Chapter 33

"Don't be so nervous. I forgave you a long time ago." The mutant leader said as he patted Terry's back. "Scoot over, will you?"

Terry moved to make room in the two-person seat.

"How have you been? Did you two keep in contact after you left our group?" He asked Terry as he put his arm around the backrest of their seat and pointed back and forth between him and Don.

"N-no, mu-...leader. We only met again today and invited me to some coffee." Don said.

"Oh? That's good. Did you tell him what's our current situation?"

"Y-yes."

"Good. It's time to come back to the mutants, Gary." the mutant leader smiled at Terry. It wasn't an invitation. It was an order.

"...No." Terry almost fell for it because the mutant leader keeps distorting the situation with his unusual actions.

"Come on~. We need someone with your brain, Gary." the mutant leader glanced at Don "No offense, Don. You're suitable for a division leader," then faced Terry again. "but what I'm offering you is the position of general." Terry and Don widened their eyes at the sudden proposal. "You'll basically handle half of the mutants." He said with a bright smile.

"...It's Terry."

"Hm?"

"I said my real name is Terry. And I appreciate your kind gesture, but I already have a job."

"Lame~" Leader rested his chin on his hand. "Terry is Lame. Just go back to being Gary." He complained like a child.

Terry's eyebrows twitched because he got irritated. It has always been like this even before he formed a relationship with the mutant leader as Batman. You could never tell if he was serious.

"Why are you here, anyway?" Terry asked him.

"I was in a meeting with the commissioner. I always come here for coffee after meeting her." the mutant leader replied.

Terry heaved out a sigh. "Look, I can't accept your offer, but you can still call me if you need any help with anything. As long as it's something doable."

"Then," The mutant leader started to reach to his pocket. "would you know something about this?" What he took out was a card.

Terry took the card from his hand and examined it.

"What is it? It's just a normal Joker card." Terry said.

"Am I that old that you don't know what this means?" The mutant leader frowned.

"What does it mean?" Don asked.

"Don't you guys know who Joker is?"

Don and Terry looked at each other and thought for a while before reacting in unison. ""Oh~"" They said as if they finally got it.

The mutant leader sighed in defeat. "This is something like a calling card. He leaves it so everyone will know that he was there."

"Where did you get it from?" Don asked.

"From one of our hideouts."

Don widened his eyes.

"Come on~" Terry just looked at them unimpressed. "That guy has been dead years before Batman died. There are many copycats running around. Someone new from the mutants probably left it there like a fanatic."

"...Maybe so, but I have a bad feeling about it." The mutant leader's eyes turned serious. His playful smile was gone. "I brought it up with the commissioner earlier today. The commissioner just dismissed it as a joke."

"...I'll talk to her later about it." Terry said.

"That's right! You probably know the commissioner personally too, don't you? Isn't she beautiful?" He locked his hands as if he was in love.

Terry squinted his eyes at him. He decided to ignore his last statement. "I do know her because my mom works for her now." Terry glared at them both. "You two better not tell anyone about what I just said or I won't help you out."

"That's fine by me." The mutant leader said. Then suddenly, he lifted his nose up into the air.

*Sniff* He was sniffing for something like a hound. He looked at Terry and drew his nose over his neck. *Sniff* *Sniff*

Terry immediately backed away from him. "What the hell are you up to, man?"

"You smell like him."

"What? Who?" Terry furrowed his brows.

"...It's nothing." The mutant leader pondered about something before answering him.

"Damn creep." Terry looked at him with disdainful eyes. Don's forehead was sweating from nervousness. Terry has always been like this with the mutant leader even when he was in the mutants, but the mutant leader always just tolerates him and smiles. He probably liked Terry for how he acted indifferently with him. Like an equal instead of a hierarchy being established between them. That's probably the reason why he was the only one whom he told his name to. Fletch.

----

"I met the mutant leader today. I think he has a crush on you." Terry chuckled.

"What's so funny about it?" Barbara raise a brow at his statement.

"N-nothing."

They're currently in the batcave having a meeting.

"What else did he say?" Barbara asked him.

"He said he wants me to join the mutants again. I declined him."

"Oh? Looks like our friends are having a rough time dealing with their new muscle. I figured this would happen. That's why I advised him early on not to take up too much of the territory that the Maroni family left behind."

"Looks that way, but I'm sure he can handle it."

"He'll figure things out eventually. Let's just hope that no one will see this weakness to strike them."

"Yeah. He also bugged me about the joker card he found in one of their hideouts."

"He told me that too."

"Yeah. He said you didn't pay any mind to it. What do you really think about it?"

"Exactly that. There's no use being cautious about a dead man."

"Hmmm. I don't know. Somehow, he has a sixth sense about these things. Maybe it's part of what he got after getting mutated but, one time, we were supposed to do a job, he called us back immediately. We don't know why he called the job off. The next morning, there was news of a factory explosion the night before. That factory was where we were supposed to do the job. Our team could have all died."

Barbara carefully listened to Terry's story.

"....That still could be a coincidence." Barbara said.

"I know, but it also wouldn't hurt to look into it just to be sure. A copycat doesn't mean he won't be as dangerous."

"Fine. Anything else?"

"Well,...there's someone close to me that went missing a couple of days ago."

"Who?"

"A friend of mine from high school. His name is Doug Tan. I met his sister by chance when I passed my scholarship application this morning in GCU."

"This case came to my desk recently so I'm familiar. There's no sighting of him anywhere in Gotham. Maybe he left to another city."

"...There's something I want to tell you that I didn't tell anyone before."

"Go ahead."

"Doug Tan was a Joker fanatic. I didn't think of it too much until the day he was arrested for attempted murder." Terry licked his lips as he recalled an event from his past. "I was there that day too. He was laughing as he was beating this kid to death. We caught a couple of kids harassing his little sister and so we planned to teach them a lesson in front of the whole school. I thought he would stop once they were knocked out, but he kept going. His little sister, Dana, couldn't stop him for his own sake and neither could I. Luckily, the cops arrived before that kid was killed. Doug Tan was admitted into Arkham instead of juvie because he was diagnosed with a psychotic disorder."

"...You're saying this to me, why?"

"The mutant leader's gut feeling and Doug Tan's disappearance. They may be connected."

"You think your friend could be the dangerous copycat."

"...Yes." Terry uttered with a troubled expression.

"...I'll ask if there are any incidents where a joker card was left recently."

"Thank you." Terry said and instinctively looked at the empty seat of the couch that Barbara was sitting on.

Barbara noticed this and made a wry smile. That empty seat was where Rose would always sit. It was natural because only weeks have passed since she left.

"Are you going out tonight?" Barbara asked Terry.

"Yeah."

"Okay. See you next time." Barbara's hologram turned off afterwards.

Terry pushed the button on his belt and activated his suit.

He shot up and flew out of the batcave.

There were many things occupying his mind as he cruised through the night sky.

Doug Tan. The mutant gang. The joker card.

He felt the need to gather more information to make it all make sense. He felt that somehow he might get more hints if he goes out tonight as Batman.

"AAAH!"

It was a woman's scream. Batman immediately flew towards the direction where it came from.

After he landed, he saw a group of people. Among them were the two men that tried to harass him earlier but failed. They were carrying two people. A man and a woman. The man was someone Terry just met earlier. Nelson Nash. The moment he recognized him, Batman quickly tried to identify the woman. The woman had long black hair exactly like Dana's. He couldn't see her face because it was being covered by her hair but the chances were high that it was her.

Batman fought his urges to go to them immediately. He tried to analyze the situation first. He decided to follow where they were going first and find out their intentions.

Because of his decision to do so, he noticed that the two men were with people that were not part of Don's division. In fact, he doesn't recognize them from other divisions too. Either they're not part of the mutants or they were all new recruits like the two were.

They lead Batman into a dark alley. Once they arrived, people appeared from the shadows. They all wore clown make-up. Batman squinted at them. They obviously have something to do with the joker card that the mutant leader found.

The group that carried Nelson and the woman that Batman suspects as Dana dropped them on the ground.

"That girl is close to him." One of the guys that tried to harass Terry said.

"Then, who's the other one?" One of the people wearing make-up asked with a wide smile.

Somehow, the person that spoke seemed familiar to Terry.

"The dude is just someone she was with at the time. We didn't know what to do with him because he saw our faces."

"...Wake them up. I want to see some reactions before I carve them."

"C-couldn't we just hide them somewhere to lure Gary?"

Batman widened his eyes at the sudden mention of his alias in the mutant gang.

"You want to join us, don't you? This should be a good audition for you." The man said wearing a devilish smile while the people behind him laughed ominously.

"O-okay."

The men that brought the couple nudged them until they regained consciousness.

The two groaned as they opened their eyes.

"!!"

Both of them crawled backwards. They were frightened of what they saw as soon as they woke up.

"Ah-" The girl tried to shout but the man with make-up on covered her mouth.

Batman had enough of just watching as soon as he saw the girl's face. She really was Dana.

As he was about to come down from the building, the man's next words stopped him.

"We have a problem here, gentlemen." He glared at the men that brought the couple. "The girl you got is my sister."

All of them there were taken aback at the sudden statement.

The man with make-up slowly released his hand from Dana who was still in shock.

"D-Doug?" She uttered.

"Hi, Dana." Doug smiled.