Spying on Things

"Well, that's new," Don commented, chewing on a stick of jerky.

"What's new?" Lucy asked, checking the equipment beside her. "Do you think we need more than one stick of dynamite?"

"You don't need dynamite," Dawnie said, taking the sticks away from Lucy. "Where did you even get all this stuff anyway?"

"I raided my old man's stash. He doesn't need it anyway," Lucy replied with a shrug. "He got himself locked up in Arkham yet again. I bet my mom is going to get herself in trouble getting him back out again." Lucy rolled her eyes. "Anyways, while that cat is away…y'know!"

"You can't blow up a police precinct, Lucy," Don said, turning towards her. He polished off the jerky with quick, succinct bites. "I don't see why me and Dawnie can't just walk in there and walk him right out. Between the both of us, it wouldn't take that much effort."

"Because then people would know that you're not on the straight and narrow," Aarti said. She was flipping through a small wad of bills. "My change is going away!" She half-wailed.

"Well, you did buy a lot of things, but why are you calling that 'change' anyways?" Lucy asked, unwrapping a couple sticks of gum before popping them into her mouth.

"Because it's change from that kombucha thing I bought when I was in the store," Aarti answered. She frowned and stuffed the bills into her jacket. "And now I'm curious, too. What's going on?"

Don paused in the act of peeling open another high calorie snack bar. He'd found them in a body-building store. Before, he'd never thought to look there, but there was a group of people who needed extra calories while working out. The bars didn't have as many calories as the IWAs, but they also lacked the little electronic tracers built into the wrappers.

"There's an ambulance pulling up at the back of the precinct. They seem to be putting someone in it," Don said. He turned and looked at the faraway scene. "There shouldn't be an ambulance, right?"

"There's nothing on the frequencies about calling one," San said from his corner of the rooftop. He was moodily flicking holes in the eaves. "Wait. If it's not on the frequencies…"

"Then it might not be a real ambulance?" Lucy said. She stood up, one hand hooking around the bazooka at her feet and bringing it up with her. "Well, if we blow it up, then we don't have to worry about it doing something fishy."

Lucy glanced around the rooftop. San was now pinching off bits of wire from the radio setup, frowning moodily. He hadn't been happy when Aarti had confiscated his little baggie of whatever. Still, he wasn't strong enough at this moment to do anything when she'd taken it away. That would probably change when that whatever wore off. They still weren't quite sure what it was or where he'd gotten it from. The only thing they were sure of was that it was some sort of plot because how exactly had someone gotten San's body chemistry correct enough to make something that would affect just him? The chips would affect all of them to some extent, but the new stuff was particularly inert for them. Dawnie said it tasted like lemon-flavored salt which had made Lucy wonder just what Dawnie had been eating lately.

"Do you think they're trying to move Court somewhere?" Aarti asked, distracted from her finances. "I was thinking we'd have enough time for me to get my hair cut," she complained, clutching a handful of ebony curls.

"Then you really won't have any money left," Dawnie teased as she brushed past Aarti with sets of binoculars dangling from her arms. She passed one to Lucy and another to Don. "Make sure it's not legit. Bazooka-ing is something we just can't take back." She paused. "Well, not unless we could find out were Benjamin is, but I don't think he's anywhen close to us anymore. Not after that incident a couple years ago."

"Hey! I'm not mistaken!" San complained.

"We know; we know," Dawnie soothed. She glanced at the radio equipment next to him. "It's just that what if they did some sort of runaround off the radio, eh?"

"Ambulances don't do runarounds," a new voice said.

They turned in synchronization towards the source of the new voice. Even as the shadowy form registered, misty fog filled the rooftop. Lucy gasped as a dart hit her arm.

*****

"Oh, gods, it's a psychopath," was what Lucy heard Aarti say as she surfaced from a happy dream of lighting half of Gotham on fire while Court fed her bonbons. They were good bonbons, too! They were the kind with cinnamon chocolate ganache in the center of dark chocolate goodness. Lucy sighed internally. She should have known it was a dream. Court would never wear a fishnet shirt, no matter the pleading.

"I didn't know it was against the law to loiter on rooftops," Dawnie sniffled. "I won't do it again." Lucy particularly appreciated the little hiccup that Dawnie effortlessly summoned up.

"You can save it," the man said, though there was a hint of amusement lurking in his voice.

"I demand to know why I'm here," Aarti said, infusing her voice with acres and acres of entitled self-restraint. Lucy appreciated the attempt, but a glance at the man showed her that it wasn't going to be that easy.

They were in cages for one thing. And each cage seemed to be particularly tailored to their particular skill set. She wasn't sure just what the twins' little cell was made up of, but they didn't seem able to phase through it. San was happily leaning against the glass of his which was glowing with a slight green radiance. It didn't take a scientist to figure out just what was going on there.

Aarti was in her own cell with a bit of glowing rope tying her wrist to the bars. Lucy would bet that that rope was keeping her from exerting any of her increasing strength. She herself didn't merit a fancy little cell. Hers was just a standard little glass box with holes for ventilation. Lucy sighed as she secretly examined her skin; she felt that she'd gotten just a little bit paler.

Of course, the number one reason Lucy knew that it wasn't going to be easy was that the man in question was Batman.