Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters.
He ran and ran. Not caring where he was going, he kept running. Never stopping, never giving in to the despair and exhaustion that threatened to overcome his will power.
For hours, Jason Todd had been running from a group of thugs with one sole purpose; to see him dead. He had managed to piss off another drug lord. Now that drug head was out for his head.
They had found him during one of his typical vigils. He had given them a good fight. But three hours later and most of his weapons used, he was down to his last explosive. And the Red Hood had no other option than to run.
And run he did. Rushing through alleys; jumping on roofs; attempting anything to avoid death. But they kept coming, never relenting. But he was nearing his limits. Furiously, he fought to run on. He refused to give into desperation. The Red Hood never gave in, never.
He panted as he jumped onto another roof, nearly slipping in the process. In an attempt to buy some time, he threw some explosives on to the last building behind him. The explosions effectively destroyed the top half of the abandoned building.
Watching the smoke from the fire, Jason rested and managed to relax. But his relief was short-lived.
Through the smoke, the ten thugs jumped out of the smoke and on to the building where the Red Hood was currently standing on.
"Crap," he cursed as they opened fire.
He turned and jumped down to the next building, through the window and on to the roof of the next building. But he could still hear them on the second roof, never losing sight of him.
Frustrated as he struggled to keep up with the escape, he calculated his options. With the exhaustion and the pain from injuries kicking in, he had barely an hour left in him to keep up this escapade. Either he would be caught and murdered, or they would drag him back to their leader to be killed. Either way, If he kept this up, he was dead.
There was another option. No, he would rather die again than have to go through with his second option.
He reached for more explosives, but found empty pockets. He was completely out. Frustrated, he realized he had no other choice. He had no other options; and death was starting to look less and less appealing by the minute.
He picked up the phone in his pocket, dialed a number. After the first ring, he hung up. Better to call her, not him.
He dialed again, this time he waited for the person on the other end to pick up.
"Whoever you are, do you realize what time it is," the woman on the other end groaned.
"Listen Babs, no offense, but my life is slightly more important than your beauty sleep," He said as he dodged gunshots and ran blindly towards another roof.
"Jason! What are you doing?" Barbara yelled over the phone.
"Trying to save my ass, that's what," he yelled over the explosions in the background, "Damn, that one was close."
"What's going on?" Barbara asked.
"I pissed a crime lord off and now his goons are after me," He grunted as he broke through a window.
"So the usual," she said dryly.
"Not the freaking time!" He yelled.
He heard silence from the other end. He groaned.
"Look, I hate to ask, and I mean I really hate to have to ask. Just send someone. Even if it has to be you and that girly birdie boyfriend of yours; I'll deal," He said as he searched for a way out.
"Is Jason Todd, the infamous Red Hood, asking for assistance?" Barbara teased.
"This is really not a good time to tease," He snapped as he swung to another building, who knew Gotham had this many rooftops?
"Fine, I'll send some help," Barbara said as she hung up.
He put the cell back into his jacket and then realized, "Crap, how is she supposed to find me?"
Tracking device, he guessed. Of course, Bruce would never let his lunatic son run around untracked.
He ran for another ten minutes until he couldn't carry his legs any farther. He finally stood his ground ready to make his last stand. Better to die fighting than running away. The thugs caught up to him and surrounded Jason. Jason took a deep breath as he stared down his would be murderers.
Drawing two knives, Jason waited as they charged. Making every move count, he waited until they were within a few feet from him. Then he attacked. Punching, slashing, and kicking; he managed to slow down the inevitable. A thug lunged towards him. Jason slammed his fist into his face, and then flipped up using the thug as a platform to knock out two other thugs rushing towards him. Another thug rushed towards him. Jason grabbed his head and slammed his helmeted head against the thug's head. The thug fell down unconscious. Jason rushed towards the others. He blocked, hit, flipped and kicked his way around them. Panting heavily; he struggled to avoid more hits than he was giving. But he was tiring fast; it was only a matter of time before they overpowered him. Finally, one of the thugs managed to slug him the gut. Jason was knocked back as he struggled to take the ensuing blows. Taking his helmet off, he used it to knock out the thugs in front of him. He slammed the metal into their skulls; managing to knock a few more out cold. He had managed to knock out most of the first wave of thugs; but they kept coming. He suddenly paled. These weren't the same thugs from before; these were new, fresh reserves sent to capture him. The crime lord had sent his entire army is timed groups to make sure they took down the undefeated Red Hood. Undefeated, until now, he thought. Well, there were those times when the birds had him, but now was not the time to admit his defeats. Now was the time to fight to certain death.
Finally, two of the thugs lunged forward. Jason tried to stab them in vain; they kicked his weapons aside. Jason backed up from the thugs. This was the end. Soon the thugs had grabbed Jason and pushed him on his knees. One of the head goons walked over to him and looked down at him. He gave him an evil sneer as he put a hand under Jason's chin.
"Finally, the Red Hood is on his knees before his impending death," the thug smirked.
"Been there, done that. Death isn't something I want to explore again anytime soon," Jason said as he smirked towards the man.
The man slapped Jason's face; drawing blood as he said; "Joke all you want, but it's over for you."
Jason thought of one last retort, and the hope that came with it as he noticed a movement from the building next to the one he was currently standing on.
"I'm just wasting your time," Jason said grinning up to the thug.
Suddenly, two figures burst on the building. The thugs didn't know what was going on and frantically looked to their leader for orders. Jason used their confusion to break free of the two holding on to him. He then grabbed his helmet and slammed it into the leader's skull, and a he fell; Jason used him as a platform to flip into the circle of thugs surrounding the two newcomers.
"Well you certainly took your merry time," Jason commented as he took a fighting stance with the other two facing the ring of goons.
"You're welcome Jason, for saving your ass," Nightwing retorted as Jason gave him a smirk.
"Save it, we've got asses to kick," Red Robin said as he drew out his staff.
"Right," Red Hood and Nightwing replied as they charged and attacked.
With renewed energy, Jason fought harder than before. Together with his "brothers", the tide had turned. Dick flipped around the thugs, Tim and Jason kicked and punched their way through the crowd.
"We're wasting time and energy here," Dick yelled as he knocked out two more thugs.
"Can you think of anything better," Jason retorted as he slugged a man and then kicked another.
"I can," Tim said as he knocked out another man.
The boy reached into his belt and grabbed ten small balls. Nightwing nodded and told Jason, "When he gives the signal, we need to jump off this building."
Jason nodded and then grabbed his helmet, "Here's a little extra surprise."
"Really, does everything you do have to end in an explosion," Nightwing asked.
"Hell yeah," Jason grinned as he threw his helmet in the middle of the remaining thugs.
"Now!" Red Robin yelled as the other two started running towards the end of the roof.
Nighting, Red Hood, and Red Robin were on the edge of the roof, when the explosions went off. They swung off the building towards the next. Gas filled the air as the three struggled not to breath in the knockout gas that was spreading across the rooftop. Jason's helmet went off, scaring the thugs to the other end of the building where the gas was. The explosion wouldn't touch them, but it would destroy the other end of the building that the boys were jumping from.
As Jason was swinging to safety, the explosion caused a part of the building to blow up. The impact threw Jason off his grapple, tumbling down below.
"Crap!" Jason cursed as he fell to his death.
Suddenly something swooped in and caught him midair. Jason looked up to see a beautiful blonde with her blue eyes staring at him in wonder. He didn't even notice that she was moving toward the other building. He continued staring at her, until her realized what was going on. Then he struggled to get away from her grasp. There was no way he was going to be saved by a girl; albeit a pretty one; he would never hear the end of it from the other two birds.
"It's okay, I got you," she reassured him sweetly.
"I don't need rescuing. Let me down Blondie," Jason snapped, trying in vain to get away from her tight grip.
She gave him a smirk and said, "Okay, tough guy, I'll let you go."
And with that she dropped him ten feet onto the building where Nightwing and Red Robin were safely standing. Jason fell with a thud, and groaned as he got up. He stood up to see Dick and Tim grinning at him.
"Really Jason, you could have killed yourself with your exits," Dick smirked as the girl landed next to Jason.
"Whatever," Jason said as he held his side grimacing in pain.
"Thanks Supergirl," Red Robin said as he turned to the beautiful blond to Jason's right.
"No problem, Barbara said she had a victim for me to save so I flew as fast as I could. It was a good thing that I was in the neighborhood," Supergirl said smiling.
"I am not a victim! And I certainly did not need the help of a girl, especially a cousin of Superman's, to save my ass," Jason snapped as he grew red.
"Is he always this grateful?" Supergirl said as she gave Jason a look.
"You have no idea," Red Robin said smirking as he began to dial the police to come pick up the army of thugs on the rooftop.
"Shut up, brat," Jason said as he glared at his younger "brother".
"Supergirl, meet Red Hood. Jason, you do owe her a 'thank you'" Dick said as he turned to his brother.
"Not my style," Jason said as he ignored the pain in his sides.
"What being nice?" Supergirl asked.
"It's part of my charm, babe," Jason said as he gave her a trademark grin.
"What being a jerk?" Tim interrupted with a grin.
"Hey, if you can't handle the Hood, then stay away," Jason said as he shrugged innocently.
And awkward silence followed. Nobody responded to Jason's comment.
"Well, it was nice meeting you, Red. See you later," Supergirl said as she flew off into the distance.
Jason gaze followed her as she flew away and then he turned towards his brothers.
"Well, now we can go back to our lives and pretend this never happened," Jason said as he attempted to stumble off.
Tim stopped him, "You're going straight to Alfred to get bandaged up. You've got blood all over you."
It was then that Jason noticed the blood that was running from cuts on his chest. Suddenly, his exhaustion came back full force. He collapsed; but not before Dick and Tim caught him. There was no point in arguing with them, he could barely walk, let alone talk.
"No arguments, you're coming home. Or we'll tell everyone that you have a crush on Supergirl," Dick teased.
"I do not freaking have a crush on her. She's hot, that's all. And crushes are for little girls like you, dickie bird," Jason returned violently.
"Hey!" Dick whined.
"Jason, Dick, behave," Tim ordered as the other two sulked.
"I am never calling for an ass saving, especially from you guys, again. Death is better than this humiliation," Jason muttered as Dick and Tim helped him off the roof.
The End