Prompt: Justice League AU. No team. No history together. Now they're forced together on a newbies mission

She runs a hand through her newly cut hair and it feels weird. The length is shorter, the blonde locks not as tangled, and overall it's not a hassle anymore. It's symbolic, she thinks, of cutting away the past and starting over fresh and better than before. She does it again, and it feels soft. This is when she realizes she's nervous. Suddenly she can hear the thousands of people standing in front of her, she can feel the flashes of camera on her skin, and she's now very aware of the giant man in front of her, blocking the setting sun.

Superman gives her sympathetic look before handing over her access card. She looks down at it; it doesn't surprise her that she's not smiling in the picture, when do cats ever smile? The color of her mask is off though, it's a duller orange than it should be. She doesn't like that either.

But in the corner, the emblem of the League- the freaking Justice League!- shines through the laminated cover and she's feeling euphoric. No one believed in her and now look at where she is. She's teammates with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman- life of a hero doesn't get much better than that.

"Today we welcome the newest generation of heroes," Superman's concluding speech gets drowned out by the realization that this is actually happening to her. She wants to tell the world to suck it before she goes and kicks some ass like it's her day job- it's her night job, really, but that's beside the point. She's pumped and ready to get her hands dirty.

Before she can do anything about it, she's being ushered back into the hall. Around her is the group of new leaguers and it's like the first day of high school again. They're all wide-eyed and everyone older than them had this look and their face like that haven't seen nothing yet. It excites her, more than she already is so that's quite the fete.

To her right is Zatanna, a beautiful magician about a year or so younger than her and whose luscious dark hair was putting her new cut to same. But they we're going to be friends, she knew it. Maybe it's the way she's seen her fight- girl's a bad ass- or it's the way her blue eyes sparkle with mischievousness just like you would imagine Robin's- no, it's Nightwing now- eyes to shine. Too bad she's probably never going to see them- Nightwing's she means. Those bat boys are always so secretive.

He happens to standing next to Zatanna and they're flirting- big shock there. She's heard stories from GA, they've been doing the do since their mid-teens and their body language just screams it.

To the left is Miss Martian, she's floating along happily. She keeps putting her hand on Superboy's shoulder and pointing to various things. Following the Martian's finger, she doesn't see anything interesting, but she's been on Earth for nineteen years. Miss Martian has been around for about nineteen weeks.

"Tigress?"

Artemis' head snaps up. It was still weird to have someone call her that conversationally. The name switch from Artemis to Tigress is still messing with her head.

"Yes?" she turns to face Aqualad- or Kaldur as he asked them to call him. He revealed his name to them a few weeks back when they all met for the first time when they'd be summon to the Hall of Justice to announce their acceptance into the League. They'd just been sitting around, waiting for the League to come out when he introduced himself as Kaldur. He uttered some words about keeping secrets from future friends to explain his actions and Artemis' respected what he was trying to get at but she wasn't ready for that then, still isn't.

"I'm sorry, did I interrupt your thoughts?"

"No, I'm still just soaking this all in, you know?" she fiddles around with her utility belt as she speaks, "It weird; being part of a team- not the fact that I'm surrounded by a least three different breeds of aliens, Atlanteans, and my inspirations for becoming a hero in the first place and about to go up to a secret base in space. Not that last one at all."

Kaldur smiles, "You're sense of humor will do you good, my friend."

Artemis snorts, "Tell that to my mother."

Black Canary stops the group in a small room off to the side of the main viewing area. "Are you ready?" she asks.

"Born that way," Nightwing pipes up.

"Oh shut up," Zatanna says, elbowing him in the ribs, "You've been there before."

"Well, let's begin." Black Canary presses a button on the side of a bookcase. It slides over a reveals one of the biggest zeta-tubs Artemis has seen so far. She hasn't seen that many; especially since up until now she was only allowed access to the Star City and Gotham locations. It starts up and the familiar white light washes over her. She follows everyone through and she knows her life is about to change forever. She's Alice and this is her rabbit hole.

The Watchtower is completely overwhelming no matter whatever clever wordplay Nightwing attempts. There's things- plants and animals- living and growing here and advance technology just surrounds her. The Watchtower is just huge and high tech and impressive. There's no other way to describe it.

Black Canary and some other Leaguers- Captain Marvel mostly- volunteer to give them a tour of the Watchtower. She thanks them but denies, too enwrapped in the view from the main window across from the zeta-tubes.

The Earth looks so small, helpless, and beautiful from up here. Artemis thought for a few moments that it actually was possible to help everyone of Earth. The view made everything seem so much simpler- until she looked at the mass amount of stars surrounding Earth. Then simple went out of the window.

"Uh- who are you?"

Artemis turned around and of course standing in front of her was the Flash. She remembers watching him on TV as a kid, Kid Flash was who she wanted to be. A hero-in-training not an assassin-in-training. He was her inspiration and she had the biggest crush on him as a kid. Now she was going to be able to work on him; and maybe one day- maybe- she'd be able to thank him for what he did for her as a little kid even though he probably wouldn't understand.

But now he was the Flash and different from how she remembered him. He's no longer all smiles and endless wonder. Something had hardened him. GA had told her that the previous Flash- his mentor and uncle? She couldn't remember- had to retire. He didn't say why, she didn't ask.

"Tigress. Your new teammate," she answers as nicely as possible but the snark comes anyways.

"Where's everyone else?" he asks. He's bright and red and an eyesore. That doesn't surprise her.

"On a tour with Black Canary and Captain Marvel."

He nods, "Why aren't you with them?"

"To tell you where they went."

"Really?"

"No," she laughs, he pouts.

"I'm just going to go find them, then."

"Okay."

"Yup."

That was awkward to say the least, Artemis thought as she watched a red blur speed away. This was just great, she managed to fuck up on the first day already. She hopes that talking to the rest of her new team won't be as difficult. Or confusing.

She was right about at least one thing, that's for sure. Her and Zatanna became fast friends after being on monitor duty together one night a week or so after their induction. She also likes Miss Martian a lot. Artemis expected her to be all sugar and everything nice- no spice, but she was pleasantly surprised.

Slowly, her relationships became stronger, more trusting. Ollie did give her a big lecture on that before she got inducted. He told her she had people issues and she decked him.

The boys weren't as easy to get along with, surprisingly enough. All Artemis' life, talking to boys was easier than talking to girls. The conversation didn't feel forced, everything came naturally. Maybe goodie-two-shoes are harder to talk to than prepubescent criminal wannabes, but Artemis didn't really care to think about it.

Kaldur is her closest guy friend, by far. Superboy doesn't talk to anyone who isn't green with freckles, Nightwing's a little shit so she just tries to avoid him at all costs, and then there's Flash. She's quick to learn that he's brash, doesn't think before he takes action, and gets his ass handed to him on a regular basis during sparring with Black Canary. The last one always brings a smile to her face.

The point is, though, that they don't get along whatsoever. He has some qualm against her and she can't figure him out. One minute he looks like her talking about technological and engineering feats of the Watchtower is the hottest thing he's ever witnessed, the next he's stealing her cross bow and calling her a harpy.

He's like a five year old and if his ass didn't look so good in spandex, she'd probably kick it all the way back to Central City but Miss Martian usually held her back before she could anyways.

But maybe what bothered her the most was that out of everyone on this team of newbies, he was the least accepting. Yes he'd been on the Justice League longer than any of them but she'd earned her spot here. She should have already earned some of his respect, but apparently that's not how Flash-boy works. It frustrates her to no end and that's without him refusing to work with her. Artemis had expected for Batman to tell him to suck it up and join her for monitor duty when he complained but he just put Superboy with her. Good one, Batsy.

She really would have preferred constant bickering to the awkward silence that came with the boy of steel. At least there would be something to keep her mind busy, but here she is, sitting silently with Superboy. She'd already tried to start a conversation with him, she'd even asked him about the pretty Martian- but nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada.

She stared at the monitors in front of her. All holograms with blue light around the edges to separate them. There was nothing out of the ordinary, just people going about their business, completely oblivious the giant floating thing in space.

"I'm going to stretch my legs," Artemis says. She can't take just sitting there anymore. Superboy grunts in acknowledgement. He seems to like the calmness of this job. She knows what he was created for and what happened when Nightwing, Flash, and Aqualad had found him in Cadmus a few months ago. She feels bad for him, not pity but more compassion and sympathy. She knows exactly what it's like to be born- or made in his case- to do something that you have no choice about. She made her choice anyways, and it's good to see that he was able to make one too.

Walking around the Watchtower's still surreal, even after knowing about it for almost a month. Her feet make little noise as she walks through the halls, admiring the garden a level below. She likes this silence better than the one before. It's more peaceful.

That is until there's a flash of red and the wind's knock out of her. She flying back, arms flailing. It's not going to be pretty landing, but she knows how to fall hard. She springs back up, fists ready in front of her.

"What the hell was that?" she yells.

Flash is in front of her, "Are you okay? Shit. I didn't mean to do that, I didn't hear anyone- shit, are you sure you're okay?"

"Well, not that I told you, but yeah, I'm fine. What the hell, Flash?" she snaps again, "What were you thinking? Ugh- you're so thickheaded."

Flash looks at her appalled at the sudden accusation, "Excuse you, but I'm not thickheaded," he sneers, "You got in my way. No surprise there. I knew you wouldn't be able to work around me."

"I can't work around you?" she's fuming now and she's overreacting but she honestly couldn't care less, "You're the one who ran into me, if anything you shouldn't be allowed to work around me. You wouldn't be able to keep up." She folds her arms under her chest, she knows what kind of advantage that would give her.

He's distracted momentary because boobs, then shakes it off. "Hello, you're talking to the guy who could break the sound barrier in his sneakers at the age of thirteen. I can't keep up with you? Try again, Blondie."

They're very close now. Their chests are mere inches apart and she can feel his hot breathe on her face. She's jealous of the domino mask that hides his eyes- but she's not sure if it's because he seems so guarded because of it or if she feel so exposed since he can see her eyes. Why does she feel so exposed?

She lets out a cry of anger and storms off before she can do something stupid like punch him in the face.

Her fight with Flash leaves her mind buzzing. She goes back to tell Superboy she's going on patrol. He doesn't protest, just grunts in acknowledgement. Again. Artemis then zeta's to Gotham, looking for something to beat up.

Hours pass and she's hog tied more creeps than she can count. No one really put up a fight tonight, each perp going down with one swift kick or punch or trick arrow. It's not as satisfying as she wished it could've been but her anger's released. She feels better than she did before.

She's sending her last signal out to the local beat cops when the sun's finally rising.

"Time to head home," she mumbles. The guy tied up in front of her starts to stir and she just knocks him back out again before heading towards the closest zeta tube. She jumps from roof to roof quickly, running to the beat of the rising sun. She had to get inside. Tigress was a hero of the night. She wasn't Superman or Wonder Woman or even Flash. She doesn't go parading around during the day, but maybe she should now that she's part of the League.

She shakes her head. She's not one for the spotlight.

Artemis slides down the rails of a fire escape. The zeta tube is in her line of sight. She jumps down into the alley and hears someone behind her. Her crossbow is out and pointed at them, her finger is on the trigger.

"Nightwing?"

He laughs that annoying cackle of his, "Did I scare you?"

"No," Artemis doesn't pocket her crossbow, "I wasn't expecting a bat-brat."

"Bat-brat, good one, Tigress," Nightwing says, "But I'm not here to make jokes. Even though, you would totally make it whelming."

Artemis rolls her eyes, "What do you want?"

"Bats is requesting everyone back to the Watchtower."

Her eyebrows quirk up, "Everyone?"

"Everyone under 21 at least, sweet cheeks," he grins.

"I will shoot you."

"I don't doubt it," he gestures towards the out of order phone booth, "Ladies first."

When Nightwing said everyone under 21, he meant it. Zatanna, Miss Martian, Superboy, Kaldur, a hero called Rocket who had been inducted a few months back with her mentor, Icon- Artemis had been jealous that she'd joined so quickly, but got over it eventually-, and even Flash was there. He'd been happily chatting with Zatanna before she got there, but as soon as he saw her, his cheerful demeanor fell and he walked away over towards Superboy.

It's good to know that they were going to be mature about this.

"What was that about?" Zatanna asks when Artemis walked over to her.

"We came to a mutual agreement that we don't like each other last night, he must still be pouting about it," Artemis says, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye.

"Really?" Zatanna asks, "That was definitely not the vibe I was getting off of him."

"Team," Batman walks into the mission room, interrupting what Artemis was going to say. Behind him is Black Canary and Green Arrow. Artemis smiles when she sees him. "Gather around."

The eight heroes follow Batman towards the giant screen in the room. A blue hologram keyboard shows up in front of him. He types in a few things and on the screen pops up an small, ugly looking man and a university.

"This is Professor Anthony Ivo. He's a robotics engineering professor at Central City University," Batman explains, "And we have intelligence that he's been working on a new parasite like nano-chip that will allow him or his buyers to control people like Cadmus was able to control Superboy."

"We destroyed all of Cadmus' research on that, Batman," Nightwing says.

"We did- but this is greater than that. We think that this robotic parasite will be able to control anyone- Cadmus clone or other. This goes farther than what Cadmus was doing."

"What do you need us to do?" Artemis asks.

"You eight have been selected for a covert mission to take down the operation from inside the university."

"Isn't this team a little big for a covert mission?" Flash asks, "I mean- I could just take Nightwing and Aqualad to Central City and we'd have the chip back here before dust."

"It's not that simple," Black Canary explains, "Our intell shows that more of Ivo's coworkers have infiltrated the university. You'd be walking into a trap." She walks over to the screen, another keyboard appears in front of her and she pulls up a chart. "We've divided you into smaller teams, ones that can take down the operation from each endpoint. "

"Nightwing and Aqualad will be one team, Rocket and Zatanna another, Superboy and Miss Martian, and then Flash and Tigress," Batman says, "This will be your partner when you're in the school, you will share similar classes and other social activities. We recommend that you be as active in school life as you can, it will be key to make your aliases that much more real and believable."

"Basically, throw a kegger or two and mingle. Be normal teenagers for a few weeks," Green Arrow says to the team, but it feels like it's directed at her, "Live a little, it'll be fun."

"Yeah, fun," Artemis can hear Flash mumble, she glares at him.

"You'll leave tomorrow morning, but today, get your things in order. You'll be gone for some time." With that Batman leaves, Black Canary's soon to follow, and GA gives her on last look before leaving too.

Artemis eats dinner early that night. The great thing about the Watchtower is that it always has food prepared. It probably has to do with Flash, she's heard him talking about his fast metabolism once or twice during previous dinners over a mountain of food.

"Speak of the devil," Artemis says when he sits down across from her with his food. It's less than normal, but she has a feeling that it's just snack time for him. "What can I do for you, Flasher?"

"Look, I'm not happy having to spend all this time with you for the next few weeks, but we're going to just have to put our difference aside for the sake of the team and the mission," he says. Artemis is surprised, it's mature of him to say anything at all. "And I don't want this to waste my time. This is my city we're trying to protect."

"It's more like the whole world, Kid Moron."

"Hey- I'm not a kid anymore."

"Oh, so it's just Moron now?" she asks, cocking her head to one side.

"Original- but I meant what I said, we need to put our differences aside to work on this together," he says, his face is apologetic.

"Okay," she stands up with her empty tray, "As long as you can keep up."

She walks away, swinging her hips more than usual and listening to his cries of frustration.

um. yeah. that's it for now, review and stay tuned, my bros :P