Ghostwriter

Chapter 8

Jason knows for a fact that he should not go through that door. However, Barbara sits beyond that door, and he really wants to check up on his hardware. Plus, he needs the schematics for a building that holds bad drugs (the kind that you blow up, not sell. Jason always put drugs into one of those two categories).

On the other hand, Replacement himself wandered into the Clocktower earlier, as evidenced by the yelling beyond that door. They really need a better door or a soundproof room. Jason could hear the two hitting it off quite clearly.

"YOU SCARED HER!"

"SHE PROVOKED ME!"

What are they, toddlers? You scared her! She provoked me! Oooo!

Maybe he should go in and serve as a middle man. Jason, after all, likes to consider himself a man of the people. Or at least a man of the people that support him, like Barbara. Replacement boy might even fit under that category, if Jason feels generous. Reestablishing peace through gentle negotiations would be the appropriate, mature thing to do.

Which is exactly why Jason does not do it.

Jason yanks his gun out of his holster and kicks the door open (which is indubitably, completely necessary). He shoots at the ceiling. "Hey!"

The two toddlers dressed as adults freeze for a moment before Tim throws a Batarang at him, which Jason dodges. Jason dives at Replacement, tackling him to the ground. Tim's legs go under, Jason goes over, and Barbara taps the arm of her wheelchair and rolls her eyes.

"What the heck, Jason?!" Tim grabs the chin of Jason's helmet and holds it at arm's distance. Jason elbows Tim's arm, pinning it to the ground.

"Because I feel like it." It stopped their shouting, didn't it?

"You can't just barge into the clocktower, break the door, and shoot out the ceiling, and attack me because you feel like it!" Tim brings his knees up and kicks Jason off him.

"I just did. Deal with it." Jason recovers, but not before Tim leaps at him and flips Jason back to the ground. His head bangs against the floor. Tim brings up a fist, but not before an escrima stick slides under his chin. Jason laughs, but that's cut off by the other escrima stick poking the back of his neck.

"Boys, stop. Now." Barbara demands.

So who wins in Jason vs Tim? Barbara. Barbara wins.

Tim crawls off of Jason. Jason stands, takes off his helmet, and ruffles his hair. "So, Timmy, how's my hardware coming along?"

"It's almost done. I'll give it to Barb when I'm finished." Tim brushes off his torso. He scowls at Jason. "All things considered, maybe I should just hand it back to you. Let you figure it out yourself."

"Aw, Timbo. Don't be like that. Come ere', give me a hug." Jason holds his arms out, and Tim takes a step back. The frown on Tim's face widens into canyon.

Barbara whacks Jason's bum with her escrima stick. "Jason! No electrocuting Tim with that thing in your shirt!"

Jason shrugs and slides his hands into his pocket, a smug grin on his face. "So, who did Barbara scare?"

Tim's shoulders crunch up to his ears and his face turns red. "None of your business."

Barbara wheels back to her computer, pulling up a profile of a woman named Antigone Jackson. Under the name, in italics, is Ghostwriter. "He found her."

"I know her; She's a friend of mine. She told me that a cult's after her and gave me her evidence. I looked through the flash-drive, and low and behold, the cult's name is Barbara Gordon." Tim glances at the profile.

"I had to buy time to hack into the flash-drive. There really is a cult though." Barbara adds a couple of things to the profile, such as her family line and her college grades.

Tim walks up and adds 'single mom' to the list. He starts imputing facts about a baby named Colton. "She thought you were Transfuse; who by the way, is actually on to her now. A man approached her in a parking lot and threatened her about her Ghostwriter blog. I'm assuming that wasn't you?"

Barbara swivels to face him. "What? No! I've made sure that her blog stayed out of the public eye. They can't know about it already; it's improbable."

"They do. Antigone hasn't told anyone about the Ghostwriter thing. She's been super careful about it, not even her family knows. She didn't even want to tell me at first. That leaves out the possibility of a rat, which means they probably found her the same way you did." Tim stops typing and turns to lean back on the counter.

Barbara rubs her temples. "Ugh. I'm going to have to set up surveillance around her place just to make sure no one tampers with her. Can't do witness protection because I need to keep this as closed-door as possible."

Jason stretches, then pops his back. "Transfuse, huh?" He hasn't forgotten how they tried to get someone to steal money from him.

"What do you know about it?" Tim gives him a sideways glance. Tim's bottom lip caves into his top lip.

"I know that they can rot in hell." Jason shrugs. "So, is it safe to say that Transfuse is trying to kill what's-her-name through assassins and stuff?"

"It's safe to say that they're using intimidation tactics on Antigone. But considering that they killed her sister and her brother-in-law," Tim adds that to the previously empty motive box on the woman's profile, "yeah, it's safe to say that she's in a considerable amount of danger."

Jason mulls over the thought. Well, stake-outs are notorious for being awful and boring. On the other hand, patrol had quite recently become the same-old-same-old, and thought of beating up another mugger who didn't even know how to throw a proper punch made Jason want to puke. There's no challenge.

Not to mention, Transfuse had managed to get on Jason's bad side ever since the whole Layla Martino incident. Shipping their assassins or whoever back to them in body bag after body bag seems appealing.

"I'll do it." Jason wipes his brow.

Tim recoils. "No. Absolutely not."

Now Jason really wants to do it.

"Try to stop me, Replacement." Jason cocks his chin up.

Tim crosses his arms. "I will. Don't you have a drug-trade to get back to? You know, your illegal enterprise?"

Jason scowls and marches right up to Tim. "I'm a hero before I'm a mob boss. You'd do well to remember that, you little punk." He jabs Tim in the chest.

"Some hero. You kill people nonstop." Tim looks up at Jason, more fire in his eyes than ever before.

Jason draws his elbow back. His fist curls into a ball.

Barbara intervenes with her escrima sticks, sticking them between the two brothers, one of each chest. "No. You two are not fighting in my clock tower. Jason, watch the woman. Don't leave your post without notifying me. If anything comes up, capture, don't kill. I want the perpetrator for questioning. Tim, try to figure out who or what killed her sister. If we can find the method, we can figure out exactly what's threatening Antigone. I'll review the journals that you showed me to get down to the reason why I was tracking her in the first place."

She pushes them apart. "Go. Now."

Jason slams on his hood and marches out the door. Tim's cape swishes behind him and he yanks his cowl right on over his head.

Red Hood and Red Robin exit.

AN: Short chapter, sorry. But hey, I think you can guess what the next chapter's going to be! Who's excited?

Also, I'm working on a new, better cover; one that actually has some of my art on it. Because, yah know, Antigone's the main character and all so she kinda needs to be on there somewhere...

UPDATE: the new, better cover is the current cover. I drew Antigone and Colton, but the rest isn't my art.