DC Shorts: Birth of the Red Hood

DC Comics Presents: Birth of the Red Hood

Gotham City, USA

It didn't matter if the police were called. Hell, in this city it never did.

Crime is at an all time high. Precincts have been forced to drastic measures. Their forces are stretched thin, pulled to all corners of Gotham.

The vigilante known as The Batman has been reported with numerous sightings every night all over the city for the past three months. His exhaustion grows as the weekly rate of criminal activity rises. Many believe that soon, he to may fall to this city's sinister wave...

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The puddles of water on the street felt odd to him. He could easily remember the feeling of wetness on the soles of his feet, but it had seemed to be ages since he experienced it for himself. The last of the numbness had worn off days ago. Every limb, appendage and digit on his body could again feel the harsh environment of the city.

He hadn't known how long it had been since he'd seen Gotham with his own eyes. Truthfully, he didn't even know the year or the date. Much less the time of the night.

His last few days had been little better than a slurred mess. He was cold. Hungry. The last he had eaten was one of his final moments at the palace of Ra's al Ghul. It wasn't much, but he had learned to live off of small rations of food for days at a time.

Of all things that bothered the young man, the worst had to have been the constant showers of rain that peppered over the city. He had been soaked in rainwater since he'd returned to Gotham nearly two days ago. Not to mention, escaping from Al Ghul's palace too required Jason to get his feet wet, jumping head first into a large body of water to evade custody.

It had began to eat at the boy's already corrupted mind. He had many questions he needed answered.

Where have I been?

Where's Bruce?

Was I dead?

What happened to me?

It was an enigma of entangled thoughts and emotions his unstable sanity could not handle. He alone had a destructive and violent psyche, even before Bruce had come along and saved him from the streets. He had spent years trying to put grow it in hopes that it was just a phase of his youth. But during his time as Robin, he began to understand it was who he was.

If there was one thing he hated more than anything on the planet, it was crime. The very thing he lost his parents to. The very thing that led him to the man who he'd considered a father. Or, so he used to.

The city brought out an unmatchable rage in Jason. Gotham City practically ran on criminal underworld, drug wars, dirty cops, etc. It was in the city's human nature. But he hated it. By god did he hate it.

It was the one thing about Batman he never understood. The boy who lost his parents to a common street thug, yet refused to eliminate the evil when necessary. That was where he and Bruce always disagreed, sometimes leading to violent disputes.

His mind began to intertwine his two current thoughts; irritancy from the cold rain, and the rage from the idea of the uprising crime. Of all he had endured since his recent rebirth, he still only set his mind on those two things. Any other man would have gone insane. But not every man was Jason Todd.