Brick Ballads
Chapter Four: "Dark Nights"

It had been a lousy night. Matt barely slept, reliving the fight with Stalker over and over in his head each time he closed his eyes. He'd briefly considered calling Terry about it, but had rejected the idea. Who was he to interrupt his brother's honeymoon just because he'd done something stupid in battle? That was the excuse he gave himself, but underneath it lay a better reason: He wanted to prove that he didn't need his big brother to save him all the time.

The alarm finally went off in the middle of a nightmare he didn't particularly want to think about anymore. He went into the bathroom and took a long, hard look at himself in the mirror. His face was pale—a touch greenish even—and dark circles were under his bloodshot blue eyes from lack of sleep. Scabs had developed on the scrape on his cheek, so he grabbed a bandage out of the medicine cabinet, knowing just how sensitive it was going to be, especially after he shaved. Sure enough, that side of his face was stinging and he'd managed to knick himself. He was in the process of opening the bandage when David walked in, still half-asleep but alert enough to notice his roommate's injury.

"Don't tell me you got that shaving," he said in disbelief.

"Bad night last night," Matt answered. "Got in a fight."

David raised an eyebrow. "That's not like you."

Matt shrugged. "Like I said, it was a bad night."

David thankfully didn't pry anymore and got in the shower. Matt put the bandage on his cheek and went into his room to change. As he pulled a shirt over his head, he suddenly felt nauseous and had to sit down. It took him only a few seconds to realize that Parasite's attack on him must have weakened his immune system enough for him to come down with the bug he'd felt sick from the night before, and the thought made him want to kick himself. He should have watched his back; he shouldn't have left himself open to the point that Stalker of all people had to save him.

He went out into the living room a few minutes later. David had just gotten out of the shower and was watching the news. One of the first reports was a recap of the battle the night before. It was another hard look in the mirror for Matt as he watched himself as Batman recklessly attacking Stalker. The other battles were equal: Inque attacked Aquagirl as many times as Aquagirl attacked Inque; Shriek attacked Lantern, who responded in kind; Parasite attacked Warhawk often enough, but Warhawk was able to throw him off and retaliate. Stalker, on the other hand, just dodged all of Batman's attacks, never once laying a hand on him. It easily could have gone differently if Stalker wasn't so fixated on hunting only Terry.

"Looks like you weren't the only one with a bad night," David commented.

"Yeah, guess so," Matt replied distractedly.

"The JLU looks awful," David continued, hardly noticing his roommate's preoccupation. "And Batman—wonder what could have happened to piss him off like that? Even Stalker doesn't seem to want to mess with him, and that guy's usually obsessed with fighting him. Anyway, you want breakfast?"

Matt shook his head. "Not feeling well."

"You don't look well," David agreed. "Maybe you should skip class."

"Probably. At least my morning ones. I'll sleep till the afternoon ones."

"Good idea. Anyway, I'll see you later. Going to get breakfast."

Matt nodded and went back to watching the footage. Finally, when he saw Parasite coming up from behind him and attacking, he turned it off. He didn't need to know how Stalker saved his life. He didn't want to think about this anymore.

He made the mistake of checking his e-mail before going back to bed. There was a message from an untraceable address—a sign that it was Justice League business. It was a short request from Superman for his help later that night, an investigation that specifically required Matt McGinnis—not Batman, not Terry's advice, Matt. He knew it wasn't going to be good, but what could he do about it? They needed him. And so he closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep as his stomach churned and his mind wandered back and forth between the events of the previous night and the questions of what was to come.

Matt wound up missing all of his classes that day. His nap that morning had only served to make him feel sicker rather than better. He was positive he had a fever, and he'd thrown up a couple of times already. But still, he wasn't going to let it stand in the way of his responsibility to the League, so he pulled on the suit and took the Batmobile over to the Metro Tower. At least the flight in that was smoother than if he'd used his jets and wings, so he avoided feeling too nauseous.

He was the last one to enter the conference room. On one side of the table sat Aquagirl and Warhawk; Green Lantern and Shinobi were on the other. At the head of the table was Superman and… He stared in shock at the guest sitting near Superman: Amanda Waller.

"You!" he shouted as Warhawk held him down to keep him from doing anything rash.

"I thought you hadn't met her," Lantern commented. At a look from Superman, Warhawk let go.

"I haven't," Matt answered. "But I've read the files and seen the pictures. She hasn't changed enough where I can't recognize her."

"Matt, sit down," Superman ordered. They were back to using real names, and in front of a non-League member no less. Underneath his mask, Matt scowled as he sat next to Rex, using only the barest minimum of control to keep from acting any ruder.

"Hello, Matthew," Waller greeted. "It's nice to finally meet you, though I wish it was under better circumstances. I hope you're doing well." Matt kept silent, biting back a retort. He was not going to lose his temper again, not after last night's disaster.

"Mrs. Waller called for our help last night during the battle with the Iniquity Collective," Kent informed. "I didn't get the message until after the debriefing, when I'd already sent Matt and Rex home. Because of that delay, we lost some valuable time in catching the culprit. Mrs. Waller, could you explain the details for everyone?"

"Last night, someone broke into my house and killed three of my security team," she explained. "There are only two people who have ever managed to get past my security: Bruce Wayne and Terry McGinnis, and neither of them caused the kind of damage that this intruder did. Two guards were savagely ripped apart, and the third had his neck cleanly snapped while he sat at his post. All of the cameras were blacked out and destroyed and the data erased, so we have no way of knowing who did it. Worse, the intruder got hold of some very sensitive files pertaining to Cadmus research. I can only assume that they know of my connection to the project."

"What files were taken?" Merina asked.

"There were many related to our research against the Justice League, but there were some referring to Project: Batman Beyond," Waller answered. Matt felt his stomach drop.

"How much in reference?" he found himself asking.

"Enough, Matthew," she replied with a sigh. "Just enough information to reveal your identities and make Terry's family a target."

"It wasn't enough that you had to ruin our lives by creating us, but you had to hold onto that information too?" he questioned bitterly.

"Matt…" Kai warned.

"No, he's right," Waller replied. "I have made a mess of your lives, and it was foolish of me not to destroy that information, but I thought it might be some help if the Justice League ever came across a crisis where they'd benefit from the information Cadmus had gathered. I hope that you can forgive me, Matthew." He didn't answer. He knew what would come out if he opened his mouth, so he didn't even bother.

"What's the plan?" Rex asked.

"Right now, Mrs. Waller is in a safe house for her own protection," Kent informed. "Akira is supervising the security. If anything happens, he'll let us know." Akira nodded in reply.

"And for us?" Matt added.

"I want you to investigate the remaining Cadmus labs," he replied. Waller looked a bit surprised, which didn't escape Matt's notice. He narrowed his eyes slightly. What was she hiding? "Most of them were dismantled by the U.S. Government and destroyed after the Near Apocalypse. Matt, Bruce probably still has a record of the ones that still exist." Matt nodded, though reluctantly. He was starting to hate this assignment more and more as the briefing went on. "Are there any other questions?" No one spoke up, so he answered, "All right then. You're all dismissed. Matt, one moment please?"

Matt purposely waited for Waller to leave before he walked up to Kent. He managed to keep up an image of professionalism that he never could have managed the night before. He was determined to prove that he was mature enough to handle this. "Is there a problem?"

"There might be," he admitted. "I know I'm asking a lot of you to do this, and I hate having to put you through all of this when you're just trying to forget about it, but you're the only one who can do this."

"Since Terry's on his honeymoon and Bruce retired decades ago," Matt finished. He wasn't trying to sound rude; his tone was as objective as he could possibly make it.

"I know you have good detective skills, and that's what I'm counting on," Kent continued. "If there was anyone else I could trust with this…"

Matt cut him off, "I know. I don't like it, but I'll do it." There was a look of relief on Kent's face.

"I'm glad to hear that. For what it's worth, I'm not sure Terry would have done the same." This came as a surprise to Matt, but he took pride in it as Kent briefly put a hand on his shoulder before walking out the door. Matt let a smile slowly grow on his face. Once again, he'd done something his brother wouldn't have. For the very first time, he felt like he'd stepped out of Terry's shadow.

He'd asked Bruce to look up the information for him, since he wasn't sure exactly where it was in the huge computer archives in the Batcave, much less how to download the information into his suit's computer. Bruce had agreed to this momentary break from his retirement, giving Matt the chance to look around the cave. He'd seen everything before, of course, but there were still some things that he wanted to know the history behind. The biggest example he could think of was the suits. From left to right, there was Terry's old suit, the Robin suit, the Batgirl suit, the Nightwing suit, and then the empty case. It was that first case that confused him. Bruce's old suit should have been in there, not Terry's original one, the one that this current suit was based off. He knew that Bruce had worn it for some time too, but it still broke the pattern. Why?

Before he had the chance to ask, Bruce handed him the suit and said, "The information's in there, and it'll appear as a readout on your visor. Blink a couple of times to get used to it."

"Okay," he agreed, pulling it on over his extra armor.

"Matt," Bruce interrupted, "be careful." Matt knew the warning wasn't just because Bruce could tell he was sick. Both of them knew that this was not going to be an easy night. There were a lot of hard emotions that Matt was going to have to come face-to-face with. Even though they weren't close, Bruce still wanted to be sure his younger son would be all right. And it wasn't something he'd normally do.

"Thanks," Matt replied. "I will."

There were five labs that had been shut down but not destroyed. The first was the closest, in the outskirts of Gotham, so the four-man team headed there first. They stood outside, inspecting every inch of the grounds before even setting foot on the property. Even though Cadmus had long since been shut down, there was no clear evidence one way or the other that their memory wasn't still dangerous. The League wasn't going to take any chances. Lantern scanned the area with his ring, and signaled them when it was safe to move in.

It was a dark night outside with a new moon and few stars, but it was even darker inside the compound. It wasn't the lack of light that made it so dark but the atmosphere of the place. The air was thick with dust and shadows, and the green light cast by Lantern's ring looked eerie against the walls and consoles. It brought to mind radiation and Kryptonite, but there wasn't anything around that could threaten them—nothing physical, at any rate. Everyone else was also silent, as if they too felt the uneasiness of the place. But the other three were more experienced than Matt, so that didn't make sense to him. They should have been far more immune to it than he was. Still, the first to speak up was Lantern, as he looked over at a wall and informed, "There's a passageway behind that wall. Warhawk, can you get it?"

The half-Thanagarian ploughed into the wall, releasing more dust into the air as it fell to pieces. He coughed and shot them an almost apologetic look, but nobody held the dust storm and destruction against him. Never had Matt been so glad to see something demolished like that. In that one act, Warhawk had released the tension the whole team felt. As if he'd read his mind, Lantern gave him a small, relieved grin.

The passageway was short, as if it was part of the building that had been sealed off. Suddenly, all the tension returned. If it had been sealed off, there was obviously a good reason to do so. Matt's already bad feeling about this case started to worsen as they approached a pair of steel doors that Lantern forced open. Behind them was a lab that rivaled those in old monster movies, something that he expected a modern Dr. Frankenstein to experiment in. There was strange equipment everywhere and three suspension cases on their right side. Aquagirl walked directly to them and wiped away the dust.

"There's a body in here!" she declared. "Lantern, shine your ring this way! Maybe he's still alive."

Lantern did as she ordered, but let the beam drop as soon as they'd gotten a good look at the face. Lying inside the suspension case, as if asleep, was a sixteen-year-old replica of Terry.

That was it. Matt's nausea returned in full force at the sight of his brother's clone, and his legs turned to water. Aquagirl was standing right next to him and grabbed him as he started throwing up all over the floor. He could hear Warhawk checking the rest of the cases and then smashing a console in disgust.

"They're all the same," he muttered. "One in each of them."

"There aren't any others, are there?" Aquagirl asked, kneeling beside Matt as he dry-heaved.

Green Lantern made a quick scan with his ring. "No. But why only Terry? Why not the rest of us?"

"Batman Beyond," Warhawk answered. "Whatever this is, it has everything to do with it." He punched the console again.

"You two radio for help," Aquagirl instructed. "I'll take Batman out of here." Matt suddenly couldn't stand hearing that name. He didn't say as much to Aquagirl, mainly because he was afraid that if he opened his mouth he'd be sick again.

She supported him all the way out of building and helped him sit against the wall. He felt like a child as he sat there, resisting the urge to put his head between his knees, the rest of the League standing nearby. But then, he supposed it was some comfort. They too were shaken by what they'd seen, although not quite as badly. Aquagirl looked horrified and stood right next to him, Lantern had an incredibly disturbed look on his face as he folded his hands and tried to meditate, and Warhawk was barely holding back his anger as he radioed Superman. The reactions of the seasoned Leaguers were understandable. Terry was their teammate and friend. This was a betrayal to them too.

"…Yeah, have Shinobi bring Waller too," Warhawk requested. Matt had pulled his mask off in order to breathe easier, so he couldn't hear Superman's responses. "No one else. No, use the Javelin. It'll give us some time to get over the shock. No, he's not taking it that well, but then, neither are the rest of us. Yeah, he took off his mask. Don't blame him."

Matt closed his eyes and tried to erase the images he'd just seen from his memory, but they were burned too deeply in his mind. Now, he knew what Terry must have felt when he found out about Bruce being their father. It was more than just betrayal; it was the shattering of his world, and there was no way for him to pick up the pieces.

Details of the Batcave and the Cadmus lab taken directly from "Epilogue."