Batman was driving the Batmobile, with Robin sitting by his side.

"Robin, how many times have you fought the Joker?" he asked in his normal voice.

"This would be the second time I've faced him." he replied with a small frown. He turned back to his first mentor since arriving at Wayne Manor. "Any problem with that?"

Batman understood between the lines what Robin meant: 'Are you going to leave me behind like father did?'

"Of course not, kid." he said with a smirk and reached out a hand to ruffle the Boy Wonder's hair.

"I'm not a kid!" he protested, but did nothing to shoo his hand away, and Batman's smile grew. "Careful, Batman doesn't smile." he teased him with a small smile.

"And Robin doesn't have to frown." he retorted.

Robin looked at him grimly even as a smile threatened to make its way onto his face. "-tt. Just drive, Batman."

"Your wish is my command."

"Just drive in silence."

"Mh."


"Well, if that doesn't get Batsy's attention, I don't know what to do." stated the Joker nonchalantly as he casually tossed a small grenade behind him, causing the building behind to explode.

"What if the rumors of Batman's death are true?" asked Harley Quinn as she leaned on her hammer.

The clown laughed his usual laugh. "Ah, good joke!" he wiped away an imaginary tear. "As if Batsy could ever die!"

"For once you're right." came the growl behind them.

The two criminals turned to see the Dynamic Duo in fighting stance.

The Joker's smile grew disproportionately big and he waved his finger at his partner. "I told you he was alive!" he scolded her as if he was talking to a child.

The Joker looked at the Dark Knight for a moment and his smile slipped away.

Somehow he was even creepier without the smile.

Robin would never admit it, but the way he was looking at his partner was slightly upsetting him. In contrast, Batman had been unmoved by the clown's entire "analysis."

"You are not Batman." he growled dangerously, making Robin and Harley Quinn wince at his hostility.

They had never seen him so angry.

Batman looked at him coldly. "Yes, I am." he replied calmly.

"NO! YOU ARE NOT!" Joker shouted, his eyes blazing with pure rage. He took a deep breath to calm himself and spoke again. "I've known Batsy for years and I know you're not you. You're just an impostor."

The Caped Crusader ignored him and ran toward the two psychopaths. Harley Quinn advanced and tried to hit him with the hammer but was surprised when, instead of dodging him, Batman jumped on the weapon and used the momentum to land on her shoulders and used all his weight to knock her to the ground as he performed a somersault.

"When did he get so acrobatic?" complained Harley as she got back up, hammer in hand. She stood in front of Robin, who was sneering at her. "Oh, it's you and me, kid!"

"-tt. As if a harlot like you could defeat me." he taunted her as he dodged several hammers.

"How dare you, you little bastard!" raged the psychopath, and her eyes sparkled with mischievous glee as she managed to hit Robin in the stomach, sending him flying.

Robin immediately got back up, wincing at the movement because of his broken ribs. He rolled to the side to avoid a blow and threw a batarang, disarming her. He smiled and charged toward her.

She ducked to dodge a punch but he retaliated with an elbow to the chest followed by a roundhouse kick to the face.

Harley Quinn quickly got back up and smiled, spitting blood. She blocked her opponent's kick and slammed him hard to the ground. She smiled when she heard him grunt in pain.

Robin coughed for air as Quinn landed with his full weight on his stomach. He tried to get her off of him but she punched him in the face.

Immediately blood gushed from the young vigilante's nose.

But Robin was far from defeated: he gave Harley Quinn a hard headbutt that staggered her backward and swept her legs.

The Joker's partner turned the fall as a backflip and charged the hero.

Robin blocked a punch and spun it behind her back and then punched her in the temple.

He smiled in satisfaction as she fell to the ground unconscious.


Batman landed crouched down after the somersault and smiled slightly at Joker's stunned face.

"What? First you get acrobatic and now you're smiling?" he shouted, stamping his feet on the ground before shaking his head. "You're not really Batman." he muttered.

Batman quickly lost his smile. With lightning speed he threw an uppercut across his jaw and swept his legs. He towered over the clown but, before he could do anything, his enemy rolled under his legs and was behind him.

Fortunately for Batman, that was a typical move he made as Robin and Nightwing and so he immediately turned 180 degrees and threw a hard roundhouse kick at his jaw, knocking him a few feet away.

Batman approached at a slow pace toward the Joker who had stood up laughing and ignoring the trickle of blood.

The Joker grabbed several playing cards and threw them at the Caped Crusader.

Despite the heaviness of the suit (more Kevlar than Nightwing's and less than Bruce's suit) Batman easily twisted his body in a way that was impossible for any single living being and made several backflips, avoiding each card, and landed in a crouch.

For the first time in his life, the man behind the cowl saw the Joker's eyes go wide and open-mouthed.

Well, it wasn't every day you saw an acrobatic Batman.

The Dark Knight used his surprise to his advantage: he punched the Joker in the stomach, grabbed him by the head and connected with his knee, and elbowed him in the face.

The Joker fell to the ground, still laughing as Batman slapped cuffs on his wrists and tied him up. "Well, I guess I can still have fun with the new Batsy too!" he threw his head back and laughed.

Batman ignored him as he cast a glance at his partner who nodded to him in satisfaction. He was about to nod back when he saw Harley Quinn behind him get up and kick out (from where, Dick always wondered) another hammer.

"Robin! Behind you!"

Instinctively Robin turned and punched Harley Quinn in the face only to be hit in the face by the hammer as well, sending him flying a few feet.

Batman ran toward his partner, ignoring the laughter of the Joker who was shouting: "Ehy! They knocked each other out! AHAHAHA!"

Batman knelt beside Robin. "Ehy, partner." he called to him, shaking him slightly.

When he did not respond, he glanced at the extent of the injuries.

A couple of broken ribs, broken nose, and a nice concussion courtesy of Quinn.

He sighed and, after making sure Harley was strapped down for the police to arrive, picked up Robin and fired his own grappling hook across the rooftops.

Three minutes later he gently placed it in the Batmobile and activated the autopilot for the Batcave.

"Agent A, the Batmobile is returning to the cave with wounded Robin inside."

"Roger that, Master Batman."

"And one thing: tell him he did good against Harley Quinn when he wakes up. I don't want him to feel useless when he's anything else."

"I'll do that without a doubt."

He changed channels to talk to Oracle. "Oracle, which psychopaths are closest to me?"

"They are Killer Croc and Bane at Gotham's main park. Those two are wreaking great havoc." came the redhead's prompt reply.

"Good." he growled and moved his hand to turn off his earpiece when she spoke.

"Wait! You're going alone? Without even Robin? Let me send you someone for support!"

"No. I'll take care of Killer Croc and Bane."

"That's suicide, Dick! Even Bruce would have a lot of difficulty with the two of them together!"

"Are you saying I'm not able to deal with them?" he growled dangerously.

"Yes." came the truthful reply.

"Then you don't know me well, Oracle."

After turning off the communication he grabbed his grappling hook and fired, in the direction of Gotham City Park.


Batman dodged Bane's punch and performed several backward flicks to prevent Killer Croc's tail from hitting him.

Okay, maybe facing the two of them together wasn't his best idea, but hey, he liked to put himself in dangerous situations.

Although he was sure that this time Black Canary would kill him good and proper.

He narrowly avoided the lunge of the big crocodile's claws but couldn't dodge Bane's punch to the stomach that threw him against the wall of a small abandoned cottage.

"I thought the Bat was dead, but I don't mind killing him myself." smirked Bane, peering menacingly at the nubs.

"Let me have some of the fun, Bane." smiled Killer Croc dangerously.

With a pained grunt Batman stood up and looked coldly at his opponents. He wanted to take them down quickly and painlessly, but apparently he had to use the part of his most ruthless and cruel training reserved only for when he gets really angry.

The Dark Knight gave a cruel smirk, catching the two off guard. "Do your best, idiots."

Bane and Killer Croc growled and charged the vigilante. Batman jumped on the giant crocodile's fist and kicked him in the face as he performed a double somersault positioning himself smoothly on Bane's shoulders. He hit his head several times with hard punches before going down to the ground.

He blocked Bane's punch with both arms and, with a kick of deadly precision and power, hit his right knee cap before turning 360 degrees and doing the same to the other knee at an absurd speed.

The Caped Crusader felt with satisfaction the breaking of both bones. Bane, despite his enormous bulk, could not help but scream in pain and fall face-first to the ground.

Batman threw a batarang that cut the connected pipes behind Bane, returning him to normal size and then kicked him in the temple with limited force to knock him out.

The vigilante raised his left arm to defend himself from Killer Croc's claws and, with his other arm, struck the crocodile's abdomen before attacking him with a rapid sequence of punches to the stomach.

Killer Croc grunted in pain and tried to punch him.

Batman surprised him when he jumped and did a cartwheel on his arm and then punched him hard in the face, causing him to roar in pain.

The hero ended up on his enemy's shoulders and began to throw rapid attacks on his head.

Killer Croc, already feeling great pain in his head, tried to shake him off but all his attempts proved futile. A plan formed in his mind when he remembered that there was a building behind him and smiled wickedly, unbeknownst to the hero.

Resisting the Caped Crusader's hard and ruthless assaults Killer Croc ran backward so that he could crush the hero between himself and the building and, if it did not kill him, weaken him greatly.

He did not know, however, that he had fallen right into the vigilante's trap.

Within seconds of being crushed, Batman jumped and somersaulted toward the wall of the building and while he was in midair, head down and legs up, he clung tightly to Killer Croc's shoulders and used all his strength to turn him around as much as he needed to make his head slam painfully into the building (which somehow withstood the hard impact) as Batman landed crouched behind him.

The mutant crocodile recoiled stunned. The vigilante used the stun to his advantage and ran toward the wall.

Then, it was as if everything was in slow motion.

Batman jumped toward the wall and planted both feet firmly on it and used the momentum to launch himself toward the enemy by twisting his body in a way that only Dick Grayson was able to do in the whole world, with his right leg extended forward.

The result was something incredible.

The Dark Knight unleashed a brutal and deadly kick into Killer Croc's face breaking his jaw and whose head snapped painfully to the right and he fell to the ground unconscious, causing the earth to shake a little.

That kick was so deadly that it would have killed a normal man by its brutality and efficiency. Good thing Killer Croc was obviously not a normal person, otherwise he would be as good as dead.

Batman landed on his feet, his cape fluttering dramatically behind him.

He sprayed a special kind of spray at the croc's face that would keep him down for a few hours so the police could take him back to Arkham Asylum and handcuffed Bane.

He made to leave when he felt himself being watched. He turned sharply only to see a few feet away a boy of about ten years old looking at him with wide, admiring eyes.

He walked over to him, holding back a smile when he saw him open his eyes even wider.

"What's your name?" he asked gruffly.

"M-Matthew, s-sir."

"Where are your parents?" he asked sternly, crossing his arms and looking at him intently.

"I-I had an ugly f-fight with them and I f-fled, B-Batman, s-sir!" he stammered, in awe at being talking to a legend of the hero community.

Batman squinted his eyes, startling the boy, before he crouched at his own height and smiled at him, this time surprising him. "You'd better go home, you must be worrying your parents."

Matthew gasped at the kind tone (or at least how kind he can be but still manage to catch the warmth in his words) of the vigilante.

"Do you want me to take you home?"

He almost fainted. He had always heard that Batman was gruff and grumpy with everyone, criminals and civilians both, and now he was volunteering to take him home?

If it was a dream, he didn't want to wake up.

"N-no, I l-live nearby, s-sir B-Batman."

The vigilante nodded and rose to his full height.

Matthew looked down, shy and in awe of the legend before him, and when he looked up again he was gone.

An excited smile formed on the child's face. Not only had he seen The Batman in action (the most epic thing he would ever see in his entire life!) but he had also had a brief discussion with him.

Best day ever.


"There was a sudden burst of energy." warned Oracle in the main communication line.

"Where?" asked Batman with a grunt as he re-entered the Batmobile after knocking down Firefly before the villain could ignite a large fire.

There were a few seconds of silence and the redhead swallowed heavily. "The old lab where Bruce disappeared."

The current Batman forced himself to bury his hopes and fears deep down and pressed the accelerator, driving the Batmobile wildly as he never had before.

"God-Bruce's vitals are off!" Barbara screamed, her detached demeanor breaking and almost choking on her own words.

Dick broke every single road limit as he never had before.


The Wayne family butler opened his mouth to welcome back his family but stopped when he noticed the sadness and pain on the faces of the young people and the tears streaming down their faces. He stiffened when he noticed Master Dick carrying a motionless body in his arms.

He did not want to reach that kind of thoughts but covered his mouth with his hands when he immediately recognized the body. Next to him he felt Master Damian fall to his knees, shocked.

Alfred did not pay much attention to it. Instead his gaze was focused on the lifeless body of his son.

His son was dead.

Bruce's Batman armor was torn in so many places, dried blood covering his wounds. It was easy to see even with the naked eye that many bones were not in their natural position.

It was heartbreaking to see Batman carrying the corpse of another Batman.

It was heartbreaking to see a son carry the corpse of his own father.

Dick pushed the cowl back, revealing broken blue eyes that were red by tears. The light, the beautiful light, was completely gone from his eyes and he too looked like a corpse. "I-I will do some e-exams. To be s-sure." he stammered, his voice weak and broken as never before. He carefully laid his father's body on a medical crib.

Alfred lowered the cowl and began to sob.

He would have recognized that face anywhere.

The family surrounded Bruce Wayne's corpse and began to cry as Dick performed blood tests.

He performed it three times.

All three times the DNA of the lifeless body matched that of Bruce Thomas Wayne 100%.

Cause of death: violent head injury.

After about ten minutes in which only crying and sobbing resounded in the cavern suddenly Bruce Wayne's face appeared on the Batcomputer screen, shocking everyone.

Bruce looked directly at the lens and his next words shattered the hearts of everyone present.

"If you are watching this video, it means I am dead."