Chapter 27: Terrible Plans, Great Execution
At school, Max decided that something felt off. He had no idea what, but as he sat in class, there was a disturbance in the air that he couldn't quite put his finger on. The student body and the faculty had not yet recovered from the terrifying events of Mr. Zsasz's hostage situation and murders, but Max had accounted for that upon his return. He'd even accounted for lots of kids and teachers treating him with a new level of respect.
No, none of those things were what bothered him. It was frustrating; as though there was something he really needed to know about, but was missing the boat on.
"Barb," Max started to say, getting the attention of his lab partner who had previously been lost in thought, "Have you ever felt like you were missing something? Like, there's something right in front of your face that you need to know, but just can't put your finger on what it is?"
Barbara set her notes aside and raised an eyebrow at her classmate, "I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about."
Max noticed that there was a little less warmth than he'd grown accustomed to, but had a point he was trying to make, "I'm just saying, I don't know why, but I feel like I can't see the forest for the trees... because I don't even know where the forest is to begin with."
All of this sounded confusing, yet Barbara had no idea what Max actually wanted from her in this regard, "You normally don't share anything with anyone else. When something's bothering you, I have to bring it up myself. What's the deal now?"
Max could admit, that was a good question. He normally tried to keep people out, but he'd had a thing for Barbara that he'd never really gotten over, "I dunno. You're smarter than me and the closest thing to someone I trust."
The two of them sharing the experience of nearly being filleted by a serial killer gave them some kind of camaraderie perhaps? It did from his end, at least. Maybe such a feeling wasn't as mutual as he'd thought? Or perhaps Barbara wasn't having a good day? Either way, Max left it at that and didn't bother bringing anything up again until class ended and he left the room.
Barbara walked away with purpose, the purpose of getting as far away from Max as she could before she let her mask of normalcy slip.
All this time, one of the most annoying and confusing aspects of her life as Batgirl had been sitting right next to her in some of her classes. During the day, they joked with each other and shared notes. At nighttime, they'd fought and antagonized one another to no end.
Her hand had gone numb from keeping it so tight around the strap of her bag. Thankfully there had been something around to grab ahold of to keep her hand from shaking. After being gone from Max's presence, she had to take a moment to settle herself.
All this time, it had been him. Maximilian Gabriel was Null.
(Flashback)
Barbara could hear nothing but her own heartbeat in her ears for several moments after hearing what Bruce had to tell them during their nightly meeting in the Batcave.
"Maximilian Gabriel is Null."
Those words stuck themselves inside of her brain and rattled around the corners of her skull, refusing to get out. The two images on the screens that kept drawing her eye were the shots of Null in his suit, and Max's driver's license photo.
"I was able to it confirmed for certain by a reliable source," She heard Bruce say, snapping her back to reality.
Tim, seated off to the side, raised an eyebrow, "How reliable?"
"Short of hearing it from the individual himself, there's no more credible source," Bruce told him before turning his sharp gaze onto Barbara, "Your school friend is Null."
"We're not fr-..." Barbara started to say, in regards to her association to a criminal before stopping herself. They were friends, or the closest thing to friends she had outside of the hero life, "I can't believe it. I can't believe I didn't see it."
Some friend. How well did she even care to know him? What did she even know about him beyond what everyone else knew? Barely anything at all, if not nothing. In fact, calling them acquaintances was a better descriptor than to call them friends.
"You knew him before he took on the costume," Bruce said, trying to give Barbara an out for never even considering Max as a suspect, "From what I can tell, he'd been very active at night, working part-time jobs before he ever started stealing. He's still listed as having a part-time job," Granted, that job was for Selina, but he wouldn't have bothered checking if Max hadn't come into contact with Zsasz.
From that point, after having a reason to look his way, he started connecting the dots. Granted, some dots were harder to find than others, but eventually he was able to gather enough circumstantial evidence to determine that Max was Null beyond a reasonable doubt.
As he got more into how and why he decided to look at Max directly, further dejecting Barbara, Tim ran interference, "Bruce's point is, the guy never gave you a reason to think he was doing anything suspicious. You'd already more or less vetted him in your mind because you knew him before Null was a thing. Back before he had committed any crimes."
It softened the sting, but it didn't make it entirely better.
"So now what? Do we bust him?"
Barbara's eyes turned up from the floor, over to Tim so quickly, she almost made herself dizzy. Of course. Nothing had really changed about Tim's rivalry with Null. In fact, knowing who Null was gave Tim a leg-up, in that he was finally in a position where he could put him away.
Bruce was quick to shoot down his Robin's suggestion, "For what, Tim? As far as we know, he hasn't done anything to get on our radar since he was pardoned," That killed the idea to go and arrest Null on the spot, "If you want to spend your time scrounging around for evidence to stop him, be my guest. I've already done enough of your job for you."
Ouch. With that point taken, Tim shrank back a bit. But it was clear he still wanted to do something with the new piece of information they had, "What do you think?" He asked the redhead among them, only to find her deeply focused, going through the Null-Max evidence with her own hands, "...Barbara?"
Her attention didn't leave the screens for the next hour-plus.
(End Flashback)
In her head, she could imagine Max having a big laugh about moonlighting as one of Gotham City's rogues, right in the face of one of its protectors.
'No, there's no reason to think that way,' Barbara corrected herself before her train of thought could get too far off-track, 'He's not flaunting anything. He's not laughing at anything. He doesn't know that you know.'
Max was just trying to live something of a split life, much like she did. Much like most superheroes did. And Null had been more or less behaving lately, unless he'd been doing something that they weren't aware of yet. This didn't have to change anything. It just meant Barbara would have to keep a closer eye on him, just in case.
That didn't have to be such a negative thing. Barbara liked Max as a person, and Batgirl didn't hate Null. The more she thought about it, the better an idea it seemed. It was technically spying, yes, but it was also trying to keep a friend on the up and up.
XxX
(North Gotham City – East End – Tin Roof Club)
"How was your day?"
Receiving that question as his first interaction with Selina when he'd arrived to prepare the bar to open immediately put him on alert, "...What's wrong?" He replied suspiciously.
She'd been kind of weird for a few days, giving him more days off than he'd been used to. He hadn't even asked for any, being entirely willing to show up and make appearances due to a lack of reason to suit up as Null.
Selina tried to downplay her young ward's suspicions, with ignorance, "What are you talking about?"
"You listen to me talk about myself, but you never ask, because you know my self-centered ass will tell you if something interesting is going on," Max droned, knowingly, "So what happened?"
Selina had thought long and hard for days about the best way to break things to him, before deciding that it was best to be quick about it, "Batman knows who Null is," She said, and waited for the explosion. Max did not disappoint.
"WHAT THE FUCK!?"
Selina cringed at the sound of his shout, "Shhh! Q is sleeping upstairs," She tried to shush him to limited success.
He almost stopped in exchange for another query, "Why is Q-? You know what? I don't care," Clearly, more important things were afoot, "Fuck that. Why the fuck does Batman know who I fucking am."
"Stop cursing and calm down."
"Calm down? The guy who finds out everything and busts everyone knows my secret," Max said, looking around as though he would find Batman lurking in a corner somewhere, "I've got to leave town. I've got to drop out. How much does it cost to change my identity? You know people who can do that, right? Aw, man. I've got to move again. I just did that like a month ago," He continued to complain.
Selina rolled her eyes, grabbed Max by his shoulders and forced him to sit down, "You're going to be fine," She said soothingly, "You haven't done anything since we got you pardoned. Well, you haven't been caught doing anything since then," She said with a smirk, knowing that Max had still been up to no good from time-to-time.
Max's heart rate had settled down at that point. She was right. Granted, he had done some shady crap since then, but nothing that anyone had come after him for. If Batman and company knew he was Null, and hadn't tried to take him down at his home or on the way into work, he was okay.
"I'm okay?" Max asked, just to make sure.
"You're okay," Selina said supportively, "Do you wanna quit?"
"What, being Null?" Selina nodded in response, eliciting a scowl out of Max, "Absolutely not."
"Why not?" Selina continued down the path of conversation, "You have money. You don't need to steal anymore. Ravager is gone," She noticed him wince at that, despite his best effort to hide it, "If you wanted to get out now, it would be clean. The cleanest exit I've ever seen. It would be impressive."
It would be, and again, he could make his exit from the world of heroes and villains with very little damage done to his life. But he just couldn't let it go, "Nope. I don't need to steal anymore, but it's not really about that at this point. It's about being able to do whatever I want, live how I want. I'll deal with the consequences when they come."
Even if those consequences involved Batman busting into his bedroom window to kick his ass. Better to burn out than fade away. Better than living a nondescript life being moved, instead of making moves. All Batman knowing about his identity did was take away a safety net in the high-wire act of crime. If he was good enough, he wouldn't need it in the first place.
"Besides," Max continued, "I'm only into stealing from other criminals these days," Unless something was just too juicy to pass up, but he'd done a good job in practicing discretion thus far, "I don't think they'll be running to the authorities if I nick something important of theirs."
He would be damned if something like his identity being known would keep him from living the way he wanted. Being Null was about freedom. The freedom of choice, and the freedom of consequence alike.
XxX
(A Few Days Later – North Gotham City – Burnley District)
Max needed to go out and get some air. With the information he'd been hit with, it was probably smarter to minimize his time in-costume. But being Null was too much of a good time. The city was his playground. There was nothing like it – no remedy to a boring evening like suiting up and doing his thing.
Info from crime-related patrons of the Tin Roof Club turned his on to a meeting of some of Gotham City's seedy organized crime players. It seemed like as good a moment as any to dip in and get a lay of the land, as far as what was out there for the taking.
Drug dealers based out of the Burnley district were going to gather for a summit of sorts, which was surprising with the assimilation of so many criminals back into Gotham's criminal underworld after the Arkham breakout.
Slipping in had been easy enough for him. No more difficult than anything he'd done in the past. As he perched himself on a catwalk in a seedy warehouse, he rubbed his hands together, waiting to hear juicy details from the meeting. But all he seemed to get was griping from a bunch of crybabies with guns.
"I'm fed up with this bullshit," One of the dealers said; a sleazy-looking blond individual in a green tracksuit, "We threw in with Black Mask-,"
"You say that like we had a choice," A bald, black dealer in dress slacks, a white shirt, and a suit vest interjected.
The first dealer shot a slight glare his way at being interrupted, "Either way, we have to answer to Black Mask, right? We kick up a cut of everything we bring in, and in return-."
"-This Red Hood psycho keeps killing our street guys," A third man said, finishing the thought, "So what do you want to do? You wanna try and make a deal with this guy?"
Tracksuit dealer scoffed at the idea, "I had five runners who worked Kellington Avenue, over by the high school. These weren't any big-time gangsters. These were morons who ran some nickel and dime drugs. Dumb, but decent earners," He banged his fist on the table, "They were found decapitated last week."
"No, I don't want to make a deal with this maniac. If shit is too hot for Black Mask to dedicate any muscle to take him out, we should."
They sure sounded like they meant business. But as someone that had watched Red Hood tear through a well-armed contingent of the Odessa Mob all on his own, he doubted their capabilities to get the job done, "Best of fucking luck to you," Null whispered to himself.
"Right?" A voice whispered back, not too far from his side, "If these losers can kill me, I must seriously be slipping."
Null turned his head to see Red Hood ten feet away, in a position similar to his, looking down on the meeting at-hand. He almost fell down, trying to inch away from the deadly vigilante, "You stay the hell away from me. I'll scream like a bitch, I swear."
Red Hood turned Null's way. There was no expression on the solid red helmet covering his head to read, but body language told Null no threat was being made against him, "So, what have I missed? Besides the fact that these boys would love to have my head on a pike?"
Null tentatively calmed himself. His previous meeting with Red Hood hadn't resulted in violence, but had still been rather contentious. Null had been certain that if they'd met again, it would result in some sort of conflict. Not so much, it seemed. After a few minutes of silence that was uncomfortable for Null, he decided talking wouldn't be so bad.
"This was a waste," Null said, "I thought they'd be talking shop... maybe let something slip about money moving somewhere... maybe something I could steal and sell back to 'em or re-appropriate," He offered as background for his presence, "Apparently, you're the talk of the town. The underbelly of it, at least. They want to know why Black Mask hasn't popped you yet."
Red Hood laughed humorlessly, "You came here to steal their shit, right?" He asked rhetorically. Null didn't like the sounds of that. Instead of pulling a gun on him, the way Null expected, he reached down and started pointing people out for Null's benefit, "You see that guy? He's running what's left of the east side traffic. Next to him, that's Jay Kirano – distribution. He prefers being street muscle, but I don't think Black Mask likes him as a soldier. He's got too much of a temper. That last piece of garbage is Teddy Reese. He started out as a pimp, then moved on to a kiddie porn ring, before he fell in love with narcotics."
That last bit of information, Null could have gone without, "Gross," He replied with an honest grimace. Perhaps that was to persuade him that whatever they had worth taking, he didn't want, "I thought you said you haven't been in town for a while. You seem like you've got a good handle on things."
After their last meeting, once Null knew what to look for and Max knew what to listen for at the bar, he was able to find that Red Hood had been terrorizing the players in the Gotham City drug racket.
Red Hood spared a short glance Null's way at the compliment, "I'd say it's because I keep my ear to the ground, but these goons make more noise than a rhino at a ballet. All you have to do is pay attention," He said, before pulling out a smoke grenade, "So... you want to help me stomp eight shades of shit out of these animals?"
Null looked at the weapon, at the man himself, then down at the amassed criminals beneath them, "...Yeah, fuck it. Why not?" Better them than him, Null figured, "I need to stretch my legs anyway."
"Killer," Red Hood said, pulling the plug and dropping the grenade. He waited for it to explode right on the table between the top dealers before dropping down to raise hell, "I already took out the dudes covering the door! You just jump in when you feel comfortable!"
Through the smoke, Null could make out the red of Red Hood's helmet as he proceeded to utterly batter anyone who got within reach. Though the invitation was nice, he would stay safely out of reach for the time being, "I mean... it doesn't look like you need the help."
"I don't!" Red Hood said. Null could hear the sound of a nose being broken by his fist, "Just consider this getting to know each other!"
Null sighed and started generating electricity before following suit in jumping down. When he landed on his feet, he released the energy, sending live bolts and a magnetic shockwave out from his body, taking out several armed goons as they ran in from outside. Red Hood momentarily stopped fighting to appraise Null's handiwork.
Before he could make any kind of comment, more gangsters burst in from another direction. Null put up a magnetic shield when they came in firing, "I thought you took out the dudes covering the door!"
Red Hood took refuge close to Null, violently dispatching anyone that came close to them despite the hail of gunfire flying at them, "I must have missed a few around back!"
"No shit!" Null yelled back as he retreated toward another door, "Come on! I need space!"
Red Hood followed and allowed Null to deflect bullets away from them – working smarter, not harder, "Good! Keep that shield up and keep moving!"
The two of them burst out of the side door into a hallway used for storage. Null slammed it shut and scrambled for some kind of cover to mount a counterattack once their enemies finally reached them. Red Hood had other ideas.
The man in the blood-colored helmet pulled out a minigun he'd clearly stashed before entering, and turned it to the doorway. When it opened, he indiscriminately mowed down every person in pursuit of them. Null stood back and watched the carnage as bullets tore through man after man. It happened so quickly, no one was able to so much as flee.
The initial burst scared him, and watching so many people get shredded left him uneasy, but he'd seen Red Hood do this before, so the impact was less than the first time, "Have fun?" He asked snarkily.
"Sure!" Red Hood replied with just as much snark in his tone, "I'm always having a good time when I'm out righting wrongs. Don't tell me you actually care about these dead sacks of meat."
"Not particularly," Max scoffed. Not only did he not know them, but they were noted scumbags who had also tried to kill him moments ago. He wasn't going to shed tears over them any time soon, "Just trying to make sure you don't turn that thing on me next."
"Relax," Red Hood said, setting the minigun aside now that its work was done, "It wouldn't even work on you."
'Sure, as far as you know,' Null thought to himself. Granted, he could fend off a lot of bullets, even from automatic gunfire, but enough constant pressure could and would overwhelm his magnetic shield. Fortunately, no one had ever really put it to the test to find out.
"Hey, walk with me. I want to talk," Red Hood said, gesturing with his head to the door leading out, "Or you can go the other way and step over all of the dead bodies. Get your footprints all in the blood. I'm sure cops are on the way by now."
Null looked at his two options to exit and decided to take his chances with Red Hood. Police had already mistakenly shot at him once before, and he didn't feel like running the risk of dealing with any others. At least if Red Hood did something, he could lay him out and move along, "Right."
They stepped outside and Red Hood broke into a gentle trot as they moved through alleys to get away from the scene, "I've been looking into you," He commented, "A thief that worked to be pardoned of his crimes… and you haven't been caught committing any since, except for the Anarky thing. Good job getting a pound of flesh back for that one, by the way."
"I don't want to talk about that douche," Null said, still salty over his run-in with the teenage anarchist.
"Fair enough," Red Hood conceded, "The point is, you're a shifty little fuck, but you've been keeping it clean enough. So, I want to hire you for something."
Null was quick to declare terms, "I'm not stealing anything," Especially not for a bloodthirsty vigilante that had been popping criminals across Gotham City. That would lend itself to several different connotations, none of which would be good for Null's reputation, "You probably want something too nasty for me to get my hands dirty with."
He'd already handed off Kryptonite to a man who almost killed the Super-people. That hadn't blown back on him yet, but Null had no hopes he could dodge that karma missile twice.
"I don't want you to steal something," Red Hood insisted, "I want you to break into the Batman's base, and leave something there for me," By then, they had reached where Red Hood had stashed a red motorcycle. His chosen transport.
Null crossed his arms and watched Red Hood pack up, "…Good luck with that," As he put his minigun away, he pulled out a plastic bag with a large wad of cash in it, "What is this?"
Red Hood threw the money Null's way and spoke as he watched the young thief count the stacks, "The amount I'll pay you to do this for me. Hell, I'll pay you in advance. You're good for it."
There was $750,000 of tax-free money right there in his hand. It was hard to turn it down, "How do I trust you to keep your word? No, how do I trust you not to just kill me afterwards?" Null asked, "I'm part of the problem, remember?"
The pointed, barbed words from Red Hood still stuck out in his mind, given that Null watched him kill a slew of people before he spouted it. Also, he blew up his car. But Red Hood wasn't aware he'd done that.
To his credit, Red Hood didn't back down from what he'd said just to get Null to do something for him, "You're a problem like ants at a picnic," He pointed back in the direction of the warehouse he'd just torn to shreds, "They're a problem like mosquitoes spreading malaria."
Null couldn't even dispute the comparison, because it made sense when he stopped to consider it, "Okay, fair enough. But I don't know where Batman's base is," Null said, "It's not like he or his kids invited me over for Super Bowl Sunday. That's a shame too. I actually make really good wings."
"Mild?" Red Hood asked, much to Null's disgust.
"No, mild's for pussies," Null said, as though it were obvious.
Banter aside, though Null's original instinct was to turn Red Hood down and run away as fast as he could (for various reasons). But an opportunity had been presented here, one that he couldn't just turn his nose up.
Batman and his un-merry band of protégés knew who he was. As things stood, he had nothing on them. If he screwed up or was thought to be complicit in anything – such as, for instance, as a suspect at the scene of the slaughter of twenty of Gotham City's bottom-feeders – they could come see him at his house, and there was little he could do about it in return.
But if he knew where they dwelled… maybe he wouldn't be able to necessarily even the score, but it would swing things better in his favor. He would have a chance to make some kind of move if things ever went south again, which was better than sitting back and hoping that they believed he'd be a good boy… because they wouldn't. Especially not Robin.
Null pondered aloud, "…They can't arrest me for breaking into the Batcave if they catch me, can they?" He asked.
Red Hood realized that Null was considering the proposal. Now all he had to do was keep him on this path, "Arrest you? No," Not without pressing charges, which they would need to reveal their official identities to do. That wasn't going to happen, "They'll beat the absolute fuck out of you though."
The thought of being pummeled by the Dark Knight didn't faze Null as much as Red Hood figured it might have, "Meh. Been there, done that," As long as he couldn't get arrested. That was all he cared about.
"So does that mean you accept?" Red Hood asked.
Null took a step back, in case Red Hood didn't like his answer and there were consequences for it, "I need to think about it more."
No tantrum occurred. Red Hood simply got on his motorcycle and started it up, "Fine," It wasn't like he expected a 'yes' right off the bat. Had he received one, he would have considered Null a fool, "In two nights, meet me at Monolith Square with your answer. You know where that is, right?" Null nodded, "Good. If you don't show, I'll obviously take that as a no."
Null watched him pull off and waited as the sound of the bike got farther away, eventually out of earshot. He didn't know what to make of the Red Hood. The guy was brutal, as every time they'd come across one another he was brutally dispatching criminals. But the people he put down were not pleasant individuals in the least. He hadn't tried to kill Null yet, and tonight, he was downright civil.
And then there was what he wanted him to do – infiltrate Batman's base. He either thought Null was that damn good, that expendable, or likely both.
Well, he had two nights to come to a decision, and he wasn't going to do that standing around in an alley. With that done, Null headed home.
XxX
(The Next Morning – South Gotham City – Tricomber Island)
Max was usually grumpy in the mornings. He got his bearings together quickly enough, but it usually took an extra power nap after getting seated in before his first class of the day for him to feel somewhat rested and aware. That being said, he was not prepared to deal with having to manage his daily trek to school with Barbara in as close proximity as she was.
He made it an express point to not catch the same train that Barbara took in the morning, even if he had to adjust his schedule to leave earlier or later in the morning. It was a lot easier to keep his distance in the neighborhood when he had his car. Man, he missed his car. But he couldn't go and buy a new one, because where would he have gotten the money? That would open him up to questions that he didn't want to answer. His cover had already been blown by superheroes. There was no reason he had to suffer the same fate with everyone else as well.
It was nothing against her, but one of his biggest fears was that Commissioner Gordon would find out that he was Null and show up at his front door one day. He wanted to minimize that possibility as much as he could, so he went to great pains to keep Barbara from finding out where he lived.
Little did he know, she already knew. As they sat next to each other on the morning train, Barbara tried to think of some way to get closer to Max without seeming suspicious. They had kept a mutual distance from one another, and Barbara had assumed it was just Max understanding and respecting that she wasn't interested in dating anyone.
"How's Commissioner Gordon?" Max posed, in a semi-awkward attempt to make some kind of conversation.
Barbara hadn't been paying full attention, but snapped to it once she heard his voice, "Huh?"
"Commissioner Gordon," Max repeated for her benefit, "I was just asking how he is. It's still kind of nuts out there, and I know you were worried before," Besides, when he'd spoken with the man at the hospital, he'd been nice. Max didn't dislike him.
"Oh," Barbara reacted, wondering why it mattered to him. Still, if Max was asking about the commissioner's heath, she could return the courtesy, "He's okay. Overworked, but I don't think he's ever really at a loss in that department," Seriously, her relative was one of the hardest working people she knew, but she kind of wanted to steer the conversation with the known thief away from him, "How are you doing? Weren't you having a problem the other day?"
So she remembered that. Max figured she'd been in a bad mood, so anything he'd said would have gone in one ear and out the other, "Uhh, not really a problem. Well, not a problem I can do anything about now."
"Want to talk about it?"
"Absolutely not. You've got more important things to worry about that my problems."
Barbara refrained from rolling her eyes, 'Not really. Seeing as how I can't really Batgirl it up in the middle of the day, you're technically the only crime I can fight right now,' But of course, as always, Max never wanted to talk about himself, another thing that should have given her pause before, but that she'd overlooked, "That's only honorable up to a point, you know."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, who else do you have to talk to?" Barbara asked, "Not trying to be rude, but do you even hang out with anyone outside of school? I never see you anywhere."
It was perhaps the ultimate bluff on Barbara's part, because she didn't hang out with anyone outside of school. But Max wouldn't know that if he didn't do anything with others to begin with, which he didn't.
"I..." Max wanted to argue, but he hadn't done anything with his classmates since the party that had gotten crashed by the Tally Man. That had been almost a year ago, "...I guess I've been too focused on getting my life together."
If that was what someone was going to call stealing to make ends meet, so be it.
"I guess. I wouldn't know how hard it is. I don't live alone or anything," Barbara said, "But it must be worse not having anyone to talk to about it."
'I did have someone,' Max bummed himself out with his own thought. Rose hadn't been perfect, not by a long shot, but she had been there, and she had been good company, "It is kind of lonely, but what can you do? I'll just suck it up and deal with it. Maybe when I get to college I can chill and try and make friends again. What's another year and some change?"
Barbara gave him a friendly shove for being stubborn, "Are you really going to try and go that long being on your own? Come on. Just humor me here," She said before deciding to throw him a bone, "To be honest, I don't have a lot of friends at school either. I'm busy too. Not your kind of busy, but still."
Max eyed her closely. He did get along with Barbara more than he did anyone else his age. He respected her as a person more than anyone else at school as well. If he was going to get anyone's opinion on something, it might as well have been her.
That didn't mean he was going to tell her anything, though. But he could find a way to word it so that it still worked for him.
"Alright, you win," Max declared, shaking his head at Barbara's victorious smile. Well then, she could chew on this as a philosophical quandary, "At what point do you sacrifice your morals for comfort?"
"Pardon?" Barbara hadn't expected that kind of question out of him.
Max realized he'd been vague and went into more detail, "If something came up where you could be in a better position, but it required doing something that went against what you stood for, what would you say to do?"
Barbara hadn't realized that Max cared that much about morals. Yes, Max himself came off as a mostly good kid, and yes, Null obviously could have been much worse of a criminal with the kind of power he was beginning to have at his disposal, but she had been of the mindset that he only cared about the consequences of his actions insofar as what would happen to him if he did something that was too bad.
If he was having some kind of existential crisis on whether or not to do something illegal, she had to try her best to try and steer him away from it. That was one of the reasons she'd had the thought to try and get closer to him in the daytime when they weren't doing the dance of justice.
Looking his way, Barbara could see that Max wasn't just saying he wanted to hear from her for the sake of making her feel important. He wanted actual input. She licked her lips as she measured her words. Whatever she said next would matter, "...Depending on how strongly you feel about something, I'd say you shouldn't compromise just to make things easier," She said, "I would understand compromising, but it sounds like in this case, it would really bother you."
It would. It really would. No one dictated to Null what to do. He did what he wanted, and sometimes that something was for profit. No one held his nuts in a vice. Not for long, anyway. He just needed to figure out what to do about it, and Red Hood had presented him an opportunity to get started. It was a big risk, yes, but there was a major chance for big reward... probably. He would just have to find it in the process of infiltrating Batman's base. Simple.
Well, not simple. Even if Red Hood knew how to get in like he said, it wouldn't be an easy task. But that just meant it would be something more worth doing, wouldn't it? That seemed to be how things worked.
XxX
(The Next Night – Central Gotham City – Monolith Square)
Red Hood would have been hard to find for anyone that didn't have Null's capabilities. Then again, he wasn't really trying to conceal himself. He'd simply chosen to wait somewhere that wasn't out in the open, and to his credit, he didn't pull a gun on Null when he arrived.
'It probably says something that the only person I know by name that I don't expect to attack me on-sight is Supergirl,' Null thought to himself as he dropped down from a rooftop onto an alley light where Red Hood could clearly see him, "Yoo-hoo."
Having made it a point not to sneak up on the deadly vigilante, Null was greeted rather casually, "Oh, you actually showed up," Red Hood said, "I have to admit, I kind of expected you to no-show."
Null lowered himself to the ground, his feet splashing in a puddle as he landed, "I figured even if I was going to say no, it would be better to tell you in-person as a professional courtesy."
Red Hood leaned against his motorcycle, arms crossed, "You said 'if' you were going to say no. Does that mean you accept?"
"Let's just say I got used to the money you gave me, and really didn't want to give it back," Null told him, before getting down to business, "So let's get to it. What do you want me to do? How long do I have to do it? And I really hope you meant it when you said you know how to get in."
Because that seemed unlikely. How on earth did he manage that? Null swore, if this wound up being some Anarky frame job, he was going to give Red Hood the same treatment, only publicly. Big guns and explosives be damned.
Red Hood was more amused than offended at Null potentially doubting him, "Oh, kid. You have no idea. Trust me, I all but guarantee you could probably walk through the front door if you wanted to. Do you want to?"
Walk through the front door and have all eyes on him right off the bat? "No. Some other spot with very little security would work just fine."
Red Hood shrugged and started digging through the supplies he kept on his bike, "No matter which way you go, there's going to be some security, even with my help. But I think you'll be fine. Catwoman trained you, so I'd expect you have your share of tricks up your sleeve."
"We'll see," Null muttered to himself, "So about that time limit?" He asked, expecting a crunch when it came to deadlines.
Red Hood surprised him as he fished something out of one of the various packs on his vehicle, "Two nights from now. This isn't the kind of job you can probe. I can try to make sure there are as few people there as possible before you do it, but in the end you've just got to go for it. I can't even tell you what the inside probably looks like anymore. It's been years."
Null's mouth gaped open in amazement. This guy, this killer, he had been inside of Batman's central hub? His main base of operations? "...You've been in there before?"
Red Hood said nothing to dissuade these thoughts, "Like I said, it's been years since I've seen the Batcave."
Someone who'd seen the most secure crime-fighting facility in Gotham City, and knew it well enough to get a thief inside was going to help him pull off something legendary, "...Who are you?"
It was the exact same question Null asked when they first met. Even though he didn't expect any kind of satisfying answer, he would have felt remiss not trying again.
"No one you know, so it doesn't matter," Red Hood replied as expected, "When you get in, I need you to do two things. There's a USB in here. Leave this for the team," He tossed a bag for Null to stuff into his satchel, "And the other thing; there should be an old beaten up Robin costume on display somewhere. Burn it."
That sounded like an odd request. Slightly obsessive to a degree as well, 'But I thought his beef was with Batman, not Robin,' Null thought.
Red Hood probably had his reasons, so Null wasn't going to make an enemy of the guy paying him by asking about it.
"Right. Anything else?" Red Hood asked.
"Yeah. Why do you need me to do this?" Null wanted to know. The guy was good. He could look past the brutal methods he used to see the level of skill he actually had, "Why can't you go in if you can get inside? Why don't you just have me run a distraction, or something?"
Of course, he wasn't going to get the whole story, or anything close to one, "Personal reasons. Don't worry about my part. You already got paid. So if I somehow go down, you don't have to worry about compensation."
'I'm not very worried about you,' Null thought. It was his own head he was concerned with, though admittedly, he wasn't that worried, 'As long as I won't go to jail over this, I'm fine, I guess.'
It looked like he was going to try his hand at breaking into the alleged 'Batcave'.
XxX
Zero Hour had been set for 11 o'clock, Saturday night. Null knew nothing of what to expect, or how he would get in. All he knew was that he had to take things carefully. He wasn't going to get the chance to case the place from the outside, and there were no blueprints to study.
Going in blind. One of the cardinal rules of his lifestyle that Selina had drilled into him never to break.
'Maybe I'm sick in the head,' Null thought to himself, too wary of revealing himself prematurely in any way to say these things aloud, even in a whisper, 'This is insane. I don't need the money.'
All of this time alone, skulking about the outskirts of Gotham City in the rocky, hilly, stately area of Bristol Township, where the rich and powerful dwelled, gave him time to think about everything – why he was doing this, and beyond. As he rested his body in the murky water along the Gotham River's north banks, his suit concealing him in the dark mud, he pondered.
It wasn't about the money. Null knew it from the moment Red Hood's greenbacks first touched his hand. This was so reckless. He knew it. But he wanted it. And what he wanted overrode personal safety and comfort. That was just how it was.
He was a greedy young man, that was all there was to it. Greed came in many forms, and he suffered from most of them.
There was material greed, the kind that most people could understand. The desire, no, the need for more things. More riches. More resources. More trinkets and baubles to try and fill an empty hole in one's soul, the source of which was often difficult to discern.
He stole. This was fact. He took things he didn't need. He did shady work for money that he no longer required to survive month-to-month. Financially, he was set. He could afford anything that he needed. If he wished to treat himself, he could easily do so well within reason. It wasn't like he had a taste for the finer things. But there were some things money couldn't buy. Some things that when he saw them and felt he had to have them, he took for himself without a second thought. The Gravboard he'd snagged from Metropolis, even with the level of superhero there was to contend with in that town... it hadn't been smart. And yet, he did it anyway.
The Miracle Slate, he could have surrendered it and saved himself pain, suffering, and an ordeal that had been nearly over his head. But he'd fought for it, bled for it, burned for it. And when it came down to it, when it seemed that he couldn't have it... he destroyed it. Not to save Las Vegas or Zatanna Zatara from Felix Faust. No, he destroyed it because if he couldn't have it himself, he made sure that no one else could.
There was emotional greed. This was the one that Max, the boy under the hood, had the most problems reconciling. His relationship with his family had been... lacking, to say the least. He had no siblings, no extended family, and his parents emotionally neglected him for years in exchange for their work on the supersuit that he currently wore. Whether it was intentional or not, it still happened. Since then, the people he interacted with closely, who got closest to him and truly earned his affection, he would do just about anything for, even at the cost of his own safety and security.
Selina Kyle; she was the first. He complained about her, especially after he'd first been trained by her and left to hang working with Deathstroke, but he probably would have done it regardless. And she was much better now that they were closer. He loved her like family. She was like the big sister he'd never had. The aunt he'd never met or known. The mother he'd lost that had hardly reared him going into his teenage years. She doted on him, coddled him, rebuked him, cared whether he lived or died. He preened under her attention, felt pride in being considered Catwoman's protege, and would have her nowhere other than deeply entrenched in his world. Anyone potentially fool enough to try and take this away would pay dearly.
Rose Wilson... enough had been said about that relationship, by him, by her, by others. If he stopped to truly reflect on why he was so hurt when she left, it was because in his mind, she was his, period. He had given of himself to her, and she had done the same to him, whether she admitted it or not. They gave just as much to one another, shared things between the two of them that no one else had. That she then broke away entirely to run with her family again, and did it so easily, it cut into him whenever he thought about it, and likely always would. It was unhealthy, but it was what it was.
And then, there was the true perpetrator of his current escapade – professional greed. There was probably a better term for it, but hell if Null knew enough about psychology, let alone his own brain to come up with a word for it.
It didn't come up often, because he didn't talk about his activities as Null to many people, but his ego took great stock in who he was. Being who he was, coming from nothing but a kid in a goofy suit, learning what he'd learned, surviving what he'd survived, defeating who he'd defeated, he was vainglorious when it came to being Null. People knew his name. Heroes knew his name. Villains knew his name. He was capable of breaking into highly secure locations and taking whatever took his fancy. He could go toe-to-toe with some of the most dangerous entities on Earth and at the very least give a good accounting of himself.
Sure, most of the time he ran away, sometimes he hid like a rat or a cockroach, sometimes he was beaten to a pulp, but he was never completely out of it. He was never helpless. He would lick his wounds, find out what he did wrong, and take steps to make sure it never happened again. The thought that anyone believed they could force him to do anything he didn't want to do drove him insane.
Null was a reflection of Maximilian Gabriel's freedom. Freedom in the purest form he could muster. The only thing that restricted him were his own whims and personal morals. That Batman and company knew who he was shouldn't have stopped him from doing anything. It wouldn't. More than a job he was taking for Red Hood, invading Batman's stronghold was a message from Null.
You may know who I am, but that's not going to stop me from doing whatever I want.
Part of him wanted to be caught. Part of him wanted them to have a reason to confront him outside of costume, showing that they knew who he was, so he could say it to their faces. As Max, he wanted to stare down the heroes of the city, those that fought against the evil of Gotham City with fear. He wanted to show them that while he wasn't without his fears, what he feared wasn't them. He was wary of them, with good reason, wary of what they could do, where they could put him, but wariness did not equal fear.
Of course, all of this was pure lunacy. Foolishness. He was going to break in and not get caught, because getting caught would be stupid, and as much as his various greeds guided what he did, he was still in control of himself and knew how to operate. Anything else would be dumb movie or comic book plot. More than anything else, Max dealt in reality.
And as the cold waves of the river lapped at his back, his reality was that he was about to pull off the biggest infiltration of his career.