Pre-Meeting

Lucy anxiously paced around the little clearing. They'd chosen the park because of its location in one of the more central neighborhoods of Gotham. Court and Jebediah were sitting at a nearby picnic table, laptops open and searching for wayward creche children.

"Morgan's supposedly dead. Mysterious blast at the children's home he was sent to. Three dead, but they're all adults," Court said dismissively.

He and Jebediah looked at each other and simultaneously rolled their eyes. Lucy eyed them from the corner of her eyes, nibbling on her thumb. The more time they spent together, the more alike they became. She was starting to miss the encouraged rivalry from their childhood.

"Then doesn't that mean it's another Court situation," Rena asked from the other picnic table in the clearing. She sighed. "Just how do we find him?"

"Do we really want to find Morgan?" Lucy asked, coming to a stop. "It's becoming increasingly clear that most of us flew under the radar, but then again, I'm just a normie."

"Uh-huh," Rena and Aarti grunted, finally looking up from their cellphones.

"Just a normie, eh?" Rena repeated. "If you're just a normie," she began before Aarti slapped a hand over her mouth and gave her a warning glare.

Lucy stopped and turned in their direction. Rena and Aarti were having a silent argument that obviously Aarti won because they both went back to surfing on their phones. She frowned and resumed pacing.

"You need to relax," Dawnie said. She was sitting on a blanket with Leilani, Trolli and an ungodly amount of candy, both in bar and hard forms. "Tall, Dark and Scary is coming any minute, and we still don't know what to offer him to make him help us."

"We don't have to offer things, Dawnie," Lucy said, her fingers anxiously rubbing over her thumb. "He's a superhero; they're supposed to help people in danger," she added as she rolled her eyes.

"We're not 'people,' though," Dawnie said as she absently stripped wrappers off of chocolate bars. Each bar was then laid on a paper plate in a precise design. "It might be nice to think that, but we're not," she said defensively when most of the others looked her way. Leilani took advantage of the pause to snag a bar from Dawnie's latest design.

"As far as everyone's concerned, and by that I mean our parents and the world at large, we're 'people,' Dawnie." Lucy said, using air quotes. "And I'm definitely a 'people' person. What else would I be?"

"Manufactured," Dawnie replied.

"You were stolen just like me," Lucy answered flatly. "There's no ifs, ands or buts about that. I was just older, but you're all natural."

"Until they started tinkering," Rena muttered, earning herself a bump from Aarti.

"We were all fine until then," Court said with finality. "Enough doom and gloom. Give me another name to look up."

"We've gone through nearly everyone we knew," Aarti complained. She lowered her phone with a sigh. "There wasn't that many of us who made it out, after all. I think it wasn't more than a hundred and fifty, and about twenty percent died because of unknown modifications."

They all fell silent. Lucy rubbed her arms, trying to warm up. It was true that a lot of the rescuees had died in the aftermath. Some of them weren't able to adjust to the different atmospheric mix; there'd been something in the air in the creches that was just that little bit different. For others, it had been the ambient radiation or violent allergic reactions. The creches had been very sterile, homogenous places to live.

"I just wish that Kaylen was here," Lucy whispered. The mere thought made a tear well up in her eye. She hurriedly brushed it away.

"We all still wish that Kaylen was here," Jebediah muttered. "But he's not, and we have to get over it." He looked over at Trolli who was waving a bit of candy bar at him while impatiently tugging at his shirt sleeve. "For me, little one?" He asked as the little figure nodded while trying to shove the candy into his mouth. Jebediah sighed and obediently took the bite of candy. "Very good, Trolli. It's delicious!"

Trolli made little squeaking noises before darting back to Leilani and Dawnie who were giggling at her antics. Everyone spared the little figure a quick smile before returning to their previous tasks.

"I've got something," Rena said. "Finally! Listen to this one: mysterious fire burns down abandoned warehouse, four dead including mysterious animal."

"The overlords, maybe?" Court ventured. "Let me take a look."

They all fell silent, the only sounds the tapping of keys from Court and Jebediah.

"This one here," Jebediah suddenly said.

"That one? Oh, I see. No, no, how about this one instead?" Court countered.

"Oh, that's weird. So very weird," Jebediah agreed.

"That's nothing. Look at this one," Court asked. They both stopped and frowned at each other. "That's not natural at all, is it?"

"Nah," Jebediah frowned. "Definitely Carol, I think."

"You can't say 'definitely' and 'I think' in the same sentence," Aarti complained, "and what was that about Carol? Wasn't she shipped somewhere in the Midwest?"

"She was, and then this happened," Court said, making a brief gesture. Immediately all their phones rang with a news alert.

Lucy pulled out her phone and checked it. Swiftly scanning the news blurb, she frowned. She looked up to see Aarti and Leilani doing the same thing. Rena was shaking her head in apparent disbelief. Trolli was eating a tiny house built entirely out of candy. Lucy's eyes snagged on the house; just when did Dawnie build that?

"Someone's gotta go get Carol," Lucy said.

"She might not even be there anymore." Rena waved her phone. "This all happened three days ago."

"And it also says that her biodad is in the hospital." Aarti heaved a sigh. "I should stay and deal with our potential ally."

"He's not a potential ally," Dawnie protested. "He's a scary guy, and I say we should ask someone else."

"That's enough of that, Dawnie," Lucy said. She looked at Jebediah and Leilani. "You two should go. Carol will relax around Leilani, and she's always been soft for Jebediah."

"Which is why I should go," Rena broke in. "She's not getting within two feet of my guy." She glanced at Court. "Why don't you send Court instead? He'd probably be safer there than here."

"They're probably hunting poor Carol. The poor baby needs happiness which Jebediah would bring, and Court has to stay here to, um…" Lucy paused for a second, tapping a finger against her chin. "He has to stay to keep the channels of communication open!" She finally announced brightly.

"You read that off a poster," Rena accused.

"I'm actually reading the poster," Aarti agreed, glancing to the side towards an overcrowded bulletin board.

"Aarti! Are you on my side or not?" Lucy complained.

"I'm on my side which just happens to coincide with everyone else's at the moment," Aarti explained. She slowly grinned. "Then again, you're still my best friend, Luce. I vote for Dawnie and Leilani to go. Dawnie doesn't want to be here, and Leilani can calm Carol down. Plus, Dawnie can search far faster than any one of us could."

"True, and Don'll be back soon for the meeting," Rena agreed. "It'll be good to get one of our most vulnerable away," she added softly.

"Fine, fine," Dawnie rose to her feet, dusting off her jeans. She scooped half the candy into a carryall. "Coming, Leilani?"

"Hmm? Okay," Leilani said, slowly standing. She keyed off the tablet in her hand and slipped it into the backpack she was carrying. "What are we doing?"

"Going to look for Carol," Dawnie said, presenting her back. "Piggyback?"

"Okay," Leilani agreed. She tapped Trolli's house and waved when Trolli stuck a chocolate decorated head out. "Bye, Trolli! Don't eat it all tonight!"

Trolli nodded and squeaked before ducking back into the house.

Dawnie and Leilani disappeared in a burst of wind.

"She's too fast," Lucy suddenly said. The unease she'd been feeling about Don and Dawnie for the past few weeks coalesced into a conclusion that gave her a sense of relief for finding. "We barely see afterimages anymore. That's not right."

"It's not," Jebediah agreed. "We're going to have to find something that can slow them down a bit. Soon."

They all fell silent. The silence was broken by footsteps.

They looked up to see Batman entering the clearing, flanked by Aarti's mom Diana and the twins' mom Iris.

"What is this about kidnappings?" Iris asked, sweeping them with an intimidating dark gaze.

"And now he's not the scariest in the room, per se," Court muttered softly.