Hey everyone! Hope you all remember me. This is the third and FINAL installment of my 3 part story Batgirl Beyond. You should check the other 2 out if you haven't seen them already!

-x-

The night was dark and crisp

There was a layer of fog that obscured the metropolitan view of Gotham City.

Inside of a lonely alleyway, a figure in a long brown coat and large brown top hat emerged from the fog. Even if the fog wasn't hiding the person's face, their oversized hat and popped collar would have.

The gravel crunched underneath the person's boots right before they stopped in their tracks.

The person took a small travel bag off of their shoulder and dropped it on the ground. Their hand slowly reached into their pocket and produced a cigarette lighter. After a few seconds, the person dropped the lighter onto the bag. It erupted in flames.

-x-

A round analog clock hung in front of a white wall. It showed the time as 8:57 and nearing 9 o'clock in the evening.

As the view of the interior of the building would suggest, it was nearing closing hours at Gotham General bank. There were still a few people left in the bank doing their last minute transactions.

An orange-red haired lady in a blue dress was sitting at one of the tables and patiently listening to a well suited bank worker speak. The bank teller had short, brown hair and round wire framed glasses.

"So as you can clearly see Miss…" The bank representative started

"Mcginnis. Mary Mcginnis." The woman replied.

He smiled

"Mcginnis, starting an account at Gotham General is the smartest move you can make. We're among the most respected, efficient and customer friendly banks in the entire country. And in your case, we'd be especially reliable in handling your husband's life insurance, which is a concern that you mentioned earlier. We have a history of customer satisfaction, and believe that your finances will be in more than capable hands with us."

"Well that all sounds well and good, but I still may need some time to think about it."

"No problem." The banker said as he looked at his watch. "We're about to close up anyway. So hows about you get a good night's rest over it and you can reach me at this number anytime you're ready to chat again."

He handed her his card

"I appreciate it." She smiled. "Have a good night."

"You too"

They both stood up. Miss Mcginnis went for the door and the banker went to the front desk to file away the final papers. Just as Miss Mcginnis was about to leave, a teenage girl with dark skin, a yellow shirt, short pink hair and a bicycle helmet ran into the bank. The banker glanced back at her.

"Ma'am, we're…"

"Not yet. It's 8:59 and I really need to deposit this check at the machine. It'll take just a sec if that's okay."

The banker turned his head

"Alright, go ahead. But make it quick."

"Maxine?"

Miss Mcginnis said it. The girl turned her head and looked right at her.

"Miss Mcginnis! It's so good to see you." Max said

"The feelings mutual. How is everything going with you?"

"You know. Same old same old. Depositing my check from babysitting and I felt every penny of it. It's incredible how much destruction two little boys can cause."

"Trust me, I can relate. Even if they're not so little anymore." Miss Mcginnis giggled.

"Speaking of which, how's Terry doing these days?" Max asked

"I was about to ask you the same question. You probably see him more than I do nowadays."

"Really?"

"Yeah. But that's Terry for you. Sleeps through school during the day and is always working at night. If he wasn't my own son I'd deem him as some nocturnal animal."

Max giggled and nervously scratched the back of her head

"Yeah…well, more so than you may think."

"It's a mystery why Mr. Wayne needs him to work so many night shifts…"

Max watched the bank door open.

"And speaking of Mr. Wayne…" She started

Mrs. Mcginnis looked back as well. Surely enough, a tall, old man with sleek white hair, a black suit coat and black pants walked into the bank with his brown cane. He was unmistakable as Bruce Wayne

"What a coincidence! I wonder why he's coming here in person though. It's a little weird if you ask me." Mrs. Mcginnis said.

"Yeah…" Max started as she raised her eyebrow. "Weird…"

Wayne walked up to a clerk who had his back turned to him. The clerk was filing his last papers into the cabinets. He spoke without turning his head.

"We're closed, sir. We open again at 8 AM tomorrow, so you'll have to come back in the morn…"

"Oh, well excuse me, then." Wayne said. The clerk's eyes widened. He immediately recognized Wayne's voice. He quickly turned around and looked Wayne in the eye.

"Oh, Mr. Wayne! I didn't realize that was you." The clerk said with a smile. "What can I do for you?"

"But I thought you said you were closed…"

"Nevermind that."

Mr. Wayne raised his eyebrow

"Well, what I meant to say was…We're always willing to do business with our number one investor in Gotham."

Mr. Wayne smiled and nodded

"I'm glad you say that. Because I'd like to withdraw every last dollar that I have in this bank. In cash."

The clerk looked extremely startled and stood frozen for a few seconds before he could take it in. He then began laughing.

Bruce simply frowned and stared straight at him

"Did I say something funny?"

The clerk stopped laughing

"Um, no sir, it's just. Well. That's quite the request."

"Is there a problem?"

The clerk was beginning to realize that this was no joke. As usual, Bruce Wayne was being completely serious.

"No, sir. I uh…All I need is your fingerprint, eye scan and signature for identification purposes."

Wayne frowned.

"I'm standing right in front of you. What more identification do you need?"

"We're sorry sir. It's standard protocol."

He pulled up a touchscreen from one of the bottom drawers and set it on the table.

"Right on here sir." The clerk said

Wayne leaned over to the screen and had it scan his retina. He then pressed his finger to the screen and then signed the screen with the stylus.

"Thank you, Mr. Wayne. One second please."

The clerk bent down and checked the results on the screen under the counter. After a couple of seconds, the results displayed.

RETINAL SCAN: 100% MATCH

FINGERPRINT ANALYSIS: 100% MATCH

SIGNATURE ANALYSIS: 12% MATCH.

The clerk stood still for a moment and selected to view the details of the signature analysis. When he saw that the signature that Wayne just gave him and the signature on file looked completely different.

The clerk inhaled and stood straight to his feet.

"Um, sir, it appears as if there's been a problem." The clerk said with a shaking voice.

Wayne scowled

"The results didn't completely check out, so standard protocol says that I can't process your request at this time."

Wayne stood still for a second. His dry eyes pierced the clerk's.

Then he reached into his suit pocket

"I'll show you standard protocol." Wayne said.

He suddenly produced a pistol and pointed it at the clerk. Everyone in the bank gasped.

Max's eyes widened and Miss Mcginnis took a few steps back.

"So let's try this again." Wayne said. "Give me the cash. Now."

Within moments, Wayne was running out of the bank with a big sac of cash in one hand and his cane in the other.

Everyone in the bank was hiding under the tables and behind the counters. Miss Mcginnis and Max were behind one of the counters.

"This is insane! What should we do, Max?" Miss Mcginnis said as she turned to Max.

"Not let him get away." Max said as she sprinted out the bank after him.

"Max!" Miss Mcginnis called after her.

Max fastened her helmet and jumped on her bicycle. Before she took off, she reached into her purse and fished around for something.

"Oh come on…it has to be here somewhere." She whispered

Her hand grabbed onto something and pulled it out. It was a bat shaped remote control that only had one button in the middle.

"The perks of being best friends with Gotham's finest…"

She quickly pressed the center button multiple times.

"If anyone needs to see this, it's you Terry…"

She put the remote back into her purse and kicked her bicycle stand up. She began pedaling down the street as fast as she could.

Bruce Wayne sprinted down the middle of the road as 2 Policemen ran after him.

"Stop right there or we'll shoot!" One of them yelled.

Bruce simply ran faster

The darkness was beginning to settle on the town, and it was getting harder and harder for the policemen to see him. They were now on a bridge that hung on top of another busy road.

Bruce ran left and hid behind a building. The policemen tailed him

"We know where you are! Come out from behind the building and put your hands up!"

Bruce smiled

"If you insist."

He grasped tighter onto his cane and quickly emerged from the corner of the building. One of the policemen gasped

"Wait. Isn't that Bruce Way…"

Suddenly, Bruce threw his cane at the policemen like a boomerang. The cane was thrown so hard that the policemen hardly saw it coming, and it hit one of them square in the forehead. The policeman immediately dropped to the floor, unconscious. While the second policeman glanced at his fallen partner, Bruce's fist met his nose, and soon, he was on the ground as well. He grunted in pain.

Bruce grabbed tightly onto the sack of money and continued running. The conscious policeman took out his gun and began shooting at him. Bruce ran straight for the edge of the bridge.

"Hey! Stop! You'll about to run off the…" the policeman yelled

He jumped off the edge of the bridge. The policeman forced himself to get up and looked down over the bridge. Bruce was falling for a few seconds, but then grabbed onto a street lamp and then dropped down to the lower road. He continued running away with the money.

"Unbelievable…" The policeman said

Max zoomed past the policeman on her bicycle and turned the corner to go down the ramp.

"Ma'am! Stay away from this area! There is an armed and dangerous man down there!"

She wasn't able to hear him anyway. She continued after him.

On the lower road, Bruce looked left and then right, and then ran into a dark alley to his right. It wasn't long before Max got there after him. She hopped off her bicycle and followed him in.

The alley was dark and empty. Max walked in slowly and looked around. After a few seconds of silence, she heard a voice behind her.

"You shouldn't be here, kid." Max turned around and faced where the voice was coming from. "Putting your nose into other people's business is a very rude habit." It was Bruce's voice behind her. He was holding the sac of money in one hand and the dropped gun in the other.

Max stepped back

"Yeah, well, when you try to rob the bank that cashes my paychecks, it becomes my business. What's gotten into you, Mr. Wayne? You're not yourself."

"And what makes you so sure?" He said

"Well for starters you're sitting on enough cash to buy that bank 100 times over, so I don't understand why you're stealing from it. And the last time I checked, committing armed crimes was never quite your style…"

He loaded the gun and pointed it right at her. Max gasped.

"You're gonna shoot me?!" Max exclaimed

"Accidents tend to befall those with an insatiable curiosity. Maxine."

Max's face froze when he said her name. She slowly put her hands up

"I don't know what's going on, Mr. Wayne. But I'm not gonna stand here and let you put innocent people in danger!"

His thick finger began to ease down on the trigger.

"Well unfortunately for you, you won't be "standing" for very long."

He pressed his finger against the trigger, but not before something hard and metal hit his hand with the gun. The gun shot a bullet when it hit the ground, but the bullet shot into the air and hit nothing.

Wayne yelled in pain. Another bat shaped metal object cut across the sac of money, and sent the money floating in the air and pouring on the ground.

"No…" He said

He wound back and punched Max, which sent her backwards into the wall. Bruce pulled three smoke bombs out of his sleeves and threw them onto the ground. A thick fog filled the alley, and Max closed her eyes and began coughing.

She was suddenly able to hear a car zoom and screech to a halt on the other end of the alley. She forced her eyes to open through the smoke and saw Bruce's silhouette step into the passengers seat of the car, and watched the outline of the car zoom away at great speed.

She waved around until the smoke had cleared and looked forward. About ten seconds later, she heard a familiar voice.

"Max! Max!"

She looked left and saw Batman run up to her. He wore a black suit and had the red Batman logo on his chest.

"Max, I got your distress signal and came as fast as I could. Are you alright?" Batman asked.

"Yeah, well, I've had safer days. But I guess I can't complain after you saved me from being street pizza."

Batman looked a little confused.

"What?"

"You know, after you rescued me just now?"

"Me? No Max, I just got here. I was going to ask you what happened!"

He looked around

"Why is there money everywhere?" He asked

Max raised her eyebrow

"Wait. This doesn't make any sense. If that wasn't you, then who…"

She looked down at the ground, and noticed something strange about the batarangs that were thrown.

She bent down and picked one up.

"Hey, Terry…did you get a new model of these? The last I remember they were black and red."

Batman took it. He saw that the batarang was black with yellow outlines.

"Oh no…" Batman said quietly

He ran out of the alley. Max ran after him.

"Woah, hold your horses, what's the rush for?" Max said

Batman stopped and looked far into the distance. He pressed a button on the side of his mask that zoomed into the top of a far away building. He was able to see a figure that looked a lot like himself. The person was in some sort of batsuit and had a feminine-like appearance.

"You've gotta be kidding me." He said

He gave Max the batarang, opened his wings, and flew off.

"Wait, What's going on? I don't see anything! Batman!" Max yelled

Batman flew towards the rooftop. Before he got there the girl spread her wings jumped off of the roof and flew forward. Batman continued chasing her.

"Hey! Wait!" He tried to yell after her. It was of no use. She kept flying away. Batman tried to press a button on his com-link.

"Batgirl! Batgirl, do you copy?"

There was no response.

"She must've jammed the link…great…" He whispered.

He spread his wings again and flew after her. He was beginning to get closer and closer to her.

After a few moments, he was only a few yards behind her. He shouted once again.

"HEY!"

The girl looked over her shoulder and saw him.

"Batman…" She said

"Well, it sure is nice of you to drop in!" Batman yelled

The girl smirked

"We'll talk later. I have business to attend to."

"I don't think so." Batman said "I need to ask you a few questions."

"I'll pass."

She pressed a button on her utility belt that activated her turbo boost. A large beam of fuel ejected out of her boots and she zoomed forward at sonic speed. The shockwave from the boost hit Batman and threw off course. It sent him spiraling towards the ground.

He yelled as he flew through the leaves of a tree and hit the ground face down. He groaned and held his head as he slowly stood up.

He watched the girl in the batsuit fly out of sight, and was left standing alone.