Batman Beyond: The End of Batman
Chapter 8
Terry struggled as he saw Mat pulled into the room by Mr. Fixx and his struggles grew more frantic when Blight grabbed Mat and walked up to him, just out of reach.
"NO! No! You can't have him! Powers, you have me, just let him go," Terry began to struggle frantically, the fear in his little brother's eyes was like a knife digging into his heart. He had made a vow when his father died that he would never let anyone, especially Powers, harm his brother, and now Powers had his little brother Mat! His struggles became more frantic as Powers smirked and walked up with Mat still struggling in his grasp.
"Now why would I do that McGinnis? We are here to break you, and what better way then to bring this little youngster," Powers said ruffling Mat's hair, "into the story. Frankly McGinnis, you had given up the fight, you were just accepting the defeat and that takes the fun away from our little game," Blight said with a smirk, Terry Growled in anger as he watched Powers touch his brother, this man was going to die for bringing his brother into this!
"Leave my little brother ALONE," Terry thundered, straining against his restraints, trying his hardest to get to Powers, if looks could kill, Powers would already be dead from the look Terry was giving him.
"Ah, now see, that is the fight we were looking for in you, maybe if we just played around with this little one a bit…"Powers smirked as he pulled a terrified Mat closer to him and Terry lost it!
"NO! You leave him ALONE Blight, or so help me I'll…"Terry never got to finish that thought because Powers jumped in before he could.
"You'll what McGinnis, face it, you can't do anything,"Blight said with a smirk as he stroked Mat's cheek. Mat gave a little yelp as a bit of Blight's power rubbed on his cheek and burned him and Terry lost it. The mark on Mat's cheek was only a small red one, but it was still there, and Terry was going to kill Powers for hurting his brother!
"BLIGHT! YOU LEAVE HIM ALONE OR SO HELP ME I'LL KILL YOU," Terry thundered and Powers laughed.
Terry watched as Melanie Walker, Ten, began to walk forward. She was in her Royal Flush uniform, and quite frankly he couldn't tell if she could be trusted. True they had, at one point, cared for each other, but then she had double crossed him, now he didn't know, he couldn't tell friend from alley.
"Blight, sir, let me take the kid…McGinnis won't know what is happening to the kid that way, and I will keep a tight grip on him so he won't be able to get away…If the kid gives me any trouble, I will punish him,"Terry tried to read Melanie, like he use to, but there was nothing there, all she had was a smirk, as if she really were just following orders, but her eyes were blank, he couldn't read them and so he scowled at her.
Powers got a nasty grin on his face as he looked at Terry and then his little brother and then at Ten, and then he shoved Mat into Ten's arms, "I think that's a great idea Ten, be sure to keep the kid in line, and don't be afraid to hurt him, even if it is just for fun…"
"Oh I won't sir,"she said dragging a struggling Mat off and that made Terry struggle all the more. He never thought Melanie would hurt his little brother, but if she really was a villain, then he didn't know what she would do to prove herself to them.
"NO! NO! You can't DO this to me! I HAVE to be with my brother, I HAVE to PROTECT him! TERRY" Mat billowed as he was dragged off.
Mat's cries cut Terry deep and he struggled more, and that was when he felt the sharp shock at his neck and then laugher around the room echo. He looked up to see the old Joker, (inside Tim Drake), with his hand held shocker. Like most clowns, he always carried it, but unlike most clowns, this shocker was a strong powered one and held ten times the voltage of the regular ones, this one actually hurt. Terry let a small hiss escape and Joker laughed.
"Well Batfake, I guess you really do have no sense of humor," he chuckled and Terry scowled, but his eyes were not on the clown, he still followed where Mat had been dragged off. He begged the fates that Melanie would be kind to his brother, begged that his brother would not be hurt or put in ISO, but he worried.
"You remember this don't you," Powers asked as he held a vile up and Terry's eyes narrowed, it was the disk that his father had hidden, the thing that had caused his father's death. "Ah, I see you do remember it, well then, I don't have to tell you, but maybe I should tell all of our listeners about it…You see Gotham, this is a disk that contains information on a virus, the virus that ended up taking all my good years away from me and turning me into this, and Batman is to blame for that. Batman is what made me into what I am today…"
"You're crazy Powers, you were the one who created the virus, it's not my fault you got burned by your own invention," Terry fired back at him, his eyes narrowing.
"Ah, yes, and sadly it was what caused your father's death as well…And Mr. Fixx tells me that he was a crier, that he begged for his life," Powers laughed and Terry's eyes narrowed, "Isn't that right Mr. Fixx?"
"Yes sir, he was quite the pathetic little man," Mr. Fixx answered with a chuckle.
"Don't you talk about my father that way," Terry thundered and Powers turned, laughing, and hit him with a ball of heat energy, square in the chest and Terry cried out in pain. The edges of his vision blurred and his world began to go black. Terry fought hard to stay awake, and it was only through Bruce's training that he was able to, however he was tuning out of what Powers said, too busy remembering his father, remembering how this all started.
"Knock, knock," Terry said as he entered his father's study.
"Terry, I'm busy," his father replied.
"Dad, I gotta go out," Terry said, he had plans to see Dania at the new club in Gotham.
"You're grounded, remember," his father reminded, trying hard not to sound annoyed.
"Dad, I didn't start the fight," Terry tried to defend himself, telling the honest truth this time.
"I'll hear all about it when we meet with your guidance councilor. Again," he said, once again sounding annoyed. He really did want what was best for Terry, why couldn't Terry see that.
"Mom would hear me out," Terry replied in a rush.
"You're not living with your mother," his father replied annoyed, a bit of anger tinged his tone.
"Don't remind me," Terry said in anger, pounding his fist into the wall.
"That's your problem, right there, you can't control your temper! And you'd better if you expect to get anywhere in life," his father replied in anger now, standing up.
"Oh yeah, I'll be a big success, just like you," Terry said annoyed, mocking his father. His father looked hurt and Terry turned to leave, "I'm bailing."
Terry looked back on that day with a lot of regret. Why hadn't he stayed there, why hadn't he tried to defend his father and work things out. If he had been there, his father would still be alive, Mr. Fixx would not have been able to kill him and Terry would still be with his father. The last thing he had said to his father before his death had been so hurtful and he couldn't change it now, he never could, and that killed him. His father's death reminded him why he did what he did, he would never again let someone lose a parent like that, he would defend Gotham from people like Powers and protect other families. He felt a slight tinge of pain and he looked up to see Inque. She was in her field agent form and she had just stabbed him with her hand. He glowered at her and she smirked back.
"Come now Terry, you usually make more noise for me when we play, don't stop now, that would take the fun out of our little game," She smirked as she wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs became a sharp dagger and she plunged it into his side. Terry tried to bite his lip and hold back the pain, but a cry of pain still escaped and she smirked. "Now that is more like it, maybe we should do it again." Terry glowered at her, but before he could say anything, the Dee Dee twins were next to her. Terry glared at them, he knew why he'd become a hero, and even now, in this situation, if he had been told this was going to happen, he would still make the same choice. The two girls smirked at him and walked up next to him.
The first Dee Dee walked up and ran her fingers through his hair and he pulled away, she and her sister laughed at this, "Aww, do you see that Dee Dee, Batman doesn't want to play with us."
"That's not very nice," the second girl said with a grin and then pulled her knee up and kneed Terry hard in his ribs, knocking the wind out of him. Terry was at a disadvantage in this fight because he was restrained and because he no longer had the aid of the batsuit, they had stripped him of that first thing after introducing him to all of Gotham. Terry refused to show weakness to these girls, he had Mat to think about now, so he just glared at them.
"Ladies, move aside, I wanna talk to my old friend," Charlie "Big Time" Bigelow said shoving the two girls out of the way to make his way up to Terry. Terry scowled at him. "I shoulda known it was you, you was always a bit of a boy scout in the gang, but who'da thought you'd grow into Batman…Well Tiny, I got a gift for you for tossing me off that bridge," and with that Charlie punched Terry hard in the eye, then again in the jaw. Terry knew there would be bruising on the jaw, and he figured his eye would be black fairly soon, but at least Charlie had not broken his jaw.
"Hey, you all got your chance, it's my turn," Ian Peek said walking forward. The last time Terry had seen him was when he was falling through the floor, so Terry was surprised to see him now. "Yeah, that's right McGinnis, I survived, no thanks to you and the old man…Powers found me and managed to save me so I can at least stay solid, even if I am not fully visible at all times…I also picked up a new trick." At this Peek smirked and moved his hand up to Terry's shoulder and Terry raised an eyebrow. Terry didn't have much time to react before pain exploded in his right shoulder and he had to look up. Peek's hand had gone right though his shoulder and the searing pain was like nothing he had ever felt before. Ian Peek smirk as he twisted his hand and Terry gasped in pain, his eyes watering from the pain and Ian chuckled.
Before Terry could reply much Ian pulled his hand out of Terry and Terry cried out in pain, and that was when Shriek took Ian's place. Terry's head dropped, his shoulder now consumed in pain, and that was when Shriek adjusted something on his wrist and sent a sound wave at Terry that only he could hear. Terry cried out in pain, wishing he could grab his ears and Shriek smirked.
"Yes Batman, you hear that, if I leave it on longer then twenty-five seconds, your eardrums will shatter," he smirked and turned the frequency up and Terry cried out again, pain clear on his face. He tried to keep his thoughts on his father, on those he had helped, those he had saved, but right now the pain was too much. Just when Terry didn't think he could take any more, the sound stopped. Terry was breathing heavy, his head hanging down, no longer strong enough to hold it up. He thought they were done, but apparently not as Zander and Cuvier took Shriek's place. Both men were in a snake form, showing fangs, and that was when they dug their fangs into Terry's shoulder. Terry again let out a cry of pain and both men smirked.
"Feel that Batman? That is the venom of a killer Cobra," Zander said with a smirk. Apparently Cuvier had changed his form to match that of a Cobra as well, but both men smirked.
"Of course we wouldn't want you to die on us, so we have an antidote for you, we just are not going to give it to you, at least not right away, we'll let you suffer a bit longer before we do," Cuvier replied with a smirk.
Next Spellbinder walked up. He didn't say a word, he simply used his suit to create an illusion. Whereas normally his illusions were good one, meant to please the others under his spell, this one was meant to hurt Batman and it did. Terry's eyes widened as he saw, or rather thought he saw, Mat back in the room with them, only this time his poor little brother was surrounded by all the villains there and they were attacking his little brother and Terry's brother had no defense. Terry struggled in his restraints and tried to get to his brother, (who was not actually there).
"MAT! MAT! NO!DON'T HURT HIM! PLEASE," Terry begged, struggling. The next thing he saw was his brother being killed and Terry's eyes began to tear.
Powers whispered something to one of the Jokers, to Charlie, and to the original Joker, Tim Drake, and they all three smirked. Charlie came up to Terry and jammed his massive knee into Terry's side and you could hear some of his ribs crack and break. Next the leader of the Jokers gang came up and stabbed Terry in the side. Finally the original Joker came up to Terry with a smirk.
"You need to smile more batfake," and with that he pulled out his pocket knife and cut a smile into Terry's face.
Page Break
(Elsewhere in the hideout while Terry is being tortured)
"Let me go! Let me GO, I HAVE to save Terry! I HAVE to," Mat billowed as he struggled in Melanie's grasp and she held on tight.
"Look kid, you will be of no use to Terry if you are in there…Terry can't fight if he is worried about your safety, so sit down and shut up," she fired at him, her anger of not being able to help Terry showing.
There was a tv screen in the room and they could see everything that was being done to Terry, no matter where they went, they would never be able to get away from what was happening to Terry. Mat looked at her and could see the caring and hurt in her eyes, but he couldn't help it, he began to cry. She walked over to him and wrapped her arms around him and tried to comfort the child. She watched all the torture Terry faced and tried not to let it hurt her so deep, knowing that he was dating another girl, he could only ever be her friend, if that, if he could forgive her for what she had done to him.
She watched at Charlie rammed his knee into Terry and visibly broke some of his ribs, and then the head of the Joker clan stabbed Terry in his side and then the original Joker cut a smile into his face, and Melanie visibly winced. She jumped when she heard Power's voice call her on the intercom.
"Bring the kid, we're ready for him," Powers called.
"Yes sir," she replied and looked at the kid with pity.
