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It was a quiet night in Gotham, to start. There weren't any major cases at the moment, He was patrolling alone tonight, and his route had been relatively easy. Breaking up a few muggings, checking on the street kids- nothing crazy. Nothing strange.
But maybe thinking the word 'quiet' at all had completely jinxed him.
"Sensors are picking up a disturbance two blocks east, Hood." Oracle called into his ear, voice artifically lounder to cut over the din of the other's chatter. He paused on a rooftop for a moment to get his bearings.
East…. He glanced that way, wind rustling his jacket against the body armor underneath. That was still in Crime Alley. Usually Babs was more descriptive, when she could help it- using cameras to determine the kind of call they'd be making their way over to. 'Sensors' was vague, and could mean almost anything. Between Tim and Bruce, the whole city was covered in a variety of 'sensors'— the bats had cast a wide net, really, covering time dialation, magical disturbances, dimensional rifting, et cetera et cetera ad nauseum. Jason didn't really care, but he damn well knew enough to be wary.
"Heard, O. What kind of disturbance are we talking?"
There was a moment of hesitation before her voice would crackle over the line again. He waited patiently, jumping the spaces between alleys and making his way east anyways. Crime Alley was his, and had been since his return, but he couldn't deny that despite his best efforts, it was still something of a cesspool.
He kept drugs away from kids, protected the working girls best as he could, and generally kept an eye out for rogue activity with the rest of the bats. Things were a far sight better in Park Row than they used to be when he grew up here, but things could always still be improved.
The shinier parts of the city like Bristol or the diamond district (though truly, everything in Gotham was grimy), would always look down on this area and the surrounding neighborhoods— but It was still his home. He'd do whatever he could to keep it safe.
There was a low sound of clacking for a moment through the comm, and he heard the tell-tale beep that indicated that he'd been moved to a different channel. The chatter from Kate, Tim, and Stephanie went silent before Babs spoke again. "Possibly interdimensional, or temporal. The readings aren't clear, and I don't have eyes on the alley it's pinpointed to."
"Jackson and 3rd, by the way. Behind Benny's Diner." She elaborated after a moment, and of course Bruce chose that moment to make his presense known on the comm line as well.
"Robin and I are ten minutes out. Wait before engaging, Hood. That's an order."
Jason rolled his eyes freely, without any family around to chastise him for it (somehow, Dick always knew when he rolled his eyes, even with the helmet on and verbal sassy responses witheld).
He set his sights on the shadow of the alley Babs was directing him towards, and used his grapple to make his way to a ledge overlooking it.
"Approaching the alley from above, O." He ignored his father, releasing his grapple to settle into the shadows behind an HVAC unit. On the other end of the line, she hummed an affirmative noise, not encouraging Bruce or reiterating what she had said like his brothers might. She was good, like that.
Peering down into the space between the buildings, he was met with the sight of a little girl.
A little girl who looked… insanely out of place.
She was around ten, and actively looking around with bewilderment while clutching something close to her chest.
If Jason didn't know any better, he might have thought she'd gotten lost on the way home from a… dress up party, or a rennaissance fair, or something— but he did know better. This kid was standing in a Gotham alleyway at one in the morning, right after Bat-placed sensors in the area detected a dimensional anomaly of some sort.
Jason resisted the urge to scrub a hand down his face in exasperation. It wasn't nearly as cathartic when his helmet was on, anyways. Tim had been all too happy to show him a CCTV video of the last time he'd done exactly that, and… yeah. It looked silly.
Her dress was too nice to be fake- with a full petticoat underneath, and the kind of pearly appliques and embroidery on the bodice, skirt, and sleeves that spoke of time painstakingly spent applying them. By hand, if he wasn't entirely mistaken.
The small tiara on her head could have been mistaken for costume jewlery by a layman- but years of learning to pick out the difference at Wayne galas had him observing the way the slivers of light entering the alley were bent by the diamonds, and the way the silver shone. That was no plastic crown.
Jason was suddenly very glad that he'd been the one to find this kid, and not any of the scum he usually dealt with on patrol. Beyond the obviously expensive items she was wearing, this kid was scared, and afraid, and had probably appeared here via some magical bullshittery that wasn't her fault.
Inter-dimensional anomaly or not, that was a kid who needed help right now. Bruce could fuck off with his 'wait to engage' order.
"Hood, what are you seeing down there?" Bab's voice crackled over the line again.
Jason sighed as he looked down at the kid, aborting the move he'd been about to make before her timely interruption. "There's a kid here— alone. She's…. about Robin's age, maybe a little younger. brown hair, tan skin, dressed like a damn disney princess. a real one. Not just a costume."
He paused briefly before continuing, letting Babs tap into his helmet camera at her leisure. "I'm going down there. She's scared, and there's no way she's an actual threat, Oracle."
Damian tutted on the other end of the line, as if to point out that he was plenty dangerous at ten years old. Batman piped up again. "Hood, I said not to engage-"
"She's confused and scared, B. I could give less of a shit right now." He snapped, before taking a breath and reigning it in when green tried to tinge the edges of his vision. He fought back the sensation with more deep breaths, focusing intently on next steps, instead of the nagging tone in Bruce's voice.
"…Approach carefully when you get here, we don't need your ugly mug scaring her even worse." Jason sighed, before pulling off his helmet and shaking out his curls. He cursed under his breath as his face came in contact with the night air, cheeks slightly flushed from rushing over to the alley earlier.
He had his domino on under the helmet (silly, maybe, but it had come in handy too many times when he got hungry on patrol) which was good— He needed her to see that he was a human person, give her the chance to read his body language without looking insane or menacing. The hood was good for intimidating goons, but he didn't want to indimidate a child. He blinked a few times to get used to the light levels of the alley, reassessing the situation.
The kid was still nervously looking around, but now glancing towards the better lit entrance to the alley. He should… probably corner her before she was seen by anyone.
Hefting his helmet underneath one arm, he carefully began picking his way down the side of the building, quiet-like. He ended up in a much darker part of the alley behind her, and carefully set his helmet down on a nearby crate. The comms inside it were still on, and Oracle would have a direct line to both see and hear the situation. By his estimate, he still had six minutes before Batman and Robin got to his location— four if they rushed. Just long enough for Jason to get a better read on the situation and calm her down.
He took a moment to adjust his posture, intentionally open and non-threatening. He did three same thing any time he approached someone vulnerable, way too mindful of the fact thar he didn't exactly… look nice.
He wasn't Robin anymore: lithe, smiling, and dressed like a traffic light— no. Instead, he was scarred to hell and back, built like a brick shithouse, carried guns, and blended right in with crime alley's brickwork.
With one more deep breath, he began to move towards her cautiously, intentionally making sure his steps were heard, and gently kicking detritus out of his way as he picked a path between the buildings. It took a few stray cans kicked around before she heard him.
He paused when she flinched and turned his way. He let his surprise and concern at the general situation show on his face, like he hadn't already been watching her for a few minutes. This close, he could read her better- she was scared, yes, but more confused than anything. If she really was some kind of princess plucked out of her world, that tracked.
He stayed exactly where he was, lifting his palms in front of him to make the universal 'I have nothing in my hands, I'm not here to hurt you' gesture. He wished Cass was on duty tonight to help. She'd probably know the best way to put this kid at ease in two seconds flat without saying a word— but she was resting up for a recital tomorrow, and rest nights were sacred.
"Hey there, kiddo. You look… uh… lost." He tried, kicking himself internally for how awkward he sounded- but really, was there any way to approach a small child without worrying about seeming creepy? "Do you need help?"
The girl regarded him carefully for a long moment, looking him up and down as a furrow appeared between her small brows. Honestly, Jason approved. She really shouldn't be trusting random men in Gotham, even though he legitimately wanted to help her.
But then, after a moment of watching him, her apprehension seemed to melt away.
Jason felt almost dissapointed. Whatever, though. Hopefully they'd get her back to wherever she was from, and this wouldn't matter- it wasn't his job to give a kid from a different dimension the 'stranger danger' talk, was it? No. It was just his job to keep her safe until they could get her home.
"I… don't recognize this castle. Is it yours?" She gestured politely up at the buildings around them, though her posture seemed to make it clear she was holding something back.
Jason tilted his head to the side slightly, looking at the grimy brick walls caging them, but not before catching the way her nose wrinkled. Castle? "Oh. This….. isn't a castle. But i'm kind of in charge around here anyways, you could say."
He looked back down at her, and held back a chuckle when she began holding her nose once she seemed certain that he wouldn't be offended by it.
"Yeah, it kinda stinks here, sorry 'bout that." He took a cautious step forward. "You got a name?"
She met his gaze again after a moment of looking around again. "…Sofia. Sofia the first… of, um. Princess of Enchancia." She curtsied a little clumsily, like she wasn't used to it, or maybe like the uneven ground was throwing her off.
Jason blinked, gaping for a second before nodding seriously. Far be it from him to tell the kid she was wrong or question her story. As strange as a ten year old princess appearing in a Gotham alley was, he'd seen enough odd shit over the years not to question it too hard— especially since he'd come into the situation with some awareness it might be the dimensional or temporal kind of strange. He was leaning towards dimensional right now though, since unless he missed something absolutely huge in those years he was busy being dead instead of in high school, there was not, nor had there ever been, a kingdom of 'Enchancia'.
"Well… to be really frank with you, you're a bit far from home, Princess Sofia." He told her, and watched with concern as her face crumpled. Jason internally grimaced- he wasn't great with kids in the first place (besides Lian, but she was an outlier), but he couldn't bring himself to be upset that he'd told her the truth.
"I have some friends who might be able to help get you home though, Princess. You can call me Hood, okay?" he took another gentle step forward before kneeling down to her level, a good 5 feet away. "Will you let us help you out?"
The Princess looked between his face and his now outstretched hand curiously, the furrow between her brows still present, and still pinching her nose with one hand. She didn't seem stuck up, or even like she wanted to be called 'princess', for that matter. Jason filed that away under 'things to think about later'.
Her big brown eyes were filled with plenty of things- uncertainty, curiousity, and most interestingly, calculation. He got the feeling that maybe as much as he was analyzing her, maybe she was analyzing him right back. Maybe there was a little detective in there? Or… well. she was a princess after all. Maybe a war strategist in the making.
"….Alright." she finally agreed, taking a couple tentative steps towards him.
"Okay." Jason released a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding when she gently took his hand and he stood up. Ok, kid aquired—wait, no. That made him sound like Bruce. He tried not to think about how Sofia's curls and tan skin kind of looked a lot like his own. He couldn't turn into his dad- no fucking way.
"Okay. Alright, Princess. A couple people are going to be here in a minute. Batman— also called the Dark Knight."
"You have a knight?" She looked up at him with some surprise.
Instead of correcting her, Jason snorted softly. "Something like that. He looks scary, but I promise he's a huge softie, especially around kids. Robin will also be here— he's about your age. Don't take it personally if he's a bit grumpy, okay?" He found himself rambling more than usual as he staved off thoughts about becoming like Bruce, and was saved by the sight of the Batmobile stopping at the end of the alley.
"That'll be them." He cut himself off, directing her gaze towards the car, and watched as she gave it a slightly fearful look. Right, so probably no cars where she was from.
They'd handle it, Jason promised himself as Bruce and Damian emerged quietly from the vehicle, suppressing an eye roll as his father's face smoothed out from 'dark knight' mode to 'time to soothe a small child' mode. Or perhaps 'time to adopt another kid' mode. Please, like Jason would let him. He'd gotten here first-
Oh god. No. Not his kid, he reminded himself even as Sofia initially shied away from the darkened, unfamiliar silhouettes of Batman and Robin and pressed herself against his leg. He shoved down the triumph in his chest at the way she was already considering him safe. He'd really need to drill 'stranger danger' rules into her head, or something— because why had she already decided that he was safe enough to cling to? How long had that taken, exactly?
Later, in the cave, their first order of business would be figuring out the best way to get her home, wherever the hell that was. And if that went wrong…. Well. They'd figure it out. His family certainly wasn't any stranger to children without homes.