Batman Beyond 'Fan Fiction Story'
By Tayla Drago
Episode# 42 – Inqueling
Out at Shimano Space Center a small group of people prepare to launch a satellite into space. Winchell, the company owner, is concerned as the satellite is worth a billion dollars. Outside, Inque emerges from the ground and sets to work destroying the rocket. Yep, she's back...
Nearby, Batman and Batwoman fly out in patrol over Gotham and notices the trouble while talking to Max.
"(Lots to be going on with Uncle Bruce and Megan to get out while we're patrol, but it's nice to see them together in love.)" said Gwen.
"Old love couples that is..." Batwoman makes a joke. "But in a good way."
Max thought it'll be good for Terry and Gwen to go out a lot more, at times they can.
"He expects for us to work even harder while he's gone!" Terry tells Max.
"(Sad, but true.)"
"Why?" Max asks them.
"He always thinks something bad's going to happen the minute he and Megan leave town." Batman sees the sky lighting up. "And somehow he's always right. Gwen."
"(Roger, Terry, let's move out.)" Gwen was ready. "(Maxie, we'll call you back later.)"
They go in to investigate and finds Inque.
"Ah...! Not this liquid witch I again...I hate her!" Batwoman was burning up and ready.
"Inque!" Batman gets her attention. "Last time Batwoman and I saw you, you were washed away in a storm!"
Well, it appears to be the new and improved villain of Inque now for round three.
"And now I'm rainwater fresh, Batman! And same with you, Batwoman. You hate me the last time...Well, you will even more from the new me."
Batman quickly tries to capture Inque by bathing her in liquid Carbon Dioxide but she calls herself up and vibrates, shattering the ice.
"It didn't work?!" shock Batwoman. "Give me a break...!"
She then goes on the offensive and conceals Batman in her body, not even Batwoman can burn her off of her partner's suit.
"(Inque! Let her go...!)"
Batman, however, was also prepared and activates an electrical field over his suit thereby forcing Inque off of him.
"Not this time..." said Batman.
Nevertheless, Inque manages to knock the rocket over and it launches over the ground eventually hitting a truck of petroleum.
"Batman! It's gonna blow!" Batwoman uses her shield to save everyone else with her fire skills. "Man, that woman can cause loads of trouble."
The rocket is completely destroyed in the explosion. At least no one else was hurt. After their failure, Terry and Gwen go to Max and tells her that he needs her to research Winchell and see who his competitors were.
"Try to see what you can find, Maxie, and I'll do the same." Gwen helps her friend out too.
"Okay, but Terry...Why not call Bruce and Megan about this?"
Max suggests calling up Bruce but Terry refuses saying that in his past two fights with Inque, Bruce had to put his life on the line to capture her.
"She was in the Batcave once." he tells Max.
"That's more than I can say." she said back.
He doesn't want to have to rely on Bruce again and insists he'll catch her himself this time.
"Terry's right." Gwen agrees. "I don't want Uncle Bruce's life to be put in danger again, and Megan to worry so much to take Inque on alone without thinking of a plan first. And when Megan gets mad, she can go crazy from her ESP powers."
So true, Megan acts like that sometimes, but she's no idiot. Meanwhile, Winchell tells someone over the phone that the project has to be scrapped and it's a big loss. Inque arrives and points out that it's only a loss until he gets paid by his insurance company, which will gain him a profit. She gives Winchell a card to route her cut of the profit to her account and he sits down to his computer. However, before he sets the transfer, he pulls out a gun and blasts her with it deciding that he'd rather keep all the money for himself. Inque is unable to evade his attacks and is gravely injured. Winchell tells her that it's a particle destabilize, and that no substance is impervious to its effects. However, before he can kill her, Inque leaps out the window and escapes. Winchell is unconcerned, thinking he's already hurt her too badly to survive. Elsewhere, a repo man starts to tow a car away but the car's owner, Deanna Clay, runs out and insists that she can pay her balance. She hands him a number of credit cards and all of them are over limit. Finally, she gives him a credit card that she claims is brand new. The balance is paid, and the repo man releases her car, also giving her the number for a credit counseling service, saying...
"You've got a problem, lady?" Deanna tosses the card away and goes back into her apartment.
Unbeknownst to her, Inque is watching and sneaks into her apartment. Inside the apartment, Deanna talks to someone over the phone and successfully negotiates her way out of paying another debt—by incurring yet another debt to someone else. Inque arrives and Deanna tries to run, but Inque stops her and reveals her human face, showing that she's Deanna's mother. Wait, she has a daughter...? Who knew! Now laying down, Inque explains to Deanna why she abandoned her: Inque was young, and the police were after her. Feeling she had to run and couldn't keep her daughter, she left Deanna with some guardians, but always made sure to send her money thereafter to keep her in comfort. When Deanna asks why she allowed herself to a become a shape-shifting mutant, Inque says her new abilities allowed her to earn 'more money than you could ever imagine'. Back at school Max arrives and signals to Terry 'while he and Gwen were dating a little' that she has the information and he heads out to see her.
"Hey, you two. Don't forget, be at Rhino's tomorrow night." Dana reminds them.
"We'll be there, Dana, thanks." Gwen said with a smile. "(Now let's see what Maxie has gotten for us.)"
Max explains that no one was competing with Shimano on the project.
"Here's what I could find..." she tells them. "Winchell hired Inque to sabotage a new satellite launch for insurance fraud. Does things well to hiding it from others, very hard to prove in his illegal schemes."
Good lead so far. So both Gwen and Terry decide that he'll have to investigate Winchell himself and heads off.
"Let's go pay Winchell in person, Gwen."
"Right." she follows her boyfriend.
It was time to get some answers to stop Inque next for Max leaves it to them.
"Good luck, you two." said Max.
Back at Deanna's apartment, Inque's condition grows steadily worse. Deanna arrives and starts to ask for more money, but Inque has other things on her mind. Inque asks Deanna to get more chemicals for a revitalizing mutagen shot. Deanna is uncertain, since she has never stolen before, but Inque talks her into it. Deanna suggests renting a car to go to the lab so her own can't be traced, only she has no cash for it. Inque readily agrees, and offers to transfer some creds into Deanna's account, but she's too weak to do it herself, so Deanna offers to do it for her, calling her 'Mother' for the first time. Back at the Shimano building, Batman and Batwoman sneak into Winchell's office.
"Picky guards to protect some faker..." said Batwoman to have a look around. "I think if we pass through this part, we can sneak inside next."
Good thinking there. Finding black spots all over the wall he takes a sample and identifies them as remnants of Inque.
"(She was here a while ago, Terry, but she's weak.)"
Winchell arrives, and Batman and Batwoman confront him.
"Your lawyer might be too busy on a criminal case." Batman said to showing himself.
"Hi, mister, let's talk..."
Winchell calls in his security force, which starts shooting. Using a smoke bomb, Batman manages to disable the guards. Winchell grabs his particle destabilize and opens fire. Batwoman easily evades the blasts and captures Winchell—who awakes a short time later to find himself dangling over the side of the building from Batman's grip.
"(Just like the original does it, huh?)" said Gwen. "(Okay, Batman, it's your turn.)"
Winchell was freaking out.
"Hey, you either answer to the Bat, or my fire...It's your call." Batwoman warns him. "Choose wisely."
"I don't know where Inque is right now! I swear!"
When asked, Winchell swears he doesn't know where Inque is or how to find her, but he gives her the numbers for the accounts he transferred Inque's payment to as Gwen/Batwoman gets it down on her computer.
"(I got it.)" she said to track it down. "(This will lead us to Inque now.)" Gwen does more thing.
"We contact the bounty hunters of Megan's to turn you in, mister." said Batwoman to blow a fire-like kiss. "See ya."
Knowing that Inque is wounded, Batman and Batwoman headed off to stake out the mutagenics lab, while Max checks out the account information.
"(You know, Terry, you are having Uncle Bruce around, he's like another father figure to you since your real one passed away.)"
Gwen makes a good point there for Max to agree with their friend.
"Bruce Wayne. Some father figure."
This has Terry smiling.
Maybe you're not so far off, Gwen." he said.
Max discovers the recent transfers into Deanna's account and learns her address.
"I got something." she tells them. "There's a lot of accounts use from one person with some may cards to use...It's nearby. Someone name Deanna Clay."
Batman and Batwoman go to Deanna's apartment and nearly succeeds in capturing Inque, but Deanna stops him and gives injects her mother with the mutagen.
"(Batman, watch out!)" Gwen tries to warn him.
She does the same at Batwoman to spray water all over her.
"Ah! Come on, kid!"
Rejuvenated, Inque attacks Batman with renewed strength and hurls him out the window and tries to straggle Batwoman to death with no way out.
"Mother?" Deanna was confused.
"I got this, honey, let mommy work. These are bad people who want to stop me." she said.
Batman flies back to grapple hook Inque to go down with her and freeing Batwoman.
"Let her go!"
Though Batman gives it his best effort and even manages to surprise Inque a few times, he's still defeated when Inque drops a cement truck on him. Only for Batwoman to come back and fire blasts at it to save her partner's life.
"You gotta quit saving Gweny sometimes, Bats." she gives it her all. "But you do love her, right?"
Inque holds him helpless and is about to kill him and Batwoman, when suddenly her body starts to dissolve and evaporate.
"(Wait...I'm not doing anything to her...But something is.)" Gwen feels it out. "(The injection Inque put into her body!)"
Deanna appears and coolly explains that she tainted the mutagen with a solvent, which is causing Inque to break up. Now that Deanna has her mother's account numbers, she doesn't need her anymore.
"A powerful development made by hand to go cancel out things from within you." she explains.
Inque, appalled, asks how her own daughter could betray her, to which Deanna replies that Inque never was a real mother to her.
"After all I gave you!" she was in pain. "How could you have turned out like this?!"
"You never gave me anything except money, Mother. How did you expect me to turn out?"
Well, it looks like Deanna made the right call, didn't she. And before long, Inque is gone.
"Yep, she's dead alright." said Batwoman.
A short time later, Deanna sits on the new veranda beside the new swimming pool outside her new mansion, sipping a drink brought to her by her new butler. Her sunbathing is interrupted by Batman and Batwoman, who points out that the police will eventually catch up to her-he also explains that the police have been unable to find Inque's residue.
Deanna shrugs this off, claiming that her mom's dead, but Batman points out that Inque very well could still be alive, as 'she's been dead before', before leaving himself.
After he's gone, Deanna suddenly takes notice of all the shadows and black spots around her, and no longer feels as safe as she did before. On the wall behind her, one of the shadows shifts into an angry eye, indicating that Inque is in fact still alive.