Thunderheads

They sat around the table, its surface both familiar and unfamiliar. It had been so long since any of them had set foot in the Hall that it was an almost alien action.

Bruce peered up at the giant screen. The collages of dozen of children displayed there.

"Your little Hall is quaint," Mera said, walking around Arthur's chair before sitting down next to him. "You lack decorations, of course."

"Designed by men," Diana said with a sigh.

"That explains it," Mera agreed.

"Mera," Arthur murmured.

"Fine, fine, I will play nicely with the air-breathers," Mera grumbled.

"Now let me tell you what I wouldn't mention in front of the generals," Arthur said.

Bruce and Diana looked at him curiously. He had requested this meeting after dodging the generals' persistent questioning about how long his war machines planned to lurk off the coast of the USA.

"My boy," Arthur said, glancing at Mera. She worked the keyboard that appeared in her hands. The giant screen cleared of the collage and displayed a singular dossier labeled 'Kaylen 001.' "My boy obviously didn't make it out of that accursed place." He paused for a second.

"I've been monitoring the mess that the release of these dossiers has created. Brilliant work, but still a little sloppy."

"Sloppy?" Bruce asked, frowning at the picture.

"Sloppy," Arthur affirmed. "Perhaps they felt pressured or something. I do not know. What I do know is that no one is talking about this little tidbit. Meara?"

The dossier flipped open, the video files speeding by. Then it stopped at the last video. The final credits went by, then the english translation. After a brief hiccup when the file stopped, another screen appeared. This one had the boy's picture, name, age at the time of the last video and 'Commander Class.'

"What is that?" Bruce said, sitting up straight.

"I'm not sure if it is on all the videos, but on a select few, this screen is appended to the final frame of video. It is, perhaps, two, three frames but there." Arthur stared at the screen with a scowl.

"It means that their commander gave his life to ensure that his troops escaped," Mera murmured to Arthur, putting a hand on his arm.

"It is what I would do," Arthur admitted with a heavy sigh.

"Then if he was the commander," Bruce mused.

"That means that they were raising a literal army of carefully genetically curated children," Mera explained. "You were running on hormones and reactions, not thinking about just what they were going to do with all those children, just that they existed."

"They were taking Amazons," Diana protested.

"And that is why you were easily led. Their escape was not just planned, but you were part of it," Arthur said. He leaned forward. "We had no part of that fight because none of our citizens had been taken or used as far as we were aware. Now, we know that that was because none of them survived long enough to escape."

"That would mean that Aarti was part of the plan, and that girl has no guile," Diana said.

"That you're aware of," Mera refuted. "We broke down the entire arc of this 'Liberation' that occurred. It ostensibly starts with the discovery of Aarti who claims to have escaped a secret alien lab where they are growing stolen children."

"Then the story changes to children cultured using stolen genetic material which generates even more outrage." Arthur continued. He stood up and started pacing. "The timing is quite good which argues that there is more than one hand behind this plan."

"Every good commander has a staff," Bruce groaned.

"The speedsters," Arthur said. The screen flashed Dawnie and Don's dossiers side by side. "They're listed as reconnaissance. This one," he said with a gesture. Don and Dawnie were replaced by Jebediah. "He's listed as medical, but this one is the most interesting." Arthur turned to Mera who nodded.

The picture on the screen turned into Court.

"He's listed as technological support. Whoever released the files tried to delete the more important bits of information, but some of the more interesting bits about him weren't in the usual places." Arthur turned towards the screen.

A video played of a younger Court strapped onto a plain metal gurney. He was shirtless and wearing a plain white pair of shorts and shoes.

"Medlogs 21-459a After several unsuccessful trial runs, we have decided on the use of Subject 489. His excellent genetic structure should cushion him from some of the more deleterious results," a calm female voice said.

"Um, Mom?" Court said, struggling against the restraints.

"Subject 489, please be quiet. You are about to participate in a great experiment in the pursuit of knowledge for our most glorious overlords," the female continued.

Court rolled his eyes and stopped struggling. He stared at the ceiling where a suite of medical apparatus appeared. A syringe, its cylinder glowing with churning silver, lowered even further.

"Now, don't squirm. They might hurt a bit going in," the female said. "Start injection."

The syringe jabbed into Court's chest, its cylinder fast emptying.

"And what if this kills him? He's the most successful offspring we've had so far," a male voice echoed.

"Then we embark on 453," the female responded. "That reminds me, they're using the cells from 450 and 451 in those medicine trials. Make sure they don't use any more of our material. Not when there's so much generic to go around."

There was a male huff of amusement.

"I will make a note. Hmm...he hasn't died yet. That's encouraging."

"Well, then the adjustments we made after those first fifty are taking shape then." A female scientist strode into view, her hair pulled back into a tight bun, most of her face obscured by a mask and goggles. "Vitals are elevated but still in allowable limits. Send him to Lab A4, no Lab B7. A4 is where Jebediah is doing his current experiments. It would be best to keep them separated."

The video ended with the gurney being wheeled out by stone faced guards. Court seemed comatose with silvery veins slowly pulsing into existence over his skinny body.

"From what our scientists have said, that liquid was some sort of nano mixture. This is him at roughly six years old. It's been ten years, and the last official record we could find was him being locked up in an area with no electronics before being lost in transport. The transport wasn't logged in official channels," Arthur said with a glare at Bruce.

"The last time I saw Court was at the mansion before the battle," Diana volunteered. "He passed a note saying that they were going to go get pizza before vanishing along with my daughter and her friends."

"I somehow doubt the pizza angle." Mera stood up and walked towards the screen. "From the other videos attached, it seems that the ones who did this was his parents, but the official records paint him as another genetic experiment, a failed one when clearly he may not be."

"This might be a clue to who released these records to the public. They mention that Jebediah was doing experiments. When I met this Jebediah, he had in his company a tiny glowing creature. Perhaps he's the one who had the records?" Bruce asked.

"But this would argue that they're not in his possession at the moment. Perhaps during this battle, he was one of the ones captured while the ones who released the information weren't somehow." Arthur sighed. "We're looking for whoever the children look up to as their current commander."

"Then you're looking for Lucy," Diana said after some thought. "She is the only one I've ever seen make Aarti flinch."

"One of the few we know of who doesn't seem to have a dossier here," Arthur pointed out.

"We were too close to see it," Bruce snarled, clenching his fist. "We were more fixed on everything else that was going on to see the actual puppeteer behind the curtain."

"Until they made an error," Arthur said. "Then again, it took dragging in the Atlanteans for that to happen. We were one of the few who weren't initially involved so we had more distance to look at things."

"Though I think you should worry more about how many of these children have vanished in the last few weeks than anything else," Mera put in.

They fell silent at the sound of footsteps, both hesitant and sure. They turned towards the entrance to see a young girl standing there with her hand held by one of Arthur's guards. She blinked at them and then peered at the screen where Court's dossier was still being displayed. Then she nodded and came forward.

"Hello," she said with a sunny smile. "My name's Sabrina." She turned to the guard. "Thank you for helping me."

The guard shot her a brilliant smile before turning and walking away. Sabrina watched him go before turning back to the big table.

"I think you need bait for the bad guys. I'm the most suitable," she said.

On the screen, the dossiers flickered before settling on a picture of a much younger Sabrina.

"They'll most definitely come for me. Leilani said so," she added for good measure.