The eleven scientists were gathered around the Stasis pod, waiting for his emergence. They had started the wake up procedure for Project Batman Beyond 20 minutes ago.
"Heart rate is a steady 20 BPM. Subject has an extraordinarily low heart rate." A female scientist with long blonde hair said into her tape recorder
"Subject's brain patterns just picked up, they'll be waking up soon." Said a separate scientist staring at the readings on her tablet.
Every scientist subconsciously took a small step forward, each one holding their breath. Very slowly the subject's brow began to furrow, and then their eyes pinched tightly together. And then it happened. Project Batman Beyond opened his eyes for the first time.
The chamber was in disarray as every scientist tried to get closer to the subject, Beyond slightly drew back from the scientists surrounding him. It was loud and he hated it.
"Subject seems to have control over their physical capabilities." One of the male scientists said.
"The readings look normal for his brain functions."
"His heart rate is spiking. Get out of my way!" Said the female scientist with long hair as she pushed her way to the front.
The other scientist parted away and Beyond let out a sigh of relief as the crowd gathered around him slightly dispersed. Beyond took the time to look around him at the cold sterile environment. The walls were all white and the amount of computers and machines was astounding. The female scientist at this point was sticking wires around his chest and plugging them directly into her tablet.
"Project Batman Beyond's heart rate is going back to normal." The scientist called out. "Try not to surround them, it looks like they were overwhelmed."
At this point an average height Middle Aged man with medium length brown hair and some silver streaks walked purposely forward. Dr. Desmond, he remembered him. His glasses were hanging low on his nose so he reached up to slightly push them into place.
"Project Batman Beyond, do you understand me?"
"Ye-" Beyond looked slightly confused as he tried again, seemingly unable to get the word out. "Yeth." He said, his tongue not working the way he had wanted it too.
"Dr. Paige please note that the subject seems to be unable to speak correctly." Dr. Desmond called over his shoulder as Beyond could hear the doctor reciting it into her tape recorder.
"Now Beyond do you remember me?" Dr. Desmond asked with a slightly hopeful expression.
"Yeth, do-c-or Esmon." Beyond tried his hardest to string the words together, his tongue feeling numb in his mouth.
"Well at least you're not brain dead like the last version." Dr. Desmond said under his breath.
At this point a separate scientist walked towards the two of them with a pen and paper. Handing it over towards Beyond he took it without question.
"Good, now write, "my name is Project Batman Beyond." We want to see how well you can write."
With some minor annoyance, Project Beyond took the pen and began to write exactly what they asked him to. His handwriting was crisp and legible. He handed the notepad over to Dr. Desmond to read. He knew the scientist that gave him the notepad was Dr. Edwards, but Dr. Desmond was obviously in charge.
Reading over it quickly the doctor tapped a few things on his tablet before setting it down on the desk next to him. The doctor's eyes looked just past Beyond at a separate person Beyond had not seen before. Beyond made a slight twist to look at whoever was behind him and was surprised to find not a person. But Dubbilex. Dubbilex was a genomorph with light blue skin and long horns pointing tired the sky, he was a telepath.
If Beyond hadn't been turned away from Dr. Desmond, he would have been able to notice the doctor's slight nod of his head towards Dubbilex. But all he saw was Dubbilex's horns turn red.
Beyond was laying down when his eyes opened next. He brought a hand to rub his eyes because the world looked wrong. Instead of the cold white sterile room from before, Beyond was in pitch blackness except for a park bench about 15 feet away with Dubbilex sitting on it. He warily made his way towards the bench and sat down. They sat in silence together for about 2 minutes before Dubbilex began.
"Hello Project Batman Beyond, how does it feel to be awake finally?" Dubbilex kept his eyes straight forward.
Beyond doesn't know why but he feels different than when he had been in the sterile room, maybe a little lighter. Still slightly Worried he will be unable to talk, he begins slowly.
"My name….. is Beyond." The words felt foreign in his mouth and he quickly let his tongue wet his lips."
"Okay, Beyond then. How does it feel to finally be awake? " Dubbilex asked again with a slight smirk across his blue lips.
Beyond copied Dubbilex and smirked back to him before he answered. "It's… strange. Too loud. Too bright."
Dubbilex's smirk slowly gained a sadder look as he slightly nodded. "Yes Beyond, that is normal. It can feel…wrong to be awake. Don't worry too much though, it goes away with time."
Beyond let a slight sigh of relief escape as Dubbilex continued.
"How does your head feel? There's still a lot of information we're wanting to give you in the coming days."
"I feel fine. My head just feels…. Empty, I guess. There's more I'm supposed to know."
"Yes Beyond, I know. What we wish to know is how much are you willing to learn? What is it that you want to do with your knowledge?"
"I don't really know Dubbilex." Beyond gained a contemplative look before deciding on what to say, "I want to be free. I think that's what I want to learn. How to be free."
Dubbilex's face grew darker, but it didn't look like it was directed at Beyond.
"I'm sorry Beyond, I want that for you too."
"Why are you sorry? What's wrong?"
Dubbilex's eyes shot towards Beyond looking like he had forgotten Beyond was there. "I'm sorry because freedom is a fickle dream for what we need from you. Just know that I didn't want to do this,I think it's barbaric and evil. But they say it's the only way." Dubbilex stands up from the bench and begins to walk away from Beyond.
"What does that mean? What does that mean Dubbilex?!" Beyond begins to chase after Dubbilex, when the blue genomorph turns around.
Dubbilex's eyes and horns are both glowing red as he forces himself into Beyond's mind freezing his legs in place.
"I'm truly sorry Beyond, I wish that you would remember me as a friend, but they're monitoring what I do inside your head. If not me than someone else will do this. And they won't be as gentle."
"I understand Dubbilex. I don't know what you have to do. Whatever it is, I'll try to understand."
"Trust me Beyond you wouldn't say that if you knew."
"Don't worry Dubbilex, I'll remember this. I will forgive you."
"Beyond when next you wake up this will feel more like a dream. Barely a whisper when you try to remember this, it has to be this way, I'm sorry."
And with that, Beyond's eyes were forced closed once again.
When Beyond wakes this time he's in a bed. not a white sterile room and not empty darkness. Before long though, he remembered how silly of an idea that was. Of course he's not in either of those awful places, they were nightmares, and his name is Terry, not something weird like "Beyond". Sliding out of bed he throws his pajama shirt on and runs out of his bedroom door.
"Mommy! Mommy! I had such a weird dream last night" 8 year old Terry McGinnis called out as he ran into the kitchen where he knew his mother Mary would be cooking breakfast. The young McGinnis rounded the corner and into the waiting arms of his mother.
"Uh-uh Terry you know there's no running in the kitchen." Terry's mother said with a smile on her face letting Terry know he's not in too much trouble.
The young boys cheeks redden slightly as he apologizes, "I'm sorry mommy." The young boy had an idea. "Hey Momma if I promise to be good for the rest of the day, will you and daddy take me to go see the new Grey Ghost movie?"
"What happened to your weird dream? You were so excited to talk about it a second ago."
"Oh yeah! So they're was this blue alien, OK? And he talked to me!"
"Oh really? And what did you talk about?"
The young Mcginnis gained a puzzled look on his face as he tried to remember his dream. "Well I don't really remember, but I remember he was really nice. Yeah he was really nice!"
"Oh well that's good to know now isn't it?" His mother commented back chuckling. "Now go and sit down at the table, breakfast will be done soon."
"OK!" The young boy said going to his seat, he wasn't particularly hungry but he was still hoping they would take him to see the Grey Ghost. He was only sitting for about a minute before his mother rounded the table with a plate of eggs and toast, and a phone pinched between her shoulder and her head.
"Yes Warren, he's been good today." His mother winked at Terry while setting his plate of food in front of him.
"Oh please Warren, we both know he got all A's for the semester, it's the final day of spring break, and he's just begging for it."
His mother's face had a small pout to it as she tried to convince her husband. When she suddenly started to brighten up Terry knew that it was good news.
"Really Warren? Oh thank you! And yes I can guarantee that Terry is excited, Aren't you sweetie?" She asked turning the phone towards her son so he could tell his Dad how excited he was.
"Of course! Thank you thank you thank youuuuuuu!" The boy called out more than loud enough for his father to hear."
Mary McGinnis was smiling as she drew the phone back to her ear and told Warren goodbye and how they'll be ready at 5 to go to the movies.
"Thank you so much Dad!" The young boy said to his father as he was exiting his vehicle. The boy ran towards his father and hugged around his legs.
"Are you excited Dad? Are you? Are you?" Terry said practically shaking in excitement.
Laughing softly Warren reached down to pick up his son and toss him a short distance into the air. "Of course I am Terry! I get to spend the evening with the 2 coolest people around? This is gonna be the best night ever! Just you wait, son!
Mary McGinnis soon made her way outside with her purse hanging off of her shoulder. Mary was wearing her fur lined coat, it was already getting dark outside and the temperature always did drop quickly in Gotham. Handing her Husband and Son their nice coats they all began to pile into Warren's car, heading towards the movies.
The happy family pushed the doors leaving the theater open, laughing as they went. The youngest McGinnis was running around In circles punching invisible bad guys laughing as he went.
"The Grey Ghost is so cool!" He cried out loud. "When I grow up I want to be just like him!"
"Well then that's who you'll be like!" Mary McGinnis told her son laughing at his antics.
Chuckling slightly, Warren McGinnis crouched down in front of his son halting the young boy from his imaginary foes.
"Being just like the Grey Ghost can be easy Terry, it's as simple as helping people in need, never being afraid, and never ever giving up." The young boy stared at his father in awe as he took in the words said to him.
"Okay." The young boy said in a small voice.
And off they go on their way again, heading towards their vehicle. Suddenly the hair on Terry's neck stood up. He felt like something was wrong. In front of the family was a dark alley, and Terry was scared. He wanted so badly to ask them if they could go around but he thought of his father's previous words.
"Never being afraid."
And so, the young boy marched along the dark path, and the closer they got to the end of it, the more he was sure his father was right and he had just needed to be brave. Terry began to run around in circles and fight imaginary foes again as by now he knew his father was right, he first needed to be brave like the Grey Ghost. While running in his circle though the young boy was unable to pay much attention to those around him, and so he ran head on into a body.
"Oomph" the young boy fell to the ground, the air leaving his body.
"What kid, you wanna try those fancy moves on me? " said an unfamiliar voice.
The young boy looked up and his earlier fears had been personified. Tall, scary, and looming over him was his worst nightmare. A man pointing a gun towards his parents was looking down at him, he slowly turned his head towards his parents and saw them frozen in fear.
"Hand over your cash, and I want that fancy bracelet lady, it looks expensive." Said the mugger's voice.
Terry tried to stand up and go over to his parents, but as soon as he had found his feet he was pulled back by his hair towards the mugger.
"Ah!" The young McGinnis exclaimed as tears began to form in his eyes.
"No no no little boy, you're staying right next to me, we don't want daddy to try and be a hero now do we?"
The mugger twisted Terry's hair towards his parents, forcing him to watch as Warren placed his and Mary's wallets into the ground.
The mugger bent down towards the wallets when Mary took a step forward. It all happened so fast.
"BANG!" The sound would haunt Terry's nightmares for the rest of his life.
Mary McGinnis had been shot. Now Terry had heard about everything slowing down when something like this was happening, but he never expected it to be anything like this. Blood splattering in all directions, the pain, the shock and the absolute fear playing across both of his parents' faces were horrendous. As his mother's lifeless body dropped towards the ground he saw her bracelet still being clutched in her hands and he realized what had happened. His mom hadn't been stupid, she would have never attacked the man, but she was simply following his request to hand over her bracelet and was attempting to give it to him.
"Mary!" The most blood curdling scream brought the present crashing back down around the boy, as he watched his father take a step towards his mother when he heard something that somehow sounded worse the second time.
"BANG! BANG! BANG!" Warren McGinnis fell backwards still moaning in pain, hand still outstretched towards his wife, and all Terry could do was watch. His mind barely had enough time to register the mugger fleeing away from the sirens that he had somehow not noticed before. Stumbling towards his parents Terry fell to his knees and reached out for his mother's face.
"Mom? Please mom, you'll be OK! I promise! Don't worry momma, I'll save you, I can be like the Grey Ghost and save you I promise!" Terry began to be more insistent with his pleas.
"Mom! You need to wake up! Please! MOM!" Over the frantic screams of the child it was a miracle that the young boy heard a quiet voice behind him.
"Terry….." his father croaked out. Terry turned towards his father and instantly shuffled quickly to his side.
"Yeah dad? Are you OK? Mom's hurt real bad, but it'll be OK, right?" The young boy hoped his father would have all of the answers but what his father said next destroyed Terry.
"No, son….I don't think…we will." His father reached out and grabbed his hand as Terry tried to pull away.
"No Dad. Don't say that…. Please don't say that." Tears unlike never before filled Terry's eyes.
"Son…I need- you to listen- to me…" his father said to him in a scattered speech.
"Yeah dad?" Terry said back. He didn't want to listen but was beginning to realize it might be the last thing said between the two of them.
"Be good- son. You're a- good boy…and you can do- great things…and don't be afraid son…. Don't ever be afra-..." Warren's sentence died out as his hand loosened its grip on his young sons.
Terry was made mute, he wanted so badly to ask his parents if they were alright, but he knew they would never talk to him again. They were gone. His parents were dead. Terry had no clue how long he sat there kneeling in his parents blood before the police showed up, but he could care less.
"Oh my God." A feminine voice coming from behind Terry said.
"Levitt, you go call for backup…I'll get the kid."a separate masculine voice said.
Terry heard the steps behind him but had no intention of turning around.
"Hey kid, I'm here with the GCPD…my name is Officer Grayson. If you want though, you can call me Dick." The officer said in a soft voice directly behind him. Terry still made no motion to turn. A hand laid down gently on his right shoulder, trying to slowly steer him away from the gruesome scene. But the young child held firm. Taking another route the officer slowly made his way around to the front of the young child to get his attention."
"What's your name kid?" Dick asked, placing his hand underneath the boy's chin and pulling his eyes towards his own.
"... Terrence. But I-I go by Terry. That's what my parents would ..." The boy's final statement died out as officer Grayson nodded his head like he understood what the boy meant, and just maybe he did.
"Ok Terry, I know you don't want to leave your parents right now, but we have to take you over to the side so all of these other nice officers can do their job, is that ok?"
"... OK." Came the young boy's reply.
Dick Grayson took the young boy's hand and walked with him back towards his police cruiser. When they reached the vehicle he looked down and noticed the boy was shivering, he instantly began to pull his coat off of himself and slid it over the young boy's shoulders. It was too large, looking more like a blanket than any kind of coat. Dick began to hear more and more sirens approaching their location.
"Ok Terry." He said looking directly into the young boy's eyes. "I need to talk to the detectives when they get here, don't worry it should be real quick and then after that you and I can head back to the department, how does that sound?"
Terry simply shook his head yes in response, not feeling up to responding anymore. Dick gave the young child a sad smile before turning around and greeting the approaching detectives.
"Officer Grayson is it?" The male detective to the right asked.
"Yes sir, that's me." He replied, shaking the detective's hand.
"I'm detective Mono, this is detective Reid. Why don't you go ahead and tell us what happened, officer?"
Taking a deep breath Dick made a small turn towards Terry in his cruiser before fully turning towards the detectives again. "Of course, me and officer Levitt were parked at the end of that intersection watching for traffic. And that's when we heard it, a gunshot….."
It's been hours since the tragedy happened, and Terry hasn't talked once since then. CPS was on the phone 20 or so minutes ago and they should be here soon. Dick Grayson was watching the young boy through a one way mirror. The young boy was sitting in a "soft" interrogation room, which is typically used for children. The two detectives from the alley were in the room with him, both trying to get him to answer some questions. The boy was like stone. He knew that look, of course he did. He saw it when he first met Bruce, and he still sees it in the mirror somedays. It's the look of despair, of loss of anger.
The male detective on the right (Reid if he remembered correctly) received a phone call and reached inside his pocket to answer it. Talking in a hushed tone the detective got the attention of his partner and motioned towards the interrogation room door, they left without a single word to young Terry. Dick waited for a minute or so for anyone to return and when he realized the poor boy had been forgotten about he made his way to the room.
He knocked lightly once and opened the door hoping to get the young boy's attention. No such luck. "Hey Terry, do you remember me from earlier?"
No response.
"My name's officer Grayson. I saw you sitting alone here and knew you might want some company."
No response.
Dick had an idea, "I remember how much I wanted some company when I was in the seat."
Young eyes shot up towards the officer's looking for deceit. None was to be found.
"What… what happened?" The young boy asked in a quiet voice.
Officer Grayson looked down at the floor before he started. "My family and I, we were trapeze artists in the circus. One day a bad man tried to get the owner of the circus to pay him for "protection" but he refused." Dick looks at Terry and sees his face scrunched up in confusion.
"Oh, ummm he was going to hurt people if the circus owner refused to pay, the protection was against himself." A look of understanding came across the young boy's face.
"Well anyways the circus owner thought the bad man was bluffing so he refused. He was wrong. That night was the first night my parents were letting me join in on the act, I was 9." At this point Dick had a small amount of tears in his eyes.
"The uh, the bad man sabotaged the high wire, for many trapeze artists it wouldn't have been a problem, but my family's big eye grabber was we used no net. I watched my mother and father both fall to their deaths." Dick watched the young boy as Terry cried and hung his head low hiding his eyes from Dick. Reaching out Dick placed his hand on Terry's shoulder and spoke to him in a soft voice.
"Listen to me Terry, I know better than most that right now this pain is unimaginable. But I need you to know that it will ease. It may never go away and for some it's harder to let go than others." Dick said thinking of Bruce.
"But you will one day find a way to honor your parents memory, and it will ease the pain better than time ever could." Dick slowly moved his hand from Terry's shoulder to his chin as he brought up the young boy's face to look at his eyes and what he saw shocked him. Terry had become the living embodiment of pain, of fear, of vengeance. He had become the Batman. Dick's hand involuntarily pulled back and knew that he needed to call Bruce. He should've called when he first came across the young boy in a scene that mirrored his adopted father's almost exactly.
At that moment there came a knock on the door and it was pushed open.
"Hello my name is Rebecca Day, I'm here to pick up young Terry McGinnis."
Dick looked at her and was about to help Terry walk over towards her when he turned and saw that the young child had already started to make his way there.
"Hey Terry, don't forget what I told you ok? Your pain will get better." Dick tried to reassure the young boy, and he stopped in his tracks.
"I'm sorry officer Grayson, you're wrong I'll never forget this." He said, turning towards Dick. But when he turned around it wasn't officer Grayson behind him but a blue man with red glowing horns.
"I know you… you were the friend in my dream this morning. Your name is Dubbilex."
"Yes Beyond, my name is Dubbilex." The blue man replied with a sad smile.
"You called me Beyond in my dream too, but my name is Terry. Am I dreaming now? If I wake up will my parents be there with me?" The young boy asked with a hint of hope in his voice.
"No Beyond, when you wake up, this" he said gesturing to the room around them, "will all be gone."
"My name…my name's not Terry. Is it?"
"No, you are project Batman Beyond, though you said you prefer to go by Beyond."
"So when I wake up I'll forget this? It was just a nightmare?"
A grimace came across Dubbilex's face. "No Beyond, this isn't a dream nor a nightmare, this is a forced memory. You'll remember this like you would your own name, but it's not completely real."
"Not "completely" real? How does that make sense, this was all made up!" Beyond questioned while angry tears began to fill his eyes.
"What was fake Beyond, was that they were your parents, that you were able to grow up outside of your stasis tube, that you were allowed to be a kid. But so much of it was real, your happiness, your love and especially their love. The love they had for you." Dubbilex placed a hand on Beyond's shoulder as his angry tears became tears of pain and loss.
"Listen to me Beyond, the love that your parents had for you couldn't be more real, it doesn't matter if everything was real or not, you still had the most important part of any relationship, love. When you wake up Beyond, this will be over, the pain will still be there but you can turn it into something greater, you can change the fear into justice."
"Justice?" Beyond questions with a confused look. "Justice for what? It wasn't real."
"Just because it wasn't real for you doesn't mean it's not real for others, Beyond. You can protect all of the Terry McGinnis' out there that don't get to be told that it never actually happened, you can be the protector that people need, you can be the justice that makes criminals think twice before hurting someone in a dark alley, you can be the knight, Beyond." Dubbilex told the young boy hoping he could steer him towards a better future.
Beyond took a shaky breath, and quelled his tears from continuing. All around him the world began to crumble, before Dubbilex's eyes Terry began to grow into Beyond, no more childhood innocence, but still with dried tears on his face. Soon enough they were both in pitch blackness again, but this time it wasn't so empty. To the right of the empty park bench 8 year old Terry McGinnis was on a swing as his mom and dad pushed him back and forth laughing. In front of it was a beautiful garden, filled with trees, birds, and love.
New tears threatened to come out of Beyond's eyes. "It's beautiful." He commented to Dubbilex.
"It's full of love, of course it's beautiful." Dubbilex replied.
A bright light came from behind the pair and the two turned to see what it was from. Beyond was amazed, it looked like a path made of light. "What is that?" Beyond asked.
"They're waking you up now." Dubbilex supplied
"What if I forget about our talk? If I don't know you're a friend?"
"Then we'll have to become friends again, Beyond."
"Okay." Beyond said as he walked towards the light. "Oh and Dubbilex, Beyond is a bit of a weird thing to call somebody, so why don't you go ahead and start calling me Terry." Terry said as he continued his walk to the light.