The sun was low in the sky when the Red Huntress flew out of Amity. Valerie crouched low on her hoverboard as she descended through the thick canopy of trees in the forest, the sensor on her suit beeping steadily. It was even darker between the trees, with the last vestiges of sunlight peeking through the leaves in odd places. The forest floor was made of soft and densely packed soil and grass, topped with leaves and branches that crunched beneath her feet as she dismounted from her hoverboard. The gentle thrum of her ecto sensors complemented the cacophony of crickets, frogs, and other creatures that skittered about the forest. The hunter sported an unamused look under her darkly tinted helmet.
"I know that all of you are out there." she announced. Valerie, detecting the slightest chill at her shoulder, drew her ecto gun as fast as anything, leveling it at Johnny 13's pale face.
"Boo!" Johnny declared, wiggling his fingers as the Huntress pointed her ecto gun at him. "Woah now, we don't need to pull any weapons out, it was a joke!" The biker flattened his palms in a gesture of surrender.
"If that's your idea of a joke, it isn't funny." Valerie replied, unamused. She still hadn't dropped her ectogun, despite Shadow slinking menacingly towards her and Wulf's low growls from behind them. From his perch in the tree, Jason rolled his eyes, turning invisible as he jumped towards the ground. The Red Hood could disarm people in his sleep. The Red Hood, however, was not used to his opponents wearing electrified suits. Jason screamed as a slight brush against the Huntress as he moved to disarm her led to blinding pain, electricity coursing through him. The hunter whipped around in surprise.
"What the fuck?!" she snapped, scandalized by the sight of the halfa writhing on the ground behind her, his neon green hair flying in every direction, and the previously subtle facial scars now illuminated a bright green.
Shadow reared up from the ground, trying to wrap around the Huntress' ankles and bring her down, only to also get zapped.
"What did you do to him?!" Johnny snarled. Valerie jumped up into the air, reforming her hoverboard in her frustration.
"Can you wait!" she yelped. "I didn't do anything, my suit just has a Specter Deflector built into it. If anyone tries to touch me, you get zapped by default!"
At that, the ghosts seemed to untense slightly. Kitty huffed, clearly displeased with her answer.
"Are you still that paranoid that you'd forget to turn off your built-in electric fence?!"
"If you want someone to get mad at, be mad at Technus. He's the one who fucked with my suit in the first place, I just made a few minor changes." the Huntress retorted, looking to the side, where Jason was holding his head and groaning, the shock having forced him back to his human form.
She gasped at the sight of him. "You're like Danny!" her voice was a little high and strained. Jason's blue eyes were piercing as he glared at her.
"You zapped me, and that's all you have to say?" Jason asked in disbelief.
"Look, you caught me off guard, and I didn't think that I'd need to turn any of the features off." she sighed. "I'm sorry, for what it's worth." The huntress managed to appear contrite, even though the others couldn't actually see her face.
"You have that shit on all the time?!" he exclaimed.
"It's built into the suit!" she said defensively.
Jason groaned. "I can't change back right now, so how am I gonna get to wherever Phantom is?"
From behind them, Johnny cackled. "Maybe the Huntress can let you piggyback on her board kid, because I know I'm not carrying you!"
Jason turned to look at the others. Shadow slunk around to hide around Johnny, Wulf looked distinctly unfriendly, and Kitty shrugged.
"Sorry kid," turning to the Huntress, she added. "You can carry him, since it's your fault that he can't transform."
The Red Huntress gawked for a second. "Ugh, fine, whatever," she lowered her board to the ground near him. "Just hold on."
Jason climbed on to the board, sneakers nearly slipping on the metal of the board. He came up behind her and awkwardly placed his hands around her waist. From even footing, the height difference between the two was stark.
"This is so fucking weird." he muttered.
"Who're you telling? I don't even know your name...just hold on and don't make it weird." Valerie ordered.
"It's Red." he said curtly.
"How creative." The Huntress said dryly. She then addressed the others. "C'mon, follow me, but stay invisible." What happened next surprised Jason. The hoverboard rose in the air slowly, then all at once. It wasn't the precarious control and strategy of using a grapple gun, or the gravity defying boundlessness of flying as a ghost. Jason yelped, holding on to the Huntress just a little bit harder, miraculously keeping himself from knocking the both of them off of the board.
Without a helmet, or even a domino, the wind bit and whipped at his eyes, rendering the world around them into a blur. Streaks of green, navy, and gray seemed to melt into each other as the group flew east from the forest.
"I hate this so much!" Jason hissed into the wind.
"I don't know why you're complaining, you're literally making my board heavier and holding onto me like an octopus!" The Huntress exclaimed. Jason fell silent, surprised that the Huntress was able to hear him over the wind.
"How do you know that we're going the right way?" He shouted over the wind, changing the subject.
"I know where I'm going, I'm just trying to make sure that we aren't followed by anyone!" she shouted back.
"Nobody found us in the forest after all those hours!" Jason pointed out.
"Trust me!" The Huntress replied.
The colored blurs gradually began to form discernible shapes as the Huntress began to slow down. Green blobs solidified into evergreen and oak trees, gray blocks began to take on the forms of office buildings and stores, and the dark purple of the night sky reflected gently against the storefronts and windows, obscuring the poor condition of the surrounding buildings.
As the Huntress led them deeper into the strange, run down little city, she made a series of sharp, dizzying turns designed to throw off any pursuers. The alleys she led them down were narrow and dark, before she launched the board back into the air, coming to rest on the roof. A few inches from the ground, the hoverboard seemingly retracted into the Huntress' boots. Jason pried his numb fingers from her waist, black hair and blue eyes wild from the flight.
"I've flown at least fifty different ways before, but I am never, ever, getting on your board again." Jason said.
The Red Huntress shook her head. "You'll be fine…I, on the other hand, am going to have bruises for the next week." She turned towards a discreet hatch on the roof, which was mostly concealed by boxes and an ornate brick fireplace. The Huntress paused by the boxes, jerking her chin in a summoning motion. "C'mere, the rest of you can just phase down six floors."
Jason paused. Despite their speed, he'd seen how high they'd risen, and the building was only three stories tall. What kind of building has three floors underground? He thought.