A/N: Soooo, anyone else liking the new Titans show? My favorite part so far was a Beast Boy acting like an actual teenager with superpowers and using them to get his hands on a video game he wanted.

Alsoooo, apparently, the original Young Justice is coming back to D.C., according to what I've heard. And by original, I mean the comic book team of Tim, Conner, and Bart.

Dudeeeee. Yes.

Although… The how is beyond me. Sure, Bart is back, but I'm pretty sure Conner is still out of the picture, but I haven't been keeping up with newer comics so I might be wrong.

Update: the comic is officially coming out next year, starting January.

Published: 10/16/2018

Warnings: None

Chapter 2

Does Anyone Ever Listen to the Sane One?

There were very, very few things in the universe that could surprise Tim Drake.

In terms of detective skills, Tim had been told time and time again that he would likely one day surpass even Batman. The reason, of course, was pretty obvious. Tim had managed to do what no one else had, with such relative ease Tim himself had, at times, wondered why no one else had put the pieces together.

Bruce Wayne and Batman were one in the same.

Nightwing and Richard Grayson were one in the same.

How no one else had seen it was beyond Tim, but he had. He'd taken a good look, put the pieces together, and figured how they all fit.

The how, however, was the part he disliked the most: his predecessor.

Jason Todd had once been Robin, except now all he was was a body in a grave, buried six feet under in the Wayne's personal cemetery. Jason wasn't alone there, either. His parents. Bruce's parents. Nightwing's parents. Jason's mom. Stephanie Brown. All the people they had lost over the years, buried back there.

Jason's death had been the catalyst: the final piece of the puzzle. After that, it hadn't taken much for Tim to realize the truth.

Jason had been Robin.

And losing him was driving Batman up a wall. Literally.

So, Tim had done the natural response to this revelation. He'd escaped Gotham, crossed the country, tracked down Nightwing, and demanded the other return to being Robin for a bit to stabilize Batman.

…

Nightwing had not approved of costume changes and, somehow, although Tim wasn't sure how, he was the one who ended up in boy wonder tights.

Even that hadn't surprised him.

Sure, it had been unexpected, but the possibility had crossed Tim's mind. He had never bothered to entertain it until it was real, but it had been there, in the background.

It had there, so he'd been able to prepare, able to adapt.

Tim Drake was good at that.

Very few things surprised him.

So, of course, one of those few things had to be the lumbering head of his best friends antics and shenanigans.

"You did what?!"

Kon didn't seem to notice Tim's tone. Instead, the other teen was practically bouncing around the room in excitement. Tim hoped he didn't do anything particularly… Supey. Batman had a thing about Metahumans in his city, although he'd stayed quiet so far.

It was not an exaggeration to say that Conner Kon-El Kent was bouncing off of Tim's walls. The teen of steel was literally doing so, grin never leaving his face.

Although, Tim wondered if the word 'teen' still applied. More like toddler. Yes, Tim decided. Toddler of steel. He apparently had the mental capacity of one because he had, oh I don't know, thought it was A GOOD IDEA TO TELL LEX LUTHOR EVERYTHING!

Kon stopped bouncing. Instead, the Superboy landed, turning to shoot Tim a concerned look. Hands curled at his side, eyes darting back and forth, Kon looked like a kid who'd been found with his hands in the cookie jar.

"Er. Yeah. Maybe. Definitely?" Kon said. Tim blinked. Ah. Shit. Tim had been doing that thing again where he yelled his thoughts out loud. Badddd. Especially for a crime fighting teenager that ran around in bright red and green tights to fight supervillains.

"Dude. Calm down," Idiot-of-Steel continued, "Sure, he was a little freaked at first because he genuinely had no id- don't give me that skeptical look, he didn't really know!"

Tim found this hard to believe. How could Lex Luthor not have known what was going on in his own compa-

Oh. Wait.

Even Bruce didn't know all the projects in Wayne Industries. Okay. Tim could give that one to Luthor. Still, how could Luthor not notice such a big project?

The Making of Kon(™) wasn't some tiny project that could have been seeped under the rug, buried beneath the endless mounds of corporate paperwork. Kon was more than just some experiment, and if Luthor had waived him off because of that, then even Mercy Graves and her army of misnomer female bodyguard army wouldn't keep Tim from beating Luthor into a pulp.

Although, perhaps Tim should lay blame where blame was do.

Of course, to do so, he'd need a bloody Kryptonite ring, which Bruce kept locked up behind approximately 73 levels of encrypted security.

Still, how else was Tim suppose to punch Superman for being such a neglectful father figure that Kon thought Lex Luthor would be a suitable candidate for the role?

Hands suddenly found themselves on Tim's shoulders, shaking him. Startled, he looked into the other teenagers' eyes.

"Hey, Tim, stop. I know that face. I know that look. You're overthinking it. Stop it. It's fine. What's done is done." Kon said.

Tim twitched.

Knocking the hand away, Tim glared.

"What's done is done? What could have possibly it possessed you to confront Luthor in the first place?!" Tim snapped.

Kon was suddenly very interested in the floor patterns of Tim's room. Tim narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

Wait a second…

Crazy impulsive behavior…

Revealing information that should not have been revealed…

Confronting a supervillain where the supervillain themselves felt safest…

It clicked instantly.

Lifting an accusing finger, Tim pointed straight at the other, "You were high on Red K, weren't you!"

"What! No?" Kon backed away, waging his head, shaking his hands back and forth frantically, face wrecked with guilt.

Yeah. Right. This boy was full of shit.

Kon paused.

"Okay, maybe a little," he admitted.

"Aha!"

"Owe! Tim! Stop that! Where'd you even get that staff from anyways?"

Tim whacked him once more for good measure.

"Why were you on Red K! You know what happens when you're on Red K! Remember last time?" Tim demanded, then blushed.

Kon also blushed. Right. They weren't supposed to, ahem, talk about that particular incident.

"It was an accident, okay?" Kon claimed. Tim let a single disbelieving eyebrow rise. "Me and Chlo were looking through some of her old school things." Kon continued. The second eyebrow joined its twin. "Don't give me that look, Chloe showing me things from when she and Clark were younger and when my parents actually got along!" Kon snapped.

Ah. Oh. So that's what this was abou-

Oh hell.

Tim recognized that look, but it wasn't one he'd ever thought he'd see on Conner. Nope. Noooo. Not going there. Nope to the no.

"You are not getting them back together!" Tim yelled. Kon tried to look innocent. Somehow, he was succeeding, despite being a lumbering 200 pound farm boy. Tim paused. "Wait, wrong words. They were never together. Er. Where they?" Tim wondered out loud before blanching.

Nope.

Not having that thought. Bad brain. Baaaaddddd.

"They were besties. Inseparable. Clark was dad's best man. Twice." Kon shrugged.

Oh wow. So they were pretty close, that was bizz-

Stop. Record scratch. Hold up. Back up a little.

"Dad!?" Tim spluttered.

Kon laughed sheepishly, scratching the back of his head.

Tim groaned, burying his face in his hands.

"Ah, come on! Don't you think you're overreacting Tim? What's the worst that could possibly happen?"

Tim didn't have to answer that. As it was, fate decided to do it for him.

Bruce stormed into the room as if he owned it. Which, technically, he did.

"Tim. Suit up. We have a situation down in Metropolis that will require all the help we can-" Bruce froze.

Tim looked up.

Kon was gazing at the Batman in unmasked guilt. The Batman, in turn, had his arms crossed over his chest, giving the clone an unimpressed once over before turning to look at Tim.

"Do I really need to threaten you with a chastity belt again? What have I told you about having metahumans over without alerting me?"

Tim bristled before shooting a horrified look at Kon. Ah. Good. He looked confused. Good Kon. Good ignorant Kon.

Turning, Tim shot a glare at his mentor, whose eyes were twinkling in amusement.

"You know damn well you knew the second Kon walked into this house!... and I can have friends that aren't vetted by you, you know!" Tim snapped.

Bruce did not look impressed. Kon, on the other hand, did. Leaning closer, Kon lifted a hand over his face, as if that alone would stop the Batman from hearing his words.

"Dude. I could never yell at the Batman like that. He's scary." Kon confessed in a whisper.

"He's a grown man that runs around in a batsuit in his spare time. Not very scary." Tim scoffed, arms crossed and rolling his eyes.

Bruce looked amused.

Turning around, he peered over his shoulder to look straight at Tim.

"I suppose I'll just have to send Casa to get you suited up instead then?"

Then, with a jaunty little whistle, the caped crusader stalked off.

Tim blanched.

Oh no. Nope. Not dealing with that. Noooope. Turning towards Kon, Tim made shooing motions.

Kon was not impressed. Instead, the other teen crossed his arms and shrugged.

"What?"

"Get out so I can change!" Tim snapped.

Kon raised a single eyebrow.

"You do realize I have X-Ray vision, right? If I wanted to see you naked, I could be doing that right no- I didn't know you had a birthmark there."

…

"Owe! Damn it Tim, stop hitting me!"

…

"Wait, what situation in Metropolis?!"

Chloe wondered if this was her fault. She hadn't realized she still had an old piece of leftover Red K in the box that held all her High School memories, but in her defense…

Okay, so she had no defense, but still.

Although, she supposed she maybe should have said something. Maybbbbeee.

Well.

She did hack into Luthor's tower, so there was that. Annoyingly, however, Luthor didn't keep any functioning cameras in his own office. Oh sure, there were a few set up, but somehow Luthor had rigged them to scramble all audio so no words could be made out and the picture quality was too bad to read lips.

Luthor apparently was paranoid that someone might hack his cameras. Which was totally right, but still.

Regardless, Chloe had gotten good visuals.

The image of Lex and Conner hugging it out had set off red flags. Still, Chloe had, for a brief, tiny surge of insanity, decided she would give Lex the benefit of the doubt. Chloe hadn't said a thing, just waiting for them to play out. She'd told herself that if it got out of hand, she'd step in and out a stop to it, period.

Chloe had been a fool.

"Luthor had death robots? Who even builds death robots!?" Lois demanded.

Lo and behold, Metropolis was currently under siege. The culprits?

LexCorp robots. LexCorp robots that had their LexCorp labels proudly displayed. A nice touch on Lex's part.

No one would ever believe Lex Luthor would be stupid enough to set his own robots on the city. If anything, they'd be convinced someone was trying to frame him. Conniving little bastard.

Luthor's robots were currently ravaging the city. If that wasn't bad enough, most of them seemed to be powered by glowing shards of Kryptonite. Chloe wasn't surprised. You could literally use Kryptonite for anything.

On the bright side, Luthor wasn't sticking to pure green, which would have made this even more of a nightmare. On the other hand, most of the robots were powered with a bizarre mix of green and blue with the occasional red tossed in, although the how Lex had managed it still eluded Chloe.

Kryptonite didn't just not play nice with Kryptonians. It also didn't play nice with other versions of it. Otherwise, setting Metallo on a Red K Clark in order to burn out the drug from his system never would have really worked.

But, of course, Lex had managed it.

Chloe shrieked as a robot landed right in front of her. Snarling, the robot lifted an arm, fire already glowing in the cannon… And fired.

Chloe's car exploded.

Chloe twitched. The robot smirked at her. It literally smirked. Then, it blasted off, no doubt to cause more mayhem.

On the bright side, Luthor wasn't killing anyone. On the negative side, the property damage to the city and to people's lives in general would definitely take their toll.

"Why is he doing this? What could possibly be the reason behind this? I've never been Luthor's biggest fan, but he never does anything without thinking ten steps ahead, so why?" Lois, ignoring the danger around them, began to pace up and down the street, one arm crossed over her chest and the other cupping her chin as she contemplated what could possibly be Lex's motive.

Chloe didn't need to contemplate.

Chloe already knew.

"Goddamnit, Conner."

Clark dodged away from another robot, blasting it from afar with his heat vision.

Lex had really outdone himself this time.

Why in the hell did his ex best friend have to be such an evil maniac? Couldn't Lex get a more healthy hobby, like yoga or tai chi? Couldn't he go back to reading comics like he used to when they were younger?

But noooo, instead Lex decided he'd take inspiration from his namesake, Alexander the Great, and turn Metropolis into an all out war zone. And all out war zone that Clark needed backup for because, of course, Lex had somehow managed to get his grubby little hands on what had to be at least a metric ton of kryptonite.

Why was Lex even doing this anyways?

"CLARK JEROME KENT!"

Clark froze.

Slowly, Clark's head creaked to the side. Well. Slow for Clark. He did not hear what he thought he just heard. He did not hear the words in the voice he thought he had heard. Nope. Impossible. Not at all.

Except, apparently, he had heard the words right. He had heard them right because there was Lex, strapped in a shinny battle suit complete with little repulsors on the bottom of his boots keeping him afloat. There Lex was, glaring at him.

Clark coughed.

"You must be confused, Luthor," Clark claimed. "Clark Kent and I-" Clark began.

"Our son told us everything, you magnanimous self centered pathological lying piece of alien excrement." Lex interrupted coldly.

…

Our son? Clark didn't have any children, much less with Lex Luthor, of all peo-

Oh. Ah.

Goddamnit Conner.

Lex began to crack his knuckles through the armor. Clark had a very bad feeling about this.

"Tell me, Clark, why did our child break into my office crying because he thinks you don't want him? Why did Conner have to be the one to inform me of his own existence, and what possible excuse do you have for keeping my own son from me!" Lex snapped.

…

"Wait, what?"

That was apparently the wrong thing to say.

With an inhuman roar that reminded Clark of Doomsday on a rampage, Lex charged at him, shiny metal helmet appearing out of… Nowhere, really, covering Lex's face as his fist came swinging, glowing a nauseating green.

Dad was chasing around Conner's other dad, energy blasts being exchanged back and forth. Clark looked like he was loosing, and dad looked like he was going to enjoy every second of Clark's pain while randomly shouting out about secrets this and secrets that and blah blah.

While shooting at him with a death ray.

A literal death ray.

Metropolis was in shambles, robots were running around everywhere causing random acts of vandalism, and every available member of the Justice League was currently fighting them off to the best of their ability.

Conner turned.

Beside him, Tim stood, arms crossed and dressed impeccably in his Robin suit giving Conner the patented Batman Family(™) 'I told you so' look.

"Shut it, Drake." Conner snapped.

Tim, of course, responded by hitting Conner with a stick again.

Ah. Annoying besties.

Evil annoying besties.

Regardless, Conner had to put a stop to this before it got out of hand.

Beside them, the Martian Manhunter was slammed into the street, his back digging its way through the asphalt.

...

Okayyy, before things got more out of hand.

Conner shot a look at Tim. Tim sighed.

"Fine, fine. Lead the way, Kon."

Conner grinned. At least he could rely on Tim. Now... How to separate his parents and stop their little 'spat' from levering Metropolis even more than it already had. Hm...