Issue #6 Faux-DC Presents: "When Robins Fall":  Growing Up By Steve Swartz

Robin looked around the interior of the Batcave, taking everything in. There was the enormous Bat-Computer, the Batmobile, the many trophies that both Batman and the Robins had collected over the years. He looked at the glass case in the middle of the large cave, which held the former Robin's costume. He thought of everything that had happened over the past year. There was Azrael*, Batman becoming crippled**, almost dying, Nightwing becoming Batman. And there was the constant reminder of death. Every time that Tim Drake looked at the old-fashioned Robin costume hanging in the glass case, the worse he felt. Maybe Batman grew stronger from pain, but Tim did not. Each time he stole a glance at the former Robin's costume, he would ask himself, "Is it worth it? Is it worth it to be Robin, to be Batman's partner? Is it worth it to risk my life, every day, for strangers that I have never even known?" And Batman had his many mood swings that always annoyed Tim. One day Batman was happy (or as happy as Batman could get, anyway), and the next he was angry at something or other, and short-tempered. Again, Robin found himself asking, "Is it worth it?" He slipped his mask into place. * See "Knightfall" - Old-Timer Steve ** See "Knightfall" and "Knightquest" - Semi-Redundant Steve "Robin," Batman said as he walked down the steps leading from Wayne Manor to the Batcave. He looked gloomier than usual; then again, he always looked gloomy. Maybe it was the light. Or maybe he was thinking about Jason*, too. He tended to do that often. "Joker's been sighted escaping from Arkham. Happened last night. Police APB went out a minute ago. I'm going to help them." He began walking toward the Batmobile. Robin followed. Batman turned to face him. "I need you here," Batman said. "I need you to tap into the Arkham and the Gazette computers and get everything you can on Joker and his escape." And with that, he entered the Batmobile. Seconds later, Batman was off with a ZOOM!, leaving Robin alone to once again contemplate why he was Batman's partner. Robin slowly walked to the huge mainframe computer in the center of the Batcave. "Monster Killer 2" was on the screen, but Robin paid no attention. Instead, he set to work on hacking through Arkham's files. Robin must have scanned through hundreds of files, but to no avail. The Joker's file was nowhere to be found. Robin licked his lips. Joker had probably erased all traces of himself from Arkham's system. Or hired someone to do the job for him. Nothing to do. The clock ticked the seconds. Robin glanced up at the huge grandfather clock in one corner of the cave. Eight-fifteen at night. He waited. Looked again. Eight-sixteen. Nothing to do but wait. After about a half hour, Robin stood. "I am sick and tired of waiting!" he cried. "Constantly waiting. Batman still thinks that what happened to Jason Todd's gonna happen to me!" He kicked a chair, which skidded and then clattered to about fifteen feet away. "I'm more responsible than that kid ever was," Tim went on. "But Batman still treats me like a kid." * As in Jason Todd, Tim Drake's predecessor - Swingin' Steve The Batmobile cruised at a steady seventy-five miles per hour. Three miles in front of Wayne Manor, what looked like a road barricade stood. Batman was approaching it rapidly. He pressed a button in the Batmobile, and suddenly the barricade dropped to the ground. When Batman had cleared it, he pressed the same button, which brought it standing again. He tapped a button next to the comm console. "Oracle here," the feminine voice of Barbara Gordon said. There was a time that Batman had fallen for her, when she was Batgirl. But ever since she became crippled because of the Joker, she was confined to a wheelchair. And, according to many specialists, she would never recover. But that had not stopped her from carrying on her fight against crime. Now she helped fight crime under the name "Oracle", giving heroes and law enforcement information. She was as deft a hacker as Tim was, if not more, and consequently received a great deal more information because of it. "Oracle," Batman said. "Batman here." "How nice to hear from you, Batman," Oracle said. Batman could hear the tap-tap-tap of a computer keyboard in the background. "So what brings you to the Oracle?" "I need some information on Joker's escape from Arkham. Robin is searching for the same information, but I thought that you could perhaps gain more information because you are an expert hacker." From Batman, that was a compliment. And he did not give those too often. "Okay, let me see..." Oracle said. Batman spoke into the mic. "Relay the information to Robin. You have our dataline number. I'll be in touch." Click. Batman broke the connection. Oracle sighed. "Such a mysterious creature," she said. Oracle tapped into Arkham's file system. She too found no traces of the Joker in the entire file system. She next connected to Gotham's central Records building, which had every kind of record ever written in it. These were not run by computer; therefore, they could not be erased. And they were kept in fireproof bins, so they could not be destroyed by fire. The files themselves may not have been in a computer, but a database of the files was. Basically, these were "copies" of the files, so that if they were somehow erased, Gotham would still have the written records. This way, they could never really be permanently destroyed. Oracle tapped into the system and located Joker's main file. It was over ten thousand pages! And from there, she located his Arkham Asylum file, which was just over five hundred pages. "Bingo," she said. Tapping a key, she sent the Joker's entire file to the Batcave. "I'm sure Batman and Robin will find what they're looking for," she said. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! the Bat-Computer shrieked. Tim woke to see words forming on the screen. Apparently, he had fallen asleep in the chair while playing Monster Killer 2. His mask had apparently come undone and had fallen onto the floor. But now...well, what was this? Tim squinted, as his eyes had not yet adjusted to the light. "Receiving...transmission?" he said tiredly. He tapped a key. The more than ten thousand page file of the Joker appeared on the screen. "What IS this?" he asked. He looked at the bottom right corner of the screen, where the transmission's sender's codename appeared. "Oracle," Tim said. "I might have guessed." He yawned. Then the computer's speaker beeped. Tim pressed the comm button. "Robin here," he said. "Robin," Batman said, "have you received the Oracle's information yet?" "Yeah, it just got here. You really think I'm gonna look over more than...lemme see...ten THOUSAND pages? Not to mention the files relating to Joker, like his Arkham files, and - " "Just do it!" Batman said. "Report to me when you've finished." He broke the connection. "Oh, man," Tim said. "It's gonna be a loooong night." He got up from the chair. "But for him, not for me. I'm TIRED of this garbage. 'Do this, do that.'" He pressed the comm button again. "Yes," Batman said. "Batman," Robin said. "Have you found anything?" Batman asked. "Yeah, I found something. I found that I'm tired of sitting here and doing nothing, when I could be out there helping you bash the Joker's head in. What use am I here?" "You provide me with important information that I can use to my tactical advantage, Tim." "Is that why you wanted a Robin? To sit here and do nothing while you go rampaging through Gotham? If that's why you wanted me to be Robin - well, I think Alfred could do my job just fine." "Meaning?" Batman asked. "Batman, I'm just...tired of always being in your shadow. You know? Just like Dick* was. You know...?" "Okay, Robin, you want a job to do? Fine. Go down to fifty-second street and seventh avenue. There's a gang fight going on. Think you can handle it?" Batman asked. "Sure, no problem," Tim said before breaking the connection. He sat back in the chair, rubbing his eyes. 'CAN I handle it?' Tim wondered, as he stood. He smoothed his hair, then bent over and picked his mask up off of the cold floor. "Of course I can," he said, slipping his mask into place. "I'm Robin." "NYAHH!" Snake plunged a dagger into a rival gang member's midsection as he sidestepped a blow from a club. This was real tough, gang fights every day about who controlled Gotham's drug trade. In fact, the drug trade was such a large part of Gotham business that it should have been added to the stock market. And these were the ones behind the trade, controlling it. "You bettah watch yo' back now, man," Fist said to Snake as he punched a rather large brute on the jaw, sending him to oblivion. "We gotta get outa here, they gettin' mo' of their guys." "Naw," Snake said, as he kicked another Scorpions member in the stomach. "Us Diamondbacks, we gotta stick tuhgethuh, y'know?" "AIEEE!" Snake cried as a bullet was shot into his heart. He crumpled to the ground, dead. "Snake!" Fist cried as he watched his friend hit the pavement. He turned to look at the Scorpions. "Watch yo' back now," he said, "you killed my friend." He took out a small .33 and fired blindly at the seven Scorpions. The remaining two Diamondbacks had fled the scene, leaving only Fist and Snake to take the hits. Unfortunately, it was now only Fist who could defend the Diamondbacks' turf. And he wasn't doing a very good job of it. "AAHHH!" a Scorpion cried out, as he fell, blood gushing out of his abdomen. He lay still. The remaining six all had guns in their hands. The leader, Wolf, gave the order to fire. Suddenly a gold streak flew past the six Scorpions and the CLINK of metal against metal was heard. The bullets dropped to the ground, leaving Fist unscathed. A golden "R" was stuck point-first in the ground, and the marks on it proved that it was the "R" that had stopped the bullets from burying themselves in Fist's body. Fist and the Scorpions looked up to see Robin, cape waving in the slight breeze, standing atop a fire escape. The sixteen-year-old grinned at them. "Aaahh," he said, inhaling deeply, "the stench of idiots." He looked at the Scorpions. Wolf pointed at Robin. "GET HIM!" he cried to his six friends. His friends obliged as chains, knives and guns appeared. Robin jumped down into the fray, flipping his metal staff out of its compact case. "HYAHH!" he shouted as he drove one of the staff's into Wolf's stomach. Wolf stepped back, the wind knocked out of him. Meanwhile, Dragon, Wolf's best friend and second-in-command of the Scorpions, aimed a sharp kick at Robin's midsection. Robin easily sidestepped the kick and tripped Dragon, sending him sprawling five feet to the ground below, which he hit with a sickening crack of bones. "Ouch," Robin said, "that's GOT to hurt." Suddenly, Robin noticed Fist running from the fight. Robin jumped, flipping two times in the air to land in front of Fist, stopping him. "And where do you think YOU'RE going?" Robin asked. "I'm not quite through with you yet." With that, he took a small, thin, strong rope from one of his glove pockets and tied Fist's wrists to a metal pipe jutting out from a building into the ground. "Wait here," Robin said, as he turned his attention to the five advancing Scorpions. They were shouting, and brandishing their weapons. "Uh-oh," Robin said. Gulp. * As in Dick Grayson, the first Robin - Steve "We really don't know how this could have happened, Commissioner. Maybe they've been planning this for months, who knows?" Commissioner Gordon smoked his pipe that he had sworn to give up. For some reason it made him feel relaxed; released all the tension. He looked at James Armstrong, the head warden at Arkham. "So it wasn't just the Joker that escaped...?" "No, sir. Two-Face, among others, escaped...and you just put him in here*, it seems. The Ventriloquist is still here, and the Riddler...it seems that minor loonies and Two-Face are the only prisoners missing." He nervously tapped his foot. This would mean that Armstrong wouldn't get that promotion he so wanted! All because of some stupid escape of only the most violent criminal ever known. All because of him! Damn him! "Yeah, we just did," Gordon agreed. He looked at Lieutenant McFarland, who was standing beside him. "Lieutenant," he said. "Sir!" the young lieutanant said, as he snapped to attention. "Go find Sergeant Bullock; tell him I want to speak with him." "Will do, sir. Right away, sir!" he said as he rushed off to find Bullock. Gordon removed his glasses, rubbed his eyes, and sighed. "It's gonna be a loooong night," he said. Batman was lurking in the shadows, away from the police. For now. He didn't want any confusion. He just wanted to ask Commissioner Gordon a few questions...and that could wait for another few minutes. He gazed keenly at the entrance to Arkham. The old bronzed letters reminded Batman of just how old the place was. It was actually built around 1937. Batman often wondered what life was like for inmates back then. But now was not the time to ponder anything but the Arkham breakout. He was listening to a small radio inside his cowl. It was a small earpiece that Harold had designed for both himself and Robin, and picked up the police bands as well as all other bands and frequencies, high and low. And they also enabled Batman and Robin to communicate. They went quite a distance. And could transmit and receive even underground. They were very handy to have around. He listened to Gordon inform all of the units that Two-Face had also escaped. In the background he heard a muffled voice. It seemed that the voice was relating information to the commissioner, who was in turn relaying it to the units and to the station. And the worst part wasn't Two-Face, whom Batman and Robin had put in there two weeks ago*; it was Joker. Batman still didn't feel at all secure of letting Tim out by himself. The Joker had always wanted to do away with him...after all, he had killed the second Robin, and Tim had put Joker on ice the last time that they had met, face to face**. What would happen this time if Joker did carry out the threat that he had made to Robin...to kill him? Batman couldn't bear to see another soul stipped of life because of him. He couldn't bear it! He turned away as Gordon put out another APB. Batman knew that Gordon would be signalling him via the Bat-Signal from atop the Gotham City Police Department building after he returned. It was the general routine. So, seeing as there was nothing more he could do, he hopped once more into the Batmobile and took off for Wayne Manor. * As seen last ish - Back-Issue Bin Steve ** That would be in the Robin II four-issue miniseries - Steve again Robin gulped as he watched the five musclebound, armed gang members rushing at him. His first thought was running, but he knew that he had to fight his instincts. He grabbed his staff and used it to vault himself at the five. He crashed into three, knocking them down and knocking the wind out of them. The two that stood, however, had guns trained on Robin's head. "Don't move," Wolf said. Bat-Signals Please, PLEEEEASE send me letters! What have I ever done to you? Send all of your correspondence to <Steve777@adelphia.net>, subject: Bat-Signals, with your comments, questions, criticisms, et cetera. NEXT ISSUE: Robin's in trou-ble! What will happen to him? And what's happening with Batman and Joker? Will the Joker indeed kill the third Robin in a mad lust for revenge? (See the Robin II lim. series for his reasons - Steve) Or will good once again triumph over evil and the Joker stopped? What's with Batman and Robin's strained relationship? Be here next issue to find out! Oh, and by the way...look for a special appearance of a special hero next issue. See you in thirty - Steve Swartz (And send me letters!  Sheesh!  How many times does a guy hafta ask, anyway?)