"More we remember, more is the chance to know who we are..."

Mount Justice

September 18, 13:10 EDT

Recognized: Batman 0-2

From the flashing light of the zeta-beam, the Caped Crusader of Gotham stalked out, his trademark frown etched onto his face. In front of him was a scene that was, by now, becoming very familiar. Superboy was sitting on the couch, staring intently at the monochrome static. The ever-cheerful Martian girl was rushing around the kitchen cooking something up for a very hungry speedster, who was practically drooling on the counter in front of him. Green Arrow's new protégé was helping M'gann and rolling her eyes at Kid's antics. And if Batman had to guess, Robin was either busy hacking or training with Aqualad.

The bright flash and noise of Batman's arrival caught all of the young heroes attention, yet Kid Flash was the first to approach, skidding to a stop a foot away.

"Do you have a mission for us?" was the first thing to leave his mouth.

"Collect everyone to be debriefed," the Bat gave as an answer.

"Sweet!" Kid yelled, pumping his fist and running off. He would have a better idea of where the rest of his teammates were.

Without another word Batman strode out and continued on his way to the Mission Room. Once inside he began pulling up images and whatever tidbits of information he had gathered so far.

"Did something happen at WayneTech?" Robin's voice piped up, breaking the silence. Batman turned to find that everybody had trailed in and was waiting for him to start.

"Last night Wayne Enterprises' security was breached. Valuable information was stolen from their mainframe, from the computer located directly in the CEO's office."

Robin blanched. "Wait, are you saying someone just walked in and hacked the computer right under ou- I mean, their noses? They have extremely advanced security! Nobody should be able to-"

"I know," Batman interrupted. "But nobody just walked in. Rather, she flew in."

"She?" Conner asked.

On that note Batman played the footage taken from the security cameras placed in the office room. Nothing happened for a few seconds before two bright red beams shone from outside the windows that began melting through. Once it died down there was a large circular hole leading right into Bruce Wayne's office.

From this newly made opening a solitary figure glided in. Emerging from the shadows, it was indeed a she. Her black hair was unnaturally straight and Robin's first thought was; wig. Then again, lots of people had hair like that. Keeping with the apparent theme, her clothes were black as well, all except for a yellow smiley face across the chest. There was no mask, belying that either she had nothing to hide with an identity or she was shockingly cocky. Or just didn't care either way.

Now standing on her own two feet she began casually strolling towards the computer resting atop the great oaken desk. Surprising everyone in the room, besides Batman who of course had already watched the video in the Batcave, she simply tapped a few keys and the computer lit up. It was now unlocked. All members of the Team had wide eyes, if they didn't before.

With a smile the girl pushed in a flashdrive and began happily downloading.

"Do you know what information she managed to steal?" Kaldur's calm voice filled the room.

"She is now in the possession of several blueprints of prototype inventions that were dismissed because of their ability to turn dangerous if they ever got into the wrong hands. On their own the danger would not be severe, but if the components were made into one object the consequences could be disastrous."

Kaldur nodded in understanding before turning his attention back to the video feed, everyone else followed suit. By now, the night guards had arrived into the room with their weapons trained on the intruder. Said intruder merely glanced up before refocusing on the screen in front of her.

"Step away from the desk and put your hands above your hands!" Guard numero uno shouted. The thief plucked the flashdrive from the USB port and stuffed it into a pocket on her pants.

"Oh goodness gracious," she drawled in an over the top southern accent. "Y'all are a bossy bunch, ain't ya?"

"Hands above your head," the guard yelled forcefully again. "Sanchez, search her pockets. She slipped something in there."

"I wouldn't take another step closer if I were you," she spoke in a voice with a hardened edge. "I really don't like being manhandled. Not my cuppa tea. So why don't we just part our separate ways and put this behind us, yeah?"

The younger guard, Sanchez, lunged forward but was effectively put out of the fight by a flick of the girl's hand. When he flew into the far-side wall, the girl visibly flinched.

"Whoops," she laughed nervously. "These powers, man. Take a bit of getting used to- I mean, uh, oh forget it."

Smarter than his younger partner, the first guard withdrew his tazer and pulled the trigger. The electrodes didn't seem to bother her in the slightest. With a sharp tug she pulled the stunner out of the older looking man's grasp and sent it flying out the hole in the window. The black-haired girl let out a laugh.

"Nice try, buddy." She looked down at a watch and her wrist and sighed. "Look, I hate to do this but I have somewhere to be. The Big Apricot doesn't wait for anyone. Give my apologies to dear old Brucie when you wake up." With that, she became a blur and knocked out the only other person in the room. Before she left the gaping hole in the windows, she doubled back and checked Sanchez's pulse.

A two-fingered salute to the camera and then she was gone.

Nobody spoke for several minutes after the video ended before Superboy cleared his throat.

"There's not another Super out there I don't know about, right?"

The Team didn't have an answer for him.

"How do we know she's even going to steal again?" M'gann asked her Teammates after Batman left. He'd given them the painstaking task of locating the thief and to try their best to retrieve the stolen information. "And even if she does, we don't have a single clue where."

"Well," Robin said slowly. "She mentioned 'The Big Apricot', that's another named used for Metropolis. If she wasn't just saying that to throw us off she could be there."

"It is a start," Kaldur added. "Robin, check into Gotham City's surveillance system and see if those provide any further clues as to where she is headed. Superboy, M'gann, and myself will take the Bioship to Metropolis and search there."

"What about us?" Artemis demanded, gesturing to herself and Kid Flash.

"If she did try to confuse us about her whereabouts, Robin will need backup to intercept her here," Aqualad replied easily. He then turned his attention to Robin. "Once you discern the correct trail or find it leads to Metropolis use the zeta-beam and we will all rendezvous."

Everyone nodded and separated for their respective tasks.

"Come on guys," Robin said happily on his way to the Mission Room. "Time for some hacking."

"Oh joy," Artemis groaned.

"Haven't you found anything yet?"

"I've only been at it an hour, Artemis," Robin said without looking away. Several screens were in front of him and somehow he managed to watch them all. "It's going to take some- oh, no wait. I think I got something."

"Finally. What is it?"

"It's a dark blur, barely noticeable, up in the corner of camera 152. It might be nothing. But it might also be something. It's going southwest across Gotham bay."

"That's towards Metropolis!" Kid Flash added. "It must be the thief, what else could it be?"

"It's definitely large enough to be a person," Artemis said thoughtfully, scrutinizing the screen. "Should we meet up with the rest of the team?"

"Yeah. Kid send a message from your communicator saying we'll be there soon."

"Gotcha, Robin."

"I was hoping you would show up," a voice said from above. With a startled jump, the three young heroes looked into the sky above them. Almost too good to be true, their very own thief was there. "Although, I thought there would be more of you. It's almost offending."

"You wanted us to find you?" M'gann asked in surprise.

"Of course, I was hoping for a challenge. Now it looks like I might go home disappointed."

"You will find that the three of us will be challenge enough," Aqualad countered.

"Oh, I'm sure," she responded, voice dripping with sarcasm. "The Martian, maybe. You two? Hardly."

"Care to find out?!" Superboy roared, launching himself up he grabbed the girl around the waist. With ground-shaking force, Conner then drove her into the pavement, creating a small crater in their wake.

As M'gann flew forward to help, she was pushed back by Superboy's soaring body. The young criminal pulled herself up and blew a stray piece of her hair out of her face.

"Okay, that was a lucky shot. You caught me off-guard. Next time won't be so easy though. I have a reputation to build after all, and I can't do that by losing to you."

Aqualad was next to attack, bringing his Water-Bearers to cutlass form and slashing in heavy succession. Just to show she could, the thief flew high above his head, dodging the sharp jabs and cuts, and waited patiently for the next attack to come.

"So I've been thinking about getting a name," she called from several feet in the air. "I'm having a little trouble, though. How about The Ripper? Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?"

"You talk to much," Conner growled, getting back into the fight with more straightforward punches and kicks.

"Really? Most people say I don't talk enough. Must be only you guys. You bring out my inner conversationalist."

Superboy was once again knocked away by a powerful uppercut to the jaw.

"You're Superman's boy, right?" she asked as he jumped back up. "I've met him before. Nice guy. Great with kids. Well, you know, kids that aren't his. He bought me lunch once. Can you say the same?"

Her taunts were making Superboy begin to see red. Lies! All lies! He wanted to scream, yet that stupid little voice in the back of his head said: It's just you. You're the one he can't stand to be near for more than two seconds. Her heartbeat hasn't changed pace at all. She's telling the truth. It's just you.

"It's almost like you're saying what you're thinking out loud," she said as she attacked M'gann and Aqualad. "I suppose I could be lying, but why would I do that? Messing with your emotions like this is way too much fun."

With a big clap of her hands she blew all three of them back.

"This has been fun and all, but I still have info to sell. Don't get upset you couldn't stop me, Superman himself would be hard-pressed to beat me. Adios, amigos."

She gave an air-kiss to the three teenagers and flew off with a smirk on her face.

"I can't believe she got away!" Superboy snarled.

"We had a chance to retrieve the stolen information and we failed," Kaldur sighed.

M'gann gave a small cough.

"Actually," she said with a smile. "We didn't." Dangling from her fingertips was the flashdrive.

"How did you-" Superboy began.

"While you guys were busy fighting her I camouflaged myself and grabbed it. She was so busy trying to taunt you that she didn't even notice."

"I do not believe she will stay ignorant for long," Kaldur said. "We should return to our teammates, Kid Flash said they were on their way."

"I really didn't like her," Superboy stated.

A/N: AHH I'm sorry the ending felt weak, but oh well.

IMPORTANT: Guys, I'm grounded so I REALLY will not be able to update for awhile. I'm risking getting in even more trouble posting this! So I hope you guys can forgive the long wait ahead of us.

Please tell me in a PM or review how I did writing the characters, it makes me nervous as it is my first time! I hope I got them to your liking :)

Auf Wiedersehen,

~Piggy