The first time Wally saw the figure, it was from a long ways away, and it was late at night. The only thing he could make out was a dim form, and it was only because he had his goggles on that he saw the faint outline at all. It was perched on the top of an apartment building, surveying the city.

Wally puzzled over the figure for a second, wondering who it was and why it was up there, but before he could even consider investigating he recieved a call from his mentor to come and help put a stop to one of Mirror Master's crazy schemes. He glanced at the apartment building once more, but the figure wasn't there anymore.

Had he imagined it?

But he couldn't spend any more time puzzling over a shadowy figure- Kid Flash was needed. He pushed his curiosity aside.

He had more important things to worry about than a distant figure on a rooftop in Central City.

_Line Break_

The second time Wally saw him, it was a lot closer up.

He was on patrol (as Kid Flash, of course) and heard someone scream. It was about 10 at night, and Wally had been about to call it a day (he had a huge test the next morning), but he wasn't about to let someone get hurt because he wanted to get some extra sleep.

It only took him 4.4 seconds to dash across the eleven blocks between him and the source of the noise. Flash could have done it in 2.7, but Wally was still pretty pleased with himself.

A young women, probably in her early twenties, was standing on the sidewalk under a streetlamp, her eyes wide and her body trembling. Wally ran straight up to her, looking around for the trouble- but he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.

That was odd. Normally 4.4 seconds was easily enough time for Wally to get there before the criminal could escape.

He skidded to a stop in front of the women.

"What happened? Are you alright, ma'am?" he asked respectfully, as his uncle Barry had taught him. She nodded, and bent down to pick up her purse. Until that point, Wally hadn't even noticed it was there. The strap had been slashed in two.

"I was just walking down the street when this figure attacked me! It had a knife, so I screamed... I thought it was going to kill me, but all it did was cut my purse strap. And then it didn't even take the purse, it just grabbed my wallet, took my cash, dropped the purse, and ran!"

She sounded confused, but relieved. Wally frowned- that was odd. The thief had taken the time to simply grab cash and had managed to get out of sight before a speedster got there? That was almost impossible!

"Which way did he go?" he said hurriedly, and she pointed down the road. Wally didn't wait to hear her reply, he sped away.

Zipping down the street, he saw a shadow whip around a corner- a small, lithe figure cloaked in darkness. Wally followed as fast as he could, and found himself in a dark alleyway- a dark, empty alleyway.

Okay... something was going on. He took a cautious step forward, ready to bolt should something fly out of the shadows to attack him. Nothing did, and Wally found himself frowning in confusion... he could've sworn he saw something come in this alleyway! He really needed more sleep if it had gotten to the point that he was imagining things...

But just as he was about to leave, a sudden clattering noise from above made him tilt his head back and look skyward.

The figure was scaling the fire escape with incredible efficiency, jumping two, even three floors up at a time! Flipping and rotating, and basically using the fire escape as a jungle gym, it got to the top of the building, and Wally saw a flash of green clenched tightly in it's hand.

"Hey!" he yelled, because the figure had stolen that money, and Wally wasn't about to let him get away with that without at least trying to slow him down. To his surprise, the figure actually did turn in response to his shout.

Glowing orange eyes peered down at him through the darkness, and chilled Wally to the bone. The figure seemed to be glaring at him, and then it raised a hand- a knife soared down from above. Wally darted aside automatically, but there had been no need too. It stuck in the ground a good seven inches from where his foot had been even before he moved. The figure hadn't been trying to injure him, the knife had merely been a distraction!

When he looked up again, the figure was gone. Wally picked up the knife and inspected it the best he could in the darkness, running his fingers over the hilt- there was a design in it, but he couldn't quite tell what.

He headed back to the street and stood under a lamp-post. On the handle, expertly carved, was an owl, with its wings spread wide and it's talons outstretched. Wally spent another minute studying the design before he tucked the blade away and returned home.

His curiosity was officially piqued. There was something... different about this thief. And no, it wasn't the orange eyes...

The next morning, his uncle Barry asked him how patrol had gone- and something told Wally not to speak of the shadowy figure and the knife. He couldn't tell why, he couldn't explain it. It just felt... wrong to tell anyone else about it.

So he didn't.

A/N: I really love the Court of Owls storyline... In fact I was reading the Batman: Night of the Owls story arc the other day and this just appeared in my head. If I hadn't written it down, I would have forgotten it. Anyway, does it interest anyone? I might expand on it a lot more after I finish Luthor's Assassin. In fact, it might be my next big project if you guys like it enough. In case you couldn't tell, Court of Owls AU. And I'm not revealing anything about who the shadowy figure is if you don't know... nor am I answering any other questions about the timeline or why the figure is stealing stuff... except I will say the figure's eyes aren't really orange. Y'all just better hope I don't forget the storyline I have planned out while I work on Luthor's Assassin! :) So, let me know if you'd like to read more!