application v5

[peektuttut]

User Name/Nick: Ari
User DW: zenith
AIM/IM: FallenSun13
E-mail: Redrobin133@gmail.com
Other Characters: Arya Stark, Erik Lensherr, Morgana Pendragon, James Bond

Character Name: Tim Drake
Series: DC Comics
Age: 17
From When?: Teen Titans #37ish - after Tim's realized he can't clone Conner, destroys his lab, and kisses Cassie.

Inmate/Warden: Warden. Tim has been faced with difficult choices for his entire career as Robin, but he always, always strives for the best, safest outcome. He refuses to kill, controls himself much more than any teenager should be expected to, and only wants to help people.
Item: His bo staff.

Abilities/Powers: Tim is exceptionally strong for someone his age and size, but he is still only human. He has been trained extensively in martial arts, criminology, acrobatics, stealth, disguise, escapology - just to name a few. Lady Shiva herself was among his first fighting teachers, and though she wished him to kill, the Boy Wonder never backed down. Besides that, in his world travels he learned other helpful abilities, like healing skills from the Ramul Lama in Paris, where he was supposed to learn much; and never had the chance, thanks to the intervention of the Ghost Dragons. Still, he has excellent knowledge of pressure points, how they can heal, and how they can bring a man down. His main 'power,' however, is his keen mind, his above average - if not genius - intellect. Possibly smarter than Alfred and even Batman himself, Tim's specialty is his detective skills. While his predecessor, Jason Todd, was headstrong, rash, and ruthless, Tim spent much of his career as Robin fearing he strayed on the side of the overly cautious, too slow to react. Though still his own harshest critic, the Boy Wonder has proven time and again that he is worthy of being Batman's partner. His costume is fireproof and bulletproof, and contains numerous weapons that help him in his fight against crime, the most notable of which are his birdarangs and his collapsible bo staff.

Personality: People change as they age, and the Boy Wonder is certainly no exception. Over the past five years, his personality has darkened, developing from the innocent, optimistic teen he was into the brooding and bleak young man he is now. Tim used to be open, quick with a quip, and more than ready to be a good friend. Such characteristics tend to warp, however, when one loses too much, too young - and Tim has lost almost everyone he has ever counted dear to him. In the space of less than six months, he lost his father, his girlfriend, and his best friend. A year later, he lost another of his closest friends, and felt alienated from those he had left; Tim pretends very well, puts on the facade of a normal teen, but at the end of the day, he does not handle death well. Now, Tim is a quiet young man, quieter than he ever was; but on top of that, he's angry.

A temper is a dangerous thing in his line of work: he's been taught to never fight angry, to not let that emotion cloud his judgment. But more often than he'd care to admit, Tim has lost his temper against an enemy, tapped into a violent fury that Lady Shiva would be proud of. When the Electrocutioner mocked his father (thinking it was Batman, but unknowingly only days after Jack Drake had died), Tim had to be physically hauled away from the criminal, lest he beat him - well, he tries not to wonder if he'd have killed Electrocutioner. Everyone has his breaking point, and the Boy Wonder's has grown dangerously close over the past year. And he still carries the guilt of the consequences of his actions, even actions years old. He can't change the past. He can't change the decisions he's made. But he can think back on the lives lost, the people who have died because he wasn't good enough, fast enough, strong enough, and he can berate himself for it. If forced to explain it, Tim would say it makes him better, it forces him to strive for perfection - but that isn't it, really.

In reality, Tim has a massive guilt complex. Everything is his fault, though he won't actively think of it as such. Young El died because he wasn't strong enough to lift the beam that trapped and drowned him; Brad died because Tim was too cautious of his secret identity to stop a school shooting; Darla Aquista died because he wasn't fast enough or smart enough to keep her down and out of sight, wasn't strong enough to continue the CPR, wasn't good enough to get her to medical help in time. His father died because he made the decision to wear a cape. Stephanie died because he wasn't there. Conner died because he wasn't there.

Tim has blood on his hands - even if it is a subconscious thing, even if he wouldn't actively say 'yes, these things are my fault and I am responsible even though there was nothing I could do' - he feels the weight of it every day. He always will. Tim is seventeen, and he carries more responsibility on his shoulders than most will ever know; it's aged him, forced him to feel the weight of everything. He'll never not feel responsible. (See: Guilt for something he couldn't have helped.)

Determination is one of the few things about Tim that has not changed. When he was thirteen, he was determined to find a Robin for Batman; when he was in the Titans, he was determined to make them a working team - and now he's determined to get his friends back, no matter what it takes. Tim's anger isn't the thing people should worry about (or better, it's not the only thing to worry about): it's Tim's drive to accomplish things that ought to be terrifying. It's what drove him to plummet the country into a totalitarian state under his Titans in a future timeline, and though Tim will emphatically deny that that Batman was him, he can't fully deny that they had things - a lot of things - in common. If Tim's moral center wasn't as strong as it is, his life could easily have gone much differently. He did, at one point, see things as black and white, cut and dry: good people do good things, bad people do bad things, and sometimes there's a little overlap, but never so much that it's unclear. He was a good person, he would do good things as Robin.

Tim has had to grow up, though, in a very short period of time. He's been Robin for four years, at this point - and in the past year, he lost his father, his girlfriend, his school friend, his best friend. That's a lot to ask anyone to deal with, let alone a sixteen-year-old. His cut and dry world has shifted, and he understands now, more than ever, that sometimes to do good things, you have to get your hands dirty and make ugly calls. This started soon after he lost his father: in Bludhaven, he took on a more callous demeanor, and though he tried desperately to remain himself, to not become just like Batman, that's exactly what he's done.

"…I would say what sets [Tim] quite apart from the others now is his increased understanding of the need to manipulate events to achieve the desired results, combined with the savvy of knowing how to manipulate them. Tim knows he can’t out-punch the majority of his opponents just as he knows he can’t out-punch crime in Gotham (much less the world). So… I see him now as someone who begrudgingly accepts the need to be a little Machiavellian in his approach."

Fabian Nicieza on Tim Drake

Tim is smart, possibly smarter than even Bruce and Alfred - or with the potential to be. He makes connections quickly, he learns fast, and he rarely misses a detail. And better, he implies his intelligence in all areas: he's physically capable, but he knows the value of out thinking his enemies. He learned it from Batman, after all. Nicieza put it best: Tim has accepted that he has to be Machiavellian. He's manipulative of his enemies - sometimes even of his friends, and it's always for the greater good. We all know where good intentions lead, but Tim is, at his core, a good person: he lies to protect, he cheats to save lives, and he manipulates to do the right thing.

(This could easily become warped, though, and later in his life, it will to some extent: it's this ability to manipulate the odds, to plan ahead hundreds of steps, that will lead him to almost kill Captain Boomerang. Now, though, that's just a far off possibility; it's not so much revenge on Tim's mind as reclaiming what he's lost.)

When he was younger, Tim definitely, absolutely, and undeniably fell into a very specific clique at school. He was a nerd. He got good grades, played Wizards & Warlocks and WoW and hung out with other geeks. But even in middle school, Tim stood slightly apart: other kids noticed in him a charisma and strength that he hadn't fully embraced himself. As he grew up, he became more of a smooth talker (at one point talking a senior quarterback out of giving a freshman a swirly without any real effort), and more of a leader. He'd lead Young Justice when he was fourteen and fifteen, but he'd never been fully comfortable with it: it was just part of being Robin. A year ago was the Crisis, and he spent a large portion of it in Bludhaven, trying to get survivors out. There was no organization, though, and finally, when Superman made an appearance, Tim snapped at him, saying the Teen Titans were taking charge. When all the heroes in the city regrouped - and there were a truly daunting number of them - Tim was pushed forward to talk. It was the first time he was comfortable in the position as leader - it was the first time he realized that it was what he might want it. He's still at ease as a loner - he's made himself that way, in the past year - but he has every potential to be a real leader in the hero community - and outside it. He's growing into it.

It also bears mentioning that Tim...can be kind of a dick. He can be callous, and angry, particularly when he's angry. If he's hurting, he lashes out - or he puts up his walls and lets his friends beat against them. He doesn't always guard his tongue, and when he's thrown badly, he doesn't pull his punches. It's not as easy to tell when he's hurting as it used to be - despite being a good liar, Tim's emotions used to be fairly easy to read. But he's changed, and now - now it's not as clear. When he wants to hide something, it stays hidden until he snaps. In a way, he's the same as he's always been - now, Tim is just a much better liar.

Barge Reactions: Tim is not going to take too well to the Barge. He's going to come in ready to act professional, and probably taking some time and staying out of sight while he decides whether he should be Robin, or Tim. He would also do his homework, because Tim is very much the be prepared sort - which means he's going to see his old entries, and be very, very unsettled by them. This is going to throw him pretty badly, and make him much stiffer and uncertain. There are a lot of people, from the past and future, that he doesn't know how to deal with yet. And he'll probably stay withdrawn until he knows how to spin it all in his favor.

The Barge itself will be confusing (it's bigger on the inside), and he's not going to like people knowing him, or knowing his secret identity, at all. The entire experience will be very unsettling, for a very long time, but he's here for a reason, and he won't leave until he gets Conner back.

His wardening style will depend on his inmate: a younger one, in the very unlikely event that will occur, will probably receive a big brother approach (he'll pretty much channel Dick). Tim's biggest problem is going to be forgiving his inmate for what they've done - he'd handle a gray inmate better morally, because he gets being put in terrible positions. But unrepentant murderers are going to be difficult for him to handle: those are the kind of people he puts in the ER, or leaves on the GCPD's doorstep. He never thinks about giving them a fresh start. Here, he'll have to learn forgiveness, to an extent - which is very good for him, in the long run.

Path to Redemption: --

History: Tim was all set to have a decent, simple, entirely normal life. His parents were successful, father a wealthy businessman, mother...well, Janet often accompanied Jack on his travels 'round the globe. They saw the world, while Tim was left at home more often than not, raised and taken care of by the maid and nanny, Mrs. MacIlvaine. She was strict, though generally kind, but Tim was content enough, happy when his parents were around and usually too young to be too unhappy when they were not. When he was five, though, perhaps his parents realized their world-traveling ways were not conducive to raising a child; they took him to Haly's Circus, despite Catherine's warnings that a circus could be a very scary place for a child. Jack denied it through and through, more than ready to share the experience of his son's first circus. Tim took to it well, loving the sights and sounds, the colors and scents and noises that greeted his every sense. To prove to his wife that Haly's was a perfectly wonderful environment, Jack flagged down a group of performers, the Graysons, a family of acrobats, to take a picture with Tim. The boy sat on the knee of the family's youngest member, Dick, thoroughly awed by their bright costumes. He still has the picture, though it's faded and worn. It was supposed to be proof of everything right in the world. None of them expected Catherine to be right, not even Catherine herself.

Later that day, sitting in the main tent to watch the Flying Graysons, Tim watched the trapeze line snap, watched the Grayson adults fall to their deaths. There were screams and movement all around him, but Tim was held immobile. Then, he didn't make a sound. Later, he'd make up for it with nightmares that would leave him shaking and crying for years. There, in that tent, watching Dick Grayson's world crumble around him, was the first time Tim saw the Batman. He looked up, where the acrobats had fallen from, and descending was a black...thing, heading for the only Grayson left. At first Tim opened his mouth to warn the older boy, to tell him to run from what he had taken for as a monster. It's an interesting thing to note: the future Boy Wonder's first view of the Dark Knight was as a monster. It was brief, at least; Tim the child swallowed that cry, realizing that Batman was there to help, not hurt. That was when his parents pulled him away and fled the circus; later, they would send a copy of the picture Tim had taken with the Graysons to the family's only surviving member, thinking Dick would want it.

The next few years would see Tim tortured by nightmares and unease. He led a good life in Gotham Heights, spending the majority of his time playing computer games or watching television. And it was the latter that would change the entire course of his life one day in his ninth year.

One Saturday morning, while eating his cereal, the young Tim was watching the news. No, most children don't bother watching the news - but when he was very young, he realized that the world news was the best way to see where his traveling parents were, and how they were managing. So, this Saturday morning, instead of watching cartoons, Tim was watching the news - which happened to show one of those rare videos of Batman and Robin at work. They were catching the Penguin, and in the process of evading gunfire, the then Boy Wonder did a quadruple flip. It sparked a memory in Tim's head, and things clicked into place in seconds. Haly's Circus had been a momentous event of his childhood, and was never far from his mind, even over the years. He recalled being told that Dick Grayson, the youngest of the Flying Graysons, who had seen his parents perish, was only one of three or four people in the world capable of completing a quadruple somersault.

Tim's active brain kicked into overdrive that morning, and he spent the rest of his time in his room on the computer, or in the library looking through old newspaper archives. It had to be Dick Grayson in those pixie boots; the only other's capable of the trick were twins in Russia - everyone else was dead. With that realization, it only took some digging to find out where Dick had ended up; even then, Tim was a detective. He found that Bruce Wayne had adopted Dick, and two plus two usually equals four. At nine, Tim had discovered a secret men three or four times his age had killed for, but did not possess.

It was his closest guarded secret, one he shared with no one. Tim watched as Dick grew up and left Batman to become his own man. He begged his parents to allow him to take karate. He watched as a newcomer filled Dick's pixie boots, saw that Bruce Wayne had adopted Jason Todd. He also saw the differences between Jason and Dick, saw how the happiness Batman had with Dick turned hostile and tense with Jason. Tim collected every photo, every newspaper article he could and kept them all in a binder beneath his bed, where he could keep his real interests. And he watched when Jason died, and Batman nearly lost everything else along with his adopted son.

By now, Tim was thirteen, and terrified to see one of his heroes nearing that abyss, readying himself to jump off the deep end. Batman was getting reckless, and Tim knew what had to be done - but he knew he needed proof. And he proved himself again, to no one in particular at the time, by managing to stalk the Dark Knight, and take pictures of him taking foolish risks, nearly getting himself killed. Tim did everything he could to track Dick Grayson, now Nightwing, down - and eventually, he lured the former Wonder to Haly's Circus, where they first met. There, Tim revealed that he knew their secret; his explanation was shoddy at best, such was his desperation that Batman have a Robin. Batman needed a Robin, and he tried to convince Dick to return to the pixie boots. Dick refused, but agreed to lend his help as Nightwing.

It wasn't enough. No one ever listens to the kid.

Batman and Nightwing went off, walking right into a trap Two-Face had set for them; when Tim figured it out, he took an old Robin costume from the Batcave (where he was supposed to stay until the heroes rerturned) and went to their rescue. He put those karate lessons to the test, and kept managed to distract the villain long enough for Batman to recuperate; it was also long enough to take a few nasty bumps from Two-Face. When all was said and done, despite a few nasty words from Batman, Tim - and Dick, and Alfred - where able to convince him. Batman needs a Robin. Batman always needs a Robin. And though Tim didn't set out looking to be the Boy Wonder, it fell on his shoulders to fill those pixie boots.

But not without a lot of training.

Bruce taught him how to fight; Alfred taught him how to act. Dick taught him how to be the Dark Knight's partner. During his time training, Tim's parents vacationed in the Caribbean; it was there that his life would begin to fall apart. A voodoo cult leader called the Obeah Man took hostages, and later attacked him; both Drakes were present. Using a poison gas, Obeah Man put Tim's father in a coma - and killed his mother. Batman wouldn't let him go after Obeah Man with him - he wouldn't give Tim the chance for revenge. Instead, he was stuck at home - first when Bruce rescued his father, and brought back his mother to be buried. The night before Catherine's funeral, Tim had horrible dreams - about his parents, about Batman, and Robin, about Dick and Jason; when the Joker made an appearance, he awoke, afraid. He had still yet to put on the costume, again, still hadn't gone out in the field. Bruce was unwilling to risk another child, and wanted to make absolutely certain that Tim was ready. So when Scarecrow was on the loose, and Batman went off to stop him with strict orders that the newest Boy Wonder remain in the cave, Tim was understandably annoyed. That annoyance turned to fear, however, as he picked apart the Scarecrow's recent crimes, and found in them a trap, laid for Bruce. Though the Dark Knight warned him that should he leave the Cave, he'd be giving up his chance to be Robin, Tim thought rescuing his mentor was a risk worth taking. Leaving the Cave in his regular clothes and a ski mask, not wanting to dishonor the outfit, Tim made his way to Scarecrow's hide out, where Bruce was being held captive, a non willing tester of fear gas, along with reporter Vicki Vale. Tim managed to save them both, though he was gassed; his fear, then, was the absolute terror that he was unable to live up to the legacy Dick and Jason had left him. The fear hallucination turned tables, though; he drew strength from how he envisioned the former Boy Wonders, and managed to turn shelves full of fear gas on Scarecrow, and free Batman. Later, the Caped Crusader, instead of firing him, told him that sometimes rules had to be broken.

Tim had learned all he could in Gotham; it was time to move on. Batman presented him with a brand new Robin uniform, completely with pants and boots, instead of short-shorts and pixie boots, and sent him on his way.

His world travels began in Paris, where he was to learn from the Ramul Lama, a master of ancient techniques. From the man, Tim learned healing arts, and was supposed to learn much more about using pressure points to bring a foe down; his training was cute short, however, with the interference of the Ghost Dragons. In Paris, Tim made his first real enemy in King Snake, Sir Edmund Dorrance, whose drug running ring Tim busted up - but not without aid. Namely, Lady Shiva's; after the same man, they met and worked together. This deadly mercenary, hailed as the world's greatest fighter, taught him much, namely mastery in one weapon. Tim chose the bo staff, and was scoffed at for such a non-lethal choice, as he had been scoffed at only a month earlier for choosing a sling in a similar situation. But, the Boy Wonder told her, that was his reason for picking the staff; he would not kill. Eventually they parted ways, and Tim tracked King Snake across Europe; Dorrance escaped, and Tim returned to Gotham, to his comatose father, and his waiting mentor. Finally, he was able t o get to work as Robin, the Boy Wonder in his hometown.

A couple years passed, marked only by Bruce's broken back, his father's kidnapping, and Batman's subsequent order for Tim to remain in Gotham while he rescued Jack. Those were some of the hardest weeks of Tim's life; but Jack returned, still in a coma, but safe. Only a few months later, Tim met Superboy and Impulse, two other young heroes. They worked together to release a D.E.O 'project' named Secret - and soon after that, formed Young Justice, their own superhero team. For a while, it was just the three boys, but eventually girls were allowed into their league - and it hasn't been the same since.

The next five years would pass as a blur, marked by drama, love, angst - it was like a sitcom conducted in school and on rooftops. The Boy Wonder met the daughter of one of his more ridiculous foes, Cluemaster, and fell for her, hard; Spoiler was beautiful, witty, and smart. She was also stubborn as all hell; once Tim broke up with Ariana, his first girlfriend, Stephanie was right there. And they were together for....well. For a long time. And just when things were so wonderful, Tim's world began to fall apart. Young Justice had disbanded, and he'd joined the Teen Titans, going to San Francisco every weekend to all but lead his team. His dad woke up from his coma, he regained use of his legs, he fell in love with his physical therapist, Dana Winters. Their marriage was the best thing that could have happened to save Tim's homelife; she kept the arguments Tim and Jack would have about his lies and whereabouts at bay. For a while, he had a family again. Family, girlfriend, friends - he had the baddest, most tricked out motorcycle in the world, and worked with the coolest guy on the face of the planet.

Things were good.

Then, in a short period of time, it all fell apart.

His father found out his was Robin; Jack made him quit. And Stephanie...his girlfriend...took up his mantle. It was such a betrayal, but he tried not to mind. She had always needed Batman's approval more than he. Their relationship hit the rocks; Steph saw one of Tim's classmates, Darla Aquista, kiss him, and wouldn't give him the chance to explain. Angry and hurt, Tim went out with her. Being the Girl Wonder didn't work out, though, and Steph was fired soon after wearing the brightly colored outfit; and to prove that she was worthwhile, instigated one of Bruce's many War Game scenarios, without knowing all the pieces. The gangs of Gotham - Odessa, Ghost Dragon, Los Loboys, Crown Point, Bowery - every last one of them went to war. What resulted was the police losing faith in the Bat Family, the deaths of hundreds - including Darla, no matter how hard he fought to protect her - the Clan taking on a stadium full of thugs...And Black Mask torturing Stephanie to death.

As if one tragedy was not enough, scant weeks later, a tremor, another crisis, ran through the superhero community. The loved ones of heroes were targeted; Tim's father was the last to be targeted. The Boy Wonder listened to his father die over the telephone as he, in the Batmobile with Batman, raced to save Jack. They were too late; Jack Drake was murdered by Captain Boomerang, who also died that night. Dana, upon seeing the gruesome sight, was unable to cope without someone to lean on, and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Bludhaven. There was no revenge, no righteous anger to take out on some vile being; there was just grief, debilitating grief that Tim tried desperately, and ultimately vainly, to push away. He tried to think like Batman, to deal with it like Bruce. It was his friends in the Titans that showed him how much easier it was to deal with like a Titan. In the space of a few weeks, he'd lost his girlfriend and his family; he was an orphan. And Bruce, who had already raised two, approached Tim at his father's funeral. The Boy Wonder stood back as his father was buried; he had cried so much in recent weeks, that he couldn't dredge up an appropriate emotion to show. It was too much, and he was only sixteen. He couldn't do it anymore. And when Bruce offered to adopt him...Tim panicked. It was too much, too much to deal with, but he couldn't refuse; legally, Dana wasn't fit to care for him, and she hadn't adopted him legally upon marrying his father. Bruce could easily bring Tim into his family. So Tim went about fixing it.

The Boy Genius deserves his title: he created an entire fictional being; his own Uncle Eddie Drake. He changed his father's will, grated fake documents, social security, ID. He fooled the US government into believing Eddie Drake had always existed, and what was more, he fooled Batman, the World's Greatest Detective.

For some time, he lived with fake-Uncle Eddie in Bludhaven; he set up his Robin's Nest, a version of the Bat Cave, and virtually lived there. He worked with Cassandra Cain there, for a while, when Batgirl showed up to help him in the city; at first, he was angry that Batman had sent her. He didn't need looking after. But after a near fatal run in with the Penguin, things smoothed out, and the worked side by side for a while. For a while....things were better. As Tim is wont to do, he pushed away dealing with his grief and anger - not necessarily a good thing, considering he had a habit of letting it out in unhealthy bursts. Unhealthy for those around him.

But even that came to an end as the rest of his life began to unravel.

The Crisis; the decimation of Bludhaven; the death of his step-mother, of his fake uncle, of his best friend. Conner Kent, Superboy, was dead, and Tim, still unable to grieve, still prone to acting as if everything was all right, left Gotham for a year long trip with Dick and Bruce. They traveled around the world, retracing the steps Bruce took to become Batman. A lot changed between the three of them on that trip. Tim made himself a new costume, abandoning the bright colors of the one he'd inherited for the darker, red and black version he sports now. They were Conner's colors.

His trip with Bruce and Dick was cut short, and he was pulled home with an anonymous note saying that Cassandra was in trouble. Things snowballed, Cassandra was insane, and he reunited with the Titans, where it became clear that though Tim had been putting on a strong face, he was losing his shit. He spent days trying to reclone Conner, as if that would bring him back. He knew it wouldn't - but he deluded himself into thinking it would be close enough. With his failure made clear, he'll take the Admiral's offer and come to the Barge.

Sample Journal Entry: [The audio clicks on first, and for a moment there's silence, then an in drawn breath - and the video clicks on. Tim looks unsettled, and makes himself give a sheepish, uncertain smile. He even lifts his hand and gives a little wave.]

So, I had this speech all rehearsed and ready to go - 'Hi, my name's Tim, I like long walks on the beach and moonlit nights and apple pie' - and then I did some reading. [The smile slips a little, and he pushes hair out of his eyes, looking away for a moment before he decides to stop forcing the smile.]

Apparently, I've...been here before? The only thing is, I definitely don't remember it. And trust me, I'd know if I had been some place like this before. It's kind of hard to forget. So, with that out of the way...

[He smiles again, shrugs, and waves one more time.] Hi. I'm Tim. I'm a new warden here, and I guess I'll look forward to knowing you all as well as some of you knew...him.

[And just before he clicks off the feed, the smiles drops away again and he frowns hard, angry and unsettled; it's only been a year since the Crisis for him, and doubles are never anything to nod and smile at.]

Sample RP: He was down to a white tank top and the red leggings, and sweat was - well, 'pouring like a waterfall' came to mind, but that was kind of unapologetically gross. Shaking sweaty hair out of his eyes, Tim turned the bo staff in his hands again and rolled his shoulders. "Okay," he said into the empty CTS. "Let's try this again."

This was, without a doubt, his favorite spot on the ship. It was the one place that really made sense, that gave him something to do and focus on. No insane, physics defying...physics, no psychotic murderers given free reign until they murdered again. It was a good way to pass time, he figured, until the Admiral finally assigned him an inmate. In fact, it kind of made him feel like he was back in Gotham, training in the Cave. Except for the automated robots and the lasers, anyway. (Which are very awesome, and were going on his mental list of things to implement when he went home.)

When he went home to a world that had Conner back.

His bo staff came down hard on one of the robots, and listening to it crunch and break was absurdly satisfying. He could practically picture Prime's face on it, and a nasty smile crosses his own as he spins low on his knees to avoid one of the lasers shot at his head. He'd already tested just how deadly this place would go for him - not the smartest move, necessarily, and he had an ugly but not too serious burn on his shoulder for it. But now he knew the lasers wouldn't kill him - they'd just bang him up a little. He could handle that.

He could handle it better than the robots that he'd left broken and misfiring around the room. But more kept coming, which was exactly what he needed. One, two, five, ten, fifteen - he stopped counting after that, and moved until his muscles shook with the effort. That was okay. If he could wear himself out, maybe he could sleep tonight. It was better than wandering the halls like a ghost. Tim had already done his exploring, already planted cameras and found the footage wholly unusable (thanks, Admiral). There was nothing to it but to wait, now, and be ready for trouble. Tim could be patient. But if this stretched any longer, he might go completely nuts.

(Leaving was never an option: he knew he could, but he couldn't live with failing his best friend. Again.)

(You should have been there.)

The next robot to come apart does so with his bo staff slammed into its 'head,' lifted with the same momentum and hurled against the wall. It bursts apart in sparks and small pieces, and Tim turns his head to shield his eyes.

"Computer, kill the simulation." The robots - the ones not ruined, anyway - pause and scurry back into the wall accesses they'd come from, and soon the CTS is empty save for the broken pieces. Tim spins his staff in one hand, hitting the hidden button that shrinks it back down to a foot long, and turns to head for the door.

Special Notes: Since Tim is coming from an earlier canon point, he won't have any Barge memories at all.