Summary:

Terry's gang is back in town, and they want him to join up with the group again. When he refuses, things escalate into a hostage situation at his school. Before he even knows it, he is forced to fight his old friends...without the Batsuit.

Author's Note:

I admit, I mostly wrote this fic because I wanted to see Terry get caught in a fight without his suit. That's pretty much all this is about. :] However, (surprise, surprise...) I've realized this makes a good prequel to a future story. So hopefully someday I will have a sequel to this.

I own nothing related to Batman Beyond, in any way, shape, or form, other than the ten OC's in here: Vic Martin, Astin and Mercedes, Lucas Daniels, Brad Knox, Drake Benson, Tommy Barlow, Samuel Garrison, Joel Haggin, and Nicholas Haggin.

Beta'd by my sister: onepiecefreec!

Terry let out a sigh as their teacher got ready to begin her lesson in Family Studies; he was preparing for the coming hour of excruciating pain. He hated this class—which was probably why he had been close to failing it several days ago. If it hadn't been for the stupid egg thing...well, it would have been bad.

He hit a button on his laptop to open the program he used for typing his notes. And that was when the morning went spiraling out of control.

The door to the classroom swung open, and Terry looked up to see a group of young men and a girl not much older than himself walk into the room. All of them were holding large guns and knives. The students around Terry gasped in surprise, and Miss Pinto backed quickly away from the door.

The young man leading the group yelled for quiet from Terry's classmates. He only received more gasps and whimpers of fear in reply. Then, hitting a button to close the classroom's door, the man locked it from the inside.

Every room in the building had that safety feature built into it, just in case there was ever an outside threat. Too bad the threat had come inside first.

Terry sighed darkly. This wasn't good.

The tall young man at the front of the group looked into the crowd of students, his eyes resting almost immediately upon Terry. "McGinnis, we need to talk."

No, this wasn't good at all.

Slag it.

Terry stood slowly, trying not to notice Dana's worried eyes on him. "I'm surprised you're still alive, Victor. I heard you died in that prison riot three years ago."

Vic Martin smiled slightly. "Things aren't always as they seem. You have your secrets, I have mine."

Terry nodded, studying the group of young adults. "What do you want?"

One of the men smirked condescendingly. "We want you to join the gang again, McGinnis—what do you think?"

Terry grimaced. "I think I'll have to take a rain-check on that one, Drake. Thanks, though. How about you call me up for the next reunion."

He knew all ten of the young adults. It was his old gang. He also knew, without a doubt, he would never join the gang again. Working with Wayne now, Terry was on the other side of the law completely. And there was no going back.

"I figured you would say that," Vic said. "You always were the cautious one of the group."

"I see that wasn't much of a problem for you though, Vic. Have fun getting the gang all together again?" Terry smirked. "You always did love to be in control."

"Shut up," Astin said.

"Afraid your big brother can't handle it?" he teased.

"He said 'shut up'!" Mercedes yelled, taking a warning step forward. Ever the faithful girlfriend, she always stood up for Astin, just like he always stood up for his older brother.

"Come on, Terry, don't be like that," Lucas begged. "We could be great again."

"Right—because it worked out so well the first time!"

Vic motioned with his gun for the teacher, Miss Pinto, to sit down at the empty desk on the front row. Then the gang spread out around the room, some of the men moving to stand in the back of the room, behind all of the desks. One man was posted by each window, to make sure no one thought of trying to escape. One guy stood by the door to keep it locked.

That left Vic, his brother and Mercedes in the front of the classroom with the twins, Joel and Nicholas Haggin.

Terry and his thirty-something classmates were surrounded. He had to find a way to get them out of here. On his own, he could maybe take down the rest of the gang—thanks to Bruce's training and his Batman practice. But with the risk of hostages, he was nervous to make a move.

He addressed Vic, knowing the man fashioned himself as the leader of the gang. "How about you let these guys go, Martin."

"No can do, McGinnis," the older man said breezily. "I know how much you always cared for The Innocents." He rolled his eyes at the thought. "Even when we were working a job, you were always the one to bug us about the little people."

"You mean the victims?" Terry asked darkly. He forced his heart to slow back down, realizing that his voice had slipped into the tone he used when patrolling the city as Batman.

Vic studied him for a moment. Then, stepping into the midst of the students, he walked to the center of the desks where Terry was standing, his handgun held tightly in his hand. "You know, I figured you might still be a turncoat."

Terry's voice came out deeper and strained with anger. "I never turned, Martin. I quit after you shot that man."

"He was homeless, McGinnis! It was no big deal. No one would ever miss him."

"He was a person." Terry took a step closer to the older man, warningly. "A living, breathing, person."

Vic rolled his eyes. "I figured you would react like this." He took a step back, raising his gun to point at the first student close to him—which just happened to be Dana Tan. She let out a gasp, but stayed in her chair, sitting frozen with fear.

Terry forced himself to hold onto his control. He so wanted to jump the man right now and rip that gun away from Dana's head, but he knew he couldn't with the other nine people surrounding him.

Vic must have seen the fear in his eyes though, because he chuckled. "Still got a thing for Miss Tan, huh? Good to know."

He waved his gun to motion for Dana to stand up. Then putting her between himself and Terry, he backed out of the rows of students and went to stand at the front of the room with Dana. Letting her sit at the teacher's desk up front, he positioned the twins on either side of her, both holding a gun to her.

The twins glanced at each other nervously. It was just for a split second, but Terry caught it, and he felt hope rise in his chest. The twins had always liked him more than Vic. A few of the others guys had too, in fact. That was what caused the breakup of the gang. When Terry left, half of the other members dropped out too. Then things had just fallen apart.

Vic smiled at Terry maliciously. "Since you seem to have lost all sense of loyalty to the group, we'll just have to make use of you some other way." He tossed a phone to Terry, who caught it with one hand. "You're going to call your boss and tell Mr. Wayne that we want his money. A million creds."

Terry studied the older man. "How did you know who I work for?"

He shrugged. "Charlie told me."

Charlie Bigelow was the one member of the gang who was not present. Terry was the only person in the room who knew the full reason of why. As Batman, he had fought Charlie "Big Time" Bigelow on the bridge just outside of Gotham. Charlie had known about Terry's job with Wayne because Terry had gotten him a small job there for a while. But Charlie had never liked living honestly. Ever since his involvement in the gang with Vic, he had been in and out of crime. When Charlie reappeared in Gotham, Terry was forced to stop him as Batman.

One thing led to another, and the fight got rough. The next thing Terry knew, he was fighting for his life on the Gotham Bridge. Then something went wrong, and Charlie fell over. Terry couldn't save him.

Wayne had told him more than once over the past six months that it hadn't been his fault, but Terry couldn't help feeling responsible. He should have been able to keep Charlie from going over. He had known how dangerous it was for them to be fighting there, when the bridge stood so high above the water below them. If he had only been able to grab onto Charlie before...

Terry swallowed as he tried to stop remembering the last time he had seen his old friend.

"I'm not sure even Bruce Wayne could pull a million creds together very quickly," Terry told Vic. "It might take some time..."

"Then you'd better place the call soon," the older man said. He waved his gun at the students in the room. "If I get too tired of waiting, some of your classmates might start to feel it."

Terry held up his hands to pacify him. "I'm going, I'm going." He dialed the familiar number with shaking fingers, but he wasn't sure if he was shaking from fear for Dana and his fellow classmates or from anger towards Vic.

"And don't tell him anything to alert the cops," Vic said suddenly. "We want him to deliver the money to you. We'll let you out of the room when he gets here to grab the creds. Then you're coming right back in, and we're making a switch with you for the students and the money."

Terry pressed the 'call' button without replying.

Bruce picked up on the third ring, his voice sounding slightly groggy. "Bruce Wayne."

"Hey, old man," Terry said, not completely faking his smile. He had wondered when the man slept. Apparently it was during Terry's hours in school. "I have a bit of a sticky situation, and I need to ask you for some creds."

Even when he was barely awake, Wayne noted the code words 'sticky situation' and understood that something was wrong. "Who's in danger?"

"Yeah, I'm at school, hanging out with my classmates. I kind of need some money for a school thing though. It's a fundraiser."

The message was received; ransom demands were referred to as 'fundraisers'.

"Someone's holding you and your classmates hostage?"

"Yeah. Just hanging out with some old friends," Terry repeated, stressing 'old' only slightly. It was slight, but he knew Bruce would catch it.

"Members from the gang or people we've gone up against before?"

"Exactly. It's a bit of a group project, and I never raised the money I was supposed to add to my team's funds."

"So it's your old gang?"

"Yeah. And I kind of need the money right now. So if you could run a few creds down to me, that would be great. I'll totally pay you back."

"Should I send Barbara to help?"

"No need to wake up your secretary," Terry said. He didn't want the cops trying to enter the scene and startling Vic into doing something he wouldn't regret. "I doubt she would do anything you couldn't. Just bring the creds down to the school. You know where it is, right?"

"McGinnis, are you still in Family Studies or did you move to your Physics class yet?"

It shouldn't have surprised Terry that Wayne knew his schedule, or that he knew which class Terry should be in at this very moment, but it still gave him a pause. For a second, his mind almost went blank.

"Uh...yeah, great." Then he got a hold of himself again. "I'll come get the money from you at the front of the school as soon as Family Studies lets out."

"I'm pulling up some of the security cameras from the classroom to see what you're dealing with. Can you slip away and put on the suit?"

"No, this school thing is pretty urgent. They need the money today, like in an hour, and I have class until then."

"Okay, this is what we're going to do. I see your classroom and the guys surrounding you. When I come to bring you the money they want, you'll slip out of the room to get it, like you said. Grab your backpack when you leave, change outside, and take the group down."

That sounded a little dangerous to Terry, with the many classmates in the room, but he knew it was the best thing Bruce could think of. And if it was the best plan Bruce could come up with...

"Right," he said. "I need a million creds."

Bruce growled. "A million? Seriously? Those greedy—"

Terry coughed. "Yeah. Yeah, it's uh, I've been forgetting to pay the installments ever since the beginning of the year, so the school would like its money in an hour or I'll be trouble."

Bruce sighed. "Just don't get yourself killed while you're waiting for me to arrive. I'll bring the real money, just in case you can't take them down in the suit."

"Appreciated," Terry said, forcing a thin smile in Vic's direction. "I'll see you when you get here, Wayne. Thanks."

"Thirty minutes at the earliest."

Terry hung up at those words, knowing there was nothing left for him to say. He tossed the phone back to Vic, stopping himself just before he could throw it like a batarang.

At least they had a plan now, sucky as it may be.

AN:

I really had fun writing that phone call... It made me happy. *laugh*