3.
Wally's alarm woke him up on the first day of training, and he groaned to himself. He rolled over in bed and hit the alarm with his hand, shutting it off.
"Ten more minutes," he mumbled at the ceiling.
He was afforded a few minutes of peaceful silence until a loud, blaring alarm blasted through the speakers in the walls, making his whole room shake. He was out of bed in an instant, had his training uniform on in another second, and was in the main cave in a flash.
"I'm here, I'm here!" he shouted, pulling his shirt down over his stomach. The rest of the team was already in line. Dick was laughing as Wally skidded into the cave.
"Nice of you to join us, Wally," Black Canary smirked at the redhead, whose red hair was still ruffled and messy from sleep. Artemis crossed her arms over her chest and smirked too, and Wally glared at her.
"Now that you're all here, let's begin."
The words immediately brought the six young heroes to attention. Black Canary clasped her hands behind her back and began to pace slowly in front of them.
"Since today is the first day, it won't be anything too difficult. Basic training to start you all off. You will each be put through a series of individual tests that will be specific to your unique abilities," she explained, and Artemis's fingers tingled in anticipation of holding a bow. She wanted to show her new teammates what she was made of.
"Each test has been designed with your abilities in mind," Black Canary continued. "How you do on these tests will determine how soon you will be ready to go out into the field."
Dick and Wally grinned at each other at the thought of actually fighting bad guys. This was gonna be so cool.
"Today, we'll measure your strength, speed, agility, and endurance. Tomorrow, we'll move on to combat training."
"Sweet!" Dick held up his hand, and Wally high-fived it enthusiastically. Artemis rolled her eyes.
"We'll start with Superboy," Black Canary said, and Superboy grimaced. "Follow me, Conner."
Everyone watched as they left the room, disappearing into an alcove. For a second, everyone was silent. Awkwardness fell in the air and the team members started fidgeting nervously, unsure what to do with themselves. They had only just met yesterday, after all.
"I just want to take this opportunity to say that I am excited to begin working with you all," Aqualad spoke up, breaking the awkward silence. "In Atlantis, my friend Garth and I always worked together, but I have never been part of such a large team before. It will be interesting to see how it goes."
"I'm excited, too," M'gann piped up, tucking her red hair behind her green ear. "I can't wait to get to know you all better. It'll be fun to work together."
"What do you guys think of the mountain so far?" Dick asked, looking around at the giant cave. "It's pretty nice, huh?"
"Dude, did you see the kitchen? It's stocked." Wally practically had hearts in his eyes. "All you can eat and more."
M'gann laughed, and he winked at her. The Martian blushed and smiled at him.
Artemis stood off to the side as her teammates began talking. She crossed her arms over her chest and stared at the cave wall, her posture closed-off. It wasn't that she didn't want to talk to them, but it was more like she didn't know how. She'd never been the type to make friends easily. At school, she was always the odd one out. A lot of people were afraid of her. She used to get into trouble a lot for getting into fistfights, so people mostly stayed out of her way. But that was how she liked it most of the time.
"Artemis?"
"Hm?" The archer turned her head to see everyone staring at her. M'gann was smiling welcomingly.
"What do you think?" she asked. "Of the mountain?"
"Oh." Artemis shrugged. "It's nice. A lot bigger than anything I'm used to."
"There are caves like this on Mars, so I'm pretty much used to it, but it's still so cool," M'gann said. "I mean, I've never had my own room before. I always had to share with my sisters."
Artemis remembered when she'd had to share a room with Jade, before she'd walked out. The memory made her heart constrict painfully in her chest, and she clenched her fists.
"Yeah," she said, not really sure what else to say.
Awkward silence fell for another moment before Kaldur smiled at Artemis.
"I am eager to see how well you do with a bow and arrow," he said. "I heard your skills were unparalleled."
Artemis smiled with pride and stood a little straighter. "They are."
"I still don't understand why Roy opted out," Wally mumbled to Dick out of the side of his mouth, and Dick elbowed him. Artemis's smile disappeared.
"Do you have something to say, Kid Idiot?" she snapped, and Wally glared at her.
"Yeah, actually, I do." He opened his mouth to say it, but Artemis shook her head.
"Unless you want to keep all of your extremities, I wouldn't," she warned, stepping closer to him. "You don't want to get on my bad side."
"What happens if I do?" he taunted, raising an eyebrow at her.
"You'll regret it until the day you die," she said. "Which might be soon, if you keep pissing me off."
"Please, stop!" M'gann said, her eyes wide. "We shouldn't be fighting. We're teammates now, and we have to get along."
"I don't think getting along was required. It was more of a polite suggestion," Artemis said.
"Either way, a team cannot work well together if we are at odds with each other," Kaldur stepped in between Artemis and Wally before either of them could hit the other. "If we cannot be friends, we must try to be civil towards each other, for the sake of the team."
"He's right." Batman appeared out of the shadows, and immediately each of the team members stood at attention like soldiers towards their commanding officer. "If you two can't get along, it'll be a problem. Either one of you can be easily replaced as fast as you were selected for this project."
Artemis and Wally glared at each other quickly, and then looked away.
"She started it," Wally mumbled.
"Oh, don't you dare try to pin this on me." Artemis's blood boiled with anger. "I can't believe –"
"That's enough." Batman's deep voice echoed through the cave, and Artemis shut up. She seethed silently to herself, refusing to look at Wally again. "Artemis. Keep your temper in check. And Kid Flash, don't antagonize her."
Artemis clenched her hands into fists. She hated being scolded like a child. It was stupid Kid Idiot's fault, and everyone knew it.
Batman stood watch over the team for the next half hour while Superboy finished his testing. When he emerged into the cave again with Black Canary, everyone looked up.
"How'd it go?" M'gann asked, smiling at Conner. He shrugged.
"Fine," he said. M'gann looked hurt for a second at his tone, and she looked down at the ground.
Black Canary let her gaze travel down the line of sidekicks until her eyes landed on Wally.
"Kid Flash," she said. "You're up."