Chapter 3

He was glad that the flight systems' auto-glide pilot wasn't among those that were being repaired. He would've had trouble in trying not to jostle the injured vigilante in his arms as he flew toward the signal linked to her communicator.

He was very wary as he alighted atop the clock tower. The still working sensors in his suit told him about the level of security in this place. It was as if a smaller scale bat cave was squeezed into the tower. Picking up two bio-thermal heat sources as he went in, he saw an attractive wheelchair-bound redhead and a blond woman hunched over the main console of their command center and guessed that they were his passenger's friends.

Activating stealth mode once more to get past them unnoticed, he laid the wounded woman on one of the beds in the inner chambers. Taking out some compact meditools from the utility belt, he assessed the damages done and injected her with a universal healing agent that would also stimulate rapid blood production to replace what had been lost. He inspected the bullet wound. The bullet had gone right through the leg, rather than embedding itself inside. She was lucky it had only fried her nerves, thus giving her a hell of a lot of pain. He partly blamed himself for not jumping in sooner, but he also reasoned that he had had no idea as to who was who. For all he had known, she could have been the bad guy - uh, girl.

Making sure not to disturb her distraught friends out in the command area of the tower while he tended to Helena, he quickly finished his ministrations and started heading for the exit - then his stealth mode system shut down.

“Damn,” he thought, checking an internal gauge. Stealth mode was eating too much power from his already damaged suit, this means that he had only enough for one more flight before the whole thing shuts down for recharging, making it akin to Bruce's original cape and cowl costume. He had to get out of here fast.

Barbara suddenly realized that the noises coming from the open comlink were echoing the sounds inside the clock tower itself. She and Dinah whirled around just in time to catch a glimpse of a Batman-like figure fly off from the tower.

“I don't know,” Barbara answered, baffled herself. “But he damn well acts just like him. Coming in and out without greeting or an explanation.” She shook her head ruefully, wondering how the hell did he find the tower so fast. She, herself, made sure that lines in and out of the tower were completely untraceable. But it was just like Bruce to pull a rabbit out of his cowl every now and then.

In response to her question, a moan was heard in the living quarters area. Both women went to see who it was and were stunned to see a patched up and bedridden Huntress slowly coming to.

“Where?” Helena whispered, still not sure if she was awake or not. She let Dinah prop her up to face Barbara as the young woman muttered encouragement to the prone vigilante.

Barbara sighed, knowing better than to carry the argument further. Besides, she wouldn't even mention the fact that Helena cried out a word she swore never to acquaint with the man. Instead, she told her to get some rest while she and Dinah locked down for the night. There will be time enough to figure out everything tomorrow.

That was a few weeks ago, and still no real answer was in sight. Now the media all over the city was abuzz about mysterious sightings of a Bat-like figure reappearing all over New Gotham and stopping crimes every now and then. Barbara even checked in on Alfred Pennyworth, and the butler informed her that the cave hasn't been opened and tampered with. Bruce's oldest friend went so far to explain that he still had no contact with his surrogate son and employer of late.

But enough of that for now, Barbara thought. The immediate threat of a new dangerous drug ring rising as soon as they had done away with the former one had to be given top priority first. This time, working through reliable channels, Oracle was able to get a pretty good fix on the new ring's ever-changing location. Even Helena guaranteed that Reese would be around to help back her up this time around.

The police detective had shown more than normal concern when he was told about what happened that night the station got that anonymous 911 call. He was taken by surprise by the Huntress's own account of her experience on meeting the city's fabled “Dark Knight”. Either gratitude was a foreign concept to her, or she completely hated the fact that she owed this Batman her life. Her attude confused him. Whatever the problem was, he could only hope that it won't eat her alive.

Terry McGinnis realized that he was stranded in another universe after several weeks of trying to pin down where he was exactly. Doing the “JOB” was all that kept him from going insane once the reality of it all finally sunk in.

At first he thought that he was somehow transported into the past of his Gotham - but further evidence and records hacking indicated otherwise. Yes, there was a Batman here. And yes, it could definitely be the Bruce Wayne of this universe. But now he was missing. Flew the bat-coop, as it were.

Assessing his options, he figured he'd better have cash and board first before he did anything else. So he got a part time job right where he knew he'd be best suited for both of his identities - serving as an independent web-troubleshooter and tech support for the Gotham Times and Wayne Enterprises. Thanks to his A.I., he was able to come up with very legitimate looking papers proving his identity. This little endeavor allowed him to buy a state of the art laptop, and rent a single bedroom apartment as his base of operations. The fact that he could work right in his home gave him the freedom to be the Batman. Terry tried to fight the feeling that he was somehow needed here, but after a few more appearances, he later changed his mind about that.

Case in point: A few nights after dropping off the injured vigilante, he decided to do a light patrol to test his suit after a successful repair and recharge. On his rounds, he spotted a would-be rapist in the process of working over a frightened teenager. He just swooped in and slammed the perp into a wall, then deposited both criminal and victim at a nearby precinct.

After that, he squelched a gang war shooting which started off in the older Gotham district projects. It felt really good afterwards, knowing that he had helped where he could. He knew that finding a way back home would take time, so while he was at it, he might as well lend a hand to whomever else were left guarding the city Bruce loved so much. Doing nothing would drive him stir crazy more quickly than impersonating this place's Batman in his stead.

And no way in hell was he going to play as Robin or Nightwing. Odds were that they were around here someplace and he didn't want to run into them wearing the same stupid costume - or something worse like it. No, he was meant to be the Batman - so he'd stay the Batman. He hadn't been to the bat cave yet even though he could easily slip in unnoticed since he knew for certain that the old man's original retainer would be right there guarding the place. He couldn't very well just pop in and say “Hi, you may not know me - but I'm a Batman from another dimension, and I really need to use the place while you're boss is out of town.”

So, to distract himself from the maddening search of trying to find a way home, he was out flying in the suit doing the “JOB”. The newspaper was doing an expose about a certain drug ring that was taking over the city inch by inch after he had inadvertently helped the Huntress topple the older one. This was a problem he could handle. This would get immediate results and would never leave his head spinning with theories of Einstein/Padowski Bridges, temporal mechanics, and inter-dimensional headaches.

He chuckled ruefully as he realized “weird” was also par for the course in taking the mantle of the Bat. And it also included strange fights between heroes and villains of various shapes, sizes, and gender no matter where he was.

Thinking back to the beautiful vigilante he had tended to the first time when he had arrived in this world, he smiled. Though while it had looked like she was capable of taking on more than a dozen armed guys the first time he saw her, it seemed quite clear that they were warned beforehand of her abilities - and that she was coming. Reviewing the logs the A.I. was fond of making; he instantly recognized a classic ambush set-up when he saw it. So far, he dared not return to the clock tower again until formal introductions were made.

It went on like that for a while until Helena and the neo Batman went after the same gang of drug dealers on the same night. He got to them first and it pissed the Huntress off when she found them already bagged, tied, and ready for police pick up. Reese was so flabbergasted that he made a remark that all that was missing in that picture were gift-wrapping paper and one huge red bow. Helena could only silently fume.

“Who the hell does he think he is?” She yelled, throwing her hands up in the air as she paced the command center. “First he disappears, then comes back as if nothing's happened right under everyone's noses. Without explanations even! Then disappears again only to show up before I do at places YOU send me to investigate.”

“Helena,” Barbara said, trying to placate her friend. “We're not even sure if it's even him at all. I mean, look at the facts so far. Alfred even says that the cave was never disturbed. And we all know full well where all his gear is.”