Oh my gravy reviewers, I swear you're all psychic. I thought my story was complex and sort of confusing and here you all are making almost correct predictions! You amaze me, here's my love for you with a longer chapter!

Tim scrambled up onto a few crates, hoping it would be enough to slow the snarling and barking hyenas behind him down enough to where he could lose them. It didn't; they were fast creatures and they knew how to climb. He did his best to catch his breath as he jumped down off of the crates and began to run once more down the street.

Someone obviously hadn't fed the wild beasts and they were eager to hunt him down and eat his flesh. The adrenaline kept up his stamina for another five blocks, but he was slowing down. The hyenas on the other hand, were only gaining on him. He tripped, scraping up his knees and elbows underneath the sweatshirt and jeans he'd put on.

He hissed in pain, only to realize the beasts were now surrounding him. Swallowing, he slowly backed up, his back against the wall. One of them leapt with jaws open and ready for the kill.

Tim let out a scream, covering his head with his arms.

There was a shot, a whimper of pain, and a loud thud. Tim uncovered his head and stared in shock at the injured Hyena in front of him. Deciding he wasn't going to waste time, he made his escape through an alley, scrambling up onto a fire escape and narrowly escaping a foot being bitten off by another enraged Hyena.

Another shot was fired and the hyenas decided to leave their prey and retreat, the injured one limping with pitiful growls of pain.

Tim was left by himself up on the fire escape and heaved in gulps of air. Even when he'd been living on his own and in the streets he'd never encountered any animal that big. He hadn't even faced anyone more dangerous than your average thug.

"Tim! Are you okay?"

Tim looked down, staring in to the concerned eyes of Barbara. "Yeah, I think."

"Good. I got one of 'em; let's hope they don't come back."

"Tim? Tim!" a voice called from around the corner in the middle of the street. "Tim!"

"Kon!" Tim called back, hopping off of the fire escape and wincing as it aggravated his knees.

Barbara, still on alert, raised her gun and trained it on the opening of the alley. Kon turned the corner, and immediately froze at the sight of Barbara.

"Hey, put that down!"

"Barb, it's okay," Tim soothed, pushing her arms down, "that's my friend Kon. I called him to help me look for Damian."

"Oh." Barbara holstered her gun and smiled awkwardly. "Sorry, I just shot a… what was that, Tim? A dog?"

"Pretty sure that was a hyena." Tim answered, giving his best friend a nervous look. "I guess that's Gotham for you."

"A hyena?" Kon was instantly coming forward, checking him over. "Did it bite you? It could have had rabies! What was a hyena doing out on the streets?"

"Whoa, calm down! Barb shot one of 'em, so I don't think it'll come back." Tim took a step back from the over bearing boy. "I'm okay, just fell."

"Oh no! Damian!" Barbara took Tim by the wrist and started to pull him towards the street again. "We've got to find him or—wah!"

All at once three bodies landed on the pavement in front of Barbara. Of course, one of the bodies awkwardly tumbled, but managed to somersault back onto his feet.

"Don't do that!" She put a hand to her chest, trying to calm her breathing back down.

"Scare you?" Dick grinned. "Good. We need to—who's this?"

"Uh, this is my—"

"Boyfriend." Jason interrupted Tim, nudging him with his shoulder.

"Best friend." Tim finished, irritation coming off of him in waves.

"Hi, I'm Kon." Kon held his hand out for a shake, but Robin only stared at it. "Who are—oh, you must be Robin."

Dick gave a look to Tim, who only shrugged with a smile. At least Kon didn't know his name. Whoa, wait a second.

"Kon…"

"Kent. My name's Conner, but I go by Kon."

Robin staggered back, mouth agape. He put the current picture of Kon and the Conner Kent he knew together. They matched. He looked to Tim, who made small shakes of his head at him. So that's what the Superboy obsession was all about.

"Uh, are you okay? Did I say something wrong?"

"No," Robin answered awkwardly, "nope, not at all. I just, uh, we need to talk."

"Okay, shoot." Barbara gave Tim and Kon a strange look before looking back to Dick, who was smiling and eyeing Kon like he had a major crush on him or something. It was definitely odd.

"Drake, you're bleeding." Damian poked at one of his elbows, relishing in the pained hiss it brought.

"We heard a scream, you guys okay?" Jason glanced at Barbara, who was running a hand through her red hair.

"We're okay now, I think. I shot one of them, and the rest ran off."

"You shot someone?" Kon's eyes were wide in shock.

"What? No. I shot a hyena." Barbara clarified. "It was trying to eat Tim, so I just pulled the trigger."

Jason noticed the slight changes in Dick; his fists clenched, he stood a bit straighter, and his brows furrowed. He did not enjoy what he'd just heard.

"Hyena?" Dick's voice was sort of strangled, like he was having trouble getting it out. "You shot it?"

"Yeah, in the leg, but it was enough to spook 'em off." Barbara raised her gun proudly. "I've got pretty good aim with this thing."

"A hyena? Are you sure that's what it was?" Dick persisted.

"Yes, what's wrong?" Tim narrowed his eyes. Dick was hiding something. There was some sort of significance to those creatures appearing and he didn't like the sound of it.

"Harley. Oh no." Dick moaned, crouching down, gloved hands tugging at dark hair. "Not good—not freaking whelming!"

"What's wrong? Who's Harley?" Kon frowned. He'd heard Tim mention this Robin kid, but he was acting strange. It was weird—and he'd seen plenty of weird things—to see a kid parading around as a superhero.

"We need to go home now." Dick avoided the question and grabbed Damian by the collar. "Seriously, right now."

"Oh crap! Ma saw me leave but I didn't tell her where I was going! I'm dead when I get home!"

"Go, we'll go home too. Tell your Mom sorry!" Tim shoved him in the direction of the street and waved him goodbye.

"What's going on?" Barbara hissed at Dick, who was struggling to keep a good grip on Damian, who was not enjoying being held onto like some sort of dog on a leash.

"I'll explain at the cave." Dick pulled Damian closer, who growled in response and was about to pull out some fighting moves himself, when the sudden pull of the grappling hook forced him to grab hold of Dick.

Once everyone was safe inside of the Batcave, Barbara was very impressed and like the boys had done earlier that day, began to touch everything she could get her hands on.

"What's with you?" Jason leaned against the still in progress R-cycle.

"Babs, you shot the pet of someone very dangerous! You didn't happen to see anyone with the hyenas, did you?"

"No." Tim answered, applying bandages to his knees and elbows. "I just ran into those things and then they tried to eat me."

"Okay, that's good." Dick paced, soggy boots squeaking against the smooth, cold ground of the cave. "It means Harley hasn't seen you. There's a possibility she doesn't know you did it."

"Who is Harley? Explain yourself, Grayson." Damian ordered, stomping a foot like a spoiled child.

"Harleen Quinzel, psychiatrist turned loon after the Joker set his eyes on her. She's… sort of his girlfriend. The Joker dumps her any chance he gets if she's not useful."

"Who's the Joker?" Tim grunted, tying off the bandage on his right knee.

"He's bad; really bad." Dick turned to them and lowered his voice slightly. "I've never fought him alone and there's a reason for it. He's Batman's number one enemy—arch nemesis really. He hates Batman and—you don't wanna know what he does to his victims, okay? It's not pretty."

"He can't be scarier than Two Face, and you already took him out." Babara pointed out.

"He's worse. A thousand times worse!" Dick tried to find a way to put it into words, but he was failing miserably. "If he's after you, I don't know that there's anywhere you can hide except for here. No one's ever found out about the Batcave."

"No blabbing, got it Gordon?" Damian shoved past her unnecessarily. "This Joker doesn't know about us, we're fine. Now keep your promise."

"What promise?" Barbara put her hands on her hips, glaring down at Damian.

"Golden Boy promised to train us."

"I can't!" Dick shook his head. "Not with the Joker here. There's no way—"

"Look, if the Joker knows about us, the best thing we can do is be able to defend ourselves;" Jason smirked, "and if he doesn't, we still learn how to defend ourselves. Win-win situation."

"You think I'm stupid?" Dick shot back. "The second I teach you something you're going to try to use it on some bullies at school. You're going to want to become heroes."

"What's so bad about that?" Tim cocked his head to the side. "From our perspective, it looks like Gotham isn't getting any cleaner by itself. Wouldn't more crime fighters out there be better?"

"Not you." Dick shook his head. "It's bad enough I took you on patrol—"

"They're right." Babs interrupted. "You could use a hand. If I recall, you were the one who threw a fit when we all said you were too young to be out there. You showed us, huh? You're being hypocritical now."

"This is different!"

"How?"

"I've been training for years! I actually know what I'm doing!"

"Then teach us!" Barbara shot back.

"Whoa, hold it Barbie." Damian scowled at Barbara. "What makes you think you're involved in this?"

"I shot a Hyena, what did you do tonight?" Barbara shot back. "I'm just as capable."

"You'd never be able to take down a bad guy on your own."

"Actually, she's been doing this as long as I have—" Dick blinked when he realized his mistake. "Crap."

"What was that?" Barbara smiled. "What did you say?"

"No way," Jason shook his head, "Wonder Girl over here?"

"It was Batgirl." Dick corrected half heartedly. "But yeah."

"What's going on? What are you talking about?"

"Dick's from another dimension. Where he comes from, Bruce is a superhero called Batman, Dick is still Robin, and now we learned you're Batgirl." Tim filled her in.

"Get out." The look on Barbara's face could have been described as bliss, but bordered more on overly ecstatic and superior. "Batgirl. What kind of powers did I have?"

"None. No one in Gotham has powers. We're just your not so average humans who go out on patrol at night." Dick sighed. He'd really done it now. Might as well give in. "I guess I'll draw up what your costume looked like and give it to Alfred."

"You're really going to teach us?"

"You made a point. Either way, if you know how to defend yourself, you're better off. There are rules to being a superhero, though. If you don't obey, you or loved ones end up dead."

"Like what?" Tim asked, putting the roll of bandages down and pulling down his sleeves.

"Rule number one; always have your utility belt with you."

"We get a utility belt?"

"Do you have any powers I don't know about?" Dick shot back sarcastically. "We're humans, this utility belt is all we've got. This contains your weapons, your grappling hook, your gadgets, and most importantly, it contains your communications."

Dick took off his utility belt and demonstrated how to fold it up to conceal it in a pocket, and then how to activate and use the voice commands.

"Rule number two; no names on the field. The second an enemy knows who you are, it's over. Consider your family dead and your demise eminent. It's unavoidable. Keep your identity secret at all costs."

He was starting to sound like Batman.

"Uh, can we learn the rest tomorrow? It's almost four, and I think Alfred's still up waiting for us." Tim pointed to his watch.

"I have work tomorrow. Shoot, I'm going to be so trashed." Barbara groaned. "Tomorrow then?"

"Yeah," Dick sighed, "See you tomorrow."