Chapter Text
His night started like any other.
Jason met his family in the Batcave and listened to Bruce’s briefing before he headed out to his turf, Crime Alley. It should’ve been an easy night. It was colder so criminals weren’t usually out this late at night.
He’d stop a few mugging, kick around a few johns that were hurtin on his girls, and then go back to his rooftops. It was simple, most nights during the winter he’d be back home at two a.m.
But tonight.
Tonight was different.
A gray window-cleaning van caught his attention as it sped through a few intersections, almost taking out a few trash cans in its wake.
This was the specific van they were looking for.
Keying up on the coms, Jason's voice comes out flat with a hint of irritation, “I've got eyes on the target.”
“I've also got eyes.”
“Me too.”
“Follow each van,” Bruce's gravely voice says, gathering everyone's attention, “we knew there was a possibility of their being decoys.”
After a string of “copy” rings out over the coms, Jason starts to move, jumping from rooftop to rooftop. His eyes never left the erratic van that swerved all over the road. It wasn't until the van swerved, that the weight caused it to tip on its side, completely missing the turn and going straight into the side of a building.
An explosion at the the front of the van sounds as the back door of the van comes flying open allowing four men and a cuffed man to be dragged out before being thrown to the ground a few feet away from the crash. Instead of pouncing on them, Jason waits and watches, listening to their conversation.
“God, you’re lucky the big boss wants you alive. If I had half a brain I’d kill you right now.” One of the goons says as a kick lands on the cuffed man's stomach, a groan escaping his lips.
He knew better than to let out a cry, it only made things worse, “I didn’t do anything…”
“Shut the hell, maggots like you don’t speak unless you’re spoken to.” The small group’s leader turns to one of the lackeys, “Get another van here now! We’ve already fallen behind schedule. We can’t fail.”
Pulling a box from his pocket, Jason watches as he opens it pulling out a syringe with something clear inside, and starts to inch closer to the cuffed man. The cuffed figure does his best to move away from him, a slew of ‘no’s’ escaping his lips.
Deciding now was the best time to act before the victim was injected with whatever was in that syringe, Jason jumped down from the roof and got a good kick to the man's face before swiftly taking out the other three, leaving them unconscious rather than shooting them in front of the person cuffed behind him.
Jason turns his attention back to the man behind and quickly takes in his appearance. The clothes he was in were three sizes too big, he was practically swimming in them. Dark green curly hair with a hint of blonde undertones in it framed his face, freckles littered his flushed cheeks, and the fear in his reddish green eyes spoke volumes. Taking in his features altogether he’d put him in his late teens maybe.
Quickly putting his hands up he says, “It’s okay…it’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m not with them.”
The kid on the ground tries to move away from Jason, terror is written in his actions. “I’m sorry, I’ll be better…I’ll do whatever you want…please…I don’t…”
His breathing quickened as he wormed his way away from Jason. Letting out a sigh, he slowly lifts his hands, and the soft click of his helmet hisses out as he sets it down on the ground. “Look, I know this is all scary but I promise I’m not with those guys, I’m here to help you.”
He stops moving away from him and looks for any sign that Jason’s lying but he can’t find one. He can’t find anything in Jason’s body language that he isn’t telling the truth. “I know, let me see if I can find some keys and we can get those cuffs and that collar off.”
He watches as Jason starts to rummage around in the unconscious men's pockets, grabbing every set of keys he finds and bringing them over. Setting the keys down on the ground, he kneels and helps him to a sitting position before he searches the key rings for a handcuff key. As soon as he finds the correct key he quickly unlocks them and once his hands are removed, Jason throws the cuffs and proceeds to help him up off the ground.
A soft thump behind him causes the boy to move away from him and put a little distance away from Jason and the newcomer in blue. “I see this is why you weren't responding to the coms.”
“I was trying to build trust, he's extremely skittish and the helmet doesn't help,” Jason explains, annoyed that Dick ruined all the progress he was starting to make.
He turns to the boy who is staring at the two of them with wide eyes, “It's alright, he's friendly. He's not gonna hurt you.”
Eyes dart from Jason to Dick, fear freezing him in place. Now that his hands were free he could take them on but that wouldn't be the smartest choice. He didn't know how the new blue guy fought. He could probably subdue the red hood guy but he didn't want to leave it to chance. He'd feel better if he had his abilities, the only thing he had was his sweat but they barely gave him enough water to produce any.
“I'll alert Batman we've got him and- ah shit.” As soon as Dick mentioned Batman's name the kid took off running. He wasn't moving as fast as he probably could've due to the baggy clothes but he was gaining good ground.
Jason and Dick take off running after him, “Come on kid, please stop running.”
As much as Dick and Jason protest, he continues to run until he finds himself backed into a corner. A dead-end street boxing him in. Leaving him trapped with Batman’s lackeys. He remembered the stories his handlers would tell each other…how Batman hated people with powers and it didn't end well for them when they were caught in Gotham. He couldn’t be caught here.
But he also couldn't fight effectively.
Either way, he knew he'd lose.
Dropping to his knees, he puts his hands up and bows his head. Submit…Submit and your compliance will be rewarded…maybe then Batman wouldn't hurt him too much. Maybe he'd survive…
Maybe…
When Jason and Dick catch up to him they find him shaking against the cold Gotham air, his head down, hands up in a position that was screaming 'surrender’ on his knees. Dick gets on one side looping his arm around the kids as Jason follows suit, pulling him up to his feet. “We're not going to hurt you if you think Batman's going to hurt he's not. I know that you don't know us and this whole situation is scary but I promise you no one affiliated with Batman is going to hurt you.”
Dick's words seemed to help reassure the older teen as the two got him back on his bare feet. Acknowledging that he'd been running barefoot through Gotham Jason asks, “Show me your feet.”
The teen looks at him and hesitantly shows his feet, there were a few cuts and scrapes but nothing too horrible, “Can you still walk okay?”
He nods and Dick turns back to the group saying, “B’s sending the batmobile to our location and we’re going straight to the cave for him to be checked out by Agent A, Leslie is on standby.”
Jason opens his mouth to say something but the roar of the batmobile’s engine rings out. The kids' eyes light up in a different way than the two of them were expecting. There was still fear but curiosity started to bubble through. Heading around to the side, Jason helps the teen into the back, getting into the passenger seat. He knew far too well to argue on who was driving. B didn’t trust many of the bat kids with driving the famed car and Dick was more skilled at driving it. He had the teen in the back to worry about.
The reddish green in the boys' eyes glowed against the streetlights as they drew closer and closer to the cave entrance. The tension in the air could be cut with a plastic butter knife. The both of them could feel the anxiety coming from the teen, “When we get to the cave we can see if our resident tech genius Red Robin can get that collar off you and have our doctor look you over.”
As soon as the word doctor came out of Jason’s mouth the teen curled up tighter in the back seat, trying to appear as small as possible once again. When the batmobile comes to a stop he stays silent and curled up as tight as possible. Every muscle was constricted and tight as Jason scooped him, trying to hide his face in his knees.
Getting placed on the soft cot helped him differentiate from the old doctor back at the facility. Everything there was cold and smelt of antiseptic. This place was warm and it smelt like the earth. He didn’t hear people screaming, he could hear the bats above them. This was different. This place was different. Every inch of his body screamed at him, while his brain tried to give logic.
This was safe.
It didn’t quite feel safe.
Not yet.