Wallace Rudolph West whimpered in pain as his father stomped down onto his chest.

"Shut up you little bitch, you're a freak, no one wants you," the larger man drunkenly slurs as he continues to beat the redhead until finally he leaves the room to grab another beer.

This had been going on for years but it had gotten worse after that accident at his Uncle Barry's lab. His Uncle Barry and Aunt Iris were awesome and all but he just couldn't tell them about this, he'd always thought that if he was good; if he wasn't a bother, got good grades, did all his chores on time; that his daily beatings would lessen and vanish but now he realized that wasn't going to happen.

The ten-year old whimpered as he felt his ribs, he didn't think anything was broken, he could still breath and he wasn't coughing up blood, plus there wasn't a tell-tale Crack as his father stomped on him. His mother didn't care, she was gone a lot anyways, and she hated him just as much since his powers.

Tonight though, he'd had enough.

He'd been thinking about it for years, planning it for months, debating for weeks, and tonight he would leave. He'd finally get away from his parents and on his own. He'd thought it through, the best place he had would be Gotham, yeah the crime rate was high and there were psychos running around but the Bat kept them mostly in check and with the crime rate he would fit in as just another runaway. He'd realized that to survive he'd have to steal but weighing the pros with the cons he finally decided it would be worth it to get away. He already had a bag packed, a duffel with clothes and some food, not a lot but a little, he'd empty out the pantry tonight after his dad passed out.

He waited for a while, idly washing and dressing his wounds, he'd gotten off easy tonight, just some bruises and a busted lip; he hadn't even gotten a bloody nose this time. Most of the smaller bruises would be gone by the time he left, well past midnight, and the only thing he had to contend with were his ribs which he hoped would be just a faint bruise by then. He pressed his ear to the door and, hearing his father's loud drunken snores, smirked to himself before speeding downstairs and to the pantry.

There wasn't a lot there, the lazy lump couldn't get a job, but there was enough that he could spread it out for a week, maybe two if he had only two meals and no snacks. He packed everything into his duffel, grabbed a blanket and stuffed it into a pillowcase along with a pillow before waiting on his bed.

He watched the hours ticked away until his freedom and when one a.m. finally hit he pressed his ear up against his bedroom door again and, hearing his father's continuing snores, sped out of the house and onto the streets towards Gotham.

Barry Allen was worried. No, he was beyond worried; he was… tormented with fear and worry for his favorite nephew Wally who had run away a week ago. He'd asked Bats if he could help him look but aside from setting all of the cameras in Central City to look for his face there wasn't much else he could do.

So here he was running around Central City in a hope to catch a glimpse of Wally. No one knew why he had run away, Rudy had said he had fallen asleep while Mary was still gone and that was when Wally must've left.

There was no sign of the kid and he sighed before returning home.

Wally had been in Gotham for a week and because of his metabolism had eaten all of his food already so now he had to steal. He had known before he ran away, planned for it actually, but now that he was at the actual doing stage he was worried.

He walked down the street, hands in the pocket of his hoodie and hood up. He was ignored by all of the people walking down the street next to him, this was Gotham runaways weren't unusual.

He continued on his way down the street until he saw a street vendor selling apples and took a deep breath before using his speed to run past and grab two apples before running into an empty alleyway by an old abandoned apartment building.

"Whoa," someone said from behind him and he turned to see a kid, a couple years younger than him standing there, "you're a Meta aren't you."

It wasn't a question but he nodded anyways and the kid smiled, "Cool, you got a place to crash for the night?"

Wally blinked at the sudden change in subject before responding, "no, not really but I'll find someplace before it gets too late."

"No you won't, you'll find a place right now, come with me."

With that the kid turned around and walked two steps backwards before picking up a rock and throwing it straight upwards and with a loud Clang a rusty old fire escape ladder dropped down and the kid quickly jumped up and started climbing before turning back to him.

"Come on, Kat'll want to meet ya', she's a Meta too, don't worry," with those words Wally felt his fears lessen slightly and he obediently followed the younger boy up the ladder. When he reached the top ladder slid back up and the kid stuck a slightly dented pole under one of the rungs at an angle.

"My name's Robin by the way, but you can call me Dick since you're gonna be staying for a while," Robin…no Dick says as they make their way through the apartment building and up to the fifth floor.

"KAT, I BROUGHT SOMEONE!" he yelled out as he walked into an apartment and a girl who looked to be about the same age as Dick with brown hair and green eyes looked up from the couch where she was reading a book. A two year-old sat at an old coffee table coloring with a bear by his side.

"Hello, who're you?" she asked and Wally thought a moment before responding.

"I'm Wally, Wally West, I ran away a week ago."

"Name's Kat Tyler and this is my little brother Simon, we were kicked out two years ago, well two years and four months, that's Dick Grayson he's been here for four months as well. You got a place to stay tonight?"

He shook his head and she considered for a moment before sighing, "Alright, you can stay here indefinitely or you can join the family. It's just the three of us here, Dick and I both steal and the three of us share the spoils, one of us is always here to watch Simon and Catwoman comes to help us train. To stay here all you need to do is take shifts with Simon and on the streets, clean up after yourself, tell us your name and your story. Also we fight crime, just small time muggings and stuff since we're just kids but you don't have to join in that unless you want to. We stay off the radar of the Bat, Gotham gangs, and the Arkham patients. That's about it, anything I forgot now one of us will tell you later. So, you in?"

He considers for a moment before speaking, "My name is Wallace Rudolph West, I'm ten, I had an accident in my uncle's lab that gave me super speed and my parents didn't like that…"

Barry Allen was sad, his nephew had been missing for almost a year now, it'd be a year in two months, and still no one had found him and he hadn't returned home. He wasn't in Central anymore; hell, with the amount of time he'd been gone he could be anywhere in the country.

He sighed, Wally was gone, and he probably wasn't coming back.

Yay! A new chapter! Happy Monday my people! Sorry that this chappy's so short but the next one's almost two thousand words! 'Til next week (ugh, school starts up :( not fun) hope you liked this chappy and review! Please!

~Miss Claw