriously anxiously awaiting your responses to this...