Red Hood

There was a freedom in operating in New York, rather than Gotham. For all his life Jason Todd had felt like he had struggled in the shadow of another, and only in death had he escaped it. Now reborn in a cruel twist of fate Jason sought to establish his own identity under the name Red Hood. The faceless red mask gave Jason a eerie look as he scouted the gangsters, crouching in hiding. He listened to them plan, soaking up information, his hearing enhanced by a few useful pieces of technology.

"Damn it, the freaks are even heading to New York," one of the ground level mooks complained, "a friend says he saw this goofy red domed guy."

'Red domed?' Jason thought, feeling faintly insulted.

"It's Red Hood," the leader, a man called Vinnie the Snake, said coldly. He swept the room with a reptilian gaze, "He's more trouble than the usual cape."

"Yeah?" the unoriginally named Lefty asked.

"The Hood will kill," Vinnie said seriously.

The group dispersed, the men moving out as Jason digested the information he had gained. Part of him had been tempted to just shoot the lot, but it was early for that sort of step. He wanted the criminal network to be afraid, to spread the word that he was in the city and hunting them. That fear would be just one of the advantages Jason would need.

Slipping away Jason found a convenient alley where he removed his globe like mask and reversed the red jacket he wore. Now in a seeming jean jacket and looking mildly harmless he slipped out of the alley and into the passing crowd.

"Hotdogs, get yer hotdogs here!" a vendor yelled, the grizzled older man standing behind his battered old stand.

Jason walked up as he smiled and said, "I'll take one."

"Onions? Relish?" the old man asked as he smiled back, "Four bucks."

"Here ya go," Jason passed him five, "keep the change."

"Hey, thanks," he passed the hotdog and bun over in a napkin as he warned, "Careful, it's hot."

"Hmm, good," Jason munched as he walked away, enjoying the food.

New York has such a different feel than Gotham. It wasn't that it was safer than Gotham, Jason knew he had to be on his guard, watching the crowds and street while being ready to move. In some ways he thought it was more the lack of random chaos that existed. Unlike Gotham which had the largest percentage of costumed nuts in North America, New York was fairly sedate. Just normal gang bangers, gun runners and the people who profited from them.

As Jason walked and ate he watched the corners, seeing the people lingering there. It didn't take much effort to see the money and pouches exchange hands, discovering his targets of interest. He spotted the dealers first, then waited for suppliers. Finally he watched the dealers sending money off with bag men, back to the boss. He observed the chain operating in several places, then began to consider what to do.

'Follow a bag man back,' Jason decided, carefully shadowing one as he followed him down the alleys and over the streets. He hung back far enough to keep from being spotted, soon arriving in what would be considered a bad neighborhood, run down buildings and garbage on the streets.

"I'm here to see Julio," the bagman said, his brown hair tied back in a ponytail.

The man guarding the door nodded as he opened it, "Go on in."

Jason watched from a alley at first, then decided a higher vantage might be better. With a bit of effort he was soon up on a rooftop, watching the goings on thoughtfully. Several bagmen stopped in to make payments, all echoing the same phrase. 'Password?' Jason wondered. He couldn't see inside and therefore didn't know how much money was changing hands, but he guessed it was a fair amount.

'Time to get to work,' Jason thought as he pulled back from the edge of the roof. He pulled off and flipped around his jacket then removed the collapsable hood, locking the red plastic around his face. He took a deep breath making sure the breathing connections worked, then nodded.

The doorman scratched his chin as he warily watched the street. It was a boring job, hanging out here on the street, but he accepted that it was necessary too. Someone had to be out here to sound the alarm if cops or another gang hit them, but he didn't have to like it.

'Who is this freak?' he thought as the man in a oddly featureless red mask walked up to the stairway he guarded. "What do you want?" he demanded, putting his hand on the pistol that was hidden in his coat pocket.

The knife was moving before the mook could react as Jason stabbed him in one smooth motion, stepping forward to catch him as he fell. Kicking the door open Jason strode in, pulling the fatally stabbed man behind him as he did so. 'One down,' he thought grimly.

Shutting the door bought Jason some time as he walked down the hall, eyes sweeping as he mentally cataloged the first floor. Run down but cleaner than the outside, arms and weapons in one room, a bunch of guards in another.

"What the hell," the one man yelped, grabbing at a gun even as Jason opened fire at them with a machine pistol.

There was a grim satisfaction in gunning the men down before they could fire, punching a aimed shot in each of them. The room was small enough that Jason could have just used the 'spray and pray' method of randomly pouring on firepower, but he hated to waste the ammo. He grabbed a loaded pistol as a spare then moved on, his pace a bit quicker. With the shots fired the crooks definately knew that he was here.

The gun man hurried from upstairs, clutching a pistol in a sweaty hand. He had told the boss that this old townhouse was too exposed, but the old man hadn't listened. "The boys can find it and it's close to the dealers," Bennet had nodded wisely, "it'll do."

'And now it's gonna get us killed,' he thought cynically as he hit the ground floor, eyes sweeping the hall. Before he could react the red faced man appeared from a doorway, gun firing almost soundlessly as he moved confidently forward.

Jason headed to the stairs, certain he had cleared up the first floor. For a moment he wished he just had enough explosives to blow the building, but he quickly dismissed the thought. He might be more ruthless than some, but detonating a building would take too many innocents with it.

"Get the lieutenant out," the surviving gunman ordered the young tough, watching the hall connecting to the stairway.

"But Mickey!" the teen demanded, holding a cheaply made .38, "You can take him!"

Mickey shook his head, "This guy is a pro. We need to get the money out, not to mention telling Mr. Bennet what happened."

"He's right," the lieutenant agreed, her long brown hair falling around her face. Ms Nil was a rarilty, a woman rising high in the ranks of a street gang, and even worse was a outsider, brought in by Bennet to oversee this job.

"Get out of here," Mickey ordered, "now!"

Just then a hand grenade rolled down the hall, the pin obviously out. "Run!" Nil yelled, grabbing the boy and the briefcase of money and bolting off down the hall.

Jason felt a slight twinge of admiration as the hood threw himself on the grenade, muffling the explosion with his body. Jason calmly swept the upper floor, shooting anyone left as he followed the hall to a open rear window. 'Damn they got out using the fire escape,' he scowled beneath his mask. It was times like this he wished he had a side kick...

Turning away he collected the remaining money, despising having to take it but knowing he had to finance his crime fighting somehow. The massive quantity of abandoned drugs he piled up on the first floor then used a self contained thermal charge to burn it to a puddle of chemical sludge. He kept a eye on it till it burned out, using a fire extinguisher to make sure the building itself didn't go up, then exited at a run.

'Wonder if anyone even called 911?' Jason wondered cynically as he stripped off his mask and changed his jacket. 'If not I'll go do it from a pay phone,' he mused as he walked away as casually as possible.

To be continued....

Notes: While I'm not a big fan of Jason Todd, I thought he was rather badly mistreated in 'Battle for the Cowl' a few months back. Yes, he's a gun toting vigilante but he is NOT someone who'd murder former allies and kill innocents. So this is my take on him.