Chapter Text
After Jason had exited the museum, he checked where Damian was. The boy had made his way out of Wayne Manor and was in the heart of Gotham, just ten minutes away from Jason- five if he used a shortcut. The male used a line to get him up onto the rooftops then made his way to where Robin was, in the middle of beating up two would-be muggers. Jason watched as Damian demanded they get up so he could continue to beat them; Damian was a violent boy, his time in the League of Assassins had made him that way. Jason saw the owl figure in the dim alleyway. He didn't grab the sniper gun on his back, half sure it wasn't going to attack. Instead, his hand took out a smaller gun, ready to shoot at the other figure if need be. The owl man told Damian to kill them and that this time, he wouldn't. Damian looked down at the knife before up at the retreating figure. He ran after him, Jason smirking at the fact that his ward hadn't heeded his order.
"Who are you?" Damian called up. The figure paused, hanging onto the metal rail above the street.
"My name is Talon," it introduced. "Come on." Talon leapt to the roof of the building opposite of the metal rail he had been clinging on and Damian followed him. Jason stayed where he was, hidden in the shadows of the roof above. Jason pulled out the device that showed him where the tracker was, already knowing that Talon was the one he had tagged earlier. The Dark Angel followed the two, knowing that Talon was too busy with Robin and so wouldn't be as on guard as usual. It allowed Jason to venture even closer to them than he would have if Robin hadn't been there, his guard up- he wasn't going to take a chance and it ends with Damian dying. Talon led Robin to a modern apartment, opening the glass window on the roof so he and Damian could jump down into the apartment. Jason hung back, staying on the roof and switched his helmet vision to infrared so he could still see them through the cement. It was an upgrade that he greatly appreciated and, not for the first time, he was happy that he was part of the League of Assassins if it meant getting such cool equipment, that helped him protect Damian, for free. Talon flicked on the lights as Damian asked what the place was, flipping his hood down.
"Home," Talon told Damian. Damian went to stand in front of a mannequin that held a costume similar to the one the Talon was wearing, but with a few noticeable differences. "You can speak freely here. My respect for Batman and all he's achieved is high. But there are lines he won't cross," Talon made his way to Damian, hands swinging by its hips. Jason grabbed his sniper gun and aimed it at Talon, knowing it would shoot the bullet with enough force to go through the roof. "Perhaps out of fear or some... misguided moral code." Talon pulled out the sais that were crisscrossed on the wall next to the costume. "There are no lines I won't cross in order to reach my goal."
"So you've come to Gotham to...?"
"To do what Batman refuses to do. Eradicate crime and criminals once and for all." Talon moved to the mannequin that hung to the left of the one Damian was standing in front of and leapt at it, stabbing it three times in quick succession. He brought the blades back, spinning them in his hands before holding them both by the hilt with the blades angled down. He brought his hands up and stabbed the blades through the red glass covering the eyes of the mannequin. The man then took the left one out but kept the right one in and turned to Damian. "No lines. No limits. No rules."
He threw the sai at Damian who caught it easily. He rested the tip of it on his right hand as he looked at Talon. They conversed for a few minutes, Jason not lowering the gun. He had had enough practice that his arm wasn't aching or cramping up from the position it had stayed in for the last ten minutes. He knew he could easily hold the position for another hour and a half before he even began to feel an ache. Damian threw the blade into the mannequin's head in front of him before reaching up to tug it out. He threw it up so it flipped and caught it by the tip, handing it to Talon.
"Keep it, a gift." Damian looked surprised but didn't protest, pulling his cape to the side so he could slide it into his belt.
"Why me?" He asked as he followed Talon across the room.
"We're kindred spirits. I've been watching you for some time," he turned around to look at Robin as he said the next few lines. "I want you to join me." Damian looked to the side, an act of uncertainty. His gaze fell on a smaller owl uniform behind a glass door, his face lining up perfectly in the hood of the costume. He turned to look at Talon again.
"And if I say no?" Talon walked up to him. Jason, who hadn't taken his eyes off of him unlike Robin, saw him grab a small rod off the table. His finger curled around the trigger and aimed for Talon's head, ready to shoot the tall figure if he tried to attack his ward.
"When you've made your decision, use this to contact me," he offered it to Damian who took it, turning it around to have a good look at it. "It's not a tracking device. Feel free to give it a thorough inspection."
"I will." Damian turned and headed back to the window he had entered from.
"Oh, and one last thing. Don't tell him about me." Damian grinned.
"Not a word." He flipped his hood up and jumped out of the window, Jason having to move to the edge of the building and jump off, his face towards the wall and hands catching the rim of the roof, so the young boy wouldn't spot him. He hung like that, his hands supporting his weight and waited for five minutes; sure that Robin had left before pulling up and placing his feet flat on the wall. He kicked off and used his arms to pull himself up and over so his legs flipped over him and landed on the roof. He walked back to the window and saw Talon move around the room and grab a few weapons. The heavily armoured being sat down and pulled off the boots. For a second Jason's heart stopped, thinking Talon had spotted the small tracking device on the bottom of the shoe. Instead, Talo reached out and grabbed another pair of shoes and slipped them on. Jason, from the angle he was looking from, saw that the grip on the new shoes was different from the old ones, the previous pair made more for snow. It seemed Talon hadn't changed since it had come from Ichabod either.
Once satisfied, Talon moved to the open glass. Jason ran to the left edge of the roof and threw himself off, falling parallel to the wall. He reached out and grabbed a ridge of the wall, catching himself. He placed a foot on the wall, the grip on his shoes allowing him to rest some of his weight on his foot. He tensed, ready to kick off the wall and fall down to the ground if Talon appeared above him. Talon didn't, moving to the right side of the building and jumped off. Jason waited another ten minutes until he was sure Talon wasn't going to double back and attack him. He scaled up the wall and went to the closed glass window in the roof. He opened it, bypassing the security and taking all cameras offline, making them play an image of what they had just recorded after the two had left, and dropped silently into the room. He snooped around the room, reading the papers. A few minutes later and he had the base of the Court of Owls. He also found the gender of Talon, a male, not that it really surprised Jason, he had the build and height of a male.
After gathering a bit more information, he exited the apartment and made his way back to his safe house. He had been up for thirty-four hours and needed sleep. The dark-haired male fought the urge to yawn and focused on finding his bike that he had left. He didn't really want to leave it out in case Batman or another member of the family found it. The male recovered it and used it to get back to his apartment. Jason trudged into his flat a few minutes later but didn't let his guard down until he had checked all the rooms and the security feed that reported no break-ins. Once he was sure he was alone, he sighed and took off his helmet and began to undress, pulling on pyjama bottoms and got into bed. He closed his eyes and fell asleep quickly, using a technique Sandra had taught him that put him straight to sleep so he wouldn't have to waste an hour trying to fall asleep.
"We have little on him. Nothing in the Justice League's database nor the Titans. Babs and Tim have searched for him, but he's basically a ghost," Dick spoke, pressing a button and three blurry pictures appeared. "Babs spent, at the very least, seven hours finding these two. The last one was found on the Batcave. All of them are blurry, taken by a phone and he's not even in the centre. They got him by accident." Dick paused and looked at Bruce. "He's good. More than just good."
"Estimated kills is at five hundred," Bruce read off the screen, eyes narrowed at the number.
"What do you think?"
"Probably closer to seven hundred plus. He's credited with over a hundred assassinations. He's only been known for three years but it would make sense that he's been around for much longer." The seated male clicked on the picture with the Red Hood in the air, in the middle of jumping onto another roof. He clicked on it several times to make the image crisper. "Some of those weapons look like they come from the League of Assassins."
"Do you think he's an assassin from the League?" Dick asked as he leant his hands onto the Batcomputer.
"Could be. It would make sense seeing as he does have their weaponry."
"He doesn't even have a name," Dick sighed.
"Not true. He has many names, he's known in many different countries. He has names in Chinese Mandarin, Han and Cantonese, Arabic, Hindi, French, Japanese, German, Spanish, Bulgarian, Russian, Polish, Mongolian, Turkish and Punjabi to name a few. They range from Red Tooth and Bloodied Dagger to Swift Death and Scarlet Reaper. Anything along the lines of death or blood."
"He's a threat that's for sure," Dick scrutinised the photo in front of him. "We don't even have a good picture of his whole body."
"Not exactly. Using the latest technology, we should be able to put in a few pictures and get a possible construction of his body." Bruce's finger typed quickly, starting the program and a body soon appeared.
"Six foot two, same size as Batman," Dick told him, turning his head to look at his adoptive father. "But taller than Bruce Wayne." Bruce scowled.
"We don't know that for sure," Bruce skulked. "But he does have a large build. Probably very strong. Stay away from him, Dick, he seems like trouble." Dick looked at Bruce, frowning at his father.
"What is it?" He asked. Bruce looked at him puzzled.
"What's what?"
"You have this face like something's happened and you don't want us to worry so you're not going to tell us," Dick explained. Bruce sighed and dragged a hand through his hair, wincing as he aggravated his fresh wounds.
"I didn't press the distress call," he admitted. Dick jerked off where he was leaning on the Batcomputer.
"What? Of course you did, Bruce," Dick argued.
"I fell onto a pile of bones. I was too weak to press the button and they were about to kill me. They just... suddenly started vibrating and turned into goo. He, the Red Hood, was stood behind them. He was in a position to kill me but he didn't, he just crouched down and pressed the button for me."
"That's impossible. How did he even know where it was?"
"It is a bat symbol and I was reaching for it. Otherwise, he must have been studying us." Dick shuddered at that and cast his eyes around the Cave, looking for cameras. He didn't find any and returned to looking at the computer.
"He didn't kill you, so maybe he's good? Or an anti-hero?"
"He's killed three low Justice League members as well as two more we were thinking about asking to join us," Dick looked surprised but he continued. "They were all metas." Dick rubbed his forehead as he took in the information.
"There... is something else..." Dick started. Bruce turned to look at him, a gesture for him to carry on. "If we're confessing things then I should probably tell you this. Remember when I first met Damian? He was about to kill Ubu," Bruce nodded. "Well, whilst I was swinging to stop him, my line suddenly went slack. My momentum allowed me to stop Damian but I wasn't sure what happened. When I analysed the line, it had been cut. The computer said it was cut by a bullet but it didn't specify what type of bullet, or the gun it was fired from," Dick sighed.
"You think that that person and this one are somehow linked?"
"They could even be the same person. It also means that they're using weapons that we have no knowledge about."
"It is possible," Bruce thought, looking back at the computer.
"Bruce," Bruce turned to look at his son when he heard how serious Dick was. "I went back. It took me over an hour to find where the bullet got lodged in the wall of the building behind me and when I traced it back to where it would have been fired from, it was over 500 metres away on a hundred story building. That shot and the angle should have been impossible, especially with how thin my rope is. He got it dead on. Whoever he is, he's deadly," Dick surveyed the images on the screen and muttered. "And pretty anonymous."
Bruce typed into the computer and pulled up the video feed from the cameras in his cowl, showing Dick the footage of the assassin helping him. He paused it at the best frame. The fight prior had broken the left camera and the fall just before had made the cameras blurry. The man was hidden in shadows even when he was right in front of Batman. A picture of a looming man with a red helmet stayed on the screen. Footsteps behind them drew their heads back as Damian walked down the stairs, wanting to do some training. Bruce had grounded him and he wasn't allowed to patrol for at least a week after he had run off yesterday.
Damian looked up at the screen, frowning in confusion.
"Why do you have Red Hood on the screen?" He asked casually as he made his way to the mats.
"What!?" Both Dick and Bruce turned to him, looking at him with shock. Damian shuffled, a little self-conscious at their gazes.
"Damian, how do you know the name of this man?" Bruce asked.
"That is Red Hood, one of the greatest assassins to have ever graced the League of Assassins. My grandfather taught him a few things and remarked several times that he was one of the best pupils he had ever taught. His hundred per cent success rate isn't rivalled by anyone else in the entire League. He is a force to be reckoned with and one of the League's prides," Damian smirked. "He also taught me several times. He even gave me a dagger." He couldn't keep the pride off his face or out of his voice.
"This man is a killer. He's murdered hundreds, possibly even a thousand, and you're proud to say he taught you something," Bruce got out of his chair and walked to Damian. He moved back a bit, intimidated by Bruce's scowl.
"You're just jealous that he could beat you!" Damian yelled at Bruce.
"He's a murderer. We need to take him down. He needs to pay for the crimes he's committed, the families he's torn apart."
"He was following orders!" Damian screamed, wanting to defend the Red Hood. The last few years he had lived with the League of Assassins, he had been told stories of the Red Hood and all his achievements. He had proclaimed to his mother that, one day, he too would be just as great as the Red Hood. One day he would beat him in a fight. Talia had laughed and ruffled his hair, saying that the Red Hood would let him beat him. Damian hadn't understood what she had meant but hadn't asked for clarification, thinking it was because he was an al Ghul so the Red Hood would let him win. Sometimes his friend Jayjay would tell him stories of the Red Hood as well, making him feel closer to the assassin as he spoke, almost as if he was a friend. He wasn't going to let his father talk down about a worthy assassin.
"He is a puppet for the League, a slave that does their dirty work," Bruce yelled back. "If he comes into Gotham then I will take him down." Damian's face distorted into an ugly glare.
"I HATE YOU!!" He yelled and stormed off. Bruce watched him go and sighed. Dick walked up to him.
"Are you going after him?" He asked.
"No, he needs time to cool down."
"He needs to know that you care. That you accept him as an assassin and will support him as he grows out of their teachings," Dick told him. Bruce didn't move and Dick sighed again. "There must be a reason why he defended the Red Hood so much."
"That man is a cold-blooded killer, plain and simple. And Damian looks up to him," Bruce ground out, turning to his eldest son.
"Bruce, his... upbringing... wasn't the best." Bruce sighed and walked to the Robin suit that was hung up as a memorial to his second son, a reminder that he had failed Jason and the boy had died because of it. He placed his hand on the glass as he stared into the case sorrowfully.
"Maybe he could have helped Damian." Jason hadn't had the best of childhoods either. Dick, seeing this, stayed back, not sure what to say without hurting Bruce.
"Are you going on patrol?" He asked. Bruce turned back to him and smiled at him.
"I've got a date."
"With Sam? You two are going good," Dick remarked. "Are you thinking of telling her about this." He spread his arms and gestured around the cave.
"I don't know. Maybe." Bruce walked out, intending to get ready for his dinner reservation.
Jason woke up at twelve, getting nine hours of sleep, and felt refreshed and ready to go. He got out of bed and wandered around his house with a knife and gun, checking all the rooms for an intruder. When he didn't find any disturbances he walked into the shower, placing his gun and knife on top of the water temperature and pressure controls. He was in and out under a minute, knowing showering was when he was at one of his most vulnerable states.
Once showered and dried, he walked into his bedroom and grabbed a top and bottoms and pulled them on. Once clothed, Jason walked into his kitchen and prepared himself some food. As he ate, he read the latest news on his laptop, making sure to check if any prisoners had escaped from either Arkham or Blackgate. The assassin then uploaded the videos his helmet had recorded onto his laptop and watched Batman fight the three owls. Jason finished eating and got himself a second helping as the video moved onto Talon's apartment. He paused and scanned the documents he had browsed through, reading them properly and screenshotting the image so he could paste it onto a document that he could then print out. Most of the files were about targets but a few of them had some interesting bits of information.
Jason stood up and put the plate into the dishwasher and moved to his bedroom to change. He grabbed a pair of trousers specially designed for stealth, their dark colour and lightness helping him move without being spotted. He grabbed a black baseball cap and a zip-up jumper, things he could easily throw off if he was spotted and grabbed a black ski mask that would cover his whole face. The male also placed his wrist gauntlet on his left forearm and slid his hoodie arm over it to cover it. Lastly, he tugged on combat boots and armed himself with guns, knives, throwing daggers and stars and smoke bombs.
Jason exited his apartment and hopped onto one of his many motorbikes. He turned on the engine and headed to the base of the Court of Owls. It was in the older parts of Gotham. The archaic, gothic buildings loomed high above him on both sides but Jason didn't let it bother him, focusing on getting to the base. He found it and circled it twice, stopping at junctions and pretending he was lost. He even asked someone who told him to go away but with a different choice of words. He threw his arms up in his act, smiling as the man did exactly what Jason wanted him to do as it now let him survey the area without it seeming strange. The male turned around and used the action to survey the buildings, checking to see if there were any cameras. There were a few and Jason noted their locations, mind working to find the best way to enter. He got onto his bike and rode a little ways off then stashed it and went back on foot, pulling the ski mask on.
The Dark Angel jumped over the fence and made his way into the base, keeping to the shadows. Jason pressed his back against the wall and peered around the edge of it, spotting two cameras. He uncovered his electric wrist gauntlet and hacked the cameras so they moved away again and stayed like that for a second longer. It wasn't very long, but it was more than enough for Jason to sprint along the lawn. He stayed close to the wall until he found a way in. Luckily, he found a door and quickly picked the lock and slipped in. He skulked along until he found the door to the stairs. Jason made his way to the stairs, were less, if anybody, would be there. The male hadn't seen nor heard anyone and so he deemed it empty, for now. He shot a grappling onto the staircase above him and jumped off the stair rail, letting the line take him down. It kept going and after a while, Jason thought he wasn't going to have enough line. Fortunately, his feet hit the bottom before he had to swing onto the stairs, de-attach his hook, let it wind back up and shoot it again at the staircase above him.
Jason released the hook and let it wind slowly back up, checking around to see if anyone had spotted him. It was dark and he couldn't see the telltale red flash of a camera but he didn't let his guard down. The male moved to the door and opened it a crack, peering through the gap into a big room. People, in white lab coats and white masks, were bustling around tanks. The tanks were filled with water and inside of them were naked people, floating in the greenish water. Jason's eyes narrowed as he watched them. When no one was looking, he opened the door wider and snuck through it. He kept to the shadows and moved to the nearest casket and crouched near to the controls. Jason pulled a wire out of the wrist gauntlet and attached it to the control panel, beginning to download all the files on it. When it was done, he withdrew back into the shadows, making his way up to the beams that supported the ceiling so he had a better vantage point. He stayed like that for several hours, watching them and placing a few cameras and audio recorders around the room as well as reading the notes he had downloaded onto his gauntlet, his green eyes reading the words on the hologram that was projected above his forearm. The two scientists directly below him began talking about the meeting that was about to take place, the Court of Owls giving a membership to another of Gotham's rich billionaire, piquing his interest.
He left them to speculate who it was as he made his way out. He ran up the stairs, jumping from one staircase railing to the next and made his way up. Once he was back on the ground level, he snuck out of the stair door and stayed in the shadows, trying to find a suitable person. The first few who walked past him, without noticing he was even there, were either females, males who were too small for him or were in a group so he couldn't attack them. Eventually, a male around his height walked past him and Jason pounced, injecting him with a sedative in the neck. When he was out, he hauled him up and over his shoulders and walked into one of the bathrooms he had found. He dropped the man and took his clothes off, putting them on him. He crammed his feet into the shoes that were several sizes too small but the three-piece suit was pretty much his size. He rolled his shoulders, feeling the fabric pull tight along his shoulders and chest. It wasn't the best to fight in but he would manage. Lastly, he took the white mask off of the man. He looked at it; it was a plain white mask with holes for eyes and a 'v' carved into it where a nose would be, creating a beak. He put it on and walked out of the bathroom, turning and kneeling in front of the keyhole to lock it.
The tall male moved off, walking in the same direction as the others had. Jason caught up to some and joined the back of the line as they filed into the room. It was a coliseum type of room, a circle overlooking the middle. He moved to stand near to a column, leaning on it as they dragged a suited male into the middle. The bag was taken off his head and Bruce Wayne looked up at them. Jason raised an eyebrow but didn't do anything, watching as the Court Master spoke. The kneeling man told the Grandmaster he wanted time to think about it as he held the white mask. Only Jason saw him putting a tracker on the mask. He was knocked out again and dragged off.
The people began to stand and leave and Jason followed them. He walked back to the knocked-out guy, lifting him over his shoulders and exited the building. He made his way to his motorbike and rifled through the man's pockets, finding a wallet with some identification and his home address. Jason put the drugged man on the motorbike in front of him, wrapping one arm around his waist so he wouldn't fall off, and sped to his house. Jason placed him on the bed and waited for him to wake up. When he did, he used a few tricks to hypnotise him and made believe he had gone to the meeting. Jason took off the suit he was wearing and hung it back on its hanger, making it look like it had been worn. He stripped the man of his own clothes and put them back on, making a face at it but doing so none the less. He had done worse things than wear clothes someone else had worn already. With that done, he slipped out of the house and back to where his motorbike was parked and headed back to his safehouse, planning to go through the few files he hadn't read that were on his gauntlet.
When he got home, before he could go through with his plan, he checked he was alone. When no one attacked him in any of the rooms, he moved back to his laptop and plugged his wrist gauntlet into a USB port and began uploading the data onto his laptop. Whilst it was doing so, he checked in on the Batcave. He couldn't find Damian and he sat up, going back in time to look through the video. He watched as Batman and Nightwing chatted about him, kicking himself for being in the background of a few pictures. Damian walked in and accidentally revealed his name. He seemed proud to know and be taught by Red Hood but Jason's smile fell when Batman yelled at him. They continued to argue and Damian stormed off. Jason clicked onto the cameras in his room and went through that video, seeing Damian consider the device Talon had given him the night before. Damian walked to his wardrobe and pulled out his Robin uniform, putting it on. He jumped out of his window and made his way out of the Manor, the security seemingly offline as he made his way easily out of the manor's land. Jason hacked into a few cameras and soon found a video showing Damian pressing the button, Talon meeting up with him a few minutes later and them leaving together. Jason groaned and rubbed his eyes.
"Why do you do this to me, Damian?" He asked. He called Sandra, desperately needing her advice.
"Hello, Jay," she greeted. Jason looked at the time and worked out it was probably seven where she was.
"What do you do when your ward goes darkside?" He asked. He could almost hear Sandra frowning.
"Aren't we already evil?" Jason sighed and explained.
"Damian's gone off with the person called Talon. I've found out a lot more about the Court of Owls. Though they're around three and a half hundred years old, younger than the League, they've only had fighters, called Talons, for about a hundred years. Damian's gone off with one of the Talons." He heard Sandra laugh at him.
"And here I thought I had it bad being Lady Talia's Dark Angel." She laughed. "Do what you're doing now. Continue to follow him and help in the shadows. He will probably see the errors of his ways soon and go back to Batman again."
"Thanks, Sandra."
"You're welcome, Jay." Jason sighed as he realised he had his work cut out for him