Batman Beyond: The New Dynamic Duo

The Last Resort

Part of being a hero and putting on the mask was that it came with sacrifices. Sacrifices that usually impacted the personal life of the hero wearing it. Unfortunately for Terry and Eliana, this meant not being fully involved with school life, or rather teen life. So they often missed out on school events and teen drama.

Max, thankfully, was always kind enough to keep them up to date with info. Which is exactly what she was doing as Terry and Eliana patrolled around the city.

“Let me see if I got all this. Jurgen is breaking up with Blade so he can see Chris. But Chris is interested in Eric, who doesn’t want to date anybody. Now wait a minute, that doesn’t sound like Eric to me,” Terry said. “It’s not. You’re thinking of the other Eric,” Max corrected. “Wait, there’s two of them now!?” Eliana exclaimed.

How much had they missed?!

“See how important these little updates are? Without them, people would start wondering why you both don’t know what’s going on at school anymore.”

Eliana snorted, “We should just tell them we’re busy chasing renegade synthoids and living heads.” She could only imagine the priceless looks and her peers’ faces if they did. But alas, they couldn’t. Not that any of them would believe them, Max responded as such.

“They wouldn’t believe it.”

“Neither do we,” Terry said with amused exasperation. Just then, a bunch of police cruisers flew past the batplane, sirens blaring. They seemed to be chasing a renegade truck. “Someone’s in a hurry,” Eliana commented before they entered the chase.

The truck managed to evade the police but not the heroes. When the batplane got close enough, Terry pushed a button that shot out a grappling line. “This’ll stop them,” he said. “Stop who?” “Well we’re about to find out,” Eliana answered.

It took some resistance, but the duo was finally able to gain control over the driver and stop the vehicle. Terry and Eliana watched as police cruisers caught up and surrounded the truck. The two watched intently, curious to see who the crazy driver was.

“Ter-I mean Batman, Nightwing, who was in such a big hurry?” Max asked eagerly. When the driver stepped out, his identity shocked all three of them. “It’s Sean Miller,” Eliana said breathlessly.

“Sean Miller!?”

“Yeah, from our history class,” Terry responded, not even believing his eyes. Sean sat next to him in history. It was strange to know someone right next to you was capable of doing something as reckless and insane as this.

~8~

Throughout the next couple of days, classrooms at Hamilton Hill began to shrink with more students not attending. It became very noticeable to Eliana and Terry when their business class had only six people in it.

“It’s getting to be a ghost town in here,” Dana commented. “Cold and flu season?” Terry inquired. Eliana disagreed. There was no way the flu season had taken out so many people all in a short period of time. Chelsea turned around in her seat to face them. “More like Dr. Wheeler and that ranch of his.”

It took a minute for Eliana and Terry to think, but then they remembered. After Sean Miller’s infamous stunt, a new commercial had been airing. Spearheaded by Dr. Wheeler was a ranch just outside of Gotham that specialized in therapy and rehabilitation for troubled adolescents.

Terry gestured to the empty class, “All this? Come on, Chels,” he responded skeptically. “Come on, yourself. The parents are scared. They’re sending their kids off to therapy by the busload. As if they needed it,” Chelsea said. “Sean needed it. Lots and lots of it,” Dana interjected.