Terry drags the last of the Jokerz out of the electronics store they were trying to rob and tosses him on top of his comrades, who are already piled up on the sidewalk. "Told you the hard way wasn't fun," Terry reminds him. Although there's probably no point in saying it – even if the guy is still conscious, he's probably too groggy to understand the words.
A police siren distinguishes itself from the ambient city noise in the distance. It seems to be coming closer. Terry decides that it's time for him to leave. He spreads his wings and activates his boot jets, turning them off once he's far enough above the roofs of the surrounding buildings. Then he changes course and glides towards the Batmobile, which is currently sitting – camouflaged, of course – in an abandoned lot.
He's in a good mood. The night is going well so far. Wayne's watching his back again, he's worked out the whole Batman issue with his mom, and the latest news reports say that the authorities are giving Natalie's people a little breathing room. Although he couldn't say all is right with the world – after all, the world is not the same as it was a couple of weeks ago – it's at least settled down and become bearable. Even if it will take some getting used to.
A moment after he has the Batmobile in his sights, a distant electronic pinging sound comes to him through the radio transmitter. He knows what it means – someone is calling Wayne via the Batcomputer. This is a rare event, since only a few people know the number and they will only use it in a dire situation. Terry tries to calm the rapid pounding of his heart. The worst, it seems, is not yet over.
"Hmm. It's from Natalie," Wayne tells him. "Or one of her friends. I'll route it to you." In other words, he wants Terry to do the talking while he listens in. He probably doesn't want Natalie to know about him just yet, which is understandable.
"Thanks," Terry says as he lands next to the Batmobile. He hears a very soft click as the channel opens.
"Batman? It's Alex – we spoke once before…" Terry does indeed remember him; Alex was the one who answered when he called to set up a meeting between Natalie and the JLU. The guy sounded cool enough back then, but he sounds like a bundle of nervous right now.
"I remember. Is there something wrong?" he asks. It's more or less a rhetorical question.
"Natalie and…her assistant went to a business dinner several hours ago." By 'her assistant' he means Melanie. Terry has a good idea of why Alex decided against saying her name. "They should have been back by now, but we haven't seen a sign of them. You know what's going on with the company – we're worried that something happened to them."
"Did you tell the police?" Terry asks. He wants to know whether or not he can collaborate with Barbara on this – if he can, having the help of the GCPD may do him some good.
"I talked to the Commissioner just a few minutes ago. She said they're not officially 'missing persons' yet, but she'll have her officers keep an eye out for them."
"And where were they last seen?"
"A restaurant in uptown Gotham. Kitsune's already headed there. It's a restaurant called Les Trois Pommes. I'll give you the address…"
"I know where it is," Terry tells him as he jumps into the Batmobile. The car detects him – or, rather, the Batsuit – falling toward the canopy and responds by pulling it back so Terry lands nicely in the pilot's seat. He reaches out for the controls as the seatbelt buckles itself around him and the roof slides closed over his head. Then he starts the Batmobile on a rapid ascent. "I'll be there in five minutes."
~***~
The first thing to hit Melanie's awareness when she comes to is that her skull feels like it's packed with wool. The second thing is that she has a funny chemical taste in her mouth. The third is the memory of how she ended up unconscious in the first place. She sits bolt upright, then puts a hand to her head and winces when the room starts spinning. It takes a few moments to settle down again. Then she looks around the room.
She's sitting on a foldout cot with a thin rubber mattress and a small pillow on it. The room is small, shaped like a box, with a dull metal door at one end and a vent set high in the wall at the other. There's a sink in the rear corner, across from the camp bed. It's a utility sink, meant for filling buckets and washing paintbrushes. The floor is concrete, with a drain in the middle. A naked bulb glows balefully in the center of the ceiling, which is also concrete. The walls are cinderblock. All the surfaces are dirty, and there is a distinct smell of mildew in the air. This room certainly wasn't designed for human habitation – it seems to be a cleaning supply room, actually, just minus the cleaning supplies – but it makes a good temporary prison. Melanie stands up, goes to the door and tries the dented knob. Of course it's locked from the outside, but hell, it's always worth a try.
Her stomach goes tight when she realizes that she has no idea where she really is, or where Natalie is, or even who has kidnapped her. She assumes that it's the same people who've been trying to get at VibranTech's nanobot data for the past few weeks, but that doesn't really help. If it's them – and she can't think of anyone else – then she understands why they've captured Natalie, but why are they keeping her alive? Not out of the goodness of their hearts, that's for sure.
She goes to the door and puts her ear against it, then opens her mouth so as to pick up any sound vibrations more effectively. There's definitely something out there…footsteps. Can't be anything else. Maybe someone's coming to check up on her.
This thought makes her realize that, if she wants to try for an escape, this might be a good time to do it. All she'll have on her side is the element of surprise – but it just might be enough.