Gotham City was not a nice All-American city. It was full of alleys that were dark even in the middle of the day and schools who fought to keep their students coming. Gotham City High School held one of the highest drop-out rates in the country. Teens that could leave did. Most went to out-of-state colleges, paying higher tuition to escape their haunted youths. Newly-weds left as well, not wanting to start their families in such a dark city.

Gotham had a gang problem; if, indeed, it could be called as such. The city had simply become territory to be won and lost. Gotham was in the middle of a civil war, and the high school at the heart of the city was at the center of it all.

The Red Dragons and The Storm Clouds. They were constantly at each others throats, literally. The two gangs had recruited nearly every male teen in the city, and many of the females as well. And all the conflict, the hatred, and the violence boiled over at the school. There was a line in the cafeteria that was never crossed, and certain hallways were never passed by certain students, much less entered. If one happened to have a class in such a hallway, the schedule was quickly and quietly changed. No objections to such changes were ever made.

Out of this darkness, one man willing to play the role of the hero rose. Through the years, he acquired an accomplice, a sidekick, as well. Using the philosophy "The enemy of my enemy is my friend," the two struck up an alliance, albeit a reluctant one, with Gotham's Commissioner of Police, James Gordon.

Gordon was a good man in a department full of corruption. The reach of the two gangs both necessitated and allowed for them to pay off many of Gordon's men, leaving many "blind eyes" on both his pay roll and the streets. His alliance with the so-called "dynamic duo" allowed for gang members to be apprehended, and corrupt cops to be discovered.

The commissioner's war on crime was for more than his city. It was his personal war, his way of exacting revenge by ensuring that what happened to him would never again happen to someone else. His wife, the mother of his child, had been killed by gang members. He didn't know, or care, which gang they were a part of. All he cared about was putting those responsible to justice, and to him, those responsible were anyone in anyway affiliated with the city's gang problem.

He knew that his all-consuming war on crime was not easy or fair for his daughter Barbara. But he also knew it was not easy or fair for her to have her mother taken so brutally from her at such a young age. He knew she got a hard time at school because of who her father was, and found some relief in knowing she could fight back; she had been taking self-defense lessons, from classes, private instructors, and he, himself, since she entered the fifth grade.

Knowing she had enemies at school, when she entered high school, he had offered to, wanted to send her to a boarding school, maybe even somewhere out of the state or country, but she had firmly refused. He worried for her, but he was grateful.

Barbara Gordon was, in every way but her looks, her father's daughter. She had inherited his love of justice and honor, his loyalty and courage, and, regrettably, his quick temper as well. But she also had her mother's intelligence and, when she was not angry, her ability to see things from every point of view. These traits helped her form friendships within both gangs and though they were not close friendships, they helped.

However, there were also members of both gangs who resented the fact that she had not picked a side and made it very clear she never would. Unfortunately, these outnumbered the kinder ones, so there were very few she could openly associate with, and fewer she could really trust.

But such was the way of life in Gotham City. No one outside of the gang could be trusted, and no one inside the gang could be trusted. No one knew who the next traitor, or the next Dark Knight, may be.

End Prologue

Hey Everyone! Thanks for reading!  This actually turned out darker than I wanted it to, but I'm guessing there's a reason. So, now I shamelessly beg for reviews. Tell me what I'm doing (right or wrong)! Please! See you in a few days! Oh, and does anyone have a good suggestion for a gang name? "The Storm Clouds" seems kind of weak. Let me know!