Young Knights:

Surf Sand and Superheroes

Gotham was the kind of city that would be the perfect setting for one of those film noir detective stories, kind of like the Maltese Falcon or Casablanca. Okay so Casablanca never had grown men who dressed in tights or a serial murderer who looked like a clown but the atmosphere was always very Casablanca-ish. Well, more like Casablanca on acid but you get the point, it could always evoke those eerie surroundings that sent shivers up your spine or sent your heart racing, a cathedral backlit by lightning cutting the storm a deserted alleyway blanketed in fog, or the scene that Robin and Nightwing were looking down on now. The two stood on a grassy knoll that rolled down onto a small beach that in turn melted into Gotham River. It wasn't the kind of beach you'd go spend the day at, not with nice rolling sands and people tanning while their children built sand castles, not like the one that Tim himself planned on going to later that day. This was the kind of beach with grass patches and rocks scattered about it, the kind that it was easy enough to tell it hadn't been tended to in years. There was an old dock that was half sunk into the water, wood rotted and infested with termites and mold, a small boat that had to be near forty years old and painted the most disgusting color of vomit green that anyone could imagine was beached off to their left, having long ago rusted over in multiple spots.

The beach was crawling with Gotham's finest, with the area taped off with caution tape and the police were covering the area with a fine tooth comb, directed by Detective Montoya. Robin took particular note of a group off to the right, three detectives who were examining corpses, and then sealing them in body bags, three sealed bags were laid out neatly beside the detectives as they examined a fourth body, and four officers were hauling two more bodies that had been fished out from the river.

"You know," Nightwing started to walk down the hill, "Psychotic maniacs I can handle, it's times like this that give me nightmares."

"Amen to that," Robin agreed, falling in step with his older counterpart.

In the middle of that beach, crouched down with his cape fanned out around him and silhouetted by the dawning sun as it crested the horizon was the Batman.

Robin gave a small smirk, stopping by Detective Montoya, "Ever notice how he can manage to be perfectly creepy even in broad daylight?"

"Ha!" Montoya gave a small laugh, taking a large gulp from the travel mug in her hand and Tim quickly caught the burnt smell of fresh coffee, the Detective was obviously not a morning person, but at 4:00 AM, Robin couldn't really blame her.

"So what's the story, Detective?" Nightwing asked her, guiding the three down towards the Batman.

"Old man who lives a few blocks down comes by here everyday on his morning jog, this morning he caught site of something washed up along the shore." She gave a small and weary sigh, seeming more tired from the events that were happening than the time itself, "That something was a body, Arabic to be exact, we've fished seven bodies out so far. Six of them Arabic and have been identified as illegal aliens, all ID's so far have come up as Sympathizers to the coalition cause and were fleeing from their countries."

"So how'd they end up dead on the bottom of Gotham River?" Nightwing glanced at the body bags.

Detective Montoya just shrugged her shoulders, "You're guess is as good as mine,"

"You said six were identified as Arabic, what about the seventh?" Robin asked as they stepped beside Batman.

"Right here," The Dark Knight replied to Robin's question, sounded close to growl, typical Batman Tim thought.

"A John Doe," Batman went on, rising from his crouch to stand beside his two protégés. Robin looked down at the body Batman had been examining, "There's no decay, this was a fresh death."

Batman nodded approvingly, "The other bodies are similar, so we can assume they were all dumped around the same time."

Robin kept studying the corpse, unlike the others this one appeared to be Japanese and coming close to pushing the senior citizens status, and dressed in a collar shirt and slacks, "Not exactly the poorest immigrant we've ever come across."

"He isn't one," Batman stated, "none of my contacts have heard of any shipment of immigrants, outgoing or incoming that came close to an Asian border."

"Well," Nightwing gave a quick, sarcastic laugh, "this week just gets better and better."

10:00 AM

Tim walked down the metal spiral staircase to his underground base, his little "Robin's Nest" beneath his new loft. Shoving a spoonful of fruit loops into his mouth as he passed by the transparent case that held his costume and the weapon's rack beside it, both jutting out slightly from the wall. Past the Redbird cycle to sit down in the comfortable leather chair in front of his Bat-Computer. It was more like Barbara's, mostly set up through holographic interface except for the main keyboard and desk, but like everything else it was a smaller scale than Oracle or Batman, but Tim didn't mind.

He kicked his feet up onto the desk, cradling his bowl of cereal, "Computer," he commanded through another mouthful of milky fruit loops, "Run DNA tests, search for plausible matches," he slipped a small slide off of the desk with a small bit of blood on it, Nightwing had grabbed it when Robin went to get Cassandra to the clock tower at the beginning of the week, Tim took the slide and slid it into the computer. A holographic display blinked into life in front of Tim with an image of his Asian assailant taken from the building's security camera as the computer started to run through the blood's DNA and match it to someone within the database.

"Hey Tim, ready to go?"

The voice took Tim completely by surprise, but the shock he felt at having his lair invaded was nothing compared to that shown by the wide eyed look on his face when he took in who the familiar voice belonged to.

There was Cassandra, dressed in a pair of denim short shorts and a dark red tank top. Her hair was parted to the side just a little bit so that one bang was pulled behind an ear and the other fell so that it covered half of her eye, and in her hand she casually spun a pair of dark blue sunglasses. He knew she was coming over, and had expected his first thought to be something along the lines of; wow… the Alien medical equipment that Batman used sure can heal wounds quick, but it wasn't.

Wow… she looks good…really, really good.

"Uh, sure Cass, just let me grab my things."

Okay, so last Monday Batgirl ran into Gotham's newest baddies, one of them being a martial artist who was to say the least, very good. Nightwing and I came out of it bruised as hell and Batgirl came out a lot worse. But thanks to Alfred's medical skills and lovely Martian technology, she's almost as good as new.

Tim and Cassandra were cruising down the highway in one of Bruce's 2004 Mustang convertible's, they chose to take one of the cheaper cars since it'd be the road trip mobile to five teens. Tim took a glance over at Cass in the passenger seat, feeling his heart give a hard thump as his eyes took her in.

Like I said, almost as good as new, and she sure as hell looks it.

Cassandra glanced at Tim from the corner of her sunglasses covered eye, catching the quick look he was trying to sneak. Cassandra could read body language to a tee, and it was near impossible to slip anything by her. She noticed earlier today when Tim was blatantly stunned by her appearance, and she noticed now when he peeked again. She found it kind of strange, when Superboy had looked at her the same way on that cruise she had taken with Barbara it had made her feel bad, but now when Robin did the same thing, it made her feel… nice. And she had no idea why.

"And it looks like the rest of the gang's arrived." Tim said with a laugh, pointing up as two teens soared through the clouds and down into the backseats of their car. Connor and Cassie smiled childishly at the two, both garbed in appropriate swim wear. "Hey guys!" Wonder Girl grinned, "Everyone ready for some fun in the sun!"

"Trust me! After a week in corn capitol USA, I want nothing else!" Connor joked, leaning into his girlfriend.

"You know, there are times you two make me sick," Tim quipped as Cassie kissed him on the cheek.

"Yeah, yeah, you know you're just jealous, Boy Wonder." Connor shot Back, "but anyways where's Bart?"

"I'm right here!" Kon snapped his head to his left, and there sitting in the last seat was Bart Allen, Kid Flash.

"What the!? How'd you do that? That seat was empty!" Superboy kept rambling.

"He just jumped in," Tim answered, looking into the rearview mirror, "Bart's been running after Cass and I for half and hour now."

"You saw me?!" Bart's eyes nearly fell out of his head, "but I was running so fast that I kept myself phased out of the spectrum needed for someone to see with a naked eye!"

Tim stopped himself from laughing, but couldn't stop the smirk that spread across his face, it was always funny when the hyperactive, impulsive Kid Flash started talking about things he'd learned from reading books, so out of place. "Yeah I know, but you'd phase into view when you slowed down, like on a turn, it was only for about half a second each time, plus leafs would start swirling like they were blown by a car when no one was there."

Tim just smiled to the continuing gawking from his friends. Even Cassandra was amazed, she'd never even known Bart was there.

the rays of the morning sun slipped in through the curtains to Barbara's bedroom, making her squint against the affronting light, she rolled a bit towards her back and found herself moving closer into Dick's embracing arms, knew that their legs were tangled together and reveled in the feel of his warm skin against hers. She wriggled her way onto her back, his arm resting across her stomach, his fingers falling gently on the bottom of her breast and she gave a contented sight, falling into the feeling of him. She looked at his sleeping face, the mess of black hair and the almost boyishly contented smile on his lips. Babs smiled to, but it was a smile laced with sadness.

Damnit, She thought, I wasn't supposed to let him in, not again, but I always do… don't I…

She slipped out from under his arm and swung herself deftly into her chair, having long ago moved past the need for aid in such matters and went to make them breakfast.

Dick's eyes edged open and he watched her leave, deciding to give her a few moments before he got up. That was always how it went, come night time they would fall into each other, pretending the wounds weren't there and getting lost in each other, forgetting the loneliness, and feeling only the emotions they both had, come morning rationale would return and one would get up before the other, not a word said, and they would act as if all was right in the world. The former Boy Wonder blew a long sigh, he loved Barbara, but this was no way to live and both of them knew it.

"What about Spider-man?" Bart was sitting on his beach blanket, hugging his legs, sitting in a circle with the rest of the gang.

"I loved that movie, can't wait for the sequel," Tim reached into the center of the circle to grab a handful of chips while a couple of kids ran by with a Frisbee behind him.

"It was okay, all and all," Cassie replied, looking to Tim from her headrest in Connor's lap, "What do you think Cassandra?"

Cass was sitting beside Tim, keeping mostly to herself and just enjoying the company, so she seemed surprised that Wondergirl had asked her, "Well…" she began hesitantly, "It always gets to me," she continued with more confidence, "that the female's in those movies always end up being helpless, with a 'my hero!' at the end of it, it's a little degrading,"

"Oh come on!" Connor smirked, ready to take up the fight, "you don't really…" his words were cut short by the sound of gunfire ripping the air, and his head snapped to a small cruise ship a few miles out from shore where the sounds of people screaming in fear could be heard.

"Well," Bart muttered, "so much for a day off."

"Dick, Dick?" Barbara wheeled herself to the bedroom door and gave a light knock, "Dick, breakfast is ready." No answer came from inside and Babs could feel her stomach knot, "Dick…"

She pushed the door open and honestly couldn't find herself that surprised by what she found, really how could she? The bed was made, just like Dick to make someone else's bed when she knew full well that his never was. The window was wide open and the curtains tossed lightly in the morning breeze. He was gone, wheeling in to close the window she found a note on the bed, it was simple and to the point.

"I can't go on like this, sorry."

Again there was no real shock; she knew sooner or later one of them would pull out. Still, in the privacy of her bedroom, Barbara Gordon cried.

"Soon Gotham City will know the true meaning of fear!" Jonathan Crane cackled dressed like something you'd see in American Magee's the Wizard of OZ, the psychopath known as the Scarecrow towered over a huddled group of whimpering terrified children on the Yacht's deck, flanked by two thugs with assault rifles. "By now the Mayor will have received my demands, and if they are not met, the children of Gotham's best and brightest will know the fear of the Scarecrow!" He ended the rant with a delusional cackle that echoed across the waters.

There was a sudden rush of wind across the two goons faces and with a start they looked down to see their hands empty.

"Wow, you guys got some neat toys!" Kid Flashed smiled in front of them, seemingly appearing from nowhere, "I hope I don't break them…" his hands moved in a blur and the rifles fell dismantled to the deck. "Oops." He smirked.

"Why you little…" The thug never got to finish the sentence, feeling a tap on his shoulder; he turned to get a face full of Wonder Girl's fist while Superboy dealt with the other hired gun in a similar manner.

"How dare you!" Crane howled, watching his plans unravel around him, "How dare you meddle in the workings of the Scarecrow!"

"Tell me something Crane," Robin quipped as he swung in from a line secured to the upper decks of the ship, kicking out into the Scarecrow's backside that was hard enough to send the villain stumbling to his knees. "Is there some rule that says all of you evil nut jobs need to speak in the third person?"

Batgirl came in from the side, her making a solid hit to the Scarecrow's gut, bringing him to his knees.

"Cause really," Robin continued, "It's pretty stupid. Imagine if I went into McDonalds and started yelling 'The Robin demands a happy meal!' they'd toss me into the loony bin in a second! Oh wait," he smirked at the downed villain, "That's where you're going."

"We'll see Boy Wonder," The psycho's arm lashed out and three small pellets flew from his fingers, exploding in a cloud of gas into Batgirl's face. She coughed and hissed feeling nauseous, dizzy, than she was felt fine.

Robin took a step toward her, reaching out, "Batgirl you okay?"

Batgirl looked up and saw her David Cain reaching to strangle her, rage in his eyes, "Come here!" he snarled.

"No!!!" She screamed, recoiling from Tim's touch, "Get away from me father! Leave me alone!"

"Batgirl it's me!"

"I know who you are!" she wailed, "I want you out of my life!" she had backed up to the edge of the boat, "I said get out!" She took another step back, one to many and fell backwards over the rail, into the water.

"Batgirl!" Tim took off the second she fell, shedding his cape and jumping the rail, hitting the water in a perfect dive.

"You see!" The Scarecrow beamed, "No one can defeat the power of fear!"

"ahem!" Crane looked to the side, seeing Superboy glaring at him, "Shut up" the teen backhanded the lunatic, sending him into unconsciousness.

Wonder Girl hovered over the waters, looking for some sign that Tim had done it, "Come on Boy Wonder," she whispered under her breath.

Moments later Tim broke the water's surface, gasping for air with Batgirl in his arms.

"Yes!" Cassie beamed, grabbing a hold of Robin's gloved hand and noting that the boy actually looked quite good wet.

Wonder Girl dropped them onto the deck and Tim pulled Batgirl's mask up enough for her mouth to be seen as she began to cough violently, water coming out of her lungs. After she'd caught her breath she smiled up at Robin almost sarcastically, "My hero," she quipped.

That evening Tim got home and dropped his stuff on the floor by the entryway into his gym, walking past the equipment to the far wall, he slipped a picture on the wall aside and placed his hand against the sensor pad hidden on the other side. The door hidden in that wall slid open and for the second time that day Tim trotted down the steel spiral staircase into his Robin's nest.

The holographic displays of his computer flashed, showing the results of the scan he had started that morning.

He pulled up the window, reading the results and felt his stomach jump into his throat. In mere seconds sweat beaded upon his forehead, his heart started to race and his legs literally gave out underneath the teen wonder as he fell into the chair. It wasn't right, it couldn't be right.

"Number of DNA matches found: two"

"Match one: Jon Doe" It was the Asian found among the bodies that morning, but that wasn't what had Tim sweating.

"Match two: Timothy Drake"

The End.

Next Issue: It's the battle you never thought would happen, but can't afford to miss! With the lives of Gotham's socially elite at stake Robin takes on the monstrosity known as Bane.

Important author note: I recently hit a major writer's block with this story, I'll save the details about it for my Afterword that I'll write at the end of the story arc (Issue 4 will be the approximate half way mark) But I wasn't happy the way the story was developing and decided that things needed to be changed, hence the re-write on this issues final scene. Issue four will be out shortly, unfortunately I'll need to re-write a major scene, but it should be out by next weekend.

Thanks guys, see you next issue.