Authors Note: I do not own any of these characters, or any other elements of Young Justice. Also as the story progress, some of you die hard DC or Batman fans might recognize some elements of Batman: Under the Red Hood. I would like to remind you all, that I am not doing this for cash or anything. Also this is my fist FanFic, so please review. Tell me if you like my stuff or not.
Chapter 3: Secret Identity
Nightwing arrived at an old abandoned warehouse that once serve as a safe house for him back in his earliest days as Nightwing. "Why do I get the feeling that this is a trap?" he thought to himself. The feeling kept eating at him, as he snuck into warehouse. The place was quiet the only light was from the windows, he kept his senses on high alert. He managed to creep to the center of the warehouse, when blinding spot-light shined on him.
"I was wondering when you'd show up!" shouted a familiar voice, Nightwing could not see who it was, "Oh, no response? No witty comeback? No insults? I'm almost insulted." Nightwing's vision cleared up a bit, just enough for him to see Red Hood. He slowly pulled out a Wing-Ding from one of his pouches, Red Hood would have noticed had he not been ranting about something. Nightwing quickly threw the Wing-Ding, but Red Hood seemed to know it was coming. He ducked, and the wing-ding planted itself in the wall behind him. He looked at the Wing-Ding, then Nightwing. "I think you missed!" he taunted. Nightwing smiled, "Did I?"
Just then beeps emitted from the Wing-Ding. "Crap!" was all red hood said before jumping over ledge, as it detonated.
He landed near Nightwing, and without hesitation the two charge into combat. Both using and impressive display of martial arts. if Red Hood threw a punch, Nightwing would flip over him. If Nightwing threw a kick, Red Hood would either back-flip to safety, or he would slide under the kick. They went on like this for awhile, if someone else were to watch it would be mistaken for a rehearsed route. It was odd, because to Nightwing all the moves his opponent made, had something familiar to them. And Red Hood was very well trained, almost as skilled as him in fact. It bugged him, and he was quiet finished playing with this stranger. So as Red Hood pulled off a jump kick, Nightwing grabbed both his legs and slammed him on the ground. Red Hood groaned, Nightwing move towards him, to remove the helmet. But he was tackled down, by a red and tan blur. Impulse. "Trust me," he stated, "You'll thank me later." He quickly radioed in the team. "I found him, he's okay. Ugh." Red Hood powerfully punched him square in the jaw. "Well I see you've recruited more sidekicks, for your reject justice league." Red Hood taunted.
Nightwing was furious, not just that Impulse was down, but that this thug knew about the Team, and called it a "reject justice league." Right away he got back up, and executed a jump kick, and nailed Red Hood right in the chest. Then gave a right upper cut to the jaw. Red Hood crashed to the ground, he grabbed the gun he had drop earlier.
"Looks like this how your story ends." he chuckled. Nightwing stood his ground, which surprised Hood, then out of nowhere, an unforgettable scream of rage. Red Hood back flipped away, and Superboy crash landed where he once stood. "You want him, you go through me!" he darkly said. "And us." Nightwing looked up to see Zatanna, Robin, and Meghan in the warehouse.
Red Hood just laughed, "Alright shouldn't be too hard." Then he pulled out a detonator, and pushed the button. Instantly the walls of the warehouse glowed. There were explosives, primed all over. Nightwing did not need to think, "MOVE!" he ordered, no one disobeyed, Superboy grabbed him and impulse and jumped through the window. "Nice to see you kept your edge." Hood said. Before disappearing into the shadows. The warehouse blew up, the team was a safe distance away. Nightwing was about to yell at them for following him, but then a cloud of smoke appeared, and everyone started coughing. Nightwing and Robin quickly put on the re-breathers. Before they could help, the other fell unconscious. The smoke cleared and Red Hood stood next to Robin, robin saw this and quickly elbowed him, and flipped over towards Nightwing. They both took out their weapons, Robin holding his bow staff, and Nightwing held his Escrisma sticks. Red Hood pulled out two long knives, "Alright. Let's dance!" And the three went into combat, Robin was taken down quickly, but Nightwing and Red Hood were on the same level. The loud clashing sounds of their weapons filled the night. Red Hood broke the silence, "So you found a replacement!" "What?!" Nightwing shouted. Red Hood caught him by surprise and gave him a quick blow to the stomach and to the jaw. Then swiped Nightwing's legs out from under him.
Red Hood looked down at Nightwing, as if disappointed, and regret. "Come on Dick," Nightwing froze there was only a small amount of people who knew his secret identity. Red Hood sighed and lifted up his mask. Nightwing was at a loss of words. "Here does this help?" Underneath the mask, was the familiar face of his former adopted brother, aged a little, but Dick knew the face anywhere. "Jason?" he stumble on his words, his voice fill with joy, sorrow, anger, and confusion. "Yes."
"NO," shouted Noghtwing, "This is a trick! I helped burry your coffin. You're not Jason!" Jason just laughed, picked up one of Robins batarangs, and gave himself a small cut. "Here you can use these for DNA comparison," he spoke so calmly, "Knowing you, you won't believe it until your precious science confirms that I'm the real me." He put the batarang into a plastic bag and gave it to Nightwing. "What happened to you?" Nightwing asked. Jason looked over at Dick, and frowned. "I grew up and saw what the world needed." He stated. "By the way," he added, "You'll be seeing a lot more of me." and with that he disappeared, as he had been trained to.
Dick just stood there in disbelief, there was not a day that went by he did not blame himself for Jason's death, but now finding out he was alive, he did not know what to think. Tim woke up first, and saw Dick standing alone, and ran over to check if he was okay. "What happened? Where Red Hood go?" he asked. Dick just looked at Tim, he did not know what to say, what could he say. "He," he started, "It was Jason Todd." He did not want to avoid the truth, it was Jason, no matter how impossible it seemed. Tim was confused, and once the others came to, Dick told them the whole thing. At the end everyone was awe struck, Tim especially. They all were impacted by Jason death, but none of them to be happy or worried that he was alive now. Zatanna was worried beyond repair, because there was a possibility that Jason would be the cause of Dicks death. "I'll get the League looking for him," she said. Dick shook his head, "No, Zatanna," he stated, "Jason is my problem. I will handle it." "Try we'll handle it!" Tim and Conner chimed in. Dick knew it would be pointless to argue with them, and plus he did not mind have a hand from his two friends, they were like his brothers. "Alright then," he said. "Lets start hunting." Conner and Tim gave Dick confused looks. Dick pulled up a holo-map, and picture. "We started with the only logical lead."