A girl, Rachel Roth, enters a circus tent and finds a long-abandoned empty center ring. The lights come on and the announcer calls out the Flying Graysons. Rachel watches as the Grayson parents perform their trapeze act and then their son Dick joins them. The swing line breaks as the parents swing back, and they fall to the dirt below, Dick just missing grabbing his mother. Rachel screams and...
... wakes up from her vision, screaming. Her mother Melissa comes in and Rachel tells her that she had the same nightmare of the circus and Dick watching his parents fall. Melissa has her breath and calm down, and says that everything will be okay. She has Rachel lie back down, kisses her daughter, and leaves. Rachel asks her to keep the door locked. Melissa locks the cross-covered door behind her.
In Detroit, police detective Dick Grayson sits in a car and watches another car pull up, and looks at a file of a man. According to the file, the charges of child abuse against the man were dismissed. Dick goes back to the station and his new partner, Amy Rohrbach, introduces herself. He says that as long as they don’t get in each other's way, he's fine with her. Dick abruptly walks off and detective Manny Wolf comes over and says that Dick has been pushing away partners since something happened to his last one. Another detective, Jessica Perez, says that Dick is from Gotham and they joke about how one of Gotham's super-criminals might have killed Dick's partner.
In Traverse City, Melissa's alarm goes off. She takes her pills and swallows them with wine, and checks the scratches on her side. Rachel is in the kitchen eating breakfast, and Melissa comes down ready to go to her job as a nurse. She asks Rachel if she can take the bus to school, and Rachel points out that Melissa doesn't sleep much because she's scared of her daughter. Melissa insists that she isn't, but Rachel says that she can sense when she's lying. She asks Rachel to pray with her, but Rachel asks her mother to talk with her about what is inside of her. Rachel demands answers and a wave of force sweeps out from her, knocking Melissa down. Shocked, Rachel goes off to school as Melissa says that it's okay. As she goes, a neighbor tells her to keep the screaming down because he doesn't care about her emotional issues.
On the school bus, a boy, Kyle, jokingly hits on Rachel, calling her a freak. Another boy, Matt, tells Kyle to leave her alone. They start fighting until the driver tells them to both sit back down. Kyle calls Rachel a slut, and Rachel stares at her reflection in the window which says the same thing.
At school, Rachel is at her locker when Matt and his friends walk by. Rachel tries to thank him but Matt ignores her and walks past.
That afternoon, Rachel returns home and calls to Melissa. Melissa nervously steps out and a man, the Acolyte, comes out behind her. He says that Rachel isn't Rachel's real name, and that Melissa isn't Rachel's mother. He makes Melissa tell Rachel the same thing, and Melissa assures Rachel that she loves her. The Acolyte then shoots Melissa in the head, and Rachel's face distorts as she lunges across the room and easily slams the Acolyte into the wall. She runs out of the house.
In Detroit, Dick watches the man, Tyler Hackett, leave a bar and reads his file. Hackett walks away with other men, one of which is carrying a bag. Dick looks at a case on the car seat and after a moment opens it.
Hackett and his men go to an alley, meet with a gang, and give them the bag. The gang leader takes out one of the stuffed animals inside and removes the drug packet hidden inside. A voice calls from the darkness, saying that he's only there for Hackett and the others can leave. Dick, wearing his Robin costume, drops down and tells them to leave their guns and drugs. The two groups figure that Batman is nearby and draw their guns, and they finally work out that Robin is alone. Robin snags one man with a grappling line and then drops a smoke bomb. Hackett grabs the drugs while the two groups fire into the smoke, and Robin attacks them. dodging their attacks and brutally beating them.
Hackett runs and Robin takes out the remaining men. He then smashes open Hackett's car window as the man tries to drive away, drags his head partway out, and runs it over the broken glass. Robin tells him that if he ever touches his kid again then he'll find him, drags him out onto the street, and hits him repeatedly.
The next morning at his apartment, Dick works on his equipment. He finds blood splatters on one of his shuriken and cleans it off, and then angrily throws it into a punching bag. Dick looks at a poster of the Flying Graysons and then leave for work.
At the station, the detectives are looking at surveillance footage of Robin from the alley fight. They've checked with Gotham and confirm that Robin disappeared there a year ago. Dick comes in as they wonder why Robin would come to Detroit, and the captain hopes that Robin is just passing through given all the freaks and psychopaths that come along with costumed vigilantes.
At the Traverse City bus station, Rachel gets a one-way ticket to Detroit. When she gets there, Rachel sleeps on the streets and gets food at a mission. A volunteer worker, Sally, comes over and suggests that Rachel go to a youth shelter rather than live on the streets. Rachel goes with Sally, who leads her down a shortcut through an alley. An image of Rachel in a mirror tells her to look behind her, and Rachel sees a man following them. Sally takes Rachel to a waiting car and Rachel's reflection tells her to run. Rachel runs off and a police car drives past the alley. She throws a brick at it to get the driver's attention, and the officers arrest her before Sally can arrive.
At the station, Dick asks Amy if she had any luck with the Robin thing. She's surprised that he's talking to her, just as the officers come over and ask Dick if he's still helping kids. Dick goes into the interrogation room where Rachel is and introduces himself. Rachel recognizes Dick from her vision and asks if he can help her.
Kory Anders wakes up in a wrecked car outside of Vienna, Austria next to a dead man. She has no idea who she is or how she got there, gets out of the car, and looks around at the crash site. Kory finds bullet holes in the side of the car, and sees another car driving down the country highway toward her. The men inside open fire on her and Kory runs off into the nearby forest. The three men pull over, get out, and go after her. Kory hides from them and makes her way to a gas station, looks at herself I the mirror, and then takes a safe deposit box key out of her purse. There's a passport in her purse as well that says that her name is Kory Anders. A hotel key card is in her purse, and Kory goes to the expensive hotel in Vienna. The concierge, Lena, greets her by name and reminds her that she has the entire top floor. Kory asks her if the key is for something in the hotel, and Lena says that it isn't. She offers to have "the usual" sent up to Kory's room, and Kory asks her what she would suggest. Lena says that it would make her bluff, and Kory asks for coffee.
When Kory arrives on the top floor, she finds an expensive penthouse room. There's a suitcase with an expensive dress, and a half-empty glass of champagne. A phone sits on the dresser, and has a photo of Kory with a man. Kory hears someone knocking in the door in the next room, and goes to investigate, A tattooed man is inside the closet, tied and gagged, and Kory removes the gag. The man begs her not to hurt him, and says that they found the girl that Kory wanted. Kory asks who she is, and the man says that he doesn't know who Kory really is and she played them all. The man spits on her, and Kory drags him out and asks who the man in the photo is. He asks to call the man first, uses a hidden knife to free himself, and swings the knife at Kory. Kory instinctively fights back and punches the man in the chest, knocking him across the room. She stares at her first in shock, and then demands the man in the photo's name and where she can find him. He says that the man's name is Konstantin Kovar and is at his club, Das Schaman. Kory breaks the tattooed man's neck and leaves.
Rachel describes what Dick experienced when his parents died, and insists that everything led her to him. Dick figures that she's playing a joke, and Rachel says that someone killed her mother. She writes down her name and address, and says that Melissa was the only person who cared for her. When Rachel touches his hand, Dick remembers his own life as he watched the police collect his parents' bodies, and how a man offered to help him. Rachel sees what he sees, and Dick pulls away from her. She begs Dick not to leave her there and he needs to lock her up because there's something evil inside of her. Dick says that he'll find a psychiatrist and leaves.
Dick calls the Traverse City police and asks them to send someone to check out the house. As he, Dick sees a newscast featuring the mayor saying that they don't want Robin in Detroit because he's a violent psychopath. As Dick goes, Amy asks him if Dick and his partner went bad. Dick says that they had different ideas on how to do their job, and his partner was a hero to lot of people including Dick. Eventually he had to walk away because he was becoming too much like his partner. Amy jokingly says that Dick isn't really an asshole.
In the interrogation room, a cop comes in and tells Rachel that they're transferring her. After a moment, she goes with him.
The officer calls Dick back and says that Rachel shot her mother in the head.
The cop takes Rachel to a waiting car.
Dick discovers that Rachel is gone .
Rachel's reflection begs Rachel to let her kill the cop. When Rachel struggles, the "cop" injects her with a sedative and puts her in the car.
Dick comes out and sees the fake cop driving the unconscious Rachel away. He calls to have the car identified and runs to his own car.
Kory enters Das Schaman and makes her way to the back office. Kovar and two of his men who shot at Kory earlier step out, and Kovar angrily demands to know who she is and who she works for. Kory tells him that she doesn't know, and Kovar furiously accuses her of betraying him because of the girl. He asks what Kory wants with her, and Kory explains what happened. Kovar isn't interested, and says that he loved Kory. Kory admits that she doesn't think that she loved him, and Kovar shoots her. Before the bullet can hit, Kory emits a wave of flame, incinerating the bullet before it can hit her. When she's done, Kory is unharmed but Kovar and his men are unharmed. Kory picks up the photo of the girl: Rachel.
The fake cop takes Rachel to an abandoned building. She wakes up handcuffed to a chair with two bowls, each with a bloody heart in it. The Acolyte lights a candle and says that Rachel always knew that she had a destiny and was different. He tells Rachel that he's been looking for her for a long time, and the dirty room is a church while he is actually the savior rather than the villain. The Acolyte says that deep inside, Rachel knows that she is damned, and "he" will use her as a doorway to enter their world and destroy it.
The fake cop is standing guard outside, and hears someone moving around. He draws his gun and investigates, but finds nothing. Dick knocks him unconscious, draws his gun, and searches for Rachel.
The Acolyte says that he will lay Rachel's heart next to the hearts and will burnt them all, closing the doorway forever. Dick calls to Rachel and she screams, and the Acolyte gags her. He then hides behind the door while Rachel spits out the gag and she assumes her demon visage. Rachel telekinetically slams the door shut, knocking Dick back. Her demon self emerges from her body and grabs the Acolyte by the head. She turns into flies and inserts herself into the Acolyte's mouth, and he vomits out his internal organs before dying. The door opens and Dick finds Rachel back to normal, still handcuffed to the chair. He frees the girl, who says that she doesn't know what happened and begs him to help her.
Dick drives Rachel away and says that they're going somewhere safe. Rachel says that Melissa told her that there's no such things as monsters, but she thinks that Melissa was wrong.
In Covington, Ohio, at an electronics store, a security guard is playing video games on the night shift. He hears something moving in the sore and goes to investigate. Video games are knocked off of a shelf, and the guard finds a green tiger. The guard, frightened, shoots at it and misses. The tiger runs out of the store and into the nearby woods, and changes into a human teenager: Gar Logan. He brought a video game with him from the store, and runs off into the night.
Written by Gadfly on Oct 12, 2018