A/N: Alright, so I finished this thing last night, but this site decided to be an ass and it locked me out of my document manager. Thankfully, they finally got it working and I can give to you the next chapter! Woo!
Thank you guys infinitely much for helping me go over the 50th review mark. It gave me the best feeling ever and urged me to write more (that, and I had the day off Wednesday because my school caught on fire).
Just to let you guys know, I do know why Wally was called Baywatch by Artemis (in reference to the old tv show Baywatch, in case any of you didn't know that yourselves), but Tess didn't because she missed the conversation.
I won't talk anymore, and just let you read the chapter. Don't forget to review!
August 8, 9:53 PM, Happy Harbor
Less than an hour later, Roy had left, and the team and I took the bioship down to Happy Harbor High to guard Roquette. Miss M and Superboy were patrolling the perimeter while Robin, KF, Artemis, and Aqualad were in the room with Roquette. I was currently wandering aimlessly throughout the hallway, taser in my hands just in case. My echoes bounced effectively off the walls, telling me that there was currently only six of us inside.
"Miss Martian," Aqualad's voice came over the comlink between us all. "Link us up. We do not want the Shadows intercepting our com"
"Everyone online?" Megan's voice asked in all of our heads a moment later.
"Gotcha," I replied, strolling towards the back doors to go outside.
"Ugh, this is weird," Artemis marveled.
"And distracting," Roquette added. "Coding a distributed algorithm virus in a kiddie computer with less RAM than a wrist watch is hard enough, now I have to hear teen think in my skull?"
"Somebody's a whiner," I bit back before anyone else. "No wonder Red left us with you; he probably got sick of hearing you complain."
"Yeah," Kid began. "Do you always complain when someone tries to help you?"
"Pot, kettle, have you met?" Artemis said, making me snort as I dove into the bushes.
"Hey, hey, I do not need attitude from the newbie who took Red Arrow off the team!"
"That is so not on me!"
"Fate of the world at stake!"
"She started it!"
"I'm going to come back up there and finish it if you two don't shut the hell up!" I growled as I pressed my fists to my temples to stop my head from throbbing. "Do you know how hard it is to set out waves with my mind when there are people arguing inside of it? Very hard."
"Fine," Artemis sighed. "Why don't I just go help you patrol the perimeter, then?"
"Good idea," Aqualad said.
"I'm out by the basketball court."
"You might wanna cut her some slack," Robin addressed Kid as soon as Artemis left the room. "It was her arrow who saved your butt against Amazo."
"What? No! That was Speedy's, I mean, Red Arrow's...arrow, right?"
"Not so much."
"It was freaking green, dude," I added. "Not much else to it."
Wally groaned, pouting, "Yeah, well, I'm still not giving her the satisfaction."
"You know, I can still hear you!"
"Argh!"
"I couldn't get the Justice League!" This doctor lady is really starting to get on my nerves – and everyone else's, for that matter.
"The virus wont be of much use if we cannot find the weapon," Aqualad began. "Can you track it?"
"My utility fog is not a weapon; it's science, brilliant science. And, of course I can track it, but then I'd have to go on line. Might as well rent a billboard with this address and assassinate me written in neon." Sure it's not murder, lady?
"We will protect you."
"...Tracking fog now."
"'Bout time you showed up," I said to Artemis as she appeared beside me in the bushes.
"I took the long way around," she hissed back. "Let's go find Miss Martian." We ran around to the front, where M'gann was crouched at the entrance of the fence. Superboy was nowhere in sight.
Artemis crouched down wither her bow drawn as I hung farther back, sending echoes to make sure we were still alone. 4 people in the immediate area, check. Suddenly, a large thunk was heard, and I turned to my right, only to see Superboy standing up from a crouch. "Jesus!" I shrieked. "Don't scare me like that!"
"Sorry," he sniffed, rolling his eyes as he walked away.
Artemis watched him leave with a devious smirk on her face. "Mhm, that boy."
My mouth dropped open, along with Megan's, in shock. Superboy turned around slightly, confused as I choked back laughter. "He can hear you, you know!" Miss M gaped. "We can all hear you!"
"Oh, I know." I snorted, wishing very much that I could make an inappropriate comment inside my head without the rest of the team hearing it.
"Miss Martian, Doctor Roquette has located the fog; reconfigure the bioship so that Robin, Echo, and Superboy can proceed."
Miss M raised her hand and within seconds, the bioship appeared in front of us, spinning around and landing with it's back door open. "Ready." I took a running leap onto the ship and slid into my seat, Robin and Superboy following suit. "Good luck."
Robin hopped in the captain's chair and pulled up schematics on his watch. He was finally able to track the fog's next target, and we were heading towards Philadelphia, where he claimed it would be next. The ride there was silent, save for the occasional sigh from Superboy and me tapping my fingers on the control panel to my left. I yawned slightly, and when I opened my eyes I saw STAR labs in the distance.
"Robin to Aqualad," Robin began, speaking into the com instead of the mindlink. "We're over Philadelphia. We've located the Shadows next target: Star Labs.
Something was clearly up, as it's lights, which were just shining brightly a moment ago, suddenly flickered off. "Guys, look," I commanded, pointing to the building. Within seconds of my exclamation, the entire structure began to rumble and collapsed in on itself. "Oh god, we're too late."
"It's destroyed!" Robin gasped. "Totally destroyed; the fog decimated it. This is bad, Star Labs is cutting edge science, and now their secrets are in the hands of the enemy. What's our next move?"
"Rescan for that fog," Aqualad answered. "Find it. We're moving the Doctor."
Robin sat up straighter as we came upon the massive skyscraper that was Wayne Tower. "Next target's a Wayne Tech facility. In theory, its system software could be used to hack the –" He froze, mouth snapping shut as he realized just what crucial information he was about to reveal. The Batcave? Shit, I groaned inside my head, thankful Miss M's mind link couldn't reach as far as where we were now.
"The what?" Superboy asked.
"Doesn't matter," he replied, looking away for a moment. "What matters is that Wane Tech operates a 24 hour work force. We'll never evacuate the building in time."
"Maybe if we destroy the fog while it's inside, we won't have to," I suggested, as we stood up and made our way to the back of the ship, while eying the van that had just pulled up in the parking lot directly across from the tower. The side door slid open, revealing Professor Ojo with a large box I'm sure was where the Fog was coming from.
"Downloading!" Robin called from farther back while Superboy and I stood at the opening.
"Down there," I pointed to Professor Ojo.
Superboy took one look at him, before jumping off of the ship, "Don't need it!"
"Wait! Supey!" I watched with an open mouth as he landed in the parking lot. Ojo ran his thumb along the top of the machine and shot a laser beam out of his 'eye' on his helmet, making Superboy fly back. The pod opened up and a fog filled with tiny grey particles floated up, flying toward Wayne Tower. "Crap!" Without another thought, I whipped out my grappling gun and flipped off the back. The rope hooked onto one street lamp, and I retracted it as I flew to the next one.
I heard Robin shout "No!" from behind me, and knew that he was following suit. We landed at the same time, and sprinted through the hole the fog made in the doors of facility, shoving past workers.
"What the...?" a security guard behind a desk gasped, but we ignored him as we chased after the fog. "Hey! You kids can't be in here! Unauthorized entry!"
I groaned, cursing under my breath as an alarm sounded and a gate began to drop down in the hallway. "Wayne Tech override rg-4!" Robin shouted, speeding up and sliding under the gate, which was beginning to rise. I followed suit without a second thought, thankful that I wouldn't be crushed today.
We took a turn onto a stairwell, and I shot my grapple gun up to where I last saw the fog. I shot up at least 20 levels before swinging onto a platform and wrenching open a door. "Where's the nearest computer?" I shouted to Robin as he followed me down the hall.
"Cafeteria!" he hollered back. "Turn right!"
I skidded into the room, where a brunette lunch lady was standing, watching as the ceiling began to crumble away with the thick fog. Robin pulled a cord out from his glove and connected it to the computer. "What's going on?" she asked, frightened. I opened my mouth to answer, but faltered, seeing as I had absolutely no clue how to answer that to a civilian.
"Please be linked to the mainframe, please be linked to the mainframe," Robin chanted, tapping furiously on the hologram. I stood on the opposite side of the counter, pushing the woman so she would get under the table and out of harms way. The screen suddenly went red for a moment, before it returned to its normal blue color. We all looked up and saw the once-grey fog fade to red, and the tiny bugs all dropped to the floor, dead.
"Yes!" Robin cheered, high-fiving me "The infiltrators have been outfiltrated!" We beamed at each other, until I realized something.
"Superboy!" I gasped, and we ran over to the window, only to see him fighting against the beam coming out of Ojo's helmet. He had one hand in front of his face, walking slowly toward the villain until he got close enough where he could press his hand against his face. Ojo crumpled to the ground, and hit his head, knocking himself unconscious. "Woo!" we cheered. "Go Supey!"
The clone looked up at us, shirt torn from the blast, and gave a sheepish thumbs up.
