Chapter 19 - Artemis’ First Day

Mt. Justice

Raven woke up from a dreamless sleep to the sound of the Zeta Tube announcing Batman and Green Arrows presence. Sighing, she got out of bed, threw on her purple hoodie and headed to the living room of the cave.

"-Artemis. She will be joining your team as of today. Kaldur, make sure she feels welcome."

"Of course, Batman."

Behind Green Arrow, was a blonde haired, grey eyed teen with an athletic build with a bow and quiver on her back. Green Arrow turned to her and knelt down.

"I know this may be a little different then jumping off rooftops with me, but trust me. It'll be good for you."

"Yeah, yeah. You said that already. Where's my room at so I can go get settled in?"

Miss Martian floated through the halls with Superboy, arriving also to see the new girl. Miss M. squealed with delight and ran over to Artemis.

"Oh yay! Another girl on the team! This is great, we can start doing so much fun stuff together, the three of us!"

Artemis looked Superboy up and down and smirked, "Well, maybe this place won't be so bad after all. Plenty of eye candy, that's for sure." She glanced at Miss M. and shrugged, "Hey floating girl. Can you show me to my room?"

Miss Martian slapped her head, "Hello Megan, I'm M'gann M'orzz, but you can call me Megan, or Miss Martian. Or Miss M."

Artemis took a step back, "Right. Okay then. My room?"

"Oh, right! This way!" She turned around to leave when the Zeta Tube announced the arrival of Wally.

Wally sped into the room and tripped over Artemis, causing the duffel bag he was holding to go flying and his beach clothes to fly everywhere.

"Hey! Watch it Happy Feet!"

"Ugh, what? Huh?" Wally looked around and at the blonde girl laying on the floor in front of him. Then he got mad.

"Happy Feet? Really? Who even are you anyways?"

He looked up and saw Batman and Green Arrow standing above him, disappointment clear in their faces.

"Kid Flash. This is your new teammate Artemis. She is Green Arrow's Neice and protégée, is there going to be a problem with that?"

Wally looked down and grumbled, "No Batman. Just surprised that's all."

Green Arrow helped his Neice up from the ground. "Sorry about him, takes after Flash. Don't think he's that bad though, just don't be too hard on them alright?"

Artemis rolled her eyes and nodded. Then she turned back to Miss M and asked her to take her to her room. She happily obliged.

When they left, Wally grumbled and walked up to Raven.

"Can you believe the nerve of that girl? She thinks she can take Roy's place as Archer on the team!" He whisper yelled.

Raven looked at him in confusion, "Roy? I don't know who that is."

"He was their Side Kick friend who didn't want to join the team when it was formed," Superboy cleared up as he walked up to join them.

"Oh that's right! I forgot you weren't here when that happened. Time sure does fly fast."

"Wally, it's only been a few months. I think you guys have all known each other longer then that."

"Not necessarily. They rescued me from Cadmus only a few weeks before meeting you. So realistically, you, me and the new girl are all kind of like, the new guys. Except, you know, she's newer."

"Wow, such deep words from the Superboy! On another note, we seriously have to get you a name. We can't be calling you Superboy everywhere we go."

At that he blushed. "Actually, Megan kind of gave me a name last night."

"Woah dude, seriously?"

"That was sweet of her, so what is your name now?"

"Conner Kent."

"Conner Kent? I like it! From this moment forth, I dub Thee Conner Kent, A.K.A Superboy! Yeah, it's going to catch on real quick."

Smiling, Raven put her hand on his shoulder, "Nice to meet you, Conner."

Conner smiled back, "Nice to meet you too, Raven."

"Woah woah woah, wait a minute. Raven, you smile?"

She promptly slapped him upside the head and shook her head, floating away. As she was going back to her room, she noticed that Artemis' room was right beside hers. She decided she should introduce herself, and went up to the open door and knocked.

Artemis looked up from unpacking her things, Megan nowhere in sight.

"Can I help you?" She asked irritability.

Raven sighed, and floated a little inside the room. "I'm just here to introduce myself. "I'm Raven, I live right next door."

The blonde archer stood up and cracked her back. "Oh. Well good to know. I'm Artemis, and I guess we're teammates now."

"Sure looks like it."

The two girls both stayed silent after that, making it very awkward afterwards. Raven decided maybe, it was time to go meditate, or do anything else for that matter. She wasn't much a fan of situations like these.

"Uh, I'll be in my room. Knock if you need anything." 'Please don't,' she silently thought to herself, as Artemis looked around and nodded. "Cool, alright."

Raven quickly turned around and went into the next room over to where her room was. "That, was very uncomfortable," she said to herself out loud as she made her way to her bed and flopped down on it. "Now what?" She asked herself, as she looked around her room.

Sighing, she sat up on her bed and crossed her legs. 'Might as well meditate anyways,' and with that she cleared her mind and closed her eyes.

Someone knocking on her door knocked her out of her trance. "Hey Raven! It's beach day remember? Robin has been here for hours now, let's go!" It was Wally at the door, and she sighed before processing his words.

"Wait, hours?" She looked at the clock on her night stand to see that it was 1:30 and it had in fact, been hours. 4 to be exact since she started meditating.

"Yeah, I thought you were napping or something. But wake up! Let's go! The Waves are a calling and we must answer!" With that, he sped off.

"Dork," she mumbled before reluctantly changing into a one piece purple swimsuit. She then found some flip flops and a towel with some sunscreen, and floated out her room, down the hall and outside, making her way to the beach. She really didn't like the sun, but Kaldur had convinced her the day before that it would be good to have a free day to themselves.

She made it to the beach at the base of the mountain where everyone was already there enjoying the day, including the new girl sun tanning with Megan.

"Hey Raven, glad you could join us!" Robin, in a swimsuit and still wearing sunglasses ran up to her. "To be honest, I didn't know if you would come or not."

"Yeah, well, figured it would be good to get some sun every now and then, right?"

"You're right about that! Want to join us for some volleyball? Probably going to be boys versus girls or something."

"I uh, actually never played before."

"No worries! It's super easy! Basically don't let the ball hit the ground, each side is only allowed three hits, don't grab the ball, either hit it with yiu hands, forearms, or he'll you can get fancy and use your feet or head or something. If the other team manages to hit the ball inside of the marked area, their point. If it goes out and no one touches it, your point. Get it?"

"Uh, yeah I think so," she replied scratching her head. "I'm guessing no powers then?"

"Well that's the great part. The first match, no you cannot use your powers. Just so you can get the feel of the game. The second match we'll go crazy and start letting you guys use your skills."

"Oh neat. So when do you want to start?"

"Right now! It'll be Miss M's first game too, so we'll go slow. So far it's you, her and the new girl vs me, Wally and the now Dubbed Conner. Kaldur is acting as Ref or a replacement for us, if needed."

"Why don't we get a replacement? Only seems fair." Artemis demanded as she started walking up to the duo.

"We'll, I'm not sure if you're aware, but it is boys versus girls. Four guys, three girls. Unless you can conjure up another female to join the team, which I seriously doubt, this is fair. Right Aqualad?"

"Honestly Robin, I think for this game at least I'll just ref. I'm just really looking forward to actually swimming."

"Alright, alright. Fine, a fair three v. three, who metas and a human on each. Seems fair. Conner, ball me!"

Conner, who was bouncing the ball back and forth with Wally, turned around and tossed him the ball before the two jogged over to him. "Alright, places everyone. Ladies first. New girl, want to serve first?"

Said new girl shrugged, before Robin tossed her the ball. She went towards the back it the make shift court and got ready.

"Everyone good?"

Everyone nodded, so Artemis tossed the ball up, and open palm stuck it over the net. For the first half of the game, the girls were getting dominated 18-9 as Raven and M'gann were trying their hardest to get the hang of not catching the ball and being able to move as a team. The guys, it seemed like, were functioning together like a well oiled machine and that was starting to irritate Raven and Artemis.

"Hey, Clone Boy! I thought this was your first game too, how do you know it so well?"

Conner scowled in her direction before taking a deep breath and replying. "While I was at Cadmus, they fed me information while I was asleep. Their plan was, if I was fully conscious but not entirely superhuman, to still sponsor me for some sport so they can still make their money back to better improve their next experiment. It sounds ridiculous, but everything at Cadmus is. But we're winning now so I'm not complaining."

"You're right. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Raven, your serve."

"Right. Welp, here goes."

Needles to say, Raven sucked at this sport. They lost. Bad. 21-10. Athletics were never really her thing to begin with.

"Well, now I'm bored of that. Can we just skip the next game and go swimming instead," Artemis inquired, essentially saving Raven the embarrassment of a second game. With a speedster and a close copy of Superman, she wasn't feeling very confident with her ability to manipulate shadows in a game of volleyball.

"Eh, why not. I'm sure Kaldur would appreciate that, right man?"

"Agreed."

"Well bet. Let's go then!"

Raven, sighing with relief was about to go to the water when she noticed Megan frowning a little.

"Hey, Miss Martian. Are you alright?"

She looked up and quickly brightened up. "Me? Oh yes I'm alright, thank you. I was just having fun that's all."

"We were losing that whole game."

"It wasn't that bad though."

"No, I think it was very bad. We got crushed."

"Still, it was fun while it lasted. Anyways, ready to go swim?"

"Of course, let's go." The two heroines then went to join the others in splashing around in the nice cool waves.

After about thirty minutes, Artemis and Raven got out to go suntanning. As they laid out their towels, Artemis hit Raven with a question.

"So, Raven. How come you're the only one girl here with a one piece on?"

She felt her cheeks get hot and she quickly started paying attention to the corners of her towel more.

"Um, I don't know really. It was the only one I liked at the store when I went."

"Well damn. You know, if you think your body isn't attractive, you're dead wrong. You are one hot lady, my friend. Don't be afraid of what other people think."

"I'm not, I just like it, that's all."

Artemis shrugged. "You do you, I'm not judging. But word of advice, a two piece is a lot better for tanning then a one piece. Yeah you'll still get tan lines, but at least your whole midsection won't be a different color."

Artemis then laid down and closed her eyes. Raven also laid back, thinking about what she said. 'I'll never be comfortable in my own body. And if you knew what I was, you wouldn't blame me either...'