"Well, since Kate's gear is pretty much toast, we figured you guys could make better use of what's left," she says, gesturing to the pile of damaged equipment on the table. It's been sitting there basically the entire time, but I wasn't really paying attention to it. I figured it was one of Jordan's many tech experiments. Maybe upgrading the locks.

Jordan leans in, inspecting the various gadgets and gizmos with a critical eye. "I might be able to salvage some of this, but it's gonna take some work. Where did you guys even get all this stuff?"

Tasha and Marcus exchange a glance before Marcus clears his throat. "We, uh, we built most of it ourselves. With some help from online tutorials and a lot of trial and error. We bought the mini-drones online but I figured out how to code the LIDAR so they could fly in formation... lot of good that did us."

"Hey, be proud of yourself," Tasha mumbles, elbowing Marcus.

I won't lie - I feel a little bad bringing them all this low.

Sundial picks up what looks like a modified watch stuffed to the gills with wires, attached to some sort of battery pack, turning it over in her hands. I have no idea what it is. "Impressive. This is some seriously advanced tech for a bunch of high school kids."

Kate, still brooding in the corner, can't seem to help herself. "I told you guys, we're not just a bunch of kids. We know what we're doing."

I shoot her a look, but Compass jumps in before I can say anything. "No one's saying you don't. But you have to admit, going up against someone like Sparkplug without any powers or real training was a huge risk."

"A risk we were willing to take," Tasha says, her chin jutting out defiantly. "We couldn't just sit back and do nothing."

Jordan flicks a hand out and brings us back to the matter at hand. "Look, I know they screwed up, but benching them entirely seems like a waste. They've got skills that could come in handy."

I raise an eyebrow. "Skills? Jordan, they're civilians. They shouldn't be anywhere near this kind of thing."

"But we want to help," Marcus insists. "We're willing to put in the work to do it right this time."

Tasha nods. "Yeah, just give us a chance to prove ourselves. We won't let you down again."

I look around the room, gauging everyone's reactions. The Titans seem cautiously optimistic, while Derek and Spindle just shrug, deferring to my judgment. Kate is still silent, her expression unreadable.

"I don't know," I say slowly. "It's a huge risk."

Lilly and Jenna exchange uncertain glances, clearly hesitant about continuing their vigilante activities. I can't say I blame them. They've already come way too close to getting Kate seriously hurt. And I doubt that if the baddies knew where headquarters was they'd hesitate for a second in popping one between these kids' eyes.

Man. I sound old. I feel old.

Moonshot speaks up, her voice calm and measured. "Maybe we can find a way for them to help without putting them in direct danger. They could provide tech support or help with surveillance."

Compass nods. "That's not a bad idea. Their skills could be useful, but we don't want to put them in harm's way."

I chew on my lip, considering the options. On the one hand, I don't want to encourage their reckless behavior. On the other hand, I know how stubborn they can be. If I shut them out completely, they'll just go off and do something even more dangerous on their own.

"Okay, how about this," I say, looking around the room. "Team Mayfly can help with reconnaissance and tech support, but they stay out of the field. No more solo missions, no more secret vigilante stuff. If they want to be part of this, they follow our lead. Kate, that includes you. Is this something that everyone attending can agree on? There's no laws against flying drones in public, after all."

"That's not true," Spindle pipes up, but then Derek elbows him in the side lightly. "Never mind."

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There's a moment of tense silence before Kate finally nods. "Fine," she says, terse and to the point.

"Any objections?" Jordan asks the room. I lock eyes with Bubble for a moment, and then Sandman. They both look at me with a sort of blank, almost confused expression. Bubble's is a little more confused, and Sandman's a little more blank. Frankly, I think he's about to pass out, but from what I've heard he's sort of always on the verge of passing out.

Either way, the motion passes by default, since nobody really says anything.

I sigh, feeling like I'm making a deal with the devil. "Deal. But if any of you so much as think about going rogue again, I will personally drag you back to your parents' basements and lock you in. Understood?"

They all nod, some more reluctantly than others. Jordan claps their hands together, breaking the tension. "Great! Now that we've got that settled, let's take a look at this gear. I've got some ideas on how we can use this."

As the team gathers around the table, Tasha and Marcus start sorting through the pile of damaged equipment, separating the salvageable items from the irreparable ones. Jordan and Compass join in, their eyes lighting up as they examine the various gadgets.

"Okay, so we've got a couple of drones that are still functional," Marcus says, holding up two slightly battered but intact quadcopters. "They're a bit dinged up, but nothing a little TLC can't fix. Some of them Sparkplug totally fried."

Jordan nods, turning one of the drones over in their hands. "Nice. What kind of range do these things have?"

Marcus grins. "About a mile, give or take. We modified them with some custom firmware and boosted the signal strength."

"Custom firmware, huh?" Jordan says, raising an eyebrow. "What did you use, LunarOS or something?"

Marcus's eyes widen. "No way, man. LunarOS is too bloated. We used a stripped-down version of Asteroid and built on top of that."

The two of them launch into a rapid-fire discussion of operating systems and hardware modifications, tossing around terms like "ZephyrX processors" and "Quasar protocols." I glance around the room, relieved to see that I'm not the only one who's completely lost.

Sundial clears her throat, bringing the conversation back to the task at hand. "Okay, so we've got some working drones. What else do we have?"

Tasha holds up a small canister with a nozzle attached. "This is a pepper spray dispenser. It's fully mechanical, so it should still work. I've been, uh, cutting my teeth on the mechanical engineering side of things."

Derek takes the canister, examining it closely. "Not bad."

I can see the gears turning in his head, and I'm a little worried.

As the team continues to sort through the equipment, I can't help but feel a little out of my depth. I'm used to relying on my own powers and instincts, not gadgets and gizmos. Even though Liberty Belle left me a crate full of goodies, I've barely used any of them except on our recent stakeout. I don't know. I'm just not a Batman type.

"Hey, Marcus," Jordan says, their eyes still glued to the drone in their hands. "What kind of setup do you have for live monitoring and control?"

Marcus scratches his head. "Uh, we've been using a couple of old laptops running Debian."

Jordan nods. "Okay, we can work with that. But we're going to need to set up a dedicated monitoring station if we want to use these drones effectively. I'm thinking multiple screens, a high-bandwidth connection, and maybe some custom control interfaces."

Spindle, who has been quietly observing the conversation, speaks up. "I might be able to help with that. I know a guy."

I raise an eyebrow. "A guy? Spindle, we're trying to keep a low profile here."

He shrugs. "Hey, I'm just saying. If we're going to do this, we might as well do it right."

As the team starts to discuss the logistics of setting up a monitoring station, I can't help but feel a little overwhelmed. I'm a superhero, not a tech whiz. But if this is what it takes to keep my friends safe and take down Sparkplug, I'll do whatever it takes. I'm just glad that everything's... gelling? That people are getting along? Even if Kate is sulking in the corner.

Just as the conversation starts to veer into the realm of the absurd - someone mentioning an AI, which I'm sure is still science fiction, Jenna clears her throat.

"Um, guys?" she says, her voice barely audible over the chatter. "There's something I need to say."

The room falls silent as everyone turns to look at her. She shifts uncomfortably under the weight of their gazes, her hands twisting together in her lap.

"What is it, Jenna?" I ask, trying to keep my voice gentle.

She takes a deep breath, as if steeling herself for what she's about to say. "After the comms went down at the warehouse, I kind of... followed Sparkplug. With my drone."

The room erupts into a chorus of "What?" and "Why didn't you say something earlier?" Jenna shrinks back in her chair, looking like she wants to disappear.

I hold up a hand, silencing the chatter. "Okay, let's all take a breath. Jenna, can you tell us exactly what happened?"

She nods, her voice shaking as she recounts the events of that night. "After Sparkplug fried Kate's comms, I panicked. I didn't know what to do, so I just... followed him with my drone. He drove around for a while, but eventually parked in a garage near Rittenhouse Square. I followed him until he went into a building called the Dorchester. That's when my drone died, so I guided it into a trash can and got out of there."

Kate's eyes widen. "The Dorchester? That's a high-end condo building. How are we supposed to find him in there?"

Jordan leans forward, a thoughtful look on their face. "Well, we know he lives there, but we don't know which unit. The Dorchester has 32 floors, so it's not like we can just knock on every door."

Spindle raises an eyebrow. "Why not? We could pretend to be delivering pizza or something."

I shake my head. "No way. That's too risky. We need a better plan."