One night, while Terry is out on patrol, he witnesses a car careening out of control and stabilizes it, saving the passengers, apparently a family of three. Over the next few days, however, he begins to experience visions of the young girl in the car, who pleads with him to come rescue her. He soon learns that the girl, Tamara, is
gifted with telepathic powers and is actually a kidnapping victim. Her "parents" are, in fact, members of an elite secret society known as the Brain Trust, who plan to initiate her as their newest recruit. Batman must now try to locate and save Tamara while facing off against some of his deadliest opponents yet: those that possess both physical and mental superpowers.
Tropes:
- 90% of Your Brain: The explanation of how the Brain Trust uses their powers.
- Actor Allusion: Tamara is voiced by Mara Wilson, who played a similar psychic child role in the film adaption of Matilda.
- Badass in Distress: Batman near the end, which Max mockingly points out later:
Max: I love it! Ghost Girl ends up saving your butt!
Terry: I'd call it a mutual butt-saving situation.
Max: Whatever.
- Early-Bird Cameo: The telekinetic Albino that Terry fights is in fact Edgar Mandragora, the son of crime boss Steven Mandragora from the Justice League episode "Double Date".
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Not only is Tamara reunited with her loving parents, but according to Terry, she's now going to a real school that will help her control her psychic powers and protect her.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Tamara.
- Emotionless Girl: Tamara, at first.
- Feel No Pain: The Invulnerable Man's power. He doesn't register any of Terry's attacks, and when he's dropped from a building, the man merely dusts himself off as if nothing happened.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: When the Brain Trust kidnapped Tamara, she left her favorite stuffed toy, Poogley, behind. When Batman rescues her, he brings Poogley with her, and she's overjoyed to be reunited with her favorite toy. Tamara later creates a hallucination of a giant Poogley to distract Bombshell.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: While Tamara initially acts as a Damsel in Distress and her only skill seems to be mentally contacting Terry, she later comes to the aid of Batman in the climactic fight and displays a wide array of Psychic Powers. Had she actually joined them, she would have become one scary member of the Brain Trust.
- Mind over Matter:
- Surprisingly, the original meaning of the term is actually used, with Bruce explaining that the Invulnerable Man achieves his Nigh-Invulnerability purely by convincing himself that he is.
Terry: The guy at the hotel didn't seem at all brainy to me.
Bruce: Oh no? Think about it. He was completely invulnerable, felt no pain. Like shamans who walk on hot coals. It's mind over matter.
Terry: I hate when you blitz me like that...
- An example of the more typical definition of the term (telekinesis) is the Albino that Batman fights in the middle of the episode.
- Mind Rape: Edgar Mandragora's opening assault involves blasting Batman's mind with telepathy. This both distracts him and prevents him from seeing Edgar (as his perception is of a massive dust storm). Batman figures out where he is from the angles of his attacks and takes him down.
- Later, Tamara hits Invulnerable Man with a blast of psychic power to stop him from killing Batman. She renders him completely blind.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: The aptly named Invulnerable Man. At one point, he gets knocked at least 50 stories out of a high-rise hotel building and manages to walk away without a scratch.
- Oh, Crap!: Bruce uses the Bat Computer's database to identify Tamara by filtering lost children within a young age gap. Terry is horrified when the results show almost hundreds of profiles of missing children.
- Psychic Powers: Tamara, as well as all of the members of the Brain Trust.
- Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh...: Batman gets this during his first fight with the Invulnerable Man, who Feels No Pain.
- Sword Cane: Edgar Mandragora uses one against Batman.
- This Is Gonna Suck:
- Villainous Glutton: Mandragora's son Edgar. He is also a skilled martial artist with powerful zen abilities...
