Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice
Author's Note: Got ourselves a two parter here. I could have put it all into one really long one again (like the Kent Nelson chapter) but I thought it would be fun to do it in two parts. I also just want to make a shout out to my friend who's been editing every chapter. She's the reason these are all presentable. Thanks hon.
Wally opened his eyes and looked at his watch. The time told him his nap had only been one hour, and there were still two hours left on the flight. He groaned and slouched in his chair. Next to him Dick was reading an extremely large book. Wally watched him turn a page before becoming even more bored.
"Dude, this flight is taking forever," he said, leaning his head on the chair in front of him.
"Yeah, that's cause it takes almost five hours to get to Utah, relax," his friend answered, turning another page. "Seriously Wally, you can survive another two hours."
"Yeah, but will we?" Artemis asked, her head peeking over one of the chairs in front of them. She was directly in front of Kaldur who had been asleep the entire flight and showed no signs of waking.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Wally asked, glaring at the blonde.
"Well first off you snore very loudly and secondly when you're awake you never shut up," she said, smirking. "How are any of us supposed to sleep?"
"Well Kaldur has been sleeping the whole flight, so you're already wrong," the ginger argued back. He glared at the girl who began to laugh. "Dick, back me up."
"Oh, I'm not getting involved in your version of flirting," the younger boy said while lifting his book in front of his face. "Have fun without me."
"We are so not flirting," Artemis said, the strain in her voice to keep from yelling was apparent. "We never flirt, strictly argue."
"I do believe, my friends, that you are indeed flirting. Now please, do it quietly. I want to sleep for the rest of the flight," Kaldur's voice said. His eyes were still closed and he didn't seem pleased that his friends had bothered him at all.
Dick started to laugh from behind his book and both the 'non-flirting' teens began to blush. The two of them looked at each other before Artemis quickly dropped back into her seat, her mane of hair falling slowly after her.
Wally frowned and reached into the pocket before him for his iPod. He winced slightly as he bang his cast wrist against the armrest. Looking down at it, he noticed a drawing of an arrow had joined the other drawings and signatures. Frowning, he decided it was best to not draw attention to it. He pressed play, hoping that some music would help distract him from the situation, but immediately turned it off. Of course the first song play reminded him of her. He sighed and slouched further into his chair.
Minutes went by as he mindlessly traced the arrow on his cast until the ginger thought of something that would amuse him. He pulled out a notebook from his backpack and tore out a piece of paper. He crumpled it up and smirked.
"I know what you're about to do and I'm begging you not to," Dick said, putting his book down.
"Oh come on, it'll be hilarious. Watch," Wally said. He moved into a squat on his chair and began to aim. After a few seconds, he tossed the paper over the chairs. His eyes were bright as he watched the crumpled ball fly until it bounced off the person next to Artemis, Conner.
Wally went white, knowing how much Conner hated when Wally dragged him into his petty arguments, "Oh shit."
He could hear Artemis laughing now and the younger boy next to him had his face in his hands. Wally quickly sat down in his chair and went to grab his iPod again.
"Wally… I think you dropped this," Conner said. Wally gulped and looked up. The boy was turned in his chair, the crumple paper in hand. "Here, have it back."
Wally flinched as the paper collided with his head. Artemis' laugh had gotten louder and was joined by Megan's now. The ginger groaned his apologies to Conner and went back to slouching in his seat.
"When will this flight be over?" he grumbled.
The six teenagers were sitting under a large canopy in silence. The desert heat was bearing down on them even from in the safety of the shade. They were all sitting away from each other, avoiding any extra heat. They knew this wouldn't last since the sun was beginning to set, but it didn't stop them from feeling uncomfortable for the time being.
They were waiting for the two adults standing at the table in front of them to finish their conversation. Wally knew both of them fairly well from the years of helping Dick and Kaldur.
One was a woman, Agent Dinah Lance, who trained the three younger agents in hand-to-hand combat. She had been with the Agency for years and was one of the highest-ranking females agents. The man with her was rather infamous in the Agency, and Wally could easily say this man made him the super uncomfortable. Bruce Wayne was one of the agents at the top and he also happened to be Dick's guardian. The day Wally found out about Dick's double life he was sure Bruce was going to kill him; he still wasn't sure why that hadn't happened.
While Wally was remained indifferent about the two top ranking agents, other than the constant fear for his life around his friend's guardian, the blond near him seemed rather uneasy. She was playing with the end of her ponytail, something he had noticed she did when she was stressed. Shuffling to sit next to her, the ginger grabbed Artemis' hand with his good one and gave it a quick squeeze.
"Don't stress about them being here," he said quietly to her. She met his gaze and smiled faintly. "Seriously, I get that those two are hotshots and whatnot, but seriously don't even worry about it. Just, you know, stay out of Bruce's way, he's a bit of a hardass."
"Right, thanks," she answered, her smile becoming more prominent.
Wally nodded and turned his focus back to the adults. They seemed to be finishing up and he had to admit he was getting anxious to start.
Finally, Dinah began to speak, "All right, so you're probably wondering why we're out in the middle of a desert. Well, after your somewhat successful recon mission, we started looking at LexCorp a bit closer. It seems that Luthor had been over seeing large shipments like the one you witnessed across the country, all at smaller locations. This raised a few eyebrows around the Agency. After more digging, well… We found out that Luthor was doing just that, digging. He's here in the desert overseeing a dig. What he's digging for, we have no idea."
"That's why you are here," Bruce said, gesturing for the teens to gather round the table. Once they were there, he continued. "You're our covert team, some of you more covert than others. You aren't known as much to our enemies and will have an easier time getting close."
"It helps that Dick is so tiny, they'll never see him coming," Wally interrupted, clapping a hand onto Dick's shoulder. The younger boy rolled his eyes.
"As I was saying, you aren't known. This is an advantage we're going to take. Now, we're here and this is where Luthor is digging," Bruce explained, his finger travelling across a map that was spread out on the table. "You six will go to this point here, roughly four miles away from the dig. It will serve as a rendezvous during the mission. If anything goes wrong at any point, head back there. Once you arrive there the first, and hopefully only, time you will separate into pairs to cover more ground. Dick and Conner, you'll be a pair, Artemis and Megan, and Kaldur and Wally. Any questions?"
"What should we do when we find something, do you want us to radio in to you?" Dick asked.
"No, keep radio silence. Had the last reconnaissance mission been a complete success I wouldn't worry, but Luthor knows we suspect him now. He'll have people listening in," Bruce answered. Wally could have sworn that the man had briefly looked both Dick and him over, though he could have just imagined it. "You will report back here promptly at five a.m. and hopefully will have more success tonight."
"Now, your bags have been packed for you. Everything you'll need is in there. You head out in ten minutes," Dinah said, crossing her arms. "Now, Wally, Megan, and Conner, I don't think I need to stress how important it is for you all to stay out of harms way… as much as possible. We don't need to add creating more lies to your parents to the list of things the Agency has to do. No more limp breaking, okay?"
"Yes ma'am!" Wally said, saluting her with his injured hand. Dinah rolled her eyes and smiled. He grinned back and headed over to grab his bag.
"So, grateful we aren't paired up again?" Artemis asked, put her arm through one of her backpack's straps. "Though I feel bad for Kaldur, getting the most annoying partner."
"At least he knows I can keep him awake," Wally replied, smirking.
"Yeah, but you'd rather be keeping Artemis awake I bet," Dick whispered into his ear.
"Dude, stop!" Wally said, shoving the boy away from him, ignoring Artemis' looks. He grabbed his backpack and walked over to Kaldur and Megan. He must have had a sour look on his face because both his friends seemed to tense up. He looked down at his cast and frowned when he saw the arrow again.
"All right, boys and girls, time to head out. Please be careful out there, don't get caught or seen," Dinah announced.
The six teenagers nodded and made their way out of the tent, Dick in the lead. The sun was slowly making its way pass the horizon and the group could feel the temperature beginning to drop. They were moving quickly, trying to reach the splitting point before night fell completely.
Artemis was walking next to the ginger, though neither of them said anything. Their four friends were chatting quietly ahead of them and they tried to ignore the glances they were getting. He felt bad for ignoring her, but he really didn't need Dick bugging him more about this. It wasn't like he liked the girl, but his friend had made it a mission to bother him about it.
"All right guys, we're here," Dick said after a half hour walk, folding up a map. "So, just to quickly go over everything without Bruce being a downer. So you know, don't get seen and don't die. And you know, find out what Luthor's up to."
"Wow, thank you Dick, that was definitely helpful," Artemis laughed.
"Hey, did anyone else just hear something?" Conner asked, looking around.
Everyone glanced at Conner before looking around. They were near a cliff to their left while to their right seemed almost endless. The sun had almost set completely and it was beginning to get dark, making it very hard to see.
"Conner, you have freakish hearing. It was probably just a hare or something running by," Wally said.
"Maybe…" the tall dark haired boy answered. He began to look around the desert, his eyebrows creasing.
"Dude, it's probably nothing. Should we split up now?" the ginger boy asked.
"Yeah. All right. Wally and Kaldur, you two head to the south side of the dig. Artemis and Megan, you go to the west, Conner and I will grab the east. Everyone cool-"
They didn't hear the end of the question. A small explosion going off near them cut off Dick's words suddenly. The teens got up after the blast knocked them off their feet.
"Run!" Dick shouted, taking off quickly, running away from where the explosion had gone off.
Wally reached out and grabbed Artemis' hand and started to run. They tried to follow after Dick but were cut off by another blast. The ginger quickly turned them away from it and continued running.
"Where are we going?" Artemis shouted, her voice barely audible over another explosion going off.
"No idea, somewhere we can keep our legs!" he shouted back, unsure if she heard his answer. He squeezed her hand as if the convey the answer through touch.
He wasn't sure how long they ran for or where they were going to end up. For all he knew, they would end up running into Luthor himself. All he knew was they needed to get as much distance between them and whatever was causing the explosions as they could. After what felt like hours of running, they finally stopped, gasping for air.
"Did you see what happened to the others?" Artemis asked once her breathing had gotten back to normal. "Did they make it out?"
"I don't know but I would assume so. I mean, they're obviously going to be fine, I'm on this mission," Wally said, trying to smile. "I'm the one that gets hurt."
Artemis laughed weakly and began to look around, "Any idea where we are?"
"Uh… no. Do you think they gave us a map in our bags?" Wally asked, taking off his backpack. He quickly opened it and began searching inside it. "I mean, they wouldn't send us out here without a map cause you know, I'm on the team and stuff. Ah ha! Found it!"
Artemis moved closer as the boy pulled the map out, as well as a flashlight, which he handed to her. Once she pointed the light at the paper he frowned.
"What?"
"Well, the rendezvous point is marked here, but I don't know what direction we ran in. And now the sun has basically set, so we won't be able to use that for direction soon. Any idea of which way we ran?" Wally asked, looking at the girl.
"Yeah," she answered, "we went roughly east. We've got to be somewhere around here."
She pointed at the map and Wally grinned, "Hey, we're really close to the digging site."
"No, you can't be serious! We should go find the others, meet up with them somewhere!" Artemis exclaimed.
"Yeah, meet where? In case you didn't realize, it was our rendezvous point that got blown up! And besides, this probably what Kaldur and Dick would want us to do, it's for sure what Bruce would want," Wally said, folding up the map. "Let's just head over there. Maybe the others will think to do it too."
Artemis began to chew her lip and crossed her arms. Wally watched her, putting the map in his back pocket. Finally the girl sighed and he knew he had won.
"Fine, but I swear if you get us killed," Artemis said, pointing a finger at him.
Grinning, he grabbed her hand and squeezed it, "Come on, Artemis, I only get people maimed."
Artemis opened her mouth but closed it again, smiling. She squeezed his hand back before starting to walk in the direction of the dig, "Let's go get maimed then."