The Batpoint Paradox

Love Confessions and Low Expectations Pt.2

*Tim

"I was only three at the time, but I'll never forget meeting Dick, he smiled at me so brightly I felt like was being looked down on by the sun itself. My parents had me sit on his knee so they could take a picture of us with his parents, I think that was the last picture taken of them, I gave it to him years ago hoping the good memories would outweigh the bad. After the photo was taken Dick had looked me right in the eyes, speaking to me like I wasn't just a little kid, with another sun-bright smile he told me to pay special attention to his second turn on the trapeze because he was going to do a special flip just for me. Sure enough, the second time he stepped up to the trapeze he scanned the crowd until his gaze landed on me, then with a smile and a wave he was flying through the air. As he was finishing his fourth mid-air somersault my mother whispered in my ear that earlier the ringmaster told her that only a handful of people in the whole world can do a quadruple somersault. I never forgot that and then, six years later when I saw my favorite hero execute the very same move it became so obvious, Dick Grayson the orphaned circus boy, taken in by Gotham's resident playboy billionaire was Robin the boy wonder, which meant that Batman had to be Bruce Wayne. You don't know this but Batman is the missing piece of this reality, he's a core, founding member of the Justice League, he's the brains -and the funds- behind the league, he's their strategist and planner. This JL is so much less effective than it's supposed to be, so are the Titians, because Batman was responsible for the creation and training of the world's very first sidekick, who was also a founding member of the original Teen Titians, and has acted as the team leader for both the Teen-Titians and later the Titians. Dick Grayson was adopted by Bruce Wayne at the age of nine after his parents fell to their deaths right in front of him the night his circus was performing in Gotham. Dick had witnessed a man from the mob who had threatened sabotage just before the show when the circus refused to pay protection money. Seeing himself in the young boy and determined to spare him the pain of never catching his parents' murderer Bruce decided he was going to take the boy in and find the man who killed his parents. What he didn't count on though was Dick finding the secret cave beneath his home that he used as Batman's base of operations, his secret identity immediately obvious to the young acrobat. So Bruce explained his mission to save Gotham, and how right now he was tracking down the man who sabotaged his parents' trapeze, excited for the first time since that last night at the circus Dickinsisted on helping him. Swayed by the boy's similar desire to bring his parents' killer to justice and once again trying to give the boy the one thing he himself never managed, Bruce reluctantly agreed, but saying he'd have to find a way to protect his identity. That wasn't a problem as it turned out because Dick already had his very own hero name picked out, he would be Robin, after the bird his mother had always likened him to, calling him, 'her little Robin'. Donning a variation of his former circus costume, the two set out to catch the killer, soon bringing him to justice and debuting the iconic superhero duo of Batman and Robin." Pausing to catch my breath, I hazard a small glance at Kon, noting the skeptical expression on his handsome face as he took in what I'd said.

"Okay, that's a lot, but you can't actually be talking about Dick can you? He can't be a part of this too right?" Kon asks incredulously.

I grimace, "This isn't the reality we're supposed to be in, it isn't real, what we're living in now is a result of a discrepancy in the time stream, someone went back in time and changed a major event, in this case, it was saving Bruce Wayne's parents. This change created a ripple effect that led to a whole new reality. Do you know about Flashpoint? When Barry Allen trailed back in time to save his mother and inadvertently created the Flashpoint Universe?"

Kon's eyebrows furrow, "Um yeah, Bart told me all about it, so what you're saying is that this reality, this timeline, isn't real, that our real lives are in the reality you've been telling me about, but if that's the case why do you remember it while the rest of us don't?"