Chapter 13: A Walk in the Shadows
The crisp autumn air bit at Alex's cheeks as he walked the expansive grounds of the Stark-Wayne estate. He was a teenager lost in thought, a mind burdened with the fates of giants. The tranquil surroundings were a stark contrast to the swirling chaos he was trying to navigate, and he often found himself drawn to the estate's less-traveled areas, where the manicured lawns gave way to wilder woods and, at the far perimeter, a small, discreet dumping ground for old research materials.
His thoughts were on his cousin, Tony. The palladium poisoning was getting worse, a fact Tony was trying to hide beneath his usual bravado and the frantic, late-night work in his lab. Alex had watched him use the refined NZ-48, and the results were a double-edged sword. Tony's genius had been supercharged, but the NZ-48 only masked the pain and the toxic glow in his chest; it didn't cure it. The solution, Alex knew, lay in the new element from his uncle's old papers. Tony was working on it now, and his progress was unprecedented. Alex was confident Tony would succeed, so he was shifting his focus from Ivan Vanko to a more dangerous long-term threat: Aldrich Killian. He had learned from the Extremis disaster in his past life that a head-on collision with that kind of bio-tech could cause global catastrophe, and he wanted to find and neutralize it before it could ever take hold.
In Gotham, things were no less complicated. Bruce had become a ghost story, a legend in the city's underbelly. He was an unstoppable force, a whirlwind of fists and shadows, putting away criminals with frightening efficiency. Penguin remained a thorn in his side, a master strategist too wily to be caught permanently. The Mr. Freeze of this world was no villain; he worked for Wayne Enterprises, his incredible technology now a resource for the company after Alex had brokered the deal to put his wife in a specialized Wayne hospital for treatment.
Alex felt a small pang of pride that he had already made key changes to the timeline. By saving Dick Grayson's parents, he had ensured there would be no Robin. Bruce was operating on his own, a solitary, more brutal force, but with his access to Stark technology and his mastery of martial arts, he was more than enough. Alex was also keeping an eye out for Jason Todd, but for now, the kid was still just a bright student at a local school. He had no idea if Damian Wayne had been born yet, a question that felt impossibly far off but still lingered in the back of his mind.
Batman's game of cat and mouse with Catwoman was a constant source of amusement, but the appearance of the Scarecrow had put Alex on edge. The fear gas was a fascinating, terrifying weapon, and while the villain himself was no match for Batman, the formula for his gas was something Alex craved for his own arsenal. He was just biding his time. The real fear, however, was the one that hadn't shown up yet. The ghost that haunted Gotham. The Joker.
Lost in thought, Alex wandered onto a secluded path that led toward the property's edge. It was there, near a pile of discarded lab equipment, that he saw her. She was a girl, around fifteen, with a shock of vibrant green hair. But unlike the girl from his last vision, she wasn't peaceful. Her clothes were dirty and torn, her knees scraped and bruised. She was hunched over, shivering, as if she had been through a harrowing ordeal. Her face was gaunt, and her deep purple eyes, filled with a weary sadness that felt far too old for a girl her age, darted around in terror. She wasn't just here; she had stumbled here, looking for a place to hide.
Fate, or his own desire to intervene, seemed to have heard his silent wish for more. As he watched her, a sharp, familiar chime rang in his mind.
Ding