Zur-En-Arrh

"Bruce! What the hell is going on? Why has every move and trick I’ve got been seen through? What is this robot calling itself Fault Insurance? Why does it feel like it knows us so well?"

Tim lay on the ground, clutching two escrima sticks, his face bruised and swollen as he spoke weakly into his earpiece.

"Cough, cough! I’ll find a way to deal with it, Tim. Contact the Justice League, now. I can’t handle this thing."

Bruce Wayne, clad in a tattered Bat suit, sat in the Batmobile and watched Fault Insurance race down the road behind him through the rearview mirror.

He genuinely had no idea Fault Insurance existed, but the moment it attacked him today, he knew where it had come from at first sight.

He had made it himself.

Plenty of people could build powerful robots, but only Batman could build a powerful robot that knew the Bat Family this well.

But that Batman was not Bruce Wayne.

Or rather, not entirely.

As it ran, Fault Insurance seemed to unlock even more functions. Plasma jets burst from its legs, and it began to accelerate.

Bruce Wayne’s heart sank.

He had already sustained serious injuries while evading Fault Insurance, and all the ammunition loaded in the Batmobile had been used up.

In a few more seconds, it would catch him.

Just then, the roar of a motorcycle sounded. Nightwing rode a customized bike bearing the Bat-symbol straight toward the Batmobile.

"No, Grayson. You’re not a match for it."

"And you are? You’re the one who got beaten up the worst."

Nightwing cracked a joke, then pressed a button on the motorcycle.

Just before it collided with the Batmobile, the bike leaped high into the air, clearing the Batmobile and crashing toward Fault Insurance.

The next second, the explosives loaded inside the motorcycle detonated, and smoke billowed upward.

Nightwing landed with an elegant backflip in midair.

Then he was kicked away by a massive black metal foot nearly fifty yards long.

Unscathed by the smoke, Fault Insurance emerged without a scratch, kicked Nightwing flying, and continued its pursuit of the Batmobile.

The poor eldest Bat brother had held Fault Insurance off for less than a second.

"Now you’re worse off than I am, Grayson. Besides, Tim’s the one who got beaten up the worst among us."

Batman’s tongue was as sharp as ever, but his hands were no slower as he drove the Batmobile toward an old Batcave outside the city.

He knew that, among all of them, he was actually the one Fault Insurance was most likely to kill.

A Batman who had somehow been judged to have triggered a "fault."

"Tim, Grayson, I’m going to lure the robot to Batcave No. 4."

Batman floored it, successfully entering the Batcave before Fault Insurance could catch him and activating the cave’s defense modules.

Those things could only hold it back temporarily.

But Batman knew how to defeat this powerful robot.

Explosions rang out continuously through the passageway at the cave entrance. Dragging his injured body along, Batman pulled an iron chest from a corner of the Batcave and opened it.

Inside was a brand-new Bat suit.

Unlike the Bat suits of the past, which had mainly been black and gray, this one was primarily purple and red.

Batman stripped off his clothes in a few quick motions and changed into the suit.

"It’s time for you to come out and solve this problem, other me."

As the purple cowl and suit went on, Batman’s entire aura changed at once.

This was his alternate personality, Zur-En-Arrh.

From the day the Justice League was formed, Batman had prepared plans for every member of the Justice League, in case they ever lost control and went rogue.

That included Batman himself.

Compared to the other members of the Justice League, he was even more worried about himself losing control. So he dug up the methods of mind control he had studied in Asia during his youth and, after some tinkering, created an alternate personality for himself: Zur-En-Arrh. It could serve both as a defense against mental attacks and as a means of restraining himself.

Whatever Batman could do, Zur-En-Arrh could do as well.

He was another Batman created by Batman to prevent Batman from falling into darkness and crossing the line.

Zur-En-Arrh had also created Fault Insurance as a means of dealing with Batman, and had deliberately suppressed his own memories during that period.

Once Batman crossed the line, fell into darkness, and began killing, the Fault Insurance meticulously created by Zur-En-Arrh would activate.

They were both Batman. With careful planning against an unprepared opponent, Bruce Wayne had little chance against Fault Insurance. All he could do was try to call Zur-En-Arrh out.

Since Zur-En-Arrh had always been hidden inside him, he would definitely know whether Batman had crossed the line.

At a time like this, he would help Batman.

"You must have set up a contingency plan against Fault Insurance. Tell me what it is."

Within his subconscious, Batman’s primary personality spoke directly to Zur-En-Arrh.

"On the Space Watchtower," Zur-En-Arrh said.

The next instant, the door was blasted open. Red warning lights flashed all over Fault Insurance as it charged toward Zur-En-Arrh in great strides.

Outside the Batcave, Nightwing and Tim, having hastily tended to their injuries, arrived with weapons in hand.

Because powerful reinforcements had arrived.

It was as though background music began to play. Wonder Woman stood in armor, sword and shield in hand, a lasso at her waist, gazing resolutely into the Batcave.

She had arrived so quickly because she happened to be in Gotham.

Earlier, she had asked Shimizu and Batman to gather information on items related to the gods of Ancient Greece, and their agreed-upon time had been today.

Meanwhile, Shimizu’s private jet was flying steadily along the route from Metropolis to Gotham.

Shimizu had just finished handling official business and was preparing to eat lunch.

He had only just put on his napkin and raised his knife and fork toward the steak on his plate when Watos’s electronic voice sounded from his watch.

"Distress signal received from Batman."

A distress signal from Batman?

Shimizu raised an eyebrow slightly, then seemed to sense something and looked out the plane window.

A muscular man in a blue bodysuit and red cape burst through the clouds. He gave Shimizu a slight nod, then suddenly dove downward, flying toward Gotham.

Even Superman had been called?

Then this really was no small matter. Batman had called for powerful reinforcements because he could not handle it alone.

But with the Justice League’s current lineup, as long as it was not a multiversal-level incident like an invasion by Barbatos or Darkseid—or Batman suddenly losing his mind, turning evil, and trying to wipe out the Justice League—they should be able to handle most threats on Earth.