Terminate by Ann Sorelle
Disclaimer: Batman, Nightwing, Robin & associated Characters belong to DC Comics. This is an Original piece of fiction - for Non-monetary purposes with no intent of infringing the copyrights & trademarks mentioned above.
Terminate: Story Copyright - Ann Sorelle 2001
Special Thanks to Kim, J.W., Robin & Slea for reviews on Chapter 2.It nice to know you enjoyed it!
Dedicated to C.S. (AKA BCW)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter #2-A Day of a Bat
Location: Gotham Thursday 24th Feb
*************************************
"The preview for the launch of the WTPredator52 will be next Friday. Miss Knall, don't forget to include invites for everyone on your side. Ms.Siddall will take of ours. Mr. Downes is responsible for security detail-he will be available to address any last minute concerns that you may have. Bruce, shall we turn to the next item on the agenda- Bruce??"
Lucius Fox turned back to stare at his boss across the boardroom and sighed deeply with obvious disappointment. Apparently, nothing of the 5-minute lecture previous to this latest debacle stuck to his employer's brain. Bruce Wayne, playboy of the Year (according to the Gotham Gazette) was staring into nothingness. They had delegates from Vienna for the Launch (their collaborators on the Aeronautic project) and he wished for them to get an admirable impression of the title-holder of WayneTech.
He might as well wish for money to grow on trees. Fox managed to physically haul Wayne into the meeting but mental he was elsewhere...again... He still couldn't understand how successful Wayne Tech's business connections and developments were going with little contribution from the man in charge. But then again the few minutes of input he had from Bruce could translate into pure gold.
Fox put in a lot of hard work but there were times when even he was stumped. Usually that was when Wayne's intellect had a moment of sheer brilliance and the problem would be solved in minutes. It seemed most of the time that Bruce couldn't be bothered with the everyday needs of his empire. Fox realized that he shouldn't be grumbling about it-otherwise he would be out of a job.
It seemed weird to state but Bruce seemed more out of synch today. Probably had a late night out, with some young beautiful something... Lucius thought.
Bruce Wayne turned and focused his cerulean eyes on his worried aide. "Sorry, Where were we again?" He finished the statement with his trademark Oopps, I did it again little boy grin.
"The WTPredator52 launch" came the morose reply.
Bruce's beeper went off. He checked the typed phrase: [Blue Homebase First-Orc]
"Well then, does anybody have anything urgent to add?" The room stared at him.
" No? As everything seems to be perfectly handled, Lucius will you please give them hands on site tour of our facilities. I'm sure you'll enjoy it followed by the dinner at the Wastham. All my apologies, unfortunately I just received a call on a matter that requires my immediate attention." With that statement Bruce left the room in haste and moving toward his target-his private office.
He nodded to his secretary who followed him from the boardroom. Asking her to hold all his calls and rescheduled his meetings until further notice, Bruce hurriedly opened the twin doors to his inner sanctum. He hastily locked them behind him. Touching the black button underneath the top corner of his desk, a quick harsh clicking sound emitted from the piece of furniture as the drawers unlocked themselves. He opened fake bottom in the third desk drawer
It was difficult to notice anything out of the ordinary in the drawer's appearance-other than the common streetwise clothes and boots placed there. Bruce hastily striped his Saville Row suit and put on the ripped shirt and washed-out jeans.
He messed up his hair till it stood up on end, stuffed the shoes and suit in, placed some files on top of it. I would probably get a two hour lecture from Alfred if he were around He crouched to the floor and on bended knees reached the base of the desk. He turned a corner out and released a computerized extension from the crevice. Putting his pinky in the small scanner, the key was acknowledged. The floor section that the office chair was bolted down to, moved backwards opening a small drop hole.
He slipped into the gap and pressed a green button, which sealed off the hatch leading to his office. A leather jacket and sunglasses were in the bottom; he put them on and touched a blue button. Another hatch opened leading to a large slidelike structure. He sat on it and dropped himself, descending like a speeding bullet tumbling faster and faster down the slide. Bruce came to an abrupt halt in a second antechamber. He checked the cameras monitoring the exterior of it. Nobody was outside. He opened the hatch and closed it. It camouflaged itself back with the cover, which seemed to be absorbed into the remaining of the wall.
He looked around him and carefully proceeded to exit the WT Building. He came to the back of the building, near a little side street Italian eatery. Entering, he bought himself a sandwich. Leisurely munching, he strolled over to another couple of side streets. He came to a mall covered parking where his bike was parked. To the common passerby it was a dirty piece of junk; to the biker it was a 1966 Harley XLCH Ironhead in need of some tender loving care. As Dick reminded him often enough, he should be whipped for abusing such a beauty.
He fired the bike up, roaring his way through the traffic. Another working day rush hour had yet to fade, shining metal contraptions and people passing busily by, hurrying back to work or other events. He checked his watch. Less than 10 minutes had passed from Oracle's page. Considering it was blue, he wanted to get to the Cave as soon as he could. If it was red, he would have probably gone a lot faster on the Harley and broke a couple of speed laws. If it was green he would have taken his time, it being either Dick or Tim asking him to play hokey for the rest of the day and getting involved in some mad capper of theirs.
Bruce came by the western face of Wayne Manor proceeding to turn down the hill road to the enclosed entrance of the cave. He checked behind him and made sure that he entered undiscovered. Although he was on private property, it was nearing dusk and there was still enough daylight for him to be accidentally detected. It never hurt to be too careful.
Coming into the mouth of the cave (his primary dwelling quarters), he parked the XLCH near the collection of extra vehicles that were used for surveillance when he or another member of his family was on a stakeout. Having such a distinctive car as the BatMobile was a drawback sometimes ...
He took off his "biker" costume and changed into the familiar shades of the Bat.
He booted up the Cray monitors, putting in his security protocols. A familiar Icon popped on the screen, followed by feminine face surrounded with a halo of red locks.
Oracle rubbed her eyes tiredly and managed a weak grin. "I thought you'd get yourself faster out of that meeting."
"Was it important?" he rumbled back
"Okay, you're not making this any easier. Bruce, It's about Dick. There was an explosion last Tuesday on the intercity bridge leading to Gotham. There were reports of Nightwing in the area.......Bruce???
The Bat gripped the corners of the metal counter top as hard as he could till his hands started to bleed.
"Are you telling me that Dick is dead?" he managed to rasp out.
"I don't know. They found no bodies, only scraps of the vehicle that blew up. The BPD placed the blame on the gas tank that sparked after crashing into the railing, they didn't find anything on who was driving the vehicle."
"What about the locator on his suit?"
"The last transmission from it was Tuesday 22nd at 2AM.I've been waiting to see if it was just a fluke and he would report in, but I haven't heard anything so far.."
"Is there anything on the BPD's official report on this?"
"The officer filing it is a klutz and anti-computers. He hasn't logged it in yet I'm waiting for his partner to do it. Hold on, I maybe getting something...
Okay, he's filing it into the system. I'm downloading it now, send you a copy?"
"DO IT."
After tersely barking out the last command he began to pace restlessly. He spent a fortune on the technology found in the cave and in Oracle's Tower. It was the latest and the best that money could buy, and IT STILL TOOK F****** FOREVER to download anything. He was trying not to panic, remembering how many times it was a false alarm. But it didn't grow any easier- any mention of Dick getting hurt drove him berserk.
He couldn't help but think that if he hadn't have requested total radio silence for the past few days while he was tracking down Catwoman, Dick may have been still safe.
The Cray beeped, flooding in the report onto one of the screens. He avidly scanned it. God, Is this even in English?.The page was filled with typos such as yoos, hees and themmes. He scanned the statements from the people at the scene. One in particular caught his eye.
" A homeless man dragged himself from his digs below the bridge, raving and pointing to a scorched paper that he found. He couldn't read it so he gave it to one of the officers on the scene. It said "A Bat for the Price of Two". It was probably some schoolboy's idea of a prank. The paper has not been included as evidence in the...." (1)
Batman stopped reading and resumed to speak on the open line.
"Barbara, have you read this part of the report?"
"Do you think it's true?"
"What better way to grab my attention than taking away or harming my partner ?"
"You're right it would CERTAINLY grab your attention, do you think th..."
Oracle was cut off by another communication coming through the secure line.
"Master Bruce!"
"Alfred what's wrong?"
" It's Master Tim, Sir. Before I left on Sunday, he said that he wanted to checkout few of the leads on the War Documents Case. I've just returned to back to the College. I've checked his chambers. He sent a signal at 2.02am on last Tuesday from the docks. Sir, I don't know how to put this. I'm at the docks right now and there's a note..."
"Saying- A Bat for the Price of Two" interrupted Batman.
"...Sir? May I ask how do you know?" The shocked Butler responded.
" Alfred, Nightwing is missing and there was that same note found at the site" Oracle stated. "Even the time is suspect, it's almost the same time that Dick disappeared..."
"There is no such thing as coincidences. It must be tied all together but who did this and where are they?" the butler replied.
"Alfred, stay at the docks I'll be there soon. And Oracle take another look in those files. See if you can find any other witnesses, somebody must have seen something" he rapped out shutting down the Cray and broke into a run.
Reaching the BatMobile, he quickly open the car door and fired up the engine.
The vehicle left in Cave in full throttle enveloped in the external darkness.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Elsewhere .......
"Do you think he got the message by now, Master?"
A deformed creature turned its humped back towards the Shadows. From the mouth of gloom, a long pair of gnarly hands were rubbing their fingers together with shrewd glee.
" The Bat is off balance, acting on pure emotion. There is no better time to set Operation Deux in motion. By the time we are done, He will wish he never created his so called family..."
The tirade breaks off in Maniacal laughter and the hands rise echoing its motions in the shadows.......
*******************************************************************************
Notes (1) I wrote in correct English (i.e. no spelling mistakes, I hope:)Use your imagination! Yes I know, another cliffhanger...:) BTW J.W. you're right and wrong at the same time -Stay tuned. As per usual please send and comments or grievances to the addy above.
Disclaimer: Batman, Nightwing, Robin & associated Characters belong to DC Comics. This is an Original piece of fiction - for Non-monetary purposes with no intent of infringing the copyrights & trademarks mentioned above.
Terminate: Story Copyright - Ann Sorelle 2001
Special Thanks to Kim, J.W., Robin & Slea for reviews on Chapter 2.It nice to know you enjoyed it!
Dedicated to C.S. (AKA BCW)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter #2-A Day of a Bat
Location: Gotham Thursday 24th Feb
*************************************
"The preview for the launch of the WTPredator52 will be next Friday. Miss Knall, don't forget to include invites for everyone on your side. Ms.Siddall will take of ours. Mr. Downes is responsible for security detail-he will be available to address any last minute concerns that you may have. Bruce, shall we turn to the next item on the agenda- Bruce??"
Lucius Fox turned back to stare at his boss across the boardroom and sighed deeply with obvious disappointment. Apparently, nothing of the 5-minute lecture previous to this latest debacle stuck to his employer's brain. Bruce Wayne, playboy of the Year (according to the Gotham Gazette) was staring into nothingness. They had delegates from Vienna for the Launch (their collaborators on the Aeronautic project) and he wished for them to get an admirable impression of the title-holder of WayneTech.
He might as well wish for money to grow on trees. Fox managed to physically haul Wayne into the meeting but mental he was elsewhere...again... He still couldn't understand how successful Wayne Tech's business connections and developments were going with little contribution from the man in charge. But then again the few minutes of input he had from Bruce could translate into pure gold.
Fox put in a lot of hard work but there were times when even he was stumped. Usually that was when Wayne's intellect had a moment of sheer brilliance and the problem would be solved in minutes. It seemed most of the time that Bruce couldn't be bothered with the everyday needs of his empire. Fox realized that he shouldn't be grumbling about it-otherwise he would be out of a job.
It seemed weird to state but Bruce seemed more out of synch today. Probably had a late night out, with some young beautiful something... Lucius thought.
Bruce Wayne turned and focused his cerulean eyes on his worried aide. "Sorry, Where were we again?" He finished the statement with his trademark Oopps, I did it again little boy grin.
"The WTPredator52 launch" came the morose reply.
Bruce's beeper went off. He checked the typed phrase: [Blue Homebase First-Orc]
"Well then, does anybody have anything urgent to add?" The room stared at him.
" No? As everything seems to be perfectly handled, Lucius will you please give them hands on site tour of our facilities. I'm sure you'll enjoy it followed by the dinner at the Wastham. All my apologies, unfortunately I just received a call on a matter that requires my immediate attention." With that statement Bruce left the room in haste and moving toward his target-his private office.
He nodded to his secretary who followed him from the boardroom. Asking her to hold all his calls and rescheduled his meetings until further notice, Bruce hurriedly opened the twin doors to his inner sanctum. He hastily locked them behind him. Touching the black button underneath the top corner of his desk, a quick harsh clicking sound emitted from the piece of furniture as the drawers unlocked themselves. He opened fake bottom in the third desk drawer
It was difficult to notice anything out of the ordinary in the drawer's appearance-other than the common streetwise clothes and boots placed there. Bruce hastily striped his Saville Row suit and put on the ripped shirt and washed-out jeans.
He messed up his hair till it stood up on end, stuffed the shoes and suit in, placed some files on top of it. I would probably get a two hour lecture from Alfred if he were around He crouched to the floor and on bended knees reached the base of the desk. He turned a corner out and released a computerized extension from the crevice. Putting his pinky in the small scanner, the key was acknowledged. The floor section that the office chair was bolted down to, moved backwards opening a small drop hole.
He slipped into the gap and pressed a green button, which sealed off the hatch leading to his office. A leather jacket and sunglasses were in the bottom; he put them on and touched a blue button. Another hatch opened leading to a large slidelike structure. He sat on it and dropped himself, descending like a speeding bullet tumbling faster and faster down the slide. Bruce came to an abrupt halt in a second antechamber. He checked the cameras monitoring the exterior of it. Nobody was outside. He opened the hatch and closed it. It camouflaged itself back with the cover, which seemed to be absorbed into the remaining of the wall.
He looked around him and carefully proceeded to exit the WT Building. He came to the back of the building, near a little side street Italian eatery. Entering, he bought himself a sandwich. Leisurely munching, he strolled over to another couple of side streets. He came to a mall covered parking where his bike was parked. To the common passerby it was a dirty piece of junk; to the biker it was a 1966 Harley XLCH Ironhead in need of some tender loving care. As Dick reminded him often enough, he should be whipped for abusing such a beauty.
He fired the bike up, roaring his way through the traffic. Another working day rush hour had yet to fade, shining metal contraptions and people passing busily by, hurrying back to work or other events. He checked his watch. Less than 10 minutes had passed from Oracle's page. Considering it was blue, he wanted to get to the Cave as soon as he could. If it was red, he would have probably gone a lot faster on the Harley and broke a couple of speed laws. If it was green he would have taken his time, it being either Dick or Tim asking him to play hokey for the rest of the day and getting involved in some mad capper of theirs.
Bruce came by the western face of Wayne Manor proceeding to turn down the hill road to the enclosed entrance of the cave. He checked behind him and made sure that he entered undiscovered. Although he was on private property, it was nearing dusk and there was still enough daylight for him to be accidentally detected. It never hurt to be too careful.
Coming into the mouth of the cave (his primary dwelling quarters), he parked the XLCH near the collection of extra vehicles that were used for surveillance when he or another member of his family was on a stakeout. Having such a distinctive car as the BatMobile was a drawback sometimes ...
He took off his "biker" costume and changed into the familiar shades of the Bat.
He booted up the Cray monitors, putting in his security protocols. A familiar Icon popped on the screen, followed by feminine face surrounded with a halo of red locks.
Oracle rubbed her eyes tiredly and managed a weak grin. "I thought you'd get yourself faster out of that meeting."
"Was it important?" he rumbled back
"Okay, you're not making this any easier. Bruce, It's about Dick. There was an explosion last Tuesday on the intercity bridge leading to Gotham. There were reports of Nightwing in the area.......Bruce???
The Bat gripped the corners of the metal counter top as hard as he could till his hands started to bleed.
"Are you telling me that Dick is dead?" he managed to rasp out.
"I don't know. They found no bodies, only scraps of the vehicle that blew up. The BPD placed the blame on the gas tank that sparked after crashing into the railing, they didn't find anything on who was driving the vehicle."
"What about the locator on his suit?"
"The last transmission from it was Tuesday 22nd at 2AM.I've been waiting to see if it was just a fluke and he would report in, but I haven't heard anything so far.."
"Is there anything on the BPD's official report on this?"
"The officer filing it is a klutz and anti-computers. He hasn't logged it in yet I'm waiting for his partner to do it. Hold on, I maybe getting something...
Okay, he's filing it into the system. I'm downloading it now, send you a copy?"
"DO IT."
After tersely barking out the last command he began to pace restlessly. He spent a fortune on the technology found in the cave and in Oracle's Tower. It was the latest and the best that money could buy, and IT STILL TOOK F****** FOREVER to download anything. He was trying not to panic, remembering how many times it was a false alarm. But it didn't grow any easier- any mention of Dick getting hurt drove him berserk.
He couldn't help but think that if he hadn't have requested total radio silence for the past few days while he was tracking down Catwoman, Dick may have been still safe.
The Cray beeped, flooding in the report onto one of the screens. He avidly scanned it. God, Is this even in English?.The page was filled with typos such as yoos, hees and themmes. He scanned the statements from the people at the scene. One in particular caught his eye.
" A homeless man dragged himself from his digs below the bridge, raving and pointing to a scorched paper that he found. He couldn't read it so he gave it to one of the officers on the scene. It said "A Bat for the Price of Two". It was probably some schoolboy's idea of a prank. The paper has not been included as evidence in the...." (1)
Batman stopped reading and resumed to speak on the open line.
"Barbara, have you read this part of the report?"
"Do you think it's true?"
"What better way to grab my attention than taking away or harming my partner ?"
"You're right it would CERTAINLY grab your attention, do you think th..."
Oracle was cut off by another communication coming through the secure line.
"Master Bruce!"
"Alfred what's wrong?"
" It's Master Tim, Sir. Before I left on Sunday, he said that he wanted to checkout few of the leads on the War Documents Case. I've just returned to back to the College. I've checked his chambers. He sent a signal at 2.02am on last Tuesday from the docks. Sir, I don't know how to put this. I'm at the docks right now and there's a note..."
"Saying- A Bat for the Price of Two" interrupted Batman.
"...Sir? May I ask how do you know?" The shocked Butler responded.
" Alfred, Nightwing is missing and there was that same note found at the site" Oracle stated. "Even the time is suspect, it's almost the same time that Dick disappeared..."
"There is no such thing as coincidences. It must be tied all together but who did this and where are they?" the butler replied.
"Alfred, stay at the docks I'll be there soon. And Oracle take another look in those files. See if you can find any other witnesses, somebody must have seen something" he rapped out shutting down the Cray and broke into a run.
Reaching the BatMobile, he quickly open the car door and fired up the engine.
The vehicle left in Cave in full throttle enveloped in the external darkness.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Elsewhere .......
"Do you think he got the message by now, Master?"
A deformed creature turned its humped back towards the Shadows. From the mouth of gloom, a long pair of gnarly hands were rubbing their fingers together with shrewd glee.
" The Bat is off balance, acting on pure emotion. There is no better time to set Operation Deux in motion. By the time we are done, He will wish he never created his so called family..."
The tirade breaks off in Maniacal laughter and the hands rise echoing its motions in the shadows.......
*******************************************************************************
Notes (1) I wrote in correct English (i.e. no spelling mistakes, I hope:)Use your imagination! Yes I know, another cliffhanger...:) BTW J.W. you're right and wrong at the same time -Stay tuned. As per usual please send and comments or grievances to the addy above.