The Storm (I)

Lucy sauntered to the table and slouched into the lone seat. Court lurked by the door, staring at the surveillance camera with a look of intense interest. Lucy allowed herself a wry smile as she glanced back at him before turning her full attention to the man across from her who had an uncharacteristic frown on his face.

"So, princess, who's the lout," he asked, his eyes cold and calculating as they fixed on Court.

"That's just Court. He's here to make sure no one checks on our conversation," Lucy said with a shrug.

"Oh, really," her father drawled, turning his attention to her.

Lucy let her wry smile stretch into a wider grin. They both knew she wasn't telling the truth and that it was galling him more than he was letting on. Then her father relaxed back into his chair, his trademark grin surfacing even as his eyes stayed cold and watchful.

"Truly, I don't think that you came just to flaunt some teenage crush," he drawled, eyes never leaving Court.

"I came because of this," Lucy said, pulling a tablet out of her jacket. Flicking a glance at Court, it obediently booted up. "This is something that came to my attention recently. I thought that it was a done deal but obviously not."

On the tablet a video started playing. It showed a vast room filled with glass cylinders. Most of them were occupied by children of varying ages.

"A zoo?" Her father asked, clearly bored.

"There are things I neglected to tell you," Lucy said. She allowed her smile to take on a mean curve, noting the brief gleam of appreciation in her father's eyes before they returned to their usual cold stare.

A teenager strode into the picture, green hair tousled and a silver collar on his neck. He paused before one of the cylinders and started talking though the video lacked sound.

"I need the real recipe for the Venom," Lucy said. Her smile slowly set into her face, no longer a sign of amusement or any other emotion, much like her father's, a pure example of predatory anger.

"And why would I give it to you because of some video," her father snarled, anger starting to spark deep within his eyes. He wasn't an idiot, her father.

"This is yesterday. When they created him, they didn't know about the accident. They thought it was normal, and so they tinkered until he resembled his genetic donor." Lucy glanced at Court who looked away; his parents were the ones who'd been in charge of NIle's creation. "He's just as brilliant as you, and they treat him like their lapdog, subject to their whims and their fancies. A Joker who dances to their tune," she murmured, eyes lidding.

"You're getting better," her father said after a few taut seconds. "Come back tomorrow. Let me think on it."

Lucy shut down the tablet and stuffed it back into her jacket. She slowly rose and walked out of the room, tension in nearly every line.

Court watched her leave and then turned to her father, still sitting at the table. He slowly smiled, letting the man note the menace it held.

"Y'know," Court said conversationally. "Lucy doesn't tell me a lot, but I always know what's going on with her. I promised her I'd knock her up for her twenty-fifth birthday."

"You'd dare," her father snarled, nearly coming out of his chair.

"When she's pregnant, I'm going to get rid of you. She'll be distracted. Probably won't even notice your absence, will probably think you're locked up somewhere more secure," Court continued in the same tone.

"You've got balls," Lucy's father returned. He was visibly seething.

"Then again, what she didn't tell you is that there's a baby involved now. I don't know whose baby it is, but the odds are that it's Nile's seeing as how he's the one who hid it and got punished," Court added with a thoughtful look as he seemingly looked towards the ceiling. "They do believe in reproduction, and he is a lab rat of the first order on both sides."

Court ignored the growl he heard.

"We'll be back for your answer. She wants to go raid some other places as well."

Court exited, smiling at the nearly incoherent sounds of rage he left behind.

"Mission accomplished," he told Lucy as she stood next to Cassidy who was wearing a sour expression. "What's up with Cass?"

"She told me another reason she needed me to participate," Cassidy said, rolling her eyes. "It'd be easier to pry her credit cards out of her cold, dead hands."

"But if anyone can do it, it's you." Lucy assured her. She turned to Court. "We've got to go back to the hideout and then we're going to cause just a little bit of chaos."

"Because who's going to notice this little blip among all the big ones?" Cassidy asked as they started walking towards the exit.

"Exactly."

******

"So, we need the files," Cassidy said firmly.

She tried to ignore Carol, Dawnie, Leilani and Don sitting on a nearby couch, munching on kettle corn. The rich aroma of carmel and popcorn lingered in the air, threatening to distract her from her task. Rena was staring at her stubbornly, her phone clutched in one hand, a shopping site prominently displayed.

"No," Rena replied.

"Rena!" Cassidy pressed.

"No," Rena said.

"They're the cash we need to pay for this," Lucy said from the side, carefully painting her nails a solid shade of purple. A small pile of green sparkles sat next to the polish bottle. "Without it, it'll be all that much harder."

"Jebediah would kill me," Rena protested. They could tell that she was weakening.

"Jebediah is being held captive and won't care." Cassidy glared at Lucy who went back to painting her nails.

"But he would know," Rena turned around and stormed towards the kitchen area. She roughly hauled open the refrigerator to the tinkling of little glass bottles. "He would know, and he would be upset with me." She pulled out a bottle of soda.

Cassidy followed her and stopped at the island bar. She exchanged a look with Lucy who carefully picked up a green gem with a tiny pair of tweezers. Lucy carefully set the gem in the center of the half-dried polish, blowing on it. Cassidy huffed out a sigh as she registered Lucy's actions and false abrogation of responsibility for this fight she'd nudged her into with Rena. If she hadn't been truly interested, the gems would have been the same color of the nail polish.

She may not like her, but Cassidy understood Lucy the best, even better than Court. They were too much alike.

"How many did he take," Cassidy abruptly asked. "This is why you're hesitant, isn't it?"

She noted out of the corner of her eye that Leilani stopped chewing popcorn, the kernels in her hand falling to the floor. She knew the signs. Leilani never stopped scanning everyone nearby, paranoid about whatever.

"How many, Rena?" Cassidy pressed.

"All of them," Leilani answered. "Jebediah took all of the ones he could find," she continued, scrambling to her feet. She threw a scandalized glance at the silent Rena before darting away.

"Leilani!" Lucy dropped all pretense, straightening up. She jerked her head at Carol and Dawnie. They both took off after Leilani.n "Enough, Rena. Jebediah is waiting for us, and the quickest way to get us to him is those files."

Rena drank half of the soda in one go. Then she thumped the bottle on the counter.

"Follow me. I just hope you don't regret it."

Cassidy bit back a sigh. She was already regretting it.