Batman Beyond 'Fan Fiction Story'
By Tayla Drago
Episode# 28 – The Last Resort
While patrolling the skies of Gotham, Terry/Batman goes over a few updates on school events with Max.
"Let me see if I got all this: Jurgen is breaking up with Blade so he can see Chris, but Chris is interested in Eric, who doesn't want to date anybody. Now wait a minute, that doesn't sound like Eric to me."
Gwen/Batwoman were hearing all of this.
"School life to loving can be stupid." she said. "Not like you, Bats, with Gwen to love."
"It's not." Max tells Terry the other way around. "You're thinking of the other Eric."
Now she tells them both.
"Aw, man, there's two of them now?" he asks himself.
"Drama teens are so boring!"
No use complaining, Batwoman.
"See how important these little updates are? Without them, people would start wondering why you don't know what's going on at school anymore."
"(What we do without you, Maxie?)" said Gwen.
"I should just tell them I'm busy chasing renegade synthoids and living heads." Terry makes a joke.
Even if Terry did, no one would ever believe in him being Batman nor Gwen as Batwoman at all. For Max, Batwoman, and Gwen to say so themselves to him.
"They wouldn't believe it."
"Doubt it."
"(Not happening.)"
"Neither do I." he said back.
Just then, Batman and Batwoman hear sirens blare and sees a renegade truck giving the police a lot of trouble.
"Finally, it's show time!" said Batwoman. "Let's move out!"
Batman and Batwoman intervene but the truck is stronger than the Batmobile and the driver is flying like a madman.
"We got him."
Fortunately, Batman and Batwoman manage to stop the driver: Sean Miller, a student in Terry's history class.
"(You know this person, Batman?)" Gwen asks him.
"Sean Miller...He's in my history class."
If it was this Sean person, he wasn't being himself right now. Later, the chase forms part of a commercial for a new rehabilitation clinic for troubled adolescents. The clinic's founder, Dr. David Wheeler, reminds parents that new laws are imposing strict punishments on the parents of truants, and assures them that his methods can help troubled kids become normal and well-adjusted again. For Megan to be hearing and seeing this a lot on TV lately, she knows that something was up.
"Dr. David Wheeler, huh...?" she begins her own research. "(Knowing Bruce, he wants me to track this issue down. Because soon enough, he and the other two lovers are going to be need my head.)"
Smart thinking, Megan Tsuki. The clinic proves to be so popular that soon Hamilton Hill High School is nearly empty of students. One of Terry's classes has only eight students left. Chelsea is sure that the clinic is to blame, and sends a protesting e-mail to Principal Nakamura, calling this new solution 'un-schway'. Yep, something was up. This has Terry, Gwen, Dana, and Chelsea worry about this...
"I got this covered."
"Are you sure?" Terry asks Chelsea.
"My Dad does this all the time for things to work out afterwards." she said. "Trust me."
Gwen however had a very bad feeling about all of this to sense out since Sean's issue yesterday.
"(Something's wrong...I can just feel it...)"
Still, something was up. Even more for Dana finally talks to Gwen to see how her and Terry's relationship was doing.
"Treating him with care..." she said.
"Dana?"
"Sorry, I just want to see how you two are doing."
"We're fine." said Gwen. "Thanks for asking. (I don't think she's not mad at us anymore.) Dana, I was wondering if you still want to hang out with us, Terry and I wish to be your friend.)"
Dana gets back to work on her computer.
"Sorry, I'm busy right now." she had one thing to say to Gwen. "But I can help you a little from the SA project we're doing...if you don't mind."
A slow thing for Terry to smile at his girlfriend, but she'll take it.
"Yes, please. (Anything's better than feeling left out. I hope Dana will find someone soon enough, a good man to treat her a lot more.)"
Dana Tan wants to hang out with them, that's a slow start. Meanwhile...Nakamura calls Chelsea's father about the email, and Mr. Cunningham seizes on the excuse to enroll Chelsea in the clinic. Knowing that Chelsea is not necessarily troubled, Terry, Max, Gwen, and Dana are suspicious at how readily the clinic admitted her, and Max and Dana both agree that someone should look into the ranch, with Max casting a meaningful look Gwen and Terry's way.
"There's something weird happening to the students in this school, and I don't like it either." said Max.
Even Gwen's inner self was getting a very bad feeling of it all.
"(If you think it is, I want to know why before my head explodes!)"
Looks like from Max was giving to the two lovers, they'll get right on it. At the clinic, located on a ranch on the outskirts of the city, Chelsea wanders around and is rudely greeted by Sean, who is already trying to pick a fight, accusing her of talking about him behind his back. She tries to leave him by going to a friend of hers, Adam Stepnik. However, Adam is totally unresponsive to her, and she notices that he's painting a blank canvas using a brush with no paint. Sean sneers that Adam is still under the effects of the 'ISO'. Before Chelsea can get answers as to what 'ISO' means, the students are herded into 'class' by Vincent, the head guard of the facility. That night, Batman and Batwoman start their investigation of the clinic, eavesdropping through the wall using their fingertip mikes.
"...easiest thing in the world, being a teenager: you get up, you go to school, you come home, and you do your homework. How do you mess that up?! Yet all of you did, in one way or another - and now I have to clean up that mess!" The class consists of the students being forced to stand for hours on end, listening to Dr. Wheeler yelling at them that they are worthless, and he is the only one who can help them. The students are not allowed to leave for any reason, not even to go to the bathroom.
"(Terry, I think maybe Megan might be on to something...)" Gwen tells her boyfriend. "(You're getting all of this right, Uncle Bruce?)"
Even Terry has Bruce listening in as well.
"I know, Gwen." he said to tell Bruce about it next. "Bruce, he's been going on like this for hours, telling them how worthless they are and how only he can help them. Won't even let them go to the bathroom!"
"Painful!" Batwoman added in. "Your wife was right to pick on this mess."
"Sleep deprivation, endless harangues; it's classic brainwashing. Some cults do it. It's also occasionally used on prisoners of war." he said.
True, it does work. Just not to Megan's point of view.
"I don't know, Bruce, it could be bad on others...Some of them."
"And Wheeler's doing it to kids." Terry/Batman said back.
A boy tries to speak up, begging to go back to his room so he can sleep, and Wheeler orders Vincent to drag him away to the ISO as punishment. Bruce identifies Wheeler's methods as a form of brainwashing, used by cults and sometimes on prisoners of war. Disgusted, Batman leaves, but his foot trips a laser and triggers the alarm, forcing him to evade the security guards led by Vincent who is piloting a mobile pod.
"Oh! Now you've done it, Bats!" Batwoman complains. "We're out of here for now!"
They eventually escape by throwing down a smoke bomb and some fire from Batwoman's doing and then using the Batsuit's cloaking device to hide against a nearby tree.
"(I think we have to stop this mess, Batman, no matter what it takes.)" Gwen tells her partner. "(I don't like this school to help out kids, not like this...)"
Back in the Batcave, Terry says they have enough evidence to go to the police and have the clinic shut down, but Bruce reminds him that he would have to explain how he got the suit's recordings which he cannot do without revealing their secret.
"What do we need more evidence for?" Terry questions Bruce. "You taped the feed from me and Gwen's fingertip mikes, didn't you? All you gotta do is take it to the authorities."
"The whole thing sounds like a jail for kids to learn from right from wrong, Uncle Bruce, but in a bad way!" said Gwen.
No kidding, what gives?
"They wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't fake, right Bruce?" Megan tells her husband. "This is not like you...Well, not like you at times when things can get serious."
Megan had to add that last part in.
"I know, Megan, I heard what I needed to hear. And what do I say when they ask me where I got it?" he said to Terry. "A little bat left it on my front porch?"
Yeah, that move could be a bad idea to do for Terry to realize it.
"Oh. You still got that plastic mini vid-cam? The one you can take through a metal detector?"
"There has to be some way...Hacking?" Gwen asks them.
"No good..." Megan brought some bad news. "Even if could hack into the place, they would destroy the virus from their system in seconds. But there may be another way...One has to go in under cover and the other to watch from outside of the place-!"
Then Bruce knew what that meant since Megan thought of the same thing.
"I've got it, Terry, but you're not thinking of..."
So Terry decides to go undercover in the ranch as himself.
"Some jobs are just too tough for Batman. That's when Terry McGinnis swings into action." he said.
"What?" Gwen didn't like the idea at all. "Terry, wait! It's too dangerous!"
"Hey, Gwen, I'll be okay. You can try hacking through from the inside more than the outside of the place, right?" he hugs and kisses Gwen. "It'll be fine. I'll go under cover, and you go as Batwoman to do the rest to finding out more the boarding school it is. Please?"
Seems they have no other choice.
"Well, I guess...But what's this idea of yours?"
The next day, Terry enters the ranch to pay Chelsea a friendly visit, carrying a plastic video camera that slips through the gate's metal detector for Gwen to do the rest. Unfortunately, the desk guard, Vincent, confiscates his backpack with the Batsuit in it.
"Got it, Gwen?" Terry asks his girlfriend.
"I'm in, Terry...All good to go." she said. "Be careful in there. I feel things that are not so friendly."
On the way in, Terry passes a boy named Donnie being visited by his parents, who is begging to be taken away from the ranch. Terry is told by another guard that Chelsea cancelled their appointment but doesn't believe it. Fortunately, at that moment, Donnie breaks down and tries to escape through the gate, distracting the security guards long enough for Terry to slip inside the entrance to the main facility, where he hides in an air duct when the guard comes back.
"(He's in, Gweny.)" said Gwen's inner self.
Seeing Chelsea pass, he pulls her aside, and is horrified at the state she is in. She reveals that she hasn't been sleeping much, and she says that she was told that Terry was the one who canceled their appointment. He takes out the recorder and she describe the abusive conditions at the ranch and explains what the ISO is: a sensory deprivation tank that blocks out all feeling and sound, making the subject feel totally isolated.
"The sleep thing's just the beginning, Terry. He's trying to break our will, turn us all into little robots. Wheeler's got this thing they call 'ISO'. Short for isolation. It's total sense deprivation - no light, no sound. He uses it on the kids who don't get with the program. It... It... (starts breaking down) Terry, you've got to get me out of here!"
"How awful..." Gwen was shocked to hear. "That's no treatment, that's torment! Terry, I got the backup tape, we got evidences we need."
Reaching the end of her control, Chelsea breaks down crying and begs Terry to get her out of there.
"That's gonna happen, Chels. Just as soon as two people I know sees this vid. In the meantime, just try to stay schway for another day or two, OK?" Terry said.
"I'll try." Chelsea trusts in him.
Now that he has the evidence he needs, Terry promises to help her as soon as he can return with the police.
"(I told Megan, now we'll handle the rest and the cops. We'll get you all out of there, Chels. Terry and I promise.)"
But as Terry was about to leave the ranch, Sean stops him, trying to pick a fight. Terry keeps going, but Sean attacks him, bringing both Wheeler and his security guards. Sean is sentenced to the ISO, and Terry is searched, turning up the camera. Terry is taken prisoner as well, yelling at Wheeler that once the parents find out about him, they're going to shut him and his ranch down. As Wheeler and Vincent talk, Wheeler says that if anyone comes for Terry, they'll destroy the camera and it will be nothing but his word against Wheeler's in court, but if no one comes, they will do away with him. When Vincent expresses how Terry will not be easy to kill because he is a fighter, Wheeler tells him that they'll just have to 'take the fight out of him' by putting him in ISO alongside Sean.
"Hey! You can't do this!"
"Terry? Terry!" Gwen couldn't contact him. "(No... No...! I'm on my own now...They can't do this to him or the others...No more...) I'm putting an end to it all!" she transforms. "Burning passion. Batwoman!"
Hurry, Gwen/Batwoman!
"You mess with fire, then you're gonna get burned, Wheeler." she flies off. "Gweny, lead me the way!"
That night, Sean taunts Terry through the wall between their cells, describing the horrible experience he's in for. However, Terry convinces Sean to cooperate with him so that they can escape from the ranch. It would be enough for Batwoman to show up next, so buying some time and fight back was their only choose.
"(Gwen, I'm counting on you to give to Megan to coming to help me out next.)"
She has, Terry, and Gwen's on her way there. Morning comes and the two are taken to the ISO chambers.
"Just think of it as a whole lot of peace and quiet...all at once." Vincent said to the two boys.
But at Terry's signal, they attack the guards and manage to escape with the help of Adam, who takes Vincent out with his easel just as it looks like he has Terry on the ropes. Sean gets hold of the master key card from the downed Vincent and uses it to release all the students from their cells. As well as Batwoman's arrival.
"Hi, boys...I'm not in the mood to talk so let's get the kids to fight back after what you've done to all of them." she tell everyone to move forward. "Children...CHARGE!"
While the security guards are trying to round up the students and Batwoman fighting off the rest with her staff fighting skills, Terry retrieves his backpack from storage and suits up.
"(Good, Terry, here's your chance!)" Gwen said for him ti hear only.
And so he does.
"Thank you, Gwen, you're hot when you fight back."
The guards continue to overwhelm the students and begin to throw tear gas bombs as they try to escape. The guards are about to set off another, but Batman appears to join with Batwoman and they both single-handedly defeats the guards with the students cheering them on.
"Thank you!" Batwoman was enjoying this. "Thank you very much!"
However, Vincent suddenly appears and zaps Batman with an electric staff, but Batman quickly recovers, disarms Vincent and takes him out easily with some burn touch from Batwoman to make him stop for good.
"He's done." said Batman.
Just then, Gwen something bad to Wheeler from Sean's doing.
"(Batman! Sean's doing something bad to Wheeler by ending his life!)"
Batman then hears Dr. Wheeler pleading for mercy, and the two of them see Sean dangling him off a high wall, intent on revenge against him for trying to put him in ISO.
"Are you nuts, mister?!" Batwoman didn't like this one bit. "This person's almost worse than Wheeler himself!"
"(Don't do anything! Let's try to come up with something very carefully...)
Gwen has a point, as Batman pleads for Sean to stop, saying that he's now redeemed himself by freeing the students and helping shut the ranch down, and that he's a hero.
"No!" said the Dark Knight.
"Stay out of this!" said the angry Sean.
"You've made your point! This place is crashed and Wheeler's going to jail!"
"Yeah, kid! Don't make this worse than it already is for you!" Batwoman points out.
"I don't care! The only reason I went along with it was because I was hoping I could get a chance for this!"
"(But killing him won't do anything...)" Gwen said to make Sean stop.
"Don't you get it? You helped save everyone! You're a hero now!"
Batman and Batwoman are right, he doesn't have to.
"A hero? Sean laughs this off and drops Wheeler, forcing Batman to save him.
Sean is then apprehended by Batwoman, and soon Megan herself and the guards.
"You've loss your chance." she slaps Sean in the face to feel the burn. "Idiot!"
The students run outside, where the police and their parents have arrived. Most of the students reunite with their parents, but Chelsea gives her father the cold shoulder, showing that she still hasn't forgiven him, much to his sadness. As for Megan, she gives the cops enough proof on what Wheeler was doing.
"No need to thank me really. I'm just doing my job with Batman and Batwoman's help too." said Megan. "(Thanks, you guys.) And I love it!"
Wheeler and his guards are all arrested. It was a brand-new morning for Gwen and Terry to meet up and hugged each other.
"Terry!"
"Gwen!"
The two kissed in a sweet moment they were having.
"You had me worried." she said.
"But you did a great job." said Terry. "I knew I can count on you."
"I know, I never thought I could do it...Still, sorry about Sean." Gwen felt bad. "We could've helped him, but he didn't listen."
Terry, Gwen, Megan, and Bruce watch sadly as Sean is also taken into custody.
"We'll give him better and fair treatment for him this time." Megan tells the other three. "I'll make sure of it."
For Bruce to be worried about Terry, but it all turned out fine in the end.
"Thank you, Megan." Bruce said to hold his wife. "I got worried when you didn't come back, Terry."
"Bet you brought one of your old Bat-suits with you."
I doubt Terry would see Bruce in one in his age.
"You'll never know."
"But the most important part is this...Never go anywhere you don't know if it's really safe yet until you see it for yourselves, it was all a lie." said Gwen. "Having people hurt reminded me of myself once..." Gwen sounded sad when she said it.
Well, she wasn't alone in it nor was Terry was in danger to getting out afterwards.
"I'm here now, Gwen it'll be fine." he said.
The ranch may have been a fake, but that doesn't change the fact that there are still troubled kids 'like Sean' in the world.
"I hope you don't think this place was typical." Bruce tells that to Terry.
"No. But I sure wish we didn't need them."
And others too...
"I know." Bruce and the other three watched sadly as Sean is loaded into the wagon. "I know."
One more thing to end it all before ending this of an important lesson in this chapter/episode. People, it's serious to talk and teach to those kids of yours as kids or as they get older as teens, it's not too late. No school would change everything, only to sometimes be a bad one to hurt others which won't be good at all; so sit and talk to your daughters or sons to help them change and soon enough – you'll forget it all happened in the past to then move on to a better future, you know? It's true.