Novels2Search

Chapter 17

Mount Justice

August 3rd , 23:35 EDT

Before I could make it to my room, Superboy had already intercepted me, arms folded and a glare evident on his features.

He made to grab me, but Infinity stopped him dead. "What's the matter?" I asked him.

"You know what you did," Superboy said, pulling his hand back, "Professor Ivo? You got away from Batman with a slap on the wrist, but I'm not letting that slide. You didn't have to go that far."

If I knew that it wouldn't have worked, I'd just not have bothered. That goddamned Ivo. "We lost Amazo thanks to that stubbornness," I said. "And I was understandably quite worried about the implications of cursed energy in this universe."

"You were worried, so you beat a defenseless man to an inch of his life?" Superboy snarled. "I'm really starting to see what it means to think like you. You shouldn't be here, Gojo."

I pouted. "You're such a meanie—"

"You might have had your reasons," Superboy interrupted, "And Batman might have let it go for now, but I know what you are. You're not a hero."

"Give it a rest already," I waved my hand in front of my face dismissively, "You know as well as I do that if I was really an evil villain, I'd never even bother to do any of this work in the first place. I have way more respect for this work than you do." I cracked a grin, "Because if you actually cared like I did, you'd be in the Mission Room training all night like I do," I slipped into Japanese, "You'd be strong and skilled enough to take down the likes of Black Canary with that big Kryptonian brain of yours and all that super strength. Super control is where it's at, Super-chan. And I'm super impressed that you've stayed this weak to the point that a woman with screaming powers can beat you with literally just her frail human body. That takes a special level of ineptitude. I'm both baffled and impressed." I stepped in closer. "So suppose I am a big evil guy with a hidden nature. My question is: what could you possibly do about that, Boyo? With your weak-sauce super strength and the coordination of a toddler?"

Superboy glared at me, probably debating the pros and cons of trying to break through my Infinity. After coming to an enlightened conclusion, he then walked past me, trying to shove at my shoulder but even at that failing miserably. Better than if he had tried to punch me at least, that would have been embarrassing.

I watched him disappear down the hall and saw with my Six Eyes that he was making his way to the Mission Room.

Finally. I seriously hoped he'd make something of himself. It sucked that he didn't have the full Superman package, but that couldn't be helped. At the very least, however, he should be able to stand proud as an equal against a member of the League as… mundane as Black Canary. Or hell, Robin Hood or the Bat Kemonomimi who was the unofficial leader of the League.

Gosh.

I got changed, showered, and headed to the Mission Room as well to see Superboy sparring against hard light mannequins animated by the computer's AI. Rudimentary and predictable movements. And Superboy was still failing. What an eyesore.

The Bat was an idiot and Superboy would continue to be a thorn in my side. Whatever. None of it mattered. Nothing mattered but gathering strength.

I warped up to the top of Mount Justice, and worked on developing my barrier techniques instead.

I never found barrier techniques particularly hard back in Tokyo. My Tokyo at least. Now, I was starting to realize how much of that was Tengen doing the heavy lifting.

Creating a curtain on my own took… effort. Mental effort, not so much cursed energy. But it was good training. Without Tengen's Pure Barriers, I now had a perfect feel for how every part worked. The loss of training wheels had evolved my understanding of cursed energy and barrier techniques to another level.

All that was left… was to bring out my innate technique and imbue it into my barrier. A can't-miss attack that would immediately invalidate all opposition. An 'I win' button. Once I had that on lock, I truly would be the strongest.

The only problem was… bringing out my Innate Technique was hard. Bringing it out in a manifestation which I desired was even harder.

Thanks to the laws of this world, I was beginning to understand that my initial trajectory through the path of jujutsu sorcery would have been deemed… problematic at best.

A technique that filled a brain up with infinite repetitive noise information, slowly killing them, according to the clan manuscripts. An elegant way to kill as any, one that left the body untouched, but completely overcooked the brain.

But in this world, with no cursed energy, the can't-miss attack would have no way of locking in on an enemy. It felt like a waste of time to even try. Obviously, I needed to augment my cursed energy with some other form of magic that naturally occurred in this world. Once I did that, I would get past all the conditions of jujutsu sorcery that relied on cursed energy detection.

Any old idiot could just walk in and out of my Domain Expansion if they wanted to as well, because my barrier couldn't block out things that had no cursed energy, like inanimate objects, and in this world, everyone.

The can't-miss attack needed to do more than just overcook brains, too. I wouldn't just be fighting regular humans in this world. I'd be up against aliens. Robots. Beings of magic. Things that didn't obey the rules of biology the way humans did. Or Cursed Spirits—to an extent at least.

So no overloading a brain with information. I had to come up with something new. Perhaps an application of Blue, one that held opponents still?

I cracked a grin as I imagined going an extra step further. Why stop only at holding opponents when you could just freeze them in time, too? A strong enough Blue would be able to exert enough force that it slowed down time, as any supermassive object could do.

Before even considering any of that, I still had to master barrier techniques first. Onwards, I grinded towards omnipotence.

As the days ticked by, I slowly moved away from domains and focused instead on Infinity.

Automated Infinity.

The first step would be to keep it fully on—no conditions on what could or couldn't enter. No threat detection. Just Infinity.

It was a power-guzzler, but I realized in one all-night training binge that as long as I emptied my mind and remained in a zen-like state, I could in fact pull it off.

The only problem… I couldn't experience fluctuations in emotion without breaking the state. I had to start small, therefore. Little emotions slowly building up to big emotions while still keeping control.

I had already figured out wide-scale teleportation. This shouldn't be any harder.

000

Mount Justice

August 8, 09:58 EDT

"Hello, Megan! We should hit the beach every day!" Megan declared, hands on her hips and practically glowing in the sunlight.

I was already unloading my beach bag, pulling out the essentials: frisbees, a beach volleyball, a football, some neon water guns, and a kite shaped like a dragon. I waved a hand at my stash with pride. "Welcome to 'Gojo's Ultimate Beach Bash'! Who's in?"

Robin's eyes lit up. "Wow, you really prepped, huh?"

"Absolutely," I grinned, grabbing a frisbee and tossing it toward him. He caught it easily and twirled it on one finger. "I take the beach very seriously. Look at this," I said, nudging a small radio I'd dug out from the bottom of my bag. "I even brought tunes, so if anyone's secretly hiding sick dance moves, now's your time to shine."

Kaldur cracked a smile. "A thorough planner, I see."

"And we have a volleyball," I added, tossing it to Superboy, who caught it with one hand and gave me a raised eyebrow and a slight glower. He wasn't saying much—hadn't said a word to me since the Amazo mission, really—, but he didn't look like he was opposed to the idea either. That was something.

Megan picked up one of the neon water guns and grinned. "Water guns! Why didn't I think of that? We could play teams!"

"Not yet," Robin said with a sly grin. "First, a moment of silence for our poor, absent comrade."

"Poor Wally," Megan sighed, and we all nodded in mock solemnity.

"I mean, you can't blame him," I added. "He's got to get smarter somehow, right?"

"Someone's gotta be the fastest and smartest guy on the team," Robin said, laughing as he tossed the frisbee back to me. "Wally just has a little catching up to do."

"Exactly!" I agreed, pointing to the dragon kite. "Okay, who wants to take the kite for a spin? Robin? It's supposed to look like it's breathing fire if you fly it right!"

"Challenge accepted." He grabbed the kite and took off toward the shoreline, the kite spiraling up as he ran.

"Now," I turned to the others. "Megan, you in for some volleyball? You and Kaldur can team up against Superboy and me."

"Absolutely," Megan said, jumping to her feet. "We'll totally beat you, Sa-chan."

"Bold words for someone in spiking distance," I teased, bouncing the volleyball between my hands.

Superboy looked suitably suspicious, but he didn't end up bringing anything up. Although we hadn't talked, we had managed to stay out of each other's ways, and I had spied many different instances of him getting in some extra training, which felt like a nod towards me, which I appreciated.

A part of me wondered if I should maybe try and break the ice again. I had been rather… harsh the last time we spoke. Though knowing him, the likelihood that he'd take an attempt at reconciliation badly was fifty fifty.

"Bring it," Megan grinned.

We set up quickly, laughing and scrambling on the sand as we tried our best to keep a rally going—which in my case, entailed throwing for as long as possible, until just the right moment appeared. Just to make things fair.

Robin's kite was sailing high above, and the music was playing as the morning sun beat down. I had to admit, this felt like a day well spent.

Mount Justice

August 8th , 15:32 EDT

By the time the beach fun was starting to slow a little, Batman revived our spirits by paging us for a new mission!

We made our way to the control room in full costume. I chattered with Robin as we walked, "Teen Titans?" Robin asked. "Really?"

"Yeah, really!" I said, "What, you want to be called 'team' all the time? You westerners are so unimaginative and drab, for real!"

"It's corny!" Robin said, "And I know you and your people don't know the meaning of that, otherwise you never would have invented Tokusatsu—"

"Don't rag on Tokusatsu! Your mentor is a guy dressed like a bat! That's corny! If the Teen Titans are corny, then so is that!"

Robin groaned, "Help me out here, Kaldur."

"Calling ourselves teens," Aqualad winced, "It's not a desirable statement. We want to be a part of the League. We can't keep reminding them that we're children."

"So what if we're children?" I asked, "All that matters is if we're strong or not. Don't they have that ten-year-old in the League?" I asked, faintly remembering reading a comic that he featured in—and also seeing him fly around in the news here.

"…What ten-year-old?" Robin asked. "Is this more of your weird off-world knowledge?"

"Yeah," I said, "Probably. Look, all I'm saying is, we are teenagers with attitude, and let's show that off! Teen Titans! Go!"

"Titans," Robin said, "I'll take Titans, but only Titans. Aqualad?"

"Better than 'team'," Aqualad shrugged.

"Megan?" I asked, looking over my shoulder. She gave me a grin.

"Teen Titans sounds lovely," She said, "But if the 'teen' part is intolerable to Robin, I can just go with Titans."

"Guh, Robin," I groaned at him, "Way to just suck the fun out of everything. You're running around in tights, and this is where you draw the line."

"Superboy?" Megan asked, "What do you think about the name Teen Titans."

"Team works," Superboy said with a shrug, "Honestly, I don't care. You guys figure that out between yourselves."

"Alright," I said with a nod, "Then let's wait for Wally's input."

"Gojo," Robin said, and I turned to him with a hum. He grinned at me in slight bemusement, "Your accent is… getting pretty good."

"Huh?" I asked, "No way," I chuckled, "I literally just arrived last month."

"No, it is!" Robin started fiddling with his wrist computer, pulling up an audio file, "Throughout the heaven and the earth, I alone am the honored one." I had said that in the Star City port, and Robin had sneakily recorded me to gather intel for the League.

I chuckled, "What, is that like your alarm or something? To remind you to train harder?"

"Don't flatter yourself," Robin said, "And didn't you hear yourself just now?"

"I must say!" Megan said, "The difference is really apparent."

"I agree," Aqualad gave me a grin, "You've made some rather drastic improvements in pronunciation."

This felt a little patronizing. All I was doing was speaking normally. I wasn't particularly trying to sound American either. Why not give that a go? "You guys are way too sappy."

Robin looked at me, eyes wide, "Wait, are you… are you trying, now?"

"I mean," I shrugged, "Yeah. It's not hard. I'm just trying to sound more American. It's like doing an impression, almost." Some of the words didn't come out right. There were still shadows of an accent in my words, but when I tried hard to sound like the average Joe, I felt like I was making a rather decent impression.

Did feel… slightly embarrassing, though. But also funny.

"Sounds like you're… imitating someone," Robin said.

"Ah yes, that would be my English voice actor," I said with a chuckle. "It's not complicated. I've switched to dub mode."

"That's… really cool," Robin said.

"I know I'm cool," I grinned. "And that my voice is smooth as butter and enough to make any lady swoon. I have that effect on people."

"No, not your voice, you… literal Narcissus. The fact that you can do that is what's cool. That's not normal. How much English did you learn as a kid?"

"I'm also just generally a super genius," I said with a shrug, "But yeah, I learned a ton. Got private tutors and the whole nine yards. Right now, I'm just filling the gaps with everything I've heard in real life or on the internet. Online videos are pretty fun."

Robin chuckled, "You're gonna give Wally a heart-attack. Can't wait to see it. If you still wanna do it."

"It's not hard," I shrugged, "I could do this all day."

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

As we reached the Mission Room, Red Tornado descended from a hatch in the ceiling that led to his apartment, and the Zeta Tube whirred to life, "Batman, Zero Two. Green Arrow, Zero Eight. Artemis, B Zero Eight."

'Artemis' was clearly one of Green Arrow's judging by her get-up, a tankini that showed off her toned mid-riff, and the green arrow emblem on her chest, and a pair of green leggings as well. She wore a mask that only revealed her mouth and eyes, and also exposed her mane of golden hair, tied up in a thick ponytail. She was a little scrawny, sure, but definitely had a hot attitude, no two ways about it. I grinned at her. "Don't tell me, Batman—a new teammate?"

Batman didn't question my new accent at all. "Yes. Team, meet Artemis."

"That's my name," Artemis said, arms folded.

"Huh," I said, "Nice to have you." I guess. Clearly, all she did was archery, huh? Disappointing, but what could you do?

"You the leader or something?" she raised an eyebrow at me, "Are you some sort of blind karate master?"

I chuckled, "I'm not taking that from someone who propels pointy sticks with a bit of string and wood tension."

"It's a compound bow," Artemis said, "But, you know, I'm not gonna hold that against you, since you're blind and all."

"Artemis," Green Arrow chided.

I looked over at him, "No, not at all, I like this one. So I'm guessing you're one of those powerless heroes who rely on a cool gimmick, like our glorious leader Batman or your uncle Green Arrow."

She narrowed her eyes at me, "Some people work hard to make this gig work, and can't rely on powers from freak accidents."

"Is that so?" I tilted my head, arms folded, "Why don't you show me that hard work? How about a nice and quick spar?" I gestured at the hard light floor, "I promise I won't use any powers—and hey, I'll even keep the blindfold on." Breaking in the newbie! This would be fun!

Batman and Green Arrow looked between each other, then Batman looked pointedly at me, "No."

What?

Artemis whirled on her feet and glared at Batman, "I can take him!"

I chuckled, "You're adorable."

Batman continued explaining, "You can't promise that you won't use any powers. Your perception alone is too powerful."

"So what?" Artemis asked, "He can sense really good? Doesn't matter to me."

"Infinity," Aqualad walked up to me, "No."

I sighed and slumped over before stepping away from Artemis, "Alright, then."

"Infinity?" Artemis asked, "Sounds like compensation."

I laughed, "I really like you. Question, since you're on the team and all—how does Teen Titans sound for a team name?"

Artemis shrugged, "Sounds like you don't want to be taken seriously."

"We are superheroes!" I said, "Our job is fundamentally unserious. Those guys call themselves the Justice League. If we can't call ourselves the Teen Titans because that won't be taken seriously, then why even wear such colorful costumes?"

"Titans," Artemis said, "Not Teens."

"Told you!" Robin said.

"Is that what you have settled on?" Batman asked.

"Still waiting on K.F," Robin said, "But yeah, it looks like."

"So," I turned to Batman, "What's the mission?"

"We're waiting for Kid Flash and one other person before the mission briefing starts," Batman replied.

I walked up to Megan, "What do you think it'll be? The mission? Can you read Batman's mind real quick?"

"I… don't think I should do that," Megan said. "And… maybe take it a little easy with the new girl?"

"I thought I did!"

Megan gave a helpless smile and then walked up to Artemis to greet her as well. Everyone gave their introductions, and then stated their powers, or lack of.

When it was Superboy's turn—Artemis leering at him lasciviously—he just shrugged, "Super strength."

"I'm guessing everything Superman does too, right?"

I chuckled.

"No," he growled.

That didn't seem to cow Artemis at all, who just grinned at him, "There's a story there. Why don't you tell me sometime? One on one?"

"No."

"Hah!" I couldn't help the outburst.

Artemis turned to me, considerably less lascivious, "What about you?"

I took of my blindfold and gave her a grin, "I can bring the concept of Infinity into reality. That ends up doing a lot of fun stuff like making me completely immune to conventional forms of harm, and also letting me destroy things with ease. Pretty cool, right?"

I could see her heartrate speeding up and her facial blood vessels dilating in real time as I spoke smoothly and kept an image of pure confidence and charm—the confidence wasn't a difficult act, or an act at all. And I wanted to go all out. I wouldn't let Superboy get lusted over on my watch, not when I could help him redirect that unwanted attention. I was doing this for a good cause!

Her reaction was still quite mild. Not where I wanted it, quite.

"And, there's the eyes," I said, "I see pretty much everything with them."

Robin chuckled, "He also wears super-tinted sunglasses in his civvies. I think seeing gives him a headache."

I snorted, "Nothing like that. Uh, it's complicated."

"Broken powers?" Artemis asked, head tilted, "Nice. I think I'm fine with my pointy sticks and string."

I wasn't going to let that get to me. Even though it was mildly irritating.

"If you say so," I grinned, putting my blindfold back on.

Finally, the Zeta Tube whirred to life, "Kid Flash, B Zero Three," the computer announced.

"The Wall-Man is here! Let's get this party started!" a bare-chested, shorts-wearing Wally laughed as he carried with him a whole bunch of beach equipment. Great spread, too. Nine out of ten in my opinion. The moment he saw the heroes, he tripped over his feet and the beach ball rolled up to us.

I kicked it up and started juggling it with my foot.

"The Wall-Man, huh?" Artemis asked, grinning at his fallen form, "What exactly are your powers?"

Wally got up, "Uh, who is this?"

"Artemis," Tornado introduced her, "Your new teammate."

"Kid Flash," Wally said, "Never heard of you."

"Um," Green Arrow said, "She's my new protégé."

The Zeta Tube whirred to life as Wally asked, "What happened to your old one?"

"Well, for starters, he doesn't go by Speedy anymore," another bowman entered as the computer heralded him as Speedy.

I recognized him. Well, his face, not so much his new costume. "What, so Red Arrow?"

He paused and regarded me closely, "As a matter of fact, yes. You've heard of me."

I chuckled, "No. It just seemed like the natural conclusion. I'm—"

"Infinity," Red Arrow said, "I know. I know who you are. I've kept a close watch on you."

"Have you, now?"

"They never should have let you in the team," Red Arrow said, "What were you thinking, Batman?"

Batman didn't answer, instead looking at Red Arrow coldly. I could see his heartrate speeding up at Batman's aura. Hah!

"He was thinking," I said, "Wow, this kid is strong, let's make sure he doesn't get adopted by The Joker and starts turning Gotham City into modern art. I'm thinking the theme would be 'Swiss cheese', but for entire buildings!"

"Infinity," Batman glared at me.

Okay, okay! Jeez, can't a guy joke around a little?

"Wait, wait, wait!" Wally yelled, "Gojo, why do you talk like that? What happened to your accent?"

"Like what?" I asked with a grin. "What accent?"

He folded his arms and glared at me, "Were you holding out on us all this time? Or are you just talking like that because we got a new teammate?"

"Nah," I said, "I'm just a super genius."

"He's obviously not mentally stable," Red Arrow said, gesturing at me. "But we have greater things to worry about than that right now."

"Roy," Green Arrow said, "You look—"

"Replaceable?" So much for me not being mentally stable.

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

"So why waste time finding a sub? Can she even use that bow?" Red Arrow glared at Artemis.

"Yes, she can," she replied.

"Who are you?" Red Arrow asked.

"I'm his niece," she said.

"She's my niece," Green Arrow said at the same time.

A skipped heartbeat, an irregular breath, and erratic eye movements.

They were lying.

Interesting. But why? The only reason I could think of from the top of my head was that her true relations were suspicious. And to have her posing as Green Arrow's niece would be a sharp departure from those relations, enough to have us accept her, perhaps. Batman must know the truth.

"But she is not your replacement," Green Arrow said.

Kaldur walked up to Red Arrow with a gentle demeanor, "We have always wanted you on the team. And we have no quota on archers."

"And if we did, you know who we'd pick," Kid Flash said, giving Artemis a sideglance. For a relentless flirt, he sure was… bad at seeing the upside in putting someone like Artemis on the team.

"Whatever, Baywatch," Artemis scoffed, "I'm here to stay.

More weak-sauce teammates. Artemis was one thing, and she redeemed herself by being amusing, but Red Arrow too? I raised a hand, "I really don't see the point of archery in general. Just use guns," I grinned. "Or something that packs more of a punch than an arrow with a boxing glove at the end."

"Hey, now—" Green Arrow said.

"That's not—!" Artemis shouted.

"How bout you—?" Roy growled, and all their complaints blended into one as they unloaded their irritation on me.

Robin, Aqualad and Kid Flash shook their head at me, looking angry.

I chuckled, "Sorry, sorry. I'll stop telling the truth. Anyway, I'm… tired of all this dumb squabbling. Batman, you had something for us Teen Titans, right?"

"Teen Titans?" Red Arrow asked in disgust. "Whatever," he removed a phone thing from his pocket and pressed a button, casting a projection from the hologram. "I came to you because of this. This is Dr. Serling Roquette." The picture showed a blond nerdy-looking lady with short hair.

Robin recognized her, "Nanorobotics genius and claytronics expert at Royal University in Star City… vanished two weeks ago."

"Abducted two weeks ago by the League of Shadows," Red said.

"Whoa!" Kid Flash burst out, "You want us to rescue her from the League of Shadows?" Ah, the company that sent the sword lady to scope me out. Fun that I'd get to see them again so soon.

"No need for the rescue," Red Arrow scoffed, "I already took care of that."

"Oh, so you came here to brag," I chuckled.

Red Arrow sighed, "Can you shut up?"

I zipped my mouth shut. The grown-ups were giving me annoyed glares. That meant I was doing something right.

"Only one problem," Red Arrow continued, "The Shadows had already coerced her into creating a weapon. Doc calls it The Fog, comprised of millions of microscopic robots."

The projection showed those as well, an insectile little bug creature made of metal, microscopic in scale.

"Nanotech infiltrators," Red Arrow continued, "Capable of disintegrating anything in their path. Concrete, steel, flesh, bone. But its true purpose isn't mere destruction. It's theft. The infiltrators eat and store raw data from any computer system and deliver the stolen intel to the Shadows providing them access to weapons, strategic defense, cutting-edge science and tech."

That sounded like a lot of work for just stealing information. Conventional hacking could do all this, and it also wouldn't leave crumbling buildings behind in their wake.

Artemis spoke up, "Perfect for extortion, manipulation, power broking. Yeah, sounds like the Shadows."

Kid Flash scoffed at her, "Like you know anything about the Shadows."

Artemis just grinned at him.

"Who are you?!" Kid Flash shouted.

I narrowed my blindfolded eyes at her. This was a total shot in the dark, and definitely all kinds of wrong, but… "You're a former Shadow, aren't ya?"

Artemis widened her eyes at me and scowled fiercely, "No! Why would you even say that?"

Aww. She was a redemption case!

"Yeah, Infinity," Kid Flash looked at me askance, "I mean, that's a little messed up. She's a freak, but probably not a monster."

"Freak?" she scoffed.

I laughed. "I won't hold that against you, Artemis. I've probably done worse things than you in my past."

"Whatever, dude," she scowled, her eyes darting about briefly, but quite nervously. She was scared to be rejected. So cute!

"Alright, Reddy," I gestured at the younger arrow man, "Do go on. Where do we come in? You need me to sweep up the nanotech swarm? Are we hitting the control stations? What's the plan, arrow man?"

"I thought I told you to shut up," he said in Japanese. An admirable accent to boot. Artemis raised her eyebrow at him.

I damn near burst out laughing. "Man, you're such a hothead! Fine, sorry! I'll keep mum."

"Roquette's working on a virus to render The Fog inert. But if the Shadows know she can do that..." Red Arrow said.

"They'll target her," Robin completed.

"Right now she's off the grid. I stashed her at the high school's computer lab," he said.

Is that really 'off the grid'? Why couldn't she just come here? Eh, whatever. I wasn't paid to think. In fact, I was barely paid at all.

"You left her alone?" Robin asked.

"She's safe, for now," Red Arrow said.

Green Arrow put his hand on Red Arrow's shoulder, their contact making a Yellow Arrow, "Then let's you and I keep her that way."

"You and I?" Red Arrow scoffed, wrenching away his shoulder, "Don't you wanna take your new protégé?"

"You brought this to the team," Green Arrow said, "It's their mission which means it's hers now too."

"Teen Titans," I said.

"No," Robin immediately said.

Red Arrow looked at us unimpressed, "My job's done then." He walked back to the Zeta Tube, "Recognized," the computer said, "Speedy, B Zero Six."

"That's Red Arrow, B06. Update." Then he finally disappeared.

"Wow!" I let out a cry of relief, and then looked at Robin wide-eyed, "You guys actually want him on the team?!"

"Step easy, Infinity," Aqualad said warningly, "We've known him longer than we've known you. And I consider him to be one of my dearest friends in the surface world." Poor taste, then.

"Fine, fine, sorry," I said, then turned to Artemis, "Whatever they say, Artemis, you're my favorite Arrow." She rolled her eyes at me.

"What was that about Teen Titans anyway?" Kid Flash asked.