The Effort of Family

Ready or Not

A/N: Hey all. This chapter is a little experimental in terms of formatting, so please let me know how it reads. Sorry it's so late.

Slight content warning for guns, fighting, and blood.

Jason felt strangely calm. It might've been because Stephanie was blaring musical soundtracks, but the situation didn't feel particularly tense. When he asked Steph to go with him, he wasn't expecting her to agree so enthusiastically. Maybe he should've, though. Out of all the family, Jason felt most at ease with her. Dick knew him the best, sure, but Stephanie was the only one that really understood him.

He'd waited until the last minute, just last night, to ask her.

Oracle had directed both Spoiler and Red Hood to a disturbance in the Bowery. A fight had broken out between two gangs. There had been trouble brewing between the two for a while, so it had come as no surprise that it'd come to a firefight. Luckily, the fight was relatively minor. A couple goons even scattered when he got there, not that they got far when Spoiler arrived.

"Nice night for a good 'ol fashioned shootout, huh?" the other vigilante laughed out over the comms.

"Nothing like kicking the shit out of idiots while they shoot at us," Hood agreed. Because that's what the criminals had started doing. He'd been hoping that they'd try to split their efforts between each other and the vigilantes, but nooo. Both parties decided their minor gang war could wait, and they trained their guns solely on Red Hood and Spoiler.

It was, admittedly, no one's best work. Spoiler got grazed clean across the cheek by a stray bullet and took a baseball bat to the head. Red Hood lost track of a few of them, and several thugs escaped into the night. It was fine though because it was over in about 20 minutes. It might've gone faster, but Hood had been using nonlethal methods only for a while now, and tossing grenades surely would have killed more than a few idiots.

"Red Robin and the GCPD are inbound to handle the arrest," Oracle crackled over the comms. "Take a breather or head back to the cave if you need immediate attention."

Red Hood grabbed Spoiler's attention and signaled for her to mute her comm. Their field signals were usually for stealth missions, but they came in handy when he didn't want nosy little birds listening in. Oracle would take note that they were muted and could listen in if she really wanted to. Hood's favorite thing about her, though, is that she wouldn't eavesdrop.

He grappled up to the roof, knowing Spoiler would follow.

"What's up?" she asked.

"You busy tomorrow? I'm headed up to New York."

She cocked her head to the side. "What're you doing up in New York?"

He sighed. "Apparently, I have family up there. Bats asked me not to go alone, and I figured you taggin' along would piss him off a little," he reasoned. Hood was lying just a little. Batman and Spoiler hadn't made up after their most recent argument, but it wasn't going to make him angry. Spoiler knew it too. All it would do is exasperate the old man, and perhaps make him a bit uneasy. The family was always anxious about leaving Hood and Spoiler alone together for too long. It wasn't their fault, really! The two don't usually mean to blow stuff up, it just happens.

If Jason noticed the look of pain and guilt that crossed B's face sometimes when he saw them together, then he wasn't gonna say anything. Served the old man right as far as he was concerned. They could be Batman's greatest failures together.