Batman Beyond Vol 2 1

"Grounded"

Cover

Grounded

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Batman Beyond Vol 2 # 2

The message wasn't for Terry McGinnis or Bruce Wayne. It was for Batman. It was meant for you. But it caught me instead.

— Bruce Wayne

Batman Beyond (Volume 2) #1 is an issue of the series Batman Beyond (Volume 2) with a cover date of November, 1999.

Synopsis for "Grounded"

Terry is scolded by his mother about neglecting his chores, due to his Batman duties. Terry's mother tells him that his afternoon job with Mr. Wayne will be put on hold for two weeks because she is grounding him with no electronic access, including phone, afternoon job, online, computer except for schoolwork and TV privileges and Terry groans in frustration as feels that he is now put in jail again by the warden while Mrs. McGinnis notifies Bruce to let him know that Terry is grounded. Bruce asks Mrs. McGinnis if Terry has done something wrong, but Mrs. McGinnis tells Bruce that Terry needs to learn to respect her and Bruce tells Ace that Terry will be okay. Bruce contacts Terry and tells him to act on his mother's requests until she cools down because he will need Terry back in action soon. Later that night, Matt irritates Terry by taking night vision snapshots of him with his camera and telling Terry to come down for dinner. Terry kicks Matt out of his room before Terry asks Matt if Mr. Wayne called while he is in solitary and Matt tells him no, but notices the TV is on as Terry watches it and Matt tells Terry that he is disobeying his mother. All of a sudden the TV emits a high frequency that causes Terry great pain but not for Matt. Terry demands Matt to turn the TV off. Mrs. McGinnis tries to have a word with Terry, but Terry realizes that Bruce is in trouble and defies his mother as he charges out of the apartment as Mrs. McGinnis tells Terry to get back here while grabbing his backpack and pulls out his batsuit.

Bruce turns on the TV, but Ace growls at the screen. Suddenly, the time on the clock changes to 2 am and Bruce gets a call from Mrs. McGinnis. Mrs. McGinnis said she got into another argument with Terry then Terry smacked his little brother Matt before leaving the apartment. Bruce is stunned by the sudden change in time and Mrs. McGinnis abrupts the call. Bruce assures Mrs. McGinnis that he will get to the bottom of this. Bruce heads down to the Batcave to deactivate the bat suit just in case Terry is under the influence of someone else. When Bruce reaches the kill switch, he discovers a batarang has destroyed it and the batmobile is gone.

Bruce then receives an incoming message on the batcomputer. The batmobile collides with a passing oil tanker. The oil tanker begins leaking oil all over the highway while Terry gloats about his misdeeds. The transmission between Bruce and Terry becomes muddled. Bruce tells the batcomputer to replay and isolate the anomalous sub-frequency in the recording of the message. The computer filters focal source of the signal within the message and discovers that Spellbinder has isolated the cowl radio frequency within Terry's suit thus bombarding Terry with subliminal messaging. The computer tracks Spellbinder's location to an antenna relay at the KKG TV building. Bruce decides to put a stop to it by wearing his old batsuit one last time.

Both Bruce and Terry arrive at the antenna relay. Both Batmans think the other is under Spellbinder's control so they engage in a fight. Terry fights Bruce who is wearing the suit that he wore during his halcyon years. Terry tries to use his youth and strength to overwhelm Bruce's strategic skills. Terry restrains Bruce with a bear hug from behind but Bruce activates a gas mask then triggers a nerve gas pellet which causes Terry to lose his grip. Terry loses his balance and falls off the edge of a building. Bruce grabs Terry and the nerve agent Oxy-Mix does its job by chemically erasing Spellbinder's hold over Terry.

Bruce and Terry head back to the batcave for the deeper analysis into Spellbinder's manipulation. Bruce deduces that Spellbinder's target was only Batman regardless if it was Terry or Bruce. The subliminal message was meant for only them which is why Matt McGinnis wasn't effected by the frequency. Bruce installs a few extra screens in the visor of Terry's cowl in order to block out any of Spellbinder's signals. Bruce tracks down the location of Spellbinder's actual base of operations and transfers the info to Terry. Terry arrives just as Spellbinder was introducing a few new victims to his enthrallment.

Terry approaches Spellbinder as if he was still under Spellbinder's influence but Spellbinder doesn't fall for it so he activates his latest victims by having them attack Terry. Spellbinder's latest form of influence stimulates the endocrinal and hormonal systems within the brain which increases the strength of Spellbinder's mind controlled victims. Terry acts fast by setting off a smoke bomb to immobilize Spellbinder's victims. Terry then subjects Spellbinder to his brand of subliminal messaging which causes Spellbinder to go catatonic. The next day, Bruce and Mrs. McGinnis come to understanding about Terry's grounding for four weeks while Terry can still work for Bruce while he is grounded after Terry deliberately disobeyed his mother and ran away from home which allows him to maintain his duties as Batman.