Trouble

The Red Hood sat perched on top of a building in Midtown, looking down at Black Mask's thugs below. They were armed with shotguns, baseball bats, crowbars, you name it. And it seemed pretty obvious what they'd here, some hole-in-the-wall nightclub, for. The places was closing up for the night, which made it the perfect target for a shakedown. Black Mask had a particular interest in intimidating people into paying him protection money, which hadn't seemed to have changed.

Tonight, Hood was on his own because Arsenal was responding to a weapons' deal down at Admiral Docks. He wasn't happy about them splitting up, but he gave Hood the easier job, on account of his injuries, which were healing quickly. Likely side-effect, or a boon, of his little dip in the Lazarus Pit.

"Well, guess it's time to clean house," Hood said to himself, jumping down and grappling across the way. He landed in front of the door after the thugs ha entered and drew his dual hand guns, kicking the door open. The thugs turned on him while one of them held a gun to the bartender's head.

"Listen up douche bags. I'm only going to say this one time. Get out while you have your lives, or I'll paint the walls in your blood," Hood said evenly. The men exchanged glances and then laughed. Hood sighed and scratched his shoulder with his gun.

"Please, you're a has been, all washed up Hood!" one of the men taunted.

"You got you're ass kicked by the Batman! You're nothin' in this town," another said. Hood snorted, both in amusement and anger; they pressed his Batman button.

"Hmm. Interesting choice of words. But you made one mistake," Hood said evenly. The thugs laughed and one of them took a threatening step forward.

"Yeah? And what's that?"

"You pushed my Batman button."

"You're wh-" but the man didn't get the chance to finish that thought; in a quick motion, Hood jammed his gun into thug's stomach and shot. The other men exchanged shocked glanced quickly before they attacked. Hood dived out of the way of a shotgun blast, then grabbed the bartender and shoved him down beneath the bar before jumping back up and putting a bullet in the shotgun wielder's forehead. The other two thugs came around to corner him and Hood laughed.

"Oh me, oh my! The Red Hood is cornered! Is this he end of little old me?" he mocked. There was a moment of silence as the thugs sneered at him and moved in for the attack.

"Nah, I'm just fuckin' with ya," he finished, jumping over their baseball bats and rolling over the bar and flipping onto his feet. The two thugs hit each other with their bats and knocked each other out cold.

"Huh. That'll do," Hood said smoothly, holstering his guns. He moved across the room and stood at the bar, leaning over it to see the bartender cowering behind it.

"Hey, buddy, you're alright. Call the GCPD and have them picked these dickheads up," Hood said smoothly. The man looked up art him and nodded and as Hood turned to leave, he grabbed a wire from his utility belt and tossed it to the man "oh, and here. Tie those fuckers up. They ain't gettin' out of that." Hood clapped his hands together and strolled out of the bar.

No sooner had he gotten out of the door, that Batman dropped down in front of him. Hood didn't even flinch, just crossed his arms and snorted in amusement.

"Little late to the party, aren't we bats?" he asked. Batman's eyes narrowed, but the batglare did nothing for Hood, who simply shrugged him off and replied "yeah, that whole big bad bats routine ain't gonna work on me. Situations taken care of. There's a few unconscious thugs in there if you wanna beat 'em for information though. Have at it." Hood slipped past Batman, but Batman grabbed him by his shoulder.

"You need to stop this, Jason," he said softly. Hood glared at him and shoved his hand off of him.

"Bite me," he replied, before grappling up to the roof above. He turned back to see Batman glaring after him and so he removed his helmet and gave a wave back "oh, and tell Nightwing I said hello." A wicked grin split his face as he dashed off into the night and disappeared.

Batman watched him go, wondering to himself if he should have attempted to stop him. Part of him believed what Dick had told him, that Jason was changing, for the better. That was why he didn't act, why he let him go. This whole mess as going to escalate, but Hood or no Hood, it would have anyway.

At least with him on their side, they could get it over more quickly and spare a lot of people a lot of pain. Maybe. Batman entered the club and found two of the thugs dead, bleeding all over the floor. He glared at the room, feeling a sense of regret for letting Hood go, until his eyes beheld two unconscious thugs, tied up in the corner of the room. A small sense of pride filled him, but later. He moved across the room and dragged both thugs out of the building and grappled up to the roof. When they came to, they found themselves face to face with Batman.

"Now, you're going to tell me everything I want to know."

Nightwing dropped in on Penguin's thugs from the glass roof above and took out several of both Penguin and Black Mask's thugs in a flurry of kicks and escrima attacks. He'd already stopped a drug deal earlier in the night over at China Docks, he and Batman. Black Mask was very busy tonight, it seemed. Though Nightwing got the sense that he wasn't the only one here, because he could hear the sounds of combat from the other side of the docks.

Nightwing left an arc grenade on the weapons to destroy them before slipping out of the building to investigate. A thug was running scared when suddenly an arrow shot behind him and exploded into a net, pinning him against a shipping crate.

"Wow, you can really move when you want to! Too bad I'm faster!" Arsenal called, punching the man in the face and knocking him out cold. Arsenal chuckled in amusement and stored his bow before clapping his hands together and turning to see Nightwing. His grin faded and he approached the other vigilante.

"Well, well, well. If it ain't Nightwing. Long time no see. Well, sort of. You know what I mean," he said with a shrug. Nightwing chuckled in amusement and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I do. And yeah, it's been a while. How've you been?" Nightwing asked. Arsenal pulled a face and gave a shrug.

"Not bad, not bad. No time to talk though. Assuming you took care of those scum bags I there?" Arsenal asked, gesturing to the building behind Nightwing. Nightwing turned his had, then looked back at Arsenal and gave a nod.

"Yeah. Weapons are destroyed. They won't be selling those any time soon," Nightwing replied with a cocky smirk. The two of them stood in silence, awkward silence, for a few moments. Nightwing sighed and raked a hand through his hair and asked Arsenal "tell me something...how's...how's Jaybird? Is he okay?"

Arsenal frowned a bit at first but then his expression softened when he saw the look on the other man's face; he was sincerely worried, and he could see something else. Shit. Arsenal just gave a nod in response.

"He's fine. Healing fast. Don't worry, I'm keeping him out of the tough fighting until he's back at one-hundred percent." Nightwing laughed in amusement.

"Tried keeping him off patrol altogether I take it?" he asked. Arsenal snorted with held back laughter.

"Yeah, but you can guess how that worked out." Nightwing laughed again and the sounds of GCPD police sirens sounded in the distance.

"Catch you later Nightwing," Arsenal called, waving to the man as he grappled up to a nearby building. Nightwing did likewise and the two vigilantes parted ways. Arsenal stood on top of a building across the way and watched as Nightwing left, continued to watch, even as the GCPD pulled up below. He peeled off his mask, briefly, wondering if what he really saw in the man's eyes was what he thought it was. The same look he saw in Jason's eyes. He sighed and pressed his mask back on; time to get home.

Roy sighed as he climbed in through the window of the apartment to find Jason sitting on the couch playing video games. Jason seemed so concentrated on it, he hadn't noticed Roy, it seemed, so he continued to watch in silence, amusedly. Jason had a frown on his face and seemed to be struggling with a particular mission. Roy glanced at the screen and saw him fighting off a horde of zombies.

Jason licked his lips as he leaned forward on the couch, the sound of frantic button mashing filling the room until finally, the screen darkened and a message appeared "You Survived!"

"Ha!" Jason shouted, jumping up off the couch. Roy finally let out a laugh of amusement and Jason looked over in his direction before dropping the controller down on the table and shutting down the system.

"Roy, about time you got home you bastard. What took you so long?" Jason asked with a smirk, grabbing a soda up off of the table and sipping it. Roy quirked an eyebrow and gestured toward the drink as he made his way inside the apartment, stripping off his gear.

"Soda? Really?" he asked in an amused tone. Jason snorted in response and chugged it.

"Listen you drunk," Jason teased, earning the finger from Roy "not all of us want to get hammered every night. Besides, beer is disgusting. I only drink it to forget, and I have nothing to forget tonight." Roy laughed in response as he finished changing into civilian attire, a pair of jeans and a red t-shirt, and closed the closet shut. He shuffled out of the bedroom and flopped down on the couch beside Jason.

"I suppose it wouldn't be tactful to get hammered every night. You want to do the hammering?" Roy said lowly, wiggling his eyebrows. Jason snorted and spewed his soda everywhere, having been right in the middle of a sip. Roy busted out in laughter as Jason coughed and put the can down, clearing his throat several times.

"So not what I meant you fucking pig," Jason managed, pushing himself up off of the couch and moving into the kitchen. He threw a roll of paper towels at Roy and pointed to the mess "now clean it up, asshole, it's your fault." Roy chuckled in amusement but obeyed regardless. He glanced up at Jason while he was cleaning, turning briefly to throw a away some of the soaked paper towel.

"Oh yeah, ran into Dick earlier," Roy began, finishing his cleaning and returning to the kitchen. When he came back, he paused in the doorway for a second, taking note of Jason's slightly tense posture "he just asked how you were doing. Oh and he said hi." Roy felt a sudden lump in his throat at the thought of Dick and Jason together. That lump in his throat devolved into a knot in his chest and-oh fuck. Am I...am I jealous? God dammit Roy, what've you gotten yourself into now?!

"Roy? Hey Roy! Snap out of it!" Jason called from his place on the couch, snapping his fingers. Roy glanced up at Jason, snapped out of his thoughts and flashed a fake smile.

"You okay? Zoned out on me for a minute there," Jason said amusedly. Roy swallowed hard, ignoring his thoughts for a moment before he crossed the room again and joined his friend on the couch.

"Aw, worried about lil' ol' me, Jaybird? I'm touched!" Roy teased, earning a jab in his side with Jason's elbow.

"Yeah, yeah. Shut the fuck up and pick up a controller. I'm finally kicking you ass at Call of Duty, asshole." Roy laughed and grabbed up the controller as Jason fired up the game.

"No sleep tonight?" he teased.

"Nope. Taking the day off. I fucking earned it," Jason replied with a grin. Roy laughed in amusement but gave a nod in reply.

"Well, if 'Little Wing' thinks he's man enough to take me on-"

"You ever call me that again, I'll carve out your jugular," Jason teased.

"Bitch."

"Fucker."

"Roadkill." Roy glanced over at Jason, realizing what he'd said without thinking. Jason just looked over at him and busted out laughing.

Author's Note: So I figured this story will focus more on the characters than the crime/vigilante life. That's the direction I've chosen to take the story instead of what I originally intended. Make no mistake there'll still be some action going on and all that jazz. But I think we've seen more than enough in the last story. x) Anywho, sorry for the delay. The change in direction was part of it, but the other part was writer's block. x.x