Young Justice: Solstice

Twenty-One

Baby, crying.

Gasoline, dripping.

Smoke, suffocating.

Wind, stinging.

My eyelids we're heavy as I tried to open them.

"Papa? Mama?" I asked, limbs shaking as I tried to stand up.

"I'm here, Kiran, we're here." My dad turned in his seat at the front of the plane so that I could see him. His glasses were broken, but he still tried to smile at him.

Mum hushed, whispering a lullaby to the baby in her arms, who slowly stopped crying. A trail of red dribbled down the side of her head, darker than the bright red bindi in the center of her forehead, smeared slightly.

"Papa, what happened?" I asked.

"We crashed, Kiran." He explained gently, crawling over the wreckage to sit next to me, facing Mum and the baby.

"But don't worry, sunshine. We will get out if this. I know we will.

"Someone will help us."

-------

The helicopter would have continued in a downward spiral had Rocket not caught it in her shield bubble.

"Get the people out! I'm gonna see if it can set this down somewhere it can be salvaged, but if I lose control I don't wanna lose these people!"

"Got it!" I told her.

She left the bottom half of the shield, the part holding it up, and the top half dissolved to let me through in order to grab the traffic reporter and the pilot inside the malfunctioning helicopter.

I barely managed to keep a grip in them long enough to get them to the safety of a nearby rooftop. Thankfully, it had a door unlocked leading inside. Flight was awesome, but strength was not my forte. I don't know if I could have carried two fully grown human beings all the way to the ground from the height we we're at.

I met up with Rocket again as she lowered the copter gently down on the top floor of a parking garage.

"What next?" I asked eagerly, the tattoo on my wrist glowing brightly as I hopped up and down.

Raquel grinned, tapping her earpiece.

"Watchtower isn't picking up any more distress signals right now, no league missions either. I'd say the day is done." She said.

"Oh." I landed neatly on the cement next to her.

"Come on, let's head to my place and do some training. I think Amistad's babysitter is wondering where I've been."

We picked up Raquel's son from the daycare, but instead of taking the zeta tubes to the Watchtower, we flew to an inconspicuous warehouse in the storage distract.

Inconspicuous, except for the biological code key.

"Icon and Black Lightning built this to train their proteges- and their daughters if you're Black Lightning.

"The walls may not look like much," she waved to the ratty looking mats covering the walls, ceiling, and floor, "But they're soundproofed, built to absorb lightning, and they won't break your bones if you fly into them."

There was a sink and a fridge in the corner for water and other cool drinks, and a shower walled off in the back for after training.

"This is cool," I grinned, already taking flight. Raquel took a pack'n play out of the closet, placing Amistad inside before she started barking instructions.

I still practiced hand to hand combat with Artemis, and I trained in stealth with the team, which mostly required me cutting off my powers so that I wouldn't stand out like a freaking glowstick (Karen was still working on the science of that refracted light shield). Raquel taught me to move fast, think fast, and observe everything. She picked up where Cassie left off, teaching me to deflect a shot with my light, and control a bust if light enough to hit a target.

She wasn't easy on me, but she was didn't crack down as hard as Artemis, which was a nice balance. And it Ami's squeals at the bursts of light we're ever so slightly encouraging.

Raquel had several of her bubble shields floating in the air, and I shot my bolts of light at them. Hard enough to be absorbed in the shield, but not hard enough that they would bounce off and singe the walls, or hit someone else.

In the middle of our control exercise, my phone rang. Raquel answered it, since I was floating up by the ceiling.

"Who is it? What's it about?" I asked, my cheeks blushing red at the thought of Kaldur...and what happened last night.

She grinned up at me.

"Didn't you say you wanted to visit Atlantis someday?"

-------

"Where's Aqualad?" I asked, looking around at the Alpha Squad assembled for today's mission. Superboy, Miss Martian, Lagoon Boy, Wonder Girl, and Blue Beetle.

"Batman had another assignment for him." Batgirl dismissed quickly, her tone hiding something.

"But we're going to Atlantis," Cassie pointed out, "Isn't this like his territory?"

"Yeah, but that's why you got me!" Lagoon Boy said quickly, flexing to distract me, Cassie, and Jaime. I pretended to groan, but still grinned at him.

Miss Martian and Superboy remained ever stoic, not curious in the least as to where their leader and fellow senior team member could be.

Batgirl activated the computer, cutting off any further questions.

"Less than two hours ago, a group of Purists- Atlantean terrorists," she added for my benefit, "-Attacked the capital of Poseidonis and kidnapped Aquaman's son, demanding a ransom in return for his safety. Of course, we aren't going to let them get away with that. But we can't let Aquaman and the entire Atlantean army crashing and attack them and risk the prince getting hurt. Your mission is to infiltrate known Purist bases, find Prince Joseph, and get him out.

"Superboy, you'll be leading alpha." She handed him a waterproof tablet with all the data on Purists and their hiding spots.

"Take the bioship. You leave immediately."