Chapter Text
One of the few benefits to this undercover job was that he got to spend a lot of time in Paris.
Right now, he was still technically in Paris. But when Jason thought ‘Paris’, he didn’t think the dreary secret hideaway of a second-tier villain and his lackies. Yet here he was. Trying to dodge having to interact with villains didn’t help matters.
He hurriedly ducked into the side room he’d agreed to meet Cheshire in. Hopefully, she would be able to give him a heads up about why he’d been called in.
This was one of the nicer rooms in the facility, the type of sitting room he’d see at the gentlemen’s clubs Bruce sometimes went to, though less fancy. Cheshire was lounging on one of the couches. “Watchya hiding from?” she asked.
“I’m avoiding Adonis,” Jason corrected. “Ever since I stole his suit back for him, he seems to think we’re ‘bros’. I really want to tell him to piss off, but that would only make him even more insufferable.”
Jason had reluctantly stolen the battle suit back as an apology for wrecking his car. Keeping the peace sucked. The brotherhood had been planning to steal the suit back anyways, because it was all Adonis had going for him. Jason doing it hadn’t made a real difference besides Jason hadn’t hurt any guards and had kept property damage to a minimum.
“That sucks,” Cheshire sympathized.
“You have no idea,” Jason sighed. As per their agreement, Jason subtly activated his belt and switched his mask to infrared vision. After a few seconds, Cheshire’s appearance still hadn’t changed. So Rouge then. Well, they’d known it was going to happen eventually.
They’d anticipated this, obviously, and devised a system to confirm their identities to each other. It was a simple test. Whenever they saw each other after being apart, they’d each activate a small heat source. Both their masks had infrared vision so they could see the change while it went unnoticed by everyone else. Using heat had the added bonus of being Rouge’s weakness so there was little fear of her having a heat source on her. Even if she did, they both knew where each other’s heat source was; Jason’s was in his belt and Cheshire’s was up her left sleeve.
“Do you know why they called us here?” he asked, playing dumb.
“Nope,” Rouge-Cheshire responded. “We don’t have to rush off just yet though. They’re still waiting on some people.”
Jason flopped onto the couch across from her. What was the reason for this? Was Rouge actually suspicious of him, or was she just getting info where she could? Or was it Cheshire she was suspicious of?
“Aww, Red,” Rouge-Cheshire pouted. “Don’t you want to sit by me?”
Jason rolled his eyes. Her Cheshire impression was very good. She looked right and was mimicking her mannerisms well. It wasn’t perfect though. Rouge clearly understood Cheshire was a flirt, but Rouge’s flirting was a bit too- legitimate. Not quite teasing enough.
“I hope this isn’t a waiting around all day thing,” Jason grumbled. He was really glad his mask covered his full face, made this a lot easier. He wondered what face Rouge had put under the mask. She didn’t know what Jade looked like so was it just Rouge’s face or maybe someone else she’d copied in the past?
“It’s exciting, isn’t it,” Rouge-Cheshire said. “We’re almost to the grand finale. Won’t it be fun, hunting down all the little heroes?”
Jason shrugged. “Depends on who they send me after. Some of the kids are much more boring than others.”
Rouge-Cheshire nodded. “Yeah. I almost feel bad for them. They don’t stand a chance. Some of them are practically babies.”
Jason snorted, anger churning in his belly. “I don’t, “he lied. “And they’re teenagers, if they wanted to keep to themselves, they could have.” The Brotherhood had never told anyone about their failure to get Melvin and the other kids, so X had no reason to know about them.
Rouge-Cheshire tossed her head, so her pigtails went behind here. “So, who do you want to be sent after? Robin?”
What was she trying to get him on here? Did she want him to say he was friends with Robin? He wasn’t an idiot. Would his answer effect who he’d be assigned to? “Robin would be fun, and I could definitely kick his butt. But they haven’t given any details on how things are going to go down so there isn’t much point in guessing.”
Straightening slightly, Rouge-Cheshire asked, “Did you ever tell me what your relationship with Robin was? You two seem to have a thing going.” Clever. Acting like she might have forgotten their past conversation protected her from being accused of not knowing something she should.
Jason shrugged. “It really doesn’t have much to do with me. Robin has a hate boner for Slade though and since I worked a few jobs for him some of that hate rubbed onto me. It was fun, he used to get so worked up just seeing me. He’s mellowed out a bit since Slade died, but he makes it so easy to mess with him.” A complete lie. But no one knew Robin had been Red X to spy on Slade and no one knew Red X had stolen the suit from Robin.
“Oh yeah, I’m kinda jealous. Deathstroke is a legend,” Rouge-Cheshire chatted. Jason was pretty confident he’d passed that question.
“Eh, he was good at his job but so serious,” Jason said, to keep the conversation flowing normally. “I mean, I do think he enjoyed it-“ bastard definitely enjoyed it “but it was more like dramatic fun than fun fun. Y’know what I mean?”
“Yeah, I get what you’re saying,” Rouge-Cheshire agreed. “You think Brain’s an upgrade then?” Oh for the love of…
“That’s a hard comparison,” Jason answered, not letting his annoyance show. “The situations are pretty different. I don’t interact with Brain directly as much as I did with Slade. And Slade’s cronies were all robots, I didn’t have to deal with so many idiots like I do here.” Rouge hated all the new villains joining the Brotherhood and was always happy to have them put down. “But Brain himself hasn’t given me a real reason to complain and he pays well.” Jason had gotten a lot of money from these jobs. Brain probably had money to spare with how many of these idiot villains were helping for free. They got occasional favors and a lot of them were only out of prison because the Brotherhood busted them out but surprisingly few of them were getting money out of this.
“How do you think things will be if Brain pulls all this off?” the imposter asked. By this point Jason would have realized this 100% wasn’t Jade even without the test. It wasn’t that Rouge wasn’t doing a scarily good impression and keeping the conversation sounding casual but that just wasn’t a question Cheshire would ask. Not in the Brotherhood base and not like this. Plus, they’d already had this conversation.
Jason shrugged. “So long as I can still find work, I don’t care. I’m still skeptical on if he can make it all the way though. Even if by some miracle he deals with all the capes, he’d still have to deal with the other world ruler wannabes. The Al Ghuls, pretty sure Luthor wants it, that guy the bird people are always fighting. World domination is a chore. I’ve never understood the appeal.” A solid answer. Still came off as supporting Brain, but in a way that was still in character for X. There was nothing Rouge would use against him from that.
“Yeah,” Rouge-Cheshire agreed. “It’s a lot of work. It takes a certain type of person. I much prefer our line of work.”
“Uh huh,” Jason said, making his boredom very clear.
“Do you think they’ll send us on the same mission?” Rouge-Cheshire asked eagerly. What did she want with this one?
“I don’t know,” Jason shrugged. “Seems overkill unless we go after someone like Raven or Robin. Even though I could solo either of them. We’re two of the most competent people here. We do work well together though, so maybe.” Vague enough to pass.
“The power of friendship,” Rouge-Cheshire chirped.
Jason rolled his eyes. “Gross. And I wouldn’t say we’re friends. You are easily the least annoying person here though.”
“Meanie,” Rouge-Cheshire pouted, starting to play with her claws, claws that must just be part of her body, that was a little disturbing to think about. “As for Robin though, I hear Rouge’s the one they’re sending after him.”
“Of course they are,” Jason sighed, inwardly cursing. “I’m not surprised Rouge wanted him to herself. Glory hog.” Just because he knew it was her didn’t mean he was going to kiss her ass. “I’m sure she can take him though, especially if he’s by himself.” She really could. She was a hard villain to beat, and if she caught Dick by surprise… If Jason could warn him about her though, he’d have a much better chance.
“Mmhm, there was-“ Cheshire’s voice changed into Rouge’s as she stood up, body morphing back to its true form. “-never any doubt about vat.” Jason didn’t even have to pretend to startle because he had not been expecting a sudden reveal like that.
“Rouge?!” Jason gasped harshly. “What the hell?! What do you think you’re doing?!”
“Vear not,” Rouge said, gazing at him with a smirk. “You are naught in trouble. I just like being informed on vings.” She turned and began walking towards the door. “It is now time to convene wiv ve oders.”
“Wait, what?!” Jason sputtered, knowing he had to act properly surprised and upset. “You can’t just-”
“Hurry along, X,” Rouge interrupted, saving Jason from having to say more. “You do not vant to be late.” Then she was gone.
Jason stood up. That had overall gone well. And he doubted Rouge would try to pull the same trick in the near future. He understood why she’d outed herself, he was going to see the real Cheshire at the meeting and Rouge’s deception would have been discovered immediately. Might as well make a dramatic reveal out of it.
He wasn’t alone as he made his way to the main room. Doctor Light, Spider guy (Jason still didn’t know his real name), Kitten, five Billy Numerouses taking up way more space than they needed, and Johny Rancid were all heading down the hallway as well. Up ahead, he could already see even more villains. This must be a big deal if so many villains were here. Maybe Brain was finally going to give out more details on his plan.
X was back in the good graces of all the villains again, having been forgiven for the race incident. It had been a pain, but worth it to not have half of these freaks out to get him. Kitten was wearing the ‘I’m sorry’ diamond necklace he’d stolen from a mob boss’s daughter and given to spider guy to give to her. Why was she just walking around wearing it? It was the same as putting a glittering target on her neck, though the villains here probably wouldn’t go after her for it.
There were even more villains in the main room. In fact… they all seemed to be here. An uneasy feeling started to churn in Jason’s stomach. Rouge’s little ploy and now this… something was up.
Spotting Cheshire, Jason made his way over to her. Rouge was standing up on the platform behind Brain with the gorilla. He couldn’t tell Cheshire about the attempted trick now though, too many people around. It would seem sketchy that Rouge had deemed an interrogation to be necessary and Red X needed to be as trustworthy as possible.
Before he could say anything to Cheshire, Brain began talking in his robotic voice. “My comrades, the time has come. Our patience has been rewarded. Now is the time to strike.” Jason’s blood froze as cheers erupted around him. When he said ‘the time has come’ did he mean now now? “The Titans, in their desperation to save themselves, have spread themselves thin. In their attempt to forge their alliances, they have isolated themselves. The Justice League is currently engaged in another matter, the Titans stand alone. We will strike fast and relentless, achieving our goal- the elimination of an entire generation of heroes.” The villains wouldn’t be all giddy like this if they knew the real reason Brain was after the super teens. They didn’t know they were gifting Brain superpowers for his new body on a silver platter. Some of the villains might even leave entirely. A lot would stay out of spite of the heroes, but they’d be less gung ho about it.
The TV screens around the room switched to displaying a world map. Pictures of Titan members dotted the map and next to each one was a set of two to three villains. The heroes were outnumbered. And isolated. Why was Dick so far away from his teammates? Why were they all so far away from each other? And how did the Brotherhood know where they all were?
“We got Speedy,” Cheshire commented, sounding oddly delighted. Jason looked towards Titans East territory, Wally had apparently replaced the East group in babysitting Jump City, and, yep, that was Red X and Cheshire next to Speedy.
“Does that really require both of us?” Jason asked, remaining outwardly calm as his mind raced for a way to get a message out to Dick. This had come out of nowhere, he hadn’t even known the Justice League were… away? Busy? Brain hadn’t specified. “For Speedy? That’s overkill.”
“They’re all overkill,” Cheshire shrugged. True, that was the point of ganging up on them. Still though, both of them for Speedy? “And Speedy’s pretty good.”
“Really?” Jason said, raising an eyebrow. That hadn’t sounded like a joke. Cheshire wasn’t easily impressed. Maybe Jason had misjudged arrow junior. “The Arrows are just the poor man’s Batman. His name doesn’t even make sense.”
“That’s Greenie’s fault,” Cheshire explained lightly. “When they met, the ginger was a faster shot than Green Arrow. So Greenie called him Speedy. It’s a cute little nickname that stuck. It makes sense in context.”
Jason’s eyes darted around, but no one seemed to be paying attention to them, too excited about seeing what Titan they were hunting and who else was on their team. “That was very specific. Do you know him?” he whispered.
“Our paths have crossed once or twice,” Cheshire confirmed and Jason could hear her grin. Her claws clicked quietly under her sleeves. Weird, but not important right now.
He’d been semi-tuning out Brain as his speech droned on. He wasn’t missing anything, but he wasn’t enraptured like so many of the loser villains were. Brain had reached a pause though and the villains had gone somewhat quiet and Jason needed some answers.
Lazily raising a hand, Jason called out. “So what exactly are the Justice League doing?” How ‘engaged’ was engaged? Was this deep space or magical realm engaged or were they just fighting Luthor for a few hours?
“Who cares?” shouted a male villain whose voice Jason didn’t recognize.
Jason shrugged. “I’d just like a heads up if aliens are going to start raining down from the sky or zombies are going to start popping out of the ground.”
There was a moment of silence then Mad Mod pipped up. “The lad makes a good point. What are they doing?”
If Brain had movable eyes, Jason thought they would be narrowing, more than they naturally were. “They are dealing with a problem with the Atlanteans in the depths of the ocean. They are well out of the way. We will have ample time to do what must be done.”
Atlantis? The ocean? That was as bad, no worse, than space. What good would the not-Aquaman members of the League even be? What was Bruce going to do down there? Yeah, he had the sub and the scuba suit but he’d still be at a disadvantage against true blue water people. Assuming water people were the bad guys. If Bruce drowned before Jason got his chance to confront him… Jason wasn’t sure if he’d be able to handle that. The mere thought was- it twisted his heart in a panicky way he couldn’t fully explain.
The groups were breaking up and heading out. The jets were already prepped, Brain had really meant the ‘strike fast’ part. Jason had footage of the world map and all the hero and villain data, he just needed an opportunity.
“Looks like we’re all on the same flight.” Jason almost startled at the soft voice. It was Angel, the wing girl. Jason checked the map again. Titans East were all in the same rough area except for Aqualad, probably due to whatever Atlantis stuff was going on.
“Yep,” Punk Rocket (a very stupid name) agreed. “Hurry up the lot of you. I want to be the first one to bring down a Titan.”
Shit, Jason realized he was trapped. He couldn’t get a message out. There was going to be multiple villains nearby until they got to their destination. He didn’t even have the device he used to link up with Dick on him because this was the heart of the enemy base and that wasn’t something you wanted to be caught with.
That meant Jason’s group needed to get to their destination as fast as possible, then they’d split up, and Jason could use his knowledge of the Titan’s communication channels to get a warning out.
As expected, there was no privacy in the jet. Brain wasn’t letting anyone wander off. That paired with the last second announcement led Jason to believe they believed there was a traitor among them. That hurt. Jason had never been on their side in the first place. Although it could be Cheshire they were trying to get, she’d made more of a racket than he had with her snooping.
The other villain teams excitedly talked strategy as the jet blasted through the sky. He and Cheshire, not worried about tactics, made fun of random heroes to pass the time.
Brain was being smart with who he sent after who. Punk Rocket and Angel were assigned to Bumblebee. Both villains could fly and both had ways to counter her shrinking. Punk had his soundwaves and Angel had her wing blasts, they’d hit her no matter what her size was.
The other pair in his jet, Phobia and Doctor Light were assigned to Mas and Menos. The brothers were easily taken down if not touching so if the villains had the element of surprise there might not even be a fight. If there was a fight, Doctor Light could blind them, making it easier for the pair to be separated and Phobia could create illusions and do short range teleportation. The twins best bet would be to just run away from the villains, but they might not realize that. And if the villains started attacking people, the heroes would be basically forced to come back.
The flight felt like it took forever, but it was really only three-ish hours.
The groups went their separate ways as soon as they touched down. As soon as they were sure they were alone, Cheshire told him, “I can handle Speedy myself. Go do whatever it is you want to do. I’ll tell them we caught him together. If you give me your half of the bounty, of course.”
“Always the money with you,” Jason sighed. But that would be very helpful. “Fine, it’s yours.”
“Wonderful,” Cheshire chirped. “Well, I’m off to the hunt. Don’t get caught doing something stupid.” Then she hoped away through the treetops.
Jason rushed for his com, it wasn’t the one he’d paired with Dick, but Jason still had ways to get a message through. Maybe he wasn’t too late. Some warning was better than none.