DC: The Brave and the Bawdy

Robin: Third Time's the Charm

"Hi!" smiled the young man, "My name's Tim Drake. Am I correct in deducing that there's an opening for the position of Robin?"

Tim blinked. The butler didn't respond. Instead, he blinked back. In truth, Tim didn't know what he expected.

"...sir!" called the butler, looking back into the mansion.

The butler closed the door, leaving Tim standing alone. Wearing a baggy red sweater over a loose pair of jeans and matching red sneakers, Tim rocked back and forth in place for a bit waiting for a response. Then it happened. Bruce Wayne answered the door.

"No," said Bruce.

He closed the door. Tim stared in disbelief for a moment before shaking his head. He rang the doorbell again. No response. Tim sighed. He figured that this might happen. That's why he had thought of a Plan B.

Tim had always had a knack for noticing acute details and deducing conclusions from extensive hours of research. Born into a relatively well off family, he made something of a habit of hyper fixating on various mysteries or conspiracy theories and conducting unheard of amounts of research on them.

Among his discoveries was the identity of Bruce Wayne as Batman and his ward Dick Grayson as Robin. Tim was extremely confident in this theory, so much so that he never told anyone. Instead he closely followed Batman's exploits, collecting more evidence and surmising more details. For instance, he had noticed Robin's replacement by a blonde woman and that woman's subsequent disappearance and reappearance as Batgirl.

Tim developed a fondness for the idea of being a vigilante, a fondness only further reinforced by a life growing up in Gotham. He spent his late adolescence and young adult years training extensively, taking both gymnastics and martial arts courses from the best commercially available teachers in the city. He also studied vigilante related subjects, such as Gotham's criminal history and theory on law and justice. He was also something of a computer whiz, which he figured would give him a leg up. So when he deduced that the role of Robin was once again open, he decided to act on his lifelong dream of becoming a superhero (or at least a sidekick).

Tim's Plan B consisted of accessing Batman more directly, which was to say through the batcave itself. Tim had studied the building plans for the history of Wayne Manor and concluded that the cavern behind the nearby waterfall would be the most likely location of the often-theorized batcave.

Tim made his way up the side of the waterfall and into the cavernous tunnel. He strolled down the tunnel, making his way further in while keeping an eye out for any sort of secret entrance. He was caught unawares when such an entrance suddenly opened directly beneath his feet.

Tim screamed as he plummeted for several seconds before sliding along a curve, realizing he was racing down a lengthy tube. After several twists and turns the ride emptied him out onto a large metal floor, where a circular enclosure of glass immediately rose around him.

"Far out," he chuckled, impressed despite the rush of adrenaline leaving his knees trembling.

"Timothy Drake," recited Batman loudly, sitting at his monitors on the far side of the cave.

"Oh, cool!" he smiled back, "So this really is the batcave! I knew it! Oh, hey! You changed into your costume! You must have been expecting me, huh?"

"Son of Jack and Janet Drake," continued Batman, standing and approaching Tim, "Graduated from Gotham University with honors. Majored in criminology but also did extensive coursework in pre-law and subjects pertaining to Gotham's political history."

Tim smiled proudly at his accomplishments being rattled off.

"Voted by your classmates to be the most likely to be dateless to the GU Ball," concluded Batman, arriving at the glass prison.