“You need to work on your trailing, kid,” Commissioner Drake tells “Batman” as they both stick to the shadows of a dark and dank alley. “You did a good job against the Jury.”
Terry smiles beneath his cowl.
“But that doesn’t change things. Gotham’s done fine without a Batman for the past twenty years. It doesn’t need an upstart besmirching his name.”
“Commissioner Drake,” Terry begins. “I don’t want to besmirch his name. I just want to do what’s right.”
“And you think playing vigilante is the way to go?” asks Tim. “Trust me, that road just leads to pain.”
“And you would know...”
Tim’s quiet for a moment, thinking Terry may know, then shrugs it off as sarcasm. “I’ve seen it before. Gotham used to be lousy with vigilantes. I’ve seen what horrors befall those who work outside the system. Your namesake, he chose that path. He chose to go it alone.”
“What about his partners?” asks Terry. “Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl.”
“The Batman had his allies, but partners? Hardly. He was the boss. He chose how the others operated and more times than not he chose to go it alone. It’s what killed him, ultimately.”
“You sound like you know a lot about the Batman.”
“I knew one of my predecessors before he passed away. Jim Gordon. He was a good cop. And a friend to the Batman, if the Batman ever truly had any friends.”
“You’ve been around, haven’t you, Commissioner?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you have connections to the Batman... and the Titans.”
Tim looks on at the new vigilante, silently staring him down.
“Enough so that Judge and Jury targeted you.”
“What are you getting at, son?”
“The other targets. Hawk and Dove... Arsenal. Former Titans.”
Silence is all that’s heard from Tim.
“I’m not that bad a detective after all, eh, Robin?”
***