Jason Todd sneered as he looked out over the city of Gotham...the same city that five years ago, he was defending as Robin.
Now in his late teens to his earliy twenties, he wore a skintight gray zip-up long sleeved shirt was under that, and a pair of pants with a black belt around his waist was under that while his feet were covered with a pair of metal-platted combat boots that also had steel soles. Over his hands were a pair of gray gloves with metal plates on the back of the hands. Over his head was a featureless, solid ruby quarts-red helmet that covered his whole head with white domino eyes and two perfectly circler black rings around them that served as the helmet's eye-holes.
He'd taken the mantel of Red Hood. Several criminals had utilized the persona, but there was one criminal of particular interest that made this so brutally ironic that there was no other identy he could have chosen.
The Joker.
The same man who had killed him five years prior.
He had died...but he'd come back. Back to find his "father" hadn't avenged him...back to find the man's moral code just wouldn't allow for that, that it was too hard to cross that line...well he wasn't going to have a choice. Jason was going to make his father-figure avenge his death. Granted he was no longer dead, but that was beside the point.
Jason was brought out of his thoughts as a ratteling sound caught his attention and he looked down as a grenade landed at his feet and Jason dived out of the way so he wasn't caught directly in the blast, but the shockwave still sent him tumbeling. Looking up, Todd searched for the idenity of his attacker.
He didn't have to wait long, as the person who had tried to blow the past-Robin up was made visible as the haze of smoke cleared.
The figure wore a black cowl with his mouth and some of his lower jaw covered with a gas-mask type of mouth-plate devise, the reflective eye covering lenses that were part of the cowl he wore glowed red, giving him a demonic appearance and a pair of pointed ears on top which were made to look more like devil horns, a long cape thrown over his shoulders with jagged edges like that of a bat's wings covered a militaristic gray and black body armor with a red bat on the chest, while a pair of black boots made of the same material as his suit and black greaves placed over them covered the person's feet, and around his waist was an ash gray belt utility belt.
Jason laughed, while the outfit was different, there was only one person he knew of that went around in a costume like that one: his old teacher and father-figure, Bruce Wayne.
"Look at you...Batman 2.0 huh? I suspected you were overly fond of the Goth look, but trying to pass off as demonic is a bit much, Bruce." Todd laughed.
The Dark Knight remained silent as a grave, yet coming from him was an aura of black hatred...all of it aimed at the former boy wonder. Without warning, Bruce lunged and swept his hands at his former sidekick.
Dodging, the sound of tearing fabric and metal grinding against metal caught his attention and Jason looked at his shirt, claw mark slashes going along it where the fingers of Bruce's gauntlets had run across his torso. If not for the armor he had worn under that, the Red Hood's intrails would have been spilt all over the rooftop.
Deciding to steer clear of close combat, Jason reached into his coat, threw fist-fulls of throwing stars at his ex-teacher.
'Knowing Bruce, he'll dodge those then I can open up with my handguns and...' Red Hood thought, only to be shocked when the Dark Knight stood there, fingers curved into claws at his sides and rather than avoiding the weapons like the second, former-Robin thought he would, in a flash of near-superhuman movement, Bruce's hands where now loaded with each of the shuriken that had just been thrown at him and Jason rolled out of the way.
'Something's not right...' He thought, there were eight instant-kill points on the human body:Throat, spinal column, lungs, liver, the jugular vein, the subclavian artery, kidney, and heart. And Bruce had been aiming for thos that were on the front of the human body while Jason had been facing him. Then again, Bruce WAS haunted by death, so maybe he took loosing Jason harder than Todd had first thought.
Red Hood had no time to let his thoughts dwell on that as Bruce turned and launched a charging kick and when Jason blocked it…he spun around in a different direction and lashed out with the other kick that the Red Hood also blocked. Bruce then used his hands to land on and then launched another kick to the side of his former sidekick's head…but that was a feint as he launched his other leg in a rising heel kick to Jason's chin.
Jason blocked it and moved back as Bruce flipped backwards and landed nimbly on his feet and launched a few punches at Jason. Jason dodged them and was planning to land a strike, but Bruce leaped over him and in mid flip lashed out with an upside down spinning side kick that Jason blocked…though the twisted Robin winched in pain as the blow was much faster and stronger than the last ones he blocked. Bruce landed nimbly and Jason faced him. Bruce then pulled a fast one on Jason and he retracted his punch and then opened the fist and grabbed Jason's retreating hand and yanked him forward into a roll, catching the failed hero off guard as Bruce planted a kick right into Jason's stomach… making him wince in pain from the hit…he flipped as soon as Bruce released him and was able to land and leap back as Batman whipped the failed sidekick around and tossing him into one of the water towers as though he were a sack of garbage then martched over to him and grabbed him by the throat and head-butted him so hard it left a massive splater of blood where the man's head had struck the wood and denting the metal helmet he wore. The dark figure then smashed a jaw-breaking left hook into Jason's face twice, the second time actually knocking him facedown on the ground before a brutal kick swung up and crashed into the man's midsection, flipping him over in the process. The cowled figure grapped Todd by the neck and raised him to eye level, his pray clawing feebely before he had the thumbs of a pair of clawed gauntlets gouge out his eyes before the one giving the beating reached out and grabbed the back of his head with both hands and drove his left knee into the Jason's stomach, pulled down on the man's head, and smashed his right knee into his already-broken nose. The nose caved in fully with a sickening crunch and spurt of blood.
Jason let out a gurgling scream and tried to pry his tormentor's hands off his head. the one doing this to him let go with his left hand, keeping a grip on the back of the man's neck with his right, and grabbed onto his flailing right wrist. Jumping into the air, the Dark Knight kicked his right leg into his prey's stomach and flung his left leg over the outstretched arm and across his neck. Both fell to the ground, Jason's arm stretched out from his shoulder and his body pinned down by his now-apparently-bloodthirsty teacher's legs. The caped firgure squeezed his knees together and arched his hips upright, hyper-extending Todd's arm and breaking it before tossing him aside.
Bruce got up from his position with amazing speed, even for a man of his physical skill, and charged at him, slamming the scalloped blades of his greaves into Jason's shoulders and delivered a brutal kick to Jason's chest, sending him flying backwards, severing the muscles and tendons in Todd's shoulders as a result since the curved blades were still in his as his arms went limp, Jason realized that whoever it was under that cowl, it wasn't Bruce. Wayne had never used lethal force, nor had he ever been this brutal.
"Y-y-you're...not Batman...a-are you?" The current Red Hood asked as the imposter marched over to him.
The person snickered "No..." their voice was an odd combination of matalic, watery, and smokey, that somehow sent chills down Todd's spine as it came from their mouthplate, "I'm not Batman...I'm stronger, I'm not soft like he is. If Batman's nickname is the "Dark Knight"...I suppose that makes me the Darkest Knight!"
The unknown person pulled Jason's zip-line from his jacket and wrapped it around Jason's groin before jamming the curved hooks of the grapple into said body part and paused to savor the current Red Hood's scream of agony, before grabbing him by the throat and dragged him to the edge of the roof and then dangled him over the side "Now...what were you planning on doing?"
Jason, seeing what this lunatic was going to do to him, knew the only choice he had was to keep talking until he thought of a way out of this.
"I-I planned on pressuring Black Mask until he was forced to resort to freeing Joker, he's the only one with the connections to get into Arkham and get him out in order to do what I'm aiming on having happen. I planned on enlisting the eight best drug dealers in the city to work under me rather than Black Mask and I heard he's got a shipment that could easily get him into international trafficking coming in a few days so I planned on that too, its the fastest way of getting his attention, if not then I've got plenty of other plans."
The hand's grip loosened slightly "Why?"
Gulping, Jason then explained everything from when he had tries stealing the wheels off the Batmobil all the way up to his resurrection.
"I see...you're a pathetic child who overvalues himself. You don't have to worry about Joker..." the pseudo-Batman said coldly as they let go of Jason's throat, sending him plummiting "...you're plans have changed!"
Jason screamed in raw agony as his manhood was torn from his body as the cable of the zip-line went taunt then the curved hook strained to follow before it finally became too much and the metal hook dug through his flesh before his groin was finally ripped clean off under the strain. But Just before he struck the ground, the points of a grapple dug into his thigh and he was reeled in like a fish and tossed back onto the rooftop by this dark imposter of the Dark Knight.
While the ex-Robin-turned-Red Hood rolled around in agony, the Darkest Knight grabbed Jason's two handguns and put them through the helmet's eye holes right up to his eyes and fired. The bullets went straight through Jason's eyes at point blank and through his optic nerve, then brain, killing him instantly.
That done, the self-proclaimed "Darkest Knight" spun the twin 45 Magnum Desert Eagle pistols around and placed them in his utility belt before eyeing the knife at the dead man's hip before drawing it and looking it over.
It was a kris knife, and it was also laser sharpened enough to cut steel cables.
"Nice knife, mind if I keep this?"
Getting no reply from the dead man, the warped Batman-look-alike unstrapped the knife's holster and attached it to his own right thigh before returning the weapon to it. "Well...I didn't hear a 'no', thanks for the blade, but now I'm wondering what other goodies you've got on you."
With that, the mimic began to unceremoniously undress the corpse down to the boxer shorts, checking everything, the pockets, the boots, the gloves, everywhere that wasn't covering the dead man's privets and in each article of clothing Red Hood had worn, taking any and all weapons and tools he found as his own, includes a built-in radio transmitter/receiver and starlite night-vision lenses.
As he took off the red helmet, the dark reflection of Batman was surprised to see a dark green domino mask surrounding the dead person's empty eye sockets. Since it had been a point blank shot, only his eyes had been destroyed, but the mask was spared from any damage.
"So you really were one of the former Robins, eh? That gives me as idea..." he said, chuckling darkly.
He wanted to see what the"World's Gratest Detective" was going to think of this. A few moments later, he backed away from the body, fully pleased with what he was going to do.
A moment later, he noticed a taxi pull up into the alleyway bellow him and a scream was heard a few seconds later.
The person grabbed his head. He...he knew that voice! Without stopping to think, he jumped down and made his way to the scream's place of origin.
"Taxie." she called, standing at the curb. A few moments later, one pulled up and she got into the back seat.
"Where to, toots?" the driver asked.
"City Hall please, there's something that I need to check there." she said
The driver grinned "Sure thing, babe. There's nothing I won't do for a pretty face."
With that, the transport moved as she looked out the window and thought of her reason for comming to this city...thought of HIM. There were perks to being a vampire, and the youki detector ability was indeed one of them, it was how she'd tracked him here. She was thankful for him meeting the requirements for that ability to work. Now she just had to find h...huh?
Rather than heading to city hall, the taxie pulled into a spot called locally as "Crime Alley", and parked. The driver turned around and leered at her with a lecherous grin plastered on his face.
"Like I said: there's nothing I won't do for a pretty face! Come'ere!"
Just as he grabed the girl, the taxi shook as a sudden wheight landed on the hood of it. Distracted, the driver turned to look over his shoulder and paled. Kneeling on the hood of the was a horned silhouette with what looked like glowing red eyes.
A second later the frightning figure moved and the driver was pulled through the glass of the front windshield by a hand that had grabbed his throat and the driver backed away as the fearsome enigma advanced on him. Once the man ran into the back of the alley, the dark figure pounced and kicked him in the gut using his right foot.
While the driver was on his knees, the figure turned around and roundhouse kicked him with his left leg.
The dark being punched the driver using his right fist and again with his left fist, slamming the criminal back up to near the end of the alley. The figure grabbed the man and kneed him in the face as his pray almost fell over but his tormentor tossed him by his tie and tossed the man away. The would-be rapist tried to crawl away as he felt a hand grab him by the legs and was dragging back. "HELP ME!" the man cried out.
The driver was tossed to back of the alley, his head was being smash against the concrete and walls arond him again and again; he was a mess, blood nearly completely covers his face.
The one giving the torture took a kris knife out of the utility belt they wore and slice off the taxi driver's left leg then his right arm before bashing the older man's face against the taxi's hood.
The man was barely alive on his knee staring at the one who was showing him no mercy at all. His tormentor's right fist was suddenly rammed up the driver's mouth and the one who did it ripped out what look like a piece of the man's brain and fresh.
The killer nodded seeing that his pray was dead and then tossed the corpse and chunks of flesh and grey matter aside and walked up to the taxi, yanking open the back door before pulling her out by her arm.
She shivered as she looked at him.
He wore a black cowl with his mouth and some of his lower jaw covered with a gas-mask type of mouth-plate devise, the reflective eye covering lenses that were part of the cowl he wore glowed red, giving him a demonic appearance and a pair of pointed ears on top which were made to look more like devil horns, a long cape thrown over his shoulders with jagged edges like that of a bat's wings covered a militaristic gray and black body armor with a red bat on the chest a pair of black boots made of the same material as his suit and black greaves placed over them. Around his waist was an ash gray belt utility belt. Clawed, steel gauntlets that were still drinched in blood covered covered his hands with three curved diamond edged scalloped blades at the sides on his forearms.
Moka stared. Something about this person felt...familiar. As she looked at the person who had...did it qualify as "rescue" seeing as how he'd killed someone? She felt him suddenly tense.
"M-Moka...?"
He grabbed his head suddenly as it started throbbing then the sound of sirens caught both their attentions. Moments later, several police cars pulled up to where the pair were and the stranger hissed in anger. He whipped out an "Ingram" MAC - 10/11 Submachine gun. Opening fire, several of the police dropped, as did some civilians that were unfourtunate enough to be there. After the bullets stopped comming from the machine gun, the person grunted and pulled out a small object with a large button on one end.
A detinator.
"NO!" Moka cried, leaping forward and knocking it out of his hand and landing on the ground, her face stinging as the pavement scraped at her skin and she was covered in the blood of the man who had tried rapeing her earlier.
Seeing this as his chance, the Darkest Knight pulled out a grapple and launched it up before it zoomed him up to the rooftops. Leaving the death in his wake as he vanished.
A siren sounded again and an amblunce pulled up to the area.
"What the fuck happened here?" one of the medics shouted, getting out of the amblunce.
"Just another normal day in this city, that's what...I should have moved to Coast City." another said grimmy as they inspected the area.
"Hey! We've got a live one here!" one of the medics shouted and helped Moka stand and hurried her into the amblunce and after conferming she was actually uninjered, took her to the police station.
"Ok...so who are you?"
"Moka Akashiya." she answered. Still shaken from what she'd seen earlier. It was obvious that whoever had been behind that mask had utterly no qualms whatsoever about killing criminals, villains and anyone who got in his way, even the police or civilians.
In front of her was Chief Angel Rojas, detectives Ethan Bennett, Ellen Yin, Bullock, and Commissioner Jim Gordon.
"So who was the dead guy we found all over the alley?" Bullock asked and Bennett took out a file made by the forensics branch of the department.
"Cole Mercer...a former professional movie make-up artist and ventriloquist, and a known rapist. His former jobs made him hard to track." Ethan said, then set the folder down and looked at Moka with pity and concern. "Look, I know you don't want to, but since you're the only one that survived everything the happened there, we need you to tell us who did this."
Moka nodded, dispite the man's kindness and obvious concern, she didn't need to be told that.
"I didn't see the person's face...they were dressed in some sort of body armor costume...one that looked like a demonic version of a bat." Moka said.
That caught the attention of all the lawmen in an instant.
"I KNEW IT! I KNEW THE BATMAN WAS REALLY A CRIMINAL!" Rojas shouted, he slammed his hands down on the desk and brought his face right up to the girl's, glaring at her. "WHERE IS HE? HUH? YOU HAD TO BE BROUGHT HERE BY HIM! WHICH MEANS YOU HAVE TO KNOW WHERE HE WEN..."
The man was cut off as a fist smashed into the side of his jaw and sent him sprawling to the ground, rubbing his aching jaw, the chief looked up to see who had punched him to see the commissioner glaring at him.
Rojas opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Gordon beat him to it.
"Save it. I don't care if you ARE the chief of police. She was nearly rapped and was saved when this turned into a murder case and the amblunce brought her in with blood, bone pieces, and chunks of brain matter all over her face, you don't give someone the third degree like that in her situation, besides...this wouldn't be the first time someone in a similar costume set Batman up, there was that whole "Bat-Woman" thing once and there was that Phantasm deal before that. We're cops, its our jobs to get to the truth and catch the criminals, not blindly jump to conclusions and go after innocent people just because of one thing that's similar and our own personal dislike. That's not the way the law works. " Gordon said, fully disgusted with the chief for his actions.
Ethan looked at the Commissioner and felt a grin tug at his lips, man was a good cop. He could see why Batman would call Gordon an ally in dealing with the crime in Gotham. He was willing to accept things so long as they were kept on the right side of the law, and, in Batman's case, look at his actions rather than that he was a masked vigilante.
Moka took that moment to speak up. "I have heard of Batman's reputation of being able to wound, but not kill. So I for one have to say it was a twisted look-alike."
Yin sighed "All right...we'll put out an APB for anyone in a bat cotsume until we can get to the truth of all this, in the meantime, where do you live?"
"I'm an apartment for a while, 666 South Hangman's Point Way." Moka told in responce and the police officer's eyes all widened in sheer shock and Ethain offered to take her to her adress. As soon as the door to the station shut behind them, Bullock spoke.
"666 South Hangman's Point way. By the outskirts of the city limits where the psychos are sent to rot. Geez...living near Arkham...nearly being raped, seeing a murder and a slaughter right in front of her, being covered in blood, bone and gore and still keeping it together up to now...the girl's tougher than you'd think, gotta give her that much."
The other lawmen nodded.
Batman frowned as he listened in on what the girl said from outside the police station window. His eyes narrowed, glowing red eyes and costume that looked like a demonic version of a bat. Those were all the girl could see clearly.
Another imposter...that was never a good thing.
But he had other concers at the moment, he moved to follow the girl.
Moka sighed as she shut the door to her apartment. Today had been a nightmare, for obvious reasons...worse yet, after getting herself cleaned up, she'd checked with the police only to find that they couldn't keep records of incoming individuals in the city since there were too many for that kind thing. Which had surprised her...if what Moka had heard of the super-criminals in this place was even half right, then she was expecting no less than ten people in the city, not counting the police or criminals. She had pointed that out to the officers, to which some had laughed, saying that even they didn't really understand it themselves.
After Ethan had dropped her off (since he didn't want anything else happening to her, something she was greatful for), she had come to get some sleep after reviewing what she knew of this place. As she got to her apartment, she opened her duffle bag and as she looked through the contents, and among everything that was in it, she pulled out a worn-looking whip. The Belmont.
The legendary whip used by the Belmonts, a family of vampire slayers, who used the magical whip to slay supernatural creatures. It possessed magic-cancelling properties, which was especially useful for someone with a seal, such as herself. In this regard, it was able to cancel the sealing properties of even the seal of the Rosary.
She set the object that she had brought along for the "Just-in-case-factor" down and mentally cursing her own foolishness for not keeping it on her person at all times while she was in this city. As her thoughts turned to HIM, she smiled, finding out he was here had been simpler than she had been worried it would, it was a good thing she was a vampiress considering his condition, Yokai detection was very useful and it was how she'd tracked him here.
Moka stood up and she froze suddenly, knowing someone was behind her. "You know...you could have just used the front door like a normal person." She said and turned around. Seeing a man in her room with her.
The man was dressed in a black cowl that left only his mouth and some of his lower jaw visible with white reflective eye coverings and a pair of pointed ears on top. As for the rest of his body, a pair of black forearm length gloves were over his forearms with padding over his knuckles and the backs of his fists claws at his fingertips made from a strange material, with forearm protectors over them that had three curved blades at the sides, a grey bodysuit with a black bat on the chest and several padded armored sections that were thin yet flexible, a dark gold colored utility belt around his waist, a pair of black boots made of the same material as his gloves and suit and black greaves placed over them, a long cape thrown over his shoulders with jagged edges like a bat's wings cloaked his body completely, hiding all but the cowl from view.
Moka raised an eyebrow as her hands fround their way onto her hips "Let me guess...you're the actual Batman, right? she asked. This was the dark guardian? Some old guy in a costume? Her other self and the rest of her kind wouldn't take that well seeing as most people assumed Batman had some kind of connection to being a vamipre.
"Just wanted to see to it you were all right. I heard about what had happened to you."
Moka nodded "My thanks for the concern." she said with a smile.
Batman frowned, this girl's mental fortitude was awe-inspiring to the point of terror. "You're too calm."
"About what I saw? I'm sorry to say I'm use to it...the world's not a place of sugar and rainbows. Violence and death are an unfourtunate reality." Moka said, thinking of both monsters and humans as the words left her mouth. When she thought about it, Moka suspected there was probably as much violence in human society as there was in monster society. The difference seemed to be that humans tended to see violent behavior as the exception, whereas monsters viewed it more as the norm. She sometimes wondered if that meant monsters were more barbaric, or just more honest.
"Anyway, other than that man and what that shadow of yours both attempted and did respectivly, I'm fine." the vampiress said.
"My shadow?" Batman frowned.
Moka shrugged "A shadow is a dark image in the shape of what already exists. Hence, that other guy in a bat suit is your shadow."
Batman mulled that over to himself and had to admit that logic did have a valid point in an odd way.
Moka shut her eyes and when she opened them, Batman was gone.
"Not bad stealth...but he's better at it than Batman is..." Moka commented before grabbing a towel to finally wash the blood off her.
As she stripped down in her bathroom, she grimanced as she turned on the water. Lord...she hated her body sometimes, this was one of them. The weakness to water sucked in this situation. steeling herself as best she could, she steped into the stream of water and bit back screams of agony as the water came into contact with her bare skin and bolts of seemingly eletrical energy came from her body as the water sapped her demonic aura of power.
She was already looking forward to when this was over.
Getting back to his base, he gripped his head and nearly crushing the metal of his cowl as he felt the idea of that girl who he seemed to know clawing at his mind. He panted as he attempted to shake her voice and image from his mind. Yet they wouldn't vanish. Why? What was wrong with him? He had a job to do, he couldn't afford to waste time on some girl!
Growling at himself, he shoved everything about her to the back of his mind with all his willpower. It was still there, but it was the best he could do.
As he slipped off his armored uniform, he banged his head against the wall. Damn it! Why did he feel he knew her? Who was she to him?
She was going to haunt him for a good long while...he knew that right now.