Disclaimer: As others have said, if I had any say in the series for real – it would still be on in some form or another. g
Summary: Matt McGinnis has been Bat-obsessed since even before the masked hero reappeared in Gotham – or at least he thought that he had been.
Matt Gets a Clue
By Marns AKA Bumpkin
Rated: PG
How did I come to this rather startling conclusion you ask? Well, I think what finally made the pieces really start to fall into place for me was when I was out yesterday evening with some of my buddies and I saw my twippy – former juvenile delinquent – brother walk up to Police Commissioner Barbara Gordon at some crime scene and sass her. Just waltzed right on up to her like it was something that he did everyday and opened his big mouth – and here's the kicker – she grinned at him and sassed him back! An important person like the police commissioner knows my formerly criminally inclined – now stuffed shirt – brother? It even looked like he was offering up theories to her and she was listening to what he had to say.
How weird was that?
It did however make me think of other things that I had seen over the years. Bizarre things that involved my brother, other than Terry himself of course, he was just beyond strange at times all on his own. But that's beside the point that I'm trying to make. Like I can remember lots of times when Terry was still living at home when he would mutter at the vidscreen during the newscasts, like they were getting stuff wrong and it pissed him off. How would he know? Another was the way that he would correct me when I started to exaggerate too much about the time that that Stalker guy kidnapped me. When I called him on the fact that he hadn't even been there, so how could he know, he would just say that he had listened to me really well the first time I told the story. How could I argue with that? I had only been eight when it happened and he had been seventeen. My memories were bound to be a bit fuzzier.
Then there were the injuries – the bruises, sprains, scrapes and cuts that he always had in various stages of healing. There was no way that he was getting injured at Wayne Technologies all the time, and unless old man Wayne was beating him or his girlfriend, Dana, was some kind of dominatrix – whew, very schway mental image there of Dana Tan all done up in leather wielding a whip… (What? I'm fourteen, not four) – there was no reason for him to always be hurt like that.
Especially not with the way my brother could move – he could really kick ass when he wanted to. I'd seen him in action only a week or so before when he'd taken me out over the weekend for some 'brotherly bonding time'. We'd gone to this cool arcade called the VR Room downtown that Terry knew about from his friend Max – I think that she works for Wayne now too – and we saw some big guys Terry's age start to hassle this girl who couldn't have been much older than me. Terry – the big idiot - of course couldn't keep his nose out of it and told the dregs to get lost. Unsurprisingly, the four very large men took offence and started to wail on him, or I should say tried to wail on him. Because they couldn't lay a finger on him, he was that fast. It was awesome! Terry almost looked like he was flickering as he darted in and around the guys, kicking and punching here and there where it would do the most effect. He soon had all four down – in less than five minutes – and wasn't even breathing hard when he was done. Pretty schway huh? That's when he told the dregs – in this really cold voice – to either get lost like he had already suggested, or he was going to call the cops and charge them with assault. And since they had started to hit him first, he would've won his case.
You think that I would have clued in then wouldn't you? Nope, of course not, that woulda just been too easy. Then again, I'd always known Terry could fight – almost his entire high school career – well, until he started working for old man Wayne – had been one big brawl so I think that it's ex-cus-able that I dismissed it. It was just my big brother getting into yet another fight to me. But I have to admit, that al-ter-ca-tion being so fresh in my mind and then seeing him so chummy with the Commissioner made bells go off in my mind. Brought to mind another time that Terry had been pretty friendly with the commissioner, some award he won. Mostly though, what I could remember from that ceremony was the hot and scratchy wool suit that I had been stuffed into for the event – kids should never have to endure stuff like that, its inhumane. Hazily, I could also remember Terry pacing a lot while he was waiting for us to be ready that night, which in turn brought to mind another time Terry had been pacing a lot – when we had all been waiting for Ian Peek's show outing Batman. You know, I think that Terry told us that he was Batman that night and we laughed at him. Boy, do I feel dumb now.
The only thing that I can't figure out is where does he get the time? Working for Mr. Wayne like he does he hardly ever has a chance to even breathe let alone – oh god, waitaminute here – if Terry is Batman and he works for Mr. Wayne and always has, that must mean that the old man… nah, you think? Could Wayne have been the original Batman? Oooh, this is just too much. Who would've thought that crabby old man used to be one of the world's greatest heroes? Oh man, I got some serious thinking to do. Hmm – Hey, you think that my brother would want a Robin?
End? (Or could I have another fic following this one waiting in the wings if people like this one?)