Cherry decided to drop off LJ and Zofia at school first before she took Felicity to school so that they could walk in together. LJ and Zofia climbed out of their mother's minivan and waved to her as they walked into their school for the day. Cherry waved back as she came to drive Felicity to her school. Felicity stared off into space as she twiddled her thumbs quietly before the van stopped in front of the school. After the van stopped, Cherry came to go out into the school with Felicity as the other students hung out by their lockers, talking to each other before the class bell would ring before they looked over to see the mother and daughter on the way. Felicity stepped out of the minivan, her eyes glancing around. For a time, her search seemed fruitless, until...
"Hey! Felicity!" Carlos called out; he was waving his arms to get her attention.
"Huh?" Felicity blinked before looking around.
"I think that's one of your friends now." Cherry told Felicity softly.
"Over here!" Carlos continued shouting. "You think she sees me waving? Should I get the sparklers?"
Felicity looked a little bashful from Carlos's excitement.
"I think she sees you, dude." Jay told Carlos.
"Have a good day at school," Cherry told Felicity. "Your father packed a special lunch. Maybe you could share it with your pals."
"Maybe..." Felicity replied as she climbed out. "Have a good day, Mother."
"You too, dear, see you later." Cherry said as she drove off back home.
Felicity took a deep breath and came to see Carlos who smiled at her.
"Hey, Felicity," Carlos smiled. "Great to see you again."
Felicity smiled back. "I could say the same...I almost didn't show up today." she replied.
"How come?" asked Evie. "You didn't have a fashion emergency, did you? I hate when that happens!"
"No... Nothing like that..." Felicity said softly. "I guess I was just... Unsure..."
"About us being friends for real with you?" Jay replied. "We get that a lot."
"Oh, you do?" Felicity asked bashfully.
"Eh, long story, but it'll be alright," Jay told her with a sly smile. "I look out for my friends though. I'm sorta the big brother of the group."
"Don't you try to steal hall passes for yourself though?" Carlos spoke up.
"Shuddap, she doesn't need to know that." Jay narrowed his eyes.
Felicity chuckled a bit at that. She could see that despite their tendency to bicker, there was much camaraderie between this little group.
"I'm glad you decided to come to school," Mal said to Felicity. "You seem pretty interesting. I can tell we share that in common."
"You seem interesting too, uh, Mel?" Felicity replied.
"...It's Mal..." The girl corrected. "But it's cool."
"Hey, did you guys hear about what happened last night?" Jay asked. "They say some bat-like creature came to town and did up some robbers."
"Seriously? I heard he took on some of the mutants at the arcade," Carlos replied. "Tossed one of 'em right into the neon sign!"
"Whatever or whoever that was, it sure was something else." Evie spoke up.
"Did you hear about that, Felicity?" Mal asked their new friend who looked a bit thoughtful.
"Uh... Well... I was with my brother and sister last night while my parents were busy," Felicity shrugged as a brunette girl walked by with two blonde girls who looked identical. "I put on a movie for all of us. I don't like to watch the news, it usually depresses me."
"Sorta funny that you wouldn't like to be depressed when you're alone and gloomy all the time." The brunette girl smirked at Felicity.
"I don't recall asking for your opinion, Audrey." Mal remarked.
"This is an A-B conversation," added Evie. "So C your way out of it."
"Shame you feel that way and I was about to suggest a party for all of us." Audrey smirked.
"A party?" Felicity asked. "What about that dance?"
"It's gotta be postponed," Audrey rolled her eyes. "For whatever reason, but... I was suggesting a special house party for all of us to go to. Even you guys, even if you're low on the high school social food chain."
"How do we know this isn't some trick to humiliate us?" asked Jay, narrowing his eyes.
"Why not?" Audrey smirked. "Would I do something like that?"
"Yes." Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos replied without having to think about it.
"Oh, well, if you don't wanna go to a party that'll be great, that's okay," Audrey cooed. "We'd just need a place to go... That person would get lots of popularity and attention."
"...Really?" Felicity asked with wide eyes.
"Oh, for sure," Audrey smirked with her blonde friends. "But if we can't do anything for the party, we might have to forget about it."
"Uh, wait, Audrey!" Felicity cried out. "My parents are extra busy lately, so we could have the party at my house!"
"Really now?" asked Audrey. "Well then... I suppose you could host it there."
Just then, Felicity was pulled into a group huddle.
"You sure this is a smart idea?" whispered Carlos. "What about your younger sibs?"
"They'll be fine." Felicity replied.
"Flick, can I call ya Flick? You don't seem like the kinda girl who would host a wild teen party," Jay said. "I mean, Mal, sure... 'Cuz she's a total rebel, she's been that way since birth and she takes candy from babies and she spraypaints a lot, and she even-"
"SHE GETS IT!" Mal snapped.
"Erm... The point is, you don't seem like the kinda girl who would do this." Jay said to Felicity.
"What if the guests start breaking stuff and making a mess?" asked Evie. "I've seen plenty of wild teen parties lead to that... And usually whoever's hosting them ends up getting grounded."
"Oh, those are just movies, right?" Felicity replied.
The four groaned a bit as this looked bad for their dear friend.
"Come over for the party," Felicity said to Audrey. "My parents will be nowhere in sight."
"Great," Audrey smirked. "Right, girls?"
"Oh, for sure, Audrey." The left blonde girl replied.
"It'll be the party of the century." The right blonde girl added.
And so, the three of them walked off, leaving Felicity and her friends in the hallway.
"Felicity, this is not gonna work," Mal groaned. "They're not gonna stick by you if you get busted."
"Yeah, that's usually how it goes," Evie said. "They say they'll be your friend, but they'll flake on you if your parents get angry for the party."
"I tried to crash Evie's sixth birthday party," Mal smiled sheepishly. "It didn't work out very well, but we became best friends anyway."
"But that's besides the point," Carlos added. "Besides, sure, popularity is great for a while, but then everyone starts obsessing over something else and you're dumped like yesterday's lunchmeat."
"Oh, come on, that won't happen to me," Felicity replied. "Now, do you guys wanna help with the party or what?"
The four sighed as they knew how this would end up.
"She's gonna get hurt." Evie told the others.
"We know." Jay, Mal, and Carlos sighed.
"Best we can do is make sure she doesn't fall too hard," Evie replied. "That's the most we can go for as her friends."
"You still wanna be her friend?" Jay asked the others.
"Well... I really want to..." Carlos said softly. "She feels like a sister to me."
"Then we should at least show up," replied Mal. "We owe it to her to stick by her... Even when this inevitably backfires on her."
"Right." The other three agreed to that.
The four then shared a group fist bump while Felicity seemed to be lost in her own little world. She was getting her first taste of what it would be like to be popular... And it was intoxicating, to say the least.
Back home, Cherry, Lionel, and Thor took turns to clean up around the house before Thor gulped a bit before he seemed to burp out a bubble.
"Thor, did you seriously eat soap?" Cherry rolled her eyes.
"Erm, no... This actually happens to witches when... Something happens..." Thor gulped sheepishly.
"What something?" Cherry asked.
Lionel looked on nervously. "...You know what, this house won't clean itself!" he said, taking a broom and sweeping frantically.
Cherry looked over a bit.
"Why don't you watch a little TV?" Lionel suggested to her.
"It's all the same," Cherry replied. "Everybody's always talking about last night. What's going on with you guys? You've been acting so funny lately."
"FUNNY? Us? No, NEVER!" Lionel replied with a nervous chuckle as sweat began to bead on his forehead.
Cherry narrowed her eyes as she walked off. Lionel and Thor looked to each other a bit nervously.
Cherry came towards her thermostat and clicked it a bit before it opened a secret door as she came down the staircase as the door shut behind her as she came to see a book on The Anatomy of a Witch. "Hmm... Beaks, bubbles, boils..." she then muttered as she flipped through. "Wait... Bubbles! There it is!" she exclaimed as she turned back several pages.
"Uh, Cherry? I'll make that chicken and rice in the oven that you like!" Thor's voice called out.
"A case of bubbles from the diaphragm could be a case of either indigestion, Witchitis, or Stage 1 of-" Cherry was about to read aloud until she was teleported back into the living room. "Hey! What the heck?!"
"Oops... I meant to take out the trash..." Thor said. "Why don't you watch TV while you're there?"
"Nice try, smart guy," Cherry remarked. "But I KNOW you're hiding something from me. And until you two fess up... Then no more fun times under the covers."
"Oh, you wouldn't be that brutal, would you?" Thor shrugged that off.
"Wanna bet?" Cherry raised an eyebrow.
Lionel bit his lip. "...OKAY, OKAY! I'LL TELL, I'LL TELL!" he exclaimed, falling to his knees.
"Lionel, no!" Thor cried out.
"I gotta!" Lionel told her. "For both of our sake's!"
"All right," Cherry said before she took out her personal chair which was like a throne as she sat in it with her legs crossed. "Spill."
"...I got Thor pregnant!" Lionel exclaimed.
Thor cupped his mouth from that.
"You... What...?" Cherry asked, flatly, though her voice was slightly amplified from surprise.
"I had sex with Electra, and it got Thor pregnant!" Lionel explained. "That's why he's been so loopy and burping bubbles all of a sudden!"
Thor looked bashful as she shuffled his foot.
"So... You're pregnant?" Cherry asked Thor.
"Technically, yeah," Thor said bashfully. "I better morph into Electra though by the final trimester, otherwise I'd have to squeeze the baby through my-"
"Okay! I get it!" Cherry replied. "I'm not mad to be honest."
"Ah..." Lionel sighed in relief.
"I'm surprised though, but not angry," Cherry said. "We should probably call Zelda for help."
"Is she even still around?" Thor asked.
"She's an advanced biology professor at the local witch college in The Other Realm," Cherry replied. "It's hard to get in touch with your parents these days."
"Alright then," Lionel replied. "Yo-ho, yo-ho, to the Other Realm we GO!" And with a spin and a snap, they all vanished.
Zelda was shown to be in a classroom, wearing her glasses with her hair straightened out as she wore a lab coat with college-aged witches and warlocks as they used their magic to help them with their science experiments. "Remember, class, use only two waves of your wands for the chemicals," she then told her class as she walked by to see each of her students. "If you use more than that even if the color doesn't change, it could spell disaster for the classroom. My niece found that out the hard way when she was in high school."
Lionel and the others fell outside the door. "Okay... She looks busy." he replied as he checked in the window.
Thor checked his watch. "Class will probably be over in five minutes." he then said.
"I can't wait any longer." Cherry said as she decided to just go into the classroom.
"This should be interesting..." Lionel said as he propped Thor up.
Thor rubbed his stomach a bit.
"Cherry?!" Zelda gasped.
"Hey, uh, Zelda, could we talk?" Cherry asked the adult witch.
"Erm... I suppose so..." Zelda replied before glancing at her class. "Class, please excuse me for a few minutes."
The class shrugged as Zelda stepped outside.
"So can we talk?" Cherry asked.
"All right... What is it?" Zelda replied.
"Don't freak out." Thor bit his lip.
"Thor, I know I don't look it, but I'm 900-years-old," Zelda replied. "I'm sure whatever you have to tell me, I would have seen before."
"Great... BECAUSE I GOT HIM PREGNANT!" Lionel exclaimed.
At that, Zelda foamed at the mouth and fainted.
"Great... You broke her..." Thor said.
They soon came to the old Victorian house as Zelda groaned a bit while sitting on her bed. "What happened?" she asked wearily.
"You fainted after Lionel told you I was pregnant with his baby... Then you fainted again, so we told you again, then you fainted again, then we brought you home so you'd hopefully cope with what we told you." Thor explained.
Zelda was about to faint again, but she stopped herself.
"Phew..." The three younger adults sighed in relief that Zelda didn't faint that time.
"Okay, so... This hasn't happened to you three before?" Zelda asked.
"Not really," Cherry replied. "I've taken care of the babies for that. Thor let me birth Felicity, then Lionel let me birth LJ and Zofia, but... Now Thor's pregnant."
"That's strange, even by Supernatural Realm standards..." Zelda had to admit. "I mean... You sort of need a sperm and an egg for procreation to work properly."
"Well... Let's say I have that covered," Lionel replied. "Okay, Thor... You know what to do."
Thor took a deep breath and he soon twirled around a bit before he became Electra.
"Ohh... I see now..." Zelda realized.
"Yup," Lionel nodded. "One thing led to another."
"Hmm..." Zelda replied. "I guess Lionel really helped out your temporary body. When was the last time you... Uh... Were intimate?"
"For Lionel's birthday," Electra smiled sheepishly. "Cherry decided to take the kids out for the day, so I thought I'd cheer up Lionel a bit as he seemed a little down, so I gave him a special show with a fireman pole for his birthday as Electra."
Lionel chuckled. "Best birthday ever," he replied. "I still remember it like it was yesterday."
"Please spare me the details," Zelda groaned a bit with a palm to her face. "My biggest recommendation is to maybe stay as Electra when it comes closer to the due date," she then advised. "I'd hate to imagine a young warlock going through the miracle of birth."
"Relax," Lionel replied. "You don't actually see the flashback, I see it, the viewers see it, and so on."
"I'm happy for you all though," Zelda told them. "We all are, especially Drell and Hilda."
"I'm surprised that Drell gave us his blessing," Cherry replied. "I thought for sure he'd make fun of me."
"Guess he didn't want to," replied Lionel. "And I guess I can have my flashback later..."
"No offense, but I don't want to see that." Zelda smiled sheepishly.
"Fair enough," Cherry replied. "We'll see you later though. Thanks for your advice."
"Also, you should borrow this," Zelda said as she gave a baby book. "We had this for Edward when Diana got pregnant."
"Ah..." Lionel nodded, taking the book. "And like I told you, you don't see the flashback, only I and the viewers do. Weren't you listening?"
"I was, I was just being clear," Zelda rolled her eyes. "Drell and Hilda don't spare me sometimes, even when I beg them not to."
"Oh... My apologies," replied Lionel. "Sorry you had to deal with that. Catch you later!"
"Come by again someday," Zelda smiled. "We love your company."
The three left as they decided to go back home.
"All right, now we know what to do," Cherry said. "Electra, you'll have to help watch the kids until you have to stay in bed and off your feet."
"I am not looking forward to that," Electra sighed. "I hate getting bloated up like a Thanksgiving turkey."
"Maybe your physiology will prevent that?" suggested Lionel.
"Hard to say," Electra replied. "I'm keeping the baby either way."
"And it'll give LJ a chance to be a big brother," Cherry added. "Being a little brother with two big sisters really gets to him sometimes."
"For sure," Lionel agreed. "We're gonna stick by you in your time of need, and hopefully nothing happens to injure the little tyke for the next nine months."
"I hope so too," Electra replied as she changed back into Thor. "Just get ready for a switch whenever possible."
"We'll keep in touch," Cherry said. "We'll also tell the kids later when we find a good time to tell them."
"Aye," Lionel agreed as he slumped down onto the bed. "Maybe I'll have the flashback later. I'm kinda bushed, actually."
Thor chuckled a little from that.
"Come on then." Cherry suggested.
"Okay." Lionel replied.
Cherry cleaned up a bit as Thor helped Lionel get comfortable.
"Aww... Poor baby's tuckered himself out~" Thor cooed playfully.
Lionel said nothing, only blushing visibly as he climbed under the covers and made himself comfortable between the sheets. Thor chuckled a bit as he walked off with Cherry to get clean up with her so that Lionel could rest. Lionel began to doze off as he had his flashback in the form of a dream sequence.
Apparently Lionel's birthday had been a few weeks ago before he and the others had joined Batman in his re-ignited crusade against crime. "Oh-kay! 45th birthday..." he said to himself. "Wonder what my amazing family has planned for me this year? I bet it'll be awesome!"
"Okay, kids, wanna help Mama get special gifts for Daddy/Uncle Lionel?" Cherry asked.
The kids all cheered from that, even Felicity who looked happier than she did before her fight at school which, more or less, ruined her life.
"Shh~" Cherry shushed them as she saw Lionel come by. "Ah, Lionel... We gotta run to the store for a little bit. Why don't you watch some TV with Thor?" she then asked.
"Well, alright," Lionel replied as he made his way to the living room.
Naturally, Thor was sitting on the couch, and Lionel decided to join him on it. "Hey there." he said, giving the smaller man a small smile.
"Hey, yourself," Lionel replied. "Whatcha watching?"
"Just some Jerry Springer," Thor replied as he crossed his legs. "Nothing else really on at this hour, but I did have a little treat for ya that might be a lot more entertaining."
"Yeah?" asked Lionel. "Go for it."
"Well... Okay... Come with me to the spare room though..." Thor said.
Lionel shrugged as he followed Thor there and sat on the bed.
Thor took out a boombox, then rolled in what looked like a fireman pole. "It is time for you to be entertained for your special day," he then said. "Thornton Moltenscar will not be here for that, but instead..." he said as he soon became Electra for the "special show". "The role tonight will be played by Electra~"
Lionel's face soon became entirely red with shock, and his jaw dropped with a KLANG!
Electra took out a sexy firewoman outfit as she turned on the boombox to play a song called "Fire" by the Ohio Players. "Happy Birthday~" she then giggled as she began to do a pole dance for Lionel for his special day.
Lionel pulled up his jaw, then let off a wolf-whistle. "AWOOOOOOOO~!" he let out a happy howl as he pounded on a table and konked himself over the head with a mallet.
Electra giggled a little before she dangled upside down from the pole while waving at him. Lionel waved back with a sheepish smile. Electra soon took out a firehose and danced with it next before she backed up with her back to him as she decided to give him a little lapdance and sprayed both of them with the hose. Lionel's entire body went bright red at that, and he couldn't help but smile at it.
"Fiiiiyaaaah~" Electra giggled with the song before it ended.
Lionel clapped like a seal, even with barking sounds. "Baby...you're the greatest!" he exclaimed, doing an impression of Ralph Kramden of "The Honeymooners" (if you don't know what that is, look it up, people; it inspired The Flintstones).
"Bam! Zoom! And to the moon!" Electra beamed as she hugged Lionel after the dance was over.
"That was... Amazing!" Lionel grinned.
"Wanna celebrate for the aftershow?" Electra offered as she climbed onto the bed, almost like a delicate gazelle.
"You better believe I do!" Lionel exclaimed as he climbed on with her.
"The kids will be back in a few hours, so we should have plenty of time." Electra smirked before they began to make love together.
"Sounds good to me..." Lionel replied as he got into it.
Outside of Lionel's mind, he chuckled at the memory which seemed to play out like a movie before his eyes. Cherry and Thor watched Lionel sleep soundly.
"Electra's birthday present?" Cherry guessed.
"Possibly." Thor smirked.
"Makes sense to me." Cherry replied.
"That would explain the tent in the sheets." Thor pointed out.
"I'm surprised you know that metaphor." Cherry smirked.
"I'm smarter than I look," Thor smirked back. "Probably not as smart as you or Atticus, but still pretty smart."
"Yeah, you're right." Cherry replied as she walked off.
Eventually, Lionel had finished his nap and was fully-energized once more. "Ah... That was nice," he said. "Okay, what's tonight's mission?"
"Well, a big priority so far is that Batman can meet up with Commissioner Gordon." Cherry said as she took a message from the phone earlier while Lionel was asleep.
"Really? What for?" Lionel asked.
"Batman said he found something... More or less, the bad side of nostalgia..." Cherry replied.
"Well then... Let's pop on over and give him a hand again," Lionel suggested. "Once we suit up again."
"It just looks like it's officially time for the Dark Knight's comeback... After retirement for a while..." Cherry said. "I'm worried though, with his old age and these escapades... He might kill himself or something."
"Yeah, it worries me too," Thor agreed. "He's not as young as he used to be."
"Hey, he could never resist the call to action," replied Lionel. "And besides, he'd naturally want to go down protecting the city that he loves, to ensure a better tomorrow."
"Yeah..." Cherry sighed. "He's been doing that since I met him... Also how he got pretty protective of me when I became his goddaughter after the very first time I came to meet him before the Justice League was official since Atticus met Superman before getting adopted by him."
"And naturally, he'd be glad that someone was acting as a symbol of hope if he were to fall," added Lionel. "That's why we're going to eventually have to train Terry for when he and the others eventually join The Legion of Super-Heroes."
"Oh, for sure," Thor said as he decided to get a cookie from the batch he baked the other day and bit into it. "Just wait, Cherry, there'll be a bright future for all of us."
"Hmm... All right..." Cherry replied. "I just hope you're both right. I worry about Bruce like he was my own father."
"As do I," replied Lionel. "Though he'd naturally prefer going out in a blaze of glory to an entirely mundane, boring life. Besides, Bruce Wayne is the façade; Batman is the true self. After all, we all wear masks, but which one is real: the one that hides your face, or the one that IS your face?"
"You should work at a fortune cookie factory." Thor said as he felt amazed by what was just said.
"I guess I never thought of it that way myself," Cherry added thoughtfully. "Gosh..."
"Yeah, think about it: Bruce Wayne, in a way, died on the night his parents were killed in Crime Alley," Lionel replied. "After that, he was merely a skin worn by Batman, so to speak."
"...Yeah..." Cherry had to admit. "He never really had a chance to be a normal person."
"Who even is normal anymore?" Thor spoke up.
"Oh, you know what I mean," Cherry told him. "But yeah... Bruce Wayne is also just as mysterious as Batman. At least at those parties he would go to or host for people to come over."
"Yeah, but that's usually to save face," explained Lionel. "After he took out the Joker to avenge Jason, that pretty much scared Joker into a coma and drove crime rates down. And with less crime, less need for Batman."
"So that's why he sorta snapped into coming back... Along with us..." Cherry said. "It all makes sense now. Wow, I feel like I'm in Atticus's detective office right now."
"Well, we'd best go join Bats," decided Lionel. "He could use our help."
"All right, but first, some sandwiches." Thor suggested as he took out a platter.
"What is with you and freakin' sandwiches?" Cherry mumbled, halfway quoting from her favorite adult Christmas movie.
"They're very easy and fast for me to take." Thor smiled bashfully.
"Solid point." replied Lionel as he wrote a note for Felicity, LJ and Zofia, then put it on the wall. He then helped himself to a sandwich.
Cherry took her own sandwich and bit into it as she took out her costume.
"Those cats seemed to like you earlier..." Thor said. "Ya think it's the outfit?"
"I'm not sure..." Cherry shrugged. "I guess they know that I'm part of Selina's kin."
"Only explanation that makes sense," said Lionel as he poofed everyone into their outfits. "And now... Let's get moving."
They soon bolted off after putting the sandwich plate in the sink. As they seemed to leave, the Bat-Signal seemed to shine out the window which was like a sign for them as well.