Young Justice: Solstice

Fifteen

How do you do "Covert"??

"Here, finished just this morning," Black Canary said, handing me a box like those fancy designer stores would put your clothes in after you bought them. 

"By who?" I squeaked.

Canary smirked. "Batman has many friends."

I would have been just fine wearing my regular clothes, much like Superboy did with his whole jeans-and-t-shirt thing, but the team was supposed to be covert, which was kind of a moot point since the whole world knew about them now, thanks to the Reach aliens. Still, Canary told me the point of my uniform was to subdue my powers if I set them off on accident. 

On "stealth mode," it was a black suit with thin yellow accent lines, so it wasn't totally drab. and there was a button on the belt I could push to change it to make the suit completely yellow, if I ever decided to go public with my mentor. Canary said that they were still "figuring it out" on who should be my mentor. I was getting kind of tired with waiting to find out.

I changed into my new uniform in my new bedroom (which was in bad need of being reorganized), adding a sheer shawl because I thought it looked nice. I'd worn it at the gallery fight in London, and I wanted something to make people recognize me. It was sheer enough that it was almost clear, except for a yellowish tint in the fabric.

"What do you think?" I asked Canary, Artemis, and Cassie, who were waiting for me outside my room. I did a little pose for them, despite how ridiculous that felt.

Cassie squealed. "You look amazing!" 

Artemis shrugged dismissively, but a small smile played on her lips. "I'm not a fashion expert, but it fits."

"Does it feel comfortable?" Canary asked. "It'll be harder to fight if it doesn't feel comfortable."

I nodded. "It feels great, like I a genuine superhero now."

"You are a superhero!" Cassie slung her arm around my shoulder, leading me down the hall towards the ops room. "Come on, we gotta get to that briefing!" Her arm moved to grab my hand, and we both took off running.

I heard Artemis laughing somewhere behind us. "Wait for me!" 

The three of us were a very unprofessional-looking mess of laughter and wind-blown hair, but no one seemed to mind.

"Someone's in a good mood," Karen remarked. 

"It's my first mission!" I said and the reality set in. "I-I'm not sure if I should be nervous or excited." I rubbed my arm and bit my lip. 

Karen patted my shoulder. "You're gonna do great! You've already stopped Klarion and took out all his stone statues. You can do anything!"

Someone placed a hand on my other shoulder.

"You have been performing admirably well," Aqualad told me. "I have confidence in your abilities, but should you require any help, we will be there to assist."

I tucked a lock of hair behind my ear, trying to ignore the fact that Cassie was trying not to squeal.

"Thank you, Aqualad. You too, Bumblebee." Karen gave me a thumbs-up, and Aqualad joined Batgirl at the computers, going over the last-minute data before briefing the rest of us. 

The only two people that didn't look pumped for a mission were Superboy, but Cassie assured me his glare was just his resting face and not to take it personally, and Miss Martian, who was standing behind him with her hood pulled up, staring at the floor. I wanted to go over and talk to her, maybe she was still hung up about the whole bedroom mix-up, but then Batgirl started talking.

"Doctor Arthur Light, who strangely, despite his last name, has no connection with The Light, has been reportedly appearing, kidnapping civilians, and disappearing without a trace.

Superboy snorted. "He may not be with The Light, but he's sure taking a page out of their book."

"Before he went crazy from overradiation, Light developed weapons for the government to use in Belle Reve or against other rogue metahumans." Batgirl continued smoothly, as if she hadn't heard the comment. "True to his name, many of these weapons harnessed the power of light concentrated into powerful, superheated bursts. We suspect he may be using those to guard his prison locale."

My eyes went wide as she turned to me. "As far as we know, Light isn't a metahuman and he can't necessarily control light, like you can, Solstice. You're our newest teammate, no one knows anything about you, like what your weaknesses are, that makes you our best weapon against him."

"Me?" I squealed. Cassie squealed. Cassie hugged me tightly.

"Aqualad is mission leader. Bumblebee, Robin, and I are Alpha, we'll hack into Light's equipment and find out what he's doing with these prisoners. Aqualad, Guardian, Superboy, Tigress, and Wonder Girl are beta. You'll be breaking through Light's defenses- the last project he was working on before disappearing was giant, solar-powered robot."

That made Superboy more eager than a puppy on its walk.

"Miss Martian, you'll locate the prisoners with your telepathy and help keep them calm. Solstice, you help wherever you're needed."

"Got it." My voice rang loudly through the mission room as I realized that I was the only one who'd spoken.

"So, where's Light's lab?" Cassie asked loudly, if only to make me feel better.

Aqualad pulled up the map on he large computer screen.

"On the outskirts of London, England."

I did not expect that to take as long as it did.

Thought of the day: Kiran's powers are Photokinesis, which means she controls, weaponizes, and harnesses light. Superman gets his powers from yellow solar radiation, aka light.

Point being, Kiran couldn't defeat Superman by hitting him with her beams of light, but she could kick Superman's butt by draining all the yellow sunlight out of him and the area and then punching him in the face.

So think about that.