Chapter Text
When you boiled him down to his most basic parts, Jason was a pretty good guy. Or at least he liked to believe he was. He helped out in the soup kitchen, he read to kids in the library, he solved missing persons cases that were ignored by the authorities, he protected kids and working girls and the homeless. Sure, he beheaded some people that one time and yes, maybe he did kill every now and then. But he always had a reason. Taking a life was nothing he considered casual.
He even stayed on top of philosophical discourse surrounding vigilantism, so when he made decisions in the field he could always cite the source of some high-brow academic that thought he knew what was best for the world. Or he could choose to willfully ignore them, which he did, most of the time. At least he could give his reasoning though, could probably write a whole essay on why exactly he felt it necessary to use the methods he did.
All in all, he was really trying to make the best possible choices with Gotham's safety as his highest priority.
But if Jason was so good on paper, why was he always doing everything wrong?
"You should have waited for backup," Bruce, no, Batman, snarled through the comm.
"Didn't exactly have the time for it," Jason answered as he drove his motorcycle through the night, racing to go as far north as he could. As far away from Bristol as he could.
His sort-of-father, sort-of-mentor, sort-of-nemesis didn't even grace him with an explanation for his own late arrival to the scene that made Jason's actions necessary in the first place. It was always all accusations with him. "You piloted a helicopter into a building."
"It was empty."
"You couldn't have known that."
"I did know that," Jason insisted, taking the turn into the Bowery a little too sharply. "Thermal sensors in the helmet, remember?"
"The helicopter wasn't empty."
"Yes, it was."
"You were in there."
And there it was. Bruce's unbearable and deeply misguided protectiveness that only ever came out when Jason was concerned. Nothing in the world could make him feel more like he was fourteen again.
"Sorry, next time I'll let the child traffickers escape," Jason scoffed.
Bruce sighed through the static. "There was no need to go as all-out as you did. This was not a life or death situation."
"Not for us." Jason muttered and a heavy silence fell over them. Only the hum of his engine could be heard as he finally took a turn into Crime Alley.
Jason hated how he forced Bruce into this role. Bruce who would have done the same thing - or, well, not necessarily the same thing. Bruce surely would have found a way to stop the bad guys and not be almost blown up in the process. But Jason wasn't him and collapsing a building to block the way was kind of the only thing he could come up with in the moment. There was just something about a big explosion that spoke to him.
Aside from different methods, though, Bruce would always put the safety of children over his own life. He would do the same damn thing, as he should. But because Jason did it, it was wrong. Because Jason did it, Bruce had to be put into a position where catching the kidnappers was a bad thing.
Bruce was a good, if flawed, person. Jason knew that. Yet, whenever they were together, Jason made his father worse. Like he did with any person that spent too much time around him.
It was the only thing he was really good at, even if he never meant to do it.
"Get some sleep, Hood," Bruce said, a little softer now. "Red Robin and I will interrogate the perpetrators you caught and make sure the kids get found."
"Okay. I'll go home."
Jason did absolutely not go home. Not after that shitshow of a night. If he did, he'd just feel more useless. And he wasn't useless. Not at night in Crime Alley, when people needed someone to look out for them more than ever.
It was already the early morning hour of his distraction patrol when he heard the scream. Jason, quick on his feet, scaled down the fire escape of the building he had been perching on, coming to a stop in the entrance of an alley, just off the main street.
It was a mugging - a woman clutching her phone that a masked man tried to rip from her. It was routine, really. The man's hand disappeared into his pocket before reappearing with a knife. That much was routine too.
Jason was about to spring into action - also routine - when a red cape blocked his view of the scene.
A figure dressed in blue, red and silver had materialised out of nowhere and skillfully, with a single punch, knocked out the would-be-mugger. He fell to the ground, with a sickening crack.
Bending down to retrieve the phone, the intruder handed it to the woman who smiled nervously. To her credit, she only spared the unmoving criminal a brief eyeflicker of concern. Gothamites had seen worse. And it wasn't like Jason wouldn't have downed the man too. Just maybe a little less brutally.
Quick to leave the scene, the woman ushered past Jason out of the alley, exchanging a bewildered look with him as she passed. Seeing the Red Hood was normal. Seeing Superboy Prime? Being saved by him? Decidedly less normal.
With her gone, it was only Jason, Superboy Prime and the thankfully still breathing body of the mugger in the filthy alley.
Coming a few steps closer, Jason quipped at the meta who still stood with his back to him, "Bit far from home, aren't you, boy scout number two?"
Prime turned around and grinned casually, as if he had been expecting to see him. He probably had. "I heard Gotham has some real nice weather this time of year."
Jason looked at the sky - dark and cloudy like always. "Sure. If depression's your thing." His head snapped back to Prime, frowning at the man. "What're you really here for?"
With a put-upon sigh, Prime leaned back against the brownstone wall of the alley and crossed his arms. "I'm here for you, believe it or not."
"I elect to not believe it, cause I think that'll spare me a lot of trouble," Jason huffed, already done with this shit. He didn't need a meta in Gotham, especially a wildcard like the alternate Superman. Call him Bruce with how much he hated unpredictability in his territory.
"Oh, come on," Prime teased with a smile that was as charming as it was unnerving, "I've had a whole redemption arc! I'm good now! No need to be so tense."
"I'm not tense." Jason eyed the unconscious mugger on the ground. He really should pick him up from the floor soon, else the rats mistake him for dinner. "More like careful of the ex-supervillain."
When no reply came for a moment, Jason's eyes flicked back to Prime. Was that man fucking pouting? "Okay first off," Prime uncrossed his arms, holding his finger between them to count, "I was more super than a villain. Second, most of the people I killed are alive again, so does it really count? And third, you have no leg to stand on when it comes to villainy. I bet if we compare body counts, you wouldn't be too far behind."
True enough, Jason supposed. Besides, he didn't really want to anger Prime and potentially undo all the 'character development' - as Prime had called it the last and only time they spoke. Jason had a talent for riling people up to do shit they wouldn't do otherwise. The scar on his neck is enough evidence of that. If there was a darkness in people, Jason would bring it out of them and he never even meant to do it.
"Whatever." Jason shrugged. "I don't have the time to argue with you. Just know I would win that argument though."
"Debatable," Prime said, but dropped his hands back to his side. Crisis averted.
Bending down, Jason handcuffed the mugger and dragged him down the alleyway, leaving him closer to the sidewalk under a streetlamp - saving him from the rats that were scared of the light but leaving him for the cops, a different type of rat, to find.
When he turned back to the alley, Prime was still leaning against the wall and watching him with blue, alert eyes. Jason thought it over. He could try to run away, but if Prime really wanted to talk to him, he'd have no chance of escape. And as it stood now, he'd rather have a conversation here than risk leading Prime to one of his safehouses. He didn't want to have to burn another one.
Jason walked back into the alley, dragging his feet to make sure the meta knew just how little he wanted to see him. He leaned on the wall opposite and said, "What the fuck do you want from me?"
"Rude and direct, I like that." Prime pushed away from the wall and stepped into Jason's personal space, just enough to be weird but not enough to be genuinely intimidating. "I don't want anything from you. I just wanted to check on my bat."
"Your bat?" Jason raised an unimpressed eyebrow.
"Uh-huh. Think about it. Superman has Batman, Supergirl has Nightwing and Batgirl, Jon has Damian, Conner," Prime ground his teeth a little as he said that name, "has Tim, and I? I have you."
Jason was at a loss. "I... I don't think that's how that works."
Prime only smiled wider. "That's totally how that works. Every bat needs a super friend. And since we're both the black sheep of our respective families, we're practically made for each other."
"But..." Jason scrambled to find anything to say. Literally anything. "I have friends." And he did, he had Artemis, Kori, Donna, and many more. Okay, maybe he didn't have a permanent best friend, like Damian and Jon were, but he didn't really need that. He had Roy for that, whenever their schedule's lined up. It was like an on and off best friendship.
"Yep. Good for you. But you still need a super. Bat-kryptonian relations are madated by the writers."
"I have Bizarro," Jason pointed out desperately.
"Really?" Prime turned up his nose. "Bizarro?"
How dare he? Jason glared with the hatred of a thousand red suns. "I love Bizarro!"
Prime sighed, dropping his smile for the first time into a genuine expression of exhaustion. "The Outlaws are disbanded, Jason. Face it. When's the last time you saw any of them, especially Bizarro?"
Jason pursed his lips, still glaring. He hated that the guy had a point there. "You're being real judgy for a guy that has no friends."
Recognising the deflection for what it was, Prime's smile returned ten-fold. At least this time, it was more charming than unnerving, as he basically lit up like a christmas tree. "I have you."
Fumbling over his words, Jason tried to find anything to say. He came up empty. Drawing a hand down his helmeted head in exasperation, he resigned himself to his fate as Prime slung an arm over his shoulder, pulling him into his side as though they had been friends for years. "Don't I get a say in that?"
"Nope! Don't worry, I won't move in with you or anything," Prime assured while beaming at him.
Jason really hadn't been worrying about that until just now. He made a mental note to switch his locks. Not that it would keep a kryptonian out. But hey, he could fucking try. Maybe Bruce could borrow him some kryptonite.
Prime, either unaware or uncaring of Jason's inner turmoil, leaned on him while chattering excitedly. "It's gonna be like a shared series. We'll do occasional team-ups and explosive fights when we don't get along and parallel storytelling highlighting our similar traumas and a sprinkle of homoeroticism! The whole package!"
"I'm going to pretend like I didn't hear that last one," Jason mumbled and closed his eyes so he didn't have to listen and watch the ex-villainous maniac turned hero turned annoying pest rant about their alleged shared future.
Why did the weird shit always have to happen to him?
It had been two weeks of blissful quiet, apart from the usual Arkham breakout. This time, Poison Ivy was on the lose. Despite their combined efforts, the bats hadn't been able to locate her yet, much to Jason's annoyance. There was nothing they could do but wait.
The fact that today was Halloween only made tensions rise higher. Every year, there was something going on on that specific day. It was just the Gotham rogues' flair for theming.
To be on the safe side, Jason had his gear close by and was shifting through security footage on his laptop, watching the streets bustling with party goers and costumed children. He himself hadn't dressed up - obviously - since he could bet all of his money that he would be going out as Red Hood sooner or later anyway. Besides, it would be pretty sad to be wearing a costume when you were alone in your apartment watching The Evil Dead on mute and working while everyone else was at a party.
Not that Jason couldn't have gone to a party. He had his pick of any bar or club in Crime Alley and he'd also been invited by Tim to join the titans' get-together. Maybe he would have considered going if he wasn't so worried about Ivy.
Or maybe that was just a real convenient excuse.
His phone buzzed with a message.
What are you doing rn?
Jason rolled his eyes and left it on read. He had no idea how the annoying big blue boy had gotten a hold of his phone number, but he had and Jason hated him for it. Not a day went by where he hadn't received a 'wyd' or 'u up' and it was driving him insane. The fact that he wasn't replying to any of them hadn't deterred Superboy Prime yet.
His phone buzzed again but Jason completely ignored it, instead hyper-focusing on the security cams. It was a bit wasteful, he knew Oracle was watching anyway, but at least it made him feel like he was doing something.
A little while later, the doorbell rang.
It did that a lot on Halloween, with all the children running around asking for candy. Personally, Jason probably wouldn't let his kids go up to strangers' doors in Gotham of all places but not his circus, not his monkeys, and definitely not his children.
Grabbing the already half-empty bowl of candy he had prepared, he opened the door without checking first. Big mistake. A mistake that could have gotten him killed if the person standing in front of him wasn't the very same meta he was ghosting.
"Trick or treat?" Prime said with that same out of place yet strangely charismatic smile he always seemed to wear.
Jason considered slamming the door shut.
Correction, Jason absolutely did slam the door shut.
A second later, he heard from the other side, "You know, I could just break the lock but then you'd have to replace it."
"Do it and I'll break every single bone in your body," Jason snapped back.
"You couldn't but I'd like to see you try!"
"Ugh," he huffed and opened the door. He really didn't feel like replacing the lock anytime soon. Prime was still standing in the same position and awkwardly waved at him. He was wearing a black leather jacket that suspiciously looked like he'd stolen it from Kon over a blue shirt. Jason said the first thing that came to mind. "You're not in suit."
Prime adjusted the sleeves of his jacket. "This is a civilian visit. Like the fit?"
"Depends, is your Halloween costume supposed to be Conner Kent?"
Prime's smile fell and Jason's mood rose. "That was a low blow."
Stepping back into his apartment to resume his watchman duties, Jason called over his shoulder, "If you came here to be coddled, you got the wrong address."
He heard Prime close the door and walk through his living room, probably inspecting the place. Jason didn't care, he had an eco-terrorist to find.
"You're still a nerd," Prime eventually pointed out from the corner of Jason's bookshelves.
"Hm?" Jason hummed, eyes never leaving his screen.
"I liked that about you when you were Robin. All the homework and the books. It was cute."
Now, Jason looked up, irritation at being compared to his former self rising. From the way Prime was watching him, he could tell it had been on purpose.
"I was a kid that liked to read, nothing cute about that," Jason said.
Prime approached him until he was standing right in front. "I disagree. There's this one panel where you hold up your finger like this while explaining something." Prime held up a demonstrative finger in that stereotypical nerd pose. "Most nerdy shit I've ever seen! Wish I had a picture of it so I could show everyone proof of what the Red Hood's really like."
Jason imagined bashing that guy's head in with little kryptonite hammers. It was a good fantasy.
In reality, he only chewed on the inside of his cheek - his equivalent of biting his tongue. "You're talking weird shit."
"Really?" Prime tilted his head in thought, before the realisation came. "Oh, cause I mentioned a panel? Yeah, that's gotta be weird from your perspective."
Being entirely honest with himself, Jason didn't even want to start trying to figure out what he was talking about, so he elected to completely ignore the conversation at hand. Instead, he asked the only thing he really wanted to know about. "Why are you here, exactly?"
"Straight down to business again. Fine with me." Prime nodded and sat next to Jason on the couch. A little too close. "I followed some shipments from Metropolis. Apparently Ivy has ordered a bunch of occult books to be brought to her. Thought you'd want to know that."
That got Jason's attention. He didn't even care that their knees brushed when he straightened. "She ordered books?"
"Yep. Don't know why yet. It's a bunch of old tomes and grimmoires and the like."
"That's very unlike her. Let's hope she's just either going with the holiday spirit or she has found a new passion for reading," Jason mused, very aware that the situation was probably far worse. Magic and Gotham just never mixed well. He himself was the best example.
Prime laughed. "Good thing I told you, then. Maybe you can start a book club. Invite Scarecrow too and you can call it 'Gotham Rogues Reading Circle'."
Before Jason could snarl all the death threats he'd been holding back, the door bell rang again and he got up.
"Trick or treat!"
This time it were actual children.
One was dressed up as a fairy and the other as the Swamp Thing. They made a good duo.
Jason gave them each a handful of candy - the expensive stuff he forced Bruce to buy since he had the money and all - and let them talk about their costumes for a minute before they left for the neighbour.
When Jason closed the door he jumped a little at Prime standing right beside him. How was he so quiet when moving?
"Didn't know they made Swamp Thing costumes," Prime said and stole candy from the bowl. "What did you dress up as as a kid?"
Jason frowned at both the stealing and the question. "Who cares?"
"I do. You didn't have a Halloween special as Robin, I don't think, so I never got to see that."
Once again ignoring the weird shit Prime said, Jason answered, "I was usually a witch. With a pointy hat and a broom." Truthfully, it was the only time he ever celebrated Halloween, when he was six. After that, things were just too hard. And even when he was with Bruce, he never felt much like celebrating the holiday. Usually he was busy with some rogue situation. And then he died.
"Not a wizard?"
"Witch is a gender neutral word, moron," Jason hissed. "What did you dress up as?"
Prime puffed his chest proudly. "Superman, each time."
"God, you're boring."
"Hey, I can stick to a theme, that's a good trait!"
The doorbell rang again.
When Jason opened it, he was greeted by three children. One dressed as Wonder Woman - great choice, one as Martian Manhunter - the green face paint felt a little offensive but okay, and one as-
Prime jumped back and shrieked, "Oh my god, take it away, make it stop, get rid off it, kill it with fire, ew, ew, ew."
Jason suppressed a smirk as he handed the confused children their candy - giving the Wonder Woman kid more than the rest - completely ignoring the breakdown his sort-of coworker was having. When he closed the door he turned to Prime, who was bracing himself on the wall with his hand, coming down from hyperventilating.
"That was just a kid," Jason said as the smirk came through full-force.
"Did you see what it dressed up as?"
Jason raised an eyebrow. "The Flash?"
"Horrifying."
"It's Halloween, you gotta chill a bit."
Prime did not look like he was chilling a bit. His face was white as a sheet and he kept glancing at the door as though expecting a speedster to burst through.
Okay, maybe Jason could find some appreciation for Halloween.
November was a dark time in Gotham. Darker even than the usual. You could count yourself lucky if you saw the sun even once within the month. Usually, it just rained every single day.
That was an especially annoying fact since it meant Jason had to carry an umbrella with him. On a normal day, he wouldn't really bother about that bit of rain but J. Rue Grace, his alias for the evening, would never let himself get wet. Especially when wearing a designer suit and shoes that cost more than his actual motorbike. The shoes were borrowed from Bruce, as was the watch. Jason refused to spend money on these things even if it was for a cover, and he simply didn't have the time to steal them.
The plan was to attend the meeting of investors discussing the conversion of one of the only parks in the Upper West Side into office space. Stupid idea. Evil idea. Jason would have killed these people himself not too long ago. He was still thinking about it, to be honest.
But he could decide on that later, right now he needed to lay the trap for Ivy. Jason was sure this meeting was her target. Not that he could blame her.
Luckily, J. Rue Grace was the owner of a fake company that would be very fakely interested in moving into the new office building. Getting in was easy. Getting into character was even easier. There was just something about being an asshole that came naturally to him.
As he was escorted into the conference room, he subtly checked his comms. Still there and recording, even though he didn't need evidence to send Ivy back to Arkham since she had broken out of the damn asylum.
He practically shoved his coat and his umbrella to one of the valets without even looking at them. It didn't matter, he would find out who they were later and leave them some money behind. Right now he had to play his part.
The conference room was already filled with middle aged men who were acting far less bored than they felt, exchanging hand shakes and backhanded compliments and rich people laughs. Jason mixed with the crowd, speaking with as many people as possible to get a good read on the room. So far nothing out of the ordinary. When the time got closer to the set meeting time, Jason took a seat on the long-ass table, close to the door but still central enough that he could reach any point of the room at a reasonable speed.
He felt good about this. He was prepared. He was not prepared enough.
Some more men in suits entered the room. Jason narrowed his eyes. He knew one of them. Well, technically he knew all of their names and faces, but this one? This one he knew personally.
Superboy Prime sat in the chair right next to him, wearing a suit that didn't sit correctly and glasses. He had a notepad and a pen in his hand. His entire posture was different than usual, carrying himself in a way that made him look a little older and far less confident.
Jason narrowed his eyes even harder. Were those Clark's glasses?
Prime smiled friendly at him and held a hand out to shake. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Clark Kent, reporter for the Daily Planet. I was hired to give the whole project a bit of a PR pep."
Shaking his hand maybe a bit too hard - hey, he was kryptonian, he could handle it - Jason smiled back, if more venomous. "I've read some of your articles, Mr. Kent. I would not have expected to see you in Gotham of all places."
He hoped Prime got the hidden message of: It is absolutely unrealistic for Clark Kent, who spends most of his career taking down corrupt corporations with his pen, to be in Gotham working for people that get off on killing the environment and public spaces, you fucking idiot.
Judging from the sharp edge of his smile, Prime got the message just fine. "I'm doing freelance work right now. And given the right incentive, I'll even come as far out as Gotham."
Jason forced an obnoxious laugh. "We're not so different, then, going wherever the green takes us."
"Yes," Prime agreed. "We really aren't."
As the meeting started the two of them could drop their performance. The presentation of how much it would cost to plow down an entire park and build an ugly block of cement instead was just as boring as expected.
While everyone's attention was elsewhere, Jason leaned in closer to Prime and hissed, "You couldn't have let me handle this alone?"
It annoyed Jason to no end that this pest had followed him here. Not because he hated working with people necessarily - he did enjoy the occasional team-up with his brothers - but because he couldn't get a read on Prime's true character. He was unpredictable and Jason hadn't decided yet if it was in a fun way or a dangerous one. Was that maniac truly redeemed enough to trust?
Prime laid his elbow on the armrest between them. "You can handle it, I just wanna watch."
And watch they did, as the presentation moved on to the topic of eventual profit, as the conversation changed to methods to keep activists from protesting, and as vines spread out from underneath the table restraining everyone in the room to their chair. Including the two sort-of-former villains.
Jason would have seen this coming any other day, but today he had been so distracted, not just by Prime but also by the sheer audacity of these people and their '10 step plan to keep the vegans away'. So, yes, he did let himself get tied to a chair by plants like the bad civilians, but it was just the situation's fault.
As chaos erupted around him, Jason felt the vines prick at the skin on the back of his hand, directly above a vein, entering it like a needle drawing blood. That was probably bad.
The other captives had vines sticking out of their hands too, except for Prime, obviously, whose skin was impenetrable.
Before Jason could begin to figure out what exactly he was dealing with, Ivy appeared in front of the table, holding a book close to her chest.
"Thank you for gathering here, gentlemen," she drawled. "I couldn't have asked for a better birthday present."
It wasn't her birthday, Jason would have pointed out if he wasn't still in character.
"I'm sure you'd like to know what I'm going to do to you moneyhungry wastes of space."
Okay, great, she was monologuing. Jason could use the extra time.
"May I introduce to you, my new baby? I've always been a bit more on the science path before but I thought a little magic could go a long way this time." She held the book in her arms like it was an actual human child.
So she did manage to get a hold on those occult books.
Wait a second. Occult? Magic? Vines that seemed to be draining their blood? Jason could put together a picture he didn't particularly like.
He tucked on his hand the vine had attached itself to but the movement only made the thing burrow deeper. Jason had to surpress a hiss at the uncomfortable sensation of something crawling inside his veins. At least he was doing better than the intended victims, which were all squirming and screaming like that would solve anything. It did feel good to see them in pain. Just a little bit.
Ivy opened the tome at its marked page, humming as a finger glid over the writing. "I've been looking for this beauty for a while. With your blood sacrifice I can fuel a ritual that will soon cover the entire east coast in green. And not the kind of green you like." She winked at one of the men who recoiled in fear. "Nature will take back what was taken from her. What you took from her. What you continue to try to destroy. This time, you will be the one being drained of all you have."
The whole east coast? That wasn't too reassuring to hear. Jason happened to like the east coast. Or at the very least he didn't think everyone living here deserved to be suffocated by leaves.
With every passing second, the vines were spreading around them as more blood was being fed to the plants, almost bursting from the room now. Jason knew his time was limited. He just didn't know what to do about it.
Ivy's attention wasn't on them, as she had started chanting from the book. Each of her words strengthened her plant creation even further. Theoretically, Jason could start taunting Ivy, distracting her from the ritual and use the extra time to get to the knife in his sleeve so he could cut himself out of the restraints. But he wasn't wearing a mask right now. Sure, his appearance had been altered a little to go with the cover, but he did not feel secure enough to out himself as Red Hood at the moment. The domino mask was burning a hole in his pocket. He should store it somewhere easier to get to in the future. If there was a future.
Then, a different idea came to him. One that could solve his two main issues simultaneously.
He casually leaned back in his chair. At Prime's silent question, he simply shrugged. "She's kind of got a point."
"No, she doesn't," came Prime's immediate answer.
"Well..."
"People are gonna die, Jay."
"And you care about that?"
"Maybe. Maybe not. But I know for a fact that you do."
It was strangely reassuring and completed goal number one - figuring out just how redeemed Superboy Prime actually was. It turned out, he was at least a little willing to protect innocent lives, which was all that Jason really needed.
"Ugh. I guess." Jason rolled his eyes dramatically. "I just can't really be bothered-"
In a split second, Prime had broken the vines restraining him as if they weren't even there and took of his glasses. With the whole room preoccupied with the oncoming green apocalypse, no one noticed him using his heat vision to cut the vines around Jason.
When he was done, he put on the glasses again and pointedly stayed seated. "Happy now?"
"Extatic." Jason discreetly sank down his chair, putting his domino on as soon as he was out of view, and crawled through vines and leaves until he was under the middle of the table, where most of the plant life emerged from a large stem growing out of the floor. Not even thinking twice about it, Jason retrieved a small unit of C-4 and jammed it as far into the plant as he could.
He crawled to the front of the table, waited for a second, and then emerged right as the blast of the small explosion rippled through the room, knocking over people in chairs, breaking the windows, and, most importantly, ripping apart the heart of the plant.
Jason himself was thrown against a wall, next to Poison Ivy who had been so distracted by her ritual that she hadn't managed to react. As the dust settled, he walked towards her and crouched down while she coughed around the smoke and the plant particles hanging in the air.
"Sorry, Ivy," Jason said, zip-tying her hands together. "Hope your cell in Arkham's still warm."
She gave him an unimpressed sneer. "What business do you have protecting them?"
"None," he explained calmly. "But the whole east coast? Different story."
"I preferred when you were on our side, Red."
He sighed. This again. "There is no 'our side', Ivy."
Ivy held her head high, glaring at him like he was the Judas to her Jesus. "You have more in common with us, boy, than any of them."
Fuck this. She wanted to play this game? Fine by him.
"Okay, now you've pissed me off," Jason began, faux casual. "Have you ever noticed that the people you work with from time to time, Two-Face, Black Mask, Joker, Lex Luthor, etcetera, are all greedy pieces of shit that wouldn't hesitate burning down every goddamn tree in the world if it only gave them more money?"
He paused to give her a genuine smile that fell the more he talked himself into the deep pits of sincerity. "I like you and I don't mind you killing CEOs, but the system just keeps replacing them. 'nd if you take that out on innocents, you're really just punishing the wrong people. It's not fair to kill every single person in an area for living under a system that was forcefully imposed on them. You gotta figure out a different way. Maybe start sinking fossil fuel offices or blow up a pipeline. These bitches here are pieces of shit, I agree with you there, but getting rid of them is not gonna get rid of the system that created them. And they're not important enough to justify getting rid of them anyway. Save that energy for higher horses. Attack where it actually makes progress. Humanity's not an inherent evil, our system is." Catching his breath, he leaned a little closer to her, like he could get his message across if he just stared enough into her green eyes. "Remember, it's the capitalocene, not the anthropocene."
Ivy frowned, but didn't outright deny his point. "There aren't any rituals to rid the earth of capitalism."
And that was a damn shame. What was magic even good for?
Jason stood up from his crouch and held a hand out for her to help her up. "In any case, if you find one, let me know and I'll get ya all the blood sacrifices you need."
Ivy contemplated for a second, before getting up by herself. She didn't answer him, but she let herself be taken in by the commissioner when he arrived without struggle. Progress.
Truthfully, Jason knew that he could never get through to Poison Ivy, but he respected her too much not to try.
They had different interpretations of what made the world evil and how to deal with it, but they were both a similar type of crazy so he didn't judge too hard.
As the traumatised and freshly anemic businessmen were escorted out by paramedics, Jason disappeared as fast as he could. Now that he was here as Red Hood, he couldn't be seen with the cops. Or by the cops.
Reaching the sidewalk, he startled a little when Superboy Prime came up next to him, still in his Clark Kent costume. Jason had almost forgotten about him.
"Good speech. If we get a movie adaption, the fans will clip the hell out of that," he said, in that weird bravado he said all the odd shit in. "Though they'd have to cut out you hesitating about saving the world."
"I didn't hesitate!" Jason protested.
Prime grinned at him. "You so did. I had to play moral compass, which was definitely a first for me."
He didn't hesitate, he just tested if the former villain that had glued himself to him was more former than villain! It was a strategic move!
Jason glared with the hatred of a thousand red suns, until his eyes slid a little lower. The explosion had messed up Prime's suit - which Jason was pretty sure was also Clark's - making him show off a little bit more chest. It was a good look for him. Had the vibe of a 90s action-comedy movie star.
"Hm," Jason hummed appreciatively and kept staring.
Prime's grin fell. "What?"
"Nothing."
"What?" He almost whined self-consciously, crossing his arms.
Jason looked back up at him and smiled innocently. "You clean up well in a suit."
Prime gaped at him for a solid thirty seconds and Jason almost thought he broke him irreparably, before he snapped his mouth shut, took out the notepad from earlier and started writing.
"Homoeroticism? Check."