AN: This one is a bit long. :AN

.::Two weeks later::.

It had been a busy two weeks. Ever since he took out that gang of clowns he was desperately trying to figure things out. He tested himself on all the things he could think of. He was stronger, faster, could shoot webs from his wrists, stuck to walls, and had some sort of danger sense, which he decided to call a 'spider sense" considering 'tingles' did not exactly evoke confidence. Now he could swing from building to building, which he found out by accident, and his web-shots were becoming increasingly accurate. Part of him thought it was incredibly cool to have all this power and the other part wanted to use it to make the world safer.

All his searching about the splice shop and this weird splice turned up very little. He did find an article that the same day he was in the shop a customer was murdered and the investigation was still open but there was nothing else on the matter. When he went by the shop he did not find the man who gave him the splice and wondered exactly what was going on.

There had been no more Batman sightings in his nightly patrols but he did trounce the same gang of jokers three more times before they got the hint. Unfortunately now his tossed together costume was rather ragged. The clothes he wore on top of his old field hockey suit were ripped, singed, and had a few blood stains and his field hockey uniform was beginning to stretch. The uniform had been too tight to begin with, being a year old and now after such strenuous use the uniform was stretched to a point where it looked like a deflated balloon when he took it off.

"Mister Bishop, since you are paying so much attention I can tell you will easily answer the question I just asked."

Alex's head snapped up to see his history teacher Mr. Towns standing right in front of him. Desperately he looked up at the board and then back at his teacher. On the board "No Man's Land" was written.

"Sir, I wasn't paying attention, could you please repeat the question." He said after a moment.

Mr. Towns nodded. "I asked if anyone could tell me the significance of No Man's Land to Gotham."

"No Man's Land was a declaration on the city of Gotham shortly after an earthquake separated Gotham from the mainland of the United States."

"I did not ask for a definition." The wide Mr. Towns said walking back to the board.

"Yes, sir," Alex nodded. "It is significant to Gotham because once the city was retaken, or returned to a more civil state, the United States wanted to incorporate Gotham once again." He took a breath. "With support from Bruce Wayne and many other prominent citizens, Gotham was able to become an independent land mass free from the governing of the United States. In doing so Gotham opened itself up to foreign trade and leaps in technological development. In other words the technology that we use every day would have taken at least a decade longer to develop if Gotham would have rejoined the United States."

Mr. Towns nodded approvingly. "Very good Mister Bishop, it is quite hard to get mad at you when you for not paying attention when you have an 'A' in my class."

Alex smiled.

The bell rang and the students filed out of the class. It was lunch now and Alex had decided to eat on campus. As he walked through the throng he tried to think of where exactly he could get a new costume or at least one that would do. If he had to he could just rotate costumes between a few similar styles, maybe then they would think there was more than one of him, which could be helpful. Or he could just buy a few of the same thing so that once it wore out he could simply put on another. Also he was thinking about head gear, the make-up was getting a bit old after having to scrub harshly every time he wanted a clean face, though it did keep his complexion rather clear.

As he walked into the lunch room he dodged a hyper kid trying to keep up with his friends. Everyone but the kid could see that they weren't his friends and they desperately wanted him to leave.

"Honest, my dad knows all those guys." The kid was saying.

"Sure, Ronny, whatever. There is no way you dad could know the Gotham Heat. They are professional athletes and wouldn't be hanging around some low level tech." One of the kids 'friends' said. Honestly Alex couldn't tell one from the other being that they were all blonde with short hair and fashionably sporty clothes.

"My dad runs the machine that makes their uniforms." The kid said.

Alex's ears perked up. He suddenly looked at the kid, a machine that made a uniform. Machines could be hacked and while it wasn't the most legal thing in the world he was sure it would help in the grand scheme of things. The rest of their conversation faded as the group walked on with Ronny trailing them. Alex decided to follow Ronny home that day and see exactly where his father worked.

As he walked his spider-sense picked up, just slightly. He was beginning to be able to figure out the different kinds of sense that came up, this was not danger it was someone watching him. He stopped and acted like he was tying his shoe and stole a quick look around. It didn't take him long to find a familiar face looking at him. Standing up he waved and walked over to his watcher.

"Hey, Terry, what are you doing?"

"I'm just eating lunch." Terry looked down at the tray he held and the ominous looking piles of goop.

"You're a senior, why aren't you out there?" He waved toward the window.

"Sometimes you just need a boring day, you know what I mean?"

"Mr. Wayne is running you ragged?" Alex smiled. "He seems to have that effect on his workers."

"What do you mean?"

"My mom has been working late since she got the job at Wayne-Powers." Alex sat down at the table, deciding he could get something to eat after school now that he saw what they were serving. "I'm not stupid and I know why she is doing it. She doesn't want to have to slow down or have to think about things, I know how she feels. I just hope that she likes her job." He looked up at Terry and smiled. "Sorry, I don't talk to people much."

"It's alright, I get it." Terry poked at one of piles of goop on his tray. "It helps to have some friends."

"I'm a bit busy at home. I'm unpacking and putting things together."

"You don't have time for friends?" Terry looked up at him.

"They just aren't on my list of things I need right now, you know?"

"What is on your list of things you need?"

Alex looked out the window.

"His name is Mitchell Darrow, the man who killed my father." He breathed slowly, trying to contain his anger. "He tried to get out of the murder charge by pleading insanity, but they charged him and decided to move him to Arkham. He is going to be arriving in the next week."

"You've been too busy following the trial to do other things."

"Some people collect spoons, I follow murder trials." Alex looked back at Terry. "I have to go."

The rest of the day Alex went through the motions of his classes. At the end of the day he was even more resolute to follow Ronny home and find out exactly where his father worked. As the final bell rang he began to follow Ronny through the crowd and off campus. They walked through a nice little neighborhood around the school and close to a police department. Finally Ronny entered an apartment building with a doorman who noticed him. Alex pulled out his history book and walked up to the doorman.

"Ronny let me borrow his book and I was going to return it. I've been trying to catch him for a few blocks now."

The doorman nodded and let him through. Alex held the book at his side and slipped it back into his bag one he was out of sight. Suddenly he was very glad not to have a doorman, sure he wasn't intending on hurting Ronny or ripping off any of the tenants but how did the doorman know that. He followed Ronny to his apartment and made a note of it. He walked past the door and decided that he couldn't just wait in the hallway for Ronny's father to come home, if Ronny's father wasn't already home. Walking to a nearby window he tested if it would open and found it would but only just a bit. He would have to squeeze through. Slipping off his shoes and putting them inside his bag he webbed his bag in place on the ceiling. Just in case he would be spotted he sprayed a light cover of web over his head hiding his features but allowing for his to still see. He squeezed out the window and crawled on his belly to a window in Ronny's apartment. He preferred to climb walls like this as it gave him more contact with the wall.

Climbing toward the nearest window he peaked in and saw Ronny sitting on his bed playing a videogame. Continuing to the next window he found himself looking into the living room. He noticed pictures on the wall and that Ronny in fact had been telling the truth. Continuing to the next window he found Ronny's parents room. The lights were off and it was empty. Slowly he opened the window and squeezed through. He slowly lowered himself to the floor and began looking around.

He found what he was looking for, a work uniform and a company name. He noted the address, dropped the uniform where it was and squeezed out through the window and back to the hallway. He retrieved his bag and shoes and pulled the web off his face, which was not pleasant. Zipping up his jacket to hide the swath of grime on his shirt he put on his shoes as he went and waved to the doorman as he passed.

Alex headed for the nearest station that went to the industrial district and had a quiet ride over. The neighborhood Ronny lived in was a very clean neighborhood with plenty of police presence and very little crime. As he got closer to the industrial district he could see things getting farther away from the utopian suburbia. He reached the stop without incident and quickly found that the building he was looking for was not actually a building but one floor of a much larger building.

Looking up at the building and knowing know what suite twenty-two meant Alex groaned. He knew that what he was doing was technically breaking and entering, and stealing, and trespassing but he needed a suit and a homemade, patchwork thing wasn't cutting it. He knew for a fact that he couldn't afford the suit that this company made. Still need did not make it right for him to steal.

He walked up to the entrance and looked the large security desk. An idea popped into Alex's head and he walked over to the security guard.

"I'm here to debug the system in suite twenty-two."

The security guard eyed him suspiciously.

Alex showed him the ID card he had made while his father was alive. The security guard scanned the card and the persona of Ben Reilly filled the screen. He had made sure that it stated Ben Reilly was in fact a genius when it came to computers and though he was young he did in fact have three degrees in computer science and theory. The security guard still did not look impressed. He spoke into a little radio on his shoulder and was directed to suite twenty-two. As the guard told the tech on duty who was waiting to come up and forwarded a scan of the badge the tech on the other end said something very loud and very rude.

"Sorry, Mr. Reilly." The security guard straightened in his seat.

"Don't worry about it," Alex rolled his eyes. "I get that everywhere. I tried growing a mustache but that didn't exactly work to my benefit."

As he rode the express lift to level twenty through thirty he began to practice his story. Once the doors opened he strolled into the area and looked at the man on duty. He was relieved for some reason that the man bore no resemblance to the pictures at Ronny's house.

"I'm here to debug the system, corporate sent me over."

The tech's eyes just about popped out of his head. "No one told me?"

"Don't worry," Alex said walking over and placing his bag on the desk. "You have been doing a great job we just realized there was an error in the program."

"An error? What is it?" The tech made it too easy.

"Well, you have been manufacturing a test suit every month, correct?" Alex watched as the tech nodded. "What specifications are you using?"

"We were using the full array on the suit." The tech stammered. "With the new military contract out we wanted to make sure they would work against small arms fire and rifles. If we did more than that the treatments began to negate each other, the chemical compound isn't perfect for it."

Alex hid his shock, this was beyond his expectations.

"Alright and how were you disposing of the suits?"

"We were incinerating them." The tech nodded.

"You gave a full treatment and then incinerated the suit?"

The tech slapped his forehead. "It won't burn if it is fireproof."

"Exactly," Alex nodded glad there was something here. "All someone has to do is sift through the ashes we dispose of and our suits are no longer ours."

He sat down at the console and looked at the screen above.

"What we are going to do it fix this." His fingers flew across the keyboard, finding the program rather responsive he began to select treatments. "All we need now are measurements."

Alex hopped onto a small raised circle and stood still as the scanner passed over him. As the scanner whirled to a stop Alex walked back to the console and left the flabbergasted tech standing where he was. To hold appearances he left the suit a default black and had it begin production. The machine that took up a third of the room began to hum and after a surprisingly short time a suit rolled out on a short conveyer belt. He walked over to the suit and folded it neatly.

"Where is the incinerator?"

The tech dumbly pointed to another small machine across the room with a door that looked wrought iron and about a foot wide. As Alex walked by his bag he knocked it off the desk and began to pick it up, he slipped the folded suit into the bag and took out the large wad of webbing from before. Quickly he placed the webbing inside the machine, closed the door, and pressed the large red button. He took a step back and watched as the machine counted down and then burned the contents.

"You need to check the ashes, make sure that the disposed suits are actually disposed." He turned to the tech.

The tech obediently walked over to the machine and began to shut it down. Alex walked back to the desk picked up his bag and slipped out before the tech could ask any more questions. He nodded to the guard and made sure to check out using his fake ID card. He found that when you sign in and out of a place they are less likely to look for you, it was kind of like hiding in plain sight. Except he was using a fake name and without a record the cameras wouldn't pick up much beyond a person who claimed to be Ben Reilly and had just saved a company from embarrassment.

All in all, it was a very productive day.