Chapter Two

Hamilton Hill High School; Lunch Break

The new girl was talking on the phone, leaning against the school wall just outside the door. "I think this is a mistake," she said.

"We agreed this was the best way to get your life back on track," the voice on the phone said.

"I know, it's just-I don't know if I can do this," she replied.

"Melanie, what happened?" he asked.

"It's just-Your trial is in less than a week and we don't even have a lawyer! You're gonna end up back in jail! I shouldn't be wasting my time here," she replied.

"Melanie, I'm your big brother. I should be the one protecting you, not the other way around. Don't worry, just you watch. I'll beat this thing, but you need to be there. We might've had the finest tutors in the world as kids, but they didn't exactly cover the high school curriculum," he said reassuringly.

"No, they covered how to disable sophisticated alarms and beat up security guards," Melanie said cynically.

"Just stick with it and don't worry about me. Everything will turn out fine. You'll see," he replied.

Melanie hung up. "Fine. Yeah right," she said sarcastically as she slid down to the ground, wrapping her arms around her legs, waiting for the bell. It had become a habit of hers ever since that night outside the club.


Hamilton Hill High Cafeteria

Dana, Chelsea, Blade and a handful of other girls were sitting at a table talking.

"Do you think Terry did a good job on the project?" Chelsea asked. "I was totally bluffing about not needing the grade."

"Would you relax? Terry always gets A's and B's. The only reason he's failing is because he hasn't done half the work," Dana replied. "I'm more worried about the new girl. Terry wouldn't tell me anything about her, and no one in school knows anything either."

"Wasn't she in your first period, Jackie?" Kathryn asked.

"Yeah, but she didn't say much of anything. It was actually kind of weird; when the teacher asked her to tells us a bit about herself she just said, 'I'd rather not,' and sat down. And she wasn't paying attention in class at all, just staring off into space the whole time," Jackie said.

"Do you think she was thinking of Terry?" Blade asked playfully.

"Wouldn't know," Jackie replied.

"She better not have been!" Dana exclaimed.

"Someone's jealous," Blade teased.

"You should have seen how she perked up when she saw Terry," Dana argued.

"But you said he totally blew her off, so you don't have anything to worry about, right?" Kathryn stated.

"Unless, of course, he already did her behind your back," Blade added.

"You do know it's rude to talk about people behind their back, especially when they're right next to you," Maxine said as she walked up to the table. Everyone looked at Terry who was fast asleep at the corner of the table.

"He's out cold. We couldn't wake him up if we tried," Dana stated, sounding irritated.

"You shouldn't be gossiping about him at all. Terry isn't a cheater. You know that Dana," Maxine continued.

"Even the most loyal guys can be tempted," Bladed stated.

"You would know," Maxine replied.

"I know Terry isn't the kind of guy to cheat," Dana said,jumping in, "but there's just something about that girl and none of it makes any sense. I mean, how is it that Terry is the only one in the school that knows her? It's not like he has any free time. When he's not working or helping out his mom, he's usually with me or studying," she continued, becoming more and more frustrated.

"Maybe that's where he met her? At his job?" Jackie suggested.

"Maybe. I mean, that would explain a few things," Dana said, calming down a bit.

"Who cares how they met. All that matters is how you feel about Terry," Maxine said, trying to steer the conversation away from Terry's job.

"I guess you're right," Dana said. "Terry does mean a lot to me, but there's a lot he doesn't tell me. Too much."

"I'm sure he has a good reason," Maxine replied.

"The new girl's in our gym class. If Terry won't tell you anything, maybe she will," Chelsea suggested.

The bell rang and everyone got up and gathered their bags.

"It's worth a try, but I have a feeling she has more secrets than Terry," Dana replied, as she followed Chelsea and the others out the cafeteria.

"Terry, wake up," Maxine said, trying to push him awake.

"Five more minutes," Terry groaned.

"I said, WAKE UP!" Maxine shouted as she hit Terry.

"Ugh, what?" Terry groaned as he raised his head.

"Do you have any idea what you slept through?" Maxine asked.

"No. Where is everyone, anyway?" Terry yawned.

"Class!" Maxine stated emphasizing the irritation in her voice. "You know? Where you need to be!? Unless you want to be late again…," Maxine replied.

Terry's cell phone beeped.

Terry checked his phone and said, "It's the old man. He wants me to suit up."

Maxine sighed, "I'll let everyone know."


Hamilton Hill High School Roof

"What's so important you had to drag me out of school? I need to sleep sometime, you know," Batman joked as he slid into the batmobile.

"Over the last week someone has been secretly stealing a lot of high-end tech. They're hitting their next target now," Bruce stated.

"I'm on my way, but if this has been going on all week, why didn't you say something sooner?" Batman asked.

"Because I didn't know. Whoever it is, has been covering their tracks perfectly and after every robbery there's a gang committing seemingly random acts of destruction at or near the site. Everyone just assumed the items are buried or destroyed. Nothing has even been reported," Bruce explained. "I almost didn't notice myself."

"How did you figure it out if nothing was reported?" Batman asked.

"The most recent one was at Wayne-Powers. We're a little more thorough," Bruce replied. "After I realized what was going on, I searched the news for similar events and cross-referenced them with the locations of other projects. When I checked the security of other likely targets, I noticed one of them has its security system running a diagnostic, but they don't have any scheduled and their phone line is down. I've already tipped off the cops, but I doubt they'll get there in time."

"Just when I thought I was getting to be good a detective…," Batman joked.

The batmobile arrived at its destination.

"Give it time; I have more experience. You should be able to get into the vents through the air duct on the roof," Bruce instructed.

Batman jumped on to the roof and cloaked. He crawled into the air vents and made his way to his destination. He looked down through the grating to see Inque downloading specs off the computer on to a flash drive.

Batman dropped down from the vent and said, "Back from the dead again? Let me guess, one more time and you get a free sandwich?"

Inque jumped. "You again!" she said with contempt dripping from her voice as she lashed her arm out, knocking Batman into the wall.

Beep! The file transfer finished, Inque grabbed the flash drive and shifted to liquid form as she leapt for the vent. Batman intercepted her with an electrically charged batarang. Inque screamed out in pain as she fell to the ground, dissolving into a puddle. The flash drive landed a few feet away from her. She re-formed and stabbed at Batman with her arm, which was now sharpened to a point. Batman dodged and threw another batarang. Inque stretched herself out to allow a hole to form in the side of her body, causing the batarang to go straight through her and smashed into the computer. The computer exploded, setting off every alarm in the building.

"Give it up! Security will be here any second and the cops are already on their way!" Batman demanded. Inque replied with a flurry of attacks from her sword-like arms. Batman managed to dodge most of them, but the last one grazed his side and he found himself backed into a wall.

"DIE!" Inque screamed as she pulled her arm back in preparation to pierce his skull when security rushed in and opened fire. Inque's arms fell off, spattering on the ground, as the lasers continued to bombarded her. She pulled herself together and made her escape through the vent. Batman followed, dodging lasers on the way. When he made it to the roof, she was gone.

Terry turned on his comm. and said, "I lost her, but she didn't get what she was after."

"Good enough for now, you better get back to school."


Hamilton Hill High Gym

The girl's class was having a badminton tournament. Melanie was dominating. It was the last match and none of the girls had even scored a point on her. "That new girl is really athletic! No wonder Terry wants to keep her his little secret," Blade said suggestively.

Dana glared at Blade, then turned her eyes back to the game…back to Melanie. 'Terry would never cheat, would he?' she wondered to herself, trying to hide how she really felt.

It wasn't long before Melanie won the game and they all headed to the locker room to shower.

"Melanie, wait. I want to talk to you," Dana said.

"What do you want?" Melanie asked, not even brothering to stop.

"Tell me how you know Terry!" Dana demanded.

"What do you care?" Melanie asked callously.

"He's my boyfriend!" Dana exclaimed.

"So does that means you have to know everyone he does and what he does twenty-four/seven?" Melanie asked coldly as she entered the locker room.

Dana followed.

"Look, I just want to know why Terry won't tell me anything about you," Dana said, trying to sound reasonable.

"Just leave me alone. You don't have anything to worry about; Terry made it clear he doesn't want anything to do with me," Melanie said lifelessly as she walked away. She headed to her locker and opened it up, took off her clothes, threw them in, grabbed a towel, and strode over to the showers, not even bothering to cover herself.

Their little chat didn't make Dana feel any better. If anything, it made her worry more. Melanie hadn't answered a thing; both she and Terry refused to tell her anything, which wasn't a good sign. Seeing her naked just made things even worse. The whole time they were showering was torture for Dana. Her eyes kept drifting towards Melanie. Melanie's whole body was extremely toned-it's no wonder she was so good at sports. Her breasts were bigger then Dana's, her stomach flatter, everything was perfectly trimmed, and she wasn't modest in the least. Dana was so jealous, she couldn't help but compare, and it was making her self-conscious.