Chapter 2 - Prologue (2/2)

Jason's consciousness returned with a gasp, and his torso expanded with a lungful of air. His body laid on the floor, facing the crescent moon on what felt like concrete pavement.

For a moment, it was as if his honed senses were enhanced even more. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could see with newfound clarity, an array of pungent odors filled his nose, and his head throbbed from all the cacophony of loud noises in the area. As soon as all this happened, his training and instincts kicked in, and Jason took a deep, but controlled, breath of air. His focus concentrated on dialing his senses back.

Moments later, his enhanced senses were dialed back to a bearable threshold faster than he expected, but he was just thankful for the fact that the bombardment of sensations wasn't as severe as before.

Jason groaned, marveling at how light his body felt and how easy it was to move as he stood up and assessed his situation. He didn't remember putting on any clothes, but he was dressed in a comfy black hoodie with grey pants and black sneakers.

Looking around, he was in what looked to be a wide but empty alley next to a road. He noticed a sign and looked up, expecting to see English words, but found Japanese characters instead.

'Japanese? Am I still in Crime Alley? Wait, I remember now.' Jason thumbed his chin in thought, recalling what had happened in that white space.

Waking up only to find out he was dead again, and that the universe and everyone in it was erased by a madman on a multiverse spanning rampage, was an enormous shock to his system. But the hardest pill to swallow was the deaths of everyone else he cared for.

Jason shook those thoughts out of his mind for now. 'Where is that guy? Is he just gonna leave me here or…'

"I'm right—"

Jason abruptly twisted his body and launched a swift kick behind him in less than a second. An audible thud was heard as the force of his kick generated a slight gust of wind.

"—here…" Joe trailed off and whistled. "Damn, nice reflexes."

Jason glared at Joe, who easily caught his kick with one hand and gave him a wide smile. His senses not picking Joe up unnerved him. "How the hell did you get behind me?"

"I'm not a ninja like you, but I'm just as good at getting behind someone and hiding my presence." Joe let go of Jason's leg and clapped his hands. "So, how do you feel? Do you feel any physical or mental changes in your body?"

Jason furrowed his brows. "Now that you mention it, my body feels lighter and a lot easier to move, and a while ago… Wait a minute."

When he returned to consciousness, his senses were so sensitive to everything around him, he had to adapt to the change.

But something else baffled him.

Many years of training and experience fighting a variety of foes developed and improved his instincts and intuition, like a sixth sense that has helped him avoid attacks outside his perception, as well as letting him know if someone was following him. However, that was not the extent of what he sensed earlier. It was as if he could perceive everything around him to a certain extent.

A few meters behind him was a trash bin, and close to it was a parked bike. He could tell where the flies were without even looking at them as they zigzagged through the air. If he had a pebble, he was confident he could hit every one of them as long as they were within a certain distance, because it seemed that the sphere of what he could sense was limited to only around a meter around him.

He narrowed his eyes at Joe and asked, "What did you do to me?"

Joe shrugged his shoulders. "I just gave you my 'help' in the form of a… power-up… with some additional support from Batman and a few other people you know. A little soul tweaking here, a bit of soul merging there… It was the least I could do for you since accepted my request."

Jason rubbed the bridge of his nose and breathed out a exasperated sigh. "I clearly remember talking to Bruce in my head. He mentioned something about 'them' helping me. Based on this soul stuff you did and from what Batman said… Did you mess with our souls by mixing them up or something like that?"

"It's slightly more complicated than that. Think of their qualities, skills, powers, memories, and experience as information or data embedded into their souls. I merely copied most of that information and pasted it onto yours, giving it more complexity and power. A lot of benefits are included in this. The accumulation of compatible information causing qualitative evolutions in your mind, body, and soul being one of them, but you'll figure out more on your own in the future. Now, before you say anything — no — I can't undo what has been done. Trust me, you do *not* want to experience what that would do to your soul," Joe said, leaving no room for negotiation.

"Thank you so much for asking for my consent before fucking with my soul." Jason said, with heavy sarcasm dripping from his voice.

Joe raised his eyebrow. "Let me ask you this, then. Would you try stopping a decision Batman himself supported?"

Jason was taken aback by the statement, his eyes widening in surprise. Bruce was never a fan of acquiring power for the sake of having power. He studied and perfected all the skills to become Batman and protect Gotham and its citizens. So having Bruce agree to something that would give HIM — the only other person in the Batfamily who isn't reluctant to kill aside from Damian — powers that would only help him become more deadly and efficient was an astonishing idea.

Joe chuckled to himself as he replied, "Didn't think so."

"Fine. You made your point. You said 'multiple beings'. Can you at least tell me whose souls you merged with mine, aside from his?"

Joe looked at his lifted hand and began raising his fingers as he cited each name. "Dick Grayson, Cassandra Cain, Damian Wayne, Tim Drake, a composite version of Slade Wilson," he raised his other hand, "And two other versions of you, each from different universes." He flipped hands, his palms facing Jason. "Adding Batman, it's eight in total. There are some likely side-effects to this, but aside from some of your other selves' memories leaking, everything else is relatively minor."

"… Did I hear you correctly? Are you saying that you merged my soul with almost everyone working with Bruce, the damn Deathstroke, and two other versions of me from other universes?"

Having the skills, powers, and experience of every person he mentioned would certainly benefit him tremendously. In fact, he could say that if he does now have all that, not a single one of them would be able to match him in single combat. Most likely not even Batman, Lady Shiva, or Richard Dragon.

However, this was becoming a bit too much for Jason to handle. He could understand merging his soul with other versions of him, and was only slightly uncomfortable with the fact that his soul is merged with people he knew or was close to, but merging his soul with Slade Wilson, of all people, was just ridiculous. And what the hell does he mean by composite?

"Yes, you heard correctly." Joe said with an amused smile.

Joe was enjoying breaking his normal perception of reality, and it was starting to annoy him.

Jason only had one question. "Why? I could've done my job without the power-up."

In response, Joe raised an eyebrow, clapping his hands together before separating them. From the space between his hands, a holographic projection expanded and split into three screens, displaying high quality images of varying sights.

On the left screen, monsters resembling goblins, ogres, and kobolds wreaked havoc on a village. On the middle screen, a woman with a porcelain complexion and black hair tied in a bun, dressed in a long black kimono, had her blood-red eyes fixated on a group of five people who were kneeling with their foreheads touching their hands. Finally, on the right screen, the image of a blue-haired woman with a red tattoo above her chest wearing a white military dress wielding a sword was displayed with a backdrop of bloody corpses filling the image. Her face had a contemptuous grin, and Jason got a perfect view of the gruesome scene.

"In the future, you will face enemies you could never touch if I don't give you something to power you up. Especially the two women. As you are now, you wouldn't even last three seconds against either of them. Granted, you might be more skilled than them, but their physical capabilities far surpass yours," Joe finished, putting down his hands and letting the projection fade into motes of light that disappeared a moment later.

Jason's brows furrowed as he delved into his thoughts, but he already signed up for this, so there was no taking back his actions now. He questioned himself, pondering how much strength he would have to attain to be their match. In his last life, he was practically in the top 0.000001 percent of normal, unpowered humans in terms of strength and skill, but he wouldn't even last a second against the two, even with the... upgrades... Joe gave? That was a difficult thought to comprehend.

But if what Joe said was right, they're most likely on the level of metahumans or far above it.

A bright glow that illuminated the alley then caught his attention. A ball of light floated above Joe's finger. Its appearance reminded him of a blue sun, but if he focused his vision, the "sun" was actually lines of numbers and symbols he couldn't understand in the shape of a sphere.

"What are you doing?" asked Jason.

"You remember why we're here, right? You have four weeks to intervene and stop Saki Yoshida from her fate. That's your main goal for now." Joe said, maintaining his concentration on the sphere that slowly grew brighter until Jason was forced to look away. "Now this... is what will allow you to stay connected to me and I'll be able to send you messages through it. I won't be able to stay here since I have other things to do, but as long as you have this, just call my name and I'll answer if I can. So if you need any help at all, I'll be able to answer your calls."

Jason supposed that would be a good idea, though he doubted he would need Joe's help in taking out two-bit criminals.

The sphere was now so bright that it forced Jason to close his eyes. Moments later, a strange whirring sound entered his ears, reminiscent of alien technology charging up. He slowly opened his eyes, only to find Joe gone. In his place was a floating ring and a piece of paper. He grabbed both.

Unfolding the paper revealed a letter which Jason started reading.

[I apologize for the sudden exit, but there's something urgent that needs my attention. This enchanted ring contains your gear and other things I thought you might want. You can store and take things out of it, and you don't have to worry about storage as long as what you want to store isn't anything bigger than a truck. As soon as you wear the ring, it will turn invisible, making it an easily concealable storage device. To use it, just concentrate on the ring, and your mind will intuitively know the ring's contents. After that, simply think of what you want to retrieve, and will it to appear. Easy enough, right?

Your benefactor, Joe The Baldmighty.

Yes, this is my official title.]

Jason chuckled before stopping as the paper in his hand suddenly glowed and changed in shape. His eyebrow rose in curiosity, which turned into surprise as the paper finished changing and turned into a photo.

It was a selfie of the whole Bat-Family, in their suits, with the familiar background being the endless expanse of white from before.

Dick was seemingly the one who held the camera at a high angle with that same bright grin he always has on his face while holding an annoyed Damian by the shoulder. That gave him another chuckle.

To the right were Tim, Barbara, and Cass, who all smiled at the camera while Duke and Stephanie both gave a thumbs up. He wasn't very close with Duke and Stephanie, but he appreciated their effort.

At the very back was Bruce, giving the most genuine smile Jason's ever seen from him.

He flipped the photo to see if there was anything there. He was right. On it was a sentence written in Bruce's handwriting.

[We'll always be with you. No matter what.] Bruce's voice lingered in his mind, echoing in his thoughts.

Emotions that he had always tried to ignore rushed to the forefront. His eyes welled up.

"… Fucking damn it." He quickly dried his eyes with his forearm. "Those assholes are making me miss them already."

Despite his words, a fond smile was on his face as he looked at the photo. He now had something to remember them by, which filled him with great relief.

He turned his attention towards the plain silver ring. Remembering the letter's contents, he slowly put it on his middle finger and watched with fascination as it turned invisible. He was curious about how it worked, and based on what Joe said about it being an "enchanted ring", it could be working through magic. But he put his curiosity aside for now.

It only took a moment of concentration for him to connect with the ring, and everything clicked inside his mind.

Everything important he had before he died was inside the ring. His domino mask and face mask, his weapons and ammo, his normal clothes and suits, a grappling hook, technology he developed himself and some by Wayne Enterprises, everything. Even duplicates of his Red Hood helmet. Jason wanted to know how the ring worked out of pure curiosity, but he suppressed it for now.

Jason willed a phone out, and it appeared out of thin air into his open hand, his brows rising in surprise. Now he *really* wanted to know how the ring worked. He got a feel of the phone's sturdy make and made sure it functioned properly before returning it inside the ring, and the phone disappeared from his hand.

He didn't have his database or other forms of accessing information in this world, but he could just hack into whatever military or government networks he can find.

"Looks like everything is in order," Jason said before taking one last look at the photo and storing it in the ring.

He stepped out of the alley, brought his hood up, and walked along the sidewalk. Cars filed past as he formed his plan. There was no time to lose.

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Author's Note:

Please let me know of any grammatical mistakes or spelling errors.