Wayne begins his story when Terry pulls out of the airport parking lot and on to the road. "I saw Natalie at the office a few times – her father was one of my top researchers, and he'd sometimes bring her to work with him. She was…" He looks up at the ceiling as he searches for the right word. "…very precocious." On his face is the smile of one who is remembering something that seems amusing now, but was not at all funny when it actually happened years ago. Terry decides not to ask about it.
"I kind of figured," he comments instead.
Wayne nods. "I also saw her the first time I used the new suit…"
~***~
November 15, 2022
Batman could see his breath mist in the air when he exhaled, but he didn't feel the cold at all. The suit, only a few centimeters thick, kept the chill from him like a fur coat. It would also protect him from bullets, fire, various corrosive chemicals and a number of other physical hazards – at least in theory. He hadn't field-tested it for all those things yet.
The sun had just finished sinking below the western horizon. Usually he didn't go out until after it had been down for at least an hour, but this was an emergency. A man with a semi-automatic pistol had attempted to rob a jewellery store, but hadn't moved fast enough and ended up trapped inside when the police came on the scene. The would-be thief was holding the store's staff and a few customers as hostages while ten police units waited nervously outside.
He crouched on the roof of the building across the street from the jeweler's shop and considered his options. Going in through the front door was not an option – it almost never was. Going in through the roof was probably a bad idea, too – it was an old one-story building, no skylights, so there would be no margin of safety between dropping in and being seen by the thug with the gun. There was an alley behind the building, though, which meant he had a good chance of finding a back door.
Batman straightened up – his muscles were sore from keeping his knees bent for so long, though they would have borne the strain easily a few years ago – and began to move, heading for an adjacent building. It would have been quicker to fly over the street, but he didn't want to risk being spotted by the police below. They might tip off his target by mistake. He easily made the leap to the next roof, even though it was three meters away and one floor higher than the one had started on.
After jumping a few more roofs he turned, unfolded his wings and activated the boot jets, which launched him up over the street. After a couple of seconds he cut them and glided to a neat landing in the back alley. With barely a pause to fold his wings again he set off towards the back of the jewellery store, moving on swift and silent feet. An alley cat, startled by his approach, jumped out of an open dumpster and darted into a heap of boxes, from which it regarded him with wary yellow eyes.
There was, as he had hoped, a rear entrance in the plain concrete wall of the jewellery store. The proprietor, like many businessmen these days, had replaced the old key-lock with an electronic keypad. Batman would be able to test the suit's lock-picking apparatus on that, but first he would have to find out what exactly was beyond the door. There was a barred window set in the wall to his right. He looked through that, using the suit's visual equipment to see into the darkened room beyond.
It was a combination office and storeroom – to the left there were a number of labeled drawers lining the wall, and a few empty display cases clumped together in the middle of the floor. To the right were some file cabinets, a large wastebasket, and a wooden desk with a computer and telephone sitting on top.
And, according to the thermal sensors in his cowl, there was a living thing hiding under the desk. He wondered if it was a dog or cat – hard to tell with only the thermal imaging – but when it shifted position he realized that it was human. Human, and too small to be an adult.
Batman stepped back from the window and returned to the door. He examined the keypad and found the small port above the LED display. Now he could try out the lock-pick. He extended his index finger, which sprouted a two-pronged metal instrument that he inserted into the keypad port. The LED display flickered with numbers that appeared and disappeared to quickly to be seen. After a few seconds it displayed the word 'ACCEPTED' in block letters. He removed his finger and retracted the lock-pick as he reached for the doorknob with his other hand, twisted it and pulled. The door opened with a slight creak. He stepped in and closed it quietly behind him.
The child under the desk had probably heard him come in, but it made no noise. That was a relief – he'd been afraid that it would start crying or screaming and cause all hell to break loose. He would have to attend to it before he did anything else. "You don't have to hide," he said, trying to sound gentle but not doing very well. "I'm here to help."
There was no response. The kid was probably too terrified to say anything.
Batman wasn't sure what to do next; he wasn't very good with kids. He walked around to the back of the desk – it was one of those big ones with a panel on the front - making a little noise as he did so. That would, he hoped, keep the child from thinking that he was trying to sneak up on it. Once he got around to the back, he gently moved the rolling office chair out of the way and crouched down so he would be on a level with the kid.
With the light amplifiers in his cowl, he was able to see her very clearly. He recognized her she was Natalie, Gerard Milou's daughter. She'd visited her father's workplace a few times. Natalie was wearing a thick red winter coat over a blue sweater and black corduroy trousers. Her hair was hidden under a wool cap that matched her coat. Although she looked scared, she didn't appear to be crying.
She looked at his face, then the red bat on his chest. "Are you Batman?" she whispered, sounding more fascinated than frightened.
"Yes," he said.
"Oh. You look different," she observed.
"You're not hurt, are you?" he asked.
Natalie shook her head. "Uh-uh." She blinked at him. "Are you going to catch the robber?"
"Yes, and until I've caught him, I want you to stay right where you are." He didn't think it would be a good idea to have her leave and end up alone in the alley. She was safer under the desk, for the time being.
"Okay," she agreed. She seemed to be calmer now. Satisfied, Batman stood up and went to the door that opened into the front of the jewellery shop. He put his finger mike against it so he could hear what was going on outside and used various imaging methods – x-ray, thermal and the like – to get some idea of what the layout was like. That way he would know what he was getting into.
The counter was about a meter and a half from the shop's rear wall, positioned between him and the gunman. The latter was standing in the middle of the shop and holding his weapon on a group of seated people lined up against the display cases to the right. Batman would have to burst through the door, leap over the counter and tackle the gunman before he could fire on any of the hostages.
He heard a noise and turned his head to see Natalie peeking at him from her hiding place – she probably couldn't see him very well in the dark, but she was curious. When she realized she'd been spotted she darted back in. Batman looked around the storeroom to see if there was something, anything, he could use to his advantage. His examinations revealed a fusebox on the wall. That might be helpful.
Batman went to the fusebox and opened the cover to check out the circuit breakers inside. They were, thankfully, identified with little labels. One of them read 'front room.' He had an idea. A timed explosive on the fusebox would…no, there were problems with that. If he just blew out the box, the lights in the shop might explode and someone would get hurt. He had some electromagnetic charges, but at this close range they'd knock out his suit, too. He reminded himself that he'd have to make a miniature EMP device for situations like this. For the time being, he would need help. And there was only one person there who could help him.
He turned back to look at the desk. Natalie was peeking out at him again, but she concealed herself as she had done last time. "I have an idea," he informed her. "But I'll need you to help me."
She slowly poked her head out from under the desk and looked at him. "So you don't want me to stay here anymore?" she asked, sounding almost hopeful.
"No. Come here, and bring the chair." The girl quickly scrambled out from under the desk and pulled the office chair over to him. Batman looked over at the door. The hinges weren't on his side of the door, so it obviously opened outwards. "Does that door make any noise when it's opened?" he asked. She'd definitely used it to get back here – he hoped she remembered one way or the other.
"Nope," she answered. Good, that would make things a little easier.
"All right," he said, stepping backwards and positioning the chair under the fusebox. "This is very important. When I give the signal, I want you to flip this switch," he instructed her, pointing to the circuit breaker marked 'front room.'
Natalie nodded and climbed up onto the chair. Then she stood up in the seat so that her eyes were level with the fusebox. She put her finger on the switch. "I'm ready," she told him.
Batman went to the door and slowly turned the knob. He eased it outward just a little, so that it would swing all the way open with a slight push. Now that the door was ajar, he could hear a woman sobbing outside. The gunman was too intent on his hostages to notice. Batman moved backward and took up a position about a meter from the door. He engaged the thermal imaging in his cowl so he would have a clear view of his target.
He looked at Natalie, who had her finger on the switch. She was watching him intently. Batman turned back into the door and made a chopping motion with his right hand. Then a number of things happened at once.
There was a click as the circuit breaker engaged, and a roar as Batman leaped forward and activated his boot jets. He shot through the door, skimmed over the counter and smashed right into the confused gunman just as he was turning to look for the source of the noise. His gun fell out of his limp hand as Batman pinned him against the wall by the front door.
He ignored the exclamations from the hostages as he jerked the dazed robber around so he could slap a pair of handcuffs on his wrists. "Come on," he said to the man. "There's a jail cell with your name on it." Taking a firm grip on the ex-gunman's shoulder, he steered the man towards the rear door. If he went out by the front, the police might get confused and start shooting. In the shadows he could see the former hostages staring at him in amazement.
When Natalie saw him reenter the storage room she gathered that the whole mess was over and disengaged the circuit breaker. She clambered down from the chair and ran over to Batman, then looked up at him. "Thanks," she said. She frowned at the ex-gunman and gave him a vicious kick in the shin before running into the front of the shop. He yelped and staggered, but Batman managed to keep him upright. Behind him, Batman heard Natalie call "Mama!"
After he had dragged his prisoner into the back alley, he took a firm grip on his arms, spread his wings and activated his boot jets. The man whimpered in terror, a sound that Batman found extremely satisfying, as he was flown over the roof of the building. Batman swooped down and dropped his catch on the pavement in front of the shop as a present for the police, then shot upwards again and disappeared into the night sky.
~***~
Wayne ends the narrative just as they arrive at the manor and pull into the garage. "At the time I wasn't sure if I should have gotten her to flip the switch," he says, "But it turned out all right."
"Wow," Terry says as he turns the ignition off. The engine falls quiet and he turns to look at Wayne in the passenger seat next to him. "So she got to be Batgirl for a little while?"
Wayne smiles as he unbuckles his seatbelt. "I guess you could say that."
Terry takes off his seatbelt, gets out of the car and runs around to the other side to let Wayne and Ace out. The dog jumps out of the backseat, but his master gets out more slowly. "I want to see all the information you have on Natalie," Wayne tells Terry. "I know what she was like twenty years ago, but I'd like some more up-to-date information."
"Yes sir," Terry says as he goes to open the door into the house.
Author's Note: I had to change something Bruce Wayne said in Chapter 18 to make it fit with this flashback. He originally said that he saved Natalie's life, but I eventually ditched that scenario in favor of this one – hence, I changed his earlier reference to it accordingly.