Batman Beyond: The New Dynamic Duo

Babel

"And then what did you do?"

Bruce had been reminiscing about some old tales from his Batman years to Eliana and Terry while they worked on repairing Terry's suit after an encounter with Mad Stan. The suit had gotten torn from a deadly grenade. Terry was now sporting a bandage around his midriff, which made it incredibly difficult for Eliana not to stare at her boyfriend's shirtless upper body.

"Well, I-" Bruce paused, "What does it matter? It was a long time ago, a very long time," he dismissed. "Don't wanna talk about it, huh?" Terry pressed. "In case you haven't noticed, we've still got a lot of this shrapnel to deal with. You'd think that someone in a suit like this would be able to dodge a simple hand grenade," Bruce commented.

Eliana piped up in defense of Terry, "He did dodge a hand grenade. The problem was that Mad Stan had 2." Terry waved his hand in her direction, "Now come on, finish your story. How'd you know that Robin would get there in time to save you?" Bruce closed his eyes, "I didn't," he revealed. Terry and Eliana were speechless.

"Then, for all you knew, you were walking into a trap with no way out," Terry exclaimed. "Sometimes you have to," Bruce stated solemnly. 'But you could've been-" Terry didn't get to finish his sentence as Ace began barking crazily.

"Ace, boy, what's wrong?" Eliana asked in concern. What she was not expecting was Ace to pounce on top of her and growl directly in her face. In all her years of knowing Ace, he'd never attacked Eliana.

"Ace, off!" Bruce ordered. But Ace just turned to him and proceeded to tackle the old man to the ground. Terry quickly grabbed the dog's collar, trying to yank Ace off Bruce. "Ace, stop it! Stop it!" Ace ignored the shouts from his owners, and it was clear brute strength would not subdue the pet. Terry went over to his suit, grabbed a few tranquilizer darts, and stuck them into Ace.

The effects were instant as Ace calmed down. Eliana helped Bruce from the ground as the three overlooked the now sad looking dog. "What got into him?" Eliana voiced out loud.

Since not even the great Bruce Wayne was skilled in animal anatomy, the ultimate decision was to take Ace to the vet. The tranzilzers were still in effect, but as a precaution, Ace was given a muzzle. Eliana's heart broke when she placed it on her beloved pet.

The animal hospital was filled to the brim with worried owners and their pets. "So it happened to yours, too, huh?" Terry and Eliana looked to see Max holding a cage for her pet cat. "Mine tried to jump a pitbull." The sound of lots of animals drowned out everything else, so the teens had to converse with raised voices.

"You have any idea what's going on?" Eliana inquired. "Nope, I'm just glad I don't live anywhere near the zoo," Max noted.

Oh shi-

Eliana turned to Terry's whose distressed expression matched hers. "Stay with Ace, I'll deal with this," she told him. "Are you sure?" Terry did not want to imagine the potential amount of animals Eliana would have to deal with, by herself might he add.

"Make sure our boy is okay, I can handle this," she reassured, giving his cheek a kiss before rushing out of the hospital.

~8~

Now, if someone told Eliana she'd one day fight an angry elephant, she would've laughed. But currently, in the grasp of the giant animal's trunk made her feelings are different.

After being repeatedly slammed into the ground by the elephant, Eliana decided to blast out of the tight grip. While in the air, she spotted two zookeepers being chased by a rampaging gorilla. She tackled the big ape to the ground, but she lost the upper hand rather quickly. Eliana groaned as the ape pounded his fists onto her.