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Batman Before	By : Jessy8 Category: DC Verse Cartoons > Batman Beyond Views: 8886 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Batman Beyond, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Batman Before
- 2-ch 2
- 3-chapter 3
- 4-ch 4
- 5-chapter 5
- 6-chapter 6
- 7-chapter 7
- 8-ch 8
- 9-ch9
- 10-ch 10
- 11-ch 11
- 12-Chapter 12
- 13-Chapter 13
- 14-Chapter 14
- 15-Final
- 7
- 8
- 9
Batman Before
By Wildfire
Chapter 8
03-07-06
      Terry woke the next morning to the sounds of harsh whispering. He grimaces, knowing exactly what they were whispering about, but at least he knew they wouldn’t be yelling at him. It sounded like Dick and Tim were being questioned the most. Barbara must have been with Bruce all of last night.
      He figured he had better save them by coming downstairs. It wouldn’t help them for long, but they’d at least get a break. Maybe he could stick close to Dick or Tim to keep Bruce off of them. Bruce wouldn’t dare talk about it if he were near. He hops out of bed and slips downstairs, moving quickly and with thumpy movements so he was sure Bruce would hear. Though Bruce would probably hear, anyway. He had never mastered sneaking up on the man.
      He entered the kitchen to Bruce still looking upset, but was quiet.
      “What’s up?” He heads for the cereal, having found that at least the cereal was safe.
      “One of my computers was busted....”
      Terry schooled his face in a mask before turning to look at him. “Really? Which one? I’m not great at computers, but maybe I can fix it. Sometimes I get lucky.”
      Bruce studies him for a moment before shaking his head. “No, it’s one from the office, and I already sent it in.”
      “Oh. Well, what happened to it?” Terry takes his bowl to the table, sitting down.
      “That’s the thing; I don’t know. I came back to it and it was dead....” Again, Bruce was studying him.
      “That sucks. Did you check with your employees?”
      “I did. You wouldn’t know anything about it, would you?”
      There it was; so Bruce did suspect. Terry gets an innocent look and blinks. “No. Why would I be in your office?”
      Bruce watches him for another second before shaking his head. “I’m sorry, Terry. I’m not accusing you; I’m just upset. There was some really important stuff on the computer. Getting it back will be almost impossible. I suppose I’m blaming everyone right now.”
      Terry shrugs. “It’s cool. I would probably go around blaming people, too. I mean, having to redo paperwork and junk is just boring. If you need any help....”
      Bruce smiles. “Thanks for the offer, Terry, but after what you did with the microwave I think I’ll keep what’s left of my computer. But thanks.”
      Terry blushed and nodded. “Sorry about that again....”
      “Quite alright, Master McGinnis. I was wondering, actually, if you would like me to give you some cooking classes?”
      Terry looks up. “Sure!”
      “Speaking of classes, I also believe it’s time to get you enrolled in school. Did you go to a school near here?”
      “Um, I was home-schooled.”
      “I see. What textbook were you on?”
      Terry’s eyes widen. “I… don’t know.”
      “You don’t know what book you were working out of?” Tim stares at him oddly.
      “Did you work out of a book, Terry?”
      “The pages were photocopied out for me.”
      “Why?”
      Bruce clears his throat, shaking his head at Tim. “So Terry, why don’t we go through some books and see if we can’t find where you are, then enroll you?”
      Terry nods. “Sure.”
      The rest of breakfast was pretty much eaten in silence. He could tell Bruce was still upset about his computer, though. Terry felt so guilty; he knew how much stuff was on that computer. He had taken a computer engineering class; maybe he could fix it? They’d put together a computer from 2030 for practice, so it might be close enough. It’d be too risky to try and sneak in tonight, but if it wasn’t back up in a week maybe he’d try and fix it.
      Later, he sat next to Bruce, going over books.
      “Terry, you seem to know a lot of this stuff. You appear to be schooled pretty well. I’d almost go far enough to say you might be beyond your grade. Though, your science seems a little rusty.”
      Terry smirks. Science changed with discoveries, but it didn’t change with knowing what chemicals to mix. Plus, theories were different now. He nods. “Yeah, didn’t ever much like the mixing of chemicals to see which would go boom.”
      Bruce nods, looking at him. “Terry, are you sure you won’t let me help you?”
      Terry smiles. “You are helping me. You’re allowing me to stay here, you’re feeding me-- Hell, you even bought me clothing. I’d say you’ve more than helped and I’m starting to just look sad.”
      Bruce nods. “Well, I’ve heard odd stories and horrible ones. Nothing really phases me anymore, so if you ever change your mind....”
      Terry nods and smiles. “Sure.” He seriously doubted Bruce had ever heard this story. He could just imagine how that would go over.
      ‘Hi, Bruce. I’m from the future, where your team hates you and you’re old and I took over as Batman.’
      He’d be dead in a second. Well, maybe not dead -- Batman didn’t kill. Maybe sent to Arcam? Hey, he’d meet the Penguin. He had no desire to see the Joker again, though. Freeze wasn’t too bad. Seeing Bain when he was really a criminal would be interesting, nonetheless; all he saw of him was a decomposing vegetable.
      “Terry?”
      He really wanted to see Two-Face, though. See if he really did toss that coin before he killed someone. Seriously, was he that dumb? And he wondered why Batman caught him each time! Hmm, let’s let him stand there and come up with a plan while I toss a coin. Seriously, criminals were dumb.
      “Terry?”
      Then there was the Riddler. Honestly, he wanted to see him just see if he could figure out a riddle before anyone else could. He had seen his riddles from before, but he always knew the answers, too, and it was easy to figure out when you had the answer.
      “Terry!”
      Batman really had a lot of enemies. And to think, at one time he did it all on his own. Then Dick was just dropped in his lap, a high-energy nine-year-old that had grown up in the circus. He raised him, and the kid hated him afterward. Then Barbara and Tim.... Both never really liked Bruce later in their life. He didn’t understand; they all loved the crime-fighting thing. Why did they suddenly decide they didn’t like it? Yet everyone but Tim still stayed in the business; Dick became a detective, Barbara the commissioner. And well, Bruce never left. Terry wondered if what happened to Tim never happened if Tim would now be the current Batman instead of him. He was such a strong kid, he may have just had what it took to get into the bat suit. If only the--
      “TERRY!”
      Terry jumped and looked at him. “What?”
      Bruce sighs and chuckles lightly. “I’ve been saying your name for the past ten minutes. What were you thinking about?”
      “Honestly? All the enemies Gotham has....”
      Bruce studies him again. “It does have quite a few. What made you get lost in that thought?”
      Terry struggles for a good excuse, when suddenly he sees his saving grace. “The bat signal.” Even now, it amazed him to see the signal; at one time people really did love Batman.
      “Well, I think we’ve done enough. Why don’t we call it a day? I’m sure Alfred would love to start that lesson.”
      Terry nods. “Sure.” He then goes to the window to stare out at the signal; only once had he seen it used in his time. He wasn’t going to lie, though; he did wish it could be used again. It held so much pride and showed that the city trusted him. Having the people behind you helped so much, but he was happy just to have his younger brother as a fan. It was odd how much it meant to him to have Matt as an admirer.
      When he turned around he wasn’t surprised to see that Bruce was gone, even though he hadn’t heard him leave. Hell, he could do it in his own time and he had a cane then! Terry smiles to himself, heading into the kitchen to see if Alfred was there.
*&*&*
      The next few days were a rather bore; he spent most of his time in Bruce’s workout room. Which he found was more for looks, as Bruce really used the stuff down in the bat cave, but it helped him stay in shape. When he wasn’t doing that, then he was with Alfred learning to cook, which was more fun than he thought it would be. He could see why everyone fell in love with the old man. And when he wasn’t doing either of those, he was taking placement tests to find where he was in schooling. Those were boring as hell.
      Bruce’s mood seemed to be getting crankier and crankier, though he tried hard not to let Terry see this.
      Terry figured there were two reasons for this: The bat computer must still be down, and Bruce hadn’t found the “imposter” Batman. He knew he had to try and go fix it, he just hoped the security in the bat cave wasn’t suddenly boosted beyond his knowledge.
*&*&
      He waited that night until he had seen the bat mobile leave, then waited another ten minutes before Robin’s motorcycle zoomed past. He hadn’t seen either Barbara or Dick recently, so he figured they weren’t here. He slowly crept into the cave, being extra quiet just in case. After looking to make sure the coast was clear, he moved to the computer.
      Yep, still dead. He grasped the side and pulled sharply, pulling it away from the wall. He sighs and kneels down, looking through the wiring. He had no doubt the suit had just overloaded it. The question was, how much damage had it caused?
      Terry spent the next hour taking the computer apart and rewiring it. He even managed to find a way to give it a good boost by adding a chip from his suit into the main drive. He lets out a sigh, steps away from the computer, and pushes it back against the wall. Now, to see if it worked....
      He presses the “On” button and smiles when he sees that there was no stupid blue screen saying “Windows” or whatever; it just went right to the desktop. Good! Now he just needed to find out if he could load the information. It was slightly more dangerous now, though, as he couldn’t take the suit off anymore because he was sure the cave was being watched with cameras. So that meant he had to hook the wires up to the suit with him still wearing it.... Great.
      It took him another 15 minutes to get everything set up again. By now he was starting to worry about time. The night was starting to grow late, which meant the Bat would be returning soon. He took a deep breath and pressed the “Enter” button; the computer started to fritz and the screen went blank. Shit! Okay, so this computer was just too nasty uy67and old to take--
      The screen came back! Not only was the screen back, but the suit’s statistics were there, too! His eyes quickly scanned it, looking past locations. Looking through the list, it told him where it had been in Gotham for the past three months. Apparently, the suit didn’t see any difference with the times. Well, so much for that idea. His eyes scanned the list one more time, noticing one place was off. It said ‘Warehouse on 34th Street,’ then after it a jumble of characters.
      He clicked the location, only to find more jumbled characters. This was apparently his flight back into time.
      So… hypothetically, if he took this code backward then contacted the bat cave, he should contact his bat cave. Or it could kill him.... Or send the code to the future? He sighs. Well, he was never going to know if he didn’t try.
      It took him another ten minutes to rig the intercom to this bat computer; it would still go through the bat suit, then go through cyberspace, hopefully into the future and back to… itself? Damn, this was confusing! Okay, so he sent out the code to return, which should send it from this past bat computer to the future bat computer. Or just fry the computer, or him.
      Enter
      “Kid? You there?! Terry?”
      Terry looks around. He was lying on the floor with his bat suit still on. Someone was saying his name. He quickly sat up to see a very fuzzy screen, an older lady staring through the fuzz.
      “BARBARA!”
      “Terry! Thank God! Where are you!? We’ve been searching for you for over three months.”
      Well, at least now he knew the times went at the same time. He’d been stuck here for same amount of time.
      “Can you hear me, Terry?”
      “Yeah, sorry. I’m stuck in the past!”
      Barbara gave him a look. “You sure you’re not in a virtual realty?”
      “Could I be contacting you if that’s where I was?! I don’t have time to explain. Bruce could get back any minute, and I really don’t want him to catch me down here. I don’t think he likes another Bat. Are there cameras down here?”
      “Bruce had some for as long as I knew him, but he rarely turned them on. He was always afraid someone might get the tape, and even when he did turn them on they didn’t record sound. Terry, what you’re saying is really impossible. There has to be another explanation.”
      “There’s not! Where is Bruce?”
      “He went out looking for you. What year are you in?”
      “I dunno. Like 50 years ago or something. That doesn’t matter! I need to get home!”
      “Alright, kid. Calm down.... Do you think you can reestablish this connection if you lost it again?”
      “Yeah, though hopefully next time without nearly electrocuting myself.”
      “Okay, we know where you are. We’re going to get you home, I promise, but you need to be careful. Bruce was sharp back then, as sharp as he is now. He comes off friendly and kind, but he’s just as mean as ever. If he even has a suspicion you’re involved with anything funny, he’ll be watching you like a hawk. I want you to lay low for a while. Give us two weeks; we’ll get you home.”
      “Alright. Hey, Barbara, print out a fake letter from me to my mom saying I just needed to be on my own for a while. I don’t want her to worry anymore than she has to.”
      “Sure thing, kid. Be careful.”
      “I will. Oh, and Barbara? How did you go from how you’re here in this time to what I see in my time?”
      Barbara gives him a dark look. “By being a crime fighter. Goodnight, Terry.” The connection was lost.
      Terry smiles slightly, feeling like the weight of a house was just lifted from his shoulders. He had contacted his time; they’d get him home. He quickly rights everything again and slips out of the cave.
      He was about to head back to his room, but remembered Barbara said that there was probably tapes in there. Which meant they’d say he left at a certain time, and if he left as Batman then returned as Terry that quickly, it wouldn’t be hard to put the peaces together. He clicks the jets on and heads to town. Once there, he changes into Terry and swings the backpack over his shoulder.
      He let out a heavy sigh, leaning against a building.
*&*&*&
      “Anyone see anything from our mysterious Bat?” Bruce sat in the bat car. Nightwing, Batgirl, and Robin’s faces were on the computer panel.
      “Not yet, but I’m sure we will soon,” Robin reassured.
      “No extra Bats, but I do see someone that’s out after curfew. Apparently, our houseguest went for a walk.” Nightwing’s motorcycle could be heard slowing down.
      “Give him the hint to get home, but don’t make it obvious who you are.”
      “No shit.” At that, Nightwing dropped communication. Bruce let out a slight growl of annoyance before switching off the radio to continue his search.
*&*&*&
      Terry watched as Nightwing approached him, his heart pounding hard. He just knew they had found out, and now he was dead.
      “Isn’t it a bit late to be out and about?”
      Ha! He was still using the ‘hero voice’ they didn’t know yet! “Is there a curfew in Gotham now?”
      Nightwing frowned, eyes darkening. “Perhaps. How old are you?”
      “Old enough to know there’s no curfew.”
      “Get home, kid.”
      “Is this all you have to do? Chase around kids and tell them to go home?” Terry was greatly amused to see that Nightwing was becoming highly agitated. He didn’t know why he was getting so much enjoyment out of this, but he really, really was.
      “I’ll take you home if I have to.”
      “Not if I don’t tell you my address,” Terry smirked. Technically, Nightwing wasn’t supposed to know where he lived, so if Nightwing stuck to his character he couldn’t take him home.
      There was no doubt that Nightwing had also realized this. “I could take you to the cops instead.”
      “Under what charges? Pissing off the man running around in skintight tights? Gotham is so fucked up. People think if they dress funny they can rule the city.” Terry crosses his arms, leaning against a building. “Just go away. I’m not hurting anything, just standing here.”
      Nightwing gave him a dark, puzzling look before he was gone. Terry sighs, still leaning against the wall. He knew Nightwing was close, but he could halfway relax for a moment.
- 7
- 8
- 9
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Batman Before