Strange things happening...

The ringing of the phone woke Kara from her slumber, and the realization that she was floating above her bed, caused her to crash down to the bed with a slight yelp. Kara took a second to breath before answering the phone.

“Kara speaking,” Kara groaned, “No not at all… well truthfully, yes you did wake me… So what is up? Oh yeah, I will talk to Babs, I am sure she will be down for it… Oh? That is delightful, I will see you later.”

Kara hung up the phone and put it back on the night stand. She noted the sounds of protests coming from Jason’s room, it was a school day. The shock of a flashbang grenade detonating made the phone jump off the night stand and Kara grabbed it just before it hit the floor. She unplugged the phone and put it on her pillow as she reached for the chargers for her power dampening ear rings. The door opened and in walked the smiling Alfred.

“Good morning miss Kara, did we wake you?” Alfred said pouring a cup of coffee and a glass of orange juice.

“You are not going to believe this, but I was already awake,” Kara smiled.

“Were you now?” Alfred’s face didn’t reveal anything more than his flat toned question.

“Yes, I got a call about a party,” Kara turned and picked up her phone, “My friends over at Freaks of Gotham wanted to ask me if I wanted to do a charity party.”

“I am sure you love to do charity parties,” Alfred kept his tone even, “Any particulars?”

“I am meeting them later to talk to them,” Kara smiled faintly, “You make the best coffee in Gotham.”

“I am glad someone apricates my work,” Alfred cracked a smile.

“You tossed a flash bang into Jason’s room to get him up for school didn’t you?” Kara asked.

“Master Jason tossed one in Master Richard’s room for laughing at him having to go to school,” Alfred’s smile faded for a second before returning as he continued, “Would you like an omelet this morning?”

“Please, and thank you,” Kara smiled, “Now I need a shower.”

*

Kara was making her way down the stairs when a ring of the door bell made Alfred seemingly materialize from the kitchen and walk over to the front door.

“Miss Gleason, to what do we owe the honor?” Alfred asked.

“I am here to talk to her,” Summer Gleason pointed at Kara.

Kara looked over her left should behind her, then over her right shoulder behind her, and then pointed at herself and mouthed ‘me?’

“Yes, you miss Wayne,” Gleason folded her arms.

“I was unaware of any appointments Miss Gleason,” Alfred intoned.

“I am not dressed for an interview,” Kara said mockingly.

She was dressed in her normal comfy outfit of a pair of black rubber leggings, an oversized band long sleeved tee-shirt, and slipper socks. Kara’s wet hair was tied up in a high ponytail.

“I just have a few questions, no camera crews,” Summer Gleason said.

“What do you want?” Kara asked folding her arms across her chest.

“There was a charity event scheduled for Friday night in Ivy Town that for some reason was canceled last night,” Summer Gleason started, “Have you heard anything to confirm rumors that the Gotham based partners are scrambling to have the even Friday night here in Gotham?”

“I don’t do anything in Ivy Town, that should be well established at this point,” Kara said, “So I don’t care about events happening in Ivy Town. Besides, I spent last night here with my…”

“Doom, Doom upon humanity and their cursed institutions of school…” Jason bellowed as he came down the stairs interrupting Kara.

“With my family, emo red haired foster brother and all,” Kara winced as she continued.

“Well you are the brand ambassador for most of the pervert shops here in Gotham so if they are going to hold the event here in Gotham, they would be calling you…” Summer said.

“Right, good bye, Alfred,” Kara turned on her heels and left Gleason at the door.

“Good Day, Miss Gleason,” Alfred intoned with grim authority as he slammed the door closed.

*

Kara sat with Barbara at the Coffee shop.

“So you would think a reporter would be a bit more tact,” Barbara giggled, “Alfred really slammed the door on her face?”

“Yep,” Kara smiled.

“So what is going on?” Barbara asked.

“I don’t know, but I got a call this morning from out friends from Freaks of Gotham saying they are doing a Charity Party on Friday,” Kara picked up her coffee cup, “Biker themed and not strictly fetish. I was thinking of asking Jean-Paul to come with us since he can get in with just jeans and a tee-shirt.”

“That sounds good,” Dick said, “Have you asked him?”

“Is that why you are canceling lunch?” Barbara asked.

“Yeah,” Kara said, “I figured I would talk to him then.”

“What do you think?” Barbara asked looking at Dick, “Want to be my ride Friday night?”

“I can do jeans and a Tee-shirt,” Dick said.

“I was thinking of getting you a latex biker suit,” Barbara snickered.

*

Jason perked his ears as he walked past Garfield Logan as he sat talking with Barda.

“So now we have to practice fighting each other as if we have been brainwashed?” Barda asked.

“That is about the size of it,” Garfield said.

Jason moved his tray to his left hand and then flicked Barba’s and Garfield’s ears.

“Loose lips sink ships,” Jason hissed before walking along towards the table that Raven was sitting at.

No one seemed to notice or act in any way. But a table over with his back turned to them one student continued to eat his Sloppy Joe sandwich. Inside Justin Lawford’s head a familiar woman’s voice spoke; ‘Justin sweetie, report this to Mistress Harley like a good boy.”

Jason couldn’t help but feel like something was wrong, but he couldn’t put a finger on it as he sat down with his girlfriend…

*

“So, what have you found on Miss Waller’s detention of Mister Tetch?” Bruce intoned coldly.

“No, my clearance seems to be lacking in this particular instance,” Diana folded her arms across her chest in a sign of contempt.

“As I thought,” Bruce said, “Here is what my people came up with.”

Bruce pulled out a manila folder and handed it to Diana across the desk.

“What did you crack?” Diana asked.

“All open source,” Bruce smiled, “Just to make Amanda’s skin crawl.”

“Playing games with here is playing with fire,” Diana arched an eyebrow as she opened the folder and looked at the information, “This is pretty complete…”

“Speaking of playing with fire,” Bruce noted, “I understand you went to have a word with Lois.”

“That mere mortal proved to have a very venomous tongue,” Diana shook her head and subconsciously poked her pinky into her ear to treat the echoes of screaming, “More so than many of the recorded tirades of the lords of Olympus themselves.”

*

“Virginia Hex!” Garry shouted.

“Doc Phillips,” Jinny Hex smiled as she slammed another shot to boy’s gut.

“Get off each other right now!” Garry shouted as he went over and pulled the girl off the guy on the ground, “Mister James are you alright?”

“Just my pride,” Derek James said as he got up, “You still hit like a girl.”

Garry stepped between the two and held her back with one hand while Derek spit blood on the ground to his side.

“Still you are a decent scrapper,” Derek continued, “Want to go catch a movie this weekend?”

“Like a date? Sure sweetie,” Jinny smiled.

“Ok, straight to the nurse’s office mister James,” Garry pronounced, “Get your shirt on miss Hex.”

The girl went to pick up the torn school uniform shirt. She was still technically decent because of the white ‘boyfriend beater’ fitted tank top she was wearing. Garry also noticed the oval shaped electrical burns on her shoulder and left upper arm.

“What happened to your arm?” Garry asked.

“What this?” Jinny asked pointing at her shoulder before putting her shirt back on, “Snuck out to play laser tag with the boys this past weekend, nothing big.”

“Well let’s go,” Garry said, “If you feel the need to lie to me, at least let’s get you to the nurse’s office to get them treated.”

*

Kara walked down the ally holding Jean-Paul’s hand as they talked.

“So, the outfit for me would be jeans and a tee-shirt,” Jean-Paul asked again.

“Yep,” Kara said, “I made sure to ask before I considered saying I would help them out.”

“What are you going to wear?” Jean-Paul asked.

“I figured one of the store shirts with the logo and some leather pants,” Kara shrugged.

“A store shirt?” Jean-Paul asked.

“Probably a latex one,” Kara smiled.

“How do you put a print on a latex shirt?” Jean-Paul asked.

“You don’t, they cut out latex panels and glue them in place to form the logo,” Kara snickered, “Here I’ll have them show you.”

Kara let go of Jean-Paul’s hand and then reached for the door handle of the front entrance to Freaks of Gotham. Jean-Paul walked in and stopped. Kara smiled as she gently pushed Jean-Paul in the rest of the way to the store front of her latex providers.

“Hay Kara,” the store owner called, “This your friend?”

“Yes and I want him to stay my friend so be nice Cleo,” Kara teased, “Jean-Paul this is Cloe, Cleo this is Jean-Paul.”

Jean-Paul held out a hand to greet the woman. Cleo put her hand in Jean-Paul’s hand turned for him to kiss. Jean-Paul just shook her hand and released it. Kara smiled as she compared each person’s clothing. Jean-Paul was still in the slacks and button-down shirt from work, Cleo was wearing vinyl leggings, a white school teacher blouse and black vinyl waist cincher. Kara was still wearing her Nightwish shirt and latex leggings from the morning but added chunky heeled rock boots.

“So what is going on? And why did Summer Gleason show up at my door before breakfast this morning?” Kara asked.

Cleo reached behind her and pulled a pair of fliers from the counter and then handed one to Kara then the other to Jean-Paul. The pair looked at them for a second.

“Aids is a horrible blight,” Jean-Paul muttered.

“While they have improved treatments, there is still no cure or vaccine,” Cleo noted, “We were going to do this up in Ivy Town, but turns out one of the people running the venue was involved in some criminal network that got busted and the whole thing was canceled. But one of our partners here in Gotham runs a club, so we are going a head and doing a mini-version here on Friday Night.”

“Which club?” Kara asked.

“The Green Night,” Cleo smiled.

“The what?” Jean-Paul asked.

“That is a really big venue,” Kara said, “Are you using their ball room?”

“We got the whole venue,” Cleo smiled, “The Ball room will be where set up the tables, the stage is where we are doing the fashion shows…”

“Fashion shows?” Kara looked at the shop owner.

“Three of our models quite on us, while I hate to impose, I am a bit desperate for the bodies to show off our range…” Cleo said looking at Kara.

Kara looked at Jean-Paul.

“Oh no,” Jean-Paul said, “Most you are going to get from me is wearing a normal cotton teeshirt with your company logo on it.”

“Done,” Cleo said and whistled.

One of the store employees from behind the counter tossed Cleo a black tee-shirt with a white screen printing of the store logo.

“Here, and we will get you on as part of our staff so no cover charge,” Cleo said before looking back at Kara.

“What have you got for me?” Kara sighed.

*

“Well hello there,” Dick said as he sat at the sports pub.

“Get all that sorted out?” Jean-Paul asked looking away from the Hockey game on TV.

“Ok, this will be cooler than first advertised,” Barbara giggled.

“And a lot more involved,” Kara half smiled at Jean-Paul.

“Bar Tender, our ladies have arrived,” Dick smiled as he knocked on the table.

“Booth over there, I will give the kitchen your orders,” the woman behind the bar smiled.

“Lets have a seat,” Dick said, “I took the liberty of ordering for you two since you were busy.”

*

“Welcome home,” Bruce answered the door to the kitchen.

“Hay boss,” Dick smiled.

“Hay Bruce,” Barbara came in with her arm around Dick.

“Hi Bruce,” Kara smiled sheepishly as she came in last.

“Here,” Bruce handed Kara a sheet of printer paper, “Alfred?”

“The Bank will have a donation check for the charity fund for you give them ready Thursday morning,” Alfred smiled as he walked in the kitchen.

“What is this?” Kara looked at sheet of paper, “Doris Zuel, arrested for illegal genetic experimentation… And she was on the whole AIDs charity drive in Ivy Town, great…”

“It seems that she was skimming money from the charitable donations for her own genetics research,” Alfred said with slight sneer.

“Diana and Palmers are looking into it. It seems that Zuel had contacts with the university and was also illegally using federal funds,” Bruce noted.

*

Kara was riding around Gotham on one of the Ghostrider bikes tonight, as a way of scaring criminals off the road and seeing if the gearhead would return. The race car engineer had been quite since the confrontation with the Lex-corps supercars.

“This sucks,” Jason’s voice called over the commlink.

“Don’t complain to us,” Dick responded, “You are the one that got your driving privileges revoked.”

“Not my fault all the crazies came out while I was riding,” Jason snapped.

“No, but you could have handled it better,” Dick pointed out.

“I seem to recall someone panicking and slamming on the gas while in reverse on their driving test,” Barbara chuckled.

“All of you failed the first time as I remember,” Batman intoned.

“Oh burn,” Jason snipped.

“Focus on your patrols,” Batman ordered.

*

“Vale…”

“Gleeson…”

The two women glared at each other for a long minute.

“Either hurry up and get the cat fight over or take a seat,” Knox rolled his eyes.

“So what have you got Knox?” Gleeson asked.

“Something for the both of you,” Knox smiled, “It seems according to a little birdy the reason the AIDs party in Ivy Town was scrapped was because one of the people behind it was trying to make genetic modified monsters.”

“Oh?” Gleeson perked up.

“And it seems that she was not acting alone,” Knox continued.

Both women were looking at the pair of folders on the table that Knox had a hand over.

“Where did you get those?” Vale asked.

“I have no idea,” Knox said, “But they were in my refrigerator.”