ROBIN and all related characters, names and indicia are TM & © DC Comics 2004. Story by Chuck Dixon, novella adaptation by Ice Spectre.
Rated PG
"TRIUMPH OVER TRAGEDY" - Homecoming
The fire is blazing. It's a big one this time. Alfred and I deserve it. I'm in the big, overstuffed chair wrapped in a blanket. I'm warm. And dry. It's better than I remembered.
"I have several herb teas here," Alfred stood in front of me with a silver tray, "which would you prefer?"
"I don't need to be babied, Alfie. You were out in the cold, too." This man doesn't take a break.
"I wasn't exposed to that beastly weather as long as yourself, Tim. The police stopped whatever awfulness The Joker had prepared for the city."
"And how is Dr. Pellinger?" I hadn't stuck around to find out how he was. I came straight home. Alfred hands me a cup of apple-cinnamon tea. It smells like Christmas.
"He's in a sorry state, the television news reports. But he'll recover soon enough to help unravel all the bother he's created."
Yes, but it wasn't his fault. It was The Joker's. Who's back in Arkham.
"We beat him, didn't we?" I smile wearily up at Alfred. Gotta get him a costume...
"We most certainly did that. Master Bruce will be most pleased when he hears of it."
The door in the wall of glass windows clicks open and a swirl of black enters surrounded by a flurry of snowflakes. The door closes and a shadow turns, revealing a yellow oval with a black bat in the center of the silhouette of blackness.
"Whoa..."
"Hear about what?" Batman asks.
"Here's a good one," The Riddler's voice echoes from his cell. "If The Joker had no nose, how would he smell?"
"Shut up, Eddie," The Joker's voice came from the cell next to it.
"Terrible!" Edward Nygma answered himself.
Two-Face laughed as he flipped his coin. Other laughs echoed down the corridor, a corridor filled with Penguin, Killer Croc, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Catwoman, Scarecrow, Firefly, Mister Freeze, Clayface, Ventriloquist and Scarface, The Mad Hatter, Maxie Zeus, and dozens of other villains that Batman and Robin have faced time and again, and defeated.
"He's mine..." The Joker hissed. "The little bird is mine. Do you hear me? None of you touch him! He's The Joker's property from now on!"
A cold sweat broke out on Joker's stark white face and his green hair hung in damp strands around his face. His arms were locked tightly around his body in a straight-jacket.
"And this time he'll stay dead."
THE END
Author's Post-note: Thank you to EVERYONE who followed the story for your support, both written and unspoken. My side-trip into the Bat-Verse has been GREAT fun!