Chapter Eleven – Legacy's End
"As far as I'm concerned Smiley…you're just another punk Joker trying to fill some overly twisted shoes. The real Joker at least would have had a unique way of trying to lure me here. All you did was blow up some crappy old buildings and made a big smile that no one can see except on a holographic map. Call that impressive? It's pathetic."
The masked smiling man stood there still poised with his sword and lowered his eyes at Terry's insult.
"Don't you dare cheapen this moment with your snappy comebacks! I gave Gotham the supreme wedgy of a life time and showed all that Jokerz are the destined rulers of this town!"
Batman smirked as he saw his comments angered the opponent.
"You didn't show Gotham anything they haven't seen before. How sad you are…thinking that this will in some way lift the Jokerz to power. You're all a bunch of thugs with nothing better to with your time. You want to be the big man now? Fine…then lets stop dancing around the issue and see how tough you really are…Mr. Smiley."
The villain returned his sword to his hollowed out cane and sheathed it back in its place. He tossed it over to the twins and glanced at them as they both captured it in their hands.
"Hold on to that for me will you girls? I'll handle this imposter with my own two hands."
The DeeDee twins giggled and smiled as they prepared to watch their leader duke it out with the bat. Slowly the smiling masked man made steps towards the costumed hero and raised his fists.
"Now then…Terry. Let's see what you've learned from your trip abroad."
"You can't be serious?" The dark knight snickered. "There's no way you can defeat me hand-to-hand…but I guess it's your funeral."
"Actually…" Mr. Smiley said as he stared the man down. "It's yours."
The villain ran up fast to Terry and gave a deadly blow to his gut. He was so fast that the young man had no chance to react at all. It was un-natural the way he moved, almost as if he had super powers himself. The impact of the punch made Batman fling to the back of the room and smacked his body against the wall.
"What the hell?!" Terry thought. "His fist felt like it was made of lead!"
As Batman grasped his stomach in pain and proudly stood up again, Smiley remained in a crouched stance and giggled.
"Had enough, Kid? Or do you need more to get the point?"
Terry hated to lose.
"My turn!" He growled.
With the aid of his rocket-propelled boots, he launched himself with both fists pointed out and rushed in to give the purple-suited smiler his payback. Knocking the man down on his back, Terry continued to fly past him, but gave a look of pain again as he shield his hands after the attack. Landing on the ground again, he tried to move his fingers slowly and could feel the nearly shattered bones.
"What are you?!" Batman screamed. "I've heard of hard heads…but this is like punching Superman!"
Mr. Smiley rose from ground and wiped his jacket shoulders as he turned to face the wounded hero.
"Still haven't figured it out yet huh? What a pity. The real Batman would have known by now…guess your just not cut out to fill the man's shoes. Or cowl I should say."
The fury in Terry's eyes grew as he the man taunted him. In a blind of rage, Batman came at the villain and began punching and kicking at him with every form of fighting he had ever studied. Each impact did little to damage his nemesis, as the blows continued to pour out at the suited individual, Mr. Smiley snickered at the desperation.
"Is that all you've got? Is that the best you can do? Now who's pathetic little man?"
Grabbing the dark knight, Smiley lifted him over his head with relative ease and snarled with anger as he threw the hero over to his table and shattered it with his body. Terry gasped in agony as he sat there in the debris. The bat suit flickered sparks of blue as parts of it had become torn, inside the cowl he could see his visuals flickering like a damaged monitor. Blood now trickled out of the side of his mouth as tried to stand up once again. He held on to his right side feeling as if he had broken some ribs and looked up at the masked villain in defiance.
"You see Terry." Mr. Smiley chuckled. "You can't win against the likes of me. Gotham City belongs to me now, it's time to put away your feeble costumed life and bring an end to Batman once and for all."
"NEVER!!" He shouted back at him. "You'll have to kill me first before I let you get your hands on Gotham City!"
The masked smiling man sighed. "So be it. Guess I'll just have to kill you then!"
Maxine and Superman heard the threat and both gave a worried look at the crippled Batman.
"My…my god. Terry…don't!" Superman whispered as he tired to speak. The Kryptonite device hanging around his neck was still making him very weak and slowly killing the man of steel.
"We've got to help him." Max stated. "If I could only undo the binds on my hands. Ugh! We could…Ugh! Try to even out the numbers…and take out this lunatic together."
Two slender looking boots stepped into her view as she lay there on the floor and gazed up at both DeeDee twins hovering over her with a pair of oversized hand weapons. It looked similar to that of their old nana Harley's weapon when she used to terrorize Gotham with the original Joker.
"Ah-Ah-Ah!" The one twin said looking down. "Don't even try it doll! This is a battle to the death…so no wrecking the fun."
"Yeah Commish!" Her sister added. "Just relax and enjoy watching you're favorite man get beaten to a pulp."
Max gritted her teeth at them and continued to work on freeing her hands.
"Keep the kids settled DeeDee." Smiley shouted to her. "This won't take long."
As he shifted his eyes back over to Batman, still struggling to stand up straight, he continued to giggle in an evil manner and got his fists ready to strike again.
"Any last words, Batman?"
Terry's face soon gave a look of realization and his eyes quickly lowered into a calm state.
"Just two…Knight fall"
Suddenly his bat suit quickly transformed as layers of thick metal surrounded his entire body. It was as black as his regular suit but more bulky and defined as it transformed him into an armored menace. The red bat insignia now glowed on his chest and his head became chiseled and hard like a carved rock. His eyes pulsated a red hue as they powered up and caused the masked smiler to step back in awe. After the transformation was over, the heavy plated Batman pointed his massive claw like fingers at the man and spoke in a digital voice as his mouth was now covered completely.
"Let's try this again…shall we?"
"Oh yeah!" Max screams in delight as she continues to remain on the floor next to Superman. "Batman is going to get medieval on you, Dreg!"
Batman runs towards Smiley and delivers an uppercut blow to his head; the villain is thrown into the air and crashes down hard a few feet away. Before Mr. Smiley can react, Batman once again quickly manages to get a few sucker punches into the man as he is once again flung across to the other side of the room. The twin girls watching the brutal punishment from the hero give a gasp of worry as the look at each other.
"Er…This can't be good for us DeeDee."
"Indeed not DeeDee. But it will still be fun to watch." She says smiling.
Her sister agrees and gives a smile back. "Yeah! That is until he comes for us next."
Both of them suddenly drop into frowns as the thought of being taken out by Batman in that outfit frightens them.
"Sucks to be you." Max giggles.
With his smiling mask cracked and his clothes slightly torn, the beaten madman stands up and dusts himself off as the dark knight approaches slowly. As he stands before him, Batman's glowing green eyes peer down at the masked villain and raised his fist in the air as he prepares to give him one final hit.
"You're going to regret doing that, Terry." The smiling masked man says as he stands his ground.
"Life is full of them…forgive me if I don't mind making one more."
The massive fist strikes down at the man and sends him through the floor like a nail into a board. With in a second the grinning devil is gone from sight and can be heard crashing through several other floors down. Giving a nod at his handy work, Batman turns his body half quarter to target his next opponents, the twin clown girls.
"Uhm…DeeDee?" The one sister asks the other.
"Yeah?"
"I think it's time we thought about making an escape."
As the two girls chatted away with one another, Commissioner Maxine took the moment to take some action of her own. Swinging her bonded legs around, she manages to bring the twins to the floor and making them drop their dangerous weapons. Grunting and obviously still trying to recover from the deadly toxin still lingering in her system, Max still works up the strength to send a blow to each of them across the head. With both Joker girls knocked out, the policewoman flops on top of them and tries to regain her breath. Batman's shadow stood over her as she lay there and gazed up into the pulsating eyes over her savior.
"What took you so long to get here?" She jokingly stated.
"Sorry." Terry spoke in an electronic voice. "Had to pick up a few things before I left."
Max chuckled slightly and shook her head. "That's male heroes for ya…always late for a date."
As Batman reached down, his eyes met hers. "Well, we always arrive in style."
"Amen to that brother." She smiles back.
Just as he helps her rest back upon Superman, he starts to reach over to take off the device placed on the man of steel, when all of a sudden the dark knight feels a hand grabbing him and is flung back across the room. As Batman shatters through the wall, he re-emerges from out of it to see Mr. Smiley standing there in tattered and ripped clothing.
"This isn't over Batman…this party is just starting!"
"Back for more are ya?" Batman grunts. "This time…I'm going to make sure you stay down!"
The armored bat runs up to the awaiting foe and gives him every strong armed hit he can, the man takes the brunt of the punches, but instead of flinging around the room like last time, he seems to remain standing in his place. His head tilts and snaps back from the deadly blows Terry is forcing on him, something that puzzles the hero a great deal.
"This is impossible! Nobody could take punishment like this…unless…"
Smiley's hand rises up and manages to stop Batman's huge fist from striking him. Now came his turn as he grabbed both arms and pinned the hero back by nearly ripping them behind his back. Using his forehead, the masked smiling villain banged into the hard shell of costume and quickly dented Batman's metal cowl. Struggling to break free of the death grip of Smiley, Batman opened two ports on his wrists that shot sonic blast waves. The strong force caused the two combatants to rise from the floor and crash into the ceiling above. The debris came crashing down in the room, as did the two fighters as the blast quickly cut out. Now separated from one another, Batman leaped up and positioned himself a few meters away from Smiley's reach.
"Scared of me McGinnis?" The man says as he rises up from the debris. "I'm much stronger then you and certainly a lot faster. The suit may protect you for a while…but in the end…it will give in, just like you will."
"I don't know who…or what you are Mr. Smiley, but you should really stop calling me by my real name."
"Oh?" Smiley chuckles. "What's a matter, Terry? Don't like hearing your real name from someone that's figured you out? All those years of training with Wayne, your friend over there and the love of you're life at Smythe's engagement reception…you're a mess. You can't handle being the hero kid; you simply lack the knack for being one. That's why you fled all those years ago…that's why you're dumping Wayne Industries…that's why you never committed to you're precious Dana…you just haven't got the BALLS!"
Screaming in anger, Terry steps out of character and lunges at the man. His fists wildly swipe at the giggling devil as he back steps just out of reach of them making contact. The suit is too heavy for the young man to be agile; some of his kicking he now attempts is less then graceful. Each moment he spends more energy on taking out the individual, the more of a strain the power suit becomes on poor Terry. He can see why Bruce wasn't too keen on using it himself, seeing how it nearly gave him a heart attack trying to use the special mode. Now running out of steam, Batman stops in his tracks and takes a moment to catch his breath.
"Are you finished?" Smiley asks. "Good."
His hand reaches for the armored black cowl and rips into it with all of his strength. The sound of the metal twisting and tearing makes Terry gasp in fear. With in a matter of seconds, the evil man has exposed the hero's face as he gives one last strong tug and hurls the cowl away. With his face now totally exposed, Terry kicks away from the villain and ends up collapsing on the floor as the suit powers down from loss of energy.
"Face it Terry…you've lost. You should have took your own advice and never come back. Without Wayne your nothing…just a frightened punk that's trying to fill a pair of boots far too big to wear. And with you gone…the dark knight will finally and truly be dead!"
As McGinnis struggles to move or even get the suit to activate, Mr. Smiley stands over him and claps his hands over his head as he prepares to strike down the immobilized hero.
"Goodbye…Terry." The man calmly says.
Suddenly a blast of red laser beams come streaking out from behind the villain and strikes him down. As the man falls, Terry can now see Superman standing at a distance with Max throwing away the Kryptonite device that was attached to the man of steel.
"Mistake number one…"Superman grumbles. "Never try to kill my friends."
Smiley tries to stand up again and Superman speeds over with his fist striking the man and sending him to the wall. Smiley smacks against it and slumps down to the floor.
"Mistake number two…ticking me off."
Terry gives a smile at him as he reaches down give him a hand getting up.
"I suppose you think I owe you one now?"
"No…I think we're pretty much even." Superman smirks back at him.
Max walks over and gives Terry a hug as he finally stands up on his feet. He'd love to give her one back, but the suit is far too heavy for him to even make his arms move.
"Does this mean you're still staying in Gotham." She winks.
"Hey…what can I say? It's my kind of town." He sarcastically says back.
The trio soon hear the slight giggling of the madman as he continues to remain slumped against the wall.
"How…touching." The criminal boss muses. "But I'm afraid this moment will not last long."
Raising his head up slowly he reveals his face, as part of the mask breaks apart.
"Because you're dealing with someone that never likes to lose."
The three are shocked as they gaze upon his exposed features, Terry eyes lower as he removes the look of surprise and blurts out the obvious observation they've all witnessed.
"My god. He's a…a…robot?"
The split face of Mr. Smiley does indeed show his mechanical face underneath. A steel skull and an eye void of life stares back at them all with only a few small slits where his mouth should be. The mask's grin almost blends into his robotic features as the metal being begins to laugh in a most human fashion, the glow of the small red dot in the middle of his robotic eye flares as he gazes at them all.
"Surprised McGinnis?" Smiley chortles. "As I said before…the real Batman would have figured it all out by now."
Terry gave the mechanized terror a deep long gaze.
"I am Batman. And not to worry friend, I'll discover who you really are soon enough."
"You mean this isn't the real guy threatening Gotham?" Max says with confusion.
Superman carefully lets the commissioner hold Terry up as he walks over to the giggling robot and tries to use his x-ray vision.
"He's just a remote drone." Superman adds. "No doubt being controlled from the real Smiley somewhere in the city."
"Bingo Supes." The broken down robot says to him. "And to think that many of your nemesis believe you to be nothing to be all brawn and no brains."
As Superman scans the structure of the drone, he is frustrated at the fact that he cannot penetrate the metal body.
"Impossible!" The Kryptonian says out loud. "What's your game here Smiley? Why go to such lengths as to line this robot with lead?"
"Lead?" Terry says quietly to himself as he thinks.
The damaged robot struggles to operate its limbs as it tries to stand up, but with the many wires broken and gears busted inside, it can't even raise a few inches.
"Let's just say I don't want to ruin the rest of my surprise for you all. It's my last effort to bring about a smile before the day is done."
The robot slowly giggles again, each time his voice rises higher and higher in laughter; Superman stands there unimpressed with this odd behavior and remains still as he scowls at the villain. Terry still tries to work it out and then like a bolt of lightening striking him, he soon realizes what's in store for them all.
"We've got to get out of here now!"
Superman turns to look at him.
"What?"
"I was studying the layout of his bombing patterns in the batmobile…don't you get it? Every strike as been were Batman and Wayne have been, he's been waiting for all of us to be in this one place…he's the last bomb to go off!"
Max shares in the realization and gasps as she adds in more. "He wanted to beat you down and blow us all up…with Superman still strapped to the Kryptonite, he would have surely died as well."
"Can we figure this all out later?!" The man of steel shouts at them. "If you hadn't noticed the robot is going critical!"
The mechanical drone was laughing in a higher pitch and continuing to do so with each passing moment. As Superman grab the two of them, Max looked back over to the floor with concern.
"What about DeeDee?"
As they looked over, they noticed the twin ladies had disappeared from their resting place, it seems that the girls managed to slip out of sight while the others were busy confronting the Smiley robot. Superman wasted no more time and flew them out of the building as he crashed through the many floors of it. Just as he flew out of the roof, the robot inside finally exploded and caused the entire place to blow in a fiery spectacle. The force of the blast nearly caused Superman to spiral out of control, but continued to hold on to his two wounded friends as he regained his flight. Landing safely on a rooftop a few blocks away, the Kryptonian released them both from his grip and stood with them both as they watched the area go up in flames.
"This town really has changed since I left." Terry sarcastically admitted.
"Don't say I didn't tell you so." Max smirked.
The disgruntled Superman gives a soft sigh and folds his arms over with anger.
"Whoever he is, he knows about each of us and of our identities…more importantly, he's still in control of the Jokerz."
Terry finally begins to remove the damaged bat suit and shares in the unsettled thought.
"Which is why we've got to figure out his next game plan and stop him before he does any more harm. He might have won this round, but it cost him too much to risk doing anything like this too soon. Just one part out of many plans he has in store for Gotham and Batman."
Superman pats the young man's shoulder and smiles.
"Now you're starting to sound like Wayne. I'll be here to help you every step of the way Terry…count on it."
McGinnis looks at the strong hand of the hero resting on his shoulder and quickly smacks it off of him.
"No offense Clark…but this is my city, not yours. So do me a favor…don't come back here and let me handle this myself."
Recoiling in astonishment, Superman gives an odd look at Terry. He can see the dead seriousness in the young man's eyes and becomes slightly offended by his harsh words.
"And here I was thinking you'd be grateful to have me lending you a hand. Someone had to protect this city, Terry, you where taking too long trying to figure out which life you wanted to lead."
"Don't worry about it anymore Clark." He says turning his back on him. "I know full well on where I belong, on what to do and more importantly…who I am. So don't think I'm not grateful, but then again…don't assume I don't know how to be a protector."
Max watched the two men act stubborn at one another and rolled her eyes at them both. Superman slowly began to rise up into the air as he could see the young Batman heir no longer wanted him. As he started to make his way into the sky, he stopped and looked back at the two still gazing outward at the devastation. With a simple thought, the man of steel smirked at the young man and nodded.
"Just like old times…" He thought to himself. "Same cranky Bat, same untrusting manner…Terry is going to do fine."
The man of steel streaks into the sky and disappears as he thrusts into sonic speed. Now alone with Max, Terry holds onto himself as if he is cold and finally confesses to her about what finally made him decide to stay.
"You know Max, I was ready and willing to shed this whole nightmare away from myself. Having seen and done so much beyond this grim city, I finally felt as if I was destined for something better. It took a lot out of me to leave…Dana had been the focus of my whole life and Bruce…hell; he gave me the second chance no one else would have. I would have surely driven myself into that empty darkness long ago and probably would have ended up as one of those Joker thugs. But the one thing that kept me going all this time wasn't what I thought it was…I thought the answer was doing what everyone expected of me, but now…now I know what it is."
Max keeps at a distance from him and gazes over with curious look.
"Is it Dana? The love for her?"
"No." He sighs. "She and I…are over. I see that now, she loves Jason Smythe and the love we had is gone. No the one thing I'm talking about…is me. What I want to be, what I want to do with my life and what direction I choose to go in."
Max lowers her eyes in disappointment, as it wasn't the answer she'd hope it would be.
"I see…and what direction will you go next?"
Terry turns around and gives a devilish smile.
"To the point of no return…it's time to end one legacy and start a brand new one."
To Be Concluded in the next and final chapter! "Dawn Of A New Beginning"