Earth-Two Flashback Presents #1: The Backward Mystery

“Ground Control to Major Bat.” The intercom speaker crackled.

Batman made no noticeable deviation from his review of the control panel in front of him. The engines of the rocket hummed with ever increasing power. The glow of moonlight shown in the cockpit window.

“Atomic batteries to power. Turbines to speed.” Robin snickered a little at that.

10... 9...

“If only I could instill the same enthusiasm you have for popular culture into your daily training routines.” Batman scolded , but with a small smile beneath the pointed nose of his cowl. He looked up from the rows of lit switches under his gloved fingertips to the greened monitor screen above him. “Alfred, I should be set. If you would like to take young Master Grayson back to the manor now I know he could use his break from patrol tonight to catch up on rest.”

6... 5...

The butler laid his hand on the costumed youngster's shoulder. “As you wish, sir.”

“Aw, maaaaan.” Robin stomped around the floor of the monitoring booth. “It's bad enough I never get to ride in the Bat Rocket. Don't I at least get to watch the launch?”

1... Blastoff...

Alfred stood quietly at the entryway to the bullet pod that would carry them underground back to Wayne Manor. Robin watched the thrusters ignite into a bright explosion of energy as the black rocket roared off of the private launch pad before he turned to step through the door.



As the rocket glided silently from the atmosphere into the breaking dawn of the far horizon, Batman once again scanned for the curious signal that had led him so far from his city. The blended Kryptonian and Thanagarian technology automatically adjusted the ship into geosynchronous orbit not far from the recently completed Justice League satellite.

Batman reached out to activate the scanner when Thus Spake Zarathustra erupted over the sound system. He clicked off the cassette player with a laugh. “What would I do without you, old chum?”

BEEDEEP. BEEDEEP.

The signal had been recovered. The spaced crusader opened the feed on his monitor. A weird garble of noises fed into the cabin, and then a stream of numbers covered the screen. The same six numbers repeating in an endless parade. Batman knew it was a message for only him. There could be no doubt. But was it a call for help or a trap? He punched in a sequence on the panel and the transmitter array locked onto and amplified the carrier wave. A laser shot forward from the nose of the ship and spiraled out in intensity until it found it's source. A wormhole! Tachyons collided back on themselves to fantastic effect! The laser feed immediately caused the energy to amplify exponentially until the swirling, nebulous cloud in front of the rocket unfurled as a glowing tunnel.

Batman took a deep breath before shoving the thruster forward and speeding headlong into the mysterious portal. There was a brilliant flash, and then nothing but the dark night above the world.



For long seconds the Batman felt like he was being stretched at an atomic level. There was a rush of flashing energy receding into the event horizon like a Fibonacci spiral. The rocket slid easily through the tunnel in space and time. A small black dot was speeding closer at an impossible speed. Suddenly the rocket lurched ahead and was through. Batman's head rolled back briefly as even his keen senses were overwhelmed with the bizarre journey he has just completed. There was a slow crescendo of noise and then at once he was all too aware of his surroundings.

Explosions sparked near his ship and the shockwave pushed it sideways. The hero leaned forward to see a space battle outside his craft. Metallic figures zipped by, each firing destructive bolts back and forth. One paused not far away and he realized it was one of Superman's robots! An instant after another android bore down on the Super-bot and ripped it in half. And then he saw it. A Brainiac! Not like one he had ever seen before. It was a strange, advanced technology, the likes of which he had not yet seen, replicated a few dozen times over. Even Superman's robots from the Fortress of Solitude were considerably more complex than he had previously known - no longer dopplegangers for Clark, but formidable Kryptonian androids. Sparks of power dazzled the Earth's blue horizon. And then he saw it. A large skull-shaped battleship with sprawling metallic tendrils writhing all around. It had to be Brainiac's warship. Instinctively Batman reached down to toggle a switch. Cloaking Mode Active. He had never had a reason to test it before, but the caped crusader now whispered a wish to his faraway companion. “I hope this works like it is supposed to, J'onn.”

BEEDEEP!

A small blip appeared on the screen. Could it be? A Justice League homing beacon? Batman moved the rocket forward in the direction of the flashing dot, navigating the war of metal men raging all around. A faint green glow was all he could make out until he drew in close enough to see an inert body. Another robot? No. Superman! But different somehow. It didn't matter. He had to be revived.

Batman clicked the helmet into place on his pressurized bat-suit, and fastened a tether to his utility belt. A heave of the pressurized locking mechanism, a rush of air into the vacuum of space, and the lone fighter was out and drifting through the nothingness toward the immobilized Man of Steel. He could see a sickening green irradiating from a large belt strapped to his waist. Kryptonite. It is killing him. But wait. Why haven't one of the robots come to his aid? And who is this exactly? It is not the Superman he knows. Not exactly. Just what is going on here?

“Bruce?” The Superman grunted. His voice carried by a Justice League communicator built into his uniform somewhere. The same that automated the distress beacon when he was incapacitated. “Uncle... Bruce? How...?”

WHAT? And in that instant a large piece of the puzzle fell into place. This was the FUTURE. And someone had called him here to help save the son of Superman from a full scale Brainiac invasion. But every question led to the next one in this complex conundrum. For first time since his parent's had died, Bruce Wayne felt completely out of his depth.





“Superman. Briefly. I need to know what is happening.”

“Bruce... It's Brainiac. He's locked us in a cloaking field... No one can get in. Or even... detect us. Don't... don't try to rescue me. This belt... it's wired to activate his fail safe...” Jon-El winced. “He's doing something... to the Watchtower...”

“Fail safe? What will happen?” Batman was intently focused. He felt exposed in this environment. So far from home. From the shadowy alleyways from which he first struck out at the madness of this world.

“An array. Small satellites... will burn away the atmosphere... if he can't have what he wants. Another world for his collection...”

Batman grimaced. “I know the modus operandi. Brainiac's master plan is always the same. So he's locked this Watchtower into a force field? Into this private little war. That would explain your isolation. Your robots had time to react to the attack I assume, but otherwise no one knows you are here.”

Superman huffed in weak amusement. “You've always... been like this then? Father always said... you...”

“It's okay, son. I'll get you out of this. We just need to shut this monster down. Do you have any idea what it's looking for?”

Jon-El couldn't respond. He had lost consciousness. Batman knew he didn't have much time. He looked back around at the skull ship and at this angle could now see a massive space station dwarfed underneath. The hero activated a retractor and was soon inside his rocketship and approaching the Watchtower. As he glided into the docking bay, the Batman couldn't help but see a futuristic extrapolation of his own Justice League's satellite. The automated systems grabbed hold of his rocket and deployed a plastic airlock to own pressurized door.

Batman felt like he leaped ahead decades in a second as he entered the orbital fortress.



The dark avenger told himself to not look as he raced past pictures featured in the corridors. Was that the Teen Titans? Grown and now a Justice League of their own? And this grouping - children of his own generation perhaps? And those were just the ones he could identify at a reluctant glance.

Now a trophy room. He rushed through to his destination. A Starro conqueror in a stasis field. Kanjar Ro's Gamma Gong. A massive key. Variations of inert Kryptonite. This one was marked “Worlogog”? Some type of metallic orb labeled as “IF”? Batman paused. He pulled a receiver device from his utility belt. He opened up the telescopic antenna and twisted a knob. The origin point of the particle wave that had brought him here to the future was somewhere inside. But there was no time.

Batman ducked into a small side passage as a cyclopean probe hummed by in the adjacent corridor. He couldn't take any chance of being detected too early.

There was a lift now. Like something akin to the science fiction shows that Dick liked to watch. The elevator in his own satellite looked like a crude mockery compared to it. Batman ducked inside with quick glances. Once the door hissed shut he searched for buttons, but to no avail. There was a pause where he could only feel vibrations from the battle outside.

“Bridge?” He guessed he needed a voice command. “Top level.” He tried again. A long moment passed and then, “war room.” The elevator whooshed upward. Batman had no idea what he would face when he arrived, and that was a feeling he disliked more than any other.



The moment the door cracked before him, Batman could see a figure sprawled on the floor in front of him. He hopped forward to check the pulse of the fallen hero. The costumed character stirred. “Batman...? But you aren't... Grayson. Or the old one...”

“No. I am the original. And I will stop this.” Batman scanned the uniform of his fellow Justice Leaguer. Blue and red. A badly damaged belt with circuitry exposed. “The Atom. Correct?”

“Ryan Choi, sir. I was on monitor duty. Then Brainiac was everywhere at once. I tried to alert the others, but something is absorbing all signals to the planet.”

“Stay back, soldier. You've done your job. Make your way to the sick bay as soon as you can walk. No exceptions.”

The Atom nodded. He shifted his weight, but felt a sharp twinge of pain in his shoulder. “Be careful, Batman. This is a new version of menace. Even for us. A Brainiac 2.0.” He looked up, but the caped crusader has already disappeared.



The technological beast known throughout the cosmos stared through the holographic screens hovering in front of him, beyond the robotic showdown outside, and at the blue world below. He knew that this world – this very point in spacetime – was a universal constant. A fixed pivot point in the multiversal architecture. He now knew there was so much more to gain from this planet than simply categorizing it into a tesseract bottle. Brainiac would command this world. Bend it to his own resolute purpose. He would overrun it's planetary communications web with his programming, seize it's 3D printers, assemblers, and industrial robots, and disperse a cloud of nanobots to transform the populace into an army of mindless worker drones. The time for observation and collection had passed. There were new factors to calculate now. His mission had upgraded, and it was his burden alone to divine the sublime algorithm with which to wrest order from cosmic chaos. And this Earth would be his staging ground to bring control to everything in existence.

80% complete. The programming continued to install into the computer framework of the Watchtower.

Batman moved forward along the darkened support beams above. He caught a clear look at Brainiac and withdrew slightly, reassessing his foe. This was not your father's Collector of Worlds. No longer was this a tall Coluan in a pink jumpsuit. This was a mechanical and biological horror of a giant. Black molded striated patterns shown eerily on armored plating that were dotted with glowing lights. The green-skinned juggernaut loomed in the center of the command bridge while his broadcasted technomancy cracked every system in space station. Batman puffed himself up and steeled his gaze. This was not going to be easy.

Brainiac's hollow voice suddenly filled the chamber. “Thermal abnormality detected in the ambient room temperature.” His eyes burned. He lurched into a run and leapt upward at the shadowy bat-clad avenger.



CRUUULAWWRK! BERRRUNGG!

The cybernetic monster tore through the beams as Batman only just pulled himself across the room on a retractable line. Brainiac clanged down onto the metal flooring. His head spun around independently as his body remained crouched in a landing position. His hot, pervasive gaze pulled apart the contents of the room on every wavelength.

PAKOOOW! Several charges set off in controlled explosions above the robot, bringing the rest of the crossbars and metal beams down on top of Brainiac.

Batman was out of the room and down the hall before the ringing and crashing of metal had time to finish. The passageway opened into a mezzanine deck and the dark hero dove over the railing down to the next level. Another few quick steps and he was through the plaza and in a corner access passage. He stopped to breathe heavily. He pounded a frustrated fist on the wall he was leaning on. He could form a strategy in most any circumstance, even against the unpredictable madmen of Gotham City. Or the simplistic, would-be overlords that the Justice League could overpower without breaking a sweat. The variables here, however, were so far out of his field of experience he struggled with his each new move. Why? Why was HE brought here? Who would possibly gamble the future of the Earth on him? If only he had more time to learn his opponent, to formulate a scheme to outmaneuver... And it hit him like a punch from boxing glove arrow. Great Scott! Of course!

Batman rushed to a nearby computer kiosk. He clicked over the server to a basic interface. He punched in the same numbers that he had received in the transmission that had brought him here. The date that his parents were murdered. It instantly triggered a program embedded into the base core of the network from the date it was first installed into the Watchtower.

BAROOM!!

The behemoth Brainiac had landed on his level. A moment later the walls around Batman erupted in small pulse blasts.

“Brainiac! I'm here!” The dark knight came out into the open with his hands in front of him. “We are at an impasse. We need to negotiate.” He detected something resembling an incredulous grin on the otherwise frozen metal visage above him.

“You do not match my records. The human known as Bruce Wayne is aged and feeble. You are not. No matter. You have nothing to bargain with. I will break your will and your mind. You will be an agent of Brainiac. A herald of obedience to all other metahumans of this world.”

“I suppose. But you seem to have miscalculated something in your master plan.”

“And what is that?”

“Pow. You never underestimate the Batman.” He clicked a button on a transmitter hidden in his hand. The lighting on the Watchtower changed to red alert and a klaxon sounded throughout the station. A white light flooded in from the thick observation window behind them as a dozen forms rocketed in on their position. The Brainiac drones had be given an override command to converge on a singular point. The location of their master. A teleportation beam disintegrated the Batman seconds before the robots collided into Brainiac with a devastating explosion. Half a moment later the conflagration and contents of the level were sucked out into the void of space. And all was quiet.



Batman reappeared a moment later outside the docking station of his rocket. “Watchtower! Status!”

A monotone feminine voice responded. “Hull breach on Level 3. All access doors are sealed and the damaged contained. Justice League member Atom has been teleported to Sick Bay Level 5. Attended to by the medical assistant android. All Brainiac operations are now inactive. Superman is being recovered by his Fortress robots. Would you like to contact him?”

“No. I think I've performed my duty here. And I don't need to risk anymore potential time travel complications.” Batman stopped before entering the access tunnel to his ship. “Can you get me in touch with HIM?”

“Affirmative. He programmed a contact number to transfer to your ship once you had entered the code. He knew you would ask.”

“Of course I... Of course he did.” Batman let a sly grin and sealed the door behind him.



“Thank you, Bruce.”

Batman received the message from a hoarse Jon-El with only a nod to himself. He then opened a channel to his unseen accomplice.

“Hello, Batman.” The voice rang out with an odd familiarity inside the cabin of the small rocket as it barreled forward to the shrinking wormhole. “Thank you for coming.”

“How could I refuse myself? I recognize that office... Commissioner?”

The elder Wayne looked on his younger self with a gleam in his eye of glory days gone by. He shook his head. “I told myself for years that I wouldn't send the message. That I wouldn't lay a trap for Brainiac inside the Watchtower. Just to prove my faith in free will. I was the master of my own destiny, and time travel be damned. Hmph. I have a problem with being told what to do in case you haven't noticed yet.” The image of an older Bruce Wayne flickered on the screen. His mustache twitched as he spoke. “But then I figured, why the hell not?” His face lit up with pride. “How could I deny myself the look on Brainiac's face when his plan fell apart?”

The younger Batman laughed. “But why me?”

“The alien incursion alarms I had installed to my own computer network went off. I alone had access to the computers of the Watchtower. I made sure I always would long ago. I knew that Brainiac's forcefields were impenetrable and that Superman was already out of contact. I still had the control codes to the station and worked around Brainiac's hostile takeover routines by hacking into the trophy room terminal. I had enough access to activate devices inside, so I switched on the Worlogog. A widget of space and time I knew I could use to open a wormhole. So who else in all of history could I trust to unravel the mystery in time and get the job done, alone, against impossible odds?”

“You just needed a man on the inside.” Young Bruce revved up the power to launch back into the time tunnel.

“Someone I could work with under no communication. Yes. And I didn't let myself down. Thank you.”

Batman corrected him. “You know better than to thank me.”

“And maybe one day you will learn to relax and accept a little praise.”

Batman's tone became somber. “Is there anything I need to know before I go? Do I ever make a difference?”

Commissioner Wayne wheeled back from his cam to reveal a view out a large window to the city outside. “It looks peaceful, doesn't it? The people of Gotham City walking the streets in safety. Enjoying their lives, and making a better way for their families.” He turned back with a wink.

Batman nodded and then pressed a button, blasting backward into a simpler world with much work to be done.








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