Disclaimer: I don't own Batman Beyond, the Flash, or any of the D.C. universe.
Author's Note: Sorry for the delayed update. I've been busy with school.
Recap: In the last chapter, Max helped our two heroes by cutting off the power in their school and by turning on the fire alarms. However, hiding the truth from Dana will be much harder after this.
Dick Grayson has come in out of retirement, at the request of Barbara, to help Terry and David rescue their mentors. Terry and David are heading north to the Great Lakes region and are nearly ready to begin their mission.
Meanwhile, the Justice League is about to start an investigation of their own.
Resurrecting the Red
Chapter 13: Breaking and Entering
"Are you two sure about this?" Clark asked. He received a nod from Tornado and a smirk from Green Arrow. The Kryptonian sighed before he continued. "All right then people, let's get to work. Gear will hack into Waller's security system and give you technical support."
The two Leaguers had pressed Clark to let them return later to look around. As Ethan had said, everything appeared normal on the surface, but their instincts were telling them otherwise. Since Clark wanted to have a closer eye on Amanda Waller anyway, he had authorized the search. He could deal with an angry Waller later if he needed to.
"Get in and get out," Clark ordered. "Try not to get into trouble…yes, I'm talking about you Ethan." Ethan Queen had put on an expression of mock hurt before flashing an innocent smile.
"Yes Sir," Green Arrow saluted.
"Static and Huntress will be standing by if things suddenly get hot," Clark added. Which hopefully, they won't.
"Huntress, huh?"
"Keep your mind on the mission, Romeo," Static Shock said. He and Huntress had entered the control room moments before. Elizabeth Szasz was the daughter of the Question and the Huntress. Ethan quickly turned his head so that she couldn't see his face redden.
For all his quick wit and sarcastic humor, he was tongue tied around her.
"Let's go," Tornado said. He and the Green Arrow turned and exited the room. Clark walked over to the control monitors and waited.
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"Are you sure this is the place, Mr. Grayson?" David asked.
"Call me Dick. You make me feel like an old man."
"You are an old man," Terry pointed out. The two teenagers snickered as they heard Dick mutter to himself on the other end. The two teenagers were looking at an abandoned warehouse sitting on the shore of Lake Michigan.
"The coordinates say that Bruce's signal is coming from under the lake," Terry pointed out.
"There's probably an underground facility," Dick said. "I uh…hacked into one of the satellites of Wayne-Powers. There's more in that warehouse than you think."
"Can you be a little more specific?" David asked.
"Most of it has been shielded from the satellite. Apparently Ms. Luthor is trying to avoid unfriendly eyes. However, I do detect that there is some kind of facility underneath the warehouse. It extends to under the lake. That's all I can tell you right now."
"Thanks Mr. Grayson," Terry said.
"Didn't I just tell you two to call me Dick?"
"Yes, Mr. Grayson."
"It's a Terry thing," David explained. "He likes to annoy people."
"How does Bruce put up with him?"
"It's one of those unexplainable mysteries."
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Bruce carefully studied their surroundings as he waited for Terry. Both he and Evan were in some strange, empty chamber. Neither of them were bound up, but then again, Bruce knew that they didn't have to be. Luthor would see them when it was most convenient for her.
He knew the boy would come, as would David. He didn't expect the red haired boy to stay behind. The old man just hoped that they would be able to pull this off. He had every confidence in Terry's abilities, however, he had never gone up against someone like Luthor before. And even as intelligent as David was, the teenager still didn't have any experience in this kind of work.
It was possible that they had contacted the League, but Bruce doubted it. Terry didn't seem to have too high of an opinion of most of the League members he had met. He and Rex Stewart had clashed more than once over conflicting personalities.
No, if they had called anyone, it would have been Barbara. Terry would only call Clark as a last resort. He had Bruce's stubbornness when it came to accomplishing something without Justice League support.
The question was, would Barbara be able to do anything to help them?
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A silent shadow crept into the empty warehouse. It glided unseen through the immediate area before crouching behind an old, abandoned crate. There was a suggestion of movement as it reached its hand up to the side of its head.
"The area looks clear Flash," Terry whispered. "So you can…" He dropped off as a red figure zoomed to his side.
They had decided that Terry would go first to scout out the area. He had more experience than David, and could spot surveillance while moving unseen. Once Terry had determined that the area was clear, David would catch up.
Batman peered around a corner before stepping around it. He jumped suddenly and just managed to avoid an invisible security beam that ran across the floor. Terry froze on the ground and scanned around him. There were several such beams crisscrossing the next room.
It paid to have infrared vision in his cowl. However, Flash didn't have that advantage.
"David," Dick said quietly. "There's a security beam that Terry just jumped over." David nodded to the video cam in Terry's mask to show he understood. They had decided not to talk unless they had to. David crept silently to where he had seen Terry jump.
"Okay David, listen carefully," he continued. "The beam is about two feet to your left and is about a foot and a half off the ground." Dick watched as the teenager shot him a thumbs up sign. He had to remind himself again that this wasn't Wally.
David jumped the beam and moved to Terry's side. The three worked quietly for several minutes until the two teenagers were through the beams. They paused again as Terry scanned the area. He knew that far more heavy security was going to be ahead.
As they made their way through the warehouse, Dick scowled at the screen. The satellite would only penetrate so far into the complex. If he had any true skill with computers, he would try hacking into the system. Unfortunately, as he well knew, he might be able to manage it, but it would be instantly detected by Luthor.
Dick was suddenly out of his seat as he registered a new presence in the cave. He unconsciously reached into his jacket, only to realize a moment later that he no longer kept a weapon in there. As he stared up at the startled figure at the top of the steps, he realized that the dog wasn't growling. He took that as a good sign.
"Who are you?" he called out suspiciously. There was a pause before the figure made its way hesitantly down the stairs. As it grew closer, he saw that it was a dark skinned girl with pink hair, probably seventeen or eighteen years old. She looked around at her surroundings again, as if she couldn't believe she was there.
"Who are you?" Dick asked again. He moved in front of the girl to block her entrance. Behind him, he could hear David whisper 'Mr. Grayson?'He listened carefully to the computer as he glared intently at the teenager in front of him.
"I'm a friend of Terry and David," she finally said boldly. "My name's Max Gibson."
"Max, isn't that a guy's name?" She glared at him and Dick backed off at that. He knew not to push a woman, no matter what her age was, more than he had to. Even so, he didn't move.
"The alarms didn't go off," he continued.
"Yeah, I know," Max explained innocently. "I turned them off." Dick raised an eyebrow at that.
"You…turnedthem off?" he asked in surprise. Bruce had very advanced systems. If she had hacked into them…
Dick turned around and walked back to the computer. He felt the girl follow close behind him as he stood in front of it. He heard Terry quietly ask what was wrong.
"I was…" Dick started to explain. He didn't want to admit that the girl had caught him off guard. "…detained. Your friend Max is here." He heard Terry quietly swear to himself.
"Max? What the hell are you doing there? Why aren't you at school?"
"School's canceled," Max answered slyly. "The power mysteriously went out and the fire alarms came on. I came here to hide from your girlfriend." Dick gave her a considering look as he heard the other two snicker, well, one of them snicker. Terry was moaning under his breath on how he was going to be killed by both Bruce and Dana.
"How good are you at hacking?" Dick finally asked.
"She helps me all the time as unofficial technical back up," Terry quickly answered. "Bruce won't come out and exactly admit it, but he did say go as far to say that she had 'some potential'."
"She's ranked number one in our class," David answered helpfully."She's a whiz with science, math, computers, you name it."
"And you're friends with these delinquents?" Dick asked her with amusement.
"Hey!"David protested, causing Dick to smile. That would have been Wally's response.
"I need someone to cheat off of," Terry answered. Dick's lips twitched. He somehow doubted that Bruce approved of that. He studied Max again and waited for her response. She looked up at him with surprise before grinning slyly.
"What do you want me to do?" she asked eagerly. Dick grinned.
"I need you to break into a system for me. By the way, my name's Dick."
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Ethan Queen moved silently through Amanda Waller's beloved rose garden as he paused next to the house. Tornado should be in there by now, he thought. He slipped a set of heat vision goggles over his eyes as he scanned the house.
He was only picking up one heat signature and it was upstairs. Where was…there. He saw a small heat signature in the east part of the house. Knowing now where both Waller and Red Tornado were, he ran silently around a corner.
"The outside security system has been turned off," Gear said. Ethan nodded as he quickly strung one of his arrows and shot it at a section of the roof, a part that was at the opposite end of where he was detecting Waller. He paused before gripping the thin, but strong, rope that was protruding from his arrow.
With another look around at his surroundings, he began to climb.
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Chameleon smirked at his computer. Apparently he had two guests.
He hadn't noticed it at first. Amanda Waller's security system hadn't gone off, at least, not the main one. She had several hidden ones that had detected them around the same time that Chameleon had felt their presence.
The metahuman wasn't telepathic, by all means. However, he was what could be considered an empath. He could sense emotions.
Chameleon debated on how he should handle this. Should he play the part of an enraged Amanda Waller, or should he take them out? He couldn't call Alex to ask if he wanted to. The League was most likely monitoring the house for any outgoing communications.
With another look at the computer screen, he shapeshifted in the image of Amanda Waller and walked out of the room.
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Barbara Gordon tapped her fingers impatiently as she attempted to study the police reports in front of her. That failing, she finally picked up her cell phone and called Dick.
"How is it going?" she instantly asked.
"We'll find out," Dick answered. "I've recruited some unexpected help."
"Oh?" She raised an eyebrow. "Who might that be?"
"Maxine Gibson, she's apparently a friend of those two boys. Turns out she's quite the hacker."
"I don't think Bruce is going to be happy that you let her on his computer," she said. "I'll admit, she is good from what I've seen. But Bruce doesn't want her involved any more than she has to be. Plus, you know how protective the old man is about his computer."
"I'll take the blame," Dick replied dryly. "It'll give us something else to argue about."
"Honestly Dick, can't you two make up? It's been years."
"Those two kids are really something else," Dick said suddenly. "Terry acts a lot like Bruce when he's not trying to annoy me, and David's doing very well for his first time as the Flash."
"I'm sure that's true," Barbara murmured. "Keep me informed Dick."
"All right, bye Babs."
Barbara set down the phone and stared out the window. Dick had changed the subject rather than talk about him and Bruce. She hoped that this turn of events would force the two stubborn men to speak.
If not, she supposed she could enlist Terry and David to help. Perhaps duct taping Bruce and Dick to a couple of chairs would work. She knew Terry would be more than happy to do it. That, and seeing how David was Wally's grandson, he would most likely help too.
Briefly amused by the mental image of Bruce and Dick being assaulted by two insane teenaged superheroes, Barbara finally sighed and stared blankly at the police reports again.
You'd better be okay Old Man.
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Red Tornado paused at the sight of the woman standing down the hall. Amanda Waller crossed her arms and glared at him.
"Waller knows we're here," Tornado said into his radiolink.
"Tell her she can call me if she has a problem," Clark said. The Kryptonian was busy pacing the control room of the Watch Tower. He paused suddenly as he heard a crash over the communications link and was instantly standing next to Gear.
"What happened?" he asked.
"His link's dead," Gear explained. Clark swore before he pressed a button on the console.
"Green Arrow, go find Red Tornado."
"I'm already on my way," Ethan answered. Clark nodded absently as he turned around to face the other two superheroes in the room.
"Static, Huntress…"
"We're on our way," Huntress replied.
Clark continued his pacing as he waited for more news. He resisted the urge to go down there himself. Dammit. If only J'onn was here.
This wasn't the first time he wished for the Martian. Clark missed his friend, yes, but he also missed his presence for a more practical reason. He wasn't really cut out to be an administrator. Clark would rather be on the front line instead of directing a mission from the Tower. He needed to talk to someone far more suited to this than him.
Perhaps he should call Bruce.