Chapter 6

Hi, y'all! I hope you enjoy this chapter and the next! You guys get two chapters this go around.

Jason was pissed when his phone chirped loudly. The damn thing would wake Goldie Locks in the med bay. No one had his number anyway except Dick and Alfred. Jason scrubbed his face and looked over at his brother's temporary bed in the med bay.

It was empty. Hell no.

His dear brother was about to get the chewing out of a lifetime.

Glancing down at his phone. Two new messages from the Dickhead himself.

'Course they do. u have a fat ass.' Jason snorted. Dick wasn't in too bad of shape if he was making fun of him.

'Thanks for tonight. i'm the hall tonight see you tomorrow' This made Jason freeze. Dick Grayson texted like an old man from the 1940s, using proper punctuation and whole words. Something was wrong. And even more so than usual.

That and the dummy was at the Hall of Justice. How was he going to get to D.C.?

Dick!

Sitting up. Jason looked around at the empty warehouse looking for ideas. It would take too long for pedestrian transport, and as much as he hated to do it, Jason knew he needed to hack the Zeta Beams. Quickly Jason started getting dressed, pulling on his Red Hood gear.

Why was it all about hacking these days?

Computers were one of Jason's new enemies after being resurrected. IOS 1000 or whatever the league was running these days was a pain in the butt. Luckily, Bruce was also an old dog, so if Dick or Replacement hadn't programmed the Zeta Beams, he would be fine. At least Jason hoped it would be fine.

The cold night air that hit him when he stormed out of the warehouse was freezing. Jason barely noticed the temperature when he brought Dick to the warehouse.

Standing on the top step, Jason looked up and down the street. Dick hadn't taken the Shadow, that dork. Jason would then. In Jason's opinion, a bad ride was always better than a good walk. The wet, cold air from the Atlantic sunk into his bones, making his block ride to the Zeta Beams feel twice as long. At least Happy Harbor was a reasonably quiet city with very few people out roaming the streets at this time of night.

Skidding to a stop in front of the Zeta Beam hidden in a deserted parking complex Jason immediately knew hacking this would be a real bitch. The entire machine interface was different from the original design Jason used when working with Bruce. So much for this being fast, he thought, exposing a real mess of wires and electric components.

If it was Dick-head's handy work, it wouldn't be terrible… Damn, never mind. Everything about this Zeta Beam was different, the hardware, the electronics, the code. Dick, Babs, and even Bruce wasn't this anal about security. Who the hell wrote this code?

Replacement.

It couldn't not be him. It had to be the new kid. The bats are the league's only I.T. department.

Jason knew a little about the kid, but not a lot, thanks to his history of going death-con-green whenever he was mentioned. Hopefully, he didn't meet the kid. Dick had calmed a lot of the pit madness down, but Bruce, Replacement, and Joker, were topics Jason couldn't touch without breaking something. Mainly people's noses.

Time ticked by, and Jason was making barely any progress as wall after wall of incription flashed on his wrist computer. Jason felt himself losing his cool, green tingeing the edge of his vision.

Jason kept trying.

"Come on, you big pile of shit!" Jason screamed, rearing back and slamming his fist into the component box with every bit of his two-hundred pounds pushed behind it. Voltage burned threw him, and a flash of light blinded him as he was thrown against the wall, but not the abandoned parking complex wall.

"Recognized. Recognized. Reg – system rebooting." The Zeta Beam from heaven knows where chirped.

Jason groaned.

"Ouch."

Jason's heartbeat fast, and his body burned, Jason's muscles still spasming from what Jason was sure was a stupid amount of voltage. He was stupid – what the heck was he going to do now? Jason sat up, looking over his body. Aside from two singed and split knuckles, he was fine, thankfully.

Where was he?

Standing up, he walked to the window overlooking a bay and laughed. Baltimore, he was in freaking Baltimore, Maryland. He was an hour away from the Hall. Talk about dumb luck. Jason felt his heart finally slow, and the last vestiges of the Lazarus Pit leave his sight.

Jason was so close!

He just had to catch a train.

The Northeast Regional 95 was always about 10 mins late, but that was D.C. for you. You can't ask for much from a town of bureaucrats and politicians. Jason thought, lying on the top of the train car, chilling – literally. Jason didn't need to just start charging uber rates. He also needed to start billing Dick for babysitting too. Why did Dick have to go be such a damsel in distress on the coldest night of the year? Wasn't he supposed to be the rash, reckless kid?

Jason's knuckles ached.

Fair point.

Finally, the train pulled into Washington Union Station. Depositing its paying passengers and a stiff half-frozen Jason in the mostly empty station. The babysitting rate has just increased. Jason thought, pulling off his gloves and blowing into his hands. The Hall of Justice was a fifteen-minute walk from the station and an eight min run. Jason was there in 5 minutes, huffing and puffing as he grappled to the roof of the building across the street from the Hall.

Now what? Jason thought, realizing that he couldn't just waltz into the Hall of Justice, kidnap his idiot older brother and leave.

Groaning to himself, he leaned against the low roof wall. Watching the offending building – storming the castle in this instant was stupid. But some good old-fashioned surveillance might give him some ideas. That is if Dick didn't just take the Zeta Tube out of the building. That thought made Jason cringe a bit; then his kickass attempt to care for Goldie Locks would turn into a less-than-cool frolic along the U.S.'s Atlantic coast, and not even the cool bits of it.

Surely Dickhead was fine, and Jason was overreacting. But he had a bad feeling about tonight.

Then he saw them.

Two figures walked out of the Hall of Justice. Unidentifiable in the night. Jason reached up and hit the button on his helmet to turn on the night vision. His world turned green. Hitting another button, he zoomed in and pumped his fist. Wally West and Dick were walking to the building he was standing on. Dick looked like hell, even in night vision. And Wally, Wally looked more pissed than Jason had ever seen him. Glaring holes in the back of Dicks head.

Jason grappled down the street, watching both men load into an elevator. Wally's dark expression from before turned into an apprehensive one. Bats, as a general rule, didn't use elevators, and he guessed that Wally didn't notice the lumpy spots under dicks suit where his injuries had been treated.

That's interesting, Jason thought, watching them disappear under him into the lobby of the apartment building.

Figures, Wally was unobservant at the best of times.

Now where in the ten-story building were they?

Jason sighed. He'd have to do this the hard way. He thought, waving his computer in front of the lock to the staircase, unlocking it with a few taps.

He ran up a flight of stairs at a time, then listened in the halls for Wally or Dick's voices. Second floor, nope. Third floor, nope, Fourth floor, nope. Fifth floor? 100% that was it. The yelling was unmistakably Kid Idiot. The words themselves were still illegible, but the tone seeped through.

What was going on? Wally never yelled like that when Jason was Robin. Hell, he never got angry at Dick, even when Dick was an absolute dick.

Jason crept forward with his lock picks. It sounded like no one inside the apartment would notice if he snuck in. The lock quickly fell to his trusty pick, and he swung the door open just enough to let himself in. Wally and Dick didn't even notice. Jason looked over at the two and froze. Wally had handfuls of Nightwing's suit. Jason saw green but forced himself to stay still to hear what was being said.

"The cave is… was just a place. Worthy of being sacrificed if it helps us stop the invasion! Look, I'm sorry that you lost all your souvenirs." Dick snapped back.

"Are you serious!" Wally screamed, pushing Dick in the chest onto the wooden dining chair behind him. Dick gritted his teeth, but Dick didn't let Wally see he had hurt him.

Jason started forward, still unnoticed by Dick and Wally.

"I don't care about that junk! I'm worried about Artemis. Terrified for her. Wally hissed. You put her right into his hands."

"Wally, we are talking about Kaldur here!" Dick said defensively.

"I know, Kaldur. Our friend, who, in the space of a few months, lost the love of his life and found out that Black Manta was his father. Is it impossible that Aqua Lad could possibly be a trader? A triple agent? He is supposed to be playing them, but are you absolutely sure he isn't playing you." Wally finishes, glaring at Nightwing.

Jason froze. What? Tulia died? Kalder was a double agent. And what was this about Artemis?

Dick stood back up to look Wally in the eyes, then stopped. All the color drained from his face. Something was very wrong. Jason and Wally froze in horror, watching Dick tense up and fall forward, convulsing on the floor.

Shit! Shit! Shit!

Jason thought, running to his brother. Wally grabbed his arm before he could kneel next to his brother, jerking Jason back. Without thinking, Jason reared back and punched Wally with all his strength. Splitting Jason's knuckles open again. There was a crunch from Wally's nose, and the speedster doubled over. Jason ripped off his leather jacket and slid it under Dick's thrashing head. And started counting.

10 seconds.

Jason could tell Wally was standing behind him, still hunched over his bleeding nose.

20 seconds.

Jason decided it would be best to lose the red helmet to not panic his brother further after he came back around. He had barely laid the helmet on the floor when Wally grabbed his arm again, whipping Jason around to face him. Rage shown on Wally's face. Wally punched Jason knocking him against the dining room table.

"Damnit, Wally, it's me!" Jason yelled, standing up and pushing Wally away from Dick's side.

30 seconds.

"You, who the hell are you?" Wally said, venom dripping out of his words.

"I'm Jason fucking Todd. That's who. Now get the hell out of here before I shoot you." Jason snarled, standing between the speedster and his brother, still seizing on the floor.

120 seconds.

Shit, this was bad, this was so bad. Alfred was going to 100% give Jason the 'I'm very disappointed in you look.'

Wally just stared at Jason, dumbstruck.

180 seconds.

Finally, Dick's whole body tensed and then was still.

Thank God. Jason thought, resting a hand on Dicks heaving chest. Wally let out an equally relieved sigh from behind him, and Jason rounded back on him.