Chapter Text
Neo Gotham. November 7th, 2044…
It was pouring rain as Neo Gotham’s caped crusader flew through the sky in the Batmobile. The new Batman, Terry McGinnis, was looking over the files of a recent missing person’s report. The missing person in question, one Luz Noceda, a 10 year old Afro Dominican American girl living with her widowed mother, Camila Noceda, she has been missing just over 24 hours.
“Any leads yet?” Terry asked his mentor over the intercom in the Batmobile
Bruce Wayne back in the Bat Cave was looking on the Bat Computer for any possible leads.
“Perhaps. Here, I'm sending you a file on the recent shifting of gang activity, this should help narrow our search window.” Bruce said as he clicked a series of keys on the console to send to files over to Terry.
Terry looked over the reports on recent gang activity and quickly picked up on what Bruce was getting at, if this had been 3 years ago when he first started out as Batman it would've taken him three read through's at least to see what Bruce saw, but he'd gotten a bit sharper over the years.
“I see what you mean, the T's have up and cleared out of a few blocks of their territory and there's been no activity from the Joker's against them to motivate them to do so. So there's another unknown element in the area, one that was able to clear them out incredibly fast.” Terry surmised.
“Exactly, and based on the CCTV footage they look like a mercenary group, Blackwatch to be specific.” Bruce said.
Terry, hearing the name of the mercs, knew this was a serious group.
“Plus there's the fact that these guys are set up in an area that’s in between Luz's school and her and her mom's apartment complex, meaning it's definitely worth a shot to at least give the area a look once over in person.” Terry said.
“I'll keep looking for anyone who has ties to them that's based in Gotham.” Bruce said as he began researching.
A few minutes later and Terry was in the area, he had the Batmobile do a thermal scan of the area to get a decent idea where he should drop down and stakeout the Blackwatch mercs from. After seeing where the majority seem to be centered around Terry dropped down from the Batmobile and quickly activated his suit's optical camouflage and perched himself on the fire escape of a nearby abandoned building. Terry quickly spotted four armed guards guarding the front of the building wearing half assed disguises to look like Gotham PD and two more on the 2nd story balcony and an additional four on the roof. 15 minutes passed with Bruce telling Terry that transport trucks carrying various supplies from illegal splicing facilities that were meant to be delivered to the Gotham PD contraband processing, but instead were making unscheduled stops at this very building. This only made the whole setup more suspicious. Thankfully as luck would have it Terry spotted someone new exiting the building and into the alleyway via a door which read “Employee’s Only”. The person in question was dressed in messy surgical clothes with the addition of a hazmat like rebreather. Terry decided to get a closer look and grappled over to the building beside the one crawling with mercs and looked down into the alley and adjusted his vision to zoom in by about 5 times magnification to get a good look at the new suspect.
Terry's suit automatically started running facial recognition software on the person now identified as a man. Soon Bruce came in over the comms telling Terry what the Bat computer had dug up the suspect.
“Terry, that man you got a read on is, Dr. Robert Mercer, a geneticist who was recently part of a project to develop a treatment for reversing the genetic changes to Inque's DNA that are responsible for giving her her unique abilities. He specifically headed the team, at the very least they managed to create a power suppressant that could help keeping her from escaping.” Bruce said.
“So then what happened to make Mr. Mercer here suddenly go hire a bunch of mercs and steal splicing equipment?” Terry asked quietly.
Bruce brought up files on Dr. Mercer.
“Officially he took a temporary leave of absence from the project to do independent research, but unofficially he was let go after his hidden research notes were found by his peers, showing experimentation on trying to use the data he gained on Inque to recreate and refine the process done on her. He was receiving outside funding that he no doubt has used to hire Blackwatch as security detail.” Bruce answered.
Terry grimaced as he put the pieces together in his mind.
“So it's a possibility that Luz has been abducted to be used as a test subject.” Terry said.
“Exactly. You know what to do from here.” Bruce said.
Terry nodded.
“Yeah…I do.” Terry said.
Terry dropped a tracker on Mercer who has taken off his rebreather to take a smoke break, Mercer was a man with Caucasian skin, dark brown hair and ice blue eyes, but before he was about to head back inside after he had finished with his cigarette he received a call and answered it. Mercer held the phone to his ear.
“Yeah…” Mercer said as he listened to the person who called him.
Terry decided to take advantage of this opportunity and listen in, extending his index and middle fingertips to direct his enhanced audio sensors.
“Yeah, we just had a breakthrough with subject number 11, to be honest I'm surprised we got results so fast.” Mercer said.
Another voice spoke, but it was heavily modulated and synthesized to prevent identification.
“Well the whole idea of getting you placed on the project in the first place was to get as much useful data as possible to expedite phase two, so I think we were within the target range. Now are you sure there's no complications to worry about? We don't want her dying on us so soon after achieving success.” The voice asked.
“Well, it's to early to tell right now, we have her under observation but my concerns lay in the authorities, more specifically Batman.” Mercer answered.
“Hmmm, yes you make a good point there, a dozen homeless off the streets no one's gonna say a thing, at least to anyone who can do anything, but subject 11 is a different story, but it can't be helped as we needed healthier specimens, how much longer do you need to have her under observation? As soon as observation is over with we’ll move out and set up somewhere else outside of Gotham.” The voice said.
“Good, the last thing we need is Batman finding us.” Mercer said.
“Agreed.” The voice said.
The call ended and Mercer went back inside.
“Well if we didn't have enough evidence to move on before, we sure as hell do now, I'm going in.” Terry said.
What followed next was some classic Batman takedowns as Terry ghosted the four rooftop guards, drawing more outside from the inside and that's when Terry slipped in and quickly locked the door he entered through, then proceeded to follow the tracking device he planted on Mercer. Terry made quick work of the remaining guards and used his wrist mounted plasma beams to bust through any locked doors in his way. He finally got to Mercer who was calmly making notes on his computer now dressed in a lab coat gray dress suit. Terry instantly grabbed him and held him against the wall by his neck.
“Where! Is! She?!” Terry demanded.
“Wh-Who?” Mercer asked, pretending to be confused.
“Lie to me again and I break another one!” Terry growled.
“A-Another what?” Mercer asked.
He instantly regretted this as Terry broke one of his fingers. Mercer screamed in pain.
“AAAAAHHHHHH! Alright! Alright! I’ll tell you, she's in that room, the code to the door is 2023.” Mercer relented.
Terry carried Mercer with him, still held by the neck as he opened the door. Once Terry saw Luz in the room in a hospital gown, strapped to a table and with two separate chemicals being given to her via an IV drip, Terry dropped Mercer to go help Luz. Mercer tried to make a run for it as soon as he thought Terry was distracted, but without looking Terry threw a bolo at him which perfectly restrained him. Mercer fell to the ground, his legs tied up.
Terry started undoing the restraints on Luz, Bruce contacted commissioner Gordon and informed her of the recent developments, upon hearing this she was already dispatching the necessary response forces.
Meanwhile Terry had finished with Luz's restraints and was taking out the IV's in her arms when Luz started to wake up.
“B-Ba-Batman? Wh-What’s going on?” Luz asked, still drowsy.
“Everything is gonna be alright, I'm getting you out of here kid, you're gonna be with your mom soon.” Terry said.
Luz stirred awake a bit more at hearing mention of her mom.
“Mami! Is she okay?!” Luz asked.
Terry was a bit surprised to see Luz being more worried about her mom than herself, in the moment though that might be partially due to her still not fully processing what's happened to her.
“She's alright, Luz, she's just worried about you.” Terry said as he picked Luz up out of the bed and held her bridal style.
“That's good, I promised my papi. That we'd always be there…for…each other.” Luz trailed off as she passed out again.
Terry looked down at Luz.
‘She sure is one strong kid.’ He thought to himself.
Terry then proceeded to take Luz outside where an ambulance was waiting for her and he handed her off to the EMT's or tried to but as if on instinct Luz clung to Terry not wanting to be let go but she eventually relented and the EMT's loaded her into the ambulance and took off to the hospital where Camila would be waiting.
To be Continued…