Chapter One:

Mount Justice

November 1st, 21:32 EST

Three Years Later

"Recognized, Huntress. 21."

Artemis stepped out of the zeta tube in her civilian outfit. Robin rushed over. "Huntress." he said respectfully.

"Robin." Artemis replied in the same manner.

"Do you have a mission for us?"

"No, just urgent business with Batman." The blonde replied. "I'm sure it's not that boring around here, Tim."

Aforesaid youth sighed. "If only."

Artemis walked off to the Justice League room without cracking her normal warm smile. Robin raised an eyebrow.

"Computer, seal room." Artemis said upon entering.

"Room Sealed." the computer responded.

"Wally, Dick." Artemis addressed Flash, then Batman respectively. The latter sighed and joined his compatriots in removing his mask. Instead of Bruce Wayne's face beneath the cowl of the bat however, the face of Nightwing stood there.

"What's so important you had to seal the room?" Wally asked. "Overcook the meat again? Can't let anyone know you can't- ow!"

"No, Kid." Artemis said, emphasizing the name Kid. "It's a girl."

Dick raised an eyebrow.

"She showed up on my doorstep four hours ago, told me I was Huntress and asked me to take her under my wing as a protege."

"What did you do with her?" Wally asked.

"She's at the house." Artemis replied.

"What?" Wally demanded.

"Don't worry! She's asleep!" Artemis said.

"Sure." Wally grumbled in reply, folding his arms over his scarlet chest.

"I slightly drugged her hot chocolate, happy?" Artemis asked. "Besides, she wasn't going to do anything. She had no arrows for her bow-"

"Shows up on our doorstep with a weapon..." Wally muttered. Artemis ignored him.

"-she had lost her dad six months before and her mom died when she was two. She's just a poor orphaned girl running from child welfare for the last six months, and she just found someone she thinks she can trust. I wasn't going to throw her out in the snow!"

"She's running from the Feds?" Wally exclaimed. "And you took her in? Are you crazy?"

"How can you two be married and still fight?" Dick asked.

"Its part of the charm." Artemis replied. "Can you do a background check?"

Dick pulled up a holo-computer. "Name?"

"Suzanne King-Jones." Artemis replied.

Dick typed in the name and a face popped up.

"That's her." Artemis said.

"Hmmm.." Dick read over her file for a moment before his eyes lit up. "Everything about her story checks out except her mother isn't dead. She's in a psychiatric ward."

"Well who was her mom?" Artemis asked at the same time Wally muttered "Psycho in my house. Ow! Artemis!"

"Shut it Baywatch!"

"Her mom was Cissie King. She tried to be an unmasked superhero. She was inspired by Green Arrow and Red-Speedy. She failed and disappeared. Suzanne complained about her mom threatening to beat her for only winning Bronze in the Olympics to her school principle and Cissie was hauled off to a psychiatric ward." Dick said.

"She was upset her daughter won bronze in the Olympics?" Artemis exclaimed. "But the only Olympics she could've been in was-"

"-Last year." Dick replied. "Exactly seven months to the day before her father died."

The new Dark Knight flipped his cowl on. "I can see if I can get the truth out of her." Batman said.

"No, no." Artemis replied. "That's fine. I just wanted to make sure she wasn't a mass murderer."

"At sixteen?" Wally asked.

Batman and Artemis looked at him.

"True." he shrugged.

Batman left the room and Artemis followed. She stopped at the doorway.

"When will you be home?" she asked.

Wally shrugged. "Somewhere around dinner. No specific. Gotta check in to Central City. Let them know someone is still there to protect them..."

Batman poked his head back in the door. "You realize if she knows who you are and you're letting her stay what you have to do right?" he asked, a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth.

Artemis nodded and followed Batman out of the room as the scarlet speedster sped out. As she headed for the zeta-tubes, she noticed Stephanie* and Tim playing video games together.

"Wow." Artemis muttered. Tim must be bored if he was playing video games.

Stephanie was beating him. Obviously.

Artemis walked in the house and briskly closed the door behind her. She brushed her boots off and slid out of them and her jacket. The rest of her winter clothes were soon hung up and Artemis was back in comfortable jeans, sweater, and socks. She walked into the living room.

Warm, welcoming large leather couch, fire crackling in the hearth, cinnamon smell; the only thing that Artemis wasn't used to seeing in her living room was the sleepy blonde teenage girl stretching her limbs after awakening from her nap.

"Sleep well?" Artemis asked.

"Fine. Thanks. And um- thanks again for letting me stay."

"No problem. I can't let my protege stay in the snow, can I?" Artemis asked with a grin.

The girl was still sleepy so it took her a moment to grasp Artemis's meaning. When she did however, her eyes lit up.

"You mean-You're actually going to-" Suzanne was so trapped in her excitement, she couldn't form complete sentences.

"Well you're going to need a name." Artemis replied when the girl had calmed down enough.

Suzanne thought for a moment, her face slowly turning serious. "Umm... What about Arrowette?"

To Artemis, it looked like the girl was trying desperately to keep her fingers crossed without it being too blatantly obvious.

"That's fine with me." Artemis shrugged. "You'll need a costume as well."

The girl was on her feet before Artemis could blink. "I've got an idea!" she exclaimed. She dashed off to the room Artemis had stored her backpack at a very quick speed, slipping in her sock feet on the smooth floor.

Artemis laughed genuinely. She could hear Suzanne digging around desperately in her backpack. Wally blurred in next to her. "Where's Susie?" he asked.

"I don't like that name!" Suzanne hollered from the room she was in. Artemis laughed again. She noticed Wally was in his full Flash costume.

"Sorry." he said, "I didn't have time to change."

"That's okay." Artemis said. "I like my man in uniform."

At that moment, Suzanne sped back into the room.

"Are you sure we didn't have a daughter?" Artemis asked. "Blonde hair, really fast?"

"Pretty sure we didn't..." Wally muttered, scratching his head.

Suzanne flashed a notebook in Artemis's direction. Artemis glanced at it. A red and purple outfit. It didn't look bad. But one thing caught Artemis's attention besides the good drawing.

"Is-Is that my symbol?" Artemis asked.

"You don't mind do you?" Suzanne asked.

"No, Im surprised-"

"Where?" Wally demanded. "Where's your symbol?"

Before Wally could look, Suzanne, notepad in hand, jumped up.

"Oh My God! You're the Flash!" In a flash, her notepad and pen were in his hand. "Could you sign it please?"

Artemis almost burst out laughing at the look on Wally's face. "Umm.. I'm living with you, why would I-"

"Oh just sign it Wally!" Artemis exclaimed, laughing.

Wally was still flabbergasted and signed "Flash" on her notebook.

"Umm.. I gotta go check something out at the Cave, be back in five!". With that the scarlet speedster was gone.

"His name's Wally?" Suzanne asked.

Artemis laid back on the couch, laughing. "That's what I asked when I first met him."

"So when can I become your sidekick?" Suzanne asked.

"Get used to saying partner. You don't want to embarrass yourself in front of the Titans." Artemis replied.

"Wait, the Teen Titans?" Suzanne asked.

"Those are the ones." Artemis said. "As for how long until you can help me... After you finish training."

"Who's gonna train me?" Suzanne asked, slightly crestfallen.

"Me of course. You're my sidekick. Plus, I'm not letting you fail your first mission because you didn't get enough training." Artemis replied.

"When do we start?"

"If it's not too cold, tomorrow morning!"

*Stephanie Brown: Batgirl.