Chapter 55

Red Hood's reload time was just too fast. Batman thought that he'd wait it out until the Red Hood needed to reload before striking back, but he couldn't because he was just too fast.

Ratatatatata!!

"Stay still, motherfucker!" The frustrated Red Hood shouted.

"You don't have unlimited bullets, Red Hood! You'll echaust yourself eventually!" Batman shouted as he flew around and continued to evade Red Hood's bullets.

"I'll kill you before then!!"

Ratatatata!!

"You know, I never expected you to be a masochist." Batman rambled. "To think that you'd be attached to the Joker after he beat your ass with a crowbar."

"Grrrr!" Red Hood kept shooting.

"I mean, what else could you be, other than a masochist? Did it feel good getting your skin ripped apart and your bones being broken?"

"Shut up!"

"No, really. I want to know. This is good material for my psych class."

"Shut up!"

"Is this whole thing just a lover's suicide? Why'd you have to bring the city into your toxic relationship?"

"I said, shut the fuck up!!"

Red Hood cocked his assault rifle and switched to the grenade launcher mode.

Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The explosions caused damage to the ceiling and parts of it began to fall down.

A huge chunk of the ceiling fell down and hit Batman.

"Haaah. Haah. Haaah." Red Hood panted. The psychological attacks against him were effective but it proved to have a positive effect for him in the fight.

Red Hood slowly walked over to Batman who was laying down on the ground being pinned by a part of the ceiling.

"You'll never know what it's like...The pain I that I have endure my entire life while growing up in this cursed city. At least you still had your father...I had no one..." Red Hood kicked Batman's head.

Batman's head rattled violently like it would break off from his neck.

"Bruce eventually came along and I thought that would mean the end of my troubles. Wrong. It became worse. It turns out that maniac over there..." He pointed towards the Joker who was currently fighting Doug. "...he developed a hate for Robins. He said to me when he beat me with a crowbar 'Batman was more fun without a Robin.' He noticed that Bruce was holding back his brutality when Dick was around him. And that was when he decided to kill me.

"Ughhh" Batman groaned in pain.

"And you know what Batman did? He didn't kill the Joker even when he found out I was dead. He just got a new Robin. That's why it happened the second time with Tim."

Batman tried to push the ground to lift himself up but Red Hood pushed him down again while crouching down.

"I blamed the Joker after I got revived and got back my memories. Then, I came to hate Bruce after I found out that he left the Joker alive." Jason took off his helmet and gazed at Batman through the mask he wears under his helmet. "Then, after a while, I realized the root source of it all. It was this city. Batman and Joker wouldn't have existed if it weren't for this city being flooded with crime and I wouldn't have suffered all of this. Batman's dream of getting rid of crime in Gotham will never happen. It's a never ending cycle...unless all of it is destroyed and a new city will be built on top of the previous one's ashes. It's the only way."

Beeeep.

Jason Todd stood up and looked at the device that started to countdown. The bomb was designed to start counting down by the time it finished setting up.

"Ten minutes. Ten minutes until real justice is served." Jason took out his gun from his holster. "I'll send you to the afterlife ahead of us. Any last words, Terrence McGinnis?" He said as he pointed the gun to Batman's head.

"Terry?"

Jason turned his head and only just noticed that Doug was drawing his fight with the Joker near him and Batman to stop him. He overheard Jason referring to Batman as his old friend Terry.

"Kuhk!" Doug looked in front of him. The Joker had stabbed him right when his attention was somewhere else.

"Rookie mistake." The Joker chuckled.

"Oh, that's right. You were friends." Jason nonchalantly said. "Don't worry, you'll meet each other soon."

"Kuh! Doug!!!!" Batman shouted as he watched his friend drop to his knees while clutching his wound. Doug was loosing blood quick and needed to be provided with first aid fast to survive. Despite that, Doug was smiling.

"How come you didn't tell me?" Doug said before completely collapsing.

"Doug!!!" Batman pushed the ground to try and stand up. "Gugh!"

But he was stomped down by Jason Todd. "Don't try."

Jason pointed his gun at Batman's head, but before he could pull the trigger...

Schwiiing!!!

"Urghhh!!!"

Jason looked up to where the projectile came from that made him drop his gun. From there, a silhouette came gliding down and threw explosives at them.

Boom! Pop Pop Pop! The explosives popped in front of them and temporarily blinded them

Jason and Joker instinctively moved backwards as the person wearing a cowl landed near Batman.

"UGGGGH!!" He lifted up the part of the ceiling that was pinning Batman down. "Get out of there! This is heavy, you know?"

Batman started crawling out, groaning as he did so.

Bam!

The piece of the ceiling fell on the ground after the man that helped Batman released it.

"Are you still good to fight?" The man in a black cowl offered his hand to Batman.

Batman made a faint smile and took his hand. "...Yeah."

"Who are you?" Jason demanded for answers.

"...I was once like you." The man took off his cowl to reveal himself.

"Tim?"

--Earlier--

"You were Robin?!" Carrie shouted.

The Jokerz that went near the neighborhood of the McGinnis residence have been defeated. Cedric and the others had a hard time with them, but they got an unexpected backup.

"It's Red Robin now." Red Robin smiled as he looked at Carrie wearing a similar uniform to what he wore back in the day. "I'll leave the title of Robin with you."

"Holy...!!!" Carrie was filled with excitement.

"Why did you help us? Don't get me wrong, the help was very much appreciated, but there are many locations that needed more help." Cedric said.

"It's all over. I only helped out in four locations, the other two was taken care of Barbara and our friends at blackgate since it was near there."

Tim Drake was surprised when he saw Bane and Harley teaming up to quell down the riot when he got there.

"There's nothing else to do but to wait for Batman to finish the job."

"Yeah." Cedric smiled.

-Red Robin...

"Huh?"

"What is it?" Carrie asked.

"No, somebody is calling me on my comms."

-Red Robin, this is Barbara. Head to where Batman is right now. He needs help.

Red Robin widened his eyes.

"What happened?" Cedric asked.

"I need to go..." Red Robin fired his grappling hook. "Batman is in trouble."

----

The Joker cackled. "A reunion~! This is turning out to be more fun than before!"

"Hey." Tim Drake said to Batman after putting his cowl back on. "You take care of Jason...I have some unfinished business with the clown..."

"...Are you going to be okay?"

"If you're worried about my past trauma, my anger right now trumps all of it."

"Then, I'll leave him to you." Batman said as he walked towards Jason who has put his helmet back on.

Red Robin sprinted and swung his staff at the Joker.

"Urgh!" The Joker groaned. "That's a long stick you got there..."

"Shut up! Hearing you talk makes me sick!" Red Robin swung his stuff and missed, but he twirled it around his body and swung from the other side.

He has mastered the staff to a point that it looked like an art. It was beautiful to look at...but also violent.

"Gah!" Joker moved back and clutched his side where he got hit. "Hahaha...you sure missed me a lot. I guess you couldn't forget the fun we had back then."

"I said, shut up!"

"Gughk!" The Joker got jabbed to his throat with the end of the staff. "HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" The Joker cackled. "What's with all this foreplay? Why don't you just kill me now?"

"Don't order me around! I won't make the same mistake as last time...I'll make sure you rot in jail!!!" Red Robin spun his staff and swung it over Joker's head.

"Gahk!" Joker glared at Red Robin. "Grrr..."

And Red Robin received it with a smile.

On Batman's side, Red Hood is now more on the defensive side since he can't overpower Batman head-on. All he needs to do is stall for time before the bomb explodes.

"Jason!" Batman shouted in frustration.

He stopped chasing him and launched projectile weapons, but Red Hood evaded them all.

Batman launched another swarm of projectiles, but Red Hood dodged them all again.

"Heh." Batman chuckled.

"I'm glad you're still in the mood to laugh. Or are you laughing from exhaustion?"

"...I was just thinking that you were the one chasing me earlier, and now the tables have turned."

"...You are exhausted."

"Well, after all that, of course I would be exhausted. So, why don't you do me a favor and face me head-on."

"Why should I?"

"You're right. Why should you when you know you're going to lose."

"...You can't provoke me." Red Hood smiled under his helmet.

"You're just adopted after all..." Batman suddenly shifted the conversation.

"...What do you mean?"

Batman tried his best not to smile but the corner of his mouth twitched a little bit when he got a good reaction from the Red Hood. "Exactly what I mean. You can't be Batman's successor because you're adopted. Plus, you're the least qualified Robin to be his successor. Tim Drake and Dick Grayson are more qualified than you to take up the mantle. So, how could you beat me?"

"...Who cares. At least we were adopted by Bruce himself. That, at least, indicates some validation. Meanwhile, you're just some punk with talent that Alfred and Barbara picked up. Bruce was dead even before you could have a chance to prove yourself worthy of inheriting his title as Batman. So, why should I listen to you?"

"Oh, right. You don't know..." Batman smirked. "I'm his biological son."

Red Hood stood still.

"That should be enough validation, isn't it?" Batman added.

"Lies..." Red Hood said.

"Can't you see the resemblance?" Batman revealed his face for a while until Red Hood got a good look at his bare face reminiscent of his biological father. "It's fine if you don't believe me. I don't have anything to prove to my adopted brother."

"You..."

"That's why I cringed so hard when you called your gang the Sons of Batman. 'Because the son should correct his father's mistakes'" Batman imitated his speech in a mocking way. "I was like 'Bro. You're not even his real son.'"

"GRAAAAAAH!!!" Red Hood started charging Batman.