Done! :D

The title's supposed to be 'Keep Your Friends Close, and Your Family Closer', but the title thingamajig isn't letting me put a longer title.

Woot! I finished this story! I'll admit, I'm not satisfied with this chapter...thing is, is that this chapter seems like it's missing the whole action aspect...not to mention that the end lines were a bit cheesy, but maybe it's just me.

So! Trust! And a whopping 2,700 words! I hope I don't disappoint!

And my theory of who the mole really is...let's see how that goes!

You know, I think I'm going to start replying to people by PM...much simpler :)

And a note:

See recently, I've been very busy, and I kind of skirted the why I was so busy. The reason is that I'm in charge of a repository on YouTube...some of you guys might have heard me mention it, YJFanVids...so yeah! That's what I've been doing that's gotten me sidetracked from my stories...but I promise I'll try to get my updates back on track!

So, as always, please enjoy and don't forget to review! :D

After her father left, Artemis got up from where she was, and walked over to the closet. She opened the door again, and caught the attacking mops before they'd hit her. Then a voice asked "Is he gone?"

Artemis looked above her, and saw Wally, crouched on top of a shelf, teetering on the brink of falling. "Yep, he is." Artemis nodded, not having enough strength to think of something witty to reply with.

Wally jumped down from where he was perched, and tons of cracks were heard as he stretched his sore back. "I don't know how Rob does that." He then looked towards Artemis, closing the door of the closet.

"You can leave if you want." Artemis stated, walking away. "Don't leave through the front entrance though, my dad's probably still standing there."

Wally used some of his super speed to catch up to Artemis, and stand in front of her. "Hey, I'm not leaving you. I know that you weren't-"

"You don't know, so please Wally, just-"

The door opened, and out wheeled Artemis' mom. "Artemis? Where did your father go?"

"He- he had to leave. Some urgent business." Artemis replied.

Paula saw Wally. "And who's this?"

Wally smiled politely, hiding his surprise at seeing that Artemis' mother was paraplegic. "Wally West."

"Well," Paula smiled. "Isn't this nice? Come on inside, and don't mind Artemis, she always seems to be in a mood when her father comes to visit."

"Mom!" Artemis groaned.

"But it's true." Paula pointed out.

"Because you don't have issues with your ex-husband coming for a visit?"

Paula shrugged. "At least I maintain my dignity, unlike you, who acts as though your father will pull out a gun and massacre us."

Artemis mumbled something in response, and went inside.

"Join us for dinner, I made three plates anyway." Paula Crock beckoned Wally inside, and he complied.

After they closed the door, Artemis came back to the doorway, her face a mask of anger. "West! Why in the world is the rest of the team in the living room?"

Paula blinked, and went to the living room to see what Artemis was talking about. Sure enough, there were four teenagers sitting in the couch. As soon as they saw her, they all quickly hid their surprise by smiling shyly and waving.

Meanwhile, Wally was backed up against the door, facing the very angry archer. He sighed and replied, "Look, I called back-up, so what?"

"So what?" Artemis exclaimed. "So what is that you're endangering all of us by bringing the cavalry. And if at least the 'back-up' was subtle, I wouldn't have minded, the problem, West, is that this team is about as subtle as a honking truck! And if my father catches wind of this, we're all goners!"

"Yeah? We may not be subtle, but we're at least trying to help you! Which is more than I can say for your ninja pals!" Wally yelled back.

"Guys, how about we save all of this for some marriage counselling, and we start leaving before Sportsmaster comes back with his own team." Robin called out.

Artemis and Wally glared at each other, and finally Artemis consented.

Paula was calmly told that this move was just for her personal security, and that both of them would be moving to the mountain for some time.

Some minutes later, they were all packed and boarded Megan's bioship, leaving the dreary Gotham apartment behind.

==Some time later

The bioship arrived at the mountain, and everyone disembarked quietly. Paula Crock looked around with curiosity, and while no one was looking, she wheeled off quietly. The team, meanwhile, helped to take out all of the Crocks' baggage.

"I'm going to go and prepare dinner." Megan said, flying off.

Artemis looked around, "Where did my mom go?"

Wally shrugged. "Hmm, I don't know."

"I'll go check." Aqualad, ever the gentleman, offered, rushing off.

Some minutes later, as they were nearly done unpacking everything, alarms began to blare, and lights to bathe the mountain in red.

"Um, Rob?" Wally yelled, cringing at the loud noise. "Bad time to test the security system!"

Superboy, with his super hearing, was worse off, and was trying to block out the noise by covering his ears with his hands, but was having no success.

"I'm not doing anything!" Robin replied indignant, checking his wrist computer.

"Well Bird Boy, since you're not doing anything, how about shutting down this cacophony! Preferably before we end up deaf!" Artemis growled.

Robin managed to shut down the alarm system, and everyone sighed. Megan came flying back, looking scared. "What happened?"

"I don't know," Robin replied, "I shut down the security system, since it went haywire. It'll take a couple of minutes for me to reboot it, and I need to connect to the main teleporter."

"Then let's go!" Wally, the ever excited one, was ready to zip there.

"And why, may I ask, are you so excited to go reboot a security system?" Artemis asked sceptically.

Wally shrugged. "It means that we get to eat sooner."

Artemis sighed. "Always about food."

Robin rolled his eyes. And as he started to leave, he yelled back, "Hey lovebirds, how about we actually get going? Bats will have my head if I take too long."

Wally went up to Artemis and whispered. "I may be all about food, but at least I'm not paranoid that a giant Bat will come and lecture me about taking too long in rebooting a security system."

Artemis grinned. "Touché."

==Main Teleporter

As the five team members arrived at their destination, they all froze at the scene in front of them.

Kaldur was unconscious, and Sportsmaster was holding him to his chest, and knife trained to Kaldur's throat. A small legion of faceless ninjas stood behind him.

"Now, let's make this easy, Bird Boy." Sportsmaster grinned wickedly behind his mask. "You give me the codes for the Justice League security system, or your precious leader will lose his head."

The whole team looked at Robin, and the latter made eye contact with Wally. Wally understood his signal, and went on a relatively suicidal mission towards the villains, but one of the ninjas came prepared, and took out a stick, tripping him. The other ninjas used this as a cue to attack the rest of the team.

As Wally fell face first, unconscious, a ninja picked him up and tied him up. The rest of the team was quickly went down with him, and was tied up. Even Superboy was easily subdued with a quick attack that rendered him immobile and unconscious.

"Did you actually think you could defeat me like this?" Sportsmaster cackled. "Now boy, the code."

Artemis struggled, and yelled out. "What did you do to my mother, you monster?"

Sportsmaster chuckled. As if on cue, Paula Crock appeared, Robin's laptop on her lap.

Artemis was speechless. "Mom? You're with him? Why? He's a monster! He's the one responsible for you being on a wheelchair!"

Paula Crock smirked, and laughed mirthlessly. "Oh my, you actually bought it all? Incredible."

Then as the three conscious team mates watched, Paula Crock stood up from her wheelchair and walked over to her husband, laptop still in hand.

"You- you liar!" Artemis spat, dumbfounded.

Paula Crock shared a look with Lawrence, and then she turned back to her daughter, smirking. "Haven't you ever wondered, Artemis, at the fact that while your father and I were separated, I kept the same last name? Or maybe, how I always manage to get my way with you? And how the Shadows seem to have so much in-depth information? I didn't do my best job at being the helpless mother here, but you must be really out of it if you didn't see that one coming. And all that cock and bull story about your father holding me ransom was all a lie. The best way to hold someone ransom is to have them on your side, to make sure nothing goes wrong."

Artemis, in her rage, tried to free herself, but it was no use.

"Now, dear girl, don't worry, I'll tell Sensei about how you helped us out, after all, your little fish friend fell right into our arms here. Not to mention that your boyfriend calling the rest of the boy scouts was perfect for our infiltration." Sportsmaster chuckled. "As soon as the demolition team is done, we'll leave this mountain to be blown up, and this will be the beginning of a beautiful downfall."

"So boy, the code?" Sportsmaster ordered, driving the knife closer to Kaldur's throat.

Robin sighed, and complied, telling them the code. They tested it out to see if he was bluffing, and to everyone's surpise, it actually worked. They started messing around with the system, waiting for the rest of the demolitions team to finish their mission.

Some minutes later, some ninjas came in, and Sportsmaster conferred with them. After they were done, Sportsmaster walked up to the remaining heroes. "Well, I'm sure the Justice League will give you guys a fitting funeral. Not that they give a damn about you."

Robin growled, trying to fight Sportsmaster, but a swift kick to the gut quickly made Robin go back to his previous position.

"Enjoy your last 20 minutes before the bomb blow up." Paula Crock smirked.

As the Shadows left, they turned off all the lights, leaving them to die in the darkness.

"So, who else is up?" Artemis asked, trying to get a sense of who else was still hanging on.

"Me." Megan replied, sitting beside her.

"Me." Robin coughed, still in pain from where Sportsmaster's boot struck him.

"Hmm, we're kind of at dead end here. Megan can you shift through these ropes?" Artemis was wildly trying to think of how to get out of here.

Artemis felt Megan shake her head. "I haven't learned how to do that yet."

Robin coughed, "If only we had some sort of weapon. I just had to let go of my utility belt when we were taking out all the luggage."

Artemis perked up. "Megan, can you levitate a knife from the kitchen?"

Megan concentrated, trying to visualize the knives in the kitchen. Suddenly, she felt that familiar sensation as the knife started flying towards her. "Got it!"

"Great." Robin muttered, "But I doubt a kitchen knife will cut through this."

Artemis rolled her eyes. "Sportsmaster left us for dead...he doesn't care about rope quality, he prefers to waste the good rope for victims that he wants to keep."

"Right." Robin drawled. "I'll pretend to not be disturbed by that."

"Now what?" Megan asked, the faint twinkling from the blade barely noticeable.

"Pass it here." Artemis said. As Megan moved the blade carefully to her hand. It slipped a bit, and her hand got a nice gash, but it was still functional. "Got it."

Artemis started sawing through the ropes, while the other two waited with baited breath. When they felt the rope slack, they sighed, relaxing.

Robin started to turn the lights back on, as well as call the League and tell them exactly what was going on. Megan went to tend to the three boys, starting with Aqualad, and Artemis went off to find the bomb. They had already wasted 12 precious minutes, and they needed to disarm it as fast as they could.

==6 minutes later

The League had arrived, and while the boys were going to be alright, Kaldur was in critical condition, and taken to the Watchtower Med Bay.

The rest of the League went to do damage control, and before they left, they told Robin and Megan to find Artemis and leave, and most importantly, to not try and disarm the bomb.

Megan and Robin wildly tried to find Artemis but had no such luck. Megan then tried to communicate with Artemis telepathically, and they managed to locate her in the training room, with the bomb.

"Come on Artemis, and let's get out of here!" Robin exclaimed.

"No, we have to disarm this!" Artemis explained.

"Why?" Megan asked. "We have to get out of here!"

Artemis groaned in frustration. "Don't you get it? This bomb is set to destroy more than just the mountain. It's set to destroy the nearest couple of square blocks as well, and I prefer to disarm one bomb, instead of evacuating people!"

"Artemis, the League will handle it." Megan replied, scared for their survival.

"No." Robin said, quietly. "If we let the bomb go off, the League will take down this group, saying that we're a liability. We need to prove ourselves...again."

"Thank you!" Artemis exclaimed. "Now let's get this bomb shut down."

Together, they started trying to disarm it.

==4 minutes later

Batman walked towards the mountain, worried. No one knew the whereabouts of the three remaining team members, and from what he had been told, the mountain was about to blow at any second.

Suddenly, Batman sighed as he saw the three heroes shuffling out, smiling. But then, the ground shook, as an explosion blew the three teens out of the mountain, and into a state of unconsciousness.

==Watchtower Med Bay,

Artemis slowly woke up, and groaned as the bright lights started to bother her.

"Hey! She's up guys!" Wally's voice drifted to her.

Artemis opened her eyes, and saw Megan, Robin, Wally and Conner smiling at her.

"What happened?" Artemis asked. "I thought we disarmed the bomb?"

Megan looked down at this. "Actually, that's my fault. I forgot to turn the oven off after I came running to you guys. So the oven kind of blew up."

Artemis was flabbergasted. "You're kidding me right? We disarmed a freaking bomb only to be destroyed by an oven overheating?" Artemis then looked around and noticed something. "Where's Kaldur?"

Robin smiled. "He's fine. He's doing much better, and he actually woke up some time ago. But poor guy's still hurt, and he needs rest, but he'll be better soon."

Artemis smiled. But then she remembered her parents and a frown crossed her face. "I'm sorry guys, I never meant for this to happen."

Wally looked confused. "Why do you keep blaming yourself?"

"Because, all the stuff I told my mom, she relayed back to the Shadows. Not to mention I brought her into the mountain." Artemis sighed and, brining her legs close to her chest, buried her face into her knees.

Wally sat down beside her, pulling her close to him, and made silent gestures for the rest of the team to leave. They all consented, but not before Robin gave one of his signature smirks that promised Wally that he'd pay for this later on.

As the door closed, Wally leaned in and kissed the side of Artemis' head.

At this, Artemis shot up, and tried to escape Wally's grip, but with no avail. "Why do you insist on staying with me? Are you that paranoid that I'll kill you or something?"

Wally shook his head. "No, it's because I like you."

Artemis scoffed. "You kissed me, you acted all kind to me, and now you want to tell me that you like me?"

"I do like you!" Wally exclaimed.

"What happened to that girl at school you liked?" Artemis scoffed.

Wally sighed, and explained his weird dream. "So, ever since, I've been kind of wishing that us dating would happen."

Artemis chuckled. "You have a very interesting way of asking me out. Points on the creative dream though."

Wally perked up. "So, does that mean you'll go out with me?"

Artemis was laughing now, and wasn't even able to reply to him.

Wally frowned, and then pinned her underneath him. "Would it kill you to reply?"

Artemis raised an eyebrow. "Reply with what?"

Wally sighed, and smirked. Typical Artemis to make him have to say it, and not her. "That you want to go out with me too, and that you like me?"

Artemis pushed herself up, catching Wally by surprise, and they switched positions, with her pinning him down. She smirked widely and, with her face close to his, she whispered. "I'll never say it."

Before Wally could come up with a retort, she kissed him, and Wally knew right then, that while Artemis wouldn't admit it, she liked him as much as he did her.

Sooo, The End!

Like I said, open ended, cheesy end lines, and the action was missing.

And yes, I believe that Paula Crock is the mole! Come on! I think that she'd be the perfect mole!

Anyway...I'll go back to my regular updates, and I'll try to update my other stories soon!

Please leave me a review, and I hoped you enjoyed this story!

Hezpeller