Me: Check in

LR: I'm starting to understand why Cortes thought you were my dad

LR: We just talked two hours ago!

Me: I'll take that to mean youre fine

LR: Nope

LR: Penguin grabbed me

LR: I'm just waiting to bleed out while my cement shoes finish setting

Me: Not funny

LR: I'm completely fine

LR: As long as it doesn't suddenly become possible to die from boredom that is

Me: Thought you and the blonde demon were hanging out with frineds

LR: Frineds

LR: We are

Me: Shut up

LR: Kind of

LR: My friends are busy so we're mostly with friends of friends right now

LR: Or should I say frineds of frineds

Me: I know where you live kid

LR: What are you up to

Me: Doing a wellness check of sorts

LR: Kid man or woman?

Me: Kids

LR: Well have fun

LR: Try not to scare the kids with your very very scary hood persona

Me: Forget Penguin I'm going to dump you in the harbor

LR: You can try

Jason snorted and put his phone away.

It had, thankfully, been an uneventful week. No one had connected Olivia - or Carey Adler, according to her new ID - to whatever his real name was so he and Stephanie went to school every day in the blonde's clunky purple van without trouble. Even still, Hood had made them promise to go straight to either the safe house or Stephanie's place straight after school and stay there until dinner. They always chose Stephanie's. Supposedly it was because the kids' friend Kasumi also hung out with them, but the mystery girl was always gone by the time Red Hood got there to bring Carey back to the safe house so he could make him dinner before patrol. Stephanie, meanwhile, was very present when he got there, to the point she'd happily invite herself over for dinner if her mom was working.

He hadn't made any progress when it came to convincing the kids that he could keep Carey safer than his boss could nor had he sold Carey on the subdermal trackers, but the kid had promised to keep up the check-ins even after he moved to wherever his boss was putting him and he'd agreed to wear not only the panic bracelet and tracker earrings, but also a pair of trackers that could be hidden in his shoes and one in a patch that was disguised as a tattoo. The trackers had, of course, come with the same condition as the first set of trackers: Hood wouldn't activate them unless either Carey's panic button activated or he had solid proof the kid was in danger and couldn't get ahold of him.

He'd honored the condition, even if he had been tempted to see where the kids were spending the night and make sure the place was safe.

To distract himself, he decided to focus on the next stages of his plan. He knew from bugs he had on Mask that the final part of his plan was at the most a week out, which meant he needed to make sure everything else was in place.

Bruce had been given ample time to run every test he could come up with on Hood's blood, so he had to be at least ninety-three percent sure of Jason's identity.

Carey was… not as safe as Jason would like, but the kid should be safe enough with his boss until everything was over. Hood would just have to track down the unknown man and put him in his place after.

The apartment that would play the stage for the final showdown had been properly outfitted to ensure the clown couldn't slip away and Hood would have the guns needed for his ultimatum.

(And if he'd decided the gun he'd give Batman would have blanks instead of normal bullets as he'd originally planned, well, no one had to know. Especially not Talia, who'd made it very clear she thought it was unnecessarily suicidal despite being adamant Bruce would never pull the trigger.)

All that was left was to pay a visit to the Robins. Just a quick hello to both see if they were up to snuff and give the Old Man a good reason to keep them far away from the action when Mask finally played his wild card.

It had been hard to nail down when exactly to deal with Batman's soldiers after hoity-toity Timmy decided he was too good to wear the cape full time. He needed to get both birds, and in a short amount of time, if he wanted the message to stick and ensure neither Tim nor Spoiler had time to prepare for him. He'd been hoping to catch them on a night they were patrolling alone yet at the same time, but then both birds had been spotted in San Francisco with the Titans that afternoon. A lucky break, really. He'd already had plans to sneak into the tower from when it had been just Tim, so it wasn't hard to adjust the plans before heading to the West Coast.

As he'd known, Bruce hadn't bothered to tell anyone else Jason had come back, so he was still in the zeta beam's and Titans' systems. It was easy enough to take Gotham's zeta-tube to San Francisco's, then use his codes to walk right into Titans Tower. Once in, Hood used those same codes to put the tower into low-level lockdown. It didn't block communications or alert the inhabitants since that would risk raising flags. It wouldn't have even kept a Titan with half a brain out for more than a minute or two, but it would give Hood a heads-up before he had unwanted company and it shut down all the security cameras.

His next step was to incapacitate the Titans already in the Tower. Thankfully, most of them were out of town. Cyborg and Beast Boy were in the communication center so he used some tasers to knock them out as soon as they got off their call. Raven was already asleep and a bit of sleeping gas ensured she'd stay that way. That left only the Robins.

They were together when he pulled up their locations, but after ten mixtures they split up. He considered which one to go for first, and landed on Tim. It didn't seem Spoiler was in the Titans system yet, so it wasn't hard to throw up a few locked doors to keep her occupied then he made his way to the common room his target was in.

Robin was just finishing up a call when he got there and Hood watched him put the phone away before saying, "Hey, Tim."

He spun around and Hood got his first good look at his successor.

Tim Drake was on the shorter side and was all lean muscle, like Dick. His face was softer than Jason's had been at that age, but not quite as round as Dick's. He seemed to lean into it more than Dick, though, with a bit of makeup helping give him an almost androgynous look that his hair didn't hurt. It was shoulder-length, pin-straight, and pitch-black. His suit was similar to Spoiler's Robin suit, though it lacked the skirt. Surprisingly though, he did have the headband, and even paired it with a set of red studs.

"Red Hood?" Robin said, confused.

And then he relaxed.

What the fuck? How the hell did the rich brat survive this long if he relaxes when faced with murderous crime lords who've broken into a supposedly safe area? The other Robin had tried to look casual when they'd run into each other, but she'd clearly been nervous and had immediately located an exit strategy in case he attacked.

This Robin just frowned at him and crossed his arms. "What are you doing here? Is this about Batman?"

"What if it is?" Hood asked, trying to regain his footing.

Robin cut in before he could continue, saying, "Look, he's not forcing us into this or whatever. I came to him. I figured out who he was when I was a little kid so when he started spiraling after the second Robin died and Nightwing couldn't help the way I thought Batman needed, I took the suit and became Robin behind Batman's back. He needed someone to make him slow down just a bit and wonder what could happen, whether he wanted that someone or not."

That… didn't completely line up with what Hood had been told. Robin had known since he was little? The way Talia talked about Tim stalking Batman after Jason died had made it seem like he'd figured it out then. Hood had been sure Bruce had noticed Tim following him and set it up to test him to see if he'd make a good replacement for Jason. If he'd already known before… And what did he mean he stole the suit? Either Tim was an amazing liar or Talia hadn't gotten the full picture.

But that didn't change anything. "Still. You do realize, the whole idea of training teenagers to fight against something he'll never eradicate is a mistake."

"Batman didn't have a choice," Robin scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Most of us were already out there before he got to us. The training is all he can do to try to make it as safe as possible for us."

"Yet it didn't surprise anyone when the second Robin died," Hood chuckled. "When he died, no one cared. No one remembered him."

For the first time, Robin looked ready for a fight. "Are you kidding? No one could forget him! I've spent my career wearing this mask under his shadow! I'm only even Robin because of the impact he had on Batman! Because he'll never stop blaming himself for what happened to him! You don't know anything about the second Robin!"

"Don't I?" Hood growled and reached up to pull his helmet off.

Robin stared at him with first confusion, then shock, and finally annoyance. He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Oh my god! That makes so much sense! How did I not put it together sooner?" He looked back at Hood. "Oh, right, you're supposed to be dead. League of Assassins, right? I bet it's the League. That would explain some of the things I've been noticing and why Bruce is being so weird about you."

Hood tossed his helmet to the side and dropped his hands to his belt. "I didn't come here to swap stories, Tim."

Robin stared at him for a moment, then crossed his arms. "You're not going to attack me."

"You think so?"

"Yes," he said, overly confident. "You don't hurt kids."

What the fuck? What was it with all the cocky, too-smart, black-haired teenagers in his life completely underestimating him? "You're not a kid. You're Robin."

"And Robin is a minor. Always has been. So you won't hurt me."

Hood hadn't planned on anything more than a fistfight with Robin, but the attitude was really tempting him to pull out his gun and put a bullet somewhere nonvital. "Did Bruce tell you nothing about me?"

"Depends. Do you mean Jason? Because he kind of did, but he doesn't like to talk about… anything revolving around feelings, actually, so Dick and Alfred were better sources of information. If you meant Hood, then no. He basically just said to stay away. He did say you'd threatened me, but I told him you were just needling him."

Hood grabbed Robin and threw him through a window.

He jumped out the window after him to see Robin twisting with the fall and landing in a roll.

He turned to Hood with a scowl. "Seriously?"

"I told you I didn't come here to talk," Hood said and swung at Robin, only for him to duck out of the way.

He grabbed his staff from his belt, expanding it as he ducked another blow. "What do you want? What is the point of this?"

"I died, Tim. I trained as hard as I could. I did whatever Bruce asked, at least at first. But it didn't matter. You think you're tough enough to be Robin? Then show me. Show me what you have that I didn't."

Robin narrowed his eyes and nodded, raising his staff. "Fine, if that's the only way to get through to you."

Hood snorted, then they were fighting.

He blocked two blows from Robin's staff, then aimed a blow at his head which Robin just managed to duck before catching Hood right in the face. He retaliated by kicking Robin back into a planter. He threw a batarang at the sidekick, distracting him long enough to get ahold of the staff. Just before he could rip it out of Robin's grip, something hit him hard in the back of the head.

Ignoring the pain and slight vertigo, he shoved Robin back and turned to see Spoiler had managed to make it out of her quarantine.

She was glaring at him as she picked up another chunk of planter. "I told you Hood's threats were serious."

"In my defense," Robin huffed, getting to his feet, "I'm pretty sure this is just some sort of test and he doesn't actually want to hurt me."

Spoiler turned her glare on him while Hood spun around, hands in the air. "Are you still not taking me seriously?"

Robin looked between them and shrugged. "No?"

"I'm going to shoot you," Hood grunted, then brought his arm up to block the planter chunk that Spoiler threw at his head.

Jason Todd-Wayne was alive. Jason Todd-Wayne was Red Hood.

That certainly explained why Bruce wasn't going after him as hard as he could have despite being convinced Hood was extremely dangerous. He was holding back. Hood's theatrics, nerdiness, and concern for the Alley also lined up with the stories Tim had been told. If he'd been resurrected by the League of Assassins, then that would explain his training and resources.

Of course, there was always the chance he wasn't Jason Todd-Wayne. Tim had studied Jason Todd-Wayne enough to recognize his face, even older and more defined, but it could have been a very skilled mimicry. He also wouldn't have been the first clone Tim had come across. Bruce likely would have ruled those options out first, though, and been all the angrier for it.

Oh man, Tim had effectively been living with Jason Todd-Wayne!

"Stay away from him!" Spoiler said as she pulled a batarang out of her belt.

"Woah, okay, hold on," Robin said, raising his free hand. "Let's calm down for a second. Spoiler, he's Jason. Like, Jason Todd-Wayne."

She frowned and cocked her hip, batarang still in hand. "You mean the second Robin. The dead one."

"I'm guessing the League of Assassins did something, but he didn't confirm or deny it."

"Are you sure he's not a clone like Superboy?"

"I'm pretty sure. Bruce wou-"

"Oh my God! Bruce totally knows! No wonder he's being all secretive about knowing Hood's identity."

"Right!"

"Do you think -"

"Are you two done?" Hood asked.

The two looked at him, then turned back to each other.

"Do you think he'd teach me how to shoot?" Spoiler asked. "Like, really shoot."

"I doubt Batman would like that," Hood said, glaring at them both.

"Who cares what he thinks?" she scoffed. "I'd already know how if Mom didn't tell Alfred he couldn't teach me. But she didn't say you couldn't and Robin wouldn't rat us out, right Enby Wonder!"

"Please do not give her a gun," Robin sighed.

"Says the one who went full supervillain when he got a gun!"

"I didn't go supervillain just because I got a gun!"

"What are you two talking about?" Hood cut in again.

"Nothing," Robin said, giving Spoiler a pointed look. "Can we go back to fighting now?"

"Oh!" she gasped, looking between the two. "What if this is how it starts!? You started hanging out with Hood and his guns, and then -"

"No, no, stop! I didn't turn into evil Batman because I started hanging out with Hood. Knock it off!"

"I'm just joking."

"Well, you're not funny."

"You know what, fuck this."

The two watched Hood turn and march off to climb up to the broken window he'd thrown Robin through.

"Does this mean you won't teach me how to shoot?"

"Wait, I still have questions!"

Hood ignored them both, disappearing back into the common room.

"We should probably call B."

"He's going to be ticked that we didn't hit our panic buttons."

"Speak for yourself. I -" Spoiler cut off as yellow gas filled the area. "Shit!"

Holding their breath, the two scrambled for their rebreathers as Hood dropped back down with his helmet once more covering his head.

He went for Robin first. The younger boy moved to duck away as he tried to secure the rebreather on his head, but Hood caught him. He slammed his palm against Robin's chest, making him gasp just as Hood ripped the rebreather off and tossed it away.

As Hood tackled Spoiler, Robin collapsed. He tried to keep from breathing in the gas, but his lungs weren't cooperating. He crawled towards his rebreather and slipped it over his face, but he could feel his mind going foggy and his limbs weakening.

He turned back to the fight and saw Spoiler lying on the ground, Hood standing over her with her rebreather in hand. He tried to shuffle back when Hood started to approach, but Hood easily caught up just by walking.

"Bedtime, Timmy," he said as he pulled Robin's mask off.

Hood glared at the sleeping kids. So much for testing them. They clearly weren't going to give it their all. First Carey, now these two? Did he really have that soft of a reputation among Gotham's youth? He'd have to figure out some other way to test them, preferably without letting them know he was involved.

That would have to wait, though. For now, he'd focus on giving Bruce a good enough scare to ensure he kept the two away from Hood's business. How to do it, though? He could just leave them there, knocked out with Hood's calling card, but would that be enough to get through the Bat's thick head? Especially considering how stubborn and uncaring the kids were? No, he couldn't trust that that would be big enough, and he didn't know if he'd have time for a take-two. Whatever he did, it had to be big enough to keep the two away.

Keep them away.

Hood made quick work of their armor, leaving them in the leggings and compression shirts they wore underneath. A thorough scan with his helmet detected subdermal trackers in both kids, one in Spoiler and three in Robin.

"Seriously, Bruce. One, sure, but three? That's paranoid even for you."

Considering he had no desire to cut the trackers out, Hood took a quick trip down to the labs to grab a pair of Faraday bands. Inspired by Faraday cages, they created an electromagnetic field around the wearer that blocked all frequencies. They were meant to be used on technopaths, androids, cyborgs, or the like to keep them from wirelessly interacting with technology, but they'd block the trackers' signals just as easily.

He stuck them in his pocket, then went back for the kids. He knelt next to Spoiler to pick her up, but paused when his eyes landed on her mask.

Well, he had been curious about who she was and the Titans' reactions when they realized the kids had been unmasked by their kidnapper were sure to be priceless. Batman would have a lot of explaining to do, and Dick was sure to tear Bruce a new one over keeping secrets. Hood could still remember how bad it got when those two went at it.

"Have fun dealing with that, Old Man," he snorted and grabbed the edge of Spoiler's mask. Pressing the hidden buttons in the right order released the electrostatic charge that kept the mask locked onto her face and he gently pulled it off. "Now who do we have…"

The mask slipped through his fingers as he stared down at the face of the girl who, just that morning, had conned him into making her waffles before school.

"You have got to be kidding me," he growled as he turned to Robin. "No, no fucking way."

When he pulled the bird's mask off, the face underneath it wasn't exactly what he was used to. He knew enough about using makeup to soften or sharpen different features to be able to see the similarities, though. The fact that he'd been looking after the kid for months didn't hurt either.

It made sense.

He hated that it made sense.

The kid had moved through clubs the same way Brucie moved through galas.

He could shift from the witty snark of Nightwing to the quiet aloofness of Matches Malone at a moment's notice.

His little honey pot routine was stolen straight out of Selina Kyle's playbook, if dialed back some.

He had been kidnapped by the Víboras, Stephanie had gone to his boss, and the Bats had torn their operation to the ground.

His boss had explicitly told him to stay away from Hood, when Hood had made it clear that all the kids in Gotham but one were under his protection.

He had ignored his boss's warning and approached the crime lord with all the stubbornness of a Robin.

Little Red had shown up in an outfit befitting Gotham Academy.

Tim Drake had been attending Gotham Academy.

Hood cut back the time Little Red could spend working.

Tim Drake cut back the time he spent as Robin.

Little Red went to the same school as Stephanie, his not-girlfriend

Tim Drake went to that same school to be with his blonde girlfriend.

Tim Drake had relaxed the moment he saw Hood.

Tim Drake had known exactly why Hood was there.

Tim Drake had known Hood.

Tim Drake was Carey.

Tim Drake was Olivia.

Tim Drake was Little Red.

Unlike Olivia Draper (which was just a more femme Alvin Draper), Carey Adler is two references in a trench coat.

I would just like to state, for the record, that I'd planned for the joke about Little Red getting a gun and plotted out the scenes where he uses a gun BEFORE I remembered Gun Batman was a thing. So the jokes about Tim becoming him are at my expense as much as his. It's pure coincidence and these events have nothing to do with Batman of Tomorrow.

Also for the record, Tim has three subdermal trackers because he keeps finding them and cutting them out whenever he's doing stuff that would get him in trouble.

Comic book lines referenced in the chapter:

1. "You need someone to make you slow down just a bit and wonder what could happen." - Tim Drake, Batman #442 aka A Lonely Place of Dying Chapter 5: Rebirth

2. "I trained as hard as I could. I did whatever he asked... at least at first. But it didn't matter. They said I wasn't tough enough to be Robin. But today, they say you are. Show me, Tim. Show me what you have that I didn't." - Jason Todd, Teen Titans #29

3. "When I died no one cared! No one remembered me." - Jason Todd, Teen Titans #29

4. "Are you completely insane? No one could forget you. I've spent my career wearing this mask under your shadow. I had to convince Batman to let me try this. All because he'll never stop blaming himself for what happened to you. You ask me, that's the only reason he hasn't taken you down. He's holding back. But me? No freakin' way." - Tim Drake, Teen Titans #29 (for the record, Tim is kicking the chiz out of Jason at this point and I'm kind of disappointed that didn't make it into the story. Let Timmy be bada-)

5. "Still. You do realize, the whole idea of training a teenager to fight against something he'll never eradicate is a mistake. It didn't surprise anyone when I died. When I failed." - Jason Todd, Teen Titans #29