#flipityflip

It wasn’t supposed to turn out like this. It had started out like every other mission of theirs -  gather information, infiltrate a building or two, kick the bad guys’ asses and then return in time for Jonathan’s bedtime.

It wasn’t supposed to end up with Damian being pinned against a wall, a hand squeezing his neck and threatening to break it. He wasn’t supposed to be gasping for air, clawing at the arm holding him with too much ease.

And it wasn’t supposed to be Jonathan of all people who was slowly choking him.

“Are you in position, Superboy?” Robin whispered into his comm device, scanning the outside of the building for cameras and guards. The vigilante was perched on a roof, his cape moving in the nightly breeze and the grappling hook ready in his hand. He saw a blur of blue in the distance and with a soft huff he jumped off, enjoyed the adrenaline of the free fall before shooting the hook. It took another second before the string connected and soon Robin was swinging through the night towards their new mission.

A highly secured suitcase had been stolen from a military truck and it was up to the Super Sons to return it to the rightful owner. They had been following the tracks of a black market and as far as their information went the case would be for sale on that night. Robin’s plan was to steal it before it could be displayed and while Superboy was supposed to be the distraction, Damian would sneak in and grab their mission’s goal. Stealth was the speciality of the bats and thanks to a newly written hack the outside cameras were easily taken care of the second the teenager landed.

Jonathan and Damian had been a team for four years now and it was impressive how well they worked together. Words weren’t needed and the two friends always seemed to find enough time to bicker around while finishing their missions with success.  Whether it was playing video games in the fortress of attitude, sitting together at school or simply hanging out at each other’s houses. Over the years they had grown to become teammates, brothers, friends an-

“Ready to roll, Ropeslinger.”

Clicking his tongue at the annoying nickname, Robin put his grappling hook away and activated a small gadget with the outline of the building. They knew the criminals’ meeting would happen in the basement and the heat signals revealed 30 guards on different floors of the construction. While avoiding them wouldn’t be too much of a problem, Robin was aware that they had mere minutes before someone would see through the hack. Eight minutes to sneak inside, get to the warehouse, unlock the door to the storage, find the case and return without being seen.

What could go wrong?

Everything was wrong. The sadistic pleasure in Superboy’s red glowing eyes, the strong grip around Damian’s neck, and the weak teenager trying to free Robin. However, with a single swing of his arm Superboy knocked the other away and teary green eyes had to watch in horror as his best friend was simply tossed to the side.

“Y-You… bastard..!” Damian growled through gritted teeth, gasping as the hold was simply strengthened.

“What’s wrong, Robin? Always so high and mighty and now look at yourself, not even able to breathe if I wasn’t allowing it. I could squeeze you to death like an ant between my fingers.”

The intensity in green never left and Damian dug his fingers into the other’s arm.

“Who… are you?”

And as the familiar face leaned close, a shiver ran down Robin’s spine. The comforting scent striked now fear, welcoming eyes were so emotionless. And the voice, god the voice, was almost unrecognizable.

“I am Jonathan Kent. And I am sick of playing nice.”

Breaking into a highly secured meeting spot of several B ranked criminals who sold weapons, drugs and artifacts was just another sunday walk for Robin. He crawled through vents, hid behind plants and took out a guard or two just for entertainment. The timer said he had a little bit more than three minutes left to find the case and get out.

A small gadget was placed on the keyhole of the storage and a second later Robin pushed the door open. He entered the giant dark hall, walked through several corridors with a flashlight and picture in hand.

“How’s it going?”

Reaching up to activate his comm link, Robin continued to scan the shelves for their objective.

“So far so good. Currently looking for the case. Remember, if I don’t make it out in time I need you to distract the guards and keep them busy. How’s the situation out there?”

“All normal. Several men with guards entered one after another. Seems like it will be pretty crowded tonight… However, the guards inside haven’t noticed anything unusual yet.”

Suddenly stopping, Robin put the picture back into his belt and reached into a shelf, carefully pulling out the object of desire. A satisfied smirk appeared on his lips and he quickly looked around.

“Superboy, I found it. Will return asap.”

“Alright, Robin. I’ll be monitoring you but… be careful.”

“Please, you’re talking to me after all.”

When white dots appeared in front of Damian’s eyes, he was thrown against a wall, a painful hiss escaping him as something definitely broke or bruised inside. He fell to the ground and his vision exploded into million of lights, his lungs clinging to all the oxygen he could inhale at once. And as muscles screamed at him to stay down, Damian pushed himself back onto his trembling feet. The open suitcase was laying next to him and green eyes caught sight of the black stone that had caused all of this.

They should have never accepted the mission.

Adrenaline was pumping through his veins, heavy breaths leaving him as he sprinted around the corner, barely being able to dodge the bullets directed at him. He heard the voice of Superboy yelling directions into his ear and Robin followed them without a second thought, trusting his partner with his life. It had all gone just as planned, however neither of them could have known that some of the guards would decide to check the goods sooner rather than later. Just as Robin had sneaked out of the hall, two men had found the door unlocked. All hell had broken out and here Damian was, dodging and parading attacks left and right while trying to get to the stairs leading up. He just had to get onto another floor, jump out of a window and pray that Jonathan would be there to catch him.

Orders were yelled through loudspeakers and Robin didn’t want to know what would happen if they were to get a hold of him. While he wasn’t scared of lousy interrogation and torture, the teenager sure could do without his father having to bust him out. How was Damian supposed to ever step out of Batman’s shadow if he couldn’t even steal a simple suitcase?

“Left now!”

Robin followed the instruction and threw a smoke grenade behind himself to gain just another second or two, knowing that he needed to speed up if he wanted to escape. After what seemed like hours the exit sign showed up and the teenager ran towards the stairs, taking two steps at a time to get up.

“Don’t let him escape!” A voice below him screamed and without missing a beat the vigilante pulled out his grappling hook and took the shortcut as he shot up the staircase.

“I’m outside, Robin! Just a bit more!”

An explosion could be heard somewhere and Damian knew that his teammate took the word ‘distraction’ fairly serious. He couldn’t help but smile as he kicked open the door to the fourth floor.

Ending up in a corridor, Robin found himself surrounded by guards. He bit his lip and immediately used the weight of the suitcase to knock a man off his feet, throwing a bataarang at another.

“You better catch me!”

A small orb was thrown at the window and it exploded into dozens of small glass splitters, Robin sprinting towards it and jumping without a second thought. He clutched the suitcase close to his chest and agonizing long seconds passed as he fell freely.

And then, finally, warm and strong arms wrapped around his middle.

“Got you!”

Relief washed over him like a wave and with a thankful smile Robin placed his hand on top of Superboy’s.

Sure, they had a few problems but they had done it.

They had completed the mission.

“Now get us out of he-”

A bullet shot of many. And yet the world seemed to turn silent the moment he felt it pierce through his leg.

“Robin! Are you okay?”

Gritting his teeth, Damian took a deep breath and simply strengthened his hold on the item. They were so close to succeeding and a small wound wouldn’t change this. Through the pain he ordered Jonathan to get them away as more bullets graced them and cut through the air.

Their landing was on the rougher side but it seemed as if Superboy didn’t care about it. The second they were in an alley several streets away, Jon helped Damian to sit down, throwing the suitcase to the side to get a better look at the wound. Without hesitation the teenager reached into the belt and pulled out bandages, quickly treating the wound with skillful hands.

“It’s a clear shot, the bullet went right through. This will do for now but we should still get you back to the HQ so I can disinfect it.”

“You’re as much of a mother hen as your father.” Damian replied with a huff as Jon hit his shoulder lightly. He appreciated the help as he struggled to stand up by himself, held onto his partner’s shoulder knowing Jon could take his weight.

“Now, where is…”

Green eyes fell towards their object of desire and widened upon noticing that it was open. The lock got probably broken when Superboy had thrown it and a suspicious black light was emitted from the suitcase.

“What….” Jonathan mumbled as he gently let go of Damian, curiosity getting the better of him.

“Superboy, don’t….” However, his friend didn’t seem to listen and Damian watched with worry as Jon closed the distance and crouched down to pick up whatever happened to be inside.

The last thing the vigilante remembered was an explosion of rough power, light and heat.

And then...

Darkness.

When Damian finally came back to his senses his head hurt like hell and he absently wondered whether someone had dropped one or two Killer Crocs on top him. Every muscle in his body screamed and a loud groan escaped the teenager as he pushed himself up, only one person on his mind in that moment.

Jonathan.

What happened? Was Jon okay? Whatever caused this reaction, it reminded him too much of the solar flare his friend had once released and the worry grew. He needed to know.

“Superboy?”

Shit, was it just him or did his voice really sound so weak and hoarse? With a shiver Damian pushed himself onto his elbows and opened his eyes, blinking several times to focus his vision. The green mask had been destroyed in the explosion and the teenager looked around hurriedly.

“I’m right here.”

Releasing the breath he hadn’t noticed he had been holding, Damian relaxed ever so slightly and looked up at the half human hovering above him. Jon didn’t seem affected by the outburst at all, his hair and skin was in perfect shape and his clothes were intact…

In fact, they were black.

And red eyes were staring down at him with an arrogance he had never seen before.

Faster than he could react, Damian cried out in pain as he was slammed into a wall. His head hit the stone painfully and a ringing tone screamed inside his mind, vision exploding into white for a few agonizing seconds. A far too strong hand was now wrapped around his throat and teary green opened to stare into emotionless red, soon spotting an unconscious figure laying on the ground next to the case.

Another Jonathan.

“So weak. So fragile. I could snap your neck right here, Dami.”

He tried his best to swallow around the unforgiven fingers, eyes moving to the item that had caused this sudden change. A simple black stone but Damian knew what it was.

Black Kryptonite.

Now here he was, pushing himself up onto his trembling legs as that black Superboy still towered above him. The weakened form of Jonathan, his Jonathan, was resting in his arms and Damian simply glared up at the other, holding his partner protectively and shielding him from cold red.

Somehow, the black kryptonite had caused his partner to split into two entities and it was obvious who seemed to have inherited the negative traits and who was still the farmer boy he knew.

Damian’s heart was hammering and his head was throbbing, body hurting and mind racing. He felt the heaviness of the small box hidden within his belt, knew that he had the weapon to actually hurt a kryptonian.. But would he be fast enough to pull the small splitter out before Superboy would act? Would it hurt his Jonathan just as much?

Fact was that Damian didn’t know what he should do. He couldn’t fight, couldn’t protect Jonathan and even if he was in top condition, the vigilante knew he could never fight Superboy seriously. No matter whether that person in front of him was simply a copy or truly a part of his friend - Damian had promised he would never harm him.

“Look at yourself, Dami. You always tried to be the leader, acted as if the world was kneeling to your feet. It disgusted me. So much hatred and arrogance in such a small and weak body, so many days I considered beating you up simply to teach you a lesson. You’re not your father and you will never surpass him. The justice league will never have room for such a miserable little prince like you are. Give it another year or two and they will drop you like the rest did. And I will make the start.”

It was so wrong. Superboy’s voice was lacking any warmth and as a foot came down to stop onto Damian’s already wounded leg, red eyes finally showed a spark of life. But the human wouldn’t give this asshole the satisfaction of hearing him scream. He would swallow the pain, hold Jonathan closer and dare the other to hurt him.

However, it seemed destiny had another idea for them. Their staring contest was finally broken when the sirens in the background grew louder and louder, announcing the police cars closing in on them. Damian almost didn’t understand why Superboy was backing off by now but then again he wouldn’t ask the maniac to stay.

A creepy and disturbing grin appeared on Superboy’s lips and Damian shivered at the unnatural sight.

“Until next time, Damian.”

And as the teenager flew out of the alley just in time for Commissioner Gordon to appear, Damian knew that this was only the beginning.

No matter where this Jonathan Kent was going, Damian would find and drag him back. After all there had to be a way to fix all of this…