Redbird has a minion!

Bruce the Bartholomew

Timothy Jackson Drake Wayne. Now there's a mouthful.

What parts of my name I actually use depends on the person. Tim to friends. Timothy Drake to colleges. Timothy Wayne if I want to get into a fancy restaurant.

But to a select few I'm known as Red Robin. Or another ex-Robin to those who know of my former super-identity. Of course, being close to the somewhat infamous hero of Gotham, Batman, makes both my aliases come with their own set of problems. For instance, at one point a guy called Ulysses Armstrong to friends and The General to enemies decided his grudge against me was strong enough to warrant taking down another supervillian, Lonnie Machin aka Anarky, and stealing his villainous identity. The new Anarky then started going after other kids he thought might be me based off of height, build, financial status, etcetera.

Thankfully for me, I had the former Anarky in my corner. Lonnie was forced into a coma by new-Anarky and hooked up to a giant server to work as a communications grid for Anarky, scouting out potential Red Robins. But little did Anarky know that Lonnie was also using the grid to send me infrequent messages through a chat client under the alias MoneySpider. These messages were usually updates on Anarky's movements, explaining who the guy had decided to off and what his future plans could be. Lonnie didn't know much, but he helped me the best he could.

Before you ask, don't worry. Lonnie's fine. And, spoilers, Anarky isn't.

But back to what I was doing during this fiasco. At one point, a news reporter got really close to finding out Tim Drake was really Red Robin. To make matters even worse, if my identity was compromised, the rest of Batman and company were likely to be found out too. It doesn't take a genius to go Tim Wayne, Red Robin, Bruce Wayne, Batman. Not to mention, Anarky was close to targeting me anyways as another likely Red Robin. So much for secret identities, right?

So I had to get them all off of my back. How to do that, you ask? Easy.

Fake my own death.

Easier said than done, right? Well, not if you have friends like I do. I'm a little different than Batman and the rest of the Bat-family in that regard. I don't cut people off if I can help it. There's been plenty of times where I've had my bacon saved by one of my superhero buddies, and this fake assassination attempt was no exception.

It really does pay to have a shape-shifting martian girl on your side.

Long story short, Miss Martian, disguised as Timothy Wayne, survived a bullet thanks to her superpowers and I got to pretend my spine was nicked for a year. That got the reporter off my back and Anarky moved to his next target. Thanks to the efforts of Lonnie's inside information and my detective skills, we arrested Anarky, saved present and future victims, and got Lonnie into medical care. All in a day's work, right?

But when you're me, the work is never really done. There are always guys like Anarky out there with a grudge, motive, or scheme. Guys that want to hurt innocent people for some reason or another. But, as cliche as it sounds, there will always be light where there's shadow.

I'm Red Robin, and I'm a part of that light.

Fanpet for Tim Drake/Red Robin by DC Comics
Redbird - another name for the northern cardinal, as well as the name of Robin's car; also a nickname for Tim
Profile and story by Riku
Side art and Red Robin logo by DC Comics