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Nightwing watched over the streets of Blüdhaven. Things had gotten better since he had moved there a couple of years ago. Much like Gotham, Blüdhaven had her problems but Nightwing was doing a fairly decent job of cleaning up the streets as well as cleaning up her crooked police department.

And although the criminals were running scared and the Police Department was full of honest, hard working cops who had been ordered by the Commissioner to arrest Nightwing on sight. Officer Dick Grayson, who was in charge of the Major Crimes Unit, swore that he was close to tracking the vigilante down. That was done on purpose. The Commissioner knew who Nightwing was, that's why Grayson was in charge. He thought it was funny. They seemed more than happy to let Nightwing clean up their streets but as soon as the real danger was over, Blüdhaven's finest wanted him out of the way.

Now he stood on a roof, watching a group of men walk around the corner that The First National Bank was on. He had seen this scenario at least twice that week. Just as he was about to swing down and put an end to the casing, out of nowhere there was a flash of black, some moves that only he himself had used and then the bad guys were dead.

When he got down to the ground he realized, disturbed that each one had been stabbed several times and yet the boy (he was sure it wasn't a man, it was too small) hadn't been down there very long. He knew that he had a problem but without a clear direction of where the kid went he decided to call it a night.

By the time he got home it was either late or early depending on what side of things a person tended to look at. Nightwing's hideout was in an unblueprinted basement of an 'abandoned' warehouse. There was an underground tunnel big enough for a car to drive through if followed all the way (knowing which walls were false made sure you didn't get stuck) would lead to the basement of his condo. It was just one of the perks when it came to having Bruce Wayne as your parental figure. Bruce owned both places so there was no rent and if anything ever needed repairing Dick would just call him.

Either way, he was not in the mood to deal with a break in at his house. Unfortunately, most burglars don't care that some people work both night and day. He walked in quietly, without making a sound. As he entered the living room he was surprised by what he saw. Sitting in the corner was a boy with green hair, white skin and a blood red smile on his face. He was rocking back and forth and mumbling to himself. When he looked up with his piercing blue eyes Dick suddenly knew who he was.

He cautiously walked over to the boy. He had to be sure. "Tim?"

The boy looked up, his grin widening as he started to laugh. It wasn't a good laugh. It was the sort of nerve grating laugh that made Dick want to pulverize that person anything to get it to stop. It was The Joker's laugh.

He managed to pick the youth up. He knew that he was taking a huge risk in doing that. If Tim got startled it could mean big trouble for him but he had to get the kid calmed down. He was both relieved and saddened when Tim grabbed onto his shirt, burying his face in the soft, warm material and cried.