As announced, Damian and Jonathan had made their way to the Batcave in full gear and were just flying over the Gotham skyline. The sunny weather forced them to stay inside the many puffy clouds, in order to be spared from the curious looks of the passers-by, which would expose their intentions.

Damian instructed Jon to land inconspicuously at a meadow inside the middle of a small wood about 300 meters away from the Manor. A little bumpily, the Kryptonian boy's feet stumbled through the long grasses and Damian calmly jumped off his back.

Immediately, Robin began entering various commands into his computer as he explained his plan: 

"It will take me a moment to shut down the Batcave's security protocols. Until then, we'll wait here."

Superboy just nodded and while waiting for Damian to finish the hacking stuff, he looked around curiously.

It was a rather large patch of meadow, which adjacent trees let the strong midday sun fall through their canopy in single rays.

Their leaves rustled in the shallow wind, accompanied by the chirping of many different birds.

A truly idyllic place, Jon thought to himself, but when he looked around further and discovered several stones not far from them, this idyll was quickly clouded. Several gravestones protruded between the long meadow stalks, of which Jonathan first thought that they were natural rocks.

Questioningly, he pointed at them:

 "Whose graves are these?"

Damian looked up only briefly, then replied disinterestedly:

"That's the Wayne cemetery. All Waynes are buried there, starting with Charles Wayne. His sons had bought the Manor back then. At least that's what Alfred claims."

Jon was visibly impressed:

"Wow, you guys have your own cemetery? How long ago was that?"

This time Robin didn't lift his gaze from the small holographic screen:

"About two hundred years."

"That's a really long time. Mind if I take a closer look at those?"

"As long as you don't keep bugging me with annoying questions anymore."

Superboy turned and flew swiftly to the many old tombstones. Respectfully, he strode through the few rows, while looking at the many Wayne names and admired the different dates.

Charles Wayne, Joshua Thomas Wayne, Alan Wayne, Solomon Zebediah Wayne.*

There were so many different graves, some of whose age made it difficult to even read the names correctly.

A few minutes passed and Jon finally arrived at the graves of Thomas and Martha Wayne. He looked with interest at the withered bouquet of flowers that lay in front of the only modern stones. They were plain and the dark polished granite looked quite foreign among all the other normal stones. Apparently these two deceased were still being mourned.

Jonathan was about to go back to Damian when something caught his eye. It was another gravestone, but this one was different from the others, closer to the forest and a little further away.

Curious, Jon flew over and one brow rose in obvious interest. The inscription was the only one that didn't include a Wayne name. Instead, the gravestone read Richard John Grayson in large fractional letters.

Based on the dates, he must have died sometime last year, but Jon had never heard Damian talk about him. Thoughtfully, Superboy's wrinkles on his forehead visibly deepened. Somehow, though, that name sounded familiar.

"The security system is down."

Jonathan startled up with a squeaky cry when Robin suddenly appeared behind him and also immediately expressed his displeasure:

"Could you please not sneak up on me like that? One day I'm really going to fry you with my eyes by accident!"

Damian was unimpressed by this and folded his arms together for emphasis:

"You and fry me? Keep dreaming rookie. We'd better hurry before my father notices something."

Robin turned and was about to make his way to his personal secret passage when Jon asked one last question; "Who's lying here?"

Damian didn't look at Superboy as he dryly replied: "No one. It's just a meaningless rock."

Jonathan was not really satisfied by this answer, but he asked nothing more about this topic and simply followed Damian, all the way to a narrow cave entrance, not far from the meadow, which they went in right away.

Both boys spent the next ten minutes squeezing through narrow crevices and working their way across the rough terrain of this narrow passage.

Again, it didn't take long, before Jonathan opened his mouth once more, while his nose wrinkled in disgust:

"Why are we actually climbing through this tunnels and not taking the main entrance? These walls stink like one of the manure heaps on Granny's farm."

Damian didn't look back, just continued walking as he replied:

"A precaution. I'm not stupid enough to believe that my father didn't install secret security protocols. This passageway is not monitored because no adults can fit through here and only  bats mainly use it. So if I were you, I'd be more careful on what my hand touches."

Jonathan's eyes went wide at first before he screwed up his face in disgust and took his hands off the rocks:

"Ew, that's really disgusting. You never told me you had a brother, by the way."

"Why brother?"

"Well, you said earlier that you wanted me to help you with your brother."

Damian paused for a moment. He hadn't even noticed that he had said it that way.

"Oh did I?"

Straining, the boy ran his hand over his face. He really had to be careful that this chaos in his head didn't affect his actions. The last thing he wanted was to show weakness towards Jonathan. Even more so after he had told him that such things had no place in a mission.

"He's...my adopted brother. I have three of those in total. They're all older than me."

Jon's eyes began to twinkle excitedly:

"Really, that's rad. Must be cool to have so many big brothers. I'm really jealous."

Annoyed, Damian hissed before sarcastically replying:

"-tt- Yeah right, I suffer every day they're not at the Manor."

Jonathan didn't stop this pejorative, however. The boy was getting even more curious now:

"What are they like? Will you introduce me to them some day?"

Damian screwed up his face as he just climbed over a large rock. He considered for a moment whether it was wise to tell Jon about them, but in the end he already knew most of the secret identities of the heroes anyway, and his parents knew about Dick and the others of his family anyway. So he told Superboy about them:

"Believe me, you don't want to meet them, especially that complete idiot Drake. A nerd who will start a relationship with his computers one day and a true Batman lickspittle. He was the Robin before me and now patrols Bludhaven as Red Robin."

"Wait, Red Robin is your brother? That's whack!"

Damian growled angrily, correcting Jon:

"Only adopted brother on paper." Before he spoke on more calmly:

"Each of them was once the Robin of the Batman and then went their own way."

"Who are the other two?"

Damian squeezed strained through a narrow crevice, making his answer sound slightly choppy:

"There is also...Todd. He was the second Robin and distanced himself from the family a long time ago. That's why I don't know him as well as the others. He prefers to get his own way rather than listen to reason and act rationally. That's why he's got a lot of dirt on him."

Jonathan chuckled a little:

"Sounds kinda like you."

A throwing disc then hit Superboy in the head and perplexed, he just stared at Damian, who raised a finger in warning:

"Say that one more time and the next blade that hits you will be made of Kryptonite."

Jonathan scratched the back of his head mischievously:

"Did I say like you? I meant completely different."

Damian turned back around and they continued on their way as he again spoke:

"He should be known to you as Red Hood."

Jonathan's brows rose:

"Like that dangerous antihero who takes down mob bosses? I heared he's pretty ruthless."

Damian let out an amused snort:

"If his methods already seem ruthless to you, then you're going to have a lot of fun as a budding hero."

Robin, grinning diabolically, looked over his shoulder at Jon, who swallowed nervously. The latter did not like this answer at all and therefore quickly jumped on:

"And who is the last?"

Damian paused briefly in his movement. However, then went on and said played indifferently:

"Have you ever heard of the hero Nightwing?"

Superboy's expression became more cheerful again:

"Dad told me about him once. That's the hero who took the name of a Kryptonian god and went on to protect Bludhaven."

Damian's ears perked up:

"Kryptonian god?"

Excited, Jonathan told him about his culture:

"Yeah, Dad said that on Krypto they believed in different gods, including the dragon birds Flamebird and Nightwing. Flamebird was always doomed to destroy everything and Nightwing always rebuilt everything, even himself. They couldn't do without each other and shared their fate together or somehow that's how it went. Anyway, I think it's cool that he took his name after them and I've only heard good things about him, but unfortunately he suddenly disappeared a year ago."

Damian was silent at first. He hadn't even known that Richard took his hero name from a Kryptonian legend.

A slight smile graced his face. It was so typical of this hopeless romantic.

Finally, Damian spoke:

"Anyway, he was Batman's first Robin and the oldest of us."

Jonathan's enthusiasm was running at full speed. He liked this hero who represented a small part of his culture:

"Wow really? That's so cool!"

But his enthusiasm quickly fated when Damian said:

"His name is Richard Grayson."

All joy drained from Jon's face and what was left was a befuddled face. He immediately remembered the gravestone in that meadow and therefore only let out a short: "Oh."

Superboy thought for a moment if he should say something about it and he already opened his mouth, but it was immediately shut by Robin, who held a finger against his lips for symbolism:

"Shh, we're here."

Jonathan looked over his partner's shoulders and saw the huge Batcave behind him. He hadn't even realized they were already there. Understanding, he nodded.

Damian instructed him to follow quietly and together they entered the modernized cave. Superboy was amazed every time again by all the things that were standing around, starting with the huge T-Rex, which stretched its sharp teeth towards visitors.

No matter how many times you were here, you always found a new detail among all these interesting things. It was never boring.

Suddenly Damian stopped and stared in disbelief at an empty cage a few meters in front of them. Astonished, Superboy asked:

"What is it?"

Robin only said:

"He's gone."

"Who's gone?"

Damian did not answer, but now stepped closer to the cage. Where was Richard? Had his father guessed he was coming and taken him away?"

He came to a stop in front of the metal bars.

Robin looked closely into it, but he could not make out anyone inside. Restless, the boy looked at the thermal imaging camera on his computer, but it too showed nothing. His fists clenched tightly before he typed away on his computer, visibly stressed, trying to find answers. Something, just something had to give clues to Richard's remaining.

Jon stepped up beside him:

"What's going on? What are you even looking for?"

Damian couldn't worry about Superboy right now. He was too busy looking for Dick.

However, he suddenly noticed something that caused him to interrupt his investigation. Examining, the Wayne heir raised his head from the holographic screen. He felt a slight breeze that seemed to come from the cage.

Instinctively, the boy pulled himself and Jonathan sideways away from the cage, who acknowledged this with a surprised yelp, and only a second later, a deep hole graced the spot of the floor on which they had just been standing.

Damian made sure that he and Superboy put distance between themselves and the cage.

Robin continued to stare suspiciously between the bars, while Jon gave way to his shock in disbelief:

"What the hell was that! The floor was just..."

Jonathan paused in mid-sentence as he saw dark feathers gradually appear out of nowhere in the supposedly empty cage, revealing a creature he would rather not have met again.

He recognized these wings and the dangerous tail, which accompanied by metallic creaking now pulled out of the steel floor.

It was the beast that had almost killed his father, and Jon automatically began to tremble.

Damian, on the other hand, exhaled in relief. Dick was still here after all and had not been taken away. That calmed him visibly.

However, Jonathan saw it differently and now expressed his displeasure:

"You didn't tell me about this critter being here!"

Robin just calmly crossed his arms and threw Jon a diabolical grin:

"I told you we were helping my adopted brother, and you wanted to meet him anyway."

Now Superboy sharpened his ears. He just had to have misheard:

"Your adopted brother?

Damian stretched his hands at Dick and introduced the two:

"Jonathan, Richard Grayson. Richard, Jonathan Kent."

Threateningly, Dick hissed in Jon's direction, who widened his eyes in disbelief:

"Wait, that...is Nightwing?!"

As if nothing had happened, Damian dropped cross-legged to the floor in distance of the Cave and began his extensive analysis. With menacing thumps and growls as background, he answered without looking up:

"Yep, that's Nightwing."

Perplexed, Jonathan stared at this menacing creature that eyed both boys firmly.

He couldn't explain how that thing in front of them could be the hero Nightwing. He knew him from the news and from his father's stories only as a good-humored crime fighter. So Jon asked:

"But why is he so...beastly?"

Robin didn't look up as he answered: "I'm trying to figure out the exact reason right now, but to make a long story short, he mutated."

Superboy rose into the air to take a closer look from a safe distance at this Nightwing from different views. He flew left and right, up and down, and depending on how he moved, he immediately earned disapproving growls.

Finally, the boy came to stop in mid-air and crossed his arms thoughtfully:

"So your brother is a mutant. That's really weird."

Disinterested, Damian commented:

"And you're a half alien."

However, Jon visibly disapproved of this titling and initially looked at Robin angrily over his shoulder before flying over to him. Headlong, he placed his face in front of the Wayne heir's, causing his hair to stand on end, before saying reprovingly:

"Calling someone an alien is pretty mean."

Damian was visibly annoyed by this answer. He just looked up briefly and then snapped at his counterpart's forehead, who then winced a bit:

"And calling someone a mutant is nice, or what?"

He now pressed the same hand into the Kryptonian's face and pushed him away:

"Now get out of my sight! I have work to do here and I need to concentrate."

"Since you have to concentrate Master Damian, may I offer the gentlemen a glass of lemonade?"

Instantly, both boys wheeled around, startled, and looked incredulously at Alfred, who stood behind them, armed with tray and drinks. They hadn't heard him coming in at all, and while the old butler was already putting down the drinks, Robin spoke up, befuddled:

"Alfred, how did you...?"

"Well Master Damian, nothing happens in this house without me knowing about it. That goes even for you."

While Robin couldn't believe how the butler had surprised them, Jonathan immediately turned white as a sheet and begged the old man:

"Please don't tell our parents we were here. If they get to know, I'll have to spend the next six months at home grounded. Please, please don't tell!"

Alfred just raised one of his brows, unimpressed:

"I can take that worry away from you Master Jonathan. As long as you don't get close to Master Richard again, I will ignore what I saw."

The two boys' eyes grew wide and where Jon was already showing a broad smile, Damian preferred to ask again:

"You're going to let us get away with this?"

"Do you really think I would have given you the hint three days ago if I hadn't suspected such a thing? I think the company could be good for Master Richard's condition."

Reassured by this, Damian now visibly relaxed as well, before the boy's gaze slid into the cage, slightly filled with concern:

"How has he been?"

Sadly, the old butler also looked into the cage, where Dick was pacing nervously:

"Regrettably, not very well. He refuses all food as well as liquids and threatens anyone who gets closer then ten meters. He behaves like a wild animal that sees people for the first time and suffers from permanent stress. Master Bruce avoids coming down here to give him some rest, but unfortunately nothing improves."

Alfred now turned his gaze back to Damian a little more sympathetically:

"However, perhaps your talented hand can make a change."

Robin looked questioningly at the old butler at first, then thought hard about these words before turning back to his analyses.

"Then if you'll excuse me, there are windows that still need to be cleaned."

The butler turned and was already making his way toward the stairs when Jon called after him, "Thank you Alfred!"

He just liked that old man. He was always so nice.

Jon looked over his shoulder at Damian, who was meticulously working on a solution for Dick:

"Say, can I take a look at the things in here?"

Distracted, the latter replied: "Just looking, don't touch, and stay away from Grayson!"

So for the next two hours, Jonathan flew back and forth through the Batcave, marveling at each of the Batman's keepsakes, while Damian was on a desperate search for a cure for Dick.

However, time was too short to get any results.