Batman Beyond: The New Dynamic Duo

Ascension

It was night at Plas-Tech, and Blight oversaw as shipments of polymer were loaded into the warehouse. From the corner of his eye, he spotted a worker attempting to hit the alarm. Blight stopped the man by throwing a ball of radiation at him. "I suggest you all keep your hands to yourselves from now on," Blight warned.

"Take my word. It's in everyone's best interest to have me out of your hair as quickly as possible." Blight's henchmen continued loading the canisters of polymer. As one thug was flying a forklift of cannisters, out of nowhere, Batman and Nightwing landed uptop it. The heroes easily hijacked the machine by Nightwing kicking the man off.

"Batman, Nightwing!" Blight growled. There was no way he'd let two sabotage his operation. Blight threw another ball of radiation, but this time aimed for the forklift. The radiation hitting the machine causes it to lose control. Batman and Nightwing jumped off in time as the forklift flew right into a stack of boxes, exploding on impact.

Blight sent multiple blasts at the duo, but they avoided them swiftly. He grew more frustrated as he saw the vigilantes smiling at his fruitless attempts.

Just then, another henchman chased down Batman and Nightwing on another flying forklift. They jumped up to some crates, and Batman threw an explosive batarang right in front of the machine. The explosion caused the driver to bail, but he couldn't escape the canisters of polymer that pinned him down.

Knowing it was time to make an exit, Blight blasted all the remaining polymer canisters. The building erupted into flames as the canisters exploded. The duo ran over where Blight had escaped by driving off. But they couldn't go after him, there were too many workers still trapped. Nightwing pulled out a gadget that once she threw to the ground, exploded into freezing spray.

With the fire out and workers safe, it was time for some investigating. The heroes walked over to the unconscious thug under the numerous canisters. Batman searched the man's jacket and pulled out a wallet. When opened, the wallet revealed an ID card from Wayne-Powers. "Wayne-Powers? Powers is helping Blight?" Batman muttered to Nightwing. "I wouldn't put it past him. Blight's definitely the man Powers would hire just to do his dirty work," Nightwing stated.

Shriek and Inque were good examples.

They'd need more evidence to be certain, but right now, Derek Powers was somehow involved in Blight's crimes. And they were determined to take both down for good.

~8~

Powers stormed into his laboratory fuming. "What happened? We heard there was trouble - aah!" Powers cut off a worried scientist by throwing him across the room. In his fit of anger, Powers walked up to his skin repair camber and slammed his fists onto it. "If we stick to proper channels of procurement, how long will the materials last?" He asked the head scientist.

His skin was breaking away too quickly nowadays as his condition and temper worsened. It was proving to be too difficult trying to sustain his image.

"You're burning through the skin too fast. And, if I may, Mr. Powers, it's not just the radiation. Your temper is out of control," the scientist answered hesitantly.

"I KNOW!" Power roared, "I know," he repeated softly. This was the last straw. He couldn't do this anymore. "I'm tired of this. I can't maintain the charade any longer. It's time I made new arrangements."

And he knew exactly the right person to be his successor. "Get my son Paxton on the line...I need to speak with him urgently."

~8~

Outside of Wayne-Powers, an angry crowd had formed to protest Paxton Powers' upcoming. Paxton had earned a bad reputation after he approved his company to dump waste into South America's waters. Needless to say, the people were not happy Paxton Power's had polluted their country. Word had spread, and now the people of Gotham gathered to protest.