A/N: Wow, you guys are the best! I love seeing everyone's reviews; they are really motivating and just plain amazing. I'm sending everyone who reads this story, even if you don't review, a big virtual hug. I hope you all enjoy this chapter. I didn't plan this one out beforehand as much as I did for the others, so I hope you guys still like it. Enjoy!:)
Disclaimer: I own nothing, but if I had a billion dollars then we would have to revisit the issue.
Land Ho!
Over the next few days as the S.S. Justice chugged across the Atlantic, Artemis began to settle in among the crew. She found a place for herself in the tightly knit group who had welcomed her so quickly. She enjoyed pulling pranks with Raquel, Zatanna, and Dick. She liked the comfortable silence between her and Conner when they worked together. And despite having zero interest in clothes or really anything girly, she didn't mind it when Megan dragged her away for her opinion on one thing or another. She could always get advice from Kaldur whenever she was confused. She had even come to look forward to her daily exchange of persiflage (A/N: I immediately thought of Wally and Artemis when I saw this word in my vocab book!) with Wally.
In the short three days since the boat had left port and that she had been on the boat, she had begun to find her place. Every night she had dinner with Dinah and Ollie, and every morning she was in the "cave" (she learned that that was what they referred to the employee lounge as) waiting for Bruce's assignments for the day. She experienced waitressing, which was just as bad as everyone said. Luckily, Dick had snuck a packet of chili powder into her hand, which she may or may not have poured into the soup of a particularly annoying guest. Oops.
Artemis was alone in her room after dinner one evening, when she heard feet in the room above her, running to the door. They had sounded excited. Artemis got up off of her bed where she had been reading a book that Dinah was making them all read and moved to the small circular window in her room. She could see a thin strip of land quickly coming closer; they had reached the Straits of Gibraltar, and were now entering the Mediterranean.
A loud knocking suddenly reverberated throughout Artemis' room. She walked to the door and opened it to see Megan smiling giddily in her doorway.
"We've arrived!" She proclaims excitedly.
"Um...not really Megan." Artemis says.
"Well, yeah, my uncle John said that we are stopping at the island Corsica first and we won't be there until morning, but we've reached the Mediterranean. That is arriving in my book." Megan says quickly. She grabs Artemis' arm. "Come on, everyone else is already on deck."
Megan drags Artemis down the hallway into the elevator. Megan rambled excitedly about all the stops they were going to be making before heading back to the States. She had apparently heard of some great places that they all just needed to check out. Artemis couldn't help but smile; it was nice that Megan was so excited.
As the elevator rose, more people got in, all excited like Megan to reach land soon. The elevator reached the top deck and people spilled out of the elevator. Megan and Artemis weaved their way through the crowds of excited guests towards the Starboard deck where they met every night. Raquel stood at the railing, talking excitedly with Kaldur. The others all sat in a circle. Artemis could see their excited faces in the artificial light illuminating the giant boat.
"I always love when we arrive at a new port." Zatanna says excitedly as Megan and Artemis take seats in the circle of their friends. People rushed past them, cameras in their hands and around their necks to get pictures of the rapidly approaching coastline.
"Yeah, it's so exciting." Megan gushes. "Plus, we have tomorrow off and Uncle John said that we will reach the port in Corsica early tomorrow morning. That means we have a whole day to explore!"
"Where are we going this time? Please tell me you don't have anymore seedy parks for us to check out." Wally says laughing. Megan glares at him, prompting Conner to do the same.
"Seedy parks?" Artemis questions, confusion on her face.
"We stopped Belize last month. We were all working the afternoon, so that evening we went off ship to explore and Megan saw a sign for a park and thought it would be a cool place to check out since she had read about it in some tourist book." Zatanna starts.
"We ended walking into the middle of a fight ring, and then when we quickly retreated away from the fight, some creepy dude tried to sell us drugs and hit on Raquel." Dick finishes.
"Don't even mention that guy, he was beyond creepy. On a scale of 1 to ten, he would be a twenty." Raquel says, her and Kaldur rejoining the group.
"I said I was sorry! It said it was a park, and parks are generally quite innocent." Megan says.
"We know you didn't mean to Megs, we just like to tease you." Wally assures her with a smile. Artemis couldn't help but smile herself, picturing her new friends in such a seedy place, a place like where she grew up in Gotham.
Everyone seemed lost in thought for a few minutes. She was sure the others were all reminiscing on the event in question, but Artemis' mind was elsewhere. She pictured a hot summer day and little Artemis, a scrap on each knee and a band-aid on her forehead, jump roping on the cracked sidewalk while her mom sat on the steps of the apartment building. Artemis couldn't have been more then five at the time and she was a lot more innocent to everything bad in the world. She was laughing and her mom was smiling. That was until some guy came up the sidewalk. When her mom saw him coming, She immediately told little Artemis to go inside to see what Jade and her dad were doing. Artemis went without question; even then Artemis knew that her parents weren't the best citizens. It was so easy for something good and peaceful to become corrupt.
Wally woke up the next morning excited. They had had just passed through the Straits of Gibraltar last night when Wally had returned to his room to go to bed. When the sun shining through his small window, Wally couldn't help the stupid grin on his face. He loved the idea of all the cool things he had ahead of him for the day, so much better then waking up in Central City, dreading having to leave his house and go to school.
He dressed quickly in a yellow and red t-shirt, brown cargo shorts, and a worn pair of sneakers. He walked out of his room, and locked the door behind him. He looked up to see Artemis doing the same. He walked up over to her as she locked the door to room B-07.
"S'up Arty?" Wally says smiling.
"Don't call me that Wallace." Artemis says, not even turning around as she locks the door and walks down the hall to the elevator.
"Why do you hate that nickname anyway?" Wally asks. Artemis shrugs.
"I just don't like it. It reminds me of Roy." Artemis makes a face of disgust when thinking of the older boy.
"Wow, you really hate Roy." Wally says, hitting the up button on the elevator.
"What tipped you off? The disgusted look on my face every time he walks in the room or the arguments I get in with him every time he comes around?"
"Well..." He trails off, unsure exactly what to say. The elevator arrives and the doors open. Artemis steps inside and walks over to the keypad, typing in Artemis B-07 and watchtower. Wally walks over and does the same, only his says Wally B-03.
"You going up to the Watchtower as well?" Wally asks, changing the subject.
"Yep. Ollie is trying to be all dad like and set some "ground rules" for going off the boat." Artemis does little air quotes around ground rules. "Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if he makes all the stuff up on the spot."
"Well, you will definitely be needing these "ground rules" Mis." Wally says.
"I'm not a Mis." Artemis tells him.
"Alright, I'll stick with Blondie and Harpy." Wally says, smiling.
"And what makes you think that I need the "ground rules"? I think if anyone needs them, it'll be you Baywatch." Artemis tells him with a wry grin.
"Oh yeah?" Wally says as they arrive at the Watchtower and the elevator doors open.
"Yeah." Artemis smiles in reply, walking to Oliver's station. Wally smiles after her, before going over to see Barry.
Barry looks up from a bunch of paperwork. "Hey kid, what brings you up top?" Barry asks.
"Aren't I allowed to come visit my favorite uncle?" Wally asks bringing a smile to the older man's face. "And I lost my last communicator in Antigua and I figured you could get me a new one."
Barry shakes his head as he pushes out from behind the desk and walks with Wally over to a door and into the gadget room. This was one of Wally's favorite room's. There was so much technology all stored in this room. This was also where all the security cameras were monitored. Today's monitor was Arthur, Kaldur's mentor. Arthur nodded as the two of them walked in.
"So what exactly happened to your last communicator?" Barry asks as he leads Wally over to a rack of them. They were basically radios that the crew used to communicate amongst each other when they left the ship to go on land, whether to explore or leading a trip of tourists.
"Well funny story Uncle Barry. You see Dick bet me that I couldn't climb up to the top of this big pole along the dock. I proved him wrong, but my communicator fell out of my pocket on the climb up." Wally tells his uncle, who simply sighs and grabs a new one handing it to his nephew.
"Don't loose this one kid. This is your third one and we've only been on this boat for two months." Barry instructs.
"I won't. See you later Barry." Wally says, walking out of the Tech room. He spotted Artemis still talking over with Oliver. She was smiling widely and laughing with the older man. She looked lighter, happier. Wally liked it when she looked that way. It was almost like she was the sun. When she smiled, it made the people around her light up as well. Wally couldn't hold back a smile as he stepped into the elevator to meet Dick and Roy for breakfast.
"What the hell are you eating?" Artemis asks Wally, staring at his plate in disgust.
"It's Minestra, a traditional soup of Corsica." Wally explains.
"It looks like dirty socks floating in bathwater." Artemis informs him. Dick, who was sitting next to Artemis, nearly spits out the water he had been sipping. This causes Zatanna and Raquel to begin to laugh as well. Even Kaldur cracked a smile.
"You have no sense of culture. This is quite delicious." Wally says as he takes his spoon and slurps down some of the soup. Artemis gives him another disgusted look, before turning to the rice dish she had seen on the menu that had not sounded completely foreign. Everyone else but seemed to have stuck with more familiar looking and sounding food.
When they had finished lunch, the teens walked back out into the town Bastia, one of the main ports. They had walked a few feet down the street when they heard a muffled voice coming out of the pocket of Wally's shorts.
"Kid Flash, come in, Kid Flash." The voice crackled. Artemis looked confused as everyone stopped and Wally pulled out a communicator. Ollie had handed her one but had run off to deal with an emergency before he could explain it to her.
"This is Kid Flash, what's up?" Wally asks into the comm.
"Just checking in to where you guys have walked off too. Any guests around you?" The voice asks. Kaldur does a scan of the scene and shakes his head at Wally.
"We are still in Bastia by the harbor, no familiar looking tourists in sight." Wally replies.
"Alright Red Arrow is meeting up with you. Apparently there is a problem with some tourists a few streets away from the harbor. We need you guys to take a look." The voice says. Wally stores the comm. back in his pocket.
"You're called Kid Flash? What kind of codename is that?" Artemis asks him.
"My uncle is flash. It fitted." Wally says shrugging, glaring at her when she begins to laugh. "Shouldn't we be focusing on the bigger mission at hand?"
"Yeah. Bruce is sending me some coordinates from where the complainer said they were." Dick said, holding up his phone.
"Who's Red Arrow?" Artemis asks.
"Roy. Oliver is Green Arrow. You should be Yellow Arrow, since your hair is yellow and all." Megan says smiling. Artemis tried hard not to laugh at the suggestion.
"Thanks Megan, but I'm not really the codename type. I think I'll just stick with Artemis." She explains to her friends. "What are you guys' codenames?"
"I'm Rocket."
"The one and only Robin."
"I'm Miss Martian."
"Mine is just Zatanna."
"I go by Aqualad."
"Superboy."
Artemis listened as she took in all their names. After Conner had said his, she just nodded.
"I don't really understand the meaning to all your codenames, except for Zatanna and Aqualad, but I'm just going to go with it." Artemis says. Her new friends nodded.
"I have to coordinates. Now we just need Roy." Dick says.
"I'm sure Mr. Brooding is making his frowning face over here." Artemis states.
"Correction, his frowning face is right behind you." Roy said walking up behind Artemis. Artemis spun around to glare at Roy. "Nice to see you speak so highly of me, Arty."
Artemis glared at him, but before she could respond, Wally was speaking.
"Roy! We've missed you. You should come back." Wally says excitedly, much to Artemis' annoyance.
"Yes, if you are interested, we always have room for one more." Kaldur said with a smile. Artemis sighed as they all fawned over Roy.
"Are we going to go get some rambunctious tourists, or not?" Artemis finally asks. Everybody's eyes shift away from Roy to Artemis. "Well are we?"
"Yeah, let's go. " Conner says. The teens begin making their way towards the location. Dick explained to Artemis that they had had to do this before when some passenger on the ship, usually teenagers, got a little cocky or drunk and caused a public disturbance. Bruce usually heard about them and sent whoever was on land to go deal with them.
After that, Artemis had to listen to her friends preoccupy themselves with Roy. They all asked him questions about having an official position on the boat or just catching up. Artemis slowly began to drift backwards from the group. She fell five or six steps behind them all, feeling like the replacement that Wally had accused her of being. Conner joined her soon after though.
"No offense, but your adopted brother has always been a bit of a jerk." Conner says to Artemis.
"I'm not technically adopted, so he isn't really anything to me but a jerk either. Why don't you like him?" Artemis asks. Conner shrugs.
"He knew Kaldur, Dick, and Wally from before we got on the boat. He got along with Raquel and Zatanna easy enough but he was always really kind of dismissive of Megan and me. He just never acted like he could trust us. Megan got over it, and never let it affect her. Me, I just don't really like the guy that much." Conner says, saying the most that Artemis had ever heard him speak at one time.
"I know the feeling. I'm pretty sure he just thinks I hang around Ollie and Dinah because I want their money or something. He probably treats us both the same way." Artemis says. Both her and Conner then lapse into the usual easy silence between the two of them. They were both quiet until they came around the passengers in question.
Sure enough, there was a group of five teenage boys, obviously drunk, sitting on the side of the road, yelling at people as they walked past. Roy and Kaldur approached them first, while the rest of them waited back.
They could all tell that Kaldur was using his peaceful voice, but the boys would have nothing of it and began shooting obscenities at him. Roy then tried his tactic, but we couldn't actually hurt them unless they hurt us.
Artemis sighed. They were going to get nowhere. The sun had begun to dip below the skyline. A beautiful sunset framed the landscape, but instead of admiring it, Artemis was stuck trying to calm down a bunch of crazy passengers.
Artemis' training began to kick in. Something felt weird. She analyzed the five boys. They didn't seem like the type to be heavy drinkers or really do anything like this. They looked like the class president type of kids with their polo shorts and Bermuda shorts.
She took in the surroundings, noting that they were in a pretty wealthy district. They were actually sitting right in front of a jewelry store...
"STOP! THEIF!" The teens all turned to see a masked figure sprinting out of the jewelry store. It all clicked. The boys must have been paid off to be a distraction. Throw in some free booze, and you have a pretty damn good distraction.
"Artemis! Where are you going?" Roy shouted after her. She hadn't even realized it until she was sprinting away from her friends (and Roy) that she was running after the thief. She followed the figure down a small narrow alley. This theft, it was all meticulously well done. It was flawless. It was so much like...
"Jade! I know that that is you!" Artemis shouted when realization dawned on her. The figure wore a black ski mask, but she could practically see the smirk on her sister's face as they continued to race down the alley. The two of them suddenly came upon a tall wall. Jade stopped and stared up at the wall before turning around, laughing. She peeled off the mask, and her dark hair came tumbling out.
"You caught me, good job." Her sister laughed hysterically.
"What are you doing her Jade?" Artemis asked.
"Well I heard that the great Oliver Queen was taking his brand new cruise ship across the Atlantic. I figured that I might as well drop by and visit my baby sister." Jade says smiling.
"Wait, how did you know I was with Ollie? Nobody is supposed to know. Does...does...Dad know?" Artemis asks.
"Not at the moment. If you want to keep it that way and keep me from revealing your little secret to your friends out there, I suggest you let me go." Jade says. Artemis wordlessly steps aside, staring at the ground. "That's a good girl. I'll see you later darling."
Jade quickly disappears, her specialty. Artemis turns around and walks out of the alley, right into her friends.
"Where did she go? Did you find the thief?" Wally asks her.
"She...she got away." Artemis says. Her friends' excited faces all fall.
"Were you hurt?" Kaldur asks her. She shakes her head.
"So the thief didn't hurt you, but she got away." Roy says, spelling out the situation.
"That's what I said Carrot top." Artemis sneers.
"That's Bull." Roy says. The other's all raise their eyes in shock.
"Um Roy, don't you think that is a bit much? I mean I know you and Artemis don't always get along, but accusing her of letting a criminal go..." Dick trails off.
Artemis narrows her eyes at Roy. "She got away." Artemis says taking long pauses between each word for emphasis.
"And I say Bullshit. What, not getting enough money from Ollie and Dinah that you took some money to be quiet? We know she paid off the passengers and you two could have had some time to talk..." Roy trails off, letting everyone else fill in the blanks.
"You're sick. You just can't stand that Ollie and Dinah actually like me. You're like some selfish kid who doesn't want to share. You're pathetic and I'm going back to the boat." Artemis spins around and walks away from the group. Her back turned; the teens did not see the tear running down her cheek.
A/N: Wow, that was a really long chapter. I kind of wrote this over to course of a few days, and I did not originally plan for this to turn out the way it did. I kind of like it though. I pulled elements from a few different episodes, mainly episode 6 and 23 from season 1. Hope you guys enjoyed. Chapter 6 will be coming soon and I promise Roy and Artemis will eventually get along...just not right now. Read and Review. Tell me what you thought of this chapter. Good, Bad, okay, let me know.