Into the Ring (Jason)

Participants: Connor Hawke  and Jason Todd
Open/Closed: Closed
Location(s): Blüdhaven
Time of Day: Afternoon
Weather: Clear
Summary: Connor's been tracking an illegal fighting ring forcing meta kids to fight to the death, taking him all the way to Blüdhaven where he finds some possible help.

The search had started in Star City but rarely ever did it end where it started. Random children had been dying in Star City. Autopsies had revealed they'd all had the metagene. That had created a pattern. He'd already been looking into every runaway, every missing child case in Star City because it was the right thing to do. Now there was more urgency to his search because any of those children could have been a metahuman. Any of those children could be the next bodies littering Star City's alleyways and sewers.

He was doing this all on his own. Dinah was off with the Birds of Prey, as far as he was aware. Mia was... He wasn't sure what she was doing but she was safe and needed her space. He planned on giving her that space until she made it clear she no longer needed it. Roy, well, he wasn't sure what Roy was doing either. Nor did he know what Oliver was up to. His father hadn't contacted him since his latest lapse of judgement, and Connor had been waiting for Oliver to put in the effort of finding him, of contacting him. He was still waiting for his father to put effort into maintaining their relationship.

He tried not to think about the silence he received. He had learned long ago that he was never going to have the dream father/son relationship with Oliver. He'd let that go. He wasn't mad at Oliver. He told himself he wasn't mad. Perhaps, if anything, he was disappointed. But even thinking about that wasn't going to help find these kids. So he meditated and pushed it out of his mind, or rather to the back of it for now.

The search had led him from Star City to Moscow - he'd had to dust off his passport to go - where he found the first signs of a fighting ring. Said signs had been actual kids being forced to fight. He'd fought to free the kids, the whole time trying to figure out who was behind this. Perhaps they were no names, striving to no longer be no names. Perhaps it was part of something much, much bigger. He wasn't sure which one he'd prefer.

Several broken bones - none his - and blood shed - some his - later, the kids were free and pointed toward the local authorities. His Russian was admittedly rusty but he'd managed to get one of the kidnappers - slavers, he thought - to admit that kids had died there. He'd found the bodies. He broke the guy's nose and learned that the kids he'd freed had been forced to kill other kids in order to live. He'd left the authorities to deal with the kidnappers before he became anymore tempted to become more like his father.

He'd found clues in Moscow that had led him to Blüdhaven. He thought if his passport was alive, it'd be happy to finally get some use again. It'd been a while since he left Star City. Not since Prometheus. Not since that rift that had torn through his family.

But he wasn't thinking about that. He'd managed to identify a warehouse being used to store taken children, drugged so they wouldn't put up a fight, and then ship them off somewhere. Scouting told him some of the children were forced to fight - not to the death; no, they needed the kids alive so they could ship off as many as they could - for entertainment. There were a lot of guys with a lot of guns. He didn't like the way they looked at those kids. But there were too many guys with too many guns. This was going to be a hard job to do by himself. He was likely to get shot.

He knocked an arrow into place, pulling back on the bowstring.

He just hoped it wouldn't be anything his regenerative healing couldn't handle.

---

662 words
Jason Todd

See, Jason had stumbled upon all this by accident. Not the “I was just strolling by and look what I found” kind of accident, though. It was more of a “I was following a van full of kidnapped street kids and it just happened to go straight to this warehouse” kind of accident. It kind of pissed him off too, because up until now this warehouse had been dealing in legit goods. Now, it was just another casualty of Blüdhaven’s local economy.

He slinked through the shipping containers surrounding the warehouse, before stopping within sight of the building. He spotted a guard, alone but armed, and with a door just off to his side. He glanced around, saw no other guards or sentries. He waited for an opening to get a drop on the guy: he couldn’t risk the guard getting a shout out and just shooting him now would be too loud. He needed to get in the building, see the state of the kids. Then he could cause chaos.

The guard let out a yawn and turned away for the briefest moment and Jason was moving then, darting forward. He grabbed the back of the man’s head and full body slammed him into the wall. There was a crack from the man’s nose and it was honestly doubtful his face would ever be the same, but he was breathing as he dropped to the ground. More importantly, he was also out of the way.

Jason moved to the door, jiggled the nob slightly. It was locked, but he made quick work of it with his lockpick. Then, he slipped into the building, immediately moving into the shadows of the dimly lit room. His eyes narrowed and he grimaced. There were a lot of guys and all of them had some heavy artillery. s**t. He may have to keep this to recon only and call his team in for the big bust.

He didn’t want to make these kids wait another second, though.

Someone had just taken out a guard. Connor blinked when he noticed it happen. He didn't immediately recognize the figure - he thought it was safe to say they weren't someone he'd worked with before. But they also didn't seem to be one of the bad guys. They made quick work of the guard and then slipped into the building. He pondered briefly whether or not it'd be unwise to go in through that same door before remembering he'd need a distraction, which he was already prepared for.

He pointed the arrow up, pulling the string taught, then in a single breath, he released it. The arrow shot upward before arching and falling back down with gravity, expertly crashing through one of the warehouse's upper windows. The arrow embedded itself into the ground, close to the center of the warehouse, earning a startled shout from some of the kidnappers. Their startled shouts turned into frantic cursing as smoke started to billow from the arrowhead.

He quickly put on a pair of goggles, pressing a button on the side to switch them from night vision to a setting that would allow him to see through the smoke. Then he quickly darted toward the warehouse. One kidnapper, unaware of the other figure that had expertly kept to the shadows, ran for the door and swung it open only to be met with a swift and precise kick to his chest. He coughed and sputtered before finding a hand cracking a punch against his jaw and then a knee jammed into his ribs. He went down.

Connor quickly had another arrow knocked into place and was already letting it fly. It lodged itself into the gun of a kidnapper right when they went to fire it, which them exploded in the person's hand, causing them to cry out in pain. He didn't know where the figure he'd seen enter the building earlier was but at the moment, he didn't think they were a priority. He needed to take out these kidnappers so he could safely get the kids out of here. The smoke was starting to thin.

Great.

He rolling to the side, dodging gunfire. The kids were in a corner of the warehouse, farthest away from the door of course, all looking terrified. He pulled his goggles off because the smoke was almost completely gone now and fired off three arrows at a time, catching three of the kidnappers in their shoulders. There were a lot of them in this warehouse, though. He didn't think the ones he'd taken out had even made a dent in their amount of force. He grimaced. He needed a better plan.

---

445 words
Jason Todd

There was the sudden sound of shattering glass and Jason watched with mounting dread as an arrow sailed cleanly through the air and landed dead center in the warehouse. You gotta be s**tting me, he thought, because Green Arrow? Really? What the hell was he doing in Blüdhaven? He supposed it was better than some other vigilante showing up—like any of Gotham’s natives—but Jason had honestly always found the guy to be annoying. He honestly didn’t know what someone as badass as Black Canary saw in the guy.

Smoke erupted from the arrow, quickly filling the building and clogging anyone’s visibility. Jason quickly switched his lenses for better visibility. A quick count of told him the Arrow was pretty outnumbered. Though Jason was still tempted to leave and let the guy who thought goatees were cool meet his fate, he knew there was no way the archer could take on all these guys and make sure those scared kids huddling in the corner wouldn’t become collateral. Dammit. Well, if he was slick enough, he could probably get to the kids and get them out without the other vigilante even noticing.

With that, he slipped into the smoke. He grabbed the closest thug from behind, wrapping an arm around his neck as a kick to the man’s knee dislocated the joint. Then all it took was a quick jab to the man’s temple to render him unconscious. He then had his dagger out, moving to the next man and slicing open his arm just as he turned to fire at Jason. The man let out a yowl and was distracted just long enough for Jason to send an uppercut into his chin that sent him flying back.

Through the smoke, he caught a glimpse of the archer, who was distinctly not the Green Arrow Jason had been expecting. He’d only heard bits and pieces about this other, younger Green Arrow, which left him with very little expectations and he didn’t like being blind like that. He should-

“Oof.” He was soundly tackled by a large body and really, Jason hated it when the thugs had bigger muscles than him. Damn steroids. Hands were pressing down on his neck, cutting off his air. He reached to the side, grasping at air until he finally found what he was searching for. He plucked an arrow from the shoulder of a downed thug—the man let out a scream as it was torn from his flesh, probably giving away Jason’s presence—and promptly stabbed it into the clavicle of the man strangling him. The thug gave a choked sound of pain, releasing Jason’s neck. Jason eared up, headbutting him clean out, before pushing the large body off him.

Before the smoke faded, he was aware that there were thugs knocked unconscious not by his doing - the lack of arrows told him as much as did him having no recollection of fighting those specific men. But once the smoke was clear he could see the culprit, his eyes scanning the room to make sure the kids were where he'd last seen them - they were - and to size up how many thugs were left. He'd heard of the Red Hood even though he'd never personally met him. He'd also heard that the other man was brutal - not quite a villain, not quite a hero; perhaps it depended on the day - and not one to shy away from killing. He didn't know how true that was nor if he was still like that - people could change, after all, he was a firm believer in that - but he thought it was still worth keeping in the back of his mind.

Connor looked just in time to see Red Hood get tackled but he seemed to be handling himself fine so he continued on. There were about five thugs now purposefully standing between him and the kids - there were more in the building but those five had figured out why he was there, not that it was hard. He gripped his bow with one hand but didn't use it. He darted, ducking attacks. With some well placed kicks and punches, the five men were soon on the ground, groaning or unconscious. Unfortunately Connor wasn't without his own bruises - they'd managed to get some hits in too. But the bruises were already healing and he'd barely even registered pain from them.

He checked over the kids, holding his hands up and putting on a soft smile to show he meant no harm. "You're going to be alright," he assured them, "I'm going to get you out of here." He had an arrow knocked against his bow and was turning quickly, firing it off and hitting the back of a thug's knee who'd been about to attack Red Hood. Though they both had their eyes covered, he made sure to catch the other man's eyes so he'd see he was with the kids. But then there was the unmistakable screeching of tires - and they weren't getting quieter.

Someone had managed to call for backup. He chanced one more glance at Red Hood before ushering the kids far away from any of the doors. He had a feeling Red Hood, no matter what his reputation might say, was there for the same reason he was. They couldn't get the kids safely out until there was no longer a threat - there were took many for them to cover as they tried to run. Once the kids were as safe as they could get, ducking behind some crates, Connor moved and stood dead center in the warehouse.

He could hear the footsteps - they were closer to the main door, the one that pulled up to bring large shipments in. That very door started to rise. He held three arrows against his bow, pulling back on the string. He hoped - had a feeling - that Red Hood was going to stick around. He was more or less counting on that. He didn't know how many people were outside, what weapons they had. The second the door rose enough to see their knees, he let the arrows loose.

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567 words
Jason Todd