The halls of the manor were dark as Alfred strolled down the hall, a tray on his hand with tea and some cookies. Even though there wasn't a light on he knew the mansion like the back of his hand.
He turned a corner and light soaked the hall from an open doorway, which Alfred walked right in. He cleared his throat and Athena glanced up from the laptop she was seated in front of. In her bedroom which adjoined Bruce's.
Alfred walked over and set the tray down, "Thought you might like a snack before I retire for the evening."
She smiled, thanking him, eyes still bloodshot from her earlier phone conversation with her father, which had taken place when Batman had left. Alfred patted the top of her head in a fatherly gesture and glanced at the computer screen, "You're typing up your job resume?"
She nodded, "Yeah. So when he disowns me tomorrow and fires me…I can start a job hunt. Gotham General is good as any place to start?"
Alfred had overheard the phone conversation between Athena and her father. The two would have dinner the next day in Bruce's newly acquired hotel. The fact she refused to meet him anywhere except in a very public place, during a very busy time bothered Alfred. A daughter was not supposed to be afraid of her father. It just wasn't supposed to be like that.
"Indeed, don't wait up for Master Wayne."
Athena smiled at him as the cell phone in her purse rang.
Meanwhile…
The cloaked figure known as Batman to Gotham City prowled through the dark corridors of the city bank. Blending in with the shadows. Hidden from the broken cameras he had tampered with, which he would fix on his way out.
Able to avoid the very routine guards and their repetitive beats.
He slunk into a dark office and walked over to a desk.
The desk that belonged to the business card from the almost dead man. He stalked around the office, looking for any form of hiding place. Any sort of thing out of place while he waited for the computer to load up.
Upon seeing a book that was out of place. One of the classics among financial books, with a gloved hand he pulled it from the shelf and felt the wooden safe. In a matter of seconds he had it opened.
Inside was a key.
Useless unless he knew what it was for. At that moment he didn't, so with covered fingers he lifted the key out and examined it.
From the desk the computer chimed.
He walked over to it, cape brushing softly over the carpeted floor. A password box had come up. He tried a couple words. Remembering that Alfred had told him the man had a Porsche, a boat and three houses throughout the country.
The man loved his boat.
The computer accepted the boats name and he was into the computer. Quickly he put the key back in the wooden book, and the book back.
A security guard walked past the closed door.
Batman was still.
The guard never paused, she continued on with her route.
He then went back to the computer. Every file was open to him.
Meanwhile a little later…
Athena watched the streets fly by as Alfred sped through Gotham City, driving his Rolls Royce. The man broke most every posted speed limit and made an illegal U-turn.
"It's up here," she pointed, her cell phone in hand.
She had gotten the call from Tim.
Her brother had been poisoned with something. Tim couldn't move him and the car was gone, stolen. Tim had gotten Ares outside and that was about it. They were alone in an alley.
Alfred slowed down a little as he turned the luxury car onto the city back street. A dark and nasty alley.
Athena gave him more directions, knowing the back streets well. They passed several homeless men, a brothel, and two strip clubs before they reached the club's back door.
"Stop! There they are!"
Athena's door was open and she was out of the car before it stopped. Alfred quickly parked it, turned it off, pocketed the keys, and followed her into the dark night. He ran over to her where she knelt by her still brother's side.
A well-dressed very distressed man was beside her, holding her brothers hand, Tim, if Alfred recalled correctly. He stood and watched as Athena took her brother's pulse, checked his eyes, and tried to wake him up.
Ares was still, breathing, but unresponsive.
She looked up at Alfred, "It's a sedative."
"He'll be ok," Tim cried.
She nodded, "Help me lift him."
Alfred rushed to her side and grabbed his feet as she hooked her hands under his arms. "Open the back door please," Alfred told Tim. Tim leapt to his feet and ran to the car, he did as Alfred asked and the two managed to get Ares into the back of the car. "I need to get to my clinic," Athena told Alfred, while she continued to feel Ares's pulse. "I'm betting he's been drugged with Ketamine."
Meanwhile…
Armed with more incriminating evidence then he had been expecting, Batman exited the bank and crept through the streets of Gotham, a new place in mind to go before the sun rose. A new person of interest to visit. He melted into the shadows and night, hidden from most eyes.
Until he heard laughter he knew, laughter he had not heard since he rid the world of Ra's al Ghul.
Dr. Jonathan Crane's laughter drifted through the street, Scarecrow.
Not far from there…
Athena followed Alfred and Tim who pushed Ares into the 24-Hour Clinic, silencing the nurse with the wave of her hand. They went into a empty room in the back where Athena began to immediately hook Ares up to monitors, she took his blood-pressure and had both Alfred and Tim fetch her various items.
Before long she had a vial of blood and had sent Tim with it down to the lab.
She had Alfred running down to the pharmacy as she gave her brother an IV. However Alfred came back, "There is no one there."
She narrowed her eyes, "What?"
Alfred stepped into the room, "No one is in the pharmacy."
With a string of Greek swears she checked the monitor, "Can you keep an eye on his heartbeat? I'll be right back. If Tim gets back with he results, he shouldn't that quick, but if he does come and get me. Once we know what it is we can call the Poison Control Center."
Meanwhile…
The laughter had stopped but he had followed the trail of destruction Scarecrow had left.
Broken glass was scattered beneath a broken window.
The black cowl looked in the shattered window and saw rows and rows of pills. A pharmacy. Scarecrow had broken into a pharmacy, a clinic. Deep within him hatred rose.
Then a voice came into the pharmacy from within the clinic. An annoyed voice he knew intimately, "Marie…Marie! You better not be sleeping! Marie I need some…Marie? Oh dear God Marie…" He peeked in towards the sound of her voice and saw a limp and lifeless hand on the floor, half in an aisle.
Inside the pharmacy…
Athena knelt by Marie's still side.
Marie had a pulse. A weak pulse. She checked her mouth for any sign of choking, and then her eyes for any sign of drug use, she was the Pharmacist after-all. It wouldn't be unheard of to be an addict too.
She heard the bottles fall over the moment she found the lump on the back of Marie's head.
Slowly Athena stood and walked from the aisle, she crossed the large pharmacy and then spotted the broken window. Hitting the silent alarm while she walked towards the noise, she grabbed a small red fire extinguisher from the wall. It was the size of a 2 liter soda bottle, but metal and would do some damage.
Something moved behind her.
A bottle of pills hit the floor and she spun around, in time as a pipe swung towards her face. Quickly she brought the bright red canister up and the noise the two things made when they met was deafening.
The man was a homeless bum and smelled like him too. Though he looked vaguely familiar to her. He paused at the sight of her and she hit him with a hard right hook, catching him on the cheek, catching him off guard, and sending him back onto a desk. Sending it's contents everywhere.
Before she could think of what to do next, a black figure appeared, Batman was there.
His gloved strong hands turned Crane over as the man slowly regained his wits. He kicked out at her and screamed. But no match for Batman's pure strength as he was lifted from the desk, put down face forward on the floor, arms pulled back behind him.
With a look up at her his deep voice growled, "Do you have something to tie him with?"
Quickly she looked around the medical office space.
When her eyes fell upon a box of packaged IV's she ran over. Ripped open several plastic bags of the clear tubing. With five long tubes in hand she ran back, tying the hands of Jonathan Crane behind himself, all while Batman pinned him down with frighteningly powerful ease.
She didn't seem to notice or care. Instead she asked, "Something for his feet too."
"Yes," he answered and she ran back to the box as the sound of sirens filled the night.
Only when Crane's hands were bound to his ankles did he leave. And even then he remained close, watching as two cops climbed from their squad car.