Alex could not believe that the day was passing so slowly. It was now twelve and time for lunch, before he went to the cafeteria he decided to check the net for any news about the prison transport. As soon as the screen came up a bulletin filled the screen. It read: Prisoner Transport Ambushed: Prisoner Escapes, Five Officers wounded.

"I knew something like this would happen." He growled slamming his hand on the desk and taking a chunk out of it.

"Easy there, tiger." A soft voice said from behind him.

Alex turned to see a girl from one of his classes. She was in a wheelchair and usually attended to by at least one private nurse.

"Alison?" his vision was beginning to blur.

"Yeah, are you all right Alex?" She had wheeled closer to him.

He could see for a moment that she had green eyes and aside from the oxygen tubes in her nose and sickly skin color she would have been rather pretty. She had been in a car accident as a child, an eighteen wheeler with some sort of chemical. The impact had killed her mother and the truck driver, even though she had survived the chemicals wreaked havoc on her immune system. Her eyes went to the screen.

"That was your fathers…" Her voice turned to a whisper.

"Sorry to be such a jerk, but I have got to go." He pushed past her and into the hall.

The building was three stories high and before he reached the third floor the blood was pounding in his ears. He did not know the school too well but he knew that most likely the janitors' closet had a ladder to the roof. He found the third floor closet and forced the lock. Today he was lucky as there was a ladder against the far wall. He paused for a moment and webbed the door shut after locking it and changed into his suit. On the roof he hid and webbed his backpack full of street clothes.

He jumped off the building and began to web-sling to the scene of the escape. As he got closer he could see that the police had it staked out and there was plenty of action around there. It was unlikely that there was anything he could find and even less likely that the police would just give him the information. He landed on a building high above the scene and looked down on it. As he looked down he could picture the scene. The transport had been blocked by two civilian cars that appeared to be broken down, there was a third car behind this barricade that he guess they had left in considering the tire marks leading away from the scene. The police had roped of the area and had evidence markers to make things more organized and helped him imagine the process. He could imagine the transport coming to a halt and then a number of attackers began to assault the vehicle, considering that there was no one dead the attackers had to be good. For a moment he wondered if he was out of his league.

Jumping off the building he let himself freefall to the ground below, allowing the suit to absorb the impact. The one thing that bothered him is that the side streets were too quiet. Clowns should be all over this place, the neighborhood was one that he was just getting too and they were everywhere. He walked through the alleyway that he had landed in and found what he was looking for. Among the rubbish and trash were a couple of pie tins. The clowns were not the type to take an intrusion like this kindly, this was their territory and encroaching upon it either meant a war or a payoff. Considering there was not a painted face in sight, he bet on the later.

He walked down the alley looking for anything that would point him in the direction the clowns went. As he neared the end he saw what he was looking for, an oversized foot print that was clear in the rubbish on the ground. One of the clowns had stepped off the path and into a nearby basement. Upon closer inspection he found more footprints and initials carved into doorway. Looking at the door his spider-sense began to flair. Taking that as a good sign he kicked open the door and jumped in.

Shouts of surprise greeted him as he tumbled through the door and vaulted to the ceiling. Whatever the clowns had been given was good stuff, most were laughing hysterically and only a few were actually aware of his presence. He dropped down, landing on his feet and walked to the clown that appeared be in charge. The clown hair slicked green hair and a purple suit that had seen better days, he was sitting in a high backed chair with two female clowns hanging on him. The clown was still aware of the world enough to notice this new person.

"Spider-man, spider-man, does whatever a spider can." The head clown chuckled. "He can swing and anything, la la la, spider-man."

Spider-Man almost would have preferred a fight, at least then he would be able to take out some excess anger. With a burst of motion he ripped the clown out of the seat and tossed him across the room. The two lady clowns slumped into the void he left. He turned to see the clown had landed on a table, smashing the table and scattering the items that were once on it.

"Listen, clowny, I am in no mood for jokes." He crossed the room and lifted the clown of out the wreckage. "What do you know about what happened today?"

Blood ran down the side of the clowns face and trailed into his loopy smile. "I know nothing."

"You expect me to believe your crew scored some prime goods all on their own?" Spider-Man smacked the clown with the back of his hand. He knew that the clown could not feel it but it made him feel a lot better.

"They said to chill out and we chilled out." The clown was now twisted among three other clowns who were now groaning softly.

"Tell me everything." Spider-Man crossed the room again and roughly picked up the clown.

The clown's bottom lip was split along with the cut somewhere along his hairline and the cheek that had received the smack was bright red against the white paint. When the clown talked Spider-Man could see his teeth were stained with blood.

"They gave us a card and said to talk to their guy." His head lolled as he spoke. "We talked to their guy and then we chilled for the rest of the day."

"Where is the card?"

The clown pulled a card out of his sleeve and chuckled. "It was up my sleeve."

"Today, our business is done. I'll come back in a couple of days and we will talk again." He dropped the clown.

The clown collapsed into heap on the floor mumbling. "Spider-Man, spider-man does whatever a spider can."

Spider-Man walked out of the basement looking at the card. If he knew someone they could run the card and find this 'guy' and from there they could track them. But, and a very big but, he did not know anyone who could do that and again he doubted if Gotham PD would just take the evidence and let him know what happened. His only shot was Batman, and Batman was bound to be around here eventually.

Activating the suits stealth he began to scale the building to see if he could find the Dark Knight. As he crawled higher and higher he saw that there was an older police officer talking to what appeared to be the shadows. Squinting, the suit magnified and he saw that the officer was talking to Batman and as he scanned the building that provided the shadowy alley he noticed the Bat-mobile sitting atop the roof. He jumped off the building, twisting in mid-air and let a jet of webbing propel him to his target. Landing, he only had to scale a few stories. He waited a few moments, knowing that eventually he would have to come for his car. After a moment Batman appeared on the roof.

"I need your help." Spider-Man said disengaging his camouflage.

Batman turned to him and did not seem to be surprised. "In case you haven't noticed there is an escaped killer on the loose."

"I know," Spidey held up the card. "They paid off the local clowns with this, I can't track it but I think you might be able to."

Batman held out his hand. "Thanks."

"No, if you take the disk we do this together." He watched as Batman thought this over and for the first time he wondered if maybe someone was telling him what to do.

"Why should I trust you?" Batman looked at the card.

"Does that thing have room for two?" Spidey motioned to the vehicle that sat waiting on the roof. "I can tell you but I don't like being exposed like this."

"Fine." The Dark Knight turned to the vehicle and jumped into at.

As Spider-Man approached his senses went nuts. He was sucked into the cockpit of the vehicle which was bathed in red light and as soon as he was in Batman had removed the card from his hand. He did not put up a struggle considering that he could do very little with the disk without help. With his computer skills he could have eventually hacked into the records and found out the information he needed but that would take time that he did not have.

"The killer who escaped is very important to me." Spider-Man said through gritted teeth. "He killed my father."

"Alex?" Batman's voice dropped for a moment.

"Terry?" He said leaning forward.

Spider-Man hesitated for a moment and then pulled off his mask, staring into the face of Batman. Even though the other wore a mask it was clear that he was shocked. Slowly and again like he was listening to something Batman removed his own mask. The two looked at each other for the first time, seeing both the men and the masks.

"You are Spider-Man?" Terry said in his normal voice. "But the records show that it was Ben Reilly who took the suit."

"Ben Reilly is an alternate identity I had setup when I was a hacker." Alex said looking at the card Terry was still holding. "Listen, we can have a long talk about all of this but after we catch the guy, alright?"

Terry nodded and slid the card into a slot on the dash board. Pulling up his mask Batman said. "Card inserted." There was a pause. "I know you don't like it but we can trust him." Another pause. "Yes, I've seen him in action. He reminds me of me when I first started." This pause was longer. "He is a smart kid and once this is finished we will all sit down and have a nice long talk, afterwards. What are you pulling up?" He turned to Alex. "I'm talking to the boss, I'm not crazy." He turned back to the dash board. "I've got the coordinates, we are on our way."

Alex pulled on his mask, now feeling a bit out of place with it off. "Your boss, I'm guessing Mr. Wayne?"

"Why do you think that?" Batman asked with Terry's voice was edging in though.

"You work for Mr. Wayne and he took a special interest in my family." He paused. "I've done my research. The three of all have some sort of tragedy in our past. He lost his parents while you and I lost our fathers. I don't know if you can erase my memory, after seeing all your gadgets I don't doubt it, but you can trust me. There is one thing I want to make clear though."

"And what is that?"

"I am not wearing a Robin costume."

With a dry laugh Batman began to flip switches across the dash. "Hold on."

The Bat-Mobile lifted into the sky and rocketed off.