IMPORTANT: Hey everyone, so I have a huge favor to ask you guys. I wrote this story for a contest at the website ficmasinjuly(dot)org. If you like the story PLEASE go to the website and vote for me. I'll be submitting a new story every month for the next year in all different fandoms so check back often. Thank you so much and I hope you enjoy.

Conner Kent had been uncertain about coming to Gotham. As a native of Metropolis he had heard plenty about the famed city that lay not but a couple of hours away. But he had never been there; the only time anyone from his school had ever set foot in Gotham City was because of sports championships and it wasn't as if the city had been allowed to host those for awhile now.

The teen had grown up with horror stories of Gotham. It was the boogeyman city filled with crime and chaos. At least, that was what he had been told it was like and Gotham herself didn't do much to dissuade people of the notions they had. Between the arson that nearly took down half the city to the riots that nearly took the other half, Gotham was in a sorry state.

So there was little wonder that the media of the nation found a certain charm in Gotham. Story after story could be found there. From the gossip lines to the hard hitting Pulitzer winners, this was the place to make your career.

Conner knew all of this, so he wasn't surprised when Lois decided to find her next gem of a story in that city. He had no idea what she was working on but she had invited him along. Connor liked Lois even though she was kind of difficult to have as a step-mother. Lois was fiery and passionate but she was also sort of clueless too.

But the teen didn't care that he would be going with just her on this extended trip. He was ready to see something new. He was tired of Metropolis and if he did go then maybe he would have his own stories to tell. Maybe he wouldn't be such a bore and life wouldn't be such a bore and he could get out and see something before his life was wasted away in a cubicle. Conner had little hope for his future being exciting-Clark would never allow it-but if he went with Lois maybe, just maybe, he could taste it.

What he hadn't expected was Gotham Heights Academy. The best school in town, it was where the local millionaires and billionaires sent their children. Conner was actually surprised to learn that an upper class even still existed in this city; the news had said they'd fled. Maybe the TV was wrong. Either way he was surprised that Lois and Clark had even managed to get him into the school.

It was a private preparatory academy and the tuition rates were higher than some colleges. Connor had always been a public school kid, even if it was a pretty nice public school. He had never been to a school like this.

The front doors were made of genuine oak stained a dark color that made the brass fixtures seem even more brilliant. He could see some stained glass windows and when he went into the front lobby he found himself in front of genuine marble stairs. Above his head hung a crystal chandelier and he was pretty sure the Van Gogh to his right was real and not a well framed print.

Suddenly feeling much more out of his depth, he pulled nervously on the sleeve of his blue blazer. A drawback of this fancy school was that they required uniforms. His beige slacks were pleated and his white shirt was a button up. His tie was blue and black with the school's emblem-a knight on a horse waving a sword-near the bottom. He had refused to wear the geeky looking dress shoes and had instead worn his own black Nike high tops.

He stood in the front entry way looking around and waiting for the guide that was supposed to meet him and show him around this place. He was just starting to wonder if he'd been stood up when a boy suddenly appeared at the top of the stairs. He was the first student Conner had seen as the office hadn't made him go to homeroom. The boy was clearly his guide because once he'd made it to the bottom of the stairs he gave Conner a wide smile and held out his hand the moment he got within reach.

"You must be the new transfer student," the boy said and Conner nodded his head while giving him the once over. Blond hair, blue eyes, geeky shoes, tie way tighter than Conner had done his own: yep, this was a guy he probably wouldn't click with all that well.

"Yeah, Conner Kent, you my guide?"

The boy was almost able to cover his wince at Conner's grammar but not entirely.

"Yes. My name is Elis McCallister," the boy replied. "The office gave you a class schedule almost the same as mine so that I would be able to help you as you settle in. I think there is only one class we do not actually share."

"Oh, okay," Conner said trying to sound rude but also not wanting to sound excited. He really didn't want to be around this boy. They had known each other for all of fifteen seconds and the other boy was already making Conner feel like some sort of bug that had come to infest the place. Maybe it was the way he didn't use contractions or the fact that his tie was very tight, but McCallister gave Conner the willies.

"Well, come along I guess," McCallister said and turned to walk away. He didn't even look over his shoulder to see if Conner followed and the transfer had half a mind not to. But if he was ever going to find his classes he was going to need this guy. At least for half a day. Maybe he could ditch him at lunch for someone who didn't act like he was God.

As it turned out, Conner's one class without McCallister around was gym class. Not that he minded. Conner was a natural athlete and he liked the fact that he would be able to do jumping jacks and laps without the annoying little puffer trying to prove himself. With each and every class, Conner liked this school less and less.

There was a lot of pomp and a lot of kids trying to one up each other by flaunting money, cars, and vacations. He may not have been from the poorest side of Metropolis but he had also never been as lucky as these kids. He felt extremely out of place. For the first time, he truly regretted allowing Lois to talk him into coming with her.

He dressed into his gym uniform as quickly as he could in order to avoid the other boys. It didn't much matter though. The second he stepped out of the locker room, the coach hailed him.

"You! You the new kid?" he asked but went on without giving Conner the chance to respond. "Well you must be, you're the only new face here. WAYNE!" The man yelled so loud Conner wished he was brave enough to clasp his hands over his ears. The transfer turned to follow the coach's eye line just in time to see a rather lithe looking boy with raven hair get up from the bleachers and jog towards them. When he got closer it was clear that the other boy had muscles but they just weren't very big. He was more into using them than showing them off.

"Yes, sir?" he inquired respectfully the second he reached them.

"New kid, Wayne," the coach said gruffly. "Wayne, new kid. Help him out."

"Yes, sir," Wayne replied and an ear splitting whistle screech was all the answer he received.

"Topher that rope isn't for playing Tarzan!" the man screamed as he raced off to the boy hanging upside down from the climbing ropes. "You owe me twenty laps!"

"Wow," Conner said lowly once the man was out of earshot.

"Yeah," Wayne agreed. "Anyway, I'm Tim Wayne."

"Conner Kent," he replied and shook the offered hand.

"Yeah, I heard about you," the other boy told him and Conner lifted an eyebrow. "We don't get very many new students so when we do get someone it's kind of a big deal. I heard you were from Metropolis."

"Born and raised."

"I'd keep that on the down low if I were you," Tim said and Conner could see a genuine spark of concern in his eye.

"Why?" he asked, confused.

"Gotham doesn't really like Metropolis right now," Tim informed him. "Something to do with missing aid." The raven haired boy shrugged his shoulders as if it didn't matter but Conner could tell the other boy was bothered by something. This kid was practically an open book.

"Oh, well thanks," Conner said, uncertainly. Thankfully the coach blared his whistle again before their conversation could get any more awkward.

"-so you will probably want to stay away from those sorts," Elis finished. The boy had been on a five minute rant about the seedier kids at the Academy and Conner was close to telling him that the boy had just described every normal teenager in America and that he should take a walk through the ghetto to find out what seedy really was. He couldn't foresee that ending all that well so he just tuned the other boy out.

But it got to be a little difficult when Elis practically dragged him from the lunch line to his table and Conner was forced to eat with him. Even if he could get up without snubbing the other boy, he had nowhere else to go. Being new sucked.

"But you know how those sorts can be," Elis continued. "Always listening to that rap music or some such. I never really understood it all."

"That's because you're a grandfather in a teenager's body," another voice interrupted and Conner looked up to see Tim Wayne. The two hadn't had much time to talk in gym class but the other boy seemed all right. He played soccer pretty well at least.

"What are you doing over here Wayne?" Elis snapped and Conner wondered if there was bad blood between the two. Although, he was starting to think that Elis might have bad blood between every normal person just on principle.

"Just came to say hi to Conner," Tim replied and then sat down in the seat directly to Elis's right, much to the other boy's complete annoyance. "How's your first day been?"

"Fine I guess," Conner said. "How's a first day at a new school supposed to go?"

"Fair point," Tim replied with a genuine smile. "You mentioned that you like sports?"

"Yeah," Conner said. "I play football and basketball."

"There's a football practice right after school," Tim told him. "The team captain's a friend of mine. I can ask him if there's any way to get you on the team this season."

"That would be great!" Conner exclaimed surprised that Tim would go out of his way to do something so nice. "Thanks!"

"It's no problem," Tim said, waving it off.

"Of course it isn't," Elis cut in, a nasty smirk on his face. "Who does not want to stay on Kent's good side? After all, his mother is that Daily Planet reporter that sent your older brother to prison."

Tim froze. His blue eyes which so far had been very friendly turned cold and hard. Conner didn't know what to do. This was the problem with having big shot reporters for parents. They made enemies and sometimes those enemies had kids, or this case, little brothers.

"Those charges were dropped, Elis," Tim hissed and Conner actually felt his spine tingle at the tone. Tim was scary when he was like this. "Jason never went to prison."

"Yes well, not for that," Elis conceded. "Wasn't he just in Blackgate for assault?" Conner felt his eyebrow rise despite himself. How could someone like Tim have such a hardcore brother? After all, Gotham Heights wasn't known for being gangland.

"I think the real question is why are you so obsessed with where Jason is?"

"I am not obsessed," Elis said still with a pleasant tone. "I am just a concerned citizen. Jason never should have been allowed into the Palisades in the first place and everyone knows it."

Conner saw Tim's jaw clench. His shoulders tensed and for a single moment Conner thought the raven haired boy was about to hit Elis. But he simply stood and walked away. The transfer student may not have known exactly what that entire conversation may have been about but he was aware enough to know that Tim had a level of self-control that Conner would never have.

The teen watched as the other boy sat down at his own table still looking beyond angry. His friends took an immediate notice and turned to look towards where he had come from. Conner tried to shrink down and make himself invisible. The last thing he needed was a bunch of bored rich kids out to make his life miserable.

The rest of that week went by terribly slowly. Tim never talked to him again. Conner didn't have the stones to go find his quarterback friend himself so it didn't look as if he'd be playing sports anytime soon. He didn't know what article Elis had mentioned and he couldn't find it in the Daily Planet's archives either. He'd only just started to think that he would have to ask Lois herself when, on Friday, he caught sight of Tim at his locker.

Throwing caution to the wind he walked up to the other boy but once he'd reached him he lost what he was about to say. Conner had never been good with empathy. He had a hard enough time figuring out his own emotions, trying to empathize with someone else's was nearly impossible.

"What do you want?" Tim finally just asked.

"Um, I...I guess I just wanted to see if you were alright is all," Conner said awkwardly.

Tim sighed. "It's a little late to be asking isn't it?"

"I guess," Conner said. "I don't know what article Elis was talking about but-"

"Gotham Gazette, November 19, page 3."

"What?" Conner asked, confused as to what Tim had just told him.

"That's where you'll find the article," the other boy replied. Tim finally just shut the door to his locker and turned to look at him head on. "What are you even doing in Gotham?"

"What do you mean?"

"What does your mom think she's going to find here?" Tim asked. "Someone else to throw in jail? Look, we may not be Metropolis but the city is doing the best it can especially considering the damage the riots caused."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Conner confessed suddenly feeling as if he might have missed something a tad important in all those stories that had floated through the hallways of his old school.

"Well, I guess that's the biggest problem here, isn't it?" And with that Tim just walked away, leaving Conner to try and figure out just what it was that made his family such bad news to the Waynes.

"Do you know a Jason Wayne?"

"What?" Lois asked. Her attention had been equally divided between her dinner and her computer but it was now solely focused on Conner, which told him more than any confession ever would.

"Jason Wayne?" he asked again.

"Where did you hear that name?" she asked, looking a little concerned.

"At school," he admitted not quite sure if he wanted to divulge the fact that he knew the guy's younger brother. "Some kids said you wrote an article about him. They didn't seem happy about it."

"Are they giving you a hard time about it?" she asked.

"No," Conner said quickly before she could get it into her head that she needed to call someone to rant about whatever she thought she was seeing in his school life. "They just seemed to think I should know about it."

"Yes, well," she said a bit awkwardly and it caught Conner's attention. Lois was never awkward when it came to her stories. "That article might have been published a bit...early."

That was the closest she would ever come to admitting that one of her articles might have been prejudiced or wrong.

"What do you mean?" he asked. "What was it about?"

"Clark and I wrote it together," she said. "It was about some of the worst instances of crime during the Gotham Street Riots. There was a small group of bandits who were stealing from some of the aid depots. We wrote the story thinking it was just another example of when chaos allowed bad people to do bad things to innocent victims and not get caught."

"But?" he pressed knowing there was more.

"But, our perceptions were wrong. The only aid depots that were raided were those that were servicing the Palisades, the richest neighborhood in the city. However, most of those people had left just after the riots had started and didn't need the aid. When the city and state officials got hung up on the politics of how best to distribute what little aid they had, the depots in the Palisades just sat there not helping anyone."

"What did the raiders do with the aid they stole?" Conner asked.

"They took it all down to Crime Alley," she told him. "It was a modern day tale of Robin Hood and I screwed it all up. In my research I was able to name names but it wasn't until the city paperwork was all found that I realized that our entire viewpoint on the story was wrong. Jason Todd or as some people know him, Jason Wayne, was one of the raiders. He almost went to Blackgate because of me."

"But they let him off?" Conner asked remembering what Tim had said about dropped charges.

"Yes and no," she said. "The jury found him not guilty. Apparently Jason was born down in Crime Alley and he never forgot that, and they never forgot him or what he'd done for them. You would have had to take him out of the county to find a completely impartial jury and the prosecutor wasn't that much of an ass to do so."

"So he was a hero?"

"To Crime Alley yes," she said. "But the politics behind it all demanded that he be a villain. If he wasn't a part of the Wayne family he'd have been run out of the Palisades a long time ago."

"Yeah, one kid said as much," Conner told her.

"That doesn't surprise me," she replied. "Jason was never well liked by high society. Not that he's been around for long."

"What do you mean?"

"Jason was only adopted when he was fifteen," she told him and despite knowing that he was learning very personal details of a classmate's brother, he was too curious not to listen or to tell her to stop. "He dropped out of high school by sixteen and disappeared for nearly five years."

"Where did he go?" Conner asked, fascinated, his imagination running wild. Lois shrugged.

"The official story was that he was globetrotting but nobody really believes it," she said. "There was too much secrecy about it all for anyone to believe that he'd simply been on a vacation. I personally think he had a falling out with the family and didn't come back until they really needed him."

"Really needed him?"

"Yes," Lois sighed and looked a little sad which worried Conner. Lois was never sad; at least she never showed it. "Their father, Bruce Wayne, disappeared during the Riots. The media has presumed him dead but the family is refusing to acknowledge the possibility. Jason came back to help take care of the family."

Conner didn't know what to say to all that. He'd assumed that Tim had a pretty easy life living in the Palisades and going to private schools all his life. Maybe in Metropolis the other boy would have fit into Conner's stereotypical view, but this was Gotham and he was starting to see that nothing was as it appeared to be.

By that next Monday, Conner had not only read the article about Tim's brother, he'd also caught up with what had happened during the riots. It had only been a few months ago and part of the city was still rebuilding but Conner was able to piece together enough of a story to get a clear enough picture.

In the back of his mind he just knew Lois would smirk if she found out he was acting like her, following in her footsteps, blah, blah, blah. She sometimes forgot that Clark was a reporter too.

Gotham City had been through a lot. The riots had stemmed from a mayoral election between two completely divided parties. One was favored by the Palisades and one was favored by Crime Alley. Crime Alley lost and with that loss they took to the streets in droves. Between the missing ballots to the polls that had closed two hours early, the poorer sections of the city were crying foul and the only way they could be heard was to march down the streets of the city.

What had started as a peaceful protest had turned into three weeks of rioting that resulted in the city being placed under martial law and the National Guard having to post soldiers on nearly every street corner in order to keep the peace. The city had literally snapped.

Conner hadn't thought that something like this was possible in America, land of the free, and home to democracy and what not. But Gotham was so corrupt to begin with that it wasn't that far of a stretch for someone who knew what the place was like. Conner now knew, or he knew a little better, and suddenly those riots he'd heard about a few months ago seemed a lot more justified than they had been.

When he spotted Tim shifting through the stuff in his locker, he didn't hesitate to walk up to him. He didn't falter when he got there even though the other boy was surrounded by three of his best friends.

"I read the article," he said and Tim looked up from looking for his things.

"Did you understand it?"

"Yes," Conner replied deciding that Tim hadn't meant that as it sounded. He wasn't asking if Conner was stupid, he was asking if Conner could read between the lines. He couldn't but he'd talked to Lois and that was all the in between he needed at this point. "And she feels bad about it you know. She wrote a retraction. They wouldn't print it." Tim cocked his head a little. His friends were looking between themselves a little confused but neither boy paid them any mind.

"I didn't know that," he finally said.

"That's okay," Conner said taking that as the only apology he'd get or deserved. "I didn't either." He turned and started to walk down the hallway towards his first period. Thankfully Elis wasn't there. He had given the boy the benefit of the doubt but after finding out that Elis had probably known exactly what had happened during the riots and still didn't hesitate to throw it in Tim's face, well, he couldn't be friends with someone like that.

"Conner!" Tim called out. The Metropolis native stopped and turned in time to see Tim take a few steps to lessen the distance between them. "I'm having a bunch of my friends over tonight to study a little and watch the Gotham Devils kick Central City's ass. You should come."

"Are you sure?" he asked, wanting to accept the invitation immediately but not wanting the other boy to extend it out of anything other than genuine friendship. Tim smiled and Conner couldn't find anything sinister in it.

"Yeah, I'm sure," he said just as the first warning bell rang. He started walking backwards towards his locker and his still waiting friends. "Find me at lunch, I'll give you the address!"

Conner had never before been buzzed in at a front gate. Sure he'd done the whole callbox thing for a few apartment buildings back home but nothing like this. He'd made the mistake of relying on public transportation and his handy bicycle. Not only did the bus line end nearly three miles from the gates but it was nearly another mile from the gates to the actual house.

And it was all uphill!

The view may be worth a couple hundred million but Conner couldn't enjoy it. His calves hurt too much. When he finally did clap eyes on the house he found it to be both the biggest single family home he'd ever seen and the spookiest. Why Gotham City needed to go out of its way to creep people out with its architecture Conner didn't know.

Leaning his bike against the stone pillar at the bottom of the stairs he climbed the half flight to the front door and then spent three minutes searching for the door bell. He finally figured out that it wasn't a modern one but one where you had to pull a chain.

A man opened the door and Conner instantly recognized him from the mugshot he'd found during his research on the riots. It was Jason. His hair was a little longer but he still had the same scruff and the same tattoos running down his arms. His jeans were clearly designer but they were baggy in that way only cool guys had. The kind of guys that listened to rap; the kind of guys that Elis had warned him away from.

"Was wondering when you'd finally find the doorbell," the man said by way of greeting and gave Conner a small smirk that clearly showed he was trying not to laugh.

"What?" Conner asked.

"Security camera," Jason said and pointed upwards. Conner followed his finger to see a little red, blinking light and promptly blushed. "Saw you scratching your head from the kitchen for a few minutes. I was about to just come get you." Jason moved aside and Conner took that as his cue to enter the house.

"So which one are you?" he asked as he led the teen through the opulent home. If Conner looked out of place in here Jason looked as if someone should call security on him. Conner was pretty sure that was a prison tattoo. No wonder Tim could look so scary when he needed to. He'd learned it from this guy.

"Um, Conner," he replied not wanting to give Jason his last name. He probably should have thought this through a little more.

"Well Conner, let me know if you need anything. You can ask someone else but they'll probably come ask me. I sort of run this place," Jason said with a wink and Conner was surprised at how friendly he was. The teen had expected scowls and cuss words.

"Okay," he said and thankfully they arrived at the incredible TV room where Tim and the rest of his friends were. There were books scattered about on every surface but no one was paying attention to those. They were too busy watching music videos and waiting for the basketball game to start.

"Hey Conner," Tim called out and Conner instantly felt a little more relaxed. He smiled and waved and was pleasantly surprised to be greeted warmly by the rest of Tim's friends. Apparently, a good word from Tim went a long way.

"Max," Tim said to get another boy's attention. "This is him."

"Hey, Conner," the boy, Max, said and stood up to greet Conner. "I'm Max. Tim said you might be interested in a position on the football team."

Conner suddenly understood why people liked to be friends with those at the top of the ladder. The perks were pretty good.

"Do you want a lift home?" Tim asked.

Conner had ended up being the last kid at the Wayne household that night. He'd been putting off leaving because he really wasn't looking forward to making the long trip back this late. It was pushing midnight and he could just imagine what the buses would be like this time of night.

He was also positive that he would fall asleep in at least one class tomorrow.

"If it's not too much trouble," he said uncertainly. He'd just gotten Tim to stop suspecting him of being an undercover journalist in training, he didn't want to put him out.

"No, its fine," Tim said. "My car is in the shop so I have to ask one of my brothers to take us."

"I can just take the bus," he said.

"Its fine," Tim assured and led him through the house. "They're always up at odd hours." And sure enough Jason and another man were both sitting at the kitchen table playing Scrabble.

"Hey Timmy," the man Conner didn't know greeted. He looked remarkably like Tim with the same raven hair and blue eyes but this man also had darker skin that hinted at some sort of ethnicity Conner wasn't familiar with. He was dressed nicer than Jason but he was still in jeans and a red hoody.

"Can we give Conner a ride?" Tim asked, not even saying hello. "It's too late for the bus."

"I'll take you," Jason said. "But first you have tell us if that's a word." He pointed to a line of wooden blocks and Tim leaned over to study them.

"That's an SAT word," Tim said.

"Dammit!"

"Ha! Told you! Shouldn't have dropped out."

Jason rolled his eyes and mumbled something as he stood.

"Whatever Golden Boy," he snapped. "Just don't forget Damian was hiding in the TV room."

"Who's Damian?" Conner asked, curious despite himself.

"My little brother," Tim told him. "He's ten and doesn't like to be left out. He was hiding in the TV room all night and fell asleep behind the bar. My friends don't like little kids being around."

"I have a little brother," Conner told him. "Chris. He's six."

"Really?" Tim asked surprised. "I had you pegged for an only." Conner shrugged not really sure how one can tell if a person was an only child without being told so but was too tired to inquire.

"Timmy! Jacket!" Jason interrupted using a booted foot to kick Tim in his butt and get him moving. The teen pitched forward, caught himself, and glared over his shoulder but went to go get his jacket. That effectively left Conner alone with the two brothers.

"I'm Dick by the way," the stranger introduced.

"Conner Kent," he said and then mentally slapped himself when Dick's eyes narrowed at the last name.

"Kent?" the man asked.

"Timmy said he was from Metropolis," Jason inserted though he didn't seem anything other than friendly.

"You wouldn't happen to be related to Lois Lane-Kent, would you?" Dick asked. Conner nodded, figuring if he didn't tell them Tim would.

"My step-mom."

"Is she important?" Jason asked Dick in a stage whisper. For some reason, he didn't appear to recognize the name.

"She wrote that article about you in the Gotham Gazette," Dick said.

"That's the maga-"

"Newspaper," Tim interrupted suddenly back in the kitchen, jacket in hand. "Her article was what set the prosecutor onto you."

"Oh."

"You didn't know about it did you?" Dick asked, his tone expectant and perhaps a little resigned.

"Oh dude, if it's not in the Rolling Stone or Playboy I don't read it," Jason said and Dick rolled his eyes.

"Could you be any less informed?" Tim asked and Conner got the impression that Tim often looked down on his brother for being a little behind academically, even if he didn't mean too. It was something smart people usually did when talking to someone not on their level. Most of them never even realized they were doing it.

"Yes Tim," he replied, looking as if he was just indulging the boy. "Yes I could. Car." The red-headed man pointed his finger to the doorway and ushered both boys out of the house. He helped Conner put his bike into the trunk and then tied the lid down because it wouldn't close all the way. The teen was counting his blessings for not being in serious trouble at that moment.

Not that he had expected to be beaten up or anything but he had expected a cold shoulder and an order to never return. It would have been a bummer because he legitimately liked Tim Wayne. The kid had gone out of his way to help him feel at home at the Academy. He may have had an ulterior motive at first but he didn't have to invite him to his home and bring him into his group of friends. It was nice to be included.

When Jason pulled up to the apartment building he was staying at with Lois, the man got out to help him unload his bike. As he was untying the knot on the rope keeping the trunk lid down he gave Conner some news.

"I read that article," he said quietly so that Tim wouldn't hear him from inside the car. Not that there was much danger of that happening. The music was playing too loud for Tim to hear much of anything other than the beat of Eminem's new song.

"You did?" Conner asked, surprised.

"Yeah," Jason said. "They don't give you much in Blackgate but they do give you newspapers. Even ones that are a couple days old."

"Oh," Conner replied not sure what else to say. The man got the knot loose and opened the lid fully. He stood by while Conner reached in and carefully pulled the bike out, taking care not to scratch the custom made BMW.

"Tell your stepmom that most people in Gotham won't forgive and forget as easily as I did," he said. Conner froze. That sounded almost like a threat. But it could also simply be a warning. After all, Jason wasn't the only one named in that article. "Tensions haven't died down in Gotham. The riots could break out again, at any time. That's why we make Tim and Damian come home immediately after school, no exceptions."

"I didn't know that," Conner said referring to everything Jason had just told him.

"Now you do," the red head said. "Take your Mom and get out of my city. A Gotham school is no place for a Metropolis kid. Even if the school is Gotham Heights. If I see you around the Manor again, I'll kick you out. I'm sorry kid, but I can't have a reporter's boy in my house. I just got of Blackgate and I'm not going back."

With that Jason shut the trunk of his car and went back around to the driver's side. Soon enough he was in and driving off, leaving a shocked teen on the curb. Conner briefly saw Tim looking back at him through the seats. Later he would wonder if that was sadness in the other boy's eyes or if the night was just playing tricks on him.

Holding his bike, Conner wondered how best to inform Lois that they needed to leave. He took Jason's warning seriously and he was sure she would too if he told her that his information came from Jason, of all people. She'd probably blow a gasket at first but then she'd probably listen calmly.

He should call Clark and tell him first.

Skreeeee!

Conner jumped at the sound and looked up sharply in time to see a bat catch hold of a moth and fly off, disappearing into the alleyway. There was no light back there but he could see slight movement in the deep shadows. He suddenly realized that it was past midnight and he was just standing on a curb in Gotham City.

He hurriedly padlocked his bike to the apartment's bike rack and ran up the stairs as quickly as he could. He couldn't hide under his sheets fast enough.

By the next night, Conner was in his room in Metropolis. Lois had sent him from the city immediately. She too had believed Jason when he'd warned of more riots. And more riots came. Not two weeks later as she was wrapping up her story on Gotham bankers being in the pockets of the local mobsters, Crime Alley once again took to the streets.

As before it started peacefully but the taste of violence had still been in everyone's mouths and the city snapped much quicker than before. These riots however, weren't nearly as violent or as long. Three people-a policeman and two rioters-lost their lives; the violence ended in less than a day.

Conner kept up with it all. He didn't miss Gotham but he did care about what happened to it. People like Jason, who risked his future and freedom to make sure someone got help, and Tim, who had to defend his brother and his family on a constant basis, were people the Conner could admire. They were people he had never met in his quiet neighborhood in his fairly quiet city. He respected the Wayne family more than he thought he could respect someone that wasn't Clark and Lois.

The news was as astonishing as it had been the first time he'd seen such stories on the television. Only this time, he knew the people behind it all. He wasn't surprised to see Jason's face on the front lines of the protests and he certainly wasn't surprised to find out that Jason Wayne was one of the first to be arrested and sent to Blackgate for assault and battery. It didn't much matter though; the Wayne family lawyers had the man out in less than a day. A few hours after his release, he announced that Crime Alley was suing Gotham City for a recall election of the Mayor position. Jason himself would be in the running.

On that note, it didn't take Lois long to make things right with Jason. She wrote an article about his efforts in Crime Alley and how wrong everyone had been to perceive him as the villain rather than what he was. A vigilante. And while that word tasted bad to some it meant the world to others. Jason was a hero and for the first time Conner realized that some heroes had to get down and dirty to do something good.

Not that he would voice such a thought to Clark. He'd just end up with a lecture about not breaking laws and some such. But Clark had never lived in Gotham and though Conner had only lived there a week he already understood it a little better than his father could. Lois got it and now Conner did too.

Three months later he was sitting in his living room, little Chris on his lap, when the news broke.

Bruce Wayne had been found. Alive.

He had been beaten up so badly that nobody could recognize him through the swelling and bruises. His head trauma had been so severe he'd fallen into a daze like state and couldn't remember who he was. They had shuffled him off to a low budget mental health facility and in the chaos that resulted from the two sets of riots, the recall election, and the rebuilding, the man had simply fallen through the cracks.

The news never said what it was that caused him to wake up from his daze but Lois told him a little while later. Dick, Jason, and Tim had all been seen walking into that asylum three days before the man had been 'found'. There was little doubt in Conner's mind what had finally snapped Bruce Wayne back to reality.

He wished them well.

In a place like Gotham, they were going to need all the well wishing they could get.