Disclaimer : This story is based upon the American animated television series "Batman Beyond", which is the property of Warner Bros. Animation and DC Comics. This story is non-profit and is created for entertainment purposes only.

For The Greater Good


Chapter one - As cold as a smile

Nelson pressed the valve and lukewarm, hard water shot out of the shower head, trickling past a toilet bag whose ownership, like all the commodities at St-Brutus center, could only come through bargaining or, in Nelson's case, aggravated robbery. Next to him a boy whose clothes bulged a plastic pouch near breaking point failed to produce foam out of a yellowish miniature soap.

His face, stripped of the mandatory red and white of the jokers looked strangely blank; as if washing the paint away had deprived him of his expressions. His chest still bore the imprint of the white singlet, cutting a darker streak above his jutting hips. Prison changed them all. It ate at Nelson's brain like limestone at his skin, the grim reality of it seeping through him with every passing day.

Prisoners like coke cans, darkly silent until an opportunity arose to let it all burst out. Blood, urine, sperm. It made little difference what fluid was spilled. Nelson's sexuality translated into inter-courses aimed to assert his superiority with no regards to feelings or even compliance. The only change induced by his predicament was the lack of women, which kept unwanted fatherhood at bay and constant mood swings when period struck.

Nelson's mother words came back to him, as clear as the day she uttered them, which was the day he failed his standardized test. Words like snowflakes, hardening under the strain in her voice, sharpened by bitterness into shards of ice that she spat right into her son's heart.

"Almost get you almost." The foreboding cast of her red lips along with the heavy-lidded eyes ablaze with disgust had dented Nelson's ego. The condition to his release stated that he should either work as a cleaner in a nursing home or become a mentor at St-Brutus. The later referred to the direction's project to turn delinquents into responsible citizens. The prospect of cleaning up after old people felt equally repellent as teaching civility to a younger convict. In the end, the chance to regain his mother's trust compelled Nelson to be a mentor, if only by name.

As he sit opposite his mother in the parlor room, he watched her lips curled into a smile as smooth and bland as the surrounding walls. The prospect of her son at the service of others was met with the same level of interest as when, having run out of words, he choose to speak about the weather. The handcuffs biting into his wrists felt warmer than her gaze as she bid him goodbye.