A Basket Full of Bats

Gotham's Children

The Zeta in the Batcave lit up. Jason and Stephanie, neither of whom were in costume, turned off their flashlights and grabbed night vision goggles. Jason had a batarang at the ready. Stephanie had a taser. Normally the Zeta had a backup security system.

"It's the big blue jerk!" declared Jason who scowled fiercely, stomped up and kicked Superman in the shin. "Least you could do is keep Luthor and his goons confined to your city!"

Stephanie flipped up the night vision goggles and turned her flashlight back on. "Friendly little Hoodlum ain't he? How can I help..."

The Zeta lit up again and Martian Manhunter floated through.

Stephanie grabbed her walkie talkie. "B? We got guests!"

"Report."

"Superman and Martian Manhunter, Oh there goes the Zeta again and Flash ... and Wonder Woman. We got a regular JLA convention down here."

"As long as they aren't hostile I don't have time for them. I'm trying to source parts for the transformer, Tim's still shutting down the Reactor. Damian and Carrie are trying to patrol the entire fence line with ATV's and radios. Cassie's helping the nurse with Richard. Alfred's gone to the hospital to get another CPAP because the power surge took out the one we had and there was no back up."

"How's Richard even breathing? Why wasn't the CPAP on a surge protector?"

"They were just flooding his lungs with oxygen at first but I think they switched back to the ventilator. The CPAP was on a surge protector. The surge protector failed."

"But weren't there concerns about lung tissue scarring with any more ventilator use or was it pneumonia? Never mind, I'm sure they are using the best option available. Bat's I gotta lie down. I'm starting to get contractions."

"Regular?! Oh Steph honey, please don't go into labor now."

"They're not regular, my body just wants to rest and rehydrate I think."

"Keep me posted."

Wonder Woman's eyebrows rose as she watched the heavily pregnant Stephanie waddle towards the elevator.

"Don't give me that look Stars and Stripes. This one doesn't belong to Mr. B." Steph rubbed her swollen belly. "I slept with someone my own age, not some old fart like him. Ended up on the street with nowhere to go. Mr. B's been good to me. Jay, you're in charge of the welcome wagon. I'm going to bed. Don't murder the boy blue because Luthor's his arch-frienemy."

"My arch-frienemy?" protested Superman.

"He wishes he were you. He thinks you're hot sauce and a side of fries, stud muffin. He'd poison all the sunshine and buttercups to make you dance to his little tune. Kinda like Joker and Bats. Jay's just mad cuz Luthor's the mastermind behind tonight's funfest but not a shred of evidence that would hold up in court can be pinned to him and Bats made the mistake of mentioning that Luthor's your number one. If Luthor were here, he'd kick him in the whoo haa instead of the shin. Nobody is allowed messing with baby bird."

Stephanie made a futile attempt to use the elevator or Batlift as Tim had labeled it. Seriously, OCD and a P-Touch were a bad mix. Everything in the cave was labeled. The Bat Command Console Chair, Bat Uniform Storage, Baterang Locker, Bat leather polish, Bat Showers, Bat Scrap Paper Bin, Bat Laundry, Bat Test Tube Rack... It was very likely the Bat cave was ISO compliant. Finally she swore in annoyance and huffed slowly up the stairs.

Jason looked a little confused as to what he was supposed to do now. He stared up at the heroes perplexed. "Err yeah. Uh what do you want anyway?" He snarked, then he scrunched up his nose in thought. "Would you care for a refreshment?" He asked, trying to imitate Alfred. He opened a small bar fridge. "We gots water, sports drinks, granola and bananas... no tea or coffee cuz, duh no power, unless you wanna laser beam eye the water hot or whatever... uh... You can't have the potato. That's for my science fair project. Umm.."