Disclaimer: owning this is like a dream. we all have to wake up and realize it's not real eventually.

Like I said, this section's done so a couple quick updates before the next major arch. got a surprise at the end of this one for you! *insert evil laugh here* Oh and i don't do sports so if I spelled the thing wrong, correct me. =P

Where's Robin?

Ch. 17 – Search

"Seriously, the guys just wanted to look at the wiring of the Jumbo-Tron," the guard Carl repeated over an over again as he led Batman down the dark hallways and catwalks. This thankfully was the same guard who saw that day's workers, and he was dutiful enough to note where they went and that they (being about six men in jumpsuits) were carrying a lot more equipment than he was used to seeing. This only helped confirm the detective's hunch of this being the right place to look. "I let them in and they did their jobs and were gone in an hour, tops."

"Were you with them the whole time?"

Carl shifted uncomfortably. "Well no. But they seemed nice enough."

"One of the Arkham escapees was Nitro, a pyrotechnic who sells his services to the highest bidder. He's easily scared into working for dangerous psychotics." Batman's eyes narrowed. He barely managed to get the man into Arkham. Most jurors deemed him sane enough for Blackgate, but the man was all about arson and a wimp so he didn't deserve that. They really needed to get another prison for the lower level crooks.

"That thing on the news," the guard started, "is this somehow connected to—"

"I wouldn't be here if it wasn't."

The man fell back into silence as he fiddled with his keys. They were nearing the final door as the first communication from the team came in. "Aqualad to Batman."

Quickly he tapped his ear while Carl unlocked the final door. "Report."

"One of the news channels reports of the police finding the bomb in my sector. Gotham Port Authority. They are currently in the process of disarming it." Kaldur was trying to keep the relief from his voice and the man couldn't blame him. China Town was going to be tricky for anyone. It was a good thing Batman called Gordon to help narrow down the search. "They are also clearing the vicinity of civilians. Your orders?"

The door opened in front of the Bat, revealing the most intricately wired explosive he'd seen yet. And due to the fuel laid up around it, and from the make of the room and structure of the building, he estimated it could take out a third of the northern island. Worse yet, it was connected to the light switch as well as a timer.

"Oh God." Carl nearly wet himself when he saw it.

Batman stepped forward removing the light connection before the stunned guard could flip the switch. He cast the man a commanding glare before speaking another word.

"Get out of here and call the cops." Dumbly the guard turned and ran from him as fast as he could, dropping his keys in the process. Batman then tapped his ear to issue orders to the teen. "Go join Superboy in the Upper West Side. He may be stuck in Battergate. Keep him focused on the mission."

"Understood. Aqualad out."

Connection cut, Batman allowed himself a sigh. Two bombs found, three still missing. And he had a big one to work on. He had a hunch no two were alike. Just perfect.

M'gann flew through every warehouse and alleyway she could in the harbor near the college. She saw a sign saying Burnley on it earlier, but really didn't pay much mind to it. Right then names were only names. She had to find a bomb.

And yet despite her earlier hunch, she hadn't found a single sign of one! Sighing heavily, she rubbed her head and sat on the edge of one of the building's roofs. Maybe she was going about this all the wrong way. Her uncle was a detective; surely she had some skill in that area, didn't she?

"Okay, just need to step back and think about this another way." Off in the distance she heard a clock sound. One A.M.. She groaned. This was not good.

"Hello Megan," she recited, knocking her head as she got an idea. "Of course I'm thinking the wrong way. No one's seen it because it never left the car! Or bag! Or something like that!"

Quickly she was back to her feet, floating in the air as she though it out loud. "Okay, a bag or car in a place with hundreds of bags and cars. And this is Joker and his people we're talking about so… What did Batman and Robin say about that guy?

"Oh dear," she murmured to herself as she took back to the skies. "This is going to be a lot harder than I thought."

Running at a normal speed around every back alley of Gotham's Crime Alley was the stupidest thing Wally ever thought he could do. He didn't know a thing about this place! All he knew about Crime Alley was that Batman liked to visit it more than any other part of town, and that was why he was strictly never to go there. That was what Robin said at least.

Now here he was wandering around looking for a bomb in the midst of the worst places on Earth. Thankfully no one approached him with guns or knives, not to say he didn't spot them. Nearly every fourth person he saw was carrying some kind of weapon, and about half of the night owls on the streets carried drugs or alcohol. The ones who weren't were either rushing to get home or out cold on the ground.

And yet no one bothered him. It was after one in the morning and no one was trying to mob him or sell him anything or trying to kill him.

"This is weird," he thought out loud. Crime Alley was supposed to be one of the worst places in the world, but so far all he could tell was it was in bad condition. Any of those who could have sold him something or tried to rob him, diverted their eyes another way when they saw him. It was like they thought he was Batman or something. "Is this really Crime Alley?"

Wally must have passed the free clinic three times before he sat down and tried yet again to figure out mentally where to go to find the bomb. He already searched the clinic and it was cleaner than most hospitals he'd been in. The doctor there, Leslie Thompkins, was quite accommodating and gave him some juice when he finished looking around. It really helped his sugar levels then. Now he wished he had some Mountain Dew to keep himself awake.

He rubbed his head as he thought long and hard, hoping to wake himself up a bit. This was Joker he was dealing with. He threatened Gotham for a non-existent cake on live television. He used knives, gas, bombs, and occasionally a gun. He was a certified, glory hogging, lunatic. And he did a lot of things to tick Batman off.

Wait, Robin said Crime Alley was a place Batman frequently visited, Wally thought out slowly. So Joker attacking this place, trying to destroy it, would tick off the big guy. "So is there a really important place around here?"

He reached back into his memories when he was talking to Robin about Gotham. They pretty much stuck to the good parts when they hung out, but the bird boy did tell him about the bad things too. Places to avoid if they didn't want Bats to find out about their little adventures. That Star Wars marathon last summer was a blast.

The speedster looked up at the sign on the clinic. He remembered seeing the name of the place earlier and knowing he heard it before. The Thomas Wayne Memorial Clinic. Thomas Wayne.

Wayne.

Then it clicked. One of the major unsolved murders of their time, one his uncle told him about and challenged him to solve once. The Wayne murders. It happened right there in Crime Alley. The royal family of Gotham was leaving a theater one night and the king and queen were shot down in one of the back alleyways. Their kid was standing right behind them, watching them die, over twenty years ago. And the guy who did it was never caught.

The world's greatest detective must come to this place whenever he has free time to try to solve that murder, Wally concluded. It was the biggest event that ever happened in this area, as far as he could tell. So Joker must have put the bomb somewhere in relation to it.

The alleyway? Nah, there were too many of them to figure out which one. Probably only the Wayne kid and the cop who did the initial investigation knew which one it was.

So it had to be the theater! He saw a rundown theater not too far off. It was condemned so he hadn't looked into it earlier. Who would put a bomb where no one died from it anyway? But if all Joker wanted to do was ruin moral, that was probably all he had to take down.

Quickly Wally jumped to his feet and took off running, barely keeping a normal human speed. Little did he know, someone who normally kept away from new comers had spotted him while he was sitting and tried to approach him. And now that the speedster was running, so was his shadow, cursing to itself.

Conner tossed probably the thirtieth punk he'd fought that night to the ground, rolling his eyes as he did so. He was starting to see a trend. A good portion of these people were ill-educated and would not learn from their mistakes. That first punk he fought had called in his buddies and now everyone seemed to want a piece of him.

And every single one of them called him 'farm boy'. What about him made the clone a 'farm boy'? It was getting very frustrating.

It was when he was twisting the arm of one of his opponents and saw their watch that he remembered the bomb again. It was nearing two in the morning and he was wasting his time with these guys. He threw this guy aside then glared at the pile of thugs and the others coming towards him. "Unless you can tell me where Joker's men put his bomb, go home."

"Is that a threat farm boy?" Mr. Too Many Earrings was back. His nose still looked broken.

"It's why I'm here stupid." Conner shook his head. "You know what? Forget it. I'll look somewhere else."

Before any of the thugs could touch him, the clone leaped into the air and far away from them. They tried to follow him with their eyes, their mouths agape, but soon lost sight of him after the second leap.

"Dude," one of them started in shock, "were we fightin' Superman?"

"I won' say nothin' if you won'."

Once he was satisfied that he lost them, Conner went back down to the streets to walk normally. His hunt for the bomb wasn't over, and he still didn't have any clues about it. After a few more minutes of walking, Kaldur hailed him on the communicator. "What's up?"

"Have you located the bomb yet?"

He gave a heavy sigh. "Not yet. Got hung up by some punks. Do I look like a 'farm boy' to you?"

"I would not know. I was about to rendezvous with you when I caught something on the news radio. They located the bomb in your district."

Conner jerked to a stop, both surprised and relieved. "They did? Where was it?"

"At a bar policemen frequently visit, Finnigan's I believe. The owner found it earlier this afternoon."

"Then how do they know it's one of Joker's?" It seemed just a little too easy. The madman targeted a cop bar?

"He left a signature of sorts there. Apparently this one contained laughing gas."

"Great. That's one down." Conner leaned against an alley wall. With his target now being taken care of, what was he supposed to do? Return to the gangbangers and teach them a lesson about going after metahumans?

"Three actually." This jerked the clone wide awake. Three? "The one I was assigned was found by Gotham PD near an hour ago. And when I informed Batman of yours being discovered, he told me to shut up and let him work on the one he was disarming."

"So all that's left is M'gann's and Wally's?" He looked around for a moment. He was still pretty far from the phone booth zeta-point and technically the mission wasn't done yet. He didn't really feel like going home yet anyway.

"Correct. I am headed towards M'gann's location right now. Apparently she is having difficulty finding the bomb there as well. Care to join us?"

A weary smile came to the boy of steel's face. He knew he'd have to face his girlfriend's wrath sooner or later. Hopefully the continual bomb threat would continue to make it later.

"Just tell me how to get there."

Searching the abandoned theater took more energy than Wally thought. He rubbed his eyes for the hundredth time, trying not to think of his bed back home or the one he borrowed the other night. This place was crumbling to the ground, condemned for a very good reason. And despite it being so old and decrepid, he couldn't find any traces of the bomb he was looking for.

He looked everywhere. From the control booths, to the bathrooms, to the basement. Every closet, every shelf, every box. Heck, he even looked through every row of seats he could get to! And all he could find was people sleeping or strays taking shelter. This was a place for squatters. And every conscious person there wouldn't talk to him, mostly because they were either high or drunk.

The teen ran a hand through his hair as he tried to think of another place the bomb could be. Was Batman's intel wrong about this place? There weren't that many places to look really. And he exhausted all the options he could think of. Clinics, churches, landmarks, everything. The only other option he could see were homes and apartment buildings. That meant waking up everyone in this district and making them search their homes for something dangerous. And trying that was dangerous. Who knew who'd try to be a hero and disarm the thing themselves.

As he exited the building, he walked straight into his shadow, toppling it over. "Hey!"

Jerking himself awake, Wally looked down to where his shadow fell and reached to help it up. "Sorry about that."

"Rule one about Crime Alley bub." A pair of bright green eyes glared up at him. It sent him for a spell, seeing this boy in front of him. Wally knew he was being followed at one point, but lost his shadow before making it into the theater. He didn't know it was a kid. "Don't say sorry. Just get the hell out of there."

Green met green as Wally looked the kid over. Raggedy clothes that barely held onto his frame, growth stunted due to improper nutrition, and body so dirty he wasn't sure what his hair or skin tone really were. He imagined there was red in the kid's hair, but it could have been black too. He was really getting tired.

The speedster smirked in spite of himself. What was this kid doing up so late anyway? "I'm not from around here."

"No duh." The kid took his hand and let himself be pulled up. Judging by his size, Wally guessed he was about nine or ten. Kinda hard to tell with the way he was glaring at him. "Never heard of a cape like you around here."

"Say what?" He gaped at the kid in shock, not moving even as the boy tugged on his hand urgently.

"That's what you are right?" The kid persisted. "And you're looking for Joker's bomb. It was all over the news. This way!"

"Hold the phone here kiddo!" Wally blinked dumbly at this guy. How did he know he was a superhero? Or 'cape' as people on the streets called them. "What makes you think I'm a—"

"It's so freakin' obvious it's a miracle you weren't arrested!" His urgent tugging and glares persisted, dragging the teen out of his stupor. "Now come on! Or the whole street will blow up!"

"The whole street?" Wally didn't need any more coaxing. He quickly moved in time with the kid, determined to work. The boy sped up once he knew he had the teen's attention.

"Yeah. I saw a couple guys yesterday foolin' around the old gas line," he explained. "It runs all down this street. Dagget's guys tried the same thing last year when no one would move out for his mini-mall, so a few of us kept an eye on things. Checked it out after I saw the news earlier. Been waiting for a cape or cop ever since."

"Why didn't you call 9-1-1?" Really, most people would have reported it by now.

The kid rolled his eyes as he guided him around a corner. "Rule two about Crime Alley. 9-1-1s don't work around here unless it's a murder. Ya have more luck catching Batman than gettin' a cop. Us and the 'War Zone' are lost causes. Think only capes give a damn if we live or die half the time."

Wally looked over the boy for a moment, seeing the hardened street kid for what he was. He kind of reminded him of Artemis when she first joined the team, but he also reminded him of Robin. Already this guy had seen too much for his age, but he was going to do what he could anyway.

"You got a name kid?" May as well strike up a conversation with the street punk who'd save Crime Alley.

As they came to a boarded up entrance to an old gas station, the kid grinned broadly. "Yeah, do you?"

Smart-aleck. "Easton. Now yours."

"It's Jason."

A/N: *sqwee!* yay! Jason! I don't use him too much in my stories, and this is probably the first time I've mentioned him in YJ, but he is a crime alley native! Love how Wally's trying to be a detective, gets so close and still doesn't get it. I know in the cartoon he knows Rob and Bat's IDs, but in this little pocket dimension I call 16.23 he doesn't. Because when I first started writing these fics, it wasn't clear whether he did or not. Can't get to a comic store around here. *pouts*

But yay! Jason! Mr. Come back from dead and blow everything up! He's here saving the day! Gotta love Jason. XD

nobody noted earlier how those thugs fighting Conner called him farm boy. *pouts* I love making similarities between him and Clark's real IDs. I make another in the next chapter. til then! ^^V