His body seems to fly through the newly felt air pressing against his face. But he isn’t flying, as some happen to mistake, No, he jumps along roof top to roof top, narrowly but easily making his way across them them. He oftenly catches sight of a pipeline connecting from one building to another, latching onto these pipes and using them to swing his body throughout the sky.
Dick Grayson likes to enjoy these moments of soaring and scaling throughout the city. Yet this isn’t one of those moments. He doesn’t know the structure of this city at all, that’s why he isn’t going as fast as he normally would, but he’s a quick learner. As he travels, he stops on top a high structure, high enough for him to get a good enough view of the landscape.
“I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore,” he joked to himself, mostly to keep calm. ‘Hive City’ was what those scientist called it before he was stuffed in this foreign place he’d never seen before. “No communicator, no weapons, nothing, just some foam batarang that Bruce probably would have thought been a good idea for me while I was still Robin,” he spoke while scanning the streets. It was bad enough that most of the world thought he was dead, now he has no connection with Bruce, Matron or anyone else at Spyral.
“Well look at it this way Dick, there’s no way it can get any worse,” Just after he said that, he heard a foot step nearby. Quickly turning around, Dick’s eyes widened and then soon narrowed once he recognized the person standing on top of the building with him. “Jason,…I’m not sure if seeing you here is a good thing or a bad thing,”, he was honest, Jason Todd,…or as he called himself, Red Hood, was a loose cannon, and Dick knew he wasn’t wrong to feel a bit tense.
“I don’t suppose you have anything to do with this, this obviously isn’t your M.O, but if you do have something to do with this then-”
The city was just starting to get interesting; Batman’s shortlived appearance only rekindled that flame of his, his desire to do a better work than him, to take criminals out the effective way, by eliminating them permanently. Not only that, the fact that Joker’s personal toy was here made him fume, he wanted to get in contact with the actual clown and introduce him to his newly found crowbar.
The last thing he expected, was another member of the so called Bat family there. To be exact, his predecessor, the one person that he was meant to be filling the shoes of. The one person he always felt compared to, no matter what he did. He was never Dick Grayson and would never be, the two of them had their fair arguments and fights, especially when the huge fight over who would take the Batman cowl was raging. Of course the golden boy won, Jason was left nothing but bitter.
Of course, he found out that doing things his own way, alone, was the better option. Until of course Arsenal and Starfire joined him, even though he felt them doubting his motifs sometimes. They were loyal, the only people Jason considered his friends nowadays. Starfire wasn’t anywhere to be found, but Roy was most likely slacking off when Jason was patrolling the rooftops that night. The ex Robin’s figure was recognizable from a mile away to the trained eyes of someone who stalked him and copied his moves before.
He kicked a pebble with his hard boots as his gloved hands touched the tip of his wooden dagger, before spreading his arms towards Dick when he spoke to him.
“Ah, I see how it is. Bruce sending the golden boy to give me his regards? Not daring showing his face again?”
Dick was right, this encounter was going to be tensed. “Relax, dimension hoping or whatever isn’t part of my oh so cryptic arsenal. I’ve been here for a while though, which isn’t what I can say about you.”
Oh, she knew who that helmet belonged to. Having ever been in Gotham City, it wasn’t hard to recognize a vigilante among the crowds.
“Am I the only one noticing all the supers here?”
She asked her question aloud and allowed a moment or two for response. Her light expression made it seem like there was a joke in her words, but Zatanna merely looked to the masked man.
Her eyes held a glint of curiosity as she chose to speak once more. ”Some of the costumes I’ve seen are way more noticeable than yours.”
“Noticeable? I’d rather stay out of sight, that is until someone gets on my bad side. Then I’ll hunt them down and make sure that they know that they can’t exactly see me coming from them every single time”, Jason replied as he locked eyes, or rather, stared at the great Zatanna under his helmet. Not bad for his first proper conversation with her, especially after seeing what she can do with her magic and reading up on her. Know your enemy, and she could potentially be one.
“Can’t say the same about the fishnets, Playboy Bunny look”, he added,gesturing at her attire. “That must attract…unwanted attention.”
“Ha! What kinda idiot would believe that? Next you’re gonna tell me pigs actually fly here,” she placed her hands on her hips defiantly with a shake of her head. No way was she letting this weirdo catch her off guard. “You gettin’ the snot beat outta ya, now that’s believable. I bet a two year old could make ya cry mommy.”
“They could do, this place is fucked up already. You never know. Then again, if you don’t believe me, we can do a little demonstration and see how long it takes your sorry ass to come back”, he replied, taking his carved wooden dagger from his pocket and pointing at the tip of it with his gloved hand. “You need to know, I believe in equality and I have no problem beating the crap out of you either.”
Forever bitter about Batman and the Batfam members currently in the city, he is wandering different sectors and taking justice in his hands, not hesitating to dispose any criminals who he considers worthy of punishment. He counts on Roy, his current only friend and ally to hold him back most of the time, otherwise he can quite destructive and always dangerous.
Alt! Jason - Father Todd
The complete opposite of Jason; having been a former thief, addicted to drugs, his belief was changed when he died, coming back to life with new found faith. He is gentle and caring, eager to help anyone to find their path in life again.
“Hey, no one insults my puddin’! You wanna get hit, Lame Hood? You must not know anything about Mistah J, ‘cuz he’s batty for me and no one else,” to think that this guy actually thought The Joker cared about anyone other than her! She had only just met this guy and already she wanted to see him swallow a bomb. “I’ll call ya dead first!”
“Yeah right”, Jason snorted, amused by how delusional she appeared to be. Maybe they did have a messed up relationship that he wouldn't be able to comprehend, but then again, all he knew himself, was exactly that, fucked up relationships. “I wouldn't do that if I were you. You see, you can’t die in this place, and even back in Gotham, I was brought right back when your precious psycho boytoy beat me bloody”
The ease with which Todd spoke of Damian’s left over body parts made the kid uneasy, not that he would make these feelings known, but as the Hood kept talking, Damian narrowed his eyes.
Todd push him into the pit? “No.” He channeled every bit of authority into that one word. If Todd had any notion of self preservation, he would know to back off now. The Lazarus Pit was not fit for a healthy little boy.
Todd displayed an amusing amount of confidence- pride maybe? - In the absolute nothing that he had done since he was sent to this city. “A shame you have failed.” The boy closed in on the older. “I’d had thought it would have been quite the redeeming feat, had you succeeded. But now that you remain here, I can fully use you for what you are.”
Jason wasn't exactly known for being sensible and sensitive. Sure, he didn’t kill kill kids and all, but he was harsh at all times, especially when he had the same jealous tone whenever he talked to another Robin. He treated Dick and Tim the same way, Damian could even have it worse since he was the only legit son of the man who he felt like he betrayed him in every way possible. People thought that he was over it; he would never let it go.
“Failure? You think that this is a failure?”, he asked, trying not to take the bait and keeping his calm, ironic tone instead. “What did you do, huh? The son of the Bat, that sure must be a hard name to keep. Otherwise you would just be the grandchild of a crazy old man.”
