Mount Justice. September 15. 17:17pm

"I gave you one simple task, follow him. That was all you had to do. Your orders were clear, do not engage under any circumstances. Yet you jumped into the fray and attacked him, giving away your secret identity as well as our intentions. Not only that, but you also nearly got us both captured by the police. The bank robbers you stepped in to protect, nearly killed you and got killed themselves, and it was all for nothing!" Batman's voice criticized Artemis' actions, as said blond girl clenched her fists and bit her lip angrily.

"You can't blame me for that! If I hadn't stepped in, he would have killed them. I did what I was supposed to do! What I was trained to do!" Artemis refuted loudly, drawing the attention of the rest of her team mates, who were looking curiously at the two.

"And yet they still ended up dead! The only difference is that if you had remained hidden, we would have been able to find him and bring him to justice. But now we have no idea where he might be and he's undoubtedly going to be more careful from now on." Batman said harshly.

"You were prepared to let those people die weren't you? You knew that if he came there to stop them, he'd kill them and you were just going to let that happen!" Artemis accused with a glare at the caped crusader.

Batman's eyes narrowed to the point that they became little more than tiny white slits. He was obviously angry at the accusation.

"Those people were in little danger of dying. This new vigilante might be unnecessarily brutal but so far he has stuck mainly to maiming and crippling. There has been no body count. That is not until yesterday." Batman said with anger seeping into his voice. "And even if he were to kill them the Justice League is not authorized to do anything about it. Even if you had somehow managed to overpower and restraining him, law enforcement would sooner have you locked up while he would be set him free."

"What! why would they do that?" She asked more shocked than angry.

"Because of our admittedly minimal intervention in preventing crimes in other countries besides the United States. They are convinced that the Justice League is biased and will only defend their nations in cases of planet wide threats. This had made the government tolerant of any measures used by a potential protector, no matter what it is. As such the only place we can detain him is the Watchtower. Since we, that is the Justice League are no longer allowed to operate in the continent without prior invitation, I decided to send a member of our covert team." Batman said stressing the word covert.

"That's the reason why you were sent on the mission. The team isn't excessively popular here in the states. Additionally you were out of uniform, making it impossible for anyone to identify you as a Justice League operative. This was supposed to allow you to operate without going through all the red tape. But not only did you expose yourself, you also declared to him that you were connected to the Justice League. All it would take for him to start a political incident was is to waltz into any government building and tell them that the Justice League had illegally entered the country."

At this Artemis looked down at the floor unable to meet Batman's gaze. Aqualad decided to step in at this point.

"Batman, while Artemis might have made mistakes, it wasn't entirely her fault. None of us has ever been given a solo mission before. Perhaps if we were to try again as a team-" Aqualad tried to suggest but got interrupted.

"No! As it is were already walking on thin ice. I can't risk another complication like this one. As of this moment, this is League business. None of you are allowed to pursue this any further. Your missions will be put on hold for the time being so for now that, stay put!" Batman emphasized his words with an authoritative glare before making his way out of the cave via zeta beam. He clutched his ribs where he had been kicked as he walked.

Recognized Batman 0-2

With that announcement and the flash of light Batman was teleported out of the cave. Artemis stared at the ground for a while longer before she also made to leave. Unfortunately she was intercepted by Wally before she could.

"Great going Artemis, your first mission alone and you somehow managed to screw it up. Nice."

"Wally, get out of my way!" Artemis warned with a growl. She wasn't in the mood for all this today.

"Kid, Artemis calm down-" Aqualad said trying to defuse the situation before it spiraled out of control.

"Why should I? She's always talking about how capable she is but the minute she goes on a mission without us, she somehow manages to screw it up royally." Wally said getting into Artemis' face.

"That wasn't her fault, like Aqualad said none of us has ever been on a solo mission before, especially one like this. Cut her some slack." Robin said coming to her defense.

"Come on Robin, Speedy hadn't been on a solo mission either before he decided to go solo and yet he hasn't screwed up as badly as she did. Thanks to her Batman has started to see us as kids and even suspended us from doing missions. The truth is that even though she keeps saying how much better she is, its all talk. She can't even hope to match up to Speed- GAH!"

That was as far as Wally got before a fist buried itself in his face, knocking him down and breaking his nose.

That fist was courtesy of Artemis, who had a severely pissed off look on her face. She angrily stomped past Wally and the others without so much as a passing glance, heading straight for the zeta beam.

"Artemis!"

"Hey, Artemis wait!"

Miss Martian and Aqualad's attempt to stop her were futile as she didn't pay any mind to their calls.

Recognized Artemis B-0-6

The announcement came and much like Batman, she too was gone in a flash of light. The rest of the team stood around Kid Flash who was holding his bleeding nose with his hand.

"You went way too far this time Wally!" Robin said with a small scowl on his face.

"I agree with Robin, there was no reason for you to compare her with Speedy like that, especially at that particular moment." Aqualad concurred with a frown.

"Jerk." Conner called from his spot against the wall. He had been silent through the entire ordeal because he had no idea what to say. Though the frown on his face showed that he wasn't particularly happy with Wally.

"I hope Artemis will be okay." Miss Martian's concerned voice said as she stared at the place said girl had just left.

"Don't worry about her babe, she'll be back soon to apologize." Wally said not particularly concerned.

Aqualad didn't share the sentiment and had a concerned look as he stared at the zeta beam tube.

Gotham City

Artemis arrived at her house in Gotham, she quickly made her way into the apartment she shared with her mother. She was pleasantly surprised to find that the apartment was empty. A note on the fridge told her that her mom had gone out to buy groceries. Good. That meant that she could avoid explaining why she was so mad.

She went to her bedroom and angrily slammed the door shut behind her. She slammed her fists into the wall cracking it slightly to let out her frustration. She couldn't get over what Wally had said. After the merciless criticism from Batman, the last thing she wanted was to be reminded of her failure. But that motor mouth just had to bring it up, and then he had the gall to compare her to Speedy.

Unlike other times where she could just shrug it off and respond with a snarky remark of her own, this time it actually hurt because some small part of her believed that he was right. That she really couldn't match up to Speedy.

She quickly shook her head to get rid of those thoughts. She could not allow those insecurities to surface. Artemis decided to take a cold shower to cool off and get her mind off all today's events. She quickly undressed throwing her clothes in the hamper to be washed later. She removed the band in her hair setting it free from its ponytail and then stepped into the bathroom.

She turned the faucet and allowed the cold water to rain down on her body. After a few minutes, she began to lather herself with soap.

As she showered, the blond archer couldn't prevent her thoughts from drifting to the teen that she had encountered in Japan. Her mind began to vividly recall his appearance. She could remember his black cloth mask, that covered most of his face except for his right eye. She remembered his bright yellow hair and beautiful baby blue eyes. The feeling she got when that disinterested blue eyes stared at her with curiosity.

Then Artemis began to remember his other features. The black jacket he wore, and the bright yellow shirt with a black spiral symbol on the chest, tucked into black skintight leather pants. She had also noticed the two white belts that hung diagonally over his waist crossing over each other, and the pure white shin-length boots that finished off the look.

Artemis recalled subconsciously roaming his body with her eyes, though she didn't realize she was doing it at the time. He was very tall, about Conner's height. He had a slim build, but very defined muscles. His movements were fluid but precise. A frown started to form as she remembered how easily he had cut off people's hands. She was reminded of the blood and lack of mercy in his eyes. Artemis still remembered how his muscles had coiled up in preparation to kill. She began to perspire rapidly, the sweat mixing with the cold droplets of water and running down her body.

Then Artemis remembered the concern in his eyes after he saved her from getting killed, that one memory was enough to calm her down. She quickly rinsed off the soap on her body and turned off the shower.

As she made to leave the bathroom she had several thoughts running through her head.

'I'm going to find him, and when I do I'll beat the shit out of him for what he did, drag him down to be locked up on the Watchtower and then-'

She couldn't continue with that thought because as soon as she turned the knob to her bedroom, she found the same masked blond that she had just been thinking about, sitting calmly on her bed and staring right at her. She froze in place for two reasons. The first was that she had never expected to see anyone here much less him. The second was that she had just come out of the shower and didn't have a towel with her, meaning that he could see everything.

The two teens stared at each other with complicated expressions. For Artemis, it was a blend of surprise, horror, and mortification. For the blond male, it was mostly curiosity as his eyes roamed her body. Artemis slowly started to come to her senses and the blond stood up with his hands in a surrendering fashion.

"Don't scream." He said somehow managing to sound disinterested despite the situation.

Artemis didn't scream, instead she started throwing things at him. She threw everything she could get her hands on from books to candles, and even a lampstand, forcing the masked male to either catch or dodge the projectiles.

When she had nothing else to throw, she broke into a dead sprint for the bathroom. The other blond was instantly at her heels and followed her into the bathroom before she could barricade it.

Feeling cornered she tried to attack him, only to get overpowered quite easily. She continued struggling in his grip fearing the worst and tried biting him.

The masked teen let out a small cry of pain before forcing her into the bath and t urging on the tap. The cold water splashed on her face, wetting her hair even more but calming her down. She felt the tap turn off and heard him speaking to her.

"Just calm down. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just here to talk." He said but still kept her shoulders pinned to the bath lest she try to attack him again. "Blink twice if you aren't going to attack me again." He said staring into her eyes.

Her eyed stared searchingly up into his own eyes for a long while before she reluctantly blinked twice.

"Good." The boy said removing his hands from her shoulders and letting her up. She considered trying to run again, but quickly abandoned that thought as she was still naked and he'd probably just catch up with her again.

They walked back into her bedroom with her in front and him following right behind her. When they got there she seemed unsure of what to do.

"Aren't you going to get dressed?" He asked and she nodded slowly and retrieved a new outfit from her wardrobe and then proceeded to put it on.

It was an incredibly awkward moment when she had to bend over to put on her underwear but luckily the boy has been sensitive enough to turn away. Now that she was fully clothed they both stood facing each other. Each one waiting for the other to break the silence. Finally Artemis spoke.

"How did you get here?"

"By plane." The response got an annoyed eye twitch from the archer.

"I meant, how did you find me?" She stated.

"I placed a tracking device in your clothes when I teleported us away from the police, like you were going to do to me." The masked blonde answered staring calmly at her from his eye.

Artemis glared at him for that shot even though he wasn't trying to come off as offensive.

"What are you even doing here?" She asked causing her fellow blond.to gesture to the bed behind her. She turned around and saw the bag she had carried along with her on the trip to Japan.

"I found it on the roof of the building you were watching me from and I thought that you might want it back." He explained answering her question. "Now that that's done, I should probably go."

He started to head for the window and made to jump out of it when she stopped him.

"Wait!" She shouted making him pause and look at her. "Why did you kill those robbers?" She asked.

"I didn't kill them. Like I told you yesterday, I don't kill people. What happened to them was simply bad luck or really bad karma." The teen said with that same disinterested tone.

He made to jump out the window again but paused and reached into his jacket pocket. He pulled out a small three-pronged knife and tossed it to her.

"Keep that with you at all times." He said staring her dead in the eyes.

"Why? What does it do?" She asked looking at the knife with clear suspicion.

"It lets me know where you are if you're ever in danger and allows me to instantly transport myself to you." He said.

"Why are you giving me this and more importantly what makes you so sure that I won't tell Batman and the other leaguers about this?" She questioned incredulously.

"I'm giving you this as an apology for entering your house unannounced. It's also so that you can contact me if you ever need my help. As for telling Batman about it, there's really nothing stopping you. See you around." He said and then jumped out the window and by the time Artemis ran over to the window, there wasn't a trace of him anyehere.

She was left alone in the room with the strange knife in her hands wondering what to do with it.

Finally she conceded with a soft sigh and placed it in one of the pouches on her hero costume, which she donned and went out to patrol the streets of Gotham. After the day she just had she really needed to beat someone up.