Jay, Don't Jump: A Titans Fanfiction

Top of the Class

Jason got access to Bruce's lab, remotely, through a USB that he had made from the control desk at the Tower. He set up in a sewer and got the Joker dead to rights. A-class criminal for sure. Top of the class; as far as Gotham criminals go. Quickly, he jumped into action and pinpointed the location. He carried a switchblade and a single pouch of tear gas and smoke pellets, like the ones he kept in his utility belt. It led him to an abandoned carnival. It was the last day of January and snowing. Gotham's carnival off-season. The park wouldn't reopen until the Spring. Why would the joker even be here?

It didn't matter.

Laughter

Somewhere. 

in the                                                   distance

Jason heard the heavy crowbar swing and footstep behind him before it was lights-out.

Darkness.

He could hear his voice echo inside his head and all of a sudden he could feel himself moving. His heart pumped faster as adrenaline kicked in, spurting more blood from his head wound. Half of his face was missing.

Then he felt all the fear in his life. 

He stood face to face with himself in a white room. 

He looked at his missing face and laughed. He LAUGHED. He had felt pure fear toxin before and so this was nothing. He laughed and that was when he choked, came alive and threw up purple. He gasped for air and thought briefly about Raven and the Team. Where were they? But. NO. He was alone.

So this was his new life? Naked and confused, Jason looked up. He was all alone in an abandoned factory. Quickly, he found his bloody clothes and dressed himself. The hood was stale with blood all over the grey hood. It was, unmistakably, a red hood. This is what he was supposed to be.

Jason kept navigating the basement of the building, for about an hour before he find a manhole that let him up into the Gotham streets. It seemed so real, but he couldn't even find where his headwound was and all of his teeth were in his mouth. It was weird. He could still fear the fear in his body and he laughed at himself. No. He was laughing out loud. As he turned, people were staring at the boy with the bloodied hood. Being Gotham, nothing surprised the people for long and they moved on quickly, Jason disappearing into the crowds until he could make it into one of the safehouses that stored their uniforms and extra supplies. Jay had lost the knife. He liked that knife. He intended to go back for it. But the knife was the least of his worries. The Joker. That's who he had to find.

Back down he went. This time through the underground, sloshing along the old Gotham Subway lines. Someone had been down here. Recently. 

RED HOOD SAYS HELLO.

But it wasn't paint. No. It was blood. That was never in the instructions. He just needed an escape. The riot was planned. Far, far away. 44 hours by bus. Laughter drifted through the tunnels. He knew that. Unarmed, he would have to retreat but that part- that part of the brain that tells you when you were in danger- that part was gone. No. He wasn't trapped in here with the Joker. THE JOKER WAS TRAPPED IN THERE WITH HIM.

Jason found himself feeling weaker. There was a bitter taste in his mouth. It was acrid and he knew at once it was ammonia. 

To explain, ammonia is what smelling salts are made out of- that poison that wakes people up. Why was the sewer filling with ammonia? There is ammonium in urine, but he wasn't in the sewers.