I do not own Batman Beyond, Justice League, or X-Men Evolution

Chapter 02: The Mask of a Hero

Screams could be heard from shore near the Warehouse District as the plumes of smoke rose steadily higher, blotting out the light of the setting sun. Dana stared open mouthed at the fire, slowly shaking her head in silent horror. Even as she and Terry watched, another minor explosion rocked the waves around them. Terry tore his eyes away from the spectacle and glanced over at the Captain who was staring at shore as well. Satisfied that no one was looking at him, he pressed one of the two buttons built into his everyday belt. Nothing happened and that was exactly how it was supposed to be.

He put his arms around Dana again to try and comfort her. She was starting to shake a little bit, not with terror, nor with the cool breeze that came wafting in on the heels of the explosion. It was with anger.

"All those people," Dana said, her voice almost steaming with ill will. "I can't believe someone would do this."

"How long have you lived in Gotham?" the Captain asked.

"It's a Sunday," Terry answered, ignoring the Captain's interjection. "Most likely no one was there to get hurt."

"Thank the lord for small favors, I guess," Dana said, visibly relaxing. "I hope Batman is there to help, though. I can't imagine what kind of property damage there will be if that spreads."

"If he's not already, he will be soon," Terry said and looked up at the sky, tapping his foot lightly until he realized he was doing it.

"Need a hand?" a powerful voice asked from behind them. The all turned to see Superman floating in the air behind them, his black and white cape-less suit a hallmark for the aging Superman that was nearly as identifiable as the blue and red one had been in its time.

"Please," Terry said, pushing Dana toward Superman and pointing at the Captain. "We need to get off this thing before something else happens. Can you help us?"

"Not to worry," Superman said, landing next to the Captain and picking him up in one powerful arm and then floating over to Dana. "Ma'am?" he asked.

"What about you, Terry?" Dana asked, looking scared for him.

"I'll be fine," Terry said, not giving her time to think and gave her a little push toward Superman. "Hurry. Superman needs to go help."

"Alright," Dana said and allowed Superman to pick her up. "I'll see you over there."

"I'll be right back for you," Superman said with a meaningful look and took to the air and back to land.

"Sorry, Dana," Terry said and pushed the second button on his belt. Taking off his backpack, he changed into his Batsuit with the grace of long practice and dove into the water. His Batmobile waited just under the surface of the still disturbed water and opened its hatch as he approached. Terry climbed in and the hatch shut, immediately venting all the water from inside the cockpit and restored the air from its reserve oxygen supply. Terry sent the Batmobile rocketing forward under the water to put some distance between himself and the ship before pulling up and bursting out from under the water like a missile.

Superman was there already, flying in tandem with the sleek machine as they headed toward the destroyed district. To Terry, it felt a little awkward to be flying with the Man of Steel. It wasn't as if Terry was in awe of the man, even though the rest of the world was enamored with him. Terry had actually been asked by the Superman himself to join the Justice League Unlimited a while back after successfully saving all of the League's collective lives from a race of Star fish with identity crisis issues. However, like his predecessor, Terry had turned down the offer to work full time as a member of the JLU.

"Dana and the Captain are safe," Superman said, patching in to Bruce's more secure private comm frequency. "Dropped them off halfway back to town."

"Good," Terry said, not allowing anything in his voice to betray his relief. "The conversation is going to be a little awkward later though. I can just hear it now: 'Terry, where were you? Did Superman forget where he dropped us?' 'No, Dana, he had more important things to do and left me stranded on the ship all by myself. I'm fine, by the way.'"

"You worry too much," Bruce said in his comm. "But this is exactly why having attachments is difficult in this line of work."

Superman chuckled. "This isn't the first time we have had to pull a switch, Batman. Take a look back at the boat."

Terry glanced up at his aft camera and was surprised to see wall of water pushing the ship sideways into far deeper water. "Uh, ok," Terry said. "I am sure that won't raise a few eyebrows."

"Aqua Girl has done this before," Superman said. "To everyone on shore, it is going to look like she is bringing a tidal wave of water to help put out the fire and by accident, push the abandoned ship out further into Gotham bay. A simple, harmless accident in the middle of a crisis."

"If you say so," Terry said, turning his attention back to the matter at hand. He and Superman gave the raging fire a once over, flying around the edges of the blast zone before Superman settled himself dead center in the air above the fire and began spinning himself like a top. The fire reached for him like greedy hands as the suction Superman was creating pulled the fire toward him. After a few seconds, Superman flew toward the water and dove in; bring some of the fire with him. Even as he did so, Aqua Girl moved in with her wall of water, moving the waves by various sea creatures under the water, and dumped it onto the nearest edge of the burning land.

Terry brought the Batmobile to a hover on the opposite side and dropped himself out through the bottom hatch as it slid open and then closed behind him. Spreading his wings, Batman landed lightly in the middle of the inferno and looked around. His visor switched over to X-Ray and began tagging anyone he could find. He had just tagged his third person when something invisible and hard slammed into his side, blowing him sideways and clear through one storage facility wall.

He pushed one large bit of debris off of him and shook his head slightly, trying to decide if it was his eyes or his heads up display that was flickering. His vision slowly cleared back to standard vision although that wasn't much help as black smoke roiled in every direction. He stood up and faced the hole he had just made, dropping into combat stance even though he wasn't certain whether whatever had hit was an attack or a piece of falling building or something that had hit him as it fell.

"Still so reliant on sight, aren't you Batman?"

Terry's eyes narrowed slightly, neither his human ears nor the enhancements brought on by the Batsuit were able to pinpoint the source of the voice in all of this mess. He looked around, moving slowly and forcing his eyes to catch every detail.

"It will do you no good," the voice said again, mocking. "Even if there weren't so much other interference you still wouldn't be able to find me."

"You seem to be putting on quite a show here," Terry responded, ignoring the voice's advice and continuing to look around. "Did you do all this for me?"

"You always were quite arrogant," the voice said. "Still, I suppose you are never too far from the truth, are you?"

"Suggestions?" Terry asked softly into his mic to the old man.

"Why are you asking me?" Bruce asked. "You're the detective now, remember?"

"You're a ton of help," Terry retorted. It was at the moment that whatever or whoever was attacking him struck once more, sending him colliding with another wall. This one didn't break on impact and therefore caused Terry's head to bounce painfully off the wall. A splitting headache immediately sprang into Terry's head like a migraine.

"Wait a second," Terry said, doing his best to ignore the throbbing. "I know this. Shreeve."

"Very good, Batman," Shreeve said, finally stepping into view. His normally white and black sound suit that covered his head, upper body, and arms looked decidedly blood colored with the reflected light of the fire outside where it was not covered by shadow. In the center of his chest, the middle of his covered face, and the palms of each hand were imbedded sound generators. Each one of those could be individually adjusted by the user and either amplify or mask any sound of the wearer's choosing. On the reverse, they could also be used to amplify sound vibrations in a destructive manner as well.

"I still go by Shriek, though. But I understand. Bats have only a limited amount of memory."

"My memory is just fine," Terry said. "Especially since I remember how this always turns out."

"Times have changed, Batman," Shriek said and sent a wave of destructive sound at him. Batman leaped to the side, handspringing lightly away and fired a grapple into the ceiling, hauling him away in a different direction to hide in the shadow.

"Really?" Terry asked, stifling a cough as he inhaled some of the smoke. "Did you ever recover your hearing or are you still using that antique X-Box headset?"

Shriek didn't answer but Terry could tell he was starting to get to him. Even as Terry dropped back down to the ground, Shriek reached up to his helmet and adjusted the generator. All sound immediately stopped around them. It was total and complete silence. Terry looked around for a moment, finding it slightly disconcerting to see a building fall outside the hole in the wall in complete and utter silence. Moving as little as possible, Terry reach down to his belt and turned the center dial. Silently, his active camouflage winked on around him, rendering him all but invisible to anyone around him.

"Two can play at this game, Shriek," Terry said without moving a step. Even still, the simple sound of his voice was enough for Shriek to direct his attention solidly at him fire a wave of sound. Knowing that Shriek was looking for a specific sound, either his voice or his footsteps, Batman fired his rockets briefly to avoid the attack and fired another grapple into the ceiling. He zip lined to the other side of the building and hung there, watching Shriek struggle to find him. Out of the wrist mount on his free hand, Terry slid a batarang into his palm and hurled it at his adversary. The batarang struck home, imbedding itself into Shrieks's left most sound generator. With a silent spark and fizzle, the generator shorted out.

"Where are you," Shriek shouted, spinning around and yanking the batarang out and tossing it to the side.

"Right behind you."

Shriek turned, raising his still functioning hand to attack but an iron grip took hold and crushed it before Shriek could use it. "Oh," Shriek said as he caught the full sight of Superman before him hovering an inch above the ground.

"Give up," Superman said.

"Sure," Shriek said and reached for his helmet.

"Watch out-" Terry started to say before Shriek blasted Superman with a sound wave from his chest generator.

The blast didn't even faze the Man of Steel. Casually, Superman's heat vision blew the helmet clear off of Shreeve's head and then, just as casually, tore the generator from his chest. Shreeve whimpered as Superman tore the rest of the suit apart around him and dropped it all to the floor.

Gritting his teeth in slight irritation at having his criminal picked apart by the Man of Steel, Batman dropped to the floor from where he had still been hanging and picked up Shriek's helmet. Giving it a once over with his scanners, he adjusted the dial, returning sound back to normal around them. "I could have handled him on my own."

"I had no doubt," Superman said, tossing Shreeve lightly to the ground in front of Batman. "But every once in a while, it's nice to receive a helping hand."

Batman kneeled down and tied Shreeve up, giving Superman a traditional Batglare, even if he didn't find all that much to be upset about. "He said that he was responsible for all of this," Batman told Superman. "He hasn't told me why. Yet."

"I won't talk," Shriek said, trying and failing to sound as if he was in control of the situation.

"Can it, piper," Batman said and removed the headset that allowed the deaf man to hear.

"We'll take him back to Metro Tower," Superman said. "Maybe we can get a few answers out of him there."

"We are taking him to Commissioner Gordon," Terry responded. "We still have a job to do. His reasons can wait."

Superman frowned for a moment, then his mouth curved into a familiar smile. "Your call. This is your city, after all."

"Don't forget it," Terry said and shoulder Shreeve. "After you," he added, gesturing for Superman to lead the way.

"I've already alerted Barbara," Bruce said in his comm. "She is expecting you."

"Thanks," Terry said as Superman punched his way through the brick wall they were standing next to and took off into the sky with Terry following close. "And make sure she knows that I want to speak with him before anyone else. I think there is something more going on here."

In the Batcave, Bruce leaned back in his chair and placed his fingertips together in front of him. "Really? What makes you say that?"

"Shreeve has been known for some pretty elaborateschemes in the past but they all had to do with sound in one form or another," Terry explained. "Blowing up the Warehouse district just to get my attention is not his normal operating procedure."

"I'll let her know," Bruce said. "She won't like it, though."

"C'mon, old man," Terry said. "Didn't you and Barbara have a thing back in the cape and cowl days? Where is that charm now?"

"Let me know what she says," Bruce continued, ignoring the question completely. "Make sure you get that fire put out quickly though. If left unchecked, that fire could stretch to the Historical district."

"Got it," Terry said, and smirked slightly as both he and Superman broke the cloud of smoke and toward the largest ring of flashing lights. "I'll let you know when it's finished. Also, send my tagging info on to the others. There were civilians still inside the area, although they might have made it out on their own by now."

"I already sent the info on," Bruce said. "Warhawk is escorting the last one out now."

"Thanks," Terry said, then turned his attention to Superman. "By the way, how did you know what was happening?"

"A big explosion in Gotham City is kind of hard for us to not see," Superman answered as they both slowed down to land. "We wouldn't be much good at what we do if we missed that."

"I meant about Shriek," Terry corrected.

"Ah," Superman said. "Not to brag but I have really good hearing. The sounds that Shriek was making every time he attacked had quite a high pitch to it that was far from normal in there."

"I see," Terry said just as he landed and dumped Shriek at Commissioner Barbara Gordon's feet. "A present," Terry said, handing Shriek's headset to her as well.

"Thanks, kid," she said. "We'll take it from here."

"I want to talk to him first," Batman said, wondering if Bruce had actually spoken with Barbara or not.

"So I heard," she answered. "I'll think about it."

Batman cocked an eyebrow slightly but didn't say anything else. Just as he was about to turn and head back with Superman, Dana pushed her way up to the front next to Commissioner Gordon.

"Batman," Dana called out to him. "Terry is still out on the ship I think. He's stranded." Beside her, Barbara cocked an eyebrow back at Batman but said nothing.

"Yes, he is," Superman confirmed, looking back out at the boat and pretending to use his super vision. "I'm sorry but this situation came up that we had to handle. Terry is as safe on that ship as anywhere right now."

"Luckily, we can have a Coast Guard out that way to pick him up in a few minutes," Barbara said to which Terry sent her an emotionless stare. "You two had better get back there."

"Thank you," Dana said to the Commissioner as the two superhero's turned and left wordlessly.

"She hates me," Terry said as the two race off back to the fire. "That's the only explanation."

"Some might call it tough love," Superman said.

"Others might call it a twisted sense of humor," Bruce added.

"Would you guys mind taking it from here?" Terry asked, sounding embarrassed to have to ask. "The Commissioner just cut my hero time short for the day."

"Not a problem," Superman said. "We are almost finished anyway. You did the hard work and found out who was behind it."

"We'll find out, at any rate," Terry said. "Thanks. I owe you one. Say hi to Lois for me."

With a wave, Superman arced off to help Barda put out the last of the fire on the east side and Terry called in the Batmobile. It was not tough trick to pull a reverse of his exit from the ship earlier and he found himself climbing back on board the ship just as the lights from the Coast Guard boats could be made out individually from each other. Cursing Barbara under his breath, Terry changed back into his regular cloths and waited to be rescued.

Bat's squeaked in a pitch nearly beyond hearing in the darkened cave. From the echoes of the squeaks, the cave itself was large if not entirely open space. Stalagmites and stalactites crisscrossed each other like the teeth a ferocious carnivore lying motionless in wait for its prey. Nothing else in the cave moved, not that there was much to see them if they did, except for a single figure. His footsteps were completely silent on the stone ground beneath him that came of many years of practice. Never once did the man run into any obstacles on his way through as he headed for the only source of light for miles.

A cone of silver moonlight shown through a small hole many feet up and bathed a still figure in its illumination. Long dark hair covered the man's face and helped to shadow his impressive naked upper body. Even still, several small scars could be seen trying to heal across his chest and back from years of brutal training and discipline.

The man in the shadows came to a stop behind the man and several yards back, remaining completely hidden in the darkness that was his ally. "Our enemy has made his first bold move," the man said, his voice as cold and the dank cave around him. "The storm once again approaches. Are you prepared to fulfill your roll on this stage?"

The man in the moonlight finally moved, his movement looking stiff as if he had been there for hours waiting for this moment. He turned to face the man in the shadows while his right hand played casually with a ring on the middle finger of his left hand. "Most certainly," the voice said, as cold as his masters. "Let us begin, Master Slade."

To be continued…

Hello there ladies and gentlemen!

Before I get too many razzes, yes, Slade is back. There are reason and this is not just a recycling of Series One.

Who could this mysterious figure be? And what is this person's purpose and abilities?

So many questions that I guess you will have to just keep reading to uncover. :-)

Make sure to leave reviews if you can! Much appreciated.

The Dark Prince