Artemis' POV

It wasn't a large hall, but even then it wasn't entirely full. The smallness of the crowd allowed for faces to be clearly distinguished.

Faces that looked upon the speaker with horror and disbelief.

...

"All we can do now is move forward. As long as we have legs upon which to stand, we shall walk. Though which path we shall take is uncertain, we shall choose it together, walk it together, reach its end together, as we always have." Meltwater finished, retaking her seat amongst the senior Fantails. Her goggles had frosted over again, but her posture remained strong. Her impassive face and gently clasped hands portrayed little of the inner turmoil that was evidenced by gently frosting breath and increasingly pale skin.

There had been no wavering in her voice as she had spoken.

I'd seen her break down telling us the news, but here she was announcing her mentor's death with surprising composure. To my left, Zatanna listened with rapt interest. My attention, however. was mostly on the crowd. Mostly teens, some obviously younger, all potential powerhouses and all inexperienced. We had our work cut out for us.

…

Jess' POV

I listened in an abstract way. I heard the words, perhaps even understood their meanings, but I was caught in a vortex of my own thoughts. The more I said it, the more final it seemed. Kieran was dead. He was gone. We were alone.

"Votes will be taken in three days time. You have until then to make your decision. For these three days, the senior Fantails will act as co-leaders, each having authority over individuals of their own Power-grouping. The Justice League Mentees will liaison between groups. Yes, we are acting as if divided, but until we have solidarity in leadership we cannot be unified in action. Thank you," Colin finished crisply.

…

Wally's POV

"You spoke well Colin," Jess said.

"As did you," he replied. He caught her in a brief, one-armed embrace.

"What's this about Power-groupings?" I asked.

"Oh, well, while our powers vary, there are fundamental similarities in the characteristics of our abilities." Colin seemed a little caught off guard, but then again he kind of always did. "There's the Sensitivities and Perceptions - Anthony's field, Miss Martian's telepathy and Superboy's infrared vision would come under this category - Enhancements and Augmentations - Ian's specialty, superspeed and superstrength, that sort of thing - Kinesis and Manipulation - Jess' forte, Aqualad and Miss Martian have powers of this type - And lastly, there's...uh Abstract and Absurd - Miss Martian's shapeshifting, the Magician Girl's powers, a bit of a meta-human miscellany really."

"How'd you know all our powers?" I can understand him knowing some, but with that kind of detail…

"Oh, uh, most of my powers do fall in the Abstract bundle, but I've got a decent slice of the Sensitivities and Perceptions pie, as it were. I have a particular knack for knowing people's capabilities. Comes in handy around here."

"I'll bet it does."