Again, tell me if it's going too slow and I should pick it up.

Chapter 1

One could hear the echoes of a constant, slow drip for miles within the caverns under Wayne Manor. The ambience itself almost howled within the cave. Throughout tunnels and underground rivers, only a seven acre area was used for secretive purposes by its owner. It was plated with metal and lights to create order in the chaotic edges of the cave. Slow drops from the stalactites above will ensure that the jaggedness will return centuries from now, but for as long as he lives, there will be order here.

Some have argued that his goals have always been selfless, while others have believed that without control of the compulsion that drives him, no concept of self actually exists to sacrifice. Regardless of the argument of motives, Bruce Wayne's determination can only be described as inhuman. The hours he spent the previous days as Bruce Wayne above ground, was spent organizing the economic advancement of one of the largest corporations in the world. Then, he spent hours patrolling the darkened shadows of Gotham City. Within the city's confines, he broke up crime from a basic mugging within his sight to a drug ring in the lower East side. The hours in between were spent within the several acres of this dark, echoing cave researching the crimes and criminal minds above him.

It's always been an amazing force that drives him. Could it have been fear of letting tragedy occur like it did that night in an alley so many years ago? Could it be hateful revenge against the people that wronged him? Is it hope for a better world? Did it evolve over time to become the life he knows, and nothing else? Whatever the reason, he continued to work, unabated in this near oblivious isolation.

But something was different within those few hours. For a few hours, his mission was slightly distracted. He felt a part of his analytical mind slowing down, wishing to search farther into a mystery he'd given up on. He had technology that sorts out enumerable amounts of information that could've been presented dozens of different ways across a myriad of screens and holographic displays. His advanced mind would see patterns in crimes throughout the city and pinpoint the next location of danger, but his heart argued with his mind.

"It's not possible. It's just another dead end," his mind asserted.

"But if there's a chance it could be true, perhaps I could finally rest that terrible demon," his heart argued.

"It's logically impossible. After all this time, for it to just happen would be too much of a coincidence."

"Perhaps it was fate. Stranger things have happened. People have risen from the dust and ashes, perhaps the ghosts of the past have come back to finally find peace."

It's nothing.

But maybe…

"I never thought a fingerprint could be so interesting."

The words of a teenage friend echoed through the cave. The origin of the voice was young Tim Drake. He walked down a long set of steps that led from the mansion to the expanse of darkness.

It was so much simpler for Tim Drake. He had a similar drive, but his motives were so pure and simple. Duty and honor. Faith in what's right and good. Years ago, he took up the mantle of Robin because it was necessary. Dick Grayson had moved on from the role that was taken up by a street urchin named Jason Todd. His subsequent death nearly drove Batman insane. At the time, there needed to be a Robin and he was the only one who could fill the role. In the beginning, he wanted the role to be temporary, but over time, he filled the legendary and necessary role to the point that it's difficult to imagine anyone else wearing the bright colors contrasting the dark knight.

"I wasn't expecting you so soon."

"So soon? Bruce it's after eight. The Diamondbacks will be collecting protection money from Xing Nar's Dry Cleaners in less than an hour."

Bruce looked to his left to at a time display and slightly cursed under his breath.

"What's the case you're working on now?"

"These are the fingerprints found at the Steinbeck's Jewelers two days ago. They're the fingerprints of Joey Fenster; aka Smiley. He was a hired thug of the Joker who's been dead for three years."

"Sounds tough. Do you want me to take the wannabe gang members solo?"

"No, the data's been inputted into the computers. It's come up a dead lead, so far, so the crime has to be reasoned outside of the basic logic parameters of the computer."

"Translation: you have to figure it out yourself, because the computer's stumped."

Bruce turned away from the computer screen and walked toward the cape and cowl hanging from a six foot pedestal in the middle of the modern technological area of the cave. With a swift motion the cape flew around his neck and fastened to the Kevlar under lament of his costume. "In as many words, yes. Immediate matters always hold precedence."

As he pushed his hands into gauntlet like gloves, he thought to himself, "Sometimes a mystery will be put on hold temporarily… sometimes too long…"

"Are we taking the Batmobile again, or are should we go patrolling afterwards?"

Batman clipped the think, yellow compartment belt around his waste. "Batmobile. This is the only scheduled stop. After this, we'll probably head to the jeweler for more information and come straight back."

Batman pressed a combination of buttons on his belt. Immediately, a platform rose from below a circular steel door on the ground near the edges of the technology area of the cave. The platform rose to just above ground level revealing one of the most advanced devices of technology. The Batmobile is a mobile base of operations that carries with it satellite interface, police bandwidth communications, twelve separate sensor displays, specified radars… everything needed to find whatever he wanted.

He pulled the cowl over the top half of his face and sat in the front seat of the Batmobile. Robin jumped into the passenger side. After an explosion of propulsion, they sped out of the caverns.

The Tzu's have been very reluctant to agree to the standards of street economics of Gotham. For those unfamiliar with the concept, take the lasses-faire economic module of corporations, allow everything from harassment to murder and mix in an abundant amount of hand-held, blunt objects. Such is life in the slums of Gotham's underworld.

The few with nothing stick together, amass their collected strengths and prey on the people who have little. Why not prey on the people with a lot? People with a lot of money can afford protection from government and police. Some costumed psychos like Harvey Dent and Edward Nigma are successful some times at taking from the rich; but when they themselves are confronted by the various costumed vigilantes, they're brought down, usually hard. The few who choose to go it themselves form small gangs. The Diamondbacks work the Asian area of Gotham. They've all marked themselves with two diamonds along their shoulder blades.

The Tzu's have reported them to the police on numerous occasions, but there are usually more responses from the gangs at these calls than there are from the GCPD. Each time they complain the price of protection increases. It's been months since the price of protection was more than their gross income. I ended up being a damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario for them.

The first to enter the cleaners were Squint and Krull. They were the lackeys and excited to prove themselves. Krull had the tattoos in a Celtic design where his hair should. His six foot two, 280 lb frame was intimidating without the thick metal chain he had wrapped around his waist. Squint was lanky and wore a Diego t-shirt. He had piercing all over his body because the pain of the piercing distracted him from his headaches. It's not that he was sick or anything, he just needed glasses. The bat in his hands prevented people from helping him with that problem.

They entered the shop fifteen minutes before closing. Squint ran behind the counter toward the back exists to make sure no one else left. With a smile across his face, Krull started reeking havoc within the shop. Tzu Yar was behind the counter. The minute they came in he immediately went into the back to calling out to Tzu Lang. Lang was heard her and quickly came in from the back screaming, "Get out of here. You don't belong here."

With the baseball bat, Squint beat the back door's handle until it was thoroughly smashed. Yar was screaming in Cantonese for her husband to leave. Lang grabbed Squint by the arm and pulled him around. Squint in turn literally batted is arm away. Grabbing his own elbow, Lang howled in pain. Yar, screamed and headed towards the front door only to come in eye contact with the large built of Krull. He pushed Yar to the ground on a pile of recently tattered jackets. Lang crawled up to her and pulled his arm around her waste.

With a ringing from the door, two more men entered the Laundromat. These two were Cutter and Fingers. Fingers didn't say much, but enjoyed the pleasure of getting others to talk. Cutter was the leader of the outfit. No one knew if the scars across his chest and along his arms were self inflicted as he claimed, but they did show he had an abundance of a pain threshold.

"Two thousand dollars. Is that too much to ask?"

The couple could hear Squint in the back breaking glass and knocking over cabinets.

"I was even generous enough to make the payments every other month so you don't have to push yourself so hard. And what do I get? A visit from a patrol officer threatening me to stay away."

"It's just not right, boss."

Yar, lost in confusion just looked at Lang for his reactions, but he was emitting emotions of fear and defiance. It was difficult to tell what was going on.

"Now I've been patient with you. There's no point in me getting worked up about one old man." He pulled out a knife and started picking at his fingernails. "Now… you owe me three thousand dollars old man…"

"Get out of my shop," Lang rebelliously shouted.

Cutter looked at Fingers and nodded. Fingers grabbed Yar by the legs and pulled her away from him and Krull pushed Lang to the ground and put one large size thirteen boot on his chest.

Yar screamed more Cantonese that only further irritated the assailants. Cutter took his knife and pointed it to Lang's throat and said, "Let's face it, you wouldn't give me that much if you had it. So we're down to two solutions here. In both cases we're going to make an example of you. Either you're going to make it easy for us or hard for us." With a cruel venomous whisper, he added, "I really hope you make it hard for us."

"Hey, where's Squint?"

The question came from Krull who was the first to notice a lack of smashing in the back room. Cutter looked up from Lang with a curious look on his face. He looked at Fingers for advice, but he just shook his head. He pulled out a revolver and nodded to Krull.

Krull crept into the back of the store. He moved aside a few isles of dry-cleaned coats and peered around. He looked in at an office in the back, the glass shattered and scattered across the pavement below.

A muffled shouting rose from the far reaches of the back. He slowly moved aside a group of coats to reveal a costumed red and green clad hero crouching over a tied up and muzzled Squints.

"I'm just saying that you might have a slight stigmatism."

"Mmmm mmm mm mmmmm mnh."

"Trust me, if you get it checked out you'll feel a lot better. You don't even have to wear glasses, you could get contacts… or you could even call you rich parents and have them pay for the surgery."

Krull unwrapped the chain from around his waste and screamed back to the other two in the front, "We have trouble."

Robin looked up and saw Krull coming toward him with "I have to get the big guy too? Come on!"

Immediately the lights in the cleaners went out.

Fingers and Cutter stood straight up. Cutter yelled as loud as he could, "Everybody out."

He was interrupted by the thick dark figure weaving through the darkness toward Cutter's arm. Cutter got two shots off, before a hand of immense strength and force grabbed his wrist and hyper extended it preventing him from pulling the trigger. A quick jab from the darkness landed directly on his collarbone pushing him back and off balance. Mysterious hand never lost the grip of the hyper extended wrist twisting Cutter to the ground. The gun twisted in his arms Cutter was forced to let go of the revolver.

In the back, Krull swung his chain toward the teenager with all the strength he could. Robin pulled a staff from behind him and batted at the chain getting it tangled. He planted the staff on the ground and pivoted laterally getting his left heel to make contact with Krull's chin. Krull fell back a few steps but caught himself in time to retaliate with a strong left hook. Robin hooked his elbow around Krull's and used his momentum to swing onto Krull's back. Using two thick padded gloves, Robin pounded on Krull's temples sending a searing pain throughout his head. Krull reeled in pain and thrashed about tossing Robin away from him. He staggered two steps that Robin used to throw a bola toward his legs tangling them up completely knocking him off balance. One quick upward thrust as Krull fell to the base of the neck increased the effect temporarily knocking Krull out.

As quickly as he could he ran toward the front of the store.

Fingers took a small rod and started swinging it at Batman. Batman caught the rod with his forearm and secured it against his shoulder. He then side kicked Fingers in the mid torso pushing him back five feet. Cutter was up by this time wrapping his arms around Batman's neck and around his left arm. Batman put his legs up on a nearby counter and pushed himself off Cutter fell back and Batman fell on top of him winding him for just a second. Batman used his momentum to roll back onto his feet and looked for Fingers. Fingers had gotten up and had Cutter's gun in his hands. Batman leapt toward Fingers. He pointed the revolver at Batman. Batman grabbed him by the elbow and pushed the revolver away. It was only at that moment that Batman realized the gun was pointing toward a standing Lang.

A thwip sound was heard and Lang's knee buckled. Fingers pulled the trigger. The bullet just missed the falling Lang. Batman twisted Finger's arm behind his back and lifted him tossing him toward Cutter. The move simultaneously disarmed Fingers and Batman held the gun in his hand.

Batman held the gun in his hand and looked at them searing holes in their souls. Cutter was the first to react pushing Fingers toward Batman and running toward the door.

Batman grabbed Fingers by the collar of his Jacket and hip tossed him hard onto the pavement below them. A quick right hook across his face knocked him out cold.

Robin jumped toward Cutter and grabbed him by the waist. Cutter tried to stagger to his feet, but he just came face to face with Batman.

Cutter started backing away saying, "Hey, man… I didn't mean anything, I swear!"

Behind him he heard, "Yeah, I'm sure that'll help you case." He turned around to see Robin dusting himself off. Cutter looked back to the immediate threat of Batman. Robin then continued, "Don't get me wrong, I prefer you being a sniveling worm that gives up quickly than a hard headed idiot who fights until we have to really hurt you."

Batman looked behind him and glared at Robin. The whites of his eyes thinned to mere slits in the rubber. Robin nodded and turned away. He walked over to Lang to check the back of his knee. On his way to Lang, he reached out his hand and grabbed the batarang he threw.

Batman turned his attention to Cutter. His eyes pierced through him and he said, "I want you to get the word out to the other Diamondbacks, slime ball. Their protection ring is over. I'm protecting Gotham. If I hear a second hand rumor about anyone with a Diamondback tattoo harassing another shop owner, I'll be coming after every single one. Individually… Personally. Do you understand?"

Cutter had a panicked expression smeared across his face. He nodded complacently crying, "Yeah… Y-Yes… Yes, sir."

Batman was inches away, "Will you turn yourself in peacefully, or will you need persuasion?"

His eyes darted back and forth and asked, "How am I supposed to get the message back to the others if I'm in prison?"

In one quick motion, Cutter is slammed against a wall and a giant fist slammed right next to his head. "You have one phone call. Use it to call your guys off. If you don't, then it becomes my problem. And I'm… very good at solving problems. Do you understand?"

After a moment's hesitation, a tranquilizer dart lands in his neck surprising Cutter, screaming to unconsciousness. Batman looked to Robin holding blow dart gun in his hand and shrugging. "What? He took to long to answer."

With almost inhuman speed, Batman handcuffed the two gang members in the front lobby. Batman darted out into the shadows and was gone. Robin was left looking around and went to the Tzus. He reached into his utility belt and pulled out an envelope. He crouched down to their level on the ground and smiled. "Hey, listen. I'm going to need you to call the number on the envelope. An officer Walker is on duty patrolling this area. Those handcuffs actually standard police issued, we just kinda designed them with the bat theme, because… well… I guess we're just bored."

Lang looked back at Robin confused as to what was going on at that moment. Robin continues, "Also, there's about four thousand dollars in the envelope to help pay for whatever damages were done the insurance companies won't dish out, okay?"

Lang's eyes widened at the information of what was in the envelope. He immediately opened it up to flip through the bills within. Robin chuckled a little and said, "Thanks for having the guts to call the police on this. Remember, call that number. I'm pretty sure you're going to want these guys gone before they wake up all tied up and swearing up a storm." With that, he jumped into the darkness and was gone.

Batman and Robin sat inside the Batmobile racing toward the jeweler. Robin looked out the side window thinking of the choice words he had to use. There was something wrong and it was going to become a problem fairly soon. Nine different ways to disarm Fingers, and he chose to do so laterally with conscious people in the area. That's practically impossible. He was staring at that fingerprint for five straight minutes before he spoke up. Tim rarely saw Bruce as distracted as he has been, and never to the point of being so oblivious to his surroundings.

For the first time in recent memory, Batman broke the silence. "What happened with Krull?"

Robin's eyes darted to Batman. "Excuse me?"

Batman continued to drive, eyes forward. "He was able to warn the others. There was no way to get the drop on them… you were supposed to incapacitate him before he had a chance to warn the others."

Robin incredulously looked out the window. Under his breath, Robin huffed, "I don't believe this."

"Don't dismiss it. You were given an order and you chose to disobey."

Robin turned straight to him. "There was no way. The tranquilizer would have pinched him and given him fifteen seconds of which is exactly fourteen seconds more than he needed to yell "Run". He was a big guy in close quarters, so gasses would have had me unconscious before him."

Robin took a moment's pause before continuing. "And we both know that the only way that was badly managed was you wrenching his gun away instead of popping his wrist. If I hadn't been there Lang would have been shot."

"I needed you to follow orders."

"No, you need to stop trying to ignore whatever's distracting you."

Batman took his eyes off the road for a second to read Robin's expression. He wasn't being confrontational to establish a sense of dominance; he was just factually assessing the situation. Bruce let it sit for a moment.

"Whatever it is, you're not it go. Knowing you, you're just going to push it away and work on a bunch of other cases to convince yourself you're too busy, but through all of them, you're still going to let yourself be distracted until it finally hits you in the face."

Batman's face went as solid as ever. He just looked straight ahead, thinking, "He doesn't understand."

Robin looked away again. He'd finished what he had to say. Batman knew he was right about how his mind was someplace else. Robin also knew he would only be able to tell from his future reactions whether he agreed with him. Only time would tell.

Robin was extremely surprised at a verbal response from Batman.

"Anything else?"

Robin cracked a smile and chuckled. "Yeah… did you actually say 'slime ball'."

... to be continued

This didn't really have anything to do with solving the mystery, that comes up in the next chapter... this is just because I got bored with logistics and wanted to get into character. If it's better to concentrate on logistics, tell me.