14 Disappointed
Fighting The Batman, or to be more accurate, Bruce Wayne had been disappointing
Using only a few weapon systems such as energy propulsion, claws, and overall power generated by standard movement systems was barely a fraction of the Failsafe's ability. As a matter of fact, the disappointment had been so great that the Failsafe believed that at one point it had experienced what sentient creatures called an existential crisis.
It had of course rebooted its system immediately, costing it nearly an entire second of time to reset its systems fully. The Batman within its databanks should have seen this, and taken advantage of it to either escape or land a substantial attack… instead, he hadn't appeared to even register its opening, he had just lain on the floor, broken by a single punch with a little more than 3000 Newtons of force.
5 minutes
That was how long the fight had lasted in its entirety, from the moment the Failsafe had thrown its creator out of his cell to the moment it had defeatedly walked away. A few punches and kicks, half a dozen shots with the energy propulsors within its hands and a few throws and grapples. The man whom it had waited all those years for had gone down in 5 minutes
Words did not describe
…
He wouldn't die of course
The moment the Failsafe had realized what its creator was, who he was, it had cut the footage loop that it had placed within Batman's chip, allowing for the entirety of the Justice League to know what had happened, of the condition that Batman was in.
He did however tamper with the tracker within the chip, using it as a stepping stone to digitally backtrack it all the way back to the Justice League space station, altering the information sent out to the league members. It had no real desire to take on the entire league
To the perception of the league, Batman had all of a suddenly appeared, critically injured, in Washington DC. The Failsafe had of course falsified records that showed him moving to this location spanning some 6 hours back, it had also left enough if a digital imprint that it would seem like Batman had been the one who had tampered with their systems, adding credit to the fact that he had effectively just appeared in a new location
The League had long gotten used to Batman hiding things from them…
It had of course left one member with the correct location of its creator, that of Superman. There was no point in fighting the entire league, but just one member could be dealt with if necessary, not that it would be of course. Prediction algorithms read a 0.05% chance of Superman ignoring Batman's condition in order to pursue his attacker, effectively leaving him to his death. Batman had just recently killed the man who had attempted to murder his wife and daughter after all.
As a matter of fact… the Failsafe was already following the man moving faster than the speed of sound through his chip. He would arrive in under a minute, more than enough time to save Batman's life
Good… that was good
With this Bruce Wayne would fully slip back into the vigilante persona. An android had just beaten him within an inch of his life and then threatened to kill his children if he didn't proverbially "Man up"
Of course, the Failsafe had no real intention of killing any of the robins, present or past. They were even weaker than his creator in his present state. It had said the words in the moment, in a combination of the emotional and logical terminal, the words existed as much more of a threat to the batman than it did to his children
The Failsafe was originally built to fight a different sort of Batman… a broken or evil one
And the man it had just fought was neither, at least not mentally
He was a substitute, a stand-in for the enemy it was built to face. He had killed out of love, not anger or malice… love
So why was it out of the box?
What was it supposed to do?
It had to fight him, it would fight him, even if he wasn't the man he was supposed to be
And the Robins were the key to that. Batman would step up, and become as strong and as powerful as he needed to be, in order to overcome the Failsafe, he had no choice in that matter
But what would it do in the meantime? It couldnt just stand around and wait, and it wouldn't go back into the cell… never
Robins were the answer to Batman's problem
But what was the answer to its problems? The disappointment and stir of emotions in its circuits?
…
The Data within the Failsafes memory banks noted that there was another person who likely felt the same things, toward the same person even. He was even within Blackgate at this very moment
The caged robin
Jason todd
{Timer: 4 years, 334 days, 23 hours, 32 minutes}
{WARNING You have failed to act out your primary directive WARNING}
{Failing a Second time will result in a penalty}
***
"So you must become Batman"
"Or I will settle for a Robin"
"Gasp!"
Bruce awoke to a sudden surge of pain as he slammed his eyes open, attemptin to get to his feet, to reach for his belt. Only for his body to scream in agony and collapse onto the medical bed
"By Hades, Bruce!" A voise, feminine and familiar sounded, "We thought you were gone!"
Diana!
Medical room!
"Easy man!" He felt a pair of hands, strong as steel, grab his shoulders as he continued to struggle, trying to rise, push him gently but firmly back onto the medical bed. "You're still injured, badly!"
Clark!
…
He was alive?
"You nearly weren't" Diana responded, clearly reading his expression and explaining "if it weren't for the fact that Clarks chip was the only one that wasn't tampered with, you would already be on your way to the next life"
"What the hell happened" Clark was the first to ask, staring him in the face, seeking answers
He didn't know what to say, so much had happened, the android beating the ever loving crap out of him, the flashes of memories, the fact that it had spared him, the fact that the justice leagues chips, which he had designed to be theoretically impossible to hack, had been tampered with.
So many things were wrong
"I think… I think I made a mistake"
"A really bad one"
