"What do you mean he wasn't there
Chapter 3 I'm getting there! I'm getting there!

"What do you mean he wasn't there!" I yelled at Commissioner Gordon.

"I mean he wasn't there. He was gone, and the computer was gone. All we could find was this," she said, holding up a broken cable.

That's when it finally sunk in. I dropped down into one of the chairs across from her desk with a thunk and put my head in my hands. "I should have waited. That was… that was so stupid! I know better than that," I snapped, bringing my head up and slamming the chair with my fist.

My feeling sorry didn't even make a crack in her icy stare. "No sense looking back now. It's done. Do you at least have an idea what he wanted that particular computer for?"

"No," I said dejectedly, shaking my head.

"I guess we'll find out the hard way, then, won't we?" she said, settling back in her chair with a cold, fake smile.

"Guess so," I answered sarcastically, picking up my bag to leave. Wayne was outside in the waiting room. "Don't say anything. I heard it all from Gordon," I said as we walked out of the building.

"I wasn't planning to," he answered.

I slid into the driver's seat and started the car.

Wayne got in next to me. "I was just curious if you noticed anyone following you last night," he said carefully, shutting the door.

"No! Well, I don't think so," I said, doubtfully, as I took off.

Wayne looked at me.

"All right. I didn't even think to check," I admitted.

He nodded. "That's what I was afraid of," he said, looking out the window.

I was scared. Mom, and Matt… if I put them in danger… "What can we do?"

He sighed. "Not much."

I tightened my grip on the steering wheel. I blew it. All the way down the line. "And it's a mistake you never would have made, right?" I found myself saying, with more venom than I planned on.

He looked over at me, startled.

"It always goes perfect for you," I continued, even though I didn't really know why I was attacking him.

He glared. "I wouldn't have been taken in by something that elementary, no."

I almost swerved off the road.

But then he started talking again, still stern but less angry. "But it never goes perfectly. No matter how much experience you have or how well thought out your strategy is, the unexpected can always happen. The important thing is to learn from it."

"What if it costs me my family? My friends? What if something happens to them because I was stupid?"

Bruce closed his eyes. "Bad things happen in this world, Terry. One man can't prevent them all."

The discussion was over. I could tell by the way he was sitting. It didn't matter to him if I still had questions. Or maybe he really doesn't know everything. I turned away and put my eyes back on the road.

*******************************************************************

Daniel's employer was not having a good day. "There won't be any mistakes! I've hired a professional!"

The individual on the other end of the line said, noncommittally, "A professional. That can mean so many things."

The employer smoothed a loose strand of hair back into place with shaking fingers. "He came highly recommended with twenty years experience. His previous employer trained him personally."

"Who was this employer?"

Daniel's employer pushed a button and sent a picture of the man in question to the other end.

The individual said thoughtfully, "Yes, I've heard of this man. A true kindred spirit." The individual tapped his chin with his index finger, and finally smiled. "You've outdone yourself. I trust this professional's payment will come from your end?"

"Of course," Daniel's employer said, the relief evident in his voice.

"Then I don't have any problem with waiting another day."

"Thank you."

The individual nodded, then held up a warning finger. "But remember, I am not a patient man," he said before terminating the connection.

The employer quickly dialed Daniel's number. "How close are you to being done?"

Daniel answered smoothly, "I'm modifying the program for the targets you requested now. It should only take a few minutes."

"Good."

Daniel hung up the phone, and kept working. His fingers moved surprisingly quickly over the keys. Whether it was from his genetic enhancements or his rigorous training, Daniel couldn't say. He preferred to keep his training from the forefront of his mind; it had been thorough, but also brutal. His previous employer had never been considered a kindly man.

Daniel finished the programming, checked to make sure the Internet connection was secure and that the anti-detection measures were in place, then punched a button and leaned back to watch the supercomputer do its work.

******************************************************************

The computer in the bat-cave was going crazy with alarms. Wayne hurried down the steps as fast as he could and sat in the chair.

"What is it?" I asked, running after him.

"Someone is attempting to access secured areas of businesses around the city," Wayne snarled, fingers flying across the keys faster than I had ever seen him go.

"Can you track it down?" I said, worried.

"No. They're only making one attempt at entry before jumping to another system."

I started to feel sick from trying to read the stream of alerts popping up on the screen. Who… "The supercomputer," I groaned, mentally kicking myself again.

Wayne nodded, picked up the phone, and called Commissioner Gordon.

"He's getting in!" I yelped, as the words "Unauthorized Entry" flicked up and disappeared. I reached for the keys, but I missed which system he had gotten into.

Wayne pushed me away from the keys. "She's notifying the administrators," Wayne snapped.

More and more alerts started flashing "Unauthorized Entry." "Not good," I murmured.

"Look for company names and give them to me," Wayne said, waving his finger at the screen.

I started saying names as fast as I could, trying not to blink or listen while he repeated them into the phone. After a few minutes, they started to get blurry. I lost my concentration for a sec.

"McGuinness!" Wayne snapped, his face purple.

I opened my mouth to say the next name, when the stream stopped and popped up with a new screen that said "Kill Switch Activated" in bright blue letters. We both stopped to stare at it. A second later, the power went out.

*************************************************************

Daniel's employer sat at the desk with a single lamp on. The office wasn't completely dark; the late afternoon sun still shone faintly through the window. Careful eyes watched the lamp as it flickered once and went out. So far, so good.

The employer hooked up the old battery pack to a portable notebook on the desk. A few keystrokes and a password gained access to the overseas bank accounts Daniel had set up under assumed names. The employer ran down the list of names, checking to make sure the correct amount of funds was in each one. The employer smiled and let out a sigh of relief. Perfect. The debts were paid off, Daniel had his money, the family was safe, and that blackmailing creep had no more power over him.

"Daddy?" his daughter called from upstairs.

"Coming, Dana," Mr. Tan said, shutting down the computer and walking upstairs.

*************************************************************

I could hear Wayne shuffling around in the dark. A light clicked on. I couldn't really see his face in the dark, but I could tell he was mad.

I started shifting from one foot to the other as he glared at me. I could feel my palms sweating. "Well, I guess I'll get changed and go patrol," I said, picking up my bag and turning away.

"Go home." I stopped. His voice was "one step away from murder" hard.

I started to make some protest that sounded lame, even to me.

"NOW!!" he yelled, standing up and holding his cane over his head. He was shaking with rage.

I got out of there as fast as I could.


It was almost dark when I got home.

"Mom, I'm home," I called, tossing my bag on my bed. The place was quiet. Too quiet. "Mom?" I peeked into her bedroom. No one there. I turned back around.

Something jumped out of the bathroom. "Yah!" I yelled, trying to fend it off.

"Gotcha!" Matt yelled, shining his flashlight under his face.

"You little twip!" I yelled, grabbing at him.

He jumped out of the way, laughing. "The power's off," he said, like it was the most profound thing in the world.

"No, you think?" I said, pushing past him to my room.

He bounced after me like a little gremlin. "You were supposed to watch me. Mom's going to ground you when I tell her."

This is usually the part where I threaten him, but I couldn't think of anything good this time.

He darted past me as I tried to slam the door and jumped on my bed.

"Hey! Get out of my room!" I snapped.

He flopped down and crossed his legs.

"I don't believe this," I groaned. Even my little brother's running circles around me.

"Did Mr. Wayne fire you?" he asked, bouncing up and down on the bed to make it squeak.

"Matt, get out."

"Well, did he?"

I guessed I wasn't fired, since I still had the bat-suit. But I wasn't going to tell the twip that. I leaned forward and looked him in the eye. "If you don't get out of here in two seconds, you're making your own dinner."

He stopped squeaking. "But all I know how to make is Monster O's," he whined.

"That's the point," I said, standing up straight and crossing my arms.

"All right," he grumbled, leaving.

I sat down at my desk.

He peeked back in. "What am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know. Make up ghost stories or something," I said impatiently.

"Can I tell 'em to you?" he said, hopefully.

"Yeah. After dinner. We'll set up a tent."

"Shwayyyy," he said, leaving.


"And the monster got closer. And closer," I said in my best spooky voice, leaning forward.

Matt was staring at me saucer eyed. The flashlight made shway looking shadows on the sheet we strung up between two chairs as a tent. "Does he get them?" Matt said.

"Wait a sec, and I'll tell you. The kids were hiding under the bed, trying not to make a sound. They could hear it breathing as it got closer and closer and closer. It stopped right by the bed and sniffed. Then, suddenly…"

A bright light came on, blinding me, and noise blasted through the living room. Matt screamed and jumped up, spilling ice cream all over the carpet and knocking over the chairs. The sheet fell on top of him. "Get it off! Don't let it eat me!" he yelled.

I pulled the sheet off him.

He wiggled away, panting.

"The power's back on," I said, in the same tone of voice that he used when he told me it was off. I reached for the remote and turned the TV down. Ice cream was dripping off the chairs and the sheet. "Aw, jeez," I said, wiping some off my pants.

"It's your fault. You're in charge," Matt said quickly.

"You're helping me clean this up," I said firmly. I went to the kitchen and got a bucket and couple of sponges. I flipped channels to Gotham News Network and listened while Matt and I cleaned up.

"…Catching the person or persons responsible for this high tech robbery is a daunting task for Gotham City Police, since today's power outage effectively erased any record of the transfers at this end."

I stopped cleaning and listened.

"It's impossible to determine exactly how much money was stolen from the various corporations, but sources close to the investigation tell us it could be as much as one billion dollars. We will bring you more details when they become available."

"One billion dollars? Wow," Matt said, impressed.

"Not wow," I grumbled.

So that's what Black costume was after with that supercomputer. Not information, or sabotage, or anything like that. Just money.

"In other news, Paxton Powers escaped from Gotham prison earlier today when the power outage combined with a faulty release mechanism caused his cell door to open," the TV went on.

Just when you think it can't get any worse… I saw Matt sneaking away out of the corner of my eye.

I grabbed him by the back of his shirt. "Nice try."

He went back to cleaning with a sulk. I wiped of the couch, thoughtfully. Black costume had to be behind them both. It was just too much of a coincidence. But who would break Paxton Powers out of prison and mastermind a robbery all at the same time?


I thought about it all night and the next morning on the way to school, but I couldn't come up with anyone who liked Paxton enough to give him the time of day, much less break him out of jail. I was going to call Wayne and get his opinion, but I figured he was still mad at me. But that was just fine. I made the mess, and I was going to fix it.

I walked up to the front of the school. There was a Gotham City Power van parked outside the building. The school was still dark.

"Look at that. We show up, and they're not even ready to get going yet," Max complained, coming up beside me.

"They're still on the old circuit breaker system. Have to push those back in before everything comes back on," I said.

Max was about to say something else, when the lights flickered on inside and the first bell rang. "Gotta jet," she said.

I watched her go in, with Dana and Chelsea right in front of her. I started to follow them at a safe distance. I paused and glanced at the windows. That's weird; the lights are still flickering. Wait, they weren't flickering; they were sparking.

"Stop!" I yelled, running toward the building.

The fire alarm started shrieking, and a second later the school went dark.


There were people running everywhere.

Max came out, pulling Dana with her. "Look out!" she yelled.

I dove out of the way as something hit the ground next to me with a smash. I covered my head with my hands as I was showered with glass.

"Are you all right?" Max said.

"What happened?" Dana said at the same time.

I looked up. "Someone took one of the third floor windows out of the frame and dropped it," I said.

"That's the chem lab," Dana said, pointing.

I could see people standing in front of the window, screaming and waving frantically.

I started running toward the building. "I'm going to go help," I yelled over my shoulder.

Dana yelled something, but I ignored her.

I ducked behind a dumpster and changed into the bat-suit, and then I took off and did a quick circle of the building. There was still a stream of people coming out. No way was I going to be able to do a classroom to classroom; I'd never be able to fight my way in. I flew straight to the lab. People were climbing out on the window ledge to make room for everyone else huddled in a two-foot space around the window. Almost a whole class; guess everyone decided to show up early. I grabbed the two nearest people, one under each arm, and flew them down to the ground. As I set them down, I saw Black costume skittering up and into the lab. I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, and I flew up back up to stop whatever he was about to do as fast as I could. We met at the window. One of the students was riding piggyback with her arms around his neck.

"What do you think you're doing?" I snapped, grabbing his shirt.

"The longer you fight me, the less time we have to get these people out of here!" he snapped back, shoving me.

I couldn't argue with that, so I let him go and took the next two. We fell into a rhythm, and pretty soon we had the lab evacuated.


By the time we finished, fire crews were already working on pulling the last few people out of the building, and the paramedics were starting to show up. A few people had breathed in a little too much smoke, or had bits of debris fall on them, but no one was seriously hurt. The big fire had been in the chem lab, with a few small ones in a couple other classrooms. Black costume set the last person down next to an ambulance and stood staring at the building with his arms crossed. I stepped up behind him.

He turned and looked at me. "I had no idea the circuits would overload when reset. It wasn't my intention to hurt anyone."

He sounded like he meant it, but he could still be faking. This could all be just part of some plan I don't know about yet. "Is that why you helped me?" I asked, a little suspiciously.

He stared again, and shook his head as if to clear it. "I don't remember why I helped you. After all, I wasn't paid to do it, and I usually only remember what I was paid to do," he said slowly, his head bent in thought. Then his head came up with a start, and his arms uncrossed. "I usually only remember what I was paid to do," he repeated, like he never realized it before. Like something had kept him from realizing it before. Then he clutched at his stomach and doubled over with a groan.

I reached out to help him, but he pushed me away and took off running.


I started to follow him, when I heard Dana yelling. A couple of firemen were trying to keep her from going back inside the building. "You don't understand! My friend went inside to try and help, and he never came back out!"

"Miss, we checked the building. No one's in there," one of the firemen said.

"I'll handle this," I said, stepping up.

"Whatever you say," the fireman said, pulling his buddy away with him.

She fought me harder than she had fought them. I turned her around and held onto her arms.

"I'm all right, Danes," I told her, just loud enough so only she could hear.

I knew she recognized my voice, because she stopped wiggling and stared. I couldn't tell if she was in shock or mad or what. "This is what you've been doing?!" she said finally. At least she kept her voice down. Kind of.

I could see Max out of the corner of my eye, getting her wrist bandaged and giving us her undivided attention.

"Well, yeah," I said cautiously, with an apologetic look and a shrug.

She stepped back out of my reach, wiped the tears off her face and said, "You're in big trouble, buster," before walking away.

I started to go after her, but Max jogged up and put her hand on my shoulder. "Give her time," she said.

I yanked my arm away and started after Dana, but she turned around and fixed me with a "Don't even go there" look, so I backed off. Max watched me as I came walking back, with a sympathetic look on her face. Maybe I shouldn't have told Dana. But it just, I don't know, came right out. At least she won't tell anybody. I think.

"So, who was that guy you were talking to? You two seemed pretty chummy," Max said, trying to change the subject.

"Not quite sure," I said, activating a heads up display on the suit. The tracer I planted on Black Costume was blinking strong and steady. "But I'm going to find out," I finished, taking off.

You know that rumor that this is a crossover? It'll come up in the next chapter.