A hand gently shakes Terry's shoulder in an attempt to wake him from his slumber. Sleeping on his stomach with the comforter barely covering his shirtless torso, he looks over at the clock by his bed to read 7:32 AM, meaning he arrived at his apartment only a few hours ago. The gentle shake is then paired with a whisper belonging to Mary McGinnis.

"Terry? Terry, wake up or you're going to be late."

"Huh? My class isn't till 10:30, mom," he mumbles. However, when the drowsiness lifts away, he remembers he no longer lives with his mother. "Wait, what are you doing here?"

"Did you forget? You promised you would drive Matt to school. I'll be late to the airport if I take him. Come on, get up." She grabs a hold of his sheets and rips them off him.

She frowns with worry when she finds dark bruises covering his back. Instead of listening to another strange explanation though, she simply sighs and walks out of his room to let him change. She has had enough arguments with him over the mysterious injuries he constantly collects.

She faces Matt, seated on a couch waiting for Terry to finish getting ready. "You're staying with your brother for a week so I expect you to behave. He's busy enough with his job and school, so no distractions; understood?"

"But why do I have to stay with him; he's such a dork," Matt whines.

"Would you rather stay with your Grandma Macy?"

Grimacing at the thought of staying with an old fashioned relative who pinches his cheeks at every given opportunity for a week, he simply shakes his head. "No."

"Good." She leans in to kiss his forehead just as Terry appears behind her dressed and running his fingers through his silky black hair trying to tame it. Turning, she hugs Terry. "Call me if you need anything."

"Don't worry about us, we'll be fine," Terry reassures her as she gives him a kiss on the cheek.

"I'll be dead before I even get to school," Matt grumbles as he crosses his arms.

"Matt, Grandma Macy," Mary warns. "And for heaven's sake, Terry, clean this place up and buy some food. You hardly have anything to eat."

"Ma!" Terry irritably retorts rolling his eyes.

"Love you too, sweetheart."

"Have a god trip, mom," Matt wishes as Mary picks up her bag and walks over to the door.

"Bye, and behave; both of you," she says leaving and closing the door behind her.

Terry looks down at his brother. "Ready to go?"

"I guess," Matt replies sluggishly getting up and swinging his bag onto his shoulder.

Terry pulls up in front of Matt's school. "I'll pick you up at four."

"Don't you mean three?"

"Uh, right. Three. Just a warning, don't be surprised if I'm a half hour late."

"I'd be surprised if you were a half hour early," Matt jokes with a grin on his face.

"Out, twip," Terry snaps as Matt opens the door and steps out.

Speeding off after making sure his brother disappeared into the building, Terry then picks up his phone and dials Max's number. Her eyes snap open when she hears her phone ringing beneath her pillow. Fishing it out, she looks over at the digital clock on her nightstand before pressing the green button. "You do realize others have to sleep," she greets.

"How is she?"

"Fine. She also happens to be sleeping; there's someone you haven't bothered yet."

"What's with you?"

"It's my first day off in two weeks!"

"Sorry about waking you up then."

"Yeah, right," she sighs not believing him.

"What did you find out about her?"

"Nothing much. Why do you care so much?"

"Her apartment was destroyed. I have a right to worry."

"Liar. You've destroyed buildings before with barely a reaction. Besides, you never gave the homeless victims a place to stay before. There's more isn't there."

Another call beeps on Terry's phone interrupting their conversation. "Gotta go, another call." He hangs up on Max before she could come back with a smart remark. "Yeah?"

Predictably, Bruce is the caller. "Terry, you're needed."

"Do you ever sleep?" He rhetorically asks. "Who is it this time?"

"Inque."

"Great," he sarcastically sighs before continuing, "Where is she?"

Inque was never an easy character to handle and Terry knows it. He always dreaded a confrontation with her, but he never dared complain; he is still learning from his mistakes and is thankful Bruce is patient during every encounter. Inque's mission today is to steal rocket specifications from Roqueteer Laboratories, and since she isn't expecting a vigilante to drop by this early in the morning, she takes her time. Batman appears on the roof's window and enters quietly landing on the ceiling's support beam.

"Little out of your league this time," Batman calls out making his presence known.

Inque looks up and spots the red mark across Batman's chest. "No such thing, Batman," she replies.

"The hard way it is then."

With that said, Batman starts his attack with an electric batarang that hits Inque in the stomach shocking her for a few seconds. She lunges at him stretching her body all the way towards the ceiling knocking him into a wall. She morphs her arm into a hammer and aims to strike him. However, she misses when he jumps out of the way and lands onto a large tank of liquid nitrogen. He uses a batarang to slice a large hole in the tank causing the contents to spill over her. Inque lets out a horrified shriek as she freezes up and shatters into hundreds of pieces.

"And still enough time to get to class; there's a first." He quips to himself while ignoring the feeling that her defeat came a little too easy. Pressing two fingers to his left temple, he contacts Bruce. "Did you call Barbara?"

"She'll be there in a few minutes. That hardly seemed like a challenge."

"Those late night training sessions are working, I guess. I'm off to class." He terminates the link and flies out of the window he came through.

A tablet holds her most recent hobby that she has been obsessing over. It started a few months ago when she met a friend who at the time was a designer starving for her art. That friend had taught her everything she knew before she moved to New York City to start her career at a fashion magazine. Sitting on a bench under a large oak tree in the middle of the campus' courtyard, Jazz busily draws away with the pen designed for the tablet. Looking up now and again, she spots Max walking towards her. Not wanting anyone to discover her new hobby, she immediately shuts the tablet off and stuffs it into her bag just as Max arrives to her side.

"Hey, didn't know you go here." Max starts, joining her on the bench.

"Didn't exactly come up in conversation."

"Good point; by the way, here's the spare key," she says handing her the apartment key card. "So what were you working on?"

"Homework. You mind if I ask you something?"

"What's up?" She asks taking out a stick of gum. She offers some to Jazz but she declines it.

"This may seem strange but does Batman usually do what he did last night?"

"Batman?" She asks raising a brow at the odd question. "Why are you asking?"

"Considering his reputation, I thought what he did was weird."

"You have no idea," Max mumbles to herself.

"What?" Jazz asks.

"Nothing; uh, no he doesn't do stuff like that. And before you ask, I don't know why he would. We're not exactly best friends." Jazz frowns with confusion, but Max reads the question on her mind before she can ask it. "I'm just a go-to person on some occasions; I do him a lot of favors, and that's pretty much it. We don't talk much."

Jazz nods once feeling disheartened from the lack of information. She was hoping Max would provide some answers. "Do you contact him?"

"No; he always finds me."

"I see."

Picking up on her concerns, Max suggests an offer. "Look, how about the next time he calls, I'll ask him about this."

"You don't have to."

"Please," Max scoffs. "I'm just as curious as you."

Jazz gives her a small, but grateful smile. "I appreciate it."

Before any other words could be exchanged, Max spots Terry heading their way.

"Max, I've been looking for you," he starts before giving Jazz a small smile as way of greeting.

Max introduces them, playing her part well this time. "Terry, this is Jazz."

"Pleasure," Terry answers with a never fading smile.

Jazz returns the smile before her eyes widen with realization. "Damn it, I'm late for my study group again." She gets up and turns to Max, "I'll see you later."

"Yeah, sure."

Once Jazz is out of earshot, Terry turns to Max. "So?"

"Our dear friend, whose apartment you annihilated," Terry rolls his eyes with irritation, "has a few questions about my mysterious friend Batman."

"What?" Terry asks a little surprised.

"Well," she starts, getting up so they could make their way to the next class, "apparently she's smarter than you give her credit for. She's asking questions about what you did. And guess what? I get to ask those questions. So what's going on?"

"Uh, I gotta go do this… thing," he stammers in an attempt to avoid the conversation. He turns to leave, but Max grabs a firm hold of his elbow forcing him to stay.

"Oh no, you're not leaving until I get some answers."

He sighs and puts a hand on the back of his neck. "I don't really have a logical answer."

"Let's try the crazy one then."

He shrugs. "This sounds stupid, but I got the feeling she's different."

"How?"

"She, uh, helped me out."

"Helped?"

"Jeez, Max, are you majoring in interrogations now?"

"There's an idea," she jokes. "Anyway, you were saying."

"I didn't put my oxygen mask on when the place started smoking, so I passed out; but the next thing I know, I'm waking up in the hallway looking up at this chick, Jazz, who looked ready to start pumping my chest. Anyway, after I came to, she stayed to help me pull out survivors."

"So, the million dollar question: why are you risking your identity over her?"

Terry smiles as he nervously kneads the back of his neck. "I have no freaking clue."

"Ter," Max scolds with uncharacteristic seriousness. "You're putting everything on the line with her, including my safety. You can't guarantee she'll keep this a secret, so please don't tell me you're going nuts."

"Relax, you know I'm not that irresponsible."

"That was before you knocked on my bedroom window at four in the morning with a guest in tow. What makes you think she won't sell the info to the highest bidder?

"I don't know; something about her. I get this vibe that I can trust her, like I know her; it's weird."

"Do you?"

"Never seen he before in my life."

"You sure?"

"I don't forget pink eyes."

"Maybe you should get to know her and see where that goes."

"Maybe," Terry hesitantly replies.

"What's the issue?"

"The fact that this has never happened before. I don't know if it's a good idea to get close."

"A second ago you were telling me she's the best friend you never met, and now you think she's untrustworthy?"

"Hey, I'm confused, okay? Don't expect much from me."

"At least stop flip-flopping around."

"What do you think I should do then?"

"Check her out, and not in that way," Max adds with a raised brow when Terry grins at her. "Come by my place tonight and see what happens."

"I'll see if I can," Terry sighs with defeat.

"Does Bruce know?"

"Of course not; you think I'm suicidal?"

"Just checking to see you didn't lose all your marbles."

"Ha, ha," Terry sarcastically replies playfully shoving her aside making her giggle.

-continued-