Have you all ever been writing a story and suddenly a new story concept pops into your head and won't leave till you put pen to paper so to speak? Welp this is the result of my recent ecounter with this problem.
This is an AU naturally, and it is my personal take on the DC Comics Anti-Hero, Red Hood, put in the Zootopia universe of course. There will be no Joker or Batman, just Red Hood. No bat symbols either, Red Hood is a stand alone in this story and his name and attire are basically all I am taking, the rest will be of my own creation. When I say attire I mean his base look in Injustice 2.
I will pull a lot of inspiration from other places and heroes as I morph this character.
So the first time I posted this I had a heavy supernatural element that, well everyone hated. So I took it out and here you go.
Outside of his Red Hood helmet he will be doing other things that I shan't give you a single hint of.
This is part one of his five part orgin story. Early life, Prisoner, The Millon Dollar Fox, Birth of the Red Hood, and Todd Industries.
Read, review, fav and follow if you like. Now for the story.
24 year old vixen Mary Todd was in labor, and as she was rushed to the delivery room she reflected on how she got here. It was nine months ago, making the month December and the start of mating season for foxes. While at a party being thrown by a 20 year old little fennec fox with a voice way to deep for his little body, she ended up meeting this stunningly handsome 18 year old fox tod with the most amazing emerald colored eyes. For as long as she would live she would never forget him, he was snarky and sarcastic at times, but he was mostly charming and funny, and oh so handsome. She would never forget his name either, Nick Wilde.
She hung around him for most of the party, trying to cajole him into one of the bedrooms. It was mostly her heat plus alcohol talking, but she agreed to the sentiment. He each time turned her down nicely, a few times stating he came from a more traditional fox family and that his mom had raised a gentlemammal. But as the night wore on and she got drunker it became "look you're very gorgeous and most tods would jump at the chance you're offering, but you are in heat and drunk and I don't want to take advantage of your state."
As the night dwindled into the early morning hours, around 1, and the party winded down she watched as he retired to a bedroom alone, quite drunk himself but not to the degree she was. She had pouted a bit in her inebriated state because nearly every other mammal, including the fennec host, had gone either into bedrooms or the nearest hotel with another mammal in tow. Leaving just her, him, and a few others not getting lucky. It bothered her immensely, so much so that after an hour she decided to go into the room he had disappeared into.
When she entered she quickly saw a few things that caused her to lock the door behind her. First thing was that Nick was sprawled out on the bed passed out. The second was he was completely naked. The third, the third was that he must have been having a very good dream because he was completely aroused. In the state she was in, drunk and in heat, she was very quick to take advantage of those three things. She used Nick's passed out and aroused state to sate her own desires, and 45 minutes later when she was uncoupled and satisfied she simply left the home entirely without leaving a note or anything.
When she awoke in the afternoon, she was hungover and couldn't remember much. But she could tell she had gotten lucky by the mess in her underwear and the fact that she wasn't feeling the effects of her heat as much. She had simply shrugged on the matter and cleaned up and then took a nice warm shower. Once done she got to finishing packing, this was her last day in Zootopia. She was moving to Ibexas having finally secured a position in the Todd family business, Todd Industries. Her father currently was the CEO of the company and it was her hopes that she could take the mantle one day.
Once her things were packed and on the moving truck she took a taxi to the airport and boarded the Todd private jet for the flight to Ibexas. It was halfway through said flight that the memories of just how she got lucky came back to her, and she felt nothing but shame. When she landed she tried to forget that she had done what she had to the fox named Nick Wilde. She threw herself into her work to help, well for a time, it quickly became apparent that her inaction on the matter of using Nick Wilde led to her getting pregnant with his kit.
An abortion was out of the question, she could never find it within herself to do it despite the circumstances of how she got pregnant. Not to mention she always wanted to be a mother, sure she wanted to have a husband before the kit but life never really goes according to plan. There was no way though she would find and reach out to Nick Wilde and tell him what she did, and that he was going to be a father.
She was quick to face the music though with her family. They were extremely disappointed that she had gotten pregnant before marriage and was that irresponsible, her father stating that there was now no way she would take over the company, and in the end she was fine with that. Of course she simply told them she had sex with a random fox tod at a party and couldn't tell them who it was, that was much better than the truth. For foxes pregnancy outside of marriage was rare enough, pregnancy outside of relationships even more so, but even that didn't bother her.
So here she was now, being wheeled into the delivery room.
(8 hours of agonizing labor later)
Finally after eight hours of hard labor Mary Todd gave the final push and her kit was born with a single cry. The doctor held up her baby and exclaimed "It's a boy! What do you want to name him?"
Mary sank into the hospital bed with a little laugh of joy and breathily said "A boy? Jason, Jason Wilde, thats with an e at the end, Todd. Jason Wilde Todd."
The doctor smirked at her and began to reply "Jason, that's a real strong name. A real strong name for a real strong kit."
Mary let out a beaming smile as the doctor and nurses were looking her kit over, cleaning him up and swaddling him in a blue blanket. But as they worked on her son there was one thing that concerning her. "Doctor Monroe, why isn't he crying? He's awfully quiet."
Doctor Monroe stepped away from her kit letting the nurses take over, being finished with his checks. The kits quietness was one thing that concerned him as well, but he saw nothing to be worried about for now.
"Well Ms. Todd I'm not entirely sure, some kits after birth just don't cry. I looked him over and saw nothing, I may run a test or two but as I said I saw nothing concerning."
Mary let out a sigh of relief. "That's good then, so nothing to worry about."
"Well, I wouldn't exactly say that Ms. Todd. Now one thing is a kit that at birth doesn't cry could be a early sign of autism. It's about a fifty fifty chance. We won't know until he turns four."
"Oh..well you know what, that's fine. If he does have autism I will love him the same and he can still lead a pretty normal life, maybe get some special gift from it. I'd rather my kit have autism then get some other disease."
At her remark the doctor gave her an approving look. "If only more parents thought like you Ms. Todd. Now would you like to hold your son?"
Mary shot her arms out as a nurse turned towards her and stood next to her doctor, her kit cradled in their arms. "Yes please."
The nurse smiled at Mary and pawed her son over to her. She took him into her arms and looked upon her son for the first time, he had two shining emerald orbs same as his father. Her kit smiled at her with a tiny little grin that made her coo and him giggle at the coo. His tiny tail swayed back and forth, a little black tip on it, also the same as his father…in fact, all of his colorization was like Nick, he did not have a single resemblance to her.
That fact didn't bother her one bit, because it meant her son would grow into a smart, charming, and handsome tod. She couldn't help herself looking at his adorable face and hugged him close to her chest. After a few moments though Jason started to wriggle uncomfortably, she let out a tired laugh at that and eased her grip. Looking at her son again he had a annoyed look on his tiny face that she couldn't help laughing at, "oh I'm sorry but you're to adorable."
After that she put a parental mark on the top of his head and everything in that moment was right with the world.
(Four years later)
That fifty percent chance happened. As Jason got closer and closer to the age of four Mary started to notice things that tended to happen more often. He was always a quiet kit and very inquisitive, he always squirmed when she would show him affection but also laugh. But, as he got older he became quieter and quieter, and he stopped laughing with shows of affection and instead simply squirmed away from her with a little smile.
Then, when he was three, he also stopped making eye contact. She'd look at him and he would avert his gaze and look somewhere other than her eyes. He'd move further away if she sat down on the couch and left room enough to where she would have to reach to touch him, he would move out of her reach. He also began to have trouble with emotions, more specifically showing them…it was like they became foreign concepts to him.
Anger was one he kept though. He developed a sort of anger issue, he would get frustrated or overwhelmed and then burst, growling, yelling, throwing things, things of that sort. He would calm quickly, state the reason he had that outburst, apologize, clean up if he threw stuff, and then let out a sigh, not understanding why he was having these issues.
There was other things to. Loud noises bothered him a bit, especially high pitched noises like screams. He would plaster his ears to his head and give a irritated look towards whatever was causing the noise. He wasn't very found of bright lights either, especially of the lights flashed. He would flinch away from flashing lights, and because of his dislike of bright lights he wore specialty sunglasses quite often. He had a hard time socializing too, and went out of his way to avoid it more than any normal kit would. Then there was this tick he developed, he'd rhythmically tap his toes on his right foot on the ground in a set of three, little toe to big toe. That or he'd twitch his little and ring finger three or four times, sometimes he'd do both. The last thing was he seemed to have problems abandoning even the simplest of tasks once he had taken them up, and would throw a small fit if he wasn't able to complete it.
The most remarkable thing though, was his intelligence. For a four year old he operated on the brain level of a ten year old. He was inquisitive, quick minded, had the ability to recognize complex patterns for his age, could solve advanced problems for his age, and appeared to have the beginnings of a photographic memory.
While it was difficult see her son become like this, she still loved him the same, and she knew he loved her. He said it a lot, would go out and pick her flowers, beautiful flowers at that, even gave her half hugs every now and then. He genuinely tried to show he cared and not come off as cold, and she could tell it bothered him that he didn't know why he was like this.
Sadly, she was the only mammal in his life. Her parents disowned her after he was born, they had come to meet him and when her father saw that he bore no resemblance to her he had yelled at her.
"I will not have the Todd name sullied by a bastard child! I thought that if the kit at least looked like you it would be fine! But no he doesn't look even a bit like you! So he is not my grandson! I do not recognize him as a member of the Todd family! He may have the last name but that means nothing! And you Mary are disowned! You are out of the will, you will never take over my company, you are no longer a daughter of mine! I raised you better than this! You can stay at the office in Ibexas simply because I know you earned it because I didn't hand it to you! Diane we are leaving, let's go!"
After that her father had stormed out and her mom followed behind him, pausing at the door and turned saying, "I'm sorry sweetie…but he is beautiful." After that her mom walked out, and she never saw or heard from either again.
There was no other family members within the Todd family that she was close enough to, to be able to introduce her son to them. Her father was an only child and his parents were just like him if not worse. His father never liked her simply because she was a vixen and not a tod, he didn't even want her to be a member of the family business. There was no family on her moms side, both parents were gone and she to was an only child.
He did not have any friends either. In school he was a outcast because he was a fox, and a strange one at that. According to teachers though he made no attempts to make friends at all, and went out of his way to stay away from other kits more than they stayed away from him. Outside of school was more of the same, her kit just did not want to be bothered with other kits. Fine with entertaining himself, which usually consisted of him studying the mammals around him and exploring the area, studying things and asking about things he did not know about. He was genuinely interested in gaining new knowledge about everything, and he appeared to retain it all.
So with all of these things it came as no shock being in doctor Monroe's office being told the news. "Well Ms. Todd, observing your son and running some simple tests I can confirm that he has some form of autism. But I know this information doesn't come as a surprise to you, he's been showing signs of it since he was two."
Mary, sitting opposite to Dr. Monroe, nodded and replied, "yes, I've known this for awhile. Quiet, antisocial, not a fan of being touched, problems expressing emotion, dislike of bright lights and loud noises. All the common signs of it."
Dr. Monroe nodded a couple of times. "Yes, those are the signs. But the question now is what type does he have."
Mary gave him a quizzicality look "how do you find that out?"
"A series of tests should narrow it down, but my best guess would be he has a form of high functioning autism. Just based off of what I've seen and what you've told me. It'll take a day to run all of the tests, and I will forewarn you that it will require taking him well out of his comfort zone and pushing buttons he's not gonna want pressed. But that's what it will take to get the full picture."
Mary grimaced. "While I might be fine with that I doubt my little Jason will be fond of the idea."
Dr. Monroe let out a small chuckle. "No I doubt he will. But it's something that needs to be done. Bring him in tomorrow and we'll get it done."
(The next day, Jason)
It was about midday and all of the tests were finished. Jason was in the office with his mom and Dr. Monroe, dressed in a red shirt, cargo pants, and a black faux leather jacket. He was sitting in the right corner of the room with his arms crossed, ears plastered to his head, head turned, and eyes averted looking at the ground… and he was NOT happy.
To start, his mom had gotten him up at 8am on a Saturday, two hours earlier than normal, so he was already in a bad mood. She helped cheer him up with some fast food breakfast, but then next thing he knew he was back at the hospital. Then to top it all off, they started to do tests, and he was NOT a fan of most of them. They tested and pushed his limits and a couple of times he was really tempted to bite a finger or two. It was especially frustrating because they hadn't explained to him why they were doing all of these tests, what the purpose was for them.
But now for him luckily the test were done. But he was still ticked off, his mom had tried to cheer him up and used her baby voice, his reply was to give her a cold look and a huff. She gave him a pout in return but he wasn't gonna fall for the guilt trip. His mom had let out a sigh and then stood from her crouch and went to sit at Dr. Monroe's desk. The only bright side to all of this was he'd finally get to learn about what all of these tests were about, so as his mom sat down he perked his ears and tuned into the conversation.
"So Dr. Monroe, what are the results?"
"Well Ms. Todd, it's what we expected…sort of. He has a form of high functioning autism, but it's like nothing any of the specialists here have seen before."
"Autism? I remember reading about it when mommy left the laptop open…that's what's wrong with me?"
"How can that be Dr. Monroe? How is that possible?"
"Well Ms. Todd, specific forms of autism are hard to peg in general, but your son is so unique in his. So much so, that it's getting its own name, Wilde's Autism. His is a extremely high function form of autism, we tested his cognitive abilities thoroughly and, it's just remarkable. Advanced to semi-complex problem solving, recognition of advanced and complex patterns for his age, which seems to be his special skill, and this was with both patterns on paper and he picked up on patterns of the mammals testing him too."
"He solves problems presented to him very quickly, longest it took him at most was a minute for a couple. He definitely has a photographic memory and amazing memory retention, we showed him and asked him several things at the beginning of the testing and he remembered it all when we asked at the very end. His intelligence is just remarkable, at the end we gave him an IQ test, an adult level IQ test, and he got an 108. A. One hundred. Eight. On a adult level IQ test. That's just remarkable! Unprecedented for a four year old kit with autism! He definitely operates on a brain level not for his age!"
"So it's not like this for other kits? Am I some sort of freak?"
"….Doctor, I don't know what to say to that. I mean….I knew he was intelligent, but…I mean…wow."
*chuckles "I think that's appropriate reaction to news like this. But there is more of course, as it comes with autism there is side effects."
"This should be interesting, if I know what this autism is doing to me I can fight it."
"Yes, I think I've noticed most of them already, and I've told you about them and you've seen some of them for yourself Doctor Monroe."
"Yes, yes Ms. Todd, we already know about a few that he developed beforepaw, but on the basic levels. So I'd like to go through it all in depth, because there are some I doubt you've noticed."
"Hm, very well then doc. Let's here them, it would be nice to know the full extent of his limits."
"I agree mommy, I agree."
"Okay, so I will just go down the list in the order he was tested and observed. First, he has a sensitivity to light, which is one we already knew of, dislike of sunlight both indoors and out, LED bulbs brightness levels and above cause discomfort and for him to look and flinch away from the source. Flashing lights at any brightness at all cause serious discomfort to him. Jason where's speciality sunglasses that we gave him to help him stand the brightness.
"So this autism is why I can't stand the sun, bright lights, or flashing lights? And that's why I have to wear these sunglasses?"
"Next is his discomfort with loud noises. Decibel levels 70 and above cause Jason severe discomfort, he will plaster his ears to his head and flinch away. Long exposure to the sound will cause an outburst, growling, yelling, snarling, throwing things, and in the case of the sounds, attacking the source."
"Autism is why I can't stand loud noises too!? Urghh."
"Now comes his outbursts. They are actually the most minor outbursts the specialists have ever seen, he's not as loud or as aggressive as others, also his outbursts don't last very long. He calms quickly and not only that, he calms himself, which is something that very rarely happens. As a matter of fact, me and the specialists can't really attribute his outbursts to the autism, because it's not like the typical outbursts we see. It's more like…a actual temper tantrum than anything else really. More through tests would have to be done on the subject to get a firmer grasp on it."
"It's the reason I have these stupid outbursts!? What's those words I heard on TV?...ah that's right, SON OF A BITCH!"
"Well that's..something I wasn't expecting to hear, I'll have to think on having him tested more to find out, not sure that's a strain I want to put him through."
"Of course of course. It's not something that is totally needed, most times for forms of high functioning autism as the kit gets older the outbursts go away or at the least lessen. But since he self calms, it will more than likely be something that goes away with time. Moving on, lack of eye contact, lack of speech, and dislike of being touched are three very common symptoms in all forms of autism. For lack of eye contact, I'm sorry to say that that'll never go away, it will lessen with time, especially with you, but he will have it for life."
"This just can't get much worse! This is why I can't look my mom in the eyes! No! I will fight this so help me gods! I will look my mother in the eyes!"
"Next, lack of speech. With constant work he should be able to converse semi-normally, he will be short, blunt, straight to the point, and lackluster in it if you will. But, he will speak. Then there's the dislike of being touched, that to with work and time should lessen to a simple discomfort. With you, it will eventually not be a problem at all by my guess."
"Well, that's some good news at least. I don't care about speaking to other mammals, but I want to talk to my mommy without it being difficult."
"Well that's some good news Doctor Monroe. I doubt my little Jason will care much about how he converses with other mammals, but I can tell that it bothers him that he has trouble talking to me and doesn't understand why. As to the touch that's fantastic news! To hold my kit again…it's amazing news."
"Yes I figured you would enjoy that bit of news. Now moving forward again, his antisocial behavior, I'm not entirely sure it's solely attributed to his autism. We put him with a group of children here for various reasons, a few of them foxes, and he stayed away from everyone in a rear corner of the room. The other foxes on the other hand, went over to him and sat down in a little semi-circle in front of him. He actually chatted with them, at one point the other kits scooted back a bit, probably because Jason didn't like them being so close. He kept partial eye contact and his responses short, but he chatted with them the whole time. So it seems as long as they kept a respectful distance he was fine with them being there and talking with him."
"Yeah I remember them, Seth, Cody, Chris, and Steven, they were nice. And it was real nice when they scooted back when I asked. I wonder if I could hang with them again, I don't really have friends. No kits in school or around the park are worth getting to know or hang around."
"Well that's great news! I wonder if I could meet their parents, it's important for Jason to have some friends and these are the only kits he's given a time of day to. Maybe because they were foxes?"
"No, I'm not sure that's it. I think it was because they were a few years older than him as well as respecting his space and genuinely being nice to him. I think their age was an important factor because they are closer to the cognitive level Jason is at, Jason has the mind of a ten year old at the cognitive level and the kits were 8 instead of 4. So with them being eight which is only a two year difference, he could converse with them more freely and have more in common. Them being foxes probably helped to simply for the fact foxes tend to stick with other foxes."
"Huh, I didn't think of that. But, he's right, the only reason I kept talking to them is because we had more in common…so if I want to make friends it's just gotta be older kits…maybe? I don't know."
"Well that's something to think on. But it sounds like more speculation."
"Well Ms. Todd, that's because it is. But I would suggest trying to have him interact with older kits and see how he does in time. For now though, I think seeing if those kits could become friends with your son is a very very good idea, having friends could help him immensely. But let's move on, there was a few more things we noticed, one is his ticks. You've pointed them out to me before, and ticks are extremely common with kits with autism, but what's important is what we didn't see. Along with ticks, kits with autism usually sway back and forth, and chant things like nursery rhymes. But he does neither, which is incredibly odd, literally every form of autism has these two things. This to me is the main indicator of his conditions uniqueness and mystery."
"Huh, that's interesting. But that's about it, I like my ticks."
"Well that's interesting, I remember reading about swaying and chanting, and he's never done it at home either."
"Well there's a small chance they might show up later, but a small one. Now there is one last thing, his problems with expressing emotions. That, I am afraid, is something he will have for life. Emotions are and will continue to be foreign concepts to him. He may know what the emotion means, what it looks like, what it's supposed to feel like. But, when it comes to actually feeling it, he won't….now before you get disheartened, this is only speculation based on what was observed, and what we know.. his form of Autism is unknown, so there is a chance emotion is something he might get back, if only a little. Also I will tell you this, love is one thing he will never lose, he might not know how to properly express it, but he has it and will continue to have it."
"…I don't know what I'm supposed to think about that…don't know how I'm supposed to feel about it either, but I guess I know why…I'm going to prove him wrong though, him and those….what was that other world?...ah, and those bastards, yeah that's the word, those bastards who did all those stupid tests to me."
"I. I…that's disheartening news Dr. Monroe."
"I know, and I'm sorry. But that's what it looks like it's gonna be. But remember, we could be wrong, Jason is a special and strong kit, and I got the feeling he's going to prove a lot of mammals wrong about a lot of things"
"You're godsdamn right I will."
"Wait a moment Dr. Monroe, what about Jason's focus?"
"Oh yes of course! Sorry, sorry I don't know how I forgot about that bit. Well as you've mentioned to me before it seemed to you that Jason had a very narrow focus, and you are completely right. Jason has an incredibly narrow focus, and a extremely hard time abandoning tasks once he's undertaken them. We had him start several tasks and then stopped him to start on others, he wasn't a fan. This is what caused him to have the most outbursts as well. Though if we presented him with multiple tasks he would juggle them well and complete them, it seemed his main issue was not being able to complete them."
"I hated that part! Here do this, wait never mind leave it be and come do this! AHHHHHH! Just let me finish!"
"Speaking of strength, and things related to it…" since Jason was keeping his eyes averted still, he didn't know what was happening, he was counting on them speaking to get information, heck they were probably speaking this freely because they didn't think he could hear them. So he continued to listen, curious to why he had stopped talking. Next thing he new he heard what sounded like a jar opening. "What the hell?"
Next thing he knew he heard the doctor call out his name. "Jason!"
He snapped his head up just in time to see a lollipop flying towards him and in a split second snatched it out of the air. Looking at the lollipop in his paw he saw that it was a raspberry tootsie pop, his favorite. Looking back up towards the doc and him mom he saw the look of satisfaction on the doc's face and a look of shock on his mom's. He shrugged, opened the lollipop, said "thank you.", stuck or in his mouth, and then averted his gaze again.
"What was that Doctor! Why did you throw that at him!?"
"To show a point Ms. Todd, I knew he would catch it. While we were testing him we noticed his reflexes and paw eye coordination were superb! One of the specialists knocked her coffee cup of the desk and Jason shot his paw out and caught it, not a drop hit the floor. After that happened we tested him some more and the results were the same. Best guess is his brain substituted for his mental condition by boosting his physical attributes. Again this is speculation without further testing, and I have no idea how far it goes. Honestly I could just be talking out of my ass for this particular, regardless though, it is pretty superb."
"Talking out of his ass? why is it he's either right, or farting? Why is he even…adults are weird."
"That's…remarkable. I really don't know what to say to that either. Anything else you observed or think?
"Yes, we observed one other thing that I've had my suspicions of for some time. All of the pain receptors in Jason's body are fried, completely. Jason feels no physical pain."
"Wait, seriously? That's cool. That really doesn't sound like a bad thing."
"Dr. Monroe how could that have happened?"
"It's a birth defect, a fairly minor one thankfully. It's something that can't be fixed and it does have the potential to be dangerous. If Jason say breaks a bone, or gets a serious injury, he won't be able to feel the injury and that has the potential to cause more damage to himself. Best counter for this is for Jason to learn about his anatomy so he will understand, oh this is a bad injury, don't move."
"Well then I will learn my.. anta anata ….whatever that word is."
"Okay that's something that can be done, I think four is a little early for it so I'll wait till he's six. Is there anything else?"
"That's completely fine, I think Jason has enough on his plate for now. And yes there is one final thing, I'm not entirely sure because we didn't test it, and it's hard to test it because of his condition. But, I think his senses might be enhanced, at the very least enhanced for a mammal with autism. In fact, I think he's been listening in the entire time."
"Uh oh, the jigs up."
"Jason, is that true?"
Jason looked towards his mother and forced himself to lock eyes with her and hold it, then simply nodded.
Mary put her paws over her muzzle in shock, this was something that was supposed to broken to him slowly, and who knew what was circulating in his head. Before she could say anything Dr. Monroe stood and said, "why don't you come over here and take a seat."
Jason shrugged and crunched the lollipop in his mouth, savoring the raspberry taste before standing, tossing the stick into a near by bin as he did. He then padded over to his mom and the doctor, internally uncomfortable at the chairs closeness to the two. Dr. Monroe must have noticed his discomfort because he walked around his desk and scooted the chair further to the left before re-taking his seat, and Jason was grateful he would no longer be sitting so close to them.
Jason reached the desk and hopped onto his chair before sitting down, glancing at Dr. Monroe noticing that Dr. Monroe jotted something down as he sat. He sat legs crossed as he didn't like his legs dangling, it made him feel ridiculous. He glanced back and forth from his mom and Dr. Monroe, waiting for one of them to speak to him. "Come on you know I'm not gonna start the conversation."
After a few moments his mom spoke, causing him to look at her and forcing himself to make eye contact. "Jason, sweetie. Just what did you hear?"
He kept his answer simple. "Everything."
"Oh sweetie." His mother leaned in to touch him before stopping herself as reflexively he averted his gaze to the floor. She closed her eyes for a moment before opening them and saying. "I'm so sorry sweetie, this was something that was supposed to be revealed to you slowly."
Jason kept his gaze averted this time when he spoke. "I know….does this make me some sort of freak?"
His mom let out a gasp of horror at hearing him say that but Dr. Monroe immediately spoke.
"No Jason, it doesn't. It makes you unique, special, it makes you different. Other mammals might think you are a freak, but it's because they won't understand who you are. And if we can put aside what all the other pediatricians, doctors, and normal mammals will say about you, and make them think for a moment that what if they are wrong. What if they are using the wrong tests so to speak to quantify your intelligence and the intelligence of kits with autism. If we can get them to question their expectations, and that might include that you will get married, have kits, be self-sufficient, or not. But, if we let the world set the expectations for you and other kits like you, they will start low, and they will stay there. Because you are capable of much more than you know, more capable than your mom knows, or I know, or anybody else knows. Maybe you do know and just don't know how to tell us that, maybe you can't. Or maybe, just maybe it's because everyone else doesn't know how to listen. You are not a freak or anything similar to the word, you are an amazing kit, simply different than the rest. Jason, YOU need to be the one set your own expectations on how you will live your life, and you will have your mother and I, and a whole lot of other mammals at your disposal to help you reach those expectations that you set, how simple or grand they may be."
(Two years later)
Mary noticed a change in her son, and it didn't look like it was a good one. The first year after he diagnosed had been a overall nice one. The four fox kits that Jason had interacted with him at the hospital became fast friends with him, the four were already friends with each other and integrated Jason into their little group easily. Seth's parents were doctors at the hospital, his mother being one of the specialists that tested Jason. Cody was there because he had broken his left arm and Chris was there for physical therapy after a right shoulder surgery. Stephen had been there for a broken left foot.
Seth was the leader of the little group and had been the one that initiated with Jason, the other kits following along and all getting along with him smoothly. Since Seth's mom was a Autism Specialist all of the kits had a understanding of the condition and as a result knew how to interact around Jason. They four kits were around quite a lot and had helped Jason immensely. They knew when Jason speaks he would speak in a neutral and level tone with no emotion or passion in it, and be blunt with no filter or empathy. But, the kits did not mind it, they knew it wasn't something Jason could really help, but as a result of their friendship he was speaking in more than single simple sentences. It was also a benefit for her because the mansion felt less empty with a group of five kits hanging around as well as the four's parents were over quite often. She had hit it off with all of them quickly after she met them, and it was nice to have some friends of her own.
She pulled Jason from school after his official diagnosis and instead had him homeschooled, it was easier for him. She was tempted to send him to a school for kits with autism but he had told her no saying, "those schools are mostly run by the people Dr. Monroe warned me about." So instead on Tuesdays and Thursday's he went to a private institution he had selected. It was something he did a lot, making his own decisions on things that could impact his condition, stating "I'm setting my own expectations like I was told."
The change in her son came after his sixth birthday, they had gone into town to celebrate with his friends and everything seemed fine at the time. She had taken them to a place called Buster and Dave's a large sort of arcade, she normally wouldn't have taken Jason to a place like it. They place was loud, crowded, with lots of bright and flashing lights, all places her kit preferred to avoid. But he had recently been given special contacts that worked a lot like his specialty sunglasses, and they were especially made so he could tolerate the bright and flashing lights better. Jason solved the noise problem with speciality ear plugs and had told her he would grin and bear the crowds.
While they were there he kept with his group of friends or in the party room she had rented out with her. He was always with at least one of the mammals he came there with, until he had to use the bathroom. He had gone by himself as none of his friends had to go and had claimed to only be gone for a minute…when it hit ten minutes everyone started to wonder and Seth went to go check on Jason, he quickly came back yelling for help. He found Jason unconscious and bloody in a stall, he had been jumped. She and the rest of his friends ran into the bathroom, Seth had called out to someone who worked there after he discovered Jason and the wolf was in there tending to Jason while on the phone with 911.
By the time they had entered the wolf was telling Jason to stay down as he had regained consciousness. She had maintained her composure just barely and Seth, the trooper he was took to questioning Jason on what happened. Jason had claimed it had been three mammals, males late teens to early twenties, a zebra, wolf, and cougar. Jason hadn't heard them sneaking up on him because of the ear plugs, but once they jumped him he got the reasoning of why they were attacking him, he was a fox and a weird one at that. He also said he recognized the three, he had noticed them before watching him and his friends and then figured they must have been following them and when he split off and went to the bathroom they took the opportunity.
It was hard for her and the employee to fathom that the mammals committed a brazen attack in such a public place, Jason had mentioned though that the three reeked of alcohol.. Luckily for her, public meant cameras and the three were identified and caught, they had fled the place after jumping Jason but it didn't keep them from Justice for long. Jason had been taken to the hospital and sustained a broken nose, a left orbital fracture, moderate concussion, and some serious bruising all over his body.
After that day, her son was never the same. It's seemed the accident set him back on his progress, he was quieter and more antisocial, preferring to stay in and not go out. He drew into himself more than ever before, his sentences went back to simple and short, everything he had made progress in seemed to have been reset. The only things that he seemed to have kept was his eye contact and being touched.
When there was no choice in the matter of going out he would be extremely paranoid and cautious. As if he assumed every mammal around him was just waiting to jump him. He was acting so differently she hired a mammal to watch over him when she wasn't there, a sort of personal butler for him, a kind otter named Alfred. He would take all of Jason's orders and report to her. Jason got along well with Alfred, and spoke to him more than he spoke to her. Then again he spent more time with Jason than she could, running the Ibex branch of Todd Industries was time consuming work, and she hated being away from Jason so much.
Jason also decided he wanted to learn how to fight and defend himself. She found him in the den one night on her laptop, flipping through page after page, link after link. She had asked him what he was doing and he had stated "Learning to fight, styles and teachers." Which translated to "I want to learn to fight, I'm looking for fighting styles and teachers." She didn't object to it, it would be good for him she thought. He also had money to buy anything he wanted, she was rich and she spoiled him. He didn't buy many things for himself, mostly small things and this would be his first large purchase. He ended up settling on two fighting styles, Hapkido and Taekwondo, two very common fighting styles in MMA. Then he found two esteemed masters to come and teach him, he learned quickly. Within a year in a half he earned official brown belts in both.
For him to do that, he had to power through his condition, and it's something he also did very well. One day, a month or so after he was jumped she came home on a Thursday to find him at home shirtless and punching a punching bag while wearing red MMA gloves. Thursday's he was supposed to be at the institution, as she was walking over to question him on it Alfred intercepted her and said, "Madam Todd, I would practice caution, he's in a mood."
"Why is he here? He should be at the institution Alfred!"
"He dropped out of the institution, the only thing he said to me when I asked was 'I'm setting new expectations.'"
After that she had stormed over to her six year old kit and said in a raised tone, "Jason Wilde Todd! Why is Alfred telling me you dropped out of the institution!?"
Jason hadn't even stopped what he was doing and just glanced her in her direction and spoke the longest he ever had to her. "They taught me all they could, now it's time I taught myself. They kept me in a sensory-friendly environment, no bright lights, no loud noises, etcetera. Well if bright lights and loud noises bother me I need more of them not less. The world isn't a sensory friendly place, not a very nice place in general either, and that's where I need to live, not trapped in some bubble of safety because of some stupid condition. The world isn't going to conform to me, so I have to conform to it and to do that I need two things. I need to show some sense of normalcy, because mammals don't like or dislike me, those mammals didn't attack me just because I was a fox, they attacked me because I'm different, and sooner or later different scares mammals. That means to show that sense of normalcy I have to learn to tolerate the bright lights and the loud noises, the crowds, all of it, and for emotions I'll fake it till I make it.
"Secondly, I need to know how to defend myself. The world has already proven it's not a fan of me, I'm both a fox and I'm not normal, that's a double whammy. So I need to be able to fight back, efficiently. I need to be able to take down a rhino by myself because there may come a day I will have to. I have already picked out two more fighting styles to further master grappling, takedowns, CQB, and things of the like. Judo and Jiu Jitsu. I also plan on learning knife and gun play, sometimes a fist isn't gonna solve the problem. These are the new expectations I am setting for myself, and I will also be advancing my education. Engineering, mathematics, chemistry, biology, anatomy, computer science, and business management.
Mary had been speechless, flabbergasted. It took her a minute of opening and closing her mouth before she finally formulated enough of a coherent thought for her to speak. "Jason, what gave you this sort of view?"
Jason gave her a side glance again and without missing a beat said, "you leave the news on to much." After that he punched the bag once more and then walked off without another word, Alfred following quickly behind him.
(Another two years later)
Jason kept true to his word. In another year and a half he earned official brown belts in Judo and Jiu Jitsu, and once they were in hand he immediately started two more fighting styles. They were exotic and rare forms, styles that very rarely left the areas from which they originated from. The first was Krav Maga, it was a self defense fighting method created for the Israel Defense Forces and very rarely left Israel, well on the whole level, the basic level of Krav Maga had made it around the world including The Mammilian States. Jason found a retired IDF combat instructor who was a master of Krav Maga living in the states, a honey badger by the name of David. Jason paid him a nice sum to come and train him, and he lived in a guest room in the mansion.
The second was a even more exotic fighting style called Pencak Silat. It was a fighting style out of Indonesia, it had spread throughout Asia but had not spread past that point. Well, until Jason payed a handsome some for a master to come from Indonesia and teach him. The master was a Sumatran Tiger named Khan and was also set up in a guest room. This fighting style was particularly difficult for him, and he was constantly thrashed in spars. Normally after six months he could hold his own, he wouldn't win of course, but he wouldn't get his ass handed to him either. But six months in he was still getting his ass handed to him on a silver platter.
Jason alternated the two styles through six days of the week, each day training for six hours. Tuesday's, Thursday's, and Sunday's were the days for Pencak Silat. Monday's, Wednesday's, and Friday's were the days for Krav Maga. Saturday's was the only day he took off from training, Saturday's was the days he hung out with Seth, Cody, Chris, and Stephen. It was a Sunday and once again Jason was getting his ass handed to him, he was only five hours in and he had just been taken down for about the tenth time in a spar and Khan was calling for a stop.
"Enough, we are finished for today."
Jason started to force himself to rise after being slammed to the ground, blood coming out of several cuts he'd collected during today's sparring. "No, I'm not finished."
Khan crossed his arms and replied, "tomorrow's another day. You have done your best."
Jason rose to one knee and looked up at Khan and retorted back. "If that was true you would be sporting cuts and I would be sporting less. So let's keep going."
Khan did not budge in his stance even a little, non verbally saying that it wasn't going to happen.
Jason gave him a hard look and said, "aggression correctly channeled overcomes a lot of flaws. Tapping into that aggression requires me to pull back several layers of myself. It is my job to know my own limitations, and it's your job to peel. I have another hour so do your job." After he was finished speaking Khan finally relented and the sparring continued.
Jason also kept true to his word about his education. He would alternate the subjects he had picked throughout the entire week, eight hours of the day, everyday, with breaks of course. Monday's he learned about engineering, both mechanical and technical, four hours for both. Tuesday's were for mathematics, but only the types that he would actually need. Wednesday's were for computer science, Thursday's were for biology, Friday's for anatomy, Saturday's for chemistry, and Sunday's were for business management. Jason did not believe in common core or standardized testing, saying it was like asking a fish, elephant, monkey, and a jaguar to climb a tree and their ability to do so would define their intelligence. Not to mention 98% of it was things he would never actually need in life. Jason had this schedule, and it was something he would keep to for quite a time.
Done! I hope this version without the supernatural element goes over better.
I don't really have much else to say besides keep an eye out for the next chapter of AFF in the coming weeks.
So until then this is TheConcernedF0X signing off! See you next time!
