Timothy Jack Drake

Red Robin

Jack and Janet Drake found themselves in a problematic situation in the winter of 2001. Janet had just given birth to a healthy baby boy. He was perfect, but Mom and Dad were troubled with the opposite condition. As a wealthy globetrotting businessman associated with Thomas Wayne, and much later Bruce, Jack had far too much to do to constantly watch over his son, and his wife was in similar straits, but that was no problem money couldn't solve!

While Jack and Janet would randomly disappear into the Caribbean islands or be summoned to a business meet south of Olympus, Tim was left with nanny after nanny. By the time he'd learned to walk, he's done so in an empty room. Similar patterns followed for years. He learned to toss a ball with the help. But he strove to do so very well, the few times dad was home, Jack was impressed.

Classically many youths acted out or rebelled to attract their parents attention, but Tim was fine being away from his parents more or less. He'd grown used to it. He preferred to have their respect over their attention, so he concentrated his entire being into developing a reputation and farming positive reports of his achievements to be heard by his parents.

He aced nearly every test he took on a computerized home schooling program for years. While he was very capable and competent to do so, he'd actually cheated by using the internet to obtain answers to his tests and solutions to his problems. However, he legitimately conditioned himself to incredible physical fitness that never ceased to amaze his instructors and parents.

When he was nine years old, Tim was rewarded for his academic achievements by being treated to a night on the town which ended at Haly's Circus, a place he'd been several times before but this visit was special, or at least indubitably eventful. Incredibly, his parents had managed to arrange a picture taken with his themselves and Dick Grayson by Tim's side. Afterward, his family settled into their seats to catch the performance until they were shocked to watch The Flying Graysons fall from up high, their wire had snapped!

Tim wanted terribly to console Dick, but his parents insisted that he really needed space. So they left, but his parents were later consulted as witnesses. A flood of footage concerning their previous performances was shown on the news in the next few days. Tim tried writing to Dick, but gave up after his parents insisted that it would be of no good. However, his heart went out to Dick, but he had no choice but to simply watch and learn about the boy.

Drake was inspired by Grayson's performances to the point that it met him in his dreams. He was unsure if it was merely the Baadder Meinhof phenomenon or he was legitimately seeking the champion acrobat out. Thus, he requested from his parents that he be granted gymnastic lessons, and he was. Whenever he wasn't schooling or eating, he'd be swinging on the trapeze or running a gauntlet built in a former automotive garage purchased miles away from the city.

Day by day he trained, steadily growing faster, stronger, and more intuitive as his skill was sharpened against a crag of passion in his soul. He had no one to train against, and eventually he wanted to drive the arrangements further than the insurance, and by extension paternal, authorities would allow. So he began to freerun in The Narrows of Gotham City, vaulting over alleyways and eventually mastering his art to the point he was given an opportunity to meet David Bell. At this point he began a 'career' as a Youtuber, showcasing both his physical skill and digital dexterity by editing videos like a pro, attracting over 100,000 subscribers.

While freerunning captured his passion, everyone's attention was on the true competitions. So when he was thirteen years old he entered a national gymnastic circuit, outshining all local competitors as though he were a quasar among lightning bugs. After three months, he won and was shown victorious on national news channels. But then he set his sights elsewhere.

In 2015 he purposely weaned off of Youtube, letting his celebrity status die down. The Batman had drafted a new assistant, a Robin. Tim was attentive enough to the scraps of received footage to know that this Robin was a far cry from the original assistant he'd fought alongside. That set a precedent that the boy would capitalize on.

Batman needs a Robin, he noted to himself. At this point, he cannot function properly without one. Robin is an anchor, a long arm and extension of the Bat himself. The more Robins there are, the more effective he will be. After all, when accurate details on his operations are already sporadic, who could validly claim that he doesn't send his Robin minions off to war.

Thus, he began. Unable to match the outfit of the previous Robin, he decided to go with a darker color palette, something more exciting and aggressive. Psychologically speaking, green is calm, yellow is pleasant, but red is aggressive and black is terrifying. He dyed a skydiver's wingsuit scarlet and built a costume around that before setting out. On top of the uniform itself, he added a cushion below a layer of specifically warped panels of form-fitting steel to wrap around himself.

He made use of a 3D printer to create batarangs for himself while engineering a telescoping staff that he could use in his own defense. After setting himself up sufficiently, he dove into action targeting The Condiment King, a dangerous criminal themed around condiments who was rarely accepted as a the legitimate threat to public safety he was. As expected, The Condiment King accepted him as Robin, but did not surrender.

Drake cut the lines to the King's weapons before tricking him into slipping in it, ironically covering himself in burns inflicted by ketchup mixed with lye. Months later he hunted down the daughter of Lucious Fox, following a trail to the sewers where he found another costumed criminal, The Sewer King, who sicced trained alligators on Tim, which were efficiently dispatched by throwing explosives inside their mouths, bypassing their armor by destroying their internal organs. He recovered the kidnapped girl, finding she was only slightly older than himself.

Tam Fox was a dedicated fan of Robin from then forward. Various other adventures have raised his profile to the point that people actually did notice the multiple Robins, especially the actual Batfamily. After capturing the airborne burglar Kite-Man, Tim was contacted via email by an anonymous messenger. The message had an encrypted attachment that, once unlocked and made intelligible, left a riddle originally written by none other than Edward Nygma. No additional hints were given, however Tim was able to retrace Batman's sightings to a confrontation with The Riddler, understanding that the scene of that meeting was where another clue would be found.

He located a flash drive before returning to his computer, unencrypting it, and finding an introduction to his messenger. This would turn out to be Oracle, who had a test of his mettle as a vigilante. To give him the opportunity to cooperate with the Batman and his allies, he would be required to capture non-confrontational criminal Arthur Brown, better known as The Cluemaster. Drake did so, finding Brown with his daughter, who was surprised to find out that her father a 'supervillain'. Drake detained Brown before an arrest was made, escaping to finally receive a Skype message instructing him to visit Bludhaven.

Drake was ambushed by Nightwing, who literally swept Tim off his feet and dropped him to the ground, although brief, it gave him critical insight to combat and stealth. It was explained that they, at that particular moment would have a one on one tutoring session.

At the onset of 2016, he was assigned a distinct code name to keep himself and Jason Todd straight. Because of his darker and simpler color scheme, he was named Red Robin for ease of communication, assuming he'd get that far. In his way of working with the Batclan is a test of his mettle, The Gauntlet! He has no choice but to evade the detection of Nightwing or any of the rest of the Batfamily until dawn.

Gotham City/Bludhaven. It is possible that he will generally do a decent amount of travel.

Years ago, outside the city limits of Gotham itself and into the country side, the Drake's had bought Tim an automotive repair shop to serve as his own clubhouse to do whatever he pleased in, promising never to go inside of it. This presently serves both as a private gym and shop for manufacturing his own tools. In one room, on an offline harddrive, Tim keeps a database of all people he's encountered as Robin as well as a diary.

The primary objective is to build ever-evolving relationships with all characters he meets. The secondary is to have him step up to bigger and bigger challenges. Obviously, the first thing on my agenda is to establish him within The Batfamily, playing off of Jason Todd and inspiring other self-starter teens to take up vigilantism theirselves. He will build up the idea that Batman's reach is very far and he has many hands to combat injustice. The way to do this I have in mind is by having Tim terrorize organizations both criminal and legitimate in nature.

PLANNED ARCS

The Sewer King

Hanging from the ceiling of the sewer tunnels were infrequent, oft failing dim lights. Fortunately, just for the occasion, Tim mounted several lights onto his outfit that could be toggled on or off.

It was some freakish cross between a subterranean swamp and an assembly hall. Grated metal held a field of malnourished teens and kids over a putrid green river. The platform stood roughly five feet beneath an island of stone that sat in front of them. Probably near a hundred kids were clamoring out loud, like a symphonic free-for-all. Fast asleep, Tamara Fox, a true fox in Tim's eyes, was unconsciously crowd-surfing to the concrete pad. Sloppily, she was rolled on top of it, at the feet of a man who looked like the nineteenth century version of a pimp, complete with a cane.

"Excellent boys and girls, a strong young woman. Take her to the classroom at once!"

Like grass creeping on top of a sidewalk, dozens of hands reached out and tugged at her limbs, slowly dragging her back off and into the ocean of youth. Her limp body fell and dropped downward at every joint. It seemed she was in for an upcoming life of hard labor and poverty, but Tim would have none of that.

"This is your only warning, creep. If you pull a stunt like that again, you're going to need an iron lung."

"Huh--Well who are you!" He babbled in surprise.

"You can call me Robin, you've probably heard of me."

"Aren't you supposed to be in a speedo?" he grinned fiendishly. The fashionably questionable Sewer King stood up, a brazen scepter in hand pressed against the ground. He wore a red trenchcoat and had a pair of sunglasses missing one lens. Despite his clearly being disturbed, Tim could hardly feel threatened. But the king raised his scepter and waved the bottom towards a tunnel before the children he commanded fled with haste. "If you want the girl, then take her, its as simple as that."

"No it isn't, but thank you for trying to look civil," Tim's voice rasped as he walked over to Tam, sliding his arms under her back.

The water below gained an uncertain quality, the waves seemed to cease completely and the sewer was absolutely still, as though it were holding its breath. Anticipating danger, Tim readied himself with his staff, laying Tamara back down so he'd be prepared for an assault. The still stream below exploded into the air as a rugged, green torpedo broke the surface and made a low gallop towards Tim.

Responsively, Tim charged it. Snapping its jaw centimeters below Tim's boot, it scuttled underneath him and narrowly missed. When it turned around though, the Boy Wonder planted his staff into its left eye before it retreated a few inches, growling with immeasurable depth. But it was unable to dissuade the boy wonder, who jabbed his staff into the mouth of the beast. Attempting to disarm Tim it opened wide to snap his staff, but not before Tim tossed a scarlet cylinder down its throat. It snapped closed, feeling surprise, but also breaking the metal weapon.

Tim whippped out his cell phone, unlocked the screen and fingered a round icon shaped like a button. The crocodile yelped but was helpless as its insides were scattered and scourged. It slumped onto the metal grate, immediately lifeless and still.

A moment of silence separated its slaying from any speech. I really hadn't expected that, the Sewer King though to himself.

"I gave you my word, take the girl and never return."

"I give you my word, if you take another man, woman, or child, I swear to god I will feed your hand to the crocs myself."

Tensely, the Sewer King gulped and sat anxiously as Robin carried Tamara off in his arms, down a chamber of poorly lit steel grates. I swear I'll have my revenge Robin, on you and that surface-dwelling bat-clan of yours too. Just wait and see.