The elevator to the floor with the break room dinged as the doors opened and Natalie walked out, yawning. She’d been out all night undercover as a random young partying punk, which was admittedly an easy role for her to get into character for. She’d rounded up some names of the street-level dealers who sold slappers directly to the customers, but still no leads on who was supplying them, and said dealers were completely in the dark too. She’d have to try to catch a supply run and tail the supplier, but whoever was behind this was being more careful than that. The police had probably already tried sting operations better planned out than what she was doing, but they had to start somewhere.

She was glad that not only was there a ground level garage where she could park her bike, but she’d been gifted one of Robin’s old bikes, with a paint job, to use during superhero activities. Natalie hadn’t tried any of that bike’s unique features or gadgets yet but she was excited to play around with it when she wasn’t going incognito.

As it was 9am, the only one currently in the break room was Jeremy. She waved at him as she put her phone on charge and then crashed on the sofa beside his. “Good morning,” she greeted with a wry, sarcastic smile. “The club didn’t close until 6am. Hero work sure is tiring. What’s up?”

"Right, hero work" Jeremy said with a sarcastic chide, a roll of his eyes and a drag of a long yawn that followed both. 

The young man was sitting in the break room, cozily draped in a sweater and pajama pants. Steam blew in thin wisps from his coffee which sat of a table in front of him. Beside it was a laptop where he scanned the news. It seemed the police and journalists were just as in the dark as they were on this 'slapper' drug. It didn't surprise him, after the events with Peacekeeper, he didn't expect the police to do much more than clean-up work after the heroes solved the problem. Arching his back and throwing his arms up in a stretching motion the young man pulled himself out of his morning stupor momentarily. Though he had met the girl with sarcasm he knew she was doing good work. Work that Trask or Monolith couldn't given their appearance. Jeremy himself wasn't much of a 'party animal' either. 

"Nothing new to report here. Yourself?" He asked casually as he reclined into the sofa.
"Coffee's brewed if you aren't about to crash"

“Nothing of real substance,” Natalie replied, shaking her head. “Sent the street-names and pics of the dealers I came in contact with to Oracle, and she was already aware of them all. Still, now I’ve actually bought from them, I can hopefully build on a relationship with some of them. Already dumped all the Slappers I bought off to the lab. I’m not touching that poison.” Natalie looked into the distance with a cold, resigned anger. Though not Slappers, she’d seen more than one friend lose themselves to drugs in her short life. Part and parcel of growing up a poor orphan who’s into parties and metal.

She sighed and got up, heading over to the coffee machine. “I’m not going to crash out. It’s already daytime. May as well just coast along and then crash out this evening instead.” She made her coffee the way she liked it; black with two sugars. She took a sip then rejoined him on the couch. “Any idea where the others are?” she asked.

Jeremy noticed the stare as she mentioned the ‘poison’ of slappers. He had seen it far too often in this crew, everyone here seemed to have a tortured past except him. Monolith had the same look on that ride home from the blimp station, and Jeremy couldn’t help but sometimes Trask’s vacant death stare was just like theirs, a glimpse into their memories. He didn’t want to pry, but he wondered if maybe this undercover job might be taking a toll on her.

As the girl came to the couch, Jeremy scooted over to allow her to join him. Their cups were nearly identical and he couldn’t help but appreciate a fellow fan of black coffee. At her question he merely shrugged.

“Garf- Er, Animal Man’s in the training room. The others could be anywhere” He added as he closed his laptop to keep the news from blaring over the two of them. They had heard enough of tragedy and corruption for today.

“This place is so massive it’s hard to find anyone” He added with a sense of annoyance. “And I had just gotten used to that old bunker. But I guess the view here is nice." he added, staring out one of the windows as he sipped on his coffee once more. 

Gotham was a grimy, grizzly town, but the cityscape as the sun rose over it was shockingly beautiful. The oranges and pinks of the sky contrasted the dark greys and blacks of Gotham’s streets in a thematic way. The bay’s waves seemed to excite in the new sun’s rising, crashing against the docks and swirling in a frothing haze. A thin layer of mist obscured the streets faintly, giving the whole scene a ghostly presence in the wake of the beautiful day’s light.


“We can go look for them if you’d like…” he continued before Animal Man came in and went towards the kitchen area of this floor. 

“You guys are up early. Thought I was the only one who’d be up this hour on a Saturday…” the older hero stated while grabbing a bottle of water.

Natalie gave a tired, half-hearted wave to Animal Man as he walked in, before yawning and stretching. “I’m actually up late, boss. Just got back from being undercover. Anyway, you know where everyone else is?” she asked.