Author's note:
Mike won't be assigned to their room, Oscar will.
Echo, November, Sierra, Victor, and Oscar awoke as their sleeping pods began to open before exiting the room to enjoy their day-to-day activities. They never noticed that they were being watched by DeWitt from an observation room by their bedroom. She quickly makes her way to her office for the staff meeting she had called for.
"We're all aware there have been recent problems. Ours is a complicated world… but the world of our actives must be one of constant certainty." DeWitt said before being interrupted by the door to her office opening.
Topher came in with a nervous chuckle, "Whoa! Did you guys start early? I-I was, uh, backing up my primary drives to protect them."
The lights began humming, briefly flickering off and on, before stabilizing.
"… From that." He continued.
"As Topher points out, we are currently upgrading our electrical and security systems. We will be instituting other changes as well. We have had an active go off mission. Another has developed urges. Others still are showing signs of cognizance or recognition. Nearly all the actives exposed to the N-7316 drug experienced a glitch, a random memory thread. This house is out of balance. For the handlers, the main concern will be identifying behavioral problems that cannot be quelled and reporting them." DeWitt said sternly.
Mr. Dominic spoke after waiting for DeWitt to finish what she was saying, "It's easy to become attached to your assigned active. In fact, it's necessary… but don't think of them as children. Think of them as pets."
"Is… that supposed to be funny?" Dr. Saunders questioned.
"If your child starts taking for the first time, you feel proud. If your dog does, you freak the hell out. Any developmental progress an active makes is dangerous to the house and a possible first step towards another Alpha." Mr. Dominic continued.
"What about the Alpha that's already an Alpha?" Boyd Langton, Echo's handler, interjected.
The lighting began to flicker once more with an electrical humming before stabilizing again.
"Whereabouts unknown." Mr. Dominic stated.
DeWitt spoke up once more, "Let's stay on Topic. Topher?"
"I've scrubbed them as much as I safely can. If we pursued the short range calcium modeling K2 amplifier , i could advance the protein's corrosion of long-term potentiation." Topher said.
"Done… whatever that means. Anything else?" DeWitt said with a sigh.
"The sleep cycle," Topher cleared his throat before continuing, "The sedatives and anti-psychotic we pump into the pods with the O2, the subliminal tone patterns… I think I could… play with that cocktail a bit."
Dr. Saunders immediately interrupted, "Sleeping is their most vulnerable time."
"We could test it out on one chamber if you're stressed about it…" Topher said.
"If… if you start playing with their meds, it could backfire or damage them." Dr. Saunders tried to explain.
"Or it could solve the problem." Topher interjected, "I know what I'm doing, Doc."
She looked at him, unamused by his confidence, "So do I. But I also care what you're doing."
Topher stared at her awkwardly, uncomfortable by her callous remark that he didn't care at all for the dolls, before looking away from her.
She turned to Mr. Dominic, "To our pets."
"I will take it into consideration." DeWitt stated, "I need reports at the end of every shift detailing your interactions with the actives: feelings they express, questions they ask, instincts you observe. Everything."
"We can't jump at shadows." Boyd said in concern, "I don't want to report that my active asked for toast and have her sent to the Attic. We were hired to protect them."
"In the field, yes, Mr. Langton. In here, we protect the house. A tide is rising. Until we learn how to turn it back, we pile up the sandbags together." DeWitt said while making eye contact with all her staff top stress the importance of what she was saying, "Unless anyone here thinks they've got a better idea.
"What. Happened?" Batman growled out.
Jason, Artemis, Superboy, and Miss Martian reported what had happened before they had all backed out.
"The last thing I remember is a man coming to the doll, Echo, and asking if she wanted a treatment. She said yes before following him." Miss Martian stated.
"Same. At some point, a group of men and women entered the security building. They each went to a different actives, all of them asking if they wanted their treatment, before they were led away. Dick was approached by a man that was assigned as his handler and, even though he didn't seem to know him at that point in time, he completely trusted him and left with him. Artemis and I never got to follow them as we were knocked unconscious. Next thing I know, I'm being woken up by you." Jason explained.
Batman sighed, "Okay. So from what was observed, certain drugs effect the dollhouse actives differently from other people. This must be due to something they do to make the actives able to be imprinted with different personalities. Another thing we can conclude is that the actives have some sort of programming that allows them to be easily managed by dollhouse staff."
"Not to mention that some of them are sleeper actives and can become an unknowing assassin with just a phrase. A phrase, I'd like to remind everyone, that we have no idea is." Artemis grumbled, concern evident in her tone.
Batman nodded, "Yes, that is definitely a cause for concern. We have no idea how many of them can be activated by that unknown phrase; however, we unfortunately know that Dick Grayson is one of the sleeper actives. Now, we need to figure out our next step."
There was an awkward silence as the young justice team and Jason tried to think of a way to rescue Dick as well as the other dolls. They also needed to figure out how to take down the dollhouses across the globe and destroying the technology that had made it possible for them to exist in the first place.
"I know what we need to do." Jason said quietly.
They all turned to him, waiting for him to continue.
"I don't like it, but we need to do it so we can find out everything we need to know and rescue every single active they have." Jason muttered as he paced around the room agitatedly.
"Well, don't keep up waiting in suspense! Tell us!" Artemis snapped.
"One of us must become a handler for one of the actives."
