A loud, heartfelt "Slag!" was the first thing to break the silence following Terry's revelation, with several more curses quick to follow.
Duke took stock of the situation. Steph was on comms in a flash trying to make contact with those away from the cave, Barbara and Tim were scouring city footage to try and determine Power's location, if he had made any more sudden moves and a recording of his and Terry's encounter, and Dick had taken it upon himself to check the kid over while Duke was left with the sudden realization that Terry had probably been in no presence of mind to make sure he hadn't been followed.
Well sh- shoot. Dang it. Golly geez.
Duke swam over to the computers, anxiety curling in the pit of his stomach as he watched the frustratingly slow (a farce, the cave's tech was top notch) loading sequence before the window for the security measures popped up and he could do a sweep of cams. And then another sweep, one of slower deliberation. Both came up clear and he let some of the tension bleed out of his shoulders.
"Coast is clear guys." he called to the others. Steph gave him a thumbs up and Dick gave him a nod, so he let the other three to it and started gathering up the gear they would need. The timetable had moved up but the mission was still the same: expose the underhanded dealings of Derek Powers.
Joy.
Forty minutes later, Mrs. Stephanie and Damian were suited up in nondescript black field gear and ready to infiltrate the downtown Powers' office, Ms. Cassandra, Mr. Duke and Mr. Grayson were set to shutdown the lab and adjacent warehouse storing the weapon while Mr. Drake and Jason were to head to the McGinnis apartment to make sure Powers didn't try the same move twice, with Mr. Wayne in the cave running comms and Ms. Gordon back at the station ready to be called in at a moments notice and finally get the drop on powers. They had tried to convince Terry to head home, but no one had put heart into the argument- probably because they could all see how distressed he was. That coupled with the fact that Powers knew Terry knew, sending him home at this point would practically be asking for a repeat of last month.
After a quick debrief to make sure everyone knew the plan, the teams headed out, leaving Terry and Bruce alone in this huge empty cave. It had never felt as big as it did now, even on the afternoons he sat alone doing his homework. Maybe it was the fact that the cave had been full of people just a minute ago, maybe it was his anxiety about the mission, or maybe it was his encounter with his dad's killer that had left him shaken, but he found himself drifting closer to old Mr. Wayne's side than he had before. The mer didn't acknowledge him at first, too preoccupied with quadruple checking everyone's comms and monitoring their trackers on the map, but once everyone was safely en route the old mer turned and motioned to the empty chair beside him by way of invitation.
"Oh." said Terry, half feeling foolish for forgetting the chair was there, half wanting to stay standing anyway. "Thanks." he said instead and took a seat.
Mr. Wayne grunted in response.
Terry took that to mean 'you're welcome' and settled in for a long wait.
Once everyone made it into position, watching them work was exhilarating. Whether it be Mr. Drake and Jason setting up high tech security stuff around his house, Ms. Gordon barking out commands to her underlings, the two person team preparing to infiltrate the Powers Tower, or the three mer team preparing to bust the place by the docks. Each and every one was a professional and it showed. This was all very, very shway.
The thought crossed Terry's mind that this was also probably very, very illegal.
Oh well. At least it was for a good cause.
Everyone seemed to be speaking in a flurry of call signs and code that was tough to keep up with. Terry only got every fifth word or so. It didn't even occur to Terry that he shouldn't even be getting that much until he mustered up the energy to ask a question about what someone said and got a strange look from Wayne.
"What?" asked Terry, a little on the defensive side.
"You understood that?"
"...yeah? Was I not supposed to?"
Wayne snorted.
"It's fine if you do, it's just that Cassandra wasn't speaking english."
Now that Mr. Wayne said that, it occured to Terry that Ms. Cassandra had not, in fact, been speaking english. He didn't know what to make of that.
"What was she speaking, then?"
Mr. Wayne said something in that same language. It had a lot of clicks and whistles- like a dolphin, actually. It also must not have had any translation, because all Terry could figure was that it was probably a name.
"What?"
Mr. Wayne repeated himself, slower this time, and tacked on "It's the name of the language commonly spoken by mer in the New Jersey coastal region." in response to Terry's unaddressed confusion.
"What about speaking?" said someone over comms.
"We found out Terry understands- [the name]" said Wayne. (Look, if he knew how to say the name, he'd say it. But he only found out he could understand this language like, all of two seconds ago so sue him.)
"Oh, cool!" said Duke (because he was old.) "That's great, Terry. You'll find it's super useful underwater."
"Well that's nice." said Jason. "He gets the magic cheat codes."
"Bet you're jealous." teased Ms. Cassandra.
"Absolutely."
"Alright you two." says Mr. Wayne. "Cut the chatter on comms."
He sounded kinda… well, like a dad. That thought made Terry's heart hurt, so he distracted himself by turning his attention back to the feed from the team at the tower, who were now slipping into a window high above street level.
Way shway.
The screen showed them moving through a large office, while here at the cave Mr. Wayne was furiously typing some lines of complicated code. Terry knew enough to know it was much harder than the HTML he'd learned in middle school. Back on the screen, Mrs. Stephanie was doing something at the desk and Damian was rifling through a closet. Back here in the cave, Terry saw Wayne's eyes narrow and noticed his typing picking up pace. A couple minutes passed this way, Damian and Mrs. Stephanie continuing to do… whatever it is they were doing, while Mr. Wayne typed fast and looked increasingly worried, occasionally murmuring something to Ms. Gordon, Mr. Drake or Jason. The team at the docks had also made it in by now.
"What is it?" Terry whispered after the tension had become too much for him.
"We're not sure." said Mr. Wayne, and if he wasn't scared before, he sure was now.
"Agents Alpha and Beta, do you have your gas masks?"
"Yes."
"Put them on."
Once, when Terry's family had taken a beach trip as a kid, he had been climbing some rocks and saw a sea anemone. There had been a gap between the rock he stood on and the one with the anemone, but it hadn't been terribly big, so he'd figured he could just steph over it. Midway through, he had slipped and started falling down into the pitch dark gap. Thankfully, he had thrown his arms out and caught himself in time, roughing up his arms pretty bad in the process. He didn't really remember what had happened the rest of that day, but the feeling of his heart leaping into his throat- of not knowing what was about to happen, only that it was bad- was the same feeling he felt now.
"Gas masks?" he echoed from beside Mr. Wayne.
"It's all right, Terry. I've detected something in the air, but their masks have the best filters out there. They're just looking for possible records of those looking to purchase the bioweapon, then they're out of there. Only a few more minutes, ok?"
"Oh." said Terry, only able to calm his racing heart somewhat. "What about my dad? Also, he's a criminal, and Ms. Gordon's the commissioner, right? Why can't the police handle this?"
"If Mr. Powers was behind your father's death, it was likely kept off the record or on a private server. That's how those things are typically done. Regardless, they will keep an eye out for anything incriminating. As for the police, this is Gotham. We like to collect evidence ourselves and hand it over to the system later- especially on cases involving magic or marine endangerment."
"Isn't that illegal?"
"Quite."
"And doesn't that make the commissioner complicit in like, withholding evidence or something?"
"Yes. This is the first time we've done something like this since she became commissioner, but yes, she could be fired for this."
Mr. Wayne's delivery was so deadpan that Terry half thought he was joking. He wished he was, anyway. Ms. Gordon was a nice lady. And the best thing to happen to the police force since her father, from what he'd heard.
"Sometimes we must act outside the hold of the law to do what's right, Terry." said Wayne.
"Guess that's something a famous mer vigilante would say."
"I do."
Terry gave a weak laugh and decided to focus on the feed from the docks for now. They were making good progress, the trio had made it into the building and were going room to room… somehow. Terry didn't pretend to understand their methods. All he had was first person body cam footage to work with and none of the fancy spy movie exposition and editing. Turns out, real live breaking and entering went a lot slower and felt a lot less dramatic without an epic soundtrack. He wondered whether they had ever considered using one.
He continued in his successful distraction for a few minutes- until he was abruptly reminded of his previous distress by a loud wet cough coming from the office feed and his fear came back in full force. He whipped his head around fast enough to catch the tail end of a worried frown Mr. Wayne was doing his best to smooth over.
"Beta? Alpha? What was that?" asked Wayne.
"That was me." said Mrs. Stephanie. "Gotta say, I'm not feeling too hot. You, Beta?"
"Not feeling great either. What's in the air?" said Damian.
"Don't know. But if it can bypass your masks, I want you out of there, now."
"Copy that, boss. Think I've found what I'm looking for, anyways. Time to blow this popsicle stand, Beta. Let's-"
Whatever Mrs. Stephanie had been about to say was abruptly cut off by the sound of a door slamming open. Terry's heart leapt to his throat.
The cameras briefly showed the doorway filled with a strong green glow before Mrs. Stephanie and Damian made a break for the windows, but were crippled by the wall of gas that had poured into the room upon the door's opening. Their wet coughs as they collapsed to the floor was the last thing Terry heard before the feed blacked out completely.
He stared at the screen in horror.
"Wh- what was? How? What happened? Will they be ok?"
It had all… it had been so sudden. One moment Mrs. Stephanie had been joking and the next…
Mr. Wayne was back to typing while glaring at the screen in earnest. There was a tightness to his shoulders that not even the Bat Mer could mask.
"It appears," said Mr. Wayne. Voice tight with cold fury. Fury and fear. "The gas form is more complete than we were led to believe."
The decision to send Mrs. Stephanie and Damian into the field without their usual magic- which, from what Ms. Gordon had gleaned, was one of the only possible counters- was made so that no one would connect this venture to the old Bat Clan. They had withdrawn from the city and didn't want to raise false signals of return over one mission. A mission they were only on because of him. And now…
Mr. Wayne hadn't wasted a moment. Mr. Drake was already on his way, but he was on the clear other side of the city. Ms. Gordon had dropped the files and was moving in with a squad, but all of them would be completely unprotected against the gas's effect. This was bad- he could see on Mr. Wayne's face this was bad. Damian and Mrs. Staphanie had been caught. They had been exposed to Power's gas and were probably dying and he…
Felt. Something.
Something that felt like…
Terry finally tore his gaze from the screens and looked instead to the line of suspended pendants on the far wall. Specifically, the blood red one. It was sleeker and sharper than the others. Newer, too. It had absolutely entranced him upon his first entrance to the cave and it suddenly had that same pull on him now.
Terry glanced at the screens again, committing the one displaying a map of each member's location to memory. Then he glanced at Wayne, tense and fearful for the lives of his children, and took off running.
Feet pounding down the walkway, Terry made a mad dash for the pendant, plunging his hand into the water column and grasping the smooth-roughness of sea glass. Bruce might've said something then, might've shouted to get his attention, but whatever he said was lost to Terry as the sensation of change washed over him completely. From his hair to his wrists to his toes- everything felt like it was being stretched and pulled and pinched all at once until- until it wasn't. Until he found himself underwater with scales and fins and a tail and the impossible ability to breathe. Until he remembered his mission and took off like a shot towards the underwater exit of the cave with a strength unlike any he had ever known.
In no time Terry had made it to an entrance highlighted on Bruce's map of the city water routes. It was an old stone tunnel of sorts that led into darkness, making Terry realize that while he knew the streets just fine, this maze of underwater corridors was completely forign to him. How was he supposed to…? Just then, he thought he heard a faint voice. Sound traveled way farther underwater and he wasn't even close to adapted to his new senses, so where-
"-ry. Terry can you hear me? Terry!"
"Mr. Wayne?"
"Terry! What were you thinking?"
Terry looked around wildly. He could see much further like this, but underwater still felt so open and exposed. Even still, he couldn't see Wayne. Could the old whale mer really have caught up with him that quickly?
"Mr. Wayne? Where are you?"
"I'm still in the cave-" his pendant. Mr. Wayne's voice was filtering through Terry's pendant- "which is where you should be right now. Get back here this instant before-"
"No!"
"No? Terry, this is-"
"Their lives are on the line! I have to help them!"
"You don't have to do anything! Now come back before you get hurt."
"Hurt? Powers has Damian and Mrs. Stephanie! It doesn't matter!"
"Yes it does! Tim and Barbara are on their way-"
"But they don't have the protection needed to survive the gas! I've heard you guys talk about this pendant- I know it's the best chance we have against this stuff. The others are all too far away, it has to be me!"
Wayne was silent for a moment and Terry felt a twinge of regret for putting the old guy in a tough position- but slag it this whole situation was tough! No matter what Wayne said he was going in there and was going to save them. He had to.
"Alright, Terry."
"Wh- wait, really?"
"As much as I hate it, you're right. Now, I'll gander that you don't know your way around the tunnels?"
That was it, then? The old mer was letting him do this. He was doing this. "Barely even hear of them till tonight." Terry said with a weak chuckle.
"Don't worry then, I'll direct you." Wayne's voice was still tense, but Terry could swear he detected a warm note to it now.
Terry grinned. He was still terrified out of his mind, but years of fights had already taught him that terror and excitement were pups in a pod. "Where to, boss?"
With Wayne's guidance, Terry swiftly made it to the building. Well, underneath the building, actually. Further down than even the basement- which was likely where Damian and Mrs. Stephanie were being held. Problem now was getting in.
"Boss." called Terry
"Yes?"
"Is there an entrance to the place from here?"
"No."
"Then how-"
"Magic. You're going to need to cast an incorporeal spell on yourself. Well, more like, activate the pendant's built in spell."
Terry went to bite his lip in worry, but stopped due to how sharp his teeth were. A quick check revealed that almost all his teeth felt different and- no. He had to stay focused. "But I don't know any magic."
"Remember that feeling you had when you touched the pendant?"
"Yeah? Like, the itching?"
"Not physically. I mean the pull you felt in the back of your mind."
"Oh." Was that what that was? Magic?
"You can do this Terry, remember what that pull felt like and concentrate on that feeling. Then, all you have to do is focus on your intent. You want to become incorporeal. Less solid. A part of the water itself, almost."
"Simple as that? No magic words or nothing?"
"Simple as that."
Ok. He could do this. Probably. Terry did his best to recall that weird sorta tug in the back of his mind and found that now that he knew what to look for, he was able to pinpoint the feeling immediately. There, in the back of his mind, right where it had always been. His magic. Pushing away his excitement (he'd have a proper freak out later) Terry closed his eyes and imagined his body going incorperal. Translucent. Like a ghost.
He opened his eyes, looked at his hands and gasped.
They were see-through!
"Bruce!"
"You did it?"
"Yeah! I did, I- oh." his hands had returned back to normal. Well, the normal pitch black webbed hands of his mer form- not his actual normal hands.
"It's ok. You've just lost your concentration. Spells like these take constant effort to maintain." the old mer did his best to sooth.
"O- ok." Terry stammered out, trying to recover from the confidence drop losing the spell had brought him.
"If you've done it once you can do it again. It's ok, chum."
"Yeah. Ok." Terry said, glancing around the tunnel again. "So, do I use the spell to phase through the wall?"
"You could, but that would take a lot of energy. Better for you to try and find an access point to their plumbing system and use the spell to squeeze yourself through the pipes."
"The pipes? Oh so that's how you guys did all your ninja vanishing?"
"Trade secret. Back to the mission, Terrance." Wayne scolded, but Terry could definitely hear a smile in his voice.
Looking around, Terry quickly caught sight of a pipe opening that looked to be heading straight up.
"And the building is directly above me, yes?"
"Yes. If you see an opening, go ahead and take it."
"Ok. I'm going in." with that, Terry poured his focus into recreating the spell he'd managed earlier. The feeling in the back of his mind intensified once again and he directed it to the desire to be incorperal. He looked down and saw that he was once again see-through, but this time he was sure not to let the weirdness throw him off. Instead, he looked back up at the pipe and swam toward it (doing his best not to let the feeling of water flowing through him instead of around him break the spell.) he wasn't quite sure how it worked, but, just like all those ghosts in the movies, he was now moving up the little pipe. Freaky.
He swam through the dark, coming upon several bends with light at the end- the first had been a bathroom, the second had been a lab- tempting to infiltrate, but not what he was here for, so he continued onward. Eventually, after peeking out every sink faucet and shower head he could find, he came across a room with water tanks. A lot of big water tanks. Some of which contained the remnants of some gruesome experiments, but the biggest one, a pool, was empty. He let Mr. Wayne in on his intended course of action before slipping into the pool, peeking over the edge to find Mrs. Stephanie and Damian unconscious and strapped to a couple of examination tables. He was about to release his spell when Mr. Wayne spoke up.
"Cameras." was all he bit out.
"What?"
His shock seemed to make Wayne pause for a split second. "Check for security cameras. Usually in the corners of rooms."
Right. Think of this like a spy movie, Terry. He was in a spy movie now.
"Two in the corners. How do I take them out?"
"You can fire short blasts of magic from your hands, but it's a bad idea to use in a stealth mission. For now, I've hacked their security and put the footage on loop. Exit the pool and get to work."
"Got it." Terry finally released the spell, he took a moment to blink back the nausea that came with regaining tangibility while pulling himself up the rim of the pool with a strength that he knew he didn't possess in human form. That same strength made it dragging himself over and onto Damain's cot refreshingly easy, though he pondered for a moment if it wouldn't be better for him to carry out this part of the mission on legs. Damian looked awful- limbs twitching in his sleep, a sheen of sweat coating his forehead, rapid, uneven breaths that devolved into wet coughing when Terry gave him a rough shake. The worst part though, was the sores. In the time it had taken him to get there, angry red welts had formed and burst on the man's skin becoming blackened and dry on the edges- Terry had seen old pictures of leprosy in health class, and these results looked disturbingly close to that.
"Are…" he had to pause to swallow the lump in his throat. When he opened his mouth again his voice shook. "Bruce, do you see this?"
"Yes. I've hacked the cameras set up to monitor their progress."
"What do I do?" he whispered and tried to ignore how his hands had started shaking.
"Terry?"
"Yeah?"
"I need you to take a deep breath." said Mr. Wayne. His voice had gone soft.
Terry's racing thoughts slowed. Wayne hadn't spoken to Terry like that since that first day. It was enough to give him pause.
"...ok."
He took a breath.
"Now hold it."
He held.
"Now let it go."
He let out a shaky exhale.
Mr. Wayne took that as a cue.
"Now Terry, there's a spell that should allow you to heal them. It's not complicated, but it is very draining. It requires intent and concentration, just like the last spell. You can do it, son."
He could fix this. With a spell, he could fix them. He could save them so he had to get this right.
"Ok." he said, trying to muster up enough confidence to make that true.
"Ok." echoed Mr. Wayne. "Put your hand on his skin and extend your magic. Envision it flowing through you to him to assess the damage."
Terry reached out and placed a hand on Damian's forehead, avoiding any open sores, and called upon the magic he had used just a minute ago. It came, but only just barely. The connection felt shakier, slipping out of his grasp like the sea cucumbers he found at the beach as a kid- he didn't- it wasn't working. He felt his throat start to close up again because he couldn't do this and now Damian and Mrs. Stephanie would die because he couldn't get it right he could never get it right and-
"Terry? Terry, you're hyperventilating."
"It's not working!"
"You're distressed and distracted, of course it's going to be harder to use magic. All you need to do is breathe and focus. It'll work, I promise."
"For you, maybe! I've never done this! I'm just going to slag this up like everything else I can't-"
"You can, Terry. You can do this. You want to know how I know? Because you managed to pull off an incorperability spell for ten solid minutes. That's an incredible accomplishment, especially for someone who's hardly even seen magic used before. You have immense power, more than enough to save them. I trust you, Terry, you just need to trust yourself."
A part of Terry's mind tried to argue that Mr. Wayne was just saying that, but he pushed it away to try and focus. He was out of his depth, he had no idea what he was doing, he barely knew how to use magic- but Mr. Wayne believed in him. Mr. Wayne trusted him to save the lives of his kids. And, just like Mr. Wayne said, he'd done this magic thing before, he knew it wasn't impossible.
"I'll try." he managed.
"That's all I ask of you, son."
Terry rested his hand on Damian's forehead again, willing the magic to come. This time, when he felt the pull of the magic, he breathed and tried to follow Mr. Wayne's advice- picturing the magic moving from him to Damian and finding the problems. Just like that he was somehow aware of Damian. He could feel the parts that had been affected by the toxin and the toxin moving through his bloodstream. It felt wrong, like decay and rot compared to the vibrant cells that made up the rest of his body.
"I got it!"
"Good, you know what's wrong?"
"I can feel the toxin, yeah."
"Alright. All you need to do now is channel your magic to those parts. Focus on destroying the toxin. Enough magic combined with the desire to be gone should be enough. It's not an elegant solution, but whatever you can manage helps, Terry."
"Ok."
Ok. Yeah. He could do this. He drew up more magic and imagined it attacking the toxin like white blood cells, moving from spot to spot in an agonizingly slow process. Mr. Wayne was right, he was essentially throwing magic at the problem like a firehose instead of a scalpel- it was crude but it was working. It was actually working. He was getting rid of the toxin and Damian was gonna be ok because he was actually doing it! That burst of confidence was apparently just what he needed, because his connection to his magic suddenly clicked into place- solidifying in a way that even the incorporeal spell hadn't done. Giving him an even better handle on the magic coursing through Damian. It was like driving a top of the line car after years and years of fighting an old rusty land cruiser. It felt great, but it felt even better to see Damian's eyes flit open and the fellow half mer groan.
He'd done it. Damian was alive and he'd done it.
He set about tearing off the restraints around Damian's hands and feet, but may have teared up a little when Damian croaked out a weak "McGinnis?" after he could keep his eyes open for longer than a couple seconds.
"Yeah. Yeah it's me. How're you feeling?"
Damian's choice of response was less than polite, but seeing how the man had just been pumped full of killer toxins, Terry didn't think he could fault him.
Suddenly, Damian's eyes shot open, all traces of fog gone.
"Brown!"
"What?"
"Stephanie! Where is she?"
Terry froze. Slag. Oh slag it, slag everything, slag him.
He flung himself back onto the cold ground and began to drag himself over to Mrs. Stephanie's cot, but was interrupted by a strong pair of arms picking him up by the waist and plopping him down on the cot instead. Mrs. Stephanie looked bad. Better than Damian had, but not by much
"Can you help her?" asks Damian.
"I- yeah. I helped you and all that."
"I'm aware. What I meant was, do you have enough magic left to help her?"
Terry felt his throat go tight again. He had been so caught up in the elation of saving Damian he'd forgotten his exhaustion. He reached for his magic just to check and- yep. Those last two spells had taken a lot out of him.
"I think so. It feels pretty low, though."
"I feared as much. That toxin attacked my magic stores directly, and, with my body in recovery, I cannot complete the healing myself."
"I'll do what I can, then."
"No, Terrance-" said Damian, placing a firm hand on his shoulder. "We'll do this together."
Terry blinked.
"You can do that?"
Damian snorted.
"Of course you can."
Terry didn't appreciate the snark, but now wasn't the time to let annoyance get the better of him. He met Damian's eye.
"How?"
Damian took Terry's hand and placed it on Mrs. Stephanie's exposed cheek, then placed his own right next to him while taking hold of the pendant with the other.
"Think of it like circuitry." Mr. Wayne piped up, "When you work together, it's like having two batteries instead of one. Your action will be the same, but you'll have more power."
Damian nodded.
"It'll be easier now that you've done it once before, anyway." he said, then they got to work.
It was easier the second time, and, after they've exhausted themselves scrubbing Mrs. Stephanie's blood stream clean, Wayne theorizes that the toxin didn't hit her as hard because she had no magic to target. Not that they were going to let that theory be tested on a larger sample size, but it was nice to know he needed to avoid the stuff extra hard.
As Terry ripped off Mrs. Stephanie's restraints, he idly wondered aloud what the speks of the pendant were. He was snapping these solid metal bracers right off the table.
"At least tenfold your normal limit."
"Tenfold?" he echoed incredulously while Damian made the executive decision to carry Mrs. Stephanie to the more defensible position of behind the table- out of sight of the doors should anyone walk in. Terry dropped down next to them.
"There's also a spell that shoots nets. I'll teach it to you when you get home."
"You'll come to my apartment?" says Terry, more for the sake of keeping up the chatter and hopefully helping Mrs. Stephanie, who was now awake but woozy, back to consciousness (but also for the pure enjoyment of catching Wayne in his slip-up.)
"I'll teach you when you get back to the cave." the elder amends.
"Nope! You said home! I'm sure we can fit you in the living room if we move the couches. What do you like to eat? My mom will absolutely want to make something."
"Food?" groaned Mrs. Stephanie before Wayne could retaliate.
'No' is what Terry started to say, but Damian beat him to it by shoving a powerbar of some sort into her hands.
"Oh." said Mrs. Stephanie, shaking her head as if to chase away the fog of the drug. "That's nice Dami, you do care."
"Don't push it, Brown." said the man in response, but his words held about as little heat as Terry's threats to his own brother.
Terry helped Mrs. Stephanie up as Damian made his way to a locker near the door, flicking it open to reveal the rest of their equipment.
"Amatures." he tisked, then got to work getting their communicators back online.
"Incoming guard rotation." came Mr. Wayne's voice in Terry's ear, which he then relayed to the others.
"Understood." said Damian while tossing Mrs. Stephanie an earpiece, which she popped in her ear just in time to hear Wayne's confirmation that it was, indeed, fully functional.
"Terry." called Mrs. Stephanie as she began retrieving the rest of her equipment. "Get back in the pipes and head home, we'll make it out from here."
Terry felt his eyebrow (wait, did he even have eyebrows in this form? Ugh, no, whatever. That was a problem for later) quirk up.
"I literally just came all the way here to save your guys' butts. You literally would have died without me. I'm coming with you."
He was met with both Damian and Mrs. Stephanie's (masked) glares for his efforts.
"We can handle it from here." said Damian.
"Not if you get poisoned again." snapped Terry. "Which, by the way, I am your only defense against."
"Back up's on its way." cut in Mr. Wayne. "Tim can help them out and the police can handle Powers."
"The police can't handle slag if they get poisoned too." grit Terry through the mounting frustration in his gut. "We need to take it out before anyone else gets hurt."
Damian and Mrs. Stephanie shared a significant look, but were interrupted by Mr. Wayne before they could say anything.
"The guards are almost on you. Be ready."
They sprung into action. Mrs. Stephanie scooping Terry up and setting him behind her when she settled on one side of the door, with Damian crouched, knife drawn, on the other. After a tense moment, the door slides open and a black clad security guard steps in. Damian is on them before they can even flick on the light. The guard lets out a sound of surprise as they're being dragged that draws a second in behind them. This one is quickly taken down by Mrs. Staphanie. Terry waits to see if more will come, but Mr. Wayne gives them the all clear and Mrs. Stephanie turns back to Terry.
"You can come," she says. Terry senses a 'but'. "But you have to do exactly what we say when we say it, ok? We're going to try and neutralize the gas before Powers can ship it out."
Terry nods.
"Powers obviously has a supply in his office, and he likely has some stored down here too. We'll case the sublevels before heading up."
"Take off the pendant." said Damian.
"What?"
Damian tossed him a shirt. Terry blinked. Then noticed the now shirtless (and unconscious) security guard Damain is kneeling over.
"You and I can blend in as guards, which will make it easy for us to scope out the floor."
"Why can't I blend in as a guard?" whisper-shouted Mrs. Staphanie.
"Because neither of these guards are blond." said Damian, whisper-shouting back.
"Killjoy." grumbled Mrs. Stephanie as she finished up robbing her guard.
Terry slipped off the pendant and got a truckload of that weird but now familiar feeling before he was back to normal. He shucked off his jacket and pants, throwing on the guard uniform Mrs. Stephanie pushed into his arms and shoved his clothes into her bag. He then slipped the pendant into his pocket, close enough to grab but not touching his skin to prevent any sudden transformations.
He made eye contact with Damian and nodded.
Go time.
By the time the trio had swept the basement and neutralized the stash of poison they found, the police had arrived and so had Tim. The kid had been properly awed at what they had accomplished- especially the bad you-know-what takedowns. Which was nice. It was nice to be reminded that she was really heckin cool sometimes. Stephanie was particularly proud of the fact that they had managed to convince Tim to stay outside and provide remote assistance. The police, on the other hand, wouldn't be of much help at the moment. Barbara's leak had clued them all into the nature of the toxins they were working with, and they only had so much protective equipment, so the police teams infiltrating the building had to move carefully.
Careful being another word for slow.
No matter. The 'technically not bat' team still had the best chance confronting Powers, so up the stairwell they went. Their grapple guns would've been ideal, of course, but whoever had stashed their stuff had decided that was the one thing worth taking. Next best option would've been an elevator, but no one was particularly trusting of them. Especially those new age kinds that could be hacked or some crap. Bruce and Tim had checked the whole building and found no sign of The Pretentious Prick Himself, but had found a suspicious lack of access to the cameras in Powers' office. When they had been found to be completely inaccessible, it was assumed that the cameras were destroyed, meaning they would be going in blind.
"So." said Steph around floor nineteen or so. "You catch what was up with all that green in the doorway, B? Or you, Beta? Think Powers has a severe love of twenties style LED strips or that it's got something to do with the weapon?"
"I don't know." said Tim. "All cameras in the building went out from the time you got caught 'til after you were moved to the basement."
"Sounds kinda in violation of worker safety." said Terry glibly between pants. Gosh she loved this kid.
"They'll claim it was a glitch, I'm sure." said Tim.
"How are the rest coming along?" asked Dami. A strain in his voice that was either frustration from being caught or the results of him falling behind on the approved Bat Workout Regimen. She wished it was the second- because she was as mad as him about the first.
"Fine." said Bruce, who wasn't doing his 'focus on the mission' voice, so they probably were fine. That was good. At least two things were going well tonight.
The group fell silent again until around the sixtieth floor, when Tim notified them of the police having entered the premise, at which they groaned and redoubled their climbing efforts. Curse their loss of grapple guns. All the non-powered heroes like her had vehicles for a reason.
When they had finally made it to the top and taken a minute to rest their legs (because really, the person who decided to make this building one hundred and twenty two floors deserved a thorough butt whooping. Whoever it was had now officially made it to Stephanie's Despised Architect List. Right up there with Brutalists and window enthusiasts.) Bruce chimed back in to let them know the floor appeared to be clear of all lifeforms, but to proceed with caution. Damian took hold of the pendant in order to transform and cast a quick locating spell, which he had performed on the basement levels to find the caches of toxin, letting Terry save up his energy for the actual neutralization process.
"It's restricted to the office." Dami reported after a moment of concentration. He slipped off the pendant and stood, returning to his bipedal form (clothes and all, don't worry).
"Typical elitist dreg, hogging all the cool fog machines for himself." Terry snorted. Had she mentioned she loved this kid yet? Because she loved this kid. First day on the job and he's already quipping like a pro- children really were the future. She gave him two 'ok' hand signs before refocusing on the mission.
They proceeded with caution across the dark hallway and through the reception room, wary of any hidden toxic misters, till the trio was peeking into the (frankly huge) office for the second time that night. At which point Terry transformed and let himself be picked up by Damian while Stephanie scanned the room with her mask's sensors- knowing that Bruce and Tim were doing the same.
"I see what could be mister nozzles along the edges of the room." she reported "Think we can fry them?"
"I'm not sure your tasers can generate enough electricity to overload their system." said Tim in a deadpan.
"Thanks for the encouragement, Tech Support. I was talking about the kid."
"Huh?" said Terry.
"There's a spell for electricity generation." supplied Damian. "If you can expose the circuitry, I can manage it."
"Ok" said Terry, and Damian let him down into the room. Stephanie made sure to leave the door propped open while Terry shuffled his way to the baseboards. Absently, she was reminded of a seal attempting to waddle around on land. Watching mers always reminded her of seals.
The kid seemed to inspect the molding for a moment before digging his nails in and prying a whole section off, exposing what was indeed a little mist machine under the board. He ripped out a handful of wires as Damian slipped into the room to crouch down and cast the electricity spell. Lucky for them, all the misters seemed to be hooked up to one another- if the series of whines and pops that went round the room were any indication. With the threat of being spontaneously gassed out of the way, Steph finally slipped into the room to continue with the original mission of dirt gathering while the other two focused on finding the container(s?) of poison. She had found a list of buyers and shipment dates (that they now had video footage of) before they had been ambushed, but had yet to find anything on Terry's dad. The closest she'd come was finding the records of the… long term effects of the poison in Powers' desk. The victim had been someone named Harry Tully, an employee that Stephanie remembered seeing on many of the same project rosters as the late Mr. McGinnis. The results sounded grisly, so she'd snapped some photos before setting them back to let the police handle. Resuming her earlier search through the hacked file cabinet, she noticed a distinct lack of all the files she'd touched before. Looks like whoever caught them knew to clean up after themselves. A shame.
A pulse of strong magic was felt in the air, letting Stephanie know that the boys had found the poison and were getting rid of it. Pushing the cabinet shut with a disappointed huff, she listened to Damian give Barbara the all clear before Tim's voice crackled to life on comms.
"Steph, I had visuals on a green something moving in your direction. Be prepared for-"
"So this is where you've run off to." said a voice. Deeper, middle aged, with a deadly smooth quality that reminded Stephanie of foxes who've caught their prey. It came from all around them, though, and she caught sight of Damian shoving Terry into the shadows behind him and taking up a defensive stance while looking for the potential source. The dramatics were cut when a arcid green glow peeked through the doorway before solidifying into a figure. It was a skeleton- black as pitch and surrounded by what looked to be translucent green flesh. Flesh that was glowing like a vat of toxic waste. She heard Terry give a small gasp off to the side.
"I had hoped you wouldn't mind sticking around for some data collection. After all, it's not often we get to test on specimens with your specific… genetic make-up." said the walking Party City Halloween decoration, shooting a hungry smile in Damian's direction. Well, hungry look, she supposed. Skeletons were always smiling.
"I'm surprised you've stuck around. What with the police swarming the place." shot Stephanie.
"It is of no matter." said Skele-guy, raising a glowing hand in her direction as it started to glow brighter. Uh oh. "What do you say we all make our getaway together, hmm?"
Well she had her answer to that question.
A cup full of pens wasn't the most orthodox weapon, but it still made a valiant effort when Stephanie hurled that sucker at Skeletor Jr.'s face while shouting "No thanks!" before ducking down behind the desk and retrieving her (much more formidable) staff.
In the moment it took for her to pop back up, Damian had engaged the knockoff Sans Undertale and was dodging more glow blasts while trying to drive them back out the door. A quick glance towards the corner told her that Terry was still curled up on the floor, blending in perfectly with the shadows except for two snow white eyes that one would miss if they didn't know what to look for. Reassured of her charge's relative safety, Stephanie moved in to attack. Getting in a hit was unfortunately tricky, cause while young Vlad Masters over here certainly wasn't trained, they were good at blasting ectoplasm or whatever the slag. Dodging became even more imperative once Terry managed to hiss over comms that the figure was, in fact, shooting something very similar to the toxin they had just spent the past half hour combating. Because of course they were. Out-magic-ing a sedentary container of toxin was one thing- a renewable source of that same toxin was something completely different. This job had, as most jobs were wont to do, become incredibly harder.
Bruce relayed the development to the other teams- with an added command to book it over here and provide backup, because a living vat of highly dangerous chemicals & magic was more than they had bargained for.
Stephanie dodged another beam before striking close enough to push their hand aside, which gave Damian an opening to land a hit across their face with his own staff. After that it was child's play- M. Chernobyl going down with a few well placed strikes in between their continued glow stick juice assault. But, because the universe hated her, when she went in for the final K.O., the figure's light pulsed once before exploding outward. She barely had time to register a faint gasp and the wall of glowing green before the blast was being halted by a wall of glowing red.
Stephanie blinked.
The red barrier was still there.
She glanced over at Damian, who was still fully human and also still had his staff raised in a defensive position. It was only when her gaze zeroed in on the kid in the corner that she made the connection- apparently at the same time as the skeleton, too, if the gasp of villainous glee was anything to go by. Because really, the sight of Terry in full Bat Mer form, hand outstretched to maintain the magic force field protecting Steph and Damian must have been this dude's Christmas gift come early.
"So that's how you got out." purred the nightlight. Legit purred. Ugh, why did villains always make themselves sound like such creeps?
More importantly, why did they always go for the kids? Time for a redirect. "Eyes over here, lavalamp!" roared Stephanie as she and Damian once again moved in for the (non literal) kill.
"Not when my prize is so close." crooned the figure, sending out another large wave of toxin that Terry was forced to block once again.
They picked themselves off the ground, sending volley after volley of toxin blasts to keep her and Damian pinned while they advanced on the kid. "If you want to protect them so badly, why don't you be a good fishy and come with me? I see that symbol on your chest. If you fancy yourself the Bat Mer then you should play the hero, as he would."
Terry's walls visibly faltered as he considered their words. Slag villains and their manipulative monologuing.
"He's staying right here!" cried Damian, signaling her to move forward. The two were halted in their advance by another large blast.
Terry was visibly shaking from the night's strain now, but his voice was calm when he spoke.
"I'll go." he said. "I'll go with you if you leave them alone."
"Excellent." said radioactive Jack Skelington at the same time Steph and Dami cried "No!" The figure sent a few more shots their way in retaliation. Damian gently pressed on the bariar to test it but- yup. It was solid on both sides. They were completely useless.
M. Glowy had reached Terry and was holding out a hand from their spot looming over him.
"Let's depart now, shall we? Wouldn't want the police to see you here, after all."
The pause after that had Stephanie worried, but it was eclipsed by pride when the kid said in a perfect 'you're an idiot' voice:
"I can't walk."
The person's hand curled into a tight fist.
"Then crawl." they growled.
"With the time we got? I can hear the police coming up the stairs. If you wanna get out of here in time you'll have to carry me." (which was a lie, Tim informed her, but who was she to dissuade them?)
"Fine!"
They reached down to seize Terry who met their arm halfway with his own.
"One more thing, though." said Terry with a mad grin, tightening his hold till his claws, now practically dripping with magic, had pierced skin and yanking them down to the floor with a thud.
"I am the Bat Mer."
The figure roared and charged a blast directed at Terry's face, but the kid had dropped the protection spell while busy dropping the baddie, so they got Stephanie's foot to the face instead. The kick was accompanied by a very satisfying crunch sound. Man that felt good.
Damian gave them another knock on the head for good measure before kneeling beside Terry and taking hold of the pendant. The two half mers shared a look and reached out to touch the prone figure's exposed arm, their own hands encased in red and yellow magic respectively. They drew back after a moment, Damian making eye contact and shaking his head.
"They're too powerful to simply shut down. We need to move them and set up a temporary protective barrier, but we'll want to look into a more long term holding, too. Maybe Atlantis can help with- Alpha, duck!"
Stephanie dropped into a crouch in time to hear the familiar 'whoosh' of a fist go right over her. She then used her staff to knock aside the follow up hit, but was too slow to dodge the kick that clocked her in the ribs and sent her to a rolling stop on the ground a few feet away. When she looked up she saw a hulking humanoid figure in an equally large trench coat with a gun trained on Terry, forcing Damian to back away while they scooped up the toxic skeleton person with one arm. Damian motioned for her to stay down, and the trio watched as their new attacker silently made off with their first one.
"Red?" she hissed over comms once their adversaries were out the door, scrambling to her feet.
"Building's cams are scrambled again, I only have your footage. They had a mask on so facial's a no go. We'll run a more thorough check later. Police are covering every known entrance to the building, but your visitors' still got the green guy. Give chase."
By the time the words "give chase" had left Tim's mouth, Stephanie and Damian were already scanning the reception room outside the office door. Empty. Damian moved down the hall to check the stairwell and elevator while she checked for any movable windows. Nothing.
"They're gone." spat Damian.
"Alright." said Bruce after a couple minutes. "Team B is done and Barbara has some trusted officers monitoring the McGinnis house. That's all we can do for tonight. Come home."
They had left the building through the window. Which was absolutely insane, because they were a whole one hundred and twenty floors up off the ground. Mrs. Stephanie and Damian treated it like it was nothing, which was probably for the best, because Terry had barely kept himself from screaming the whole zipline ride (courtesy of Mr. Drake) to the next roof over. From the roof the four of them made it down to ground level, where they showed him an entrance to the tunnel system and their awaiting submarine getaway. Because yeah, submarine rides through secret underwater tunnels in Gotham was a thing he was doing now, apparently.
The ride to the cave was spent in silence, which was fine by him, because he needed a moment to process all that… everything. So much. It was only one thirty in the morning, but yesterday afternoon felt like a whole lifetime ago. Discovering those files, confronting Powers, running to the manor, watching the mission, joining the mission, saving Damian and Mrs. Stephanie and then that fight with the magic skeleton person. Definitely the weirdest fight he'd ever been in. He'd had no clue what he was doing, too. He had barely even started casting magic (real magic! He could use magic now!), but when the green person had… exploded, for lack of a better word, he'd just, acted. Completely on instinct. Didn't even know what he was doing besides needing to protect them and then boom! There was a magic forcefield! An actual magic forcefield. That he had made. Him. Terry McGinnis could summon magical forcefields. Mr. Wayne hadn't even told him how to do that! He'd just done it! And then they'd got ambushed again and lost the guy, but the whole thing was still just so wow. He'd fought off some crazy supervillain type and saved Mrs. Stephanie and Damian, then they'd all ziplined away like spies. No- like superheroes. Was this what being a superhero felt like? Because this felt amazing. The only thing that would make him feel more content right now was if they'd managed to find Powers. For a second he'd thought the green guy kinda sounded familiar, but… he wasn't sure. He decided to sideline that train of thought though, because they were now docking in the cave. In the Batcave. Because these people were The Bat Clan. And yeah he'd already had this freak out, but it felt like a whole new thing now that he'd actually witnessed them in action and had even been out there himself.
They disembarked, Damian showing him how to get from the submarine to the platform without slipping and falling into the water. Though he needn't have bothered, because the first thing he was greeted with upon making it to safety was a dripping wet hug.
"Good lord, kid." sighed Jason after the mer had squeezed the living daylights out of him. "Dami and Steph were bad enough, do you know what kind of heart attack you gave all of us running off like that? Poor Timbo fell out of his seat when he heard. We were worried sick!"
"Oh. 'm sorry…" Terry mumbled.
"Ah, no you're not." Jason said with a wry smile. "But it's alright, Terrio, none of us are mad. We all understand where you're coming from. We just care about you, ok? We don't want to see you hurt."
"I second that!" called Mr. Duke, swimming up to the dock. "Besides, how could any of us be mad at you? You were amazing out there tonight, Terry! You learned to speak Jersey Mer, learned to use magic, single handedly saved Damian and Steph and then saved them again after neutralizing a bunch of highly deadly poison! You saved a lot more than two lives by getting rid of that stuff, you know."
"Yeah! Do you know how long it took the B team over there to finish? And they didn't even have to learn magic to perform any life saving medical procedures."
"Or learn an incorperability spell." said Damian.
"Or a shielding spell." said Ms. Cassandra.
"Or fight a magically toxic mad scientist skeleton person." said Mr. Grayson.
"And we've all been training longer than you've been alive." said Mr. Drake.
"I- well, I guess when you put it that way…"
"Or any way. Because you're amazing, and you did amazing, and we're all insanely proud of you." finished Jason with a beaming smile.
"...oh." was all Terry could say. He ducked his head to hide a pleased smile as the rest of the group laughed.
"Terry." someone called. It was Mr. Wayne, coming to a stop at the dock's edge beside Mr. Duke as the others quieted down.
"Thank you." he said, with a small but growing smile.
Terry shrugged, trying not to get too worked up about it.
"'S whatever." he said sheepishly. Grateful when Jason gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "Anyone could've… y'know."
"But they didn't. It was you. I can't thank you enough. You were a real hero out there tonight, McGinnis."
That got his breath to hitch, and maybe had his eyes a little watery, too. The Bat Mer was… thanking him? Calling him a hero? But he… he was…
"But I'm just some good for nothing punk kid, Mr. Wayne. I'm no hero. Really." and he meant it. Terry really couldn't stand the idea of someone like Wayne thinking he was better than anything he really was. With the kind of crap he pulled at school? Or the kind of heartache he caused his parents? Sure, he'd said he was the Bat Mer to that guy, but that was a heat of the moment thing. Meant to freak the dude out and get the last word. These guys could think what they want, but everyone else knew that Terry McGinnis would always be some troublemaking runt. Unfortunately, his words didn't seem to have the desired effect. In fact, they seemed to have only made Mr. Wayne amused. Amsued! When Terry was trying to dissuade him from some stupid mistake that-
"Evidence would suggest the conterary." said the old mer with that stupid slagging amused smirk of his.
Terry let out a snort and shook his head.
"You're insufferable."
Mr. Wayne smiled a smile that Terry would've compared to a shark if he didn't know the guy was a whale mer.
"So I've been told."
Then he paused, looking deep in thought before making eye contact with everyone present in the room. First Mr. Duke, then Mrs. Stephanie, Ms. Cassandra, Damian, Mr. Grayson, Mr. Drake, Jason, and lastly, him. His gaze was intense, but Terry didn't really feel a desire to look away.
"How would you feel about a job?" he said finally.
"Like my 'internship'?" Terry asked, furrowing his brow in confusion.
"Not really. This operation tonight isn't an isolated incident, it's just the tip of the iceberg. We used to be protectors of Gotham, but I see now that we've been away for too long. This city needs a hero, Terry. I think you're it."
Terry had never dropped his jaw in shock before, but tonight had already been filled with a whole bunch of 'firsts'- what's one more?
"Me?!" he managed to choke out. "You want me to be, what, Robin?"
"No." said Wayne. "I think you would be better suited to play the very part you played tonight, McGinnis. I want you to be the Bat Mer."
Terry must have looked stupid, standing there in water stained clothes and a shell shocked look to end all shell shocked looks, but when he gave a dumb nod, the cave errupted into cheers.
Maybe he wasn't really a hero. Maybe the Waynes were stupid for having so much blind faith in him, he gave it a week before they all realized what a screw up he really was and let him down gently, because Terry McGinnis wasn't hero- wasn't Bat Mer matirial, but… the look on Mr. Wayne's face? The one he had on right now? The one filled with hope and pride and… and love? It reminded him of his dad. Reminded him so much it hurt. Hurt his whole chest because his dad used to look at him like that. Whenever he'd get talking about how proud he was of Terry, and how much he looked forward to seeing who he'd become in the future, he would look at him just like that. Like he was some kind of, well, hero.
Maybe Terry McGinnis wasn't a hero.
But maybe… maybe for his dad and mom and Matt and Dana and everyone who had stupidly believed in him when he was at his worst. Like the people in this cave with him here now. Maybe for them…
He could be.
