Mount Justice
October 7, 16:57 EDT

"But I do not want to wear pants!" Cecilia whined dramatically, earning her some very concerned looks from Kaldur, Wally, and Connor, all of whom were watching television in the Living Room. Face turning a deep shade of scarlet, the twelve-year-old promptly shut her mouth before she made the situation worse, subjecting herself to Artemis's unashamed laugher and M'gann's giggling reasoning, "But you can't fight crime in a dress! Imagine what could happen-"

"Or don't imagine!" Wally called frantically from across the adjoining rooms. Artemis leaned back on one of the kitchen countertops and crossed her arms, "Like you weren't."

"Woah, I may be a hormonal teenage boy, but-"

"We should not discuss this here," Kaldur interrupted with a firm glance in Cecilia's direction. The Roman girl remained blissfully ignorant of the implications of the developing argument, only vaguely managing to grasp what it was about. And that vague idea was more than enough.

M'gann cleared her throat, redirecting the girls' attentions back to the several rough sketches of different outfits spread across the kitchen island. It had been five days since Green Lantern had taken Cecilia as his protégé, and during that time her powers have improved immensely. She was confident that she would be joining the Team soon, and had therefore dragged her two older "sisters" into helping her design an appropriate costume.

"You need pants," Artemis stated firmly. Cecilia frowned unhappily. If her dress was long enough, what would it matter? She would mainly be fighting with her powers, right? Pointing to one of the previous designs, she asked, "But would this not work?"

M'gann only needed to take a single glance at the long, sleeveless gown to make a decision, "No. The primary function of a costume is to both protect you and allow maximum movement. So no dresses."

"I thought that the primary function of a costume was to conceal your identity," Artemis stated. Cecilia smirked, allowing a bit of her bitterness to escape in a smart-alecky comment, "I thought that it was to clothe oneself."

"Ha!" Wally laughed. "I wish. Have you seen some of the older costumes? Especially some of the-"

"Enough, Wally."

"You know I'm right, Kaldur."

The Atlantean evidently had no response to that, so Cecilia continued to focus on her costume options. Most of the designs the other girls created had long pants and long sleeves, a few had short skirts of varying lengths, and some even had short sleeves. Cecilia's ideas mainly included dresses or tunics without sleeves, bound at the waist by a sash, with the skirt draping down past the knee - in other words, her fashion preference was turning out to be decidedly Roman.

"What about this one?" Artemis inquired, handing her another concept sketch. Another one with long pants, long sleeves, and... what was on her face? Cecilia squinted at the stick-like figure modeling the outfit. Was that a mask? She shook her head, "Must I have a mask?"

The older girls exchanged glances, then M'gann replied carefully, "Well, I guess not. I don't wear a mask, but then again I can change my appearance."

"Connor doesn't wear a mask, either, and he wears the same shirt every day!" Wally butted in helpfully. Five seconds later, there was a resounding "Ow!" from the Living Room. Cecilia smirked but didn't bother looking up from her work. She silently sorted through a few of M'gann's drawings, remarking quietly, "My mentor does not wear a mask."

"And neither do I," Captain Marvel added as he entered the Living Room, carrying a large, fluffy blanket. Cecilia watched as the muscular, enthusiastic man handed the blanket to Wally and asked, "Is there anything else you need?"

"Well, I am a bit hungry. How about some nachos?" Wally requested with as little humility as he could. Ever since Captain Marvel had visited a few days previously, the speedster had somehow employed the man into serving his every whim, which Cecilia thought was sort of demeaning and selfish, but the Captain didn't seem to mind at all. Artemis rolled her eyes, Kaldur and Connor gave the redhead looks of mild disdain, and Captain Marvel happily proclaimed as usual, "Sure! I can do that!"

M'gann and Cecilia moved closer to Artemis so that the Leaguer would have room to maneuver through the kitchen. He glanced at some of the concept sketches and frowned, pausing in his nacho-making to comment, "Why don't you like this one?"

Cecilia paused and examined the sketch he was referring to. The pictured outfit was comprised of a short dress with loose sleeves extending past the elbow and tight pants tucked into sturdy boots. She shrugged, not really able to find a suitable argument against it aside from the fact that it has pants, which is evidently a necessity.

Captain Marvel frowned some more, as if questioning something, shrugged to himself, and then went back to making Wally's nachos. Artemis picked up the sketch and looked it over with M'gann while Cecilia grabbed a pencil and tried to create another concept. Perhaps this one could be a dress, but with shorts underneath, and then maybe a belt... and a cloak for special missions... and shoes that-

"I think that Captain Marvel was onto something," Artemis stated, interrupting Cecilia's thoughts. She looked up at the blonde girl, "Hmm?"

"This costume," Artemis clarified. "It looks pretty good. M'gann, you had the right idea designing this."

"Thanks!" the martian girl beamed at the praise. Cecilia stopped drawing and again scrutinized the costume design. Then she raised an eyebrow skeptically, "Are you sure that is what I want?"

"Positive," Artemis promised. Cecilia cycled through her options. On the one hand, she didn't really have any reason to object, and if she was being completely honest with herself she did like the design. On the other hand, it wasn't exactly what she wanted... but then again, she didn't know what she wanted. Setting her jaw decisively, she nodded, "Fine."

M'gann clapped her hands joyfully, "Great! Now we have to color it."

"Um... okay?" Cecilia responded, having only planned to design the costume - not color it. "Why?"

"Well, where's the fun in having a blank costume?" M'gann asked, handing Cecilia some colored writing utensils while Artemis began creating copies of the chosen design. "And everyone sort of has their own color scheme. It makes you easy to identify."

"But Artemis said that we have to conceal our identities. Why would I want to be easily identified?" Cecilia questioned as she pondered over what colors she wanted. She really liked blue, and green was also very pretty, but her light-constructs (as Green Lantern continued to call them) were a bright, pure white, like the clouds when the sun reflects off of them. She her costume needed to be primarily white, to match her ability. 'It seems as if most of my work is complete, then.'

"You don't want your secret identity to be known," Artemis clarified, handing one of the completed copies to M'gann, who in turn began shading in the picture as she saw fit. "But you do want a costume that stands out, both to make sure that the public knows that you're on their side and so that the criminals know to run."

"I think that Batman really enjoys the latter. Oh, and make sure that you have some sort of symbol! Batman has a bat, Superman has the Krypton letter, the Green Lanterns have that 'o' thing, Green Arrow... does he have a symbol? Or is it an arrow? Kinda hard to tell when the guy dresses like Robin Hood," Wally remarked. Cecilia, knowing that Artemis was going to argue in some way, looked up expectantly to watch the show. She wasn't disappointed, and the blonde shot back, "Meanwhile, the Flash just has a lightning bolt."

"What's wrong with lightning bolts?" Captain Marvel asked, handing Wally his nachos. With a loud crunch, Wally ate about ten of them before pausing to mumble through his stuffed mouth, "Tese are dehisus! Ad ah, wha's wog wit 'ightig bots?"

"Didn't your mother tell you not to talk with your mouth full? I'm surprised your clothes aren't covered in food," Artemis retorted lamely, avoiding the question. Cecilia suspected that she didn't really have anything against lightning bolts, or maybe she just didn't want to offend Captain Marvel. Either way, the conversation made Cecilia realize something.

"Is that why his costume is the color of mustard and ketchup?" Cecilia asked as innocently as she could. There was a moment of stunned silence that was interrupted by Wally's abrupt coughing, "N-no!"

"You hesitated," Kaldur stated calmly. Wally glared at him, "I'm sorry, I was busy dying."

"Oh! I'll get you some water," Captain Marvel offered, rushing into the kitchen. Cecilia's eyes widened. Wally almost died? Her eyes landed on Artemis for an explanation, or maybe some assurance that she had not almost caused the speedster to perish. The blonde rolled her eyes, "He choked. He wasn't actually dying."

"You don't know that!" Wally argued as Cecilia, significantly calmer, returned her attention to her costume. She thought about M'gann's earlier statement. Where's the fun in having a blank costume? Deciding that her costume couldn't be entirely white, Cecilia grabbed a pencil labelled "off-white" and carefully shaded in the design's tight pants. It didn't even take a minute for her to complete her work, which she handed to M'gann and Artemis proudly, interrupting the budding debate between the fierce archer and loudmouthed speedster and catching sight of the older girls' drawings. Artemis's was primarily a cool shade of green, and M'gann's looked as if a rainbow had exploded. Holding back a smile, she turned her attention back to her critics.

"Cecilia, I don't think-" Artemis started, looking up from the drawing to meet Cecilia's gaze, which had turned from proud to uncertain. The two older girls exchanged a quick look that Cecilia couldn't decipher, then M'gann smiled broadly and finished, "She doesn't think that, um... Wally could beat you in a drawing contest! It looks amazing."

"What? No one can beat the Wallman in a drawing contest," Wally proclaimed dramatically, standing up for the first time in five hours to suddenly appear in the kitchen, looking over M'gann's shoulder. He frowned with equal theatrical flare, crossing his arms in seeming denial, "It's... not bad."

"Really?" Cecilia breathed hopefully, staring wide-eyed at each of the taller teenagers in turn. Captain Marvel, Connor, and Aqualad all entered the quickly-crowding kitchen for their chance to glimpse her new costume. Captain Marvel was as enthusiastic as ever, "This is great! You really have a knack for art."

"Of course, this is only the first draft," Kaldur stated logically. Cecilia's growing elation did a double-take, "What? You mean I have to do this all over again?"

She stared at her little masterpiece in M'gann's hands. 'Being a superhero will be harder than I thought.'