Chapter 5

The next morning, Basem and Sally came over to Terry and Max's for breakfast. With a certain joyfulness that Max and Sally weren't used to when it came to their husbands describing their nightly adventures, Terry and Basem recounted the events of last night.

At least, Max and Sally were confused by their husbands' joy until Terry explained the encounter between Diana and Selina.

Max stared at Terry in disbelief then shouted, "A CAT FIGHT BETWEEN DIANA AND CATWOMAN AND YOU DIDN'T CALL ME?!"

"They didn't actually fight, you know," Terry said. "They just glared at each other and, ya know, exchanged words." He paused. "With a loooooooot of hate."

"You still should've called me!"

Terry shrugged.

Max folded her arms. "Ya know, if you want a divorce, you can just ask for one like a man and not be a little bitch about it."

Terry glared at her. Max responded with a triumphant smile.

Basem laughed until Sally punched him in the arm. "OW!" Basem shouted.

"You're just as bad as he is!" Sally pointed at Terry. "You two… I don't care about fighting supervillains but a slice of heavy drama?! I deserve a call!"

Basem rubbed his arm, "We were kind of busy, love!"

"Not too busy!"

"It's not like we called Diana to come start the drama!" Terry replied. He smiled. "But I totally would have, if I'd thought about."

Everyone laughed.

"But, seriously," Max said, calming down, "Nightwing and Catwoman trained this new Red Hood."

"Makes a lot about him make more sense," Terry shrugged.

"And they don't even know where he is?" Sally asked.

"He's been trained by some of the best. Dude's a freakin' ghost."

"And he waxes you guys every time you fight him," Max smirked.

"You do know we haven't actually fought him yet," Terry reminded.

"And aren't you lucky? If he's good enough to ditch you and has all those sweet fighting moves, he'd probably kick your ass. I mean, Hayate would be okay, but you guys would be utterly wrecked."

Terry stared at Max. "Hello. I could use some support in this, loving wife."

"My insults motivated you before."

Terry paused. "Okay, yeah, good point."

"Why is this guy using the Red Hood identity, anyway?" Sally asked. "I mean… if he's gonna rip off a Gotham figure, there are tons of others to use."

"The Red Hood wasn't even that big," Max said.

"We think he's using it for that exact reason," Terry said. "It'll let him make his mark."

"Guess the guy's got a plan," Sally said. "Woo! I do not envy you two! I mean, if you have to fight him, the ass-kickings he could hand you!"

Basem glared at her then looked at Terry, "Don't we have such supportive wives?"

"We do, don't we?" Terry replied, sarcastically. He sighed. "Anyway, despite the hilarious stuff, things are a bit more serious than usual."

"How?" Max asked.

"Some of the guys we fought last night. They called themselves the Moirai."

Max's eyes widened. "Those are the guys who gave us Tumulus."

Sally's blood ran cold. "Oh, great. A replay of our greatest hits."

"Should we…"

"We're taking steps to keep everyone safe," Basem preempted. "But… we kinda think we have nothing to worry about on the secret identity front."

"Why?" Sally asked.

Terry shrugged, "No one's come after us yet. And Bruce has been monitoring both homes ever since that mess. Nothing out of the ordinary."

Sally paused. "He doesn't… look inside the houses, does he? Like bedrooms? Bathrooms? Laundry rooms? Garages? Pantries?"

"No, he just monitors the outside. Me and B keep an eye out for anything inside-pantry?" Terry stared at Sally, confusedly.

Basem blushed a bit. "We were… in a mood."

"But pantry?"

"Look, we have a kid now and we're still technically newlyweds, okay?!" Sally shouted, quickly. "We get it in where we can fit it in!"

Max shrugged. "I get that."

Terry rolled his eyes.

That night, Terry, Basem, and Hayate went to the Cave to find Bruce sitting at the computer with Ace next to him.

As they approached Bruce, Terry asked, "So, where's…"

"At a hotel," Bruce said, quickly.

"Awww! You didn't let them stay here?"

Bruce glared at Terry.

Terry smiled back.

"Why do you insist on taking your life in your own hands?" Basem asked.

"Once again… kettle to pot."

Basem paused. "Crap! Why is that still funny?"

"Any news, sir?" Hayate asked Bruce.

"Nothing yet," Bruce answered. "I'm constantly scanning the city but no trace. Of Red Hood or the Moirai."

"What about the murders?" Basem asked.

"It's strange. Their disappearance 15 years ago was impressively done. Some of the richest men and women in the world dropped off the map. With no sign of them."

Hayate nodded, "Like Atlas Shrugged."

"Oh, GOD, I hated that book!" Basem shouted.

"I didn't care for it, either."

"I didn't even bother finishing it," Terry admitted. "I didn't even get halfway through it. I just got an F on the assignment."

"I read it twice," Bruce said. "I hate that book with a passion."

"Then why'd you read it twice?"

"Once, just to read it. Second, I lost a bet."

"You?!" Terry shouted, wide-eyed. "You lost a bet?!"

"To who?" Basem asked.

Bruce groaned. "The Flash…"

"Oh, I am so asking Diana about this!" Terry declared.

"Don't bother. The bet was I wouldn't marry her."

Terry laughed.

Hayate thought. "So… if you two marry again, does that mean you have to read Atlas Shrugged once more?"

"I only have so many years of my life left, Hayate," Bruce said. "I'd rather not waste them trudging through that book."

"Wait," Terry said. "You read that book after marrying Diana? Think there was a correlation to that and you two getting divorced in the first place?"

Bruce paused. "Huh. You may actually have a point."

"First time for everything," Basem said.

Terry punched Basem's arm.

"Why is everyone doing that all of a sudden?!"

A call came into the Batcave. Bruce answered, "Hello."

"This is Amanda Waller," Waller's voice came through, "I need to talk to Batman."

Terry walked to the computer, even putting on his Batman tone, "Been a minute, Ms. Waller."

"Good to hear your voice, kid. We need to talk. As soon as you can. Now, would be good."

"Let me guess. You're in Gotham."

"Wow," Waller said. "Your mentor's wrong. You are smarter than you look."

"It saddens me how often I hear that," Terry replied.

"I'm sending you my location. Come meet me."

"On my way."

The call ended.

"I'm not even gonna ask how she has your email," Terry said to Bruce.

"I gave it to her years ago," Bruce replied. "Cut out the middleman. Same reason she has the number to the Cave."

"I just always assumed she had that."

"What about us?" Basem asked.

"You guys get out on patrol," Terry ordered. "If Waller's in town, I'm guessing we already need to be on the street."

"Think she's here for the Moirai?"

"More than likely. She's the only reason we made that connection in the first place when Rene and Thalia showed up."

"Uncover what you need, Terry," Hayate said. "We'll hold the line until you can join us."

"We're not useless without him, Hayate!" Basem declared.

"True. Yet and still, I still consider Gotham his city. Rather theirs, Terry and Bruce-sama. It's about my respect, my friend."

"Did I mention how much I love having you around, Hayate?" Terry asked, grinning.

Hayate smiled while Basem groaned and rolled his eyes.

Minutes later, Batman went to the far northeast side of Gotham. He came to a building in a section of the block where the buildings had been closed and/or condemned. He went inside of the building of the address Waller had given him; it was smaller building, which seemed to be a convince store, once upon a time, with apartments situated above it. The store was long since abandoned and no one was inside the store.

"Uh-huh." Batman scanned the building with his mask's sensors. He detected a hidden elevator in the walk-in freezer. "Yeah, I figured." He walked into the freezer, stopping to the far wall, where the secret elevator was located, and stared at the wall. "Open sesame!"

"Very funny," Waller's voice said, sardonically, through the hidden speaker.

The wall slid to the side, revealing the elevator door. Batman stepped inside and rode the elevator down three stories. When the door opened, Batman was greeted by Bennet.

Batman smiled. "Well, well, well! If it isn't Bennet!"

Bennet nodded. "Batman. Ms. Waller is waiting for you. Follow me."

"Right." Batman followed Bennet down the hall. "You know it's been so long, I never did get to ask. What happened with Zeta?"

"The Zeta matter is… long retired. The case, closed."

"And Zeta?" Batman asked, as the door to a computer room opened.

"Destroyed," Waller answered, as she stood among the personnel sitting at the computers. "That's how the official report read."

Batman caught something in Waller's voice and body language. He smirked a bit. "That's too bad. I liked Zeta. And that girl he ran with. Oh, well. Them's the breaks, I guess." He looked at Bennet. "At least the case is closed."

"Yes," Bennet agreed. "At least."

Batman chuckled a bit. He looked at Waller. "Good to see you, Ms. Waller."

"You, too, kid," Waller replied. "Come with me." She opened a door that led to another hallway with Batman and Bennet trailing behind her.

"Old stomping ground?" Batman asked, referring to the facility.

"Had it established decades ago when me and your predecessor were at odds," Waller explained. "I needed a base in Gotham to keep an eye on him."

"Yeah, uh-huh. How'd that work out for you?"

"We had the most advanced surveillance system in the world at the time. How do you think?"

"Couldn't keep an eye on him for more than twenty minutes at a time?" Batman asked.

"Twenty?" Waller asked. "I appreciate you think we were that good. Twelves minutes, exactly, was our record."

"Sounds about right. But, at least, you got in double digits."

Waller chuckled. They arrived at a private office and the three went inside.

"Not to call anyone out, but…" Batman motioned toward Bennet.

"Don't worry, kid," Waller said, sitting down at her desk. "Agent Bennet's learned the world isn't as simple as the NSA tried to convince him it was. Plus… I kept all of your private details to myself."

"And I don't need to know them," Bennet added.

Batman jerked his head back. "Wow. Zeta really did a number on you."

Bennet looked off to the side. "You could say that."

"For the most part," Waller said, "James, here, doesn't even go in the field anymore. Wanting to be close to his family. But he's doing me a favor."

"It's more than a favor, ma'am. I owe you, several times over."

"Waters under several bridges, James." Waller looked at Batman, "But, to business."

"I'm guessing this is about the Moirai," Batman said.

"Exactly. I heard you ran into them."

"Yeah. Them and a new Red Hood."

"Yeah, heard about him," Waller said. "I hate to admit this… but I don't know who he is."

"I have a lead," Batman said. "But… I think there's more to him than what I've learned."

"That's always the case. Anyway, I called you because I have a bit more information about the Moirai, and I know why they're in Gotham."

Batman narrowed his eyes. "Oh, yeah?"

Waller hit a button on her desk and a holographic screen and keyboard appeared. The screen began to populate with information. "We've learned the Moirai are bit more… dedicated to their beliefs than we realized." She hit a key and a picture of a woman came up. "That's Maria Cole. She was a Moirai member until they caused the death of her son. She was on the run from them ever since until we found her. She told us all she could. Until they got to her." Waller brought up a picture of an assaulted armored car convoy.

Batman groaned, "Damn."

"Five deaths and seven injuries in a targeted assassination." Waller looked back at Batman, "But… thanks to her info, we've been able to combat them more efficiently for the past 18 months."

Batman stared at Waller, "You've been fighting them since…"

"Pretty much right after you took down Tumulus." Waller hit another key, "We believe they have some kind telepathic capabilities. At least, among their own people."

A video of Thalia came up.

"Thalia," Batman growled.

"We put her in Slabside Island Maximum Security Prison," Waller explained. "This is not long after she was locked up." The video played, "The lights flicker, which they're not supposed to do, and it all goes dark. We turned on the infrared on the feed and we notice Thalia's lips are moving."

"She's talking to someone."

"But she's alone in the cell. No one came in or out, but she was having a heavy conversation. Her body tenses up, even her pulse speeds up like crazy, but no one else was in her cell. A few seconds later, everything goes back to normal."

"Any idea who Thalia was talking to?" Batman asked.

"With the whole room dark, we switched to night vision and infrared. We had a lip reader but all she could, clearly, make out was Thalia used the word 'queen'."

"Not looking forward to finding out what that means," Batman mused. "Any more info?"

"Yeah." Waller motioned toward Bennet.

"Maria Cole's death was a few months before Tumulus came to Gotham, so we had no leads against them until you brought down the Graves," Bennet explained. "After all of that, we went on the offensive, hunting them down." He handed Batman a phone, "We found a facility in Hong Kong. Metahumans… of all kinds. Being experimented on."

"Oh, I don't like the sound of that!" Batman began scrolling through the photos of the phone. The images were unsettling, to say the least. "Dear God…"

"We fought a few of their number. Some of them took themselves out. Who we could capture… wouldn't talk. But we did find something interesting. In their blood and their DNA."

"What?"

"We're calling it the Moirai Formula, for lack of a better term," Waller explained. "And, get ready when I say this, Batman… I've never seen anything like this before."

Batman's eyes widened as he looked at Waller. "Oh, I have never been more terrified in my life!"

Waller hit a few more keys, "The Moirai Formula. It allows for the metahuman gene to be isolated from certain candidates and disturbed among the Moirai members. But, here's the kicker, the stronger mix of the formula is reserved for the stronger members."

"Thalia."

"Yeah. Those foot soldiers? Just that. They're called acolytes. They're strong but they're nothing but appetizers."

"How many?" Batman asked.

"We don't know," Waller answered. "We don't know how they can regulate the power but it doesn't seem the acolytes can take on too much at a time. They limit to highly-above-average strength and reflexes for the acolytes."

"Yeah, experienced that firsthand."

"There is one thing we can confirm," Bennet said.

"They came to Gotham looking for something," Waller declared. "Or even someone. They don't attack anywhere randomly."

"Red Hood?" Batman asked.

"Maybe," Bennet said. "We think they're after another metahuman as well."

"Wait, Red Hood's not a metahuman." Batman blinked. "That we know of."

"We're not sure he is, either. But… we do believe they're after him."

"What makes you think another metahuman is the target?" Batman asked.

"We stumbled across some of their correspondence that suggested they sent scouts to Gotham as early as three months ago," Waller answered.

"Long before Red Hood showed up," Batman concluded.

Waller nodded, "Exactly."

"And they still didn't come after us."

"I think they were putting off fighting you as long as possible."

"But I thought they knew who I was," Batman said.

"Save for Tumulus, we don't have any evidence that anyone in the Moirai knows who you are," Waller explained. "Or Nightrunner. Even if Thalia saw Nightrunner's face, she could never do anything with that."

"That's a bit of relief. Still puts me on edge, though."

"Fair enough," Waller agreed. "Three more items. The Moirai Formula… it alters the mental state of those who take it. Don't feel sympathy, though, Batman. They take this formula willingly. Those who fight it off… they're comatose. And the Moirai kill them."

"Great," Batman groaned. "The other item?"

"You're looking into those murders, right?"

"You know about tha-Wait. That was the single dumbest question I could ask. You were saying."

"The dead guys?" Waller asked. "Were part of the earliest incarnation of the Moirai."

Batman froze in place. "I beg your pardon?"

"We found this memorandum," Bennet pulled a sheet of paper out of a folder. "It lists eight names. All of whom have turned up dead, so far."

"15 years ago…"

"Oh, you heard about that, eh?" Waller asked.

"All except for where they went," Batman admitted.

"Yeah, unfortunately, we've had no better luck on that front."

"We're still looking," Bennet said.

"Where'd you get the list?" Batman asked.

"One of the executives who was killed in Star City. A secret file buried in his hard drive. Whoever killed must've missed it."

"But it only had a list of names?"

Bennet nodded.

"Curiouser and curiouser," Batman mused. "What's the last item?"

"They've been stealing equipment," Waller answered.

"What for?"

"We're not sure yet. We know some of what they've stolen, and I've got some of my best scientists and engineers looking into what it could be used for."

"Mind passing me the list?" Batman asked. "We'll look into that, too."

"Already sent to you," Waller smiled.

"Thanks."

"Go check on the Task Force's status, James," Waller said to Bennet. "I'm sure they'll get into trouble soon."

"Ma'am." Bennet exited the office.

"He actually seems like he's being nice," Batman said.

Waller chuckled. "As close as he can get. I have a request."

"Sure. What's up?"

Waller sat back, interlocking her fingers. "The Task Force has a couple of people you won't be fans of. But their leader… I think you'll like."

Waller hit a button on the keyboard and an image of Blaze appeared.

"Blaze?" Batman asked. He started laughing, "No way!"

"Recruited her right after the Graves went down," Waller explained.

"Good choice."

"As to my request… whatever happens with the Moirai and even the Task Force, make sure Blaze stays safe."

Batman blinked. "What was that?"

"You heard me," Waller replied.

Batman studied Waller for a moment then slowly smiled. "You like her."

Waller scowled. "You're kidding, right? She's opinionated, stubborn, and talks back entirely too much. And the mouth on that woman when she gets going could make a Navy and a Marine blush."

"Oh, wow! You really like her!"

Waller paused for a moment then slowly smiled. "She's the daughter I never had."

Batman chuckled, "Everyone with kids around here."

"Said the pot to the kettle," Waller pointed out.

"First, that's my joke. Second, point taken. Don't worry, Waller. Blaze is cool, pardon the pun. She helped us out. We'll watch her back."

"Thanks. We'll keep digging."

"We'll do the same," Batman nodded.

"Good," Waller said. "Now, get out there, Batman. You've got work to do."