They say the difference between comedy and tragedy is timing.

Red Hood had seen enough, felt enough that – after he'd beaten some penance out of the guilty parties – he could find most of it darkly amusing at least.

He'd had plans when he'd come to Gotham, so, so many plans. Most of them based around his predictions for what the place would have been like in a few months. It was due to a certain psychotic sister of Talia's that he'd pushed those plans up. Reworking some of them had been a bitch he'd been ready to curse the universe for.

Now he found himself wondering about the timing.

There was a new Robin, another on top of his old replacement, a girl who'd at least had the time to enter adolescence before she'd donned the costume. Red Hood could remember how close to amusing he had found it; female, older teen, blonde, she'd had zero in common with any of her predecessors.

Then he'd found out who she was. Daughter of a jailed criminal and a drug addicted mother from a poor area of Gotham, suburbs instead of the heart of the city, but it was close enough. He'd almost scrapped the idea of beating the ever living shit out of the newest Robin, to teach Bruce a lesson about keeping an eye on the kids he got involved in his little war… almost. Being a girl wasn't going to get her out of that.

Then he'd found he couldn't find her. The boy was suddenly back in the costume and there was no sign of long blond hair whipping anywhere about the city. Nothing on the hacked comms, nothing on the streets.

She was gone, missing, not a sign of her anywhere in the city, no matter how hard he looked, and he looked everywhere. It didn't help that no one else seemed to be looking for her at all. Granted they were all very busy with the citywide gang war that had erupted overnight, but he'd been expecting at least some chatter on where she'd gone off to.

That was how he found himself in a dressed like a run of the mill Park Rower, getting his ass beat by a would be mugger. It was all too easy to attract the wrong kind of attention, would have been harder not too. Timing had been perfect, flash some money where he was sure they'd be patrolling soon.

The patrol route he'd chosen had been given a lot of thought, and he'd come to the conclusion that Batman was too much of a risk, he couldn't trust himself not to proceed with plan 'beat the ever loving shit out of the replacement' if Robin showed up, and he'd heard 'things' about the new Batgirl.

That left Nightwing, who was in Gotham for who-the-fuck-knew with some new vigilante woman (cut him a break, he hadn't had time yet to gather all of that information) that gave Red Hood all the wrong vibes.

He grunted as he took a punch to his gut that almost had him puking up his breakfast, and yeah, he was definitely going to pay that guy back when he didn't 'need' to seem pathetic.

The moron was saying something that the ringing in his ears made it hard for Red Hood to hear, but he could get the gist of it from tone and the angry swinging of a knife alone. He really hoped he didn't have to get stabbed for his info.

The knife was pulled back and a shadow appeared above them. "Bout fucking time." Red Hood wheezed, clutching his ribs. His 'mugger' looked surprised, but then he was slammed into a wall and got karmas payback for the beatdown he's been delivering not long ago.

'Oooohh.' That was brutal enough that even Red Hood felt a little sympathy – not really, but he could pretend for the sake of what was left of his conscience.

"Need a doctor, go to Thompkins clinic." Nightwing said coldly, already getting out his grapple.

That… was unexpected, since when didn't 'Nightwing' stop to comfort an innocent victim of crime?

"Hey, hold up." Hood reached for the original Boy Wonder's ankle, wincing as it brought more attention to his bruised ribs. Fuck it, if he didn't need believability he would have worn some kind of armor and he wasn't getting nothing out of that pain. Crying out and counterproductively curling an arm around his midsection seemed to do the trick though, got the guy to stick around at least a few seconds at least.

"You need an ambulance?" He asked, getting closer, now with a hint of the worry Hood would have expected in his eyes.

Maybe a little too close. Hood quickly turned his head away just in case Nightwing was feeling nostalgic and recognized him under the fake beard.

"Jus' wonderin'." He turned his inner Gotham accent up to eleven. "What ever happened ta that girl Robin, ain't seen 'er in…"

"If you do, tell her she's not getting off from all of this lightly." Dick said, and then, with a shot of his grapple he was gone.

"Ass." Hood watched the spot for a few seconds before straightening his greasy denim jacket. So she was sitting it out then, maybe in hiding from the Bats, and wasn't that just an interesting tidbit. His 'mugger' got up and tried to make another grab for the cash, but all he got was a fist to his face that would have 'him' needing to see a doctor. If he could find one that wasn't already filled to capacity, in that hellhole if a city.

Hood shook the blood off his hand as he walked. He felt a smile curling at his lips when he imagined the reaction he would get if he found her before they did. Plans were already forming in his head for how he would use her.

His favorite involved a warehouse, the joker and a whole lot of TNT too. Surely it would be more interesting to give Bruce two Robins to choose over the Joker.

Another part of him that he didn't want to admit to hoped that having more at stake would make it easier for Bruce to make the decision Jason needed him to make. However unlikely it was.