Trading Stories

As soon as Nightwing was out of sight, Jason pulled off his helmet. He ran a hand through his black and white hair and, double checking that the domino mask was still in place, turned to look at the kid. "So, Sora, you hungry?"

Sora was still contemplating Jason with some uncertainty. Apparently his and Nightwing's little act hadn't impressed him. He gave the kid a cocky grin (a rather rare sight for Red Hood) and put a hand on Sora's shoulder.

"Come on kid." He said lightly stepping to the entrance of the alleyway and dragging Sora with him. "Me and my friend 'Wing were just messing around. Nothing to worry about."

"If you say so." Sora said, sounding unsure.

"SO" Hood said loudly. "Food! I want some. You?

It was at that moment that Sora remembered that he hadn't eaten in a few hours. And the recent fight had left him starving. "I am pretty hungry." he admitted. "If you are getting something to eat I guess I could too. If you don't mind me tagging along."

"'Course not!" Hood said happily letting go of Sora and stepping into the dimly lit streets of downtown Gotham. "The tricky part is finding a place that sells something eatable."

"I'll pretty much eat anything!" Sora added helpfully.

Red Hood laughed. "Not if you don't wanna get sick you won't."

Five minutes of walking and the two ended up in a kind of square surrounded by shops. Food trucks littered the area, their smells melding together and causing both Red Hood and Sora to drool and look longingly up at the menus.

"Take your pick." Hood offered, waving his hand at all the different vendors. "My treat. Just do yourself a favour and avoid the Mexican place."

Sora ended up getting a fish fillet with mushrooms on rice. Jason went for the chilidogs, the cook greeting his best customer warmly. "Come on, it's crowded as hell down here." Jason pulled his grapple from his jacket. "I'll go up and then lower the rope down." He shot off the grapple at a low building nearby, only two stories. However, before he could turn to lower the rope, Sora jumped. And landed neatly next to Jason. "Crap. Are you a meta kid? Cause Batman doesn't like metas in his city."

Sora's face twisted into a confused expression for what felt like the millionth time today. "What's a meta?"

A quick expression of shock passed over Jason's face before turning down into angry mistrust. "Seriously? I don't care what kind of rock you've been living under, but no one goes through life in this day and age without knowing what metas are! The most backwater village in Asia has heard of metas, believe me, I've been there. So you're going to start telling me where you're really from or things are going to get dicey."

Sora frowned at the implied threat. "I'm not scared of you. I could be out of here in no time flat. Not like you could take me anyways." He crossed his arms, takeout dish carefully balanced in one hand.

Jason laughed outright at this. "Firstly, I could beat you in a dozen different ways before you could twitch. Second, if you leave, you don't get the info on that Xehanort dude you're looking for."

"I could still find him!"

"Not as fast. And who knows how many of those Heartless things he could bring here in the meantime. How many people could die because you wouldn't talk."

Sora's expression flashed from defiant to troubled. Of course he didn't want anyone to get hurt. And as annoying as this Hood guy was, he had a point. The issue was now he had a decision to make. Should he tell Jason the truth? Would he believe him? There was probably a good chance he wouldn't. Sighing, Sora dropped cross legged onto the stone roof and began to eat.

"Hey!" Jason snapped. "Don't just ignore me! I'm serious! You better not think I'm joking 'cuz I'm not!"

Sora looked up at him. "Fine, I'll tell you, but first things first, I think your food's getting cold. You don't want to waste a perfectly good meal."

Jason was taken aback by the lack of hostility in the kid's voice. "Hmmmph." He grumbled sitting down next to Sora and taking an angry bite out of his chilidog.

They sat like that for about a minute eating in silence. Jason was showing an amazing amount of restraint on his part to not grab the kid and shake him until he got answers. Finally, Sora seemed to have decided on something, and placing his half eaten dish in his lap, looked at Red Hood and said, "I'm not from this world."

Red Hood just sat there, chilidog halfway to his mouth, looking at the kid blankly. "Ok. So why didn't you just say so?"

Sora turned slowly to face him, shocked. "Wait, you mean you believe me? Just like that?"

"Dude, I hang around an alien princess all day. Superman's been flying around Metropolis for years now, flaunting his alien-ness. Just a little while ago, my idiot friend got kidnapped by some space mercenaries and we had to fly out there to get him and our ship back. Space travel isn't that uncommon. And," raising the hand not holding his chilidog to stop any protests from Sora, "if you're from a different dimension, that's not too uncommon either. So get on with it."

Sora opened and closed his mouth a few times. "Well. Ok then." He took a few more bites of his fish to buy him some time before answering. Maybe if he said it all in one go, it would be easier. "So anyways. I'm a Keyblade Wielder from Destiny Islands and I fly around in my gummi ship with a bunch of my friends and we're trying to save the worlds from darkness." Yeah, that was pretty easy.

Hood just took another bite of his chilidog. "So you're a bunch of space superheroes. Alright. And this Xehanort guy, what's he after?"

"He wants something called Kingdom Hearts, which is basically the heart of all worlds. If he gets that, he'll unleash darkness into the worlds and probably destroy everything." Sora speared a mushroom on his fork and popped it in his mouth. "I just don't know what he wants in this world."

Jason just nodded, finishing off his food with one last bite. "What kind of threat is he?"

"Well, he has a Keyblade too. And an almost unlimited supply of Heartless and Nobodies."

"Nobodies?"

"Heartless are the hearts of people who have given into darkness. Nobodies are the body and soul left behind. And if the person had a really strong heart, then the Nobody that gets created has a consciousness and looks almost identical to the original person." Sora finished his fish, then tossed the container into a dumpster in the alley below.

A strange expression crossed Red Hood's face. "Huh." As soon as it had come, the expression was gone, replaced by a careful neutral. "Well, thanks for sharing kid. Now, let's start preparing."

"You mean how we're gonna fight Xehanort?" Sora asked excitedly.

"Yup!" Jason said easily, now crumpling up his wrapper and throwing it neatly into a small trash can far below. "This guy has come into the Bat's territory, so it's only natural that we help take him down."

"Bats?" Sora asked interested.

"Yeah, see, there's a guy who protects the people of this city, he is called Batman and he is a pretty, uh, impressive fighter. Then he has partners who work alongside him, y'know, helping him to keep the streets safe. There's Robin, Red Robin, Batgirl, and of course Golden Boy himself. Um, Nightwing that is. Couple others too, but those are the main ones."

"Wow!" Sora said impressed. "You guys all work together to protect people!"

Jason stopped to think about that. "Sometimes we work together. Or at least, the rest of the Bats do. I on the other hand, tend to stay to myself. But forget about that, we need to start planning how to take care of this guy Xehanort. Do you have any idea as to where he might be? Does he like to hang in a certain place, or with a specific type of crowd?"

"Well," Sora said, putting a hand on his chin as he thought. "He sometimes likes to hang around bad guys. You know, people who are consumed by evil. Probably to make them into powerful Heartless, or to get them to help him with something."

"Hmmmm" Jason mused. "That could be a problem. We should probab-"

"What, are you doing here Hood?!" A young sneering voice sounded from above them.

Jason winced. He did NOT need this right now. "Robin. When did daddy dearest let you out of the nest? Isn't he worried you'll stab someone?"

The new person, someone even younger than Sora crossed his arms. "Tt. The greater risk is you Hood. Last I heard, you were shooting up Grandfather's city with your usual subtlety." He stepped out of the shadows, revealing a red tunic, green boots and gloves, and a black cape with yellow lining and a hood.

"That was ages ago Demon Brat. Get with the times." Jason ducked as a birdarang flew at his head. "Nice try. Now calm down, I'm not here for anything dastardly. Just helping out Sora here. Come say hello. Or has Agent A not taught you any manners yet?"

Robin simply glared at the back of Red Hood's head. Sora looked back and forth between them, suddenly nervous at the hostility emanating from the young bird. Finally, trying to diffuse the tension, he stood up and held out his hand. "Hi! My name's Sora. You're Robin?"

After another moment glaring at Hood, who was nonchalantly ignoring the kid, Robin turned to Sora and grabbed his hand. "Yes. I assume you're the one Nightwing told me about?"

"He told you about me already? That was fast."

Jason's phone suddenly went off, a quick vibrate indicating a text. Ugh, from Goldie. "Hey Little Wing~! I sent Dami over to meet Sora. C: I think he'll be a good influence on our baby bat. Make sure they play nice now! :D" Wait. Did Dick just dump another brat on him?

"Hey, Robin?" Jason waved at the brat distractedly. "Could you keep Sora company for a little while? I need to go kill Nightwing quickly. Won't be a moment." He dived off the roof, his grapple line already attached to the building across the street. To his immense annoyance, Robin shot off his grapple and followed, pulling Sora behind him.

The chase continued for another couple of blocks before Hood finally turned to the kids landing gracefully on the rooftop behind him. "Ok, why are you following me?"

"I was told to follow you as long as you were in Gotham. Both of you. Nightwing said it would be good experience." The Demon Brat looked annoyed. "Personally, I'd rather put you back in Arkham where you belong, but that's not my call." Under his breath, he said too quietly to be heard, "Yet."

Jason's phone vibrated again. "Maaaaay have told him to stick to you like a burr. Haha. ^_^ Don't worry, I'm sure you'll all get along swimmingly~! Have fun Little Wing! :D :) ^-^" It took all of Jason's control not to crush the phone in his hand.

"Fine, I'll shoot his sorry head off later. For now, let's just hit one of my safehouses. I'm running short on ammo and Sora here needs some less conspicuous clothes."

Sora started. "What's wrong with them?" he asked, looking down at his attire.

Hood snorted. "Really? You can't see it? That many belts and zippers is overkill, unless they're used to hold useful things like batarangs or explosives. And your shoes? Yeah, you look like you could be one of Joker's henches wearing those. You're lucky Red Robin left some spare civvies at the safehouse we're going to. You look about his size."

AN: Know how I said I'd update once a week? I lied. MWAHAAHAHA! Twice a week now. Deal with it.

Nothing much to say this time around. Um. Next chapter had some action? Yeah. Cool. Loxie OUT!