A/N: So my job got in the way of writing this story for the last week or so, but I'm gonna try and get out the last three chapters of this story as quickly as possible, so bear with me. I hope everyone reading had a wonderful Christmas and enjoys this new chapter! (As a side note, thank you all so much for your faves, follows, and comments, they really mean a lot to me!)
December 24th.
She'd been tracking this son of a bitch for days, weeks, maybe even months now. She didn't know, she'd lost count of the hours spent on this particular case.
Who was he, you may ask?
His name was Antonio Maiotti. An old friend of the Falcones, and also an incredibly difficult person to track down.
What was his crime? What wasn't?
You name it, he'd dabbled in it at some point. From extortion to armed robbery, selling drugs to human trafficking, this guy had done it all.
Why hadn't he been caught yet, you may ask? Because he never stayed in one business or even city for very long, and whenever he left for somewhere new, he left little to no evidence behind.
"But surely," you may be saying, "Batman or one of his accomplices must be close to catching him?"
And they would be, except for the fact that she was currently outside Maiotti's newest safehouse, preparing her entrance and beatdown plans. And when the Huntress was after someone, Batman tended to stay far away.
Helena wouldn't have it any other way.
Why was she after him?
It was... somewhat personal.
Her late mother had, a long time ago, worn a lovely broach of a bird with an arrow through its wing, a symbol of the Panessa family that had been handed down for generations.
After her parents' death, some of their belongings had gone missing while Helena had been in Sicily, and she hadn't really cared that much. Until she'd heard that the brooch was among the missing items.
Helena had loved her mother's brooch, and as a child, had always looked forward to the day when she would be able to wear it as well.
When she had tracked down and killed her biological father, Santo Cassamento, she'd figured that he would have stolen it. Indeed, more than a few items that had belonged to her mother had fallen into his hands. But not the brooch.
She had figured that it was probably lost forever, until recently, when she'd heard that a brooch matching the description of her mother's had been seen in the office of Mr. Maiotti.
As if his stream of crimes wasn't enough to want him dead already.
Helena was ready to start her assault any moment now, if anything, just to get out of the snow before she caught hypothermia. Why couldn't she have made a warmer costume?
But, of course, things could never go as smoothly as she planned in her head, as some punk in a leather jacket and red helmet had just decided to come barreling through Maiotti's defenses on a motorbike.
Wait, she'd heard about that guy, he called himself the Red Hood or something like that, right?
Well, it looked like her night was going to become a bit more complicated than previously thought, but it might have possibly gotten just a little bit easier too.
~ooo~
Jason could almost hear the sounds of his insurance flipping him the bird right about now.
He dismounted his, by now completely scuffed, motorbike just in time to see a group of Maiotti's hired thugs coming at him with weapons in hand.
"Now, now," he started while reaching into his jacket, "Let's not all be stupid at once."
That didn't seem to be deterring them in any way, so Jason guessed it was time to bust out the semiautomatics.
He had to admit, they were smarter than he initially gave them credit for. Once he broke out the guns and began firing, more than a few thugs who weren't heavily armed ran off, probably to alert their boss.
The ones that stayed were gonna be in for a hell of a time.
~ooo~
That masked idiot was going to be there for a while it seemed. Hopefully long enough for Helena to slip by unnoticed into the safehouse.
She crept as silently as she could past the hectic battle between Red Hood and his attackers.
She was almost impressed, the kid could hold his own pretty well.
She'd heard that he was a former protege of Batman's, and it definitely showed. His form was great for someone with only his fists and two small guns.
And an old student of Batman's who killed? She could really learn to like that.
With all the commotion, she was hoping that she wouldn't be noticed by the strange vigilante.
But, hopes never get you too far, and as she crawled through one of the outer windows into the building, ol' Red over there had looked up just in time to see her and give chase.
She sprinted through the upper walkways of the building, knocking and smashing through various mooks as fast as she could, not caring who got in her way.
She was almost within range of her target's planning room when she was cut off by the scarlet-masked crimefighter.
"What's your rush, lady?" he asked with an irritating sardonic tone that was most assuredly not taught by Batman.
"Out of my way!" she yelled in reply, "I don't have time for this!"
"You're here for Maiotti, right?" he responded strangely calmly.
"What's it to you?"
"I just thought you should know he's actually in his office about four hallways down." he said while pointing in the opposite direction of where she was heading.
"How can I trust you? You could be stalling until Batman gets here."
"Hey," he started while raising his hands, "I was just trying to help, go the wrong way if you want."
Something about his voice seemed incredibly sincere, so Huntress decided to hear him out.
"Besides," he continued, "I don't work for Batman anymore."
"Why are you here then?"
"One word: money. A guy's got to live somehow, and Maiotti's got a huge price on his head."
So the kid was a mercenary. This just kept getting better and better.
"But if you beat me to him, I'll just have to nail someone else. Guess that's just how life goes sometimes."
"Hold on kid," she said with a sudden idea, "I think we can both benefit from this. How about we both kill him?"
"You sure?"
"Absolutely. He's probably got extra security around his office anyway. And I'm really only after something he took from me."
"Alright, lady. As long as I get to deliver his head back to my employer, you've got yourself a deal."
) O (
It was a hell of a fight, but in the end both vigilantes got what they wanted. Helena's mother would be able to rest more at peace, and Jason would be able to pay rent for the next six months or so.
Before they parted ways however, Helena had to ask something she'd wondered since meeting the masked kid.
"Why did you leave Batman's little group, anyway?"
"Same reason as you, I guess. We had different ideas of how to serve justice."
Huntress felt like prying since she knew that wasn't the complete truth.
"Who were you when you were with him?"
"Robin."
"I already know another guy who used to be Robin too. And there's some kid who was Robin after him, but no one talks about him too much since, as I understand, he died."
Red Hood removed his helmet-like mask to reveal a somewhat rugged but youthful face that was covered in faded scars.
"I got better."
Of course no one could ever be dead in the superhero world, it was just a universal law or something.
Still, at least this explained why Bruce didn't talk about the second Robin very much.
Helena folded her arms and smirked.
"Do you ever see him anymore?"
"Not really."
"You know, he's holding a Christmas Eve dinner tonight. He even invited me."
"Not interested."
"Okay, just making a suggestion."
"Suggestion not needed."
The kid hopped on his motorbike that was surprisingly still running.
"Thanks for the help, lady." he said as he drove off.
Helena wondered if stubbornness just ran in the family over at Bruce's.
