This chapter came after a prayer, and I thank God for the result. In terms of the source material, it is in direct reference and correlation to the Batman Beyond graphic novel, 10,000 clowns. A great read, and I highly recommend it. Anyway, enjoy the chapter, read, and review. I'll see you all next chapter.

Pagliacci-11.

Chapter 5

"The battle that tore through Chinatown is still being assessed by authorities. Our hearts go out to the families of the lost officers who gave their lives in service of our valiant…."

Terry turned off the holo-vision, and he looked at Max, who sat across from him as he ate breakfast with her. He couldn't believe what he'd seen in the carnage the night before. The Jokerz were united; they were solid for the first time in their mobilization since Dana's brother Doug had mobilized them in the hellish attack on Gotham just a few months ago. The detachment had fought just as ruthlessly as back then. Except for this time with tech, that was very much out of their character.

"Max, any leads on the matter shield that was used?" he asked after a moment of contemplation.

She nodded, "It's derived from a LexCorp model, but it was modified through the black market. I'm correlating Lex's records of employees with any of our friends in the field. You know how ruthless the security is around blueprints, and if Lex Sr. knew that one of his devices was on the market in this state, he'd do his internal purge and force a lot of vendors to go to ground."

Terry chuckled, "Don't remind me. Lex could incentivize even the likes of Mad Stan into compliance, and that's monumental considering how he is 'the man' as Stan would say."

"How did that happen, exactly? I was in Berlin when that was going on."

Terry smiled in bizarre fondness at the event. He replied after a chuckle, "See, Mr. Luthor had a few tech elements go dark, and after fingering a few of his more trusted techs with stealing and then outsourcing his stuff to a newer competitor Validus Industries. Validus served as a major vendor for weaponry to the black market after pilfering or incentivizing the devs to sell out. So, Luthor makes a deal with Stan through some of Stan's more trusted people that Validus was the true 'man' behind a major ring of corporate oppression in South Africa. Stan will believe anything in terms of corporate evil if he's given solid enough facts and reason."

Terry had some of the bacon on his plate and after he'd swallowed, continued,

"So, Stan, in his zeal, goes out and destroys Validus's major biofuel refinery and purges their cane crops. This caused Validus to go under, and the market lost a major vendor. The remaining vendors stopped all activity for a month solidly. It was a month of precaution for everyone else, but because Stan began to talk about Validus' takedown in his paper, well, many knew that it was Luthor by extension that had ordered the hit."

He smiled, "Mm, this is great Max, I've not had real bacon for the better part of two months. Where'd you get it?"

"I've got my sources, McGuinness. Dana's driving you nuts with the stuff at home?"

"It's not just her; my mom's on the same kick." He pitched his voice and said, 'Oh, Terry, you need to truly embrace this stuff; it's just as good as pork, and it's better for your heart.' He grimaced as he returned to his usual tone, 'Any bacon that's good for your heart is not bacon. It's an oxymoron like civilized warfare or almond milk or coconut milk. If it has no teat, it is not a source of milk! If it is from a nut or any kind and is called milk, I assert my right to call it what it is, nut juice!"

Max's eyes went wide as the statement was processed, and then she burst out laughing. The serious expression Terry maintained, much akin to Bruce, made her laugh all the harder. She then took a drink of water, but upon seeing Terry's face still so severe, it took all in her being not to spit out her drink and continue laughing.

Terry, seeing this, replied, "I'm glad I brightened your day. Laugh at my pain, Maxie."

"I'm not laughing at your pain—exactly," Max said with a giggle, "Well, if that is your reality, that is your pain so—to quote Joker," she burst out in the high-pitched manic laughter of the crown prince and Terry smiled himself.

"See, there's a little madness in all of us," Terry replied.

Max shrugged after she'd recovered from her laughter, "It's rare, but it happens."

"Indeed." Came the deep voice of Bruce.

Terry and Max turned and saw Bruce standing at the head of the table just out of view. He had entered silently, neither having detected him.

"You're back early," Terry said, getting up from his chair.

"I had to considering what happened last night," Bruce said as he sat at the head of the table. "What happened last night? Barbara is still shocked; that doesn't happen easily."

Terry replied, "The Jokerz were organized, and they haven't fought with that much coordinated strength since Douglas. He's not coming back, so we have to factor in that there's someone new running the Jokerz."

Bruce nodded, "And?"

"The technology was too analog," Max replied, trying to take some of the heat she could sense was building for Terry, "the weapons were all pre-Wayne tech; we're looking at weapons that have been kept in excellent condition from at least pre-Vietnam. The only tradeoff was they used a firewall to amplify the shots. I have several of the bullets from when they shot up the batmobile; they are as analog as the guns themselves, with a couple of exceptions.

Namely, that they are calibrated to work in alignment with the energy shield's energy distribution, heating the internal core and accelerating the bullet, extremely so given the proximity to the wall itself. The speed activates the core after a distance through the wall, much akin to the old-fashioned RPG. Upon impact, as you will see on the car, it not only detonates but deeply perforates."

Bruce looked at Max in silence, knowing what she was trying to do, and replied, "You've both done alright—but there's an issue. Terry, you should never take risks like this again, especially given what you submitted to me last night in your report. If you're right, and it's a big if, we can't afford to take any risks whatsoever."

Terry nodded, "I understand. How are the officers who survived?"

"They're alive, but some of them won't be reporting back to duty. Then, of course, there's the issue of the explosive and the accelerant itself. Do you know accelerants that can get through GCPD's advanced polymers?"

"Not many."

"That's right, not many. The fact is someone knew the police response well enough to have a plan in the wings for shock and awe. That being the case, we have to look at who would have a gripe with the department on the inside. While corruption is never a stranger to the department, I fear that someone is willing to take it down, and this was just a test run for a greater project."

Max raised her hand, 'I have a friend on forensics who can look at the bodies of the Jokerz who used the firebomb. It will take a bit of time, and I submitted my request to him this morning. He'll give it to us provided we can give him tickets to Tartuffe next month."

Bruce nodded, "A small down payment on what could be a solid lead. However, it's convenient I have someone in forensics already. However, keep your friend engaged in your agreement. I want to see if he'll be truthful with us."

Max stood and took hers and Terry's plates, "How was Turkey, Mr. Wayne."

"It was the usual affair, but we came into some business in terms of our biofuels in supplying the region. We supply the region, and in exchange, we get mainline access into the country whenever we need it. With Terry's implementation of the Family, it'll save on the more expensive air travel. Speaking of which, McGuinness, how many have you recruited to the Family?"

"As it stands now, we're operating with twenty known operatives. I'd have more, but we have to be extremely careful in the vetting process. That said, we have two assets available whenever we need them with the others in their home cities."

Bruce stood, "Very good. Terry, as part of both your college work and your activities aside, I need you to go tomorrow to a dinner held at the Chinese embassy. You will be meeting Dr. James Tong, who oversees a very private venture in biofuels for the Republic in Thailand. You need to talk to him and see what his endeavors are regarding export to Russia if he intends to go through with it, and when."

Terry nodded, "I'm sensing the Family factors into this—how?"

"They will investigate the primary farm as workers seeking employment from Mr. Tong. However, we need to know where he stands on the Russia matter before we send any of our assets in. I'll tell you more when it's closer to time but, I need you to prepare yourself for 'hobnobbing' as you so glibly call it."

Terry got up and stretched, "Well, that suits me fine. When is this shindig?"

Bruce chuckled, "And you call me old-fashioned. The shindig is next week on Wednesday evening at six."

Terry pushed in his chair, "I'll be here first to go over it all. Right now, I have to talk things through with Dana. I haven't seen her for four days."

Max looked at Terry, "How is Dana, by the way?"

"I couldn't tell you anything more than a week ago. And in our line of work, that is never truly a good thing. However, at the same time, I've learned. I've learned that in many ways, to be Batman or be a boyfriend—there are times where you have to pick your battles. The way I figure it, I can smooth things with Dana easier than I could if I were off duty for a month."

"She doesn't handle the distance between you all that well; you know that already. So, when, if ever, are you going to let her in on a portion of what you do?"

Terry thought a moment and then replied, "She knows I work for Bruce as his executive assistant. Sure, there are perks to the job, but it's still work. In many ways, I'm paid. I have a free office, free house, and I have something of a living. Being in a relationship with me is akin to being a policeman's girlfriend. You know there are inherent risks.

Dana knows I assist Mr. Wayne; therefore, I'm gone a lot of the time. You could argue, and likely would—that Dana would like to be included more in my life, a valid argument. However, that's not something that's directly addressed in the grand scheme of my work."

Max looked at Bruce, "No disrespect, but did you have a social life?"

Bruce looked back at her and replied, "When the mission required, I have a social life, yes. However, Terry's predicament is easily remedied. He could take Dana as his date and still achieve his objective. He'd simply need to let Dana blend in with the other girls and wives of those in attendance. However, is Dana the overly social type?"

Terry sighed with reluctance, "Sadly, yes. She sees so little enough of me as it is; I feel this event would be more a divide than it would be a help for us."

Bruce nodded, "Times change. Alright, here's what we do. McGuinness, you're on full-time work detail. You are home all day with your work being active at night. Every two weeks, there will be an alternation, and you will assume daytime activities. During the daytime shift, you will function as more of my genuine executive assistant, accompanying board meetings, dealing with H.R. for me, the works. That way, Dana will have what she needs for herself. However, there is a proviso. When it comes time to act as Batman under mandate, you are to go, no exceptions."

Terry was surprised, "Alright, that's not half bad."

"No, it's not." Bruce asserted, "However, even I have to concede there are places Terry McGuinness could always go, Batman couldn't, and so what is what we will make the most use of. Max will give you operational updates regarding your objectives, and you will do your best to meet them in the daytime hours under your civilian persona. Once you have these primary instances sorted out, you will return on the night shift and give them the classic touch.

But we mustn't put the cart before the horse. Get back into the woman's good graces first, and once you have, you'll be able to operate with greater autonomy. The Family will also aid you where you are hung up in more traditional social issues; weddings, visiting deranged relatives, the works."

"Okay, and my question is, what about funding?" Terry asked.

"You'll receive an allowance of slightly above minimum wage, which, considering the massive degrees of genuine leeway in your schedule, it's more than doable. You'd be getting the same as a floor clerk in the accounting sector, and so you'll have spending money, but you are to be responsible with it. As it is in life, you will have some mandatory expenses, primarily your phone, internet, and electric bill. Everything else, I'll cover. To add to the cover, I'll give you a free pick of median-range cars from a connection at an auto dealer. However, once you acquire this car, it will be augmented to be a discounted version of the Batmobile with the—" he groaned.

Terry grew apprehensive, "Bruce, are you alright?"

He got up as he gently gripped his stomach, "I'm fine. We'll cover this later when I've gotten my strength back. Take tonight off and start mending the dyke with Dana. Afterward, report to Max, and we'll coordinate the Family to cover your downtime off-shift."

He gently headed upstairs as Max and Terry watched him ascend, "Is he alright?" Max asked.

"It's been hard for him." Terry replied, "He's been on a steady feed of extremely powerful pain killers to help him cope with liver cancer. He's at the top of the list—unfortunately, it's hard to find one for him as one, he has a very rare blood type, and what's more, it's harder and harder to find those with that blood type who isn't' spliced or in some way artificially altered. People can't help but change themselves anymore. It's what makes someone like Nelson all the more viable doing what he does."

"So that's why you keep Nelson in business. If Mr. Wayne truly needs it, Nelson is the guy you can trust to try and get ahold of the liver."

"There you go. According to Bruce, only a natural liver will do, and it's hard enough to find one that isn't tainted."

Max thought about this a good while and said, "You'd best hurry home. Dana will be in a good mood to see you, especially with the good news."

Terry smiled, albeit this was a pyrrhic victory. He knew what was going through Bruce's mind, that the times and the methods were changing. Douglas Tan was proof that as much as the old ways stayed the same, the methods by which the ends were achieved were in constant flux. As much as he hated to, Terry knew that Bruce was surrendering to a handing over the reigns to the new generation.

Terry turned, and as he headed out to go see Dana, he looked back to Max, "Make sure the old man doesn't work himself to death, kay?"

As Terry approached the midlevel residence of Dana, he sighed, and he cautiously knocked at the door. The air hissed as the door opened, and Dana came out; her eyes were tired, if anything. The past few months alone had hit her family like a sledgehammer. He more than understood that feeling, and he decided to let Dana initiate the conversation this time. He didn't have to wait too long.

"What do you need, Terry?"

A bit shorter and stern than he was used to, but he more than understood. He replied, "I've got good news for you. I've talked with Mr. Wayne, and we'll finally have the time we need together. There's just been so much going on at WayneCorp in the wake of recent events, you know? There was and still is a lot of restructuring and coordinating underway. But we'll have our time throughout the main course of the day every day for two weeks, and then I switch over to the dayshift and back and forth."

He paused, "Dana, I know this has been an excruciating time for you; I'm not blind to it. That's why I've petitioned Mr. Wayne to get what I needed to help both of us in what we need. You wanted to know when you'd be a priority, now's that time. Do you understand?"

Dana was silent at first. In many ways, she had taken Terry's silence for distance, and she'd spent many nights, no, many years just wondering where she truly stood. She hadn't been sure for a long time but now, this move, to be closer in the wake of all that had transpired—it was more than a decent start.

She stood aside in front of the door, "Come in."

Terry entered the home and found it empty; both parents gone back to work. He'd been inside many a time, and from this, he knew various photos had been rearranged. It wasn't like Mrs. Tan to rearrange too much. However, Terry opted for silence as he sat in the main room. Dana sat opposite him, and there was not so much an awkward but dignified silence between them.

Terry then spoke after a sufficient amount of time, asking, "How's your father? How have you all been—considering?"

Dana smiled slightly, "When Daddy came to accept everything that happened with Doug fully, it rattled him up like everything, and in the wake of who Doug—became, it was tough for Daddy to accept. You have to understand Terry, Doug was the world to my father. He wanted him to succeed and strive to an even higher level than he'd set. However, Doug, as it turned out, could have cared less. I…"

She began to tear up, and Terry gently held her hands. She squeezed them firmly as she began to weep openly, and Terry knew that words were not needed. In the wake of the various trials of Batman, he knew that silence was a much a compassion as an embrace, that he had to let her go through it. Just because Terry had not known Doug, it didn't mean that he was meaningless, despite who he became.

After Dana recovered herself, she said, "I'm sorry, I—"

Terry replied, "Don't worry. It's natural to feel pain; he was your brother."

"Yes, and yet, despite growing up alongside him, I barely knew him at all. I dug through a lot of his possessions that Daddy had sent to storage, and while they weren't much, I got to know Doug as he was, not as he pretended to be. I read his—vision in detail. Terry, he was mad, completely and utterly mad." Her tone grew angrier, and her words became more heated, "His views of chaos, the pointlessness of life, his massacre of Gotham all to burn brightly and go out in just a few seconds, oh yes, the great chaotic visionary, so renowned!"

She got up and looked out the window seeing the many repair crews still hard at work around the city. "Shock and awe, that's what he strived for. All because he saw life as largely pointless. Oh, he loved the Joker, that was evident. But why'd he love him? Because of the fear, he birthed, nurtured, and terrorized people with out of chaos's sake alone! Tch!"

She was silent a few moments, and she said, "It reminds me a song from Dad's teen years, and it applies to Doug very well, 'He can't give life, he can only take it away.'

If that's what his purpose was, so be it. But the sad truth is, there's countless like him that as I read his various letters from Juvie and what he privately wrote here, so many see this place as pointless. Why that is, I can only see as a result of what is our reality. Terry," she sighed, "I'm very fortunate. My father took many risks, doggedly pursued his visions for success, and attained them. Because of him, we have a lovely home, but Daddy's not innocent of his aspects of pride and even arrogance.

He's undergone his own changes, you know? Daddy used to be humble, gentle, and kind. Now that he's a big wig in commerce and his opinion has a good deal of clout, I fear he places too much value on his word. But the thing is, he always was a social butterfly that made strong connections for business. The sad reality Terry, as I look at his workforce, even his more immediate assistant, a lot of people don't have the luxury of being noticed as Daddy has been. They have to content themselves with dead-end aspects of work that they can be abused, overused, underappreciated, and yet they abide with it because they have to pay the bills.

It's not so bad here in Gotham, but elsewhere, it's truly hell if you're in the lower levels. That's what Doug felt the joke was. It wasn't that life was a joke, but life is a joke if you don't have that foot in the door like he knew that Daddy would be for him. He wanted to be his own person, and he felt crime was very lucrative, but at the same time, between his idol worship with Joker and the penal system, well," she gestured outside to the construction workers, "You're left with that."

Terry got up, and he placed his hand gently upon her shoulder, "Is there anything I can do?"

She turned and embraced him, "If you ever have trouble or need to talk, please, come talk to me. We're supposed to be a team, Terry; we should be. I don't want your distance to be as big a problem as it was in the past. Do you really think that the distance would bother me if I knew what it was for?"

Terry had a lot going through his mind. Half of him was screaming to tell Dana to at least have someone know his secret. However, the pragmatist that was nurtured in his years as Batman screamed against this voice and said, "You're protecting her, not avoiding her. If she found out who you were, it would only jeopardize what you came to do. You have her now; work on that first, and only if she needs to know should she know. The sad truth is, this city needs guardians; you are that guardian. Be careful going forward."

All this happened in the space of five seconds, and deciding his verdict, he said, "Dana, sit down. There's something I need to tell you."