Ch 9: Anticipation

PSA: With work, it's hard to update Friday mornings now, so I'll be trying to update between Thursday night and Saturday morning. Sorry 'bout that, y'all.

XxXxX

The familiar growl of Wally's stomach is what wakes her in the morning. He tugs on her hair and says, "Mmm. Alarm's going off. We should get breakfast." Waking up like this is wonderful. It's just so familiar, so normal, that she can't help the euphoria that bubbles up inside her, escaping first as a giggle, then as full bellied laugh.

He joins her laughter, and loses himself enough to fall off the bed. Artemis just laughs more when his outraged face pops up over the edge. Eventually, after much laughter and several thrown pillows, they giggle through the process of getting washed and dressed for the day. Artemis tries to stall for one more pillow-shot, but Wally apparently isn't going to wait anymore. He dodges, scoops her up over his shoulder and, despite her kicks and protests of "Put me down, Baywatch," they're suddenly in the Watchtower's cafeteria.

"Milady, breakfast is served."

"Jerk." She huffs, and crosses her arms, ignoring his cocky grin in favor of breakfast. It really has been quite a while since she last ate.

She ignores the stares as they go through the line to get food. She ignores the stares as they pick an empty table and sit down. She ignores the stares as they eat. When she knocks a cup off the table with a sudden clang, and finds a crossbow in her face, she stops ignoring it.

"Are you kidding me, Ollie?"

"Excuse me for being a bit twitchy towards the villain-turned-heroine-from-another-dimension. Especially when Batman is pulling the strings, keeping secrets from the people. For all we know, she's just another Lord."

"C'mon, GA. I'll vouch for her!"

"Excuse me for not taking your word when it comes to a pretty face."

Bystanders were as surprised as Ollie that it was not Flash who took offense to that, but Artemis. One moment, she's sitting tensely at the table, the next; she's on her feet, the throat of the Green Arrow uniform clenched in her hand.

"You have a problem with me? Fine. But do not. Insult. My boyfriend. He'd give his life for you. He has given his life for you, regardless of me. You will trust him accordingly."

"Tch. That still brings us back to the original problem. Why should I trust you?"

"Arrows always trust one another. Cardinal rule of a non-powered superhero." Artemis sneers, and watches Ollie's eyes widen despite the mask.

"Are you saying… I trained you?"

Artemis nods. "Your counterpart in my dimension did."

He looks thoughtful now. "Prove it."

She releases his uniform and stares at him for a moment, arms crossed. "Okay." She slips her leg between his, hooking it around his ankle and yanking to the side. When he jerks to keep his balance she grabs the wrist of one of his flailing arms and twists it behind his back even as she leans forward to take advantage of his now-weak stance. In two seconds they're on the ground; him pinned beneath her with his arm behind his back.

"That," he huffs, face in the floor, "was a Canary move."

"Congrats for recognizing it. She was in charge of our Team's training for a couple years. Also, in our world, you're not such a complete ass so she likes you a lot more. You've been together longer than I've known you. Of course she'd give a few extra lessons to your partner."

"Ouch Babe. That was harsh." Wally offers her his hand and she takes it to stand up, releasing Ollie with a smirk.

"Yeah, but you've seen him with Roy. It takes a lot to get through his thick skull."

"Okay. So you've got Canary's moves and my cutting wit." Wally and Artemis snort, but Ollie ignores them. "But that doesn't mean you can shoot."

More than a little annoyed at being tested by now, Artemis puts her hands on her hips and says, not a little sarcastically, "I'd show you how well I can shoot, but I don't have an arrow set with me. Oh well."

"Oh, you are not getting out of this that easily. I'll get you a bow and arrows, and I'm going to watch you shoot."

As much as she would like to just take Ollie hand to hand and make him shut up, Artemis suddenly realizes that she can use this to her advantage. She assumes her best 'M'gann' voice. "Really? Thanks so much! That's really generous of you. Of course, I'm going to need a new uniform too, to go with it." She grabs Wally's hand and starts pulling him towards the door. "I've got to go right now, but I'll send you my measurements and some designs. I think I want something in your colors, so that'll be easy for you. I'll come pick them up on Wednesday, from the Arrow Cave, okay? Thanks! See you then!" With that, she makes her exit from the dumbfounded Green Arrow and dozens of other League heroes.

Hawk watches her go and leans over to say to his brother, "I change my mind. I like her."

XxXxx

"What was that about?" Wally asks as they head towards the teleportation bay, taking a quick detour to the detention cells to get Artemis' confiscated things.

"Ollie was offering a bow and arrows, and I need a new costume to be Artemis again. Plus, I really wanted to tick him off. Two birds, one stone."

"When did you get so manipulative, Beautiful?"

"A girl picks these things up when she spends as much time as I have infiltrating villain's lairs."

"Right. I keep forgetting."

They're silent for the short time it takes them to reach the cells where her stuff is kept. At that point, Wally can't resist breaking the mood.

"How do I look, Babe? Think I could be a swordsmen?" He asks, waving her sword around.

"So help me if you impale yourself on that thing…"

"C'mon, have some faith!" Of course, at that exact moment he trips. He manages to catch himself, but gets the sword lodged in the table. She glares. "Erm… Oops. Sorry?" He rubs the back of his head. She's always found that too cute to stay mad at him for long.

"Yeah, yeah. Help me pull this out, Kid Crash."

"Alright I deserved that…"

By some miracle of luck, when they finally make it to the teleportation bay, Artemis' weapons are all more-or-less intact.

"Beam us down to Central City please, Scotty."* Wally jumps up onto the teleportation platform.

"No," Artemis interjects, "Send us to Happy Harbor."

Wally looks back at her. "Uh, seriously, Babe?" Feeling nostalgic? He doesn't say.

She pulls him to the side, out of the technician's hearing. "The League got one thing right. The Cave is an excellent hiding place. That's where all of my stuff is. I haven't checked in since the Legion went on lock down. Everyone's probably going crazy."

"Wait, you can contact everyone else?!"

Artemis nods.

Wally wheels around, pulling Artemis on to the platform. "Tech! Send us down to Happy Harbor, Rhode Island! ASAP!"

XxXxX

Wallace Rudolph West, despite how he's had to act for these past few years, is not a stupid man.

He understands the math, the physics, of what happened to him in the Artic. He's familiar with the leading theories of space-time and the multiverse. He's more than intelligent enough to put the two together and develop a rough estimate of how he ended up, alive and well, in this universe.

That was why, when he first arrived, he was able to put two and two together very quickly (well, technically he put epsilon-nought and a Lagrangian coefficient** together very quickly). When his friends seemed to disappear, his League comm went dead, and civilians freaked out at the sight of him, all just after he had been disintegrated by an unstable, high-energy vortex? He made an educated guess. It only took fifteen minutes on Google to mentally declare his theory confirmed.

It took another few hours of searching (and a little morally dubious hacking), before he had begun to panic. He was definitely in another dimension. He was also definitely stuck.

His 'allies' wouldn't know him, and had no reason to believe him. The tech he would need to get home was nowhere near being developed, and he wouldn't be able to speed said development along without funding and resources he had no way to get. He didn't even know enough about Reach tech to risk getting back the same way he came.

His one boon was that Wally West didn't seem to exist here. He could make himself a life here, even if it wasn't the one he had wanted.

The first time he whipped by Happy Harbor in this dimensions, he was on a League mission. It was the mountain that made him realize where he was. He stopped and stared at it, a wave of nostalgia and homesickness overwhelming him. That day, Wally wept harder than he had when their Mt. Justice was destroyed. He hadn't been back since.

Until now.

"Wow babe, I like what you've done with the place." He whistles in appreciation when they finally get past her layers of security. The inside is reminiscent of their old cave, though it definitely has its own distinct flair. He's not sure if the place is actually styled in a more mature manner, or if he's being fooled by the copious amounts of advanced tech and the lack of rebellious teenagers. He decides to be generous and attribute it to both.

"Oh man this stuff is nice. Zeta and teleportation platforms…. Global monitoring system…. Pantry full of rations…. Mmm, cheese whizzies … Holy Cow! Is this a full analysis laboratory? You even have a scanning auditory microscope! Those things are so cool! I got to see one at MIT once, and I've been trying to subtly hint to Bats that the League needs one, but it's not like I could outright say it, ya know? Ooh! I don't even know what this is!"

"It's TD tech."

"What?"

"Trans-Dimensional Technology."

"…Why did you guys let Conner name it"

"That obvious?"

"Hoooo yeah." They burst out laughing.

"But seriously, do you do this in every dimension? That's gotta be expensive. All this tech, weapons supplies, food, a pretty decent looking bunk, not to mention security. Batman can't be bankrolling this whole operation."

"Well, technically he's not." Wally raises his eyebrow and she explains, "Most of the time, the Batman of whatever universe we're in helps out."

"Seriously? How did you guys pull that?"

"How do you think?"

"Dick." He says with no hesitation.

"Bingo. Haven't met a Bat yet that can say no when that boy bats his metaphorical eyelashes." She shakes her head in amusement, but notices her boyfriend's smile no longer reaches his eyes. "You okay, Babe?" She asks, reaching over to give his hand a squeeze.

"Yeah… I'm good."

"Do you want me to call them?"

Wally's quiet a moment, but finally breathes deeply and nods. "Do it."

XxXxX

Dick all but lunges for his communicator when he sees who's calling. "Artemis?"

"Way to break protocol, Troll Wonder. You don't know that this line is secure yet. What ever would the Bat say?" God, it's good to hear her voice.

"That you're a hypocrite for lecturing me on procedure when you haven't checked in for more than two weeks."

"Not my fault the Legion's HQ is basically a giant Faraday Cage. No signals in or out. Speaking of, we should work on that. It's a little embarrassing that we can get reception across dimensions, but we don't have anything to bootleg a signal out of a metal building."

"Noted. I'll speak to Kid Flash about it. I'm sure he and Bumblebee can jimmy something together. Now talk. Why were you stuck with the Legion for two week without warning?"

"I'd prefer not to have to talk about it twice. Can we get the rest of the team on the line?"

"I'm already patching through to Oracle. She should have us routed through to the others in less than twenty seconds." She's silent for a moment, and he continues. "I'm really glad you're okay."

"Yeah." He doesn't like the sound of that, but is interrupted before he can comment on it.

"Tigress. You are unharmed?"

"I'm good, Kaldur."

"I am glad to hear that."

"Artemis! You're okay!" M'gann's voice patched through next.

"It's good to hear from you too, M'gann."

"Sorry, had to slip out of a meeting, Tigress made contact?"

"I'm here, Conner."

Nightwing cuts him off. "Okay, okay, we got it. Artemis is fine. I know we're all relieved. Can we talk about why you went off the grid now?"

"I'm sorry about that, guys. The Legion called an emergency session, then we went into lock down."

"Why the sudden security protocols?"

"…They had captured the Flash." They all gasp at that.

"Is... Is he…?" M'gann tries to ask.

"No. I got him out."

"Are you okay?" Dick asks instead.

"Yeah. The rescue blew my cover, but Batman vouched for me with the League. Eventually."

"You know that's not what Nightwing was asking, Artemis."

"I know, Kaldur. I'm… better than I've been in a while."

Conner finally comments with the words Dick is thinking. "Are you falling in love with him again?"

"Oh my god, you guys! It was one time! Let it go!"

As always, Kaldur is the peacemaker. "We do not mean to offend, Artemis. We are simply worried for you."

"We know how hard this has been for you, Artemis. We just want you to know we care." M'gann adds.

"I know, M'gann. I really do." The line is silent; Nightwing can practically hear everyone waiting for Artemis continue. "You guys, I… I have some bad news and some good news."

"The Anomaly is there." Dick doesn't need Batman's lessons level to figure that out.

"I believe so."

"Do you need back up?"

"No. I'm not certain it's here. Continue your operations, I just need you on alert in case I need emergency support."

"Roger that."

"Artemis, what's the good news?"

"I..." She's silent for a moment, as if she suddenly changed her mind on what to say. "I think I should tell you guys in person. Could everyone free up a couple hours next weekend to meet?" They answer in the affirmative, and slowly work out the details on when it's possible for them to all get together. Nightwing will have to move a few things around, but Dick doesn't mind. He's glad he'll get to see so many of his friends – his family – together again. Artemis having good news is just a bonus. They need some good news.

One by one the other three sign off, until it's just him and Artemis again. He has to say one more thing before he hangs up. "Artemis… take care of yourself, okay? If you need us, use the signal. We'll be there for you."

"I know, Dick. Thank you."

"I'll talk to you soon."

The line goes dead.

XxXxX

AN:

*Of course, Wally is aware 'Beam me up, Scotty' was never said in any of the shows or movies. After years and years of banging his head against the wall trying to explain that to people/trying to get people to recognize any of the 'legitimate' quotes, he broke down and began using the pop-culture misenclature.

**I decided to go swimming instead of actually looking at the theoretical math behind popular interdimensional mechanics theories, so take this with a grain of salt. Still, it didn't seem completely unreasonable to apply Lagrangian methods to solve some of the electromagnetic equations that would no doubt be involved, so I'm sticking with it. That way, I can pretend I got something useful out of math this year.

Also, originally, there was going to be this ridiculous, big-lipped alligator moment where Ollie and Artemis have a best-two-out-of-three competition, and all the leaguers are betting on it, etc. etc. I restrained my self; you're welcome. I still think it would have been fun though.

Wow my author's notes are getting long. I need someone to talk to about this stuff. Anyone wanna Beta?