Pen Pals (Jason)

Participants: Red Devil / Jason Todd
Open/Closed: Closed
Location(s): Somewhere in Gotham
Time of Day: It's always night in Gotham, isn't it?
Weather: Typical February weather in Gotham. Pretty chilly with some light snow fall
Summary: Eddie Bloomberg and Jason Todd, old pen pals, have a whole lot to catch up on.

~~~

It had been how many years now? It had to be at least five years by now. Way back when Eddie didn't have any powers and he had fashioned himself a super-suit to match that of Blue Devil, Eddie had met and become fast friends with the Robin at that time; Jason Todd. The two kept in touch a lot, often writing to each other about their latest adventures. But it all just slowly started to fade away. Eventually, the two had just lost touch.

In his years since meeting Jason, he had heard many things about the former Robin. Most of these things were not so polite, to put it lightly. Sure there were the sprinkles of 'he was a good Robin, he did his job well, he was very skilled', but that often was interlaced with comments about the child's anger, his brashness, his inability to follow direction. Most of the comments Eddie heard always painted Jason to be a 'worse version of Dick Grayson, the first Robin', but Eddie hated to hear that. Why did Jason have to be compared to somebody else? Why couldn't Jason Todd just be compared to himself? Why did everyone have to hold him up to what the original did? That was really unfair to Jason. Eddie knew three Robins; Richard, Jason, and Tim. To Eddie, Jason was the best of the three, and not just because he was always the nicest one to him.

Eddie had also heard about Jaosn's death. It had caught him very off guard, but it was very strange when eventually he found out Jason had been brought back to life. Having worked with Tim for awhile, that had come up once or twice. Red Devil was unsure, then, why Jason hadn't reached out to him. To be fair, Eddie also hadn't reached out, so maybe he needed too, after all of these years.

This was why he was in Gotham, to meet up and see how his old friend was doing. He had heard he was going by Red Hood now; a gun-totting, Biker-leather wearing, angry crime fighter. So, the best way, in Eddie's mind, to get his attention was to take over his turf. Finding the seediest spot in town he could find, Eddie began terrorizing the local criminal underbelly in the area. Smacking heads, scaring with hellacious fire spewing from his mouth, hanging people up in rafters thanks to his teleporting powers.

"Where's the Red Hood!? Where does he usually hang out!? I need to speak with him!"

Looking for the Red Hood was looking for trouble. Most of the criminal scum of the east coast knew that by now. Hell, there were some that would rather run into Batman any day of the week than run into Red Hood. Jason had worked hard for that reputation and while word had certainly spread about his recent lack of deadly force, no one had dared yet utter the word “soft” in the conjunction with that of the Red Hood.

Well, not that Jason knew about anyway.

So needless to say, word spread pretty fast about the “red guy looking for the Red Hood.” Jason didn’t spend a lot of time in Gotham anymore, mostly to avoid the Bats. He still had a decent amount of contacts there, though, especially in his old turf.

So, now, Jason watched from above as a… demon-looking guy beat up some thugs in an alleyway. One of them was Jimmy, a contact of Jason’s that was a bit on the dumb side but had been reliable thus far. He couldn’t help a small wince of sympathy as Jimmy’s head was slammed into that of another thug’s. Well, he had advised Jimmy to get out of the drug trade, so really it was his own fault.

During the ordeal, Jason took out his phone, snapped a picture, added a filter that gave them all flower crowns, and sent it to Raven with a simple caption: Can I shoot this one???

Jimmy, bless his stubborn little heart, managed to stay upright. More wobbly than a Weeble Wobble, but upright nonetheless. “I-I don’t know! S-swear!”

Jason sighed and stashed his phone away. He should probably intervene at this point. “You here for my soul?” He stepped off the edge of the roof, grabbed onto an old pipe, and slid down into the alley. “It might be a little banged up.” He gave a tilt of his head to Jimmy and the other man apparently decided to use what intelligence he had and got the hint. Jimmy took off running, albeit with several stumbles.

Jason turned his full focus to the demon then. “So what do you want?” His eyes narrowed, shifting through what he knew of hell and demons. “Trigon send you?”

Eddie really wasn't very good at being bad. He wasn't very good at pretending to be very bad. He kept wanting to apologize to each of the people he was scaring and hurting just in the hopes of finding Jason. Sure, he could just hop around and pretend to be the literal devil, but that'd probably have caught a different Bat-members attention. He figured, given what people had said about Jason, this really was the best method. But boy of boy did Eddie feel guilty about a lot of this.

Having knocked some heads together, Eddie proceeded to hang one upside down, one who sputtered out the name "Jimmy". As Jimmy hung in his position, Eddie held his head forward to look at him. Smoke bellowed from his mouth as he spoke as another voice entered the area. Eddie accidentally turned to quickly and forgot he had been assisting in holding up Jimmy, who after the turn around fell hard on the ground. Eddie quickly turned back and almost apologized, but Jimmy had gotten up and began to run. Don't apologize anyways Eddie. You gotta be tough Eddie thought to himself before look back to the voice.

Red helmet and a biker jacket, this had to be Jason. The mask could obscure as much as it wanted, but Eddie knew his friends voice, even if it had been years. He was 98% sure this was him. Ignoring the others words for now, Eddie quickly cracked his tail and vanished into a portal before reappearing on Jason's back. "We're going somewhere more private" Eddie stated in a deep growl of a voice before his tailed cracked again and a portal opened beneath Jason's feet.

The two disappeared from the alleyway and reappeared inside an abandoned garage. Eddie was wrapped around Jason tightly, feet planted firmly on the ground, arms around Jason's chest in the biggest hug the Red Devil could manage without crushing Jason with his super strength. "I knew I'd fi-" Eddie began, his voice still gravelly and in a low growl before he began to cough. He let go of Jason a keeled over momentarily, hacking and coughing, regaining his breath. "How...How do you keep doing the deep dark broody voice all the time Jay? It hurts, like holy-moly" Eddie gasped out, hands on his knees.

"Phew...Heya Jay! It's me, Eddie! Y'know, your best buddy pen pal you forgot to tell you were resurrected and no longer dead so he had to find out through others and figured he mustn't have been important enough because of that! Ya, that Edward Bloomberg! Thanks for keeping me in the loop bud..."

This wasn’t going well for Jason at first. He was stupid enough to get caught off guard by the demon’s teleportation. He was just about to make up for it—less than a second away from kicking this thing’s ass—when it suddenly keeled over in a coughing fit.

That was off-putting enough for Jason to hold off on his attack, but he did back up several feet to put some distance between him and the demon whatever. He stiffened just a fraction as it referred to him by his nickname. His mind raced, trying to figure out how it knew and if it knew his actual name or just one of his aliases. Maybe magic or some otherworldly means? He wouldn’t be surprised if-

Eddie? It didn’t register for a moment: the image of a freckle-faced kid sitting side by side with the red one before him. It seemed impossible, but Jason had experienced more impossible things. Hell, he’d crawled out of his grave and still had no idea how that had even happened. Still, upon closer inspection, Jason could see the similarity in his movements, the familiarity of his voice despite having deepened some with age.

He slid off his helmet—domino mask still firmly in place—as Eddie rambled, and blinked once, twice.

Jason had not had many friends. On the streets, he had allies: other kids who watched his back if he watched theirs. They never lasted long, either finding a better deal with someone else or disappearing altogether with Jason left wondering if they died or just took a bus to the next city over. After, at school, there were kids he was friendly with, those who didn’t look down their nose at the street kid pretending to be upper class. They never socialized outside of school, though. Really, the only friends he’d ever had were Bruce, Alfred, and… Eddie.

Eddie who Jason had not thought about as he was drowning in his pain and anger. Eddie who Jason later did not look up because he remembered that happy kid and what the hell would he say to him? “Surprise, I’m not dead and I am angry and toxic and you should be nowhere near me.” He honestly hadn’t thought Eddie would want anything to do with him.

“Eddie?” he said, surprised, and then, stupidly: “You’re red.”

Eddie could tell he had caught Jason off guard. Other than the fact he was rambling, Jason was suspiciously quiet and had a bit of a blank stare on his face. It seemed to be taking a good few moments for everything to register with Jason. It probably hadn't helped that Eddie hadn't told him about his new looks and powers, and instantly being teleported away by a red hellspawn may not have allowed everything to click. That was probably it. That said though, Eddie was kind of proud for making the former Robin stunned.

Neither of the two had been the most popular child growing up; Eddie was always on set with his aunt and Daniel, and Jason was a kid with anger issues working with Batman. Again, Eddie never really saw those apparent issues everyone else saw. Perhaps Eddie only ever caught Jason on good days? Maybe his, usually, positive attitude just rubbed off on the other well.

When Jason finally spoke, Eddie glanced at himself for a second, before smacking his forehead with his palm. "Awh man, I wasted the chance to act surprised at this!" Eddie stated, scalding himself for the missed opportunity. He shook his head at himself with a frown on his face, before looking up to the other and smiling. He cracked his tail and quickly teleported to Jason's side and gave him another hug. He really didn't care about personal space at the moment, and he didn't really care if Jason did care, he needed to hug his friend.

"Not any redder than Mr Red Hood" the devilish teenager stated, holding Jason at arms length after releasing the hug. A moment of silence passed before Eddie dropped his arms to his side followed by a light punch to Jason's shoulder. "As upset as I am you didn't reach out to me, I'm more-so happy you're alive man"

He froze for just a moment when Eddie suddenly appeared at his side again and pulled him into a proper hug this time. It was just a moment, before he was letting out a breathless laugh and gripping Eddie back. It was for the best, he knew then, that they had not reunited earlier. He would’ve just pushed Eddie away—hurt him before he could get hurt. It was still a thought in his mind, probably always would be: what if Eddie—or anyone else he let in—was just going to turn his back on him like so many others had? It was honestly a constant, nagging doubt in Jason’s mind. He’d learned, though, through sheer, forceful, conscious effort to ignore the doubt.

He laughed at Eddie’s remark as he pulled back. At Eddie’s next comment, though, his grin died slightly and something thick formed in his throat as his chest tightened. He hadn’t that reaction from… anyone and though he knew—he knew—he’d been a less than pleasant person to be around when he’d come back and that he wouldn’t have believed anyone at the time anyway… a “you’re an asshole, but I’m still glad you’re alive” would’ve been nice.

He composed himself quickly, though, giving a somewhat sheepish grin. “Sorry. I’m an asshole.” Wanting to turn the focus off himself, he lightly jabbed Eddie in the stomach, teasing: “You’ve got abs.”

Hugging an old friend was something special. People didn't show their affections enough, so when they did, you knew it really meant something. From all the stories Eddie had ever heard about Jason, and his own experiences with him, he was never a hugger. Eddie wouldn't put him in a position to become uncomfortable, so once Jason had returned the hug, Eddie had put him at arms length.

"None of that. You aren't an asshole for not getting a hold of me. I never got a hold of you either. It's on both of us. I wont let you take all the blame" The truth was that neither had reached out, so neither had been the best of friends. But, in both of their defenses, they both had a lot of things going on.

Without the hood-mask on, Eddie was so glad to see Jason's laughter. Sure, hearing it was nice too, but seeing[/b] the expression from the little laugh was reassuring. Eddie wasn't sure what resurrecting could to do someone, but seeing that[/i] expression made Eddie sure he was talking to his Jason from all those years back. Sure puberty hit them both differently and neither had cracking voices any more, but facially and with his mannerisms, this really was Jason. Even if he now totted guns and a 'badass' leather jacket, deep down it was that kid with the incredible cursive writing skills.

Eddie sucked in his gut a bit from the gut-jab before flexing like a wrestler. "Right, the abs are the cool thing when I literally teleported us both from an alleyway into here" Eddie gave a rub to the back of his head and shifted his face a little. "Kinda what happens when you make a deal with a devil I guess" The young hero thought on the deal and all the theories people had put forward about his powers. Some were sure the deal wasn't real and others just figured Eddie had a meta-gene. Really, Eddie had no idea what story was real anymore, maybe that was why he was not focusing on the clause about his 20's and losing his soul anymore.

"We can talk about all that, and how the hell you un-died later though. We should get some burgers or something and take a seat so we can talk about everything. Is there a Big Belly Brger around here anywhere?"

Jason’s grin turned into a frown at Eddie’s remark. “A deal with the devil?” What the hell had he done? Normally, when he heard that phrase, he assumed it was metaphorical. Looking at Eddie now, though, horns and all, that would be a pretty stupid assumption to make. Sure, Jason had never really given much thought to whether or not there was a capital D devil—only briefly, shortly after his return, when he made the mistake of wondering where he had been during those six months underground—but he’d seen enough to know there were devil akin things out there. Hopefully, Eddie hadn’t been stupid enough to actually make a soul pact of some sort or whatever the hell those things were into.

“What-?” he was about to ask—demand—what the hell Eddie meant, but his friend was already moving on. His out loud wondering of how Jason “un-died” was enough to get Jason to clamp his mouth, but he still gave a narrow-eyed look that promised he would be bringing this up later.

He wasn’t exactly keen on just walking out into the public and grabbing a bite to eat in costume. Red Hood had enemies all over and some of them would actually be stupid enough to try and take him out. It wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle, but it would be damned annoying. It wasn’t exactly like Eddie could blend in, though. Plus, it was the middle of the night, and even in Gotham he doubted it would be all that crowded.

He definitely didn’t think of being a kid wearing a cape and stopping for ice cream and getting a brain freeze two second into eating his too fast and the brief upturn of a stern mouth.

He blinks out of the memory he was not thinking about and gazed around to figure out where the hell Eddie had even brought them. It was still Gotham and a peek at the flickering shop sign across the streets advertising cigarettes told him instantly where exactly they were. Ah, they were on Bower, near Hatch.

He tilted his head to the left, shoved the hand not holding his helmet against his side into his pocket, and began walking. “Just around the corner, actually.” It was certainly one of the less desirable locations for the big chain, but he liked this one ‘cause they never shoved his drink full of ice like the others.

Eddie could read Jason's expression as it changed while Eddie yammered on. The deal with the devil line seemed to hit differently, and honestly, Eddie wasn't surprised. That was kind of a bombshell to drop. But then again, so was no longer being dead. That was pretty big news too.

As he kept talking, more about focusing on food, his stomach began to rumble. He had kind of traveled across country via bamfing having really only eaten some breakfast hours ago. The idea of food kind of overtook his mind, and now he really just wanted to get a bite to eat. Potentially, even, more so than wanting to catch up. He had also been spending the last few years of his life looking the way he did, so although it occurred to Jason about being seen in public with a devil, the thought hadn't even crossed Eddie's mind. That was just every day for him. Even if he and Jason went to get a bite to eat though, Jason still had his little mask on under the red helmet, so it wasn't like he was just going out as himself in broad daylight with the Red Devil.

As Jason mentioned where and gestured off, Eddie briskly jogged to catch up before hanging an arm over Jason's shoulder. "All I needed was a general location" Eddie mentioned. With his words spoken, a loud whipping CRACK sounded out as his tail seemingly cut the air and the two were enveloped in a small portal. Within a half second, the two appeared out front of the Big Belly Burger, a greyish smoke emanating off them for a moment. A faint smell of charcoal also filled the air, though it went unnoticed by Eddie who was fully used to that by now.

Patting his pockets, Eddie muttered a few thankful words that he hadn't forgotten his wallet under his breath. "It's on me. Or, well, it's on Daniel. He owes me"

One second they were still in the garage, the next they were right in front of the fast food joint. Jason cursed, stumbling with brief disorientation. “You need to warn a guy before you do that.” He’d gotten mostly used to Raven’s type of teleportation by now. Even if the two weren’t as in sync as they were, the incoming shadows were usually a dead giveaway. He was gathering that the crack of Eddie’s… tail was the signal he should look for, but it was fast and he was honestly still adjusting to everything he’d experienced tonight.

He frowned for a moment more, watched as Eddie patted his pockets and then offered to pay. He almost offered to pay instead—how much money could the guy have if he was running around without a shirt? But he admittedly wasn’t carrying much cash himself and besides, if Eddie wanted to spend his mentor’s money, Jason certainly wasn’t one to judge.

He raised a brow as he followed Eddie into the joint. It was abandoned, aside from a couple workers behind the counter who seemed just barely out of high school. One dropped his jaw and the tray of patties he was carrying. The other glanced up, raised a single cool eyebrow, then returned her attention to her phone. Ah, a seasoned Gothamite, that one. Jason tried to act casual.

“How are things going with Blue Devil?” he asked, pausing to eye over the menu, though he knew he’d probably be getting the same thing he always did. He figured that was an easy enough question to start their big catching up conversation. At least, he hoped it was. He knew what it was like to have a… complicated relationship with your mentor and he hoped that hadn’t happened to Eddie.