Chapter 46

A man with ghoulish make-up violently swept a table clean and stood on top of it.

"The name is Terminal. Don't do anything stupid if you don't want to get hurt." Terminal said menacingly as he held a gun in his hand.

"What do you want?" Nelson asked.

Terminal smiled. "Don't worry, we're just searching for someone and then we'll leave."

Thud!

Someone kicked the table that Terminal was standing on and made him fall. He dropped his gun in the process.

"Gugh! Who did that?" Terminal turned his head around as he lashed out.

He widened his eyes when he saw Batman standing there.

"Wha- how are you here?"

"Does that even matter?" Batman replied as he walked over to him slowly.

"Tsk!" Terminal looked around at the goons that he brought with him. "What the hell are you doing?! Get him!"

Batman gracefully dodged their consecutive melee attacks. Once he caught them, they instantly got knocked out with one punch.

He looked at the people watching them. "What are you doing?! Get out of here and call the police!"

The people got startled and snapped back to reality as they ran to the nearest exits. They were watching because it isn't everyday that they get to see Batman in action.

Terminal watched the people flee as Batman fought his gang. He clenched his teeth as he looked for his gun that slid into the crowd when he dropped it earlier.

Meanwhile, Dana saw people running and passing her by until he saw her boyfriend Nelson.

"Nelson! What happened?" She asked him.

"Dana! We have to get out of here. The Jokerz invaded the place."

"What?!" She gasped and furrowed her bros in worry. "Have you seen Terry?"

"Wasn't he with you?"

"Yeah, but he left to check what happened and didn't come back."

"He probably already left. C'mon, let's go." Nelson grabbed her arm and pulled her.

Dana yanked her arm back. "He might still be there, Nelson!"

Nelson clicked his tongue. "Fine...let's go check."

He and Dana walked down the hall and hid behind a corner where the fight was taking place.

"See, He isn't here. C'mon let's go."

"Wait...is that Batman?"

"Yeah. He suddenly showed up right after the Jokerz arrived-"

Fwooo! Blag!!

"Urgh!"

A member of the Jokerz suddenly got thrown towards where they were and hit his back against the wall.

He looked at the two before passing out. "..."

"Holy shit." Nelson remarked. As a football player, he had to admire the strength that Batman was showcasing.

They peeked again from behind the corner and watched the fight.

"It seems like it'll be over soon. C'mon, Dana." Nelson insisted.

Her eyes were still stuck in the fight and just blankly replied. "...y-yeah"

Click

Before she got to turn around, a nozzle of a gun touched her forehead.

"What do we have here?" Terminal revealed himself from the other side of the corner where they were hiding. He grinned at them menacingly and pushed Dana backwards with his gun.

"Dana!" Nelson exclaimed.

Terminal didn't like him announcing where they were while Batman was busy. "Do you want to be shot, pretty boy?!" He pointed the gun at him.

Nelson shuddered in front of the gun.

"Terminal!" Batman shouted. He finished beating the whole gang and only Terminal was left.

Terminal glanced at him and pulled Dana and knocked out Nelson with the butt of his gun.

"You weren't supposed to be here, Bats." He said as he pointed the gun towards Dana's temple.

Batman narrowed his eyes. "Let the girl go."

"Hahahaha!" Terminal laughed. "You think I'm stupid? She's my only leverage right now." Terminal walked towards the exit and took Dana with her as he kept his eyes on Batman. "Don't follow me or I'll make this girl's pretty head blow up. If I see so much as a bat's shadow following me... Bang!" He enacted firing his gun.

Batman glared at him and clenched his teeth. He couldn't do anything about it and just watched Terminal approach the exits. He could see Dana's face full of fear. Her eyes were watery.

Then, Terminal hit Dana's head with the gun and knocked her out.

"No!"

"Uh uh uh. I told you, if you follow me, I'll shoot." Terminal said as he picked up Dana over his shoulder and kept his gun pointed at her.

Just like that, he let Terminal get away with Dana.

Batman suddenly heard steps coming from the study and from the stairs.

"Hey! What happened here?"

Batman turned around and saw Don.

"Batman? What the hell?" He said. Peeking from behind him was Blade. Both of their appearances were disheveled.

"Dana got taken by the Jokerz." This time, the voice came from the group that were from the study. It was Chelsea.

"Max saw the whole thing with her drone." Carrie pointed at the thing flying above them the size of a small ball.

Batman widened his eyes and then looked at Max who still had her glasses on. She couldn't look directly at him. He closed his eyes and refrained from sighing about his carelessness. He deduced that she could have seen him changing into Batman.

"....Batman. What happens now?" Don asked.

"...I can't follow him or he will kill Dana. We'll have to wait for his demands."

The group of people looked down with regret.

Except Max.

"Ummm...while you were fighting him, I put a tracker on his vehicle with my drone."

All of them widened their eyes.

"Nice call, Max!" Her girlfriend, Carrie, exclaimed.

"Could you relay to me the feed from the tracker?" Batman asked.

"Y-yeah." Max walked up to the Batman and showed him her smartwatch. Batman grabbed the smartwatch and synced the feed of the tracker with his suit.

Batman put his hand on her shoulder and whispered. "Did you see me change? Nod if you did."

The startled Max widened her eyes first before nodding.

"I'll trust you to keep this a secret, Max. Thanks."

Max nodded again before going back to the others. Then, Batman flew away.

"Did he whisper something to you?" Carrie asked and the others anticipated her reply with curiosity.

"Huh?...oh, yeah. He just complimented me and thanked me." Max scratched the back of her neck.

Carrie blushed with excitement and was proud of her girlfriend. She is a big fan of the Batman ever since she was a kid growing up in Gotham. She always fantasized about working with him on a case. Now, her girlfriend got ahead of her with it. She's jealous but she's more proud of Max.

"I have to go..." Don said and got everyone's attention. "Max, can you also relay to me the tracker's feed on my smartwatch?" He asked.

"Are you going after them?" Carrie asked.

"Yeah..." Don narrowed his eyes. "It's something personal."

They were suspicious of Don who they just met today.

"Can we ask why?" Chelsea asked.

"...It's probably my fault that Dana got taken. They were probably after me..." Don said regretfully. "I'm part of the mutant gang. I'm sorry..." He didn't include Terry and placed everything on himself.

They got taken aback. They had no words to say to him. They didn't want to say that he doesn't need to do that, but they didn't want to say that it was his fault either.

Max sent the feed of the tracker to Don and he left.

Right after he left, the police finally came and asked them questions. Max and the others omitted the fact that the Jokerz were after Don. They arrested the Jokerz that were knocked out and provided medical care to the injured, namely, Nelson Nash.

"What do we do now?" Blade asked.

"Yeah, I feel bad if we go back to our houses like nothing happened."

"There's nothing else that we can do but that and hope for the best. Don't worry. Batman will surely get Dana back." Carrie confidently said.

----

Zooom

- This signal is coming from the tracker that your friend planted?

"Yeah. I kind of screwed up, Barbara."

-Why? What else happened?

Batman was flying above the buildings of Gotham as he followed the tracker planted on Terminal's motorbike. He was briefing Barbara over the comms about what happened...but he wasn't finished telling everything.

"That friend of mine that planted the tracker...she saw me change into the suit."

-...

"...Barbara?"

-What the hell, Terry!!!

Batman yanked his head away from Barbara's shout by reflex.

"I know. I know...It's very bad."

-*sighs* Is she going to keep it a secret?

"I made her swore to secrecy...what did Bruce used to do when he got into situations like this?"

-...he was just lucky that anyone that discovered his secret ended up working with him or sleeping with him...

"Sleeping with...wha-?" Batman furrowed his brows in confusion.

-You heard me. They end up being a sidekick or a lover. Either way, they ended up forming some type of relationship with Bruce. That's what always happens and frankly, it works.

"You're telling me, I got to involve Max in this somehow?"

-I'm saying...you got to do whatever it takes to make her keep this a secret.

"...I'll think up of something later. Right now, this may be a chance where I can discover the Jokerz' hideout and save both Dana and the mutant leader."

Zooooom

He generated more energy towards his soles and sped up.

After a while, the tracker slowed down and stopped moving.

It's somewhere near crime alley.

When Batman arrived, he saw Terminal's bike was parked. He had the suit's cloaking ability on and investigated the area.

Near him, he saw an abandoned subway station that had "Restricted area" signs on. Park Row station was abandoned when the city decided to rework the route of the subway.

Batman searched for any kind of traps there might be before going in. As he went down, he activated his Thermal vision.

Below him, he found hundreds of heat signatures and a secluded area where it was all blue.

As he scanned the area, he found Terminal's heat signature walking down the stairs towards the rest of them while he carried Dana.

----

"I'm back..." Terminal said as he dropped Dana on the floor when he entered the room.

"Who's that?" A man with a clown mask asked him about the girl he brought.

"Just some girl I held hostage to get away..."

"Where's your crew?"

"...It was Batman. It was so unexpected." He said as he plopped on a couch.

"You'll be in trouble with the boss..."

"I know..." He furrowed his brows. "can we not talk about this right now?" He lifted his feet up and put it on a stool. "Where's the others?"

"Man, I don't know. Everyone's got their own thing nowadays."

Just then, a man entered the doorway.

"Oh, Doug. Where have you been?"

Doug walked in and looked at the two. "It was getting boring...The boss hasn't given us a new job and so I decided to play a little prank on a street gang that rips off auto part...s" He was smiling until he saw the girl laying on the ground next to the wall."

Terminal noticed him looking at the girl and smiled. "You can do with her whatever you want. I'm done with her."

Doug's eyes looked as if it would pop out of his head at his statement. Without any context, Terminal's sentence left too much to the listener's imagination.

"Wha-what is it?" Terminal nervously asked.

"...Hey...what exactly did you do to her?" Doug said with menacing eyes.