Behind the Mask

Chapter 5

He followed her until they reached an alley behind a bunch of restaurants. It smelled like a mixture between rotten gourmet food and rotten, fat-based, fast food. There were dumpsters of all kinds lining the back walls of the restaurants, all overflowing their greasy, green and fuzzy contents onto the cement. Here Assassin Girl stopped and leaned against a wall, sliding down into a sitting position only to quickly jump up again as she discovered she’d sat on a pile of trash from the overflowing dumpsters.

“Gross, huh?” Robin smirked, stepping out of the shadows, holding his hands up to show he was unarmed. Assassin Girl jumped again at the sound of his voice and immediately nocked an arrow and trained it at him.

“Woah, watch it, Assassin Girl.”

“What do you want, Wonder Boy?”

“Why do I have to ‘want’ anything?”

“You think you are so clever.”

“I know I am so clever.”

“Listen, kid,” Artemis said, now annoyed, lowering her bow and standing over Robin looking down at him. “Just cause I save your ungrateful butt once, doesn’t mean I actually want to see your face ever again.”

“I said thanks,” Robin retorted, looking up into her mask-covered face. “And I was actually doing you a favor, letting you see my ridiculously handsome face again. This is the face Gothamites swoon over.”

“Yeah, if they’re like, twelve years old. Now get lost.” She said, sidestepping him and starting off down the alley. Robin quickly moved to stand in front of her again.

“Hold up, I’m not done talking.” He said, a smirk on his face.

“Well I am.” Assassin Girl growled, pushing him aside. Robin sighed. The time for small talk was over.

“Artemis!” He said, grabbing her arm. He found it was insanely muscled. “Back there, with the   muggers-”

“So that’s what this is about?”

“Why did you do it?” Robin asked. “I thought you were all in with Sportsmaster.”

“If I was, as you put it, ‘in with Sportsmaster’, would I have saved you that night? Seriously kid, you work with the World’s Greatest Detective. Your poor reasoning skills are giving him a bad name.”  

“So you aren’t in with Sportsmaster.” Robin stated, ignoring her detective comment.

“Yes, that’s kinda what’s being implied.” She said through gritted teeth. “No need to act so thick.”

Robin glared at her. She only raised an eyebrow at him before attempting to shake his hand off her arm. Robin tightened his grip.

“So you’re working on the right side of the law now?” He asked, his masked eyes locking onto hers.

“You know I could scream for help right now, and you really wouldn’t be in a good position.”

“You didn’t answer my question,” He objected, letting go of her arm.

“Why do care, anyway?” She retorted, yanking her arm back. “And I can’t really be working on the wrong side of the law, saving a lady and beating up a couple hoods. Really, Wonder Boy, I was told you were clever.”

Robin was about to yell something extremely clever when he heard the sound of whistling and instinctively dropped to the ground, yanking Artemis down with him as a knife whipped over his head. That was close.

“What was that?” Artemis demanded, picking herself up and brushing off her pants.

“I don’t-” Robin began, but stopped as another knife came spinning towards his head. He easily dodged, saying: “Whatever it is, it can’t be good.”