Author's Note: I do not own DC Comics or anything to do with it. I've altered some people's ages to being older than they were in the real comics. Damian Wayne is closer to Tim Drake's age, only a year or two between their ages, Tim being the older of the two. Another point that I've altered is that Superman of Earth-22 is still living with the Justice Society.
Batman: War of the Batmen
Chapter 1: Natural Disaster
It has been a few years since the Final Crisis and Blackest Night. Darkseid's elite members had been able to survive and have sense been trying to keep an extremely low profile, doing everything they can to stay off the heroes radar. But that didn't mean that they weren't still trying to conquer the world. They had been the ones causing Bruce Wayne to come back from the past to unleash Darkseid's doomsday weapon but they had be prevented by the work of Superman, Green Lantern and Booster Gold.
When Bruce returned, he became Batman once again but also allowed Dick Grayson to continue being Batman if he wanted to. Dick however chose to become Nightwing again. Tim Drake is still going by Red Robin and working in partnership with Stephanie Brown aka Batgirl, while Damian Wayne remained Robin working with his father. Batwoman (Katherine Kane) and the Question (Renee Montoya) have decided to leave Gotham in Batman's capable hands for the time being. Oracle (Barbara Gordon) and her Birds of Prey are also operating in Gotham but mostly travel all over to deal with situations that Barbara uncovers.
Things have been getting stressed between Batman and Damian. Damian still has much to learn and Batman knows it but Damian refuses to admit it. He thinks he is more than ready to be Batman; even though Bruce has stated that either Dick or Tim will be taking his place should anything happen to him. Damian doesn't like it and has slowly started to become more aggressive and rebellious to his father's methods.
Shortly after the Blackest Night, Star City was destroyed by Prometheus resulting in the death of Lian Harper, daughter of Red Arrow. Green Arrow killed Prometheus in retaliation for his actions but then realized that he had crossed the line, surrendered to the authorities and was banned from Star City. Black Canary also divorced him. Connor Hawke has since been the new Green Arrow while Oliver Queen has become an outlaw since he was exiled from Star City but remains in the city.
Roy Harper became Arsenal again and nearly killed Electrocutioner, aka Lester Buchinsky, but Oliver was able to hold him off long enough for Donna Tory and Dick Grayson to get there and talk him down. Since then, Arsenal has been getting more and more aggressive in his fight against criminals, but Donna has been keeping a close eye on him and the two have started a relationship.
Then there was the situation with the Kryptonians that almost resulted in an all out war between the Earth and New Krypton. Almost every Kryptonian was wiped out by General Lane's vendetta, Brainiac's plans and Zod's manipulations. Superman, Supergirl, Superboy and an unknown number of Kryptonians that were living on Earth survived. Lois Lane exposed her father as the madman he was and all the others that had been manipulating others into starting the war.
In Central City, the Flashes were having their own situations. Barry Allen was back from the dead and so was Professor Zoom. Iris West had saved her brother, Jai, from the madman's plot to destroy those connected to the Speed Force by absorbing his connection to the Speed Force, which the twins had been fighting over all their lives. Iris then became the new Impulse working with her father, Wally West, and Kid Flash, Bart Allen, keeping an eye on her.
As for the Marvel Family, the wizard Shazam confronted Captain Marvel (Frederick Freeman) and realized that he was becoming that which he was sworn to fight against. He restored the Power of Shazam to Billy and Mary Batson. Billy now had a younger version of his Marvel form, with a white suit and white hair but it was closer to his own age in looks. Mary regained a completely pure and good form with a white costume. Billy, thanks to his new form, has been able to start a relationship with Stargirl, since he has joined the Justice Society.
Osiris pleaded with Shazam to restore his family but the wizard had original just ignored his pleads until Marvel, Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel approached the wizard on Osiris's behalf. Touched by Osiris devotion and his own champions support, not to mention how much Isis had changed Adam, Shazam freed Isis and Black Adam from their stone prison and restored their powers. Adam and Isis, once again, rule over Kahndaq with Osiris willingly serving time for his accidental murder of Persuader as a sign of good faith. Osiris was only given a few months of community service which he served by being a member of the Justice Society, after which he became a member of the Teen Titans.
Right now, things were getting restless for everyone in their different cities and they were about to get a lot worse, especially for Batman.
Unknown Location,
In a dimly lit room, four people were gathered around a table. Three females and one male were each sitting in a chair. "What happened?" One of the females asked. She was the group's leader.
"He has managed to escape." The other female said. This one was wearing a business suit and had short brown hair. "He pretended that the drugs were working on him but just as we let down our guard, he attacked the guards and managed to escape."
The lead female sighed. "Any ideas on where he went?"
The third female spoke up. "He made him to be our own Batman, if anything he'll try to find the real Batman and alert him to our plans." She said. This one had pink hair that was split towards the side of her head, in a punk style Mohawk.
"What about the transmitters that are in his body?" The male asked. This one was cloaked with a hood over his head. "Surely he hasn't been able to remove them."
"They are useless." The second woman responded. "Apparently, he has altered his suit to block the signals the transmitters send out. As long as he is wearing his suit, we won't be able to track him."
The lead woman seemed to be thinking of what to do. "Libra, come here." She said through a communicator.
A few moments later, Libra, the man who tricked the villains of the world into helping Darkseid, entered the room and knelt down in front of the group. "How can I be of service?" He asked, as if he were their servant.
"Our subject has escaped." The lead woman said. "Find him and bring him back."
"What does he look like without his mask?" Libra asked.
The group looked at each other. "We don't know." The business woman said. "We had his face altered with a second skin when we first captured him years ago and it was never removed."
"We found the second skin shortly after he escaped meaning he is now using his own face." The leader said. "However, he will be wearing a mask over his face at all times to block our tracking devices." She showed him an image of a black, full face covering Batman mask that had longer pointy ears. "This is what his mask looks like. You are to head for Gotham City immediately and level the city."
"Make sure it looks like a natural disaster, or that someone other than you caused it." The cloaked man said sternly as the business woman tossed Libra a computer disk.
"That has a list of different disasters that would be very effective and how you can effectively implement them." The business woman informed Libra.
"I will not fail you." Libra said with a bow before getting up off his knees and heading out to begin his mission.
The cloaked man shifted in his seat. "How do we know Libra can be trusted?" He asked.
The group leader smiled evilly. "Oh, it doesn't matter if we can trust him; after all, he's just cannon fodder." She replied menacingly. "Besides, this plan is to merely to insure that our Batman does go to Gotham. As soon as he hears of this event, he'll immediately realize it was our doing and try to help. At which time, I will send in the pair of our best Furies to get him." The group started laughing evilly.
Days away from Gotham City, in a bus heading towards the city,
A man in a pair of sweat pants and a hooded sweat shirt was sitting in the bus looking out the window. He had a hood over his head and was thinking things over. 'Have to get to Gotham.' He thought. 'I have to warn the real Batman about them. They're still out there and no one else knows about it. They're still collecting people, corrupting them, turning them.'
Suddenly, the bus skidded to a stop. The hooded man looked forward and calmly got out of his seat to see what was wrong. "Something wrong?" He asked the bus driver who just pointed out the window. The man looked and saw a battle going on between the Justice League and a group of villains. 'Maybe I should… No, they wouldn't listen to me. I have to find Batman and explain the situation to him. He'll be able to convince the others.' He then returned to his seat as the bus driver backed up and headed through a different route.
Two Days Later, in Gotham City,
Batman (Bruce) and Robin (Damian) were working to find the Joker, who had managed to once again escape Arkham Asylum. Damian, now a nineteen year old, had just roughed up a known associate of the Joker but had purposely pushed the man off the roof of the building they were on. "You need to grow up!" Bruce yelled at Damian when they returned to the cave. "You could've killed that man!"
"He's a known criminal." Damian said calmly.
Bruce frowned at his son and couldn't believe what he was hearing. He walked over to the Bat-Computer before turning back to his son. "After all these years, you still haven't changed." Batman said calmly but sternly. "I've given you more chances than I would've given anyone else. Apparently, I was wrong about you being able to change."
Damian just sneered at him. "What're you going to do about it?" He asked cockily, thinking that his father didn't have to guts to do anything other than ground him.
"You're fired." Bruce said coldly and sternly. Damian froze. "Pack your things, get out of my house and get out of my city."
"What?" Damian asked in shock, still trying to process what had just happened.
"You heard me." Bruce said sternly. "Get out of my house and get out of my city."
Damian looked like he was about to protest and was actually thinking of fighting back but then realized that Batgirl (Stephanie), Red Robin and Nightwing were also in the cave. "This isn't over." Damian vowed as he removed his mask, utility belt and cape. He then stormed out of the cave. 'I'll show you!' He thought to himself angrily. 'I'll show you all!'
In another area of the city,
Jason Todd, aka Red Hood, was in his underground hideout trying to beat Batman in finding the Joker, so he could kill the mad clown. "Soon I'll be able to prove to the whole world that my way is right." He said to himself with an evil smile. The one thing he wanted to do was prove to everyone that his way was the right way to deal with criminals.
Oracle's Watchtower,
Barbara Gordon, aka Oracle, was busy at her computer running information to the Birds of Prey that were on a mission in California. "You sure this is the place?" Black Canary asked through their communicators.
"The illegal weapons storage should be there." Oracle responded.
"All I see is a bunch of empty old warehouses." Hawk said with an annoyed tone to his voice.
"Maybe we should try looking inside the warehouses?" Huntress suggested sarcastically.
Barbara couldn't help but chuckle at her team's antics. "Just let me know what you find." She said before switching to another communication circuit. Even though Stephanie Brown was now partnering up with Red Robin, Barbara still liked to check in on her replacement every once in a while.
"What's up Oracle?" Batgirl asked with a cheery voice.
"Just checking to see how things are going at the Batcave, Batgirl." Oracle replied with a smile.
"Actually it's been pretty exciting." Batgirl replied. "Batman finally fired Damian." No one really expected Damian to change his ways, especially since everyone had tried to help him but he fought them every step of the way or just ignored them.
"Well, that's not much of a surprise." Oracle said coldly. "Anything else?"
"Nope, just working to track down the Joker before Jason can find him." Stephanie replied happily.
"Good luck," Barbara said calmly before hanging up and going back to checking on the Birds of Prey. 'Hopefully, they'll find the Joker first. If Jason kills him, it could have a trickledown effect on all of us.'
Underground cavern, in the direct center of Gotham City,
'That should do the trick.' Libra thought as he finished setting up a strong vibration generator. He smiled to himself as he admired his handy work. The entire floor of the cavern was covered with disks that would vibrate once the machine was activated. 'After the last earthquake, the fault line not only became visible in this cavern but it also became increasingly unstable, just waiting for the right about of pressure to start again.' Libra thought to himself with an evil sneer. 'Soon, Batman and his beloved city will once again succumb to the chaos and disorder that will tear itself apart.' Libra made his way to the exit of the cavern before turning back and shouting. "This is revenge for what Batman did to Lord Darkseid!"
With that, Libra activated the generator. The generator started powering up and all of the disks on the cavern floor began to vibrate at an increasing rate.
To Be Continued…