the robin & the canary; young justice

o13: Alpha Male

M O U N T J U S T I C E
September 23, 06:34 EDT

For almost as long as she could remember, Rhysalin Queen had hated to lie. She didn't know when the concept had first stuck with her, but she knew that it had been even before she had been adopted by Oliver, and before her biological parents died.

It was a bit hypocritical once she thought about it. The girl that hated to lie was currently lying to her friends about whether or not there was a mole, a traitor, within their ranks.

Well, it wasn't like she was intentionally lying to Robin and the others, they had just never conceived the notion that there might be a mole among them, and Silverbird had never told them.

She had wanted to, oh how she'd wanted to, but Kaldur had said it would be better, if there really was a mole, to not tip he or she off by alerting the others.

Reese called bullshit on that.

As such, it wasn't exactly looking like hiding the mole intel from the rest of the team was entirely viable anymore. Red Tornado, their friend, their "den mother", so to speak, had seemed to be the mole.

Reese's lower legs had been burned, badly, by who she could only describe as Tornado's sister, another "Red Android", only this one could control fire.

Her wounds had been treated and bandaged, but the second-degree burns that crisscrossed Reese's calves and ankles would still take a good two to three weeks to fully heal, and it was unlikely Oliver would let her do anything even remotely hero-like during that time.

"Hey," Silverbird blinked her eyes open to find Robin, who was sitting next to her, staring down at her worriedly. "You okay? Your burns aren't hurting again, are they?"

Of course, her burns hurt. How would you feel if, while you were climbing through vents, a robot suddenly shot a stream of red-orange flame right at you, and you were able to feel it burning through your skin?

"Yeah," she whispered softly, and Dick's eyes narrowed. "But, I'll be okay," Two weeks of bed rest if Ollie had anything to say about it, but yeah, she'd be okay.

Robin still looked skeptical, but Reese only reached over, placing her hand over his.

"I'm fine, Boy Wonder," she told him. "Really,"

At that moment, almost as if he had planned it, Green Arrow walked up, setting a bowl of pretzels in between the two birds and making them separate.

Wally, who was sitting across from them, and to Silverbird's shock, just pushed the bowl away from him, rather than eating it all at once.

"Thanks," KF began. "But no thanks,"

"Yeah," Robin agreed. "What we want are answers. About Red Tornado and his siblings,"

"Exactly," Wally retorted, but when Oliver went to take the bowl of pretzels away, the redhead latched his hand onto it. "Leave the bowl,"

As he began to munch on the salty snacks, Reese rolled her eyes. That boy was like a human garbage disposal.

Then, Reese turned her head to the side, where she was able to see Aqualad talking to Batman, and she sighed. She had wanted to tell Bruce about the mole with Kaldur, but Aqualad had said that he wanted to bear this burden alone, saying that Reese needn't feel worse than she already did by lying to her friends.

But, even though she wasn't briefing Batman with Aqualad, it didn't mean that she wasn't able to listen in on them.

"During the Taipei mission with Red Arrow--" Kaldur was saying, which Reese found odd. He didn't even mention her being in Taiwan with him and Roy. "Sportsmaster revealed the possibility of a mole within the Team. In light of last night's attack, Tornado would appear to be the traitor. Though whether he betrayed us willingly, or was preprogrammed to is still--"