Chapter 10: Justice win...?

[Third Person Point of View]

Batman was helpless as he received memories of his past failures. Every attempt outside of the first and second one ended identically. He had his memories wiped. The only difference between the first and second from the other attempts was that he and the Super Duo were cloned respectively.

He was forced to watch every time Nathaniel wiped his mind although ninety-seven of those ended identically, they did not all start the same way. Some of the time, Batman had discovered Nathaniel's influence over Aquaman but decided to play the long game.

It also happened the last time his memories were wiped, Nathaniel found out and thought it would be best to wipe his mind as he was going to be busy in the upcoming days of that time. He wanted to not have to deal with his regular Batman scenario. He tracked Batman as the latter was trying to convince a boy not to get his revenge on the man who killed his parents.

The boy, Marcus, lost his parents to a brutal murder. Batman spoke to Marcus as Nathaniel arrived.

"Marcus this isn't you, at least it doesn't have to be. I saw what happened to your parents and I know what you're feeling. A man once took away people I loved. I never stopped missing them. Never forgot how painful it was to be alone.

You can't bring your parents back, but you can break the cycle of violence that took them. Don't be a part of it, Marcus. Don't become what took away your family-"

"Spoken like a true puss"

Nathaniel interrupted it as he killed the murdering rapist. He proceeded to have a conversation with Batman before he wiped his mind and threw Marcus into a universe where his counterpart ran away before being caught in an explosion caused by that universe's latest Earth invasion. 

"Marcus lived happily ever after... in case you are wondering."

Nathaniel said as Batman regained all his erased memories. He felt himself regaining control over his suit and immediately went to strick Nathaniel but stopped mere inches away from the latter's face. Nathaniel smiled as he felt the wind caused by Batman's fist almost hitting him.

"Oh come now, I thought you would have learned by now that if you think you have control over something, it is actually because you lost control over something else. I even returned your memories for such reason."

Nathaniel said as Batman gritted his teeth.

"What... are... you... planning... at?"

He groaned.

"I'm bored so I decided to let live while knowing that you are nothing more than a puppet. You can go on fighting the good fight with your Justice League but know that you can not in any way, harm me directly.

Exposing me would cause a mass level of panic which would result in the death of millions. You would not want that, would you? So go along, live your life knowing... that YOU ARE NOT IN CONTROL!

Also, I can not stress this enough, I am not with the Nazi Vampires. They messed with my toy now everyone wants a Nimrod. Speaking of which, in seven days, a Nimrod will go rogue in Starling City, gather the league at that moment to defeat it, I will let you guys win and this should allow me to cancel the Nimrod project in my 'Public Apology' speech."

Batman spends a literal twenty minutes glaring at Nathaniel before leaving. The reason behind him leaving was the telepathic message he received.

'The originals don't have any implanted orders or commands, you must free them to have a chance at defeating him. Leave! He needs to lower his guard before you can get to his weakness.'

As he left, he heard Nathaniel's last taunting of the night.

"Don't forget that the decoy league is still under my control. So be a good boy and do as I told you, Brucy."

As Batman drove, he thought of a question aimed at the mysterious voice in his head.

'Who are you?'

The mysterious voice in his head answered.

'I am the real Nathaniel Hargreeves of this universe.'

'The real?'

Although shocked, he did not let it appear on his face as he drove back to Gotham.

'Yes, I am the real Nathaniel Hargreeves of this Universe. Five years ago, I thought that the solution to all of Earth's problems lay beyond our universe. So I tried to develop a way to cross into different and more technologically advanced parallel Earth.'

'And you brought him to OUR UNIVERSE!'

Batman was furious.

'No, I didn't... Before I was even able to make a breakthrough, he came offering the secrets of the Universe. He said that once I had the technology he wanted to give me, I would be free to roam the multiverse without consequences.

I do admit I was tempted at first but when he explained it in more detail... I was horrified. He talked about people's lives as if they meant nothing to him just because HE could go to another universe where those same people knew nothing of what he had done to their counterparts.

I refused to join him and I became the first of his prisoners. He put me in a fake world that seemed real with all of my fantasies mixed just enough with reality so as to not make me doubt the credibility of the fake world.

It took... a long time but I finally managed to feel like something was not right. I tried to come up with any plan that would free me but the best solution that I could find was to transfer my consciousness elsewhere using the limited Magic that I knew.

The problem was that I would not know where I would end up as the magic that I knew was limited. I tried and ended up in one of your wiped memories that my doubleganger had taken away from you. It's through that, that I managed to learn what he had done after taking my place.

I was only able to contact you after he returned your stolen memories.'

Batman did not know what to think of this. It sounds like a trap but from where he was, he needed to be sure before making anything movements.

'Do it.'

Batman thought.

'Do what?'

The voice of Nathaniel Hargreeves said.

'He was not talking to you, I'm afraid.'

Said another darker voice inside Batman's mind.

'Before we do anything, I think it would be best to make sure that what you said was the full truth... Where are my manners, I am Batman but you can call me... Zur En Arrh.'

'AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!'

Batman had let his alter ego free for the moment. Since Nathaniel, the one who had cloned him had replicated his mind, he gambled on the chance that his Zur En Arrh persona had been replicated as well.

Seeing as that was the case, he would try to not make the same mistake. Batman let his alter ego torture the consciousness that proclaimed itself to be the Nathaniel Hargreeves of this universe. Both Batman were masters in all forms of combat and torture among other things.

There was no way for a normal human to lie or stay quiet after he proceeded to torture them much less when it was inside his mind and done by his more ruthless self. The Torture went on and on. For months, Batman heard Nathaniel's screams inside his head as he proceeded with his life.

He acted accordingly to avoid raising Nathaniel's suspicions. A rogue Nimrod went on a rampage but was stopped by the Justice League. Nathaniel Hargreeves issued a public apology stating that he wanted Nimrod to protect the world but due to the past failure, it would go into an extensive reboot.

He would start from scratch which would take months if not years. This along with a lot of the millions that A.I.M paid for the damage caused managed to appease the public image. After months of hard work and planning, Batman infiltrated the A.I.M Tower.

He timed his infiltration just after Nathaniel had hosted a party. Thanks to the information that his alter ego had violently extracted and confirmed from the Nathaniel Hargreeves that was trapped inside his mind, he had learned how to think like Nathaniel Hargreeves.

At first, he had thought that only the Justice League members that he had reprogrammed had been the only clones that Nathaniel Hargreeves, outside, had made. He discovered that everyone in his Bat Family had been cloned.

He could not even describe the level of rage he had reached. His Zur En Arrh persona decided to take over as he was becoming too emotional and would compromise the mission. Now in control, his Zur En Arrh persona decided to use the brainwashed Bat Family to his advantage.

He had Barbara Gordon A.K.A Batgirl try to seduce Nathaniel by reprogramming her brain and doing so unconsciously. He wagered that now that the Nathaniel, who had cloned the heroes thought to have won, would drop his guard, especially towards one that had been programmed by himself.

He infiltrated Nathaniel's workshop and looked for a specific object. The way to travel from one universe to another according to Nathaniel who was trapped inside his head. He was looking for a portal fluid. It had no definite shape, moving around on its own.

The inside looks like space and glows a faint blue with various stars of differing brightness, size, and shades of blue and black. It is contained in a snowglobe-like container with caution tape at its base. By destroying this, he would prevent the Nathaniel from outside from escaping his grasp.

*Crash*

He threw it to the ground and it crashed. As the snow globe was destroyed, Batman felt his body frozen. He heard some clapping echoing through the room.

*Clap* *Clap* *Clap* *Clap*

"Bravo, you managed to do some damage to me. Roughly... five bucks worth of financial damage but it is the biggest damage you have ever managed to make outside of my control... That has to count for something."

Nathaniel said as he walked past the frozen Batman.

"So I guess you decided to still trust the memory data of myself that I implanted in you without doubting for a second that I was fucking with you? I mean kudos for using Barbara as a distraction but it was all pointless from the beginning since your end goal was to smash a snow globe."

He came close to Batman's face and spoke.

"Might I ask, in what universe did you see that working?"

Nathaniel smirked which caused Batman to smile.

"HAHAHAHA!"

Nathaniel tilted his head as he saw Batman laughing.

"Guess I broke you, dang it, I was hoping we could go on in this little dance for a couple of years-"

*BOOM*

Nathaniel did not get to finish what he was saying as a wall exploded causing him to fall on the ground. He was shocked when he saw what had caused the explosion.

"Anal-HM!!?"

He yelled but before he could even finish his first word, a bearded Superman grabbed him by the mouth and prevented him from speaking. The man of Steel was livid and behind him were the entire Justice League though some seemed to have identical twins.

The last thing Nathaniel was the fist of Batman closing in on his face before everything went dark. He woke in a cell chained from head to toe. He had a mouth guard to prevented him from speaking. His cell had a see-through door made of light. It could electrocute anyone who tried to pass through from his side.

On the other side of the cell were six Justice League Members. Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman along with their cloned version, all looked at Nathaniel with loathing. One of the Batman came closer to the door and spoke. Nathaniel knew it was the cloned version.

"You must be wondering how this happened. Well, I knew the whole real Nathaniel was a trap but according to your personality that I have built through the several mind wipes, you could not resist giving me some real information as that would make my inevitable defeat all the sweeter for you.

None of the cloned League members could attack you directly BUT we could free the ones you had taken captive. To do this, however, would require you to be distracted. The best distraction that I could give you was another failed attempt by me.

I had my worries but just as I had hoped, you could not help yourself into mocking me in my failed attempt. While this was happening, Cyborg freed the captive league members without him knowing after I implanted a command in him that made him think that he was rescuing civilians from H.I.V.E-"

His narration was cut off by an emergency call for help on his league communication earpiece.

"This is Red Tornado to Justice League, I require backup against a new threat. The enemy seems to have dangerous Reality warping abilities which he is currently using to destroy Coast City. It is a strange yellow triangular creature.

He has a single large eye with a snake-like iris, rimmed with four short black lashes on the top and bottom, though sometimes he has 3 on the top and 4 on the bottom. He has thin, black limbs, wears a small, black bow tie, and a tall, thin, black top hat that floats just above his head."

"Superman to Red Tornado, help is on the way."

Superman said as the Trinity duo left Nathaniel to rot in his cell. Roughly two minutes after the Trinity duo left, Nathaniel saw Red Tornado walk up to his cell. The android walked through the force field that acted as a see-through door as his appearance changed into Mr. Nimrod.

Upon seeing this, Nathaniel sighed. His eyes looked like he was done with everything. He did not even care that Mr. Nimrod was lifting a gun and pointing it at him. Nathaniel had one last thought as he looked at Mr. Nimrod.

'So I was a Deco-'

*Bang*

*Thud*

*POOF*

*Thud*

As Nathaniel's head was shot, his body fell onto the floor, and upon seeing that he was dead, Mr. Nimrod exploded into a small cloud of dust leaving the gun he had used to fall onto the ground. In Coast City, the creature was going on a rampage while laughing.

"Third Dimension, it is good to be back."

The creature said while ripping a building from the ground, shaking it like he was making some margarita, opening the roof of the building, and sipping the crushed bodies of the unfortunate people that were inside with his eye. It spoke as it drank.

"I'm going to drink it like a human."

Enraged at what he saw upon arriving, Hal Jordan used his Green Lantern Ring to rip the creature's eye out of his socket.

"Ahhhh, my eye! Do you have any idea how long that takes to grow back??!!"

The creature said as he swirled around in pain. Once he made a full body turn, his eye had completely regenerated and he laughed while speaking to the Green Lantern.

"Pain is hilarious!"

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!?"

Hal Jordan screamed while charging his ring.

"The name is Bill Cipher and I would ask your name but I already know it, Hal Jordan so let's get this introduction started. For one trillion years, I've been trapped in that decaying two-dimensional prison, waiting for a chance to get back to my own dimension. So are you going to wait for the Justice Smuchks to defeat me or are you going to-"

Bill's sentence was interrupted by Hal Jordan creating a massive fist and using it to hit Bill.

"Well, time to disassemble your molecules!"

He said before Hal Jordan was evaporated into a bloody mist. Bill Cipher then went on a rampage while repeatedly saying something.

"Welcome, one and all, to weirdmageddon!"

The League fought against Bill Cipher but they were not matched for Bill. It took three days but once that time had passed, Bill was the only sentient thing left on the Planet.

"Nothing like a planet-wide genocide, to celebrate my nth liberation. Haven't had some Martian in a while, Let's have some Martian sushi."

Bill said as he flew to the sky heading towards Mars.

*BOING*

"Huh?"

His body suddenly hit something that caused him to bounce back.

*BOING*

"Huh?!"

He tried leaving Earth's atmosphere once more but the same thing happened.

*BOING*

"WHAT!"

He yelled realizing that he was trapped on Earth.

"WHO DID THIS?!"

He asked while looking at the desolate planet.

"... Right, there is no one left. Silly me, Hahaha!"

He laughed but continued after realizing something.

"... Someone must have put this to stop me from leaving Earth so that means he or she must know how to destroy this barrier... but... there is no one left to tell me that... I killed them all..."

Bill Cipher lamented not knowing that the one that had trapped him had long been gone from this Universe. Nathaniel had decided to leave a decoy in this universe whose purpose was to lose to the cloned Batman after he freed Bill Cipher.

He had left some Mr. Nimrod around that had the orders to tie up loose ends such as the decoy after its defeat. Although in many situations, a decoy is supposed to take bullets meant for the one that made them, in this case, it was purely to prevent it from teaming up with Bill Cipher.

[AN: This will kinda be the end of Volume 1, Volume 2 will be where he will stay in one Universe but I will be taking a break from this to research more about DC Universe, like other planets outside of Earth.

I am thinking of having the MC have a life outside of Earth for a while. The amount of stone this work receives will motivate me more to finish my research faster.]