The small boy stallked through the dark alley, his black hoodie casting a shadow over his pale face. He had sunglasses pressed up on his nose, despite the already dark enviroment. He also had black skinny jeans on, accompianed by DC tennis shoes. If you'd saw him, you would think he's just a kid; a kid who shouldn't be in this creepy of an alley.

The black-haired boy didn't care though. He was Dick Grayson, and he could do whatever the heck he wanted too. Who was stopping him anyway? No one.

As the boy was about half-way through the narrow passage, he heard laughter coming from behind him. Dick knew what that meant: a bunch of punks that were probably going to try to mug him. Well they were definetely in for quite the surprise. "Hey kid!" one of the guys yelled out.

Dick quickly turned around to find them a couple feet away from him. "What do you want?" he hissed, pure hatred laced into his voice.

"Hmm... smart a** huh? We'll have to fix that. What do you think guys?"

He was answered by grunts of approval, small nods of their heads, and a few guys cracking their knuckles. "I wouldn't try anything if I were you. I'm having a bad day." he warned.

And it was true, he was. It was the anniversary of his parents deaths, so he was naturally pissed. It was only fair that he warned them. "Was that supposed to be intimidating?" the guy asked with a devious grin.

"Get 'em guys." he called back to his group.

The group of 6 guys lunged toward him with their arms outstretched, and Dick was pretty sure that they weren't going to give him a hug. He jumped out of the way just in time, sending two of the unsuspecting men to the ground. One of the remaining four grabbed his shoulder, which was a rookie mistake. He just set himself up for a flip. Dick grabbed his arm and flipped him over his shoulder, sending him reeling towards the wall. The guy hit the bricks face-first, causing him to go unconscious and lose a couple of teeth.

The next group of guys (two, to be exact) sprinted towards where he stood and Dick ran towards them also. At the last second, he flipped over them and aimed a kick to one of the man's legs. He clumsily toppled down on the floor and the other guy was visibly scared now. But did he back down? No. Big mistake.

Next mistake? He just stood there. What an idiot. Dick threw a well-aimed uppercut to his jaw and a kick to his stomach. "4 down, 2 to go." he said, loud enough for the ringleader to hear him.

One of the guys (the one that wasn't the leader) attempted to run away, but made one critical mistake: He tried to run past Dick to get away. All Dick had to do was put his arm out at the last minute and the doofus ran straight into his fist.

Now it was just him and the leader. His foe stared at him with wide eyes and managed to stutter,"W-w-who are you?"

Dick smirked. "You don't wanna know."

The gang-member gave him a confused look before it turned into rage. A freaking kid just took out his whole entire gang in less than 10 minutes, and he didn't have a scratch on him. He took out a switchblade and sprinted as fast as he could towards him. Before either of them could make a move to hurt each other, however, an arrow split through the air and hit the leader in the leg.

The man cried out like a little baby, and looked around in terror before trying his best to limp away. Dick pushed him against the wall really hard, which resulted in an unconcious punk on the ground.

"I could've handled that. I don't need your help." he called out.

"Really? Cause standing there while a maniac is coming at you with a knife doesn't really classify as 'handling it' in my book." said a female voice. Artemis.

"Why are you here?" he asked as he pulled off his glasses to reveal baby blue eyes as Dick polished them on his hoodie.

"What do you mean? Do I know you?" she asked suspiciously, finally dropping out of the shadows.

Dick sighed. Obviously she hasn't figured out its him yet. He put his glasses back onto his face and pushed them higher onto his nose. Dick heard her take a sharp intake of breath and he lifted his face to see a very shocked Artemis. "I mean, why are you in Gotham? Assisting me? I can obviously fight my own battles."

"I..I didn't know it was you."

"Obviously."

"Gosh, what's got your panties all up in a twist?" she sneered.

"First of all, I don't wear panties. They're called boxers. And two, none of your business."

"Oh come on, tell me? Somethings wrong. No jokes, random words that you made up, no trolling me about how I'm in Gotham. Seriously... whats up?"

He slowly took off his sunglasses and leaned against the wall behind him. "Just... something happened on this day a couple years ago that I'd rather not remember."

A single tear rolled down his face as he removed his hood, revealing a face full of heartbreak and innocence. She really felt sorry for him right now. "What happened?"

"Promise not to tell anyone?"

"Promise."

"This was the day my parents died. The day I became an... orphan."

She always knew he was hiding something, but being an orphan? That was worse than anything she had predicted. "Wait... isn't today the anniversary of the death of the Flying Graysons?" she asked.

"Well Crock, it looks like you've finally figured me out. "