Chapter 42.
Hey everyone. Back with another chapter.
This chapter will see Liam confronting Earth-99 Batman.
To differentiate between the 3 Batmen: Earth-1 version will be called Bruce, DCAU version will be called Batman and Earth-99 version will be called Wayne.
Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, followed or favirouted this fic so far.
Disclaimer: I don't own any characters and elements you see in this fic. I only own Jason Stark and any other OC's and worlds you see in this fic.
On with the show.
AntBoy1: Thanks for the review. Glad that line was interesting. The Brothers Death are the only beings the Scarlet King fears. You will see on Earth-99 Batman. Enjoy the chapter.
1jesus: Thanks for the review. I do plan to involve Hellboy and you will see soon. Enjoy the chapter.
the mysterious Mr.E: Thanks for the review. Between Earth-1 Batman and Earth-99 Batman, Earth-1 version easily wins. Enjoy the chapter.
OmniUIShaggyOverexagerated: Thanks for the review. No kidding, I understand on trying to keep track and I apologize for the headache. Enjoy the chapter.
SupergodzillaSailorCosmos: Thanks for the review. You will see why on Earth-99 Batman. I agree on Liam x Iris and you will see later on. Quake, Spider-Gwen, Iris Thompson, Lady Jaye or Batwoman could work for Rebecca. Enjoy the chapter.
Liam's POV.
Following the whole incident with the Wonderland Gang, Bruce had tasked me with getting rid of his Earth-99 doppelganger.
Apparently, he had chosen to kill even his own allies which was just sickening.
I had also met Bruce's doppelganger from Earth-1992.
I was supposed to confront and eliminate Earth-99 Bruce Wayne by sending him to the universe of 'Kappa Erkish' which would hold him for an infinite number of years.
I used my extrapolator to open a breach to Earth-99 which was nighttime.
Bruce and Batman had said that they were going to be on stand-by in case I needed backup.
I had managed to enter the mansion and sneak into the Bat Cave where an old man in an exoskeleton was standing, tinkering with some weapons.
I guessed he was this Earth's version of Bruce Wayne.
Wayne noticed me and spun around, looking at me wearily.
"Liam? What is this? Time travel? Alternate Earth?" Wayne asked, eyeing me.
I cocked my head at the last words.
"Ah. Whatever it is forget it, I've got enough trouble on this Earth without having to aid another one" Wayne shrugged and moved to a workbench.
"I don't want your help" I replied coldly.
Wayne stopped and looked at me as I moved, staring at the various trophies.
There was a playing card, covered in blood and crushed vines.
"Why did you start?" I called out.
"After he killed a friend of mine…that was when I knew. There was no other way" Wayne replied.
Of course there was another way.
"Some things, you can never stop doing" I said softly.
"God you are self-righteous. I'll tell you, it frees you up" Wayne rolled his eyes.
"Why nobody stopped you…"
"People realized that bringing down the Bat was suicidal. It freed me up to keep doing my job" Wayne replied.
"Which ended up becoming repeated murder!" I snapped.
This was serial killer talk with all this.
"And then Superman…" I trailed off, looking at a pair of broken glasses.
"Strange visitor from another planet comes to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men? Clark…Clark always said yes to anyone with a badge. Or a flag. He gave them too much power. How long until he decided it was time to take some for his own?" Wayne scoffed.
"Then who?" I demanded.
"Whoever gets in my way. And you're telling me you don't have plans to take out the heroes on your world? Green Arrow? Barry or Wally or whoever's the Flash?" Wayne asked.
"Non-lethal. And only if any of them turned into raging psychopaths. Not when there trying to stop the one who is" I snapped.
"You think you can just come to my world and pass judgment on me?" Wayne snarled.
"Why not? You've been doing the same for years" I replied.
Wayne glared at me.
"You don't realize it yet. There is no other way for this to end" Wayne shook his head.
Delusional much?
"You know your doppelganger here understood that this is the only way" Wayne said to me.
"Then he is more delusional than I thought. At least one version of you found peace" I replied, remembering meeting a version of Bruce from Earth-2005.
"Peace is a lie the public deludes themselves into thinking the world make sense. I am the only thing that's stopping Gotham from collapsing" Wayne scowled.
"And you think what you're doing is right? Your friends and family would be ashamed of you?" I said angrily.
"Well this conversation has been going on for way too long" Wayne chuckled.
He then spun around and punched me hard in the face, knocking me backwards and causing blood to fly from my mouth.
I got back to my feet and kicked him in the chest.
"How are you still able to fight?" I asked him.
"A little something called a super-serum. It's slowly repaired my torn tissues" Wayne replied.
The exoskeleton slowed him down quite a bit, but he sure wasn't a pushover.
He punched me so hard in the ribs, I felt several of them crack.
I punched him several times in the face and delivered a powerful hook.
He staggered back.
He moved slowly and I was quicker.
I punched him several times.
He caught one of my punches and delivered one that broke my nose.
I fell to the ground, trying to stop the torrent of blood.
Wayne kicked me with his boot, causing me to scream in pain.
I moved away, even though it was super painful.
My ribs were throbbing with pain and there was still blood seeping from my broken nose.
"I'm not letting you get away with this. You will face consequences for your actions!" I snapped.
Wayne glared at me in response.
Using a move Bruce taught me, I flipped and brought my leg upon Wayne's face, sending him to his knees.
Wayne looked at me with hatred.
I had no idea what overcome me.
But at that point, I grabbed Wayne and broke his neck, killing him.
I stared in horror at his dead body.
My hands began shaking and the next moment, I turned and vomited.
I killed a man.
The very same thing I had lectured Wayne about, I had committed.
Wow, I was such a hypocrite.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Bruce standing there, in his civilian clothes with a sympathetic look on his face.
"Bruce" I mustered the words out of my mouth.
"Come on kid" Bruce gently guided me through a breach and into a room where Batman of Earth-1992 was standing.
"I'm so sorry Bruce" I apologized.
"It is okay Liam" Bruce assured me.
"We were going to show you something else but if you don't want to, we don't have to" Bruce told me.
"No, I'm okay" I assured him.
I was not going to be weak.
I had to be strong for Kate.
"Show him" Bruce said to Batman.
Batman nodded and showed an image on screen.
It was of Batman at a crime scene.
He looked mutilated.
"Someone killed Batman?" I asked.
"Not just this Batman, there is someone who has been hunting down and killing versions of Batman across the Multiverse" Bruce explained.
"Do we know who?" I asked.
"No. And he is targeting Batmen at random" Batman said.
"He looks like this" Bruce said.
Batman showed an image of a figure.
He was dressed in a long, dark coat.
He wore a hood and face mask that obscured everything except his eyes.
His eyes were cold and held a malicious look.
"Nobody knows who he is. People have been calling him a Phantom. He likes to be called 'The Minuteman'. But that's not his actual name or is codename" Batman said.
"How does he kill Batmen?" I asked.
"He tracks them down like an animal. He corners them and then kills them" Bruce explained.
"He's that skilled?" I asked in shock.
"Yes. We have reason to believe he may also have enhancements as he has shown to have superhuman strength" Batman said.
"Okay then. So some dude is hunting down and killing Batmen. Do we know whose next?" I asked.
"Yes. You already met him. He is the Bruce Wayne of Earth-2005" Bruce said.
"Oh shit. Well he's fucked. He's been out of commission for 5 years" I said in shock and horror.
"I wasn't going to enlist his aid in combating the two Crises's, but this is something that takes precedence" Batman said in a firm tone.
I nodded.
I still felt sick, but now was not the time for that.
"Where is he?" I asked.
"In Paris. I will send you to warn him and bring him here" Bruce said.
"Yes. Bruce, Dr Bright and I will be on stand-by in case you require backup" Batman explained.
"Where's Cain?" I asked.
"He needed to return to Earth-2008" Bruce said simply.
Okay then.
"All right, let's do this. We don't want more Batmen to die" I said, with a confidence I did not feel.
Bruce looked at me with concern but nodded.
He took out another extrapolator and opened a breach to Earth-2005.
"Good luck kid" Bruce nodded to me.
I smiled and nodded.
When I exited, I was in an alleyway.
I ducked out of it, and found myself in a café.
I really hoped this was Paris, and that Bruce believed me.
I saw Bruce, sitting at a table, with a pink shirt on.
The heck is with the pink shirts?
I took a deep breath and walked over to Bruce.
I then promptly took a seat at his table.
Bruce looked up from his newspaper and looked at me with surprise.
"Liam? What are you doing back here?" he asked in confusion.
"Listen Bruce, there is very little time. You are in grave danger" I told him.
"What are you talking about? Who's after me?" Bruce asked.
"Someone is trying to kill you" I said.
I wanted to take things slowly since this Earth didn't have aliens or metahumans, so he was bound to be out of his depth.
"Who is?" Bruce asked, leaning forward.
"Okay, let me start from the beginning. Have you ever heard of the Multiverse theory?" I asked him.
"That's the theory where there is more than one universe correct?" he asked with a frown.
"Yes. Well someone is traveling across the Multiverse, hunting down and killing versions of Batman. And you're next" I explained.
Bruce sat back, stunned from this new revelation.
"There's more than one me?" Bruce questioned.
"Yes" I said, trying to be patient.
"Who's that?" Bruce frowned, looking past me.
I swung around to see the same killer from earlier walking towards us.
"Oh shit, he's the guy who's trying to kill you!" I said urgently.
He drew a gun from underneath his coat and I kicked a chair at him.
It stunned him briefly and that allowed Bruce and I to spring into action.
Bruce was clearly out of shape as the assassin, beat him.
"Who are you?" I demanded.
"I am a Phantom" the man replied with a deep voice.
He drew a knife and attacked, kicking me back as people screamed and ran.
Looks like Bruce and Batman weren't kidding when they said he had superhuman strength.
"Guys I could really use the help" I said through my comn link.
"On our way" Bruce replied.
A blue breach emerged and Dr Bright, Bruce-1 and Batman emerged.
"3 Batmen at once? This must be my lucky day" the man chuckled.
Bruce-2005 was staring at Bruce-1 and Batman with curiosity.
The man threw a pair of knives which Batman and Bruce-1 blocked.
Batman charged in for the attack and the two were evenly matched although the man looked to be even more skilled than Batman.
Bright grabbed the man in a chokehold and then grunted.
"Nice try Dr Bright. But you can't read my mind" the man laughed and head-butted Bright backwards.
"BRUCE!" a female voice screamed.
A beautiful, dark haired woman ran onto the scene.
"Selina!" Bruce-2005 replied.
"Can you two save your reunion for some other time?" I demanded.
Bruce-2005 looked at me and nodded.
Bruce-1 and I attacked.
The man kicked Batman backwards and flung a knife at me.
I barely dodged it although it sliced my neck and I felt blood.
The man flip-kicked Bruce-1 down and swept Bright's legs, knocking him down as well.
Bruce-2005 moved into action but the man easily dodged each of his attacks and kicked him in the chest.
Selina moved in, kicking the man in the chest.
"This sure isn't over. Liam. I'm coming for you and Kate Kane" the man declared, throwing a smoke grenade down.
"What the hell was that about?" Selina asked.
I moved and helped Bright to his feet.
"We should discuss this elsewhere" Batman spoke.
"Excuse me?" Selina demanded.
"Not now" I held up my hand.
Bruce-2005 and Selina looked reluctant but followed us through the breach.
"So, care to tell us what's going on? Who was that guy?" Selina demanded.
Batman explained about the Multiverse and who the man was.
"So the Multiverse exists, some guy is killing versions of me and there is some sort of Crisis that will destroy all Earths?" Bruce-2005 asked for confirmation.
"Correct" I replied.
Bruce sunk back in his seat.
I felt sympathy for the man.
A few hours later, I was sitting down in a chair.
I had lost my appetite since I had killed Wayne.
"Mind if I sit here?" Bruce-2005 asked.
"Sure" I replied.
"What is it? You have that haunted look in your eyes" Bruce-2005 asked me.
"I killed a version of you" I confessed.
"What do you mean?" he asked in confusion.
I explained about Earth-99 Batman and how I snapped and killed him.
Bruce-2005 looked at me with sympathy.
"I understand Liam. Killing someone, that's not something you can just go back from" Bruce-2005 said.
"But what do I do? What if I kill again?" I asked.
"You only kill if you decide to. Everything is a matter of choice. Sometimes you've just got to be your own hero. And one mistake does not define who you are" Bruce-2005 said to me.
"Thanks Bruce" I replied, my spirits being uplifted.
Earth-1: Gotham City. No One's POV.
Alice had recently broken out of prison.
And she was super-pissed at this point.
So she had decided to recruit the one person who could help her take revenge on Kate and Liam.
"It's time to annihilate Gotham City." she said with a smirk.
"I AM BANE!" the man roared.
And Chapter 42 is done. I hope you all enjoyed it.
So now Earth-99 Batman is dead. I am intrigued by the idea of an evil Batman, but I found 'Crisis on Infinite Earths' to be the wrong time for it which is why I didn't like it.
I had thought about giving Earth-99 Batman a redemption arc, but rewatching a few clips, made me realize he was way too far gone.
So I hope you liked it here with Liam getting rid of Earth-99 Batman. I wanted to give Liam some emotional problems, plus for the rest of this series, he will have to deal with the PTSD from killing him, and the possibility of killing others.
So yes, someone is killing Batmen across the Multiverse. I plan for an arc in the sequel that will see the remaining Batmen, plus Liam and Kate Kane teaming up to defeat him. You will see who he is later on.
And now Nolan's Batman is here. I originally wasn't planning to include him, but rewatching the 'Dark Knight' films, made me change my mind. Plus Nolan's Batman is my absolute faviroute Batman.
I also hope you liked Nolan's Batman imparting advice to Liam.
And now Alice has recruited Bane for a final showdown which will take place next chapter.
This wont be the last time we see the mystery killer. He will make at least one more appearance in this story and two more in the sequel.
Next chapter will cover the final battle and aftermath.
Until next time, review, follow, faviroute, stay tuned and tell me what you think of this chapter.
Arrowverse Fan 217 Out.