Meeting Up

"You know, if you hooked up with Aarti," Don began.

"She'd strangle me in my sleep," San finished, watching as an impossible arrow burned its way through most of a knot of guards. "She'd probably even do it before we did anything interesting."

"That's true," Don agreed as he nodded and shrugged. He handed over a vial. "Quell, purest I've seen in a while. You should just cut it with something else."

San took the vial, giving it a quick look. The Quell inside was a silvery blue color, faintly glowing in the dim light of the creche. He frowned and tucked it inside his shirt, making sure it was snug just between his skin and jeans.

"Did anyone notice?" San asked, glancing around. Most of the children were concerned with streaming out an irregularly shaped hole in the wall. The edges were burnt black steaming. "And you missed Rena's grand entrance."

"Was she mad or something?" Don asked, staring at the hole. Everyone who passed through it were careful to avoid the edges.

San shook his head. He watched as Jebediah and Rena went through the hole, Rena giggling.

"I think she's drunk somehow," San said. "She sure was acting that way, at least."

"What's there to get drunk on in here?" Don asked, baffled.

San shrugged. It was Rena. Most of what she did was mystifying. He still couldn't figure out why she needed so many clothes or even how she afforded them. A tiny voice in his brain kept whispering that it was best not to know.

"Well, she is, and she made the hole. Now all that's left is to get the rest of the kids out of here, and somehow somewhere else." San started walking towards the hole, keeping a wary eye on the knot of guards.

Most of them were injured, and a few were outright dead. Aarti's mom and Mr. Scary were at the edges of the group, making their way back towards the children streaming through the hole. Aarti's mom looked strange, like she had seen something unexpected. San could sympathize with that. He'd never seen something like Aarti's arrow either.

"I'm going to go ask Dawnie what's going on. Back soon," Don told him before vanishing.

San sighed. He could just barely hear the sound of footsteps. He was sure that if he concentrated he would be able to see Don's figure coming to a stop next to Dawnie.

San started walking towards the twins. It would be better if he didn't let Lucy think about his whereabouts. After seeing the arrow, he wasn't sure if he'd be able to fend off Aarti if the girls decided on a strip search.

*****

"So, goddess of my heart, trying to scare people," Don asked as he came to a stop next to his sister.

Aarti glanced at him, a slight smile curving her lips. Don spared a moment to marvel at the sight of her. Tall, slender, deadly and all wrapped up with all that Amazonian beauty. He sighed internally.

"I'm still not falling for it," Aarti told him. She slung the bow in her hands onto her back.

At least that's what the movement looked like. The stringless bow just hung on her back. Don wasn't sure just how it was sticking to her, but after seeing her use the bow, he wasn't sure that he really wanted to know.

"We're leaving right now," Dawnie told him. She turned to watch Rena and Jebediah walking through the hole. "And I think Rena is really drunk, but recovering?"

"Rena had an overindulgence of poison somewhere," Lucy said. She sighed, twirling a greenish blonde lock of hair around a finger. "This is taking so long."

"But we did what we set out to do?" Don asked. He did a quick scan, not seeing the baby or Niles. "Where's Niles Jr?"

"Jebediah passed him off to someone," Dawnie said.

All three girls paused. As one, their heads swiveled towards Jebediah who was now outside the hole and talking to one of the rescued kids, Rena hanging on his arm.

"Who has Niles Jr?" Lucy finally asked. There was a dangerous edge to her voice.

"I'll go ask," Dawnie said, her face solemn.

Don took a judicious step backwards as his twin set off in Jebediah's direction. The step put him around the same area as Court.

"Don't ask me. No clue where the little rugrat is right now," Court immediately said to him in a low voice.

"And yet, I'm not feeling any sympathy for Jebediah," Don remarked.

Court grinned at him.

"I never feel any sympathy for Jebediah. He's nuts," Court said.

"And yet you call him your 'boi?'" Don teased back.

"We're all nuts together?" Court offered up.

The two watched as Jebediah and Dawnie argued. Rena shook her head at Dawnie, her expression mellow. Then Dawnie came back, appearing next to Lucy with a dissatisfied look.

"Jebediah says that he left the baby with its mother who is currently hanging over her baby daddy sans kid," Dawnie told Lucy, her angry distaste clear to see.

Don and Court winced. They didn't doubt that Jebediah had done what he said, but they both thought that the girl had gone with the first batch of kids through the weird doorway. If she'd been close enough to pass the kid to, then she'd obviously came back into the creche after Rena made the hole.

"So, where's the kid?" Don asked, looking around.

"I'll go ask Leilani. Maybe she can give the girl a quick screen," Dawnie said before she was gone again.

"At least we have Ella back," Court finally said.

Don nodded. Getting Ella back was the main driving force that started all of this after all. Most of the creche kids were able to keep low profiles, especially those blessed with powers. Only they, and their handlers knew what they were capable of. However, that only applied to those who manifested before leaving the creche. Most of them didn't manifest anything until they hit five or six.

The overlords only had a faint hint of what Leilani or Sabrina were capable of. The same went for Ella, only Ella had developed Sphinxie to help her contain her power. Just the hint of Sphinxie was enough for them to know that Ella would develop into someone powerful.

It was best that they weren't sure of their conclusion. The overlords would clone the successful versions, priming them for their armies.

One of the last things Jebediah and Court had done before they left on Liberation Day was set every sample they knew about to the torch, so to speak. That thought always brought a smile to their little coterie's faces whenever they thought of it.

"We forgot to torch the new lab," Court said, coming to an abrupt stop on his way out of the creche.

"I don't think we have to worry about that this time," Don said. He looked upwards at streak of light. "This is just getting weirder and weirder."

Court followed his line of sight. Then he shook his head and sighed.

"Sometimes, it doesn't pay to get out of bed," Court told Don.

Then they both laughed as they gingerly climbed over the edges of the hole.