3 Chapter 3

"I'm batgirl"

Commissioner Barbara Gordon said in a smile.

"Or at least I was" she added but this time with a wistful smile.

"You have superpowers???" I was shocked by how she can phase through matter.

But she furrowed her eyebrows and appeared to be disappointed.

"Idiot..." she muttered then she walked through me. I was taken aback before turning around.

She looked at me and said "...This is a hologram"

"O-oh. Hehe." I said as I embarrassedly scratched the back of my head. My mind strayed because of I've been discovering shocking secrets one after the other all night.

"Well, I'm not too disappointed. Hologram tech wasn't available until last year and it is still not that common."

"Yeah. This must have cost a fortune." I said.

"No. This didn't cost anything but time and labor. Bruce made it himself out of kyrptonian and apokoliptian tech."

"Most of everything here is. Me and Lucius helped too. The recent ones were made by Bruce with cyborg's help." Alfred said with a faint smile.

Woah. That means he must have invented it.

"No. He didn't invent it. He just applied what was already known to the aliens."

"Are you a mind reader?" I furrowed my brows.

"No but I might as well be just by looking at your face. No wonder you got caught as a spy." she said with a smug smile.

"No. I was doing great. Somebody must have ratted me out." I couldn't accept any other reason of me being found out when I was doing a great job.

"You're right. The info of me having someone in the mutants was probably leaked by someone from the precint. The mutants must have deduced that it was someone that got out recently and making you the number one suspect. Your leader has a good head on his shoulders despite being a two-bit criminal."

"Hah. Despite me not trusting them, I have a lot more respect for him than the police or any criminal organization here in gotham."

"Just because you give back money to that run-down orphanage doesn't make you good guys."

"You think I don't know that?"

"Just give me the info you got, please." she said.

"Yeah. The offer from the Maroni family was a job. The mutants bring in the muscle and get twenty five percent."

"Muscle? For what?"

"Escorting a package."

"What package?"

"They didn't say."

"They don't need more men. They got plenty."

"That's what our...ehem...the mutants' leader thought too. That's why he declined the offer. It was too sketchy. Something like that must mean they needed someone..."

"...someone expendable." The commissioner finished my sentence before I could and fell deep in thought.

She walked back and forth with her arms crossed. I watched her. Alfred was also watching her.

"Tsk. It's not clear. I'm thinking of everything that came in gotham recently. Something must have went under our nose or it still hasn't arrived yet but one thing's for sure is that whatever it is. It must be at the docks." She said as she massaged her temples.

"Did they specify a date and time?" She asked.

"I think they said three days from now."

"Okay. I need you at the docks three days from now."

"Hey. Hey. Hang on a minute there commish. That's not part of the deal." I said with my hands held up.

"I know. That's why I'm offering you another deal. I'll get your mother her old job back."

My eyes widened.

"The salary is not high as A.R.G.U.S. but it pays more than her current one."

"Wha-"

"Only after you do this for me." She said.

My mom had to abandon her career as a forensic scientist because of us. There's nothing I would want more than to have her old job back.

"What do I have to do?" I said.

"Okay. I want you to rest for tonight. When you wake up, you go home straight."

"That's it?"

"For now. I'll call you three days from now. You better be careful out there. They may not know your real name but they know your face."

"Sure."

"You know, you would have made a pretty good cop." She said with a chuckle.

"Please stop."

------

Terry said goodnight then went back upstairs after being sworn to secrecy about all the things he found out leaving Alfred and Barbara Gordon in the batcave.

"That was too harsh even for you, Barbara. We both know you could have just given his mother the job without him endangering his life in exchange."

"I had to. I'm short on hands right now Alfred. I don't know who to trust in the police. I need to use every card I have. It wasn't like this when dad was still around."

"Still. Even Bruce didn't let you kids go out without the certainty of you being safe. That's why he was always strict in your training so that he can at least have a peace of mind. That he knows you were ready."

"Was that really the reason?"

"I knew him better than you children did." Alfred said with a melancholic smile.

Seeing Alfred like this weighed on Barbara's heart. Alfred was a father figure to her growing-up second to Jim Gordon, her biological father.

"Kids? Children? We're all adults now, Alfred." Barbara jokingly said to change the topic.

"Nothing about you has changed. You still look young and beautiful as you were. If you keep looking like that, I fear that I may forget that I myself have gotten old."

What Alfred Pennyworth said was the truth. Barbara was a woman in her late thirties but doesn't look a day older than twenty five. She still had her long red hair and she kept her body fit which made her skin tight without gaining a wrinkle. Barbara smiled at his remark.

"You will always still be that giddy young school girl to me, Barbara. Just like Master Wayne."

But her plan to deviate Alfred's thoughts from Bruce's death backfired. Eight years has passed since the death of Bruce Wayne and Alfred was still mourning. He really loved Bruce like he was his own child.

"That boy, Terry. He reminds me of young master Bruce. When he clutched his leg in pain in front of the gate, It reminded me how Master Bruce always came home with an injury. Always getting into fights."

The image of Terry overlapped with Bruce Wayne's in Alfred's mind.

"Is that why you invited him in the manor?"

"Yes."

"Hmmm. I don't see how he resembles Bruce. Maybe it's the hair."

Terry styled his raven black hair to a modern mullet haircut. He had an unclean look because of his unshaven face. His facial expressions are almost always limited to a scowl or a smug grin along with his furious blue eyes. Always donning his rugged brown leather jacket. Everything about him screams trouble.

"It's not his fault that he looks the way he is. His environment required him to have a certain look. " Said Alfred as if he knew what's on Barbara's mind. Terry needed to look intimidating everyone would think twice before messing with him.

The pictures of Terry before his late father passed away ran through Barbara's head. Terry's mother had shown it to her before. A picture of Terry with his family. In it, he was wearing a karate gi and a blackbelt. He was smiling while he was lifting his trophy and his father had him up his shoulders while his mother was laughing and holding his little brother. He looked like a good kid with a bright future ahead of him. That was also their last family picture before his father died.

"I see the similarity now, Alfred. Bruce was very lucky to have you in his life as a father figure growing up. If Terry had someone like you, maybe we would have met him under a different situation."

"What about his real father?"

Barbara looked him in the eyes and said...

"He's dead" Barbara said.

Alfred widened his eyes then furrowed his brows as if to ask why.

"He was murdered when Terry was twelve. Terry was the only witness to the crime."

------

"Dad..." tears were flowing down the twelve year old's face. Every bit of him was shaking.

He felt sadness, pain, regret, and anger.

In front of him was his father, covered in a puddle of blood.

"...Terry" The man called out to his son. He must have used every last bit of his strength and concentration to talk to his son because of his punctured diaphragm.

The wounds on his torso was still gushing out bodily fluids filling the air with the smell of iron.

Warren McGinnis held Terry's hand with his and used his other hand to caress his son's face.

That was how he died.

Terry erupted from the couch he was sleeping on and gasped for air as he looked around.

It was a dream but also a distant memory.

A reality that he should but still can not accept.

He held his head as he calmed himself down.

Then he fixed his posture and took deep breaths.

"Have you calmed down now?"

He searched for the owner of the voice. It was Alfred standing behind a chair next to him.

"... Yeah." He took a second to reply.

"Come to the dining room. I prepared some breakfast."

"No. I'm okay. Thanks though-"

"It wasn't an offer. As your host, I insist." Alfred sternly said before turning around and walking towards the dining area.

Tok Tok Tok. The sound of his cane echoed through the place.

Terry was taken aback. The eighty year old man's atmosphere was quick to change from being warm to cold. He wondered if it's because of old age or he was always like this even when his master was alive.

He hesitantly followed Alfred to the dining table.

On the table, he saw breakfast sausages, bacon, hash browns, pancakes, eggs with onions tomatoes and greens, and avocado toast.

"I overdid it a bit. It's not always that I get to have a guest. It would be a shame for me to eat all of this alone." The old man said as he pointed to a seat.

Terry pulled a seat on the table and sat down.

He felt awkward because earlier he said that he didn't want to eat but now that he saw the spread on the table, he felt hungry. He waited for Alfred to grab something on the table before he took some himself.

He started with some thick cut bacon and some eggs. Then he grabbed some breakfast sausages and put it above the avocado toast.

"I see, you're not that hungry." Alfred teased with a thin smile.

Terry was forced to smile back because of the awkward tension.

The reason that he wanted to refuse prolonging his stay in the mansion was because of the unsightly scene he showed to his host.

"I'm sorry about earlier." Terry said.

"I don't mind. Don't be shy and eat some more." Alfred smiled as he invited him to eat more food.

"N-no. I mean.. sure but... You know what, it's nothing." Terry said as he was embarrassed to say it directly.

"You mean the nightmare you had earlier." Alfred finally caught on what he was trying to say.

"No worries. You'd be surprised at how many times I've seen something like that here." Alfred said with a melancholic smile.

"You mean Bruce Wayne?" Terry asked. He remembered the tragic history of Bruce Wayne's youth.

"Yes...but not just him. Almost everyone that has stayed in this house, I have seen them heavily shake in their beds. They would wake up screaming or crying. You would think the place was cursed."

They finished breakfast and cleaned up. Alfred then escorted Terry to the door.

"Thank you for your hospitality... sir-"

"Heaven's sake. Just call me Alfred."

"Okay then. Bye, Alfred. See you in three days."

Terry waved as he walked away and Alfred waved back.

He left the property with a warm feeling inside of him. The healing kind of warmth.