Lobo (who had probably never wasted a second of his life wondering what any sexual partner of his was “into”) paused in contemplation. “Star who now?” His mind reeled through what, daring escapades with the Great Fish God? R.E.B.E.L.S. and Vril Dox?
“— Oh yeah.”
“I saw her hooters.”
Of course there was no possible way that Jason was present in those events; he only recognised Lobo because he fit Kori’s description perfectly, yet on the other hand he doubted that anyone else in the entire universe dressed exactly like him. Well, besides members of a world renounced band. His eyes narrowed behind the helmet that was keeping his identity a secret, even though he was safe, Lobo wouldn’t know who he was, that’s what he relied on. Being dead for so long made so many people forget who you are.
“Yeah, Harper won’t be happy if you mention this to him.”
"Haw— an’ here I was startin’ to think Th’ Main Man’s rep was shot.” He smirks around his cigar. Didn’t expect to meet him here— haw haw. "Yeah, bub, them’s been the last words o’ more people’n I can count.”
"You’re telling me, chicks dig lots of things these days so I stopped questioning what they’re really into.”
“Nah, not really”, Jason replied, still hiding his face with the helmet. They haven’t met before, but he heard his name mentioned by a certain princess. “Remember a girl named Starfire? She said to say ‘hi’ if I bump into you.”
She chose to ignore that little “fan” comment of his and simply move on. It was just one of those things where you tried to make up a response in your head and it didn’t happen, so obviously it wasn’t supposed to happen, right? And no, she wasn’t ignoring it simply because she couldn’t come up with another witty response. That definitely wasn’t it. There just… wasn’t anything to say to it! That was all! Stephanie Brown was not losing her wit, okay?
Still, it wasn’t like she could just keep ignoring the words coming out of his mouth. After all, that wouldn’t be polite. Not that that ever meant anything to some vigilantes she knew. But, imagine she just stopped talking all of a sudden for no reason. Didn’t even move to attack him or something like that. Absolutely no reason. And then taking into the consideration how talkative she normally was, and surely even he could have realized that by now, it would just be completely awkward! Besides, if she didn’t respond, didn’t answer, it would almost be like letting him win. Sure, they weren’t fighting with their fists right now, but that wasn’t the only way people like them could fight.
It was obvious his next comment was meant to sting, but she hadn’t really expected that kind of teasing from him. Perhaps, he simply was extremely out of the know and only wanted to bank on the “replacement” comment rather than referencing what had happened to Barbara. But if it was the latter, the two of them may as well be saying things like “LOL, remember that time you died? It was p bad!” “OMG, yeah!! But IDK the way you were tortured to death was pretty gruesome too, haha!” … Okay, honestly, now that she thought about it she kinda wanted to see that. Well, not the talking about death and torture thing, just uh Jason Todd saying “OMG” really. That sounded pretty funny.
Anyways, uh, using “replacement” was weird for him too. Since wasn’t he just replaced by Tim eventually? Actually, they both were. Man, she has got to stop having things in common with criminals because that was probably not the best thing ever for a superhero. Either way, his words didn’t phase her one bit, not on the outside or on the inside. After all…
“Was the last time you checked this century? You might wanna check a little more often, you know. I mean, if you’re that far behind… You must have absolutely no idea who I am.”
Which meant it was her advantage. She knew him, his story, his training, all of that. And if his words rang true, he knew nothing about her. He didn’t know who Stephanie Brown was at all. And he obviously didn’t know anything about the current Batgirl. Maybe he didn’t even know there had been a female Robin in that time. Steph felt herself getting a little too confident, and tried to remind herself how dangerous her current situation could become in just a moment’s notice. Even if she had the upper hand, she had to maintain it, no matter what.
Her silence only made him feel far more comfortable; whenever she chose to be quiet to use it for her advantage or if she was genuinely out of something to see was a different case. Either way, he didn’t really mind striking some good old fear in a most likely younger Batman associate’s fan. She probably heard everything about him, wondering if any words came out straight from Bruce’s mouth. If he tried to present him as a common criminal or someone who is after redemption. He was neither of those things.
Not that he would start preaching about his own believes to her, he wasn’t in the mood for it, but showing off was his style. It had always been, he was better and he knew it, which was why he had such a hard time to accept that Batman did find a replacement. Tim was a good Robin, but that didn’t mean that Jason had to acknowledge it. Besides, that wasn’t his point now, he focused on doing a far better job that Batman or Dick, or anyone else wished he did, and despite the ups and downs, all the trouble he was getting into with his new found team, he was convinced that he was succeeding. Call him delusional, but it was kind of his thing.
His own words did sting, if he was being honest with himself. It wasn’t hard to rile him up, in fact, if he didn’t have at least some self meditating experience, he would snap out in seconds. Not that he had time to do that crap in that city, the pent up frustration and the fact that he couldn’t find decent weapons for himself did make him somewhat more volatile, which Roy witnessed already. He knew that if the girl before him let anything slip, a snarky comment, a joke about his death, he wouldn’t hold back. Her uniform gave much away anyway, and he was interested on who she really was. Internally, he did curse himself for not keeping up with everything Batman Inc related, he could avoid all this and use his knowledge against her. But most likely, she was planning to do that to him, and he didn’t like it in the slightest.
“The new Bat Girl. Current Bat Girl, whatever. That must be you, I lost count after Grayson’s sweetheart ditched the cape.”, he snorted.
He did have a suspicion about who that girl was though. There had been rumours of a female Robin which didn’t last long in the air for sometime, but Jason wasn’t sure if they were true. If they were true indeed, what happened to her? Another death in the family would have been a pain in the ass to keep a secret for sure. Not that Bruce probably had any problem with that, he seemed so keen on replacing his fallen sidekicks when they wouldn’t fit the job position, why would a girl be any different?
“Yer tellin’ me, man. Ain’t seen a sorrier sack o’ scuzzballs since I left th’ Sultan’s harem on Boinx-11. I’m thinkin’ city-widebar-bee-cue to liven up the joint.”
"Heavy on th’ gunpowder."
"I wouldn’t take any tips from someone who looks like you, but that doesn’t sound half bad, considering the scum I’ve seen here already.”
“Heard a lot about you. Didn’t expect to meet you here.”
“You’re fooling yourself if you believe that you have ever played fair. When will you accept that you and I are more a like than sharing an alias—former or otherwise. Accept that you’re just as crazy as I am, that you could careless about being fair that you have never cared for it. Face it, kid. You died and came back as a villain.”
“Quit pretending that you’re better than me. That killing me will solve all your problems. Because they won’t. What will there be after I’m dead? Nothing. Nothing for you to be mad at because you love the Bat as much as I do. You’d never have to guts to take out your anger on him.”
“We’re NOT the same! I’m nothing like you, I’m not a pathetic scum-bag that deserves nothing but to die a painful death and suffer for the rest of his short life! Careless and reckless? That I might be, there’s no point arguing, but I’m NOT you, you hear me?! Villain? Is this what you call someone who isn’t afraid of getting their hands dirty? Like I ever wanted to be called a hero like those cowards that preach about everything I despise.”
“There’s only one way to find out. What will be there? Peace. For me, but not for him. He’ll be pissed, at least he’ll feel something instead of just standing there saying how wrong I’ve been all along. How everything I ever did in my life was a giant mistake. I don’t love him, I’m not a messed up freak show like you.”
