"We're sorry, we don't know what's been going on with them." It was a bit of a relief to see Isaac worried, meant they weren't the only ones to notice Richie and Abe had been, weird, the past several days.

"Well, they're up," Mrs Foley said as she left her son's room and joined her daemon on the stairs, reaching out to compulsively toy with the wolfdog's fur. "They're still acting strange, but they're up." She huffed a little laugh. "If Richie's appetite wasn't getting worse, I'd be considering calling a professional." They all forced laughter at that. If nothing else, as long as Richie was eating they could assume the two weren't dying or something. Even if they'd suddenly stopped going on patrol, and begun spending less and less time at school, and basically were seemingly dropping off the face of the Earth.

There was a reason Virgil and Cam had come over to walk them to school rather than waiting to meet up on the way.

"We'll see if we can find out what's up," Cam said as the young pair headed up the stairs, Virgil offering a warm smile that Mrs Foley returned.

"Thank you, we'd greatly appreciate it. Just…" She trailed off, only to have Isaac pick up the sentence.

"Don't push them? If you could?" Well, that was an odd request in the circumstances, but they shrugged it off.

"Sure thing."

"Thank you, Virgil."

The scene they walked into was almost normal, Richie getting dressed, Abe packing their bookbag, but it wasn't right. There was no smile when Virgil called Richie's name, no wagging tail when Cam leapt playfully at Abe. Their expressions were flat and disinterested. Their movements were, off. It was disconcerting.

"Hey, you okay man?" Virgil ran a hand through his locks as he spoke. This wasn't like them, and he and Cam really were concerned. Richie's face remained inexpressive.

"Never better." Even his voice was distant, cold. Like he didn't want to be there talking to his bestfriend of all people. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, you haven't been on patrol lately-"

"You missed school yesterday-"

"You sleep in all the time now-"

"And hygiene is suddenly completely lost on you." As she said it Cam took a knot in Abe's fur between her teeth and pulled. The wolf didn't even seem to notice besides looking down at her with a long, slow blink.

"We've been, preoccupied," Richie said.

"With what?" What could they be preoccupied with that would have them skipping school, but not telling Virgil and Cam about it? "You know you can tell us anything."

"Are you upset, are you sick," Cam added, placing her forepaws on Abe's leg, "did you hit your head when Del threw you? We're your friends, we want to help."

For a brief moment there was almost emotion in Richie's face- wide eyes, open mouth, a flash of teeth- before he shut down again. Abe rose smoothly to his feet and shoved the bookbag into his hand, almost herding him out the door without so much as a backwards glance at Virgil and Cam.

"Come along, we're late."

Lunch had been disappointing the past few days, especially for Wally- who could easily go through seven or eight meals a day. The last pizza had vanished, nobody had bothered to restock, and so they were stuck with more mediocre fare. More specifically he was stuck with a Lean Cuisine, which really defeated the purpose of his meals, but they were all that was left. The only plus was that Effie didn't seem to mind, strewn out on her back on the table, chewing away at a noodle and happily meeping as he scratched her belly. It was a charmingly domestic scene that unfortunately wasn't built to last.

"Flash, Flicker, we have a job for you." In a blur the food was gone- probably using more calories than they gained back in the process- and they were standing at alert, Flicker sat at Lauretta's feet for a brief nuzzle.

"What do you need, GL," Wally said with a smile that Green Lantern returned to a lesser degree.

"Turns out nobody checked Gear's computer before we took the kids back home, we need you to track him down and scan it. He plugged it into the systems a lot while Brainiac had control and we want to make sure he didn't spread in there." He pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Flash. "Batman got a picture off the security cameras."

"Huh," Flash said as he gave it a look, kneeling so Flicker could also see the image of two teens and their daemons stuffing their faces at the table they'd just left, "that solves the case of the missing pizza." Rising again with a grin, he saluted. "We'll be back in two shakes of a lamb's tail!"

Really it wasn't all that difficult to find Gear and Socket. There were a lot of people in Dakota, but they had super speed on their side and it wasn't as if there were a lot of people with wolves out there. All they'd need to do was check every short-haired blond with a wolf by their side that they saw, which was an incredibly short list. Sure there was the brief flirting detour- which earned Flash a nip on the calf from his daemon- but in the end it took them less than half an hour to find a blond with a wolf, and while said daemon was stark white instead of Socket's browns and greys the face on the human matched perfectly. Or, well, mostly perfectly.

"Gear, we've been looking all over for you!"

"What do you want?" The expressions were distant, Gear's face a little long, Socket's steps a little too even, and the tone of the young hero's voice…

"Gee, nice to see you too." Flicker skirted around to Flash's other side as he spoke, away from the wolf and the homemade scooter. "Slow down, I need to see that computer of yours."

One quick, sharp glance their way and Gear turned to pull off into the nearest alley, Socket coming up behind him and just, stopping. No slowing. They both looked at the older hero pair with cold expressions far from the puppy-like excitement of just days before.

"What for?" The whole situation was putting off bad vibes, but Flicker and Flash pushed through with welcoming smiles. These weren't bad kids, maybe they were just having a rough day. Socket certainly didn't seem in the best shape, and it didn't look like Gear had bothered to shave. Best to continue being their friendly selves.

"We just need to look at it," Flicker said. "Check and make sure there's no bits of Brainiac hiding out in there." The kids shared a look before Gear responded.

"We don't have it with us."

"Then we'll go get it," Flash responded, smile growing wider, "fastest pair alive, remember?" The fact it took time for Gear to respond, that he almost looked like he might be eyeing them, was worrying, but finally he and his turned to leave the alley.

"Follow us."

"Who do you think would lose their minds first, Raven or Lauretta?"

"I think that'd be about tied." Flash kicked a soda can towards a corner. "So, computer?"

"BacPac is around here somewhere…" The fact his tone was still that of neutral disinterest remained creepy, but the boy was looking around. Flash chuckled at him as Flicker settled in next to a stationary Socket.

"You should get a utility belt, Batman can always find everything." The prairie dog laughed.

"Yeah, you boys should've seen, one time he-" With a squeak she was cut off as suddenly large jaws clamped around her middle, a sound only overshadowed by Flash's shout of alarm as he was also trapped in the sudden grasp of a machine. Immediately both went into flight mode, Flicker trembling as hard as she could manage with sharp canine teeth digging into her sides as Flash spun and dashed about the room.

"Get this thing off!" he cried as he slammed into tire racks, desks, cabinets, walls, anything to try to shake BacPac loose. Nothing worked. Flicker stayed trapped and Flash's attempted were ended with a cable suddenly binding itself around his legs. His daemon gave a high-pitched whine as he collapsed against a table. "Get me out of this!"

It looked, for a second, like there might be hope. Emotion came to Gear's face, fear and concern, and he opened his mouth only for vicious teeth to snap and his eyes to flash yellow before that cold look fell back over him. He and Socket's eyes both began to glow green as he loomed over Flash.

"There is no way out, Flash. No one escapes from Brainiac."

"Holy shit…"

"Either they threw one hell of a party without us or an earthquake hit."

Richie and Abe had disappeared at lunch, again. It was getting old, and even more worrying, but they were still trying to hold out hope, had crossed their fingers that they would find them here at the base this time. But no, all there was was a massive mess. Broken furniture, debris strewn about, it looked like a tornado had gone through, and for all Virgil's quips both of their immediate thoughts were that their security, little that it was, had been breached. Worse, that Richie and Abe might have been there at the time.

"Richie? Abe?"

"You guys here?"

"No." Both teens jumped, immediately glad they'd changed before coming here as they lit up with sparks and took a defensive stance. "Easy, Sparky, we're on your side." The sight of the Caped Crusader didn't really help much, they were not in the mood for, pretty much anything really, but Raven's friendly whistle and the whirling yip Onthar gave as more of the League followed the hero into the building did.

"Batman," Static sighed, "we didn't expect to be seeing you guys again so soon. If you came for the party, I'm thinking it's over." It was clear from the looks on their faces the visit wasn't nearly that social.

"Your friends are missing," Hawkgirl said, "and so are ours."

"Flash and Flicker came down here a few hours ago," Green Lantern continued, "to take a look at Gear's computer. We haven't heard from him since."

"It's very suspicious."

"Wait." Jolt stepped forward cautiously, ears swiveling. Logically there wouldn't be any enemies here while the League was, just there was still plenty of jackrabbit to her. "What would they want with BacPac?"

"We wanted to be sure Brainiac didn't stowaway in it during his takeover of the Tower," Riezen said. "It was supposed to be a quick scan, maybe a wipe if he had, nothing that would take so long."

"And now they're both missing…" Static didn't like where this was going, and from the sparks starting to come off Jolt's ears neither did she. If Brainiac had stowed away in BacPac then- He shook his head. "Hold up, let me try to get ahold of Gear. He's been kidnapped before, the two could be unrelated." He pulled out his shockvox, waving it slightly for the League to see with a proud smile. They were mostly unimpressed, though Onthar did pretend and who could really tell with Raven's cowl.

"Call him, Static," Jolt said and he nodded.

"Yeah."

It took too long for Gear to respond, long enough to set them on edge, and when he did respond he, he didn't sound right.

"What is it, Static?" The annoyance was actually an improvement on what they'd been dealing with, but something wasn't- they could understand, but the words clearly weren't forming right.

"The Justice League's here and they need to see BacPac. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. We're at the abandoned steelmill, working on a special project, you should come see." Static shared a discomforted look with Jolt, and then shot it at the League.

"Focus Gear. League? Here? They need to look at BacPac."

"BacPac is with me. Come meet us here, all of you." There were a lot of instincts battling in Static at that. On the one hand, he was worried about his friend and wanted to make certain Gear and Socket were alright. On the other, he'd been a hero long enough and read enough comic books to know this couldn't end well. One look at Jolt made it clear she, unsurprisingly, felt the same. But when he looked to Batman, a silent plea for advice, the more experienced hero nodded.

"Okay. We'll be right over."

The steel mill was eerily dark but not dusty, like someone had gone through the trouble of wiping everything down, but not the trouble of getting the electricity turned back on. What was even more odd was that Static and Jolt could taste the electricity in the walls even as Green Lantern and Lauretta lit the way. Why would they be working in a dark building? Why clean it so thoroughly but not bother to turn on the lights? The questions and the green glow left the walk through the mill feeling ominous, each glowing piece of scrap metal and strange shadow raising the tension until, by the time they entered the main work floor, Static was done.

"Okay, somebody needs to flip a switch," he said, sending a bolt of electricity through the nearest light fixture and immediately wishing he hadn't. As the lights came on they revealed massive amounts of towering machinery, fancier than anything he'd ever seen Gear build before and with none of the little flairs Socket insisted on including. Like somebody had taken the control rooms and shipyards of their favorite scifi series and combined them into a working whole. His stomach twisted.

"We are fucked, we are fucked, we are fucked," Jolt muttered, paranoia thriving under the view as she pressed herself against his leg.

"There's no way a high schooler made this," Lauretta said, a growl to her words. They could almost feel everybody's hackles raise. Even Batman sounded tense as he gave the group a "Stay alert", Raven tense on his shoulders.

"Hey guys." It was a surprise nobody jumped when Flash blurred onto the scene, all smiles and with his daemon a few heartbeats behind. "Miss me?"

"Where have you been?" Green Lantern was the first to move forward, followed closely by Onthar. Attention would've shown the daemons' focuses differing from their people's.

"With Richie and his computer." Jolt shoved against Static's legs with all her strength, which wasn't much, but enough to get him shuffling backwards. He hissed a quick "What's wrong?" down to her, but she didn't respond, merely continued to stare towards-

"Flick?" Onthar was the first of the daemons to openly speak, inching closer to his friend. "Are you alright?" Now that they looked, she didn't seem to be. She was there and whole, no Dust drifting away, but her eyes were, almost like she was dead. "Flicker?"

Flash grinned, eyes glowing green, and in a blur everything seemed to stop. Static couldn't see, or hear, or feel. It was like he'd suddenly found himself in a mass of cotton. Isolated in himself. The moment was brief, but when the 'cotton' fell away he still found himself disoriented.

"What just happened?" he asked aloud and was filled with dread when the only answer was a quiet groan from Jolt as she shook her head clear. The League was just, standing there around them, the heroes like statues even as he waved a hand in front of Batman to get a reaction, their daemons dead eyed, like zombies.

"I don't like this, Virg…" Nodding slowly, he scooped her up into his arms, eyes never leaving the adults.

"I gotta agree, Cammy…"

"Static." The familiar voices- and that just made it worse, the plural- made the stones in their stomachs grow heavier as they spun to see figures come out of the shadows that couldn't have been- Those were Richie's clothes, and the white paws were familiar, but it couldn't be them. "Your natural electrical field short-circuited my mind-control disks." Jolt accepted the connection and made the jump first, power arcing between her ears and antlers as she leapt back down to the floor with a growl.

"Brainiac."

The figures stepped into the light and any hope that may have been left vanished. The daemon was clearly Abraham, the wolf's white fur a unique trait in Dakota that made him identifiable even with the steel paneling that had taken up large portions of his body and the ominous green glow of his eyes. Richie though, if it hadn't been for the clothes, the wolf, the fact they'd known him since second grade, they wouldn't have recognized him. The same paneling covered most of his face, but what was left included a muzzle of all things, short though it was, and a thick mass of fur, that still weren't as scary as the glowy eyes were.

"Richie!"

"Abe!"

"What did you do to them?!" They continued to come forward, as Static joined his daemon in sparking.

"Your friends are completely under our control." Richie's voice was no longer there, replaced entirely by Brainiac's, and it only served to make them spark more.

"I thought we wiped you out!"

"You delayed the inevitable," Del, in Abe's body, said, "we still intend to digitize the information on this planet, and then destroy it."

They were so close, this close, to attacking. To destroying the pair once and for all for threatening their home, invading their friends. But, they couldn't. It didn't look it but this was Richie, this was Abe, their friends, and innocent victims in this. They couldn't fight them. They couldn't.

"Richie, Abe, guys you've got to fight this!" It all made sense now, the sudden change, the impassivity, and those brief flashes of almost something.

"You've been trying, haven't you? You can do it, we know you can!" And for a glorious moment they could, their eyes clearing- Abe's to his normal grey and Richie's to a vibrant yellow. Whimpering, Abe forced a step forward, uttering a single "Cammy" before Del brought him back to heel with a sharp whine, settling back into position as if nothing had happened.

"Virgil-" Richie fared better, managing to drop his face into clawed hands. "Con-control. Control! Control!" Static grinned, even as Jolt pressed herself against him. This was where their hopes lay.

"That's it Richie!"

"You can do it!"

"C-Con-" There was a visible struggle as Brainiac wrested for control, hope blossoming into horror as Richie suddenly struck out, driving teeth as large and sharp as Abe's into his own shoulder. It was a terrible sight, him tearing a chunk out of his own flesh, but it seemed to work. He managed to turn back to them, mouth ringed and filled with blood, and growl out "-ote! Control! Get!" before the virus drove him back.

"Brainiac?" Del spared it's partner a glance as he returned to position, expression as neutral as ever, eyes glowing their evil green.

"It is under control," he said, then pointed at the young heroes. "Justice League, destroy them."

Never before had Static and Jolt been so clearly man and soul as when the Justice League turned and began to close in on them, eyes widening in unison as they backed away, matching step for step.

"Who, us? Hold on guys, we don't wanna have to hurt you," Virgil quipped, slipping a hand behind his back when they gave no indication of having so much as heard him.

"Guess it sounded as lame to them as it did to me."

"Hush you." They stepped back onto the freshly dropped Static Saucer as one, flying up in a trail of sparks and just avoiding Flash. A strong blast took out one of the building's skylights, giving them a path to freedom, or at least to more space to maneuver. Unfortunately taking to the air wasn't enough to avoid members of the League and Hawkgirl was quickly on their tail, Onthar draped dully around her shoulders like a weird mink.

"Do you have a license for that mace?"

"Static!"

"Listen, I'll stop quipping-" He took a sharp dive just as Jolt leapt skywards and grinned when Hawkgirl followed him, leaving her open to an attack from his daemon right on that control disc. While the hero stopped and regained her bearings, he was swinging back up to catch Jolt. "-when you stop being a pessimist."

"What happened," Hawkgirl asked, raising a hand to touch Onthar as he groaned back to the land of the living.

"No time," Jolt answered, "we can short out the control discs on you guys. Help us get the rest?" The older pair looked down, where the rest of the League team was gathering. Onthar hissed.

"Of course."

With a nod the pairs dove into the fray. Hawkgirl beelined for Batman, knocking away batarangs with her mace until they were close enough for Jolt to leap into view, shocking his control disc like she had Hawkgirl's before, a maneuver that brought them close enough for Onthar to pounce on Flicker, drawing out an instinctive protectiveness that distracted Flash enough for Static to strike. But of course it couldn't remain that simple. J'onn and Green Lantern were next, both capable of flight and more than up to the job of chasing as Static and Hawkgirl scooped their daemons back up and rose higher and higher.

"J'onn and Riezen can handle Green Lantern with ease," Hawkgirl said, swooping under Static to avoid a blast of energy, "but we need to get them first." Easier said than done. They didn't doubt they could do it, just a solid shock like the rest since he couldn't go intangible without dropping his daemon to their deaths, but they couldn't get a clear shot with Green Lantern alongside him…

"See if you can get Lauretta to stay in place," Jolt said, "tether them!" Hawkgirl and Onthar shared a look, then a nod, and dropped away. They didn't bother to watch and see what they tried, instead making a sharp turn and dive, hoping to get cover between them and Green Lantern. Between the pairs the plan seemed to work, the blasts of energy stopped coming and soon it was just them and J'onn.

Now it was easy. Static hit the brakes and put out a sparking hand and the Martian practically ran right into them. J'onn shook his head clear as Riezen's color returned.

"Static…"

"We need your help," by now Jolt was all sparks all the time, "we need to get Green Lantern contained so we can free him from Brainiac's control." J'onn nodded, and Riezen flashed a series of deep colors.

"Leave that," the mollusk daemon said, "to me."

It was actually surprisingly easy. The rest of the League's daemons had piled onto Lauretta, who didn't have enough mind to her in the moment to shake them off, which left Green Lantern safely stuck close to the ground. All Static and Jolt had needed to do was distract him for the four or five seconds it took for Riezen to get close to his fellow daemon and use his own mental powers to lull her to sleep. They'd been left staring as their hero collapsed into J'onn and Hawkgirl's arms.

"Do you guys do housecalls?"

Once everyone was back together, safe, sane, and awake, the group found themselves on top of a warehouse near the steel mill. It seemed the best place to regroup, and keep an eye on the enemy.

"While I was under Brainiac's mindcontrol," J'onn said, Riezen curled along the hollow of this throat, all the daemons were sticking extra close right not, "I tried to make telepathic contact with Gear. All I could hear was one word, 'control', being repeated over and over."

"That's what he said to us too," Static said, "he must be trying to tell us something. Like how to stop Brainiac."

"He said 'control'," Jolt added, "and 'get', and something else that was hard to make out."

"That's not exactly a lot to go on," Hawkgirl said, and they both had to admit she was right. But…

"It's better than nothing." It was, they just needed to figure out what he was trying to say, but the League gave them a hard look.

"Meanwhile," Batman said, in a tone that implied it wasn't really a 'meanwhile' at all, "we need to stop Brainiac at all costs." Raven tugged at his cowl with a hiss and Jolt came forward.

"Except Richie and Abe," she said, in a 'that is final' tone she learned from Mr Hawkin's Emily. Green Lantern met her step for step, regret in his eye.

"We'll do everything we can, but-" Jolt stomped her foot, sparking.

"Except. Richie. And. A-"

The steel mill exploded. First the windows burst out in a flash of flame, then the building itself collapsed to reveal a mass of metal. A ship, with trailing tentacles, rising up out of the rubble. It was in the shape of Brainiac's head. They could all only watch as it rose up, up, and the eyes began to glow a green that would probably never stop sickening them, releasing a beam in which two of the other warehouses simply vanished.

"See what we mean, kids?" Lauretta said. "This is bigger than one pair."

This was, something else. The Big Bang had been a disaster, but at least it had been- at least you'd known it had happened. You could look around Dakota and see evidence of it, go to the docks and there was still scars. With this, with this everything was just, gone. Vanished like it'd never even been there. Before they'd needed to figure out how to stop Brainiac, how to save their friends and the world, but as the speedsters ran to survey the damage as it happened and Batman called on the Javelin the need became frantic.

"Come on, Cam, we're smart, we can figure this! It had an 'o'!"

"And 'o' and something, a 't' maybe? God, Abe will never let us live this down…"

"It's Richie's fault for growing a muzzle when we needed to understand him. 'O', 't', 'o', ote-" Light bulb. "Remote!" Jolt just about jumped out of her skin where they were knelt, paying no mind to Flash and Flicker's return, twisting in the air in relief.

"'Get the remote control', of course, we're morons!"

"I blame videogames." Virgil leapt to his feet with a grin, turning to the League as they headed onto their ship. "Guys! Guys, we figured it out! We know how to stop Brainiac!" Which, if nothing else, got their attention.

"How," Batman asked, and they could've sworn Raven was beaming from his shoulder, which only encouraged them.

"If Brainiac's based in BacPac, then if we get his remote control we can shut him- and Brainiac- down!"

"We need to go back to our base, it's probably there!" The League shared a look among themselves, though not a disapproving one, and Green Lantern stepped forward.

"It's a better plan than we've got," he said and Batman nodded alongside him.

"Flash, Flicker, go find the remote-"

"It'll be white, all sleek and shit, green buttons."

"-you two, get in the ship."

The view wasn't any better from the air. There didn't really appear to be any rhyme or reason to the order in which Brainiac was digitizing things- unless maybe he had a phone book and was doing it alphabetically- which meant that there were just, empty spaces where things had once stood. Blank spots in the city that screamed Wrong to them as they passed. Static kept a tight grip on BacPac's remote, his arm secure around Jolt as she huddled in his lap. Both were making themselves watch. They were heroes, this was their city, they had to.

"I'm thinking," Lauretta said, "the eyes are probably the weak spot." Flash and Flicker scoffed as one.

"Maybe if they blink, right now they don't look too inviting." The dog daemon and hers gave them a look, and Green Lantern's grip tightened on the controls.

"Hold on." Just about everybody on the ship stopped breathing at that point, because the most courageous man on Earth flew them directly into one of the digitizing beams. He and Lauretta put up a ring-powered shield around them as the ship faded away, but that didn't help all that much given how clearly they were struggling to keep it up. All in all, there ended up being hardly enough time for a "Brace for impact" from Hawkgirl before they were colliding with one of the ship's eyes, crashing through and landing in a pile of debris inside.

"Lauretta, sweetie," Flicker said as they all gathered their bearings, "next time you two have a plan, warn us first, please-thank." Batman and Raven were, of course, the first to be right as rain, immediately taking charge.

"We need to find the control room," he said and almost before he was done Flash and Flicker were off, leaving the rest of them to all sigh in that 'why do we love them' way everyone is familiar with and follow behind. They were fast, but not all that difficult to find, especially when they got blasted out of a room towards the end of a hallway.

"So?" Flash nodded as he got back to his feet, the rest of the group crowding around him.

"Control room." And apparently either Brainiac or Del was inside, because as he said it robots in Brainiac's image began to, form out of the walls? It was strange and some of them were getting stuck and Static couldn't help giggling, knowing when he heard Jolt do so as well they were picturing the same thing.

Ebon stuck in a wall.

"This isn't a laughing matter, Static," Batman said, grabbing his arm just long enough to tug him towards the door. "Come on!" With the other watching their backs, and Raven swooping down on any robot who got too close with sharp claws and vicious warcroaks, Batman blasted their way inside.

The boys weren't there. Instead there were two massive robots, one humanoid wearing BacPac, clearly Brainiac from that ugly-ass face, and one a mass of tentacles and arms, likely Del. They stood on a platform on the opposite end of the room, a screen before them displaying the chaos they were wrecking on Dakota. Before the quartet could act, the pair turned to them, eyes glowing, and tentacle cables reached down for them from the ceiling. Static, Batman, and Jolt were easily caught, the tentacles snatching the remote from Static's hands and passing it off to Brainiac. Raven avoided the assault, but the distance between her partner and the robots was too great for it to be of us.

"Foolish humans, you are in our house now." Static and Jolt both snarled as they struggled, the daemon's ears swiveling frantically.

"Where's Richie and Abe?!" Please be alright, please be alright-

"With us."

"They see everything, know everything." As the robots spoke, they opened, revealing familiar forms strapped inside. Both were barely conscious, Richie was still a mass of fur and his own blood, but they were alive.

"Richie," Static called out, "shut him down! Hit the remote!" And he tried, baring sharp teeth with a groan and attempting to swipe his claws in the right direction, but it was to no avail. He went limp again with a whine that Abe mirrored.

"Unfortunately for you," Brainiac said, closing himself back up, "he can do nothing. No one can. Especially after I destroy this." He raised the remote and Static took his chance. Small target, no time to aim, just instinct, skill, and electricity's tendency to head for other sources. Fingers crossed…

It was a direct hit.

A surge went through the remote and immediately the control panel began to spark and flash, as did the robots' eyes. It was a mess of light and energy, the tentacles dropping their captives to the floor just before everything final stopped and Brainiac and Del, stiff as mannequins, fell.

Virgil and Cam didn't wait, as soon as the robots started to go they were on their feet and running forward, the League close behind. They didn't really notice what was going on with them, just that Flash suddenly passed Virgil by, making quick work of the mass of metal that had been Brainiac while the daemons and J'onn ripped into Del. The boy and jackrabbit were practically latched to their friends' sides as soon as they were revealed, out cold, reeking of ozone, but alive. There was a whirring noise and unintelligible babbling as Hawkgirl lifted Richie free, the fur and muzzle already beginning to fade away, and Batman began shedding his cape to make a sling for Abe.

"Brainiac is rebooting," he said, "we have to act fast."

"We'll take it from here!" J'onn was already tearing up chunks of metal. Green Lantern and Lauretta beginning to blast away. "You get the children out!"

And so they did, those that could fly hauling those that could not and leaving the four to do as much damage as they could before escaping, allowing the ship to crash and explode in the bay.

Richie was awake, bandaged, and not covered in fur, laying on his back on a table they'd set up in the gas station with J'onn's hands on either side of his head. Abe was in a similar position, from a canine perspective, laid beside the bed where Richie could reach him, Riezen's tentacles on his shoulders and hips. The main difference between the two being that while Virgil was hovering a few feet away to avoid touching anybody's daemons, Cam had set herself up right by Abe's side and spent every moment she could grooming him with the help of Onthar.

"I sense nothing of Brainiac within him, Richie should be fine."

"And Abe as well."

"Well thank fuck." Rolling his eyes at his daemon, though he agreed with every syllable, Virgil grinned.

"Hey, while you're in there, can you tell me where he left my Lil' Romeo cd?" J'onn smiled back.

"It seems he gave it back to you last month."

"Hah!" Richie said, grinning back as he rolled himself off the table, "told ya!" He dropped to the floor immediately, pulling Abe's head into his lap- forcing Cam to move on to the wolf's hind leg- and turning to look towards the other side of the room. "What about BacPac?"

"We're running one final check," Hawkgirl said, "just to be sure Brainiac is out of his system."

"You'll have to reprogram your robot, but he should be okay." Richie chewed his lip as Batman said it, toying with one of Abe's ears as he whined and buried his head against his belly.

"Listen, um, I wanted to thank everyone for saving us." Abe fidgeted.

"We're not sure what to say…"

"Hey, it's nothing less than you would've done for us, right?" Flash grinned as well, and Flicker squeaked an agreement from under his arm.

"We're very proud of you, you know." All four teens jumped at those first words any of them had ever heard out of Raven. The crow hopped over to join them as Batman came closer, starting in on preening the younger daemons. "All of you. Over the last week you've proven yourselves to be brave, strong, smart, and loyal."

"Yeah," Green Lantern chimed in, "for rookies you've done well. But we can tell, you're gonna be handfuls when you join the League." Static and Richie perked at the words, eyes going wide. Their daemons were a little too preoccupied with the fact Raven was still talking ("Really, taking down Brainiac and Del twice, at your ages, you did very good-") to do the same, but their ears swiveled in the right direction.

"I'm sorry, when we join the league?" Virgil was grinning like a cat in the milk jar and Richie like a fox in a chicken coop. The adults chuckled, and Flash clapped Static on the shoulder while Batman handed BacPac back to his rightful owner.

"Anything is possible. When you're older."

"And of course we'll be replacing Richie's shirts so don't you worry about that-" Closing his eyes, Batman sighed.

"Are you finished, Raven?" His daemon gave him the side eye before flying back to her spot on his shoulder to tug on his cowl.

"No, I am not," she said, then turned back to the children as Abe and Cam took their places between their boys, "if you kids need anything, anything at all, you let us know. Alright?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Definitely." Batman sighed again and shook his head before smiling at the quartet.

"Goodbye, and be careful," he said, then turned to follow his team out and away like nothing had even happened. The building fell quiet, the young heroes basking in their relief, their hero worship, hopes for the future. Camilla was the one to break the silence.

"So," she said, "I think we may have been adopted by The Raven." Abe nodded, and Virgil and Richie shared a look over their heads. With a smile and a chuckle, Virgil shrugged.

"Well, weirder things have happened lately."