Chapter 25: Trouble rarely comes alone

"Sing for me, Little Robin."

Joker lashed out with the red-hot iron and Damian was faced with losing one of his green eyes forever. He tried to keep calm by telling himself that he would still have his other one. But with his mind full of the tremendous pain on his collarbone from the previous contact and the now much hotter iron right in front of him, Damian had a hard time keeping his composure. Damn, in the worst case it would cook his brain right along with his eye and that would be it for him!

Damian already felt the heat on his face and squeezed the lids together. He just didn't want to see it happen. That would only trigger a trauma and make him weak.

The boy was already coming to terms with his fate when suddenly a loud bang sounded and the heat went away from his face. He heard Joker yelp painfully and metal clang on the hard concrete floor.

Astonished, Damian opened his eyes and saw the clown staggering back several feet while holding his bleeding shoulder. The smile was driven from his face and rage first befell his distorted facial expression before the green eyes lit up with joy.

A tinny voice sounded from behind Damian:

"Your men are truly pathetic. You've had better once in the past."

Damian knew exactly who it was and exhaled in relief. God, he had never been so glad to see Todd.

Another shot rang out and Damian fell to the ground, whereupon all his physical ailments came back. Inwardly he corrected himself again as he tried to breathe out the pain. Todd could kiss his ass.

Jason came out of the shadows and stepped to Damian's side. Astonished, he first looked at the bloody crowbar lying on the ground next to them and then crouched down, slightly amused, next to the heavily breathing smaller boy:

"Oh yeah, crowbars. Hurts, don´t they?"

Damian answered strained:

"More than I thought. You could have taken me down more gently, though."

Seemingly bored, the Outlaw scratched the back of his neck briefly with his weapon:

"Nah, you got yourself captured, you deserved it."

Damian merely growled in annoyance at this before an outrageous thought crossed his brain. Whispering upset, so the snickering clown couldn't hear, he hissed at Jason:

"Wait… did you leave Richard alone?!"

30 min before:

"And then I shot this motherfucker a second asshole in his pensioner butt and brought forward New Year's Eve with their stored explosives. Man, that was the best fireworks I'd ever seen, and the way everything burned down after that was terrific!"

Jason was still lying with Dick on the hard wooden floor of his apartment as he was talking for quite a while now. The taller one however, kept giving him confused looks and broke the moonlight fascinated above himself with his now glass replicating tail feathers.

In fact, the Outlaw kind of liked to just talk, without getting any evaluation, criticism or generally a reaction that was just annoying. The fact that someone just listened to him and didn't answer anything was really pleasant and in a certain way somewhat liberating. He didn't know when the last time was he let the words run out of his mouth like that without thinking about it. Even his conversations with Bizarro or Roy had never been so careless. It kind of reminded him back to when he was a kid, talking to his dog Charlie under the kitchen table while his parents fought all the time. One of the few positive feelings he had from those days.

Just talking. Without important content. Just things like old missions, the weather, or things that were totally out of context:

"Why do you actually open the fridge all the time, hoping there's something new to eat in it? Or just unconsciously when you walk by it. You open it and the next moment you ask yourself, why did I open the fridge? It's super stupid!"

Dick again just looked at him in confusion and the only response Jason got from him was a loud stomach growl. Astonished, Todd raised a brow:

"So much for unresolved refrigerator issues."

Jason sat up and stretched his arms as well as his legs with a groan to drive the fatigue from his stiff body before adding:

"Well, let's make sure you don't get any stupid ideas and try to find something for yourself. Man, now not only do I have to take care of the dwarf, but I have to take care of you too."

He stood up, looked towards the kitchen and already didn't feel like it. Because the only thing waiting for him there was the mess Dick had left behind earlier. Flour everywhere, torn wrappers everywhere, the imaginary desperate cry of his utensils everywhere saying: 'Jason, help us!'

The latter only scratched his head in annoyance, which seemed to see more than he would have liked.

But from nothing comes nothing. So the Outlaw trotted into his filthy kitchen and cleaned at least the stove, so that he could cook for now.

"Looks like it's just you and me today. Anyway, I don't think the peck will be back anytime soon. So let me guess, your steak rosé?"

Jason wiped a small speck of flour off from one of his pans lying around and set it on the now clean stovetop. He went to the refrigerator and pulled out the raw pieces of meat, all the time watched by Dick's curious gaze from the living room. Jason was about to turn on the stove when he bumped into something with his foot. As he quickly discovered, it was an egg, which probably had divine providence to thank for having survived this chaos.

The Outlaw picked it up and turned to Dick with a:

"Ey circus freak, appetizer.", before he carelessly threw the uncooked food towards him. Dick happily caught it with his tail and swallowed the raw egg with its shell in one bite. Jason looked at this scene with slight disgust:

"I don't think I'll ever get used to that. Even professional athletes would get goose bumps."

Suddenly, however, the feeling in the room seemed to change from the exuberant mood between the two former Robins to a tense one, and in the next moment Dick's pupils narrowed to slits. The older man's head snapped toward the grand window.

He seemed to be trying to perceive something specific and Jason befell a more than uneasy feeling at the sight of those determined eyes that just switched to a hunter mode.

"Oh no Dick, you're not going to..."

Even as the Outlaw said this, Dick sped toward the window, crashed through it as if it was paper, and flew with powerful flaps into the bright moonlit night.

Jason dropped everything before rushing to the window, still watching their personal nerve-robber disappear among the clouds.

This was bad. This was very very bad!

"Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck! Bruce is going to find us immediately if that idiot is going to rampage like Godzilla through the whole city!"

At record speed, Jason grabbed his gear and stormed through the front door:

"If Batman or Damian kill me because of this fucking turkey, we'll have the biggest Thanksgiving ever this year!"

The present:

"He's GONE!?"

Now visibly upset, any whispers were forgotten and Damian shouted at his counterpart. The latter, however, showed himself innocent:

"What am I supposed to do if he suddenly decided to turn the corner?! Am I a one-man army that can take him on in an emergency? You better be glad I spent the last 30 minutes tracking down that turkey and tripping over the big fireworks in this hall. Because otherwise, your next Halloween costume would have been Twoface! Besides, don't blame me when you fucked off and weren´t even there!"

The two fought a teeth-grinding eye duel. That poison dwarf was unbelievable! Looked at him as if everything was his fault.

But then something crossed Jason's field of vision. Now that Damian was lying on the ground tied up like that, the taller one pulled his top slightly to the side to get a better look at his left collarbone. His brows narrowed angrily when he saw the branded J in his skin, and from the looks of the wound, it would never leave that spot either. A typical Joker souvenir for life. Jason knew it well enough and it sent goosebumps down his spine, the kind he only got when old memories scratched their way back to the surface.

Anger began to cloud his mind.

He turned away from Damian and grabbed the bloody crowbar that lay on the ground not far from them as he spoke to Joker in anticipation:

"And now for you. You and I still have unfinished business."

Joker held his bleeding shoulder, chuckling. Visibly excited, the latter then purred in amusement:

"Hahaha...If it isn't my little birdie. It's been such a long time. Shall we sit down and talk about good old times? I know, let's have a little reunion party! I always loved listening to your happy singing. Robin chirping soothes my mind after a long hard day of work. Hehehe. How about it? Some snacks, refreshing cocktails and Uh...we could add Papa-Batsy!"

"I prefer to stand, fucking bastard!"

The first blow followed, and Joker was thrown to the ground by the unbridled force. Still gasping in pain at first, he laughed out loud the next moment and Jason continued:

"And you know what calms me down? Punching third-rate clowns in the face."

Blow after blow Jason beat the mass murderer lying on the ground, who acknowledged this only with broken hearty laughter.

Damian suspected a bad turn. Todd was going to kill him. If this continued, Todd was really going to kill him! And then Batman would no longer restrain himself from putting him behind bars, and considering the long trail of blood Red Hood had always left behind himself, he would never be able to be free again. His life would be that of a criminal!

Damian tried to loosen the strong restrains, but they were too tight for him to have any success.

Jason paused in the meantime and gave the now bloodied clown a moment to listen to his ironically amused words:

"Well how does that feel? Are you still having so much fun with Mister Crowbar?"

Jason leaned down towards Joker, who was still chuckling painfully but amusedly to himself. This only made the Outlaw angrier:

"What's so funny, motherfucker?"

Coughing briefly, the clown replied purring:

"Oh...I just love it when the punchline of a joke slowly takes shape! Nihahaha."

Joker raised his hand, which until now had been squeezing the wound on his shoulder, and gleefully painted a round line on the lower half of Red Hood's helmet with his own blood, resembling the mouth of a smiley:

"Even though you're wearing that mask, your smile is wide enough for everyone to see. Aren't you going to take that stupid thing off? I've always liked your desperate eyes so much."

Threateningly, Jason went for it:

"So you want me to take it off yes?"

He unlocked the helmet's release and detached it from his head, whereupon his identity was protected only by a simple black eye mask. Intrigued, Joker's eyes grew wide and Jason grinned diabolically for a moment before slamming his helmet forcefully against the clown's head.

Joker was thrown back hard. His body convulsed in pain on the ground at first before he started laughing again:

"There's the birdie! What did I miss those eyes!"

The clown struggled to straighten up a bit before speaking again:

"But Boy Wonder Number 2, before you go any further I have a question I've always wanted to ask you. When you were lying in the dirt underground, did the worms feed on you, or did you feed on them? After all, if you're not dead, you have to eat something. Besides, it's a great pity that you don't have that little present I gave you at that time. Don´t you agree?"

Playfully, the clown tapped his left cheek, making a subliminal suggestion that caused Jason to angrily lift his foot and kick his killer back to the ground.

Before Joker could even move a muscle, the Outlaw then fixed him there with his boot pressed at the clown´s chest and growled menacingly:

"How about we switch roles this time? I torture you to death and you can then eat your worms underground. Doesn't that sound exciting to you?"

Joker chuckled hoarsely as his lungs compressed:

"Oh I'd like that! But we can't leave out my favorite part. Remember what you said to me that time you were lying on the ground with your skull bashed in? Covered in blood, so that your blue eyes stood out among all the red, desperately begging for mercy? One of the most beautiful scenes I've ever been privileged to witness."

"Hood, you better not be so stupid to let him get to you!"

Damian shouted at Jason, but the latter seemed as if he was stuck in an old terrible memory. Slowly, the Outlaw, trembling, pulled out his gun and pointed it at the laughing Clown as he continued:

"Those words that I will carry with me forever were, 'I will be your Robin.'"

Jason's eyes widened and he froze as memories flooded in.

So many hours, days, weeks. He never knew how long Joker had tortured him at all, but to him it had felt like half his life.

He learned to hate crowbars, with their dull sound as soon as they hit flesh, which still sent horror through Jason's body.

He learned to hate hot irons, which burned a J into his cheek for an agonizingly long time and which he no longer possessed only thanks to the Lazarus pit.

He learned to hate this sadistic clown so much.

And he learned to hate, for a small moment...Batman.

At that time Jason could only consciously watch, how his hope and his fighting spirit extinguished agonizingly slowly. Like a candle which tried to defy the ever stronger becoming wind miserably. When he was living tied up on this old wooden chair he always knew that it was only a matter of time before he broke.

Only a matter of time until everything blurred into each other. The pain, the sides of good and evil, his own thoughts and how his soul frayed piece by piece. The rational thinking was gone and this small absolute world opened up in which a clown was the god and a small weak bird was his sheep.

But of all the things Jason had learned to hate, he still hated himself the most. For that one moment when he said those words and for the fact that his mind at that time lived exclusively in that little world this clown created for him. *

Joker laughed out loud as he recognized the look in that blue eyes. That lost look he loved so much was finally there:

"HeHaHaHa... and now look at you, my little Red Hood! Wearing your killer's name, laughing while you kill him slowly and making Batman's life miserable while you shoot people down. You are my Robin in all it´s glory! Ahahaha heeee."

Damian saw Jason pull back the trigger, unlocking the gun. Damian again tried to reason with him:

"Damn Hood, if you kill him now, Batman will kick you out! Even though I want him dead too, you're just putting yourself where he wants you to be! So put the fucking gun down and turn your braincells on already!"

However, the boy did not get the reaction he would have liked at that moment. Instead of putting the gun down, the Outlaw just kept it pointed at the grinning clown's head, laughing briefly in amusement as all the people whose lives had been fucked up by this green-haired prick in front of him flashed through his mind. Smirking, he therefore replied:

"I was never a part of this family anyway."

Damian's eyes snapped open as he saw the trigger slowly being pulled back. Todd that idiot! He just threw his whole life away with that!

The piston inside the gun was already hitting the flat side of the cartridge when suddenly something wrapped around the barrel, ripping the gun out of Jason's hand so that the bullet landed inside the wall instead of the clown's head.

Angrily, the Outlaw protested as he turned around:

"What the?! What fucker did that?"

A feminine voice sounded from the upper part of the industrial hall:

"Nana Bad Boy, your boss would really not like what you're doing here. No offense, but the clown is my job."

Catwoman, with the help of her whip, slid smoothly down the stainless steel beam she was standing on and came to a stop right next to Damian. The only thought that came to the boy´s mind as he was rolling his eyes was ´Not this damn cat.´

With a wave of her claws, Selina cut his bonds and greeted Damian with a:

"Surprised to see you here, kid. Where did you leave the problem child?"

Damian gritted his teeth. Damn, this cat was going to blow their cover!

"None of your business!"

Selina just waved it off:

"Ho tiger, retract your claws."

The cat calmly, but firmly, continued to address Jason:

"And you step away from that clown right now, or I'm gonna get nasty."

At first, the Outlaw made no move to comply with this request. He just looked grimly at Catwoman. But then Jason took a few steps away from Joker towards Selina and Damian, who was rubbing his stiff limbs, scowling at the woman.

Scoffing and as if the complete situation was none of her business, the Outlaw finally answered her:

"What are you doing here, Catwoman?"

And Joker got on that bandwagon too right away:

"I'd like to know that, too. We were just having so much fun and I don't remember sending you an invitation."

Selina propped a hand on her hip and then declared her claws examiningly:

"I was supposed to shadow our clown there and intervene in case of emergency, since he was no longer in Gotham. Order from Batman. However, I didn't even get to start because you two are stirring up trouble again."

Joker's good mood now finally faded:

"Oh now Batsy sends the understudy? It's getting really insulting. Nothing against you, my dear."

"Well, Bat's got a lot to do at the moment. Unfortunately, You'll have to be pleased with just me, I'm afraid."

Joker sat up from the floor bored and waved his uninjured arm towards the exit:

"Thanks darling, but as you can see I'm well served right now. So if you don't mind, there's the door. Shoo shoo."

But instead of following the request, the cat only smoothly pulled out a pair of handcuffs from her pocket:

"Sorry guys, but the party is hereby over. Since I'm busted anyway, this clown is going behind bars."

Suddenly Jason laughed and all eyes turned back to him:

"You forgot something, Missy."

Quick as a flash, the Outlaw pulled out his second gun and pointed it at Joker's head again:

"I always leave the house with two guns."

Selina was already lashing out with her whip, however, she knew that this time she wouldn't make it.

"And I finish the party."

He was about to pull the trigger when something crashed through the wall at high speed and Jason again didn't get to shoot his killer. Instead, that something knocked him over with it and they rolled together down the empty hall.

Under the wide confused eyes of those present, he ended up lying buried by feathers at the side end of the building, groaning painfully:

"Arg!...What the...?!"

Jason collected himself for a moment, then found himself confronted by a pair of turquoise eyes, their pupils tensely constricted to slits.

"The hell! Where did you come from all of a sudden?!"

Dick's attention was on the Outlaw for only a few seconds before his head snapped toward the hole in the wall and he began growling menacingly.

Something warm dripped onto Jason's face and when he looked at the taller man's head, he knew why.

It was blood. Dick was bleeding. Dick never bled! After all, until now nothing could hurt his new body.

Richard slowly climbed down from the Outlaw, not taking his eyes off the cracked wall. He put up both feathers and wings to look even bigger and didn't seem to pay any attention to anyone present.

Before someone could say anything, a demonic voice sounded from outside:

"Don't run away and come here. Let me eat you."

Something that looked like a fat teenager without hair entered the hall over the destroyed wall and fixed Dick hungrily with its four bright yellow eyes. He wore normal clothes, but the red skin and horns on its forehead suggested that he was not human, but demon.

Irritated, Jason rubbed his aching head before spitting into space:

"Is everyone popping up like a fucking daisy now or what?! Who's this squeeze sausage?!"

But no one knew the answer to that. Something viscous slowly dripped onto Jason's right boot. Was the turkey drooling?

The air was heavy in the hall and no one dared to move a muscle in the tension. It was as if they were in the middle of a territorial fight between two deadly predators. Damian was about to intervene, but Selina resolutely held him back. She instinctively knew that neither of them would survive unscathed if anyone tried to intervene now.

Finally, the chubby guy spoke up again, holding his clawed hand in front of himself:

"Come on, let's finish this. I'm hungry."

As if this had been a summons, the two non-humans charged at each other and fell into a fierce battle that blew heavy wind throughout the hall.

Dick's screeching and hissing echoed off the walls, as did the demonic growl of his adversary. They hurled each other into the floor, creating deep craters, trying to tear out the alien limbs and doing everything they could to bite the other. Dick relied more on speed while the red skinned full-figured boy relied on strength.

In the affect various fragments were thrown everywhere, so everyone had to hold their arms protectively before the face.

Suddenly Dick was hurled into the hot fire barrel and was partially showered with molten metal. But he didn't even seem to notice this and lunged right back at his adversary, sending the liquid metal droplets flying around. Jason and Joker each rolled behind a pillar to escape the golden rain, as well as debris. However, Damian and Selina didn't make it in time, so the woman pulled the boy close out of reaction and protected him with her body. She gritted her teeth as the hot drops burned various parts of her back.

Only a moment later, the two combatants burst through the ceiling and shifted their battle into the clear night sky.

Silence returned, with the exception of a few falling stones.

Joker peeked out from behind his pillars and began with a joyful:

"Uhhhh...And some say I'm a party crasher. So who were our lovely guests?"

Confused, Damian looked up at Selina, who asked him with a pained expression:

"Are you OK Damian?"

She had protected him?

Slightly defiant, he shifted out from her arms and replied hissing towards the floor, not really knowing what to make of this situation:

"That was unnecessary."

The woman only smiled strained at the boy, who didn't dare to look her in the eye:

"Better one of us than both."

She pulled a water bottle from her pocket and instantly poured the contents over her burned back. A real relief in this situation. Before she emptied the entire bottle, however, she noticed the fresh burn on Damian's collarbone and her expression darkened. Without saying anything, she poured the rest of the contents over Damian's collarbone. He almost slapped her hand away because of the sudden pain, but it quickly turned into a pleasant coolness. This burn had been hurting all the time and this was the first time that the pain calmed down a bit.

Carelessly, Selina threw the empty bottle into the room and then walked over to the clown.

Joker was leaning heavily against the pillar next to him with one hand on his shoulder, when he saw the cat's fiery eyes from afar:

"Oh come on darling, we were just playing."

The now angry woman held one of her claws under his chin, forcing him to raise his head a little as she hissed:

"Even though we used to be partners and I know your methods, you definitely went too far this time! Give me even one reason not to show you the hell."

Joker, however, just rolled his eyes and looked at Damian briefly:

"Please sweetie, this little birdie still works doesn´t it. We were just playing with each other for a bit. Since when do you care so much about these brats anyway? Don't tell me you're serious about Batsy this time?"

The cat's gaze narrowed even further, and Joker's eyes widened in surprise:

"Oh, seems like I'm right. Well that explains a lot."

Selina just hissed:

"Just turn around and give me your hands."

Joker calmly complied with her demand:

"Sure darling, just don't be too rough. I've have a twinge in my shoulder lately. But aren't you forgetting someone? I'm a man in demand, after all."

Catwoman turned her head around and saw Jason just picking up one of his guns from the floor. Leaving the handcuffed clown in place, she now turned to the outlaw, who was in anything but a good mood:

"Get one step closer and the next set of handcuffs is for you."

Jason now pointed his gun at the cat:

"Don't you dare come between me and this murderer! I'm not shy about putting a bullet in you too bitch!"

Immediately as he said that, a heavy blow hit him from the side, knocking Jason to the ground and making everyone in the room wide-eyed. Surprised, Jason found himself confronted by two extremely sinister green eyes before being grabbed menacingly by the collar:

"Are you out of your mind?! Do you even realize what you're doing right now, you smug idiot! We have far more important things to do right now than your stupid vendettas, which will only get you in jail anyway. You motherfucker offered me your help, so keep your word and let's fucking catch Nightwing instead of playing this stupid clown's games. We're here to protect people, and we're not going to do it by dealing with your stupidity. The people of this city are in danger. Nayeli and the children are in danger! Cool down your hothead and start thinking already, you brainless musclehead!"

Joker listened in wonder several feet away and muttered to himself: "Nightwing?"

Perplexed, the Outlaw was at a loss for words, so at first he just answered Damian with a stumped face. Then, however, he raised his hand and flicked a finger annoyed against the boy's forehead:

"Say, where did you learn such words, you fucking combat lilliputian?"

He thought hard, weighing what to do now, until he finally replied grudgingly:

"Arg fuck! You're the worst, most annoying, little, ass-kicking appendage anyone could have. Ahhhhrggg….! Let's catch this fucking turkey so I can cook him afterwards!"

Damian grinned nastily:

"I think that was the nicest thing you've ever thrown at me."

Not wasting another word, the boy placed Jason's second pistol, which he had collected earlier, on his chest and then stood up briskly to have another word with the cat:

"And what are you going to do now? Are you going to contact Batman and the Justice League?"

Catwoman propped a hand on her hip:

"Well, that depends. Theoretically, I'm only supposed to take care of the clown and not various monsters. So tell me, do I have to take care of it or will you get the situation back under control on your own before anything happens?"

She looked searchingly at Damian, who only eyed her confused. Did she really give him a chance to end it all without the Justice League and Batman?

The boy's gaze firmed and confidently he answered:

"We will."

Selina briefly weighed whether she should really give them this chance. It was a high risk and human lives could be in danger. However, she knew from her own experience with wild animals, that excessive force only causes more damage. Besides, they had managed to keep Dick under control even without a cage. Resignedly, she pulled out a small car key and tossed it to Damian, who was now joined by Jason:

"This was the only one of Batman's vehicles without a tracker. I figured I'd run into you here."

She saw both boys stare at her in bewilderment as she also continued perkily:

"Female intuition. The car is on Hill Road. You have ten minutes. After that, I'll contact Batman if he hasn't already noticed on his own."

They nodded briefly to each other before Damian and Jason ran toward the exit. However, not without the Outlaw grabbing his helmet and spitting angrily at the clown once more:

"And you're lucky to be alive! If I ever get my hands on you again, it'll be the last joke you ever pulled off!"

Joker just grinned darkly and replied:

"I can't wait for that day to come."

Jason and Damian ran through the deserted streets of the lit city, looking up at the sky over and over again, hoping to catch sight of either Dick or that strange guy.

However, Jason was having a hard time keeping his cool. He had almost had him. He had been so close to killing him. God, he was so fucking pissed right now!

They were just turning into the next street when a blue flash lit up the dark night. Many smaller flashes lingered and wrapped around two dark figures in the black sky. Spellbound, Damian called out:

"They are up there!"

As before, they were bashing each other's heads in and each renewed clash of their powerful blows could be clearly heard. It was like the rumble of thunder after lightning bolts.

"Any ideas on how we can end this?"

Jason looked questioningly at the short boy, who now simply stopped and pressed a button on his wristwatch. A holographic screen popped up, displaying various data, which the boy hastily went over:

"We have to lure them out of the city somehow and then take them out. I have developed my own anesthetic for such an emergency. The ampoules containing it are in your apartment. Fortunately, it is right..."

Damian was about to point to the building at the end of the street, where the Outlaw called the top floor his own, when the combat radius took a fatal swing and Dick crashed through the roof with a loud crash. As he did so, his lightning caused a gigantic gas explosion together with the ruptured wiring, leaving the entire top floor ablaze.

Damian corrected himself:

"Okay, new plan. We'll try to catch up with them and locate any weak points the enemy may have."

He turned to his computer again:

"The good thing is that only you lived in the house. That means no civilian damage. The fire can be taken care of by the fire department. I wonder though...if that was intentional. Tactically it would be a good move. However, the damage is still justifiable, since I uploaded my research data to the cloud shortly before. A blessing in disguise."

Damian felt a hand resting on his slim shoulder and a menacing aura taking shape behind him. He heard the click of a gun.

"A blessing in disguise? Do you actually have any idea how much money this apartment cost me?"

Damian, however, just rolled his eyes in annoyance:

"Stop crying Todd. There's way more important stuff going on right now than your already burnt stuff. By the way, it's not like my things aren't burning as well."

The boy went over some more data on his portable computer and then ran off with a "We need to go this way.", aiming to catch up with Dick.

Jason looked thoughtfully at his weapon and began muttering to himself:

"Nobody's here. No one would notice."

Grumbling, he holstered the pistol and ran after the short boy:

"I could say this squeezed sausage did it. Damian just ran ahead like he always does and bit the dust. Everyone would believe me."

Notes:

* These are torture methods that Joker canon did to Jason in different universes and especially the comic event "Three Jokers" inspired this chapter. I picked the best ones and just combined them.