Chapter 1
…Gotham
Batgirl was perched on a building ledge, looking down at the city, watching carefully as she waited for her prey. Suddenly, she reached from the rooftop, gliding into the city and landing on a speeding truck, two thugs aiming their guns out of the back.
She landed silently on the roof of the truck, taking several batarangs from her utility belt and throwing them at two cars that were following the truck, two of the batarangs exploded, small explosions that tossed the cars, but didn't kill anyone.
"What the hell was that!?" one of the thugs peeked out of the truck to look around, but Batgirl slipped into the truck, kicking the other thug to the back of the truck then chucked the other to Red Robin who was gaining on the truck.
"Hey!" Red Robin yelled.
"What? This is my job, you're just here to clear up my mess" she smiled before knocking out the thug at the other end of the truck. The driver was inaccessible, being behind a metal fence with too little space between the wires to use any of her gadgets.
She waited for the truck to stop, when she got out there were several other thugs waiting with guns aimed at her, most of which were shotguns. "Great" she sighed.
Red Robin leaped over them, dropping several smoke pellets. "Now I'm cleaning your mess!" he laughed slightly. Tim and Barbara both took advantage of the smoke and one by one took out the thugs, disarming them first then knocking them out.
"That was easy" he remarked. But he spoke too son. From a nearby apartment building came Black mask with several heavily armed guards and the mercenary Deathstroke. "Deathstroke?!"
Black mask clicked and his men prepared to open fire. Deathstroke stepped forward then dashed at full speed toward Red Robin, kicking him in the stomach. Batgirl fought one on one with Deathstroke while Robin got back up and disarmed the thugs, getting shot in the leg in the process and cut on the arm when one tried to fight back with a knife.
He tore of a section of one of the thug's sleeves and wrapped it tightly around his leg. "Can't believe I slipped up that much." As soon as he was done dealing with the bullet wound he was suddenly hit on the back of the head and knocked out.
...
An unknown amount of time, probably a few hours later, Red Robin woke up, swinging from a chain, hanging over a vat of chemicals. Batgirl and he were both wrapped up in chains around them. "Hey… hey, Babs, are you awake?" he asked Batgirl.
"Yeah" Batgirl said weakly. "Where are we?"
"I have no idea… ugh… I can't reach my emergency button. If you can try then we can alert Batman. He can help us."
"We might not have that much time. You can feel it moving, right? We're being lowered into the vat slowly."
"Yeah. The controls over there" he nodded toward a console on a walkway that was next to the machine the chain was being fed out of. "I can't use anything from my utility belt. You?"
"No. Damn."
They both struggled against the chains, but they couldn't reach anything to free themselves and Deathstroke returned with a beer. "Hey Slade, you gonna let us down or what? This is kinda boring" Red Robin joked.
"Nice try."
"Little Deathstroke caught two bats. I'm kinda impressed" a voice none of them recognised came from behind him. Before he could turn a gunshot shattered the beer bottle.
Whoever it was attacked Deathstroke with speed, power and was incredibly agile. "Too slow old man" he taunted kicking Deathstroke against the railing of the walkway. "I thought you were supposed to be the best" he laughed again. His laugh was meant as a taunt and it worked, Deathstroke grew angrier by the second, but whoever it was finished the fight by kicking him in the face, breaking his mask.
"Who're you?" Red Robin asked the figure.
A fraction of a red helmet could be seen as the figure stepped forward and shot the controls and fired a grapple at the chains holding them. As whoever it was back into the shadow they pulled the chains toward the railing then when they were hanging over the walkway shot the chains, breaking them and letting them go.
Whoever saved them disappeared.
...GCPD
The GCPD were preparing for a raid when several gunmen entered, immediately opening fire on the cops, killing over half of them in the initial attack. "Get down!" the cops yelled as they grabbed their guns and returned fire.
Gordon was also in the station, but he immediately ran to the stairwell and headed to the roof. He activated the batsignal and headed back down the stairs.
Just over a minute later help arrived, but it wasn't Batman. It was Red Hood and he immediately opened fire, using a mixture of martial arts and gunshots killing a portion of the attackers and knocked out the rest.
"Your welcome" he stated smugly.
"Put your hands behind your head!" Gordon yelled.
"Seriously. I rescue all of you and this is how you thank me? Sorry, but nope" he tapped a button on his wrist and smoke enveloped the room.
The cops searched the smoke but found nothing.
While they were searching for the mysterious Red Hood he was in the Captain's office accessing the computer, downloading the entire database.
He left just before Batman arrived.
…Wayne Manor
Most of the Bat family was in Gotham solving their own cases, but Tim was back at the manor getting himself patched up by Alfred. "Thanks Alfred" he smiled warmly at the butler. Alfred left the room with a metal tray, on which was the bloody equipment he used to remove the bullet from Tim's leg and stich up his arm.
"Man, I need to train more" he complained looking at the one bloody cloth Alfred left behind.
"Yeah. No kidding. You're supposed to be my replacement" Tim turned, his eyes widened as he spotted Red Hood standing several metres from him.
*BLAM*
When Alfred returned to the room, holding a cup of tea he was horrified to see Tim lying lifeless on the ground.
…
Two days later the family was gathered together, attending Tim's funeral. Unaware that Jason Todd was watching from a nearby hill leaning on his bike, Talia Al Ghul beside him. "Your revenge has finally begun" she noted.
He smiled "Yeah. Next step is taking out that proto-robin. Duke Thomas."
"If you need any help, you know where to find me" she kissed him on the cheek and drove away on her bike, waving as she pulled away.
The crowd dispersed, but the Bat family remained. "We need to find who did this" Harper Row noted. Duke Thomas grunted in agreement, the others paused but one after the other they agreed.
…
Duke was sitting on the roof of a building in Gotham with Bluebird and Spoiler. "I can't believe he was killed. I thought the Robins were all… well, it's stupid but I thought they were immortal. Unbeatable you know."
"I get it. I didn't think he'd die either." Spoiler sighed as they looked out at the city. She put her hand on his shoulder. "I didn't really know Tim, but still. We have to catch whoever did this."
"Definitely" Harper added.
"Well that's good of you. I mean he wasn't really a Robin" they turned and saw Red Hood, fully exposed in the moonlight. "He wasn't nearly good enough for that. But he was at least like you three. Harper Row, Stephanie Brown and Duke Thomas. The Bat-interns."
Duke clenched his fist and went to move but Red Hood raised his gun. "Tsk. I wouldn't do that. After all. I'm better than you could ever be." He taunted, expecting Duke to charge at him. Which he did.
Duke tried to tackle him, but with no effort Red Hood dodged and kicked him into the window in one swift action. He then blocked both attacks coming from the girls. Kicking Bluebird off the roof and tying Spoiler to a Gargoyle that overlooked the city. "Now I have some questions for you. But I have to take care of the pseudo Robin first."
"Wait! Get back here!" Spoiler protested.
Red Hood dropped into the building. Using the grapple to break his fall, then swung to the wall, just as Duke was getting to his feet. Having hit some scaffolding and the floor at full force, unable to grab his grapple as he collided with the scaffold.
"Who… who're… you?" he struggled. Several of his ribs broken and one arm twisted and one foot twisted at the ankle.
"Out of your league!"
*BLAM*
With that one-shot Duke Thomas was dead. An alert went off in the cave and both the girls, one clinging to the side of the building, the other still tied to the Gargoyle heard the gunshot.
"No" Bluebird got back to the top of the building. "He couldn't have, right?"
But her fears were realised when Red Hood emerged, a small blood spatter on his sleeve that he wiped away. "That was easier than even I expected. Her information about the kid was a little off."
"You bastard!" Bluebird fired a taser gun at him, but he dodged and shot her in the leg.
"Great. Now I get to kill two of you in one day."
*BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM*
Harper's bullet riddled body fell of the roof and he sighed. "That was also too easy. I hope that Dick and the brat put up a better fight."
Spoiler looked worried. She was worried. She had never seen two members of the Bat family overpowered so easily. "Who're you?"
"Don't worry. I still need you so I won't kill you. And you'll find out about who I am later. When Brucie figures it out."
He then disappeared into the night. Cutting her loose by throwing a shuriken which cut the cable.