You have your hobbies, and I have mine- Chapter 7

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-Dick's POV-

I woke up the next morning to Lexi walking in the front door, looking sweaty.

"Did you go jogging without me?" I asked, sitting up from the desk chair where I had fallen asleep while I was researching a lead. 

"Oh, yeah. I knew that you were up really late, so I just let you sleep. You looked pretty tired when I got here this morning. When I checked the surveillance cameras, you were up past two this morning."

"You still should've woken me up." I huffed, upset that I had missed a chance to talk to her alone. At that moment, Batgirl and Robin Zeta'd in.

"We've found something on that lead you discovered." Barbara(Batgirl) said. She walked over to the computer and pulled something up.

"Hey, aren't those-" Lexi started.

"The top ten art museums in the world? Yes." Babs finished. "The Reach gave their ten remaining scarabs to these ten museums as 'artifacts' from their home planet. They haven't bonded to any humans yet, but I assume that it's the next step in their plan. I suspect that nine of the scarabs are decoys and that the real weapon is among them, but I have no way of knowing for sure."

"We need to work quickly then. How do we go about doing this?" Lexi said. "Do we alert the museums?"

"Probably not the best idea. The workers could very well be under Reach control. We don't want to tip them off that we know about this." Tim told her.

"Robin's right." I nodded.

"So what do we do?" Barbara asked.

"Easy." Lexi smirked. "We steal them."

"It does seem like the only option." I sighed, not really liking the idea. "So what, like a museum heist?"

"Museum heist?" Superboy asked as he, Mal (Guardian), Blue Beetle, Beast Boy and M'gann entered the Warehouse via front door. Wonder Girl, Bumblebee, and Impulse Zeta'd in a moment later. Batgirl filled them in, and M'gann raised her hand.

"What are the top ten museums in the world?" she asked.

"The National Gallery of Art, in Washington, D.C., the Prado Museum, in Madrid, Spain, the Tate Modern, in London, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Uffizi Gallery, in Florence, Italy, the Musee d'Orsay, in Paris, the J. Paul Getty Center, in Los Angeles, California, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York,  the Vatican Museums/Vatican City, in Rome, and the Musee du Louvre, in Paris." Batgirl read from the screen.

"Did you say the Tate Modern?" Lexi checked.

"Yup."

"That's the most secure museum in the world. Their security system is better than the one at the White House. That's the most likely place for the scarab to be."

"And you know this because...?" Blue asked.

"You have your hobbies, I have mine." She shrugged. "I went there this summer with my dad. It was part of the tour. So of course, I scanned to see what kind of security they had. Their camera system is off the charts. Specially developed for the museum. Facial recognition software, heat and motion senors for after hours, lasers, highly trained security guards, the works."

"Yeah but that stuff can be easily dealt with right?" Superboy asked. "I mean, Nightwing just has to get with the hacking and we're in."

"I'm not so sure. The other museums shouldn't be a problem, but the Tate Modern's system is totally private. Practically no external ways in. They even have their own Wifi tower. The only way to hack into it would be from the inside. We could patch the heat and motion sensors to a continuous loop from the outside, but the facial recognition would have to be shut down manually from their computers. Which would mean that none of us or the League could get in. The Reach would have made sure of that." Lexi informed us. You could practically hear the brain gears turning, trying to think of a solution.

"Wait." Wonder Girl said. "The Reach wouldn't have your face on the recognition. They've never seen you before."

"I thought about that. But surely Kaldur'ahm would-"

"Not expect you to come back." Wonder Girl finished.

Lexi shrugged. "It's the only option at the moment, so why not?"

"Absolutely not." I said, stepping in.

"Why?" Lexi countered, looking at me from behind her glasses.

"You think that I'm going to send you in there by yourself?" Was she serious?

"What other choice do we have?"

"My final answer is no. If we can't get a squad in there, we'll think of something else." In other words, if I can't go with you, then you can't go at all. I thought to myself.

"She won't be alone." M'gann said. "I can shape shift into some random by-stander and then we can go in together."

I sighed, knowing that if I told them no, they would go anyways. "Fine. I'll figure out teams later. I'll see if I can get Kid Flash, Zatanna, Rocket and Red Arrow to help. Do you know anything about the other museums, Fox?"

"None of the others have facial recognition software." She shrugged. "Not enough funding. The cameras and everything can be shut down from the outside computer. At least, I'm nearly positive."

"Fair enough." I sighed, running a hand through my hair. "Dismissed, for now. Don't leave."

"I'm going to need to case the building, to figure out exit routes and what not." Lexi said, coming to stand next to me.

"Fine. You and I can Zeta to London at noon. That good?"

"Sure. When do you want to act?"

"Soon. Tomorrow or the next day, at the latest." I flopped down into the chair, totally stressed out by the situation.

Lexi placed a gloved hand on my shoulder. "We'll figure all this out, Dick." She whispered. I, not really thinking, naturally reached back and put my hand on top of hers.

She didn't move  it at all until M'gann yelled, "Going on a coffee run! Anybody want anything?"

"I'll go with you." Lexi offered, jerking her hand away from mine. I watched as they left, and wished more than anything that I could know what Lexi was thinking.

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He guys!! COMMENT AND VOTE! I really like this chapter and I'm really excited for the next one. It'll be great.

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