𝘿𝙍𝘼𝙂𝙊𝙉, young justice

Chapter Five

THE FOLLOWING evening, Jaye and Artemis were down in the alleyway next to the apartment they shared, as per the instructions of Green Arrow himself. It had been an hour short of twenty-four hours since the two Justice League members had left their home, and Jaye still couldn't get over the idea of joining an actual team.

     Standing beside its archer companion, the wyvern growled low in its throat, senses alert for any sound that could possibly be the man they were waiting for. They'd been out in the humidity longer than it liked to be standing still, and it had already frightened off a street thief, an overly intimate couple looking for a moment alone, and a very unfortunate alley cat.

     To say it was getting nervous would be an understatement.

     Jaye was currently in a form as large as a rhino, which just barely fit comfortably in the alleyway. Tail curled around the feet of Artemis, its neck arched just slightly to pick up every single sound within a half a mile radius, the beast focused solely upon what it could hear beyond the walls of the alley. Cars rolled by, filling the air with the stink of gasoline, choking up the evening with their hideous rumblings.

     The day had been a nice one — hot and sunny as Jaye often preferred. The feeling of warm sunlight against its scales was always welcomed as opposed to the chilling freeze of winter.

     A slight noise above its head caused it to swivel its neck, growling softly and moving its body to shield Artemis with one massive wing. Only when Green Arrow himself jumped down and landed a few paces away did the beast slowly calm down, rumbling low in its throat as a warning.

     One would be surprised at the number of sounds a wyvern such as this could make. Growls of all pitches, rattles deep within the back of its throat, clicks and shrieks like creatures that crawled from the depths of nightmares. Such noises allowed Jaye to communicate its feelings in this form, and because it had chosen Artemis to be its rider, she could understand much of what these different sounds meant.

     And now, Artemis set a hand on Jaye's neck, calming it down as the Justice Leaguer approached them both, eyes warily flickering to the massive rhino-sized beast which was growling at him.

     "Hey there," he greeted Artemis with a wave. "Are you ready?"

     The blonde smirked. "Born ready."

     Green Arrow glanced once again at Jaye, rubbing the back of his neck almost nervously before he motioned for them to follow him further down the alleyway.

     Glad they weren't headed into the open, the wyvern nudged Artemis ahead of it and brought up the rear, slinking through the shadows as its brown-scaled body rippled with muscle. The alley was a network of twists and turns, darkened by the shadows which seemed to live and to breathe, but before long, the archer of the Justice League halted at what looked to be an old phone booth.

     He turned to face the two.

     "This zeta tube will take us to the team's official headquarters." He told them, eyes flickering between the girl and her dragon. "I'll be going first to authorize you, and then you'll be transported to Mount Justice."

     Artemis gave a swift nod of her head in response.

     Jaye lowered its head and watched with slitted eyes as the older hero opened the door to the phone booth, stepping inside and letting it close behind him. It could just barely make out the words of the computer authorizing his entrance into the headquarters, before a bright white light emitted from the old rickety thing. A flare of the nostrils was all it took for the wyvern to know that Green Arrow had vanished, seemingly into thin air.