Chapter Text
Jason slipped through the window and onto the upper level of the warehouse. It was easy to keep to the shadows, the poor lighting in the place doing nothing to give away his location, not to mention the fact that he’d always been pretty good at blending in and hiding in plain sight. He stepped over to the railing, overlooking the scene below to get an idea of what was happening.
A young girl, blond, petite, had been taken in by a group of nasty looking guys. She may not know how nasty, but he knew. He knew all too well. The group was part of a human trafficking ring that he’d been tracking for weeks now. The extent of the organization was unknown, the hits taken in small groups of three or four guys. Inconspicuous enough to not draw attention, but also big enough to subdue even the most intense of fighters that they might end up having on their hands.
His hands tightened over the metal railing when the conversation managed to float up to him. He wanted to jump down and rip their throats out even if he didn’t know what else they’d been up to.
“Come on, girlie, be nice and good for us and we’ll have them treat you well.”
“They let us break in the new merchandise. We’ll be gentle the first time around. Make it good.”
One of the group stepped up behind her and made to grab her around the waist, but she evaded quickly, spitting in the guy’s direction.
Jason had to hand it to her. She had guts. She didn’t look frightened at all, only really pissed off if the scowl she was sporting was anything to go by. She still looked a little intimidating, even with her hands tied behind her back.
One of the other guys growled and stepped forward, but she backed away, keeping the space between them.
“You don’t want to make us angry,” he said, pulling a knife from his belt. “We’re allowed to bring in new goods using any means necessary. And as long as we keep that face of yours pretty, we can hit you with any nonlethal strikes we want.”
“I dare you to try it and see where that gets you,” she hissed.
Jason winced, because he really didn’t think that it was in her best interest to threaten the guys who could do serious harm. He was also a little surprised, because her voice was a little deeper than he was expecting, but still pleasing to listen to. It was smooth, like melted chocolate. And he needed to stop thinking about that before he made himself hungry.
The group was becoming very unamused, very fast. They fanned out into a triangular shape and Jason watched the girl tense. It took him a minute to realize that she wasn’t tensing as a negative reaction or trying to shy away from them, she looked like she was ready to jump into battle. He stared transfixed as the three rushed her. He nearly jumped over the bar and into the fray, but the first move she made stopped him.
The guy to her right was closest. He didn’t have a weapon on him, making him an easy target which she took advantage of. She kicked upwards and hit him in the jaw, sending him stumbling backwards, clutching at his face and dazed. The guy with the knife was in front of her and swung out, but she jumped back, avoiding the blade with ease and obvious practice.
Just how many times had she been in this type of situation before?
She swept her leg in an arc, hitting the top of the guy’s forearm and forcing him to drop the blade. Before letting her foot hit the ground, she drew it back and kicked him in the stomach, earning a heavy ‘oof’ as the air rushed from his lungs. Jason’s breath caught in his throat. He was captivated by the sight before him.
She moved with grace and ease. Even as the two guys without weapons rushed her from both sides, she jumped, tucking her legs into her chest to bring her arms underneath them so they were in front of her. She moved to balance on her tied hands and kicked her legs out, knocking the two guys back and away from her. It reminded him of Nightwing and had the flair of an acrobat.
Once back on her feet, she grabbed the knife and cut her wrists free, letting the rope fall to the side and brandishing the knife as the group got back to their feet. They were all wary now. They’d seen a demonstration of what she was capable of, but they knew they couldn’t just run away. She’d already seen their faces and knew about the trafficking ring.
Even though Jason couldn’t see it, he was sure that her eyes were flicking from person to person, taking in all the information she would need before her final strike. There was a second where time seemed to stop. Everyone was frozen, Jason was waiting to see what would happen next, and none of the guys on the ground below him were drawing in a breath. And then it broke. In a magnificent way.
She rushed them, overtaking them easily as they scrambled over themselves to back up or put up some sort of defense. She went for the one on the right first, lashing out with a powerful roundhouse that left him clutching his side and gasping. Coupled with a nerve strike, he was the first to fall to the ground.
The other two scrambled away, hoping that they could at least make it to the exit in time. The leader of the group tripped his other partner up in an attempt to get away. He didn’t fall, but the girl used him as a springboard, in the split second after it was lights out for him, in order to gain the distance the leader had on her. She threw the knife at him, hitting his thigh and he stumbled, going to his knees. He tried crawling, hoping to make it out the door, but the girl just approached him calmly and sent a hit to his neck, leaving him to slump down against the ground.
Jason took that as his chance to drop down from the upper level. Once he was in sight the girl jumped back several steps and fell into a fighting stance. He put up his hands to try and calm her down.
“Relax, I’m not here to hurt you.”
She eyed him warily, obviously suspicious.
“I’m not going to bother asking if they hurt you, because it’s obvious they didn’t. But who are you?” He watched her stiffen and her eyes widen. So she didn’t want him to know who she was. “Any normal person wouldn’t have that type of skill to go up against three men…hey wait!”
She turned and sprinted from the building, getting swallowed in the darkness beyond. Jason cursed under his breath and hurried across the warehouse floor. When he got into the alley outside, he looked up and down in both directions, but saw no sign of her or where she might’ve gotten off to.
“Shit.”
He wanted to run after her. Track her down and get some answers. Or at least take her to a clinic so that she could get checked over just in case, but the pained groans that sounded behind him reminded him that this group needed to be taken care of. He couldn’t exactly let them get back to their organization. That would defeat the whole purpose of everything that had happened really.
Jason huffed and walked back inside, pulling the zip ties from one of his pockets. The group was still pretty out of it, so he thankfully didn’t have to put up with a struggle from any of them. He left them in a nice line in the center of the room and put in a call for the cops to come and pick them up. Normally he’d stick around and make sure the cops did their job right, but he had a certain blond-haired, blue-eyed fighter who he wanted to track down.
He just hoped that he wouldn’t have to go to anyone else in order to help him. He didn’t need anyone to start asking him weird questions about this. He just wanted to make sure that she was okay and maybe find out if she was in some kind of trouble. You didn’t get that skilled in fighting just for shits and gigs.
~~~~~
Tim clamped a hand over his mouth, trying to slow his heartrate and not give away his location because his breathing was too loud. If Red Hood decided to come looking for him, he knew he was in trouble. Next time he did this, he’d have to remember to bring his grapple gun with him, because he really didn’t need to be cornered like this.
He heard the guy mutter a quiet curse and walk back inside the warehouse. Tim took that as his chance to hurry through the buildings, making as little noise as possible. He’d gotten dragged pretty far from where he’d stowed his change of clothes and needed to get back to them immediately. His current disguise was too obvious and he hadn’t brought his uniform along in case someone happened to find it by accident.
Red Hood finding his way on to the same trafficking case as him was not something that he’d expected, but it shouldn’t have surprised him that someone else had taken notice. The only difference was that he was able to pass on which cases he was taking to the other vigilantes of Gotham so that they knew what he was working on.
They all kept their distance from each other in order to keep their identities a secret. The less compromised they were in the field, the better. But Red Hood was an enigma. A somewhat loose cannon that he didn’t know much about. He hadn’t interacted with him often since they both had a silent agreement to stay away from each other’s patrol routes.
Tim slipped through the streets away from the warehouses. He left them behind quickly and kept an eye out for more trouble. Even though he wasn’t looking to be kidnapped for the second time by the same organization, that didn’t mean that someone wouldn’t try something. And he wanted to avoid being tailed by Red Hood as much as possible.
He shot glances towards the rooftops, letting about a quiet sigh of relief when he didn’t catch anyone following. Keeping one eye on the sky and the other on the streets, he finally made it back to the alley where he’d stored his things and found it blessedly empty. Maybe for once in his life, things were actually going to work out without any more hiccups. He hurried to the back of the alley and pulled his duffel from behind a set of overflowing trashcans. A hoard of mice scurried away from and he sneered, he’d need to disinfect his bag when he got back to his apartment.
“You look a little lost there, Princess.”
Tim’s shoulders sagged as the voice rang out from behind him. The whole point of this was to not have to deal with another confrontation with another idiot. He looked over his shoulder and glared at the guy. He wasn’t that big or muscular. The only thing that people would probably find intimidating in Gotham were the ripped and dirty clothes and the slightly crazed expression on his face.
“I don’t have time for this,” he muttered and dug around in his duffle. He’d debated leaving his grapple gun at home with his uniform, but was really glad that he’d brought it along with him now.
“Hey! I’m talking to you!” the guy exploded, making Tim roll his eyes.
He pulled his grapple and shot a line up to the roof.
“Fuck off, you pig,” he spat before pressing the retract button and getting whisked away to the roof.
“Hey!” The guy shouted after him.
Tim smirked, all too happy to get away from the guy who was probably planning on trying to rape him. As he stowed his grapple back in his duffle, he thought that maybe it would’ve been better if he’d stayed and fought. It would’ve kept him from trying to track someone else down. But then again…most people knew to stay indoors when it got this late.
Tightening his grip on the strap of his bag, he took one last look at the surrounding buildings to make sure that none of the other vigilantes were nearby. If they caught him up here, they would probably end up questioning him and he didn’t really want to have to explain that he was actually Red Robin and was just undercover. Plus, facing off with one of the other masks without a domino of his own would leave him feeling put out and at a disadvantage.
He took off across the buildings until he was several blocks away from where he’d been before. There was a nearby fast food place that was open late and thankfully pretty busy. Tim dropped down into the alley next to it and walked around the front, making a beeline for the bathroom as soon as he was inside. No one took notice of him as he came in and he knew that no one would take notice of him as he left.
He slipped into the handicapped room and locked the door behind him, letting his duffle fall to the floor. He unzipped it quickly and pulled out a pair of jeans, a button down, and a hoodie. The first thing that Tim pulled off was his wig. He threw it into the duffle and changed quickly, pulling the hood up on his jacket when he was done and slinging the duffle over his shoulder.
He cracked open the door and looked out into the hallway that was empty. It wasn’t like he was expecting anyone to be there, but he could never be too careful. He left the restaurant behind as easily and quickly as he’d come. He hurried down the street, knowing that if he even wanted to have a chance at getting back out to patrol that he needed to get back and get changed.
The rooftops above him remained deserted all the way back to his apartment and he was thankful for it. He wouldn’t have to deal with a confrontation with Red Hood that night and if he was lucky he’d never run into the guy again, especially since he was planning on having to go undercover more often than he would like over the next few weeks. Tim knew that he was smart enough to find a work around for having to dress up, but that was the price he paid for fast and accurate intel.
He threw his duffel down on his bed and pulled his Red Robin uniform from his closet to change. It wasn’t too late yet and there was still a lot of prime patrol time that he needed to cover. Splitting his patrol wasn’t the easiest thing to do, especially when he couldn’t exactly rely on any of the other vigilantes for help, but he was going to take it. As much as he didn’t want to leave anyone helpless on Gotham’s streets, he also knew that by stopping the human trafficking group, he’d be saving a lot more people from very unpleasant experiences.
Tim secured his domino on his face and smoothed his hands over the Kevlar covering his body. There was always something great about putting his uniform on before leaving for patrol. He didn’t think there was any other feeling like it in the world that he’d been privy to. It was addicting. And that was probably why he was never able to stop himself from continuing to work as a vigilante.
He hurried over to his apartment window and quickly unarmed his security measures before stepping out onto the fire escape. The alley below him was dark and covered his movements. Only another vigilante or someone with infrared or night vision goggles would be able to catch sight of him and as far as he knew, petty criminals didn’t just carry those types of gadgets around with them when they hit the streets.
Tim pulled himself up to the roof of his apartment complex and stood looking over the streets and buildings beyond. He relaxed as the wind whipped at his cape and ruffled his hair. He gave himself a second to breathe in before taking off across the rooftops in search of crime and people needed saving, any thoughts of Red Hood and their encounter earlier was momentarily swept from his thoughts.