This was something I wrote a while back, but I've been unable to fit it into anything or expand on it.
Enjoy!
He'd had plenty of space in Venezuela and more than enough men to field-test the upgrades he'd made to his armor, yet he'd put it off. The meeting in Gotham with Scarecrow was the perfect opportunity to make sure it worked. And he'd needed to test it against the toys Batman carried, anyway.
That, and it would be infinitely more fun pissing off a Robin instead of sparring with men who were terrified of him.
Jason sat on the counter of the Kingston branch of the Bank of Gotham, swinging his legs idly as he waited for the police to arrive. He'd intentionally triggered the alarm and it was loud, but his helmet and HUD filtered the noise, muted the alarm, and amplified other sounds like the footsteps, car doors and voices outside.
Officers from the GCPD opened the entrance closest to him quietly, staying low to the floor. He took aim and fired, ricocheting a bullet off the marble floor and forcing them back out. He smirked as his helmet picked up the sound of an officer radioing for backup because of the gunfire.
He'd only fired two rounds and these officers were scared. He and Scarecrow had their work cut out for them.
Jason pulled his legs up and spun around, climbing down behind the counter. For tonight, his clothing and armor were all black and a deep shade of gray, and he blended into the shadows of the bank almost completely. As he fired off another couple of rounds as officers tried the door again, he heard Slade's voice in his ear.
"I've got the Bat in my sights on Bleake Island. Just waiting for your signal."
Jason studied the screen in his helmet display. The timer read three minutes and forty seconds since he triggered the alarm. Had Batman been on Miagani Island, he'd have been here by now.
"Engage, Deathstroke. I'll let you know when to fall back."
"Take your time. I plan to enjoy this."
"I'm sure you will. Knight out."
He turned his focus back to the lobby as his helmet picked up noise at the windows on the second level.
Right on schedule. Less than four minutes.
"Zoom in," he whispered into the mic. He looked up and the helmet zoomed in, highlighting a form entering the bank. Based on the wide shoulders, buzzed hair and the cape, he knew his mark had just arrived. With a smile he slid around a corner, and still kneeling in the darkness along the floor, he drew his grapple gun.
As soon as Robin was perched on the railing and studying the darkness below him, Jason aimed and fired. The grapple snagged Robin's wrist while he was reading his gauntlet screen. Jason locked the line and tugged violently, hauling Robin toward the floor. He was barely able to tuck his head and roll as he hit the floor, but he still landed hard. His shoulder hit awkwardly, and Jason was sure he'd split his head open, too. There was a soft grunt as he rolled over and came to his knees.
"I'm going to deduct a point for not sticking the landing."
Robin swiped at the small trickle of blood above his temple and shook out his staff.
"And you are?"
"You'll find out soon enough."
Jason drew the gun at his left hip, firing at a police officer as he tried to enter, never looking away from Robin. The bullet struck the officer's body armor square in the chest, and he was knocked backward onto the pavement outside the bank. Police officers weren't the target. Robin risked a glance behind him, unaware someone tried to come in.
Jason could tell he was trying to size him up. So far, he'd been caught by surprise by the grapple gun and the use of non-lethal force against a police officer. Jason fought the urge to laugh; he knew the kid was analyzing everything Batman had taught him, trying to determine if he was outmatched or not. But Jason had waited weeks for this, and he wasn't going to stand here and wait any longer.
"I know Batman taught you not to engage an opponent unless you have the upper hand, but come on," he said, sinking into a fighting stance and beckoning him with a nod of his head. "I won't tell him if you won't."
The muscles in Robin's jaw clenched. He knew this kid was incredibly smart, so he likely realized he was being baited. The only question was whether or not he felt confident enough to engage.
Robin lunged forward and the staff arced toward Jason's head. He was able to land several quick but glancing blows. Jason easily deflected the staff and put about half his strength into a punch to Robin's injured shoulder. It knocked him back several steps, and a pained grunt died in his throat as he regrouped and came at Jason again.
They went back and forth that way for another sixty seconds or so, dodging punches and kicks. They each landed several solid hits, but the armor they both wore minimized the impact. When Robin kept coming at him, Jason realized it wasn't necessary to hold back any longer, since this kid could clearly hold his own.
Robin shoved him backward to give himself space to swing his staff, and Jason took the opportunity and faked a left hook, drawing Robin in. As he brought his staff down, Jason ducked and caught the staff as it soared over where his head had just been.
Yanking it away from him, Jason swept Robin's feet from beneath him. Robin landed on his back, ready to jump back up, until Jason snapped the staff over his knee and pointed a jagged end at Robin's neck.
This kid was good, he'd give him that. While there was definitely a heavy influence on his style from Batman's training, there was something else there, too. Something a little more fluid, more subtle. He pricked the exposed skin of Robin's neck, drawing several drops of blood.
"Oh, come on. I know you can take more than that." Jason towered over him, savoring the feeling of looking down at his replacement. "Get up! We're not finished." Jason tossed the broken pieces off to the side and brought his leg back to kick Robin. But Robin took advantage of the opening Jason had given him and kicked at the leg Jason was standing on, bringing him down to the floor.
"Atta boy!"
They wrestled for a moment, until Jason wrenched an arm behind Robin's back, flipping him onto his stomach. He dug his knee into the middle of Robin's back, pinning him down. After a moment he felt Robin shift his hips and bring his knee out to the side to try to throw Jason off balance. Jason allowed Robin to tip him, but he quickly grabbed the leg Robin swung toward his head, twisting it far enough Robin had to roll over in the other direction if he didn't want anything broken or dislocated.
The timer in the helmet was now at almost six minutes and Jason knew he didn't have much time left before backup arrived for the pathetic GCPD officers outside.
"This might hurt a little."
He wrenched the leg until he felt bones in the kid's ankle move, and Robin screamed. The sound echoed across the bank, barely audible because of the alarm. Jason grabbed the collar of the armor, hauling Robin up off the floor.
"You'd better call for help, little bird." Jason made sure his voice was loud enough for the kid to hear through the noise and the pain. "Because I'll keep going until you're dead."
To Jason's surprise, Robin smirked and tried to wrap his uninjured leg around Jason's neck to force him onto his back down on the floor. Jason grabbed it and rolled backwards, bringing Robin with him. He pushed Robin up and back as they rolled, and they wound up in nearly the same position where they started, this time with Jason wrapping his large hand around the dislocated ankle.
He leaned down one more time, getting right in the kid's face.
"You should really be more careful, Drake. Being a Robin can be a deadly job." Jason grinned at the surprise in the kid's eyes before headbutting him. "Or so I've heard, anyway."
He ripped off Robin's gloves and gauntlets, searching for the comm system. When he found what he was looking for, a small series of buttons near the wrist, he pushed the lone blue one and smiled to himself.
That was easier than it should have been. How pathetic.
Jason tossed the gauntlets toward a nearby trash can and grappled up into the darkness of the upper floor, directly across from the window Robin used. Much to his delight, he only had to wait a few minutes before the next guest arrived.
As expected, Nightwing entered through the same window Robin had to minimize his chance of making any noise. Jason noticed the look of surprise on his face when he saw Robin bleeding and unconscious on the floor. Dick checked the room once more before swinging down and landing next to Robin. He immediately checked for a pulse and gently shook him, trying to wake him.
Jason chose that moment to make an entrance, dropping from his hiding place. He landed on the floor ten feet away, keeping Robin between them. He drew both guns from the holsters on his thighs, bringing the hammers back. Dick looked up at the guns first, then at Jason, before standing up.
"You really shouldn't have beaten up my brother," Dick said, "because now you have to deal with me." He reached behind him and drew his an escrima stick. "And that never ends well for people like you."
Jason laughed humorlessly.
"Still chatty as ever, I see."
Dick pretended to be wounded by the comment, though he couldn't hide the confusion at the hint they may have crossed paths before.
"I've been told I'm rather charming."
"Charming, aggravating. Po-tay-to, po-tah-to." He reduced the gap to about five feet and waited patiently.
As expected, Dick fired a grapple at him, and Jason allowed it to attach to the chest plate of his armor. The plate detached a second later, as designed, and before Dick could retract the line, Jason grabbed hold of it. He drew a taser and touched it to the line, pressing the button to discharge it. Dick let go before he was shocked, and he tossed it to the side.
He drew the other escrima and flew at Jason, flipping up and over him. The moment his boots hit the floor, he wrapped an arm around Jason's throat and jabbed one stick into Jason's rib cage. But before Dick could try to submit him, Jason threw his elbow back, grabbed Dick's arm and pulled Dick over his shoulder. He landed on his feet and swiped the blood from his cheek with his fingers.
"Would you look at that?" He showed his bloodied fingers to Jason. "You drew first blood. That's usually my job."
"You're not that good at it. Maybe you should head back to Bludhaven and learn a few things," Jason said, his words clipped and quiet. "Or have Batman teach you how to fight properly."
At the insinuation he needed Batman's help, Dick got angry and launched himself toward Jason, which Jason had been counting on. His kicks and punches grew sloppy. There was still quite a bit of power behind them, but he left himself open too many times, all of which Jason took advantage of. After several powerful blows to Dick's rib cage and a huge fist to his solar plexus, he struggled to catch his breath.
Jason let him go and Dick dropped to his knees, once again putting himself between Robin and Jason.
"Who are you?" Dick wheezed. "And what are you on? You're too big to be that fast."
Standing above Dick, he brought his fist down once more, knocking him out.
"Unlike you, I'm not the chatty type," Jason muttered.
The timer in his helmet hit twelve minutes and thirty seconds, and he could hear S.W.A.T. arriving outside. He grappled up to the second floor, left through the window Robin had opened, and sprinted across the rooftops toward Port Adams.
"Deathstroke. Status report."
"Don't tell me you're finished already. I'm just getting started."
Jason paused before grappling to the next building, glancing behind him toward the bank.
"Yeah, I am. I'm disappointed in how easy it was to bring those two down, but the test was successful."
"I'm not surprised. But well done."
"I'm heading toward Port Adams. You've got twenty minutes before we leave."
"Copy that," said Slade, an almost childlike glee in his voice. "That gives me another fifteen minutes of playtime with the Bat."
Jason sighed.
"The siege is in six weeks. Don't do anything that would put him out of commission for that. Otherwise? Have fun. Knight out."