Night Rider

18: Here, Let Me High Five Your Face

AN: As it turns out, I have been putting Red Hood down wrong this entire time. There is a space between Red and Hood. I am a terrible fangirl and will edit accordingly as of now.... 😂

...
"There is no way in hell I'm getting on that thing." Jason said.

I rolled my eyes behind my mask. "His name is Sitdka, and you'll be fine."

"No."

"They're stealthier than a motorcycle and better suited for what we're doing tonight and you know it."

"I'll take my chances with the normal vehicle."

"Oh good grief, what are you? Chicken?"

I couldn't see his face with his red helmet on, but his shoulders tensed slightly.
"No."

His body language said otherwise. I'd hit a nerve.
"If you get on the horse I promise I won't tell Dick and Damian." I said coyly.

Sitdka shifted closer to Jason, bumping his nose on the irritated man in a friendly manner.
"You're paying for this later Walker."

"I know." But I was smiling as he put one foot into the stirrup and hauled himself onto my horse's back.

...

From a rooftop across the street, I watched Arianna and Park discreetly break into the big building. Red Hood had informed me it was one of several labs across the country.
But I didn't remember the name of the building- partly because I was so absorbed in what my friends were doing across the street, partly because I was thrumming with excitement at being out on the job for real (sort of) this time.

"So do we follow?" I said to Red Hood.

"That depends," he answered. "How good's your hand to hand?"

I thought about how to answer. "Um, well, I can hold my own against Robin for a couple minutes before he beats me."

"And covert operations?"

"... I spent the entire day launching surprise attacks on you with a bulky fruit canon. Things only got better since then."

He handed me a grapple gun wryly. "Yeah you'll be fine."

...

We didn't enter the same way my friends had.

According to Jason, we needed to figure out what they were doing in the building before we talked to them extensively. Waiting for them to just come out wasn't an option.

So I found myself following my leather jacket clad partner through a fifth floor entrance. That was the floor Park's tracer was pinging from anyway, on the other end of the floor from where we entered.
Red Hood had planted it on her while we tailed them on our way here.

Sardonic sassiness aside, Jason was dang good.
After planting it, he had even scoped out the building within the few minutes we had. The few minutes between figuring out my friends were breaking in and deciding we would be doing the same.

"Check this off of the list of thing a I thought I would never do in my lifetime...." I murmured to Red Hood.

His head tilted around as I clambered through the window after him. "Shut up Nightrider." He hissed.

Right, right. Covert.
We made our way through the empty room, lit only by dim light from the windows. I turned on the night vision in my mask. Moving around got much easier. Red Hood tipped his head slightly past the door into the hallway and lab spaces beyond. He pulled back quickly and gave me a quick gesture signaling no one on guard or otherwise in the space. I nodded and slipped behind him into the hallway, following Park's signal.
The mission impossible theme should have been playing somewhere.