"You could've warned me!" Robin glances momentarily away from his opponent to glance at the speaker. "You're supposed to know whether or not an alarm will go off you open the door! That's why you're the tech guy!"

"Well, maybe if you hadn't been distracting me, I'd have noticed the alarm system hooked up to the mechanism!" Robin shot back, dodging a blow from a ninja with a face mask. "But noooo! You've got to jabber about every single stinking thing that runs through your head!"

"Yeah, Kid Idiot!" Robin didn't have to look up to know that Artemis was talking between shots. "You're such a blabbermouth! Just shut your trap for once!"

On the opposite side of the room, Kid Flash tensed visibly in anger before furiously lashing out at his opponent. "You try living with a brain that goes as fast as mine for one day, Artemis, I dare you, and I swear you'll talk ten times as much as I do! And this isn't even about you! This is me and Rob. If you want to criticize someone, maybe you should point to yourself! After all, it sure wasn't me who shot a ROBOT with laughing gas and expected it to have an effect!"

"I thought it was a person!" Artemis fumed. "Just shut up, you jerk!"

"Who you calling jerk?" Superboy's head whipped around to look at the blond before he smashed his fist into a robot's head. "If you'd have just done the stupid mind link with M'gann before we left the bioship, we wouldn't have had to come rescue you from your own mess!"

"Stupid mind link?" M'gann's voice sounded uncharacteristically angry as she used telepathy to smash two ninjas' heads together, effectively knocking them out. "Strange how my mind link isn't stupid when you need us to come save your butt!"

"There is no need for this kind of argument during a battle," Aqualad said decidedly in his "leader" voice. "We must keep focus and work together as a team."

"Some team!" Kid Flash snarled. "You made us walk into a trap, fish head!"

"Kid Flash, this is not the time to-"

"I disagree with you one hundred percent," Robin hissed, tapping his holographic computer screen and sounding annoyed. "Don't put off until tomorrow what you do today, you always say?"

"Robin, you know as well as I that is neither the correct time nor the correct place to argue about such petty mishaps. Everyone makes mistakes.'

"Maybe so, but that doesn't mean that everyone should get a free pass for their mistakes." Robin's glare is aimed at both Superboy and Kid Flash through the mask.

Aqualad was starting to feel desperate. He had to call it. There were so many opponents, and they showed no sign of their numbers dwindling. They had to get out of the warehouse.

"We are withdrawing into a tactical retreat!" He grabbed Robin by the arm, but the younger boy yanked it away again.

"We're leaving?" His voice sounded demanding. "I don't back down from a fight, got it?

"I am your leader," the Atlantean replied quickly. "I am ordering a retreat! Now!"

Robin's eyebrows went up under the mask,but he scowled and took off out of the building. Superboy followed, with Artemis close behind, still shooting arrows. M'gann and Kid Flash went after them, still seething. Aqualad zapped one more crony before hurriedly making an exit.

Minutes later, they were all flying away in the bioship. Robin refused to make eye contact. M'gann stared out the window. Kid Flash didn't speak. Superboy stared at the wall. Artemis tucked her knees to her chest and ignored the world around her. And Aqualad wondered exactly how a simple recon could end so badly.

They arrived at Mount Justice at about three in the morning. It was an unspoken rule that if the mission took too long, Batman, Black Canary, and Red Tornado would ask for mission details in the morning. But the world's greatest detective couldn't help but notice that there was a lack of "good-nights" among the members. And no end to the knife-like glares that shot from their eyes. Batman was suddenly very grateful that Superboy hadn't inherited laser vision from Superman.

"Something happened on their mission tonight," Black Canary said, giving Batman a pointed stare, "and they have not been getting along recently."

"Looks like one person finally snapped and it all went downhill."

"They have not been themselves as of late." Red Tornado's metal feet clanked softly against the floor. "But I have considered the possibilities, and I believe that if this goes on much longer, the team will be in a great deal of trouble."

"We've got to try to reteach them to be a team."

"How?"

"Martian Manhunter, of course."

The next morning, Aqualad entered the training room and was a little surprised to see that the rest of the team was already there and waiting. Aqualad blinked. "Did i... uh... miss the memo?"

"No." Batman stepped out of the shadows in the far corner and approached slowly, like he had all the time in the world.

"We have come up with a new training system," Batman addressed the team. "We are going to send your subconscious mind into an alternate universe that J'honn has already created in his mind."

M'gann shrunk backwards. "Thought we had a bad experience with that?"

"It is different this time," Martian Manhunter told her. "It is not a setting in which you can take control, M'gann."

"Sure, unless Wally manages to find a day to mess that up, too." Artemis growled. She received a glare from the speedster, but she ignored him with a self-satisfied smirk.

"We are sending you into an alternate reality where you will learn to respect and honor each other," Black Canary cut in, seeing the two teens' interaction.

"A word of advice," Batman suggested gruffly. "Learn quick."

Wally blinked when he suddenly felt dizzy. His vision blurred mind-numbingly, and it was all he could do to keep from falling over. He closed his eyes, trying to make the world stop spinning. Then someone yelled in his ear.

Wally sat up from his new position on the floor and rubbed his head with a groan. Black Canary was looking at him worriedly. "What happened?" Wally asked, trying to ignore the thumping headache that wasn't there a few moments before.

"We tried to send you to the alternate reality. But something happened. You never actually entered the state of mind necessary for the journey. You all just passed out."

Wally glanced around. His teammates were scattered around the room. Robin sat on the ground nearby, rubbing his head and muttering angrily. Kaldur was pacing anxiously between Robin and Superboy. Superboy leaned against the wall and scowled. Artemis sat in a chair and rubbed her temples. And M'gann was speaking animatedly to her uncle.

"You had nothing to do with what happened," J'honn reassured. "It was entirely my own fault. I did not have the alternate reality thoroughly mapped out in my head. Nothing would have happened either way. Everyone will be fine."

"I'll bet Wally had something to do with this!" Artemis announced suddenly. The room froze.

"Why do you say that?" M'gann asked slowly.

"Because he messes everything up," the archer replied quickly. "I'll bet that he did something."

Wally's ears burned as Superboy frowned. "How could Wally mess with Martian Manhunter's head?" Superboy snarled. "If he did, how would you know unless you helped him?"

"That's stupid," Robin interjected quickly.

Artemis whirled. "You're stupid!"

M'gann frowned. "This is ridiculous! How would Wally and Artemis possibly mess with Uncle J'honn's mind? And Robin isn't stupid!"

"M'gann, this doesn't concern you! Stay out of it!" Artemis strode over to Wally and poked him in the chest. "I don't know what you did or how you did it, but I know you're responsible for this!"

Wally West felt hatred boiling in his body. "Listen, Artemis. I don't know what fairy-tale world you came from that you think you own the world, but you don't. Get that straight!"

"You're no better, Wallace," Superboy snapped. "Maybe I did come out of a test tube, but I know for a fact that we can't all have your fantasy life."

"Some fantasy!" Robin spat. "Maybe you think life is all sunshine and roses for us,but you didn't have any tougher than we did!"

"ENOUGH!" All six teens froze and stared at the homicidal Batman and his Bat-glare. "All of you, to your rooms. Now."

"Guess we know what happened last night," Black Canary remarked as the teen disappeared from the room.

"I do not understand what happened," Martian Manhunter said aloud. "The alternate reality was flawless. It should have worked."

"I suppose a new plan is in order?"

But to her surprise, Batman didn't answer. Instead, he blinked behind his cowl and said, "Perhaps not."

Meanwhile, Kaldur lay on his bed and tried to make sense of it all. His team had just suddenly begun fighting over everything. At first, it was only Wally and Artemis. Then Superboy started putting his two cents on occasion. Robin made a crude remark from time to time. Someone insulted Miss Martian, and suddenly, his companions were enemies. He wished he could go back to Atlantis at times like these, times when he just wanted to leave his life on the surface and take to the air.

He wondered what it was like to fly.

Robin kicked his bedpost. It hurt. But his anger made him worse somehow. He felt so hot. So angry. So hot. He wanted to cool off a little. Maybe swimming? No, it was too late. He had gotten angry instead, and was now locked in his room with nothing but his own fiery, raging self. He wished he was in the ocean.

Wally hated Artemis. He wanted to take her bow and snap in half over his knee. Then it occurred to him that he had never actually touched Artemis' bow. He wondered if he could break it with his bare hands.

Superboy wished he cold be calm and unconcerned like Kaldur. He wanted to be the opposite of who he was. Someone sweet, kind, caring, gentle, and happy. Someone like M'gann.

Artemis wished she was fast. Fast enough to torment Wally for everything he annoyed her with and about. What was it like to be that fast? It had to be mind-boggling. She wondered if should could ever that fast.

M'gann found herself crying. She hated crying. Crying was weak. She wanted to be strong. Hard. Sometimes, even unfeeling. Because every time her heart breaks, she isn't strong, and she hates it. Why can't she be strong?

As the teens slept, a gentle rumble came from beneath the ground. No one felt it at the moment. But it was about to change them forever. It would make them a real team. For real.