Painkiller

▪SEVEN▪

My mind was scattered and something felt wrong. The masked man stood in front of me, not saying a word,

"Who are you?" I asked taking a step back.

"People around here mostly call me Red Hood, but my friends call me Jason."

"How do you know who I am?"

"You have friends worried about you, I heard there was a break out at Arkham. Tell me how you did it." He asked, crossing his arms,

"I had help." I bluntly said and backed away a little.

"What? Don't trust me?" He asked

"Not really, I don't know you. I've never met, I don't have a reason to trust you."

"I'll give you a reason, here I bet you want this back," He said and handed me a small box.

I hesitated before taking the box and slowly opening it up. I picked up the small brick like thing laying in the box. I examined the object before realizing it was my phone,

"Where the hell did you get this?" I asked dropping the box

"I've been snooping around in your old room back at the mansion, that was sitting on the desk and I grabbed it."

"What else do you have of mine?"

"That's all, well for now. You need your stuff, you can't go get it because bats will just throw you back into Arkham."

"You have a point," I muttered and slipped my phone into my pocket

"You look a little cold, follow me."

"Where are we going?" I asked

"BlackBird was trained by Batman and Nightwing, am I correct?" Jason asked

"Yeah, why?"

"Let's see if you can keep up." He said and used his grappling hook to pull down the ladder on the fire escape above us. He put his grappling hook back into his utility belt.

Jason started to climb up the ladder and I decided to follow him. I reached the roof and saw no sign of the mask man. I looked around and a whistle grabbed my attention. I looked over to another building and saw Jason waving me down. I let out a sign and ran to the edge and jumped to the building next to me and landed on my feet,

"Want me to go a little slower?" He asked with a chuckle.

I rolled my eyes and the two of us kept running along the edges of the buildings until Jason stopped after about 15 minutes of running,

"Out of breath, bud?" He asked with a laugh,

"Nope, I just haven't done this kind of running in a while." I said taking in a deep breath

"Alright follow me." He said and jumped down off of the building,

I jumped down after him, landing on my feet with a loud thud,

"How long am i going to have to keep following you?" I asked, making sure my phone was in my pocket.

"Shut up and keep following me." He said and climbed through a window.

I let out a groan and thought twice before climbing through the window. I looked around at my new surroundings and found my self in a smallish apartment like room. A couch was pushed up against one of the walls and the red mask that one once covering Jason's face sat on the edge of a coffee table.

I looked around the apartment and I felt oddly out of place,

"Go ahead and sit down," Jason called out from down a hall, "I'll be out in a bit."

I sat down on the couch and looked around the room in a small state of confusion. I heard foot steps coming towards me and I glanced up to see Jason now changed into a white long sleeve tee shirt and a pair of gray sweatpants. He had black hair with a little but of gray strands in the front. He had green eyes, similar to mine.

I stood up and he tossed me a shirt,

"Wear this for now, I'll go back to Bruce's and get all of your other clothes from there. You look pretty hungry, want some food?" He asked walking off to a small kitchen.

I nodded and followed him. He opened up the freezer and put some things on a plate and then stuck them in the microwave. I sat down and looked around the small kitchen,

"Eat up." He said and served me a small plate of pancakes and a cup of syrup.

"Thanks." I said and started to eat.

The first bite tasted like actual heaven. I didn't know microwavable pancakes could be this great. I haven't eaten in days, I savored every bite.

A knock on the door filled the silent room,

"Ah shit." Jason uttered under his breath, "I'll be right back." He said and walked to the door.

I heard Jason opening the door and then some quiet talking,

"Look at this bird I found." I heard Jason say and saw Kayla Anders look over at me.

I put down my fork and watched Jason and Kayla have their conversation. Jason's arms suddenly wrapped around Kayla and I knitted my eyebrows in confusion, I didn't know they were dating,

"Get a room or something, jeez." I muttered under my breath a little too loudly.

"Kid, I'm the one feeding you, be quiet." Jason said looking over at me.

"And the food is great, thanks." I chuckled and my phone went off. I looked down at it and didn't realize how much missed calls and unread text messages. I knitted my eyebrows when I saw who the new message was from, "I got to go, later you nastys." I joked and stood up.

I put my phone in my pocket and walked out the door and off to meet my old friend, Kiara.