I sprinted down the hall of an abandoned building. I quickly approached a wooden door. I went to open the door knob but it immediately broke off.

"Damnit." I threw the door knob to the floor and backed up. I reeled back my leg and kicked the wooden door off its hinges.

With the door now gone it revealed Martin tied and gagged to a chair. He was surrounded by explosives and I could see a timer counting down.

I rushed over and took the gag out of his mouth, "Hang on, I'm getting you out of here." I assured him and started to work on the rope tied around his wrists.

"There's not enough time, Voltess." Martin said. I looked up at the count down. There was currently a minute and three seconds left.

"You need to trust me, Martin." I instructed him. I was struggling getting this rope off. This one knot wasn't coming undone.

"What about Blake?" He asked.

"Batman's getting him right now." I finally got the rope untied. I looked at the count down. Thirty seconds.

I looked around frantically and found a window. I grabbed the wooden chair Martin was sitting on and threw it out the window to break the glass.

I grabbed my board from my belt and expanded it. I grabbed Martin by the wrist and forced him on to it.

"Hang on tight!" I instructed. Ten seconds left. Martin crouched down low and I sent a bolt of electricity to the board and kicked it forward to launch it through the window.

I made a mad dash for the same broken window I just sent Martin through. One second.

I jumped for the window as the explosions went off behind me. I felt the intense heat and the shockwave hit my body. I felt myself lose consciousness from the force of the explosion.

Five Days Earlier…

I walked down the stairs of Bruce's private plane. Bruce followed just behind me. Alfred stood just in front of the black Rolls Royce.

"Welcome back Master Wayne, Miss Moser." Alfred greeted us.

"Nice to be back." Bruce commented. I watched as two men loaded the back of the Rolls Royce with our bags.

"I trust both of you enjoyed your weekend getaway to New York?" Bruce and I shared a smile.

"It felt good to get away for a while." I said honestly. The men finished loading the bags and closed the trunk. They gave Alfred a thumbs up.

Alfred opened the back door for us. Bruce ushered me to go in first. I ducked my head and scooted down the other side of the car. As Bruce was about to get in, Alfred leaned next to his ear. My sensitive hearing picked up what he said next.

"Gotham has had a situation since you last left, sir." Bruce stopped and looked at Alfred with a confused look. Alfred took that as a sign to continue.

"Cyclone and the Joker have broken out of Arkham." He said in a hushed volume. My eyes widened at this revelation.

"We are coming to you live where just moments ago two prisoners of Arkham Asylum have broken out. The two prisoners have been identified as meta-human Cyclone and a man that terrorized Gotham years ago that called himself the Joker. Police are not yet sure how this happened but believe they were assisted by staff or somebody posing as staff at the insane asylum."

I had my arms crossed and a hard stare while I watched the recorded news report. Bruce stood next to me with the same hardened look. Alfred had recorded it for us to view when we had gotten back.

"Do they know who set them free?" I asked and glanced at Alfred.

Alfred nodded, "Commissioner Gordon believes a follower of Joker's snuck in and freed him. Joker let Cyclone out of the decompression chamber and the destruction you see on the screen was caused by him." Alfred gestured to the screen.

There was a gaping hole on the side of Arkham Asylum. Yeah, that looked like Ryan's handy work alright.

"Why didn't you call us when it happened?" Bruce demanded and glared at Alfred.

Alfred sighed, "Because for once, Master Wayne, I wanted you to have some honest to god fun with the woman you love. My first concern is and always will be Bruce Wayne, not Batman." I could see Bruce's muscles tense up. He was angry and I couldn't blame him. I was a little peeved myself. Both of us would have returned to Gotham in a heart beat if we knew, but I think Alfred knew that.

"Have they killed anyone yet?" I asked softly. I kept my eyes on the screen in front of me. If people have already died because we weren't here…I'm going to lose it.

"If they have, Gordon has not released a statement yet." My hands clenched into fists. I could feel the anger pool in my chest. My jaw was tight as I looked over at Alfred.

"I know you didn't mean any harm, Alfred, and you were just looking out for Bruce's self interest…but the next time something like this happens you need to call us as soon as it happens. Not to wait until we get back. If they have killed one or more innocent people because we were fooling around in New York City then that is their blood on our hands. Not yours, Alfred…ours." I said with a silent rage to my voice.

Alfred nor Bruce said anything but I could see the regret on Alfred's face. I tapped on my bracelet and walked towards the pier exit of the penthouse.

"I'm gonna talk to Martin." I called out and stormed out. I threw my board down and shot off as soon as my feet were on it.

I paced back and forth on the roof of Gotham PD. I was waiting for Martin to show up and he was taking longer than I liked. I know he saw me land up here. I stopped pacing once the roof access door opened.

"You've been MIA, Voltess." Martin said as he walked to me. I frowned seeing a man in a police uniform following Martin. He had brown hair and dark eyes.

"Yeah, sorry about that…um who are you?" I asked and pointed to the man.

"Oh right! Voltess, meet returning officer and my good friend John Blake. Blake meet Gotham's newest hero and Batman's partner, Voltess." Blake grinned and held his hand out to me.

"It's nice to finally meet you." I took his hand and shook it.

"Good to meet you, Officer Blake. You two go back?" I asked and took back my hand.

Martin nodded, "We were partners as beat cops or well when I was a beat cop before my promotion. Blake resigned to follow his dreams elsewhere. Seeing that he's back now makes me question how well that dream was." Blake rolled his eyes.

"I got to live out my dream, Martin. It was nice but then I wanted to come back to Gotham and the force." Blake argued. You could tell they were good friends just by the way they talked to each other.

"Martin." He turned to me, "I'm here for a reason." I reminded him.

"Right, right. The Cyclone and Joker situation. They haven't made a move yet and it's stressing out the entire department. The last time Joker was free, several important figures lost their lives and many more were threatened."

"What do you know so far?" I asked again.

Martin sighed, "Let me guess, you're relaying this information to Batman later?"

"What do you think?" I mused with a smirk behind my mask.

Martin shrugged, "Cyclone and Joker were working together at first but we got an eye witness report on Cyclone days after the break out. He was by himself and he was at the outskirts of Gotham. No Joker in sight. We're not sure what happened but we're positive that they might have had a falling out." That caught my interest. If I could find Ryan, I could talk to him. As long as we were alone and Batman wasn't with me he might actually talk.

"Where exactly was Cyclone last seen?" Martin's eyes widened.

"You're going to confront him without backup?" He asked in disbelief.

"Cyclone is only here in Gotham because of me. He won't leave unless I do. I can handle him just fine. I need coordinates." Martin ran a hand through his brown hair.

He gave a sigh, "Alright. I wrote them down on my notepad at my desk. Give me a second." He turned around and left through the roof access. Now it was just Blake and I on the roof.

The door slammed closed and Blake turned to me. "So, I leave Gotham for four months and when I come back, there's suddenly a new hero in town. I also find out you happen to be Batman's partner." Blake gave me a smile that held something behind it I didn't recognize.

"He can be a pain in the ass to work with sometimes. I know from experience." Okay…who the hell is this guy? I'm getting a feeling from him that he knows a lot more then he lets on.

"I don't follow." Blake looked taken aback.

"He didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"I'm Batman's first partner if you will. Robin. That's what I went by when I fought next to him. It's also my legal first name but I tend to go by John." My eyes widen behind my mask. Bruce had a partner before me? Why did he never tell me?

"He…never mentioned you." I said slowly.

Blake frowned, "Yeah that sounds like Bruce. So, I gotta know, who are you behind the mask? If Bruce trusts me with his, you can trust me with yours." He's right. Bruce doesn't trust just anybody with his other part of his life.

I let the vibranium recede down to below my chin. Revealing my face to Blake. His mouth went slightly agape and pointed at me.

"No…no way. You're her. You're Bruce's new girlfriend I've been seeing in the tabloids." His eyes then widened, "Oh my god that makes sense now. Batman suddenly gets a female partner and Bruce magically has a new girlfriend at the same time." Blake muttered under his breath.

I chuckled, "Melody Moser but you can call me Mel." I introduced myself.

"Nice to meet you, Mel. Did I just open up a can of worms for Bruce by telling you who I am?" I nodded my head.

"Oh yeah. I have questions for him now. Starting with why he never told me about you. He's never mentioned another partner. You said you got to live out your dream…was that just a cover up?" Blake shrugged.

"In a way, I've been a fan of Batman for a while. It was an honor to fight with him for as long as I did. Something came up and I wanted to leave Gotham City for a while. I would really recommend talking to Bruce though about this. There's more to it…a lot more." I frowned at that.

I heard the sound of the door opening. My suit quickly covered my face again as Martin came through the door.

"Alright, here it is. You're positive you don't want to wait until night falls?" Martin asked and held out a piece of paper.

"You do realize I didn't always work with a partner right? I can handle Cyclone." I took the paper from Martin's hand. Athena's scanners took the GPS coordinates and pulled them up on lenses with the marked location.

"If you hear anything about Joker, you still have my pager." Martin nodded.

"I'll call you," I walked up to the ledge of the roof, "Voltess," I turned my head, "Be careful. Two of Gotham's worst criminals it's ever seen are loose." I nodded and threw my board in front of me. Its hover technology allows it to stay in the air without me on it.

I stepped on and the bottom of the board instantly lit up in blue electricity. Blake let out a low whistle.

"You need to explain your powers at some point." Blake commented.

"Maybe later." I said and flew off towards the marker of the map. Martin and Blake watched as I faded from their view. Robin huh? Looks like Batman and I need to have a talk.

I walked around the open field with my mask currently still covering my face. This is where Ryan was last spotted. I didn't see much evidence that he was even here. This really was on the outskirts of Gotham. The only thing out here was an old abandoned mansion.

"What are you doing here, Mel?" I spun around and froze seeing Ryan. His hair was slightly longer and he had the start of a beard growing. He had jeans and a t-shirt on.

I let my suit fully recede to my bracelet, "So you are here." Ryan glared at me through narrowed eyes.

"If you think you're getting me back in that damn chamber then think again. You're lucky I didn't just straight out attack you the moment I saw you." He said bitterly.

"I want to talk." Ryan scoffed.

"Does your boyfriend know you're here to talk? I saw the tabloids, so that's Batman's true face huh? Another billionaire with a fancy suit. You seem to have a type." He berated me.

"Bruce doesn't know I'm here." Ryan's smirk grew on his face and he raised an eyebrow.

"Oh? Well I can't wait to hear how he takes that." Ryan walked closer to me.

I kept a wary eye on him as he approached, "This isn't about me or Bruce right now, Ryan. I want to know why you teamed up with Joker. Penguin I could understand, but this guy?" Ryan's smirk disappeared.

"I didn't plan on it. He came to me after he busted free from his cell. He offered to free me in exchange for helping him get back at Batman. I took him on his offer." That didn't surprise me in the slightest.

"Then why break things off? You're here now alone." Ryan's stare became hard.

"We had a disagreement and I left. That's all." Ryan walked by me and headed down the hill.

"What disagreement?" I tried to probe and followed behind him.

"Go away, Mel. I'm done talking." Ryan said with an annoyed tone.

"Just answer my question and I will!" I demanded. Ryan spun around with an angry glare at me. The wind swirled around us reacting to him.

"Go away now or I will kill you!" He threatened. He always resorts straight to that. That makes how many times now that he's threatened to kill me?

I frowned at him as the wind still picked up around us. My short blonde locks flowing in the wind.

"Fine." The wind began to die down, "I'll leave for now but I'll be back. We're not done, Ryan." Ryan said nothing as I activated my suit once more and flew off. He knows something about Joker and his plans. I just need to get him to talk to me.

I stepped out of the elevator to the Batcave. I walked down the small steps to the main hub of the cave. Bruce was sitting in the chair as he stared at the screens. He had his suit on already with the top half of the cowl resting on the desk. Night had just fallen which meant he'd be heading out soon.

"Find out anything on your end?" I asked.

Bruce's eyes glanced at me before back to the monitors, "Not yet. Joker won't stay silent for much longer once he knows I'm out there tonight. He likes to attack during the day as well, you need to keep your guard up until we get him."

I nodded, "Noted." Bruce leaned back in the chair and turned it to face me.

"You've been gone all day and didn't answer any of my texts. What were you up to?" He asked curiously.

"I found Ryan." Bruce's eyes widened.

"And you didn't think to call me?!" He said in a raised voice.

"We just talked, Bruce. We didn't fight." Bruce furrowed his brows and I could see anger behind his eyes.

"You still should have told me. Cyclone is unpredictable." He argued.

"Maybe when you're with me but when it's just me he's not as hostile." Bruce let out a huff and rubbed his forehead with one hand.

"That doesn't make me feel any better, Mel. I already told you that he's obsessed with you." I nodded.

"I'm aware. I'm using it to my advantage." Bruce gave a frustrated sigh and rubbed his face with his gloved hands.

"Mel, you're really not helping me feel any better." He said with agitation in his voice.

"Bruce, Ryan knows something about Joker's plan. Ryan and Joker's alliance was a spur of the moment. Joker wanted his help in getting back at Batman, but Ryan broke off his alliance with him. I couldn't get anything more out of Ryan before he threatened me to go away. All he said was that he and Joker had a disagreement. Ryan is a solid lead and I am the only person that can get him to talk but I have to do it alone. I need you to trust me on this one. I know what I'm doing when it comes to Ryan." I assured him.

Bruce stood up from the chair and ran a gloved hand through my hair and rested it at the back of my neck.

"I do trust you, Mel. It's him that I don't trust." Bruce let out a sigh, "Alright, just promise me that you'll be careful around him." I nodded my head.

"I promise." He closed his eyes as he leaned his forehead on mine. Now that's out of the way…

"Bruce."

"Hm?"

"I met Robin." Bruce's eyes snapped open and he looked taken aback at hearing that name.

"What?" He asked softly.

"Robin Blake or John Blake, whichever he goes by…yeah I met him today. He was with Martin. He told me how he was your first partner. Why haven't you talked about him to me before?" I asked with hurt clearly in my voice

"What exactly did he tell you?" Bruce trudged carefully with his question.

"Just that you use to be partners until he moved away months ago. He said to talk to you about it. He said that there's a lot more to it than just him being your partner." Bruce stepped away and stared at me. He finally sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Damnit, Blake." He cursed under his breath, "It's…it's a lot, Mel. Can we talk about this when I get back?" I frowned up at him.

"You better. I've told you everything about my life, Bruce. I thought I knew yours but today made me question if I really know anything about you." A look of hurt spread across Bruce's face.

"You do know me, Mel." He assured me. He raised his gloved hand towards me but I took a step back when he reached for me.

"I'm not sure anymore." I said quietly. I could feel a pain in my chest seeing the broken hearted look from Bruce.

Meeting Robin was an eye opener. The entire time I've been here I've told Bruce everything about me. My past, my goals, my world, and everything else that makes me…well me. While the only things I know about Bruce are that he's rich, has a butler, lost his parents, lost his previous love, and that he's Batman. That's it.

I know nothing of the life he use to live before he put on that suit and mask. I know why he puts on the suit but I don't know how he got there. The way he seemed so secretive and careful with his words when I asked him raised a red flag in my mind. I don't know who Bruce Wayne is.

I wrapped my arms around myself in a comforting way, "I need some time to clear my head. I can't stay here tonight. When you're ready to talk, I'll be at the warehouse." I said with a strained voice.

I could see the pain on his face, "Alright." He said just above a whisper.

I turned around and headed for the elevator. I kept my back facing out as I felt it start to move up. I felt a single tear fall down my cheek. I wiped it away as soon as it fell. It hurt to see that I caused him that pain, but I need to know.