16

"Alright team, I want you to give a warm welcome to your new teammate, Artemis. She's my niece." Green Arrow said as he gestured to the teenage girl at his side. The lot of us had gathered in the main hall to meet the newcomer, having changed into our costumes beforehand (I shifted back into my armored form, though I kept my human head). Green Arrow, dressed very much like a modern take on Robin Hood, was flanked by Batman and Red Tornado, though everyone's attention was now on the new girl.

Artemis, as it turned out, was a blonde girl in her mid-teen dressed in green formfitting combat pants and what I could only describe as a combat halter top. It revealed her belly and left her arms bare (additional armguards notwithstanding), but also merged with the mask that covered most of her face. It revealed enough of her eyes and mouth that I could tell she had some Asian ancestry in her, but that was about it. Still, the bow and quiver on her back, along with how she stood next to Green Arrow, made it clear where her proficiency lay.

Starfire, as our intrepid leader, stepped up first to greet her. "Hello Artemis. It is my pleasure to welcome you to this team. May you find us your brothers and sisters on the battlefield." She said as she held out her hand.

I leaned over to Robin and whispered "I taught her that."

I am not certain what kind of reception Artemis was expecting, but it was clear from the look on her face that it wasn't the one Starfire had just given. She blinked owlishly for a moment before she took the woman's hand in kind. "Uh, yeah, sure. I'm here to fight the good fight and all that."

"Great!" Starfire said as she pulled her hand back. "I am Koriand'r, but my title is Starfire." She then turned to the rest of us and listed us off. "This is Machina, Superboy, Miss Martian, Aqualad, and Robin. We have one more member who will be along shortly, he was caught up in personal matters. Oh!" She turned back. "That reminds me, will you be living in the Mountain, or do you have your own arrangements?"

"Uh, I have a home. Wait, I don't have to live here do I? I… kinda want to keep my privacy." The girl said with sudden concern.

I stepped up. "Nah, that's only if you don't have anywhere else to go. Those of us that do live here don't have a secret identity or don't care."

"I do!" Miss Martian protested. "I just… haven't gotten around to using it yet."

"Oh, well, my apologies. Anyway, point is you only have to share as much as you feel comfortable with."

"Right, right…" Artemis said, glancing at the lot of us before she seemed to get her footing back under her. "So, got to say, thought I would recognize more of you. Aren't you supposed to be sidekicks?"

"We don't like to use that word." Robin said quickly.

"It's a little more complicated than that." I elaborated. "Several of us have only started hero work recently. As well, we come from a rather… wide range of origins."

"I can see that. I suppose I should have expected something like that joining a team of metahumans."

"Actually, Kid Flash is the only metahuman on the team." I said before pointing around the room. "Half-Kryptonian, Martian, Tamaranian, and Atlantian. Now that I think about it most of the team is physically non-human." I paused for a moment as a thought occurred to me, and I looked at Aqualad. "Err, do Atlantians consider themselves human? Or something else?"

The teen shifted uncomfortably. "That is a… complicated subject amongst Atlantians, particularly considering our origins. In general though my people consider themselves Atlantians before anything else."

For her part, Artemis just arched an eyebrow. "Neat. But what are you then?" she asked me pointedly.

"Post-human. I don't have the metagene… or any genes for that matter. I'm made of nanomachines."

"…How'd you manage that? Little too much iron in your diet?"

I shrugged. "Oh you know, just a tired old recipe I had to try. A cup of alien abduction, a tea spoon of unethical experiments, and just a dash of hyper advanced nanotech with a side of unexpected consciousness uploading. Now with forty percent more existential dread!"

Artemis looked put off for a moment before she frowned. "I-I think you should have stuck to paleo. Would have put on less weight that way."

I arched an eyebrow. "You could stand to put on a bit more. What are you, a hundred pounds even? My god, eat a muffin, girl."

She glared at me for that, so I glared back at her in response. I managed to hold the expression for a few seconds before I started to chuckle. I glanced back at the team. "She can stay."

I heard Artemis snort at that. "Well, I guess that makes it official then."

Starfire nodded. "Well enough. Now, while I would prefer more time for you to get acquainted with us as a group, I am afraid that with a mission imminent we must focus on other matters. Primarily, your role on our team and familiarizing you with all of our abilities and specialties. Given your use of the bow, you should be…"

Starfire then began to explain the abilities and roles of everyone on the team, so I took the opportunity to step away. She didn't need me for this, and there was something I wanted to take care of while I had the opportunity. I walked over to Batman and said in a low voice. "Can I talk to you privately?"

The man looked at me for a moment before he made a motion with his head and the two of us walked to the other end of the room. The main hall was huge, so we were a good fifty feet away from everyone else before we came to a stop. "What did you want to talk about?" Batman asked as he faced me.

"I want to be made a full member of the team."

The man's expression didn't noticeably change at my statement, but I got the impression that he was raising an eyebrow underneath his cowl. "I see. Why?"

"A few reasons. One of which being I'm not sure I should have been held from being a ful member in the first place. It was understandable given the conceit that I was significantly less trained than everyone else, but… sir, were you aware that Superboy had gotten almost zero combat conditioning when you put him on the team?" That had caught me off guard when I had finally learned the extent of Superboy's psychic education. Cadmus had made him to be a living weapon, and downloaded enough information into his brain that he could write a ten page essay on the Cotton Gin from memory… and yet somehow neglected to actually teach him how to fight. Actual martial arts might be excused, those require muscle memory and reflexes that perhaps the Genomorphs couldn't parse, but there's still no excuse for the lack of tactical knowledge.

Batman shifted slightly before he answered. "Superboy's temperament when we first found him was… defiant, to say the least. He would not have taken it well if I insisted that he was not a full member of the team that Robin, Aqualad, and Kid Flash formed. Enough that he might have chosen to leave. I decided to take the risk."

"But what if he didn't know his own strength? He could have killed someone." I insisted.

"Until he got the proper training, I only planned on sending the team on non-combat missions, or against targets that could take that level of punishment." Batman's mouth pressed into a thin line. "It hasn't quite work out that way, but like I said, it was a risk."

I wanted to argue the point some more, but I remembered that I was already arguing something else and moved on. "Regardless, my point is we started out with basically the same amount of training and experience. Hell, I might have more combat experience than him at the moment. And that brings me to my second point; I've played an active role in every combat I've been to anyway. Staying back now seems kind of pointless."

Batman's eyes narrowed slightly. "Just because your previous circumstances have been unique and extreme doesn't mean that every mission is going to be like that."

"Yes, but that's happened on every mission." I insisted. "Look, the world clearly isn't waiting for me to be fully prepared and trained up. If anything my experiences proved that my team needs me. I'm not going to start suddenly charging in head first, but I am going to start more actively supporting the mission. So, unless you think that my performance is lacking…"

Batman was silent for a long moment before he cast his gaze downward. "I am displeased with the circumstances that required your performance. I understand that our line of work is hardly safe, but I had hoped to see your actions in a more controlled environment first." He turned his gaze back up to me. "However, your points are valid. You have performed admirably under pressure, have not been reckless with your choices, and you have demonstrated a reasonable amount of restraint when dealing with baseline humans. There was only one requirement left you had you to fulfill to get full membership."

"And what was that?" I asked as I raised a questioning eyebrow.

"You had to ask for it." Batman said, and with that he stepped past me and walked back towards the group. I followed after him slightly confused, and when we reached the group he said. "Team, I have an announcement. In light of his performance, as of this moment Machina is a full member of this team, with all of the duties that entails."

"Oh, congratulations!" Miss Martian said excitedly.

"Pretty sure he was more or less one of us already…" Superboy said. "But yeah, welcome aboard, or whatever."

"Wait, he wasn't actually on the team?" Artemis asked.

I ignored them and looked at Batman. "Really? I had to ask?"

He looked back at me. "Caution and humility are good traits, but superhero work requires a certain degree of decisiveness. You can't just accept to being a hero. You have to choose it."

I opened my mouth before I closed it again. I didn't really have any response for that. Lucky for me, I didn't have to, as a second later the Zeta Tube activated.

"Recognized: Kid Flash, B-0-3."

When the light died down, it revealed Wally… dressed in swim trunks and carrying a huge load of beach gear (beach ball, beach umbrella, cooler, and a surfboard of all things) in his arms. Does… he not realize that the sun is already setting? I wondered.

Apparently not, as a moment later he started to run into the hall yelling "The Wall-man is here! Now let's get this party star-!"

That was as far as he got before his legs became entangled with the pole of the beach umbrella he was carrying. He crashed to the ground in a heap with all of his stuff. The volley ball bounced a couple of timed before it rolled off into the distance. The lot of us stared at him as Wally lifted his head. "-ted." He finished weakly.

"Wall-man, huh?" Artemis said with a smirk. "Love the uniform. What exactly are your powers?"

"Who is this?" Wally asked as he got to his feet, irritation in his voice.

"Artemis, your new teammate." She said.

"Kid Flash, never heard of you."

Damn it, Wally, I thought to myself. To be fair, I couldn't expect everyone to respond to snark with the same cheer that I do, be he could have handled that a bit more gracefully.

Green Arrow stepped up next to her. "She's my new protégé."

"W-what happened to the old one?!" Wally exclaimed. Before anyone could answer though the Zeta Tube behind him whirred to life again, and golden light flashed as the synthetic voice chimed.

"Recognized: Speedy, B-0-6"

The light faded to reveal a young man walking towards us, dressed in a black and red costume that was somewhere between Green Arrow's and Artemis's, with a domino mask on his face. "Well for starters, he doesn't go by Speedy anymore." He said with a slight growl. "Call me Red Arrow."

And here was our supposed mission giver. I had found it odd that it wasn't Batman giving us the briefing, but it seemed something went down earlier today which Red Arrow had been involved in, so it was decided that he would be giving the details. I remembered that other guys said something about hoping to wrangle this guy onto the team a few weeks back, but I had been distracted at the time so I never followed up on it. I just hope he's having a bad day and hasn't already shifted into edgelord Arsenal mode, I thought.

For his part, Green Arrow looked surprised. "Roy! You look-"

"Replaceable." The younger man said flatly as he walked towards up.

"It's not like that, you told me you were going solo."

"So why waste time finding a sub?" The red head snapped. "Does she even know how to use that bow?"

I arched an eyebrow at the exchange. Okay, there definitely had to be some context or subtext I was missing here. No way was this guy throwing a fit just because his mentor got a replacement after he left. Then again, his tone was kind of… edgy.

Artemis, not one to take such a comment lying down, stepped up to the much taller man. "Yes, she can." She said defiantly.

"Who are you?!" Wally insisted.

"She's my/I'm his niece." Artemis and Green Arrow said at once.

"She is not your replacement." Aqualad said as he walked up to Red Arrow. "We've always wanted you on the team, and we have no quota on Archers."

"And if we did, you know who we'd pick." Wally said.

God damn it Wally, I thought. This is going to make things difficult between the two of them later, I just knew it.

For the moment though Artemis just brushed the comment off. "Whatever Baywatch, I'm here to stay. Big Grey here confirmed it and everything."

Eyes turned on me, and I coughed awkwardly. "So, heard that you have a mission for us. What do you need us to do?"

"Protect Dr. Serling Roquette."

"You found Doctor Roquette?!" Everyone in the room started at that, mostly because I had just shouted. "What happened to her? Where is she? Is she alright?"

Red Arrow scowled at me. "She's fine. She was abducted two weeks ago, but I rescued her earlier today. What's it to you?"

"She's my acting physician." I said with a loud sigh of relief. "Thank Christ she's alright. I had been meaning to look into that again, but… things came up."

The other man's scowl did not lessen. "And just who are you?"

"Oh where are my manners," I said before I stepped towards him and extended my arm. "Machina. Joined the team about a month ago. Pleasure to meet you."

Red Arrow looked at my hand for a moment before he turned and looked back at the team. "The doctor was captured by the League of Shadows in order to build them a weapon. It's called the Fog."

He walked away from me and pulled out a device from his belt, and with a press of a button a holographic screen appeared and showed us data and an image of several individual nanites. I stood there awkwardly for a moment before I let my hand fall to my side.

Well then.

Wally, not caring about the social faux pas, perked up. "Whoa, the League of Shadows? That's hardcore!"

Red Arrow ignored him and continued. "Comprised of millions of microscopic infiltrators, these machines are capable of disintegrating anything in their path. Concrete, steel, flesh and bone."

God lord that's horrifying, I thought to myself. I mean, the idea that she was captured for her research had certainly occurred to me, but I was under the impression that she just worked with information systems. The fact that her creations could do all that… "Please tell me we're not looking at a grey goo scenario." I said. I doubted that Roquette managed to build these things with a functioning nuclear forge, but if she had…

Thankfully, Red Arrow shook his head. "No, they can't build more of themselves, and without the doctor the Shadows can't make more. But what they do have is dangerous enough, especially when it comes to what they were actually made for: data retrieval. These nanites can strip the data from any device they consume, before delivering the stolen intel the Shadows. Depending on their target, they could gain anything from military secrets to cutting edge technology."

Ah, there it is. Well, still wouldn't help them much if the data was strongly encrypted, I thought to myself. Of course, if these things can just tear through and consume any computer in a building, odds are there is still plenty valuable info it can pick up. Never mind if it just finds the encryption key. Putting all that aside, I asked "So, how do we stop it?"

"The doctor is working on a virus to neutralize the Fog, and a way to track it. But the moment she does start tracking it, the Shadows will know, and they'll target her. I have her stashed at a nearby highschool's computer lab."

"You left her alone?" Green Arrow asked incredulously.

"She's safe enough for now." Red Arrow said dismissively.

"Then let's you and I keep her that way." The older man insisted.

"You and I? Don't you want to take your new protégé?" The younger man said with the hint of a sneer.

Green Arrow looked like he was about to say more, but Batman put a hand on his shoulder. The two looked at each other before Green Arrow looked back at his former student. "You brought this to the team. It's their mission. Which means it's hers now too."

Red Arrow scoffed. "Then my job's done." He snapped, and walked back towards the Zeta Tube.

"Recognized: Speedy-"

"That's Red Arrow! B-0-6, update!" There was a flash of light and he was gone.

The room is silent for a long moment before I finally said "So… has he always had that arrow stuck up his-"

"Hey!" Wally protested.

Aqualad looked my way. "Sp- Red Arrow disagreed with how the League treated us. While he may not have made the best impression, do not disparage him. He is a valued comrade."

"If you insist…" I said, though I doubted I was going to warm up to the angsty teen anytime soon. I cast a glance at Batman. "In any case, this sounds pretty serious. Will we have any support from the League on this one?"

Batman shook his head. "The Justice League is already investigating the location the doctor was recovered from, but the island appears to be abandoned. Likely shortly after Red Arrow's rescue. We still need to check every lead before the trail runs cold however, which is why the mission of protecting Dr. Roquette and neutralizing the weapon falls to you."

Starfire clapped her hands together. "Well, then we have no time to waste. Kid Flash, get changed and meet us in the hanger. We leave for the high school in five minutes."

As the team started to move, I noticed Artemis slide up next to Superboy. "So… Superboy, huh?"

For his part, Wally looked despondent as he started gathering up all of the junk he had spilled. "Ah man, this sucks." he sighed. "I missed beach day, some chick is replacing Speedy… How could this get any worse?"

"You missed Kori in a V-style bikini." I offered.

He looked at me in horror before he collapsed to his knees. "NOOOOOO!"

I chuckled as I patted him on the shoulder. "Too slow, Wally. Too slow."