AUTHOR'S NOTE: BACK FROM THE DEAD!
Seriously, sorry about the long absence - school, work, writer's block, and a few other things have kept me from working as much on this as I would have liked. Hopefully, I should be able to get back into the rhythm of things and posting regularly from now on.
That being said, our story now picks up the day after the last chapter. Enjoy, folks!
BATMAN BEYOND:
The Second Rebirth
Chapter 9
The late morning sun shining through the bedroom window woke Melanie, and she opened her eyes, glancing at the alarm clock on the bedside table.
10:30 AM.
She reluctantly dragged herself out of bed, glancing at the foot of the bed where she had tossed the suit after taking it off the previous night. She picked it up, folding it slowly, and slipped it into her bag. She still felt tired, and her side still hurt like hell, especially where Queen had kicked her in the ribs.
She slipped into the bathroom and checked herself over in the mirror. She saw some faint bruising on her side, but it wasn't too bad - at least, nowhere nearly as bad as it had been the previous night.
The suit's heavy insulation had done its job, and despite the savage blows to her stomach and ribs, she hadn't had much.
But the back of her neck still hurt, and looking at her face she saw a light but distinct bruise where she'd been punched. The cowl's insulation was much thinner, so it had done a little more damage. According to Wayne, the bruises would be gone within a few days, and she was thankful that she didn't have classes to deal with.
She thought about the previous evening again, and her anger flared - at her father, for recreating the Gang. But even more, at herself for underestimating them - especially underestimating Queen. She'd been careless.
She would not make that mistake again.
But what really ate away at her was Jack. Her dear big brother, who had been doing so well in Blüdhaven in the past couple of years. She didn't know if that was him or not. She thought not, but couldn't be completely sure.
'I have to talk to Jack, and soon.' She thought.
Then she treated herself to a long, hot shower. Half an hour later, feeling refreshed and having dressed, she was applying concealer to the bruise on her face when she heard the sound of the doorbell.
"JUST A MINUTE!" she yelled. As soon as she was done, she rushed from the bathroom and opened the door to find Max standing there, rummaging around her pocket. Melanie knew Max had a spare key that Terry had given her before. It didn't bother her much.
"Hi, Max." She said, forcing a smile.
- "Hey, girl." Max replied, glancing at Melanie. "What's up?"
- "Not much - I was just getting ready." She said.
- "Late start?" Max quipped, "Guess you're not workin' today."
- "Not today, no." Melanie replied. "Working a double tomorrow, though."
- "Uh-huh." Max said vaguely, looking Melanie over. She wore an elegant dark red long-sleeved shirt, loose-fitting and comfortable, and jeans. No shoes. But she looked tired, and Max thought she knew why. She'd been doing a good deal of thinking since determining that the suit was missing, and she guessed there really was only one person who could've taken it.
"So," she started slowly, "what happened last night?"
- "What do you mean?" Melanie asked in a would-be casual tone. Max rolled her eyes.
- "I mean, where'd you get that big ole' bruise on your face?" She asked, and Melanie bit back a curse. She had been trying to hide the bruise, but wasn't finished, and of course Max had noticed it.
For a moment, Melanie tensed. Her mind racing, she tried to think of a plausible excuse, but she knew Max would probably see through anything she could make up on the spot. Besides, Max was a friend, and Terry trusted her.
- "I think you've probably guessed." she said slowly. "You and I both know what Terry really does - what his job entails."
Max nodded. She'd known for years, and she knew that Terry had told Melanie. She'd been the one to tell him he should. Melanie continued speaking.
"I know how important what he does is - we've talked about it." She said. "And after his accident, I knew that he would not be able to do it…and after a while…"
- "You decided to experience it for yourself." Max interrupted. "And now, Batman's gone, but Gotham has Batgirl back."
- "Someone had to do it." Melanie said. "And I decided it would be me. Because I know how important this is to Terry, and I know why he does it. And that's why I decided to do it, for him. And for all the people he has to protect."
- "Like you." Max said, grinning, and Melanie nodded without hesitation.
- "And his mother, and Matt. And his friends - you included." Melanie said. "But there was another reason I did it, too."
- "Oh yeah?" Max asked. Melanie scoffed.
- "I know that there are things you know about me - about my past - that I've not told you." Melanie said flatly. Max did not assent, but she did not deny it either. "That part of my life is over, of course. But I thought that this was as good a chance as any to make up for what I did then."
At that Max could not help but laugh. "Oh, damn, girl. You and him really are two of a kind."
- "I know." Melanie said, and smiled.
- "But girl, I am so jealous, though." Max continued. "I've been wondering what it was like since I figured out what Terry was up to. But hey, anything you need help with, I got your back."
Melanie finally relaxed, and she felt a surge of gratitude towards Max, who unlike Wayne seemed to be entirely willing to trust her, just like she did Terry.
- "Thanks a lot." She said.
- Max nodded. "Does Terry know? That you…y'know, subbed for him?" She asked. "Or what about old grumpy-ass?"
- "No, I haven't told Terry yet." Melanie said, smiling at the derisive nickname. "As for Wayne, he found out yesterday. To say that he was not happy would be an understatement."
- "Man, what I would've given to be a fly on the wall in that conversation." Max quipped, and Melanie smiled. "But you still didn't answer my question - what happened to your face?"
Melanie's expression darkened. She hesitated.
- "The Royal Flush Gang." She said flatly. She knew, because Terry had told her when she'd found out, that Max knew something about her past. "Break-in last night."
- "Daaamn." Max said in a low voice. "I'll bet that sucked - given, y'know."
- "Yeah." Melanie said. She was still angry at herself for underestimating her enemy and letting herself get beaten so badly. But the more she thought about it, the more certain she was that the only one of her "family" that was there the previous night was her father. Queen was too brutal and far too skilled - it was definitely not her mother. Ten was obviously not her, and Jack…maybe it was wishful thinking, but she was convinced that if Queen and Ten were new, Jack had to be too.
She briefly went over the highlights of the previous day's events, starting in Crime Alley, then the brief argument, and the break-in and the fight.
- "But you don't think it's really them, do you? I mean, obviously you're not there, so there's at least one new member."
- "Right." Melanie concurred. "I think except for my father, they're all new members. I don't know who, but…"
- "Want me to snoop around, see if I can find out?" Max asked.
- "No, thanks." Melanie shook her head. "But, there is something I do need your help with. I think you and I both know that it's very unlikely Wayne is going to let me keep holding on to the suit for very long."
- "Nah, not if he can help it." Max concurred. "From what Ter's told me, he doesn't trust much of anyone. And I can vouch for that."
- "I'm sure." Melanie added. "I also know that the suit has a receiver built into it linked to a kill switch in that cave he holes up in. And I'm sure he'll have repaired it before long, even though I disabled it last night. He might have already."
- "And you want to prevent him from disabling the suit." Max supplied, and Melanie nodded. Then she withdrew a laptop computer from her bag, powered it on, and opened a single file on its hard drive, which she had heavily encrypted. Additionally, she kept this computer entirely disconnected from any larger network, meaning that it could never be hacked without a hardline connection to the machine itself.
She opened the file, and turned it towards Max.
"Wow." Max said. "Is that what I think it is?"
Melanie nodded. They were looking at detailed, high-resolution scans of the suit's internal circuitry.
"This is way schway." Max said, visibly impressed. "Some of this circuitry is more than thirty years old, but it's pretty cutting edge. And a lot of it is much newer - probably from when Mr. Wayne upgraded the suit last year."
- "Could you replicate it?" Melanie asked.
- "I wish." Max said without looking up. "I could try, and with enough time could probably come pretty close. But some of these older parts are no longer even being made, so we'd have to find something comparable that we could get access to. And some of the newer stuff looks like proprietary WayneTech hardware - maybe even completely custom-made. I doubt we'd be able to match up that level of tech, honestly. Why, d'you want to build another one?"
- "Never mind that for now." Melanie replied, and Max grinned knowingly - yes, she did want to build a second suit, one of her own that could operate independently of Wayne and his computer. And the idea intrigued Max. But she didn't dwell on it for too long, as Melanie took over the keyboard and flipped through the file until she found the data she was searching for. "This is the important one."
Max spent a good bit of time analyzing what she was looking at, and she was relieved to see that it was at its core a fairly ordinary UHF radio receiver, though there were some pretty interesting refinements to it.
- "Okay, we can probably disable the receiver in the suit directly by disconnecting it here," she said, indicating a point in the scan she saw. "But, there's redundant backup lines here…"
- "And I bet if we do anything to the suit itself, Wayne will know." Melanie interrupted. "What about building a jamming device that would prevent a signal from coming in only to that receiver?"
- "Without disrupting comms or the suit's sensors?" Max replied. She flipped back a few pages to check something in the data, and continued. "Might be doable. It looks like this thing operates on its own dedicated frequency. I should have somethin' for ya in a couple of days."
- "Thanks, Max." Melanie said sincerely. She hoped she would never actually need to use this thing. But she didn't trust Wayne, so if Max was willing to help, that was fine. "There's one other thing. The Gang has a distinctive M.O.: Their targets always have a connection to playing card suits; either the name of the place, or the specific item they're trying to steal - last night, it was the Broken Heart Diamond."
Max whistled, impressed. The Broken Heart had been in the news when a Gotham City collector had acquired it - a massive gemstone worth millions, it was one of the most valuable diamonds in the world.
- "For a first target, that's a big one." She said.
- "Yeah." Melanie agreed. "The point is, given the distinctive profile, it should be possible to trace their next targets. Maybe even pre-empt them next time."
- "I get it." Max said. "You need me to run a search, see what their likeliest targets are going to be. No problem - I'll get right on that, and let you know as soon as I have something."
- "Thanks a lot." Melanie said again. Max left soon afterwards, and Melanie shut down and carefully put away the laptop, also making sure that the bag in which she kept the suit was well out of sight.
Then she went back into the bathroom and finished getting ready, paying special attention to making sure the bruising on her face as hidden as much as possible.
She was just sitting down and debating whether to go get an early lunch when there was a knock at the door.
'Who knocks on the door anymore?' She wondered idly as she stood to open it. She was surprised to find at the door two people, one of whom was Officer Montoya, the cop who'd driven her to the hospital the day of Terry's accident.
The other was a man, tall and lean, olive-skinned with close-cropped black hair. He cut a striking figure, except for the grim seriousness of his expression. He wore a loose, dark brown jacket, but Melanie still spotted the telltale bulge of a shoulder holster just below his left arm, as well as the badge clipped in plain sight on his belt.
"Ms. Walker? I'm Detective Miguel Alcana, GCPD. This is Officer Montoya. We'd like to ask you a few questions."
- "About what?" She asked, a hard edge creeping into her voice, her eyes narrowed. She suspected she knew precisely what he was talking about, but her expression betrayed nothing.
- "If it's all right," Montoya spoke up, "I think it would be better if we spoke in private."
Melanie hesitated for a moment, but finally nodded curtly, leading them to the sparse living area.
- "So what's this about?" She asked, looking at Montoya.
- "You might not know about it, but there was a break-in last night at a very high-end jewelry store called Chesterfield's." Montoya started to say. "Thieves broke in, killing two security guards, and stole a fair amount of jewelry, including two extremely valuable pieces."
- "No, I hadn't heard." Melanie replied. "So what's that got to do with me?"
- "Because the gang that hit Chesterfield's last night was the Royal Flush Gang." Montoya replied. "I'm not necessarily suggesting that you had anything to do with it, but given your record, we have to ask."
Melanie bit her lip, fighting back the urge to say something she might regret. On some level, she didn't blame them, and Officer Montoya had been pretty nice to her the first time they'd met. They were just doing their job, after all. But it was getting old.
- "Maybe," she said. "But considering that I haven't spoken to my parents in more than two and a half years, I'm afraid I can't help you."
- "Your parents are one thing," Alcana said, "but it looks like you've been in contact with your brother quite a lot."
- "No shit." She replied flatly. "He's the only family I have left - and in case you haven't noticed, he hasn't had any contact with them either."
- "That you know of." Alcana replied, and Melanie glared furiously at him. "Where were you last night between 8:00 and 10:00 PM?"
- "I went for a walk." Melanie replied. "Nowhere in particular."
- "Anyone go with you?" Alcana asked.
- "No." She retorted. "Then I came back here and went to sleep."
- "So you don't have an alibi."
- "Look, I have a life of my own, now." Melanie said, fighting the urge to yell. "A job, friends, I'm in a relationship with someone who trusts me in spite of everything I did. I'm going to college." She said slowly, making an effort to control her temper. "You really think I would jeopardize all of that for parents who hate me?"
- "And your boyfriend, can he vouch for your whereabouts?" Alcana asked.
- "He's in the hospital." Montoya replied. "Drunk driver hit his motorbike downtown."
- "How do you know that?" Miguel Alcana asked, looking surprised.
- "Because I was one of the first on the scene, and I personally cuffed the son of a bitch." Montoya answered.
Melanie supplied Terry's name and the room he was in at Alcana's request.
- "Is that all?" She asked cuttingly.
- "For now, Melanie." Montoya replied. "But if you hear anything, let me know." She left her number with Melanie, and the two cops left. She slammed the door shut behind them.
Outside, the two officers returned to Detective Alcana's plain-wrap.
"She's hiding something." Alcana assessed. "No alibi for the break-in, either."
- "Yeah, true." Montoya replied. "I'll check with the boyfriend at Gotham General, and look up her old P.O., see what he has to say. Still, alibi or not my gut says we won't find anything. I don't think she's involved."
- "Truth, Montoya? So does mine." Alcana said as they drove off.
Melanie watched the plain-wrap cruiser move off through the apartment window, then stalked off into the living room and collapsed onto the couch.
She was tired of getting dragged back in every time the Royal Flush Gang resurfaced, and still sore after the beating she'd received.
She thought about Terry, and wondered if the cops would be talking to him. Probably would, she reflected.
And she decided it was high time he knew what she had done. She would return to visit him in the hospital, and then she would tell him everything. That decision made, she grabbed her bag, locked the apartment, and left to get some lunch.
No matter what, she thought, her conscience was clear. She just hoped Jack was okay too…
