I don't own Batman. If I did own Batman then I would make more stories with Dick Grayson as Robin.


Tim was excited that day. Bruce had convinced his brothers to come and look round the Wayne labs that Tim had been working in. Despite it being a month ago, Dick was still apologising for his drunkenness to Jason. Amelia, seemingly not bothered by what had happened, had used the month to learn to sit up independently, pick up small things likes coins and that, if she put her arms up, one of her family would almost automatically say how cute she was and pick her up. It was Tim who picked up Amelia that time.

"You're going to like my labs, cutie. There are lots of bright lights and nice sounds." Tim said.

"I bet you only have those sort of things for Dick and Amelia." Jason joked. "Are you going to show us anything interesting?"

"Some of the things that will revolutionise the global markets, a couple of bat-devices. Stuff like that." Tim said with a smile.

Jason was impressed but hid it. He got back to moaning at Bruce for making him wear a suit.

The machine had a whole room to itself. It was a tube with mirrors on the inside and a series of lazers pointing into it. White coated lab assistants were rushing round and a pretty one made her way briskly towards the group of them. She handed them all lab coats and remarked how pretty Amelia was.

"Molly, meet my brothers, Dick and Jason, my sister, Amelia, my foster father, Bruce, and our family butler, Alfred."

"Timmy, you've come to show them your work."

"Yeah." Tim said. "Is the... Is it ready?"

"Your baby? Yeah, she's ready to meet her grandpa."

"Then lets let them see." Tim said.

He lead the way forwards.

"This is our cell restorer. It combines the science of the Amazons and the medicine of humans to restore tissue cells to their original form. It is however highly unstable and not yet ready for human use. It also upsets the Amazons." Tim explained.

He scanned the faces of his family. Bruce was sharing a proud look between Tim and Amelia. He was proud of Tim's machine and he was proud of Amelia because she hadn't screamed or tried to bite him when he had been wiping her noise. Alfred was congratulating Tim for his great work. Dick was looking mystified and close to tears about how brilliant both Tim and the machine were. He seemed totally oblivious to the approving looks Molly and some of the other female technicians were giving him. Jason was eyeing up Molly eagerly.

"This is amazing, Timmy!" Dick exclaimed. "Will people be using it in a few years or..."

"It's too unstable to even test it at the moment. It could revert a person's mind back a few years or even snap it. We have no idea. We're going to run some programmes to show the possibilities and then see whether it is worth doing any tests on it. Still, it's a great thing to have despite all the paper work."

"It's very impressive." Bruce said.

Amelia reached out towards the machine.

"Amelia, no, if you set it off them you could put us all in danger." Tim said and took Amelia from Bruce.

"Doesn't danger mean a great weapon?" Jason asked. "What happens if a super villain gets in here?"

"They won't. The room has metal shields and shutters that are nearly impossible to blow up. In fact I don't think you would be able to blow them up without doing some real damage to the rest of the building." Tim said with a proud smile. "How about we look at the rest?"

Amelia snuggled closer to Tim and he took that as a yes. Bruce nodded and Tim lead the way up to a staircase to show the rest of them round the rest of the building.

Lucius and Tim took the time to show new Bat tools. For an unknown reason, Amelia found the sound of the grappling hooks hilarious. Fits of gleeful childish laughter echoed round Applied sciences. Dick had taken up firing them at anything to amuse his little sister while the other brothers tested out tools. Jason had been drawn to a large object that resembled a gun. Tim was showing Alfred a slender black box. It fit into Tim's hand and had only one large button in it's centre.

"I'm calling this the All Box." Tim said.

"What does it do, Master Tim?" Alfred asked.

"It calls every hero we trust. It's fitted to every frequency and sends them an SOS message as well as the co-ordinates of the user. It is coded to work on a nameless basis so no failures in relationships will cause someone to not come and..."

Tim trailed off because he wasn't sure what else to say.

"It seems like a very handy piece of kit." Alfred said.

Tim smiled and stuffed it into his back pocket.

Bruce was talking happily to Lucius until Lucius brought up a topic Bruce had been dreading.

"Will Amelia ever be Robin?"

"What?" Bruce rapidly replied.

"Will your next child follow in the footsteps of all your other children and take up the role of Robin?" Lucius asked. "You've introduced Amelia to this life. Soon she will be crawling and then walking and then talking, you'll need to decide if you want her to stay in this life or know nothing of it."

"I would prefer it if my daughter was given a choice. She'll have to know about this stuff some time but she'll need to understand the risks, like what happened to Damian." Bruce replied.

He watched Amelia.

She didn't deserve a life in the shadows. She probably had parents out there looking for her. She should be learning to talk, not to hide in the shadows. Am I really such a monster that I would be willing to inflict that upon a baby?

Bruce continued to watch all his children and then turned to Lucius.

"I just want her to have a safe home." Bruce pointed out.

They had finished in the Applied sciences department when the group began to walk down the corridor.

"What are we going to see now?" Dick asked, holding Amelia.

"We're going to see the new transport Wayne tech will be rolling out in a few months." Tim replied with a brave beam.

"Pity Mr Fox couldn't come." Alfred said.

"He's busy. Our tools don't make themselves." Jason pointed out.

"Apart from the ones that do." Dick said.

"What?"

"Santa Clause used to use magic to make me Robin tools and put them in my stocking. Then I sent him a letter telling him that it might be a problem if we ever had to fight him so he used magic to get my tools to make themselves and they did." Dick said.

"Do you think someone should tell him?" Jason whispered to Tim.

"Tell him what?"

"That Santa Clause isn't real." Jason replied.

Tim screamed. Bruce looked at Jason with wide eyes and shook his head.

"Jason was only joking, of course Santa is real." Bruce said.

He was about to say more when an explosion rocked the building. Bruce pulled all his children close as bits of the ceiling began to rain down.

Tim came round and scanned the corridor. From the damage it had done, Tim could tell the explosion must have been massive. It probably ripped a hole through the metal shields of the chamber his machine was in. Tim turned because Bruce and the others had been behind him. He was met with a solid wall of rubble.

"No!" Tim shouted.

He looked down and gasped.

"Alfred?"

He could see the butler's hand and knelt down beside him.

"Wake up, Alfie." Tim said.

Alfred stirred.

"I thought I told you that I prefer Alfred." the butler pointed out. "Master Tim, what happened?"

"There was an explosion and..."

Tim pointed towards the wall of rubble.

"My! We need to get through. Who knows what state your family could be in!" Alfred said.

They both began to pull away at the rubble.

Molly looked at Two-Face as he walked in followed by four heavily armed men. He looked around with a smile.

"Is that the machine?" he asked, nodding towards Tim's machine.

"Y-yeah." Molly stammered.

"Get it to fix me." Two-Face ordered.

"You want it to regenerate your facial tissue?" Molly asked.

"Yes."

"But it's never been tested and the only person who knows how to use it isn't here."

"And who is that?" Two-Face asked.

He smiled at his answer. He always liked visiting the Wayne family.

Bruce looked around. Dick and Jason were lying on the floor near him. Dick had his body protectively cushioning Amelia, somehow even in his unconsciousness managing to lock his legs over her as she laid on his chest, giggling slightly. Bruce scooped her up and her some sort of scuffling on the over side of the rubble wall.

"Tim?"

"Bruce, you can hear us?" Tim said in amazement.

"Yeah." Bruce replied.

"Are the others okay?"

"Yeah. Amelia's with me. Dick and Jason are still out. Is there some sort of digger machine we can used to get free?"

"Should be in Applied sciences." Tim called.

Then the scuffling went silent. Bruce placed his ear against the wall.

"Two-Face!" he heard Tim say.

"That's right, scientist. Grab him. He's the only one who can operate the machine. Bring the old timer too. Never know when we need a good hostage."

"Leave him alone!" Tim shouted.

Bruce winced at the sound of a harsh slap.

"Master Tim!"

"Maybe when the boy's done we can all teach him some manners." Two-Face said.

Bruce couldn't hear any more but he knew one thing. He glanced down at Amelia.

"Your brother's in danger!"

Tim struggled as Two-Face dragged him by the collar towards his machine.

"I'm not going to fix your face, you mad man! This machine could kill you! It's not worth the risk!" Tim shouted.

"It's your life you should be worrying about." Two-Face said.

Tim looked towards Molly and the other people who worked for him. They were sitting on the ground with their hands behind their heads. Alfred had been forced into the same position. Tim only had to hope that Bruce and his siblings would free themselves soon.

"If I use this machine then I could kill you. Don't make me do that." Tim murmured. "I don't want to kill."

"Your machine will fix my face. Get it working."

Suddenly one of the lab technicians got up and tried to convince Two-Face what Tim was saying was true. He was shot down before he had even finished a sentence. Tim gasped and looked at Two-Face.

"You didn't need to kill him."

"Just start the machine." Two-Face instructed.

Tim looked at Alfred and then the other technicians. A few had started crying, the rest were praying. Tim walked over to the controls and began to work. He ran through every step and just as he had only one button left to press, he stopped.

Bruce, please get here quickly. he begged.

He turned to Two-Face.

"I just need to press this button and then the machine will work."

Then he grabbed a box from his back pocket.

"I didn't tell my family this but there are explosives hidden under the machine. If you don't let the technicians go then I will blow us all to kingdom come." Tim said was forcefully as he could manage.

Two-Face rolled his eyes.

"Only the technicians." he said to his thugs.

Alfred was left kneeling in the room while the technicians were lead out.

"Now hand me the control box." Two-Face ordered.

Tim handed over the box. As it passed through Tim's hands to Two-Face's, Alfred realised that the control box was the All Box. Two-Face smashed it under his foot. Tim winced because that was the only All Box he had made but he knew it was worth it. A lot of people were out of danger.

"So I just need to press that button." Two-Face said.

"You'll be in the machine. I'll have to press the button." Tim confirmed.

"No, you won't." Two-Face replied.

He produced his gun and his coin.

"You know the drill."

He flipped the coin.

Alfred got to his feet in horror.

Two-Face pressed the gun against Tim's forehead.

The coin dropped into Two-Face's hand.

"Bad luck." Two-Face grinned.

Alfred ran forwards and slammed into Two-Face. The criminal managed to hold his balance and pushed Alfred into the machine. Thick doors slid down over either end and trapped Alfred. As Tim rushed towards Two-Face, he was pushed back. He fell against the button and the machine started up.

"No!" Tim screamed.

A deafening sound filled the air.

Two-Face and his men shared worried looks and then ran. Tim was left alone in the room. He began to work on the buttons, trying to get the powering up machine to work.

"Tim!" Bruce shouted as he rushed into the room.

The sound was making Amelia cry and both Dick and Jason cover their ears. The light from the machine was growing, almost blinding. Tim was sure he couldn't breathe.

"Bruce, get Amelia behind the metal shield! Dick, Jason, try to help me free Alfred!"

Tim could barely be heard against the noise. His short hair was beating against his forehead as a wind picked up from the machine's vents. Bruce raced across the room and disappeared behind the metal shields that had been put in place to stop criminals from attacking. He disappeared through the gap the bomb blast had left.

Then the machine exploded.


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