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Mar. 16th, 2011 02:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kat8chaTitle: Sweet Transvestite 1/2
Author: kat8cha
Fandom: Young Justice Cartoon
Pairings: Light Roy/Wally, Roy/Miss Martian, hints of Roy/Superboy, Roy/Aqualad
Disclaimer: I don't own YJ at all.
Summary: Roy is cursed with the body of a girl, he makes use of it to join Young Justice as Artemis
Warnings: Badly handles issues of transgenderism
A/N: Started Pre-Artemis introduction for this prompt at the YJ anon meme.
'When I get out of this,' Roy swore silently to himself as he squirmed in the chains holding him to the wall, 'I'm never going undercover.' Briefly he paused in his struggles and reconsidered what he had promised to himself and/or whatever higher power was listening (you could never be *too* sure after all). 'Without backup.' Roy paused again. '…okay, no, I'll still probably do this again.' But the next time he would hopefully not end up in similar hot water, chained to a wall without his costume and in a body most definitely not his own. He still couldn't figure out why his red hair had turned blonde when they'd turned him into a girl, or why it had grown out almost to his ass. He was a little shorter as a girl too.
The villain was nattering on. On and on and on about… something. Roy could admit he wasn't really paying attention, he was trying to see if his smaller wrists and hands would slip out of the manacles holding him to the wall. If he wiggled them a little more…
"Master!" One of the magician's little brainwashed slaves pounded into the room. They were all built like Roy's new form, with hair down to their asses and big busts and Roy briefly thanked whatever higher-power might be listening that either the magician hadn't gotten to adding on boobs or brainwashing him. Though why the guy had to turn him blonde… "Intruders!"
"More?" The magician shot Roy a look and Roy responded with a glare. "This one must have backup! I'll leave hi-" The magician smirked and Roy glared harder, "her for now, let's take care of these newcomers."
Roy kept the glare up until the magician and his busty assistant left the room before he slipped his right hand out of the shackle and started working on getting his left free. It didn't take very long and since the door wasn't locked Roy was able to slip out of the Magician's work room quickly, being sure to stuff the magician's book of spells into his now loose pants and tightening the belt. Next time he was going to wear his costume underneath his civvies, although he was sure that his Speedy outfit would hang on his new form too. It wasn't going to be permanent however but Roy wasn't going to be a very good fighter if he kept tripping over his pants hem, and he could hear the fighting going on in the magician's complex. That was why he slipped into a nearby room and scrounged for clothes. He was lucky that the magician apparently kept a fully stocked wardrobe for his newly changed hostages right next to his workroom.
"This guy is seriously sick." Roy muttered to himself, then halted with his hands stuck in a pile of clothes. His voice was different. "Of course it's different." Roy shuddered and tugged several items of clothing out for inspection. "I'm a girl."
For the moment.
Roy briefly considered the red belly shirt in his hands before ditching it for the green one. He'd always liked green, issues with Ollie aside, and more importantly he didn't want anyone to identify him as being Speedy. He wasn't sure how much his face had changed but none of his body language had and well… he was going to need to find something to throw. Part of him said he should just book it.
But that just wasn't the way Roy rolled.
Roy pulled on a form fitting pair of green pants and looked around for some sort of bag to carry the book in. Nothing, nothing… Roy ducked behind one aisle of clothes and his eyes lit up. Jackpot! Thank god the evil magician had decided to keep the weapons with the clothes. The better to outfit bimbo bodyguards?
Roy shuddered. Thank god the guy hadn't finished with him.
He shouldered a messenger bag and tucked the book inside then looked over the wall of weaponry. The only bow available was the crossbow. Not Roy's favorite, but he could use it at least. Roy snagged it and tied his hair up in a scrunchie (and seriously, this guy *deserved* prison, who even wore scrunchies anymore?) and grabbed some bolts before he 'bolted' towards the fighting.
He also skidded to a halt when he came to the top of the stairs and saw that it was Young Justice fighting the would-be harem master. He hesitated, he could admit he hesitated, before he flung himself over the stairway railing and fired off a bolt when he was halfway to the ground.
"H-" A surprisingly strong pair of arms caught him before he hit the ground and Roy turned his head to give Kid Flash a glare. "Hello. What's your name?"
"Are you serious?" Roy growled and hopped out of K.F.'s arms. The magician was a bit focused on deflecting Aqualad's Atlantean magic, Roy noticed that Superboy was out for the count, and Robin's batarangs (birdarangs) at the same time. "Shouldn't you be fighting with your friends?"
"I'm helping you, aren't I?" For a second Roy had thought that Kid Flash had figured out it was him, which meant he would never be able to live it down because Roy generally spent most of the time around Kid Flash ragging on him and sometimes it was returned. "Unless you don't want to be friends?"
And then Kid Flash batted his eyelashes at Roy.
"…" Thankfully the magician attempted to fry them both with purple lightning bolts and Roy was spared from answering. Or gagging. Or laughing his ass off.
The fight was thankfully short. Superboy was no use, though he did shake off the magician's spell towards the end to grab the magician in a full-nelson and get zapped again, but Robin always pulled his weight. He actually was deferring to someone, which wasn't something that Roy had ever seen. Sure, Robin let Batman order him around but there was a big difference between a mentor student relationship and how he was treating Aqualad. Kid Flash was actually putting his big mouth and speed to good use, and it wasn't distracting his teammates. Miss Martian… well. She was… she was interesting. Roy could see why K.F. had 'claimed' her, though he doubted anyone but the Kid thought he had a shot. She was the one who put the final whammy on the magician, knocking him out telepathically.
Roy found himself standing outside the circle of fighters as they helped Superboy up and wrapped the magician up for pickup. It was obvious to him, they were a team and he was… well, he was a guy trapped in a girl's body. "Hey," Sh-he whistled and caught Robin's attention before tossing him the bag with the magician's spellbook at him, "whoever's in charge'll probably want that. Have fun." Then he dropped the crossbow and the quiver of bolts and headed for the exit. (Or, you know, the big whole in the wall that Young Justice had made that certainly served as an exit.)
"Wait!" Kid Flash quivered to a stop in front of her, one arm out stretched with the palm out facing her. Did he really think… "We don't even know your name."
Roy tossed some of the long (seriously, the guy had a fetish) blonde hair behind her shoulder and shrugged. "Call me Artemis." And then he ducked under Kid Flash's arm and started jogging away. It wouldn't deter any of them if they really wanted to question him… but he was hoping they wouldn't. After all heroes, even sidekicks, tended to respect 'dark and mysterious'.
--
"I need your help." Roy didn't like asking for help. Actually, he pretty much abhorred it, but there were some situations where you had to bite down and deal with it. Like right now. Dinah stood highlighted in the front door of her house, blonde and glorious and just as kickass as she was the first time Roy met her, and Roy stood in a borrowed body in clothes that didn't fit right.
"You know, I was hearing rumors of a mysterious blonde archer…" Dinah's smile only widened when Roy's glare doubled but she waved him into the house. "I'll call up Zatanna. She was studying the book your team-"
"They're not my team."
"-handed over. And they could be, Roy, if you'd give them the chance."
"…" Roy glared at his feet, which were a lot closer than normal and were actually kind of hard to see with his new breasts in the way. "Whatever, I'll just-"
"Roy." Dinah placed a hand on his shoulder and pulled him into her house and pushed and prodded him until he was ensconced in her soda. "Sit down, let me call Zatanna, and we'll get you back into your big manly angst ridden body quicker than you can say slacitset."
"Uh, Dinah." Roy fidgeted briefly, "…look, I have an idea…"
--
"I need your help." Dinah's grin was positively shark worthy and Roy, standing behind her all dressed up in a new green outfit complete with arrow across his breasts (seriously, why an arrow) smothered the urge to glare at Ollie. It was hard not glaring at Ollie, it had become something so ingrained in Roy after the affair with the Justice League headquarters. "This is my niece," Dinah's grip was implacable and she pulled Roy forward and pushed her in front, "and she wants to be on Young Justice."
Ollie glanced from Roy (and Roy felt skeeved at the up-and-down Ollie had given him before figuring out he was probably looking at Roy's *outfit* and not for the first time Roy thought that going green was a bad idea) before looking past Roy (Artemis) at Dinah. "Dinah, you know I'm not involved in all of that. Speedy walked out and…"
"That doesn't matter." Dinah waved a hand in the air and Roy turned to give her a glare. She ignored it. "What matters is that Artemis uses a bow and the league will want you swearing her proficiency. So go test her, do whatever it is you bowmen do, I'll be waiting here for you to bring her back." Then Dinah smacked Ollie in the shoulder. "Untouched you pervert."
--
Roy fingered the belt around his waist and checked to make sure he was alone. It was a stupid caution seeing as he was in his own *room*. Still, Ollie had a habit of bursting in at the *worst* times and this was one time Roy really didn't want it to happen. He'd even barred the door.
He depressed the green arrow symbol in the belt and let it fall to the ground with a clatter. With an audible sigh he shrugged his shoulder as his real body reasserted itself. It had been a hassle convincing Dinah this was a good idea (she'd thought it was a *hilarious* idea just not a *good* one) but it had been all up to Dinah to convince Zatanna to transfer the spell to an object that could be warn and triggered. Thankfully, Dinah'd pulled it off, and Roy had pulled off being 'Artemis' without giving himself away as 'Roy'.
It was… weirdly exhilarating.
Not the being a girl part, that part was weird. Roy wasn't a transsexual, or a cross-dresser. Being a girl just offered… it wasn't being a girl it was being someone different someone people didn't know. Ollie had complimented Artemis on her shooting and then commented, as he pried an arrow out of the target, that 'she' should meet his ward.
Who was a crackshot as good as or better than he was. When Ollie said things like that to Roy's face he tended to take them badly but when he was saying those things to Artemis… he didn't know that it was Roy that was listening. "ROY, YOU HOME FOR DINNER?" And Roy who had been spending a lot of his meals out of the house (actually spending a lot of time just *out*) tugged on some boy clothes and opened the door to shout back.
"I'LL BE RIGHT DOWN."
--
"This is Artemis." Ollie's hand felt *bigger* on a girl's shoulder, but Roy supposed that was because he was smaller when he was Artemis. "She's my, uh," Batman sent Ollie a look like he *knew* whatever was going to come out of Ollie's mouth was a lie, "niece." Roy couldn't help but grin, widely, because he was still pretty pissed at Ollie and the look on Batman's face (or the *non*-look, Batman wasn't the most emotive of heroes) said that Ollie was going to get it later. Well good.
Robin's giving he-him a look that's hard to decipher. "Thanks, Green Arrow, but I really think we should…"
"Aw c'mon Rob," Kid Flash wrapped an arm around Robin's shoulders and then sped over to wrap one around Artemis'. Roy shrugged the arm off but Kid Flash's smile didn't dissipate. "Speedy's already said no, right? So while he's off being a lone wolf why don't we give the new girl a chance?"
"I don't know…" Then Robin glanced at Aqualad who shrugged slightly.
"Speedy has made his own choices, and she was helpful taking down Mister Erious. Miss Martian? Superboy?" Aqualad looked at the two members of the crew who had yet to speak up. Superboy gave a gallic shrug, which with his shoulders and muscular structure looked like mountains moving underneath his skin.
"It'll be nice to have another girl around." Miss Martian smiled at her and a soft voice spoke in his head 'even if you're not really a girl'.
Roy jumped and he was really going to need to tone down the glaring. A lot. 'Yeah, but girls like keeping secrets right? Even martian girls.'
The voice in his head giggled and then was silent, but Miss Martian was smiling as the other Young Justice members cheered at Artemis joining the team and Kid Flash tried to hug him.
Seriously, they had to find the Speedster a girlfriend.
--
Roy wasn't sure why he was surprised when Robin showed up while he was on patrol in Star City. It was probably because he expected his friends to be all too willing to replace him. Which was probably a stupid thought and made him think that maybe what Black Canary had said about this being a way for him to 'test' his friends loyalties wasn't that far off. "I didn't need your help." Roy stated angrily as he wrapped up the last of the gangsters. One of the men groaned and began to sluggishly move and Roy gave him a good, firm, angry knock to the head and then shoved the roped up gangsters under a nearby streetlamp.
"Still, it'd have taken you longer if I wasn't here, right?" Robin was perched on the edge of a fire escape in a precarious stance that would have had anyone else wobbling or already fallen. "C'mon, Speedy, you can say thank you."
"No thanks." Roy grabbed onto the last rung of the fire escape and pulled himself up, easily clambering onto the roof and away from the gangsters. Once he passed the level Robin was crouched on the Gotham hero fell in behind him. "Don't you have anything better to do than stalk me, Robin?" It was messing up his whole schedule having Robin there. And worse it made Roy itchy, wondering if Robin had figured things out. "Like hang out in a batcave or chill in your tree house?"
"…" Robin was silent for long enough that Roy glanced over his shoulder to be sure the other hero was still there. People from Gotham did have a habit of disappearing when you weren't watching. "So, did you hear about our new member?"
Roy rolled his eyes. So that was what this was about? Hadn't Roy made it clear that he didn't care what happened to Young Justice? Except Robin, being a little freak, probably knew that Roy *did* care. "What, Green Arrow's niece? Yeah, I heard." Nervously he played with the belt around his waist. It wasn't Artemis' belt but it was a nervous habit anyway. "And what, you want to see if I'm okay with you gets getting an archer? I told you I didn't want to be on your little team."
He couldn't swallow his pride and admit that he did was the problem.
"Speedy…"
"No, Robin, just…" Speedy eyed the distance between one edge of a building and the beginning of a next. He could make the jump, Robin could too, but it was the metaphor or space in between them that would probably keep Robin from doing it. Speedy took the leap. "I said no."
--
"Monkeys." Superboy groaned as the robotic beasts chittered cheerfully (Roy had to stop using alliteration) before leaping to attack. "Why is it always monkeys?!" He sounded pissed as he smashed his way through the green and black robots. Roy followed behind him, shooting the monkeys around the great moving bulwark that was Superboy. Apparently after Ivo's encounter with Young Justice he had decided that the best way to get back at the team was to attack them regularly.
With monkeys, because apparently Superboy hated them.
"Monkeys make you angry, SB?" As Roy, he'd have told Superboy to focus on the job at hand, as Artemis, he asked questions. He pulled out a Taser arrow and narrowed his eyes. There was the group of monkeys up ahead… "Hang back!"
"They're noisy." Superboy growled and looked ready to surge ahead anyway. Artemis, Roy, released the arrow and let it fly into the mess of monkeys (which was probably like a gaggle of geese) and grinned sharply when the electricity set off a chain reaction that short circuited the monkeys. Score one for trick arrows.
Roy made a mental note to himself to ask Ollie about an EMP arrow STAT.
"So's Kid Flash, I don't see you punching him in the face." Artemis watched as Superboy trashed a handful more of the monkeys before he stalked over to her, his, position. It was impressive the way the test tube baby could loom, Roy wondered if that's what he looked like sometimes when he was brimming with rage and quivering with adrenalin. Although with Superboy, he might be brimming AND quivering with rage. "Got something on your mind, SB?"
"You." Superboy paused and the two young superheroes stood there in a nearly empty parking lot with one over turned truck (that had been driven by an automated driver and then attacked by MONKIs in an attempt to drive Young Justice into action) and the sparking reminds of several robotic monkeys. MONKIs. Whatever. "You are different."
The first thing Black Canary had done when they came up with the ruse of Artemis (after she'd tried to talk him out of it) was tutor Roy in the body language that the feminine body spoke. Most of it Roy forgot, and a lot of it seemed to be instinctual, but the hair toss Roy did with his long blonde ponytail and the way he cocked his hip was all Black Canary's tutoring. "Damn straight, skippy. Now did you have anything relevant to contribute to the conversation or should we radio Miss M and tell the others we're finished here?"
'I read you loud and clear Miss A! Roy rolled his eyes at Megan's mental giggle. Superboy's pissed face became even more angry and he turned around. 'Oops, I'm sorry Superboy, I'll just talk to Artemis.'
"So I'm guessing you heard that we were all done here?" Roy asked while Superboy wandered into the wreckage and began kicking at various broken bits of machinery. "Since you were listening in."
'Only once you mentioned my name! Or, well, I wasn't listening to Superboy, but I like your thoughts.' It was weird dealing with telepaths, Roy had decided. He wasn't sure how the League handled it, though the Martian Manhunter probably wasn't as curious or… girly as Miss Martian. 'When you're not angry your thoughts are very soothing! Not as soothing as Kaldur'ahm's, but they're nice enough. Almost lyrical, even!
'Thanks, I guess. Roy was sure she could sense how he felt about that kind of compliment. 'How're the others doing?
'Kaldur just informed me they're all done, and Robin and-'
"Do you hear that?" Superboy asked, tipping his head to the side and looking around.
'I are already done-'
It was hard to focus with one person asking him a question outloud and the other chattering along in his brain. Roy placed a hand to his head and attempted to get his eyes to uncross. "Hear what? Is there someone coming?"
'So we should all meet back at the ship!'
"It sounds like ticking." Superboy frowned and toed one of the shattered robots at his feet.
And then the monkeys exploded.
--
When Roy comes to he's in some sort of cell. It's around five feet by five feet and his head is pounding like a million MONKIs are drumming on the inside. He does a brief check of his body, still a girl and all of his clothes are still there but most of his weapons have been done away with. They obviously didn't search him very thoroughly because the lock picks he stores in the seams of his thighs are still there. The comm is gone too. "Damn." There's a cot in the cell, but no cameras. Roy starts to work on getting his lockpicks out. He might not be as good at Robin at escaping from the clutches of villains but he isn't bad at it. Megan? Can you hear me?
Artemis is back! Megan's voice is loud and cheerful and reverbs inside of his skull, bouncing off the headache and making Roy wince and his eyes cross. Oops, I'll be quieter.
It's just a headache. Roy gets the seam ripped and pulls one long lock-pick out. The cell isn't high-tech, it's old, and Roy feels pretty confident about being able to get the lock picked and out of the cell without anyone noticing. How's everyone else?
We're fine. That was Kaldur's voice in his head, and his mental voice was as soothing as his real one. Is Superboy with you?
No, I'm alone in some sort of cell. The door looks sturdy, but the lock looks cheap. We were tricked. Belatedly, Roy realizes that he's speaking directly to Kaldur telepathically. Does he… he sounds male to himself, he's pretty sure he sounds male to Miss Martian. Does he sound male to Kaldur? Is his cover blown?
There's a roaring noise from somewhere outside the sell and several muffled thunks. Roy gets on his knees and starts working on getting the lock undone.
'…I think I hear Superboy.
The bioship is locked onto your signal and we'll be there to find you momentarily.
Outside of the cell Roy hears a crunching noise and then a slamming one followed by gunfire. Better make it quick, looks like the little S and I'll need backup.
She gets the lock on the door undone just as Superboy makes it down the hallway and stops in front of it. Sh- he tries not to hit Superboy in the face when the door swings open, but barely manages. "The guards are all out of commission." Superboy motions with his head down the hallway. Roy takes a look and nods, all the heavily armed and armored guards lie groaning on the floor. Keeping an eye on both ends of the hallway Ar- Roy scoots over and loots the guards for some equipment. She straps on an overly large bulletproof vest and grabs a few projectiles.
"Kaldur says the ships on the way. Let's find somewhere nice and open so they can pick us up without any problem."
Superboy just stares at him for a second while he juggles grenades and knives and a few smoke pellets before he nods and starts walking towards the opposite end of the hallway. Roy follows at a jog.
One thing he does hate about the girl body is the shortened stride and the lessened endurance. It is surprisingly flexible, however.
They check each cell as they pass, but they're all empty. One looks like it's been recently slept in, but there aren't any occupants, so they keep going and climb up the stairs. "Camera at the corner." Roy says, pulling on Superboy's thickly muscled arm. At this point there's little doubt that they'll be running into trouble but he wants to avoid it as long as possible. They duck into the camera's blind spot. "Boost me so I can pull the plug." Not like it'll do much good, they won't be able to do this to every camera they see, but any amount of time they can keep their captors blind… Superboy boots her with big hands careful on Roy's slim waist. (And some days, really, it's weird to be a girl.) Roy opens the camera's casing and yanks on some wires, yanking her hand back when the splutter and spark and begin to smoke. "Okay, that's done, put me…"
The sound of feet pounding in the hallway and Roy isn’t just dropped onto his feet but pushed behind Superboy. Roy's grateful for his small size and Superboy's bulk and apparent protectiveness when a group of machine gun wielding guards turn the corner and open fire.
He's also glad of Superboy's relative invulnerability when Superboy rushes ahead and begins taking the guards on. Roy throws a smokebomb into the midst of them to disorientate them and uses some of Black Canary's moves to take out the few that stumble out of Superboy's grip. And then they were jogging down the hallway again, up, because up seemed like a good idea. Roy was able to get a few glimpses out the windows to note that they were on some sort of island.
"There are two guards around the corner." Superboy murmured quietly to her and Artemis nodded. "I'm going to take them out."
"I'm not helpless you know." Was it because she was a girl or was it because she didn't have superpowers? Either way, it pissed her off. Still, Superboy just looked down at her with those big clueless blue eyes and Roy rolled his own. "Go."
Roy rounded the corner to the sounds of a body hitting the floor and the belated realization the two guards had been standing in front of a door. "Superboy, there's probably-" The door opened and gunfire ricocheted off Superboy's chest. Inside the room someone is shouting.
"There's delicate equipment in here!"
Superboy reaches inside the room and tossed one guy into the hallway. Roy moved forward and slammed that guy into the wall while Superboy took care of the one inside. And then, when he spotted the men coming down both ends of the hallway Roy dove forward and shoved Superboy into the room before he closed the door behind them.
". . . you're not here to rescue me, are you?" The blonde woman standing by some complicated looking technology asked. "Because if you are, you're doing a lousy job."
Superboy turned to give the woman in the white lab coat one of his patented glares. It was the glare that said 'despite being Superman's clone I am also a surly teenager, oh and btw, I'm Superman's clone'. Or at least that's what Artemis felt it said. "Who are you?"
"Doctor-" The woman started, and that was when her face clicked for Roy.
"Dr. Serling Roquette." Roy finished her introduction and shrugged when Superboy gave him a look. This look was his 'I don't know what you're talking about but I trust you because you're a teammate' look. "She disappeared about a week ago."
"I was abducted a week ago." Dr.Roquette said stiffly. Roy rolled his eyes and glanced around the room. Computer equipment, computer equipment… Yeah, he had no idea what most of it was. But he was going to assume that whatever the bad guys had her working on couldn't be good. "So, are you going to get me out or not?"
"Sure. Just stand back from the wall. Superboy, keep the door closed."
Remarkably, it didn't take much for Roy to create a controlled explosion to blow out the wall. Luckily, the good doctor's room was facing the beach and not, say, another room in the compound. And of course, luckily, Superboy had two arms to hold onto each of them.
"Wait, we can't leave that behind!" Dr. Roquette flailed at one of the pieces of complicated looking equipment, the one that looked like a cross between a Dalek and a trash can (not a huge cross-over since Daleks looked like trash cans anyway). There were pounding sounds becoming louder and louder behind their improvised barricade of the door. Artemis traded a look with Superboy.
The clone shrugged his powerful shoulders. "I only have two arms."
Artemis looked down the side of the building and then the tree line. "You could take it and the doctor while I-"
One arm wrapped around Artemis' waist and Roy was tugged back against Superboy's body. He glanced up at Superboy's determined face and shrugged.
"Okay, doc, it's you or it. And make up your mind soon, because we're going to have company."
"Right." Doctor Roquette removed her glasses and tucked them into her lab coat. Why was she even bothering to wear a lab coat when all she was doing was programming? "Take me."
Roy couldn't help it, he coughed to cover up his laugh but from the way Doctor Roquette looked at him, he'd been a little obvious.
--
So it turned out that they had rescued Doctor Roquette just as she had finished something called 'the Fog' which were data-stealing-everything-eating nanites that were contained in the funny looking trashcan that Superboy and Artemis had left behind as they leaped from the League of Shadows hide-out. Which would have been nice to know when they were AT the hide-out because maybe they'd have just kicked the containment unit into the ocean instead of leaving it for the bad guys. Still, they'd rescued the good doctor and kept her safe long enough for her to create a virus that would destroy The Fog from doing their job.
Which, of course, the Shadows hadn't wanted her to do, which was why Roy was chasing down some mask wearing assassin in the dark. Why he was doing that alone was because everyone else was either protecting Dr. Roquette or going after The Fog which left him to chase down Miss 'I enjoy poisoning young heroes'.
"Stay down." Roy ordered, bow drawn and pointed at the assassin as she crouched on the pavement. She didn't, of course, but she didn't make any move to draw her w-
Whoa.
Whoa, she was kind of hot.
"Wow," And the hot assassin smirked at Roy. "I am completely at your mercy."
Which, given the assassin's penchant for mockery, was probably meant sarcastically. Roy could note at least a dozen possible weapons on her person, and no less than four potential escape routes. So the question was, why wasn't Assassin McHotty taking any of them?
"I said stay down." Roy's bowstring was taught, holding it this way for too long would eventually cause him to either release the arrow or snap the bowstring. He'd probably just fire it.
"You did." The woman drew her finger along her bottom lip. "And I didn't. And you haven't told me to stay still… and you haven't shot me. That leads me to believe you don't really want me to stick around, do you…" Oh crap, dramatic pause, "Speedy?"
The arrow fired, the assassin dodged and in her tumble picked her mask back up, Roy stared dumbfounded into the space where the assassin had been.
"I'm not-!"
"You are." Green-y was highlighted by the moon now and it was as dramatic as the shadows had been. "You fight well enough, for a man, but as a woman… I can tell. And I've watched you fight before, Speedy."
There really wasn't much Roy could say to that. He was dumbfounded. How had… he got Megan figuring it out. But not even Ollie had clued into the fact that it was him. "I'm going by Red Arrow now." It sounded lame, especially when he was saying it in Artemis' voice and he was still (still) shell-shocked.
"Mmm, I know, and it suits you." Then the hot assassin was all up in Roy's personal space, pressing her bare hand to his chest and wrapping her other arm around the back of his neck. Roy almost brought the bow up, but it was trapped between their bodies and he was… well.
Okay, he got distracted when she kissed him. As Artemis, he was the shorter one, and this girl… wow. Wow. This woman really knew how to kiss. Roy's knees wobbled and when he was released he sunk to the pavement.
"So does Artemis." And then she dropped the mask on top of Roy's head. "And now like the Cheshire cat…" Smoke bombs and Roy coughed violently because he had definitely inhaled some of that. "I disappear."
Okay, wow. Huh. So at least he knew his female body liked girls too.
Wow, girls got kind of squishy when they were aroused. That was definitely weird.
--
The mission was over, the assassin had gotten away, they'd made their reports, Artemis had made her excuses (his, whatever) and they were all waiting around Mount Justice. Robin had disappeared with Batman, on his way back to Gotham for a good night's sleep. Wally had gotten picked up by the Flash and they'd run home, Wally had been utterly enthused (or 'thused' as Robin would say) about going to school the next morning. Roy was surprised that everything had taken place over a weekend. Seriously? He had thought that it would be Monday by now.
"Artemis." Kaldur calling her name made him twitch guiltily. The Atlantean hero stood a few feet behind her left shoulder and Roy found it hard not to rub at the back of his neck nervously when he turned. "I was wondering if we may speak?"
"Sure, Kaldur." Artemis glanced over his shoulder checking to see if Miss Megan or Superboy were paying attention. Both alien teens seemed focused on the television, Roy recognized the show as being Iron Chef America and groaned internally. Hopefully with the weekend over Roy wouldn't need to face whatever culinary masterpiece Megan concocted, although she may wait until the weekend instead of just subjecting Superboy to it. "What do you want to talk about?"
Kaldur motioned for her to follow and began walking down the halls that would lead them to Mount Justice's back entrance, the one that lead to the beach. "I believe we may both want privacy for this conversation." Roy stumbled over a step and glanced over his shoulder again before reining in his thoughts of 'save me!'
He'd figured this conversation with Kaldur had been coming, and really he should probably have had it earlier and he would have eventually had it later. Miss Martian couldn't intercept his telepathic voice during all the missions, people would have gotten suspicious. Now the only question was what Kaldur was going to say. Would he confront Roy about lying about his identity? Would he tell Roy that it was fine to join the team as himself? Or would he be angry? Aqualad could be a hard person to read sometimes, his placid nature was like a still pond, sometimes things lurked undetectable beneath the surface waters.
Like, you know, crocodiles.
Roy followed Kaldur out onto the beach as the computer announced their departure. As always he was glad that his body as Artemis was so dissimilar to his body as Roy that the computer couldn't tell.
They walked across the beach towards the surf, Roy pausing past the tideline while Kaldur stood in front of him, highlighted by the dark night sky with the waves lapping at his ankles.
"In Atlantis…" Kaldur began, then drifted off. Artemis waited for a second before he settled on the dry sand with his legs folded under him. This looked like it might take a while. "Sometimes one person may be born a certain way…" Kaldur began again and then drifted off… again. Roy tipped his head to the side. This certainly did not sound like an angry rant on how Roy had betrayed the team's trust. In fact it sounded strangely like…
"There are certain species of fish that are born one gender but…"
Like he thought… did he… was this…
"When the dominant female clownfish dies the largest male changes his gender to-"
"Wait." Artemis held up a hand even though Kaldur had not looked away from the ocean. "Wait, are you... you think I'm transgender?"
Kaldur shifted; the muscles in his back moving underneath his skin-tight top. "Your thoughts sounded… male."
"I just… uh." Arte- Roy paused. "I think… like a guy? I guess?" He winced. What else should he say? He couldn't claim to be an MtF. That wasn't… that wasn't what being Artemis was about! He wasn't a girl, he'd never thought he was a girl, and if he ever had then his thoughts would be female, right? He was just… using the body. It was convenient. But he wasn't going to claim that Artemis was an FtM. It would add a really confusing layer to his cover story. "I mean, everyone thinks differently, right?"
"I suppose." Kaldur was looking over his shoulder at him now and then the Atlantean teen turned to face him. "However, I just wish for you to be aware that neither I nor the team would ever discriminate against you. We would all accept you, no matter what your gender or sexuality maybe."
The urge to pull his knees to his chest and hug them was utterly defensive. Roy didn't let himself do it, though he did cross his arms. "And it's not really any of your business."
Kaldur paused but then he nodded. "That may be so, but I believe teammates should be open and trusting with one another." He waited for a few beats but when Artemis didn't speak up, his shoulders drooped slightly. "I will see you later." Then Kaldur turned and walked slowly into the surf until it was deep enough for him to dive under. Roy stayed on the beach for a few more minutes, staring up at the sky.
Onto Part 2!
Author: kat8cha
Fandom: Young Justice Cartoon
Pairings: Light Roy/Wally, Roy/Miss Martian, hints of Roy/Superboy, Roy/Aqualad
Disclaimer: I don't own YJ at all.
Summary: Roy is cursed with the body of a girl, he makes use of it to join Young Justice as Artemis
Warnings: Badly handles issues of transgenderism
A/N: Started Pre-Artemis introduction for this prompt at the YJ anon meme.
'When I get out of this,' Roy swore silently to himself as he squirmed in the chains holding him to the wall, 'I'm never going undercover.' Briefly he paused in his struggles and reconsidered what he had promised to himself and/or whatever higher power was listening (you could never be *too* sure after all). 'Without backup.' Roy paused again. '…okay, no, I'll still probably do this again.' But the next time he would hopefully not end up in similar hot water, chained to a wall without his costume and in a body most definitely not his own. He still couldn't figure out why his red hair had turned blonde when they'd turned him into a girl, or why it had grown out almost to his ass. He was a little shorter as a girl too.
The villain was nattering on. On and on and on about… something. Roy could admit he wasn't really paying attention, he was trying to see if his smaller wrists and hands would slip out of the manacles holding him to the wall. If he wiggled them a little more…
"Master!" One of the magician's little brainwashed slaves pounded into the room. They were all built like Roy's new form, with hair down to their asses and big busts and Roy briefly thanked whatever higher-power might be listening that either the magician hadn't gotten to adding on boobs or brainwashing him. Though why the guy had to turn him blonde… "Intruders!"
"More?" The magician shot Roy a look and Roy responded with a glare. "This one must have backup! I'll leave hi-" The magician smirked and Roy glared harder, "her for now, let's take care of these newcomers."
Roy kept the glare up until the magician and his busty assistant left the room before he slipped his right hand out of the shackle and started working on getting his left free. It didn't take very long and since the door wasn't locked Roy was able to slip out of the Magician's work room quickly, being sure to stuff the magician's book of spells into his now loose pants and tightening the belt. Next time he was going to wear his costume underneath his civvies, although he was sure that his Speedy outfit would hang on his new form too. It wasn't going to be permanent however but Roy wasn't going to be a very good fighter if he kept tripping over his pants hem, and he could hear the fighting going on in the magician's complex. That was why he slipped into a nearby room and scrounged for clothes. He was lucky that the magician apparently kept a fully stocked wardrobe for his newly changed hostages right next to his workroom.
"This guy is seriously sick." Roy muttered to himself, then halted with his hands stuck in a pile of clothes. His voice was different. "Of course it's different." Roy shuddered and tugged several items of clothing out for inspection. "I'm a girl."
For the moment.
Roy briefly considered the red belly shirt in his hands before ditching it for the green one. He'd always liked green, issues with Ollie aside, and more importantly he didn't want anyone to identify him as being Speedy. He wasn't sure how much his face had changed but none of his body language had and well… he was going to need to find something to throw. Part of him said he should just book it.
But that just wasn't the way Roy rolled.
Roy pulled on a form fitting pair of green pants and looked around for some sort of bag to carry the book in. Nothing, nothing… Roy ducked behind one aisle of clothes and his eyes lit up. Jackpot! Thank god the evil magician had decided to keep the weapons with the clothes. The better to outfit bimbo bodyguards?
Roy shuddered. Thank god the guy hadn't finished with him.
He shouldered a messenger bag and tucked the book inside then looked over the wall of weaponry. The only bow available was the crossbow. Not Roy's favorite, but he could use it at least. Roy snagged it and tied his hair up in a scrunchie (and seriously, this guy *deserved* prison, who even wore scrunchies anymore?) and grabbed some bolts before he 'bolted' towards the fighting.
He also skidded to a halt when he came to the top of the stairs and saw that it was Young Justice fighting the would-be harem master. He hesitated, he could admit he hesitated, before he flung himself over the stairway railing and fired off a bolt when he was halfway to the ground.
"H-" A surprisingly strong pair of arms caught him before he hit the ground and Roy turned his head to give Kid Flash a glare. "Hello. What's your name?"
"Are you serious?" Roy growled and hopped out of K.F.'s arms. The magician was a bit focused on deflecting Aqualad's Atlantean magic, Roy noticed that Superboy was out for the count, and Robin's batarangs (birdarangs) at the same time. "Shouldn't you be fighting with your friends?"
"I'm helping you, aren't I?" For a second Roy had thought that Kid Flash had figured out it was him, which meant he would never be able to live it down because Roy generally spent most of the time around Kid Flash ragging on him and sometimes it was returned. "Unless you don't want to be friends?"
And then Kid Flash batted his eyelashes at Roy.
"…" Thankfully the magician attempted to fry them both with purple lightning bolts and Roy was spared from answering. Or gagging. Or laughing his ass off.
The fight was thankfully short. Superboy was no use, though he did shake off the magician's spell towards the end to grab the magician in a full-nelson and get zapped again, but Robin always pulled his weight. He actually was deferring to someone, which wasn't something that Roy had ever seen. Sure, Robin let Batman order him around but there was a big difference between a mentor student relationship and how he was treating Aqualad. Kid Flash was actually putting his big mouth and speed to good use, and it wasn't distracting his teammates. Miss Martian… well. She was… she was interesting. Roy could see why K.F. had 'claimed' her, though he doubted anyone but the Kid thought he had a shot. She was the one who put the final whammy on the magician, knocking him out telepathically.
Roy found himself standing outside the circle of fighters as they helped Superboy up and wrapped the magician up for pickup. It was obvious to him, they were a team and he was… well, he was a guy trapped in a girl's body. "Hey," Sh-he whistled and caught Robin's attention before tossing him the bag with the magician's spellbook at him, "whoever's in charge'll probably want that. Have fun." Then he dropped the crossbow and the quiver of bolts and headed for the exit. (Or, you know, the big whole in the wall that Young Justice had made that certainly served as an exit.)
"Wait!" Kid Flash quivered to a stop in front of her, one arm out stretched with the palm out facing her. Did he really think… "We don't even know your name."
Roy tossed some of the long (seriously, the guy had a fetish) blonde hair behind her shoulder and shrugged. "Call me Artemis." And then he ducked under Kid Flash's arm and started jogging away. It wouldn't deter any of them if they really wanted to question him… but he was hoping they wouldn't. After all heroes, even sidekicks, tended to respect 'dark and mysterious'.
--
"I need your help." Roy didn't like asking for help. Actually, he pretty much abhorred it, but there were some situations where you had to bite down and deal with it. Like right now. Dinah stood highlighted in the front door of her house, blonde and glorious and just as kickass as she was the first time Roy met her, and Roy stood in a borrowed body in clothes that didn't fit right.
"You know, I was hearing rumors of a mysterious blonde archer…" Dinah's smile only widened when Roy's glare doubled but she waved him into the house. "I'll call up Zatanna. She was studying the book your team-"
"They're not my team."
"-handed over. And they could be, Roy, if you'd give them the chance."
"…" Roy glared at his feet, which were a lot closer than normal and were actually kind of hard to see with his new breasts in the way. "Whatever, I'll just-"
"Roy." Dinah placed a hand on his shoulder and pulled him into her house and pushed and prodded him until he was ensconced in her soda. "Sit down, let me call Zatanna, and we'll get you back into your big manly angst ridden body quicker than you can say slacitset."
"Uh, Dinah." Roy fidgeted briefly, "…look, I have an idea…"
--
"I need your help." Dinah's grin was positively shark worthy and Roy, standing behind her all dressed up in a new green outfit complete with arrow across his breasts (seriously, why an arrow) smothered the urge to glare at Ollie. It was hard not glaring at Ollie, it had become something so ingrained in Roy after the affair with the Justice League headquarters. "This is my niece," Dinah's grip was implacable and she pulled Roy forward and pushed her in front, "and she wants to be on Young Justice."
Ollie glanced from Roy (and Roy felt skeeved at the up-and-down Ollie had given him before figuring out he was probably looking at Roy's *outfit* and not for the first time Roy thought that going green was a bad idea) before looking past Roy (Artemis) at Dinah. "Dinah, you know I'm not involved in all of that. Speedy walked out and…"
"That doesn't matter." Dinah waved a hand in the air and Roy turned to give her a glare. She ignored it. "What matters is that Artemis uses a bow and the league will want you swearing her proficiency. So go test her, do whatever it is you bowmen do, I'll be waiting here for you to bring her back." Then Dinah smacked Ollie in the shoulder. "Untouched you pervert."
--
Roy fingered the belt around his waist and checked to make sure he was alone. It was a stupid caution seeing as he was in his own *room*. Still, Ollie had a habit of bursting in at the *worst* times and this was one time Roy really didn't want it to happen. He'd even barred the door.
He depressed the green arrow symbol in the belt and let it fall to the ground with a clatter. With an audible sigh he shrugged his shoulder as his real body reasserted itself. It had been a hassle convincing Dinah this was a good idea (she'd thought it was a *hilarious* idea just not a *good* one) but it had been all up to Dinah to convince Zatanna to transfer the spell to an object that could be warn and triggered. Thankfully, Dinah'd pulled it off, and Roy had pulled off being 'Artemis' without giving himself away as 'Roy'.
It was… weirdly exhilarating.
Not the being a girl part, that part was weird. Roy wasn't a transsexual, or a cross-dresser. Being a girl just offered… it wasn't being a girl it was being someone different someone people didn't know. Ollie had complimented Artemis on her shooting and then commented, as he pried an arrow out of the target, that 'she' should meet his ward.
Who was a crackshot as good as or better than he was. When Ollie said things like that to Roy's face he tended to take them badly but when he was saying those things to Artemis… he didn't know that it was Roy that was listening. "ROY, YOU HOME FOR DINNER?" And Roy who had been spending a lot of his meals out of the house (actually spending a lot of time just *out*) tugged on some boy clothes and opened the door to shout back.
"I'LL BE RIGHT DOWN."
--
"This is Artemis." Ollie's hand felt *bigger* on a girl's shoulder, but Roy supposed that was because he was smaller when he was Artemis. "She's my, uh," Batman sent Ollie a look like he *knew* whatever was going to come out of Ollie's mouth was a lie, "niece." Roy couldn't help but grin, widely, because he was still pretty pissed at Ollie and the look on Batman's face (or the *non*-look, Batman wasn't the most emotive of heroes) said that Ollie was going to get it later. Well good.
Robin's giving he-him a look that's hard to decipher. "Thanks, Green Arrow, but I really think we should…"
"Aw c'mon Rob," Kid Flash wrapped an arm around Robin's shoulders and then sped over to wrap one around Artemis'. Roy shrugged the arm off but Kid Flash's smile didn't dissipate. "Speedy's already said no, right? So while he's off being a lone wolf why don't we give the new girl a chance?"
"I don't know…" Then Robin glanced at Aqualad who shrugged slightly.
"Speedy has made his own choices, and she was helpful taking down Mister Erious. Miss Martian? Superboy?" Aqualad looked at the two members of the crew who had yet to speak up. Superboy gave a gallic shrug, which with his shoulders and muscular structure looked like mountains moving underneath his skin.
"It'll be nice to have another girl around." Miss Martian smiled at her and a soft voice spoke in his head 'even if you're not really a girl'.
Roy jumped and he was really going to need to tone down the glaring. A lot. 'Yeah, but girls like keeping secrets right? Even martian girls.'
The voice in his head giggled and then was silent, but Miss Martian was smiling as the other Young Justice members cheered at Artemis joining the team and Kid Flash tried to hug him.
Seriously, they had to find the Speedster a girlfriend.
--
Roy wasn't sure why he was surprised when Robin showed up while he was on patrol in Star City. It was probably because he expected his friends to be all too willing to replace him. Which was probably a stupid thought and made him think that maybe what Black Canary had said about this being a way for him to 'test' his friends loyalties wasn't that far off. "I didn't need your help." Roy stated angrily as he wrapped up the last of the gangsters. One of the men groaned and began to sluggishly move and Roy gave him a good, firm, angry knock to the head and then shoved the roped up gangsters under a nearby streetlamp.
"Still, it'd have taken you longer if I wasn't here, right?" Robin was perched on the edge of a fire escape in a precarious stance that would have had anyone else wobbling or already fallen. "C'mon, Speedy, you can say thank you."
"No thanks." Roy grabbed onto the last rung of the fire escape and pulled himself up, easily clambering onto the roof and away from the gangsters. Once he passed the level Robin was crouched on the Gotham hero fell in behind him. "Don't you have anything better to do than stalk me, Robin?" It was messing up his whole schedule having Robin there. And worse it made Roy itchy, wondering if Robin had figured things out. "Like hang out in a batcave or chill in your tree house?"
"…" Robin was silent for long enough that Roy glanced over his shoulder to be sure the other hero was still there. People from Gotham did have a habit of disappearing when you weren't watching. "So, did you hear about our new member?"
Roy rolled his eyes. So that was what this was about? Hadn't Roy made it clear that he didn't care what happened to Young Justice? Except Robin, being a little freak, probably knew that Roy *did* care. "What, Green Arrow's niece? Yeah, I heard." Nervously he played with the belt around his waist. It wasn't Artemis' belt but it was a nervous habit anyway. "And what, you want to see if I'm okay with you gets getting an archer? I told you I didn't want to be on your little team."
He couldn't swallow his pride and admit that he did was the problem.
"Speedy…"
"No, Robin, just…" Speedy eyed the distance between one edge of a building and the beginning of a next. He could make the jump, Robin could too, but it was the metaphor or space in between them that would probably keep Robin from doing it. Speedy took the leap. "I said no."
--
"Monkeys." Superboy groaned as the robotic beasts chittered cheerfully (Roy had to stop using alliteration) before leaping to attack. "Why is it always monkeys?!" He sounded pissed as he smashed his way through the green and black robots. Roy followed behind him, shooting the monkeys around the great moving bulwark that was Superboy. Apparently after Ivo's encounter with Young Justice he had decided that the best way to get back at the team was to attack them regularly.
With monkeys, because apparently Superboy hated them.
"Monkeys make you angry, SB?" As Roy, he'd have told Superboy to focus on the job at hand, as Artemis, he asked questions. He pulled out a Taser arrow and narrowed his eyes. There was the group of monkeys up ahead… "Hang back!"
"They're noisy." Superboy growled and looked ready to surge ahead anyway. Artemis, Roy, released the arrow and let it fly into the mess of monkeys (which was probably like a gaggle of geese) and grinned sharply when the electricity set off a chain reaction that short circuited the monkeys. Score one for trick arrows.
Roy made a mental note to himself to ask Ollie about an EMP arrow STAT.
"So's Kid Flash, I don't see you punching him in the face." Artemis watched as Superboy trashed a handful more of the monkeys before he stalked over to her, his, position. It was impressive the way the test tube baby could loom, Roy wondered if that's what he looked like sometimes when he was brimming with rage and quivering with adrenalin. Although with Superboy, he might be brimming AND quivering with rage. "Got something on your mind, SB?"
"You." Superboy paused and the two young superheroes stood there in a nearly empty parking lot with one over turned truck (that had been driven by an automated driver and then attacked by MONKIs in an attempt to drive Young Justice into action) and the sparking reminds of several robotic monkeys. MONKIs. Whatever. "You are different."
The first thing Black Canary had done when they came up with the ruse of Artemis (after she'd tried to talk him out of it) was tutor Roy in the body language that the feminine body spoke. Most of it Roy forgot, and a lot of it seemed to be instinctual, but the hair toss Roy did with his long blonde ponytail and the way he cocked his hip was all Black Canary's tutoring. "Damn straight, skippy. Now did you have anything relevant to contribute to the conversation or should we radio Miss M and tell the others we're finished here?"
'I read you loud and clear Miss A! Roy rolled his eyes at Megan's mental giggle. Superboy's pissed face became even more angry and he turned around. 'Oops, I'm sorry Superboy, I'll just talk to Artemis.'
"So I'm guessing you heard that we were all done here?" Roy asked while Superboy wandered into the wreckage and began kicking at various broken bits of machinery. "Since you were listening in."
'Only once you mentioned my name! Or, well, I wasn't listening to Superboy, but I like your thoughts.' It was weird dealing with telepaths, Roy had decided. He wasn't sure how the League handled it, though the Martian Manhunter probably wasn't as curious or… girly as Miss Martian. 'When you're not angry your thoughts are very soothing! Not as soothing as Kaldur'ahm's, but they're nice enough. Almost lyrical, even!
'Thanks, I guess. Roy was sure she could sense how he felt about that kind of compliment. 'How're the others doing?
'Kaldur just informed me they're all done, and Robin and-'
"Do you hear that?" Superboy asked, tipping his head to the side and looking around.
'I are already done-'
It was hard to focus with one person asking him a question outloud and the other chattering along in his brain. Roy placed a hand to his head and attempted to get his eyes to uncross. "Hear what? Is there someone coming?"
'So we should all meet back at the ship!'
"It sounds like ticking." Superboy frowned and toed one of the shattered robots at his feet.
And then the monkeys exploded.
--
When Roy comes to he's in some sort of cell. It's around five feet by five feet and his head is pounding like a million MONKIs are drumming on the inside. He does a brief check of his body, still a girl and all of his clothes are still there but most of his weapons have been done away with. They obviously didn't search him very thoroughly because the lock picks he stores in the seams of his thighs are still there. The comm is gone too. "Damn." There's a cot in the cell, but no cameras. Roy starts to work on getting his lockpicks out. He might not be as good at Robin at escaping from the clutches of villains but he isn't bad at it. Megan? Can you hear me?
Artemis is back! Megan's voice is loud and cheerful and reverbs inside of his skull, bouncing off the headache and making Roy wince and his eyes cross. Oops, I'll be quieter.
It's just a headache. Roy gets the seam ripped and pulls one long lock-pick out. The cell isn't high-tech, it's old, and Roy feels pretty confident about being able to get the lock picked and out of the cell without anyone noticing. How's everyone else?
We're fine. That was Kaldur's voice in his head, and his mental voice was as soothing as his real one. Is Superboy with you?
No, I'm alone in some sort of cell. The door looks sturdy, but the lock looks cheap. We were tricked. Belatedly, Roy realizes that he's speaking directly to Kaldur telepathically. Does he… he sounds male to himself, he's pretty sure he sounds male to Miss Martian. Does he sound male to Kaldur? Is his cover blown?
There's a roaring noise from somewhere outside the sell and several muffled thunks. Roy gets on his knees and starts working on getting the lock undone.
'…I think I hear Superboy.
The bioship is locked onto your signal and we'll be there to find you momentarily.
Outside of the cell Roy hears a crunching noise and then a slamming one followed by gunfire. Better make it quick, looks like the little S and I'll need backup.
She gets the lock on the door undone just as Superboy makes it down the hallway and stops in front of it. Sh- he tries not to hit Superboy in the face when the door swings open, but barely manages. "The guards are all out of commission." Superboy motions with his head down the hallway. Roy takes a look and nods, all the heavily armed and armored guards lie groaning on the floor. Keeping an eye on both ends of the hallway Ar- Roy scoots over and loots the guards for some equipment. She straps on an overly large bulletproof vest and grabs a few projectiles.
"Kaldur says the ships on the way. Let's find somewhere nice and open so they can pick us up without any problem."
Superboy just stares at him for a second while he juggles grenades and knives and a few smoke pellets before he nods and starts walking towards the opposite end of the hallway. Roy follows at a jog.
One thing he does hate about the girl body is the shortened stride and the lessened endurance. It is surprisingly flexible, however.
They check each cell as they pass, but they're all empty. One looks like it's been recently slept in, but there aren't any occupants, so they keep going and climb up the stairs. "Camera at the corner." Roy says, pulling on Superboy's thickly muscled arm. At this point there's little doubt that they'll be running into trouble but he wants to avoid it as long as possible. They duck into the camera's blind spot. "Boost me so I can pull the plug." Not like it'll do much good, they won't be able to do this to every camera they see, but any amount of time they can keep their captors blind… Superboy boots her with big hands careful on Roy's slim waist. (And some days, really, it's weird to be a girl.) Roy opens the camera's casing and yanks on some wires, yanking her hand back when the splutter and spark and begin to smoke. "Okay, that's done, put me…"
The sound of feet pounding in the hallway and Roy isn’t just dropped onto his feet but pushed behind Superboy. Roy's grateful for his small size and Superboy's bulk and apparent protectiveness when a group of machine gun wielding guards turn the corner and open fire.
He's also glad of Superboy's relative invulnerability when Superboy rushes ahead and begins taking the guards on. Roy throws a smokebomb into the midst of them to disorientate them and uses some of Black Canary's moves to take out the few that stumble out of Superboy's grip. And then they were jogging down the hallway again, up, because up seemed like a good idea. Roy was able to get a few glimpses out the windows to note that they were on some sort of island.
"There are two guards around the corner." Superboy murmured quietly to her and Artemis nodded. "I'm going to take them out."
"I'm not helpless you know." Was it because she was a girl or was it because she didn't have superpowers? Either way, it pissed her off. Still, Superboy just looked down at her with those big clueless blue eyes and Roy rolled his own. "Go."
Roy rounded the corner to the sounds of a body hitting the floor and the belated realization the two guards had been standing in front of a door. "Superboy, there's probably-" The door opened and gunfire ricocheted off Superboy's chest. Inside the room someone is shouting.
"There's delicate equipment in here!"
Superboy reaches inside the room and tossed one guy into the hallway. Roy moved forward and slammed that guy into the wall while Superboy took care of the one inside. And then, when he spotted the men coming down both ends of the hallway Roy dove forward and shoved Superboy into the room before he closed the door behind them.
". . . you're not here to rescue me, are you?" The blonde woman standing by some complicated looking technology asked. "Because if you are, you're doing a lousy job."
Superboy turned to give the woman in the white lab coat one of his patented glares. It was the glare that said 'despite being Superman's clone I am also a surly teenager, oh and btw, I'm Superman's clone'. Or at least that's what Artemis felt it said. "Who are you?"
"Doctor-" The woman started, and that was when her face clicked for Roy.
"Dr. Serling Roquette." Roy finished her introduction and shrugged when Superboy gave him a look. This look was his 'I don't know what you're talking about but I trust you because you're a teammate' look. "She disappeared about a week ago."
"I was abducted a week ago." Dr.Roquette said stiffly. Roy rolled his eyes and glanced around the room. Computer equipment, computer equipment… Yeah, he had no idea what most of it was. But he was going to assume that whatever the bad guys had her working on couldn't be good. "So, are you going to get me out or not?"
"Sure. Just stand back from the wall. Superboy, keep the door closed."
Remarkably, it didn't take much for Roy to create a controlled explosion to blow out the wall. Luckily, the good doctor's room was facing the beach and not, say, another room in the compound. And of course, luckily, Superboy had two arms to hold onto each of them.
"Wait, we can't leave that behind!" Dr. Roquette flailed at one of the pieces of complicated looking equipment, the one that looked like a cross between a Dalek and a trash can (not a huge cross-over since Daleks looked like trash cans anyway). There were pounding sounds becoming louder and louder behind their improvised barricade of the door. Artemis traded a look with Superboy.
The clone shrugged his powerful shoulders. "I only have two arms."
Artemis looked down the side of the building and then the tree line. "You could take it and the doctor while I-"
One arm wrapped around Artemis' waist and Roy was tugged back against Superboy's body. He glanced up at Superboy's determined face and shrugged.
"Okay, doc, it's you or it. And make up your mind soon, because we're going to have company."
"Right." Doctor Roquette removed her glasses and tucked them into her lab coat. Why was she even bothering to wear a lab coat when all she was doing was programming? "Take me."
Roy couldn't help it, he coughed to cover up his laugh but from the way Doctor Roquette looked at him, he'd been a little obvious.
--
So it turned out that they had rescued Doctor Roquette just as she had finished something called 'the Fog' which were data-stealing-everything-eating nanites that were contained in the funny looking trashcan that Superboy and Artemis had left behind as they leaped from the League of Shadows hide-out. Which would have been nice to know when they were AT the hide-out because maybe they'd have just kicked the containment unit into the ocean instead of leaving it for the bad guys. Still, they'd rescued the good doctor and kept her safe long enough for her to create a virus that would destroy The Fog from doing their job.
Which, of course, the Shadows hadn't wanted her to do, which was why Roy was chasing down some mask wearing assassin in the dark. Why he was doing that alone was because everyone else was either protecting Dr. Roquette or going after The Fog which left him to chase down Miss 'I enjoy poisoning young heroes'.
"Stay down." Roy ordered, bow drawn and pointed at the assassin as she crouched on the pavement. She didn't, of course, but she didn't make any move to draw her w-
Whoa.
Whoa, she was kind of hot.
"Wow," And the hot assassin smirked at Roy. "I am completely at your mercy."
Which, given the assassin's penchant for mockery, was probably meant sarcastically. Roy could note at least a dozen possible weapons on her person, and no less than four potential escape routes. So the question was, why wasn't Assassin McHotty taking any of them?
"I said stay down." Roy's bowstring was taught, holding it this way for too long would eventually cause him to either release the arrow or snap the bowstring. He'd probably just fire it.
"You did." The woman drew her finger along her bottom lip. "And I didn't. And you haven't told me to stay still… and you haven't shot me. That leads me to believe you don't really want me to stick around, do you…" Oh crap, dramatic pause, "Speedy?"
The arrow fired, the assassin dodged and in her tumble picked her mask back up, Roy stared dumbfounded into the space where the assassin had been.
"I'm not-!"
"You are." Green-y was highlighted by the moon now and it was as dramatic as the shadows had been. "You fight well enough, for a man, but as a woman… I can tell. And I've watched you fight before, Speedy."
There really wasn't much Roy could say to that. He was dumbfounded. How had… he got Megan figuring it out. But not even Ollie had clued into the fact that it was him. "I'm going by Red Arrow now." It sounded lame, especially when he was saying it in Artemis' voice and he was still (still) shell-shocked.
"Mmm, I know, and it suits you." Then the hot assassin was all up in Roy's personal space, pressing her bare hand to his chest and wrapping her other arm around the back of his neck. Roy almost brought the bow up, but it was trapped between their bodies and he was… well.
Okay, he got distracted when she kissed him. As Artemis, he was the shorter one, and this girl… wow. Wow. This woman really knew how to kiss. Roy's knees wobbled and when he was released he sunk to the pavement.
"So does Artemis." And then she dropped the mask on top of Roy's head. "And now like the Cheshire cat…" Smoke bombs and Roy coughed violently because he had definitely inhaled some of that. "I disappear."
Okay, wow. Huh. So at least he knew his female body liked girls too.
Wow, girls got kind of squishy when they were aroused. That was definitely weird.
--
The mission was over, the assassin had gotten away, they'd made their reports, Artemis had made her excuses (his, whatever) and they were all waiting around Mount Justice. Robin had disappeared with Batman, on his way back to Gotham for a good night's sleep. Wally had gotten picked up by the Flash and they'd run home, Wally had been utterly enthused (or 'thused' as Robin would say) about going to school the next morning. Roy was surprised that everything had taken place over a weekend. Seriously? He had thought that it would be Monday by now.
"Artemis." Kaldur calling her name made him twitch guiltily. The Atlantean hero stood a few feet behind her left shoulder and Roy found it hard not to rub at the back of his neck nervously when he turned. "I was wondering if we may speak?"
"Sure, Kaldur." Artemis glanced over his shoulder checking to see if Miss Megan or Superboy were paying attention. Both alien teens seemed focused on the television, Roy recognized the show as being Iron Chef America and groaned internally. Hopefully with the weekend over Roy wouldn't need to face whatever culinary masterpiece Megan concocted, although she may wait until the weekend instead of just subjecting Superboy to it. "What do you want to talk about?"
Kaldur motioned for her to follow and began walking down the halls that would lead them to Mount Justice's back entrance, the one that lead to the beach. "I believe we may both want privacy for this conversation." Roy stumbled over a step and glanced over his shoulder again before reining in his thoughts of 'save me!'
He'd figured this conversation with Kaldur had been coming, and really he should probably have had it earlier and he would have eventually had it later. Miss Martian couldn't intercept his telepathic voice during all the missions, people would have gotten suspicious. Now the only question was what Kaldur was going to say. Would he confront Roy about lying about his identity? Would he tell Roy that it was fine to join the team as himself? Or would he be angry? Aqualad could be a hard person to read sometimes, his placid nature was like a still pond, sometimes things lurked undetectable beneath the surface waters.
Like, you know, crocodiles.
Roy followed Kaldur out onto the beach as the computer announced their departure. As always he was glad that his body as Artemis was so dissimilar to his body as Roy that the computer couldn't tell.
They walked across the beach towards the surf, Roy pausing past the tideline while Kaldur stood in front of him, highlighted by the dark night sky with the waves lapping at his ankles.
"In Atlantis…" Kaldur began, then drifted off. Artemis waited for a second before he settled on the dry sand with his legs folded under him. This looked like it might take a while. "Sometimes one person may be born a certain way…" Kaldur began again and then drifted off… again. Roy tipped his head to the side. This certainly did not sound like an angry rant on how Roy had betrayed the team's trust. In fact it sounded strangely like…
"There are certain species of fish that are born one gender but…"
Like he thought… did he… was this…
"When the dominant female clownfish dies the largest male changes his gender to-"
"Wait." Artemis held up a hand even though Kaldur had not looked away from the ocean. "Wait, are you... you think I'm transgender?"
Kaldur shifted; the muscles in his back moving underneath his skin-tight top. "Your thoughts sounded… male."
"I just… uh." Arte- Roy paused. "I think… like a guy? I guess?" He winced. What else should he say? He couldn't claim to be an MtF. That wasn't… that wasn't what being Artemis was about! He wasn't a girl, he'd never thought he was a girl, and if he ever had then his thoughts would be female, right? He was just… using the body. It was convenient. But he wasn't going to claim that Artemis was an FtM. It would add a really confusing layer to his cover story. "I mean, everyone thinks differently, right?"
"I suppose." Kaldur was looking over his shoulder at him now and then the Atlantean teen turned to face him. "However, I just wish for you to be aware that neither I nor the team would ever discriminate against you. We would all accept you, no matter what your gender or sexuality maybe."
The urge to pull his knees to his chest and hug them was utterly defensive. Roy didn't let himself do it, though he did cross his arms. "And it's not really any of your business."
Kaldur paused but then he nodded. "That may be so, but I believe teammates should be open and trusting with one another." He waited for a few beats but when Artemis didn't speak up, his shoulders drooped slightly. "I will see you later." Then Kaldur turned and walked slowly into the surf until it was deep enough for him to dive under. Roy stayed on the beach for a few more minutes, staring up at the sky.
Onto Part 2!
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