The Man And The Hood

[Hms Scarborough]

He grabbed a couple other stuffs

Click to shrink...

Some other things? maybe

 

[Maverick_DaSupreme]

After robbing a couple of gang members who were too stupid or too confident to think someone would dare cross them, Jason had finally carved out a sliver of space for himself on the south side of Gotham City.

Not exactly prime real estate, more like a roach motel stacked in concrete and bad decisions—but it was home, or at least the closest thing he'd allow himself to have.

The apartment sat at the very top of a beat-up building that leaned more sideways than upright, like it regretted ever being constructed. But that was part of the appeal.

Jason had deliberately chosen this location for its anonymity and inaccessibility. No working security cameras. No nosy neighbors who stayed awake past eleven.

And more importantly, no clear sight lines for anyone trying to tail him. If he needed to go dark, he could—twisting and turning through Gotham's labyrinthine back alleys, taking detours so winding even Google Maps would throw its hands up.

If things got too hot, there was always the textile warehouse near the docks. Now, he had options. A tactical luxury.

Lucky for him, the landlord was a bloated, graying man with more interest in rent checks than personal details. He didn't ask questions, especially not when Jason paid six months in advance. In cash.

That kind of gesture made the landlord practically fall in love. Jason could probably store a crate of human heads in the hallway, and the old man wouldn't blink—so long as he kept the money flowing.

The neighbors? Ghosts. At least that's what they thought of him. He'd never said more than two words to any of them. His schedule ensured that he always returned long past midnight, slipping in through his window like a shadow with nowhere to rest.

When he left early, often just after dawn, it was usually to restock supplies, tail someone on his hit list, or blend into the city crowd. That's when he used the front door—because sometimes, it paid to look normal.

Earlier that day, though, there had been an unexpected break in the routine.

He'd run into an old lady struggling to carry two full bags of groceries up the stairs. The elevator was out of service again and halfway into a month of maintenance.

Jason wasn't in the habit of doing favors, but something about the old lady's quiet determination stirred something in him.

So he offered a hand.

She smiled, surprised and grateful. He took the bags, slow-walked up the narrow stairwell, listening to the echo of their footsteps bounce off the walls like ghosts of conversations past.

The building smelled of mildew, old spaghetti sauce, and faintly of piss—layers of urban rot baked into the walls.

When they reached her door, just two units away from his own, she turned to thank him.

Jason gave a soft smile in return. Polite. Genuine, even. A rare warmth touched his face, so honest that if she'd glimpsed what lay beneath, what he was planning for the evening, she might've screamed and slammed her door shut.

Because that smile? That smile belonged to a man with a kill list.

And tonight, the first name was about to get scratched off.

- - -

As the sun dipped below Gotham's skyline, the city choked under its usual neon haze, flickering signs and broken street lamps casting jagged shadows along the apartment blocks.

Inside Jason's flat, it was nearly pitch black. Most of the space was left untouched by artificial light, except for one corner—a single exposed bulb hanging from the ceiling hummed with a faint electric buzz, casting a pool of amber across the room like a lazy spotlight.

The curtains were pulled tight. Blackout fabric. Not just for sleep—for secrecy. Any wandering eyes would see nothing but the dark shape of drawn blinds.

Jason stood like a statue, back straight, eyes locked on his investigation board. It loomed over the desk like a madman's mural—newspaper clippings, photos, red thread, maps, and annotated reports.

Faces of crime bosses, names, and notes in his sharp, angular handwriting. Targets. Traitors. Clues.

At the center was a printout of the Joker's face, taunting and grinning, stabbed through with a hunting knife.

After a moment of stillness, he moved. Deliberate. Quiet.

He crossed the apartment and entered the small bathroom. From beneath the sink, he dragged out an old wooden stool and placed it beneath the ceiling vent.

With one swift motion, he popped the vent open and reached inside. Dust and cobwebs spilled out. His fingers gripped something cold, the metallic edge of a medium-sized trunk.

Lowering it carefully, he took it into the living room. It hit the wooden floor with a soft thud, and he crouched beside it, flipping the latches with practiced ease.

Inside lay the tools of his nocturnal profession, gear that was lethal, tactical, and deeply personal.

He stared at it for a long beat, letting the gravity of the night wash over him.

First, the black tactical pants, reinforced at the thighs, with padded knees designed for both protection and swift, fluid movement.

He slid into them effortlessly. Next were the boots, steel-toed and combat-ready. They weren't just for walking, they were for stomping, kicking, and surviving.

He pulled on his torso armor next, kevlar-infused and sculpted to fit under his brown leather jacket, which smelled like gunpowder.

On the chest of the armor was a bold, crimson bat symbol, purposely faded and scratched, but unmistakable. A ghost of his past as Batman's protégé. A memory that refused to die.

Then came the gloves. Black with crimson accents, padded and armored across the knuckles, built for brutal efficiency. Every item he wore spoke to a war he never stopped fighting.

With the trunk now nearly empty, he turned toward the couch. On its handle rested his utility belt, lazily draped but meticulously maintained.

It was similar in design to Batman's, but its contents were another story. This wasn't a belt meant to save lives, it was built to end them.

On one side: smoke pellets, flashbangs, grenades, and C4 packs. Tools of chaos.

On the other: sleek, silver throwing knives, modified shuriken, and compact tech.

And in the rear compartments were first aid supplies, lockpicks, extra clips of ammunition. Essentials.

He strapped it on, its familiar weight grounding him.

Next stop, the weapons table.

On the far end of the room sat a black duffle bag, heavy and long, with its zipper already halfway open. He approached it like a man greeting an old friend.

Inside, a symphony of firearms—each deadly, each handpicked. He unpacked them slowly.

A submachine gun. A short-barreled assault rifle. The heft of each weapon told him everything he needed to know— balance, recoil, stopping power.

Then, the sniper rifle—sleek, deadly, and silent. He lifted it to his eye and peered through the scope. The crosshairs were crystal clear, ready for precision.

Perfect for the coming war.

But the real smile came when he picked up the twin pistols.

.40 caliber. Custom-machined. Extended mags, fast draw, clean trigger pull. Beautiful, brutal things. He checked the slides, loaded the mags, and strapped them into his side holsters with a smirk that lasted longer than he meant it to.

Back to the gear, a grappling hook, slightly janky compared to Bruce's elegant tech, but functional enough. Explosive gel and remote detonators. Into the belt they went.

Then, his melee options.

A dagger, forged during his time with the League of Assassins. New and ready to be blood-stained, with the hilt wrapped in custom leather. That went to his thigh.

Next, the sword. Longer, with red-and-black accents on the hilt, sharp enough to split bone. He strapped it to his back. A memento of his time in the League and his training under Ra's al Ghul.

Finally, the crowbar.

Brutal. Raw. Covered in minor modifications, pikes, weight adjustments but still the same weapon that once nearly killed him.

A relic of the Joker. A reminder of pain. And power.

He positioned it alongside his sword—two scars, two stories.

Then he turned to the mannequin by the wall.

The helmet waited. Glossy red, armored, and sculpted into a smooth, emotionless shape. The lenses—blank white at first, blinked to red as they activated, then to black. Thermal, night vision, tracking overlays.

With the helmet on, he was no longer Jason.

He was Red Hood.

And tonight?

Tonight was the beginning of the most bloody chess game Gotham would ever see.

Time to hunt.

- - -

He stood alone atop a derelict rooftop, the crumbling edge of the building beneath his boots dusted with soot and broken gravel.

Gotham stretched out before him in cold silence, its jagged skyline lit only by the flickering lights of streetlamps and the faint glow of neon signs in the distance.

A low fog crawled across the city's bones like a living thing, wrapping alleyways and rooftops in its pale embrace. The air was damp, thick with the scent of rain-soaked concrete and something faintly metallic—old blood, maybe, or the city's ever-churning rot.

In his gloved hand, he held his helmet, its sleek, crimson shell reflecting the dim city light in faint glimmers.

He stared down at his target below—the Bertinelli compound. Guard posts, tight security, a perimeter laced with men holding rifles they didn't fully know how to use.

Their confidence was false, born from decades of power and complacency. Jason knew better. He'd been watching them for weeks.

He exhaled slowly through his nose, his breath visible in the night air. Then, with practiced ease, he raised the helmet to his head. The shell slid over his face with a soft hiss of seal and steel, locking in place with an almost comforting click.

A strange sensation washed over him.
"What is this… feeling?" he muttered under his breath, voice barely more than a ghost in the wind. The words drifted off into the silence, unheard by anyone but himself—and maybe the city, if it ever cared to listen.

It wasn't adrenaline. It wasn't the thrill of the hunt. No. This was something else.
He stood motionless, still as a statue, as the realization crept in.

The moment the helmet clicked into place, something shifted inside him.
The tension he constantly carried in his shoulders—the tight coil of restraint, of pressure to hold back thirst for blood—loosened. His chest felt lighter, his breath came easier.

The buzzing static of internal chaos faded into something quieter, more focused.
Relief.

Not just mental, but physical, visceral. Like stepping out of a cage he didn't know he was locked in.

He was free.

Free from the weight of pretending to be fine. Free from the tug-of-war between the monster inside him and the man who still clung to the idea of morality.

With the helmet on, he didn't have to be conflicted. He could just act. Just move. Just punish.

But that freedom? That scared the shit out of him.

He wasn't stupid. He knew what it meant to feel peace in the midst of violence. He knew what it meant to crave the clarity that came with embracing the bloodlust, instead of bottling it up.

But fear never made him hesitate. He wasn't some coward running from the dark corners of his own mind.

No. He was going to see this through.
He straightened up, adjusting his stance as the final pieces of his plan fell into place. His crimson helmet reflected the city back at itself—distorted, warped, dripping with its own sins.

His grip tightened at his sides. The Bertinellis would feel him tonight, not as a whisper in the dark, but as a red storm crashing through their gates.

These weren't second thoughts. He didn't hesitate. His conviction had never wavered.

Cold feet weren't part of the plan.

Not tonight.

And certainly not ever.

- - -

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[Maverick_DaSupreme]

Jason had planned this down to the last, intimate detail, every move, every bullet, every scream and drop of blood that would soak into Gotham's underworld tonight like ink into a dying page.

The Bertinellis were his first stroke of violence, an opening act of terror. Weakened from within by bitter infighting and picked apart at the edges by the encroaching Falcone family, they were ripe. Vulnerable. Sloppy.

They wouldn't see him coming, and by the time they did, they'd be choking on their own blood, praying to gods that had long since abandoned Gotham.

He'd spent weeks preparing for this moment. Every lead, every supply run, every whisper on the street folded neatly into the plan. The arms store robbery had been clean, surgical, silent. No alarms, no witnesses, no evidence left behind. Just another ghost in a city that bred them.

Now, the weight of the .40 calibers on his thighs was reassuring, almost comforting.

The metal was cold, familiar. These weapons weren't just tools. they were extensions of himself, mechanical fangs forged for one purpose, to punish.

Grenades, explosives, steel wire coiled like a serpent inside his pack, each item with a job, each one picked with purpose.

The League of Assassins had drilled the concept into him, ruthlessness wasn't about emotion. It was about efficiency. Clean. Precise. Unapologetic. And tonight, he intended to honor that philosophy with fire and lead.

Midnight blanketed the city in a thin fog, and the Bertinelli stronghold loomed like a decaying monument to false wealth. A gaudy penthouse rotting atop a failed luxury development.

Jason moved like smoke, scaling the rusted fire escape with the ease of someone who'd done this a hundred times in worse weather.

His boots made no sound on the metal grates as he climbed higher, every muscle fluid and focused.

The first sentry never stood a chance.

A gloved hand wrapped around the man's mouth mid-yawn, jerking him back into the shadows.

The combat knife slid in under his ribcage, slicing through muscle and lung with a wet, grating sound. The man jerked violently, blood soaking through his shirt in thick, hot pulses.

Jason held him there, chest to back, until the body went limp. He let the corpse ease down gently, like lowering a heavy coat onto the ground.

The second guard stood by the rooftop door, a cigarette glowing in the dark like a tiny beacon of stupidity. Jason didn't bother with stealth this time.

One suppressed round.

The bullet punched through the man's temple, his skull bursting like a cracked egg against the brick. The cigarette slipped from his fingers and landed in a puddle of blood, sizzling faintly as the ember drowned.

Inside, it was even worse.

The Bertinelli enforcers lounged like they owned the world, boozing, betting, laughing over cards. The air inside stank of cheap liquor, body odor, and cigar smoke.

The furniture was worn, the wallpaper peeling, a mockery of sophistication now reduced to mold-stained corners and flickering lights.

They didn't notice the red-helmeted figure slip into the room, the soft clunk of metal boots muffled by the hum of their laughter.

Until the first grenade hit the floor.

"Fire in the hole," Jason muttered, voice low and casual, like he was announcing dinner.

The explosion tore through the room with a sound that cracked the walls and shattered the past.

A brutal symphony of flame and fragmentation. One enforcer was obliterated, just meat and heat and screaming remnants. Another staggered back, clutching the jagged edge of metal buried in his throat, blood pouring from his mouth as his legs buckled beneath him.

Then came the gunfire.

Jason was in motion before the smoke even cleared. His Twin Pistols roared with each pull of the trigger, muzzle flashes painting his armor in flickers of gold and red.

A bullet caught one thug mid-sentence, tearing his jaw clean off, teeth and gore spraying across the table in a pink mist.

Another shot struck home just above the brow, the man's head snapping back as the exit wound painted the wall behind him in a grotesque mural.

One tried to run. Didn't make it.

The last with any fight in him charged with a switchblade and a death wish. Jason sidestepped, fluid and fast, grabbing the man's wrist mid-swing. Bone cracked with a sickening crunch as Jason twisted.

The scream that followed was cut off when he drove the knife into the man's throat, steel sawing through cartilage and windpipe. He twisted the blade, then ripped it free. A geyser of blood sprayed across the wall like graffiti.

Silence fell.

Only one man remained, trembling behind an overturned table, curled in on himself like a rat in a trap. The bookkeeper.

Round face pale, eyes wide, his pants dark with piss. He looked up and found only the smooth, blank gaze of the red helmet staring back.

Jason reached over the table, grabbed the man by the collar, and hauled him to his feet.

"You live," he said, voice cold and guttural through the modulator. "You go to Sofia Falcone. You tell her the Red Hood owns this turf now. If she steps one toe across the line, she burns with the rest."

He shoved the man forward.

The bookkeeper stumbled over a corpse, nearly face-planting in a pool of blood, but kept going, slipping and scrambling, his panicked sobs echoing off the corridor walls until they disappeared into the night.

Jason stood amidst the carnage—shell casings littering the floor, smoke hanging in the air like a curtain, blood creeping across cracked tiles. He exhaled slowly, the sound barely audible beneath the soft hiss of his helmet's filters.

With smooth, practiced hands, he reloaded his pistols, each click and snap deliberate, methodical.

Phase one was done.

A message had been sent.

Gotham would learn.
And Gotham would fear the Red Hood.

- - -

The night air still hung heavy with the scent of smoke, gunpowder, and something else—something older, like rot buried under concrete, unearthed too suddenly. The silence that followed wrapped around the streets like a thick, suffocating oil slick, too dense to cut through.

Gotham didn't just fall quiet—it recoiled, as though the city itself was trying to forget what had just taken place. Word always traveled fast in Gotham, but this... this wasn't just another hit or turf war.

This was a statement. And the first poor soul burdened with carrying it was the Bertinelli bookkeeper—one of the few who staggered out of that slaughterhouse alive. Not spared by luck. Not by mercy. But by deliberate choice.

He reached the safehouse hours later, looking less like a man and more like a shell wearing human skin. His steps were jagged, mechanical, like each movement had to be forced through a wall of invisible resistance.

The blood on his clothes wasn't his, but the weight of it pressed down like guilt made tangible. He stank of death and panic, and when he opened his mouth to speak, his voice was paper-thin, brittle from too many screams swallowed whole.

"Red Hood," he said, more to the air than to Arturo, who sat across the table. "Red mask. There wasn't a warning—just shots. Screams. Bones. Blood everywhere. It—he didn't stop. Not once."

His hands trembled uncontrollably. The empty space between his fingers seemed to shake more than the flesh itself, as if even the air refused to stay still around him, almost shivering. Arturo said nothing.

The acting head of the fractured Bertinelli operation sat stiff-backed in a leather chair, arms crossed over a pressed shirt rolled at the sleeves.

His face was clean-shaven, square-jawed and prematurely weathered. He was young for the role he carried, but his eyes, had already buried more men than his age would suggest.

When the man finished his recount, Arturo didn't speak. Not immediately. He looked past the bookkeeper for a beat, his eyes hard and calculating. Then, without a word, he reached for the phone resting beside a spread of photos and tactical maps.

He dialed.

Miles away, beneath the dimmed glow of antique sconces and behind walls that had heard more secrets than prayers, Sofia Falcone sat at the far end of a long, polished oak table.

She held a porcelain espresso cup delicately between two fingers, her knuckles rough and calloused despite the manicured control in her movements.

Her presence filled the room before her voice ever did. Even seated, she radiated dominance—the type not taught, but bred.

The heavy velvet curtains behind her held back the city's cold light, casting the room in hues of amber and shadows. Somewhere in the background, a vinyl record played a low, melancholy jazz tune, something her father used to spin.

She answered the call.

"Arturo," she greeted flatly, no warmth, just recognition.

He spoke. Slowly, methodically, walking her through every detail, his voice low, but tense.

As he spoke, her expression didn't change, not at first. But her eyes… those eyes narrowed like a blade being drawn, their amber flecks flickering under the glow of the sconces. Not with surprise, but something deeper. Intrigue. Irritation. Thought.

When he was done, silence stretched across the line like a wire pulled taut.

Sofia set her espresso cup down with calm precision, the tiny click of porcelain against wood echoing like a punctuation mark. She leaned back slightly, resting her thick forearms on the carved arms of the chair.

"So…" she said at last, her voice smoky and low, like gravel soaked in whiskey. "This Red Hood decided to play butcher."

She reached across the table and retrieved a cigarette case, flipping it open with one thumb. The silver glinted, etched with the Falcone family crest—an heirloom of brutal legacy.

She lit the cigarette with a flick of her father's old lighter, its flame dancing briefly in the dimness before dying into a spiral of rising smoke.

"And he left the bookkeeper alive," she continued, exhaling through her nose like a dragon choosing not to incinerate. "How considerate."

The room shifted. Subtle, but palpable.

Two of her lieutenants, seated nearby in the low chairs, exchanged a glance—silent but bristling. One tapped the edge of his phone nervously against his leg. The other froze mid-scroll. No one dared to interject.

"You say they didn't stand a chance?" she murmured, though she already knew the answer. "Of course they didn't. Those men were on my orders. It was a hand-off. Peaceful. Bertinelli turf, but I let them hold their corner—out of respect."

She drew on her cigarette again, eyes never leaving the swirling smoke. Ash fell into a cut crystal tray like snowflakes landing on marble.

"And this masked dog storms in, guns down six of our people—our people, like they were nothing. Then leaves one breathing just long enough to whisper the tale into your ears."

Her tone never rose. That was the terrifying part. She didn't need to shout. Her anger was the kind that didn't burn—it crushed.

Sofia rose slowly from her chair. Every movement deliberate, echoing the silence of the estate. She was tall, built broad across the shoulders, shaped by years of training and war disguised as business. The kind of woman whose strength didn't have to be visible to be felt.

She walked to the nearest window, pulling back the curtain just enough to glimpse Gotham's twisted beauty in the distance. The city flickered in the night like a fire that refused to die, all glitter and menace.

"I doubt someone like that makes accidents," she said, almost thoughtfully. "He didn't spare that man for mercy. He left him alive so we'd know. So I'd know."

On the speakerphone, Arturo's voice buzzed in again, quieter now. "Currently, his whereabouts are unknown. Say the word and we would scatter across the city in search of this guy."

Sofia stood in stillness for a moment longer, then turned and crushed the cigarette into the tray.

"No," she said softly, but the finality in her tone sliced through the room in stillness.

Arturo hesitated. Even her lieutenants looked up, eyes narrowed in disbelief.

"We don't react," she said, walking slowly back to her seat. "Not like amateurs. That's exactly what he's baiting. Fury. Recklessness. And we don't give that. Not to ghosts with guns."

She picked up the receiver this time, resting her elbow on the table. Her tone shifted, colder, clearer, every word honed like steel against whetstone.

"I want eyes. Everywhere he's been in the last six months. Every port. Every contact. Every shithole bar that might remember his name. I want patterns. I want pressure points. Find out why he's targeting us now—what made him believe the Falcones were open for business."

She paused, then added with lethal softness: "And Arturo… keep the bookkeeper alive. I want him breathing, blinking, and surrounded. Document everything. Red Hood left him for a reason, and I want to know if he's just the messenger—or the fuse."

She hung up before he could respond.

The room stood frozen in her wake, the record having spun to silence, letting the soft, living hum of the city fill the space between breaths. One of her lieutenants finally dared to speak.

"You think it's personal?" he asked, voice pitched low, almost a whisper.

Sofia turned her gaze toward him. She didn't smile, but the ghost of one touched her lips—tight, humorless, and dangerous.

"In this city?" she murmured, her stare lingering in the shadows along the wall. "Everything's personal."

Then, without fanfare, she poured herself another espresso, steady as a heartbeat.

The massacre hadn't just taken lives—it had drawn a battle line across Gotham's underworld. And soon, Red Hood would learn that crossing the Falcones wasn't a challenge.

It was an invitation for his own demise.

 

[Maverick_DaSupreme]

The morning news had a grim story to tell.

It carried footage and headlines of what reporters were already calling the most grotesque and fearsome massacre Gotham City had seen in recent years.

The images were blurred, but the horror bled through—flashing red and blue lights, a tarp-covered street soaked in dark crimson, and shaken bystanders held back by trembling yellow tape.

Panic echoed through the city as the broadcast ran on repeat. For Gotham, a place that had seen monsters, masks, and maniacs, this was saying something.

Commissioner James Gordon, visibly tired and grim-faced, stood in front of flashing cameras but gave little to work with. He kept his answers short and clipped.

"The GCPD is currently investigating," he said, voice level despite the shadows under his eyes. "No suspects at this time. The identities of those responsible remain unknown."

He didn't say much more than that.

The official line blamed gang violence—likely a rival faction taking out a branch of the notorious Bertinelli crime family.

But those who knew Gotham well could feel something different hanging in the air, something colder. Whatever happened that night, it hadn't been business as usual.

Later that evening, long after the sun dipped behind the silhouette of crumbling buildings and flickering neon, the Bat-Signal stretched across the night sky like a silent call to war.

It boldy hung there, sharp-edged—glowing against the fog that rolled over the city rooftops like smoke from a dying fire.

James Gordon stood alone on the GCPD rooftop, shoulders hunched inside his brown trench coat. The night was cool, wind rustling the hem of his coat as he lit a cigarette.

The red glow of its tip pulsed faintly in the dark, a tiny flame struggling against the vast shadows that blanketed Gotham.

He was halfway through his first drag when a voice came from behind him.

"Commissioner."

"Jesus Christ!" Gordon flinched hard, his cigarette falling from between his fingers and bouncing once on the damp rooftop before dying out. His hand went instinctively to his chest, his heart pounding.

"Can't you make your entrance like a normal person?" he muttered, slowly turning to face the darkness behind him.

Two white, pupil-less eyes stared back from the shadows, emotionless and still.

"Been doing this for years, and I'm still not used to you sneaking up on me," Gordon added, trying to catch his breath. "At this rate, a heart attack's damn near inevitable."

Batman stepped forward, the rustle of his cape barely audible as he approached the rooftop edge.

"Stop smoking those," he said with that same gravel-thick voice. "You might live longer than you think."

"These?" Gordon reached into his coat pocket and pulled out another cigarette from a worn pack, sliding it between his lips.

His hands were steadier now, but the lines on his face betrayed the fatigue. With a flick of a lighter from his slacks, he lit it again and exhaled a long, curling stream of smoke that danced upward and vanished into the night.

"They help keep me sane," he said. "Otherwise, this city would've cracked me wide open years ago."

Neither man spoke for a moment. They stood side by side at the rooftop's edge, overlooking Gotham's skyline.

The city stretched beneath them—steel towers and brick tenements, blinking signs and moving headlights, a sprawling machine that never truly slept. From this height, the city almost looked beautiful. Almost.

"So," Batman began, his voice low and steady, "what do we have on the case?"

He didn't mention that he had already accessed police servers or reviewed early reports. There was no need. Gordon didn't ask either.

"Got lucky this morning," Gordon said, smoke curling from his mouth as he spoke. "We picked up a witness. The guy was caught on a street-facing ATM camera just outside the area. Covered in blood, terrified out of his mind. Looked like he was running for his life."

Batman's eyes narrowed behind the mask.

"The camera picked up a decent frame of him sprinting, probably towards his car," Gordon continued. "Ran facial recognition, identified him fast. Picked him up a few hours later stepping out of some sleazy bar on the East End. Still drunk. Looked like he was trying to drown whatever memory was eating him alive."

Batman processed that. Odd—it wasn't in the case files he'd accessed earlier. That meant the data hadn't been digitized yet. A raw lead, unlogged. Probably too fresh to show up on any system he had tapped into. He made a mental note.

"Did you get anything out of him?" Batman asked, the wind pulling at his cape.

"Took some doing. The guy was loyal to the Bertinellis—wasn't exactly eager to talk," Gordon explained. "But after we threatened to charge him as an insider, make him the fall guy for the whole bloodbath, he cracked. Gave us two things."

Batman said nothing, his silence inviting Gordon to continue.

"First—he claims it wasn't a gang. Not a group. Not a crew. Just… one guy."

Batman's brow furrowed. It didn't explain the surgical precision of the attack, but it was still hard to believe.

The crime scene had suggested multiple attackers—gunfire from different angles, blade wounds too swift and precise to be random. But if it truly was one person…

"Are you saying a single individual was responsible?" he asked, his voice even, but skeptical.

"Yeah. Hard to believe, I know," Gordon said. "But hey—it's Gotham. We've seen worse."

Batman didn't argue the point. He'd once fought a man who wore human skin as a mask. Anything was possible.

"And the second thing?" he asked.

Gordon took a final puff from his cigarette, exhaled, and let the ember die between his fingers. He flicked it to the ground and crushed it beneath the heel of his boot before speaking.

"He gave us a name," he said, watching Batman out of the corner of his eye.

Batman turned slightly, his expression unreadable.

"Red Hood."

A long silence followed.

"Never heard of him," Batman finally said.

"Neither have we. No records, no priors, not even an alias we've seen before. Guy's a ghost. Just a red helmet. That's all we have."

Batman's jaw tightened slightly beneath the mask. "Red Hood…"

"Could be a new player," Gordon offered. "Or just another mercenary passing through."

"You really don't know who he is?"

"Not a clue," Batman answered, though the name stirred something vague—an old rumor, maybe, but nothing concrete.

"Then this next part might surprise you."

Batman didn't respond. He doubted anything Gordon said could truly shock him. But he waited.

"The witness described something else. Said this guy—Red Hood—had a red bat symbol across his chest."

Batman turned fully now, eyes narrowing behind the mask.

"What?"

The word came out quietly, more to himself than Gordon. He didn't show any outward emotion, but inside, gears were turning. That wasn't something he could ignore.

"That's why I kept this off-record," Gordon said. "Didn't want it spreading through the precinct. You know how rumors go. Some of the boys were already whispering that maybe… maybe you'd finally had enough. Snapped. Went rogue."

Batman said nothing, his eyes fixed on the horizon.

"But then we got confirmation you were at the eastern docks busting the Triads that same night. That helped. Shut the rumors down before they spread any further."

"I'll look into it," Batman said, voice low.

"Please do," Gordon replied. "And I'll keep you posted on anything else we find."

Another silence passed.

When Gordon turned to his right again, Batman was gone. No rustle, no movement—just the empty rooftop and the sigh of the wind.

Gordon shook his head with a tired smile. "I hate it when he does that," he muttered.

And once again, the night swallowed Gotham whole.

- - -

Back at his apartment, Jason stood in front of a cluttered investigation board, the faint hum of the city outside barely penetrating the thick glass of the window behind him. With a red marker in hand, he leaned in and drew a confident line through a name on the list—The Bertinellis.

It was a clean job. No wounds, no heat, no trace. The message was sent loud and clear, not even the most powerful and well-connected crime families were safe. They bled just like everyone else—and Jason had just proven it.

He stepped back, eyeing the rest of the board as if it were a chessboard. One move down. Now it was time to make the second.

Later that night, Jason positioned himself on top of a crane looming over Gotham's industrial docks. The breeze was cold at this height, laced with the scent of oil, salt, and the faint stink of urban decay.

From his elevated perch, the distant lights of the city blinked like scattered embers in the gloom, casting long shadows that danced along the crates and cargo below.

He crouched low, the steel beam beneath him groaning quietly with each subtle shift of his weight. Eyes sharp, breath calm, he peered through his binoculars and surveyed the scene below like a hawk.

The Maronis.

They were next.

Once, under Sal Maroni, they were real contenders. Sal was brutal, intelligent, and ruthless—a man who could hold his own against the Falcones.

But after his death, the family had slipped. The current boss, Luigi "Big Lou" Maroni, was nothing like Sal. He was all puffed-up swagger and desperation, clawing at relevance in a world that had outgrown him.

Newer factions—meaner, hungrier, and more chaotic, were pushing in from every corner.

Tonight, the Maronis were moving a shipment—drugs, disguised as legitimate cargo. A boat was expected to arrive at the docks, where the goods would be quietly transferred into trucks and driven off to safehouses.

From above, Jason could already see the foot soldiers, armed and dressed like thugs with a bit of class, probably lower level thugs of the Maroni family.

They weredress in leather jackets, turtlenecks, button-downs with rolled sleeves, or polo shirts, paired with slacks or jeans. Most wore their fit over body armor, with gold chains, and enough firepower to start a street war.

They were alert, scattered in loose formations across the docks, each man with his weapon either slung over his shoulder or resting in hand. Their postures said they were ready. Too ready.

They weren't worried about the cops either. Jason could tell. Their confidence reeked of dirty money. Probably had half the GCPD in their pockets. Even with Gordon at the helm, there were still more corrupt badges than honest ones in this city.

Most didn't care about justice—only the steady flow of cash. For some, their greed was a pit that couldn't be filled.

Jason made a mental note. Some of those corrupt cops might need pruning. Then again, maybe not. Tools are still tools if you know how to use them.

His thoughts were interrupted by a low hum. There it was, a small boat slipping in through the fog-covered waters. Jason followed it through his binoculars, watching as it bumped gently against the dock and a group of men quickly moved in to begin offloading crates.

They were marked as produce—vegetables, food supplies. Clever misdirection.

One of the men pried open a crate with a small knife, rummaging inside before retrieving a small bag. He dipped a pinky in, rubbed the powder under his nose, and inhaled sharply.

A twitch of pleasure flared across his face. He turned and gave the others a thumbs-up, a thin line of white dust coating his upper lip. He wiped it off with the back of his sleeve, grinning like a fool.

Jason rolled his eyes. Sloppy.

Time to begin.

"That's my cue," he muttered, slipping his binoculars away.

He pulled a black balaclava over his head, sealing his identity in shadow. The cool fabric clung to his jaw, his breath warming the interior.

A combat knife was strapped tight against his thigh. He flexed his fingers once before aiming his grapple gun and firing.

The line zipped, and within seconds, he landed silently atop a metal container.

Then the hunt began.

Moving like a phantom, Jason dropped into the shadows. Every movement was calculated—soft steps, controlled breathing. He weaved between steel beams, ducked behind stacked crates, and skirted the edge of flickering security lights.

He crouched beneath the first truck, pressing a small brick of C4 beneath the chassis. Then another inside a crate. Another just beneath the engine.

He repeated the process with precision, crawling under axles, hiding between tires, lying flat on roofs of trucks to avoid detection. Their eyes were sharp, sure—but they weren't trained for him. Not for this.

Once the charges were set, he stepped out into the open, quiet but deliberate.

"Boys," he called out, voice calm but loud enough to draw attention. "Didn't your mothers ever tell you not to do drugs? Gets you addicted. Worse—it gets you killed."

Weapons were drawn in an instant, the sound of safeties clicking off echoing through the night.

"Whoa, whoa. Easy now," he said, raising his hands, the faint smirk in his tone impossible to ignore. "We're just having a conversation. No need to jump to violence."

One of the men, a twitchy one with a tribal tattoo crawling up his neck, stepped forward. "Take off the mask. Hand over the sword."

Jason tilted his head. "What? So you can recognize me when I pay you a visit in the hospital later?"

"Boss, this guy's stalling," another growled, turning to the boss dressed in a grey suit with polished leather shoes.

"Kill this fucker and feed him to the fishes," the boss barked. A thug slipped behind Jason, pressing the cold muzzle of a pistol against the back of his skull—ready to pull the trigger.

He's been caught and could have his brains blown out in the next second.

- - -

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[Maverick_DaSupreme]

Jason exhaled slowly.

"Wait. Wait, wait," he said, voice trembling with false fear. "Just kidding."

He moved like a speedster. A twist. A wrench.

A sickening crack.

"AHHHHH!" The thug screamed as his elbow snapped in two.

"Jesus fucking Christ!" he wailed, staggering back.

"Shoot him!" the boss roared.

Gunfire erupted, loud and chaotic. Jason pulled the injured thug in front of him, bullets thudding into the man's body like a drumbeat.

Jason raised the stolen pistol and fired—two shots, two kills. Both headshots. One more to the knee of a third thug, dropping him instantly.

The rest scrambled, ducking for cover.

Before the wounded man in Jason's arms went limp, Jason leaned close and whispered, "You can't call out to Christ right now. The only man here handing out judgment… is me."

The thug's eyes widened before he slumped forward, blood pooling at Jason's boots.

The others regrouped and fanned out, circling the area. They thought they were hunters. Little did they realize they were being hunted instead..

Jason pulled a small device from his belt and pressed a button. Sparks exploded. Lights popped and fizzled out one after another until the entire section of the docks was plunged into a suffocating darkness.

"Find him. Kill him," the leader snarled, furious and scared.

Jason melted into the shadows, his breath even, body low.

He crept up behind one thug crouching beside a truck, peering into the void.

"Boo," Jason whispered beside the man's ear.

The thug screamed and accidently fired—right into his own foot.

"A+ for effort," Jason murmured before disappearing again, a wraith in the darkness.

A second scream also came from a different position, but without the sound of gun fire.

The scream pulled attention.

The first location was checked by three men, while the other four rushed over, flashlights from phones flicking on. In the brief moments of brightness, they found their boss—tied to a crate, bleeding from the thigh with a sock jammed deep into his mouth, his eyes wild and panicked.

"Boss!"

They raced to him, fumbling with the knots.

Then they heard it.

Click. Zip.

Jason's voice drifted in from the darkness. "That's all, boys. Enjoy the rest of your evening."

Panicked, they fired wildly toward the sound, bullets ricocheting off metal and cutting into empty air.

A groan echoed. "Did we get him?" someone asked, voice shaking.

A pause. Then—

"You wish."

Jason was on top of a container now, silhouetted by distant lights. Calm. Smirking beneath his mask.

"Oh, one last thing boys… The Falcones say hi."

The eyes of their boss widened upon hearing that statement.

"There he is!" a thug shouted, raising his weapon.

"Oops," Jason said, pressing a button on his detonator before tossing it near the trucks.

BOOM.

Explosions ripped through the docks. Trucks erupted into fireballs. Crates were sent flying like matchsticks. The shockwave sent men tumbling—one flew into the river with a splash. Others weren't so lucky.

- - -

The docks still smoldered beneath the velvet night sky, smoke bleeding into the clouds above Gotham's south pier.

The air at the Maroni docks still carried the bite of burnt rubber and diesel, thick and clinging to the lungs like a warning that hadn't finished echoing.

Steel twisted and groaned beneath the weight of the destruction left behind—three trucks, nothing but charred, skeletal remains of what once held over two million dollars' worth of narcotics, destroyed by an explosion that shook the nearby water like a detonation from a war movie.

Flames had licked the sides until the paint bubbled and peeled away like dead skin. The fourth rig had exploded outright, its twisted axle embedded halfway into a shipping container twenty feet off, now blackened and stinking of scorched chemicals.

And in the middle of it all stood Donnie Trillo, a former street rat turned dock supervisor, shaking like a man who'd seen the devil crawl out of the shadows and speak his name.

He did his best not to vomit as he lit another cigarette with bloodied fingers, hands that still trembled despite the warmth of the flame as blood ran down his leg.

His right knee buckled from the shrapnel bite, the makeshift tourniquet wrapped too tight. But he didn't care. Not about the pain. Not about the smell. All he could hear was that voice echoing in his skull.

'The Falcones say, hi.'

Cold. Unhurried. Like it didn't matter that men had died screaming just seconds before.


- - -

[Moments Later]

Across the river, Jason stood at the edge of a derelict rooftop overlooking the destruction, steam and smoke rising beneath him like the aftermath of a ritual cleansing. His balaclava still clung to his face, damp from sweat, his breath calm despite the chaos.

He watched as emergency crews began arriving in waves, floodlights cutting through the mist like artificial sunlight.

In his hand, he held the Maroni thug's pistol—emptied, wiped clean, and about to be dropped into the harbor.

"Let them tear each other apart," he muttered to himself.

The war to crumble and rebuild a faction of Gotham's underbelly had begun. And no one even knew who struck the first match.

With a flick of his wrist, the pistol vanished into the bay.

Then—movement.

A sudden whistle of air sliced through the quiet.

Instinct kicked in.

Jason spun with acute precision, his hand already drawing the combat knife strapped to his thigh. Metal shrieked against metal as the blade of a sword met the edge of his knife. Sparks flared and danced in the air like fireflies before fading into the night.

His opponent stepped back—young, masked, and clearly pissed. The kid's stance tightened as he switched his footing, the katana gleaming in the low light. With a sharp inhale, the boy lunged again, sword flashing with intent to draw blood.

Jason met the attack head-on, deflecting with a twist of his blade. The impact rang out like a bell between them.

"Oh. It's just the brat," Jason muttered under his breath, a tinge of amusement curled in his voice. He didn't need to guess who was behind the mask.

Across from him, the younger combatant's cape-draped shoulders tensed. His brows creased beneath the shadow of his hooded domino mask, a flicker of frustration dancing in his emerald eyes.

'Who is this peasant?' Damian seethed inwardly. 'And how the hell is he blocking my attacks so efficiently—especially the first one? I came at his blind spot.' His grip adjusted on the sword handle, fingers flexing slightly as he drew in a slow breath and re-centered his stance.

Jason tilted his head slightly, his voice dry and nonchalant as he did his best to mask his voice. "Isn't it way past your bedtime?"

"Not even close," came Damian's sharp retort, just as he flicked several smoke pellets to the ground.

The rooftops filled with an expanding plume of thick grey haze. The smoke curled and twisted in the cold air like writhing shadows. Without hesitation, Robin shot forward through the cloud, blade aiming for the very spot Jason had stood a heartbeat ago.

Steel hit nothing but air.

"What the—?" Damian's eyes widened behind the mask.

From within the smoke, a hard fist slammed into the side of his face. The blow landed with a brutal thud that knocked him off his feet.

He hit the rooftop hard, his body skidding across the coarse gravel. A grunt escaped his lips as he rolled with the momentum and sprang back to his feet in one fluid motion, boots scraping against the rooftop edge. His jaw clenched. That one stung.

With a scowl etched onto his face, Damian spat to the side and glared at the figure through the haze. "Better give back those pants. They're way too big for you to fill," he snapped, his voice dripping venom. The insult struck deeper than it appeared—aimed directly at the legacy of the Robin title.

Jason simply stood there, unmoved, like a tiger waiting to pounce. "And what would you know?" Damian growled, already shifting his weight, preparing to attack again.

But before he could move, Jason was suddenly there—right in front of him.

It was like he had blinked through space, erasing the distance between them in a breath. The wind seemed to ripple behind him from the sheer force of his movement. Damian's heart skipped as he instinctively braced himself.

'Let's see what Daddy's been teaching you these past few years,' Jason thought with a smirk beneath his mask, his grip tightening on the handle of his knife.

He went in low, feinting toward Damian's throat with the blade.

The boy brought his sword up, attempting to parry the strike, but Jason vanished from his line of sight.

It was a bait.

In a split second, Jason pivoted on the ball of his foot, slipping around Damian's guard and moving into his blind spot. The movement was so fast, so fluid, it barely made a sound. Just a whisper of motion and Jason was behind him.

Damian's eyes widened. His instincts screamed, but he was already too late.

A sharp crack echoed through the smoke as Jason brought the hilt of his knife down against the back of Robin's head—clean, efficient, brutal.

Damian staggered forward, knees buckling. His sword slipped from his grip with a muted clatter as his body slumped.

The rooftop felt like it was tilting under him. His vision doubled, blurred edges bleeding into the darkness. The last thing he saw through his rapidly dimming eyes were the heavy, black boots standing in front of him.

"Nighty night, kid," Jason muttered.

And then everything went dark.

- - -

[Later That Night Inside Big Lou's Lounge
West Gotham, Maroni-Controlled Territory]

The music was low and sultry—Italian jazz swirling from a vintage jukebox. The lounge itself was a velvet-lined cathedral of power and decadence. Blood-red curtains hung heavy over shuttered windows, muffling the outside world.

Oil portraits of long-dead Maroni patriarchs stared down from gilded frames, their eyes hollow with judgment or pride—it was hard to tell.

Crystal ashtrays glittered on every table, half-full with ashes and cigar stubs, the scent of aged tobacco mixing with expensive cologne and the faint chemical tang of gun oil.

Lou "Big Lou" Maroni sat like a king grown tired of his crown—sagging into a black leather couch, his bulk spilling over the armrests, legs spread in ownership of the space.

He was a wall of man, thick-necked, jowled, and wrapped in a custom-tailored silk shirt that clung to a belly seasoned by decades of gravy, violence, and unapologetic survival.

A half-burned cigar smoldered between his fingers, forgotten for the moment. Beside him, draped like a shawl he'd won in a card game, lounged a woman half his age—cocaine sheen in her eyes, curves quite visible through a glittering dress, high on powder and proximity to power.

Across from him stood Donnie.

If Lou was the emperor, Donnie looked like the last man dragged out of a burning coliseum. His suit was torn and crusted with blood and soot, shirt clinging to his frame with dried sweat, and with a bloodied tourniquet fastened tightly against his bleeding thigh.

His face was pale under the grime, jaw clenched tight, throat hoarse from smoke and screaming. He looked like someone who had just come from war and had left pieces of himself behind.

Lou's gaze was slow and deliberate, like a crocodile sizing up something it might kill or ignore.

"Start talkin'," Lou muttered finally, his voice low and thick with smoke. The words slipped from his mouth like Donnie was currently on trial, coiling in the air as he exhaled. "And don't gimme no stuttering crap. You were there."

Donnie blinked hard, trying to steady himself. The air was too warm, too still.

"I swear, boss—we checked everything. The manifest, the gate logs, all of it. Shipment was clean. No red flags, no leaks. It was quiet. Then… he just walked in."

Lou's brow lifted ever so slightly, a twitch of disbelief.

"He? Who the hell is 'he'?"

Donnie licked his cracked lips, voice scraping out like gravel. "I don't know. Never saw a face. He wore a balaclava—plain black, no logos, no flair. Just… walked in with his hands up as he announced his presence, like he was giving up. Calm. Relaxed. Like he belonged there."

Lou didn't speak. His silence said more than shouting ever could.

Donnie pressed on, words tumbling faster, like getting them out might spare him.

"The boys thought he was some junkie, some idiot strung out and wandering in. One of 'em put a piece to the back of his head. No warning. No patience."

Lou's eyes narrowed, barely a shift, but Donnie felt it like a noose tightening.

"So what happened?"

Donnie hesitated. His jaw worked for a second before the words came out, quieter now.

"He moved… fast. I mean ghost fast. Before the trigger pulled, he twisted the guy's wrist, snapped his elbow—clean break. Didn't even pause. Took the pistol mid-motion and shot the next two in the face. Headshots. One shot each. No spray, no panic. Just... bang. Bang."

He exhaled, shaky, haunted.

"The rest of us scrambled. Took cover. Thought maybe he wasn't alone, maybe part of a hit squad, but he didn't follow. Didn't speak. We heard a gun shot, then a scream. Before I knew it, I was disarmed, stabbed in my thigh and tied up so fast that I felt completely overpowered by him."

Lou leaned forward now, the couch groaning under his weight. Smoke curled around the crystal chandelier above like lazy spirits dancing in the dark.

Donnie's voice dropped, as if recalling the moment too loudly might summon it again.

"He looked right at me through the mask. Just stood there—so still it was unnatural. Then he said, clear as day: "'The Falcones say hi.'"

Donnie swallowed, lips trembling.

"Then he tossed something into the rig. A flare, or… I don't know what it was. But it hit the floor, and the whole thing lit up. Fast. Loud. The explosion banged all over the docks in an instant. I don't even remember crawling out. Just smoke and screaming."

The silence that followed was heavier than the music. Lou's jaw worked, clenched tight, the cigar now a dead stub in his grip.

He wasn't looking at Donnie anymore. He was staring past him—into old war memories, into streets soaked in blood, into a Gotham that never forgot betrayal.

"He leave anything behind? Accent? Build? Eyes?"

Donnie shook his head. "Could've been anyone. Maybe military. Ex-cop. But not street muscle. Too clean. Too calm. Moved like he'd done this a hundred times and never lost sleep over it."

Lou rose slowly from the couch, each step creaking the hardwood beneath him like it knew the weight of death approaching. He walked with a heavy calm, the kind that made men uneasy even before they saw the gun.

"Falcone," he muttered, almost to himself. "This reeks of their old man's playbook. Ghost tactics. No trails. Burn everything and let the ash do the talking."

He paced now, dragging heat through the room with every step. His eyes flicked toward the oil portraits as if seeking counsel from the dead.

"They think the mask gives 'em cover? That Sofia's gonna run the table with her daddy's tricks and I'm just gonna sit here smokin' cigars like a widow?"

His voice rose like thunder from a storm long overdue.

He turned to his consigliere leaning by the bar, a quiet, suited man with dead eyes and a razor in his pocket.

"Get word to the boys in The Narrows. Tonight. No waiting. No fuckin' debates. I want Miller Street lit up. Heroin depot, stash house—torch all of it. I want ashes where their stash used to be."

The consigliere gave a silent nod and gulped down the last of his drink before heading out, almost immediately.

Lou turned back to Donnie, his eyes bloodshot and hard now, like the fire hadn't quite left him.

"And you," he said, pointing with the dead cigar, "you're gonna deliver the message to Sofia."

Donnie's face drained of what little color remained. "Me?"

"Yeah. You. You looked him in the eye, didn't you? Crawled outta that fire? That makes you the messenger."

He stepped in close—close enough for Donnie to smell the bourbon on his breath, to feel the gravity of a man with nothing left to prove.

"And you're gonna tell her this; next time we ain't sendin' a message. We're sendin' fuckin' bodies."

Lou didn't raise his voice. He didn't need to.

The first move had worked. Gotham's underworld was rattled—paranoid, bleeding, and scrambling to make sense of a ghost in a red helmet. Now this.

But Jason knew this was just the beginning. Kicking the hornet's nest was easy. Holding it down while it swarmed? That was the real test.

And maybe it was madness—thinking one man could start a war and keep it from burning the whole city down. But he was willing to try anyway.

Because for Jason, this wasn't just about chaos. It wasn't just about control.

It was about Black Mask. It was about him. The Joker.

All of this—every explosion, every bullet, every carefully delivered corpse—was just the opening act.

The crime lords were pawns. The syndicates? Stepping stones.

What Jason wanted was bigger than fear. Bigger than revenge.

He wanted Gotham rebuilt on his terms.

Because in his eyes, crime couldn't be stopped. But it could be strangled, reshaped—its roots torn up, its foundations shattered, and rebuilt in a way that could be managed.

And if he had to become the villain to do it?

So be it.

- - -

Author's Note:

Keep an eye on the development of Jason's speed and physical strength—those details aren't just for flair. I've been dropping breadcrumbs of foreshadowing throughout the previous chapters, and the payoff is coming soon. You'll see the full picture take shape before long.

 

[Maverick_DaSupreme]

"Robin. Wake up, Robin." The voice was distant, like it was coming from behind a wall of fog. Faint, muffled, but urgent. Damian tried to open his eyes, but they felt like they were made of lead.

His head pounded, a sharp, rhythmic throb that felt like someone was driving nails into his skull. The world swam in a dark haze around him.

"Robin, talk to me. Are you okay?" The voice grew clearer, more distinct now. Batman. He sounded close, strained—not with fear, but with that deep concern he always tried to hide behind that cold, gravel-drenched tone.

There was no response. Just a low groan from Damian as he struggled to stay conscious, his limbs heavy and uncooperative.

Seeing the boy was still breathing, just dazed and clearly concussed, Batman didn't waste a second. He moved quickly but carefully, scooping Robin up and hoisting him over his shoulder. The weight wasn't a problem. He'd carried heavier burdens. Much heavier.

With a snap and hiss, his grapple line fired, latching onto the ledge above. The rooftops blurred past as they descended from the building in a single swift motion.

A city alive with chaos stretched out below—flashing red and blue lights in the distance, the faint crack of gunfire, the soft echo of sirens wailing into the night.

"Stay with me," Batman muttered, not because he thought Damian could hear him, but because saying it helped keep his own emotions from spiraling.

Damian let out another groan, weak but alive, as he was lowered into the passenger side of the Batmobile. His head lolled against the headrest, breathing shallow and uneven.

Batman climbed in behind the wheel, the engine roaring to life as the Batmobile surged forward through the rain-slick streets.

Drops of water streaked across the windshield, catching flashes of city lights as they sped toward Wayne Manor.

Earlier that evening, the sonar feed had picked up gunfire and multiple heat signatures down at the docks. Explosions soon followed, rippling through the city's underbelly like tremors before an earthquake. It was too organized to be random. Too clean for a gang scuffle. Someone was making moves.

Batman had already been gearing up when the alert came through, but Robin had been on patrol in the area. So Bruce did what he always did—he sent him in to recon, to observe. And as always, he gave one simple instruction; 'Do not engage until I arrive.'

But Damian being—well, Damian—ignored the directive.

He engaged.

And now here he was, unconscious and bruised, his cape crumpled and his armor scuffed from the beating he'd taken at the hands of whoever had been down there.

Batman's jaw tightened as the Batmobile tore down the side road leading back to the cave. His mind raced—not with panic, but with the burn of frustration.

Not just at Damian, but at himself. He should've known the kid wouldn't wait. He was trained by the League, wired for action, and burdened by a pride that rivaled his own at that age.
Batman glanced at the boy beside him—eyes fluttering, breath steadying. Damian would recover.

- - -

Gasp.

Damian jolted awake with a sudden intake of breath, his body instinctively trying to push itself off the bed. But the moment his head lifted, a searing pain tore through his skull like a lightning bolt cleaving through stone.

He winced sharply and let out a guttural groan, one hand flying up to clutch his head as he collapsed back onto the mattress with a thud.

His eyes clenched shut against the pounding ache, the sensation like hot iron pressing into his temples. It took a moment for his breathing to steady, for his heart to calm.

When he finally dared to open his eyes, they darted around the familiar space. The soft, warm lighting of his bedroom at Wayne Manor filtered through the tall windows.

The scent of cedarwood furniture and faint traces of old books settled in the air—he was home.

Damian was back in his own bed, surrounded by the quiet elegance of the manor. Relief mixed with confusion as the reality set in.

"Good to see you've woken up, Master Damian," came a familiar voice from the doorway, calm and composed.

Damian turned his head slightly, just enough to spot Alfred standing there, ever the poised sentinel. The butler's gaze was observant, his hands clasped behind his back as though he had been waiting patiently for this very moment.

"Get some rest," Alfred added with gentle firmness. "I'll notify Master Bruce and bring you some hot herbal tea to help soothe your nerves. It should also assist with that headache."

Without waiting for an argument, Alfred pivoted and quietly stepped out of the room, the door clicking softly behind him.

"Thank you, Alfred," Damian murmured, voice barely audible, the words scraping out from between dry lips.

He moved slowly, groaning under his breath as he pushed himself up just enough to rest his back against the carved mahogany headboard. Every muscle felt sore, but his pride ached worse than his body.

The minutes passed in a quiet, steady lull. The ticking of the antique clock on the wall punctuated the silence, and the soft rustle of wind brushing the trees outside added a serene rhythm to the stillness. Then came the sound of approaching footsteps—heavy, measured.

The door creaked open again.

"Damian."

Bruce's voice broke through the quiet like a low thunder roll. He entered the room without pause, his eyes fixed on his son, the lines on his face sharper than usual. Concern was evident in the furrow of his brow, though it was sheathed beneath that familiar stoic exterior.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, his voice calm but tinged with tension.

"I'm fine," Damian responded almost too quickly. He attempted to swing his legs off the bed as if proving his point, but the sudden motion triggered a renewed burst of pain. He winced, his hand instinctively flying back to his head.

Bruce watched, unimpressed. "Your body says otherwise," he replied evenly. "Why don't you get some rest, and we can talk about what happened later."

"That bastard hit me on the head so hard it still feels like he tried to split my skull in half," Damian muttered, his tone edged with bitterness and lingering humiliation.

Bruce didn't walk away. Instead, he stepped closer, positioning himself at the side of the bed where he could observe his son more closely.

He saw past the front Damian was putting up—the clenched jaw, the simmering frustration behind his narrowed green eyes.

"You disobeyed orders," Bruce said at last, his voice hardening slightly. "I told you to observe. Not engage. You were supposed to wait for backup."

"I had him," Damian snapped, his pride flaring. "He didn't even know I was there. I was right behind him."

Bruce's expression tightened. "Then what happened?"

Damian's jaw clenched, his eyes narrowing as the memory surfaced, clear and vivid. "He blew up the Maronis' shipments. Took out their entire drug line with explosives. When I arrived at the scene and got to the source of the explosion, I spotted a very suspecious person at the rooftop.

I moved in to take him down quietly, from behind—so he wouldn't slip away. But just as I was about to incapacitate him… he blocked my blade. As if he had eyes in the back of his head."

Bruce's eyes darkened slightly. "What weapon did he use?"

"He carried a sword and a combat knife," Damian answered, shaking his head slightly. "But here's the thing—he never even drew the sword. Fought me with the knife alone. And still… I couldn't touch him."

His hands balled into fists, knuckles paling. There was a rare mix of emotions in his voice—frustration, confusion, and the sting of wounded pride.

Bruce exhaled slowly, processing the information with a calculating gaze. "How skilled was he?"

Damian hesitated. His pride resisted the truth, but he wasn't one to lie—especially not to Bruce.

"He was skilled. League-level skilled," he admitted at last, begrudgingly.

A long silence settled between them. Bruce's face remained unreadable, but behind the mask, his mind raced.

Someone with League-level training operating in Gotham without his knowledge? That was more than a red flag—it was a threat.

"What was his getup?" he finally asked.

Damian furrowed his brow, still recalling the encounter. "All-black tactical gear. Masked. Full balaclava. No visible skin. Moved with incredible speed."

Bruce's shoulders relaxed—slightly. "Then it wasn't him," he murmured, almost to himself, one hand stroking his jaw in thought.

"Him?" Damian asked, catching the strange tone. "You mean the one who wiped out that Bertinelli faction a few nights ago?"

"Yes," Bruce confirmed. "This doesn't match the description witnesses gave."

Damian's eyes narrowed. "So you think we've got another guy on our hands?"

"I don't know," Bruce said. His voice was quiet, the words weighted with uncertainty. "For now, focus on healing."

He placed a firm, brief hand on Damian's shoulder—a rare moment of physical reassurance—before turning and heading toward the door.

The moment the door shut behind Bruce, the room returned to silence. Damian stared at the ceiling, seething. His fists clenched once more, the ache in his head now rivaled by the storm brewing behind his eyes.

"Damn it," he muttered through gritted teeth. "I'll get you back for this. Whoever you are."

A soft knock came just as the words left his lips.

"Your tea, Master Damian."

Alfred returned, this time with a silver tray holding a porcelain cup filled with steaming herbal tea. The scent of lemongrass and something faintly minty wafted toward him, comforting and familiar.

Damian took a long breath, forcing himself to calm. His heart slowed, and he reached out carefully, accepting the cup with a nod.

"Thank you, Alfred," he said with quiet sincerity.

Alfred simply nodded back, offering a knowing look. Then, without a word, he turned and left the boy to his thoughts.

Damian took a sip, letting the warmth soothe his throat and nerves alike. The bitterness lingered on his tongue, but it steadied something in him.

- - -

Bruce descended into the Batcave, his footsteps echoing faintly off the concrete steps as he made his way toward the central console.

The cave around him buzzed with a low hum of dormant tech—monitors dimly glowing, machinery whirring softly in standby, the occasional chirp from the cave's many nocturnal residents hidden in the upper shadows.

This was his domain, the heart of his war, and tonight, it pulsed with a faint tension he couldn't shake.

He moved with his usual demeanor, the weight of unanswered questions sitting heavily on his shoulders. Gotham had known a rare sliver of peace lately—tenuous, fragile, but peace nonetheless.

Now it was unraveling again. And whoever these new players were, they weren't petty thugs.

"So, how's the little devil doing?" Came a voice from across the cave—light, teasing, unmistakably familiar.

Bruce glanced up as Dick Grayson approached, casually spinning the chair near the main terminal with one hand before easing into it backward, arms resting along the backrest as he leaned forward with an easy grin.

"He'll be fine," Bruce replied, his tone even, though the concern lingered beneath the surface. "Just a little out of it. I'm keeping him in bed for now—concussion's still a possibility."
Dick tilted his head, smirking.

"Damn. Here I was hoping the knock on the head might straighten out that razor tongue of his. Maybe knock some humility in." Bruce didn't dignify that with a verbal response. He merely gave Dick a sideways look—dry, sharp, and completely unreadable.

Dick held up his hands in surrender. "Kidding. Kidding. I'm glad he's alright," he added, more sincerely this time, pushing off the chair and walking around to stand beside Bruce.

"This bit of intel is what brought me to town," Dick said as he stepped forward and inserted a flash drive into the console on the Batcomputer.

Dick leaned in slightly and pulled a smoothie from the corner of the desk, sipping casually through a straw as he studied the screen.

A video began to play on the central screen, grainy and flickering under the dim glow of the cave.

It showed a figure sprinting across a rooftop under the cover of night. Bruce leaned in, paused the footage, and zoomed in. The image clarified just enough to reveal a man wearing a red helmet.

"I got this shot from a snitch," Dick explained. "He says this guy was the one who got the Bertinellis."

"The Red Hood," Bruce muttered, his voice low and focused.

"Might be," Dick nodded. "He bears a resemblance to the original." Bruce's fingers moved swiftly across the keyboard, pulling up additional data. A police report appeared on the screen showing a man in a red headpiece, handcuffed and under arrest.

Bold letters across the top of the report read;
Alias; The Red Hood.

"Several criminal groups have used this persona before," Bruce informed him, switching the feed to a montage of known offenders who had worn similar red masks throughout Gotham's history.

"One criminal in particular stands out," Dick noted, narrowing his eyes at the screen. "But he's currently locked up."

"Doesn't match his M.O. either," Bruce added. "There's been an uptick in weapons trafficking and black-market movement, but overall, crime's been down—until this guy staged that stunt with the Bertinellis. And now, someone's made a move on the Maronis."

"Someone's trying to upset the balance," Bruce said quietly.

With a few more keystrokes, he enlarged the image—highlighting a red headpiece and a figure in a tuxedo. A name scrolled across the screen in bold. Red Hood.

Dick's brow lifted. "Huh. Well, well. Joker—before he went all full-time psycho." He squinted at the image, the corner of his mouth twitching. Bruce gave a slow nod. "The witness reported a red helmet and referred to him by name. Red Hood."

Dick leaned against the desk, arms folded, watching the screen with growing intrigue. "Think someone's trying to revive the alias? Or maybe this guy has some kind of connection to the Joker?"

"I don't know yet," Bruce admitted, eyes scanning the report logs and incident files. "But it's a lead. And we follow leads." Dick took one last sip of his smoothie before tossing the empty cup into a nearby bin with casual precision. He folded his arms again, watching Bruce with a more serious gaze now.

"You think you're ready to face Joker again? After everything?"

It was a question layered with history. Too much history.

Bruce paused, just briefly, and the weight of the past flickered in his expression—Jason, blood, laughter, fire. Then he straightened, voice steady.
"That's why you're coming with me. To help keep me in check. Just in case."

Dick blinked, then let out a breath through his nose, nodding. "Guess we're due for a nostalgic, not-so-fun road trip to Arkham."

Bruce turned from the console, his focus now on the far side of the cave, where a sleek glass case held his suit—black and armored, gleaming under the blue-white light.

Dick watched for a moment, then pushed off the desk and headed toward the suit racks. His light humor was gone now, replaced by the professional calm of Nightwing. "I'll suit up."

- - -

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[Maverick_DaSupreme]

Late that night, long after the city had settled into its usual uneasy silence, Batman and Nightwing made their way to Arkham Asylum—a fortress of concrete, iron, and madness tucked away on the outskirts of Gotham like a scar the city never quite healed from.

The storm that had threatened earlier had passed, but the sky remained thick with clouds, casting everything in a pale, ghostly gray.

A single security escort guided them through the interior, past guarded checkpoints, retinal scans, and bolted steel doors until they reached a sanctioned visitation chamber built for high-risk containment.

Inside the room, the Joker waited.

He sat slouched in a reinforced steel chair bolted to the floor. He was shackled from the neck down, a ridiculous tangle of chains that clinked with every minor movement he made.

Thick iron restraints clamped his wrists and elbows tightly to his sides, a belt looped through a steel brace at his waist, and heavy chains bound his legs all the way down to his ankles.

Even if he wanted to move, he couldn't take more than a half-step at a time. The room reeked faintly of disinfectant, rust, and whatever twisted perfume insanity wore.

He looked up as they entered—Batman in black, looming like a statue carved from shadow, and Nightwing a few steps behind, sharp-eyed and tense.

"Well, would you look at this," Joker purred, lips curling into a grin that didn't quite touch his sunken eyes. "You boys finally decided to come visit. I was beginning to think I was old news."

Batman and Nightwing didn't take a seat. They remained standing, unmoving, their presence imposing and silent. The sheer sight of Joker again was enough to dredge up things Bruce had buried—memories locked in the darkest corners of his mind.

Pain that time hadn't healed, just... dulled. Five years of trying to bury the weight of it. Five years of trying to atone through relentless work, one criminal at a time.

"You look good. Been working out?" Joker broke the silence with a crooked smirk. "You could probably use a little sun. Then again, who am I to talk?" He cackled at his own joke—an irritating, high-pitched laugh that echoed against the walls and made Nightwing's fists clench at his sides.

Batman didn't take the bait. He reached into his utility belt and pulled out a small photo, tossing it onto the metal table between them.

"He's calling himself the Red Hood," Bruce said, voice low but sharp with barely controlled restraint. "What do you know?"

Joker leaned forward as far as the chains would let him, his cuffed hands rattling against the table. His expression shifted just slightly—not quite surprise, but recognition danced at the edge of his grin.

He picked up the photo with his chained fingers, turning it slightly. "Mmm. Tragic. So much leather. So little style. When I wore that number, it was classy. Elegant. More maître d', less... biker gang chic." He snorted. "Kids these days. No flair."

Nightwing's glare tightened, his voice coming in sharp. "If you're behind this in any way, we'll find out. And when we do—"

"Oh, bird-boy," Joker cut in, grinning wider. "You are so much less fun now. All grown up, walking tall in your big-boy pants. You used to smile. What happened to the pirouettes? The sass?"

He turned his gaze back to Batman and tilted his head slightly. "Still, better off than your last sidekick, huh?" His grin split wider. "What's tougher than losing the jokes? Being six feet under. Can't exactly laugh with a mouth full of worms."

That was it.

Batman snapped.

He moved in a flash, yanking Joker up off his chair with one arm and hurling him across the room like a ragdoll. The chains rattled furiously as Joker hit the far wall with a dull, solid thud, slamming against the reinforced door with enough force to shake the hinges.

Before he could fully slump, Batman was already on him—one hand wrapped tight around Joker's throat, lifting him off the ground.

Nightwing tensed, ready to intervene, but he held back, watching carefully. He knew Bruce. Knew how close he could get to that line without crossing it. Still, there was always that chance tonight might be… different.

Batman's grip tightened, his knuckles pale under the glove. His jaw was locked, teeth clenched. In that moment, he didn't see chains or padded walls—he saw Jason. Blood. Screams. Silence.

Joker gagged, gasping as his legs dangled a few inches off the floor. Yet somehow, he still smiled.

"Gonna do it this time?" he rasped, voice hoarse. "Or just put me in another body cast for six months?"

His eyes glinted, challenging. Daring him.

Batman growled under his breath, the tension in his arms reaching a breaking point. He saw red. But just before the edge, he pulled back.

With a grunt of frustration, he dropped Joker hard to the floor. The clown crumpled, coughing violently, wheezing through bruised ribs and a bruised ego. Still smiling.

"So disappointing," Joker whispered, voice thin.

Silence fell over the room as Bruce stepped back.

Joker rolled onto his side and let out a low chuckle. "Back to the matter at hand... this new hoodie. Do you really think I'd stir up that much trouble and not take credit for it? And not make sure you knew it was me?" He let out a long, mocking laugh, dragging it out until it became almost unbearable.

Batman said nothing.

He had heard enough.

Without another word, he turned and walked toward the door. Nightwing hesitated for a second, casting one final glance at the madman on the floor before following.

The laughter trailed behind them as the heavy door slid closed, muffling Joker's voice until it was gone, swallowed up by the asylum's thick walls.

The walk back to the Batmobile was quiet.

"Well," Nightwing finally said as they stepped out into the cold night air, "at least we can scratch Joker off the suspect list."

Batman didn't reply. He stood beside the vehicle for a moment, eyes staring straight ahead, fists clenched at his sides.

"Are you okay?" Dick asked, his voice softer now, less joking.

"I'm good," Bruce replied flatly.

He slid into the driver's seat and started the engine with a low rumble. The cockpit lit up in a pale blue glow, the HUD silently waiting for input.

Dick climbed in beside him and fastened his seatbelt. "Alright."

The doors shut, and the Batmobile pulled out of the asylum's lot, slipping into the night. The ride back to Gotham was long and quiet, filled with the kind of silence that carried more weight than words ever could. Both men stared ahead, caught in their own thoughts, while Arkham slowly disappeared behind them like a bad dream.

But the weight in Bruce's chest hadn't disappeared. It was still there.

- - -
[Jason Todd's POV]

Blurred vision and a sluggish, foggy sense of awareness greeted Jason as his eyes cracked open. The slow, rhythmic spin of a ceiling fan above him came into view, circling clockwise in an almost hypnotic motion.

The blades sliced through the quiet air with a soft hum, stirring the room just enough to carry the faint smell of sweat, steel, and old leather.
"Where—?"

His voice rasped out, barely above a whisper. He turned his head and blinked a few times as the room slowly came into sharper focus.

The familiar dull gray walls, the faint flicker of sunlight bleeding through half-closed blinds, and the scratched-up dresser in the corner of the room confirmed what he already suspected.
"Oh... I'm home." He murmured, stretching out an arm and pressing his hand lazily over his mouth as a long yawn crawled out of him.
Then the realization struck like a jolt of electricity.

"Wait—I'm home!?"

He shot upright, almost slipping on the crumpled blanket tangled around his legs. "How the hell did I get home?"

His heart was racing now as flashes of memory surged through the haze in his mind. The docks. The Maroni shipment. The ambush. Robin. Their brief, intense exchange. The fight. The final blow.

He rubbed his temple with a palm, still trying to piece it all together. "Man... that must've been one hell of a knockout. Feels like someone unplugged half my brain and kicked the rest into a wall."

He huffed out a small laugh and scratched the back of his head. "Guess that nap came with a side of partial amnesia."

He sat on the edge of his bed, elbows on knees, letting the moment breathe while his thoughts untangled themselves. Maybe he was just overthinking. Not the first time. Wouldn't be the last. The best way to shake it off, as always, was to sweat it out.

Jason stood, stretching his arms above his head, his back cracking with a satisfying pop. His room wasn't fancy—it had more of a bunker-meets-gym vibe.

Concrete walls, faint scuff marks on the floor, and one dim ceiling bulb that hummed low like it was on its last breath. In the corner, a modest collection of workout equipment stood ready.

A foldable bench with a barbell, mismatched dumbbells scattered nearby, and a few steel plates stacked neatly under a rugged shelf.
He moved over to the corner, unfolded the bench, and adjusted the weights.

No pre-workout. No fancy warm-ups. Just raw, familiar motion. He slipped under the bar and started pumping out steady reps. Controlled, efficient, with just enough strain to bite into his chest and shoulders.

Jason didn't care much for flashy training regimens anymore. He'd done it all—the League's brutal endurance gauntlets,

Batman's hellish drills, and even those weird Russian parkour phases back when he was with the League. These days, it was about balance—keeping the body sharp and the mind steady.
After the bench press, he grabbed a pair of heavy dumbbells and started curling.

Biceps flaring, veins tracing down his arms like road maps of tension. Sweat gathered quickly on his brow and collarbones, the familiar burn in his muscles slowly pushing out the residual fog in his mind.

Once the pump was solid, he dropped the dumbbells back onto the rack with a satisfying clank and snatched the white towel draped over the bar. He wiped down his face and neck, dragging the sweat off his skin as he caught his breath.

Next were pull-ups. He gripped the overhead bar mounted above his room's door and started repping out smooth, clean sets, the muscles in his back tightening with each lift.

The rhythm was comforting—just his body moving against gravity, no thoughts, no weight on his shoulders except his own.

Finished, he dropped to the floor, chest rising and falling steadily. The towel went around his neck as he trudged toward the mini fridge nestled against the wall beside his dresser. He opened it, grabbed a cold bottle of water, and took several deep gulps.

A grumble in his stomach reminded him of the next order of business.

"Time for some real fuel," he muttered.
He cracked open the fridge again and pulled out a couple of eggs, some half-wrapped bacon, and bread.

Within minutes, the small kitchenette at the corner of his place was alive with the sizzle of bacon and eggs popping on a skillet. The air filled with a rich aroma—salty, greasy, comforting.

He prepped his breakfast in quick, practiced motions. Scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, and toast, plated with a glass of orange juice to the side.

He dropped into the worn-down chair by the counter, digging in without ceremony. As he chewed, he noticed the juice carton was nearly empty.
"Gotta hit the store soon," he mumbled, glancing toward the mini pantry. The shelves weren't bare, but they were getting close—just a couple canned items.

Once breakfast was done, he rinsed his plate and tossed it into the sink, then made his way to the shower. The warm spray pounded against his skin, rinsing away the sweat and tension like mud from old armor.

He stood there longer than usual, letting the steam fog up the mirror and clear the last remnants of sleep from his mind.
After drying off, he threw on a plain black t-shirt and a pair of dark joggers. Comfortable, clean, no fuss.

His eyes drifted to the wall across from his bed—a personal kind of trophy wall. Not filled with medals or masks, but with dartboards. Two of them. The first had a blown-up photo of Joker's sickeningly wide grin pinned to the center. The second had a printout of Batman's cowl, dead center.

Jason didn't hesitate. He grabbed two daggers from the table beside his bed and flicked them across the room. They landed with precise, angry thunks—one in the Joker's left eye, the other right between the Bat's glaring brows.
He stared at the blades for a beat, chest rising slow with each breath.

"Still got it," he muttered under his breath.
With nothing more to say, he turned and headed for the kitchen.

Still hungry.

He grabbed a cold beer from the fridge door and pulled out a few leftover slices of pizza from last night.

They went into the microwave with a beep and hum. His body relaxed a bit as he leaned back against the counter, sipping the beer and staring off at nothing in particular.

Lazy day, he told himself.

But in the back of his mind, he knew that peace wouldn't last.

Not in this city.

Not in his city.

 

[Maverick_DaSupreme]

[Jason Todd's POV]

Sometimes, I just want to lie still and do absolutely nothing. Just be a couch potato for the day—no thinking, no planning, no diving headfirst into the constant chaos that shadows me.

Just a quiet moment. A breath. No goals. No vengeance. No twisted sense of purpose anchoring my soul to the war outside.

But my mind won't shut up.

My thoughts don't rest, and neither does that burning hunger inside me—that hunger for justice, for payback, for accomplishment.

The kind that keeps me pacing like a wolf in a cage even when I'm sprawled on the couch, chewing through a greasy slice of pizza.

Which, ironically, is from a place owned by the Falcones.

Yeah. Their mozzarella game is dangerously good. I've gotta give it to them—they know crime and they know dough.

But even as I stuff my face with the last slice, there's this gnawing urge in my stomach that isn't about hunger. It's that same twitchy kind of craving I get right before a storm rolls in—the kind of hunger that no food can settle.

The Maronis are bound to strike back soon. They've been licking their wounds, plotting, pulling bodies out of warehouses. It's only a matter of time before they retaliate.

And when they do, the Falcones will answer with twice the violence.

Then it'll spiral. It won't just be some turf war with whispered threats and back-alley shootouts. It'll be a citywide bloodbath—one even I might not be able to control. An all-out war with bullets flying and bodies hitting pavement in every corner of Gotham.

I'd have to ensure things do not turn our like that.

The idea of fanning the flames between the two families to keep Bruce a bit preoccupied until I have made my move to directly poke at Black Mask by interfering with his territory and street business, just makes me a bit twitchy to do something and not leisurly lay around like this.

Now I'm craving pasta for tonight's dinner. I laugh to myself as I lean back on the couch.
Maybe later I'll hit up that Italian joint on the east side—the one that still has the blacked-out windows and that overly friendly waitress with the fake smile.

I overheard a guy talking about how their seafood linguine could bring tears to your eyes. Sounds promising.

Although, it's owned by the Bertinellis. So... that's a gamble.

Hopefully they're still standing by the time I show up. If not—well, I'll eat somewhere else.

Sofia Falcone won't sit still for long. She's dangerous in a way most of the suits in this town aren't—unpredictable, raw, and quietly psychotic.

All it takes is one wrong headline and she'll blow.

And Big Lou? That street thug has the subtlety of a hand grenade in a church. He's going to declare war soon, waving his flag like a drunk with a flamethrower, and every idiot beneath him will start spilling lead into the alleys just to prove they're loyal.

All that chaos? It'll catch Black Mask's attention. And that's the initial goal. He's paranoid, twitchy, always watching his back. I need to feed that paranoia—get it nice and fat—before I slice it wide open.

But then there's him.

Joker.

Goddamn clown.

Even when I had no memory, buried under League training and white noise, his face still haunted me. I'd see him in dreams I couldn't explain, feel his laugh crawling under my skin during silence, like an itch I couldn't scratch.

He was a shadow in my sleep. A monster in the hallway of my subconscious. Like my body remembered the trauma even when my mind was gone.

The League taught us discipline, taught us to master pain, to bury emotions. But he was a scar the training couldn't erase.

Joker. Batman's little pet lunatic.

The man who beat me half to death, left me to die alone in that rotting building—and still got to keep drawing breath in his lungs.
Because Bruce let him live.

That's the part I can't get past. Not the crowbar. Not the laughter. Not the explosion.
The choice.

He chose to let that psycho breathe.
He let the man who murdered his son keep living even if he was currently detailed at Arkham.

And not just living—but laughing, probably scheming his next escape from that yard of lunatics. Rationally, I know I don't hate Bruce. Not really. But goddamn it, the betrayal sits so deep in me that sometimes I can't tell if it's rage or grief that boils over.

It's irrational, maybe. I know that. But the pain is louder than reason.

And if the roles were reversed—if Bruce had been the one lying broken on that floor while I lived—you better believe I wouldn't have left a single goddamn piece of that clown intact. Joker would've begged me to end it. And I wouldn't have been merciful.

But Bruce? Bruce has Damian now.

His biological son.

Guess I was the warm-up act.

Maybe I don't matter to him anymore. Maybe I never really did.

That used to hurt. Now it's fuel.

So I'll remind him. I'll remind all of them. That I was never just another sidekick. That I didn't come back to be welcomed—I came back to be reckoned with.

The city's spiraling.

And soon enough, I'll say hello to the Bat himself.

- - -

Sofia Falcone's office reeked of cigars, old money, and fear—but it wasn't her fear.

She stood by the floor-length window of her private suite atop the Gatto Nero Casino, swirling a glass of red wine without drinking it. Below, Gotham's lights flickered like nervous pulses, uncertain of which news would rise next.

Behind her, a bruised and shaking Donnie Trillo sat on a leather couch, dabbing sweat from his brow with a napkin he'd been clutching like a rosary. Across from him, Sofia's consigliere leaned against a liquor cabinet, silent and sharp-eyed.

Sofia didn't look at Donnie as she spoke.

"Say it again."

Donnie flinched. "He—he was wearin' a mask. Balaclava. Tight. Couldn't see his face, nothing. Took out my crew in seconds. Said, 'The Falcones say hi', and then the docks lit up like it was the Fourth of July."

Sofia's fingers tightened on the glass. A single drop of wine spilled onto the floor.

"And you're sure," she said coolly, "he said Falcone."

Donnie nodded like a man trying to keep his head on his shoulders. "Crystal. He wanted us to hear it."

She finally turned to face him, eyes as sharp and dark as obsidian.

"Then let them hear something back."

- - -

[Later That Night – Red Hook Industrial District, Maroni-Controlled Meth Lab]

They came in through the skylights—silent and masked. Sofia's crew wore matte-black tactical gear. No emblems. No colors. No names. Just death.

The Maroni guards didn't stand a chance. One by one, they were taken out with suppressed rounds and blades, efficiently.

Inside, the meth lab burned.

Tubs of precursors melted. Gas lines burst into flames. A man screamed as his leg caught fire and another died coughing on cyanide smoke.

The final touch? A body nailed to the brick wall with rebar through his wrists, a leather bag over his head, and a handwritten sign;

"The Falcones don't play hide and seek."

By dawn, everyone in the underworld had seen the pictures.

- - -

[Bruce Wayne's POV]

The Batcave was dimly lit, as always, its only real illumination spilling from the massive monitor wall that flickered with cascading streams of data.

Code, surveillance footage, facial recognition scans, and encrypted communications flowed across the screens like an endless tide of digital noise.

In front of them sat Bruce Wayne—no longer the billionaire playboy, just the Batman, in full armor except for the cowl, which rested beside him on the desk.

His jaw was clenched tight, expression unreadable but heavy. The subtle furrow of his brow, the tension in his posture—he wasn't just scanning data, he was hunting through it.

"We need to head out soon,"

Damian announced as he entered the cave, his footsteps light but sharp on the cold floor.

Bruce didn't look up. "I'm almost done here," he replied, fingers gliding across the keyboard.

Damian walked closer, his cape swaying gently as he approached the desk and leaned a hip against its edge. His sharp green eyes were locked on his father, observing—not the screens, but him.

"What's wrong?" he asked bluntly.

Bruce didn't answer immediately. His silence lingered just a second too long. "What do you mean?" he finally said, not taking his eyes off the monitors.

"You've got that look again," Damian said.

"The one you wear when something's bothering you but you won't talk about it."

Bruce exhaled quietly, almost imperceptibly. "This is how I always look," he muttered, but even he knew that wasn't convincing.

Damian wasn't buying it either. His stare remained fixed, waiting.

After a moment, Bruce relented, rubbing the side of his temple with his gloved fingers as he sighed. "Something is wrong." Damian tilted his head slightly, prompting him to continue.

"There's a shift happening in Gotham… and not the usual kind." Bruce's voice dropped lower, thoughtful. "The balance of power between the crime families is unraveling. What used to be careful politics and unspoken rules is dissolving into chaos."

"Chaos like what?" Damian asked, narrowing his eyes.

Bruce finally looked up, catching his son's gaze. "Gotham is starting to feel like it did before... during the old days. Back when the streets were run with blood and fear. When territory was carved out with bullets and bones."

Damian scoffed quietly, straightening up. "I'm no stranger to bloody feuds, Father."

Bruce held his gaze for a moment, saying nothing. He didn't need to. He remembered all too well what Damian had been through—even as a child raised by the League, he had survived horrors that most grown men wouldn't recover from.

He turned his attention back to the monitors, allowing a rare flicker of solemnity to pass across his face.

Damian folded his arms, waiting.

"Got anything yet?" he asked, clearly impatient.

"Not yet," Bruce replied, his voice slightly distant as his eyes swept across new incoming intel. It wasn't entirely a lie—but it wasn't the full truth either.

Damian saw right through it, he has observed his dad for almost four years now and realized how annoyingly similar they both were. So he probs at actions he might make even if it were just a mere hunch, being that he still couldn't predict or read whatever it was his dad was truely thinking.

"But…?"

Bruce hesitated, then pulled up a new set of images on the main screen. One in particular caught Damian's eye. A blurred but unmistakable figure in red.

"There's a pattern forming," Bruce explained. "The crime bosses are acting out of character. Rash. Aggressive. It's not just fear—it's fear of something specific."

He tapped a key, zooming in on a frame that showed a shadowy figure in a red helmet, caught mid-stride on a grainy street cam.
"It started with the attack on the Bertinellis," he continued.

"Ever since this...Red Hood appeared, the dominoes have been falling in rapid succession."

Damian leaned forward slightly. "Do you think he's the cause?"

Bruce didn't answer right away. Instead, he stared at the screen with narrowed eyes, jaw tightening again.

"I think he's the match that lit the powder keg." Damian opened his mouth to ask another question, but Bruce cut him off with a firm, commanding tone.

"Suit up. We're heading out."

Damian frowned slightly, annoyed at being cut off but smart enough not to argue. He turned on his heel and disappeared into the changing alcove.

Bruce remained seated a moment longer, staring at the image of Red Hood. The shadows wrapped around the crimson helmet like a curse from the past, and despite the lack of clarity in the photo, Bruce felt something twist deep in his gut.

Something cold.

Something familiar.

He couldn't say it aloud. Not yet. But deep down, a part of him feared he already knew who it was behind the mask. But didn't have the faintest idea, who.

As he stood and slid the cowl back over his head, his expression returned to that hard, controlled mask of silent determination.
The winds in Gotham were shifting. Fast. And they were carrying the scent of blood.

The war was coming.

And Red Hood still remains an unknown variable.

 

[Maverick_DaSupreme]

The war between the Bertinellis and the Falcones had turned Gotham into a slow-cooking pressure bomb, blood in the streets, chaos at every corner. Two cousin crime families ripping each other apart, and the city? Caught in the middle.

Ambushes, back-alley executions, safehouses torched to ash—rumors flew like bullets. The GCPD and Batman were stretched so thin they might as well have been ghosts.

One minute they were responding to a warehouse shootout, next they were bagging bodies in alleyways. Whole neighborhoods turned into battlegrounds the moment anyone from either family crossed paths.

And while the city scrambled to clean up the mess, Red Hood made his move.

Quietly.

Late that night, on Gotham's east side, an abandoned factory that hadn't seen industrial work since the eighties became the scene of something... different.

The place was a graveyard of rust and dust, windows shattered, metal stairs groaning, and old pipes dripping like they were crying from years of rot. The walls were covered in layers of graffiti, old bloodstains, and grime that time forgot.

It was neutral ground. Which meant it was perfect.

A folding table sat dead-center under the flicker of a buzzing industrial light, the kind that hummed like it hated stillness. Cigarette ash, burn marks, and a couple of bullet holes decorated its surface. Around it sat six men and one woman—dealers, traffickers, mid-tier street bosses. All of them hardened by the game. And all of them looking around like someone just pulled a gun without showing it.

"What the—You didn't set this up?" barked the guy in a pinstripe suit, hair slicked back but voice cracking with tension.

"So whose party is this?"

They glanced around at each other. Shifty eyes. Quick side glances. No one spoke.

The truth? They'd all been invited the same way—notes slipped under doors, into dashboards, onto office desks. No names. No logos. Just a time and place. Gotham style.

"Figured it was you east-side jokers," someone muttered, lacing sarcasm through his words. "Word is, you already bent over for Black Mask."

"Bent over?" another snapped, leaning in. You could hear the grief under his anger. "Black Mask hit five of my crew in a month. My best guys. If I didn't give in to him, there wouldn't be anyone left to bury."

"So you set this up?"

"No. I thought it was Raymond."

"Nah, it wasn't me." Raymond grunted, already annoyed. "I am not in the mood for some fucking game."

Trevor pushed back from his seat. "Screw this. If y'all wanna wait around to be gunned down, that's on you."

"Sit down, Trevor."

A voice came from the dark corners of the metal stairs above them. Calm, steady. Not loud, but loud enough.

Everyone froze.

Heads turned toward the catwalk above them.

Someone whispered, "It's him."

"Batman?"

"We didn't do anything—!"

"Oh, come on," the voice answered, low and dry. "We all know that's a lie."

But this voice... it wasn't gravel. Wasn't Batman's righteous growl. This one was colder. More real. Less justice, more…primal.

Then he stepped out of the shadows.

Combat armor, helmet shining just enough to catch the flicker of the light. That red bat symbol stretched across his chest. An AK slung over his shoulder, barrel aimed low but carried with confidence that said; 'I don't have to raise it for it to be a problem.'

"Who the hell are you?" one of them barked, getting halfway to his feet.

Another voice in the back yelled, "Smoke him!"

Jason didn't wait.

He opened fire.

The room blew apart in chaos—bullets ripping through old concrete, sparks flying from shattered pipes, hot lead turning rust into shrapnel. The air filled with the smell of gunpowder, oil, and panic.

Screams. Scrambling bodies. Men diving behind crates, flipping over the table, pressing flat to filthy floors. One guy yelled. Another cried out. No one fired back.

And then—silence.

The worst kind. The kind that hits right after you realize you've lived through something you weren't supposed to.

Bootsteps echoed. Slow. Heavy.

Jason walked forward, rifle lowered but still ready. That red bat symbol gleamed through the settling smoke.

"I said... sit down."

It wasn't a threat. It wasn't a request. It was a promise. And they knew it.

Trevor, twitching with sweat and adrenaline, didn't sit. "You got a death wish? There's easier ways to go than this. Try jumping in the Narrows."

Jason's helmet tilted in his direction. "Yeah... like yelling at the guy holding a fucking AK-47."

That shut Trevor up.

Jason gave it a second. Let it sink in. Then laid it out plain.

"Listen close, you scumbags. As of tonight, you work for me."

A few of them shifted. Fidgeted. Sucked their teeth like they were gonna object.

Jason didn't care.

"You seven are the most successful dealers in Gotham. You've got reach, product, protection, and somehow haven't been killed yet. So here's the deal. Call it charity."

He stepped closer, slow and confident.

"You keep doing your thing—run your corners, sell your weight, whatever. But you kick up forty percent to me. That's better than Black Mask's deal, and unlike him, I'm giving something back.

Protection. From him and from Batman."

Still, they stayed quiet. The only sound was a broken pipe dripping somewhere in the dark.

Jason's tone shifted slightly.

"But you stay the fuck away from kids. No selling near schools. No dealing to minors. You cross that line once—and I'll jam a hot rod so far up your ass your lungs'll catch fire. No warnings."

One of the guys smirked, trying to play tough. "Real generous offer... but why the hell should we listen to you?"

Jason didn't argue.

He just tossed a duffel bag onto the table. Heavy thud. Wet thud.

Everyone flinched.

Nobody moved to open it.

Finally, one brave soul reached out with shaking fingers and unzipped the bag.

The smell hit first. Thick, raw, and wrong.

Then came the visual.

Heads. Severed. Hacked. Faces frozen in pure horror. Blood still fresh in the lining.

Recognizable faces. Guys who didn't show up to work. Trusted lieutenants. Enforcers. Gone.

"Oh... shit."

One of them collapsed, vomiting on the floor.

Jason didn't flinch.

"That took me two hours," he said casually. "You wanna see what I can do with a whole night?"

Still no one spoke.

He took another step forward, boots crunching old debris underfoot.

"This ain't a meeting. It's a takeover. I'm not here to bargain."

He raised the rifle again and popped off a few rounds into the floor. The shots echoed like thunder, sending wood and concrete flying. The table splintered. Everyone dove like it was life or death—which, honestly, it kinda was.

Then—silence.

They looked up.

He was gone.

Vanished like smoke. Like he'd never been there at all.

Except... the bullet holes were real. The heads were real. The silence he left behind? That was real too.

For a few beats, no one said anything. Just breathing and disbelief.

Then Raymond, shaking off the dust, broke the tension.

"Forty percent sounds good to me."


- - -

[Roman Sionis' POV]

Roman Sionis—Black Mask.

He didn't claw his way to the top of Gotham's underworld by playing nice. He built his empire the old-fashioned way, with broken bones, slashed throats, and enough backstabbing to make Judas blush.

Guns, drugs, bodies—he moved it all, flowing like blood through the arteries of the city's criminal heart. He didn't just run a syndicate. He was the syndicate.

The king of Gotham's rot.

Paranoid by nature, vicious by design, Roman ruled with a fist full of rings and a sharp mind. His pride? Nuclear. His greed? Terminal.

In his head, he wasn't just another kingpin. He was Gotham. Untouchable. Unchallenged. Inevitable.

He was up in his penthouse office, high above the city, sitting in a room soaked in wealth and ego. Thick red velvet carpet underfoot. Gold-plated statues standing guard in every corner.

A sleek black desk positioned perfectly in front of a panoramic window that looked out over Gotham's bruised skyline.

Everything was arranged just so. Even the couch he never sat on. The room screamed money and power. Just like he liked it.

Behind that obsidian skull mask, Roman was fuming.

"WHAT!?" he bellowed, slamming both palms down on the desk. The sharp crack echoed through the room. His leather chair screeched back as he shot to his feet, fury dripping off him like sweat.

Across from him stood his personal secretary—cool, composed, dressed in a black skirt suit that screamed professionalism and danger. Mid-to-late twenties. Dark-skinned. Sharp eyes behind those glasses. The kind of woman who had your eulogy typed up before your appointment started.

She worked for a monster. But she worked well.

Roman's mask turned to her, voice a slow growl. "Say that again. Slower."

She adjusted her glasses, not flinching. "Several street-level pushers in our territory are refusing to pay protection."

Roman tilted his head. "Refusing? Refusing? They're refusing me?"

"They say they've got a better deal now. Someone new's offering lower cuts, more muscle… and results."

He stared at her, not blinking.

She kept going, like it was just another report. "They said he dropped a duffel bag on the table during negotiations. Inside were the heads of their own lieutenants."

Roman let out a harsh breath. "That's gotta be exaggerated bullshit. Some theater to scare the next round of idiots into line."

He exhaled through his teeth, pacing now, trying to put a lid on the fire building in his chest. Then he stilled, waved for a drink. She poured it. Smooth, practiced.

"Does this dipshit have a name?"

She filled the glass and handed it over. "They call him Red Hood."

Roman took a slow sip. The burn did nothing to help.

"That little street rat's got some real balls. Dipping his filthy hand into my bowl and helping himself to a full fucking meal." His tone dropped, more snarl than words. "Balls I'll rip off and FedEx to his goddamn mother."

He was winding up for more when someone knocked on the door.

Didn't wait for permission. Just opened and walked in. Four of his security goons—top of the line. Hardened. Loyal. And, right now, looking like they'd rather be anywhere else.

Roman glared. "Tell me you've already dealt with this clown before I lose my shit all over this desk."

The biggest of them stepped forward. Scar over his eyebrow. Voice like gravel.

"We tried, boss. But he's... not easy to pin down. Dealers are switching sides. The ones that don't? They're either in the ICU or zipped up in body bags."

Roman sat back down slow, his mask hiding the twitch in his jaw.

"He's one guy," he said, voice flat. "I've got an army. An army of killers, thugs, assassins, cage fighters. How is one guy tearing holes in my empire?"

Another one spoke, more hesitant. "He's wearing a red bat symbol, sir. And… the boys say he fights like a demon."

"Terrific," Roman muttered. "Halloween came early."

He sipped again, barely tasting it.

"You think it's Batman?" he asked. "Some new sidekick? Another psycho in a cape?"

"No, sir," the guard said quickly. "He doesn't hold back. Doesn't do the whole no-kill thing. He puts people down hard."

Then the last guy at the end of the line piped up—quieter than the rest.

"He beat my crew with a crowbar, sir. After we torched that club in East End. Said the neighborhood was under his protection, and that we were about to learn what that meant."

Roman turned his mask toward the guy, accompanied by a sharp silence.

"You think I give a shit about your sob story?" he snapped.

The glass was out of his hand before anyone could blink—whipped straight at the guy's head. He barely ducked. It smashed against a golden statue, raining crystal down across the floor.

"You think I care about what he said to you?" Roman barked. "You think I give a rat's ass about some thug in a red mask giving speeches before he breaks your legs?!"

He was up again, pacing to the window, looking down at the lights of Gotham, the city breathing like a beast below.

Something felt off. A shift. The air felt different—like blood was already in the wind.

"I don't like this," he muttered. "Feels like trouble already moved in and we left the fucking door open."

He turned back to the room, voice low but fierce.

"The Maronis and Falcones are at each other's throats. That war spills into my turf, and I've got problems. Now my dealers are giving this Red Hood clown my cut? Calling him more terrifying than the Bat?"

He took a step forward, barking.

"Kill him. Hang him off a bridge. Cut off his head and drop it on my desk if you have to. But handle it. Because if he keeps carving pieces off my empire, I swear to God—I'll bury every one of you and find someone who can do the job without shitting their pants."

He let the silence settle like chalk dust.

Then he dropped his voice. Cold. Dangerous.

"Now get the fuck out of my office."

The four of them didn't wait to be told twice. They slipped out, calm on the surface, but practically sprinting down the hall once the door shut.

Roman turned back to the window.

Fists clenched. Mind racing.

Who the hell was this Red Hood?

And how the fuck was he getting away with this?

- - -

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[Maverick_DaSupreme]

[Jason Todd's POV]

I knew poking the beast would make it roar.
Roman Sionis—Black Mask, is the kind of guy who thinks fear is his birthright. Like he owns the patent on terror. His whole empire runs on intimidation, on the illusion that he's untouchable.

But illusions break easy when you kick in the front door and toss a duffel bag full of heads on the coffee table.

I made a mess.

And I know he's pissed.

Good.

Let him lose sleep. Let him scream at his boys while his empire cracks at the edges. I want him sweating. I want him jumping at every sound, every shadow. Wondering if this is the night I show up and carve his name off the Gotham food chain.

Truth is... I already started.

His dealers? Mine now. Not all of them. Yet. But enough. And the rest? They're knee-deep in fear, can't tell if the wet under their boots is piss or blood.

I'm on a rooftop in the Bowery—half a mile out from Black Mask Tower. Wind's cold. Cuts right through my jacket. It's stupid-late. That dead hour where even Gotham's monsters crawl into bed and pretend to be human.

Me? I'm just getting warmed up.

I've got eyes on his building through my scope. Top floor's still lit. He's pacing. Probably yelling at someone he'll kill in an hour.

Perfect.

I take a bite of my protein bar, chewing slow while I watch his little kingdom flicker like a dying bulb.

Down on the street, the usual scum shuffle through their routines—dealers, mules, muscleheads. Some of them used to be his. Now they're mine. They just don't know it yet. But they will.

I flip through the photos on my burner. Faces of his inner circle. Names. Schedules. Habits. All handed to me by rats Roman didn't even know were chewing through his foundation. Fear does that. Loyalty evaporates when it sees a red hood coming.

I stopped at one photo—Troy Rusk.
Mid-tier goon. Runs Roman's docks out in Baypoint. Big guy. Always talking, never thinking. Cheats on his girl with one of his own drug mules. Drives a beat-up black truck—busted taillights, cracked windshield.

Predictable.

And right on time. 2:00 AM.

Some people run on clockwork, even the scumbags.

I stashed the phone, half way zipped my jacket, and moved.

Grapple line hisses out as I glided through Gotham.

Dropped down two blocks ahead of his route and slipped into an alley and waited.
Truck rolls past, low and loud. I shot a magnetic spike under the chassis.

Tracker locked.

Then I walk.

No rush.

The night already belongs to me.
And Troy? He's about to find out what happens when you work for a man whose empire's built on fear—then meet the one bastard in this city who scares him.

We're gonna have a little…talk.

- - -

The city wind whooshed through me as I dropped from the fire escape, landing soft between two dumpsters soaked in decades of piss, rain, and whatever else Gotham's guts leak at night.

The tracker's pinging—Troy's close. Two buildings ahead, parking behind some busted old strip club with boarded-up windows and enough sketchy backdoor action to run three dirty businesses out of one location.

Classic spot. Quiet enough to make someone disappear without an audience. Sloppy enough to make a statement.

I pulled my hood up. Slipped the knuckle-dusters over my gloves. Left the pistols and blades behind tonight—this one's up close and personal.

The truck door creaked open. That heavy-metal groan of a guy clocking out after a long night, ready to do something stupid with one of his mules.

Troy Rusk.

Mid-40s. Neck like a tree trunk. Swaggers like he's bulletproof just because Roman signs his checks.

I stepped out from the shadows.

"Hey, Troy."

He froze mid-step. Half a cigar dangling from his mouth, keys still in hand.

The color drained from his face like I'd already put two rounds in his gut.

"You—Red Hood…"

"That's right."

I cracked my knuckles.

He went for his gun. Too slow.

I was on him before he cleared the holster. Yanked the weapon out and bent his fingers sideways with a wet snap.

He howled. "You broke my arm!" I tilted my head. "Nah. Just a couple fingers. Don't be dramatic."
He threw a punch with the other arm.

I caught it, crushed his wrist, then stepped in close. Elbow drove straight down between his shoulders. He dropped face-first onto the pavement with a dull thud. "Now that's your arm. I hate it when you scumbags exaggerate."
Tried to crawl. Mumbling. Maybe a prayer. Maybe a plea. Maybe both.

I pulled the crowbar from over my shoulder. Let the cold metal settle in my gloved palm like an old friend.

"Roman sent you to shake down my turf. Told you already—this area's under my protection."
He rolled onto his back, blood in his teeth, eyes wide with panic. "Please, man… let's talk."
I raised the crowbar. "This is me talking."
The first swing cracked his ribs. He screamed—high, agonizing, useless.

The second shattered his shoulder. That cut the screams down to choking. By the third, he didn't make a sound. Just twitched.

When I was done, I posed him somewhere Roman wouldn't miss.

Taped him to the hood of his own truck. Arms broken. Crowbar punched clean through his chest like a battle flag.

Spray-painted across the windshield in thick red letters. "I OWN YOUR STREETS."

- - -

The call came at 4:09 a.m.

Roman didn't like being woken up. No one fucking dared unless the world was ending.

But this? This felt like the world ending.

His phone buzzed against the side table like it had a death wish.

"Speak," he growled, half-dressed, pacing the length of his bedroom like a wolf with insomnia.

The voice on the other end stuttered. "Boss… it's Troy. We… we found him."

Roman stopped mid-step.

"Found him?"

"He's… he's dead, sir. Real dead."

That was the thing about his guys. They didn't panic easily. Not unless something really made them piss themselves.

Roman sat on the edge of the bed, one hand pressing against his forehead.

"Where?"

"Behind The Orchid. His truck was parked out back. You… you should come see this for yourself."

The call ended.

Thirty minutes later, Roman stood in front of Troy Rusk's truck, flanked by his personal guards, coat flapping behind him like a cape soaked in gasoline.

He stared.

Troy's corpse was duct-taped to the hood, blood dried and caked, limbs twisted at unnatural angles. The crowbar was still embedded in his chest, his mouth stretched open like it froze mid-scream.

Roman said nothing.

Just stared.

Then his eyes moved to the windshield.

Red spray paint.

"I OWN YOUR STREETS."

Each word a slap.

His jaw clenched. His breath hissed between his teeth.

"You see that?" he whispered, voice trembling with rage. "This… this motherfucker wants to embarrass me."

No one spoke. They knew better.

Roman turned to his men, slow. Controlled. Like a man walking a tightrope above an explosion.

"I want him dead. You hear me?"

No one dared blink.

"I want his fucking bones ground into powder. I want that red mask crucified so that every goddamn dealer that even thinks of working with him, would learn not to cross me. I don't give a shit if you have to burn half the goddamn city to do it—bring me his head."

A pause. His mask tilted up to the stars above.

"And when you find him—don't shoot him. Don't kill him easily. I want him crucified and screaming for days before he dies."

- - -

[Jason Todd's POV]

Every empire has veins—supply routes, drop points, safe houses. Cut the right one, and you don't just bleed it. You could corner the big man.

Red Hood wasn't interested in watching Roman Sionis bleed anymore. That part was done the night he burned the man's fear tax into the pavement. Now? Now he wanted Roman choking.

It started in Old Bristol.

He was perched on the roof of a half-collapsed chapel, watching the warehouse across the street, the one supposedly condemned by the city months ago. Zoning violations. Black mold. Fire hazards. A real bureaucratic graveyard.

Didn't matter. Roman had been using the place as a front for months, moving crates of pills and military-grade weapons like it was just another Tuesday.

Tonight, it wasn't going to see another sunrise.

Red Hood dropped through the skylight, landing quiet and clean on the warehouse floor. No dramatics. No grand entrance. Just business.

Four guards inside. One by the door. Two lounging near the loading crates. One upstairs on lookout.

The guy by the door didn't even get a chance to pull his gun. Quick elbow to the throat, knife in the ribs. Done.

The two by the crates were mid-smoke when a chain looped around both their necks. Red Hood yanked hard, slamming them into the container wall. One of them tried reaching for his sidearm.

Bad move.

A boot crushed his jaw before he even got the safety off. He crumpled. The other just whimpered and slid down to the floor.

Upstairs, the lookout must've heard something. He crept halfway down the stairs, flashlight in hand, right before a throwing knife punched into his thigh.

He screamed as he tumbled the rest of the way down, crashing hard.

Red Hood dragged him behind a rusted desk and didn't waste time. One sharp twist and the guy's shoulder dislocated with a sick pop.

"Next drop point," Red Hood growled.

"I—I don't know exactly!" the guy stammered. "South Tricorner! The old rail lot! We—we just move the crates!"

He didn't get a thank you.

Red Hood shoved an explosive deep into the main stash—ammo, pills, dirty cash. Enough poison to keep Gotham rotting for years.

The explosion that followed lit up the night sky like a flare from hell. The warehouse erupted like a mushroom cloud of fire.

He was gone before the sirens started screaming.

By the end of the week, he'd hit six more.

One in Chinatown. Two by the docks. One buried deep in the Narrows. All of them gone—clean hits. He left injured survivors who bore witness to his wrath.

Roman was bleeding, yeah. But now, the bastard was gasping.

- - -


[Roman Sionis' POV]


Roman Sionis had lived through mob wars, chemical fires, a goddamn alien invasion. He'd watched the Bat dismantle half his crew with nothing but a glare and a cape.

But this?

This was personal.

Every morning brought a new insult; a destroyed shipment, a butchered crew, another lieutenant too scared to show his face.

Six supply lines. Gone. Millions in product. Burned.

The worst part? The message.

Not the blood. Not the bodies.

It was the tone.

This "Red Hood" wasn't trying to win a war.

He was after something else.

So Roman changed his approach.

He needed chaos of his own.

And chaos… he had in spades.

- - -

The meeting room at Black Mask Tower was bathed in low red light. A long table between him and the Fearsom Hand of Four.

And at the head?

Roman.

Glass of bourbon in one hand. Gold-plated revolver in the other.

"Everyone in this room wants something," he said, pacing slowly. "Money. Turf. Power. And I want one thing."

"I want the the Red Hood. This cocksucker is tearing through my empire like it's fucking drywall. He's cost me millions. Respect. Fear. You know what it means when my guys start laughing behind my back? It means I'm bleeding. And if I'm bleeding… all of you are too."

He stopped. Looked each man in the eye.

"I want him gone. Not just dead. I want him humiliated. Crippled. Screaming. Drag his guts through the East End and hang him from the Narrows Bridge like a red warning sign."

The big guy among the Fearsome Hand of Four—grinned with gold teeth. "You want him broken or buried, boss?"

Roman smiled beneath the mask. Cold and tight.

"Both. That cocksucker is a thorn at my side."

He stepped back, clinked his glass.

"Bring me his helmet. You do that, I'll make you rich enough to buy your own fucking corner of Gotham."

The room buzzed with savage excitement.

The hounds had been released.

- - -

A/N:—

Hello again, my dear readers.

I want everyone to keep in mind that his vendetta against Black Mask leads to the accomplishment of two goals—like killing two birds with a single stone.

 

[Maverick_DaSupreme]

The warehouse was the kind of place where deals got made and people went missing. Rusted beams groaned above, and broken windows let in streaks of that ugly Gotham sunset—just enough light to catch the dust floating in the air like old secrets. The place smelled like mildew, oil, and something else that probably used to be human.

Both bosses had rolled in with their muscle, ready to talk—or fight, depending on how the night played out. What they didn't expect was Red Hood interrupting the meet, for he had set it up like he did the previous one. Only that this one was on a little bit different caliber.

At first, everyone moved like they were ready to throw down. But he was already standing at the table, holding a pistol to each head—Big Lou on one side, Sophia Falcone on the other. That shut the room up fast.

"If any of you so much as twitch," Red Hood said, casual as hell, "I'll blow this fat fucker's brains out. And then I'll put another one through your boss lady's thick skull."

He clicked the hammers back. No bluff in his voice. Just ice.

"Don't test me," he said, giving a side-eye to the goons trying to figure out if they could make a move without getting their leaders killed.

"Do. Not. Test. Me," he repeated. "Remember what happened to the Bertinellis?"

Sophia's eyes narrowed. That message from the Book Keeper flashed through her mind. The warning that made her lie awake at night, clutching a pistol under her pillow.

Some of her guys shifted uncomfortably. Those who knew what happened with the Bertinellis that night, were suddenly rethinking their chances of walking out of here.

"Why?" Sophia asked through gritted teeth. "We didn't do anything to deserve a message like that."

Her voice was tight with anger, but you could hear the curiosity buried under it. Red Hood wasn't on anyone's radar until that night. Then he showed up out of nowhere, wiped out that faction of the Bertinelli crew in one night.

Unprovoked.

"Oh, that?" he said, like it was no big deal. "That was just my introduction."

Sophia raised an eyebrow. "Hell of a fucking introduction."

"That turf borders Black Mask's territory," he said, cutting to the point. "From now on, none of your guys go there to collect protection money. That area's under my protection."

"And why would I do that?" she asked, tone calm but daring. "Go along with your demands or burn? That it?"

Red Hood tilted his head slightly. "Good. So you did get my message from the Book Keep."

Big Lou looked confused as hell, clearly out of the loop. His eyes bounced between them, trying to piece it together but smart enough to keep his mouth shut for now.

"But burn?" Red Hood continued, now looking at both of them. "Nah. I'm thinking bigger. This could end just like that night—only this time, it's the heads of two cousin empires that roll."

"The Bertinellis," some guard whispered.

Big Lou scoffed. "You really expect us to believe one guy did all that?"

Red Hood didn't flinch. "Try me and find out."

As he moved slightly, his jacket shifted just enough to flash the symbol on his chest. That red-accented bat.

Big Lou went still. Then slowly turned to his crew. "Put down your guns."

Sophia gave her crew a nod too. She was still trying to decide whether he was for real, but something about him screamed don't push your luck.

Jason clocked the shift in their posture. Fear. Respect. Maybe both.

'Use one as an example, and the rest will learn,' he thought.

"Now, as I was saying—"

He didn't finish. Both pistols yanked clean out of his hands and flew across the room—no one touched them.

'What the fuck—my guns?'

Before he could react, he felt it. His limbs locked. He couldn't move. His body froze like he was being held up by something invisible. He was suspended in the air like a puppet, completely helpless, guns now pointed dead at him from all sides.

'Telekinesis? Seriously? That's what we're doing now?'

He scanned the room calmly. He'd been trained for this—keep your mind clear, even when the world's gone sideways. Whoever was doing this had to be struggling a bit. Holding a grown man up with just their mind wasn't easy.

"Thanks for coming to me," Sophia said, stepping forward through her men like she was walking on stage. "You were starting to become a real pain to find. It was like you didn't even exist. New guy, huh?"

She kept her eyes on him like a predator. "That's probably why you thought you could mess with me and the other families."

Jason's brain was racing. One of these assholes was a metahuman. But which one?

"Ice this motherfucker—"

"Hold," Sophia cut in sharply. "I want to see his face."

Red Hood turned his head slightly. "Hard pass. You're not my type."

Big Lou barked a laugh before quickly shutting up.

Sophia ignored it, eyes locked on Jason. "Oh, I'm gonna enjoy torturing you. I want to see your eyes when you beg."

"Sorry, honey. I'm not into that kink."

She didn't rise to the bait. But her eyes flashed with rage.

"Kill him!" Big Lou shouted, too freaked out by that bat symbol to let this ride.

Jason's peripheral caught movement—gray suit, arm stretched. Focused look on his face.

'Gotcha.'

Then, plink—a small pellet dropped from Jason's utility belt.

A second later, smoke exploded, thick and white, filling the room.

All hell broke loose.

The gunfire lit up the fog like fireworks. Bullets tore through the air, shouts and yells echoing off the steel walls. But in the confusion, the telekinetic's grip slipped just for a second.

Jason hit the ground in a roll, snatched his crowbar mid-motion, and whipped it across the room like a fastball.

A scream cut through the chaos.

He moved through the smoke like a ghost, blade in hand, carving through anything that got in his way. Screams, gunshots, choking on blood—it all blended into a symphony of carnage.

Sophia and Big Lou huddled low, crawling for cover, unable to see through the fog that now stank of blood and gunpowder.

And then, silence.

When the smoke cleared, it looked like something out of a horror flick.

Bodies were everywhere. Chopped up. Bleeding out. The metahuman was pinned to a pillar, a crowbar through his shoulder. His head lay three feet away.

Red Hood stood in the center of the massacre, blade in one hand, pistol in the other, aimed right at the two bosses.

Big Lou and Sophia opened fire. Red Hood moved like a blur. He deflected one shot, dodged the rest, and in a blink, was up in Big Lou's face.

CRACK.

One brutal kick shattered Lou's knee. He dropped with a howl, collapsing to all fours. Red Hood pressed the blade under his chin, gun still pointed at Sophia.

"I didn't bring you two here to start a war," he said, calm as ever. "I brought you here to stop one. Your feud's starting to screw with the city."

Sophia slowly lowered her gun, keeping her eyes on him.

"That's funny," she said. "Batman said something similar a few nights ago. Only difference is—you've got a gun in my face."

Jason tilted his head. "Yeah. That's 'cause I'm not the Bat."

"No shit," Big Lou grunted, still on the ground. "You shattered my fucking knee."

"You're lucky that's all I broke," Red Hood shot back.

Sophia crossed her arms. "Fine. We'll listen. But tell me something—how long you been in Gotham?"

Jason smirked. "Since Don Carmine Falcone ran the show. I've been around. I ain't no rookie."

Big Lou cursed under his breath. "Doesn't matter. You still busted my knee, asshole."

Jason shrugged. "Could've been worse."

Sophia cut in. "So what started this mess, huh?"

Jason leaned back, guns now lowered but still ready. "You really think this all started because of one blown shipment? One torched lab?"

"She hit my shipment," Big Lou snapped.

"He blew up my lab," Sophia snapped back.

"See?" Jason raised a brow. "That's what I mean. You two are barking at each other while someone else sits back and watches."

They went quiet.

"What do you mean?" Sophia asked, wary now.

Jason holstered one pistol.

"The night the Maronis' shipment got hit at the docks? I was patrolling. Heard the boom. Got there too late, but I saw someone leaving the scene—a guy in a ski mask. Tailed him."

"And?" Big Lou pressed.

"He led me straight to Roman Sionis' front door."

The air in the room dropped ten degrees.

"You don't know what you're saying," Sophia said, her tone flat but eyes sharp.

"I do," Jason said. "That guy was a mercenary. Paid to stir the pot. Get both sides riled up, get a war going."

"But Black Mask's been doing good business with us," Sophia muttered.

"Exactly," Jason said. "You're neighbors. If you tear each other apart, guess who scoops up whatever's left?"

Their silence told him he'd hit a nerve.

"You think he's playing both sides," Big Lou said.

"I don't think," Jason replied. "I know. So you can keep playing into his hands, or we can end this before someone else ends it for you."

They didn't answer.

But the gears were turning. And that was enough.

For now.

In the brief silence, Red Hood stood in the middle of the wreckage like it was just another Thursday night in Gotham. Blood painted the floor, bodies laid out like broken furniture, and smoke still drifted in lazy swirls around the busted lights overhead. His blade was wet, his boots sticky with gore, and his voice—calm as hell.

"I called this meeting," he broke the short silence, looking from Big Lou to Sophia,
"because I found out that bastard Roman, was the one who pushed me into going after the Bertinellis… and you, Sophia."

He let that sit for a second.

"I already had your family marked as enemies. I was ready to set everything you built on fire. But now? Now I'm wondering what the hell that psycho was thinking."

Sophia narrowed her eyes, her arms crossed tight across her chest. She wasn't shocked. More like irritated—like someone had fed her a bad batch.

"Sounds exactly like him," she muttered with a scowl. "That power-hungry piece of shit."

"I'll make him pay," Lou grunted, still leaning on one of his guys who surrendered just in time to not get chopped up, cradling his busted knee. "Let's get that—"

"Hold up." Red Hood cut him off mid-sentence with a raised hand and zero hesitation. "I've got a better idea."

Sophia raised a brow. "Better than putting him in the ground?"

Jason nodded slowly. "Yeah. Something cleaner. Something that hits harder. Leave him to me. His cup's been full for a long time. Karma's knocking."

"You expect us to just let it slide?" Big Lou snapped.

"Nope," Jason said plainly. "I'm not saying forgive and forget. I'm saying let me handle it. Don't confront him. Don't threaten him. He'll play dumb. Deny it. Spin you against each other again."

He reached into his vest and pulled out two folded papers, handing one to each of them.
"Instead, do business with these guys. Four each. All pushing product out of areas near Roman's turf. They answer to me now. You sell through them, you make money, and Roman doesn't get a damn thing."

Sophia unfolded the paper and scanned it. "I know some of these names. Mid-tier pushers."
"Not anymore," Red Hood said. "I've cleaned them up. Leashed them. They know what happens if they step out of line."

"And if they do?" Big Lou asked.

"I bury 'em myself."

Sophia smirked, folding the paper back into her coat. "Why should we trust you?"

Lou chimed in, still sore in every sense. "Yeah. You blew out my fucking knee, man."

Jason gave a one-shoulder shrug. "Heat of the moment. You pulled first."

Lou muttered something under his breath, but didn't press it. The mood in the room had shifted. Not relaxed, but more... businesslike. The kind of truce criminals could live with.
Jason took a step back, looking between the two bosses.

"Just keep this quiet. Let me deal with Black Mask. You two make your money and stay out of each other's throats for now."

And just like that, he shot his grapple gun and was gone.

Big Lou stared at the spot Jason had disappeared from and let out a grunt.
"You really think we can trust him?"

Sophia pulled out a silver cigarette case and lit one, her red nails tapping the lighter. She inhaled, then spoke while exhaling smoke from her nose.

"He gave us names. Gave us a cleaner route to push product. Told us to drop Black Mask and let him deal with that psycho. If he wants revenge, fine. So long as we get our cut and no more blood on our doorstep, it's a win-win."

She passed the smoke to Lou, who took it with a grunt and a shaky drag.

"Yeah," he muttered, the smoke making his voice raspier than usual.

Sophia pulled out her phone and made a quick call. "Yeah, get the crew down here. Full sweep. Now."

Lou motioned to his driver. "I need a medic and a new fucking leg."

As the warehouse started to clear out, bodies were quietly bagged up, blood was mopped, and the only sound left was the dull thrum of industrial fans overhead.

No more yelling. No more bullets.

Just business.

And somewhere in the shadows of Gotham, Red Hood was already on the move. The game had shifted. Roman Sionis just didn't know it yet.

- - -

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[Maverick_DaSupreme]

The night was thick with fog and the scent of smoke—standard Gotham weather. Streetlights below flickered like they were nervous, and distant sirens echoed through alleyways like some broken citywide lullaby.

Up on a rooftop overlooking the East End, Jim Gordon lit a cigarette with a flick of his Zippo. The flame briefly lit up his weathered face and tired eyes. His trench coat flapped a little in the wind, though the man wearing it didn't flinch. He was used to nights like this. Far too used to them.

"Found anything on Gotham's new pain in the ass?" he asked, blowing out smoke, his voice worn and scratchy.

Batman stood near the edge of the rooftop, cape flowing like it had a mind of its own. He turned slightly, his silhouette sharp against the dark skyline.

"Been busy the last couple weeks. Still nothing solid on him," Batman replied, tone as flat as ever.

Gordon let out a dry exhale, half sigh, half smoke. "Yeah, GCPD's about ready to snap. Between this stupid turf war between the Falcone and Bertinelli crews, and the bodies piling up? We're playing catch-up every damn day. These guys don't care where they fight anymore. Grocery stores, street corners, playgrounds."

He took another drag, shook his head. "Used to be people just claimed the Red Hood name for small-time jobs—robbing banks, boosting trucks. Kids with guns trying to act like legends."

"None of them ever murdered anyone," Batman said, glancing at Gordon's way. "Not like this."

"Right," Gordon muttered. "This guy's different. Real quiet, real vicious. So what's the deal with these families going at each other's throats? We've been trying to keep it off the streets, but innocent people are getting caught in the middle."

"I talked to some of their top guys a few nights back," Batman said. "They clammed up. Didn't say a word about what sparked this. Just stared me down like they thought I was bluffing."

"You tell 'em to cut the crap?" Gordon asked.

"I told them if they didn't get a grip, things would get worse. A lot worse."

Gordon nodded slowly, not saying anything for a second. Then he rubbed a hand over his face and said, "And of course, every time we bring someone in—doesn't matter which family they're with—they're back on the street by the end of the week. Bail money never seems to run dry for these guys."

"Just focus on keeping people alive," Batman said. "I'll take care of the Red Hood situation."

Gordon let out a breath and looked down at the streetlights flickering far below. "All of this started with the Bertinelli case. If we can figure out what really happened that night, we might get a lead on what Red Hood's after. Figure out why he's doing this."

He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a folded photo, handing it over.

"Take a look at this," he said.

Batman took it, holding it in the dim rooftop light. The photo was grim. A man—mid-thirties, heavyset—was taped to the hood of a car. A crowbar jutted from his chest like a gruesome hood ornament, blood soaked into the windshield and pooling across the hood.

"That's Troy Rusk," Gordon said. "Did time for armed robbery back in the day. Got out, went quiet, then turned up working muscle for Black Mask."

Batman's eyes narrowed behind the cowl. He studied the angle of the body, the placement of the crowbar, the way the blood had dried in streaks. It wasn't random.

"This wasn't just a hit," he said. "It was personal. Designed to send a message."

Gordon blinked. "You think it was a statement?"

"Yeah. This guy wasn't the target—he was the warning. A message for whoever he worked for."
Gordon's brow furrowed. "So... for Sionis."

Batman nodded. "Looks like Black Mask just got pulled into this mess."

Gordon gave a dry chuckle. "Well, that's just perfect. Maybe it's time you dropped in on our favorite psycho in a suit."

"I will," Batman said, turning toward the ledge. He paused, just before stepping off.

"How's your daughter?"

The question caught Gordon off guard. He stared at Batman's back for a second before answering, voice quieter than before.

"She's… she's alright. As alright as someone in her situation can be. The therapy's helped. She's laughing again, smiling more. Still got a long road ahead, but she's… her old self, a little."

He hesitated, flicked ash off his cigarette. "Wheelchair's permanent though. That's not changing."

Batman gave a small nod, not turning back. "Be safe out there. She needs you. You're all she's got."

Then, like always, he was gone. One second standing on the ledge, the next—just a flap of cape disappearing into the Gotham night.
Gordon stood there for a few seconds longer, cigarette burning low in his hand, wind pushing the collar of his coat up around his neck. The city below groaned and churned with unrest. He crushed the cigarette underfoot.

"I will," he muttered to no one in particular.
The shadows didn't answer. They never did.

- - -

[Gotham's West Industrial District – Black Mask's Safehouse]

The wind howled through broken windows and rusted scaffolding, rattling loose metal signs and stirring the acrid stink of burnt gunpowder. Gotham's West Industrial was a dead zone.

Abandoned warehouses. Forgotten factories. The kind of place where no one noticed if a shootout broke out or a body got dumped.

Inside one of the larger warehouses, Roman Sionis—better known as Black Mask—stood behind a long steel table, going over blueprints and shipment manifests. Around him were half a dozen armed men, all twitchy and geared up like they were prepping for a war.

Because they were.

"What the hell is this?" Roman snapped, slamming his palm against the papers.

"Someone killed Troy like he was some goddamn billboard!"

He was seething, his black wooden mask hiding most of the fury—but his voice was pure venom. The room smelled of cigars and gun oil, tension thick in the air.

Suddenly, the power cut out. A heavy thunk echoed through the dark.

Then a scream.

And a body hit the floor.

The guards raised their rifles, spinning in circles, shouting over one another.

"Shut up!" Roman barked.

Something moved in the rafters—just a flicker. Then another body dropped, thudding hard onto the concrete.

The third man didn't even get to shout before he vanished into the shadows above, his scream cut short with a crunch.

Roman pulled his pistol, fury boiling into panic. "Show yourself, you coward freak!"

And then he did.

Batman landed silently between Roman and the remaining guards, rising from the crouch like death itself in a cape. The guards fired—reflex, not strategy. Batman moved like smoke and violence. Two guards were down before they hit the trigger a second time.

Roman stumbled back, gun shaking.

"Wait—hold on—this wasn't me!" Roman yelled, sweat soaking his collar.

Batman stalked forward, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and slamming him onto the table, scattering maps and documents.

"Troy Rusk," Batman growled. "He was yours. Now he's a corpse with a message pinned to his chest."

Roman coughed, squirming. "I didn't order that! Hell, I liked Troy! This wasn't one of my hits!"

"Then who?" Batman pressed harder.

Roman wheezed. "I don't know! We've been taking hits on our supply lines too—someone's targeting us all! Your guess is as good as mine!"

Batman leaned in close. "You're on someone's list. Figure out why, or you'll be next. And when that happens…"

He let go and turned, already melting into the darkness.

"…you'll wish it was me who came for you."

He could have easily told Batman it was Red Hood, but he didn't trust Batman even the slightest to do so. Especially after hearing that Red Hood also wears the bat symbol.

- - -

[Across from the Warehouse – Rooftop Perch]

Jason Todd crouched in the shadows of a rooftop billboard, helmet off, the cool wind running through his hair. He watched through the scope of a high-powered rifle—not loaded, just observation mode—as Batman vanished into the shadows of Roman's safehouse.

Jason's lips curled into a smirk.

"Well. He's moving faster than I thought." Behind him, the wind picked up, tugging at his jacket. He stood, holstering the rifle and slinging his helmet back on with a soft hiss.

Red Hood's voice filtered through the helmet's comms; "Roman'll panic. He'll lash out. And then he'll give me what I want."

Jason walked toward the rooftop exit, stepping over a tied-up goon who'd tried to ambush him earlier. The guy was duct-taped to a vent, shivering from the broken nose and fear.

Jason stopped beside him.

"Tell your boss that the storm's just starting. And I haven't even gotten personal yet." He tossed the crowbar down beside the guy.

Just to send a message.


- - -

[Two Night's Later At The Docks]

The docks were quiet—too quiet. Just the sea lapping against the rust-stained piers and the occasional clank of metal shifting in the night.

Containers were stacked high like crooked buildings, casting long shadows in the pale dock lights. It smelled like salt, oil, and rust. The kind of place that didn't ask questions and forgot what it saw.

Then came the truck.

A black transport roared through the loading zone, engine howling like it was being chased by death itself. It fishtailed hard around a turn, tires screeching, rubber burning on concrete.

Inside the truck, three guys were losing their damn minds.

"Go, go, go—get us the fuck outta here!" the guy in the passenger seat yelled, white-knuckling the dash.

"I'm going, man! I'm going!" the driver snapped, jerking the wheel like his life depended on it. "Where the hell are Kanan and Riley?! They were behind us!"

"Screw them! We've gotta move or we're dead too!" said the guy in the back, looking over his shoulder like something was crawling up their spine.

"I don't see him," the passenger muttered, eyes darting to the side mirror. "Think we lost him?"
The driver squinted, almost too scared to believe it. "You sure?"

A beat passed. The backseat guy leaned forward and gave a shaky nod. "Yeah... I think you lost—"

THUD.

Something heavy slammed onto the hood of the truck. Hard.

All three screamed like their souls tried to jump out of their bodies.

A flash of movement—Robin crouched on the hood, cape flaring behind him, sword in hand. Without hesitation, he stabbed it straight through the windshield and into the steering column.

The wheel locked.

"Shit! It's him! It's Robin!" the driver shouted, swerving like crazy but getting no response from the wheel.

The others fumbled for their guns, shooting through the windshield. But Robin was already gone—vanished into the dark like a ghost in red and black.

Then came the batarangs.

Two sharp slices through the air—whip, whip—and the front and rear tires blew out in unison.

The truck swerved hard, spinning sideways before crashing into a stack of crates. Wood splintered. Metal shrieked. Something heavy slammed to the ground in the back, a steel container skidding out the back and hissing like it had just been popped open.

Batman dropped in like a guillotine blade from the shadows.

He landed beside the truck and yanked the dazed driver through the shattered window like a ragdoll, slamming him against the nearest shipping crate.

"Who are you working for?" Batman growled.
"N-No one! It's just us, man, I swear—" Robin landed beside them, flicking the oil off his sword as he walked up.

"Lie again, and I'm turning your kneecaps into gravel," he said calmly, eyes sharp behind the domino mask.

"I'm telling the truth! I swear on—!" The sharp hiss from the metal crate cut him off.

They turned just in time to see something crawl out of the container.

It stood upright—tall, lean, orange-skinned with pointed ears and black skin-tight material clinging to its frame. It looked almost human..but not quite. The way it moved was too clean. Too smooth. Eyes too empty and glowing red.

"What the hell is that?" the driver wheezed.
Batman didn't blink. "Your cargo." Robin stared at the thing, visibly thrown. "Okay, seriously, what is that?"

"Its name is Amazo." Batman replied.