Chapter Four: Drawings
"Master R.J. how on earth were you able to keep these secret from everyone?" Pierre asked, amazed at the sight of the two vehicles before him. "I kept them down here." The girl said simply. She was at the computer, following Robins trail to the point where he, or at least her tracer, had stopped. It was below Wayne Manor, of all places. Why would it be there? Unless…
R.J. pulled up a photo of Bruce Wayne, one of Dick Grayson, and a third of Tim Drake. Then she compared them to photos of Batman, Nightwing and Robin in turn. Each had the same body type, and it would explain how Batman could afford all those gadgets and his vehicles.
So, Bruce Wayne was Batman, Dick Grayson was Nightwing, and Tim Drake was Robin. That just left Batgirl. R.J. thought hard, and then it came to her, Barbara Gordon, Dick Grayson's ex-girlfriend, the commissioners' daughter. She pulled up a picture of Barbara Gordon and one of Batgirl. BINGO! Perfect match, and the fact that Batgirls' first appearance had been at Commissioner Gordon's pep-rally did nothing but back-up R.J.'s conclusion.
Now that she had established the identities of the bat family, R.J. turned her attention back to her currant project, locating a tunnel that might lead her to the Batcave.
She had already scoped out quite a few and had, at last, sited one that was promising. She followed the underground river upstream for several hours, using grapples to get over some of the more tricky parts, until she reached her goal.
She was sure it was the Batcave, and it looked quite a bit like the Roost. Forcing back the urge to creep out and investigate, Blue-Jay headed back to her own hideout.
She spent an entire day after that retracing her rout, installing zip-lines as she went. She installed two zip-lines for each gorge that had to be crossed, allowing them to be used by people going either way. She also worked up quite a sweat making some of the tighter squeezes big enough to admit someone as big as Batman, but with the help of the exo-suit she managed it.
"Master R.J.," Pierre said when she returned to the Roost, tired and dirty, but satisfied. "I suggest that you wash and rest, your parents will be home for the weekend before going off to Singapore, and they will be taking you to the Wayne tech. Ball this Saturday evening." R.J. groaned but nodded and went up to her room.
"Why do I have to come!" R.J. asked her father "Barely anyone even knows about me!" "Because I said so, now stop complaining!" her father snapped. Germaine Falcon was tall and slender, with pale skin, grey eyes and a mop of black hair. Carmine was tall and slender too, but her hair was pale blond and her eyes were bright blue, though not near the flame brightness of her daughters' blue orbs.
R.J. resisted the urge to scream as her father pulled her from the car and she was forced to follow her parents up the red carpet, between the two walls of paparazzi, and into the building.
R.J. did her best to ignore the flashes of the cameras and the loud yells of the reporters, all clamoring to know who she was.
The guests that had been invited to the party were all high on the food chain, mainly the heads of the world's most powerful companies, their offspring and other famous figures. Though there were a few reporters scattered here and there. Clark Kent had come from Metropolis, for instance, who was, at the moment, one of at least three reporters asking her parents questions, about her. They were soon joined by Bruce Wayne, having come over to greet them.
"Germaine, Carmine, how wonderful that you could make it, you are normally out of the country." "Yes, we just got back from Beijing last night and we are leaving for Singapore first thing in the morning. But we were delighted to have been able to come to such an event. By the way, Mr. Wayne," he pulled R.J. over to stand in front of him "I would like you to meet my daughter Robyn Jayvanya Falcon." R.J. flinched slightly at the sound of her full name, she hated being called that!
"I wasn't aware you had a child." "Yes, well, Robyn is shy, she needs to be protected from the harshness of the outside world, the effects on a child as delicate as she can be devastating, you know." Having heard enough, R.J. slipped away from her parents and headed over to a secluded spot in a corner.
She sat there for a while, sketching on the paper she had brought with to keep herself occupied.
She was so absorbed in her work, that she didn't notice that she had company until he peeked over her shoulder to get a better look at what she was drawing. "Man, you're good!" It was Tim Drake. "Thanks." She said quietly looking at her drawing of a falcon in flight. "I'm Tim Drake." He said, extending his hand, which she shook "Call me R.J." It was kind of weird, here she was, the Blue-Jay, shaking hands with Robin, and he had absolutely no idea who she was.
Turning to a clean page she started another drawing as Tim looked through her other sketchbook. "There sure are a lot of birds in here." He commented after a few minuets of flipping through the pages "Yep, I really like birds. Don't you?" her question caught him off guard and he looked unsure of how to answer as she turned her intense blue gaze on him. "Yes, I guess I do." She smirked a tiny bit and went back to her drawing. After a while, Tim got up and left, presumably to get something to eat, leaving her alone.
As she finished her drawing, a shadow fell over her and she looked up to see Bruce Wayne, of all people, standing in front of the table. He slid in beside her and looked at her newest drawing. His eyes widened and he seemed speechless, but R.J. was unsure of the reason, weather it was because of it being good art, or what the subjects of the drawing were.
It was Gotham at night, the huge full moon throwing the buildings into shadow, but on top of the structure that was the main focus of the piece, stood Batman, Nightwing, Batgirl, and Robin. They were all in various positions and places, Nightwing balancing on a flagpole, Batgirl crouching on a turned-off search-light, Batman standing, perfectly balanced, on the edge of the roof, his cape billowing in the wind like great bat wings, and Robin standing at his hip.
Then she saw him look closer as he noticed a fifth figure in the illustration, this one out of immediate notice but in plain view once you had realized it was there. Blue-Jay was crouched in the shadows at the edge of the page, away from the other four, detached from them, watching them as they watched their city, not knowing she was there.
"Well, I can see what Tim meant by you being a spectacular artist." Bruce said and R.J. looked down, blushing. He seemed to get the gist and stood, "Have a nice evening." He said, and left her alone.
As he walked away, Bruce had a thoughtful expression on his face, one that lasted for quite a while, for he had thought he had seen something else in that drawing, something that he wasn't sure she had put there intentionally. The faint out-line of another figure, this one standing at Batman's other side. It was so faint that he wasn't totally sure that he had seen it, but instinct told him that he had, and it was also telling him that it was the out-line of a small girl, with long hair and a cape.