"You've got problems."

Tim's voice deadpanned out of nowhere, a channel opening on Nightwing's computer without Dick himself having opening it. Dick would never admit to having jumped in surprise at the sudden announcement seeing as Bats did not do "surprised" , but he would say it was rather alarming in the silence of his lab where he was picking over his latest design for a new birdarang and why his last prototype had failed.

"Did you hack my networks!?" He demanded, abandoning the circuitry scattered about his desk and, tossing his welding goggles over his shoulder, immediately began searching his network for the break Tim used to get in. He wouldn't be a hacker if he didn't keep on top of his supposedly top-secret, impenetrable computer systems.

"No—I really couldn't if I tried—but I used the dead switch code you gave me in case of emergencies to get in."

Dick stopped short.

"…is this an emergency…?" He asked cautiously.

"Depends on your definition." Tim huffed unhappily. "Would you consider Jason showing up in Jump an emergency? If so, then you've got an emergency in approximately eight minutes and forty two seconds."

"What!?" Wing balked. "Why pray tell, his he coming here!? Does he want me to kill him?"

"It's been five months dude. Jason's impatient and hates you baby-stepping this thing. You knew this was coming."

Dick let out a silent growl.

"I swear, if it's the last thing I do he's is so going to regret this…" He snarled.

"Threaten later. Right now, you've got seven minutes and fifty three seconds and counting." Tim said robotically. "I'm tracking his motorcycle, but I didn't want to freak you until I was sure. He used a type of Zeta jump to teleport the last sixty miles, and now I'm afraid you're warning is a bit late."

"Where?" Dick growled.

"Main street, coming in from the bypass under the Jackson bridge to right into downtown, and- oh, nope, never mind he's at the docks, three streets in. Another Zeta jump… but he shouldn't have the power to do that, I don't understand-"

"He hacked my tech designs last month. I was banking on him not being able to understand it, much less use it." Nightwing sighed in frustration, hitting the alarms to assemble the team in the main room.

"Funny, he hacked the Batcomputer last week. The only portion looked into was the notes on how to use theoretical Zeta travel. Guess you and Bruce were thinking along the same lines at developing that tech."

Dick groaned. "I can't deal with this right now, I have a psychopath to track down. Talk to you later."

"Good luck…" Tim sighed, and Dick tried not to roll his eyes at his brother's doubtful tone.

Nightwing booked it to the main room and was surprised to see the rest of the team already there.

"Wing!" Cyborg said in surprise. "I was about to ring the alarms for an attack at the docks when I guess you pulled the bells…?" He trailed off.

Good God, how has he managed to attack someone already?

"I did." He nodded tensely in confirmation. "And I've got a terrible feeling I know who's doing the attacks. He's in crime alley, and we need to move now."

The team exchanged surprised and alarmed looks, but only launched into motion. In fifteen minutes flat they were standing in crime alley, the local cops already flooding the area.

"Police transmissions are talking about local murders…" Cyborg said uncertainly. Jump was many things, certainly not free of crime as evidenced by the team of heroes who decided to take up residence there, and while its villains hardly cared about the well-being of others, those bad guys tended to opt toward mind-control or turning everyone into mutants/stones/trap everyone in another dimension or something of the like. Run of the mill murderers weren't exactly familiar territory for them.

Except that Nightwing knew it wasn't the run-of-the mill murderer.

"Lemme guess, those dead are all petty criminals, drug dealers, gangsters packing heat, or mob members, all with rap sheets." He said blankly.

Cyborg gave him a look and scanned his wrist computer. "…uh, yeah. They are." He dropped the screen and joined the others in giving him a wary look. "How did you know that?" He demanded cautiously.

Nightwing gritted his teeth before letting out a frustrated sigh that came out more as an angry hiss.

"His name is Red Hood. He's… a vigilante too, I guess. But he's dangerous, and he… doesn't care much for criminals."

"Oh, and like we're all buddy-buddy with them?" Beast Boy rolled his eyes with a grin. Nightwing had a brief flashback to Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, and Catwoman, as well as quite a few other villains who he'd all once had weekly dinner with at one point in his life (which Bruce may only have been half-aware of…)

He shook those thoughts off—it so wasn't the time to be getting into that debate.

"Cy, how many are dead so far?"

"So far?" He frowned, checking his computer again. "uh… seven already. Preliminary reports say they haven't been down for-"

"More than twenty minutes or so. My source says Hoods only been in town that long, maybe less."

"I do not understand, why is he a vigilante if he is hurting people?" Starfire fretted.

"He's killing criminals." Raven said suspiciously, narrowing her eyes at Nightwing as she felt his stress mounting. "He's a vigilante that kills criminals instead of arresting them… which makes him no better than a criminal himself." She stated blankly, unswervingly.

Nightwing fought to keep himself from flinching at her words.

"We need to find him." Nightwing said through gritted teeth, not commenting on her statement though he knew that she knew full well how he felt about her words. He couldn't argue it right now.

"Beast Boy and I will take the high ground" He continued, getting down to business. "B, go in bird form or something small and discreet. Hood's an expert sniper and knows you're in this city so he'll be looking for some green animal, so it's vital you stay low! Keep to the shadows as much as possible, and keep to small animals too, that should help a bit. Starfire and Raven, you sweep a fifteen block perimeters and if he slips past you, stay on him and call the others—don't engage without all of us there. Cyborg, I need you coordinating, keep tabs on the police reports and direct us where they're following his wake, and be on top of things so when we corner him you can be there." He ordered.

Raven narrowed her eyes yet again at him.

"There's something else you're not telling us." She said in a low, dangerous voice.

"Spill it, we need to know." Beast Boy huffed, not liking being left out while Cyborg raised an eyebrow that he'd try and keep anything from them at all.

Nightwing bit back a frustrated sigh again.

"Red Hood is… well, he's good. Really good. He was trained by the best, and whether he likes to admit it or not, he's got those skills hardwired into him. He doesn't leave his city much but… but I can guarantee you he's here for me. Only, I'm just as good as he is, so he's probably going to go after one of you to get my attention." He didn't like it, but it was the truth.

"Splitting us up but keeping us close in proximity is to draw him out, make him feel like he's got a chance at one of us so he'll come out, and you'll be close to get there quickly." Raven slowly put together.

And he needs us both there to spill my secrets to you guys AND watch my face while I internally implode and try to kill him for it—because he's a sadistic bastard. Dick added mentally, but only nodded unhappily once in confirmation at her deduction.

"So we're just bait on this one? What's this guy got against you?" Cyborg grumbled.

"It's… personal." Nightwing shifted, and the Titans exchanged loaded looks. "He's…" He trailed off, not sure how to bring it up under such a time crunch.

Cyborg's computer beeped and he glanced down. "Two gang members were just found eight blocks away with their brains blown out. That makes the total nine so far."

"We must hurry!" Starfire fretted, launching into the air and glancing around nervously.

"I'll explain later. Titan's – go!"

They split into action, going their separate ways as they darted/flew through the alleys and streets, passing the normal criminal activities (who all straightened up and started whistling nervously as the heroes darted past) but they didn't stop as they scanned for their target.

"I take it the guy's got a red hood on?" Cyborg said over their comm links.

"More like a helmet, but yeah," Nightwing answered under his breath as the darted through the shadows of a few warehouses. "He goes for black and gray army garb, loaded with guns and other firepower like that, but he's got tricks and knows his way around a hand-to-hand fight, especially with those stronger than him. He's human, but treat him like a meta—underestimating him will definitely get you killed." He warned them all.

He worried, knowing Jason would never hurt him or Tim, but his team was another thing completely. And, after these past months of getting to know his newly-risen brother, he'd realized that Jason had lost not just his ability to feel guilt or a sense of duty, but also a large portion of his conscience. Jason was a psychopath in the truest sense—he truly didn't understand when he crossed a line, and while Dick didn't mention it for actual fear for his life… he couldn't help but draw parallels from Jason to the Joker.

After all, neither of them realized that using pain or weapons as tools to get attention was bad. Jason had always been like that he supposed, just not so… openly. And never to get the attention of Bruce or his brothers because he knew he'd only get negative attention. Jason didn't seem to care anymore what kind of attention he got now, and Dick honestly feared he'd hurt one of the Titans just to tease his older brother.

Which did nothing to bring Nightwing stress-levels down.

His Bat senses were on high alert as he scanned all the places another Bat would pick when staking out someone trying to track them down. Dick already knew this was pointless, they were playing right into where Jay wanted them—the Titans simply were not trained to hunt down a Bat, he himself being the only one (save Bruce) with a prayer of coming close to finding him without the added luggage of a team blatantly giving them away, on top of the fact that Jason almost definitely had some half-ass plan in his head to draw Dick out.

Though why he wouldn't just call…

But… unfortunately… he knew why.

He wanted to force Dick into spilling his secrets to his team, and knowing Jason, he wasn't going to be nice about it. He'd probably get a kick out of it and be laughing for the next month or so, but Dick would not be making it out of this one without a migraine and a very long and stressful conversation with his team about his past.

He'd make Jason pay if it was the last thing he did.

His internal dreading and worrying was cut off into anger and panic as his comm cut off and Jason's mad cackling filled the line, before shutting down completely into dead air.