It had been only a few minutes, and the council meeting was done.
As his advisers left the room, leaving only himself, Rose, and Jeremiah Arkham, the newest member of his little roundtable, Jason got up from his chair at the far side of the giant circular table and went to the sidebar to pour himself a drink of Burnside 1910, the best whiskey he'd had over his near decade of alcoholism.
Jeremiah got up with him, as did Rose, and the three shared a drink. Jeremiah was still far too thin even after the conditioning he'd put himself through over the week.
"So...what do you think?"
"I think the same thing I did before, based off of what logs you showed me about...them. There is no fixing it. If you repaired his face, he would scar it again. If you melt that coin, he'll mark another."
"But?"
"But I believe you were right. What he said to your Paladin during their interview, it supported his delusions, yes, but when I looked into those eyes...I saw something more...More than either of them realize."
"So I was right?"
"So there is a possibility you were."
"Good. Let's hope our luck from last night holds."
"Let's.", Jeremiah then shook his hand, bowed to Rose, and started walking away.
"We will find them, Jeremiah."
"...I know we will. I wouldn't be here otherwise.", the man replied as he froze, and then started again on his walk out the door.
Two-Face and Dr. Buck were summoned in behind Jeremiah, who nodded to her but ignored them as he walked past.
Buck was thanked for her service by a woman in a navy blue dress, and told to report to "Exemplar Alexi" for reassignment. As she walked out, They stepped forward, to the man in red and black.
He was sitting in the corner of a large meeting room, a glass in hand and dressed like a combination between a street kid and a rich boy, with a bit of supervillain thrown in. He wore a nice waistcoat suit, black with red accents. The black domino mask with red lenses he wore on top of the almost certainly armed and armored suit and the impressive build he had helped their growing feeling as they looked over this man that their decision had been a mistake.
That feeling had set in as soon as they'd arrived...wherever they now were, when he watched as his fellow inmates were rounded up into another room at gunpoint. They weren't sure yet, but they were fairly certain that would be the last time they'd see any of them.
Getting his mind off that thought for their own good, they focused on the person in the room they did know.
Behind the man, one hand on his shoulder and the other around a glass, stood a white-haired young woman he'd met only a couple times before, Rose Wilson.
Daughter of Deathstroke and a mercenary just like her father. When he'd met her last, she'd been a teenager, had been wearing armor very similar to her father's, and her hair had been to her waist. Now she stood as a grown woman, who somehow managed to look feminine with a black eye patch, scars big and small on her arms and one across her cheek.
The dress definitely didn't hurt, but it was also in her face. That tiger stare and smirk that reminded him of Renee Montoya from his days as Harvey Two Face Dent working the GCPD's IA Division, before he'd met Grace and become DA.
Before He became They.
They walked forward, sitting in the chair in front of the man, and asked the only thing they could think to.
"So...We hear you want to talk to us."
The stranger chuckled and said, "Yes, I do. But first, let's get something out of the way."
He handed Two-Face his sidearm and nodded to the woman behind him, who backed away. He then grabbed the barrel of the gun with his hands and pointed it at his own forehead.
Two-Face understood, and flipped his coin with his free hand, catching it in the same hand as it came down. He then looked back up from it at the man in the mask, who spoke with more dignity than most did in his position.
"Looks like fate doesn't want you dead today."
"Looks like.", the man nonchalantly said, taking his gun back. "Let's talk."
Stephanie loved her mom and the way she doted on her. She knew most kids with overprotective moms viewed the attention as invasive and fake, but after a night of getting her ass kicked it felt nice to come home to cookies and a woman that she could tell about all the crazy shit she had to deal with.
Still...every once in a while she needed some tough love. Nobody was going to give her that right now, they all had bigger matters than Steph's impulsive nature to deal with at the moment, but she could give it to herself. She woke up early enough to go for a midday jog around her block, and spent hours after that wearing herself out and stressing her body.
Namely, she did endless repetitions with her Bo staff. Moves that Tim had tried to ingrain in her mind that would've at least managed to do something to that dome-headed jackass from last night.
She stopped after a few hours, getting ready to head to Wayne Manor for lunch and to get filled in on whatever Babs had found on these new players in town. She kissed her mother goodbye and opened the door to find her boyfriend, Tim, on the other side preparing to knock.
Her mother still didn't know why she was mad at him, and, for his sake, Steph wanted to keep it that way. So, she acted all sunshine and rainbows as she stepped out and hugged him, getting into the Wayne family car as he gave his apologies to her mother for not being able to stay.
Alfred took one look at her and knew better than to try and engage just yet, Tim getting the hint once he got inside and saw the way she stared out the window as if her neighbor's lawn was more interesting than he at the moment. Dick, of course, couldn't help himself, and tried to just erase the spat they were having with his good nature as the car drove off.
"Guess what?"
"...What?"
"We got Alfie to lift the pizza ban for once."
"What'd you get?"
"..."
"...Luigi's!?"
"Yep."
"HELL YEAH! Sorry Alfred."
"It's quite alright, Miss Brown. If Master Dick can break the rules just this once, I suppose you can as well."
Steph smiled at the reply and shared eye contact with Tim for the second time in a week, and she decided to knock it off. She wasn't as petty as all that. With a look, she let him know that he was still in trouble, but that they were still alright.
That they were still "they", and had not become "the two of them" after his latest screw-up.
"So how's Conner?"
"He's good. Team's still together, so, he's good."
"Awesome. What about the Titans?"
"They seem better. Still torn up about what happened with Donna, but...that's the way it is, I guess."
"I guess."
The cheese was still hot as they dug in. Tim hadn't realized how starving he'd been until he had to take the time to greet everyone so that he could pass them and get into the kitchen.
He always lost his appetite when dealing with The Hive. Now that he was away from all that, he had to be careful not to be a total slob. It was only after he had three or four slices that he realized just how many people he'd greeted on his way in. Catman and Selina were still presumably downstairs, but beyond the two of them, almost everyone was there. He couldn't remember the last time Barbara came by, let alone the last time Helena had been welcome. The only ones missing now were Cass, Jean-Paul, and, of course, Bruce.
No sooner did he think that, than did Cass walk in. Dick, Barbara and Helena all crowded her before the two could talk, but Tim still felt a bit shocked the second Batgirl had showed. She usually did her own thing elsewhere.
Either she has other business in town, or this is more serious than I thought.
"Two weeks with no contact and no goodbye beforehand, and you really think staring at another girl is the smartest thing to do in front of me right now?", Steph whispered from beside him.
"Uhh..."
His girlfriend chuckled at his terrified reply, "Relax, I'm just messing with you. I know you don't feel that way about her."
"Good, because I don't. And I'm sorry about that, really."
"I'm sorry for pushing you away. I was just going through a lot."
"I know. I wanted to stay, help you through it, but..."
"Duty called. I get it, Tim."
"Thank you. It won't happen again."
"Great. Then how 'bout you tell me about your little adventure out in Motor City?"
Before Tim could respond, the room went silent as a new voice spoke out above the cacophony of conversations that the two had thought hid their whispering voices.
"Maybe later, Stephanie. For now, well...duty calls.", said a smirking Bruce Wayne, shuffling into the room in a neck brace, an arm sling on his left side, and a crutch on the other.
Dick rushed forward to help his surrogate father, but the first to react with words was Helena, and she minced none of them.
"Goddamn! You get hit by a fucking bus?"
"More like an invisible plane."
"Diana did this?"
Dick, trying to keep Bruce upright while forcing him into the living room, corrected her.
"Wasn't her fault. Mind-control."
"Wait,", the crippled caped crusader said, pausing for dramatic effect before sniffing the air like a dog would, "is that Luigi's?"
Rose watched again in her mind as Harvey Dent, the man who'd killed her lover's father shook said lover's hand as the two came to an arrangement she hardly heard over her own worries that one would attack the other.
The deal sealed, Two-Face left the room, accompanied by his new handler, Buck, who was to escort him to his new quarters so that he could rest up before he went on his first mission as the newest Peculiari of The Outlaws. The mission that would test just whether or not Dent had seen reason, or if he was planning something.
But that was for tonight. At that moment, Dent was most likely asleep after his very involved night, and she and Jason were sitting on the couch of their small, but still decently-sized living space aboard the fortress that was Es Securus, the closest thing The Outlaws had to a Gotham HQ.
She drank her coffee and watched the Gotham news, as Jason did the same beside her. The footage went on, and Jason eventually sat up, setting his mug down on the table in front of them, staring off into space like a he'd seen a ghost. She sat her mug down and rubbed his shoulders, feeling the tension drain from his body as she did.
"You okay?"
"I'm fine, Rose. Just worried about...everything. It wasn't supposed to happen like this, with most of our senior forces off on other missions. Gotham was supposed to be a Blitzkrieg. Now I'm almost certain it'll be our Stalingrad."
"Jason, you're being overdramatic. Making a move into a League member's city to save millions of lives is not the same as a declaration of war."
"Isn't it? Killing people in Gotham is just as bad declaring war to him, even if you only kill mass murderers. It's just the way he is. The way almost all of them are. Besides, he has no idea what Joker was planning."
"...Could we retreat? Build up our strength again in secret after the heat dies down like we did after Coast City?"
"...I've thought about that, I...I just don't know."
"You'll figure it out, love. You always have before."
"I've always had help before."
"I'm right here, and Antonio's just down the hall. Let us help."
He looked back for the first time and gave her a crooked smile, but his eyes were still troubled.
"And if this mood of yours has to do with being worried about them, don't. Not only are they technically our enemies, they're the Bats. They can take whatever we throw at them. And we've already seen to it that as long as we're careful, the rest of The League showing up to help them isn't going to happen."
"I know, Rose. It's just..."
"The Clown?"
Jason looked down, as if worrying about someone like The Joker after what that monster had done not only to him, but to so many others, was in any way childish.
"For all we know by now, he's already killed a dozen people, and that's being hopeful."
"True. So figure us out a plan to find the son of a bitch so we can end him like Wayne or Grayson already should have."
He finally looked at her with some kind of hope in his eyes, even if the hard expression he wore didn't match with it.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome.", she said, stroking his cheek.
He took her hand in both of his, and the two shared a kiss full of more passion and love than most ever felt. And then another. Soon, the pair had to force themselves to stop before they took things into the bedroom.
Duty calls, after all.
Alfred was following his master into the medical room in the Batcave as everyone else milled about and caught up, waiting to hear whatever was so important that Bruce had to come home before being fully healed.
When he first saw Catman he was a bit surprised, but he relaxed when he realized that Black was soundly asleep. Alfred chose to leave his master with the woman he loved with a wave of his hand, off to fetch drinks for the crowd of vigilantes he'd been unprepared for.
Bruce struggled, what with his cane and all, but managed to sit down in the chair beside Selina. His mind slipped away, to simpler times. Before...so, so much.
Bruce flew across rooftop after rooftop, close behind his dance partner for that night, cat burglar extraordinaire Selina Kyle.
A woman he couldn't get out of his mind.
As she blew him kisses, deflected his gadgets like nothing and even managed to throw a few of her own at him, he tried to keep his mind on arresting her, but he failed.
Just like he had many times before, he gave into her little chase and managed to enjoy their game. She moved unlike anyone he'd ever seen before, after all, every night with her was a trial, a date and a heartache all in one. She effortlessly made the Batman, an urban myth and a vigilante of an unheard of esteem, look like a sloth.
There were times she escaped, then came back into his view purposefully, just to continue their fun.
Bruce wanted to continue it just as much as she did, but while he chased her around, people died. So, when he got the chance, he managed to cut her off in an alley with the Batmobile.
"Damnit! Why do you always have to cut our dates short?"
"Dates? That's what you call trying to steal priceless artifacts?"
"Trying? I'm not caught yet, big boy!"
As he thought about her and how she managed to evade him even that night, he heard a rustling in front of him. He thought for a split second it might have been Thomas, when he heard her voice.
"Bruce?"
She was already smirking as he looked up from his hands.
"God, do you feel as shitty as you look?"
He chuckled as he gave his reply.
"Just about. Do you feel as good as you do?"
"No. I feel much better, now that you're here.", she said, her trademark smirk transforming into a genuine smile, "Now help me get up."
"Selina, I-"
"Help me up, Bruce. I'm not that hurt."
"I know, I mean I don't know if I can. Alfred!"
In a second, his aging butler and a man he admired more than most popped his head in. He helped Selina up and she was able to walk on her own, in turn helping Bruce out to face the crowd of friends and family gathered to hear the vital information he'd come to share with them all.
Tim was always glad when Bruce and Dick did something as mundane as a debriefing together, even if it usually only happened when some major catastrophe was on the horizon.
Bruce stood, just barely, Selina beside him, in place of his chair before the Batcomputer, and a step above the rest of them. It was a testament to both of them, as injured as they both were, Bruce in particular, that they somehow still managed to be impressive as they were. Dick stood beside the two, of them, Barbara right next to him like always. The rest gathered up as Barbara gave her slightly off-center looking boyfriend a reassuring look as Selina and Bruce shared a quick kiss. The two women then took their places in the small crowd, leaving only Bruce and his first son on the small stage.
Bruce turned to the keyboard as Dick started.
"Who here knows what the 'Red Hood' is?"
Helena answered first, always adamant that she knew more about Gotham's streets than anyone else among the bats other than perhaps Selina.
"The Red Hood started as a mask and name used by different members of the mob to pin their crimes on some boogeyman. Everyone from higher ups to...him, so the story goes, have used it. After the mob fell, people from all around the city kept on using it to hide. Can't remember it ever working out for any of them, though."
Bruce spoke up as images of various "Red Hood"s flooded the Batcomputer's massive screen.
"That's because it didn't. Unlike almost every other moniker someone has tried to take up in this town, The Red Hood has never truly stood for anything, accept for Gotham's extreme variety of criminals. A vigilante trying to help us one minute, a psychopath trying to kill us the next. Nothing connects the bearers of the hood other than these facts: they work in Gotham, the Red Hood is something to hide behind instead of a real mantle, and they almost always wind up dead or in prison within a month or two of taking on the name. That is, until now."
The images on The Batcomputer's screens changed, and they now were filled with images of a man in a black leather jacket with smooth grey armor underneath it, a massive build, and a crimson red helm to top the look off. Tim noticed the similarities it had with a lot of the gear from last night, but given it's featureless, much more motorcycle-esque look, Tim guessed these were older images.
"Or, really, until around five years ago."
Called it.
"This new Red Hood is a subversion of all these traits of a Red Hood, as his criminal syndicate started operation in Moscow, not Gotham, and had never operated here until last night. He obviously cares for the mantle itself much more so than any other previous hood-bearer, considering how long he's used it without abandoning it, and his time operating as The Hood has certainly not been short-lived."
Bruce now showed them a video of the Hood, still in the older uniform, engaging a group of ten, alone. The first man to throw a punch at the medium-sized Red Hood, who stood still with his arms crossed over his chest, broke his hand on the unmoved helmet before the hood punched him back so hard, he flew three feet. Bruce then paused the video.
The computer expanded, the paused video becoming one in an ocean of images of The Red Hood, whoever he was.
Bruce then continued, "We don't know much about him, but we do know that he has very sophisticated training and equipment. Beyond that, he's a mystery. No one has ever come forward with information, none of our contacts know anything about him. Whispers and rumors about connections to The League of Assassins, alleged deals with governments worldwide, but next to nothing concrete. No evidence, no one willing to talk if they have any real proof. This Red Hood and his "Outlaws" are both enigmas that we have very little information on."
Dick then took over.
"We can, however, tie him and his gang to several events in the past few years."
The Batcomputer screen changed, showing an images of an old enemy of the JL, Mongol, and his "Warworld", alongside ones of the most-likely-dead Hank Henshaw.
The Cyborg Superman.
"Three years ago, a space craft designed by the United States government using retrofitted alien technology disrupted the defensive shields around an extremely dangerous space station, known as Warworld. This near miss is the same one that caused Green Lantern to almost kill his fellow lanterns on his path to Oa, and is one of the reasons why we now have four green lanterns on the JL instead of one. Under some...duress, the chief engineer who supposedly developed this space craft and it's systems revealed to us that, in all actuality, a third party had given Cadmus this craft and the heads up. The engineer even described a man in a red helmet matching this Red Hood's battle helmet meeting with Amanda Waller, in fact."
As Tim processed this revelation, other images flashed on screen. Ones of Gotham, during what many called "The No Man's Land Incident". A decent name for the government abandoning the city in the greatest hour of need it had ever seen.
"As you all know, two years ago, when the government abandoned us, a company named Futurum Tech sent food and medicine aid, and they secured their own assets in town as well as civil ones through mercenary bands. Unbeknownst to you, the individual who lead this mercenary band? Antonio Dorrance. Bane. When I learned this after peace was restored and I went back to Bludhaven, Bruce and I investigated Futurum and the various companies, finding nothing. Clean books, clean labs. We investigated their company charity, Sepis Obis Terrarium, and found nothing, again. Allegations by locals with no evidence. No ties back to the Hood."
Again, the computer screens changed, now showing Lex Luthor, before his disappearance.
"Months after that, during Luthor's bid for presidency, he turned over his company to a "Talia Head", otherwise known as Talia Al Ghul. Almost immediately following this and the same man's attempted frame of Bruce through Cass's dad, LexCorp was, in it's entirety, absorbed into several of the companies that make up Futurum. Months following that, after the Imperiex War, The Justice League received information from Cadmus, detailing how President Luthor had not only traded Doomsday to Apocalypse for weapons during the war, but knew about a massive asteroid made of pure kryptonite and was planning some inane scheme to convince America that it's approach was Superman's fault. As you already know, we took exception to that, Lex was outed, is now on the run, yadda yadda yadda. What you didn't know is that soon after his disappearance...we found his last loyal henchman, Mr. Ore."
The images that appeared on screen as Dick finished his sentence made Tim's stomach turn.
"Yep. After what had to have been at least days of torture by some unknown party that me and Bruce both believe to have been The Outlaws, he was shot in the chest cavity and thrown in Gotham River."
Stephanie, who looked ready to puke, said what Tim was thinking.
"Holy fuck..."
"Yeah...even for someone like him.", he added.
Helena, ever merciless, reminded them that he had assisted Luthor in almost destroying the world in an effort to steel their hearts that didn't work, and then asked Dick about Luthor himself.
"Still hasn't come out of hiding since then, and we haven't...found him yet. Bruce?"
Dick looked back to his adoptive father, who in turn looked back to his son. The two shared a look Tim couldn't decipher and Bruce nodded. Dick then stepped down into the small crowd, standing beside Barbara.
From her solemn expression, she already knew what was troubling him.
Bruce hit a few more buttons on the Batcomputer, and new images appeared. Ones of Dick fighting the behemoth that was Blockbuster, and ones of woman in black and orange getup he assumed was the second "Tarantula" he'd heard so much about.
Bruce then continued the debriefing, hard steel now in his voice.
"A couple months ago, Dick and Bludhaven were both attacked by Roland Desmond, who discovered Dick's secret identity as a member of the Bludhaven police department."
Bruce's blunt statement of that terrifying fact hit them all hard, and several of them looked to Dick for confirmation, seeing that he was just staring at the Batcomputer with his hand in an unsurprised Barbara's, solemn expression on his face. Before anyone could comment, he continued.
"Attacks commenced on several people close to Dick's civilian identity, as well as that of a rookie vigilante named "Tarantula", that he had been attempting to train. He confronted Roland on the rooftop of the Bludhaven PD headquarters, and the two engaged one another. Dick won, beating Blockbuster into the ground. When Tarantula, real name Catalina Flores, appeared with a pistol, ready to end the man who'd killed her predecessor and was then threatening the lives of everyone Dick so much as glanced at, he stood aside."
At this, they were surprised, especially considering the fact that Bruce had apparently forgiven him for a breaking of the one rule, but no one exactly recoiled in shock. They had all seen firsthand just how willing Dick was to break the one rule when it came to his family when he'd beaten The Joker to death two years ago, believing after learning that he'd "killed" Tim.
Bruce had then revived him, but the memory of watching his idol break the only rule they had still haunted him, and while he was a bit shocked that Bruce apparently knew about this and didn't even tell any of them, Tim still wasn't particularly shocked by the revelation itself.
"After this, Dick went into a state of shock over what he'd let happen, and Flores...took advantage of this.", he growled out.
That revelation, however, hit them all like a train.
"A few days later, Dick went looking for her, and discovered this in her apartment."
Grotesque new images appeared on screen of Flores tied to a wooden chair against a wall, with two men wearing armor reminiscent of the hoods who'd attacked the Asylum, only they were missing the red helmets.
That, and that they were dead like she was, with wooden signs hanging from around their necks, labeling the two men as traitors, and her as a rapist.
"They were all tortured with more care than Mr. Ore, and in more vindictive, personal ways. We received no notes, no letters, nothing. We can, however, extrapolate what may have happened from Catalina's journal, which mentions strange men watching her. Perhaps these men were supposed to protect Dick from harm and failed, or simply chose not to act. Perhaps they even cut some kind of deal with her."
"Is that what you were investigating in Bludhaven last night?", Tim abruptly asked his predecessor.
Dick was hesitant to speak, but replied nonetheless, "Yes. I heard from a contact in Bludhaven that something big was happening. Unfortunately, by the time I got the information, the convoy raids were already happening. I figured it was best to come get you from Titans Tower first."
"Who's this contact?"
"Old cripple from Crime Alley who moved to Bludhaven a few weeks ago after his son's death. He gave me some information that filled in some gaps, but he kept a lot of what little he had to himself. He only gave me the late news and the framework he did because I saved his kid a while back."
"Wait...who was his kid?"
"A thug from a couple years ago, pulled him outta the fire when he shot and killed a pimp he was hired to guard for. Apparently he didn't ever really turn his life around, and wound up falling in with this new Red Hood and his gang."
Stephanie set aside her continuing shock over the Tarantula revelation to express her eternally nosey nature.
"That doesn't sound like the kinda guy we'd really try and help. Even you."
"If the pimp had been employing adults instead of kidnapping, I probably wouldn't have."
"Oh...God."
"If he exists, he had nothing to do with it.", Dick said, once again staring at the grotesque image of Flores. Bruce waited for just a second before continuing.
"So, from all these bits and pieces, what do we know? We know that these people, regardless of who they are, or what reasons they have for doing what they do, are murderers. Powerful, efficient murders, who have taken to operating in our city. Does anyone here approve of that?"
"..."
"Good. Gear up, nightfall is in two hours. I want you out there learning as much as you can. Without attracting attention."
Three hours later.
Alexi Petrov, or "Exemplar Alexi" as he was known to his fellow Outlaws, had been the most loyal soldier Jason could've asked for, and had been with Jason since he first formed The Outlaws in Moscow. More than that, he'd been a fantastic friend. But, for all Alexi's loyalty, he still couldn't quite understand Jason's mind. At that moment in particular, he was trying to understand why the two men were currently sitting in Jason's car parked right outside a small bank in the Tricorner District. Or why the two of them were about to rob it.
"So why are we doing this?"
"Because it suits our pan."
"Which plan?"
"The only plan that matters."
"How does robbing a bank get us this town? We doing it Robin Hood style or...?"
"Wait and see."
Alexi sighed at Jason's intentionally pretentious manner, and gave up on the questionnaire. Jason decided to give him the information he wanted regardless.
"Growing up in Gotham, like I did, you always wonder how the hell people like Joker could afford the money for all their toys while you starve. For a long time, I thought that maybe they helped each other in some macabre trade system for maniacs. Thanks to the newest Robin and the tabs we've kept on him, I now know better. I know that Gotham has kept itself this way, or, rather, that a specific Gothamite has. Dent's deal was that he would lead us to the man in question. So, either he was telling the truth last night and this will draw that man out, or he's trying to protect his old ally."
"If he did, that will be the last mistake of his life."
"I'm sure."
"So, if the psycho wasn't lying, we rob this bank and his old friend will come running?"
"Essentially. You ready?"
"Always, Krasnogo."
"Good. 'Cause I believe that's our cue.", Jason said, pointing to the garbage truck parked a block away with a red bat spray painted on the side, a crude indication that it was one of their their retrofitted troop transport vehicles, as he put on the classic Red Hood battle helm he'd only used for low-profile missions since his newest helmets had made it obsolete. (Original Under the Red Hood) Alexi pulled the red bandana around his neck up, and made sure the gauntlets he had half-hidden underneath his grey leather jacket were fully charged. Jason checked his own weapons, two Roi Arms Lance 2010's, handguns made by his company for the kind of customizability that the Outlaws often needed in weaponry. Today, he'd modified them to fire in three round, 9x19 parabellum bursts.
Weapon checking done, the two nodded to each other and stepped out of the car, quickly getting into the bank with Jason taking the lead, firing a burst into the ceiling.
"GET THE FUCK OUT!", he yelled at the small crowd of people he hated to terrorize. The bank teller pressed a button under his cabinet and the alarm blared. Jason only looked up in minor annoyance before giving Alexi the prompt to use his gauntlets. His friend and soldier fired up his electro-gauntlets and blasted the alarm system, before walking up to the steel teller door, slowly pulling and bending it until he could finally rip it from it's hinges.
Jason right behind him, he dashed for the clerk and used his gauntlets to deflect the two bullets that the short man got off before he was put to sleep via Alexi's latest attempt at a non-lethal; knockout gas that shot out of his right glove. He caught the short, stout man before he could hit the concrete floor, and dragged him outside and away from danger as Jason again walked behind him.
He then signaled the garbage truck, which immediately slammed on the gas, pulled a one-eighty, and then backed up as fast as it could into the bank, slamming through the vacant lobby and straight into the small vault. The two Outlaws then walked through the ruined bank and met up with the man who'd driven the truck, Jason's second-favorite soldier and Alexi's second in command, George.
"This shitty little bank holds the key to the city?", the man asked as Jason walked to the far wall of boxes, passing right over the table of money that his soldiers were already bagging and putting into the truck with the small team of Outlaws they'd brought along for phase two of the plan. Two of whom got out and helped their superiors while their leader, the true Red Hood, had to get on his tippy-toes for the first time in years to be able to reach the safety-deposit box in the top left corner, their primary objective.
Inside of it was a custom-made cell phone, and the main contingency plan of the mysterious "Underbroker", if Harvey was to be believed. When he opened it, he saw that Harvey hadn't been lying. He considered using the device for it's intended purpose; stealing all the money from the Underbroker's worldwide operation and putting it all on that one device. It would've made for a fun day to literally crush all that power and control over the weak and helpless in his hand. But, in the end, he decided to stick with the plan instead. What they had planned for it was even better.
Looking back around and seeing that his boys had finished up loading the money and unmarking the truck, he threw the phone to Alexi just as he got an update to his HUD.
"Continue into phase two. We picked up a shadow that I'll have deal with before meeting up with you back at base. Alexi, tell Rose not to worry."
"She will anyway."
"I know. Do it regardless."
Alexi nodded and got into the back of the truck and George ran off to get back into his position as the driver. Jason had just gotten into his car when they took off, Jason tracking them and speeding away before the GCDP could arrive, but taking a backseat.
Couldn't have his "family" seeing him, now could he?
Turns out trying to understand, adapt, and then change the events of a timeline as crazy, contrived and outright bullshit as DC's, all while taking two college courses, takes more than the thirty minutes a day I can allow this story, so I guess this sorta became a slow burn against my will.
Sorry, guys.