Batman: The Animated Series 'Fan Fiction Love Story'
By Tayla Drago
Episode # 21 – The Clock King
On a Gotham City subway, attorney-at-law Hamilton Hill sits next to Temple Fugate, a businessman typing intently on a laptop computer.
"Good morning, Hill." said Fugate.
"Oh!" Hill notice Fugate to sit on the same train he goes on. "Good morning, um..."
Fugate knows from every time line every day to tell the soon to be mayor of Gotham all about it. He was that good, a bit too good at it of a type of timing OCD of his.
"Fugate. Temple Fugate." he said. "I should think you remember the name by now, councilor. We've only been taking the same train every day for one year, seven months and thirteen days."
"Oh right! The efficiency expert."
Hill notices how tense he is, and Fugate stiffly informs him that he is preparing to appear in court to appeal against a multi-million-dollar verdict against his company. Hill asks if Fugate at least takes a coffee break. When Fugate says that he does, at precisely 3:00, Hill suggests that he shake up his routine a bit and 'take it at three-fifteen', the better to appear more relaxed in court. So picky to his own co-workers.
"I needed those five minutes ago." Fugate takes the files.
"I'm sorry, sir, but..."
At least go easy on the boy, dude…
"Thirty-seven pages? That would take a copier exactly one minute and forty-nine seconds. One more delay like this and you're fired!"
Yeah…Again, very picky through his daily time thing. After returning to his office, Fugate considers this advice, and, to the utter astonishment of his secretary, asks her to put his coffee in a thermos. Fugate takes his coffee to a park, but just when he begins to relax, disaster strikes: he is hit by a stray ball from some children, and his papers are scattered everywhere by the wind. In his scramble to pick them up again, a dog barks and startles him, making him fall into a fountain. He arrives late to the courthouse, and the judge rules that since Fugate failed to appear, the verdict will stand in default. When Fugate protests that his company will be ruined, the judge advises 'then perhaps this will teach you to be on time for a change'.
"Due to his failure to appear, this court finds your client in default. Judgement stands at twenty-million dollars."
Now the judge tells Fugate that.
"No! You can't!" Fugate begged the judge. "I'll be ruined!"
"Then perhaps this will teach you to be on time for a change."
As his lawyer shrugs, apologetically and leaves, Fugate screams like a madman at the financial ruin of his career...
"Aaaahhhhhh!" he screams.
Seven years later at 8:57 AM, Hill is mayor of Gotham, running for re-election. Yet again for Megan to hang around to see that Mayor Hill is well protected to be paid for it.
"(Sometimes I wonder why I get stuck in this mess while still getting paid.)" Megan asks herself. "(Whatever…The sooner this day's done, the better.) Re-election this mayor to run Gotham once again, people. Yeah, yeah…" she was being silly to be saying that with the flag up.
On his way to a fundraiser, his limousine is stopped when traffic lights begin malfunctioning, creating several crashes and a major gridlock. Seems that both Bruce and Alfred know of Megan's little helping job to see what was going on. For the others go crazy from here to there.
"What's going on?"
"Watch where you're going!"
"Hey! Hey!" Megan clams everyone down. "It's no one's fault nor Alfred's either, Mr. Taxi Driver."
Bruce then says something from the car.
"Those two are right. Look." he shows them of the traffic lights were going crazy on and off. "The traffic lights are malfunctioning."
Megan sees that someone hacked into the system to do just that for Megan to track down on her own to controlling them 'with her computer book' after that.
"So weird… (Doing something like this would take someone with a lot of skills like mine and timing.)"
Mayor Hill was confused on what was going on right now.
"What the devil?"
As several motorists start blaming Hill.
"There's your problem! Down with Mayor Hill!" one bystander said. "Nothing works in this city no more because of him."
Oh, boy…Looks like the people are turning against the mayor now because of this unknown mess, even Megan sees that he was innocent.
"Wait! Mayor Hill's to blame?" she questions the people. "Sure, he's a jerk to Batman and I get paid to help him out, but him as a bad person…? No one's perfect you know!"
Mayor Hill tries to keep his cool.
"It's nice for you to support me, Ms. Tsuki, but please…" he said quietly. "Me hating someone…? I'm just saying my point of view about Batman is all, I don't hate him to the bone."
"Just pointing out the truth, a little."
Megan was 'kind of right' for Alfred and Bruce sees that Mayor Hill might be in big trouble. Just then, someone unknown on a rooftop above releases a poster of Hill's campaign, graffiti to make him look like a devil, sending the populace into uncontrollable laughter. Megan was laughing a little to stop after that.
"Another nonsense of messing with my message to the people?" questioned the Mayor. "Is this someone's idea of a joke?!"
Alfred knew that this was Megan's chance to make a call to Bruce privately.
"Ms. Megan, you have a phone call in your other bag."
Good call for him for her to do just that.
"Hey, Bruce, you know what to do." she said to him on the headphones of hers to contacting Bruce close by, but quietly in front of everyone else. "Both you and I know that Mayor Hill's annoying to be taught a lesson and still protecting him I guess."
"I'll be right there."
Bruce Wayne, who happened to be driving ahead of Hill's limousine, makes a quick costume change as Batman and flies up to the roof of the building for Megan joins with him.
"Sorry, Mayor! Got to solve this problem for you with Batman's help whether you like him or not!" she takes off for he has no other choice now to try winning again with any luck.
"Ms. Tsuki-! Oh, just take care of this mess please. And protect me too…"
Where they see Fugate, now styling himself 'The Clock King'.
"Hold it!" said Batman.
"Don't move!" Megan gets her gun out.
"Well, well, the Batman. And his sidekick, Megan Tsuki the bounty hunter, I take it? It's about time you two showed up." said the strange man. "I suppose either one of you are wondering why I put the city in a stand still right now. Well, let just say that I'm a special citizen type of human being with some time on his hands."
He throws a watch at them for Megan gets something from her watch showing that it was a bomb.
"Look out, Batman!" she warns him in time.
For him to move away and Megan to use a net to hit the watch in the air to go off in time. A close call.
"How did you know it was a bomb, Megan?"
"Do you think besides looking it up in x-ray vision from my watch, and for a man to throw away something very rare? I thought about it really." she answers.
Soon Temple Fugate tries walking away to make his escape to say this to them.
"Not bad, young lady. You're timing's perfect. As you two will be something for me to beat first to get back at the mayor, for I am the Clock King."
Odd name for a villain like him, huh? Even for Megan.
"Clock King? What kind of super villain name is that?"
When Batman and Megan both corner him from leaving, they demand some answers.
"I want some answers, wise guy." demanded Batman. "Talk!"
And Megan had her gun out and ready to be pointing it at Fugate.
"No kidding!"
From looking scared and now acting all calm again, what was up with Fugate? Didn't look good at all from a time keeper type of person he was.
"A pity, I don't know what to tell you two, Batman. Megan." he said to them. "Except perhaps that the 9:15 is always six minutes early." he falls off the building and lands safely on the roof of an oncoming train as it speeds away.
"He really jumped." surprised Megan. "Well, Bruce, how do we stop someone like him with brains and his little toys of clocks? Well?"
No kidding! Batman investigates the control center for the city's traffic lights, and finds the remains of a time bomb there, including a highly expensive Metronex pocket watch that was used as the detonator. Thanks to Alfred's driving him and Megan, they think through on this whole mess.
"If the creep with the clocks did mess with the traffic lights, he had to come here to do it."
Megan sees it for herself to pinpoint it out like a tracking device of her from the computer book.
"That's where my program is getting at knowing that Clock King has that skill in doing so, well I can do better."
"It's still illegal for anyone to do it, Megan." Bruce said to her.
"Hey, come on now. I have the rights to hack into anything thanks to Gordon's permission." she said. "What? You're teasing me about it after what that Clock King dude did this morning?"
With Megan was acting silly to Bruce, he smiles at her. Cute. As Batman and she uses their Bat Grappler to a ribbon to climb up top, while Alfred waits for them where no one else can see the car.
"You could say that." Bruce then keeps Alfred to stay put. "Wait here, Alfred."
"My pleasure, you two. This is one of the finest back alleys in all of Gotham." Alfred stares down at a rat on the car's hood.
Batman runs the watch's serial number and Megan hacking through the system, and finds Fugate's name.
"I think we got something here, Bruce." Megan looks it up. "So weird…"
"What kind of saboteur uses a $6,000 Metronex to trigger a time bomb?"
Good question on that part, Bruce/Batman. For he and Megan get another ride from Alfred to their next location on where Fugate was at with the blow-up bomb in their hands, as a clue so far since it went off inside of the building from the looks of it.
"A saboteur with too much money?" question Alfred.
"A waste of money…" Megan added.
"Then someone with no life?" Alfred took a guess on that part.
But still, how can both Batman and Megan find the answers they needed about Fugate? Megan thought about something on her end…
"Does some places have address left out?"
"Yes." answer Batman too look it up from the car to have a computer. "Some jewelry places have address left at the clock company as well. Let see what the police data base turns up…"
As Batman types in, Megan gives him a hand to hack into it too just in case.
"Let see here…Gotham Police Database – Time tech watch and jewelry. Sale No. 406925-Date-I. Credit card no. 90382371. And…" Megan has got something to search on. "Got it!'
The two looked at the name of the true person being Clock King.
"Nice work, Megan." said Bruce. "Temple Fugate. 362 Brave Vongole. You have it down?"
Megan had it to type down and pinpoint the location into Alfred's computer screen of a GPS type of address finder.
"Already on it, Bruce. And Alfred, you know what to do." she said.
"Then let's go."
Entering in…a weird looking area that Fugate lives in for the other three to be seeing this.
"It appears that Mr. Fugate use to live…in a very strange area like this one here." said Alfred.
Investigating Fugate address, Batman and Megan seeing an old building of his already tore down and long out of business.
"A Watch Company…" Megan looks at it. "Oh, yeah…I heard about this place. Very good making clocks all over Gotham for this Temple Fugate guy use to run, until he was late for a court meeting to be in trouble by someone. Because of him losing the paper work for some reason, he loss the case and the company to lose his job in the end. All because he was late…? Well, it's a shame but there's nothing that anyone can do because of it." she then sees something underneath the sign. "Stairs?"
Batman lifts the sign off there for him and Megan to see it.
"It could be our only lead." he said.
Soon the two find the place an empty except for a multitude of clocks. Examining Fugate's papers, Batman finds data on the city's power and water networks for Megan to continue to hack into as well, but the most data are on the city's clock tower.
"Our only lead so far, Bruce. Look at this." she sees the paper work. "Why does Fugate hate Mayor Hill so much? That's another big mystery to be solved next." listening to the police band… "Lots of things to be going on in Gotham lately…From the sound of things on the radio both Alfred and I are getting here." said Megan.
Well, Bruce wanted to know about Fugate having the works about the city clock tower that the man had the most.
"What is it about a particular clock tower? He's got more data on it than anything else in the city."
Alfred then hears of a small blackout localized to a block where the Gotham Mutual bank's main branch is located. For Megan pinpoints the location right away.
"The Gotham Branch?" she asks.
"It seems like it from what I'm picking up here." Alfred answered back. "Must be turning off the power to unlock the bank vault."
"It's a timing code to get hack from it…" Batman tries to guess.
And from there…the three say it together on who was behind that mess.
"Fugate!"
Told you so. Suspecting Fugate, Batman and Megan go to investigate from that bank area right away. For once they got in the building, there were a lot of people on the floor a sleep from the gas spreading, as those two were wearing masks on their faces to have another look around. But it is a trap: as soon as he enters the vault, the door slams shut behind them, and a machine on the floor begins humming. Megan couldn't hack through the vault for her computer book wasn't working.
"What?" she kept on trying with no luck. "Batman, I can't hack through the vault to get us out of here. I think this was a trap!"
She was right, they were. As a tape recorder on top of it plays a message from Fugate, explaining that the machine is a vacuum pump that is slowly removing all the oxygen from inside the vault.
"Sorry I couldn't have been with you two in person, Batman and Megan, but I have a train to catch. This box contains a high-speed vacuum pump. I know you've got all kinds of gas masks, so I'm putting you two out of my misery by simply removing all the oxygen in the room. The process will take fifteen minutes which is exactly seventeen minutes less than the time it would take the both of you to burn through the door with that oxyacetylene torch of yours. Oh, and I don't recommend trying to open the pump's housing. It's rigged with a vibration sensitive explosive. Of course if you want to get blown to bits, that's fine by me. By the way, it's time to say adieu, Batman! And good night to you as well, sweet princess."
The tape stops after that for Batman and Megan were outmatched by Clock King now…No gadgets, hacking into systems, or any tricks for this man was one set ahead of him. Megan was freaking out, for Batman shows her to remain calm to have their oxygen from within them still, then carefully removing the tape recorder, Batman gets the tape out to start breaking it in half. Pointing to Megan, she follows him to do whatever he says so to try getting out alive with air.
"(Okay, Bruce, you're right. The more we panic, the less air we have. We're a team, right?)" she was lost on what he was doing to the tape to removing the film. "(What…What are you doing?)" Elsewhere, Hill is dedicating Gotham's new subway station, home of the world's first fully-automated line. But the subway train he asked for has yet to arrive, embarrassing him in front of the laughing crowd. Then Fugate's voice interrupts over the sound system, taunting Hill. Then two subway trains start hurtling toward each other from opposite ends of the same track. People flee the station in panic, and the trains crash. In the ensuing chaos, Hill disappears. Batman contrives an escape from the trap: breaking the cassette from the recorder in half, he and Megan pull out the tape reels and uses the tape as a makeshift pulley system to gingerly swing the pump box toward the vault door. So far, so good very slowly at a time to hanging in there to staying calm even for Megan was surprised that Batman could think like this to still be smart in dangers like this one was. "(Oh! I get it now…By breaking the recorder in half, he's using it as a rope to swing the pump box towards the vault door to blow up when hitting hard at it. Then blowing it up to let us escape. That's it!)" she aids Batman to do this already only for him to feel weak and she was starting to next. "(No! We're running out of air! Batman! Stay with me!)" Megan gets Batman up on his feel by carrying him while trying to stay awake to die from losing air. With her placing her hands on to Bruce/Batman's to help him aim better. "(Okay, we'll do it together here. Get ready…aim…!)" Then hitting it with a Batarang to detonate the bomb and Megan firing her gun to shoot a bullet to give it a spark too with Batman's help. "Fire!" It works to finally blowing the door open. Megan got some air into her again to breath normally. "All right! We did it, Batman! Huh?" she sees Batman lying on the ground. "Oh, no! Batman?! Come on, stay with me!" Megan performs CPR on him as fast as possible from chest, mouth, and hitting his heart. "Breathe, Batman! Breathe!"
Another one from the mouth, he comes too and kisses Megan out of nowhere. Wow…to her surprise for Batman was saved thanks to her to still be breathing.
"Megan…" he places his hand on her face to touch it. "My beautiful hero."
"Batman…? Did you just…"
Seems that Megan was left speechless after that happened to her, Bruce enjoyed it a lot.
"Its my way of saying thank you. You saved my life, I thought I wanted to have that kiss from your lips."
This got her to go shy from there.
"Hey! Now's not the time for games! We must stop Clock King who almost killed us! Let's go!"
With Megan getting out first to getting the people out of the bank place as well, Batman follows her from behind to catch up.
"It was worth getting a kiss." he said to laugh a little.
Now that was very scary there, huh? The two soon see the news bulletin reporting Hill's disappearance on TV, but Batman remembers the data papers and realizes where Fugate has taken Hill. By looking at the town's clock. Soon Megan started to get it as well.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Bruce?" she asks him.
"That I am. We better hurry."
Indeed, Fugate has Hill tied to the end of the hour hand on the face of the city's clock tower. At 3:15 (the same time Hill suggested Fugate take his coffee break), the hands will pass each other, crushing Hill to death. Hill is mystified as to why Fugate is doing this, and Fugate reminds him of his court date and tells him that since Hill was an attorney with the law firm representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Fugate's company, Fugate now believes that the whole coffee break scenario was a ploy by Hill to beat Fugate's appeal. Hill tries to explain that it was never his intention, but Fugate refuses to listen.
"3:15, Hill. Does that time hold any meaning for you?" Fugate questions Hill.
He has trouble knowing who Clock King really was.
"I don't know what you're talking about!"
And for that, Fugate reminds the so call mayor from seven years ago.
"You told me to take my coffee break at 3:15."
"What?!" Hill was still loss.
"You don't remember?!" he reminds Hill again. "My court date!"
And from there, Mayor Hill now remembers who Fugate was to become a villain now.
"Oh my lord! The law suit!" he was shock. "Fugate! I swear I was only trying to help!"
That he was. Mayor Hill is bad at this job and he's a total jerk to Batman, but he shouldn't end up dead. Not like this. And like Fugate would listen to Hill now after he mess up his carer job and all.
"Don't hand me that! You did it on purpose! The plaintiffs were represented by your law firm, Mr. Mayor!" said the Clock King.
"But I had nothing to do with that case, Fugate!" said Hill.
But again, Fugate/Clock King thinks that Hill was against him this whole time. But he really wasn't!
"Liar!" he said. "Not that it matters anymore now that you have an appointment to keep at 3:15 precisely with the Grim Reaper!" Fugate laughs insane-like.
Just then, Batman and Megan have arrived to save Mayor Hill 'I guess' to also stop the Clock King.
"I'm here to clean your clock, Fugate." Batman said.
"Surprised, Clock King?" Megan had her gun out to be pointed at him. "Almost had me and Batman killed in that vault and for what…? Because of the Mayor was telling you what to do to help you out? You want him dead?! That's stupid!"
Even Mayor Hill agrees with Megan on that part.
"I was only giving Fugate an advice, really! I didn't want him to lose his job from his business! Honest!"
Well, this sure surprises Fugate to get a little bad at Megan on what she said.
"Stupid?! I thought of all people like you and Batman would understand my problems from there! How dare you…!" angered the villain. "And don't you count on it, Batman. When it comes to clocks, I am king. En garde!"
As Fugate engages Batman with his sword cane inside the gear system of the clock tower. To holding on to dear life for Megan to help him get back up using her yo-yo's to pull him back up top and uses her boot to stick on to the walls.
"Hey! Trying to kill us too?!" angered Megan. "Up we…go!" she saves Batman to go inside of the clock tower. "We need to stop this machine before that hand crunches Mayor Hill to death."
As they enter inside of the place 'and Megan figuring out on how to save the mayor from a certain doom', Fugate makes himself in as well to stopping the two.
"Give it up, Fugate." Batman tries talking some sense into him. "Megan's right, Hill committed no crime against you."
Batman implores Fugate to stop his mad rampage as Megan said so too was sort of pointless, since Hill never meant him any harm, but Fugate angrily blurts out that his real reason for revenge is because Hill made him late for his appeal in the first place. So…He was won't listen to reason I'm afraid.
"He did worse! He made me late!"
Batman now needs to fight against Fugate and his sword-like cane to try cutting him and Megan in two on them both 'as she uses her baton to block the weapon away from her'.
"Yep, he won't listen to us now!" Megan said while defending herself.
"Megan! Go save the mayor!"
"You sure?!"
I think Batman can keep Fugate busy on his own from the looks of it.
"I'll be fine, just make sure that Mayor Hill doesn't get crushed." he said while still fighting.
Megan goes to the main clock work of the two hands to try hacking into it best she could to canceling Fugate's doing from computer kills to make her own virus in time, now it was time to save Mayor Hill and fast!
"Come on…" she then hits the button to slow the clock hand down as much as possible. "(Stop moving…Hold! Hold…!)"
The two foes seem evenly matched, as Fugate reveals that he has studied Batman as much as Hill, and even learned his every move from news footage.
"I could do this all day, Batman, but your time is up!" he said. Batman couldn't lay a finger on Clock King to try touching him once. "I've studied news footage of you, and I know that it takes you exactly a twentieth of a second to throw a punch."
Well, that maybe true, but…Batman's not a fool to lose to an enemy like Fugate Temple AKA the Clock King one bit.
"Very clever. But it only takes me a thirtieth of a second...to do this!" Batman throws a kick at Fugate.
During the fight, Fugate's cane becomes lodged in one of the gears, halting the minute hand a second before it crushes Hill. Giving Megan a chance to stop the hands in time as well for her to go back out to untie him quickly to go up on the roof of the building right away.
"Come on, Mayor Hill." she unties him by using a laser cutters type of item. "Get on top of the building before the clock room goes haywire."
"You…you've saved me, Ms. Tsuki…" he was speechless.
The two got top just in time, well the mayor does so right away as quickly as possible.
"Both me and Batman did, yeah."
"Oh, how I'm forever in your depth!" Mayor Hill said with joy. "Well, I guess that he's doing well too." he sees Megan going back inside of the clock tower. "Wait! It's too dangerous to go back!"
"I have to! Batman needs me and for us to stop Fugate!" she runs back inside. "Just stay put!" Well, at least Mayor Hill was saved thanks to those two pitching in on each of their ends. However, under the strain the entire clock begins to break up. Megan goes back in to see Batman was standing his grounds against Fugate for the place was about to fall apart. "Great! Batman! Let's get Fugate and get out of here! This whole place is about to break due to the holding of those gears!"
Fugate tries to escape from the two to go after them.
"Fugate!" Batman goes after him with Megan following him. "You can't escape!"
"But I say so otherwise, Batman and Megan! You of all people like you two should know already, that there's always a way out!" he laughs madly. Leaving Fugate falls into the depths of the tower.
"No!" cried out Megan.
"Fugate!" Batman watches the man fall.
Batman and Megan must fly out the window in time for Mayor Hill sees them escaping alive and well for Megan almost fell for Batman to hold on to her in the air, while using his Bat Grappler in the last second.
"They made it!" said the mayor.
Megan holds on to Batman for dear life to almost fell like she was about to fall, a close call.
"You okay, Megan?" Batman asks her.
"I'm alright. Too close!"
She won't let go of Batman to make sure that she doesn't fall again. I mean, she almost fell to her doom!
"We can stay like this for a while…if you want." he teases her again 'kind of'.
"Come on! Well, let just try to get down and lead Mayor Hill to safety." said Megan. "I guess..."
And so, both Batman and Megan do just that. Although the mayor is safe, Hill would not be doing election campaigns for quite some time. It's better than not trying to be killed by the Clock King's doing to say the least. So says Gordon to tell the two heroes about it from behind the scene.
"Well, from the look of things for our mayor won't be doing any campaigns this year. But at least he's alive thanks to you two." he said.
"Good to see Mayor Hill's still kicking, but we have another problem at hand."
With Megan saying that part, Batman explains it better.
"There's no sign of the Clock King's body to be found."
Even the cops had trouble finding the man inside the clock tower to be no sign of him.
"You're right, Batman. The police are having trouble with that." said Gordon to see the damage of the once clock tower. "But how's that possible? How could anyone survive a wreck like this?"
"If I could, he could." said the Dark Knight.
"It's possible knowing that Fugate is too smart from his tricks and abilities that he always learning very quickly."
Yep, Batman and Megan were afraid to admit it, but that must be the case.
"Then, you think we'll hear from him again?"
Good question, Gordon, will Fugate show up again? Maybe…Batman warns that if Fugate did learn all his tricks and abilities, there is a strong possibility that he survived, and suspects that 'it's only a matter of time' before he strikes again.
"I wouldn't be surprised, Commissioner. In fact, I'd say it's only a matter of time..."
Good point there and for Megan to not hear anymore clock noises anytime soon 'at least for a while' but her special watch of hers to hear anymore more ticking sounds.
"In other words, Gordon, we'll know soon enough 'when' it does happen again." she said. "(We'll be ready for Fugate the next time he shows up.)"
I guess time is on their side, and I'm not saying that for a clock pun.