Hey everybody! Sorry it took me so long to update. I'm trying to be as consistent as possible amongst all this craziness. Anyways, I know some of you guys have been wondering the technical side to Brainiac's return, well i've tried to explain that all in this chapter. Don't worry, its going to start getting GOOD (as in action-y) again. Oh, and in case you all havent read my latest update on my profile LibraDiva83 has a Terry/Max vampire fic up and going called "Bite of Life" and she has given me permission to do my own alternate version of her story...in other words: how'd you guys like to see Max become a vampire? XD anyways, please R&R - that wonderful new character i told my facebook group members about will be coming VERY soon! :) Enjoy

ps: if there are any grammatical errors please forgive them/me. i was trying to get this up ASAP


Batman Beyond: The Hunted

Unlimited Eternity

What Lies Behind part II: Ignition

Terrence awakens the next morning and stares in wonder at the sight of his beloved wife lying beside him with the most peaceful and serene look on her delicate face as the sunlight shines through the void of space and into the room upon them in an angelic-like glow. Being back with Max now seemed surreal and incredibly impossible; and yet here they were, she was still as stunning as she had been as a child, in high school, the day they married. What once seemed unattainable and forever lost was in his grasp once more. McGinnis presses his lips gently against the side of Max's forehead, stirring her from sleep. Those dazzling honey mustard irises open slowly and lay gaze on the man sitting up and looking down at her.

So…there was an incredibly hot guy staring at her, she was naked, and the urge to pounce on him and blow his mind with the climatic passion that laid within from the past and at the heart of their reunion was starting to take its hold. So… "Terry?"

His palm caresses her cheek. "The one and only. Missed me?"

Missed him? Did the moon need the sun to illuminate the night sky? So, last night wasn't a dream after all. A screen lowers from the ceiling and Batman's face immediately flares on the television, causing Max to pull the covers up over her body in blinding speed to shield her naked frame. "Damnit Batman," she yells muffled beneath the sheets, "this isn't some mission. Pervert!"

"Relax," Batman states in a forced emotionless tone, trying to fight a smile. "The cameras are equipped with a special viewing system. Right now you can see me, but I cant see you. Figured you'd need the…privacy."

Terry scowls, not at all liking his father's sudden change in tone. Okay, there was definitely something going on. He didn't expect Max to stay sexually faithful to him, but there were certain lines that did not need to be crossed. "What do you want?"

Batman's eyes narrow significantly at the aggression spewing from the boy of the future. So, Terrence was feeling threatened, was he? He must have noticed it: Bruce's jealousy. Max peeks over the covers and stiffens at both bats staring at one another. It felt like they were going to go at each other through the screen any minute and she didn't like the tension. "Bru, er, Batman – what's up?"

"Whenever you're free the founders would like to talk to you and the boy. The more information we can get on this Brainiac attack the better chance we might be able to secure a way of stopping him." The screen turns off and the television folds neatly back up into the ceiling. Terry mutters obscenities, causing Max to raise a brow in confusion. But they couldn't just stand there and talk. If Batman said to report whenever they were free that generally meant "right now", and she didn't feel like arguing with anybody after such a wonderful night.

"C'mon hero," Max giggles, leaping off the bed and treading towards the bathroom. "We've got business."

Terry shakes his head and sighs. "Really? After a night like that you just wanna haul off? Do you do everything Bruce says?"

Max raises her other eyebrow and stops in the doorway. "Touchy. Look, all im saying is this: this is the big leagues, and I may like it here but I still want to save our future. Besides, I thought we could take a shower together." Her brows narrow seductively, gaining her husband's immediate attention. She bites her lip and steps inside the door, McGinnis not far behind her.

**** "Calm down Flash, you act like it's your first time being dumped." Hawkgirl folds her arms across her chest, leaning against the wall of the Founder's meeting room. Flash had been pacing and frowning ever since yesterday. She felt his pain but still, it was incredibly annoying the hell out of the Thanagarian.

"Shut up Shayera," the speedster growls under his breath – foolish idea; Shayera sits up from the wall angrily.

Superman lands between them. "Enough, both of you. You should be happy for Saber if not anything else. She's endured more pain than all of us in certain circumstances – this happiness should be praised by us, her companions, her friends." Flash smacks his lips in agitation and looks off in another direction. The door opens and in steps Saber and Blacknight, donned in their heroic attire and holding hands.

"Sorry we're late," Saber apologies.

"At least you arrived…eventually," Batman scoffs, earning a growl from Blacknight of agitation.

Saber rolls her eyes. "Oh lay off it Bruce. Can we get this meeting started or what?"

The league members sit around the round table conversing for hours on the horrific details of the occurrences in the future. Brainiac was a tyrant destroying everything in his path. The civilians were doing everything in their power to stop Brainiac's assault – to no avail. All levels of armed forces and modern warfare across the globe seemed merely to fail; even if they could manage to halt the attacks briefly. The only hope that lay within the planet's salvation was the Justice League…but even earth's mightiest heroes appeared to be no match for the improved weaponry and technological advancements of Brainiac. Each day the battle grew worse and more deadly. It had gotten so bad that Superman immediately ordered for Batman to be sent back to the past to assist the old leaguers in stopping the mechanical villains' advance permanently. He would even, if things did not improve, send yet another leaguer back after some time. For now the Justice League was holding their enemy back and the war was at a stalemate. But too much time could not go on…not if they wanted to survive.

"But that's not all," Blacknight states after some debate. His tone held a mixture of worry as well as positive chance. "We were able to learn how the majority of all this chaos started."

Green Lantern gasps, "Really?"

Manhunter cocks his head slightly. "Such information could prove positive to our cause, if not given too late that is. Time truly is of the essence."

Blacknight nods and pulls an old and rusted beyond use disk. Though the shape of it was out of date in his time, it was modern to the Justice League. "We managed to raid one of the facilities where Brainiac's – er – programming was residing. With it were countless logs and instructions; the information we gathered appeared to possess a mixture of both science and sorcery. And in your time there was only one group of people with the combination of both: the Injustice League."

The founders whisper amongst themselves as the hero from the future continues on with his message. "Encrypted on much of the data we recovered was a certain emblem: the logo of Lex Corp. Lex Luthor, Gorilla Grodd, even Ra's al Ghul and an assortment of other villians worked together to bring this about. Though I doubt they had any true idea of what they were getting themselves into. We can account for a vast majority of them save a few like Vandal Savage, who somehow disappeared in history around the time this took place. Taking down the different Cadmus facilities was just the beginning of it – seeing as how Cadmus pretty much had every damn thing they needed."

Wonder Woman leans forward on the table and questions with awed wonder, "But why would they go this far? As desperate as the Injustice League or whatever they call themselves may be, they put quite a lot of effort into this one mission – don't they know the possibility of it turning against them is a hundred to one?"

"Power," explains Saber with a stretch to relieve the tension, "though highly desirable, often lacks conscious. There could be a possibility that the idiots are so high on becoming powerful that they can't even see what's unfolding."

"Well," says her husband, cutting her off, "there is one who isn't entirely agreeing with this whole plan." Blacknight touches a sensitive pad on the desk as a see through screen materializes above. He types in some keys and an image of a woman wearing a seductive green outfit lights up the room. "Her name is Cheshire: she works for the 'Shadows' and mainly Ra's al Ghul; but right now her employer is Lex Luthor. She's a highly skilled assassin; records prove she's a formidable foe even for the league. I'd say she'd even be a problem for Batman to take on. It's through her that the blackout amongst JLU systems and such has occurred. Cheshire is one kitty cat to be concerned about."

Saber lets out an aggravated hiss in objection. Blacknight chuckles, "Sorry love. Anyways, these discs," he motions for the rusted evidence sitting on the table, "were what the enemy was after. There were multiple items, seven to be exact. Seven discs, seven Cadmus facilities attacked? Are the pieces tying together now?"

Batman observes some information on his personal computer, compiling it all together to try and gain a better understanding. "So just what," the Dark Knight demands, "is the purpose of these discs?"

Blacknight passes out some documents to the founders. "If you read over this information you'll see that ever since the first Brainiac encounter when Cadmus was up and running, the government had been keeping a very close eye on things. After Brainiac was initially defeated Cadmus immediately went in, taking whatever bits of data they could scrape up. Needless to say the mechanical organism intrigued them, especially since earth's heroes were growing more defined and powerful as individuals – which they feared though hoped would turn into a corporate thing, which it did. Cadmus kind of understood how dangerous the technology was – so they separated pieces of Brainiac's software, data, whatever the hell you wanna call it, onto different discs: spreading them out to isolated facilities. The one thing Cadmus didn't know was that as long as they kept researching the inner data of Brainiac they were keeping him alive – and the longer they did it the stronger he became."

"The Injustice League came to understand this, so they decided to make a move. In each disc is a specific code that unlocks a certain level of potential within Brainiac. Once the codes are combined they will have made the first step to Brainiac's full recovery. He will be alive and thriving in the technological sense, learning, growing until he has enough power to reconstruct a body."

"So," Flash counters, "basically we just destroy these discs and call it a day."

"But it's not that simple. The software is so advanced it can't all just be loaded at once on some basic computer. There's a certain system that can resurrect Brainiac – but even that can't all be done at the same location. The system consists of a specific program that's spread across the country used by different companies that range from simple to military. The Injustice League will have to spread out and download all seven discs at the same exact time. Once it's connected to the same online channel then electric transmitters will shoot out across the World Wide Web – and through the Internet our little computerized dreg will gain all the power he can and even come about faster. It's marked in history as 'The Great Crash' – because once Brainiac goes online the world will be without internet for twenty-four hours – countries will blame each other for cybernetic terrorism and the world will be on the brink of a great war. Vast knowledge will be lost for quite some time. Basically, shit gets real."

The explanation sits amongst everyone in the room; now they had a better grasp on what was happening, what would happen should they fail the mission. From what Terry had told them the future was a dark place, and even though they personally (save Bruce) wouldn't be alive to see it being heroes meant doing whatever possible – even fighting the unseen – to ensure the safety and continuation of mankind. They wouldn't be heroes if they simply ignored that.

Superman nods and folds his arms in a defiance of the world ending. "And tell me, do you know when all this is supposed to take place?"

Blacknight pauses, unsure at first before biting on his lip. "Well after Bruce analyzed everything he said it all will take place on May…um, May 19 around 5 pm eastern standard time. It'll take place across the U.S." The room grows immediately silent as Blacknight looks around nervously. "What?"

Saber rises from her chair and her arms quiver uncontrollably so to the point that her husband embraces her frame with worry. "Today," she whispers.

"What? What's wrong? Saber?"

Batman narrows his brows. "Look at the date on the computer screen, kid."

Blacknight does as instructed and nearly keels over in disbelief. On the screen, underneath the pictures of Cheshire, Luthor, and others, there was the time and date. It read: 1:37:09 pm….May 19…Today…it was today…the day when the end of the world would begin.

To Be Continued…