The Universe's Mixer

Jake wasn't at the school when Dinah went to pick him up. She sped home taking the usual route that he might have walked, her eyes searching the sides of the road for any sign of him. There wasn't.

She was trying very hard not to panic, but flashbacks of when the Joker had taken him were surfacing quickly. She had to remind herself several times to stop and just breathe. Not that she actually took much time to do any deep breathing, but she was trying.

She was already slipping into search mode. She stopped by the townhouse first and found that his room was there but stripped bare. Almost as if he hadn't ever been there in the first place.

There was a knot forming in the pit of her stomach, but she had to find out more.

She had to find Jake.

She hopped on her bike and flipped on her commlink as she sped toward the Clock tower.

"Jensen. I need you to look for someone," she said once he answered. She gave all of the information she could, even if she was pretty sure that Jensen should know who Jake was and who he was to her.

After all, the whole team knew at least a little bit about her home life. She was doing her best to remain composed and not dissolve into tears or a panic.

Panic was useless. Fear-a little bit of fear-was healthy and could be funneled back into action. But panicking and shutting down wouldn't do Jake any good. Neither would crying.

There was a part of her somewhere that knew that that would come later. A part of her knew what must have happened, but she wasn't ready to accept it yet. And she wouldn't accept it until she could confirm that Jake wasn't still in the City and in trouble.

He had to still be in the City. He had to. Maybe he'd just gone to a friend's house after school and forgotten to tell her. Maybe...

Jesse was doing his best to keep an eye on things in The City while it was so out of whack. He felt like he, as a being with power, was responsible for the safety and sanity of others during this time of fear and confusion. It probably wasn't his job, not really, but he couldn't help it. Years of being a preacher helped to guide him back into the role with little resistance.

The people of The City were very panicked. They had grown up in this place and were used to the way that things were. Or had been. They didn't know what to do with the buildings and streets being still. They seemed more lost as they tried to get from place to place than the average abductee did when they first encountered the movement. They moved about the streets in their shocked states, and some of them didn't even seem to be taking care of themselves.

So it felt only natural that Jesse should stop to peer into the church as he passed it and noticed that there were so many people there that they were spilling out onto the sidewalk. All of them were City born. All of them were trying to find answers to what was going on. He could hear and feel their pleas, most of them talking to the City itself, some of them imploring any god that could hear them.

He pushed his way up to the pulpit and got the crowd to settle down. When they were quiet and listening, Jesse Custer did something that he hadn't done in a very long time. He gave a sermon. And meant it.