Batman Beyond 'Fan Fiction Story'
By Tayla Drago
Episode# 40 – King's Ransom
The Royal Flush Gang 'they're at it again' attempts to break into a museum. Without Ten, they lack an expert to disable the security systems. When Jack points this out, his father berates him and causes him to trigger the alarm by mistake.
"Too late!" said Batman.
Batman and Batwoman arrives and takes them on.
"Look it here, Bats." she spoke up to stop the four villains in a fire-like circle. "Our old enemies the Royal Flush Gang are back, but no Ten. Good! I'm glad she had a change of heart."
Good thing Gwen told Terry about Ten helping out to know of Gwen was Batwoman only to keep to herself.
"(Me too. But that doesn't mean we can't let her family off this easily. As well as her keeping my identity a secret.)"
In the subsequent fight, Ace is damaged, and Jack is captured for Batman to damage up Ace, and Batwoman to put the heat on against Jack from powers to fighting skills.
"Lost again?" Jack said in defeat.
"Seems like it, big boy." Batwoman said back. "That's two down, and two more to go!"
King and Queen manage to get away with their loot, a jaguar statue, though its ear is broken off.
"(Got away again...)" said Gwen. "We'll be ready for them next time, Batman.)"
Jack is interrogated at the police station. Commissioner Gordon, knowing that the family's personal taste runs to different periods, demands to know who hired them to steal the statue.
"Another one of the non-talking bad guys I see." Megan smacks Jack upside the head. "Take him away, officers."
Jack claims ignorance, but Bruce has a good idea who the Gang's employer is.
"They were working with someone and I think I know who." Bruce was on to something big.
King meets with Paxton Powers 'they work for him now' to deliver the statue and collect their fee. However, Paxton notices the broken ear and gives King only a meager payment. King objects, but is promptly knocked flat by Paxton's assistant, a skilled martial artist. King is forced to crawl away with the pittance. At their hideout, Queen harangues her husband, saying the family is barely scraping by, and comparing King unfavorably with her father, the previous leader of the gang. King angrily says he has a backup plan. The Gang abducts Paxton and holds him for ransom, demanding 20 million credits. Kind of serves him right. Melanie Walker is working as an assistant chef at a restaurant. She sees the news of Paxton's abduction and is confronted by Batman and Gwen.
"Why do I have to talk to Melanie like this?" Gwen asks herself.
"She knows who you are, Gwen, it's fine. And to prove that you work for me and you a Batwoman to keep a secret about to get some answers on what she might've heard about her family lately. Since she's not Ten anymore..." Terry/batman stops to say something else. "Listen! I'm not going to end up with Melanie, I swear!"
She gets it since she and Melanie have been talking lately...
"Hey, it's fine, Terry, you chose me over her. And Dana...Well, it might've been Dana or me." she gets it to hug her man. "I love you a lot. In fact, Melanie and I have been talking a lot to help her get a new life and a job. She's doing great, we became pals in some way you wish to call it. And if this will get her family to put a stop to, then why not."
"(It's better than her being the original Ten again.)" said Gwen's other self. "(Let just get this over with already.)"
Good to see Gwen and Melanie to get along alright. As the two see her again...
"Hi, Melanie. Batman and I are here to talk to you."
"Hi, Gwen, I see you have your boss." she said. "I have nothing to do with my family, I swear." She swears she doesn't know where her family might be and is sure she won't hear from them – she doesn't exist to them anymore.
"We know." said Batman. "We're just wondering if you do here anything..."
"But I won't. As far as a I'm consider, I don't think of my as family or their daughter anymore."
Yep, she was clean the last time they met here to mean that Melanie as the old Ten was long gone.
"I'm sorry." Batman said.
"Look, I'll get him and Batwoman to deal with the other thing. Thanks for answering the question. I'll be seeing you, Melanie, please take care."
As Batman turns to leave with Gwen, Melanie asks whether he delivered the note she gave him to Terry McGinnis.
"Wait!" she stops Batman. "The note I gave you to give to a boy name Terry McGinnis...Did he get it?"
Batman says Terry got it for Gwen leaves that part be.
"He got it."
"And now Terry and me..." Gwen tries telling Melanie.
"I know, you and Terry were meant to be more, Gwen. I'm happy for you both. And I guess he doesn't think I'm real to him anymore." Melanie sadly concludes that he must have read it and discarded it, meaning she doesn't exist to him either. "Gwen, never become someone you're not. Remember that."
Batman doesn't reply, and flies away with Gwen does with her fire powers.
"(I won't, Melanie, I'm glad you chosen the right path for yourself.)" she said.
Good to know that one ex-villain can change. Paxton swears that he doesn't have enough money for the ransom, it is all tied up in investments, and his swanky lifestyle is maintained solely on company perks. Flabbergasted, King calls Bruce and demands that he tap the company assets for the ransom.
"Megan..."
She gets to work for Bruce with Gwen backing Megan up to hack into the phone.
"I got it." she tells her husband. "Go."
Bruce coolly informs him that Wayne-Powers's corporate policy doesn't allow him to withdraw money to pay kidnappers.
"Bruce, you're not really going to-!"
"I know." he tells Terry. "It's not over yet."
It's all part of Bruce's plan...A furious Queen tells King her father had him pegged when he told her he was nothing but empty bluff.
"Brilliant!" Queen was upset. "Another plan that can't fail! Father was right about you! Oh, he had you pegged!"
This made King get angry.
"Shut up!"
"You're nothing but empty bluff!" she snaps back.
"You think I'm bluffing? YOU THINK I'M BLUFFING?!" King raises his sword at Paxton's face.
"No! Wait!" Paxton begs for his life. "I do have some valuables! Gold and jewels!" Paxton cracks and offers them a piece from his collection of stolen art: the Crown of Tikal, easily worth twice the ransom.
This allows King to spare him for now.
"Ah, the pustule pops."
King suggests that Miss Thorpe retrieve the piece, but Queen refuses to trust Paxton's associates, so King calls Bruce, giving him the security codes and telling him to rendezvous with the Gang with the crown.
"I take it you have a good idea, Uncle Bruce?" ask Gwen. "Let's hear it."
Paxton snidely informs his captors that, ransomed or not, he's ruined. He's revealed his collection's existence to Wayne, who will certainly turn him in to the police. However, he makes an enticing proposition: if Wayne is killed, Paxton will not only be safe, but will have access to millions in company assets, putting him in a position to reward Wayne's assassins. Queen expresses distaste, but King doesn't hesitate to accept. Using the security codes for Megan to hack into, Bruce retrieves the crown, and gets a good look at the rest of the collection. He drives alone to the rendezvous in a park, with Terry and Gwen watching from overhead.
"You two all set?" Bruce checks in on them.
"Yeah." said Batman.
"All good. Oh, right! I need to transform...Burning passion. Batwoman!" Gwen transforms.
Now Batman and Batwoman were good to go. But they weren't alone.
"Heads up!" Batwoman warns her partner. "Ace's back!"
Unfortunately, Terry is ambushed by Ace and knocked out for Batwoman to save her friend's life to move away from the enemy, she flies on over to aid Bruce and Megan.
"(Uncle Bruce's in danger!)"
As soon as Bruce delivers the ransom, King attacks for Megan was ready for him to use her whips against a sword.
"Bow to the king, my foot!" she fights back. "Bruce, stay behind me!"
The three old foes briefly fight until Bruce summons his faithful dog, Ace, who tackles King and Bruce and Megan stop Queen from shooting at them for Batwoman to make her appearance.
"A trap, set up for Paxton to kill the old man. So weak, it makes me want to cry." said Batwoman.
Only for Paxton gets loose to grab hold of Batwoman to have her to himself.
"Unlike Father was with you as a weapon to love, I love you the way you are...Gwen." he knows who she was. "But that's between us. How about a kiss."
"No!"
The girls try to fight back for this guy wants Gwen for himself to be so messed up!
"(Let go of me...!)" Gwen tries to pull away from Paxton.
Terry regains consciousness and disables the Gang's Ace by knocking it into the fountain, before engaging Queen in a deadly fight with Paxton to get beaten down by Megan's powers to be push by more water on him.
"Hands off, pervert!" said Megan. "Man, that felt good...All good to go, Batwoman!"
This allowed Batwoman to handcuff her, while King wrestles Ace away and flees with the crown, leaving his astonished Queen to her fate.
"(He can't do that! King is supposed to be by his wife side!)"
"Not all fairy tales have a good scene, Gweny." Batwoman tells Gwen that. "But I know what you mean. Still, you almost got kissed by Paxton."
"(Don't remind me!)"
As Bruce, Megan, Gwen, and Terry confer, she slips out a trick card and starts sawing away at the flexicuffs' chain...
"What kept you?" Bruce asks Terry.
"They had an Ace in the hole." he said.
Showing that Batman dealt with Ace already to be destroyed.
"Luckily, so did I." Bruce has Ace to think to get him a lead.
"Let's track them down." Megan said to the three. "And... Let's take Queen along for the ride before sending her to prison and make sure Paxton goes to jail too while watching on him for a bit."
With Queen trying to make her escape and Batman stopping Paxton from going anywhere to make him fall off the tree.
"That was for almost kissing my girl!"
Nice one! A nice way for Terry to defend Gwen the women he truly loves. Back at the hideout, King examines the crown with delight, and then meets his new mistress: Miss Thorpe. In Paxton's absence, and with the codes provided to her by King, she has filched the rest of Paxton's collection. They plan to make a getaway with the loot, leaving the rest of the Walker Family to rot. Their assignation is cut short by an enraged Queen, who appears and attacks with murder on her mind.
"Queen!" Miss Thirpe was surprised to see her.
"Donna, my dear, I-I can explain!"
King can't talk his way out of this mess now.
"Explain what?" Queen questions him. "That you're a lying philanderer? That you've destroyed our family? That I've wasted the best years of my life on you?"
Like the King cared anymore.
"Nothing I ever did was good enough for Your Royal Highness!" he said back. "Well, I want out, and no one's going to stop me!"
However, she has inadvertently led Batman and Batwoman to their hideout, and while the feuding couple fight, Batwoman captures Miss Thorpe outside as she attempts to escape with the loot.
"Wow, lady, you serious need to get a better life." Batwoman said to stopping her. "Idiot."
Once King knocks out Queen...
"I couldn't stand it anymore!" the King said while fighting Batman. "The constant comparison! Do you have any idea what it's like living in someone's shadow?!"
Batman confronts him and knocks him out as well.
"Actually, I can relate."
"(Nice shot, Batman.)" said Gwen to call up Megan next. "(Megan, we got them all. You and Uncle Bruce can come in now.)"
At the police station, Jack is surprised to be told that he's being bailed out. His sister, Melanie, greets him, and he's surprised and touched to hear that she's worked hard to raise his release money. 'Hey, we're family', she shrugs. Jack gladly accepts Melanie's offer to work at her restaurant as a dishwasher, as it's an honest job, nonetheless.
"Hey, we're family. I got a job for you. A real job." she tells her brother. "That is, if you don't mind washing dishes."
I don't think he minds it at all.
"Are you kidding? I was the best dishwasher in juvie hall!" he said.
Just then they witness Paxton being brought in by Barbara and one of her officers; he's been arrested for conspiring to kill Bruce to also trying to have his way with Gwen/Batwoman. Well, not anymore.
"Kill Bruce Wayne? They're lying, I tell you! Bruce Wayne's my mentor! He's like a father to me!" Paxton was lying.
"Except he doesn't glow-in-the-dark." Barbara said back.
This makes Megan laugh to also get her bounty money on this guy.
"Oh, burned!"
"Hey, I resent that! Where's my lawyer? I'll sue! I'll own this place when I'm through with you! You're all gonna work for the sanitation department!" he gets taken away for good.
For Jack and Melanie leave together to never do the Royal Flush Gang thing anymore after today.
"Let's get out of here." said Melanie.
As the siblings walk out and down the precinct's stairs, overhead, Batman and Batwoman both looks.
down with satisfaction at a good night's work.
"Nothing beats better than a real happy family." said Terry to hold Gwen's hand.
"(I know, Terry, it's nice.)" she said back. "(Now let's go home.)"
They fly off for the to be thinking about moving in together soon, really...? Can Terry ask his mother to do it with Megan and Bruce helping him and Gwen out? Hopefully...But who knows for the time being. With two siblings free to live good lives, the other two arrested for good to be no more Royal Flush Gang, Paxton was out of business now, and his partner – all was fine in Gotham with a group of villains to be dealt with another greedy person. Like father, like son of the Powers, huh? Oh, brother...
"One problem solved from the Powers family to be nor more!"
You said it, Batwoman!