Batman Beyond 'Fan Fiction Story'
By Tayla Drago
Episode# 10 – Disappearing Inque
Out at Gotham Cryogenics, a disgruntled employee, Aaron Herbst, walks in on Inque, trapped in a block of ice. He starts talking to Inque about his problems, including that he's been turned down for a raise, but then gets a call that his boss wants to see him. Just for luck, he kisses the ice holding Inque. However, his boss tells him that cameras have been monitoring his 'conversations' with Inque, and he's being fired. In revenge, Aaron cuts off the power to Inque's cell, allowing the ice to melt and freeing her. Oh, now he's done it. He's in love with this criminal! Being shown around the displays in the Batcave, Terry and Gwen were admiring an exosuit on display next to the costumes, and asks about it.
"Look at this one, Terry. Amazing..." Gwen likes it. "Wow, Uncle Bruce, who knew you and Megan made these things a while back."
Then Terry goes up to a armor-like Batman suit.
"What does this one do?" he touches it to make it move to trying to grab Terry and missed.
Bruce says he built it when he first started losing his strength and endurance to old age—the suit greatly increases both, but he soon realized that using it put too great a strain on his heart.
"Careful." said Bruce. "Its an exosuit. To move how you do it ten times stronger. For me to you use over the years as I gotten older, it strain my heart."
So that's why, it's too powerful to use. But what if Gwen or Terry used it?
"Sorry to hear, Uncle Bruce. It must've been hard."
"A lot of things you showed me in the last few months to be touring..." said Terry to tell Bruce this next part. "Someday you're going to tell me the real reason why you stopped being Batman."
"(When the time comes, Terry, be patient. Look at Gweny here, she is with her family like a good girl.)" said Gwen's inner self.
She's right, for all of the distraction's been hard to have a grand tour at the Batcave to still have a look around from time to time.
"We get it...Terry, please understand that we will see more in here." soon they hear an emergency crime alarm. "As soon as we stop other bad guys."
An alarm goes off alerting both men to Inque's escape, and a news report shows that she is holding employees at the cryogenics plant hostage.
"Inque..." said Bruce.
"(Not her again!)"
"The last time we fought against her, Terry..." Gwen remembers Inque's weakness. "She hates water and ice. And some to slow down from my fire if its really hot."
Remembering their last confrontation, both Gwen and Terry suit up and takes along Mr. Freeze's cold gun.
"Good thinking, Gwen." he said.
"Just in case." and Bruce.
As Gwen transforms to get suited up herself...
"Right...Burning Passion! Batwoman!"
...They were all set to move out. As Inque releases the hostages but Batman and Batwoman notice that one of the officers is wearing a black coat.
"Its on the officer's body. Inque's disguising herself as a heavy black coat!" Batwoman points out. "Let's get her, Batman...She's going down this time!"
Deducing that this coat is actually Inque for those to attack at her.
"I'm back." she said. "Do you two miss me? How sweet."
However, the police start to fire on Batwoman, Inque, and Batman.
"(Wait, stop! You got the wrong idea!)" Gwen couldn't do anything to stop them.
And what's worse, Inque manages to destroy Mr. Freeze's gun, to try hurting Batwoman a lot to make her get mad, and then she escapes.
"Batwoman, we can still find her if we follow the other drains to lead to the next area and-!" Terry/Batman stop to see Batwoman to look very mad. "Ah, Batwoman...?"
She uses some fire to punch and kick the streets grounds a lot in rage.
"That son of a...! When I get my hands on Inque for making me look like a fool and have the police barely killing us, she's good as play-doh dead!" she flies on to the next area.
"(Sorry, Batman, she rarely does this when a villain messes with my inner self badly to take the anger on her.)"
Good thing Gwen told Terry/Batman to follow the trail to stop Inque for good.
"Thanks for the heads up." he said.
It'll get worse since Inque knows about the Batcave entrance, to be ready for her return...In his apartment, Aaron watches a newscast about Inque's escape and chuckles. Inque also arrives, and as they talk, Aaron is surprised to learn that she's been able to see and hear him during her imprisonment. Aaron is initially embarrassed about going on and on about his problems, but Inque says she won't tell anyone if he helps her. Aaron eagerly says he'll do anything for her.
"Maybe you'd like to wash up, then?" Aaron offers to Inque.
Ah, yeah...she hates water a lot.
"No thanks."
"You know, you were in that storm drain for a pretty long time and…"
Inque tries to be clear with Aaron to get through his head about her ice and water to not mix so well.
"I don't like water, OK!?" she said.
Meanwhile, as Terry reinforces the Batcave's stone superstructure with Plasti Steel, Bruce analyzes a sample of Inque's bio-residue and discovers that her human DNA has been damaged to the point of preventing her assuming of human form, probably from being frozen, and that this was the reason she posed as a black overcoat in her escape earlier.
"So either way...we need to not only seal this place up when Inque comes back, but to find a way to stop her." said Gwen. "And enough to get the rage out before..." she practices firing a lot of her fire powers. "I just hope she doesn't come back to have all three of us killed."
"We'll find a way to solve this somehow." Terry added. "Gwen, when you're done, double check on the doors for me."
She tries to finish to do so for Terry's sake.
"Okay."
"(Hold it!)" Gwen's inner self speaks up next. "(It will work, right? The whole door steal thing?)"
"She can huff and puff all she wants but she's not going to blow this place down." said Terry.
Nice joke there...
"(Terry! This isn't the Three Little Pigs!)"
From that and Bruce telling Terry and Gwen about Inque was unable to go back to her human form was because she was frozen up for quite sometime 'and for Megan to give out some information'.
"Back at the cryogenics place, weren't you wondering why Inque didn't morph into her human form and just walk out with the other workers?" Bruce questions Terry.
"That would make perfect sense." said Gwen.
Gwen knew, but a little for Terry to know from some of it.
"Uh, yeah! ...Sort of..." he makes it up.
As Terry realizes that there wouldn't be many doctors or labs available that could provide what she needs, Bruce gives him a list of such places, a special electrified batarang in lieu of the loss of the freeze gun and sends him and Gwen/Batwoman out.
"(I new weapon of electrical Batarang.)" surprised inner Gwen. "(Due tell...)"
A new weapon for the two, and they were ready to stop Inque this time. That night, Inque and Aaron break into a chemical lab and steal the chemicals she needs. Before they can leave, Aaron asks for his reward: to be mutated into a shape-shifter like her. Inque agrees, but before she can make good on her promise, Batman and Batwoman arrive. Inque attacks them and manages to dodge their special batarangs, leaving Batman with nothing left.
"How did I miss?"
"Too slow, I guess." Inque answers back to Batman and attacks him.
Batwoman 'now made to get some pay back' continues to fights with Inque but she easily gains the upper hand.
"Oh, right. I almost forgotten about you." Inque dodges Batwoman's fire attacks. "This again? Its nothing."
Batwoman won't be backing down to the likes of her enemy.
"(She's fast!)"
"Not as fast than I am in heat of rage!" she punches and kicks really hard. "Hold still, you witch!"
With Inque tying up Batwoman, to move over to try drowning Batman again.
"No, you hold still and I'll kill Batman if you try anything funny. How does that sound?"
Not this irty trick again!
"(Batman! Fight back!)" said the worried Gwen. "(Do something!)"
However, after a failed attempt to drown him in her body, Inque is forced to release Batman when he activates his thrusts and Batwoman to use one spark to step her off to explode and saving her partner's life, breaking free long enough to grab the electric batarang.
"Man, that felt good..." said Batwoman. "Hey, Inque, you just got burned."
Inque is downed, but Aaron beats Batman and knocks him out with an industrial haptic feedback robotic arm to try Batwoman and saves Inque.
"Stay away from her!" he said.
"(What are you doing?)" asked Gwen. "(Can't you see she's only using you get what she wants?)"
Inque wants Batman and Batwoman dead, but decides to wait until she can get 'the old one too'. Gwen overhears this to try to melt the metal arm to break free and helps out Terry/Batman next to go after Inque to save Bruce.
"Crap!" angered Batwoman. "We have to warn Bruce about this witch and sucker of the dangers he's in."
However, Megan arrives to help out Batman for him and Gwen/Batwoman to get back to the Batcave in time, or something even better.
"Don't worry, I called up Bruce, he wants to come." she said. "Now help me get Terry back up, Gwen."
Good to know to have more backup by Terry and Gwen's side. And for Batwoman to do what she must to help Gwen let out her stress, was all fine by them. Looks like a rescue mission must be done.
"We'll help you, Megan, anything to get back at Inque somehow."
Inque and Aaron go to an abandoned sporting arena and Inque drinks the mutagen, healing herself. Meanwhile, restrained to a post of the center ring with chain, Batman has contacted Bruce and reveals information of where he has been taken. They continue to talk until Batman stops, causing Bruce to become worried. Inque has approached Batman and hears Bruce calling out to him through the communicator, discovering it's the old man from before Inque demands Batman to reveal their location, but he refuses to speak.
"No matter, you show up or Batman dies." she said. "As for Batwoman, she's next on my list. She's can run in this place, but she can't run away from me."
Seeing that Batman refuses to talk, Inque instead reveals to Bruce they are at the Gotham Hills Arena and warns him to come alone or she threatens to kill Batman. As Gwen/Batwoman and Megan arrives to spy on them until it was the right time to save Terry/Batman's life.
"Now he'll show up soon." said Megan.
Wen hopes to save her friend in time and her uncle would be unharmed in this type of mess.
"(Uncle Bruce, please be careful. And Terry, we'll get you out of here. I promise.)" she said.
Batman warns Bruce not to come, trying to reveal she would kill them, until he is prevented from revealing anymore information by Inque who forcibly kisses him. Leaving the other girls to be grossed out.
"Ah, yuck!" said Batwoman.
After the transmission she wonders who the old man is but drops the subject as she will soon find out and leaves. Aaron follows her once again demands his reward, and Inque injects him with the mutagen. Seeing the horrors next for Megan, Gwen, and her other half were too late to save Aaron to seal his own fate. Yep, I knew this would happen.
"(Megan, is he...)" Gwen was horrified to watch. "(That's horrible!)"
"Any man to fall for someone like her, would meet their end the painful way." she said. "And alas, he did."
Bruce arrives at the Arena wearing a trench coat that seems unusually bulky on him, along with a hat, scarf, and sunglasses to conceal his face. As he walks through, he sees Aaron, who is now a shapeless, unstable blob: Aaron mumbles that Inque only gave him half the treatment—robbing him of his cohesion, but leaving him unable to shape-shift like her. There is nothing Bruce can do for him. Looking past him, Bruce sees what looks like Terry, free, and comes closer. Only to hear Batwoman's voice.
"You got away?" Bruce asks him.
"Old man, get away! Its a trap!" she said.
However, this Batman is actually Inque in disguise.
"He didn't get away...and neither will you."
As Terry watches, Inque snares Bruce with her arm, then begins twisting it to slowly crush him to death. Soon, Megan arrives to electrocute Inque long enough to activate something for her husband.
"Don't you dare touch my husband!" angered Megan.
"Old couples in love? How sweet." she said. "What are you going to do, bored me with words?"
She came prepare for Bruce to be smirking.
"Not even close. (Do it, Bruce.)"
Then, armor plates snap shut over Bruce's body, and he bursts out of the trench coat. Alright! Terry is horrified to see that Bruce has donned the exosuit to fight Inque, despite the risk to his heart. In the armor, Bruce manages to send Inque flying into the far wall, but she attacks with a vengeance and throws him to the ground. And then Batwoman jumps in.
"Ever heard of respecting your elders?!" she uses her fire to stop Inque.
But going through it to have both Megan and Batwoman all tied up like a type of spider's web of her goop.
"And you ever heard of shutting up, lady?" Inque said back.
As she advances, preparing to kill Bruce, Aaron crawls between them, moaning...
"You promised...you promised!"
And she sneers...
"Loser!"
And Inque tries to swat him aside, but Aaron with Batwoman's help to use Megan's baton to heat things up a little.
"Hey, Inque, I got a little love poem for the two of you..." she says it to break free from the web goop. "Roses are red, violence or blue, slime and goop for this dude, and more coming on to you!"
They soon enraged that he gave up everything for nothing, wraps his shapeless body around her. As she struggles to get free, she accidentally knocks down the center ring, allowing Batman to free himself and Batwoman helping him out with the rest.
"(Batman, please save him!)" Gwen beg of her friend.
"We both will." he said. "We won't let his life end up like this."
As she throws Aaron aside and advances on Bruce again, Terry throws a batarang at the glass ceiling and Batwoman's fire blast to having her fire up Batarangs due the rest, and smashing it and letting in the rain.
"Let it rain!" said Batwoman.
Inque begins to melt away. She lurches desperately towards the flask containing the remaining mutagen, but falls short and dissolves away into the drains. Megan makes a call to put a wanted poster for Inque in case she does come back for more.
"I got this, she won't be going anywhere else now in that condition she's in."
This made Batwoman happy to be dancing after a victory and another job well done.
"Ha! Yes, in your face, Inque!" she flies around the room. "I made it rain, made it rain, made it rain on that goop lady!"
With luck for Terry and Gwen check on Bruce's condition next...
"(Uncle Bruce?)" Gwen was worried.
For Bruce to pull his arm out of the grounds to having the helmet on...Bruce was okay.
"Oh, Bruce."
Both Megan and Bruce embrace with each other. A little heart attack he just had, but he'll live to take a bullet for Terry, Gwen, and Megan against Inque.
"Now do you believe me about why I retired?" Bruce asks Terry.
"Not entirely, but tonight, I'm glad you didn't stay retired." he said.
I think he knows about it so far, leaving Gwen to hug her step-uncle.
"We're just glad you're okay, Uncle Bruce."
"Sorry to worry you, Gwen." he said to seeing the drained out Inque in her defeated once again. "Poor subdivide fool she was."
And there was one good thing about this whole mess...
"And I manage to give her a piece of my mind!" said Batwoman.
"(I'm just glad you're okay, Terry.)" Gwen said to him.
Terry getting the goop gently out of Gwen's hair, they were both happy to be going out of that mess to winning afterwards.
"Same here." said Terry. "And for that Aaron person, I feel bad for not having the love for Inque to be used and turned into her, only a lot sadder." he then looks at Gwen. "(Not like how I feel about Gwen the most.)"
Another victory it was for Batman and Batwoman with some help. In the last scene, Aaron has been recovered and thanks to Inque's deciet is rendered an invalid. With no hard tissues, he has no substantial locomotion and is kept in a simplified glass enclosure with a blanket, and can only eat liquid foods fed to him through a funnel. Now he is the one trapped with an annoying and cheery attendant, who tells him about all her problems and is likewise unaware that she too is being monitored, to prevent her from going down the same path as Aaron.