Back in Gotham

Chapter one: Running into Each Other

Cross-posted on my AO3 account Nobodythehope

January 1st

…

Jason Todd

…

Jason Todd is a handsome twenty-five-year-old half Brazilian half Irish man standing six feet tall. He possesses a strong, broad, and powerful frame with every muscle well defined yet did not impede his flexibility with well-defined pecks and abs. He has piercing, angry yet sullen, and lonely blue eyes, short brown hair, and he carries himself with confidence. Jason has been living out of this small hotel near Gotham Science Center for the past month. For the past month, he has been going out as his new antihero persona of Red Hood, staking out and picking off members of the False Face Society and its allies in organized crime. It has been ten years since Jason died and ten years since he spent more than a few weeks in Gotham. Before now, he has spent seven years traveling the world, training to develop the skills needed to kill the maniacal Joker and, if need be, his adoptive father, Bruce Wayne, aka Batman.

Starting with the three years he spent training, first with the All-Cast, then The League of Assassins. However, after mastering all the skills they had to offer him, he left them moving on as both groups did not agree with his sense of justice. However, Ra's insisted that Jason should do the same as Bruce and get an education well, seeking out trainers, the man even offering to pay for it all. Jason took him up on it, so he spent four years college hopping. Jason got a Teaching degree, mechanical and electrical engineering, world literature history, English, and history degrees. He also did some work with Roy Harper; when not studying. Jason also finished a student teaching program at a British boarding school for troubled youths. He was surprised at how much he enjoyed working with them.

Three years ago, Jason felt ready to start to take on Bruce when he began hearing rumors of a coup was going to happen in the League of Assassins leads by Slade Wilson. Jason felt he owed a debt to both Talia to bring him back to life using a Lazarus Pit and Ra's paying for him to get his education, traveling, and training. He managed to arrive in time to save Ra's, then escorted Talia to bring both Anastasia' Anna' and Damian Wayne to Gotham well Ra's and those still loyal to him regrouped.

Damian became the new Robin, well Anna became Catgirl. Jason then returned to help Ra's take back the league from Slade as despite his goal of wiping out 75% of humanity, Ra's still respected human life more than Slade, and he used The League wisely. Ra's also had plans in place for the aftermath of his genocide to make sure people still have their creature comforts.

Jason then returned to Gotham in the garb of a member of the League of Assassins and reluctantly helped his father against the Court of Owls, as Bruce was his to kill. A year after the kids' arrival, Damian was killed by his mutant clone, The Heretic. Jason learned it was Talia using her organization Leviathan that created Heretic. After again helping his family as a member of the league, Jason quit it for a second time and told Ra's he was going to destroy Talia's organization. However, before Jason started his one-man war against Leviathan, Ra's asked him for a favor. He asked Jason if he would help Bruce, who went on a one-man raid on Apokolips to bring back Damian's body, and Jason again reluctantly agreed to help. They ended up bringing the boy back to life.

Bruce asked Selina Kyle to move in with him just before Jason left the city again. He met with Ra's and informed him his grandson was alive again. Ra's gave Jason a happy smile then presented him with a few batsuit style costumes with an emblem similar to Bruce's and a red helmet. Jason began using the alias Red Hood as he took down the Leviathan organization. In the course of taking down the organization, he revealed Taila was behind the attempted coup with the League of Assassins. Jason spent the last two years crippling the organization. However, he spared the resurrected Talia telling her that he paid the debt he owed her for bringing him back to life. Ra's had sent him some suits with a new design and a billion dollars scattered in a few bank accounts as thanks for not killing his daughter. Say what you want about Ra's he did care a great deal for his family. Jason invested ¼ of his new fortune wisely in the stock market to make sure he could stay funded indefinitely.

Now here he was back in Gotham starting a one-man war on the False Face Society. He would rather outright kill the Joker, but Joker was still in Arkham. Plus, Bruce was keeping too good of an eye on the Joker and the Joker's goons. This early in his plan, Jason was not yet ready to reveal himself he was alive to Bruce. Jason had a feeling Alfred knew he was alive, but the old butler would not give away the secret. So, for now, Jason would begin putting pressure on Black Mask. He needed the man desperate enough to free the Joker. So far, Jason has stolen quite a large sum of cash from Black Mask, which was now funding several orphanages and rehab clinics. That man sold his poison to kids; that was just one of the reasons Jason planned to kill him before his endgame with Batman. Jason was working slower than he wanted as he did not want to divert Bruce's focus from getting Selina Kyle from Arkham. Selina had become a mother to him before his death. Jason honestly wondered what was taking Batman so long as Jason already got the evidence to clear her name. She still had quite some time before her execution date, so Jason was not too worried.

Jason had just bolted awake from the nightmare that had been haunting him for ten years, the nightmare where he is beaten almost to death by The Joker then died in bruces arms after when he was blown up, Bruce laughing like the Joker. However, this dream was rare. Generally, Bruce is crying. Finding himself Soaked in sweat, Jason went and took a quick shower before getting dressed in a pair of blue jeans, a black punisher skull t-shirt, and his favorite brown leather jacket. His hotel room had a small kitchen, but he did not feel like cooking, so he planned to get a bite to eat at The Boxcar, a small diner a short winter walk away. As Jason 'worked' nights, it was four in the afternoon now. He finished tying on his black steel-toed boots, walked out the door, where he promptly and literally ran into a tall, beautiful woman.

…

Helena Bertinelli

…

Helena Bertinelli is a twenty-five-year-old Half Italian half-African American woman standing five feet eleven inches tall. She has angry honey brown eyes with a bit of loneliness in them, long, well-toned legs, wide hips, a wasp waist, large rump, large D cups, a very well-defined core, and long wavy brown hair falling just past her arms. Helena had been back in Gotham for a month. Before now, she spent seven years training to begin her hunt to kill those who killed her family. Then she got recruited into Spyral and worked for them for five years, getting more training and a college education along the way; Helena ended up with degrees in Teaching, History, Literature, Mechanical and Electrical engineering. She even managed to finish a student-teacher program at her old swiss boarding school, being assigned to a class full of troubled girls. She was surprised by how much she enjoyed working with them.

After Leviathan was destroyed by an unknown third party and what happened after Grayson quit, she quit the organization returned home to Gotham to hunt down the hitmen who killed her family and then wage a one-woman war on the mob. Helena is a former mob princess. She had vowed to be like the original uncorrupted members of the Mafia back in the old country, a vigilante protector instead of a criminal. So, Helena got a colorful bullet-resistant costume in the best color in the world, purple, and started hunting down the hitmen who killed her family with her trusty collapsible crossbow. She also added white accents to form a cross across her chest to honor her deep Catholic faith and put the fear of God into them. Thus, The Huntress was born and is funded with Helena Bertinelli's massive trust fund.

Along the way, Helena somehow became friends with two amazing women, self-made green energy billionaire Barbara Gordan AKA Batgirl, AKA Oracle, and Dinah Laurel Lance, AKA Black Canary, AKA, one of the best frontwomen in Heavy Metal. She also had a run-in with Batman at Barbara's home Gotham Clocktower, but the meeting was anticlimactic. Yesterday Helena learned her mother also survived the death of her father and older brother. That she had become the Mafia Donna known as Fenice and what she did, her mother, Maria Bertinelli, was partially responsible for the death of her brother and father. Maria wanted to leave her father for her lover Santo Casamento. They decided the only way to get out of her marriage was to kill Helena's father. However, Santo chose to kill all of them but her mother. The only reason Helena survived was that she played possum after getting grazed. She also had a feeling the hitman had reservations about killing a kid. Eshosted Helena just came back to her hotel room and crashed on her bed. She woke up drenched in sweat a few hours later after having the old nightmare of the night she watched her family murdered in front of her. She took a quick shower.

When Helena finished her shower, she was grumpy and hungry. She did not feel like using the tiny kitchen in her room to make herself some breakfast, and she also hated eating alone. So dressed in a pair of blue jeans, a Black Widow hourglass t-shirt, a black leather jacket, and her trusty combat boots, Helena left her room to head to a local diner to get breakfast. Well, it would technically be an early dinner, but she was a night owl.

She was walking by the door of the room next to hers when a wall slammed into her. Before she could fall, the wall caught her. Helena was about to curse out whoever I was that walked into her when she looked up, and that anger died as she saw the handsome man that ran into her.

"Om, sorry." The man said as he helps her stand up.

"No, it was my fault I was not paying attention," Helena says distractedly. This man has a deep voice and a hard yummy body. She should be saying he can let her go, but honestly, she did not want him to.

"No, it's my fault. I was not looking where I was going. Ah… I was just about to go get some dinner, om so can I buy you dinner to make up for running into you?" The man asks a bit shyly with a slight blush.

"Sure, why not. I am Helena Bertinelli." Helena says with a smile.

"Jason Todd…oh sorry," Jason says with a smile as he lets her go as his blush got bigger.

…

Later that night…

…

Jason had had fun with Helena. The two spent three hours chatting at the little dinner Jason took her to called The Boxcar that Jason had loved since he was a kid. It turns out they have many similar interests from comics, books, exercise habits, and even a similar educational background. They left about three hours later with plans to meet up again tomorrow as they both needed to get a workout. Jason then went to Ted Grant's gym. Helena headed to an international women's only gym chain called Themyscira Wonders, which Wonder Woman actually owned. They made plans to have breakfast together again tomorrow.

Now he was back in his room and has changed into his gear to go out as Red Hood to continue his attacks on the False Face Society. His new suit consisted of a red domino mask with red lenses, a half-mask over it, a black sleeveless armored suit, red Kevlar arm wraps, gloves, Kevlar pants, and a pair of armored boots. Over this, he wears a Kevlar sleeveless hoodie. In addition, he had a utility belt with holsters for his pair of ten-millimeter pistols and a large knife on the left side. Finally, strapped to his back is a holster for a large crowbar and a short European longsword. When he finished changing, he made his way out the window.

"Who the fuck are you, and why did you come out that window? Turn around slowly." A voice that is somewhat familiar to Red Hood says, and he does as asked.

He sees an attractive dark-skinned woman holding, of all things, a loaded crossbow on him. She is dressed in a tailored purple short sleeve kevlar trench coat, Kevlar leggings, a pair of armored combat boots, utility gauntlets with crossbow bolts held in them. On her face is a purple domino mask with white lenses, which was refreshing to see as Catwoman set the trend for the female vigilante/villainess community, and most wear clear lenses.

"Names Red Hood and you are?...HELENA!" Red hood says in shock, recognizing the woman he spent three hours with earlier today. A built-in filter in his half-mask distorted his voice. He barely managed to catch the crossbow bolt fired at his head. His respect for Helena goes up as she did not even hesitate to fire when he blurted out her real name. He reached up and removed his half mask as he ducked behind a dumpster as Helena went to reload. Well, Jason just met Helena … He really liked the woman he just met and did not want to kill her.

"Helena, it's Jason Todd. Please do not shoot at me again," Jason asks with a frown, his deep voice now undistorted. Then, something hits Helena like a punch in the gut. The man she spent three hours with today was named…

"Who is…" Helena puts her fingers above her head, mimicking horns.

"Bruce Thomas Wayne," Jason says without hesitation he had heard a woman in a similar outfit had been working with Batgirl and Black Canary. So he figured she already knew who Batman is. Jason fingered one of his ten millimeters. If she fired again, he would hate to do it, but he would end her to protect his…revenge?

"Grr…get fucking changed and meet me at my room. We will go get something to cook and can talk." Helena says with a frown. She… really liked Jason and did not want to kill him. Both grappled up to their rooms to change.

…

At a 24-hour Walmart

…

"Wait, you're telling me the Lazarus pit is real?" Helena asks, having changed back into the clothing she wore earlier today as Jason had. Spyral had heard rumors of them. However, they had yet to find one when she left the organization.

"Yes, they are real," Jason says as he and Helena chooses a pack of chicken. They had decided to make chicken alfredo for dinner.

"And you took down Leviathan. Spyral had been hunting for their bases for years, and we have only been able to find three …" Helena says with a frown before Jason cuts her off.

"Actually, Spyral was the sister organization to Leviathan. Without one, the other will collapse soon, and I took out Leviathan, so now Spyral is mortally wounded, so it's good you got out. Talia set them up to playoff and improve each other so she could eventually take out her father and the League of Assassins. That woman has the worst Daddy issues. However, one could have survived if it consumed the other. Fortunately, I did not leave enough of a corps for Spyral to consume, as the tech they had would be beyond dangerous on the regular black or never mind if it got on the white market, so Spyral is circling the drain. " Jason interrupts Helena as he begins scrutinizing hunks of parmesan cheese as Helena stands ridged shocked.

"Fuck… given what I learned as one of the heads of Spyral, that makes so much sense." Helena exclaimed as she goes and grabs some butter, eggs, and some bacon for her breakfast in the morning.

…

Helena's hotel room

…

"Wait, you're a member of that Bertinelli family…So you're a genuine mob princess turned Fem Fatale spy, turned antihero vigilante…cool origin." Jason says with a smile as he kneads some dough for their dinner. He looks at Helena and notes the woman had pulled her hair into a ponytail. Jason was happy both of them preferred to make as much food from scratch as they could, and they both were having a lot of fun together as they chatted and prepped for the meal. Neither of them could remember the last time they had fun cooking. Judging the dough was ready, Jason began tearing and shredding the dough to make the noodles for their pasta dish. Once he finished, he then coats the dough in flour to prevent it from sticking together. Helena smiled as she was impressed he could make noodles by hand as she had never been able to master the skill herself, and that smile got a bit wider when she noticed the speck of flower on the man's cheek. She wets a rag and wipes his face off with a slight blush.

"Says the former member of The Wolfs who became a vigilante hero, then a resurrected member of a secret society of assassins turned lethal antihero. The kettle is boiling." Helena snarks to him with a smile as she adds a small amount of the garlic alfredo sauce to a small dish and tastes the sauce with a frown.

"Hmm…I think this needs more garlic." Helena says and blushes as Jason tastes it right from the dish she just used. She realized she was acting like a silly teenage girl with a crush. But, Helena Janis Rosa Bertinelli is not a silly teenage girl; she is a grown-ass woman attracted to an interesting man, time to put her seduction training to work.

"Yes, beautiful, it does need more garlic. Another clove should do it. I prefer my noodles Al dente. How about you?" Jason says with a smirk as he puts the noodles he made in the kettle they bought. Helena blushed bright red at Jason's flirting, and Jason was glad he once asked Bruce for tips on how to flirt as the man gave him a master's class on flirting. But, unfortunately, the class and full-body control did not allow Jason to keep his heart rate down from nervousness.

"Yes, big boy, I agree noodles should always be al dente," Helena says, lowering her voice a bit as she stood up straighter, pushing her impressive girls out. Her smile is unintentionally shy as she flirts back and rubs his arm. Helena never bothered to use the seduction training she had learned, so her skills were very rusty. However, she still makes Jason blush, and he also admits he really likes Helena's shy smile.

'Fuck, Jason's muscles are so hard and yummy.' Helena can help but think.

Ten minutes later and a lot more flirting later, they sit down at the small table in Helena's room. Halfway through the meal, Helena runs her foot up Jason's calf and does not stop till she gets to his groin, giving Jason a naughty smirk. They then wolf down the rest of their food. Neither liked to waste food, so they quickly pack up the leftovers. As he shuts the small fridges door, Helena pins Jason against it and shoves her tongue down his throat. She slips her hands under his shirt and feels up his hard abbs to pecks as he grabbed her ass. He picks her up he slams her into the table before removing his shirt. It had been a long time since either of them last had sex, and in their enthusiasm, Jason tore open Helena's jeans, and she would ride Jason through the table before they move to the bed. Both would be very satisfied by the time they fall asleep at three in the morning.

…

Jason and Helena wake up slowly from the most peaceful night's sleep they have had in over a decade. The two are cuddling with Helena's head on Jason's chest, and Jason is holding her protectively at her waist. Jason had just barely managed to pull the comforter over them before they fell asleep last night.

"Good morning, Huntress," Jason says with a smile.

"Good morning Red Hood. Hmmm," Helena says as she stretched, glanced at the clock, sees it, and blinks.

"Fuck, it's seven PM. We slept fourteen hours…." Helena then groans as she digs her head back into Jason's chest.

"…Thank God it's a safe day. We need condoms if we are going to do this again. Tomorrow I will head to Doctor Tompkins's free clinic and get on the pill." Helena says as she looks up at Jason with a naughty smile.

"Agreed. You know Black Widow is out in theaters. How about we go catch it at The Rialto after breakfast?" Jason asks with a smile.

"Hmm, we can pick up a pack of condoms on the way home…and some lube," Helena says, her naughty turning into a smirk. Jasons smile goes goofy.

Given that Helena's table was in pieces on the floor, they eat breakfast in Jason's room then Helena returns to her room to get cleaned up. After watching the movie, they would end up in Jason's room with a pack of condoms and spermicidal lube. For the next month, they ended the night together in one of their rooms. When Helena was not working with the Birds of Prey, she would work with Jason. A few days later, Black Mask is killed by a red-headed Bana-Mighdall Amazon, and his head is mounted on a pike. So, with his plan ruined, Jason started helping Helena take down Gotham's other organized crime families.

…

To be continued

…

1: I prefer to use the second Black Canary over the first.