[Western Crossover] The World Is Falling Apart, and the Batkids Are Patching It Up

After his own world inexplicably blew up, Terry was picked up on the brink of death by a man claiming to be his brother. Then, completely bewildered, he began life from scratch in another world.

Black hair, blue eyes, and a very familiar face, Blayreli Wayne was practically always slacking off. He weakly repeated, "Did traveling through time mess up your brain? Your real brother is Matt, and I never said you and I were brothers. We just happen to share a paternal genetic donor, probably."

Terry: "...Do you hear yourself? Does that sound like something a human would say?"

The other man impatiently tossed him a stack of files. Familiar villains, familiar setups.

"All right, anyway, you're Batman now. Go punch Arkham, kick Blackgate, and save the world."

Terry: ...

No fucking words.

He resigned himself to putting on the suit and diligently returning to his old line of work. Soon, though, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was off about these parallel worlds, which were so similar to his own and yet not quite the same.

"Who is he?"

"Oh, Jason Todd. He's the Arkham Knight now. Save him if you want."

"And who's this one?"

"Oh, a Talon. Just leave him alone. Let's go."

"This is... Oh, I know, an Al Ghul!"

"Yeah. By the way, I don't think he's Ra's al Ghul. I think he's that guy who shares a paternal genetic donor with us..."

"You could've told me that sooner!"

In the end, Terry, AKA Batman, stared at all the bizarre worlds around him. Even his Batsuit couldn't hide his sheer shock.

"Justice Lords? Injustice League? What is all this? And what's with that Batman grinning like that?"

The usually laid-back Blayreli Wayne sucked in a sharp breath.

"That's the Batman Who Laughs! What are you waiting for? Start the machine and run!!!!!!"

Blayreli Wayne hadn't wanted to save the world at first.

The world was rotten, so who cared what happened to it? That was what he used to think. But there was always a voice at his ear, nagging him: You need to do something good.

Then he picked up a... Batman?

The red bat on the boy's chest looked, at first glance, like it had borrowed its design from a certain someone, but...

"I will never leave you behind," Terry said slowly.

"My brother, my family, my other fate."

Blayreli only wanted to laugh in his face. "Do you not understand plain speech? Hahaha... That person we both know is always talking about fear. So what great wisdom do you have to offer?"

"I talk about love."

Before You Read

1. Two male leads, no romance. Batman bros and brotherly affection.

2. Terry is the protagonist and a future Batman. In this setting, he's also one of the Batkids. You don't need to know the animated series or comics to read this. Blayreli is an original Batkid, an alternate counterpart from the Many-Household Gods side. His personality is basically different, and some of his background details differ too. You don't need to have read the previous story.

3. Once again, this is my own take on the world, brotherly affection, time travel, and saving the world. There may be some crossovers.

4. This idea came from chatting with a friend. I'll write it when they do, so there's no way I'll start cooking first.

5. The blurb may change at any time. The outline has been saved.

Theme: I laugh because life isn't worth facing with tears.