As he'd expected would be the case, Flash paled at that announcement. "Wait..." he started, then trailed off. "Oh, god, their trip was this week, wasn't it? I don't know why I thought...but that means they're down there as civilians!"

"Yes," Batman verified. "It does. And we all know what that means."

"No Batgear," the speedster's head sunk into one hand. "It means no freaking Batgear. Shit, man..."

Wonder Woman's expression reflected Flash's pain. "We'll find them," she said. "If anyone can survive an earthquake in the middle of the wilderness with no Batgear, Nightwing and Red Robin can."

"Yeah, but...how big was the quake, again?" a skeptical voice queried from somewhere down the table.

"Eight point eight was the official number I heard," Superman answered quietly.

"So...it's not really a rescue mission, but more of a recov-"

Batman's wordless snarl shut the speaker's mouth instantly. "It is a rescue mission," he ground out, danger dripping from every word, "and it will be referred to as such until I say otherwise. Is that understood?"

"...I'm just trying to be-"

"He said it's a rescue mission," Flash broke in, looking up. His eyes were damp, but the hard resolve that the cowled man was counting on shone beneath his unshed tears. "Didn't you hear?"

"I...um...yeah. Okay. Rescue mission."

"Good." Batman's lip twisted momentarily – you son of a bitch, don't you even dare think that this is a recovery mission, just because you couldn't handle an earthquake doesn't mean that my sons can't – and then settled back into a thin line. "The problem of the force field is the first thing we need to tackle. We know that Nightwing and Red Robin are under it, and we can only assume that whoever created it is also down there. Furthermore, we have reason to believe that the creator of the force field is responsible for many, if not all, of the earthquakes that Wonder Woman has documented since the start of the year." He paused. "Go ahead with the report you gave the Big Seven, and with anything new you've learned since."

"Well, there's not much new, I'm afraid, but..." She launched into her explanation of the strange signal blackouts that had recently started occurring in earthquake zones the world over, going over what arrays had been affected and what they had already ruled out. A couple of her listeners began taking notes, and all appeared to be giving her their utmost attention.

Having memorized all of her numbers the first time he'd heard them, Batman let his thoughts wander. How, he ached to know, were his boys faring? Assuming that they hadn't both been gravely injured, he could almost picture the little camp they would set up in some open and relatively safe place. Had they made it to the end of the trail before the shaking started? He doubted it; the itinerary they'd laid out when they'd been planning had them reaching their goal at the end of the day today in the best-case scenario. If they were going at their hoped-for pace, then they were well into the mountains at noon, he thought grimly. Still, they might have been able to retreat to the grassland in which the Batplane had found the end of the force field late that afternoon. The force field...had they discovered that little joy yet, he wondered, or did they still think they were moving about under open sky? If they had found it and determined that there was something sinister going on within its confines, it was a given that only extreme physical hardship would keep them from trying to resolve the problem on their own. The idea of his likely injured and absolutely unmasked children going after someone capable of creating impermeable force fields made his skin prickle despite the heat of his suit, and he shivered.

They're fine, he pulled himself back into form as the report wrapped up. They're probably reveling in the additional challenge. Even if that isn't the case, they're together, and that makes all the difference. No matter what happened, he knew he could count on them to take care of each other.

"...Batman?"

Wonder Woman's gentle address redirected the attention of the assembly to him. He cleared his throat to cover up that fact that he hadn't quite been fully extracted from his worried daydreaming, then barked a single word. "Ideas?"

"We've tried brute force and heat vision," Superman put in with a self-deprecating grimace. "Those are out."

"What about speed?" Flash suggested, leaning forward. "I know everyone's probably sick of that being my answer to every problem, but-"

"It's worth trying," Batman gave him a terse nod. "What else?"

"Digging?"

"It extends underground," he replied. "Try again."

"Is light getting through the force field?" someone asked.

He exchanged a look with Superman, who merely shrugged. "We think so. There was nothing to indicate that it wasn't. Why?"

"Just a thought. I was thinking about heat mapping. That in and of itself isn't very useful, I know, but...could we concentrate the sunlight somehow?"

"It's a force field, not a stick of butter," another voice rebutted. "You can't just melt it away in the sun."

"Besides," a third tone pitched in, "you might start a fire under the field. Then they'd really be screwed."

"Yeah, anything that might start a fire is definitely off the table," Flash deemed. "But I have to wonder...if heat's getting through, what about gas exchange?"

"How is pumping the dome full of gas going to kill them any less than starting a fire?" the ray-of-sunshine proponent shot.

"I'm not talking about pumping it full of gas. I'm just wondering how much oxygen there is under it." The table fell silent. "...Batman?"

The same question had occurred to him on the flight to Los Angeles, and his calculations had given him good news. "It's a large enough area that the plant and animal masses within it should be self-supporting for several weeks at least," he assured the redhead. "Depending on the amount of water trapped inside, the ecosystem may be able to go even longer."

"Okay," the speedster sat back, his face relieved. "Good."

They spit-balled proposals and scenarios well into the early morning. Messengers came and went with progress reports for Superman, but no one other than the Kryptonian paid them any heed. Many of the curious questions that were put forth about the field were topics that Batman would have liked to explore more in depth were the lives of two of his sons and who knew how many other people not in danger. For now they were unanswerable, though, and he hustled the conversation past them.

The burning inquiry behind everyone's ideas was who could possibly be responsible for the force field and, more importantly, for the earthquakes. If someone had caused the most recent temblor, they were already a mass murderer; add in the hundreds that had died overseas in seismic events bearing the same markers as that morning's and they were eligible for super-villain status. Despite their combined wealth of knowledge about people with evil intentions, however, no one could come up with a viable candidate. There were many who would have loved to wield such technology, but when it came down to it none of them had access to the amount of sheer power that would be required to develop it.

Power...energy...how are they maintaining that field? Batman frowned as the others jabbered on around him. The thing was sitting over an expanse of unpopulated wilderness, so there was no way someone had tapped into a local urban grid. Anything along the lines of solar panels or wind turbines would have been noted and immediately quashed by the park, and no surface method that he knew of could steadily produce the necessary energy for such a structure in any case. ...Space, maybe?

"Batman?"

He looked up, his mouth still pensive. "I was thinking about their power," he revealed without waiting for a query as to the nature of his introspection. "It can't be surface-derived, not unless they've figured out some way to use far less fuel than our experiments here have required. But space...are there records of any unusually large influxes of energy from outside the atmosphere over the past few years?"

"...No," Superman shook his head slowly. "Not that I remember. Not other than the usual solar flares. I can double check the logs, but I can't imagine we'd miss something like that. Besides, the few species that can manage a field of any sort are either friendly or not operating anywhere near Earth. Even if one of them coulddo this, they have no reason to."

"I wasn't thinking of an alien species causing the quakes; I was just thinking of someone on Earth harvesting extraterrestrial energy. Let's check the logs."

"Will do. Do you want to call it a night and try out a couple of the better ideas we came up with, or...?"

He had restrained himself from adjourning the session prematurely, trying to hold out for an epiphany. People were beginning to repeat their earlier proposals, though, and everyone was becoming dull-eyed besides. "We'll adjourn," he decided. "What we have is likely the best we're going to get without more information."

"All right. Everyone, take a few hours for a nap if you need to, then rejoin the groups you were with before I called you. If you have any other ideas, let Batman or I know immediately. And try to keep the scuttlebutt to a minimum, folks," Superman called after the already-departing heroes. "The last thing we need is for everyone to get distracted with going over the same things we just did."

Wonder Woman gripped Batman's shoulder as she passed. "They'll be okay," she gave him a hopeful smile. "I know it's hard right now, but...they'll be okay. We all will."

"Mm." God, I hope you're right, Diana. You have to be right. You just...well. Of course you're right. They're fine. They're just...fine.

Sighing, she patted him and left. After a minute only he, Superman, and Flash remained.

"Flash?" the Kryptonian queried. "Was there something else?"

"You need me for the speed test, remember? Besides, I...I'd like to stick close to Batman on this one. As odd as that is to say," he grinned nervously, "I know that come hell, high water, or the out-and-out apocalypse you're going to be the first person who gets to them. Me, I'd kind of like to be second or third in line, so...yeah. If that's okay, of course, I don't want to-"

"It's fine."

"...Well, I guess I'll stay up here and focus on the logs, then," Superman commented. "I'll let you know if I find anything unusual."

"Good. Let's go, Flash," he stood. "I have some business at the cave. You may as well accompany me there; we'll need the plane for a couple of the tests I still want to run on the field."

"I could go out ahead of you and get started on the speed test," the younger man suggested as they stepped into the hall. "Get one out of the way, at least."

"No." Catching the odd look his refusal earned him, he went on. "...I appreciate your ardor on this mission, Flash. It's a good match for my own. However, it won't do anyone any good if you vibrate yourself in there and then can't get back out. I may not be able to do much more than observe your attempt, but at least if something goes wrong there will be a witness as to what did and did not work. Even if we don't succeed outright we might learn something about what we're facing, and when it comes to dealing with something so foreign to our experience the more eyes the better. Understand?"

"I get it. It just sucks." He rubbed his arms as if he was cold. "...I haven't see Nightwing in, like, two months," he shared sadly. "I've been too damn busy, or at least I felt like I was. If I'd put a little more effort in, though...I don't know. I just regret it now, you know?"

"...Mm. Yes, I suppose I do." How many hours did he spend locked in his study or at the office that he might have spent with one or both of them? It was the same problem he'd wrestled with since Dick had been a child, but he never seemed to learn his lesson. As it always did when one of his children was missing or badly injured, the realization of how he spent his precious time with them made him wince. "It might help to remind yourself that you'll be seeing them both very soon."

"Has that been helping you? Honestly?"

Batman paused in the midst of entering the cave's coordinates into the Zeta tube's keypad. Then he swallowed hard, hit the last few buttons, and saw the Watchtower dissolve in order to be replaced with the Batcave. "...No, Wally," he admitted once there were no listening ears around. "It hasn't helped me in the least."

"Well, shit. Oh!" the speedster jumped as Alfred came around the corner. "...Sorry. Didn't know you were there."

"Hello, Mister West," the harried-looking butler nodded. "My apologies for the informality of my greeting, but we have a new crisis on our hands, I'm afraid."

What the hell else could possibly go wrong tonight? "What is it, Alfred? Has there been another quake somewhere?"

"No, sir, at least not that I know of. However, Master Damian is missing."

His stomach dropped into his boots. "What? When?" God damn it, Damian, don't I have enough to deal with without you running off?!

"Sometime in the last six hours. He was fast asleep when I checked on him just after two, but now his bed is cold."

A suspicion hit him. "What about the plane?"

"...Sir?"

"The plane. Did the plane come back?"

"Yes, but I've been down here the entire-" Alfred broke off, one hand rising to cover his mouth. "Oh, dear. I'm afraid I went upstairs to make a pot of tea at about three. I thought I heard something very distantly, but I chalked it up to the dishwasher. Even if I'd realized it was the plane, I imagine I would have thought you'd called it to you..."

Batman fingered a hidden button on his belt. A click-boop sounded in his earpiece in place of the usual ding of acknowledgment, and his frown deepened to abysmal levels. "...He's taken it," he told the other two.

"Ballsy freaking kid," Flash gaped. "I thought Dick and I pulled some capers in our time, but stealing the Batplane..."

"It isan unprecedented event," Alfred arched an eyebrow.

"He's more than taken it," Batman went on, interpreting the coded noises for the two who hadn't been able to hear them. "He's also apparently landed it somewhere and gotten out. So unless I want to strand him wherever he is, we have to wait for him to get back into it before recalling it." Turning on his heel, he began to stride towards the hangar. "We'll take the auxiliary, Flash." The smaller jet lacked the space and the diagnostic equipment of the full-on Batplane, but it would let them catch up quickly.

"...Ballsy," the younger man said under his breath again as he caught up.

He's ballsy all right, he thought. Disappointment mingled in his brain with exhaustion, fear, and a hint of pride. He's ballsy, and when we catch up to him he's also going to be very, very grounded. And if he lodges so much as one argument, he swore as he turned down a stone corridor so sharply that his cape snapped in the resulting wind, not even Dick will be able to talk me into shortening his punishment.

Author's Note: For those of you who have been waiting for an answer to the brain teaser on my blog, I'll be posting it today. Happy reading!