Chapter 11 My Max
saga/title/fandom: Identity chapter 11 (Batman Beyond)
author: Girl_Gambit
rating/genre:(PG-13) - Drama/Romance
warnings: violence, language
summary: Terry hasn't had time for himself lately, things seem a bit of a mess. It's a T/M fanfic - but i don't hate D
comments/disclaimers: I don’t own any of the characters, they were the creation of DC comics. This is a fanfic inspired by the Batman of the Future series, credit to the creators.Author’s note: This is my first Batman fanfic, it’s quite a daunting task, but I look forward to any constructive criticism on improving my writing as I’m an amateur at this. I haven’t been watching the show that long but it made an impact on me enough to want to write something. I apologise for any mistakes.
Chapter 11 My Max
Terry sees Max entering the Batcave. He watches her graceful walk down the stairs towards where he his standing.
“Terry, what would you say if I told you Bruce has made me the new Batgirl?”
“You’ve really lost it this time Max!”
“No, seriously Terr, you and me together as a team, pretty schway huh?”
“Yeah! You know with Mischief behind bars, I have some free time. Maybe I can show you the ropes.”
“Yeah, I’d like that.”
“So you and me together?”
“Yeah.”
“You know, I like the sound of that.”
“Oh really McGinnis?”
“Yeah…”
Terry moves in to kiss an obliging Max who is now helpless to his intoxicating charm. Terry is amazed by how smoothly this is happening but doesn’t waste a second in letting Max know that this is what he wants. He’s enjoying the feel of Max’s lips against his own and is just building the intensity when a big splash of cold water hits his face, forcing him to move away from Max. He looks towards the stairs and sees Bruce standing there with an empty bucket in his hand.
“Wake up Terry!”
Terry’s eyes opened automatically. In his blurry vision he could make out a little figure with dark hair holding something, not Bruce. He soon recognised the face of his brother, looking at him impatiently with a large water gun pointed at him.
“Wake up Terry! It’s 12pm already, you said we were going out today!”
Terry stared at Matt with a look that told him to leave or else as he wiped his dripping face with his palm. Matt ran out of the room, giggling. Terry, feeling groggy, pulled the sheet back over his body, wanting to try to continue the dream he was having or at least get a few more minutes of precious sleep. He turned over in his bed but knew he should get up having promised Matt he’d take him out today. After weighing up the choices, Terry decided to be the caring older brother and went to take a shower.
“Finally!” exclaimed Matt, as he eyed Terry putting on his jacket while entering the living room.
“I don’t sit at home watching cartoons all day!” Terry snapped back.
“And going out partying all night is really hard work!”
Terry couldn’t explain that he hadn’t even danced and that most of night was spent chasing Jokerz so he just glared back at Matt.
“Zip it twip.”
Mary McGinnis entered the living room and smiled at the usual sight of Terry and Matt exchanging looks of brotherly love, or lack of it.
“I take it you’re still taking your little brother out today Terry?”
“I guess,” replied Terry, not taking his eyes off Matt.
“I know you love each other really! You boys have a good day. Mandy from work is coming over for coffee and a chat so I’m going to be at home if you need me.”
“Yes Mom,” Terry and Matt said in chorus.
“Terry, did you have breakfast?”
“I’ll grab cereal bar on the way out Mom.”
“Ok, see you later.”
Mary left her boys and went into the kitchen.
“So twip, where are we going? Wait, that’s a stupid question isn’t it?”
Matt grinned. “You know Mom wouldn’t let me play Intergalactic Racing yesterday, she wouldn’t even let me go to Cheesy Dan’s!”
“Yeah, ok, just don’t cry when I get a better score!”
“As if! Max told me that I’m way better at video games than you are!”
“Oh, really? Guess it’s time to put Max’s opinion to the test. Come on, let’s go.”
Terry came away from another arcade machine in shame, this time having been beaten by Matt on the ‘Batman: Adventures Of The Dark Knight’ game, adding some salt into the wound. He glanced over to his younger brother who was smirking. After two hours of humiliation, Terry had given up hope of redeeming his gaming shortcomings. He almost regretted not taking Max up on those lessons on gaming technique, even if she was saying it in jest. He’d only managed to get a better score than Matt on two games, and on the others he’d been annihilated.
“Haha, I’m sooo much better than you!”
“Come on Matt, I think you’ve had enough of video games. Like Mr. Wayne says, it’s so much healthier for little kids to go outside and play in parks and stuff like they did in the old days.”
“But we haven’t even been on ‘Revenge Of The Synthoids’ yet!”
“Another day.”
“Max would let me play!”
“Yeah, well Max isn’t here.”
“I wish she was! I guess she’s studying for that test she was freaking out about the other day.” Matt drank his soda, as he watched the colour fade in Terry’s face. Terry’s face turned to one of horror as he recollected the setting of a genetics test by Miss Ford for Monday morning.
“It’s ok Terry, you only lost a few games and you were playing video games with the master!” Matt said, patting Terry on the back in mock sympathy, before slurping down the rest of his soda.
Terry ignored him. “Listen Matt, I need to make a stop at the library to get out a disk for the test.”
“Oh, do we have to? I hate the library!”
“Me too, but I don’t really feel like flunking this test tomorrow.”
Terry took a step forward, expecting Matt to follow but looked over his shoulder to see Matt was still staring at the flashing lights and graphics leaping out from the screen of the ‘Revenge Of The Synthoids’ game.
“Matt! Matt are you in there?” Terry waved his hand in front of his brother’s face.
“I just want to see the end of this demo!” Matt didn’t take his eyes off the screen.
“Ok…guess we’re gonna have to do this another way.” Terry picked Matt up and put him over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry.
“Hey!” Matt struggled a little but gave up on seeing the demo was finished anyway.
It was a warm, sunny day and Terry just wanted to be lazing in it. Instead, as Terry walked along with Matt, he was wondering whether studying for a genetics test was worse than having Bruce breathing down his neck. From the corner of his eye, Terry noticed that Matt had perked up.
“Hey, isn’t that Max? Does Max have a new boyfriend?”
“What are you talking about now Matt?”
“Max is with some guy. Look!”
Terry saw that Max was standing outside the sliding door entrance to the public library with a guy. It’s that Trent guy again! What is with him?
“I hope that guy isn’t Max’s new boyfriend.”
“Why do you say that Matt?” Terry asked, as he watched Max and Trent laughing together.
“Well, if Max has a boyfriend, then that means she’ll be with him all the time and that means she’ll never have time to come over and play video games!”
Terry found that this statement was a truth that he wasn’t happy with either. He’d got used to having Max all to himself and having Matt as his biggest competition, which wasn’t much of a threat in comparison to a potential boyfriend.
Max was glad that she’d seen Trent in the library. Sometimes it was too quiet in there. After a tedious but productive hour of studying genetics together, they were both heading home for a break.
“So Max, are you going to tell me what you were doing so secretively when I came into the library?”
“I was researching…for my English assignment. I forgot to ask, did you have a good time at the party?”
“Yeah…it was fun.”
“Gee, don’t sound too enthusiastic!”
“It was good, but it’s not really my thing.”
“I thought you would have got a few numbers in that costume you were wearing last night!”
“Not everyone can have the pulling power of Batman! He must get a lot of girls! The girls probably throw themselves at him. He probably has one for every day of the week!”
Max got a little touchy about Trent’s comment. “You know I doubt he has time for girls with all the crime in Gotham. There’s the psychotic killers, people with issues seeking revenge, the everyday sort of criminals and the regular crap from the Jokerz…to mention a few.”
“Yeah, guess Gotham can be crazy. He’ll be busy trying to catch the Jokerz after last night.”
“Yeah, those guys just never give it a rest. I hear the party ended prematurely. At least you managed to make it out ok.”
“Huh?”
“You know, when the Jokerz decided to throw a few fireworks and smoke bombs around? I’m glad you got out ok”
“Oh yeah, we got out ok.”
“If Batman was tied up chasing women, he wouldn’t have been able to save your butt as well as the others from those crazy clowns.”
“I suppose.”
“Anyway Trent, Batman aside, I’m sure you don’t have to worry about getting a date.”
“Are you kidding? I’m hopeless around girls.”
“You’re talking to me ok so I don’t see why you’d have a problem. What’s the deal?”
Trent had never had a girlfriend, even though he wasn’t really short of attention from girls. His own insecurities and issues held him back. Trent stayed quiet.
“Hey, it’s all good. You don’t have to tell me. You know Trent, I think you’ll find a girl who can appreciate a guy like you. I reckon the right girl is not too far away. It’s just a matter of time.”
Trent made eye contact with her as she finished her words. Max was temporarily drawn into the gaze from his emerald eyes, shimmering in the sunlight but was distracted by the shout of a young boy.
“Maaaaaaaaaaaax!”
“Mattie! What are you doing here?”
Matt ran over to give Max a big hug, before looking at the guy next to her suspiciously.
“Hi, my name’s Trent. What’s your name?” Trent held out his hand to shake Matt’s.
Matt took his hand and shook it. “I’m Matt, Max’s friend.” Matt shot Trent a territorial look, which somehow seemed familiar to Trent.
Matt turned to Max, bubbling with enthusiasm. “You should have seen me Max! I was almost as good as you on ‘VR World’ and I beat Terry on all the games!”
“That’s my little gaming champ!” Max tapped his nose with her finger as he smiled proudly.
Trent watched the interaction between them. He could only guess that the Terry the kid was talking about was Terry McGinnis and there was definitely a resemblance.
“We would have stayed longer but Terry wanted to go to the library. I think he was just mad because he kept losing!”
Max smiled at Matt’s insight. “So where is your brother?” She looked around, hoping he would be with Matt. Terry was making a slow walk towards them. Max looked at Terry with empathy, knowing he’d had a tiring night, plus she didn’t yet know what Bruce had said to Terry on finding out Mischief had got away.
Trent looked at Max thoughtfully. “Max, I don’t suppose you want to study some more genetics tonight? I have to admit it’s not one of my stronger subjects and it would be so much easier if I studied with someone who knows what they’re doing.”
“Sure Trent,” Max answered, only half paying attention to him.
“Ok, so maybe I can meet you at six somewhere?”
“Huh? Oh, ok, yeah six.”
“Where do you want to meet?”
“Hmm…my place? I won’t be as stressed out then.”
“Ok.”
Terry stopped in front of them, his mind now on Max instead of the genetics test.
“Hey Max. Hi Trent.” Ok, that was good. I don’t think I sounded like a jealous boyfriend this time.
“Hey Terr.”
“Hi Terry. I’m going to have to go finish my English assignment now guys. It’s a futuristic interpretation of a Shakespeare piece. I’ll have to get it out of the way if I’m going to concentrate on revision for tomorrow.” Trent seemed relaxed about his workload.
Terry suddenly remembered why he was going to the library. “I haven’t even started to look at that stuff!”
“Well, to be honest, I’m lucky that Max is helping me this evening!” Trent said, giving Max a look of respect.
Terry was feeling less amicable now that he’d discovered Max would be studying with Trent that evening. He was hoping that he’d be able to do a cramming session with Max and just spend time with her. Matt was also displeased with hearing that Trent would be at Max’s house, believing that Trent was going to take Max away from him. Matt put on his cutest disappointed look, which had an immediate effect.
“What’s wrong Matt?” Max asked, bending down to talk to him.
“Nothing.”
“Come on, you can tell me.”
“I wanted to play my latest video game with someone and well Terry said he doesn’t want to play more video games and I was just going to ask you if you would come play with me.”
“Well, it’s going to be a busy night…” She looked at Matt’s cute little face and into his big brown eyes, finding it hard to say no to him. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Matt’s mouth lifted at the corners.
Terry looked at Matt and marvelled at how easy it could be to get your way as a kid. Trent couldn’t help wondering if Terry had taught the act to his little brother to get girls.
“Ok Trent, I’ll see you at six. We’ll see how the studying goes and then I’ll come over to see you, ok Matt?”
Matt nodded innocently.
Max smiled at the adorable face that was a younger version of Terry’s. She knew that Matt would grow up to be a girl magnet just like his brother was.
“Can you give me your address Max?”
As Max was giving Trent her address, Terry looked at Matt in wonder. Matt was looking down at the pavement and shuffling his feet. Matt, you sneaky little…
“Bye guys. Good luck with the test tomorrow!” Trent looked at Terry a little longer, aiming the comment more at him, as if he needed the luck.
They all said bye to Trent as he hurried off to do his assignment.
Terry felt more at ease now that Trent had gone. “Max, how are you feeling?”
“Was still a little sleepy this morning but I’m feeling pretty good, apart from the whole studying thing.”
“Maybe we can catch up properly later?” Terry didn’t want to say too much in front of Matt, as he was fast realising Matt was growing up to be a smart kid.
“Yeah, I get the feeling it’s going to be a long night! So what are you doing at the library of all places McGinnis?”
“Getting a disk out for the test tomorrow….”
“No, really, what are you doing here?” she said jokingly.
“Ok, ok, yes I’m at the library and it’s not because I’m being threatened at gunpoint but I need to stay on top of things.”
“Will the real Terry McGinnis please stand up!”
“I’m being very real Max so are you gonna help me out by telling me where I can get the disk for revision? Or maybe you could give me a crash course later tonight…I’ve got work… ” Terry remembered he had night patrol as usual plus he needed to check out the buildings at the location where Mischief had left his hoverbike.
“Your place as usual, I’ll bring the snacks?” Max smiled at what had become their late night studying routine.
Terry smiled back. “They probably wouldn’t have any disks left by now anyway.”
“So we left Cheesy Dan’s early for nothing?” Matt whined.
“Don’t worry Matt. I’m sure we can get in a few video games before Terry comes back from work but you have to be in bed by 9pm, ok?”
Terry saw how Max seemed to have a way with Matt and wished he could get Matt to listen to him in the same way. Maybe it was just Max, after all Terry himself couldn’t help wanting to make her happy.
Once Terry and Matt had left to go home, Max decided to get a coffee-to-go to stop her getting sleepy before any work had been done. Her aim was to do some background research on the Jokerz before her study session with Trent. She knew that Mischief was linked to the Jokerz from the timing of the events but she was still unsure as to why Terry had been so angry. It seemed Mischief had been provoking Terry. Max knew she still had to gather more information to uncover Mischief’s identity and possible reasons for why he would have a personal vendetta against Batman. Moreover, Max was puzzled over Mischief’s behaviour towards herself. She had a strange feeling that Mischief wasn’t a complete stranger. Max knew it would take her quite a while to pull up a list of suspects. The thought made her laugh as she remembered Terry being top of the suspects list last time. Now she had to find the right guy and soon. She didn’t know what Mischief’s future plans were but she hoped that he wouldn’t get a chance to carry them out.
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