Willow latched onto Daniel as she fell, the wind whipping her hair about her horrified face. Heights and falling were not a part of her expected agenda today.

Rebecca grunted with the effort, squeezing her eyes shut as she tried to reach out with her mind and grab all of the others and slow their fall. "Ah! you're all too far apart! I can't lift all of you at once!"

"Grab on to each other!" Roxanne suggested, grabbing the hands of Joan and Starling, who were closest to her.

Joseph grabbed for Emma, who regained her senses and reached for Sam until one by one everyone was connected. Rebecca held out her hands, trying to hold on to everyone. They could feel their descent slowing, just barely, but gravity refused to let them stop completely.

"Now you're too heavy!" Rebecca said, close to tears, as if it were her fault that all of them were plummeting to their doom.

However, no one wanted to let go. It wasn't such a bad way to go, but none of them really wanted to die today.

The ground seemed was growing closer and closer at an alarming rate when Emma spotted a water tower on top of the building across the street.

"Hey Joey, I have a plan!" She let go of Joseph's hand to shoot a barely-controlled lightning bolt at the tower, which exploded into scrap metal and splinters, water shooting up into the air. Joseph caught it with his sorcery, hardening it into ice that formed a slide. Becca managed to direct each of them one at a time onto the slide, which sent them twisting around and around, shooting them out on the sidewalk across from N-Corp as the tons of rubble came crashing down on top of it. Once everyone had made it safely down to the ground, Joseph released the water from its form and let it rain down on top of them.

Willow shrieked as she was soaked by the onslaught of water, though Daniel did his best to shield her. Water dampened her powers, as well as her clothes, chilling her to the bone and sapping all her energy.

Emma held Sam as he took deep breaths to calm himself, whispering soothing promises that everything was fine, but even after all that had happened, she wasn't so sure. It definitely wasn't over with yet.

"My apologies, Willow, I did not stop to think that the water might be harmful to you," Joseph said, falling onto his knees. AJ was content to lay on his back on the concrete until he caught his breath, staring up at the sky. Joan and Roxie were leaning on each other. Falling for fifty stories right after fighting an army of warlocks took a lot out of you.

"Or me either," Emma said, trying to keep her heartbeat from racing. She glanced between Willow and Daniel. "Are you two gonna be okay?" She asked.

"I'll be fine," Daniel said, helping Willow to her feet. Her legs were shaking now.

"But she needs to get dry and warm."

"Well there's all this rubble around here, can't she just light it on fire?" AJ asked, not bothering with the energy it would take to use his arm to shade his eyes from the sun.

"There could still be people in there," Rebecca said, feeling guilty. Tyro had compromised the portal, not them. If anyone was still inside N-Corp, it would be his fault that they were dead, right?

Willow's voice had a cranky edge to it, that certainly came from being soaking wet. "I can't even light a match when I'm wet like this." She snapped.

"Here," Sam handed Emma a match from his utility belt. Taking a piece of wood that used to be an unbreakable door, Emma struck the match and used the wood as a torch, offering it to Willow to help her warm up, as if you could get any warmer in the City of LA.

"How long do you think it'll be until someone notices that?" Joan lamely gestured to the settling pile of rubble. As everyone followed her gaze, they could hear police sirens in the distance, slowly growing closer.

"Do we get out of sight? Or do we stay here and try to convince them we weren't doing anything wrong?" Nightingale bit her lip.

"My dad's the police chief. I can try to deal with them." Roxanne said.

"Call Phoenix and the Crusaders, my dad and my aunt can put in a good word for us," AJ suggested.

Willow and Daniel were barely paying attention at this point. While everyone discussed whether they were really in the wrong, the two former experiments were staring up at the blue sky, specked by whisps of white clouds. Daniel was shell-shocked, and Willow was about to cry, as happy as she was to be outside after all these years.

"What is it you two?" Nightingale asked. The chatter died down as everyone looked at Willow and Daniel.

Willow shook her hand, wiping away her tears before anyone could see. "I haven't been outside in... Years. And Daniel-"

"I've never seen the sun before." Daniel whispered.

"You haven't!?" Starling's jaw dropped.

"No," Daniel shook his head.

"I... I've been kept inside all my life. I only know what I know about what's out here because Willow told me about it. It's so much more beautiful than I dreamed." The tiniest of smiles flickered across his face.

"I-I can show you around. Have either of you ever had a smoothie before? Or cookies?" Rebecca asked.

"When I was little, probably."

"No, never."

Rebecca took Daniel's hand. "You have to try cookies! I'll make you some! I love baking. Oh! And you have to go to the park and see the cherry blossoms and the garden and the willow trees, and climb the Rocky Mountains, and go to the beach and go swimming- oh, wait, you don't like water, do you?" She bit her finger nervously, looking at Willow.

"No, I don't." She frowned, glancing at the way Rebecca held Daniel's hand. She still wasn't fully comfortable interacting with so many people this way, especially so many her own age. Usually, if people were nice to them and talking about things in the "outside world", it was to remind them that they were safe in containment in the vault, and that the labs were making them stronger, that keeping them in the labs was for the best. Nightingale, Rebecca, and their friends seemed nice enough, but it was going to take more than a few hours to shake off that association.

"No worries," Emma patted her shoulder, which made Willow go stiff in surprise.

She winced, pulling back her hand in silent apology. "There's plenty of things to do besides swimming, though I think that might be Joseph's favorite." She laughed lightly, glancing at the very nice Alexandrene. "We could take Phoenix's car and drive up the Rockies with the top down," She suggested. Then she gasped. "It's fall now! You'd get to see all the colors on the trees!"

Starling stepped up, stammering in his excitement. Talking about the thing she loved was one of his favorite things to do. "And-and, When you ski, when you ski down the mountains in the snow it feels like you're flying!" He ran around in a demonstration, his arms spread out like a kid on the playground imitating an airplane. Roxanne giggled, and Emma watched her little brother fondly.

After what felt like forever since they'd "landed", so to speak, a fleet of LAPD cars pulled up in front of N-Corp's ruins in a haph-hazard formation. News crews wouldn't be far behind, and with a disaster this scale, maybe even the Crusaders.

"Shouldn't we leave? I think the building is drawing the attention of everyone else." Willow said.

"Well, what have we here?"

Emma let out her groan now, so that she wouldn't in the middle of the lecture, and turned to face her mentor.

Phoenix had appeared out of nowhere, flanked by several Crusaders. Siren, Phoenix's best friend and crimefighter via sound. Jade, Siren's boyfriend and the Crusaders' archer. Gust, AJ's dad and a "speedster" who could reach sub-light speed if he ran for long enough. Psyche, telepath and telekinetic with a great cloak who also happened to be Rebecca's mother. And last but not least, Glitch, the Crusaders' Ops Manager. If Glitch had come out of the Crusaders' secret base, than this thing had gotten too big, way beyond their control.

"Hi, Phoenix!" Starling squeaked.

"What happened here, kids?" Glitch asked. Daniel and Willow didn't like their condescending tone. Their teen rescuers slowly came forward, subtly pushing Willow and Daniel behind the human wall they created, opening themselves up for a scolding to protect the two of them

"Are you alright, Rebecca?" Psyche asked, placing her hands on her daughter's shoulders, making Rebecca look her in the eye.

"OH MY GODS AJ ARE YOU OKAY?" Gust sped forward in the blink of an eye, lifting AJ off the ground in a bone-crushing hug. AJ made a sound that might have been begging for help, but Joan couldn't interpret.

"Joan, Roxie, what were you thinking!?" Officer Chance said, breaking away from his police crew, "I told you to stay away from this!" The two girls couldn't look their father in the eye.

"I told you something was wrong with N-Corp," Jade said smugly.

"Shut up, Steve," Siren told her boyfriend. "Are you alright?" She asked Joseph, who had no one to fret over him.

"Who are those two?" Phoenix asked Nightingale, pointing at Willow and Daniel. It was too much to hope that she would skim over them.

"Woah, woah! One question at a time." Emma shouted. She waved her arms, effectively getting all the adults to shut up. "One question at a time!

"Put your hands down, you're sparking." Willow told her.

So maybe that's why they were quiet now.

"Thanks, Willow," Emma mumbled, pulling her gloves back on quickly. Her hands were still tingling, but at least they didn't look like they would explode at any second now.

Phoenix narrowed her eyes at Willow momentarily. "What are you and Starling doing here, Nightingale?" Emma hated how formal Brianna sounded in her Phoenix persona.

"Well, Starling found something funky in N-Corp's records when we were practicing our hacking on the data you gave us from the Raoul case, and you wouldn't listen to him because you said it wasn't anything too big, and we didn't want you to treat us like kids anymore, so we copied the info that you had on this place and came to investigate. And then we found Willow and Daniel here, who-"

The sound of an engine revving blocked out the rest of Emma's rambling, as a long white limo rumbled to a stop next to the large group of heroes.

The chauffeur stepped out, stiff and formal, but before he could reach the passenger door, it was thrown open from within.

"Kids! Thank God you're alright! I've been looking everywhere for you!" Everyone recognized Walter Nathaniels as he ran to Willow and Daniel, dramatically throwing his arms around them like a parent would do after hearing their children were alright. He composed himself almost theatrically after that, straightening up his suit jacket and re-doing the buttons in the right holes, probably thrown on at the last second after hearing of the incident.

Willow and Daniel both shrunk back uncomfortably at the unwelcome gesture, but the adults were focused Mr. Nathaniels instead of his supposed "children"

"Phoenix." He nodded to the Crusaders' leader.

"Walter." Her voice cracked, only the tiniest bit.

"Um, Hey," Nightingale said, when none of the other adults made an effort to start a conversation, casually stepping between Nathaniels and the Novas.

"I'm sorry, but do you think you are?"

"Well, I'm the CEO of N-Corp, Mr. Walter Nathaniels, and these are my kids. Willow, my youngest, and Daniel, my oldest." He said, pointing each of them out. He offered Nightingale a hand to shake, but Emma glared at it with disgust.

"They don't look like your kids..." Starling said. Phoenix gripped his shoulder, fighting the urge to tell both of her trainees to be quiet.

"Well, that's true, they were both adopted, after all. Just a few months ago. I'm sure you know what that's like, Ogden," He chuckled. Officer Chance nodded. Roxanne's mouth was agape. Did her father really believe Nathaniels?

"They're a little touchy, which is completely my own fault, I'm afraid. I've been keeping them inside, helping them get used to a new life after adopting them from South Africa and Brazil, but they're just too cooped up. I'm trying to keep them out of the paparazzi eye, but that seems to be a moot point now," He sighed as several news vans joined Officer Chance's police brigade.

"Wait, what!?" Joan snapped. Officer Chance put a hand on her shoulder, pulling her back from launching herself at Nathaniels.

"That's not true!" Nightingale tried to tell Phoenix.

"It is," Phoenix said firmly. "If you'd actually read the records that you claim to have found, you would noticed that Walter here has sent several large sums to both Brazil and South Africa within the past few years. He's been helping with adoption programs in several countries in addition to those two. You would also have found that Willow and Daniel both have an exhausting paper trail since being adopted back in June."

"He's not our dad!" Daniel insisted.

"They're still a little upset at being ripped from their home countries. I don't blame them, but I am needed here, where my work is. America is a much better country for them to grow in." Nathaniels bragged.

Emma wanted to barf, but Brianna's ice-gray eyes silenced her.

"Officer Chance detected a huge tremor in the Netherealm when your building collapsed. Would you happen to know anything about that?" She asked. More news vans pulled up, and reporters started to recognize the Crusaders, as well as Walter Nathaniels

"Well, we do utilize some magic in our sciences, as everyone knows, but nothing of the scale," He waved to the rubble. "My security is working to divine what, but so far all we can think is an attack, possibly from the Netherealm." He eyed Officer Chance suspiciously.

"Luckily, all personnel was sent home for the evening after a threat of an intruder, which I can only assume were your sidekicks." He said slowly and emphatically, making sure the cameras caught his remarks as he looked each member of the Crusaders in the eye with disdain.

"Now if it's alright, I'd like to take my children to a hospital to be looked at. I wouldn't want them to go without treatment if they were hurt at all." He said, pulling Willow and Daniel towards the limo, The chauffeur stepped up to help, and something appeared vaguely familiar about that red, black, and cream color scheme.

"I am sorry, sir, but it appears that they do not wish to go with you." Joseph tried to say.

"Stand down, son," Glitch said, holding out their arm in front of Joseph. "You shouldn't be getting involved with this. Let us handle it. You should head back home now.

"He's right!" Willow spluttered angrily. "You're not my dad, and you're not his either, you're a slimy, conniving, horrid-"

"Mister Nathaniels! What's happening?" A reporter finally interjected.

"He's trying to kidnap us!" Willow went spread-eagle to keep from being forced into the limo.

"Willow, sweetheart, you're just in shock." Nathaniels cooed calmly, brushing her bangs out of her face. "Dad's just trying to help you."

"We've gotta get them out of here." Nightingale whispered to the others. Nathaniels was repeating his whole adoption sob-story to the press while the chauffeur tried- unsuccessfully- to force Daniel and Willow into the limo.

"Nathaniels' already got them on his side, and with all the press exposure no one's gonna believe any of us and Will and Danny will just be taken off to some hidden facility to be kept imprisoned forever. We'll never find them again."

"Not to mention we're all gonna get grounded forever, whether we do something or not." Roxanne drawled.

"I could pick up Willow and run with her. She's light enough, and Rebecca could fly with Daniel." AJ suggested.

Nightingale turned to Rebecca, a hint of jealousy in her voice. "You can fly?"

"Well, it's like lifting myself with my telekinesis, but yeah, I can fly." Becca said. "And if I'm just carrying Daniel with me it could work."

"We'd have to split up." Joan said.

"Where would we regroup?" Joseph asked.

Starling grinned again, shaking his sister by the shoulder. "Nightingale, Nightingale! We still got that old warehouse in Colorado!"

Emma nodded slowly at first, but a grin overtook her face as she remembered what Sam was talking about. "Meet outside the city, in that old fifties diner on route 59. And if you can, get a spare change of clothes for yourselves. Sam and I are gonna get some supplies and meet you there."

AJ smiled. Things just might work out after all. "Got it. Rebecca, you should create a mind link."

"You know it only works within a certain range." Rebecca reminded him.

"A mind link?" Emma asked.

"It's one of my powers. I can link several minds to talk telepathically." Rebecca said, as if that sort of thing happened every day.

"I've done that before! It's a really tough spell, though," Roxanne said.

"Joan! Roxanne!"

"Alvin James!"

"Rebecca!"

"Starling! Nightingale!"

While they'd been worried just a minute ago, the adults were now getting angry. The media was wrapping up and Nathaniels was itching to get Willow and Daniel out of sight so that he could conduct damage control

"You know where to meet?" Joseph asked. Everyone nodded as Nightingale felt Phoenix's hand grip her shoulder.

"Scatter!"