Author's Notes

Okay guys, I've decided to try something new (well, relatively new) and now I'm going to do my first Batman Beyond fan fiction. This story is about how everything unravels in Neo-Gotham, especially among those closest to Terry when he is shot by an unknown assailant that knows his secret identity. The chief pairing here will be Terry/Dana, just as an FYI, so if any of you were looking for a Terry/Melanie and Terry/Max, you may want to look elsewhere.

I'm not entirely sure of where I am going to go with this story (nor how often I will update), but I at least hope you'll appreciate my latest, called The Shot.

I had been planning to do a Batman Beyond story for a little while, one dealing with Terry being put into a very sticky situation - I had also considered scenarios where Terry's family was kidnapped, forcing him into a crime spree unable to contact Bruce Wayne or anyone else for help and one where Ian Peek's uncensored video went public, revealing Terry's identity to everyone across the globe. Some elements of what I may have planned for those will ultimately manifest themselves later on in the story.

This story is rated T at the moment for violence, some suggestive dialogue, and brief language.

Note: I will use Terry and Batman interchangeably, as will I do with Bruce and Wayne. Batman will be used when Terry is in the suit, while Terry will be used when he's a civilian (or in the Batcave). Bruce will be Bruce Wayne as a civilian, Wayne when he's speaking to Terry from the Batcave.

Now, let's begin the story.

April 17, 2042 0115 hours
Wayne-Powers Tower, Neo-Gotham, New York, USA

It was just another day in Neo-Gotham, or rather just another night. Looking high above his city was the Dark Knight himself, Batman. However, this was not the original Batman. This was the Batman-Beyond, or as some may know him, Batman 2.0. Watching for any criminal activity, Batman contacted his handler to see if anything was up. "Do you have anything, Wayne?"

Meanwhile, from the Batcave came the voice of Bruce Wayne, the original Batman and this Batman's handler. "The police are investigating a series of high-tech burglaries across the industrial district."

"What were the targets?"

"FoxTeca, Vance Computers, and Luminous Integrated. All three were part of a four-company group reportedly working on a new form of microchip that would help ease demand for silicon. FoxTeca provided the chief material, carbon fiber. Vance brought copper wiring. Luminous provided the blueprints."

"And the fourth company?"

"The Sun Group. They had the aluminum covering required to hold the chips together. Whoever is trying to take the materials is obviously bent on making the chip for themselves."

"For power?"

"Maybe, but there's a huge government contract for whoever makes the best reduced-silicon microchip. FoxTeca, Vance, Luminous, and the Sun Group realized they couldn't do it individually, so they teamed up to do so. I've sent the coordinates for the Sun Group's Gotham office to the Batmobile. Get there as soon as possible."

"Roger that." With that, Batman let the Batmobile hatch open so he could get in before closing it. As he prepared to take off, Bruce radioed in, "McGinnis."

"Yeah?"

"Be careful."

"Got it." With that, Batman took off towards the Sun Group in order to prevent the latest robbery. Thanks to the flight capability and high speed of the Batmobile, it only took Batman about three minutes to get across Gotham to the Sun Group building. Parking the Batmobile on a building across the street, Batman knew that the thieves were there as there was an entire floor with the lights on. Activating the suit's thrusters and wingsuit, Batman flew across the street to the floor where the thieves were stealing the aluminum covering.

Landing on the side of the building, Batman found the hinge for the window and lifted it, opening the window and enabling him to get inside, hooking onto the ceiling of the room before crawling over towards the thieves, who were searching for the aluminum covering on the floor.

Hopping onto the ground, Batman revealed his presence to the four hoodlums, saying, "May I be so kind as to escort you to the security office? You guys clearly don't belong here."

Panicking, each of them pulled out a compact automatic and opened fire on Batman, not that it did any good. Not only did the bullets have little impact on the suit, but Batman also dodged the rounds with ease before firing batarangs at the thugs, disarming all of them of their guns.

One thug charged right at Batman only to be batted aside with a simple punch and knocked to the ground. The next thug also charged up and as Batman went to work on taking him down, the third thug went right behind him and grabbed his arms, preventing him from responding to the second thug as he delivered a punch to Batman's midsection.

However, just because Batman's arms may be bound, he is still not down for the count as with a double kick to the second guy's chest, he went soaring into a desk before his head was hit by an office phone, knocking him unconscious. Then, Batman activated the thrusters and the two quickly went backwards, with the thug striking a column of stone, forcing him to let go of Batman as he then struck one of the windows and began to fall out. Fortunately for him, Batman sent a grappling batarang down towards him, and the rope caught his feet, stopping his fall.

Tying the rope to a metal windowsill, Batman then went after the fourth robber. But when he was nowhere to be seen, Batman noted to himself, "Hmm. I thought there were four of you guys."

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the fourth criminal showed himself, this time wearing an armored exo-suit, and replied, "There are. And only one of you. I'd take those odds any day."

Gritting his teeth, Batman responded, "Don't be so sure." Throwing an electric batarang at the fourth thug, it impacted with the suit, but did nothing to halt him. Laughing at the batarang's ineffectiveness, the thug fired a rocket from underneath his arm right at Batman, forcing him to get out of the way as it impacted at a desk, completely blasting it apart to pieces.

From his link in the Batcave, Wayne explained, "Keep your distance, McGinnis. That's a Tactical Enhancement Suit. It was developed for the Rhelasian Military for enhancing their soldiers, but it never got out of prototype stages because of cost difficulties."

As Wayne talked to Batman, the fourth criminal opened fire with a barrage of minigun fire, forcing Terry behind hard cover or else he'd be ripped to shreds. Batman responded, "What's he got?"

"Twenty millimeter Gatling gun, dumbfire missiles, guided sniper rifle, goggles equipped for X-ray, night, or thermal vision, twelve millimeter armored plating, and solar-charged power source."

"Any strategies?"

"You could use an electromagnetic pulse to fry his suit, but it's more than likely you'd get caught in the blast as well. Your batarangs simply aren't strong enough to get through the armor, and the battery is protected by an electrical surge, one that would fry your suit."

"Well then, I guess I'll just have to keep him from using his weapons."

Grabbing another batarang, Batman flung it at the armored thug. Just as the thug effortlessly caught it, the batarang detonated in his hand, temporarily blinding him. Batman took the initiative and hopped onto the back of the thug, grabbing the goggles before tossing them from the suit. However, the thug was able to grab Batman from off the back of his suit and slammed him onto the ground, causing him to cry out in pain.

Crawling away from the criminal, Batman attempted to regroup only to find himself lifted in the air by the last thug, who was ready to snap Batman in two. Quickly scrounging up a batarang, Batman aimed it at one of the desks and threw it. As the criminal mocked, "Missed me!", Batman smirked as the batarang bounced from the desk up to the sprinkler system.

As water poured down on the duo, the fourth thug quickly found sparks coming out of his suit, forcing him to exit out of it. Indeed, Batman had short-circuited the armor with the sprinkler system. With the armored suit useless, the fourth thug attempted to flee, only to be caught in one of the Bat's bolos.

Batman simply said, "Lights out, scum" as he told Wayne, "They're down. Get the police to haul them off."

"I've already called Commissioner Gordon. Her people will be here in a few minutes."

April 17, 2042 0217 hours
Wayne Manor Batcave, Neo-Gotham, New York, USA

Down in the Batcave, an unmasked Batman and Wayne were working on just who the four robbers were.

This Batman, the Batman-Beyond, was high school junior Terry McGinnis, a former delinquent who had accidentally stumbled onto the Batcave - after pissing off some Jokerz, a local street gang named after the long-missing clown prince of crime, Terry found himself at Wayne Manor, where the elderly, reclusive Bruce Wayne had helped him fend them off, only to suffer from chest pains soon after. While helping him in, Terry accidentally triggered the entrance to the Batcave and learned Bruce's secret as the now-retired Batman.

Indeed, twenty years earlier, while trying to rescue Bunny Vreeland, the daughter of one of his old friends, the late Veronica Vreeland, Bruce had suffered a crippling heart attack while fighting the kidnappers, forcing him to grab a gun just to fend them off. At that moment, he realized that if he wanted to continue being Batman, he would have to resort to using guns, making him just like Joe Chill, the very man who killed his parents so long ago. With that, he placed his suit away and never looked back at being Batman, soon becoming a lonely old man. In that time, the last of his friends had died while he had alienated himself from his proteges, Dick Grayson (whose current whereabouts were unknown), Barbara Gordon (the new police commissioner), and Tim Drake (who had suffered unspeakable horrors thirty-five years prior) while he lost much of his vast fortune, enabling the corrupt Derek Powers to buy out Wayne Enterprises.

However, that interaction between Bruce and Terry wouldn't be their last, as shortly after Terry returned home, he saw that his father, Warren McGinnis, one of Powers's workers, had been murdered, and that there was a Wayne-Powers file hidden away. When Terry brought the file to Bruce, he learned that Powers had been working on a deadly nerve agent and was going to sell it to the highest bidder. Before he could get the file to the authorities, Powers confronted him and reclaimed the disk. Not wanting to let Powers go free, Terry snuck back into Wayne Manor and stole Bruce's last Batsuit, a technologically advanced one that heightened his strength and agility so he could spy on Powers.

While Bruce initially was prepared to shut down the Batsuit remotely, he decided it was best if Terry stop Powers from shipping the nerve gas, and Terry was able to stop Powers. As a result, Bruce hired Terry as his personal assistant, his new errand boy. While Terry worked in the field, Bruce was the mission control, offering strategic advice and information about Terry's opponents.

Terry asked, "So who were those guys?"

Pulling up four passports, each passport containing a photo of one of the robbers, Bruce explained, "They're British, ex-MI6 agents who were discharged for excessive force and insubordination. Ever since, they've been freelancing as mercenaries." Pulling up a picture of the first thug Terry took out, Bruce noted, "Michael Dawes, the infiltrator." For the second thug Terry took out, "Jared Raglan, the getaway." For the third, "Lucas Vaughn, heavy muscle." The last one was introduced as, "Zeke Palmroy, the leader."

"So why were they stealing microchip parts?"

"I was running their recent bank account transactions and communications, and there's one name in common." Pulling up the photo of the man who hired him, Bruce revealed, "His name is Hotab Koch. He was a North Kaznian political dissident who wanted the north to use more aggressive force against the south. His demands were shut down following the cease fire brought together by Wonder Woman. Then, he became a terrorist and went underground, springing up periodically in an attempt to reignite hostilities between the north and south."

"I bet they already have. A Kaznian diplomat was attempting to buy the nerve gas from Powers."

"Indeed, McGinnis. Queen Audrey has found out and is sending the Regent of Health here for a world summit to end the use of biological agents on the battlefield. His equivalents from around thirty countries, including here, will be arriving in two days for the summit, and the Kaznian regent, Klaus Sutterfeld, will be giving an address shortly before the summit."

"You think Koch is here to kill Sutterfeld. Then why steal the microchip parts?"

"In addition to his hardcore political philosophy, Koch is also an electronics genius. With each of the pieces he sent the mercenaries to steal, Koch could sabotage Sutterfeld's speech. However, by stopping them, Koch would be unable to sabotage the speech the way he planned. But, with the elements he does have, he could rig an outright bomb to kill Sutterfeld, though security would be a lot harder to get through. Sabotaging the speech would have forced Sutterfeld to move the speech elsewhere, which would have made him a much more vulnerable target."

"Where is the speech being held?"

"In front of City Hall at nine in the morning, rain or shine. Sutterfeld's insistence."

"So how am I going to explain myself being there? I'm no cop, politician, or news reporter. I'm just a student and a vigilante."

"I think I can figure that out. There's going to be more than just cops, politicians, and reporters present at Sutterfeld's speech. One of your teachers is going to offer extra credit for attending the press conference."

"And knowing Gotham, regardless of whether or not a mad terrorist bomber attacks?"

"There have been so many attacks on public events that it isn't all that surprising, Terry. And besides, she's not asking you to be up close and next to him, right? You shouldn't be in any danger from Koch while watching the speech."

"The danger is going to come from protecting Sutterfeld from Koch. Any other reason?"

"I imagine after the attempted sale of Powers' nerve gas, Sutterfeld will want to talk with Wayne-Powers management. However, I'm the only person willing to speak with him."

"Not to mention the only one who can speak his language."

In Kaznian, Bruce responded, "Indeed, Terry."

April 17, 2042 1036 hours
Hamilton Hill High School, Neo-Gotham, New York, USA

After finishing his work for Bruce Wayne, Terry returned home and got some sleep before having to go to school the next day. His academic career was definitely not being helped by the fact he lived a dual life - one as Terry McGinnis, the other as Batman. This resulted in major strain as many times Terry struggled to stay awake in his classes out of exhaustion from his very long days. Bruce definitely did not kid when he said he was a harsh taskmaster the day he hired him.

Back at school, which was named after the late Hamilton Hill, who was the Mayor of Gotham for much of the time Bruce Wayne wore the mantle of Batman, Terry had just gotten out of his health science class and was heading to his locker in order to exchange books for his next class, which was Pre-Calculus. While most students kept their books in their backpacks, Terry had to use his locker as his backpack contained the Batsuit - Bruce was always prepared for anything, and he expected Terry to do the same. Placing his Health Science book in his locker, he got the necessary book out and closed his locker only to see his girlfriend, Dana Tan, right next to him.

He and Dana had been dating for several years now, well before Terry started his employment for Bruce Wayne. Of course, Dana didn't know the true nature of Terry's new job, and the increasing amounts of time he was out was starting to get to her. Fortunately, as time went on, Terry was able to get being Batman down more pat, so he was missing fewer dates with Dana.

"Hello, Terry."

"Hey, Dana. What's up?"

"The new Adam Heat movie comes out this weekend and I managed to score tickets for a showing Saturday night. The reviewers are saying it'll be totally schway. Can you make it?"

"On Saturday, Wayne's having me go to Sutterfeld's speech in the morning. After that, I'm good. So, I'll see you there?"

"See you there." As Dana walked away, going to the left of Terry, Terry proceeded to go to the right, where he bumped into another one of his friends, Maxine "Max" Gibson.

"So, boss man's having you go to Sutterfeld's speech. He think anything will be up?" Terry and Max's relationship was special as Max was one of only two people alive that knew Terry was Batman other than Bruce Wayne, with the other being Commissioner Gordon (who happened to be the former Batgirl). Of course, Max found out by deduction, removing all other possibilities based on characteristics she noted not only about Batman, but of the other students. Well, it was better than Max thinking Terry was a Joker (which she actually did think initially, but realized she was wrong a bit late).

"What do you think, Max?" As the two walked towards Pre-Calculus, they made sure not to let the other students know what they were talking about. Terry continued, "What do you know about Hotab Koch?"

"He's an enemy of the Kaznian government for his violent, communist leanings and is a known terrorist. He's here in Gotham?"

"Right. He hired four ex-Spec Ops soldiers to steal parts for an elite microchip as part of his plan to kill Sutterfeld. Unfortunately, with his hired goons incapacitated, he's going to go for a more blunt approach, which makes him a lot more dangerous. So, I'd suggest you stay as far away from City Hall as possible on Saturday. It could get dangerous."

"Got it." As she said that, Max crossed her fingers, implying she was still going to go to City Hall on Saturday. While Max was definitely a valuable asset for Terry to have: (1) for providing Terry with an alibi to help him be Batman, (2) her computer skills, which were rivaled only by Bruce, and (3) keeping him up-to-date about school life, she also frequently put herself in the line of fire, putting her in danger more than once.

April 18, 2042 1920 hours
McGinnis Family Residence, Neo-Gotham, New York, USA

Back at his home, Terry made sure to keep the backpack containing the Batsuit secure, so that neither his brother nor mother would accidentally uncover it, thereby revealing his secret identity. Terry seriously doubted that if his mom knew how much danger he put himself in on a regular basis, she would not want him continuing his job with Bruce Wayne, though it would explain a lot about his behavior in the past year and a half or so. His brother, on the other hand, would suffer from such a fan orgasm and would beg Terry non-stop to become his sidekick; Terry and Bruce would both refuse his request in a heartbeat.

Anyway, tomorrow he would have to stop an assassination attempt on a diplomat from a very volatile nation. If he failed, he definitely did not want to think of the consequences. So he definitely needed to get some sleep and be at his best, at 100 percent or better.

Preparing to get some much-needed sleep, he found his door opened by his little brother, Matt. "Terry, dinner!" Groaning, Terry slowly got out of bed (though at that point, he hadn't even slipped under the covers). Right now, Terry didn't need food - he needed sleep, and desperately considering how little sleep he got after long nights for Bruce. At least he's been getting more sleep since he started with Bruce, though he seldom got the recommended nine hours of sleep.

Drudging out of his room, Terry made his way to the dinner table, where Mary, Terry's widowed mother, plated grilled chicken with broccoli and corn. She asked, "So, Terry. I hear that Mr. Wayne is having you go to see Mr. Sutterfeld's speech tomorrow morning."

"Yeah, it'll help me kill two birds with one stone. I'm getting extra credit in world politics for going to the speech, and Mr. Wayne wants to speak with Sutterfeld afterwards regarding an incident between his country and Wayne-Powers."

"What kind of incident, Ter?"

"He didn't tell me, Matt. All I know is that it's something that requires a senior member of the Wayne-Powers board. Since he isn't quite in his prime, I'll be out in the crowd. I am his personal assistant after all."

"Okay then, Terry. Just make sure to stay safe."

April 19, 2042 0008 hours
Sewer Maintenance Facility, Neo-Gotham, New York, USA

At the former Sewer Maintenance Facility, Hotab Koch, the terrorist behind the thefts committed by the ex-MI6 agents was working on the bomb for his attack on Kaznian Regent of Health Klaus Sutterfeld.

Koch by now knew that his associates had been arrested by Batman - none of them had returned with the aluminum he had requested. If they had returned, he would have rigged up a faulty circuit in the microphone that would force them to change locations to one much less secured than City Hall, one where he could take out Sutterfeld much more easily.

He had a lot of work still to get done - in less than nine hours, Sutterfeld would deliver his speech, and that was his window to eliminate him. As Batman had taken down his men, he was willing to bet that he had linked Koch to the MI6 mercenaries, so he'd have to change his appearance.

That he already did, shaving off his beard and leaving a gray mustache, as well as dying both the mustache and his hair a light white. He put in brown contact lenses to change his eyes from their regular green. Lastly, he changed his hairstyle, cutting his hair that formerly went down below his shoulders to a simple crew cut. Nobody would know his new appearance, unless of course they could tell by the structure of his face, which alas, he could not change.

He could hide as much of himself as best he could, but he knew that he had a very short window to get to Sutterfeld. With his appearance down, he worked on constructing a target tracker. Even without the aluminum covering, he could still modify microchips to meet his specifications, specifically allowing him access to the Hyperion, a weapons guidance satellite that will be in range of Neo-Gotham over the next couple of hours. Once he set Sutterfeld as the target, Koch would be able to dispatch a wide array of weaponry against him, especially a warhead that would do everything to track and destroy what it's aimed at.

If he couldn't get him linked to the Hyperion's targeting systems by 1000 hours, he wouldn't get a second chance as the Hyperion codes are changed every day at 1130 hours, locking him out of the system and preventing him from adding Sutterfeld to the target list, and he wouldn't be able to reacquire Sutterfeld long enough to put him on the targeting list.

Finishing the target tracker, and now in the Hyperion's targeting software, Koch put the target tracker inside of a photo camera so nobody would notice it. He just needed ten seconds to put Sutterfeld in the system, and then he was history.

April 19, 2042 0903 hours
Neo-Gotham City Hall, Neo-Gotham, New York, USA

It was now time for Sutterfeld's speech. Terry had already arrived at the site along with Max, who would help him get to a private area so he could change into the Batsuit if need be. However, there were lots of people present, making that a little challenging, not to mention locating Koch, who by now had changed his appearance, and they had no idea he had the target tracker.

Sutterfeld had taken the podium and then began to give his speech, "Attention good people of Neo-Gotham. Today I am here to advocate for a world without biochemical weaponry, one where people need not worry about manmade plagues and genetic viruses that would eradicate millions solely for other parties to conquest. I have been sent by my Highness, the Royal Queen Audrey of Kaznia, to push for an end to biological weapons. Aren't the weapons we have enough already?"

As Sutterfeld continued to speak, Terry continued to look for Koch. Fortunately, the night before, he had planted several covert cameras around City Hall, thereby making the search for Koch easier as Wayne could then scan dozens of people at a time in search for which one was Koch, figuring that he didn't look anything like the picture they had of him.

Slowly moving through the crowd, Terry attempted to spot which one was Koch. However, almost all of the people present looked like they were from America. Almost nobody there looked as if they were from Kaznia, especially from northern Kaznia. Before he could continue thinking, he soon became irritated by the massive amounts of camera flash from journalists and photographers taking pictures of Sutterfeld. Staring at the cameramen, he noticed that one person wasn't actively using their camera. Calling Wayne, Terry said, "The cameramen."

After a moment, Wayne answered, "Koch's one of the cameramen. He doesn't have a bomb, but a target tracker."

"A what?"

"He can hack into a classified government weapons guidance system and put Sutterfeld on the targeting list, and the satellite will send whatever weapons work to eradicate him. He's waiting for the best possible shot in order to photograph Sutterfeld and put him in. Get the camera, McGinnis."

Ending the conversation with his boss, Terry began looking for which one was Koch. Having memorized his picture, Terry was able to eliminate a number of the cameramen as they didn't look anything like Koch. Continuing down the rows of photographers, Terry caught one of them moving around through them.

And based on their facial structure, Terry knew that the guy was Koch, who made a vain attempt to disguise himself using hair dye and shaving off his beard. Heading back towards Koch, Terry soon tried to formulate a strategy to get the camera (and target tracker) away from Koch. Judging by Sutterfeld's speech, he was almost finished and Koch was about to get the best possible angle for adding him to the Hyperion's target list.

Koch then pressed down on the photograph button, charging up the flash, which would upload Sutterfeld's picture to the Hyperion. Ten seconds...nine seconds.

He needed to get that camera away from Koch now. Eight seconds...seven seconds.

As he worked on a strategy, he didn't see Max coming his way, having deduced Terry had just found Koch. Six seconds...five seconds. The upload was halfway done. Five more seconds and Sutterfeld was a dead man.

Four seconds...three seconds. Then, Max stumbled around and "accidentally" banged her head into Koch's leg, causing him to lose grip on his camera long enough for the countdown to cancel.

"Oh my God! Oh my God! I'm so sorry sir about ruining your shot." Koch grumpily moved away from Max, trying to reacquire Sutterfeld. However, he soon noticed that cops were coming in. Terry knew that Wayne had signaled them to Koch's position.

Koch rushed to get another shot in, but in his distraction, he tripped and lost the camera, breaking the lens to reveal the target tracker within. With no weapon and the cops coming in, Koch did the only sensible thing to do. Run.

As he ran, Terry proceeded to follow him, trying to keep up with him to figure out where he was going while he changed into the Batsuit. Calling Wayne, Terry said, "Keep an eye on him. I need to get into the Batsuit."

"Roger."

Ending the call, Terry got out of view of the crowd and then ducked into a nearby alley with the backpack. Now, he had his window to turn into Batman and catch Koch.

Before he could begin changing, he soon got another call on his cell phone, this time from a blocked number. He knew that Wayne was a blocked number, as nobody could know he was Batman (actually, Bruce had two registered numbers - one public, civilian number and one blocked for speaking as Wayne).

Answering the call, Terry asked, "Hello?"

Then, the voice on the other end simply said, "Goodbye, Batman."

Less than one second later, a bullet connected with Terry's chest, causing him to crash into the wall before slumping onto the ground.

Okay, what an ending. Terry's been shot and Koch is getting away. And just who shot Terry, and how did he know that he was Batman? Will Terry survive? And is anybody else he is close to in danger as well?

Answers to these will come eventually, some next chapter. Others will come much later on in the story.