The Power Play

Bruce suited up in his Batman suit before he called in Mr. Terrific to zeta-beam himself up to the Watchtower. This Red Hood was becoming an issue and he needed to put an end to it now. He loathed to admit it, but this type of new rival was starting to undo all the hard work Bruce had put into cleaning up Gotham. Criminals no longer feared Batman because they were now more afraid of Red Hood. The coined term given to Batman "The Dark Knight" didn't fit him anymore because the Red Hood brought real and terrible fear in the criminal world. Bruce gritted his teeth in frustration everytime he thought of the many encounters he had with the Red Hood after that fateful day in Wayne Industries. Bruce had studied the surveillance footage of the Red Hood from Wayne Industries and determined that Red Hood's fighting style was a more brutal and violent technique of martial arts with a little bit of something else, something he can't quite identify.

Bruce made his way to the Founder's Conference Room, where all other five members were waiting for him. His eyes drifted briefly over to where Shayera's chair was, her symbol emblazed on it in honor of her memory. John always sat next to it, as though to comfort himself by being next to it. His guilt had finally gone away after five years so he was always content to just sit next to the empty chair.

"Batman," addressed Superman, "What's the problem?"

"The problem is that I'm dealing with a possible Meta that has been trying to make his mark in Gotham." said Batman as he reached inside a drawer and took out a tablet. Turning it on, the wall behind the table slid open to reveal a large television screen hidden behind it. Batman took out a USB drive and plugged it in with the tablet. The TV turned on to show the many files and information Batman had gathered on the Red Hood. Superman looked at the photos to see that this new rogue is even more high-tech than Batman. Where Batman is comfortable with his utility belt for his gadgets, the Red Hood has pockets all over that Superman is sure is filled with his own tech. J'onn though wasn't paying attention to the computer. Instead he was scanning Bruce's mind to sense the slight desperation behind the calm exterior. This Red Hood man has been creating a feeling of worthlessness in Batman that J'onn has never seen in Bruce.

"What is his agenda? If he was making an effort to fight crime then shouldn't he have tried to cooperate with you?" asked Diana.

"That's the issue," said Batman, "He doesn't agree with my methods. I have always held the belief that even petty criminals deserve a second chance but Red Hood is eliminating them with no remorse. Petty thefts, like purse-snatchers, are found with a bullet to the head in alleys. The Marconi Family is all but non-existent, every single one of the members slaughtered like cows."

The image that Batman brought up made everybody want to throw up their lunch. It was horrific and very bloody. Superman clenched his hands at the thought of somebody capable of slaughtering anybody in this method. No matter what the crime, killing in cold blood was never the answer. John had thought that with all his space missions for the Green Lanterns, he had seen his fair share of horrors. This though went beyond it, having never seen such atrocities committed like this. Flash just refused to look at the screen after seeing the photo for one nano-second. Diana was angered and wanted to bring the rogue in to answer questions.

"How do you propose we catch him?" asked Superman.

"I only need you to help me patrol Gotham," said Batman, "if anyone of you has got a lead don't hesitate to apprehend him. This needs to end now."

As the founders left, John remained behind to rub the tired out of his eyes and to relax before joining Batman on an all-night patrol in Gotham. It was almost surreal to be in Gotham for a full night, as Batman absolutely despises having anyone other than him or his team in the city. The Red Hood must really be grating on Batman's mind to have Bruce call in the League to actually call in the League for help.

John leaned back in his seat and looked to the left. His heart did a little skip as he looked at Shayera's emblazoned symbol on the chair. It was a unanimous decision from the others that Shayera be memorialized in the Founder's Conference Room. Aside from her memorial headstone in Midway, John also wanted one to be in the Watchtower so nobody will ever forget the sacrifices she had made for Earth. As John left to follow the others, he glanced back one last time at the empty chair and felt a little sting pass in his heart. He was getting used to it every day and his guilt was slowly ebbing away as well. It took a while to not allow his guilt over Shayera's death haunt him, but he always found it to be creeping back before he stopped thinking about it. Mari had also been affected by Shayera's death. Her survivor's guilt had almost driven the model into a deep depression until J'onn forced her to go through several sessions of therapy. There wasn't much Mari could have done anyways to save Shayera but Mari had often believed that if she hadn't been knocked out, then John wouldn't have made such a rushed decision and Shayera would be alive.

Jason

Jason swung through the buildings as he chased down a black town car with ease, his grappling hook releasing its hold and retracting back into the gun. Jason quickly shot it out again and swung in between another pair of buildings in order to cut off a contact of Black Mask. Jason needed to know when the next shipment of Mask's cocaine was to be brought in and Jason planned to be there to destroy it. As the car swerved into an alley in an attempt to avoid the Red Hood, Jason smirked as he knew that the idiot had driven into a dead end. Jason retracted the hook and shot it out again in order to use it again so he can swing on top of the vehicle. When the crook screeched to a halt to avoid becoming a stain on the wall, Jason landed on top with enough force to bend the roof out of shape and frighten the man out of the vehicle.

Jason clicked the voice modulator on and began to talk with the contact, "What's going on? You didn't stay long for me to catch your name."

"S-S-Stay b-ba-back!" wheezed the contact, his fear of the Red Hood overriding his senses. He had heard stories about the Red Hood. From dismembered limbs to a bullet to the head, the Red Hood never left his victims unscathed. The man felt his pants warm up and looked to see that in his fear, he couldn't control himself. The Red Hood laughed at him and the man just wanted death to be upon him.

He may have wished too soon as Red Hood suddenly held a blade to his throat and he asked angrily, "The shipments, bed-wetter! When is the next one coming?"

"T-T-Tuesday," whimpered the man, hoping that honesty would grant him a light sentence. It wasn't worth keeping secrets for Black Mask, who had promised him protection, "The… Great H-Har-Harriet is coming to port on T-T-Tuesday."

"Good for you," said Red Hood, "Now, doesn't it feel nice to get those secrets out in the open?"

The man had no time to respond as his throat was slashed open, blood spilling out like a fountain. Jason watched with no emotion as the man slumped forward and fell to the floor. With his new information, Jason turned to leave until his sensors alerted him to Bruce's movements. He scoffed at his former mentor's attempt to catch and grappled out of the alley, intending to call it a night. As he reached the roof, he was met with the sight of the Green Lantern pointing his ring at him.

"Freeze." ordered the Lantern. Jason though was prepared for this. He knew Bruce would eventually cave and call in the metas for help. Jason was actually disappointed that Bruce had caved in so easily. It's no wonder Gotham has gone to crap recently. Jason took out a discombobulator and threw it up in the air above the Lantern. The lights and sound that emitted from the small orb caused the Lantern to lose his focus, his control over the ring lost. Jason quickly ran past the Lantern, his Red Hood helmet allowing Jason to not be affected by the discombobulator. Glancing back though, Jason knew of his mother's involvement with the Lantern and what he had done to her before she had died. Jason felt the familiar rage swell within him and turned back to kick the Lantern viciously in the ribs, taking deep satisfaction in hearing several ribs crack.

As Jason hopped onto the next building a lasso attempted to apprehend him, preventing him from moving forward. Jason quickly managed to somersault out of the lasso's reach and turned to see Wonder Woman and the Martian flying above him. Jason had to sneer at their attempts of intimidation and was suddenly enraged when he felt a mental probe in his mind. Shoving the probe out, he watched as the Martian flinched slightly at the force and said, "Don't try pushing it Green guy, mental rape is still considered rape."

The Martian's eyes widened at Jason's words but otherwise remained silent as Wonder Woman demanded, "Where is Lantern?"

"A little tipsy over yonder, lady. Word of advice? If you're going to take the shot, then take it." said Jason as he brought out a magnet. It was a specially made magnet that he and his mother worked on just for the Amazon. While her gauntlets held magical properties, the magnet was polarized by the Nth metal of his mother's mace. It was a sacrifice on her part to demolish her beloved weapon but she got around just fine with her new spear that had been made of the leftover metal of her old mace and Jason's kodachi was made from the Nth metal as well. As Jason threw the magnet, Wonder Woman felt her gauntlets immediately get snapped to it, and she fell forward as the magnet pulled her to the ground. She struggled to lift herself up but she was trapped on the ground, unable to free herself. Jason decided to further add insult to injury by pistol-whipping her across the face with enough force to knock her out (an added bonus strength through his half-Thanagarian bloodline).

The Martian tried to help Wonder Woman, but Jason threw a cubed object at him in the sky. The cube immediately opened up and the Martian was trapped inside a red cage. As the Martian tried to phase out, the red cage began to heat up. The Martian groaned in pain and confusion as the heat began to weaken him. Jason almost laughed at his previous worries about how the Martian was going to be the toughest opponent that he had to face.

Jason chuckled as he leapt away from the Amazon and the Martian, feeling more confident as he continued his escape. With three down, that meant there might be three more to deal with counting Bruce. As Jason was about to leap onto another roof, he felt hands grip his side and he was suddenly transported to an alley. Realizing that the Flash had a hand in this, Jason quickly threw two sensor grenades on either side of the alley to cover his tracks. If it was the Flash, then the bioadhesive that will explode out of the sensors will completely immobile the scarlet speedster. Jason only had to hold still and be ready in case the sensors don't work. His worries though we're for naught as he heard the electric sound of the Flash rush at him from behind. The sensors went off and Jason only heard the surprise exclamation of Flash and turned to see the speedster stuck on the ground with blue adhesive holding him down from the waist down. Laughing silently, Jason quickly ran around the immobile hero and made his way into the busy street. He didn't need to do anything the Flash otherwise his mother will kill him for doing anything damaging to the Flash.

Jumping on top of a semi-truck, Jason quickly surveyed the skies to watch for the final two: Bruce and Superman. As the truck exited the city and crossed over the Mercy Bridge, Jason's helmet immediately flashed red to warn him of an approaching figure. Turning around, Jason barely had time to register Superman's colors before he was grabbed and lifted high up in the air.

Jason quickly began to feign struggling out of Superman's steel grip, allowing the Man of Steel to feel confident.

"Your vigilante activities end here," ordered Superman, "if you really care about the people, you will turn yourself in."

"I'll do it the day Clark Kent decides to reveal his secret." taunted Jason. Shock spread across Superman's face, giving Jason enough time to reach into his pocket and fish out a small orb of Kryptonite. The effects were instantaneous as Superman weakened at the exposure and began to lose control over himself. Jason quickly fished his grappling gun out and grabbed onto Superman's collar as he swung them safely to the bridge. As he landed on the railing, he was met with a glaring Batman.

"'Sup Bats? Decided to bring in your posse this time? Gotta say, I'm really disappointed in you. I thought for sure you would last a few more weeks before you caved."

"Unhand Superman and turn yourself in now before you make this worse for yourself." ordered Batman. If it had been anyone else, Jason would have gutted the person for thinking that they could order him around. Seeing as how it was Bruce, Jason decided to irk the old man some more.

"Sure, I'll turn myself if you hang up your cape and cowl, Wayne." sneered Jason as he took satisfaction in watching the shock go through Bruce's eyes. Jason let go of Superman and the Man of Steel fell over the edge, the kryptonite still tucked inside his uniform and rendering him helpless. Batman didn't hesitate as he leapt over the bridge to save his best friend. Using his own grappling hook, Batman swung himself and Superman to safety on the bottom of the bridge where the maintenance site was held to repair damages to the bridge. Batman glared up at the bridge one final time to see Red Hood leaning over the edge, watching him, before he left.

"Bruce?" came the voice of Barbara through his separate com-link.

"What is it?" he asked as he carefully removed the kryptonite out of Superman's uniform and placed it inside a lead-enforced container in his belt.

"How does he know you?" asked Barbara, feeling a little vulnerable herself. If Red Hood knew who Batman was, then it is safe to assume that he knows who Oracle, Nightwing, and Robin are.

"I don't know," said Batman, loathed to admit it, "but as of now, Robin is to be kept off the streets and tell Nightwing to be on his toes. This is now a high-security risk that requires extreme caution."

"He knew me." croaked Superman, regaining his strength.
"What?" asked Batman, shocked at what was being revealed.
"He knows who Clark Kent is." said Superman. Heart racing, Bruce realized that he is dealing with a whole new adversary who isn't afraid to unleash his rage and who might be keeping tabs on them daily.

As Batman and Superman left to help out their fallen teammates, Jason had safely reached the sewers where a stashed construction worker's uniform was hidden and changed into it. As he walked along the path with his Red Hood uniform in bag, he re-joined with the other 'construction workers' and notified them that the 'gas leak' was taken care of and that they could leave. To the city, construction workers left the sewers once the job was dealt with unaware that the workers were really League of Shadows spies that Jason had emergency dialed to create an alibi in case a certain hot and genius redhead was spying through the city cameras. It will not do well for him to have Barbara have footage of a lone young man leave the sewers with a suspicious duffle bag after all.

Bruce

"He knows how to stop us! How?" questioned Flash as he paced in the room. The others remained sitting down around the Founder's Table but Flash was nervous, so he needed to walk off some of it. The others carefully tried to find a way to explain it, but couldn't come up with any possible explanation.

"It's obvious that he has been keeping tabs on us, but the question is how? Does he have a network to work off of? Does he have spies? Can he read minds?" asked John, gripping the armrest on his chair to stop another migraine from flowing through. The discombobulator had done a real number on him and he swears that he can still see some of the flashing lights. He winced as he took a deep breath, his sides bandaged to help his healing cracked ribs.

"He is capable of blocking me." admitted J'onn. The others looked at him to elaborate and he said, "He was able to push me out of his head. I haven't seen resistance like that since…"

Trailing off, he looked at Shayera's empty chair and John felt his heart clench. Diana though looked at the empty chair with a worried expression, ignoring the pain over her bruised cheek, and said, "Do you believe it to be another Thanagarian?"

"No," said J'onn, "Thanagarians are capable of blocking me out completely with no effort. Whoever this is, I am able to infiltrate very little but not at all at the same time."

"What did you catch in his head?" asked Flash.
"Pain. Deep in his heart, a rage that had almost consumed him, but at the same time… he took great joy in his actions. As though it was revenge being fulfilled." explained J'onn. Batman narrowed his eyes at this information. Revenge? Looking back, who had Batman wronged that would take effort in not only de-stabilizing Batman's control over the city but to also take the time to anticipate the League's involvement. If Batman had to be honest, he would have actually done the same thing if he was looking for revenge. He needed to know more though to continue his investigations.

"He knew who Superman and Batman are though," said Flash, "Which means that he might know who I am too."

"I wouldn't worry about it," said Batman, "Of us all, you were the one who had taken the least amount of damage. He could have broken your legs or done something similar to it in order to render you useless or would have revealed that he knew your identity. He didn't. All he did was immobile and left you alone."

"So what? Guy's a big fan of me then?" asked Flash, the whole situation getting stranger and stranger.

"I don't know," admitted Batman, "I'm going to need more information to get a lead on."

"Whatever the case may be currently," said Superman, "this is now a League Priority and we need all hands on deck to figure out who he is and what he wants. It's obvious now that he didn't chose Gotham by random and that he decided to call himself a 'hero'."

"This is one power play that's going to get nasty." said John, groaning a little at the pain.

Jason

"I need you to meet me at the docks on Tuesday night to hijack a ship called "The Great Harriett". It's loaded with some easy money to fund the cause and I need you there with a semi to take the load." ordered Jason into the phone, as he contacted another League of Shadows spy.

"Understood Aikh'Tier." said the spy before he hung up. Jason wanted to groan at hearing his assassin name, but that was the name given to him at his resurrection and the entire League was expected to address him as such. Only his mother and Talia addressed him by his first birth name, or J'hari as his mother calls him sometimes when it was just the two of them. He sighed as he thought of his mother, hoping that Ras will be pleased with progress the mission was playing out. His mother had always protected him from Ras's rage, often bearing the brunt of punishments that was meant for him in order to spare Jason from pain. It hurt him though to see his mother so broken afterwards and he struggled for a while to do his best on missions so his mother wouldn't have to suffer. It figures that the one time he tried to be defiant and free himself and his mother from Ras's control is what forced him to lead this 'cleansing' of Gotham and her sister cities.

Ras needed a stronger foothold in the United States and Jason was sent to lead the mission. As the first two cities were 'cleansed', the League of Shadows began to set up their own headquarters in each city so Ras's influence could spread. Jason hates Bruce and everything that Bruce stands for, but he didn't want things to turn out the way it did. He didn't want to kill petty criminals for petty crimes, but with spies all over now in Gotham Jason was forced to act the part and continue the mission. If not, his mother will die with no hopes of resurrection and he will be alone again.

As he Jason went towards the kitchen, his laptop began to beep and he wanted to groan in frustration. Barbara was getting very close to hacking into his systems that he has placed all around the Gotham Network and it was getting annoying. Looking at the laptop, Jason saw in surprise that she had actually managed to get passed the first of the fifty firewalls that he had set up for his connections. Triggering a lashback virus, Jason walked back into the kitchen to grab a beer, before turning back to see that the virus had done its work and had infiltrated Barbara's system without her knowledge. Hacking into the cameras of her hideout, Jason watched as she typed away in her computer, unaware of the new set of eyes that was watching her. Jason smirked and decided to have a little fun while he was stuck being Ras's dog. It will be fun after all to have a little revenge on not only Batman but to Dick, Barbara, and his new replacement.

Hey readers, hope you liked the new chapter :) Spring break is upon me, woo hoo, which means more time to write! So like or dislike? Thank you for reading :)