"I hate this."

"Yeah, you've said that." said Superboy with a sigh, "Every two seconds since we got here, actually."

"But what if we meet somebody I know?"

"Robin, Gotham is a hu-uge city with, like, millions of people just on this street. You're just Alvin Draper out shopping with his friends, and if we do meet someone, we can be…um…"

"Your pen-pals from Bulgaria and we're here on a school project to see… how many… cars… are blue…"

"Thanks for that, Bart," said Superboy with a grin. Empress and Wondergirl weren't really paying attention to the conversation the boys were having. In fact, the boys were getting pretty nervous, especially when the two girls kept looking back and giggling.

"Yeah…" pondered Superboy, "I'd be the incredibly handsome one who all the girls love, Bart would be my loyal sidekick, Robin, or should I say Alvin, would be the one with no personality that says 'Let's split up, guys!', Cassie would be the bimbo ("I heard that! You are so dead, Kon!"), and Anita would be the smart one."

"Why can't I be the smart one?" said Robin, sulkily, as Wondergirl attacked Superboy with a Macy's bag.

"Oh, you're always the smart one," said Impulse, wrinkling his nose and moving of the way as Superboy was thrown into the gutter headfirst.

"Here's the mall!" called Empress, ducking to avoid being hit as Kon was slammed into the wall.

"Can we go an' get some new games? I wanna have a look at the new Spiderman one! It's really cool!"

"Spider-who?" said Wondergirl, dropping Kon into a tangled mess on the floor. "We were going to go to the clothes store…"

She was interrupted by somebody shouting loudly in their direction.

"Timbo! Hey, Timbo!" They turned and saw a tall boy in a collared shirt with a pocket protector and sellotaped glasses waving madly.

"What a geek!" said Superboy, picking himself up from the floor and checking that no bones were broken.

"Shut up, Kon." Robin said angrily, pushing him back over. "Hi Ives! What're you doing here?"

"Just picked up the latest AD&D stuff! Do you want to come round my house some time to try it out? I could show you how to be a DM."

"AD&D? What the hell is AD&D? I dunno what a DM is, but it sounds painful… Timbo?" Robin kicked Superboy to stop him getting any further up.

"Yeah, that sounds great! I haven't seen you for ages!"

"Uh, does your friend need any help there?" asked Ives, looking at Superboy with concern.

"Nah, I'm fine." grunted Kon, peeling himself from the pink fake stone, "Just something me and Timbo do sometimes…"

"Um, are you going to introduce us?" asked Ives, after a pause.

"Hi! I'm Bart! I'm Alvin's pen-pal from Bulgaria!" chimed in Impulse.

"Who's Alvin?" Ives stared at the little boy with the auburn hair that seemed to be vibrating.

"Um, this is Alvin," said Wondergirl, pointing at Superboy and clamping a hand over Bart's mouth.

"Pleased to meet you, Alvin," said Ives, holding out his hand to shake. "Y'know, you look really familiar, but I can't think where I might have…"

"I've just got one of those faces, I suppose." growled Kon, "C'mon, Timbo, let's check out the shops."

"That's it!" cried Ives, "You're Superboy! You were on the news! Wow, Tim, you know Superboy!"

"No I don't." said Tim, then mentally kicked himself for saying something so stupid.

"Why…?" Tim could see Ives taking in all the information and analysing it; he was as bad as Batman. He looked around at the others, all with worried expressions on their faces, then back at Tim. And Tim's sunglasses.

"Oh shit, man. Why didn't you tell me?"

"I'm sorry, Ives, I would have, but they have really… strict… rules…"

Ives was grinning.

"See, I always thought you were cool. Wow. I'm friends with Batman's sidekick. Wow."

"You won't tell anybody, right?"

Ives paused "Well, sure, if you don't want me to."

"Thanks, Ives, I'll e-mail you and we can get together."

"See you! This is sooooooooo cool!" Ives was shaking with the excitement. "At least now I know why you kept vanishing for no reason!"

As Ives left, Young Justice looked curiously at Robin.

"You're taking this surprisingly well, Boy Wonder, "said Wondergirl.

"Or should we call you Tim?" asked Superboy, with his usual lack of tact.

Without a word, Robin turned and walked stiffly to the nearest bench. He sat down, started shaking and sweating and suddenly burst into tears.

His friends gathered around him, understanding, except Impulse who had his nose glued to Electronics Warehouse.

"Wow, Robin, I didn't know you had such geeky friends!" said Superboy, realising what he'd said only after he'd said it.

Robin sniffled. "Cassie," he said, blinking through his tears, "Can you pass me the Macy's bag?"

END