AN: I meant to mention last week. These two chapters are largely based on Batman Vol 1 #1, from Spring 1940, and the summary for a one-shot entitled "Batman: The Man Who Laughs" that was available on the DC Comics Wiki.

Flashback Chapter 7 …To Comedy

Captain Gordon watched the two visitors in his office, both of whom seemed strangely pleased with themselves. Why, he had no idea, unless it was just for surviving the previous night.

"I thought you might appreciate knowing a little about what happened last night, before the papers get hold of it," he told them. "After Joker left Wayne Manor, he went to Judge Lake's," he began.

Bruce Wayne and his ward exchanged a sidelong glance.


The red motorbike screamed to a halt, and the rider vaulted off. He plucked from his belt a grapple Batman had discarded as too underpowered, but the ten-year-old was light enough to use it efficiently. He zipped up to the third floor of Lake's townhouse, which his tracker had identified as the bug's location.

Inside, he could see the unconscious forms of a dozen cops, including Gordon. Lake was cowering in a corner, and a green-haired figure was leaning over him. "You know what, judgie-boy?" Joker was saying. "You've always been so interested in this city- well, what you can get from it, anyway- I think you'd like a heads-up. I'm going to put my favourite venom in the water supply. Fancy a cool glass of tap-water? One sip, and you're laughing your head off! How about a hot shower? Inhale the steam, and you'll get the joke! But don't worry, judgie-boy. I won't make you wait." With a burst of maniacal laughter, Joker squeezed the flower on his lapel, and a stream of something shot out, hitting Lake in the face- and melting it. The watcher swore silently; he'd brought more antitoxin, but that wouldn't help. He just hadn't moved quickly enough, hadn't recognized the real threat soon enough. He swore again, as Joker dropped a string of pearls. They'd hoped the clown wouldn't realise that's how they were tracking him.

When Joker left the room, the boy slipped through the window, retrieved the necklace, checked the unconscious but unharmed cops, and returned to his bike, quickly finding and following a clumsily painted purple sedan.


"We know Batman was present at the scene, but was unable to save Lake. However, he tracked Joker to the reservoir, where Joker attempted to poison the water."


Batman was almost certain Gordon had seen the edge of his cape as he left. Couldn't be helped. Focus. The Bat-computer's master tracking system told him Joker (assuming he had the tracer) had stopped for some time at Lake's; so he'd checked there rather than going straight to the tracer. It was too late for the judge, but the cops were okay.

The tracer came to a halt, and Batman quickly tracked it to next to the reservoir.

When he arrived, he found the pearls sitting on the seat of a bright red motorbike, a chalk arrow pointing towards the artificial lake, and no-one in sight.

A brief examination showed no sign of the Joker, so Batman stowed the pearls in the Batmobile's glove box and headed in the direction of the arrow. As he went, he saw more, pointing onwards. With no other clues, he had no choice but to follow, and hope it wasn't a trap.

Before long, he was approaching the narrow catwalk over the out-take pipe. There was Joker, chortling madly. Batman swung up, his usually soundless boots making a slight clang on the steel walkway. Joker turned around. "Ah, Batsy!" he cried. "Your turn for a little swim, eh, Bats?"

"It's over, Joker," Batman said, and that was really something that big blue Boy Scout in Metropolis would say; but he was tired, fed up and woozy from the poison. He just wanted to finish with this case, figure out what was going on with the arrows, and go home to his little boy. Trying not to worry about how Dick was coping, he advanced on the mad clown.

Joker produced a gas gun, spraying a noxious, venom-laced smog towards Batman. Holding his breath, he produced an air-filtering breath mask from his belt while flicking a batarang at the gas gun. A vast cloud emerged as the tank ruptured. When the smoke cleared, Batman continued his advance. Joker withdrew a small pistol from his jacket.

"Hey, laughing boy!" Batman looked past his opponent. There stood a young boy, dressed in a bright red tunic over a scaly green leotard, with green gloves and pixie boots, and a yellow cape and belt. Across his face, a green domino mask.

"Batman, the out-take pipe," the boy said. "I'll hold Joker."

"And who do you think you are, kid?" Joker asked, firing at him.

The kid cartwheeled. "I'm Robin." He used the catwalk's handrail as a vault, landing a double kick. Batman recognized the style of movement, but could hardly believe it. "B, it's poison!" Robin cried.

Recognizing the greater threat, Batman jumped down to the pipe, found and removed the poison 'bomb'. Then he grappled back to the fighting pair, knocked out Joker with a well-timed fist to the temple, and turned to Robin.

"Dick," he growled. "Is there any way you'll stay home and be safe?"


"Batman stopped Joker, and apprehended him," Gordon finished. "But I regret we were unable to recover your pearls."

Wayne smirked, and the Grayson boy pulled from underneath his shirt…the pearls. "See, Batman gave us this fake with a tracer thingy, and then we swapped 'em," he said excitedly.

Gordon stared at the kid. "Is that also how you had that anti-toxin?"

"You didn't know?" Wayne said innocently. Yup, that was clueless Brucie alright.

"Sir, who is Joker?" the boy asked curiously.

"We don't know, son. No fingerprints, no DNA on record…"

"But he had something against Judge Lake. Like he convicted him or something? Isn't that trackable?" Smart lad. Wayne smiled down at his boy as if proud of the child's intelligence.

"It's complicated." Lake was the most corrupt judge in town. Really, no great loss to the system.


"Why 'Robin'?" Bruce asked.

"It's what Mom called me. It's 'cause of when I was born. First sign of spring."

"I'm not happy about this."

"Bruce, I can double your manpower. Watch your back. Or, I'll go solo."

Bruce stared at him, then pursed his lips and stated, "You'll be killed!"

"So could you."

They stared at each other for a long moment.

"Please, Bruce. You can't stop me."

Bruce crossed his arms and levelled a Look at the child that had made grown men quake in their boots. Dick met his gaze, and equalled it.

"Fine. You'll need a better suit. One that actually covers your legs."

AN2: I'm so glad you readers have finally found the review button! Seriously, it makes me really happy. A few points from your reviews. bindsy: Jason will be showing up, just not yet. Guest: No, the Batmobile (in chapter 4) wasn't missing a wheel because of Jason. It ran over an improvised explosive device, and so Batman was using a spare Batmobile in chapter 5. Again, Jason will be making his appearance in due course. You guys really like the little rebel-bird don't you? To you other reviewers, I love you, so please don't go away!

That said, this concludes our little miniseries on Robin's origins. Next week I'll be back to Family Ties. It'll probably be about a month before I return to the past. Hope you don't mind too much.

Katara Harkness