Batman had picked through the buildings and the alleys and the hidden corners of Los Angeles every single night since Terry had gone missing. He wasn’t tired of throwing criminals and thugs and men with shady demeanors up against walls. He hadn’t yet grown sick of smashing faces in and questioning until he was too tired to keep going and had to turn in for the night. The sun went down and Bruce Wayne was as good as gone. He traded in his expensive Armani suits for a cape and a cowl, for Batman’s menacing scowl and the face that never cracked a smile.
He took the Tumbler from the Cave and took comfort in the tires turning and squealing, in the speed rising until his surroundings were a blur of gray, highlighted by bright city lights that never went out. Cassandra would know where he was going. There weren’t many places that he went these days. He went where he was needed. He went searching for Terry and he kept looking even when he could have been used elsewhere.
Georgia Evans was a Private Investigator who kept her office downtown, next to a flower shop and a car wash. She’d contacted him about noises in an abandoned hospital, located on a block that he hadn’t gotten around to checking out. He’d have to thank her later, because when the Tumbler rolled up to the curb, his intuition told him that this was the spot. It had to be what he was looking for. He’d checked everywhere else and this place fit the bill.
The car smashed through walls, tore up the floor and raced down flights of stairs, ripping plaster from walls as it proceeded onward. It was going to be the basement. The last level, something that the Joker would go for. He was being loud but didn’t notice and didn’t care. If someone wanted to call the cops, he’d let them call the cops.
He brought the Tumbler to a standstill just outside the door. He couldn’t afford to waste time. The lights blinded him momentarily and he blinked away the annoyance, looked down.
And there was Terry.
The kid looked bad. Pale, weak, sick. He was awake but Batman didn’t necessarily take that as a good thing. He felt his chest tighten, from pity, from remorse, from guilt that came with not finding him sooner.