Chapter 1
Two months now. It had been two months since Jason had recovered from being nearly blown to bits. And yet here he was, out on patrol again as the Red Hood. Dick and Bruce had tried to convince him to give it more time, but he simply wouldn't listen.
Of course, a lot had happened in those two months; like Jason getting attacked by Bruce's demon spawn for instance. That's right, Bruce Wayne had a child with Talia. Go figure. Damian Wayne was, in Jason's words, a demon child, spawn from the ninth circle of hell itself. To say they didn't get along very well, was an understatement.
And he and Tim got along a lot less than he and Jason did; the little hellspawn tried to kill Tim to become Robin. Tim still held a grudge about that (Jason probably would have too), but Tim was off in Jump City now, leading his own team, the Teen Titans. So that meant Damian got his wish after all. Unfortunately, whenever Tim came by, the manor became...well, tense didn't quite cover it. You could practically see the sparks flying between those two.
And in that time, The Red Hood had tracked a child trafficking ring from Gotham to Bludhaven, so he alerted Nightwing and the two of them decided to take it on, together. Nightwing had actually been watching the warehouse for a good month or two, gathering information, trying to deduce the nature of the operations there, their numbers, how well armed they were, etcetera, before making a move. Once Jason showed up and shared the information he had, it was all he needed. And so here they were, watching as some rather heavily armed men brought in another 'shipment', perched on top of a building across the way from the warehouse.
"I'm going to smear their blood all over the walls," Red Hood growled menacingly. Nightwing glanced over at Red Hood a little nervously. He patted his back, then gave his shoulder a squeeze.
"You didn't load your guns with live ammo, did you?" he asked with a slight smirk. Red Hood snorted, eyes still fixed on the scum bags below.
"Maybe I did. It'd be no less than this trash deserves." Nightwing leaned forward a bit to look Red Hood directly in the face.
"No killing, okay?" Nightwing asked. When the man didn't answer, he pressed again "okay?" Red Hood glanced over at him but still did not answer. Nightwing sighed in annoyance.
"You focus on freeing the children. Let me handle the dirt bags, okay? Promise me that much."
"Fine. But do me a favor," Red Hood asked, glancing back at Nightwing. Nightwing flashed a smile.
"What's that?" he asked.
"Make it hurt," Red Hood replied, swinging off the building via grappling hook before he got an answer. Nightwing chuckled in amusement before following suit. Sticking to the shadows, he watched and waited patiently for opportunity to come knocking, before disabling the men, one by one, and hiding them away so as not to alert anyone, before finally sneaking inside the building. There were guards posted all over the place, heavily armed with fully automatic assault rifles. This was going to get ugly no matter which way he cut it.
"Well, here goes nothing," Nightwing said with a shrug of his shoulders. He drug through his utility belt and dropped a handful of smoke grenades onto the men below. As soon as they exploded, he dropped down, raining a series of strikes on the men with his escrima sticks, before dancing back into the shadows, unseen, before reinforcements could arrive.
"What the fuck?!" one man shouted, searching the area frantically.
"Someone's here!"
"Show yourself!"
Nightwing grinned from the shadows and this time threw a flashbang and repeated the process. However, more came around the corner and caught him in the act. He simply grinned.
Red Hood watched the patrols around the building carefully before sneaking in through one of the back entrances. Once he'd slipped inside, he searched for any signs of the children, careful to avoid detection. Stealth wasn't usually his style, but there were children here and he didn't want to risk putting them in danger.
He found a stairwell that led down into a basement level, which, when he saw it, was sickening. Children were locked in cages, some of them looking either sick or starving. But that wasn't even the worst of it; it was a laboratory. This wasn't your typical child trafficking ring. He wasn't sure what it was, but he was going to get answers, and punish the bastards for this shit.
He snuck through the lab, shushing the children as he looked for someone, anyone, he could torture for answers. He heard a baby crying and headed toward its source. He rounded a corner and saw a scientists standing over an infant with a needle.
"Alright then, let's begin," the man said to himself, raising the needle in hand. Red Hood pulled a gun on him and the man raised his hands when he heard the click of the gun.
"Put that needle down, or I'll blow your brains out all over the fucking wall," the Red Hood said darkly. He heard someone approaching from behind and quickly spun around to see three other scientists approaching him with guns of their own. With three quick shots of his other hand gun, he kneecapped them all. They cried out in pain, and he quickly turned his attention back to the man hovering over the baby.
"Let me go, or I'll snap his neck," the scientist said with a sick grin. Oh, now, he's fucking dead. Red Hood didn't hesitate; he pulled the trigger and knee-capped him first, getting him away from the infant. The man fell to the floor, howling in pain, and then he pulled the trigger again and blew the doctor's brains out all over the floor.
The infant began to cry again and Red Hood approached, holstering his guns, ignoring the men behind him, bleeding out on the floor. He pulled his helmet off and placed it on the table, sighing in relief as the cool air brushed against his sweat slicked skin. The infant, a baby boy, had blue eyes and black hair, tufts sticking out at odd angles, and looked up at him, his crying lessened a little. The child couldn't be older than six or seven months. As far as he could tell, this was the only infant in the entire compound.
He looked up to the ceiling above, the sounds of gunfire and combat echoing above him. He grinned, knowing that Nightwing had gotten to work. He turned his attention back to the infant, wondering what in god's green earth they could need him for. Especially considering he was the only one in the compound. He then turned back to the doctor's bleeding out on the floor; one of them was still conscious. So he strode over to him and fisted his hair, shoving him against the wall.
"Tell me what's going on here, now. You do, and I'll bind that wound and let you live," Red Hood said harshly, drawing a gun and pointing it toward the dead doctor "you don't and you'll end up like your friend over there." The man gulped and Red Hood pressed the barrel against his jaw.
"Okay, okay! I'll talk!" the man said frantically. He swallowed and Red Hood waited, and when the man spoke again he said "we-we were hired by Lex Luthor! H-his mercenaries pick up stray children, runaways, homeless kids, s-sometimes kidnap them-"
"What for?!" Red Hood interrupted sharply. The man yelped in fear and continued slowly.
"G-genetic experiment. W-we separate the children by g-genetic potential! A-and then we run...experiments."
"What kind of experiments?!" Red Hood snarled, but his interrogating was interrupted by the sound of another person approaching. He spun around and saw Nightwing behind him.
"What the fuck?" he asked, staring around the room in a mix of shock and anger; not at the wounded scientists, it didn't look like he could care about them, but at the children.
"Please, I don't know anything else!" the man pleaded. Red Hood snarled and smacked him in the head with the butt of his gun, knocking him out. He pushed himself up onto his feet and stalked past Nightwing and began unlocking cages.
"There's an infant over there. Need your hacking skills on the computer nearby, maybe get some answers," Red Hood said evenly. Nightwing glanced back at Red Hood before moving toward the infant. He looked down at the little boy, who cooed when he saw him. Nightwing smiled at the kid before moving toward the nearby computer and began hacking into the database.
Red Hood had the children wait nearby; he wasn't going to take chances and let them wander off on their own. Instead, he moved to Nightwing's side; he wanted answers.
"The only infant in the entire compound. It's like the singled him out. Why?" Red Hood asked. Nightwing held up a finger, silencing him as he continued hacking in.
"I'm in. This operation is run by Lex, big surprise. Running his sick genetic experiments again. There's not really a lot here to tie him to the operation, beyond mentions of his name and his company. All circumstantial evidence. The only solid evidence here makes it seem as if this operation is a rogue element of Lex Corp," Nightwing explained. Red Hood snorted.
"Typical."
Nightwing continued clacking away at the keyboard, digging further into the system before it began crashing.
"Shit! We're losing everything! IT must be some kind of termination protocol!" Nightwing hissed, trying to recover some of the data on a USB. He cursed when the computer finally died and slid the USB into a compartment on his gauntlets.
"Dammit. I got some, but I don't know what we have. Couldn't find anything on the infant," Nightwing said, flashing Red Hood an apologetic smile. The man sighed, raking a hand through his hair before donning his helmet again.
"Wait, what's this?" Nightwing asked, kneeling down beside the counter. He lifted up a folder, hidden partially underneath the counter and flipped it open.
"Hmm. Looks like a profile on the chi-" Nightwing paused, eyes widening.
"What? What is it?!" Red Hood demanded to know. Nightwing looked up at him and opened his mouth, before closing it again.
"This kid, is Talia al Ghul's son," Nightwing finished. The Red Hood quickly pulled off his helmet with a look of shock on his face, the two of them glancing back down at the infant, little legs kicking, giggled happily.
"He's Talia's child?!" he asked incredulously.
"Yes he is," came a voice behind them. Red Hood and Nightwing spun on the spot, watching as Talia approached, eyeing the scared children as she passed them.
"You should take those children out of here and get them to safety," Talia said casually, coming to a stop before the two men. She smirked and a little and said "hello Jason. Dick," she said to each of them in turn. Both Jason and Dick scowled, turning back to the children, who, thankfully, were out of earshot.
"Just blurt it out why don't you," Jason snapped.
"I was hoping to get here before you, but it seems I was a bit too slow," she said with a frown, pushing past the two men and gently picking up the child "Lex's thugs got the drop on me, kidnapped the poor child. Probably figured the child of a League Assassin would make a perfect super soldier with the proper genetic modifications."
"What's his name?" Dick asked, looking over her shoulder. Talia turned to Jason then and pushed the child into his arms. Jason spluttered, cradling the child in his arms.
"W-what-"
"His name is Kaden," Talia said coolly, crossing her arms over her chest "Kaden Todd." Both Dick and Jason flinched at the name, exchanging glances.
"Kaden What?!" They both shrieked in unison. The infant started to cry when they yelled, and Jason looked down at the child, then desperately to Dick. He started to rock the child gently, making soft 'ssh' sounds, trying to calm him.
"Wait, are you saying-"
"That he's Jason's son? I am."
"But then that would mean you and he-"
"We did."
"I...you...he...what?" Dick asked, completely confused. Jason's face was painted pink and Dick glared at him.
"Explain. Now," he demanded. Talia just sat back and watched them both with amusement. Jason sputtered a bit, trying to find the right words.
"Er...Talia and I...that is...we kinda...had revenge sex about a year ago?" Jason admitted with a shrug of his shoulders. Dick looked at him incredulously.
"You had revenge sex with Talia?! What to get back at-"
"Ssssh," Jason hissed, pointing toward the children. Dick looked at them, then back to Jason and glared at him.
"You suck. We're not done with this yet, you asshole," Dick snapped, the two of them turning on Talia now.
"Wait, you had my kid and you didn't even tell me?! Why?!" Jason demanded to know. Talia smirked a bit and shrugged her shoulders.
"Woman's prerogative," she replied. Jason was about to speak again, but she cut him off "the kid was an accident. As for why I didn't tell you, that's my business.. She turned and left, Jason calling after her, but the woman completely ignored him.
"Come on, let's take care of these children and deal with this" Dick began, looking at the now sleeping infant in Jason's arms "later."
Author's Note: Okee dokee just a little note, you'll probably find some similarities to the story "Heroes Don't Change Diapers" (which I'd recommend reading btw, great story 3 ) but I swear, I started writing this one before I ever knew of that one's existence. x) Please forgive the similarities, this story is completely my own idea. Something I'd started developing in my mind about a week ago ~_~ I've got 7 Chapters written so far, but I'm busy, so I'll only be posting 1 or 2 a day. Anywho, Enjoy! :D