Chapter Text
It had been a normal Wayne family dinner (including flying cutlery, bad puns, and a tired dad voice saying “kids”)
Just as they were about to eat dessert and portal opened, one that looked suspiciously like the Lazarus Pits.
“We are looking for the one named Red Hood!” A man (?) in all white shouted. He was followed by a hulking metal machine, man thing with a Mohawk, a punk girl with flaming blue hair, a teenage boy that looked to be a stereotypical bad boy from the fifties (deathly pale with a shadow behind him twisting) and girl with green hair (it looked so similar to Joker’s hair color) and a red leather jacket, a small chubby warehouse worker, and behind them a being made of pure shadow with a feminine figure.
It took a few seconds for every member in the table to notice every detail before they got into defensive positions.
“Who are you,” Bruce asked in his Batman voice, ready to defend his family from the threat in front of them, “what do you want?”
“Are you deaf, punk? We want Red Hood. We know he’s here we just don’t know which one of you it is.”
“Why do you want Red Hood,” asked Dick, looking ready to tear the intruders a new one. They had finally had a time to be a family and eat dinner (even Jason was here. JASON! And he wasn’t in a bad mood or ready to kill anyone) and these assholes had shown up to ask for his little brother.
“We won’t say for what purpose we are here until we know the hero Red Hood is here,” the floating junk of metal said
“I’m Red Hood,” Jason stepped up a bit surprised anyone not from Crime Alley would call *him* a hero, “what do you want from me and my family”
“Not your family, just you,” the blue haired girl said
“A member of our community has been hurt and as much as we love the kid..” the green haired girl trailed off only for the bad boy to put his arm around her and finish the sentence, “we don’t have the resources to take care of the kid.”
The whole family has tensed when they heard ‘kid’
“What kid, hurt how,” Jason asked in a low dangerous voice, the green slowly tinting his vision of the thought of a *child* hurt.
The…beings nodded, looking at him with approval. All of them parted for the shadowed woman to step forward, she put her arms out as if to show them something…
Jason almost vomited.
In the woman’s arms was a thin boy bleeding greens and reds. He had a Y-shaped cut on his chest (mirroring the one that Jason had but this boy was ALIVE) and barely breathing (how, HOW was he breathing)
Actually it almost sounded like a death rattle instead of actual breaths
“We saved him from a pair of monsters,” the shadowed woman said, “we didn’t know sooner or we would’ve, we could’ve prevented this,” she said miserably
The blue haired girl put an arm around the woman, “it’s okay Spectra, we got Baby Bop out.”
The first man spoke again, “listen here, punk, we would keep him with us but he’s still half human and needs human care, especially at his age. His home life is no longer safe. So, we entrust him to you, Red Hero. Many of the scums you have killed have spoken of you as I put them in jail for the rest of their miserable afterlife.”
“You have no problem getting justice for the living… or the dead,” the man’s smile made him look like a deranged warden skeleton, “take care of him.”
Jason automatically held out his arms as the woman, Spectra, handed the boy to him.
“His name is Danny,” she whispered before going back to the small group
“BEWARE IF ANY HARM COMES TO THE BOY, I THE BOX GHOST WILL HAUNT YOU FOR ETERNITY”
One by one the beings went back into the glowing portal. The last one to enter, the blue haired girl, looked back
“We will be keeping watch. Don’t hurt him,” her eyes seemed to blaze, “or you won’t know peace in the land of the living *or* the dead
And she disappeared as the portal closed behind her
Jason looked down at the small boy in his arms and felt something in his chest shift (protect him at all cost). He would die, but most importantly, he would kill for this kid