CHAPTER 21: "If You Think This Has A Happy Ending..."

*Mr. Freeze, 25 Miles East of Gotham Harbor, Unknown Island

"DAMN IT!!!!"

CRASH

Glass shattered and flew everywhere as Freeze threw his computer straight into the cave wall of his lab. The computer screen's words of 'negative for meta gene' seared his mind with rage at another failure.

Months had passed since he first met James and ran tests on his blood and body. With his telekinetic powers and healing abilities, he was without a doubt a meta, but the first time testing his blood showed no sign of the gene. That did not deter him though, no that just made the possibilities more intriguing.

He then went through the testing of alien, magical, and other meta genes only for each and every test to turn up negative. According to all examinations and tests he could run, the boy was 100% pure human.

In the old days, he probably would have blown off steam by freezing a portion of Gotham or a few minions. But nowadays he had no minions and it was a waste to freeze portions of the city. So instead he ended up breaking and smashing his equipment, which in retrospect was a little too stereotypical of a mad scientist for someone like him. That would only make him even angrier on top of the frustration against the failure of the tests.

He couldn't blame the boy though for this frustration. James had been willing to undergo a bevy of tests and examinations, they even had hired an Occultist to take a look at him to confirm the lack of magic which Freeze still felt like he got ripped off of. The Occultist had taken one look at James and declared he lack magical ability, thus reaffirming what the talismans and totems Freeze had on hand had also indicated. The Occultist did try casting some sort of reveal origin magic on James which for whatever reason dissipated against him with little effect. At that Freeze was excited as it was possibly an avenue to explore but was disappointed when the Occultist shrugged and said he was possibly simply slightly resistant to magic or his meta powers disrupted the magic, not very unusual to see. He had barely cast any strong stuff at him but he was willing if they doubled the price, Freeze had left the shop in a huff after that, he hated getting scammed.

Alien testing was the next part fully ruled out, but it was also the easiest with Earth boasting a large population of extraterrestrials. The ability to identify even shapeshifters like the Martians was fairly straightforward for scientists with time and money. DNA did not lie, and after running 100s of sequences on his blood showed nothing but human genetics. Freeze had been tempted to cut into the boy to examine his organs but considering he already got a look at quite a few of his insides when he patched him up, that test was scrapped.

Finally, the most common and likely culprit was the meta gene which was the most well-documented genetic marker in history. The meta gene despite what its name suggested was a little more complicated than the average person understood. It was not just one single similar gene but a large host of different genes that reacted differently to situations humans found themselves in. Really it would be better to call it the meta genes. Some individuals had a specific meta gene that reacted solely to cosmic energy, or a particular radiation. Other genes required a mental or physical stress point to activate. He had even heard of some that activated due to what the person ate. Either way, the meta genes were many and all had some unique trigger. However, that did not mean the individual would gain some powerful superpower. In fact, 95% of the time the gene would simply change an eye color or something incredibly mundane. Or would simply kill the person, after all, most people dumped in radiation would not be getting a power that saved them. The other 4.5% were found to gain some sort of minor abilities, often these were recorded as increased stamina, reflexes, maybe small energy blasts, or minor strength boosts but nothing that would match them to say the Justice League member's powers. It was the .5% that developed extraordinary powers that could shake the world and be ranked a global threat. But considering the world populations only boasted about 2-3% of possible meta genes, the emergence of new powerhouses who could topple mountains was rarer then what people realized.

Either way, finding the meta genes in a person nowadays thanks to the proliferation of research surrounding it was fairly straightforward. While the genes were different they all connected to the strands of DNA in the same way. The distinction between having and not having one of the genes was clear.

Then why in the hell did James not have one!?!

When he had first failed to find it Freeze had assumed he was simply missing it or perhaps it was a undocumented meta gene. But after going through the only places such a gene could be and running the sequences he could only come to the conclusion he had reached for today. James did not have a meta gene, and with that off the board, he had no idea how his powers worked.

Sighing, he went over to his main desk and sat down. The healing properties James boasted seemed to be a dead end for his research into curing Nora. He also knew the boy would not be happy to hear of this failure as he had banked on using it to help cure one of his aunts.

Footsteps sounded at the entrance which turned to shoes stepping on the computer screen glass as it stopped.

"I will assume then that you were not successful?" James asked quietly.

Turning to the boy he saw an impassive face, but Freeze could tell, the anger was there and it was growing. It reminded him of the time James had returned from visiting his aunt for the first time in the hospital, the entire island shook as he scream in frustration in the midnight sky. It only ended when he used his ice ray to freeze him from the neck down and ordered him to calm down.

Rubbing his tired eyes he said, "No, the mystery of your powers remains that. Now I think it is time to move on to another avenue in my research."

James merely nodded and waved his hand toward to broken glass and computer. All the broken pieces rose up and made their way to one of the bins in the laboratory.

"So what does that mean for our partnership?" the boy asked while watching the trash float into the bin.

Nodding at the question, Freeze stood up and walked to where he kept his laptop for communication and black market deals. It paid to have a few extra devices dedicated to specific responsibilities as a criminal, especially since you would sometimes break a few in your moments of anger.

Opening it up he pulled up a message he had received and beckoned to James who respectfully walked over to view.

Freeze breathed deeply, "Using your blood seemed the best way to find a fix-all cure for my Nora and also help your aunt. With that being a dead end I am forced to go back to focusing on the disease ravaging her, which won't necessarily help you aunt."

"Nora will always come first to me... you know this and I think understand it. But I feel that we can still help each other. This is why I am going to propose a new arrangement for our partnership."

Pointing at the message he said, "Services that someone like you can provide can be instrumental in bringing in resources I need for my research. In exchange, I would continue vetting the jobs and working on a method to help your aunt in recovering and of course, split the reward."

Putting his hand on James' shoulder he gently made the boy look him in the eye, soft brown eyes with rage burning behind them met Freeze's cold emotionless blue chips of eyes.

"Your aunt's condition is quite severe, it will require regenerative research and much more in order to save her, despite what her doctors say, she only has a few years if less before the mental strain will kill her..."

Freeze was not mincing his words, he had gotten his hands on the doctor's sheets and felt they were being optimistic that she would be able to live for several years with her burns. Sure her body may technically be able, but the mental strain would kill her just as surely as an infection.

"This along with my own will require not a fortune, but fortunes just for the equipment and experiments. The type of jobs we would need to do going forward to cover such costs will require... the sacrifice of moral hesitations. People will get hurt, they will get killed by our actions if we take these jobs."

Staring at the boy... no young man carefully he asked the question he had been wondering about since the shipping container incident.

"Are you willing to take that next step? Because that is what it will take to get the resources we need."

James seemed to be pondering the question before reaching a decision rather quickly. That both thrilled Freeze but also gave him a hint of sadness at the fact this young man was willing to jump into this with barely a hesitation.

"I only have one additional part to add, that is you will keep an ear open for any mention of the Black Mask. I have a conversation I have been longing to talk with him about..."

James' expression turned to sadistic joy at mentioning the Black Mask. Since that night during the fires, the crime lord had vanished off the face of the earth. Some whispers had it that he had left the continent and was hiding somewhere in a jungle. Either way, the hunt from GCPD, Batman, and James had all turned up empty. Much to the annoyance of all parties involved.

"Then if there is nothing else, send me the details of that job you have there. I will take care of it by the end of the week." James turned and began making his way out of the cave.

"Wait," Freeze said before going to one of his fridges. He opened it to reveal a large selection of sealed containers and injection vials. Grabbing one with a clear light blue liquid, he turned around and tossed it to James who caught it telekinetically before plucking it from the air.

Glancing at it and giving it a curious look over James gave a questioning look to Freeze.

Nodding at the vial, "That is a pain-soothing concoction that should work well with burns, it will work no longer than 8 hours at a time so I suggest you give it to her at night so she can sleep."

James simply stared back at Freeze before saying with much emotion and sincerity, "Thank you."

Turning around he continued walking out of the cave muttering to himself loud enough for Freeze to hear, "Anything to give us peace and happiness..."

Freeze could only shake his head as he responded to his retreating partner, "If you think this has a happy ending for us, you have not been paying attention."

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*James Gordon, GCPD Headquarters, rooftop, 12 A.M.

Gordon stomped his foot down on the 9th cigarette he had smoked that late evening, to the side of the massive spotlight he had turned on blazed with heat as it shot up into the sky an image of the symbol of the Bat.

He had been waiting for the last hour for him and would wait a little longer if necessary. Not only was the spotlight meant to be a means to contact the Batman but also served as a reminder to the underworld that he was out there.

Still though, for this particular night, he really hoped he would show up. It wasn't always a surefire way since sometimes he was busy or perhaps out of town. Gordon never was 100% sure if it would work but he knew Batman always would prioritize meeting him when he could.

Another half hour passed with no sign of the caped crusader, grumbling in annoyance Gordon shut off the spotlight only to jump back startled by a looming figure standing behind the light.

Catching his breath and slowing his heart down, Gordon put his hand on his heart mockingly as he said, "Do you really need to sneak up on me like that? Next time it really will cause a heart attack."

"All the more reason for you to keep off those cigarettes Gordon," Batman said in his usual flat tone, though Gordon could swear he could hear a hint of amusement.

Walking around the spotlight he stood next to the commissioner, "I assume this meeting has something to do with Falcone getting released?"

Gordon's expression of annoyance became surprise, "How did you... no never mind I don't care."

He sighed, "Ya, his lawyers finally got through to the judge. Falcone will be allowed to finish his sentence on parole."

Batman simply hummed, "This is not too unexpected, with Penguin being incarcerated the bribes to the justice department have been focused on getting him out and not on keeping Falcone in."

"Who would have thought corruption would be detrimental to us," Gordon said, the sarcasm dripping from his voice.

Taking out another cigarette he lit it and smoked for a few moments, Batman remained silent and in those moments they both found themselves looking over the rooftop to the city. It was peaceful, and a nice reminder that for all its faults Gotham was still their city, their home.

"Any luck with the shipping container incident from a while back?"

Gordon shook his head, "No, even after interviewing the crew who we found swimming in the bay. All they said was someone in all black started kicking and punching them off the ship. That little burnt box you found had literally nothing left of itself, crime lab was kind enough to tell me it was made of metal and nothing else."

Snorting at that, Gordon took another puff of his stress-relieving friend.

"Officially the case is closed as a major navigational malfunction, the shipping company was more than happy to pay for the damages. I suspect Luthor is behind having them cover the cost, probably wanted to pay up rather than deal with more legal troubles your Justice League is throwing his way."

"Luthor always has been smart and quick about hiding PR disasters." Batman agreed.

"Unofficially the case is still open but as good as dead, there is no evidence, and have been no further incidents that match what happened. And now with Falcone being released, I have all hands on deck just trying to stem the tide of increasing mob activity."

Gordon in public had worked with the mayor and D.A. to build and boast on the achievements of crippling the Penguin Mob while keeping the growing tension and reemergence of the Falcone crime family from becoming front-page news. They all agreed and so did Batman now was the time when there was relative peace and calm on the streets to build on the police credibility and increase funding with a grateful and happy public behind them. Support for the police had been at an all-time high even with the disaster of the Eastside fires. In fact, the photos and video of emergency services and police working to fight it had proved to be a wonderful bit of PR for the force and saw a large increase in recruitment for those services.

There was even minor progress being made to keep the Penguin locked up for good. After his arrest, multiple warrants for raids against his warehouses and clubs were approved. And while they had yet to crack some of the coded files and documents they had recovered from the raids, the tech geeks assured him that they were making progress. Gordon was sure those documents and records would provide him with the last of the proof he needed to finish the Penguin mob.

The last half of this year overall had been great for them, even the criminally insane or freak criminals had been laying low. But as seen with Falcone's release, the peace it seems was coming to an end.

"How long do you think we have before things go back to being normal for Gotham?" Gordon asked.

"A few months I would estimate," Batman said thinking about it, "Falcone will need some time to reassert himself. We also don't know what exactly his overall plan will be, will he try to remake his image? Or will he just own up to the godfather image he cultivated? Maybe he will start hunting down Penguin's men, or focus entirely on rebuilding his piece of the drug trade?"

"We won't know till he is out and about, but I believe he will take some time. Not too long because Penguin despite being behind bars will certainly strike back at Falcone. Either way, a mess will be brewing we will need to be prepared for."

Batman stopped talking to reach out to his ear, or communicator, and quietly said, "Copy, Batman requiring teleport to Justice League, delay 30 seconds."

Gordon watched the scene amused, "Trouble with the big leagues?"

Batman nodded, "Some trouble with trainees in Washington, apparently, they stumbled upon an illegal lab and some clone experiments... another standard day for the league I suppose."

"Hahahahaha, what strange times we live in," Gordon could not help but laugh at the absurdity of Batman casually telling him that. Only Batman would talk about something so simple that would probably have heads rolling in the upper echelons of the U.S. government.

A hint of a smile appeared on Batman's face, "I'll be back by tomorrow, keep in touch if the situation changes, otherwise we proceed as we have been."

"Sounds good and thanks...." Gordon was cut off as a blinding white light erupted around Batman before flashing leaving him alone on the roof.

Standing there for a moment, Gordon looked up to the sky, "You did that on purpose, didn't you? ....you are such an asshole."