Tim opened the folder.
The moment his fingertip clicked, he didn’t expect much—240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBnSQxm5243
just wanted to see what kind of secrets an ordinary teacher might tuck away in an encrypted file.
It felt like opening Pandora’s box.
The kind where the first glance seems fine,240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhLuiKISUlV
the second glance makes you pause,240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQCOeTGyPeZ
and by the third, you’re breaking into a cold sweat.
Tim was now progressing through all three stages.
He froze.
No exaggeration—his breath actually hitched.
The files on screen weren’t private notes, nor work journals.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiOKddpsh6t
They were… an unreasonably large information archive on Gotham’s vigilantes.
An entire hoard of data.
The top layer was organized into folders—image logs, character analyses, action records, tagging systems, archived anonymous forum discussions.
Each section held hundreds of entries.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvQ3qLUl3br
Some even dated back to before Tim had officially put on the costume.
There were files on Batman.
Photos from every appearance, movement analysis, battle-style predictions—240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9U8348DEFA
even heatmaps of likely retreat points when injured.
There were files on other vigilantes too.
Nightwing, Red Hood, Red Robin, Batgirl—240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgew1m2EJMN
even that new kid, Signal, who’d only just started showing up.
She’d tracked costume changes, appearance frequency, voice comparisons, height correlations…240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtZt571A6ur
to an almost absurd degree of detail.
There were villain dossiers too.
Joker, Riddler, Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze—240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVoeXpgJQjM
each with personal profiles, connection maps, and “interaction intensity with Bat Family” tags.
Okay, maybe she’s just a weird fan of Gotham’s masked population,240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9YvWvwHR3I
Tim told himself, trying to stay calm—mentally running through possible explanations.
Maybe she was saved as a child by one of them.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe7Mka9mOAD
Maybe she was just obsessed with mystery.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCFZBFTJhBX
Maybe she was a data junkie.
I mean, wasn’t I a total Batman fanboy too?240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1tbaQfZhrR
As a kid, he’d clipped newspaper articles, tried sketching Batman’s fight moves from memory…
Tim reassured himself,240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgMA92WP4n9
“This is fine… probably.”
Unfortunately, the next folder shattered that illusion.
As he scrolled down, another layer of folders appeared.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiX7MWO7Btq
The titles were clear. Brutally direct.
Each one read:
- Batman x Bruce Wayne240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq34JDpch8b
240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡArLyEwTsjs - Batman x Superman240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAmdU5r8seC
240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡabVXvRhpQg - Batman x Nightwing240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2xpev8iIJg
240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV4ugqgd1rX
All ships.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡenp8lUnmTz
Each with their own titles.
Some were poetic.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡptczYqgwau
Some just used character names.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqlkmZdbab9
Some were marked R18 or Mature.
Cover images were clearly screenshots—240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkVejXstWiY
some were even re-edited from surveillance footage angles Tim recognized.
Altogether, the files totaled terabytes in size.
This wasn’t your average fan collection.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3HFYLPe3Tl
This was a full-blown database, a creative archive,240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡajvHZhk4Y5
an annotated, curated, fanfiction hell-library.
Tim went completely still.
His knuckles whitened slightly, the hand holding his coffee frozen mid-air.
He glanced side to side—confirmed he was alone—and took a sip of coffee.
The room was silent.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJvx9jPoj9e
The screen glowed softly.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9jQ2DRKPCg
He swallowed dryly, then clicked into one subfolder.
He had to know—was Nora just a collector? Or…
He opened a few files.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8AM923RBVY
The very first was a 30,000-word longfic.
Polished formatting.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDmO6Rbjyra
Perfect pacing.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj4yKuBM6Cv
Uncannily accurate character voices.
Confirmed.
She was the author.
Every story bore the name Nightnest.
Not reposted. Not fan-shared.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuc0215U6eA
Originals—with footnotes, reader comments, and her own replies.
This wasn’t just some writer.
She was the kind of creator Tim had seen before.
Now, he knew who she was.
So that blonde, kind-looking teacher—who loved children and gave her all for her students—240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhMi5F9bFZv
was, in private…
a top-tier author of Batman fanfiction.
240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL5YUDVgvaX
240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtCfEmtnnrX
Tim had to clear his name.
He was not reading Batman fanfiction. Seriously.
He hadn’t clicked these voluntarily.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSzZGo358x0
It was for investigation. For documentation. For precaution.
He was not the type to scroll forums late at night to see how people wrote about him.
Absolutely not.
But he had to read it.
He was the intel coordinator.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgdinlf0b4z
The systems analyst.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ3xK8gn6zc
The Bat Family’s information manager.
It was his job to know how deep Gotham’s collective fantasy ran.
He had to assess whether any of these Batman fans were getting too close.
Some people guessed too accurately—it became a threat.
Some creators unintentionally pieced together real-world connections.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYTzUvrImZ5
Even reconstructed critical events.
Some fans were just one step away from identifying Red Robin…240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnyxm1Qcy72
or pinpointing Batman’s real address.
That’s where Tim stepped in—to misdirect.
He’d plant false clues in forums,240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkAu04hD161
comment on key stories to steer readers off track,240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxHSuB6HV6K
or even create fake accounts to write misleading fanfics of his own.
In some cases, he’d temporarily hack a fan’s system—240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAHdg4nC7l2
not to destroy anything, just cause a brief outage, disrupt backups, scramble files.
“We respect creativity…240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0wF9ihInip
but not if it accidentally blows up our lives.”
Honestly, most fans didn’t care about the truth.
They just wanted the smut.
They wanted to see someone slammed against a wall, cape tossed aside,240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5TjpZDG040
followed by the line:240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUM2ds80XJ0
“Tonight, you are my city.”
Lots of physical tension.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCqcMTAXRlr
Bodies tangling. Uniforms torn. Gloves half-removed—
Tim was losing it.
Some passages were so realistic,240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc70NJovHwo
he nearly shut the whole system down right then.
These days, he had the Batcomputer’s AI scan them for him.
Semantic tagging.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyufsKnKhxx
Trigger-word filters.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcNc305y0Ub
Subject detection.
If there was an issue, the AI flagged it.
Only then would Tim step in.
He’d review the summaries, check engagement levels,240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOMvcqj2XHg
and intervene if necessary.
No more manually reading every word,240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm0zZTmpI9u
no more sleepless 3 a.m. coffee nights thinking:240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5BFtH5FzyX
“Would I actually say that?”
Now, Tim sat before the screen in thought.
Before him was the full database—240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡigTxXlm7Bg
Nightnest’s entire creative and curated archive.
Each title marked by timestamp and genre.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4RSf234qyz
It looked like a sacred index of someone’s private sanctuary.
A kindergarten teacher with this kind of hobby…240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfzyxFjvyuz
could she really pose any threat to the vigilantes?
Didn’t seem like it.
She hadn’t posted any real identity guesses.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdVKxd0gjlq
She’d never contacted any organizations or joined real-life meetups.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTP3JkcZdNG
She just wrote. Alone. Quietly.
Would she be dangerous to Finn?
Also unlikely.
Her behavior at school was impeccable.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI6mHONMgvo
Interactions were appropriate.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ89caTSkaBw
The kids adored her—and she genuinely seemed to put them first.
I’ll review the database thoroughly before making a call,240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHjJPTN7J7o
Tim decided.
He tapped a few keys, launching his analysis program.
This time, it wasn’t just for the Bat Family.
It was also… to figure out who she really was.
240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2BRo3Fh4Uq
Completely against Tim’s expectations—
Nora’s database was mostly focused on character development.
He had anticipated rows of logic deductions, tactical predictions, maybe even attempts to unmask their identities.
But in reality… almost none of that was there.
Nora wasn’t the theorizing type.
She wasn’t trying to deduce the truth from scattered clues, nor had she built any massive real-world matching web.
Her interests were clearly elsewhere—240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkLoJn5cm6n
storytelling, character arcs… and smut.
The only thing she seemed remotely analytical about… was the body.
Especially character height and physique.
And oddly enough, her guesses were pretty accurate.
Tim opened a few of her works focused on Nightwing—240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgyymWkA2Mw
and realized the body proportions she used were almost a perfect match to Dick’s actual measurements.
But that, to be fair, was inevitable.
Photos gave away a lot.
How tall someone looked from certain angles, how broad they seemed standing next to others,240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡevM0n728fF
which side they leaned on when injured—240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5bdLk1gDHM
observe long enough, and anyone could start estimating the truth.
What Nora was really good at… was writing sex scenes.
She was very good at it.
Detailed, fluid, full of tension, and disturbingly polished.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaE1TRAAeGn
Her prose carried weight, restraint, and that addictive pull that made it hard to stop reading.
She even tracked outfit variations just to write better undressing sequences.
Her fans loved her NSFW content.
On forums, her ID was constantly mentioned.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBABhS0oPQT
One comment read,240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpGtOHBPTSF
“I’ve re-read the Whitechapel Nightwing fic ten times.”240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhpau3pfEJo
Another said,240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtaC4vuUYlh
“Now that’s how you write post-battle kissing.”
Her writing style was even dubbed:240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEArdU1jRXy
“Gotham’s Most Dangerous Erotic Weapon.”
Each post racked up millions of views.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9ePsEzRpom
Hearts. Bookmarks. Endless comment threads.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC5Mh72Kkt0
The sheer numbers screamed top-tier fandom legend.
Some even called her:240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKwux4pG4OC
“The lighthouse of Gotham fanfic.”
And yet—Nora had never written about Red Robin.
Tim had checked.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUHhMIvvQtH
Multiple times.
He even ran the entire database through his AI scanner—automated search and semantic tagging.
No “Red Robin.” No codename. No face.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5ZL8Yhlt6r
Nothing.
Why?240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHGi9uqczp7
Why no Red Robin?
Tim frowned, scrolling with his fingertip, an odd sort of confusion blooming inside him.
Was he… not worth writing about?240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIv8iw3Rhes
Or had she simply never noticed him?
In her entire database, Tim searched.
Red Robin only came up in bits and pieces.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW7DWL6coRu
Scattered notes, short mentions—mostly minor relational footnotes with other characters.
Meanwhile, Nightwing and Red Hood had dozens of pages.
Some even had dedicated folders, quotes collections, post-battle psychological interpretations.
That question began to coil in Tim’s head.
Like a snake with no head or tail—240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkNQR4Ear34
it didn’t bite.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡziZsqLe2o3
Just… slowly wrapped itself around his nerves.
Tim started digging into Nora’s replies to readers.
On the forum, he searched for the keyword “Red Robin,”240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjqGz3Donz9
pulling the timeline all the way back—240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfR5qu14n6L
hoping to see if fans had ever brought this up.
They had.
One thread from four years ago popped up.
Someone asked:240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwnSignH6ov
“Why do you never write Red Robin? I think he’s super hot.”
Tim scrolled down.
Among the comments was one posted by Nightnest herself.
Calm tone. Short. No twists or detailed reasoning.
Nora replied under her pen name:
“He’s a kid. I don’t want to commit a crime.”
Tim:240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3WretQhE2Q
????????!!!!!!!!
He stared at that line for five whole seconds before his brain rebooted.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t seen people make jokes like that online before.
But now the subject was him.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWC8syWc6Bk
Red Robin.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH64MMPmRQh
Tim Drake.
And her reason for excluding him entirely from her work…
Was because “it would be illegal.”
Tim slowly raised his coffee cup and took a sip—240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaNOhb9tMpK
only to realize it had been empty for a while.
Now he didn’t know whether to feel insulted, confused…240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPcI0ouuV5B
or just a little bit relieved.
240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡchatVb9DiJ
and then Add to home screen.