Chapter XXVIII: Robin Vs Robin

Sorry for being late on an update. I was on Christmas vacation.

Just like when he used to spar Dick, he never activated his Sharingan or used Chakra as he stood in front of Tim in a battle ready stance. Tim tried to tag Itachi with jabs, but they were swatted to the side. Itachi did a spinning inside crusting kick that Tim ducked under. Tim swept him off his one leg he stood on and tried to kick him in mid air. But Itachi landed on one hand and used the rotation of the fall to kick his leg away and stand back up. Itachi tried to grapple by grabbing the side of his neck, but Tim went under his arm and delivered an uppercut to his chin. Itachi moved his neck with the blow to reduce the impact and back flipped gracefully. Tim tried to charge at him, but Itachi maintained distance with a side kick. As Tim backed up, Itachi did a quick dash forward and tried to hit him with a right straight, but Tim caught his arm while maintaining balance and twisted on his back foot to flip Itachi over him. Itachi twisted his body in mid air and kicked Tim in the side which made him grunt and release his grip allowing Itachi to catch himself. As they were briefly separated Tim asked, "How do you think I'm doing compared to how Dick used to do?"

They started circling each other, "You've improved a lot, you might be as good as Dick was."

Tim smiled, "I'm glad that I could catch up to him."

Itachi got out of a fighting stance, "That's enough for now, I have a couple favors I want to ask you."

Tim leaned on a wall, "Ask away."

I want you to recreate Batman's weapon to take down Flash."

Tim walked over to his bag and pulled out a needle. "I've had one on me the whole time," he handed it to him.

"Wh, thank you. Although there's one more thing. Do you think that you could beat Damian in a fight?"

Tim rubbed the back of his head, "In a straight up fight? No. He has years worth of training over me since I was in the Phantom Zone for a long time, and he's always had more natural talent than the rest of the Robin's."

Itachi was about to speak, but Tim stopped rubbing his head and looked at him, "But, I don't need to beat him in a straight up fight. Leave him to me. I just need control of the remaining reanimations."

While the new Akatsuki were developing plans on their next capture attempt, Superman was confronting Lex in his tower about the news footage that showed Parasite fighting a gray Superman. Superman looked out the window of the skyscraper while Lex sat at his desk, "I'm going to ask you something, Lex. And I need you to be one hundred percent honest with me."

"This sounds more like an accusation than a question."

"If you lie I'll know."

Lex put one arm on the table and diverted his eyes to his laptop, "... By listening to my pulse. You're a Kryptonian Polygraph now?"

Superman's eyebrows tensed, "Did you have anything to do with this imposter?"

Lex lowered his head slightly but kept looking at Superman, "Why would you even ask me"-"You're the only one I know with cloning technology. Answer the question."

"Skipping over just how much of a leap in logic this is... how dare you call my loyalty into question? We've been friends for a long time, Clark, but that doesn't give you the right to"- Superman slammed through the corner of his desk and glared at him, "Is this YOUR doing?!"

Lex stared at him for a minute before standing up, "No. I had nothing to do with it. Satisfied?"

His Yellow Lantern ring seemed to flare for just a moment, "Yes." And he flew away.

The moon rose and Iris stood on the sidewalk of an empty street and took her phone out of her pocket and texted Barry to come over. He came to her in about 30 seconds. "Iris, it's good to see you, what's up?"

Iris hugged Barry and he dorze for a second before returning the hug, "Gee, Iris. What's..."- He collapsed and Iris caught him. There was a puff of smoke and Barry saw that it was Itachi who pulled the needle out of the back of his neck.

Just before calling Zatanna he noticed all of the screens turn on and Superman showed up on screen. "This brand of radicalism will not be tolerated. Those like Batman and Itachi whi continue to wage their war of terror will be hunted down and held accountable for their crimes. And until further notice I am issuing an executive order banning all forms of public assembly. I will not tolerate Anti-Regime hate groups threatening what we have accomplished. The Regime has created an age of unprecedented peace on Earth. But that peace comes at a price. So if you are angry or upset that I have infringed on your personal freedoms. Get over it."

"Zatanna, extract me," After a moment he was in the Tower Of Fate and dropped Flash into pre prepped bindings meant for him specifically. 

At the same time in Blüdhaven Damian was running across rooftops tracking down where he heard the non powered villains were hiding out. He found the Warehouse where there were about ten villains standing around. The villains being Black Mask, Scarecrow, Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum, Bronze Tiger, and a few others.

As he started fighting them Red Robin observed from a high up corner of the warehouse and was whispering in his comms to Starfire, "Are you sure that you don't want back up, Tim? He could make a call to Cyborg at any time and then... well you'd be in big trouble."

"He could do that, but he never would. He's too hot headed and stubborn to accept help."

"....Alright, if you think you have it then I won't bother you."

Tim turned the channel and observed the fight. Damian looked like he was almost getting overwhelmed, but he managed to put something on their chest that binds them. By the end of his fight with them he was drenched in sweat, but he still won. "Wow, he really is the most complete fighter to have worn the Robin costume, but that won't matter."

Damian was drenched in sweat and went to pick up his baton sticks he dropped during the fight, but something wrapped around them and pulled them away. Damian looked in the direction they were pulled in, and while his head was turned Tim landed a flying side kick to his head which sent him rolling on the floor. He quickly recovered and looked at who attacked him. 

His eyes widened slightly when he realized who it was, but they quickly narrowed. "Tim, were you really dumb enough to come here on your own? I thought you were supposed to be the smartest among us."

Tim cracked his knuckles and smirked, "Are you really arrogant enough to think that you can beat me in your current state? Well you're supposed to be the most arrogant among us, so I guess you are."

They both dashed at each other and Damian threw the first punch which was evaded and countered with an uppercut. But Damian leaned back narrowly avoiding the attack and followed it up with a roundhouse kick which was blocked, but caused Tim to almost lose his footing, so he used the momentum to spin into a spinning straight which made Damian adopt a cross block. But even after blocking it he slid back a little. Their back and forth continued for a couple minutes with narrow evades, blocks, and near hits. "You were the last one out of the family I would have expected to abandon Batman. Although I guess you were sharp enough to realize how helpless he is."

Tim finally landed a punch, "I didn't abandon him like you! When this is all over things will go back to normal."

Damian kicked him away, "Go back to normal? You know how many people you helped kill? Did you forget his one rule?"

Tim pulled out his bo staff and extended it, "I never broke the rule myself, and that's enough talk. Let's end this."

There probably wasn't a single person on this Earth that was as skilled as Tim when it came to a Bo Staff, and Damian wasn't ignorant of this, but he didn't have a choice but to fight. He tried evading under and over the staff as much as he but Tim landed multiple hits on him. And that overlapping with the damage he already sustained he quickly collapsed.

As Tim looked down at Damian his face tensed and he put a hand on his face, "Maybe.... maybe he's right."

"No, he isn't."

Tim looked in the direction that the voice came from and he got into a fighting stance, but he quickly dropped his stance along with his mouth when he saw that it was Dick.

"D... Dick?!"

He smiled, "It's me."

Tim returned the smile, but after staring at him for a while his head lowered, "You.... you really are dead."

Dick frowned slightly, "...Yeah."

Tim clenched his fist and glared at Damian's unconscious body. "Don't be mad at Damian, it was an accident."

"I heard about how it happened.... but even still. He KILLED you. I'm not sure that I can forgive that."

Dick walked towards them, "I won't ask you to forgive him for me. Hell, he hasn't even forgiven himself yet," Tim looked up at him and Dick kneeled down in front of Damian's body, "He blames himself more than anyone for what happened to me. He's been throwing himself head first into fights like these almost like he's asking for death as if that's the only way he can atone." He looked up at Tim, "So, maybe you can give him another chance once this is all over."

Tim's expression eased up and his fists loosened, "I will."

Dick stood up, "Oh, and another thing. You don't think that Bruce has given up on you, have you?"

Tim turned away slightly, "It's not that exactly, it's just that..... he might be. I don't know.... ashamed of me. He might think that I've thrown his teachings out the window. I've helped plan executions for God's sake!" He gritted his teeth.

Dick smirked, "Tim, do you remember what Batman told us all what he wanted us to be?"

Tim turned back to him and had a tense brow, "He wanted us to be better versions of him."

Dick smiled and gestured to him, "I'm not going to pretend that I know every single thing that Batman wants, and I'm not going to tell you whether what you're doing is right or wrong. But Batman is aware of just how stubborn he is, he expects us to be able to do things he never could on his own. He might get angry, or even disappointed in some of the things you do," Dick put one. Serious expression, "But he would never be ashamed of you. Out of all of us he expects you to be able to surpass him one day. Got it?"

Tim nodded, "Yeah, you're right."

Dick took a deep breath, "Well then, I gotta go now. Deadman business, you know how it is, see ya, Tim."

Tim smirked as he started to fly away, "Not really, but bye, Dick. See you next time."

Dick disappeared and Tim picked up Damian, "Zatanna, Extract me."

As those two finished up, there was  commotion in a warehouse in Gotham. A blonde man with red glasses stood above everyone else on a stage. "The Joker Underground is real! We will not stand for oppression. We will not bow down to the Regime! We are armed... we are ready... the Joker underground will stand up and fight!"

Out of nowhere, Batwoman jumped on stage and glared at him, "Who do you think you are?!"

"Batwoman?"

"The Joker is not someone to be honored, he's a genocidal murderer."

"He's a symbol of freedom. He's anti establishment... a martyr who fell at the hands of the Red Butcher!"

"Wrong! He is no one to be worshiped.  If you want to fight against the fascist Regime, do it for yourselves... not in the name of the man who slaughtered millions and took Superman's family from him!"

As Batwoman lectured the two hundred plus people in the warehouse, Cyborg was making a report to the High  Counselor. "Superman, I've got credible intel on the Joker Resistance from a source in Gotham."

"How credible?" 

"I've run the information through our satellites. It's actionable," he raised his arm and showed a map of America on it that showed the location of the warehouse."

Wonder Woman and Raven are running sweeps on the West Coast, but Hawkgirl is on her way back. She's the closest, I can"-"No... I'll deal with this myself." His eyes glew a vibrant red as his face contorted into a glare.

Batwoman knocked out all of the people with guns in the room, "How many of you do I have to knock sense into before you get it? You wouldn't even last ten seconds against Superman!"

The leader's face scrunched, "Um...."

She sighed, "Listen. If you want to"- She was cut off by a red blast that destroyed part of the roof. Everyone looked up and saw Superman looking angrier than ever. "You DARE assemble in the JOKER'S NAME?!

Almost as if on que everyone raised their fist and the leader started another speech, "We... are the free citizens of the United States of America! This is a lawful assembly of the Joker Underground. We do not recognize the authority of a tyrant!"

Everyone started chanting Joker's name and Batwoman's eyes went wide, "What the hell are you all doing?! You're going to get us all killed!"

Superman's vision started to become red and he gritted his teeth, "Shut up..."

He suddenly snapped and he used his heat vision on everyone in the room. The chanting of the Joker's name was quickly replaced by screams of pain as the heat blast sliced through them and set them on fire. There was nowhere for anyone to go. And eventually, there was nothing left but the sound of crackling flames.