Crisis in Coast City #5 - You Need To Be Brave
DC Next presents:
##CRISIS IN COAST CITY
Issue Five: You Need To Be Brave
Written by AdamantAce
In stark contrast with the frenzied chaos that had preceded, the air was deadly still. Heroes - or what was left of them - sat spaced across a series of crates and pallets in the cavernous warehouse. It was an undisclosed location, completely off the books and - until today - a secret from all but Batman himself.
The youngest of the Titans, Wonder Girl sat with her head in her hands, her crimson armour weighing heavily on her shoulders. Starfire tried her best to comfort her friend, Cassie, trying anything to distract her from her grief. They had all lost Superman, and their teammate and friend, Kyle Rayner. Within the hour Cassie had also lost her mentor, Diana. But in truth, the princess Koriand’r’s mind was lingering on other troubling matters. Hal.
The Dark Knight paced the room slowly, deep in thought. Robin watched his mentor travel from the edge of the room. Pacing. That was erratic, for Bruce at least. Dick Grayson kept his back straight against the wall, looking back and forth between his grieving fellow Titans and Batman. Kyle was dead. The Flash; out of commission. The Martian Manhunter was MIA. Wonder Woman was dead. And, now, Superman was dead too.
Dick thought to each of his allies. Were any of them not too consumed by grief to consider just how much danger they were in themselves? With Superman dead, how could they hope to…
Hope. No. They had to keep hope. They couldn’t let their will be broken.
Suddenly, Batman stopped pacing. He turned to the far end of the room, where double elevator doors swung open. Dick and Kory looked up and across to see who was there, while Cassie barely flinched, lost in herself.
From the elevator emerged two young men. Boys, really. Both wore armour of scarlet and forest green, similar but not identical to Dick’s own. The taller and older-looking one with dark auburn hair and a red domino mask, while his younger counterpart sported jet black hair and a green mask.
“Robin,” Batman nodded, addressing them in turn as the boys made their way across the room. “Robin.”
Starfire forced a smile, trying desperately to find a moment of levity among all the death and despair. “I’m sure that never gets confusing.”
Tim, the boy in the green mask chuckled lightly.
“We make do,” replied Jason - the other Robin - in his stead.
“Jason… Tim…” spoke Dick, approaching his brothers and throwing his arms around them both. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Yes,” spoke the Batman, finally. His voice commanded the attention of each of the young heroes in his presence, regardless of the fact he’d only spoken a single word. “With Lantern out there, no doubt looking for me - to finish what he started - I didn’t think it was safe for the boys to be about in Gotham by themselves.”
Cassie looked up from the floor and made brief eye contact with the two younger Robins, doing what she could to acknowledge them as she listened to the Caped Crusader speak.
“Finally got to fly the Batplane myself,” sneered Jason. Batman nodded slowly, almost to humour him. But then…
“Now, to business,” Batman continued. “Too many have died. Both civilians, and our own. We’ve lost friends. Mentors. And… family. But we can’t stop. Superman... died so that we could have the chance to retreat, plan, and strike again.”
Tim’s eyes fell upon Cassie, the girl who had fallen to pieces after losing everything. He couldn’t imagine her pain.
“We can’t hide,” Batman looked to each of the kids before him. “Every minute we wait, Jordan gets more and more impatient. And we’ve already seen what he’s capable of when he loses his patience.”
“So what do you suggest?” Dick asked, his arms folded. “What’s the plan?”
The Dark Knight turned over his shoulder. “I was going to ask you that, Robin.”
Jason and Tim looked to each in surprise, and then to Dick.
“What?” Dick exclaimed, completely unprepared.
“Right here: the ones we have left? There’s no Justice League.” Batman replied. “This is a Titans operation now. And you’re their leader.”
The first Robin spluttered, reaching for words and struggle to find them. It was preposterous. It was insane. It was…
“I can’t,” Dick froze up. “I don’t know.”
It was too much pressure. He wasn’t ready for this.
After much pressing, the original Boy Wonder’s cool veneer finally began to slip. He didn’t know how to lead a team against a threat that could kill and had killed Superman.
And Batman saw this. But he just nodded and took a step back.
“Talk to your team. I’ll be right back.”
And with that, Batman took his leave, striding off out of the room, leaving his former protégé to call the shots.
Wonder Girl, Starfire, and the two other Robins looked up and across to their leader - to Dick Grayson. Dick’s eyes met Cassie’s. And for a second, Cassie was able to put aside her pain and turmoil and just be there for her friend. “You got this,” she seemed to say with a single nod.
Did he? Heroes far mightier than Dick had fallen trying to outwit or overpower Hal. They had all failed to appeal to him, and toppling him seemed impossible. And here was Batman, surrendering control to Dick, as if he could add anything useful. He looked between his friends and colleagues, one-by-one. He had led them all a hundred times, between Titans missions and long nights in Gotham with the Robins, but could he lead them head-on into a crisis of such proportions? Was that what Batman expected?
Cassie smiled softly, wrestling through her pain to show her support, while Kory remained forlorn. Tim was doing the best he could to pretend he wasn’t scared, and Jason was… doing a much worse job of hiding it. The eldest Robin got it then. He could be brave. For them. So he began talking, piecing together all he could.
“Let’s look at what we’ve already tried,” Dick began. “We tried brawling, and Hal overpowered us. We tried an all-out offensive, and we only pissed him off harder. We aren’t going to win this through sheer force of will. That’s his game. But, we can’t forget hope. We can always try something else, as long as there’s heroes left standing.”
“So your plan is ‘try again’?” retorted Jason, his voice unsteady beneath his forced veneer of snark. “Don’t get me wrong, Dick. I’m all for hope, and we need someone with your optimism but… that’s hardly a plan.”
Friends had died. Jason didn’t want to risk losing any more.
“We kept fighting harder and harder,” Dick continued, listening to Jason and taking his contribution on board. “But we need to fight smarter. We won’t overpower him, so we need to outthink him.”
“But we’re just sidekicks. Second rate,” Cassie spoke up. Those words were chilling, coming from a Titan. “He already killed Diana. How am I meant to do what she couldn’t?”
“We…” Dick struggled for a response, until slowly finding his thought. “We adapt. We learn. Think: What’s Hal’s weakness?”
“Fear,” Tim replied immediately, as if recalling it from a textbook. “The Green Lantern’s weakness is fear. ‘As trepidation is a fatal flaw in the willpower of any person’.”
“Maybe the old Hal,” Dick replied, “The Hal Batman taught us how to beat. But not this… thing he’s become.”
“Then what?” asked Starfire. All this talk of Hal Jordan did nothing but bring her more at war with herself. The Green Lantern of Sector 2814 was the hero that liberated her from slavery years ago; the man that brought her to Earth and taught her how to live freely. Was he really some monster now? Some thing?
Beat.
“His will,” Cassie said out of the blue, happening upon the revelation. “His power comes from his will, but as it gets stronger he only gets more stubborn. We could use that.”
“Right!” Dick exclaimed. “He’s determined to get what he wants, no matter the cost. He wants the Justice League dead, and he’ll hurt whoever he has to until–”
No.
No.
Dick whipped around, turning behind him to glance at the door Batman had disappeared into. He hadn’t left Dick in charge, to plan and to lead. No, Dick had been led to - unwittingly - stall, while Batman made his final move.
Jason Todd furrowed his brow, looking upon Dick in his sudden silence and determined gaze at the door. “What’s wrong?”
The first Robin exploded into a sprint, bolting through the door after his mentor, leaving his teammates and his brothers behind.
Bruce Wayne strode along the winding hallways, his footfalls determined and heavy against the concrete. The tunnel was barely lit, the only light coming from the blue LEDs that lined the walls, but at the far end was an opening, from which brilliant, white light poured in. All he had to do was make it to the Batmobile.
Except, sure enough, he heard the frantic footsteps of someone in pursuit. Someone trying to stop him. But Bruce didn’t stop. He didn’t pick up his pace either. He just kept walking, letting his jet black cape flutter and billow behind him.
“Batman,” exclaimed Dick Grayson.
He kept walking.
“Bruce!” Dick cried again. “I know what you’re doing.”
“Of course you do,” Bruce replied, continuing on as Dick pushed to close the distance between them. “You’re smart. That’s why you know I have to do this.”
Dick pushed past his mentor and planted himself firmly ahead of him, blocking his path in the narrow tunnel.
“Get out of my way,” Bruce stopped, and spoke plainly.
“Bruce, he killed Kyle... and Diana. He killed Clark,” Dick called out to him. Bruce just stood there, pretending not to feel. “You can’t just serve yourself up to him. You’re all we have left.”
“Hal Jordan holds the Justice League responsible for what happened to Coast City,” Bruce replied, his eyes heavy. “He won’t stop until we’ve all paid for what we did. And Batman is the last piece left on the board.”
“But then what if he keeps going? What if that isn’t enough for him?” Dick scrambled for any appeal to prove the Batman wrong.
“He won’t. It will be enough,” Bruce shot back with absolute conviction.
“Bruce, please–”
The Dark Knight threw his weight forward, attempting to push past his former protégé and towards the light. “Get out of my way.”
“Bruce. Please!” Dick threw himself back, putting some space between them both. “There has to be another way. You’re talking suicide.”
Bruce didn’t correct him. He only stopped, dropped his head, and painfully pieced together what he had to say.
He spoke simply and quietly. “When I created Batman, it wasn’t to protect people. It was to avenge those lost. I walked a dark and painful road, convincing myself that I existed to bring retribution to those who deserved it. I struck fear into the hearts of men who knew - however deep down - that they deserved punishment.”
“But that’s not what you are now!” Dick retorted back, “Bruce, you protect people. You keep criminals in check and save thousands of lives.”
“Like I saved the people of Coast City?”
Dick couldn’t reply.
“My point is: I know Jordan’s darkness. I’ve lived it,” Bruce grumbled. “He’s so consumed by his grief that all he can focus on is avenging those he’s lost. By destroying the League. But he’s crude, and he’s volatile. And more innocents are only going to get caught in the crossfire if this continues. I know, from first hand experience.”
“And what stopped you?” Dick replied. A silence rang out, Bruce not quite understanding the question. He pushed forward, only for Dick to continue. “You put aside your quest for vengeance, and turned your grief into something good.”
“You did.”
Beat.
“What?”
“I started to realise that Batman could be something more - something better than a vengeful savage - the day I visited the circus and met a scared young boy who had just lost his parents. When I saw you, I realised what I really had to do was make sure no child in Gotham ever felt so helpless as you did in that moment. As I once felt.” Bruce recounted the story, emotion finally creeping through the cowl. “Then, as I watched you train and grow, I saw just how much I’d allowed my grief to warp me. When I saw just how fearless and positive you let yourself be in the face of everything.”
“Bruce, I…” Dick was lost for words. Was this all really true?
Bruce didn’t let Dick find his words. Instead, he placed a gentle hand on the younger man’s shoulder, and smiled. “I created Batman, Dick, but you gave him his soul.”
“Bruce…”
“Now, please, I’m asking you, let me go.”
“I can’t,” the former Robin tensed up. “I can’t let you condemn yourself to death.”
“Dick!” Bruce pressed down slightly on Dick’s shoulder. “You know I can get past you. You can’t stop me.”
Dick pulled himself back, roaring as tears began streaming down his face. “Then try it! Force me out of the way. Like Hal did to Kyle.”
Bruce stopped and let Dick breath. A silence rang out, as Dick wrestled to contain his tears. Something in the Batman changed in that moment. His shoulders sank. His Herculean posture gave way, until standing before Dick Grayson was nothing but a man, dressed as a bat, his head hung low. “I don’t want that to be how you remember me.”
In his voice. Was that… fear?
Dick looked upon his mentor, his surrogate father, and for the first time saw a man who was afraid to die. It was in that moment that, even if he’d never admit it, Dick understood that Bruce was right. Bruce wasn’t determined to die, or determined to abandon him like everyone else in Dick’s life had done. He was a scared man, doing the only thing he felt could protect his world.
“I…” Dick’s breath was heavy and unsteady. “If I just let you go… I’d have to live with that. I’d be the person who let Batman march to his own execution.”
Bruce nodded. He took a deep breath, straightened his back, and made his way over to the once Boy Wonder. “I understand.” He threw his arms around Dick, and pulled him into an embrace. He held his student, his son close, and whispered in his ear. “Tell them I’m sorry.”
And with that, Batman shifted his weight, grappling Dick and forcing him to the ground. He pushed past, continuing on towards the light at the end of the tunnel, with Dick just defeated on the floor.
“Bruce, please!!” Dick roared.
“You need to be strong!” Batman cried back, stopping one final time to look back at the young man. “You need to be brave. The next generation will look to you to lead, and when they do you need to step up. I know you can.”
And then he was gone.
Next: It all ends
Posted May 2, 2019, 2:43 AM UTC · edited