Earlier I wrote a story set in the Young Justice animated series verse, set in the time in between the first and second seasons.  That story can be found here:  “She Likes Taking In Strays”.

I’ve been thinking of the time period after that story… While I’ve got vague scenes in my head, I wanted to write it out as a timeline here, timing it out in the five years between seasons.

Yr 1: 

(“She Likes Taking In Strays”) Selina Kyle, as Catwoman, happens up on a 12-yr old Jason Todd attempting to steal the tires off of the Batmobile as a way to get into the Royal Flush Gang in Gotham City.  Selina helps him steal the tires, but on the stipulation that Jason joins her instead of the gang.

Yr 2:

Selina trained Jason abroad for over a year to become a more accomplished cat burglar like her.  She gives him the official codename “Bombay” on his 13th birthday after he resoundingly rejects “cute” nicknames like “Catboy,” “Catlad,” and “Stray.”  He will endure Selina calling him “Kitten,” though woe be to anyone else who dares to call him that.

While training, Selina instills in him the “code” she lives her life by.  Stuff like:

Rule #5.  Don’t steal from those who are worse off than you.
Rule #8.  Never kill anyone unless absolutely necessary.
Rule #11.  Always be specific when you lie.
Rule #17.  When the job is done, walk away.
Rule #23.  It’s not paranoia if they really are out to get you.

Selina never reveals her rules in any specific order, and Jason’s half convinced that she makes these things up as she goes along just to mess with him.

Yr 3:

At the start of the new school year, Selina and now 14-yr old Jason return to Gotham City, living together as an aunt and nephew in a high-rise apartment.  She enrolls him in Gotham Academy, much to his displeasure, until she explains to him that by going to school with rich kids, he’ll be in a prime position to scout out potential wealthy families as marks.

While at school, Jason is your typical troublemaker, bad-boy, which of course attracts the attention of many spoiled teenage princesses in the private school.  “Aunt” Selina spends a lot of time in the Headmaster’s office because of him.

Jason ends up in a fight with a then 16-yr old Dick Grayson over something pretty stupid while at school, and both boys end up in the Headmaster’s office.  Selina meets Bruce Wayne during this meeting, and it’s during this meeting that Selina sensing a good mark, manages to wrangle a date out of Bruce.

While in Gotham, Catwoman and Bombay make their presences known as they begin robbing various people and places blind, while taunting Batman, Robin, and Batgirl.

(It irks Robin to no end when Bombay shamelessly flirts with Batgirl right in front of him… then confuses the crap out of him when Bombay will switch things up in the same breath and start flirting with him too!)

Yr 4:

15-yr old Bombay stumbles upon a strange boy following Batman in Gotham City one night.  The boy, who looks to be only about ten or eleven, nearly gets himself kidnapped on the street by a guy Jason knows is a child prostitute trafficker.  So Bombay goes out of his way to beat the tar out of the bastard and saves the kid.  The boy is grateful, and lets Bombay take him home, which is in a mansion in the area where Bruce Wayne lives.

Imagine Jason’s surprise when the next morning he sees the kid again at his high school.  The boy’s name is Timothy Drake, he’s only eleven, and he’s a certifiable genius.  Tim’s skipped ahead several grades and is enrolled in the Academy as a sophomore.  High school is hard for Tim, though, in the social aspect.  He tends to get bullied frequently by the older kids.  It’s interesting to note that both Jason and Dick take Tim under their respective wings to protect him, though the bullies are clearly more intimidated by Jason than by Dick.

The more Jason learns about Tim, the closer he gets to him.  Jason can relate all too well to Tim being alone without his parents most of the time.  As they get closer, more brotherly, Tim figures out that Jason is Bombay, and subsequently that Selina Kyle is Catwoman.  Previously, he already figured out that Batman and Robin are Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, but Tim doesn’t reveal that to Jason.

Later on that year, Tim’s parents are kidnapped on their return trip home.  Despite the fact that Jason doesn’t have any fondness for the Drakes because of how they treat Tim, he joins in the search for them as Bombay for his little brother.  This is against Selina’s better judgement.

Turns out her instincts were spot on because the Drakes had been kidnapped by the Joker.  Bombay finds the Drakes, but not before the Joker finds him.

…The scene plays out like “A Death in the Family”, with Jason being beaten to within an inch of his life before being left for dead with the Drakes.  Jason struggles to save the Drakes for Tim’s sake, manages to get Tim’s mother out of the building before it blows up, killing both Tim’s father and Jason.

Batman and Robin show up just in time to see the explosion.  Batman finds Tim’s mother, badly injured from the blast, but alive.  Robin, however finds Tim’s father and Bombay.  He’s horrified and stunned to learn that Bombay was really Jason Todd.

Of course, Selina is told of Jason’s death, and is completely grief-stricken.  Immediately, she goes out as Catwoman and starts hunting for the Joker in order to kill him.  Tim finds out, and knowing Jason wouldn’t want Selina to be hurt or killed, goes to Bruce and reveals the whole truth about knowing that he’s Batman, and that Selina is Catwoman.

Batman tracks down Catwoman just in time to stop her from killing the Joker.  This enrages Selina and she rejects all his attempts to console her, even though he swears that Joker will never be allowed out of Arkham.

Not being allowed to take revenge on the Joker for the loss of Jason, who she had grown to love as a son, eats away at Selina.  She decides that there are some people… horrible people out there (especially those who would kill children) who deserve to die.

Yr 5:

Selina disappears for a year after Jason’s death.  When she returns, she’s no longer Catwoman.  Instead, she has retrained and has reinvented herself as the Huntress.  She’s a colder individual now, focused solely on killing those who need to be killed.

At the same time, Vandal Savage and the Light are interested in manipulating the former Catwoman for their own purposes.  Additionally, Vandal knows that a vengeance-driven vigilante willing to kill could turn into a more serious threat to his plans than many of the Justice Leaguers.  He recruits Ra’s al Ghul/Lex Luthor to resurrect/clone Jason and to leverage him against her.

Title:  Music Memory

Genre:  General

Verse:  None (DCU/pre-reboot)

Rating:  G

Fandom:  Batman

Pairing:  none

Summary:  The piano was bought for Damian, but ends up suiting a different Wayne son far better.  This is a gift for Cr1mson5.

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Author’s Notes:

For those of you following my story “Mockingbirds & Butterflies”, here’s a preview of the chapter I’m currently working on.  I’m not sure when I’ll be done with this chapter, but I wanted to let my readers know that it is in the works and not forgotten on some backburner somewhere.

So here’s the first part of the upcoming Chapter 3…

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Title:  When You Wish Upon a Star

Genre:  General

Verse:  Paradox Lounge

Rating:  PG-13

Fandom:  Batman DCU (not DCnU)

Pairing:  Tim/Tam

Summary:  A year has passed since the most recent tragic night of Tim Drake’s life occurred.  When he makes an impossible wish upon the only star he can see in Gotham’s pollution choked night sky, logically he doesn’t expect it to come true.  However, when it comes to wishes and the granting thereof, “logic” is usually the first thing that goes out the window.

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afewnovelideas:

angel-gidget:

3) Tam dying for Tim.

It’s not supposed to be this way. He is supposed to take the bullet for her. Not the other way around. But here he is, once more, just a moment too late. One more person dear to him about be six feet under. But even though he can see both her lungs are punctured, and she’s bleeding out in his arms, the flicker of her eyes and the determined line of her mouth tells him all he needs to know.

For all his regrets…

… she has none.

((Oooh… I know ya love me. Wicked tormentor, you. ;p )

Reblogging this because I just saw this old ask involving two of my favorite bloggers here on Tumblr tonight, and it sparked an idea for a story that I really, REALLY need to write!!!

It’s amazing what a short piece like this can inspire.

*hugs both Gidge and Cr1mson*

Now to the plotting notes:

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afewnovelideas:

Came up with a new crossover concept to possibly explore later.

The idea?  A Batman/Warehouse 13 (SyFy original television series) crossover exploring an alternate explanation about why Tim Drake’s parents were hardly ever in his life…

---

Tim Drake is furious.

While he was out of town working with the Titans, someone broke into the building where all his parents’ belongs were being stored.  Mysteriously, the only thing taken was trunk containing an assortment of souvenirs they had collected on their travels around the world.  It infuriates Tim because some of his few fond memories of his parents as a child were hearing all the wild, made-up stories of all the Indiana Jones-styled adventures his mom and dad had to go through to find them.  He wants them back!

Even more mysteriously, the theft attracts the attention of two federal secret service agents, Agent Myka Bering and Agent Peter Lattimer. 

While trying to run his own investigation as Red Robin, while at the same time being forced to work with Myka and Peter, Tim inadvertently learns about Warehouse 13.  When he goes searching for answers and eventually meets Artie (Arthur Neilsen), the Warehouse’s custodian…

Artie:  Timothy Drake?  You’re Jack and Janet’s son, right?

Tim:  *confused*  You knew my parents?

Artie:  Of course I did.  They were two of the finest agents I ever had the pleasure of working with.  They were two of my dearest friends.

Turns out, the reason Jack and Janet were constantly traveling around the world wasn’t for their business.  In reality, they were Warehouse 13 agents.  The two of them had originally met when they were first assigned to the Warehouse and fell in love there.  After marrying, they both “retired”.  However after Tim was born and had gotten older, there was a sudden influx of active artifacts and they were reactivated by Mrs. Fredric herself because the Warehouse had become very short-staffed in those years.  Jack and Janet also secretly harbored a desire to bring Tim into their work and the Warehouse once he was older. 

Artie:  *sighing*  Janet always wanted you all to work together as a family here.  She was literally counting the days until she could bring you to the Warehouse.

When Janet died and Jack was paralyzed, they were on a Warehouse assignment to recover an artifact from a voodoo witchdoctor. That particular artifact was never recovered.

After losing Janet, Jack retired for good from the Warehouse.  No further contact was made between Jack and Artie.  Arthur only learned of Jack’s death through a news report years later.

The “souvenirs” that were stolen from Tim’s storage were supposedly benign artifacts that his parents never brought back for storage at the Warehouse.  They were going to use those things to eventually introduce Tim to the existence of artifacts and their work. 

While trying to process everything he’s just learned about his parents’ secret life, Mrs. Fredric approaches Tim in private.  Somehow, mysteriously, she knows about his own dual life as Red Robin, and his history working with Batman.  She believes the combination of the skills he’s developed as a crime-fighter and detective as well as his own pedigree as the son of two stellar Warehouse agents would make him an ideal candidate to become an agent himself.  Tim is firm in his refusal, at first, but Mrs. Fredric is very good at planting tempting seeds of doubt.

Tim:  I don’t have time to work for you people.  I have too many responsibilities in Gotham.

Mrs. Fredrick:  But it is what your parents wanted for you.

Tim:  …

Mrs. Fredrick:  You could use this opportunity to learn more about them.  Learn about who your mother and father really were.  *waves to the greater interior of the warehouse*  Everything they were, all the things you never knew about them, is on those shelves out there.

This is all I have in my head right now.  We’ll see if I take it anywhere later…

Stuff that’s been coming to mind as my imagination plays in the DC/WoW!verse sandbox:

• One of the first real friends Tim makes when he first arrives in Azeroth is Anduin Wrynn, the crown prince of Stormwind.  When they first meet, Anduin is twelve and Tim is seventeen.
• Anduin is the first to sense a strong potential connection with the Holy Light in Tim, despite being from another world.
• Tim spends his first year on Azeroth traveling around the planet, looking for leads into possible avenues home. 
• The first place he starts looking is the capital of the Draenei, since they came to this world via space travel.  That option is negated because the original dimensional ship, the Exodar, was too badly damaged upon their crash landing, and there is no way to create a new ship.  Through records on the Exodar kept by the Draenei and Naaru, though, he learns exactly how far away Azeroth is from Earth.  Simply put, it is insanely far.  Azeroth’s galaxy isn’t even on the map for the known interstellar sectors routinely patrolled by the Green Lantern Corps.
• The second place Tim goes to do research is to the continent of Northrend and the floating city of Dalaran.  He goes there to see if magic can be used to send him home.  Unfortunately, creating a portal to Earth would require a great amount of energy.  Without resorting to using massive amounts of demonic energy, like the Burning Legion is doing, the only other options would be to tap either the Sunwell or the Well of Eternity, and neither of those will ever be an option.
• A third option Tim wants to investigate are the ruins left behind by the Titans, the creators of this world and possibly others.  He wants to investigate the various ruins, like Ulduar, Uldum, and Uldaman, but he is not equipped to explore them on his own.  They are infested with creatures too strong to face alone.
• After attempting to scout out Ulduar on his own, Tim ends up getting drawn into the conflict between the Argent Crusaders and the Scourge in Northrend.  He fights along side the Crusaders, who bear the same banners as the people who saved his life.  It is here that he first meets Tirion Fordring.

(I couldn’t resist… Plot bunnies have hijacked a muse for their own… DC/WoW!verse)

Prompt:  Alone in Shattrath City

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afewnovelideas:

With my husband playing Warcraft a lot lately, and myself having been out of that particular game for long enough that I’m starting to be tempted back in, I’ve been crossing over the original DCU-verse with Warcraft-verse in my head.

1.  It starts off with Tim Drake reaching the end of his rope with his life and the way it’s been with really rough with his family, friends, his work as Red Robin, and his non-existent real life.  He’s extremely frustrated.

2.  Late one night, while investigating a strange new cult called the Burning Shadow that has been rising up within the world, Red Robin discovers a mysterious portal at the heart of their stronghold in Gotham City.  Before he can report to anyone about it, he’s attacked by a demon.  Red Robin is not at all prepared to hold his own against a demon and is mortally wounded.  However, before the demon can land the final killing blow, a creature of light appears from the portal and strikes down the demon.  Red Robin falls unconscious.

3.  When Tim wakes up, he’s in a strange place.  His wounds, amazingly, have been completely healed.  Eventually, he is introduced to a human wizard named Khadgar.  Khadgar tells Tim that he is in a city called Shattrath, in the remnants of a planet once called Draenor.  From the old man, Tim learns what happened back in Gotham…

4.  An evil demonic force called the Burning Legion has been seeking other worlds to invade.  From a portal located in a region within the Outlands (the remnants of Draenor), the demons had created a doorway to Tim’s world and were sending scouts ahead of them to prepare for invasion.  Forces fighting the Burning Legion, called the Sha’tar, were sent to intercept the demons and close the portal.  Tim had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time.  The glowing creature who’d saved him had been one of a race called the Na’ru.  That Na’ru was named Xi’ri.  After seeing how badly Tim had been injured, Xi’ri brought the young man to Shattrath for healing.  Unfortunately, for the sake of Tim’s world, the portal had to be destroyed almost immediately afterwards.  For the time being, there is no way to send Tim home. 

5.  Tim is shocked and dismayed to learn that he’s been stranded on an alien world.  He doesn’t know what to do.  Khadgar suggests that he might feel better living among humans on his own homeworld of Azeroth until he gets his bearings.  He sends Tim through a portal that takes him to the human city of Stormwind, with a message from Khadgar to the King requesting sanctuary for the young man.

6.  Years are spent by Tim in Azeroth.  Timeline-wise, Tim enters this world during the events of the “Wrath of the Lich King”.  For the first year, Tim drifts aimlessly.  He feels without a purpose, and while he does strive initially to seek a way back home through science or magic, once he realizes how hopeless an endeavor it is, he sinks into depression.

7.  He eventually meets Tirion Fordring, the leader of the Argent Crusade during his wandering.  Tim feels more at ease around Tirion’s commanding presence than anywhere else in Azeroth.  He has an inner strength that reminds Tim of Bruce, but exudes a sense of light and hope that the Batman never did.  Alternatively, Tirion sees echos of his own murdered son’s spirit and desire to do good for others within Tim.  When Tirion offers to take Tim under his wing and train him in the ways of the Paladin, as a way to both fight evil and heal the sick and injured, Tim accepts.

8.  Tim becomes an exceptional Paladin.  It suits him exceptionally to have the ability to both fight evil forces and heal others.  While, in the past, he had never been a religious person, practically an atheist at times, the concept of “The Holy Light” that powers many healers in Azeroth is something that he can embrace whole-heartedly, as it doesn’t rely on the worship of any deity.  He also appreciates immensely the fact that he can do good work as a Paladin, and not have to hide his identity.

9.  5-10 years (?) after being stranded in Azeroth, shortly after the events of Shattering right before Cataclysm started, the Burning Legion manages to create another portal to Earth, this time from a location in Azeroth, not the Outlands.  Due to the complexities of cleaving portals through time and space, only a few weeks have passed on Earth since Red Robin went “MIA”. 

10.  Tim’s family and friends had been frantically searching for him since he went missing when the first portal in Gotham City had been destroyed.  When the new portal is discovered, Batman and Robin go to investigate it, but happen upon a conflict between the Legion and the Argent Crusade already in progress.

11.  Batman and Robin both help the Crusaders defeat the demons, though Robin is hurt badly in the process.  Tim, the Paladin leading the party, keeps his helmet drawn down hiding his face even as he heals Damian’s injuries, much to the boy’s amazement.  Tim, though was initially thrilled at having finally found a portal leading back to Earth, was shocked and almost horrified to see that so little time had passed on his homeworld.  He’d been gone for years, and clearly it hadn’t been that long if Damian was still 10-11 yrs old.

12.  Still, when the other Crusaders try to set the charges to destroy the portal, Tim orders them not to, convincing them that they need to inform this world’s protectors of the danger of the Burning Legion, in case they (the Argent Crusade) cannot stop an invasion from happening.  So, his voice distorted by his helm, Tim advises Bruce to collect a diplomatic part to come to the portal within three days’ time, while take that same time to secure the portal for their own use.

13.  The diplomatic party from the Justice League is gathered and they are escorted through the portal to Azeroth and are eventually brought to the Argent Crusade base and Tirion Fordring.  They are led by Tim, though he keeps his helmet on.  Something about this Paladin makes Bruce and Damian suspicious, but nothing they can voice specifically.

14.  After the initial meeting with Tirion, once they are guests in his home, does Bruce and Damian finally see Tim.  Tirion recognizes Batman and Robin immediately, since Tim told him all about them when he was younger.  The older Paladin arranges a reunion with the reluctant Tim.  Bruce and Damian are both, understandably, shocked by the changes in Tim.  However, Bruce is still very much relieved to see his missing son alive and well.

15.  Once Tim is revealed to the others, it’s Tim who leads the others in a tour of Azeroth and Outlands to show his old friends and family exactly how big a threat the Burning Legion is to Earth.

—-

And that’s all I have.  This plot bunny sprang to mind, and I had to write it.  It’s not really a cohesive story.  I’m not even sure if I’ll flesh it out into something more substantial later.

I think I’ll leave this just as a separate DCU/WoW!verse that others can possibly request short story prompts from.

In my head, as a Paladin, Tim wears a set of armor that resembles the Judgement Armor set in WoW.

He’s also traded using a bo staff for a sword and shield as his primary weapons.  Tim’s strength comes from his healing, though.  After all the loss he suffered in his life, learning how to heal was something he put most of his focus into during his training.

cross-posting to keep a copy of this on my writing journal.

Last night, when I watched the season finale of White Collar, I saw the scene of Neal leaping across from the roof of one tram to the other while both were in mid-air above the water like it was practically nothing…

First thought in my mind was “Good lord!  How can you NOT be an ex-Robin in canon?!??!?!!”

• After “retiring”, during his winter breaks between years at university, instead of heading home to Gotham, Tim would fly down to New Zealand and surf on the beaches there.  At first it was just an excuse to stay away from the States during the holiday season.  Turns out, he enjoys surfing and has become an accomplished surfer.  He also spends at least two weeks of summer break a year in Hawaii.  Conner has no clue that Tim summers in Hawaii.
• Tim has not set foot in Gotham since he was eighteen.  Only a request from Alfred would get him to return to that city of his own free will, though the old man has refused EVERYONE who’s asked him to do so.  Bruce and Dick only finally stopped asking Alfred a year ago.
• Tim’s become very good at cooking.  Alfred’s actually entrusted a number of personal recipes to him.  So, when eventually Alfred dies, the only person who can replicate any of his pastries/meals will be Tim.

• Donna Troy’s first marriage happened when she was 19.  Her husband, Terry Long, was just an ordinary human.  Together they had a son, Robert, a year later.  
• Donna’s marriage suffered because Terry had a severe inferiority complex regarding his wife as both an Amazon princess and a powerful, famous vigilante.  He became emotionally abusive to her out of jealousy and bitterness.  After being married for three years, they filed for divorce and planned to share joint custody of their son. Before the divorce is finalized, though, Terry and Robert are killed in a car accident.
• The car accident was exactly that.  An accident.  Terry was driving Robert to preschool.  A person who was driving in the opposite direction in the lane next to theirs was coming off of a graveyard shift and fell asleep at the wheel.  Their car veered sharply into the oncoming lane of traffic.  Terry had no time to react.  He died at the scene.  Robert died at the hospital a day later from his injuries.
• Losing Robert like that devastated Donna.  She secluded herself for a whole year in Themyscira.  She changed from her red Wonder Girl outfit to the black, star-studded Troia one when she returned to work out of grief.
• The emotional abuse Donna received from Terry colored her view of most men for the worst, especially mortal men.  There are exceptions, of course, among the men she grew up with and view as brothers.  She can be friends with men.  However, when anyone shows interest in her for dating or romantically, she either backs off or lashes out. 
• She also treats men who are known or seen to be abusing women, either physically or emotionally, very harshly.  In her first year returning to work as Troia, she put several of those kinds of men in the hospital.

• Receiving Tim’s daughter was the best thing that could’ve happened to Donna.  She semi-retired from working as Troia until the little girl turned five just so she could spend all her time being a full-time mom on Themyscira.
• Everyone else, outside of the Bat-family and Donna, thinks that the girl was just an orphan that she found and adopted on her own.  Not even Diana (Wonder Woman) knows that the girl is Tim’s daughter.
• No one outside of the Bat-family, certain members of Ra’s al Ghul’s closest inner circle, and Donna knows that Tim ever had a child.

• Tim leaned heavily on Steph, Cass, and Tam for support in the year after giving up his daughter.  They even went so far as to go to university with him in England.  Steph, Cass, Tam, and Beryl (Squire) shared a loft together.
• Those were interesting few years in Europe…
  
• The situation surrounding Tim’s rape and his daughter effectively killed any potential for a lasting romantic relationship between Tim and Tam.  However, they remain extremely close friends (as close as Dick and Donna are to one another).
• Tim introduced Tam to the man who would become her future husband (one Mr. Virgil Hawkins).

• The reason Tim has been estranged from Bruce is [CLASSIFIED].
• It happened in England, during his second year in university.
• No one else knows about this event except for Jason Todd.
• Jason knows some of the secrets that Tim is keeping from the majority of his family.
• In exchange for Jason’s help, Tim gives him access to MoneySpider/Lonnie as an information broker.

That’s all I have for now.  I had to write something out.  I’m working on the next chapter, but because of real-life stress I haven’t been able to finish it.  It’s in the works.

Title:  Mockingbirds & Butterflies - Chapter 2

Genre:  General/Drama/Family

Rating: PG-13

Fandom: DCU

Pairing: ???

Word Count:  ~2880 words

Summary:  The Friday after being visited by his estranged father, Tim’s eldest brother Dick delivers the two people who are going to be sharing his home for the unforeseeable future.  However, Tim was not the only one kept in the dark until the last minute regarding this development.

Previous Chapter <—————> Next Chapter

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darkestelemental616:

infectedscrew:

Every once in awhile I like to remind the world that DC royally destroyed this particular character’s life. In a span of three years (from the age 13 to 17), this is a bulleted list of all that happened to Timothy Jackson Drake:

• Experienced the death of his mother, role model/idol (Jason Todd).
• Witnessed the death of his father, mentor/guardian (Bruce Wayne), best friend (Irving), best friend/team mate (Conner Kent), best friend/team mate (Bart Allen), role model/leader (Donna Troy), role model/leader (Clark Kent) and former girl friend (Stephanie Brown).
• Witnessed the return of Jason Todd, Conner Kent, Donna Troy, Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, Stephanie Brown and Bart Allen.
• Witnessed the nuclear destruction of a city (Bludhaven).
• Witnessed the destruction of home city (Gotham), twice.
• Attempted to fight for and protect another heroes city (Bludhaven & Central City).
• Was almost murdered by a former role model/idol (Jason Todd), twice.
• Ran a Fortune 500 company.
• Attempted to search for a mentor/guardian (Bruce Wayne).
• Successfully battled three Gotham Villains (Bane, Joker & Scarecrow).
• Protected Gotham for a full year without Batman.
• Trained under the world’s greatest female assassin for four months (Lady Shiva).

Despite all of that Tim Drake managed to remain dorky, cheerful and sarcastically optimistic. Even taking time out of his day to help Dick Grayson (after being left at the altar, getting raped and losing Bludhaven to a nuclear bomb), Bruce Wayne (searching for him after his death), Jason Todd (trying to convince the vigilante community that the man in question wasn’t that bad) and Damian Wayne (who proceeded to break his arm and put him into a coma for two weeks).

I understand that this is comic book time. But… Three years to experience all of that? And yet, for some reason, he is widely considered weak, pathetic and over-emotional?

I apologize but Timothy Jackson Drake is my favorite DC character of all time. And is, in my opinion, one of the strongest.

No wonder he gets so damn paranoid and assholish in Red Robin. That’s a hell of a lot for a guy to go through.

Don’t forget also dealing with Azrael on top of all that.

Jesus Christ.

I think this is why, in many of my fanfiction stories set in the DCU/Batman verse, I prefer to give Tim happy endings where life actually gives him something back.  Sure he may go through another level of hell before he gets there, but I can’t, in good conscience, write him through that kind of trauma/grief/damage without giving him something back that he so desperately needs.

In “To Watch the Sun Rise,” his happy ending was a steady, stable relationship with the woman he loved.

In “Confidence Lost,” his happy ending was finding his family and getting his sense of self back.

I’m not sure what I have planned for him in the stories I’m writing right now, but I suppose the only thing I can be certain of is that the more he suffers in my tale, the greater the reward he’ll have waiting for him at the end.

1. At the time of this story, Tim’s about 25-26 years old.  Seven years have passed since the events of “Innocence Lost”.
2. His current day job is as a high school math teacher, focusing on teaching college/AP math courses, like Calculus.  He’s currently in his second year of teaching.
3. Tim’s night job is as the covert commander of the reestablished Secret Six mercenary group.  He’s actually been working on this incarnation of the Secret Six for going on five years, though the group itself has only been active on missions for the past three.
4. Amusingly enough, Tim is the first and only son of Bruce Wayne who’s finished college.  He’s got a PhD in Mathematics from Cambridge University, where he also minored in robotics.
5. Tim currently lives in New York City in a lovely brownstone home in a historic neighborhood a few blocks away from Central Park.
6. He wears glasses now because he developed myopia (near-sightedness) while at university.  Initially, Tim chose to get glasses instead of contacts because he was curious if the “Clark Kent” effect would work on him as well.  When people rarely recognized him as “Timothy Wayne” with the glasses on while out in public, he was quite pleased and so the spectacles stayed.
7. Tim has disassociated himself almost completely from the Wayne name, even though he is still legally Bruce’s adopted son.  He’s never used the “Wayne” name once since going to university.  The only person at the school he works at who knows about his family is the principal.  For a few years, there was a big thing in the society gossip columns about wild rumors of how “Timothy Wayne” had a huge falling out with his adopted father.  While in university, he had a few issues with the paparazzi stalking him.  Enough time has passed, though, and his life has become mundane enough now that he never gets pestered by them, which suits him just fine.
8. Unfortunately, Tim has not had any sort of serious relationship since leaving Gotham.  The rape he suffered scarred him badly when it comes to relationships with women in general.  He doesn’t date.  He goes to great lengths to avoid casual physical contact with most women.  Aggressive women who try to come on to him in public settings ALWAYS put him on the defensive.  If ignoring them doesn’t get them to back off, he will not hesitate to verbally lash them into pieces to send them packing.  He will almost always feel bad about it afterwards, though.
9. The only people Tim remained close to and in contact with after leaving Gotham were Alfred (who he calls “Grandfather” now), Dick, Cass (Cain), Steph, and Tam.  When he made it clear that he wanted to return to civilian life, many ties he had with people in the Justice League and Titans were severed in a “burning bridges” fashion.  For reasons not yet clear, Tim and Bruce did have a bad falling out over something while he was in university and they have rarely spoken with one another over the years because of it.
10. The only people among Tim’s friends & family who know about his rape and the daughter he gave up are Bruce, Alfred, Dick, Damian, Barbara, Cassandra Cain, Stephanie, Tam, and Donna Troy.  Only they know that this was the real reason why Tim “retired”.  Others in the Justice League and Titans know something bad happened to Tim because of the League of Assassins… Something bad enough to “break” him.  However, no one was ever able to learn the details, and no one in the Bat-clan was ever going to tell them the truth.

…because I’ve already got enough in progress to worry about, but I need to write it down or else I’ll forget.

Batman/Silent Hill crossover
Bruce returns from an international trip to find out that some of his “children” are missing.  It started with a simple distress call investigation that Damian, Tim, and Stephanie went to check out in a town called Silent Hill.  Now Bruce and Dick must head into Silent Hill to find out what happened.

Plot bunny tracks…

As the air raid sirens blared ominously, Dick noted that Tim and Steph were running as fast as their legs could carry them.  It was actually hard to keep up with them.

It was as if they’re running for their very lives.

“Hurry!” Tim screamed back.  “Before it gets dark!  Run!  Run!”

Only then did Dick notice the atmosphere.  The mostly fog-ridden town was getting darker, but not in the normal way of dusk or nightfall. Suddenly, he noticed that their footsteps sounded different.  Looking down at the ground, he’s horrified to find that the pavement they all were running on was transforming into rusty worn metal plates and grating.

At least, he hoped that the dark red stains on the metal were rust.

Stephanie was the first to reach the church, an old whitewashed wooden building that looked more frail than any other structure Dick had seen since arriving in Silent Hill.  Its pale countenance stood out starkly against the darkening backdrop.  She desperately clawed at the door, struggling to get it to move.  Only when Tim joined her did their combined strength pry the entrance open.  As soon as they could, the two of them practically dove inside, and once Dick was inside as well, Tim dragged the door shut with a resounding slam that seemed to rattle every stained glass window in the building.

Dick’s lungs burned as he struggled to catch his breath.  While he stood there in the foyer, he looked around to take note of their surroundings. 

Clearly this building was one that Tim and Steph, at least, had been using as some sort of makeshift safe house.  Supplies such as medicine, food, water, and weapons were stockpiled among the pews, obviously scavenged from around the town.  It confused Dick, though.  From all appearances, it looked as if Tim and Steph had been collecting supplies over a week or two, when he was certain they’d only been missing for about twenty-four hours.

Then a sound from outside the church caught Dick’s attention.

Footsteps…

Heavy lumbering footsteps…

Scraping metal on metal…

Like someone dragging something heavy along the steel plated metal ground…

Dick turned towards the door.

“Don’t open it.”

He looked back to see that Steph and Tim had moved themselves deeper the church’s interior and had curled themselves up underneath the altar.  Dick was honestly surprised that Steph’s desperate whisper had reached him from all the way over there.

It was the first good look Dick had gotten of the two of them since he’d found them.  Their street clothes were ripped and torn in places.  Their faces and hands were dirty as well.  Their eyes were heavily shadowed, as if they hadn’t slept for days.  They looked like terrified children who’d just woken up from a nightmare and were trying to hide from the monsters plaguing their dreams.

Tim shook his head.  “Stay away from the door,” the young man whispered in a tone similar to Stephanie’s.  “Please… Just stay away…”

Dick looked back at the door.  He noticed an old fashioned keyhole.  Against the whispered pleadings of the teenagers behind him, Dick knelt down and put his eye against the keyhole.

Beyond the tiny metal window to the world beyond the church, Dick caught the vague outline of a massive bear-like man dressed in a bloodied butcher’s apron.  Where his head ought to have been, though, was a huge metal pyramid with no features… No eyes… No mouth… In his right hand, Dick swallowed hard as he caught sight of the massive butcher’s knife nearly as big as he was, dragging along the ground and leaving a thin trail of blood in its wake.

Suddenly, the pyramid-headed man stopped.

Its head jerked around to Stare. Right. At. Dick.

Dick barely leapt back from the door in time as the massive butcher’s knife skewered the door.  As the sound of Tim and Steph terrified screams filled his ears, Dick felt his heart leap to his throat at the sight of the tip of the blood-streaked blade, which had stopped just inches from his head.

Within the church, the blade of the knife began smoldering.  Slowly it was retracted.  When the knife had completely vacated the building, the gaping hole it left behind disappeared, as if nothing had pierced the door in the first place.

The only evidence left behind that anything had even happened was the uncontrollable tremble that wracked Dick’s whole body and the frightened sobs of Tim and Stephanie at his back.

Batman/American Vampire crossover
Tam Fox has the misfortune of falling into a trap set by the League of Assassins and ends up being killed by Ra’s al Ghul as punishment/a message for Red Robin.  However, unfortunately for the League, the trap they spring happens in the view of a dark fellow named Skinner Sweet.  Out of a morbid sense of humor and desire to stir up a new brand of chaos in Gotham City, Skinner revives woman as a very unusual breed of vampire… A vampire who has no weakness against sunlight, holy artifacts, wooden stakes, or silver…

Plot bunny tracks…

Tim glared daggers at Ra’s on his computer screen.  “You’re lying!” he growled.

Ra’s smirked.  “Do you think I would make a joke regarding something like this?  I warned you there would be consequences to your actions against me and my organization, Timothy.”

The young man’s blue eyes were filling with tears, but he stubbornly refused to let them fall.  “It’s not true.  I just saw Tam a few hours ago.  If you’ve hurt one hair on her head, I swear—”

The old man on the computer screen chuckled darkly.  “I saw to her end myself, Detective,” he sneered.  “With my own blade.”

“Liar!”

As a murderous rage whelled up deep within Tim, the sound of the door to his command center opening startled him.  Immediately thinking that it was one of the League’s assassins come to attack him while he was off-guard, the young man pulled several throwing disks from his belt.

“Tim?”

The disks fell to the floor with small clatters.  Relief flooded his system as a familiar silhouette filled the doorway.  “Tam!” 

She smiled ruefully.  “Sorry about startling you.  Can’t blame anyone but yourself, though, ninja-boy.  You did give me a key, after all.”

“No…” Ra’s voice of disbelief was a mere whisper that Tim ignored as Tamara Fox walked towards him.  “You’re dead… I— I killed you myself…”

“Are you alright, Tam?” Tim asked as he gathered the dark skinned beauty in his arms.

She laughed softly as he looked her over anxiously from head to toe.  “I’m just fine Tim.”  As Tim hugged her close, Tam looked over his shoulder and fixed a hard stare full of deadly promises on Ra’s al Ghul, her normally brown eyes glowing gold in the computer screen’s flickering light.

“I’ve never felt better.”