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There are those who would call what Jason was doing stupid. And maybe it was, there were certainly easier ways to go about it. But sometimes you had to indulge yourself in the guilty pleasures of life.He’d practiced with the suit virtually nonstop for weeks. Exploring its features. Learning how to operate it. Mastering it.And master it he did.However, he had made a slight mistake. An oversight on his part. He’d known the suit was powered by Xenothium since he’d first taken it, but it hadn’t really clicked that the power could run out. And of course Dick hadn’t recharged the thing before he locked it away.Typical.His weeks of training with the suit had left it near empty. Which meant he needed more Xenothium. And it wasn’t exactly the easiest thing to get your hands on. The suit still had enough juice for a heist though. The power issue wasn’t the worst thing that could happen, but it definitely was a pain.Now there were other places Jason could have gone. Places without a superhero presence nearby. It would have taken longer to track the Xenothium down and longer to steal it, but he could have done it.He wasn’t doing that though. No, he went back to Jump City, home turf of the Teen Titans and, more importantly, his big brother dearest Dickie.There were several reasons he’d chosen Jump City. 1: He knew there was a supply of Xenothium somewhere within the city limits. Dick’s files said he’d bought locally, though it didn’t give a name or address. 2: It was close. Jason hadn’t wandered very far off from the city while testing the suit out. 3: Just because Jason couldn’t talk to Dick didn’t mean that Red X couldn’t. The idea of screwing with Dick’s head had a lot of appeal. A game of sorts. Like sparring, but with a few key differences. And if Jason could beat the golden boy and his little team, well, no one would ever be able to say he was the lesser version of Dick again.His investigations had led him to a warehouse owned by the Soto company. The warehouse didn’t contain any Xenothium, but it did hold a scanner capable of locating Xenothium within a 10 mile radius. Such a device wouldn’t be able to track his suit, it had measures built in to prevent such things, but the scanner would be able to find him the Xenothium he needed. And he’d be able to use the device even after he left Jump, so it was a worthwhile investment. The security was decent, but Jason could have gotten through without anyone being the wiser. If he had done that though, Dick never would have shown up and that would have ruined the whole point of choosing Jump in the first place.Jason only had a few seconds to survey the spacious warehouse. Stacks of wooden crates were piled everywhere, one of which held the device he’d come for. Then the Titans burst in.Their expressions were priceless. Beast Boy turned to look at Dick in confusion. “Red X? I thought Robin was Red X.”Jason’s smirk went unseen beneath the skull mask hiding his face. “Think again,” he taunted, the voice modifier distorting his voice. Explosive X-arangs (he wasn’t sold on the name, it was just the name that had come naturally. He’d play around with it.) formed out of the Xs on his gloves and he threw them into the Titans ranks.Dick snapped out of his shock. “Titans go!” he shouted, and the Titans burst into action. Aww, Dickie had a catchphrase. Or maybe it was more of a battle cry. Oh well, whatever.They all managed to dodge except for the magic girl, Raven, who protected herself from the blast with a black forcefield. Which meant she was the closest target.He flew at her with a flying kick. She put up a smaller black shield to block him, but at the last second he teleported behind her then immediately went into a drop kick, sweeping her legs out from under her. She fell to the ground with a gasp and a thud and Jason released another X into his hand to press his advantage.Before he could do anything though, a green blast hit the blade out of his grasp, stinging his hand. More followed and Jason artfully dodged every single one of them. As the alien girl flew at him, continuing her barrage, Jason kept moving back towards the wall as he dodged.She was a feisty one. He grinned, using the wall to push off and launch himself into the air towards the fast approaching alien.Surprise colored her face as she was suddenly faced with her enemy coming straight at her midair. He jumped onto her back, pushing her down as he used her as a springboard to reach the metal beams that connected the warehouse pillars.He leapt from beam to beam, adrenaline pumping through his veins as he dodged the starbolts (that was what Dick called them in his files) being hurled at him. It was actually starting to get annoying now though. She had to go.As soon as his foot touched down on the next beam, he spun around and sent two beams of red energy from his gloves towards the alien girl. Not directly at her, but at the pillars on either side of her. The energy beams ricocheted off the metal and crossed to form a X-shaped energy blast with the girl in the center of it. So aesthetic.She cried out as the energy coursed through her and she fell to the ground. That should take care of her for a while.As Jason straightened, a bird-like shriek pierced his ears and he turned to see a green pterodactyl flying at him. Dinosaurs, cool. As it reached its peak it suddenly shifted into a gorilla and leaped at him with a roar.That roar was cut off when Jason shoved an X into his mouth, making him unable to close his jaw.For a few amusing moments, the creature struggled to dislodge the X, making frustrated faces and grabbing at the X with his hands as Jason backed out of reach. Realizing he couldn’t get it out, he shifted into a hippo and the X easily fell out of the much larger mouth.However, the kid had failed to factor in that hippos were not made for balancing on beams.Jason snickered at the sight of a green, full-grown hippo desperately trying to claw its way back onto the beam but failing and then crashing into a pile of crates below. He followed him down, landing a few yards away from the wreckage. There was no respite though and as soon as he hit the ground Cyborg was charging at him.Noting the corridor of crates the half robot was running through, Jason threw one of his specialty Xs. The X hit Cyborg in the face and upon impact the legs of the X extended, the sticky substance gluing itself to four of the crates, then contracted, dragging the crates with it. All four crates smashed into the bewildered Cyborg along with some other crates that fell from the destabilized pile. Behind him, Jason heard the shifting of wood and he glanced back to see Beast Boy, once again human, standing up with Starfire floating beside him, her hands glowing with green energy. Then Beast Boy shifted into- a yeti? maybe bigfoot? he wasn’t sure what that was, but it was big. Raven flew in from the side, telekinetically grabbing a crate and directly in front of him Cyborg had just turned on of his hands into a canon. They all looked pissed, except for the magic girl, her expression looked pretty neutral.Jason smirked, analyzing the situation. Yeah, this was a proper test. Maybe even a challenge if you squint. “Come on, kids,” he dared. He pointed to the X emblazoned on his chest. “X marks the spot.”Cyborg’s blast came first. He dodged it and used the crate Raven threw at him as a platform to get higher into the air. Starbolts whizzed past him close enough that he could feel their heat.He landed in a crouch by the yeti. Immediately, the creature raised its fists intent on smashing him into the ground, but Jason teleported away before they hit.This time he teleported farther away, appearing on top of a pile of crates deeper in the warehouse. The distance gave him a chance to take a breather and review the situation.He was feeling pretty badass right now.Probably should start actually looking for the scanner though, he couldn’t spend all his time fighting. He gazed out at the maze of crates, spotting flashes of colors moving around in the distance. That was where the Tians were. If the company had organized their crates correctly the scanner should be in one of the crates in section C.Something was missing though.A frown formed on Jason’s face as he realized there was one person he had yet to really see. Irritation sparked within him. Dick better not be slacking off just because he had his superpowered buddies with him. As fun as it was playing around with them, he hadn’t come for-His thought was cut off as something crashed into his side, sending both him and it tumbling to the ground. Red, yellow, and green flashed at the edges of his vision and a yellow R filled the rest. Never mind then.Jason grinned as they began to exchange blows. Dick was already proving to be a better fighter in the first thirty seconds of their fight than any of his friends. It was both sad and impressive. His blood sang at the familiarity that came with the more aggressive sparring match. He’d missed this. Breaking off from his attack, Dick jumped back and threw a birdarang at his head. Jason teleported out of the way and the weapon harmlessly boomeranged back to Dick’s hand. Jason then reappeared directly behind him and Dick ducked to dodge the punch he threw at his head.Dick went low and attempted to sweep Jason’s legs out from under him. It was an obvious move and Jason dodged it easily. However, instead of Dick straightening back up, he turned his drop into a handstand and used his legs to grab Jason’s arm and then used the momentum from the flip to throw Jason to the side.Jason skidded across the floor, gaining at least a couple bruises, then picked himself up off the ground with a scowl. Freakin acrobat.There was no pause and Dick was on top of him immediately. He caught Jason’s foot mid-kick, pushing him back against a large crate and momentarily knocking the breath from his lungs. In that moment, Dick grabbed him by the face and shoved it against the crate, pinning him in place.Hmm, Big Bird looked way more pissed than any of his friends. “Who are you?” Dick demanded, jamming Jason’s face even further into the crate.Dick couldn’t see Jason’s smile, but it was there and not even his uncomfortable position could wipe it away. It stemmed partially from his secret and partially because he had just realized he was now an inch taller than his previously big brother.“If I wanted you to know that, would I be wearing a mask?”Dick’s eyes narrowed in anger.With a smirk, Jason grabbed the arm pinning him and sent an electric shock through his glove. Dick released him and yanked his arm back with a sharp cry of pain. Jason followed up with a punch to the face and a hard kick to the stomach, sending Dick flying back into another stack of crates.The commotion must have gotten the attention of the rest of the team because Cyborg and Raven came barreling around the corner. As soon as they saw him, Cyborg started booting up his canon and Raven began her weird chant.“Azarath metrion-.” Nope.He tossed an X in between them. The X crackled and drew in the energy from each of them, redirecting it to hit each other. For a heartbeat, they looked surprised, but that surprise warped into pain as their own attacks were turned against him.“Look like you got your wires crossed,” Jason quipped, his eyes already tracking the approaching alien.Evading the starbolts, he used power from both gloves to generate a giant X that slammed into the alien and pinned her to the wall. From the corner of his eye he saw Dick groaning on the ground.Seeing an opportunity to screw with Dick, Jason approached the struggling girl, a grin spreading across his face. He reached out his hand and tipped up her furious face. She was pretty cute. Feisty too. A bit too peppy for his taste, but he could see why Dick like her.“Y’know cutie,” he said flirtatiously, “the only crime here is that you and I-“ The girl’s eyes glowed green and the next thing he knew he was being launched back into a pile of crates.“Ow,” he muttered under his breath, picking himself up. Ok, that one was on him, he should have seen that coming. But messing with Dick was worth it.The shifter was charging at him again, a bear this time. Seemed a bit mundane. It was still an effective choice, but if dinosaurs were on the table- maybe certain animals were harder to change into than others.Jason slapped an X onto the ground. The legs expanded, then exploded. Beast Boy, unable to stop or swerve in time, tripped into the newly made crack, hitting his head as he fell.He was in section C now, so the scanner was here somewhere. It shouldn’t take too long to find, they were smashing open plenty of crates already. And a lot of them were empty and just waiting to be reused.Looking over to where Dick was still lying on the floor amongst some damaged crates, Jason saw something shiny and metallic half hidden underneath Dick’s body. It looked right. Hopeful, he went over and used his foot to roll Dick’s body out of the way. Dick let out a groan at the movement. Must have hit him harder than he thought.Snatching up the device, which looked like a cross between a speed radar and a gun, he confirmed that it was indeed the scanner. That really sped things along. Would have been a pain to have to smash open every single crate, especially with the Titans on his tail. They’d smashed about a third of the crates in this section already though, so maybe it wouldn’t have taken that long.As if spurred by Jason’s success, Dick scrambled to his feet and lunged at him, outrage clear on his face. Time to go. He just needed to get closer to a wall so he could teleport out of here.As he booked it for the closest wall he could hear Dick’s footsteps following close behind.“I won’t let you get away with– argh.” Dick’s rather cliché threat was cut off as Jason threw an X that wrapped around his legs causing him to fall flat on his face.Victory.Jason smirked, turning back to face him as he reached the wall, black cape flaring dramatically as he spun around. Dick looked absolutely livid as he tried to wriggle his way towards him and free his legs.“Better luck next time, kid.” Heh, shorty. He twirled the scanner like a cowboy from the old west and clipped it to his belt. He then pointed at Dick mockingly. “And thanks for the suit.”With his last words said, he made his glorious escape.At least that was what he would have done if the fucking teleporter had worked.His eyes widened as annoyance and a smidge of panic burst through him. Now? Really?“Come on, come one,” he begged, pressing the button again. It just was not working. The power was too low and teleportation was one of the things that required the most juice.While Jason had been trying to deal with his technical difficulties, Dick hadn’t stopped his struggle. There was a loud snap as the bindings snapped completely and Dick was instantly launching himself at him again. His friends were only a few yards behind.“Great,” Jason snapped irritably. Looks like he’d have to flee the scene the old fashioned way.He dashed away from the irate super teens, leaping up one of the higher piles of crates to reach the rafters. Dick chased close behind, shadowing Jason’s movements almost step for step.Racing to stay ahead of Dick, he ran across the beams until he reached one of the skylight windows. Without pause, he threw an X-arang to slice open the lock, no longer caring if the alarms set off.The night air was cool as Jason jumped onto the rooftop and accelerated into a full sprint. Dick followed him through less than a second later.Frustration burned within Jason. If it were only Dick, Jason was confident in his ability to lose him on the rooftops, especially with his gear. But three flyers and Dick? He would have to seriously hurt at least some of them so they were out of commission or distract them with a more pressing threat and Jason really didn’t want to have to do either. This didn’t have to get messy. There was also the sewers, but he’d have to make it that far first.He tried once again to use the teleporter, hoping now that he hadn’t used the suit for a bit it might work again. He almost gasped in relief when he felt the thrum that signaled successful teleportation.Dick, seeing that he was about to teleport away, gave one final, desperate lunge. Jason leapt back to avoid him, turning midair to give him a one hand salute. “Catch you later.”Dick’s furious face was the last thing Jason saw before he was somewhere else entirely.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Annnd, there, that should do it.Jason leaned back in his chair, a feeling of accomplishment washing over him. He placed the tools he’d been using neatly on the table.He’d just spent the last hour fixing the teleportation device in his suit. Well, fixing wasn’t really the right word, it hadn’t been broken, but he’d diverted some of the power into the warp drive. It should give him at least a few more jumps before it gave out. He’d just have to use it sparingly until he got more Xenothium. Giving one last glance at his laptop, which had Dick’s schematics for the suit still displayed on screen, Jason sealed up the compartment in the belt before reaching out and shutting the computer.He stood up with a stretch, pleased to finally be done. Fixing the issue had taken longer than he’d thought it would, but he still had about eight hours before sunset. At least five of which were going to be devoted to sleeping. He had to be well rested if he wanted to fight Dick again tonight.The hotel he was staying in while in Jump was decent. Comfortable. Not crappy, but not some hoity toity 5 star resort either. He wouldn’t have gone 5 stars even if the drug dealer he’d taken the money from had had enough. His room was on the top floor, giving him easy access to the roof.Picking up the now modified belt, Jason moved lazily into the bedroom. He crossed over the soft carpet to the closet and the hotel vault inside. It only took him about twenty seconds to punch in the code and unlock the locks he’d added for extra security. It was the best he could do at the moment. Within it was the rest of the Red X suit. He placed the belt safely inside.He didn’t close it right away though, instead removing the mask and staring at it. The eyes of the mask stared blankly back at him. A part of him wondered if Dick would recognize him, even without the mask. If he’d changed so much that he would be unrecognizable even to those closest to him. He was older now. Taller. Broader. The negative effects of his childhood malnourishment washed away by the pit. Old scars erased only to be replaced with new scars. His eyes, no longer pure blue, now held a hint of green. He’d dyed the white bit out of his hair so as not to draw attention while in public, but white could still be seen at the roots.If Jason was still surprised when he looked in the mirror, what chance did his older brother have?With a long sigh, he tossed the mask back into the vault and shut it. There was no point in speculating about these things, he had no intention of unmasking himself in front of Dick. He wasn’t even leaving the hotel room out of paranoia of being seen and when he did go out he kept his red hoodie up to hide his face. He’d even paid the extra price to have the Chinese food delivered instead of picking it up himself. He was taking no chances. Returning to the kitchen/living room area, Jason walked slowly over to one of the windows and pulled back the curtain. He winced as the invading sunlight stung at his eyes, forcing them to adjust.Much of the city looked small from up here. If he strained his ears, he could hear the faintest sound of traffic. Titan’s Tower was visible in the distance, silently standing guard over Jump and its inhabitants. He had a fairly good view of the city his brother had chosen to settle in and could study it from afar.Jump was nothing like Gotham. Far too bright and cheery. It wasn’t a city built on fear like Gotham, with its ever-pervading gloom and dark underbelly that tainted everything it touched. Nor was it like Metropolis, with its overflow of hope and gleaming, unreal appearance that made Jason’s skin crawl. If Jason had to describe, Jump with one word it would be energetic. The city buzzed with a positive energy. You could feel it in the air as you walked down the streets. It reflected on the city’s citizens, who moved and acted with that same energy. Jump was a young city, one still booming with potential. It held a more subtle hope that was far more natural than the almost surreal Metropolis. Jason stood there for a minute, quietly watching the tiny people and cars moving below him. Then he stepped back, letting the curtains fall shut and returning the room to its dimmer state. It was fine as far as cities went. Definitely more of a match to Dick’s personality than Gotham.Back when Jason had first met Dick, he would have described Dick’s personality as asshole. He and Bruce had been fighting when Jason had first moved into the Manor. Constantly yelling and going at each other’s throats in a way that had very much reminded him of the explosive fights between his mom and Willis. Blood was rarely shed in Dick’s fights though.Jason hadn’t entirely understood why they were fighting but had instinctively sided with Bruce anyways. Bruce was the man who had taken him in and given him his first real taste of kindness and parental love, or at least that was what naïve little Jason had believed. Dick had been a spoiled, asshole teenager who hated Jason’s guts. There’d been no contest. How could he have known back then? It had all seemed so real at the time.Dick had technically still been living at the Manor when Bruce had first brought Jason home. And by technically, he meant Dick hadn’t outright announced he had left. He’d shown up every once and a while to get into a hissy fit with Bruce that either ended in a shouting match with one of them (usually, Dick) storming out or Alfred breaking up the fight in his Alfred way. When that happened, Dick would spend the night for the butler’s sake then leave early the next morning. They’d had to come up with the excuse of boarding school to explain to people why Bruce Wayne’s ward was always absent.Jason had been living at the Manor for a whole week before he first saw Dick. It had been a case of bad luck (he seemed to have a lot of those) that he’d even seen Dick at all. Jason had just happened to be exiting his bedroom the same time Dick had been coming down the hall.They’d locked eyes, blue staring at blue, and frozen in place. The way Dick had looked at him you’d think Jason was some strange purple creature with two heads and ten arms that had just wandered into the Manor. Jason hadn’t known Dick was at the Manor so he’d been surprised and, if he was honest, a little starstruck to suddenly be standing before Robin, the second half of the dynamic duo.But your heroes often disappoint you.Dick’s face had darkened, shattering any hope Jason had of the meeting going well, and he’d begun to yell at Jason, demanding to know who he was and how he’d gotten into his house. Naturally, Jason had started yelling back. If he hadn’t had the books in his arms he probably would have decked him then and there. By the time Alfred came to see what the commotion was about, they’d both been yelling at the top of their lungs with barely an inch between them. Alfred had to practically pry them apart to get them to stop.The older boy had been furious that Bruce had adopted some Crime Alley street kid without asking him or even telling him about it. It was an understandable complaint, but he and Bruce hadn’t been on speaking terms. What had really pissed Jason off was Dick’s accusation that Bruce had only adopted Jason because he was missing Dick. But it had turned out to be true so maybe Dick was just smarter than Jason had given him credit for.Their resentful relationship had lasted for a couple months and most of the time they’d tried to avoid each other entirely. They’d still had their clashes though. During that time, Jason had made allusions to wanting to be Robin. Batman had been without a partner and it was a role Jason had been eager to fill. He’d been confident that he could do it, he’d helped Batman before, and being Robin was the coolest gig in the world, even with the goofy outfit. And the knowledge that Bruce was out there fighting the evils of Gotham without backup had really bothered Jason. He’d often stayed up late, lying awake in his bed, waiting until he heard Bruce’s footsteps pass his door to confirm he had made it home safely. Jason had even convinced Bruce to start training him in the name of self-defense. Billionaire Bruce Wayne’s kids were prime pickings for any lowlife crook, after all. Dick had been kidnapped as a civilian multiple times. Later, Jason had found out that Bruce had already been considering allowing Jason to become Robin from very early on.He hadn’t been able to ask for Robin up front for a variety of reasons. The biggest being that although Dick wasn’t with Batman anymore, he was still Robin. It had been frustrating as hell. He’d desperately wanted Dick to just screw off completely so he could take up the Robin mantle unopposed. But Dick had stayed on that infuriating edge, removed from the family yet still a part of it.The other main reason for the wait had been something Jason had actually enjoyed. He’d had to work ten times as hard to catch up to his fellow students in certain subjects, but Jason was never one to back down from a challenge and he had a deep love of learning. He’d devoured his textbooks. Top grades in every class. That achievement had stoked quite a bit of jealously and damaged pride among his stuck-up classmates. While Jason loved school, the kids at Gotham Academy had mostly been rich, elitist pricks whose egos just couldn’t handle that a dirty street rat from Crime Alley was breathing the same air as them. That he had been outdoing them in academics had only made things worse. For them. Jason had derived endless pleasure from their humiliation. Not all the kids had been that way, but even the decent ones had avoided him for fear of being associated with him and therefore open to the bullying and ridicule of the snooty kids. Even some of the teachers hadn’t liked him, though many had and those who hadn’t didn’t dare go after the son of one of the school’s biggest donors. Overall though, Jason had enjoyed school.It had only taken a couple months to settle into his new school though, then the only major roadblock left had been the Dick problem. Jason had spent many nights racking his brain to come up with a scheme that would get Dick out of the way (without causing serious harm. A little harm was acceptable), but he’d never been able to come up anything that would work.Then one day, out of nowhere, things had changed.To this day Jason wasn’t sure what had happened. He’d long given up on ever fully understanding the insanity that was Dick Grayson’s mind. All he knew was that Dick had suddenly gone from I hate your guts, you shouldn’t even be in my house to Hey little brother! Wanna watch a movie with me and be snuggled in an inescapable octopus hug of doom? The flip had been jarring to say the least.When Dick had randomly shown up after school one day insisting he wanted to take Jason to get ice cream, Jason had been sure it was some kind of trap. Possibly even a shapeshifter. It had literally come out of nowhere, so Jason had had every right to be suspicious. There had been no serious injuries or near-death experiences. No major catastrophe or crisis to draw him back. Nothing. He must have eyed Dick for a solid minute trying to puzzle out what trap or trick Dick was trying to pull. The thing was Dick had never tried something like that before. They had argued and fought, sure, but Dick had never tried to manipulate or trick him into something. And the offer had appeared strangely sincere. Despite that, Jason still hadn’t bought the change of heart. People didn’t just change like that. But he had wanted to figure out what Dick was up to so he’d played along. The possibility of getting ice cream had been an added bonus.It hadn’t been a trap.Dick had taken him to one of those old-fashioned ice cream parlors. They hadn’t talked on the way over. Mostly because they hadn’t wanted the taxi driver to overhear. Robin could drive, but Dick Grayson wasn’t old enough for a driver’s license and they hadn’t wanted to bother Alfred. Once they’d ordered, they’d sat down at one of the booths. He vividly remembered the awful polka dot shirt Dick had been wearing, he’d been embarrassed to be seen within three feet of him. Dick was of the false belief that fashion just meant standing out.Jason had gotten Neapolitan and Dick had gotten some kind of chocolate monstrosity. He was fairly certain that Dick had just mashed together every chocolate topping they had, which was dumb. There was no way he could differentiate between the flavors so what was the point.He’d caught on pretty quick that Dick was actually trying to reach out. The older boy had asked him how school was going, what he liked to do in his spare time, what was his favorite book (which is an almost impossible question to answer. There were so many amazing books), what his favorite food was (Dick had been appalled that it wasn’t chocolate). He’d even asked him what his favorite color was. All those basic personal questions you ask when you know almost nothing about someone. And throughout the exchange Dick had had this undercurrent of desperation though outwardly he’d appeared upbeat and cheery.His cheeriness hadn’t been mutual. Jason had kept his answers short, answering the question, but not going into detail. Dick had been the one dragging out answers and keeping the conversation going. It had gone on like that for a while until Jason hadn’t been able to take the weirdness anymore and finally asked Dick what the hell was going on.Dick had given a half regretful, half joking smile. “Just realized I’ve been being an asshole, Jay. I’m trying to do better now.”Dick had never called him Jay before.After the that day, Dick had started to come see him almost every week. They’d watched movies, played video games, gone on hikes. Dick had even taught him how to do some of his gymnast tricks. It had been fun. The older boy had been making an effort and had been nice (almost scary nice) to him while doing it. Jason, regardless of any other feelings, had acknowledged that effort and been nicer back. It wasn’t like he’d ever wanted Dick to hate him. Dick had started hating him first.It had taken a while for Jason to accept that Dick truly had changed. That Dick was just some freak anomaly. But a small, nervous part of Jason had believed him from the beginning and the rest of him had wanted to believe him. Dick was Robin after all, and Robin was a hero.Alfred had been absolutely delighted to have Dick coming home more. Even more delighted that his two young masters were finally getting along. The two of them might have played it up a little sometimes to earn extra dessert. God, he missed Alfred. Just the thought of the elderly butler made his heart ache. But he knew Alfred would always side with Bruce. Always. If he went to Alfred, Alfred would go to Bruce. Best just to leave him out of everything entirely. Wasn’t like any of what had happened was his fault anyways. It was easiest to just not think about him at all.Dick had still been avoiding Bruce when he came to visit Jason, but Bruce had been happy that the two of them were bonding, even if he wasn’t a part of it. Or maybe he’d just been happy to have his golden boy around more and had seen an opportunity to draw him back in. Jason didn’t know anymore.It had taken Jason roughly a month and a half to work up the nerves to tell Dick he wanted to be Robin. He’d needed to make sure their newfound bond wasn’t going to deteriorate before he started asking for anything big. And Robin was huge. But over that month and a half they’d developed a brotherly relationship. Dick had been outright calling him his little brother by that point, often in annoying, overbearing, or teasing ways, but the term was undeniably in use. Jason hadn’t started saying brother back yet.Hadn’t denied it either.They’d been hiking on the manor grounds and had stopped on top of one of the hills overlooking Gotham City. It had been an amazing view, you could see the entire city from up there. He’d been able to work his desire to be Robin into the conversation naturally.Jason had been terrified that Dick would be angry at him. That he’d say Robin was his and Jason was an idiot for thinking he could ever be Robin. That Dick would storm off and the bond they’d been building would be destroyed and Dick would go back to hating him and never being around.None of those things had happened.Dick had silently stared out at Gotham City for almost a whole minute. He hadn’t seemed even remotely surprised though. During that minute, Jason had been inwardly freaking out that he’d upset Dick and that the older boy was trying to keep his temper or contemplating on how to best chew this stupid kid out. Then Dick had turned back to him and asked, “Why?”So Jason had told him.Told him how he wanted to help people. That he’d been on the streets and knew how the people suffered and what the bad guys did. That he wanted to be able to stop people like his dad and the scumbags who had hurt his mom. Told him how he wanted to help Batman, expressing his worry about Bruce’s lack of support. Told him that he knew he could do it, he wanted to do it. Reminded Dick that he’d watched Jason train and he knew he was good. He’d told Dick everything.Well, everything except how much he looked up to and admired Dick as Robin. No need to mention any of that. Dick had remained quiet, listening attentively and not interrupting as Jason made his case. When he had finished, he’d looked at Dick hopefully, eyes blazing. Dick had recognized that blaze.“We’ll talk about this later, ok?”It hadn’t been the ideal answer, but Dick hadn’t gotten angry or said no, so Jason had been warily optimistic.A week later, Dick had handed him one of his old Robin suits as Bruce and Alfred watched on.Jason had beamed as he clutched the colorful suit to his chest. He had Dick’s blessing, he was going to be Robin! His heart had swelled with excitement and he’d practically tackled Dick into a hug. It had been the first hug Jason had ever initiated with him. “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” he’d gushed, tightening the hug. “I’ll be a great Robin! I promise!”Dick hadn’t responded immediately, caught off guard by the unexpected hug. But a second later, he’d smiled and returned the embrace. “I know you will, Jaybird.”Bruce had stepped up Jason’s training right away. No longer was it just basic combat training and the occasional gymnastics lesson, it was the full-on Robin training program. Combat training, weight training, stealth training, escapist training, detective training, tech training. All crucial skills for any Robin. He’d been earning multiple degrees in criminology and technology. Olympians would have gawked at his physical training programs. Jason had thrown himself into the training with everything he had and it had shown through his quick progress. Dick had involved himself in Jason’s training as well. He’d given Jason tips and lessons on his acrobatic skills. Helped him study the more technical side of the job. Most often they’d trained through sparring. Jason had always looked forward to their sparring matches. He could still remember the joy and pride he’d felt the first time he’d managed to successfully pin Dick down. The older boy had been a fairly active force in Jason’s training. He’d had the double responsibility of being both the person who had passed on the mantle and the big brother. In Dick’s eyes, not helping with Jason’s training had never been an option.It had felt like forever, but five months later and Jason had passed all of Bruce’s tests and been declared fit for the streets. He’d literally been counting down the seconds on the day of his first patrol. He’d been so excited… One of the best days of his life.Having two Robins active at once had been a little odd, but almost no one had understood what had happened. When Jason had first donned the cape, Batman and Robin had still been just an urban legend to much of Gotham and the world. Batman wasn’t like Superman, who posed for pictures with a smile and flew around in broad daylight. Batman was a creature of the night, shrouded in shadows and secretive by nature. Hard to notice a change in Robins when you don’t even believe Robin exists. The criminals of Gotham, on the other hand, had realized very quickly that Jason wasn’t the same kid who had previously kicked their asses, despite their similar appearances. Jason had been more mouthy, more crass, more eager to dispense a thoroughly deserved beating, hadn’t flipped around as much. If you’d interacted with both of them, you knew they were two different people.However, while they’d known there was a new kid in the costume, very, very few had been aware that there was a second Robin working outside the city. Dick had kept a low profile until he started the Titans and even if someone had noticed Dick, unless they knew for a fact that Jason Robin had been doing something in Gotham the same time Dick was doing his thing, they could simply assume Robin had gone somewhere then came back. And as for those select few who had figured out that there were two black haired boys with bird names running around in colorful costumes taking down bad guys, what were they going to do? Tell Batman he wasn’t allowed to have two Robins? It was extremely unlikely they’d try to go after the lone Robin. His movements had been unpredictable (Dick had been wandering around helping where needed until he settled in Jump) and why leave their hunting grounds in Gotham when there was a perfectly good Robin to go after right at home? It had just never been a problem.Once Dick had founded the Titans though, people had caught on that there were two Robins. Some had still had their conspiracy theories and there had been arguments over when exactly the Robins had switched, but most people had understood that Robin wasn’t teleporting from coast to coast every day. Batman had been more out in the open by that point and the Titans weren’t exactly a secretive bunch (fucking giant T-shaped skyscraper). Jason had also recently upgraded his Robin suit, adding some much-needed pants and swapping the bright green for a more sensible and stylish black, so he and Dick hadn’t even been wearing the same outfit anymore.But again, what were people going to do? Demand that one of them change their name? Gotham and Jump were far enough apart that no one really ever confused the two. If for some reason someone did have to refer to both of them at once, they were Batman’s Robin and Titan Robin. Or, alternatively, Gotham’s Robin and Jump’s Robin. People had known who they were talking about. And since it hadn’t caused a problem and both he and Dick were used to and emotionally attached to being called Robin, neither one of them had seen a reason to change it.People hadn’t needed to worry about the double Robins long though. A few months later and there had only been one Robin left. Problem solved.Jason had loved being Robin and for a long, yet far too short, time his life had been virtually perfect. Yes, there had still been close calls, injuries, and drama, but Jason had had people who cared about him to fall back on and all of those things had been overcomable. But the good in Jason’s life never lasted.The first thing that had started grating on Jason was the way Bruce had constantly, constantly compared him to Dick. And it hadn’t been the good kind of comparison, Jason had always been the one found lacking. He’d done it in training too, and it had been annoying then, but once Jason was out in the field it had become more frequent and irrational. Now, Jason wasn’t unreasonable. If Bruce had just pointed out how Dick did a flip when Jason messed one up or stuff like that Jason wouldn’t have had a real problem with it. But Bruce had compared them all the time over even the smallest, most insignificant, stupid things. Dick would have done this. Or Dick would have done that. Dick used to do it like this. Even when Jason had done absolutely nothing wrong and everything had gone perfectly, Bruce would still compare him to Dick and say Dick had done it better. Even when Bruce had said nothing, Jason had been able to tell that Bruce was thinking it. Judging him. It had been infuriating. Back then, Jason hadn’t understood why Bruce did it or why Jason never seemed to measure up. It made more sense now though.He hadn’t really been aware of Dick’s shadow before, though it had most certainly been there. Dick hadn’t been around much and when he was he and Bruce hadn’t gotten along, so no pressure there. And while Jason had sometimes been a little awed to have Robin come and hang out with him, they’d been isolated together and Dick’s overly friendly attitude had made things less stifling. But once he’d become Robin, he’d realized to his growing alarm that he was trapped in Dick Grayson’s massive shadow and he’d wanted out. It hadn’t been just Bruce or just over Robin either. It had been everybody. Bruce, the Gotham elites, students from his school, his teachers, even Alfred sometimes. Anyone who had met both Jason and Dick. And almost every single one of them had concluded Dick was better. Normally Jason wasn’t one to care what other people thought about him, but when it was everybody and that everybody included Bruce, well, Jason felt he had a right to be a little pissed.Still, as frustrating as that had been, things had been great for a long time. During the day, he’d had a home in the manor, Bruce, Alfred, Dick, a library full of thousands of books, delicious food whenever he wanted not just when he was hungry, a report card of straight A’s. During the night, he’d been Robin, hero of Gotham, the second half of the dynamic duo. Patrolling the streets of Gotham alongside Batman, kicking ass, taking names, saving lives, and solving crimes. It had been a good life.Jason had spent many hours looking back, trying to pin down the moment things had started to turn for the worse. Wondering if there was anything he could have done. After much deliberation, he’d whittled it down to a night a little over a year into his stint as Robin.There’d been an altercation with a teamed up Two-Face and Bane (what a mess that had been) that had left Jason seriously injured. It hadn’t been pleasant, but after what he’d gone through now it didn’t seem that bad. Broken leg, two bullet wounds, one in his arm, the other in his side, several bruised ribs, a mild concussion, bruising everywhere, several lacerations. It had sucked. Dick had returned to the manor a day later, racing to comfort (baby) his little brother and help him through his recovery. And this time, unlike so many times before, he’d stuck around.Jason wasn’t sure exactly what had happened, he’d been confined to his bed, but Dick and Bruce must have talked. Civilly. Shocking, yes, but it was the best explanation he had because suddenly the fighting had stopped. Not just stopped, they’d started having normal human conversations, even bantering at times. It had been freaky.Jason had been confused, but definitely not unhappy. Dick and Bruce had been two of the most important people in his life, brother and father, he’d hated that they hadn’t been able to stand in a room together without fighting and throwing shit. He’d viewed the new peace treaty as a positive, something that would make things better. He’d been such a naïve child.It had started almost immediately, but he’d been too blind to see the signs. He’d believed Dick’s assurances that Bruce’s change in behavior was just a fear fueled response to Jason’s injuries from Bane. That seeing Jason so hurt had scared him, scared both of them, and that Bruce was being harsher and more strict out of a protective concern. It had made sense and Jason had wanted to believe it, so while he hadn’t been happy about it, he hadn’t seen it for what it was.With Dick back in Bruce’s life, Jason was no longer necessary.The correlation was undeniable. The closer Dick and Bruce had got, the more fractured his own relationship with Bruce had become. It hadn’t happened overnight, but as time had passed things had continued to get worse and worse until it was Jason and Bruce who were having the shouting matches.Dick had tried to push some bullshit claim that the heart of their fights was that Jason was becoming too violent. Which, yeah, that had been part of it, but Bruce was wrong. Who cared if he shattered the collarbone of a rapist or broke the arms of some scumbag drug dealer? They’d deserved worse than what they’d got. Jason wouldn’t be anywhere near as soft nowadays. Bruce had wanted him to prop up a pillow before taking out the guy who had seconds earlier been dragging a kid across the room by the hair like an animal. It was insane. None of the serious bad guys were truly scared of Batman. They didn’t care if they got knocked around a little then thrown into jail for a few months before they inevitably got out. Hell, a lot of them enjoyed their sick game of catch and release they played with the Bat. The victims of their crimes didn’t get their justice, their vengeance. They had to go to sleep at night, those who were still able to sleep, knowing the monster who had hurt them and their loved ones was still out there, ready to hurt more people. Make more victims. Maybe even come back for them. The punishment had to fit the crime, you had to make the bad guys fear you so they wouldn’t dare to try and hurt anyone else because they know hell awaits them if they do. Batman had always had his stupid line- justice, not vengeance- but he’d been wrong. Justice was vengeance.Dick had sided with Bruce, of course. For all his talk of being independent and being his own person, he sure seemed to have a lot of Bruce drilled into him. The older boy had tried a gentler approach, trying to reason with Jason why hurting the bad guys wasn’t ok. Unfortunately for him, his reasoning had sucked. He was better than the bad guys because, unlike them, he was hurting bad guys, and only the most evil and dangerous of the bad guys, to help save people. It was obvious. Logic even a first grader could understand, yet Dick somehow never got it. He hadn’t even been killing them back then, but Dick had still acted like Jason was doing something wrong. Asshole had even had the gall to act worried about him. Every time another criminal had been hauled away in an ambulance, Dick had looked at him with sad, worried eyes like he’d just kicked a puppy instead if a serial murderer or some other similar piece of human debris. The climax of it all though had been Felipe Garzonas.Jason’s blood boiled at the mere thought of the scumbag. He’d been a serial rapist, unrepentant and unafraid of Batman’s ‘justice’. His father had been a diplomat, giving his son diplomatic immunity. The bastard could literally get away with murder. And Bruce had let him. His inability to stop the man had made Jason livid. Made him ask questions.The piece of shit had been preparing to flee the country, so he could commit his crimes without the Bat breathing down his neck. Not before he threatened one of his past victims though. Jason wondered if she’d known that her tormentor would soon be leaving the country. Probably not. If she had, she might not have done what she did.He'd arrived at her run-down apartment ahead of Batman. They’d had footage of Felipe heading towards her apartment and had come rushing to her aid.It had been too late.The pure rage that had coursed through his entire body when he saw her hanging there had been overwhelming. When he’d turned to see Felipe cowering by the balcony doors, he’d immediately charged at the man with a roar, intent on making him pay for his crimes.His rage must have terrified Felipe because the man had foolishly fumbled open the door and fled onto the balcony. Trapped with nowhere to go and an enraged teenage vigilante bearing down on him, the scumbag had started to truly panic. As Jason had leapt at him, he’d instinctively jerked back, eyes bright with panic. The degrading wood of the balcony railing had partially given way and the man who thought he could escape justice had toppled over the edge.And fallen twenty-two stories to the street below.Jason had made no attempt to save him.Batman had walked in on an angry Robin leaning over the balcony looking down at the splattered mess below.He’d asked Jason if Garzonas had fallen or been pushed. He hadn’t believed Jason’s answer. The revulsion in his eyes had spoken volumes, he’d thought Jason was a murderer. As if ridding the world of that filth would have classified as murder even if he had pushed him.That incident had been the tipping point. A few days later, after an explosive fight, Bruce had benched him from Robin for an indefinite amount of time. Like Jason was ever going to take that lying down. Less than a week later he had broken into the Batcave and taken his Robin suit (he hadn’t stolen it, it was his) to use in the search for his birth mother. A quest that had ended spectacularly well.Jason scowled, then let out a sigh, running a hand through his hair. He didn’t want to be remembering all of that shit now. It wasn’t the time or the place.Pushing all those dark thoughts away best he could, he walked briskly over to the kitchen table and scooped up his laptop. He brought the device with him as he plopped down on the couch, getting into a comfortable position than opening the screen. The light it gave off was the strongest light source in the room, but it was all the light Jason needed.He had a heist to plan.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
It was stuff like this that got the Bats their reputation for being overdramatic. It wasn’t an untrue stereotype, but still.Dick had spent almost ten minutes now crouching at the edge of the skyscraper, high above the unsuspecting city, brooding as his cape fluttered dramatically in the night breeze. It was such a Batman pose Jason was tempted to step out of hiding and give him a kick just to get him to quit it. He wasn’t going to though.Red X had arrived at the facility before Robin, sneaking onto the rooftop just as the city sunk into the full darkness of night. Well, as dark as a big city like this could get. He’d deduced which part of the roof Dick was most likely to use as a lookout. Best vantage point, high enough to go unseen by those below, easy paths down to various points of interest. Then Jason had gone and hid in the section of roof slightly above it. It had worked out perfectly, Jason’s patch of roof had satellite dishes and a few other things to hide behind while Dick’s was an open, larger space.As predicted, Dick had grappled up shortly after. His older brother had quickly scanned the area over, but clearly wasn’t expecting anyone to be up here. Bats were used to having the rooftops to themselves and it didn’t make sense for a thief to be on the skyscraper roof when what the thief was trying to steal was underground. Dick wasn’t an idiot, he knew what Red X was after. But this wasn’t an ordinary heist and Jason wasn’t an ordinary thief. Jason Todd was never one to be predictable.Peeking out a little further around the satellite dish he was currently hiding behind, Jason narrowed his eyes as he studied the older boy critically. This was the closest he’d been to his older brother without distractions since before his death. It gave him the chance to really look at the older boy.Dickie was in a bad mood, that much was clear. Jason couldn’t see his face now, his back was facing him, but the brooding anger was radiating off him in waves. Physically he looked about the same as Jason remembered him. A bit taller, though still shorter than Jason. Definitely a little older looking. Healthy, as far as Jason could tell. Same haircut. No major changes to his Robin outfit aside from what appeared to be some upgrades to his armor. There wasn’t much more he could tell from this distance.Huh, he really hadn’t changed that much. For some reason Jason had thought his death would have left some sort of visible effect on his brother, but that wasn’t the case. A silly thought maybe, but a thought nonetheless. He could just attack Dick now, catch him by surprise while he was all on his lonesome, but Jason didn’t want to make a move until he knew where the other Titans were. Dick was clearly waiting for them to report in so they could show up any second. Once they were all accounted for, he could lure them into the building and then split them up so he could have Dick alone. He didn’t want a repeat of last night with all of Dick’s friends buzzing around and getting in the way. It had made his fight with Dick short and impersonal. So frustrating. He’d come to this city for Dick, he wanted to fight Dick. It wasn’t a lot to ask.A flicker of movement alerted Jason to a small something making a fast approach from the sky to the right. He switched his gaze away from Dick to track it as it drew nearer. It was a bird. An owl. A green owl. Definitely a good choice for a nocturnal hunt.Thankfully, the kid didn’t stay in that form long. He dove down to land by Robin, shifting back into a human just before hitting the rooftop. Dick stood up, but didn’t turn to greet his friend. Good grief, Dick really was channeling his inner Batman right now. He better not keep this up all night or Jason was gonna get pissed fast.The lack of greeting seemed to throw the kid off, leaving him shifting uneasily on his feet unsure of what to say. “So,” he said, settling on a somewhat joking approach. Jason was close enough that he could overhear without the help of enhancers. “You’re pretty much kicking yourself for not getting rid of that Red X suit when you had the chance, huh?”Jason hadn’t been expecting Dick’s response to be pleasant, but he raised an eyebrow when Dick’s clenched fists started to literally shake in anger. Still couldn’t see his face, but it didn’t take a genius to guess what his expression was. Dick really was upset over this. Jason wasn’t sorry, but he could sympathize. If anyone had ever dared to steal one of his Robin suits he would have beaten the thief bloody, especially if the thief was using the suit for seemingly nefarious purposes.No one had ever been that combination of clever and stupid to pull a stunt like that off though.Beast Boy noticed the shaking fists as well and let out a nervous laugh before shrugging and raising his hands in a sign of surrender. “Forget I said anything.”Dick finally turned around. Surprisingly, he didn’t look angry to the untrained eye or to someone who didn’t know Dick better. However, Jason was trained, and he did know Dick, so he recognized that the tightness in his face wasn’t natural. And he was willing to bet Dick’s blue eyes were furious beneath his mask. There was a controlled anger in his voice as he spoke.“I couldn’t destroy it,” he explained, not looking Beast Boy in the eye. “The Xenothium power core is too dangerous to dispose of. It was supposed to stay locked away.”True. Technically, Dick had done nothing wrong except for not using better security, not that that would’ve stopped Jason anyway. He supposed one could also argue Dick never should have used Xenothium for the suit to begin with, but it gave the suit a ton of incredible capabilities it wouldn’t have had otherwise. Seemed like a good excuse to him.Neither of the young heroes startled when a black portal suddenly appeared in the roof floor and the magic girl rose out of it. They must be used to it. Jason hadn’t startled, but it had surprised him. Man, that was freaky.Without pause she pulled down her hood, revealing her face, and announced. “No sign of Red X.” No sign indeed. Where had they been looking for him? They didn’t have much to go on besides Red X wanted Xenothium. That didn’t leave them with a lot of places to search.As he was pondering over this, the alien girl touched down on the roof. So this was a scheduled meet up then. Her voice was worried as she added, “Nor of Cyborg.” Jason’s first thought was ‘how the hell do they expect him to make it up here?’ They were over a thousand feet up and as far as Jason knew the guy couldn’t fly. But then he remembered Starfire was stronger than she looked. She had probably been tasked with carrying him up here and he didn’t show which was what had led to her worry. Yeah, that made sense.Frowning, Dick took out his communicator. “Cyborg, report. Cyborg!” After a couple seconds during which Jason assumed he received no response, Dick turned off the device sharply. “Red X must have attacked him,” he concluded angrily.Well that was news to Red X.He hadn’t attacked Cyborg. …Had he? A tiny burst of uncertainty shot through him and he mentally backtracked, reviewing everything he’d done from waking up this morning until now. He hated that he even had to question something like this. Upon finishing, he withheld a sigh of relief. No, he wasn’t missing anything. Something else must have happened.A few yards away, Dick shoved his communicator back onto his belt. “If Cyborg is hurt, it’s my fault.” Ah, the classic guilt complex.Starfire seemed to agree with Jason’s assessment. “Robin-“ she started to protest.Dick didn’t let her finish, refusing to be consoled. “I’m responsible, Starfire. For everything that’s happened.”Jason couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Geez, the way Dick was acting you’d think he’d stolen the suit then used it to shoot up an orphanage or something. He’d broken into one warehouse, stolen one scanner, and barely ruffed up the Titans when they tried to stop him. The worst any of them had got was some bruises. That alone should have tipped Dick off that he wasn’t some crazed maniac or whatever it was Dick seemed to think, but his older brother was a little off his game with all this. Jason hadn’t done anything to earn such a vitriolic response from Dick. He was overacting.The red-haired alien hovered closer to Dick, clasping her hands to her chest. “No Robin,” she said gently, shaking her head. “That error that you made, it is in the past. You are no longer the one inside that suit.”Ok, this was just getting awkward and that line was too perfect to pass up. If Cyborg wasn’t joining the party anytime soon, the rest of them were here and they could start without him. Jason silently slipped out of his hiding spot and darted to the edge of the roof, directly above the oblivious Titans. They were all too focused on Dick’s dramatics to notice him sneaking up on them.He smirked and spoke loudly to make sure he gained their attention. “And personally-“ Their heads simultaneously spun up to look at him, shock clear on their faces. “I think it looks much cooler on me.”Before they had a chance to recover from his sudden appearance, Jason sent an X hurling towards Dick and Starfire who were both still standing (or hovering in her case) close together. They both dodged the attack and Jason jumped down to their level, which was larger and more open. A more suitable battleground. As soon as his feet hit the ground, a green rhino was charging at him, large feet pounding on the rooftop. Raven followed close behind like a silent shadow.Noting the angle of each of their approaches, he threw one of his sticky Xs at the duo. It wrapped around the rhino’s feet, sending him crashing into Raven who got stuck in the X as well. The momentum sent them hurling towards the edge of the roof.Jason started moving off towards Dick, but watched with admiration as Starfire caught the pair before they fell, lifting the full grown rhino above her head in an impressive show of strength. Kinda pointless though. All three of them could fly, they would’ve escaped from the X before hitting the ground.As Starfire helped to free her friends from the sticky substance, Jason was left with Dick alone. He grinned as Dick ran at him with an angry growl, arm pulling back to deliver a punch.Jason merely stood his ground, his stance cool and unconcerned. Moving slightly to the side, he used one of his metal Xs to deflect the blow with ease, causing Dick to overshoot and run past him.The frustration from Dick was palpable and it was making him sloppy. What did Dick think doing the same attack twice would do? Honestly. This time when Dick ran at him, Jason not only deflected the attack, but tripped him as well, sending him crashing into the pavement.Dick immediately struggled to his feet, but Jason took advantage of the half second he was down to get in close. Close enough to grab Dick’s mask and pull at it. It didn’t come off, of course, the adhesive was still firmly in place, but Jason wasn’t trying to unmask him. Almost as soon as he grabbed it, he released it, letting it snap back into Dick’s eyes. Dick flinched back with a yelp.Jason let out a snicker. It was a cheap move and kinda stupid, most enemies who got in that close weren’t just going to grab at the mask, but it was funny as hell. It was a teasing move designed to blind the enemy for a few seconds. Jason had done it on Dick a few times before when sparring, but he seriously doubted Dick would recognize it now. He was angry, it was mid-fight, and he still believed Jason to be dead. He wasn’t going to think into it.On the other side of the roof, the rest of the Titans had just finished freeing themselves. That was his cue to leave. Before they could make it over to him and before Dick recovered, Jason backflipped off the side of the roof.Wind roared past him as he dived. It was an exhilarating experience, freefalling like this. It had terrified him back when he was first learning, but now it felt as natural swimming was to the average person.Calculating the distance between himself and the fast approaching building below, he readied his grapple. Just to be safe. In case the teleporter malfunctioned again (which it shouldn’t, he’d tested it before coming) he didn’t want to end his second life by splatting on the ground in a failed jump. That would just be embarrassing. Especially considering how he’d died the first-time round. Everything went smoothly though. A few seconds before he would have hit the roof of the lower building, he activated the teleporter.He landed gently on the tiled floor of a fairly generic looking complex building hallway, quickly scanning his new surroundings for signs of any threats. Seeing none, he began to stealthily make his way towards the Xenothium. Now that there was no fighting to distract him, he could focus on analyzing the situation. Besides Cyborg not being here, nothing had changed from his original plan.As expected, Dick hadn’t alerted the company of the almost guaranteed break-in. There was no increase in security. Dick didn’t want to risk spooking Red X off. Not that whatever security the company would have provided would’ve stopped Jason anyway, but Dick didn’t know that.Dick intended this to be a trap. He knew this was his best bet at catching Red X and getting his suit back. Predictable as usual. If Red X decided this heist was too difficult to be worth it and went elsewhere to steal Xenothium, Dick was basically out of luck. His older brother was using the Xenothium to lure Red X out, keep him in the city. To that end, Dick’s plan had worked, but he was going to be sorely disappointed when the rest of his little scheme failed.Jason knew almost step for step what Dick would do. Dick and his teammates would split up to search for him, it was more efficient. Dick would assign himself to patrol the most direct path to the Xenothium. With this ‘everything is my fault’ mentality he’d trapped himself in, he wanted to be the one to catch Red X so he’d take the area he was most likely to be.The Titans weren’t going to just rush straight down to guard the vault either. If Red X got that far, the dangers increased dramatically. The robbery could potentially become much harder to stop, especially since they knew Red X was very capable of beating them in a fight. And a missed hit inside a vault of highly unstable Xenothium ore could lead to the explosive deaths of them all and half the city. No, they’d do everything in their power to catch him before he reached the vault.They’d fail, obviously, but it was fun to watch them try. It only took a few minutes to reach the first obstacle. The somewhat narrow hallway leading up to the vault door made the door look bigger than it actually was. Jason strolled up to it with no sense of urgency. People thought vault doors were so impressive, this was a minor annoyance at best. Still no sign of the Titans, but they had to be in the building by now.A few yards in front of the door was a control panel. He walked over to examine it more closely. Glancing it over, it seemed to require a code, a keyboard, and fingerprints. But the device itself was pretty simple, an electrified X to the mainframe would pop the door right open. Wouldn’t turn off the laser field he knew lay behind it, but that wasn’t a problem.He tossed an annoyed look down the empty hallway.What was a problem was if he fried the door open now and kept going, when Dick finally showed up he’d know Red X had been there and call his friends over. Then he’d have to deal with all of them in this enclosed space. The mere thought was enough to make Jason groan in frustration.No, he’d wait for Dick then open the door. That way Dick’s focus would stay on him as he gave chase. Jason’s blood tingled with anticipation at the thought of racing his older brother through what amounted to an obstacle course. That would really get the adrenaline pumping. If the Titans weren’t here, this break-in would be pretty boring. This place was no Wayne Industries. He had to backtrack a bit to find somewhere to hide, the hallway leading up to the vault was barren and completely exposed. Fortunately, he found a supply closet around the bend he could use. It was locked, but it was just a generic door. He slid an X through the slit between the door and the wall and forced the lock back, then slipped inside.It was dark, the only light leaking in dimly from under the door, big enough not to trigger his trauma, and there was a chemical smell the mask didn’t fully filter out. It was a good spot. It allowed him to hear, or in Dick’s case, see if anyone passed by and he was still within teleporting range of the vault door if need be.He could technically teleport past the vault door, but that had the risk of landing him in a laser. And they weren’t ‘touch it and an alarm goes off’ lasers, these were ‘touch it and you’ll cut your arm off’ lasers. Or he could accidently have part of him land inside an object (he wasn’t 100% sure what the damage would be, but it wouldn’t be pleasant), the suit’s programming could only do so much. You really had to know where you were going when you teleported otherwise you could land yourself in a real shitty situation. It was best if you could see where you wanted to go and if you couldn’t see it, you pretty much had to pre-plan the jump.Jason didn’t have to wait long. A couple minutes later, a shadow passed the door. Walking on the ground, but no sound of footsteps. Jason grinned. Definitely Dick.He reached for the teleporter, intent on making a dramatic entrance, but faltered as a distant feminine scream pierced the air.A wave of unease washed over him, hearing a girl scream like that always had that effect on him. He recognized the voice as Starfire’s. Annoyance quickly replaced his unease. What, did she see a spider or something? Did he really have them that on edge? She was going to distract Dick.With an aggravated sigh, he activated the teleporter, hoping Dick would just call her on his communicator and not go running off to try and save his wannabe girlfriend.Turns out Starfire’s paranoia worked out great from him though. When he noiselessly appeared back in front of the vault door, Dick had turned to look frantically towards the origin of the scream and away from the vault. He must think Red X had attacked her.Jason leaned back against the vault door with a smirk, casually crossing his arms in front of him. He watched, amused, as the unaware Dick began to run back up the hallway.Well that wouldn’t do at all.“What’s the matter kid?” he called out, still leaning against the vault. Dick whipped around so fast he gave Kid Flash a run for his money. His face contorted in shock, then immediately morphed into anger.Jason continued to taunt him. “Don’t you want to play?” He pushed off the vault and straightened. “After all, they’re your toys.” Before Dick had moved more than a step forward, Jason threw several Xs in his direction.Dick dodged of course, but Jason hadn’t been aiming for him.There was a crackling sound and a bright electrical burst as the Xs fried the control panel. Dick was close enough that he flinched away from the blast. Jason heard a clunking sound behind him and could feel the vault opening. The bright red glow of the lasers reflected on the metal edges of the door.Because one of his main reasons for all this was to show off, Jason backflipped into the passage before turning around and leaping through the spiderweb maze of lasers in an impressive display of gymnastics. Dick launched forward, following Jason’s path leap for leap. If Jason dove between three lasers, Dick dove between those three lasers. If Jason pushed off a wall, Dick pushed off that same wall. If Jason flipped over a laser, Dick flipped over that same laser. It was basically cheating. Jason was doing all the work and Dick got to focus on Red X. But Jason would have done the same in this circumstance so fair enough.At the end of the passage it opened into a large circular shaft. It went about two hundred feet down. There was a lift he could call up, but he didn’t have that kind of time.He dove off the edge, eyeing behind him as he did to see what Dick was doing. Dick dove off the ledge as well, entirely focused on Red X, a scowl firmly in place.Jason switched back to looking below him to see he was rapidly approaching a circular forcefield at the bottom of the shaft. If they’d taken the lift, it would have opened for them, but luckily Jason had another method available to him.Calculating the distance between himself and Dick and timing it out in his head, Jason forged an X in his glove then threw it at the barrier. The X expanded, tearing a large X out of the energy filed. Immediately, it started to repair itself, but Jason had already dropped through the center, using both his cape and grapel to break his fall.Dick, however, did not make it in time. The field had regenerated completely. Dick, seeing he wasn’t going to make it through, had used his cape to glide towards the wall then dug a birdarang into the wall to stop himself. He’d then half jumped, half glided the remaining distance to the ground.Jason didn’t stick around to see whatever way Dick was going to get through. This was his chance to get a few steps ahead, get a lay of the land. His information had ended at the shaft. Everything after that had been heavily encrypted and he hadn’t had time to decode it, so this was unknown territory. And it wasn’t going to take Dick long to figure out a way to get down here.The next room instantly set off alarm bells in Jason’s head. A large, empty room with a floor covered in suspicious, shiny black tiles and a door on the far end? The giant laser gun looking thing in the ceiling was a bit of a giveaway too.As a test, Jason reached out with one leg and stepped on one of the tiles. The panel lit up red the second he put weight on it and the device on the ceiling began to blast down a powerful red beam, moving in his direction at a starling speed.Jason jerked his foot back and the laser stopped. Hmm. His eyebrows furrowed thoughtfully as he carefully studied the room.So the floor was touch sensitive and whatever it was made of it didn’t get damaged by the laser. It was fast too. No control panel that he could see. He could outrun it, but the tiles went straight up to the door and the door was locked. He wouldn’t be able to stop and unlock it without being caught by the laser. Even if he teleported across the room, he still wouldn’t have time to get the door open.There was only one laser though. It couldn’t chase two people at once.A mischievous grin spread across his face. It had to be a person, if he just threw a heavy object on the ground, the laser would simply destroy it and move back to him. He needed a moving target. And there was only one person down here who could fulfill that role.He quickly ducked back to the previous room, hiding behind a cabinet filled with various scientific tools.Made it just in time too. Dick came running past about fifteen seconds later, no longer even attempting to be quiet now that was giving chase. Jason silently followed behind. It was easy. Dick was so focused on going forward and hunting Red X, he spared no thought to what was behind him.Dick came to a halt just before entering the room, obviously able to tell there was something up with it. Jason didn’t give him any time to think about it though.He quickly rounded the doorframe, shoving Dick off the ledge and onto the panels, which lit up beneath him. “After you.”Dick stumbled for a second as he regained his footing and that second was enough time for the laser to reach him. Jason watched as Dick’s eyes widened with alarm and he leaped backwards, further into the room, to avoid the blast then proceeded to run as the laser pursued him.With that taken care of, Jason teleported over to the door. As he’d expected, the laser didn’t react to the new weight, already locked on to Dick. Jason wasn’t worried about him. Dick was fast, he’d outrun crazier things before, he’d be fine.Turned out all you needed to do to open the door was hold down a button for about six seconds. There was no way he could have stayed still long enough to open the door without dying if Dick hadn’t so graciously volunteered his services.As the door opened, he could hear the repeating blasts get louder as Dick got closer, the laser still practically right on top of him.Jason stepped through the door and after a very short hallway realized that he’d arrived at the Xenothium vault. The large circular room was lined on all sides with small circular vaults all filled with Xenothium ore. In the center of the room was a control panel and a small tube of Xenothium levitated in the middle of a force field. Well in that case he needed to lose Dick for a while so he could gather what he needed.There was a vault door he could lock from the inside. And there was a shut door button on the door he’d just came through. Dick wouldn’t be able to open it with the laser after him. Since this was the only way out of the vault, Dick would probably just wait on the safe ground for Red X to start making his escape and try to get him then. Maybe set up an ambush. Or he could run around in pointless circles with the laser chasing after him, Jason didn’t care. He’d just teleport past him and book it out of here. If he was honest with himself, he was a little sad that this was basically the end. Not much more likely to happen and he was leaving Jump after this.He didn’t dwell on that long though. He didn’t have time, Dick was almost to the door.Hovering a hand over the button to close the door, he watched as Dick approached, running at a full sprint as the laser kept on him. A furious look appeared on his older brother’s face when he saw Red X waiting at the door.“Thanks for the hand, kid,” Jason said, flashing a smirk Dick couldn’t see, but probably knew was there, then pressing the button. Dick made one last desperate lunge for the door, but it had already closed on his face. There was a thump on the metal as some part of Dick hit the door.Not wasting time, Jason went back into the vault, shutting and locking the large vault door behind him. Just in case. Then he went over to the control panel and looked at the screen, reading everything displayed. The Xenothium floating in the field was in a special container, so he went for that first. A small, but secure vial.“Xenothium ore,” he said, pleased. He typed in the command and a robotic hand came out of the floor, grabbed the vial, then retracted back into the ground. The force field deactivated now that there was nothing to protect. A few moments later, a hatch opened on the control panel and the ore slid out of it. Jason snatched up the red element in triumph. “Enough to power the suit for a good long time.” Allowing him to focus on other things.He stashed the vial away in one of the suit’s secret pockets. It was always smart to have a back up. Something he could keep if the more obvious stuff was somehow taken from him.Jason glanced at the rows of mini vaults built into the walls. The vial he had now might be enough to keep him going for a decent amount of time, but might as well stock up while he was here.From the control panel, he unlocked all the vaults, then grabbed one of the yellow containers used to safely transport the unstable element.Opening the door to the closest vault, he slid out the tray which held half a dozen vials of Xenothium. He let out a pleased hum. This shouldn’t take long.And it didn’t take long. About two minutes later he was kneeling on the floor loading the last of the vials he could fit into the container’s slots. As he fit the last vial into place, a feeling of satisfaction washed over him. “I love it when the good guy wins.”The thundering boom that followed almost directly after his statement nearly made him jump out of his skin. Bewildered and with a creeping sense of apprehension, he cast a worried look behind him to the vault door where the sound had come from. What the fuck was-Jason leaped to his feet as a large red beam began to blast its way through the wall, cutting out the area around the vault door. The air vibrated from the blast. His jaw nearly dropped when the vault door fell forward onto the ground to reveal Dick looking like a total badass holding the laser torn from the ceiling. The wires and everything were still attached to the ceiling, but the laser itself was being wielded by Dick. The thing was almost as big as he was. He’d used it to cut through both doors and the room behind him looked trashed. How the hell did Dick manage that? And all this seemed a little destructive for him. Had Dick even made a single quip yet? Jason didn’t think he had. This all seemed very out of character and it was starting to freak Jason out a little.Dick threw down the laser because of course there was no way he’d use it on Red X, especially in a room full og highly unstable and explosive elements. “You’re not going to win,” Dick said threateningly, his voice dead serious.For a second, Jason thought Dick was responding to what he’d just said, but then he realized there was no way Dick had heard that. He was just spouting another cliché hero line. Jason silently swore he was going to get a quip out of him before this was over.Dick started to come at him and Jason quickly reached down to grab the handle of the container. He was a fraction of a second too slow and Dick landed a flying kick to his chest. The blow knocked him back into the wall, his back slamming into the hard surface and he lost his grip on the container which went clattering to the ground.Jason picked himself back up, leaving the case where it was for now. The calculating look on Dick’s face was hard and angry, just waiting for Red X to make a move, ready to react the moment something happened.“Kid,” Jason said in a lighthearted tone, “you are taking life way too seriously.”They charged at each other. Just before they met, Jason preformed a flip to get behind his older brother. Dick immediately responded by turning and throwing several balls of mini explosives. Jason dodged the blasts and sent a handful of Xs hurling towards Dick. Taking out his bo staff, Dick blocked several of them and the rest embedded themselves in the wall behind him.Ok, if that was how he wanted to play it. Jason’s weapons were far superior to some dumb stick.X shaped blades extended out of the Xs on top of his gloves, long enough that they went a couple inches past the edges of his hands. It had taken a bit of practice to get used to using them, the shape being unusual, and he’d never tried to use them in a real fight before but now was as good a time as any to really test them out.Seeing the light gleam off the metal blades on Red X’s gloves, Dick’s eyes narrowed.Then they were at it again. Dick with his staff and Jason with his blades. Dick’s masterful handling of the stick almost made up for it just being a stick. He twirled it around, blocking and attacking with swift, precise motions. Jason wasn’t one to be outdone and came down on him with bladed hands, fast and skilled. Fighting with both hands also allowed him a greater range of movement compared to Dick, who for the most part had to keep both hands on the staff.They battled around the room, neither managing to land a solid hit on the other. Jason’s blood was singing and he was definitely enjoying the fight more than Dick was. Finally, Dick got lucky and his staff rammed into Jason’s stomach, pushing him back a few feet.He winced at the pain, but quickly pushed it away. Might as well kick it up a notch. There were other Titans in the building after all. And he assumed Dick’s just-destroy-everything stunt had triggered some sort of alarm. The company probably had a squad on their way, though the Titans may tell them to stay back and let them handle it. As fun as this was, he couldn’t hang around long.Activating the device in his gloves, the blades on his hands began to spin like sawblades. Dick dodged the first few punches, one time causing Jason to gouge out a long tear in the wall. Then their weapons clashed together and his X blades got stuck on Dick’s staff.They both pushed back on the other. Jason knew he was stronger, but Dick was holding his own, struggling fiercely to not be overtaken.“Why did you steal the suit?!” Dick demanded, increasing his efforts, “What are you planning to do?!”Jason grinned. He was prepared for this question. He’d known it was bound to come up so he’d invented the perfect cover story.“Whatever I want.”Before Dick had time to digest that answer, Jason grabbed on to Dick’s staff and dropped onto his back. The move pulled a surprised Dick down with him and he used Dick’s momentum to toss him over his shoulder. Jason then leaped to his feet, using the time he’d bought himself to gain some distance.“Not everyone wants to play the big villain, kid,” Jason continued. Dick stayed where he was, his desire to learn about his enemy keeping him in place. The bad guy’s monologue was typically very enlightening. Unfortunately for him, he’d be underwhelmed with Jason’s answer. “I’m a thief. I’m not threatening your precious city.” Jason sheathed his blades and pointed to himself. “Just lookin’ out for number one.” Dick’s eyes narrowed angrily. “So you’re not psychotic,” he concluded, voice dripping with disgust. “You’re just selfish.”Jason grinned again. That was exactly what he wanted Dick to think. Red X was just some selfish asshole with some serious skills. Not a real threat. If Dick believed Red X was a murderer or a dangerous lunatic, he would hound Jason relentlessly until he got his suit back. A thief though? Well, other things would take priority, especially if Red X wasn’t in the near vicinity.He raised his hands in mock surrender, keeping his palms facing towards Dick. “Lighten up, chuckles. I’m not such a bad guy, once you get to know me.” Having said his piece, he moved quickly in an attempt to catch Dick off guard. He blasted several Xs out of the Xs on his palms. Dick dodged them all, but not the X-arang to the leg.Dick fell to the ground and Jason went in for a kick to the head, intending to knock him out. This really was dragging on too long. His kick only hit air though as Dick backflipped away. Jason lost sight of him for a second as Dick sidestepped around him. The kick Dick delivered to his back slammed him face first into the wall. He hissed in pain and irritation pricked at the edges of his mind.Ok, that’s it.Jason dodged around Dick and dove for his canister of Xenothium. He scooped it up and turned to face Dick. Across the room, the older boy had a birdarang in his hand and was poised to throw it, but their eyes locked and Dick paused.“Playtime’s over, kid,” Jason threatened. “Better back off, or I trip the power core and the core triggers the rocks.” He opened the seal on his belt, revealing the button Dick knew would trigger the core. Not that Jason would actually do it, he wasn’t evil or crazy. He just wanted to test if Dick thought he was. “And I don’t think you want that on your conscious.”Dick didn’t back down. “And I don’t think you want to be disintegrated,” he replied confidently. Well he had him there.Jason tightened his grip on the case. Of the two of them, he was closer to the exit. What used to be the vault door was just a few steps behind him. He was going to make a run for it.Or he was about to until movement and a flash of white from behind him caught his attention. He turned to see several people in strange outfits standing silently behind him. They were wearing what looked like white hazmat suits with grey helmets and red lenses for the eyes. They all had packed on their backs that connected to some kind of pronged metal sticks.These weren’t security personal, right? Jason hesitated, not wanting to hurt people just doing their jobs, but confused by their attire. He was getting a serious creep vibe from them. If they weren’t security than who were they?All these thoughts ran through Jason’s head in a second, but that second cost him.The closest hazmat guy raised his stick and suddenly an electrifying pain shot through Jason’s body, burning like fire. It was as though someone had attached a live wire to each of his nerves. His vision went white and for a moment he was back strapped to a table receiving one of Ra’s’ punishments. He cried out, barely reregistering that he’d fallen to the ground.His eyesight blurred, everything reduced to fuzzy blobs, and black was fast invading even that. Everything around him sounded quieter, far off. Dick’s cry was almost a whisper. They’d attacked Dick too? His sluggish brain couldn’t even begin to analyze that. He vaguely felt a hand pry away his case from his grasp, but his body was shutting down. The last thing he saw before succumbing to the darkness completely was more white blobs entering the vault. -----------------His head hurt.Scratch that, his whole body hurt, his head hurt the worst.He let out a groan, forcing his eyes open and trying to remember what had happened. He was on the ground. He shouldn’t be on the ground. He needed to get off the ground. That seemed like a tall order right now though. For a second, he stared dully at the wall in front of him. Someone had emptied all the vaults. Then it all came rushing back to him.Crap.Jason pushed himself off the ground and stood on unsteady feet, the movement making his head spin. The pain was quickly fading though, so that was good. “Urgh,” he groaned, glancing groggily around the room. “Ok, who are the moon men?”His heart jumped as thick metal bars suddenly shot up around him, snapping his brain fully awake. He was caged. And it took him less than a second to identify the culprit.Dick glared at him from behind the control panel. Jason was glad to see he looked mostly unharmed. There was a bruise forming on his right arm, but he was pretty sure that was from him.Jason realized he was where the vial of Xenothium had been floating when he’d first entered the vault. And this certainly wasn’t where he’d blacked out, so Dick must have dragged him over here then activated the emergency security measures to try and trap him. But that meant-His heart dropped to his stomach and for a moment pure horror shot through his body. Then he realized his mask was still in place and he still had his belt. Dick hadn’t taken them from him while he was unconscious. His secret was still safe. Overwhelming relief washed over him, quickly followed by confusion.Why had Dick not taken advantage of such a golden opportunity? Yes, Jason had changed the removal procedures, he wasn’t dumb, so Dick would have to work a little to figure out how to safely remove them, but Dick wanted the suit back so desperately. What could have made Dick opt to simply lock Red X up instead of putting in the extra work to get back his precious, totally-wasted-on-him suit? He didn’t have long to ponder over it because a heartbeat later Dick spoke. “Criminals,” he answered him, anger burning in his voice, “Just like you.”Seriously? There was no way this was a coincidence. They didn’t just happen to break in the same night he did, though with what Dick had done to the security they hadn’t needed to break that much. And Jason certainly hadn’t told anyone what he was planning, so it must have been a Titan who let it slip.So that was it, understanding quashing the last of his anxiety. Dick didn’t have time to figure out how to remove the suit because he had to go after whoever these losers were. It looked like they’d stolen every ounce of Xenothium in here so their motives couldn’t be anything good. That much Xenothium, it was probably more on the horrific side. But if Dick thought this cage could hold him, he was sorely mistaken. This was nothing.Narrowing his eyes, Jason took a step forward and grabbed onto the bars. “Come on, kid,” he jeered, leaning forward between the bars. “You don’t really think this little playpen can hold me?”Without taking his eyes off Red X, Dick hit a button on the control panel. Electricity shot up the bars, shocking his hands, and Jason instantly jerked back. Ok, so that made it slightly more complicated. Still not a big deal. He wouldn’t be able to just teleport out of here now though and Dick knew that.“You don’t even care do you?” Dick fumed. If Jason didn’t know any better he could have sworn he heard an undertone of frustration. As if he thought Red X was wasting his talent. “A lowlife maniac just got his hands on enough Xenothium to disintegrate the entire city. And it’s your fault!”Who was doing what for why now?!Jason was really starting to appreciate the benefits of having a mask that covered his whole face. It made hiding his confusion and growing alarm much easier.Doing his best to keep up the act through his racing thoughts, he leaned forward, careful to not touch the bars. “Don’t you mean our fault?” And that was being generous. Really, this was at least 80% Dick’s fault.“At least I’m going to do something about it,” Dick shot back. “And if you cared about anything other than yourself, you’d be helping.”‘Oh, just try and stop me.’ The only reason he wasn’t already out there kicking this guy’s ass was because Dick kept on talking. That, and he had no idea who or where the bad guy was, so he’d have to tail Dick to find him.But aloud, all he said was. “Sorry, kid, some guys don’t like to play the hero.”Dick shook his head in disgust. “I’ll be back to take you to jail.” Then he was off to save the day, leaving Jason alone.Now free to start making his escape, Jason eyed the control panel. The gaps between the bars were pretty big, a little bigger and he’d be able to squeeze through if not for the electrical field, so he had a lot to work with. And this cage was meant to keep people out, not in.As he was preparing the X he needed, his mind suddenly went back to Cyborg’s absence and Starfire’s scream. He hadn’t thought into it too much before, but now he saw it in a new light.His lips went into a grim line. This could be even more serious than he’d thought. Very likely a hostage situation then. And also very likely Dick was going after this guy with no back-up. He wished Dick had elaborated more on the bad guy and his plan. Jason was in the dark with all this. But if this guy truly was a maniac trying to disintegrate a city filled with millions of people, he had to be taken out. And he couldn’t let Dick do it by himself. Plus, he was pretty pissed that those losers had gotten the jump on him. That would not happen again. Let’s see how they do in a real fight.With all that in mind, Jason threw the X.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Bad guys were so cliché. He probably could have not followed Dick at all and still figured out the bad guy was at the abandoned observatory.Jason gazed up to where the observatory stood on top of a cliff overlooking the bay. It was quiet except for the sound of waves lapping at the cliffside, but Dick wouldn’t have come straight here if he didn’t know this was where the bad guy was.Crouching down beside Dick’s bike, which lay discarded in some bushes, Jason quickly removed the tracker he’d thrown on it as Dick had sped off. The small device has gone unnoticed by Dick in his rush. Jason didn’t have a vehicle at the moment, so he’d been forced to follow by grapple until he’d come across some very unlucky punk trying to break into a car. The punk had come out of their meeting with several bruises and possibly a concussion and Jason had come out with his motorcycle. Wasn’t like he could just take a taxi in this outfit. Not in this city. Dick had already entered the building by the time Jason had arrived. He should be able to hold his own for a few minutes until Jason made it up there. It wasn’t like Dick was incompetent. He had his moments, but usually Dick was pretty incredible. Compared to most people.Letting out a huff, Jason began to stealthily climb the hill. He hated that he was going into this with almost no information. He had no idea who this guy was or how much of a threat he posed or how many goons he had or even what he was planning to do with all that Xenothium. Dick had said they’d stolen enough to disintegrate half the city, but he’d never said that was actually what they were trying to do. It made far more sense to just sell it for a fortune. What could anyone hope to gain from destroying a city with millions of inhabitants, normal people asleep in their beds who probably didn’t even know this guy existed? That was assuming this guy was sane though. Jason had met enough psychopaths in his life to know better than to assume.As he reached the top of the hill the silence was broken by a loud, metallic clanking sound. Jason frowned. He doubted the sound meant anything good. Instead of entering the building, he skirted around the edge of the observatory to investigate the sound’s source.His suspicions were confirmed when he saw the slit in the observatory dome had opened to the night sky. He couldn’t help but notice with a rising sense of dread that it had a clear shot to the city. The madman-with-a-disintergration-canon-trying-to-destroy-the-city-and-kill-millions-of people theory was looking more and more plausible. His mouth set into a grim line. He needed to hurry.Jason decided going through the slit would be faster than making his way through the building. And presumably the bad guy would be right there when he dropped in.He did his best to ignore the very slight tinge of green starting to encroach on his vision.Taking out his grapple, he took a few steps to the right to get a better angle. His finger was sliding over the trigger when suddenly a large, bright red beam went shooting out of the slit.Jason’s arm lowered and he could do nothing but watch in wide-eyed horror as the beam flew over the bay. It only took it a couple seconds to reach Titans’ Tower. It hit with devastating power, plowing through the roof at the center of the T. Everything it touched was disintegrated, leaving a burning red hole in its wake.Despite what had just happened, he felt a small wash of relief. Thank God that no one was in there, they’d have died for sure. And thank God for villain egos that had caused him to target the Tower before the city.Shouting erupted from inside the dome, not cheers of celebration, but cries of anger and pain. It took Jason a second to process through the shock to realize that they had missed.They would have been aiming for where the two parts of the T met, that or the base of the building, and it should have been a laughably easy shot. Titans’ Tower was near the middle of the bay on an island, a close and ludicrously open target. But something had caused the beam to aim too high, making it only clip the roof. Not a small amount of damage by any means, but far better than it could have been. The building was still standing and none of the most important rooms had been touched. Even the bedrooms had come out unscathed. And judging from the unmistakable sound of goons getting their asses kicked, that something that had saved it was Dick.The urgency of the situation had become much more dire.Jason’s blood thrummed to get in there and help Dick take this maniac out, especially with the barely audible whispers that were beginning to swirl around in his head, but he was wary of the slit now. He needed to get to a higher point so he could see the canon as he entered. If he got caught in that beam it was game over.Glancing around, he felt a flash of annoyance at the lack of nearby trees or buildings. He’d have to grapple straight onto the roof. The frustratingly smooth and dome shaped roof.He’d only taken a couple of steps when suddenly a beam blasted through the wall in front of him. A wave of heat hit his body as the beam’s downward angle sent the red energy through rock before landing in the water of the bay, an explosion of steam billowing from the point of impact.Jason leapt backwards, heart pounding in his chest. His alarm mixed with disbelief as even more beams erupted erratically from the building, leaving giant, burning holes in the roof and walls.What the hell was this lunatic doing?! If he kept this up, he’d bring the building down on him. Which Jason wouldn’t mind (he’d actually celebrate it) except Dick and his friends were in there too and there was a risk that one of the wild shots would make it to the city. Hitting the observatory first was weakening it, but even a single beam reaching the city could mean thousands of deaths. The whispering was getting louder.Jason hurried over to the newly made hole. It was an easy way in and it was unlikely the canon would hit the same place twice.As he slipped through the hole, his eyes narrowed at the scene before him.Dick had clearly been handling things spectacularly well. The way he was hanging precariously on a broken piece of metal from a wrecked walkway, which trembled and groaned every time he so much as twitched, really made him seem in control of the situation. To be fair though, it looked like Dick had managed to take out about a dozen goons before getting himself in his current predicament. There were still nine left though, at least that Jason could see. They stood around the room, ignoring their downed comrades in favor of training their weapons on the dangling Robin.To make matters worse, in the center of the room where the telescope should have been was a giant canon and it was aimed right at Dick. The man sitting at the controls was obviously the main baddie.Jason studied the man critically, learning all he could from his appearance. He wore a more refined and advanced version of his goons’ white hazmat suit and only the top of his face was covered. There were black lenses covering his eyes, but they displayed a red light that showed the changes in position of the eyes underneath. Maybe he thought it was more intimidating? Some sort of tube was shoved up his nose and connected to a machine on his suit. Its purpose was unclear. The little skin that was visible was almost unnaturally pale. Everything about the man screamed weasel, from his face to his skinny frame to the way he moved. This guy was definitely more of a Riddler than a Bane.Creeping further into the chamber, a sneer made its way onto his face. The sneer dropped abruptly when he spotted what lay on the side of the room. All four Titans were encased in cylinders of a bluish clear substance. Cyborg (confirming he had been captured earlier), Beast Boy, and Raven all appeared to be unconscious, but Starfire had somehow managed to free her head and was struggling to escape.A quick sweep showed them to be in no immediate danger. Dick took priority. And once the canon was taken out, the weasel would be nothing. A silent snarl tore through Jason’s face. The piece of shit bastard thought he could murder millions? And for what, kicks and giggles?Jason swallowed, forcefully pushing back the haze of green as anger raged within him. He couldn’t lose control now. He couldn’t.He slunk forward, sticking to the shadows. Nobody saw him, even as he drew nearer and nearer. They were all preoccupied with Dick, and Jason had learned stealth from the best. He didn’t make a sound as he prepared a handful of electrified Xs. In the center of the room, weasel man started to talk. His voice had some sort of Asian accent that Jason couldn’t precisely place. “Ok, good boy, who should I destroy first? You? Or your pretty friend?” Threating the love interest? This guy really had no originality. The lunatic spun the canon around to aim it at Starfire, who redoubled her struggles. Of course, with how large the canon was, he wouldn’t be able to hit her without killing the Titan on either side of her so he’d be killing Beast Boy and Cyborg as well.Jason wouldn’t allow that to happen.He moved quickly. The Xs found their mark, the sharp edges embedding into the control panel. Weasel man flinched back with a startled, fearful yelp as the burst of electricity fried his means of control.But Jason didn’t have time to follow through. Dick hadn’t used the distraction to grapple to safety, which meant something had happened to it. And it was a long fall. Even if Dick managed to use his cape to break the fall somewhat, he’d still seriously injure something and there were goons circling below like sharks in a tank.As Dick lost his grip and began to plummet, Jason launched off the metal railing to catch him. Grabbing onto Dick, Jason’s momentum sent them both forward. Dick’s eyes widened in surprise and Jason could feel Dick stiffen as his older brother realized who his rescuer was.However, Dick didn’t get a chance to say anything before they were hurling onto the still intact part of the walkway. Jason stopped himself on the railing, but let go of Dick, tossing him slightly so he rolled to a stop on the floor. Gripping onto the rail, Jason watched from his perch as Dick quickly rose to his feet.“I thought you didn’t like to play the hero,” Dick said, almost sounding… amused. Asshole.Jason grinned under the mask. “Doesn’t mean I don’t know how.” He hopped over the rail and onto the walkway to stand with Dick.They turned to face the goons charging up the walkway together.It was incredible.They fell into sync almost instantly. An outsider watching would think they’d been fighting together their whole lives. Not wildly off from the truth, though Dick was still in the dark about that and Jason intended to keep it that way.They leapt around, flipping and punching and kicking goons left and right. Dick would set up a takedown and Jason would follow it through. Jason would punch a guy in Dick’s direction and Dick would finish him off. They could anticipate each other’s movements and act accordingly. Dick probably wasn’t even totally aware it was happening. It was muscle memory, instinct, natural, it didn’t required thought. They even mirrored each other’s moves at certain points. The goons didn’t stand a chance.Jason felt a rush of satisfaction as his boot collided with the final goon’s face and the man crumpled into a heap on the ground. Now only the main baddie was left. Should be easy. A quick blade to the throat and – wait.Crap.He cast a quick glance at Dick who was still a few steps behind him. His older brother’s focus had already shifted to the main villain (he could ask Dick what this shitbag’s name was, but he really didn’t care) who was starting to freak out now that he no longer had any henchmen to protect him. He was an evil, pathetic, psychotic loser who had just, and was still trying, to murder millions of people by disintegration. But Jason couldn’t kill him, despite how much he desperately wanted to.‘He deserves it. The punishment should fit the crime.’The pit wasn’t making holding back any easier. But he couldn’t kill him in front of Dick. The older boy would never let him go after that. Any good done to his image through his saving the day would be ruined. Dick wouldn’t allow a murderer (as if killing this guy wouldn’t be the definition of justice) to keep the suit.He did his best to shove the writhing green into a corner of his mind. If he was going to kill this garbage, he’d have to do it later. In private.Jason was startled from his plotting by a thundering boom. He jerked his head around to check on the canon. Of course it was the canon. It had restarted somehow and was now blasting a constant beam, spinning around uncontrollably and tearing through the building. Then it was coming straight for them.Dick’s reaction was lightning fast. First he shoved the goon Jason had just knocked out off the walkway (it was only a one story drop and the guy was wearing a puffy suit. He might break something, but it beat disintegration) then he was running at Red X. They didn’t have time to jump down before the beam would reach them.“Look out,” Dick shouted, shoving him forward, which was completely unnecessary. Jason was half-tempted to make a quip along the lines of, ‘Oh, should we be running from the giant red death beam? Heck, I hadn’t even noticed it,’ but he was busy running for his life so he let it pass.After a few seconds of running, the beam veered away from them. It continued to cut through the observatory, slicing out a full circle from the front of it, even blasting into the cliff, causing the ground to shake. Jason was almost thrown off his feet from the shaking when the entire chunk of building along with part of the cliff slid away and fell into the bay below. That whole side of the building was now completely open to the bay.Maybe it was the shaking or maybe it had just reached its breaking point, but the canon finally shut down. Smoke and sparks were spewing from various panels and the Xenothium power core detached itself and popped outward to lessen the danger of a massive explosion as the canon fell apart. Weasel man was down to nothing but his bare hands. He wouldn’t last three seconds.While Dick went to take the psycho out (Jason didn’t trust himself to stop at one punch), Jason went over to one of the downed goons. He crouched down and pried open the energy chamber of his weapon pack. The tube of Xenothium was still full.Jason grinned. Might as well get some extra, as well as a reasonable excuse. He plucked it up then jumped off the ledge to where Dick was standing over the now unconscious weasel man.As Jason landed, suddenly the other Titans came to stand beside Dick. Jason almost groaned aloud. When had they escaped? And nice of them to wait until Red X was the only one left. Well, whatever, he was almost done here.“Time to get what I came for,” Jason announced, making sure he was only a few feet away from the giant hole in the building. He needed to be ready for a fast getaway.Surprisingly, Raven spoke first. “Time’s up.” Like she even knew what was going on. Hadn’t she just woken up, like, less than a minute ago? Beside her, the rest of the Titans got into fighting stances. How ungrateful.“Thanks for the help, X,” Dick said, raising a hand holding several explosive discs. But the almost friendly tone and lighthearted facial expression were leaps and bounds better than his previous zealous hostility. Red X had grown on him. “But don’t think that means you can help yourself.”Jason grinned, taking a step back, closer to the edge. “No problem, kid.” He smugly held up the tube of Xenothium he’d just obtained. “This should keep me going for a good long while.” He raised his other hand and aimed the X on his palm in their direction.His grin fell at Dick’s smug smile and Jason was instantly suspicious. That was not a good look. What was he-?“That won’t do you any good,” Dick said confidently, “without this.” Jason’s eyes widened with shock as Dick held out the Red X belt.A panicked glance downward confirmed the belt truly was gone. A dozen swear words zipped through his head. How the hell had he-?Jason’s mind rewound back to when Dick had pushed him for no real reason. It wasn’t like Jason wouldn’t have started to run without Dick’s prodding. Had Dick really used that moment to steal the belt back? Where were his priorities? And how had he taken it without activating the security measures? The stupid battery must have been too low. Dang it, he knew he shouldn’t have teleported across that street, but there had been no buildings or anything near the jackass breaking into the car for him to swoop down from and he’d been in a hurry. Shit.And now he was facing down five superteens with zero weapons. There was no way he was wrestling that belt back.Dick took a step forward and Jason took a step back, then another, then another, and then he was stumbling because he was out of ground. The remains of the destroyed building and the waters of the bay lay beneath him. He gripped the tube of Xenothium harder. He might not be able to get the belt back, but he could still get out of this.“Not bad, kid,” Jason admitted. Part of him really was impressed. The other part was pissed as hell. “Not bad.”With that he slammed the tube of Xenothium onto the floor in front of the Titans then jumped off the edge, aiming to land in the water. He saw them jerk back, four of the Titans’ eyes were on the Xenothium, but Dick’s eyes followed Jason. Then the explosion blocked their views and Jason lost sight of him.The second he hit the water, he started swimming for the drainage pipe he’d spotted on his way here.He swam quickly, glad it was still dark out. The Titans wouldn’t find him. They wouldn’t even all be after him since they still had all those hazmat losers to deal with. And without the belt, they would see him as less of a threat.He really was pissed about losing the belt. It had been dumb on his part. His chances of stealing it back from Dick were low. Very low. However, Jason knew something Dick didn’t and that something allowed him to stay smug about all this. Dick thought all Jason had stolen was the suit. He didn’t know about all the data he’d taken from his laptop. He didn’t know that Jason had the suit’s schematics and codes. Jason could build another belt. It would take time, but he could do it. And he still had the first tube of Xenothium he’d stolen safely stashed away in his suit pocket. He hadn’t come out of this empty handed. And it had been fun, fighting with Dick like this.There were things he could do while building the belt. It was a setback, but not a crippling one. All of those gadgets and abilities had been awesome, but he was Jason Todd and he’d never needed any of that stuff before. He was plenty kickass without them. They’d just been a cool bonus. In the meantime, the suit still had some uses, most importantly, concealing his identity.This wouldn’t interrupt his plans. This changed nothing.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
What a day.Dick shut the door to his bedroom and locked it behind him.Arresting Chang and his goons and getting everything sorted out with the police had taken almost an hour. Dick hadn’t truly realized until today how few villains he fought these days had goons. Not robots or magical minions, but actual human beings who had made horrible life decisions and had to be treated as such. Yet another difference between Jump and Gotham. Almost all of Gotham’s major criminals had goons. The major criminals in Jump tended to have superpowers so they had less of a need for henchmen.With all Dick’s experience, he was a master goon handler. Beast Boy had been surprisingly deft at the task as well. Tying them up, stripping them of their weapons, checking the severity of their injuries, etc. The others, less so. Cyborg had split his time between helping with the goons and gathering the Xenothium and tech. Dick had sent the girls to search for Red X, but unsurprisingly they hadn’t found a trace of him. Whoever Red X was, he definitely wasn’t an amateur. After all the bad guys were safely in police custody, they’d returned the remaining Xenothium to its owner. The vault was still wrecked, but the company had assured them that it would be repaired quickly and that they would be adding extra security.He’d sent the girls out one more time, this time with Beast Boy to assist them, to search for Red X. But even with Beast Boy’s nose they hadn’t found any clues to where X had gone. Dick had wanted to join the search as well, but had stayed back to discuss repairs to the Tower with Cyborg. The damage wasn’t as bad as it could have been, the beam hadn’t hit any bedrooms or labs or anything like that. The Ops room was almost completely gone now though. Dick couldn’t help the nervous, sad feeling he felt when he saw the gapping hole in his home.When the search party had returned empty-handed, Dick had quietly retreated to his bedroom.He walked tiredly across his carpet. His bed was a very tempting sight after such a stressful and action-packed night, but he passed it to sit in front of his laptop at his desk. He still had things to do, things to think about, before he went to sleep for the night. Or morning, good grief the sun was already rising.Leaning back in his chair, he lifted up the Red X belt to examine it more closely. It was a painful visual reminder of his horrible mistake. He never should have made the belt in the first place. The Xenothium was too dangerous and he’d gone behind his friends’ back and betrayed their trust. It was a huge weight off his shoulders to have it back in his possession. And this time, he’d dispose of it properly, where no one would ever be able to get their hands on it again.Without his belt, the suit was just an armored costume. And while Dick wasn’t pleased to have someone running around in his suit, he could live with that. One of Dick’s biggest fears about all this had been that X would accidentally kill himself and possibly others by mishandling the suit and blowing himself up. Just because the teen (and he definitely was a teen) was skilled enough to break into the Tower and steal the suit (how he’d even found out about the suit was a mystery) without leaving a trace, didn’t mean he knew how to properly handle highly unstable substances. But X had surprised him in more ways than one.His original view of Red X had been so black and white and X had fallen squarely into black in his mind. But after his actions tonight, Red X seemed far more grey. Not a good person, but not evil either. Did one good deed make him a hero? Was Dick to blame for all of it because of a single mistake?It was confusing.If he had followed Dick to the observatory (and he must have followed, though Dick wasn’t sure how he’d managed that) only for the Xenothium, he could have just snuck in, stolen a tube, then left. But not only had he fought against Chang, he’d also saved Dick and his friends. That meant he hadn’t just come to save the city (even most criminals drew the line before the murder of millions of innocents) because he’s saved the Titans as well. He could have let them all die and still saved the city. It would have made stealing the Xenothium afterwards easy and he and the Titans weren’t exactly friends. That had been a choice.Seemingly conflicting motives and actions weren’t the only things that didn’t make sense.Dick had no idea who was under the mask, but whoever he was he couldn’t have come from nowhere. He was an incredibly skilled thief and fighter. His display of martial arts went far beyond what you could learn at your local dojo. This teen had been trained and trained well.He felt a flicker of surprise at the frustration that suddenly welled up from inside him. X was so skilled and talented, and his actions tonight had proved he wasn’t psychotic. It was such a terrible waste. To be so skilled, but too selfish to use those skills for good. Dick couldn’t comprehend that kind of selfishness. Maybe he’d understand X better if he knew anything about him and what had led him down this path. There had to be some sort of story, an explanation, for why X was the way he was, but he didn’t even have a motive beyond wanting to have the ability to do whatever he wanted. It was impossible to understand a person without at least some personal information to work with.Placing the belt gently on the desk, Dick reached up and carefully worked to peel his domino away from his face, revealing his blue eyes. He tossed it lightly beside the belt. Since moving to Jump and the Tower, he wore a mask almost all the time. He did have to go out without the mask every once and a while, but that was to allow his face to tan. People would get pretty suspicious if Dick Grayson showed up with racoon eyes that just happened to be the exact same shape as a domino mask. The Red X suit would leave no such telling marks.It wasn’t X’s identity that was bothering him the most right now though. He hadn’t noticed it when they were fighting each other, maybe because it hadn’t been there or maybe his anger had been clouding his senses. However, when they’d fought side by side there had been… something had nagged at him. A feeling he couldn’t quite place. It had all happened so fast, but now it was bugging him like crazy and he just couldn’t seem to shake it.Running an agitated hand through his spiked hair, Dick opened his laptop intending to do an in-depth analysis. At least that was what he’d been planning to do, but a blinking symbol in the corner of the screen distracted him.Alfred had called?Worry hit Dick like a wave. Had something happened to Bruce? Then Dick remembered the giant hole in the Tower and he let out a sigh of relief. They’d probably just seen the news and were calling to make sure he was okay. He knew Batman monitored Jump despite Dick’s protests. Then Dick realized the call was from earlier in the night, before any of the Chang stuff had happened, and his worry came rushing right back.He and Bruce weren’t currently fighting exactly. They weren’t really talking either though. Alfred called him regularly, but this wasn’t the usual time. Last Dick had checked, all the Rogues were still locked up in Arkham, but that didn’t mean Batman couldn’t still get hurt.Dick’s heart clenched painfully in his chest. Ever since… ever since Jason had-had died, he and Bruce had stopped talking. Dick didn’t totally blame Bruce for what had happened, he knew Bruce had done everything in his power to save him, but Bruce wasn’t blameless either. He could have handled things differently. Better. But then again, so could have Dick.Dick squeezed his eyes shut at the wave of memories. It had been over a year now and the pain from his little brother’s death had yet to dull. He’d known, he’d known better than anyone, how emotionally stunted Bruce was. He was the older brother, he should have tried harder to intervene instead of lying to himself that they would eventually work it out. He’d been more focused on his friends than his brother and now he was dead.He hadn’t even got a proper sense of closure. He’d been away with the Titans during Jason’s death and funeral and when he’d returned it had taken weeks for Bruce to even tell Dick his brother had been killed. And it hadn’t even been Bruce, it had been Alfred. His little brother’s gravestone haunted his nightmares, night horrors of falling replaced with blood and crowbars.Dick had every right to be upset with Bruce.But that didn't mean he loved him any less.Letting out a deep breath, Dick reopened his eyes and took out his communicator. He knew it was late, but he couldn’t wait until it was officially morning to find out what had happened. Sending up a silent prayer that the damage wasn’t too bad, Dick dialed the number he knew by heart.The phone rang for a moment but was picked up almost immediately. A familiar British voice came through. “Master Dick?”Alfred didn’t sound worried or stressed, though that wasn’t unusual and didn’t mean something wasn’t wrong. But it still relaxed Dick the tiniest bit. “Hey Agent A. You called me earlier?”