𝙼𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝 𝙹𝚞𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚎, 𝚁𝚑𝚘𝚍𝚎 𝙸𝚜𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚍
𝙰𝚞𝚐𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝟾𝚝𝚑, 𝟶𝟿:𝟻𝟾 𝙴𝙳𝚃

We made it onto the beach just in time for seagulls to fly overhead. Megan ran ahead into the sand carrying a red boogie board. Her hair was down like usual and she was rocking a nice plain yellow swimsuit that popped against her green skin.

I was helping the boys carry out all of the supplies for today while we all soaked in the hot sun, enjoying the fresh air and the sound of the sea. I know Superboy must enjoy the sun, while Kaldur definitely enjoyed hearing the noises of his underwater home. Or something. Not really sure how Atlantean culture works.

'Apologies. We are lacking in this field.'

'Nah, it's fine Failsafe. I mean, I might ask Kaldur one of these days, but for right now, I just wanna have some fun under the sun!'

'Enjoy...'

It'd been hard for her the past three days. Batman's question really got under her skin and I think the Team might be a little scared of her now, I've never been scared of her because I live with her, but they don't. So that random act of her insecurities coming out must've been terrifying. It didn't help that a little while before I completely screwed up my 'introduction' to the Team.

This is why people need to be more forward. If people just spoke to each other and told people what they needed to know and didn't keep it to themselves until it's relevant we'd have a lot fewer problems.

I snapped out of that, that's enough thinking for today! It's summer and I'm going to have fun with my, mostly, super-powered friends at the beach!

I ran up past Megan, feeling the seaside breeze on my body as I turned around, kicking up sand. It felt so good to be surrounded by familiarity after so long. I missed Florida, the beaches, the weather, the chaos, my family...

Nope! No, no, no, no thinking about sad things or anything like that today (Y/n). We just went over this, today is a day for fun!

"We should hit the beach every day," Megan walked next to me, copying my spread-out arms as she took in a long breath. Her words came out in a sigh.

I chuckled, thinking of how I used to do that, and over summer when I couldn't I'd hit the pool. The boys placed the stuff down at a far enough area where water wouldn't flood our stuff, I took the volleyball from Robin.

"First, a moment of silence for our... absent comrade," He says that, but he doesn't seem to care about his fallen bro. Which, I mean, his fault for going to a school that opens so early, I guess.

I want to go back to school. It's been two years, I wonder how much I've missed? Probably a lot, but nothing I can't make up in no time. I was studying ahead of my grade anyway.

"Poor Wally," Megan sympathized. It was silent for a second and I tapped my foot three times on the sand before holding up the volleyball.

"Anyone up for a game?" A mischievous grin graced my lips. Robin looked at me, a smile like mine graced his face. We turned to Kaldur and Supey next to us, Kaldur acquiesced immediately, but Supey crossed his arms and had to think about it a minute.

Megan wanted to splash around in the water for a little while and enjoy Earth, so we got the muscly man on account of needing the teams to be even.

Supey and Kaldur set up the placeholders for the net, digging them into the sand as Robin and I stood on our side watching them.

"Dude, you know sunglasses aren't really the best for volleyball right? Your gonna get sand up there." I dragged out my words, in a playfully warning tone.

"The same could be said about our hair too, or even our swimsuits. Just imagine, sand, everywhere." He stressed to me, I looked at him where his eyes should be. I don't know what's behind there, for all I know there are no eyes under there. Gasp, is he an alien too? Oh my Batman, we've been bamboozled by the dark knight!

"I'm well aware of the dangers of sand, but that's the price you pay for fun!" I exclaimed, throwing my hands up and accidentally launching the ball. It landed on Supey's head.

He looked up and around as he set the holders in, finding me trying not to laugh at his expense. I tried to keep it in, I really did, but as the sounds coming out of my throat were stopped and my eyebrows creased up, I could help it.

"Hahahaha," Robin joined me as I laughed my ass off.

"He," I tried to breathe and couldn't catch even a gasp, "looks," I hunched over, grabbing my stomach as I tried to save my remaining breath, "so," finally a breath made its way into my lungs, thankfully, "stupid!"

Robin and I continued to laugh for another minute longer before the ball was thrown back to me. Both taller males standing next to the completed net, smirking.

"We'll see who the stupid one is when we're done, huh?"

I smirked, "Still gonna be you, closet boy."

"Oh, your on!"

______________

I spiked the ball and it fell to the ground before the boys could stop it. I cheered, arms sooting into the air as I jumped in excitement. "Yeah! I win!"

Kaldur picked up the ball, "That was your second point,"

"How can you win when we have five points over you?" Superboy crossed his arms over his chest, raising an eyebrow.

"So? I think that's pretty good for never having played before!"

Next to me, Robin laughed, "You threw all that trash talk and you've never played before?"

My smile expanded and I turned to him, "It makes it more fun," I jested before adding, "and exciting."

"Well, I think we've had enough excitement for right now," Kaldur tossed me the ball, which I caught.

"I suppose we can take a break from us totally kicking your asses," My mouth formed a teasing smile, like a real-life kitty face.

Superboy scoffed playfully, "Yeah, right."

I was about to retort when the giant wave came splashing over the four of us, disappearing back into the ocean taking the once dry sand with it. I peeled seaweed off my hair and shot a look at the smug Martian in the water.

She splashed at me.

"I hope you know this is war, Megan!" I yelled, running to the ocean and splashing her. she laughed, blocking her face, and stepped back. I continued my onslaught before I felt a splash on my back, I looked back to the culprit just to find Robin splashing me in the face.

"Ack!" I was ganged up in an instant. Splashes came from both sides as I tried my hardest to fight back even though I had been blinded.

Superboy cannonballed into the water next to us, covering us all in his wave before coming to my aid, we looked at each other and a silent truce had been created, we started splashing the two together.

We played like that for some time, the teams and game changed around but it was fun. After a while the scent of hotdogs filled the air, Kaldur sat under the umbrella we brought with the portable grill, calling us over.

"Hey, Kaldur. If you eat fish is that considered cannibalism?"

Everyone stared at me, "Wha–"

"Depends on what fish you're talking about," He winked and took a bite out of his hotdog.

"I have several questions–"

The day continued on. About an hour after we ate I'd remembered that I was legally able to ride a jet ski now, and had dragged Robin song after I'd had Failsafe create one. Actually, I had found out that Robin was a little younger than me, just under fourteen because of it. Which, it was cool to know how close to my age he really was.

I plopped down next to Robin after that adventure, cracking open a bottle of water and chugging about half, crushing the bottle with the force of my hold.

"So I've noticed, no Failsafe today," Robin noted next to me, I placed the cap back on the bottle.

"Yeah, I think it's safe to say she's a bit stressed after the last mission. It'll be fine though, don't worry."

"I checked the footage from our bike cams, as well as the truck. Something about the fight last time got under my skin," I paused, staring at him.

"Okay?"

"Failsafe was deliberately going out of the way to not destroy those Monqi's." He frowned.

I swallowed, inhaling, "I don't understand everything she does, but I trust her. I get that maybe you can't. But at least trust in the fact that she's a part of this Team, and she wouldn't do anything to hurt it."

He didn't say anything for a while, we sat like that until he talked again. "You don't understand? Or you don't know? Doesn't sound like you two are all that in tune despite how Failsafe tries to play it," He muttered, playing with the sand.

I exhaled, "Yeah, Failsafe's a bit weird. But you only live once, right? So I don't really care all that much, as long as I get to have fun and see cool things."

"That's not really any way to live," Robin commented. I shrugged, "Everyone lives their lives their own ways. Only one chance to do so, so might as well make the most of it and do something crazy and fun while you can."

"Is that how you see this as?" A pointed question like a prickly thorn danced near my finger, one prick and I'd bleed out.

"See what? The body-snatching or the alien in general?"

I could feel his stare cut into my skin, much worse than a thorn. I couldn't seem to care though, so what if he didn't agree with my choices? It wasn't his life, it was mine, and that's what I chose to do with it.

He sighed, shaking his head, "I meant being a hero. Is this just a joke to you? Everything we fight for?"

I shook my head, "No I think the Team is super cool for what you're doing! Going against the adults and trying to prove yourselves to be more. It's valiant and whatever," I had started waving my hands trying to convey my message to him, "And in any case y'all are a lot more fun than those stuffy adults, not to mention being locked in the same boring room every day," I groaned before finishing the last of my water.

"Wha?"

I looked out onto the beach as I did so, seeing Superboy's sleeping body with sunglasses hanging half hazard off his face, Megan was there with a red bucket putting a pile of sand on him. Water shot out of my mouth as I almost choked on my laughter.

"Whoa!" Robin had to scoot back to avoid my water spray.

"Hang on Megan! I'm coming to help!" I shouted, grabbing a blue pail and racing over.

"Careful! You'll wake him up," Megan smirked before putting a bucket of sand over his chest again. Seashells decorated his body along with other rocks and pellets found in the sand.

"How much do you think we can get done before he wakes up?"

"Let's find out," Robin came up behind me, smirking and holding up a pail of his own.
________________
𝙼𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝 𝙹𝚞𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚎, 𝚁𝚑𝚘𝚍𝚎 𝙸𝚜𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚍
𝙰𝚞𝚐𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝟾𝚝𝚑, 𝟷𝟿:𝟺𝟽 𝙴𝙳𝚃

"This is your new Teammate, Artemis," Batman explained to us. Everyone looked at the darker-skinned girl, holding up an extendable green bow she had a quiver attached to her back and an open dark green costume with an arrow on her chest. Her blond hair was pulled back into a crazy ponytail and while half her face was exposed it was easy to see her dark, gleaming eyes burning through her mask. Unlike Robins, it didn't cover her eyes with that while film.

"It is nice to become acquainted with you, Artemis. We hope to get along with you well," We stepped up, holding out our hand like humans do to greet one another. She took it hesitantly, "Yeah, you too."

We shook awkwardly before we stepped back, letting the others introduce themselves, mostly M'gann and Superboy, as Robin and kaldur'ahm had questions.

'So, your little plan worked after all.' (Y/n) hummed.

'Not our plan, but yes.'

'If it's not yours, then is anything?'

'What does that inquiry mean?'

'Just, if your own thoughts aren't yours, then whose are they?'

'That, is a very good question. But we've never had our own thoughts, it's not possible.' The written fate of the universe, of every dimension and person, makes that untrue. Every thought is written out by another.

'Batman did.' The question from days ago rocketed into our mind. It bothered us still.

'And we do all the time. Sorry, I just don't believe we're as tied down as you say. I also don't want to believe Batman was the first person to have free will, puts a bitter taste in my mouth, ah, hey, are you okay?'

'We are... Fine.'

That question. It's still so baffling. Its mere existence is a risk.

"Recognized: Kid Flash – BO3."

Wallace reappeared inside of the Zeta tube, carrying all of the necessities needed for a day at the beach.

"A little late for that, isn't it?" We questioned allowed, eyebrows furrowed as we took him in. What was the obsession with the mineral particles and divided rock? The hydrogen and oxygen expanse too?

"The Wall Man is here!" He called out, flip flops clapping against the floor as he ran in them. "Let's get this party star–"

He tripped. Falling flat on his face due to carrying so many things, like a cooler and an entire umbrella.

A beach ball bounced past us and we followed it with our eyes to see a very angry Batman watch as Wallace skid on the floor towards the Team and him.

"...Ted." Wallace finished, looking up at all of us.

"Wall-man, huh?" Kaldur'ahm stepped to the side so that Artemis may finally be seen by Kid Flash, "I love the uniform," She looked him up and down judgingly, "What exactly are your powers?" Her tone was teasing.

Wallace ignored the newest member, rushing past us to stand beside M'gann and Robin, "Um, who's this?" He asked Kaldur'ahm, gesturing angrily toward the girl. His tone was sharp and he seemed more upset than he should be.

"Artemis, your new teammate," The blond replied, proud. It sounded almost as if she were teasing him for not knowing.

"Kid Flash. Never heard of you." Wallace shoots back, relaying the same, insultingly teasing tone as Artemis.

"Um, she's my new protége," Green Arrow tried to clear the air. But it was too filled with the poisonous energy the two were emulating.

Wallace sputtered, "What, what happened to your old one?!" He questioned hurriedly. His voice communicated his worry for an older friend, Speedy, otherwise known as Red Arrow.

Speaking of Red Arrow...

"Recognized: Speedy– BO6."

"Well for starters, he doesn't go by Speedy anymore," The ginger-haired male stated, walking out of the Zeta Tube.

"Call me Red Arrow." We observed Robin, Kaldur'ahm, and Wallace as they all breathed a sigh of relief, but also watched as their bodies became rigid, tense. Were they not elated to see their friend whom they talk about all the time?

'It's more complicated than that, Failsafe.'

'How so?'

'Uh, well, it's like how I look up to Batman but also kinda hate his guts a little? Or how I would be overjoyed to see my mom and dad but also kinda scared because it's been a long time.' A long time, yes, it has been long for a human we suppose, for us, it's been akin to a singular moment passing by in a universe too distant from here.

'We understand.'

"Roy, You look-" Green Arrow tried to talk to his former teammate, but the younger male strutted past him, toward the center console.

"-Replaceable." A rumble was barely noticeable coming out of his throat, but what was noticeable was the glaring toward Artemis.

'Not the most welcoming environment so far. I'm glad she's dealing with it okay.'

"It's not like that." Green Arrow countered. "You told me you were going solo."

"So why waste time finding a sub?" Red Arrow questioned with a passive-aggressive retort. "Can she even use that bow?"

Artemis stepped up to defend herself. "Yes, she can," her voice is chipper as she gets right in Red Arrow's face. As if starting a fight is a comfort.

"Who are you?" Wallace questioned

"I'm his niece," Artemis said at the same time Green Arrow said, "She's my niece."

A smirk grew on Robin's face. A knowing tone in his voice as he said, "Another niece?"

'Are we the only ones here who aren't related to the League in any way?'

'Only M'gann and Superboy are actually related to the League members,'

'But he just said–'

"But she is not your replacement," Kaldur'arm assured his old friend. Stepping toward the ginger male who looked at him, they made eye contact without needing to try, being around the same height. "We have always wanted you on the Team, and we have no quota on archers," Kaldur'ahm stressed to everyone, mostly Wallace.

But it seemed as though Wallace didn't understand his tone, or he ignored it to say, "And if we did, you know who we'd pick."

Artemis shot back once again, "Whatever, Baywatch, I'm here to stay."

Why Baywatch?

'It's uh, a Bachelor reference...' We briefly recall seeing our mother watch that show.

Red Arrow walked away from the blond, stopping by Kaldur'ahm as the dark-skinned male stated, "You came to us for a reason."

"Yeah, a reason named Dr. Serling Roquette," Red Arrow sneered.

Next to us, Robin pulls up a hologram on his hologlove, "Nanorobotics genius and claytronics expert at Royal University in Star City- vanished two weeks ago."

Around us data on holograms is displayed, most of which is hard for us to understand.

"Abducted two weeks ago by the League of Shadows." Red Arrow corrected the bird-themed hero.

Robin's face took on a look of elation. "Whoa. You want us to rescue her from the Shadows?"

"Hard-core." Wallace breathed out happily, he brought his fist in front of Robin and the Boy Wonder hit the top of it, then underneath, then on the top again. A weird ritual, but it seemed to make them happy.

"I already rescued her." Red Arrow broke the news, pulling up his own hologram of a familiar metal bug design and glowing thermos. "Only one problem."

"The Shadows had already coerced her into a weapon. Doc calls it the Fog, comprised of millions of microscopic robots, nanotech infiltrators, capable of disintegrating anything in their path- concrete, steel, flesh, bone- but its true purpose isn't mere destruction. It's theft. The infiltrators eat and story raw data from any computer system and deliver the stolen data to the Shadows." He gave us a long-winded explanation.

We all stood in silence for a moment, letting the information sink in. "Providing them access to weapons, strategic defense, cutting edge science and tec, he finished, wanting to put everything on the metaphorical table.

"Perfect for extortion, manipulation, and power broking," Artemis sounded bored as she listed off the many reasons the Shadows wanted to use this tech. "Yeah. Sounds like the Shadows."

"Like you know anything about the Shadows." Wallace scoffed, a smirk falling onto his face as he thinks he's one-upped our new teammate. But it falls as soon as he receives her taunting smile. "Who are you?!" He shouted in exasperation.

Red Arrow ignored them, continuing. "Roquette's working on a virus to render the Fog inert."

"But if the Shadows know she can do that..." Robin caught on.

The implication hung heavy in the air for a second. "They'll target her. Right now, she's off the grid." The picture of a high school popped up. "I stashed her at the local high school's computer lab." He looked around the room, eyes locked with ours for a split moment and they narrowed slightly.

The next moment, a voice that sounded like ours broke through the air, coming from our mouth. But we didn't say it. "You left her in a high school?!"

Still, it continued, "You know that's like, asking for her to die. People are murdered in high schools all the time!"

Everyone looked at us as we rambled without actually letting out the words, the thoughts running in our head were confusing, (Y/n) overwhelmed us. Our face was morphed into an expression of worry. We put a hand over our mouth and forced ourselves to stop. This wasn't helping anything.

"She's safe enough for now." Roy shot back, clearly annoyed. Eyes narrowing more noticeable this time.

"Then let's, you and I, keep her that way." Green Arrow offered, ignoring our outburst and trying to connect to his former protege. Almost like he was desperate to have Red Arrow back on good terms with him. He's just a person, there will be more people to meet in the future. So this desperation isn't needed.

"You and I?" Roy questioned, his voice sounding bitter, but also surprised. Did he think Green Arrow would still be upset with him? "Don't you want to take your new protége?"

Green Arrow tried to retort, but Batman stepped up and put a hand on his colleague's shoulder. "You brought this to the Team. It's their mission, which means it's hers now, too." Green Arrow gave up, his voice was sad, however.

Roy scoffed. "Then my job's done,"

He walked away toward the Zeta tube, correcting it to Red Arrow again before teleporting away.

______________
𝙷𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚢 𝙷𝚊𝚛𝚋𝚘𝚛, 𝚁𝚑𝚘𝚍𝚎 𝙸𝚜𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚍
𝙰𝚞𝚐𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝟾𝚝𝚑, 𝟸𝟷:𝟻𝟿 𝙴𝙳𝚃

'Are you really okay, Failsafe? It's okay not to be, I can deal with this mission if you wanna take a break.'

'We're fine. What makes it seem as if we aren't?' We replied, bored.

'...Usually, you have no problem reigning in my big mouth, and it seems like Batman's question really got to you. I just, are you sure..? I mean, ugh, are you sure you're not overwhelmed? It's okay if he got under your skin, just take some time to think about it, okay?'

We flexed our fingers into a fist and then let go, staring down at them. It looked as if we were trying to grasp something. We exhaled.

'It's too dangerous for that. After this mission, we'll work it out.'

With that, we went back to watching our surroundings from the tree we sat on. Watching the street in front of the school.

"Miss Martian, link us up. We do not want the Shadows intercepting our comms," Aqualad commands through comms. A second alter we feel the presence of the martian trying to enter our mind and we let her in with no resistance.

'Everyone online?' she asks.

'Ohh.' Artemis groaned, 'This is weird.'

'And distracting,' Dr. Roquette cut in. 'Coding a distributive algorithm virus on a kiddie computer with less RAM than a wristwatch is hard enough,' We could hear her sneer. 'Now I have to hear teen-think in my skull?'

'Hey fuck you, lady, it's either this or death so deal with it.'

'(Y/n), don't be so rude.' We cut in after the defensive outburst.

'Lady, do you always complain when someone tries to help you?'

'Pot, kettle,' Artemis offered. 'Have you met?'

'Hey, Hey, I do not need attitude from the newbie who drove Red Arrow off the Team.' Kid Flash shot back, annoyed.

'That is so not on me.' Artemis exclaimed.

'Fate of the world at stake,' The adult tried to remind everyone bitterly.

'She started it.'

'Wally, you sound like a child.' (Y/n) sassed him. We sighed aloud at the persistent arguing. There was no movement to be seen outside either.

'Maybe more people should take up watch outside?' We offered. It wouldn't help the arguing much, but with the growing headache, it was worth trying to avoid more of it.

'Good idea.' Aqualad agreed with us, stress leaking into his voice despite it being telepathic.

'You might cut her some slack. It was her arrow that saved your butt against Amazo.' Robin pointed out, smugly.

'What? No!' Instantly, he denied the truth.

'That was Speedy's- I mean, Red Arrow's... arrow. Right?'

'Not so much,' Robin teased his best friend.

Somehow, the ginger managed to huff inside of his head. 'Well, still not giving her the satisfaction.'

'You know, I can still hear you!'

'I couldn't get the Justice League,' Roquette grumbled to herself.

'If it's any consolation at least you got an honorary member?' (Y/n) offered to her.

There was some confusion emanating from Wallace, but Aqualad cut in before he could comment on it.

'The virus won't be of much use if we cannot find the weapon,' Aqualad surmised, 'Can you track it?'

'My utility fog is not a weapon,' The doctor defended her work, 'It's science, brilliant science, and of course I can track it, but I'd have to go online.' She paused, 'Might as well rent a billboard with this address and 'assassinate me' written in neon.'

'We will protect you,' he promised her, we could feel his sincerity.

'Tracking the Fog now,' Though her voice sounded reluctant, she'd done it.

Now is when the real danger occurs. The Shadows will know where we are now.

'So, are we gonna talk about the fact that (Y/n) just said Failsafe's an honorary member of the League?! Why are you on the Team?!' Wallace brought it up.

'Well yeah, Failsafe has a different designation from the rest of us, didn't you know that?'

'Clearly not!'

'It makes sense, in the month since this Team has started we have only left the cave through the bioship, that only changed today when everyone went to the beach,'

'That's... Depressing.'

'Is it?'

'Well, yeah, everyone needs to go outside and interact with the world.'

'We interact with the Leaguers and you all, that's enough.'

Superboy stopped behind us, looking around before leaving. We didn't bother to interact with him.

'Mmm...that boy.' We shivered at Artemis' tone.

'He can hear you. We can all hear you.' Miss Martian pointed out, an uneasiness shone in her voice as it quivered. We went back to watching the perimeter, slouching into the tree branch.

'Oh, I know.' Her voice took on a seductive tone.

'Please stop. You're making us uncomfortable.'

'Yes. Please. Stop. I am severely uncomfortable.'

'How old are you?' She asked, questioning our maturity.

'Not old enough for this shi–'

'Miss Martian,' Aqualad cut in to stop the arguing. 'Dr. Roquette has located the Fog. reconfigure the BioShip so that Robin and Superboy can pursue.'

We watched as Miss Martian raised her right hand and the BioShip landed in the small field before the fence, "Ready."

Superboy and Robin got into the ship immediately after it landed, and not a second later are they smoothly flying away.

We went back to watching the surrounding area, blinking after seeing something move faster than our eyes. Cheshire. Cheshire is already here.

Turning invisible, we dropped down onto the ground and raced after where she was going. Trailing behind her as fast as our shorter legs could allow. We can't fly, not here, too many obstacles that would interfere with us keeping pace with her.

'You embarrassed Superboy.'

'Didn't hear him say that.'

'Must you challenge everyone?'

'Where I come from, that's how you survive.'

'Right now, that might not be the best way. Aqualad, we're chasing after a suspicious figure, get Roquette out. Now.'

'Understood.'

We launch ourselves over a bench as we see a door swing close. We cursed ourself for being slow and rushed in.

We bust in through the doors just in time to see a shadow make its way down the hall, the doors to the pool wide open and we can see a familiar black costumed wearing teenager floating face down inside of it. We look between the two, which do we handle first?

'Failsafe! He's gonna drown!'

Forgetting the assassin, we rushed into the pool room, diving into the water and swimming over to our older Teammate and pulling him out of the pool. Placing him on the side we pull the water out of his lungs using telekinesis. There's no time to see if CPR will work.

He might die if we do.

We hold our breath so that we may be able to hear his, when he finally takes in a gasping breath we breathe a sigh of relief. He coughed, trying to sit up. We help him, rubbing his back.

"You're okay."

'Yeah, only barely. Thanks for saving me, Safey," He smiled, though we could see the shame written on his face. We tried to smile at him too, but instead of assurance, it was more crooked.

'M'gann, Kid, Artemis, Failsafe, we are under attack in the computer lab." Aqualad announced.

'We told you to move.'

'Unfortunately, your assassin was too quick.' Aqualad's voice was strained. He must still be fighting.

'We're on our way.' Our new archer assured our leader.

We looked down at Kid Flash, "Are you alright? Can you go help Aqualad and Roquette, or should we leave and come back for you?"

He shook his head, smirking, "Nah, 'M fine. Let's go, I gotta get my revenge." He slapped his hand into his fist and clutched it tightly.

We got up, reaching out a hand and helping him up.

"Alright then."

As soon as he's up he's running down the hall, we follow, but obviously, we're slower, as we don't have access to the speed force. Running as fast as Kid Flash, or any Flash, was dangerous for the things around us and for our own body.

When we get to the door, Kid Flash is yelling at Artemis."This was all your fault. You were on the perimeter! How'd that Shadow get in?"

We furrowed our eyebrows.

"That's not really fair." Miss Martian walked up to them, defending her new teammate. "I was outside too."

"Outside being distracted by her." he retaliated. 'Besides, I can't be mad at you, gorgeous,' He flirted.

'STOP.' (Y/n) groaned.

'We can hear you!' Artemis snapped, angrily. We turned to Aqualad, seeing him breathing heavily we walk over, placing a hand on his arm and healing him.

"Dang it!" We hear footsteps as he walked away, we kept our eyes on Aqualad instead.

He tapped our hand, "I'm fine. You don't have to worry about me. Let's focus on protecting the Doctor." We looked up, meeting his eye.

"Okay. Whatever you need, Leader."

He smiled.

Standing taller, Aqualad went back to instructing everyone. "Focus, everyone. The Shadows will be back."

The comm chimed in, "Robin to Aqualad." There's a pause before the younger boy's voice continued, "We're over Philadelphia."

"We've located the Shadows' next target, STAR Labs." There's a deafening silence. "We're too late."

"It's destroyed, totally destroyed." He's breathless. "The Fog decimated it."

"This is bad. STAR Labs is cutting-edge science, and now their secrets are in the hand of the enemy," His voice struggled to stay calm as he explained the situation.

"What's our next move?" He asked Aqualad, looking for a new direction.

Aqualad looked at the uninjured Doctor. "Rescan for that Fog. Find it."

"We're moving the doctor," He looked down at us, "Meanwhile, I'm sending Failsafe over to you two to ensure no more damage."

We nodded as he gave us the go-ahead to teleport over to the boys, appearing in the bioship a moment later. They don't seem surprised by our appearance.

"Tell us what we need to do, and we'll do it." We placed our hand on our chest and stepped forward. Robin opened his mouth, but didn't say anything.

"Sit down then, we've got to get going," Superboy stated. We turned to him and nodded, sitting down and letting the biopsy strap us in.

"Let us go."
________________

"The next target's a WayneTech Facility," Robin told us, shock filling his voice. "In theory," emotions drove him as he started rambling. "Its system software could be used to hack the-" He stopped, looking down.

"The what?" Superboy asked, worried.

"Doesn't matter." Robin brushed it off.

"What, what matters is WayneTech operates a 24-hour workforce. We'll never evacuate the building in time!" He exclaimed.

We took a closer look outside, trying to determine if our enemy was here yet, or if we had gotten here on time. A gray van pulled into the almost empty parking lot and we had our answer.

"We don't have time anyway," We told the boys, "Our guests have arrived."

"It's downloading," Robin informed both of us as he watched it on his hologlove. Both Superboy and we recognized he was talking about the anti-fog.

Superboy walked over to us, looking where we were. He growled, "Don't need it."

He jumped out of the back hatch made by the bioship. Robin cried out the clone's name, but he was already gone.

Before our teammate can land, the man fired a red laser beam at Superboy. He was sent fling back into the parking lot, unmoving as he landed on the ground.

"Superboy!" We go to jump off but Robin stoppe us, we looked back at him. "Why're you?"

The Fog is released into the air as soon as we start our sentence, we stopped, looking back to Robin.

"We need to deal with the Fog, Superboy can handle this," Robin stated before grappling away, into the building where the Fog's already eaten through the door. We nodded before following after him.

The security guard watched the Fog go by, in shock. "What in the-"

As Robin and us passed him he yelled at us. "Hey! You can't come in here!"

"Unauthorized entry!"

"Not the time for this! We're trying to help!" We yelled back as the walls started to close in the hallway.

The gated doors started descending ahead of us. "WayneTech-Override: RG4!" Robin yelled from in front of us. The nearly closed gate rose, giving him enough room to roll underneath and keep running. We're not so quick, instead punching a hole through it.

The Fog started to burn through the walls and take out the lights as Robin ran up the stairs to follow it, we flew up to try and get to it as it continued to eat away at the building.

"What's the plan anyway, Robin? What are we supposed to help with anyway?" We yelled to him as we tossed him up the stairs.

"If I fail to upload the virus, then it's on you to destroy them, got it?"

"How do you know we can?!"

"I'm hoping!" he huffed, kicking through a door into a cafeteria. The Fog all around us. Workers ran out of the room and Robin made a bee-line toward the computer. We try to contain the Fog with a shield, but there's too much of it and we can't see it all.

"Robin, hurry!"

"What's going on?" A girl's voice cut in, "What are you doing?"

We grunted as it tried to eat through our shield, we strengthen it. "Please be linked to the mainframe. Please be linked to the mainframe."

The bots turn red after a few long seconds, then they start to explode. We breathe a sigh of relief.

"Yes!" Robin yelled in excitement behind us as we lowered our arms, shield falling. "The infiltrators have been outfiltrated!"

"Glad that's over."

"Yeah," Robin turned to us, a goofy smile on his face as he raised his hand. We walked toward him, slapping our hand against his.

"Good mission,"

"Great mission."

__________
𝙼𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝 𝙹𝚞𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚎, 𝚁𝚑𝚘𝚍𝚎 𝙸𝚜𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚍
𝙰𝚞𝚐𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝟿𝚝𝚑, 𝟶𝟺:𝟷𝟼 𝙴𝙳𝚃

'You think we'll get lectured again?'

'Most definitely. Between the letting Kid Flash drown, not going with Robin and Superboy from the beginning, letting them argue, and not destroying the bugs outright, we didn't do many things Batman will surely nitpick us for.'

We waited as Robin gave Batman our side of the mission report, and when he was done the Dark knight came up to us, who was leaning on the wall. He placed a hand on our shoulder and we looked up. He wasn't smiling.

"Good Job."

We blinked, in shock. Did we hear him right?

"We– what?"

"Good job today, Failsafe." He turned on his heel and walked away.

Again, we stood in shock at something Batman had said. He was supposed to lecture us. Why didn't he lecture us? What does he mean good job?!

'Well... You did improve today.' (Y/n) countered. 'Makes sense.'

'What does that mean?'

'Well, you went through the whole mission without thinking of future events once! You were totally in the moment. Not to mention you saved Wally with almost no hesitation, Batman got the answer to his question!'

The reality of it hit us in the face. We, we did that? That wasn't supposed to happen, fate has changed. The future...

We have to figure out why the future is changing. We have to stop this before it gets any worse. Our future is at risk. We need to talk to Fate, we need guidance, and we need to know how to deal with this anomaly. When were we supposed to see him? Ah, right.

10 days from now, we need to talk to Kent Nelson. We need the day to come quickly.