"I had a good time, Dick. Thanks for the distraction."

"My pleasure," Dick replied with a grin. "Let me know what happens?"

"Of course," she answered, rolling her eyes. "Good night."

She was inside before he could reply. Shaking his head, sixteen-year-old Dick Grayson turned around and began walking toward his car. He was five yards away when Joey Barlowe appeared in front of him.

"Susie is my girl," the taller boy declared, his voice threatening.

"Come on, Joey, we're just friends," Dick stated with a sigh.

"Then why was she out with you on a Friday night, which is usually considered date night?!" Joey demanded.

"She needed someone to talk to and you, apparently, were unavailable," Dick nearly snapped. "You don't like hearing about her problems, anyway, I heard you tell her that this morning. Did you know she didn't come to first hour because she was so upset after that?"

"Watch your mouth, idiot," Joey growled.

"Or what?" Dick retorted.

A foot slammed itself into Dick's back and he arched in pain. Joey took the opening and threw a heavy right fist into Dick's sternum. The breath whooshed out of him and Dick dropped to his knees, gasping for air.

"See, little Dickie boy, I brought some friends with me," Joey whispered as he crouched down in front of the much-smaller teen. "So now you get to find out what happens when you go out with my girl and then taunt me about it."

"Wasn't taunting," Dick wheezed. "Not a date, just friends."

His arms were tightly wrapped around his torso. Two pairs of hands yanked his arms away from each other and pulled up. Dick was forced to either stand up or have his shoulders dislocated. He chose to stand and Joey stood up with him. The other teens were in a tight circle, surrounding him and blocking any attempt at escape. Not that it mattered, since there was no way he was going to get out of the steely grasp of the two largest guys.

"I'm feeling nice," Joey sneered, "so I'm going to give you a choice. We can all gang up on you, or we can go one at a time. There are six of us so either way you're getting a beat-down."

Not even Robin could take down six well-muscled teenagers by himself if they all came at once. In fact, Robin would be lucky to take them all down just going one on one. And right now, he was Dick Grayson, not Robin. He had an identity to protect, and Batman would be furious if Robin made an appearance.

With a sigh, Dick whispered, "One at a time."

"Oh, I forgot to tell you!" Joey exclaimed. "Today is opposite day!"

Twelve hands and several feet were suddenly pummeling his body. Dick didn't stand a chance, even if he had allowed himself to use some of Robin's skills. He tried to cover his head with his arms but they were pushed away just in time for a large fist to land on his right cheek.

Blows were landing on every part of his body. And the boys weren't holding back. Dick knew, in the back of his dazed mind, that he was going to be one big, blood-crusted bruise before they were done with him. If he even made it out alive, a conclusion that right now he doubted.

He tasted blood, saw bright stars in a wavy ocean, heard bells dancing in his ears and felt a bone break. Soon the stars went from white to crimson as blood began sliding down his face. Dick heard another bone break but couldn't figure out where it came from.

Joey's blurry face appeared in front of Dick and the beating immediately stopped. The world, however, continued whirling around and Dick wanted to throw up. He was pretty sure that would lead to more pain, though, so he shoved the feeling away.

"Now we're going to move you so that Daddy Wayne won't know where you are," Joey stated contemptuously. "Because I'm sure he knew you would be driving my girl home so the most logical place to start looking for you would be here. And we can't have him finding you too soon. Maybe he won't even find you at all."

The words were hard to understand but what Dick heard was very alarming: "Now…move…Wayne…because…home…looking…finding…at all".

Dick decided that Joey and his friends were now going to move into Wayne Manor because it was their home. Bruce would be looking for, but not finding, Dick, so it wouldn't be hard for Joey to move in at all. But that was a little confusing, because Dick was lying in plain sight and would easily be found in the morning.

Perhaps they were moving him to Wayne Manor because Bruce wouldn't think to look for Dick at home so the man wouldn't find him at all. But, that didn't make sense because Bruce was Batman – the World's Greatest Detective! But Joey was pretty stupid, in Dick's eyes, so maybe that plan made sense to the older boy. Did Joey know that Bruce was Batman? Dick wasn't sure. Trying to answer that question was increasing the already-large ache in his head, so he pushed it away for now.

Dick decided to put Joey in his place. All he had to do was stand up and fight back. But the only things he could do were watch the world begin fading to black, and fail to lift any part of his body.

"Uh…"

That was all Dick could get out before completely losing consciousness.