Chapter 12

Old Friend

Downtown Club

Dana met with Terry at a midnight club in Downtown Gotham. They used to go to the Downtown Club every Friday night before Terry became Batman and Dana became a nurse. Tonight was a Saturday and they went there to talk about what Dana found out from Bruce.

Terry got to the Downtown Club ten minutes late. Dana was friends with the manager so they sat at a private table, one that they used to always sit at. Terry knew exactly where the table was and the guards guarding the private table let him in. The guards knew him even though he stopped coming for a long time.

Dana had bought Terry a strawberry lemonade while she ordered herself water. She decided they shouldn't drink alcohol tonight with everything going on.

Terry saw Dana sitting down wearing a dress. Terry and took off his jacket. After he greeted Dana, sat down, and took a sip of his strawberry lemonade. "You knew to go non alcoholic tonight..." Terry said.

"I have common sense you know." Dana said, "With everything going on around us, gases leaking in the air, Bruce probably being your father, do you honestly think I would've wanted to get drunk like these idiots." Dana pointed to a bunch of drunk people dancing and singing on the dance floor.

"What'd you find?" Terry changed the subject eagerly.

"Two names, Hugo Strange and Amanda Waller. These names belong to two important people who used to work at CADMUS Labs. Bruce claims he knows nothing about this DNA thing connected to CADMUS. He doesn't believe any of it is true, saying anything coming from those two names is crap." Dana stated.

"Lately I haven't been able to trust Bruce." Terry said. "I saw those names on the file. How's Bruce?"

"He's a hard headed, old man, Terry. He left the hospital once he woke up." Dana said, "How do you live with him blasting into your ear?"

"I don't live him blasting in my ear, I got fired remember?" Terry said. "Did you find anything on Hugo Strange or Amanda Waller?"

"I only have the Internet. I looked up their names, nothing popped up." Dana said. "Remember Maxine Gibson?"

"Yeah, my best friend in Elementary school through High School, why?" Terry asked.

"Well I found out that she's a high caliber technician. She works for the government and won the Noble Prize." Dana said, "I bet if you ask her to look into Hugo Strange and Amanda Waller, she could find out some stuff we can't."

"Where does she live now?" Terry asked.

"In the suburbs. You know that mansion that's right across from the old Powers Building?" Dana asked.

"Yeah." Terry replied.

"She lives there. She made a real living off of her abilities." Dana said.

Terry got up and put on his jacket. "Thank you Dana." Terry said, he gave her twenty bucks to pay for his drinks. After Terry left the club and got on his motorcycle and took it to the suburbs, which was fifteen minutes away.

Maxine Gibson's Mansion

Terry got to Max's Mansion very quickly. He saw the old Powers Building across Maxine's Mansion. Derek Powers killed Terry's father because Terry's father knew too much about an illegal project Powers was working on. Powers had a bucket of chemicals poured on him and is recovering in a hospital. He's been in the hospital for two years now. The news says he's in a coma.

Terry rang Max's doorbell and Max opened the door. Max was an African American woman, a few months older than Terry with pink, short hair. Max was surprised to see Terry, they hadn't talked since they graduated from high school.

"Terry?" Max said. Max hugged Terry, "It's so long, how've been doing? I heard about your father, I'm so sorry."

"I'm fine Max, thanks. I'm still recovering from the incident though." Terry said, "I can see you've been doing great."

"Yes, yes I have." Max stated, "Here, come inside." Max led Terry inside.

"Look, Max sorry about coming in at midnight." Terry said.

"It's fine. I'm always up." Max replied. "What has brought you here? I'm assuming seeing an old friend isn't the only reason you've came."

"You're right it's not." Terry said, "Max, I need your help. You're a brilliant technician. I need you to help me find info on Hugo Strange and Amanda Waller. I tried looking things up on their names but nothing popped up."

Max brought Terry to her computer. Max looked up Hugo Strange on her computer. Billions of websites popped up on him.

"Here's Hugo Strange for you." Max said to Terry.

"What? I couldn't find any of this when I look him up." Terry said.

"That's because I use an Internet Browser that still has deleted sites on it for me to see." Max said. She scrolled through the websites. "Apparently he's working at CADMUS still. He's been hiding a lot of work he's been doing. His work hours are 7:00am-3:00am."

Max looked up Amanda Waller and looked at some websites, "Amanda Waller's dead, she's been dead for two years now." Max looked at Terry, "Can I ask why you need info on these people?"

"These people my know things about my family history that I don't know. I need to find out more." Terry stated.

"As Batman?" Max asked. Terry was shocked. She wasn't supposed to know about him being Batman.

"How did you know?" Terry asked.

"I'm a brilliant technician remember?" Max asked, "Don't worry I haven't told anyone."

"Well I'm not going as Batman." Terry put on his jacket, "Thank you Max for keeping my secret and helping me, your help was a lot."

"No problem." Max said, "Maybe we could catch up sometime?"

"Yes, definitely." Terry walked outside and rode of on his motorcycle.

Outside

On the hills outside, the Red Hood and Heretic were watching and listening to Max's and Terry's conversation.

"Strange is at CADMUS Labs." Heretic stated.

"I knew we should've investigate more." Red Hood replied.

"We should head there now." Heretic said. "But we'll encounter the boy."

"It doesn't matter, all we need is to knock him out so he won't get in the way, not kill him. Then we go and question Strange." Red Hood said, "He didn't deserve this life, none of us did."