"The pointy end faces away from you…just FYI."

The all too familiar sound of fist meeting face reached Jason from his perch up in the warehouse rafters.

It wasn't an unusual vantage point for him to have taken, but usually he knew the layout ahead of time; which beams were weak, which would groan or creak under his weight, which would displace dust if his movements were too jarring.

All knowledge which (in his current circumstances) he found himself without right now.

'Maybe this is where Roy gets his sass from' he thought, rolling his eyes as he watched the scene down below, where the Green Arrow was currently tied to a chair, his arrows being examined by a bunch of thugs…who happened to be extremely well armed.

This hadn't been the plan at all. In fact, there had been absolutely no plan whatsoever because none of this had been in the cards.

With his new suit now pretty much perfect, Jason's patrols through Star City over the past few weeks (edging towards a month) of his residency here had been more or less solo. It had been one thing to get the lay of the land from Queen, but the decision had been made (and agreed to on both sides) that disassociating himself from the Green Arrow would work in both their favors.

They still worked in tandem, Jason not having protested against accepting a comms unit from the man so they could stay in touch. It was just a matter of making it appear to those of the criminal class that there was a new vigilante in town.

It was still early days yet as his new unnamed persona, but Jason had caught a few snippets of conversation here and there during the late nights he'd been out; talking about someone new in town, and making the Green Arrow look like direct competition.

"My cousin Joe, who works down at the docks, says his buddy's brother's cousin, Carl, was doing a deal and this seven foot tall robot with glowing blue eyes picked him up and threw him through a wall before vanishing into thin air."

"Don't you mean against?"

"No man, I really mean 'through' the fucking wall! And is that the only thing about what I just said that you're going to focus on?"

Technically the guy hadn't gone through the wall…he'd only cracked the drywall. It hadn't been that difficult – it had been a thin-ass wall from what Jason remembered.

"Those kids Cheesy Franco was using as crawlers ain't crawlers no more."

"Dead?"

"No, but he probably wishes he was. He's going to be eating through a straw for the next six to eight months…"

"Wait, I thought you were talking about the kids."

"No, man. Franco! He was giving orders to about a dozen of the little runts before they scurried off. Some fucking guy who looked like fucking Robocop from the year three thousand showed up and sat him down on the floor."

"To what? Have a chat?"

"The guy broke Franco's legs. Sitting down wasn't exactly optional. I hear Franco pissed himself and started crying. Whoever this guy is told him that if he needed help squeezing into tight spaces that he'd help him out."

"Jesus."

"Yeah. Franco's lucky he didn't get anything hacked off."

Jason had tried not to laugh too much at that one. Franco had peed himself, which had been pretty fucking funny.

What hadn't been funny was tracking down most of those kids and trying to convince them that he wasn't going to hurt them.

As the Red Hood, his reputation had spoken for itself; and he'd all but forgotten how long it had taken to be seen as a protector and someone that could be trusted. That would take time to build up again, although he was certainly off to roaring start.

"Where the fuck is Petra? He owes me a night with one of his pieces."

"Yeah…I think he's out of the game now."

"Ha! Good one."

"I mean it. His pimpin' days are over. That fucking blue ghost got him."

"What ghost? You mean that lame ass story about the guy getting jumped at the dock? Two words for you: Urban. Legend."

"That ain't the only story, Tommy."

"Listen, if someone offed Petra, there are hundreds of guys that could have done it."

"He ain't dead."

"I thought you said-"

"I said his pimpin' days are over. Not that he's dead, asswipe!"

"So where is he?"

"Last I heard, Star City Memorial. Recovering from reattachment surgery."

"Reattaching what?"

"Er…it's better not to ask."

"Oh. Oh! Fuck. Jesus. I think I'm having sympathy pains…"

"Me too, man. Me too."

So that one had been a bit of a stretch. Jason hadn't chopped anything off, just…broke an appendage. It would be fine. Well…maybe not fine, but it could have been worse.

Stories like these had spread like wildfire, with Jason being dubbed the 'ghost of Star City'. Not everyone believed he existed, and that worked well enough for him. Catching people off guard was something he took great joy in and having those not believe he was even real was just icing on the cake.

"Fucking Queen." Jason grit out, not as amused now as he had been.

They had both clocked a few too many trucks near the stockyards, something that even as a newbie to the city, Jason had thought suspicious. A quick check in with the Green Arrow had confirmed this, and both of them ended up tailing trucks to this very warehouse.

It was the very definition of derelict, with both men keeping their distance from one another on the roof in order to distribute their weight.

A quick look into the interior below them (thank you upgraded thermal imaging Q-Core tech) showed seven individuals, clearly armed. A look around them picked up truck drivers further away, but another look through his helmet had Jason pulling up short. There were heat spikes from within some of the trucks themselves, and that was never a good sign.

As soon as Jason opened his mouth to say something, a loud screech from somewhere in the sky startled them both. He barely had time to register something knocking into him before shots rang out from beneath them.

If either of them were going to fall through the roof in this instance, Jason would have bet money on himself, considering his suit weighed considerably more than the Green Arrow's. So it was lucky or unlucky that one misstep on the Green Arrow's part had the man dropping through a weak spot in the roof.

"I'm fine. Stay out of sight."

Jason had wanted to ignore the Green Arrow's hushed message, but at least the guy was alive and kicking. In fact, he must not have been all that injured considering how much he'd been talking back to his assailants. Jason couldn't blame them for punching the guy in the face.

"Nice tattoo. What is that? Angel wings? Kinda girly though, am I right? I mean, not that I'm judging. I've got one too. Unicorn, on my left ass chee-"

Another punch to the face, and Jason (who was taking this whole thing very seriously) was trying not to laugh. He appreciated the heads up about it being clearly some of Rowe's men, but the method chosen was one that Jason felt he'd practically trademarked himself. It almost ruffled his feathers a bit that Queen talked back almost as well as Jason did; the key word there being 'almost'.

Two punches to prettyboy's face was enough though and Jason calculated his approach downwards. He was already positioned near a pane-less window frame, counting off the takedown order.

Two flashbang grenades thrown at opposites sides of the space and Jason had four of the seven men down within seconds, taking out an additional two with some swift roundhouse kicks.

That left just the one.

Jason ignored the shot that rang out, barely feeling it as it hit his chest plate (a novel feeling since bulletproof armor had always hurt like hell). Several more shots, and Jason was still stomping forward, watching as the remaining thug pathetically tossed his emptied firearm at the armored mass that was barrelling down upon him.

Sure he could have maneuvered out of the way, but Jason was going for maximum effect, and he wanted the story to get out about bullets not stopping him and causing rumors to further circulate. There was a risk of injury, sure, but his career wasn't exactly for the risk averse.

"What was that? I couldn't quite hear you…" The chuckle Jason let out after his own question sounded very disturbing; the deeply robotic and toneless quality of it completely unsettling.

The thug, who was taller and heavier than Jason, was currently suspended in mid-air by a single hand around his throat, struggling in vain to catch his breath. No amount of hitting Jason's heavily armored forearms was going to help with that.

A quiet cough behind him -subtle enough to appear natural but certainly meant for Jason- ended the party.

"Goodnight."

Jason's helmet connected with the man's skull with a satisfying crack. Not bothering to support the man's dead weight, he let the thug fall unceremoniously to the floor.

"And I thought I was a wise-ass. That's like copyright infringement or something." Jason muttered loudly as he stomped over to the Green Arrow…who had apparently freed himself.

"Are you fucking serious right now?!"

The Green Arrow had the audacity to smile at him…although it faded a few seconds later after some annoyed silence on Jason's part.

"You didn't think I actually fell through the roof by accident, did you?"

"Um, yeah, I kind of fucking did!"

"Ha! That's funny. Come on, let's see where they end up going" the archer said cheerily, moving around and placing nano-trackers inside their pockets like he was the Easter Bunny hiding eggs for children to find.

"Yeah, we're going to need to work on your approach here."

The Green Arrow shrugged, stood up, and then had the audacity to wink cheekily at him.

For a moment Jason wondered which was of them was supposed to be the more mature one.

"You're like Roy…times two."

"Thank you."

"That's not a-" Jason cut himself off with a sigh, falling in step next to the man and punching him hard in the shoulder.