Chapter 18

-[Gotham City]-

-[Dante]-

"Is there a secret entrance like in the movies or is there an underground lair somewhere?" Artemis rambled on.

To say she was excited and nervous would be an understatement. "Not exactly." He denied as they walked into an alley, Artemis in her costume in Dante in black clothes and hood. "Think more of teleportation."

He'd recruited her the previous day and was now taking her to the cave to meet the rest of the team. He chuckled at her confusion as he led her to an out of order phone booth.

"Um…what are we doing here?" She asked as he entered the phone booth.

"Just get in. You'll see." He said, causing her to give him a weird look. Despite that, she still walked inside.

"Okay, now what?" She asked.

"Override. Dante, B05." He said as a scanner was projected from a small lens in the booth, scanning Dante.

«Recognized. Access Granted.» the female voice of the Zeta tube system announced.

"Whoa." That was all Artemis could say as the scanner appeared again, scanning Artemis.

«Artemis B-0-7! Dante B-0-5!» It announced as a flash of light occurred, Artemis and Dante both disappearing with it.

-[Mount Justice]-

«Recognized. Artemis B-0-7! Recognized. Dante B-0-5!» The Zeta Tubes announced as they appeared in the cave.

"You weren't kidding." She whispered in disbelief.

"Nope." He said before noticing that everyone was already in the mission room with the odd addition of Martian Manhunter.

"Good, you're all here." He said, getting their attention as he led Artemis to the center of the room. "I want to introduce the newest member of our team, Artemis. Green Arrow's niece and new protégé."

"Hi!" M'gann shot forward to introduce herself.

"More girls on the team, I can't say no to that." Wally said with a grin as he stepped forward only for an invisible force to trip him over.

In the midst of Robin's chuckles, his head snapped towards Dante who walked up to Manhunter.

"What is it?" Dante asked the Martian quietly.

"Batman wishes to speak with you about what you discussed earlier." Manhunter said, leading Dante deeper into the cave and away from the socializing teens.

He noticed the serious look on Superboy's face as they passed him, going to the waterfall room in the mountain.

It looked like a therapist's dream office with how calming the environment was. The only thing out of place was the man in the bat costume standing in the middle of the room.

"Computer, secure the room." Batman said, the female voice of the cave system responding immediately as a locking sound was heard.

«Secured»

"What is this about?" Dante couldn't help but ask.

"Some time ago, you informed Martian Manhunter about the psychic imprint Cadmus had placed on you. With that in mind, Manhunter has checked and cleansed Superboy's mind of any residual programming left by Cadmus." Batman revealed.

"They had left a mental trigger that would leave him in a docile state when activated. The trigger can only be used by a specific person which I'm guessing you've found out." Manhunter explained, getting a nod from Dante.

"The person who was supposed to activate Superboy's trigger was Lex Luthor. According to you, your trigger was supposed to be activated by Queen Bee, the dictator of Bialya." Batman said with a frown. "I've investigated Luthor's connection to Cadmus. It turns out he is the founder of Cadmus."

"Then what about Queen Bee's connection to Cadmus?" He asked.

"There isn't one. As far as we know, Her and Luthor have never met but this seems to prove otherwise. Two unrelated individuals suddenly working together. The team has to be on alert for anything that could be related to this."

Dante couldn't help but be a bit surprised at how fast Batman was putting it together. With Batman's paranoia, he shouldn't have been surprised.

"Superboy is now in the clear, that just leaves you." The dark knight said with narrowed eyes.

-[Later]-

He'd started figuring it out. Something was going to happen and it was going to happen soon, he could feel it.

Those were Dante's thoughts as he headed to the lounge area to join up with the rest of the team.

'It shouldn't have been that easy.' Batman had Martian Manhunter check his mind for any of Cadmus' programming.

What disturbed Dante the most wasn't the ease at which he concealed his knowledge of his past life. It was the fact that while the older Martian was scanning his mind, his mind was opened as well.

'Open' wasn't the best term to use seeing as how there were mental shields that were supposed to defend his mind. Keywords being 'supposed to'. Out of curiosity, he had easily and intentionally bypassed said defenses without the elder Martian knowing.

His powers were growing. Whatever Cadmus did was truly too effective. Other than the confirmation that Cadmus hadn't hidden any other commands in his mind, he had also gained the knowledge of how to density shift from Manhunter's mind.

Though he seemingly had access to his mind, that was the only thing he was interested in at the moment.

He looked down at his body as it turned translucent, experiencing the slight feeling of having air pass through him for a moment.

He arrived at the lounge to see the team talking amongst themselves. "Well you guys seem to be hitting it off."

"Dude where were you?" Wally asked as their attention turned to him.

"Meeting with Batman. I'll brief you all later." He said, surprising them a bit. "So, what did I miss?"

"Besides Wally trying to hit on Artemis? Not much." Robin answered casually.

"Dude!"

"So nothing new. Got it." Dante said as he and Robin received glares from the resident speedster.

He turned to see Artemis staring at him. She had been talking with M'gann when he arrived. "What?"

"I'm still trying to wrap my head around this. You two are related?" She asked with a confused look.

"Technically speaking, yes." He answered as M'gann suddenly gained an excited look on her face.

"Hey, I have an idea. Why don't we have another team outing to officially welcome Artemis into the team?" She proposed, a pleasing look on her face.

"If you wanted to go to the movies again you could've just said so." Dante said with a small laugh, catching M'gann's intention as the girl looked away sheepishly.

She was like a kid on a sugar high the last time they went so he wasn't surprised that she wanted to go again.

"I believe it would be a good idea." Kaldur agreed.

"Don't worry. If the movie's too scary for you, you can always hold onto me." Wally said in a flirtatious tone towards Artemis.

The girl in question gave him a dry look. "Right."

Dante turned to the last member of the team. "Superboy, you in?"

"Yeah whatever." He grunted.

"Unless you plan on going like that, you might have to go back home to change." He said to Artemis as his phone buzzed in his pocket.

Glancing at the name as he fished the device out of his pocket, he sent a quick reply before turning back to the team. "Alright everyone, move it."