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Kara held the neck of the beer bottle tightly in her fist, letting her thumb glide over the smooth glass. She tried to ignore the tightness in her throat, her heaving chest, and her rapid breathing. Tried to control it like she had been trying to control everything else in her life. But no matter how hard she tried to think of something positive, her mind kept replaying the same words that had been directed at her countless times.
“How do you not know what that is?”
“Have you been living under a rock your whole life?”
“What do you mean you don’t get it? It’s easy.”
“Why are you dressed like that?”
Kara could go on and on about all the times her friends and acquaintances judged her, or put her down for not getting a concept right away. It made her feel stupid and insecure, and worst of all, it made her doubt herself.
She did her best to understand earth’s various cultures and customs, and sure, sometimes she would read a situation wrong, or she wouldn’t act in the most socially acceptable manner. That didn’t discount the fact that she was trying.
The more worked up she got about it, the less guilty she felt about throwing the beer bottle against the alleyway wall. The glass shattered along with a few bits of plaster from the building, the sound of the crash bouncing off of the building behind her. Throwing the bottle didn’t necessarily make her feel better, but it was the only thing she could think of to dissolve her anger without causing too much of a scene…
“What the hell was that?”
…or so she thought.
The man’s voice startled Kara. Not so much because she was scared of getting in trouble for damaging private property, but because of the fact that she had been so angry, she hadn’t even heard him nearby with her advanced hearing. Oh well. Another mistake to add onto her ever growing list. Luckily she could fly off before the man confronted her, only, before she was about to do so, she heard him mutter under his breath,
“Would you mind throwing your tantrum somewhere else? Some of us are trying not to lose a limb over here.”
The last statement made her freeze in place, suddenly alarmed that he may need help. After all, that wasn’t a thing people said in a casual manner when alone. Turning on her x-ray vision, she was able to see through the tall buildings surrounding her. She scanned until she was able to see into a two story building, an old antique shop by the looks of it, and saw the man in question sprawled out on the floor, his back facing her, and his foot obviously caught in something. He was lying on his stomach, trying to reach behind himself, but every time he tried, he would hiss and return to his forward position for a few seconds. Kara had no idea what kind of contraption his foot was stuck in, but she did know that she could help him get out of it.
Kara was at the front of the antique shop in mere seconds. She forced herself to slow down so as to not spook the man with her speed, and she entered the shop. Though she was curious about the man, she couldn’t help but gaze at the miscellaneous items strewn around the room first. There were animal heads hanging on the walls, furniture of all sorts, a large collection of movies and music, paintings, and so much more. It was clustered to the point that Kara felt she had to make herself as small as possible to successfully navigate to the man without knocking anything over.
The man’s eyes had been trained on her as soon as she came in, but she only now was able to properly take in his brown leather jacket, blue eyes, and all too familiar face. Judging by his raised eyebrow, Kara guessed that Jason Todd recognized her as well.
“Oh goodie,” Jason said, cupping his chin in his hands. “Elle Woods herself has come to free me from the jaws of injustice.”
Kara didn’t understand the reference, but she was able to get a better look at the “jaws” Jason needed freeing from. It was a metal contraption that was clamped around Jason’s boot at his ankle and heel. There were prongs on the inside of the clamp that were buried inside the boot, and most likely, stuck in a part of Jason’s actual leg as well. Half of the chain that was attached to the contraption was caught under a large, rusted chest that looked like it hadn’t been handled in the last century. The taught chain was keeping the contraption from moving, but it also didn’t allow Jason to retract his leg close to his body. Not only that, but since Jason had been caught facing away from the trap, any attempt to twist his body backward would have put a ton of pressure on his ankle. Especially since he was in a narrow space and didn’t have much room for mobility.
She hovered over him since there was not much room by his side. “You’re the last person I expected to see in National city. Is the Red Hood on vacation perchance?”
“Something like that,” Jason said. His tone gave away nothing, but the small smirk he was sporting indicated his true intentions.
“That’s not at all suspicious,” Kara said, narrowing her eyes.
Jason opened his mouth, most likely to make a sarcastic remark, but instead he sneezed. Kara jerked back at the sound, especially when he sneezed two more times. She just then realized how dusty everything in the shop was. Dust on the floors, on the antiques, and it was even gathered in the corners of the ceilings. The place was a pigsty.
Jason sniffled. “We can play twenty questions and braid each other’s hair later. Could we maybe focus on freeing me before my boot fills up with blood?”
Right. That was the more important thing at the moment, even though she would have liked to have gotten an answer out of him before he was a free man. She had not only heard stories about how Jason operated in the field, she had seen him in action as well. He wasn’t necessarily a trustworthy person in her eyes, which made her worry about why he was skulking around National city in the first place. Him being there could bring a whole heap of trouble for Kara down the line.
Kara moved towards the trap and examined it, thinking she could cut through the bottom portion of the contraption to disengage it from the chain, and then she could cut the sides that were attached to the clamps and prongs.
“Don’t move an inch,” she instructed, “I’m going to cut through the steel.”
Jason became as stiff as a board while she lowered herself until she was eye level with the trap. Kara made sure she was angled so as to not hurt Jason before she activated her heat vision. The steel melted away like butter.
“Why is this kind of trap in here anyways?”
She moved to Jason’s other side to finish the job.
“Seems like the guy who owns this place was trying to catch some pesky raccoons,” Jason said. “You can see their paw prints left in the dust.”
The metal clamps finally snapped from the base of the trap. Jason hissed at the change in tension, and Kara made sure to hold up his calf so it wouldn’t crash into the floor with the prongs still stuck inside his leg.
“People use these crude traps to get rid of animals?” she asked.
She continued to support Jason’s leg while he maneuvered himself into an upright position. Even placing the sole of his foot on the ground made him flinch. Enduring the pressure of the trap seemed to have caused a sprain in his ankle.
Jason pulled his leg closer to himself and examined it. “Hunters do, yeah. Store owners typically don’t.” He dragged himself out of the cramped space into a more open area on the floor, kicking up dust as he went. His nose crinkled a few times, but he didn’t sneeze. “Next time I go jumping off of antique chests, I’ll make sure there’s no prongs of death waiting for me at the landing.”
Kara couldn’t help but smile imagining Jason hopping around on the furniture doing… whatever it was he originally came in there to do. It reminded her that behind the sarcasm and the guns, Jason was still so young. By no means was he a kid physically or emotionally, but he still had a streak of mischievousness in him that was childlike in nature.
“That would be appreciated.” She activated her x-ray vision to see through the material of his boot. “The prongs aren’t in too deep and they aren’t curved. They shouldn’t resist when I pull them out.”
“Wait a second.” Jason dug around in his pocket and pulled out a small bottle of disinfectant spray and a roll of gauze. “Okay, now I’m ready.”
Kara grabbed the clamps, and with her x-ray vision still activated, she gave them a swift tug to free them from Jason’s ankle. Jason exhaled through his nose, but otherwise, didn’t seem bothered by the action. He only started squawking when she yanked the prongs through his boots a little harder than necessary, creating an odd slit in the fabric.
“Uh, excuse you, flying Barbie,” he said, reaching down to run his fingers over the damage. “These boots weren’t exactly cheap.”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh shut up. Your dad can buy you your own shoe company to make up for the damage.”
“You’re not my dad,” Jason said in an oddly high pitched way, as if he were imitating a child.
“What in the world does that mean?”
Jason took his boot off, revealing thin trails of blood zig zagging across his foot. The actual puncture wounds were small and didn’t pose much of a threat. The boot had stopped the prongs from going in too deep. He would probably be fine by himself from there on out, but Kara felt compelled to stay and make sure he would be alright, and to see that he could walk by himself. Besides, the longer he was under her supervision, the less likely he was to cause any trouble.
“It’s from a Vine.” He sprayed the puncture wounds thoroughly with the disinfectant spray. The liquid caused the blood on his leg to turn a light pink. It got soaked up by the gauze that he started to wrap his ankle with.
After a moment he cocked his head to the side and looked over at her. “You know what Vine is?”
The familiar tingle of irritation pooled in Kara’s chest. She was mad at herself for still not being up to date on all the trends and for not making a connection to specific references. There were a lot of things she had to catch up on, and not just information from the past year, but from past decades as well.
“It’s a platform where people make creative videos that last six seconds.” He pulled out his phone and motioned for her to sit beside him. She squatted down by his shoulder, away from the pool of blood and disinfectant spray. “The videos loop which means they play over and over again without stopping. See, watch.” He turned the volume up.
It took a Vine or two before Kara started to understand the concept, and the more she watched, the more she found herself enjoying the short videos. Jason had to explain some of the jokes to her, while others she was able to get right away. She learned about Jared and his inability to read, Kyle needing to step up, and the man who just wanted a waffle. It was great.
“This is what the kids are into nowadays,” Jason was saying. “Doing dumb shit to entertain strangers.”
She stood up and shook the tension from her legs.
“Have you been entertained?”
“I am certainly entertaining the idea of marrying Thomas Sanders,” he said, holding his hands out to her.
She pulled him to his feet slowly, letting him shift his weight to his uninjured foot before letting go. He started to clean up the mess he had left on the floor, while Kara gathered the pieces of the animal trap and made them disappear with her heat vision. When they were done, they stood across from each other, not really knowing what to say. They were acquaintances at best, and she was still suspicious of his intentions, but after laughing at ridiculous Vines together, she no longer felt hostile towards him.
She tucked an errant strand of hair behind her ear. “Thanks for showing me the Vines.”
Jason mimicked her and pushed his fringe off his face. “You’re thanking me?” he asked, seeming amused. “Technically, I should be the one doing the thanking around here.”
“This is true. You do owe me now,” she grinned. She shifted her gaze from his face to a point behind his head. “But still, thank you. Not that many people take the time to explain what things are to me, and adapting to everything at once can be overwhelming. ”
“Tell me about it. Everything felt different when I came back from the dead. One day McDonald’s is on Taylor street, the next, it’s on Jefferson.” His hand gravitated towards the zipper on his jacket. He fiddled with it for a second. Then shoved both hands into his pockets. “One day I’m Robin. Batman’s partner. A protector of Gotham. And the next day I’m nothing.”
Kara felt goosebumps crawl over her skin. Sometimes it was easy to forget that Jason Todd had been tortured and killed by the Joker. The manner in which he fought and talked made him seem unbreakable now. But Kara knew better.
“So… you know,” he mumbled, “I get it to some extent.”
She nodded. “It sucks.”
“That it does. You know what else sucks?” Jason scooped his boot off the floor and shoved it towards her face. “This.”
“Oh what a shame,” she said, voice full of mock sympathy. “I guess you’ll have to go back to Gotham to put on a new pair of shoes.”
He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, well, I can’t really do anything with this bum ankle anyways." He yawned in an overdramatic fashion. "Take me home.”
"Wait, really? I can't tell if you're being serious or not."
"I am. I've got screws in my ankle from a fracture that happened a few weeks ago. I'm not going to risk fucking it up more."
When Kara had looked at his foot earlier with her x-ray vision, she had seen the screws, but had assumed they were older. After all, Jason had multiple plates and screws in his body.
“Uh, okay," she said hesitantly, not sure if she should be mad at him for not telling her that earlier. "Let's get you home then.” She moved towards him, arms extended and ready to pick him up. She was surprised that he was actually allowing her to take him back. She expected him to resist, or for him to suddenly do something dramatic, like throw kryptonite in her face and hobble away as fast as possible. But he allowed himself to be picked up.
“Wow, eager to get rid of me, aren’t you?”
“Not necessarily. It’s just a matter of me feeling more relaxed knowing you won’t be prowling around here.”
“I wouldn’t relax just yet. I was here on business for Batman. So if I’m gone that means—”
“Let me guess. I should expect to see Robin or Nightwing swinging by at some point?”
“Got it in one,” Jason smirked.
Obviously that meant she was going to have to talk to Batman about sending in his fledglings without giving her a heads up first. She would have to find some way to get the mission details, but for now she would just focus on getting Jason to Gotham.
Kara honed in on her senses to make sure no one was around the building. All she heard was the wind rustling a few of the trees potted along the sidewalk and maybe a car or two. No one was walking along the street. Since it was safe, she carried Jason outside of the antique shop, making sure to close the door with her foot. She hurried down a side alley that was darkened by the height of the buildings and the cloudy sky. It was secluded enough for her to fly without anyone taking notice.
She looked at Jason and was unsurprised to see that he had put on a domino mask. Most likely to prevent his eyes from watering during the flight. He inclined his chin towards the sky.
“Okay, I’m ready. Fly me to the moon.”
“Huh?”
“You ever heard of a guy named Frank Sinatra?”
“No.”
“That’s it. We’re exchanging numbers so I can—”
“We will do no such thing.”
“—make sure you’re properly cultured.”
“No. You’ll spam my phone with those me me’s.”
“It’s pronounced memes, Kara.”
“I knew that.”
“No you didn’t.”
“Yeah, you’re right, I didn’t.”