3 Chapter 3: I Declare War: Joker Vs. Wildcard

Hey guy! Author here with another chapter for you guys. Bet you weren't expecting that now were you?

It has been decreed that henceforth, weekly updates shall be on thine day of Friday!

I've got a little more than 5k words lined up right for you guys, with an author's note ready for you at the end if you're interested in this book's future direction. If not, just skip it over.

Enjoy!

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Date: May 17, 2006

Location: Upper Northeast Edge Outskirts of Gotham City, New Jersey, Batcave

Time: 10:34 P.M

Inside the Batcave, our protagonist can be seen sitting in front of the Batcomputer, typing away at seemingly inhuman speeds using his incredible dexterity, information processing abilities, and high-speed calculations. Alfred could also be seen standing at rest next to him, watching everything happen as if it was normal.

Thanks to his metahuman abilities, specifically his minor intuitive aptitude and perfect memory, he learns better when using his skills in action, allowing them to slowly grow even while in use, leading to a perpetuating cycle of evolution.

Currently, he was just pulling up the alert sent to him through the League's emergency signal, while immediately going forward to do the same for the footage in Mount Justice in the most recent span of time and accessing any working visual feeds to see the cause to push the literal panic button.

Pulling up one of the feeds in the lounge area, he could see some of the League's heroes were hanging out and probably just trying to destress after a long day with a get-together around 10 minutes ago. They were 5 in total with the Hawk couple, Green Arrow, Flash, and Aquaman.

However, he also noticed an unknown kid or young man, who seemed to be running from something in a panic.

As he tried to focus on that, the feed seemed to cut off at every turn he was making, not letting him see what was going on properly.

As such, he turned his attention back to the heroes there.

While they were talking and hanging out, Flash seemed to make a terrible attempt at a joke that flew through mostly everyone's head except seemingly Green Arrow.

Wait, Aquaman just chuckled a bit as well.

Guess the aliens still didn't understand Earth humor.

Then, explosions suddenly rocked multiple screens simultaneously, taking out his feed to the Zeta Tubes, the mission room, the med bay, and the hangar. Most of the blast force reached the lounge room as well and managed to knock everyone off their seats by differing majorities.

Switching over the feed, he could see that Green Arrow and the Hawks were knocked out, while Flash and Aquaman tried to take action after spending a few moments reorienting themselves.

Flash seemed to need the least amount of time to get it together as he started zipping down the hallways abandoning Aquaman, forcing Ben to try and follow along by slowing down the footage and constantly trying to get an angle using video feeds.

At some point, he ran down the hallway leading to the mission room, where Ben noticed that a couple of tiles were loosely fitted onto the floor in a haphazard manner and painted messily to try and make them less noticeable, the purpose for being done unknown to Ben.

Well, that was answered shortly as Flash didn't seem to be paying attention to where he was running, one of his feet touching a tile, causing him to slip so far backward that he lost his equilibrium and tumbled at high speed into the wall headfirst, knocking him out instantly.

'A frictionless high-tech tile. A smart enemy.' Ben thought.

Aquaman, being the only person still awake, managed to react after using a few more seconds to reorient himself than Flash. From what Ben could tell, he began to immediately assess his situation, before hoisting his colleagues onto himself, Green Arrow on his shoulder and the Hawks in each of his arms.

He began sprinting down towards the waterfall area, keeping watch of his surroundings as he did.

'He's trying to make use of his home ground advantage while evacuating the rest as he does so.'

All the while from what Ben could read of his lips since the audio was cut out in the explosion as well, he kept calling Flash's name trying to locate him.

As he was running towards his destination, however, he seemed to have run into the kid Ben had noticed earlier, clear terror written on his face.

He seemed happy to have noticed Aquaman's presence however, as he ran up to him and started shouting something at him, which made the Atlantean become serious, as he seemed to tell the kid to follow him.

Ben couldn't read what the kid was speaking as he was too fast in his words due to panic. Instead of wasting time playing back the video to figure it out, he kept it playing for now to see if he can get an answer.

They kept running together, until when he finally reached the room, Aquaman seemed to let out a breath of relief, letting down his guard slightly.

'Idiot!' scolded Ben in his mind when he noticed that.

And he was right to do so because after Aquaman walked a few feet into the room, an explosion went off right behind him from the entrance.

Thankfully, he was quick to react as he threw his colleagues away from him in order for them not to get caught up in the blast, before tackling the young man to the ground to shield him.

Unfortunately, both of them succumbed to the same fate as the others, before a figure entered into the room, looking as if he was whistling a tune and grinning as if he heard something hilarious.

Ben's fists tightened, everything making sense to him now.

The Joker.

Suddenly, green gas began to fill up the entire mountain at the same time he walked in, with everyone starting to curl their mouths slightly as if they were smiling, even while unconscious.

Then, Joker suddenly looked straight at the camera, his grin brightening, before making a pistol gesture right at it, causing every feed to shut off at the same time.

'I hate how these guys sometimes underestimate others and overestimate themselves. I don't know if it's the Batman Junior in me or something else, but they are so underprepared it's nauseating.' Ben thought to himself in annoyance.

Taking a deep breath, he swiftly connected to Batman in order to inform him of the recent events.

"Batman. An emergency alert from the Justice League! Joker has somehow discovered the base inside Mount Justice, and has sealed off all exits while flooding the inside with Joker Venom."

"It is currently unknown whether it is the lethal or non-lethal version at the moment. However, even the non-lethal version can cause brain damage if left untreated."

"The problem is, Green Arrow, Hawkman, Hawkwoman, Flash, and Aquaman are currently trapped inside and incapacitated. There is also an unknown individual who I have yet to identify. He seems to be an 18 to 19-year-old white male, with brown hair and blue eyes."

Grunts could be heard through the link as the body cam footage connected to the monitor in front of Ben showed his father getting swatted aside like a fly by a wild vine.

"That would most likely be Lucas Carr, a Justice League affiliate. He has been a close friend and ally of the League since young." came the reply.

"Is there anyone available to go there and either rescue them or hold off Joker until backup can arrive?"

"I've already checked. Martian Manhunter and Green Lantern are off-world. Green Lantern was called in for reasons unknown or not mentioned, while Manhunter went to Mars to visit his family with gifts."

"Meanwhile, Superman has his own problems dealing with Metallo at the moment as he seems to be rampaging after Lois Lane. It's gotten so bad, that he's had to radio Wonder Woman in for help." Ben spoke.

"I need to deal with Ivy first-" he was interrupted by a vine managing to grab his leg, forcing him to grab a batarang to slice it off, and dodge the volley of attacks that came from the remaining vines trying to make use of his dilemma. "-first before I can assist them. How's Robin doing?"

Typing something up into the computer, another video feed denoting Robin's body cam came up, showing Ben his brother's current situation.

"So far they've managed to evacuate around-

'78.36%.'

-78.36% of the park's visitors. Robin seems to be running low on birdarangs currently, so he's resorted to using his staff and the connective spear tip I put in his belt last minute." replied Ben.

He was thankful for his foresight and paranoia in this matter, since he didn't think he could have handled watching Dick try whacking these vines with just his staff or escrima sticks.

"Very well. I will finish as soon as possible before rushing over."

"That's extremely risky and you know it. Every second missed means an extra second where possible irreparable damage is done to the six of them due to prolonged exposure to the gas, or worse." replied Ben in what was supposed to be a strong tone, if his sky-blue pupils were anything to go by.

Unfortunately, his voice was flat as always and obviously nobody could see his eyes at the moment to tell.

"There's nothing we can do. Everyone's somewhere else at the moment, and unable to make it in time."

"I have an idea."

"Absolutely not." responded Batman firmly.

"Not going to hear me out first?" responded Ben. His lemon-yellow pupils showed his annoyance at being dismissed so easily.

"If you're going to tell me that you can take him, then no."

"You're probably right. But we'll never know unless you let me try. The least I can accomplish is to hold him off for you. Although I haven't tested it and didn't get a chance to mention it to you, I am most likely immune to his Joker Venom anyways. My test concluded that anything related to the mind and emotions, physical or non-physical in nature, doesn't seem to affect me."

"Meanwhile, I also managed to think up a plan just now for you to deal with Poison Ivy quickly, so you can back me up as soon as possible." spoke Ben.

Silence greeted him for a few moments, with Batman seeming to be in thought while his body cam footage kept shaking at the action taking place in front of him, showing how intense the situation was currently, further enforcing Ben's ideas that he wouldn't make it in time.

"Fine, what's the plan?" Batman spoke.

With various shades of blue and green simultaneously swirling in his pupils, Ben began to lay out his plans.

"First, it is obvious that Poison Ivy's main assault is revolving around plants and some type of mind-altering gas currently, so as long as you keep your gas mask intact we can ignore the toxins for the moment."

"Since that's the case, we use the weakness of the plants against her."

"Plants need water and sunlight to operate, but there's no way we can deprive them of the little light they are already receiving from the moon due to the time of day now."

"Hence, we deal with the aspects involving water. I can whip up a high sodium-rich compound in powdered or liquidated form in a few minutes tops, before attaching it to the Batplane and sending it overhead to spread out on the ground evenly, causing the plants to wither."

"It's feasible." responded Batman after a moment of silence. "Powdered would be carried further through the air but take a longer time to show any effect, yet liquid would most likely be more fast acting in a smaller area."

"Go for the liquidated option, and make sure there's enough to cover the area I am currently battling her in. Aim for the plant bulb spewing the toxins specifically and see if it can be spread from there."

Looking at the computer for a few seconds, Ben began making high-speed calculations in his head in order to measure the amount of space the plant bulb is taking up, and how much space separates Batman's position to reach Ivy, before finally determining the invisible perimeter surrounding Batman when he fights by using the maximum length of the vines he can see through the screen.

In just a few seconds he received an answer on how much space he should prepare for.

'4,382.79 Square Feet.'

Immediately he got to work, rushing over to the lab benches, pulling out chemicals, and mixing them up to get the result he needed.

In a few minutes-

'3.42 minutes.'

-he managed to finish, so he quickly rushed over to the Batplane, pouring the liquidated sodium concentrate into a liquid dissemination machine, and attaching said machine to the bottom of the Batplane, pre-programmed to set off in the area Ben had calculated.

Watching the Batplane fly off, he returned to the lab area, taking out the pre-made antidotes to Joker Venom, before running back to the Batcomputer and turning to Alfred who he was too busy to make time to acknowledge while calling Batman again.

"Wildcard to Batman. I've set everything up, now all you need to do is stall for time and wait. The Batplane will be overhead at the plant bulb near your location in exactly 4 minutes and 27 seconds, with the dissemination device programmed to set off at the exact same time."

"I will be using the Batcave's Zeta Tube to reach outside Mount Justice through the closest one in Happy Harbor which is around 5 minutes away. Penny-One will take over watch duty while I tune in for radio contact as well."

"Acknowledged." was the only reply he received.

Nodding his head one last time to Alfred, he ran to the Zeta Tube near the end of Batcave.

"Master Benjamin." called out Alfred before he could leave.

Turning around to meet his eyes, Ben saw the bright yellow surrounding Alfred, denoting his worry for him.

"Please be careful." he spoke softly.

Nodding his head, Ben replied with his pupils glowing green.

"Of course." he responded immediately, a bright white light, followed by a voice announcing his departure.

*Recognized: Wildcard, A-03*

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Date: May 17, 2006

Location: Happy Harbor, Rhode Island, Mount Justice

Time: 10:45 P.M

Normally, one would think that nighttime would dissuade most activities, regardless of the area of the world. However, that's usually not the case in this universe as Ben had come to notice in his short time here.

Today, however, most people in Happy Harbor seemed to have stayed at home and locked themselves up.

It was as if they could sense the malice that reeked in the air tonight.

But, Ben was more inclined to believe that the sound of the explosions that went off in the mountain was the cause instead.

Coming up outside the hangar entrance to Mount Justice, Ben immediately noticed the rubble that sealed it off.

"Wildcard to Batcave. Penny-One you there?"

"Penny-One here. How can I be of assistance, Wildcard?" came Alfred's distinctive voice.

"The entrance from the hangar doors is sealed shut, I'm going to have to swim into the compound."

"Acknowledged sir. Batman and Robin have just finished up, and are handing Poison Ivy over to the GCPD for transport to Arkham. They should be joining you in around 5 minutes using the batwing's top speed."

"Acknowledged." came the curt reply.

Ben immediately turned his attention towards the beach, hooked up his rebreather, and jumped into the ocean, swimming full speed towards the water entrance of the hangar.

Reaching the hangar in no time, he slowed down his swimming speed, before cautiously poking his head out of the water in a slow manner in order to not alert anyone to his presence should they be around.

As he scanned the hangar's surroundings, he immediately zeroed in on the five heroes and Lucas who were tied upside down from the ceiling still unconscious, and chuckling quietly to themselves while still grinning as he had last noticed.

"Wildcard to Batcave." he whispered. "Penny-One do you copy?"

What greeted his attempt at communication was static.

'Great, he jammed the comms, don't know if he's aware of my presence though.'

Not noticing any immediate danger in his surroundings, Ben immediately entered into his high-speed calculation state in order to be able to react to any surprises just in case.

Unknown to him, however, a change had occurred in his pupils that very second.

When he fully pulled himself out of the water, switched his rebreather for a gas mask, and was prepared to continue forward, the lights in the hangar suddenly lit up, before an annoyingly familiar cackling sound made itself known.

He can practically sense the grin on the guy's face even before he spoke.

"Welcome to home away from home Batsy! Your friends and I decided to put on a show for you since we missed you so much." he spoke.

Hearing Joker's opening remark, Ben immediately knew what action he should take for now. Quickly scanning the hallways, he identified the position of the cameras that are supposed to have been taken offline, still in their positions and in one piece.

'So he's probably taken control of the systems instead of destroying them and noticed a trip in the motion sensors before checking the cameras to even acknowledge if I was Batman. Perfect.' thought Ben quickly.

Taking the initiative, he took out five metal-lined playing cards from his belt, before flicking them all throughout the entire room, destroying the cameras.

Now into step two, making use of his nearly perfect body control.

"Joker." spoke 'Batman'. "It's over."

Meanwhile, inside the mission room, a man with chalk white skin, a purple suit, green hair, and a demented grin on his face could be seen standing in the center of the room, looking over all the systems currently in place inside the Mountain, as he pouted when trying to look over the camera feed.

"Are you camera shy, Batsy? I've been waiting all day to see your wonderful smile, and yet here you go and ruin my fun before it can even begin!" shouted Joker while throwing a mini tantrum like a child.

"I'm not here to entertain your games." came the immediate reply.

Before Joker could respond however, a news feed suddenly popped up in front of him, showing the final results of the events in Gotham City Park, wiping away his grin for the first time today, giving way to the madness that usually hides under the depths of his mind.

"You're not Batman!" he shouted shrilly all of a sudden. "You're the damn kid who somehow took my place! There can only be one joker in his life, and you're not it! Just a useless card that somehow found its way into an already full deck!"

Knowing that his cover was blown before it could even begin, Ben, who was already in motion and inbound towards the hostages since attempting to fool the clown, had to leap into a forward roll in order to avoid the explosion that erupted below his previous position.

Looking towards them, he noticed their symptoms becoming progressively worse, as their quiet chuckles started increasing in volume and length, showing the current stage of infection.

He was worried for Lucas the most since he's just a civilian who will definitely be in more danger as he has no powers or anything. He wasn't even in peak physical condition like Green Arrow, who was second on his list of danger.

Of the antidotes he brought, there were only 3 of them that are fast acting, meant to be used in battle, while the rest are instant stop gaps that will only work after he brings them to safety and administers the doses slowly to purge their symptoms of the gas.

Thinking quickly, he loaded those 3 into syringes, before launching them towards Flash, Green Arrow, and Lucas.

Other than the two normal humans, Flash can actively spread the antidote quickly throughout his body whenever he manages to regain a hint of clarity and help him evacuate the other 4 heroes and Lucas.

Aquaman and the Hawks should have more time before any side effects can occur thanks to their greater/alien constitution. Except, Aquaman needs to get back in the water soon as the fire seems to have affected him if his pale features are anything to go by.

The syringes quickly found their marks on their necks, plunging the antidote into them swiftly. Immediately, by seeing through his emotional sensing, Ben could witness the dull colors wafting off the two slowly start to brighten back up, showing their returning state of wakefulness.

"Last time I checked, my name isn't Joker like you. It's Wildcard." Ben responded, while noticing Flash coming back into focus quicker than he thought which was perfect in his opinion.

"Joker, Wildcard, what's the difference?" he hissed back. "I've been trying to grab his attention for years now! What makes you so appealing to him? What do you have that I don't?"

Motioning Flash to remain quiet, he signaled to him to prepare to pick up the others, before grabbing another card, and flicking it at an angle, towards the ropes overhead responsible for their current predicament, cutting the lines in it's passage as it returned back to his hand like a boomerang.

"It's simple really." began Ben, ready to distract him a bit more if possible. "We're more similar than probably even Batman thinks. You say there can only be one Joker? Last time I checked there were two Jokers or Wildcards in a deck. They can either be the strongest or weakest card depending on the situation."

Watching the 5 heroes touch the ground while he caught Lucas, Flash immediately sat back up, ready to take off, before Ben took off his gas mask and threw it to him, signaling him to put it on and motioning for him to take the kid and one of the Hawks.

Nodding his head, he quickly picked up Hawkman and Lucas, before zooming off to presumably one of the emergency exits.

"I recognized that truth from early on, and decided that I wished to be a Wildcard that was always the strongest in the deck."

"You thought Batman knew you best? No, that was me, especially in the last two years since I joined him. Every attempt thwarted when you were involved was me looming over your shoulders, guiding your 'precious Batsy' to success." Ben continued, signaling to the now awake Green Arrow to take Aquaman into the water with him and throwing his rebreather to him.

"My favorite card game is 'War', and I usually play with setting the Wildcards as the strongest in the deck. I've been playing with you since day one, and you didn't even notice. You're not even qualified to be called Joker. I find your humor lacking in more ways than one."

Flash zipped back into the room at this time, quickly hefting up the remaining Hawkwoman into a bridal carry, before turning to Ben and motioning for him to get on his back.

Nodding his head, Ben quickly ran over, while holding his breath to prevent the remaining gas from entering his body. Even if he's confident that he should be immune to the Joker Venom, there's no need to take a risk right now.

Before Flash could even move, however, Joker's voice decided to make itself known one more time.

In an extremely concerning manner too.

"Fine then!" he shouted, waves of anger and hate somehow spreading throughout the entire mountain, shocking Ben.

"Since that's the case, I guess I just have to flip the remaining cards and burn the only other opposition into ashes. In the end, there'll only be one Joker left of the pair! You want war? Papa will give it to you. Even if you survive, you're now number one on my list of 'Killer Jokes'!"

Widening his eyes, Ben quickly motioned for Flash to take off.

Halfway through their run out of the base, a massive explosion erupted from the center of the mountain, the force traveling through the halls and openings, clipping them on their way out, sending them skidding onto the sandy beach out of the emergency exit.

Quickly righting himself, Ben turned his attention to the mountain, witnessing it being engulfed in flames in certain areas, and lots of smoke coming out from multiple directions as well, before looking around himself and finding Flash already attempting to get up and Hawkwoman a little farther away.

Hawkman and Lucas were also here, dropped off earlier by the speedster no doubt.

At the same time, Green Arrow and Aquaman surfaced from the water as well, with Aquaman seeming to stir in his unconsciousness, even while still laughing.

"Quick!" shouted Ben to the only conscious heroes present. "Bring them over so I can administer the antidote. I have to know if such long exposure left any lasting damage."

Rushing over to meet them on the way, he picked up the slower-acting antidotes, before loading them into their syringes and plugging them into the Hawks, and Aquaman's neck one by one.

He then turned to Lucas who was still unconscious, and checked him more thoroughly. He was relieved to see that everything was fine for now, but more extensive tests needed to be done to see if there was anything he missed.

You can never be too careful with these things.

Watching the laughing and smiling begin to recede from their faces, Ben finally allowed himself to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Hey there buddy! Thanks for the save." spoke up Flash from next to him, a normal grin on his face as if he wasn't about to die.

"Yeah thanks a lot, don't know what would've happened without you." continued Green Arrow, splayed out on the ground currently and breathing heavily.

"You are welcome."

"Don't take this the wrong way, but where was Batman and everyone else? How did you end up being the one to come here?" asked Flash curiously, yet also with concern written on his face.

"Green Lantern and Manhunter are off-world, Superman has an issue in Metropolis with Metallo and had to call Wonder Woman for backup, and Batman was busy dealing with a new villain who decided to literally 'spring up' simultaneously as Joker attacked." he responded without missing a beat.

He sort of felt like a broken record for some reason.

While the two of them were busy being stunned, Ben turned his attention back towards his comms.

"Penny-One are you there?"

"It's good to hear from you, sir. When we lost contact with you around 4 minutes ago, we assumed the worst." came Alfred's worried voice.

Just goes to show how fast-paced a fight could last, that entire ordeal was only 4 minutes.

"It'll take more than that to take me out and you know it." he replied. "But I appreciate your concern. Inform Batman that everyone has been successfully rescued, while Joker's current whereabouts are unknown."

"Very well done sir. However, I believe that he would like to hear from you in person."

At the exact same moment those words were spoken, the whirring of an engine could be heard as the Batplane sailed overhead, and two figures jumped out of it and landed in a crouch in front of Ben.

Being the first to straighten himself, Batman began observing the scene while narrowing his eyes. Green Arrow and Flash went over to greet and inform him of what had occurred.

Meanwhile, Robin ran forward to meet Ben while whooping in what was pure joy and excitement.

"Wildcard you should have seen it! I kicked that woman's big slithery vine back where she came from!" he shouted.

'Is this something that just happens in every superhero universe? Do the heroes come dramatically late like it's some kind of universal law or rule?' Ben randomly thought.

It would be horrible if that's true since that means something is controlling everyone behind the scenes.

Dashing that thought for now and sighing at the situation, Ben was amused at his brother's excitement and just gave him a side hug while slightly reprimanding him. "While that may be cool, you can save it for later and explain it then. For now, lower your voice. You're giving me a headache and will wake the rest."

Correcting himself, Robin became serious once more before nodding his head and standing next to him as Batman came over.

"Status report. What happened?"

After explaining the whole series of events, and providing Batman with all the details, he told Ben to go home with Robin, before turning his attention to Flash and Green Arrow once again, ready to deal with the aftermath.

Nodding his head in response, he dragged the overenthusiastic Robin who wanted to stay along with their dad, before putting the Batplane into autopilot for the coordinates to the manor and taking off.

'I need to start training on toxin immunity. I was only lucky that the gas wasn't a full-on lethal kind. I'm still susceptible to poisons or toxins that involve no mind-altering effects.' Ben thought.

Earlier, he still ended up inhaling some of the Joker Venom, but thankfully he was 'mostly' immune, proving him to be slightly correct.

The Joker Venom works by stimulating the chemicals in your brain and body responsible for laughter and positivity, causing a lockjaw effect, leading to the grotesque grinning being etched on people's faces, called "Risus Sardonicus".

Since he has full control of his emotions and perfect body control, even if those chemicals tried to fire those signals, he wouldn't end up being deliriously laughing like the others. Although, his internal chemistry would still be slightly messed up, hence the effect on him being a kind of practical immunity.

Before he could continue those lines of thought, he looked behind him as his attention was captured by the sound of snoring.

Looking back at Robin snoring peacefully from what was probably a long first day for him, his eyes lit up in a purple glow, before settling back to his emotionless black.

Or so he thought they did until he performed a double take because of what he noticed from his reflection in the Batplane's window.

'Since when did my eyes turn gray?'

'…'

'Wait… what does gray stand for again?'

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There we have it folks, this is what I consider the true beginning of my story!

For a couple of chapters, I'm going to be more focused on the entire DC universe itself, than the Young Justice one, and things are going to be changing fast and hard!

There will be mention of certain Justice League members from time to time, but interactions with them will be minimal for a bit.

Next weeks chapter will be more focused on the Justice League in fact...

I stuck with the Young Justice timeline for most things, but if it wasn't yet obvious in this chapter, I will be changing certain things like character's birthdates, certain sequence of events happening earlier, later, or in a an entirely different way.

This is my story now, and anything I say or do goes to best fit what I wish to happen or convey to my audience.

Think of it like this. So many missions happened in like half a year for Young Justice Season 1.

Now imagine how many important events could've happened years before it was formed?

That's basically what I'm trying to go for first. I feel like Evans for META ESSENCE IN GACHA had the right idea too. In Marvel and DC, something ALWAYS happens, so why not make use of the time beforehand?

Lot's of things will be discovered and changed ahead of time.

There will be time skips, but I'll be trying to space them relatively evenly and get you to canon in a way that doesn't involve destroying the information, experience, and stories I wish to share till our MC and his family/friends get there.

Maybe one or two flashbacks will happen later down in the story, but hopefully no more than 5.

Never Ever.

I hate too many flashbacks.

Canon is going to be slowly and methodically picked apart by our MC , even if he doesn't know it yet.

I'm trying to make this action packed, yet also show the more human sides of certain characters. DC comics shows you the Batman, and not the Bruce Wayne. If you read Webtoon, then you'd need to read Wayne Family Adventures as they really flesh out each member of the family there.

By the end of this journey, hopefully everyone will be junior detectives in the making, as I've already dropped hints and symbolisms about certain things, character relations, and whatnot you'd need to know about to enjoy the story more.

I already dropped a couple of hints regarding our MC's future expanding power set as well a couple of times. :)

I've reviewed the previous chapters grammar and whatnot, and let's just say that Grammarly is not as helpful as I thought.

I thank you guys for not hounding me on my many mistakes if you caught onto them, cause as I said before, I want to bring the best quality to you but not burn out along the way. I can't catch them all.

You've all been extremely supportive in the small amount of time I've been uploading, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I'll also be doing my best to update the Character Info sheet as the story progresses, so if you're new and hate spoilers, best to stick away from that until you're caught up on the story.

Next week's chapter has around 6.5k words, and starting the week after you'll be getting 8k words or more per chapter as promised.

I also moved the prologue the auxiliary volume so the chapter number and uploads are less confusing.

I'll also be trying to have the chapters up on patreon for anyone who wishes to read ahead or just support me more.

I also ask of you to keep commenting about your thoughts in the chapter and post a couple of reviews as well to bring the story out there. Positivity goes a long way for me, and I loved reading and looking over your feedback in my free time. I'll take as much as possible.

Even the negative reviews... as long as they're in moderation and not too destructive or plain strange.

It's not my fault if a character acts dumb somehow or does something you don't like, people are dumb and strange in ways they don't even know sometimes.

Anyways...

I think that's everything for now, and if you read all the way here, I thank you for your time and support.

See you guys next Friday!

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