This chapter is focused on Damian, as well as the other young Gotham City crime fighters.

Disclaimer: I don't own Batman or an related characters.


Chapter Four

The next morning, around 7:00, Damian got out of bed and made his way to the living room to, once again, do pushups while looking out over Gotham City. Alfred walked into the room behind him.

"Master Damian," he said, "A child your age should get more than three hours of sleep per night."

"I was trained by my mother to go a few days without sleep," he responded, "Besides, if my father, Grayson and Drake can do it, so can I."

He finished his pushups and proceeded to do some tai chi chuan.

"Masters Bruce, Richard, and Tim have long disregarded my advice about sleep deprivation," Alfred said.

"Then you can consider this as me disregarding your advice as well," Damian said, "When will my breakfast be ready?"

Alfred sighed before answering, "Fifteen minutes."

Damian nodded before breaking out of tai chi and performing complex kung fu moves.


After eating breakfast, Damian went down to the Bat Bunker and turned on the computer. As Damian was typing, a bright flash lit up the corner of the room as Dick Grayson, still in his cape and cowl, teleported in via the Justice League teleporter. When he saw Damian, he said, "Why are you down here? Shouldn't you be off doing normal ten-year-old things?"

"First off," Damian said, "I'm not a normal ten-year-old. As to why I'm here, I hacked into the Gotham Global Modern Bank's security cams. They got hit last night by a group of thugs. I want to evaluate my performance."

Dick walked over as he pulled down his cowl to watch the footage of Robin fighting a group of five men wearing ski masks.

Robin surprised the group by crashing through the glass front doors on his bike. He launched into a front flip and landed on thug #1, sending him to the ground. He then rushed thug #2, who was on his left and dropped into a spin to trip him. Thug #3, who was to his right, pulled a gun, but he pulled out one of his bladed R's and hit him in the hand, causing him to drop the gun. He followed it up with an uppercut to the jaw. Thug #4 lunged at Robin with brass knuckles. He dodged, caught the man's arm and twisted it, causing the man to drop to his knee. Robin quickly karate chopped him in the back of the neck, making him fall. While doing that, Robin didn't notice thug #5 pull a knife and run towards him. By the time he turned, the thief was already less than two feet from stabbing him in the chest. Robin panicked and brought his arm down to deflect. Unfortunately, he struck the arm at the wrong angle and the knife, instead of missing, grazed the boy wonder's side. Robin sharply brought his knee up and struck the man in the stomach while simultaneously striking him in the back of the head with his elbow. Just then, Gotham City PD rushed in. Detective Bullock walked over to Robin, who was clutching his side, which was bleeding profusely.

"You okay kid," the detective asked.

"I'm fine," said Robin as he pushed past the cop and walked to his bike.

Dick pulled back the chair that Damian was sitting in, earning a, "What the hell, Grayson?"

"Show me your wound," he said.

Damian sneered as he lifted the side of his shirt to reveal a heavily taped up gauze pad with a red spot in the middle.

"Did you do this yourself," Dick asked.

Damian nodded sharply.

"Go over to the table," Dick said, "the gauze needs changed."

Damian stood up and grudgingly walked over to the examination table. He removed his shirt and Dick pulled off the bandaged to find and inch deep cut that was about two inches long.

"This needs stitches," Dick said, "Why the hell didn't you come back and let Alfred stitch this?"

Damian mumbled a sentence containing the words "Drake" and "the wench."

Dick sighed as he opened a sterile needle, "One of these days, your pride is going to kill you. Why weren't you wearing the Kevlar?"

"I didn't think…," he started responding.

"Exactly," Dick interrupted, "You didn't think. I know you have the skills of a master assassin and survival training, but you're not invincible. I assume you were alone because other things were keeping Tim and Steph occupied."

"Anarchy blew up a building and Batgirl got captured by Black Mask," Damian said.

Dick's eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to say something, but Damian cut him off, "Drake saved her."

"Okay then," said Dick, "At any rate, you will not be going on patrol tonight because of your injuries, and tomorrow, I'm dropping you off at Titans Tower before going to Paris to help Bruce out with something."

"What," Damian said in a slight fit of rage, "What the hell? I'm fine. You don't have to bench me. What if something happens and Robin is needed?"

"I think I do need to bench you due to your injury," he responded, "Besides, Batgirl, Batwoman, the Birds and whichever other members of the Network that are still active, can handle anything that comes up this weekend. Also, Tim should be back stateside by then."

"So I'm not fit to patrol in Gotham, but I can go to San Francisco to be with the dysfunctional band of misfits," Damian said before adding a sarcastic, "Hoorah."

Damian stood up and walked over to the service elevator that ran from the bunker to the penthouse.

"Now where are you going," Dick asked.

"Out," said Damian, "You know, to be a 'normal ten-year-old.'"

Dick smirked as the doors closed and Damian began his assent.


Damian was walking down the street to the St. Aden's Orphanage. As he walked up to the gate, he saw a red-haired, ten-year-old looking at him.

"You're late, Damian," the boy said, "You said that you'd be here twenty minutes ago."

"Yeah, well Grayson was being a dick this morning," Damian said, "How's your day been so far, Colin?"

"I see what you did there," Colin said, "Sister Agnes is in rare form today, so I hope that your plans take us away from the orphanage."

Damian smiled, "Of course."


Damian and Colin walked across the street from the ice cream stand and sat down on a bench in the park.

"I saw the police reports the other day," Damian said, "Two convicted child molesters found tied up and unconscious with the word 'Abuse' stamped on their foreheads. Nicely done."

Colin nodded, "One of the kids at the orphanage was one of their victims."

Damian nodded, "I figured it was something like that."

"I'm kind of amazed that the original Batman is still letting me do this," he said, "I figured that he would try to stop me by now."

"I wouldn't worry about it," Damian said, "He's really busy with helping to set up Batman Inc, so he probably doesn't even know you're operating, and if he does, I'll put in a good word."

"Thanks," said Colin.

Just then, three police cruisers flew by with their sirens on. Damian and Colin looked at each other and nodded before jumping up and racing in the same directions. When they got to where the cars stopped, they ducked into an alley and changed, Damian into his Robin costume and Colin into his oversized trench coat and bowler hat before activating his venom. Robin turned to Abuse, "Stay here and wait until I find out what's going on."

Abuse nodded. Robin walked over to Detective Harvey Bullock.

"What's going on Detective," he said.

"Ridin' solo again Boy Wonder," Bullock said, "Same situation as last night, only today they got hostages."

Robin looked up and saw that it was the same bank as the previous night's heist and nodded, "That leaves out a frontal assault…"

"Look kid," he said, "Why don't you just leave this one for the cops, eh?"

Robin sneered before shooting his grapple towards a rooftop.

"When have I ever been so lucky," said Bullock under his breath.

Robin dropped back into the alley where Abuse was waiting.

"So," the gargantuan said, "What's the plan?"

"First we need to ditch the distraction," Robin answered.

Abuse looked at him confused, "What do you mean?"

Robin looked up at one of the fire escapes that were covered in darkness, "Falcone."

At that moment, Catgirl launched herself over the edge of the railing and landed in front of Robin.

"I thought that Batman told you to clear out of Gotham," Robin said.

"Look," she said, "Despite what you and daddy Bats thinks, I'm on your side. I'm going to help. You're outnumbered nine to two right now, and there are hostages. You're going to have to sneak in."

"And what do you gain from this," Abuse said, "I assume that you're Catwoman's sidekick and considering that she's a thief, I can only assume that you take after her."

"Look," she said, "I don't have to take this from a 'roid raged ten year old."

Abuse's eyes widened, "How did you…?"

"I've been following you for the past few days," she said, "I thought about helping you take down those pedophiles, but you did such a good job yourself."

"First of all, Batman's not my father, and Abuse has a point," said Robin, "What's your angle?"

"Those thugs in there work for Uncle Mario," she said, "And I live for the chance to make his life miserable."

"Fine," said Robin, "Here's the plan…"


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