Second chapter: Woot

Thanks for the lovely reviews.

Also, I forgot to mention in the last chapter, Karmen is one of my OC's. She doesn't play a monumental part in the story, except she is the "external force" that brought Bruce Wayne and "the kid" together. I really am horrible at doing random wormholes or coming up with scientific explanations that are semi-sound to explain them. So sorry about the confusion.

Also, time-wise, I suppose this is after the incidents saw in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. So Tim's in therapy, and the rest of the group is barely on speaking terms with Bruce, or Batman. As for the JLU…meh. So in regards to causal mentions of Tim last chapter, enough time has passed that the name itself won't bring up much guilt or bad memories.

And as the title says, I am ignoring Jason Todd because he never shows up in the series. So there. However, I did spend some time doing exhaustive Wikipedia research.

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The next week went by very quickly. Odd. Usually, between cases the days and nights dragged. Plagued by miniscule business issues during the day, and an incurable insomnia brought on by obsession in the night, without Batman taking up so much of his energies, the man known as Bruce Wayne was bored. This time, however, something else occupied his time.

His new ward.

"The kid" as he fondly had nicknamed him, (it seemed to irritate him to no end) did have incredible fighting skills. In their first sparring match, Bruce, who was used to coaxing the best out of amateur and mimicked moves, found himself on the defensive more than once. Being honest with himself, he had enjoyed the workout, and the challenge of a good fight that if he lost would not end his death or crippling injury.

As for weapons, he seemed to very quickly master the batarangs. Actually, he learned more than quickly. It was uncanny how well he could preciscely aim and throw them; almost as if he had been used to throwing sharp and pointy objects his entire life. And what kind of lifestyle that implied, Bruce didn't really want to know.

Yet in everything else, the more mundane things, that were never really problems before, were now huge issues.

School, for instance. The kid had a pretty accurate grasp of most subjects stuck under the massive category of science. He was far beyond any of his peers in math. Those skills were balanced out by the fact that he knew next to nothing about history and had only avery sketchy grasp of the most basic technology. He had no idea who Shakespeare was, but could read and write like any normal thirteen-year old. And obviously, being Batman's partner, his social skills weren't up to par with a five-year old. So home-schooling it was. At least until the kid could be integrated into Gotham Private School.

But it was strange, he reflected. The fact that the kid was an excellent fighter and was barely educated pointed to someone who had grown up in a lawless town, or on the streets, with no money or parents to protect him. Yet the kid hadn't seem impressed at all with Wayne Manor or its rather grandiose style. And the kid could write and read, so perhaps he had been rich and then became rather poor very suddenly and traumatically. No, that couldn't be it; the kid had seemed just as surprised as Bruce was that he was able to read or write.

And then there was the way he ate. Rather hesitatingly, as if he was unsure of the utensils he was holding and their uses. And the way he glanced at Bruce to make sure that he was eating the food the right way. Or that the food was okay to eat. Bruce snorted. As if Alfred would ever mis-prepare food or allow food of a lower quality to leave his kitchen.

Back on track though: Something was definitely off about the kid. Selina probably knew. They had spent a week at her manor while the kid's suit was created and made. But Selina would make him pay dearly for the information, and probably with more than money. Not that money wouldn't be involved, and it wasn't like he couldn't afford it, it was just that he didn't want to have to admit, to Selina, of all people that Batman's detective skills were slipping so much that he couldn't even figure out the secrets of his own ward.

That left the kid himself, and Karmen. The kid was as close-lipped as Bruce ever was, and probably had only a vague idea of what had happened between Karmen finding and befriending him, and getting dumped here. As for Karmen, she undoubtedly knew what was going on, but would probably only give him half-answers, or answers that only made sense to someone with her mental state, a very unique one at that. But although Karmen probably wouldn't give him answers, she might give answers to the Justice League. But they hadn't really spoken after…well, there wasn't much to say afterwards.

On the other hand, his curiosity would continue to eat away at him. He supposed that just this once, he could swallow a little bit of his pride to have the Justice League condescend and talk to him about the dangers of having another ward. Although he would not unbend enough to go the Watchtower to talk to them. The League would also be less than pleased if he revealed how little he knew about his third ward. So he had to make the League, or at least part of it, come to Gotham. And the only way to do that…a smile graced his features. Time to go patrolling.


Sorry, it's so short, but I wanted to post this and this was a good place to end this chapter, otherwise it would have dragged on.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything in this story except perhaps the crossover idea and Karmen.

Also, to all my reviewers: thanks so much: You guys are awesome. I'm just worried that when I actually reveal who the new "Robin" is, you'll all be like "oh, she's into that mainstream stuff. Even worse, she jumped on the bandwagon…Great." I hope that doesn't happen, and I would like to say that I have not jumped on the bandwagon (I hope), but am only running besides it.