Hey guys, I'm back. First, I wanted to offer a dedication to Stan Lee, who passed away on Monday. Regardless of whether you prefer Marvel or DC, you cannot deny this man's impact on the past more than half a century. The underlined sections later on are used to designate files that shouldn't even exist in this timeline. Also, I've decided to keep the story "T", but I won't bother censoring the story. Just know that this story is a hard "T".
Watchtower, Orbit; March 21, 2027 01:30
A blonde archer wearing green and the Dark Knight walked to the detention area where a certain prisoner was being held.
Batman held a recording device which would record the interrogation of the prisoner.
Entering the detention area, they found Nightwing and Kid Flash standing guard in front of the cell.
Nightwing deactivated the energy field that served as the cell's door, allowing Bruce and Oliver to walk in.
Once the two heroes were inside the cell, Dick reactivated the energy field.
Bruce pulled out the recording device and activated it, while Oliver nudged the prisoner awake.
"Had a good nap?" Oliver rhetorically asked. "You've been out for the past twelve hours."
The still sleepy man muttered something that indicated that he did have a good nap.
"Now, my friend over here thinks that he might have met you before." Oliver asked. "But we need to introduce ourselves first, starting with you."
The black wearing figure was surprisingly amenable to answering questions.
"Okay, shoot."
"Who are you, exactly?" Bruce asked. "Judging from your costume design, you appear to be a futuristic Batman."
"Guess the design gave it away." The futuristic Batman sardonically noted. "Yeah, I am Batman Beyond. One of your successors."
"One of them?" Bruce wondered.
"Nightwing took over after the Apokoliptan invasion of Veteran's Day 2027." Batman Beyond clarified. "Said invasion destroyed half the planet. Broke you for decades."
"Then who are you, really?" Bruce asked, really curious. "What is your name?"
"Terry McGinnis." The figure finally answered, taking off the mask. "I'm your son."
"Who's the mother?" Oliver asked in amusement, running his fingers through his goatee. "Was it Diana, or did Bruce cheat on her?"
Bruce turned to look at the green archer in disapproval.
"Neither." Terry answered. "After the invasion, Diana had left Bruce to lead what was left of the Amazons, a race that was decimated during the invasion."
Oliver now had a look of shame, as he probably touched a nerve.
"Also, stop stroking your beard." Terry requested. "You're not Obi-Wan Kenobi."
Oliver was amazed at how a kid in an apocalyptic future would know what Star Wars was.
"But I'm not his son in the traditional way." Terry clarified. "After the invasion, Amanda Waller had used Bruce's DNA that had been collected to turn my father into a genetic copy of Bruce Wayne. After me and my brother were born, Mom and Dad argued over whether or not she cheated on him, and it caused their divorce."
Ouch. Oliver thought, as he sympathized for the poor man.
"Dad got killed by a corporate enforcer, which I might have fought off, if I was there with him." Terry reflected, still feeling survivor's guilt. "It led me to train under you, Bruce, and led to me becoming the Batman."
"Then why are you here?" Bruce asked. "Why aren't you in the future helping out Gotham?"
"Well, frankly, I don't want to raise a family in a world where kids are forced to read about the apocalypse in school every day." Terry answered bluntly. "Can you imagine that kind of world, where your children were forced to do so? I want to change time so that the invasion never happens. If there's no invasion, there's no bad future."
"Not necessarily." Bruce retorted. "That's not the only thing that can bring about the end of the world."
"Maybe not." Terry semi-agreed. "But maybe I can make a better future here and now."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a black and red zip drive.
"What's this?" Bruce asked.
"Notes on how the world went to hell in my future, and how we can prevent that by working together." Terry answered.
"Yes. We'll fix time again." Bruce said, finally remembering the circumstances about how Terry seemed familiar.
"Bruce?" Terry asked in confusion.
"Long story." Bruce responded. "If you're right, then maybe we can find redemption together."
"I think Bruce wants the prisoner to left out." Oliver told the guards outside.
They responded by deactivating the force field.
"First, though, I think I'm going to need a shower." Terry joked. "Where are those facilities?"
"Two levels below. Showers are in the sauna." Bruce answered. "Wally can show you to them, and we have plenty of spare clothes while we get your suit washed."
"Very well. Take this zip drive. It's got three terabytes of data on it." Terry offered, handing Bruce the USB. "Might need the Question's help on it."
"Got it." Bruce agreed, taking the device.
"One last thing. I sent Bart Allen to 2024. Do you know who he is?" Terry asked.
"Yes. He's part of the Young Justice. Code name is 'Impulse'." Bruce answered. "Claims to not know who sent him, but that his purpose was to prevent the end of the world."
"Thank you." Terry sighed in relief. "He might have amnesia, but at least he's alive."
Watchtower, Orbit; March 21, 2027 01:45
Bruce and the Question were now going through the three terabytes of data that Terry gave them.
"I know it took you days to go through this amount of data once." Bruce reiterated. "Of course, you didn't use the Justice League facilities when you discovered the Earth where Clark became a tyrant."
"Turned out to be for nothing." Question recalled. "The Superman on that Earth was not like the one on ours."
"Thank Zeus for that." Bruce stated.
"Spending too much time with the Amazon again?" The faceless detective accused, noting how Bruce's terminology was gradually incorporating Greek mythology.
"Perhaps." Bruce answered. "But if we wish to talk about valued friends, why don't we discuss Huntress?"
Getting the hint, Vic shut up.
Fortunately, the problem here wasn't that the data was encrypted, but rather the sheer size of the data.
Evidently, many of the files they had gone through weren't just premonitions, but everything the League had done, even that sex tape Green Arrow and Black Canary made.
Apparently, the files were organized by date modified, instead of alphabetical order, which begged the Question to ask Batman why not reorganize them into alphabetical order.
"Why don't we just reorganize them alphabetically?" Vic asked.
"Whenever I make my files, I do it by number." Bruce answered. "Keeps them in chronological order, which is just as well, so the presentation later on isn't jumbled."
"A fair point." The faceless detective conceded.
Reaching the first file that read "March 20, 2027" in the "Date Modified" column, Bruce found that it was just logs of the Boy Scout's wedding.
Then it started getting interesting; in the column of "March 23, 2027", which was more than a little weird considering that day hadn't come to be just yet, Bruce found a recording of the Founding Members' meeting.
He pressed "Play", and the recording started playing.
It was in the Watchtower's chamber for the Seven, where Bruce, Clark, Diana, Arthur, J'onn, Hal, and Barry were seated.
"Thank you all for coming, today." Clark greeted happily. "I have some wonderful news to share."
"He's not usually this chipper." Hal noted to Barry.
"He did just get married." The blonde speedster defended. "I remember the ecstasy of when I got married to Iris."
"Alright, cut the chatter, so Clark can share the news." Bruce ordered.
"This morning, Lois and I went to the doctor, and we discovered that she's pregnant with twins!" Clark announced.
"Well, I'll be damned." Hal snarked. "Most pregnancies aren't detected this early."
"Harold, please shut up." Aquaman commanded. "This is a cause for celebration."
"Congratulations, Clark." Bruce applauded. "You earned this honor."
"How did they find out that quickly, though?" Barry asked, still curious.
"Because I was the one to detect the two lives inside of Lois." J'onn revealed.
Bruce hit "Pause" on the video player, and contemplated on if it was the right thing to postpone the wedding.
Going through the rest of the recording, he found that there was little else noteworthy, except that his alternate-self offered to be the twins' Godfather, and continued going through the files until "March 31, 2027", where there was a failed mission regarding Superboy.
Opening the file, he read the contents of the mission report.
"Damn it. Conner was captured on yesterday's mission to one of Luthor's facilities. He was grabbed by one of the security systems and dragged beneath a closing blast door, screaming at the rest of the team to run. Megan was devastated. We are planning a rescue mission already to the LexCorp facility just outside the Metropolis suburbs. Superman insists on going to make sure that his "brother" is alright."
Apparently this was the prologue of how things were going to go to hell in Terry's future.
Opening a file on "April 1, 2027", Bruce stared in shock at the contents, wishing it was a bad April Fool's Day joke.
"How did it end up like this? Clark's dead! And Conner with him! Luthor transformed Superboy into a Kryptonian monster! That monster started a rampage in the Metropolis suburbs. A lot of good people were lost today because of Luthor, both soldier and civilian. We were fortunate to get most of the people out of there, but Clark paid the ultimate price in sacrificing himself to weaken Doomsday. Conner's consciousness then reemerged to coerce Megan to kill him with a shotgun loaded with Kryptonite. Miss Martian is a total wreck right now, the natural consequences of having to kill one's significant other to prevent more lives from being lost. This was no April Fool's Day joke. And Luthor has gotten away with basically everything. That son of a bitch even had the audacity to show up at Superman's funeral. I was barely able to prevent myself from socking him in the jaw, but I promise you, Clark, you shall be avenged."
Bruce was now shedding multiple tears at how the alternate future Bruce looked like he was going to go off the deep end, though given what happened, the only one who could blame him was himself.
Deciding to take a break from analyzing files, he gestured Question to take over.
Terry was right in saying that the world would be going to hell if Luthor wasn't stopped, but there wasn't enough evidence to prove the latter's guilt yet.
Perhaps a reassignment was in order.
Bruce returned to his quarters, where he sat on his bunk to contemplate on what might or might not have been averted.
Watchtower, Orbit; March 21, 2027 01:50
After fifteen minutes in the shower, Terry McGinnis was fresh again, wearing an even fresher change of clothes consisting of a brown jacket, black shirt, and jeans. Basically his everyday attire when he wasn't Batman.
While redressing, Terry contemplated on whether or not his soon-to-be efforts would actually change his future, or if they just created an alternate timeline. Even if the latter was true, he would still keep on fighting to make it better, so he wouldn't die for nothing.
Once he had finished work here, he and Bart would try to return to the future, unless the time travel to the past was a one way trip.
Walking to the computer room that Bruce and Question were working on, he was surprised to see Bruce passing by, apparently unable to notice his son walking by him.
Must have seen some of the footage. Terry mused.
Entering the computer room, the futuristic visitor found the Question going through the data.
It would be interesting interacting with the man that helped clean house in Hollywood nearly ten years back.
That was, after all, his application form into the Justice League.
"Batman told me about you." Vic greeted. "Says that you are to be trusted."
"Well, tell him I said thanks." Terry responded appreciatively.
"He also said that I am to assist you in any way possible." Question spoke, almost ignoring Terry's statement. "So how may I assist you?"
"You can assist me by continuing to load the files onto the computer." Terry finally answered. "The world needs to know that Luthor will cause the Earth's devastation."
"That part we agree on." Question said. "As does much of the world. The problem is that money and power is a quality that Luthor has a high quantity of. His enormous political connections make him too powerful a tool to disavow, and his dozens of dummy bank accounts make him financially untouchable."
"Well, once we reveal the truth to the world, money and power won't mean shit." Terry nodded. "That son of a bitch has evaded the consequences of his actions for too long, and once we display the irrefutable evidence, and destroy his political connections and secondary sources of income, he'll never pose a threat again, let alone become a god."
"Apparently, your presentation is later this afternoon. All of the Justice League's operations are grinding to a halt because of that." Question reported. "You should be so proud of yourself."
Terry chuckled at the irony that he might be inadvertently increasing crime, but as long as Earth was saved from Darkseid, by all means.
No, now that line of thought was just being selfish. No averted invasion was worth a lot of collateral damage.
"Carry on, then." Terry ordered. "And keep up the good work."
"I'll try making it a priority." Question responded.
Terry looked for another chair to sit down in to take a nap, as he would be giving a presentation about his future in at least ten hours, and it would not be fitting for the presenter to doze off while giving the presentation.
Finally finding another chair, he sat down, and closed his eyes, but did not fall asleep.
Internally, he groaned at the reality that the Question's admittedly loud typing did make it hard to fall asleep.
But even though he had finished taking a twelve hour sleep, it still wasn't a good idea to stay up for the next ten hours waiting for a presentation that might take hours.
Maybe he could get a few hours of sleep after all.
Soon enough, he did fall asleep, though his snoring wasn't as loud as Question's typing.
And this dream was more of a flashback than anything; the day he confessed his identity to Dana.
Gotham, New Jersey; May 19, 2067 5:30 PM EDT
It was the fifth anniversary of Terry McGinnis and Dana Tan's relationship, and the former felt that he had to confess to his girlfriend why he kept standing her up.
It certainly wasn't Melanie, not anymore.
They walked in Gotham City Park, one area that was untouched by industry and a reminder of better days forty years ago.
Finding a bench to sit down on, Terry decided to talk to Dana about his secret job as Batman.
"Dana, you've probably noticed the past few years that I haven't always been there when I was supposed to be." Terry started. "I just wanted to let you know why. The truth is that, well, I'm Batman."
There was a pause for a minute as Dana was evidently was taking it all in.
"Yeah, kind of shocking, I know." Terry admitted. "Even Mom and Matt didn't believe it when I told them."
"Actually, I think a part of me always knew, but it was subconscious." Dana stated. "That part grew when you kissed me in the rain."
"Yeah, that wasn't my finest hour." Terry confessed self-mockingly. "I mean, I moved in too closely too soon before you could remove the leather."
"If it makes you feel better, you were still a good kisser." Dana complimented. "That was how I slowly figured out that it was you."
Terry chuckled. "Well, at least now you don't have to worry about where I am from now on."
"Indeed." Dana replied, pulling him in for a kiss.
The flashback slowly faded away as Terry awoke from his nap.
Watchtower, Orbit; March 21, 2027 02:00
"Wake up." A monotone voice requested. "I need your help to decrypt the files."
Great. Nap time was over. Reminded Terry of his high school days where he only got a few hours of sleep a night at most, due to his nighttime patrols of Gotham.
Okay, guys. That was great. Next time, expect Terry to share to the entire Justice League about the bad future, and learn how disappointed Terry is in their squabbles.