Work Text:
He was in Metropolis, a very-very different city compared to Gotham, the buildings didn’t block out the sunlight, and everything just seemed so… Modern.
He pulled over in front of a restaurant and kicked the metal bar attached to his motorcycle into place. Jason got off his bike and leaned on its seat while standing, wearing a brown backpack on one shoulder, gray jeans, an open zip-up blue jacket, and a Wonder Woman t-shirt beneath.
She should be in front of here… He recalled the agreed-upon time and location before checking the time on his phone.
11:32 AM
Two minutes past the time they were supposed to meet up.
Did he get catfished? No, the person on the other end seemed real. Maybe he should’ve searched them up on the Batcomputer, they did give him an identity, assuming it’s real. Is this some elaborate trap to arrest him?
Then, from the corner of his view, he saw a girl booking it down the street, she ran with her purse over her shoulder. The girl appeared to be a college student, dressed in a professional-looking formal green shirt and brown cargo pants, her blonde hair tied into a bun with bangs hanging out and glasses.
She slowed down before stopping at the same restaurant he was standing in front of, she pulled out her phone with an uneasy face. Jason was almost certain this was his date, she even looked like her profile picture.
Just to be sure. He opened the dating app installed on his phone, swiped into the messages section, and texted a generic message to confirm if she was who he thought she was.
Before long, he got a message back and he looked up from his phone, seeing the girl smiling and waving at him. He approached her with confidence and the fact that he wasn’t going to make himself look like a total fool to a stranger.
“SunFan922? Pleased to meet you.” Jason greeted, standing in front of the young woman. Up close, she really did look stunning, her blonde hair glistening in the sunlight of the great weather.
“Yup, I’m guessing you’re RedJays17?” She greeted back, brushing a piece of her hair aside.
“You run track or something? That was pretty fast.” He complimented.
“Used to, a long time ago. Name’s Kara Kent.” She introduced herself, stretching her hand out.
“Jay… Jay Peter.” He introduced himself as well, shaking her hand. She had quite a firm handshake, much stronger than he’d expected.
“Well, it's finally nice to meet you, Jay,” Kara said happily, as happy as someone can be after finally meeting someone they met on a dating app a couple of months ago.
“Likewise, Kara. Now let’s get inside, I’m starving.”
Jason opened and held the glass door for her like a true gentleman, he wouldn’t want Alfred to show up in his safe house and give him a lecture on proper manners. Kara walked in while saying her thanks, nodding at him. He followed right by her side.
“You live in Gotham, right? Must’ve been a long drive.” She commented as they stood in the waiting area to be seated.
“Crime Alley. Only took three hours to get here on my bike.” Jason replied, turning his head to see the running cars outside, the streets were clean and almost shiny, but that was probably just the sun. It was overall, very unlike Gotham.
Metropolis and Gotham. Two cities on the eastern seaboard. One in Delaware. One in New Jersey. One home to the Man of Steel. One home to the Bat. One usually gets attacked by aliens. One usually gets taken over by a crazy manic overnight. One a thriving example of an American city. One a declining hellhole riddled with organized crime. And so on, and so forth.
“Crime Alley? Like Park Row? The most dangerous and impoverished street of Gotham? That Crime Alley?” Kara asked as if she saw a fish out of water, her face telling the whole story. But it wasn’t one of judgment, but of concern.
“The one and only.” He responded simply. “Surprised I didn’t end up as one of those freak’s henchmen or one of them myself?”
“Well, I guess it isn’t as bad as the news says. You seem to have turned out alright.” She said, shuffling closer to him.
“I met someone who kept me on the right path.” He muttered ‘for a while’ under his breath, she seemed to flinch at the comment, but she couldn’t have possibly heard it, right?
But before they could continue their conversation, a waiter approached them.
“Table for two?”
Jason and Kara both nodded in response.
“Follow me.”
They did, following the server, and being seated at a two-person table near the window, sunlight glinting on it. The two sat down, directly across from each other, a rather small square table between them. They were still an arm's length from each other.
He dropped the bag that was on his shoulder onto the floor, leaning it on his chair.
“I’ll be back when you couple are ready to order.” The Waiter said before walking away to attend to other customers.
“So, have you ever-” Jason was about to try and strike up a conversation before being interrupted.
“He just called us a couple,” Kara said, her cheeks blushing ever so slightly, and her face screamed distracted as if her head was somewhere out of this world.
“Oh, yeah.” He didn’t honestly didn’t notice the waiter’s comment at first, but he might as well make some use of it. “I think it means we should start deciding what to do for the second date.”
Totally nailed it.
“O-Oh!” She exclaimed, caught off guard at his comment.
But before either of them could say anything else, a loud trumpet sound played behind Jason, causing him to turn around. It was the news, the Daily Planet to be exact, breaking news on a high-speed chase between heavily armed suspects and the Metropolis City Police Department.
Whatever. Wasn’t his business. Superman or Supergirl or Super-whatever could take care of it. The Red Hood showing up in broad daylight to ‘take care’ of them would draw too much attention and raise even more questions.
And besides, he couldn’t just ditch his date. Jason turned back around to face her.
“I thought Metropolis was safe?” He blurted out.
“It is, no one usually gets this noisy in Metropolis.” She replied in a hushed tone, staring at the TV screen playing live footage of the pursuit.
“So, how did you find out about this restaurant? This place has a nice feeling to it. We should check out the menu and-” Jason reached for one of the vertically stacked paper menus, halfway pulling it out.
“Oh my gosh, I forgot to turn my car engine off!” Kara said one of, if not, the worst excuses he’d ever heard. He saw her run down a block and not arrive in a car, and if she merely parked somewhere else, why not closer? There were many open spots closer to the restaurant. “I’ll be back quickly, please watch my bag for me.”
She gently put her purse on the table with both her hands before bolting out of the glass double doors of the restaurant.
Did this count as being stood up?
“What…” Was all he could say, a few of the nearby customers gave him a look of pity. He always hated those looks, those judging looks, shouting that he was a failure, shouting what could end up happening to them one day like a reminder.
Was his earlier comment too much? Was it really that bad? Wait, if she was ditching him, then why did she leave her purse with him? It seems pretty expensive and probably has some personal stuff inside. Maybe it was like some kind of insurance?
Jason turned around to look at the news playing on the TV, heavily armed gunmen opened fire at police while they desperately gave chase, but still no Superman in sight.
Well since I’m already alone… And no Supes arrived yet… He thought about it for a second, should he do something? It wasn’t even his city. But some crazy bastards shooting fucking machine guns on a busy road is bound to get somebody killed. Maybe even children…
He could do something about it. So why shouldn’t he?
Eh, fuck it. Jason got up from his seat, throwing his bag that was on the floor onto his shoulders. He picked the purse up, couldn’t risk it being stolen while he was gone, and walked up to the restaurant’s counter with a register, standing in front of a worker now.
“Hey, could you please save my table? I gotta go do something.” He said before running out of the restaurant, the purse in his hand and brown backpack on his back, leaving the dumbfounded clerk behind despite their protest about how they couldn’t do something like that.
Jason ran past multiple buildings before disappearing into a dark alley, allowing a dumpster to shield him from gazes as he donned the costume that he brought along with him in his bag, not minding the smell for the most part. He also stashed his civilian outfit along with the purse into his brown bag, just for safekeeping.
A grappling gun shot and rang out in the quiet alley, he zipped onto the rooftop of the building. Jason now had his red helmet on, an open rough brown leather jacket, a grayish-black shirt underneath that, black pants with knee pads, boots, a trusty utility belt, and backpack safely strapped onto his chest.
He opened his phone to check the location of the chase and began running, leaping onto another building’s rooftop.
“Metropolis better be ready, because the Red Hood is coming to town.”
A pickup truck was speeding way past the speed limit, with four occupants, making a getaway after a successful bank robbery, millions worth of bills in bags. Unfortunately, the police didn’t exactly want to celebrate with them for their success, pursuing them in a high-speed chase. The robbers returned in kind with machine gun fire, lucky their aim was pretty shit so no one died yet, despite a few injuries.
Jason arrived at his self-designated location, on top of a building’s rooftop, around five blocks ahead of where the pursuit would end up, if he was correct.
He drew both his guns, high caliber custom-made pistols, his fingers resting on their sides. Gun Safety 101.
Suddenly, he felt a strong gust of wind to his left, turning his head, he saw a Supergirl staring at him, hovering over the street below, armed with shiny blonde hair, dressed in a miniskirt, high crop top, and cape. If he knew she was going to show up, he wouldn’t have, speak of which, where has she been? The whole chase had been going on for more than twenty minutes now. She had super hearing or some bullshit along those lines didn’t she? Was she held up in traffic or something?
Jason stepped forward, one foot on the length.
“And who are you supposed to be? You working with them?” Supergirl gestured with her thumb, pointing at the pickup speeding towards their direction on the road below. Her face seemed beyond annoyed like she had something better to do instead.
“Red Hood, pleased to meet you. And no, I’m not. I just happened to be in town and I want to help.” He said in his most sincere and nonthreatening voice possible, despite his helmet’s mechanical voice changer.
“Can’t say the same about you, you’re a Gotham crime lord, right? I should be taking you in, not working with you!” Supergirl shouted angrily. Someone was having a bad day.
Well, she heard the name somewhere.
“Sure, fight me instead of the idiots waving AK-47s and machine guns around. Or we can work together to stop them.” Red Hood reasoned.
She didn’t react, deciding to just stay angry instead, her face said she wanted to snap him in two, was she thinking about his offer? He turned his head and tilted it down, seeing the oncoming truck, two blocks away. Should he take the chance? He could just end this now, deal with her somehow, and get back to his date. It would be trouble if she did come back and her bag or he wasn’t there.
Fuck it.
He quickly turned, put his finger above the trigger, aimed, and fired three shots at the pickup truck that was now only a block away. Supergirl flew at superspeed in front of him, creating another gush of wind, stopping the three bullets from reaching their intended target with her invulnerable body, the three pieces of metal falling at Jason’s feet.
What a waste of good bullets, but at least he knew she was for sure bulletproof now. Just in case.
“Nobody gets killed in my city.” She hissed her order, he put both of his pistols into safety and back into his hostlers in response.
And with that, Supergirl descended, flying down toward the pickup truck.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Red Hood muttered, jumping off the building and directly on top of the pickup truck, leaving a sizable dent, startling the occupants inside, but not as much as Supergirl flying next to them.
“Why do you call yourself the Red Hood?! You’re wearing a red helmet!”
“Small talk while we’re doing this?! I’m flattered!”
“Well, don’t be! Why do you wear the helmet anyway? You ugly or something?”
“Says the one in a skirt and crop top!”
“It’s fashionable!”
They went back and forth until one of the gunmen half climbed out of the window from the bottom right seat, aiming his AK-47 at Red Hood. The guy wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. Jason quickly jabbed him in the face, disarmed him, ejected the AK’s magazine, threw the gun away, and pulled the criminal out of the car, holding him by his shirt. He stared into his eyes, the eyes of someone who was scared shitless. Jason aimed to make it worse, throwing him at a mailbox while the truck was still moving at high speeds.
“I said no killing!” She yelled as she caught the criminal and dropped him on the sidewalk, causing him to roll like a baguette.
“He would’ve survived the landing, Girl Scout!”
“With twenty broken bones!”
“Just twenty?! I was aiming for higher!”
The thug in the bottom left seat lowered his window, the barrel of his M60 machine gun poking out, he released a long burst of bullets with no care about what he might accidentally hit. Supergirl was not phased at all, being shot thousands of times before and not even feeling a tickle. She flew close and snatched the machine gun out of the guy’s hand, bending the gun with her bare hands, rendering it useless before throwing it onto the sidewalk.
A second later, the thug also found himself tumbling down the same sidewalk, courtesy of Supergirl.
“You do this a lot?!”
“More than you probably think!”
“Thought Metropolis was safe, you know, big blue and all?!”
He took two steps forward, slamming his foot into the top of the truck, creating even more dents. The Red Hood was now on the edge of the automotive roof, he bent over, slamming both of his fists into the windshield, and grabbed the two occupants in the front seat, pulling them through the glass windshield. The shards of glass caused cuts on them, even Jason himself despite his gloves and long-sleeved jacket. He felt a minor pain on the side of his right hand, no matter, probably just a small scratch, he could deal with it later.
Do these people not wear seat belts? Criminals can be dumb but not usually this dumb. But then again, they’re robbing a bank in the middle of the day where heroes in Metropolis are most active.
He held the two upside down before turning to Supergirl.
“Hey, catch!” He threw the two fully grown men at her.
She did so, ensuring they got nothing more than a few scratches and bruises from rolling down the sidewalk like a bunch of rolling pins.
“At least you gave a warning this time!”
“It’s not every day you get to toss scumbags like garbage bags, and-”
Jason faced forward in the vehicle’s direction, and what he saw made him begin to panic. Not an upcoming collusion, a heap of bullets flying towards him, or even a comically large rocket. It was some kid. Jaywalking down the road without a care in the world. Where were this kid’s parents? Do they not see this truck going 300-something miles at them? And finally, why hasn’t the car stopped yet? Did the gas pedal get stuck or something? How the fuck was he supposed to save the obvious kid?
He turned to the god-like alien flying next to him.
“Move the kid!” He yelled at Supergirl.
“No, I got a better idea! Jump off the truck!” She responded, ordering him.
“What?!”
“Just do it, now!”
He did as she said, jumping with all his strength to reach the sidewalk, doing a roll, he stood up from the concrete floor, bystanders staring at him confused. Hopefully, they didn’t know he was the crime lord who beheaded nine people, and just thought he was some new vigilante. He got up just in time to see Supergirl fly straight into the car with a bear hug, stopping it with her pure strength. Jason would’ve been sent flying if he stayed on.
“Quite a team-up, huh?” Red Hood said, running up to her.
“This was barely a team-up. And it's definitely a one-time thing.” Supergirl responded, still looking as pissed off and annoyed as before. What’s up with her?
“Harsh.”
“Not for a criminal. Why did you even want to take those guys out? Were they your competition or something?” She asked with suspicion riddled in her voice.
“No, they were not. As for why, I’ll leave that up to your imagination.”
Her eyes turned red for a brief moment, he stepped back and held onto a flash grenade in his utility belt, readying himself. And then her eyes stopped glowing menacingly ready, thank god or whatever deity that existed, he wasn’t able to be lasered in half.
“Rao, even your helmet has a lead layer. You’re one paranoid guy.” She said much more softly, not less intense, but she didn’t seem like she was debating whether to take him in or not.
Did she just try to see under my helmet with X-ray vision?
“Nah. If I was, I’d have kryptonite on me.” He joked, being reminded of someone he used to know.
She silently stared at him, Jason was pretty sure she wanted to bash his face in, but at the same time, she probably didn’t want to look like a complete psychopath in front of the police that she usually works with.
“Okay, I don’t actually own any kryptonite yet.” He joked again, trying to get her to say something.
“Go before I change my mind.”
“Yeah, I’ll do that, before the police realize you worked with a crime lord wanted in 12 different states.” Red Hood said, earning her scow. Jason immediately took out his grappling gun and grappled onto the nearest building at the sight.
He began running on rooftops and jumping. It was nice, seeing the scenery that was offered by the city of tomorrow. Why wasn’t Gotham like this? A little more sunlight would be much appreciated.
Jason continued traveling directionlessly until he got a feeling, one of those feelings, like he was forgetting something…
Something very important…
Oh, right, his date!
Jason burst through the glass double doors, now in his civilian clothes, his Red Hood equipment in the brown backpack over his shoulder. The restaurant had visually fewer people, less staff running around like headless chickens, and…
He looked in the direction of his former table.
It was her.
SunFan922.
Kara Kent.
His date.
She was really sitting there, back at the same exact table. In the same clothes as before. How long did he make her wait? Did she think he stole her bag? Was he being an asshole?
He quickly rushed up, being seen by her. What was his excuse going to be?
“H-Hey, sorry, I had to go for an emergency.” He apologized awkwardly, scratching his head.
“Oh, thank Ra- God, you’re back. Jay, you have my purse right?” She asked with a just as awkward smile.
“Yeah, sorry, I had to go and I couldn’t just leave your purse here and let it be stolen.” Jason took his backpack off and opened it, digging around his gear to find the purse, and taking it out.
“Thank you, I’ve been sitting here for five minutes and you have no idea how worried I was,” Kara said as she opened her purse and reached for something inside, pulling out a phone.
“You had your phone inside?” He was shocked, he’d been dead for a few years, but leaving your bag with your phone inside to some stranger you met online and talked to is a little too reckless, right?
He sat in his original seat, dropped his bag to the floor, and leaned it onto his chair.
“Yeah, a little stupid, I know, hahaha…” She laughed awkwardly. “But- Wait, your hand’s bleeding…” Kara muttered, pointing at his right hand while still holding her phone.
Jason’s face turned pale, he looked down at his right hand, not a deep cut, but large enough with blood to be noticeable. How didn’t he notice while changing? When did he get it? When he slammed his hands into a windshield to drag two guys out? Maybe. He could fake this somehow. He fought a vicious dog in the alley! Wait, no, that was too Gotham. He accidentally tripped and scraped his hand on the sidewalk? Maybe… Sounded Metropolis enough.
But then Kara removed her glasses and hairpin, letting her hair flow freely.
That face… He’d seen her before… She…
“Red…?”
“Supes…?”
The two stared at each other
““No fucking way.””
Omake:
Jason woke up slowly, still drowsy from the usual morning fatigue, he opened his eyes. He saw a ceiling, one that didn’t belong to him, sunlight beaming through the giant window, right into his eyes.
He blinked rapidly, composing himself, he felt something heavy on his chest.
Jason lifted his head and looked down at his chest, he saw a long-blonde-haired girl on top of him, drooling on his chest while she had a smile on her face, hugging him tightly as if he were a giant teddy bear.
Kara. Her name was Kara Zor-El but she filed her taxes under Kara Kent, and this was her apartment, her bedroom. Her body was against his. No clothes in between. Only a blanket covered on top of them, her head sticking out. He didn’t attempt to move, not even a muscle, she had more strength than a thousand men combined, and he highly doubted he would be able to break her hold
They went on a date yesterday as he remembered.
Lunch, movie, dinner, her house… He recalled the order of how everything happened.
Were they a couple now? He looked at her face again, that infectious smile, it was calming, soothing even, it made him feel at peace. A kind of peace he hadn’t felt in a long time, ever since his revival.
It made Jason smile himself.
But he still had work to do. People to strike fear into. A criminal empire to manage. Promises to keep.
But maybe… Just maybe this could be his vacation, his work in Gotham was never-ending, and he deserved to rest once in a while, right?
He rested his head back on the pillow and closed his eyes.
They can figure everything out later.