A/N: Wow, I feel like I haven't written for this in forever. In reality it's only been five days... This is going to be my only update most likely for probably a week. I have a term paper to write and a bunch of other crap I have to do for school. We are getting into the final chapters (tears). I really want to thank all of you who have read, liked, followed, and reviewed this story. You guys are awesome. I'm really sorry again, I usually like to update twice a weekend, but I won't be able to this weekend. I'm really sorry.
Disclaimer: Young Justice does not, nor will it ever, belong to me.
Night on the Town
"You sure you're alright Artemis?" Roy asks her for the fifty millionth time that day. They two of them walk along the deck, the boat strangely empty with no passengers on it.
"I'm okay Roy, really. There is probably a very reasonable explanation for why I couldn't get through to my mom." Artemis says, still freaked out inside.
"You're lying."
"What if I am? Roy, my mom is the only real family I have left." Artemis says quietly, stopping along the railing to stare out at the water below them. Roy does the same.
"Well you have Jade." Artemis gives him a look. "I know she's a little rough around the edges, but I think she generally cares for you." Artemis snorts at that.
"Sure Roy, I really felt the love when she left. And her caring side was really showing when she threatened to tell my dad where I am, not that that matters any more." Artemis says sarcastically.
"Okay, maybe Jade isn't the best example."
"You think?" Artemis asks, interrupting him.
"My point is that you have another family. I know your real one sucks and I know that nobody could replace your mom if," He puts emphasis on the if," something happened to her. But Oliver, Dinah, and I will be there for you. As will the rest of them, especially Wally."
"Especially Wally what?" The two of them spun around to see a confused looking Wally standing behind them with a bowl of popcorn. "I saw you guys over here coming out of the cave. So you guys were talking about me?"
"Yeah, about how I will totally beat up anyone who hurts my new little sister, especially Wally." Roy says giving the boy a pointed look. Wally gulps while Artemis just rolls her eyes.
"Noted." Wally says, turning to Artemis. "Hey Artemis, you want to go into town with the rest of us?"
"Yeah, one second. I'll catch up with you." Artemis says. Wally gives her a weird look and she walks over and kisses him on the cheek. "I'll be there in a second babe, I just need to finish telling Roy something."
Wally smiles. "'Kay, we'll meet you on the dock." Wally tells her before walking away. Artemis watches him walk away with a smile on her face, the stress with her mom and dad temporarily forgotten.
"You really like him don't you?" Roy asks, pulling Artemis out of her thoughts.
"Yeah, I do."
"Fine, as weird as it is, I approve." Roy says. Artemis elbows him in the gut.
"I wasn't asking for your approval red." Artemis tells him haughtily.
"I never assumed you were." Roy says, rubbing his stomach. "Was the elbow in my stomach really a must?"
"It was." Artemis says, beginning to walk towards the gangplank to go meet the others.
"Wait, Artemis." Artemis spins around and gives Roy a quizzical look. "Are you ever going to tell them? Now would be as good a time as ever."
"I know...its just...I like feeling normal." Artemis confesses. "Especially now, I need normal. I need people who think that I am just Artemis. Not Artemis Crock, daughter of Lawrence Crock. I don't want to be the daughter of a known thief and killer. I just want to be...me."
"I know, but they are going to find out sooner rather then later. At least if you tell them you can control some of the variables in the situation." Roy lectures.
"Yeah but..." Roy interrupts her.
"No buts Arty, it needs to be done sooner rather then later."
Artemis sighs, "You're right."
"Did I just hear that correctly? Did Artemis Crock just admit that I, Roy Harper, was right about something?" Roy asks in mock astonishment.
"Don't make me punch you again." Artemis threatens. Roy just laughs.
"Go on short stuff."
"Short stuff?"
"I figured it was better then Arty."
"Anything is better then that dreadful nickname." Artemis turns around to walk away again, but once again, Roy calls after her.
"And Artemis." Roy starts.
"Yeah?" She asks, turning around.
"Everything will be okay. You know what they say; everything will turn out okay in the end. If its not okay, its not the end."
^^^^^^Line Break^^^^^^^
Water sprayed out of Megan's mouth as she began to laugh hysterically. The water that landed on Conner just made the rest of them laugh harder.
"You did not?" Raquel asks Jason, who just grins.
"I did."
"Dude, I can't believe that you did that." Wally states.
"I can't believe that you took off your pants to get a girl's attention." Zatanna says shaking her head.
"Hey, it was the only thing I could think to do." Jason says, shrugging.
"Why did Barbara never tell me this?" Dick asks, still laughing. "I'm sure Principal Summers must have flipped. He's such a hard ass from what I remember."
"It was my first day of school. The girl kept ignoring me because I was in a hand me down uniform. After that though I decided to just have nothing to do with any of them." Jason tells them.
The waitress comes around, collecting everyone's empty plate, or in Wally's case, several empty plates. Everyone through a bunch of bills onto the table and then they left the restaurant. Wally came up besides Artemis, taking her hand in his, grinning. She smiled too. He swept her up into his arms, right there on the street in front of strangers and their friends.
"Wally, put me down." Artemis demands, laughing.
"Say the magic word." Wally tells her, holding her tighter as she squirmed.
"Is it, I'm about to put Artemis down before she makes her boyfriend do it?" Artemis asks in a sickly sweet and devious voice. Wally gulps and puts her down.
"Okay, you guys are dating now. Can we move on please?" Conner asks. Wally smiles.
"Sure thing big guy. Where we going next?" Wally asks. Everyone begins to talk, throwing out suggestions. The night was still very much young, and they were planning on having the night of their lives.
While everyone was still talking, Wally leans down and whispers to Artemis. "I wondered what made him more irritable then usual? You think somebody peed in his orange juice or something?"
Artemis chuckles quietly. "While I am quite sure that that is the reason why he is irritable, I had another idea. Now I know this is really outrageous, but maybe this has to do with Clark? Just a crazy guess though."
"You hear about something else?" Wally asks.
"Megan mentioned something about the two of them getting into another argument. Even she wasn't entirely sure what it was over this time." Artemis informs him.
"Poor dude." Wally says.
"I know."
"What are you two whispering about now?" Dick asks them.
"Stuff." Artemis replies.
"What type of stuff?" Raquel asks.
"The type that doesn't involve any of you." Artemis responds. Wally laughs, putting an arm around her shoulder, pulling her close.
"So you guys decided what we are going to do?" Wally asks.
"Mall. I haven't been to one in forever." Megan squeals excited. "I am totally in need of some new clothes."
"Um, didn't you just get a new shirt and skirt in the Keys?" Zatanna asks.
"Details, minor details Zee." Megan says, waving her off. She glides to the head of the group, pulling Conner with her. They walked in a big mass of nine strong towards the nearest mall. Dick and Zatanna lagged behind the rest of them, whispering quietly about something.
"I fear that they are planning something." Kaldur says, voicing what they were all thinking. His hand held Raquel's securely in his own.
"You think?" Jason asks, his eyes scanning across the group. "You know, I'm really starting to feel like a ninth wheel."
"We can always call Barbara and see if she can come down here." Artemis teases, nudging Jason in the shoulder. He glares at all of them as they begin to laugh.
"You guys suck."
"Oh chill. We're just kidding." Raquel tells him. They were still laughing quietly to themselves when somebody shouted out behind them. They all spun around.
"Raquel!" An African American young man with crazy black hair was running towards them, a girl and three other boys behind him. He breaks through the crowd, tackling Raquel in a bear hug. Raquel breaks away from Kaldur, a huge smile on her face.
"Virgil!" She exclaims happily. She breaks away from him and smiles at the other teens. "Hey Sam, Tye, Roy, and Ed." They all say some form of greeting to Raquel while the rest of them looked on confused.
"What are you doing here?" The boy, Ed, Artemis was pretty sure was his name.
"The ship I live on is in port for the next two weeks to get some inspections and repairs done." Raquel explains. "What about you guys? Florida is a long way from New England."
"School trip." The girl, Sam, says. She wore a green headband and stood next to the boy in the orange headband, Tye.
"Sweet." Raquel says.
"So Raq, these your new friends I've heard so much about?" Virgil asks, looking around the group. "Wait, I thought there was only nine of you."
"Oh, Jason here," Raquel points to the black haired boy. "He's new."
"Cool." Virgil says.
"Raquel, are you going to introduce us? I'm Megan." Megan says cheerily as usual.
"Aw, the happy Megan Morse. That must make you the brooding Conner," Virgil spins around the group of them. "Let's see, you must be Wally and you're Artemis. That would make you Zatanna, and you Dick." Finally he turns to Kaldur. "And you must be Kaldur."
"Yes, that is us, but who are you exactly?" Kaldur asks.
"Virgil Hawkins. Raquel and I are both from Dakota City. We both used to run in the same circles before I went to school out east and she met Augustus." Virgil shakes Kaldur's hand, smiling widely. "These are my buddies Asami, Tye, Eduardo, and Roy."
"Hey, another Roy." Wally says. Roy looks over at Wally, face void of expression.
"Hey." Roy simply says. Ed elbows him in the side.
"Lighten up for once dude, seriously." Ed says, shaking his head.
"Cool." Conner says simply, uncrossing his arms from across his chest, his sign of approval of the five of them.
"You guys feel like hanging with us?" Virgil asks them.
"That would be cool. You can tell us blackmail stories about Raquel." Dick responds, mischievously.
"Is that your only concern?" Raquel asks him shaking her head.
"Hey, you never know when blackmail comes in handy." Dick says shrugging. Zatanna face palms, and shakes her head. Artemis could see a smile on her face though.
"I'm game." Artemis says her hand still entwined with Wally's. Tye eyes the two of them suspiciously.
"I thought you said the two of them hate each other?" Tye says to Raquel, pointing at the two of them.
"It's a recent change." Wally responds.
"I still don't like him very much. I've just learned to deal with him." Artemis tells them with a smile. Wally turns to look at her indignantly. He is about to say something, but Artemis cuts him off with a kiss. "Kidding babe."
"So you told your friends about us?" Conner asks Raquel.
"What can I say, I missed you guys." Raquel says, elbowing the tall boy. The fourteen of them all stood in the sidewalk, earning glares from people who had to walk around them, but they ignored them.
"We were just heading to the mall, you guys want to come along?" Megan asks.
"Sure, we had no other plans." Sam says slowly. Tye gives her a reassuring smile as she grins triumphantly. At their confused looks, Tye explains.
"Sam's from Japan, she's been learning English."
"Cool. I can speak Vietnamese fluently and French. I also know conversational Spanish." Artemis tells them. Asami smiles widely. The group begins to walk towards the mall again, everyone meshing well and talking easily. Wally and Artemis lagged behind a bit.
"I never knew you spoke Vietnamese." Wally says.
"I...I picked it up from my mom. She spoke it a lot." Artemis says, staring at the ground sadly. She had been trying to forget about the busy line that wouldn't let her talk to her mom. That wouldn't tell her if she was okay or not. Artemis suddenly felt beyond guilty. She was out here in Miami having a great time while her mom could potentially be dead. If she was a good daughter she would probably have some feeling that would have told her whether she was or not, but she just felt the same, only more concerned.
"Hey you alright?" Wally asks. "You kind of just spaced out."
"I'm...I'm fine." Artemis says, staring at the ground. Wally doesn't push it, simply squeezing her hand a little tighter.
^^^^^^Line Break^^^^^^^^
A few hours later, Virgil and his gang had to leave because they had a curfew. The nine of them were in a small ice cream shop. They stopped talking when a breaking news sign suddenly passed in front of the screen on the wall.
"Breaking news, a riot last week at Bell Reve prison..."
"No." Artemis thought to herself as all her friends tuned in to the newscast.
"We have now confirmed that one prisoner escaped, prisoner 4F5568, otherwise known as Lawrence Crock." A picture of her father appeared on screen. "Many know him as Sportsmaster. The Gotham City thief was suspected in nearly eighty-six different heists resulting in a total of 78 million dollars worth of stolen goods and 17 homicides. Four years ago, his partner Huntress was captured after falling form a window during a heist. She has been in Gotham Prison and a wheelchair ever since."
"If anyone knows anything about the whereabouts of this man, they are asked to contact their local police immediately. He could be anywhere and we ask that you all keep an eye out. Do not engage him, he is very dangerous. This has been Cat Grant..."
Artemis tuned out after that, focusing on the picture of her father. He had grown scruffier since she had last seen him. It made him look more sinister.
"Wow, that sucks." Wally comments, drawing Artemis back.
"I know. You would think Belle Reve would be better at keeping a man like him in jail." Dick says shaking his head. Jason nods in agreement.
"I wonder if he has a family." Megan says. Artemis begins choking on her ice cream cone. Kaldur pats her back a few times and she stops coughing.
"You alright?" Zatanna asks.
"Fine, fine." Artemis says, even though nothing was fine at all.
^^^^^^^Line Break^^^^^^^^
He watched them as they left the ice cream shop. Nine total. He was surprised to see that his daughter had made friends. That wasn't going to last much longer.
A/N: So I hope you guys liked that. I just love the Runaways so much; I had to put them in again. So hopefully I'll have my next chapter up next Friday. I'm really sorry guys that it'll be a while. Until then, have a great week.