A/N: Hello there! This is sort of a redo of my old story Diga me. New pen name, new stuff. Hope you enjoy.

November 30th, 11:23 pm

Brisk night air whirled between buildings as night cloaked Jump City. A light first snow graced the ground and stirred as the wind rushed by. A young man clad in green and red sat atop a lit building with his cape drawn close, shivering slightly in the night. Robin looked over the city trying to spot trouble from his vantage point, but nothing moved aside from the last leaves falling from trees lining the street. He checked his watch. 'Half an hour left on my shift. I hope there is still hot chocolate back at the tower...' he thought as he sat back slightly on his heels. 'I can't believe it's this cold.' He shifted his gaze to the left and idly watched an older woman taking her dog out for one last walk in the park.

'11:45, fifteen minutes...' His ears perked up suddenly. He heard movement to his right. He tensed and spun quickly to come face to face with...nothing. He lowered his staff an inch or two, swearing he had heard something. 'I must be tired,' he mused and turned back to the street he had been watching. "How quaint." Chills that had nothing to do with the cold raced to the base of Robin's skull as he now stood in front of Slade. Robin backed up quickly and raised his staff. "Slade, what do you want?" Slade took a few calm steps toward Robin who matched each step backward. "Why do I have to want something? Can't two old acquaintances just talk?" Robin had now run out of rooftop. "It is never that simple with you, Slade." Slade finally paused. "Ah Robin, you have no idea how right you are."

Robin whipped his staff at Slade, who dodged and rolled away, coming up with his own staff in hand. "It's just like old times," he taunted as he ran towards Robin. Robin blocked the strike and kicked at Slade's feet. Slade jumped and swung around, narrowly missing hitting Robin in the face. Robin slipped on a patch of ice and caught himself on the ladder leading off the roof. Slade raised his weapon over his head and brought it down on Robin's diaphragm. Robin struggled to hold on to the ladder as the wind was knocked out of him, his staff falling to the street below. Slade spun to attack again and Robin jumped down, clinging to the sides of the ladder as he slid down 15 stories. He hit the ground and was disappointed that he had lost sight of Slade. Robin decided to try to call for backup. 'Come on, pick up.' Pain exploded from his right shoulder as Slade brought his staff down on the hero having somehow snuck up on him. Robin rolled out of the way and drew a bird-a-rang and threw it at Slade. Slade blocked it with his weapon and charged at Robin. Robin dodged the hit and landed a kick to Slade's knee, earning a grunt from the villain. "I see you've been practicing." Slade attacked again.

Twenty minutes later, Robin knew he was in bad shape. He still hadn't managed to contact the Titans and was now starting to feel the barrage of injuries he was acquiring. Slade was not letting up. "What's the matter Robin? Getting slow in your old age?" Slade laughed as he kicked Robin's legs out from under him. Robin had had enough. He threw a smoke bomb and ran for it. 'Left, right, left, straight, right...' He zig zagged as much as he could, trying to put as much space between himself and Slade. 'Left, right, left,' CRASH. Robin came to a dead stop and landed on his back, knocking the wind out of himself yet again. Lights popped before his eyes as he tried to orient himself and get up. He rolled to his feet as fast as physically possible and realized that he had run straight into Red X. He heard footsteps approaching as Red X groaned on the pavement. "What did you do that fmgh-" Robin clamped his hand over Red X's mouth and dragged him back into a dark alley. The pair stood still as the footsteps closed in, neither daring to draw breath. After a minute, the footsteps receded. Red X ripped himself out of Robin's grasp. "What the hell was that?" Red X angrily whispered. Robin hesitated to answer. The two villains might not work together, but that did not mean that Robin trusted the one standing in front of him not to sell him out. "Well?" Red X demanded. "Slade is chasing me," Robin said, searching the alley they were in for clues that Slade was there. Red X took a moment to assess the state of the young man in front of him. Several gashes in Robin's uniform revealed bruised skin beneath and he clearly had one black eye forming under his mask. There were shallow scratches covering both of the Boy Wonder's arms. "That guy gives me the creeps. C'mon, I know a way out of here." Robin hesitated, but didn't seem to have much of a choice: his communicator had broken at some point during the skirmish. Red X and Robin jumped through the basement window of one of the buildings butting up to the alley and came back to street level through a service door. They snuck along the edges of buildings for ten minutes, searching for signs of Slade in the shadows. "What the -" A cloud of green smoke enveloped the pair as they rounded a corner. Neither one lasted long in the sleeping gas.

The next chapter should be up within the next week. I hope this didn't irritate you too much.