Hailey, Ben, and Brittany were waiting for Mr. Carr to grade their final. The other students were allowed to leave when they finished testing. But Mr. Carr told them to stick around. It took him about half an hour before he set his pen down and looked at them with a wide smile.

"Congratulations!" said Mr. Carr with a clap. "The three of you have successfully passed. At the beginning of the next school year, you will move on to the ninth grade!"

"Wait, what?" Ben said standing up. "I thought we were testing out of seventh grade?"

Brittany and Hailey looked at him then at Mr. Carr and nodded in agreement. They had thought the same thing.

"Well, yeah, you did on the first day. But legally you had to be here until the end of the four weeks so that the school could pass you," Mr. Carr said and shrugged. "Instead of having you relearn what you already knew, I figured it would be better to have you work on the eighth-grade curriculum. When I noticed how well you all took to it, I spoke to the principal and suggested bumping you up a grade if you passed the eighth-grade final. It was the best I can do given the circumstance. It would have been a waste of a year if you were forced to go through eighth grade at a public school. Don't worry, I'll send a letter home to your parents and guardians with your test results and grade promotions. Just thought you'd want to know before you left. See you three in a month!"

Mr. Carr left the gymnasium that had been their classroom for the past four weeks. The three kids looked at one another and started to laugh.

"Holy shit!" Ben said excitedly. "We're going to High School! All them assholes whose parents had houses upstate are going to be so fucking jealous!"

"Oh yeah, I could hear them now. I wish my parents would've sent me away to live with relatives in Blüdhaven instead of living it up in a mansion upstate so that I could skip a grade!" Brittany said sarcastically. Of course, she'd been sent away to live with her aunt the moment she was expelled from Gotham Academy and was homeschooled after the fact but she wasn't going to mention that.

Ben snorted. He was the only one within their group that still lived with his parents. Because his father had been part of the Gotham City Council and decided to stay in Blühaven to help his constituents from within the city where they took refuge. Unlike the other members of the council who decided there could be no council without a Gotham and relocated.

"It could happen," Ben said with a grin. He'd already imagined it that way. He wasn't going to question it.

Hailey and Brittany laughed. They were in a good mood. Ben said he'd buy pizza. They picked it up on the way to Hailey's apartment. Once Ben settled in the living room, he turned on the TV only to see a national news report given by a one-time Gotham news reporter.

"Timothy Drake who had been reported missing by his father a few weeks back has been found. The young man went missing in the aftermath of what was once Gotham City."

"Hailey, come check this out!" Ben said to Hailey who was grabbing drinks from the fridge.

"Bruce Wayne had been vying in Capitol Hill for the decree of no-man's-land to be lifted so that rescue crews could be sent into the restricted zone. He was fighting to help those left behind in the midst of the devastation and to begin efforts to rebuild the city. After months of being turned down, Bruce Wayne left Capitol Hill and has yet to be seen or heard from since his private plane disappeared from radar after a distress call near the coastline."

"Hailey…" Brittany said quietly.

Hailey simply shook her head. This wasn't about Bruce, she had already known her dad had been declared missing and that it wasn't true. She just didn't know why he'd lied. Hailey wanted to know what happened to Tim. They said he'd been missing and Hailey hadn't even known. She'd assumed he'd been upstate in the private school his father sent him to since before the earthquake hit. What had Tim been doing in Gotham? Could he have gone back to help as Robin and gotten stuck there? Hailey tightened her fists.

"There has been no news of what's become of the billionaire but his CEO Lucious Fox has not given up hope that the owner of Wayne Enterprises and beloved humanitarian is alive. Bruce Wayne, however, wasn't the only Gotham son who'd gone missing. But it wasn't until his disappearance went public that Jack Drake came forward about his son."

The screen changed to show a picture of Tim.

"Why would he wait? Unless he thought he was dead," Ben said and Brittany smacked him on the arm to shut him up.

They had once thought the same thing about Hailey. So it wasn't unreasonable to think that. But still. Brittany didn't think it was a good idea to talk about dead people when Bruce Wayne was probably…

"Ow," Ben complained. Brittany shushed him.

"From what sources told us, Jack Drake was hoping that Bruce Wayne's petition to lift the order on Gotham would come through. When the billionaire failed, Jack Drake tried to convince Washington to lift the ban for entry into no-man's-land so that he could search for his son. Washington refused to hear his pleas due to the fact that there was no proof his son was even in the restricted zone."

"Assholes," Hailey muttered under her breath.

"It makes me wonder why they enforced that order, to begin with," Brittany said curiously though she wasn't directing the question to anyone. She was simply thinking out loud.

"According to my dad, it's like a third world country in there minus any government. So it's total chaos with nut jobs running around doing whatever they want," Ben said. "Anyone with a half a brain should know to stay away."

"Would you if you had a family in there that you thought was in danger?" Hailey asked. Ben didn't say anything but he chanced a curious glance at Brittany who looked contrite.

"Even though Washington shut him out, Jack Drake's voice was heard by many who decided that one missing child was one too many. Efforts on his behalf forced White House representatives to not only listen but to also help in finding the missing boy. An investigation went into effect and as of an hour ago, the Federal Marshal's office reported that Timothy Drake's whereabouts were confirmed in no-man's-land. In a coordinated effort with the White House, Federal Marshals will mount a rescue for Timothy Drake within the next forty-eight hours. Stay tuned for further updates, this is for Summer Gleeson GCNN."

"This is insane," Ben said through a mouthful of pizza. He swallowed hard and cleared his throat. "It shouldn't have to take so long to go there and retrieve a family member if you have the feds with you and you know where they are."

"Yeah, I know," Hailey said and nodded. "That's why my dad was working so hard to get the ban lifted. There are a lot of people that refused to leave their homes."

"Like my uncle and my dad," Brittany said. Ben and Hailey turned to look at her. They hadn't known. "They work for the GCPD. Or worked. When Commissioner Gordon decided to stay behind with the stubborn idiots that wouldn't leave, my uncle and my dad stayed with him to help protect everyone from all the crazies that were released from Arkham and escaped before they were transferred to other facilities."

"Do you get to talk to them?" Ben asked cautiously.

"Yeah, they still have their cell phones and they call once a week to check-in. But they don't tell us anything about what is happening there," Brittany said and wrung her hands together. "What you said," she looked at Ben who grimaced, "it makes more sense why the government thinks it's too dangerous to lift the ban."

"But if the ban had never been put into effect, to begin with, maybe it would never have gotten this bad," Hailey said.

"My dad thinks that too. He was actually hoping your dad could get it reversed. But now that he's missing..." Ben said and sighed. Brittany punched him when Hailey looked away. "Ow! Cut it out, Britt!"

"I will when you stop being an insensitive jerk!"

"Fine. But I can't do that if I don't know what that means!"

"Shut up, guys," Hailey said in a soft voice as she picked up her phone and dialed her brother.

"Who are you calling?"

"Dick," Hailey said, sounding a little frustrated because the call went to voicemail.

"Jeez, don't bite my head off," Ben said.

"Her brother, you idiot," Brittany said and Ben made an 'oh' face.

"But why does he like being called Dick? Is it because he has a big—ow, ow, ow!"

Both Brittany and Hailey began to slap at him to shut him up.

"You're so gross!" Brittany said and gave Ben a shove when he began to laugh.

"I was...just wondering," Ben said through chuckles from the floor.


When Dick came home after his shift, he saw Hailey and her friends crowding the TV in the living room watching... the news?

"Why are you watching the news?" Dick said with a tilt of his head.

"Dick, I tried to call you!" Hailey said running towards him and greeting him with a tight hug.

"Hey, hey, what is it?" Dick said rubbing her back and holding her tight.

"It's Tim!" Hailey said, stepping back to look up at him.

"What's going on with Tim?" Dick said and walked towards the TV with Hailey.

"There's a rescue mission being set up to save him from Gotham!" Ben told him with more enthusiasm than the occasion called for.

"A rescue mission?" Dick said. "Wasn't Tim upstate with his dad?"

"No," Hailey said with a shake of her head. "It's his dad who forced Washington to listen."

"The federal marshals are going in to get him," Brittany said and pointed at the news clicker at the bottom of the screen.

"Tomorrow at seven," Ben read and cheered. "Now we can finally watch something else. Ow! Brit, what did I do?!"

"Do you care about anyone but yourself?" Brittany said angrily.

"Yeah, my dog," Ben said under his breath and got hit again. "Ow!" He looked at Britt angrily but then Dick chuckled which made Hailey chuckle. Ben pointed at them. "See, they think I'm funny!"

"Whatever, idiot," Brittany said but smiled at him with a shake of her head.

Hailey looked at Dick and he hugged her. "You don't have to worry about Timmy. He'll make it out of there safe and sound."

"How do you know?" Hailey said suspiciously.

"I heard through the grapevine that Batman is out there. He'll make sure nothing happens to Timmy," Dick said with a soft smile.

"Yeah, my dad told me that too! He's coordinating with the GCPD to take back the city," Billy said with a nod.

"Really, your dad told you that?" Dick said in surprise.

"Yeah, my dad has a spy on the inside," Ben said conspiratorially. "But I'm not supposed to say anything. So all of you keep your mouths shut. Cause I'm not supposed to listen in when he's on the radio with the other side. And if my dad found out, he'll have my hide."

"Don't worry, kiddo," Dick told him and ruffled his hair. "We'll keep your secret."

"Yeah, you knucklehead. But thanks for letting us know. It means a lot," Brittany said and looked away lost in thought.

"Her dad and uncle are in the GCPD and are over there," Hailey said softly to Dick who nodded in understanding.

"What do you say we pop in a movie while I make milkshakes," Dick said.

Ben cheered and Hailey laughed at him. Brittany smiled and nodded at Dick.

"But you need to tell me what you want in them. Come on, I'll show you what I got," Dick said and using the backrest of the sofa, jumped over to get to the kitchen faster.

"Woah, how did he do that? That was so cool!" Ben said excitedly. He tried the same move and landed on his side with a loud thump.

"Ben!" both Hailey and Brittany shouted at the same time.

"I'm good," Ben said, raising a thumb in the air. "Just give me a minute."

"He's such an idiot!" Brittany said exasperatedly.

"Ben, you better not have broken anything," Hailey chastised.

"I didn't, honest," Ben said and grinned.

"He's fine, just got the wind knocked out," Dick said with a slight frown after checking the boy over. "Don't do that again."

"Ugh, you're no fun," Ben said with a pout.

"Oh, no, someone doesn't want a milkshake," Dick said, making a sad face.

"Yes, I do! I'm sorry! You're the best!" Ben said and stood up in a hurry.

Dick grabbed a hold of him. "Slow down there before you get dizzy. Here, sit down."

Ben sat where Dick placed him and he gestured to Hailey to keep an eye on him.

"Like that'll help," Hailey said but stayed at the boy's side regardless.

Brittany went into the kitchen area and helped Dick sort out all the treats while he got the ice cream and the blender out. Before long, they all had custom made milkshakes and were watching a movie forgetting about the news momentarily. Except for Dick, he kept looking at his phone as if he was waiting for a call. But none ever came.

Dammit, Bruce! You could've given me a heads up at least.

Bruce had gone completely dark once he'd gone into Gotham. But if what Billy was saying was true, and even Dick overheard someone in the precinct saying that there were rumors Batman was in Gotham, that meant that other people were staying in contact with people in no-man's-land. Why couldn't Bruce do the same? Dick felt frustrated over the fact that he couldn't do anything to help.

Bruce, you better be watching out for Tim. If he doesn't make it out of there in one piece and Hailey needs you for the aftermath, I'll go in there and drag you out myself.