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"Let's go."

Tim tightened his fingers around his staff as they approached the weird invisible elevator again, ready to extend it to full length if he needed to. He wasn't sure what to expect in this place, but he didn't want to appear threatening until he had to. Like when they got to a point where they could demand to be sent home. Bart and Kon both had to save the world, and as for him... well... he was in Gotham for a few days helping Batman, and Batman never reacted well to MIA Robins.

They started going up again and Tim looked out over... a city. What the hell kind of crazy city was this? It wasn't like anything he'd ever seen on Earth, which meant they were probably a long way away from home.

Hn. Well, they'd just have to find a way to get back.

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"Yeah, big black dog called Ace." Terry was a bit confused. To him, Ace was just part of the team. To imagine Bruce without the dog was weird. "I'm not sure when he got it. But the Bruce I know... well, there's a reason I call him 'the old man'. He's at least 70. He doesn't get out much."

Tim's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Wow, really?" He had to admit... he hadn't really thought Bruce--any of them, really--would live to that kind of old age. Not with the kind of lives they led.

"Guess that explains the dog," he mused. "And you being Batman."

He stopped, horrified. He--hadn't meant that the way it sounded. "Wait, that's not what I meant--I just meant that I can't imagine Bruce giving up Batman unless he really couldn't do it anymore."

"No, you're right." Terry replied. "If Bruce wasn't old and weak, he would have been able to help me. I wouldn't have stolen the Batsuit if he was still young and strong."

He paused, thinking. "Not that he can't still kick butt. I sort of owe him my life for beating off a gang of Jokerz that were following me."

Tim frowned a little. Old and weak Bruce was... not something he could really conceive of. It didn't surprise him that he'd been able to help Terry fend off some attackers. But that wasn't really what had caught his attention.

"Jokers? You mean that clown has a fan club? How's he still around and doing his thing if Bruce... isn't?"

Slag. He shouldn't have mentioned the Jokerz. He should have just said 'a gang'. If there was one person who shouldn't know about The Joker's future, it was Tim.

"Well..." He thought, trying to figure out a way to explain the gangs without talking about the original, "The Joker isn't around any more. I'm not really sure what happened to him, just that Bruce won't talk about it. The gangs are just a bunch of dregs that think pretending to be a psychopath is fun."

Tim made a face. "That's just nuts." He shook his head. "The Joker is a murderer, and a psycho, and probably the scariest individual I've ever encountered. I can't believe he has groupies in your time."

He gave Terry a wry smile. "I guess Gotham never does get any more sane, does it?"

Scariest individual he'd ever met? He had no idea.

"It's beyond nuts." Terry said in agreement. Even when he'd been a total dreg himself, he hadn't gotten involved with the gangs. And after what they did to his dad, he never would.

"If anything, the city gets more insane all the time. I wouldn't even know where to start with all the weird stuff that goes on there in my time."

Tim laughed. "We should trade stories sometime, though--" he made a face. "Something tells me you already know a lot of mine."

"Well... not really. Bruce never really talks about the past. It took me falling for a member of the Royal Flush for him to open up about Catwoman. And wearing one of Dick's old coats to a banquet for him to talk about Nightwing. And I'd rather not talk to the Commissioner. She sort of scares me." Terry said with a shrug. This time, it wasn't a lie. He really didn't know much about the kids that came before him. Sometimes he wished he did, or that he could have met them. He felt a bit excluded from the Batfamily.

"Who's your commissioner?" Tim asked. Obviously someone in the hero life, but he couldn't imagine who.

Then he grinned. "Selina's always a fun subject." Especially with all that "you're not my Mommy" crap Bruce had asked him to pull couple of years ago when the stuff with Hush first went down. "She's a fun button to push, so I recommend doing it as often as possible."

"And don't feel too bad about that--Bruce not talking about the past, I mean." He gave Terry a sympathetic smile. "I learned a lot of what I know about Jason from hacking his files and..." he blushed a little. "Some serious stalking when I was a kid."

"The commish' is Barbara Gordon. I'm pretty sure she was Batgirl." He said. Pretty sure, of course. He really didn't like talking to her, though.

His spirit fell a bit with the talk of Selina Kyle. She'd sounded like an interesting person, but if she was still alive in 2050, he really didn't know about it. Again, he felt a bit left out.

And the hacking and stalking... he grinned at that. "My friend Max sort of did that to me." He said, smiling. "Y'know, if Bruce wasn't so against it, she might have become the new Robin." Of course, though, he understood Bruce's reasoning. After his run in with the real Joker, he didn't really want his friend putting her life on the line like that.

"Uh, yeah, and Oracle..." Tim frowned a little in confusion. He didn't realize they let paraplegics be cops. Maybe in the future... Maybe the injury had been cured. He hoped that was the case.

He shrugged a little, still grinning. "That's how I got the job. I followed Dick and Bruce around... for a long time, and then after Jason died, well. Batman needed a Robin and no one else was volunteering."

"Jason?" Terry had never heard of a Jason before. "There where three Robins? Wow, I knew the old man had quite the collection of orphans, but I didn't realized there were so many."

Then he realized what he'd said. "Slag... I... I didn't mean it like that. I just... didn't know that the... family... was so big. Or that... one had died." One died, one got brainwashed by Joker - no wonder Bruce hated the idea of a new Robin. "Wow. Tragedy just follows us all around, doesn't it?"

Tim felt his smile strain a little. "I wasn't, actually--not until recently." His new status as part of the "collection of orphans" wasn't something he really wanted to talk about. "And I don't live at the Manor. I moved to Bludhaven... after."

"Yeah--Jason... There was an incident with the Joker and a crowbar. He's got a thing for Robins. Maybe it's a good thing you don't have one, since you've got copycats."

His smile turned wry as he glanced at Terry again. "Yeah, it kinda does. 'Family' trait."

Well, that did explain a lot. Two Robins taken down by Joker? Bruce had some pretty good reasoning.

"I really didn't mean it like that." Terry said, quietly. "I'm really not one to talk. My dad's death was what motivated me to be Batman."

Tim grimaced. "That's... not really how I meant it either. I--mentioned it was recent. I'm still dealing. It was... kind of my fault." Well--Robin's fault. Robin's dad had been the intended victim. And why was he being so candid? He was kind of making a point of not talking about this all that much.

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