Chapter 8

Bruce Wayne

"What the hell happened?" I asked, looking at the disaster zone that was Wayne Tech's laboratories.

The officer shrugged. The guard, Frank Taller, looked at the officer and shook his head before saying, "Looks like some mobsters decided to try and pull the old 'steal future tech from the future companies' bullshit, sir. Happens now and again. No, they haven't targeted us in a while. Usually, we have enough security on the ground to deal with it, but a lot of our security was put in the hospital because of the old Langstrom bullshit."

I nodded; it made sense. "So, that raises the question: how did they know?" I asked.

The guard shrugged his shoulders before saying, "Knowing this company, probably someone got paid a bit of money to keep them informed if there was ever a weakness in the security line. In my opinion, keep your eyes open on staffing for the next two weeks. If someone disappears, the other guy who got paid off will likely want to get the fuck out of town."

"Well, hopefully, the police find them before he manages that," I said outwardly, inwardly planning to do my own investigation. What should be a rather celebratory situation—the Langstrom event had ended with no one dying, and Tanya was safe—was now something more, with several dead guards, a few dead scientists, and a conundrum waiting for me further into the building.

The guard chief nodded before saying, "I agree with you, Mr. Wayne. Hitting us while we're weak is just a pain in our ass. There were so many reports, so many injured. Not to mention, now we will have to do a better screening on all our incoming staff because any new staff we bring in could be a spy replacing the one that's been burned with this operation."

I nodded my head as the police officer spoke up. "Well, as much as you guys want to talk about your business, we have questions about what technology they may have stolen. We would like to know in case we have any strangers in the city that could be brought back to this."

I shrugged before saying, "I just arrived, so I don't know all the damage yet. I've just heard that people have been killed in the attack."

The police officer nodded before saying, "Three guards were severely injured; a fourth was murdered. Another scientist appears to have resisted and was shot in the leg, though they are expected to survive. They grabbed some newfangled cutting technology, but we don't know what else they might have stolen besides that. We know they hit four other rooms."

I nodded before saying, "I'll have my staff go through the records for those rooms and give you all the information about what was being worked on there, within legalities. I'm not going to give you the exact way it was made because of copyrights, trademarks, patents, and all that."

"Exactly understandable," the officer said with a nod before saying, "Also, it appears two of the invaders died frozen solid. We think they're dead, at least; they're still frozen, so it's hard to tell."

The guard chief laughed before saying, "It's possible they're alive. You know the old saying: better to be cold dead than warm dead. Warm dead means you're degrading; cold dead means that if you've got a good staff of surgeons and medical professionals, you could be brought back from that state, maybe."

"Show me the scene," I said. The officer looked at me before shaking his head, saying, "Listen, I was already yelled at today because I let one person through the police line to look at the scene. I'm not sure if I should let another. The chief is unhappy about this situation, especially since the second Man-Bat situation."

"Don't care," I said. "My building, my facility, and if there's a chance that those two could be revived before they died, I believe it should be taken so that we can find out who was behind this."

The officer sighed before nodding, turning, and leading the way for me and the guard chief. We moved quickly, rounding a corner to find a frozen hallway. Vaguely, I heard someone crying through one of the doors, probably the next situation I would have to deal with. Sighing, I looked at the frozen statues in front of the doorway. They seemed rather intact, though one of them looked not intact as if a third individual had been completely shattered. Raising an eyebrow, I shook my head before saying, "I can have some medical staff come here and try to see if they can do something. I don't know if you can thaw these people and bring them to life, but we can at least thaw them. Maybe we can get something identifiable off of them, unlike that." I pointed to what appeared to be an ear made of ice and blood.

The officer looked at it before jumping back, saying, "Yikes. I'll talk to the chief and see if he'll let that happen. I think he'll probably say okay." He pulled out his radio and moved away before saying, "By the way, I don't want to let the woman through, but could you talk to her? Maybe you can get her to leave. The crime scene people need to go over this whole place."

I sighed before saying, "I'll give it a try," not liking what I would have to do next. Carefully, I navigated between the two frozen intruders and over the remains of a third into the lab that was completely iced over, frozen in several areas with inch-thick ice. At one end of the room stood two pods. One was holding Langstrom in a frozen animated state so that he could be treated once a proper cure had been created. The other was malfunctioning by the looks of it, slight electrical pulses running through it. Two police officers held back a crying woman, preventing her from getting too close to the pod. Sighing, I moved forward, saying, "Mrs. Freeze."

She turned on me, tears in her eyes, a bit of hate as well, before she realized who it was. "Mr. Wayne," she said, pulling herself back together. "Good to see you, Mr. Wayne. I thought maybe you'd make yourself the spitting example of an American corporate type and not even bother to show up to my husband's accident."

I sighed and looked over at Mr. Freeze. "Guess I'm happy to disappoint in that way, Mrs. Freeze, although I wish we wouldn't even have to have this conversation."

"I agree. If Batman had not had him help with this thing," she indicated Langstrom, "I would have a year left with him. Now he's frozen solid, perhaps dead, perhaps alive. I don't know."

I nodded before saying, "Mrs. Freeze, I'm sorry this happened. I don't know what happened exactly last night, but we will support all efforts to locate your husband's assaulter or murderer. Once we determine if he's alive or dead, we'll pay for either his funeral personally or, if he is alive, we'll pay to keep him in this state until we can figure out how to bring him back out."

Mrs. Freeze let out an aggravated sigh before looking at me and saying, "Thank you, Mr. Wayne. Proving to be a lot better of a man than I thought you would be when you helped my husband get free of those convictions in Germany. Thought you only wanted us for his technology, and the moment you had it, you would screw us over."

I smiled before saying, "Everyone at Wayne Tech is family. I may not know your husband well, but I don't abandon people who have accidents on my property. I will assure you that his life insurance will pay out. I'll ensure you have the lawyers to ensure that happens, and Wayne Tech will take full responsibility for this incident."

Nora sighed before saying, "Doesn't matter. I'll be gone in a year, and he'll be here, frozen, not knowing that I have passed."

My eyes squinted at that. The statement was a harsh reality; she was living on borrowed time, and however long it would take to free her husband from the state he was in—safely—maybe months, maybe years, would only doom him to come out and see his wife already gone. I shook my head, angry that some damn gangster had ruined other lives. A flash of pearls fell across my vision, a bad memory drawn up by this thought.

There was an option, the analytical part of my brain said: theoretically, if Dr. Freeze's process was completed, he could freeze people and bring them out. So we could technically get a third pod and put Nora on ice. However, I'm unsure if I should mention that to her, at least not right now. That would seem morbid and inappropriate. Maybe in a couple of days, once she has had time to think this through, I thought.

"Why not just put yourself on ice?" came the voice of guard chief Frank Taller. Turning, I saw him navigate between the two frozen gangsters, a tremendous task considering his slightly overweight frame. He was scratching his face, his five o'clock shadow heavy, indicating that he hadn't had much time to sleep or work on his appearance since the fight a few days before.

Nora turned to look at him, her eyes wide. "Is that a possibility?" she said, looking at me. The two officers looked at each other and let her go, as she appeared to be under her own control.

"I was just thinking about that," I said, scratching behind my ear. "Theoretically, he had completed the process with Dr. Langstrom here. If we go through his records, we can very well find his method, and we could put you on ice. From there, it's only purchasing another cryo chamber and replicating the formula. Of course, we need to have a bunch of lawyers look over contracts and specify that you should be released once a cure for your condition is available and your husband is freed from the current predicament he is in. Of course, this is all dependent on your husband still being alive in there, which we won't know for a few days, so I wouldn't rush to make any judgments now."

"Hmm, assuming he is still alive, I shall consider it. If I cannot be with him now, then being with him in the future, whether it's two years or 100, is better than not being with him at all," she said, turning to look at her husband for a moment before saying, "Thank you, Mr. Wayne. You're a good man."

She said something in German, probably something that would only register with Dr. Freeze, before turning and walking past guard chief Frank Taller and me, making her way past the two frozen criminals and out into the hallway.

I sighed before looking at the guard chief with a raised eyebrow.

"Sorry if I talked out of turn," he said. I shrugged my shoulders before saying, "No, no, just surprised you came up with that. I was going to suggest that as well, but I was going to wait a few days to ensure we better understood the situation."

Guard chief Frank Taller nodded before saying, "Aren't the penny-pinchers going to take issue with all of this? I mean, I heard they were giving him trouble with some of the human trials stuff."

I shrugged before saying, "They were giving him trouble, but Dr. Langstrom himself will have cleared up the human trial situation enough if he is alive. If he is alive, we can always run this to the media as a love story and get investors into this technology."

Shaking my head, I knew it would mostly be military investors. Technology to freeze and keep your soldiers alive would probably find its uses within the military. Not to mention, looking over at the freeze ray that Dr. Freeze had used as an impromptu gun would probably intrigue the military to a large degree. If I could, I'd have to try and bury that part of the story, that's for sure. I didn't want to add to the arsenal of war. Even if you could argue that being frozen was more humane because you could possibly revive someone, there was always a possibility you'd end up like the third individual on the floor—shattered and unable to be revived, and definitely in a closed casket. And we weren't even sure if the two other frozen individuals would be able to make a recovery yet. They're still frozen, and the people who needed to check to see if they could be revived weren't here.

Shaking my head, I looked at guard chief Frank Taller and said, "Get the police whatever they need on those rooms. I've got work to do today."

"Will do, sir," the guard chief said, nodding before adding, "Oh, by the way, how's your secretary, Miss Pennyworth, doing? Heard she got hit pretty hard with whatever bug Langstrom had developed."

"She's doing better. She should be getting out of the hospital today, just having her meet with some specialists," I said, shaking my head. "That reminds me, I need to get into a car and get home soon to check up on her."

"Get home?" the guard said, raising an eyebrow. It took me a moment to realize what he was implying.

"Ah, yeah, I'm letting her stay at my mansion to recover. Her uncle already works for me, so I figured having people around would be best for her recovery."

"Yeah, sure, recovery," the guard chief said, having the widest smile I think I'd ever seen. "Well, I don't want to hold you from saying good morning to your lovely secretary," he said, giving air quotes. "I'll get to work getting the cops what they need," he finished before navigating past the frozen individuals. I stood there for a moment before looking at the two police officers who had been holding Mrs. Freeze. They were smiling and chuckling as well. I think there had been some sort of misunderstanding. I felt as I realized what had been implied by all of that.

Sighing, I shook my head and walked out of the room. I had work to do; I wasn't going to deal with this right now.

Tanya pennyworth

"Well, you're in excellent shape," Professor Milo said as he reviewed my medical record.

I had been transferred from Gotham Medical to Wayne Manor an hour ago, and this professor had shown up 20 minutes afterward for a consultation. Consultation for what, he'd yet to explain, though I was slowly trying to figure out why I was having a professor and not an official doctor show up.

Clearing my throat, I said, "Thank you, Professor Milo, but really, I'm trying to understand why you're here. The doctors at the hospital already gave me a clean bill of health. There's no reason for you to have come all the way out here to look me over."

"Hmm, well, the doctors are doctors. They are not trained to deal with body morphing modifications. I am; it's my field of research. Plus, I'm just doing my best to find out what Dr. Langstrom was doing and how he did it, considering he nearly threw me in jail."

Confused, I raised an eyebrow before saying, "I don't know what you mean."

Professor Milo shrugged before saying, "Dr. Langstrom was working on his bat serum for a while, and I was one of the scientists he couldn't solve it with. Now and again, we have similar ideas, but where his goal appears to be to turn everyone into a bat for some God-forsaken reason, mine was simply to see if we could take parts of animals that are superior to the human genome and add them in. We may be able to cure cancer or other illnesses, maybe make better soldiers—that sort of stuff. Unfortunately, I was getting too close to him, and he figured it was time to make me disappear. I assume you heard about the Man-Bat from a few weeks back."

I nodded before saying, "You weren't the Man-Bat, were you?"

"Oh heavens, no. I don't know who that Man-Bat is. They're still trying to cure him. Whatever Langstrom used is quite heavy. I suspect it might actually just be the opposite way—you know, instead of turning a man into a bat, a bat into a man. That's why we're having trouble undoing it. But the important part is, I was the scientist that he implied was behind the incident, and he got the FBI to arrest me."

"Langstrom is a real asshole," I said, not one for using swear words, but seriously, this one was a little bit much and deserved it by the sound of it.

Professor Milo nodded his head before saying, "Yep. Thankfully, Batman's capturing of Langstrom proved that I was not responsible for Man-Bat. So, the FBI has let me out, and now it's my job to try and piece together exactly what the hell he was doing and make sure it's not turned into a bioweapon to use on any city."

"Mhmm," I said with a nod before adding, "And let me guess, also see if you can profit here off the body modification, I expect."

"I wouldn't say that," he said with a smile. "I mean, profits come in with things that people want. If I figure out how to allow people to regrow their teeth like a shark, I think they will be quite happy with it."

I shook my head before saying, "Isn't that an ongoing issue in several cities where people are developing strange and unusual powers? Aren't they calling them metahumans?"

Dr. Milo nodded before saying, "Yep, that's a thing. I'm not too worried about it, though. People used to freak out about tattoos and piercings; now, it's just normal. Give it a few years; maybe people walking around with cat ears and tails will change opinions."

I shivered internally, hoping that Professor Milo was not some mad scientist trying to make cat girls a real thing, though the fact he started there was not a good sign. Smiling, I mentally noted to make sure he never injects me with anything if he shows up again. "Well, thank you, Professor Milo, for checking up on me. Is there anything I should be worried about? Any side effects that you can see being in the future?"

"Nope, not that I can see. They've cleared out all the strange DNA flowing through you. There is always a chance that you could develop better hearing or your eyes may become more attuned to night vision easily, but those are not even things to be concerned about. Nah, you'll probably be 99.9% baseline human for the foreseeable future. Although, if I ever get this tech off the ground," he said, looking at his briefcase, "I'll see if I can get you a discount if you want any upgrades."

I chuckled before saying, "Thank you for the offer, but I am a professional, and I think, as you said, tattoos and piercings may be more accepted in society, but they're not accepted in professional society. The same will probably be true with modifications, as you call them."

"Hmm, good point, good point," the professor said, putting away his paperwork and getting up. "Thank you for your time, Miss Pennyworth. I Left a number with your uncle at the front door in case you need to contact me. Oh, and if you have any strange things happen, call me. I will continue to work on this tech to try and piece together how to make it work for humanity and not a threat to humanity. So, if any weird things happen to you, I should be able to help you overcome or undo it."

"Here's to that," I said, hoping I would not develop anything weird. As he got up from his chair and moved towards the door, I watched him step outside, giving a wave before relaxing. I had been told to have two days of bed rest—that's how much time I had. Then, I would get back to work cleaning the mansion. Well, not much more cleaning, but now I had a small office next to my room that I could work out of, doing some paperwork for Mr. Wayne. I was still considering not taking a job at the institution he runs just because of the incidents, but I was also considering the financial possibilities with such jobs. I would figure it out with enough time, but for now, I just needed to recover.

I took a deep breath and looked out the side window, blinking as I saw something moving across the dark garden. Odd, I thought, as I saw another flash of something moving closer to the garden before I saw a figure in black right at a lower window of the other wing of the mansion.

Immediately, I was out of my seat, tossing aside the blanket I had to cover me and moving to a comm system, pressing a button. "Alfred, I think I just saw someone on the garden grounds breaking into a lower window on the estate's west side."

Alfred didn't respond. I took my finger off the button to check—someone had cut the power to the communication system.

Strange, I thought, looking for my purse before I remembered that it would probably have ended up in my house, which meant my most effective weapons were now at my home and not here. Annoyed, I reached out and grabbed a candlestick, gave it a few good practice swings before deciding it was heavy enough, and moved into the hallway, starting to head towards the other side of the mansion at a quick pace.

Quietly, I moved, winding down the final hallway, listening for any signs of breaking and entering, but I heard nothing. This was concerning, especially as I made my way to the final turn and came across what appeared to be someone in a bodysuit looking at a locked-up jewelry box that was part of a larger wooden contraption, something that belonged to Martha Wayne. Iestimate.

This was the side of the house that had mostly belonged to Bruce's youth, and as far as I was aware, he tended to avoid this side of the house out of not wanting to be reminded of that all the time.

Quietly, I moved up on the figure. They were wearing an all-black bodysuit, tall males, by my estimation. With their faces hidden and facing away from me, I couldn't really make any other guesses about their identity.

They were heavily built, though, and by my guess, they could probably just pick up the entire wooden construction and carry it out of here if they wanted to. I needed to move fast. Making sure not to make too much noise, I raised the candlestick and tried to bring it down on the back of the man's head, figuring knocking him unconscious was my best chance.

Although a hand stopped my downward motion just inches from the individual's head, I was surprised. I looked to my right and saw a new figure that had not been there a second ago. This one was female, with skin as pale as snow, black hair, eyes hidden behind a carnival mask made of black jewels, and wearing a fancy-looking black dress that did its best to highlight how pale her skin was.

"Thief," she said, looking at her comrade. "You are losing your touch."

The thief turned to look at me. The mask completely obscured their face, making them look like a black mannequin. They glanced at me and then at their comrade before saying, "Sorry, sister. I was too focused on how we were going to get this out. I'll handle this." He then attempted to punch me directly in the face.

I saw that coming and ducked underneath it, just barely, because the woman's grip still restricted my hand.

From this lower position, though, I was able to deliver a good punch right into the woman's gut, causing her to let out a gasp and release me. Freeing my candlestick, I took a few steps back, but when I looked at the woman, she was gone again.

"Impressive training," a voice said from behind me, causing me to turn in surprise. There she was, her hand reaching out to grab my chin and pulling me forward to her face. Her eyes seemed to swirl. "Perhaps we could have use of you," she said, her tone sounding regal. But I didn't allow her to do whatever she was planning. Instead, I kneed her in the gut again and tried to bring the candlestick down on the side of her head, but as my stick moved, she vanished as if she had teleported away.

"For a maid, you're quite fierce," came the voice behind me again. I turned, muttering, "And for a woman wearing a fancy dress, you sure act like an anime villain." I threw the candlestick directly at her, and it impacted her face, causing her to let out a surprised noise of pain.

"Mistress Nocturne!" the thief said, moving to his sister's side. Something was weird with those two.

"I'm fine, Thief of the Night," she said, holding her face before looking directly at me past one of her hands. "I've never run into an individual who can resist my abilities. Quite interesting. Is it the force of will, luck of the genetic lottery, or what shield do you have that prevents you from falling to my control?"

Standing at a complete straight angle, I looked at the woman and said, "Loyalty to my employer and an absolute hatred of mind control by parasitical freaks."

That seemed to be the wrong term to use as the woman puffed away in black smoke and reappeared right in front of me, grabbing me by the throat and trying to strangle me with one hand that seemed to reshape itself into claws. She rammed me into the wall, her fingers digging into the wood behind me. I could have been doomed, but by some luck, a sword was hanging on the wall behind a shield next to me. Reaching out to my left, I grabbed it and attempted to slice through the woman. I cut a few centimeters into her side before she puffed away again.

Taking a deep breath, I looked around. "What the hell am I dealing with?" I thought as I saw the Thief of the Night lift the wooden chest onto his back and jump through a window, running off with whatever was inside.

Internally swearing, I ran to the window, looking out and seeing him moving at an impossibly fast speed as he jumped onto a nearby wall and then over the side. I saw that Nocturne, or whatever her name was, was also standing on the wall, watching her comrade escape before looking in my general direction, smiling, and blowing me a kiss. "See you next time, Miss Maid. Maybe you'd like to change careers," she called out. Her vast smile revealed a pair of rather fierce-looking fangs before she vanished again in a puff of black smoke.

Shaking my head, I said, "I hate this city," before moving towards the hallway, intent on finding Alfred and telling him what had happened. Although, what exactly was I going to say to him? A vampire bitch and her muscle-bound gimp had just stolen the family jewels? I hate this city. I hate, hate this city.

Why couldn't it just be normal for a few days? Flying bats, robotic humanoids, and vigilantes—it was all insane, and I just wanted some normality for a few days to recover from getting nearly turned into furry bait.

Shaking my head, I just walked, taking my time since there was no rush at this point.