Court

"Something happened," Court said, frowning at his screens. At Lucy's insistence, he'd installed another eight. She said it gave him a hint of gravitas. "Ella's lab's been compromised."

That got everyone's attention. They crowded around him, forgetting the plans laid out on a newly purloined coffee table. Court was relieved that no one had ever asked just how they had a warehouse as a hideout or where the money to pay for any of the inventory happened. As far as the company that owned the warehouse was concerned, they'd emptied it during one of the recent holiday sales.

"What do you mean it's been compromised? Who compromised it?" Lucy asked. She leaned in close, distracting him from maintaining the feed to one of the surveillance cameras in Ella's lab.

"Please tell me it's not our mother," Dawnie muttered under her breath, staring hard at the screen in question.

"Not unless she's got a big secret she's not telling us," Don said, inhaling sharply. "Didn't they say they were all dead?"

"Didn't they say that we were all harmless?" San asked rhetorically. "Hey!" He put up a mock struggle as Dawnie hauled him away towards the coffee table.

"What are they doing there, and how did they get there?" Lucy asked, paling as she watched the invasion.

"Wait. Let me access another feed," Court said, suiting words to action. One of the screens on his left flickered and then showed another angle of Ella's lab. He squinted at the screen. "Is that a doorway of some sort?"

"Now they can just build doorways out of nothing?" Lucy's voice gained a decibel.

"That's impossible." Court changed angles and the camera caught the full glory of the standing doorway to another place. "Is that—"

"—Oh, oh, no, that can't be! They destroyed them, right?" Lucy stammered, her voice light and breathy.

Court knew that tone. He'd been familiar with it since the second time Lucy went for tests and had nearly died. It happened whenever she just caught sight of Overlord Pleja, and that fact had pleased the alien immensely. He glanced at her from the corner of his eye and her pale skin had gone even paler, making her seem unnatural, like a doll printed by a factory.

"Maybe they lied to stop people from panicking," Court soothed. "He's far, far away, Luce. He doesn't know where we are."

"Yet. He doesn't know yet," Lucy corrected. She pulled away and started pacing. "He's going to find us. I just know he's going to find us. Oh, god! He's going to find us."

"Luce, Luce, Luce, honey, please calm down," Dawnie said, appearing before her to grab her hands. "He's not going to find you."

"He's going to find me. He always finds me," Lucy said, struggling to pull away. "We have to hide. He's going to dissect us all just like—"

"—Stop," San said, embracing her from behind. Court drew a deep breath; he knew that of all of them, San and Aarti had the best chances of defusing Lucy's panic. "We're safe. He doesn't know where we are, and we're not children. We can defend ourselves."

Court turned his attention back to the screen. The guards were pushing most of the scientists into a corner. A few of the scientists were huddled behind a computer console, frantically typing. His frown turned deeper as he analyzed the keystrokes. Another thought pulled up a camera just above the console.

"They're not calling for help," Don said, ignoring the drama behind him.

"No, they're not, are they?" Court agreed. "I think they're copying data. Um, not anymore."

With a few keystrokes and heavy intent, the computer console started smoking as its processors started to overclock.

"These new computers are so fragile nowadays," Court commented to the air. Beside him, Don chuckled.

The scientists seemed to become frantic as the data they were searching for started vanishing.

Overlord Ahplex paused in his advance to Ella's little cage and turned his attention to the cameras. Court froze. How did he know he was being spied on. He watched as the sharp-toothed smile spread across the alien's face.

"We're coming for you as well, Court," Overlord Ahplex mouthed to the camera.

Court slammed the connections shut, hurriedly overwriting the codes he used to access the surveillance network.

"Dude," Don began.

"No, we can't let Lucy panic anymore. Without Aarti, she's the best we've got right now," Court hissed.

Behind them, Dawnie and San were still talking softly. Lucy's voice was gradually regaining its normal timbre.

"If Aarti was here, this wouldn't be so much of a mess," Don said, looking at the trio. He pulled a candy bar from his pocket, this one just a regular chocolate bar. "Want a piece?"

"Are you still eating that stuff?" Aarti asked, stumbling a little as she entered the hideout's space.

"Aarti?" Lucy slipped out of San's grasp and launched herself into Aarti's arms.

"Hey, Lucy! What's the matter?" Aarti asked, adjusting to the extra weight.

Court watched them, noting the ease with which Aarti caught Lucy. She'd probably powered up again without any of them, herself included, noticing. That was what attracted the overlords' attention the most. It made her immunity to Quell so infuriating to them.

"They got Ella! They have weird technology, and now they're going to come for us and lock us up again! Then they're going to vivisect me and eat my brains!" Lucy babbled.

"They're not going to eat your brains. Who told you that nonsense?" Aarti said, looking fed up.

"Of course, they want to eat my brains. My brains are fabulous, I tell you!" Lucy protested.

"Now, you're being ridiculous," Dawnie stated in a flat tone. Beside her, San nodded in agreement.

Court stopped himself from joining in. Lucy wasn't coherent when it came to Overlord Pleja. Who knows? Perhaps he'd actually told her he wanted to eat her brains. Neither one of the two were that sane. Still, he'd take Lucy over anyone on any day. Lucy was his center after all.

"What's this technology she's talking about?" Aarti asked, ignoring Lucy who pulled away with a roll of her eyes and a huff.

"Makes doors to places they shouldn't be able to go?" Don ventured. He started on another bar. "It's really weird stuff."

"Oh. Did you see an Amazon anywhere when they were doing this?" Aarti asked, glancing from friend to friend.

"No, but now I'm wondering how you got out of being grounded on Themyscira?" Court asked, standing up. He stretched and ran a hand through his purple hair.

"Well, it's kind of a long story," Aarti began.

"Oh, good! I love stories," Lucy said, tugging her to a sofa. She pushed Aarti down. "So, speak."

Court perched on another sofa, glancing at his rig. Part of him wanted to destroy it entirely and another was arguing for a complete wipe and reinstall. He put away his thoughts as Aarti started to speak.

"Well, this all started when I got a dog…"