"Tim?" Red Hood asked, before he gasped sharply. Next to him, Cass froze.
The Faux-Batman had taken Batman's proclamation as his cue to remove his own cowl, revealing what was unmistakably Tim. A much older Tim, with a cruel smile that they had never once seen on their younger brother's face. Even the vicious edge of Tim's most victorious grins, often adopted in the wake of a successful plan, could not compare to the sheer anger and malice in that seemingly mirthful expression. Nor the tinge of madness lurking in his blue eyes.
"No," Cass whimpered, as if she could not believe what she was seeing.
"Tim…" Batman trailed off, as if he didn't know what to say.
Tim, Future Tim, simply spread his arms out, absolutely reveling in their disbelief and despair. "Surprised? You shouldn't be," he said in a vile tone. "After all, this isn't the first time, is it?"
Technically, that was true. This was hardly the first evil future version of Tim Drake. The Titans of Tomorrow had one such version (a gun-toting Knight Templar of a Batman), who had eventually traveled back in time with his own team to ensure that the then-Titans would become them. He had failed, and eventually him and his team were erased, their timeline no longer a viable future due to the changes wrought by the their past-selves. Everyone thought that would be the end of it.
Needless to say, they were wrong.
"Tim…why?"
"Oh, come off it Dick! Haven't you been listening?" Future Tim snarled, "I'm here to correct your mistakes! You led Gotham to ruin! Because you weren't willing to go the extra mile, because you still insisted on being that soft-hearted idealist while wearing the most cynical mantle in the fucking world, thousands of innocents died. And the worst part is…the worst part is that I know Bruce would've done exactly the same thing."
He then whirled around towards Cass and Red Hood, looking at them with the face of a man who had been scorned by betrayal. "And you two…you two sided with him! Jason, I thought you of all people would understand but you were the first person to shoot me down when I suggested killing Blight. And you, Cass — you have always been the one who has supported me, but the moment I deviated from your own opinions you shunned me! You're every bit as culpable as he is!"
"So you come back in time to murder us just for disagreeing with you?" Red Hood asked incredulously. "What the hell, Tim? We fucked up, sure, but we're not the ones who personally massacred thousands! Lecture us, scold us, hate us, but if you're here to kill someone, why us and not that bastard Blight, whoever he is?"
Batman and Cass shot him looks but did not rebuke him. As crass and callous that analysis was, Red Hood wasn't wrong. If you were going to go back in time and kill someone to stop a tragedy like that, you often went after the person actually responsible, not the people who tried to stop them — no matter how miserably they failed. In fact, you usually went back to help those people, not kill them.
Future Tim, however, was not moved. "Oh, I will, Jason. But the truth of the matter is even if I did you lot wouldn't learn anything from it. Someone else like Blight will just rise in his place and the whole thing will repeat, like a vicious, never-ending cycle, and my younger self will be forced to bear the reins again when all of you ultimately prove to be inadequate. The only way to save this world is to ensure its protectors are willing to go the extra mile, and my actions here will achieve that. I knew you would never approve, hence why I'm seeking to eliminate you. For while the likes of Superman, Wonder Woman and the other powerful members of the Justice League are indispensable…" his eyes flickered over each of his siblings, "…you all are not."
"They'd never follow you," Batman growled, "your Justice League didn't, after all."
"Willingly, perhaps."
Red Hood threw his hands into the air. "Are you fucking serious? Brainwashing? Like we all haven't dealt with that before!"
His incredulity was understandable. Some villain tried to brainwash the members of the Superman family at least once a month. There was a reason why anti-mind control was one of the foremost fields in superhero science.
"Not brainwashing," Future Tim corrected him, "Just not in the way you think. Just simple influencing, like I've done with my younger self. After all, the reason brainwashing never works is because those under its control know, consciously, that they aren't doing anything of their own free will. Brainwashing in itself is a crude method of control, but the general sentiment is not without merit."
"Its great flaw I've mentioned, and the remedy is to let the person you're controlling believe they're making their own choices. That they've weighed all the options, and decided what you want them to do is what they want to do. Brother EYE and I have developed a form of mind control that follows this philosophy, and judging by how my younger self responded to it, it works splendidly."
"If that's the case, then what's with the show? Why take us out so blatantly instead of using Tim to just lead us to our deaths and leave everyone else none the wiser?"
Future Tim shrugged. "For one, you might have caught on. You might not have my genius but none of you are dumb. And for the other, well, honestly, I wanted to watch you all suffer."
All three looked at him aghast. "Tim," Cass said, anguished, "what happened to you?"
"Life happened to me, Cass," Future Tim answered with a bitter tone. "It's too bad you won't live long enough to understand why."
With that, he took out a remote and pressed one of its buttons. Before anyone could react, the floor beneath Red Hood and Cass collapsed into an opening, and they dropped to the floor below. The hatch closed before Batman could drop himself down with them, leaving the two Batmen alone.
"Now then," Future Tim said, drawing out his collapsible bo-staff, "shall we get on with it?"
Batman stared at him. "I'm not going to fight you, Tim."
"You don't have a choice, Dick." Future Tim lifted the remote in his hand. "This little device here is the only thing that will stop the robots about to swarm Jason and Cass, and the obstacle course of death that Duke and Stephanie are currently trying to fight their way through. If you want to save at least some of your family, you're going to have to pry this from my cold, dead hands."
"Tim—"
"Enough, Dick," Future Tim dropped into a stance, his staff at the ready.
Batman merely sighed, and drew his escrima sticks. There was only a moment of hesitation, and then both men charged.
"Goddammit!" Red Hood roared as he slammed one of his gloved fists onto the floor, looking up at the ceiling from where he had been dropped from. "We need to get back up there!"
"We might not have the chance, Jason," Cass' worried voice carried over to his ears.
Red Hood snapped his head towards her direction, but she wasn't looking at him. Instead, she was looking at the walls, which had dropped down to reveal hidden alcoves behind them. Charging out of those alcoves were no doubt the robots Future Tim mentioned, with their metallic exoskeletons and featureless heads with glowing red eyes.
"Crap," Red Hood swore, drawing one gun and tossing one of his short swords to his sister, who caught it effortlessly. One of the robots lifted their arms, and fired, sending a plasma bolt towards them. The two siblings separated, allowing the bolt to pass harmlessly between them and strike the wall behind them instead, leaving a very uncomfortably dark scorch mark.
Brother and sister stared at the sight for but a moment, before steeling themselves and rushing forward, engaging in their fiercest battle yet.
Forgive me, father. Forgive me, my ancestors. I have shamed you. Damian thought as he grabbed a nearby vase and slammed it against Tim's bo-staff. It shattered instantly, and yet still served its purpose in distracting his older brother long enough for Damian to grab the decorative sword mounted on the wall. He gave a quick few practice swings to get a feel of the balance before brandishing it towards Tim, who quickly blocked the blow with his staff.
Damian was undeterred and used one of his feet to knock down a nearby side-table, allowing both a brief separation and a platform for him to launch himself with a kick towards Tim's head. Tim blocked that blow too, this time with his left forearm, but the force of the kick sent him stumbling into the railing next to the stairs. Damian immediately followed up with a powerful downward slice that Tim dodged, allowing his new sword to bury itself deep into the solid wood. Before Damian could pull out his sword, he had to back track himself to dodge a blow from Tim's staff.
And that is how it went for the next several minutes. The two youngest of the Wayne siblings fought all over the manor, using the interior of their ancestral home as a battleground and their many family heirlooms destroyed as intentional and unintentional collateral damage. Damian couldn't help lament the destruction of his family's heritage, and while his gut-reaction was to blame Tim, he knew deep down that it wasn't his brother's fault. It was the fault of whoever was controlling him.
Even so, this couldn't go on for much longer. Not just because they were gradually destroying the Manor to the point that Alfred would probably have a heart attack when this was all over, but also because he was getting tired. Tired, and really, really injured. And considering that this was very unlikely to be the only fight he was going to be in today, he'd rather not come out of this half-dead.
But alas, Tim and him were too evenly matched. Damian had the edge in physicality but Tim was always the most cunning of the siblings, and ultimately they were equal in skill. If he was going to end this fight quickly, he needed to be a little more ruthless than he usually permitted himself to be.
Realizing what he had to do, Damian quickly searched for another distraction, and found it in the form of something that everyone was going to murder him for later — the TV. With great hurry, he drew Tim back towards the living room, and angled him until he was right in front of the large flatscreen smart TV that had been mounted on the wall. Using the hidden knives he kept under his sleeve, he tossed them with precision and authority, allowing them to bury themselves in specific spots of the support apparatus. Using the strings he had secretly attach to each of their hands, he pulled, using all of his not inconsiderate strength. There was a careening sound, and before Tim could react the TV fell upon him like an avalanche, temporarily trapping him for the time being.
Just long enough for Damian to punch him hard in the face, knocking him out.
Having won the fight, Damian fell to the ground and allowed himself a moment rest. He'd check on Tim later, see if the brainwashing had worn off when he woke up — after restraining him, of course. But for now…
Damian looked around his home. The TV was off its mount, the coffee table shattered, the kitchen so bad a wreck that Damian knew he was going to get his hide tanned the moment Jason saw what happened, there were so many torn portraits and broken decorations that even if the entire family pitched in it would take days to clean…in short, he was so, so dead when everyone got home.
He took another glance at Tim, and comforted himself with the fact that he wouldn't be suffering alone.
"I don't fucking care if he's a future version of my fucking brother," Red Hood growled as he buried the head of his pistol into the eye of one robot and pulled the trigger. The shot immediately destroyed the robot's processor and instantly deactivated it, allowing Red Hood to use its body as an impromptu battering ram towards a charging crowd of its compatriots. "I am going to fucking murder him when I see him again!"
"No you're not, Jason!" Cass couldn't help but roll her eyes even as she cut off the arm of a robot and kicked the chassis another, launching herself so she could slash the heads off another group.
"Says you! You're not the one having to play the part of John Wick!" Red Hood bull-rushed another robot, slamming it into the ground. "I know I'm a walking armory, but even I have my limits! There's only so much ammunition to go around!"
"Oh, get over it!"
"Screw you Cass, screw you!"
Batman grunted as he blocked a sharp blow from a gauntleted fist, and returned one of his own before dropping down for a swipe to the legs. Future Tim, predictably, dodge, which was just what Batman had been hoping for — it allowed him to roll under to the other side of his opponent, leaving Future Tim's back exposed. Before Future Tim could react, Batman had grabbed from behind into a hammerlock.
"Enough of this, Tim! Regardless of whatever happened in your future, this is not the way to fix things!"
"The hell it is!" Future Tim yelled back, "You didn't listen to me the first time! Hell, you haven't listened to me in years! Why the hell would you listen to me now?"
"Because it happened, and all you had to do was prove it!" Batman angrily shouted back and Future Tim, shocked, stopped struggling for the moment. Almost reflexively, Batman let him go, and turned him around so they could look at each other. "I get it, Tim. I get why you're angry. But this is not the way to go about things. You're espousing about how this is some grand way to avenge humanity, but this isn't that. This is small-minded revenge, and you've never been small-minded."
Future Tim said nothing.
"Please, Tim — stop this."
Tim woke up.
It sucked.
"Did you really have to hit me that hard, demon brat?"
"Yes," Damian said bluntly and with no remorse, before helping his brother to his feet. "Are you back to your senses, Drake?"
"Yeah, yeah, I—" Tim's eyes widened. "Shit. We need to get to the Cave, now."
Damian didn't protest, and the two youngest Waynes made a mad dash for the main study. "I assume you know who is responsible for our current dilemma?"
"My insane future self."
The youngest brother only paused for a moment at that admission, before sighing again. "The life of a superhero," he said derisively.
Tim didn't bother to respond to that, as they had just arrived to the study. He quickly went to the grandfather clock and turned the clock hands, but when the clock refused to open, he diverted to the manual unlock, punching in his code. That worked, and soon the clock slide open to reveal the small elevator that would bring them to the Cave. Tim entered it with Damian quickly following, and before they knew it they were stepping into their beloved, sacrosanct base.
Where their similarly beloved butler was currently trying to reach someone via the Computer.
"Alfred!"
Alfred whirled around, and he sagged in relief. "Master Tim, Master Damian! Thank the Lord, I've been trying to contact someone ever since your brothers disappeared!"
"No time for chit-chat," Tim said, pushing Alfred away, "We have a bigger problem. Brother EYE is currently infecting the Internet with a virus that will turn every computer in the world into an outlet for a special form of subliminal messaging in order to brainwash humanity. We have to stop it."
"…what?" The poor man sounded lost.
Tim ignored him. "Thankfully, years ago I had the foresight to upgrade the Bat-Computer with a program that would automatically disassemble any of Brother EYE's malicious code that tried to infect its system. All we need to do is spread it over the Internet and to whatever terminal its currently originating from."
"Wouldn't your future self already predict this?" Damian pointed out, ignoring the shocked look Alfred was now shooting at him.
Tim smirked. "I'm banking on it."
"Shit, shit, shit," Red Hood continuously swore as he slammed the butt of his pistol hard into the head of a robot, denting the metal severely and causing the automaton to short circuit before another blow took its head off — literally. Red Hood had no chance to celebrate, because he was officially out of bullets and about to be pounced by another three robots.
Not that his sister was having much luck either. An unlucky shot of plasma had effectively melted her sword, and Red Hood was still unable to find an opening where he could toss her a replacement. Cass was making do with her fists for now, but judging by the growing number of scratches and bruises on her arms, she wasn't going to hold out for much longer. The human body could only handle so much, even when you were the greatest martial artist in the world.
It wouldn't be long until they were completely overwhelmed, Red Hood realized. If they were going to survive this, they were going have to do something drastic.
Luckily, drastic was right up his alley.
"Cass! Retreat!" He moved to do the same, while at the same time unlocking the mechanism on his helmet so he could remove it. His sister shot him a look but complied, trusting him. Good. She wouldn't be caught in the crossfire.
With a quick flourish, Jason rolled his iconic motorcycle helmet towards the crowd of robots, then reached inside his jacket for the detonator. He clicked on the detonator then quickly threw himself far away from the blast radius behind a nearby wall, wincing as the helmet exploded into a fierce percussive force that wrecked nearly every robot charging at them. After his ears stopped ringing, he dared to look at the carnage and nearly cheered — the army had been all but destroyed, leaving flying pieces of robot scattered about.
Whatever elation that could be found at his maneuver, however, is quickly spoiled by a sharp slap to the shoulder. "Ow!" Jason exclaimed, rubbing his shoulder. "What was that for?" he demanded his sister.
Cass did not capitulate. Instead, she looked severely displeased. "We told you to get rid of that feature!"
"Yeah, you did. I didn't listen."
She looked aghast. "Jason Peter Todd-Wayne! Forgive us if we're a bit uncomfortable with the fact that you keep a bomb on your head!"
"It was a necessary precaution, as you can see!" Jason gestured to the remains of their once-opponents for good measure.
Cass was not moved, and the siblings soon descended into bickering that was only broken up by the sound of a familiar buzz. They looked at the source of the sound and blinked.
Stephanie Brown and Duke Thomas had suddenly appeared, looking more than a little worse for wear.
"Did we come at a bad time?" Duke asked, more than a mite confused.
Jason and Cass stared at them, and then shook their heads simultaneously, slightly embarrassed. "How did you two get here?" Jason asked, voice back a normal, even volume.
"Teleportation," Stephanie explained, shuddering, "which was really convenient because Duke and I were about to be barbecued before we got here."
"The Justice League emergency teleporters," Cass rasped out in realization.
Jason snapped his head towards her. "That means Babs managed to get a connection to the Watchtower. How? Brother EYE is currently in her systems."
"I don't know, but—"
"Guys…" Duke cut Cass off, facing the direction of alcoves. Everyone turned towards his direction and blanched. It seemed Jason's little explosion only managed to temporarily subdue whatever it was that was producing the robots. Already a new army was beginning to build, preparing itself for engagement.
"Fuck," Jason swore again, and no one disagreed.
"Who the hell is responsible for this?" Stephanie wondered.
"Tim's evil future self," Cass absentmindedly answered, preparing herself for combat again. Stephanie and Duke turned to her, astonished and aghast.
"What?"
"Are you serious?"
"As a heart attack," Jason confirmed, shaking his head in disgust. "There's no way we can keep fighting for much longer. Cass and I are on fumes and so are you two."
Duke scowled, as he readied himself for the robot army's charge. "Then how are we going to end this? You already bombed them."
"We take out Future Tim," Cass concluded, "He's currently on the floor above us, fighting Dick."
"Question is: how are we going to get up there?" Jason asked, looking up at the ceiling.
Stephanie looked up as well, and frowned. "Well, Jason, do you any other bombs left on you? Ones that can attach to the ceiling?"
"Yeah, why? Even if I were to blow a hole up there, it's too high to reach without a grappling hook, and it seems the bastard managed to frisk mine off me before he brought us here."
The blonde smirked. "He might have managed to take your grappling hook, but he didn't get mine." She reached behind her back and pulled it out for good measure.
Everyone stared at her. "Stephanie, you wonderful fucking bitch," Jason breathed out in awe, "Why the hell do you have that on you?"
Stephanie shrugged. "Went on a Gravity Falls binge the other day with Damian and was planning on surprising the brat with it for a lark. Now, bomb?"
Jason blinked, and then grinned.
"Thank you for getting Brother EYE out of my systems, Tim. Once it was gone, I was able to access the Watchtower emergency teleporters and send Stephanie and Duke to help the others."
"We're not out of the woods yet, Babs," Tim said, biting his cheek. "Brother EYE might be gone from our systems, but it's still infecting computers all over the world, and with time effectively stopped, we're the only ones who can work to flush him out."
"What do we need to do, then?"
"I have something, but we need to find the terminal where Brother EYE was originated from. And right now, there's only one person who knows that. I'm going to need you to fire up the teleporters again for Damian and I."
"The location?"
Tim narrowed his eyes. "The same place as Stephanie and Duke — Neo Wayne Tower."
"On the same floor?"
"No, the one above it. That's where Dick will be fighting my future self."
Damian looked at him sharply. "And how do you know that?"
"My future self has been influencing me since the building of the tower began several months ago," Tim admitted, "He had me build the top two floors as death traps specifically for his sick game against the others. The one where Jason and Cass are has automatic nano-replicators that are meant to send an endless army of killer robots against them. That's why I had Babs send Stephanie and Duke there — to help them."
"And the one where Richard is?"
Tim shook his head. "Nothing special about that one. My future self just wanted a place where they could duel without interruption. Said he wanted the pleasure of killing Dick himself."
Damian and Alfred looked at him in disbelief, and judging by the silence over the line, Barbara and Luke were in similar stupors. "What the hell happened to him?" his youngest brother demanded, finally dropping all propriety. It was telling that Alfred didn't bother to reprimand him for his language.
The third Robin paused, remembering the many rants his future self had made in his presence. At the time, he hadn't thought much of them, agreeing with his other self's words because that was what he was being influenced to do, influenced to believe. But now, with that fog gone…he could see how insane that him had become.
"In the timeline where he comes from, there was an incident with a villain named Blight. He had the power to manipulate radiation due to a botched treatment after he was infected by nerve gas. As the radiation became stronger, Blight's control over his powers began to deteriorate and was quickly determined that if it continued, he would cause a meltdown and take out most of the city. There were attempts to cure him, but they failed, and my future self believed that the only way to stop him was to kill him," Tim swallowed, "Dick refused, and the others backed him up."
Damian scowled and crossed his arms. "Let me guess, it turned out your future self was right, Blight had a meltdown, and killed a lot of people."
"Yes. Gotham devolved into chaos in the aftermath, and in trying to contain it, Dick was killed. My future self lost it after that, killed you to claim the Batman mantle, and then killed the rest of the Family for defying his authority. When the Justice League found out and came for him, he escaped to this time with this plan to brainwash the world with Brother EYE."
"But then why does he want to kill us?"
Tim looked away, closing his eyes in shame. His friends and family did not miss his refusal to answer, and realization dawned on all of them why. Future Tim's resentment was also rooted in the current Tim.
"Timothy…" Damian said, both in shock and hurt.
"I try not to Damian," Tim admitted, "I know we've moved past that for the most part. But whenever I think about that I day, I just get so angry, and I know it's wrong so I bottled it up. And I guess in his timeline, I kept it bottled up, let it fester and grow into something horrible. And when that thing with Blight happened…"
"…it finally blew out in the open," Damian finished sighing. "Is that why he sent you to kill me?"
"He'd though I'd enjoy it. He's so blinded by his anger and pain that he's lost sight of the good times we've had together. He just focuses on the bad, and amplifies it to the point that it's all that seems to matter to him."
"And Richard? Why he does he want to kill Richard in particular? From what you said, it was Richard's death that set him on this path in the first place."
Tim shrugged. "Because he hates Dick most of all, regardless of what happened to him in the end. You might have gotten the mantle, Damian, but you're not the one who took it from me. Dick was, and he was cruel about it, even if he didn't mean to be. And with him…with him, he was the person I looked up to most. I put him on a pedestal even higher than I did Bruce. And for him to do that to me…well, it scarred me in a way that never quite healed."
"But you talked about it, didn't you?" Damian asked, sounding a little desperate. "I mean, after Father turned out to be alive and all. I assumed you did and that you did it in private, right?"
Tim didn't answer.
"Right, Timothy?"
"…Damian, if we had talked about it, honestly and sincerely, do you believe any of this would be happening right now?"
Damian's face — well, it didn't crumple, but it did falter. Even in a stressed time like, crumpling was beneath him. Even so, hearing from the mouth of his brother that their eldest brother, the sibling Damian loved and looked up to the most, had messed up so badly was a sobering thought. Dick was the reason Damian was the man he was today, not Bruce. Bruce tried, he truly did, but Dick ultimately won out, as he always did.
It's probably the only reason why they were still together as a family, still trying to save this godforsaken city. Bruce might've been the reason they stayed in Gotham, but Dick was the reason they stayed with Bruce. Not even Alfred had their hooks in them like Dick did. Even Jason, when he was outs with the family, never had as many issues with Dick as he did with Bruce, and when it came down to the wire, Dick was the reason Jason finally managed to pull himself out of the hole he was in after Bruce's death. They all loved him, and they all looked up to him.
That hadn't changed with Tim. It was just…debased and twisted by what happened between them. And, as much as Tim would like to blame it all on Dick, he knew it was on him too. He was the one who chose not to voice his feelings to his oldest brother, the one who chose not to confront him about what happened. He just tried to let it go, tried to move on, tried to content himself with the fact that he was right, and as the last few months proved, it had failed spectacularly.
In the future, those feelings would instead evolve until they transformed him into the very monster that Bruce had sought to guard himself from becoming. A monster more dangerous than Bruce could ever be, because people always said that Tim was smarter than Bruce, didn't they? And here they all were — the world frozen, four members of his family fighting for their lives against an endless army of murderous automatons, another member of the family dueling one of his successors to the death and a malicious A.I. equipped with a virus that would turn the world's populace into slaves at the whim of a madman. All because he was too stubborn and angry to have an honest talk with his older brother.
How arrogant of him. How foolish of him. It seemed even the great Tim Drake wasn't immune to stupidity.
"Enough talking about this," Tim finally said, escaping his brooding thoughts. "Every moment we waste is another moment where the others are inching closer to their deaths. Babs. Fire up the teleporters and beam us over there."
Damian inhaled deeply, and straightened himself out. Tim was right. No more time to waste on the past. "How are you going to get the location out of your other self?"
"Actually, I think I already know where it is," Tim admitted. "But if it's where I think it is, we're going to need the help of the others to finish off Brother EYE."
"And after that? What are we to do with your future self?"
Tim narrowed his eyes. "Let me worry about that, little brother."
"Okay, so we've got the bombs attached to the ceiling. Now how the hell are we supposed to get an opening!" Jason screeched as he once again began bludgeoning robots with his pistols.
"And what about Dick? How are we supposed to blow a hole without making sure we don't blow him and the other Tim up either?" Duke asked, ripping out the energy core of another robot.
"Why didn't Barbara just teleport us out of here?" Cass asked curiously, elbowing a robot's head off.
"She probably tried already but realize she could only teleport people in," Jason grunted out.
"Everyone, shut up!" Stephanie ordered, using one robot as a platform to jump up and do a hurricarana another. "We're just going to have to wing it and hope Dick won't get hit!"
"That's not very inspiring, Steph!"
"Well tough! Do you want to help him or not?"
Both Jason and Cass fell silent at that, conceding to Stephanie's point. Duke was not so gracious.
"Helping Dick is great and all," Duke yelped, "But what about these robots? How are we sure they won't follow us up there?"
"I'm not sure they can climb—oh wait, they can." Jason threw one of his pistols at the climbing robot, causing it to fall down and crash into a broken heap. "Duke's got a point. No point in going up there to help Dick if we're just going to get swamped again."
"Some us going have to stay behind," Cass concluded immediately.
"Then it's going to be Duke and I!" Stephanie shouted, ignoring the loud "WHAT!" that came from her involuntary co-volunteer. "You two have been fighting these robots for too long! We were just running around, and besides some soot we're mostly uninjured!"
Jason and Cass paused in their fighting to grimace at their own states. Stephanie was right — the siblings weren't in much of a state for any more prolonged combat. Their muscles were fatigued, and they were covered in bruises, scratches, and burns. They wouldn't last much longer if they stayed down here with the robots. While Future Tim would be a more dangerous opponent altogether, he was still just one person against them and Dick, and would no doubt be tired himself the moment they got up there. They could just subdue him quickly and end the horde before Stephanie and Duke got too hurt.
"I do not like this plan! Not at all!"
"Shut up, Duke! You agreed to it when it was first proposed, you've lost any say in the matter!"
"I'm pretty sure that's not the way these things are supposed to go, Steph!"
"Oh, forget it," Jason muttered, taking out two more of his custom bombs. "Everyone get out of the way! Fire in the hole!" With that, he aimed true, then quickly followed his own advice. Everyone else followed the suit, sprinting to the corners of the room the second explosion of the day.
This time, Jason had been a lot more deliberate with his targets than simply rolling his exploding helmet into the horde. Instead, he aimed the bombs directly at the heads of the robots right under the ceiling bombs he had planted prior. This caused a chain explosion — the robots exploded, and the force of the blast impacted the other bombs, causing the ceiling to explode in turn. The two concussive forces not only caused that portion of the ceiling to collapse into a large, visible hole that Jason and Cass would both easily fit into, but also knocked away or destroyed many of the robots beneath, leaving an opening for them to exploit.
Jason didn't hesitate; he rushed toward the hole, taking out Stephanie's grappling hook and using his near-perfect aim to catching the hook on the side of it. Cass mirrored his charge and threw herself at him, allowing him to catch her and hold her on his side as he allowed the grappling hook to pull them both upwards.
Stephanie and Duke watched them go, the former sighing before she adopted a determined look on her face as the robots once again began to populate the room. "Good luck, guys," She muttered, as Duke readied himself beside her. "We're all going to need it."
I rewrote this chapter because it didn't have as nearly as much material as I need it to, causing the arc to end in this chapter, which I didn't want to happen yet. Next chapter should be the last of the flashback arc, before we move on back to the present day.
Next chapter: Dick and Tim.