My life outside the Mythical World

Depths

Dick's POV

He didn't sleep last night. Thoughts of the future and the past swirled inside his head. Even though the plan has been laid down( so did the backup plan and the back-up-back-up plan), he fears the unseen/unexpected incident that might occur. He is the one responsible for sending his friends, his teammates, into the lion's den after all.

Dick spends the night taking out his anger and his frustration on his punching bag. And by the time he had to leave for the mission, his poor punching bag was no longer considered a punching bag. The tough fabric was torn in several places and trickling sand poured out from the holes and scattered around his basement. His hands shook from over-exhaustion, his knuckles red and bloody from punching. He didn't stay to clean up, simply just took a quick shower and put on his suit, and headed out.

The Cave portrays a big contrast to what was happening inside his heart. The hollowed-out mountain was buzzing with life. He knew why: Artemis, their longtime comrade, is rejoining the Team for one last mission. Little did they know, this literally would be her 'last' mission.

Megan and La'gaan were chilling in the kitchen, talking and laughing. Connor was standing to the side, a sour look on his face as usual. Megan suddenly burst out laughing, "La'gaan, don't eat so fast."

Lagoon Boy hunched over the platter Megan was holding, three freshly baked pastries in one hand, stuffing them down his throat one after another. "I can't help it, Angelfish," He said through a full mouth. "The idea of cooking crabs is amazing enough. But making them into little cakes?"

"Well, you're gonna choke..." his girlfriend chided, wiping away a smudge of crumbs on his cheek for him.

It felt kind of disturbing that Lagoon Boy, a teen from the ocean, loves to eat seafood. What would Percy think if she's here? That thought made him sad and watching the couple did not help at all. He remembered the few times Percy had the enthusiasm to bake cookies. It didn't turn out well the first time, the kitchen was almost burned down and Alfred almost banned them from ever entering the place, but after a few more times, Percy's cookies were as good as Alfred's.

The memory raised a bitter smile to Nightwing's lips. As soon as this is all done, he thought, resting a hand on the pocket where he kept the small locator, he is going to track down the girl, no matter where she is. He glanced down at his wrist computer, Artemis should be arriving soon.

Even though the blonde archer had retired for quite a while now, she's still as punctual as ever.

"Recognized, Artemis B07"

Megan screeched happily, flying over to hug the archer. Dick put on a brave smile and relaxed attitude and walked over as well. The return of Artemis caused quite some excitement amongst the Team.

"Welcome back, girl," Mal said, hugging Artemis.

"Hey, Mal," Artemis greeted. Since her renunciation of the hero's life, the daughter of Sportsmaster had changed a lot, in a good way. She seemed happier, eyes full of light, her long ponytail had been cut short to shoulder-level.

Nightwing gave the older girl a side-hug. "We have so missed you around here." He said. "Alright, listen up, Gamma Squad." He said to the ones currently at the Cave, hence the ones who would be going on the mission/ monitoring it. Dick turned on the holo-screen in the center of the room to show his Teammates the map.

"The mission is Cape Canaveral. Covert up to safeguard the first Earth-Mars Comsat. There are people out there who don't even like the idea of aliens and will do anything to scrub this launch." He explained. Megan looked uncomfortable at this, Artemis laid a hand on her shoulder.