Disclaimer: Do not own in any way. Belongs to DC and WB.
Author's note: collaboration with my brother who has some good ideas…sometimes. He helped perfect my ideas on this fiction and brought it back down to earth. I tend to put things out of proportion.
"However, Kronos feared an oracle which foretold that his own children would rise up against him, so he swallowed each of them as they were born, except his son Zeus, whom Rhea had saved. When Zeus reached manhood, he freed both his own siblings and Gaea's brood. Together, these Olympian gods and their monstrous allies defeated the Titans. Kronos was mistakenly believed destroyed, and the rest were banished from Earth into the farthest reaches of space." (excerpt)Chapter One
It was a dark and stormy night…much like any other, Terry duly noted as he stared down into the rainy street, the patter of raindrops falling on his head and back as he was perched seemingly precariously on the edge of a tall building. He was accustomed to this sort of pose for periods of time, eyes searching for criminals, or signs of disturbances.
He wasn't disappointed as he spotted a group of Jokerz coming out of an empty alley, littered with garbage from the nearby buildings. It was a side of town that people seemed to instinctively know to avoid because of the presence of gangs and violent battles between them. The street was named Dakota Avenue but was more recently termed "Bloody Alley" because it was a border street between two gangs, including the Jokerz. They often held their rumbles on this street, thus the name. Burn marks from guns still were present on some of the crumbling buildings, belying a recent fight.
He would see if tonight would be another rumble, or be another quiet night, without much activity from the Jokerz, and therefore much less work for Batman. He hoped he would get off early tonight. His mother wanted him home earlier. His grades were suffering recently as he fell asleep more often in class as a result of late nights on the town, so to speak. If his mother only knew what he was doing at night, either she would have a spiz-fit or be completely speechless. He needed to pull up everything in his life for a little while; it would keep everyone off his back if they saw he was trying.
As he watched he saw the T-gang approaching from the other side of the street. "Slag it," he sighed, tonight was going to be a long night after all. The hope that had been in his chest for a small time fluttered away, leaving behind only a weary soul for one so young.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BE-! It was cut off as Terry's hand slammed down into the much-abused alarm clock by his bed. He had gotten home late, or extremely early, depending how one looked at it. Bruce had given him a lecture after his shift because he handled a situation, in Bruce's eyes, wrong. It was the way Terry did things, how he tended to react first, rather than wait a little more. Batman was about intimidation, he had said. Terry was too tired to care and had zoned out during the lecture, only half-listening, giving his brain a much-deserved rest. He had stopped at a late-night convenience store to get the milk that his mother had been wanting. He had remembered last minute and had to turn around a few blocks to get it.
Terry sighed and yawned as he looked at the time, wishing he had more. He felt as though he could sleep for two days and wake up, finally restored. It was a never-ending cycle, getting torn down every night and waking up with only half the energy he had the day before. Building up, torn down, but there was no time for recovery. A smile tugged at the corner of his lip, giving him a wry smile. How athletic…he mused. Resigned to the fate that there was no more time for rest, he half-pushed, half-fell out of his bed toward the bathroom to get ready for the day.
After a cold shower to wake him up and a caffienated beverage, he felt he might resemble something in the world of the living. Today he might be on time for school, and given good luck, he might be able to make it through the day without a call or falling asleep. Today was a better day than most others, he surmised, but it would have to wait until towards third period to begin to believe it.
"Terry!" exclaimed Dana. "You're here on time? What? Did you get home at a decent hour this time?"
"Heh, still to early Dane," Terry said as he shook his head. "Today is just one of those days…I hope."
"Ready for that big history test, guys?" Max greeted as she walked up to the pair.
"I studied for a good part of the night, so I'd better be," replied Dana, much used to her friend's blunt greetings.
Terry's reaction, however, was much different. His eyes widened slightly. Shit. "Uhh," Terry began, "I'll get back to you on that." Shit shit shit! If he failed this test, he'd get another warning from the teacher about his failing grades and his mother would get involved. She was already sort of angry at him about his current grades, if they got any worse…well, let's hope it didn't come to that. Not only would he have to face his mother, but Bruce as well. Bruce expected perfection, though not as vocal as his mother, it was still as harsh. It was hard not to see disappointment in Bruce's eyes sometimes, Terry wondered if Bruce often looked up his grades on the Bat computer. Probably did, Bruce could hack anywhere he wanted.
"Terry! Let's go!" Dana snapped him out of his musings. The warning bell rang for first period, and they would have to go to class immediately or suffer a tardy consequence.
Moving with his girlfriend to class avoiding a few running students, Terry made his way to his first class. Unkown to Terry, a pair of eyes watched him from a tree in the landscaping. The eyes were ice blue, and eerily similar to our favorite hero's.
Preview of Chapter Two: Terry head felt like an explosion, the headache throbbed behind his eyes and above his ears. Great timing for a headache in the middle of a test, he tried concentrating on his work on the history essay, but for all he knew he could be typing gibberish.
"Please submit your essays now. Time is up," said the teacher, Mr. Perkins, a bent old man that seemed to come from the tomes of history itself. Much like someone else he knew…
Well, that's a wrap. I hope that's schway enough for you guys. I love Batman Beyond, I have the seasons 1-3, the movie, and I hope I'll be getting the soundtrack soon, kinda waiting for the price to go down…Haha. The opening song, which is my favorite is entitled "Smells Like Creamed Spinach" and makes me laugh. Thanks to my bro for helping me write this and the added input is always great. I will keep posting this, regardless of reviews. Hope you will though, just a response to say that someone is actually reading this makes me happy.