Chapter 5

Tanya

First day actually being at Wayne Tech, I thought, as I followed behind Bruce Wayne, pen and note papers in hand. It's a lot easier to write things down sometimes than it is to type them out, especially as we've been going from lab to lab looking at various projects.

It was rather interesting seeing all these new technologies being developed down here. I didn't really understand most of them; some of them were rather wild, really. There was a super plant growth formula we came across. I'd watched them drop a single drop on a rose, and it turned into a bush in a matter of minutes. Absolute insanity. Unfortunately, said bush had withered rather quickly under its own lifespan, which meant it was not fit for purpose. What purpose? Probably ending world hunger if they can figure it out.

Bruce had been rather amazed by it and immediately offered to add more money to their funding. But the doctor in charge of it had shaken his head, saying that the current funding is fine, which was remarkable really. I had seen mad scientists before, and they had an ever-hungry need for money for new and more exciting projects. The fact that Bruce Wayne had a person under his employee who didn't need more money spoke volumes about the kind of scientists he was preferring to hire. Logical people who set themselves a budget and only needed extra money when they really were hitting a wall.

But we didn't need to spend a few minutes there; instead, we moved on to the next area where we'd run into a rather interesting situation, I would think. Bruce was standing to one side as a man, looking to have gone bald early in life, was explaining how his new device would instantly freeze foodstuff, allowing it to be better stored.

"I can see the value in your freezing technology, Mr. Freeze. It's not a bit on the nose," I commented as Bruce nodded his head along, listening to the conversation.

The man chuckled before saying, "I will admit my name has some interesting symmetry with my work. I particularly have an interest in technology of cold dispersal, but well, that's a story for another time."

Moving over to the device, he said, "This technology, though I'm working on it through the use of light channeled through the proper amount of crystals, will allow us to freeze things indefinitely. Not only that, but with the proper reversal beam, we can unfreeze it, good as new. No worries about spoilage. Theoretically, if my technology is right and its design, if a person were to come down with an incurable disease, it is possible to freeze them and put them on ice until a cure is found."

"Hmm, an interesting notion, Mr. Freeze, but I would point out you're denying that person the ability to say their goodbyes. What if their cure isn't found for a hundred years?"

"That is a sad but realistic notion I have considered. In the end of it, I would say that in that situation, a person who's going into freeze should consider their last moments as their last moments. They may never be awakened, and if they do, well, it'll be long after many of the people they knew are dead. Possibly, they may be able to find relatives, but..."

"So, theoretical euthanasia, just with Schrödinger's cat mixed in," I commented, which got Mr. Wayne to nod his head in agreement.

"That wouldn't play well with any government; euthanasia is illegal. The only reason the attempts of cryo-freezing have been allowed in the past is because, well, the body is dead. No one gives that damn once the body is dead."

"Hmm, true. Governments do tend to restrict technological advancements, but this is why we're in the private sector."

Wayne nodded before saying, "You can continue your experiments when it comes to non-human entities. O.S.B. morals committee to perhaps look into other things, mice and such, so you can try and see if it's possible to revive something after it's been frozen, but I won't give any guarantees, Mr. Freeze."

"Thank you, Mr. Wayne. Your faith in me will not be broken. I will prove this technology is worthy, and there are other possible routes we can take said technology, with global warming being an ever-present issue. I believe it could be possible to use a beam to freeze the ice caps harder, perhaps preventing a change in weather."

"Yeah, Mr. Freeze, I'd keep that one to yourself," Wayne said with a shake of his head. "That's the kind of doomsday technology that people always are afraid of in comic books, and the government would not take kindly to it. They'd call you a mad scientist."

"Ah, of course, yes. I will rethink that in the future. Thank you, Mr. Wayne," Mr. Freeze said as we stepped further away from his freezing room, moving out into the hallway. The door closed, and Mr. Wayne sighed heavily.

"Good work in there, Tanya. I can always use someone who can figure out what some of these scientists are thinking. I mean, I'm not that bad at it, but still, having someone to bounce the idea off of is useful, especially when they get a little bit too esoteric."

"It's understandable, Mr. Wayne," I said as we moved down the hallway, "you're employing a lot of scientists who are on the bleeding edge. The problem is, of course, leading-edge scientists are either visionaries like Tesla or other men of the past or crackpots. We just need to learn how to handle them correctly, and they'll do their job most of the time."

Going on before saying, "Dr. Freeze is a bit of a special case though. When it comes to visionary flash crackpots, they're a bit of a mix."

"Oh," I asked, getting Wayne to tilt his head, and said "let's just say he's extremely motivated with his technology. His wife has a disease that won't let her see probably age 40. He doesn't have the real scientific know-how to cure it, but he does have the scientific narrow how to work the technology to maybe give her the time she needs for it to be cured. So, you know, I let him have a little bit of an extra budget now and again, even though his technology is redundant right now."

I nodded in agreement. Freezing things instantly was interesting, but it was rather redundant because it could be done gradually and without the need for high-powered lasers, so a much cheaper product.

"Do you think he'll pull it off?" I asked. Wayne shrugged his shoulders as we continued walking.

"Don't know. I do know though he's motivated. As you probably picked up, Freeze isn't really his real name. Let's just say he was involved in a few incidents in Germany that showed that his technology has interesting benefits but left a few diamond stores and things."

"I paid for the damages and for him to come work here but had to make sure he had a new identity so people didn't figure out he was over here and not back in Europe."

"Understandable," I said, nodding my head. "And it's really you have a scientist who's down on their luck trying to get the resources they need to do something, so they're starting to get a little bit cracked. By the sounds of it, robbing a diamond store using their new technology must have frozen the locks or something, I figured."

"If people found out you had such a man working for you, it would generally get the public's opinion of you downgraded to a crackpot millionaire who's investing in technology for his own gains, possibly criminal, originally when you're in a city of criminals like Gotham."

As we moved down the hall, we came to a turn in the structure as Bruce said, "And now we get to the part of the building I was hoping to avoid today."

"What's the problem?" I asked as Bruce looked at a set of double doors.

"This is a very old experiment with a researcher who's been part of the company for a few years now, hired while I was on sabbatical. I've let him continue his work because I believed... I believed his story. But I'm going to have to tell him that his work is going to be defunded today."

"Story?" I asked.

"Well, it's got a size," Bruce said. "The man in this part of the building told me that he was doing this so that his niece could hear again, that he was developing technology that would allow her to regrow her own eardrums and not need technology."

I raised an eyebrow before saying, "Let me guess, he somehow lied about that."

"He lied about all of it for years to my face. I wasn't even suspicious at first. The only reason I figured out something was up is because he asked for more funding recently, thought he was getting close to a cure for ear cancer… which is not what he's been saying before, so I was a bit perplexed. And well, I decided to pay a visit to his family, the ones that supposedly had a daughter who couldn't hear. She answered the door and was fine."

"Oof," I shook my head at the stupidity of whoever was behind this. "They tried to play a very dangerous game and lost by the sounds of it." "Sorry," I looked at Bruce and said, "so are we just going up to him and telling him it's over and kicking him out of the building or do we need to wait for security?"

Bruce thought for a moment before pulling out his cell phone and making a call. "Hey, Dennis, send over a couple of security guards just in case."

I raised an eyebrow as he put the cell phone away and explained, "The guy is old. I don't think he can cause many problems, but you know, he's probably got some sharp tools in there for his experiments. Better just to have some security around just in case."

I nodded in agreement as we waited there in the hall for the security guards to arrive.

It was a rather awkward silence for a bit as we just stood there, him and his suit standing well above me, and me attempting to appear as formal as I could.

It had been short notice, so I'd been only able to get a skirt, white top, and a vest; nothing too major in the areas of formal wear for work. I would have to change that when I got the chance. I was also wearing a bit of a heel on my shoe because, well, that's what you do at work, especially when you're trying to make sure you have a good chance of keeping the job.

There were expectations in the workplace, and I had only had 24 hours to do whatever research I could on what people wore to Wayne Industries. I noticed amongst them that a lot of women wore a bit of a heeled shoe, which implied to me that at the very least that was the standard of what you noticed.

Maybe I was just being a bit presumptuous, but it hadn't failed me so far.

"So, Tanya, been a long time since we've just had a moment to talk amongst ourselves, how have you been?" Bruce Wayne asked, smiling as he did.

"Oh, I've been fine. You know how it is, making my way through the education system, getting work here and there, making a living. Real happy to be working for you, Mr. Wayne. First stable job I've had in a while."

"Well, you're welcome. One thing I'm trying to cultivate is some stability in my work, you know? It is if you are straight with me, I'll be straight with you, and we'll have a nice stable relationship. That's why even though Victor Freeze has got a past, I know he will be straight with me."

"And this doctor won't be. That's why we were moving them. I am not in agreement before asking, what was his research anyways? At least what was he selling it to you as?"

"Echolocation. He was brought in while I wasn't here, so I think he was brought in for military work back when Wayne Industries did a little military work. I think he was trying to develop some sort of augmentation for the human ear to allow them to hear much further away and get a better view of the world. Something, you know, special operations would have loved."

"Ahhh, let me guess when you came in you were going to cancel all military contracts."

"I did cancel all the military contracts, at least all the ones that weren't towards medical survival of soldiers in the field. I didn't want the company to be involved in that, especially when we need to do worry about our own City first. The only reason he's been sticking around is he's been selling me the story that his niece was deaf and he was going to cure that loss of hearing."

"And now he's about to lose it all because he had one slip out. What a foolish man," I said, shaking my head before asking, "are there any other military contracts like that that we need to be worried about?"

"None that I'm aware of," Bruce said with a shake of his head, "but I always keep an ear to the ground when I get the chance. You never know what you'll run into when you're going through the files."

I wondered a lot. Maybe I should take a shot at this after all; he asked what I've been up to while I do the same. Nodding my head, I asked, "So where did you go, Mr. Wayne, all those years that you were gone?"

Mr. Wayne looked down the hallway as if hoping the security guards would show up before sighing and saying, "I wasn't a lot of places. I've been trying to find myself ever since, you know?"

I nodded my head as he said, "And I think I did when I was in the Himalayas."

"You found inner peace, my ass," which got a smile from him.

He said, "I don't think I'll ever have inner peace, but I did find myself. I found what I needed to be to help this city. Or at least, the strands of what I need to be, still trying to work at all the issues needed."

"So, you went to the Himalayas and found out that you need to be a billionaire socialite who does everything you can to raise money to help make the city a better place."

"I'll be honest, Bruce. I think you could have found that out here if you'd hung around about."

A smile at that before saying, "True, true. But I never would have gotten to experience viewing the top of the world if I hung out in Gotham."

"Okay, touche. I will admit seeing Mount Everest is one heck of an experience."

Bruce nodded before blinking, saying, "You've been to Mount Everest?"

My eye twitched as I realized I'd spoken a little bit out of turn and revealed some of my activities from an alternate life. Clearing my throat, I said, "No, that was a misspeaking, right? I meant from what I've read. I read a lot of books from people who explored tall mountains like that, being at the top of the world."

"Personally, I would never go up to the top of the mountain." Too much danger of dying… I have proof of this life. It was last life; I had a mage spells that allowed it to be rather reasonable. And, well, come on, if you're in the Himalayas near Mount Everest, you're going to fly up to it.

Wayne nodded before saying, "Well, I never actually walked to the top of the mountain either. I considered it, but I was more looking for spiritual Masters and others of that nature, and they didn't tend to live on top of mountains that people would just die from being too long on. Although they never do feel like going to the Himalayas give me a notice, maybe I'll get us some both of the ticket and we can both visit together."

I blinked before saying, "That would be rather nice, though is that not asking me out on a date in a way?"

"If you want to think of it that way," Bruce said, which confirmed that he had some interest…

Well, now that is a lot of potential things I could do with that information, but for now, I'll just hold it close to my chest and try and figure it out later.

Smiling, I nodded my head, saying, "Well, I'll let you know the next time I'm interested in going spelunking up the side of a mountain, so that's a bit I normally do. But if it's with you, maybe I'd be willing."

He smiled at that, and I smiled back, but before we could get any further into that conversation, I heard the footsteps of guards. Looking to my right, I saw about half a dozen security personnel walking up. They weren't carrying anything too dangerous for this, just a couple of billy clubs by the looks of it. One guard did have a gun on his side.

Bruce turned to them, raised an eyebrow in surprise before saying, "I don't think you guys need to have your tools out now, do you?"

They looked to the one with the gun who folded his hands across his chest, saying, "Have you ever kicked out a mad scientist?"

"No," Bruce said, but something about the tone of voice said yes. "What was odd?"

"Well, I have, and let me tell you, they are assholes. If they have any weird things that they want to test and it's their last possible moment, they'll test it, and they will bite and beat the hell out of you. It is the worst possible experience I have ever experienced, and that is why I'm bringing Mr. Wayne to see here, just in case the guy goes wild on PSP."

"PlayStation Portable?" I asked, which got a look from him as he said, "Whatever the damn drug's called."

"Alright, I'll defer to your opinion on this matter," Bruce said, stepping up to the door and swiping his card. The door slid open, revealing a set of stairs that went up in a spiral staircase for about four floors. At one point, I looked at Bruce Wayne with my eyebrow raised to the point that it indicated 'why is it like this?'

He noddedand said, "This place was built before my time, again under the last administration, and he demanded to have some sort of tower for his project. I don't understand it, and I'm very suspicious of it."

"You should be, Mr. Wayne," the guard said with an odd before adding, "everyone of these cocky doodle scientists and under your employer or potential crazed lunatics capable of causing great harm to the facility. The fact that they demand stuff like this is just a sign that they are not mentally there."

Bruce looked at the guard who shrugged the same, "It's a free country. I'm allowed to give my opinion. It's not like I'm disparaging your hires. I'm just saying that we need to keep your hires under a specific lock and key in my opinion, and anyone who hires anyone for this company needs to. I've seen some things, sir, some terrible, terrible things."

"Like what?" I asked, which got a chuckle from the man. He then said, "Some mystical mumbo jumbo guy came in here, got himself hired because he said he found a way to reverse aging. Turned out all he was doing was using some rejuvenating water from China or some crap. Didn't really stop aging, just made him look younger. Water was handed off to the lab, if you're interested, but they never found out exactly what made it work the way it did for him."

"That's not so bad," Bruce asked, which got a laugh from the guard as he then said, "Oh, it's not so bad because I haven't mentioned the where it went bad part."

"Well, don't keep us waiting," I instructed, which got a smile from him as he said, "Guy wasn't able to drink the water one day, too busy with work. Everything on him aged extremely fast. We found a skeleton in his office that was over 200 years old, according to the one doc I talked to on the whole thing. Bone was literally brown with age."

"Okay, I see why you're on the end of keeping a close eye on them. They didn't try this on human trials, right?" Bruce asked.

"This was before your time, Wayne, and no, no, they did not go to human trials. Man was a bit picky about who got to use his special water. I think he only had a limited supply and was waiting for more to arrive."

"Did it ever arrive?" I asked, which got a shrug from him, saying, "There was a raid by the mafia or something a few days after that on one of our warehouses. If it arrived, the mob have it. So good for them, I guess."

"Hmmm."

Mr. Wayne made a minute annoyed noise, but we finally arrived at the double doors into the tower. He slid the card into a card slot and the door opened, revealing a rather dark lab area except for some glowing chemicals and some UV lights hanging from the ceiling, causing everything to have a slight purple twinge.

"Oh, this does not look good," the guard said as he stepped into the room, looking around for a bit before saying, "Are you sure the guy's here, Mr. Wayne?"

"I would assume so. He's usually in his office 24/7 from what I've seen."

"Of course, I'm here," came the voice of an older gentleman who seemed to pop out of a back area of the office, covered in a white lab coat. He stepped forward from behind black curtains that concealed what must be a bedroom in his lab.

"I must be on call at all times for my work, Mr. Wayne. What brings you to my office, though? Have you decided to agree to add more money to my funding?" he said, sounding a bit excited.

Mr. Wayne folded his arms in front of him before shaking his head, saying, "No, no, I'm not because you've been lying to me, Mr. Robert Langstrom."

"Lying to you? I don't know what you're talking about," he said, moving across the lab towards one area with a lot of chemicals, acting as if this was just a normal situation. My eyes peaked as I saw him starting to mix something.

"I visited your family, Mr. Robert Langstrom. Your niece is quite capable of talking to me and hearing, which means you've been lying to me for three years now, maybe more to the company in general."

"Well, that was a surprise that someone actually bothered to check. I've been working in this lab for now on a decade, and no one rather cared, not even your father, Mr. Wayne."

"Yes, well, my father probably didn't know what you were up to in the short time you were under his employment. Now, I'm here, and I'm seeing things that I don't understand or care to continue since it seems to be doing nothing for the common good of the people of Gotham. Unless you have something to change my opinion on it, I believe it's time for you to turn over your badge and be escorted off the property. We'll have your stuff packaged and delivered to any warehouse or lab that you wish to take up a new employee at."

"You want to see what I've been working on that could make things better for Gotham? Well, I guess I better show you, then," Langstrom concluded, turning around with a glass of strange green and pink liquids glowing in the dark. He shook it up for a bit before downing it in an instant as if it was a shot glass.

"Mr. Robert Langstrom," Wayne said, stepping forward with worry in his eyes. I think, though, those concerns were for Mr. Robert Langstrom. My opinion on the matter, though, was a mad scientist had just drunk some unknown concoction. We should dive for cover before he explodes, so I go for cover, only peeking out from the side of the lab as the elderly gentleman smiled before everything started to change.

The man roared as his body shifted, becoming more muscular and less Asian, but also began to become more furry as hair and fur grew all around his body, membranes splitting off from his arms, and his face seemed to scrunch up. Within moments, the creature that was standing there was not a human; it was half-man, half-bat.

"See what I have wrought, Mr. Wayne?" the creature said, raising both its arms to show the newly grown wings. "I have become the next stage of evolution for Gotham."

"Gotham is a dark city, ruled by crime and fear. The only thing that's brought any semblance of peace to it in the last few years is a vigilante wearing a costume: the Batman. And it got me thinking more recently, if a man dressed as a bat could do so much good, what could a man made of a bat do? Then, that got me thinking, perhaps this is what the city is fit for. It's already a dark place, even in the brightest of summers. Perhaps the only way to save Gotham is to upgrade its residents."

The creature smiled rather horrifyingly as it said, "Mr. Wayne, would you like to be the first to be upgraded?"

"Mr. Robert Langstrom, you need to calm down and stop this. We can probably reverse this; you just need to be reasonable."

"Mr. Wayne, I am very reasonable. My demands will be met!" the creature roared and charged at Mr. Wayne, the guards charging forward to fight him. Two of them were clawed away with sharp hands, sent flying into the walls. The commanding officer of the guard drew his pistol and began unleashing fire into the thing, but it seemed to do nothing as it simply shrugged off the bullets. It looked like he punched him in the face, sending him spinning into nearby beakers, splashing him with chemicals and causing him to scream.

The other three guards started to break with that moment, running for the door, the third charging at the creature, screaming something about a mad scientist before he got smashed up and thrown into a ceiling light that also doubled as a cage for what appeared to be normal bats that began flying across the room.

In the chaos, Mr. Wayne took a defensive stance, and as the bat creature took a punch at him, he blocked it and repaid the block with a punch to its own snout, causing it to back up.

I laid there on the side of the ground for a bit, watching the two striking each other with precision and defending each other's attacks rather well. Bruce Wayne was defending himself rather well; the creature seemed to be on the back foot. Actually, the strikes and attacks went forward. The first actual failure in Bruce Wayne's defense was a kick to his side that sent him tumbling towards the stairs that we had entered from. The beast then looked after him, looked like it was about to charge after him before it smelled the air.

I tried to stay quiet and as small as possible, but as it turned to look directly at me, I realized that that wasn't going to work. The creature charged and lunged at me, and I kicked off the table I was hiding behind, just out of its reach as it smashed its hand into the ground where I had been. I kicked off my shoes, then jumped onto my feet, taking a defensive stance, since, well, it was either defend myself or be eaten.

The creature let out some sort of chuckling noise before punching at me. I managed to dodge that, though dodging turned out to be a bad move as its other hand clawed at my stomach. Searing pain went down my front as the creature tried to grab me by the throat.

Only for a bullet to hit it in the side of the face, causing it to stumble away.

Looking in the direction of the shot would have had to come from, I saw the security guard who'd been splashed with chemicals looking like he was in a lot of pain but holding his gun as tight as possible and aiming right at the scientist.

"About time I get a chance to kill one of you!" He screamed, firing off a few more shots. These were more aimed towards the creature's ears, which seemed to be a sensitive spot for the bat creature. It held its head in pain before looking up and jumping into flight through the broken window at the top of the scientific lab.

A guard stepped forward and looked up through the window, his gun ready, but nothing came back down. I looked up as well and was surprised when Bruce appeared at my side, holding my shoulder and asking, "Are you okay, Miss Pennyworth?"

Looking at him, I smiled, saying, "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine."

"Are you sure? Looks like it scratched you rather badly," Bruce remarked.

Looking down, I saw that it had indeed scratched its way through my shirt and vest, leaving blood trails. But as I put my hand to the area and felt around, it seemed only superficial wounds, nothing too deep.

"I might need to visit a doctor to be sure, but I think it didn't cause any permanent harm," I replied.

Wayne nodded, saying, "I'll get a doctor right away, Mr. Dawson," turning to the guard, which surprised me; I hadn't realized that Mr. Wayne had spotted the man's name.

"You're in charge of burning this lab down, copy down any records for long-term use, but I do not want that creature to come back here and make more of that formula," Bruce ordered.

"Yes, sir! I'll get right on it, right after I..." The guard collapsed at that point.

Bruce shook his head, saying, "Well, probably better that we don't burn it down anyways."

"Probably wise," I added as he moved over to help me towards the stairs before broke off to check on few other other guards to make sure they were okay.