We'd covered a large part of the Narrows until we found our lead, and then climbed up a building, ignoring yells from a couple inside the apartment we were scoping from. It was on the top floor save for the roof apartment, which was our target.

Beside me climbed Batman, looking like a far more hulking figure than Bruce Wayne had done in a dripping wet suit hours before. It occurred to me that unless I was much like him, and also in a Kevlar suit, I'd have trouble in understanding that the two settings, clothes and appearances he'd put on so far this evening were in fact the singular Bruce Wayne. The same could be said for me, of course. The odd, sometimes old sometimes young, normally when a car is involved, scientist in the basement of Wayne Enterprises in a bodysuit and combat training scaling a building in the narrows.

I decided, and it seemed that Bruce had the same idea, to refer to him here and now only as Batman. Separating the two could alter thoughts and associations for the worse, but it was a better risk than closely linking Bruce to Batman, or Evelyn to Thunder and endangering identities, be it by slip of the tongue or otherwise.

We ourselves felt the same, the same personality and training, but in the suit we changed how we thought and stood, and altered our personas to a point where, if he didn't know, even Alfred couldn't recognise Bruce. Our mannerisms moved to internal noises and our body language vanished.

When completely isolated, however, like in the car or the batcave, there was no reason not to relax the changes. And, as I was soon to be proven right about, we had no problem in letting our personalities show a little, if even only to a little kid.

The wind grabbed out capes as we climbed.

Batman pulled out a fold-up scope and after looking himself, passed it to me. There were bears on a chair in the apartment. I gritted my teeth, thinking. Until I heard the door just below and to the side of me open.

His eyes lit up when he saw us.

'It's you, isn't it?'

We blinked, first at each other, then at the little boy standing outside the screaming house.

'Everybody's been talking about you.'

'Get in here!' came a shout from inside. He glanced at the door, but didn't look too fazed.

'The other kids won't believe me.'

Bruce folded up his scope with a tiny grin and tossed it to the kid, before we climbed, or in my case flipped, over the edge of the roof and snuck inside.

Batman was inspecting a rabbit toy and I was figuring out a way to get into the ceiling when we heard the door and darted to the darkest corners. I mentally swore when neither of us had the time to shut the outside door, letting strongly blown rain drops dampen the first bit of floor.

'Get rid of all traces.'

My eyes narrowed. The Dr Crane I'd seen on the news, with the stupid glasses and constant calm demeanour.

'Better torch the whole place,' said one of the men with him.

'All right.' Crane was frowning at the open door.

'Come on,' I said in my head, 'can't you see out there? It's very windy. It was the wind that opened that. Go on, be dumb.'

The men were throwing alcohol and petrol around the house. At the same time, Bruce and I slipped out, he toward the bathroom where one had gone, I to a different corner from which I had more room to strike. They all turned around when they heard a mirror in the bathroom smash, though I didn't move and act on their fright, instead keeping up the theatrics.

The men hastily tossed petrol around the room I stood in, and one lit a lighter. Batman leapt out of nowhere and smashed it out of his arm. I leapt, also out of seemingly nowhere, and collided with the man as he started to attack Batman. I rolled onto the floor and snuck back into the shadows, and was about to check the rest of the building when I heard gas behind me. A white mist came out of Crane who had decided to don hessian mask and Batman swiped through it, trying to clear the air in front of him. I didn't think anything of it, for a second and leapt back onto a man rushing through the house, swiping my cape through the air and knocking him out as he tried to keep up with the movements.

I heard a heavy stumble from boots only Batman and I wore. I moulded into the shadows and watched as Batman stumbled around, clearly seeing something I couldn't.

'Having trouble?'

To me, that voice sounded just like Dr Crane, albeit a little more sadistic, but Batman recoiled further and fell over with a thud onto the old floor. I narrowed my eyes as I studied the room and moved behind Crane.

'Take a seat,' he said, laughing as Batman recoiled further and tossing his remaining petrol onto him. 'Have a drink. You look like a man who takes himself too seriously. Do you want my opinion?' Crane reached into his pockets so I hurried as quickly as I could to get a good angle on him, bracing myself with a foot flat on the wall, coiling like a spring.

Batman was throwing his arms around, eyes focusing on strange angles. It all but confirmed hallucinations.

Crane flicked on a lighter. 'You need to lighten up.' He threw it at Batman, though I leapt forward and punched it out of the way, so it lit up the corner of the room first in a glow of orange against the rotting wood.

'Argh!' Crane recoiled in surprise and went to shower me in the same gas, but I'd seen to avoid it. His yell resonated with Batman, who fell further back away from us. I slammed my hand forward and caught Crane's wrist, pushing it back. His eyes widened in fear when I grabbed his neck and sent his other hand startlingly quickly toward my eyes. I parried that by twisting my arm, taking his hand with it, to block his punch with my elbow and seized him by the collar of his shirt. Adjusting the assignment of my strength I moved my weight lower and threw him, before he could react, to the on-fire corner.

I turned and slid across the floor for Batman and grabbed him by the cape and shoulder, pulling him into a stand.

Again I spoke my words only in my head. 'Time to leave.'

He was still strong enough to have a grasp of his mind, so he knew we were jumping out of the window, which made my job easier. We stood at the edge and readied for the jump, leaping forward.

My cape, which, naturally, has lightning patterns and tiny little fork lightning designed edges, snapped open as we fell and we landed on a lower roof. Batman was writhing around, still blowing away something I couldn't see. He went to grab his microphone to talk to Alfred, but I pinned him down as he was making a mess of that.

'A- gde- the- ba-,'

'OI!' I said in my normal voice, making his head snap to me, 'Focus! You're making more fuss than Earle.'

'… … Evelyn?!'

'Well done,' I said, not sparing him wit, 'now come on, get up.'

'The gas… poisoned…' he said, as I pulled him up and put his arm over my shoulders.

'I did in fact realise,' I said calmly, walking him smoothly along.

'Aa…' his weight deadened.

'Ah, shit,' I grumbled, for lack of anything better to say and drew in a breath. My car wasn't too far away. I spread my cape and jumped, dragging Bruce with me. I opened the back of my car, put him in, rolled over the top to the driver's side, slipped in and threw off my cowl, which was a swept back design like wind or water in a storm, and slammed the car on. A couple of pedestrians stepped back, uncertain, as I sped past them onto the road. I doubt they'd see a Mercedes very often in the narrows. I wove through traffic and took the necessary shortcuts, though only a Tumbler could jump the waterfall so I was heading for the main entry of Wayne Manor.

The gates came into view after a short while and I sped up, knowing the damp road would be clear.

'ALFRED!' I yelled at the gigantic manor when I pulled up and heaved Bruce out of the car. The butler appeared half a minute later as we reached the doors.

'Dr Pendragon?'

'Don't ask,' I said plainly.

Ever the master of everything, Alfred didn't stop and simply sprang into action, heading for the kitchen. I took Bruce, who helped only occasionally with the odd stumble, to his room and dropped him carefully onto his made bed. I ripped off his cowl, turned his head side to side and then put two fingers over the vein in his neck, my other hand ripping off his gloves.

Alfred hurried in, carrying a mountain of supplies. 'What's wrong with him?'

I once again admired him for not asking what happened, but simply focusing on then and there. 'Heart rate too high, he'll start overheating soon; it's not raining or cold in here. There's a drug in his system, Alfred.'

He nodded. 'Thank goodness you're here, then.'

I started unbuckling the Kevlar of his suit. 'Got a needle?'

He nodded and hurried out again.

I pulled his suit off, releasing a lot of trapped heat from between the suit and the cloth underneath it. I put the pieces down and pulled him up the bed until his head was on a pillow. I was readjusting said pillow to make his head straight and level when Alfred returned, swiftly passing me a needle.

I turned back to the bed. 'Sorry about this; you'll probably think your blood's being sucked out by a bat.' It slipped into a vein correctly and I drew out as little as I dared then straightened up.

'Keep him cool, Alfred, and as calm as you can. He's in a dream-like space, so what he can sense of his surroundings will affect how calm he is.'

The worried, yet still composed butler nodded and walked to the other side of the bed. I ran out of the room yelling over my shoulder. 'I'll be back by morning!'

I drove too fast for most on the rainy roads to Wayne Enterprises, where I took off my suit and threw on tracksuit pants and a shirt and headed for the lab in Applied Sciences. The lights were off. Guess I was doing this myself, then.

I spent four and a half hours in the lab, taking shots of coffee to keep me awake. I swore when I found out what it was, but didn't take a moment to think on it and ran for the lift, slamming buttons with an oh-my-god-why-does-it-never-shut-quickly-ever-damn-time-this-is-Applied-Sciences-for-goodness-sake-why-haven't-we-altered-our-lift-after-all-these-years-I'm-losing-the-will-to-live type annoyed glance.

Those who are enjoying the casual, friendly and teasing relationship between the two are going to love the next chapter, so thank you for your support!

I've had some requests for additions to the story, and I'll try my hardest to incorporate them as best I can.

Thank you once again to the in-depth reviewers who make me smile and feel happy that you can see the little things I add.

It's not possible to have all the different aspects of the story at the same time constantly, but I'm working to keep the balance with action, combat, chill time and other fancy life things.