Summary: The Bats don't know Jason is alive. They try to find Red Hood, but they find Jason and a 14 year old girl instead. Watch how they react to finding Jason after all those years apart.
One day Jason Todd came home to find a crime alley kid sitting in his apartment. She was a girl around eleven. She wore a blue jacket and jeans that were clearly meant for someone much younger as they ended above her ankles. Her hair was a plain brown color that was pulled into a ponytail.
In Jason Todd's opinion, she was the epitome of every single Crime Alley kid out there. There were scars visible on her legs where the jeans ended. The same scars that so many Crime Alley kids had from sliding to the next base when they played kickball in the street. She had the same look in her eyes that so many kids there had. The same look of caution and fear that caused them to bolt at the first sign of trouble.
The girl bolted when she saw Jason, but he stopped her. For some reason he stopped the blue jacket kid that day. And because of that, two years later, blue jacket kid and Jason would be living in the same apartment together.
Jason had just gotten back from fighting Batman and his replacements replacement. They were still yet to realize that Jason was still alive.
"You look shitty," Jason turned to look at the girl standing on the couch.
"Thanks, Cas." Cassandra Noble snorted and went back to doing whatever it was that she was doing…
Cas was wearing gardening gloves and was holding a fly swatter in one hand and a brick in the other. Jason didn't question it. Sometimes Cas did crazy things for fun, and sometimes she did it because she had a reason, no matter how weird it may be.
"Do you hear that?"
"Hear what." There was a skittering sound.
"The fucking rats." Suddenly there was a movement of a quick brown animal across the floor. Cass dove and dropped the brick and began swinging the fly swatter. "I will get you ya little fuckers." Cass sprinted to the next room waving around the fly swatter.
To be frank, while it was definitely up there, that wasn't the strangest thing Jason had seen blue do.
There was a crash and then a scream, "I caught you assholes," the sound of a window opening and suddenly there was no more squeaking coming from the rats.
Blue walked in taking the gloves off and putting away her rat removal kit of the brick and the fly swatter.
"Do I want to know?"
"They kept squeaking while I was trying to sleep last night so I yeeted them out the window." she said with a shrug, "so how was your night?" It was five in the morning. Cas was a light sleeper and Jason was nocturnal so Cas always ended up awake at five when Jason came back from his 'nighttime activities.'
"I fought Batman. He still doesn't know who I am. And he still keeps yelling at me for killing."
"Well, I think maybe you should bring the killing down a notch." Jason began to roll his eyes at the 14 year old. "No hear me out." Blue took a seat on top of their dining table, "if you kill every single bad guy, you're just gonna end up with a horde of robins from crime alley running around in spandex." Jason choked on air. "Its true"
It was true, "Ok Cas, what the actual fuck." She just shrugged.
"All I'm saying is try to like, let first time people off with no death and in prison, and second time people you can do what you want."
Cas was right, Jason didn't want a horde of spandex wearing lunatics running around, and if he continued killing at the rate he did, that was just what would happen.
"I'll try."
"Good." she looked at him slyly, "after all, Crime Alley can barely handle one of you, what would they do with 20." Jason rolled his eyes at her. She just snickered.
They were eating dinner. Chinese food.
"So, how exactly did you even end up becoming robin anyways." Jason had told Cas a lot. He told her about his death, about his parents, about being replaced. But he never told her how he became robin, how batman found him.
"I told you I won't tell you the story," Jason was using the story as a bribe. When they had first met he had asked her how she had ended up in his apartment, she didn't tell him. He knew a bit about her. About her parents and what not. But he didn't know why she had ended up in his apartment.
"Pleaseeee" puppy dog eyes.
"No."
"Pleaaseeeeee"
"Eat your broccoli"
"Will you tell me if I eat it?"
"No"
They were at a stand still. A two year long stand still.
"I'll tell you if you tell me how you ended up in my apartment that day," she stared at him.
"Fine," wait what. "But you tell me first" Cas was a lot of things, a liar? Yes, a dirty fighter? Definitely, but she was also smart. She knew that if he told her she would have to tell him.
"I stole the wheels off batmans car." Cas choked on her noodles.
"What."
"Batman parked the batmobile in an Alley and I stole the wheels off his car, I was on the process of getting the fourth when he came back."
"Damn, you were even bigger of an idiot back then" Jason snorted, "well basically, I kinda knew you were the Red Hood, and I was kinda scared you were gonna murder me, but I was also like FOOD, soo…. I went there to find food but I wasn't expecting you to be back that early…"
Jason just blinked. "We could have known this a long time ago…"
"Yeah, saying it out loud it's not that bad, but like I don't know." Blue trailed off. "I guess I was a little mad at myself for not realizing you were gonna be back so soon." Jason nodded in understanding.
"How did you know I was Red Hood?"
"I lived in an alley, one night it was too cold and I couldn't sleep, you were walking by in a Red Hood and I was like shit, but then I was like, eh, I have no respect for my life so I followed you and saw the alley you went into and I somehow managed to keep track of your civilian identity and I found where you lived." Somehow Jason wasn't surprised.
In the years that he had known Cas, he had learned that while she was the epitome of Crime Alley, she was also the kid in the blue jacket. The kid who didn't give two flying fucks, and while that was like every kid in Crime Alley, her not caring applied to her in a different way. She didn't care if she died, she thought she would have been dead a long time ago, that's what most crime alley kids thought. But that didn't mean that they actively chased danger.
Cas was different because she didn't just let things be, she also wanted to see how it would end, even if it ended her.
The bats were in Crime Alley. They were trying to find the Red Hood. He had attacked them the other night after they had just apprehended the Joker. He had told them that they should have killed the joker.
The Red Hood had been on their list to check out for a while, but they had never gotten around to it. He generally stayed in his area. Which frankly, was ok, that bats didn't go patrolling in Crime Alley often. Crime Alley in their minds was untouchable, unchangeable.
But now they felt they had to find the red hood, so there they were in Crime Alley, multiple people on multiple roof tops.
Jason had just gone out for patrol. Cas couldn't sleep. Sometimes that would happen. And when it happened she did stupid shit. For instance; sneaking around Crime Alley and just sitting on the roof tops and watching. Sometimes she would watch over the little girls who reminded her of herself when she was young. The girls who walked down the streets far too late at night, who carried their keys in between their finger just in case.
Cas put on her blue jacket. It was the same one she had when Jason had first found her. It was the same one she wore the night her parents died. It had been big on her then. Very big. It was her dad's after all. It fit her better now, though the sleeves were still too long.
Tying her boots in place, Cas grabbed and knife and ten dollars. After all, you can't just go out into Crime Alley without some form of protection. Cas had her classic pocket knife stuffed in her boot. That knife had been through a lot, what had it been through? Well Cas would never say flesh, though it wouldn't be a lie. Cas also had her other knife that was sheathed in the pocket of her blue jacket. This one was newer and while it was still small, it would do the trick if she were to be attacked.
Cas climbed out the window and onto the fire escape. She closed the window and began climbing up the building. Once on the roof, she noticed a strange sight a few blocks away.
She crouched lower to the roof as she examined what she saw. In the shadows sticking up from the roof was a head. The issue though, was that it wasn't a civilian. Whoever this was was wearing some type of outfit. Shit. It was probably one of Gotham's heroes.
Cas pulled out her phone.
Was out on the roof, saw hero, might b more. Be careful. I'm gonna investigate
Jason:
Ok. Don't die. Don't engage.
She was glad he hadn't told her to stay back, because then she would have had to just not listen to him.
Cas lowered herself to the alley. This was going to give her a huge disadvantage, but she couldn't just be leaping across buildings, it would take away the element of surprise. Plus, she wasn't a hero. She didn't even know how far across a building she could jump. She had jumped across buildings before, but she didn't know if she could jump across the large gaps.
Cas got to an alley that was one building away. She jumped nimbly onto of a dumpster and leaped across it to the fire escape. She continued to climb up. She peaked up to make sure that the hero that was a rooftop over was looking the other way. He was crouched at the ledge of the building. She left onto the roof and stayed low and in the shadows as she moved closer.
It was Robin. He was talking on a com. Getting to the ledge of her building she laid down behind the small wall that lined the roof.
"Tt. Oracle's never wrong Batgirl." There was a response. "Well all seems clear over here. No sign of Red Hood."
Cas recognized the sound of the grappling hook and the light swish that followed. Looking around Cas got up and then sat at the ledge of the roof. Examining what was around her, she realized saw the purple clad Batgirl start heading in her direction. Cas stood up. Black Bat was also starting to head there. She walked a bit towards the center of the building and then ran. With her running start she pushed off the ledge and landed on the other building. She ran towards the end of that building and then jumped off the side as she slid into the shadows with the fire escape.
She walked to the opposite side of the alley and peeked around the corner. It wasn't Cas that they were after. It was Jason. He was battling it out with Red Robin in the street. There was a gunfire sound. Nothing new. Crime Alley slept soundly through gunfire almost every night. They would just check and make sure that whoever fired the gun wasn't after them next. Having caught him off guard Jason kicked Red Robin where guys don't want to be kicked and then sprinted down the next alley.
Black Bat and Batgirl landed in the streets at the same time. Each of them taking a different end. Red Robin got back up and continued his chase after the Red Hood.
The must have been blocks away by now. Cas climbed up one of the fire escapes on the other side of the street. She found where the fight was.
A bit aways. She continued on the street from there. She quickly got back to higher ground to watch the fight.
Batgirl was hiding in an alley, ready to pop out if Jason got away. Robin was on the roof of a separate building. Batman and Nightwing were in the midst of tag-teaming Jason. Red Robin was limp on the ground, he appeared to be bleeding from his leg. Limp probably wasn't the right term considering he was still attempting to be an active part of the operation. He was just helping to make things more difficult for Jason. Black Bat was the most difficult to spot. She was good with using the shadows. She was in plain sight, but it was unlikely that Jason was aware of where she was standing next to the building.
This was not going very well for Jason. Obviously. It was 6 vs. 1. Well technically if Cas decided to help it could be 6 vs. 2. But that wouldn't be very useful.
Cas had to find a distraction.
Hi.
Lily:
HI
So, I decided to explore and the red hood is kinda being beaten up by all the bats…
Lily:
Well shit, what do we do
Scream. Martons Deli.
Lily:
Got it
The thing about the Red Hood is that Crime Alley actually likes him. He saves the people of Crime Alley and Cas doesn't want that to stop. Lily was a friend of hers who played kickball with her on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Lily happened to actually have parents, and happened to be saved by the Red Hood multiple times. She also happened to have a very wide reach of people around Crime Alley.
One of which happened to exit her building at a block away from where the fight was going on. And she exited the building, and had her older brother, stand ready to come out with a baseball bat. And that little girl and a loud scream.
She screamed and the fighting paused but Red Hood didn't. He let loose a few shots and then disappeared into the maze that is Crime Alley.
When the heroes arrived what the found was an older brother comforting his little sister. After all the brother had scared away the criminals with his baseball bat.
Dick Grayson knew there was something wrong. There had been a girl trailing them the whole night. And then the Red Hood had escaped. Something was wrong and he needed to find out what it was.
As everyone entered back into the batcave Dick observed everyone, Damian was clearly upset about their defeat and Red Robin looked worse for wear but other than that mostly everyone was fine.
They all gathered around Babs to listen to what she had found.
"The girl on the roof set up the distraction." Dick got whiplash. Bruce kept a neutral face, but Dick knew that he was most likely at the very least concerned on the inside.
"Why did she do that? How did she do that?" Steph asked, her eyebrows furrowing together as she took a step forward to look over Barbara's shoulder.
"She apparently texted a girl named 'Lily' and told her what was happening, and said, 'scream. Martons Deli.'" Babs relayed the information to the rest of the bats.
"So what, is Lily like their coordinator or something?" Tim questioned stepping forward.
"I'm not too sure. Judging by what previous texts I have been able to access from them, they seem to be friends. It does look like this Lily person knows a lot of people though." Everyone was feeling uneasy at that. What was going on, and how deep did this go? "That's not all though."
"What is it?"
"This girl, her names Cassandra." Babs swallowed unsure of how to continue, "before she texted Lily, she texted someone named Jason and warned him about heroes that she had spotted on the roof." There was silence.
Neither Tim, Damian, Steph, or Cas had met Jason but they had all heard of him. This probably wasn't their Jason. It couldn't be. He was dead, he was killed by the Joker, blown up. Jason was gone.
"So, his names Jason," Tim voiced what they were all wondering. Did she mean this was Jason as in the second Robin. Why else would Babs have brought it up so warily.
"This was footage that I found in one of the cameras set up in Crime Alley." And there in broad daylight was footage of Jason, with a white streak in his hair walking next to the girl with the blue jacket, Cassandra. The were talking about something and Jason was… he was Jason. Jason Todd. Jason Todd was alive.
I wrote this part of the story in August when I was first being introduced into the Batman side of the DCU. This is probably only going to be two chapters unless someone asks otherwise. I will upload the second chapter tomorrow.