Chapter Text
Wednesday April 3rd, 2024, Crime Alley;
Sometime after 6pm;
Jason tried to open his eyes to see if his vision had returned to normal, wincing at what seemed like untrained x-ray vision, he snapped his eyes shut again with a groan. That persistent thrumming in his chest would be comforting if it wasn’t so damn familiar, and so damn foreign.
He had been holed up in his personal apartment, his most secure place, for three days now.
The events leading up to this were mundane, and almost pattern behavior for Hood, if not for the part where what was normally where the pit rage sat, a steady thrum of simultaneous hot and cold sat with a comforting hum that felt like a fever breaking and finally being able to breathe.
Well, that and he felt like he was seeing parallel dimensions on top of one another. Seeing people who weren't there. He was feeling emotions he wasn’t even sure existed on a human level. He would go from feeling everything to absolutely near catatonic and anything in between.
His brain was also feeding him strange information, like behaviors he’d never had popping out as if they were ingrained. Emotions leading to bursts of strength enough that he’d accidentally broken Tim’s arm.
They had been sparing, for fun and Jason felt back to as normal as he could for the first time in almost a month, he’d gotten so into it and was laughing even when he gripped Timmy’s arm to throw him, shattering the radius, breaking the ulna.
It took a hell of a lot for the Red Hood to bench himself, but even he knew that he wasn’t okay right now. It seemed that he was too dangerous to be around, even when he wasn’t doused in pit rage.
Jason had gone over it a million times, and couldn’t figure out what had triggered it. He hadn’t been stabbed, shot, gassed, hell, he didn’t think he’d even been hit for a week prior to the start of this.
He really was just fucked up.
No explanation in sight.
His stomach protested the lack of food, and he supposed, it had been days since he’d eaten. He forced himself up, walking carefully to the wall, eyes shut tight. He ran his hand on his wall to know his placement, and started feeling around the cupboards for something substantial, but ready to eat right then.
He’d only opened his protein bar, when the static of his emergency communicator went off.
Rapid breathing and pounding footsteps, followed by a familiar voice. Female, young, and a bit dry; Cora. He forewent the closed eyes and scrambled for the communicator.
“Unknown individuals in white targeting Pack specifically. Fox is downed with an unknown blaster, the residual substance reacts like acid when met with organic matter, he will lose lower right leg.” The sound of gunshots, two magazines worth, from herself and probably Shane before she continued. “Sending location, requesting backup, copy?”
“10-4, en route,” his vision was swimming, though, with a goal, he was able to see things slightly better than before. He didn’t have time to put on his gear. He didn’t even grab his personal pistol before he scaled the fire escape with a few jumps down and took off, his feet pounding the pavement.
He saw them before he was even blocks away, in the early hours of the night. All white, all tactical, and with some heavy looking artillery.
He managed to knock two down on his way to Cora and the others. Beck was trying to triage Mason, and he was indeed going to lose at least the lower part of his leg, if he was lucky enough to not bleed out.
There was a whir, the kind a blaster makes as it powered up, then pain, and the layers of dimensions came back and his whole body seized before everything went black.
-
Crime Alley; Docs
6:43pm
Cora was no stranger to death and bloodshed, she’d always been good at finding it, getting in and out of places like she was never there. Information gathering. She’d never had people to care about her, and no one to care for. Until Red Hood came along, and a little less than a year into his takeover of Crime Alley, he sought her out for her skills.
In the space of a few weeks, she went from alone and abandoned, to having a community of people who worked under Hood. He was kind to those who deserved it, ruthless and blood thirsty to those who crossed him and broke his rules on his territory.
Another year passed and she’d been brought into the inner circle of the gang, and for the first time in her life, she had what felt like a real family. They had all been lone wolves before Red Hood, so they joked they were a pack, to a point Hood made that their official code names.
She was Jackal; Beck, White Wolf; Shane, Coyote; And Mason, Gray Fox.
They sometimes called Jason, Alpha, it pissed him off in a way only they could get away with.
It was silly, cringey even, but it was theirs. She cared more about her pack than anything. Now it was falling apart in front of her, and she was powerless to stop it.
Jason’s body tumbled back as he fell from the blast, he twitched for a moment before going still.
The men in white tactical uniforms converged around him. “Origin source located, sedate and detain.”
“No!” Shane grit out, his chest bloodied, muscle exposed, his fingers down to the bone because he had tried to scrape the substance off himself to stop further damage.
She watched helplessly, standing guard with a KBar and no more ammo for her gun as the men pulled their triggers.
The men frowned when nothing happened, not tranq darts, no blasts just…
“Ice?” one of them said, inspecting the barrel. The ice that coated it almost looked blue. Then a dome of the same ice formed protectively around Jason.
At least, she hoped it was protective.
Footsteps from the left, noticeably intentional ones, made confident strides onto their battlefield, a deserted warehouse district near the docs.
Black hair, blue eyes, and a lean structure that housed solid, lithe muscle.
She tried and failed to hold back a pressed but incredulous face as the words ‘Adoption Bait’ floated passively through her mind.
Black sleeveless turtleneck, fingerless gloves, his left arm covered in a thick mesh sleeve, cargo pants and combat boots. He took careful stock of the situation, not flinching when the blasters were turned on him before moving forward towards Cora and her pack.
“If any of your agents move while I’m tending to those who have this liminal’s energy, it won’t go over well,” he said with a cold gaze on them.
Cora stepped forward, brandishing her knife. “Stay back,” she growled.
He moved forward as though he didn’t care she was there, but spoke softly. “I need to get the blaster residue off your teammates, it will continue to eat at them even after it's been removed by normal means unless I do something about it.”
She lowered her knife, only slightly, letting him pass.
“Watch them for me, so I can make good on my word if they try anything.”
She was torn, Jason was in more danger, but this was an unknown. Even so, something about him felt calming, and even though that alone should've swayed her, the energy that gently surrounded him… the air of death. It was very similar to Jason’s, even though his exuded calm safety, rather than Jason’s ravenous, rage and vengeance.
So, she did as he asked and focused on the tactical agents.
Behind her, Beck was spewing colorful threats at the stranger, but his words died halfway through to a gasp of awe. She kept her eyes on the white tactical suits.
“The big bad Bat doesn’t like metas operating in his city, haven’t you heard?” Beck said. He sounded gruff, but it was actually some strange type concern as Wolf was as emotionally constipated as ever.
“Wouldn’t know, I’m not a meta, and I’m not from this realm,” the stranger said it rather casually, but it didn’t sound like he was lying, based on his tone.
“Not a meta?” Beck grumbled. “Then-”
“Alrighty,” Adoption-bait said, cutting Beck off. He clapped his hands together as he stood and moved into Cora’s line of sight, though speaking to Wolf. “Triage as best you can from here. I’ve removed the Chemically Enhanced Ecto, and used my ice to stop the bleeding on Fox’s leg and Coyote's exposed arteries. Once everyone is safe, I’ll get you guys to better care.”
“What about Jason?” Cora glanced carefully at the stranger out of the corner of her eye while still watching the tactical unit, they were watching the man as close as she was watching them.
“Protecting him is the only reason I came to this realm. Micky sends his sincerity from the beyond, by the way.”
Her head snapped to him, but before she could register looking at him, he faded from sight as if he’d never been there to begin.
At the same time, however, the agents started scrambling, their scanners beeping wildly. The dome of ice crumbled from the centre at the top to the ground, and Jason was no longer there.
The man reappeared, Jason in his arms as he walked, calmly, with his back to the agents.
Dumbass, Cora thought as they took aim and fired.
Though, it hit a wall of green light behind him, barely visible.
Maybe not a dumbass.
Adoption bait carefully lay Jason down, hovering his hand over his chest and frowning as the shots continued to hit the wall.
He turned back to the men in white, and addressed them directly and their firing stopped for the time being.
“What is your agency called, in this realm?” He stood with his hands in his pockets, a disarming stance, but a clear, confident, and commanding voice. He held no fear in his posture. Seeming to hold every card.
“The Ghost Investigation Ward, what is it to you?” A pale, brown haired man spoke.
“I’ll ask the questions. I’ve dealt with your organization and its many formats across the multiverse.” He did airquotes as he said the last word. “Are there laws regarding spirits, ghosts, and ectoplasmic entities in this realm and country that you use to validate the vulgar bias you have to the law?”
Another man, bleached hair tan skin, stepped forward, eyes narrowed. “The Non-Sapient Spectral Act and the Occult Opposition Act.”
The man didn’t move, but the air changed, she could feel it, and so could Beck if the way his head snapped up was any indication.
“Last question, do you know what I am? More importantly, who I am?” The wording sounded snobby, but was spoken as a genuine question as the agents burst into laughter.
“Should we?” They laughed.
He shook his head. “That is all I needed to know, I’ll be taking this liminal, and his Fraid. Don’t bother them again.” He turned to walk away as they burst out laughing again.
“I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, you’re pitifully outnumbered,” the brunette said, gesturing to the roofs of the warehouses around them. White tactical agents surrounded them on every side.
Cora had to wonder when they’d showed up, or if they were led into this trap. She hadn’t heard them, and she was more curious about what the hell was going on.
The man hummed, turning only slightly back to them as a grin too sharp, too wide, spread across his face as his blue eyes turned green and they burned.
"I'm aware that I'm outnumbered. Just like I'm aware that you are pitifully outmatched.”
The man’s aura changed once more, she could feel it spread across the entire area if not further. The overwhelming sense of pure power that radiated off of him, causing her once again to question what he was. Like he’d asked the Ghost Investigation Ward if they knew.
The agents weren’t laughing anymore, in fact, one by one she could hear them, see them dropping like they were puppets who had their strings cut, collapsing onto the roofs where they’d stood like dominos. The three conscious agents on the ground started to take careful steps back. Their equipment and tech going haywire. One overloaded and exploded, and the others just stopped functioning entirely.
“A little word of advice, Ghost. Investigation. Ward.” The stranger took timed steps forward with his words. “Knowing who you’re dealing with before you pick a fight, is half of winning the battle.”
They then also dropped unconscious.
Adoption-bait turned back, taking strides toward them, he smirked, licking his lips as if he’d tasted something sweet. He scooped Jason up, the lean man not seeming to notice the fact the person in his arms was over 200lbs.
He stepped forward as his aura retreated back to what it had been when he walked into the situation in the first place.
“Let’s get you guys to somewhere the Ghost S.W.A.T. isn’t, preferably a medical facility. I can take you there near instantly, I just need you to picture it, and focus on the energy of that place.”
Beck frowned, Cora purposefully didn’t do as she was asked. It seemed however, that Beck had done what adoption-bait wanted, on purpose or not. The black haired man shifted Jason into one arm
-again, he weighs over 200lbs, he’s not even struggling-
His free hand shifted, darkening, growing into claws that look nebulous as he shalshed at the air, a green portal… a lazarus green portal, opened from the widening claw marks. His hands shifted back, and held Jason in a bridal carry once more.
“I’ll be able to help Coyote with his hand, a small amount of muscle and nerve regrowth at minimum. I won’t be able to help with the organic issue of Fox’s leg, but I can help with a prosthetic.”
“This is Crime Alley, no one does anything without expecting something in return. What is it you want?”
Adoption-bait snorted, then gave into a full laugh. “I’m keeping a promise I made. And in doing that, I stumbled upon some information. And to me, that information is worth more than anything anyone could give me materially. Which means I’m in an excellent mood, despite dealing with the GIW of this realm.”
She pressed her brows. “You seem well intentioned, but I don’t trust you,” she said.
The man gave a soft smile that screamed innocence, even as his blue eyes flashed green briefly. “I wouldn’t expect anything less from Red Hood’s Jackel. Now, grab Fox. if White Wolf can grab Coyote, and get through the damn portal?”
Both she and Beck hesitated, they shared a conversation through a few glances and after looking around at the several dozen unconscious bodies, then did as blue eyes instructed.
Stepping through felt rejuvenating in a way she didn’t know she needed, like some unknown part of her was charged in a way she definitely knew she couldn’t explain. They ended up in a warehouse with several old hospital cots from retired military, medical grade everything stored under lock and key in high tech cabinets around the room.
By the time she got Mason to one of the actual medical tables and laid him down, the stranger stepped through with Jason, followed shortly by Beck and an unconscious Shane.
Once everyone was situated, adoption bait spoke. “My name is Danny, and I’m here to help Jason, specifically. But I know he’ll suffer just knowing that some of you were hurt, so I will do what I can to help you.
“Feel free to track Jason, I’m not leaving his side till I fix what attracted the GIW. Lady Gotham is gonna pay in hell for what she’s caused by breaking my laws.”
“Uhhh…” Beck made an un-intelligent sound, and Cora was about to start her tirade and information gathering when the door that attached the warehouse to Leslie Tompkins clinic via underground tunnel slammed open.
As soon as she had turned back to Danny, both him and Jason were gone.