It was eerie...even though she had been in here many times before it felt completely alien to her. She looked around the decaying walls; seeing that some plant life was starting to take over the old building. Barbra did know why they hadn't completely torn down the old Arkham building, it had something to do with 'historical significance' and was currently in the center of a lawsuit. Some rich decedent of Jeremiah Arkham wanted the old building restored, so he could turn around and charge admission for tours. It was stupid. Only a few people knew about the lawsuit, and her father was one of them. Of course, Bruce Wayne was a backer of tearing down the damned place; he even funded the new Arkham. She stumbled on some bits of debris, trying her best to keep quiet. It was really eerie. It did feel like something was watching them. She looked around and saw the others obviously felt the same way. Her father, Bullock and Montoya had their guns out and ready to shoot if necessary. Nightwing was quietly scanning all around him, watching the corners and shadowed areas. Batman though, he just marched ahead; not really looking around him. He seemed like he was just walking strait ahead, not caring what came of it. Her dad was right to come along, Bruce was dangerously on edge and if they did find the Joker or Harley here...well, she wasn't sure what would happen. She was almost hoping that they wouldn't find anything.

Everybody looked around the hallways. They checked doors and around corners, ready for anything but the longer that nothing happened the more on edge everyone became. It was odd, usually the Joker would have...presented himself by now. If there was one thing that the Joker was known for, was putting on a show and he loved to be in the center of attention. Knowing what to expect was more comforting, but this...quiet was more unsettling. As everyone checked down hallways and cells, Batman knelt down and looked at the dust on the ground. It had been moved. He couldn't tell when, but somebody had passed through here, he looked up and saw that it faintly lead strait ahead. He stood up and quietly gave out signs to Batgirl and Nightwing. They nodded and started to take higher positions. Jim saw this, and gave his own signals to Bullock and Montoya. They followed him closely, guns at the ready. Batman marched toward the end of the hall, the plaque at the end of the hall read: 'operation theater'. He didn't take any precautions like he normally would have, but just loudly opened the doors. He looked around, and saw the fake kitchen and large building blocks and a hanging playing card. They had been defiantly here. He walked inside and looked around. It was a typical Joker hideout, but it appeared to have been abandoned. He knew that wasn't the case. They were hiding somewhere around here. He'd tear the place apart and drag them out if he had to. He could see that Nightwind and Batgirl were stationed up where the seats of the theater were, ready for anything. Gordon and the others were quietly looking around. Finally, Jim put his gun back into its holster and said as loudly as he pleased:

"I don't think anybody's home. Could it be that they left and abandoned this place?"

"I doubt it," Batman said, "it's not like them to just leave like this."

"The freak has a point Commish," said Bullock, hating that he was agreeing with Batman, "why up and leave a hideout that even Batman wouldn't know about?"

"I don't like it," Batman said, "spread out and carefully look around. If you find anything, speak up." Everyone did, each picking their own corner to search. Bullock immediately went to the kitchen area and typical for him, looked inside the fridge. Montoya was more practical and looked around on one of the balconies that had been converted into a makeshift 'living room'. Batgirl and Nightwing both entered the projection booth. They looked around but there was nothing.

"Batgirl, come over and look at this." Nightwing said. She walked over to him and saw what he was referring to. It was a old projector, much like they use to have in movie theaters before they went to digital. However, this projector had been smashed apart.

"Why would someone smash this thing up," she asked him, "is there anything inside it?"

"No," he said lifting some parts of it off and looking at them, "and I didn't see any spare film reels lying around either. It looks like this was smashed out of anger...probably with a hammer."

"Or a mallet." Batgirl said, piecing together what may or may not have happened.

Gordon had walked over to a large blue curtain and slowly pulled it back. There had been something set up here, but now it was all smashed up. What had been remaining was a old stretcher and some broken bits of lab equipment. He looked around, trying to see of anything that could be of use. He looked down and saw some old surgical equipment and hidden under some broken glass was a bloodied scalpel. He picked up the scalpel with his handkerchief and wrapped it up and put it into his coat pocket. He got up and continued to look around, and spying some blood on the ground. He walked over to it and knelt down. Somebody had been hurt or killed, and he could see drag marks on the ground.

"Batman, you'd better come take a look at this." he called out, but he didn't get a response.

"Batman?" he called out again looking around. He wasn't in the room. Damn it, he had left them alone. He got and called out:

"You two better go find your boss; tell him I found something important." Nightwing and Batgirl jumped down gracefully from the projection booth and ran out, hoping that Batman hadn't found the Joker on his own. They soon could hear someone shifting papers around and looked inside a old office. Batman was inside and was noisily looking through paperwork; very unusual for the dark knight.

"Gordon's found something important," Nightwing said, "I don't think that the Joker is here anymore though."

"Clearly," Batman said very annoyed, "someone's been through here and has taken or destroyed evidence. Someone's covering something up."

"But why," Batgirl said, "why would the Joker and Harley cover up the fact that they've been here?"

"I intend to find out," Batman growled, "keep looking through here and try to find anything important that may tell us were they went. I'm going to see what Gordon wants." He left the office and entered back into the theater, seeing that Bullock and Montoya had huddled around Gordon. He walked over to them and saw what they were looking at. There was blood on the ground.

"What do you make of this," Gordon said pointing to it, "I've collected a sample of it and will have the lab boy's look at it, but I'd figured that you'd want a sample of it as well." As Gordon said all this, Batman had already gathered up some of the blood and stowed it away into his utility belt. Gordon looked hesitantly, not sure if he was willing to share information...then reached into his pocked and pulled out his handkerchief.

"I also found this," he said handing it over to Batman, "I don't know what to make of it, but I trust you'll let me know."

"What is it?" asked Bullock.

"A bloody scalpel," he said quietly, "I don't know what was going on over in that corner, but I'm hoping for the best."

"What," Bullock said, "you think it belongs to Robin or something? That little kid wasn't hurt ya' know." Gordon glared at him.

"We don't know that yet," Gordon said, "and I don't think it's the best time to jump to conclusions."

"Whatever Commissioner," Bullock said angrily, "you go ahead and protect your pet bat as long as you can but you know that he's stepped into it big time this time."

"Bullock," Gordon yelled out, "that's enough!"

"You know it, they know it," he said pointing to the returning Nightwing and Batgirl, "and he knows it! It doesn't take a genius to figure this one out!" Bullock boldly marched over toward Batman, not caring what was going to happen.

"If you'd ask me, he's always been just as nuts as the rest of them and now he's finally gone and got a kid killed for it!" Bullock didn't have time to finish what he was going to say afterward; the next thing he knew was that he was on his back and that the room was spinning. Montoya rushed over to Bullock after Batman sucker-punched him so hard that she saw his head bounce off of the ground once he fell down. She looked at him and was surprised to see him still awake.

"That's enough out of both of you!" Gordon said and much to the surprise of Barbra, pulled out his gun and pointed it at Batman. There was dead silence. Barbra couldn't believe what she was seeing. This was just like that horrible hallucination that she had suffered from the Scarecrow, only this time it was real. Gordon looked hard at Batman and Batman at him. They were at a silent stand off, both waiting to see what the other would do.

"Now," Jim finally said, "it's obvious that no one's here anymore; feelings are raw and on edge. I think it would be best to just walk away from here for now and look at what we have at hand." Bullock tried his best to sit back up with Montoya's help. He looked around and refocused on Batman and saw that the three costumed freaks were leaving.

"Go ahead and try to protect him for as long as you can Jim," he said slurred, "but you know just as well as I do. You know what's going to happen now Jim and you won't be able to protect him anymore." Gordon didn't turn around but said:

"You're right Bullock, for once you're right. If I think who's blood is on the floor there," he said turning back to his detectives, "I won't be able to do anything to prevent it."

The three vigilantes walked quickly back toward the exit. Nightwing was just as mad as Bullock, and he agreed with him. He also thought that the blood on the ground could possibly belong to Tim...if that was true...

"What now?" he asked, not even bothering to mask his anger.

"We go looking for the Joker," Batman said coldly, "I want to check out every known hiding place tonight. I don't want to loose him again, especially if he has Robin. We're going to go press on every mob boss, find every snitch and force any word about the Joker. We're going to make it so hot for him that he'll have no choice but to make his next move."

"And after that," asked Batgirl, "and what if we don't find anything about Robin or the Joker?"

"We rip this place apart until it falls to the ground."

"What about the blood?" asked Nightwing, "shouldn't we find out who it belo-"

"We do this my way," Batman said, "first we look, then we'll find out about the blood. End of discussion." Nightwing clenched his fists. If it really was Robin's blood on the ground...he was only willing to go with Bruce's plan on account that he would be able to bust some jaws to get his anger out. As they left the old Arkham ground he couldn't help but to wonder if they had missed anything important there. Bullock had ended the search really early and normally Batman would just brush off his words. 'It's not so easy to do so when it's the truth though.' he thought to himself. For the first time in his life, he agreed with Bullock. There would be no hiding from the law anymore if Batman had killed a kid...indirectly or not.

J.J. slowly woke up. He looked up at the high ceiling and looked as the world went from blurred shadows to clear vision. He slowly sat up, he was reluctant to get up but he knew that if he stayed any longer he risked having Batman come home and then everything would fall apart. He got out of bed and squinted around in the dark. He couldn't see much of anything so he reluctantly turned on the lamp on the night stand. The light was dim but gave out enough light for him to see clearly. True to his word, Alfred had washed and pressed his suit and the coat hung neatly on a hook on the wall; the rest of the suit was folded neatly on the dresser. He looked at the clean suit and felt better. There was one task completed for him right off the get go. Now all he had to worry about was to sneak out of the cave and find the train station. Easier said than done though, this was Wayne manner after all, home of the Batman. He walked into the bathroom and looked around. There were some cleaning and grooming supplies for guests already on the shelves. Luckily there was some hair gel among the supplies. It was a good thing too because looking in the mirror he could see that his hair was messed up, and it needed to be fixed. He dressed himself quickly, having to dress himself in the suit so many times be started to become use to the different steps. He put on everything except the coat and gloves and went inside the bathroom. He got a comb and turned on the sink, he corrected the parts of his hair that was sticking up with the wet comb and then reached for the hair gel. He could sort of remember how his hair had been, it was some sort of stylized ducktail. Soon he had the same hairstyle he had before, save the small curl. He quickly fixed that and look in the mirror. Yep, there he was. That stupid looking clown kid from before. He'd better get use to that kid, he was going to see him for a long time. He washed his hands and turned off the light of the bathroom and closed the door. Then he turned off the light on the night stand. As he was getting his coat off it's hook did he realize that Alfred had probably re-locked the door. Sure enough when he tried it, it was locked.

He sighed in frustration. Now what? He sat in one of the chairs and thought about it, slowly putting on his gloves as he thought about it. He couldn't kick the door down, Alfred would hear it. He swore that Alfred had just as good as hearing as Superman, if not better. He couldn't try to unlock it as he didn't have any tools for it. He looked out the window trying to think of something...the window! Duh, of course! He walked over to the window and opened it. The moon was still fairly high in the sky, probably making it to be about one or two o'clock in the morning. He looked around and there was a small ledge that he could shimmy across. It would have been out of the question if he had been any bigger though, and he wasn't sure if it was the smartest thing to do, but he climbed out of the window and carefully closed it behind him. He looked down, he had never been afraid of heights before, nor was he scared now. He was more nervous of falling down, now that he didn't have a grapnel to stop his fall. He slowly crept along the side of the mansion, trying to focus on the window ahead. He soon made it over to it and hoped it was open. He slowly opened the window and crept inside, again closing the window behind him. He tiptoed across the room, trying to be stealthy but if Alfred was still awake, then he would surely already know he was out of the room. Alfred always seemed to know whenever he tried to sneak around...it was really frustrating. He opened the door and peaked down the hallway. Everything was pitch black. He entered the hallway, carefully closing the door and trying his best not to make sounds. He soon however came up to his old room. He forced himself to pass it by though, he couldn't risk to stop and look around. He would just have to remember what was in it and leave it at that. He crept down the stairs and down the hallways, trying his best to keep his shoes from clicking on the clean marble floors. He soon came up to the clock entrance to the cave and moved the hands to 3:15, the time that Bruce's parents had died. The clock opened up, and he had never realized how loud it was as it move. He paused and looked around, hoping that Alfred wouldn't pop out from the shadows and scare the living crap out of him. Nothing came from it so he continued down the stairs.

The cave was quiet as well; Alfred wasn't down here or anyone else. 'He must be asleep.' He thought to himself. All the better. It would be awkward for him if they caught him here now. He thought about it, it was a stupid risky idea, but he couldn't resist it. He walked over to the trophy section of the cave and decided to have one last look around. He looked up at the robotic dinosaur, wishing that he had been apart of that case. It was a robotic Tyrannosaurus rex, who wouldn't want to be apart of it? He looked at all the zany and strange contraptions of all the villains had produced over the years. He even walked up to the trophy case that had a copy of Harley's costume. He put his hands on it and wondered if Batman would ever get a Joker suit now that he was gone. Perhaps now that he would know about him, maybe he would get a version of his suit to stand between the two costumes of the Joker's and Harley's?

Probably not.

He tried no to laugh at the thought though, he had to be extra quiet. He decided to take one last look at the costume cases and then leave. He walked over to them and looked at them with so much respect. Batman's costume was bigger than he had remembered it to be. It was bulky and armed to the teeth with armor and internal gadgets. Batgirl's costume favored flexibility over armor, but it was still strong enough to deflect a bullet if need be. Nightwing's costume was a marriage of the two, flexible and strong, but not quiet as the other costumes were. Then there was his. He looked at the bright red of the suit. It really did stand out from the other costumes, didn't it? Batman's was gray and black, Batgirl's was black with hints of yellow, Nightwing's only had a bit of blue on it and his...red all over with hints of yellow and black. He really was a target, wasn't he? He sighed and looked at it. Even though it was bright and colorful, he felt as if he failed what it had represented.

Robin was Batman's partner, not just that but the one who would always cheer him up; kept him from being too serious. That's what Alfred had told him and he believed every word of it...but now. He looked at it and wished he could take it with him. Put on the costume one last time and try to regain it's lost glory...but he couldn't...he probably didn't even fit in it anymore. He sighed and was about to turn away when he remembered that there were always spare utility belts underneath the costumes in a compartment. He opened up the Robin case and sure enough, there was one inside. He took it out and looked at it. He remembered that the Joker had taken his away the first moments he had him and had destroyed, took out something from the wreck of it and waved it in his face...something about how Batman couldn't track him now. He opened a compartment on the inside of the belt and sure enough...there was a tracer. He pulled it out and looked at it. It was true...Batman hadn't really trusted him. He had always been watching him all the time. He knew about them from earlier but Bruce said he had taken them all out. He clenched his fist with the tracer. He never trusted him...he had always been a hindrance to him, to all of them. He tried not to laugh at it, but as he opened up his hand and looked down at the tracer, he couldn't help but to laugh at it. It wasn't the normal one he had...it was a bitter one. He was so stupid in to think that he had been helping. It was truly better for him to leave now and never look back. He would only be a bigger burden on all of them. He put the tracer back into the case compartment and closed it up. He took one last look at it, silently apologizing to it.

There was one last thing to quickly do before he left. He walked over to the computer and accessed to the security cameras of the Manson and cave. He made sure that he put them on a loop that would last for about two hours and then took the past 24 hours of film and deleted them. He had to make sure that Alfred and Lesley would be the only ones who saw him. He didn't want the others to know. He turned back around and headed toward the elevator. He had decided earlier that he would take the Batboat out. It could take him closer to where he needed to go and would be less likely to be noticed that it was gone from the cave. Kind of fitting really, he first came into the cave via the boat and now he was leaving the cave via the boat. He reached the dock of the boat and stopped. He looked at the belt that he had taken. The tools inside would help him one last time and then he would bury it somewhere. He put it around his waist and clicked it closed. It didn't fit anymore. He had lost so much weight that it just fell to the ground when he let it go. He didn't even feel a laugh come on from it, it was so pathetic. He picked it up and opened it back up and closed it around his shoulders and made it into a chest belt. He climbed into the boat and punched in the codes to start it up. As it roared to life he took one last look at the cave. He had been a part of this. He may not have been one of the best, but he had been a part of it. He could at least have some pride in that. The boats lid closed and it started it's way toward the underwater exit.

Alfred woke up at dawn, just as he usually did. He slowly sat up in bed and stretched his still tired back. He had never felt his age until recently, he had always sprung out of bed like a schoolboy and was always on top of things. Now though he struggled to pull himself out of bed and to keep up with the small things, let alone the big ones. Some of his chores were becoming severely neglected. He soon stopped feeling sorry for himself and decided to focus on more important things, like the boy for example. He hoped that Bruce and the others had given that monster a good thrashing this time. He entered the kitchen and started to make a mild breakfast for the boy, thinking that perhaps what he had given him last night was probably too rich for him. As the food was cooking he decided to see if the others had returned home. He looked in Bruce's bed room and could see that it had not been slept in. He sighed and wished that they would hopefully have news today. He had heard Barbra quietly crying several times when she had stayed over and even though Dick thought other wise, Bruce was taking it the hardest of all. He felt lost. He didn't know what to do or say this time, he was worried that perhaps this would be the time he would finally fall into that pit and never come out again. He prepared the bedside trey with the porridge; juice and water for the boy and started up toward the guest room. He unlocked the door with one hand and opened the door.

There was a small lump under the sheets, the boy was still asleep. He set the tray down and opened the windows.

"Rise and shine now young man," he said approaching the bed and taking hold of the blanket, "it's a grand day and-" he flipped the blanket open to see pillows.

"Oh dear," he said out loud, "how did he escape?!" He thought about it. The window! He opened the window and looked down, hoping that he wouldn't see a body crumpled on the ground. Nothing, thank God! He closed the window and searched the room. Sure enough that gaudy suit was gone, and so was the boy. He sighed and rubbed his neck. This sort of stress he did not need. Now he had two small boys to worry about. He decided the best thing to do was to go down into the cave and tell the others about it. They would surely do something about it. He headed down to the cave when he heard the roars of the vehicles arriving back. Thank goodness, he could just tell them now and not have to worry about it. He walked over to them and was shocked. They were all cut and bruised.

"Good lord what happened," he asked them in shock, "was it the Joker that did this to you?"

"No Alfred, it wasn't," said Nightwing tiredly, "we never found him. This is from everyone else in Gotham."

"I'm afraid I don't understand." Alfred said sadly.

"We're trying to find the Joker," Barbra said moving her shoulder, trying to make it hurt less, "we think that he was the one that kidnapped that girl from earlier. We went to every mob boss and every street gang...we even went to Penguins place and told them all that we want the Joker."

"About that you see," Alfred said, "last night I-"

"Alfred," Batman interrupted and handed him something from his belt, "I need you to run these blood samples for me. I need to see who it's from." Alfred looked at Bruce, his cowl was down and he could see the small hint of worry in his eyes. He said no more and took the plastic bag and started the process of analyzing the blood. As the computer did it's thing, he attended to the others, wrapping up cuts and making stitches if need be.

"I honestly can say for a fact that this has been your most reckless endeavor, Master Bruce," he said sternly, "I can't believe you all would go and fight all those people when you all are so exhausted. Most of these are beyond my abilities, I'll have to phone Leslie for them. " Nobody said anything. Alfred looked at them and shook his head and phoned her. The computer finished analyzing the blood and Alfred looked at the results. He turned to tell them and could see that they were all on the edge of their seats in anticipation.

"Who's blood is it, Alfred?" asked Dick. Alfred was surprised at them but calmly said,

"It is the Joker's blood in this sample." Bruce, Dick and Barbra looked at each other in shock and relief but then confusion. It was not what they were expecting. Alfred was more confused now than ever.

"Dare I ask what's going on?" he asked.

"We found that blood in the old Arkham building," Dick said, "the Joker had converted it into this weird 'happy home' thing."

"Yeah, it was really weird." Barbra said. Bruce pulled out the handkerchief that Gordon had given him.

"Gordon found this in some lab wreckage and it has blood on it as well," he said standing up and taking it toward the computer, "I have my suspicions about but I believe it's from another person. I'll run the test myself and see who's blood this is. I hope I'm wrong though." he said, the last bit quietly to himself. Alfred nodded, he already had their missing puzzle piece. The blood was probably the boys. He poured out water in some drinking glasses for them to drink out of.

"I do believe I have your missing link, sir." he said while pouring the water.

"What do you mean Alfred?" Barbra asked.

"Well Miss Gordon," he said turning towards her and walking, "last night I had-"

"Oh my God," Bruce said quietly. Everyone stopped and looked over at him. Bruce was turned to the side of them them with a blank expression. He looked at the paper long and hard, as if he was trying to burn the results away. He finally looked up at them, as if he didn't know what to say.

"It's Tim's blood."

Dick and Barbra had their suspicions, but now that they knew it was still a shock. Dick stood up and was going to say that he would go back and check out the asylum again when he heard glass breaking. He looked over and for the first time in his life he saw Alfred shaking; he had dropped the tray out of shock. Barbra rushed over to him and held onto him thinking he was going to faint. Alfred had gone so pale so fast that even Bruce rushed over to him.

"It's alright Alfred," he said to him, grabbing a chair for him to sit on, thinking that the shock of the news was too much for him, "we'll get him back. We'll find where he is." Alfred was breathing hard and looked like he was going to be sick; he looked up at Bruce and quietly said:

"I believe I had already found him."

Leslie cleaned up the tools she had used to stitch up Bruce's leg. She quietly thought about what was going on and looked at them. She could see that they were suffering in such a way that even she couldn't help with right now. She looked over at Barbra, she was trying not to cry anymore, but was at the computer trying to figure out where Tim could have gone to. Dick had gone down to the training course and was in the process of breaking the robotics in it. Alfred hung his head down, clearly blaming himself and Bruce...she hadn't seen him like this since his parents died. It was a good thing they told her after she reached the cave on what they had learned. After comparing Tim's old blood from the asylum to what she had taken the night before, it was apparent that indeed that boy was in fact Tim. She should have take him that night. She knew better that this. She knew they were all blaming themselves right now, but in the end it was her responsibility.

"I've recalled the Batboat back to the cave," Barbra said quietly, "hopefully he's still inside."

"I doubt it," said Dick finally finished breaking the course, wrapping his bloodied knuckles, "he knows we can do that. Have you found anything in the security files?"

"No," she sighed, rubbing her tired eyes, "he's completely wiped them from the last 24 hours."

"Why would he do that?" Dick asked.

"Perhaps he didn't want to be seen," Alfred said quietly, "he did not want to go with me at first. I thought it was because he didn't know me, but now I know was because he knew me." There was silence for a few minutes, finally Barbra said:

"What about the belt he had taken from the case," she said thinking about how they found the missing belt earlier, "perhaps the tracker is still inside it?"

"I already activated it," Bruce said quietly, "he had already taken it out. It's in the case."

"Why," Alfred finally said, "why would he leave? Why didn't he tell me, tell us?" he said looking up at Leslie. She put a hand on his shoulder.

"I don't know, but I'm not going to rest until I bring him back." Bruce said while putting on his cowl.

"Stop," Dick finally said, reaching the climax of his anger, "just stop. Ok. Stop. I hate to say it, but Bullock was right. You've messed up big time Bruce, we all have. It's time to stop playing the hero and time to call for help."

"Dick, now's not the time for this." was all Bruce said. Dick's eyes widened.

"Not the time!? How the Hell can you say that!? Look at what's happened and tell me again that it's not the time! It's far past time Bruce! You and your stubborn ways have done this!" he said with his chest heaving. Bruce looked at him and said nothing.

"It's time to call in help Bruce. It's just time."

"I know." Bruce finally said. Dick looked up at him, saw that he was going toward the Batmobile.

"Were are you going?" Dick asked.

"To meet a friend," Batman said, but he sounded...defeated, "I want you two to meet up with Gordon back at Arkham. I think the Joker is still there."

"What, you mean hiding?" asked Lesley.

"I mean possibly dead." he said. The lid of the Batmobile closed and he zoomed off. Dick thought about it...it was possible that the Joker was dead, but it seemed unlikely.

"Do you really think that the Joker is dead?" Barbra asked.

"If he isn't," Dick said coldly, "I'll make sue that he won't be able to move ever again. Come on," he said putting on his mask, "we've got an asylum to search." The two sprang onto their motorcycles and left the cave. Alfred stood up and looked over at Leslie.

"Do you think that it's possible that Master Timothy could have...killed the Joker in his escape?" he asked her quietly.

"It's possible," she said to him, "but then again it's also possible that Harley could have done it as well. It seems to me that she may have possibly meant to keep him and finally got angry at the Joker about it. Only time will tell us." she said looking at him. Alfred nodded. He really didn't care about that right now however, all he wanted was to have Tim back home now.

It had taken the rest of the night to sneak back to his hiding spot and most of the morning to find the train station but he finally made it. He had painted his face back up and put back on the clothes and made his way to the station but he was finally here, and waiting for his train to arrive. It had taken some time to tell the ticket man where he wanted to go and why he was alone...but he had convinced via notes that he had a bad cold in his vocal cords and couldn't talk, and that his uncle was waiting for him. He stayed close to a man, seeing that security was watching him after that, but soon they were convinced that he had been telling the truth and left him alone. Thank goodness that people in Gotham were kind of stupid. He looked at his ticked and looked at the destination. Utah seemed like a nice quiet place. Nothing ever happened there; nobody really talked about it either. If he got tired of the heat though, he'd go up to Alaska. Nobody really lived up there anyway. Just someplace far...far away that nobody would think about looking for him. He heard the conductor call out for his train. He couldn't believe that his plan was working so far. It seemed to be running too smoothly. He handed his ticket to the conductor. He looked down at him and smiled.

"First class is to your left; your cabin is on the right of the train." He nodded in agreement and entered the train. He swam his way past all the people on the train and found the first class section. He found his cabin and put the 'do not disturb' sign on it and closed the door and pulled the curtains down on the door. He sighed...he made it, and not one laugh to give him away. He pulled off his mask and pulled down the curtains on the windows. As soon as they pulled away from the station he would maybe open them again. He sighed with frustration. He couldn't believe he was doing this. He hadn't even planed on what to do when he got there. Where would he go? Go up to the mountains and become a hermit? It really was a dumb plan in hindsight, but there was no going back, he couldn't. The train started to pull out and despite logic he opened the window. He had never been on a train before and it was kind of cool. He looked out the window for a moment, taking one last look at Gotham City.

Good riddance.

He pulled down the curtains again and started to take off his extra clothes. He would put them back on around lunch time, take some food from the lunch cart and then sleep here. It was a sleeper train after all. He walked over to the small sink and washed the makeup from his face...it was just so itchy. After about a half hour he tried to read a magazine, but it was one of those boring business ones so he put it back on the rack. He decided to pass the time by looking at some of the photos in his bag. After the third one though...he decided that it was a bad idea and stopped it, too many feelings came back up.

There was a knock on the window. He didn't move. It could have been a tree branch or just his imagination running away again. He heard the knock again. He ignored it. He put his hands over his ears and ignored it. He closed his eyes and tried to ignore the sound. He thought he could hear the door open, ignore it. 'It's just in your head, nobody knows you're here.' He felt someone gently tap his shoulder. 'Ignore it! It's in your head; it's not real!' He felt someone gently move his hand away from his ear. He looked up with one eye open. He closed it again and wished he didn't see what he think he just saw.

"Excuse me," Superman said cheerfully, "I noticed that you have this big old cabin to yourself. Do you mind sharing it with me for a while?" J.J. looked up at him, and Superman sat down next to him on the couch. He couldn't believe it. Really, already caught? He hadn't even left the state yet! He looked up at Superman, but he was too busy looking around.

"Wow," he said looking at the cabin, "this is really fancy, isn't it? It even has a private bathroom! Look," he said pointing to a cabinet, "they even have a mini fridge. Don't take anything from it though, that's were they gouge you for money." He looked down at J.J. and could see that he was confused and upset. He smiled and said:

"I don't know about you, but I'm starving. I'll go get us something, wait here." and he flashed out the room, leaving only a strong gust of wind. J.J. was thoroughly confused now. How did he know about him? Why wasn't he flying him back to Gotham right now? Just as quick as he left, Superman came back zooming in with a plate of food.

"I didn't know what you'd like so I just grabbed one of everything." he said putting the plate down onto the table. He looked down at him again and could hear his heart racing inside his chest. J.J. looked down and covered his face. He couldn't believe it. This was so embarrassing. He felt Superman put his arm around him and he thought it would be heavier than it was, but it felt light.

"Look, I know you're scared," he said gently, "I can see and hear your heart racing, but I can see that you're hungry too. It doesn't take x-ray vision to see that," he looked softly at him, "There's no rush, we'll go when you're ready to go." J.J. shook his head and re-hid his face in his hands. He couldn't go back, why couldn't he understand that? He felt the laughter come back. He had been trying his best but now it was coming out like vomit. He was shaking and he didn't know what to do. He couldn't beat Superman, no mater how hard he tried. He could feel his gloves getting wet from tears; he couldn't stop them. He didn't care. He felt large hands on his shoulders and he looked up, letting the tears flow freely. Superman was in front of him kneeling and looking at him not with contempt or pity, but with a kind smile.

"I can't imagine what goes on in Bruce's head some days," he said to him, "and I can't believe he didn't ask for my help sooner, but I promise you this; if you think he's mad or upset with you it's just not true. I've never seen him like this before. He called me up and begged me to find you, you know. I mean it, he begged me," he said sitting next to him, "I'd never had imagined Batman to ever beg for anything. You know what though," he said looking down at him, "I was angry at him. I still am. I can't believe he didn't ask for help sooner, but when I saw him beg me...I don't know," he said grabbing a muffin, "I guess I haven't seen everything just quite yet." He took a bit from it and mulled over his train of thought.

"I'm going to have a talk with him though," he said looking down at him, "but I want you to know that they have been looking for you since you disappeared, night and day. They want you home." J.J. looked down at his feet. Part of him, most of him wanted to believed Superman...but there still was that doubt. He slowly shook his head. No, he didn't believe him.

"Hey, this stuff is pretty good. Try this thing out," he said handing a pastry over to him, "I don't know what it is but it's great. Try it." He looked up at Superman, then back down at the mystery pastry and ate it. It actually was pretty good, but he didn't really care about that right now.

"You know," Superman said, "I've never been on a train before. Kind of a new thing for me. Pa though, he use to take them all the time. He loves old trains. Let me tell you about the time..."

It was weird. Superman just sat there and told him stories about the justice league and his family; when he was a boy his age and what he would do on summer days. He talked and talked for hours. There were funny stories that unfortunately made him laugh that horrible laugh but Superman didn't seemed to mind, but there were sad stories too. He told him about the time when he had only been about six or seven years old when his dog had gotten ran over by a car and had died. It was obvious that it still bothered him to talk about it. It was really weird, to hear such personal stories from Superman. J.J. looked out the window and saw that it had gotten dark outside. He looked up at Superman, who in turn looked down at him with a smile. There was no fighting it any longer. He sighed and picked up his bag and looked at Superman.

"You ready to go?"

He looked at him and shook his head, no he wasn't ready to go...but what choice did he have? There was no outrunning him. If there was one thing he had learned about super hero's, there was really no point in fighting them head on. He looked up to see Superman but saw that he was gone. He got up and got closer to the door and could hear Superman talking to somebody outside the cabin. He then reentered the cabin and said:

"Sorry about that, I was just telling the conductor that you're leaving. You ready to fly out of here?" J.J. didn't make any movements, he really didn't want to go back. He felt himself being picked up and was nestled in one of Superman's arm.

"Hang on; here we go!" he said. Then it felt like he was on a roller coaster, the kind that you get blasted up from. He looked down and could see that the train was already nearly out of sight. He buried his face into Superman's chest. It freaked him out to be so high up so fast. He could feel that Superman was flying higher and higher and soon he slowly came to a stop.

"Look, I want you to see this."

He opened his eyes and looked around. There was a sea of white beneath them and above them was another sea of stars. He had never seen so many stars before in his life.

"Isn't a great view up here," Superman asked, "sometimes when I feel down, I just come up here at night and just watch shooting stars for awhile." It really was a grand sight to see. He looked up a the stars and he could see that there were shooting stars falling down from the sky.

"Come on," Superman said after a few minutes, "let's take you home and get you to bed." He started to fly towards Gotham, but slowly this time. He looked down at Tim, he honestly couldn't believe that the Joker had done this to him, that anyone could have done this to a child. What he really couldn't believe that Bruce didn't say anything. He wouldn't do it tonight...but he was going to let Bruce know what he really thought about it. For now though, it was best to look up at the stars with Tim, and let them melt the world away.

Thank you all again for sticking around so far! Also, thank you for the review! I really appreciate them! If any spelling errors are spotted, let me know! Thank you and see you soon!