AN: Thank you WolfDaughter, Eset, Becca, and Velvet Shadow for your comments on my recent update, I really appreciate them. Thank you VeltaIO and Fireinu for your comments on part two and one, again I am very glad to hear that you are enjoying my flight of fancy here:) Hopefully there will only be two more parts at the most after this one and again hopefully they don't take too long to churn out. Thanks to my Betas, they are awesome ppls and remember to feed the muses with the FDK, you get more fic that way ;)
See part one for legal stuff...
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Matt blindly walked into his brother's outer office a half hour after dropping Beth off at her door. He was a bit preoccupied by his fight with Beth - how to tell Terry what it had been about? He just knew that Terry was going to be ticked off. He also knew what their carelessness meant. Matt could kiss any more rides in the Batmobile goodbye, at least for the foreseeable future, possibly forever. So the fact that he didn't see the tall, well-dressed dark-skinned man sitting in one of the chairs littering the room was excusable. He didn't notice the man, not until he deliberately drew Matt's attention by speaking to him.
"You have grown much dramatic one, no-one could use you as bait anymore, could they?"
The cultured and rich voice was one that Matt wasn't likely to ever forget. He stopped dead in his tracks and spun on his heel to face the speaker, falling automatically into a defensive crouch. The man seemed to approve of Matt's wariness, because he smiled.
"You!" Matt stared at the Stalker, white-faced. "What are you doing here – in my brother's office?"
Terry had heard Matt's panicked voice in his office because he quickly came out and tried to calm his brother down. "Relax Matt, he's here by my invitation."
"Invitation? Yours?" Matt exploded incredulously. "Ter – "
"Yes, my invitation." Terry cut off whatever else Matt had been about to say. "Now c'mon into my office and I'll explain." Terry tried to guide his younger brother's feet into walking in the right direction, but his legs had locked into place. 'Dammit! I totally forgot to take what Matt's reaction might be into account when I brought Stalker back here.' Even though Matt was no longer what anyone could call a lightweight, Terry could see no other way out of this situation. He shrugged mentally, and bodily picked his younger brother up – seemingly without effort – to carry him into his inner office.
Neither Terry nor Matt saw the Stalker's raised eyebrow at this casual display of strength from the man he knew to be Batman. Stalker had been impressed many times already by the man the 'boy Bat-man' had grown into. The first was when he had met the Batman early this afternoon and the cowled hero hadn't been frightened or cowed at Stalker's attack. Then he had been impressed a second time when the Batman had accepted Stalker's offer to help. And yet again when he accepted Stalker's word as his bond, that he would not bring harm to any of his loved ones.
Such honour was rare among men in the day and age they lived in – rare enough that he began to question his hunt of the man the bat-spirit inhabited. This last unthinking show of physical power from Terry, along with the care he had shown his younger sibling, had just reinforced Stalker's doubts. This was not a man to be hunted - glorious though the hunt might have been - this was a man you held in high esteem.
While Stalker ruminated on his former prey's honour and worth, Terry managed to get his younger brother into his private office. Terry also somehow contrived to get the door closed behind them without ignominiously dropping Matt, something Matt would be extremely grateful for when he came back to himself. Which he did, as soon as Matt was no longer faced with his kidnapper from so long ago.
Safely ensconced in Terry's private office, Matt forced his body to relax from its tense, battle-ready posture. His eyes were still more than a bit wild though, as he burst out suddenly, "Dammit Terry, what is that guy doing here? And I don't mean just in your office here, but what is he doing in Gotham at all?"
Matt knew that his older brother could see his fear and that made him cranky, so he just continued ranting. "For crying out loud Ter – the guy's a whacko! His self-proclaimed main goal in life is to hunt you down, like some kind of wild beast, and kill you! He wants your freaking head as a trophy to hang on his freaking wall!" Terry's gaze was somber as he looked at his younger brother. He said simply,
"Goals change Matt, you should know that better than anyone. Well, other than me that is." He flashed Matt a quick grin of co-conspiracy, but then sobered again. "When certain opportunities present themselves you have to either pass on them and be left wondering – or seize them with both fists and use them to best of your ability. Stalker's presence here is just such an opportunity. One that I have seized and am making use of for my own benefit. With the situation we are dealing with at the moment, his skills could prove very useful. And Matt, you don't have to worry. He's sworn an oath to me that he is not going to go after any of my loved ones while he's here. None of them, not for any reason."
Matt flushed in shame. He hated it when Terry or Bruce made him realize he was just reacting in a knee-jerk fashion rather than thinking things through. It was bad enough that he had frozen in the outer office when he saw the hunter. Trying to hide his shame behind sarcasm, he asked caustically, "So what skills of the oh-so-great hunter could Wayne Enterprises possibly have a use for – " he paused as something occurred to him. Something he really should have remembered before.
"Or is it someone else that needs Stalker's skills?" Matt wanted to smack himself in the forehead. Just because Stalker was in the offices didn't mean that his presence there was in any way related to Wayne Enterprises. After all, the fact that Stalker knew the face under the cowl had been one of the major clues Matt had used to figure out his brother was Batman. If the hunter hadn't known, why had he made such a point of snatching Matt way back then to use as bait for the hero?
"Actually Matt, it's both. You remember what I told you and Bruce about on the drive back to the Manor last night, right?"
Matt nodded, frowning in puzzlement, "Yeah, something about some strange destructive man-like thing made out of a green-glass-looking type substance." 'Of course I haven't forgotten,' Matt thought with some exasperation, 'you didn't forget something that freaky in a hurry.'
"Well, he was the reason the alarm went off, cutting our training session short last night. Greenie also struck again this afternoon – Bruce can fill you in on the details later, he's got all the information in his office – that's where I ran into Stalker. He'd come to Gotham on some other business, but it ended up falling through. As he was now at loose ends, he decided to seek me out and see if he could offer me any help." Terry prudently decided not to tell Matt what the other business had really been. His younger brother really didn't need to know what Stalker's intentions originally had been - since he might have found that little bit of information more than a bit disturbing.
"Why would he do that?" Matt asked suspiciously. He could tell that his older brother wasn't telling him the whole story, but there was enough truth to what he had been given that he couldn't tell where the holes were.
"Because Matt, if you remember, I once helped him track down this guy, Falseface, that the NSA wanted. I guess he wants to help me out to return the favor – y'know, wipe the slate clean so to speak."
"Oh… okay I guess." Matt was still unsure, but knew better than to beat a dead horse, so he dropped the subject. The last thing he needed was for his brother to think he was being unreasonably stubborn about it.
That's of course when he remembered why he'd been so distracted entering Terry's office in the first place. 'The Beth situation – with me and Terry's starring parts in it.' It seemed so petty compared to what Terry was already juggling, but it wasn't. Beth's suspicions over what she'd seen could have serious repercussions in the long run - unless the trouble was nipped in the bud.
"We goofed up last night Terry," Matt said. Now he had his brother's wandering attention focused back in on him in a hurry.
"What?"
"Someone saw when you-know-who dropped me off. Beth Garden, my girlfriend and also Batman's number one fan at Hamilton Hill High." Terry raised an eyebrow. His brother was dating a girl who was a 'bat' enthusiast? Interesting. Matt shot Terry a speaking glare, one that told his brother to not even bother saying anything. Terry smirked at him.
"She was on an errand for her mother when she saw the Batmobile go into the alley. Hoping to get a better look of what might be going on, she slipped into the shadows across the street to watch. Needless to say, I am guessing she was a tad stunned to see me climbing out of the famous car. Then, of course, the way I'd wasn't all freaked around Batman... Well, she ended up giving me these looks at school all day that made me feel like I'd grown a second head or something. All this time she was waiting for me to say… something. I, of course, had no idea why she was acting so strange all of a sudden and so I think I might have overreacted when she confronted me on her doorstep."
"Overreacted – how?" Terry asked with trepidation. He really hoped that Matt hadn't blown it and let a fan in on the secret – that would just be a bad scene.
"I got angry and yelled – accused her of spying on me." Matt said, ashamed.
"Her reaction to that was… ?" Terry prompted.
Matt flushed, "She told me that I was full of myself and started crying. When I went to go and comfort her she ran away, slamming her door in my face. I came straight here afterwards to tell you, and ask you what to do about it."
Terry sighed with relief. It didn't sound that bad really. Certainly not disaster-level like it could have been. "Matt you know that you can't tell her right? We can't afford to let anybody else in. There are too many non-participants involved with you, Max, and Dana as it is. We're just going to have to come up with something that would explain it, like it was a rescue. Or is there a reason that you didn't already offer her that as an explanation?"
Matt felt really dumb for missing something so obvious. "Nope, no reason – I just froze." He rolled his eyes. "It seems to be a habit that I am getting into lately."
Terry laughed at the disgusted expression on Matt's face. He said grinning, "So saying it was a rescue wouldn't be a problem for you – not too un-macho for a strapping fellow as yourself?"
Matt shook his head, "No, in fact…" he brightened up a bit. "I could even show her various bruises from our last little 'lesson' to back my sob story up." It was Terry's turn to roll his eyes, at his brother's griping this time.
Matt continued slyly, "Besides, with the out-of-the-ordinary places I end up getting some of those marks, things could possibly end up getting rather interesting… " He wiggled his eyebrows in a manner he thought looked lecherous - and Terry thought looked ludicrous.
Terry cuffed him upside the head and said jokingly, "You little pervert – get outta here!" Matt got, laughing. He knew talking to Terry would put everything into perspective.
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Terry and Bruce had done it. Matt really hadn't doubted that they would, but it was still somewhat shocking to him how fast the two of them solved crap like this on a semi-regular basis. Residue left behind at one site by their 'glassman' had yielded valuable information about his nature. This had helped them to figure out a way to trap 'green and glassy'. It hadn't really ended up being all that complicated either. It turned out that since the mineral Olivine had an incredibly high iron content, it was susceptible to magnetism. Granted, there were going to have to be some very powerful magnets to be effective – but still, it was something they could work with to capture and hold the guy.
Bruce, of course, had set the R&D department of Wayne Enterprises on the project immediately. Their assignment – they were to build a lightweight and portable version of a floor magnet without sacrificing any of the power potential. Amazingly, they had called back up to Bruce's office near the end of the workday and said that they would have a working prototype by early evening. They asked if Bruce wanted to know as soon as they were done. He said yes.
So that is how Matt was still, at quarter after nine on a Friday night, sitting in Bruce's office when the call came up that they had finished. He'd transferred the video game that he had been beta-testing for Terry and Max to a console in Bruce's office so that he could keep the old man company while Terry and Stalker were off somewhere else in the complex doing who knows what. Bruce had spent the waiting time alternating between catching up on some projects he had let fall behind due to more immediate concerns, and quizzing Matt on various trivia bits out of the blue. Now though, the waiting was done and the prototype was on its way up to be demonstrated.
'Finally!' Matt was wired after the long wait. He couldn't wait to see the newest 'bat-gadget'. It didn't matter to him that the large magnet was probably only going to get used only this one time by the dark knight; it was still going to be used by Batman against a foe. That made it a bonafide bat-gadget in his books, the first new one since Matt had been around. Matt had to admit he might be making too much of nothing, but it still felt like a milestone of sorts for him. He firmly squashed the goofy grin that wanted to escape – 'bat-clan' members didn't smile. Not even the peripherals, it just wasn't the way they worked.
Hoping Bruce didn't pick up on any of the stuff going on in his mind, Matt tried to keep his sillier thoughts to himself as he watched with a great deal of interest as the technicians set up the large, very powerful, floor magnet. The thing really was pretty cool, especially since it was thought up and built - for the most part - in only a matter of hours. Matt was truly in awe of the Wayne Enterprises R&D department's innovative skills after seeing this.
Fascinated, Matt stared at the machine as they put things into place. What they had come up with in order to make the thing portable was mainly replacing the traditional flat metal plate with a thin wire mesh that looked strangely like a spider's web. It could be rolled up or folded down into a compact package. The representatives that had been sent up to demonstrate explained, as they laid it out on the floor, that the mesh would electro-statically adhere to any surface it was flattened against when the control unit was powered on. The control unit itself was pretty schway too with the way it could be set to different levels of magnetism with a simple slide – very retro.
The main presenting scientist from R&D attached some leads from the control unit to a board that he had plugged into the wall outlet. Bruce frowned and the presenter happened to look up in time to catch it. He gulped uneasily and hurried to explain,
"I know, you specified portable sir, and it will be. The leads going to the board are what the power pack is going to be attached to. The board is just a metering tool telling us which rating of power pack we are going to need for it."
Bruce's face smoothed out and he nodded in understanding. It was the last step for any gadget after all the other bugs had been worked out. He motioned for them to continue.
Pushing the slide over to the least magnetic setting, the presenting scientist had his assistant set up four plastic tubes of differing gauge strengths and topping them all with identical metal balls. Then he waved his assistant to hurry back out of the way as he turned back to face Bruce and Matt.
Clearing his throat nervously, the R&D representative began to speak. "The netting is made up of a voluted spiral of magnetized wire held in place statically with precisely placed radials, each strand of which is wound in copper for maximum electro-magnetic power range." Heads nodded, giving him his cue to continue:
"Okay, I am going to demonstrate the power settings now using a form of reverse relative gravity. That is, what I mean is that all the metal balls are the same density, weight and composition and the only thing that is different about when the magnet will affect them is the strength of the tube keeping it up.
As I route more power to the magnetic net via the slide on the remote here-" he nervously held the remote up to show them what he was talking about, "- what will happen is as the magnet gets powerful enough it will pull the ball down, overcoming any resistance keeping it away. Any questions so far?"
He looked to see if he had lost his audience, but neither young Matt McGinnis' nor the elderly Bruce Wayne's eyes were glassy from incomprehension or boredom. And neither of them looked like they needed any clarification on anything he had already said. 'Huh, fancy that.' Their obvious intelligence had the unfortunate effect of unnerving the poor scientist, who was used to having to put everything into much plainer words. It made him stumble a bit over the rest of his explanation.
"Er, um – well, I guess there's no questions so – umm, that just leaves the technical specs of the test here. Using a formula that takes into account the strength of each gauge of tube and the amperages…"
Frowning, Matt tried to make some conversions on the fly based on what was being explained to them. 'Hmm, if I am understanding what this guy is saying right, then I think that the last tube would be the equivalent of 1000lbs – that really isn't enough. Not when our glassy green vandal is approximately 650lbs and can put up one hell of a counterforce against whatever we are using to try and pin him…' Damn his head hurt.
Seeing the unsure look on Matt's face, the scientist was quick to reassure both members of his audience, "Of course that's only a fraction of what this baby will be able to pull – we've tentatively rated it for much more – but for demonstration purposes, this is the most practical." Flustered beyond any notions that he might have made to being polished in his presentation, the scientist turned to watch as he began to slide the control lever over. It seemed like he had barely began to move it before the first tube was crushed with a loud noise and the metal ball thumped to the nets' surface. The floor shook with the impact. Each successive pipe was crushed and its ball was pulled inexorably down as the scientist from R&D kept slowly nudging the slide over.
The noise from each ball's landing barely faded before the next would go down. Matt felt the floor quivering, like some kind of a giant had taken four steps across it. But then, when the shaking should have stopped – it didn't. It kept going. And the dull roaring Matt had thought was echoes from the loud crashes earlier was coming from outside of the office as well. 'What the?'
He wasn't left wondering for long; as the closed door to Bruce's office was smashed open and the 'glassman' burst into the room, roaring. The expensive indirect lighting of Bruce's office made the roughly human-shaped green form glow in an eerie manner. 'Creepy.' Matt thought with a slight grimace. It was obvious that the intruder hadn't expected anyone to still be there. He stopped dead and fell silent at the sight of the other people in the room.
'Damn, there is really no way for this to end good.' Matt thought tensely as he prepared to defend whomever the guy went after. It was then that Bruce caught Matt's attention and motioned towards the still powered up magnet – 'Yes!' If he could manage to turn up the power for the magnet and maneuver the freaky gem-guy it would all be over. He would be trapped, end of story.
Trying not to be obvious about it, Matt looked over to where the remote was still grasped, lax, in the terrified presenter's hand. Not the best scenario, but workable. Matt was going to have to launch himself across the room and grab the remote, probably ending up somewhere on the magnetized mesh when he slowed down. He was then going to have to try and make sure he slid the silly retro lever the right way, increasing rather than decreasing the magnetism, hopefully all before 'freaky gem-guy' caught him or swatted him flat like a bug. The rather gory mental image the thought summoned made Matt shudder. 'Oooh, not such a good visual to get in your head when you need all your concentration, Matty-boy.'
Chastising himself, Matt thought inwardly 'actions more than words, c'mon now.' He clearly visualized what he wanted to happen, and then sprung forward, putting it into motion. Coiling his legs under him, Matt pushed off. He cleared almost the entire area of the room with one leap, which was good. What wasn't so good was how fast 'glassman' responded to the sudden move. Matt had barely managed to get his hands on the remote when he felt himself being batted away back towards Bruce. All he could think after he landed was, 'Ow.'
'Well, that was less than a stellar success,' Matt thought derisively as he started to stealthily inch back towards Bruce. His breath caught and his eyes filled with water involuntarily with the pain when something in his left side ground together at the slight motion, 'Damn, the bastard musta cracked a few ribs when he hit me.' This was really not going to be fun. He was drawn out of his single-minded drive of 'get back to Bruce' when he heard the freaky gem-guy start yelling.
"No! I will not be trapped again! Do you hear me Wayne? I won't let you trap me again!"
Matt looked back to the last place he had seen 'greenie', "Wha-?" What on earth could have his gritty knickers in such a knot? 'Oh.' Matt saw what. It seemed that in his haste to swat Matt, 'freaky gem-guy' had stepped onto a corner of the magnetic netting and now his one foot was stuck fast – well, sorta. The power setting wasn't set very high on the magnet so the guy's frantic pulling of his foot, trying to get free, was lifting the netting off the floor.
That is of course when Stalker and Terry - suited up as Batman - made their entrance, panicking the guy even more. 'Wonderful, could things get any more tense?' He should have kept a lid on his thoughts because apparently they could - and did.
The sight of the city's hero seemed to galvanize freaky gem-guy back into focus. He stopped his panicky pulling and ripped his foot free, hard enough that he left a few pieces, cleanly sheared off, still stuck fast to the netting. He didn't seem to miss them though, as he lunged across the room to grab up first Matt and then Bruce, summarily slinging them over both shoulders, before spinning and facing Batman and Stalker.
'Ow. Okay - not the most gentle handling I've ever had,' Matt thought with a wince as his ribs protested the summary scooping and slinging. He worried for a moment about how Bruce would hold up to the rough handling – sure, Matt knew Bruce was a tough old guy and could deal with a lot of stuff, but the operative word in that was old. Matt's attention was drawn back to the office when he heard the Glassman bark in a way honoured in time by villains everywhere,
"Back off Batman, and call off your freak too, or I hurt Wayne and the kid. You've seen what I can do to inanimate objects, what kind of damage do you think I would do to something living?"
"No! Don't hurt them." Terry backed away from the ruined doorframe, herding Stalker with him as he moved. He clearly remembered the wreckage he had sifted through, wreckage that had once been a building before this guy had tangled with it.
Bidding for some time Terry asked, "Why are you doing this? What is your vendetta with Mr. Wayne and his company?" He was hoping for two things, one – an idea of how he could somehow get Matt and Bruce away from the guy. Nope, nothing was coming to him - slaggit! And two - he might get lucky and get even a crumb of a clue about who this guy used to be or what his problem was. He didn't. Again – nope, nothing.
The glassy green-hued vandal just backed out of the unobstructed doorway, holding his hostages in a tight grip as he kept a wary eye on the hero and his companion. In a ringing voice that still managed to convey his malevolence the creature warned them off, "Don't follow me. If you do, it will not go well for these two."
Terry nodded sharply, cursing inwardly. He really hated not having any information on who he was up against. It made him feel like he was bumbling around blind on an obstacle course, never very fun in his books. He had no choice but to give this guy a wide berth to make sure that Matt and Bruce weren't harmed. The creature disappeared into the night with an astonishing amount of speed. Much faster than either Terry or Stalker would have credited it was capable of attaining by itself, let alone burdened as it had been.
"I shall go and see if our quarry has left us anything to track," Stalker announced and loped off in the direction they had seen the green creature take. Terry rolled his eyes, "Yep, you do that. Me, I'll just go and see if he left us any clues up in the office." Terry snerked and thought irreverently, 'You can take the guy out of the jungle but you can't take the jungle out of the guy.'
By the time that Terry made it back up to Bruce's office and started to poke around he had gotten over his little snit at Stalker. He really hadn't been being fair. After all, neither of them were used to working with a partner. Or were conversant with each other's style in a way that was complimentary rather than adversarial. They would find a way to work it out.
His thoughts derailed, as his eye was caught by a flash of reflecting light in the area the scientists seemed to have used to set up their demonstration. Terry felt a rush of triumph. Laying on the very corner of something that looked like some kind of giant spider web were a few small shards of a familiar looking green glassy material. This could very well be the break that they were looking for, Terry thought as he quickly strode over to pick them up. It couldn't have come at a better time - seeing as the stakes had been upped from simple vandalism to kidnapping.
Terry was holding one of the shards up to the light and making a satisfied sound when Stalker walked back into the room. Terry acknowledged his return with a small gesture before abruptly turning to the scientists that were still in the room. They had been trying their best to fade into the woodwork, and when Batman addressed them they jumped. "You there, tell me - is this device finished?"
Unfortunately for the poor guy, Batman had singled out the same man who had been presenting the magnet to Bruce and Matt. The man who - though used to giving speeches - didn't ad-lib well under pressure. Shoved forward by his associates and sweating freely, the scientist stammered, "The magnet? Umm, no? B-but it can be, v-very soon. All w-we have left to do is to hook up the p-portable p-power supply. It should take about fifteen to twenty minutes."
Batman nodded sharply, "Good. Do it, and while you're at it – could you make the remote wireless?"
The scientists in the background garbled out mixed up affirmatives over each other, but the one in front still looked miserable. He stood wringing his hands and nervously sweating. Batman looked at the man levelly for a moment before he realized what was troubling him. He sighed, thinking 'I bet Bruce never had to deal with this kind of crap.'
"Listen, I don't want any of you to get into trouble for letting me have the magnet. If there is anyone you can call to get an okay from, go ahead. I have to go and do a few things right now anyway, while you're getting it put together." He reassured his own unknowing workers.
Batman heard a funny sound and turned around to see what could be making it. It was Stalker doing a remarkably poor job of hiding laughter behind a hand. Batman/Terry grabbed the snickering Stalker by the arm and dragged him from the room before he scared anyone. He muttered under his breath to the hunter. "Shut-up already. Jeez! So I have conscientious employees, it's not that funny."
"They are so timid, like a mini-pack of rabbits milling there. Yet the one that you singled out, he was different. He was just as scared as the others of you and I, but he stood his ground. What I found humourous was that he was protecting that gadget of his from you like some kind of mother beastie would protect their cub."
The mental image conjured up by Stalker's words made Terry stop dead in his tracks for a second. He could see it almost too clearly. He had to stifle a snicker of his own before he got back on track. Frowning, he shook his head and started to walk again, berating himself. "We don't have time for this. Matt and Bruce are in trouble, and all they have going in their favor is that so far this guy has made a point of never hurting anyone, just things – like buildings."
"I am sorry. My levity at the time was perhaps misplaced."
Terry was rummaging around in his belt as he listened to Stalker's apology. Finding what he had been searching for, Terry quickly became absorbed in studying it. It was what he had picked up off the floor in the office. Preoccupied, Terry waved off the request for forgiveness, "Don't worry about it, it's already been forgiven."
"What is that?" Stalker asked bluntly, breaking into Terry's examination of the object.
"Hunh? Oh, this?" Terry held up what looked like a piece of raw gemstone for Stalker to see. "It just might be the key to finding our green friend."
"How? How could such a small fragment of a gem help us find our prey?"
Terry laughed at the mystified expression on the hunter's face and explained. "Because it's not just a gem fragment, it's a piece of him. A piece that's been cleanly sheared off from the bottom of his foot. I think, and if I am right about where this fragment is from, then it's going to tell us where he's been recently. All I have to do is run a trace analysis on it and then match up the results to areas in the city."
Stalker nodded in understanding. "You are a canny a hunter as I in your own manner, Batman. Different hunting grounds and prey call for their own methods of tracking, don't they?"
Terry just winked.
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Tbc…