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Chapter One

Prelude

Dick Grayson calmly helped Alfred carry the bags into the manor. When they succeeded in this task, some fifteen minutes later, he discovered Starfire staring at the foyer, her eyes wide as saucers. It made her look cute, and beautiful, and lots of other things he didn't want to describe. It made him wonder how Raven would have reacted.

"If you think this is wicked cool," Dick told her, "the rest of this museum is way, way cooler."

1

Three days later

Starfire had to agree with Dick— Wayne Manor was one of the most amazing places she'd ever visited.

A pity she'd have to leave it in a month, to switch places with Raven. But at least she'd have Cyborg to keep her company. Poor Raven. Raven had no one.

"Miss Anders," said the old man (Robin [now 'Dick'] and Bruce called him 'Alfred,' and said something about his being a 'butler,' whatever that was). "Hallways are for walking from room to room, not for floating."

She sighed and returned to the ground. She had never had to walk so far within a home before! On Tamaran, everyone could fly, so everyone did. But here on Earth, where most people could not fly, it seemed that etiquette (as Dick said Alfred was an expert on) demanded that she walked.

Nightfall

They sat in the dining room at a vast, rectangular table. Bruce sat at one end of it ('the head of the table,' she believed), Dick sat to Bruce's right, and she sat across from Dick.

Eating dinner at such a large table felt odd. Her time on Earth had acquainted her with the more informal style of eating seen in Titan Tower: everybody round one large— and yet far too small— table, talking, laughing and joking.

Here, dinner passed in near silence. Every now and then, Bruce or Dick would share some tidbit about his day, and the other would comment on it. Conversation, unlike what they'd had in Titan Tower, remained serious and formal.

"You're rather quiet tonight, Kory," Bruce told her solemnly, those glacier blue eyes trained on her. "Is something wrong?"

She shook her head. "No, nothing is wrong. I am quite well... It is just that I have been comparing dinner here to dinner at Titan Tower." She gave a nervous laugh. "I must admit, you eat dinner here in a very different way from the way we eat dinner at Titan Tower."

"How so?" Bruce asked.

"Here, dinner is more quiet and serious. It is also formal. At Titan Tower, we talk loudly and ceaselessly, and laugh a lot, and sit around a table that is too small for five people. Here, we talk quietly and rarely, laugh seldom, and sit around a table that is far too big."

Bruce gave a low chuckle, but said nothing further.

It bothered her. If Bruce felt joy (something she had seen only once, and that had been when he and Robin— Dick, she corrected herself— had rushed into each others arms), then why did he not share his reasons for feeling it? And why did his laughter sound so sad? Even Raven did not seem as silent and sad as Bruce did.

A moment later, Bruce spoke again. "How did you eat dinner on Tamaran? Was it more like dinner here or dinner at the Tower?"

She paused to think for a moment. "Well, it was like dinner here in that we had a large table and many, many large dishes. But the conversation had more joy and noise and laughter."

"There is something you need to see, Kory."

She noticed that Dick looked to him for a moment, and something seemed to happen. She couldn't define it, but she somehow knew that in that moment, they had sent some sort of message.

"Star, a word of warning. What we're going to show you... you must not confuse with the life in the Manor." Dick paused. "When we show you what we show you, I'm Robin, and he's Batman. But when we return to the Manor, I'm Dick and he's Bruce. Our lives depend on you not confusing the two."

She wasn't sure she understood, but she nodded anyways.

Dinner concluded, and Bruce and Dick led her to an old grandfather clock. Bruce did something to it, and a secret passageway opened.

She followed them down, and soon found herself in an enormous cavern. Bats hung from the ceiling, though she heard a few squeaks.

Staring wide-eyed, she realized that she stood at the top of a cliff or balcony, and that steps led down. She nearly flew down the steps, trying to see just what she had entered.

"What is this place?" Starfire asked.

"The Batcave," Bruce told her. "This is where Batman bases his operations."

"Amazing!" She spied a large, long vehicle and went up to stare. "This is a beautiful vehicle," she breathed.

"That's the Batmobile," Robin said. "When I turned sixteen, Batman let me drive it."

"And this?" She pointed at a red and black motorcycle. It looked almost exactly like Robin's motorcycle in Jump City.

"The original R-Cycle. The one in Jump City is the secondary R-Cycle. It seemed more effective to build a second R-Cycle and leave it in Jump City than to haul it around the country."

"We're going out on patrol tonight," Batman told them. "Robin, if you would please show Starfire the protocols?"

"Of course," Robin said. "Come on, I'll show you around. Right now, we're standing in the motor pool. It's essentially our parking lot, where we keep the vehicles and do maintenance on them. It's the main exit from the Batcave— and only exit that I know of — to the city of Gotham."

He showed her to a huge computer. "This is the Cray. I'm pretty sure Batman would rather you left it alone, so I won't go into too many details."

She followed him over to a door she hadn't noticed located beneath the entrance cliff.

"This is the costume vault. It's where we keep our costumes. Don't touch anybody's costume but your own. They're kind of personal."

She nodded, and allowed Robin to lead her through the back of the costume vault into a large, tiled area. "This is the shower. One large room, two different shower sections. Men," he pointed, "over there, and women," he pointed again, "over there."

They went back through the vault and found themselves staring at another door she hadn't noticed. "This is the armory. It's where we keep our supplies. Every night when we return from patrol, we refill the vehicles' gas tanks, perform any needed maintenance on them, and then restock our utility belts with whatever supplies we used from here. After that, we shower and put our costumes up."

They left the armory and he led her to a nigh-invisible door just to its right. The three doors cut into a hallway in the cliff formed a shaft, and the third door was straight down it.

Robin did not enter it, nor did he make any move to do so. "This is the weapons vault. It contains highly dangerous weapons, so you won't be going in there."

"What would happen if I were to try?"

Robin laughed humorlessly. "You don't want to know. It wouldn't be fatal, but it would certainly be painful."

"Is all of this... security... necessary?" She gestured around the Batcave.

"Yes," Robin told her. "Gotham is a dangerous place. The criminals fear and respect Batman's name... but they also despise it. We have many enemies in this city, and almost all of them would do anything to kill one or both of us."

"But why, Robin? You are a genuinely nice person, and Batman does not seem terrible..."

He chuckled again. This time, it held a little mirth. "Starfire, I might seem nice to you... But, well, imagine you're a mook for a second. Here you are, in the middle of a mugging, you're just about to get away with it, and suddenly, this smart-assed kid in a bright red and green costume shows up, kicks your butt, and sends you to jail. Does that seem very nice to you? You were just about to get some money you need very badly, and some kid ties you up and calls the cops, so you go to jail."

"I suppose it would not seem very nice," she allowed.

"That's right. Now, what would you like to do that kid? He sent you to a bad place, where lots of nasty people live. When you get out of jail, what would you like to do to him?"

"I... But I-as-the-mook did something wrong!"

"That's right. Mugging is wrong. But you're a mook, Starfire. Mooks don't see their crimes as wrong."

"Oh... I would be very angry with this young goat that sent me to jail," she agreed.

Robin laughed, and this time, it was a real laugh. "When I said 'kid,' I didn't mean 'baby goat,' Star. We use 'kid' as another word for 'child'."

"Oh... So, if a 'kid' is a child, then what is a 'mook'?"

He continued to laugh. "Mook is another word for criminal. Like thug." His face grew serious. "But back to the explanation. If you're angry with this kid who sent you to jail, what are you going to do to him?"

"The next time I see him, I would be certain to thrash him!"

"If you knew where he based his operations, would you go there?"

She paused. "Yes."

"That's just me, Star. I've made lots of enemies that way, and I've done it for eight years now. Batman's been doing it for eleven, and he probably makes more enemies than I do on any given night."

"I understand, now." She smiled. "You may be certain that your secret is quite safe with me!"

"Thank you, Star."

She pondered for a moment and asked. "Robin, if I had asked Batman the same question, what would he have done?"

The Boy Wonder thought about that for a minute, and then said, "Probably he would have said, 'Yes. Such security is necessary,' and then continued with the tour."

"And if I'd asked why, since you and he are such nice people?"

"He would have said something like, 'not to the criminals'."

"You know your mentor very well indeed!"

Robin shrugged and smiled. "Thanks. I've lived with him for eight years... I guess I should, huh?"

"Yes, I suppose."

"Get ready," a voice from the balcony informed them. They startled— even though he had not spoken in anything louder than a whisper, Batman had pitched his voice in that special pitch that carried through the cave, regardless of volume. "We leave for patrol in twenty minutes."

Starfire rode with Robin on the R-Cycle as they sped down the cliff towards Gotham City. She enjoyed herself immensely.

"Robin, I'll take the west side. You and Starfire take the east. We'll meet at the top of the Wayne Enterprises building at one." Batman's voice crackled through the helmet, and she gasped in shock. "After that, we'll split up and tackle what we feel is needed."

"Got it," Robin said.

Robin made a turn, and then parked the R-Cycle in the shadows. He shoved the kickstand down and then tapped a button on his utility belt. Metal plates formed along the R-Cycles tires, and soon, the R-Cycle looked like a metal shell.

"Here is where we begin the ascension for the east side," Robin told her. "You can just fly up, but I use jump cables like this." He shot a cable, and soon was on top of a streetlight. He fired another cable, this one to the top of a short building. Eventually, he worked his way up to where he could reach the top of his desired building with a jumper cable.

"I could have carried you," Starfire offered.

Robin shook his head. "Thanks but no thanks, Star. I can't go soft on Batman."

After that, they started leaping rooftops. She flew, and he used acrobatics and jumper cables.

"There's a mugging in progress," he pointed down into an alley. "It's time we stopped it, eh?"

She agreed.

"Come on, bitch. Your money or your life," the mugger declared. "Time's almost up."

Robin landed silently behind him and knocked him out with a sharp kick to the man's kidneys. "That was a nasty thing to say." He slapped a pair of Birdcuffs on the man's wrists and ankles, and then contacted the police.

"Star— let's go."

And with that, it was the rooftops again.

1:00 AM

Starfire stood atop the Wayne Enterprises building. They had stopped eight muggings, three rapes, a B&E, and an attempt at arson.

"Well?" A gravely voice asked them.

"Does Batman always surprise his team-mates?" Starfire asked Robin, who did not look startled. She envied his knowledge of his mentor; her heart had begun to pound heavily and she'd called starbolts forth. The glow receded from her hands and her eyes stopped glowing.

"Whenever he can," Robin told her.

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This is a cross between a teaser and a chapter. I've got something to add to it, but I'm not sure that I won't just make that addition a whole new chapter. It all depends, really...