King ran through the rain. He tried his best to stay in the shadows. He checked the time. 2:28 AM. In a couple minutes, his mission would be to hit the detonator and blow Batman to pieces. It was all he ever wanted to do. This was his moment. He stopped running and looked up at the intersection. Main Street and Grant Street. He was here. This intersection was relatively isolated, especially at this hour. But he wasn't taking any risks. He walked into an alleyway next to two medium sized buildings to avoid risk. He took it out of his pocket and held the detonator. His finger rested on the button.
Batgirl landed in the middle of the intersection. She looked around. He was nowhere to be seen. Her first thought was that Sable had lied to her, and she plotted out how she was going to go back and find her again. But then she saw an alleyway. She began to make walk a little to the right to get a better look. Then, she saw him. He was in plain view. He had his back turned. She could do it now. She pulled out the gun and examined it. But eventually, she dropped it on the ground in the middle of a puddle.
"A gun would be too quick. I want to see him suffer."
She walked into the alleyway. King heard footsteps. He turned around.
Batman flew as fast as he could to the intersection. Now would have been a great time to have the batmobile handy. He tried to get to Melanie on the radio. He turned it on
Batgirl held up the batarang launcher immediately.
"Drop the detonator."
King could have sworn that she sounded an awful lot like…
"Who are you?" King asked
"Melanie!" She heard Terry's voice on the radio.
"So you found out…" She said
"Where are you?" He demanded
"This is none of your business Batman. Go away."
King knew it now. It wasn't just her voice. The way she moved, the way she behaved. He was facing none other than his own daughter.
"Melanie?" King said softly. "What happened to you?"
"DROP THE DETONATOR!" She screamed
"Okay. Okay. I'll do it. Look…"
He slowly dropped it on the ground
"Melanie…we need to talk…about our family. About everything." King said
Batgirl looked at the detonator on the ground. She then pointed the batarang launcher at King again. He jumped in shock.
"What are you doing?" He asked
"What needs to be done…" She said slowly. "You deserve to die, Dad. I'm going to give this world what it needs."
"Melanie! Listen to me!" Batman came through on her radio again. He was getting closer to the actual location.
"If you kill him…you'll be no better than he is!"
"Does it matter? I never had a choice to begin with. And it's his fault." Batgirl said.
She turned the dial to 10.
"Just because you're his child doesn't mean you have to follow in his footsteps. He's already going to jail. Just let the police do their job!" Batman pleaded
"How about you let me do my job, Terry? You wouldn't even dare try to justify him if you had any idea what he put me through! It's his fault, Terry. He never gave me a proper childhood! He never gave me a choice, he took it away from me!"
Her finger was on the release button
"And now I'm going to take away his!" She yelled
"We always have a choice Melanie!"Batman yelled
"Melanie. Please. Don't…" King pleaded. "I'm sorry, I was a bad father, but we can talk it out…please"
"Yeah? And how would you know that?" Batgirl said sarcastically
At first, Batman didn't know what to say. Then he said the only thing he could.
"Because I killed my own father!" Batman yelled
This shocked her for a little bit.
"My father warned me not to let my anger control me, not to reach for power that wasn't mine, but I didn't listen. And because of that, he's gone. I had a choice whether to leave my house the night he was murdered out of anger, or to just listen to him and stay. And I left. I made the wrong choice. Not a day goes by in my life when I wish I couldn't have taken back what I did. We always have a choice, Melanie. And I don't want to see you make the wrong choice now." Batman said
Out of what seemed to be sheer coincidence, Jack happened to be walking by. He stepped on the gun that was in the middle of the puddle. He looked down and picked it up.
"What the…" he whispered
He then looked to the side and saw his dad and Batgirl. It took him a moment to get over the initial shock. Neither of them were able to see him.
"You just don't get it Terry!" Batgirl yelled. "He destroyed our family! He's the reason why I was never allowed to have one real friend in my life! The world would be a better place without people like him! All people like him ever do is hurt others!"
Batman finally made it. He landed on the roof of the adjacent building and was looking down at them. He pulled out a batarang ready to stop her. But then he hesitated.
"Especially you…" he muttered. He began to hold onto the batarang less firmly.
Bruce was also listening from Batman's end.
"Terry, you have the batarang in your hand so just stop her now!" He yelled
Batman didn't say anything for a moment.
"I hurt you too, didn't I?"
"That's putting it nicely, yeah." She said sarcastically
"No one starts out wanting to hurt anyone. They just do what seems right to them. But you never got a chance because you didn't get a real lesson on right and wrong. And you've paid the price for it. You've spent your whole life feeling like you were alone." He said.
"Terry, stop this nonsense!" Bruce yelled.
"C'mon…" Jack whispered. "Kill him. Do it.."
His hand shook on the gun
"The last thing I ever wanted to do was to hurt you, Melanie. So if this is really what you need to do to find yourself…" He dropped the batarang on the ground. "Then go ahead and take the shot…"
"TERRY NO!" Bruce shouted
Batgirl's arm trembled as she held the 10 dial and prepared to shoot him. She stood still for a while. King had his hands up and didn't move. He was shaking in fear too.
"DO IT!" Jack yelled. He shot a bullet by accident.
"Terry, under you!" Bruce yelled
Batman saw the bullet head straight for Batgirl's back. He jumped off the ledge and immediately took out a batarang. He threw it in hopes of deflecting the speeding bullet. Batman tackled Jack to the ground, and to his sheer luck, the batarang deflected the bullet right on time. Batgirl shot the batarang. At one moment, King was standing, and the next moment, laying on his back. The entire place grew dead silent. Only the pouring rain could be heard.
Batman had handcuffed Jack. Batgirl walked up to a motionless King and knelt down.
"I'll deal with you later!" Batman said. He ran over to Batgirl. She looked at King's face.
"You once said…that the only way that I would ever be strong would be if one day I could grow up and take your life."
Unexpectedly, King quietly moaned and turned his head in pain. Batgirl half smiled. A batarang was revealed to be lodged in his shoulder.
"You were wrong" she whispered
She stood up.
"I shot him in the shoulder, Batman."
She turned her head
"It was exactly where he taught me."
Bruce closed his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief
"I guess the true solution is almost never what it appears to be."
The police soon swarmed the area. They all immediately held out their guns.
Batgirl raised her hands "Don't shoot!" she yelled. "I'm one of the good guys."
She looked over at Batman. He smiled and nodded. Batgirl smiled too.
-x-
"This is Kevin Carr reporting to you live as three of Batman's kidnappers from yesterday night's mayhem are now being transferred from the hospital into police custody."
Melanie, who had an arm cast, watched with a large crowd as the three of them were being escorted into a police van. First was King, then a helmeted Watt, and Sable, whose arm was wrapped an bandages. Sable tried to stop and yell on her way in.
"It's her! She's Batgirl! Right there!" She pointed at Melanie. The police officer took a look at the teenage girl in a cast.
"Yeah, right. And I'm the Easter bunny."
"No! I swear!"
"Come on…"
He pushed her into the van. They closed the door and drove off the van.
Kevin Carr kept reporting as Melanie walked away from the crowd. She went up a nearby hill and watched as the crowd was began dispersing, some people fighting to get one last shot in the camera.
"Batgirl Beyond."
She turned around. Terry walked up behind her, holding a newspaper.
"That's what all the papers have been calling you, at least."
She smiled
"Hey Terry."
She took the newspaper and skimmed it. The words "Batgirl Beyond" appeared in bold letters on the top
"I wonder where they came up with that. You could use a name like it too you know."
"Somehow Batman Beyond doesn't roll off the tongue as much."
"You'll be surprised."
She handed the paper back to him.
"You read it?"
"Not all of it. They don't know me so there's no point hearing what the reporters have to say about me."
Terry quickly remembered.
"Oh hey. I heard you got another job with Wayne."
"Yeah, I do."
"As Batgirl?"
"No." She said with a hint of annoyance. "As Melanie Walker. I'll be an associate 'gofer' for Wayne-Powers."
Terry couldn't help but smile
"We all had to start somewhere." Terry said
"Well, considering that this pays three times as much as my other job, I think it's somewhere I won't be complaining too much about."
"Wow." Terry said. "Well with that kinda money, you can pay off Jack's bail in no time. Not to mention all the medical bills you can handle now."
"Not to mention the new house…"
"What?" Terry asked
"I won't be living around here anymore. There are too many memories I want to leave behind here. Once I get Jack out in a couple days I'll be considering this my last move. Wayne paid off everything. Between you and me, though, he still annoys me. But I owe him a lot. "
"And of course, your job as Batgirl will come bring you back in town…"
Melaine smiled and shook her head
"No. I quit being Batgirl. Assuming that I was ever really Batgirl in the first place"
Terry looked extremely shocked
"What?" he said in disbelief
"Come on Terry. Wearing spandex, playing hero…it's…it's all an old life for me. It's the reason why I left the Royal Flush gang in the first place. I should leave saving Gotham to the professionals, being you, Wayne and the Commissioner."
"But you were great out there…"
"No. I lost my mind out there. The last thing I need is more stress in my life. Wouldn't you agree?"
"I guess…"
After a moment of silence, he held up the newspaper.
"You know, you really should read what they said in this. They're already calling you a hero." He paused. He put his hands in his pockets. "More than I can say for myself."
"What are you talking about?"
"Watt may have been crazy, but he sure had a point. Does throwing people in jail because I think what they're doing is wrong make me a hero, or just some jerk in a costume?"
"Well that's a stupid question. I thought you already knew the answer to that."
Terry looked up
"Bringing messed up people like me to their senses, that makes you a hero. Being a symbol of hope that everyone can look up to when they have nowhere else to turn, that makes you a hero."
Melanie cracked a smile
"And it's the right choices that you make, even when there's an easy way out. That makes you a hero."
"It's pretty disappointing…" Terry said.
He turned around and looked up at the sky
"As much as I hate to admit it I was warming up to the idea of having someone out there who I can relate to. Someone who can keep me in check."
Melanie didn't say anything for a second. Then she spoke up.
"Alright. We'll make a deal."
Terry turned his head
"You promise to never do to any other girl what you did to me, and to always keep up the good fight…and if you're ever in a tight position, gimme a call. And if I'm feeling up to it, I'll try not to make you look too bad out there. Do we have a deal?"
Terry nodded
"You do have my number right? Or did you throw that away with the note I gave you?"
"I…" Terry started. Honestly, he didn't know what he was going to say.
"It's alright…" Melanie said. "So. I guess…this is goodbye Terry."
She turned around and began to walk away. Terry dropped the newspaper. Melanie turned around and Terry hugged her. It was like a moment she didn't want to pass by. But still, it had to.
"Thanks for everything…" Terry said
Bruce's limo pulled up. They both quickly let go.
"Alright, I better head out before Bruce lectures me." She started walking away. "Dana's a lucky girl!" She yelled at him. "Don't ever let her forget that!"
Soon after she left, Bruce walked up next to Terry.
"Don't think that I didn't see that…" Bruce said.
"Oh please, I'm not the only one who should be embarrassed. What's all this about you giving her a house and a stable job? Don't tell me you're turning into an old softie."
"She reminds me of myself when I was just starting out. If she wasn't going to be Batgirl, the least I could give her was a leg up. She deserves it."
"So how did she find out anyway…"
They began walking in the other direction.
"It's a really long story you don't want to hear."
"Well as long as that story is, lemme tell you one thing."
"What?"
"If you give Matt the robin suit, I quit."