He first attempts to kill Bruce in the theater where Bruce Wayne's parents died fails because (shockingly enough) Batman intervenes, though Bruce is injured. Terry nabs one of Shreeve's devices and analyzes it back in the Batcave, while Bruce starts hearing voices. Terry is able to track the device back to Shreeve, and gets in by posing as a pizza guy, though he soon raises Shreeve's suspicions by being too interested in the tech and has to escape. In the process, Shreeve is outed to the police as the guy who attacked Bruce Wayne. Powers then suggests that Shreeve take up being a supervillain full-time, offering the code name 'Shriek'.
Back at the hospital, Terry breaks Bruce out of the psych ward, where it's revealed that the "voices" were actually a miniature (ish) radio. Bruce knew all along the voices were fake (he doesn't call himself "Bruce" in his head), but he wasn't able to crack the case before Powers had him railroaded into a padded cell.
On their way out, they're ambushed by Shriek, who fights Batman. His sonic weapons prove quite effective at tracking footsteps and in causing general mayhem, but in the end all it takes is a well-placed batarang to cause all his tech to malfunction, which results in him being overwhelmed by sound and going deaf.
Tropes
- Annoying Patient: In the hospital after Shriek's initial attack, Bruce is utterly obnoxious, yelling at the nurse to leave and throwing a bedpan. He gets even worse after he starts hearing voices....
- Armor-Piercing Question: Bruce Wayne refuses to allow a section of Gotham City, which included the theater he'd gone to the night his parents were murdered, to be demolished. Terry McGinnis asks him why he wouldn't want it torn down, so that the painful memories would end, only to fall silent when Bruce asks "Do you want to forget what happened to your father?".
- Artistic License – Economics: Wayne-Powers holds an extraordinary general meeting for the sole purpose of determining whether or not to make an offer to Gotham City to buy and tear down its historical district, something that senior management and at best the Board of Director is expected to handle on their own.
- Autobots, Rock Out!: The producers inverted this trope, where the villain of the title kills all the sound except Batman's footsteps. It is very effective.
- Big "NO!": Shriek's reaction to losing his hearing.
- Buffy Speak: When Terry tells the Batcomputer to analyze one of Shreeve's sound generators.Terry: Computer, analyze the metal this thing is made of. (nothing happens) Computer?
Computer: Incorrect command.
Terry: Uh...do the thing where you figure out what's it made of.
Computer: Request for spectrographic analysis.
Terry: That's it. What you said. - Call-Back: Derek Powers is attempting to tear down Gotham's historical district, which includes its Park Row/"Crime Alley" section, much like Roland Daggett attempted to do decades earlier.
- Continuity Cameo: The old, abandoned police precinct still has a "Wanted!" Poster for The Joker (in his TNBA design) hanging on the wall.
- Cool, but Inefficient: That is essentially what Powers tells Shreeve what his inventions are; they are too expensive to use for jobs when cheaper conventional tools like dynamite can do the job just as well.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Inverted with Shriek, who actually tried to make legitimate money off his inventions and became a criminal in order to secure funding for his research.
- Delivery Guy Infiltration: Terry pretends to be a pizza delivery boy in order to infiltrate Shreeve's laboratory. Shreeve is suspicious, but he lets him in. To be fair, Shreeve's initial suspicion is the classic "I didn't order any pizza." Terry manages to get around this by claiming it must have been a prank and his boss would have a fit when he brings it back. The letting him in is sympathy on Shreeve's part (Shreeve isn't a bad guy, just desperate for money for his funding). The suspicion comes when Terry asks too many questions about the tech.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The "Wanted!" Poster of The Joker seen in the old GCPD headquarters still uses his New Batman Adventures revamp design rather than the BTAS-TNBA hybrid redesign the show would eventually create for Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.
- Gaslighting: Shriek tries to make Bruce appear insane and push him into killing himself by broadcasting voices at him through a hidden miniature receiver. He realizes that the voices are fake because they address him as "Bruce", which isn't how he thinks of himself.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: Terry is investigating an attempted assassination of Bruce Wayne and decides to visit what might be the source of the technology used in the attack. However, instead of sneaking in as Batman he dresses up as a delivery boy and brings over a pizza. He and Walter Shreeve end up splitting the pie and pleasantly talking about sound waves...at least, until Terry's questions get a bit too pointed and Shreeve tries to split open his head.
- Hearing Voices: Part of Shriek's debut was convincing everyone Bruce had gone crazy so he could be locked up. Bruce himself never believed it, and Terry eventually uncovered the secret - an oversized bandage that concealed a tiny two-way radio only Bruce could hear. After Shriek is defeated, they have an interesting conversation:Terry: Tell me something - why were you so sure those voices weren't coming from you?
Bruce: Well, first, I know I'm not psychotic.
Terry: I hope your other reason is more convincing.
Bruce: Second, the voice kept calling me "Bruce." In my mind, that's not what I call myself.
Terry: What do you call yourself?
Bruce: (stares)
Terry: Oh, yeah. I suppose you would. [Batman voice] But that's my name now.
Bruce:Tell that to my subconscious. - Hoist by His Own Petard: Sound expert Shriek goes deaf from his suit's amplification.
- Honest Corporate Executive: The majority of the Wayne-Powers Board of Directors as well as the company's shareholders vote in favor of not demolishing Crime Alley.
- Meaningful Rename: When Walter Shreeve, sound researcher and technician, is exposed as the attempted murderer of Bruce Wayne, he complains to Powers that he can no longer show his face or use his name. Powers explains that the face is no great loss, and he will give Shreeve a new name more fitting to his powers: Shriek.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Terry, while pretending to be a pizza delivery boy.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Shriek was only working with Powers to receive funding.
- Quieter Than Silence:
- Happens during Shrieve's fight with Batman. They do go completely silent, with the only sounds being the occasional distorted footfall when Batman moves.
- A variation is used, where the only sound heard is a very high tone. It's not actually silence, but to show that Shriek has gone deaf. note
- Saving the Orphanage: Bruce refuses to allow the Park Row/"Crime Alley" section of Gotham City, which included the theater he'd gone to the night his parents were murdered, to be demolished. Terry asks him if he'd rather have it demolished, so that the painful memories would end, until Bruce asks "Do you want to forget what happened to your father?" Powers hires Shreeve to kill Bruce so that he can go ahead with demolishing it.
- Silence Is Golden: The fight with Shriek in the car factory.
- Spotting the Thread: From the moment Shriek started gaslighting Bruce into thinking he was hearing voices in his head, he never trusted that they were his own. Why? As he later reveals to Terry, they kept referring to him as "Bruce", when in reality he mentally refers to himself as "Batman", even after passing the mantle to Terry.
