Chapter Three: The Party

(AN: Batman is not mine)

"Ah, there you are Robyn." Germaine said and Bruce and Tim turned to look behind them.

RJ was descending the stairs quickly, her blond hair slightly damp from her shower and wearing clean clothes. She was wearing a pale blue halter top and a white skirt that went to her knees, with a black belt and black shoes. Her hair was still up in a ponytail but now it was brushed and shiny. The look was finished off with a lightweight white jacket that you could see through a little. She was beautiful.

"Hello, Mr. Wayne." She said, smiling at him. He smiled in return, saying "Hello, and happy birthday, RJ." "Thank you, and thanks for coming." "Thank you for inviting me."

Once the niceties were exchanged, RJ and Tim hurried off to the rest of the arriving guests, which were comprised of most of Gotham's elite and their children, for example Mayor Hill and his son Jordan. Unfortunately, there were also some people there that, while it was not a surprise to have there, she would rather not have seen. Oswald Cobblepot a.k.a. Penguin arrived not long after the Hills. "Hello, Robyn, my dear!" He said, kissing her hand. She smiled in reply "Hello, Mr. Cobblepot, and thank you for coming." "It is a pleasure, my dear."

Rupert Thorne also turned up, along with Carlton Ducane. Even Lex Luthor had received an invite.

Her parents had invited most of them, but RJ had said that, as it was her party, she deserved to make at least part of the guest list. Her choices had been, Bruce, Tim and Dick as a family, Barbara Gordon and her father Jim Gordon, Matthew Thorne, brother of Rupert Thorne, Cathy Ducane, Veronica Vreeland, District Attorney Vandorne, Britt Reid and his aid, Kado, whom she had been able to convince to come all the way from D.C., and Clark Kent and Lois Lane.

Most of the people on RJ's half of the guest list were more to counter the people that her parents had invited than out of her own small pool of acquaintances. Bruce, Tim, Dick and Barbara were invited because they were her friends, but the others she had met only once or just in passing. She wondered if anyone would notice this.

Her parents had hired a band and a singer for the night and she almost immediately dragged Tim out onto the dance floor with the other kids after greeting all of the guests.

"Quite an interesting group of guests, wouldn't you say?" Clark asked Bruce as they talked over a glass of wine. Bruce nodded, "I never thought I would see both Thorne brothers in the same place willingly." Suddenly, his eyes narrowed and he looked even more closely at the adult guests. "In fact, each of the more criminally inclined people here has someone to offset them." Clark raised an eyebrow and Bruce elaborated.

"Rupert Throne, Penguin, Carlton Ducane, and Lex Luthor on one side." He nodded to each of them as he said their names "Then on the other side we have Matthew Thorne, Jim Gordon, D.A. Vandorne, and you and Lois on the other." Clark looked puzzled "Do you think someone did that on purpose?" "I don't know," Bruce replied "But I intend to find out."

They fell silent for a few minuets and Bruce's eye wandered over the dance floor, where a slow song was now playing. A small smile came onto his face when he spotted RJ and Tim dancing slowly together. 'Just friends, huh?" he thought, amused.

As they danced, Tim smiled at RJ "Have you been having a good birthday?" he asked. She smiled back "Yep, the best I've ever had." "Excuse me?" Lex Luthor had come over "If I may dance with the birthday girl?" She looked at Tim, who shrugged and said "Dance again later?" "Gladly."

It must have been rather amusing to see RJ dancing with Lex Luthor; he was a foot taller than her, after all. After a few minuets of dancing with Lex, Penguin tapped him on the shoulder and said "If I may?"

Oswald Cobblepot was even shorter than RJ, but she was surprised that he danced better than one would expect. "So, my dear." He said "Are you sure you won't train me a few penguins?" she smiled "Ozzy, you know that I can't, there just isn't enough room for me to train penguins." He chuckled "I know, but I had to ask."

RJ danced with Carlton Ducane, the Thorne brothers, Jim Gordon, Dick, Brit Reid, Clark Kent, Bruce and Tim again before sitting down to rest.

"Your feet are going to be sore in the morning." Cathy Ducane told her, RJ smiled and said "Their sore right now." Cathy, Veronica and Lois laughed as she winced slightly. "I have to say, it's hard to dance with a guy a foot taller than you!" RJ said, the other three smiled and Lois said "Don't worry, you'll grow into them." "I sure hope so."

Lois suddenly leaned forwards a little and asked "Robyn, while Clark and I were both delighted to be invited to your birthday party as guests, I was wondering why you invited two reporters from a different city?" "First off, call me RJ," RJ told her "And to answer your question, you and Mr. Kent didn't act like sharks around me when I made my first appearance. Oh, and if your wondering," she added "I met Mr. Reid a few years back and convinced him to come as well."

Lois smiled at her and RJ found herself liking the woman more and more every second, liking her a lot more than most of the other reporters she had ever met. But RJ had to admit, that what she had told Lois was only part of the reason she had asked the three reporters to come.

Her other, secret, reason for inviting them was because she had discovered a while back that Clark Kent was Superman.

It hadn't been that difficult, but she supposed that being a genius helped her case. She had been twelve when she had become fascinated with how the human mind could be fooled into thinking something just by how an object looked. Optical illusions. Especially with people, who commonly mistook one thing for another, even at close range, along with their tendency to not recognize something or someone when only a few slight modifications had been made to his or her profile.

RJ had realized that even simple modifications to the face could throw off the people with the best eyesight or memory.

Since Superman did not wear a mask while in costume, she had presumed that he would have to use such techniques to keep his identity a secret. Hair and eyes were two of the dominating facial features that could be easily changed in the time Superman would need to appear where he was needed. So RJ had first run an analysis on body type, then skin color, until she had a smaller database of likely candidates to work with.

In the end, the one perfect match had been Clark Kent.

The party went well, with nothing overly exiting happening other than more dancing with Tim. RJ was pleased with most of the gifts she had received: a new video game from Tim, a pair of bright red and black combat boots from Bruce (that had caused some raised eyebrows but it had been obvious that she loved them), a bright red and black trench coat from Barbara and Dick, a top of the line, untraceable lap-top computer from Luthor, and a lot of other cool gifts.

By the time the party was over and the guests went home, RJ knew that the new birds would be in the new aviary and her parents went to bed after giving her the key, as they would be leaving for Tokyo in the morning.

She ran across the grounds at top speed, letting herself into the large dome and looking around. It was beautiful and the birds inside were ones that she did not have in her first aviary. Some of them were so rare that it must have cost a lot of cash to get them out of the country. That must have been why they had been with the shipment of guns, illegally transporting endangered birds was not exactly something you wanted to be caught doing.

Batman retuned to the Falcon manor not long after the party had ended at eleven and all the guests had left.

Landing on RJ's balcony, it being more familiar to him, he was slightly suspicious to find that the doors/windows were open.

Silently skirting the bed, its closed hangings hiding the girl he guessed would be fast asleep by now, Batman had to be careful not to make any noise that might wake her.

Leaving her room, Batman carefully followed the hall to where he knew the study would be, having looked over the blue-prints of the house before coming.

The room was rich, with mahogany furniture and a large fireplace. It was clean, but there was a feeling in the room's atmosphere that said it was hardly ever used. There were a few papers on the desk and he looked through them. Catering receipts. Not what he was looking for.

He put the papers down and began to look through the drawers until he found a manila folder labeled 'Party'. In it was exactly what he had come for; the guest list. Or rather, the guest lists, there were two.

Batman frowned slightly as he looked the lists over. The first one was labeled: Main list. It had the most of the names of the guests it. The second list was much shorter, containing only a handful of names and was labeled Robyns' list. The names on RJ's list were Matthew Thorne, Barbara and Jim Gordon, DA Vandorne, Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Britt Reid, Cathy Ducane and Veronica Vreeland. RJ had invited the people that would most off-set the criminally inclined guests that her parents had invited. Why would she have done that?

Batman suddenly had the feeling that the Falcon family was not entirely as it seemed.

His thoughts were interrupted by the door opening and Pierre stepping in. the elderly man looked startled, but then said "Master RJ is in her new aviary, if she is who you are looking for." New aviary? Suddenly what Blue-Jay had said the night before came back to him 'I know where those are going.' Had the birds gone to RJ's new aviary? And if so, why had her parents transported them with a load of illegal guns?

After a second of thought, he walked past Pierre and headed for the window at the end of the hall. He was going to have to speak with RJ about the order for trained blue-jays she had received before, so he might as well ask a few extra questions while he was at it.

RJ made sure to stay quiet as she walked through the enclosures of birds, careful not to wake them. They were all so beautiful, she could hardly wait to start training them. After a while, she turned and left the building, locking the door behind her.

She was brought out of her musings by a small noise behind her. She turned around and looked into the shadows, but saw nothing. But RJ wasn't fooled, she knew he was there. "Just come out, will you?" she called softly. There was a moment of nothing, and then he materialized out of the shadows.

"Did you come to as about the blue-jays again?" she asked "Yes, you never contacted me." "They haven't been picked up yet." She told him, turning her back on him and heading for the House. She heard him follow close behind and he was suddenly in front of her, cutting off her path. Now RJ was starting to get slightly irritated.

"It takes time to train birds, especially a flock of them, but I'm almost done." She moved to go around him and back toward the house, but he cut her off again "That's not the only reason I wanted to talk to you." He said, looming over her and throwing her into shadow. She raised and eyebrow, "And why else would you want to talk to me?" "Why were there two guest lists? You specifically invited the people that you knew would balance out the people your parents invited." "Because I didn't want anything bad to happen on my birthday." She said softly "Is that a crime?"

He looked at her for a long moment and she forced herself not to fidget under his piercing gaze. She was in his shadow, meaning her face and expressions were obscured, but if they hadn't been, Batman might have seen traces of sadness and bitterness in her eyes.

But he didn't see them as he said "No, it isn't."

RJ tried to fight it but couldn't, and gave a massive yawn. The excitement and sugar-hype from the party was wearing off and she was getting very tired. She moved around Batman and continued up to the house, too tired to care whether or not he followed.

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