Chapter 9: Bringing in the feds
After Thomas's escape seconds earlier, Bruce had stormed back inside and past his butler telling him not to disturb until he was done. What his young master meant with done, Alfred, Mr. Fox and Selina found out minutes later.
The three of them wait in the study for Bruce to come outside his cave, and when he does he updates the situation to them by saying; "I just got off the phone with Detective Gordon. I told them to look out for Thomas and the stolen car."
"Given how dangerous Thomas is, do you really think the police will be able to keep him locked up if they capture him?" Alfred asks, standing in front of Bruce unlike Selina and Mr. Fox who are sitting on the couch. Well, Mr. Fox sits and Selina lies flopped out.
"So, if I get this straight, Bruce's twin brother was locked up in your garage the entire time?" Mr. Fox asks, still baffled about the whole situation.
Bruce ignores Mr. Fox and replies to his butler's questions; "Of course not! Which is why I told Detective Gordon that once he finds the car and my brother, he has to bring them both back to my manor."
Then the threesome watch the young billionaire head over to the door, saying; "As for right now, I decided to turn Thomas over to federal custody once he's captured. You three talk among yourselves while I go and make some calls."
Soon as Bruce is out the door, Mr. Fox asks; "Why didn't I know there was a boy in the garage?"
Alfred grumbles as he stares at the empty doorway, ignoring Mr. Fox; "Ever since the mess with Galavan, Master Bruce is addressing threats to his life more seriously." Then he turns, addressing the smirking girl on the couch; "Look at him, he's acting like a wartime president."
"Mr. Wayne also never told me Bruce had a twin brother!"
Selina waves her hand absently to Mr. Fox as signal to keep his mouth still and addresses to Alfred; "He should in times like this, Alfred. I don't know about you, but I'm glad he no longer acts like the timid little boy I once met down that hallway." Then, adding with a dreamy grin; "Though, he still has the cuteness factor."
"Well, I think we've both done a lot to toughen him up over the past few years, Miss Kyle."
Mr. Fox opens his mouth but Selina is faster and as she jumps to her feet she walks past Alfred with a cocky smug; "Don't flatter yourself, Jeeves. It was me doing all the toughening up, remember. All you did was doing a little boxing while I took him to the streets. I taught him everything there is to know. I even taught him to jump rooftops"
"When did Master Bruce learn to do that?" Alfred turns on his heels and follows Selina to the kitchen where he finds her at her usual spot, the fridge.
The butler wants to stop her but she points him to the kitchen table, adding; "You sit down and I will prepare us something. Trust me, I even learned Bruce how to cook."
Alfred can't believe his own ears. Master Bruce can cook as well? What else did she taught him?
"This is going to be so tasty!" Selina cries gleefully which knocks Alfred back from his thoughts and sees the young girl scramble to the kitchen bench, staggering with eggs, a frying pan, waffle-maker and lots of other things. As she paces by the butler, the frying pan slides from the stack and almost lands on Alfred's feet.
"Watch it, Miss Kyle!" Alfred grumbles, picking up the cooking item and hands them over to the grinning girl.
Selina takes the pan and says; "Oh, you know what they say; you can't make an omelette without breaking a few legs."
Alfred shakes his head and even though his mind tells him not to react on it, he replies; "Eggs, Miss Kyle. You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs."
"Really?" Selina asks as she breaks an egg on the edge of the bowl and tosses the shell up to the bin. It falls on the floor instead. "Then I have to make some apologies, starting with Bruce."
Alfred's eyes fill with fear as his mind tries to figure out what she meant with that. Selina, noticing it; "Relax. It's not like I broke his legs." Alfred sighs in relieve and picks up the shell, dropping it into the bin. Then Selina adds with a grin; "It's the first thing I said to him before I taught him to cook so we first went out to break a few legs."
"Okay, I'll bite," Alfred sighs in defeat and plants his butt back on the kitchen seat. "You taught Bruce how to cook?"
Selina nods and throws another shell to the bin. It lands on the floor again. "Yeah, but don't expect too much of it. So far he can warm up a can of spaghetti."
"Aren't you gonna clean that up?" Alfred points at the shell, along with the milk she spilled when she tried to add it to the eggs.
Selina glances at the mess briefly and says; "Yeah, I'll do that right after breakfast."
Bruce walks into the kitchen and tells Alfred and Selina; "I talked with the director of the FBI and they will be the ones Thomas will turned over too. With three counts of attempted murder, he will be facing domestic terrorism charges considering that he's working with hostile elements on U.S. soil, using military grade munitions."
Selina stacks a few waffles on a plate and buries them under a lot of sticky maple syrup while Alfred keeps a shocked, watchful eye on what's she's doing.
The street girl looks up and asks; frowning; "How are you connected to the FBI?"
"They just happen to be one of many friends my company made through various dealings with the government."
Selina nods understandably and faces her 'cooking' again as she notices the butter in the frying pan has melted. Alfred looks on in horror as she drops bread into the big pool of melted butter and starts making French toast.
Bruce proceeds watching for a brief moment as well and then says as he turns to face the door to walk out; "I also told Detective Gordon that he has until morning to find the car and my so called brother. I guess I will make a few other calls before breakfast."
Alfred pulls his eyes off Selina's cooking and darts them over to the doorway and asks, alarmed; "What happens in the morning?"
"The feds will be here and handling Thomas will become their responsibility!" Bruce hollers as he walks down the hallway. A few minutes later the young billionaire has stationed himself in his cave again.
Mr. Fox who had retreated back into the cave as well to fix the laptop's hard-drive glances shortly at the young boy as he makes a few other phone calls.
After the calls the young billionaire re-joins Selina in the study to eat her cooked breakfast. Even though Alfred objected really hard and told them it was junk, they ate it with taste. The butler however, had to stop himself from gagging each time the two teens took a mouth full.
As the two teens eat, the morning sun started to rise and beams slightly through the study curtains. Bruce looks over and says, pondering; "Detective Gordon regrets not being able to find Thomas before the given time."
Selina looks up and replies; "I bet he's probably kicking himself about having to hand this matter over to the feds."
"Yeah, well, cops aren't really fond of the FBI taking control of cases from them."
Selina snorts at Bruce's comment and wants to put another mouthful of her watery omelette when the three of them hear multiple whirling sounds coming from outside.
"They're here!" Bruce jumps to his feet while Selina still has her fork hovered near her open mouth. Then, she quickly follows her friend out and into the backyard.
Back in the manor, Mr. Fox joins Alfred by the study window as they look outside, watching five UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters with the initials; FBI on their tails flying around the Manor.
Four eight men teams fast-rope down into the back and front yard and a team of sharpshooters come down on the roof from the 5th chopper. They all take their positions.
As the choppers leave, one of the SWAT team members approaches the two teens and asks; "Excuse me, but are you Bruce Wayne?"
The man looks at Bruce as he asks the question and Selina snorts before Bruce can reply; "Duh, unless you think Bruce is a girl's name!"
"Yes," Bruce quickly says and holds out his hand to shake the man's, and then adds with a chuckle; "And this is Selina Kyle."
"I'm agent Ivory of the FBI. We're just securing the perimeter of your manor right now. Agents Baldwin and Hayes will be arriving shortly. Once they get here, they'll discuss the next course of action."
Bruce nods firmly and replies; "Understood!"
Behind the two teens, Alfred rushes regally outside the house to join the activity and Bruce turns to face his butler; ordering him to get the blueprints of the mansion so Agents Baldwin and Hayes can overlook them when they arrive, in case they want to put some security teams inside as well.
Twenty minutes later, four black Chevy Tahoe's arrive at the front of the mansion. The threesome wait there to meet the new arrivals.
"Bruce Wayne?" One of the agents asks as he approaches them.
Bruce takes a step forward and answers; "Yes sir."
"I'm Agent Baldwin, FBI. This is my partner, Agent Ashley Hayes. She'll be the head of your security during the time of this operation while I run the hunt for Thomas from the Gotham field office. Any important developments will be relayed to you like the agreement you made with our director."
Bruce nods and smiles, politely; "Thank you, Agent Baldwin. Agent Hayes, this is my guardian and butler Alfred Pennyworth and this is my…friend Selina Kyle."
"More like de-facto girlfriend and bodyguard," Selina points out with a smug.
"It's a pleasure to meet you all," Agent Hayes says with a polite smile. "I assume you already have an internal blueprint of the mansion for me to look at?"
Alfred nods and answers, extremely politely; "Yes ma'am. It's in the study."
"Well, let's go inside and have a look," the woman says and then everyone follows Bruce into Wayne Manor.
So, what do you think?
