Disclaimer: I don't own Batman Beyond, the Flash, or any of the D.C. universe.
Author's Note: I didn't update as quickly as I would have liked due to the fact of the hated season of midterms. Gah! I stayed up until 2 am the other day studying for one of my exams. It sure would be nice to have superspeed, studying would be so much easier.
And also, technology hates me.
Resurrecting the Red
Chapter 11: Intruder
Chameleon warily watched through the security cameras as Green Arrow and Red Tornado made their way towards the house. In order not to draw suspicion, he was going to have to play the role of Amanda Waller. This should be interesting.
"Think they'll believe you?" Jon-El asked.
"Heh, Just watch. I'll knock them dead kid."
The young man watched as his partner's sharp features melted into that of an elderly African-American woman. "Amanda Waller" smirked at him before walking to the door.
"You'd better step out of sight for now Kid," Chameleon advised. "They might become suspicious if the 'ghost' of Jonathan Kent were to be seen in here."
Jon-El stuck his hands in his pockets and wandered off into a different section of the house. He then flopped down in one of the upstairs bedrooms and waited.
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"The lady's sure one for security," Ethan observed. He'd spotted several security cameras throughout the house.
"A person with Amanda Waller's past can never be too cautious," Red Tornado replied. Green Arrow said nothing in reply. He'd heard about Waller from his parents, but he'd probably only met her two or three times in his life. He did know that she wasn't going to be very happy with their visit.
"Should have brought the fruit basket," he muttered again under his breath. His companion glanced at him with some amusement before turning his attention back to the task at hand.
"Stop obsessing with the fruit basket," Tornado finally said.
"I'm not obsessing."
The taller man said nothing, but Ethan could sense his hidden amusement. He was about to protest again when he saw Amanda Waller waiting in one of the door ways. It was time for business. Even so, Ethan couldn't resist whispering one last protest.
"I'm not obsessive."
He saw Waller raise her eyebrow then and he realized that she must have heard him. Maybe he should listen to his mother for once and try to keep his mouth closed.
"Mrs. Waller," he greeted. "We're here to…"
"Protect me?" she asked dryly. Ethan gave a sheepish grin as he held his hand out to her. There was the briefest hesitation on her part before she reached out and shook his hand. Red Tornado nodded his head in greeting, but kept silent.
"I don't need protection," Waller said. She glared at them and Ethan responded by shrugging his shoulders.
"The Big S said to come make sure you're okay. Sooner or later, Luthor's going to come after you."
"Is that so?" she asked dryly. "We'll have to make sure that doesn't happen."
"If anyone tries anything, I'll stick an arrow through their butt," he promised. Waller raised an amused eyebrow at that. Encouraged, Ethan gave a gallant bow. His father had always taught him to be courteous to the ladies. Waller gave a smirk before turning away.
"Nice try, but I want the two of you to leave. I don't need a babysitter."
"The Boyscout's not going to be happy," Ethan said.
"The Boyscout's not my problem. Now leave."
Green Arrow and Red Tornado glanced at each other before they each nodded their heads slightly. Something felt wrong. Everything appeared right on the surface, but Ethan's instincts were telling him otherwise. They would come back later to investigate.
"All right," Ethan finally said. "Goodnight Mrs. Waller. Call the League if you need anything."
"I'll be fine," Waller said. "Now get out."
Ethan shrugged his shoulders as they made their way to the entrance. Touché.
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The next day Terry found himself peering around his locker door at the red head down the hallway. Max had stopped by David's locker and now the two were talking.
"Terry, what are you doing?" Terry grinned at his girlfriend before pointing over at David and Max.
"David's going to ask Max out," he answered.
"So you're spying behind your locker?" Dana asked.
"Shh! I'm not…okay I am spying. But I'm making sure that he doesn't lose his nerve. The guy was kinda nervous."
Dana peered around the corner of his locker as well. The two of them did make a cute couple. Even though she hadn't known the red head for very long, she found herself rooting for him.
Meanwhile, over at David's locker, Max cast a suspicious look down the hallway. David had become increasingly flustered over the last minute and now they had two spies watching them.
"Okay David, what's going on?" she demanded. "We have an audience." David gave a start at that and looked in the direction she was pointing. He saw Terry and Dana quickly duck behind the open locker.
"McGinnis!" he yelled. "Get a hobby!"
Terry stuck his head out again and smirked. Dana gave him a thumbs up. Oh great, now he's got her into this. David glared at the two. Max planted her hands on her hips and smirked at him. She now had a very good idea what this was about. However, she decided it would be more fun to wait for him to ask.
"David…" she said.
David gulped and looked at her. Great.
"Uh…" Oh come on Kae, just get it over with. "Um…are you busy tonight?" he asked. Max smirked slyly as she leaned toward him.
"Nope," she replied. "Why?" Of course she knew why, but she wanted to hear him say it. David blushed a little as he stammered for a reply.
"Uh…I was wondering…you know…if…uh…"
"Kae!" Terry finally yelled. "Just spit it out!" David turned to glare at his friend. Somehow, without him noticing it, he and Dana had snuck closer.
"McGinnis! Go away!" he yelled. Undeterred, Terry smirked even wider and pointed over at David.
"Hey Max, David wants to know if…" David threw his library book at the other teenager.
"Beat it McGinnis!" Terry grinned at him again, but refused to move. David realized that neither he nor Dana was going to move until he asked Max out.
"Okay, fine," he muttered. He looked over at Max, but she was still grinning at him. Great, she figured it out. Apparently she was waiting for him to say it though.
"You want to go out tonight?" he asked. There. He had spit out.
"Sure," she said. "Any time's good for me." Then to his surprise, she kissed him on the cheek, winked, and walked off.
Whoa.
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Evan Kae looked around him with amazement. Bruce Wayne had invited him over so they could talk without any kind of teenage interruption. Even though he now knew that the billionaire had been, or still was, Batman, he hadn't expected this. He hadn't expected him to actually take him down into the batcave.
Bruce looked over at the younger man and could see the question in his eyes. He walked over to the costume case where Evan was standing.
"You weren't expecting me to take you down here," Bruce stated. Evan looked over at him before admitting quietly.
"No I wasn't. May I ask why? I'm sure that you don't show everyone this."
"You're right, I don't."
The two men looked at each other a moment before Bruce motioned towards a couple of chairs. Bruce had placed another one near his own at the computer. He waited until they had sat down to explain himself.
"You raised David all of these years knowing full well who he is…and knowing what he might become if he chose to. You're not just any man off the street."
"No, I'm not," Evan answered. Bruce smirked slightly as he laid a hand on his dog.
"Besides," Bruce added. "Ace likes you."
Evan smiled a bit at that. The dog stared at him before wagging his tail slightly.
"I'm guessing that Ace is choosy about who he likes," he said. Bruce nodded at him in reply. Evan looked around the cave again before looking at the old man across from him.
"Do your friends know about…"
"Only one," Bruce replied. "She was once known as Batgirl. The others don't know yet." Evan raised an eyebrow at that.
"May I ask why? After all, his mother and grandfather were in the League."
"Because they will expect him to become the Flash," Bruce answered. "He must make that decision on his own. David isn't ready for all the attention he would get from the League." Evan was silent for a long moment.
"Thank you," he finally said. "I was afraid that you would try to talk him into it."
"No, I wouldn't. But you were right to worry. Others in the League might very well try it, thinking that they were helping." Bruce eyed the other man before asking quietly.
"If he does decide to become the Flash, will you let him?"
Evan was silent for a long time. Bruce had never really been a parent, but he had regarded Dick on some level, Tim, and now Terry, as his own children. Hell, Terry was his own child. He understood the anxiety that the younger man must be feeling right now.
"If David does decide he wants to," Evan finally said quietly. "I won't stop him from doing something he wants to do. But I'm hoping he'll at least wait a few more years. I'm not his real father, but I might as well be. No one wants their child in harm's way."
You're right, Bruce thought. What parent does? Despite all the times that he pushed Terry, he never pushed him any farther than he thought the teenager could handle. Bruce and Clark had several times come to a head when it came to Terry's role in the League. Terry had decided to be a part timer, like Bruce. But with how thin the League's ranks had grown over the years, Clark wanted him to be more involved.
Bruce, being the protective man that he was, had told Clark to go to hell.
Bruce was jolted out of his thoughts when several alarms suddenly began to go off on his computer. His eyes narrowed and he whirled his chair around to the console. Evan bolted to his feet in alarm at the same time that Ace began to growl. Bruce swore under his breath as his fingers danced over the keyboard.
"What is it?" Evan asked.
"A break in. Someone's in the house."
Foam very nearly dripped from Ace's mouth as he stared up at the steps. With an angry growl, the dog raced up the steps and stood snarling at the closed door. Bruce pressed a button and the door opened.
The dog raced up into the house. Seconds later, Bruce and Evan could hear angry barks echoing from the first floor, followed by a large crash and several thuds. Then they heard a high pitched yip, followed by silence.
The two men looked warily at each other before facing the door. Bruce touched a few buttons, but his backup security system wouldn't activate.
"Part of my system has been hacked into," Bruce admitted with agitation. He gripped his cane with both hands. Evan quickly pulled out his cell phone and hit the speed dial. Come on David… Hopefully his nephew wasn't still in class.
"Uncle Evan?" David answered.
"David! I'm at Bruce's, you and Terry need to…!"
The cell phone was knocked from his hand by some flying object. Evan clutched his bleeding hand to his chest as he glared over at the man standing up in the doorway. Bruce stared icily up at the intruder.
"Debray. I should have known."
Fernand Debray smirked down at the two men while cradling his bleeding arm. That damn dog had bit him. Even so, this was unexpected. He had known that two people were in the house, but he had thought that the other would be McGinnis. Too bad. Oh well, Alexandra should still be happy with this.
She hadn't ordered him to come; he had done this on his own. No way was he going to let that green skinned freak one up him.
"And a good'day to you too, Monsieurs. Mademoiselle Luthor is interested in meeting you Wayne. If you come along quietly, then dat's all de better for me."
Bruce made eye contact with Evan and motioned very slightly over to the nearest weapon to them. Evan closed his eyes once in understanding. The architect then ducked as Bruce whipped out a batarang and threw it at the intruder. Evan rolled onto his feet and dashed over to the small glass exhibit case containing a strange gun.
Something zipped by his head as his fist enclosed around the weapon, causing the case to shatter. Evan rolled onto his back, pointed the weapon, and pressed the trigger. Sheets of ice shot out as the weapon discharged.
Debray cursed in surprise as ice enveloped his legs. Another flung batarang cut through the wires behind his ear, severing his connection to Bruce Wayne's computer. Damn it, he wasn't about to be beaten by an old man and this stranger.
"Give it up Debray," Bruce ordered. "It was careless of Luthor to send you here by yourself. That is, if she sent you at all."
Damn it, the old man was good.
However, just then, part of the wall blew open. As the dust began to settle, Debray could make out the form of a grinning Jon-El standing among the debris.
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"Uncle Evan?" David asked. "Uncle Evan?"
The teenager listened carefully for an answer, but he was met only by silence. Shit, what the hell?
David looked around him. It was just the beginning of lunch period, so Terry should be…
The teenager slipped out of sight and zipped over to the cafeteria. Just as he had thought, Terry was standing in the lunch line talking to Dana. Trying not to run, David walked quickly over to Terry.
Terry, in turn, had spotted the approaching teenager and had trailed off in his sentence after seeing David's expression. He looked over at Dana, who also had a worried expression on her face.
"Something's wrong Dana, I'll be back," he promised. Terry rushed over to the red haired teenager.
"What is it?" he asked. David pointed to the hallway and Terry nodded. The two young men rushed out of the cafeteria and out of earshot. As soon as the two of them ducked into an empty classroom, David bent closer and whispered.
"I think something bad's happened. Uncle Evan just called me not even a minute ago. He said that he was at Bruce's and that we needed to…"
"To what?" Terry asked.
"I don't know. He never finished. He sounded really anxious though, like something was wrong."
Terry clenched his fists before racing down the hall to his locker. He grabbed his cell phone out of his pocket as he ran and hit the speed dial for Bruce. The phone rang, but no answer.
"Shit," he muttered. Terry ripped his school bag out of his locker and turned around to see that David was waiting. The two teenagers ran outside. As soon as they were out of sight, David grabbed Terry's arm and zoomed off into the distance.
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"What de hell are y'doing here?" Debray yelled. He had done this on his own. Luthor hadn't known about this, had she? Jon-El shrugged his shoulders carelessly in answer.
"Alex said you were going to do something stupid and told me to come clean up your mess."
A shocked Bruce stared up at the newcomer. Jonathan? No, Jonathan Kent had been killed around thirty years ago. So who was this?
"I can handle dis Kid!" Debray protested. Jon-El smirked slightly as he melted the ice around the Frenchman's feet with his laser vision. Then the young clone jumped down to Evan and took the weapon from his hands.
"Sorry Sir," Jon-El apologized. "But since you're a witness and a friend of Mr. Wayne's, you're going to have to come with us." Evan glared challengingly at the clone, but he couldn't wrench free from the young man's super strong grip.
Bruce narrowed his eyes as twisting cords from Debray's fingers wrapped around his body. Slowly, and very purposely, Bruce "accidentally" dropped a bat tracer on the floor.
"Now now, we can't have dat, can we Monsieur?" Debray taunted. "Trying t'put a tracer on yourself so dat boy can'find you?"
The old man hid a smirk as they were picked up and flown out of the cave. He had dropped that one on purpose. The other one he had safely hidden on his body.
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Terry and David raced up the hill and into the house. They paused only when they encountered the devastated living room and the motionless dog in the middle.
"Ace!" Terry yelled. He practically flew over to the dog's side. The teenager gently rolled the dog over and found, to his immense relief, that he was still alive. Ace's fur appeared to be singed, as if he had been burned from something.
A colorful string of obscenities flew from his mouth, courtesy of his Irish blood. Whoever did this was going to pay. No one touched his dog.
"Terry!"
Terry bolted up and raced over to the open entrance. Seconds later, the two teenagers were looking around the batcave. They called out for Bruce and Evan, but received no answer.
"Terry, look," David said. He picked up the bat tracer and handed it to him. Terry studied it for a long second before the answer occurred to him. His suspicions were confirmed moments later when he found an activated, moving signal.
"I found them," Terry answered. "I'm going after them." He grabbed the batsuit from his schoolbag and began to change in a hurry.
"Wrong," David answered. Terry looked over at him and gave a start. In the seconds that Terry had been tracking the signal, David had found his grandfather's old suit and put it on.
"You're not going after them," the Flash corrected. "We are."
In spite of himself, Terry grinned.
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Author's Note: The weapon that Evan used was Mr. Freeze's weapon. Bruce has it as one of his mementos in his "museum".