Gotham City July 4th , 12:00 PM EDT , four weeks later.

It was a good day. Annabel and I were at the park for a picnic for the fourth of July, enjoying the sunshine and each other's company. After our first date the day after the heist we started spending more time together. She'd even gotten to know my friends, though Reggie was still twitchy around her. I'd asked him about it and he said he'd always suspected she was in the Court. I'd used my ninja abilities to follow her around for a few days and hadn't seen anything even remotely suspicious so we'd decided he was jumping to conclusions.

At the moment I was laying with my head in my girlfriends lap and she was feeding me pie. She looked pretty amused by the laziness. She smiled down at me "So, how has your extra credit been going? You're always so busy I feel like I never see you anymore. I hope you're learning a lot." She'd been a bit put off when I told her about my extra credit assignment from my old school and how I couldn't share the details, but it was the most convenient way to get her off my back about training with Jim.

The last few weeks had actually involved a crazy amount of studying. Jim was a consummate professional, and his biggest pet peeve was insufficient foundation. He'd been dumping huge piles of books on me to read and remember. I'd ended up getting that perfect memory pill for twenty five points and picking up an offer for speed reading lessons for another twenty five just to keep up. Manuals for security systems, magical ward books, textbooks for polymer science, books on weather patterns in the Gotham area, local history, the list went on.

Jim was obsessive about preparation and insisted the only reason he had been able to be so successful was that he had a diverse range on knowledge to help with his profession. Once he figured out I could remember them perfectly he'd actually redoubled my homework, constantly dumping more reading material on me. He also had me combing city records with my "natural computer genius" luckily I was a shut in computer addict and was able to pass off that seventy five point hacking power as long years of secret training.

I'd stocked up a massive number of over three hundred points over the last thirty or so days. A hundred twenty five had gone to the aforementioned powers, another twenty five had gone towards...ahem...male enhancement pills (I'd forked out extra points for an overnight version) and fifty had gone towards a weird training regimen that enabled me to see auras. Being able to somewhat make out what people were feeling and see certain magical aspects of objects had proven invaluable in my training to far.

Between the drain on my points from the aura sight and constant use of my ninja abilities while training with Jim I had been ground down to ten points of emergency energy I kept around just in case I needed it. Still, it had paid dividends. Jim had put us all through our paces over the last few weeks but I was in the best shape of my life. My muscle powder had finished and with the full ninja power set and all the training Jim was very pleased with my progress so far.

I was broken from my reverie when Annabel waved a hand in front of my face "Earth to Morgan? Where did you go? I said how is your extra credit going?" I smiled up at my girlfriend, leaning up to steal a kiss that tasted like apple pie. She was always patient with me when I spaced out or when I didn't get some obvious social cue because I hadn't been around people much. Annabel was one of the sweetest people I'd ever met. My mom adored her, and she and Artemis got along great. Reggie was the only one still nervous around her.

She'd apologized for her part in all the hazing after his family lost their money. She felt terrible about the way she'd let them pick on him, but she told me privately she was afraid if she stood up for him she would lose her friends too. She went out of her way now to be extra nice to him at school and encourage her friends to do the same, and things had gotten much better for Reggie at Gotham Academy.

I pulled back from the kiss with a smile "Sorry babe, just got a bit sidetracked, you know me. The extra credit has been rough. My academic advisor for the program has been running me ragged. Constantly giving me new books to read. Still gotta catch up a bit to the other kids at school in terms of academics. Gotham North didn't exactly have a plethora of activities to fill up a college application, and we can't all be track stars like Arty." Artemis, to the surprise of literally no one, had been kicking ass at track, and had even been offered a scholarship to GCU.

Annabel snickered "I swear she doesn't even like it. She just goes so she can flirt with that redhead she's had her eye on. I don't get it, he's too skinny for me and he never shuts up." She gave me a naughty grin leaning down for another kiss "I like my men well muscled and contemplative, thank you very much." I pulled her down on the blanket with me, enjoying the taste of her lip gloss mixed with apple pie for a while, before I suddenly paused. She pulled back, frowning with concern. "What's up?"

I cocked my head a but in confusion "Weird question. Does it seem...colder to you all of the sudden?" I thought I might be crazy but it really did seem nippy out of nowhere. Of course, that was when the snowing started. And the screams. People started bolting past us, shrieking in fear before a massive beam of blue white light raked over them, freezing them solid right where they stood. I followed the beam back to it's source to see a massive man in a dome helmeted suit with icy pale skin.

Great. Mr. fucking Freeze. I strangled the urge to put a shuriken through that stupid helmet. Couldn't do anything too impressive in front of Annabel or I might give something away. I carried my shuriken everywhere, though I left the tanto at home today. Luckily I wasn't the only one with ranged weaponry. A metal bat came whirling out of nowhere and deflected the ray gun before he could shoot again. I heard an eerie high pitched laugh echo around us as Mr. Freeze spun to look.

Between aura sight, my ninja skills, and all the training from Jim over the last month, spotting Robin was literal child's play. Still, I went out of my way not to notice him too obviously, just pulling Annabel against me protectively as the boy wonder engaged the icy maniac, dropping onto the helmet than flipping off of the villains head to throw a pair of his own shuriken. The helmet cracked under the impact. Their banter lasted like two minutes before Batman dropped down from above and shattered the helmet with a punch.

I felt Annabel relax against me as he went down, and I pulled her up to bring her over to thank Batman and Robin for the assist. I could have handled it, but normal civilians gush over that kind of a save, and Jim was always very strict about how we need to act in our public guises. In any case if they hadn't shown up I would have had to use my powers in public so they kind of saved my ass.

I waved down Robin as I got closer and almost swallowed my own tongue when I noticed something about his aura. It was familiar. I'd run into Dick Grayson a few times in school and this was definitely him. Now that I knew what to look for it was kind of obvious just by body type. I forced down my shock and pasted on a smile "Hey, Robin, thanks for the help man. My girlfriend and I would have been ice cubes without you."

I noted from his aura he seemed to be a bit distracted, impatient to get out of there, but too polite to actually blow is off. He gave me a smile back that was just as fake as mine "No problem. Hey I'm sorry to cut this short but I have to go. You guys enjoy the holiday." He pulled out a small device and hit a button, launching a cable with a hook on the end.
I made a mental note to ask Jim to help me get one of those, it would be easy useful on jobs. Shrugging I turned back to my girlfriend with a smile. "Now, where were we." We went back to our picnic now with a nice bit of shade from the spikes of ice sticking off the top of the nearby rock formation. It might have seemed odd to some people but this was
Gotham. Even if I was still a bit thrown by all this after years as a shut in I was also a professional thief now. Not to mention my ninja skills.

Annabel and I sat down to eat, and I reminded myself to try to dig up cooking lessons. That would be a good way to impress my girlfriend. Annabel smiled at me as I poured us some lemonade "So, I've been meaning to ask. We're coming up on our one month anniversary. Do you think you could...come over to my place for dinner?" The emphasis she put on that made her intentions pretty obvious, and thank god for ninja training because the deception lessons it had included towards the end saved me from making a fool of myself.

Annabel had wanted to wait to have sex, which since I was a virgin and I assumed she was too (I was scared to ask because I didn't want to offend her) seemed reasonable even if it felt really frustrating. She was my first girlfriend after all. I swallowed hard "That sounds...wonderful. I think we have school the day of and the day after, how about Saturday? In case things...run late." It also gave me time to find some sex lessons in my email. There were dozens of messages like that I could pick from and it would give me time to save up for one.

She licked her lips and leaned forward to kiss me deeply. "Saturday sounds great. I'll send the servants home after the cook makes us dinner so it'll just be you and me. My parents are out of town this weekend. We'll have the whole place to ourselves." I swallowed again. The way she said that had been pretty intoxicating. She could have literally shouted that she was going to strip down and fuck me and it would have been less sexy than that. I couldn't wait for this weekend. Before I could go on though I heard a slight beep and slipped my phone from my pocket.

I had a text from a burner number. Happy fourth of July, don't do anything I wouldn't do-Z . I smiled at the message. Zatanna had been texting me regularly since I'd broken into her house, turned out she had a bit of a rebellious streak and thought me putting my number in her phone was gutsy. Annabel said my name to get my attention and I looked up with a smile "Sorry babe, text from a friend. Yeah, Saturday sounds fantastic I can't wait, just give me the address." I shot Zee a quick thank you and a same to you text and put up my phone to listen to my beautiful girlfriend talk, still thinking about what would be happening this Saturday.

Drake Manor, July 4th 9:00 PM EDT
I was annoyed. It was the fourth of July, and instead of being curled up next to my girlfriend like I was supposed to be I was sitting in a copse of trees outside a huge manner house. I glared at my boss, who was floating next to me sipping tea, as we sat in the sweltering July night. My costume did not breath. I was wearing a full three piece black suit complete with half cape and a shiny black tragedy mask, and that shit was boiling me alive. "You said I would have today off." Jim was sitting in mid air, sipping tea from a white saucer and tea cup through his invisible mouth.

He finished his sip and exhaled happily "And so you did. The day of July fourth was of course yours to do with as you pleased, but no thief worth his lock picks passes up a distraction like multicolored exploding lights over the city. The day was yours, the night is mine. Don't you agree children?" He turned to regard the other two members of my team. Reggie was wearing the same black suit as I was, though he wore a comedy mask instead of a tragedy mask like I had on. Like mine his mask was a sort of refractive black, one of a set of three enchanted masks Jim had made for us as a present to commemorate our apprenticeship.

Jim said they were carved from haematite, which I later found out was fancy British talk for hematite. Aside from my tragedy and Reggie's comedy, Artemis stood right behind the group of us in a matching black mask that showed a furious face that Jim called rage. Her costume was a close fitting black body suit with reinforced chest piece and utility belt, we had been indignant we had to wear formal suits while Artemis got something more practical, but Jim just waved us off. When we pressed him about the issue he finally admitted that robbing people in a ballgown was deeply impractical and that if asked him any more about how he knew that we would spend the next month stealing bedpans from retirement homes.

The masks had enchantments that helped us focus and sharpened our creative thought, one of the major magical properties of hematite. They kept us on the top of our game. As I sulked about the unfairness of the world and the intense heat Artemis answered our mentor's question "He's not wrong Random. We couldn't ask for a better night to pull our first job with no training wheels. Speaking of, you sure we're ready for this boss man?" Tonight was our trial run as independent thieves. Jim was going to be on hand in case anything went wrong but we had planned this whole thing out ourselves, and if we managed to pull it off we would officially be allowed to pull our own jobs either in a group or solo.

Jim's hat dipped in a nod of acknowledgement "But of course, dear girl. Don't be so worried. I'll be here every step of the way in case you need me. You've all exceeded my expectations time and again and I'm sure you'll pull a marvelous caper. Besides, Drake Manor is no Shadowcrest. The Drake's have middling security at best. They're new money so we won't be poking the Owl's nest so to speak, and the couple themselves have gone to a fourth of July barbecue. Relax and pace yourselves. Remember what I told you all about a job."

I recited along with the other two as we quoted back Jim's favorite phrase "If a single job is too big, just break it into ten smaller jobs." I took a deep breath, letting it out slowly before I spoke up again "You're right boss, sorry. Annabel was a bit pissed I had to cancel dinner at my place. We were supposed to watch the fireworks with my mom. She says hello by the way." I very specifically did not mention that she had asked for his number. Jim had made quite an impression on my mom when he came by to visit and the thought of the hundred plus year old dead thief dating my mom made me somewhat nauseous. Honestly the thought of mom dating anyone did but it was worse because he was my boss.

Jim gave a pleased laugh "Well, that's lovely to hear, please tell Marie that I said hello as well. In any case, personal business is for the study not for the field, let's commence this caper, shall we? First up then will be our ingress. As you've all planned this thoroughly I'm assuming you have our entrance mapped out. Would you mind terribly filling me in on the plan that I might follow along properly? As a mere bystander I'm sure I have no clue of how you would approach this project. Please, dazzle me with your criminal genius."

Jim was playing bystander for this job so we would have to not only plan our own entrance but bring him along. Luckily he was a master thief so he would be able to follow our plan easily, he wasn't sandbagging us, just making us explain ourselves so we could catch any mistakes. I nodded to Artemis, giving her this part because the entry was mainly her deal. I could slip in as a shadow but since this was a test of our fundamentals we weren't allowed to use any powers. That said, we had cased this place for a week straight and noted down every little detail.

Artemis was the least nervous of us. When there was no crazy magic involved her training made her easily the most experienced of us. Her voice was rock steady as she laid out the first part of the plan "The Drake's have an Acertech G370 security system with a fixed point laser detection grid on the doors and windows. In order to bypass the grid I brought mirrored arrows I had commissioned with special suction cup heads so as not to leave marks. They have specialized lenses in a custom housing halfway down the shaft. I'll put three of them in the door frame to create a gap that we can walk right through."

Reggie smoothly took over "I'll be picking the lock on the door, I picked up lock picking the fastest and will be able to get us in the most quickly. Once we've entered it's a straight shot down the stairs into the wine cellar. We searched for ages to find the right target. After Random hacked into the servers for all the local auction houses we were able to track down a bill of sale for a bottle of Cheval-Blanc from nineteen forty seven that sold for over three hundred thousand dollars. The door has a pneumatic pressure sealing system that we specially prepared for." He held up a bag of tools we'd brought along.

I picked up the next part "The system in the room pressurizes and seals the door. Any attempt to breach it will depressurize the room and trigger the sensors and any attempt to fool the pressure sensors will trigger the motion detectors." I grinned behind my mask "That is unless of course you hack the motion sensors through the bluetooth connection the owners keep active to monitor the feed. In case you missed it, I hacked the motion sensors." I absolutely loved my new computer skills. Though there were still some things I hadn't been able to get into, a weirdly large number of big companies use alien encryption.

However the majority of street level code was basically tissue paper to me, so getting into a blue tooth connection was baby town frolics. I continued with the rest of the plan, excited to show off how well we thought things through "The wine is worth more per ounce than literal solid gold so we get a big payday without having to lug around a ton of weight. Once we retrieve the wine we make our escape hatch the hole in the wine cellar door with a bit of glue just so it passes inspection at first glance and head straight to Clyde to fence the bottle. If all goes well it'll be long gone by the time they even notice it's missing and think to look for it."

Which was good, because I was running low on money. I'd stopped using points to get cash because between the drain from power use and the utility of getting more abilities, the points were just completely priceless. Sadly that meant I'd been living like a rich kid for a month and spoiling my incredibly wealthy girlfriend with presents and I had zero income. Of course I still had a few million in savings, but mom had forced me to put the majority of it away in a college fund when she saw that ten million dollar deposit last time, most of the rest of my money I'd blown on our new lair. I'd had to set up a secondary account for my thieving funds so I would have access to my own cash.

A hundred grand in tax free pocket money was just what I needed. Jim gave another nod and stood. His legs just reaching down to the ground from where he was sitting in mid air like he was getting out of an invisible chair. "Well done. It certainly sounds like a wonderful plan, I'm sure it'll be a smashing success. Let's be about our business then, shall we. Crime and tide wait for no man and all that." He brushed invisible crumbs that may or may not have actually been there off his pristine white suit and flicked a wrist, causing the cup to vanish and his cane to appear.

We nodded as a group and set out. Crossing the yard was easy enough, I'd long since looped the security cameras on the property, thank you wifi connectivity. Artemis drew her bow as we approached the door and fired the arrows into the exact right spots on the door. We'd built a simulation door with laser pointers and she'd practiced extensively back at the refurbished clock tower I'd kitted out to be our base. I'd had to pay extra to hire some extra discrete workers Jim had recommended, apparently there was an entire criminal subculture of lair repair guys.

Once the lasers were taken care of Reggie started on picking the locks. I hit a button on my watch to time him because he liked to track his progress. The lock was fairly advanced, it took him a full forty five seconds to get it open. We followed the map I'd gotten (ironically from hacking their security company) down the hall and to the stairs down to the wine cellar. As the most coordinated of us Artemis did the honors of drilling into the door. She slid in the small tube attached to a small canister and sprayed liquid nitrogen into the door mechanism.

One quick twist of the handle and the internals shattered. We plugged up the hole from the drill, slipped inside, found the proper bottle of wine, which we then inserted into the specialized cushioned box we'd bought, and then we slipped out. Everything went absolutely perfect, we completely nailed the plan and covered every possible eventuality, and I was feeling pretty damn smug about how well we had pulled this off as we headed up the stairs. Right until things went wrong. We came up from the wine cellar quietly, Jim drifting soundlessly like I was while Artemis and Reggie both did their best to keep the noise down.

We made it to the door with the wine and we were just opening the thing up when we heard a small voice behind us. We all turned, slowly and with horrifying expectation, to find a small black haired boy in red pajamas glaring at us. His eyes were bright blue, just like the pictures of the Drake's we'd been taking as we mapped out their daily routines. He was SUPPOSED to be asleep this late at night, but apparently he got up to get some milk or something. He repeated himself "I said who are you guys, and why are you in my house?" That was the first time I met nine year old Tim Drake.

The Clock Tower, July 4th 10:30 EDT

Artemis was glaring at me as she pulled off her mask when we got back to the clock tower. I winced and averted my eyes. After a minute or two of silence she finally erupted "I can't believe you knocked out a nine year old!" I had been expecting that a lot sooner honestly, and I was grateful she waited until we got back to the lair. She exhaled slowly "Ok, you didn't punch him or anything, so why don't you tell me exactly what you did before I lose my mind over this. I'd like to think I know you well enough to know you wouldn't do something harmful to the kid."

I slumped into one of the comfy chairs we had in the clock tower, rubbing the bridge of my nose. Reggie and Jim seemed to be waiting for my response before weighing in but that wasn't a shock. Artemis was by far the most dominant of our group, and Jim wasn't interfering tonight. "He'll be fine. No marks, no headache, and he won't remember we were ever there. He'll have a long restful sleep and wake up in the morning in bed where we left him, completely unaware we were there. It's one of my ninja abilities. Ninjas are sneaky but bad luck happens. It isn't exactly subtle to leave a pile of corpses behind whenever you get seen in the act."

I smiled wryly "So one of the pressure point combos I know does a bit of work with the nervous system. Think of it like a soft reboot of the brain, all the short term memory gets dumped during the restart. When they wake up they don't remember the hour before they got knocked out and they don't feel any soreness or discomfort at all. He'll have the best sleep of his life and wake up happy and refreshed." She seemed to be calming down about it but I felt like I had to add "I panicked, but I would never hurt a kid. We were in costume, if I hadn't had a safe way to take care of things with him we would have just run. Worst case scenario we would've changed costumes."

Artemis sat down across from me with a sigh. "Ok, fair enough. I'm not going to assume I know your abilities better than you. If the kid is fine and you say you knew he would be that's good enough for me. You guys good with that?" Reggie nodded seriously and Jim just shrugged the shoulders of his spectral suit. I suspected Reggie went with whatever we said because we had saved his family and given him superpowers, but Jim would have told us if we went too far. Speaking of which, Artemis turned to our mentor "So now that that's settled, how did you think we did boss man? Clyde has the bottle and he even paid at the last price it sold for which I didn't expect."

Jim chuckled "He paid you the last sale price because he was ripping you off." We all turned to him in shock and his chuckle turned into a full throated belly laugh "Wine is an appreciating asset. The sale price on that bottle was from about six years ago. Not to mention accruing value, you didn't even account for inflation. Not that I expected you to. You did good work tonight, aside from a slight snafu with the boy that you took care of in a traceless and non damaging fashion. I'd say you passed. You're allowed to do jobs without me. I still have plenty to teach you of course, but you're qualified thieves on your own merit now."

We all winced at that, but no one gets it perfect their first time. I'd already had everything wired to the proper accounts so Reggie and Artemis headed home. I told them I was staying at the clock tower for a while longer to do some computer stuff but as soon as they were gone I took out my phone. Jim had taken off to give us time to enjoy the fruits of our labors so I was alone in the clock tower for the night. I dialed a number I had memorized but not in my contacts. The phone rang three times before someone picked up. A pretty, musical voice answered "Hey there stranger, was beginning to think you wouldn't call."

I chuckled "Sorry, got held up. Or at least that liquor store did." There was a long pause on the other end, and after it dragged on for a minute I couldn't take it anymore "I'm kidding Zee, damn. You know I don't talk about work with you. Plausible deniability. How was your fourth of July? Your dad still seething over Gentleman Ghost trapping him in the ghost roads?" Zatara had gotten back a few days after he was banished, and he was spitting mad about it. He'd been on a rampage across magical Gotham since trying to find Jim, but my mentor was always a step ahead.

That was actually how Zee and I had started talking. I left my number because I felt bad about knocking her out and she was hot, but she'd called fuming about her dad and when I told her he was going to be back soon she threatened me and hung up. I called back the next night and by the time he finally came home she liked me enough to keep talking as long as I didn't openly admit to any crimes when we were on the phone. Honestly I think part of it was just that she liked being secret phone buddies with a criminal, Zee had a bit of a wild child side.

Her laugh was a bit relieved when I revealed I was joking about the liquor store thing "Right, of course you were joking. You don't do hold ups anyway. You're a gentleman thief." She said that last part teasingly and I rolled my eyes "Anyway he's starting to calm down. I don't even think he's that mad about the ghost roads anymore, he's mostly pissed about you knocking me out. I mean, I'm not even mad and I'm the one it happened to. From the way he's acting you would think you knocked me up in a hay loft or something."

A pleasant image I pushed down because I had a girlfriend who I liked very much. I enjoyed talking to Zee, she was sweet and funny and hot as hell, but I sometimes felt a bit guilty about our relationship. We never went too far, but I wasn't just hiding our calls from Annabel I was hiding them from Arty and Reggie too. We were the three musketeers and I hated lying to them, but something about my talks with Zee was just...private. We didn't even talk that often because her dad was a crazy overprotective helicopter parent.

I forced my mind back onto talking about the holiday "I'm glad he's letting up. What did you guys do? I had lunch with my girlfriend before work." I made sure not to give out any information that would lead to me. I trusted Zee but better safe than sorry. We were using a pair of encrypted burners I'd found on the dark web so as long as I kept the details light we wouldn't be in danger of figuring things out about each other. Well she wouldn't be in danger of figuring things out about me. Her life wasn't exactly a mystery she spent all her time in that damn mansion.

I heard a thump as she flopped down on her bed "We had a barbecue in the back yard. He invited some friends from work over. It was nice. Have you ever noticed all the guys on the Justice League are weirdly hot? Like what is it about super heroing that makes you look like a male model?" The women on the Justice League were all hot too, but that kind of just made her point for her. "Anyway it was really fun. Green Lantern cooks a hell of a burger. They're actually still out there, apparently there was some big emergency so they all got here super late, including dad."

I raised an eyebrow "And emergency? I didn't see anything in the news so I'm guessing it wasn't local. Also I'm surprised your dad would let anything with a penis within a mile of his precious baby girl. Did he make all the Justice League guys wear chastity belts? Or just you? Actually jokes aside I could see you really rocking a pair of iron underwear." Nope, bad brain. I had to redirect my mental images to the Justice League guys in chastity belts, which made me wince for a totally different reason.

She giggled at that "I totally would. And he isn't that bad, he's just a little protective. Besides all the guys on the League are too goody goody to bang a teenage girl. Not that I would be interested without some serious wining and dining of course, but he knows they're safe to have around me. He wouldn't even let the sidekicks come because they're close to my age. He said they were all on probation or something from some big mess in DC tonight but I don't buy it. Honestly maybe you have a point about him being over protective. Ever since mom died he's just been so terrified of anything happening to me."

That was a much better reason than I wanted to attribute to the old man. I didn't like how isolated he kept her. Zatanna was a funny, sweet, engaging person with a big personality. She was incredibly social, but because of her dad she spent so much of her time alone. I think more than anything that's why she kept up our phone calls. I was probably her only friend in the world. I chose not to say anything about my feelings on the subject. She may question his methods but Zatanna loved her daddy. If she felt like you were bad mouthing him she wouldn't take it lying down.

We talked for another hour or two. Mom was used to my odd hours by now and talking to Zee made me happy. I considered calling Annabel after we got off the phone but I figured she would be busy. Finally we had to say goodnight, though Zee made me promise to call back tomorrow and we hung up. I sat there alone in my clock tower staring at my phone after we cut off the call. My life had changed so much over the time I'd had my powers, I sometimes wondered what things would be like if I'd never gotten them, but the thought was too awful to think about.

Without powers I'd never have approached Artemis, never have been able to help Reggie or met Jim or gotten my mom her new place. I'd never have met Annabel or Zee or be in this kick ass tower. I took a long look around the beautifully decorated room that Jim had obviously had far too much influence on judging by the dark wood panels and wall hangings. The penthouse was great, but this, this was home. I was lucky to have all the people and places I did in my life.

I walked to the face of the clock tower, enchanted by a craftsman Jim knew to show an image of what was outside like a giant TV screen, and gazed out over my city. Gotham may be kind of a shit hole sometimes, and it may be dark and terrible at others. But there was something beautiful about this place. About the triumph of the human spirit people showed just by getting up and going to work every day in a city so dangerous. It was a jungle out there, and I was damn proud to live in it.

Gotham Academy, July 7th 2010 7:00 AM EDT

Once again I was exhausted in class. I'd stayed up late last night at the lair, working on trying to crack into the security on Wayne Manor. After about five hours of attempts to get past their firewall I had decided to call it. Whatever fucking monster of a computer Bruce Wayne had running the encryption on his security cameras wasn't something I could bypass, even with the frankly ludicrous system I'd bought for the clock tower. Bruce Wayne might be a play boy but the guy took security seriously, probably a side effect of seeing your parents murdered in front of you in a dark alley.

Annabel was glaring at me, though I wasn't sure why. "Are you listening to me Morgan? You didn't hear a word I said did you? I swear you spend so much of your time on that stupid extra curricular project and then when you do have time for me you barely pay attention." She must have seen the dazed look on my face when I glanced up at her because her glare softened. She reached out to cup my face "But you aren't ignoring me at all, are you? Look at you, you're so tired you can barely sit up." She sighed "Take a nap sweetie, we can talk at lunch."

I smiled gratefully at her and put my head on my desk, putting my book up in front of me as a shield as I drifted off. I got an hour or so of sleep before the bell and Annabel walked with me to lunch to meet up with Artemis and Reggie and we hit the lunch line. I sat down across from my friends with a thump, too tired to control the force of my lunch tray dropping onto the table. Artemis looked up from her phone at the noise "Oh, hey Annabel, where's your boyfriend, and does he know you're eating lunch with a desiccating vampire?"

I stabbed angrily into a piece of steak and leveled my fork at her "First of all, fuck you. Second of all, I knew you'd been watching vampire diaries. 'overdramatic teen nonsense' my ass." I rounded on my girlfriend "I blame you for this. She's been so much girlier since you started hanging out with her. You've ruined my best friend." I turned back to Artemis with a smirk "Speaking of you being girly and ruined how are things with your redhead? Wallace wasn't it? You guys make sweet love by the track stadium lights yet?" I popped the steak in my mouth, almost moaning at having actual food instead of the granola bars I'd been subsisting on during my hacking marathon.

Artemis glared at me "His name is Wally. And no, we decided to wait. He doesn't want to move too fast. Though he kind of sounded like he was making a joke when he said that. Either way he's a sweet heart and we aren't rushing things. He's taking me out for ice cream this Saturday. Just because you have no sense of romance doesn't mean all teenage boys are pigs." She turned to Annabel "Are you sure you want to be dating him? I mean yeah he's jacked, but his face is kind of plain and he's insufferable."

I used my fork to fling a piece of broccoli at her but she intercepted it easily. Annabel chuckled and leaned up to kiss my cheek. "Yes he has many flaws, but I look past them because I'm just that amazing. Though we also have a date on Saturday. We're having dinner alone at my house, my parents are going to be out of town." She turned her smile on Reggie, who as always was incredibly quiet when Annabel was around "How about you Reginald? Any plans for the weekend? I'm sure the lovely Ms. Kane would be available to be squired about town."

Reggie actually blushed at that and cleared his throat "I didn't but now that you mention it I would love to spend Saturday with Bette." He gave a small but for once honest smile "Thanks for the idea Annabel." He smiled confidently and got up to go find Bette. The two of them weren't actually dating yet. but it was obvious to everyone that they liked each other. Artemis told me Bette was waiting for Reggie to make the first move in terms of defining the relationship. I made a mental note to talk to him about it.

In the mean time I leaned over and pecked my girlfriend on the cheek "See. I knew Reggie would come around. He doesn't blame you for all that stuff your friends said after his family lost their money, he's just getting used to your new dynamic. You guys will be besties in no time. And have I mentioned how amazing it is that you're putting in so much effort with him? I know you feel bad about the way things went down but I still really appreciate how hard you're trying." I gave her a soft kiss, but we were interrupted when another tray dropped loudly on the table.

Dick Grayson slipped into the seat next to Artemis that Reggie had just vacated and grinned charmingly at us. "Hello all, glad to see you in high spirits. Sorry to cut in on your lunch but I was here to invite you to a little soiree I'm throwing this Friday night. Formal attire only, and passed hors d'oeuvres will be provided at stately Wayne Manor." He wiggled his eyebrows as he said the last part, clearly aware of how pompous it sounded and kind of winking at himself for it. "In any case, I'm off to invite the rest of the people in our year, hope to see you there, feel free to bring a date. Party starts at seven."

He gave a cheerful wave and rushed off. If anyone else had done that it would have seemed weird, but Dick had this sort of manic energy about him that made him feel at home in any group setting. He could just jump into a conversation and seem perfectly at ease. He rarely stayed in one place during lunches, usually making the rounds to drop in and say hi to random people. Showing up to invite us to a party and then vanishing was pretty on brand for that guy. Still I was a bit confused by one thing "Wait, why the hell would he be throwing a party at Wayne Manor?"

Artemis and Annabel looked at me like I was an idiot, but my girlfriend was too polite to say it out loud. Unfortunately my bestie was not "Because he's Bruce Wayne's adopted son, moron. Seriously how could you possibly not know this? Grayson's folks were circus performers who died in an accident. Bruce Wayne was in the audience when it happened and took the him in. Honestly he shouldn't even be here, he's only thirteen, but the kid is some kind of genius and he skipped a grade to come to the academy." She turned to Annabel "I pity you, if he doesn't know obvious stuff like this I can't imagine how terrible he'll be at picking out birthday presents."

Normally I would have responded to such provocation, but I was focused on a much more important issue. Why the fuck was I getting invited to a huge party at Wayne Manor the day after I tried to hack into their security system. Could they have tracked me? No, the clock tower was owned by a shell company Jim helped us set up, not to mention I was a world class hacker. Also this was a big party, no way he'd decided to throw the whole thing spur of the moment just for a chance to catch me doing something sneaky.

It seemed like it might be a coincidence, but I didn't believe in those. This was a mess, if I went I might be setting myself up to get caught by the boy wonder, but if I didn't I would be standing out way too much. Plus I couldn't pass up the chance to case Wayne Manor from the inside with an invite. I made a silent promise to myself not to steal anything on Friday, just to do some light recon. If I didn't do anything shady they couldn't catch me, and there was nothing abnormal about paying attention to the decor.

I was interrupted from my ruminations by the discovery that the girls were staring at me. Artemis turned to Annabel "I see what you mean, he usually doesn't space out this much. He definitely needs to get some more sleep. You with us now zombie boy?" I blinked at the question but nodded, feeling like responding out loud would just expose me to further ridicule. "Good. Now do you have something you might like to ask Annabel? Something relevant to what just happened? If I need to draw you a diagram I'm going to slap you with it."

I glared at her "No. I'm tired not slow." I turned to Annabel sheepishly "Sorry babe, that was pretty insensitive of me. Do you want to go with me to the party? I shouldn't have assumed." Taking my girlfriend for granted would be a good way to wind up single. If I hadn't been so damn tired I'd have remembered to ask instead of just figuring we would go together. I really needed to set up a cut off time on my hacking projects. I grinned at Annabel to distract her and threw out a bit of bait to help smooth things over "By the way, I'll need you to pick out my tux. I don't know formal wear."

The pleased smile told me in no uncertain terms that she was excited for that. Annabel wasn't a stereotype exactly, but she did enjoy spending her money. Shopping was a favorite pastime of hers and getting the chance to dress me up to her liking would be a major selling point. She waved off my concern "I don't mind you assuming we would go together, you are my boyfriend. At this point I'm more genuinely worried than anything. You need to take better care of yourself, love. Get more sleep. But yes, of course I'll pick out your tux. I can coordinate it with my own dress."

Artemis shuddered "Oh gods. Formal wear means I have to wear a dress." She pulled out her phone and shot off a text. "Well if I have to wear formal attire I at least want my man with me so I can ogle him in a tux. Hopefully he's free Friday." She shot Annabel a pleading look "Can you help me pick out something to wear Anna, please? You know I'm hopeless at this kind of stuff. I mean don't get me wrong I look damn good in most things, but I have no clue what counts as formal or even in style. Can I come dress shopping with you?"

The predatory gleam in Annabel's eyes made me mildly nervous for my best friend, but she'd been teasing me all day so I left her to her fate. There was a reason I asked Annabel to pick my tux instead of going with her to find one. My girlfriend could shop for the Olympics. Even Artemis would be exhausted by the time they finished. Annabel was grinning so hard I worried her head might split "Of course Artemis! I would love that. We can make an afternoon of it, pick up a few different things, maybe go for a massage. Are you free tomorrow?"

Artemis agreed, the poor fool, and the two of them excitedly talked about their girls day out. I made a mental note to call Zee tomorrow since Arty and Annabel would be out. In the meantime I mulled over the possible ramifications of this party and what I should do there. I would have to go talk to Jim about what was going on. My mentor would know what to do. With a plan in mind I tuned back in to the conversation, listening to my girlfriend and my best friend make plans. Even if I wasn't involved I didn't mind. This was pretty nice.

Wayne Manor, July 9th 2010 7:00 PM EDT

Wayne Manor was really big. Like, I'd thought the Drake Estate was big but the Wayne's took it the extra mile, the place was the size of a damn castle. I turned to my girlfriend, who was just getting out of the limo she'd arranged for tonight. Annabel was wearing a tiny maroon dress that set off her hair amazingly. Her face was expertly made up and her hair was falling in shimmering golden curls down around her shoulders. She looked amazing.

As I turned to her she reached up to adjust my tie "Ok, so remember. Stay on the move, try not to get dragged into talking to one person for too long. We want you to make some connections tonight, get you out there. People will expect you to be representing me here, and me to be representing Powers Tech. List of do's and don'ts. Do: Laugh at people's jokes, make flattering comments and refer any questions about the company to me. Don't: Give any concrete answers to questions about business, accept any gifts, or outright insult anyone unless I give you the all clear." Her voice was high and fast, clearly nervous as hell about tonight.

I put my hands on her shoulders with a laugh "Honey, breathe. You're about to pass out. I remember the stuff you said I should and shouldn't say. I won't embarrass your family's company or you. Trust me." James had dumped more than a few etiquette books on me during my never ending reading homework. Apparently casing rich people parties was pretty standard for professional thieves, and knowing how to handle yourself was key to not being discovered. "Now, do you want to take a minute before we go in? Because there's no rush. If anyone asks why we're late we can just say we got lost on the way up the driveway." I shot a meaningful glance at the long curving gravel drive.

She giggled a b it, seeming to relax "No, no, I'm good. Sorry babe. This is just kind of a big deal. Mom and Dad were all over me after they found out about the party and if I don't do a good job they're going to be so mad at me." She chewed her bottom lip in worry before shaking her head to clear it, sending her cascade of gold girls bouncing. "Sorry, no. I can be a good daughter and a good girlfriend. Besides I want you to have an amazing night tonight. It's our last night out before...our big night in." She hesitated slightly on that last statement, like she was unsure about going through with it, but her smile afterward was bright and warm. I hoped she wasn't having second thoughts but if she was it look like she got over them pretty quick.

I smiled back, but my response was cut off by a voice saying "Gag. Can you not talk about your first time banging my best friend please. I plan to eat at this thing." Artemis climbed out of the limo in a long dark green dress with a slit up one side, showing off a long expanse of very toned leg. Her hair was plaited over one shoulder. A redheaded figure climbed out after her. Her boyfriend, Wally, who she met at one of their track meets. The guy was in shape I'll give him that, and she admired him in his tux as she fixed his bow tie. I wondered if all girls did that or just the ones I knew.

Bette's voice came out of the car "Oh leave them alone. Personally I hope she fucks him this weekend. The love sick cuddling and soulfully staring into each others eyes gets nauseating. Maybe after they release some tension they'll be disaffected and aloof to their significant other like a normal person. All this affection can't be healthy." The blonde snickered as she climbed out of the limo in her cerulean blue dress Reggie scrambling out to help her from the car so she didn't fall. She shot him a wink when she finished talking and pecked him on the cheek to show she was kidding.

Wally piped up from his spot next to Arty "I think it's sweet. Plus it makes me feel better because I don't have to be jealous my girlfriend is spending all her time with her incredibly jacked best friend." He turned to Artemis "Not that I don't trust you of course, Babe, but look at the guy." He waved over at me "He is yoked. You could grate cheese on his abs. I'm honestly kind of jealous." We all laughed at the comment because Wally was almost as ripped as I was. But it successfully helped my girlfriend calm down and I was grateful.

Annabel smiled at all of us "Thanks guys. I needed to get out of my own head. I think I'm good if anyone wants to go in." She took a deep breath and exhaled it, putting her war face on. She took my arm in hers and lead me up to the front door from the large gravel area at the end of the driveway that served as a parking lot. Imagine being rich enough to need a parking lot for your house. We arrived in front of a huge pair of double doors made of dark wood, which seemed to be a staple of these old manor houses, and Annabel reached up to the brass lions head knocker to rap on the door three times.

Before the last tap landed the door swung open, revealing a tall well dressed older man with a pencil thin mustache and a kind smile "Good evening sirs and ladies, welcome. I take it you're all here for the party?" We nodded confirmation and he smiled, stepping back to usher us in. "Splendid. My name is Alfred Pennyworth, I am the butler at Wayne manor. I do so hope you all enjoy your stay." I immediately liked the friendly old butler, not just because he was personable but also because his upper crust British accent reminded me so much of my mentor.

His eyes rolled over us all, stopping for a bit longer on Wally, but since my friend's boyfriend was in the middle of trying to prove he could pat his head and rub his belly at the same time that wasn't really anything strange. Without further ado he led us down the long and well furnished hall to a massive set of double doors that stood open to expose a huge white and gold ballroom. Honestly the place reminded me of the ballroom in Beauty and the Beast, except it was full of incredibly well dressed teenagers.

We intercepted a passing waiter to pick up a few plates of the hors d'oeuvres . Egg rolls, crab rangoon, fried raviolis, and mini crab cakes, just to name a few things. I stocked up on as many as I could, holding two plates filled with food, and blanched when I looked up to see my girlfriend glaring at me. I flinched and scrambled for an excuse to get her attention off me, settling on the newcomers in our group "So, Bette, Wally, what did you guys do for your fourth of July? Reggie, Arty, and I had our extracurricular stuff later on in the night, but I know I had a nice picnic with Annabel."

Wally, who was shoveling food into his mouth actually choked, and Artemis had to whack him on the back a few times to clear his airway. He chuckled a bit sheepishly "Wow, sorry, caught me off guard there. My fourth was pretty boring. Our parents had this big shindig and a few of my buddies and I snuck off to go to another party we heard about. One of the guys at the party we went to took some drugs or something and lost it and kind of ruined our night. On the upside we made a new friend and it was kind of exciting. Guy is a bit of a stick in the mud but he seems cool, I think we're going to hang out as a group more often."

I smiled at the obvious fondness he felt for hanging with his friends. They sounded close, a lot like how Reggie, Arty, and I had gotten, minus the super powers and infiltration obviously. I turned to Bette, raising an eyebrow in question and using my girlfriends distraction to pop a crab rangoon in my mouth. She wouldn't stop me from eating of course, but she would make me be all civilized about it and I was hungry. Bette just shrugged "Family barbecue. It was here actually. The Wayne's are relatives of ours and they tend to host family functions. This year was a bit of an event, my cousin Kate came out and her dad is in the military and apparently was hoping she 'wouldn't tell.' Other than that just watched some fire works with my folks."

I winced "Sorry to hear that, your uncle sounds like kind of a dick, no offense. Hope your cousin is doing alright. Anyway, we should get out there and mingle, if I don't start talking to people I suspect Annabel might scalp me. She's starting to look a little murdery, though that might just be because I got grease on my jacket. I was hoping she hadn't noticed but it seemed like that is not the case. Sorry honey." Sure enough, my girlfriend was glaring daggers at me. She stepped up and started using a napkin to try to get the grease stain from the egg roll out of my lapel. She got most of it then took the plates away from me with an even harsher glare and shoved them both into Wally's hands.

The redhead looked thrilled to have them but had to scramble a bit to catch everything. I was impressed by his reflexes, even i would have had trouble keeping all that in the air. After that I was dragged away to meet with boring teenagers and some boring adults I hadn't noticed. I had a perfect memory and even I lost track of how many hands I shook or kissed. Finally we pulled off to the side of the Ballroom and I slumped against the wall. Annabel came up behind me to rub my shoulders "You're doing fine babe. I really appreciate how much effort you're putting in." She paused for a second "And don't lean against the wall you'll wrinkle your tux."

I had to hold back a chuckle at how chagrined she sounded when she added that. Like she knew how uptight and neurotic it made her seem but she couldn't help it. I turned to her with a smile and pulled her against me, leaning down to kiss her. Before I could make contact though, all the lights went out. I turned, pulling her behind me and flipping to aura sight, which gave me the light of everyone's aura to see by. Not that I needed it for long because within a few seconds the lights turned back on. Everything was pretty much the same, with the exception of the man standing on the table in the center of the room.

Well, I say man, but what I really meant was a familiar bright white suit with a dapper top hat sitting above it. My eyes widened in shock as I realized what was going on. When I told Jim about the invitation tonight he told me to go and said he would take care of it. I hadn't realized he meant he was going to rob the party to distract everyone but it was a fantastic plan. Or it would have been, but I'd been around Jim enough to know that tilt of his hat. He was facing the opposite side of the Ballroom where a woman in skin tight leather was crouched on a window sill. His voice sounded more annoyed than angry when he spoke, but it boomed through the whole room "Catwoman! Hand over the music box, now!"

Wally and Wayne Manor, what a combo. Big things on the horizon hope you guys are enjoying the story. Meanwhile in the advance chapters we finally meet Grandpa Falcone. pat-reon has five chapters of advance content with two thousand words a piece totaling a full ten thousand words minimum at that site /malcolmtent for whoever wants to check it out. Hope you all enjoy and let me know what you think!