Disclaimer: Batman Beyond belongs to the WBN, DC Comics, Cartoon Network, etc.

I do not own anything. I don't claim to own it. And I'm certainly not making any money off of this work.

This introduction is a bit long, but hopefully I should be getting more of the actually story up in a few days.

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Terry groaned as he gingerly sat himself down on the edge of his bed. It had been a tough night. Five break-ins, two gangs of Jokerz and one really bad encounter with a trash can. He'd showered twice before heading for home, and his mother had still insisted that he bathe when he finally got there.

At least he hadn't had to "work" late tonight. He might have been Batman for a while now, but he still had troubles with the really late hours sometimes. Wayne, on the other hand, never seemed to need sleep. He swore the only time the man napped was if he had trouble with his heart.

Terry snorted. Maybe Wayne wouldn't have heart troubles at all if he ever slept. He shook his head as he turned out his light. Maybe Wayne didn't have to sleep, but some people still had to go to school in the morning.

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Terry sighed as the instructor gave back the tests and results. He wasn't sure he was up to telling his mother he got another "C" and the disappointed look on her face. The look that said "I know it is an acceptable grade, but my Terry can do better," look.

Terry quickly crammed his test into his pack without looking at the results.

His teacher looked at him quickly before going to the front of the room, "I was very displeased with your results class. I suggest that for the next exam some of you actually apply yourselves."

Terry stared down at his desk. This had to be worse than he thought.

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Terry slowly slouched into his home hoping in vain that his nobody would notice his arrival. No such luck.

"MOM! Terry's home!" Matt yelled as soon as he caught sight of his elder brother.

"Terry, how was school?" Mary smiled as she came into the living room.

Terry shrugged, "It was there."

"Did you get your test results back for your engineering class?"

"Yeah," Terry cast his gaze down to the floor.

"How did you do?"

"Umm, I don't know. I didn't look."

Mary frowned at her son and held out her hand. Terry dug the test out and shoved it towards his mother.

He heard her gasp and prepared himself to be grounded.

"Terry, this is wonderful."

"What?" His head snapped up in shock.

"A 98%, I'm so proud of you." Mary beamed at her son.

"Terry got an 'A,'" Matt snorted, "Did you cheat?"

Terry snatched his test back, "No, I didn't cheat, twirp. Why don't you go bug little girls like normal kids your age?"

Matt stuck his tongue out at his brother.

"Boys, boys. Don't start a fight. I'm very proud of you Terry. Oh, Mr. Wayne called. He wants to know if you could come in early tonight."

Terry's pleased smile faltered a little, "Sure, why not? As long as he pays me extra."

Mary patted her son's shoulder, "I do appreciate what you're doing Terry. It means a lot to Matt and me."

Terry nodded and walked towards his room. She had no idea just how much it meant.

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"Terry, you're here." Bruce Wayne said as Terry walked down the steps to the Batcave.

"Who else would it be?"

"You don't sound too happy to be here. Something wrong?"

"Yeah, did you fix my test in engineering?"

"What?"

"I got a 98% on an engineering test at school. I never get those kind of grades. Did you fix the test scores so I wouldn't get grounded tonight?"

Wayne looked mildly affronted, "Terry, I have better things to do with my time than to hack into a school computer and fix your grades."

"You mean I actually got that score?"

"It depends. What was it on?"

"Security systems and identification systems. I didn't study. I couldn't have gotten a good grade. Most of my class failed."

Wayne chuckled for a moment, "Terry, you've been studying for that test for months. When was the last time you didn't run across a security system at night?"

"But, you or Max always help me out with those. Otherwise, I just break in and set off alarms."

"McGinnis, despite what I might tell you, you're head isn't that thick. If you listen to something long enough, you're bound to remember something."

"Oh."

"Go suit up. I have something that you might want to check into."

Terry shrugged and walked away.

Bruce smiled to himself. And Barbara thought he was bad for the kid.

Terry sauntered back, "What's with the grin?"

"Nothing," Wayne grunted as he indicated the monitors, "There's been a series of attempted break-ins at a scientific research facility. The research they're doing is top secret, but whatever they are doing involves large amounts of methyl troxinimide."

"Trox?"

"You know of it?"

"Hey, I was in a gang, remember? That stuff is way expensive and highly addictive."

"Yes, well apparently this lab has gotten permission to experiment with it."

"So, I'm supposed to go in and find out what they're doing?"

"No, at least, not yet. You're going to look out for whoever is trying to steal that stuff."

"Why not let the cops handle it? I mean, they have to know about the break-ins why aren't they patrolling?"

"They can't admit to knowing what's going on in there," Wayne sounded disgusted with the whole idea.

"Gotcha. So I'm supposed to go and find these guys so the police can arrest them without blowing this secret facility's cover?"

"Basically, yes."

Terry rolled his eyes behind his cowl, "Tell the Commish she owes me one for this."

"I already told her she owed us two."

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Terry sighed as he returned home. He'd spent all night playing cat and mouse with the burglars, then had a forty-five minute fight with the gang as he crashed their party. The police finally showed up, and he got to go home.

Now, he was bushed and bruised. They might not have been super villains, but that didn't mean that they couldn't hit. What rankled him was the fact that he didn't know what was going on in that lab he just helped out.

Wayne didn't like it either, though, which meant that Wayne was going to spend some time looking into what exactly was going on in that lab: a fact that the Commissioner had to have known. That, of course, meant that she had purposely set them up to start an investigation that she couldn't do for political reasons. This irritated Terry more because any other time, the Commissioner would be berating them for interfering with police business.

Terry frowned. When had his life become so complicated? He used to only think about himself. Now he was looking into the motivations of the motivations around him. And, as much as a part of him wanted to return to being a self-centered teenager, he knew that he couldn't. He'd seen too much to let innocent people suffer.

The commissioner was wrong about him. Bruce didn't seduce him into his world: the people of Gotham did. Being Batman was an addiction. It was like a drug It was just supposed to be a one time hit to avenge his dad, but it had developed into a habit, complete with creepy feelings when he didn't patrol.

He sighed and crawled under the covers of his bed. Maybe tomorrow would be a less confusing day.

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Terry realized that he was wrong in hoping for a better day. It was Gotham after all. Since when had Terry ever gotten anything he wanted? Half-way through his classes, he got pulled out with a note to go to the principal's office.

Terry automatically began to search through his recent behavior to determine what he had done wrong, but he came up with nothing which meant that he had to have been set up. Like anyone would believe that.

"Terry."

His head shot up when he realized that his mother was sitting in the principal's office. Oh, boy. He must have something really big pinned on him if they called his mother.

"Mom, whatever it is, I didn't do it," Terry automatically said as he took the chair next to his crying mother.

"Oh no, Terry, you didn't do anything. I asked them to pull you out of classes and the principal offered me the use of the office."

"I don't understand. Is there something wrong? Did Matt get hurt?" Terry felt a moment of panic at the thought of losing another family member.

"No, Terry. It's your father. He's alive."

"What? NO! That's impossible it has to be a clone or a psychological drug or an imposter with genetically enhanced features or…"

"Terry! Calm down! Honestly, you watch too many of those reports about Batman and those criminals. You're as bad as your brother."

"But Mom…"

"Your father donated his body to scientific research. I didn't tell you at the time of the funeral. I thought it would be too stressful for you boys. You in particular."

"So you didn't tell us, and now I have a walking-zombie-dad."

"Terry, I didn't know that they were going to do this kind of research. I thought it was best for you not to know."

Terry stared out of the office window, "My whole life changed because of his death, Mom.  I can't go back to the way things were. I can't change again."

"Terry, I know this is a shock. But, you'll adjust. Why don't you come with me to see him at the hospital? I'm sure he'd like to see you. You know he always loved you."

"Yeah, Dad did. If he is dad… I suppose I won't find out until I see him, will I?"

Mary shook her head, "Terry, he might be different, but he loved you. I don't think that any parent could change that fact, even after death."

"Okay, I'll go with you."

"Thank you. It means a lot to me. It will mean a lot to your father."

"Yeah, I'm sure it will."