Chapter Text
~ The Warehouse ~
Jason Todd, former Robin and current Red Hood, murderer turned vigilante, never claimed to be very lucky.
Clearly he wasn’t, seeing as his life was pretty much a never-ending shitshow of fear and death and pain that had only recently evened out into something mildly tolerable.
Even if his siblings were annoying sometimes, he’d been getting along with them really well lately. His relationship with Bruce was still slow going, but they were repairing it bit by bit.
At the very least the Bat trusted Jason, hence why the big Bat had sent him on a week-long infiltration mission up in the Narrows.
Which led Red Hood down a rabbit hole of gun trafficking, gangs, money laundering, and finally to the warehouses he was in now. Very lucky indeed.
It seemed almost too easy in some ways, a perfect opportunity to take down one of Scarecrow’s toxin suppliers if Oracle’s intel was good.
It was supposed to be easy.
So why the hell was Superman here??
“Red Hood.” Superman’s voice was strong despite the pounding sound of rain against the warehouse roof, making Hood feel impossibly tiny in comparison to the Man of Steel.
He touched down onto the corrugated metal across the roof. His gaze was pointed, eyes seeming almost more grey than blue between sheets of pouring rain.
“A little far from Smallville, aren’t we Supes?” Hood couldn’t help but roll his eyes under his mask. “I’m guessing Batsy doesn’t know you’re here? This place is his problem, not yours.”
He thumbed the distress beacon in his jacket pocket. Was Superman appearing in Gotham enough of an emergency to call in backup?
“Your trafficking ring is influencing Metropolis, which makes it my problem,” Superman responded. “I’ll be taking you in to be interrogated, but rest assured, you’ll be ending up in Arkham by the end of the week.”
Hood couldn’t help the small stir of irritation in his gut, green creeping up the edges of his vision. Fuck the distress beacon, he could deal with this without his siblings.
“Highly doubt that,” He quipped. “Where’s Batman? This’ll all go a lot faster if we skip past the arresting me part and just call him here directly.”
Superman just scowled, a twinge of irritation entering his voice. “Batman is off-world at the moment. The Justice League is keeping an eye on Gotham in his absence.”
Shit.
“Sounds like bullshit,” Hood shot back after a second, cursing the sudden waver in his voice. “I don’t doubt he’s off-world, but letting you in here? The only meta allowed in Gotham is Signal, and the Bat isn’t one to change his mind about this kind of stuff.”
Well, he was one to change his mind about the rule, but only when it involved one of his kids.
“You’re stalling,” Superman really sounded annoyed now. A bit of Clark Kent bled into his voice, and suddenly Hood was grateful that Tim made him research all the League members on his own time. “I’m taking you in.”
Time to go, then. There was no way in hell he could beat Superman in a fight or outrun him head-on, but Hood knew Gotham like the back of his hand. Getting to one of his safehouses should be a piece of cake.
“Good luck with that, Supes.” With a haunting laugh that would have made Dick proud Hood let himself tip off the warehouse, just barely hearing Superman yell before the whistling wind overtook his senses.
He rolled as he hit the fire escape below, already sending off his grapple down the alleyway.
It latched onto a brick wall, and with a tug he was off.
Wham!
Hood felt something hit his side midair, sending him flying into the metal warehouse walls.
His ribs felt like they were on fire, but he still managed to claw himself into a sitting position before a figure pressed him back down with a boot to his chest.
He felt his ribs shift, barely suppressing a yell as his vision went white with pain.
“I have him, Superman,” A woman’s voice Hood immediately identified as Wonder Woman said from above him. “Stay down, Hood.”
He tried to reach for the distress beacon, but he already felt himself blacking out on the dingy alleyway floor.
God, this was going to be a long week.
~ At the Manor ~
It was late at night on a Tuesday, and Dick Grayson was pacing in the Manor living room.
Jason was reckless at the best of times and downright suicidal at the worst, but he wasn’t stupid. Usually. Dick was really questioning that at this point.
“Big bird, at this rate you’re going to wear a hole in the carpet. Jason’s fine.” Tim told him from an armchair. A long-forgotten book lay open in his lap, pages forgotten in favor of watching his brother.
“I still think it’s weird that he didn’t check in,” Dick finally stopped pacing and flopped onto the couch, rolling over to glare at Tim. “He’s been sending us updates every day throughout the entire course of the mission, why would be stop the day before we’re supposed to come in unless something bad happened?”
“Todd has a distress beacon. He would have used it if he was in trouble,” Damian replied, sounding bored. “He may be an imbecile most hours of the day, but he’s not that dumb.”
“We also have his tracker, which last time I checked, is still at the warehouse he said he was checking out tonight,” Tim pulled his laptop seemingly out of nowhere. “If it makes you feel any better, we can check.”
Dick stood up, moving to lean over the back of the armchair as Tim pulled up the bat tracking system. Damian leaned in too, perching on one of the armrests.
A map was displayed on the screen, with Dick, Tim, Damian, and Duke’s icons all displayed at the Manor. Cass and Steph were out patrolling in the city.
“He should be right here,” Tim typed Jason’s name into the search bar. “See? He’s safe and- oh that’s not supposed to happen.”
“What? What is it?” Dick craned his neck, placing his chin on Tim’s head as the teen zoomed out to see all of Gotham.
“His tracker, it isn’t in Gotham,” He said. “Or anywhere, for that matter. He’s gone off the map.”
“...Shit.”
~ Chapter End ~