As Artemis left the school the exhaustion of sitting in near death boredom all day began to set in as she exited the large stone archway of Gotham academy, Barbra and Bette had made it their personal mission to make Artemis seem "less hostile" unaware, or perhaps all too well aware, that she was like that to keep people from bothering her. they said she looked "lonely", psh. normally she'd have gone straight home but normally her best friend wasn't laid up in a hospital bed so today she walked right past her apartment and headed to the out of order phone booth that housed the zeta tube for that area.

"recognized Artemis B-07" the computerized voice that Richard had dubbed "the overlord" called out a moment before the girl herself walked into the main room. Conner was there in the main hall and regarded her with a small grunt before looking to the tv watching static.

As she walked down the hall towards the med bay she could hear noise coming from the room, she knocked briefly before entering. Richard was sitting on the edge of the bed playing a video game of some sort, she'd never really been into that sort of for lack of trying mind you.

"hey" he offered acknowledging her "how was school"

"out of the two of us i think you got it easier" she sighed

She just never had time between trying to have some semblance of a normal life on one hand and her psychopath father trying to turn her into a killing machine on the other she just never found the time for such things but now for some reason she found the flashing lights and interactive pictures held some sort of hypnotic effect on her. she walked over and sat down next to him, intently focused on the screen and it was as if the whole world faded away.

if Richard noticed her behavior he didn't say anything, after a while she stopped paying attention to the game and as something else captured her attention. while she found the game riveting and the cutscenes compelling and having her invested in the characters what was more interesting was Richards reaction to them, it wasn't blown way out of proportion like a youtube video but that made it even more captivating, each minute change in his face told a thousand stories without explaining anything.

she felt weird for staring at his face but she found her self unable to look away, she didn't even notice when he paused the game and just sat there before slowly turning to look at her. "you're staring" he pointed out flatly.

she looked away embarrassed and said "sorry"

"it's fine, i know i must look like shit" he sighed returning to his game.

"it's just... I almost lost you, and that scared me" she said quietly

"yeah... i know, but you can't get rid of me that easily" he joked

Artemis replied by punching him in the shoulder "i'm being serious you ass"

"i'm not, that takes the fun out of it" he said with a smirk

She couldn't help but smile back "asshole" she replied with a stifled chuckle. she leaned over and gave him a quick chaste kiss on the cheek before turning on her heel and leaving.

Richard watched with one eye raised as she left in a hurry "maybe i missed something" he mused aloud.

"she did" replied raven from the corner not looking up from her book "she completely missed that i was still here" she finished turning the page with the ghost of a smirk gracing her features. Richard scowled at her before sending a pillow flying across the room only for it to be enveloped by black energy and return to its point of origin.

Artemis was beside herself, why had she done that, she never did stuff like that, what the hell was she thinking she mentally (and slightly verbally) berrated herself. now he was going to think she was turning into a weirdo, or worse going all emotional. she growled in frustration before hurrying towards the zeta tubes. "recognized B-02 kid flash"the overlord called out.

"what are you doing here" he said with a scowl right before she punched him in the stomach and left in her own flash of light.

Authors note: HOLY SHIT AN UPDATE, yeah... i'm not good about doing that. anyway the reason you all show up is finally here, and so it begins