I can't tell anybody that it's really me, but I figure that I can write it down in this diary that the Batman's butler Alfred gave me.

You have to listen to how it happened. I can hardly believe it myself. Me, Shilo Norman, as Batman's partner! But it's true.

I just wish that getting to be where I am now didn't come at such a high price.

Anyway, back to that night when everything changed.

It was a Tuesday night when my mom and me went to the Student of the Year Award Ceremony in Manhattan. Mom had saved up her money for a month to rent me a tuxedo and to get her nice dress cleaned.

Both of us couldn't stop looking up at the beautiful lights and decorations in the Carnegie Hotel, which was where the ceremony was being held. All over the place there were celebrities and city government people that we saw. I also saw some other kids here and there, some from my school, some from other places.

It was interesting that they still wanted to have the event, with what had been going on lately. There had been a lot of robberies lately, especially of rich people's parties. From what I saw on TV and in the newspapers, a gang of robbers with a bird theme was hitting these rich people's parties and stealing their jewels and all. It was so bad that some of the rich people were canceling their parties or having them out of town.

But the Mayor had gotten on television and had asked people to go about their usual business, in spite of the robberies. He didn't want the criminals to think that they had the city in their grip.

There were a lot of speeches by many of the important people in the city before they started talking about the awards. I wasn't really listening to the speeches - I was looking around at the other tables, trying to see who I could recognize. I did feel really proud then; proud about how well I was doing in school, and proud of my report.

Then it came time for the Best History Student award. Police Commissioner Gordon, who was in charge of the cops that kept the toughest parts of the city safe, was the one who was going to present it.

I was so excited. My mom was excited, too; she was hanging on Commissioner Gordon's every word. He was talking about how he liked History when he was in school, and about other things. He was about midway through introducing the award when the lights suddenly went out.

When they came on, we saw that a large flock of birds had found their way into the room. They were perched everywhere. Some of them were falcons, some were pigeons. All of them were watching the people there really close. It was creepy.

A short fat man with an old-time black formal hat waddled up to the podium. He had a few burly guards with him that were not dressed like birds. He seemed like a human penguin or something.

"Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce myself. I am the Penguin. You're going to become a lot more familiar with me and my colleagues in the near future."

He pulled an umbrella out from next to him. The few cops who were at the event rushed at him. He pulled the umbrella up and sprayed them with knockout gas. The cops fell to the ground. I could see that the Commissioner was trying to see if he could fight back or if he should just let the Penguin be in charge of things. The Commissioner looked a little old, but he was wiry and looked like he could take on a criminal hand to hand if he wanted to.

"Before you attempt any brave acts, Commissioner, remember who you have assembled here. Allow me to introduce my comrades."

He waved his hand and three other weird bird-like people appeared.

One of them was as short as the Penguin, but with a much weirder face. His eyes were huge, like an owl's. He wore a green coat, and had long metal claws.

The second one was taller, and meaner looking. I had seen criminals before, and this guy was a hardened criminal. You could see that even under all his body armor and weapons. He had a bird emblem on his chest - it looked like an eagle or some other raptor bird.

The third one was a beautiful white woman. She had feathery black hair, and wore a really tight costume. She would have been a hottie if she wasn't evil and stuff. If we weren't in so much trouble, and if my mom wasn't sitting right next to me, I would have to go see if that girl would go out with me - even though I knew she had to be a bit older than me.

"The Owl, Killer Shrike, and Jackdaw! Together we are the Aerie."

The other people in the crowd started to murmur. My mom's eyes were flashing; this was the last place that she expected something like this to happen.

"Take it easy, Mama," I whispered. "We just need to stay calm and I think we'll get out of this."

"If you've been watching the papers and television, there have been a series of robberies . . . we are responsible for these. We are the Aerie, and you will learn to accept our rule of New York City. My associate, the Owl, will now state our demands."

The Owl moved forward to the podium. Everybody was murmuring. People were starting to get panicky, too.

Then, all of a sudden, without any noise, really, a caped man appeared on the podium. It was like he came down from the ceiling, but there was no crashing or nothing.

The moment I saw him moving, I knew who he was. I had seen him before, and a whole lot of other superheroes who were good at fighting. I actually helped them escape from a bunch of scary ninja guys called the Silver Monkey Cult.* I tried to tell some of my friends about that, but they wouldn't believe me.

*(in the action-filled Batman #21)

Faster than I saw him move before, he was knocking the Penguin's henchmen aside.

"The Aerie's being taken down, Penguin!" Batman yelled. "Sorry you got the news so late!"

"Our time is now, Batman!" another guy with hair like an owl's yelled. "No one stands in our way!"

He jumped up in the air and his cape became like wings. He brandished his sharp metal claws.

"So you're the Owl, eh?" Batman said. He was watching the Owl really close, like a good fighter would watch his opponent.

Batman got inside of this guy's timing and grabbed his arm, claws and all. He bent back the Owl's arm until we all heard bones snapping. As the Owl flailed around, Batman stomped on his other hand, breaking it.

"Who's next?" Batman shouted.

Killer Shrike shot a lightning bolt across the distance between him and Batman. Batman dodged the bolt that sent splinters of a table flying everywhere and shooed the City Council members away.

Killer Shrike quickly soared up toward the ceiling of the ballroom. It looked like he was preparing for a dive-bomb attack. Batman quickly pulled out a grappling hook gun. Killer Shrike dove and fired, missing Batman again.

Batman used the opportunity to shoot the grappling gun at the Shrike. The hook caught on Killer Shrike's boot. I could see the Shrike trying to dislodge the hook, but it looked like it had gone pretty deep. He didn't see Batman attaching the other end of the hook to one of the ballroom partitions.

Killer Shrike found that he was stuck in mid-air. He lost control and smashed into one of the ballroom walls, making a huge hole.

Commissioner Gordon was doing his part. He had taken out most of the guards that Batman had not had a chance to knock out. He was helping the Mayor and the other important people escape through a back entrance to the podium.

I caught a look at the Penguin's face, and I could see that he was concerned. In another couple of moments, as soon as I knew it was safe, I was going to get me and my mom out of there.

I saw the Penguin attaching something special to his umbrella.

"I know how to take the fight out of you, Batman!" The Penguin blew on a special whistle that he pulled from his tuxedo.

His trained birds then picked up their heads. They were paying close attention to the Penguin's orders.

Batman rushed to one of the windows in the ballroom and opened it up. He then pressed something on his utility belt. The birds got confused, then scattered across the ballroom toward the open window. Those that weren't near the window perched as far away from Batman as they could.

"Very skillful, Batman," Penguin commented. "Few people know the mysteries of avian control as well as I do. But I have more than one trick up my sleeve."

The Penguin then picked up his umbrella and began rapidly firing bullets across the room. People were getting shot randomly, and I could hear screaming.

My mom pushed me down when she saw the arc of gunfire heading our way.

"Get down, boy!" There were loud thumping noises then. "Aahhh!"

I felt the weight of my mom suddenly drop on me, and then I felt something warm rushing over me.

The Penguin was still shouting.

"Now, Batman! Surrender, or I will kill more of these innocent people!"

Their fight had moved off the podium area down to the tables where we were seated.

I moved slowly, gently moving my mother's body off of me. I looked at her face and saw the life just go out of her. Her lips moved to say something, then relaxed.

My Mama, who had watched over me my whole life, and kept me on the straight and narrow, died in my arms.

I put her body down gently, and then got up. I was going to seriously kill the Penguin. Even though I was just a skinny teenager, I was going to cut him, or pop a cap in his sorry fat body. I was ready to step right into the middle of what was going down between him and Batman.

Someone put a hand on my shoulder just then. It was my History teacher, Mrs. Chong, the one who had gotten me nominated for the award. She had been sitting with us the whole time.

"Shilo! It's not worth it! Stay here, and you might not get hurt! Think about what you are doing, boy!"

The villainness called Jackdaw took off into the air. She was amazing to see - like a giant crow swooping through the air, just as black and just as threatening. As she flew close to Batman, I could see that she was getting a claw weapon or something ready.

It looked like she wanted to take advantage of the Penguin's attack to sneak up on Batman. I knew that if I didn't do anything, he would get clocked by her, and his rescue attempt would be over.

I picked up my dinner plate and aimed it like a Frisbee. I knew I had to time my throw just right if I was to get her good.

She soared down at Batman, who was using his cape to absorb Penguin's bullets. The cape was holding up pretty good, but it was getting shredded from all the gunfire.

Jackdaw dove, and it was right then that I threw the plate at her. It crashed against her head, and she fell to the ground next to Batman, knocked out.

Penguin was clearly distracted by his last partner being defeated. Now it was really just him and the Batman.

It was time to take him out.

I was watching the Penguin concentrating on fighting Batman. The odds between them were almost even. He was slashing at Batman with his umbrella, which now had a sword blade at the end of it.

But I didn't want to wait for the outcome. I wanted the Penguin to be captured as soon as possible. If I couldn't hurt him directly, maybe I could help stop him.

I moved as quickly as I could to the table closest to the Penguin. I remembered an old trick that I used to practice at home when Mama wasn't around. With one swift motion, I had removed the tablecloth from one of the ballroom tables, without even clattering the silverware.

I gathered up the tablecloth and quietly snuck up behind the Penguin. I tossed the tablecloth over him.

He was clearly not expecting it.

"Waugh, waugh! What in . . . "

The Penguin was blinded by the cloth over his eyes. He was good with weapons, but not very strong, so he was punching uselessly at the cloth. He stumbled on it, and his tubby form rolled back and forth on the floor. Batman quickly kicked him in his chubby stomach. One more kick from the Batman stopped Penguin's flailing.

The Penguin was down, and his henchmen were being captured by the police. Commissioner Gordon must have found a way to call them.

The battle was over.

Batman pulled me aside. "Thanks, kid. You've proven yourself again. I remember how you helped us during that fight with the Silver Monkey Cult."

I was all messed up inside, and still scared a little, and this took some of my shyness away. All I could think about was how my mama had been killed.

"What am I going to do now, Batman? My mom's dead. My closest relatives are all down in Atlanta."

I wasn't expecting him to answer me or anything. I probably just said that so that he would understand my situation.

"I will help you out, Shilo."

And that was the beginning of me and Batman working together.

I've been thinking about how things are going to be now that Mama is gone.

I have family down in Atlanta that would take care of me, but New York is my home. All my buddies are here, and I was doing really good in school. I like Atlanta, but I would be like a fish out of water down there, I know it.

I'm going to see if my folks will let me stay up here with the Batman. I know my Aunt Ruby isn't going to like it - she always said she would watch over me like an angel if something ever happened to Mama. She won't like the thought of me fighting crime, so I will have to keep it a secret from her. It's going to be a hard thing to do.

Batman told me that his old partner was named Robin, and he showed me the costume that he used to wear. I'm thinking of making some customizations maybe, to make the costume more like what I'm like.

So, I'm going to be Robin. I'm going to learn how to ride a motorcycle, and maybe even how to fly a helicopter.

I hope that I can be as good a Robin as the one that was before. I know it will take everything that I know and that I can do to achieve that goal.