March 12 1:00 a.m.

"Ooof!!" Falcon managed to grunt as Killer Croc threw her hard into a nearby, slimy wall of the gotham city sewer system and she inwardly cringed and she slowly stod back up. Before she could launch another attack, Batman already had the situation under control.

"Stand down." Batman ordered as he threw a stun batarang at killercroc, who writhed in pain. Nodding, she stood by, ready, but inactive, as Batman took down the horribly mutated killer croc. As she waited patiently as back up, she watched the fight with articulate observation.

She was already supposed to be off of probation after the incident at christmas time, but with the streets of gotham got even worse, it was tougher for her to handle cases completely alone. Most of the clan had already left gotham or were operating in other nearby city's: Babs, Nightwing, Robin, Batgirl, ect. She was the last little bird who had yet to fly the nest, and it was hard. She had been doing this for nearly two years, two and a half total counting all her time in gotham , been on countless missions, in numerous fights, trained by the best, educated in all the ways of criminolgy; and yet she still felt new at this. She didn't need to have her hand held, or be supervised on things anymore, yet she still didn't know if half the time she could survive two months on the streets without someone looking over her shoulder every once in awhile.

She watched intently as Batman secured the unconcious Killer Croc and turned to her with a stoical, unreadable face. Two nights ago, a few homeless people had been disappearing from the streets, she had tracked the people to the sewers with a little help from alfred's acting, and had found herself against the big and ugly lizard. Alfred had gotten to safety, she made sure of that, but she found herself and Killer crocs other victims in quite a pridicament when Bats had showed up after Alfie made an emergency call.

Batman's eyes made a quick scan for injuries. Upon seeing nothing more than a bloody nose and a few bruises that would pack a punch of their own in the morning, he turned away and started helping killer crocs dazed and traumatized prisoners from their rancid prison and pulled out a grappling hook. "Get the civilians to safety and cleanup this mess, then report to patrol on the Tri-corner." Falcon mumbled a yes sir as pulled a smallboy no older than five from a hiding spot under some ruble and helped a weathered and leathered looking woman up carefully, and mentally assessed the xtent of the damage the Croc had caused. It was going to be a long night.

To be completely truthful, she didn't know what she would do without the expertise of the others some times. She might have been long gone and dead if it hadn't been for the Gotham Knights.


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March 12 7:00 a.m.

A duffle bag slung over her shoulder and a leather motorcycle jacket, white tank top, and denim jeans on, Rachael made her way into her apartment with a yawn. The light of day was beginning to come up, so it was her time to retire for the morning. She stored her "Gym bag" into the hidden compartment in her bedroom and headed to the bathroom to freshen herself up. She'd just cover any new bruises from the night, head out to breakfast (she didn't feel like making anything, nor did she ever have the time to go shopping and store some food) at Donny's or IHOW (Internation house of Waffles) then come back and catch an hour or two of rest before working on some homework and case files, and try out the new training protocol exercise in the cave before the sun went down. Thank God for Saterdays, otherwise she wouldn't have any free time at all.

Looking in the mirror, she scrapped off a bit of blood that had congealed on her face, and stared hard and scrutinizingly in the mirror. Oh great, a zit. Not that it made much of a difference than the bruises surrounding it. She wonder if she could just pop it and......her phone vibrated in her pocket and she flipped it open: Mom.

"Hello?" she cradeled the cell between her ear and shoulder as she turned on the hot water and soaked a wash cloth. She grabbed a strand of hair and smelled it, scrunching her nose up. After last nigts sewer run, she was in dire need of a shower. "....Hello? You there?"

"Hey daughter. Sorry if you ca- --ardly hear me. I'm going through a tunnel, so I don't know how much longer I'll be able to talk."

Rachael's brow furrowed as she scrubed her face with cleanser. A tunnel? .....There weren't any tunnels in Hillsborough county. "Where are you, mom?" She rinced off her face and began the search through her medicine cabinet for her tooth brush.

"Ohhhh. About four hours away from Gotham. I'm in Maryland right now."

Rachael nearly dropped her phone and forgot about the tooth brush, leaning against the wall, stunned. "Your.....what?!?

"I was going to call you last night and tell you I was on my way to pick you up, but it was late last night, and I didn't want to wake you. Do you have your bags packed, yet?"

"My....bags?" She felt like she had skipped a chapter in a book and didn't know what anyone was talking about.

"I called you two days ago and left a message on your voicemail, you wouldn't pick up your phone, so I just left a message telling you to be ready by saturday......" Her mom paused for a second in thought. "You didn't check your voicemail, did you?"

"erm.....I was going to....todays ago I was...um." she was caught off guard and so stunned that she couldn't think up a good excuse. Two days ago she was working under cover for a drug bust, she couldn't answer her phone for security reasons. But she hardly expected her mom to appreciate that answer.

Her mother sighed dissapointedly and a little aggrevated. "Ok, look. Just make sure you have all your bags packed up at the dorms, I'll be there to pick you up in four hours. No ifs, ands, or buts. You better be ready to go."

"Bu--I mean, Why? whats going on?"

"I called your Father the other day and we had a long talk. We both agreed that Gotham city is beginning to be far to dangerous for a girl your age, chaperoned and in private school or not. I called the school the other day and requested to get your transcripts, I'll pick them up as soon as we get your things in the car."

"But!!--"

"I SAID no buts! I'm your mother and this is for your own good."

"Mom! I can't just leave school in the middle of the semester! You can't just.....just-- This isn't fair!!" Holy crap. This wasn't good.

"Rachael." Her mom pulled of a growl far to close to Batman's. "Until you are 18, I decide what is and whats not fair for ou to do. Be glad that you have a mother that cares for your safety!" She heard a frustrated sigh on the other end. "Look, it's bad enough that I couldn't afford to get you an airline ticket home and that you spent the entire summer in a college program in New York" or at least thats what she had been told...."But damnit, I can't put up with this any longer. Your still a teenager. Your to young for this and you need to come home. Thats FINAL."

Rachael slid down the wall till she was seated on the cold tile floor. She felt like she was going to be sick. She had to figure something out...."Yes Mame" she muttered and kicked the bathroom door shut in anger.

"And just so I know when I get to the school. Whats your dorm room number."

"My..." Rachael was speechless. She had to think of something quick. If her mom arrived at the school and saw that she didn't have a dorm there nor ever had one, she'd definitely be in trouble and her mom would DEFINITELY be suspicious as to what she was up to. "I'm...not staying at the dorms. They were all filled up."

"What!? Where are you staying? why didn'tn you TELL me that--"

"It's ok mom. They were filled up, so the city's philanthropist, Bruce Wayne, offered to take in a few extra students so I'm staying at Wayne Manor." Seemed reaspnable enough.....God she hoped Bruce wpuldn't have her neck for this.

"....THE Wayne--" The rest was cut off for a minute as her call waiting beeped.

"holdonmom. I'llhavetocallyouback. loveyou. BYE!" Rachael quickly switched over to the other call, relieved to take a breath of fresh from her mothers devastating phone call and she pushed herself up and hurried to her room to get her suitcases. "Hello?"

CM3 was looking at a brosure about the places to go to in Alabama, he didn't choose to go there but Billy and Mary decided that he would need a break and Alabama was the best place to go "I wonder how there apartment prices are" he said to himself "I better call someone and tell them where I'm going" he looked at his phone book and flipped through the pages until he saw Falcon's cell phone number "I'll call Rachel" he dialed her number and the phone rang three times until he heard "Hello?" he paused for a minute thinking of what to say "Hey Rachel, I know its wierd for me to be calling but How are you, I'm going to Alabama for a little while and I just wanted to tell you that if you see any of the others tell them that I'll be there and I'll be back real soon, Hope every thing is well and you are not... injured or... hurt... Okayope you have a good dayand see you when I get back, bye!

He thought about why he had studdered, he liked falcon for sometime and even though she was with Tim and is now with some guy named Vic, he knew that she was unavalible "Maybe thats why I'm taking this trip, to get a girlfriend" he thought, he packed his stuff and flew off in the direction of Alabama.

The Redbird currently disguised as a normal sports car sped down the streets of Gotham, its lone occupant wearing a serious experssion. Tim had just gotten back from a meeting wiht Batman about the Penguin's current operation in Bludhaven was intent on return back to the 'Haven in order to get a start on things. Batgirl was still MIA, leaving him alone to protect the city. He had to admit he was a bit annoyed by Cassie's suddenly disappearance, but he had been known to make them himself more than once.

It was still odd when Tim went to the Manor now adays. He was no longer just Robin visiting his HQ or Tim Drake visiting his friend the billionaire Bruce Wayne. He was now Tim Drake returning home to his adoptive father. That was still and odd idea to wrap his head around. Bruce had adopted Tim several months ago, but it still felt weird. Tim didn't call him 'Dad' of course. Tim only had one 'Dad' and he was dead. Just like he would never call Dana who was still in the hospital 'Mom'.

Tim shook the thoughts out of his head. Despite the weirdness, Bruce and Dick and Alfred were still his family now and he was grateful. Still there was the question of other members of their group. Batgirl was gone, Huntress, Black Canary and Oracle were gone, Nightwing was in New York... But what of Falcon? Rachael hadn't been around much in the past few months since the gang war. They barely spoke infact, which unnerved Tim greatly. Despite them braking up, he assumed they would remain friends. Picking up his phone, Tim tried to call Rachael, but both her lines were busy. It had to be Rachael's friends from school, since they weren't allowed to hand out their home phone numbers to the other heroes in the community for security reasons. He'd just have to stop by in person.

Turning the car off to one lane, Tim drove to Rachael's apartment building. He was dressed in his normal cloths, so of course took the normal way in and was soon at the door to Rachael's apartment in which he rung the doorbell and awaited a response.

Rachael blinked and looked down at her phone....Alabama? She had never lived in Alabama, how the hell would she know the apartment prices there........And how the heck did CM3 get ahold of her cell phone number?!

Shruging, Rachael put the phone down and began to quickly pluck clothing out of her closet and shove them into her suitcase with a force of frustration as she came back to the situation at hand. She didn't even take the clothes off the hangers and fold them. She had four hours to gather up her belonging, conceal weapons and extra costumes in the lining, pack her less suspicious gear, she DEFINITELY had to call Bruce and explain things to him, she had to find out what to do with the rest of her stuff, head over to the manor and make it look like she lived there, she......God, what was she going to do. She just stuffed the essentials into the suitcase as fast as she could

She heard the doorbell ring and stopped mid stuff and flipped the cover of the suitcase shut as she went to see who it was at the door.

She tied her hair back in a short pony tail and looked through the eye hole in the door to see Tim standing there. Whoa....she hadn't seem him in months.... Was something wrong?

Rachael took a deep breath and opened the door. "Hey!"

While Tim waited for an answer, he thought back to the last time he had really talked with Racheal It was back during the de-aged incident at YJ's Volcaneo HQ. And even then they didn't talk too much. Tim knew that it had in large part to do with the fact that Rachael and Greta avoided each other so much. Tim never understood what was Greta's problem with Rachael. Greta could be the sweetest girl in the world, but when it came to Rachael she had a completely unexplainable dislike. Greta's reason never made that much sense. She stated it was because Rach was from another dimension or because she had two souls. But Greta was close friends with Supersonic who was from another dimension and her mentor had been Hal Jordan back when he was the Specter and he had two souls (three if you included the Parallax entity), and she never had problems with him.So why was it so hard for Greta and Rachael to get along?

Tim arched an eyebrow at Rachael as she opened the door looking very winded and greeting him rather loudly. "Umm... Hi Rach," Tim said with his head tilted to one side a bit quizically. "I was visiting the Manor and thought I'd drop by and see how you are..." Tim's eyebrows rose when he saw inside the apartment as there were clothing strewed on the floor in Rachael's room and a quite a few signs of hasty packing. "Going somewhere?"

Rachaels well practiced false grin diminshed and her voice grew a bit lower. "Erm.....Actually, I'm not 100% sure......But most likely, yeah." She scratched the back of her neck a second, trying to some up the situation in a sentence or two. She cleared her throat. "My moms on her way up to Gotham to take me back to Florida. Kinda got a last minutes notice about it.....Thinks its too dangerous to be up here any longer..." Rachael held the door open wide and stood to the side. "so uh.....Come on in."

It was good to see Tim again, considering how long it had been. She wanted to mcatch up with what he was up to, how the Titans were, how he was getting along at the manor. ect. But as she did so, she also was going through a mental to do list of all the things she had to pack, the people she would have to call, the things she would have to do.....She had made herself seem more patient on the outside, but inside she was still in a frantic hurry.

"so..."

"Wait your mom is coming ot take you back to Florida?" Tim said agahst, any memory of catching up forgotten. "Rachael, have you talken to Bruce about this? I mean, she can't actually expect you to just up an leave all of sudden."

Robin had been in this situation before, when his dad had decided to move them to Keystone City after the Quake. Tim had been able to figure a way around it though and even convince his dad to move back. But Rachael didn't have that luxury. Her mother didn't live in Gotham. And after the Gang War and with all the capes being targetted by the cops Gotham wasn't really that safe.

Tim began ot pace back and forth, obviously in Robin mode trying to figure a way to analyze the situation. "Okay we have to think this through. How long do we have? Does your mom still think you're staying at the School?"

"actually....she thinks I'm staying at Wayne manor" Rachael said with a sigh and begin to pick randomn cloths up off the floor, bundling them. "All the dorms at the school are already filled to their limit as is, so no way I could convince her that I've been living there the past year. She think that Bruce has been taking one or two extra kids who didn't have anywhere else to stay." She rubbed the bridge of her nose. Things were sinking in, but it didn't make her worry any less and making the nasaous feeling over the quickly spoken words to her mother churn any less in her stomach.

She looked down at her watch a brief second...."And I have about three hours and thirty seconds before she arrives...anything we're gonna do has to be quick." She felt lost. She understood why her mom would want to protect the 'baby of the family' , but she also knew what her mom didn't: She could handle it. She didn't know, tho, how long she could handle being out of Gotham....or out of costume for that matter.

Tim frowned a bit as he moved to place a hand on Rachael's shoulder. They had dated for a good while, and he had grown to understand how her mind worked. She was no doubt making her sick with the possibilities of what was going to happen when her mom got here.

"Okay, first thing first. We need to convince your mom that you've been living at Wayne manor right?" He scratched his chin thoughtfully before looking at Rachael. His mind was immediately trying to find a way to cover their bases in the short time that they had. "Rach, go and call Alfred and Bruce and let them know what's going on. We can't wait to spring this on them. They can start setting up a cover story for when your mom gets there."

As he spoke he reached for his Titans Com-link from his pants pocket. "Meanwhile, I'll call Wally or Bart, and have them move all your stuf into one of the rooms back at the Manor. Shouldn't take them more than a few minutes, right?"

Rachael nodded and reached for her cell phone, speed dialing the Manor. It was good to know that tho they were no longer dating, that they still could help each other out. Anxiously she waited for someone to pick up.

(soo... who is going to reply to Rachael on the phone at the manor?)

>>Sorry. I will. Just trying to do a buncha things at once, so I cut the post kinda short. I'll add more in a sec<<

"Hello?" Came the deep nearly monotonous voice ,that was a mix of Bruce Wayne and Batman, reply to the ringing phone.

"Bruce. Uh, this is Rachael. Theres a bit of a problem. Y'see...ahhh. My moms on her way now and--" Rachael took a deep breath and explained things to him as she had Tim. "And well, so now we need to convince her that you've been taking in a student or two from the school for awhile."

Bruce was silent for a split second. "Fine then. Alfred will have a bag packed with your disguised arsenal and other things you will need ready when you get here. Most likely he'll insist on there being a dinner."

Rachael blinked a second. Have her bag packed...."So...then you don't think we should convince her to let me stay?" She said in a low, hushed tone.

"I'm sorry, Rachael. But I have to agree with her. Gotham has become to dangerous now. Even for you and the others."

"But...."

:D