Young Justice: Solstice

Twenty-Two

The white diamond on Zatanna's charm bracelet glowed as bright as my tattoo did. She'd stopped me in transit to Miss Martian's bioship, and told me it would help me breathe and withstand the pressure of the water in Atlantis for up to five hours at a time, depending on how deep I was. However, it would require about five minutes out of water to charge back up.

I wondered why I was being sent if I couldn't take the pressure, like everyone else. I wanted to go find Kaldur and ask him what was up, but Batgirl said my particular skill might come in handy against the dim-dwelling Purists.

So now I found myself on the bioship with the rest of Alpha Squad, watching the water outside the ship got darker and darker as we went deeper and deeper.

"La'gaan, are you sure that you don't know where Kaldur is? We could use as many Atlanteans as possible on this!" Cassie said, unable to sit still in her seat.

"If I knew, I'd tell you." La'gaan told her haughtily.

"I know that!" Blue Beetle snapped, glaring over his shoulder at the rear of the cabin.

Cassie, La'gaan and I stared at him, confused.

Superboy sighed, rubbing his eyes. "What's the scarab saying now, Blue?"

"Nothing!" Jaime yelped.

"Scarab?" I asked, my mind instantly flitting to hiroglyphs and ancient Egypt.

Cassie unbuckled her seatbelt with an almost silent "click", and was instantly up in Jaime's face.

"What'd it say?" She demanded.

Jaime nervously gripped the edge of his seat. "It's saying that Lagoon Boy is lying."

As if that weren't obvious.

"Let it rest, Wonder Girl," Superboy commanded, sounding tired and exasperated already as Cassie started to march back across the cabin to Lagoon Boy. " It's fine."

So Superboy knew something too, and so did Miss Martian. But why couldn't they tell us?

My ears popped under the increasing pressure as we drew closer to Atlantis's resting place at the bottom of the sea.

"We'll meet up with Tempest and a few members of the Drift." Superboy said suddenly, reading off the tablet. It seemed to be the only source of light in the cabin. The water outside was growing darker.

"What's the Drift?" Jaime asked.

"Who's Tempest?" I asked.

"Tempest is my friend, he used to be on the team," La'gaan said, "But now he's on the Drift, which is an elite squad of Atlantean soldiers. They're like King Orin's personal bodyguards."

"Oh, cool." I wished that I could ask Kaldur more about Atlantean culture, but he got very awkward every time that Atlantis was brought up. Maybe that was the root of why he wasn't joining us on this mission.

I found myself wishing that he had come by to wish me good luck, and immediately hid my head in my hands. We kissed once. He was the leader of a black ops team that failed to be such in almost every aspect of the name. He had better thing sto do than fall in love with a history nerd like me.

"Hey," Cassie jabbed my shoulder, making me jump. "You okay?"

"Yeah, fine." I insisted.

She eyed me suspiciously. "Do we need to sing Taylor Swift to cheer you up?"

"No." Jaime said quickly.

"Who's Taylor Swift?" Lagoon Boy asked.

Well, I was gonna say no, but now I had to say yes.

Grinning, Cassie patted her thigh and stomped her foot in a quick beat. We broke into "Holy Ground" in unison, not missing a beat. Jaime tried to ignore us, but I saw his toes involuntarily tapping along. Superboy seemed indifferent, but I saw the corner of his mouth twitching upwards. The only one who managed to stay stoic-faced was Miss Martian.

"Wait, wait, wait!" La'gaan interrupted, gasping for breath, having failed in keeping up. 

"How do you sing that fast?"

Cassie and I grinned at each other, a look only two best friends can share.

"Practice!" We laughed.

"Don't worry, LB," I settled back into my chair, definitley less stressed than I had been a minute earlier, "I'll help you put some songs on your phone."

"It'll have to wait until we get back," Miss Martian declared suddenly, the first she'd spoken all day.

"We're here."

Wonder Girl, Blue Beetle and I automatically leaned forward to get a good view out the window.

Lagoon Boy gestured to the bubble dome over the city of Poseidonis.

"Well, chum, welcome to Atlantis."

-------

Tempest was nice enough, but there was definitely something in the air between him, Miss Martian, and Superboy, and Cassie was making too much of an effort to be extra nice.

"I've got coordinates for three known Purist hideouts." Superboy said to Tempest and the five Drift soldiers with him. He, Wonder Girl, and I were all wearing breathing masks that made our voices sound echo-y, but allowed us to breathe underwater. Blue's suit took care of that for him, and La'gaan was already Atlantean. Miss Martian shape-shifted to grow gills like Kaldur's on her neck, as well as translating everything mentally. I wasn't one hundred percent sure how it worked, but Superboy said that it was fine.

"We have two more locations discovered in the past month. We can take those." Tempest nodded, already splitting up his group into teams of three.

Superboy handed a data chip to Cassie. "Lagoon Boy, you take Blue Beetle to scout out Old Roman's Trench. Wonder Girl, Solstice, you two take S'atiroman Cave. Miss Martian and I will take the Arian Reef, outside Shayeris. We'll take the bioship." 

"Sure thing, Boss!" Cassie saluted, an effort to make the ever stone-faced carbon-copy of Superman smile. Even a little bit.

"Stay liquid, minnows!" Lagoon Boy winked at me and Cassie before leading Blue Beetle in the direction of the Trench.

"Come on," I tugged at her arm, pulling her away. "Where do those coordinate lead?"

"Oh! Right!" She activated the tiny colocam, which projected a tiny map. "That way!" She pointed. Then she got a mischevious look in her eye.

"Think you can keep up?"

"Cassie-" I warned. But it was too late. She shot off into the dim water, thanks to her "Speed of Hermes" gift. At least she left a trail of bubbles behind to follow.

"Oh that's how it's gonna be, huh?" I mumbled to myself, fists glowing. The water lit up, surely blinding every fish within a mile, and I flew through the water after my best friend.

smh tfw an artist and their music find their way into EVERY SINGLE THING THAT YOU WRITE

Not that I don't mind including a certain miss swift in my stories (her music is one of my main sources of inspiration, tbh) but I know it may get annoying, especially to those who may not appreciate her genius as I.