Disclaimer: I am vengeance! I am the night! I. Am. THE DISCLAIMER!
Mount Justice, 11:32 pm.
"RECOGNIZED. BATMAN, 02."
As Batman entered the mountain, he could already tell something was off. It was pretty quiet for a place filled with teenagers.
"Robin?" he called out. "Aqualad?"
After looking around a little longer, he found a note in the kitchen.
Batman,
If you're reading this, then you must've figured out that we left despite your orders to stay put. Sorry, but we needed to stop Blank Face and couldn't wait for you to get back. That would taken up to much precious time. So, when we get back, go easy on us. Considering we live that long.
Sincerely, the Team.
Batman let out an aggravated sigh. "Brilliant. I can only hope they didn't do anything stupid."
11:47 pm.
At the given moment, the team felt pretty stupid. Aqualad partially blamed himself for not reminding Nightwing to disable the machine alongside the chips. Everybody else blamed the other for not stopping Blank Face from turning into a mega-monster in the first place. So yeah. Stupid.
From BF's giant body, massive cannons erupted, shooting a strange energy. He was firing so fast, the kids had barely enough time to react and move out of the way. One blast penetrated the roof, letting rain fall into the room.
Artemis ducked behind some fallen debris, and fired arrows at BF. The others followed her move.
"Okay, does anybody have a plan?" she shouted over the noise.
"Yeah. Try not to die!" KF shouted back.
"Okay, does anybody have a good plan?" Superboy re-stated.
Everybody looked at Nightwing.
"What? All of a sudden it's my job to think up the plans?" Nightwing asked. When everyone nodded, he sighed and said, "Here's a plan. You guys distract it while avoiding getting killed, while I go over to the machine and see if we can use it to stop him."
"Not much of a plan, but it is better than nothing," Aqualad agreed. "Robin, you go with Nightwing. Between the two of you, you should be able to figure it out."
Robin nodded. "Sounds good to me."
"On the count of three, we charge," Aqualad said.
They looked over the debris. Blank Face was still firing randomly. It was amazing that the clock tower hadn't caved in yet.
"One..." Aqualad said.
"Two..." Robin said.
"THREE!" Nightwing hollered.
The kids jumped out and charged, weapons blazing. Robin and Nightwing made their way to the control panel, while the others distracted Blank Face. Miss M used her TK to throw debris at his head, while Superboy and Artemis took out his back cannons. Aqualad and Kid Flash worked on keeping BF from making quick retaliations.
"WORTHLESS INSECTS!" Blank Face roared. "I WILL SMITE YOU WHERE YOU STAND!"
"Smite? Smite?" Kid Flash said, running circles around BF. "People still use that word?"
Aqualad cut off one of BF's arms with a razor-sharp blast of water. "Apparently so."
"Focus!" Artemis barked at them.
Meanwhile, Robin and Nightwing were frantically looking over the machine.
"Is there any way to reverse the process?" Robin said, looking over the control panel.
"I don't think so," Nightwing said. "The creators wouldn't have wanted it to be reversible."
After a few moments of being on the verge of panicking, Robin got an idea. "What if instead of reversing it, we pour it on?"
"Excuse me?", Nightwing said.
"We keep the ray of the device constantly directed on Blank Face. In theory, his body would grow, and he'd lose stability, eventually falling apart."
"That's actually a pretty good idea. Wish I'd thought of it."
"Technically speaking, you did think of it."
"One question. What if instead of becoming unstable, he just gets way stronger?" Nightwing asked.
"He'll kill my friends, then me, and you'll cease to exist," Robin replied in an eerily calm way.
Nightwing paused. "Okay then. Let's do this."
They began to prep the machine.
"It'll take a few minutes for it to reach full power, so we'd better keep Jerk Face busy a little bit longer." Nightwing set the machine's levels to 'maximum.'
Robin stopped working. "Is it just me, or did it just get really quiet in here?"
The two turned to see their friends strewn across the floor, unconscious. BF had gotten lucky with one of his cannon shots.
"Oh..." Robin began.
"... Crud," Nightwing finished.
Nightwing ran across the floor, to check if his friends were okay. What he didn't see was that Blank Face was about to snatch him up.
"Look out!" Robin shouted, pushing him out of the way. BF grabbed Robin instead.
"YOU'VE COME SO FAR, ONLY TO FAIL. I WIN," Blank Face laughed. "ROBIN IS GOING TO FALL."
BF backed Nightwing up to a hole in the wall. Which, if Nightwing were to fall, would hit the street below.
Nightwing took in his situation. His friends were unconscious, his younger self was in BF's grasp, and he was running out of ideas. Maybe he could still win this...
Yeah, he thought. And maybe Lex Luthor will grow hair.
He hated to admit it, but maybe he had already lost. Robin was going to die, and then he was going to cease to exist. Things hadn't looked this hopeless since the Apokolips Invasion. And that was saying something.
"Nightwing... don't... let.. this... jerk... win..." Robin tried to shout, but BF's squeezing made it difficult to breathe.
Easy for him to say. But that was when Nightwing noticed something. Some adjoined ropes were dangling from the ceiling, and they looked very similar to a trapeze...
Nightwing smiled. He had an idea. "Sorry, Blank Face, but Robins don't fall."
With that, he fell backwards into the hole in the wall.
As he fell, a pair of gliders popped out from under his arms. The glider caught the wind, and he soared upward. Higher and higher, until re-entered the clock tower through the hole in the roof. Once in, he retracted the glider, and grabbed on to the ropes. Swinging, he performed a mid-air flip, threw explosives at BF's hand, grabbed Robin's arms, moved out of the way of the explosion, and hooked his legs on to the next trapeze-esque set of ropes.
"Robins don't fall," he repeated. "They fly."
He jumped to the ground, and set Robin down.
"How many more times do I have to save your butt today?" Nightwing asked.
Robin didn't have a chance to answer, because Blank Face was now extremely ticked off.
"I'M GOING TO CRUSH YOU LIKE A BUG!" he screamed.
Nightwing and Robin ran, avoiding his smashing fist. They made it to the machine, which was now fully charged.
BF continued to roar. "I'M THE GREATEST SUPERVILLAIN EVER CREATED! I AM BLANK-"
"Aw, shut up!" Robin and Nightwing shouted in unison. Then, at the same time, they hit the device's button.
A beam of energy hit Blank Face. As his body absorbed it, he began to expand. Parts of his body bubbled and ballooned. This continued, and BF screamed. His body exploded, sending goop flying everywhere.
At last. It was over.
Robin wiped the slime from his face. "That was officially the coolest thing I've ever seen. We did it."
"Was there any doubt?" Nightwing said, holding up a fist for a fist-bump.
Robin didn't leave him hanging. "That was amazing. I can't believe you used a trapeze trick to take out his hand."
Nightwing shrugged. "Hey, once a Flying Grayson..."
"... Always a Flying Grayson," Robin finished.
Robin then walked over to his friends, who were now waking up.
"Did we beat him?" Miss Martian asked, still woozy.
"What do you mean 'we'? Nightwing and I did all the work," Robin said, helping her up.
"Well, excuse us for getting knocked out," Superboy griped. "But we did win, right?"
"We won."
"And what of Blank Face?" Aqualad asked, brushing goo off his arm.
"He's over there," Robin replied, pointing. "And over there, and over there, and over there..."
"Great, we get the idea," Artemis snapped. "Now can we please go home? I. Need. A. Shower!"
"Good idea," Robin said. He turned to Nightwing. "Hey, let's-"
He stopped when he saw Nightwing slumped against the device, fast asleep.
Kid Flash crossed his arms, wincing at the broken one. " Wow. Looks like Robin does know how to sleep."
Robin frowned. "Shut up, Kid."
12:10 am.
Back at Mount Justice, everybody had cleaned up, and were awaiting a scolding from Batman. Also in the room was Red Tornado and Zatara.
"You disobeyed orders twice, destroyed a clock tower, and nearly got yourselves killed," Batman said angrily.
The team looked sheepish.
"But other than that,", Batman went on. "You did an okay job."
"Did we just just get a compliment from Batman?" Nightwing gasped. "Somebody call GBS!"
"Good one!" Robin snickered. "I'll have to use that."
"By all means, go ahead."
"Anyway," Wally interrupted. "Did you figure out a way to get Nightwing back to the future?"
"Yeah, because it's not like we have a suped-up Delorean on hand," added Artemis.
Batman nodded. "I've talked with Zatara, and he believes there's a mystical solution."
"I know of a spell that will bend time, and should send you home," Zatara spoke up.
"'Should'?" Kaldur asked.
"Zatara says the spell will take a few weeks to prepare," Red Tornado explained.
Nightwing's shoulders slumped. "A few weeks! I can't wait that long!"
"It's okay, Nightwing. You can stay here with us," M'gann said.
"You can never have too many Robins," Connor agreed.
Nightwing sighed. "Thanks you guys, but I need to get back."
"Sorry dude, but it's not like a solution is going to come crashing through that wall," Wally said, pointing to a random wall.
Right after he said that, a vortex opened in the wall. Two women and a man on treadmill came sliding out, eventually hitting the opposite wall.
"I suppose this solves our problem," Batman commented.
Wally stared at his finger. "I will use this power for good!" (Got that joke from Jimmy Neutron.)
"Flash? Ms. Martian?" Nightwing said in awe.
"Nightwing!" Ms. Martian shouted. She scrambled off the floor and ran over to him, throwing her arms around his neck. "Thank goodness you're okay!"
"He's in one piece?" Flash said. "Great! Now Starfire won't pulverize me!"
That was when they noticed the team.
"Oh," Ms. Martian said. She got off Nightwing. "Well, this is awkward."
M'gann walked over to her older self. "You're the real older me?"
Her older self nodded.
Wally ran over to his older self. "That means you're me! That is awesome!"
Artemis groaned. "Brilliant. Like one Wally wasn't enough."
Flash looked at Nightwing. "How much have you told them?"
Nightwing smiled uneasily.
Zatanna stepped away from the treadmill. "Cosmic Treadmill is still in one piece, in case anybody cares."
Then she noticed that Zatara was standing nearby. The two stared at each other.
"Zatanna?" Zatara asked in shock.
"Daddy?" Zatanna gasped. Her eyes teared up and she ran over, hugging him tightly.
"You're here," she whispered. "Then this is before Klarion..."
Zatara grabbed her shoulders. "Of course I'm here. Why? Does something happen to me in the future?"
"Daddy, I love you, and I'm sorry about this," Zatanna apologized. "Tegrof!"
Zatara's eyes glowed white, and he looked like he was in a trance. Batman and Red Tornado looked exactly the same way.
"What are you doing?" Connor shouted.
The people of the future looked at each other. Nightwing gave them their answer.
"Sorry guys, but I can't let you remember any of this," Nightwing said. "It's not good to know too much about your future."
"What?" Robin said. "But I don't want to forget any of this!"
"Not your choice, kid," Flash said. "Knowing your future always gets things screwed up, believe me."
"Besides, this makes sense," Nightwing said. "Personally, I have no memories of fighting a guy named Blank Face when I was thirteen. As far as I remember, the robbery at Star Labs was committed by Kobra. The only way my memories could be different is if they were changed."
"He's right," Kaldur said. "We shouldn't know our future."
Nightwing threw his arms up in the air. "Thank you!"
"We don't care!" Artemis screamed. "We don't want the team to break up! We don't want someone to die!"
Ms. Martian raised an eyebrow. "Who ever said somebody died?"
"He did!" Robin yelled, pointing at Nightwing. "He said that one of us paid the ultimate price! That means dying!"
Nightwing rubbed the back of his neck. "Well... yes, and no."
"What?" Robin asked, confused. "That doesn't even make sense!"
Nightwing knelt down his level. "Listen, Robin. I know that the future doesn't sound all that great. But all the good things that are going to happen, completely outweigh the bad."
"So, I'm still going to grow up to be a clueless jerk?" Robin asked.
"Yeah, but this clueless jerk has learned a thing or two in the last few hours. I think it's about time I gave the team thing another try."
That sure surprised Robin. "Seriously?"
Nightwing nodded. "There are heroes I'm friends with who usually prefer to work alone. A bunch of outsiders. But I think I can talk them into teamwork."
"What about Batman?"
"Yeah, I guess we're due for a long, long talk."
Nightwing stood back up, and joined the rest of the future crew.
"You guys ready?" Flash asked.
Robin looked at his team. They still looked unsure.
"Guys. Please," Robin asked.
Connor took M'gann's hand, and they nodded. Kaldur, of course, also nodded. Wally and Artemis both sighed and agreed.
"Let's get this over with," Robin said, standing in front of his friends.
Zatanna stepped up.
"See you in ten years, guys!" Nightwing called to them.
"Looking forward to it!" Wally replied.
"Tegrof!"
A few weeks later...
Robin jumped down from the parallel bars. Working out usually helped clear his head.
The last few weeks had been rough. Kobra attacked Star Labs alongside Mammoth, Zatara had become Dr. Fate, Vertigo tried to kill his niece, and he'd gone back to the circus he grew up at. But he'd also had been having chronic headaches. The whole team had been having the same symptoms. It was weird.
But other than that, things were pretty much the usual.
"Young Master Dick," Alfred said, entering the gym.
Robin wiped his face off with a towel. "Yeah, Alfred?"
"Master Bruce has requested your presence in the Batcave. Something about the Penguin stealing a golden jeweled ibis?"
Robin smiled. "Be right there."
20 minutes later, Robin was running across rooftops, pursuing the Penguin.
"Be ready to meet me at the rendezvous point," Batman said into his ear-mic.
"Don't worry, I'll be there. Can't pass this up."
Robin loved this life. He could see himself doing this in the next ten years, or the rest of his life. And that was fine by him.
He let out a cackle as he prepared to jump another roof. Robin lept into the air...
10 years later
... And Nightwing landed on the warehouse floor with a thud.
"So, you managed to get cornered by Killer Croc and his thugs, huh?" Nightwing observed.
Batman frowned and kicked a thug in the jaw. "Stop gloating and come help."
Nightwing grinned and pulled out his Escrima sticks. He and Batman were now back to back.
"These guys do realize that they're about to feel a world of hurt, right?" Nightwing asked his old mentor.
"They know. They just don't care," Batman replied. He paused. "Nightwing?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm glad you came."
"I'm glad I came too."
WOO-HOO! I'm done with the main story! FINALLY! And whoever caught the little Outsiders reference gets a plate of cyber-brownies.
Stay tuned! A bonus story within this one is coming up next!