Chapter Text
“Who took your mom?” the operator asked, steady and serious.
“Um. I- I don’t know. Someone Powers sent, maybe?”
“Okay. What’s your name?”
“Matt.”
“Okay, Matt. Where are you?”
“I’m at Mr. Wayne’s house, but I- my mom was leaving work.”
“Alright, where does she work?”
“Um, AstroTech. It’s in the Upper West Hill.”
“What’s her name?”
“Mary McGinnis.”
“Okay. How do you know she’s been taken?”
“We were on a call with her while she was leaving work, then after she got in her car there was some crashing and screaming and now she’s not responding,” he said, glancing at Dana who was furiously tapping away at her phone.
“Alright. We’re sending a team over now. Can you give us a description of her?”
“Um, short. Five-two, maybe. Dark brown hair but some of it’s dyed red-ish. Korean, pale-skinned, not super skinny but kinda. Her hair’s pretty short too.”
“Okay, Matt. You’re doing great. Are you in a safe place right now?”
“Yes.”
“And is there someone there with you?”
“Dana.”
“Who’s Dana?”
“My older sister.”
“Okay, and will you both be able to stay safe?”
“Yes.”
“Alright. I’m going to get off the call now, Matt, but I need you to keep your phone near so I can call back later, okay?”
“Okay.”
“And make sure it’s charged, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Okay. You’ve been a huge help, Matt. We’ll find your mom.” they said.
Then they hung up.
Feeling lost, he looked to Dana, who was now pacing. She huffed in frustration after a moment and turned to him.
“Do you have Mr. Wayne’s number?” she asked.
He shook his head ‘no.’
Her frown deepened and suddenly she took off toward the door, snatching his wrist along the way and dragging him out into the hall.
“Look for a phone, or an office with a list of contacts. We need to call Mr. Wayne,” she said, striding to the next door down and peeking inside. She motioned for him to do the same and he ran to the other side of the hallway to start checking the rooms. Eventually, they found an office with a phone and a nearby book of contacts (written out on paper and everything). Dana quickly started flipping through it, trying to find the right number. Matt, who was trying not to panic, took to examining the room.
It was a large office, with a big solid wood desk, more fancy curtains and crown molding, as well as an antique grandfather clock that appeared to be broken. Wandering over to it, he ran a hand along the side. It was a really nice clock, with pristine hand-carved detailing in the wood and fancy designs etched into the metal. The clock itself, though, was broken- the metal hands frozen in place. Matt had read that old analog clocks had been built with the ability to rewind them. He wasn’t a clockmaker, but maybe trying to fix it would give him something to do. Once they got ahold of Mr. Wayne and explained the situation, it would likely become a horrible waiting game, after all. He pulled out his phone and started his search for a way to repair the clock.
Apparently, the first thing he needed to do was find the make and model. Glancing at the clock face, he saw some words, but they were obscured by the minute hand. He shifted it out of the way and leaned in to get a better look, but jumped back with a yelp when he heard a ‘click’ and felt the whole clock move. It slid to the side to reveal a dark stone stairway heading down.
Schway .
Turning to Dana, he saw that the noise hadn’t grabbed her attention. He wished he could help, but he would probably just distract her, and it’s not like Wayne knowing about mom would bring her home faster, anyways.
“Hey, Dana, I’m gonna go check out this hidden wine cellar real quick,” he called to her back.
She sent a little wave of acknowledgment, so he turned and tried to find a light switch in the stairwell. He found one, but it didn’t do anything so he resigned himself to traversing the steps with just his flashlight and entered. It got colder the further he went, and the air felt musty-er. The more he walked the more he was impressed by just how deep this cellar must be. Surely old Mr. Wayne didn’t keep his wine down here. It would be too much of a hassle for a man his age. Maybe it had been built during the Prohibition or something, when alcohol was illegal. It would explain the secret entrance and the depth.
When he finally reached the bottom, there was another set of light switches- and these ones thankfully worked. But, instead of a little ‘click’ of a couple bulbs turning on to illuminate a small room, Matt was greeted by the rhythmic ‘ca-chunk ca-chunk’ of industrial-sized behemoths echoing around the massive cavern they revealed. A cavern with a giant t-rex, a giant penny, a giant joker card, and…
Holy sh*t.
--
Dana Tan was not having a good night. Any enjoyment she’d gotten from having tea with Matt and Mr. Wayne went out the window the second Mary was in danger. Something, or some one, had ended her call while Matt was on the phone with 9-1-1. She had tried to contact her again and had gotten nothing, but the sound of the struggle gave her some hope that Mary had been taken and not outright killed. Calling Mr. Wayne was not the only thing she could think to do, and she had nearly screamed when she realized she didn’t have his number. They had found his office, but none of the numbers she’d tried so far had gotten her results and she wanted to cry but she couldn’t lose Mary too. She couldn’t let Matt become an orphan. She couldn’t- she couldn’t - but she couldn’t get ahold of Mr. Wayne and she couldn’t do anything else. Mary was all the way in the city and now all those years Dana had spent training would mean nothing because she wasn’t there to help the woman who had become another mother to her and-
“Dana!”
Her panicked thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Matt’s voice. He sounded echoey and far away, like he was shouting through a long tunnel.
“Dana!”
He sounded closer that time. She could also make out the sound of hurried footsteps. She turned and saw the grandfather clock moved to the side and a hole where the wall should be behind it. Vaguely she remembered waving Matt off when he’d said something about a cellar, which explained why it sounded like he was running upstairs.
“Dana!” he cried again when he emerged from the dark. Breathless and panting, but with a look on his face that reminded her painfully of the last time she had seen his brother. They looked so similar now…
“Dana, you have to see this. It’s Batman’s base! Right down here! The real Batman’s HQ!”
Whatever news she had expected him to deliver, it had not been that.
“Batman?” she echoed, confused.
“Yeah! I’m not joking! C’mon you’ve gotta come see it!”
“Matt, I dunno. I’m still trying-”
“There’s a supercomputer down here, Dane! We could use it to try and find mom!”
That, well. She had just been worrying about not being able to do anything. She glanced at the contact book, then back at Matt.
“Is there reception down there?” she asked.
“Yup. I checked,” he replied.
She grabbed the phone book and followed him down.
--
When they reached the bottom, Dana didn’t know what to think. It was big, really big, and stockpiled with all sorts of top of the line tech that an old crime fighter would need. She hadn’t been quite ready to believe Matt’s claim of Batman earlier, but seeing the row of famous vigilante suits next to the ginormous computer that he was now attempting to access did the trick.
“Can you get in?” she asked.
“I’m trying. Keep calling mom,” he said.
She tried Mary’s cell once more while paging through the phonebook. It went to voicemail again and her stomach clenched. The longer this went on the worse it was going to get. Something had taken Mary, but they didn’t know what. The last location they could confirm her being was her work’s parking garage. Police were on the way, but she couldn’t get ahold of Mr. Wayne to tell him about these latest developments. Dana had felt completely helpless but now, glancing again at the costumes, she realized they had the resources to potentially find her… but no. That would be crazy. Like the time she had hit Carter Wilson with her car when it turned out he was a part of the Jokerz and was trying to kill Max for daring to be a black girl with a better score than him on the GATs. Or the time she had talked Willie Watt down from a destructive city-wide rampage. Or that time she had broken into The Ranch to gather the evidence needed to shut the place down after she found out how they were treating Chelsea. Those were all just spur of the moment things she had done to help people in need. It didn’t mean she could actually be… could it? Just for one night? Could she act as Batman if it meant saving Mary?
Matt let out a shout of triumph and Dana whipped her head around to find him sitting in the computer chair and pulling up various windows on the, now open, computer.
“You did it?” she exclaimed, approaching to look at the screens up close.
“Yup! Computer’s powerful, but the security’s about thirty years out of date. Thank god you talked Max into teaching me how to hack.” Matt said with a manic grin.
“No kidding,” she replied. Max had been reluctant at first, but considering they were now snooping around on Batman’s computer, she would say the bribes had been worth it.
It was a few moments before Matt proclaimed to have found a program that hacked city camera feeds, but that it was also out of date and would take time to upgrade. She was about to tentatively suggest they take the Batsuit out and get reliable footage that way when his phone rang. He answered and was greeted by a police officer who told them that they had found signs of a struggle, but no Mary McGinnis. Video records confirmed she had been taken, not killed, and now they were focused on finding her and bringing her back. The officer then promised to call with any new developments and hung up. Suddenly her tentative suggestion became a very serious one.
“Matt,” she said, voice totally calm as if she wasn’t about to voice the most insane idea she had ever had. “I’m going to use the suit to go find Mary.”
He turned from staring at his phone to staring at her in disbelief.
“The- the suit?” he stammered.
She pointed at the last suit in the lineup. The sleek black one with the red bat and long ears. The one that Batman- Mr. Wayne - had worn before his disappearance.
“Do you think you can find a way to sync it up with the computer?” she asked.
“Well it depends, I mean, there’s probably programs on here for that but I- Dana, you’re not actually planning on going out in that, are you?”
Her mind felt like it was moving a thousand miles a minute. The more she thought the more her plan came together.
“If you can hack into police servers then you can get info on the shootout with Powers and what happened to Mary. You could also gain access to cams that way. Or we could just sync up with the suit and coordinate our own search. Anything’s better than sitting around here.”
She could tell he didn’t like it, but after giving her a long hard look he sighed and turned back to the computer.
“Let's at least test the thing and sync up the feed before you go out,” he said. “It’s old, but it’s still cutting edge, so hopefully you’ll be safe.”
Dana turned the chair towards her and pulled Matt into a tight hug. He hugged back.
“We’re going to find her, Matty,” she whispered. “Powers won’t get away with this.”
When she pulled back to look at his face, he had the same expression of grim determination that Terry had often worn.
“ Batman’s going to find her, actually, so let’s get this show on the road,” he proclaimed.
She grinned.
--
The suit was amazing . Smooth, powerful, swift- it moved like an absolute dream. In her test run she had discovered it had enhanced strength, weapons, flight, and even invisibility . That one had been discovered by accident. Poor Matt had shrieked when she had laid a hand on his shoulder before she’d figured out how to turn invisibility off , but now she was flying towards the city in the Batsuit with her brother guiding her over comms and her own determination guiding her to succeed. Whatever happened now, she wasn’t giving up until they had Mary back, and she would do everything in her power to make sure that meant back alive .
Matt had hacked into police servers and was able to lead her to the last place cameras had picked up the kidnappers' vehicle. He was also able to get her descriptions of the thugs, how many of them there were and their plate number. With her suit she was able to quickly fly through the levels and locate the van, which had been abandoned in an alley. She checked the surrounding buildings and concluded that they had likely switched to another car, at which point Matt was able to pull CCTV records of the area and find their second vehicle. She instructed him to slip that info to the police if he could, then took off to follow the van’s trail. The cameras directed her further towards the docks, going lower and lower until she found the second car abandoned a block away from a section of ratty warehouses surrounded by police that she recognized from the earlier news feed. She heard Matt curse and wanted to do the same. This definitely had Power’s fingers all over it.
Climbing up to a window of the building the van was parked outside of, she slipped inside- appreciating the way night vision automatically activated. She scanned the open storage warehouse below and found it empty, but activated her invisibility before gliding over to the door at the other end of the room. She broke the lock with a swipe from one of the little throwing stars, then forced it open to reveal a staircase. At the bottom was a tunnel that she followed until she came upon a hole in the wall that revealed another much sketchy-er tunnel that Matt confirmed went in the direction of the building Powers’ people had barricaded themselves in- at which point she took off running.
Dana didn’t know what Powers had to gain from any of this. Why target Mary, specifically? Did he know that they knew? Was he kidnapping other people and bringing them here? Mr. Wayne said Powers was in a corner and knew it. From the looks of this tunnel, he had known it for a long time and had probably been planning for tonight to be some twisted last stand or something.
The tunnel turned up and she followed it, reactivating her invisibility when she caught sight of a single guard in her path. They had no chance of seeing her fist coming and went down with a swift hit to the temple (thank you seven years of martial arts and a strength-enhancing Batsuit.) She continued until the tunnel opened up in the basement of the very building Powers’ people had claimed. She could hear the sound of lazer fire being exchanged upstairs, but what really set her heart pounding was the sight before her. It was Mary, gagged and bound to a chair that had been set up in front of a camera while some dreg pointed a gun at her head. There was also an empty chair beside her that Dana had a nagging suspicion had been meant for Matt, but he was in the cave right now. Safe from the half dozen armed hitmen scattered about the room, unlike her. The camera was rolling, but none of the thugs paid it any mind- it must be broadcasting somewhere.
“Can you hack that feed?” she whispered to Matt while trying to devise a way to take the guards down and get Mary out without alerting the ones above them.
“I’ll try,” he whispered back.
She stepped back into the tunnel and picked up some debris, tossing it as far as she could. It made a nice ‘thunk’ . One person glanced into the tunnel but didn’t otherwise react. She picked up a bigger chunk and did it again. This time, they called out.
“James?” they called, stepping forward to peer into the dark.
When there was no response, they motioned for one of their companions to accompany them. The two activated their flashlights and walked to the bottom of the slope, cursing when they caught sight of their downed team member, but by then it was already too late. She knocked the first one out with a powerful kick to the head before pulling the second into a chokehold followed by a nerve strike that sent them to the floor. She briefly considered using the guns they had dropped- the firepower would be useful, after all- but then remembered the suit. While she was wearing this, her actions were not those of Dana Tan, but of Batman . She hadn’t even been alive by the time Batman disappeared for good, but she’d heard enough of the old stories to know that Batman didn’t use guns, so she settled for snapping them in half instead (which, all things considered, was still pretty schway.) The sound had drawn two more out into the tunnel, but upon catching sight of their unconscious fellows, they made a beeline back towards the top, yelling at their companions to seal off the hole. That wouldn’t do, so she ran and knocked out the one closest before using a throwing star to disarm the other one and give her time to tackle them to the ground too. They were out with a punch to the head, but then she was forced to roll to avoid the laz-round coming her way. She threw another star and a punch to take them down, but found this one was more skilled than the last, and was locked in a scuffle just as Matt finally patched her through to the broadcast to hear the slimy voice of Derek Powers say:
“-since the McGinnis’ are so important to you, I invited them here. Shame the boy couldn’t make it. He looks so much like his older brother nowadays, don’t you agree, Bruce? Though, I suppose he would be the older one now, wouldn’t he?”
“What do you want, Derek?” growled Mr. Wayne from somewhere on the other end of the line.
“What I want is something you can no longer give me. So, I’ve decided to settle for the next best thing. Watching your reaction as I wipe out the last of the little family that caused me all this trouble. At the very site that original batch of toxin was shipped from, in fact.” Powers gloated.
“Don’t do this.” begged Mr. Wayne at the same time Dana could hear Matt let out a horrified “No.”
Powers, the absolute piece of scum, laughed .
“Who’s going to stop me?” he jeered. “You?”
“NO!” cried Dana, finally getting the best of her opponent and bursting into the room just in time to knock the raised gun out of the final guard's hand and send them flying into the wall with a rocket-powered kick.
“ I am.” she finished triumphantly, uncaring if the camera could pick up audio or not. She had lost her invisibility sometime during the fight, so they had seen that anyway.
Then she smashed the camera with a punch.
Thanks to the suit, it didn’t even hurt.
She turned to Mary and started undoing her binds.
“Are you okay?” she asked once she’d gotten the gag off.
“Y- yes.” stammered Mary.
“Can you walk?”
“Yes.” said Mary, this time with confidence.
“Okay. There are still people upstairs, we’re going to need to go quick.”
Mary nodded and accepted Dana’s help in getting up, then they took off running back down the tunnels and kept running until they had made it back to the street outside the original building- at which point Dana scooped Mary into her arms and flew them to the police barricade, where she handed off her charge to some very confused paramedics before rocketing into the night sky.
She was being propelled by jet boots, but she felt like she could be flying off sheer joy right now. Judging from the cheering she heard over comms, so could Matt.
“We did it!” he crowed. “We did it, we did it, we did it!”
“We did!” she cried, jubilant laughs falling from her lips as she soared over the tops of even the highest Gotham skyscrapers.
“Mom’s safe! She’s gonna be okay! We did it, Dana! We saved her! She’s coming home!”
“Mom’s coming home!” Dana echoed.
“All thanks to you! You were really like Batman out there, Dane,” he said.
“Couldn’t have done it without my trusty Robin,” she replied.
If joy could sustain flight, his laugh would be enough for a trip to the moon.
--
By the time Mr. Wayne called them, Dana and Matt were already cleaned up and sitting in the drawing room. All he said was to wait for him there, and he didn’t sound happy. He and Ace entered fifteen minutes later, and the two siblings were subjected to the full force of the infamous Batman’s glare.
“ What were you thinking?” he growled, stepping forward to loom over Dana. She wasn’t impressed.
“I was thinking,” she bit back, eyes flashing in a way that dared the older man to challenge her. “That I wasn’t about to sit back and let my brother become an orphan , Mister Wayne.”
He narrowed his eyes.
“You could’ve also deprived him of a sister, Miss Tan. Did you think of that?” said Wayne.
“You of all people are going to berate me for putting my life on the line to help someone?” she retorted.
“We tried to call you,” interjected Matt, coming to stand by her in a silent show of support. “Then I found the cave by accident. The police confirmed that she had been taken so we just… we had to do something, Mr. Wayne. Weren’t you saying you understood? We had to do something .”
Wayne continued to glare at them, but they held firm. Then he shifted and Dana worried he would strike out, but instead he sat down, the dog settling onto the couch beside him.
“Explain the whole story. Now.” the old Batman ordered.
So they did. Calling Mary, the kidnapping, the 9-1-1 call, the attempts to contact him, stumbling across the cave, setting off on the rescue mission and how that played out- they explained it all. Wayne listened intently, scrutinizing them with a critical gaze the whole time. After they finished he poured himself a cup of cold tea and drummed his fingers along the base.
“Commissioner Gordon is going to have an officer escort Mary here after they’ve cleared her in medical. You’ll all be staying the night. Be sure to call and make any necessary arrangements.” he said before taking a sip.
“That’s it?” Dana asked in disbelief.
“Yes. It is.” he insisted with a glare. “You both did good work tonight, but Gotham doesn’t need a Batman. You will not be doing this again. You will not be speaking of this again. You’ll forget this part of the night even happened and go on with your lives.”
She felt a familiar rage build in her gut.
“With all due respect, Mr. Wayne,” she snapped, feeling as though none was due at all, “I think tonight proved Gotham does need a Batman. We just prevented a repeat of what happened eight years ago. I’m not going to forget that.”
“You won’t be doing it in my suit,” he said.
“Then I’ll find another one,” she stated, unphased. “I work in immigration law, sir. I know that Terry’s death wasn’t an isolated incident, but a systemic problem. If I can prevent even one family from being forced to turn up at my office with more stories like ours, I’m going to keep doing this.”
He fixed her with another long look, though this time she hadn’t a clue what he was looking for. Whatever it was, he either found it or dismissed it, because the next thing he did was announce that he was going to the kitchen to make a new pot of tea.
After he left, Matt turned to her with a strange mix of pain and admiration on his face.
“Did you really mean that?” he asked. “You’d keep doing this?”
She shrugged.
“I could never do it on the same level as Batman without Bruce’s support, but yeah. I’d help where I can.”
“Would you let me help?”
She stopped to think about that one for a second.
“Only if your mom says yes, twip,” she replied with a grin.
He grinned right back.
--
Later that night, when Mary had been brought to the mansion and tearfully reunited with her kids, after which they had dinner and then his guests had climbed into a bed big enough for three in one of the guest rooms, Bruce crept down a set of stairs he had not touched in almost thirty years and shuffled over to inspect the last Batsuit. Even after all this time in storage, it had functioned remarkably. The look on Derek Powers’ face when he had realized that Batman of all people had foiled his last grand act of cruelty had been incredible, but the disposition of the young woman who had worn it tonight impressed him even more. It had been a combination of the nerve gas strikes along the Kaznian border and the repeated attacks against FoxTecha eight years ago that had initially spurred his investigation of Powers, leading him to discover a multitude of atrocious things Powers had done under his company’s name- including the murder of an innocent son and father duo that left a single parent alone to raise an eight year old boy. That one struck close to home- a fact that Derek had somehow caught onto and thrown in his face at every opportunity.
It pained him to admit that even with all of his and Barbara’s careful planning, tonight still could have gone horribly wrong without the help of Dana- of Batman - who had created quite a stir when she had shown up and delivered the hostage safe and sound before flying away. Barbara had been incenced, of course, but most were just delighted and bewildered. And why wouldn’t they be? When capes of any kind had become a rare sight in Gotham since Batman’s retirement, most of all Bats .
As reluctant as he was about the whole idea, seeing the evidence of Dana’s fight on the suit before him- feeling the nicks and scuffs that matched the image of the clean takedown he had seen her perform on that broadcast did jog his memory of late night rescues, successful missions and grateful smiles. Much had changed since the last time he had donned the cowl. Much had changed, and yet the battle between good and evil, between compassion and apathy, raged on the same as ever.
As loath as he was to think it, maybe Miss Tan was right.
Maybe Gotham did still need a Batman, after all.