Chapter 1: Something brewing
Summary:
Jason is sick and tired.
Notes:
I've intentionally kept tags vague because I don't want to spoil any future story lines. For those of you who like to read tags, PLEASE double checks the tags as they may change as I write this. I know generally how I want this story to pan out, but I don't have it all figured out. At any point I may also update old chapters and change things there too. Please keep that in mind when reading.
Chapter Text
Jason Todd is sick and tired.
He's been watching over this same group for weeks now. He knows what they're up to. He'd collected CCTV footage from all sorts of shady spots around Gotham a while back, and gathered all sorts of information. There's the adults getting into fights around different shelters and camps in the city, the groups of kids that come together to survive suddenly disbanding and splitting because none of them can get their shit straight. Everyone is antsy. Something's brewing somewhere and he can't figure out what yet. If it was just the fighting he wouldn't be so worried, he lives in Gotham after all, that shit has never been sunshine and rainbows. There's other things he's picked up too. Less girls working the corners, more kids out late, he's sure half of those kids are either dealing or working as a go between for different groups. The worst of it though is the snatching. Kids getting lured into dark alleyways, girls being picked up and never checking back in with their boss or the other working girls. It's a load of shit is what it is. He'd been doing whatever he could to help out, but without any real leads he's just a bandage over a bullet wound. He takes kids to the good shelters if they'll trust him, if not he tries to send them to some of the people he trusts, which usually ends up being the working girls or old Red from Park Row. Nine times out of ten the kids won't go with him. He can't blame them. He was exactly the same when he lived on the streets. He tries to keep an eye on the working girls, checks in with them whenever he patrols. It's not enough though. He knows that and so do they.
He hits a breaking point one night on patrol. He's just wrapping up his usual route and preparing to head back to a safe house for the night when a scream catches his attention. By the time he gets there there's nothing for him to do. He was too late, just like everyone always is for the people who need them most. Other members of the bat brood are gathered around the crime scene, all with a mix of different emotions painting their face. The sight he's greeted with his sick.
A pile, and not a small one, of children and teens. All wearing torn up clothes, all of them covered in dirt and grime. Most of them have limbs bent at horrifying angles, blood crusted around breaks and gashes. Most of them are dead, but not all. A hand twitches from somewhere in the pile. He shakes himself from his stupor and reminds himself to control his breathing. He can break down later, right now someone needs him. He marches towards the pile and carefully begins laying the children, because that's what they are, just kids, out separately. The others join him in his efforts. Police finally form a barrier to keep anyone else away from the crime scene. Tim kneels down beside him and gently picks up one of the kids, checks for a pulse, and when he doesn't find one he sighs deeply. Cass joins them from the shadows. They all continue like that, silently and gently working, separating living kids from dead ones.
By the time they are finished, more ambulances have arrived. The death tole isn't the highest they've seen, certainly not in this line of work, but it hits home deeply and sends a shiver down their spines.
"That makes five bodies." Tim breaks the silence. Jason reminds himself to breathe. "The three others are on their way to the ER." Silence falls over the group like a blanket. None of them can meet each others eyes. Jason doesn't need to be a detective to know what everyone is feeling right now. Failure. He knows the feeling well but this one hurts. Finally Jason speaks up.
"I think I've seen some of those kids around." He points to one of the bodies, "That's Cody, his aunt works at this bar a couple blocks away." And then another, "That one's Charlie. His sister works the corners here and there for some extra cash. Pretty sure he got snatched up a while back, if the rumours are to be believed."
"Know anyone else?" A gruff voice speaks up. Bruce. He'd almost forgot he was there.
"I think I might've seen her around..." Stephanie crouches down next to a brunette girl. She gently cups the girls face, turning it slightly to get a better look, "yeah. She goes to Gotham Academy, Tiffany I'm pretty sure."
Jason takes a closer look at the bodies. Now that there's some more light in the area he can see a lot better. He's sure most of these kids are alley brats, they certainly look like he did growing up. A few faces stand out as ones he's familiar with, but other than that he hasn't got a clue. He feels a pang in his chest suddenly and struggles to take in a breath. He rises to his feet and starts pacing, careful to stay steady. He raises a hand to his chest and feels his heart hammering. He can't breathe. He tries to suck in a breath but just ends up sputtering uselessly.
"-Hood..." He feels a little lightheaded.
"Hood?
Jay!" Bruce grips his arm tightly. He meets his eyes. "Are you okay?"
"Names..." Jason mutters weakly.
He looks around and that the crime scene is mostly cleared up now. There's no one around to have even heard Bruce's slip up. How long was he out of it? Cass walks over and poke shim lightly. She signs something to him but he isn't paying attention. She pokes him again, harder this time. He looks at her. 'Sick?' She signs. He just shakes his head in response. She reaches up to feel his forehead but he slaps her hand away. He's clammy, his breaths come out short and stuttered, and when he makes to step away from Bruce he sways on his feet. Bruce watches him, arms raised slightly like he plans to catch him, but clearly he must think better of it and drops them.
"We need to go back to the cave." He finally settles on. Jason can't help but agree. He needs a shower, and then he plans to claim the batcomputer and get to the bottom of this.
They all split up into whatever groups they arrived. Tim finished up his patrol earlier but hangs around with Steph and Cass while they finish theirs. Dick leaves to follow up on a lead for a different case he's working but promises to be back at the cave within the hour. Bruce decides to end patrol early and takes Damian with him. They both start heading to the batmobile. He doesn't follow.
"Well Todd? Aren't you coming?" Damian calls over his shoulder. Bruce stops to look back at him.
"Names, demon child." But he reluctantly follows.
When they arrive at the cave Alfred is already waiting. Apparently Bruce called him ahead of time and told him about Jason's... his what? His panic attack? He supposes he was pretty worked up over the case already. He finds that the Lazarus pits influence has made him more susceptible to strong emotions. Bruce seems a little on edge, and Alfred insists on checking him over so Jason gets a full workup. They find nothing wrong (a panic attack for the crazy kid, what a shock), but they do try and advise him to take the rest of the night to sleep, rest, whatever. He, naturally, fights back. They have bigger things to worry about than Jason's rest, or lack thereof. They manage to form an agreement, Jason will go upstairs with Alfred to shower, change and eat. By then everyone else should be back and they can make some headway on this case. So Jason does exactly that. To the letter. He showers, nearly scalding himself on the water, changes into what he is sure are Bruce's pyjamas, eats a quick sandwich made my Alfred and heads straight back down to the cave. Once there he claims the batcomputer, exactly like he said he would, and starts reviewing the data in the files so far. Most of the kids have been positively ID'd, either by a loved or a missing persons file. The others are currently being swabbed and tested. One of the three who was sent to the ER has come out of surgery, and a tight security detail is monitoring their room. The other two are still in surgery.
When he finally stops to take a break he hasn't added much to the files. A couple notes here and there on who he knows and why, some additions about active gangs who's MO's line up at all with this perp. No real suspects yet, they don't have enough information. But he's got an ugly feeling. He has done for a while really. He can't help but wonder if all those things he'd noticed before had anything to do with this.
Chapter 2
Summary:
Jason works with the Bats to solve this mystery. They finally start piecing together this mystery.
Chapter Text
After everyone had gathered in the cave a few nights ago, they put their heads together to see what they know. Everyone threw in their two cents and with their, plus Barbara's, combined efforts they were able to piece together a rough timeline and start working through a list of leads that need investigating. They trace back who the first known missing person was to a kid named Ronnie Davis. His dad was Bristol born and bred, not old money by any means but definitely rich. Soon as Ronnie didn't come home after lacrosse his dad filed a report. There wasn't a file for every kid, most of them probably didn't have anyone looking out for them, but they work with what they've got. Charlie Langdon went missing sometime a couple weeks ago. His sister filed a report but based on what they've been able to glean from her story, it won't help the timeline too much. Apparently the Gotham police force didn't feel like listening to some working girl talk about her street trash brother. If they can figure out when he actually went missing, it might get them one step closer to figuring out a clean timeline. The newest missing kid from the lot is in the hospital. They were one of the ones who survived. No positive ID yet, and police haven't let anyone in to speak to the kid.
So all in all they've got a fat load of shit. Nothing. Yet. Jason plans to change that though. Most of the bats are keeping an eye out on their usual patrol routes, Babs has got eyes everywhere as Oracle and she's checking as much recent CCTV footage she can to try and pinpoint who went missing where, and better yet, how they all ended up in the the Narrows. Bruce is going to try and speak to the kids in the hospital since they're all out of surgery now, he figures the cops'll let Batman through by now, he just hopes the kids will have some kind of information they can use. The oldest is 17 and the youngest is 8 so they're not too sure how well it's going to go.
Jason has been up to his own work. By him he means his subordinates ('no Tim they aren't goons, please stop calling them that'). He's got them subtly watching over the popular corners for picking up girls, checking in with a few of them to see how things are running. He's also got them watching over a few shelters and camps, and just generally keeping an eye out for any suspicious vans and kiddy snatchers. He expects more bodies will turn up, more people will go missing. And they do, because why wouldn't they? Some girl, Rachel Moore, goes missing just a few days after they found the last group of kids. The report was very recent. Apparently she was interning at Wayne Enterprises in research and development but hadn't shown up to work in about a week. Tim had been the one to file the report after noticing some discrepancies in company logs. Jason will never understand how it can take people so long to notice when someone disappears without a trace. In crime alley it was standard. He figures someone probably goes missing everyday, probably lots of people. Back when he was a kid he'd heard stories about a school for delinquents or something. There was a super big scandal because, as it turns out, the kids were being turned into drug mules or being sold off. The organisation's been taken down now, a long time ago, but, he supposes, it goes to show how easy it can be to disappear.
They still don't have enough information to start taking people down. They've got nothing really. Just a bunch of missing kids, half of them didn't even have a missing persons file until they turned up dead. He tries not to feel to bitter, tries not to let darker thoughts creep in, tries not see too much of himself on all the kids who still haven't been ID'd.
He's coming to the end of his daily patrol when he has a bit of a breakthrough. It's 3AM on a Saturday, and far too late (or early depending on how you look at it) to still be patrolling. Duke will be up and ready for the day shift before long unless he's busy with school. Jason's patrolling with Tim for a change, and they're trying to follow up on as many leads as possible, tie up whatever loose ends they can. Mentioned that Rachel had family living in Gotham so they decide to check in. Well Tim checks in. They figure some old lady probably won't appreciate Red Hood showing up at her door. What they find though is that Rachel had been in debt. All sorts of loan sharks were keeping tabs on her for late payments. While not necessarily relevant in this case, they store the information away for later and add it to the file. The real holy grail comes from a couple kids living on the streets in the area. Apparently some guy has been hanging around. A lot. The kids have just been calling him Mike, he doesn't even know why, and Mike has been garnering a bit of a reputation. Apparently he's got a creepy vibe. Which isn't at all solid evidence, but a few kids mentioned having weird conversations with him. Some working girls said he always seemed a little to eager to see them so they tried to avoid taking him as a customer. Mike, as it turns out, is affiliated with Black Mask in some way or another. So all in all, lots of news all at once. It almost feels too good to be true, but then he reminds himself that this still doesn't really tell them that much, just gives them a few more hornets nests to whack.
A beep sounds from his comm before a voice comes through, "I just got some news from the hospital. The kids all had blood draws done to run some tests. Turns out they were pumped full of drugs." Barbara cuts in bluntly. He sucks in a breath.
"Are you sure? What kinds?" Tim asks after a beat.
"100%. It's not just a one off either. I managed to access to toxicology reports from the kids who died. Same result. It's not some run of the mill strain either. We don't have any record of what it is. B's trying to reverse engineer the makeup from what we do have. We aren't even sure who it's coming from, so it's kind of hard to make a blind guess."
"Shit. I'll get my guys to keep an eye out for any changes in the drug market." Jason responds. "I reckon since they dumped the kids, they're probably about ready to start pumping this shit out onto the streets."
"That's if they haven't already. I don't have anything else for you yet, but I'll keep you boys updated." And with a sharp beep Oracle leaves the comm line.
Jason and Tim continue they're patrol. Technically they're done for the day, but neither of them feel ready to call it a night. Over the next hour they manage to stop one attempted kidnapping, not a clue if it's related to their case or not, three drug deals and one robbery. When that's done they take refuge on a random roof in the diamond district. Tim's blabbering about whatever, but Jason can't focus on a word he's saying. He can't stop thinking about this case. It really doesn't sit right with him. This ugly feeling won't settle. It's bone deep, it rattles around his chest and it turns his stomach inside out. He feels like he's missing something. Something obvious.
"Hey, did you know the Minotaur is named after King Minos? I mean you probably know that, fucking nerd, but like what about the species. We call them Minotaur's but like-"
He mentally retraces the last few weeks and tries to see if anything stands out to him. Would Black Mask kidnap all those kids? Yeah probably, but why? That's what he can't figure out. And who the hell is Mike? There are so many pieces to this that just don't fit together. Not yet. But they will. He knows it's irresponsible but he's been cutting back on sleep and making more time to investigate. It's not like he sleeps at the minute anyway. He's bone tired but the second he lies down he just feels restless. So he works on the case. But he can't crack it. The longer this takes them, the more kids die. Jason can't let that happen. So many of these kids rely on the Red Hood to look out for him.
"-at is the species called anyway? Are they like individually named or what?"
He'll have to keep an eye on the drug market. He worked hard to establish his group, and he doesn't plan to let that get thrown out over this. Jason makes a mental note to have his guys confiscate any dodgy shit they catch on the street. Maybe if he's lucky he can get a sample of whatever those kids were doped up on. He should probably check in with that group from a couple weeks ago. He hasn't been watching them in a while because something bigger, I.E this case, came up. If he's lucky, they'll be linked in some way and he can hit two birds with one stone.
"-ay? You good?" Tim grabs his arm and jolts him out of his daze. "Dude, you're sweating buckets. That's actually really gross." Tim wipes his glove on Jason's jacket.
"Asterion." Jason supplies dumbly. When Tim just looks at him confused he adds, "The Minotaur. That's it's name. Minotaur is sorta like a title, I'm pretty sure." He mumbles the last part and sucks in a breath. Why is he so out of breath? He feels like he's run a marathon. He literally has done nothing but sit and think. He supposes he is out later than normal, though. Maybe he really does need to rest.
"Do you think maybe we should head in for the night?" Tim tries to meet his eyes through the domino. "C'mon man lets go." He reaches to pull him up, but Jason yanks his arm back.
"Fuck off I'm not an invalid. I'm leaving." Jason grabs his helmet from the ground and makes to grapple away. His head is killing him. Must be a migraine. He feels nauseous.
"I'm not the one who just had like a panic attack or something. Excuse me for checking in." Tim huffs, exasperated.
"Fuck you, it's not a panic attack. And if your creepy ass stalks me back to my safehouse I'm telling Alfred." He doesn't wait for a response. Just grapples away.