"The gang's back baybee!" Ophelia cheered once everyone had joined the call. Clark and Zak responded with loud whoops, Darryl next to Zak covering his ears and Keres, Mrs B, Clay and George all sporting amused grimaces near Clark.

"Look at us! Being all cute and planning to ruin someone's life together." Clark cooed, causing a ripple of soft laughter.

"So, let's run through what we all know and get on the same page." Mrs Bosko began. "I've been doing my homework as well so I've got to check if I've found anything new."

Most everyone turned their gazes to Clark, each not having their own news to share - not anything that Keres had likely already updated Mrs B on. Clark cleared his throat dramatically, clicking his fingers and spine before leaning forward, elbows on his knees and hands clasped in front of his smile.

"Damien was reported to have left our place of residence at approximately twenty-one hundred hours yesterday, meaning he will likely arrive any time after twenty-one hundred hours today, considering the two hour journey to the airport and the hour boarding." Clark began before being rudely interrupted.

"English, dude." Zak piped up, others humming or nodding their agreement. Clark rolled his eyes, slumping back against Keres' couch with a huff and crossing his arms.

"Big man gets off his plane any time after nine, if he took regular flights. Since he's loaded, he might be a bit earlier than that, but around nine pee emm is when we should expect him in this country. He probably won't visit until sometime tomorrow afternoon, mans gotta have his beauty sleep." He reworded grumpily, pairing it with a childish glare at Zak. Zak just stuck his tongue out. Clark copied.

"So we have today free?" Mrs B asked, eager to get them back on track.

"Yes ma'am." Clark confirmed, nodding at the Mrs B on the screen before realising and turning to her in person, nodding again.

"Alright. Anything else?"

"Mhm. He doesn't know I'm here, thinks I'm staying with Meg. I can buy you guys some time with threats, scaremongering, manipulation, whatever you fancy. I can't do it forever though, maybe a few weeks - months at most - before he will find some kind of leverage and get back on top." The others nodded their understanding. "And Lena darling - Damien's wife - has said she's happy to do anything we might need of her as long as Auri isn't involved. It's the conditions we're both on - anything goes as long as Auri is safe."

"Okay, thank you Clark." Clark shrugged the thanks off easily, leaning to grab either his or Jethro's - he wasn't all that sure by this point, half of his wardrobe is stolen from Jethro and the other half isn't commonly acceptable in public - and pulling it on. He reached into the pocket to find a lollipop and more than happily unwrapped it.

"I'm assuming no one else has anything to share?" Mrs B prompted, receiving a resounding silence. This is why she didn't go into teaching. "One good thing that has come out of such heavy media coverage with you lot is that a quick google search is more than enough to get me started down a rabbit hole of wrongdoings."

"The internet, twitter especially, love to tear people down. If you've done something bad, they'll find out. I've used this to our advantage." She opened her laptop, beginning to pull up saved posts, videos and documents that had even the remotest potential to help them. "I've gathered together every negative encounter, every time he was turned away, sacked, whatever, every public contract he's signed, any old posts or leaked emails, messages- just anything that could frame him."

"I'm sending them to each of you now to scan through." She hesitated, turning to Clark. "I found a fair bit surrounding you and your Ma, are you okay with me sending that over and us using it?" Clark's eyes were wide for a moment, lips poured around the sweet in his mouth, before he schooled himself and pulled the lollipop from his mouth with a pop.

"Uh, yeah, no, go for it. Pretty sure everyone's clocked on to what's gone down and is going down already so there's no use hiding what could be the last piece of the perfect case. Knock yourselves out." He supplied quickly, oblivious to the concerned eyes rested upon him, and placed the sweet back on his tongue. Mrs B watched him for a moment longer before turning back to her laptop and sending the documents.

It was silent for a moment as they each began to read through what they'd been sent on various devices, Clark eagerly hiding himself away in the thick jacket - Jethro's, that was definitely Nona's stitching around the zipper - he had wrapped around himself.

"Wait.." Clay began and only Jethro noticed the way Clark froze up "Clark, you've tried to take him to court three times now?" He turned to the positively tiny looking blonde, who held up his fingers in response. "Seven?" He asked, shocked, and Clark nodded slowly. Clay turned back to the rest of the group, a sickly kind of guilt settling in his lungs. "Clark has taken him to court seven times and only three got far enough for a small part of the internet to get ahold of them, what hope do we have against him?"

Once again it was silent. The atmosphere held a shocked sort of settling resignation. George reached to slip his hand into Clay's for some kind of comfort, Nick leant heavily against Vincent and Zak carefully snaked his arms around Darryl's waist. The only sound that could be heard was the rapid tapping of Ophelia's old chrome book.

"The reason none of them worked was because he didn't have any support... he didn't have anyone to back his evidence." Ophelia finally spoke, eyes scanning quickly before continuing. "Look at the third one; Damien forged hospital records in order to claim that Clark wasn't of sound mind. He didn't have anyone to support him and prove that Damien was the one lying so the case was dropped..."

Clark picked at the loose stitches of Jethro's jacket, silently apologising to Nona and swearing that he'd try and fix it himself with what she'd taught him before guiltily admitting what he'd done. He bit down on the cherry lollipop until it shattered in his mouth.

"Will we be enough support? If we're all testifying as well?" Geo asked nervously, leaning over Ophelia's shoulder to scan her screen. Jethro was much too distracted with composing a private message to Clark to join the two, periodically glancing up at the screen that held their call in order to read him.

"What if we used the media against him?" Keres suggested slowly.

With the attention now on her, she worked to explain. "A big part of Damien's hold is his media control. He holds the band's images as individuals and as a whole, he holds Clark's presence entirely and, because of the image he's built for himself, he holds the internet's favour. What if we turn them against him?"

"How though? No one would believe us if we started posting what he did. He'd find a way to cover it up." Vincent countered and Keres shook her head softly.

"Not us." She stated. Darryl broke into a wide grin.

"Oh Keres, you're a genius!" He shouted and Keres flushed with a giggle and a polite thank you. The others now turned to him for an explanation. "There's a Twitter that's dedicated to updates about us, right? Anyone who's on twitter and knows us follows it." He began, gaining a few nods.

"They get all of their updates and photos from people sending them in! We could send in the stuff that Mrs B dug up! He hasn't been able to shut the account down yet, and by the time he manages to people will already know!"

"Ker-bear you genius!"

////:\\\\

Ro ✨
Hey
11:54am

My Ash
Hello dearest wriggly Ro what can I do for you?
11:54am

Ro ✨
Go make yourself some food
11:54am

My Ash
...what
11:57am

Ro ✨
Get something to eat, something substantial. You could ask Keres or Clay or Mrs B to make something if you're not confident enough
11:57am
And get yourself a drink too
11:57am

My Ash
F George, deemed a shit cook by chef Álverez
11:58am
Love, you do know that this is a very odd request, yes?
11:59am

Ro ✨
I'm aware, yeah
11:59am
I'm not there to make too much and have you take the leftovers and I know you're not in the mood to take care of yourself right now
12:11pm
This is the best I can do
12:11pm

My Ash
That's
12:17pm
Actually really sweet
12:17pm
Thank you Jethro
12:17pm
I'll go ask Mrs B to make something while she's over
12:18pm

Ro ✨
Good
12:18pm
Call when you're free?
12:21pm

My Ash
Always, buddy
12:21pm
I'll call after I've eaten, kay?
12:21pm

Ro ✨
Okay
12:21pm
I really care about you
12:49pm

My Ash
I know
12:49pm
And I you
12:49pm
❤️
12:49pm
Seen

////:\\\\
———————————————
1.6k words

Big brain moment?

Feedback is welcome and appreciated!!

Yours Dandelion