Young Justice: Solstice

Twelve

"C'mon, girl, up and at 'em!" yelled the voice, accompanied by the clicking of a light switch on and off.

That voice wasn't my mother's, wasn't my father's, and it wasn't Cassie's or even Doctor Sandsmark's, but it was somehow familiar to me. 

I pushed back unfamiliar covers and looked around an unfamiliar room decorated with cheerleading memorabilia, photos of strange faces, and recipe books.

"Oh gosh I thought it was a dream," I realized, burying my face in my hands.

"Hey," The voice that had awoken me softened as a calloused hand brushed my shoulder.

"Get dressed and meet me in the mess hall, we'll start on your training after breakfast." Tigress told me.

I nodded, still in a daze. "Okay, I'll be right there."

I looked over at my belongings, piled on top of my suitcase in the corner of my borrowed room. I chose my most athletic outfit. Tigress would be training me in combat, not powers. I wondered who would help me learn to use my powers. 

The Watchtower's cafeteria wasn't as full as I expected it to be, and everyone there was crowded around just one of the twenty-something tables.

"Superboy reported in late last night, Alpha squad is currently on Mars with B'arzz O'oom, they think they'll be done in a couple days. Probably get home by the end of the week." Lagoon Boy said, shoveling cheerios in his mouth.

"Did he say what the problem was?" Next to the second Kid Flash, who had mountains of breakfast food stacked around him, was a boy I recognized from the news who had nothing to eat. 

"Nah. We'll probably hear about it in their debrief," Lagoon Boy told him as I sat next to Cassie.

"Want some waffles?" She whispered, offering her plate to me while the others talked conspiracy theories strategies of missions past. I hid my head in my arms on the table, shaking my head.

"I'm not hungry," I mumbled. She rubbed my back for comfort.

"Here," Tigress shoved a banana in my hand that was closest to her. "I'm not training anybody on an empty stomach."

Nodding numbly, I peeled the yellow fruit and took small bites. I couldn't even taste it in my mouth.

"Did you sleep okay last night?" Robin asked, and I was acutely aware of everyone paying attention to me, even if they were having their own conversations. 

"Yeah," I said, as passively as I could.

"We'll work on getting you another room before Miss Martian and Alpha get back." Tigress grabbed her napkin and wiped her fingers, looking almost like she was trying to pull each of them off. "Are you going to college next semester?"

The last twenty-four hours had gone by so fast, any and all future plans I might have had were thrown out the window.

"I'll look into it," I told her.

"Kiran got accepted to Harvard, Cornell, and Delhi University!" Cassie bragged, unable to hold it in. The teammates around the table murmured approvingly, impressed.

"I go to Cornell, and Atom has some pretty big sway there," Said the woman in the black-and-yellow striped suit I'd seen earlier, "I could help you around if you went there."

She leaned across the table, holding out her hand for me to shake. "Sorry we weren't properly introduced the other day. I'm Bumblebee, but you can call me Karen. This big guy next to me is Mal," She elbowed the guy in the golden helmet next to her.

"I go by Guardian," He supplied in a deep, smooth voice, settling his arm around the back of Karen's chair.

"It's nice to meet you both."

"I'm Bart Allen! My buddy Blue is here on the right," Said the second Kid Flash. Blue Beetle waved with a mix of boredom and shyness.

"Hi." I nodded. 

"And of course, you already know Rob, and Babs, and Arty, and Kaldur." It may have been my imagination, but Cassie seemed to drag out his name a moment longer than the others. I gently stepped on her foot under the table.

"So, Tigress, training?" I prompted.

"Oh yeah, c'mon!" Artemis jumped out of her seat and half-grinned as she dashed out of the cafeteria. 

"Yeah, Artemis reeeally likes combat," Cassie supplied, finishing off her orange juice. I ran after Tigress before I could lose her.

The walls of the gym were padded, and so was the ceiling and the floor. I guess when people have super-strength and flight, you have to be prepared for anything.

"Here, put this on," Tigress tossed me a large metal bracelet.

"It's a power dampner," she explained, yanking a few of the training weapons off the racks stationed around the room. "It'll keep you from using your powers while we spar. As far as I know, Cassie's helped you control your powers, but you need to learn to not rely on them explicitly. The bad guys like Black Manta and Vandal Savage and the Brain, they have collars just like that, and they love using them on us. You need to be prepared for not using your powers, because you may find yourself ending up just like me, and Batgirl, and Robin."

"And Batman?" I asked. I clicked the dampner into place around my wrist, and the room suddenly got about five degrees colder.

Artemis snorted. "He's Batman, he's never powerless." 

I laughed a bit, and Artemis had me step up to the ring drawn in scratched-off white paint in the middle of the room.

"Fists up, protect yourself," Artemis instructed. I mirrored her stance.

"Hey! Your right fist!" She pointed at my hand. "You keep your thumbs outside your fists. Wrap your fingers around them, they'll break every time you try to make a hit."

"Oh!" I quickly corrected myself.

"Good, we're getting somewhere."

She grit her teeth, setting her feet shoulder-width apart. I shifted my feet so I was balanced like her.

"So here's the deal: training ends when you can land a hit on me."

I raised an eyebrow at her. That didn't sound so hard.

She smirked. "Think you can do it?"

"Your tone suggests that I shouldn't be able to." I bit my lip nervously.

"Come at me, just try!" She challenged, spreading her arms wide.

I took a deep breath in, let it out, and with a shout to build up confidence, I charged at Artemis.