Batman Beyond 'Fan Fiction Story'
By Tayla Drago
Episode# 50 – Unmasked
At Terry's house for him and Gwen to be seeing Mary and Matt a lot to get to know them well, the decision of them to have them move in together 'of the place Bruce/Batman and Megan hang out at' happens today.
"Ooo...Busted."
Matt was teasing his older brother.
"Shut up, Matt." he said. "We're not."
"We're just talking about us moving..." Gwen gets back to talking to Mary. "Ah, so how about it. Ms. McGinnis?"
Looking at them to see how good they're working and taking care of the house sometimes while going to school and seeing each other, to be smart enough to do so.
"Hmm...Gwen, you're a good person to come into my son's life, and you, Terry, to fall for this girl than with Dana to have some trouble times." she said. "And because of this...If you two are working well to still finish high school and getting something bigger to do, then let me say this – it'll happen once you two graduated next year."
Once Mary said that, Terry and Gwen were hugging to be cheering with joy.
"Yes!" Gwen was happy. "Terry! We get to live together in that new apartment area!"
"Thank you, Mom!"
"Cool! I get to see Gwen anytime." Matt was too.
With that taken care of, there was one thing left to do...
"I'm glad to approve of it. Now, you two. Get to school for the fundraiser day. Remember?" she reminds them. "None of you don't want to be late."
And they get to it by taking the train there.
"We should go!" the two lovers said together.
And with that, they get going to take care of one problem so far...
"(Now that's one for the record book. Nice work, you two!)" said Gwen's other half.
At Hamilton Hill High School, the students are busy cleaning after working on a fundraiser. Terry arrives late with Gwen and quickly apologizes; Max is curious as to what villain kept him busy this time.
"Hi, Maxie!"
"Hi, Max. Sorry we're late."
"What new threat was it this time? Root-rot-man?" she teases them.
"Well, besides Terry and I moving in together once we both finish with high school, so that's good." said Gwen. "But that's not all..."
"This time it really was Mr. Wayne. He needed a ride. His back again." However, Terry reveals he simply had to drive Bruce to an appointment and notices Dana's absence. "Where's Dana?"
"I thought she would wait for us to help her out today."
Both Terry and Gwen thought about it, but it looks like she already left.
"She got tired of waiting for you. Sounds like an old song, doesn't it?" said Max. "But she knows of you two and doing the rest for us later. You both owe her for it."
Max reveals she left as she got tired waiting for Terry as usual and soon Nelson and his friends appear and ridicule Terry for being late and 'assure' him that Batman appeared in his place, surprising Terry.
"Well if it isn't Mr. School Spirit and his girlfriend." said Nelson. "Don't worry, I'm helping Dana do the rest of this junk here."
"Don't worry, McGinnis, Batman filled in for ya and Gwen."
The two of Nelson and his friend walk away laughing. And what they said, something tells me it was Max's doing.
"Oh...That doesn't sound good..." she said. "Ah, Maxie...?"
"What was that about?" Terry questions his friend.
"I...um...made a little joke."
She didn't, right...?
"What kind of little joke?" Terry asks Max again.
"Just something' about how this school sees more of Batman than it does of you." Terry glares at her. "I know, it it wasn't that funny."
Max confesses that she made a joke about how the school sees more of Batman than it does of Terry.
"Oh, Maxie..."
"(You idiot!)" Gwen's other half said.
"Max!" same with Terry.
"I'm sorry, okay?" she explains.
"You can't even joke about this, understand?!" He is furious, but Max doesn't see what the big deal is.
Max kind of needs to be more careful about Terry being Batman and Gwen too as Batwoman.
"It just slipped out. And I don't get what the big deal is anyway. If a few more people knew your secret, especially a certain girlfriend like Gwen here."
Terry refuses point-blank and reminds her of an earlier incident with the 'Diaz Kid'.
"Oh yeah, just like with the Diaz kid, remember how easy that got." Terry said that for Max looks questioningly at him. "Come on, it was all over the net."
However this only confuses Max as she has never heard of this event.
"I don't think Maxie has heard about that event, Terry." said Gwen. "We can tell her about it."
"Tell me what?" ask Max. "The net's a big place, McGinnis."
And from there it was story time for Terry and Gwen too told Max all about it...
"It happened right after I started being Batman. And Gwen to train in controlling her powers, even more as Batwoman. There was this kid, Miguel Diaz. Around the same age as my brother. He was ganzo over the new action-figure, Soldier Sam."
Terry proceeds to tell her the story to prove his point and a bit from Gwen who was with him, from a time just after he became Batman and Batwoman:
During a community picnic, a young boy, Miguel Diaz, is playing with his 'Soldier Sam' action figures.
"Shouldn't he be playing?" the woman asks the mother of Miguel.
"He is playing."
"I mean with the other children."
His mother, thinking it would be healthier for him to learn to play with other children, tells him to put his toys away.
"Miguel." his mother calls out to him. "Why don't you give Soldier Sam a rest and go play with the other boys?"
"But, Mom."
"Come on, you have been doing that all day. Time for something else." she said.
For Miguel to try, it's not easy for him to try to make friends.
"Uh...such aggressive behavior." said the other mother.
Miguel obeys, but as soon as he is out of her sight, he breaks away and decides to climb a nearby art sculpture—'Soldier Sam to the tower!'. In another part of town, agents of Kobra are breaking into a bank. Batman and Batwoman are lying in wait for them and breaks up the robbery.
"It's Batman and Batwoman! They've been waiting for us!"
"But how...?"
As the Kobras flee, Batman pursues in the Batmobile.
"(This way!)" Gwen felt where Kobra was going to. "(We can still stop them!)"
The Kobras' vehicle fires a missile that misses Batman but hits the art sculpture, which begins to burn and topple.
"Bats!" Batwoman sees trouble. "There's a little kid in danger!"
Seeing Miguel on the roof, trapped by the flames, Batman abandons the chase and flies down to land in front of him while Batwoman absorbs the flames around her entire body.
"(I got the fire, Batman!)" Gwen/Batwoman handles the rest. "(You go save that boy! Hurry!)"
Miguel recoils in fright—in costume, Batman bears an unfortunate resemblance to Soldier Sam's nemesis.
"It's all right. Don't be afraid." said the young Dark Knight.
This little boy was too scared to do anything...
"Get away from me!"
I can't blame the kid for this.
"Hey, I'm one of the good guys."
"You don't look like a good guy." he said.
"This, it's just to scare the bad guys really." Batman tells Miguel. "And my partner up there, she's like me too! Come on. You have to trust me."
Seems to be working so far for the boy to trust in those two.
"Um..."
Batman tries to reach for him, but he runs away, falling and hanging onto the ledge of the roof. The building is about to collapse, and Terry, desperate, pulls up his mask to reveal his face, and show Miguel that he's just a normal guy.
"Ah, slag it!" Terry pulls off his mask. "Look!"
Miguel takes his hand, and the two fly to safety just before the building collapses just as Batwoman taking out the fire. Safe with his mother to take off, Terry made a mistake 'to have no choice' for Gwen to witness.
"(Terry...?)"
"I had to do it, okay?" he said to his girlfriend.
"And now you have to take it up with the old man and his wife." said Batwoman. "Nice going, Bats!"
However, Max believes that she has proven her point, seeing that Miguel was saved and there weren't any problems by revealing his face.
"So you save the kid. That's all..."
"But there's more it, Maxie. A lot more." Gwen tells her friend.
"There is...?" she asked.
She attempts to drag Terry and Gwen away to find Dana, but Terry stops her and resumes telling the story as there was a lot more than what he just told her.
"Far from it." and Terry.
At Kobra headquarters, the cell leader wants to know how Batman and Batwoman knew about the robbery. He interrogates one of his men with a mind scanner that can produce visual images of a person's memories. The Kobra is revealed to have spoken with a depositor at the bank, his brother, over a cell phone. The leader orders him executed by dropping him into a snake pit. Then they all see the evening news, the lead item of which is Miguel being interviewed after the fire and saying that Batman's just a regular guy—without his mask. Miguel will be in danger!
"I'm not scared of him. Batman's just a regular guy like everyone else, and his partner Batwoman to be a nice lady."
Max, Gwen, and Terry move their conversation to a bench, where she is surprised that Miguel actually revealed that he saw Terry's face on live television 'well sort of'.
"So the kid got on TV and told the whole world how he saw you without your mask?" Max asks the two.
"Yep."
Only to see Terry's face as Batman and not Gwen as Batwoman.
"And you, Gwen?"
"No, just Terry who did it." she answers back.
"And the old man, he saw the report? Even Megan Tsuki?" Max asks another question.
She then asks if Bruce and Megan both saw the news and Terry confirms it and resumes telling the story.
"How could he not, it was the news bite of the day." Terry said.
"(And don't get us started with Megan who heard about it too!)" Gwen's other self said out loud.
Before long, the news is all over town, and Bruce is furious. Terry tries to soothe him, insisting that his identity is safe, since Miguel doesn't know who he is. Bruce says he's missed the point: by announcing that he's seen his true face, Miguel has made himself a target for Batman's enemies.
"You made that boy into a target." said Bruce.
"And because of it, I have to keep an eye until the other members of Kobra are caught!" Megan said. "I mean come on, Terry! What were you thinking?! And for once from Bruce's arguments, I agree with him to be mad at you!" she turns to Gwen next. "Gwen!"
"What?" this made her jumpy a little. "I was putting out the fire while it was going on, sorry. But we'll make sure Miguel is to be safe. I promise."
At Bruce's insistence, Terry and Gwen keep a constant watch on Miguel, but pleads that Terry can't be stuck to that duty forever while Gwen was going along for the ride. Bruce relents and promises to call Barbara to arrange police protection.
"Megan, can you and Barbara take turns watching on the boy next for Terry and Gwen?" Bruce asks his wife.
"I'm on it!" she said. "And you just give Barbara a ring for me. (The things I have to put up sometimes with Terry's clumsiness.)"
As soon as Terry hangs up, he sees a gang of Kobras try to abduct Miguel outside his mother's apartment.
"Incoming snake trouble!" Batwoman points out. "Right on time for some butt kicking time!"
Terry and Gwen intervene and saves him.
"(We'll save you, Miguel!)"
A police car arrives, and Terry gratefully hands Miguel over to them.
"We'll take the kid in police custody now." said the officer. They say he's being taken into protective custody.
All was good, well...for Gwen to sense something off about all of this.
"(Huh? Oh, no... More danger? Where at...?)"" she had trouble finding it. "(Miguel...)"
Terry tells Bruce that Miguel has been picked up, but Bruce tells him that Barbara was in a meeting, and he couldn't get a hold of her and neither could Megan.
"Oh, no!" said Megan.
"I didn't." Bruce tells Terry and Gwen. "She was in a meeting. I couldn't get through." Bruce tries calling to Terry to see if he was still there. "Terry?"
"(Miguel!)" shock Gwen and her other half.
"Son of a gun!"
"I think I just handed Miguel over to Kobra." Terry curses, realizing his mistake.
Hard for Max to hear that part next...
"The cops were Kobra agents?" Max asks Terry about it.
"Yeah, they must have figured I would be watching over Miguel, so they set up a distraction and to with both Gwen and me." he said. "The old man never would have fallen for it."
"No, Uncle Bruce would stop them all in seconds." said Gwen. "Knowing him and Megan, the fight would've been over in seconds."
From back then, yeah...they would've won a fight with them working together.
"Hey, don't put yourself up. You and Gwen were just starting out, remember?" Max hears the rest of the story.
"(Come on...Get on with the rest of it please.)"
Searching the city desperately for Miguel, Terry realizes that the car was probably real, meaning that it was stolen and what Gwen can gather.
"Hey, Gwen..." Terry/Batman asks for her help.
"(I'll try...)" she has something. "(Got it. Uncle Bruce, I'm sending one for you and Megan to locate up on for the police cars ID numbers to find.)"
She gets it down for Megan to take the back way.
"Roger that, Gwen, thanks!"
Still searching around...
"They've ditched the cars." Batman tells Bruce. "Don't see the boy."
"(I hope Miguel's not hurt...)" Gwen was worried.
While Batwoman wanted to beat up more Kobra members.
"Wait until I get my flaming hot hands on them all!"
Then Bruce tells the two on what to do next...
"Follow them." he said.
"Like you had to tell me or Gwen."
Bruce does a search for the car's tracer and locates Kobra's hideout.
"I found it." he said. "I leave the rest to you two while I tell Barbara and Megan about it."
At the hideout, the leader places the mind-reader on Miguel's head, telling him to concentrate on the day of the fire, and especially on Batman's face after he pulled up his mask. Miguel is scared, so the leader calms him by placing his Soldier Sam figure in his hand.
"Solider Sam, he's my hero." said Miguel. "I wanna go home."
The image resolves itself, and the leader smiles. He orders his soldiers to drop Miguel in the snake pit, but just then Batman and Batwoman arrived and attack.
"Hurting a child...So mess up!" Batwoman brings on the heat. "The heat is on!"
"(It's over, Kobra people!)"
they both subdue the soldiers and the leader, who laughs and tells Batman it's too late: he's already uploaded the image to every Kobra computer in the world, and it will only be a matter of time before they identify him. Not even hacking through wouldn't stop it.
"A little help, Batwoman...?" he was worried.
"(I'm afraid they made a program that won't allow me to do it!)" Gwen panics. "(This is bad...)"
He hears the police pull up outside and decides to take his own way out.
"I'll be remembered..." Declaring his mission accomplished, he jumps into the snake pit.
That's one way to die so mess up-like. Terry shields Miguel from the gruesome sight and Gwen turns away too.
"That's the last of one member who mess up our lives..."
"(Still, he would've been brought to justice.)" Gwen then sees something that was very good. "(Batman, look! You're going to be okay! See?)"
And they look at the screen and smiles: the face of Soldier Sam has been superimposed on his own.
"You two are also my real heroes." he said.
Finishing his story, Terry concludes that Miguel must not have gotten a good look at him to begin with, and instead just gave Batman his 'hero's' face.
"I guess in a child's eye can make him see what real superheroes can do."
Once Megan, Barbara, and the real cops arrived to stop Kobra, all was good.
"Nice work." she then says this to Bruce. "All good here, Bruce, love you."
"I love you too, Megan." he said back. "You all did great today."
Max asks how he can be sure, as Terry catches a stray soccer ball and tosses it back to the kid who's come to get it.
"From looking scared and seeing lot of smoke, he won't know who Gwen and I really are under the masks of ours." he said. Terry says it's because the kid is Miguel, who's now learned to play with other children. Terry is confident that Miguel doesn't remember what Batman really looks like.
"And seeing Miguel to live a normal life as a child to making friends, he'll be just fine now." said Gwen. "I love happy endings."
However, as Terry, Gwen, and Max walk away, Miguel glances over Terry's shoulder with a knowing smile on his face 'to keep it a secret about Terry McGinnis as Batman to himself only'. Smart boy he is.
"We all do." said Max.
"And for that..." Terry kisses Gwen. "Beside us making out and doing normal things, we should go out and celebrate for us to be moving out soon."
Sounds good for Gwen.
"Oh, yes, Terry." she kisses Terry back. "You're the best man to ever love. Let's go out for some pizza."
"(Pizza time, baby! Yea!)"
"I want to come too!" and Max.
For Terry and Gwen to be holding hands to be moving in together once they finish with high school real soon, it good to looking forward to something and still work for Bruce 'to get paid for this type of job to be okay'. A good life to keep things a secret, even for a little boy to be saved to know who the real heroes are.
"So much to look forward to, Terry, I can't wait."
"And that doesn't mean we won't stop there either. Both you and I are looking forward to a better future."
And they will too for Max could already tell.
"(Those two were simply meant to be in love...)" she said.
You said it...And that's it. For this part end 'for now on this one' more of the real ending to it way later on, promise. That's another DCAU cartoon to be done now from Batman Beyond with movie. Good, huh? And more next time other ones. Later! Keep that burning feeling of good things to come you in the future.
Then End.