What a Nightmare...
Disclaimer: I don't own the Batman or Batman Beyond universes. DC and WB do. I am just playing with the characters.
Author's Note: AU of BB. A tale of Terry McGinnis as the new Batman that is based on comics continuity instead of cartoon continuity — the three Robins we are familiar with from the comics and no RotJ or future JLU from the 'toons. Terry is not related to Bruce Wayne. Will feature time travel and thus a playing around with past, current and what was rumoured as possible future comic canon. I didn't like what had been happening in the comics over the last few years when I started writing this in the summer of 2005 and want to rewind us through some of it, back before IC and OYL and even most of Devin Grayson's run on the Nightwing title.
Great big thank yous go out to Ellen Fleischer/Esther-Channah/Dragonbat and Susie/storytime13 for much appreciated betaing and advice, though I have been known to ignore it.
Feedback and particularly constructive criticism definitely both solicited and appreciated.
Prologue: Dusk
"Y, behind you."
Batman responded to the warning by spinning around and delivering a side kick to the joker who was trying to sneak up behind him. The white-faced — blame the make-up — gang member promptly went down and Terry took a moment to relax. "Thanks, X, I was too busy with the other three to notice this last fellow."
"That's not like you Te... Y. You need to focus on what you are doing. You were better within a month of your debut."
"I know, I know — what's the time? Should I return to base?"
"Sure, come on in. You could do one more patrol, but I think you either need a rest or to figure out what is wrong. You've definitely been off your game all night."
"All right. See you soon. I just need to finish wrapping this group of Jokerz up for the police."
Batman cuffed all four Jokerz and dropped each of them in the middle of the abandoned warehouse, along with their loot, and headed for the nearby Batmobile. Once seated he called the police to tell them where to find the thieving Jokerz, before having the Batmobile head back towards one of the entrances to the cave.
'I'm glad to have the night's patrol over with,' Terry thought. 'I know I've been making stupid mistakes all night long. For some reason I have not been able to concentrate on the job — and that makes what I am doing into an even more dangerous proposition than normal. It has been years since a simple joker has come so close to sneaking up on me. Four Jokerz should have been a simple job for me — one I could have handled simply as No Fun Boy, before even trying on this suit I now considered to be almost as much mine as Bruce's.
'Bruce will still be up and puttering with something. He is always up when the Bat is out, even though he has long since... hmm, how long has it been? about five years... yeah, sounded about right... decided that he no longer needed to always be monitoring at the cave computers in the Oracle role. He had also long since, even earlier than that, accepted that Max would continue to be involved in my Bat activities. Now, most of the time, she was the one in the Oracle seat, though Bruce and the other former Bat clan members occasionally took a turn.'
Terry thought about his other associates and friends.
Barbara rarely took a turn. She was too busy as Commissioner, a job he knew she intended to hold onto as long as she could, though she was facing retirement in a few years. She also did not particularly care for the role. It reminded her of the low point in her life, during which she had been restricted to a wheelchair and allowed her bitterness to drive a wedge between herself and the greatest love of her life. Though she was happily married and DA Sam Young was a good man, who had helped her raise two great kids, he knew that she still wondered what might have been if she hadn't pushed Dick away and into the arms of Dr. Brigit Clancy. As the original Oracle she was great at providing whatever information Terry needed, but she rarely cared to place herself back in that passive role.
Dick rarely took it, simply because he was rarely in Gotham. He clearly enjoyed taking it when he could, for he and Terry had come to be good friends, despite their early strained relations, but his job as Commissioner of the Bludhaven PD rarely allowed him to head off to Gotham. Terry always enjoyed the opportunity of working with the former Nightwing and wondered if it wouldn't be worth reproducing the monitoring equipment in one of Dick's old Nightwing hideouts, so that Dick would be able to play Oracle from Bludhaven. That should make it easier for him to get an opportunity to do so.
Tim, along with Bruce, was the most likely to take the job. Tim usually took it about once a week. Bruce's average was about the same, but he usually took it several days more closely together whenever some case particularly intrigued him — or as occasionally happens, when for some reason Terry specifically asked him to sit in.
Cassandra was the only one to pass up the opportunity. Though she could talk now as well as anyone, she didn't particularly care to be a passive observer whose only way to affect what was happening was by the spoken word. She did however, occasionally decide that Batman needed an active assist and put on her Batgirl... well Batwoman suit, and joined Terry on the streets. Those outings always made him think about how nice it would be to have a regular partner. While the backstage helper / Oracle figure was nice and greatly missed on the few outings during which he had operated without one — and he didn't even want to think about being Batman without any kind of support network — a second crimefighter, physically able to affect the outcome, was a luxury he wished he had more often. Though he knew that he would always have to be aware of his partner and his or her safety he figured that the benefits more than outweighed the risks.
'Now I think I know what has been troubling me,' Terry pondered to himself. 'My brother Matt is turning 18 in two days. Neither Matt nor my mother know what I do with my time when I'm not busy with Wayne Tech business. I've occasionally considered telling them, but always put it off... Should I? I have really wanted to tell mom for years, but always figured that it wouldn't be fair to tell only one family member, and Matt was the one I wasn't sure about. Matt is still as much a Bat fan as he has ever been and I figure he would get a kick out of finding out that his brother and Batman are one and the same. However, one of my main reasons for not telling my family was that I am worried that Matt in his enthusiasm would compromise the secret, but at 18 he should be able to control himself. Matt's birthday — an arbitrary milestone in some ways, but still one that marks his growing maturity. I myself was younger when I started to carry the responsibility of the Batman legacy as was each of Bruce's Robins.
'But the culmination of this same maturity in Matt was a desire to help, to do the right thing that was inspired by immersing himself in as much information as he could about the Bat, both past and present; alone, with his Gotham group, and with the JLA or other teams. In fact if he was to continue with his research it was only a matter of time until he uncovered the secret on his own. In some ways I'm surprised that Matt hasn't already unraveled my secret. He probably has enough of the pieces if he puts together everything he has observed of my doings. And wouldn't it be better if I showed Matt that I trusted him? But... I figure that Matt would quickly come to ask me to let him become a partner — Robin to my Bat — and I still don't know if I want to let Matt do that... but how could I prevent that... now I know how Bruce must have felt at times... and how can I let my mother be forced to see both of her sons risking their lives on a regular basis?'
Now that Terry was consciously aware of what had subconsciously been distracting him lately he knew that he needed to spend some time figuring out his best option and discussing the situation with the others in the know.
