First, I'd like to apologize for the long, and unexpected hiatus. My only excuse is that work got crazy, and I didn't want to sit down and write on my time off.
Secondly, I plan on at least two, maybe three more chapters after this. The actual birthday party, a small epilogue, and (possibly) the births of Galatea's twins. Hopefully the wait won't be as long.
Chapter 11 – Plans
After Louise had regained consciousness, again, and retained said consciousness, Azalea told them the time they could begin to show up, gave instructions on how to get to her house, as well as laying out a set of ground rules for the visiting villains.
1. While they could bring gifts for their daughters, as it was to be Amaryllis' birthday they were attending, they all had to bring a gift for the birthday girl.
2. None of their gifts could be stolen property, or potentially harmful.
3. There would be no fighting, foul language, or talks of criminal activity in front of her daughters.
4. If they showed up, they would be remaining in their daughter's lives.
All in all, Azalea thought she was being very reasonable considering the fact Luna had sprung this whole meet up and tell all on her. And the witch would certainly be having words with her blonde friend once they were alone about not warning her who they were meeting and why.
Not that she didn't understand Luna springing this on her...she doubted she'd have come any other way, but it was the principle of the thing really.
After a few hours of talking between the Azalea and her past lovers, the group separated to go their different ways...for the time being anyway.
None of them knew they weren't the only one's privy to the details of the meeting...except perhaps for Luna, but it was hard to tell what the seer knew, didn't know, or ignored for her own (if somewhat questionable) sanity.
Oswald Cobblepot, better known to some as The Penguin, did not attain his position as a crime lord, information broker, and legitimate businessman by playing nice. No did he obtain such lofty heights by being dumb. One could even argue that he was one of the more intelligent of Gotham's criminals, being able to maintain a delicate balance of neutrality in his legitimate business, keeping up his criminal activities, and staying out of jail.
Unknown to most of his customers, Oswald had a variety of listening devices scattered throughout his club...including the meeting rooms.
Normally, Oswald didn't pay attention to the listing devices himself. There was too much information to hear, and much of it was useless drivel. Besides, what was the point of underlings if you couldn't get them to monitor said devices. It was only when the meeting rooms were used, and only then by certain individuals, that Oswald would take a direct interest.
The name Luna Lovegood didn't draw much attention when she booked a meeting room. Nor did her calling the gathering The Gardner Party. The name wasn't recognized as anyone of note, or their known alias', and neither was the meeting.
It wasn't until began arriving for 'The Gardner Party' that things got interesting, and got Oswald to abandon his table for his hidden listening station. Seeing such prominent villainess such as Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Livewire, Cheetah, Killer Frost, alongside the lesser known Orca and Volcana and that clone of Supergirl CADMUS had made was most certainly of note...
What Oswald learned chilled him to the bone.
Oswald would admit that he occasionally angered his fellow criminals. This was rarely done intentionally as grudges were bad for business, but it sometimes could not be avoided. Even more importantly, there were certain villains he knew not to piss off, for his own health and well-being. Alone, each of the women in the meeting were women he would not want mad at him. Oh, he could almost certainly deal with it if one, maybe two of them, were mad at him...but all of them at once...that was a nightmare.
Finding out they all had children with the same woman...
Oswald wasn't sure about the others, but ever major criminal in Gotham knew that Ivy's greatest wish was to be a mother, that she had a soft spot for children in general. The crime lord could not imagine the horror she could, and would undoubtedly, unleash should anything happen to her newly discovered daughter, her daughter's sisters, or her daughter's mother. And should any of the other women react even a fraction the way Ivy would...
The Penguin doubted there would ever be a hole deep and dark enough to crawl into and hide from the sheer hell that would follow.
What truly scared the man however, wasn't this possibility, or even what the new mothers were capable of. What scared him was the knowledge that there were others out there that would care, whether it be due to their own grudges against the various villainess' or simply for the sheer hell of it (He physically shuddered at the thought of what Joker would do with this information).
Oswald Cobblepot was never going to let this information pass his lips. Should anything happen to those children, he wanted to be as far away from the target zone as possible. Hell, he was going to make all of Little London a no fly zone for his people.
Batman stood at the head of the conference table, the other six founding members of the Justice League were all here now, and he could begin.
"Yesterday, at approximately 6 o'clock, a group of villains met at The Iceberg Lounge in Gotham," he began. He pressed a button on the remote he carried and the pictures of the villains in question began to appear on the screen behind him as he named them. "Poison Ivy, Harley Quin, Orca, Livewire, Volcana, Cheetah, Killer Frost, and Galatea were all in attendance, as well as two unknown women...one of whom was visibly pregnant." The last picture, obviously taken at a distance, showed two women, one blonde and one dark haired...the dark haired woman noticeably pregnant. "What was discussed in the meeting is something I was, unfortunately, unable to learn," The Dark Knight continued, "What I was able to discover was that the group intends to meet again this Saturday in the town of Little London, outside of Gotham City."
"This is concerning information," Superman agreed. "Any one of them could be a potential problem...all together, well..."
"I'm more concerned with those two unknown women," Green Lantern added in his own opinion. "And what their motivations in this could be. Any leads?"
Batman shook his head. "Not yet."
"Are we sure there is a threat?" Wonder Woman asked. "I mean Ivy, Harley, and even Livewire are known to be friends to an extent. Maybe they were just planning a girls night?"
"The last time Ivy, Harley, and Livewire had a girls night, they robbed several stores and caused significant property damage," Batman deadpanned.
"He does have a point," Superman pointed out.
"Do we even know exactly where they're meeting?" Flash asked. "I mean, small town or no, Little London is still a town that would take time to search. And if they see any of us doing recon of any kind...we're screwed."
"We have the exact address," Batman assured them. "The problem is that even I can't find the records of who the property belongs to.
"Then what's the plan?" Hawkgirl asked.
I didn't exactly make it clear, as not all spoke, the Justice League I picture is the DCAU League...mostly because it's my favorite version. As for why Penguin is going to be less of a problem, Batman is paranoid...smart but paranoid, most importantly, The JL trusts him. Penguin just has very good self-preservation instincts, and no reason to go against them. And let's face it, you don't become a superhero, putting your life on the line as the members of the JL do, if you have any self-preservation instincts...unless you're virtually invincible like Superman or Wonder Woman, just saying.
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