A Pause

"I can't believe that they don't know how to get that stupid hat out of that stupid case," Rena lamented as they entered their hideout.

Lucy rolled her eyes as Aarti nodded in agreement, her mouth stuffed with cinnamon pumpkin muffin. She dumped her own bag of goodies on a couch and plopped down beside it. Then she looked up.

Dawnie, Leilani and Carol were sitting on the floor in front of the biggest television, currently building what looked like a house out of candy. Trolli was sitting next to the pile of building materials, happily noshing on a flat piece of hard candy that was nearly as big across as her head.

"Did you guys just use one of those doorway thingies?" Dawnie asked.

"It's a long, unhappy story," Lucy sighed. She tossed a small round device in her hand in the air and caught it. "Let's just say that things are on the backburner for a short time."

"Very short," Rena snarked as she stalked past Lucy and into the darkness.

"Don't mind her. Her meal ticket got punched," Lucy said with a shrug. "Don't worry. We're not letting them keep him. That would be bad." She paused. "Very, very bad," she then amended.

"They got Jebediah?" Dawnie sorted through the pile of candy logs and picked out a couple.

"But not for long," Lucy emphasized. "If nothing else, we're going to go get him and Sol and Kuro at least."

"Good thinking, but wishful," Aarti said, polishing off her muffin. She rummaged through one of the bags on her arm. "I love that place. If I didn't have something to do, I'd so work for them so I could go there every day."

"You would get fat," Lucy said flatly. "You would look like a hippo in leather armor, only not as cute." She levered herself off of the couch, snatching up her bags as well. "If you had more septims, you'd have bought an entire aisle."

"I did not spend an entire septim on all this," Aarti argued, waving her bags around. "Now, stop being a spoilsport because it didn't work out the way you thought. You can at least call Court and tell him you're not locked up in a lab somewhere."

Lucy sneered at Aarti as she headed towards her kitchen area. Aarti shrugged it off with a scornful laugh.

"Is anyone going to tell us what happened?" Carol finally asked.

She unwrapped a hard candy from a nearby bag and squeezed it in her hand. A few seconds later, she carefully laid strands of candy atop the candy logs of the house. Leilani giggled and promptly slapped a few more logs on top of the strands.

"We're building like real construction workers," Leilani said.

"If real construction workers worked in sugar," Dawnie agreed. She glanced in the direction Rena disappeared in. "Do you want me to make sure Rena's alright?"

"Rena's fine. We're all fine for now," Lucy said dismissively. She smiled at Trolli who was unsteadily pulling another flat piece of candy from the pile. "Are those for the roof?"

"Roof?" Leilani parroted. She glanced at Trolli and frowned. Then she started rooting through the pile of sugary construction materials. "Trolli!"

"It's fine. I can make more," Carol laughed. She looked up at Lucy. "Do you guys need me?"

"Nope. Just need you safe and sound," Lucy assured her. She poured a drink into a glass. "Remind me to tell you about this Dime Store that Aarti fell into. That place…" Lucy picked up her glass and wandered away in a different direction from Rena.

"Probably going to call Court," Leilani remarked absently as she started laying the pieces out according to size and shape.

*****

"We're at the hideout," Lucy said again. She stopped herself from sighing. Court just kept asking the same questions over and over again. "I got you an interesting toy to play with. Come home."

Lucy cut the connection and leaned back against the chair legs. This part of the warehouse was full of various chairs, mostly dinette sets piled haphazardly atop each other. She looked up towards the shadowy ceiling.

She had to admit, she didn't think that the hideout would remain theirs for so long. When Court had first pitched the idea, she'd been agreeable if only to give him a project. She half-expected someone to come along and proclaim them squatters or some such. Instead, it'd been months, and no one had showed up for any of the furniture or an explanation as to why the warehouse was being occupied by increasing numbers of teenagers.

Lucy idly twirled a lock of hair around her finger. Ree had said that the devices would alert them when they found a workaround for the case the hat was sitting in. Lucy only half-believed them. The overlords had had centuries to perfect their strange technology, even if they were still stealing ideas from others to improve it.

If she was thoroughly honest, she didn't really understand the overlords. If possible, Lucy would happily annihilate them from the face of the known universe. Court had once tried to explain them from his point of view, and that had only reinforced her thoughts on the matter.

They were crazy. That was the only legitimate explanation. They were absolutely, no explanations needed insane. Rena had once tossed in the concept of cults, and after some serious thought on the matter, Lucy had to agree.

The overlords believed that they needed to improve every species they came across, especially those who couldn't fight back. They would silently invade, acquire specimens and 'improve' them. Then they would use their results to conquer the specimens' planet, strip it of all useful resources and move on.

Lucy knew that they included themselves in the species that needed improvement. None of the overlords were 'pure.' Most of them had genes introduced from somewhere else. Jebediah had spent an entire week researching the topic and came up with the conclusion that they'd not only been doing this for centuries but had started with their own base genome.

Lucy looked down as her communicator buzzed against her wrist.

"Yes, Court?" She sighed as she shook her head.

"What kind of toy did you find?" Court asked. "I can be there in a couple of hours."