Red Hood And Company- My Life as an Outlaw

/

Chapter 14: Drop In – Execution

/

Timbo, Tim.

He was the operating brain behind this posse of the bat - and the bat himself!

Up in his seat, the CEO was home training his bad boy baby bat bros, while Tim was active in Bruce's role to run the company for a while in his father's stead. Dick couldn't do what he did. The boy suppressed his ego to check into finance reports. Budget cuts and new unveiling for that month. The room was dark as he preferred that. His own room was a hacker's dream spa resort. The best money hog techies could witness; despite all of that….

He wasn't here on his own.

In the shadowy corner was a suited messenger as their other cronies held Katrina's to each spot Tim might have hoped to activate. He'd upper the anti with their tech. If his stress rose via the images of his entire core,help would arrive. The opposite of a lie detector, yes. He was indeed a mind go be reckoned.

Unlike Bruce, he didn't want weapons of mass destruction. He wanted…progress, which had come to screaming halt by the time the mask wearing assassin's had pinned him to his desk.

"Which one?"

The person saying that was inherently female. Maybe not yet in her twenties. She didn't show her face but she wore a high pony tail of silver hair. Meta, Tim guessed.

He knew who it might be yet kept that to himself as he fished out a dummy file.

"The one on Bruce Wayne's invol-

Tim stopped.

In Biyalya. That was BEFORE Damian came into this world. What was Slade thinking?

"His majesty of Gotham ended up arming rebels his weaponry by pure incident. Too bad, Ra's troops had to step in once they left. Funny how there is no clear definition as to why…" The sneaky assassin with silver locks held a blade to Tim's throat. "Copy it, then erase everything regarding the Biyala alliance."

"There was never any –

"Don't talk back. He's watching." She tapped the side of her head as a false eye pepped out. A camera.

Tim swallowed. "You're, Rose." He guessed as she gave him a mocking chuckle. Like her dad. Like that bad mastermind that decided to play warlord and send his troops. "You don't think we know where that boy is? The son of Gotham's Dark Knight? We found out, though. How could you expect anyone else to find out the truth but those closest to the bat."

Tim's mouth dropped open as she made him shut it with a glare.

"Say anything to upset me, you upset him as well."

"He stole Ra's post. Took it, in blood. You know us, you know Dick –

"Who says we haven't stayed close?"

Tim blinked his eyes as she pulled back her twin katana. "Have it ready to deliver, then I want that machine totaled. No evidence."

Tim panicked yet had to stand still. Try to talk her out of working too quick while only his fingers did the work of ten. "So, you and…my brother?"

"He was a puppy, that Richard. Always afraid that I'd go to the dark side. What can I say, though?" She leaned into an adjacent desk with her whole form. "He was right. I, all I can be, is what he needs me to be. Your stupid newcomer took something that made that happen, faster…" She raged within, her anger below the surface.

"Did you finish yet?"

Tim snapped up his hands and she tapped her finger to the desk as she leaned halfway off of it. "Come on. You should be –

She took a peek as he cleared his throat. Her eyes switched from Tim to the screen, her one eye being left and the camera eye not taking a chance to moss on bat trick on her watch.

"All done, geek? Then, good. Back up." He did, scooting as she took the file that was now at one hundred percent. Tim didn't forget the bottom of his seat as his hand rested there.

/

Oracle saw the flashing light and then Cass, Luke. They all saw an S.O.S and the bells were up on the cave walls.

"Sir? The distress call seems to be coming…-

"From my office at Wayne Enterprises." Bruce pushed aside his bo staff as Damian grumbled and crossed his arms. Grayson wasn't present if all things, yet Jason had just stepped in to conclude that he'd be tagging in on the spar with his ex mentor for the kid's sake.

Dami looked up at the screens wkth Todd and squinted. "This must be their plan to pull us up to the surface. What can we do to counter it?"

"Nothing. Jason, stay with him."

"Fuck it. Dam –

Damian ran to the Bat's car before he was pulled back by a gauntlet from the shadows. "Master Bruce, that was entirely –

"Necessary. Alfred? Lock up the cave. This isn't normal warning from one of my enemies. Tim is in that office."

"Why him and not, Dick?" Sneered Jason. "Was circus boy not as agile with a few stocks and bonds at your command? We aren't an oligarchy. No nepotism that I can tell."

"That isn't true, Todd. Everything here screams both." Damian sniffed. "You pretend that your noble side can shield them, yet it only does the opposite."

"You don't understand the reason."

"He took my mother away in chains." Damian scowled. "He'd copulate with her to spite both of us if we failed –

"Ra's is to blame, he decided to have Slade inherit his techniques after I gave that way of living no chance. My path as the batman was already set. As a Robin, if that is what your path is, you should decide is vengeance justifies a means to a new beginning. Not an end, Damian."

Bruce was so profound in saying it better than the spite in Jason's fists was there always. He never wanted to hear such hypocritical dribble as he'd already heard before. Same with Dick being Renegade. Same with Katherine , Cass, and even his own brother.

Thomas; may he rest, insane.

"I choose to have what was always my birthrite, Batman." Damian took to letting his footing gain mode composure once he was released. "I'll watch over your precious city, so long as you bring the tyrant to me when the time comes. I'll make that decision only then for myself."

Jason was hot with a memory no better. Of Joker and a gun to the clowns brow. Skin grafts so many, and his rage…the madness granted by Ra's to go against the sixteen year oldest principals.

Bruce was always the martyr, wasn't he? Asking for trouble for everyone that died under his watch.

Well, the kid had the right to try as he might, stand a little taller. Bruce gruffly didn't speak, though cleared his throat, turning soon after to leave for the bat mobile.

Dami watched as the bat drove off, leaving them and the cave on lock down with the manor.

"Pennyworth, I require two cups of hot chocolate, if you please."

"I'd be happy to serve that, Master Damian. Right away." As long as he wasn't pulling the butler's leg, the bo stood with his eye now on Bruce's bo staff. "Care to spare with me, Sensei?"

Jason nodded, finding it very…off that Dami had dropped his protests.

That meant that Bruce wasn't going against his reasons. He WOULD bring Rose or one of those cronies for Damian to ponder all the questions of his fate. Of his truth.

Jason however, didn't want to wait. As soon as they were rested and sipping their drinks forty minutes later, he buzzed Bizzi and Arte. This, was not something he'd normally do. They went away to scout out trouble ND make some scratch with Tim's intel. Now, they could return the favor by seeking out who was harming their dealer.

Coordinates.

"Todd?"

Jason put his phone away. "Yeah, Lil D?"

"I don't care for your choice of pet names. What are you, then?"

"Little wing, was what Dick used ta call me. When I was like you. A future Robin red breast."

"The character took on a biblical allegory, did it not? One related to a religious prophet?" Being from a country that bordered along Islam and other tribes amid the mountains, some parting in Asia as well, he didn't really want to know much of a western approach. "The Robin bled at its chest. A show of a sacrifice…" Dski looked into his cup and muttered. "Is that what you were? A single sacrifice to a bigger mammal that can't see in dim sunlight?"

"He can be pretty dim. Stubborn, but you get him. You're his so –

"Mother WAS impregnated with me, and I carry his genes. There is not another connection…I do not see it."

"What if one of us got killed."

Dami's head shot at Jason. "Are you throwing a jest at me, sensei?? What would that have to d-

"What if you only had one of us, not me. Who would you run to. Would you go alone into a world where as a kid, you have no street smarts. Spoiled since birth. He wasn't. Bruce, actually had that. Weird, but he trained at twelve to run with wolves to find his parent's killer. Joe Chill was the guy hired by the C-

Jason sputtered out his drink. "I mean…he was hired, and Bruce finally got his hands on the guy as a teen ( borrowing Gotham series) but, he couldn't go through with the whole thing. Instead, the guy got freaked out and fell out a window. Didn't shoot him at least, and his reason was never realized why he grabbed those pearls around Martha Wayne's neck."

"His father, was like my grandfather.." Swallowed Dami. "What about your original run in? Your backstory?"

"I stole hub caps off of the bat mobile and lived around the narrows. Excuse me, the slums. My mom was a junkie, had a secret past and had me with a deadbeat that ran off on us before I was even a speck of dust on this green great earth." Jason gripped the handle and sipped.

It was no salute. No, skoll! No.

No Prost. None. Nothing to thank the heavens on high for.

"Bruce adopted me because he saw what I did. Dick was a Titan already, I had no idea. When he cane back, he gave me a cold eye and even patronized B fir making a kid into him. Taking the uniform for a joy rode. And those damned leo – shorts? They rode!

Dami snorted, a fairly suppressed humor there.

Dick wad got over it, and …eventually, I…met my fate. Got beaten like a bad habit. By the Joker."

"That clown??" Dami's attention was grabbed as he took a new sip. "I'd assumed the Batman had let you die, but this story…now that I'm hearing it…"

"I got brought back and you know the rest. Well, I didn't go back to Gotham as myself. I actually ( keep guessing kids arc.) started with amnesia. I escaped your gramps and ran away. Manic, didn't know my own brain anymore. My purpose was gone. Talia was the person who got me to cool it and tried to station me in my new apartment in the city. Jump was cool. I stuck to it. Dickhead though and hos team were ..doable."

"You didn't remember them either?"

"Bits and pieces cane back, but Red X never let anyone too close. I got buddy buddy with the H.I.V.E students in the same city. Slade wanted my ass out of the way a lot…I found out about the end of the world and even stopped a few stray hits from the Titans and JLA. I was, on the run for years until Talia said to hang it up. To try something new."

"You became Hoid, and changed."

"Heh, yeah. But…it wasn't all for me." He smiled back as Dami shoved his chin towards his mug. "You're staring, Todd."

"We were really close. Remember when I first met you? You were like two and your mom trusted that…I coukd do it. I had purpde, and Slade screwed that up. So, we have to work together. You and me."

"Go back, then? No plans? All gung ho to our deaths?"

"No, we have him for now, but what if you don't stay as Robin when we stop Slade. We just, do what we want or go back to Talia and live fir us?"

He held up the mug. Now, it was a toast. "Brothers?"

Damian didn't care too little for it here. Too much space without the fresh salty sea air or the mountain breeze at his back. His formalities were useless, and…the drive was to be. Docile?

"Yes." Damian smiled back, coolly.

"I'm your big brother fir life, Dami. It was sonething I decided. You, mean the world to me. You and Talia. Bruce though, he's not in the picture. Only so we get out once Deathstroke's dumb rebellion goes south."

"You'd use your old mentor-

"EX." Stopped the elder man. "He supplies but we don't fully rely on his housing or sanctuary. It's not ours to take. Never was."

Taking a sip for each thought to that, Jason finished his cacao. Dami let a little slip to the bottom as a cereal bowl with the wrong ratio of milk.

"Ready to clear the place and do some training?"

"Yes." The boy nodded, placing the mug aside to swap his staff for some boxing gloves. Jason hated how he always forgot to wear them. Even when his strength was enough to slit the throat of grown men.

Like Deathstroke.

Or, if it came to it, his own shameless father.

/

Jason is jelly, so he wants Dami as his kid. He'll do anything to get the ammo but not be boxed in. He also doesn't know what's really going on with Dick and Slade. Wow. Find out!

/