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Chapter Text

Through his scope, he saw a lost teenager wandering confused in this forgotten land, this sad scenario of abandoned buildings not a soul around. And then the boy was attacked. He fought, the attacker hit his head powerfully, once he was down, his hands and legs were properly tied. The man doing this was having a good time with the young man’s struggle and pleads for mercy. He had a thick black mustache and his hair was dyed pink on the top.

“You got him, Jim?” Harvey Bullock asked. 

“I got him.” Newly promoted Commissioner James Gordon said.

The killer was about to cut the boy with a butcher knife and Gordan was about to shoot him before he had a chance. A motorcycle came out of nowhere and hit the killer’s body so powerfully his body was thrown against an abandoned car. The motorcyclist got up and untied the boy. Gordon couldn’t see his face through the dark helmet, he was wearing a thick coat, gloves and had a backpack on. 

“T-Thanks…” The young man said. “Thank you so much- - Behind you!”

The pink-haired killer attacked him with the knife. The hero pulled out a baton but before he could defend himself, a bullet went through the killer’s head. The hero helped the young to get up.

“You’re hurt?” The hero asked.

“My head is killing me but I think I’ll be fine. Who are you?”

The hero smiled, he knew exactly what to say.

“I’m hope.”

 From the building where the shot came from, a man wearing a vest and carrying a gun approached them. His hair was dark, his eyes were a light shade of brown.

“Come with us, we’re here to help.”

The man introduced himself, his name was Harvey Dent, funny enough, the boy said he knew somebody with that exact same name. He led them into a building where they found what they immediately recognized as cops, they had supplies and beds. Gordon was a man around 5 '8', blue eyes and auburn hair slightly blonde under certain lights, clean shave. Bullock was taller, he had a gray thin beard and long hair, though still above his shoulders, he wore a hat and a trenchcoat. The two of them approached the hero and the boy.

“Hi, I’m in charge here.” Gordon told the two newcomers. “You know where you are?”

“I have no idea.” The young man said. “I gotta go back to Gotham, listen, my dad- - My adoptive dad, he has money, okay? He can take us out of this hell.”

Gordon and Bullock looked at each other, they shared a concern.

“Sorry, kid, you are in Gotham.” Bullock explained.

“What? No way, I was at my house in a party, when the skies turned red and all of the sudden I was here. You’re crazy, you have to be, I'm not…  I’m not.”

“Hey!” Gordon shouted. “You have to calm down. What’s your name? Who’s your dad?”

“I’m Turner Hayes. My adoptive father is Bruce Wayne.”

The hero looked at Turner, and he recognized the name. Gordon and Bullock laughed.

“Bruce Wayne is your father?” Bullock asked in disbelief.

“Adoptive father.”

“For how long?” Gordon asked.

“A few years.”

“Nobody sees Bruce in 10 years, kid.”

Once again, this affirmation caught the hero's attention. An argument between Gordon and Turner about Bruce Wayne disrupted, his age came up as Gordon insisted Bruce wasn’t even 30 yet and despite his supposed absence, Turner claimed his so-called adoptive father was a known public figure.

“What about you, chief?” Bullock asked the hero, no answer, just a look with eyes painted black. “Not much of a talker? You didn’t say your name.”

“I didn’t catch your names either.”

“Captain Harvey Bullock and Commissioner James Gordon.” Harvey affirmed, and the hero was surprised by that second name. “How about you tell us who you are?”

“Hey, this guy saved me.” Turner defended.

“With this make-up on, he could be one of the Valeskas’ fanboys.”

“My name’s Thomas.” The hero answered. “Who are the Valeskas?”

“New in Gotham, aren’t you?”

“I was riding around the country on my motorcycle when I came to Gotham. I was on the road when the skies turned red, all the cars were gone, the streets changed, that was 2 days ago, phones didn't work, I couldn't find anybody before that psycho attacked the kid.”

“That psycho was Eduardo Flamingo.” Gordon said. “A hitman with a taste for cannibalism. I locked him up 15 years ago, not before he bit one of our rookies to death. If you were going to turn your back on him, you should've finished the job.”

“I don’t take lives.”

“That’s admirable but won’t help you keep yours. We’ve been here for 6 weeks, long enough to get organized. We’ll find a place for you two to sleep.”

Thomas and Turner followed Bullock and Dent to a room in the building with beds.

“By the way, I’m from Gotham and didn’t know who the Valeskas are either.”

“Sure you are, kid.” Bullock said in a tone of mockery.

A huge car was arranged in front of an improvised barn in a desert. The car had no wheels and Oliver Queen had the engine connected to a computer. Oliver looked different from when he first arrived in this world, he quit cutting his hair and adopted a mustache and goatee. Lois turned the car on and Oliver saw the results in the computer, that made a huge smile take his face.

“Hey, Robin Hood, does that mean it’s good?” Lois asked.

“To get the right speed and power to cross the gates is not precise science like shooting an arrow, I can just tell you the least speed and stability you need to make it through. And this, this is much, much more than the least.”

Their celebration was cut short when three bandits surrounded them.

“Sorry for the cold bucket of water.” Said one of the bandits wearing a blue parka jacket and a pair of goggles.

He and the others were pointing sci-fi guns at them. The two others were a man and a woman. The man was bald and had a fire-proof jacket on and also a pair of goggles similar to a welder’s, his gun had red lights on. The woman had long and dark hair and wore black leather, her gun was golden.

“Guys,” Oliver said. “If you’re planning to steal a ride to New Metropolis, you should steal one that has wheels.”

“We brought wheels for you to put on.” Captain Cold said. “It’s been three weeks since the three of you have been trying to find some, so we went out and stole some for you.”

“You assholes have been watching us just waiting for the car to be finished so you could steal it?” Lois angrily asked.

“Yeah.” The woman, the Golden Glider, replied. 

“And we know you only have space for three adults in it.” Cold added.

“And two children.” Lois said.

“Leo…” Golden Glider, looking at Captain Cold with concern.

“We know that, and we will drop your kids at New Metropolis and leave before the authorities realize who we are. But we also take all your food supply. We probably won’t need it there but you’ll be down two mouths to feed.”

“You’re rotten, Snart.” Oliver said.

“You know who I am?”

“I know a version of you from my world. You suck just as much there.”

“Well, that hurts my feelings. Throw the keys.” Lois threw the keys to Oliver, who prepared to throw to Snart. “Why didn’t you just throw them to me already?”

“Because she can’t do this.” Oliver said and threw the key into Snart’s hand, nailing between his fingers and causing him to drop the gun.

Oliver jumped and rolled on the ground. He knocked Snart down with his leg and threw sand on Golden Glider’s eyes, the only one without goggles. He took the chance to punch her and found himself facing Heat Wave’s gun barrel. That almost was the end. A gunshot hit Rory’s shoulder. Clark came running, holding the rifle used to shoot Heat Wave.

“Oliver, you’re okay?” Clark asked.

“You didn’t shoot to kill?” Oliver angrily asked. “Jesus, Boyscoutt, you don’t have superpowers anymore. This guy could’ve killed me.”

Captain Cold got back and tried to reach for his gun, Clark stepped on his hand and put him down with a single punch.

“I do as well as you without powers.” Clark said.

Golden Glider got up too, her hair in face and pissed about the sand on her eyes. She had her gun pointed at both Clark and Oliver but she ended up on the ground again once Lois hit the back of her head with a tire iron.

“Don’t listen to him, Smallville.” Lois said. “You got a good shot, just like I taught you. Let’s get the chains for these pricks.”

“Jesus, Jim, two more mouths to feed?”” Bullock said. He and Gordon were staring at the window. “Our food supplies are limited.”

“We have two more men to help us to survive.” Gordon answered. “We can add Flamingo’s supplies to ours.”

“Yeah, the boys found Flamingo’s things, no food. I guess he was going to have the kid for dinner. Who, again, is just a kid, not a man.”

“We don’t know what is out there, we’ll need any help we can get, we don’t- -” Gordon’s voice cracked, that was a problem he didn’t like to think about. But he must. “We don’t know if Barbara is somewhere alone.”

“Listen, I know you’re worried about your daughter but she’s probably okay back in Gotham… The regular Gotham. Your heard Easy Rider, he got here two days ago, it’s not like the whole city ended up here with us.”

Something unusual, people. Moving around their building. They could see them well, they wore strong colors and funny costumes.

“Tell Dent to get the boys and make a guard on the door.” Gordon.

In the bathroom, the so-called Thomas looked himself in the mirror, his body had a few scars, certainly more to come.

Harvey Dent, former ADA and now a loyal soldier of the GCPD, held a gun and put his ear on the metal door. Police officers stood behind him pointing their guns to the entrance. Silence, Dent couldn’t hear anything. BOOM! The door exploded and flew across the hallway taking Dent and the cops away.

The hero heard that sound. The faucet was on, he was about to wash away his make-up. Instead he fully painted his eyes.

The GCPD shot the crew attacking them, but they had more bullets. Bullock managed to kill one of them who was dressed like a panda with a heart on his chest. The gunman wearing red clothes and a helmet shaped like a human eye threw a grenade on the stairs.

“This can all stop!” Eyeball-head yelled. “Give us your food, your guns and all your vehicles and live…”

Gordon shot Eyeball-head in his “pupil” with the panda’s machinegun. 

“Bullseye.” Gordon said.

Still, they weren’t a match. The cops threw their guns and surrendered. They all kneeled down and put their hands up. The gunmen wearing flamboyant masks were going to execute them, they knew it. A man wearing the mask of a baby dropping a single tear was ready to blow Gordon’s head off. Before he shot, the Cry-Baby was pulled by his ankle with a rope.

“Shit, it’s him.” One of the mercenaries said. 

“He’s here too?” Another questioned.

“Shut up, the Bat is not going to do anything with hostages…”

A gas grenade was thrown in the room and the cops all covered their faces and jumped to the floor. The grenade went off. In the smoke and and through the noise, a caped figure emerged delivering violence. One of his punches broke the wood box one of the gunmen had his head inside. They united forces and shot his chest, the bullets hit an armor making a bright red and yellow light  as he kept walking until he reached and put them down. A gunman dressed as a priest with a goat mask had his arm broken like a stick. None of them stood. But this caped crusader remained unharmed, moving like a silent protector defeating these villains.

“Who the hell are you?” Gordon asked.

“I’m Batman.”

The Snart siblings and Mick Rory were all chained down on the floor. Rory had his shirt off, revealing a body covered in burn scars. Lois was treating his wound from Clark’s shot.

“Careful there.” Rory said and Lois purposefully poked his wound. “You bitch!”

“That’s for trying to steal my daughters.” Lois answered.

“We were not trying to steal your daughters.” Snart said. “My sister can be a bit sentimental when it comes to children, we were planning to take them to New Metropolis as a favor and not leave them in this Hell. What to say? We’re just that nice.”

“So nice your pal almost burned my friend to death.” Clark said.

Oliver put their belongings on the table. Rocks, weapons, tools.

“Look at this, they have kryptonite, the green one and this other, I never saw yellow kryptonite.”

“Maybe it’s another world’s version of gold kryptonite.” Clark answered.

“You’re close to the green one.” Snart mentioned. “But it’s not hurting you. Is that also why you’re without your powers, Superman? You’re Superman, right? Everybody says Clark Kent is Superman but you’re just a guy. With hair turning gray.”

“A gray-haired guy who knocked you out without breaking a sweat.” Lois said.

“It’s funny, everybody makes a big deal out of Superman but we don’t even have one in our world. We have a Flash, a Green Arrow, and maybe a Batman. Most people think he’s an urban legend but I’m pretty sure he’s real.”

“You have a Batman and don’t have a Superman?” Clark asked, almost offended.

“Sorry, weird things of the multiverse. How long have you been in Convergence?”

“A year and half.”

“Clark, come on.” Oliver said. “Don’t interact with him, he’ll try to play you.”

“A year and half?” Snart said. “That’s cute, we’ve been here for five long years. We heard legends. Of the Justice League, of Superman. Well, the versions of Superman who aren’t murders. You are supposed to be the greatest of all, the kindest, would the kindest man in the multiverse leave us to rot here?”

“No, I wouldn’t.” Clark answered. “But I will use the wheels you kindly brought us to finish building our car and take my wife, my daughters and my friend to New Metropolis. You can stay here and have our food supplies. We probably won’t need it there anyway, and there will be five less mouths to feed here.”

They heard a sudden noise, a noise Lois recognized as a Kryptonian landing. Out of their barn, a blonde teenager walked towards them. He’d fit well in the black parade, wearing a black leather jacket, red pants, black earrings and a black shirt with Clark’s red symbol in it, but mirrored. The teen said a couple words they couldn’t understand.

“Sorry, I guess I haven’t found somebody who doesn’t speak backwards here yet.” He said and with his breath, he released a powerful heat of fire that melted their whole car. “Was that supposed to take you to New Metropolis? Sorry about that but not sorry.”

“Who are you and what you want!?” Clark asked.

“I’m Jon-El, son of Kal-El. I wanted to bring in the rats who stole the wheels from one of our comboios and had been stealing from us for years and we finally saw one of their guns shooting here. But I guess I found the big price in you, Luthor has been looking for you, man.” Jon-El held an arrow with a shining green blade in the tip. “Green Kryptonite?” Oliver stood with his bow pointed at Jon-El. “The advantage of being a bizarro is that these don’t work with me.”

Jon-El’s eyes lit up blue, cold smoke around the light. Before he could give another step, Leonard Snart tackled him and held the yellow kryptonite against Jon-El.

“But these will work.” Snart showed them the rock. “X kryptonite, can make normal people super but works as normal kryptonite for bizarros. Can somebody get my chains?”

The survivors of the GCPD collected bodies. Gordon lifted the metal door and revealed Harvey Dent’s lifeless body and half of his face burned by the heat of the explosion.

“Dent is dead.” Gordon announced.

“We got 7 more of ours dead here.” Bullock answered. “And the kid is dead too. Shit, I forgot his name.”

“Turner Hayes. He was just a kid, goddamn. You found Thomas?”

“I’m here.” Thomas, whose real name I figure you already know is Bruce, was standing behind Gordon. “I hid.”

“Jesus, you came out of nowhere. You saw anything, you saw… You saw the Batman?”

“Who’s Batman?” Bruce asked.

They took the mercenaries' guns, their car, even their costumes, and left them tied up in the building as the cops prepared to leave.

“Listen up,” Gordon said. “We can’t put you in prison, so we’re going to make a prison for you here. I’m sure you’ll find a way out but by then you’ll be hungry and we’ll be long gone.”

“Fuck you, Discount Gordon.” One of them said,

“Before we go, can you tell us how you knew that guy? If I like the answer I might leave some food for you.”

“The Bat? What kind of stupid question is that.”

“Who is he?” Gordon asked.

“The Batman.” The mercenary said it was obvious. “But I’m not sure if it was really him. He was different, smaller but faster.”

“How long has the Batman been around?”

“20 fucking years, that’s how long.”

The GCPD closed down every entrance of the building, no way out there. They took their supplies and weapons to cars and marched down the streets seeking for a better place.

“20 years, Harvey.” Gordon told Bullock as they walked. “First time we saw that guy was less than two months ago.”

“Hey, first the guy arrested Jeremiah Valeska and then shows up here and saves us again. You said it yourself, he’s a friend.”

“Honestly, I’m not even sure if it was the same guy. The suit looked different, and the way those scumbags talk like he’s been around for 20 years, how Turner had a whole different version of Bruce in mind… Something is wrong Harvey, not just with this place, the people too.”

They kept walking, those too tired went in the cars or joined Bruce’s motorcycle. The streets were confusing, a few looked like the Gotham they knew, the Gotham Bruce knew, others were something else. They saw giant statues of muscled men close to the buildings, similar to Greek tradition, very weird and unlike Gotham. The buildings were abandoned but they saw signs of life around. They kept walking. 

When the group was about to cross a bridge, a dot of red light appeared on Gordon’s face. Bullock tried to warn him but another dot of life appeared on his chest. In a matter of seconds, all the cops were in the aim of snipers. A voice announced on a speaker.

“Throw your weapons on the ground!” They obeyed all obeyed, except Bruce. “All of you!”

“I’m unarmed.” He answered.

“So you better make a gun and throw it on the ground!”

Bruce dropped two batons and a pocket knife on the ground. A large group of police officers surrounded them and took their guns. Their vests and badges were all written “GCPD”. Gordon tried to move forward but these cops held him back.

“We are cops too.” Gordon said. “I’m Commissioner James Gordon.”

The man holding the speaker appeared from the crowd. Older than Jim, darker hair, an eye-catching combination of glasses and a mustache.

“What a coincidence.” The man answered. “I am too.”

Jon-El was chained in the back of the barn, Snart taped the X kryptonite on his chest. Clark checked his eyes, wanting to make sure his life wasn’t at risk. He knew Snart probably didn’t care. They went back to the barn where Golden Glider and Heat Wave were unchained as well. Oliver and Lois were not happy about it.

“It’s day,” Snart said. “Yellow sunlight will make his powers weaker and plus the X kryptonite, the little Bizarro isn’t going anywhere.”

“Are we supposed to be a team now?” Lois asked.

“Hell no.” Heat Wave answered.

“We might have started with the wrong foot but we all want to go to New Metropolis. None of us can use that car so we’re going to use the original plan.”

“You’re crazy, Snart.” Heat Wave said.

“It can’t be done.” Golden Glider.

“What’s the original plan?” Oliver asked.

“We’re going to steal a ship from the Supermen and use it to go to New Metropolis.” Snart explained. “Maybe with some extra hands we’ll have a chance.”

“Even if we could pull that off,” Oliver said. “What makes you think New Metropolis won’t blow up the ship thinking we’re with the Supermen?”

“New Metropolis has a strict no killing rule. The kind of stuff you find when you’re trapped in this Hell hole for 5 years. I’m confident we’ll do just fine.”

“Why’s that?” Heat Wave asked.

“Because we have a Superman on our side.”

“I don’t have my powers anymore.” Clark said.

“Not now.” Snart grabbed a inhaler from his bag and threw it to Clark, who upon closer inspection found it was filled with yellow dust. “X kryptonite, a refined form. Makes anybody super. I was saving it for an emergency but something tells me your body will accept it better. Still got your costume?”

Two little girls entered the barn, they had to be younger than 10. One had black hair in a ponytail and the other brown hair.

“Mommy,” The brown haired girl asked Lois. “Are we leaving?”

“We have to,” Oliver said. “Not long until the bosses noticed Boyzarro didn’t come back.”

“What’s happening?” The black haired child asked. “Who are them?”

“I’m Leonard.” Snart answered. “That’s my little sister Lisa and my best friend Mick. What are your names?”

“I’m Lara,” She answered. “And that’s my sister Martha.”

“These are mommy and daddy's new friends.” Lois explained. “Get your toys, we have to go.”

Jim and his men followed Gordon* through the tunnels of this underground. This older Gordon had a fantastic story full of fantastic concepts: They all existed in different versions of Earths in a multiverse but after a crisis, pieces of their worlds were pulled in one new planet, they called this world Convergence.

(I’ll be referring to “Gotham” James Gordon by Jim and Nolan trilogy James Gordon by Gordon*)

“I seem crazy, I know crazy.” Jim said. “People coming back from the dead, even magic but this, this a whole new level. You say you’re me?”

“A version of you.” Gordon answered. “There are supposed to be many. You say you have magic in your world? Mine is… Grounded, no magic or aliens there. Imagine how hard it was for my men to believe this. Sometimes you have to see with your own eyes.”

Down the tunnels, an enormous spaceship rested untouched. Turbines on the back, they didn’t look like they worked. They walked down the tunnels until they got to be close to the ship. A crew waited for them in front of the ship.

“These are the Legends.” Gordon said. “Captain Sarah Lance, Ray Palmer, Nathan Heywood, Mick Rory and Ava Sharp. You know who they are?”

“Sorry, doesn’t ring a bell.” Jim said and looked at Bruce for a second opinion, he just shook his head, he didn’t know the Legends either.

“Maybe you know our other names.” Ray Palmer, a tall man with black hair said. “The Atom, Citizen Steel, White Canary or Heat Wave…? No?” He realized they didn’t know who they were. “50 Supermen flying around here but I’m the only Atom.”

“Makes you special, bro.” Nathan said.

“What the hell is this thing?” Jim asked.

“The Waverider, our ship. It hasn't worked since we got here.”  Sarah answered.

“Does it travel through time?” Bruce asked.

“Yes, actually, how did you know?”

“Your clothes, they’re from different time periods.” Not even the Legends noticed that. Bruce was right, their wardrobe mixed the styles of the different time periods they’ve been at. “Can you fix it?”

“That’s the plan,” Sarah answered. “Supposed to take us to New Metropolis.”

“New Metropolis?” Jim asked.

“Come to my office, we have to talk.” Gordon said.

At the Commissioner’s office, newly promoted Jim sat in front of him at the table.  Back to that position so soon.

“I have 80 people down here.” Gordon said. “Not counting your guys and the Legends. We had to move about 10 times but we’re stuck here now, we can’t leave Waverider.”

“Because it will take you to New Metropolis. What is that?”

“The one blaze of hope in Convergence. It’s a secluded city, protected by a dome of energy. There are a few blindspots they left for people to go in, always a crew there to check if it’s not a supervillain. You know what’s that?”

“I have an idea, I met a few who I think would qualify. Jeremiah Valeska created hell on Gotham right before we ended up here.”

“There’s no Jeremiah Valeska where I’m from but I heard of him.”

“How did you even hear of him? Is he here?”

“Probably not. I also heard of his brother Jerome, and also of Jack Napier and Arthur Fleck. 8 years will teach you a lot in Convergence.”

“Eight years?” Jim asked in complete disbelief.

A young woman came into the office. She wore all black with a yellow bat on her chest, a cape just like Batman and carried a helmet like his cowl. She had reddish brown hair.

“Dad, I finished the patrol.” She answered.

“What did I tell you about going out wearing that?”

“Supposed to give people hope. Who is this guy?”

“Me.” Gordon answered. “Meet James Gordon.”

“Barbara…” Jim whispered.

“You have one of me in your world? What’s she like?”

“9 years old.” Jim answered, with a smile on his face.

“I’m sorry.” Gordon told him, the smile faded as Jim realized the implication. “Barbara, give us some privacy and take that off.”

Barbara left the office. Jim was shook, Gordon was there for eight years and had no hopes of going back home as far as Jim could tell.

“Barbara just arrived 6 months ago.” Gordon explained. “Coming from the exact moment in time I left, to her is like I was always there. But if I were you, I’d hope your Barbara never shows up. There’s evil out there, you don’t want to see his smile. Best you can do is help us get to New Metropolis.”

“Alright, I’ll help you. Whoever is there, they might know a way back.”

“Are you really going to put your hopes on that?”

“You said it yourself, New Metropolis is a blaze of hope.” Jim said and Gordon smiled thinking of that. “I need to ask you something, what do you know of Batman?”

“He’s dead in my world. Died saving Gotham from a bomb. But there are others in Convergence, they’re not like him. Murderers, one of them brands people with his symbol like cattle, other killed the Superman from his world and started a reign of terror. We stay away from the Batmen.”

“One of them saved us. I thought he was from my world but now I don’t think so.”

“What is the Batman like in your world?”

“I don’t know. Me and my men ended up here a few days after he just appeared, didn’t even get the chance to get a name. But I thought he was a friend.”

“He is. This Batman, did he kill anyone?”

“No.”

“You can trust him.”

Bruce heard all that from a bug he put on Jim’s jacket. He sat in a corner down on the tunnels listening to the entire conversation. Suddenly, an older damaged voice spoke to him.

“I’ve seen that look before.” A man said, he was in a cell close to Bruce, he couldn’t see his face in the darkness. “The look a man has in his eyes when he sees all the dirt and sickness his world has to offer and still climbs out of this abyss victorious. I wish I had that look.”

“Shut up, psycho.” A blonde woman said and she hit the cell bars with her baton.

“Who is he?” Bruce asked.

“Nobody.” She answered. “Just a nutjob who used to work with us, end up here because of the habit of torturing prisoners.” 

“You’re all weak, not ready to save any world.”

“I told you to shut up.”

Bruce walked out of that spot, he glanced inside the cell as he left, the short man and stepped out of the dark and stared at him through his white mask with everchanging black stains moving around his face into different Rorschach tests.

Ray Palmer spent the rest of the afternoon trying to fix the Waverider’s engine. Sweaty and tired, he was moving forward with the work he had been doing since he got to Convergence. In a moment of rare hope, Ray watched a ball of pure white form before his eyes. The lights went on, even the people outside the ship saw the turbines starting to turn. Ray smiled.

“Gideon?” Ray asked.

“Dr. Palmer?” Gideon, an AI inside the ship, asked with her feminine voice and British accent. “Get out of here! Quickly!”

“What?”

“The engine is not stable! Get out!”

Outside the Waverider, the Legends watched the lights turn off and the ship go boom. The door opened and Ray came out through the smoke barely breathing. Nathan helped him to get up.

“We’re screwed.” Ray announced. 

Ray Palmer met with Gordon in front of all the survivors living in the tunnels.

“For one year you promised you’d put that bird to fly!” Gordon shouted. “Now you say hope is gone?”

“There’s no engine to fix anymore, Commissioner.” Ray answered. “I’m sorry, I wanted to go to New Metropolis too.”

“There are children here, Ray! My daughter is here.”

All the attention was taken out of Gordon and Palmer, the crowds looked at somebody else. The Batman walked towards Gordon and Ray, the same Batman who saved the GCPD earlier. Bruce took off his helmet, revealing his face to them.

“There’s somebody else who can help you.” Batman said.

“Who are you?” Gordon asked.

“I’m Bruce Wayne, and in my world, I am the Batman. Rorschach told me something about a man who could help us all get to New Metropolis, a Batman.”

They all approached the cells where Rorschach was sitting waiting for them. Before anything could be said, Rorschach spoke.

“I’ve seen a man. Before I was thrown in a cage like an animal by the people I tried to protect. I went out, in search of  resources with a crew. The Losers lost. The Suicide Squad earned their name. But I made it back. Thanks to the Batman and his Outsiders. They had ships, people, taking whoever they could to New Metropolis, but staying out themselves, just so they could help more people getting in. They had an army powerful enough to face the Supermen. That Batman wore all black.”

With those last words, Gordon knew exactly what Batman Rorschach spoke of.

“If what he’s saying is true,” Sarah Lance said. “Maybe he can get us a new engine from the Supermen.”

“No,” Gordon said. “This man is insane, I’m not wasting people and resources looking for a ghost.”

“I’ll go alone,” Bruce said. “I just got here, I’m not a resource. You have no use for a detective down here, you need to keep your scientists, engineers and doctors. I’ll go look for this Batman, if I come back, we’ll have a way to New Metropolis.”

“Rorschach’s story happened in the Madlands. That’s where the Batmen and the Supermen are at war, you’ll die there.”

“I’m not afraid of that, I haven't been since I was a child.”

The Batman packed his equipment and supplies. Jim was ready to go with him, so was Barbara Gordon. They were going to take one of the cars and follow his motorcycle in his quest.

“You don’t have to come.” Bruce said.

“I don’t but I’ll be damned if I stay here knowing I could be doing something.”

“And you’ll need me.” Barbara, she was wearing her bat costume. “My dad taught me a lot about Convergence and I’ve been here for longer than you both.”

“What should I call you then?”

“Batgirl.”

The Batman didn’t speak, he didn’t say another word. He just waited for them to get the car ready and watched Gordon seeing his daughter and he saw the fear in his eyes. When they were already, he started his motorcycle and left the tunnel towards uncertainty.

Chapter Text

Batman led his way with Batgirl and Gordon following him in their car. On the road, they see somebody lying on the pavement, somebody wearing a cape and whose clothes were mostly gray from smoke. They stopped, Batgirl looked at Batman waiting for an order. He said nothing, just got up from his motorcycle and walked towards the young man on the ground. 

“It might be a trap.” Gordon said.

“Cover me.” Batman answered and Gordon prepared his gun.

It wasn’t a trap, Gordon left the car and helped Batman put the oddly dressed young man up, he was still breathing but they couldn’t wake him up, so they just put him on the backseat of the car.

“We’re going to take care of him?” Batgirl asked.

“I guess so.” Gordon answered. “What the hell is wearing?”

Although his costume was mostly gray, they could see the strong colors. The bright yellow cape, green gloves, all bright colors except for the black mask he wore as a weak substitute for a domino mask. Most weird of was his naked legs.

“I think he’s a Robin.” Batgirl said and was looked at with confusion by Batman and Gordon. “Some Batmen have a sidekick, Robin, he’s one of them. He’s a superhero, probably one of the good guys.”

“Somebody beat the shit out of this good guy.” Gordon said.

They put Robin’s head under a pillow and Batgirl attempted to put some pain medicine on his mouth. Her wrist was grabbed before she had the chance and Robin suddenly got up and jumped out of the car in a flip. He was ready for a fight, until he got a good look at Batman and Batgirl, a smile took Robin’s face.

“Holy new allies, Batman!” He excitedly shouted and hugged Batman.

Clark, his wife, daughters and Oliver followed Captain Cold and his crew into Old Metropolis. As most of Convergence, Old Metropolis was an apocalyptic scenario, they entered a toy store, it was abandoned but they could see marks of heat vision on the walls and how much destruction had happened there.

“Is this place safe?” Clark asked Snart.

“Winslow Schott and his crew were using it as a base of operation before the Supermen raided them.” Snart explained. “As far they know, their business here is over and they have no reason to come back. We can leave your wife and kids here while we go to the Forgotten Boulevard to grab what we need to steal the Supermen blind.”

“Sounds good.” Mick Rory said. “Most buildings around there burn just fine.”

Mick attempted to leave the store, but Snart stopped him.

“You just got shot, you can’t go to the Forgotten Boulevard like that.” Snart said.

“What should I do? Stay here and play with dolls?”

“We’re safer in small numbers, I’m going with Kent and Queen, just the three of us. You and Lisa stay here.” 

“You think I’m gonna leave Lois and the twins here with these two?” Clark questioned, at that exact moment, a ball of acid hit the wall and made a big hole. Lois came from a hallway of the store carrying what appeared to be a simple water gun, with smoke coming from the barrel.

“Look what I found.” Lois announced.

“She’ll be fine.” Oliver assured.

Robin was in the car’s back seat facing an open door in front of his rescuers. He ate meat straight out of a can, he was ravenous. He soon noticed how his desperation to eat soon made him look impolite.

“I apologize,” Robin said. “As a crime fighter, I should present better manners.”

“Don’t worry, kid.” Gordon said. “Eat as much as you like.”

“What’s your real name?” Batgirl asked.

“I’m very sorry, Batgirl but my secret identity must remain even in such circumstances.”

“You’re Dick Grayson, ain’t you?” She asked. Robin looked embarrassed, his expression said everything. He removed his mask and wiped the dirt out his eyes before eating again. “That was a guess, my next was going to be Jason Todd.”

“Grayson?” Gordon asked. “Are you related to John Grayson? From the Haley Circus acrobat family.” 

“You knew my father?” Dick asked, very surprised.

“In my world. Last I heard of him, he and Mary were together.”

“My parents.” Dick said, bittersweetly nostalgic. “I lost them a long time ago. Taken by a crook named Tony Zucko. Holy blast from the past, Commissioner, feels like I never go back to what happened… But I’ll remember what happened next! Batman took me in and made me his sidekick, Batman and Robin, the dynamic duo! Gotham’s last hope against its worst supervillains!”

“Hope?” Batman asked. “The Batman?”

“Of course.” Dick said, as if it was obvious. “How could the Caped Crusader not be hope?”

“Dick,” Batman said, sounding very concerned. “Who did this to you?”

Dick closed his fist as he spoke, hit against his palm and an uncharacteristic look of pain and resentment took his face.

“The Joker.” He answered.

Arkham State Hospital was an old building, its name written on the front in an entrance similar to a bridge. The beige walls were marked by graffiti with smiles and ‘HAHAHA’ written in different colors. Batman, Robin, Batgirl and Gordon watched from a nearby building with binoculars.

“That’s not the same Arkham from my world.” Batman said. The others remarked it wasn’t theirs either.

“There’s not even an Arkham where I come from.” Robin said. “A madhouse to shelter a gallery of criminally insane, what a spooky idea. We just keep all our villains in Gotham State Penitentiary.”

“There’s movement.” Batman said. “People with make-up on, many of them, they have guns. I see grenades on their belts. Robin, what happened?”

“Batman and I were trying to frustrate another of Bookworm’s schemes when the skies turned red. I was all alone in the streets. That was a week ago. In my searches for allies, I found Joker's henchmen creating chaos on the streets, attacking groups of survivors. Not even for their supplies, just for the chaos itself.”

“This Joker,” Batgirl asked. “Did he have scars on his mouth?”

“No.” Robin answered and Batgirl sighed relieved. “I realized I had to stay alone in order to go unnoticed but I couldn’t stand Joker's actions. I came here and confronted him, the result was that I almost lost my life. I escaped and tried to walk back to my shelter, I collapsed on my way and was found by you.”

“There’s not much we can do.” Gordon said. “There is no court system in Convergence and there are dozens of them and only four of us. The best we can do is keep going.”

“And leave these hooligans free to attack every innocent soul who appears?” Robin questioned.

“All I want is to go down there and arrest all of them. But we can’t, we have people depending on us. You can go there and be with them, it’s safer for you.”

“The Joker is their leader.” Batman said. “We don’t need to take down dozens of them, just one.”

Robin smiled and went for a handshake with Batman.

“Hammers of Justice ready for action, Batman.”

Batman shook Robin’s hand.

Green Arrow had his old suit on, at least what was left of it, no sunglasses, his old leather hood thorned apart and replaced with green cloth. Still, he carried his bow and his arrows. Followed by Clark, who simply carried an ax and a rifle, and Captain Cold with his own signature freezing gun. They walked carefully through the Forgotten Boulevard, bodies everywhere they looked and haunting messages written on the walls, ‘CANCELED’, ‘DIRECTOR QUITTED’, ‘REBOOT IT!’. They saw these caucasian siblings dead and wire wrapped on a light pole. They wore purple and had golden letters on their chests. They saw an abandoned Batmobile that was just a modified regular, inside was the skeleton of a Batman wearing red lenses and oddly long ears, he wore dark red under his black cowl.

“This place looks like a nightmare.” Green Arrow said.

“You saw nothing yet,” Captain Cold said. “Pray you don’t.”

“If this thing is as big as you say, we’d know if it was around.” Clark said.

“Trust me, you’d be surprised. There, jackpot.”

“You gotta be kidding.”

Laying dead on the sidewalk, a Superman. He was slimmer than Clark, his suit was a darker blue and the “S” in his chest was a single piece with the cape, red over black, no trunks or belt but three silvery/goldish pieces on the center of his waist. He was covered in kryptonite, all into his body. Captain Cold pulled out a plier and started removing the kryptonite and putting it in a bag.

“Who did this?” Green Arrow questioned. “Wasn’t the monster.”

“Things in the Forgotten Boulevard don’t usually have an explanation.” Snart said. “Bald Johnny Depp over there probably had something to do with it.”

Clark walked to this other dead body, he in fact looked like Johnny Depp. He had a CIA badge, he was Lex Luthor. Clark took the piece of blue kryptonite he had been stabbed on the heart with, it was large.

“Blue kryptonite, I guess this Lex was Kryptonian.”

“A Kryptonian Lex?” Green Arrow said. “Multiverse is weird…”

Captain Cold suddenly freezes the wall of the building next to them, he broke it once and desperately pointed to the path and yell:

“Get in! Quick!”

Clark and Oliver saw what he was afraid of, as a giant spider walked through the Forgotten Boulevard.

Wayne Manor was in ruins. Batman, Robin, Batgirl and Gordon entered what was left of this mansion surrounded by a field full of high grass. They found Robin’s sleeping bag in front of the fireplace, all exposed by the lack of a wall.

“That’s where you've been sleeping for the past week?” Gordon asked.

“It’s where my Wayne Manor was supposed to be,” Robin answered. “But instead I found this sad replacement.”

“I think it’s from my Earth,” Batgirl said. “Wayne Manor caught on fire once. It was rebuilt and became an orphanage but might’ve been brought from another point in time.”

“This place was never on fire,” Batman explained while examining the wall. “There’s no signs of it ever happening. The Bruce Wayne who lived here left and didn’t bother to take care of it.”

“That’s sad to imagine,” Robin said. “A Batman who left the house of his family.”

Those words turned the engines in Batman’s head.

“A Batman lived here,” He remarked. “We need to search this place.”

“Search for what?” Batgirl asked.

“We’ll know when we find it.”

They broke down the entire mansion, nothing. They put bookshelves down, opened the clock, played every note on the piano and checked and checked every bust they could find. Nothing. Gordon got tired.

“Can you at least tell us what we are looking for?”

“In my world I have a base of operations under the Wayne Manor.” Batman said.

“The Batcave.” Robin said. “We have it too.”

“I figured the Batman who lived here had one too. But…” Batman looked out the window. He put on his binoculars and saw something interesting. “The well.”

Near the Wayne Mausoleum, the four approached a well whose top was closed with wooden boards. Batman punched the boards and revealed the dark interior of the well, he then threw a rock inside the well.

“Listen to the echoing,” He said. “There’s a tunnel. It’s here.”

“We’re not going down there, right?” Batgirl asked.

“Fear of heights is not a good look on a crime fighter.” Robin said immediately jumped into the well and safely landed on his feet. “To the Batcave.”

They walked down the shadowy paths under the Wayne property letting Batman take the lead. Once they found two different ways, Batman barely considered the other and walked straight to the one he saw most fit.

“How do you know it’s there?” Gordon asked.

“Because it’s where I would build it.”

Darkness became light coming from bars. Locked behind a metal, they found this cave. Not much of a cave anymore, its structure was built more similarly to an apartment as they saw stairs and windows, waterfalls running in its interior and computer screens off. Gordon looked at the lock of the gate.

“Can you open this?” He asked Batman.

“Not this.”

The lock was revested titanium, too complicated for even the most skilled safecracker. Batgirl was already suggesting they get explosives when somebody appeared from the Batcave. A man with glasses and wearing a vest and tie. His hair was gray, he had to be in his early 70s, even though he was pointing a gun, he looked scared. Slowly, as he looked at Batman, something took him over, familiarity.

“Alfred?” Batman asked. “Are you Alfred?”

“Master Bruce?” Alfred asked, astonished and very excited and immediately opened the gate. “Welcome in, Master Bruce. Let me fetch you some tea.”

“I’m not the Bruce Wayne you- -”

“I see that.” Alfred interrupted. “But you are a Wayne. Allow me, please.”

They all walked in the Batcave. Several boxes filled with supplies were there, there were also several empty boxes of supplies, enough for somebody to have survived there for years.

“Who are your guests, Master Bruce?” Alfred asked. 

“I’m Commissioner James Gordon.” Jim answered.

“You look very young, that’s odd. I take the young lady is your daughter Barbara.”

“No,” Batgirl said. “I mean, I am James Gordon’s daughter but not this James Gordon. My dad is a different him… It’s a whole thing.”

“Things are quite complicated here, aren’t they?” Alfred said, he looked nervous, clearly hadn’t interacted with people in a long time. “And you… Are you Dick Grayson?” He asked, hopeful but still sad.

“Yes I am.” Robin answered.

Alfred put his hand on Dick’s shoulder. His eyes were teary as he spoke.

“Master Richard, it is good to see you well, young man. Very, very good to see you well.”

He wiped his tears and left to fetch the tea, leaving Dick confused. Barbara patched Dick’s shoulder and pointed to him the Robin suit on display in the Batcave. It was all covered in brown but they could still recognize it, it was heavier and bulkier than this Dick’s suit. The haunting aspect of it was the sentence spray-painted in yellow on the suit like a wicked signature: ‘HAHAHA Joke’s on you, BATMAN’

“What kind of awful worlds are out there?” Dick asked, terrified of such a vision.

Alfred served their tea and sat on his chair. He fixed his glasses and approached Batman.

“I realize you must be on a mission.” Alfred said. “What is at stake? How is the investigation going? You need to tread carefully as a Batman catches a lot of attention in Convergence. What will you need?”

“Alfred,” Bruce said, holding Alfred and looking in his eyes in the hopes he would slow down. “How long have you been here? Please, let us help you.”

“6 years, 5 without ever talking to somebody.” Alfred said, trying to fix his composure. “I tried to leave but I soon realized I wouldn’t survive in Convergence, so I decided to stay in the cave.” 

“Who was here with you for the first year? Your world’s Bruce Wayne?”

“Bruce Wayne, but not the one from my world. He was around my age and not very stable. He left after the first year.”

“There’s a group of survivors from different Earths. You can join them, this is no way to live. Ever heard of New Metropolis?”

“Didn’t think it was real.”

“It is real. The survivors have a ship that can take you all there but they need something to make it work. That’s what I’m looking for.”

“20 years of crime fighting and Master Bruce still didn’t think anything he did mattered.”

“Took me only 2 years to come to this conclusion.”

“But you believe what you’re doing right now matters. That’s enough for me. But this,” Alfred pointed to the bullet damage in his suit. “Is no way to do it. I can still help you in a way.”

The three survivors hid inside the building, the gigantic spider was still there fighting a fat Green Lantern. The 400 meters monster could’ve jumped out a H.R Giger art, had the body of a black widow but its face was more similar to a tarantula, the eight legs made it particularly uncanny, resembling more a crab. 

The overweight Lantern, although scared, didn’t seem to take the situation seriously enough, his struggle looked almost comedic as he made constructs of giant flip flops, insect repellent, a rolled magazine and even of a knife and fork. The final result was the spider tearing the Green Lantern apart as he screamed in pain but oddly enough, in a rock n’ roll melody. The spider sank its fangs on the Green Lantern and poisoned him to death until his entire body rotted. 

He was torn to pieces and his finger with the green ring fell into the building Clark, Oliver and Snart were hiding. Captain Cold removed the ring from the finger and wore it himself.

“Are you serious, Snart?” Clark asked. “You’re robbing the corpse of a man who just died.”

“He died because he was stupid enough to fight that thing and this can be useful.” Cold replied

“What makes you think a Green Lantern ring is going to choose you?”

“It’s not.” Snart tapped the ring twice and it lit up, illuminating the whole room green. “But it’s still a lantern. We can’t go out with that thing out there, we better go down, there might be a basement down here and possibly some tunnels.”

Captain Cold found the basement. In order to make their way out, Green Arrow used one of his explosive arrows and opened a hole down an abandoned subway. The subway was flooded and there was cold water above their ankles. They walked tired following Snart’s green light, until they found something scary. Oliver saw a doppelganger of himself dead and nailed to the wall with a trident.

“Jesus Christ.” Oliver said. “Is that me?”

“I don’t think so.” Snart answered, coldly. And proceeded  to inspect the body. “He has gills, he’s an Atlantean, and based on how he was killed and the orange shorts, I think we have a dead Aquaman.” Snart proceeded to remove the trident from the corpse’s chest.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Atlantean metal can be handy if we’re going to steal from the Supermen. That’s why we came here in the first place.”

Captain Cold let the body fall in the water and moved on taking the trident.

“I prefer we finish the grave robberies for today.” Clark said.

As they moved forward on the subway, they started to see pieces of ice floating on the water, bigger and bigger pieces of ice. The water was freezing their feet despite Captain Cold’s enjoyment of the temperature. Sounds echoed on the tunnel, they were not alone. The three were attacked by inhuman foes, bears, Oliver shot his arrows but to their surprise, the bears shot bullets. They could see these were polar bears wearing armors and carrying guns. Captain Cold freezed part of the water and stuck the polar bear’s paws but they were surprise when they felt the barrels of guns behind their heads. More polar bears are ready to kill them.

“WEAPONS DOWN!” Ordered a polar bear with its animalistic voice.

Dick was no longer dressed as Robin, he showered and put on normal clothes. He ate a plate next to Barbara who had her helmet off. They all heard the sound of bats flying around the Batcave, he was coming.

“There weren't that many bats here before.” Alfred explained. “After the reforms, it wasn’t even much of a cave even, just a bunker but they seem to have come from everywhere from the multiverse. I like to think they were telling me their place was here, that he was coming back. Even after the other one left, I knew he wasn’t finished yet. Not yet.”

The Batman stepped out of the shadows among the bat flying around him. His new suit was of a blue so dark it was near black, the mask had to be adjusted for his face, the cape fitted his shoulders just like the old suit, his belt was yellow, Batgirl gave him that one, it belonged to the Batman of her Earth. In his chest, a yellow symbol where the black bat appeared. Batman felt this symbol on his chest.

“This belonged to the older Batman.” Alfred explained. “The one who left.”

“It’s perfect.” Dick said.

“I’m glad you approve of it, Master Richard.” Alfred got up and walked towards a car, they couldn’t see it under the black sheet covering it. “There were just so many vehicles available, you are also going to have to use his.”

Alfred revealed the Batmobile. A fully black beauty, small wings on the back and a pair of fangs on the front with a spear between them. Alfred threw a pair of utility belts to Dick.

“I’m afraid I have no suit for you.” He said. “But I hope these will do.”

“You don’t have to do this, Alfred.” Batman cautioned.

“Neither do you.”

Batman entered the Batmobile, before he closed it, Dick jumped in the seat next to him. It seemed right, the two of them next to each other.

Harley Quinn patiently waited for the green alarm clock to ring. When it did, she took her big smile to the bed surrounded by funny objects, guns and poisons and shook the green haired man sleeping in Batman-themed pajamas.

“Puddin,” She said in his ear. “You’ve got a performance.”

He smiled widely and she gave him his red lipstick.

A crowd of clowns waited by the entrance of Arkham State Hospital. All of them stood up as their leader danced down the stairs, the clown sang a song while a band played the instrumental for their leader to dance in its rhythm, all of them together, voicing that same song.

‘ In the white room with black curtains near the station

Black roof country, no gold pavements, tired starlings

Silver horses ran down moonbeams in your dark eyes’

Dawn light smiles on you leaving, my contentment’

And the Joker danced and jumped. His skin was completely white, his hair was long and brushed back, blue paint around his eyes, he wore a pink-ish red suit with a yellow vest and blue shirt, and his tie was green. The Joker walked to the entrance of Arkham and sat on an improvised stage similar to a talk show. Behind him, it was written ‘Dead! With the Joker’ cameras rolling, but not real cameras, they were made of cardboard paper yet the clowns were still pretending to film.

“Hello, folks in the audience and those back home. Welcome to another show, today we got a new guest but he’s not that new. You’ve met him before, you saw him die before, so please welcome, Mr. Victor Zsasz!”

The band played again, Zsasz entered from behind the curtains. He was handcuffed and the handcuffs chained to his ankles so he couldn't run or move his hand. Zsasz awkwardly waved to the audience and walked to the couch next to Joker.

“Hello, Victor.” Joker said.

“Hi…?” Victor said, still confused.

“You know, I killed you before. Three weeks ago I killed another Victor Zsasz, he had a goatee and was a little older and a little less friendly. You killed what? 15 of our clowns before you ran out of bullets?”

A little person dressed as a harlequin in front of the audience put up a sign written in blood the word ‘BOOING’ and Zsasz was immediately booed by the crowd.

“But now you’re here, in the most popular talk show in Convergence. And by the end of this interview, I’m going to kill you. So, the longer you keep this going, the better and most engaging way you answer my questions, the longer you live. So, are you dating someone right now?”

“Nope.” Victor answered. No words after that, the Joker stared at him, Victor wasn’t scared, but the Joker was getting angry.

“I don’t think you understand what is going on here. Lucky for you, I'm a great host, and I’m dating someone, my beautiful Harley Quinn there in the audience.” The Joker sent a kiss to her and the little person put up a sign written ‘AWN’ that got the reaction from the audience. “You see, I actually stole her from another guy when she got here. I thought he was a Joker…” Joker grabbed the severed head of another Joker from his desk, he had no eyebrows, metal teeth and ‘Damaged’ tattooed on his forehead. “... Until I saw this tattoo and I realized I was wrong by one letter, he was a joke.” 

The whole crowd laughed.

Clark, Oliver and Snart woke up stuck on chairs in a crystal fortress. A very old white man in a dark plaid suit was putting on a wig, he had a kryptonite ring on. With his wig on, he approached the three survivors, he had his polar bear henchmen with him. The man put on his glasses to take a good look at them.

“Few men have the courage to adventure through the Forgotten Boulevard, much lens down its tunnels. Of course, a man with a great intellect such as myself was able to establish a base of operations. Now discovered by trespassers who, based on your clothes and exotic weapons, I assume are the Green Arrow and Captain Cold.”

“Wow, very smart.” Green Arrow sarcastically said. “Let me try. Bald, kryptonite ring, big ego, nice to see you, Lex.”

“It’s not an ego if it’s correct, boy.” Lex said. “You are in the presence of the greatest criminal mind of the 20th and 21th century! For your third colleague, I recognize you, Ultraman, Clark Luthor, therefore it’s safe to assume you’re his benevolent counterpart, Superman, Clark Kent. My greatest foe.”

“You never even met me before.” Clark said.

“Not here but on my Earth…”

“I had to hear that same from another Lex Luthor before I ended in Convergence. What is even wrong with you? Why take beef with people to others?”

“Another Superman in a never ending quest for peace. A bit hard without your powers.”

“Cut it, Luthor.” Green Arrow said. “You didn’t kill us for a reason, what you want?’

“For 38 years, Superman had been a problem but since I got here, this problem has multiplied. The Supermen managed to create the second greatest force outside of New Metropolis and this is something I cannot tolerate. I’ve been alone here for too long! Now, Convergence is going to see the glory of Lex Luthor.” A holographic map appeared in front of them, it indicated the area of the Supermen in blue, the Batmen territory in black and the Madlands in red. “This is what it’s like now.” The hologram changed the whole area to purple and put a different name to it. “Lexia, my city.” An entire wall opened revealing an army of old school robots made of different pieces, they all head green lights on. “I’m going to deactivate the defenses of the Batmen and while the Supermen feast on their blood, my army is going to be waiting for them. And none other than Lex Luthor is going to be the savior of those oppressed by both.”

“And what is our part in this?” Clark asked.

“You just had your part in this, Mr. Kent. You heard my plan.” Lex explained and they were all confused. “What delightful nostalgia it is to tell my plan! As the greatest, as people refer here, supervillain, I’ve been denied this pleasure for too long. Now you may die.”

“Wait!” Captain Cold interrupted before Luthor pressed a button. “We can help you. At least I can, have you ever been to the Madlands before? I have. Matter of fact, I stole several of the Supermen and the Batmen’s comboios. Me and my friend were here to gather resources to steal an entire ship from them. We can help you.”

“Why should I believe the pleads of a desperate man?”

“Open my parka.” Snart said. Luthor opened his jacket and revealed in his shoulder he had been branded like cattle, the shape of a large bat. “The fact that I have one of these and I still left the Batmen territory alive tells you that I can help you!”

Luthor gave some thought, he stepped away from the button he was going to press and looked curious at the three survivors.

“I’ll admit, I’ve been having some delays in my plans to put down the Batmen defenses. Perhaps some allies who do not have paws would be advantageous. You do that and I will not only let you leave but I’ll personally reward you with the ship you need.”

“Deal.” Cold said.

Luthor pressed a different button and released the three. He then returned Oliver’s bow and quiver.

“Just one thing.” Luthor remarked. “So there’s no wrong ideas on your part, I want the Green Arrow to shoot an arrow at my head.”

“You don’t need…” Clark tried to say but Oliver already shot his arrow, aiming at Luthor's head. The arrow hit a force field and fell burning on the ground. Luthor laughed at the attempt.

“Now you know you cannot easily cross pass me”

The Joker danced towards a spinning prize wheel, but instead of prizes, the wheel presented different gruesome ways to die. Victor Zsasz was calm, he quietly broke his left thumb and was prepared to take his hand out of the cuffs. Before the Joker could spin the wheel, a batarang was thrown and went through his hand. The clowns took out their guns and shot at the direction the batarang came from. Loud noise of shots and bullet capsules falling. The whole place was covered with smoke, no sign of Batman. Joker removed the batarang on his hand, despite the pain, he smiled, the bat amused him. Suddenly, the Batmobile broke through the wall like it was made of cardboard and shot tear gas all over the clowns.

Harley Quinn picked the Joker and ran up stairs. Once entered a hallway, Harley was punched and fell against a wall. The Batman held Joker’s neck and stared in his eyes, there was amazement. Joker laughed but not his normal laugh, it was something else, uncontrollable, he wanted to stop and enjoy the moment, but he couldn’t.

“It’s over.” Batman said. “You’ll not hurt anyone else.”

Harley Quinn attacked Batman. She held on the ground but he broke free and the two exchanged kicks against each other. Harley looked at the emergency ax on the hallway where it said ‘IN CASE OF BATMAN - USE THIS’ (Batman had been spray painted over ‘Emergency’) she broke the glass and attacked Batman with the ax.

“Stupid Batsy, ruining everything you touch!” She yelled.

On the other side of the hospital, Robin and Batgirl climbed a rope. Robin pulled the rope and walked up with his feet on the wall very easily while Batgirl struggled to climb while she hanged down. Batgirl tried to imitate Robin and put her feet on the wall but when she tried to walk upwards, her feet slipped. 

“How do you do this?” She asked, astonished.

“Good and old practice.” Robin answered.

“I promise I’ll fix the grappling hooks as soon as you come back.” Alfred said through their earpieces.

“Don’t sweat, Alfred.” Batgirl said and put all her strength to climb.

Once they got to the windows, Robin threw marbles on the floor. A whole bunch of clowns came racing with guns on their way to help Joker and step on the marbles. Once they, Robin and Batgirl hit them all with their own guns and knocked them out. Alfred watched it all happen on the screens in the Batcave from the body cameras they were all wearing.

“East wing cleared, Commissioner.” Alfred said. “How’s west wing?”

“Surprisingly cleared.” Jim answered.

He had to be careful not to step on a dead body. A massacre happened, all the clowns were dead. One of them ignored Gordon and ran with a flamethrower, Jim shot at him with a rubber bullet and he fell down. When he was down, somebody shot at the flamethrower and toasted the clown. Jim tried to approach but almost got shot.

“I’m not your enemy!” He announced. “We’re on the same side here, me and my people are trying to put an ending to this madness. We can help you.”

“Nah, I’m doing fine by myself, thanks.” Victor answered.

“This voice…? Zsasz, is that you?”

“Yeah. Hey, Jim, are you the Jim I know?”

“Did you backstab the Penguin for Sofia Falcone?”

“Yep.”

“So I’m the Jim you know. I’m not here to arrest you.”

“That would be tricky without a court system.”

“Listen, me and my friends are going to the Madlands, there might be somebody who can help us get to New Metropolis. There’s no reason you can’t…”

Shots, many of them. Scream and blood come from where Zsasz was speaking from. Once the shots stopped, Jim went there and found no Zsasz, only more bodies and bloody footprints.

Robin and Batgirl armed the bomb and ran. They both spoke with Alfred on the earpieces.

“You sure there’s nobody in this area?” Robin asked.

“Positive, Master Richard.”

The bomb went off, and a whole piece of Arkham State Hospital was blown away. Harley Quinn heard and saw the explosion as she fought Batman. There was real sadness in her expressions. This moment of weakness was what Batman needed to take away her ax and punch her to the ground.

“Our home, our stages, you ruined it all…” Batman punched her in the nose and she fainted.

Gordon almost shot Robin and Batgirl when they ran into each other. There were clowns following Gordon. He shot them with rubber bullets as much as he could and Robin and Batgirl tried to fight but there were too many. They got cornered and entered a room and locked the door. The room smelled rotten, there were many dead bodies. Gordon was almost out of rubber bullets, so started checking the bodies, one of them was a man with brown hair and a stick on his neck attached to a flag written ‘bang’. He found a gun with real bullets on him and also a badge.

“Richard Grayson, Detroit Police.” Gordon read. “Friend of yours?” He asked Dick.

There was also a dead Batman with nipples on his suit and a dead woman wearing a cat mask and a leather suit that was practically just a bra. Under the body of his dead counterpart, Dick found a suitcase, he was curious. But they had no time to think about it, Joker’s henchmen were about to break in.

Batman ran around Arkham searching for the Joker. He ran during Batman’s fight with Harley Quinn. Every clown he found was easily defeated.

“Sir,” Alfred said. “I have eyes on the Joker, he’s leaving Arkham. I can control the Batmobile to hit him, but…”

“What is it, Alfred?”

“I’m afraid the others are corned, they don’t have much of a chance.”

“Forget the Joker.”

The clowns hit the door with a bench, they were about to break in when the Batmobile ran them over. The Batman jumped on them and attacked the clowns. The bullets hit his armor and didn’t stop him. The Batmobile's engine burned a clown’s entire body, Batman took a fire extinguisher and broke, putting down the fire and then using it to hit the other clowns. There were none left standing.

The Joker walked on the abandoned streets of Convergence’s Gotham. He heard the boom and looked back at his kingdom, the Arkham State Hospital suffered another explosion and was falling down. He kept walking, breathing heavily, furious. A milk car passed by him, the kind of car that delivered milk in houses back in the 1950s. Harley Quinn was driving, she looked at him and smiled.

“Hi, Puddin.” She said.

His expression of anger didn’t change, he just entered the car and didn’t say a word. Harley Quinn told him how she managed to save some suits, some guns, some bombs. She spoke of a new idea, a tour around Convergence presenting their acts. Joker didn’t care, he looked dead serious at her.

“We’re going after them.” Joker said. “They destroyed everything I built, and they’ll get what they fucking deserve.”

“Puddin, we- -we- -” She tried to say. “We don’t even know where they’re headed.”

“I can help you with that.” Somebody on the back of the car said.

Startled, Harley Quinn pointed her gun and Victor Zsasz came out of a milk cabinet drinking a gallon of milk with a straw and reading a Flash comic book.

“Just so it happens James Gordon told me where they were going and even invited me to come along but I don’t think I’d fit in with that crowd.”

“Why help us?”

“Because I don’t have anything else to do.”

“We tried to kill you. We accept crazy, stupid is something else.”

“I forgive you.” Zsasz said and went back to read his comic and drink his milk. Didn’t pay any attention to Harley’s gun pointed at him.

Joker looked at Harley Quinn, his expression still angry, that frightened her. He covered his mouth with his injured hand from the batarang, when he took it off, revealed a smile on his bloody mouth and painted it wider with his blood. She smiled back.

Chapter Text

Bruce and his new found-family drove through Old Metropolis. Batman and Robin in the black Batmobile, the Gordons and Alfred following behind in a much larger version of the vehicle. They entered a mysterious path in the city, the pavement was written “Welcome to the Forgotten Boulevard, congratulations if you leave.” and as they went by, they saw more and more costumed corpses lying around. Barbara was particularly impacted by a Batgirl with darker skin and dressed in purple, she was hanged with a rope and behind her spray painted “ZASLAV WAS HERE” . 

Unbeknown to them, under their feet was a Fortress of Solitude where the Kents and their allies were working with Lex Luthor, a much older Lex Luthor. Clark had new clothes and a bulletproof vest on. Oliver approached him with concern.

“Are you sure you don't want to sit this one out, farmer?” Oliver asked.

“You’re going into the Madlands with the three maniacs who planned to leave us to die. Somebody has to watch your back.”

“I’m a big boy, I can take care of myself there. You have Lois, you have the twins, they need you.”

“That’s also why I’m going. You heard Luthor, to take us to New Metropolis this plan has to work, I need to know I did my best to save my family.”

Lois paraded around this weird Fortress of Solitude trying to understand how it worked. No Jor-El voice echoing. She approached Luthor who was making calculations on his computer. He wore glasses.

“How did you manage to build this place, Lex? I don’t think you found a construction crew in Convergence nor did your bank end up here with you. What was your secret?”

“Journalistic curiosity, Mrs. Lane?”

“It’s Lane hyphen Kent. I take the me in your world was also a reporter.”

“A consistency in the multiverse. Superman is Lex Luthor’s greatest enemy, and Lois Lane is going to be… nosy! You know very well this Fortress of Solitude was brought here from some other Earth, you underestimate me if you think you’re going to find its secrets so easily.”

“And you overestimate yourself if you think your ‘Lexia’ is going to last.”

“As much as I'd love to embarrass you with a discussion, problems arrive.”

A holographic screen appeared and revealed footage of the Batmobiles driving through the Forgotten Boulevard. Clark, Oliver, the Snarts and Rory all entered the room and watched it.

“Chances the Batmen track you down here?” Clark asked Captain Cold, not as much as a question as it was an accusation.

“Take it easy,” Oliver said. “We can’t be sure it’s the Batmen.”

“Who else drives Batmobiles?” Golden Glider questioned. “Wanna go up there and ask them nicely?”

“I got a better one.” Heat Wave said and put up his gun. “Go up there and make some bat barbecue.”

“As much as I admire Mr. Rory’s enthusiasm, I have a better solution.” Luthor said and started to make adjustments in his computers. “This Fortress is connected to a series of gas tubes all around the Forgotten Boulevard; they liberate pheromones that affect the behavior of insects. Including a certain spider.”

“You control that fucking monster?” Captain Cold asked.

“I wish, but I merely influence. I’m influencing it right now to go meet our caped foes.”

It worked just as planned. Batman and his allies were surprised by a large shadow over them, the first to see the source was Robin.

“Holy gigantic arachnid!” He shouted.

The Batmobiles changed directions and raced away trying to escape from the spider that kept chasing them. Although not fast, each step taken by the eight legs of the spider was so long it quickly put the monsters closer to Batmobile.

“Alfred, any ideas?” Batman asked from his earpiece.

“We have weapons but I’m afraid I can’t tell their efficacy against this creature.”

“It's following us… Moving targets, it's after moving targets. I have an idea, we’ll need to be invisible, just for long enough.”

Batmobiles shot against the road, the explosions created a thick black smoke. The spider stopped, it was confused. Expecting them to appear on the other side but nothing, until something shot the spider in the face. A green war tank appeared from the smoke curtain and shot the spider again, Batman drove it sitting next to a skeleton with the name “Rock” in his shirt, he moved forward and the monster started following it. Batman jumped out of the moving tank and ran back to the Batmobile while the spider turned the tank apart.

“We have to go now.” He told his allies.

Bruce, Dick, Barbara, Jim and Alfred entered the Daily Planet, a beige building with a metal globe above the entering door. Barbara insisted they avoided using hotels and residential homes, those were often occupied by groups of survivors and you never know when those will be violent. Bruce found a newspaper article about Superman causing a heat wave in Metropolis, there was a picture of him, a bit tanned, slightly squinted eyes, he was on court.

“Is this him?” Bruce asked as he showed it to Barbara.

“One of them.” She answered. “I hope it's one of the nice ones.”

They installed beds, made a fire on a trash can and started cooking. Alfred tried to do it all by himself but Bruce insisted he was not there as a butler. They sat together around the fire and ate. Dick examined the suitcase he found at Arkham, it was with his dead counterpart, he wondered, what could be inside of it? Jim stared at the fire, sometimes he looked at Barbara, but it was painful.

“I don't know what's worse.” Jim said. “To think I’ll never see my daughter again, or to think I might see her again, in this Hell.”

“It’s okay, Jim.” Barbara said. “We know how it feels. I miss my mom, and I miss my brother.”

“Brother?”

“Jimmy, I guess you don’t have one of him on your Earth.”

“I guess I don’t. It’s not just Barbara, my wife too. Any of you had somebody back on your Earth?”

“Many women throughout the years.” Alfred proudly said. “But I’m afraid I ended up as an old bachelor.”

Jim noticed Dick looking at Barbara. He deflected the look and immediately said.

“I wasn’t in a relationship. What about you, Batman? You had a sweetheart?”

“No.” Bruce answered.

“I see, the work of a crime fighter may take a chunk of your social life.”

“It’s funny.” Barbara said. “The Batman from my world last I heard was going everywhere with a former criminal named Selina Kyle.”

“Selina?” Jim said. “She and Bruce go back to when they were kids in my world.”

“Holy consistency.” Dick said. “Selina Kyle is Catwoman where I’m from, she and Batman always had a romantic inclination towards each other.”

“I’m not used to revealing Master Wayne’s affairs,” Alfred said. “But the truth is that he and Mrs. Kyle aka Catwoman had a very similar involvement.”

“You knew Selina Kyle in your world?” Dick asked Bruce.

“Doesn’t matter.” Bruce deflected. 

Dick hesitated to ask, but Barbara noticed his curiosity.

“I didn’t have a boyfriend nor do I have one now, Dick.” She said.”

“It’s not that, Batgirl- - I mean, Barbara.” He said. “I was thinking about the Madlands, where we’re going. Where distorted versions of Batman are at war with the Supermen, how sure can you be that it exists? You never saw it, and it hurts to believe there are evil Batmen out there.”

“I’m sorry, Dick, but it’s true. I didn’t see myself but many people my dad trusted in his life saw it. The Batman we knew, those you all knew, they vowed not to take lives but the Batmen who didn’t… Went to an abyss, and took plenty with them.”

“Bruce was a murderer.” Alfred said and took their attention. “He didn’t share your noble concern with humanity. No, even when they were down, he’d finish them, bullets, explosions, he’d come like a vengeful sword against the deserving. How could he not? After his parents, after Dick. He waged war against Superman, and when I heard about the Batmen, I can’t take these thoughts out of my head, that my son is right there with them, still killing, still in war.”

A large Batman wearing a trenchcoat and goggles pointed his gun to the head of a soldier. He shot and killed this soldier. Others layed on the ground, all of them wore black uniforms with Superman’s symbol on their arms. Their group was made by this Batman, Huntress, a woman in black and purple wearing a domino mask and carrying a crossbow, Flash, a speedster wearing a red and black armor with blue lightnings covering his body as he ran, Deathstorm, a man with dark hair wearing a leather suit with lights attached to his chest, and many soldiers carrying rifles and driving tanks.

The entire camp was secluded, no one left to fight, the Batmen’s men took their weapons, food and communication devices.

“Already took all their resources to base.” Flash said.

“Deathstorm,” Knightmare* said. “You know what to do.”

(*to avoid confusion, I’ll refer to Ben Affleck’s post-apocalyptic Batman as “Knightmare”)

Deathstorm’s entire body was covered in flames and from his hands he created an explosion that cleaned half of the area. All done. They thought. Flying up in the sky, a male figure was obscured by the smoke created by the explosion. They knew what was coming, at least they thought they knew. Huntress put a special arrow on her crossbow, it was completely made of kryptonite, she shot it at the figure. From the smoke, Black Adam emerged holding the arrow. The unworthy champion held Huntress' neck and electricity from his hand reduced her to a skeleton and then to ashes.

“It’s Adam!” A soldier in a tank warned. “Quick!”

They loaded their tank with eternium based munition and shot at Black Adam but another figure appeared and took the explosion. Superman, a Superman wearing a black suit and black cape, unlike most, his suit had a collar and appeared made of a type of cloth. They shot with eternium and kryptonite, everytime, Black Adam shielded Superman from the kryptonite and Superman him from the eternium. Lightnings and heat vision covered the entire area, they were being decimated. Knightmare ran and spoke on his earpiece.

“Retreat! There’s two of them! I need- -”

He was interrupted by Superman who pulled him by his neck and flew with Knightmare.

“The others want to execute you publicly.” Superman said. “But I can always say I thought it was another version of you.”

His eyes lit up red seconds before was punched by Deathstorm and dropped Knightmare. He witnessed Deathstorm’s struggle to fight Superman, once Black Adam joined, he was done. The two ripped Deathstorm apart literally separating him into two corpses, this caused an explosion powerful enough to push both of them. That was the breach the Batmen army needed to retreat.

The Batmen territory was surrounded by gigantic walls. Every street and every corner was illuminated with red, red sunlight to keep the Supermen away. Up in the sky, a force field protected them from most attacks. When the tanks and Batmobile’s passed by, a crowd was formed to watch them, children with Batman toys carved out of wood admired them. The vehicles entered a castle that was once a prison. Knightmare left the Batmobile and walked into a cave under the castle. He was received by a powerful voice, a sound that demanded respect.

“How many died?” He was asked.

“73 soldiers.” Knightmare answered.

“They kill anybody from the team?”

“Huntress is dead. Deathstorm too.”

“This is unacceptable! Deathstorm was one of our metas, we needed him!”

“Wasn’t for him, we would all be dead.”

“I know why this happened. That was a small territory, not worthy of their full attention but they sent two heavy hitters because you insisted on going into the Madlands. They want you, they want the Batman.” The owner of the voice walked out of the darkness, he was an old man, in his 60s, tall, brown hair, blue eyes. His body was attached to a machine that kept him walking.

“We don’t have the right to ask our men to go out there if one of us doesn’t do the same.”

“Bruce is right, Bruce.” Bruce said. Another Bruce, even older than the one with the powerful voice, white hair, wearing glasses and black clothes. “His mistake was not bringing more metas along.”

“We lost more than we gained today.” Wayne* said.

“We are in a war, we lost men before but I gotta keep fighting.” Old Bruce* said.

(*I’ll now refer to Kevin Conroy’s Batman as “Wayne” and Michael Keaton’s as “Old Bruce” adequate since he’s the oldest)

“You don’t realize how spoiled you are.” Knightmare disapproved. “Before I got here, I wasn’t in a war, I was surviving. We had already lost but you don’t see the greatness we have here, in a world full of that son of a bitch we built something. And I’ll be out there fighting to keep it whether you like it or not.”

“Superman never had the chance to destroy my world, you know why?” Wayne rhetorically asked. “Because I killed him before he had the chance! But you failed.”

“Another reason for me to go, I have to pay for my mistake.”

“Be smart.” Old Bruce cautioned. “Is it worth it if simply being there is going to have such a high cost?”

Knightmare knew they were right. But he didn’t admit it, instead he just walked away.

Knightmare laid on his bed next to Sally Jupiter. No mask, no shirt, revealing many scars on his body. Sally was a beautiful woman, red hair, green eyes, her face reminded Knightmare of somebody. Someone knocked on the door, Red Scare, a man in red clothes and a red ski mask.

“Sorry to interrupt, Batman.” Red Scare said with his Russian accent. “But the prisoner is ready.”

“Another one today?” Sally asked. “Why even waste time with this?”

Knightmare took a long branding iron next to his bed, the tip was shaped like a bat, the same bat he had on his suit.

“It’s about sending a message.” Knightmare explained.

Not even with his suit on, Knightmare walked with Red Scare to the prison blocks. Guards held down a pale man with dark hair and dark eyes, there was a fire next to him, pure fear in his eyes. Knightmare found the man oddly familiar.

“Is that Polka Dot Man?” Knightmare asked Red Scare.

“No, just looks like him. His name is Thomas Schiff, Joker’s henchman on his Earth.”

“Where are you taking him from here?” 

“The Outlaws are going to use him as human target.”

Knightmare put the bat of his branding iron on the fire until it was bright orange, Schiff watched and the guards held him down tighter. Red Scare opened Schiff’s shirt.

“That means I’ll die, right?” He asked. 

“Human target. You’ll be chained to a vehicle, when the Supermen shoot, you’ll be in the front line. The horror your victims went through, you’ll know.”

“Batman doesn’t take lives!”

“If you think that, you’re living in a fucking dream world.” Knightmare said.

Schiff’s shoulder was branded with the bat, he could feel the bat shape of the pain on the burning flesh in his shoulder as he screamed.

Leonard Snart was awake, he had been for the last hour or so. He didn’t leave bed, he stood there feeling the bat scar on his chest, recalling the horrors he went through by the hands of the Batmen. Still, he was going back there. Snart was surprised by Rory entering the room and pointed his gun at him, Rory didn’t flinch.

“Get up, Snart.” Rory said. “Luthor has a plan.”

Lex Luthor presented his plan on a holographic screen, it was a map of the castle and the cave where the Batmen discussed their plans. The map presented a point of blue light designated as ‘target’.

“The Batmen territory runs on red sun,” Luthor said. “But they need a source of energy. I know where it is, what you need is to get in and destroy it.”

“Wow, that’s some plan, Luthor.” Green Arrow teased.

“Despite Heat Wave’s announcement, I never claimed to have a plan. What I do have is a way into their territories. I managed to recreate the entrance codes their army uses, so entering their territory is guaranteed.”

“After you a very nice walk in the park called the Madlands.” Golden Glider said. “But I guess it’s better to die in a warzone than in there.”

“There’s a risk but I have the safest paths marked. You’ll just have to fight your way in.”

“You know what people called the last guys who tried to do something similar?” Lois asked.

“The Suicide Squad.” Luthor unhesitantly answered. “But cheer up, youngsters, you are the main characters of this story. And most important, you have Superman on your side.”

The Bat-Family found themselves staring at the path that would lead them into the Madlands. Desert and forest mixed together, they could see smoke from certain locations. Last chance to go back.

“We can go from here and avoid battle for a while.” Batgirl said. “But the area where Rorschach came back from was a war zone. If the Outsiders are there, we’ll have to go through a lot of hassle to get to them.”

“None of you have to come along.” Batman said. “You can turn back, go to Gotham and wait for me with Gordon. If I don’t come back- -”

“You will come back.” Robin interrupted. “We all are.”

Batman could see the hope in Robin’s face. They moved on. A road made of skulls and burned down bases invited them to go further. Hours into the voyage, a light was perceived from a distance, another vehicle. Jim looked at it through his binoculars, he didn’t recognize it so he gave it to Batgirl.

“It’s a Tumbler.” She explained. “A Batmobile from my world except it’s read and… I think there’s a man chained to it.”

The red Tumbler opened and a young man wearing red stood up. He carried a bow and shot a red arrow at the Batmobile. The arrow attached to the windshield and Batman covered himself and Robin with his cape before it exploded. The smoke going down revealed there was no damage to the Batmobile.

“I like this car.” Batman said. “Alfred, cover me.”

Alfred’s bigger Batmobile started shooting at the red Tumbler as Batman drove against it. The Batmobile pushed Tumbler out of the road. Batman jumped out of his car and placed an explosive on the Tumbler. It forced it open and Batman faced a man with a hat covered head to toe in black and wore bright red goggles. He pointed a gun at Batman, who took it from him and beat him to the ground. Alfred shot a gas grenade inside the Tumbler and forced them all to leave the vehicle.

Their leader recognized Batman, he recognized the Batmobile. He was a hooded figure, a red hood over a red metal helmet, in his chest a red bat, many guns with him. Robin fought him but he showed himself to be a skilled fighter. Worse, he shot to kill, Robin found himself in danger. He almost was killed when a black man dressed as a cat attacked him from behind, giving Red Hood the opportunity to shoot. Robin caught the gun and forced Red Hood to shoot his chest where he wore a vest, pushing both him and the Wildcat to the ground. Robin reached to the Batmobile and grabbed the suitcase he found with his dead counterpart. He used it as a shield but Red Hood shot right in the lock. The suitcase fell open and revealed an armor-like Robin suit.

“I knew it!” Robin said excitedly.

“Grayson?” Red Hood asked, curious.

Batman was struggling to fight the man in black and this red archer at the same time. A woman, dark skinned, wearing purple and bright green eyes appeared in front of Batman. Her hands lit up like fire but before she could do anything, Alfred ran her over. Batgirl jumped out of the car and threw a batarang at Arsenal’s bow. Gordon started shooting and Robin picked up something from the suitcase, he pressed it and grew into a bo staff that hit both Wildcat and Red Hood.

“Enough!” Gordon yelled and shot at the sky three times. “No more of this nonsense.”

All stopped fighting, Starfire got up. They all stepped away from each other and picked their sides. Robin put on the domino mask he found on the suitcase.

“Why did you attack us?” Batman demanded to know.

“Militarized vehicles,” Red Hood explained. “Riding in the Madlands, we knew it wasn't one of ours so we assumed you were with the Supermen. Clearly not.”

“Who the hell are you?” Gordon asked. “Let me take a guess: The Red Hood Gang?”

“Close…  Commissioner. I am the Red Hood and these are the Outlaws, Arsenal, Starfire, Deadly Nightshade and Wildcat. I know this car, it belonged to the bats, the ones we work for. I guess you met the Alfred the old man told us about.”

“He was dead when we found the cave.” Batman lied.

“That’s a shame. We got enough space for you, nice to have a young Batman instead of the old guys we’re stuck with.”

“Not gonna happen.” Batman said. “He could’ve died.”

Batman pointed to Thomas Schiff, chained to the Tumbler and gagged.

“That was the idea.” Red Hood said. “You and your stupid fucking rule, Bruce. You were the same in my world, are you going to let the Joker kill him too?” Jason asked, pointing to Robin.

A dot of red light appeared on Jason’s neck, between his helmet and vest. James Gordon had him.

“I don’t have this rule.” Jim said. “Want me to prove it?”

Jason wanted to reach for his gun but Roy Harper held his arm and spoke in his ear.

“We have no reason to fight them.” Arsenal said. “They’re not with the Supermen, they didn’t attack us, we attacked them. Let them go.”

The Outlaws put down their weapons and stepped away. As the Bat-Family got back into their vehicles, Jason asked Dick.

“Wait. The guy who had this suitcase, I knew him from my world. What happened to him?”

“He’s gone.” Dick answered.

“Who did it?”

“The Joker.”

Jason laughed upon hearing that, laughed loudly, a familiar laugh they all knew the kind of man would have. After the Bat-Family left, Red Hood touched his earpiece.

“Red Hood to Batmen. There’s something I need to report.”

Clark, Oliver, the Snarts and Rory were all on the back of a sort of truck created by Luthor. Leonard drove it, Golden Glitter watched her brother driving a vehicle so fast and powerful throughout the Madlands’ deserts.

“I bet we could get to New Metropolis with this truck.” She said,

“You think anybody here can hack Luthor’s programming?” Green Arrow reminded. “This thing will turn off the second we get too close to New Metropolis and there’s nothing we can do.”

“Funny,” Leonard said. “Luthor was supposed to be Superman’s greatest enemy but it’s the Arrow who talks about him the most.”

“If you know so much about us already, maybe I don’t need to say anything.” Clark said.

Leonard stopped the truck, there was something on the way. Corpses of Batmen soldiers, they were frozen.

“Nearest camp is 3 miles from here.” Snart explained. “These guys were escaping from something.”

“Supermen.” Green Arrow said. “One of them used the cold breath.”
“I’ve seen this kind of freezing before.” Snart for once sounded really scared. “It’s not from cold breath.” Uphead in the distance, they saw a light, sun reflected on vehicles. Snart put on his binoculars and watched them. “Keep going, keep going, keep going…” The vehicles stopped and changed directions. “Shit they saw us!”

Snart frantically drove the truck away. He stopped suddenly as they reached an abandoned farm and hid the truck behind the only wall left from the bar. Snart checked his gun and so did his sister and Rory all did the same and left the truck.

“What the hell is happening!?” Clark asked.

“Bandits.” Snart said. 

“So let's take the truck and drive!” Oliver said.

“All the opposite ways from lead us to Batmen and Supermen camps, genius.” Golden Glider explained.

“We met them before and I killed one of their guys last time so they’re not exactly happy with me.” Snart said. “Their leader is the worst, the son of a bitch doesn’t let anything go.”

“Who’s their leader?”

“Me.”

Captain Cold* and his Rogues stepped outside their cars searching for the truck in the barn. An older pale man in a striped suit and with big gums and purple searched around for them but he was cautious.

(*I’ll refer to CW’s Captain Cold played by Wentworth Miller as “Snart” and to this more villainous character from the 90s “The Flash” as “Captain Cold”)

“Maybe it’s a trick,” The pale man said. “I know all about that.” 

“No, no, Trickster.” Captain Cold said. “I took a glance at the driver and would recognize my own style. These are the same three who killed Mirror Master, they’re probably lurking around waiting for a chance to do the same to us. But where did they get such a wonderful truck?”

“Better question, where did they hide it?” An asian young woman wearing clothes and carrying a staff. “I could make a storm here and make them show up if the staff wasn’t out of juice from keeping the sun away from you.”

Captain Cold needed a cloudy sky to keep the sunlight away from his skin. He was an albino, unlike Snart who wore the glasses alongside the cold gun, Captain Cold used them to hide his red eyes, so much more red in contrast to his pasty white skin and near white blonde hair.

“If you made a storm just here, that would have caught the attention of the Supermen, not very good for us.” Captain Cold said. “There are a limited number of places they could hide. They could be inside that thing.”

Chronos, a caped warrior in a black armor, shot with his laser gun at the ‘thing’ Cold referred to, where wheat used to be stocked. He then shot at the farm house and then, he was about through the barn’s wall where the survivors were. Before he had the chance, a green arrow went inside his barrel and exploded his gun. All the survivors ran and shot the Rogues how they could. Golden Glider shot Weather Witch, covering her in a golden cocoon, the cocoon exploded with lightning bolts. Snart tried to shoot at Captain Cold who placed a diamond on his own cold gun and shot back. Captain Cold’s ray was much more powerful and hurled Snart away. Before he could kill Snart, Captain Cold was set on fire by Heat Wave but the Weather Witch put it down, raining over him.

Snart believed to have seen his sister being beaten up and about to get stabbed by Captain Boomerang. He jumped on him just to find it was a hologram and faced the Trickster’s gun.

“Little inheritance from Mirror Master.” Trickster said as he pointed the gun to Snart’s face. Clark shot Trickster’s hand and sent his gun away, leaving a huge hole on his palm. “That’s a way to ruin a showman’s act!”

Snart took his gun and froze Trickster’s legs.

Fire covered the farm when Heat Wave shot everywhere he could. Chronos fought him and managed to take away his gun, Heat Wave tried to fight but didn’t stand against Chronos in a fight.

“I already know all your moves, you pyromaniac fuck.” Chronos boasted. He was immediately hit in the helmet by an arrow that exploded in gas and knocked him down.

“But you don’t know mine.” Green Arrow said.

Captain Cold put down the fire with his gun.

“Let’s all get a chill and focus on our strengths.” Captain Cold ordered. “Harkness.”

Clark had his x kryptonite inhaler ready but Captain Boomerang hurled several of his translucent boomerangs and one of them hit Clark’s hand and threw it away. Clark ran to grab it back but he was on the way to get killed by another boomerang until Oliver arrowed the boomerang. When Clark’s bleeding hand reached the inhaler, another boomerang was about to return and hit Clark’s head.

“Clark, duck!” Oliver yelled. It was too late.

Clark was lucky. The boomerang collided with a batarang, saving his life. Standing on the top of the barn’s wall, the dynamic duo, fully costumed, watched over them and their presence was marked by the sound of thunder. Everyone looked at Weather Witch.

“I did that by accident.” She said.

Batman and Robin jumped on the ground and joined the fight against the Rogues. Batman and Green Arrow fought side by side against Chronos and didn’t let the exchange of punches stop them from a chat.

“Hey, Bruce.” Oliver said.

“You know me?” Batman asked.

“A version of you. I guess you’re not with the Batmen.”

“How come?” Batman asked and knocked out Chronos.

“This guy is still alive.”

Robin had a bo staff with Weather Witch, he took her staff out of her hands before she could use her powers and as gently as he could pushed her to ground. She kicked Robin away and grabbed the staff back, ready to electrocute him, she was punched by Batgirl and fell with a broken nose.

“You can fight better than that.” Batgirl said.

“She’s a lady.”

“The others aren’t, go!”

A powerful vehicle driven by Alfred crushed most of the Rogues' vehicles. Captain Cold created a gigantic wall of ice that this Batmobile even had trouble going through. Captain Cold whistled loudly.

“Rogues, retreat!” Captain Cold yelled and all the Rogues ran to the remaining vehicle pulling Trickster with them.

“I’ll burn that damn car with you bastards in!” Heat Wave yelled.

“Mick!” Snart cautioned. “Let them go. You can’t kill them all, and they’ll kill at least one of us if they keep fighting. I don’t wanna be that one.”

Heat Wave reluctantly put down his gun. The Rogues left, Alfred and Gordon left the vehicle and attended to the survivors. Batgirl approached Snart, the skin of his arm was burning, frozen from the shot against Captain Cold.

“Captain Lance said you’d prefer to die from the cold than anything else.” Batgirl said.

“You’ve met me?”

“No, but I met a version of him.” She pointed at the Heat Wave. “You two work with the Legends in their universe, or timeline based on looks.”

“Yeah?” Heat Wave said. “I just fought a version of me who’s a cocky piece of shit! ‘Chronos’? What’s wrong with Heat Wave?”

Clark walked over to Batman, his hand now bandaged because of the wound inflicted by Captain Boomerang.

“Bruce,” Clark said. “Can I call you Bruce?”

“Makes no difference to me.” Batman answered.

“You saved my life today, thank you.”

They shook hands, something Batman wouldn’t have done a while ago. Snart got up, said very weak thank yous and told them they head to go.

“Wait a minute.” Gordon said. “If you’re in the Madlands, you must have a reason. Maybe we can work together, watch out for each other. Where are you going?”

“We’re going to break in the Batmen’s base.” Clark said.

“Don’t you know when to shut up, farm boy!?” Heat Wave said.

“I thought we were crazy for going to the war zones.” Batgirl said.

“You must be crazy,” Snart said. “Look at these wheels you have, you can probably make to New Metropolis with them.”

“It’s not just us.” Batman said. “There are hundreds, maybe even a thousand other survivors and we have a ship large enough to transport them all but we have no way to turn it on. We’re looking for Batman and the Outsiders to help us.

“Ha,” Snart laughed. “The Outsiders are a myth, the only Batmen you find other than yourself are either dead or killing.”

“This ship,” Clark chimed. “Has space for 8 more people?”

“I see you’re not counting Luthor.” Snart said.

“Fuck Luthor.” Oliver answered.

“We have space for at least a hundred more people.” Batgirl said.

“Maybe we can work together.” Clark said. “Find the Outsiders. Or you could join us.”

“Breaking into the Batmen’s territory, turning off their defenses and let the Supermen have them while we go to the Supermen territory and steal their ships. I bet their ships run on something powerful enough to ignite your arc.”

Batgirl and Robin looked at Batman expecting orders.

“We will search for the Outsiders. If we don’t find them, we’ll go with your plan.”

“Little detour to look for ghosts.” Snart teased. “What could go wrong?”

Unbeknown to them, Peacemaker was flying way above their view with a jetpack on his back. Chris Smith carried a sniper rifle and aimed at Snart’s head. He touched his earpiece.

“Peacemaker to Batmen,” He said. “I have Captain Cold, he was branded, isn't supposed to be alive. Permission kill.”

“Denied.” Wayne answered. “Keep an eye on them, find what they’re up to. They have a Batman on their side, he has the power to throw gasoline on the flames of our war. The little peace we have depends on you, Smith.”

“Understood, sir.”

Chapter Text

A warzone was happening on the border of the Batmen territory. Bullets were being exchanged, bombs, fires and every now and then meta-humans battling each other. Kryptonian spaceships and flying Batmobiles known as Batwings attempt to fly above the enemy territory. Far from that scenario of chaos, the survivors observed the war with binoculars. Snart breathed heavily.

“Luthor’s simple plan was for us to go through that and get into the Batmen territory.” Snart said. “Now it’s to go through that, take a look around to see if the Outsiders are real, and then go there. Just great.”

“We should take these wheels and go straight to New Metropolis.” Heat Wave and the larger Batmobile presented a rocket launcher and pointed at his face.

“Good luck with that, young man.” Alfred said from inside the vehicle.

“Maybe he could inhale his magic powder and get us Superman then.” Heat Wave told Clark.

“We don’t know how it’s going to last on him.” Snart said. “And what stops the Supermen from bringing three of their own and putting him down? We need to be smart.”

“You thought we were with the Batmen when we were in Old Metropolis.” Jim said. “What if the Batmen think that too? We could just pass as their own on the areas they lead and use Luthor’s access to go in.”

“You’ll think they’ll just ignore us and assume we’re with them?” Golden Glider questioned.

“In the heat of the war, they will.” Jim pointed at Clark. “So let's make some war.”

Clark put out his X Kryptonite Inhaler. Green Arrow smiled.

“Alright, Gordon.” Green Arrow said. “But if we don’t want my friend to get a kryptonite bullet in his heart, we’ll have to plan this well.”

Up in the sky, Peacemaker observed them, and he managed to put eyes on the inhaler and knew what it was.

Deep in the Batmen Territory, Knightmare watched the images of the survivors and recognized the larger Batmobile and Wayne recognized the smaller one driven by Batman and Robin.

“That’s mine.” Knightmare pointed to the bigger vehicle on the screen.

“And this one is mine.” Wayne pointed to the black Batmobile. “It got in Convergence with me. Couldn’t take it with me when I left the Batcave. That’s probably where they got it.”

“That is in fact an eclectic bunch.” Old Wayne’s powerful voice spoke. “Peacemaker won’t stand a chance against them by himself. What do we know about them?”

“We’re yet to identify Batman, Robin and Batgirl.” Knightmare explained. “But we already know the rogues with them, Captain Cold, Heat Wave and Golden Glider have been a problem for years. One of them is Clark Kent.”

“Kent?” Old Wayne asked, surprised.

“He doesn’t appear to have his powers anymore. But here’s the thing.” The image on the screen amplified and revealed the X Kryptonite Inhaler in Clark’s hand. “He has XK, if he inhales, he gets his powers back, he’s Kryptonian, maybe permanently but could be temporary, probably why he didn’t inhale it yet.”

“We know what to do.” Wayne said. “Send a crew to get them before Superman returns.”

Hours later, a crew was reunited. Flash, Deathstroke, Dark Archer, Solomon Grundy and none other than Knightmare himself (to the surprise of the others). Flash, coming from the same devastated world as Knightmare, was the only one who felt comfortable enough to actually question his presence.

“Uhm, what are you doing, Bruce? I thought the others said you wouldn’t come to field missions anymore.”

“This one is different.” Knightmare said. “There’s a powerless Superman there, they have my Batmobile, they have a Batman with them and good numbers. I can’t stand by.”

“Don’t be foolish, Bat.” Dark Archer warned. “If the Supermen find you're there…”

“They’ll come and kill me! I’m ready to die.” Batman put on a kryptonite brass knuckle. “But I’ll die slowly to make sure you live.”

Late at night, the survivors read the map of the warzone. There was a point of attack, Clark should fly there and use his heat vision on the Batmen, non lethally of course, that would wrap chaos. When they were too busy counter-attacking, the survivors would use Luthor’s passing cheat to get into their territory. The point from where Clark would attack would also cause conflict among the Supermen and when started shooting against the Batmen, Clark would fly away before getting gunned down with kryptonite. That supposed to happen by down.

The survivors slept, all of them but Robin. He spent the night open cleaning the Robin suit with bleach trying to make it lighter, it was too dark, too uninspiring for those in need. He also couldn’t sleep thinking about the horrors the other Dick Graysons went through by the hand of Jokers from different Earths. Where he came from, Joker was the worst of the worst but even he wasn’t a torturer or blood thirst. Robin kept bleaching, could almost see his reflection in the red of the suit but instead he saw a thin small shadow. Something was going to come, he ran and grabbed a black arrow in thin air being shot in their direction. 

“Holy ambush!” Robin yelled and woke up the others.

The arrow he held activated and liberated a gas. Robin throwed it back to the direction it came from. A hulking gray beast appeared and wreaked-havoc on their camp and destroyed the truck gifted from Luthor. The bigger Batmobile turned on and hit Grundy’s body but it suddenly turned off. Knightmare stepped out of the shadows, controlling his old Batmobile with his gauntlet. Jim Gordon tried to shoot, he was surrounded by blue lightning, all his guns were taken from him and he was facing the ground with his wrists zip cuffed.

Batman attacked Knightmare, who ducked and protected himself from every punch and kick.

“So young,” Knightmare said. “So weak!” He added and kicked Batman to the ground. “And you think such weakness is what makes you the Batman.” Knightmare grabbed Batman by the collar. “Who made you Bat..!?” Batman headbutted Knightmare’s mouth before he finished the sentence.

Knightmare fell back with his teeth bleeding and was knocked to the ground by Robin’s stick.

“He won’t be bullied out of being a hero by a killer!” Robin said.

“Robin, watch out!” Batman yelled.

Deathstroke attacked Robin with his sword and he defended himself with his stick. Batgirl joined the fight and both she and Robin faced Deathstroke.

Captain Cold, Golden Glider and Heat Wave hid behind the large Batmobile, the Flash was on the ground, most of his body frozen (thankfully, Leonard had some experience dealing with speedsters).

“You have it?” Captain Cold asked his sister and she showed him the keys of the smaller Batmobile. “Fuck Luthor, let’s go.”

Green Arrow and Dark Archer and an archering duel, they knew each other as Dark Archer came from Green Arrow’s Earth, not only that, but he was his master in the past after Oliver left the island. They ran across the camp and shot arrows at their enemies.

“You’re slower than before, Vordigan.” Green Arrow taunted. “Are you the Vordigan I know or a slower version?”

“I’m the master who found a chance to make you fulfill your role.” Dark Archer answered and shot an arrow at Green Arrow, who grabbed it in the air.

“Okay, so you just got old.” Green Arrow answered and hit Dark Archer with his own arrow, breaking his bow.

The three bandits entered the Batmobile, there was only space for two so they barely fit inside. They turned it on and drove away but their escape was interrupted by Solomon Grundy who knocked out their car. Batman ran from Knightmare and threw explosives at Grundy trying to get him away from the vehicles. Leonard, Lisa and Mick crawled out of the Batmobile, bleeding, broken bones, and faced Knightmare, waiting for them. Heat Wave tried to reach for his gun, Knightmare stepped on his hand, took the gun and burned all of the three alive. Once he stopped shooting the fire, he saw who was watching him, a man who he hadn't seen in a long time.

“Master Bruce…?” Alfred spoke, scared by the display of violence he just witnessed.

“Alfred? You’re back.” Knightmare, excited to see not just any Alfred but the one he knew. But Alfred did not share his enthusiasm, he was scared by what you saw. “What is wrong?”

“The things you’ve done…” Alfred said, seeing the burned corpses of the Snarts and Rory. “The things I helped you to do… I didn’t fathom what they meant. But now I think.”

“Alfred, please…” Knightmare was interrupted by Batman who jumped him.

The two resumed their fight. Dark Archer was down tied by a rope-arrow and Green Arrow was shooting explosive arrows at Solomon Grundy and Clark watched this, he had to help. He pulled out his inhaler but before he could use it, he got shot, a bullet went through his hand and destroyed it. Peacemaker flew down to the camp, pointing the gun he just used to shoot Clark. He passed by Clark and shot him again in the leg. Peacemaker went to attend to Dark Archer, he cut out the green rope from the arrow and released him.

“Well done, Peacemaker.” Dark Archer said and put out his extra bow to face the Green Arrow.

To everyone’s shock, Peacemaker shot Dark Archer behind his head, killing him. Something fell down from the sky and hit Solomon Grundy. The monster received a wave of punches and was killed in seconds, standing over his body, a Superman, the Superman Knightmare knew, the one he feared, wearing a black suit with a silver S on his chest. 

Flashtime. Everything was slow, nothing could move like the Flash did, even though he was weak  after being frozen by Captain Cold, he thought he was fast enough to save Knightmare. Superman moved, he was almost as fast as him in Flashtime, faster maybe, but he couldn’t risk, Superman knew what to do. He used his cold breath and froze Flash again, forcing him out of Flashtime and he fell weak on the ground unable to move, shaking from the cold. Superman grabbed him by the neck and lifted him.

“You are too powerful to run loose.” Superman said and broke Flash’s neck, the cracking of his bone audible.

“Barry!” Knightmare yelled, he put out his Kryptonite brass knuckle but before he got near Superman, Jon-El appeared between them and caught Knightmare’s fist. He crushed the kryptonite and broke Knightmare’s hand.

Jon-El looked at Clark, bleeding with a hole in his hands and smiled.

“I guess you won’t get your powers back.” Jon-El taunted. “Remember when I said Luthor was looking for you? He found you.”

Somebody else came down flying and landed next to Clark, this Superman was not really a Superman. Not just for the gray suit and cape but where there should be an S, was an U and the shield in his chest was upside down. That was Clark Luthor, and he had Clark’s exact same face. He broke Clark’s arm and lifted him up.

“The big prize.” Clark Luthor, the Ultraman, said.

“For you, maybe, but two Batmen?” Jon-El said. “That’s a pretty big deal.”

“Kent and Queen wouldn’t be such a big prize if you hadn’t fucked up.” Ultraman angrily said and slapped Jon-El’s head. “Lost to Flash villains, that’s just sad.”

“Yeah?” Jon-El walked to the three burned corpses and kicked Captain Cold’s body. “Some problems solve themselves.”

Superman held Knightmare by his neck and kept Batman on the ground with his feet. Knightmare pointed to the traitor with his unbroken hand.

“Peacemaker! You’re a traitor.”

“I am loyal to peace.” Chris Smith answered. “This war went on for too long. The Supermen can bring peace to Convergence, but before the Batmen must go down. It’s the only way.”

Deathstroke put out his gun and was ready to shoot Peacemaker, who put his gun out to shoot back but before either of them actually pulled the trigger, Superman cut Deathstroke in half with his heat vision. Green Arrow took this moment to take an arrow out of his quiver and shot it at Ultraman, who easily catched and laughed at Green Arrow.

“What was that supposed to do to me, Queen?” Ultraman asked.

“Wasn’t for you.”

The arrow liberated a yellow smoke and Clark inhaled it. His eyes lit up red, his leg, hand and broken arm healed and Clark punched Ultraman at full strength and sent him flying away. Superman attempted to burn Green Arrow but Clark used his super speed and jumped in front of the heat vision, protecting Oliver but severely burning his back. Jim Gordon crawled on the ground and reached for the pieces of the brass knuckle Jon-El broke and used the sharp metal to cut his zip cuffs. With a piece of kryptonite in hand, he attacked Ultraman, punched him to the ground, and punched his face again until it was covered in blood. Clark ran towards Superman and was kicked on the chest, pushed far away and sinking on the ground.

“I have no time for games.” Superman grabbed Knightmare and Batman and flew away taking them with him. Jon-El grabbed an unconscious Ultraman by the ankle and flew away as well.

“Batman!” Robin yelled to the skies.

“Master Bruce!” Alfred yelled.

Oliver looked around, the dead bodies, the destruction, that had to be only the beginning.

“We have to go.” Oliver said. “Before the Supermen come back.”

“No.” Robin said. “We can’t abandon Batman, time is of essence, we must go the Supermen territory for a rescue, it’s risky but to be a hero is to takes risks–”

“Dick!” Batgirl shouted. “I promise, we’ll come back for Bruce but right now we have to retreat and prepare. You trust me, don’t you?”

“I do.”

“So let’s go.”

All of them entered the larger Batmobile driven by Alfred as it was the only vehicle left. They went back to the only place they knew.

Dawn. Sunshines covered the Forgotten Boulevard and the Batmobile, Clark Kent stepped out of the vehicle and welcomed the yellow light to his body, a bruise on his chest from Superman’s kick and his back burned from his heat vision. As the yellow sunlight entered his body, Clark’s wounds healed in a few seconds. His twin girls ran to his arms and hugged his father, his wife kissed. Lex Luthor stood back, purely disappointed.

Inside the Fortress of Solitude, Jim gave Alfred a mug of coffee, he was still shaken by what he had just witnessed the night before. Robin was desperately trying to access Luthor’s computer for the files of the Supermen territory but he couldn’t understand how this technology (or really any technology post-1960s) worked.

“Step away, boy.” Luthor ordered.

“I need your information on the Supermen so we can rescue Batman.” Robin explained.

“I’ll decide if you’ll get it.”

“I just decided I will or perhaps you should meet the hammers of justice.” Robin warned and Luthor smiled in mockery and offered his face.

“Punch away, boy wonder.”

Before Robin’s fist got too close, Green Arrow pulled his arm away and pushed him away from Luthor.

“He’s protected by a force field.” Green Arrow explained. “You were about to get fried.”

“Golly, Green Arrow, what should I do then?” Robin asked. “Those villains took Batman away and I’m just supposed to sit here?”

“We’ll save your friend, Dick.” Clark announced as he entered the room. He was wearing the Superman suit, red S over a yellow shield, cape, boots, trunks, yellow belt with that same S on the center. He hadn't worn that in years. “And I’ll make sure that happens.”

“Daddy, your underwear is outside.” Little Lara told her father.

“That’s what I told your grandfather, honey, but supposed to be this way.” Clark explained.

“Return of the king.” Luthor said. “You got your powers back, but I fail to see why I should help you.”

“Your plan of taking the Supermen and Batmen territory can still work.”

“Are you seriously cutting a deal with this guy?” Batgirl asked.

“Better the devil you know…” Jim told her.

“The Supermen had an inside man.” Luthor said. “Peacemaker by their side and still they couldn’t use him to put the Batmen down. Maybe I underestimate the Batmen.”

“Or maybe the Supermen are not as smart as you.” Clark said and Luthor smiled.
“Well… That’s more likely. What do you suggest?”

“We go to the Supermen territory and rescue Batman.”

“Both of them.” Alfred said.

“All of them.” Clark added. “We’ll make a massive prison break. That is going to be a great distraction.”

“While you do what?”

“We’ll put their communications and defenses, the Batmen will come with everything and won’t even notice when Oliver and Gordon use the access code you gave them to get inside and put their defenses down as well.”

“That would unleash pure chaos and unavoidable deaths. I caution you, alien, if you’re considering just freeing your friend, I’ll still have your wife and your children.”

Clark lifted Luthor by his neck, his hand went through the force field and was burning and making loud noises of electricity.

“Don’t you threaten my family!” Clark yelled.

Eventually, the force field put them apart, Clark’ hand was burned and Luthor’s neck was bruised. Lex was mildly unphased.

“I’ll consider this the handshake to accept our Faustian deal.” Luthor said.

Batman and Knightmare were both chained by the hands to the ceiling of an underground bunker. There were other prisoners next to them in the same position. Soldiers in black uniforms with S symbols on their arms waited. Superman (the same Superman with a black suit and silver S who took them) landed and the soldiers kneeled down. Superman approached them, his eyes lit up red and used his heat vision to cut the prisoners bodies, all of them, except for the two Batmen. He approached Knightmare and removed his mask. Batman could see how angry this Superman was at Knightmare.

“She was my world and you took her from me.” Superman said, he put his hand on Knightmare’s chest and sank his fingers through his flesh. Knightmare screamed from the pain.

“Kal-El!” A man yelled. “You can’t do this here.”

The man was pale, with slicked back dark hair and a beard, he wore black. That was General Zod, and Superman stopped by his order. The bloody finger left Knightmare’s chest before he was dead.

“Alright, General.” Superman said. “But no one will take his execution from me.” Superman looked at Knightmare's eyes, he smiled. “Do you bleed?”

Superman and Zod both flew away from the bunker. Batman looked at Knightmare’s wound and said:

“Something is definitely bleeding.”

Knightmare looked angry at him, his breathing was heavy.

“Did you just make a joke?” Knightmare asked. “Now?”

“Something I learned from Dick. Helps to wear out the tension.”

Batman lifted his body so he could take a look at the chain around his wrists.

“You won’t crack this lock.” Knightmare said. “I know it because that’s the same we use.”

“You and your militia.”

“You don’t know what we had to do. Being the Batman…”

“Save it.” Batman interrupted. “Superman and Batman were supposed to be symbols of hope, I know this much. But you and these idiots are ruining everything. I saw the way Dick saw Batman, I heard the legends Barbara told me about Batman, why can’t we be that?”

“What kind of pretty world you came from.”

“A world where a boy sees his parents being gunned down in an alley.” Those words cut Knightmare deeply. “I tried to be vengeance, for too long, but I learned I had to be something else.”

“You saw a light?”

“I became the light.

At the kitchen of a cafeteria in the Supermen territory, the workers used crowbars to open the new box of supplies and got a surprise when Robin and Batgirl jumped and knocked them out. Security guards tried to use their radio but Superman* used his super-speed and took their radios away. Knocked them out by using his super breath to throw their bodies away.

(Until now, I referred to Snyderverse Superman as Superman but from now and on I’ll refer to ‘Smallville’ Clark as Superman and that other as Dark Superman*)

“Was that super breath I heard?” Green Arrow asked Superman from his earpiece. “I bet you’re loving to be super again, Big Blue.”

“Like riding a bicycle.” Superman said.

Robin and Batgirl threw batarangs at the cameras, they nailed in and Alfred now I had control over the footage and could run the images from the previous week. Batgirl took the radio of one of the guards so she could hear the frequency. Robin checked his watch under his glove.

“We have a few hours,” Robin said. “They’re going to move them to a main prison before executing them in public. We could speed things up by saving Batman while he's on the move.”

“That wouldn’t work, Mr. Grayson.” Luthor said from his earpiece. “One prisoner is not going to disturb order in their territory. Follow the plan.”

Meanwhile, in the Madlands, Green Arrow and Gordon took out a Batmen cargo vehicle. The soldiers were knocked out by impact arrows and tranquilizer darts. The two moved the unconscious men and tied them down.

“That was easier than I thought.” Jim said.

“Heat Wave used to brag about he and the others stole from the Batmen and Supermen all the time. I just followed his steps but changed flaming down to non-lethally knocking out. Worked like a charm.” Green Arrow checked his watch. “We have to be in sync with the others if we want to get in at the right time window.”

“I’ve done missions like this before.”

“No matter the universe, Gotham is crazy.”

“That’s true but I wasn’t talking about Gotham. I was in the army before I became a cop. You? The whole green thing, you sort of do the type.”

“I did get my preparation before I became the Green Arrow but not in the army, my training field was a bit more… Primal.”

Gordon and the Green Arrow put on the suits of the Batmen soldiers and drove away in their vehicle.

Batman and Knightmare were pushed inside a new prison. They faced a vast yard, the space had the size of three house blocks and there was nothing but an enormous crowd of people, enough to fill a small town. Every eye around was placed on them. Batman analyzed the area, the gates, the guards, thinking what was the best way out.

“I could break out from here in 2 or 3 days.” Knightmare told Batman.

“But they’re going to execute us in a few hours.” Batman answered.

“Yeah. Shit.”

“Why are you talking to me? They want me dead because of the things your people have done.”

“Because if we’re going to run from here, we have to work together. They’re going to take us to be executed together in a public square. Our way there may be our only chance to run.”

“What do you suggest?”
“No suggestions. I just need to know, if I manage to break out, will you help me and not attack me?”

“No deaths.”

“You can’t do things like that.”

“If you want me as your ally, no deaths.”

“They’re going to kill us, you fool!”
“I know that, but I also know about you. Alfred told me. You were always capable of being the Batman without taking lives but you still chose to be this monster, you chose to be vengeance and not set yourself apart from the scum! That night in the alley, we both looked into the abyss, but there’s a difference, because when it looked at us, you blinked.”

Batman struck Knightmare’s jaw and knocked him down to the ground. Batman turned his back and left, to be attacked by Knightmare. The two fought, Knightmare could only use one of his hands. The other prisoners took it as entertainment.  Suddenly, the shadow of a bat hung over the yard, something over the sun created this bat-signal to everyone’s surprise. Including the two Bruce Waynes.

Supermen soldiers found an improvised bat-kite flying in the sky tied to a brick near the prison. The soldiers felt something pinch their necks, blow darts, shaped like bats. The last thing they saw was Batgirl approaching as they passed out. Batgirl and Robin took their access cards, invaded the monitor’s room and beat up all the guards, leaving them unconscious. Robin touched his earpiece.

“Done, Superman.”

In the yard, all the prisoners shook in fear as a man wearing a red cape, but Batman knows who that is, he knows that S on his chest. Clark Kent landed in front of the two Bruces.

“You must’ve offered something big to Luthor for him to sneak you here.” Batman said.

“You won’t like it.” Superman warned. He used his heat visions and put down the gates of the prison. “You’re all free!” He announced and the prisoners ran out of the yard. Knightmare tried to leave as well but Superman held him back. “I promised Alfred you’d come with us.”

“I can’t even be sure if that was the Alfred I knew.” Knightmare said. “I-I saw him die.”

“Why don’t you ask him?” Superman said and offered Knightmare his earpiece.

Knightmare put on the earpiece and heard Alfred’s familiar voice.

“Master Bruce,” He heard. “The first generation of your family made their fortune through pelts and skins, they were hunters. I always saw that in you, but I need you to look me in the eyes, and tell me how you felt being a hunter for 20 years, and how this sad world couldn’t show you could’ve been more.”

Knightmare looked Superman in the eyes, he could never look one of them in the eyes, he knew what they did and couldn’t not look at the S carried but at this moment, he needed to say this to a man.

“Bring me to Alfred.”

Superman gave Batman a new utility belt and carried both him and Knightmare as he flew away out of the yard.. From up above, they could see the escaped prisoners creating chaos all over the Supermen Territory. They put down a communication tower, stole cars and took away the soldiers’ weapons to use them for themselves. Suddenly, they were hit, a malefic Superman punched Clark and he dropped the two Bruce Waynes. Batman held Knightmare and spread his cape so they could glide safely to the ground.

“To remind you I’m not like you.” Batman said.

“That’s my cape you’re wearing.” Knightmare said.

“You’re welcome.”

Some Supermen soldiers tried to point their guns at them but both soldiers got jumped by the escaped prisoners and stomped to death. Some of these prisoners looked at Knightmare with respect.

“Sir…” One of them said, clearly a former Batmen soldier.
“Run.” Knightmare told them. “Before you get caught. Now you listen…” Knightmare was about to say until he noticed Batman was no longer there. “So that’s the feeling.”

“Not quite.” Batman told Knightmare from his earpiece. “Clark still has to hold his promise to Alfred. But he can’t if he gets killed. Robin, are you there?”

“Here and ready for action, Batman!” Robin said.

“What was the plan?”

“Create chaos, so the Batmen could get a chance to move forward on the trenches and we could infiltrate their territory.”

“Who’s we?”

The Supermen were disorganized in the warzone, many of the men left to help with the prisoners issue in the main territory, the Batmen took advantage of it. In their moment of weakness, the Supermen were hit by tanks and bullets, and more and more armed comboios left the Batmen Territory to fight.

Oliver and Jim used their access card to get in the territory’s gates, usually the front was supposed to check who they were and why they were there but not now, they were too busy winning.

Green Arrow and Gordon drove to a cave near the center of the Batmen Territory. They left their vehicle wearing their regular clothes, Gordon with his gun on hand and Green Arrow with his bow ready. They entered this cave, to their surprise, empty except for the literal bats in there.

“If that’s where the Batmen keep their energy source, why isn’t it guarded?” Gordon asked.

“Nobody but the Batmen and Luthor knows it’s here, guards getting in and out would draw too much suspicion.” Green Arrow explained. “But I doubt they left this place truly empty.” Green Arrow stopped Gordon from moving forward and pointed to the small lights on the walls.

“Movement sensors.” Gordon said. “What do we do?”

“Camouflage.” Green Arrow pointed his bow up. “Cover your face.”

He shot his arrow and this disturbed the bats, causing a whole swarm of them to cover them. They walked through the flying animals and went unperceived by the movement sensor until they found a metal gate.

Green Arrow exploded the gate away, immediately he and Gordon were received with bullets. A man shot at them, black, dark skin, goatee and quite muscular. He tried to reach for the emergency button but Gordon shot it before he had the chance. The man ran and Green Arrow put an arrow through his shoulders and nailed him to the wall. He tried to painfully remove himself out but Green Arrow kicked him back on.

“Stay there- -” Oliver ordered before finishing his sentence, and noticed that he was running to reach for the technological glove that was part of a larger bat-armor. “Metal Bat? That’s right?”

“Batwing, asshole.” Luke Fox said.

They were in a controlling room, the screen presented the energy maps of the whole Batmen Territory. There was a warning about the movement sensor, the last one only indicated the movement of bats, as they predicted. In the center of the room, a metallic capsule, big enough to fit a man inside, connected to wires all over the cave.

“How do we open this thing?” Gordon asked.

Green Arrow grabbed a tablet screen with the word ‘Palm print requested for access’ and forced Luke Fox to put his hand in it. The capsule opened, inside with his hands and feet stuck to the machine, a naked man with blue skin, he was thin and tired, he looked desperately at Gordon’s gun.

“K-Kill me- - P-Please…” Dr. Manhattan begged.

Superman fought his evil counterpart Ultraman in the sky. They exchanged punches and flew through buildings. Between their punches, Ultraman would use his heat vision against the crowd of runaway prisoners.

“No!” Clark Kent yelled and punched Clark Luthor.

“You think you helped them?” Clark Luthor asked and punched Clark Kent. “Maybe they had a chance before, now we’ll do a massive clean to get rid of them all.”

Superman pushed Ultraman to the ground and punched him, several times, until his wrist was grabbed. He recognized the man who did it, brown hair, shaved face, long black coat.

“Hello, Kal-El.” Said General Zod, the one from his Earth.

Zod pulled Superman away from Ultraman and the two started fighting. Superman was surprised by another Kryptonian, a blonde thin woman, covered in black and wearing a small S symbol on one side of her chest. Ultraman got up, and Superman had to fight him, Zod, and this Supergirl. They burned him with their heat visions and did it back, they tried to pin him down, but he got up. He already knew Ultraman and Zod from before Convergence and knew one of them alone would be a challenge, but both and a Supergirl? Odds were against him, but he fought, fought until they couldn’t believe he was still standing.

“That’s enough.” Someone else said. Dark Superman punched Clark’s rib and knocked him out from the sky. “Three of you against him alone and you couldn’t win. Pathetic. Put him with the others.”

From far, Batman and Robin witnessed Supergirl taking an unconscious Superman away.

“Holy falling hero, Batman.” Robin said. “We can’t leave without Superman.”

“Wait.” Batman said. “If this plan he had with Luthor works, we may have a shot at bringing him.”

Green Arrow and Gordon were astonished by the battery being used by the Batmen, a living being. Breathing and begging for death.

“Your battery is a person?” Gordon asked Luke Fox, disgusted.

“Dr. Manhattan.” Green Arrow explained. “I heard of him, the only metahuman on the versions of his Earth. First time I see one myself.”

“His powers…” Luke Fox frantically said through the pain in his shoulder. “They’re the only thing that can create and sustain enough red sun radiation. If you free him, the Supermen will attack and we’ll all die.”

Green Arrow pressed the emergency button on the cave.

“This will give your people a head start.”

Green Arrow shot an explosive arrow at the center of the battery capsule. The explosion destroyed the capsule and freed Dr. Manhattan. He jumped out of the capsule and looked at Oliver and Jim.

“Thank you.” He said and flew away, phasing through the ceiling flying above the clouds. He left the atmosphere and saw the outer space of this chaotic planet known as Convergence. Dr. Manhattan put his hands on his head, and killed himself, exploding his entire body. The blue explosion sent a wave of energy seen by the entire planet.

“Hell of a head start you gave us.” Luke Fox said.

From the Supermen Territory, Dark Superman saw the explosion but beyond that, he saw the lights off in the Batmen Territory. No red sun, no defenses, he yelled to all his men, that was the time to attack.

Clark Kent woke up tied to a table, he knew the crystals attached to his wrists, blue kryptonite, he was powerless. A middle aged bald man wearing a white lab coat was putting crystals on a machine, Superman knew where they were, the Fortress of Solitude, his Fortress of Solitude, at least a version of it.

“Welcome back, Superman.” Luthor said. “That’s a sentence I say quite a lot.”

“Lex.” Superman said. “Surprised they have one of you working instead of just killing you.”

“My name is not Lex.” He answered. “Luthor, just Luthor. This first name seems more of a modern invention which I do not share.”

In this Fortress, there was a cell, there were two women, one who looked like a younger version of Lois’ mother, and a tall bald black man with a scar on his face. They were 8 kids there, all had their mouths shut with metal gags, all but the one who looked exactly like Jon-El and the older black girl.

“What is this?” Superman asked. “What are you doing to them?”

“That’s a very special prison. Only a few are worthy to be here. And you, Superman, are the most worthy of them all. That’s why you’ll join the others.”

Luthor moved the table and took Clark to a gallery of frozen Supermen. Many of them dressed like him, none wearing black, all covered in crystal by the Fortress.

“Ever wondered why you never saw the more classic versions of you flying around?” Luthor taunted.

“You’re monsters.” 

“We are the Convergence, a world of Gods and Monsters… What are you three doing here? That's a restricted area.”

Three Supermen Soldiers approached, the woman with them threw something at Luthor, he fell. Superman looked down, there was a bat shaped dart on Luthor’s neck. The three soldiers removed their helmets and revealed Batman, Robin and Batgirl.

“Didn’t think we’d leave without you?” Batgirl asked as she removed the blue kryptonite shackles from Superman.

“Was it easy to come in here?” Superman asked.

“Between the prison break and them being too busy going after the Batmen, their territory became a chaos.”

“All worked as Luthor wanted. Which means he’ll send an army of kryptonite bots here at any moment.”

“We have no time to lose.” Batman said. “We’ll take their kryptonian ships, Ray Palmer will use their engines to put the Waveride back on the sky. But we need to do it before Luthor’s robots come in here.”

“I think they can help.” Robin pointed at the benevolent Supermen frozen.

“He’s right.” Superman said and started switching around the crystal of the fortress. “This Fortress is just like mine, probably got here with Ultraman. Jor-El taught me everything, I know how to free them.”

Superman kept switching the crystals and the lights flickered. He put a final blue crystal on the center of the machine and a powerful flashlight appeared from the frozen Supermen. Before he could even assimilate what happened, Superman was hugged by his cousin.

“Clark!” Sha said.

“Kara? You were here this whole time?”

“Too long of a time.” Another Superman said. He stepped out and shook Clark and Bruce’s hand. He resembled Ray Palmer but he was older, the red S on his chest was on black  and his eyes were deep blue. “Thank you, I’m grateful for what you did. We all are grateful.”

Following the older Superman, was a version of Dark Superman wearing bright blue, red and yellow, unlike the one who beat Clark, he smiled friendly, and was followed by many grateful Supermen.

Chapter Text

Several containers were queued and stacked in an area of the Supermen Territory. A crew was moving them when Jon-El came down flying towards them.

“Hold it right there.” Jon-El said.

“Sir, there’s chaos all over, I’m not sure if this is the time to be concerned about the safety of the stocking.” A worker argued. 

“Is that so? You should know this chaos is happening because the enemy got in hidden in the kitchen supplies. I’ll inspect all these to make sure there’s no more surprises- -”

A metallic robot jumped through a container and attacked Jor-El, he had a green light in chest. Jon-El held its neck and arm and laughed.

“Green Kryptonite, so predicta- -” Sudden pain. Jon-El looked down, the robot stabbed his chest with the hand, the colorful light in his chest changed into XK golden. The robot ripped Jon-El’s heart out of his chest, killing him.

More and more robots broke through the containers and attacked the workers. The arm headed to attack the rest of the territory.

Note: You’re about to enter a scene with many different versions of the same characters, so in order to avoid confusion I’ll designate something to call each of them tell who they are upfront (they will not be mentioned on the “Who’s who” since they here already):

Kingdom Superman: Brandon Routh older Superman featured in CW’s Crisis.

Superman Returned: Brandon Routh younger Superman from his movie.

Superman: The main character you’ve known so far from “Smallville”.

The Man of Steel: Henry Cavill from the main DCEU pre-Flashpoint.

Clark: Dean Cain from “Lois & Clark”.

Clark Kent: From “Superman & Lois”.

Bizarro: Also from “Superman & Lois”.

Kal-El: From post-crisis Arrowverse.

Supergirl: Supergirl from “Smallville”.

Kara: Supergirl of the Arrowverse

Superboy: John Newton from the 1988 “Superboy”.

“You woke us up and now just to tell us there’s a whole army of Metallos coming here?” Clark asked, a Superman with a more tanned skin and darker eyes.

“Let them come.” Steel said, John Henry Irons, a tall dark skinned man wearing armor. “If they kill Kal-El it’s a bonus.” All the Supermen looked funny at Steel. “The one from my Earth of course.”

“You’re from one of the universes destroyed during the Crisis.” Kingdom Superman explained. “I was there when it happened, I’m sorry.”

“There’s no time to go through old losses.” The Man of Steel said. “When we faced the Supermen, we did it alone but now we match their numbers.”

“It’s foolish.” Bizarro said, his ‘S’ was inverted and his chalky white skin was damaged, other than this and shining blue eyes, he looked just like Clark Kent. “There’s still more of them and we still have the kryptonite robots to deal with. If Luthor made them, they’ll kill us indiscriminately. The one who put me down isn’t even Kryptonian, they have him, they have the leverage.”

“Ad-ham- -” A young boy tried to say but his mouth was gagged with metal. “Hish neim is Ad-Ham.”

“I beg your pardon?”

The Man of Steel broke the gag.

“Here we go, Billy.” He said.

There were other kids there who were also mostly gagged with the same metal lock on their mouths, the benevolent Supermen broke them all.

“His name is Adam.” Billy Batson said. “He got his powers from the same guy as me, except he wasn’t supposed to have them.”

“Even if you have the same powers, he’s a grown man and you’re a child.”

Billy Batson smiled, he looked at his foster siblings and they all knew what to say.

“SHAZAM!” The siblings yelled and seven lightning bolts fell through the roof of the Fortress onto them. No more children, they were superpowered full adults, each of them wearing a different similar suits with different colors but all with lightning bolts on their chests. Billy was the one in red, he stepped in front of Bizarro. “You were saying?”

“We need to separate in teams.” Batman said. “Clark, you come with me.” All the Supermen looked at Batman. “I mean, the Clark I came in here with. We need to take a ship before it’s too late and bring it to Ray Palmer.”

“There’s alarms all over their ships.” Kara explained. “That’s how I got caught. If you take a ship, even if the Supermen are busy, they’ll know.”

“You don’t need to worry about them.” Superman Returned said. “We’ll keep them busy.”

“So it’s decided.” Batman said. “Me, Clark and his cousin will go take the ship. The children, Robin and Batgirl, will slow down Luthor’s bots. The rest will stop the Supermen when they come for us.”

“Let me come with you.” Batgirl said. “I spent years under the tunnels with my dad, I wanna be the one who brings him salvation.”

“You’re welcome to come. Let’s go.”

The Supermen destroyed the Batmen Territory. Burned street, knocked down their small buildings and ripped their soldiers apart piece by piece. Green Arrow and Gordon watched it happen from the cameras with Luke Fox. Green Arrow looked up, waiting for one of the Supermen to invade the cave.

“How come they don’t see us with the x-ray vision?” He asked.

“There’s led all over this place, they can’t see anything.” Luke answered.

“Alfred, it’s Gordon.” Jim said, touching his earpiece. “We’re stuck here, we can’t get out with the Supermen out there.”

“You may have your chance soon, Commissioner.” Alfred said. “I was informed that just that many Supermen joined our ranks.”

“Really? I guess those guys won’t be so busy with the Batmen for too long.”

“Don’t be so sure.” Luke said. “The Batmen know how to keep them busy.”

Inside the main Batcave, John Dee, a black suited Superman searched for the Batmen, the older ones, their leaders.

“I know you’re there.” John Dee said. “I can hear your heartbeat.”

“You won’t hear your own anymore.” Wayne’s voice echoed through the cave, too echoed for John to know where it came from.

Finally, a silhouette, the Batman trying to sneak out of the cave. John Dee flew through him and destroyed his body, but that wasn't Batman, just a robot filled with kryptonite gas. When John destroyed it, the gas was liberated and he inhaled all of it, falling to the ground in pain. Heavy steps, Wayne stepped out of the shadows, carrying a kryptonite batarang in one hand, this was the hand. The batarang flew before John Dee’s eyes and went through his brain.

“You shouldn’t have come to my house.”

Arsenal lay on the ground yelling in pain, the heat vision of the Supermen cut one of his arms off, the rest of the Outlaws lay dead next to him. All but Jason Todd, who dragged Roy Harper out of the battle and gave him an injection for the pain.

“They killed everyone.” Roy said as Jason made a tourniquet around what was left of his arm. “Why did this happen? Why did the red sun lights go down?”
“I don’t know.” Red Hood said. “But we can’t do anything. It’s out of our league. Look at that fool out there about to get himself killed.”

Drake Winston, Robin, thought he could surprise Dark Superman jumping on him from behind. Big mistake, Dark Superman grabbed his ankle and reduced him to guts hitting the asphalt.

“Robin!” Old Bruce yelled and ran towards Dark Superman with a bat-shield with Kryptonite spikes.

Dark Superman used his super breath and sent Old Bruce flying away higher than the clouds. Someone contacted him through his earpiece, Dark Superman stopped the destruction and spoke to the lower command.

“This better be important.”

“They’re everywhere!”

“Who?”

“Metallos! The other Supermen are fighting them but they’re not on our side.”

‘Other Supermen’ he knew what that meant, he ordered a retreat and assembled his Supermen to fight back at their territory.

The Supermen flew back to their domains and were astounded by the sight. It was all reduced to crambles. The Metallos jumped towards them, filled with kryptonite, the Supermen had to push them away with heat vision, Black Adam used his lightning but that didn’t work. The people were dying, their own soldiers getting ripped apart, upon this, Dark Superman spoke to the others.

“Leave it.” He said.

“Come again?” General Zod asked.

“Leave this place, we’ll rebuild somewhere else. We’ll grow stronger again, find the version of Luthor responsible for this and kill him.”

The Evil Superman turned their back on their own territory ready to leave it to rot. Flying before them were the good Supermen united as one army, Kingdom Superman in front center followed by the other Kal-Els, Supergirls, Steel and Shazam Family.

“You think you’ll fly away after everything you’ve done?” Kingdom Superman asked.

“I was wondering if we’d catch you in time.” Dark Superman answered.

“You should’ve known. We wouldn’t let you go.”

The two armies flew against each other and exchanged fire. Their battle was announced by the lights above the clouds, pure fire in the sky and thunderous violence echoing with the noise of their punches. From the ground, Knightmare saw it happen as he raced away from the Metallos on his motorcycle.

“Kill each other, assholes.” He said.

Up there, the Man of Steel faced Black Adam, they knew each other from the past.

“Long time ago you said we should talk.” Black Adam said. “That was the wrong approach.”

Black Adam lifted his fist but before he moved, Dark Superman attacked the Man of Steel and the two fought one on one. Billy Batson then approached Black Adam.

“I guess you’ll have to deal with me.” Billy said, then punched Black Adam’s jaw. “I mean, it makes a lot more sense. Why do you wanna fight Superman, bro? Look at us! It is thematically rich!”

Billy went for another punch, Black Adam ducked and hit Billy’s body with a lightning, held his neck and pushed him down. They descended into the ground at a high speed as Adam tightened around Billy’s neck.
“You are unworthy of the mantle of my son! And my attention! You are a child!”

“No,” Mary said, and grabbed Adam’s arm from behind, Freddy Freeman was with her and grabbed Black Adam’s other arm.

“We’re a whole bunch of children.” Freddy added.

They turned them around putting Billy on top, the rest of the Shazam Family joined in and hit Black Adam so powerfully he fell like a meteor opening an enormous crater on Convergence.

Batman, Robin, Superman, Kara and Batgirl invaded the tunnels underneath the Supermen Territory. They walked past several ships, all small, but the deeper they got, the bigger the kryptonian ships were.

“That’s so iconic.” Batgirl said. “Batman and Superman, Batgirl and Supergirl. I’d say we’re missing Robin and Jimmy Olsen but they don’t sound as good.”

“Focus, Batgirl.” Robin said. “Right now the fate of your people depends on our success today.”

“Dick’s right.” Batman said. “Which one can you pilot?”

“That one.” Kara pointed to a crystal shaped gray ship.

“That’s from our world.” Superman said.

“It is. I know how to operate this ship. The only problem it’s the security system.”

Superman put his hand on the ship and it opened by his will.

“I figured it would think I’m Ultraman.” He explained.

“Alright, hop in.” Kara said.

They entered the ship. Kara didn’t waste any time, she flew through the tunnels breaking solid stone as if the ship was a knife going through butter. Once it emerged on the surface, they had two Metallos on top of the ship, and Kara spiraled until they were both out. She was following the coordinates Barbara gave her but suddenly, Ultraman appeared in front of them.

“Get off my ship!” He yelled.

Ultraman attacked the ship but Kara opened it and Superman flew off of it and started hitting Ultraman back. That turned out not to be as helpful as expected as other Supermen attacked the ship and the good ones were already occupied.

“I can’t fly like this!” Kara said.

“I don’t think anybody here has a course on flying alien ships!”

“What about Batman? Can’t be so different from flying a Batwing.”

“What’s a Batwing!?” Batman questioned.

“Okay, you’ll all have to handle it while I stop these guys. I’ll put it on… I think we can call it easy mode.”

“We don’t have a choice here, do we?”

“No. It’s all instinctive, good luck.”

Kara flew off the ship, despite the moment of fear, the ship got quieter as she fought off the Supermen who were attacking them. Different Evil Superman grabbed the ship, Kara and Superman fought them off. Batman flew above them all but to his surprise, found The Man of Steel and Dark Superman fighting each other above the atmosphere. Neither of them noticed their presence, until they hit the ship on the Supermen causing their fall. The last thing they saw was the ground they hit as the ship collided against the desert.

Bruce woke up, he was no longer on the ship. He found himself in a bed, when he removed his sheet, discovered his leg was broken and confined to an improvised cast, his ribs ached and he had stitches all over his arms. Around him, stone walls, cell bars, but it wasn’t locked. His Batman suit was lying next to the bed, he grabbed his utility belt and limped out of this strange. Finally, he found people. Dick was training among them, he jumped out of the gymnastic equipment and ran to Bruce.

“Holy awakening of a hero!” Dick said. “You’re back!”

“How long was I out?”

“10 days.” A man said he approached Bruce with a cane and was followed by a German shepard. “We nearly had to amputate your leg after the ship fell around here but we managed to save it, Bruce.”

“Bruce.” He repeated. “It’s you.”

“Come with me.” This other Bruce said and he and Dick followed the older man.

“We thought Rorschach made you up.”

“When you don’t take lives, there’s always the chance they’ll escape. But in the end, it was worth it, elevated us to something else, a legend.”

“Us?”

“The Outsiders.”

They saw this group of heroes. One of them was old, had white hair, one arm, and by the bow and the goatee, they could see the old man was an Oliver Queen. There was a tall black man wearing blue and bolts on his suit, an Asian woman with a sword and a mask similar to the flag of Japan. A man wearing a reflective mask. A blonde girl with a golden staff.

“These are Green Arrow, Black Lightning, Katana, Looking Glass and Stargirl.” The older Bruce said. “My team.”

“Nice to meet you all. Is it true you can send people to New Metropolis?”

“A few by the time. We built vehicles and had speedsters fast enough to drop survivors there before the portals closed. But Robin told us about Gordon’s group and the Legends, we can’t save that many people at once.”

“You don’t have to. The ship we were taking, we were supposed to take it to Ray Palmer so he could use its engine to power their own and transport the whole people.”

“I’m well aware, come with me.”

The Bruces went to a different section of the prison. They found a man wearing a striped shirt, white and red, working on armors and robots who resembled Batman. In the center, was the Kryptonian ship the crashed, broken apart. The man in stripes approached the Bruces.

“Pat, this is Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne, this is Pat Dugan, our mechanic.”

“Hi, Robin and Batgirl told me what Atom was planning.” Pat said. “You crashed it hard but no matter the universe, this Kryptonian stuff is always insanely resistant.” Pat walked to the pieces of the ship and grabbed a large translucent crystal. “This is what was powering the ship. Atom should be able to use it to bring Waverider back up.”

“So what are we waiting for? Let’s go!”

“We can’t go out.” The older Bruce told him. “There’s a war right now, it’s not safe to leave when we have Superman crashing into each other.”

The older Bruce led his younger version to a monitoring room where Barbara was watching the Supermen battle on the screens.

“They’ve been fighting for 10 days straight without sleeping or eating.” The older Bruce said. “I’d be amazed if not scared.”

Barbara turned around in her wheelchair and smiled at the younger Bruce who had woken up from a coma. He noticed she wasn’t wearing any casts despite being a wheelchair.

“Barbara, are you alright?” He asked.

“When the ship crashed I broke my spine.”

“I am so, so sorry…” Bruce tried to apologize.

“It’s not your fault. Barbara Gordon becoming paralyzed seems like a constant in the multiverse, it’s supposed to happen.”

“If there’s one thing being in this hell proved to me is that nothing is set in stone. There’s always a different version of the story. We’ll get to New Metropolis and your back is going to get fixed. I promise you.”

“So much hope.” He heard Oliver’s voice saying. It came from a radio. “Kinda hard to believe you’re from one of those grounded universes without metas.”

“Queen, is that you?”

“And me too.” James Gordon said. “We’re with Alfred in the Batmobile trying to keep a low profile.”

“Man, it’s weird a Batmobile is considered low profile.” Ray Palmer said.

“Palmer is there too?”

“Actually, I’m still with the GCPD and the rest of the survivors. Barbara managed to establish a line of communication.”

“Being Batgirl is cool.” She said. “But Oracle also has a few aces down her sleeve.”

Bruce walked towards the radio and spoke with them.

“What’s the plan?”

“I’m glad you asked.” Ray Palmer said. “I can make Waverider fly, just for a bit. But we can cut the distance between us enough for you to bring the magic crystal. We’ll map the nearest spot on the way to New Metropolis, you’ll meet us there and give us the thing to get Waverider to fly into New Metropolis.”

“Sounds simple enough. Except for the two Supermen armies fighting each other all the way in.”

“From what I heard, half of these Supermen are on our side. We did the math.” The older Bruce said, the rest of his Outsiders stood behind him. “There will be more people on that ship than we’ve ever saved before, they’re worth the risk. We have your back.”

“We all do.” Pat said. “Come with me, I have something I think will fit and compensate for your leg.”

“What is it?”

“I call it the Hellbat.”

ENDS IN THE NEXT CHAPTER

Chapter Text

The Hellbat armor was black with red lenses and a red bat on the chest. The moment Bruce stepped inside it, it was like his leg wasn’t even broken anymore. He placed the crystal on his belt, ready to take it to the Waverider.

“Rather fearsome, don’t you think?” Robin remarked, as the armor exposed two large black wings from its back.

“I designed it hoping it would bring fear to those who deserve it,” The Dark Knight explained. “It was made out of different versions of Apokolips technology from different universes. It was the project Pat invested the most time perfecting. I was supposed to wear it.”

“Why don’t you?” Bruce asked.

“Because I’m old. You can do it better than me at my age; there’s a reason why I never wore the Hellbat before.”

“Mr. Wayne’s right,” Pat Dugan said. “This armor will cause a lot of stress to your body. We knew it would probably kill Mr. Wayne at his age, but the doctors showed me their impressions of you: peak human condition. You can take the heat.”

“I’m not too concerned about the armor. But I am about to fly in the middle of the Supermen battle.”

…

“You wanna crash the ship?” Commissioner Jim Gordon (the older one) asked Ray Palmer.

“A controlled rough landing,” he corrected. “The leftover energy can’t take the full ship to New Metropolis, but it can get us closer. Batman said he has an energy source from a Kryptonian ship; if we get there in time, I can use it.”

“Can’t you land?”

“Won’t get us as nearly as close. We need to lower the risks of them not getting to us in time. We can accommodate the Waverider for everyone, and when it crashes in the desert, we’d be prepared for impact. Definitely injured passengers but no deaths.”

“You had already considered that for a while, hadn’t you?”

“Desperation, Commissioner.”

“Captain Lance, that’s your ship. What do you think?”

“That’s your people, Commissioner. It’s up to you.”

Too many years living down there, too many people, too little food. Commissioner Gordon filled the Waverider completely; no one was left behind. The tunnels they made their home were abandoned. Outside Gotham, groups of survivors watched cracks forming on the hills and as they collapsed, the Waverider emerged and took flight towards New Metropolis.

…

Somewhere else, the younger Jim Gordon and the Green Arrow were inside the Batmobile near the New Metropolis border. Jim peeked at the enormous dome of blue light; he and Oliver could barely look up at the sky because of how high it was and no matter the direction they looked, it was hard to see where the dome ended. Every now and then they could see flashes of white light around the dome.

“See that? Those are passages,” Green Arrow explained. “It’s how people get in if they got a vehicle fast enough.”

“Like this one?”

“Listen, Jim, I can take care of myself on foot. If you want to take the Batmobile and go there where it’s safe, it’s cool for me.”

“And leave the others behind? I don’t think so. If I get there, my men will come with me. The whole GCPD from my world is still stuck here; I owe them that much. What about you? Why don’t you go?”

“Clark is still fighting those monsters. Lois and the girls are still out there; I can’t let them down.”

“They were with Luthor last we saw them. I hope they’re ok.”

“With Lois, they must be. Even in this Hell, you wouldn’t believe how tough that woman is.”

…

Lois watched the battle of the Supermen from her cage at Luthor’s hideout. For days, her husband and other versions of him fought their evil counterparts, and she watched it from a cell. Luthor did not expect that many good Supermen to be set free and now they posed a threat, so Lois and the twins became his leverage against them. Luthor concluded both girls were 100% human despite their Kryptonian inheritance. Lois lifted their sleeves, revealing marks on their arms, the emblem of House of El.

“Girls, I’m not sure if you remember, but when you were little… Something bad happened. Bad that scared you two and- -”

“I remember, mom,” Lara said.

“Me too,” Martha added.

“Good. Because of that, your Aunt Zatanna came and made sure it wouldn’t happen again. We agreed to put an end to it once you two were old enough, but now we have an emergency. You remember the words?” Both girls shook their heads. “It’s Wolley Nus. Don’t laugh. I need you to say it. Wolley Nus. Together and meaning it.”

The girls looked at each other and breathed deeply. In sync, they both shouted.

“Wolley Nus!”

The marks on their arms lit up in white and then golden light and disappeared. Luthor’s computers indicated the presence of Kryptonians in his lair. This signal was followed by a thunderous sound of destruction as the twins destroyed the cell. The lights of the lair changed into red sun.

“Sorry, Luthor, they’re supercharged. It’s gonna take hours of this to take them out, hours you don’t have,” Lois bragged and grabbed a piece of stone from the ground and threw it at Luthor. His force field defended him, but he was just as mad.

The twins held their mother and flew out of the lair, opening a hole in the ceiling with their heat vision.

…

With the Outsiders, Bruce had his Hellbat armor on and admired his Batmobile from his own world.

“I thought I’d never see it again,” he said.

“It’s from your world, isn’t it?” The Dark Knight asked. “Had Pat doing some upgrades.” He tossed the keys to Bruce, who in response tossed them to Dick.

“Holy powerful automobile,” Dick said. “I never drove the Batmobile from my world.”

“This one’s different,” Pat Dugan’s voice echoed around the cave as he walked in as a giant white robot with an S on his chest. “It can fly.”

Pat was followed by Stargirl and Black Lightning.

“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” Bruce cautioned.

“You told us how many people are in those tunnels; we are helping.”

“Oracle, what’s the situation?” The Dark Knight asked.

“Oracle?” Bruce questioned.

“Batgirl is no longer suitable,” Barbara explained from the earpiece. “The Atom is going to fly the Waverider to an area near enough, and I have it mapped down. As long as you get past the Supermen, you’ll be alright.”

“Just getting the most powerful men in the Multiverse,” Pat Dugan ironically said. “Nothing much. Courtney, you can sit this one down.”

“So can you,” Stargirl replied. “But neither of us will.”

“Let’s do this,” Batman said as the roof opened.

Hellbat warmed up, a blaze of fire came from its back. Robin turned on the Batmobile, and a pair of Batwings came from each side. Black Lightning flew up and was followed by STRIPE with Stargirl on top of him. Batman flew up with the sound of thunder, and Robin followed him on their way to the battle.

Inside the Waverider, the Legends controlled their ship manually. Ray Palmer supervised the progress, but something didn’t look too good for them. The entire population could feel the ship going down.

“Is this it?” Gordon asked Ray. “Are we supposed to go down this soon?”

“No!” Ray Palmer shouted. “Oracle, are you there?”

“I’m here, Ray,” Barbara answered through the speaker.

“The Waverider won’t go as far as I anticipated. Can we still make it if we crash here?”

“I-I don’t think so. You are so close; can’t you hold on just a little longer?”

“If we put too much pressure on the ship, the engines might catch fire. I can’t risk the safety of the people in here with- - Wait, we’re stabilizing.”

A screen appeared before the Legends revealing a pair of little girls holding the Waverider and keeping it from crashing. A passage opened before them, and a woman entered their room, her hair messed up by the wind from being up in the sky.

“Hi,” she said.

“I recognize her from files,” Ava Sharpe said. “Are you Alura Zor-El?”

“Lois Lane, nice to meet you. I saw your people were in trouble, and my girls decided to help you.”

Outside, Clark with his supervision could see his daughters saving the Waverider. He smiled proudly at them, but that was a distraction he could not afford. General Zod, the one he knew, took this chance to grab him and put his arms around his neck in a powerful hold.

“Memories of two lives and in both, you are my mortal enemy, Kal-El,” Zod said. “So many days and nights, and it’s poetic you, the one who accomplished so much so early in your life, be the first to fall.”

Zod was ready to break Clark’s neck, but before he got the chance, something punched him away, drawing blood from his mouth and freeing Clark. He expected another of the good Supermen, but instead, he saw the Hellbat.

“So, calvary is here?” Clark asked Bruce.

“Took us long enough, but we’re here.”

Stargirl blinded the evil Supermen with her Cosmic Staff, and STRIPE shot at them with blasts of red sun radiation.

“How are we supposed to know which of them are evil ones?” Stargirl asked.

“If they look mean, they probably are,” STRIPE told her.

Shazam was getting punched to a bloody pulp by the Man of Steel in a black suit. Freddy Freeman tried to help his brother but was grabbed by the throat. Black Lightning jumped on the enemy’s back and started shocking him but to no effort.

“You’re out of your league,” he warned as his eyes lit up red.

“Kids, I need a charge!” Black Lightning pleaded.

“Shazam!” Billy and Freddy yelled in sync.

As the double lightning bolts hit them, Black Lightning took that energy through his body and blasted their villain away.

Down in the desert, Robin landed the Batmobile and found Steel passed out; he removed his helmet and saw blood on John Henry Irons’ face. He put his ear on his chest; he was still alive. Robin put the hero on the back of the Batmobile.

“I… Just couldn’t keep up,” John Henry said.

“Save your strength, mister,” Robin told him. “You did great. More heroes are here to do more great and to save lives.

Waverider was slowly going down as the Kent twins landed near New Metropolis. Captain Lance spoke to them through speakers outside the ship.

“Girls, you’re doing great. Is this the closest you can do?” She asked.

“It’s too heavy!” Lara said.

“Oracle?”

“The location is perfect; they can land,” Barbara told them. “Bruce is going to deliver the Kryptonian crystal soon. Ray will put it on the ship’s engine, and from there, it is straight to New Metropolis.”

Oracle spoke to Bruce on his earpiece as he fought the evil Supermen.

“The bird has landed. You heard me.”

“I heard you,” Bruce said.

“We heard her too,” Kingdom Superman said as he and the Man of Steel held their enemies back. “Go, save them.”

Bruce flew at his max speed to the Waverider when he was surprised by an enemy they thought was defeated. The Darker Man of Steel Black Lightning blasted grabbed the Hellbat and dragged him down by the force field surrounding New Metropolis until they crashed on the desert. Down there, Bruce saw this Superman’s face and spikey hair burned from Black Lightning’s powers.

“Everything we built, everything I built!” He shouted and gave Bruce two punches that would completely demolish a human but he was protected by the Hellbat. “You destroyed it!”

Batman and Superman punched their fists against each at the same time in full strength creating a sonic wave around them. Bruce’s hand and arm were broken as Hellbat’s arm was to crumble. Dark Man of Steel’s arm was broken as well, his bone sticking out of his flesh. He breathed heavily and shot his heat vision and Bruce shot back from his gauntlet with a purple blast. They matched power until the Hellbat showed it was the stronger blast and knocked his opponent out.

Bruce attempted to fly but his armor was too damaged. He saw the Waverider nothing but a dot in the distance. He grabbed the crystal on his belt and ran, knowing it wasn’t going to help it but he had to do something. Suddenly, Jim and Oliver arrived in the vehicle.

“Bruce!” Jim said. “Your arm…”

“Don’t worry about it! We need to get this to the Waverider and quick. How fast is this thing.”

“We can only pray. Hop on.”

“Wait.” Oliver told them. “I have a better idea.” He touched his earpiece. “Barbara, I need a precise distance from my location to the Waverider.”

“What are you thinking?” Oracle asked.

Oliver grabbed his bow.

…

Jim Gordon and the Legends stood outside the Waverider watching in horror the battle of the Supermen. By then, Bruce was already supposed to have arrived with their Kryptonian Crystal.

“Lois,” Sarah said. “Can the girls understand latitude and longitude? Oracle can give them a location to go grab the crystal.”

“They’re kids, they don’t exactly teach these things in middle school.”

To their surprise, a green arrow was shot from a large distance until it hit the sand around their feet. Sara grabbed the green arrow and saw in its tip was the Kryptonian Crystal they needed to power up the Waverider.

“Oliver Queen, always you, no matter the universe.” She said and tossed the arrow to Ray Palmer.

“Let’s roll.” Mick Rory said as they entered back on the ship.

…

From their vehicle, Bruce, Jim, and Oliver watched as the Waverider flew towards New Metropolis. But something bad came along: the evil Superman started attacking the ship, and the good ones had to defend it. Even though they were able to dodge the attacks, the Legends were not capable of finding the passage for the ship. Ultraman descended from the sky and cut their vehicle in half with his heat vision. The three heroes were left helpless as the evil Clark Kent approached them; however, Superman, their friend, appeared and fought back against his evil self. Robin came with the Batmobile and rescued the three.

“They can’t make it,” Jim said. “Not with those monsters attacking the ship.”

“My family is in there!” Clark shouted from the ground as he held Ultraman down.

“We need to distract them for long enough,” Bruce said. “What kind of weapons did the Outsiders put in my car?”

“We’re more similar than I thought,” a familiar, although disguised, voice spoke from the car’s controller. The Dark Knight, in his fully black Batman suit, appeared. “Because I thought the same.”

“Bruce,” the younger Batman said. “I thought you were too old for that.”

“Too old for your suit but not for mine. I couldn’t ask my Outsider to do something I wouldn’t do myself. And I couldn’t let Oracle stay behind.”

“She’s in there with you?” Robin cheerfully asked.

“Right here, Dick,” Barbara said. “I guess saving my dad from a heart attack after finding out I didn’t make it to New Metropolis is worth the risk.”

The Dark Knight floated his Batwing alongside the good Supermen. The Man of Steel spoke to him.

“I’m guessing you’re on our side.”

“Listen carefully. A passage is going to open; Black Lightning can hold it open long enough for the Waverider to come through.”

“A ship this big? I don’t know if I can, Batman,” Black Lightning said.

“You showed sudden growth in powers before, Jeff.”

“But I can’t control- -”

“Hey, big guy,” Shazam told him. “You have me, remember? Time for extra juice.”

“Let’s go, kid.”

The moment a passage of white light opened in the dome, Black Lightning hit it with his bolt as Shazam put the power of Zeus around through his body. The energy created was enough to open a crack in the dome. Inside the Waverider, the Legends watched in surprise as for the first time, there was a clear passage to New Metropolis.

“Is it big enough?” Captain Lance asked Ray Palmer.

“Will have to be,” he answered.

The ship flew towards the crack. As it was halfway through, they became stuck, unable to move forward. Clark saw it; he knew his family was there and couldn’t let it happen. Superman pushed the ship himself, forcing it inside New Metropolis. His evil counterparts attacked him, but the Dark Knight, the older Bruce Wayne, shot at them from his Batwing. The evil Supermen shot back with their heat vision and created critical damage to the vehicle.

“Can we keep going?” Oracle asked him.

“Just for long enough,” the Dark Knight answered.

“Long enough for what?”

The Dark Knight put the Batwing on autopilot and programmed it to fly to New Metropolis. He left the vehicle as it entered New Metropolis through a passage of light. The Dark Knight was falling but opened his cape and glided. He swiftly dodged the heat vision attacks, but they hit his cape and burned his back, leaving him injured. The Dark Knight avoided his foes by throwing kryptonite batarangs at them. When it seemed he was heading for the ground, the Dark Knight landed on top of the Batmobile.

“How’s your back?” the younger Bruce asked him.

“Don’t worry about me now; we have bigger problems.”

A concentration of heat vision attacked the Batmobile and destroyed it. The foe expected this to be the end of the heroes, but from the smoke, they appeared unharmed, carried by the Supermen. Kingdom Superman carried the Dark Knight, Clark Kent carried the younger Batman, while his son Jordan carried Robin. Oliver was carried by the Supergirl from his world, and Jim was carried by the Superman Returned.

“I think it’s time we lost these guys,” Kingdom Superman said.

“I wholeheartedly agree!” Robin said.

As Superman forced the Waverider into New Metropolis, his cousin and counterparts dropped their allies on top of the ship and joined him. Together, with their strength, the ship pierced into New Metropolis, and they found themselves in the utopian city.

“Holy skyscrapers of hope!” Robin said.

Under the blue dome was the New Metropolis they hoped for: an art deco metropolitan paradise with beautiful skyscrapers that appeared to come from the most beautiful future you can imagine. The Waverider opened, and the crowds who lived in the awful tunnels for so long looked tearfully at their new home. Barbara left the crashed Batwing on her wheelchair and went to hug her father.

A robot-man approached them; he was a big bronze square-shaped figure wearing a leather jacket with unmovable features.

“Uh, hey guys,” he said. “My name is Cliff; people call me Robotman, and I’m responsible for the distribution of the population around here and… I’m sorry, shit, fuck, never that many people were able to enter the dome I don’t know what to- -”

“It’s ok, Cliff.” A familiar voice said. On the sky was a Superman they had never seen before, tall, dark hair, blue eyes, the expected look but there was something about him, looking at him felt like he was the Superman. Clark recognized him as Dr. Virgil Swan in his world but that Superman was something else. He landed near them and shook hands with the two Batmen. “I’ll take it from here. Welcome to New Metropolis.”

ONE WEEK LATER

Inside the Outsiders base, Alfred met with Black Lightning, the Shazam Family, Katana, the older Oliver Queen, Looking Glass, and Stargirl with STRIPE.

“I’m sorry you couldn’t reconnect with the Bruce from your world, Alfred,” Stargirl said.

“He’s on his war; he will always be,” he answered.

“So, guys, let’s go to New Metropolis?” Shazam asked.

With the Batmen done, the Supermen found a new enemy, or better yet, an old enemy: Lex Luthor started a war against them for territory while the Knightmare schemed against both sides. Meanwhile, without their leader, the Outsiders couldn’t keep going, so they decided to head to New Metropolis.

The plan was simple: Plant bombs around the territory; Luthor thinks it’s the Supermen, the Supermen think it’s Luthor. Meanwhile, the rest of the Outsiders fly straight to New Metropolis in a Shazam-powered vehicle built by Pat. And it worked like a charm.

They were greeted in New Metropolis by the Dark Knight himself with the Superman of New Metropolis and Wonder Woman by his side.

The younger Batman and the Green Arrow, fully suited, watched as their comrades welcomed the rest of the Outsiders. Superman, the Clark Kent they were closest to, joined them.

“Alfred is finally here,” he told Bruce. “I can get you there to greet him.”

“I’ll get there soon enough.”

“I can carry you.”

“I said I’ll get there.”

The two other heroes laughed.

“So, today’s the first reunion of the Justice League Incarnate,” Green Arrow said. “Ready to fight crime in New Metropolis?” As he said, they saw three other Supermen flying in the sky. “To fight whoever’s crazy enough to commit crime in New Metropolis.”

“It’s a never-ending battle,” Superman said.

“Both Jim Gordons are in respectful positions in the police force, Dick and Barbara are taking a break now that they’re together, but there’s always something to deal with. Today’s topic of discussion is the Justice League Incarnate leaving New Metropolis.”

“We just got here!” Oliver said.

“We did, but there are still many good people out there who didn’t.”

“He’s right,” Superman said. “I’ll vote yes to it. Isn’t that what being a hero is all about?”

THE END