Part 3 Days of Future Past.

The Future:

Robin stared at the Prefect’s dark caped figure. “So the Robin’s are your Gestapo. Imposing your will on the world. I’m not like you. I could never be like you. You are insane.”

The Prefect clasped his gloved hands behind his back and walked toward his younger self. “There’s that word again insane. I suppose you are correct if you mean, by that, that I am in sanity, fully aware of the order of the way things truly are, while you’re out of sanity, denying the true order of things. The Robins impose order on the world, the human race thrives under my mentorship, and it evolves at an astonishing rate.”

“Evolves. You mean you’re tampering with the DNA of the general population?”

“Tampering? No I’m fully remaking it.” Again the Prefect transported them to another area.


Robin had entered an absolutely enormous room. It’s walls stretched off to a ceiling so high above them they could not see it. All along the wall they could see what looked like small pods. In each of the pods small humanoid babies, could be seen growing.

“We’re expanding, Robin. Slight alterations in DNA and there are any number of previously inhospitable planets that were unfit for colonization, that are being conquered and settled.”

Robin stood open mouthed at the massive baby farm. “Conquered and settled? What the heck are you talking about?”

“My empire, Robin.” The Prefect turned away from Robin, his black cape dragged on the ground behind him. “An empire I helped achieved with the power of the Dark Knight.” He raised a gloved black fist in the air.

The Prefect flicked a giant viewing screen behind him on. There in full costume was Batman encased in a giant block of ice.

“You betrayed and murdered my mentor?” Robin turned his face away from the screen. “No! It can’t be! It’s not true!”

The Prefect flicked the controller and they were transported to another area.


They were on a space platform in orbit around the earth. All around the earth huge space going vessels could be seen. All were similar in design, sleek and predatory.

The Prefect stood before the glass wall that looked outward into space. “This is my fleet: The Redbirds of Prey. Light years ahead of any earth designs or even what any human mind is even capable of. I designed them myself.”

Robin stared out at the fleet of ships both repulsed and intrigued by them. “You said no human mind was capable of designing those monstrosities. You’re not even human anymore? Are you?”

“Oh I assure you I am fully human. I just use some rather powerful computers.” With that, a large metallic skull, with what seemed almost like Rastafarian dreadlocks, rose from a platform in the floor.

“Brainiac.” Robin whispered.

The Prefect calmly took one of Brainiac’s tentacles and plugged it into the back of his neck.

“You’re being controlled by Braniac,” Robin deduced. “That’s what happened to you.”

“There is no Brainiac. Not anymore. I erased him shortly after I killed the Joker. I just use his brain to supplement mine.” Another viewing screen lit up behind him. On it were graphs and charts of a number of running computer programs. At the top of the screen, it showed the number of currently running programs. 8,675,309, next to that figure it showed the amount of computational power used. 0.02%. “You think you’re bright now? You have no idea.”

“You killed the Joker, wait this is about that night. Isn’t it?”

The Prefect smiled at the memory, “He was my first kill. On that day I feel I saved my first millions of lives.”

“Save life? Do you know how contradictory you sound?”

“I could say the same thing for you.”

Robin grimaced. “What is all this about, what is all this for?”

“What it’s always been about… justice. Justice for the human race.”


The Present:

“Too bad there’s just us in the race.” Cissie sighed as the supercycle flew over the clear blue ocean.

“Huh?” Cass looked at her perplexed.

“I was just thinking that this is kind of like that TV show, where they race around the world, but there’s no competition, there’s just us in the race. There’s not going to be any prize money. Which is too bad because I’d think we’d win, ya know. I mean, Bart’s solved so many puzzles; we’re making really good time. ” “Yeah I guess you’re right, we have been all over the world already.” Cass caught sight of the tropical island ahead.

“Ok, we’re in Jamaica mon.” Anita smiled.

“Kon read that clue again.” Cass beckoned.

“No problem, mon, no problem. Go to Jamaica to feel the undertaka.”

Anita interjected, “I think I know what he’s talking about, the Undutaka cemetery. I know where it is. Just fly that way.”

“No problem, mon, no problem.”

“Kon that is worse accent I’ve ever heard. You sound so, so…”

“What?”

“Well, white.”

“Hmpf” Kon turned away from her, insulted, and started to sing. “No woman, no cry!”


They arrived in the cemetery. It was not large and looked to be in a state of bad disrepair.

“Wow, this place sure is spooky.” Cissie noted.

“So is Secret she’s still out like a light.” Kon waved his hand in front of her face.

Cass waved her arms through her. “You don’t suppose she’s flipped out like you did?”

Cissie responded. “I didn’t flip out, I just quit superheroing.”

“Oh really.” Kon looked at her cynically.

Impulse looked around eerie cemetery; with it’s battered tombstones, in awe. “Hey this place is really cool. It reminds me of that cool show or movie or maybe both but I’m not sure, but anyway, originally it was a comic book, from the 1950’s even, called something or other the crypt-“

“Bart, you’re supposed to be thinking diabolically evil. Remember?” Cass lectured him.

“Oh yeah, er… Think diabolically evil.” He scrunched his face together. “Ha, ha. Young fools, I have led you to my crypt tonight…” he turned startled. “Oh no! Wonder Girl didn’t you say you had a lead jewelry box at home?”

“Yes Wonder Woman gave it to me. She said it was once used to contain…”

“Kryptonite,” moaned Kon as he slumped to the ground.

“Got it!” Impulse turned around with a metal box in his hand.

“My jewelry box!” yelled Cass, “kryptonite in my jewelry box. And I thought the cubic zirconium was bad.”

Then one of the headstones fell away revealing a television. “Ha, ha. You fools, I have led you into my crypt tonight. Get it, crypt tonight. Ha, ha, ha.”

Kon stood weakly and slapped Bart thankfully on the shoulder. “Way to be evil! Bart.”

“It was all for nothing Batman, chase your tail and your back on my trail. Ha, ha, ha. I was right underneath your nose, world’s greatest detective. You just weren’t nosy enough. Who knows what’s become of your protégé because you’re so predictable. Ha, ha.”

Cass raised a finger in the air. “Right underneath his nose, that means right back where we started.” She sneered disgusted. “Oh geez, it’s that Wonders of Science place.”

“Man that sucks.” Impulse cursed.

“Yeah mon.” Anita agreed.

Impulse turned to her, “I was just starting to have fun, I can’t believe the scavenger hunt is over.” Anita gave him a puzzling look.

Cissie grabbed Bart’s shoulders and congratulated him. “Thanks to you Bart we did it record time, besides this is the good part, this where we get to kick the bad guys butts.”

“Oh yeah cool,” he thought for a second and then looked at them suspiciously. “Uh, you don’t mean me, right?”


The Future:

“What gives you the right? I don’t think I’ve seen anything so obscene.” Robin stared out at the fleet the Prefect had built his empire with.

“Is that so. I don’t remember being so obtuse. Even after all I’ve shown you, you don’t get it.”

“No I don’t get it. I don’t get how I could ever be like you. You’re a power hungry madman, I don’t even like being in charge. I don’t like telling people what to do. You live to tell the entire human race what to do.”

“Because of me the entire human race will live.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m doing this for them Robin can’t you see that.”

Robin stared at him with a look of utter disbelief.

“We need to be powerful, Robin, more powerful than you can possibly imagine. Don’t you see, Robin?”

The Prefect approached Robin and with blinding speed ripped the mask from Robin’s face. “See the true facts, survive and reproduce, Tim. That’s the name of the game. In your time, us humans had done it better than any other creature on the planet, and then we slowly started to kill everything else on the planet, piece by piece. We needed more room, Tim. We needed to expand. We needed to survive. Because logically there’s another species out there somewhere that’s more powerful then us, as gnats are to us. And they would likewise need to expand and move outwards.“

“My empire is Humanities Empire, that’s why anyone who stood in my way had to die. It had to be done Robin. Someone needed to take charge. Someone needed to get things done. Someone needed to save humanity.”

“By enslaving it?”

“There was no other way, Tim. Someday they’ll come. They’ll devour us. Unless were ready for them. You can understand that can’t you Robin.”

Robin stood there dumfounded. Everything the Prefect had said up to this point had sounded like it had from someone else’s mouth, some insane version of himself that just looked like him but in reality was a completely other person. He had not understood the Prefect’s motivations or reasoning at all. He was just some mad villain. But now he became angry and upset. Not because couldn’t understand the Prefect’s actions. But because he understood them completely. It all made sense of sorts.

Robin fell to his knees, and began to weep. “Oh dear lord, it’s true. It is me. This can’t happen, please don’t let this happen.”


The Present:

“It’s happening Harl, we’re really cooking now.” Joker held up a card with the word death written on it. He stared at the infrared image of Robin in the isolation tank.


The Past:

Robin shivered in the darkness of the armored truck. He had been working on a case with the Spoiler to help stop a crime masterminded by her father, the grade B supervilian, the Cluemaster. His efforts had led him the position he now found himself in. Trapped with the Cluemaster in an armored truck that was buried in a pit filled with concrete. The small amount of air in the truck was running out.

“Heads getting fuzzy, can’t calculate how much air might be left. Can’t be enough, not going to make it. Unless there were only one of us.” He raised a fist to the unconscious Cluemaster. “What am I thinking? I can’t do that.” Robins mind wandered in a haze. He lamented on his inability to meditate and use less oxygen. He thought of his early training, and how it was interrupted and supplemented by Lady Shiva, the world’s most deadly martial artist.

“Lady Shiva wasn’t into the serene philosophies. The killing arts were her only interest. I know what she’d do. She’d double her oxygen supply without hesitation.” -C. Dixon. Robin issue 5, pp 13, 14.


The Present:

The Joker looked up from the screen. “Well now that sounds promising. Tell me Harley, what’s Batman’s mission in life?”

“Um to save people I guess, well I mean more or less.” Harley bobbed her head from side to side.

“Now my mission is life, is to A, kill people and B, annoy Batman which I do by C…”

“Killing people.“

“Very good Harley.“

He squinted menacingly. “Now for the question. Why is Jr. Batman even thinking about killing people? Hmm…”

He took a pen a scribbled on a card Lady Shiva.


The Past:

Robin pressed his hands together and pushed them palms outward on the center of Lady Shiva’s chest. He had just killed her, while under the influence of the drug herb Aramilla. Determined not to be a killer, he has set himself on the task of reviving her. He put his mouth to hers and breathed air into her lungs. Then he set about pushing on her chest again, following the CPR procedure to the letter.

“Ok, so this is weird. I’m trying to bring someone, who’s killed so many, back to life so she can kill even more.” –C. Dixon. Robin issue 52, pp 4.


The Present:

The Joker stood up on his chair. “Ha, ha, Harley. I got it. I found the kink in the Dark Knight’s armor. Eureka, I have found it.”

The Joker lashed out with his foot, stopping it just short of Harley’s face. “Jr. Batman’s Achilles heel.”

Harley stared at the saddle shoe in front of her. “Great Mr. J. Um… is that like athletes foot?”

The Joker tapped the tan, egg shaped, isolation tank with his cane. “It’s the fatal flaw Harl. The crack in the Robin’s egg.”

The Joker paced about the room. “Do you know why he thought about killing that man? He couldn’t help but think about it because it was the only logical way to for him to survive. When he was bringing that, Lady Shiva, back to life, he thought about how illogical his actions were. That’s his weakness, his logical mind.”

“So you’re saying that because he’s completely sane, you can make him go crazy?”

“It’s a matter of simple arithmetic. All we have to do is create a scenario in his mind, where has no choice but say, to kill a million people to save a hundred million people. There’s only one logical solution Harley, and that’s the one he’ll take. Imagine it Harley, killing a million people. What would that do to the young boy’s mind? Now imagine we to it 20 times, 30 times.” The Joker smiled gleefully.

“Wow that’s up there with Stalin and Hitler. You ain’t even come close to killing that many… uh…”

The Joker gave her a venomous look.

“… Yet. But someday Mr. J you’re gonna top em all.”

“Yes Harl, someday,” Harley cringed as he wound up his fist. “Someday, bloody, someday.” He stuck his fist wildly in the air. “Bang zoom, they’ll be stacked to the moon, Alice.”

“But Mr. J, how are we going to create a scenario in his mind with just words?”

“An amazing invention Harley, people all around the world are reading them right now. They’re called sentences.”

“Sentences, that’s what you two will be serving. Long sentences.” A voice came from behind them.

Joker turned and looked into the faces of the Young Justice gang. “Huh? A bunch of kids? You gotta be kidding me.”

Harley turned, exasperated, to the Joker. “I thought you said it would be forever before Batman or anybody got here Mr. J?”

The Jokers jaws dropped, he looked at them in total surprise. “How did you figure out the clues without Batman? Where are the remnants of the JLA?”

Impulse had grabbed Robin’s cape that lay in the corner and draped it over himself backwards, so that the yellow part was showing outwards. He twisted his hands in front of him like claws and bared his teeth. “What’s this? Thou dost feel dismay, that we are not the JLA. And thou, for thine sets of sins even hell will not let thee in.”

Anita remarked. “Uh I think you’re taking the demonic part of demonically evil a little too serious.”

The Joker shrugged his shoulders in resignation. “Oh well. I guess I can’t win em all, as for you young devils you’re headed for a fall. Ha, ha.”

The Joker and Harley stepped into a cylindrical tube. The door shut closed behind them.

Kon flew to the area and tore the door off the tube. Inside was another television set. The Joker’s image appeared on the screen, as well as a 10 second timer.

He said nothing he simply just laughed.

Cass commanded. “Grab Robin and that woman and let’s get out of here.”

Impulse phased into the isolation tank and grabbed Robin out. Kon picked up the telepath in his arms. They hopped into the supercycle and prepared to ride out of the building. The moment the cycle began to phase to penetrate one of the walls of the building, it was repulsed by a strange energy.

“Huh? Some kind of weird force field. That should be no problem.” Kon powered up his hands and struck the wall. He was thrust back with great violence.

“Oh man, we’re never going to make it past that. We’re trapped.” Cissie bowed her head in disappointment.

The timer counted out the final seconds. The building was racked by a series of explosions.

Cassie called out. “Quick Bart, phase us into that tank. Now.”

Bart grabbed them all and phased them into the giant tan egg. Inside the darkness of egg, they could feel the egg tumble and fall, they banged into the walls of the egg and each other.

The building crumbled and fell to the street. The giant egg rolled away from most of the rubble and cracked open against the corner of the brick building it had slammed into.

The Young Justice gang climbed dazed out of the crack in the tan egg.

Cass called out. “Is everybody ok?”

Anita dragged the unconscious Robin out. “Ya mon. That wasn’t too bad, it almost seemed like we were weightless in there, even before we started to fall.”

“Yeah I know what you mean, we didn’t hit the walls near as hard as we should have, like the walls repelled you back toward the center.” Cass agreed.

“Uh…” said Robin stirring himself. As soon as he opened his eyes he was awake and fully alert. He tried to stand. His legs wobbled underneath him and he fell forward. Anita caught him, “Whoa, slow down there, cowboy. Are you alright?”

Suddenly Secret sprung up from where she was. “I can move, I’m me again. I’m not her anymore.” She floated over to Cissie with a gleeful expression. “I’m not her anymore.”

“Secret? What happened? You were zonked out cold. We were worrying you might be, I dunno, having a breakdown or something, not that it still isn’t a possibility. You’re sure you’re all right.”

Robin steadied himself. “What happened, I remember being in the old west then there’s a bunch of really weird dreams. They must have been dreams, but boy they seemed so real. What happened after we left the old west how did I get here?”

Cass looked at him incredulously. “Don’t you remember? We were chasing that guy in the time machine built out of uh… what kind of car was it again?”

Kon looked puzzled, “Yeah, what was that guy driving? Wasn’t it a Ford Pinto?”

“No, I think it was a Lada.” Bart interjected.

“Lada bull. Were did you guys get this stuff?” Anita gave them a snide look.

Kon was perplexed. “I… I don’t remember. Man, I can’t remember if there was even a bad guy now. Funny huh?“

Secret stared at them disbelievingly. “You mean you guys forget everything that happened. How Robin you were… you were…”

“I was what Secret?” Robin gazed at her questioningly.

She looked down at the ground. “You were evil Robin.”

Superboy stared at her in dismay “Robin evil? Shyeah right. He’s got a mean streak like Mr. Rogers. He’s the friendly neighborhood, Robin.”

Cissie agreed. “Yeah Robin is much too level headed to become some mad villain. Me, I have to watch my temper, he doesn’t even seem to have much of one.”

“I have to agree. Secret the notion of me being evil, well it’s just absurd.”

“Yeah, yeah, I guess you’re right. You could never be evil Robin. I guess I forget everything too.” She looked to him fearfully and slowly cowered away from him.

“Robin’s Prefect Future.”