Long time no see! As you might have guessed, I am VERY lazy. Don't worry, the other fics will be finished…eventually. I hope. This is something to get the writing juices flowing. Inspired by Scribbler's fic "Another Roll of the Dice", which introduced me to the "Five Things That Never Happened" fic.
Disclaimer: Don't. Own. A Thing. Except this fic.
They never found out…
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
The laughter was the very voice of insanity.
Grinning, the Joker walked toward the prone, paralyzed body of Slade.
"Imagine that. The unstoppable Deathstroke, beaten by a clown!" The maniacal laughter started up again.
"Why?" Slade hissed.
"Why? Why? Why?" The Joker stopped smiling. "I'll tell you why. YOU HURT BATMAN!"
He began to circle like a shark. "Do you know how much you hurt Batman? He didn't show it, but I could tell. Oh yes, I could tell. The only person who could hurt Batman like that is me."The eyes narrowed."And you're not me."
"So what are you going to do with me?" spat Slade. "Make me laugh to death?"
"No." He hissed. "I don't want you to laugh. I want you to suffer." He bent over and picked up Slade's staff. "You've been a very bad boy. I'm going to have to teach some manners!"
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! As the armor breaks and the wounds open, the Joker's grin only got wider. "Tell me Slady," WHAM! "How does it feel?"
There was no answer. Joker kept hitting him anyway. Eventually all that was left was a formless mass. The Joker threw his staff to the side.
The armored bystander came out of the shadows and looked over the corpse of Slade. His face was mixed with shock, fear…and relief.
"Don't worry Boy Blunder," the Joker said to Robin. "Uncle J has made it all better."
The Brave and the Bold.
"And you would punish him for saving your life?"
Strange circumstances happen in this universe.
"I would rather die than let the world be destroyed. Beast Boy needs to learn."
Those circumstances led to an unlikely team-up.
"Would you kill the Brain?" Muttered an angry Batman.
"…No." said Mento.
"Even though it could save countless lives."
"I don't judge a person by what he might do."
"Your motto. 'No matter what it takes.' Are you going against it?"
"…I don't need this."
Mento walked away…
Only to have Batman pin him against the wall, his face radiating his anger.
"I think you do need this Dayton, so listen and listen good. First, Garfield lost his own parents because of his inaction. Because they told him to run instead of saving them. He will not make the same mistake again for his new family. Second, if you die, and the Brain still lives, you are consigning innocents to death."
"Preposterous!"
"You wouldn't kill the Brain, right? Prison wouldn't hold him. If you died, who could stop him? Or who could save the innocents that he would slay? Not you. You'd be dead. You might as well be doing nothing to help."
"Look here…"
Batman ignored him. "Finally, you have personal reasons to die."
"What?"
"Don't play dumb. We both know that the Doom Patrol came together not because of some heroic model, but because they were different. Because you thought yourselves freaks. The other three have reason certainly, no offense to them meant. But the only thing freaky about you is your helmet."
"…I don't have to have powers to be ostracized."
"Yes. And you have been ostracized. A genius level intellect looked down upon and avoided by your peers. A feeling of the world rejecting you lasting beyond your childhood. You believe you are not fit for the world, so why do you even bother living in it? Why does any of the Doom Patrol bother? Unless that's why the do these missions. Because they have nothing to lose, only to gain. Because they want to die."
Batman let him go. "Face it Dayton. You're not punishing Logan for his failure to stop the villains. You're punishing him for not assisting in your suicide attempt."
The Dark Knight walked away, leaving Mento alone to his increasingly dark thoughts.
A Death in the Family.
They were nice to her. Very nice.
She considered going back home, then dismissed it. She might as well be a cripple back there. Here, they seemed not to mind. In fact, they seemed to prefer it.
Not that it mattered. Not really.
She did this out of a sense of duty. She tried to replace him in the hearts of his family. She became close to his best friend, and kept an eye on his successor.
She believed his k'norfka would not accept her, but he was surprisingly caring. Surprisingly accepting. Perhaps he was trying to replace him…
Or perhaps he was just relieved that he would never be able to do what she did.
She lost touch with the others. She had to. Whenever she though of them, one thing led to another and…
The woman was lucky. She suffered severe burns, but lived. But the other one…
The moment she saw the body, she flew. Eyes glowing green, face full of rage, she grabbed his pale face and pulled, hearing the hard snap as his neck broke.
She didn't know what the message was in his dying eyes at the time, but she eventually could guess.
"No! Not funny! Batman was supposed to kill me! Batman! Not you!"
She turned her back on the corpse of the killer clown and picked up Robin's mangled body. She checked for breathing, as he taught her. She took a pulse, as he taught her.
But he didn't teach her to hold his body close and cry.
Gotham was Starfire's home from then on.
Under the Hood
"Are you sure about this?"
"His aura suffuses the place. I may still be getting used to my freedom, but I am certain of this."
"If you say so Raven."
The apartment room was perfectly normal. Utterly normal. A bed, a dresser, and a closet, which Robin promptly opened. He peered around inside, searching behind the clothes.
The hidden compartment was almost too easy to spot. But then, he was trained by the best.
Robin opened it up.
"Find anything yet?"
"Holy…"
Robin fell silent. The sound of shuffling papers.
"Robin?"
Total silence.
"Robin are…"
"I'm fine…Raven, I found something very strange…you have to see this."
Pictures of a happy family. Some photos. Others were painted by a gifted artist. A mother, a brunette. A father, with piercing blue eyes. To happy brothers, looking alike, differing in age and expression.
The pictures then shifted. Newspaper clippings. Unexplained deaths. Classified ads that were obviously code for a sinister purpose. A name that came up frequently. Not a name he knew.
But the picture attached to the name was very familiar.
At that moment, elsewhere, Slade barely dodged a red, sharp, double bladed dagger. He back flipped away from two projectiles that came out of nowhere. He raised his arm with inhuman reflexes to block an attack from the side.
He turned to look at the attacker.
"I imagine that you're not Robin."
Red X chuckled. "Oh yes. Robin. Forgetting me already."
He pulled of his mask. Slade's eye widened as he looked upon messy blond hair and clear blue eyes.
"…Grant."
"It's been a long time dad…"
Released into Chains
She wanted to die.
She had nothing to live for. She didn't care what happened. Didn't even care if nothing happened. She just wanted to rest.
"You cannot rest."
The voice came from everywhere and nowhere at once.
I have to rest! She mentally screamed. I don't want to live. I don't deserve to live.
"You do not. But you do not deserve to rest either. You mission on this universe is unfinished. You shall remain here until it is."
I just want peace!
"You do not deserve peace. Not yet. Face your penance, child."
The statue glowed in a holy light.
They both vanished, and a figure stood in its place. The skin was impossibly pale. The blue eyes lacked normal emotion. Only the long yellow hair remained the same.
Most tellingly was the green cloak wrapped around the girl. She looked up.
A man walked along aboveground. He had killed at least three people, and desired to kill more.
She waited until he was alone. Then she willed herself to a place right behind him.
He was startled at first, then when he turned around his face became abject terror. She said his name and told him of each crime he committed.
He said it wasn't him. Even he thought it was foolish. She rebuked his pitiful defense.
"You will have the vengeance you deserve! So swears the Spectre!"
Postscript:
Story 1: Inspired by all the "What if Robin stayed as Slade's Apprentice" fanfics. Sooner or later, someone would do something about it…
Story 2: Title comes from DC's old team-up book, which eventually became "Batman paired with random guy." Doom Patrol originally was a collection of freaks.
Story 3: Title from an extremely famous Batman story line. DC fans should picture the cover that had the death of Supergirl for an idea of Starfire's reaction.
Story 4: Title from a recent Batman story. Grant Wilson (Ravager I) is the oldest of Slade's kids, and the least fondly remembered by fans.
Story 5: The Spectre is a long-time DC character, and one of the most powerful.