A/N: Thank you guys so much! You are all amazing! I know I say this every time, but all this support is just amazing :) I'm sorry this chapter took so much longer to get out, but I just finished my exams and moved from the UK back to Florida, so things have been kinda hectic.

Also, I wanted to point out that I am taking a few liberties with Rocket's character simply because we didn't get to see much of her, but I really loved her character and wanted to use her. I am trying my best to keep her canon, but I do have to assume a little bit. But if anyone knows a little more about her from the comics or something, feel free to let me know in a review or PM! :D

Anyway, thank you all for sticking with me and taking the time to read! So I hope you enjoy!

10:09 PM

"Alright, let's go this wa—AAAYY!"

"Geez, Raquel, what are you—ACK!" Artemis flailed her arms forward, crawling through the air in attempt to right herself once more. "Don't pull me down with you!"

"What, you want me to fall to my death?" Rocket shot back, mustering as much sass as she could manage after nearly plummeting down the side of a 50-story skyscraper.

"You wouldn't have to if you'd just stop jumping off of stuff! What is this, the fourth time in the past five minutes!"

"I know, but—I just can't get used to not being able to fly," Rocket explained as she followed the rest of the team off the ledge and landing on the shorter neighboring building.

"Oh, boo hoo. You have to walk on your own two feet like the rest of us normal people."

"Artemis, I would hardly call a 15-year-old girl that takes a crossbow on a date a 'normal' person," M'gann noted a bit hesitantly.

Kaldur sighed audibly and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Team, we need to keep moving, or we will run out of time." He continued walking across the roof and mumbled under his breath, "I remember a time when Kid and Robin were the troublesome duo. And I thought it could not get any noisier than that."

"I heard that, Fish Face!" Rocket snapped as she trailed after the Atlantian.

"Ummmm, you guys," Zatanna called from the far end of the rooftop, "We've got a small problem."

"What do you mea—Oh." Artemis answered her own unfinished question as she walked over to her friend's side only to find a 15 meter stretch of void empty space in between their roof and the next one on their path. "That's what you mean."

"That wouldn't be a problem normally but… what do we do?" M'gann asked, surveying their surroundings, "There's a busy highway to our left and a bunch of tiny houses to our right; this is the only possible direction."

"Should we just retrace our steps and find a new path?" Rocket suggested.

"We cannot. The building we just came from was a good five meters taller than this one," Kaldur replied, motioning in the direction they had just come from, "Getting down might have been easy, but getting up will be a bit trickier."

"Then how are we supposed to get across?" Artemis asked, her patience already being tried.

Raquel eyed the expansive gap. "We could just—"

"NO." Artemis replied sternly, yanking Raquel back away from the edge, "NO MORE JUMPING OFF BUILDINGS, ROCKET. NO. MORE."

The dark-skinned girl huffed and put her hands on her hips. "Well, what do you suggest we do then, Rapunzel? Make a pulley system out of your hair and swing across like they did in Tangled? 'Cause I'm pretty sure we've got a better chance at jumping."

Conner stared intensely into the gaping space, and then up at the opposing rooftop. "Well, I might not have my super strength, but I think I can still lift heavy stuff," he suggested seriously, "Maybe I can try throwing you guys across?"

Artemis's jaw dropped. She was seriously starting to wonder if those inhibitor bands of theirs also suppressed rationality, or maybe sanity. "LIKE HELL YOU WILL!" she spluttered out, skittering backwards away from the depowered Kryptonian.

"Boy, you did NOT just call me heavy!" Raquel snapped at Superboy, jabbing a finger into his chest pointedly, "There somethin' you tryin' to tell me, Dunderhead of Steel?"

Zatanna was desperately trying to suppress her laughter; the image of Superboy throwing people like javelins wouldn't be leaving her brain anytime soon. "Sorry Conner, back I don't think you've quite got a grasp of what regular human strength is like. Even with your build, that's a bit impossible."

"'Not quite got a grasp'? Zee, he wanted to throw us across the urban Grand Canyon!" Artemis ranted almost hysterically, arms swinging out dramatically in the direction of the enormous gap.

"Yeah, and I don't particularly fly like my namesake right now," Rocket added.

"You would if I threw you," Superboy grumbled moodily under his breath, annoyed with the backtalk he was getting for his idea.

"Don't you dare."

"Come on, guys," M'gann said calmingly, easing her way between Rocket and Superboy. "Let's not fight, or we'll never figure this out."

"Hey Miss M, you're still green, so is it possible that you still have some of your powers?" Zatanna suggested, helping the Martian move the heat off of Conner.

M'gann shook her head in response. "I think Robin did something to my band so that it freezes my shape-shifting ability rather than revoking it. He really did think of everything, didn't he?"

Artemis threw her hands in the air in exasperation. "Then what do we do!"

"Well, you could start by ending your argument and helping me move this," came Kaldur's voice from behind them. They'd been so absorbed in the bickering that they hadn't even noticed him walk back across the rooftop and dig around in the darkness until he found something.

"Wha—Aqualad, where did you find that ladder?"

"It is not a ladder. It appears to be an old fire escape. It was probably replaced with a much safer means of evacuation, and they just did not know what to do with it and left it up here."

"And… what exactly are we going to do with that?" Rocket asked, not really liking where this was going.

"This 'ladder' was made long enough to reach multiple floors. If we can get the other end to reach the other roof, we should be able to safely make our way across. "

Artemis was left speechless, yet again. "Let me get this straight. You want us to walk across a 50-story drop on an old ladder that was replaced due to safety issues, and you think that's safe? That's it, it's official! Those bands are definitely suppressing your brain cells!"

The Atlantian simply ignored her protests and continued to haul the fire escape over to the ledge. "Girls, grab the end closest to the ledge and hold it steady. Superboy, help me with this end."

Grumbling, Artemis joined her fellow superheroines at their assigned post and got a firm grip on the fire escape. Superboy joined Aqualad on the other side and, with some difficulty, the boys slowly began to hoist their end of the ladder into the air. When it was completely vertical, the heroes slowly tipped it over so that the free end landed on the opposing rooftop.

"Well, that was easy enough," M'gann said optimistically, "But… will it really hold our weight?"

"Only one way to find out," Conner replied, and before any of the others could stop him, he stepped out onto the first rung of the ladder. Thankfully, the fire escape had been made bulkier than a normal ladder, so there was more room for the Kryptonian to step. Holding his arms out to balance himself, Conner stepped from rung to rung, unbothered by the immense height. "Well, it's holding my weight just fine, so come on."

"Well, according to you, we're 'heavy stuff'," Raquel finger quoted, her voice dripping with venom.

"Oh, for the love of—Just hurry up and cross already!" Superboy yelled over the wind with a roll of his eyes. He stepped off the final rung of the ladder and shot a glare at the dark skinned girl. "Or would rather me come back and throw you over instead?"

That did it. "Alright, that's it!" Raquel bellowed over the gap, stomping over to the makeshift bridge, "I'm going first so that I can knock that thick blockhead of yours right off your shoulders!"

M'gann gave a little sigh and Kaldur had to muffle a chuckle. It was pretty clear to everyone but the frustrated Raquel that Superboy was purposefully baiting her into crossing the ladder. Not that it was very hard to do; after all, who knows how to irritate a short-tempered, impulsive super teen more than another short-tempered, impulsive super teen?

Raquel, fueled by her frustration towards the Kryptonian, made it over halfway without a hitch, until her concentration was broken by the bark of a dog far, far below her.

Rocket's eyes widened as realization hit her. "Woah… that's… really high…"

"Hurry up already, or the ladder may buckle under your weight!"

"WOULD YOU JUST SHUT IT ALREADY, SUPERDUNCE! I AM SO GONNA WOOP YOUR ASS OF STEEL WHEN I GET OVER THERE—"

Thanks to Superboy's taunts, Rocket made it all the way across safely, but by the time Zatanna and M'gann had both crossed and joined them on the other side, he had already learned that a haymaker to the face and a kick to the shin hurt a lot more when your ass isn't as hard as steel anymore. Kaldur crossed the fire escape with ease, leaving only Artemis on the other side.

"Are… are you sure this is safe?" she asked, easing her way across the ladder.

"It held all of us, so you should be fine," Zatanna comforted her friend.

"Should? Should? Zee, thanks, but that's really not helping!"

"Ehe… Sorry."

Creeaaakkkk. The heroes all froze, looking from Artemis to the ladder.

The archer slowly lifted her gaze to her teammates, eyes wide but the fire in them never dying. "What… was that," she growled out through gritted teeth.

Kaldur's eyes flashed with concern, but he quickly composed himself and locked eyes with the archer. "Artemis. Do not stop now. It will be fine, just do not stop."

The fire in Artemis's glare could set the entire Amazon forest ablaze, but she continued crossing rung by rung, each step creaking louder than the last. "I swear, if this thing collapses, I will come back from the grave and haunt you all for the rest of your days!" she spat out, half terrified, half infuriated.

"Well, Artemis, you can threaten us all you want once you get across, so keep moving," M'gann said with a forced laugh, but her tone was strained and insistent.

CREEEAAAKKK!

Now even Kaldur was unable to hide his panic. "Artemis!" he yelled out desperately, "Jump!"

She was still four rungs away, but the blonde archer did not need to be told twice when she felt the metal begin to sag beneath her. Pushing off from the ladder with all her might, Artemis propelled herself through the air just as she heard a final 'CRACK!' from behind her and the metal fire escape plummeted to the ground. But she had been too far away, and her outstretched arms fell just short of the concrete ledge. And for that moment, Artemis truly thought she was a goner. But she felt two sets of strong hands grip her wrists, and in the next instant she found herself hauled up onto the rooftop.

"Artemis!" screeched a wide-eyed M'gann, who had dropped to her knees and immediately went about fussing over the archer, "Artemis, are you ok?"

"'Cross the ladder' he says; 'It'll be safe' HE SAYS!" Artemis practically screams, forcing her lungs to work again and throwing an incriminating glare at the Atlantian.

"It's a good thing nobody was walking under the ladder when it fell," Rocket sighed after checking the damage down below, "They would've been in the hospital for ages."

"Yeah, talk about bad luck," Superboy remarked dryly.

Zatanna walked over to Rocket's side and peered down the edge of the building, silently staring at the impossibly high drop. "We said we'd give it our all, but will that really be anything near enough?" she asked quietly, eyes glued to the conquered obstacle, "We couldn't even figure out how to get across a rooftop."

"It'll be fine!" Rocket said, giving her friend's shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "We're just getting the hang of things right now. And I mean, come on, we kick ass for a living, so it's not like any criminals we run into will be a problem."

Zatanna smiled softly. "Maybe you're right."

"Alright," Kaldur said definitively after helping a reluctant and spiteful Artemis to her feet, "Let us continue."

10:25 PM

"Um, guys, where the heck are we?"

"Some back alley," Kaldur answered without turning to look back at Artemis.

"All of Gotham City is just 'some back alley'," the archer countered, "If we're not careful, we're gonna end up going in circles."

"But there really isn't anything we can do about that," M'gann pointed out as they turned another dark corner, "Maybe we could go find a store and buy a map of Goth—oh, Hello, Megan! Let's check out this place!"

The team turned to look in the direction M'gann was now pointing. Standing at the end of another dank alleyway was what appeared to be an old rundown storage facility. The overwhelmingly tall buildings looming over it from every side kept it secluded and inconspicuous, although it itself was quite large. Graffiti coated every inch of the dilapidated construct, and most of its windows had been shattered.

"It's so hidden away we almost didn't notice it," the Martian girl explained hopefully, "Doesn't that sound like the kind of place Robin would choose to hide?"

Zatanna studied the old building. "It does sound like something he would do, but he isn't the one we're looking for, remember?"

"That is true, but M'gann's theory is still solid," Kaldur cut in, "When Robin explained why he could not take part in this game, he said that it was because he and Batgirl had the same training and thus think the same way. So, if we consider her strategic methods similar to Robin's—"

"—we just have to constantly ask ourselves, 'What Would Robin Do?'" Raquel finished impatiently, already walking towards the smaller building, "If that's the case, I agree with Miss M's idea. It won't hurt to just check the place out."

"Guys, wait." Artemis shifted in place nervously. She had a bad feeling about this, and she really hoped she was mistaken. "There's something wrong with this place."

"What? It's just an abandoned building, Artie. What could possibly be wrong with it?" Raquel called back as she made her way over to the door, the others following suit.

"No, wait, don't go—" Artemis's words were left unsaid and unheard as the door opened and the young heroes nonchalantly walked inside. Artemis groaned and rubbed her temples before running in after them.

The building was far more spacious than it had appeared from the outside, although the team was unable to tell just how large the room was. The only light to see by came from the broken windows sprinkled around the walls, and even many of those had been boarded up. All the teens were able to see was the pitch black void spread out before them.

"Are there any lights?" Superboy asked, fumbling across the wall in search of a light switch.

"You guys!" Artemis called as she raced through the open door, "Listen to me! The problem with going into an abandoned building in Gotham is that they're never completely abandoned!"

"Very good, little lady," sneered an unfamiliar voice.

Suddenly, the door behind them slammed shut and bright lights flashed on, blinding the heroes temporarily. Artemis blinked the spots from her eyes and refocused on the new problem at hand. Sometimes she really hated being right.

"You all shoulda listened to the pretty blondie over there," the owner of the voice continued, twirling a pistol around in his hands like a simple play thing, "She seems to be the only one of ya's with enough street smarts to survive in this town."

Artemis gave a tired sigh. "The first thing you learn when growing up in Gotham," she explained to her friends, "Is that 'abandoned' buildings are prime locations for gangs to make their bases."

"Right again, sweet cheeks," the man replied, flashing her a toothy grin before adding, "Not that that little tidbit will do you any good now."

Now with the lights on, the teen heroes could clearly see that the room was full of thugs and goons, all armed and dangerous. They were completely surrounded.

Artemis sighed again. Robin was right, she grumbled inwardly, This is going to be a very, very long night.

A/N: That's all for now! Hope you enjoyed it :) I'm going on a trip out of country with a few friends soon in celebration of graduation, so I'm not sure when I'll next be able to update, but I'll do my best to make it fast! Thank you and I love you all! Please review and let me know what you thought!