CHAPTER TWO
I
Terry was looking back and forth from his test to the clock realizing that he had little time left. He pushed the clock out of his mind as he read the next question.
"How many Covalent bonds are-. What the hell is a covalent bond?" The bell rung and Terry swore under his breath.
"All right people," Called the voice of Terry's chem. Teacher from the front of the class. "Times up." And with that Terry's computer shut off. Everybody got up and started to leave. Everyone except for Terry. He just sat there and stared at the blank screen.
"That bad huh?" Terry turned his head causally to see his friend Max standing next to him.
"That bad", Terry repeated.
"Don't sweat it McGinnis. You'll do better next test." Terry got up and the two friends started leaving class. When they got out into the hallway Terry continued the conversation.
"You say that every time I fail a test."
"Yeah I do. And that's the third time I've said that this week." She smiled. "So…anything interesting happen last night?"
"Nothing you need to know about Max."
"Oh come on Ter," She pressed on, "Tell me."
Terry was way to tired to put up a fight. Looking at the clock on the wall above his locker he saw that he hadn't slept in over seventeen hours. And even then he hadn't gotten much sleep.
"Fine", Terry said in defeat. After making sure that no one was close enough to hear them, the two leaned in close as Terry started to whisper.
"Last night I found Doctor Alan Evers tied to a chair in his lab"
"Who did the tying?" Terry paused a moment before he answered the question.
"Ra's Al Ghul." He watched as Max's eyes went wide.
"You mean the immortal guy always bent on world domination?" she asked.
"Yep. That's the one."
"Wait. Didn't you say he died?"
"The man's like a certain mascot bunny, Max. You can shove him off a cliff, drown him at sea or blow him up and he just keeps going and going."
"Well what was he doing…" Before Max could finish her question, Terry's phone went off. He reached inside his jacket, flipped open the phone and answered.
"Talk to me." The voice on the other end skipped any greetings and sped into the conversation.
"I think I've figured out what Ra's Al Ghul is doing here in Gotham but I still don't know why he went after Doctor Evers like that."
"Who is this?", Terry asked wryly. "Dana?"
"Damn it McGinnis, this isn't the time for jokes."
"Sorry. So what's up with Razz Al Fool?"
"One week ago there was a break in at the Gotham Museum. The guard who was knocked out by the thief described his assailant as a beautiful young girl who he could swear sounded like a man."
"That sounds like our she-man", Terry mused. "So what did she… he…it take?"
"The Gem of Lycanara. Its one of three Gems in a set. The Gem of Garara was stolen from a museum in L.A. The description of the thief fits Talia's."
"Sounds like old Razz almost has a complete set." Terry could tell by Bruce's voice that he was worried. "But why is he after them?" Bruce went on.
"Legend says that the possessor of all three gems will gain the power equal to that of a god." Terry thought about just what would happen if Ra's got his hands on that kind of power, and he shuddered. There was silence for almost a minute before Terry spoke.
"Then we can't let him get his hands on the third gem. Where is it?"
"That's the thing", said Bruce. I have it."
"You do?!" Terry was completely shocked.
"Or at least I used to. I used to keep it in a safe in my office at Wayne Enterprises. It was even stolen a few times. But I always got it back. Until it was destroyed in an earthquake years ago."
"So the other two are worthless then."
"Which is what's puzzling me about all this. I can't figure out… hold on a second."
Bruce's voice disappeared for a little over a minute before it returned.
"I just picked up something from a police scanner. It seems that Doctor Felix Ghight was abducted from his home. The neighbor who called it in said the kidnapper was a woman."
"Could be Ra's, but how can we be sure?"
"Doctor Ghight is Alan Evers' partner."
Terry listened carefully as Bruce gave him Ghight's address. He hung up the phone and turned to Max, who he had forgotten about.
"Sorry max, Duty calls. Cover for me in history." Without waiting for a response, Terry took off down the hall.
II
Barbara Gordon was not happy. Not only had this mysterious woman managed to kidnap Doctor Ghight in broad daylight, but no one had gotten a very good look at her. Things like this made her job as police commissioner very difficult.
She was standing in Doctor Ghight's living room finishing up interviewing the last witness. Chairs were turned over, books were on the floor and the safe behind a painting of a sailboat was lying open over the fireplace. She dismissed the final witness and turned around to face Jordan and Murphy.
Jordan was pretty new to the force and didn't have very much experience. But Murphy on the other hand. Detective Carl Murphy had been on the job for almost eighteen years now. Barbara had offered him a number of promotions over the years, but Murphy always turned them down.
"I like being a detective", Murphy always said when she'd ask him why he turned her down. And she kind of liked that about him.
"So," the commissioner started. "What are you doing here?"
"Who me?" Asked a confused Murphy.
"Not you, him." As Murphy turned around to where she had pointed he saw that there was no one there. Then he gasped in alarm as a figure in black with long pointy ears slowly faded into place.
"I think you know the answer to that commissioner", Murphy heard The Batman say.
"Murphy, Jordan, Why don't you two try interviewing the witnesses again."
"Sure thing, what ever you say commissioner" sighed a tired Murphy as he and Jordan walked out of the room.
"What can you tell me about the abduction?" asked Batman now that they were alone.
"Not much," She sighed. "Witnesses all say the abductor was a good looking woman in her twenties, with jet black hair and wearing all black. Not much more on the description. Something was definitely taken from the safe, but we don't know what. We dusted for prints and got nothing. Now, what do you know?"
"Who took him." Barbara looked up at him in shock. She had obviously not expected him to know who she was. "Ra's Al Ghul."
"Ra's Al Ghul!" she repeated in even more shock as she turned away. "Bruce mentioned his "change of clothes". But why kidnap Ghight?"
"Last night his partner Doctor Alan Evers was tortured by old Razz."
"Damn it!" Barbara swore. "I never made the connection between Ghight and Evers. Thanks kid, I guess you came in handy after all." But when she turned back to where he had been, Batman was gone. The window across the room was now open, curtains flapping in the breeze.
Doctor Felix Ghight was scared out of his mind. He was hand cuffed to a fence on the wall of some old were house. His kidnapper was in the center with the device she or he (he couldn't really figure out which) had taken from his safe. Felix nearly jumped as his jacket pocket started vibrating. He realized that he had completely forgotten about his cell phone. At that moment he felt like a complete fool for not thinking about it earlier. As quickly as he could he pulled out the phone and dialed. When a voice on the other end answered, Felix cut them off before they could finish saying "Gotham Police Department".
"This is Doctor Felix Ghight, I've been kidnapped by some Reject from the old Jerry Springer show. I'm in some were house and-" All of the sudden the phone exploded into tiny pieces. His captor had just blown it to bits with some kind of laser weapon.
"That was very stupid Doctor", called the man who looked like a woman.
"Why are you doing this?" the doctor asked. "The T.T.R.D. is useless to you. In order to do what it's designed for, it needs an awesome amount of power. There isn't a big enough source of power in existence to power it. That's its defect. It's the reason my partner and I haven't gone public with it. It can't be powered."
"That doctor is what this is for." With that she plugged a new part into the T.T.R.D. that had two small gems attached to it. "Now," continued his captor, "You just tell me how to activate it."
"I may have found Ra's." came Bruce's voice from the monitor.
"Already?" Terry asked with surprise. He was in the Batmobile flying high above the streets on his way back to the Batcave.
"Doctor Ghight managed to make a short phone call to the police. It wasn't long enough for them to get a trace." Bruce smiled. "But I did", he said with pride. "I'll transmit the location of the were house into the Batmobile's auto pilot system.
With that, the Batmobile turned around and sped off down town.
III
Ra's Al Ghul had just finished setting the coordinates on the device known simply as the T.T.R.D. He smiled. Everything was going perfectly to plan except for one minor interference by Terry McGinnis. Ra's would never accept Terry as Batman. Batman was a worthy opponent. Batman's intelligence matched his own. Batman was strong, wise, inventive, quick thinking and a good fighter. Batman was the only person Ra's Al Ghul had ever considered to be his equal. Terry McGinnis was not his equal by far. Terry McGinnis was just "a boy".
"It's time." A thin smile spread across Ra's face when he said that.
"The only thing it's time for is for you to go to jail and become some nice man's girlfriend Razz." Ra's snapped his neck upward to see the mock Batman perched atop the railing on an old catwalk at the top of the were house. "Actually, that's not as much of an insult for you, huh Razz?"
"Valiant effort to stop me boy, but your far to late. With this," Terry saw Ra's point a small device, with the two stolen gems on it, at the middle of the room. "I take my first step to becoming a god."
Ra's pressed a button on the device and the gems started to glow. Two streams of green and red energy (to match the colors of the gems Terry guessed) shot out and slowly a strange vortex started to open. It looked almost like a large gray whirlpool on its side. When it reached it's full size, of what Terry estimated to be about 7 by 7 feet, Ra's laughed and stepped through the vortex.
"Farewell boy!" Terry heard Ra's calling from inside the vortex. With that, Batman somersaulted off the railing, opened his wings and headed straight for the large swirling hole. Bruce, who had been watching this the whole time via the vid-link in terry's hood, yelled after him.
"McGinnis, no! Don't go in there, you don't know whats on the other side!"
But it was too late. Terry had just flown into the vortex, and it shut behind him.
Doctor Ghight looked around the now empty and quiet room. He sighed.
"Mother was right," he said. "I should have moved to Florida."
The screen on the Batcomputer's monitor went blank, and the audio cut out.
"Terry!" Bruce called. "Terry!" There was no response from the other end. All Bruce could hear was a bunch of static that matched the snow on the monitor. Bruce swung his chair around and rested his chin on his hands atop his cane, as he realized what had just happened. Terry was gone.
I
Terry was looking back and forth from his test to the clock realizing that he had little time left. He pushed the clock out of his mind as he read the next question.
"How many Covalent bonds are-. What the hell is a covalent bond?" The bell rung and Terry swore under his breath.
"All right people," Called the voice of Terry's chem. Teacher from the front of the class. "Times up." And with that Terry's computer shut off. Everybody got up and started to leave. Everyone except for Terry. He just sat there and stared at the blank screen.
"That bad huh?" Terry turned his head causally to see his friend Max standing next to him.
"That bad", Terry repeated.
"Don't sweat it McGinnis. You'll do better next test." Terry got up and the two friends started leaving class. When they got out into the hallway Terry continued the conversation.
"You say that every time I fail a test."
"Yeah I do. And that's the third time I've said that this week." She smiled. "So…anything interesting happen last night?"
"Nothing you need to know about Max."
"Oh come on Ter," She pressed on, "Tell me."
Terry was way to tired to put up a fight. Looking at the clock on the wall above his locker he saw that he hadn't slept in over seventeen hours. And even then he hadn't gotten much sleep.
"Fine", Terry said in defeat. After making sure that no one was close enough to hear them, the two leaned in close as Terry started to whisper.
"Last night I found Doctor Alan Evers tied to a chair in his lab"
"Who did the tying?" Terry paused a moment before he answered the question.
"Ra's Al Ghul." He watched as Max's eyes went wide.
"You mean the immortal guy always bent on world domination?" she asked.
"Yep. That's the one."
"Wait. Didn't you say he died?"
"The man's like a certain mascot bunny, Max. You can shove him off a cliff, drown him at sea or blow him up and he just keeps going and going."
"Well what was he doing…" Before Max could finish her question, Terry's phone went off. He reached inside his jacket, flipped open the phone and answered.
"Talk to me." The voice on the other end skipped any greetings and sped into the conversation.
"I think I've figured out what Ra's Al Ghul is doing here in Gotham but I still don't know why he went after Doctor Evers like that."
"Who is this?", Terry asked wryly. "Dana?"
"Damn it McGinnis, this isn't the time for jokes."
"Sorry. So what's up with Razz Al Fool?"
"One week ago there was a break in at the Gotham Museum. The guard who was knocked out by the thief described his assailant as a beautiful young girl who he could swear sounded like a man."
"That sounds like our she-man", Terry mused. "So what did she… he…it take?"
"The Gem of Lycanara. Its one of three Gems in a set. The Gem of Garara was stolen from a museum in L.A. The description of the thief fits Talia's."
"Sounds like old Razz almost has a complete set." Terry could tell by Bruce's voice that he was worried. "But why is he after them?" Bruce went on.
"Legend says that the possessor of all three gems will gain the power equal to that of a god." Terry thought about just what would happen if Ra's got his hands on that kind of power, and he shuddered. There was silence for almost a minute before Terry spoke.
"Then we can't let him get his hands on the third gem. Where is it?"
"That's the thing", said Bruce. I have it."
"You do?!" Terry was completely shocked.
"Or at least I used to. I used to keep it in a safe in my office at Wayne Enterprises. It was even stolen a few times. But I always got it back. Until it was destroyed in an earthquake years ago."
"So the other two are worthless then."
"Which is what's puzzling me about all this. I can't figure out… hold on a second."
Bruce's voice disappeared for a little over a minute before it returned.
"I just picked up something from a police scanner. It seems that Doctor Felix Ghight was abducted from his home. The neighbor who called it in said the kidnapper was a woman."
"Could be Ra's, but how can we be sure?"
"Doctor Ghight is Alan Evers' partner."
Terry listened carefully as Bruce gave him Ghight's address. He hung up the phone and turned to Max, who he had forgotten about.
"Sorry max, Duty calls. Cover for me in history." Without waiting for a response, Terry took off down the hall.
II
Barbara Gordon was not happy. Not only had this mysterious woman managed to kidnap Doctor Ghight in broad daylight, but no one had gotten a very good look at her. Things like this made her job as police commissioner very difficult.
She was standing in Doctor Ghight's living room finishing up interviewing the last witness. Chairs were turned over, books were on the floor and the safe behind a painting of a sailboat was lying open over the fireplace. She dismissed the final witness and turned around to face Jordan and Murphy.
Jordan was pretty new to the force and didn't have very much experience. But Murphy on the other hand. Detective Carl Murphy had been on the job for almost eighteen years now. Barbara had offered him a number of promotions over the years, but Murphy always turned them down.
"I like being a detective", Murphy always said when she'd ask him why he turned her down. And she kind of liked that about him.
"So," the commissioner started. "What are you doing here?"
"Who me?" Asked a confused Murphy.
"Not you, him." As Murphy turned around to where she had pointed he saw that there was no one there. Then he gasped in alarm as a figure in black with long pointy ears slowly faded into place.
"I think you know the answer to that commissioner", Murphy heard The Batman say.
"Murphy, Jordan, Why don't you two try interviewing the witnesses again."
"Sure thing, what ever you say commissioner" sighed a tired Murphy as he and Jordan walked out of the room.
"What can you tell me about the abduction?" asked Batman now that they were alone.
"Not much," She sighed. "Witnesses all say the abductor was a good looking woman in her twenties, with jet black hair and wearing all black. Not much more on the description. Something was definitely taken from the safe, but we don't know what. We dusted for prints and got nothing. Now, what do you know?"
"Who took him." Barbara looked up at him in shock. She had obviously not expected him to know who she was. "Ra's Al Ghul."
"Ra's Al Ghul!" she repeated in even more shock as she turned away. "Bruce mentioned his "change of clothes". But why kidnap Ghight?"
"Last night his partner Doctor Alan Evers was tortured by old Razz."
"Damn it!" Barbara swore. "I never made the connection between Ghight and Evers. Thanks kid, I guess you came in handy after all." But when she turned back to where he had been, Batman was gone. The window across the room was now open, curtains flapping in the breeze.
Doctor Felix Ghight was scared out of his mind. He was hand cuffed to a fence on the wall of some old were house. His kidnapper was in the center with the device she or he (he couldn't really figure out which) had taken from his safe. Felix nearly jumped as his jacket pocket started vibrating. He realized that he had completely forgotten about his cell phone. At that moment he felt like a complete fool for not thinking about it earlier. As quickly as he could he pulled out the phone and dialed. When a voice on the other end answered, Felix cut them off before they could finish saying "Gotham Police Department".
"This is Doctor Felix Ghight, I've been kidnapped by some Reject from the old Jerry Springer show. I'm in some were house and-" All of the sudden the phone exploded into tiny pieces. His captor had just blown it to bits with some kind of laser weapon.
"That was very stupid Doctor", called the man who looked like a woman.
"Why are you doing this?" the doctor asked. "The T.T.R.D. is useless to you. In order to do what it's designed for, it needs an awesome amount of power. There isn't a big enough source of power in existence to power it. That's its defect. It's the reason my partner and I haven't gone public with it. It can't be powered."
"That doctor is what this is for." With that she plugged a new part into the T.T.R.D. that had two small gems attached to it. "Now," continued his captor, "You just tell me how to activate it."
"I may have found Ra's." came Bruce's voice from the monitor.
"Already?" Terry asked with surprise. He was in the Batmobile flying high above the streets on his way back to the Batcave.
"Doctor Ghight managed to make a short phone call to the police. It wasn't long enough for them to get a trace." Bruce smiled. "But I did", he said with pride. "I'll transmit the location of the were house into the Batmobile's auto pilot system.
With that, the Batmobile turned around and sped off down town.
III
Ra's Al Ghul had just finished setting the coordinates on the device known simply as the T.T.R.D. He smiled. Everything was going perfectly to plan except for one minor interference by Terry McGinnis. Ra's would never accept Terry as Batman. Batman was a worthy opponent. Batman's intelligence matched his own. Batman was strong, wise, inventive, quick thinking and a good fighter. Batman was the only person Ra's Al Ghul had ever considered to be his equal. Terry McGinnis was not his equal by far. Terry McGinnis was just "a boy".
"It's time." A thin smile spread across Ra's face when he said that.
"The only thing it's time for is for you to go to jail and become some nice man's girlfriend Razz." Ra's snapped his neck upward to see the mock Batman perched atop the railing on an old catwalk at the top of the were house. "Actually, that's not as much of an insult for you, huh Razz?"
"Valiant effort to stop me boy, but your far to late. With this," Terry saw Ra's point a small device, with the two stolen gems on it, at the middle of the room. "I take my first step to becoming a god."
Ra's pressed a button on the device and the gems started to glow. Two streams of green and red energy (to match the colors of the gems Terry guessed) shot out and slowly a strange vortex started to open. It looked almost like a large gray whirlpool on its side. When it reached it's full size, of what Terry estimated to be about 7 by 7 feet, Ra's laughed and stepped through the vortex.
"Farewell boy!" Terry heard Ra's calling from inside the vortex. With that, Batman somersaulted off the railing, opened his wings and headed straight for the large swirling hole. Bruce, who had been watching this the whole time via the vid-link in terry's hood, yelled after him.
"McGinnis, no! Don't go in there, you don't know whats on the other side!"
But it was too late. Terry had just flown into the vortex, and it shut behind him.
Doctor Ghight looked around the now empty and quiet room. He sighed.
"Mother was right," he said. "I should have moved to Florida."
The screen on the Batcomputer's monitor went blank, and the audio cut out.
"Terry!" Bruce called. "Terry!" There was no response from the other end. All Bruce could hear was a bunch of static that matched the snow on the monitor. Bruce swung his chair around and rested his chin on his hands atop his cane, as he realized what had just happened. Terry was gone.
