Four Years Later
By: Kelly M.
Disclaimer: I sure as hell don't own DC Comics or any of its concepts. If I did, I'd probably fire that jerk who decided it was okay to "kill" Tim Drake despite saying he was his
Favorite Robin since he got into comics in middle school! Well, buddy, I have the same origin story so I say, "How DARE you, sir?!"
Author's Note: I came to the realization that DC seems to do something every four years to piss me off starting with Fifteen Years of Loyalty to Almost Two Decades. This is not
A sequel, but similar.
Stephanie Brown's mind was a jumble. She drove through the streets of Gotham on her motorcycle, stopping to beat up a pocketbook thief and some punks picking on an old man along the way. The citizens she saved thanked her but others yelled at her along her drive. She couldn't really blame them. Sometimes she questioned why she chose this life and why she continued it, especially now, after Tim… She shook her head to clear thoughts of him away as tears clouding her vision would definitely cause an accident. She arrived back at their, her, apartment, and drew her hood and mask off. She turned on the light and was only slightly startled by the appearances of Nightwing, Red Hood and Robin in her living room.
"Let me guess, Batman's worried, didn't want to come himself so he sent you all?" She said with as much annoyance in her voice as possible.
"Get over it, already! It's been a month after all." Damian said harshly.
"Look Steph, we all lost Tim. You're not alone so you don't have to be." Dick tried to reframe as he smacked Damian on the back of the head.
"Well, people deal with grief in different ways. I can't get over it like you all obviously have!" Stephanie yelled and instantly regretted it after seeing the winces on the faces of all three.
She turned away as tears started to fill her eyes. Jason stepped up and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Listen, we get it. You're hurting in a way no one else is but we're all hurting. Tim was that kinda guy who impacted everyone he met."
With that, the four superheroes suddenly felt very dizzy and it seemed like their surroundings went visibly fuzzy. Shortly after, they rose up from the ground and did not recognize where they were. They were still in their uniforms which apparently wasn't a problem because many people were dressed up. Little kids dressed as Batman and Superman walked around with little bags and the heroes quickly deduced that it was Halloween. Their eyes were attracted to a rather large comic book store with picture of Batman in the windows. They started walking toward the store and noted a woman wearing a dark cape and carrying a small toddler in dark clothing with a splash of yellow. They entered the store and the four entered close behind them.
The heroes were amazed at the variety of items in the store from all areas of fandom. They separated briefly before Damian motioned for them to join him near the Batman comics.
"These things reveal who we really are." Damian said in a whisper.
"Well, we have to assume that at least some of these people know who we are, too." Dick deduced.
"Well, we can't burn down the store and kill everyone, so what do we do?" Jason asked bluntly.
"Shhh…guys. I need to hear what she's saying." Stephanie said, waving her hand behind her as she focused on the woman with the young toddler.
They could now see that she was dressed in a homemade Robin costume, minus the mask, and the toddler, clearly her son, was dressed as Batman with a yellow cape.
"We're surprised to see you. We had started thinking you gave it all up." The comic book store manager said in a sarcastic tone.
"To be honest, even after 23 years, I considered it. If they had actually killed Tim, I would have. As much I care about Dick, Jason, Stephanie and Damian, I would have walked if they actually killed him. However, I want my son to enjoy comics as I have all these years, so here we are." The woman explained. The comic book store guy shrugged because he didn't really care anyway.
The four members of the Bat Family exchanged shocked looks and nodded to each other, planning to corner the woman and get some information. The woman's young son had picked up a small block-sized plush Batman and carried it around while pointing and babbling at things. His mother was attentive and smiled at her son while pointing to characters and things then naming them. She spotted the four and guided the toddler toward them.
"Look my little Batman, some of your partners are here. This is Nightwing, Red Hood, Robin and Spoiler." She said, pointing to each one correctly.
The toddler smiled at the four, tilting his head to the side in the process. As if hypnotized, the four tilted their heads as well, to which the child laughed.
"Your costumes are great, by the way! I'll have to ask the manager to take a picture." The woman complimented.
"These aren't costumes, they're uniforms!" Robin said grumpily.
The woman didn't acknowledge him as she picked up her son because he was rubbing his eyes and yawning.
"Looks like somebody's a tired little Batman. Mama will have to tell Dada to put you in the car so you can go sleepy-sleepy." She said softly, rubbing the child's back.
As is on cue, a man entered the store, dressed simply in a long-sleeved t-shirt and jeans, and strode over to the small group.
"Hi Dada, little Batman is tired, but before you take him to the car, take a picture of us with these four people in the awesomely accurate uniforms." She said with a smirk toward Damian.
The child's father rolled his eyes at first but then nodded as if in approval of the accuracy of their uniforms. He took the picture and then exchanged the camera for their son who started fussing a bit.
"I'll be right out, I swear." The woman reassured. Her husband nodded and took the child out to the car.
"So, I have a feeling I can ask you outright. You know who we really are, don't you?" Red Hood asked in a low voice as to not alert other customers or the staff.
"That's the training from the World's Greatest Detective. Well, I know it's polite to introduce oneself first so my name is Kelly and yes, I know you all Jason, Dick, Damian and Stephanie. What I don't know is how you are all here and why didn't you bring Tim?" The now-revealed Kelly said with a smile.
Her smile instantly faded when she saw the look in Spoiler's eyes.
"We wanted to ask you about that. You said, 'if they actually killed Tim.' What did you mean?" Dick asked plainly.
Kelly took a deep breath, turned to Spoiler and pulled her in for a hug.
"He's alive, Stephanie. I don't know how much I can say but, take this with you and don't lose hope. Knowing my favorite superhero that I've been following since I was 13 years old, he'll be back. I theorize from a story perspective they didn't know what to do with him and fans like me would've walked if they killed him, so this is their solution. They made the World's Greatest Detective dumb as a rock that he couldn't see how Tim's bo staff could be intact when the drones were supposedly so powerful to take down a building and completely decimate a body! Sorry, that bugs me. Even my husband that doesn't read comics saw that one. But anyway, read it and keep the faith!" Kelly said and took a comic off the shelf, handing it to Damian.
With that, the Robin Super Fanatic bowed respectfully to the four, purchased her comics an left to her family. The four blinked and they were suddenly back in Stephanie's apartment.
"Was that a hallucination?" Jason asked.
"No, it was real." Damian replied, almost not believing his own words, as he held a copy of Detective Comics # 940.
Al four crowded around to read it and although watching Tim "die" was very difficult to go through, at the end they all had renewed hope and a mission.
"We need to find this Mr. Oz guy and rescue Tim!" Stephanie declared. The rest nodded in agreement.
The End … until DC decides to stop being jerks and BRING BACK TIM!