Jason's favorite part of patrolling was the motorcycle riding. Whipping through the streets, speed limits fucked, just the wind and the bike rumbling underneath him. That's what he was doing on one of the many cloudy nights of Gotham. The roar of the engine filled Jason with satisfaction as he skidded through crime alley. Criminals beware.
Just as Jason turned around another corner, his night at its peak, a beeping on his comm disrupted the feeling. Reluctantly slowing down and pulling over to a curb, Jason tapped twice on his comm to answer the call.
"What." He said sharply. Checking the time, Jason realized it was only 11:30, much too early for really anyone to find a lead on the case they were working on. Or rather, everyone else was working on.
"Check in. Have you found him." Bruce's batman voice was even harder to understand over comms and Jason rolled his eyes. He took off his helmet to hear the man better and mentally questioned his life choices that led him to chasing a deranged maniac in a dark city with a gang of guys in spandex.
"No I haven't. And I don't need to check in, I'll be-" whatever Jason was about to say got cut short. He dropped his helmet in his hands and twisted on his bike to see three goons, two holding guns and one holding a rather large bat. Reaching up Jason winced as his hand came into contact with the tender spot. "Did you just hit me?" The Red Hood asked. The thugs looked at each other with smirks before the one with the bat nodded. He had a smug grin on his face.
"What's going on?" Bruce asked, the comm link still open and Jason got off his bike, hands pulling out a serrated knife. The blade glittered in the street light.
"These scumbags had the audacity to hit me in the head with a fucking baseball bat." Jason said, his lips curling into a snarl. The goons started to look less sure of themselves. "And now they're going to die." Bruce said something over the comm, probably a reminder not to kill, but Jason wasn't really listening. He brandished his knife and leapt for the closest guy, the one with the bat, and stabbed him in the collarbone. Blood splattered onto Jason's face and he whipped around, tearing the knife out and lodging it into the lower chest of the second closest man. The third, the farthest away, made a noise of dread and raised his gun.
"Jason stop!" Bruce yelled over the comm and the hooded vigilante paused, the shock of Batman using his real name giving the goon the perfect shot.
Several blocks away, Bruce heard the gun go off. Damian looked at his father who suddenly grew stone faced, his mouth down turning into a grim look darker than his regular batman façade. The young boy himself felt himself involuntarily tense at the sound.
Jason didn't move, his torso cold. The goon had trembling hands, looking from his gun to the wound blossoming blood through the Red Hood's kevlar suit. Jason followed his enemy's gaze and gazed, disconnected, at the red starting to leak from his lower torso. "Fuck." Was all Jason said before the thug recovered from his shock and his grin returned.
"I did it," he said to seemingly no one. Jason stumbled. His reaction was delayed but the coming vertigo hit instantly. Vision swimming, Jason buckled to one knee and he put a hand to his stomach, looking from the blood up to the goon. "You Red Hood," the goon started to approach, satisfaction radiating off him in waves. "Are coming with me."
Jason didn't understand, it seemed to be a normal kevlar piercing bullet, so why was he feeling… as if to prove his point, a flash of nausea made him fall to both knees and fly a hand out to steady himself against the concrete. Hands shoved him down and now spots appeared, flaring in his eyes and making his vision go white in places. The two hands tugged at Jason's hands, pulling the uncomfortably behind his back and the familiar sensation of rope rubbing his skin registered in his mind.
Bruce was only a block away when he heard the familiar squeal of tires. He tried to move faster, now getting ahead of Damian but by the time he dropped down onto the bloody pavement, there was no sign of Jason. The only remainder of him at all was two dead bodies and a silver serrated knife. Bruce didn't doubt that the blood on the tip would match the blood type of the two goons lying on the sidewalk. He called for the batmobile as Damian dropped down beside him. Robin recognized Bruce's look immediately.
"Nightwing, Hood's been taken." Bruce said, his voice dark in the comm. Dick stopped his patrol, freezing on a building edge that looked over Gotham. His veins turned to ice. "Rendezvous back at the cave."
Bruce looked at what was left, scooping up Jason's knife and tucking it in his belt. The batmobile skidded to a stop on the curb right behind Jaosn's motorcycle and opened its doors. Bruce was about to turn before a glint off the gun caught his eye. Damian approached the weapon, as he got closer the inscribing on the side became more visible.
Bat repellent
Damian picked up and looked at Bruce who narrowed his eyes. Wordlessly, he grabbed the gun, and threw it into the batmobile with distaste. "Damian, take Jason's bike back." Damian smirked, already planning on crashing it into every tree in Gotham before Bruce gave him a side eye. "No detours."
His grin falling, Damian settled for every tree on the way to the cave. Mounting the vehicle, he revved the engine and shot off, Bruce watching the kid go before looking back at the crime scene. He clenched his jaw, hating the similarity between now, and the first time Jason was killed by the Joker.
Finally turning, Bruce picked up the red helmet Jason had dropped, set it in the car and jumped into the batmobile. His hands curled around the steering wheel tightly. God help what happens if Jason dies one more time.
—-
Sliding into the cave, Bruce hopped out of the car immediately and stalked towards the computer. There, Damian, Dick and Tim were already waiting, each one wearing a grim expression. Even Damian, who normally wouldn't care looked distracted. His fists were working open and closed, a nervous tick Bruce had picked up long ago. Damian was worried.
"Bruce, what happened?" Dick asked as soon as the billionaire reached the computer. Ignoring his eldest, Bruce took out the gun and opened its chamber. Inside, there was a row of 10 bullets in the round. The bat snatched out a bullet, carefully setting it on the computer dash, above a glowing white light. "Bruce?" Dick asked again.
"Analysis." Bruce said finally, not even looking at his sons. Tim moved closer to the keyboard, typing fast and putting in a series of commands. Soon, the monitor blinked, pulling up the qualities and measurements of the bullet.
"That bullet is coated in liquified Xanax and Propofol." Tim said, reading the screen. Dick narrowed his eyes.
"And BZ." He noticed. Damian looked up at that.
"That's impossible, BZ is an airborne poison." He said, his eyes scanning the computer for the information. Once he found it, his nose wrinkled. On the screen it wrote;
Contains BZ. Symptoms: paranoia, hallucinations, intense confusion.
Bruce didn say anything, the silence in the batcave like tangible pressure pressing down on their shoulders. "So what do we do?" Tim asked, breaking the silence. He looking over to Bruce. His cowl had been taken off and underneath his hair was messy, dark rims circling his eyes.
"I'm going back out." Bruce said with finality, the pit in his stomach just getting larger the longer he stood still. Dick immediately followed him and when Tim moved to get up Bruce held up him hand. "No, Tim you stay," turning to Dick, Bruce narrowed his eyes. "You too Dick."
Damian scoffed and walked towards the stairs that led up to the manor. He had the same sinking feeling in his stomach, but pushed it aside. He told himself he would not care. And now he had to follow through. Behind him, Damian could hear both Drake and Grayson arguing feverishly with Bruce. "You're staying." Bruce growled out finally and turned, cutting the argument short and leaving the two in furious silence.
"He's our brother Bruce," Dick attempted to insist but Bruce paid no mind.
"He's my son." Bruce looked back at the two. "All of you are."
—
Jason's hearing came back first, and stuck in the darkness, he strained his ears for any clue what was going on. His mind was blurry, little coming back to him but the throbbing in the back of his head along with the sharp jolts of pain in his torso told him enough. Something was not right. Flexing his hands, Jason quickly realized he was tied to a chair, his hands restrained behind his back and feet separately tied to the two front legs. He also noticed with a pang of disappointment that his leather jacket was missing.
"Yeah, and I took him out, all by myself-" the haughty voice was cut off by the sound of a slap.
"Shut up, you couldn't have done it without the laced bullets you dipshit." A different, more rough voice hissed. Jason refrained from snorting at the pained yelp the first man gave. Laced bullets… that was probably why it felt so fucking weird.
The room suddenly quieted from it's mindless chattering and Jason tried not to tense as footsteps echoed around him. Opening his eyes only a sliver, he forced his vision to focus and recognized the discolored loafers in front of him. "Time to wakey wakey bird boy." An unfortunately familiar voice said, and Jason could hear the grin. Using something long and cold, Jason felt his head lift, and he narrowed his eyes through the mask he was wearing at the clown standing in front of him.
"Joker." Jason said, his tone rough and a growl working its way into the one word.
"Baby bird, it's been too long." The Joker smiled and took the metal away from Jason's chin. Once pulled away, Todd could easily recognize the shape of a crowbar. "I've been waiting for you to call, I loved our date, way back when."
Leaning back, Jason scrunched up his nose and spit, his saliva hitting Joker's shoe. "My schedule doesn't have room for deranged maniacs." With a tilt of his head, the former Robin formed an expression of distaste.
The Joker was still as the goons around him waited in apprehensive silence. Looking down at his shoe, the clown made a comical sad face. Looking back up, his sad face melded into some twisted grin, stretching from one ear to the other and he threw his head back laughing. Cackling like he just heard the funniest joke in the world, and he was soon breathless. Looking around at his thugs, he started laughing again and they began to uneasily laugh too. Catching his breath and peering down at his captive, the Joker made a face. "I see my Robin got humor from my side of the family, I'm so proud." Wiping a fake tear, his expression darkened, the smile staying in place.
Jason didn't even see it coming. One moment, the Joker was leaning real close, the second, a crowbar was sent whipping across his face. The chair he was tied to skidded to the side from the fore of the blow and his torso screamed in protest. The bullet wound hadn't been looked at, and Jason knew that the bullet was still in there. He let his face hang to the side for a moment, catching his breath. Opening his mouth wide, he stretched his jaw. Already the area was starting to throb. He looked back, eyeing the villain through his hair. All he could think about was tearing the clown apart, bone by bone.
"Oh my, that looked painful." Pursing his unnatural lips, the Joker hummed. "But maybe not enough," he approached the old Robin and hovered right in front of the vigilante's head. Thinking fast, Jason lurched forward and slammed his skull into the Joker's, a smirk etched onto his face. Rearing back, the pasty white clown held his forehead and blew a raspberry in the vigilante's direction. "Pity, I was really looking forward to dragging this out this time." The madman said in a tone so disappointed, Jason almost puked. What the actual fuck.
"Sir," a goon approached the Joker, head bowed and eyes never leaving the crowbar.
"What it is you moron." The crazy man turned to his thug and stared down with irritation. Shifting under the gaze, Todd couldn't help but scoff at the pitiful sight.
"The bat is confirmed looking for Red Hood. It won't be long before he finds us." The goon sounded worried and a grin settled on Jason's face despite the situation. The little scum should be worried, and not because the dark knight was looking for them.
"He'll never find us in time," Joker looked to Jason, as if reading his mind. "We will be looong gone by then." The villain let loose a wild cackle and he swung the crowbar again, barely missing the goon and solidly hitting Jason in the center of his chest. Biting back a groan of pain, Todd gasped to recover his breath, glad his armor was shock absorbent. "So, baby bird," swinging the bar to rest on his shoulder, Joker paused and put a hand to his chin.
"If you're old and grey now, not very fun," Joker raised a testing eyebrow. "How old is the new Robin?" He asked, tone laced with a twisted curiosity. Jason didn't respond, his eyes narrowed and focused on the wall behind the clown. "Come on sport, answer a simple question for your old man." Joker leaned in close. "You're not protecting the bugger are you?" Jason just clenched his jaw and ignored the spiking pain shooting from his abdomen. After not getting a rise, the Joker leaned back and sighed. Seemingly cooled off, the villain suddenly smacked the metal bar into Jason's rib cage, the sharpened edge cutting cleanly through his suit. Jason gritted his teeth to prevent the hiss from escaping but still grunted in pain.
"Little Jaybird… help Uncle J out please?" Joker tried again, yet still nothing came out of Jason's mouth. However much he disliked the demon spawn, giving Joker satisfaction outweighed his feelings for Damian, a million to one. At least, that's what he told himself. A growl grew from Joker's throat and he started to swing wildly, most blows hitting Jason's chest and stomach. The ex-bird refused to yell and even kept his mouth shut when the chair tipped from the force of a backhand. His bullet wound suddenly jerked a bolt of white hot fire through his body and Jason closed his eyes briefly. That was definitely not good.
Jason's lip was bleeding and streams of blood trailed down his chest and torso when the Joker finally set down the crowbar. The clown was panting while Jason lay on the ground, his eyes open still and narrowed. He was gazing at the Joker with such contempt, the maniac started to laugh breathlessly, not as powerful as before, but a laugh regardless.
"You're tough kid, I'll give you that." The villain said, his tone dark.
Jason didn't respond, blood filling his mouth. He spit it out onto someone's face as three goons lifted up the chair and set him upright. The person growled and slapped Jason before a gunshot went off immediately and blood splattered against the stone grey wall behind them. Joker lowered his smoking gun, the dull thump of a body hitting the floor loud as thunder in the now quiet room.
"No one touches the Hood, but me." He said, his voice unnervingly clear. There was no tone of laughter, no grin, it made cold fingers creep up Jason's spine.
Every thug nodded profusely and Joker holdered his gun, the silver glint now hidden in his waistband. Jason gritted his teeth. Looking back to his captive, the madman gave a chuckle. "You are mine birdie, and just like last time, no bat is going to come save you." He leaned in close, yellow teeth and bad breath making Jason wrinkle his nose in disgust. "Mine, mine mine mine mine mine~" the Joker trailed off into a song and leaned away, beginning a dance.
Jason watched, his expression never changing.