IM/DC Bonus Chapter 11 (Patreon)

3rd Person Point of View

Batman and Superman were about to clash, perhaps for the last time. It was a long time coming, ever since the Joker killed Lois and nuked Metropolis both of them refused to give an inch in their viewpoint. Superman believed that the world needed more policing, he wanted to remove all weapons from Earth and run it like a police state which might have been safer, but it would no doubt be less free.

While Batman was at the opposite end of the spectrum, he believed no one should die no matter what, even if they killed the pregnant wife of a man who could lift a city out of the ocean using just his strength. Batman didn’t realize that his steadfast viewpoint was causing far more harm than it was stopping and many died on both sides because neither was willing to see things from the other's perspective.

Batman’s side was willing to use the manifestation of evil, the literal embodiment of hatred and the personification of the devil, Trigon in an effort to kill members on Superman’s side and Superman gets help but a different extra-dimensional entity in which their fight almost tore the universe apart. Even after having their universe almost unraveled both sides still wanted to fight.

Both sides lined up across from each other. Each had a far smaller roster than previously and if any large force came it would be the end of humanity because of how weakened the planet's defenses were from all the fighting. Even Darkseid cut his losses, only sending a hitman to kill Superman after his son Kalibak died in the fighting thinking that Superman was going soft. 

Just as Superman is about to rush forward, possibly into a trap made by Batman to deal with him, a spaceship flies down and lands between them. Everyone’s breath hitches in their throats as they peer on who comes out. They can recognize most, but no one recognizes the man who speaks as if he is giving a tour. “This is universe C-49. It’s about half the size of the universe we came from with many fewer heroes and in this universe, the Joker killed Lois and it drove Superman and Batman into an insane war that cost many lives.”

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Batman speaks with a hint of anger in his tone. “That’s an incredibly broad and inaccurate description of what is actually happening.” As Batman speaks, Superman moves towards Lois. Floating over with one arm raised, he only speaks her name: “Lois.” I interject myself into the situation. “Not your Lois, and do you really think any Lois would want to be with you after everything you did? If I told her all the things you did to win your silly little war she’d be sickened.”

I sighed before going back to scanning the internet for when they all started. I could have teleported back in time but I didn’t want to overshoot the landing and be stuck in the past until the right time. Every bit of time travel was like poking a needle into a shirt to fix it, one tiny mistake tends to snowball out of hand with multiple attempts to fix it with everything being worse off than it was originally. This universe was one of the few where any changes to stop what was happening would have been for the best.

The universe had the tendency to collapse and because it’s such an important universe the ripples of the destruction of the universe tended to cause changes in other universes. Any universes from the combined branch tended to end in the world(not the universe) being destroyed. It kept all the collateral on one planet which was good. 

It only meant I had to watch out of these Injustice ones, Marvel secret wars where the worlds collide also have devastating consequences and needed to be stopped otherwise they risk throwing my universe into their dumb bullshit. These were only easily fixable problems as well, who knew how many multiversal threats were out there scheming against the planet right now but that wouldn’t stop me from enjoying the downtime until they finally decided to show up.

Superman began piecing things together as his X-ray vision and powers let him see that the child wasn’t his. As the only outlet for his rage, he charges me. I perform the same move I did on Ultraman where I pulled out the Kryptonite but it didn’t end with his head missing from his body. I just knocked him down hard enough that he’d be struggling to stand. It would have been easy for me to kill him and I would have if I didn’t have his ex watching me do it. I had to pull my punches for the girls watching, not because I couldn’t easily kill Superman at this moment.

He still tries to get up and I just kick him unconscious. Batman goes for a batarang before I stop him. “He’s just unconscious. He probably saw the baby in Lois’s belly and thought it was his and then checked to see it wasn’t…” I didn’t need to explain further as I finished scanning the history of newspapers from when Superman snapped the Joker’s neck.

I’m about to signal for us to leave when I see her. Oliver Queen was still alive in the previous universe. Black Canary was still in this universe. They sometimes take her to a different universe where she’s the one who died to pair them back together. They didn’t or at least they hadn’t yet in this universe. I couldn’t help myself but ask. “Hey, you want to come with us?”

It took another tense conversation as I ignored Batman and convinced her she was better off with me. Pulling her out of a timeline that was going to change wouldn’t make much of a difference on the trajectory of the universe, as long as she didn’t make any changes herself, as someone outside the timeline I could make changes with less of a negative effect. It would erase the terrible timeline and I’d just have to jump forward every decade or so to make sure a similar universal unraveling event wasn’t going to happen.

Going back to a week before the death of Lois and killing the Joker to thwart his plans was easy enough. Without his plot armor to protect him, he was just a guy. I caught him stealing the nuclear bomb that he used to blow up Metropolis and just killed him before he even knew I was there. Teleporting back the six years forward and… The world was destroyed. What the fuck happened!?

I couldn’t even go ask anyone why the planet exploded but now I’m glad I didn’t let any of the girls see the Earth was destroyed. I could fix this easily, if I went and used an oracle spell I could probably sus out what happened but I didn’t really care. They couldn’t cause the universe to unravel if they weren’t alive… I was still curious about what happened.

Fuck it, I’ll waste some of my time figuring out what happened. It would suck if I made a problem for myself in the future. It was Darkseid, Superman with a child in this universe did get softer. He retired and didn’t come back until it was too late. The invasion spiraled out of control and because Darkseid put so much effort in only to be thwarted at the last moment he retaliated by blowing up the planet with a hellspore… Alright, in and out adventure. Go back in time again, kill the Joker and Darkseid then check back in. If it’s still blown up then I’ll leave.