Part 1 Robin: Face to Face with his Future Face
And now the exciting conclusion of the time travel trilogy (in three parts), that is itself a trilogy of past, present and…
The Future:
"Oh my god Robin! It's you and you've turned evil!" Cassie looked at the partially formed frozen image that was forming around them, as the supercycle slowly entered the time period they had followed the Delorian into. They were surrounded by large awkward looking robots, which seemed to be under the command of the other Robin.
Robin stared at the figure of himself taken aback by what he saw. "No, it can't be."
Cissie squinted her eyes. "That's you all right Robin, you're a little older but that face is defiantly yours."
"Yeah that's my face but that certainly isn't my body, look at him," he pointed to the Robin figure. "He must be close to Batman's size and build. I'd never get that big, no matter how hard I train. I remember when we were all changed into adult heroes that I was nowhere near as big as that. I just don't think I have the genetics for it."
He stroked his chin thoughtfully. "I think there's something else going on here, but I'm not sure what."
"What's going on is that were about to be captured," Kon stared at the array of sophisticated black and yellow clad robots leveling their guns at the group.
"Impulse can you create a dupe and scout ahead in time for us. Maybe there's someway we can avoid this trap."
"Sure thing Rob." Impulse strained slightly to create a duplicate of himself. The next moment the group stared in amazement, as duplicates of all the Young Justice members, as well as the cycle were created side by side with the group. They stared across the time bubble that the cycle was in to the mirror images of themselves. "Huh?"
"How did you do that Bart?" Traya asked.
"I dunno. I didn't do anything different."
"There's not a dupe of me, why not?" Secret floated towards the second cycle.
"Yeah it's not like you're not easily duped, by the way your shoelace is untied." Kon pointed at her feet.
Secret looked down at her feet. "But I don't have shoelaces, I don't really have any shoes."
Robin looked closely at his own dupe, which stared back at him. "Hmm… the time travel abilities of your scouts combined with the time travel properties of the cycle could be some explanation why your powers were thus affected Bart," Robin reached over to the duplicate Robin on the cycle next to them. The moment he touched him the dupe disappeared folding back again into Robin.
"They act the way your normal scouts do. But they look a lot more substantial. That gives me an idea."
Robin got up and began to stand on his seat in the supercycle. He carefully leaped over to the seat of the cycle next to them replacing the Robin he had just absorbed.
"What are you abandoning us?" Secret asked.
"Yes. We need to find out what's going on, and do something about it. I'm going to get captured and hopefully find out what's happening. You guys are going to stay free and be able to do something about it. Use the cycle's phasing ability and hide. I leave my communicator on so that you can hear everything I do. "
"Why do you think you'll find out anything by getting captured." Anita inquired.
Robin stared at the older Robin before him. "Because I think I know who's behind all this, and I think I might be one of the only ones to be able to reason with him."
The time reentry indicator counted down identical seconds on both of the cycles in the time bubble. The moment it reached zero, the cycle with the real gang on it began to phase, sinking beneath the ground.
The other cycle with Robin and the dupes appeared before the group of armed Robots. "Everybody act surprised." Robin commanded.
The dupes obeyed, their eyes widened at the sight in front of them.
Almost immediately some of the robots began firing at the group. Pulses of light flashed from their weapons. One by one the duplicate members of YJ slumped forward unconscious. Robin frowned from his seat on the cycle. He was the only one who had not been targeted.
Robin leaped down from the cycle and approached the Robin before him. The older Robin towered above him. Robin looked up and stared him in the face. "You're not fooling anybody, you're not me."
"Of course not Tim Drake, I am Robin. Come, the Prefect wishes to see you." The older Robin turned to go.
Robin followed behind. "Prefect huh? Is that what he's calling himself these days?"
He entered the huge dimly lit hall. A giant symbol was emblazoned above the entrance to the hall. The same symbol he had seen on the armbands of the robots, a strangely familiar P. All about him in the hall were piles of complicated machinery, and equipment. Working on one of the pieces of equipment, facing away from him, he could see a black caped figure. The little light that shone on him revealed his dark hair.
"You wanted to see me Prefect, or should I say Bruce."
The Prefect turned around and faced him. Tim jumped back in horror as there, before him stood himself; he looked about the same age as Batman. He was dressed head to toe in black, save for a yellow armband with the P emblazoned on it. "They don't call me Bruce."
"No, this can't be."
The Prefect marched over to him. "This is, or maybe from your perspective it's closer to say this will be. After tonight, you can't stop it either. You fell right into my trap. Good old trustworthy Dickie boy gives you a map right into my snare and you never even question it. Your emotional side was always your weakness, caused you to lapse from reason. After tonight though you'll be a lot more reasonable."
"Tonight? You mean the day we left to go back to the old west. Something happens that night that leads to all this?"
"That's right, once I rip the time circuits out of the supercycle, I'll send you all back with your memories erased. Making sure everything goes like it should."
"God I hope Cass heard that," thought Robin.
"Did you hear that!" Cass shouted to the group. If the supercycle will take us back in time to well, the present, we might be able to prevent all this from happening."
"Go back to the present and leave Robin here?" Anita looked at Cass quizzically.
The next instant everything started to shimmer around them.
"No, Robin." Secret shouted and flew headlong toward the shimmering wall. She seemed to almost penetrate it, and then was flung back into the cycle.
The Present:
They zoomed in over a rooftop in what looked to be Gotham City.
Anita looked out at the city at night. "I meant that as a question not a command but it does look like we're in the right place. Secret, are you ok?"
Secret lay on one of the seat of the cycle, she stared blindly into space.
Kon waved his hand in front of her. "Hey Secret, hello is anybody home."
"She's out of it." Anita stared at her vacant expression concerned.
The Future:
Secret stared through eyes that were hers but not hers. She was in a vast chamber. She stared at the Prefect's giant symbol emblazoned on the end of the wall. "That looks like Robins R symbol but with one of the lines removed," she thought. She looked to a wall of mirrored glass beside her. She had not willed herself to move but she had moved nonetheless. She stared at herself. She instantly knew that it was not herself as she was now, even though she looked exactly the same. She hadn't aged at all. She had remained a perpetual teenager, trapped as Peter Pan.
Then she moved again. Her older self carried her along, as if possessed. She could not do anything of her own accord.
Instantly she felt dread, as she marched into a room. Horrified at what she saw within.
The Present:
Impulse raised his fists into the air in celebration, as he stared out of the cycle. The building adjoining them had a large banner on the face of it. It exclaimed: Gotham Museum Exhibit of the Wonders of Modern Science. "Gotham City cool. Just a second guys," he returned back less then that later, with a few artichokes. He looked disappointedly at them. "Oh man, these are just like regular artichokes. I thought Gotham City artichokes where supposed to be really cool and scary looking."
Cass slapped the palm of her hand to her forehead. "Bart it's gothic architecture not Gotham artichokes."
"Gotcha!" He disappeared again, returning with a flower. He was rubbing the petals with his fingers, "I tell ya this Gotham orchid texture isn't doing it for me either."
'Hey isn't that…" Cissie pointed to a figure on the rooftop directly beneath them.
It was Batman. He was stone cold unconscious.
"Oh no! It looks like when we zoomed in here, we ran over Batman with the supercycle." Anita shouted.
"I wonder what he was doing here?" Cass remarked.
"I wonder if he's all right." Cissie climbed out of the cycle and turned him over, "Cassie hand me my medicine bag. I should have one stored in the glove compartment on your right."
Cassie opened up the small glove box, reached the entire length of her arm in and felt around. "Hold on it's in here somewhere. Ah ha. Got it." She strained to pull an oversized doctor's bag, out of the small opening.
She tossed it to Cissie, who opened it and reached inside. "These smelling salts should revive him."
She held up a cube to Batman's nose. In the next instant it exploded sending a whiff of gas into the air.
Cissie buried her head in her hands. "Man o man o man, am I an idiot."
"Oh uh. Why are you an idiot?" Anita asked.
"I accidentally gave Batman a highly concentrated knockout gas, I mistook for a smelling salt cube. He's going to be out for hours."
"What do we do?" Cass shrugged her shoulders.
"I say we leave him here and get the hell out of here before he comes to. I don't wanna be around when he wakes up." Kon offered.
"I'm with ya." Anita agreed.
"Sounds like a plan to me." Cass nodded.
Bart came running around a corner. "Hey I found out what Batman was doing here, there's a big sign down the way, that has "Batman this way" written on it, all you have to do is follow the arrows."
Kon stared at the unconscious Batman. "I think Bats might be overrated, seems it's pretty easy for detectives in Gotham City."
Traya remained with Cissie in the supercycle while the rest of the gang followed the arrows to their source.
The Spoiler prodded Robin. "So tell me is she younger or older then you."
Robin Iooked around. The sky was a dark gray. Everything had the feeling of unreality about it as if he were dreaming, but he half remembered this incident happening. He was out fighting crime with the Spoiler, who did not know his identity, and she was inquiring about his then current civilian girlfriend Ariana. "I don't…"
"Robin! The cradle," Steph shouted.
Robin was annoyed at Steph for prying into his life. "Steph," he lifted his finger to lecture her.
She rushed past him to a runaway baby carriage. "Baby," she called as she ran after it.
He turned to follow her and stared into the face of Ariana. She lay there near nude on the couch in front of him. "Baby," she called out to him and began to peel off her skimpy nightgown.
"Ariana? But it didn't, it never, it didn't happen like this. What's happening?" He turned again looking strait into the face of the Joker.
"Joker?" He griped the armrest shocked.
"That's me, some people say I'm like Jack Nicholson, others say I'm more like Dennis Hopper from Easy Rider." He gestured to the near nude girl on the couch with Tim. "My advice to you is Hopper, and Rider. Ha, ha."
Harley leaned on what looked like a giant tan egg. "So he's starting to hallucinate huh Mr. J.? I guess that's what happens when you've been in an isolation tank for hours. Learned that at shrink school."
"Yes, Dr. Quinn. Now get me the damn medicine, woman." She handed him a tube filled with liquid. He injected it into a hose attached to the tank. A computer screen showed a clear infrared image of Robin inside the isolation tank. Robin looked to be suspended mid air, in the middle of the egg like tank. Many wires and tubes were hooked up to him.
Joker smiled. "We're going to probe the protégé of the defective detective, find out what makes him tick, when he starts to talk."
Harley leaned over a woman seated in a chair beside the tank. The woman stared vacantly ahead. "You're sure about this babe Mr. J, she looks kinda, I dunno, comatose to me."
"Ah, she's an old buddy from Arkham, high society woman and gifted telepath. Able to project directly into ones mind. But since the operation she'd be not one to mind if she went directly to the projects. Ha, ha. Still a gifted telepath though, and easily controlled too."
He smiled, and goose-stepped around the room. "Und right now, Bats in valking right into my fvun trap. I've fvun trapped the Batman fvamily."
He stared at the infrared image on the screen. "Bats is going to go batty when he finds out I've turned his little bratty into my lackey."
The Joker's Fun Trap was written in large neon letters on the door before the gang.
Impulse rushed to open the door. "Wow, a fun trap."
"No stop!" The rest of the gang turned their faces away from the opening door. They were bathed in a green light.
"Oh no," said Anita, "he's bathing us in harmful radiation…" She uncovered her eyes and looked to a television set that had Joker's image on it. "…From the television screen."
"Hello Batman. I've kidnapped Robin. But that's us criminal geniuses, always stealin' a Robin. Ha, ha. I know you're anxious to get him back, well, before he cracks and Robin's not a good egg anymore. So…" An envelope swirled out from a compartment on the TV.
Jokers face disappeared to be replaced by three words on the screen:
Earth shattering ka-boom.
Impulse bent over the screen puzzled. "Huh, I wonder what that means?"
"It means get us out of here quick Impulse." Anita shouted.
The group latched on to Impulse and he and got them out of there instantly. An explosion leveled the area where they had just been.
Back inside the cycle, Cass opened the letter. She read it silently. "Japan? Oh my god he's sending us halfway around the world on a scavenger hunt."
Traya looked at the note. "These puzzles are really tough, Batman might be able to figure them out or Robin even but I'm stumped."
Bart seemed very pleased by the turn of events. "Really, a scavenger hunt? That's so cool. I wish I had some fun villains like the Joker."
Anita shook her head. "Bart, the things that come out of your mouth sometimes, are so bizarre, off the wall and unpredictable, that I'm not even surprised by it half the time anymore."
Kon agreed. "Yeah and Rob's always talking about how the Joker is bizarre, of the wall and unpredictable. He's got nothing on you Bart."
"Hmm…" Cassie put her finger to her chin. "Hey, you may have something there. Now this may not make complete sense, but what if Bart could guess at the Jokers' plans, and figure out the clues, if…" She stained to think. "I dunno, if he thought like a diabolically clever criminal genius. Maybe only someone unpredictable can predict what someone unpredictable is going to do."
Kon stared at her incredulously. "You're kidding right, Bart didn't even pick up on the clue: Earth shattering ka-boom."
"That was a clue?" Bart's eyebrows furled.
"Yes and one day you might get one of your very own."
"I should go too to help out with the puzzles." Traya said thoughtfully.
Cissie shook her head. "Oh no, first stop before Japan is the school, to drop you off. We just almost got blown up. Red would kill me if I got you killed."
They flew off in the cycle. Bart called out. "We're going to Japan huh? Hope we don't get horribly manga-led."
End of Part 1
"Robin's Prefect Future." m
Part 2 Bad Impulses.
The Future:
Robin stared out at the dark expansive room. "Quite a set up you have here, Prefect. A huge secret base and everything, but you're still just a supervilian. You can't hide from the heroes forever."
The Prefect flicked a button on a controller he had in his hands. "Yes well, I had to get rid of all the heroes because, quite frankly, they would've stood in the way of my plans for world domination." The mammoth wall behind the Prefect lit up with viewing screens, they displayed video surveillance of certain world capitals.
Robin looked like he had been hit by a brick. "W… w… world domination?"
Robin stared, repulsed at the display behind the Prefect. "What did you do with all the heroes you didn't kill them all did you?"
"No of course not," the Prefect waved his hand. Secret floated into the room her eyes slightly downcast. "She did mostly."
Robin looked at her. She was the same age as she'd always been. Externally she hadn't aged at all. But her eyes were no longer those of the innocent girl he had known. She stared vacantly cold, and unfeeling, and strangely at the same time, terrified.
Secret coolly looked toward Robin. Then the Prefect simply waved his hand and Secret floated away again.
Robin stared at the floor. "World domination? Why would you want to conquer the world?"
"To do what we always did save the world."
"Save it, you've enslaved it. You're insane." Robin said angrily.
"I am completely rational. You misjudge me because you are the one who is blind. After tonight though, you'll open your eyes."
"I suppose you're Mr. Perfect huh, Prefect. You never make a mistake."
"That is an absurd and illogical premise. I make mistakes. I make lots of mistakes. In order to learn anything, one must make logical conclusions given the available facts. In order to learn more facts, and furthermore, in order to learn whether certain facts are indeed factual, requires making mistakes. Some would say that it was a mistake that led me to you. One cannot learn and grow without making mistakes. But if I see a mistake, I correct it, half of the time you ignore it, that is where we differ, for now."
Robin motioned to the video screens. "What gives you the right to control peoples lives?"
The Prefect smiled at this and gave Robin a disparaging look. "Right! Ha, you're a fool I can't believe I was ever that stupid and naive. Right and wrong, that's what your on about now, isn't it? Good and evil, black and white."
"Sometimes it's that simple."
"That is, in fact, relatively complex. Black and white are two and describe none, while gray is one and describes all. Right?"
The Present:
"All right! Here we are Japan." Cassie called out. The group landed in the supercycle.
Bart scrunched up his face, and hunched his shoulders forward. He rubbed his palms together evilly. "Ha, ha, ha. Already you have fallen into my trap."
Kon said annoyed, "Bart will you quit it already with the evil bit."
Cassie explained, "Kon, he has to think like an evil genius if we're going to find Robin."
"Robin is doomed. Doomed I tell you. Ha, ha, ha."
Kon rolled his eyes at her. "Come on Cass, I mean, do you honestly think that's going to work."
Cass read the note given to them by the Joker. "Go to Japan to see Van Dam."
She stared thoughtfully. "What does he mean, Van Damme the actor -ahem- or does he mean there's a dam whose name is Van."
Bart laughed, "Both of them you fools,"
Anita questioned, "Both of them? How can it be both of them?"
Impulse asked one of the people passing by, "Do you speak English and do you know of, I dunno, a big dam with Jean Claude Van Damme's face painted on it?"
The man in British military uniform replied. "Why yes, I speak English. Why, I'm an English Major. As for your question, yes it's over there." The man pointed over the ridge.
There over the ridge, overlooking the area was a big dam with an action movie ad stamped over the face of it.
"Here heroes. Here you will meet your doom! Ha, ha, ha." Bart rushed off toward the dam, the group followed.
The group approached the dam, near where they stood was another TV set, again it began to play when they approached it.
The Jokers image smiled on the screen. "I see you've brought some old friends to help you out, Batman."
"He thinks it's Batman, these must be all pre-recorded messages, he doesn't know it's us." Anita noted.
"Hmm…" Impulse looked around. "Dam, water?" He looked up crazed. "Ha, ha, ha. I've just thought of a fiendishly clever plan, I've got to stop me before its too late." He rushed off.
Joker continued to speak. "So friends it's been super. But you're about to be aqua- manga-led. Damn you all. Ha, ha. Damn you all to swell."
Just then the ridge behind them shook a bit and two loud but minor explosions could be heard from it. A small amount of smoke drifted in the air.
"Ha, ha." Impulse returned laughing. "I would have used seismic generator cannons to pulverize the dam, sending an avalanche of water into the densely populated valley below."
"Wow, you thought of that? That is really good Bart. I mean, it's really bad too, evil in fact. But do you know how many people you saved." Cissie remarked.
Bart beat his fist into his palm. "Curses! Why am I foiling my own evil plans?"
"Hey look here's another envelope." Anita picked it off the ground. Cassie immediately grabbed it out of her hands. Cassie tore it open and read aloud:
Hello Batman, the boy wonder and me are getting really close. He's almost like my own son. Harley even says Robin could end up just like Mr. J's son. (J's son, get it, or do you think it's too odd.)
"I don't get it." Cissie exclaimed.
"Makes no sense to me." Cass agreed.
She continued to read:
Anyhow… here's your next clue, you're anxious for it are you not? (Or are you nuts?)
Go to Greece to eat the Fleece.
Harley used a cloth to wipe the spittle from the mouth of the zombie like telepath. "How are you supposed to control this lady when she can't even control her own droll."
Joker took out a switchblade and carved the air with it. "During the operation, certain parts of her brain were removed, she has no true consciousness. Although she couldn't mind less, being mindless. Ha, ha."
"How does she work as a telepath then?"
"Well Harl…" he held up a color coded, sectionalized, plastic model of the human brain. "Even before we're born into this chaotic, demented, fragmented world. Our minds are fragmented. Each part of the brain does a different thing. The part of her brain that speaks and thinks, I want Jello…" He removed his pistol and removed certain sections of the plastic model. "Has been replaced by Jello…" He threw the plastic pieces into the air, and shot them apart cleanly, they shattered in mid air.
"The part that understands language," Joker held up a small card, with a word written on it, to the telepath's eyes. "And the part that does telepathy," he held his fingers to his ear and mouth, emulating a telephone. "Is still operating. Ha, ha."
Harley rubbed her hands over her body. "Wow. What did you do? I feel all frisky all of a sudden."
He turned around the card so Harley could read it. Drive was written it. "She projects a single word into the minds of people and whatever that word triggers in that person, says a lot more about the person then the word. In this special isolation tank, Robin is stripped of all sensory input. He can't see, hear, smell, touch, or taste anything. Robin is now in a state where he can't tell reality from fantasy. He will talk move and act near the same as he would in waking life. I've triggered changes in his brain that will make him relieve his memories. We can manipulate those memories with our tele-pathetic. Ha, ha."
He stared at the infrared image on the screen. Robin, suspended in mid air, was in a crouched position as if he were seated. He held both his hands in front of him as if he were grabbing a steering wheel.
The Past:
"Come on Robin baby, drive her." Robin jerked the wheel to the right; correspondingly thrust his body was thrust to the left. He hit the accelerator again crossing over the finish line on the computer screen surrounding him.
The words: New Record appeared on the computer screen. Robin smiled as he unlatched his safety belt and climbed out of the simulator.
"Playing video games Master Tim? Peculiar, I've noticed you work on cases and train, but you've never come to the cave for recreational purposes before."
"I was training. I was learning how to drive on the simulator."
Alfred scoffed. "Indeed. I see you achieved a high score, did you receive a free game as well."
"It's a state of the art machine, designed to actually reflect real world driving physics. Batman ordered it, he been too busy to teach me with all that's been going on."
"Hmpf, a video game will not teach you proper driving skills, pardon my saying so, but it is a token gesture on the masters behalf." Alfred reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. He tossed them to Robin.
"A video game token gesture, huh." He caught the keys. "The keys to your minivan? We going for a spin?"
Robin started the car from a stopped position. The minivan's tires squealed.
"No, no, no, you're spinning the tires." Alfred chastised him from the passenger seat. "You have to be more controlled. All that forward momentum is wasted until the tires start to catch. Try it again, let out the clutch slower."
The minivan pulled ahead, coming off its starting line more quickly. "That's better."
Robin revved the engine and thrust the car into another gear.
Alfred gasped. "My god man what are you doing? This is my minivan not the Batmobile. Keep revving the motor that high, you'll blow the engine and you'll soon be training with the world's greatest mechanic."
Robin picked up speed he approached a corner.
"Young sir, I do suggest you slow down. This is my minivan; as such there are no inverted wings on its roof for down force. If you fly around that curve we will undoubtedly fly off the road."
"Yeah I guess," said Tim as he hit the brake. He frowned and gripped the wheel tightly.
"Relax your grip so you get a better feel for what's happening to the car, and the road beneath you. Make the car an extension of yourself."
"You mean trust my feelings? No pun intended."
Robin gritted his teeth in concentration. Alfred noticed this.
"The master, of late, is rather grim. More stressed than normal, if that is indeed possible. He has come into the habit of gritting his teeth constantly. I suggest that you relax lest you become so grim and gritty as well."
The Future:
Robin gritted his teeth as he watched the Prefect raise a controller he had in his gloved hand. He depressed a button and they were instantly transported to another area. "Oh you'll love these. Not now maybe but in the future. Robin meet the Redbirds."
On the endless paved plain before him, Robin could see many strange looking red vehicles. Their tires were soft and puffy like those of an ATV. Their domed top looked to be of thick glass. Several cannon were mounted out through the glass. Inside was space for one person. An array of controls could be seen through the glass.
Then one of the vehicles started to move, of its own accord. A new cannon emerged from its underside. It rode over to a nearby well and stuck the cannon in the well.
"What is it doing, refueling?" Robin asked.
"Eating."
"You mean they're alive?"
"They are a marvel of genetic engineering. I designed them myself. Reaches speeds of 200 km an hour. Hummingbird was very useful for that part. They can go over any type of terrain. They never break down as they are self repairing, although they do have a limited life span. The only fuel they need is a combination of certain nutrients and sugar, like that ones eating." He went over and tapped the feeding Redbird on it's domed top. "That's not glass that's a transparent insect exoskeleton."
The Prefect hit another button on the controller. "They are the perfect vehicles for the Robins." A group of Robins marched into the large yard, which stretched as far as the eye could see.
Robin stared flabbergasted. "The Robins, they're all like the one who brought me in here. They all have my face. Are those genetic constructs?"
"Yes as a matter of fact they are. I've become quite the godfather at mixing DNA originally created by random natural selection. I'm the splice the dice Don, Rob. "
Robin stared at the Robins as they returned back again, marching under the darkened night sky. "They're a gang of mutants."
"Actually no. Not much mutation was done at all with the Robins. I used primarily unaltered DNA."
The Prefect approached one of the Robins. He pointed toward his overlarge bicep. "The code for the muscle structure and basic bone structure comes from old Bruce being the strongest and toughest."
He then pointed to the neck. "The ligaments and basic reflex nerve fibers and spinal column belong to Dick, being the fastest and most agile."
Finally he pointed to the head. "And of course all higher neural functions are ours."
He spread his arms before his creations. "They are my police force keeping order around the world. They grow quickly until the age of 19 then stay that age for about 4 years before they quickly break down and expire. I'm experimenting, working on longer lasting models. I expect a breakthrough in the near future."
He smiled crookedly. "A breakdown of sorts of one of the Robin models is what informed me of the time travel capabilities of the cycle."
"The cycle never traveled through time for you?"
"The relationship I had with the cycle soured after that night, so I had to end the cycle's life. It wasn't until one of the Robin's made a mistake, that I realized its threat to me, and to all of humanity."
"The Robins?"
"Yes at first I experimented with many different genetic combinations. I wondered if the risk taking, confrontational, predisposition of Jason Todd would be of benefit to their genetic makeup. The first Robin that utilized these traits did something absolutely reckless and stupid, he used the time machine that I had invented and when back in time to try and kill Superman. He arrived back here and I found out what he had done, and that you had followed him into the past to stop him. It was an incident I didn't, at all, remember. It was then I realized that Robin had created some kind of ripple in the continuum, and that the events leading to my creation were somehow endangered. So I endeavored to recreate the type of circumstances that led to the cycle hopping back through time so that I could lure it and you back to the future. I sent another Robin back to the place where the Dalton gang had originally found the kryptonite, now thanks to you by Chinese miners. Although the circumstances of how it came to be there in the first place I do not know. Yet. Nor why it was surrounded by such an amount of gold…"
The Present:
"Golden fleece. That's what I think the clue refers too. I'd say the Joker was talking about classic Greek mythology Jason and the Golden Fleece." Cass remarked. They flew over an area of old Greek ruins.
Anita added "And the Argonauts, yeah, I know what you mean."
Impulse rubbed his stomach. "Hmm… I'm hungry, be right back after I get a snack." He returned instants later with a package of nuts.
He popped handfuls of them in his mouth. "Hey these are good," he looked at the package, which read: Jay and Son's Astro Nuts.
"Hmm… didn't that note say something about Astro Nuts?" He rushed off again, returning instants later yelling. "Boy oh boy, I found it, c'mon I'll lead you strait into my trap. Ha, ha, ha."
They flew low over the moonlit countryside to the factory, following Bart to where he had found the TV.
Anita looked down, "Look at all the deer crossing signs, you wouldn't figure there would be many deer in Greece. I have seen a deer yet."
Suddenly Cass spotted a deer frozen in the headlights of a car. "Look there's one deer, caught in the headlights." She flew out of the cycle to rescue both deer and driver.
"One deer?" Anita looked quizzically at the deer. "Wonder Girl, no. Damn there's no time to warn her."
"Time-Warner? What? Is this some sort of copyright infringement?" Bart looked around from the ground.
Cassie reached out to lift the deer out of the way, the moment she reached it however she instantly froze in the position she was in. The car crashed headlong into both her and the deer.
They went flying into the brush surrounding the road.
The group flew over to them. Kon reached the automobile. Its door was flung open. A crash test dummy leaned out of the drivers seat. Its face was painted with a huge smile. A tape-recorded voice came from it. "Fooled you! This wasn't a real crash, it was only a crash test, dummy. Ha, ha, ha."
Anita rushed over to the deer. "It's been drugged. It's probably been standing there for hours." She took out her sword baton. "It's very badly wounded. It's never going to make it, I don't guess." She said a few words, and then slit its throat.
Cissie ran over to Cassie. "Cass you ok?" She noticed Cass was lying on the ground in a strange position. She turned her over. She held the position she was in, like a statue. "She's frozen in place but she doesn't look too banged up."
Kon raised an eyebrow. "Man does she look awkward in that position, almost like she has a broomstick up her…"
"Broomstick! Of course!" Impulse shouted. He again rushed off and returned with a stack of books. "I suspect that she was somehow hexed by evil magic, and I've got several books about hexes and such right here that I can quickly read and learn."
"Kind of a hex education." Anita commented.
Impulse opened the first book. He looked up and raised a pointed finger into the air. "Ah ha!" Impulse went off and came back with a big bottle of spritzer water. He doused the area where Cassie was, instantly Cass could move again, she was no longer frozen in place.
Cassie slumped down slightly dazed. Kon caught her. "What the heck did you do?"
"It's the number one cure for hexes. I doused her in holy water."
"Holy water? But that's a bottle of spritzer, did our friend the pope drop by and bless it or something." Cissie asked.
"No dummy, the bubbles, it's holes in the water."
Kon shook his head. "Ya know really can't believe that worked, I woulda never figured, guess I don't have a diabolically evil mind like you Bart."
Anita climbed back into the supercycle. "C'mon lets get that clue, this is not over yet."
The Past:
"Damn, I can't get over this knot." Bruce Wayne said, struggling with the laces of his shoe.
"Can't get the shoe off huh?" Tim went over with a small knife, bent down and cut the shoelace.
Bruce leaned back in a large armchair of the Batcave and smiled, "Alexander's rope trick."
Alfred helped him change uniforms.
"Heh funny." Bruce smiled again. He hadn't been smiling much of late and his face haggard face was paler then normal. "That's what put you in really, the ability to think on your feet." He took off his shoe and held up the cut lace.
"Your reasoning ability, because of your logical and ordered mind, all the skills and talents necessary for a great detective."
Robin furled his eyebrows. "I thought it was my sense of caution, that I don't take the risk…"
"Caution? Robin, if you didn't take risks you'd be useless to me. There's a difference between recklessness and risk taking. Besides a good strategist tends to lower the amount of risk taken…"
Robin completed the sentence. "By knowing and controlling as many elements of a situation as is possible, before combat is even engaged in."
Batman half smiled as he pulled on his cowl. "Don't underestimate yourself Robin, heck if you were on the wrong side, you'd be dangerous."
End of Part 2
"Robin's Prefect Future."
Part 3 Days of Future Past.
The Future:
Robin stared at the Prefect's dark caped figure. "So the Robin's are your Gestapo. Imposing your will on the world. I'm not like you. I could never be like you. You are insane."
The Prefect clasped his gloved hands behind his back and walked toward his younger self. "There's that word again insane. I suppose you are correct if you mean, by that, that I am in sanity, fully aware of the order of the way things truly are, while you're out of sanity, denying the true order of things. The Robins impose order on the world, the human race thrives under my mentorship, and it evolves at an astonishing rate."
"Evolves. You mean you're tampering with the DNA of the general population?"
"Tampering? No I'm fully remaking it." Again the Prefect transported them to another area.
Robin had entered an absolutely enormous room. It's walls stretched off to a ceiling so high above them they could not see it. All along the wall they could see what looked like small pods. In each of the pods small humanoid babies, could be seen growing.
"We're expanding, Robin. Slight alterations in DNA and there are any number of previously inhospitable planets that were unfit for colonization, that are being conquered and settled."
Robin stood open mouthed at the massive baby farm. "Conquered and settled? What the heck are you talking about?"
"My empire, Robin." The Prefect turned away from Robin, his black cape dragged on the ground behind him. "An empire I helped achieved with the power of the Dark Knight." He raised a gloved black fist in the air.
The Prefect flicked a giant viewing screen behind him on. There in full costume was Batman encased in a giant block of ice.
"You betrayed and murdered my mentor?" Robin turned his face away from the screen. "No! It can't be! It's not true!"
The Prefect flicked the controller and they were transported to another area.
They were on a space platform in orbit around the earth. All around the earth huge space going vessels could be seen. All were similar in design, sleek and predatory.
The Prefect stood before the glass wall that looked outward into space. "This is my fleet: The Redbirds of Prey. Light years ahead of any earth designs or even what any human mind is even capable of. I designed them myself."
Robin stared out at the fleet of ships both repulsed and intrigued by them. "You said no human mind was capable of designing those monstrosities. You're not even human anymore? Are you?"
"Oh I assure you I am fully human. I just use some rather powerful computers." With that, a large metallic skull, with what seemed almost like Rastafarian dreadlocks, rose from a platform in the floor.
"Brainiac." Robin whispered.
The Prefect calmly took one of Brainiac's tentacles and plugged it into the back of his neck.
"You're being controlled by Braniac," Robin deduced. "That's what happened to you."
"There is no Brainiac. Not anymore. I erased him shortly after I killed the Joker. I just use his brain to supplement mine." Another viewing screen lit up behind him. On it were graphs and charts of a number of running computer programs. At the top of the screen, it showed the number of currently running programs. 8,675,309, next to that figure it showed the amount of computational power used. 0.02%. "You think you're bright now? You have no idea."
"You killed the Joker, wait this is about that night. Isn't it?"
The Prefect smiled at the memory, "He was my first kill. On that day I feel I saved my first millions of lives."
"Save life? Do you know how contradictory you sound?"
"I could say the same thing for you."
Robin grimaced. "What is all this about, what is all this for?"
"What it's always been about… justice. Justice for the human race."
The Present:
"Too bad there's just us in the race." Cissie sighed as the supercycle flew over the clear blue ocean.
"Huh?" Cass looked at her perplexed.
"I was just thinking that this is kind of like that TV show, where they race around the world, but there's no competition, there's just us in the race. There's not going to be any prize money. Which is too bad because I'd think we'd win, ya know. I mean, Bart's solved so many puzzles; we're making really good time. "
"Yeah I guess you're right, we have been all over the world already." Cass caught sight of the tropical island ahead.
"Ok, we're in Jamaica mon." Anita smiled.
"Kon read that clue again." Cass beckoned.
"No problem, mon, no problem. Go to Jamaica to feel the undertaka."
Anita interjected, "I think I know what he's talking about, the Undutaka cemetery. I know where it is. Just fly that way."
"No problem, mon, no problem."
"Kon that is worse accent I've ever heard. You sound so, so…"
"What?"
"Well, white."
"Hmpf" Kon turned away from her, insulted, and started to sing. "No woman, no cry!"
They arrived in the cemetery. It was not large and looked to be in a state of bad disrepair.
"Wow, this place sure is spooky." Cissie noted.
"So is Secret she's still out like a light." Kon waved his hand in front of her face.
Cass waved her arms through her. "You don't suppose she's flipped out like you did?"
Cissie responded. "I didn't flip out, I just quit superheroing."
"Oh really." Kon looked at her cynically.
Impulse looked around eerie cemetery; with it's battered tombstones, in awe. "Hey this place is really cool. It reminds me of that cool show or movie or maybe both but I'm not sure, but anyway, originally it was a comic book, from the 1950's even, called something or other the crypt-"
"Bart, you're supposed to be thinking diabolically evil. Remember?" Cass lectured him.
"Oh yeah, er… Think diabolically evil." He scrunched his face together. "Ha, ha. Young fools, I have led you to my crypt tonight…" he turned startled. "Oh no! Wonder Girl didn't you say you had a lead jewelry box at home?"
"Yes Wonder Woman gave it to me. She said it was once used to contain…"
"Kryptonite," moaned Kon as he slumped to the ground.
"Got it!" Impulse turned around with a metal box in his hand.
"My jewelry box!" yelled Cass, "kryptonite in my jewelry box. And I thought the cubic zirconium was bad."
Then one of the headstones fell away revealing a television. "Ha, ha. You fools, I have led you into my crypt tonight. Get it, crypt tonight. Ha, ha, ha."
Kon stood weakly and slapped Bart thankfully on the shoulder. "Way to be evil! Bart."
"It was all for nothing Batman, chase your tail and your back on my trail. Ha, ha, ha. I was right underneath your nose, world's greatest detective. You just weren't nosy enough. Who knows what's become of your protégé because you're so predictable. Ha, ha."
Cass raised a finger in the air. "Right underneath his nose, that means right back where we started." She sneered disgusted. "Oh geez, it's that Wonders of Science place."
"Man that sucks." Impulse cursed.
"Yeah mon." Anita agreed.
Impulse turned to her, "I was just starting to have fun, I can't believe the scavenger hunt is over." Anita gave him a puzzling look.
Cissie grabbed Bart's shoulders and congratulated him. "Thanks to you Bart we did it record time, besides this is the good part, this where we get to kick the bad guys butts."
"Oh yeah cool," he thought for a second and then looked at them suspiciously. "Uh, you don't mean me, right?"
The Future:
"What gives you the right? I don't think I've seen anything so obscene." Robin stared out at the fleet the Prefect had built his empire with.
"Is that so. I don't remember being so obtuse. Even after all I've shown you, you don't get it."
"No I don't get it. I don't get how I could ever be like you. You're a power hungry madman, I don't even like being in charge. I don't like telling people what to do. You live to tell the entire human race what to do."
"Because of me the entire human race will live."
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm doing this for them Robin can't you see that."
Robin stared at him with a look of utter disbelief.
"We need to be powerful, Robin, more powerful than you can possibly imagine. Don't you see, Robin?"
The Prefect approached Robin and with blinding speed ripped the mask from Robin's face. "See the true facts, survive and reproduce, Tim. That's the name of the game. In your time, us humans had done it better than any other creature on the planet, and then we slowly started to kill everything else on the planet, piece by piece. We needed more room, Tim. We needed to expand. We needed to survive. Because logically there's another species out there somewhere that's more powerful then us, as gnats are to us. And they would likewise need to expand and move outwards."
"My empire is Humanities Empire, that's why anyone who stood in my way had to die. It had to be done Robin. Someone needed to take charge. Someone needed to get things done. Someone needed to save humanity."
"By enslaving it?"
"There was no other way, Tim. Someday they'll come. They'll devour us. Unless were ready for them. You can understand that can't you Robin."
Robin stood there dumfounded. Everything the Prefect had said up to this point had sounded like it had from someone else's mouth, some insane version of himself that just looked like him but in reality was a completely other person. He had not understood the Prefect's motivations or reasoning at all. He was just some mad villain. But now he became angry and upset. Not because couldn't understand the Prefect's actions. But because he understood them completely. It all made sense of sorts.
Robin fell to his knees, and began to weep. "Oh dear lord, it's true. It is me. This can't happen, please don't let this happen."
The Present:
"It's happening Harl, we're really cooking now." Joker held up a card with the word death written on it. He stared at the infrared image of Robin in the isolation tank.
The Past:
Robin shivered in the darkness of the armored truck. He had been working on a case with the Spoiler to help stop a crime masterminded by her father, the grade B supervilian, the Cluemaster. His efforts had led him the position he now found himself in. Trapped with the Cluemaster in an armored truck that was buried in a pit filled with concrete. The small amount of air in the truck was running out.
"Heads getting fuzzy, can't calculate how much air might be left. Can't be enough, not going to make it. Unless there were only one of us." He raised a fist to the unconscious Cluemaster. "What am I thinking? I can't do that." Robins mind wandered in a haze. He lamented on his inability to meditate and use less oxygen. He thought of his early training, and how it was interrupted and supplemented by Lady Shiva, the world's most deadly martial artist.
"Lady Shiva wasn't into the serene philosophies. The killing arts were her only interest. I know what she'd do. She'd double her oxygen supply without hesitation." -C. Dixon. Robin issue 5, pp 13, 14.
The Present:
The Joker looked up from the screen. "Well now that sounds promising. Tell me Harley, what's Batman's mission in life?"
"Um to save people I guess, well I mean more or less." Harley bobbed her head from side to side.
"Now my mission is life, is to A, kill people and B, annoy Batman which I do by C…"
"Killing people."
"Very good Harley."
He squinted menacingly. "Now for the question. Why is Jr. Batman even thinking about killing people? Hmm…"
He took a pen a scribbled on a card Lady Shiva.
The Past:
Robin pressed his hands together and pushed them palms outward on the center of Lady Shiva's chest. He had just killed her, while under the influence of the drug herb Aramilla. Determined not to be a killer, he has set himself on the task of reviving her. He put his mouth to hers and breathed air into her lungs. Then he set about pushing on her chest again, following the CPR procedure to the letter.
"Ok, so this is weird. I'm trying to bring someone, who's killed so many, back to life so she can kill even more." –C. Dixon. Robin issue 52, pp 4.
The Present:
The Joker stood up on his chair. "Ha, ha, Harley. I got it. I found the kink in the Dark Knight's armor. Eureka, I have found it."
The Joker lashed out with his foot, stopping it just short of Harley's face. "Jr. Batman's Achilles heel."
Harley stared at the saddle shoe in front of her. "Great Mr. J. Um… is that like athletes foot?"
The Joker tapped the tan, egg shaped, isolation tank with his cane. "It's the fatal flaw Harl. The crack in the Robin's egg."
The Joker paced about the room. "Do you know why he thought about killing that man? He couldn't help but think about it because it was the only logical way to for him to survive. When he was bringing that, Lady Shiva, back to life, he thought about how illogical his actions were. That's his weakness, his logical mind."
"So you're saying that because he's completely sane, you can make him go crazy?"
"It's a matter of simple arithmetic. All we have to do is create a scenario in his mind, where has no choice but say, to kill a million people to save a hundred million people. There's only one logical solution Harley, and that's the one he'll take. Imagine it Harley, killing a million people. What would that do to the young boy's mind? Now imagine we to it 20 times, 30 times." The Joker smiled gleefully.
"Wow that's up there with Stalin and Hitler. You ain't even come close to killing that many… uh…"
The Joker gave her a venomous look.
"… Yet. But someday Mr. J you're gonna top em all."
"Yes Harl, someday," Harley cringed as he wound up his fist. "Someday, bloody, someday." He stuck his fist wildly in the air. "Bang zoom, they'll be stacked to the moon, Alice."
"But Mr. J, how are we going to create a scenario in his mind with just words?"
"An amazing invention Harley, people all around the world are reading them right now. They're called sentences."
"Sentences, that's what you two will be serving. Long sentences." A voice came from behind them.
Joker turned and looked into the faces of the Young Justice gang. "Huh? A bunch of kids? You gotta be kidding me."
Harley turned, exasperated, to the Joker. "I thought you said it would be forever before Batman or anybody got here Mr. J?"
The Jokers jaws dropped, he looked at them in total surprise. "How did you figure out the clues without Batman? Where are the remnants of the JLA?"
Impulse had grabbed Robin's cape that lay in the corner and draped it over himself backwards, so that the yellow part was showing outwards. He twisted his hands in front of him like claws and bared his teeth. "What's this? Thou dost feel dismay, that we are not the JLA. And thou, for thine sets of sins even hell will not let thee in."
Anita remarked. "Uh I think you're taking the demonic part of demonically evil a little too serious."
The Joker shrugged his shoulders in resignation. "Oh well. I guess I can't win em all, as for you young devils you're headed for a fall. Ha, ha."
The Joker and Harley stepped into a cylindrical tube. The door shut closed behind them.
Kon flew to the area and tore the door off the tube. Inside was another television set. The Joker's image appeared on the screen, as well as a 10 second timer.
He said nothing he simply just laughed.
Cass commanded. "Grab Robin and that woman and let's get out of here."
Impulse phased into the isolation tank and grabbed Robin out. Kon picked up the telepath in his arms. They hopped into the supercycle and prepared to ride out of the building. The moment the cycle began to phase to penetrate one of the walls of the building, it was repulsed by a strange energy.
"Huh? Some kind of weird force field. That should be no problem." Kon powered up his hands and struck the wall. He was thrust back with great violence.
"Oh man, we're never going to make it past that. We're trapped." Cissie bowed her head in disappointment.
The timer counted out the final seconds. The building was racked by a series of explosions.
Cassie called out. "Quick Bart, phase us into that tank. Now."
Bart grabbed them all and phased them into the giant tan egg. Inside the darkness of egg, they could feel the egg tumble and fall, they banged into the walls of the egg and each other.
The building crumbled and fell to the street. The giant egg rolled away from most of the rubble and cracked open against the corner of the brick building it had slammed into.
The Young Justice gang climbed dazed out of the crack in the tan egg.
Cass called out. "Is everybody ok?"
Anita dragged the unconscious Robin out. "Ya mon. That wasn't too bad, it almost seemed like we were weightless in there, even before we started to fall."
"Yeah I know what you mean, we didn't hit the walls near as hard as we should have, like the walls repelled you back toward the center." Cass agreed.
"Uh…" said Robin stirring himself. As soon as he opened his eyes he was awake and fully alert. He tried to stand. His legs wobbled underneath him and he fell forward. Anita caught him, "Whoa, slow down there, cowboy. Are you alright?"
Suddenly Secret sprung up from where she was. "I can move, I'm me again. I'm not her anymore." She floated over to Cissie with a gleeful expression. "I'm not her anymore."
"Secret? What happened? You were zonked out cold. We were worrying you might be, I dunno, having a breakdown or something, not that it still isn't a possibility. You're sure you're all right."
Robin steadied himself. "What happened, I remember being in the old west then there's a bunch of really weird dreams. They must have been dreams, but boy they seemed so real. What happened after we left the old west how did I get here?"
Cass looked at him incredulously. "Don't you remember? We were chasing that guy in the time machine built out of uh… what kind of car was it again?"
Kon looked puzzled, "Yeah, what was that guy driving? Wasn't it a Ford Pinto?"
"No, I think it was a Lada." Bart interjected.
"Lada bull. Were did you guys get this stuff?" Anita gave them a snide look.
Kon was perplexed. "I… I don't remember. Man, I can't remember if there was even a bad guy now. Funny huh?"
Secret stared at them disbelievingly. "You mean you guys forget everything that happened. How Robin you were… you were…"
"I was what Secret?" Robin gazed at her questioningly.
She looked down at the ground. "You were evil Robin."
Superboy stared at her in dismay "Robin evil? Shyeah right. He's got a mean streak like Mr. Rogers. He's the friendly neighborhood, Robin."
Cissie agreed. "Yeah Robin is much too level headed to become some mad villain. Me, I have to watch my temper, he doesn't even seem to have much of one."
"I have to agree. Secret the notion of me being evil, well it's just absurd."
"Yeah, yeah, I guess you're right. You could never be evil Robin. I guess I forget everything too." She looked to him fearfully and slowly cowered away from him.
"Robin's Prefect Future." m