Batcat Spectre (DPXDC)

Chapter 12

Danny held his breath, an awful taste entering his mouth.

Across the rooftop stood the one person he was warned to avoid at all costs. Jazz was going to murder him. To be fair though, how was he supposed to predict that Red Hood would be on the roof at the exact same time he decided to get some not-so-fresh air in the middle of the night? They weren't even in Crime Alley. This wasn't his turf...so why was he here? Danny didn't want to know the answer, because every one he could think of had something to do with him and he didn't like the possibilities running through his head. He didn't exactly leave a good impression on the anti-hero the last time they met, and likewise Red Hood hadn't made much of an impression on him either.

"For someone who claims to be a ghost, you certainly look like you've just seen one." Red Hood chuckled, but it held no humor in it. His stance was tense, alert. He was ready for a fight...or looking for one.

What does he do? Danny didn't know what happened that could have ticked this guy off beside the whole 'growled at him' bit. But even Danny didn't know what had happened then. He just knew that the closer this guy had gotten, the more his core screamed that something was wrong. What exactly? As if he had a clue.

"Did....is there something I can help you with?" Danny asked, trying not to sound as freaked out as he actually was while he played with the sleeve of his new jacket. Who was supposed to be at ease when Red Hood was standing across the rooftop from them?...In a very intimidating manner at that.

"I just have a few questions," Red Hood claimed, waving his hand in a lazy manner, but Danny saw his other hand just resting where he could easily grab his gun that Danny just knew was there. One of his guns anyway. Pretty sure he saw Red Hood using two at that shakedown...last night? Had it really only been last night? Wow, time flew.

"Right...questions," Danny responded, eyes trained on the hand that was closer to the gun.

Now, Jason knew he could be intimidating. He knew that coming here would be ill-advised by pretty much anyone asked. Bruce and Selina would kill him for this, and Dick probably would too if his spending the whole day just trying to see this kid was any indication. But he had questions that didn't have to do with the whole 'is he, is he not' debate going on back at the Cave. It wasn't usual for him to be there or the Manor nowadays, and the one time he finally went back proved fruitless because not a single person could agree on what exactly this kid was. Bruce didn't even know what apparently his own kid actually was, and he was too wrapped up in his self-doubt and guilt that Jason doubted it would be useful to approach him.

Tim didn't seem fully convinced this kid was an Infi-demon or whatever Constantine had told Bruce. With Damian...Jason thought that maybe Damian was grasping at straws. Being the first and only blood son was a sense of pride for the demon brat that he had lorded over their heads for years, so to have that potentially threatened was difficult for the kid to handle, mellowed out or not. This might be what finally tips him back toward the killing side if this keeps up.

But Jason didn't actually care about what the others thought. (He did not. Shut up Dick).

He didn't care if this kid was a freaking angel. Or if he was Bruce's kid or if he was a demon in disguise. What he did want to know? He just wanted to know how in the absolute **** this kid calmed the pits that had been raging in his head ever since he clawed himself out of his own grave.

Clearly, the kid didn't react well to him. He got that message crystal clear when he had been hissed at the night before and the waters inside of him had screamed: get away. It hadn't been the others that had made him back off from that, but as soon as he did, the waters had immediately calmed. He didn't just mean it got to a tolerable level, he meant there, but calm. He had gotten used to having to constantly reign in the anger that the Lazarus pits had imbedded into him since his revival. But never, ever have they gone quiet the way they did last night. He felt completely in control. He felt almost normal.