Chuck gathered the team.
"You've got to be joking. Did you forget that I'm stuck in a two mile radius?"
"Really?" Chuck paused for a moment before adding. "Such a shame. I'm sure Nightstar would have enjoyed having someone she had worked with so closely-"
"We're not that close! ...But fine. I'll join."
Chuck grinned. Got him.
His next call was to Mar'i herself.
"A mission? Awesome! I'm in."
His final call was to the final member of the team. Chuck was the brains and lightning. Mar'i was the brawn and connections. Damian was the gadgets and the brain. Morgan was also called in because Chuck knew he wouldn't like being left out of something like this.
As expected, Morgan was hyped.
"You've got to be kidding," Damian groaned when he arrived in his Red Bird helmet and black super-suit. Morgan was floating around, feet hovering off the ground and half-cape blowing in the wind. The lightning bolt in his chest lit up the blue suit around it.
"Big Cheese, who is this?" Morgan asked Chuck.
"You've got to be kidding," Damian huffed again as he took off his helmet.
"Oh," Morgan dropped to the ground with a frown. "Okay. Let's go and break Chuck's father's friend out of CIA custody."
Damian rolled his eyes before putting his helmet back on.
"Wait. There's still one more."
"Oh yeah."
"Who?"
"She should be here soon."
"Wait, she?" Morgan questioned. "Is it Darla?"
"Is this everyone?" Mar'i questioned as she descended, dressed in her purple Nightstar super-suit.
"Not Darla " Red Bird snorted.
"I've forgotten. Who are you?" Morgan asked.
"Nightstar," Mar'i responded with a grin as her eyes glowed brighter.
"Alright, turn it down glowworm," Red Bird commented through grit teeth. "We're breaking in."
Nightstar gave him a flat look as she pointed at Chuck's and Morgan's chests. Where there was a lit up lightning bolt, just as bright as her eyes.
"Fair point," Red Bird conceded. "I guess I'll go in alone."
"Last time you did something like that, you died," Chuck pointed out. "Casey shot you, right near the heart."
"Wait, what? I didn't hear about that one," Nightstar panicked. "And I would have heard about it. Dad would have broken something."
"I don't think they know about the death part of that mission," Red Bird commented quietly. Nightstar blinked because did Damian really think that would change anything?
"You're not going in alone."
Red Bird sighed. "I'm perfectly capable."
"So are we."
"Guys, we're all going in," Chuck pointed out. He passed Nightstar a grey hoodie and tossed another one to Morgan before pulling on one for himself.
"This is stupid," Morgan commented as he zipped it up. The superpowered glow in the area faded.
"I agree. This isn't intimidating at all," Nightstar sighed.
"We're not meant to be seen. There's no purpose in being intimidating. Also, I need to be back in New York in 24 hours, so if we could hurry this up?"
El looked over at her husband, who was still staring at the tracking data. Peter was frowning his 'bad gut feeling' frown.
"Something wrong?"
"My gut tells me so." But the data showed that Neal was moving around.
"Are you going to go check?"
That was a loaded question. Peter could pretend that he believed the data or he could go find out. Then again, if there were vigilante's involved, then Neal was either in trouble or hoping that Peter would aim to keep his plausible deniability.
This was his and El's time together and it was a shame that Neal came up in the conversation fairly often.
"How about you call June? She can check on Neal."
His wife was a genius! Peter did just that.
"Neal? Yeah, he's in his apartment." The knot in Peter's gut loosened when June told him that. He heard a distant, 'is that Peter?' which sounded just like Neal. While June liked Neal, Peter knew that she wouldn't lie for him if he was in danger so he could trust that June was talking to him. "Do you need to talk to him?"
"No. I just had a bad feeling and needed someone to confirm that he was alright," Peter explained. He knew he was purposefully making it sound like he was worried for Neal and not about Neal. While both were true, he knew he preferred June to believe he was worried for Neal.
"He's fine."
A distant voice called out, "tell him to stop worrying about me and worry about his wife. He should be spending time with her right now!"
Peter chuckled and hung up.
Neal smiled at June over the top of the book he was reading. "He really worries about me, huh?"
"Either that or he believes you're up to something," June teased. "I'll leave you to your reading."
"Thanks, June." Neal waited until her steps faded down the stairs before he breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that his little act had worked. Thank goodness.
Colin really hoped that Damian would return soon before Monday. He didn't think he'd be able to make it through a day at White Collar, even with a necklace that made him look exactly like Neal. He turned back to the library, now wondering how many books he'd be able to get through this weekend.
The 'rescue' was a success. Damian floored it through the air, enjoying the way the world below rushed past his batjet.
Morgan looked a little pale.
"You can fly, how terrifying is this in comparison?" Damian asked with a laugh.
"It's different!" Morgan countered.
"I don't know, I'm alright," Mar'i commented.
"If Morgan says it's different, it's different," Chuck said.
"You can fly too," Mar'i pointed out in an unimpressed tone. "Surely you can tell from personal experience?"
"It's different then. I mean, I can't have someone hostage while flying."
"Sure you can. Just carry them."
"That makes it hard to keep drugging them when they start to stir."
"I think he's awake anyway."
Mar'i and Chuck froze at Morgan's comment. They both looked down at Volkoff who, no matter how hard they looked, looked unconscious.
"Are you sure?"
"His eyes moved."
Chuck kicked the criminal in the side. Volkoff grunted and opened his eyes.
"You know, Charles, you could have just asked."
"Would you have responded?" Chuck countered.
Volkoff huffed and looked around. "Where are we going then? I assume some kind of CIA facility I'll never leave?"
"That's what we just broke you out of," Morgan said proudly.
"Yeah, it was surprisingly easy," Damian mused.
"That's because we make such a good team!"
Damian gave Morgan a look that he hoped conveyed 'are you serious?' because security was obviously easy to crack.
Mar'i ignored them with a shrug, but felt it was important to add, "who wants to bet Chuck's father created a lot of the security and they haven't bothered to update it in years?"
"Probably."
"Wouldn't surprise me," Chuck commented.
"What, if I may ask, is going on?" Volkoff asked, looking around at all the costumes and masks.
"You have an intersect, we're getting it out," Chuck explained with no delicacy. No one cared about sparing Volkoff's feelings, even if the man would be erased and replaced with the original personality in a few hours.
