Batman Beyond: The New Dynamic Duo

Splicers

On a fine morning at Hamilton Hill High School, everyone buzzed with anticipation as Chelsea Cunningham made her way through the halls. There was not a gaze that wasn't on the teen. For you see, Chelsea had recently gotten a procedure done that left her with a new feature. This new feature was covered by the black shades she wore over her eyes.

Standing uptop a bench, Chelsea addressed the waiting crowd, "Check it out." She removed her shades to reveal green slit eyes; she resembled that of a snake. Watching a little away from the crowd was Dana, Terry, and Eliana. The three of them weren't exactly cheering like other students, especially Eliana.

Splicing is a new trend that involves interwinding human DNA to that of animals. It was a practice that was slowly gaining traction, both positive and negative. The current DA, Sam Young, aka the husband of Gotham's Commissioner, was in the process of banning splicing.

Eliana found the whole concept of splicing inhumane and frankly dangerous. She couldn't begin to fathom why anybody would want to alter their DNA structure for the sake of appearance.

"I don't believe it, Chelsea. You got spliced!" Dana cried out. Chelsea just smiled, and with her new eyes, she looked very disturbing, "You know it." "I don't know Chels, isn't messing with your DNA a bit drastic," Terry voiced his concern. "Even for you," Eliana added, frowning.

"Oh please," Chelsea shrugged off their statements. "Well then, why is the city trying to shut it down," Terry countered. "Lighten up Terry, the law's against practically everything we're in to. You gotta keep an open mind," Dana said.

Chelsea reached into her bag and pulled out some business cards. "Here's all the info," Chelsea said, giving them one each. "Personally, I'd jumped on this if I were you. If you're not the first you're the worst," she advised, handing more cards out to fellow students. Terry and Eliana looked at their cards. Printed on the card was the company name Chimera Institute with the slogan "Born to be Wild"

Later that night, Eliana and Terry were down in the batcave watching the news coverage on Splicing. "They call it "Splicing, "the new high-tech teen rage that's taken Gotham's youth by storm." Outside of Chimera Institute was a mass of people protesting. "But outraged parents and lawmakers call the use of genetic animal augmentation a crime against nature. Some say it's a matter of choice."

The news showed a clip of a spliced man being interviewed, "Splicing is like establishing myself as an individual, you know. Just like all my friends," he stated. "At the center of the controversies is the director of Chimera Institute, Dr. Abel Cuvier.

Cuvier himself appeared on screen. He had green narrow eyes with claw- like fingers and was dressed in black robes. "I want to assure everyone that splicing is safe, reversible, and, more importantly, utterly beautiful. I was the first test subject, and as you can see, I'm perfectly fine," Cuvier said, gesturing to her healthy body.

"Perfectly creepy is more like it," Eliana snorted lightly at her boyfriend's dry comment. "Yeah, him and this whole splicing fad," Eliana continued. Bruce spun his chair around to face them. "This is no simple fad; something bad will come from this splicing, something we'll most likely have to clean up," he warned.

Yeah, well, what else was new.

~8~

Terry was not having a good morning. It began when he awoke to greeting a wolf right in front of his face. That wolf was just actually Matt, who had dressed up in order to successfully scare the living daylights out of Terry, which he unfortunately did. Terry ended up chasing his brother out of his room.

After getting ready, he talked with his mom for a bit, and the topic of splicing came up. Matt, being young and naive, begged Mary for her permission to get spliced. Thankfully, she wasn't swayed on the topic. Terry mocked his mother about the tattoo she got when she was young, which she claimed is nothing like "having antlers put on your head." Terry was further tormented by Matt, who joked that he was already a donkey. Luckily for his brother, Terry was running late for school.