Batman Beyond 'Fan Fiction Story'
By Tayla Drago
Episode# 20 – Hooked Up
Hard times for Gwen to live with Megan for a while since Terry made a lot of mistakes with her between Melanie to leave behind and having trouble in his relationship with Dana, though working together to going to school will be a bit harder to talk to one another and working together. Bruce asks his wife on how his step-niece's been feeling lately 'since those two talk every day'.
"Megan, how's Gwen?"
"Well...She's hanging in there to have some friends of Terry to hang out with even Maxie. Poor girl's a mess." she said. "And how's Terry? Although what he did was stupid, we both know we can't be mad at him for the rest of his young life."
True, but Terry needed to do something about it himself to talk to Gwen.
"I know." said Bruce. "I'll call up to talk to her later, thanks for letting me know about Gwen's condition so far."
For them to have their love was still stronger than ever.
"It's no problem, Bruce, and everything will work out somehow for young teens. Things can be harder at first to work things around it afterwards. It did for us, so why not them?"
Hopefully...For Gwen to train from making her muscles stronger from time to time, helping out, controlling her fire still, and studying from classes to still have a lot on her mind to still be thinking about Terry.
"(Does he still care about me...? Terry.)" she asks herself.
Elsewhere...A young teenager named Donny gives a knockout performance at a rock concert. As he leaves the arena, he pushes past his adoring fans and enters a limousine with three waiting girlfriends...then the scene changes to a virtual reality parlor, where Donny's booth has just been shut off. He begs to be put back in, but the proprietor says he needs to pay. A reality thing to see what makes you happy to stay there. Is that unhealthy? At Hamilton Hill High School, Terry is still trying to wake up after another rough night. Well, between that and how he and Gwen are having some trouble for Max to already know about it.
"Rough night?" Max asks him.
"Aren't they all?" he yawns. "A lot been's going on with me..."
"Between work or you with Gwen. Yeah, she told me."
Part of him felt bad to see Gwen every day from work and school to do stuff, but never hang out a lot.
"You too, huh?" Terry asks Max. "Between Bruce and Megan, they're making me the bad guy. Dana and I are working something out and Gwen...I mean, part of me does like her more..."
"But you can't decide who you want to love more from the two girls. I get it. I have nothing against you, but you better decide real soon." she said. "And for work since you two help out to go your temperately separate ways...Maybe you need someone out there with you. You could do worse you know."
From Gwen, maybe...But from anyone else would be a bit risky.
"Forget it."
"Why should you have all the fun? Or her?" Max asks Terry.
"Max, it's not fun."
Terry's right, between him and Gwen is business.
"What? Flying, intrigue power?" she said. "Yeah, you're right. It's a drag." Max suggests that he would do better if she came with him sometimes, but he refuses point-blank.
Gwen to be passing by Terry and Max.
"Hi, Maxie." said the smile Gwen to feel a bit better.
"How's it going, Gwen?"
And for her and Terry to look at each other real quick.
"Hey, Gwen..." Terry tries to say something. "Look...Could you at least patrol with me tonight?"
They can still do that at least to stop crime and hold their difference aside. They don't hate each other, just a lot to work out on. With Gwen continue walking, she does say something to Terry before leaving...
"I'll be there."
At least she said yes. On patrol that night, Terry/Batman and Gwen/Batwoman sees Donny, who ran away from home and school the week before. Donny is trying to panhandle from passersby, but when they refuse, he becomes violent and starts mugging them, snatching wallets and purses.
"Ouch! Someone at this young age is going to be in trouble." said Batwoman.
"Sure looks like it. I haven't seen Donny at school in a while." Batman explains. "It's nice to still be working together like this."
For her other self to do the work while Gwen's brains help out the other half when doing some hacking skills.
"Just me to help you out and let you know what Gweny's saying, Bats. I hate when you did to her...! But I can't argue about it too much. Look, let just stop Donny from pick pocketing before he hurts anyone else on the streets."
As Terry tells Bruce about Max not to get too involved in things for her own safety for the two of them 'even Gwen to agree upon', for Max's sake. But she doesn't take no for an answer.
"How do I tell her no?" he asks Bruce.
Kind of asking the wrong person.
"He's not serious, is he?" Megan asks her husband while patting Ace.
"You're asking me for advice on handling women?"
Good point there, Bruce.
"Ah." Terry gets it now. "I see your point."
"Yep, and everything is something with good old Maxie. More on that later, kid must be stopped next." Batwoman points out.
Batman and Batwoman confront him and is astonished when Donny leaps off the building roof in desperation to get away from them. The chase leads down to the highway, where Terry is forced to break off the pursuit to prevent a highway crash and Batwoman with some fire power of foam type of item to use to slow down the crash without anyone else getting hurt on the streets.
"We let him get away."
"What would a runaway kid want with people's money?" Batwoman questions herself. "Try to make it big alone with chum chain? I'll see what Gweny can get for us."
Donny returns to the parlor and offers the stolen money, begging to be hooked up again, and is given another chance by the proprietor...Spellbinder. Him again?! Another one of Spellbinder's clients, Jessie, suddenly loses consciousness and becomes comatose. Spellbinder shuts off the others' booths, and tells them to dump Jessie somewhere, and then go out to find some 'new recruits'. Jessie is later found and hospitalized as Megan reports Bruce about this for Gwen to learn about it and then Terry afterwards.
"Are they did?" Gwen asks Megan. "I hope not."
Megan double checks their wave brains to be close, but not life threatening from her computer to give her some of the answers.
"No, but they're stuck from the looks of it." she said. "Gwen, set up some mini shocks to ease the brain, hook this one up for me while I let Bruce and Terry know about this. Whoever's doing this is good with tech like us. Well, I'm still the best hacker."
"I'm doing my best to be good like you are, Megan...So maybe Terry..."
She asks Gwen this question.
"You love him, don't you? It's cool. I felt different when I met Bruce who was my Batman. Working together, he came on to me, I slowly realize it, and... our relationship grew more. Look, I hope that whatever happens to Dana and him, they can still care to being really good friends. I love friendship type of thing. Like I am with your...real father who made you Dick Grayson...Trust me, he'll come around. And for your other self to get better with your guidance is getting good."
Gwen notices it lately to get really better at it day by day.
"It has? Well, she's the brave one while I'm still the shy and caring type of person." said Gwen. "And what you're saying is true, I know waiting is tough...I want him to work it out, I would never hurt their caring friendship. Dana's a good person."
"Even if she hates you a little?" Megan asked.
Dana doesn't hate Gwen in the world type of thing, she just gets jealous way too much.
"I rather have someone to work out with than villain who treats people..."
"Like crap?" she added.
"Sort of."
The two girls were getting a long well.
"Anyways, you still help me out to get better with your powers, you'll go back to your step-uncle Bruce later." Megan gets back to work. "Anyways, let's send these to him and for Terry to see on what we can discover."
A good girl talks there, huh? Anyways, Megan alerts Terry and Bruce for he notes that Jessie is the latest in a long list of runaways who have been later found comatose and are currently hospitalized. Whatever is happening to them is likely connected to Donny.
"They're all comatose?" Terry asks Bruce.
"Not all of them..."
With Gwen on the roof top of a building to hack through as she leaves it to Terry for him reluctantly brings Max along on an investigation 'and Gwen listens in', to visit Donny's parents, whom she has met before.
"You with us, Gwen?" Max checks on her friend.
"I'm all set. I'm listening in to gather some information."
She was good.
"Alright, thanks, Gwen, stay put." said Terry to let Max know about one thing. "I only brought you to get the other information for us is all, Max, don't forget."
"When you see what I can do, you'll be begging me to help you."
I guess Max knows what she was doing, she's not dumb. They are disturbed to see that the parents live in a seedy apartment, and that Donny's father is abusive towards his wife and no longer wants to see his son. Sad life, huh?
"I guess it would make sense between Donny having a sad life from his mean father and his mother missing him a lot." Gwen felt bad. "(Poor guy...)"
While there, Max finds a cash card belonging to Donny, and sees a large number of charges from a video arcade, which includes a virtual reality booth.
"V.R. Room." said Max.
"It's some type of money to place on cards like these, this one belongs in some type of arcade gaming."
From what Gwen and Max can gather, it was all true.
"Vroom?" Terry was confused.
"V.R. Room." Max explains to Terry. "It's an arcade downtown. Donny was spending his creds escaping reality."
And for the three can see why he is.
"I can't imagine why."
They visit the arcade, which is legitimate. While there, Donny and two other of Spellbinder's clients catch sight of Max, Gwen, and Terry, and offer to show them a 'real' virtual reality experience. Terry is reluctant, but Max is eager to investigate further. Gwen had to do something to fix it.
"Wait, Maxie, I can go, you just...stay here with Terry to learn more of the V.R. Please don't do this." she begs of her friend.
"I'll be fine, you two need more time together anyways." she said. "Terry, don't worry. I'll call you two later."
"Max!" Terry couldn't talk her out of it.
This didn't look good at all nor was Donny in his condition he was in was getting worse.
"Terry, look...Whatever happen to Donny for me to feel him ill, it might happen to Maxie. I'm worried."
After hearing that the experience is offered by Spellbinder there is a fight in which Terry is distracted by Donny and for Gwen to overhear Spellbinder's name again to do something but neither of them couldn't, as Max is dragged away. However, Megan taught Gwen another skill to use.
"Where is she?" Terry got worried.
"Calm down. I place a bug on her." she shows him from her computer device. "We can track her down and save Maxie with the others. (Thanks for the tips on how to do these things, Megan.) Looks like Spellbinder's back for more but with virtual reality things to use on people."
In the illicit virtual reality device, Max experiences an intoxicating fantasy where she returns home to a loving and supportive family. Spellbinder to use people's minds to mess with, and Gwen's at one point, remember? The next night, on patrol as Batman and Gwen as Batwoman, both Gwen and Terry are shocked to see Max breaking into a car's glove compartment to steal from it.
"Hello! Are you seeing this right now?" shock Batwoman. "This is so not like her."
For them to still be working together, they need to save Max.
"Max, what are you doing?"
For she was doing it still without saying anything to her friends but to leave her alone.
"Go away!" said Max. "Neither of you won't understand."
"You're stealing things to have Spellbinder put you back in the V.R." said Terry/Batman. "Look at yourself!"
They confront her, and she says she is desperate to get back to the V.R. room.
"Then just leave me alone! Both of you!"
Terry convinces her to return home, and he catches a glimpse of her reality: her parents are divorced, and her mother is hardly ever home because of her work schedule. Most of the time it's just Max and her sister.
"Harsh times..." said Gwen to her friend. "Look, things are bad like with me to know little of the family who created me to have stepparents a little. Maxie, it'll be all right. Promise. And Terry, call up Uncle Bruce to tell him about this."
As Maxie lays down to rest and Gwen keeping her company, Terry calls Bruce on the phone — then Max sneaks up on him and knocks him out before leaving the apartment.
"Max..." he goes out cold.
"Terry!" Gwen tries to stop her. "Don't do this-!"
Max does the same at Gwen for the two were out cold. Only for the tracking device to still be on Max to leave, they'll find her soon enough.
"Terry! Gwen!" Bruce worries.
Before Max leave, she says this to Bruce 'for her not to know who it is yet'.
"Whoever you are, when these two wake up, tell them I'm sorry."
She then leaves. After regaining consciousness, Terry/Batman and Gwen/Batman track down Donny and follows him to the parlor's location.
"She's here somewhere. Let just go..." Gwen still sad around Terry to know that teaming up comes first. "Burning Passion! Batwoman."
And Batwoman takes over to leave Batman to Donny to find Max and the others from Spellbinder's hideout.
"If we can find Donny, we can find Max to stop the hypnotic dude this time...Wherever he is."
For someone like Terry to be driving the Batmobile to fly it recklessly to be in a hurry.
"Easy there." Bruce tells Terry.
"I can't believe I got her involved in this!" he was upset.
It was hard to feel like this, but they can still save Max.
"Now you sound like Batman."
For Bruce to make joke about Terry to sound like the real Batman he knows of.
"What?" he was lost.
"He's joking..." said Batwoman. "Lighten up, would you, Bats?"
Ad then Bruce tells the two about how he had to save his love Megan so many times before to worry about her a lot.
"I've been right where you are. More times than I care to count, and like you said, there's no way you could have stopped her. And for me to rescue Megan a lot even she could fight back, I worry about her from every event it happens to the two of us."
True love was strong. First Batman and Batwoman find Donny feeling weak for Megan to arrive to help him by healing his brain waves with a special device that does it.
"I got it." she said. "You two, I think I saw a group of kids heading down the hallways of this place. If Gwen did place the tracking device I gave her, it should lead you both to Spellbinder and Max. Now hurry, I'll save this one."
"Thanks, Megan." said Batman.
And hurry...! As the two find Max there, hooked in again.
"There she is!" Batwoman jumps into the rescue. "Max, hang on. Don't you dare die on us!"
Carefully hacking through the system, a little for Gwen to guide Batwoman, leaving Batman to shut down Max's booth, and she rages at him, telling him that it is what she wants, and he has no right to interfere.
"You two ruined it all!"
"You can't live in a fantasy world!" Terry tells Max.
"And what Gweny would say to you for me to say it instead...It isn't healthy, Maxie." she said.
"Why not?" Max questions them both. "What's so great about reality?!"
"Max, you're smarter than this!"
Batman tries to reason with her, but then Spellbinder ambushes him and knocks him out.
"Why couldn't you listen to me?" she said.
"Hey, stop it-!"
For Spellbinder to shock her next to be trapped in water to weaken Batwoman to not do anything and see Batman was in danger.
"Yes, Batman and Batwoman. Why couldn't you both?" he mocks them.
Max is eager to get hooked back in and doesn't seem to notice that Spellbinder is about to kill Terry.
"No!" Batwoman had to do something. "Hey Gweny, say something to your friend and partner...Like it or not...I rather be mad when they're alive and not brain dead or killed! So hurry it up!"
For Batwoman tries to get out of the water painfully, for her to place a device to snap Max out of it with some fire power to talk to her friend to somehow works.
"(Maxie! Listen, what you're doing is wrong! All of it! Terry said you're smarter than this...He's going to kill me and him to leave you to turn into a vegetable! Hurry...Your reality is with us, with friends. Like Terry and me, we'll work something out somehow no matter how much it hurts. So come on!"
It somehow works to get through to Max unharmed.
"Gwen...?" she was back. "Batman's in danger!"
Spellbinder overloads Terry's mind with his illusion device, then Max breaks out of the booth and subdues him for Batwoman to hack to the other machines to overloading them for good. Megan arrives to see what went down to have Gwen do a fine job for her.
"Game over, Spellbinder. This is reality out of the fantasy world to be no more."
Spellbinder is arrested, and an examination of his machines allows the authorities to treat his victims. That's good to know. For the three to see the news, it was good to hear. For Gwen to see the two doing well.
"(Hey, Gweny, good work.)" said her other self. "(Aren't you going to hang out with them?)"
For Max and Terry to see Gwen standing further away from them, they wave to her...and Gwen's responds was a little smile to have some work for her Terry to slowly work things out so far. He'll allow it.
"Maybe later. I need to get the papers in from the project I've been doing so far. But still, I think Maxie will be find with us by her side, and her smarts intact. (Terry, I'm glad you're not hurt.)"
It's a start, but it's going to work more later. Not bad, Gwen.
"Is she okay?" Max asks Terry.
"I think we can work something out...I hope."
"Whatever." Max apologizes, saying that she almost got three of them killed.
Terry tells her not to worry, it worked out all right in the end.
"Don't be...It means you're in and Gwen would love it." he said. "But we're taking things slower so you won't get yourself hurt so much."
Moreover, she's now proven her worth to Terry and Gwen as a partner, and they can take this all one step at a time. Good enough to have a few more people on the team, and others to fix with little at a time.
"I'm down with that, sure."