The Batpoint Paradox

It's Bat-man, Not Bow-man

*Dick

When my Titians communicator went off it took me a minute to remember what it was for, in the whole time I'd been in this reality I could only remember the thing going off maybe twice, so the noise really caught me by surprise. I untangled myself from the pretzel-like position I'd contorted myself into and hunted down the source of the sound before Jason started cursing at me. Thankfully I located the device fairly quickly, after digging it out from between the couch cushions and dusting off the Dorito crumbs, I unlocked it and squinted at the message. I raised an eyebrow at what I read, before shaking my head and letting out an amused breath as I went to dig out my Arsenal outfit. Apparently, they actually needed me for a mission, an event I'd come to understand after our first few weeks here, was not the norm. I was having a hard time figuring out exactly why that was, without being able to ask any of the other heroes about it I could only speculate. I had far less training and experience here, so likely wasn't the asset I'd been in my reality, and maybe in a world without Batman, the League didn't value non-powered heroes as much. It was also possible that the apparently shallow, socialite version of myself was just not as committed to crime-fighting, though if not that I wasn't entirely sure what my counterpart spent most of his time doing, there were only so many hours in the day that could be spent having random, meaningless sex right? I snorted softly at the thought as I made my way out of the apartment, well at least my counterpart wasn't evil, easy sure, but not a criminal. 

I was half out of the Chicago zeta when I realized two pretty important things; 

One, I had no idea what I was walking into, they'd just said to be at the given coordinates ASAP. 

And two, I really didn't know how to use a bow.

As I used the grapple gun I'd later pretend not to have, to swing towards the commotion, I struggled to tap into other me's experience, but only a few of my fake memory vision things I'd had so far featured arrow based combat and I couldn't seem to conjure them at will. The last real experience I can recall actually using one was over a decade ago, back when I was still Robin I'd pestered Roy into teaching me how after Wally had made some comment about how sexy he thought archers were. That of course was during his ill-fated attempt at wooing Artemis, so her subsequent rejection was the end of both Wally's closed filtrations and my short-lived archery career.  

 I was still mentally reviewing the basics of archery as I swung into the back ally of the building facing the specified location, grappled to the roof, and ran to the other side in search of a good vantage point. When I looked down at the battle though, all thoughts of screwing around with a weapon I was unfamiliar with fled my mind, my focus zeroed in on the supervillain destroying yet another city I had once called home. 

Later I would acknowledge that I was still struggling with some major PTSD and had clearly not fully recovered from this trauma from my past, this damage that was inflicted on me not only by Rolland Desmond himself in the months before his death but also by the woman who took his life.  Her actions in the moments leading up to Rolland's death and the ones that came right after are burned into my soul. I thought I'd moved past it all, but future analysis of my next actions made it pretty apparent that I had not.

I leaped from the rooftop, my bow dropped and forgotten as I flew, my instincts taking charge as I expertly maneuvered my way into the middle of the fray and prepared to engage Blockbuster head on.

He'd already knocked Conner and  Wondergirl to the ground, by the looks of them it certainly wasn't the first time, Cassie popped back up without too much trouble, but Conner looked to be struggling a bit. I'd be willing to bet he'd been fielding the majority of the blows for however long this fight had been going.  Kid Flash kept hitting him with lightning-fast blows but they weren't doing much good, the strikes only really succeeding in annoying Blockbuster and tiring Bart out.

I didn't have my escrima sticks, but I could make do with what I had, with four of the arrows from the quiver still on my back, I used explosive rope I'd snagged from Jason's weapons stash (just in case) to wrap around the arrows and bind them together, then repeated it with another four arrows. Satisfied with my DIY arrow escrima sticks, I charged the supervillain, landing a blow to his chest in the exact spot that Wondergirl had wonder-punched him seconds before, drawing blood and causing him to stumble back. 

Cassie, Conner, and Bart each gave me bewildered looks, which I ignored as I jumped up, kicked off some upturned rubble, and flipped up and over Desmond's head, using the momentum to dig the sharp arrowheads of my weapons into his face before landing behind him. 

Before the villain fully recovered I gathered the other heroes around me and gave them instructions.

"Bart, I need you to run in as many circles around him as close as you can until he's unsteady on his feet. As soon as Bart clears, Wondergirl comes at him from behind and puts all you've got into a punch right in the middle of his back. At the same time, Superboy, you do the same from the front."

They looked like they wanted to question me, but apparently thought better of it and nodded their agreement as they moved to follow my orders.

Bart made it in pretty close to the villain, dust flying up from the ground around them as he sucked the air out of the small space. After a few moments even with Bart's circles getting larger to avoid getting hit by the villain's swinging blows, Desmond appeared to almost sway a bit. At that point, Bart got clear so Conner and Cassie could go in for the double super smackdown. There was an audible boom as their fists connected and Rolland dropped to a knee as Kon and Cassie flew back from the force of it. That was my cue, I rushed to where the villain was struggling to get back to his feet and stabbed one of my arrow sticks into his shoulder and the other in his thigh, then hightailed it to a safe distance as I detonated the explosive string binding the sticks together.

Blockbuster roared in pain as they went off but after a few moments, he went quiet, his body hitting the ground with a resounding thump.

There was silence for a minute as the dust cleared, but when Desmond's unconscious form became visible cheers rang out filling the silence, Bart whooped, Kon pumped his fist and Cassie did a little victory dance. 

Well, that certainly went a lot better than the last showdown I had with the villain.

I felt a smile spreading across my face as I watched my younger teammates celebrate as Blockbuster got carted away.