Young Justice: Brightest Day [Solstice Book Two]

Seven

I had never been more stressed in my life. 

Kaldur was late, and part of me- okay all of me- was hoping he had bailed and wouldn't show up at all.

He didn't deserve this, he'd borne the weight of the world too many times already, and this time, instead of helping him, his mentors were just expecting him to deal with it.

The anxious chatter between Leaguers slowed to a hush as Black Lightning entered, small and shy behind Steel's metal armor. The moment I noticed that Jefferson wasn't wearing his uniform, the gossip returned with fervor in an attempt to make things feel normal. Every once in a while, innocents got caught in the crossfire of evil's machinations and our attempts to stop every advancement the Light made, but I was told by Rocket and Zatanna, it never got easier to hear what happened. With two daughters of his own, Jefferson was taking it pretty hard.

Kaldur entered moments later with Miss Martian, who respectively waited by the entrance to the conference room, which sealed shut behind her to prevent sneaky team members from spying on the proceedings, though they were probably going to learn sooner or later, whether it was from their mentors or their teammates, or their team leader.

"I hereby call this emergency meeting of the Justice League to order." He stood at the far end of the table, opposite me, Zatanna, and Raquel. It couldn't be more than twenty feet feet, so why did he feel like he was miles away from me?

"Let us get right to it. My co-chair here," He gestured to Wonder Woman's hologram, representing her squad in space, "has urgent news from the heroes she is leading on our various missions in space."

Wonder Woman squared her shoulders, and turned from facing Kaldur to the half-full table as screens bearing mission reports and graphs appeared behind Kaldur and herself.

"All right, we have confirmation: Meta-human trafficking on Earth has spilled out into the galaxy. On multiple worlds, kidnapped meta-humans have been deployed by the enemy as weapons of mass destruction. Among other things, their presence in space is undermining our efforts to rebuild both Earth and the League's reputations after our trial on the planet Rimbor."

Jeff scoffed loudly from his seat down by Batman. "Right. That's the problem."

Wonder Woman swallowed her words. "I'm sorry, Jeff. I...I didn't mean to diminish the life of that girl."

"I know, Diana. forget I said anything, it's just-" He took in a sharp breath, "We need to know how this happened and how it got past us."

"Here on Earth, our ongoing struggle with human trafficking has-"

"Struggle?" Green Arrow spat at Kaldur's choice of words, "Try disaster!"

My stomach churned as Black Canary summed up the findings she and Green Arrow had come across during their investigation in Star City. Most of the kidnapped victims that slipped through their fingers wound up in Bialya, where Leaguers were forbidden by UN restrictions. Since then, there had been nothing pointing to their group. "Teens and even children are being abducted at an unprecedented scale. They're tested for the meta-gene. If they test positive, they're used as guinea pigs to create new meta-humans."

"And even if they test negative, they're rarely seen again." Green Arrow growled.

"Meta-humans are being treated as the next exploitable resource by first-world countries, third-world countries, rogue nations, corporations, it's a global pandemic."

Kaldur nodded gravely in agreement with Batman. "And globally, we are faced with obstacles at every turn." He finally looked at me, and I looked down at my hands, hidden beneath the tabletop as I fiddled with the hem of my shawl.