DC Craft [#4]

Trouble caught up to him quicker than Jason expected. The date was October 13, 2010 when Bruce appeared again to mess with him. 

It had been about 3 and a half days ever since he reappeared in Gotham (he's not counting the days hoping to have a reason to go back to Steve's awesome home, what're you talking about?) and started picking up the work for his absence of five days. With the Joker gone, people were clearly worried about it because of the sheer amount of shit that the Joker has done before. He would always get free from Arkham Asylum and would go on a rampage- seriously, the death penalty is a thing, why hasn't he been sentenced yet? Every single damn time Batman is there to save him from his well deserved fate. Even when the Joker goes to some other country or continent and fucks it up there enough to have him wanted dead. "He always chose the fucker… How could I be so blind about it?" Jason huffed, hitting his forehead against the frame of his bed that was not as comfortable as that cloud-like wool bed that felt like the heavens themselves opened to him when he laid upon them, he ate his bland food that was not as tasty as the meal worthy of the gods, and the Pit rage was back.

Honestly, if it was only these things, he'd be 80% tempted to press the button and go back to Steve's home. But the sex? The damn, fucking wonderful sex? Damn! It made him ache for (more) hours after, a good and warm feeling in his ass and heart! Jason hadn't felt that rocked up in years- His first time with a guy who knew what he was doing was when he was 19, it was like his whole world was rocked off of its place. With Steve? It felt even more intense and yet more emotional as well… Maybe it's because he cried holding him and was adorably obedient, but Jason felt things besides the ever-present bubbling Pit Rage that threatened to consume his mind and turn him into a mindless beast of murder. 

No… 

He felt soft. "Fuck." Jason placed his left arm on top of his eyes to hide them, afraid of what he would see if he looked up at the ceiling above. Why? Because he knew his mind would make him see that handsome, nervous, adorable, cute, oblivious face that would smile so fucking- Jason moved. His entire body moved out of the bed, he gripped his gun with his right hand and turned to aim towards the window even before he took his arm off of his face. He pulled the trigger while focusing on the [Bubble] enchantment that Steve had put on his gun. 'Thank god I read that instruction manual.' Jason had taken his arm off of his eyes and looked directly towards the intruder; Replacement. Tim Drake, the third Robin… The third victim of Bruce Wayne's obsession with picking up children from the street and putting them in a suit before sending them off to fight crime like his little child soldiers. 

The bullet that shot out of his gun hit not the brat's body, but his cape. The problem was that the enchantment [Bubble], or any other enchantments really, were not picky. As long as you hit the target, you can trigger the enchantment. The bullet popped like a bubble when it hit the cape, making a small hole the size of the bullet and disappearing. Jason was a bit disappointed with that and thought 'Really?' before the small and harmless bubble suddenly increased in size, expanding into a prison clear bubble. 

"So, replacement, nice to meet you again." Jason read the manual, so he knew that the bubble would only last for about 10 minutes max and that it was resistant to some damage until it popped. The booklet described it as "having 10 hearts" because the [Bubble] enchantment was level 10- whatever that meant. Also, the bubble was very light, and whoever was encased within it would float up! Thankfully, Replacement was inside his apartment, so he just floated up to the ceiling and stayed there, completely encased in a bubbly prison. "Well, not really meet you again… Not that you noticed me, you were too busy flirting with your girlfriend- Stephanie, was it? She was pretty mad at you, so mad you didn't notice the six foot two inches guy watching from the building to the right. Breaking up is never easy, is it, Bird boy?" Obviously Jason was not only talking to the third boy wonder, he was also talking to Barbara. 

He knew damn well she was listening. 

Possibly Dick too, and Bruce? That weird blond girl could also be listening in, because Jason was pretty sure she was more than just a regular kid. The way she moved and acted, checking her surroundings, hidden weapons in her, and her posture screamed fighter to Jason's senses. He was trained by the League of Assassins for years- and trained personally by Talia al Ghul, but she was a bitch -so he was pretty confident on his ability to sense someone's fighting capabilities without actually trying to kill them and seeing how they fought for their lives. 

"What about your little team- Teen Titans, was it? Damn, a guy dies for 5 years and then comes back and suddenly everything has changed!" Jason was by his window, his eyes scanned completely the streets below and the building above. Nobody expected people to come from above, but they always did! His eyes narrowed and something screamed at him that he was either surrounded or trapped. "Ah, you're a distraction, huh?" Jason, without turning around, simply twisted and grabbed his helmet and hjs bag. There weren't many important things here in this apartment of his- sure, he would miss a few of his jackets, but the majority of his Red Hood shit was in his many safe houses! What? He's not stupid. He plummeted from the 10th floor window without hesitation at all- as he fell, he adjusted his feet and pushed hard against the building behind him, a grin on his face that he covered with a quick-change by slapping the Red Hood helmet on his head easily and quickly. 

The push was enough to have him go forward and down, and instead of falling 150 feet directly down, he was falling about 70 feet or so in a diagonal into the roof of another building- he wouldn't have done this without any proper equipment if it wasn't for the fact that he was wearing Steve's gifted shoes. They had [Feather Falling 10], which reduced the impact of any falls! And by level 10, it reduced a lot of the fall, making Jason land almost painlessly… Almost because he still felt an ache in his legs as he stumbled and rolled forward; Just because the damage and impact of the fall was reduced on himself, the speed itself wasn't, so he kept running! "So, if I were a bat, how would I stop a naughty hood from running away~? Ooh, I know!" Jason stopped instantly, a few inches away from the end of the building and into the other as a net shot from down the alleyway beneath him. "Check." It was kinda obvious this was a trap set up by Bruce to catch him.

That's why he felt trapped and surrounded. 

Bruce, Dick, Tim, and two other people were here… Maybe three? Jason knows that he got a bit obsessed with the whole Joker thing and forcing Batman to choose between him and the Joker in a psychological warfare, so he didn't do a lot of research about Batman's sidekicks- he knew that Barbara used to be Batgirl but now was the Oracle, Tim Drake is his replacement, Dick is Nightwing, Bruce is Batman, and that was it. So, imagine his surprise, when two chicks come out of the alleyway just as he jumps over it into the next building? Blondie was definitely there! Same hair, same eyes, same body posture and all that… But there was another girl. Batgirl? "Damn, even Barbs was replaced!" He couldn't help but snicker loud enough that they could hear it too. "Guess being a cripple does that to ya, doesn't it, Barbs~?" In a sing-song tone, Red Hood turned around and shot towards the two gals. 

This time, he chose [Explosive Shots]. The problem was that the bullet had to hit something or someone to trigger the enchantment, the bullet couldn't explode mid-air and he had shot the air between them- the trick here was that there were a lot of enchantments on this gun. Jason had to read through the whole manual and he learned a lot about the enchantments and that he could control which ones he wanted to activate and deactivate, as well as reducing their enchantment level for causing less damage if he wanted. The majority of bullets were already quick, but there was the [Quicken Projectile 5] enchantment on the gun meaning level 5 max, and it increased the speed of the projectile by 50%, but when Jason shot after reducing the enchantment to [Explosive Shots 5] (he didn't want to kill these two girls, he wanted them to suffer a bit) and the bullet to [Quicken Projectile 1], he shot another bullet, this time he used the full level 5 [Quicken Projectile] enchantment, which made the second bullet fast enough to catch up to the first and hit it. 

It triggered the enchantment immediately, making this relatively powerful explosion. Jason easily ran, somersaulting over the edge of the building right down the alleyway beneath and not looking back at all, because cool guys don't look at explosions and all that jazz. He rolled, tucked, and pushed himself forward- He reacted easily when he heard the sound of the approaching projectile. 

A *cling* *cling* *cling* echoed out in the empty alleyway as Jason ducked under a bunch of batarangs and reflected those he could not dodge by using the gun Steve gave him- it was a very sturdy gun, made from literal gold ("It's kinda fragile, but the enchantments make up for it") and weighted just as much, so it could be used to shoot and slap a bitch quite nicely! Jason slammed his feet on the ground and turned around to look at the looming shadow above: "You're getting rusty, Batsy~!" He chuckled when he saw the narrowed eyes and the familiar scowling frown, because he had just used Joker's nickname for him: "What? You don't miss your favorite psychopath clown? I mean, why wouldn't you? Beating him up must've felt so fucking nice… He screams quite loudly, you know?" There was the underlying sadistic glee that tried to hide the pain beneath a wide grin that Jason had on his face, seeing as he couldn't stop thinking about the fact that Bruce (his dad) chose the Joker over him. 

THE JOKER, famous fucker who killed thousands, destroyed hundreds of lives and families, and fucked up the entire world at least once- that clown, that fucking stupid bitch of a clown -over him. His lost son. He couldn't keep out of his mind that he wasn't the last to suffer through Bruce's child soldier training, how at the time he thought it was the coolest thing until a crowbar was hitting his face. He couldn't stop thinking how easily replaceable he was- seriously, the third and new Robin appeared three months after he died. 

Three fucking months!

So yeah, sue him if he wanted to jab a few bullets through Bruce's body and a few words at his heart- because he just couldn't stop breeding pain to the next generation, couldn't he? First was Dick, then Barbara, then him, then this new replacement and whoever the fuck comes next. When will he stop? The reason Batman keeps going is because his villains still exist- villains that started appearing once Batman appeared: 'Well, not exactly but close enough.' Jason rolled his eyes and aimed his gun- He felt a pain in his hand holding the weapon as a powerful impact tried to get it off of his hands, but he tightened his hold even though he felt one his fingers break. "Fuck!" He pulled his hand away as this baton impacted the ground- yeah, he knew exactly who this belonged to. "If it isn't mistake number one… How you doin'? Broke your legs again? Found out your girlfriend was having an affair with Bruce, again?" Jason did not sit still while he ran his mouth, he turned up the [Explosive Shots] to level 10 and shot the buildings. He knew they were empty, after all, he lived in the abandoned section of Crime Alley. 

It was completely empty for blocks, all because this used to be the Joker's known territory that he would come back to regularly. 

But he's not here anymore. He is in a dark, cold cell being tortured and dying over and over again while being completely sane enough to understand what is happening to him- Courtesy of a guy Jason was seriously considering kissing right now because damn! Revenge was never hotter when a hot guy gives you your enemy to torture and kill for fucking hours without the fear of them dying on you. His rather horny thoughts were stopped when he felt a burning hot pain on his back- He rolled with the hit, tumbling forward in a barrel roll and shooting at whoever attacked him. It was the new Batgirl, who dodged by the skin of her teeth and the bullet went to the building behind her that exploded like he had planted a bunch of C4 within. The whole thing shaked like an earthquake, sending pieces of it everywhere- The Batgirl was thrown forward by the explosion, right into Jason's fist. 

She moved along with the fist to reduce the impact of the punch, but Jason was too pissed to care- he could feel the burning rage coursing through his mind, burning so hot he wanted to destroy everyone. So instead of punching her, he grabbed her neck. She twisted to try and wrap her legs around his arm to pull him down with her, but Jason was not stupid! He felt her weight trying to pull him down, and he stood his ground with his hand around her neck tightening harder and harder: "Oh, so this is Barbie's replacement? She is quite cute in this outfit… You guys sure she hasn't slept with Batsy yet?" Jason didn't actually know if this whole "Batgirl is sleeping with Batman" rumor was true, he was just saying shit to hurt people. Spoiler alert: No. Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) and Batman (Bruce Wayne) did not sleep together. It was a rumor started by the Riddler because he wanted to cause some chaos. 

The Joker was fucking pissed at Batsy for "cheating on him with that fucking whore you work with" and that was what started the whole Batgirl Hunt. It didn't end with anything bad happening, but the Joker did get a bit obsessed with red haired women for a while and that was what made him target Barbara Gordon when he wanted to start the "Killing Joke", which crippled her. Jason didn't know this, though. He just wanted to hurt people, and he was saying whatever came to mind. "I mean, she does look young enough-" His eyes widened for a moment as he threw the girl he was holding towards the fastly approaching shadow, who caught her. 

It was Robin, who had gotten out of his bubbly prison. 

Jason slowly looked around himself- Batman, Nightwing, Robin, Oracle, and those two girls- the new Batgirl and the Purple bitch. Was there someone else he was missing? "The whole family is here!" With a wide grin hidden behind his mask, Jason spread out his arms- one gun in hand and the other empty hand that flipped the bird to Batsy with great glee: "And what a big, big family this is… I mean, damn, there's more people now than there ever was before- Tell me, Batsy, where did you get so many orphans? Did you find them on the street?" His free hand held onto the backpack on his back, he felt the Pit Rage bubbling, threatening to kill his mind if he didn't rage and destroy everything and everyone around, and he was trying desperately to hold onto his sanity. "If I knew the whole family was here, I would have prepared something." With a practiced ease, Jason twisted and pulled the backpack out of his back and made it like he was going to throw it- He grinned when a batarang cut through the fragile fabric of the backpack, spilling out not the single bulky explosive it looked like. 

Instead, there were various flashbang grenades. 

*PIIIIN*

A bright, bright white light and a loud ringing noise echoed throughout the previously silent and dark alleyway. When the light faded, there was… nobody there. 

Jason Todd, the Red Hood, had vanished.

—

Meanwhile, back at the moon, a trapdoor closed in a bubble elevator that held a pearl. 

The impact of the trapdoor against the fragile pearl was enough to shatter it, pulling the one who had ownership over it back to the place where the pearl was just a few moments before. In a shower of purple sparkles, Jason Todd reappeared. Immediately, a previously darkened light bulb popped with a green glow, warning the owner of the base that someone had arrived via Pearl Station. Steve, who was in the middle of a routine check up on his base, immediately went to check up on his guest- only to be met with a fist to the face and a very, very feral Jason Todd trying to destroy everything. 

His eyes were glowing a bright radioactive green as he raged, and Steve had enough of it. 

He teleported the big boy to the Coliseum in the Aether Dimension and summoned a bunch of monsters for him to fight out whatever rage he had- and it clearly worked, seeing as within 30 minutes, Jason Todd was calm and his eyes were not glowing anymore. 

"So…" Awkwardly and with dry blood on his face from being punched earlier, Steve pulled out an apple? "May I offer you a golden apple in these trying times?" 

Jason felt like this was some sort of reference. "Sure, cutie." 

And they sat in silence, in the middle of a bloodied battlefield, eating golden apples.