Back in the jungle, Humphrey Dumphrey and the tribe of Egg-stroverts discovered the cave which led into earth-G and decided to enjoy the abundant space and fruit of the giant world’s jungle.

In the mean time, on earth-G, Cat-Anna, the daughter of Cheetah and Catman, born in the early 1960s, had also grown up and acquired a following of her own. Cat-Anna and her Miaowing Commandoes eventually went on an expedition into the giant earth’s jungle, in search of wealth to advance their rebellion against mainstream society in honour of their parents.

So adept were the Miaowing Commandoes at slinking through the jungle with the silence of creeping cats, that they did not alert the relatively tiny Egg-stroverts to their presence. They soon became aware of a tribe of small people, all dressed in egg-like clothing, all male, and all young.

Very carefully, so as not to cause the tribe to scatter, Cat-Anna and her women began to secretly snatch up members of the Egg-stroverts, take them back to their base camp and eat them.

It took several days before Humphrey Dumphrey managed to catch them in the act, without being seen himself. He immediately called a secret meeting of the whole team in the very cave that had enabled them to reach that world.

“I’ve seen enough to know what’s happened to our missing members,” said Humphrey, “They’ve been poached by giant women wearing cat masks.”

“You mean we’ve stumbled onto a world of giant Catwoman wannabees?” asked one of the Egg-stroverts.

“No. From memory, Dad only ever met Catwoman once, when some other villain busted six criminals loose in Gotham Penitentiary,” said Humphrey, “These women don’t seem to be trying to emulate a local Catwoman. Anyway, we’d better wait until night and then sneak out and see if it’s safe to venture further into the jungle and avoid being eaten.”

Of course, when they emerged from the cave, they found themselves back on their own earth-M with no more need to fear the giant women. The Egg-stroverts who’d already been poached by Cat-Anna and the Miaowing Commandoes were duly eaten and soon forgotten.

In the meantime, word of Mouse Man’s romance with Wonder Woman-M spread like wildfire throughout the tabloids and talk shows of earth-M. Fans of the couple were purchasing Wonder Woman costumes and full sized Mouse Man costumes, as none of them had the ability to shrink, and holding parties and special functions. Some of the tallest women around were keen to wear Wonder Woman costumes and date shorter men of average height, while some of the shortest men around were keen to wear the Mouse Man costumes and date taller women of average female height.

Their group was soon named the Wonder Mice. They held events all over the world, and sure enough, eventually held one in the jungle not far from the cave that linked them with the giant earth. One of the lads, still wearing his Mouse Man costume, was not having much success with any of the girls, and decided to take a walk in the jungle to settle his nerves. He found the cave and emerged in the giant earth-G’s jungle and wondered if he had really shrunken to the size of the real Mouse Man. Then he went back in the cave, returned to his own earth, and then again to the giant earth, until he worked out what was happening.

He decided to explore earth-G for a while, until he saw what seemed to be a giant Wonder Woman, dressed slightly differently from the one he knew, walking through the jungle towards him.

“I’ve grown very fond of this jungle,” she said, picking him up and sitting down on a log, looking very attractive in her outfit in that position, “But I never expected a new Mouse Man to pick up where the other one left off.”

“You’re a very beautiful Wonder Woman,” he said.

“Well thank you, but flattery won’t help you, young man. I ate the first Mouse Man some time ago, and I’m going to eat you up as well. You’ll be sorry you ever put on that costume.”

“But you don’t understand,” he said, realizing that Wonder Woman-G had mistaken him for a criminal Mouse Man from her own world, “I’m not really a Mouse Man, just a fan of his.”

“At that size. I don’t think so,” said Wonder Woman, laughing confidently.

She put him into her wide open mouth and closed it.

“I’m from the other earth!” he called, but she couldn’t hear him, “I’m just part of the Wonder Mice! It’s a fan club.”

It was no use. He was lying on her tongue with no way to persuade her to open her mouth and hear him out. It was evident now, that on this earth, Wonder Woman and Mouse Man never formed a romantic relationship. Yet something quite different had transpired between them.

Owing to a misunderstanding, the same thing was about to happen between the earth-M fan of Mouse Man-M and the earth-G Wonder Woman.

Suddenly Wonder Woman’s tongue angled on a slope, and the Wonder Mouse could not retain his position on her tongue. He felt himself helplessly sliding towards her throat, and into it. From then on, the gulping of the giant Wonder Woman’s neck took him down, down, down.

SPOILER WARNINGS: This chapter summarises part of the Batman Gotham Adventures 1998 episode "Old Wounds".

The future…

Terry McGinnis, the world’s latest Batman was battling a new alliance between the Jokerz and the Royal Flush gang. None of them could match the training that he’d received at the hands of Bruce Wayne and his sensei’s former student. Yet the sheer weight of numbers were keeping him on his toes, and Bruce kept doing his thinking, guiding his steps and … being boss. He’d been his own boss as Batman in his youth, and the boss of every sidekick from the original Robin to Tim Drake.

Now he was even Batman’s boss. He realized that he was getting older and older, that one day Terry would have to be able to think on his feet unaided, and then there was Terry’s lack of scientific expertise. How could he maintain and repair the Bat suit after Bruce died?

Suddenly Bruce’s concentration was interrupted by something he hadn’t heard in a long time. A sound beeped in the Batcave. He had installed a system which would let him know when the electronic door bell had been rung upstairs in Wayne Manor.

“Bruce, you still there?” asked Terry, as Bruce caught the sounds of punches and kicks hitting home in the background.

“Someone at the door upstairs,” said Bruce.

“I’ve got this,” said Terry, “You’re gonna have to regain a life of your own some time.”

There were no scientific weapons to work out, no mysteries to solve, just a large number of criminal thugs waiting to be taken out by Batman. Bruce couldn’t help with that anyway.

“I’ll be back,” he said, and went up to answer the door.

It was Mary McGinnis, Terry’s mother.

“Mr Wayne, may I come in?”

“By all means,” said Bruce, and showed her to the lounge room.

There was an old portrait of Thomas and Martha Wayne, and a more recent one of Bruce in his youth with his teen ward Dick Grayson. They both sat down, Bruce in an armchair, and Mary on a couch.

“I’ve talked with Terry sometimes, about how much future there would be for him at Waynetech. He’s never really even told me what he does. I guess I’m just looking for … more certainties for my son.”

Bruce had once taken a bold step and trusted Barbara Gordon with Dick Grayson’s Robin identity, hence revealing his own Batman identity in the process. Shortly after it had led to the end of a blossoming romance between Dick and Barbara. Although he’d never admitted it to Dick, he felt pangs of guilt over that outcome. Yet here was Terry’s mother with questions, and Bruce himself didn’t know, he’d just been thinking in the Batcave, what future he could offer Terry: wealth certainly, but not guidance from a dying elderly man who’d never had a wife or children, only brief painful attempts at relationships with criminals like Selina Kyle and Talia.

“I’ll show you something only Terry knows about,” said Bruce, and opened the door to the steps that led down to the Batcave.

Mary followed him down in silence and looked in awe and surprise at the many mementoes and costumes associated with the Batmen who had made Gotham a legendary city to live in. Then she looked at a video screen and saw signs of a fight, apparently from the POV of someone who had a video link to the Batcomputer’s video screen.

“Wayne! You back yet. I’m just about done here. Might as well send Barbara’s team for the biggest pick-up operation in years.”

“That’s Terry!” said Mary.

“You’ve done well, McGinnis. Wrap them up and take the rest of the day off,” said Bruce.

“We need to talk,” said Mary.

They went back upstairs and sat down again. As Bruce explained all that had gone on in the new Batman’s career, and how it had started, he found that Mary was taking it all in, responding to everything he said with a strange new pride in her son, but looking off to the side. In fact, she was looking at the picture of a young Bruce Wayne, and her questions were moving away from Terry’s activities, to more personal questions about how being Batman had affected Bruce.

“So you never had a personal ongoing relationship?”

“No.”

“Do you regret it?”

“Maybe I didn’t deserve one. Look what I did to Dick and Barbara.”

“They could have salvaged that, and she might never have become the Commissioner who gave Terry a chance in his new role,” said Mary, “I wasn’t wild about it for the first few minutes of discovering it down there, but it does fill in some gaps about his behaviour that have bothered me for a while. Bruce, you were so handsome, and such a caring man. It’s not right that a man should let all that go to waste and devote all the attention of his youth to spending time in combat with the worst criminals of Gotham.”

“I was always saying I’d get crime under control, and then it would be different. But it never happened.”

“I … don’t think I’ll ever stop wishing we’d been the same age,” said Mary, “You’re practically the father Terry doesn’t have, and that portrait will haunt me forever. But then, even if you could restore your youth, you’d just pick up the suit and go out and fight crooks with Terry, wouldn’t you?”

“Maybe one lifetime of that was enough,” said Bruce, “Maybe I could let go. More than that, I could restore my youth.”

He began to tell her the strange story of Ras Al Gul and Talia.

“They’re both dead now, along with all their followers. Many were defeated and killed, and a few who remained went over to join Kobra,” said Bruce, “But Terry, I and one other person on earth know of the locations of the Lazarus pits that restored their youth from time to time. I could be the young and available Bruce Wayne you wanted, but I’d need help to get to the pit, and to use it too. Will you trust me and give me time?”

“I guess I’ll need to use the time to explain our … connection to Terry,” said Mary.

Bruce showed her to the door and then went down to the Batcave and contacted the Justice League Unlimited. Soon he was joined at Wayne Manor by a very tall woman who covered most of her body in a large trench coat and wore a veil.

“You’re the only one who can do it,” said Bruce.

“I know I am,” said Barda, “I’ve done it once before, for myself.”

They looked back in their minds, to decades earlier. Big Barda and her husband Scott Free aka Mr Miracle had come from alien worlds called Apokolips and New Genesis, where they had been born in a low population race of people with bodies that never aged beyond adulthood and often had great powers. For a time they had mistaken themselves for gods, but there was only one real God, and Barda had long since discarded any nonesuch title for herself.

And although this is the third chapter with nothing about the Mouse Man, it does answer the question Carycomic posed in his last review about where the plot is going with future Batmen, Big Barda, etc.

Mr Miracle had billed himself as a super escape artist, and made a fortune for himself, Barda and the original earth born Mr Miracle’s former assistant Oberon, a middle aged midget with loyalty and honesty. The time eventually came, when a villain from Apokolips named Kanto had impersonated an earth man, and sabotaged one of Scott’s public escapes, so that it took the life of Mr Miracle. Barda and Oberon had shared their grief, and grief had turned to love. Oberon had confided in Scott’s old Justice League friends, that he felt inadequate for the ever youthful Barda at his advancing age. It was Batman who had gone to both Barda and Oberon, and explained both the potential and the mind warping side effects of the Lazarus pits. Together, Barda, Batman and Oberon had gone to a pit that Ras had abandoned after a fight with Batman went bad. Oberon had immersed himself in the pit, and Barda had used her Mother Box device to perfect the Lazarus chemicals’ effect on Oberon. He de-aged stably, without any mental incoherence, and lived out his years again, not alone this time, but married to Barda.

Recently he had aged again and decided that he could not see the value in reliving several happy decades. He asked Barda to let him die gracefully, and wished her the best for any relationship she sought after he’d gone.

Now Barda used Mother Box again, to restore Bruce’s youth, until he was around the age of Mary McGinnis, and to ensure that there would be none of the mental corruption which had exacerbated the evil tendencies of Ras Al Gul’s already decadent mind.

Bruce and Mary found Terry accepting of the situation, because it got both of them off his back and gave a boy in his teens the first real chance to be his own Batman. Barda offered to take over Bruce’s role of maintaining the Batsuit. With her knowledge of advanced scientific technology, she would have no trouble, and could even make a few improvements. She had never really liked the JLU. Superman was getting on, even for a Kryptonian. Warhawk was temperamental and arrogant. Micron never took her fancy. Green Lantern was a bald child, and Aquagirl was a woman. No dating possibilities there, but Terry McGinnis. That was another story.

She began going out on patrol with him. His toughest opponents were tamed by Barda’s nega rod, and soon ever Spicer, Kobra operative and rogues gallery criminal in Gotham were learning that crime no longer stood a chance with both Batman and Big Barda stationed in Gotham. Their services were needed less frequently, and the Terry McGinnis of this timeline had never met Max. Dana had given all her attentions to another boy (who in this timeline had never had the rat like facial features that had socially isolated him).

So it was natural that Terry McGinnis would have a rapid infatuation with a much taller, much older, (although visually only 15 years older) stunningly beautiful, super strong, technologically advanced woman who had made his job so much easier.

One day she simply pulled his mask off in the Batcave, planted a powerful kiss on him and sealed their love forever with a promise to spend all his life with him. There was always the choice to be made later by Terry, in his twilight years, as to whether he use the Lazarus Pit and Mother Box combination, or whether he echoed the choice made by Oberon. For now, he was on cloud 9.

Atom-M and Wonder Woman-M had a visit from Rip Hunter, professional time traveller of the late 1950s onward, who had added to his time technology and was now able to monitor any fluctuations in the timestream. He explained this to them, but said that he had not perfected his time monitor until after Atom and others had made so many significant changes to the timestream, that it had had the unpredictable Time Ripple effect of causing the Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick to die in 1945 near the end of World War II.

“Too much has been changed for me to have kept track of all of it. I can only think of one solution to the loss of the Golden Age Flash from 1945 onwards,” said Rip Hunter, “We must further alter time to introduce the Silver Age Flash sooner. Atom, you would be privy to his powers and origin. That’s why I can’t undertake this mission myself, but you must go back to time when the Silver Age Flash was merely a teenager, and recreate the circumstances that led to his acquiring his super speed, so that it happens earlier in his life. He will then fill the void of his pre-deceaser, to coin a phrase. You could also introduce the newly created teenage Silver Age Flash to the widow of the Golden Age Flash. She would be very familiar with the Golden Age Flash’s powers and methods and could act as his mentor. I will make my time machine available to you, in case you need to send someone normal sized through time. I’ll leave you to act in privacy and collect it after your mission is over.”

Rip Hunter departed.

“To do that we’d have to learn what combination of chemicals caused his powers, take that combination back through time and provide lightning as well. We just can’t do all that on our own,” said Atom, “We’ll have to form a team composed partly of Super Villains with the gifts necessary to get the job done. They’ll help us in return for a fresh start. It’ll be a group of people specially selected to bring the Silver Age Flash about in the Golden Age. We’ll call it the Silver Age Squad.”

Soon Atom had assembled his team, and was addressing them.

“Alright we have the Silver Age Squad members as follows: Mouse Lad and myself, newly shrunken to tiny size once again, Livewire, who will provide the simulated lightning fired in a specific direction, guided by my hands at full size (while she is blindfolded to preserve the Silver Age Flash’s young identity), me to prepare the exact chemicals needed, as I have the scientific knowledge and the size control to sneak into his laboratory in 1956 and obtain the chemicals. The chemicals will be set up in the teenage boy’s room while he’s at school. I will lead a blindfolded Catwoman and Livewire to the property, so that they don’t learn the address and identity of the Silver Age Flash. Then Mouse Lad will help Catwoman to break in. She will then plant the chemicals. Livewire will hide outside the window and wait until the boy is in his room and then send the lightning at the chemicals. Before the boy even realizes that he’s become the Silver Age Flash, I’ll lead the women away, return them to the present, and then go back and introduce the Silver Age Flash to the Golden Age Flash’s widow.”

“So one lightning emblem character, namely me, will actually help create another,” said Livewire, who had acquired her own abilities earlier than the 1990s in this new timeline.

“That’s basically it,” said Atom.

“And I get to work with the beautiful Catwoman,” said Mouse Lad.

“When this is over I’ll make an oven roast of you the first chance I get,” snarled Catwoman.

“You both need to keep focused on the job,” said Atom.

He asked Barry Allen what date he got his powers, and Barry worked it out from the dating on police reports he was working on just before his accident.

Atom time travelled back alone to 1956 and took inventory of the chemicals on the laboratory shelf, and then purchased the same chemicals in the present, and took the Silver Age Squad back to 1946. He blindfolded Livewire and Catwoman, and all four went to Barry Allen’s backyard, while his parents were at work. Atom removed the blindfolds, and sent Mouse Lad and Catwoman over to the house to break in.

“If you hold me close to the lock, I can pick it,” said Mouse Lad, and noticed that Catwoman was frequently licking her lips, “Are you serious about eating me?”

“What else do you expect from a Cat?” asked Catwoman.

“I guess we are naturally enemies, when you think about it,” said Mouse Lad, “But I don’t hate you at all, even though you want to eat me.”

“I don’t hate you either. I think you’re cute and no doubt delicious,” said Catwoman.

With that she put out her tongue and slowly licked his shoulders and face.

“I … really enjoyed that, actually,” said Mouse Lad.

“Tell it to my tummy when the fun’s over,” said Catwoman.

He turned around and worked on the lock, still talking to her.

“I was eaten by someone in this time era and rescued by time travel. I don’t think I’d mind what you’ve got in mind, if you went out with me a few times first.”

“You’re just a boy,” she said, “Why should I date a tiny boy?”

“I’ll be safe with the time pool staff after this mission’s over. You’ll be unlikely to ever catch me once you’re released back into society. If you promised to date me first, I could surrender myself to you willingly.”

He heard the lock move, and removed his hands and turned back to face Catwoman.

She surprised him with a slow kiss.

“We’ll work out whether you get dated and eaten or caught and eaten later,” she said, “It’s time to plant some chemicals.”

They finished the job, and then everyone hid in the backyard, with Catwoman blindfolded once again, and Livewire guided to the window blindfolded as well, as soon as Barry Allen was home. He was in his room doing his homework, when Livewire’s blast of lightning came through the window and gave Barry quite an ecstatic shock.

Atom led the others back to the time machine, returned them all to the present, had Catwoman’s and Livewire’s sentences commuted to time served, and then returned the time machine to Rip Hunter. Using the Time Pool, operated by Wonder Woman and Mouse Lad, Atom returned to 1946, explained to Joan Garrick that a teenaged boy had acquired the same super speed of her late husband Jay, and asked Joan to intercept Barry on his way to school and take him under her guidance.

Atom returned to the present.

Joan caught the same bus as Barry, whispered that she was the late Flash’s widow, and that she had learned of Barry’s speed, and asked him to come over on the weekend. Barry became the new Flash and soon fell in love with his mentor Joan Williams Garrick. As a result, he never met Iris West, and found that Joan’s Golden Age experience which had slowed her aging was a pleasant surprise. Iris was never killed by a vindictive Reverse Flash Professor Zoom. Time ripples caused him to fall in love with Giganta instead of Iris West  Doris declined his affections, saying that Zoom and Zool sounded too corny for words. Rather than kill her out of unrequited love, he tried to kill her boyfriend, but was defeated by a far more seasoned Barry Allen Flash and his friends. The universe only benefitted from the final changes to the timeline, proving that Rip Hunter’s theories had been well justified.

Spoiler Warnings:        This chapter has major spoilers for the Batman Beyond episodes “Disappearing Inque” and “Inqueling”

In a security building in New Gotham city, a man now known only as Inque 0.5 faced yet another day of being fed soft sloppy food through a funnel, by a woman whom he had no choice but to listen to. She talked on and on about subjects which were of no interest to him, while Inque 0.5 wished for a moment of peace, that he might think over the way the great love of his life Inque had betrayed him.

After being secretly video taped professing his love for Inque, by his boss, humiliated and dismissed for no good reason, he had had freed her from the frozen captivity brought about by the new Batman with Mr Freeze’s cold gun. She had then rejected his romantic advances, and amused herself by betraying his request to be like her. Not content to merely deny him her power, she deliberately gave him only half of the formula treatment that had changed her from human form to that of Inque. So he retained a human pinky white skin colouring, but a deformed shapeless body over which he had no control.

Expecting to wake to another day of the same undeserved torment, Inque 0.5 was surprised to see one of the complex lights go on in the middle of the night, and even more surprised to see that it had been turned on by Inque.

“I didn’t know if I’d ever recover my control of my form or my freedom,” said Inque, “But thanks to an elderly doctor who had once tried to assist Matt Hagen aka Clayface to regain his human form, I was able to adapt her process and stabilize my Inque form. I can do the same for you, but first I must undo the terrible cruelty I heartlessly forced on you. Here is the rest of the formula.”

Inque injected the man with a syringe full of bright pink liquid with white sparkly dots apparently included in it.

“Do you feel the change happening?” she asked.

“Oh yes, yes, yes!” said the man, and found that his body morphed into a dark blue form with a few hints of white and black, “No more Inque 0.5 for me. Now I can truly be Inque 2.0. Thank you!”

“It’s the least I could do,” she said.

“But what made you change your mind about helping me?”

“God convicted me of my evil nature in the only way I really left Him to do it. He showed me how it felt to be betrayed by someone I loved, namely my daughter. After all I did for her, I was left wondering why I’d cared so much. I cried out ‘Why is this happening to me?’ and then God spoke audibly straight into my brain, reminding me of every self involved criminal act I’d ever done, and then finally of the way I treated you, a good caring man who was guilty of nothing but loving me and risking all to help me. I never deserved a good man like you, and you certainly didn’t deserve a bitchy bad woman like me.”

“Please … don’t call yourself that. I didn’t deserve what my employer did. He never repented. I’d give anything to have you and this new power,” said Inque 2.0.

“Your control over it won’t last, unless I give you the old Clayface stability 2.0 treatment,” said Inque, “We have to get to the doctor’s seafront complex now.”

Inque took him there and modified his condition further, and then the two began to date.

Within weeks, Batman (Terry McGinnis) found himself facing an onslaught of villains from his rogues gallery, all teamed up in what they hoped would be a final attack on New Gotham’s primary super hero. The latest members of the Royal Flush Gang and the Society of Assassins were aided by a gang of Jokers who had acquired Slappers (the patches which imparted a temporary dose of Bane’s power). They had freed Spellbinder and Shriek and Mad Stan and formed the worst army of villains that Gotham had seen in many years. In this timeline, Blight was the only super villain who had not retained his abilities.

After taking a pounding that was on the brink of damaging his advanced Batman suit, the latest dark knight began to wish that the rejuvenated Bruce Wayne had put on one of his own old Bat suits to help, instead of settling down with Terry’s own mother. However, help can come from strange places. Just when all hope seemed lost, two largely blue figures ploughed into the super villains.

“I don’t believe it,” thought Terry, “It’s Inque, and …. another Inque. They’re taking down stacks of them in very little time. I guess I’d better get back on my feet and help.”

Terry felt a new burst of inspiration, as he shrugged off three attackers, and started firing Batarangs at others. Inque seemed immune to Shriek’s attacks, as did Inque 2.0. Then, out of the blue (pardon the pun), both Inques stopped fighting the villains, and began to fight, not Batman, but each other. Terry looked around for the explanation, and saw that Spellbinder was using one of his mesmerizing illusion devices on the Inques. They would have been seeing something which he had conditioned them to see, something that led them to believe that they were fighting the villains without interruption, Terry guessed. Each of them would have seen the other as one of the Society of Assassins, or one of the Royal Flush Gang.

But the Assassins were all down. Not even their fighting abilities had been of any effect against the powers of the Inques. Terry did his best to ignore the onslaught of the four members of the Royal Flush Gang who were still standing, and managed to fire off three Batarangs, before the second and third one successfully knocked out Spellbinder’s devices. The Inques snapped back to normal and saw Terry’s troubles.

“Three against four,” said Inque 2.0, “I’d say that’s in our favour here.”

He threw himself at Queen, smothering her against her own flying card, until she passed out from lack of breath. Inque herself did the same thing to Jack, while Batman managed to loop his rope around Ten and King and tie them together.

“Thanks for the assist,” said Batman, “Although I honestly didn’t expect it.”

Inque explained everything to Batman.

“I think the law would consider any unserved sentences commuted for pain and suffering already sustained by you guys, and I’d welcome the help any time you want to do this again,” said Terry, “Besides, I left the retooled freeze gun at home.”

Inque laughed.

“Never thought of myself as a team player before,” she said.

“I wouldn’t hold out for membership in the Justice League Unlimited yet though,” said Terry.

“That’s okay. If your old man and his dog joined us, I guess we could always call ourselves Mysteries Inque.”

“Just as well Bruce got young again,” thought Terry, “Or he’d be turning in his grave.”